Chapter 9 – Need to talk
No POV
Damon Salvatore was pissed off. It had been 142 years since that fateful night that he died and hadn't been back in Mystic Falls since. Until now, the time was almost right and he needed to be here to make sure that the chips fell to place.
So he spent his time eating people and hiding from an extra vigil council. He would admit to killing random people but he hadn't killed his uncle, he hadn't bitten Caroline and he had nothing to do with the stoned slut. That was all Stefan, the self proclaimed bunny eater!
Everyone knew that he was the black sheep of the Salvatore family tree, the ruthless one that killed for pleasure and that Stefan was the brooding, remorseful vampire. Those were their respective roles so when Stefan came to Mystic Falls first and gave his version of the recent killings to their nephew and last owner of the Salvatore boarding house, Zach bought it and was ready to pin it all on Damon, even though they both knew who the real killer was.
The problems arose when Stefan killed Tanner. Ok, so maybe he had wanted to kill man himself but in the end it was Stefan that ate him, and he left a witness behind. Zach put it together and figured out that Stefan had killed him. On top of that Zach found out that Damon tried to compel a girl to sleep with him but she was on vervain so it didn't work. After the girl ran away from him, she stumbled upon Stefan who didn't ask permission before trying to rape and bite her. She managed to get free of him and run home where she told her mother (the sheriff and descendant founder) and her mother's boyfriend (Zach) about both attacks. Zach calmed his girlfriend and then went home to deal with the brothers.
All three of them fought and Zach was killed by his own stake. He managed to stake both brothers but Damon's constant human diet gave him the upper hand fighting Zach long enough for Stefan to manage to stake him.
Damon would deal with the girl and the sheriff and Stefan would take care of the witness of his killing tanner. Damon succeeded in persuading the vervained sheriff that her daughter mistook both brothers for someone else and that Zach left town for a while so as the oldest son he'd take Zach's position in the founder's council. Then he went to the school to make sure Stefan would successfully deal with the witness. When he got there, he saw the witness trapped in a car with the sheriff's daughter and the car on fire.
He had agreed with Stefan that killing the witness was the best course of action but something in him drove him to breaking the car's door and saving her. He had to clue why, but he couldn't let her die.
"Are you busy?"
Jasper, his oldest and newest friend asked him the moment he walked into the Grill.
"No?"
"Good"
With that the Cold one clapped him on the shoulder and dragged him out of the crowded Grill and to a house that shared a back yard with his own.
"Who lives here?"
Damon asked. Jasper smirked.
"Bella"
"Who's Bella?"
"Edward's human ex-girlfriend that you saved from a burning car"
"That Bella"
Jasper's smirk broadened feeling the shock & slight possessiveness mixed with lust coming from his friend. The two had met and served together in the Civil war. When Damon went to visit his family, Jasper had gotten attacked and transformed to a Cold one kind of vampire. Meanwhile he himself had been changed to a more traditional kind of a vampire. Both believed the other dead until Jasper's coven/family had moved to Mystic Falls the year before.
"This is strange"
Jasper mused.
"What is?"
"This house, used to be in Forks but in a different color"
Damon raised an eyebrow. The house in front of him was modest, in a sea foam shade of white with a seriously big and busy yard.
"Your deer was high again?"
He asked smirking. Jasper growled lightly and moved to the door. The door was slightly open and the two vampires pushed it open both suddenly afraid. Neither paid any attention to the fact they could not enter the house. A few feet inside the door on a round table sat cross-legged with her back on them, levitating in mid air was a girl. Suddenly her back clenched and she dropped on the table like a hot potato with her head hanging from the side of the table.
"Were you two born in the stables?"
Bella growled glaring at them.
"No, in the barn"
Damon deadpanned. Bella suppressed a smirk and slid off the table rubbing her neck.
"Can I help you with something?"
"We should talk"
Jasper said nervously. Bella's eyes traveled from vampire to vampire before nodding.
"Sure"
She slipped between them and sat on one of the black metallic patio chairs and waited till they joined her.
"So... what's up?"
Bella sat quiet as Jasper began speaking. She kept her mouth shut and her emotions under control taking in the information.
Jasper told her about what happened after she was put on the plane for Florida almost 2 years ago. The Cullens had made a temporary truce with the La Push wolves until Victoria was gone and working together they deposited her in a pile of ashes within the summer.
After that, everything went sideways.
Edward wanted to call Bella with the happy news but Carlisle was adamant. He wanted no communication with Bella and for a while the whole family listened. When Laurent was finally caught too, everyone wanted to talk to her, even Rosalie. Carlisle then admitted to have received a letter from Bella. She had sent him (of all people) a letter asking them to leave her be. That she found someone else to be happy with and she wasn't coming back.
Soon the family left Forks and never looked back. Carlisle found a position at the hospital in Mystic Falls and the family relocated. During a blood drive held by the school Carlisle met Elena Gilbert and persuaded Edward to pursue a relationship with the girl to help him move on from Bella.
"Are you insane?"
Bella asked calmly. Internally she was seething, she had spent the whole year in San Francisco upset at the Cullens' silence just because Carlisle faked a note? And everyone believed him?
"What do you mean?"
"I never sent a note to Carlisle. I called weekly and no-one ever answered the damn phone Jasper. Do you have any idea how sad and upset and hurt I was at the silence?"
"Bella..."
"No, Jasper. I heard you and now you're going to hear me"
She said in a low, dangerous voice. During Jasper's story she had felt no malice, no lying, nothing to suggest Jasper was being dishonest with her. Fisting her hands, stopping the fireballs she felt were about to form, she forced herself to remain calm and told him what she did in San Francisco, holding back the witch thing. She wasn't sure she wanted to bare herself completely like that just yet. She finished her story by handing him the note she had found in the Cullen house in Forks.
"They have the same handwriting. Who wrote the letters?"
Damon spoke for the first time holding both letters in his hands.