Chapter 10: killed or be killed.
Damon Salvatore watches in amazement as the red head sleeps soundlessly. He's been staring at her for about five minutes, trying to find the right moment to wake her up. She's sleeping on the side of the bed, almost falling off, just like he remembers. Her hair is pretty much all over her pillow and in the other side of the bed sits the entire collection of friends. He lifts a hand and goes to move a strand of hair away from her hair.
"Ok, you've been staring at me for ten minutes, what's going on?" she asks without opening her eyes.
He withdraws his hand back faster than possible at the same time she opens her eyes. He's surprised to find they're not filled with anger, just plain curiosity.
"Well, I thought you should know it's two P.M. in the afternoon. Don't you have somewhere to go?" he says, sarcastically.
She sits up straight, her hands flying out to keep her balance and her eyes wide as saucers. Shit, she overslept again. She gets up, flying to her closet and trying to find the right clothes to wear. Today the Historical Society Volunteer picnic takes place and, somehow, she got pulled into helping. She hates helping. Once she decides what to wear, she turns to Damon, hands on her hips.
"I'm changing and you are leaving," she points to the door.
"But there's nothing I haven't seen before," he jokes.
"Get out," she says as she rolls her eyes and walks him to the door of the room. "And you better not be here when I'm ready."
"I'm offended," he says sarcastically.
"Good, stay like that."
He secretly enjoys the way her eyes shine.
...
"They know," she tells the blonde.
Caroline and Cassandra are painting the banks of the park, why, she doesn't know, while talking. Caroline has been trying nonstop to turn Elena against Stefan. She thinks she's succeeded, Cassandra, however, has other thoughts.
"What? of course not," the blonde scoffs.
"Elena and Stefan never fight in public, they never fight, period."
She gets up and points to the couple in the other side of the park. They're frowning and Stefan has his arms crossed.
"You see that? It's obviously fake, Elena is trying hard not to smile right about now," she continues, smirking at the blonde.
Caroline stares at her, her mouth is hanging open and eyes are widened. Cassandra laughs, going back to work.
"Years and years of practice. Don't worry, the more you spend with Kat, the easier it'd be for you to know when someone's acting or lying."
"You are amazing," Caroline gasps.
"I know, I know," she jokes. "So, what's going on, really?"
The blonde sighs and sits down on the bench Cass is painting. The old vampire gets up and sits next to her.
"My mom is trying to play mother of the year," she mumbles, looking down at her hands.
"And, maybe it's the heightened emotions or my period or something," she lets out a breathy laugh. "but it bothers me more than usual."
"Isn't that okay, though? She wanting to spend time with you?" Cassandra asks.
"Yes, but she's never done it before, and now with my whole new problem… you know," the blonde stresses, trying hard not to rant. "Was it this hard with your parents?"
Cassandra falls quiet. Her parents are a touchy subject. She never really forgave them for what they did to her, but she supposes she had it coming. She clears her throat.
"My parents…it was different, I mean, my mom was a witch and my father a warlock so they knew about vampires," she explains. "Besides, they—they died before I turned."
"I'm so sorry, Cass."
"It's okay," she lies. "I don't even remember them anymore."
That's not true. She can see her parents' faces clearly in her mind, especially Anastasia's, her sister. Her mother's flaming red hair and her kind blue eyes, her father's blonde hair and green eyes, eyes just like her own. She tries hard not to think of her sister, but her face comes to her mind, accompanied by the most powerful guilt she's ever felt.
...
"What am I gonna do with you?" she demands as she walks up to Damon.
He had been talking to Mason seconds ago before she decided enough was enough. He had to stop meddling, especially after Stefan had to fix what he messed up.
"Please, tell me you were just bonding." Stefan appears beside her and they both glare at Damon.
"What's wrong with your relationship?" he asks instead.
"Yeah, what's up with that?" Cassandra asks, turning to look at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Stefan denies.
"Come on, Stefan! You and Elena never fight especially not about me," Damon retorts.
"Drop it, Damon."
He shrugs, a sarcastic smirk on his face. If his little brother wants to keep the façade, fine for him. Then, a little girl offers them lemonade. They all take a glass. Right when she's about to take a drink, Damon starts to cough heavily. Both Stefan and she put the cups down to see what's wrong with him. He spits the lemonade out and keeps coughing, hating the way all his insides sting because of the vervain.
"What's wrong?" Stefan asks, coming to Damon's side.
Cassandra, however, takes a very small sip from her cup of lemonade. She puts the cup away as soon as the liquid touches her lips, recognizing the vervain immediately.
"Holy shit!" she curses, this time putting the cup back in the table. Stefan glances at her. "Vervain," she explains.
She walks to Damon's other side and rubs his back, frowning at him with concern.
"Are you better?" she asks.
He coughs once more before nodding slowly, unsure. Stefan decides his brother is in good hands and leaves to find some water.
"Damn it, I told you not to do anything," she whispers-yells at him.
"I'm sorry but he's a threat to all of us," he says back, his voice strained because of the vervain.
He gets up and starts to pace back and forth in front of her; she follows him with her eyes. He's planning how to get even at Mason for what he did but decides that the only way for him to do so is killing him. Then Stefan comes back with a bottle of water. He uncaps the bottle and takes a long gulp, rinsing his mouth and spitting the water to the side of the concrete.
"You need to calm down," she says softly, not wanting to flare his anger even more.
"I'm going to kill him," he hisses instead.
"No, sit, sit!" Stefan orders.
He forces Damon down next to her and puts his hands on his shoulder. He looks around; he can't believe he'll say it but his brother is right, Mason is getting dangerous.
"Okay, I don't like this. You're right; he needs to be put down."
Cassandra frowns at the bad dog joke and pulls Stefan's hands away from Damon, gaining their attention.
"You don't get it, do you? This is probably a trick, he most likely has the sheriff on us," she tells them.
"We have to do something, Cass." Stefan shakes his head.
"Woods, trash duty," Damon nods at the skirts of the woods.
He gets up and both brothers start to walk toward the woods. Cassandra rushes after them, keeping up with them.
"What are you doing? You're not coming," Damon scowls at her.
"Oh, no, I'm going. Someone has to put you out of trouble," she shoots back.
The three of them follow Mason into the woods. He leads them to a clearing and turns to see them.
"You'll regret doing this," he says.
"Oh, no, we won't." Damon smirks.
"Yes, you will."
Then, Mason glances at something behind Damon's shoulder. They all turn at the same time to see how a deputy shoots at Stefan several times. He falls to the ground with a groan and falls unconscious. More deputies start to show up, shooting at Damon and Cassandra. Damon goes down, too but doesn't lose consciousness. He watches how Cass hisses angrily at the deputy who shot her, much like Lexi did before he killed her, and starts to walk forward. Then, out of nowhere, Liz comes up and points her gun to her, shooting. The bullet hits her square between the eyes and she falls to the ground, unconscious. That's the last thing he sees before everything goes black.
...
"What are you doing here?" Mason asks the two girls.
The blonde looks at him suspiciously but Elena looks up with a scared look on her face.
"Where are Damon and Stefan?" Elena demands, trying to pull all her courage.
"Why don't you have your friend sniff them out?" he asks before turning to Caroline. "Does your mother know what you are? I'd be happy to tell her."
Caroline's about to attack him but Mason takes Elena around her shoulders, his hands having very easy access to her neck.
"Careful, necks snap easily around here."
"I can take you," Caroline promises.
"Wanna bet?"
"Yes, I do."
She moves so fast Mason doesn't have time to react and throws him to the nearest tree, his hold on Elena lost. She pins him there, smirking up at him with satisfaction and pride.
"Told ya," she says proudly before throwing him to the floor and kicking him hard.
"Let's go," she tells Elena.
They take off running.
...
"How many of you are there?" the sheriff demands.
Damon groans, still fuzzy with the vervain they injected in them and with the wooden bullets inside his body. The worry isn't helping much, either. Stefan hasn't woken up yet, which he should have a while ago, and Cassandra is definitely dead. She won't come back in a few hours unless someone gets that bullet out of her forehead. He needs to get it out.
"How can you walk in the sun?" Liz asks again but he can't tear his eyes away from his brother and Cassie.
The sheriff follows his eyes and shoots at Stefan again, Damon flinches. Then, her gun goes to point at Cassandra and he groans.
"Answer me or I'll kill her."
"No, Liz—you are my friend," he groans, shaking his head.
The sound of the door opening interrupts anything she was about to say. Then, a deputy groans somewhere near the door and the distinctive sound of falling reaches their ears. After a moment of suspense, Elena appears in the room, breathing hard.
"You can't kill them, I won't let you."
A deputy grabs her by the arm and pushes her forward. Then a gush of wind feels the room, everyone looks around nervously.
"Who else is with you?" Liz demands, pointing her gun at the girl.
Elena doesn't answer; she only looks worriedly at the three vampires on the floor. A blurred figure passes by her, attacking the deputy next to her. The man falls to the floor and the blur moves to the other cop, doing pretty much the same thing. Caroline retreats into a corner, hissing and looking at everyone who's left with a crazed look on her eyes. Then she notices her mother and her face softens a little.
"Hi, mom," she mumbles, looking down.
...
She groans at how sore her muscles feel as she tries to open her eyes. She coughs a little as she sit up, a hand on her head, where the throbbing is killing her, and her eyes still closed. Finally, she opens her eyes. Only to find clear blue one staring at her.
"Damon?" she asks. Her voice is almost inaudible.
"Hey," he says, putting a hand on her hair and trying to fix it a little. "I took all the bullets out, including the one in your head."
She nods, giving him a small smile of gratitude. Then, her eyes go down to his shirt. She can clearly see where the bullets hit him. She puts a white hand in his shirt, trying to see if he's all healed.
"Are you okay? Is Stefan okay?" she asks, worried.
"We're fine. You're actually the only one who died," he says, shooting a glare at Liz who is sitting down at the other side of the room.
She looks around the room. Elena is crunched down next to Stefan while she rubs his back, talking to him softly. Caroline is in one corner, her mouth and chin stained with blood. Next to her there are three deputies, all dead and still bleeding. The smell makes her mouth water.
"You should feed, there's one with enough blood." Damon tells her before moving over to his brother.
She easily finds the deputy with more blood on his system and digs her fangs on his already damaged skin. She can't help but moan a little at the blood in her mouth. Soon enough the body is completely drained. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she gets up, as good as new.
"This is the most unfortunate situation, three deputies dead and you…" Damon points at Liz. "What am I gonna do with you?"
Liz looks up when she notices she's being addressed. Cassandra walks to stand next to him, glaring furiously at Liz. Who does she think she is? No one kills Cassandra Woodhouse. Not even Klaus. Liz keeps her eyes trained on Damon, though. they stare at each other for a long while until Caroline interrupts him.
"You won't tell anyone, right mom? Look, I know that you hate me but I'm your daughter," Caroline says, bordering on desperation.
"Mom, please, please." She begs. Liz doesn't answer. "He'll kill you, he will."
"Then do it," Liz begs Damon with tears in her eyes. "I can't deal with this, kill me."
Damon starts to walk toward her slowly. Cassandra watches, unfazed. Caroline is better off without Liz, anyway.
"But you were going to drag it out so painfully," he says, glancing at Cassandra for a second before grabbing Liz by the shoulders.
Everyone shouts at him not to do it at the same time, except for her. She's curious as to what he's talking about. Damon rolls his eyes.
"Calm down, guys, no one's killing anybody." He says, looking around. "You're my friend." He adds to Liz.
...
"A stomach bug… yeah, hit me hard, I'll probably be off for a few days," Liz tells whoever she's speaking to on the phone. Damon clears his throat and she looks at him. "Or more, I'll text you… yeah, bye." She adds before hanging up and handing Damon the phone.
"Thank you." Damon takes the phone and puts it in his pocket. "I know it's not the best but—"
"It's what she deserves," Cassandra interrupts him, glaring at Liz.
She's staying at the basement of The Salvatore Boarding house. There's nothing there but a small bed and a chair that's used as a table, too. Cassandra hasn't gotten over the fact that this little human, who isn't that strong, managed to kill her on one try. Sure, the other had already shot her twice but she should've seen the dam sheriff and stopped her before she could shoot. She admits she's mostly angry at herself than at Liz.
"But once the vervain is out of your system, I'll compel you and you'll be free to go," Damon continues, pretending he didn't hear Cassandra.
Which he did, of course. Ever since she woke up, all his senses have been programmed to know where she is. If he can't see her, he hears her or even smells her, that distinctive combination of lavender and almonds, the same smell she's always had. It's almost like his subconscious doesn't want to get her out of his sight in case someone else tries to kill her.
"Keep Caroline away from me, please," Liz requests, making her hate for the Sheriff increase. What kind of a mother asks for that?
"She's your daughter, and she's going through the toughest times of her life. You should be there for her," she snaps at the sheriff.
"Not anymore, my daughter is gone."
Both Cass and Damon glance outside the room, where Caroline and Elena are standing. Caroline bites her lip and turns away, pressing a hand to her mouth. Elena quickly goes after her.
"You have no idea of how wrong you are," Damon says, his voice softening.
"Still…" the sheriff's voice slowly fades as she tries to control tears.
...
"The thing you did with Liz… I thought you didn't do that anymore," Cassandra says, sitting down next to him on the piano.
He looks at her confused, she shakes her head. "You forgave her life, even when she tried to kill you."
He simply shrugs, taking a sip from his glass of bourbon. She puts her hands softly in the piano and starts to play slowly, the notes filling the air in a soothing matter.
"I would've done it… not because of what she did to me but because of what she did to the two of you," she keeps going, not knowing why she's explaining herself.
"I thought about it but… she's my friend." He matches her tempo on the keys, making her smile.
Then he pushes her hand away and she gasps, pushing his back to his side of the piano.
"Stick to your side," she chastises.
They keep playing for a while, in silence. Stefan passes them by and stops in his tracks, watching them delightedly. He wishes his brother would realize that the right girl for him is the redhead not the brunette. Either brunette, for that matter. Holding back a sigh, he walks toward the stairs.
"Are you okay, though?" he suddenly asks, turning to look at her.
She turns her head, meeting his eyes. Her hands stop playing and she just keeps them there as she gets lost on the pools of blue. She can see the worry in them clearly, it makes her feel good.
"I'm fine," she nods.
His hand lifts up and puts a strand of her hair behind her ear; it remains there, cupping her cheek. Right when he's about to kiss her, which she knows he will, Isobel's words come to her mind again and she moves back a little.
"Is it true?" she asks.
"What?"
"What"—she clears her throat.—"what Isobel said, about you loving Elena."
He falls silent, his hand quickly falling to his lap. She sighs, her own hands falling from the piano to her lap. Is it true? He doesn't know yet. It may be. He cares about Elena a lot, and she's gorgeous. And ever since he met her, he's never wanted her to die. He didn't think he'd been that scared of someone dying, until he watched how he got a stake through Cassie's chest.
"Maybe you should think about it," she says once she realizes he's not answering. "I'm your friend but I'm also Stefan's and I don't want him to get hurt. I don't want history repeating."
"It won't, I'm not in love with anybody." He says before leaning in again.
"I'm glad," she lies before letting his lips collide with hers.