This is going to be the last chapter for a few months, I have real life to handle so I apologize for not updating soon. I thought I could juggle the two, but a month has passed and I haven't written more than a few hundred words for the next chapter. I will finish it, I swear.
Chapter IX: Peace …?
Liz Forbes awoke that morning to sunshine and a plummeting feeling of lonesomeness squeezing at her heart and spilling into her lungs. Blinking, the Sheriff of Mystic Falls rubs her eyes of sleep and takes a few minutes to come to terms with her daughter's absence of three days. She had, of course, talked to Caroline since then, and had, certainly, not been lonely until now since she'd at least had Damon and Bonnie to keep her afloat. Even Stefan and Elena had helped. However today her heart felt heavy and her head stuffed with cotton. She cursed the sun as it burned her eyes.
Hours, and several cups of dark – wonderfully waking – coffee, later, Liz is sitting at her desk, ready for work, a litany of papers scattered across the wooden surface. Her previous state of unease seemed to have dulled a bit, but a headache is making its presence known when she recognizes Carol Lockwood in the door way as the mayor closes it behind her.
"Liz, I've had a very interesting discussion with Alaric Saltzman, our missing history teacher." Though apparently calm as she has always been, Carol was shaken. Liz looked at her old friend, feeling dread creep its way into her heart. She remembered why and when Ric had left – the curse Esther had put on the man, the madness slowly taking him over and his desperation to protect those he cared for. Liz, having had a much more abrupt meeting with the supernatural problems of Mystic Falls, can understand Carol's obvious fear and uncertainty, but her daughter is away and Tyler has been in Florida since the night he and Caroline broke up – the night Caroline came home bleeding and crying and broken and "mum, it hurts so much!It hurts please please stop it!". Liz takes a shuddering breath and pushes the thoughts away. She doesn't have time to worry about what has happened, not now when a vampire hunter is back in town with secrets about all of them. She had liked Ric, she had respected him and gotten along with him, if only because they were both Damon's friends if nothing else, but this was not Ric. This was a puppet of Esther's and she had to be careful. She missed the days when her worst worry was whether Vicki Donovan was drunk that day or not.
"What did he say Carol?"
"He threatened to tell the Council everything. He said that if we don't tell him where Klaus is, he will destroy us. He said he has Matt, Liz." All this was spoken quickly and emphatically, breath drawn in quickly and eyes crazed with desperation. Carol was more than shaken, she was terrified. She was also not saying everything the sheriff needed to know though, but that was only because she didn't know what was important in this case. Liz's heart constricted at the thought of Matt – poor Matt who's been through so much more than he should've, than he deserved – being hurt and worry momentarily overtakes her. A deep inhale had her mind clearing and the remembrance of the past year steels her for the fight that is no doubt coming. At least Caroline isn't here, not that she's safe where she is, but at least she isn't alone. She is protected better than she could be here – and doesn't that hurt like a bitch; it's her job to take care of her little girl, but she can't and that stabs at her heart.
"Carol, did he say where he was keeping Matt or how to contact him?"
"I- I don't kno- I ... yes, yes he said-"
He was walking down the street, the spring heat beating down on him, cooled only by occasional breeze. His eyes were scanning the side-walk, tracing the face and hearing the voices, the bustling of human life so loud even so early in the morning. He smiles, but it is crooked, forced in a way that looks painful. Then, he sees her and his blood boils and pounds in his ear, his vision blurring and his body sways. The doppelgänger.
He scowls, clutching his side as his wound throbs even after all these years. He remembers her, the name of Katherine then, then he remembers Amara – however briefly that might have been, and he almost attacks right in the middle of the street. Amara had started it, her soft voice, her doe eyes, her teasing smiles, before she broke his heart and slashed his side for a spell that killed her. He had mourned despite it all, he had loved her so when along came Katherine his hope had been renewed. But Katherine hadn't wanted him, she had smiled and teased and she had the same brown eyes and curled hair, but they were hardened and cruel. He was attracted to her so he had tried to make her understand how much he loved her. She had appeared bored, so stone-cold in her affection, until, that is, that day. That day he had seen her, breath stuttering and body writhing, moans filing the air. He had been there of course, he had had to see her. She had arched and she had come undone so easily then. His heart soared and hers broke. He had known about the doppelgänger by then. He knew there was another one. He wanted her to writhe and arch and come undone before him. But he hadn't found her yet.
Now here she is, right across the street, smiling as he remembered from Amara, but with eyes resembling Katherine's. She would be his masterpiece. Amara had died trying to run away, but ultimately couldn't escape him. Katherine had never been his, but he had had her as his creature broke her body. This one, oh this one, would be his only to break. He will make her sing with pain and beg for his final strike, beg for that death Amara had taken from him and Katherine had given to Trotter.
"Come on, Bonnie, we need to get back before the food goes cold." She says.
"Coming, Elena."
Elena, yes, Elena would be his to break, he was sure of it by the time night rolled in Amsterdam. Esther could have her children, but he would have the doppelgänger.
"Damon! Stop spreading your germs all over me!" Caroline yells indignant, a glass of wine in her hand as she leans against Bonnie's side on the couch in the living room. Damon is opposite to her in an armchair, coughing a lung and aiming for her face it seems.
"Ex- cough –cuse me! I can't control this!" he whines even as he looks repentant at Bonnie and Caroline's looks of reproach. Elena is snuggled into Stefan's arm, shivering slightly. She had started trembling slowly getting worse since she and Bonnie returned from outside, but now she was getting worse by the second. The witch had looked her over, determined it was the curse acting up and stated that it should stop on its own soon. Stefan is currently rubbing up and down her arms and talking to Caroline about something or another which has the blonde laughing for a few minutes and Damon smiling, however surprisingly it may seem. Maybe Damon's resistance to alcohol is lower than he thought, despite having drunk only a glass of bourbon until now – apparently the drink burns his throat in a no-so-pleasant way now that he's sick.
"Stefan, that makes no sense!" Bonnie giggles, pushing Caroline off of her in order to put her empty wine glass on the small table before her, ignoring the others scream of reprimand.
They are halfway through the evening when the dining room doors burst open and the voice of Kol Mikaelson breaks their happiness. Caroline is up to her feet and rushing to the other room faster than Elena has ever seen her, Damon following behind at a much slower rhythm with the witch in his wake.
"Nik!" the yell is one of worry, but Elena doesn't understand why until she herself sees the hybrid, bleeding heavily and unconscious in his younger brother's arms, with what looks like bite marks littered all over his skin, his clothes tarnished. Elena shivers and holds onto her husband as Bonnie sends pulses of magick through the hybrid, as Caroline cries in Damon's arms and Kol steals a bottle of one or another type of liquor and downs large gulps of it as if the alcohol is a sedative.
Once Klaus has been put into bed and Caroline has made sure he is healing and comfortable, she returns downstairs immediately. Kol is no longer emptying bottle after bottle, but he seems a bit buzzed, Damon is holding Bonnie to his chest as she struggles to steady her breath – either the magick got her weakened or she had been genuinely afraid for Klaus' life, maybe even both – and Stefan is simply standing near the doorway – ironic how it makes him seem on the outside among people he had considered once his friends. Caroline is pleased to note – and extremely relieved – that Elena has gone off somewhere, probably to her room – her shivers were getting uncontrollable.
"Kol? What happened?"
It's perhaps not nearly as surprising as it should be that Damon asks this question, whether because of the ongoing feud between the two men, maybe because Caroline seemed like the better – obvious – choice to inquire. No one takes any mind; they are all too curious themselves to wonder.
"Werewolves."
"Why would Klaus be attacked by werewolves?" Stefan makes himself known, realizing by the sharp turn of heads towards him, that he had been forgotten in this whole affair.
"Because he went after them, mate."
"They attacked the mansion yesterday." Comes the answer from two sources, both providing vital pieces of information to the room. There is shuffling as the witch disentangles herself from Damon to sit down and loud, muffled coughing from the former vampire as they take in the news.
"Why didn't you say anything, Care?"
"Because I forgot. It wasn't on purpose, Bonnie." The vampire reassures, switching her weight from one foot to the other, thoughtful, chewing on her lip. "Did you at least get them? What were they doing here?" she continues, this time addressing the Original.
"Yup. They wanted the stake." Seeing the look of absolute confusion, Kol adds swiftly. "You know, the white oak stake that you all made back when we were enemies? That stake?" The oh! expression would have been no doubt amusing if the situation hadn't become so dire. Why would werewolves- No, how would they know about that? The Mikaelsons only knew because Caroline had told Nik when they got together. The stakes had been done after the Originals left Mystic Falls to chase their mother after all.
"How did a pack of mutts find out about that?" Damon blunt as always, Caroline thinks fondly.
"Mother told them." As per usual, Kol pauses for more drama – or so would his siblings say if asked, though Caroline has always thought Rebekah to be the dramatic one – before he deigned to continue the answer. "More specifically she told them to come here and take the stake so she could kill all of us with it. Nik and I think that she promised them a way to escape the moon curse."
"So we have not only your psycho mother to fight and whatever witch-y ally she's working with, we also have to fight werewolves?" Damon's blue eyes widen, furrowing his brow in disbelief and his jaw tightens with anger. Bonnie puts a hand on his forearm, slowly dragging it up and down, resting it finally in his, their fingers interlacing. Her breathing has calmed, her heart no longer pounding in her own ears and her magic no longer pulsing in hot flares from overexertion. She hasn't been training as well as she thought she was, comes as a realisation seconds later, once her mind quietens down.
"So what can we do now? Will the werewolves return soon?" Caroline asks the older vampire. Kol shrugs, seemingly unperturbed by the chain of events. "How did Nik get so badly wounded?" she continues.
"They were many, but we could've taken them if they hadn't had a bloody sprinkler raining down on us vervain continuously. It took us by surprise and they went for me. Nik jumped in the way and got bit several times. It didn't seem to do much to him at first, but after we got out he got gradually worse. Anyway... you don't need me and I have my own place to return to. I wouldn't worry about the wolves, we killed quite a few before we left. They shouldn't be a problem for a while." Kol steps back and then speeds out of the room and the slamming of the front door the only clue as to where he went. Caroline stands where she is for a few minutes longer before she mumbles a good night under her breath to everybody and dashes off to her and Klaus' bedroom. It would appear that the cure in Klaus' blood was slow in acting against the poison in his own vein – nature's fail-safe maybe, thinks Bonnie
"I'm going to see how Elena is, are you two-"
"We're fine." Damon answers, interrupting Stefan mid question, his focus never leaving the woman in his arms. He manoeuvres both of them to sit on the couch, whispering soothing words in Bonnie's hair, and noting once again how gorgeous she is with the symmetrical bob that reaches her shoulders. He runs his fingers through the soft strands, breathing in her scent and leaning into her as her arms tighten around his waist, burrowing his face into the juncture of her neck and shoulder. He presses a kiss to the pulse point, for once thankful for his mortality, able to feel her blood pumping faster only because it's underneath his lips without the distracting hunger for it. She sighs, going lax in his arms, whispering his name and pulling back only to kiss him on the lips, their mouth colliding in the eternal dance of passion.
"Are you sure you're alright, Bon-bon?"
"Yeah. Just sleepy" she sighs, leaning her forehead onto his, letting her eyes fall closed again. Their breaths mingle, hot and reassuring in the space between then. Her fingers start up a path from his waist up his side and back again, slowly, and a shiver startles Damon when she reaches a particular ticklish spot. She smiles tiredly, not having the strength to even react how she normally would in this situation, with teases and giggles and more tickling.
"Let's go to bed. Tomorrow we're going out." He says, but quickly continues when she starts protesting. "I don't wanna hear it, judgy! We don't know when Esther's going to strike or when a new pack of dogs is attacking, but tomorrow we are going to have some fun." He smirks down at her, his tongue rolling the word "fun" as if it is something indecent – which, knowing him, it might be, Bonnie concedes – and then he is standing up, his arms under her as he lifts her up and to his chest. Her hands grasp around his neck, a small squeak of surprise escaping her mouth before she relaxes leaning into his shoulder and kissing his collarbone. She is asleep by the time he opens their bedroom door.