Chapter 11
A/N Thanks for the reviews, especially thanks to QT05, Tinyflyer02 and Vie. It makes me happy that you all like what I'm writing. I should get two more chapters out of this story.
Stefan went across the hall and down the stairs. He feared for Elena. What could have happened?
"Answers"
Stefan reached the downstairs hall and frantically looked around. He glanced into the living room. No Elena. He then zipped to the study across the hall.
"Elena! Where are you?" he called fearfully.
"Here," she said and he saw her standing in the corner of the study, behind the piano, her cell phone to her ear. She looked alarmed.
"Are you all right?" he asked, moving to her.
"Yes. Bonnie's in a power struggle with someone! Another witch!"
"What do you mean?"
"Another witch is aiming a spell at Damon. The rash and itching. Bonnie's trying to cancel that spell and the other witch is fighting it."
"Damn! Come on, Bonnie. Do your thing. You can do it!" he said loud enough that Bonnie likely could hear it over Elena's phone.
"Did you hear that noise? Someone screamed!" Elena said to Stefan as she looked toward the hall fearfully.
He nodded and stood listening intently. Someone else had to be in the house. Could it be Katherine or someone else? What if the witch was actually in the house this minute? He heard another crash and another scream, and he knew the sounds came from the cellar.
Moving to the hall, he saw Damon coming down the stairs wearing his blood-spotted jeans, but nothing else. His skin was neither red nor spotted, although he had trails and smears of drying blood on him.
"Downstairs," Stefan said, pointing at the floor. There was a large basement under the house, with different areas put to various uses. "Katherine? Do you think something happened to Katherine?"
"Katherine isn't much of a screamer," Damon said doubtfully.
They were moving toward the nearest door leading down to the cellar when the door opened. A disheveled young woman came into the hall, pushed along by Katherine.
"Look what I found," Katherine said, holding onto the girl's arm. "She and a pal were casting a spell. Candles and all. I heard one of them use Damon's and Bonnie's names in vain, so I felt the need to interfere. Hope that's okay with you, Damon."
"Fine by me. Thanks," he said.
He eyed the young woman critically. The girl's expression was both angry and alarmed. "Haven't we met before?" he asked her. "Like, didn't you want to use my phone to call AAA?" His guess was that the girl was maybe nineteen.
She glowered at him, aimed a wicked look at him and raised her free hand toward him. He was knocked back a step by the force of it. He grabbed his head as pain filled his brain and he staggered. Like Bonnie, she seemed to be a witch of some power.
Katherine struck her a nasty kidney blow and the girl cried out and fell to her knees.
Damon's head pain stopped and he regained his balance. He wanted to kill the girl, but he had questions.
"Behave yourself or you'll join your friend," Katherine said, still holding onto the girl's arm and hauling her to her feet.
"Please don't hurt me," the girl said, her defiance melting away into tears. "This wasn't my idea. I swear."
"Where is her friend?" Stefan asked.
"Dead. Suffered some unfortunate accident," Katherine said with a shrug. "I thought you might like to talk to this one."
Elena had joined them in the hall and she came up beside Stefan. "Bonnie's coming over," she told him as she put her phone away. She eyed Katherine and the captive. She also glanced at Damon and could see that his previous condition was markedly improved, if not gone.
"What's your name?" Damon demanded of the girl.
"Carly Oberson," the girl said, wiping tears from her face. She then looked directly at him, not really defiantly, but with a bit of pride. She had dark blond hair, freckles and green eyes. Her figure was very slender, but her clothes fit her well.
"And your friend? Late friend?"
"Willa Buckner. All this was her idea."
"Sure. Blame it on someone who can't contradict you," Damon said with a snort.
"It happens to be true."
"Why? What'd she have against me?" Damon demanded, his blue eyes glinting with anger over his recent suffering.
"She was in love with Luka Martin. When she heard that he was dead, she did a spell that pointed to you as Luka's killer."
"I did kill him, but at the time, I didn't know who I was killing. It just had to be done," Damon said. "He did a foolish thing."
"All Willa cared was that he was dead. He and his father were looking for Greta, his sister. Do you know Greta?"
"No."
"She's a strong witch. As strong as Willa. Stronger than me. Greta got obsessed with some old geezer vampire named Klaus for some reason. Her father thought the vampire kidnapped her to use her power, but I think she looked to the old guy like he was a god or something. I know she went of her own free will," Carly said. She tried to pull her arm away from Katherine's painful grip, but the lady vampire just tightened her grip.
"You're hurting me!"
"Like you and your friend didn't hurt Damon?" Katherine snarked.
"So, where's this Greta now?" Damon asked.
"Went to serve him, Klaus. I never saw the guy, but I know Greta met some man who was also a witch. Or he had powers. He worked for this Klaus. He told her about the old guy and she jumped at the chance to help him out. I think that's totally weird. Helping a vampire."
"Not all vampires are evil," Damon growled.
"Yes, they are," Carly affirmed. "Anyway, Luka and his dad came to this town looking for Greta, I guess. And you killed Luka. Did you kill his dad, too?"
"No," Damon said. He wished that the Martins had not been connected in some way to the Original vampires Klaus and Elijah, who, legend said, were impossible to kill. Elijah had been daggered, but that didn't cause permanent death.
"Willa hated you and wanted to make you suffer. She didn't want to kill you, at least not right away," Carly went on. "We found out where you lived and we staked out the house. You know, like we were going to rob you or something. It took us three days and nights to see who came and went from here most of the time. And we saw who was sneaking in a back way to the basement. At first we thought it was her (Carly pointed to Elena), but then we figured out it was a different person. Are you two twins?"
"Not hardly," Katherine said with a snort. "We're distantly related and just happen to look like twins." It was obvious that she didn't like Elena.
"Oh. Well, Willa had cooked up the rabies stuff and we came over here. You let us in and she injected you," she said to Damon. "She had a crystal ball and we could watch you. See what happened."
"You two saw it all?" Damon asked, dismayed. They had watched him being treated with the mother's first milk? They had seen him getting his butt sandpapered? That was a humiliating thought.
"Some," the girl said. "We weren't out there around the clock. We had to sleep and eat, you know."
This statement didn't make Damon feel any better.
"When your witch helped cure you, Willa came up with the idea of the itchy rash. We came into the house earlier today when both of you were gone and drugged the liquor. We had used binoculars to see in the windows when the curtains weren't pulled. You drink a lot."
"Damn bitch! How many of the bottles or decanters are poisoned?"
"Four of them. The different kinds of whiskey. That, plus the spell Willa was doing down in the cellar, is what caused the rash and itching."
"That is damned expensive bourbon and scotch! Now I have to pour it down the drain! And what about my…erectile dysfunction, if you get what I mean?" Damon asked, his hand going to his crotch.
Carly couldn't keep from smiling. "Got a problem there? Something doesn't work anymore?"
"Tell me or, so help me, I'll make you wish you were as dead as your friend."
"The spell is broken! You should be fine, assuming you were fine before the spell."
"Should be? I want a better answer than that, girl. It was working perfectly before the spell and it better be working perfectly again," Damon said in a cold tone.
"It was Willa's doing. She's dead. I can't answer your question any better," Carly said, a couple of tears running down her face again. Her expression showed she feared some terrible retribution.
"Katherine, hold her downstairs until I have a chance to test things. I want to know this problem's gone before we do anything to her."
"All right. Good luck," Katherine said with a little smile. "If you have any trouble, I'm sure I can help." She grabbed the girl's hair and yanked her toward the stairs.
"Please! I'll never come near any of you again! Please!" the girl cried.
Katherine grabbed her around the waist and dragged her to the open cellar door.
"Damon! Katherine, no!" Elena cried.
Katherine halted when Damon spoke her name.
"Please spare her, Damon. Don't let Katherine kill her," Elena pleaded. She didn't think she could face having Katherine murder the second girl. "I know she has helped put you through hell, but give her a chance. Please."
The girl spoke up again. "Let me take my friend's body away and you'll never see me again. Losing my best friend is a terrible punishment for me. Please."
"Please, Damon," Elena said, more calmly. "The person who planned this is dead already. Let Carly go. It's over now."
Damon glared at Elena. Easy for her to be forgiving. She hadn't been the one to suffer humiliation and pain. And impotence, an affront to his very manliness, his masculine ego.
"Please, Damon," Elena said again, her expression pleading.
"Oh, all right. All right," Damon snapped. He was doing this for Elena, not because he felt any compassion for the young witch. He didn't care if Katherine killed her. "Katherine, just put her in a cell for now. When I know I'm okay you can help her get that body out of the cellar. Okay? Will you do that?"
"If you insist," Katherine said. "But you owe me. I'll have to think of a way to collect." She gave him a meaningful look with a small smirk, and then she took the girl down the cellar stairs.
"Thank you," came Carly's voice as the two disappeared.
Elena could only hope that Katherine didn't murder Carly once they were down in the cellar.
Before Damon could do anything to test his recovery, a knock on the front door redirected their attention.
"Hello?" came Bonnie's voice. It was Damon who let her in. She stared at his bare chest and abdomen streaked with blood.
"Are you okay now?" she asked, her eyes going back up to his face.
"Yes. The spots and itching are gone. Thanks again," Damon said grudgingly. "I seem to be getting more and more indebted to you."
"Yes, you are," Bonnie muttered. She was tired and she wasn't happy having to do these spells for Damon. "Did you find the one casting the spell?"
"Katherine did. Down in the basement," Damon said as Stefan and Elena joined them by the door. Damon closed it and the group quickly filled Bonnie in on the few facts that she didn't already know. About the time they were finished, Katherine returned, eyeing Bonnie. It was hard for anyone to tell what Katherine really thought of Bonnie, because she didn't make cutting remarks to her like she did to Elena.
"Where's the girl?" Damon demanded.
"I locked her in a cell like you said. So what's the verdict?" Katherine asked him.
"Um, I don't know yet. I haven't tested it."
She moved close to him, slipped her arms around him, face to face, and boldly pressed her body right against the front of his jeans. She wiggled her hips.
"Any life down there? I'll be insulted if we don't get some response."
"Geez, Kat, right in front of everyone?" he growled, but he slipped his arms around her to be sure she stayed in place.
With her rubbing against him, he let his thoughts move to the last time he had been intimate with her. He was very relieved to feel himself responding, even though the group was paying close attention, even Bonnie. With a lopsided grin, he moved Katherine away from him and looked down.
"Behold! It's alive!" he announced.
Everyone looked at the growing bulge in his pants.
Elena and Bonnie looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Congratulations! It's a boy," Katherine said with a grin and she added a crude comment. She then left to take care of the problems in the cellar. "I'll be back."
Bonnie turned to leave, opening the front door. When Damon thanked her again for her help, she nodded and walked outside. Damon followed, walking her to her car.
"Are you all right driving home alone?" he asked. It was one o'clock in the morning now.
"I'll be fine, Damon. You need to take a shower. You look ghoulish." She looked at his blood-streaked chest, arms and abdomen. She didn't look lower than that. In a moment she was backing the car out of the driveway.
Damon was ready for a nice hot shower. He was relieved this nightmare was over. With a sigh, he padded barefoot to the porch and into the hall where his brother was with Elena.
Stefan, relieved that the crisis was over, had his arms around Elena and was holding her close. He thought he felt a stirring of body parts himself. He definitely felt great relief that Damon's "illness" was finally cured.
"Are you ready to go home?" he murmured to her.
"I think so. I've had enough for today," Elena said, weariness washing over her.
"Elena," Damon said. "Thanks for your help with all this." He felt embarrassed, even though he couldn't remember some of what he had done or said in her presence over the past four days.
She stepped away from Stefan and reached out, taking one of Damon's hands. "I need to apologize again, Damon. I'm sorry I thought you might have attacked that woman. I know you wouldn't do that. My emotions are just crazy sometimes."
"Forget it. Okay?" he said, squeezing her hand. In fact, he raised it up to his lips and kissed it. The old twinkle was back in his eyes.
"All right." She took her hand back.
"If you all will excuse me, I really need to take a shower," Damon said, looking at the dried blood streaks on his body. He headed for the stairs.
Stefan eyed Elena and asked, "May I join you at your house?"
"I'd like that. I hope you've forgiven me for my freak-out earlier. I don't know what came over me."
"Like Damon said, forget it," Stefan said. He called out to his brother who was climbing the stairs. "Damon, I'm going over to Elena's. Are you going to be all right?"
"I'm fine. Have fun, kids," Damon called back.
Stefan drove his own car, following Elena back to her house and he stayed the rest of the night in her bed. He was relieved to find that Elena really was able to fall asleep in his arms.
A/N Hope you all liked this chapter. I probably won't publish the next one for a week. There's a hurricane going to be off shore of our area. And then, I'll be going to Atlanta next weekend. DragonCon! I hope to get to see the group and get a photo with Ian. I really hope nothing happens to prevent that! Then I'll get back to writing.