Twelfth

My hands flew up to my neck as I shot up to a sitting position. I could still feel their breath, their lips, their fangs. I remembered the feeling of labor pains. They were so unlike what I had felt with Maddie. I felt the overwhelming love towards Damon as he walked into the cabin and kissed me. The feeling of his lips on mine and his arms around my shoulders was so strong, so right. The feeling of love that I received from Katherine, my mother and my best friend; it all seemed so real and so very disturbing.

A shower, that was what I needed. I grabbed my robe and locked myself in the bathroom. I turned on the water and as I waited for it to warm up I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Shock is the only work I can think of to describe my reaction. My face looked drawn and had a greyish pallor, my eyes were bright red, lips pale and lifeless. My hair was the worst. Not only was it stringy and tangled, but grease weighed down the roots and the rest hung limp down my back.

Turning away from the mirror I slipped into the shower and used every product I could find to try and improve my appearance. When I was through my skin had been scrubbed raw, the shampoo and crème rinse bottles were empty and the bar of soap was little more than a paper thin sliver. I took my time drying off, applying crèmes and lotions, eye drops and hair detangler. When I was finished I wrapped my robe around my body, a towel around my wet hair and walked back into the bedroom. Looking up after tying the robe I stopped short. Katherine sat on the edge of the bed, legs crossed and nail file in hand.

"Do you mind?" I asked her. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Well, that wasn't really the warm and fuzzy reception that I had hoped for," she responded making no attempt to leave the room.

I scowled at her, grabbed an outfit from the dresser and walked back into the bathroom. I had just finished getting dressed when she let herself in and sat up on the counter.

"I have nothing to say to you," I told her.

"That's too bad," she replied, "I was planning on asking you to join me for a drink in the parlor. It would be to your advantage to come you know, I will have a chilled glass of blood waiting for you."

"I can get my own meals, thank you very much," I said snidely back to her.

"You could," she said with a slight inflection in her voice, "except that all of the blood bags and bottles in the house has been covered with vervain so it probably wouldn't be in your best interest to try and get your own."

"Why would you do that?" I asked as she inspected her nails and put the file down on the counter.

"Insurance," she responded as she slipped down from the counter, "that way I know that you can't get at it to try and taint it , flush it, or whatever else you might come up with."

"You are really sick, do you know that?" I asked following her out of the bathroom.

"I've been told," she told me looking over her shoulder and smiling at me. She headed towards the bedroom door. "Oh, and by the way, don't bother trying to get out of the house to hunt, all of the outer doors and windows have also been rubbed with vervain. I'll see you in the parlor in, what, about ten minutes?" Then she walked out of the room closing the door behind her.

If I wasn't so hungry I never would have gone down, but I did make a point to take my time getting ready. Drying my hair, brushing my teeth, applying make-up and trying out three or four different hairstyles took at least forty-five minutes. When I finally made it down to the study I could feel the annoyance seething off of her, but she plastered a smile on her face and pushed a glass towards me. I didn't take it right away, first I had some questions.

"So how is it that Stefan and Damon are allowing you to stay here?" I asked her. "And where are they anyway, I haven't seen them in days."

"They don't know that I'm here," she explained sipping her drink. "Wow, this is extraordinary," she said holding her glass up to the light.

"Get to the point Katherine," I warned.

"You know I don't think that you should call me by my name anymore, perhaps you could try 'mother' for a change." She was baiting me.

"No," I told her. "Where are they Katherine?"

"Damon took off after he woke up and realized what he had done. Stefan came up to check on you, thought that I was Elena and told me to stay with you while he went after Damon. I'm only doing what I've been told," she replied innocently.

I picked up my glass and sniffed it suspiciously then took a tiny sip. She wasn't kidding, it really was good.

"While we're on the subject, why did you pretend to be Elena the other day?" I asked.

"At first I just wanted to see if I could fool you. Apparently you no longer have that negative reaction every time you see me. Then I just kept up the charade while you prattled on and on. It's nice to know that you think so little of me that I would allow that moronic Original bitch to kill you before I got here."

"She almost did," I said to her exasperated!

"Damon was here, he wasn't going to let her kill you," she responded. "I didn't realize that he would attack you as well that foolish ass."

I finished my drink and stood to leave the room. "You almost let me get killed, why in the world would I ever trust that you would come to my rescue before they actually did kill me?" I asked her. I noticed that my legs felt a bit numb.

"Because, my girl, if they kill you I die as well," she said to me, "and I have no plans to die anytime soon."

I looked down at her and shook my head. "You really are a bitch." I told her as I started to leave the parlor.

My feet hardly cleared the stairs as I climbed and by the time I got to my room I had to crawl to the bed. What did she keep giving to me to cause this reaction? I was able to climb up into the bed before passing out.