The music of the party below increases in volume for a moment, nearly breaking me from my chant, and returns to a low dim as the door quickly closes. Doing any magic in a busy place like this is usually such a bad idea, with this many eyes and witnesses, but at least magic isn't as flashy here as it would be with wands and light shows. At the very least, this high school would think their local busboy and their quarterback were involved in some weird drugs, or maybe some voodoo BS. Ignorance very much isn't bliss in this town.
Stefan sniffs the air a moment and flinches, winces, as he walks into the room. Sensing the disturbance, Elena runs to her boyfriend, concerned. "What's wrong?"
"Sorry, my fault." I gesture to the spell once more, at the burning vervain incense in a bowl and the subtly shifting smoke, billowing toward Matt every few moments to coat him with it. "That root, if you didn't already know, is poisonous to vampires. If the smoke were any more concentrated, I think Stefan would have fallen unconscious, or worse."
He nods once, still at obvious discomfort, and then vamps backwards faster than I can blink, neatly avoiding slamming into the wall. An almost graceful gentleness. "Should have waited a few more minutes to come in."
Elena clearly doesn't know what to say about the situation, and then twists back to Matt's unconscious form. "So you're sure that he won't remember anything?"
"It's not foolproof." Stefan coughs once and then wipes his watering eyes, trying to regain his composure. At least his skin isn't sizzling. "Not for me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Elena asks. "I thought compulsion was…" The girl trails off, more aware each moment that she's out of her element.
My eyes meet Stefan's gaze, looking for some sort of go-ahead. When he subtly nods, I return the gesture. "Vampire abilities are muted when they subsist on animal blood, rather than drink human blood."
"Matt might vaguely remember bits and pieces of what he has experienced." From his pained expression, it's clear that he's got some anguish over that whole situation.
"Not enough that he'll really know anything. He's strong-willed," I add quickly, even though I'm not 100% certain that I even believe that. Just hoping that it's enough that Matt can go back to a normal life after this. If I can convince Damon to help, maybe he can compel the knowledge away more permanently.
"I feel like I need to read a manual." Elena grimaces as she considers the rulebook changing from day to day, week to week. She has no idea how often that did happen, season to season and sometimes episode to episode.
As the minutes go by, the spell finishes taking shape, as Elena and Stefan watch with interest. Matt doesn't wake up throughout the process – he's currently compelled to believe that he got far too drunk and passed out, without remembering how he got in Richard's office. Simple enough and usually effective. Tyler and Vicki were easy enough to find for Stefan in a few minutes, though I didn't want to know the details of what they were doing when he did.
"What are you going to do about Lucien?" Stefan asks, cutting into the silence as I start packing away my equipment, allowing him to handle his leftover vervain as carefully as a prepared vampire could.
"I can't accept his offer in good conscience." A sigh. "But I can't let him hurt anyone else, either."
"From what you've said, he's not likely to give up if you turn it down." Stefan fixates on the dancing flames in the fireplace.
"We can't just let him keep messing around with our lives. My life." Elena's near fiery expression would be impressive if she were more aware of everything that is happening, but determined!Elena is best Elena. It's clear that she's still thinking about what I admitted to her earlier, about her place at the center of all this fate. I wasn't any more specific than that, but I think the point comes across regardless.
"He's more than a millennium old. I doubt twelve Stefans could best him, without a specific strategy in mind, and not without losses." I sigh. "Might even need more. Someone like him gets what he wants and laughs at a challenge."
Elena paces slightly, weighing the options. "We've seen him during the day, so he's got a daylight ring. He drinks human blood, so he's stronger."
"Stronger by age alone, by default."
Always was slightly curious just how the difference in aging worked, but the only consistent factor was that catching elder vampires off-guard with something is usually how you can manage it. A good example of that was the first fight between the brothers and Elijah. A secret witch in the backburner is just the right kind of cleverness, but is somewhat countered by the fact that he's got a whole organization of people in town.
"Vervain still weakens him." Stefan raises the container under his arm. "And he still needs an invitation to get inside someone's home."
Sensing the train of thought, I counter. "He'll just burn the house down or destroy it with a few well-aimed pebbles." I shake my head. "And vervain tolerance is a thing."
Stefan peers at me, disbelieving. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. It's how vampires sometimes evade the more well-known hunters." Starting to wonder if my bloody charade with the banks in nearby towns is going to draw in Alaric or not. Don't want to have to off Mr. Tanner myself, as much of a dick as he is. "I wouldn't expect that to work on him, but don't rule it out."
As the seconds pass, Elena glances toward the door. "We should probably get Bonnie and Caroline. They can help us plan."
"If you wish." Clearing my throat, I continue. "Just be warned that neither of them is in a position to directly help. Bonnie's improved from where she started, but she'd be putting herself unnecessarily in harm's way to do it, whether her mom or grandmother are involved or not."
It's almost hilarious how outmatched the kids in Mystic Falls are, at this point. This feels like the end-boss popping up on level two to ruin your day.
Crossing her arms in defeat at that idea, she frowns. "We can't just sit by and let him threaten everyone."
"You're right, Elena. We can't." I sigh after a moment, wishing that there were a better option. "The only option that I have is to get as close to him as I can, learn what I can about his company's and his motivations, and hopefully leave him in a vulnerable position." Elena starts to object, but Stefan's pensive look is calm enough to know that things might go wrong. "The issue that we have, here, is that his organization could be expansive enough that any move that we make directly against him will be met with violence against the town, and potentially against all of us. He's well-connected – if we somehow manage to take him down, that's not a guarantee to be the end of it."
"What are a vampire, two and a half witches, and a bunch of humans going to do against someone like that?" Elena asks.
Stefan considers it a moment and then meets my eyes. "Even the playing field."
..:O:..
Returning home that night was an experience, if only because I expected to get jumped at every turn, to see a man in the street blocking the path of my car. At this point, I don't even think that I would stop, regardless of who it was. The stress was getting to me, and I wish I had partaken in as much beer as the underage drunkards could offer me.
"Make sure everyone in your house knows not to invite anyone inside," were the last words that I said to Elena, and she promised that she would figure something out. Convincing Jeremy and Jenna how to do that without spilling the beans is her prerogative.
Reaching anyone experienced in these matters who could actually help is the plan, at the moment, to increase our odds of victory, without many casualties.
There was a nonzero chance that they would be amenable to this, but it's not something that I choose to do at all if I didn't feel forced into it. Opening that can of worms, this soon after I left the coven? I can hardly imagine thinking that I'd be in this situation a year ago.
Erecting the salt line barrier around the room, it magically kicked into gear with a slight adjustment of my foot, already spelled to activate the moment the sand completed a boundary.
The scrying pen hovers in a loose grip over a globe on my desk, a finger in the other hand lightly causing the globe to spin round and round. The tool snaps to the surface with a ping of blood from its tip, revealing that the target is in the area. Pinpointing that location with a more detailed map of the region itself is the next step, and it only gets more precise from there. I repeat that step on a few other names, just to have as much information in my pocket before I move on.
With a tug of magic into my system from my newer watch, the incantation completes with a single word as the incense near me begins to burn of its own accord, the heat exuding across the desk's surface and into the parchment.
"Megan,
"Sorry to skip the greeting. I wouldn't ask for this under any normal circumstance, especially only a few months in, but I'm up shit creek without a paddle, here. Don't feel bad if you cannot help.
"The eldest non-Original vampire in all of existence has moved into town and has apparently taken a horrid interest in me. The fucker brainwashed a coworker into loving me and is trying to recruit me to his cause, thinking me as good at forecasting as you are.
"Again, if you cannot manage to send assistance my way, I will not hold it against you. But I could really use the help, here, or this Lucien Castle will be the death of me and this town as a whole.
"Sorry that we cannot chat more often. Send my regards to Baileigh and Hannah, will you?
"Logan."
That letter might be one of the toughest things that I've ever written. Formalizing a need for help, no matter how reasonable, should be the realistic response. And yet, I feel awful that I cannot think of a way to do this, that doesn't involve groveling to a coven that doesn't want me, to a mother that isn't even really mine.
Damon and Stefan have contacts to potentially pull on, assuming that the latter can get the former to work together with the rest of us. The fact that Damon hasn't seemingly murdered someone after I spoke with him is as much a miracle as the fact that no one has gone missing while Lucien has been in town. Still have no idea how I got Blue-Eyes Italian Vampire to listen to me.
Dropping the crumpled letter into the burning bowl, the smoke dissipates quickly as the slip of paper essentially vanishes, traveling to its intended target, hopefully soon. It'd be so much faster and more efficient to figure out that astral projection spell, but work smarter, not harder. A cell phone would be the easiest, admittedly, but definitely not as cool as magic.
After not receiving a reply, I stare at both rings of salt within the room for nearly two hours before sleep finally takes me. A restless night awaits.