Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries
…
Rei ducked the fist to her face easily, spinning around with a sweep of her legs that Alaric was quick to jump over.
"Wait," She pushed back the hair from her face. "Your undead ex-wife turns up out of the blue and you're upset because Jenna saw her."
"I told you," Alaric grunted as she dug a sharp elbow into his vulnerable middle. "As far as Jenna was concerned, Isobel had died and they just never found her body."
She scoffed loudly, making no effort to muffle the derisive noise. "So, what you're saying is that whatever grief Elena's birth mother's reappearance is causing between you and Jenna is your fault." She pointed at him.
Alaric's eyes narrowed. "Thanks for the compassion," He deadpanned sarcastically.
Rei shrugged unapologetically. "Hey, I call it like I see it, and to my eyes, this whole messy situation could have been avoided if you'd just told Jenna about vampires ages ago."
Seeing his mouth begin to open in response, Rei took her chance and darted forward. A quick jab to his upper chest with the heel of her hand upset the hunter's balance so that when she kicked out with a sharp hit to the left knee, he went down hard.
Folding her arms, she stared down at the groaning man with a small, triumphant grin. "You, owe me breakfast," Rei reminded him of their deal at the beginning of this mornings self-defence work-out.
Alaric shot her a dirty look but nodded, clambering to his feet. "Fine," His voice was reluctant but the hint of a smile on his lips ruined the effect, betraying his humour. "I want to go past Jenna's place first though, see if she's willing to talk to me, but I'll meet you at the Grill at nine thirty, alright?"
"Sounds good!" Rei threw him a wide grin over her shoulder as she waved her hand and left his apartment. Her mind already turning to the shower waiting for her back home.
...
"I can't find him anywhere," Caroline pulled her front door closed firmly. "He's not at home, he's not answering his phone-"
"How could you let him leave?" Stefan asked disbelievingly.
She had to force down the urge to snap back at him. "My Mum came in and he just took off! What was I supposed to do?"
Climbing into her car, she nodded mutely as Stefan told her to just keep looking for him, that she needed to get this under control.
"I slip vervain into his soda at work but I forgot to yesterday," She explained quickly, wincing at the idea of compelling Matt to do anything, even making him forget the fact that she was a vampire. "It should be out of his system by now."
"Alright, just find him, Caroline."
Closing her eyes with worry she nevertheless, nodded determinedly. "He's got a catering shift up at the Lockwood mansion for the luncheon today, I'll check if he's there."
...
Rei looked down at her watch for the fifth time in ten minutes.
10:15am
He was late. Very late.
"Do you want another coffee?" A young waitress asked with a gesture towards her cold, untouched beverage.
"Um,…" She looked down at her watch again with a frown. "Yeah, that would be great, thanks."
"Shouldn't be long," The waitress informed her with a happy smile, reaching over to pick up her cup and put it on the black tray she was holding.
Rei gave her a fake smile in response, waiting until she left before searching through her bag for her phone.
No missed calls.
Worry was beginning to prick at her insides and she bit the inside of her cheek as she stared down at her list of contacts. Without permission, her mind dove into memories of her all too recent past; confusing her, playing with her emotions. Times too numerous to count of friends and comrades simply disappearing, never arriving at their destination.
No, no, she couldn't do this, the war was over. Jumping to conclusions and thinking the worst was absurd, she told herself firmly. There were any number of reasonable, ordinary, safe explanations for Alaric being late…very late.
Hearing someone come through the door, her head immediately whipped around with hope only to sink back down in her chair as she saw a young couple stumble, laughing, through the Grill's entrance.
"Here you go!" The loud, cheerful voice startled her, making her jump and spin around in her seat. "Sorry," The waitress' apologetic face stared down at her sheepishly, placing her drink gently in front of her as if in recompense.
"Not your fault," Rei assured her distractedly, and the teenager smiled gratefully before leaving to take another table's order.
Tapping her fingernail against the wooden table, Rei once again checked her watch.
10:25am
"Damn it, Alaric," She muttered anxiously. "Where are you?"
...
Katherine bit her lip as she carefully edged up the small, cloudy window, not wanting to risk the chance of old hinges grating and betraying her to those inside.
She hadn't expected Isobel to have such good news. After all these years, all the running, scheming, lying, never being able to stay in one place for too long for fear of being caught, it was over. He was willing to make a deal.
Katherine tried to keep the hope that had blossomed in her chest to a minimum, she'd learned quickly that cynicism and doubt were an effective guard against the hurt that came when hope remained unfulfilled. But even that wisdom couldn't smother it entirely.
All she had to do was deliver him the moonstone. A stone she already knew was hidden somewhere within the Salvatore Boarding House.
Holding the small, square frame open, Katherine slid silently inside, her boots connecting with the dirt floor of the basement softly. Dark eyes pierced every shadow in the barely lit corridor, her ears straining to pick up any sounds that might indicate that her lack of presence had been noted by those upstairs.
"So, is that the plan? Neither of you will let me out of your sight again?"
"Let me know when you come up with a better one."
Katherine smirked. They'd noticed nothing.
"Fine. Then one of you two bodyguards is going to have to come with me to the Lockwood luncheon."
Reaching up, she used the tips of her fingers to smooth over the small indentations her hands had left behind in the dust coating the windowsill. When she'd finished, she carefully brushed her palms off on her jeans, erasing any evidence that might expose her.
"That'd be me."
The blatantly playful tone in Stefan's voice as he volunteered caught her completely unawares and Katherine froze, swallowing dryly.
The reaction was so quick and so small hardly anyone would have been skilled enough to notice it. As is was, the female vampire recovered almost instantly. With a deft, precise straightening of her spine the faultless posture she'd worked so hard to ingrain as habit, reappeared.
"Not me. I have witch stuff to attend to with Bonnie."
Cocking her head to the side, brown eyes narrowed with interest. Wasting no time, she turned soundlessly on her heel and glided up the stairs into the entrance corridor.
"Does that mean that you're taking her to the…"
All conversation came to an abrupt halt as Katherine stepped inside the cavernous library.
She arched an eyebrow at the trio.
"...Please, don't stop talking on my account. If you have a plan to combat the impending vampire doom, by all means, do tell." She eyed the room's three occupants closely but they all held their silence. "I delivered you a moonstone, a werewolf, and a dagger to lure and kill Klaus, and right now, all you have is a moonstone." If she could save herself the time she'd spend looking for the ritual ingredient by simply asking for its location, she would. "Or, so you tell me."
"No, we have it," Damon smirked at her from where he was laying across an expensive leather armchair.
"Where is it?" She kept her voice light, deceptively casual.
"In a very safe place," Ice-blue winked at her.
Katherine turned so that she was facing the elder brother directly. "I've been honest with you. It's time to return the favour." Keeping her voice smooth was difficult when she knew the answer to her freedom was draped so lazily across an armchair, but she managed it.
The silence stretched.
"Fine. Be that way." Just as she was turning to leave, a thought suddenly occurred to her and Katherine paused. Tilting her neck in a way that allowed her to lock eyes with an uncharacteristically quiet Elena, she clicked her tongue. "Your little British problem…did you ever find out why she tried to revive Elijah?"
Waking up to find her body lying awkwardly on the cold bathroom floor, Katherine's quick mind had pulled together fact, knowledge and observation swiftly. It had taken her but a moment to realise that the green-eyed girl had somehow managed to break her neck without ever touching her.
And with that realisation came understanding.
Wrapped in a short, white towel, her neck still aching from the assault, Katherine had smirked.
The female intruder…was a witch.
And then, it got even better. Damon, Stefan, Elena; they knew her. She'd become a part of their little group since she'd been locked up in that tomb. And yet, most interesting of all; they didn't know what she was.
Analysing the situation and her conclusions with the fine-honed skills of a master manipulator; exploitable opportunities had quickly fallen into place.
The witch was keeping her powers a secret. All she had to do was find out why, uncover what she was hiding, and she just might have a powerful witch to blackmail into her service.
Elena shifted in her seat uncomfortably, avoiding eye-contact. "No," She said shortly.
Katherine quirked an eyebrow at her descendent's intriguing response.
Keenly mindful not to expose her interest in the girl, she'd used the last few days to subtly obtain any information about the witch.
She hadn't been happy with what she'd uncovered.
Whoever she was, whatever her story, the green-eyed witch had influence in this little group. That fact had become all too clear in her observations of Damon, the hunter, Bonnie, even Jeremy Gilbert. Despite her contrary actions concerning Elijah, she was trusted.
And that made Katherine wary.
She'd been alive for a long time. She knew how social circles moved, the intricacies of human interaction was something she'd studied voraciously. Be it charm, intimidation, seduction or genuineness, Katherine had unravelled every emotion until she could replicate them on command.
So she knew. She knew that for an unknown entity to have integrated the small circle of people that surrounded Elena Glibert so successfully, so deeply, was unusual.
At best, it was charisma. At worst…
"Might want to find out," Katherine advised the trio as she walked out of the room.
…
Standing proudly on the crest of a gentle, green slope was a decrepit, run-down mansion. The structure imposing in its stark contrast to the wild nature that surrounded it. A dark threat seemed to hang in the air, an unmistakable aura of power that had ensured the abandoned estate had never suffered trespassers.
The witches who burned here wouldn't have tolerated it.
Damon glared resentfully at the paint-chipped door blocking his entrance into the house, the very same door that was preventing him from making sure Bonnie didn't stuff this up.
Honestly, you'd think that the after-life would teach the old biddies some tolerance. Disabling his daylight ring every time he stepped across the threshold?
"Bit immature," He mocked scornfully under his breath.
Even in death the servants of nature were judgmental little things.
"Want to hurry it up in there?" He hollered loudly at the two teenagers inside.
Without warning, the ajar door suddenly slammed shut in his face.
"Screw you too, Emily!" He growled. Looking back up at the house he threw up his arms, what the hell was he still doing here? "You know what? You're on your own in there!" He shouted loudly, making sure that Bonnie and Jeremy would both be able to hear him before he turned on his heel and walked off the rotted-through, wooden deck.
As he was stomping through the overgrown grass in the direction of his car, muttering snide comments about how the witches probably all deserved to die for being so high and mighty, his phone rang.
"What?" He snapped moodily into the receiver.
"And you wonder why people don't like you," Came the dry response on the other line.
Ice-blue eyes narrowed. "Well, well, if it isn't Mystic Fall's newest resident. You've been avoiding me."
"You think far too much of yourself, Damon."
"Please," He scoffed. "The rumour mill's been working overtime about you. I heard about your little breaking and entering foray into my home, can't say it didn't hurt. You can't trust anyone these days…how do I know you weren't there to steal my whiskey?"
"You're taking the news surprisingly calmly," There was a question in those words, and he found himself nodding despite knowing that she couldn't see the action.
"Yeah, well, what can I say, I wasn't really that surprised. Pissed off," He told her firmly, "but not surprised."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Hmmm, that's mighty big of you," Rei's sarcasm was inescapable. "Extending your…blessing, I might call it."
For the first time since he'd thought through the situation, Damon felt a tiny spark of his earlier annoyance return. "No need to be snippy, Rei, dear. Your hero-worship of Mr Original was hardly news to me at the time. Combining that with your control-freak nature; you also seem to be very used to making the decisions. Once I'd had a chance to think beyond the truly stupid thing you might have done, it was hardly unexpected that you would be mad at us for taking out Elijah."
There was a long pause before she replied. "…I can't find Alaric."
The fern he was in the process of pushing away suddenly escaped his newly lax grip, hitting him in the face.
"Oh fuck," He cursed, wiping angrily at the small spores that the plant had left behind on his skin. "What do you mean you can't find him?!"
"I mean, that he was meant to meet up with me to have breakfast at the Grill this morning. He never showed. I'm at his apartment right now but he isn't here." Her explanation was calm, informative and to the point. Very economical.
Damon rolled his eyes, "His bitch of an ex-wife blew into town last night-"
"I know, he told me," She cut him off.
"Then why are you surprised that he's awol? He no doubt needed a drink or something to cool off. Trust me, Isobel? She's a nightmare." As he spoke, he reached out a hand and snapped the fern's stem cleanly in half, taking childish pleasure in his retaliation for its assault on his person. "But while I have you on the phone, and seeing as how you're not avoiding me, want to tell me exactly what you were thinking trying to reawaken Eljiah, princess?" He demanded coldly as he continued on his path through the dense foliage.
"Ah," He could practically hear her smirk. "I knew it wasn't going to be so simple. To tell you the truth I was beginning to suspect that something was wrong with you when you seemed to react so..maturely to my unannounced visit to the Boarding house. You simply aren't that evolved, Damon." Her words walked the line between teasing and insult.
"Nice," He deadpanned. "But that doesn't answer my question."
"I wouldn't have pulled the dagger out of his chest, Damon," Rei suddenly snapped, surprising him. "Even if I had found his body and no-one was around to stop me."
He frowned deeply, "Then why-?"
"Dear Gods, do you really think me that stupid? Elijah is over one thousand years old, he is not someone who would let what you, your brother and Elena did to him go without punishment. Not that I would blame him," She spat viciously. "But I'm not going to do something that would see many people hurt and killed. Unlike some people, I can look at the bigger picture."
Black eyebrows that had steadily climbed as Rei spoke were practically meeting his hairline by the time she'd finished.
"…Huh," He coughed uncomfortably. "Well, good for you." Seeing his car in the distance, he sped up his pace; his thoughts coming back together accompanied by a dark scowl. "Wait, what do you mean, 'not that I would blame him'? Are you serious?!"
"It doesn't matter, Damon." The distracted mutter annoyed him. Why wasn't she giving him her full attention!
"Actually, it does. It matters a lot. I need to know if I can trust you Rei. " He growled, coming up to the door of his car.
She sighed deeply, as if frustrated. "Damon, come on! I might have my problems with the way you incapacitated Elijah, but I would never expect you to have the same doubts…You love her."
The way she said those last three words, the throw-away casualness of the phrase, the honesty, the understanding; he knew from her tone that Rei believed she was being all too clear, even transparent. But all he felt was confusion.
"I don't-" He exhaled loudly, sliding into the car and pulling the door shut solidly. "What does that mean?" Damon demanded hotly, not enjoying the feeling of vulnerability her words had engendered in him. Was he really that obvious about his feelings for the brunette doppelgänger?
"Damon, seriously, it doesn't matter," She dismissed, clearly fed-up with the topic of conversation. "I called you because of Alaric, not Elena. Now, I know that you said he's probably off somewhere to think and cool off, but I don't know, I've got a bad-" Her words cut off abruptly. "...Something's off."
Steering the car through the large, isolated field he'd parked it in towards the highway, Damon found himself shaking his head as she talked, opening his mouth several times to butt in but somehow managing to hold himself back until she'd finished.
"Look, I'll call him, but he's fine, Rei. Stop being such a mother-hen."
"Your concern for him is touching," Her accent lent a lilt of iciness to her words that had his eyes instinctively narrowing.
"And you're reaching," Damon's voice was hard now; low.
"…Fine." She snapped sharply. "Just keep an eye out and have him call me if you hear from him."
He sighed heavily, turning skilfully onto the long highway. "Alright," He agreed. Knowing that she could very well hang up at any second having now got what she was after, Damon cleared his throat. "How I may feel about Elena; why would that make any difference to you?"
It didn't make sense to him.
"…It doesn't."
His hand tightened around the steering wheel, a dark frown drawing down his brows. "That's bull. You have issues with Elijah, clearly. You're angry, but somehow, you're not mad at me. Which does not make sense because I'm that one that invited him to a dinner party in order to kill him."
There was a brief moment of silence before a soft, genuinely amused laugh suddenly floated down the line.
"You were trying to save the woman that you love, Damon. I would expect you to do anything in order to achieve that." She said it so plainly, so confidently; like it was fact. "Just, if you see Alaric, get him to call me, okay? I'll talk to you later."
Before he could reply, could say anything really, she hung up.
…
Violently slamming the draw shut, Katherine barely repressed the urge to scream as she spun around to face the room.
Nothing. She'd been looking for the moonstone for hours, and nothing! Where the hell had they hidden the damn thing?!
Her eyes suddenly focused on the large fireplace that dominated Damon's bedroom; her heart fluttering with renewed hope, she swiftly crossed the expanse.
Crouching low, she stuck her hands deeply into the mound of ash, searching for anything solid.
Nothing.
Breathing out through her nose, Katherine forced her rising panic to settle, pivoting on the balls of her feet so that she could reach into the hidden spaces concealed in the chimney above her.
Moving methodically, her fingers ran over every hole, every crevice, but still the key to her freedom eluded her.
Closing her eyes, she rose gracefully to her full height.
She still had time, Katherine reminded herself. Isobel would wait for her…at least until the end of the luncheon at the Lockwood mansion.
Her eyes automatically moved towards the large windows and the mid-day sun that was shining through the glass panes, forcing her panic down.
She might still have some time, but not a lot.
Spying the lingering ash dirtying her nails she grimaced and turned sharply on her heel, entering Damon's bathroom.
As she was reaching for a bar of soap from the large, copper-styled goblet sitting on the bench, Katherine's mind invariably began cataloguing the areas of the house she hadn't yet searched.
Her lips thinned. There weren't many.
Dread had her stomach swooping down unpleasantly. Images of her one chance slipping through her fingers playing over and over in her mind.
God! The moonstone was here! She knew it was!
Spinning the tap on, Katherine was in the process of lowering her hands into the steady stream of water when she suddenly froze.
Gleaming brown orbs slowly settled on the innocent-looking goblet, filled to the brim with exotic soap bars.
...Of course.
A small smirk pulled up the corners of her mouth.
She should have known.
How very Damon-like to hide something in plain sight.
The soap slipped from her hands, the bar connecting with the porcelain rim of the sink as Katherine stepped forward.
She should have realised it sooner.
Lifting the goblet carefully, she turned around, only to tip its entire contents onto the marble floor beneath her heels.
Eyes darted amongst the twenty or so cloudy bars of soap, searching out the familiar silvery colour that was the moonstone.
Brows suddenly twitched.
She couldn't…she couldn't see it!
Dropping down on her knees, long fingers brushed over each and every bar within increasing urgency.
It was here! She'd known as soon as she'd seen the goblet-it was so typically Damon!
Her fingers dug deeply into the soft soap beneath her hands.
With a muffled growl, Katherine shoved the coloured, oddly shaped ones away from her, gathering all the white bars together and settling them in her lap.
"It has to be here!" She muttered harshly under her breath.
Gritting her teeth, she lifted another bar up to the light. Testing it's consistency. But every single one broke in her hands, crumpling beneath her formidable strength.
God damn it! Where was it?!
"It's here, it's here! I know it is! It has to be here!" She screamed, throwing the useless pieces of soap at the wall opposite her with murderous fury.
That's when she saw it.
Out of the corner of her eye; laying, as if discarded on the floor beside the bath, was a disturbingly familiar glass-rod.
The whole world stopped in that moment.
Her body became unmoving stone, and the wreaked bathroom was plunged into absolute silence.
Katherine smiled at the tiles in front of her with satisfaction before slowly turning around, unashamed of her nakedness.
The smallest frown twitched at the skin between her eyebrows as she finally laid eyes on the person with so calm a heart-beat.
She was beautiful.
Unmistakably, strikingly beautiful.
Her breaths were short and sharp, her eyes far away as the memory re-played through her mind.
"I thought that you were wasting away in the tomb beneath the church," The black-haired young woman ignored her question and asked her own.
Katherine's lips widened into a grin. "Hmm, and now I'm out," She shrugged simply.
"Indeed you are," Unnerving green eyes surveyed her thoughtfully for a long moment before she seemed to dismiss her, crossing the room to wash her hands in the basin.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to turn your back on a vampire?" She laughed throatily.
…She washed her hands…
Brown eyes swung round, locking on the sink behind her. Conjuring the image of how the black-haired girl had stood there, turning her back on a vampire...to wash her hands!
The fey-like girl lifted her eyes to pierce her in the mirror as she reached blindly for a bar of soap in the metal, goblet-shaped bowl standing beside her.
"Of course," She nodded. "Numerous times, in fact."
She came to her feet in one, smooth movement. Her mouth pressed together in a thin line.
Katherine let the glass rod drop to the marble floor with a loud clatter.
"Your heartbeat hasn't sped up even once," She mused out loud, her dark eyes running the length of the girl as the human turned back around to finish washing her hands. "That means that you're either a psychopath, in which case you don't fear me in the way that a normal human being would, or you're an idiot." She smiled. "Which is it?"
A low chuckle echoed around the room.
"Neither."
Her fingers curled inward, one by one.
She tilted her head, both annoyed and intrigued by the answer. "Any particular reason you came to the Salvatore residence when both it's owners are away?" She asked politely.
She could see it.
Sharp nails pierced the skin of her palms. The incredible pressure being brought to bear on the white-knuckled fists causing rivulets of blood to drip down her hands, red droplets staining the once pristine marble beneath her feet.
"Looking for Elijah, actually."
Katherine's amusement vanished instantly. "What?" She growled, taking a threatening step forward.
"I heard that your boys daggered him, and I was hoping they'd left him here alone, unguarded. Sadly, it seems their stupidity does not extent to prisoner captivity."
Everything coalesced into one, furious moment of understanding.
The girl had never intended to wake Elijah.
She'd wanted an alibi, a fake reason for her being in the Boarding House that night. And she'd used the convenient witness, Katherine, to validate her deception.
The witch had used her.
Green eyes crinkled at the corners, betraying their own amusement. "Why so interested?"
...She'd been played.
…
So? What did you think? ;D
Not to mention that the wait is over! Klaus makes his appearance in Mystic Falls next chapter! … Excited? ;D