A/N: I do not own The Vampire Diaries.

Ryssa yawned and rolled over, reaching for Elijah but touched only the empty bed and slowly opened her eyes. "Elijah?" she called.

"She lives," he replied teasingly and she groaned and pulled the pillow out from under her head and covered her face with it.

"Head…hurting."

"Open your eyes then, I have some pain medicine for you." She let go of the pillow with one hand and held it out blindly and felt two small capsules being placed into her palm and forced herself to sit up. She tossed them into her mouth and accepted the water he gave her to wash them down.

"Thank you," she rubbed the back of her neck and looked up to see him watching her from a chair beside the bed. As always he was dressed in a suit and tie, his chin propped up with his hand as he scrutinized her with a peculiar expression on his handsome face.

"Better?"

"I'll get back to you on that when the rubber mallet ceases in its attacks," she grumbled. "What happened?"

"You overexerted yourself opening the tomb. You slept the whole way home and half the day already," he answered and she leaned into the hand that touched her cheek as he pushed a strand of hair away from her face.

"Probably should have used my exercises first," she mumbled.

"Why didn't you?" She could hear the faint note of disapproval in his voice.

"Forgot. Habit. Pride. Stupidity. Take your pick." She sighed and pushed herself to her feet and swayed slightly. She felt his hands steadying her and she patted his arm once she was sure of her balance and shuffled toward the general direction of the adjoining bathroom.

Elijah watched her as she stumbled from the room and listened for the shower, his thoughts grim. He'd been concerned when she didn't wake right away like usual and continued to sleep but it seemed that she was fine. He had ended up calling Jonas to ask and the warlock explained her reaction and suggested the medicine. He got up and followed her, leaning on the counter as she showered.

"That was reckless. If you needed to prepare yourself better than you should have said something," he lectured.

"It wasn't that 'Lijah. I've pushed my magic; I know what it can do. I had the power to open the tomb, but since it was the first time trying it I agreed to your warlock's help. If anything that was my mistake," she answered.

"Meaning?" Elijah had worked with witches for centuries yet he knew very little about their craft, and likewise they were reluctant to reveal the information due to their damned loyalty.

"Meaning that when I reached out with my magic and connected with theirs, it came together and I lost track of where I began. Think of it like a web, I weaved my magic and will through theirs and they did the same to mine. Then I started saying words I didn't even know. We succeeded in opening the tomb for Stefan but then I had to reverse the process. Zero in on my specific source of magic and untangle from them. If I made the slightest wrong move, I could have hurt them by accident. Once I drew it all back inside, it was still charged and it shorted me out you could say. Magic isn't supposed to be used in that way, at least not from a distance," she went on to explain. "It took more than three witches to lock that tomb. My magic added to Jonas' overlapped and since mine is stronger genetically; it took more out of me. Plus I didn't center as well as I probably should have."

"You overexerted," he summarized.

"Fine, Mr. Technical, yes. But it's more that I took on two times the amount of power that I really needed. If I had tried by myself, I would have done it but with less of a drawback. Keep in mind that all I really use is the telekinesis. Understand?" She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself and looked at him.

"Somewhat," he answered. She went up to him and draped her arms around his neck and smiled.

"All better now, see? Well except one thing."

"What's that?" He felt a grudging smile cross his face as she leaned in to kiss him.

"That. I never got a proper good morning kiss," she teased and he brushed her wet hair over her shoulder, admiring her skin. He smoothed his thumb over her collarbone and pulled her closer with one firm hand on her back.

"How silly of me to forget," he said as he kissed her shoulder and drew his teeth along the soft flesh.

"Were you worried?" She ran her fingers through his hair, closing her eyes as his kisses trailed up to her neck and he lightly nibbled.

"Not in the least," he joked and removed the towel with one tug and she felt the whoosh of air at her back and the feel of the sheets as he pushed her onto the bed.

When she awoke the second time she felt much better and decided to test her magic by bringing her phone to her hand. It shot across the room and hit the floor and Elijah jolted upright at the sound. She giggled and traced the muscles of his back with her fingertips and he looked over his shoulder at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry?" she offered and he smirked and got up off the bed. She watched him as he pulled his pants on and started to button his shirt. "I want to go see Stefan," she decided.

"Why?" he asked as he pulled his suit jacket on and looked at her. "I thought I asked you to avoid them."

"Yeah but you heard me tell Elena we were in Richmond, and now that the deal is made and they know about Klaus, I have nothing they want." She shrugged and got up and searched in her bag for a pair of flared jeans and grabbed one of his shirts. She did half the buttons and tied the ends together, showing off her midriff and figure. She pulled her boots on and looked over to where he was buttoning his sleeves and watching her dress. "I won't be long, promise."

"Alright," he agreed. "I have to get those boxes from Jenna's, call me if you need anything." She smiled as he came up behind her in a blur and kissed her temple. "Be careful, little Ryssa."

She watched him disappear and went into the bathroom to finish getting ready. Once she was satisfied, she grabbed her phone and her jean jacket and left the house, surprised to find a new car waiting for her with a bow on it. She started laughing as she removed the bow and grabbed the license and insurance information from under the windshield wiper. She was thrilled to see that not only was the car perfect for her but it had an IPod jack with a sticky note on it.

Surprise.

Ryssa pulled out of the driveway and down the road and parked in a spot in front of the Grill, locking the doors with the auto-lock button on the key chain. When she entered the Grill she glanced around and saw Stefan sitting with another guy and made her way over to them.

"Hey Stefan," she said and smiled when he looked up with surprise. She turned to the guy and held out a hand, "Ryssa Jackson."

"Alaric Saltzman," he answered and shook her hand. "Are you new in town?"

"Not exactly," she half-shrugged.

"She's a friend of Elijah's," Stefan told Ric. He smiled at her and noted the scent surrounding her own. Apparently she and the Original were more than friends, he thought.

"I'm sorry, I'm interrupting aren't I? I just wanted to see how Elena was. Oh and to get my necklace back," she addressed Stefan with raised eyebrows. "And here, I forgot to give you my number." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the sticky note from the car and snagged a pen from a nearby table. She scrawled the digits on it and handed the note to Stefan and smiled.

"I'll leave you guys to talk." She walked over to the pool tables and started a game to waste time. She didn't have anything else to do and who knew how long Elijah was going to be. She tired of that quickly and checked the time on her phone and decided to call home. She pressed the redial button while walking toward the door and noticed that Damon had arrived.

The brothers appeared to be arguing and she could tell that something was wrong with Damon when his gaze met hers and he marched over to her. "I need to talk to you. Now," he said through gritted teeth and grasped her arm and pulled her outside.

"Damon, let go!" He released her and she pressed the end button on the call once she got a good look at his face. He looked as if he was freaking out. "What's wrong with you?"

"You're friends with Elijah, right?" He ignored her question to ask his own.

"I thought we established that a while ago."

"Just— does he know anything about a cure for a werewolf bite?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Find out." He glanced down at the phone in her hand and she pressed the send button for his number and held it up to her ear.

"Ryssa?" he answered. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine. Do you know anything about a cure for a werewolf bite?" Damon paced back and forth, clenching his jaw.

"Who would it be for?"

"Um," she covered the phone and looked at Damon. "Who was bitten?"

"Rose."

"It's for Rose," she repeated into the phone.

"How unfortunate." He paused and she waited, "Tell Damon that there is no cure." He hung up the phone a moment later and she sighed and looked down. She didn't need to say anything, she knew Damon had heard.

"Stay here," he said and walked back inside.

Ryssa frowned and retried Amanda. "Hello—"

"Amanda!"

"—You've reached Amanda Montgomery. I can't answer the phone right now so leave me a message and I'll call you back!" the message went on and she cursed.

"Hey Mandy, I'm just calling to say hi to Em. I really miss you guys, lots of love."

No sooner did she hang up did Damon walk back out and slam his fist into the wall, making her jump. "Damon!" She approached him slowly and watched as he leaned against the wall, chest heaving.

"She's dying, Ryssa," he said and looked at her. "Help me."