Sorry it took so long to update! But with the school musical (which InnocentKitsune has the lead in and I have a speaking part) and school and work...it takes longer to get the notebook passed around and, more often than not, I don't have possession of the notebook over the weekend which is the only time I have to type.

However, that should all be different now considering we just finished writing in our FOURTH notebook so I now have permanent possession of it! Expect a chapter once a week or so (for a little over a month and then it'll depend on who has the Fifth notebook lol) XD So just please, try to be patient with us! We rarely have any free time to work on our stories lol.

Chapter Twenty Five

All She Knows by Bruno Mars

Everyday same old things
So used to feelin pain
Never had real love before
And it ain't her fault

Jordyn had no magic.

No magic meant no spell to hide Kiara's power.

No magic meant no backup against the wolves.

No magic meant no backup against Jaden.

And no magic meant Jordyn couldn't protect herself.

Kiara dropped onto her bed as the repercussions of what this meant hit her like a ton of bricks.

This wasn't helpful, it wasn't right, and it wasn't fair, but if Kiara had learned anything from being a slave, it was that life wasn't fair.

Kiara gritted her teeth together. She didn't need to rely on Jordyn to help her. Kiara had been helping herself for a long time, before she ever even came to Mystic Falls, and she wasn't about to become a weak damsel now.

Kiara grabbed the little green pouch hanging around her neck. She had tried to shove thoughts about it out of her mind, but now she had to decide if it was worth using or not.

It was…but not yet. Kiara would use it just before the fight with Jaden and deal with the consequences later.

"I'd like permission to take Gwendolyn with us when we go to capture your daughter." Jaden stated, a smirk on his face as if he was relishing the surprised look on the kitsune's face.

Masashi looked at him slowly, a frown on his face. "Why?"

"Insurance." Jaden replied as if it was simply. "We might be able to convince Kiara that we will free her mother if she comes back with us."

"And why would we want to do that?" Masashi asked suspiciously.

"We wouldn't and we won't, but as long as we get Kiara to believe we will it doesn't matter what we do." Jaden's smirk deepened as if he was rather pleased with himself for coming up with the idea.

Masashi highly doubted that, but kept his opinion to himself, instead choosing wisely to pick his battles. "What do you plan on doing with Kiara when you get her back here?" He asked in a guarded tone.

Jaden grinned. "The same thing I planned to do with her before she ran. Marry her."

Masashi arched an eyebrow. "Just like that? Forgive and forget?" His tone was dubious.

Jaden's grin turned wicked. "I can be married to someone with bruises. That's all that Kiara really needs, a few good beatings."

Masashi hesitated before slowly nodding. "We will take Gwendolyn."

Jaden nodded and left, leaving Masashi to stare at the wall. The only emotion visible was the grim look within Masashi's dark eyes.

Masashi would free Gwendolyn…or kill her himself, because he knew that she could never see what Jaden intended for their daughter.

Gwendolyn would never be able to life with herself if she did.

Jordyn took a calming breath, her eyes shut as she summoned all vestiges of her strength.

The instant she opened her eyes, she began to twirl the curved sword in her hand with a deadly precision. The sword had been a fifteenth birthday present from Klaus.

Her muscles ached slightly as she worked muscles that she hadn't had to use in a while. Despite the fact it had been almost a year since she had last practiced, Jordyn could still remember move by move the warm up techniques her treacherous friend had drilled into her.

Jordyn kept her face expressionless, not showing or feelin any emotion. When fighting with a sword, emotion could be either your greatest strength or your greatest weakness.

In Jordyn's case, it was a weakness.

And she knew it.

If she fought angrily, she wouldn't be as accurate and it would be easy to strip away her defenses since she would be unable to defend herself. So essentially, anger could cause her death.

And worry would be a distraction.

"You don't have to hide, you know." Jordyn spoke calmly, her eyes sliding to look to her far right.

"Who said I was hiding?" Elijah spoke as he appeared right in front of the witch.

Jordyn slowly lowered her sword until it was pointing straight down. "You make a habit of watching teenage girls?" She remarked with an eyebrow raised amused before sighing and saying, "Elijah, what are you doing here?"

Elijah arched an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same thing. Its past midnight."

"I need to practice." Jordyn spoke. "It's my only defense." She said, looking at the sword in her hand.

That confirmed Elijah's suspicion that the seal hadn't been lifted. Conflicted feelings plagued him on the subject. If the seal had been lifted, Jordyn would have the means to protect not only herself, but also her slave friend. However, Elijah wondered what the cost would have been.

It very well could've made the seventeen year old mentally unstable, or even cause her to turn off her emotions.

Either could very well destroy the person Jordyn had become.

Elijah truly didn't know which would be worse: Jordyn dead…or a Jordyn who didn't care about those around her, only power.

Then again, those were only possibilities, not certainties.

But still…

"It would work better if you had an opponent to spar with." Elijah spoke quietly, his eyes meeting the now startled eyes of the girl he needed to protect.

Jordyn arched an eyebrow. "You offering?" She had meant it as sarcastic, but as Elijah nodded his head, all traces of sarcasm fell away. "This isn't a trick, is it?" She asked cautiously, silver green eyes studying the Original's face for any sign of deception.

Elijah's face hardened. "Never." He stated honestly.

Jordyn was silent for a moment, simply staring at him warily, before finally saying with a look of indifference and a shrug, "If you really want to and aren't scared I'll kick your ass, then fine."

Elijah looked at her with obvious amusement. "The chances of that happening are next to none."

Jordyn raised an eyebrow and grinned. "But there's still a chance though."

The Original rolled his eyes before telling the brunette that practice would start the next night.

The man knew deep down that his reasons for helping her were entirely selfish. He didn't care if Jaden took the young half demon or if the entire town was annihilated.

However, he did care about the girl standing in front of him and if keeping her safe meant assisting in preparation for the invasion, then he would savor this time with her and do whatever was necessary to make sure Jordyn would not fall in the upcoming battle…

Most of all, he had to prepare her for the next time she came face to face with Klaus…or worse, Malykarian.

"So tell me again what this Thanksgiving is." Kiara said to Jordyn, confusion on her face.

Jordyn smiled. "Its an American holiday. Families get together and eat a ridiculous amount of food and spend time together."

"And you said that a turkey," Kiara had no idea what a turkey was, "is an important part of Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah, its like the mascot of Thanksgiving pretty much." She replied.

Kiara paused. "Are we going to celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Jordyn grimaced. "We're sort of on a tight budget so I can't promise anything big…"

Kiara sighed in disappointment before smiling. "That's okay. Maybe next year!"

Jordyn only gave her a half smile, not even knowing whether or not she herself would still be around by then. Klaus would make a move soon, and it was just a matter of guessing what would befall the witch once he did. "Yeah, maybe next year."

They were sitting on the porch, enjoying the last day of nice non-November weather. A familiar looking black sports car pulled into their driveway and Damon, dressing his usual attire of black jeans, black t-shirt, and black leather jacket, stepped out. Kiara looked at Jordyn and watched her roll her eyes.

"And here I was having a good day."

Damon laughed. "Don't worry, babe. I'm not here to disrupt your day." He nodded at Kiara. "I'm here to disrupt hers."

Jordyn stood, a wary look in her eyes. "What do you want with Kiara?"

Damon held his hands up. "I just want to talk to her."

Jordyn looked warily at Kiara. "Are you okay with that?"

Kiara shrugged. "If he tries to hurt me, I can burn him to a crisp."

Jordyn rolled her eyes, a smirk on her face. "Good girl." Turning around, she walked back into the small house, leaving Damon and Kiara alone on the porch.

Kiara took a seat in the chair and looked at Damon, who remained standing across from her. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"You're in trouble." Damon stated. "Jordyn told me about that Jaden guy and the demons coming with him."

"Jordyn told you that?" Kiara asked with a frown, feeling a little betrayed.

"She also told me that anything else was your story to tell." Damon said, He crossed his arms over his chest. "So tell."

Kiara frowned. "No offense Damon, but I really don't think this is any of your business."

Damon began pacing. "Jordyn is my business."

"You have feelings for her." Kiara stated, a hint of a smile on her face. "Romantic feelings."

Damon snorted. "More like feelings an owner has for a pet."

Despite the serious nature of the conversation, Kiara laughed. "I don't think Jordyn would appreciate that comparison."

Damon winced. "Okay, maybe slightly stronger feelings than pet level. The point is that I want to help Jordyn. I want to protect her."

"What does that have to do with my problem?" Kiara questioned. She considered Damon a friend, but she was not keen to share her past life with him.

Damon stopped pacing and looked at her. "Jordyn wants to protect you and since I'm protecting Jordyn that means I'm protecting you too, but I refuse to go into this blind. Tell me now what I'm getting myself into."

Kiara sighed. "You're getting into a really big mess. You see, I'm not from earth. I'm from another dimension."

Damon whistled lowly. "This is starting to feel a little Star Trek-y."

"Star Trek-y?" Kiara looked at Damon with confusion in her eyes.

Damon shook his head. "Never mind. Go on."

"The dimension is ruled by vampires and demons." Kiara said.

"So you were in charge," Damon remarked. "Because you're a demon."

"I'm a half-demon." Kiara corrected. "Remember? Druid is the other half. I was far from being in charge, Damon. I was a slave."

"Kinky." Damon remarked without thinking. Kiara looked at him confused once again, causing Damon to sigh and roll his eyes. "Again, never mind. Go on."

"One of the vampires realized how powerful I was and thought to link my power with his." Kiara continued. "That vampire was Jaden."

"So Jaden wanted to…what, buy you?" Damon inquired with an eyebrow raised.

"No, he wanted to marry me." Kiara replied with a sigh. "Jaden was my fiancé."

Damon paused. "Does Tyler know anything about this?"

Kiara looked down. "No, I haven't been able to get the courage to tell him."

"I take it you ran from the altar." Damon remarked.

Kiara nodded. "Jaden didn't take it too well."

"Oh really? Chasing you down with an army of demons didn't tell me that." Damon stated, sarcasm thick in his voice. "What are your chances of survival?"

"Slim to none." Kiara replied. "Closer to none."

Jaden watched the demons of Masashi's army prepare. Many held swords and fought against each other to practice. Other rode horses and dodged obstacles and cut off the heads of practice dummies.

"Watching them practice, it seems like too much to send to catch one young woman."

Jaden was not one to be surprised easily, but Masashi had a talent for sneaking up on him. After quickly composing himself, he shrugged. "I would rather have too much than not enough."

Masashi joined him in looking out at the training demons. "Have you considered that Kiara may rather die fighting than come back here with you?"

Jaden sneered. "You make her sound like a noble warrior rather than a slave girl who ran away."

"Can she not be both?" Masashi questioned, an eyebrow raised on his aristocratic face.

"Do not give her any more credit than she deserves, General." Jaden stated boredly.

Masashi stared at him out of the corner of his eyes, the corner of his lips twitching up to a smile, knowing that Jaden was in fact wrong. After all, Kiara held the bloodline of a long lineage of fierce kitsune within her. "I think I will join my soldiers. I could use the practice as well."

He walked away while silently wondering if Jaden had even the slightest clue about the wedding gift Masashi had given his daughter.

A wedding gift contained in a little green pouch he'd had made into a necklace.

Aiden was dead…and not temporarily like the rest of his family either.

Klaus had never once truly wanted a member of his family dead, with the obvious exception of Mikael, and yet his youngest brother now laid in a permanent death of which he would never awaken from.

If Klaus had disliked the twins before, he absolutely loathed them now.

This only strengthened his resolve to get Jordyn back.

He had foolishly thought the twins would know it would be in their best interests for Jordyn to be brought back alive, but in light of recent events, it was obvious they didn't care.

Yes, Klaus wanted revenge on Jordyn for betraying him…but he didn't want her dead.

He never had.