Chapter 27
"Fake Stefan."
Damon spoke for the first time, his voice low. During Jenna's reality slap, he'd had one of his own. A long forgotten memory had resurfaced. Katherine arguing with Isabella, the night before her capture. Only... She wasn't actually captured.
He frowned. His father had dosed Stefan with vervain. Katherine bit into him and fell poisoned. He and a couple more of the town elders stuffed her in the back of a caged carriage, while Stefan and Damon had been locked in Stefan's rooms and proceeded to fight once again. They were let out by Isabella, who looked as if she had gone ten rounds with the wild dogs the Lockwoods kept as pets.
"I do believe I shall regret it, but you two need to have your eyes opened."
She had said cryptically before she allowed them to leave. And leave, they did. He doubted they even thanked her. They ran after the carriage and caught up with it as it reached the Falls. A young man they had never seen before leaped out of it, unlocked the cage and helped Katherine climb off before pressing his lips to hers.
Damon now remembered feeling angry… Protective… Foolish... He ran to them and pulled the man off his Katherine using his army training to incapacitate him as Stefan tended to Katherine.
He hadn't expected the man to have superhuman strength and toss him a bit of distance away. He hadn't expected the freak of nature to sparkle either in the fading sunlight, nor to be as unmovable as a thick wall! Katherine had laughed at Stefan's attempt at the man and a second later Stefan was a heap on the ground near him.
"Toys of yours, my love?"
Katherine grinned
"You know I get bored easily."
The pair laughed. Damon loved Katherine when she was mean spirited, but he barely knew this cruel creature.
"We do not need witnesses."
The man declared and stalked towards them. He leaned over Stefan, gleaming teeth ready to plunge when Damon attacked.
"I don't always like my brother, but he is my brother."
The man let out another cruel laugh as he tossed Damon off with the same easy Damon would push a mosquito away from him.
"That is okay, I can always start with you."
Katherine had made quick work of the horses and had thrown the carriage sideways, before joining her lover. She used her fangs to pierce the skin of her pointer finger and smeared the blood on Damon's lips before doing the same with Stefan.
"Sit still little Stefan."
She compelled him and stood back to watch the show. Stefan's green eyes were wide in fear, Damon could see that clearly. He tried to push the heavy vampire off, but couldn't. Instinctively he licked his lips, tasting the blood.
"Bye bye."
The man laughed. When he spoke again, his voice was smooth as honey, Damon couldn't ignore it.
"You will not know what happened here. Your last memory will be foggy but you will remember this strongly. Katherine is entombed with the rest of the vampires. Do you understand me?"
To his horror Damon heard himself agreeing. The guy laughed and snapped his neck.
Blinking heavily, Damon returned to the present. Bella was looking at him. No, through him, as if a memory was playing in her own head. There probably was.
Off to the side, Lexi was nodding, sharing about her experience with the fake Stefan. Speaking off
"Where is my brother?"
Mason looked at him.
"I sent him to keep a discreet eye on Not!Elena. My pack is on the way over too."
"Your pack?"
"If Bella's scrambled information is right, then we need werewolves to fight our impostors."
"It is."
Bella's voice was hoarse. Seeing Damon in his old time garb reminded her of the past clearly. The journey her mind had taken to lift off the "I'm 100% human" fog felt almost completed. It had started with her being burned with the only-venomous-for-vampires plant, and ended with the newspaper articles about the birth and death of Elena Gilbert and Matthew Donovan.
No, she thought with a start. It began far earlier. When she was in that dance studio with James, she had fought back. She had literally fought tooth and nail, not that it did much good. When James had bit into her wrist, he had nearly thrown up.
"What are you?"
He had asked. In the pain and haze caused by his venom, she had pushed the whole thing off her mind by deciding it was a dream. Her fingers traced his scar on her wrist, as she remembered catching up to Katherine and her friend only to find Damon and Stefan dead on the ground.
"What happened?"
She asked, despite seeing the answer. Katherine had retorted something from her endless 'I know best and you annoy me' supply list. Bella said something back, something about needless kills when she was grabbed from behind by Katherine's friend.
"You know, you do begin to annoy me, Isabella. Why can't I just kill her, again?"
He had asked Katherine, who pouted.
"Little Isabella and I used to be the closest of friends once. I thought you would be on my side for ever, that is why I saved you. But now... I don't like you anymore. Do kill her if you want to, Matthew."
Only he didn't kill her. Not truly. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanked her head back. His eyes were always a curious shade of red, the proper for his kind, he had said once, but now they were blacker than the night sky.
"You are a human. Not a vampire, but a useless human. A friendless girl. You will sustain yourself weekly, just enough to not die but you will not remember doing so. You will feed and not be careful enough to protect yourself."
He had kissed her whimpering lips before he hit her forcefully enough to fall in the Falls that gave the town its name. The next few days had been a blur for her, she had a couple fragmented memories of getting out of the lake, stumbling her way back to the Salvatore house, being given a missive and help from one of the servants. Emily was a handmaiden to Isabella and Katherine, but to Bella, as she had taken to calling herself already, she was a stranger.
Looking back, she remembered being under the watchful eye of a family Emily was close to, posing as a family member, until she became the daughter of Charlie Swan and his already former wife.
"It was all a lie."
She muttered, remembering she hadn't in fact moved in with Charlie when her 'mother' got married. Instead she did when she was caught during one of her trips to the hospital to steal sustenance in Canada, when she was the sister of Simon Swan.
"Bell? You okay?"
Jenna's voice seemed to come from very far away. It pulled Bella back to the present and only when seeing Mason shielding Jenna and Lexi shielding Jeremy did she realize she had her fangs extended and was ready to pounce.
