Chapter 28

"I'm sorry."

She sneered around fangs as she closed her eyes, worked on her breathing and looked human once more, fangs withdrawn and red haze gone from her eyes.

"Pounding headache."

She rubbed her forehead. Lexi nodded

"Food should help. It did with me anyway."
"Not it!"

Jenna quipped a second faster than Jeremy causing the group to laugh the tension away.

"I have my 'power juices' in my car. I'll have one later."

She waved the hunger away rolling her eyes at Lexi making air quotes around the words power juice. Okay, in truth that was almost pure human blood mixed with a bit of fruit juice to make it appear different, but in her defense, she didn't know that till now!

"What do we do now?"

Jeremy brought the real reason for their meeting in focus, twisting his family ring around his finger. That monstrosity had saved his life once and no one was looking for a second round of it.

"Katherine always enjoyed having people beg at her feet."

Damon shared moving to stand next to Bella without realizing it. She looked paler than usual, he thought concerned.

"If Not!Matt is posing as a member of the school's football team, he'll walk down the parade with them. We can separate them then."

Jenna opinioned. Mason shook his head.

"Jocks and cheer-chicks parade together."

"I haven't compelled anyone in ages; can you compel Caroline for me?"

Bella asked Damon quietly. He nodded

"Already did once but it was before you had the bright idea to spike the town waters with vervain."

Bella swore under her breath.

"What do you need her to do? She's not a complete airhead but I do think I can convince her, girl-to-girl."

Lexi asked, moving her attention to them.

"Not!Matt's a cold one, right? They sparkle like diamonds under the sun, like he did when he tried to work his dazzling on you, yet I've seen Matt out during daylight with no issue. Why?"

"You think he has some sort of jewelry, similar to yours?"

Bella frowned.

"I don't know. But if he does have one and we expose him on one of the many camera crews Carol has hired for the day, the Volturi are bound to descend.."
"And even if they're not, Katherine is nothing if not an opportunist. She'll chuck him away like yesterday's news just at the threat."

Damon picked Bella's thought and she nodded.

"First step is to separate them. Our kind isn't exactly difficult to be killed, between us all we can take care of her. But cold ones... The only one I've seen being killed took 3 to take him down and one of them had serious vampire wars experience under his belt."
"My pack is on the way, Bella."

Mason assured her. Damon rolled his eyes at the wolf

"Think they'll rollover and play fetch too?"

He mock whispered in Bella's ear causing her to bite back a chuckle at the mental image and serve her elbow in his ribs.

"Fifteen wolves vs 1 lousy vampire. Do you really think the sparkly popsicle will be able to walk away from us?"

Bella snorted at the name although Mason's reassurances didn't convince her. Judging by Jenna's worried face, she didn't buy it wither.

"What if we work both angles?"

Jeremy proposed fanning himself. The monkey suit was heavy!

"Elena may have been faked but her reaction to Stefan leaving her for Lexi and then Damon giving her the cold shoulder for you was real. If the two of them go back to being lovesick fools, while we either fake those Volume dudes or expose Matt or something! Point is they'll break up and apart they'll be easier to handle."
"Kid's got a point."

Lexi nodded but it was Jenna who spoke up

"NO, going off half cocked is dangerous. We either finish it or we pretend along and hope they'll get bored and leave."
"Cold ones are very strong physically. I wasn't joking when I said their bodies are like granite, I cuddled next to one and I was the one with the bruises! But while they occasionally have gifts, we're smarter than them.""They're the brawn while you guys are the brains?"

Jeremy put it simply. Bella nodded.

"It'd be poetic if we could get him to consume something poisonous, same way Katherine was caught back then."

Damon mused.

"I don't think we can hope he's stupid enough to bite one of us."

Bella pouted.

'She has a really cute pout' Damon thought but Jeremy spoke up.

"Does your blood harm us?"

Lexi shook her head

"It's restorative actually. Unless you die while it's in your system. Why?"
"Bonnie has seen bite marks on Caroline. If we dose her with enough vampire blood and he takes another bite..."

The teenager trailed. His plan sounded stupid even to him

"Too dangerous. Even if he is capable of biting without giving her his venom no one knows what will happen once his venom and our blood come in contact inside a human being."

Lexi shot him down.

"Actually, we do."

Bella raised her scarred wrist, the teeth shaped scar sparkling faintly under the morning sun..

"In that meeting you said werewolf saliva coated stuff are hurtful to cold ones, right?"

Damon asked her. Bella nodded

"Why not do that? Attack him from afar, pick him up while he's dealing with that, and toss him in a bonfire."
"Rich and Liz will help covering it up."

Mason agreed.

"Still dangerous, but feasible. Do you think you and Stefan can handle Katherine?"

Mason and Damon began talking plans while the women huddled together doing the same thing.

When Liz called to ask where they were the plans were formulated and ready to put to work.