Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries
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Thank-you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, you're awesome!
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"It's your fault," The words left him without permission. But he didn't regret them.
He watched as her shoulders tensed, the black curls cascading down her back moving as she cocked her head to the side.
Jeremy moved slowly down the timber stairs, his stride angry, resolute.
"My sister, my Aunt, they're both dead, because of you," Jeremy growled lowly, glaring balefully at the silent figure sitting on the grass hill in front of him.
The spell that Bonnie had used to keep them locked within the house had finally lifted. He'd left Alaric inside, having no idea what to say the man. Not when he was still spinning with the news of Jenna's involvement.
Why his family?!
Why was it always his family that suffered?!
"Why did you take the moonstone?!" He demanded furiously, moving forward quickly, eating up the space between Rei and the house with every anger fuelled step he took. "Everyone, everyone, was trying to save my sister. To keep her alive! And all you did was fuck everything up! Why?!" He yelled, spinning around in front of her sitting figure so that he was in front of her. "Why are you even here? You don't care about Elena! Bonnie told me what you said. About how you thought saving my sister was going to cost too much. About how it wasn't worth it!"
She said nothing. Her head bowed, staring out across the slowly lightening valley in silence.
"Say something!" Jeremy screamed, needing a fight. Needing the confrontation.
His whole world was closing in around him. His sister and aunt were dead. Elena might come back human, she might come back a vampire. He didn't know. He needed her to say something!
"Why did you give it to him?!" He yelled, crouching down so that he was directly in front of her and she could no longer avoid his gaze. "Do you really hate her that much? Do you really not care?"
Emerald green eyes stared back at him steadily, the emotion inside them impossible to decipher.
"My sister is d-dead!" His voice broke on the word, the red around his vision slowly fading as tears swam in his eyes. "You could have stopped it. Stopped him…Please," He begged, the fight leaving him with a swiftness that caused him to fall back onto the ground with soft thump. "Please, just tell me why!"
Staring into those fathomless green depths, the rising sun slowly peaking over the trees and into the valley, Jeremy saw for the first time just how tired she looked.
Dark circles blacked the skin beneath her eyes. The hollows beneath her cheeks more pronounced in the shadows of dawn.
The anger, fury and terrible betrayal that had rose up so suddenly when he had caught sight of her figure out on the grass, left him. The energy leaving him in a rush.
Jeremy deflated. Doing nothing to wipe away the tears that continued to trickle down his cheeks.
And still, she said nothing.
She simply stared at him.
It wasn't her fault. The thought came suddenly. Sluggish, tired, reluctant. From a mind that had seen too much, was too tired to find the energy to hold onto his anger, to his stubbornness.
In the silence, there was truth. And that truth was; it wasn't up to Rei to save Elena. He never expected her to. And he wouldn't act the idiot just to justify he own wishes. What did they expect her to do? Hold up against Klaus? To keep from him the one thing he wanted above all others?
No.
"…I'm sorry," The words were hoarse and quiet as he stared back at her. "I didn't mean…none of this is your fault."
Staring at the exhausted seventeen year old girl in front of him, Jeremy couldn't help but smile a broken smile. She was exhausted. Utterly drained. And for the first time he remembered that for the last few days she'd probably been through hell.
Guilt began churning through his stomach.
"I had no right to get angry at you, to say those things," Jeremy sighed softly, his eyes dropping to the ground. "I'm just…!" The words wouldn't come. A lump forming in his throat.
Because, of course, he was waiting for them to bring his sister and aunt's dead bodies back. He was waiting, hoping, that Elena would wake up, human. But nothing could be done for the other half of his small family.
Jeremy jumped in surprise as a cool, smooth hand suddenly gripped his own.
His eyes darted up.
Sad green orbs met his gaze.
"…I'm sorry about Jenna, Jeremy." Sympathy dripped from every word, freezing him.
Squeezing his hand gently, Rei said nothing else.
…
Elijah flashed through the forest, pushing his muscles in a way they hadn't been pushed for many years in his effort to keep up.
A deafening howl roared through the forest, shaking the trees.
Blurring into a large, unknown clearing, Elijah stopped.
Golden brown orbs glinted at him threateningly, the enormous, powerful body of the wolf tense and ready as it stared him down.
Keeping his body absolutely still, Elijah never let his eyes drop from the challenging, violent stare of the beast, knowing that to show weakness here would cost him greatly.
Since carrying his brother away from the sacrifice safely and watching him complete the agonising torment of the change, Elijah had been running.
Never in his life had he met a being capable of outstripping him in speed. Of outpacing an Original. Before now. With every mile covered, Niklaus had left him behind. Only the wolf's search for prey and eventual kill slowed him down, allowing Elijah to catch up.
But this was the first time the wolf had deigned to give his pursuer his attention.
Staring into those large, intelligent eyes, he saw nothing of his brother.
Rage and animalistic hunger darkened the orbs until a low, constant growl of warning rumbled from the wolf.
It was angry.
For the first time in a thousand years, it was free. And it had no intention of ever being caged again.
Elijah stayed perfectly still, letting the beast circle him suspiciously.
Something within the animal recognised him. Knew enough to hold back from an attack. But the warning emanating from the wolf was all too clear. And all too like his brother.
Stay out of my way.
Without warning, the ground shook as back paws dug deeply into the earth before springing forward in a powerful, awe-inspiring lunge. Muscles stretched to the extreme as the predator disappeared back into the trees, paying the rising sun no attention at all.
The moon had no power over this creature.
His tense body finally eased as the dangerous, fierce scrutiny left him.
Breathing out slowly, Elijah's eyes narrowed thoughtfully on the large paw-prints surrounding him.
Abruptly, as if annoyed at his lingering, the sound of an already far off howl had his head snapping up to attention.
Without another thought, he was gone.
Racing after his brother.
…
Walking along the avenue, Caroline readjusted the sleeve on her black dress, pulling it straight.
She hated funerals. Though, she didn't suppose that there were many people who liked them. But this one was different. This one filled her with such sadness, such exhaustion, because this funeral hadn't needed to happen.
Jenna and John.
Bowing her head, Caroline moved around the town well-wishes and grieving individuals in her effort to reach Bonnie's side. Determined to spend the service there.
"Sorry," She smiled gently at the elderly woman she'd nudged and continued on her way, breathing a subtle breath of relief as Bonnie's eyes met hers in crowd.
As soon as she was within a metre of the witch, Bonnie was wrapping her hand around her wrist and pulling her forward.
"You're late," Bonnie breathed under her breath so she wouldn't be overheard.
Darting a quick, remorseful look at Elena and Jeremy's devastated figures, she nodded tightly.
"I went past Rei's," She murmured quietly, her voice barely audible as the priest spoke above the closed coffins.
Pulling tightly on her arm, Bonnie send her a questioning look, staring at the empty space beside her pointedly.
"She wouldn't come," Speaking out of the corner of her mouth, she brushed back a blonde curl, using her hand to obscure her mouth as she spoke. "Said that she'd been to enough funerals in her life."
Bonnie's hazel-green eyes widened in surprise but she didn't say anything else, accepting her answer.
A little while later, once the two bodies had been lowered into the ground and covered with earth, a distraught Elena, clinging to Jeremy, wandered over to them.
"Hey," Smiling shakily, Caroline's heart clenched with sympathy for her friend and she immediately dropped Bonnie's arm to reach forward and draw the female Gilbert into a bracing hug.
"I'm so sorry, Elena," She whispered in her ear.
"Thanks, Care."
"Come on," Bonnie moved forward to link arms with the brunette on her other side. "Let's get you home."
Watching the four move away, Caroline dragged her fingers through her hair, sighing.
All it had taken was one look at Elena's face yesterday morning to know that her friend wouldn't be able to handle all of the preparations. So, with Stefan and Bonnie's help, she had. Taking it upon herself to get the food and drinks over at the Gilbert house ready for when the people started making their way over there after the funeral. She'd had to work fast, ordering food, contacting caterers, making sure that all the furniture was arranged to accommodate up to a hundred bodies.
But she had.
And it had been one of the most stressful, tense day of her life.
Everyone was walking on eggshells around Elena. One wrong word, misplaced look or too long a pause was all it took to set her off.
But the hardest thing of all was the vitriol that the brunette had for Rei.
It had become all too clear, in that first and only mention of the english girl, that Elena would not stand for her presence in their lives.
It had been a casual remark. Made over menu selections and quiet questions about flowers. Bonnie had asked her how Rei was handling everything, knowing that the blonde had been in contact with her.
Elena's reaction had been…intense.
Resting in Stefan's safe arms, staring unseeingly out the kitchen window, lost in thought, her whole body had instantly gone rigid. And then she'd glared. With anger practically sizzling from every pore, Elena hadn't yelled, she hadn't screamed. She hadn't done anything but glare at them accusingly.
And then, of course, she'd asked that one question.
Just one.
"...How could you?"
Twisting her fingers against her dress, Caroline shook her head against the chill that invaded her body at the memory. The all-encompassing silence that had immediately gripped the kitchen's occupants. She and Bonnie not knowing what to do.
Because Caroline didn't hold one iota of blame for Rei giving Klaus the moonstone. Not one. And she wasn't going to be angry at her friend for something she couldn't see any wrong in.
And she knew Bonnie felt the same. Knew that the witch had been caught just as off-guard. Was just as speechless. Just as shocked. And just as conflicted.
Because despite the fact that Caroline had no intention of cutting Rei out of her life as Elena had apparently assumed she and Bonnie would, what was she supposed to say?
Elena was grieving.
She'd only survived the ritual by the skin of her teeth. The fact that she was alive and breathing and human, was, quite frankly, a miracle. And the awful reason for that miracle was currently drowning her in guilt. Her life, for John's. Stefan had told her enough to know that Elena was still reeling from the news of her biological father's sacrifice. And that didn't even begin to touch the cornucopia of pain and sadness that had accompanied Jenna's needless death.
So when she'd asked them that question, "How could you?" How could you care? How could want to know? How could you even think of calling or talking to her to find out? How could you even, for a minute, contemplate still being her friend?
What was she supposed to say?
Elena had taken their silence for guilt and acceptance. Prematurely assuming that they were all on the same page in regards to how they viewed Rei Potter.
Reality couldn't be farther from the truth.
And they'd yet to tell her. Either of them.
Not now. It was too cruel.
But they'd have to.
Clearing her throat, Caroline pushed her chin out and moved quickly to follow her friends.
God only knew how Elena was going to react.
…
"Always the hero, Stefan," Damon chuckled breathlessly. "Just tell me good-bye, get it over with." Harsh coughs wracked his body as he rolled over on the dirt ground, the blood in his lungs choking him.
Stefan's jaw clenched tightly. "Lie still," He advised Damon seriously, the sight of his brother's pain sending panic shooting through him. "Conserve your strength."
Unwrapping his hands from around the steel bars on the cellar door, Stefan pushed backwards and strode swiftly up the stairs, his mind racing as he tried to think of a solution.
But nothing came to mind.
He hadn't been here to see Rose slowly succumb to the agony of werewolf venom, but Elena had told him enough to know that he wouldn't be able to bear watching Damon go through the same.
Bloodlust.
Hallucinations.
Weakness and bouts of strength.
Unimaginable pain.
His hands balled into white knuckled fists at his sides as he tried to get a hold of his panicking thoughts, tried to get his mind to think.
Bonnie.
Head snapping up, Stefan paused just inside the door frame, hope blazing from his eyes.
Yes, werewolf bites were fatal to all vampires but Bonnie had access to over a hundred witches knowledge. Surely they must know something. Anything! He just needed a path. A way forward. The smallest hint that this wasn't the end! That he wasn't going to lose his brother!
Mind made up, Stefan's legs started moving quickly, his eyes focused solely on the closed front door in front of him.
He had to find Bonnie. Convince her to help.
A soft clang suddenly echoed through the Boarding House, freezing him where he stood.
Neck snapping to the side, Stefan focused his hearing, stretching his senses.
Soft breaths met his ears, the calm pounding of a relaxed heart beating steadily through the halls.
Pushed to the limits of his patience, he flashing forward, tracking the intruder.
Whatever he expected, it wasn't the sight that met him in the cavernous library.
Standing with her back facing the doorway, trailing a single, delicate finger along the tops of the copious crystal carafes filled with alcohol, was Rei Potter. Long, freshly cleaned black curls shone in the sunlight streaming in through the exact same window Damon had just tried to commit suicide in.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan growled, his usual impeccable manners nowhere to be seen.
How had she gotten in? Damon and he had been in this very room not five minutes ago!
"I came to see you, Salvatore," Her reply was casual, calm.
"Well, you found me," He smiled without humour, staring at the undeniably beautiful girl through narrowed eyes. "What is it that you want?" Both his words and tone were barely civil, but Stefan didn't care. All he could think about was getting to Bonnie as soon as possible.
Rei slowly turned around, her ruby red, floor-length skirt brushing against the expensive Persian carpet beneath her feet as emerald eyes locked on his.
She was a far sight from the exhausted, stoic woman he'd seen at the witches house last night. The black bags beneath her eyes were gone, her pale skin gleaming with health. The contrast between the deep red of her skirt and white camisole was stark, only highlighting the difference in her obviously clean, rested figure.
"Your brother," The soft, accented voice pierced his thoughts easily. "I imagine by now that you must have realised that Tyler bit him while in his werewolf form."
Stefan drew back, his spine straightening with sudden, unwelcome understanding. "You knew?" He whispered.
"I did," Rei nodded once, not a trace of guilt shadowing her expression.
"Why-?"
"I doubt that that matters, Stefan," She cut him off impatiently. "However, I feel honour-bound to tell you that there is a cure. Elijah told me about it."
And just like that, every thought, every horrified, scared feeling of frustration, froze.
A cure.
There was a cure.
"…Elijah told you?" He asked slowly, stepping forward with intelligent eyes.
Her mouth tightened at his obvious suspicion.
"Why would he do that?" The words were soft, almost gentle, but held an undercurrent of steel. "Why would he tell you?"
The silence between them lengthened as they each regarded the other, Rei's head tilted to the side.
"I don't think that that's any of your business, Salvatore," She stated coldly.
"That's where you're wrong," Stefan countered instantly, taking a large step forward. She held her position. "My brother's life seems to be hanging on just that very question, on how truthful you're being. So, it does concern me."
A slow, humourless smirk suddenly curled up the left side of Rei's mouth, her arms moving to fold gracefully across her body.
"You know, it's funny," A soft laugh escaped her. Emerald orbs trailing over his face, taking in his features with a blatant curiosity she didn't bother to hide. "Everyone in this town seems to believe that Damon is the more dangerous brother. But it isn't true, is it?" Stefan frowned. "Damon's the kinder soul," Her words weren't said as a question, but a fact. "He has to work at being bad, at not caring. He has to really try and push down his conscience. But you?" His throat tightened at the all too knowing glint in emerald eyes, her words resounding in his soul. "You're different, aren't you? You're instinct isn't to care, it's to take. You have to constantly remind yourself to be good. To think of others. To care."
Stefan didn't know what to say.
Regarding him closely in the tense silence, Rei suddenly exhaled harshly, shaking her head.
Bright-green eyes flicked back up to lock with his.
Stefan swallowed dryly.
Nothing.
Nothing of the prevailing interest that had dominated her gaze not two seconds ago remained in her stare. As if she'd drawn from him all that she needed to. As if there was nothing more for her to discover within him that she didn't now know.
As quickly and easily as it had been piqued, her attention and interest had vanished; waned.
Stefan swallowed dryly.
"Elijah told me that the cure to a werewolf bite is Klaus' blood," Rei stated without fan-fair. Twisting the knife. "As for why I'm telling you?" Picking up the tan handbag that she'd dropped on the aged sofa, she walked briskly towards the exit. "I thought that would be self-explanatory."
"Well, it's not," He snapped coldly, hating how easily she'd seen through him. How easily she'd seen the darkness that he tried so hard to suppress. To ignore.
She paused at the top of the stairs, turning to look back at him from over her shoulder.
"You're selfish, Stefan," She said, no judgement in her tone, only fact. "Unlike your brother, you don't give you heart easily. You don't really care about others with the same freedom that Damon does. But for those that you do love? As I said, you're selfish. You'll get the cure. You won't have it any other way."
Staring into her all too perceptive eyes, Stefan found himself nodding mutely, knowing she was right.
With one last lingering look, she was gone, the soft click of the front door closing behind her echoing through the house.
Stefan breathed out shakily.
…
She could feel it.
The change.
She'd felt it the moment she woke up this morning, having let her body sleep until it was ready to awaken.
And she had. She'd slept.
She'd sat with Jeremy on the gentle, grassy hill for over an hour, neither of them saying anything after his explosion and subsequent guilt. They'd waited for news. And when she'd seen Damon's figure emerge from the trees, sweat dripping from his brow, ice-blue eyes agonised; that's when Jeremy had leaped to his feet and started running to meet them. Because laying in Damon's arms, chest still, long, straight locks of mahogany hair falling through the air, was Elena. Dead.
She'd left.
Having seen all she needed to.
She'd gotten Caroline's text that she and Tyler were alright, and once she received the quick nod from Damon that Bonnie was fine; she knew that it was time to go home.
And she'd slept. She'd fallen into bed in the early hours of the morning, slept right through the day and into the night, waking up at eleven this morning.
Mind clear, the soreness of her limbs healed, she'd felt it the moment her eyes fluttered open.
Her magic.
It was stronger.
There wasn't more of it, she wasn't more powerful, but somehow, some of the truly horrible destruction the horcrux had left in its wake, had healed. She couldn't really explain how she knew, but she did.
In that moment, it had taken every ounce of self-control she possessed not to test it. To not leap from the bed and sprint up to her attack and light up the area with spells and curses and shields that she'd missed with everything that she was.
To just surround herself with magic again!
With a discipline and iron-will that would have been beyond her capabilities before the war, Rei had wrestled the desperate desire down. Forcing herself to think.
Damon.
Bonnie had explained in rushed words, before she'd left with Elijah and Damon that night, about the spell she'd cast on John Gilbert. About how Elena would come back. Human.
A life, for a life.
And she'd have had to have been a fool to miss the frustrated agony on all their faces as they spoke of Elijah's treachery and Klaus' survival.
She didn't quite know what to think of it herself. She might not know Elijah well, but it was difficult to not see how important keeping his word was to the vampire. Whatever had changed his mind, whatever had broken through the steel resolve that had forced him to take a step he, clearly, never wanted to have to take, killing Klaus, must have been big.
She shuddered to think.
But, the reality was Klaus' survival changed things. And she had an idiotic, moron of a Salvatore to save.
So, sending Caroline on her way to the funeral, having no intention of attending, she'd spent enough time in graveyards to last her forever; Rei had showered, dressed and driven over to the Boarding House, knowing that Stefan wouldn't be far from his brother at a time like this.
But as she'd been talking to him, staring into his suspicious, defensive eyes, the urge to use her magic started nudging at her. The thought refusing to leave her alone. Invading every feeling, every emotion until it was all she could do to have the patience to deliver her information on the cure at all!
Rei forced herself to take in a deep, calming breath, slowing her pace.
Now was not the time.
The ache in her limbs might have been gone; the long, uninterrupted sleep helping her body recover from the trauma that her out-of-control magic had wreaked on her vulnerable body; but that didn't mean that she was ready to cast magic yet.
Her body had been battered and bruised. Spending hours beneath a powerful Wiccan ward, constantly draining her of strength. The wounds her core and channels had received from the unprecedented lack of control her wandless magic had unleashed on Alaric's apartment. And then, of course, there was the bond.
Climbing into her car, she swiftly inserted the key, bringing the engine to life. With one last glance in front of her, she swung the car around, peeling out of the drive.
Utilising the enviable hand-to-eye coordination she'd inherited from her father, Rei twisted her arm to see the burn marking the milky skin on her hand and forearm, tracing the multiple lines with her eyes.
She'd forgotten how much pain she suffered when around her world's magic. The reason she'd had to take such drastic measures as to move half-way around the world in order to avoid it completely.
The bond had taken more out of her than she liked.
It was demoralising. To have come so far, yet, so little at the same time.
Banging her hand against the wheel in frustration, Rei blinked away the tears of frustration that pooled in her eyes, forcing the prickling urge to use her magic away.
She had to wait.
Until the pains across her chest disappeared, until her hands didn't shake from standing up for too long.
But she wouldn't have to wait long.
A day, maybe even less.
And then she'd see what she could do. What her magic was now capable of. What her new limits were.
And then…then, she'd break those too.
...
I have no idea why, but I loved writing that scene with Elijah chasing after Klaus in wolf-form. I don't think that we ever see Klaus transformed, do we? Anyway, I know that a lot of people won't agree with my opinion/view on the Salvatore brothers, but this is honestly how I see them.
Hope you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear about what you did or didn't like and why, I'm always so curious ;D