A/N: I don't own Vampire Diaries or any of the canon characters, but I wouldn't mind a happy ending with Damon...
Sorry for the delay guys, I'm hip deep in research for my next book which centers around ghost hauntings in New Orleans.
I'm glad you liked the Craigslist bit, I had some fun imagining how that must have gone down for them and what kind of replies they must have received.
I listened to them chat about how it all went down with half an ear, but mostly I was thinking of bigger picture things. Damon wouldn't be satisfied till he saw the piece of heart and talked to the guy himself; I knew that as much as I trusted the sun would rise in the morning. But he would see it and touch it with his own hands and then he'd have to admit that it could be done. We'd argue and probably scream at each other about even thinking about attempting the spell, and I'd have to cajole him into it of course, but it could be done.
A smile curved my lips as I watched them rehash the night's triumph. It was gonna hurt like hell and it might take weeks or even months before I was fully healed. But it could be done.
We were going to break that curse.
The three days went by lightning fast. I didn't go with Damon when he went to see the vampire that the others had experimented on, but I did see the troubled look on his face when he returned. Maybe he'd been telling himself that it was all some kind of trick, but at finding him alive and if not quite well then at least on the mend, he began to seriously entertain the notion that he might have to go through with it after all.
We didn't go out much, mostly staying around the house, just spending time together talking about everything and nothing. Both acutely aware of the passage of time, neither one of us brought up the upcoming ritual until the afternoon Mirella showed up at the door.
"Who's ready for a party?" She jangled her shoulder bag made of brightly woven tapestry depicting the sun on one side and the moon on the other.
"Come in." I invited her, stepping back as she crossed the threshold. Damon's face was ashen, even for a vampire.
"Oh come on you guys, you're acting like someone's gonna die." Mirella smirked, setting her bag on the floor.
"Someone still could." Damon replied sourly, heading straight for the bar to pour himself a hefty drink.
"Not if you do exactly what I say." She said earnestly.
"Okay so when and where are we gonna do this thing?" I asked, figuring the more I could learn about the actual ritual itself, the more prepared I would feel. That might just kill some of the butterflies swirling around in my stomach. Maybe.
"Outside would be best, tonight." Mirella replied.
"When, at the stroke of midnight?" Damon kept his back turned to us, but I could see the tension in his shoulders.
"Actually it'll be closer to about one thirty am."
"That seems… specific, how did you arrive at that time? Did you consult your crystal ball?" Even without seeing the smirk, I could tell from his tone that it was there.
Still, Mirella seemed unfazed. "No, the internet actually. I googled what time the new moon officially starts. It said one twenty three in the morning."
"Can't argue with that." Damon muttered.
"Would you like something to eat? We don't have a whole lot on hand… strictly a vampire household but sometimes we get the munchies." I offered.
Mirella shook her head. "No, I'm good. I like to do stuff like this on an empty stomach, it's much prettier that way if something goes wonky."
That didn't sound so good. "Wonky… like…"
"Oh, nothing for you to worry about." She waved a hand back and forth, falling silent as Lexi and Stefan came down the stairs together.
Why did that not make me feel any better? Still on my quest for details, I forged on. "So, will we do it in here or do you need like a sacred space or…"
"Outside would be better, this could get a little messy."
"Right." Because Damon was going to carve into my chest cavity, why didn't I think of that? I swallowed, feeling a little queasy all of a sudden.
"I think there's a space out back that would work if you want to come and take a look at it." Lexi offered. After a quick round of introductions, they went out to the backyard with Stefan bringing up the rear.
"I can't do this." Damon pressed the glass to his forehead.
"Yes you can, it'll all be over tonight." I insisted, rolling my eyes at the look he gave me in reply. "I mean in a good way."
"I think I might have to be the one to shut off my emotions tonight." He growled, knocking back the rest of his drink, Damon turned and left the room without another word.
Alaric, Bonnie and Jeremy came over that night to watch the proceedings. Bonnie out of professional curiosity she said, and Jeremy to give me moral support. Alaric looked… on edge. A little antsy but at the same time full of dread, like he expected something (or everything) to go wrong. Not needing to add that to my nerves, I avoided him as much as possible.
We gathered outside when it was getting close to start time, and without any outside lights or a moon it was dark out there. Those of us with vampire enhanced vision didn't have a problem getting around, but I heard Jeremy swear under his breath as he nearly tripped over the uneven ground.
Mirella wore a simple white shift, feet bare, her long hair loose down her back. No gypsy scarves, beaded necklaces or other trappings, she had told me earlier that she wasn't there to put on a show, this was the real deal. The only adornment she wore was a personal talisman of sorts, which looked like a knucklebone wrapped in silver wire and suspended by a leather thong around her neck.
In the yard was a circle laid out in white stones with a small altar built in the center from the same white stones. Atop the altar was a wooden bowl made of oak, a long wooden skewer tipped with silver and a gleaming knife, the hilt fashioned out of bone. On the ground beside the altar was a section of the grass that had been cleared away, leaving freshly dug earth. I was about to ask about the wood skewer when I saw Isobel step into the yard.
Maybe it was selfish of me, but I couldn't help but feel a leap of joy within me at the sight of her. Was she there to offer herself up for the sacrifice instead? But Isobel made no such offers, merely taking her place by Alaric. "I came to see it done." She said cooly. Obviously her emotions were still under tight control.
Looking up at Damon, I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind as he calculated whether or not he could drag Isobel into that circle to take my place. Catching hold of his arm, I shook my head at him. Damon tensed, but he held his place beside me.
"We're almost ready to begin." Mirella announced, pushing her hair back over her shoulders. "So what's going to happen is, I'm going to step into the circle, do a little bit of preparation and then I'll call for the sacrifice, that means you." She pointed at me. "You'll lay down on the earth there and then I'll call for the hand of fate, that means you." She pointed to Damon. "You'll wait for my signal… that's very important.
When the time comes, I want to you jab this wooden rod into her shoulder here beneath the collar bone." Mirella pressed a finger to his shoulder in demonstration.
"What? You didn't say anything about this before." Damon demanded, his eyes snapping with anger. I admit, I didn't like the idea of being skewered either, and I wondered why we were just hearing about this little tidbit now.
Mirella's hands came up in a gesture of supplication. "It's for her protection. When you stake Elena, her body will go into torpor… meaning it'll be so busy reacting to the wood that it won't pay attention to the knife right away. As long as you don't get near her heart with the stake she'll be fine. Just try not to puncture her lung, that'll take longer to heal."
It made sense in a twisted sort of way, but Damon had that look about him again. "I don't know about this…" He muttered.
"Then what happens?" I prompted her, wanting to get any more surprises out of the way.
"Then, Damon takes the knife and cuts out a piece of your heart like we talked about, and put it in this bowl. I'll take it from there."
"How will we know if it worked?" Isobel asked.
"You'll know." Mirella replied serenely. "Now let me prepare." She stepped into the circle and knelt in front of the altar, her eyes closing.
"I don't think I can do this…" Damon muttered, his eyes on the knife sitting on the pile of stones.
"I can." Stefan stepped forward.
"What?"
"I'll do it. I was the one who cut into the other vampire; I know how it's done." He offered.
I stared at him in shock.
"No, you're fucking not going to cut her." Damon growled, his arm wrapping around me protectively.
"We don't have time for this guys…" Lexi said.
Stefan didn't back down, if anything he took a half step closer to me. "I love her too, if you can't do it, I'll be the one to make the sacrifice."
"Stop it!" I yelled, my eyes on Mirella who now stood just inside the circle, the knife in her hand.
"Let the sacrifice approach." She said simply, and I moved to the edge of the circle to stand before her. Mirella laid the gleaming knife against the side of my throat. "Do you enter of your own free will?"
"I…"
"I do." Another voice rang out as a figure appeared at the edge of the trees. It was like looking though a mirror into an alternate version of myself.
Katherine.
Physically she was my perfect match. My own eyes looked back at me; my voice came from her lips but there was no connection to her, no sense that she was in any way related to me no matter what I knew about the Petrova line. I could only stare in mute fascination as she took my place, lying down on the loamy soil, her expression serene.
Unperturbed by the change of events, Mirella continued with the ritual. "Let the hand of fate approach." She called out. Damon remained fixed by my side, staring at Katherine.
Stefan approached the circle calmly as Mirella laid the knife to his throat. "Do you enter of your own free will?"
"I do." Mirella stepped back and Stefan crossed into the circle, his eyes on Katherine. "This won't work…" he murmured. "I don't love her."
The corner of Katherine's lips tugged up in amusement. "But I love you Stefan. I always have and I always will." Her eyes held his for a long moment before she turned and looked right at me. "I never meant for you to shoulder this burden alone, this is my mess and I'm gonna clean it up." She let out a long drawn out sigh, looking back up at Stefan again. "Brace yourself, this might hurt a little."
"No!" Guessing what was coming next, Lexi rushed forward, but Damon caught hold of her with difficulty.
"You can't help him now, only one thing can." Damon hissed.
"No, she'll kill him…" Lexi struggled even as Stefan staggered to his knees, a low cry of pain issuing from his lips as Katherine turned her emotions back on and Stefan felt the full brunt of the curse for the first time. He looked like he was going to keel over, his face etched with suffering.
Mirella chanted low and unintelligible in the background, giving Stefan a few precious seconds to recover, but all too soon she looked to him. "Rise now and let the hand of fate deliver the sacrifice." Still on his hands and knees, Stefan gave no sign that he heard her.
"Get up!" Damon called out, and his brother's head came up a fraction. He had to do it now, I didn't want to think about what might happen if we lost this opportunity. Would we have to wait a month until the next new moon? Or could Damon and I take their places and try again?
"Rise now!" Mirella commanded, and Stefan forced himself up on his knees.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, grasping hold of the slim wooden rod. Almost falling with the motion towards Katherine, he pierced her flesh, partially obscuring her from my sight as he lay atop her. Katherine gave a weak gasp, in too much pain to draw breath in again and scream, her eyes rolling up into her head as she lay there pinned to the ground.
Mirella pressed the silver knife into Stefan's hand. "The heart, hurry now."
I couldn't watch. I buried my head into Damon's chest, relieved to feel his arms close around me in comfort. In that moment I cursed my superior hearing that spared me no detail as the knife plunged into her chest, severing bone to reach the delicate treasure guarded beneath. With a sickening plop, I heard the piece of her heart hit the wooden bowl and I looked up to see Stefan collapsed beside Katherine, his chest rising and falling slowly, very near unconsciousness.
I couldn't make out the words Mirella was chanting, I suspect they weren't in English, but she laid the bowl on the makeshift altar, stepping back as the contents spontaneously burst into flame. She held the bloodstone pendant over the flames and as I watched it was consumed by the flame, dissolving into ash that fell into the wooden bowl that strangely didn't seem affected by the fire at all. There was a bright flash and I was hurled off of my feet. It felt just like the time I'd been tackled by a linebacker with a terrible sense of direction back in my cheerleading days. For a second I couldn't see or hear as my body absorbed the blow, and then everything came back in a rush.
A wave of dizziness washed over me. I pushed myself up on my elbows, even as Bonnie and Jeremy rushed to my sides to help me up. My view obstructed, I couldn't help but wonder "Is Damon okay?" A painful groan let me know he was at least still alive, and I reached past my brother for his hand. "Are you okay?" I asked him, worry overtaking me that he'd been hurt worse than I had and been in less shape to handle it in the first place.
Damon sat up, a dazed look on his face. "Besides feeling like I just got hit by a Mack truck? Yeah I feel…" he took a long, slow breath, his head cocked to one side. "I feel… pretty good."
"Did it work?" I was almost afraid to ask; I couldn't take another defeat, not after everything we'd been through.
"Yeah I… I think it did. I feel…"
He never got a chance to finish his sentence because I threw myself into his arms, lips crashing into his as tears of relief spilled from my eyes. "I can't believe it's finally over." I whispered into his neck, holding tight to him.
"We made it. We really did." He murmured into my hair. We sat like that for a long time, not speaking, just holding each other. I saw Jeremy and Bonnie step back, watching us, looking pretty emotional themselves. Turning my head, I watched Isobel approach Alaric cautiously, and saw him pull her into his embrace. While I felt a little bit of a pang for Jenna's loss, at seeing his face as he held his wife, my own mother, I couldn't help but be happy for them.
Belatedly it occurred to me that Katherine might very well not have survived the ordeal. Lifting my head, I turned in the other direction, only then noticing Stefan bent over her still form. The wooden rod had been removed from her shoulder, but I couldn't tell if she was alive or not until the barest of sounds issued from her lips, too weak for me to understand.
"Ssssh don't talk now, drink." Stefan replied, offering her his wrist. I closed my eyes again at seeing her sink her teeth into his vein, and the look of rapture that covered both of their faces. It was too private a moment to spy on.
"Will she be alright?" I asked softly, turning my face back to Damon's chest.
"If anyone could survive that it's Katherine, she's older than the rest of us put together." He surmised, and I had to agree, she was probably the best person suited for the sacrifice, both because of that and because she'd been the one the curse had originated with.
Only Lexi stood alone, and my heart went out to her as she watched Stefan and Katherine together. She met my eyes only once, giving me a lopsided smile as she wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks with the back of her hand.
"Let's go inside." Damon said softly, placing a kiss on top of my head. With one swift movement, he scooped me up into his arms, carrying me easily to the house. There was more that needed saying, and payment that still needed to be made to the Gypsy for helping us, but for the moment I let him sweep me up to his bedroom to show me just how recovered he was feeling.
A/N: Just the epilogue left I think and we'll be done with this one too. Any loose ends you'd like to see wrapped up?
So I'm told that there is another story out there that bears a striking resemblance to my proposed story Sweet Misery (otherwise known as secret option #5!). The basic premise is the same in that Damon and Katherine are together and they come to Mystic Falls and he meets Elena. Other than that it's completely different from what I had in mind though, including Katherine's agenda. That one was posted first last November and I had the first idea about my fic around mid December, so it's just an odd coincidence. I got my inspiration from a song from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack actually. The thing about fanfic is that none of us own the characters so there is bound to be some overlap in plot as we all come up with a different spin on things. At the same time, I'm not interesting in rehashing anything someone else is doing, nor do I want to alienate any readers by thoughts of my stealing plots. Lord knows I have plenty of other things to write about, but this one idea seemed vastly popular when put to the vote. So I'll have to think it over as to if I'll be writing this one next or something else.
I've been watching a lot of westerns lately (mostly Deadwood and oh yeah, can I just say that I'm addicted to Justified?) and I had another idea for an AU TVD fic that would center around Damon and Elena in the old west. They'd both be human, she would have been married to his brother, but when Stefan dies, Damon agrees to marry his widow and take care of her and her small child. I like the idea of them getting to know each other, starting with a loveless marriage of convenience and seeing him interact with a child around, all with that older, more formal set of rules of living and speaking.
Any thoughts, opinions, emotional outbursts? I'd love to hear from you.
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