A/N: I don't own anyone but my OC's…though I wished I owned the rest…*sighs*
John calmly headed up the stairs, pausing at the top to light a match. He watched the tiny flame explode upon contact with the flammable steps and fan downward towards the basement.
"Good ridden," he said with a smile before hurrying out.
In the basement, Brooklyn watched as the flames licked around the vampires', consuming their long dead flesh. Some writhed but couldn't scream from the pain raging their bodies. The hunter caught Pearl and Anna across the room away from the colorful hues of death. Damon was close by, watching the flames dance closer towards her.
So this is how I will die…..
Brooklyn closed her eyes and began to recite an old Gaelic prayer for passage to the next world.
Alaric returned to see Stefan sitting up and talking with Elena. He frowned as Brooklyn was nowhere to be found.
"Are you alright?" She was heard asking.
"Yeah," Stefan nodded, "But it was like needles piercing my skull then it just stopped."
"Has Brooklyn made it back?"
"No we haven't seen her since she took off," Elena caught the concern edging Alaric's voice.
"They're taking the vampires to your family's old building. I'm headed there right now."
"It's the Gilbert device," Stefan blurted. "It has to be."
"But how did he get it to work? Bonnie unspelled it."
"I don't think she did Elena," Alaric shook his head.
"Think about it Elena. We asked Bonnie to deactivate a device that would protect people against vampires."
"So we could protect you and Damon," Elena interrupted. She refused to believe her best friend would betray her like that.
"We need to go….now," Alaric shot up and leapt up the stairs. He had a terrible feeling he knew where Brooklyn and Damon were.
Damon felt his strength slowly return and rolled onto his stomach. He looked to Brooklyn who was fighting to take in every precious gulp of air she could. The fire consumed everything it could- vampire and wood alike were swept up in the growing inferno.
"Brook," the vampire coughed and started crawling towards her. "Damn it Brook you're not dying on me!"
The hunter's lips continued their fluid flawless motion as the prayer was repeated. She could hear Damon through the deafening roar of the flames and slowly opened her eyes. Off to her right Anna and Pearl had started to sit up and huddled together in the corner. The fear and agony radiated from their auras and shot through Brooklyn's soul like a thousand stabbing needles.
Damon continued to battle his way across the floor while Mayor Lockwood began to come around. The man groaned and rubbed his forehead, initially unsure of where he was.
"Mayor Lockwood is that you?" Damon coughed and called out.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm a vampire…What's your excuse?" Damon snorted. Alarmed, Lockwood backed away then saw the hunter bleeding on the floor.
"What's she doing here?"
"Dying….What does it look it?" The sarcasm rolled naturally off his tongue. Brooklyn wanted to laugh but the pain was too great for even a last moment of simple humor. Smoke began to fill the room, cutting off her air.
"Why didn't the vervain affect you? What the Hell are you!" Damon watched Lockwood continue to distance himself from the vampire unaware another vampire sat directly behind him. The leader of the tomb vamps mustered the strength to wrap his arms around the mayor's neck, choking him at first then with a quick jerk snapped his neck.
"Mayor Lockwood," he snarled at the deceased man. Brooklyn forced a tiny smile but felt it collapse as the beam above gave way landing a few feet to the left of Damon. The vampire reached his fallen hunter and saw the seriousness of her injury.
"You're not dying," Damon snapped. "You're not giving in this easily Brooklyn!"
Brooklyn attempted to speak but her words died in her throat as blood gurgled and pooled. Damon knew there was one thing he could do and slit his wrist while the flames continued to edge closer around them. Pearl and Anna watched through fearful eyes as Damon pushed his bleeding limb against the hunter's parted lips. Damon protected her body with his as the beams gave way to the pressure of the heat. He didn't care if Alaric ripped him a new one or not if they survived this- he cared that the one below him would make it through….Even if she woke up as a vampire.
He gently tugged the crimson slickened stake, noting how it was sticky and thick beneath his fingers and slid it from her body. Brooklyn cried in agony at the sensation of her flesh and muscle ripping the opposite way. Damon sprawled his legs and arms across his hunter as his blood coursed through her veins.
John stood with a proud smile as the deputies stood guard at the front of the building. Alaric was the first to spot him and charged the smaller man.
"You bastard!" He let his fist speak for him over and over until two deputies had to rip Alaric away from a bleeding but still breathing John.
"You left her down there to die!" Alaric shouted and fought with the larger and much stronger men.
"She made her bed and now she's lying in it," John calmly replied and wiped his nose clean.
"You're crazy," Elena said point blank.
"I'm doing the right thing," John boldly defended his actions. "I'm doing what should've been done 145 years ago."
He shot a smug arrogant look at Stefan and challenged him to go in.
"Go on in," he egged the vampire on, "But you won't make it out."
"You're willing to let innocent blood be shed," Stefan growled.
"She's far from innocent," John spoke with a nasty tone. "Your friend willingly bedded your brother and kept your secret hidden yet allowed you both to live."
Stefan shut John's taunts out and scanned the brick structure for another entrance.
"There's the utility door off to the side," Elena pointed. It was like she had read his mind. Alaric watched Stefan rip through the alley and vanish in the shadows. If Brooklyn and Damon died in that fire he swore John Gilbert wouldn't live to see another day.
Elena started to follow Stefan but John jerked her back and sunk his fingers in the teen's arm.
"You take another step I'll alert the deputies that Stefan's a vampire," Elena knew he meant every word.
"I'm asking you please," she begged him.
"That doesn't mean anything to me," his words were cold and distant.
"As my father they should."
Alaric's mouth dropped as he heard Elena speak. John Gilbert was her father?
"So you know," he admitted.
Stefan reached the side door as smoke filtered through the cracks. He could hear his brother, Brooklyn, Pearl and Anna still alive in the basement. Hope surged through him as he ripped the door open with ease.
"Don't go in there! The fire will take you out!" Bonnie appeared warning him.
"He's my brother and she's my friend Bonnie," Stefan turned and raced through the building as Elena arrived to see Bonnie standing by the open door.
"Stefan!" She shouted but Bonnie held her back.
"Bonnie what are you doing! Brook and Damon are down there!"
"I'm sorry I lied to you," the teen witch confessed and grabbed Elena's wrist. She closed her eyes and started reciting the incantation.
Stefan yelped in pain and jerked his hand back as the doorknob was searing. Panic swept in at the realization he may not be able to reach them in time. But then, something told him to try again and with caution in his movements, Stefan hesitantly reached out and felt cool metal against his skin. The vampire tore the door open to find a raging inferno waiting to greet him on the other side.
Damon heard the door upstairs ripping off its hinges and knew it was his brother. By now the small knit group was huddled around each other in the island of calm. The flames raged around them like an angry sea, lurking closer towards them with each passing second.
Alaric jerked and pulled against the death grip of the deputies watching the drama unfold across the street. He felt the coldness encasing John's soul as the man stood by and waited for the building to explode in flames.
"So you and Isobel are Elena's parents," Alaric sputtered.
"My dirty little secret," John admitted and turned around. "I loved Isobel yet she never really returned the feelings."
Alaric felt a pang of jealousy start to form but vanished leaving no trace behind. He didn't realize it was from being compelled by Isobel. His heart was free of her and held steadfast in keeping such.
"Let him go," John suddenly said and nodded. Alaric felt them release his arms and immediately raced for the side entrance. His feet carried him as fast as they could until the door was in his sight and forced his legs to propel him even harder. He ignored Elena and Bonnie and darted inside finding Stefan at the top of the stairs.
"How…." Stefan began but stopped as the flames shrunk down into docile streaks. Together they pounded down the stairs and found the foursome huddled together. Alaric was stunned at Pearl and Anna still alive.
"She's hurt," Anna pointed to Brooklyn. Alaric dropped to his knees and gathered his hunter up. Stefan got the others to their feet and together raced from the building as the flames roared back to life, swallowing the last vampire in its wake.
Elena kept watch while Bonnie was eerily silent. She wondered what was going through her mind. But she wouldn't get the chance to ask as Alaric sprinted into the night with Brooklyn clinging between life and death.
"Oh my god what happened!"
Staked," Damon coughed. "She was fighting to save Anna."
Anna leaned against the wall as Pearl managed to look her daughter over.
"I thought you were dead."
"No," Pearl shook her head, "John Gilbert ambushed us, killing Harper and deciding to keep me alive- tormenting me with how he would kill you."
She turned to Stefan and Elena, eternally grateful for what they did.
"Thank you," she smiled and with Anna leaning on her for support, vanished into the night.
Damon felt the vervain in its last throes of dominance and hurried off after Alaric. He caught the human easing Brooklyn in the Charger, wincing as she groaned and cried in pain.
"He's gonna pay for this," she heard him mutter. "The bastard will pay for this."
"Ric!" Damon hollered. Alaric looked up and closed the passenger door.
"I'm taking her to the hospital," Alaric rounded the car to the driver's side but Damon stopped him.
"She has my blood pulsing in her veins," the vampire confessed.
"What? Why would you do that?"
"Well it's either that or she died! Would you want her to die knowing there was a chance she could make it?"
Alaric's jaw tensed and before he knew it decked Damon in the jaw.
"You turned her!"
"No Ric," Damon rubbed the spot bone smashed bone, "She's still alive."
Alaric darted back around and gently pressed his fingers to her carotid artery- the faint beating slowly grew stronger under his touch. He let his fingers slip from her throat and closed the door. Damon stood beside him and placed a hand on his shaky shoulder.
"Would you really be angry if she was turned?"
Damon wasn't snarky or arrogant as he spoke. He was asking an honest question-something that never happened.
"No," Alaric whispered and shook his head. He wouldn't love her any less or any different- he would love her just the same if not more.
"Take her to the boarding house," Damon pushed him inside the car then hopped in back and held Brooklyn in his arms the entire way home.
"No," Alaric turned the key, "We're taking her home."
Home….The word sounded nice as it gently echoed in Brooklyn's ears.
Damon and Alaric worked together cleaning and dressing the wound. While Damon had fed his blood, it wasn't enough to heal the hunter instantly. But still it saved her life.
The freakishly gaping hole continued to mend and close under layers of gauze and tape. The dark crimson stain threatened to bleed through the thick material but the dressing held fast, retaining all that was absorbed. Luckily the stench was nonexistent for which Alaric was thankful.
The vampire would stay up while Alaric slept beside her with an arm draped protectively across her lower body.
They looked so sickeningly cute…Damon laughed shortly. He traced a finger down the side of his hunter's face looking for any sign of response. None yet which disappointed the vampire despite the sound of her heart beating stronger in her chest and breathing turning deeper and rhythmic.
When she woke up the first thing he was doing aside from asking her what the Hell she was thinking would be to show everything he felt for her in the deepest most passionate kiss she would ever experience.
Damon leaned halfway on the bed and pressed his forehead on hers. The tender moment was interrupted by a rapping on the door. Damon sat up, irritated by whoever dared to drop by, and walked towards the door.
The vampire paused then twisted the doorknob and pulled the door ajar and came face to face with their late night visitors.
"Oh great if it isn't the Judds," he rolled his eyes.
Next update soon
