Chapter 8

When they left Damon's place, Milla spun the steering wheel on the black sports car and turned to take in Klaus' tight expression.

"So you already know Mara?" She asked quietly and watched his face pinch a little tighter.

"She is a devil." He muttered, turning to look out the window.

"One you've bitten before." Milla's heart sunk again, like it did when he'd dropped that bomb at Damon's. What did that mean? Was Mara like him? Was she one of the long line of his previous partners Milla had come across before? Because Milla had seen into Mara, and she didn't seem to be like any of the others. She decided on the direct approach. It was better to ask and get answers than dwell on this with their wedding approaching.

"Yes." He said, not turning around.

Mara drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

"I'm gonna need a little more information." She told him firmly and he swung around to look at her.

His blue eyes moved over her face and he was swiftly shaking his head.

"No. It is not what you are thinking. She tried to kill me decades ago. She has been a thorn in my side ever since." He looked away again, but not before Milla saw shame flicker across his face.

"A thorn?" She repeated slowly.

"You remember when we met I told you that I did not sleep? She would be waiting for me. Even if I just drank too much. She is a demon. Strong. Fast. Powerful. Able to take the shape of anything or anyone. My personal NightMare."

"Not human?" Milla asked, confusion clouding her thinking. When she touched her empathically Mara was just like any other person Milla has ever connected with. Fragile. Vulnerable. Human.

"Not even a little."

Milla shook her head, trying to process what he was saying.

"So she would enter your dreams? Terrorize you?" She asked slowly. "With what exactly?" Because there was very little she could think of that he might fear.

"My victims mostly." He whispered.

A cold chill moved over Milla's skin. She knew exactly how that felt.

"So you'd see their faces? Hear their voices accusing you? Or them attacking you?" Milla had pulled over to the side of the road.

He only nodded, his face saying it was all of that.

"Like a conscience?" She reached gently to take his hand and he turned to meet her eyes.

He nodded slowly again.

"I've been seeing the faces of the people I killed for murdering my father. In my dreams. Even when I'm awake." She admitted quietly, her eyes filling with tears.

Klaus reached a hand and cupped her cheek. "Your victims got what they deserved, Milla."

Her breath hitched in her chest and she gave a shallow nod. "I know. But I still took lives. Something about that has changed me. I'll carry it, you know?"

"I know all too well." His smile was sad with understanding.

"So….has she troubled your dreams since I've known you?" Milla asked slowly and Klaus' face tightened again.

"I have only seen her once since then. The night you came looking for me in the mountains." Milla saw something flicker in his eyes.

Klaus had sat down in a cabin in the mountains of Tennessee and stopped feeding himself. He'd waited quietly to die because he believed that he could only bring death and ruin to Milla and lacked the strength to live without her. The woman he now knew to be named Mara appeared on the last night, just as he was nearly gone and drew him back at the last moment.

"What did you remember?" Milla asked, squeezing his hand.

"She said then that she came because my heart stopped. Told me you were on your way. She said she "could be kind now". But I did not trust her."

Milla pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped it. She wrapped two hands around one of his. "I read her when I first met her. All I saw was grief and kindness, Klaus. She didn't feel even a little bit like a demon. No driving hatred. No burn for power or vengeance like Naaman had when I connected with him."

Klaus' eyes moved thoughtfully over her face. "You are suggesting I was actually the villain, then."

Damon sat quietly on his bed, leaning back against the pillows thinking about the last five days and nights he'd spent with Mara. He was fully dressed and smiling to himself as he realized he was actually...tired. They talked for hours, laughed, argued and made love. What they didn't do much together, though, was sleep. She had just left him for the second time to go check on Diamond and get the horse some exercise.

He closed his eyes, his smile widening. He hadn't felt this happy and peaceful in ages.

When he opened his eyes he was standing in an open field, sunlight beaming around him, glistening off of waist high green grass. A gentle wind moved it first in one direction, then the other. He spun, spreading his arms wide with a smile. It reminded him of a field he used to walk across as a child to his favorite swimming hole.

He blinked and Mara was standing beside him. She was wearing a long, loose black sundress that blew around her in the wind. Her hair was also loose, whipping around her.

"I want to show you something." She told him. Her dark red lips were spread to a broad smile. She held out a hand and he reached to take it. He wove their fingers together and followed her as she led him to a copse of trees at the edge of the field.

She turned as they reached the trees and spoke again. The light sparkled around her like her eyes tended to do. She took his breath away, so much so that he had a hard time focusing on her words at first.

"The first thing you should know is that you're dreaming." A warm hand molded his jaw. "And the next is that I'm really here, in your dream."

Damon blinked and looked around again. The atmosphere was the same, the same place and feel, but he had a better grasp of what was happening now. He felt a little less like he was in a trance.

"Why?" He asked. It felt like she'd just left and he'd dropped off to sleep alone on his bed.

"I wanted to show you what you're capable of. Because I don't think you know yet." She let go of his hand and stepped away.

"You can change anything here. Even in your own dreams." She was talking about lucid dreaming, or that was the term he'd heard for that sort of thing. It was something he'd never tried, or even considered and he wasn't sure why it should matter. All his efforts at controlling dreams had been spent on doing it in the minds of other people, in an effort to either influence the dreamer or learn something.

"How?" He asked, feeling confused.

"My clothes." She gestured at herself. "Change them to something else."

He grinned, liking that idea. He closed his eyes. When he opened them she was wearing the short red and black plaid pleated skirt from his lustful fantasies on their second date. A tight white button down blouse was opened with her breasts barely covered. But not only had her clothes changed. She also now held a ruler in one hand and leaned against a teacher's desk. They were in a classroom, with him seated at a desk. Just as he'd pictured before.

Mara looked down at herself and laughed. "Yes! You see? Not just my clothes. You changed the whole environment with just a thought."

"Not everyone can do that?" He asked as he moved toward her, slowly. He was genuinely interested in the answer, but the way she looked interested him more.

"No. My kind can, as part of our role. But for the most part others aren't able to." She was watching his approach, noticing the light in his eyes. His steps had become smooth and careful. He was stalking her intently.

"So, you can do the same thing?" He asked as he reached her and sank his face to the smooth curve of her neck. He smiled as he felt her gasp with a small nod.

"Show me." He whispered against her skin.

Abruptly the world tilted around him and he closed his eyes, feeling dizzy for half a second. When he opened them, he looked around, his eyes going wide. He was standing with his back pressed to a hard wall. Looking around, he could see it was concrete. Large metal brackets were locked around both of his hands. They were spread wide and bolted firmly to the wall. Automatically he pulled against the restriction and it didn't give. Looking down, he found he was naked and his ankles were locked in place just as his hands were.

Damon's features started to spread to a slow smile. That faded to a blank look of astonishment when he noticed her.

Mara was standing ten feet away wearing a black latex costume that encased her entirely from chest to ankle, accenting every curve. It tucked under her breasts so that they were pushed up, her breasts barely covered and jarring a little as she moved. She wore black spiked platform boots that added a good six inches to her height. Her shoulders and arms were bare and moved seamlessly with a display of smooth muscle as she tapped something in her hands. The ruler from before had been replaced with a black riding crop. She was snapping it lightly against the palm of her hand.

"I'm glad to see I have your attention now." Her eyes trailed over him with a smile and there was no denying it.

Damon let out a bark of laughter as she began to move slowly in his direction. He was thrilled to find that she was the one stalking him now.

"Yes!" He shouted joyfully, tipping his face to heaven.

She reached him, running the rough riding crop against his groin as his eyes closed on a harshly indrawn breath. His heart rammed itself against the inside of his chest as his body surged toward her on its own, desperate to be close to her.

"What are you celebrating?" She asked, her voice pitched low.

"A woman whose kink matches mine." He told her on a gasp as her hand soothed him where she'd been rough before. "And hot-crazy-chick sex is the best kind."

This was his darkest fantasy come to life. It was something he'd never told another soul. Never trusted anyone enough to share it, or the risk it might entail.

She stepped in close, her body flush with his...finally. The black latex she was wearing was cool and slick against his skin. His eyes drifted closed with the wonder of it, forgetting everything in how she was making him feel.

Mara pressed her lips to the curve of his neck as she splayed the fingers of both hands and traced the ridges between his ribs slowly, drawing ragged breaths from him. This was something he'd discovered with her. Any way that she touched him had the power to burn him up inside. Every caress, in this moment, was a thrilling torment. She stepped away and slowly ran a single fingertip along the dark hair that made a trail down his chest to below his navel. He shivered, closing his eyes as his body surged toward her again, but failed to reach her with his bonds.

"You should know that even now, you're stronger than I am. Can do here what I can't." Mara whispered.

She leaned close, pressing smooth lips to his chest and he nearly forgot they were talking. He focused,with effort, on what he wanted to say.

"How?" He should've said more, been more specific. But he couldn't formulate the words in his mind, much less get them past his lips.

"I think you can drag what you find here back with you, into your reality, if you want it badly enough. With limits, of course. Because you were able to pull your friends with you from the Natural Realm into that constructed dream before. It's what you already did, just in the opposite direction." She spoke slowly, between kisses. He opened his eyes to watch those beautiful lips brush one of his nipples as she drug her teeth over him. His heart seemed to fling itself against the inside of his chest, like his ribs were a barrier it was determined to overcome in its efforts to reach for her.

Damon closed his eyes again and focused.

When he opened them he was really in his bed and awake. Mara was under him and just as naked as he was. He'd managed to do seamlessly just what she described. This was what he wanted. More than anything. Her here. Under him. With a push he entered her and she let out a ragged groan.

He pushed up a little and looked down at her with a broad grin. "Please. Don't let me interrupt the lesson. I'm learning a lot."

She laughed and gasped as he moved, smiling and rolling her eyes up at him.

It did strange things to him; her laughing while he was inside her. It was his turn to roll his eyes and gasp.

Hours later, after Mara returned to the stables, Damon's cell phone trilled at him from his back pocket. He studied the screen for a minute before he answered.

"Hey Jer. What's up?"

"We're gonna need a family meeting. Can we do it at your place?" Jeremy's deep voice sounded strained.

"Sure. When?"

Jeremy was quiet for a minute and Damon heard him murmur to someone.

"Now. Today." Jeremy told him, his voice deep and tight.

"Who's with you?"

"Ric and Bonnie." Jeremy answered.

Ah, hell, that can't be good, Damon thought. He hadn't heard from his best friend on the Other Side in ages. If Ric needed something, of course Damon would do whatever he could.

"You making the calls? Or should I?"

"I'll do it." Jeremy muttered and disconnected the line.

Three hours later everyone had gathered in Damon's living room. Milla and Klaus sat on the couch talking quietly together. Elijah had taken a seat in a chair, with Elena perched on its arm. Jeremy was pacing in front of a dark fireplace and Suzette was seated quietly in a corner. Bonnie was at the hearth with Stefan and Neyla. Caroline was out of town, working as a sales rep for Elena's company. They were waiting on Ric, who was held up somehow.

Jeremy paused in his pacing and his head came up, looking to an empty corner of the room.

"He's here." Jeremy announced and then looked like he was listening to something Ric was saying.

Jeremy turned to Damon with questions in his dark eyes. "Who's Mara?"

Damon stuttered for a minute. Ric knew about Mara. Of course. He'd forgotten that Mara mentioned Ric once before.

"A friend." Damon answered vaguely with a shrug.

"Ric's asking for you to get her here."

Damon pulled out his phone and hit her contact on his list.

"Hi." He said when she answered. "Do you think you could come back to my place?"

"Sure." She was smiling. He could hear it in her voice.

"You've been invited to a family meeting." He told her, by way of explanation...and warning. "Now."

"You already know I'm at the stables. So I smell like a horse." She told him, sounding cautious.

"Pretty sure it's important." Damon told her, feeling all eyes in the room on him.

Damon heard a door open two floors up and footsteps. A few seconds later, Mara appeared at the end of the hall moving in his direction.

"On my way." She said with a warm smile just for him. He could hear her voice through the phone while he was looking at her. She was wearing black jeans and work boots. A black and grey plaid flannel shirt was tied up at her waist.

He smiled, "I will never get used to that."

She came to stand beside him with an answering smile. "You call, I come. But I did warn you, I smell like a horse."

Mara turned to the same corner Jeremy had been speaking to earlier.

"Oh, hey Stretch." She spoke wearing another warm smile.

Jeremy's mouth dropped open. He'd just realized that Mara was talking to Ric.

"You can see him?" Jeremy gasped out. He was used to being the only one in the group that could see Ric, ever.

Mara smiled at Jeremy. "Alaric and I are friends. Two cases of top shelf bourbon will do that." She turned to wink at what looked to Damon like an empty corner and Jeremy burst out laughing.

The entire room erupted in questions. None of which Mara chose to answer.

When everyone grew quiet, Jeremy spoke again. Damon took in Mara's dubious expression.

"Ric says that Mara can help us with our problem." Jeremy announced, sounding confused. Damon knew they were talking about Naaman and the threat he presented.

Klaus slammed to his feet, his eyes hard. "Absolutely not." He turned and looked Mara up and down with one brow up before he moved to the bar and poured a glass for himself.

Elijah spoke up then. "I would have to agree with Klaus. We don't trust her."

Damon watched Mara turn her wide eyed gaze to the floor.

"I do." Damon said quietly.

"Ric does too." Jeremy put in.

Elena turned to look at Elijah before she spoke. "I trust her." Both Milla and Bonnie echoed it.

Neyla commented from the hearth. "I'll have to trust Klaus' judgement on this one."

Jeremy nodded his agreement with Neyla.

Suzette spoke up, her small voice ringing out in the now quiet room. "Has anyone asked Mara if she would even be willing to help us?" Her eyes were on the newcomer.

Mara looked up from the floor at Suzette and nodded solemnly.

"Then I think we need all the help we can get and should be grateful. Jeremy and I have children to protect now. We don't need any more suspicious fires or invisible attackers. And right now I feel like a sitting duck."

"I don't know about anyone else, but it looks to me like Mom and the littlest Gilberts get the swing votes." Damon announced after a moment of silence.

Klaus, still standing at the table holding his nearly empty drink turned to look at Mara. He held his drink up to her in a mock salute and said, "Fair enough. You and I will fight on the same side for once."

Mara only nodded slowly at him.

Damon filled Mara in on their problem. Namely Naaman. But Mara stopped him short as he tried to explain.

"But that doesn't make any sense." She said, sitting down heavily on the arm of the couch next to Milla. "I've never heard this name. And I know the names of every magic user active in your realm."

Klaus' lips twisted on a heavy sigh. "Then your information is incomplete. According to Neyla he became active two decades ago. Primarily in Africa."

Mara still seemed to struggle with having never heard of Naaman.

Bonnie leaned forward, still seated on the hearth. "And I've seen him now." She announced.

Her words were followed by a ring of gasps and Bonnie quickly explained about the mirror in her bedroom.

Klaus nodded when she'd finished. "He has some sort of a gift with mirrors I have never seen. He stepped into one the day we met him by means of an escape."

Because Damon had his eyes on Mara, namely because he couldn't bring himself to look away, he saw her mouth drop open in horror and her skin flush hotly.

"What?" He asked her and her wide eyes met him across the room for only a breath.

"I'll be back." She whispered tightly and stood, headed quickly for a dark corner in view of all of them. Everyone saw her fade away with her exit.

The entire room went quiet for an uncomfortably long time.

Finally, Jeremy spoke. "Is it just me or is she…." His voice trailed off like he was looking for the right word.

"Unsettling?" Elijah asked with a smile.

"Dreadful?" Klaus said at the same time with feeling.

Jeremy laughed at both of them. "I was gonna say "a little creepy"."

"I think she's damn near perfect." Damon put in with a grin and Milla turned a knowing smile on him that he chose to ignore.

Elijah spoke up as he rose and began to pace. "So how do we proceed? He clearly has access to us, if what he was able to do to Bonnie is any indication." He paused in his pacing and turned to Bonnie. "I'm sorry. That must've been terrible."

Bonnie grimaced and shrugged a little, looking uncomfortable.

Mara stepped soundlessly back into the room, from the dark corner she'd disappeared in.

"It's the mirrors." She told them all and every eye in the room was on her. "He travels through them. The first thing everyone will need to do is cover completely any mirror in your home, no matter how small. That will make access more difficult at least." Her lips compressed to a frown and Damon decided this guy was much more powerful than any of them had guessed, just by her expression.

"I just came from our archives. He disappeared long before my time. But he's also from the dreamscape. Like me. Which is why he's been undetected by our normal means."

"What is he, then?" Klaus asked, his eyes grim.

"We call them Dream Stallions. Their primary purpose was to deliver daydreams. Over time they have become our ruling class. The Assembly I work for answers to them."

"How do we kill him?" Elijah asked, crossing his arms.

Mara turned her eyes to the floor. "You don't. They are completely immortal."

"Damn." Damon muttered. "And the wedding is only a week away."

An hour later Damon was sitting on a patio chair listening to a chorus of crickets and enjoying the night air. Mara sat across from him, her feet propped in another chair. She was quiet, her head tilted up to look at the stars.

Meanwhile, he was burning up with questions…and apologies.

"I didn't know I was calling you into what would become a confrontation. Sorry about that." He watched her eyes widen when he finished speaking. She didn't look up at him.

"It's all good." Although her words were reassuring, her voice was tight.

"That can't have been easy." He probed, hoping to draw her out.

"It wasn't, but I'm okay." One of her shoulders came up in a shrug.

He could see she wasn't feeling chatty. But he needed some answers.

"How is it you know Ric?"

Mara smiled, still looking up. "Have you ever been to an airport?"

Confused by the question and how it related to his own, he answered, "Well…yes, of course."

"You know how you have to go through many sets of doors to get to your plane? The entry for the airport, the security check, the gate and finally the entrance of the plane." She listed the entire pathway for him.

"Yes." He drug the word out, confused about where she was going with this.

"Moving between the Dreamscape and the Natural Realm is the same. There are many doors I move through. One of them is what you call the Other Side." Damon nodded, beginning to understand but not wanting to interrupt her.

"Your friend Ric confronted me there." Mara turned her silver eyes on him then. "When I started making inquiries about you."

Damon's brows went up.

"He was concerned, knowing my role and defended you. He is why I went to such lengths to verify the charges. He was very convincing. And a genuinely nice guy."

Damon smiled to himself. Ric was still saving his ass.

"Best friend I've ever had." He told her with a smile.

Mara grinned. "He said the exact same thing about you."

Considering before he spoke, he asked hesitantly, "How often do you see him?"

Mara turned a broad smile on him. "Every few days I stop in. He's alone there. There are others around him, but he doesn't see them. I break up the silence for him."

"And have drinks with him?" Damon probed again.

Mara nodded. "Sometimes. What I bring from my home he can actually touch and drink. It brings him some comfort, I think."

Damon cleared his throat. "So….is he one of your 'pretty boys'?"

She raised a brow at him, looking indignant. "Of course not. He is my friend, Damon. For a few months. And that's all."

"Well….he always had game. I had to ask." Damon gave her a crooked smile, but she didn't return it.

After a minute she laughed, turning to look around.

"What's wrong?"

"He just called you a jackass."

Damon grimaced in the direction she indicated. "Thanks for that, buddy. I just know that you're dead, not blind. And she's beautiful."

Mara felt her face grow hot and Ric laughed at her as he noticed it.

He was seated on the wooden rail of the back porch across from Mara, watching her redden.

"Yeah. I'll have to give him that one. I guess that makes me jackass adjacent." Ric was grinning at her and she couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze.

"Both smooth talkers. I guess the best friend thing makes sense now." Mara told Ric, smiling up at the stars again.

"He was always better at it than me. Better with women, even when his heart wasn't in it. I went around falling in love all the time."

"Only you?" She pushed, curious.

Ric seemed to think hard for a minute, his eyes narrowing as he stared at a window behind her. "He did twice. The first before I knew him. He was just a kid. That was a mess. Then Elena. And you already know how that turned out."

Damon leaned forward in his chair. "I'm only getting half of the conversation, but I'm pretty sure I'm the subject here."

Mara turned and smiled at him. "Ric was just admitting he's a jackass too."

Both of them laughed at the same time. Mara was the only witness to how much they sounded alike when they did it.