After taking a detour back home to get changed and tell my parents that the dance was great but I was heading back out to see some friends, they were first shocked but then quickly recovered. My dad told me to have fun and let them know if I was staying over somewhere before my mom could cut in with an entire interrogation over who my friends were and questioning me if there were going to be any boys. Giving dad a smile, I kissed his cheek and then my mom's promising her that I was just going to see Elena for a bit to talk about something and that I would be back a little later.
With Alaric still unconscious in the backseat of my car, I drove to the Salvatore house where I found the door unlocked so I quietly pushed it open and almost immediately heard Elena talking inside, sounding upset, teary and accusing someone of something. "You knew, didn't you? You knew that if
she harnessed all that power, that she would die, didn't you?" Was she talking about Bonnie? Quietly stepping inside, I used shadow magic to cloak myself so that they wouldn't hear or see me, wanting to at least figure out if they were dangerous first.
"Yes. Yes, I knew." The response came from the older brother, Damon. He and I hadn't actually met yet, so I didn't really know anything about him. So far, it wasn't exactly a great impression. Elena even slapped him, making him stiffen in anger but he held it in check as I walked slowly down the corridor and stopped at the top of the steps that lead down into the front room where an open fire was crackling. "You need to listen to me, and prepare for what I'm about to say." Damon spoke slowly, still keeping himself under control as Elena glowered at him hatefully, Stefan standing just behind her. "Bonnie had to die. Klaus using Alaric's body was a total surprise. She wasn't prepared
for that, and he wasn't going to stop, and we weren't going to be able to stop him until he knew
she was dead. He had to believe it." Damon explained, making Elena blink at him in confusion as I listened. "She cast a spell. She's alive, Elena. Bonnie's okay."
Well, I have to admit I'm glad I was right that Bonnie had been alive. I would have felt like a real jerk if I'd held back from helping and let her kill herself, though I think I need some clarification on that part too. Releasing my cloaking spell, I stood with my hands in my pockets as Damon turned around and immediately saw me, Elena and Stefan also noticing that I was suddenly standing in their house and they all froze in place as I looked at them one by one. Well, here goes nothing. "I think it's time you guys tell me exactly what's going on around here." I said to them, determined that I was going to get my answers today.
With a whoosh of sound Damon went for me, hand outstretched in order to grab my throat but I sensed him coming and with a flick of my eyes towards him, he was suddenly tossed into the air and flung backwards, hitting the coach which sprung him back upwards and he clattered onto the floor from the force, making Elena gasp in shock and jump away from him as Stefan stared at me openly, just as astounded by my magic. "You're…you're a witch?" Elena gasped, Damon blinking in confusion before hurrying to jump back up onto his feet.
"Not exactly. I'm a druid, so different type of magic." I explained as simply as I could before I looked at Damon and gestured at him, signalling I was now addressing him. "You try and attack me again, and I'll set you on fire."
"How is this possible? Bonnie said she didn't feel any magic from you. We compelled you to forget everything you ever saw." Stefan said in pure confusion as the three of them gathered together, still staring at me like I'd grown a second head.
"Well, clearly you didn't do a good job of it, and Bonnie's witchy metre must be faulty." Damon drawled sarcastically so I rolled my eyes.
"I'll explain all that later, but right now I want to know what happened tonight, because I have an unconscious history teacher in the back of my car." They all reacted with alarm so I rolled my eyes again and descended the steps. "Relax, I banished the guy who was possessing him so he's good. I just can't move him anywhere and figured you guys would know what to do, seeing as I saw you all trying to do something to him tonight with Bonnie before she collapsed. She's a witch, right? Whilst you two, you guys are vampires." I waved my finger at Stefan and Damon before settling rather angrily on Stefan. "And you nearly killed me. I have the scars to prove it, and don't try and deny it because I remember everything you compelled me to forget. You guys either come clean or I start breaking things around here. Maybe someone's neck?"
Damon was clearly unhappy with the fact that I was threatening them and tried to go for me again, this time circling around with super speed and coming at my back. With a snap of my fingers, I set his arms on fire, making him yell and scream in pain as he tried to put the fire out, Elena crying out in alarm to see Damon suddenly combust. "Stop it! Please, we'll tell you everything just don't hurt him. Stop it Lia!" Stefan pleaded so I arched an eyebrow before shrugging. Without so much as a twitch, the fire disappeared and Damon had to rip off his jacket before the leather could melt into his skin as he slowly healed from the burns.
"You got it out of your system yet?" I drawled at Damon who angrily glowered at me before I turned back to Elena and Stefan, demanding one last time that they tell me everything from the very beginning, so that's what we did. I listened comfortably on the couch as everybody recounted how everything had started since Stefan and Damon moved back into town. I listened carefully and did my best to follow the timeline until I was up to date, though the whole thing with this Katherine person threw me a little once they were done.
"So…Katherine is like an identical person to Elena, and she's currently trapped in a tomb because she wanted some kind of stone for a super vampire called Klaus." I repeated, that bit throwing me a little as I couldn't really imagine there being two Elena's walking around, and she sounded real mean. "Okay, I think I got it all."
"So what about you?" Stefan asked me as he and Elena sat opposite me together, Damon still glaring at me darkly from some corner of the room. "You said something about being a druid, what is that exactly?"
"Old magical race, totally cool and I only found out on my birthday when I went sleepwalking through the cemetery and got a vision of my ancestors, who passed down ancient knowledge for my Awakening ceremony." I covered briefly and concisely, since all the minor details and long explanations would just take forever. "Basically, we were here long before witches, and I'm the last of my kind. I'm the only one alive in the world."
"So you can do magic right? Are you strong?" Elena asked so I quirked an eyebrow at her, kind of suspicious of where she was going with this.
"Well, yeah I guess. I'm not a witch but I can do a lot of magic so long as it falls under one of the elements I'm aligned with. Fire, water, air, earth, light, dark, nature and so on. There's a whole bunch of them, but I'm pretty sure I got most of them down." Elena looked at me hopefully, glancing at Stefan and Damon before eagerly pushing forward.
"That's amazing, that means you can kill Klaus, right?" Whoa there, back up a second. Elena wants me to actually kill someone? Where the hell did that come from? Sure I understand that Klaus isn't exactly their friend since he wants Elena for some ridiculous sounding ritual but that doesn't mean I'm going to step in and kill the guy.
"Uh…no." They all blinked at me.
"What do you mean 'no'?" Damon demanded from me incredulously, pushing himself off the wall he'd been leaning against in order to stalk over. "You did hear us when we told you about Klaus, right? Original vampire, almost impossible to kill, wants to sacrifice Elena in a ritual to break some curse?" I just folded my arms and leaned back against the couch.
"Yeah I heard you, and I'm not doing it."
"Lia please, if you don't do this then Bonnie might die if she tries to kill him herself. That much power can overwhelm her, it'll be too much." Elena began to beg me, getting visibly upset but the crocodile tears did nothing to change my stance on the matter. In fact they just made me annoyed with her. Who did she think she was? I mean, sure she's got two totally hot brothers pretty much at her beck and call and now she expects everybody to just do what she wants because she's snapped her fingers?
"So you think asking me to kill someone I don't even know and possibly kill myself in the process is just fine?" I reasoned, shooting them all a look. "If you're right about this guy, then I don't know if regular magic will be enough to kill him, and I'm still new at this. I could lose control and cause natural disasters all over the state and kill everyone in Mystic Falls by accident. You want that to happen?"
"We know this is a lot to ask, but…"
"It's way too much to ask." I cut across Stefan before he could attempt to appeal to my better nature. "You guys don't even know me. You two tried to kill me before, and none of us are friends. You have no right to ask me for anything. Instead of asking me to sacrifice myself for someone I'm not even sure I like, that's you by the way Elena, maybe you should be asking me to save someone instead." Sitting in silence after my thorough scolding, all three of them processed my words as I scoffed in annoyance. They really thought a lot of themselves, didn't they? "Tell me about Elijah. What happened to him?" I finally broke the silence, my voice softening once more.
"How do you know him?" Damon asked however it was Stefan who answered.
"Ophelia's been having dreams about him without even meeting him." Yeah, that part did sound a little freaky. It makes me sound like some kind of crazy stalker. "Why do you want to know?"
"Call it a curiosity. He and I actually met a couple times after I started seeing visions or dreams of him or whatever. I thought him quite charming and gentlemanly, so what did you do with him? You mentioned something about daggering him, does that mean he's dead?"
"Not exactly." Elena answered before Damon could stop her, making him groan in irritation, clearly not wanting to give up the fact that he had an undead original vampire in his basement. "He has a special kind of dagger in his heart which can temporarily kill an original. So long as the dagger stays where it is, they won't…"
"How about we don't reveal the means to revive a dead original vampire to the freaky tree witch?" Damon suggested, making Elena stop and it took me a second to figure out that by tree witch, he meant me. Can't say he's far wrong, I mean, druids were closely associated with nature. "Okay, so we've caught you up to speed with the vampire gossip going on around here, now tell us what it is you're after." He turned to me, clearly still highly suspicious of me and to be honest, I couldn't blame him.
"Right now? Nothing. I just had enough of being in the dark and trying to figure out everything for myself when something was clearly very wrong with this town. Now I know why." I answered truthfully before pausing for a second. "Although, I could use some help getting Alaric out of my car. I figured he could crash here until he wakes up. He'll be disorientated from being possessed, but he'll be fine." Stefan and Damon agreed to get him, though the latter was a little reluctant to leave me alone with Elena but she assured him it was fine. I was quite comfortable waiting by the fire until the guys both carried Alaric's deadweight body up the stairs to one of the guest rooms, whereby Elena then quickly turned to me.
"You said you knew Elijah, right?"
"A little, I guess. We talked a lot when he came to check up on me. He figured out pretty much straight away what I was and decided I was worth keeping tabs on. Why?" Watching her carefully, Elena glanced up the stairs before lowering her voice even further.
"I might need your help with something. I know where they're keeping his body. If we take out the dagger in him, then Elijah will come back. He might be my only chance I have to protect my family and everyone I love. I want to free him, and if you help me, then maybe he'll be more willing to strike another deal with me." So…she basically just wants to use me as a human shield. Sure. Despite the fact that Elena only wanted to use me to try and get Elijah on her side, I couldn't help but admit that I wanted to help Elijah out. He'd been kind to me, and I found myself more inclined to help him rather than everyone else here, so I guess this time around, I'll be on her side.
"Okay fine. Tell me where he is." Looking relieved, Elena directed me on how to get down to the basement and where I would find Elijah, allowing me to go there whilst she went upstairs to talk to Damon. I really didn't know what to expect, but when I found Elijah's body lying almost discarded on the ground in what I could only describe as a cell with a reinforced door. The only reason I saw him was because I happened to look through the bars, making me splutter in shock and quickly unbolt the door before rushing inside. Sure enough there was a handle protruding out of his chest and I saw his face exactly the same way as it had been before, pale, grey and with snaking black veins to signify death. "Oh god, what did they do to you?" Horrified, I quickly grabbed hold of the hilt and pulled out the dagger, which turned out to be a silver pointed blade better described as a needle than a dagger.
The moment I pulled the dagger out, Elijah's face began to return to normal, but it was a very slow process, almost agonisingly so. All I could do was sit beside him and wait, though I felt completely useless as I didn't know anything I could do to help him in any way. Dropping the dagger I slid down to the ground with my back against the wall, simply sitting there waiting for Elijah to come back to life whilst tapping a finger against my knee impatiently, thinking over everything I'd learned. I'd already decided that I didn't like Damon, and Stefan wasn't exactly in my good graces either. Elena was the one I had liked least out of her, Caroline and Bonnie because she had always been drama this and drama that.
I didn't know what to make of it all, but I if there was going to be anyone I should trust around here other than myself, Elijah seemed like the safest bet. So I waited for him, watching quietly in the quiet lull of the evening as it passed into the early hours of the morning, drifting in and out of sleep where I saw the faces of Elijah and his brother, the latter increasingly growing with clarity until the two of us were standing face to face where he smiled at me in such a way that was either the sweetest smile to ever exist, or the one that was going to devour me whole like the predator he was.