Dark Side.
Chapter 25: Masquerade. Part II.
"He stepped down, trying not to look at her, as if she were the sun. Yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."
—Anna Karenina. Leo Tolstoy.
The Lockwood home's first floor is quiet, desolate. The music and chatter from the party downstairs travels up from the stairs, through the open windows. It makes for a strangely comforting atmosphere. Damon and Stefan stand in the room they all agreed on earlier, the one spelled by Bonnie so no vampire who enters can exit, tension building within the four walls and between them until Damon can taste it on his tongue.
While Damon was distracted with Cassandra—Stefan's words, not his—Katherine killed some girl who goes to school with Elena. Right in front of Stefan, who could have done something to avoid such violence, but Stefan seems to only be focusing on Damon not being close enough to stop it. Stefan wanted to call the whole thing off. It was tempting, though Damon knows his reasoning is very different to Stefan's, but they are so close to finally getting rid of Katherine, they can't back down. He can't back down. The woman ruined their lives.
So, Stefan reluctantly agreed to carry on. Now, they wait. Tense. With apprehension running through Damon's veins like lead. Their plan, while flawless, didn't account for Cassandra's presence. Everything can go downhill in the blink of an eye.
"It's taking longer than it should," Stefan comments. "Caroline should be leading Katherine here now."
Damon hums, noncommittal. The truth is the longer they wait, the less sure he is about this. That is not something he can tell his brother. He would never hear the end of it. He knocks the stake in his hand against the door-frame, willing his breathing to return to a normal rhythm. This would be so much easier if Cassandra hadn't shown up.
"Can you hear them?" Stefan turns to him, eyebrows raised in another question. One he ignores. "Anywhere in the house?"
Damon sighs, shooting Stefan an annoyed glance before complying. He focuses his hearing, locating not the downstairs rooms where the party is raging but the quiet rooms where people are not allowed in. He ignores the private conversations, the rough noises of kissing within the privacy of cordoned off rooms. In a party of this magnitude, it's not strange to find people stealing alone moments behind closed doors, in the darkness of an off-limit room.
Unwillingly, his mind pushes a memory forward. A dinner at the Fell's, the whole damn town invited. The upstairs family room showered in the soft orange light of two tall candles. Only a week before the vampire round up. Cassandra's laugh echoing around them, her arms around his neck. His lips pressed to the exposed skin of her chest the low cut of her dress provided. His arms circling her small waist, pulling her closer.
"What?" Stefan snaps him off whatever trance his mind forced on him. "Did you hear anything?"
"Not yet." He quips with a sing-songy tone, going back to focusing on the party. "And if you weren't feeding on Bambi and Thumper, you'd know that too."
Stefan scowls. He crosses his arm and walks back and forth. Damon ignores the twinge of guilt that strikes him right in the chest and turns back to the happenings outside.
"David, wait!"
"I heard Richard didn't—"
"No, I am not drunk, Adele! If you—"
"Is it true?"
That one gives him pause.
"Red... I—where are you going?!"
He straightens, eyes finding Stefan. Silence follows Katherine's demanding question.
"What? What?" Stefan insists, hand shooting out to stress the question.
Damon shushes him sharply. The last thing he needs is to lose them in the crowd. Thankfully, Katherine isn't ready to drop this conversation.
"Cassandra, where are you going?"
"Anywhere without you in it seems pretty good to me right now."
Damon doesn't remember the last time he heard her this angry. She practically spits the words out, voice laced with venom.
"Be rational." Katherine retorts immediately. Her next words are rushed. "Damon and Stefan are probably planning to kill us. This isn't the time for you to be mad at me."
He frowns, mostly because he doesn't want Katherine planting thoughts into Cassandra's mind, and mostly because it's getting considerably easier to listen in on their conversation. Stefan catches his eye, mouths a question at him. Damon nods. The two women are getting closer. He can only hope they part ways before they enter the room.
"You. They're trying to kill you." Cassandra snaps.
He doesn't have to focus to hear them anymore. He can hear the click of her heels against the floorboards, Katherine close behind. As quiet as possible, he retires to the closet, where he is out of view from the door and leaves the door slightly ajar so he can observe without bringing attention to himself. Don't come into the room, Cassie, please, don't come into the room...
"Except they know you won't let them, which adds you to their to-kill list." Katherine argues, voice spiking up into desperation.
"Actually, I might consider it." Cassandra enters the room, torso angled behind her so she can face Katherine, who is hot on her heels.
"Red—" Cassandra shushes her, halting on her step just after the threshold. Katherine huffs, sidestepping her until she stands before her, hands fisted by her sides. "Cassandra."
Cassandra glances behind her, towards the door. Her back tenses. Damon watches her take a deep breath in before turning back to face Katherine. The two share a look that lasts four seconds, one that has Cassandra's face hardening into a look that chills his blood, one that has Katherine straightening and turning around, eyes zeroing on Stefan like she always knew he was there.
"Hello, Stefan."
"Katherine." Stefan nods, walking further into the room. "Cassandra."
Damon curses him silently. If only his little brother knew how to phrase things, Cassandra's eyes wouldn't be Armageddon right now. She doesn't speak, doesn't move a muscle, simply stands there, watching Stefan. Damon suddenly understands why lionesses are the ones who provide for the pride.
"You won't kill me." Katherine taunts, puffing her chest out, proud.
"No," Stefan agrees, tilting his head to one side in mock-thought. Damon readies himself, knowing his cue is about to come. "But he will."
Damon steps into the room at the same time Stefan nods in his direction. He doesn't waste time, simply aims and shoots. The wooden stake buries into Katherine's back, right in the center. The brunette stumbles forward before turning in her heels to face him. A snarl upturns her features. Beside her, Cassandra glances at him, before looking at Stefan, leaving Katherine for last. Her lips stretch into a smirk that somehow freezes the blood in his veins.
"Talk about karmic retribution." She seems to be enjoying it, the fact that her best friend just got staked in the back.
"Really?" Katherine growls at the second oldest vampire in the room.
Damon holds his breath, suddenly afraid. Killing Katherine will be hard, but he doesn't know what he'll do if Cassie stands by the brunette's side.
He watches, frown still in place as Cassandra takes a closer step towards Katherine, never breaking eye contact, and rips the stake off the brunette's back, dropping it unceremoniously on the floor. Something snaps inside Damon's chest, sudden and so deeply he wonders if his heart is still in place, if his ribs aren't dust now and are trickling down his insides, shards of bone cutting at the sensitive skin of his internal organs.
He's incredibly aware of Stefan's eyes on him. Damon made everyone swear Cassie wouldn't find out about this. She isn't supposed to be in this room. This is already painful, despite his hatred for Katherine and every bad thing she did to him as human and as a vampire, there's a part of Damon, deep inside and hidden in shadows, that loves her still. He spent half the time of the last century wishing he'd manage to open the tomb and be reunited with Katherine. Half the other part of that century and more, he spent deliriously hoping for the redheaded woman standing before him to be alive. He knows, however, that if Cassie stands in their way, they'll have to stop her. The thought of hurting her makes his stomach coil in such a painful way Damon wonders at the fact he's not on the floor, heaving.
Then something happens. The unrelenting staring contest between Cassandra and Katherine ends with the brunette looking down. Cassandra turns in her step, the cream-colored sequins in her dress catching the soft light within the room until it looks like she's alight, and her eyes find his. Hope makes his blood sing. Cassie just chose their, his, side. Didn't she?
She takes one step towards the middle of the room, walking the unmarked path between Stefan and Damon. He keeps his eyes on her, Katherine forgotten, trying to seem unfazed. Except the longer he looks at her the further his mask crumbles.
Cassie's still wearing that stupid mask; it covers half her face, and he suddenly has this insane urge to rip it away from her, push her hair back, anything to get a clear view of her face. Of the freckles she has across her cheeks and nose, of her long lashes. He wants to look into her eyes and bask in the way they're so many different shades of green without the hindrance of the stupid, albeit beautiful, mask. Wants to cup her face with his hand and rub his thumb against her cheek until her lips stretch out into that perfect smile that's all teeth, all scrunched up nose, all but controlled. He hasn't done that in a century, and he resents his vampire ego for it. Resents his uncontrollable trust issues.
Damon's ready to reach out and press her small body to his, place one hand on her straightened hair and another on her waist, press his lips to her ear and finally admit he finds her breath-taking. Especially in that dress, which clings to her every curve in a way that is both sexy and elegant. He's about to do just that, fuck the fact they're not alone, about to finally dare name the emotion that settles around him whenever he sees her, the one that feels stronger, is rooted deeper than anything he ever felt for Katherine, and takes a step toward her.
The reaction happens immediately. Cassie tenses, pauses on her step, right foot still slightly risen. Regretting whatever insane, non-sensical thing he was about to do, he tears his eyes away from her and glances around.
He's been busy rummaging through his thoughts for less than twenty seconds. Katherine is still at a standstill, eyes stuck to the fluffy white rug in the middle of the room, right heel rolling the stake on the floor back and forth. Stefan is quietly studying him, hands deep in his trousers' pockets. When Damon meets his eyes, his little brother looks down.
He looks at Cassie again, sees the way alarm flashes across her eyes, and, underneath the surface, betrayal dims her green irises. His lips part slightly, ready to speak words he doesn't know, except Cassie is shaking her head softly, eyes to the side in a way that directs his own eyes to a still pensive Katherine. Whatever message she's trying to convey is lost to him.
It happens in the split second it takes him to look away from Katherine and back to Cassandra, so quick even his vampire senses miss it. Suddenly, Katherine has Cassandra by the roots of her hair, fisted hand pressed to her left side.
"Wait!" Stefan shouts, two seconds too late.
The bloodied, thin stake isn't on the floor anymore. His eyes go from the now empty spot on the rug to a smirking Katherine to Cassie's face. Her eyes are scrunched up closed, lips in a thin line.
"Oops, I missed." Katherine pouts, eyes jumping from each brother with twisted delight.
"I hate you." Cassandra snarls at the oldest vampire, left hand lifting to hold onto Katherine's hand on her hair. Her nails dig into Katherine's skin, drawing blood, but the brunette doesn't show any indication of being in pain.
"Oh, yeah?" Without preamble, Katherine rips the stake out from Cassandra's side. The pained cry she lets out snaps Damon of whatever shock he'd been in. He watches her slowly let a calculated breath out through her mouth, eyes still closed. "Likewise."
Again, the stake goes through the redheaded vampire, this time through her back. Cassie lets out a strangle gasp, eyes flashing open, teeth biting into her bottom lip so hard, they draw blood. Damon takes a quick step forward, and another.
"Nuh-uh." Katherine tuts, shaking her head. "One more and she'll really be dead."
He halts on his step, heart on his throat.
"If you're going to kill me," Cassandra speaks with a raspy voice Damon doesn't recognize. "Don't taunt them with it."
Her pink lips are tainted with dark blood. The air around them picks up slightly, turning from still to a breeze even with the windows closed. It buzzes with electricity, so much so that Damon can feel every little hair on his body stand on ends, can hear the friction in the suit's fabric. Katherine giggles, looking down at Cassandra like she doesn't have a stake through one of her lungs. Like they're just teasing each other about some silly thing like shoes. Ire begins to boil through Damon's veins, hot and near-blinding.
"Fine."
Katherine shrugs before he can flash towards her and end her pathetically long and useless life. In one swift moment, she slides the stake inside of Cassie up and further to the left, ignoring the soft cry she lets out. Damon meets her eyes, desperately wonders why she's not at least fighting back, why the only thing he sees in the dark green of her eyes is resignation.
"Is that your heart? Or still your lung?"
Katherine's lips twist into a cruel smile, one Damon's never seen before. He knows that whatever fight he overheard earlier between them was much more important than he thought.
"Stop!" he barks at her.
His anger isn't just directed at Katherine, but Cassie, too. He knows she's stronger than Katherine, knows she should be fighting back. That in the minute Katherine's been doubting, taunting, she could have reached out and killed her. Or, at least, freed herself.
"Okay."
Within a second, the stake's handle snaps, leaving half of it in Katherine's hand and the other inside of Cassandra. The sound of wood snapping resonates around the room, louder than it should be, and it's immediately replaced by the crunch of breaking bones. Damon barely catches the surprise that flashes behind Cassie's eyes before the light leaves them and she crumbles to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Right, now that's done with." Katherine straightens up. "I can kill you without her getting in the way."
He isn't sure what it is that makes him do what he does next, after all he's perfectly aware that Cassandra is not permanently dead. Still, the knowledge that the reason she didn't fight back was because she thought Katherine wouldn't actually kill her, leaves him with a sour taste in his mouth. Without hesitance, Damon rises the crossbow back up and fires at Katherine, twice, letting out a growl when the brunette swiftly ducks away from the stakes' ways.
Stefan is the next to react. He jumps at Katherine, taking long strides, stake in hand and at the ready. The brunette is not bothered. She ducks and pushes at Stefan's torso with both hands, using every ounce of strength her age provides her with. Stefan drops to the floor a few feet to the left, sliding across the room until his back hits the grey couch against the far-left wall. Still, the youngest Salvatore jumps to his feet with an ease Damon can't help but begrudgingly admire.
Katherine lets out a hiss that resembles a primal roar as she turns on her feet, prowling towards Stefan. Damon seizes the opportunity before it gets away. He stalks onwards and, firmly thrusting his arm forward, he takes a hold of the smooth stake fired from the device strapped to his wrist, attempting to stab Katherine through the back. Just as he's about to do that, Katherine twirls around, grabbing his wrist and twisting until he feels it break and has no choice but to let go of the stake, groaning in pain. She pushes him against the right wall.
Damon unwillingly stumbles against the tall, narrow table there, knocking a vase and a small picture frame over; his back crashes against the ornate golden frame of a painting depicting a serene lake, surrounded by a forest alive with green and pinks. Katherine keeps him there, manicured fingers digging into his neck painfully, a smirk playing on her lips.
The clear hiss of compressed air being released reaches them and Katherine turns just in time to catch the two consecutive stakes Stefan has sent her way. In a heartbeat, Damon understands what she meant by getting Cassandra out of the way, because the way it's going they're at a great disadvantage, even if it's two against one.
Swiftly, Katherine sends the stakes in her hands at Stefan, long dark hair swinging with the force behind her aim. Stefan ducks and barely avoids the second stake flying to his shoulder. Damon jumps from the table, a snarl well in place. Before he can thrust his hand into the brunette's chest and rip her heart out, Katherine flashes around and forces him down onto the floor, kicking him on the chest with her high-heels.
The breath leaves him all at once until he's gasping and groaning and feeling like the whole room is spinning. Still, he pushes his hands down, rising to his feet with difficulty. Katherine is standing in front of him, one hand on her waist, playful smirk still in place. Damon chances a look his brother's way and instantly knows he's not the only one struggling. They're both breathless, while Katherine looks like they're just taking a stroll through the park.
He pants, marveling at the stupidity of it all. In what world could they have killed a vampire that's four centuries older than them, give or take? And without vervain to weaken her first, no less. He's about to give up, walk away or let Katherine kill him, he's still deciding, when his eyes inadvertently find Cassandra.
She's still unmoving, unchanging, and he wonders how long this fight has truly been going on for. Damon knows that people like to say death brings peace to those who succumb to it. But looking at her right now, the only word that comes to mind is not 'peace', but 'gone'.
Inhaling deeply, he goes for the last stake he has hidden up his sleeve, a Hail Mary, and with the same breath pounces at the smug vampire standing before him. Katherine doesn't even look surprised for a second. Her right hand holds onto his wrist, her left, onto his elbow. Before he can stop it, she's twisting his arm backwards, efficaciously aiming the stake at his heart, and drawing nearer by the minute. He tries to fight back, to not get killed with his own weapon.
Just as he begins to fear the worst, Stefan appears behind Katherine, and in a spur of luck, traps her in a headlock, dropping on his back so he and the brunette vampire are both on the ground. Damon jumps at the opportunity, he positions himself above them, stake grasped with both hands, ignoring the way Katherine writhes against Stefan's hold, the way fear finally begins to show in her brown irises. He definitely ignores the way his chest pangs painfully at the sight.
"Stop!"
The three vampires freeze. For a moment, nothing happens. Then, almost simultaneously, all three of them turn to the threshold. Little Gilbert is there, all flushed cheeks and panicked eyes. Damon's stomach caves into itself. Somehow, he knows just what happened before Jeremy has said the words. There's no other reason why Elena's little brother would be so afraid.
"Everything you do is hurting Elena!" he explains. "You're hurting Elena!"
Damon's eyes fall back on Katherine, who is now sporting the widest smile he's seen in a while. It's twisted and dark and hateful and he wonders how he ever loved her. She frees herself from Stefan's hold, rising to her feet with the same grace with which a cat disentangles herself from its favorite couch cushion. It looks like she even stretches a little. When she's straightened up, she turns back to face them, chest out and prideful smile still in place.
Stefan rises to his feet as well, shrugging his shoulder forward so the motion fixes his suit jacket. Worry darkens his face, mixing with rage until Damon can't help but think he's never seen Stefan look so much like him.
"You think you're the only ones with a witch on your side?" Katherine gushes, tucking her head into her shoulder. "Something tells me mine is better than yours."
"Jeremy, go make sure Elena's okay." Stefan orders. "Go!"
At the edge in Stefan's voice, Jeremy rips his eyes away from a still dead Cassandra and jumps into action, running out of the hallway with amazing speed. Katherine just shrugs, rocking back and forth, all weight on her left side as she looks at them expectantly.
Damon rolls his eyes and slams into her shoulder with all his strength on his way to Cassie. Katherine shoots him a glare. He pays no mind to it, or to his brother, or anything other than Cassandra. She's lying on her back, cream dress slightly bunched higher up her thighs than it should be, blood staining the wooden floor a dark crimson. The lights around them reflect off the puddles in a way that the dark red seems to shine different hues. The longer he looks at it the more he feels like the stains have depth to them, like they're an abyss he'll fall into if he gets too close.
Kneeling beside her, he lifts her head a touch, painfully aware of the odd angle of her neck, and holds the end of the mask's ribbon with his thumb and index finger. Tugging at it slightly, the bow comes undone, tangling with a couple of hair strands. Once that's done, he discards the silvery mask over his shoulders, eyes stuck to her face. His right hand pushes a strand of hair away from her eyes, knuckles brushing the side of her cheek.
"Ugh, you're pathetic." Katherine scoffs, walking over Cassandra's body like she's roadkill.
Instead of falling for Katherine's clear bait, he pushes Cassie's left shoulder carefully until her body is lying on its side. There, he can clearly see the nonhealing wound where Katherine left the snapped half of Alaric's stake. The wound starts somewhere to the right of her waist, where it suddenly takes a jerky turn to the left and higher up her back. It's a gruesome sight, torn skin blending with the dress's smooth fabric, blood coagulating at odd patches. He can even see a couple of sequins in the epicenter of the large wound, beside the splintered stake.
Damon sighs. Hesitantly, he reaches into the wound, grasping the end of the stake with slippery blood-coated fingers. He hisses when a particularly sharp splinter digs into his palm. Still, he tightens his hold on the stake and pulls, fighting the urge to cringe at the feeling of the stake sliding out of the spongey tissue of Cassie's left lung, tearing through her back muscles until the point of it reaches the world's surface. His eyes go from the slightly-bleeding wound to the stake in his hand.
A droplet of crimson blood trickles from the stake's pointy end onto the floor, another one follows, and another one; the light reflects off the sticky substance, making it appear silver in color. Damon drops the stake on the floor, frowning at the large splinter that remains inside his palm. He rips it out, watching in near fascination as his own blood blends with Cassie's.
After a beat, he turns back to Cassandra, keeps a close eye on the wound that's slowly healing itself, muscle tissue inching together until they're one again, new skin appearing until the only proof that there ever was a wound to begin with is the drying blood and the ruined fabric of her dress. It's a good sign; no splinters remained inside her. And if he focuses hard enough, he can hear her bones healing. It's still worrying. It shouldn't take someone her age this long to heal, just like it shouldn't have taken her that long to wake up in that Lockwood cellar.
"Would you stop looking at her like she's a ghost?" Katherine whines.
"You did kill her out of the blue, Katherine." Stefan reminds her.
He's still by the door, arms crossed. Darkness swirls behind his eyes, reminiscent of a devil even Damon fears. An unearthly creature he has only seen twice and prays to never see again. A monster that goes by his little brother's name.
"She annoyed me." Katherine rolls her eyes.
"She'll rip you apart." Damon shrugs.
Betrayal is unforgivable in Cassie's eyes. A trait that Damon finds infuriating. Especially since it never seems to be a problem when she's the one betraying. Katherine killing Cassandra is a betrayal that has five centuries in the making, the fallout of a friendship that is an actual legend. It's only natural to assume there will be consequences. If Damon Salvatore knows Cassandra at all, which he likes to think he does, she will obliterate Katherine, thoughts of Elena getting caught in the crossfire be damned. He glares at Katherine with enough intensity to finally have her understand she's vermin, or he hopes anyway, when Cassandra takes a shuddering breath in, chest trembling with a sound that's both a cough and a wheeze.
"Damon?"
Her voice is warm, and it feels like his whole soul answers that question. His name sounds so... sweet and safe on her lips, a striking contrast to what he's used to hearing on other's. His hand hooks around her arm, serving as support she doesn't seem to need. Her left hand goes up to her neck, rubbing at a sore spot lightly. When her hand drops in the same breath she pushes herself into a sitting position, her face ends up two inches away from his. If he takes a deep enough breath, his nose would bump against hers. They're close enough that he can see some of those freckles he'd been thinking about minutes earlier, the ones that won the ever-present battle against makeup, see the way the tilt of the light makes the color of her eyes appear lighter.
Cassie's looking at him like he's a wonder, a mythical creature that should not exist. Five different emotions flash behind her eyes, too fast for him to understand.
"Welcome to the land of the living." He smirks.
She narrows her eyes at him. Her eyes switch to somewhere off his upper right, eyebrows scrunched up together.
"Ha! That's funny." She rolls her eyes, laughter the kind of bitter and dry that's almost funny. "Really. Hilarious."
With that, she pushes up into standing and immediately turns on the brunette behind her. Katherine looks up at Cassandra, one hand lazily playing with a strand of her hair, flicking it over and over, the leg that's over her right one bounces up and down. The woman is the perfect picture for nonchalance. Ease.
The change happens in a millisecond, fast enough to remind him that he himself is not as powerful as he likes to believe. One moment Cassandra is beside him, and the next she's pulling Katherine's hair hard enough to fling her across the room. Katherine cries out; the first real whimper of pain to leave her tonight.
Unflinching, Cassandra drags Katherine from her spot on the floor until she pushes Katherine against the wall, hand wrapped around her neck. Katherine gasps for breath, Stefan visibly flinches and flashes forward. Cassandra's other arm flashes backwards, sudden but with true aim. Her elbow slams against Stefan's nose. His little brother crumbles into the rug below them, palm pressed to his face as blood gushes out of a broken nose.
"You were going to kill them." Cassie snarls. It's the most violent Damon has ever seen her. If mere words could kill...
"Meh." Katherine smirks noncommittally.
"What is wrong with you?" Cassandra pushes Katherine harder against the wall.
She winces, but her self-satisfactory smirk doesn't move. In that moment, Damon realizes two things. One, this was always the plan, killing them, all of them, and Cassie had no idea. Two, Cassandra doesn't know Elena is linked with Katherine.
"Cass, wait, Elena!" Stefan pleads, voice muffled by blood that won't stop running.
"Whatever happen to your undying love for Stefan?" Cassandra asks, ignoring Stefan's request, hand tightening around Katherine's neck.
"Whatever happened to yours?" Katherine manages through a strained breath.
Time stills. It freezes. Sound vacuums into a black hole. Seconds turn into years, minutes into decades, until Damon feels like his consciousness is falling into nothingness before suddenly rushing back to reality. Stefan turns to look at him, eyes conveying a message Damon is unable to decipher, mouth covered in his own blood. He doesn't know what this is entirely, the Thing churning his stomach and tearing at the wall of his chest. It's a feeling that stinks of death and betrayal. Worse than any heartbreak Katherine forced upon him. A strange, hard to reason feeling, one that goes against everything he knows.
"At least I made sure he didn't die the past century!" Cassandra exclaims with a shake of her head. So, it's true? She and Stefan were a thing? How did he miss that? "Are you really so self-centered that you would rip his heart out, just so you could live?"
"Better you die than I."
"You—"
"Damon, please." Stefan pleads with glimmering eyes and a small voice.
"Cassandra, stop." Damon calls, taking a step closer. "Elena—"
"Elena, Elena! Why do you keep saying that?" Cassandra groans, turning around to face him.
"Everything we do to her; we do to Elena." Stefan gasps out, snorting through the blood beginning to coagulate in his nose.
There's a moment of stretched silence. Cassandra lets go of Katherine's neck, turning back to her slowly. Katherine leans back against the wall, mouth stretching into a self-satisfied smile. Pressure builds inside Damon's chest, trepidation swirls in his stomach. Of all the things Damon expects Cassandra to do, rip a hair off Katherine's head is not one of them.
She walks away from the brunette, kneeling in front of the coffee table on his side. Stefan struggles to his feet, snorting some of the blood once more before wiping the remaining blood with his sleeve. Damon looks at Katherine, notices how her confidence seems to be wavering under her mask of superiority. Said mask crumbles into almost panic when Cassandra reaches into her dress and produces a small vial of what Damon assumes is blood from somewhere within her dress.
"What are you doing?" Katherine demands, pushing from the wall and standing closer to them.
Cassandra doesn't answer. Instead, she pours the vial's content into the coffee table's surface, and drops the single hair strand into it. Somehow, the hair catches fire the second it comes into contact with the red liquid Damon guesses is most definitely not blood, at least not regular blood. When the small flame dissolves, she dips one finger into the small puddle, tracing circles, and circles, and circles.
"You won't be able to undo it. For all your big talk, you're terrified of magic. Always have been." Katherine taunts.
"Quit talking like you know everything about me," says Cassandra, attention unwavering.
To Damon's utter surprise, the red in the liquid starts to fade into a glistening golden color. When the whole puddle has turned golden, Cassandra stops circling it with her finger, and simply looks at it. She has this faraway look in her eyes, this absolute focus that paired with the green of her irises reflecting the golden of the puddle make her look like an ancient goddess rising from the depths of the world.
"Even as human you were miserable, hated yourself, weak." Katherine continues with the same taunting tone. This time, however, she directs her attention to both Stefan and Damon, too, seems to revel in the fact that she's ridiculing Cassandra in front of them. "I know exactly who you were, and you didn't get much better."
Damon doesn't think Cassandra is going to answer, doesn't think she's even listening. Tiny droplets of the golden substance start to break away from the puddle, floating upwards towards the ceiling. He blinks up at them, disbelieving. It is one thing knowing Cassie's a witch, it's a whole different thing witnessing it.
"And I know exactly who you were." Cassandra snaps, turning her attention to Katherine.
In front of her, the floating bubbles get brighter and brighter until, suddenly, they burst and dissolve in the air, leaving no trace behind. Katherine glances from the disappearing golden blood—he'll call it that until he finds out what the hell it was—to a Cassandra that is now rising to her feet, smug.
"A disgraceful harlot lacking class pretending to be nobility. Shame." Cassandra adds with a faux-pout.
Katherine hisses before launching for Cassandra, hands sprawled like claws. Before Damon can step between them, not wanting a repeat of what happened earlier, Cassandra takes a hold of Katherine's arm and twists it behind her back with only enough strength to stop her without causing real pain.
"I'm a hunter, Katherine. Have some respect."
Katherine shrugs her off, turning to her with glowering eyes.
"Wait, did—did you?" Stefan asks with desperation tainting his voice. "Did you undo the spell?"
"No," Cassandra and Katherine say at the same time, without tearing their eyes off each other.
Katherine twirls on the spot, facing them with a little smile. She puts one hand on her waist, swaying in a manner that's meant to be cute, but Damon finds insufferable. So, he looks at Cassandra. Rubbing at her neck, the same spot as earlier, she simply stands there, face unreadable. She attempted to break a spell and failed, he expects her to be defeated, disappointed.
"So, how about that moonstone?" Katherine asks, faux-cheerful.
Silence follows her question. Stefan turns to look at him, but Damon doesn't tear his eyes away from Cassie. She glances at him. His stomach twists as he waits to see that disappointment, that defeat. Instead, Cassandra smiles, this bright smile that could put the sun to shame, this excited smile that lights up her eyes and leaves the air stuck somewhere in Damon's throat. At the confused question on his face, Cassandra winks, before looking back at Katherine, smile gone. He silently wonders what her plan is, but Damon no longer doubts her. He won't let himself.
A/N: Hello, thanks for the support and love you've given to this story since I started posting the rewritten version.
nerdalertwarning: I'm glad you think she's three dimensional, I've put a lot of thought into that. I'm very happy that you like the story, so thanks for letting me know! Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter. xx
WinchesterDixonBros: thanks so much!
Guest 2.0: I hope you continue liking the story. thanks for the kind words.
Cassie's 1 fan: I will continue the story, albeit slowly! love the enthusiam and thanks for all the love for Cass!
queen ares: sorry you think she's a bit of a pushover when it comes to Damon. I think people just expect her to be this badass who's completely unaffected and flawless, but that's not how I see it. How much she gives into him and how he affects her is one of her 'flaws', though I don't like calling it that. Thanks for liking the story, though. x
AB0918: Your wish is my command! I'm glad you like it! And enjoy the chapter! 3
For the record: UPDATED 03/03/2020.