A/n: Alright, I finally was able to get a chapter up. I understand if there is a lack of reviews because I hadn't updated in months due to school. I just hope this is to your liking and you will bear with me here.
Disclaimer: I do not own TVD.
Chapter 37: What Have You Done
Sleep definitely was not Charlene's best friend right now. All night, she kept tossing and turning, not finding a consistent comfortable position to sleep in. The creepy environment definitely was part of reason, but it wasn't the main issue. Shane. Professor Shane just made an already tense situation worse. The important little detail he withheld from everyone that his dead wife had been a witch, and there was the fact that said witch tried to bring back her son from the dead with Expression.
That made Charlene see red flags everywhere.
Last night of course, there was the whole situation of how Bonnie couldn't see a spell on Jeremy's tattoo. Charlene hated the fact that Bonnie would have to use Expression to in order to do it, but it was something she had to accept. After all, Charlene was guilty of using Expression before. That definitely cost her.
And now, there's this supposed fact that Shane was the only person able to keep Bonnie from magic overload like dismantling a nuke. That was the last straw for Charlene, and even Damon with always putting his two cents into everything like usual.
This situation is now bringing out the worst in everyone, especially Charlene. Her moods changed like weather now, and it caused her to be moody with everyone. She had to admit, it was a flaw that she didn't like to deal with among her list.
But with Shane threatening – in Charlene's own view - Bonnie's life with teaching her this reckless magic, Charlene's darker side was reaching the surface.
"You're pretty stupid if you think you could keep her at bay. You can't prevent a nuke from going off, Shane." Charlene had kept a cool tone, but her disgust for the professor was evident.
"Don't think I haven't done my research about you, Miss Davis. Bonnie's not the only one that can do that kind of magic. You were a heavy user yourself, if I recall correctly." The professor retorted, getting up from the chair to face the blonde witch carefully.
He knew that Bonnie wasn't the only ticking time bomb within the group. While both of them were Bennett witches due to bloodlines, they were dangerous in different ways. Bonnie was powerful, but she was uncontrolled when it came to Expression. She was reckless, and that was why it was tricky to keep her in check.
But what Bonnie lacked, Charlene made up for it and then some. Not only a Bennett, she was taught by very powerful witch, and is practically on her way to surpassing her. Almost 120 years of magic flowing through her veins, controlled, and ready to be made for Silas' use. Charlene controlling Expression on a better degree was too tempting to miss. Having one Bennett was great prize, but having two?
That was a jackpot.
"It was magic that cost me something valuable if you want to have information updated in that encyclopedia you call a brain."
"I wonder what your teacher would say about it then."
Charlene's annoyance began to leak through. "It seems you know quite enough. What's the point of me talking?"
"We both know why, Char." Her usual nickname sounded wrong coming from him. "You're distracting me to keep distance between us."
"Don't call me that." She snapped at him. "She doesn't need you, Shane. If anything, you would only make it worse."
"Oh, and you think you're qualified for the job?"
She nodded at him, standing in front of the door to block his way. "Better me than you."
"How can you control her when you can't even control yourself? We both know what happens when you lose control of a situation," he said as he walked forward with a challenging gleam in his eyes, "especially when it concerns people you've grown close with." Seeing the conflicting emotions in her face was more than enough for Shane to know. He studied everything from magic to witches religiously too much to not know her history. His inside sources also helped him gather dirt on her, and Charlene definitely had dirty laundry she didn't want people knowing. Just when she thought only Klaus knew, there were others now. With Shane knowing, it posed a problem. "You feel a connection to Bonnie. That's why you're so protective of her. Almost similar to an old friend you once had. Maggie…yeah. That was her name."
"Is creeping around people's lives your only calling?" Charlene was having a hard time keeping her emotions at bay. Her anger dripped drop by drop into her emotions like a faucet that hadn't been turned off all the way. The witch had been in that state the entire time, trying to keep everything in check. Using her magic on a human wasn't wise, but God - she knew Shane wouldn't be missed.
"Knowledge is power. I don't have magic to protect me nor do I have super-fast healing like a vampire to help me. I have my own weapon and it works, even against your magic. It's keeping you at bay." The smirk on his face was enough to make Charlene want to slap it off his face.
Charlene tightened her hands into fists. "What does that supposed to mean?"
{Louder Than Thunder}
Elena followed Damon after she left the shack. She could hear the mud squishing under his boots as he marched to be clear and far away from the group. Everything about him began to bleed through and feed into her frustration. Everything she had been fighting, all of the group had been fighting for, was he so willing to let it all be destroyed? After all the promises he had given her? Nothing made sense anymore.
"Damon! Wait up!" Elena called out for him. She was surprised when he came to a halt and actually listening to her. Maybe if she could just get him to listen.
But she was wrong.
"What?" His voice came out cold and icy. It chilled Elena.
She shook her head. This isn't him. This isn't the Damon she knew. It was an act.
"Shane is the only thing that's keeping Bonnie safe, and you try to kill him? And you wonder why Bonnie hates you." Elena tried to show him the facts, grabbing his shoulder to have him turn around to face her.
Eventually, he faced her with those brown eyes torturing him. But slowly, the numbness of his own selfish and tired reasons clouded his blood. He became harder. "I don't wonder, Elena, because I don't care. I don't care about her. I don't care about some lame-ass cure for vampires, either." Then he added something to remind Elena. "Besides, Shane isn't protecting Bonnie. He's just a creepy tour guide that we use until he dies or some crap. She can protect herself, and not only that. She's got Charlene to back her up, who is one hell of a powerhouse last I checked."
Elena's mouth just dropped, unable process or understand him at all. "How can you say that right now?"
The answer shouldn't have come too clearly. It shouldn't have been so easy. However, it was easy for Damon. He didn't hold back.
"Because I don't want you to be cured."
Elena shouldn't have been shocked about this. There was a part of her that knew this was Damon's true opinion on this. Yeah, he would try to make her happy. But he was selfish. He wasn't going to hold back on what he thought if he asked her. But she remembered. He had been going out of his way to make her happy. Why the change now?
"I'm not fighting with you about this anymore. Being human isn't gonna change my feelings for you." She reassured him, trying all her might to make him see.
But he was skeptical. "Fine. Say they're real. Say you've become human and you still love me. Then what? You grow old. You die. I stay a vampire. Face reality, Elena. We don't work."
There. He finally spat it out. He had finally came to terms what he had been fighting for so long. Honestly though, he was tired of fighting. He was so tired. He couldn't bear to see the hurt in her eyes. He saw how she continued to remain stubborn and try to keep things together. But the sire bond, all the issues, everything was too much. Love shouldn't be this difficult, even for Damon.
God, he wanted Elena now. He wanted more than anything for her to say something. Tell him stop talking. Tell him to go to hell and be done with him. Why can't she give him up? Stop staring at him with love in her eyes. Beneath the cold mask he wore, he felt his heart breaking because of reality.
"So, things aren't easy and you're just gonna push me away now?" she asked him flabbergasted. "That's what you do, Damon. You think that you don't- you don't deserve something, so you ruin it. I'm not gonna let you pull that this time."
Damon's face tightened with his mouth pressed into a thin line. He had to get out. He was a coward, but he couldn't deal with this.
But Elena wouldn't let him walk away from her. She wasn't going to have him slip away.
"Take the cure with me!" Elena shouted, her eyes lighting up with some hope when she saw him stop in his tracks. "That's how much I know this is real. That's how certain I am that I'm going to love you even after this is all over. Take the cure. Be human with me. We can be together. Grow old together. This doesn't have to be hard anymore."
That future…Damon could see it. Elena going through all of those human experiences and treasuring them. The vision came to him like he was looking through a foggy window, trying to see more clearly outside. But as the fog cleared, he didn't see him. He wasn't the man holding her like she was his everything, kissing her like she was the only one who mattered, and making her happy like it was no effort at all.
The man he saw wasn't him. The future Elena wanted was nothing, but a dream. A fairy tale Damon couldn't fit in.
"That's not me, Elena. That's Stefan." With that, he knew that his heart broke inside. He couldn't hear it, but it definitely was clattering into a pile of broken pieces. But Elena wouldn't know. She couldn't see beyond the wall of stone. "You know, I used to miss being human. Now I can't think of anything more miserable on Earth."
With those final cold words finally doing their dirty work, Damon walked away from Elena, every step heavy as he wanted to get away. And he knew, his heart wasn't the only one shattered.
(Louder Than Thunder}
Charlene had been trying in vain to find Bonnie and Jeremy. No matter what spell she used, she was blocked. Any time she tried to reach out, there was nothing. It was as if they didn't exist. The blonde witch had a few ideas on what could be preventing her from fully reaching the hunter and the other witch, but whatever this magic was, it was good enough to block her out of all people.
Her mind was tired and drained, but she continued to dig into her reserves. The rest from the car ride helped to replenish her magic, and she hadn't used half of her magic yet with locating Bonnie. She kept herself focused on the task at hand instead of freaking out over things she couldn't control. The only thing she could was hope despite how haunted she felt.
She strode past the shack and the campfire, chugging down her water bottle along the way until she found Elena standing there. Coming closer, the tears gathering in the brunette's eyes threatened to fall. Charlene had three guesses on what happened.
"Elena, what's wrong?" she asked in concern.
And all of three guesses included just one man.
"Why doesn't he listen to me?" Elena ranted, unable to keep this to herself. "Why can't he ever believe me? How come I can't get through to him?"
'Damon, what did you do now?' she thought. Softly murmuring a soothing spell to calm the vampire, she managed to bring Elena back to a better state. Rubbing her shoulders a bit also helped a little as well.
"Tell me what happened."
"Damon and I got into a fight." Elena explained trying to recompose herself, still upset though. "I tried to tell him that nothing would change between him besides things getting better. But he didn't listen to me. He doesn't want the cure."
Elena didn't see it, but Charlene wasn't shocked at all by hearing this. In fact, she was expecting this for a while now.
"I can see your frustration." The way Charlene spoke, Elena turned her face to her in surprise, trying to understand. How could Charlene talk about Damon like that? Like she's talking from experience? "Damon, has always been hard to convince. He's always going to fight your word unless it's his word he's vouching for. Unless he sees undeniable proof, he's going to fight against you. That's just who he is."
"But I can make him see it. I know I can." She argued, trying to convince herself at least.
However, Charlene shook her head. "I know this is going to be hard for you to hear. I really hate to say this." She really hated to say this since it wasn't just Elena's heart cracking. The truth still hurt for both of them. "But Elena, he's never going to believe you because you are that precious to him. You have his heart, and he will never believe that he deserves you. You being that close to him is what scares him so much. He couldn't bear it if he lost you."
God help the group if that happened. Charlene inwardly shuddered at that thought.
"Will he ever believe me?" Elena honestly didn't know what to think anymore. In the long run, she only wanted the people she cared about to be happy, especially Damon. In her mind, he deserved happiness after everything he went through despite what he had done.
Charlene released a heavy sigh. "It will take something dire to make him believe, but I'm sure you can make it happen."
That was the best explanation she could give. The witch didn't want to give her false hope, but she wanted to be encouraging. This would do for now.
"You're his closest friend, right? He'll listen to you." The brunette vampire urged. "He's gotta believe you then."
That's when Charlene laughed. It felt good for once. "Friend? Wouldn't Alaric fit that title more than me? After all, he was his drinking buddy."
"How did you know about Alaric?" Elena asked.
"I did my research before coming to Mystic Falls." Also, there's the fact that Charlene had been keeping tabs on Damon Salvatore long before Elena came into existence. But no, Charlene wasn't going to tell that to her. She had enough suspicion aimed towards her.
"Oh…" Elena's voice trailed off, remembering whose side the witch was previously on before regrettably. "Can you just please help me with Damon? I love him so much."
Elena wasn't the one who loved him, but that was Charlene's secret to keep for now. Caring and loving him was one of those few reasons that she was gathering her emotional strength for this. Nodding her head, she agreed to it. "Yeah, I'll try. Why don't you get a blood bag while you're at it? You look pale."
"Thank you, Charlene. Thank you so much!" Elena said in gratitude, hugging her briefly before making her way towards the campfire and shack nearby.
Meanwhile, Charlene marched to find Damon's trail. Her steps became harder and faster since she was determined to give the man a piece of her mind. Thankfully, she didn't care about her hiking boots getting muddy and dirty trying to find him. Honestly, she rarely cared for a few things at this point.
But, what Damon did was totally unnecessary. And, Charlene didn't Elena to get into a state when everything was on the line.
"Damon Salvatore!" she yelled for him, seeing him up ahead not too far from her. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."
Damon really had the hold back the urge of wanting to kill her. Why now of all times she had to open her mouth? "Great, now I have to hear more emotional speeches from you too?"
The vampire reacting coldly to her wasn't a surprise. She had enough experience dealing with his attitude, and frankly she wasn't in the mood to do so. But God, after everything about wanting to protect her and keep Klaus away, now he decides to be an ass and tear Elena down? Charlene wanted to straggle his neck until he died.
"The only emotion you're going to get out of me is being angry since I'm pissed off and aggravation because I'm tired of your attitude!" Charlene hadn't gotten this angry in a long time. The last time she got this angry with him was when she broke a bottle to his head. Too bad there wasn't any bottles around.
"Charlene, everyone appreciates you being here and helping out, but I don't need your help with my troubles in my relationship with Elena. Piss off."
"Frankly, I don't want to, Damon. However, when your problems are seeping into other things that are important then I have to step in. You know damn well why I need to step in." Charlene replied angrily.
Damon turned around to face her, almost smirking at the brave little witch standing her ground. Stupidly brave until the end. Stupidly generous until the end. Additionally, she was stupidly foolish.
"You're crossing a thin line." Damon warned her with the inky spidery veins around his eyes pulsed.
"Well, you know what? I really don't care anymore. Crossing lines isn't new for us, and you know it. And what's also new is that only a few people are willing to put up with your bullshit: Stefan, Elena, and me. I'm also pretty sure that your list is shortening at this rate."
That was when Charlene was met with a familiar sight. The vampire inside of Damon came out to play, and before she knew it, her back was held against the tree with a hand tightly closed around her neck.
"What is it going to take for me to make you shut up for once?!" he snarled at her.
She met his glare with one of her own. "I could ask you the same thing, pal. What's going to take for me to get you to actually support you girlfriend instead of tearing her down? Do you want her in a state because I don't?"
His fingers tightened around her throat. "I'm going to get the damn cure for her, do you understand? Nothing about that has changed for your information. I still love her, dammit!"
"Then keep that in mind as we…try to keep going," she struggled to get her words out. Damon's fingers around her throat were so tight. He hadn't been this aggressive towards her in a long time. "Let me go, Damon!"
"Will you be quiet this time? I'm definitely not letting you until you do."
Those red eyes of his always unsettled her when he had them come to the surface. Time and time again, Charlene had to relearn the same lesson when it came to those she cared about. Everyone, including her, had a dark side inside of them. That lesson definitely applied heavily to the supernatural. She was used to seeing bright golden eyes staring her down. The vampire eyes was something else, but this was personal. Damon's darker side still made her froze. This was the monster that occupied in Damon.
And, she couldn't deny that there was something dark lurking inside of her too. She wasn't proud of it at all.
"I'll be quiet, but you're not going to be the one who makes me." Charlene reminded him, concentrating around his skull and severing two major blood vessels. The vampire snarled in pain, letting her go from his grip and she fell safely to the ground.
"Damn you, woman." Damon growled out, his red eyes burning at her with anger. "Will anything good enough for you?"
"Me? You're seriously asking me that question? I didn't do anything to you." The blonde witch snapped at him, eyeing the branch nearby her just in case Damon got stupid. "If you're asking that question so much then direct that to Elena and not me."
"SHUT UP! I don't need this from you, especially from you." He moved forward to attack her, faster than she could blink.
Charlene jumped away from the charging vampire, rolling in the dirt as she landed, and keeping a tight grip on the small branch. Damn, he was so fast. Before she knew it, he was looking in her direction again. Shit.
"What's wrong, Char? You don't have the urge to do it?" he taunted her.
He could hear the witch's heart pumping the blood in her veins so fast. His anger at everything and bloodlust melded together into a wicked combination. The taste of her witch blood pricked in his mind, but the main thing occupying was the anger. He wanted to hurt her. Show her that even when she meant something to him, she'd still get hurt. He was tired of her talking.
"Because trust me, I've got an urge for you. Killing you wouldn't be so bad…"
He charged at her again. This time, he went for her neck. His fangs pierced through the pale skin of her neck, and he grabbed the long blonde tendrils tight to keep her there. The succulent taste of her blood poured over his tongue, and it took over his attention. All he wanted was to drink from her and kill her. God, why hadn't he drank from her a long time ago?
But he stopped. His knees buckled and snapped apart like twigs, which made him release from gripping the witch. Then raging pain formed around his chest, and it grew. A huge red spot began to come forth through his shirt, staining it with the blood. But it didn't end there.
Again and again, he could feel bite marks around his neck. The fangs were sharper than his own and caused a hell of a lot more pain. He swore that they felt familiar with the burning sensation from a long time ago brought back a few memories to his brain.
Klaus' fangs. Klaus biting him?
But how? He wasn't here. He couldn't be.
"You feel it, don't you? The werewolf venom. The fangs. Well, the venom was a personal touch from me. The fangs though, they were real. Just giving you a glimpse on what he did to me." Her voice tightened in a way he hadn't heard before. Looking up to her now, he could see the harsh lines in her face. It wasn't like when last time when she attacked him.
She was angry.
"It's one thing for Klaus to bite me because he's always been a bastard." She gritted out. "But you…after everything I have done to make sure your group was alive, after everything you knew – YOU BIT ME! OF ALL PEOPLE!"
He was pushing her close to the edge. He honestly didn't know how thin the care and patience for him was wearing down.
"You say you want to kill me? How about this, Damon? Do you truly know how many times I've wanted to kill you?"
More of the phantom bites tore into his neck. He cried out in pain, still wondering how in the hell no one was hearing him. "Char…I'm sorry."
"Don't say you're sorry!" Charlene yelled, her anger bleeding into her magic. She raised the pain factor for him. "You knew! You fucking knew about what Klaus did to me! I told you on our way to help your damn group! BUT NO! YOU STILL BIT ME, ANYWAY!"
She was edging towards being hysterical. Marching towards him, Damon got a closer look of her face. He's never seen her like this. Her anger was usually cold like ice; it was never bursting and burning with fire like now. He could see the tears pricking in her eyes as she continued to hurt him. He crossed the line this time. He was the one who pushed her.
"I ought to kill you right now. I want to kill you right now." Charlene replaced the pain of the fangs biting him with something else. She grabbed the broken branch from earlier and stabbed Damon through the chest, making sure it wasn't through his heart. She didn't want him dead yet. She wanted him to feel the pain.
Why should she always go through pain when it came to him?
"Dammit, Char. I'm sorry! What else do you want me to do?" he practically yelled at her in pain.
More bones broke around his legs, keeping him on the ground where Charlene wanted him. He watched as she raised her hand and enclosed it into it a fist. There was no mercy in her eyes.
"I want you to stop tearing my heart out."
That was all she said before Latin words began spilling out of her mouth, and her will was beginning to manifest. Instead of him tearing her heart out, she was going to drag it out of him one inch at a time.
Damon choking and spitting out blood was music to Charlene's ears. He gasped at his pain, trying to grab his heart as if it would prevent Charlene ending him. The wooden branch inside of him was still there until he pulled it out, but the magnifying pain of Charlene tearing his heart out slowly was there.
How come no one could hear them?
"No one is going to hear you. I'm making sure of that." Charlene said before the Latin words resumed.
"CHARLENE!" Damon yelled out, falling onto the ground coughing up blood.
After what felt like a century, the pain around his heart just dropped. It stopped. Immense relief flooded through him as he gasped for breath and tried to heal from the attacks she caused to him. Painfully looking up, he saw the witch just looking at him with the residual and bitter anger, but something else was present there. Disappointment.
"I should have killed you." She should have killed Elena first to get rid of this whole mess, but she couldn't do that. Charlene didn't have the heart to. "But that would be kind for you."
"…I'm sorry, Charlene. I was wrong." Damon forced himself to get the words out. He didn't want to see Charlene hurt. Of all people, he didn't want her to be hurt by him. But like always, he always screwed up. But with her? It caused him pain that he didn't know could happen with him.
She shook her head. "It's too late for apologies. I'm done with apologies that don't mean anything."
But his apology was meaningful. Damon did mean it. And she knew that. But, she couldn't deal with it anymore.
She turned around with her back towards him, heading back to the camp and leaving him there. Leaving him to die? Who knows? She was too hurt and numb to care. She knew if she turned around, her will would give in. Her heart wanted to heal him of his wounds, but her anger was still in control. She was too angry.
Charlene made him see that she was capable of hurting people, including him. She almost killed him just now.
He wouldn't push her that far again. She wouldn't let him.
"Listen well, Damon, because I'm not going to say this twice. You pull off what you did earlier again, and I'm guaranteeing you that you're going to have hell coming for you. And, it's not going to be just me trying to obliterate you. There's going to be someone trying to tear you into pieces, and I would fight them in trying to make you suffer first."
This was the last time she was ever going to help in any relationship kind of crap involving with Damon. Elena would have to do that on her own. As Charlene began to walk again, he spoke again, making her stop.
"Then who would be fighting me, huh?" Damon was still stubborn, even when he could be killed right there. "I don't see anyone in your corner."
"As much as I want to lie to you, I'm not. I do have someone in my corner. And she would be more than glad to tear you limb from limb after the crap you've put me through."
"Who is she then?"
"I'm not telling you – OW!" Her answer was cut short. Feeling sudden pain in her neck, Charlene felt around at the source, and her eyes widened at what she pulled out. A dart.
"Wha…" She couldn't fight it. The sedative was too strong. The darkness took over her before she had any chance. She was on the ground falling unconscious within a minute.
"What the hell?" Damon dragged himself closer to the fallen witch, reaching for her neck to check her pulse. It was steady. Thank God.
Dammit. The wounds that she conflicted towards Damon were hitting him harder than a freight train. The ache in his legs already healed quickly, but the pain around his chest healed so slowly. But within a heartbeat, things would change for the worst.
An arrow flew through him, landing into his shoulder, and sticking out from the other side. Grunting in pain, he struggled to pull the damn thing out. "You've got to be kidding me."
It was then that he found his face being slammed to the ground repeatedly (like he couldn't get more faceplanted into the ground as it was.) Swift hands came from behind and snaked around Damon's neck like a vice. Thankfully, Damon's healing was faster than anyone expected. He wasn't going to give up a fight that easily.
No. Not here. He couldn't let him get to Charlene. Not after everything…
Inching for the knife he hid in his jean pocket, he got it in time to stab the other man's hand before being set free from the chokehold. Looking at the man in front of him, one thing stood out.
His arm.
In the dim moonlight, Damon saw it. A trail of inked tattoos traveled up the man's arm.
He was a Hunter.
"You're one of the Five." Damon said in shock before charging back at him, trying to keep him distracted.
However, the man came prepared. Just before Damon could kill him directly, he used the opportunity to stab him something of his own. The wooden stake went through the vampire's chest, and it wasn't going to move anywhere. Before Damon could comprehend, his eyes widened at watching the hunter pulling the pin out from the damn thing on his chest. A staked-spiked bomb.
He pulled the pin, setting it off and immobilizing Damon as the stake shrapnel imbedded into his chest. The Salvatore had no choice, but fall to the ground and succumb to the same darkness occupying Charlene.
The man behind Damon looked at the settings around him, seeing if there was anyone else around. Thankfully, there wasn't anybody for now. He saw the conflict between the witch and the vampire, knowing that there would be some point they would fight it out. After all, he had been watching them in Mystic Falls for the past few months. The hunter gathered information on everyone in that small town, and he knew what he had to with what he acquired. It was enough for him. He got one of the vampires. Now, for the next step.
The witch wasn't his problem, though. Although, it wouldn't be long before other people would start to look for her. With his morale controlling his action, he didn't let the woman just lay there on the ground. He maybe a hunter, but he wasn't cold-hearted with another human girl, even though she was a witch. He brought her limp body into his arms and placed her sitting against the nearest tree he could find. He hoped someone good would find her because he knew about the others on the island who weren't so noble.
But now, all that mattered was getting the body of Damon Salvatore tied up and away from here before anyone caught him. After all, Vaughn didn't come all this way and wait this long for nothing. He was going to stop the threat of Silas no matter what.