Like Fire

by AlexisKeller

Chapter 04

I raised my hand up to knock on the door of the Boarding House but it opened right before I could do that and Damon ushered me in.

It was the day after the Mikaelsons' party, and I'd only been able to find the little bit of sleep I got that night because of Damon's late text that everything was good and he'd debrief us all in the morning. And going by how Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie looked up expectantly when I walked into the den, I guessed they weren't explained anything either.

"Just in time," Caroline told me. "I just got here too."

After giving her a hello smile, I turned to Bonnie. "Did you even go home last night?"

"I totally did!" She insisted. "I left somewhere around nine when you guys were still out. I got back here to continue on my work only an hour ago."

"You could do the spell-searching stuff at your place instead of camping out here, you know," Caroline reminded Bonnie.

"Hey, they have the best books here!"

Catching Stefan's gaze in the midst of all this, I smiled at him in greeting. He returned it with a tip of his head, and my mind flashed back to last night when I'd joined him with Matt at the stairs upon Damon's directions. There hadn't been much time to talk as we were focused on getting out of there as quickly as possible but he did say he'd been knocked out by one of the Originals without knowing why.

Which was enough information back then to get the hell out of there.

Ha, like I needed a reason to get out of there. I'd had at least two nightmares about the incident on the balcony. What if the Original vampire told the rest of his family and they got curious or something? I'd spent all this time hiding who I was to keep myself safe. It was only three years ago that I'd even told people, and that was that. Only our inner circle knew, as they should. I wasn't a worrier in general, but in this case I thought I had a right to fear something going wrong where the Originals were involved.

We watched as Damon grabbed a drink and strolled towards the fireplace with his back to us.

He stood there for approximately one minute before Stefan lost patience with his brother. "Can you stop with the theatrics and tell us already?"

I couldn't agree more.

"Seriously." Caroline grumbled to herself. "We've only been waiting so long."

"Alright, already, jeez," Damon muttered as he threw back whatever was left in his glass and turned back to us. "So while Stefan was lying unconscious behind a couch and Caroline was dancing with the villain, Eve and I were looking for The Quarterback." He ignored the dirty look Caroline threw at him. "And that's when I found a very interesting conversation happening in the Original mansion."

I nodded, considering all of this was stuff I already knew.

"It was their mother," the expression on his face went wary. "She was talking about how she wanted to link all her kiddies and kill them off."

"Wait, what?" I was confused.

"I thought the entire point of yesterday was that she was happy to be reunited with her family?" Bonnie looked just as puzzled I felt.

"A front," he answered, reaching for another drink. "She must have planned it for some time."

"Damn, that's pretty harsh." Caroline remarked, sounding surprised.

"But they're okay, right?" Stefan clarified, eyes focused on Damon.

"Yeah," Damon paused for a moment. "That's because I told them. Told one of them, but I'm guessing he passed on the message."

So that's why he'd sent me and Matt ahead and stayed behind on the balcony. He'd told the Original about all that he'd heard.

But there was still something I didn't get.

"You said she wanted to link them." I said. "Link them how?"

"Some witchy voodoo crap? She said she worked so hard to spell the champagne she was going to have them drink, and that it would do it."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes, "Huh. I thought they couldn't be killed?"

I felt my eyes widen at that and saw Caroline's mouth drop open. That was true. That's what Elijah had told the Salvatores, at least. That the Originals couldn't be killed.

With the silence in the room, Damon just shrugged in response. "That's what we know, yeah."

"So Esther clearly has some trick up her sleeve, and that must be why Finn snapped my neck," Stefan looked up, putting two and two together. "They must have known that I knew Klaus and Rebekah from before and that I might get in the way of their plan or something."

That was something Stefan had informed us of when Elijah had come to town. He told us about his short-lived connection to a couple of Originals back in his Ripper days—he had mentioned Klaus, but not a Rebekah.

He had also added that as bad as that time was for him and as bad an influence they could have been on his Ripper state of mind, there were things he was still grateful for to them.

"So I told Mr. Not Very Happy out on the balcony when you guys left," continued Damon. "And then I grabbed Blondie from the ballroom and jetted. My guess is Original Mom is long gone by now because I only told one of them but he was pissed as hell, so I don't want to imagine all of them."

"Giving them a heads up was..." I found it difficult to choose the right words. "... a very nice thing to do. Well done, Damon."

Everyone in the room, Damon included, looked terrified at the compliment.

Needless to say, Damon wasn't often nice to people.

"Yeah," Caroline said slowly, like she didn't want to say it.

Bonnie's tone, however, was accusatory. "Too nice. Why would you?"

"What? You doubt my heart of gold?" Damon cracked but was met with complete silence.

"I would've helped them in a heartbeat. Never thought you would, though." Stefan put in, eyeing his brother suspiciously.

"Okay, whatever," Damon muttered, taking a sip from his glass. "It's a war we don't want to get in the middle of. I told him what I heard and said that was our olive branch. With crap like this going down, why the hell wouldn't we want the Originals on our side?"

There was more stunned silence at the confession.

"That's sensible," I observed.

Stefan agreed with evident surprise. "Brilliant, actually. Smart thinking, Damon."

Damon smirked as he lifted his glass in a silent cheers and I thought on the progress of events so far.

When Elijah had first come to town, warning everyone of what was to come, we were all immediately mistrustful. Thanks to him, we were almost on the Kill Klaus train without even knowing who he was because he'd been feeding us stories about what a murderer the guy was. And then he'd pulled a one eighty when the whole family came to Mystic Falls—saying it was all good between them now and he didn't need our assistance anymore—which, of course, made us extremely mistrustful. After that was the little tussle between Damon and Klaus at The Grill.

Then came their olive branch in the form of an invitation.

And then our olive branch now, in the form of extending them a much needed heads up.

Something told me we had earned ourselves a bit of Original favor thanks to Damon.

Which, in this town full of supernatural problems, was probably a good thing.

"So where do we go from here?" I asked no one in particular.

"The Grill, apparently," Damon answered in a much more literal sense than what I'd meant the question to be. I looked to see him frowning at his phone. "Elijah sent a text. Says he and his brother want to meet."

"Which brother?" Caroline raised an eyebrow. "Because if it's the one who's making my boyfriend's life hell right now, I'll pass."

"I don't know." He groaned in response. "But if it's the one from the balcony, I'll pass."

I found myself in absolute agreement with Damon, which was—no matter what the situation—always a strange place to be.

"And if it's the one who snapped my neck, I'll pass." Stefan muttered and Damon just sighed.

"What a life, man."

"Look at him. Doesn't he look just so pleased with himself?" Caroline groused at the milkshake sitting in front of her. Bonnie had decided to stick to her books and stay at the Salvatores while we did this. Caroline, on the other hand, had set herself at the bar with me because in her words: I don't want to be within strangling distance of the Original jackass.

Knowing she was talking about Klaus, I turned to take in the conversation happening across the cafe where he and Elijah sat across from Damon and Stefan, where the older Salvatore was grinning at whatever one of them had said to him.

"Not particularly," I told my friend as I turned back to the bar. "Especially since he has his back to us, you know."

"Take my advice: steer clear. The Originals are just trouble."

I didn't know them personally but I could agree with that. A silence enveloped us as I sipped on the glass of cola I had ordered, mind on the conversation happening between the Originals and the Salvatore.

"Hey, Eve?" Caroline said softly after a minute. "Did... did you like the Mikaelsons' Ball?"

Odd as the sudden question was, for some reason her tone made me want to answer her honestly before I started on quizzing her about whatever she was thinking. "Well, yeah, I guess. It was good... until things started falling apart, you know."

"Hmm." She responded, eyes still on the milkshake glass in front of her. "I liked it too. It made me miss how everything used to be, you know? Laidback and fun."

"Were things ever laidback and fun in Mystic Falls for you guys?" I asked her with a grin, knowing through all her stories that they were absolutely not.

She chuckled at that. "Sometimes. In minor glimpses." The smile faded from her face when she went on, "And then it was all about Klaus."

That's when I decided to ask her point blank. "What's up with that, Care? Why's he always annoying you?"

She shrugged a shoulder as she answered. "I don't know. Doesn't help that my boyfriend had to get in a macho brawl with him over some dumb werewolf thing I don't understand either. Then he's there acting like he never did anything wrong. I'm just... frustrated with everything right now."

I reached over to cover her hand with mine to offer some nonverbal support. Bonnie and I never really liked Tyler for Caroline, and she knew that. It had more to do with the fact that the guy was a plain asshole and not exactly the best boyfriend to her in the first place. They were together during high school, I knew. They had decided to start things back up when we got to Mystic Falls about a few weeks ago. I also knew that they were having problems they were trying to work through, and now Tyler and Klaus apparently were not the best of friends, which was causing even more of a strain on things.

The ring of a cell phone sounded just then and Caroline reached in her jeans pocket to pull hers out. "Speaking of my nonexistent boyfriend, I'm going to get this."

I nodded at her with an encouraging smile as she stood up, going outside the noisy restaurant to take the call.

I wondered to myself how this was going to play out. I honestly didn't think they would work out—Tyler was far too selfish and conceited, and Caroline deserved much more than that. Seeing my cell phone light up with a text from Damon, I read the message that said Us + Originals = alliance. More on that back at the house.

Wow. So it had happened.

And I knew it was majorly thanks to what Damon did last night.

Catching that someone had seated themselves next to me on the stool Caroline had vacated, I looked up to see who it was and my heart immediately stuttered in my chest.

Oh, no.

It was the Original from the balcony, the one who had guessed I was a siren.

Oh, no.

And if anything, he was amused at the flat out panic on my face.

Oh, no.

"Relax, darling."

Yeah, right. My expression probably told him as much.

"You're a siren," he shocked me as he addressed it right off the bat. "You can imagine that it intrigues me."

I looked over my shoulder to where Damon and Stefan had been seated with the Originals to see an empty table. They were gone.

Okay.

I tried not to show how much his comment got to me as I turned back to my cola. "It's no more interesting than you being an Original, I'm sure."

"Oh, but I disagree."

Crap, this was not what I wanted to be doing right now.

It was concerning, someone other than Caroline, Bonnie, Damon, Stefan, Matt and Elena knowing what I was. The difference was, I had told them because I'd wanted to tell them. However, this Original knew because I had been forced to protect my friend from him.

Yeah, this was more than a little unnerving.

Also, there was something heavy in the air I couldn't quite identify and it was weighing down like gravity on me. It was getting far too uncomfortable being in such close proximity of him.

"Um… my friend is, uh, probably getting back anytime now. I should—"

"Oh, don't worry about the blonde you were sitting with. She's a little busy with Nik if I do say so myself."

"Nik?" Don't look at him, don't look at him, don't look at him, I chanted to myself as I crossed my arms and stared unseeingly at the glass in front of me.

"Niklaus. My brother. You know, the big bad?" Now he was just making fun of me.

Suddenly annoyed, I faced him as I asked, "Do you need something?"

My lips were getting dry, damn it. Unconsciously licking my lips, I watched as his eyes dropped instantly to my mouth.

Oh, boy.

"Do I ever, beautiful."

Why was I looking at him again? Also, why was he so ridiculously good looking?

It was weird how I hadn't even noticed him getting closer but now that he was, I was hyperaware that I was not breathing.

Okay, now I was much more uneasy than I had been before.

"What do you want?" I whispered.

There was an almost sinister look in his eyes as he answered. "A taste."

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