Askhole: def. someone who continually asks stupid or pointless questions
Chapter 12: I Might Need Some Help.
"Bons, for the last time, I'm not going to watch Buffy with you and Care."
She pouts looking down at the Grill's knocked up table while carving another bite of steak off and popping it in her mouth.
"Oh, come on, Lessy," she whines with her mouth full, "It's amazingly ironic, considering."
"And that's exactly why I ain't gonna do it. If I'm already living it, watching it would be repetitive info. Anyhoo, where the hell is Caroline? She said she'd be here like fifteen minutes ago."
Sipping another large gulp of milkshake that Caroline was supposed to pay for, I glance around ye olde Mystic Grill looking for her familiar blonde head.
"She's looking for a Halloween costume, remember? She takes forever when she shops."
I sigh, spinning my unused fork inbetween my fingers, "Still planning on being a witch?"
"I pride myself on being ironic," she bounces back, playfully. I'm happy to see her in much better spirits after last night, but her comment reminds me of something else.
Vicki was gonna be an 'ironic' vampire tomorrow.
I had very quickly made my exit after Damon snapped her neck, not wanting to become newborn vampire chow, and now I had to think about what I wanted to do here. I could either let her die, which would require the least effort on my part, but be guilt tripped every time I spoke to Matt after. Or, I could try and help her, keep Matt and ugh, Jeremy somewhat happy, and exercise maximum effort.
As a blonde head popped through the front door in my peripheral, I was glad I decided to summon the war council on this one. I couldn't figure out who to leave her to if I did save her. Stefan wasn't a good vampire role model whatsoever, and Damon would get bored and either kill her or ditch her in his current state.
As Care sits her cute butt in the seat across from me, she sets several bags on the floor by her feet. "Damn, chica, did you buy the whole store?" She rolls her cornflower blue eyes before shining her bright smile at me. Her 'I did something for you' smile.
"Oh no, Care you shouldn't have," I sigh warmly. She knows I love presents, and she would by one randomly every now and again to keep me on my toes. She shakes her head, "Don't say a word, Aless, I'm not returning it. Now, what did you wanna talk to us about?"
I roll my sore neck before leaning up on the table, clasping my hands together. "Okay, ladies," I start earnestly, wanting it to come across how serious this was for our friend group, "I'd like to introduce a new group code name called 'war council'. Basically, this is where we decide as a group how to go about the supernatural goings on in Mystic Falls. We'll always take a vote on decisions, and it'll be majority rules, since this is a democracy."
Bonnie's olive gaze is solemn on mine, and Caroline is looking at me with the most determined expression I've seen on her since we went Black Friday shopping last year.
Bons starts off first, "Okay, I think this is a good idea. But once I tell Elena what's going on, she needs to be part of it, too."
Ugh.
I nod, but it's not with any eagerness. It's only fair. And besides, once Elena becomes a liability by getting too attached to the hip of the Salvatores, she'd not be included in major decisions anymore.
Caroline nods as well, then looks at me intently, "Now, what do you need to tell us, Aless?"
There's no easy way to do this, just spill the beans.
"Vicki Donovan has accidentally been turned by Damon."
Both pairs of eyes widen substantially, slowly digesting the information, then finally joining back into the discussion.
"Why the hell did Damon do that?!" Caroline whisper yells across the table.
Bonnie jumps in, "And secondly, if he's that dangerous why are we helping him?"
My arms raise in a self defensive motion, "Hang on! Firstly, Damon did it by accident. Stefan locked him in their cellar for five days and the dude was starving. Went all animalistic on the druggies in the graveyard last night. Vicki was still breathing. Fed her his blood and healed her. She was being super rude to me, and he snapped her neck, but he forgot he'd healed her before, and blames Stefan for keeping him locked up in the first place."
No need to bring up Tiki since no one directly told me about it.
Caroline's blonde brow furrows, "Wait. Stefan's a vampire?" She shakes off the question, "Never mind, why did Stefan even lock Damon up in the first place?"
I roll my eyes at Stefan's dramatics, "Long story, short, Stefan provoked Damon, Damon acted out by trying to ruin his relationship with Elena by using me as an in."
Bons nods, finally processing my information dump of the last forty eight hours, "Okay, so what are we deciding on?"
"Basically, it's to discuss whether we should help save Vicki or stay out of it," I reply nonchalantly, and the girls both look at me shocked before I raise my hand, pausing their onslaught, "Look. I don't want to see her die. I don't like her, but I don't want her dead. She's Matt's sister. However, she's a newborn vampire with an insatiable lust for blood who also happens to be a drug addict. The odds of her going all crackhead is really high, and she's actually dangerous right now because she's unpredictable. Also, she's made a point of telling me how much she hates me, so she could attack any one of us out of spite."
"Why would Vicki do that?" Caroline asks innocently, not knowing quite as much about vampires as Bons and I did.
Bonnie blows out a puff of air, cupping the back of her neck nervously before answering, "Vampires have really heightened emotions, and since she's a baby, her's are wayyy worse. A little sadness turns into depression, a little happiness turns into insanely chipper.."
".. And anger turns into fury?" She fills in, and we both nod, "Jesus Christ."
"Yeah, so, now that you guys have all the deets, what do you want to do?"
The vibe at the table is stone cold serious, and both of my closest friends and family are staring hard at the table for a few minutes, deliberating. Caroline speaks first.
"I think... We should leave it," she whispers quietly, and both us Bennetts look up at her in question, "She's an actual threat to you guys, and if she's already a full vampire, she bit into someone's neck already. Vicki doesn't have any self control or emotional control, and she could seriously hurt Matt, even on accident. Not to mention, Tyler.."
I blink. I blink again. I don't think I was ready to hear quite such a mature response from her. And she has a point about Matt and Ty. Bonnie then looks up to me, her eyes burning with a million thoughts going a mile a minute.
"My vote is to save Vicki Donovan. We owe it to Matt and Tyler."
Bonnie also makes a brilliant point. Shit.
Looks like it was up to me. I roll my eyes momentarily before crossing my arms, I really didn't wanna do this.
"Ugh, bleeding hearts of the world unite, I vote we save Vicki Donovan."
*
"Alright Bon, ready to learn something new?"
She nods earnestly, and I set our Great Aunt Peggy's grimoire on the table before turning back around and grabbing the handful of herbs and red candles we'll need to do this. I knew that around this time Vicki was gonna end up around the woods, but I didn't know where, so this provided an excellent opportunity to teach Bons about location spells.
Dropping all the shit on Caroline's bedroom table. I start standing up the candles on their holders before telling Bonnie, "Hey, turn that open to the Channeled Location spell. Not the regular one, since none of us have any of Vicki's DNA and I'm not asking Matt for any of his."
She nods, quickly turning through the pages of English and Latin pages, and I proceed to spill salt into a circle around our town map of Mystic Falls that we grabbed from the gas station.
"Usually," I sigh as I set up, "I'd have you doing the set up so you'd know how to prep for an actualspell instead of the chants and incantations we've been practicing, but, we'll just save it for another time since we're under a time crunch."
Caroline watches us move like busy bees all over her room with a very intrigued look on her face as she rests on her beanbag. "So, this'll actually find Vicki?"
Bonnie nods, "It should. Since the instructions include me channeling Lessy, it should be really accurate. Also, since me and Lessy are so closely related, it makes channeling her a lot easier and a little stronger than a regular one."
Lighting each of the candles around the salt circle, I quickly plant sage and a couple crystals around the circle to ensure this shit won't blow up in our faces. I quickly place Vicki's school picture from last year under the map, and we're ready to go. Turning to Bons, who's reading over the grimoire, I dust off my hands.
"You ready, Bons?"
She nods resolutely, "Let's do this thing."
Caroline watches on with complete focus as I move over to Bonnie, handing her the summer camp bracelet she made me when we were 10, while she in turn gives me her favorite necklace that our Dad gave her god knows when. These would act as our talismans. We lock hands, turning towards the table.
"Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Sequitas Sanguinem," we chant in unison, and I immediately feel Bonnie's magic attach to mine. I thought it'd feel weird, but, Bonnie's magic was a lot like her presence, and in that sense it was comfortable to me. Like two pieces of a puzzle. After the connection is made, Bonnie stretches one palm forward over the map, continuing to chant as she pulls further on my magic.
I continue to chant with a picture of Vicki in my mind, and a small flame extends from the center of the map, right above her picture. It trails like it's following a thin line of lighter fluid, burning bright, but never burning the rest of the map.
That is, if Bonnie keeps her focus. If not, she could burn the whole map.Eventually, the trail flares bright for a moment as it reaches a certain point within the woods.
Suddenly, an image of Vicki finally stopping her run appears to me, and she sinks onto the forest floor and begins to cry.
I blink as my eyes are suddenly back in their original position, and Bonnie turns to me urgently. "Did you see her, too?" She asks and I quickly nod in affirmation, snatching the map from off the table. The only burn mark that's on there is on the spot in the woods.
"We gotta hurry, the sun is setting already," Bons says, grabbing her jacket from behind Care's chair.
Caroline snaps out of her stupor and quickly grabs her car keys off of her side table, giving us an excited smile, "Alright, Twitches, let's go save the attention whore!"
*
We pull up to the edge of the road closest to Vicki's location. "Hey, Caroline?" I ask seriously, and she quickly turns to me in the backseat, "Make sure you're right by me and Bons the whole time we're out here."
She rolls her eyes and glares at me in reply, "I'm not an idiot, Aless, don't worry."
I always worry.
We all exit the vehicle, and start climbing up the brief incline into the woods. Caroline is practically attached to my hip as we continue forward, with Bons guiding because I'm absolute shit at maps. Eventually, we hear a slight sniffle from behind a large tree.
I elbow Bonnie forward, since she's the only one of us that Vicki is impartial to, but I'm ready to spit out a spell the second the bitch acts up. Vicki looks up at her, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"What the hell are you doing here, Bennett?"
Bonnie sighs, before squatting down to Vick's level, eyeing her earnestly.
"We're here to help, Vicki. Are you okay? I know the transition is hard."
The baby vampire's eyes get harsh and defensive immediately, "Who's we? And how do you know what happened?"
I quickly step into Vick's line of sight, and Caroline quickly follows behind me, causing said vamp to let out a bitter laugh. "Of course, it's fucking Alessia and Caroline. Who else would it be?" Her glare turns to me, and I can tell she's barely controlling her rage, "I don't need you to save me."
I decide to take the delicate, honest route that'll appeal to her humanity the most.
"I'm aware. I'm doing this because Matt needs his sister around."
She blinks at me owlishly, as if it never occurred to her that I'd help her for Matt's sake. Her green eyes slightly soften towards me, and she looks sadly at Bonnie.
"I didn't want this to happen. I'm just so hungry."
Bonnie nods softly, placing a gentle hand on the girl's crying shoulder. Such a compassionate person. I wish I was this nice. I hear a twig snap behind me, and reflexively whisper, "Incendia," my intention to make whoever snuck behind me be surrounded by a ring of fire.
Caroline screams and all us girls turn to see the godly Stefan Salvatore trapped in my ring. "Goddamn it, Stefan!" I yell at him, quickly dispelling the flames with a wave of my hand, "No one ever tell you not to sneak up behind people?!"
Totally forgot he was coming. That spell from earlier must be making me spacey.
He just stands there, not saying a word as he looks like a handsome deer in the headlights, forest green gaze shifting between me, Bonnie, Vicki, and Caroline. Bons waves her hand, trying to snap him out of it, "Earth to Stefan?"
Suddenly, Stefan looks hard at me with his pretty green eyes, "Why are you all here, Alessia?"
Not wanting to completely divulge how I knew about Vicki turning at the moment, I roll my eyes, "We're obviously here to help, Stefan. Now, let's take Vicki back to the boardinghouse. It's getting cold."
Wait a minute, isn't Vick supposed to go full vampire at some poin-
A gunshot rings out, and Stefan falls to the floor. As I hear the second one, I don't entirely register it. All I register is a fiery pain starting up from the joint in my shoulder. Fuck, fuck, fuck it hurts!!! I barely register falling to the ground, seeing that goddamn news anchor holding a smoking gun a few feet away.
Bonnie screams, "LESSY!!" And I hear Caroline scream again. I'm laying on the forest floor, trying not to cry out from the pain, but failing, when I see Vicki start inching towards me, in a complete haze of hunger.
Double fuck.
Bonnie launches Logan Fell into the tree next to us, and I'm pretty sure I hear Caroline screaming for Vicki to stop, as she is fairly close to me now. I start trying to get up, trying to ignore the pain in my shoulder as I inch away from the baby 'not really a vampire yet' vampire. Bonnie once again flares her magic and launches Vicki across the clearing and into a stone building.
Hearing Stefan groan in pain, I turn and see Logan Fell about to turn said pretty vampire boy into a shish kebab.
That is, until the wonderful Damon Salvatore snaps his pretty teeth into the guy's neck, and I sigh gratefully. That's one problem down, and I'm feeling less and less inclined to help the other one.
I quickly chant a spell to numb some of the pain in my shoulder, and I instantly think about how stupid I got in this situation. If I couldn't function proficiently while in pain, I would never be able to save my sister and friends, let alone myself. Not to mention, I'd be an idiot if I thought I wasn't going to get tortured at some point.
I need to work on my pain tolerance.
Damon proceeds to dig the bullet out of Stefan, not really seeming to care if it hurt him.
"It's wood," he sighs, rolling his big blue eyes, "They know."
Then he glances up at the rest of us momentarily, "And, apparently, so do all of you," he says more like a question before he locks those pretty blue eyes on mine, quickly looking me over and seeing the bullet wound before he then turns back to Stefan.
"If anyone's gonna kill you, it's gonna be me. My ring?"
Stefan slowly pulls it out of his pocket, and Damon quickly slides it on his finger with a smirk and a hum. The crunch of teeth against flesh rings out, and I can't help but be grossed out as Vicki hums into Logan Fell's neck.
Eww.
Stefan's eyes widen as he weakly tries to sit up. "No! No Vicki!"
Did he want her to die? Cuz if she didn't drink that she was gonna die.
The new vampiress then looks around the woods, locking eyes with all of us, and I can feel my nose curl in disgust at how messy she ate. Like seriously, Damon was so clean and tidy, while she looked like she tried bobbing for apples in a pool of blood. Where's the class?
"I'm sorry," she says quietly, but I know she doesn't mean it. Not that I blame her for not being apologetic though. Then, she stands up and dashes further into the woods.
The ingrate. I just took a bullet to save her ass and she just leaves. I should've voted for her to die.
Bonnie snaps out of her shock of seeing a dead body for the first time, quickly rushing over to me and running her hands through my hair.
"Oh god, Lessy! Are you okay?" She asks worriedly, looking at the bloodstain on my shirt. Caroline quickly follows and crouches on my other side.
"I'm so sorry, Lessy. God! We should've just let her die!" She yells, frustrated, blue eyes bright with worry and anger.
"Guys, guys," I say, starting to sit up fully, "I'm fine. We might need to do a second vote on Vicki, though."
It was a joke, and causes Bonnie and Caroline to bite out a laugh incredulously. The crunch of leaves next to us alerts me to Damon's presence, and Care and Bonnie both look at him with matching glares, trying to see if he's a threat.
"Calm down," he says mockingly, "I have no desire to nibble on Ally Cat, but I doubt you guys can pull that bullet out."
Aw, man. That's really going to hurt.
They cautiously move away enough to give him room to work, but not far away enough to indicate trust. I get why. Damon crouches down beside me, looking at the bloody hole in my shirt, before looking at me intensely.
"If you've got any sort of witchy spell for the pain, I suggest you use it now."
I'll practice pain tolerance another day. I quickly whisper a small incantation to make it even less painful, nearly numbing my arm out, before giving him a quick nod to start.
It doesn't really help.
*
So, now we were all grouped up at the Salvatore boardinghouse in the early morning, me all healed up thanks to vampire blood. Caroline was sitting on the couch in the living room next to Bons, both clutching their tumblers of bourbon hard. It was probably really hard for them to bounce from regular teens to supernaturally aware ones so soon, but they were so strong in how they were dealing with it. Neither of them had broken down and cried, neither had hesitated when trying to save me.
So, so proud.
I took another swig from my glass as both of the Salvatores walked back into the room with the missing Vicki.
"Found her!" Damon cheerfully calls out as he shoves her onto the opposite couch, smoothly pouring himself a glass before gesturing to ours, "Oh, but don't you lovely teens have to go to school?"
"Me and Bons are taking a sick day," I reply, taking another swig of the drink that I had watered down. I then turned to Caroline, "You, chica?"
She waves me off nonchalantly, but I can tell by how her shoulders are set that she's nervous about having Vicki in the room.
"Don't worry. My mom gives me five days every quarter where I can take a breather from school. This would be my second."
Vicki acts as if nothing is wrong, scoffing as she slumps further into the couch. Stefan sits across from her, and I can tell by the look on her face that she's about to annoy the shit out of me.
"I don't understand why I have to be cooped up here," she whines, "Why can't I just go home?"
Me and Care have to stifle a laugh when Bonnie glares at her, snarking, "Why do you think?"
Vicki rolls her eyes at her, and Stefan slips into his 'ever suffering vampire' role.
"Because you're changing, Vicki, and it's not something you want to do alone."
Damon flips through the morning newspaper, his brow furrowing as he scans it, "There's nothing about that Logan guy I killed in here, not a word. Someone's covering it up."
"Probably the Council," Caroline adds, helpfully, and it makes the blue eyed vampire hum thoughtfully. That would make the most sense, but I knew it wasn't the truth. The douche bag was a bonafide Dracula by now. Vicki glances back at whatever Damon is clattering in his hand.
She asks, "What's that?" And I'm once again reminded that I find her voice grating to my eardrums.
"This," he says, slightly lifting the compass, "is a very special, very old compass. What was Logan Fell doing with it? Aren't you curious?" He glances at Stefan who in turn looks away in annoyance.
"Hey coven?" Me, Bons, and Care all glance up at the new nickname for our girl group, "Think you could figure it out for me?"
Bonnie surprises me by opening her hand in a 'pass it' motion, and Damon tosses it over to her waiting hands. She looks hard at it, frowning slightly. "It's magic, defensive magic, but I can't tell why it's there."
Stefan looks up from the book he had grabbed at some point, looking back at Damon, "Well, if you're so worried that somebody's onto you, why don't you just leave town, Damon?"
Very passive aggressive.
"Not optional, little Salvatore," I sigh, looking at my nails as he turns to look at me suspiciously.
"We should all be worried," Damon adds with a wolfish smirk, clearly glad that what I said had gotten under Stefan's skin.
Stefan doesn't lose his focus on me, however.
"Speaking of which, Alessia," he starts, and I already know where this is going, as he leans forward to pay full attention to me, "How'd you know that Vicki has been turned?"
Ugh, fine.
Crossing my legs and leaning back, I eye him in a way that I hope shows I'm not scared of him at all, before saying, "Because, I was over here when Damon snapped her neck."
Literally everyone else in the room was aware of this fact except for Stefan, so he's the only one who is clearly bothered by it.
"And you didn't stop him?" He asks quietly, but nonetheless angry.
"I was plastered, Stefan. My reaction time isn't great when I'm wasted."
Green eyes harden at my blasé tone, and he takes a deep breath while rubbing his temples, "You decided to get completely wasted with a dangerous vampire and also let him use Vicki as a blood bag?"
I glare right back, "Easy there, Clark Kent. Technically, he saved her from dying after you starved him, and he didn't drink from her the entire time I was there. I've had a long night, I'm tipsy, and if you keep annoying me I'll launch your ass into that bookcase."
I am seriously getting fucking tired of him trying to tell me what to do.
His thick brows furrow further, his eyes soft and pleading for me to listen to him, "Alessia-!"
I swiftly lift my hand and launch his body into the book case.
Caroline gasps, and Bonnie breaks out laughing. Her laugh isn't a hundred percent genuine, but I'm guessing some of it is from the stress earlier. Vicki's eyes snap back and forth from the now ruined bookcase to me, clearly not understanding what the fuck was going on. And Damon, well, Damon had a very amused grin on his face and let out a low whistle before turning back to his newspaper.
Gotta love magic.
*
A/n: Hey all! Hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. And to the guest who said I should've just made my character an OC and not had her be a Bennett at all if Bonnie wasn't the main character, well, I just didn't want to. If you are tired of reading from Alessia's perspective, Alessia's Guide to Surviving the Vampire Diaries is probably not the fanfic for you. I'm becoming a lot more firm in the belief that this is my story and I'll do as I please with it. Thanks to those who have been helpful and supportive in their criticism!