Author's Note:
Yuck. This one is short like I thought. I looked and discovered that next chapter completely makes up for it, thank god. Hang in there y'all!
Elowen almost stumbled on the rug at the sound of Elena's voice. Stefan seemed just as stunned because he didn't say anything.
"What are you?" Elena asked again, using more force in her voice this time. Stefan still didn't speak up. "Does Elowen know? That you're…. You're, not human?" Elena tangled her hands in her hair in frustration when she still didn't get any answer. "Say something, damnit!"
Elowen cautiously stepped out from behind the door and into Elena's line of sight. Elena's eyes darted towards her and she scoffed. "What am I saying? Of course you know. Are you like him, too?"
Elowen shook her head. "No," she quietly responded. She glanced at Stefan, who still looked like he wasn't sure what to say. She didn't blame him. "But I'm not human, either."
Elena's eyes widened. "What?" She blurted breathlessly. She shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. "Then what the hell are you two?"
Stefan finally found his voice. "Everything you know…. Every belief you have is about to change. Are you ready for that?"
"Stop stalling. What are you?"
"I'm.. a witch."
"And I'm a vampire."
Hearing the answers with her own ears must've been too much, because Elena took a few steps back. Her breath started to get shaky. "I shouldn't have come." She turned on her heel and hurried back to her car.
"No. Wait." Stefan tried to go after her but Elowen grabbed his arm before he could get too far.
"Let her go. We have bigger things to worry about."
"There's no 'we' in this. Damon's my brother, Elle. I should be the one to deal with him."
They were having a silent argument when Stefan's phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the caller ID. It was a number he didn't recognize. He answered it anyway. Elowen leaned up to listen in.
"Hello?"
"I want my ring," Damon demanded, getting straight to the point. Elowen tried her hardest to stay composed during the call. She didn't want Damon knowing she was there.
"Where are you?"
"I'm at the sizzler. I had the buffet. Where's my ring?"
Elowen became lightheaded and wobbled slightly. He'd killed again. An image of him attacking Tanner flashed through her mind and she felt her heartbeat spike. Stefan must've sensed it because he turned to check on her.
"Breathe," he mouthed towards her. She nodded and started taking messy deep breaths. The last thing she needed was to have a panic attack. Stefan pulled his phone away from his ear and put the call on speaker so she could continue to listen while she calmed down. She stopped paying attention to the conversation and instead focused on her breathing. That is, until….
"... I want my ring, Stefan, or my next stop is Elowen's."
Her breathing, which had nearly fully recovered, hitched. Her panic came back full force, filling up her throat to the point that it was hard to catch her breath this time. Eyes wide, she quickly pulled out her phone to call her mom and warn her.
"Don't kid yourself, Damon," Stefan said, watching Elowen head back into the house so Damon wouldn't overhear her conversation with Esmeralda. "Heading to a house full of witches is practically suicide. Not to mention you aren't even invited in and they aren't dumb enough for you to bait them outside."
"Good point. Maybe I'll try Elena's instead. I need to thank Jenna for letting me loose. Ring, now, or else there will be more blood on your hands."
Damon hung up. Elowen came back outside, having finished talking to her mom.
"What happened? What did he say?"
"He's trying to confuse me. Wants me to think he might be going after either you or Elena." Stefan took Elowen's hands in his, lacing their fingers together. "Listen, I need you to go home. You'll be safe in a house he can't get into."
"What, and leave you here?"
"No. I'm gonna head to Elena's and make sure nothing happens. We'll meet up in the morning, alright?"
Elowen reluctantly nodded as Stefan placed a kiss to her forehead. When they pulled apart, Elowen headed for her car. Stefan watched as she got in and started up the ignition. It wasn't until she pulled out of the driveway and was completely gone that he left for Elena's house.
Elowen stirred awake the next morning when her phone buzzed.
'I'm outside.'
It was Stefan. She pulled her covers off and rubbed at her eyes as she headed downstairs. When she opened the front door, Stefan let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank god, you're okay." He stepped through the doorway and engulfed her in a hug. Elowen, still sleepy, snuggled into his chest.
"Of course I'm okay," she muttered, her eyes falling closed again. "Damon's not invited in and he knows that. It'd be useless for him to come here." She was only saying this to reassure him, because she knew that Damon did have a reason to visit her.
The sound of footsteps slowly clunking down the stairs caused them to pull apart. It was Josiah, grumpy and still half asleep. He thrust his phone towards Elowen and then turned and trudged back the way he came. Elowen, confused, shared a look with Stefan before looking down at the caller ID.
Jeremy.
Why would Jeremy want to speak with her?
Putting the phone to her ear, she hesitantly said, "Hello?"
"It's Elena. I want to talk. Meet me at The Grill in an hour." Elena hung up, leaving Elowen to pull the phone away and stare at it.
Vicki kept going in and out of conscious. Her vision was swimming, but she could tell that she wasn't at the cemetery anymore. She barely registered the muffled voice in the room.
The last thing she remembered was meeting up with her stoner friends to get high in the woods. They had talked her into it, saying that smoking weed technically wouldn't break her sobriety and she caved in. She needed a hit. Bad. Besides, she had thought, maybe it'll relax me enough to stop the shakes. Then there was some dude who showed up. It was dark and she was high off her ass but still she tried to help him except….. That's when everything gets muddled.
She could feel herself slipping back into unconsciousness when all of a sudden, something was forced against her mouth. She began to struggle when the taste of copper hit her tongue. Unfortunately, she was too weak to really put up a fight and eventually gave in.
Some time later, Vicki finally started to stir.
"'Bout time you woke up." Damon was pouring himself a glass of bourbon.
Vicki sat up, looking around her surroundings before landing on Damon. She immediately tensed at the sight of him. "You."
"Me."
Her hand flew up to her neck. She knew she had been injured there, bitten, probably, now that she thought about it. It was one thing she had been absolutely sure of.
"What the hell did you do to me?" She asked when she realized she was fully healed. The only other time this had happened was when Elowen cast a spell to heal her. As far as she knew, Damon definitely wasn't a witch.
"Gave you some of my blood." He'd said it so nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. Vicki felt bile crawl up her throat. She swallowed it back down with some difficulty.
"Where am I?"
"That's for me to know and for you to not find out."
"... My friends….. Are they dead?"
"Yep."
"Are you gonna kill me?"
"Dunno yet. I'm stuck here until the sun goes down and if I kill you, I'll have nothing to do."
Vicki tried to go over her options, unsure if she could make it out of here alive. Her hand went to her wrist to nervously play around with the vervain bracelet Elowen had given her, but it wasn't there. Her eyes widened and darted around, trying to find it. Damon tsked from where he stood.
"Yeah, about that. Can't exactly have fun unless I can compel you."
Vicki decided to take the chance and run. Damon was in front of her before she could blink. He grabbed her shoulders, his fingers digging into her skin. She tried her best to put up a fight, but his strength was no match for hers. She continued to struggle until Damon started to compel her.
"You won't fight me, you won't run and you won't try to contact anyone. You're going to stay here with me and party until the sun goes down."
Elowen and Stefan sat across from Elena outside The Grill. Nobody had said anything yet.
"I want answers." She looked to Stefan. "All of these animal attacks that have been happening, was that you?"
"No. That was Damon. I don't drink human blood. That's not how I choose to survive."
"And sunlight's not an issue?"
"We have rings that protect us." Stefan lifted his hand that had the daylight ring to show her.
"Garlic?"
"Edible."
"Crucifixes?"
"Decorative."
"Mirrors?"
"Myth."
"And you," she turned to Elowen. "You don't fly on a broom, do you?"
"No. We don't make potions in big, smoking cauldrons, either. I don't secretly have green skin and warts and I don't wear a black, pointy hat. Ever."
"You're not….. Evil, right?"
"Right. But witches can be, if that's the road they choose to go down," Elowen explained. "Witchcraft is neutral territory. It can bend either way, good or bad. It solely depends on the witch."
"Do you have any special powers? Like on Charmed?"
"I get premonitions."
"Like Phoebe."
Elowen couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, like Phoebe. Although I think I'm way cooler."
Elena cracked a small smile for the first time that morning. "Um, you said you don't kill humans to survive."
"Animal blood keeps me alive, but not as strong as Damon. He can be very powerful."
Elowen thought back to the day he lured her to the boarding house. Her fingers ghosted lighted over her neck. "Yeah, he can…."
Stefan looked over to her, his eyebrows crinkling together. What did she mean by that?
"Yet you let him get involved with Jenna?"
Both Elowen and Stefan broke out of their thoughts. Elowen stared down at the table in guilt.
"By the time we found out, it was too late."
"Too late? Is that best excuse you can think of?"
"It's not an excuse!" A few of the other patrons sitting nearby looked over at Elowen's outburst. Elena blinked in surprise and sat back in her seat. "You're talking about something you don't understand." Stefan set a calming hand on her thigh and decided to step in.
"Vampires use a form of mind control called compulsion. Damon was using it on Jenna to make her keep quiet about what he was and what he was doing to her. It's….. Really difficult to get someone away from a vampire once they're under their influence."
"So that's supposed to make it okay? He was hurting her!"
"No. None of this is okay, Elena. We know that," Stefan said. "But Damon had already been invited into your house and we didn't know what else to do."
Elena crossed her arms and sighed. She collected herself a bit before saying anything else. "Are there any others, aside from you and Damon?"
"Not in Mystic Falls. Not anymore."
"Not anymore?"
"There was a time when this town was very much aware of vampires, and it didn't end well for anybody. That's why it's important you don't tell anyone."
"I can't promise that."
"Elena, listen," Elowen leaned forward, leaning on her elbows. "If this town finds out about Stefan, they won't hesitate to kill him. Permanently. They did it once and they'll do it again. I'm not asking you to keep quiet, I just hope you won't put him in danger."
"Give us today. We'll answer any questions you have and when it's over, you can decide for yourself what to do with what you know. It'll be your choice."