Damon had listened to Scooby Doo Gang bicker amongst themselves for nearly an hour at the dead coach's house. He and Alaric told the teens to go back to the boarding house when he had grown tired of listening to them. They weren't going to solve any of their mounting problems tonight. Frankly, the arguing was only creating new problems, hostilities, and clear divisions between the friends. Furthermore, Bonnie and Stefan seemed to delight in adding fuel the fire whenever tensions started to die down. Damon quickly realized that together they were a couple of menaces. Any rational conversation would begin without Stefan and Bonnie's presence.
He was grateful for the silence that descended when everyone departed. Damon ransacked the man's kitchen looking for alcohol. He needed something to dull the throb in his head and perhaps his heart. Seeing the way Bonnie clung to Stefan was a hard thing to stomach. Unfortunately, he only found a gallon of vodka obviously purchased from some sort of surplus store. Damon plopped down in a chair that didn't reek of sex and downed the bottle in a matter of minutes. The stuff was absolute swill to be sure but it did the job. Damon felt that pleasant tingle of warmth that reminded him of the days when he was still a human.
Once the burning urge to rip out his brother's heart passed, Damon got down to business. He needed to clean Coach Thompson's house from top to bottom. He had to erase every trace of Stefan and Bonnie ever being inside the house. Damon also had the not so simple task of getting rid of three bodies as a winter storm deposited nearly three feet of snow on the ground. Worse yet, the soil beneath the snow was all but frozen because of the frigid temperatures. However, leaving behind any evidence would just attract attention from all the wrong places. Damon decided to make it seem as if the man skipped town after a drunken hit and run.
The raven-haired vampire didn't make it back to the Salvatore boarding house until well after 4 AM. However, he felt secure in the clean up job he had done. It wasn't the first time he had cleaned up or staged a crime scene. The bodies had been buried deep in the woods where no one would think to look. Damon had also ditched Thompson's SUV near the scene of the hit and run that took Bonnie's life. His last order of business had been to call Liz Forbes. It was only right that Damon give her a heads up about the night's events. She was the sheriff and a high-ranking member of the Founder's Council. Liz was concerned about Bonnie but agreed to make sure her deputies didn't pursue the case any more than strictly necessary.
Damon hoped that everyone had gone to bed for the night as he walked into the front door of his house. He really wasn't interested in hearing anymore teenage girls bickering. The only thing that grated on his nerves more was Jeremy's pathetic whining. The boy behaved as if he had some claim on Bonnie after he had spent only God knows how long cheating on her with his dead girlfriend. As much as he wanted to snap the kid's neck sometimes, he would have to play his guardian angel for now. Human Bonnie might have been content to give Jeremy the cold shoulder for breaking her heart. However, Vampire Bonnie had already shown that her fangs were sharp and she wasn't afraid to use them.
Fortunately, the house was completely silent as he closed the door behind him. This was perhaps the first thing that had gone his way since finding Bonnie dying in the middle of the street hours ago. Damon decided to stop by the living room to get a glass of bourbon. He needed something to wash away the foul taste of the cheap vodka he drank. Then he wanted a hot shower and the comfort of his own bed for a few hours. He would deal with this clusterfuck later in the day when he wasn't so close to the edge. Damon stopped short when he saw Stefan sitting in the living room. He shook his head in bitter exhaustion. He should have known that it wouldn't be that simple. Nothing had been simple since Klaus ordered Stefan to remain in Mystic Falls.
Stefan looked up with a smirk. He looked incredibly comfortable wearing nothing but a pair of thin cotton pajama bottoms. He feigned concern and said, "I am glad that you are finally here, brother. I was beginning to worry about you."
Damon rolled his eyes and walked over to the drink cart. He filled the largest glass he could find and then had a seat across from Stefan. Damon took a healthy gulp before addressing his brother, "I cleaned up your mess…if you're interested. You are welcome by the way."
"Well, it seems only fair considering how many times I've cleaned up your messes. In fact, you are the reason I don't have my humanity right now. Klaus compelled me to turn it off while I was paying off the debt that I incurred for you. You're welcome, brother," he replied smoothly. He picked up his glass of blood and tilted it in a mocking toast.
The older vampire leveled a serious look at his younger brother. He ground out, "I wouldn't have taken Klaus' blood if I had known this was the price, Stefan."
He smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Don't be so melodramatic, brother. Klaus wanted a minion and a companion. He is pathetically lonely. He would have found a way to force me into servitude some other way. He wanted us to be friends again...still does if tonight is any indication. Anyway, a few months of killing innocent werewolves hardly compares to saving my beloved brother's life."
Damon decided that he preferred brooding Stefan to this arrogant bastard sitting in front of him. He decided to shift gears and asked, "Why are you doing…whatever you are doing with Bonnie if not to get back at me? We both know that Elena is the girl you love."
Stefan laughed darkly. "Well, a very reliable source says that you've been trying to replace me in Elena's life. In fact, there was even mention of stolen kisses and secret sleepovers. Maybe it's the way Elena's heart beats faster whenever you are close to her. Or the guilty looks you both share when I walk into a room unannounced and find the two of you together. I figured that you would be happy that my attention has shifted elsewhere. You got the girl...you won. Congratulations, Damon."
Damon considered lying to Stefan but figured that it was useless. He obviously knew the truth. Elena wore her unfaithfulness like a scarlet letter on her chest. The girl's guilt irritated him since they hadn't done anything truly noteworthy. Private time with his hand was the closest Damon had gotten to sex since Rose died.
He replied, "I won't lie and say that I'm not attracted to Elena because I am. You've known how I felt about her for awhile. I care about her, Stefan. But she doesn't love me because she is in love with you. She never gave up searching for you. Even after everything you have done, Elena would rush into your arms in a second if you just turned on your humanity."
"Well, I won't be turning on my humanity anytime soon. Besides, I think that we have long passed the age where it is acceptable to be fighting over the same girl. We've been there and done that before. Look how well it turned out last time. I'm not going to fight you for Elena. Besides, Bonnie is very interesting. You know, I found out tonight that she does still have her magic," Stefan smirked.
He thought back to how everything in the room had levitated when Bonnie had her second, third, and fourth orgasms. Stefan fully intended to see how many times he could make that happen. He could admit there was a certain amount of pride in causing that sort of reaction. He loved seeing someone so powerful completely lose control. Fortunately, Bonnie was eager and particularly greedy when it came to his lewd attentions. She craved him almost as much as she craved warm blood.
Damon wasn't surprised that Bonnie still had her magic. She was a Bennett and had been uncommonly powerful from the moment her abilities started to manifest. Moreover, he had smelled her magic clinging to the air in Thompson's house. The smell of her magic had been just as pungent as the scent of sex that had lingered in the air. Damon was trying his best to ignore the fact that his brother smelled of magic and sex again. Apparently, Stefan and Bonnie hadn't been shy about continuing their escapades in the boarding house. He was sure to hear all about it from Elena and Jeremy in the morning.
"It is obvious that you want to use Bonnie against Klaus but this isn't the way to do it. You're going to end up hurting her. Everyone knows that you are going to run back to Elena the moment you flip the humanity switch. She's going to get her heart broken again. Bonnie doesn't deserve to be hurt like that. Her head is already messed up. Caroline said that Bonnie wanted to stay with Sheila when she died briefly tonight."
Stefan already knew about Bonnie's encounter with her grandmother. The girl was bitter and heartbroken over the rejection. Stefan had soothed her the only way he knew how...with blood and sex. However, he also offered the newborn vampire something else. He promised that he would never leave her as everyone else had. Stefan saw how desperately she wanted to believe his promise even if her natural instinct was to distrust him.
"I have no interest in reuniting with Elena, brother. I think it's time that we stop plowing the same fields. I would never be able to trust her again. I would never trust you around her either. It is better this way. Besides, I enjoyed tonight. I forgot how nice it was to be with someone that doesn't need me to be gentle. As for the notion of me using Bonnie, you couldn't be farther off the mark. Sure I want her help in getting rid of Klaus but she's also a lot of fun."
"And when she stops being fun? You said yourself that Bonnie will adjust to being a vampire eventually. When she's back to normal, she isn't going to love your ripper tendencies."
Stefan laughed and said, "Oh, I have a way around that. Bonnie might not like the idea of me killing innocent people. However, tonight she proved that part of her likes the idea of being an avenging angel. Do you know how many humans are deserving of death? Do you know that there are five convicted sexual predators living in Mystic Falls? I'm sure that number will skyrocket as we get closer to Richmond. I can feed my hunger and offer a little divine justice."
Damon's brows furrowed at that because Stefan had a point. Bonnie had always been a judgy little witch. The goodness in her was usually overwhelming, but vampirism often brought out the worst impulses. Stefan would surely nurture those impulses.
"You will grow bored of her and you know it, Stefan. I know that you don't have your humanity but at least use your common sense. Do you really want a pissed off magic wielding witchpire after you?"
"Your concern for my future safety and happiness is touching, Damon. Are you really not going to be honest with me, brother?" Stefan asked with a smug smile.
"What are you talking about?" Damon asked in a dismissive tone.
Stefan sat forward on the couch and leveled a serious look at his older brother. "Since I came back to Mystic Falls there has been a mystery that I just couldn't solve. Granted I wasn't actually interested in solving it but still it lingered in the back of my mind. I couldn't figure out why you smelled like Bonnie when you came home at night. Then I saw the way you pulled her away from me tonight. I saw the way you glared when we were flirting in the kitchen and then it all made sense. Bonnie might not know it but you like her. Then she was nice enough to let me see into her mind. She was worried that she would forget what Sheila told her when she was between worlds. You've been dropping in on Bonnie every night."
Damon just stared at his younger brother in disbelief. He couldn't imagine a circumstance where a witch, let alone Bonnie would willingly allow a vampire into her mind. Yet he could tell that Stefan was being completely truthful. His hands twitched because he had the urge to snap the smug bastard's neck. "I just wanted to make sure that Klaus didn't kill her. We need the witch."
Stefan chuckled quietly and said, "You always smell strongly of Bonnie when you return, Damon. You aren't just dropping by for a visit. I would wager that you have been slipping into her bed for a mostly harmless cuddle. I doubt her grandmother would have told her to trust you if it was anything more untoward. In anycase, I am going to give you more of a courtesy than you have ever given me, brother. Admit that you have feelings for Bonnie and I will leave her alone. I'll move on to Caroline. She's been just itching to save me from myself."
The older vampire glared daggers at his brother but didn't reply. He was nervous about Stefan deciding to tell Bonnie his theory about Damon's night time visits. He was right, Damon had never done anything perverted. Mostly he just watched the witch sleep. Leaving her alone in that empty house was always difficult for him. Damon usually came home to drink until he fell asleep. It was the only way to purge the discomfort he felt being away from her.
Stefan finished off his drink with a grin and stood up. "Well, I guess that's settled. I'm going to bed." He walked by Damon and squeezed his shoulder. "Goodnight, brother."
He chuckled when he heard Damon throw his glass into the fireplace. Stefan continued upstairs to his bedroom. He smiled seeing Bonnie curled up in his bed. She looked so peaceful and innocent but he had seen the demon inside her tonight.
Stefan closed the door and then walked over to the bed. He stripped off his pajama bottoms and slid in beside Bonnie. Stefan was pleased with how the night turned out. He was finally going to get everything he wanted from Mystic Falls. It actually made the vampire feel a little giddy. He was going to rid the world of Klaus and his annoying siblings. He was already punishing Damon for pursuing Elena. However, he was perhaps most pleased about the girl sleeping in his bed. Stefan had a golden opportunity to mold Bonnie into a perfect partner. She was young, impressionable, and alone. She was needy for affection and companionship. Furthermore, he was the only one Bonnie trusted after tonight.
Stefan settled down in his bed and pulled Bonnie so that she was flush against him. He shamelessly rutted against her firm backside for a few seconds. He had half a mind to take her again, but he felt guilty for tiring her out earlier. Bonnie was a vampire but she was still in transition. She wasn't up to her full capabilities just yet. However, he planned to ravish her repeatedly in the coming days, there wasn't much else to do whilst being trapped by the storm.
The annoying snowstorm would delay his plans by a few days. They wouldn't be able to find Dr. Jo Laughlin until after the weather system moved through their area. It would take another day or two for Mystic Falls and the surrounding areas to dig out. The clean up always took longer in their area because they didn't have the equipment on hand. Their part of Virginia didn't have a reason to own industrial snow plows. They would be lucky if the city even thought to purchase road salt in bulk.
Fortunately, the downtime would give Bonnie enough time to strip Klaus' compulsion from his mind. He wasn't willing to risk their only opportunity to get rid of the original vampire. Tonight, Bonnie had mentioned in passing that a witch with enough power could remove an original vampire's compulsion. The only downside was that it was a painful process and took a great deal of power. Stefan would have to be drained of his blood and vervained in order for Bonnie to work her magic. However, in a few days' time Stefan would be in control of his own mind once again. He couldn't think of anything better than that.
He smiled as he thought about Bonnie explaining that she had been studying the stolen Martin family's grimoires to find a way to help him. She had even reached out to her cousin for advice on how to break compulsion by an original vampire. Stefan didn't know what he had done to make Bonnie care about him. They weren't exactly friends. More often than not, they were pushed together by some emergency or the need to save Elena from something. However, this had felt different tonight while they fed from Coach Thompson. Bonnie genuinely wanted to save Stefan from Klaus because she cared for him.
He rested a hand on Bonnie's hip and nuzzled his nose into her wavy hair. Stefan inhaled deeply and smiled at her unique smell. Bonnie still smelled like a Bennett witch but she also smelled like him. A possessive thrill went through his body knowing that he had claimed her as his own tonight. It might have been blood-fueled ecstasy but Bonnie had willingly given herself to Stefan. At the time, he didn't realize that he would be the first to have her in that way. However, the knowledge only increased his possessiveness. He had given Damon the opportunity to come clean. Bonnie was his now and Stefan would eviscerate anyone that tried to change that.