Hiatus is somewhat over. This is a chapter that I've had laying around for a while but I didn't have the will to update it because I had so much going on. I haven't finished the next chapter so this story will go back on hiatus until I try to write the next one.
Also, for those who read One More Night, I'm sure you all are wondering if I have a chapter for you to read. Sadly, no, I don't, but I will try to get one out soon. Thanks for being so understanding, guys!
Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
The Reckoning
If Damon had either the motivation or the means to kill himself at that particular point in time, he would do it with no question at all if it meant that the nagging in his ear could cease at once. He contemplated many different options, actually. He could wreck the car he was driving at nearly a hundred miles per hour and subsequently render the brunette unconscious long enough for him to make his escape. But what then? Would he go back to Mystic Falls? He couldn't. He could also put tape over her mouth, but he had a feeling it wouldn't last long. Damon came to the conclusion that the only choice he had was to listen to Katherine's incessant rambling beside him; whilst he daydreamed of the different ways he could get away from her.
"Are you hungry? Let's stop for a bite. A truck stop...or a trucker."
"Oh, stop being cute," he chastised. From the corner of his eye, he watched her shrug.
"It's not possible."
"We've been driving around aimlessly for hours. Where are we going?" Damon turned to her, irritated. She could tell that he was annoyed with her secrecy, but that only made her smile widen into a glowing grin.
"Far enough away so that you can't go running back," Katherine replied in a dull monotone. Damon scowled.
"Not to worry. Mystic Falls and I are on a bit of a break."
"You and Mystic Falls or you and...well, everyone in Mystic Falls?" She turned her whole body to him and gave him one of her cat-like smirks. "I heard about our lovely Clarissa. You know, after all these years of hating each other, you would think that you wouldn't be so hurt. Guess you got your expectations too high, huh?"
"It wasn't Claire's fault that hybrid bastard compelled her to hate me. My expectations are as high as they should be, but thanks for the concern."
"Oh, Damon. You've always been so naïve." She watched him as he looked at her from the corner of his eye while still watching the road to raise an eyebrow curiously. Katherine sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look, think about it. What reason could Klaus have to compel Claire other than that she's a filthy whore?"
"Watch it."
"Fine. But you know I'm right." Katherine turned her body back to the front and put her arm on the side door with a heavy exhale. "Face it, Damon. Your relationship with Claire is over. Klaus has her now and if we know anything, it's that history repeats. And I promise you, they have history. Lots of it."
Damon was quiet for a long while, and when Katherine snuck a glance at him, she could tell that she had gotten through his brain. She watched his thinking face overcome his expression, and after a moment or two, she made her move. The brunette moved closer to him in the limited space they had, inches away from the side of his cheek. Her voice dropped to a sultry whisper.
"I don't know what you see in her, anyways. I was always more fun. She always wanted you to be the hero, and we both know you don't like playing pretend." Damon looked down to find Katherine's hand sliding up the length of his shirt, slipping her hand underneath his chin. He wished he could say she was warm, but she was ice cold. His lips pursed as he snuck a look at her and dropped his own voice to a whisper.
"It's overrated," he agreed. Katherine smiled.
"Her loss."
Without warning, Katherine leaned forward and captured his lips with hers into a dark kiss that nearly blended into the night. Damon didn't need to watch the road as he kissed her, but he found it extremely uncomfortable as she slipped her tongue down his throat and kissed him with a bland passion that he just wasn't into. He let her kiss him for a while longer—only long enough to get her worked up over it—before he finally shoved her off harshly, throwing her back against the passenger seat. He looked out towards the road, but knew Katherine bore a furious expression in her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"I thought I'd give it a shot." Damon smiled. "Truth is, you just don't do it for me anymore."
As he looked at her, he found her lips turning down into an upset frown, but it only made him happier than he'd ever been. Maybe now she'd shut up.
It was unclear how long she had been unconscious since Klaus had snapped her neck, the third time she'd been shut up. See, every time she tried to speak a word to him, he got upset and snapped her neck. Seemed logical, for a psychopath. It was as if her speaking to explain her betrayal was too painful for him to hear, so he opted for killing her instead. Nevertheless, when she woke up that time, she was determined not to let him bully her. They may have been...something once upon a time, but that didn't change his malicious personality. Maybe her memories had given her some sort of attachment to Klaus, but she didn't feel that anymore. Not after he'd killed her and, subsequently, had her ex-husband martyred.
However, when Claire woke up this time, she found that Klaus was nowhere around. Instead, she heard a loud slam followed by Stefan's throaty threatening. Claire, slightly disoriented, turned from her side onto her stomach and looked up to find Stefan pinning Klaus's sister onto the concrete just outside the utility truck as he shouted in her face for answers. In the distance, Claire could see the Mystic Falls High School sign.
As she tried to gain the strength to stand up, doing whatever was in her power to recover at record speed, the whole truck shook as Rebekah pinned the Salvatore to the vehicle and grabbed a crowbar from the edge of the landing. She hit him once with it, causing Claire to demand herself pull it together. Rebekah pulled Stefan close with a breathless mutter and pulled the crowbar back, lunging it into Stefan's stomach.
Just as she did, Claire found it in herself to flash off from the truck's platform to throw Rebekah off of Stefan. She was surprised at her own strength, but it happened. Rebekah went flying across the pavement, yards away like Claire had thrown a piece of paper. Stefan, trying to catch his breath, also caught Claire's alarmed look as she looked back at him.
"Damn," Stefan breathed out, as bewildered as she was. "I guess the strongest blood really does come from the Kings?"
"Shut up," Claire murmured as she reached forward and yanked the crowbar out of her friend's abdomen. Stefan shouted so loudly, she was sure everyone in the high school heard them. But she knew that Rebekah would recover quickly, if she hadn't already, and so she grabbed Stefan's arm and pulled him with her. "Come on!"
"No, no, no, Klaus is in there. Klaus has Elena," Stefan protested, gesturing back to the school. Claire looked back at him, knowing that he couldn't leave Elena, but knowing that she also didn't want them to get killed. Interfering with Klaus and his hybrid business once had gotten her and nearly everyone else she loved killed. But it wasn't like she was going to let Elena die, either.
Unfortunately, she didn't get much of a choice. Right as she opened her mouth to tell Stefan to go into the school while she handled Rebekah, she felt her head imploding. It wasn't like what the Gilbert device had done to her when John Gilbert used it on all vampires in Mystic Falls, it was like seventeen times worse. Stefan, too, was shouting out in extreme pain until he simply passed out. Claire, on the other hand, was too strong for that. It suddenly occurred to her how her "gift" could be both a blessing and a curse.
"Why isn't she dead yet?" Ellie frowned, confused. Rebekah flashed over to her side, brushing herself off with a sigh.
"She's from the King family. They're obnoxiously difficult, both in personality and blood." Rebekah stepped forward and snapped Claire's neck so she fell next to Stefan, cracking her head on the pavement. Ellie relaxed and watched as Rebekah turned around with a shrug. "Go inside, Eleanor. Find the witch you saw in Stefan's memories. I'll get the werewolf."
"How will I know where to look?" Ellie asked, looking back at the school with wide eyes. "It's so...big."
Rebekah grunted as she lifted Stefan's body up into the truck and turned back around at Eleanor with a scowl prime on her face. "Figure it out, Eleanor! God, why does my brother keep these idiot pets around? They can't even think for themselves!"
Ellie huffed, extremely offended, but did not argue. She did what she was told and turned around to go into the school and find the witch, Bonnie Bennett, that would help them figure out what could save Klaus's hybrids.
About twenty minutes after their shared kiss in the car, Damon had enough. He pulled off the secluded highway into a little nook with a few picnic tables laid out for those types of families that had more than one kid and needed to take a break from driving every thirty minutes like clockwork. He could feel Katherine's stares at him as he lifted himself from the car, but it didn't stop him from sighing comfortably.
"Why are we stopping?" Katherine demanded, getting out of the vehicle with annoyance in her tone. Damon turned at her nonchalantly.
"Thought we might want to stretch our legs. Take a break from the sexual tension." He smiled, which only merited a frown. So, he tired something else. "I'm tired of driving. It's your turn."
"Fine." Katherine walked around the hood of the car and Damon spun the keys around his hand with them extended out for her. But just as she approached him, he lifted his arm and threw them over her head so they landed somewhere in the woodlands behind them. Katherine shouted angrily. "Hey!"
"We're not going anywhere until you spill your guts," he concluded when she turned back around at him. Damon crossed his arms and leaned against the car as she scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Fine. Do you recognize this? Hmm?" Katherine lifted her hand to reveal Elena's vervain necklace, the one that Stefan had given her. Damon nodded, but still didn't understand the obvious question. He waited for her to explain. "A little birdy told me that Klaus wants to get his hands on it."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why would Klaus want Elena's necklace?"
"Does it matter? He wants it, and I have it. It's leverage, Damon. Always stay one step ahead of your enemy." She gave him a coy grin, to which he returned cheerfully.
"I'll keep that in mind."
"But more importantly, when I stole the necklace from Bonnie, I found out something else—something better."
"Oh yeah?" Damon prompted, extremely skeptical of her as she walked around him to the trunk of their car. "What's that?"
"Are you willing to do whatever it takes to stop Klaus? No turning back?" Katherine proposed to him, a skeptical look matching his own. Damon looked at her over his shoulder and, well, told the truth that he believed at that moment.
"I'm not turning back."
"Good. Because this isn't gonna win you any points at home."
She lifted the trunk of the car with ease and put a hand on her hip as she waited for Damon to make his way around to her. When he caught a glimpse of what was inside of the trunk, Damon's playfulness immediately dissipated.
"Jeremy? Really?" He looked over at Katherine with an angered look on her face, but she shrugged. Damon realized she was completely and utterly correct; this would not win him any points at home. But he didn't have a choice, did he? All he could do was give Katherine his most disappointed look as he lifted Jeremy from the trunk of the vehicle and put the poor boy down on a picnic table, the unconscious body slumping over the side. Damon exhaled disinterestedly. "I'm listening."
"What if I told you there was a way to kill Klaus? And not dagger dead. Dead, dead," Katherine proposed, the beautiful doppelgänger poised on the second picnic table to Damon's right. Damon gave her a weird look.
"I'd say you were desperate and lying. Or drunk. Or desperate, lying, and drunk." He cracked a smile, amused at Katherine's lack of appreciation for his rude commentary. She moved on without giving him much attention.
"Do you remember my friend Pearl?"
The woman that gauged his eyes out? "Vividly."
"Centuries ago, she told me about a vampire who knew how to kill Klaus. Then she wouldn't tell me any more."
"Well why not?"
"Because it was her leverage. She knew it was valuable information and wouldn't share it with me."
Damon stalked forward, annoyance in his eyes. "Well this is all great, but she's dead!"
"Which is why I never brought it up," the brunette said matter-of-factly, narrowing her eyes at the Salvatore that doubted her intelligence. "Because she only ever told one other person."
"Who?"
"Her daughter. Anna."
"Also, dead."
"Which brings us right back around to—"
"To me. Back around to me." Damon and Katherine both turned their heads to see Jeremy Gilbert rise from the picnic table, finally conscious after hearing the entirety of their conversation. He looked at the doppelgänger and the Salvatore brother and knew what he had to do.
"Wake up. Wake up, Stefan. Stefan, wake up!" Claire smacked Stefan's face around a few times, an unimpressed look upon her features. "I'm tired, hungry, and just done with all this garbage! Wake up!"
Stefan groaned as he roused, causing Claire to lift herself from his side with relief and wait for him to regain full awareness of his surroundings. She helped him get down from the truck so that they were both on the street outside of the high school, which looked desolate on the outside but was very clearly occupied inside.
"Okay, here's the plan. I've had a whole fifteen minutes to think about it before you woke up." Claire tied her hair up out of her face as she recited her mental activity. "You are going to go in there and find Klaus. Do everything you can to convince him Elena doesn't mean anything to you anymore so that we can get the hell out of here without anyone dying on our watch. I am going to see if I can find Caroline or Amelia to help me with Rebekah. I may be strong, but I need her to distract Ellie before I can get anywhere."
Stefan rubbed his head. "God damn it. If it weren't for that stupid necklace..."
"We don't have time for this." Claire put her arms on Stefan's shoulders and forced him around, where she tried to give him a little boost. "Get your ass in there. Be careful."
He threw a look over his shoulder, but went in, anyways. Claire, after taking a brief moment to gather her thoughts, inhaled and readied to march on to find someone inside that could help her. Of course, just as she moved to go inside, she heard someone behind her gasp dramatically.
"Claire?"
The blonde turned around to face her overzealous sister, who looked like she was about to start sobbing. Claire opened her mouth to greet Amelia, but before she could, the other King sister ran forward like a lightning bolt and wrapped her arms around Claire with a hug so tight she could pop like a balloon. Claire hugged back, but she was largely aware of the issue at hand.
"I missed you so much," Amelia whispered against her shoulder. Claire nodded and squeezed her sister once before pushing her away.
"I know. I know, and I missed you too. But we don't have a lot of time." Amelia raised an eyebrow as Claire urged, "Klaus is inside with Elena. He has a sister, Rebekah, this rude ass bitch who keeps killing me and throwing me off guard. Look, let's go inside. I need someone to distract her so I can knock her out long enough for us to get Elena and get out of here. There's a witch, too."
"Well shit." Amelia's eyes widened. "Elena's not the only one in there, though."
Claire frowned. "What?"
"Yeah. Matt, Bonnie, Tyler, and Caroline...they're all in there, too. The senior prank is tonight."
"Fuck!"
"I know."
"God damn it...well," Claire sighed. "Let's go. Do you know where Caroline is? We need all the help we can get."
Thirty minutes later, a few rocks in his shoe, and some dirt on his pant leg, and Damon finally had the keys he had thrown into the forest earlier to keep Katherine at the off-road picnic site. After threatening Jeremy's life, they had finally gotten Anna to tell them who was able to kill Klaus—namely, a vampire named Mikael that was labeled as 'the vampire who hunts vampires' whose life mission is to kill Klaus. When Damon emerged from the forest, he found Katherine pacing with her arms crossed impatiently and Jeremy slowly drifting away at the picnic table.
"Don't fall asleep, Jer. You might have a concussion."
"Thanks for the concern, dick."
Katherine rolled her eyes, irate with the moody teenager. "Oh, stop pouting. He took one for the team. Everyone back home will thank you once Klaus is dead."
Damon ignored her, finding her reassurance less reassuring than it should have been. Instead, Damon asked the ex-love of his life briskly, "Where's my phone?"
"Do you need to check in with Elena? Make sure it's okay you pummeled her baby bro?"
"You know you have it," he spat, ignoring her malicious intent. Katherine smiled.
"What can I say? I needed you present here and now."
"Katherine! Phone. Now." He was done screwing around. Damon reached his hand out in front of him and waited impatiently for the bitch to give him his phone back. Seeing that he was done messing around with her, Katherine sighed exhaustedly and brought out his phone from her back pocket and handed it to him. He took it with an irritated look on his face before reading his million text messages, half of them from Bonnie and half of them from Amelia. He frowned as he read through them. "Bonnie and Amelia have been texting me."
"What is it?" asked Jeremy, trying to conceal his guilt arising from the mention of Bonnie's name. Damon squared his jaw as he brushed over the texts from Amelia.
Amelia King
Klaus is at MFHS. He has Elena.
With Claire now.
Where are you?
"It's Klaus," Damon muttered under his breath, though his heart started to pound as soon as he read over Claire's name. He looked up slowly to lock eyes with Katherine, who could already anticipate his words.
"No turning back, Damon!"
But he'd had enough already. "Shut up, Katherine."
"Hey, look at the big picture! The best shot at taking out Klaus is by finding Mikael."
Still, Damon ignored her. He turned to Jeremy and thrust the keys at his chest. Jeremy reached up to catch them as Damon instructed, "Stay with her so Anna can guide you. I'm going back."
Katherine gritted her teeth and grabbed the keys from Jeremy right as Damon passed her. She whipped around, furious.
"What, so you're going to go back just like that? You think Claire is just gonna be there, ready and willing? You do remember that Klaus told her to hate you, right?!" He didn't answer, so she called out, "You're going to get yourself killed! The Damon I remember wouldn't have been that stupid!"
At this, he turned around. His eyes narrowed, and as he looked at the girl he once loved, it suddenly dawned on him that she was right. Because not only had he changed, his feelings did. And he was no longer that timid, fragile human that was too stupid to realize how good he'd had it.
"I wouldn't have done it for you," he said simply before turning back around and leaving her, just as he should have two hundred years ago.
Amelia and Claire turned to the school and ran inside so that they could find the rest of the Mystic Falls gang and get the hell out of there before Klaus did something stupid. Little did they know, the damage was already done. When they got inside the school and managed to track down Caroline, they found her hunched over Tyler's dead body with tears filling her eyes. The younger vampire barely even noticed it when the King sisters approached her; that was, until Claire stepped forward cautiously with a soft voice.
"Caroline..."
The blonde looked up, the salt in her eyes blocking her view of Claire until the tears finally rolled down her cheeks. When she saw that it was her sire standing in front of her, Caroline's eyes widened as she watched Claire lower herself down to her knees on the other side of Tyler. Claire reached across and touched Caroline's hand reluctantly. Caroline fought back her tears and a smile on her face, a melancholic turn of events.
"Claire," she sighed happily. "You're back?"
"For now," Claire admitted, not willing to commit to much more unless she knew what Klaus had in store for her and Stefan. "What happened? Who did this?"
"Klaus? That blonde chick? I don't...I don't know..." Caroline trailed off, crying. Claire looked down at Tyler strangely, and then she realized.
"Oh...oh no. Klaus did this. He turned Tyler into a hybrid, right?" She looked up at Caroline, who nodded slowly, seeming to recognize the words from when someone else had mentioned them. Rebekah, probably. Claire raised her eyebrows in confusion as she threw a look between both Amelia and Caroline trying to figure it out. "But why would he do that? He knows that he can't make hybrids. There's something wrong with it and he can't figure it out, so why would he just kill Tyler?"
It seemed like an eternity, but finally, Amelia stepped forward with the answer.
"Stefan said something the other day when Damon and I were in Chicago. He said that he didn't want me to look for him because I was putting Elena in danger. He said that Klaus figured out that there was a reason his hybrids were dying and he was starting to put the pieces together. He said that Klaus couldn't find out Elena was alive."
"Shit," Claire cursed under her breath as she rose from the floor. "And he's using his witch to help Bonnie find the answer, which he probably thinks is to kill Elena. This is not good."
"What do we do?" Amelia asked, stepping forward cautiously. Claire paced for a moment or two before she shook her head down at Caroline.
"Take Tyler somewhere safe. I'm sure Rebekah will be back soon enough but I just don't have time to deal with her. I need to find Klaus." Caroline obeyed, flitting away with Tyler in her arms to an empty science lab. When she was gone, Claire moved to walk towards the gym, but she found herself stopped by her sister's interjection.
"But Claire—"
"Find Bonnie, Amelia. We have to figure this out, okay? I can't let Tyler can't die tonight."
"Claire!" Amelia flitted in front of her, blocking her way. Claire stumbled back, surprised at the furious look on her sister's face. She remained quiet as the blonde in front of her choked out the words she found hard to express. "I just got you back, and you're just gonna go running back to him? For what? So he can kill you again?"
Claire rolled her eyes. "It's not like that, Amelia. He won't kill me."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I am."
"But why?"
"Because, Amelia...Klaus and I were in a relationship, okay?" Claire found it hard for her to force the words out of her mouth, as they tasted so acrid. Sure enough, as soon as she said the words, Amelia's eyebrows knotted together and a repulsed look came across her face, matching how Claire felt on the inside. Claire hung her head, ashamed. "It was...it was a long time ago. He compelled Stefan and I to forget we ever knew him and so I didn't even know about it until a few days ago. It wasn't a big deal, but he won't hurt me. I promise."
Amelia opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, there was a scream coming from across the school. It was Elena, both Amelia and Claire recognized. Immediately, they took off, trying to trace the screams back to Elena's location. Soon, they heard Stefan's grunts, and finally, Klaus's voice became apparent in the hallways. There was shouting and fighting, and Claire and Amelia bursted through the doors of the gym just as Klaus attacked Stefan, throwing him against the wall with a brute force and an extremely loud command.
"Turn it off!" Klaus shouted on the top of his lungs, frustrated with Stefan's disloyalty. Without thinking, Claire flashed forward and knocked Klaus out of the way, but it was already too late. Klaus stumbled to the side, proud of his work as he could see the life and humanity drain from Stefan's eyes. Claire put both hands on Stefan's shoulders and examined his pupils, suddenly coming to the same realization Klaus had.
"What did you do?" Elena asked, breathless. Klaus turned over to her, smiling.
"I fixed him."
Claire turned her head, her eyes filling with tears as she reluctantly moved her hands from Stefan's shoulders to look at Klaus. "How could you? How could you do this to him?"
"He gave me no choice, Clarissa," Klaus rationalized without a shred of remorse. She slowly backed away, trying to process what had just happened. Stefan had no emotions. Stefan without emotions meant Stefan without humanity, which meant Ripper Stefan would be truly and completely a Ripper. He would feel no pain, he would have no regret. He would kill and steal and bathe in the blood. This is exactly what Lexi made her promise to keep him away from. But before she could say anything else, Klaus looked back at Stefan. "But I think a test is in order, don't you? Ripper, perhaps you'd like a drink from the doppelgänger's neck?"
Claire's head snapped up, but she was too far away from Stefan to do anything about it. The second the idea was put in his mind, the veins on his face appeared, and Stefan lunged forward. Elena screamed, but within a few seconds, she was knocked unconscious. Klaus pulled Stefan off of Elena seconds before he killed her, throwing him back a few feet. Elena's unconscious body dropped to the ground, and Klaus took out a small tube from his pocket to catch the stream of blood flowing down her neck. Meanwhile, Amelia stood standing across from Stefan, her eyes wide in horror. He stared back at her, the veins gone and his ex-girlfriend's blood staining his pouty lips. Stefan licked them clean, closing his eyes and reveling in the taste. She stared at him with disgust, but couldn't say anything.
Meanwhile, Claire flashed over to Klaus as he stood up from Elena's neck with the tube in his hand. Just as he was about to put it in his pocket, Claire blocked his hand with her strong fist.
"What do you think you're doing with that?"
"Using it to test a theory." Klaus peeled her fingers off of his wrist and put it in his pocket. "Come on, love. Don't act so surprised. You know what I came here for."
He turned, about to walk out, but she stopped him again. "Yeah, well, I didn't think it was all that necessary for you to manipulate my best friend to get it! I can't believe you would do this!"
"You're right," he admitted. "It wasn't necessary for me to manipulate Stefan to do what I want. But it was fun."
"So what's next, huh? Are you that desperate to get what you want? Because if you are, why don't you take something that's worth your while?" Claire stepped forward, her eyes locked on Klaus's. "Turn Stefan's humanity back on, let him stay here, and I will come with you. You can compel me if you want...make me love you, I don't care. You can't do this, Klaus. It will ruin him."
For a moment, Klaus seemed like he was actually considering it. It scared her, that she saw the pondering look on his face, like he was debating the pros and cons in his head. But eventually, he stepped a little closer to her and shook his head.
"I don't need to compel you for you to love me. One day you'll realize." He could see the disgust on her face, and so in an instant, he reached forward and snapped her neck. She fell to the ground, lifeless, a few feet away from Elena. As she did, Amelia tried to step forward, but she could see the warning glare in Klaus's eyes. He then moved his gaze over to Stefan, who was looking with indifference towards the one dead and one near-dead body on the floor.
"Find a flatbed truck outside. Put them both inside and wait for me. I'll give you further instructions when I come meet you." Klaus turned to Amelia. "As for you, there's a Bennett witch and a human locked in a supply closet. I suggest you find them before they run out of air."
Amelia narrowed her eyes at the vindictive hybrid as he left the room, leaving Stefan to clean up his mess, as usual.
Klaus watched as Rebekah walked off down the street to get their bigger truck and bring it back to the hospital, where Klaus was waiting outside for Elena to be done with her blood donation so they could get the show on the road. Claire was in the flatbed Stefan had acquired from them back at the high school, unconscious and probably still dead for another half hour. He moved to go inside of the hospital to retrieve Elena, but before he could, he heard someone lurking behind him. Instantly, he knew who it was.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up to the party." Klaus turned around to find Damon sauntering forward, a stern look on his face.
"Elena?" Klaus inquired with a shrug. "Ah, she's making a donation to a greater cause. Can't let you interfere, mate...you understand—"
"Not Elena, you bastard. Claire!" Just as he shouted her name, he could see Claire lying in the flatbed next to Klaus, unconscious. As he moved forward to take her, Klaus put a hand on his chest to stop him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I mean, I can't kill you because I made a pledge to your brother and, unlike him, I keep my word. Although, you know what? Thinking about it now...he probably doesn't care that much, anymore. And you know, neither does Clarissa, so..."
In a flash, Damon was on the hood of the flatbed truck with Klaus's fist around his throat and his hand slung back just about ready to punch into his chest. Before Klaus could get the chance to off him, though, he managed to choke out ten words that peaked Klaus's interest enough to prolong his killing.
"Don't you want to know about your friend, Mikael?!"
Klaus's hand stilled, and his hold on Damon relaxed. "What do you know about Mikael?"
"Just that he knows you're here..." he sing-songed. Klaus gritted his teeth.
"You're bluffing."
"Katherine and I found him. Consider it our leverage."
Klaus looked genuinely alarmed to Damon, but before the vampire could have a chance to process the alarm on his face, Klaus swung him down to the ground and sped off into the night, in all the haste forgetting about both Elena and Claire, as they were pawns in his game that were unimportant at the moment. Damon grunted from the blow, but when he got up, he was pleased to find Klaus nowhere around. Quickly, he moved himself over to the flatbed where he saw Claire lying down. She looked so peaceful and innocent, but he knew that when she woke up everything would be different. He finally had her, back in Mystic Falls, away from Klaus. And yet he was so very aware of the fact that she was completely brainwashed to hate him. Maybe if he were lucky enough, she would see him and recognize the fact that she had once loved him in the same way he still loved her.
Damon whipped out his phone and sent a quick text to Amelia telling her Elena's location so that she could come and get her, for Damon didn't have enough hands to take both Claire and Elena back at once. Once the text was sent and he saw it was read, he slipped it into his pocket and slipped one hand under Claire's knee and the other around her back, hoisting her up onto his chest. At that moment, he'd forgotten about everything they'd been through. All the fighting, the hate, the pain. The loss of their unborn child was a scar temporarily healed in his head. All that matter was that she was there. She was home.
Claire groaned as she woke from what felt like her fifteenth death in the past twenty-four hours. She felt something soft underneath her, and when she opened her eyes, she could see that she was lying in the Salvatore study facing the glowing embers of the fireplace. There was a figure standing a few feet away from her, one that she couldn't recognize out of her lack of conscious awareness. She groaned for extra measure, sitting up and rubbing her neck out of frustration.
"God damn it, what is with all the dying today? I'm sick of it."
"You won't have to worry about that anymore." She recognized the voice, and soon the face followed. Damon Salvatore appeared from behind the couch with a glass of bourbon in his hand. He extended it to her as he sat down on the couch beside her, a small and reserved smile on his face. She cocked an eyebrow.
"What, did you poison it or something?" She took the drink, but didn't sip from it. Damon's heart broke in two as she looked at him with such indifference. But then he remembered the day he had and the way he'd felt when Katherine kissed him earlier. It wasn't the same, and it never would be. Claire was the only one he loved, and he couldn't give up on her because of some hybrid dick's manipulative game.
"No, Claire. I didn't poison it. I promise." Still, she scoffed and put it down on the coffee table with the blatant distrust obvious to him. She didn't look at him as he asked with a small smile, "How are you feeling?"
But this question seemed to catch her off guard. She turned softly and raised an eyebrow with curiosity. "Why do you care?"
"That wasn't an answer."
"I feel like shit, no thanks to you."
He looked back at her, annoyed. "Actually, you should be thanking me. I saved you today. If not for me, Klaus would've taken you God knows where and would have done God knows what with you."
Claire rolled her eyes. "Please. He wouldn't hurt me. He wouldn't even compel me. He's so desperate to be with me that he resorts to killing me to keep me his prisoner. It's pathetic." Damon reached forward and grabbed her bourbon from the coffee table, drinking it for her. She eyed him as he did. "You said you saved me? Why?"
Damon was a little bit confused at the question. He looked at her over his cup and shook his head. "What do you mean 'why'?"
"God, you leave for a couple of months and everything turns into a shit-show! Damon, you never save me. You hate me, I hate you. That's how this works." Claire gestured between them, genuinely concerned about his state of mind. Damon pursed his lips and scooted closer to her, forcing her to lean back just a bit. But he didn't give up. He reached forward and grabbed her hands, despite the alarmed look on her face.
"Come on, Claire. You can't tell me you don't feel it. You have to remember. I love you."
She frowned. "Excuse me?"
"I love you, Claire," he persisted. As he laced one of her hands with his, he brought the other one up to cup her face as she gave their locked hands a look of confusion. His warm skin felt good on hers, but she didn't really understand why. The mere thought of him and she was sickened, so why did he feel so good on her skin? He forced her to look into his blue eyes, filled with so much love. "You love me, too. You're just confused. Klaus did this to you. You said he wouldn't use compulsion on you, but you're wrong. He compelled you to forget that you love me. He compelled you to hate me, actually. Come on. Somewhere inside of you, you know how you feel about me!"
But he couldn't make out whatever was on her face. She looked confused, like she was battling between her inner self and the one that Klaus had made up for her. His eyes locked on hers, and for a second, he thought she could really see that he was the one she loved. He leaned forward like he was going to kiss her, and he wasn't sure if she moved or not. But before he could, they heard a voice behind them.
"Well isn't this cozy?" Stefan inquired, standing at the back corner of the room with his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face. Damon removed his hands from Clarissa as Stefan locked eyes with Damon and gave him a malicious laugh. "You do know that was repulsion on her face...not love, right?"
Damon lifted himself from the couch furiously. "What are you doing here, brother?"
"Last I checked, I live here." He threw his hands up and walked over to the bar behind the couch and poured himself a drink. "Klaus is gone...he asked me to keep watch on Elena until he returns." Stefan threw a glance to Claire. "And to remind you that you hate Damon with a burning passion and that Klaus is the real person you want to be with. But you know, I think you can figure that one out for yourself. No need for me to keep nagging."
Claire lifted herself from the couch and held up her hands. "Slow your roll, Stefan. Yes, I hate Damon and I know that..." She threw a caught look to Damon and then returned to Stefan. "But as for Klaus, you can tell him to go to hell. And I understand that Klaus has designated you Elena's guardian, but after what happened tonight, if you so much as come within three feet of her, I will vervain you myself and throw you in the chamber cell." Claire moved to go out of the room and quickly looked at Damon. "The same goes for you...if you ever try to kiss me again. Blech! What the hell is happening to my life?"
Damon flinched as she walked out of the study, shaking her head in disgust. The two brothers looked at each other. Stefan gave Damon a small smile before turning on his own, and Damon just stared after him, thinking about how the hell he was going to get through this one without Claire's help.
Thanks for reading! Please review.
grapejuice101: Here's the chapter! Thanks for your review!
vampangel25: I know, it is wrong of Klaus but he's got his reasons. Here's the chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
Tvd2014: Yeah, it was intense. Hope you liked it!
Tvd2014: The last scene between them was pretty much what it's gonna be like for the next few chapters, but we'll get there soon! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Adela: Thanks! Here you go!
NicoleR85: Thanks! Here's the update.
Guest: Yeah, Amelia was a little bitchy but you know, she's going through her own things right now. No, Klaus won't erase anything completely but he's gonna have his way one way or another. Thanks for reviewing! Here's the chapter.
SomebodyWhoCares: He will be! Thanks for reviewing.
gloriacuevas391: You never know, they may end up together :)
klandgraf2007: Probably both lolol. Thanks for reading! Here's the chapter.
sloksingh45: Here you go!
kaylatheinsanesunset: Thank you! Here's the chapter! Hope you enjoyed it.
rory: Here you go!
justme2000: Aw thank you! It's gonna be one hell of a ride. Yeah, I've just been swamped with work and school but I managed to write this chapter a while ago and I edited it just now and went through all these reviews for you guys so I was able to upload it! It may be a while to the next chapter but it will come soon! Thanks for your review :)