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School had just finished the Monday after Maya and her mother had freed Enzo, and surprisingly Jenna was there to pick up the young girl up. She usually let Maya walk home on her own, because her daughter had always acted more maturely than the other children her age, but Jenna had finally come up with a punishment for Maya for keeping Enzo, and magic and all things dangerous from her. Jenna was chatting with her sister Miranda as they both waited for the girls to come outside. Elena rushed out, whilst Maya and Caroline left the school at a much more sedate pace, the girls were chatting animatedly when Jenna cleared her throat startling them both.
"Mum! What are you doing here?" Maya asked, she had a feeling she knew what this was about but didn't want to say anything.
"Well, I've decided on your punishment for…" Jenna shot a quick glance at Miranda who had no idea what was going on but was watching with intrigue. Jenna had never disciplined Maya in front of anyone before. "Your misbehaviour."
"Okay," Maya didn't think this was going to be good.
"You're grounded for a month."
"What?" Maya squeaked.
"Your Aunt Miranda will be picking you up from school for the whole month, and you'll be staying over there until I come to get you after I finish work."
"Mum!" she whined.
"Also no TV for a month!"
"The TV's broken," Maya replied, to be honest, she had a lot going on and didn't spend any time watching unless she was with Caroline.
"Then no computer."
"I need my computer for school," Maya pointed.
Jenna scowled, sometimes she wished Maya wasn't such a smart mouth, looking to her daughter's side she saw her best friend stood there and smirked, "Then no Caroline!"
"What?!" Maya yelled.
At the same time Caroline lurched forward a little and exclaimed, "No Caroline!"
"No Caroline!" Jenna said again, "Now get in the car, Aunt Miranda's taking you back to her place, Caroline go home, you can hang out with Maya again in a month."
Elena looked positively gleeful at this outcome, Maya never got into trouble, Maya was well behaved, and smart, and the perfect child, her dad often told Elena to be more like Maya, which was one of the reasons she hated her cousin. But this was great, she couldn't wait to tell Bonnie all about it, the only downside was that Maya was going to be at their house every day for a month. Maya stared mournfully at her best friend as Miranda started her car and drove off with the girl, this was going to suck!
By the time Maya actually got home she had a pounding headache, Elena wouldn't stop being a brat, Aunt Miranda wouldn't stop her, because no one should yell at her 'precious' Elena and Jeremy wouldn't stop following her around. It was weird, she figured that her baby cousin would follow in Elena's footsteps and hate her. But it seemed like Jeremy did have his own brain and decided that because Maya wasn't into the usual girly things like his sister, he liked her.
Sighing Maya headed straight to her room, shutting the door and threw herself on her bed, she missed Caroline, she didn't think it was possible but even though she had 27 extra years on the soon to be blonde bombshell, Caroline really had wormed her way into her heart. The ten-year-old allowed Maya to let loose, and act like a child, which really helped, because if Maya didn't have Caroline, all she'd be doing is planning and plotting, trying to figure out how to get the best outcome for everyone. She also missed Enzo, he was her friend, and while she was so happy that he got his freedom, she was upset that she probably wouldn't see him again. She was so deep in thought that she startled when she heard a tapping at her bedroom window and saw Enzo's face peering in at her. "Are you going to let me in or what?" he hissed.
Darting over to the window she pushed it open and invited him inside, "What are you doing here? Mum said that some creepy guys came by the clinic today, we think they're Augustine. You can't be here Enzo, they'll catch you." She rushed out.
"I know sweetheart, but I couldn't just leave you without saying goodbye, you spent three years creeping in and out of my torture chamber just to keep me company, to keep me sane." Moving her red hair behind an ear, Enzo crouched down so that they were eye to eye. "You gave me hope when I had none and then to top it all off you and your mother rescued me from a lifetime of torture. You mean everything to me Little One, I had to see you again."
Maya's eyes welled with tears and she flung herself forward into Enzo, the stupid vampire kept making her cry, "I don't want you to go 'Zo," she hiccoughed, trying to stifle her sobs so her mother wouldn't hear her, "I'm gonna miss you so much," she squeezed his middle, the vampire gathered her in his arms and lifted her up, sitting on the bed, he settled her in his lap, stroking her hair, waiting for her to calm down. Enzo was the first person she'd told everything to, (excluding the TV show bit) he knew that she was a reincarnated soul, that she could remember everything of that previous life, including her death, he knew that she would get visions about the future (and sometimes the past). He was also the only one who truly understood how terrified she was living in town with a Bennett Witch, she told him about the prison worlds, about how Sheila Bennett helped to put the last Siphoner in one eight years prior.
"Believe it or not Little One, I don't want to have to leave, but I can't let Augustine find me again, and I need to figure out how to live in this century, especially without a daylight ring."
Maya's eyes widened and she looked up at the British vampire, "I can make you one!"
"You know the spell?"
Maya shook her head, "No, but I know where we can find a copy of it, if you could get me it, and a lapis lazuli ring, I could spell it."
"You're certain love? This isn't just a ploy to get me to stick around longer?"
"Enzo I don't want you to go, but I don't want you to get hurt more."
Enzo nodded, "Alright sweetheart, tell me, where's the spell?"
"It's in Emily Bennett's grimoire, which was buried with the late, not so great, Giuseppe Salvatore…Damon's dad."
The vampire's jaw clenched at the reminder of his old friend, the man that had left him to die, the man that didn't have enough in him to kill Enzo, instead of leaving him to a fate worse than death. He wanted to find his cellmate and now he knew just where to start. "Love," he started, "if I brought you something of the Salvatore Patriarch, do you think that you could find Damon for me?"
"Uh, what do you mean when you say 'something'?" she hesitated, why did she feel like the answer was going to gross her out?
"Well it has been 150 years, so it would be a bone."
"Gross Enzo! A bone!"
"Keep it down, do you want your mother to hear us?"
"That's so disgusting, and yes, I could, but I would need actual maps of the US."
Enzo smiled, "Thank you sweetheart, I'm going to go before your mother comes to check on you, but I'll bring you the grimoire so that you can review the spell." With that he whooshed out of the window and Maya threw herself onto her back and groaned, this was going to be a long month.
The next morning Maya found Emily Bennett's grimoire on the desk in her room, along with a note from Enzo telling her to study up on the spell while he hunted down an acceptable ring. Smiling at the prospect of being able to learn from it before Bonnie and Sheila could get their hands on it excited her. Also, if Caroline did end up becoming a vampire in the future, she wanted to be the one to give her a daylight ring, Care needed to know that even if she made mistakes and hurt people, on accident or on purpose, it she wouldn't be punished. Maya frowned when thinking of Caroline reminded her of her latest predicament, and the Caroline free month she'd been punished with. She hated being a kid sometimes.
Maya woke up with a smile on her face, she made it the full month being stuck at Elena's, missing Caroline, not practicing her magic, she been studying the grimoire Enzo had gotten her, but apart from the daylight ring spell, and locator spell, she hadn't been able to do anything else. Her mum had to go to Whitmore for her lectures, but Maya was finally free to do as she wanted. Packing up the grimoire in her Lord of the Rings backpack, she grabbed her keys and the emergency cell phone her mother had provided her with after the whole 'if a witch finds me, they might kill me' thing, she headed out to the site of Esther's death. When she got there, she felt a change in the magic of the area, a weakening, and then she was smiling for a whole different reason. The magic of the site was not infinite, which meant that she could Siphon it all up, which in turn, meant that Esther would not be able to use it as a source of power to make an indestructible stake and an unkillable hunter. Maya wondered if she could find something to store magic in, the moonstone sealed a curse, and Emily Bennett's talisman worked like a magical battery, so surely something could be made that wasn't as ugly for her to wear. Maya bit her lip and decided she'd give Enzo a call about it later, the vampire might be able to find something for her after he'd finished dealing with Damon Salvatore.
Biting her lip, she shook the thoughts from her head and sat down on the ground, pulling the grimoire out she flipped through the pages until she got to what she was looking for. The boundary spell, the one used on the tomb, if she understood how it was done, then she could figure out how to undo it, and while Maya was probably just going to Siphon the magic from the tomb, she wanted to be able to cast the spell at will, without the use of a celestial event.
Hours had passed before Maya had made any progress, and any that she had made was miniscule in comparison to what she wished to be able to do, she'd managed to trap a squirrel in a small circle, but it had only lasted ten minutes before it gave out. Huffing in frustration she shut the grimoire and placed her hands on the ground, closing her eyes she Siphoned the magic into her body. She was going to see Caroline and there was no way that the blonde would accept any lies from her, besides, she wanted Caroline to be more prepared than anyone else in this town. In the show Caroline hadn't grown as a person until she became a vampire, which meant that people didn't believe in her and that created the insecure version of the girl that was easy to manipulate and hurt. But Maya wasn't about to let that happen, her Caroline was going to be strong and smart and independent, before anyone tried to sink their fangs into the girl.
Before she was reborn, Maya had never walked so much in her life, she lived in the city in her previous life, where taxis, buses and trains were everywhere, but here in small town Virginia, there wasn't much she could do but walk. While the magical hotspot was close by to the apartment, it still tired her out, she was going to have to call either Caroline's mum or dad and hope that one of them could pick her up, or she was going to have to call Aunt Miranda or (shudder to think about it) Uncle Grayson and see if they were willing to take her over to Care's. This sucked, she couldn't wait until she could drive again.
Sighing, Maya picked up the phone and dialled the familiar number that would connect her to her best friend. Caroline picked up on the second ring and Maya had to stop herself from squealing in excitement, "Care-Bear! Guess who is finally free and missing her sunshine!"
The delighted gasp on the other end of the phone was exactly what she was expecting, but also made her ever so fond of the girl she called best friend. "Seriously?! You've been released?!" Caroline replied.
"I'm free and clear and mum is out for the day and left me money for Pizza, so what do you say, wanna hang with your bestie?"
"YES!" Caroline practically shrieked, "Hang on," Maya heard the tell-tale sound of the phone being left on its side, and muffled voices, Caroline must have gone to speak to her parents. The phone was picked up again and the ten-year-old blond was on the line again, "Okay, mum says that she'll drop me off on the way to work, so I'll be there in an hour, I'm staying over tonight!" Caroline giggled. "I'll see you soon!" she hung up the phone before Maya could respond.
Shaking her head, Maya grinned and moved to set everything up for Caroline, she figured the best way to address things with Care was to make sure that she started off with the pretty stuff, she'd move on to scarier things when Caroline was old enough. She was going to have to tell Caroline about the danger that other witches would be to her though.
Clearing the table Maya set out a few things: a pile of feathers from the pillow she'd destroyed when showing her mum her abilities, a candle, a glass of water and her mum's fake crystal ball that Jenna had gotten as part of a psychic costume for last year's Halloween. She also ordered Pizza for dinner, she figured her mum would be home at around eight p.m. and would be starving after a long day at college. She just hoped that she was right and Caroline wouldn't completely freak out when Maya showed her what she could do.
A knock at the door broke her out of her reverie, "Maya open up!" Caroline called.
The Siphon rushed to the door, opening it she was engulfed in her ball of sunshine's arms, the two girls falling to the floor at the force at which Caroline had thrown herself at her best friend. "Caroline!" Sheriff Forbes scolded as she brought in her daughter's overnight bag.
"Hi Mrs Forbes!" Maya chirped from the floor, still wrapped in Caroline's arms, she grinned up at the Sheriff, showing that she was fine.
"Maya honey," the Sheriff replied, "Caroline let the girl up!" Caroline reluctantly pulled back and both girls stood up, "Where's your mother?" Liz asked.
"She's just grabbing some sleepover goodies," Maya replied, knowing that Liz wouldn't be happy to know that she was at home alone, but her mum deserved to get an education and given how old Maya actually was, she made sure to never give her mum any trouble. "She'll be back in like 20 minutes, did you want to wait for her?" she asked, knowing that the Sheriff would decline.
"No honey, that's fine, just tell her I said hi okay, and whatever you did, don't do it again, Caroline's been sulking all month."
"I have not!" Caroline protested.
Liz rolled her eyes and smiled fondly down at her daughter, "Caroline, your father will pick you up at ten tomorrow, be ready." She said, ruffling her daughters hair, "I'll see you tomorrow honey, bye girls."
Caroline managed to hold out for whole hour and a half before she finally caved and demanded answers from her best friend, "Okay you have to spill!" she moaned, "What did you do?!"
"Nearly two hours, I'm impressed Care!" Maya smirked, she really was, Caroline had never been able to hold her curiosity for this long before.
"Maya!" Caroline whined, "Tell me! Or I'll tell Elena who really destroyed her Malibu Barbie!"
"You wouldn't dare!" Maya challenged.
"Try me!" Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and Maya was rewarded with a flash of what the young girl would look like in the future.
"Okay, okay," Maya caved, "I'll tell you, but you have to promise that you'll never breathe a word of this to anyone, I mean it Care. Not. A. Word."
"I swear," Caroline promised.
So Maya told her about being a witch, it took a while for Caroline to even take her seriously, at first she thought that Maya was lying just to keep from telling her the truth about what she did, but when it became clear that Maya was serious, she asked for proof. Maya tugged her over to the table and sat down, "Now don't scream okay, I need my concentration, but I'll go with the easiest thing first." Closing her eyes for a moment, when she opened them, they were surrounded by floating feathers.
Caroline gasped in surprise, she didn't really believe what Maya was telling her until this show of magic, she wanted to ask questions, but Maya had told her that she needed to concentrate. Maya moved her hand and the feathers gathered in a pile on the dining table.
"Well?" she asked a little sheepishly, "Are you scared of me?"
"It's beautiful!" Caroline exclaimed, "What else can you do?"
Maya smiled, "See what I can do with fire!" she lit the candle with a wave of her hand, this time as she moved her hands and the flame grew and rose up and away from the candle and morphed into the shape of a ballet dancer.
Caroline clapped with joy, "It's so pretty!" she giggled, she couldn't believe it, her best friend was a witch!
"Okay, now water!" Maya put the flames out and pushed the glass of water over to Caroline, "Now touch the glass."
Caroline frowned but put her hands on the glass, "What's supposed to happen?"
"Just give it a minute," Maya replied and focused on the water, Caroline gasped as the water began to cool and then quickly turned to ice.
"That's so cool!"
"Yeah but they're not my favourite."
Caroline looked at her best friend curiously, "Well what is?"
Maya grabbed the crystal ball and put it directly in front of her, "I'm not going to tell your future, just be quiet." Closing her eyes, this required all her concentration, the glass ball floated in the air, started glowing red before it began to twist into a new shape, when she was done it was a delicate glass horse. Maya felt drained, she didn't realise the all that element manipulation would be so tiring, her concentration broke and the horse dropped from its position in the air. Caroline squeaked in alarm and grabbed the delicate glass horse before it hit the table and shattered. "Do you like it?" Maya asked.
"It's- it's perfect," Caroline marvelled, Maya's other tricks were amazing, but this was something that she could touch, hold, something that told her that she wasn't just imagining things. "I love it!"
"Good," Maya replied, "it's yours."
"Seriously!" Caroline's delight was evident, "You're the best!"
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