Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognise.
Thank you for all the reviews! The response has been so overwhelming!
I have a quick question for all of you - Damon is a nickname person, what nicknames do you think that he'd give Maya? What do you all think suits her?
Sciave: Sorry but I had to do it, Damon wasn't going to give up Maya and Augustine wasn't going to just let that go, but at least his torture didn't last long. I did feel like Ric and Damon's friendship became broken when he moved to Whitmore campus, it felt like the writers thought that Damon was only capable of keeping one friendship alive at a time.
UnknownReaderHasJoined: I have to admit I was having a little trouble figuring out how the hell Elijah actually flirted, we haven't been given many examples of it, whereas we get tons of examples for Klaus and Rebekah. Remember Maya doesn't know Elena's the doppleganger, her memories are hidden behind that shroud and she doesn't remember what Katherine looks like, and Damon hasn't seen Elena yet, all she knows is that Elena's important and that Stefan is supposed to see her when he saves her life.
Guest: I know! She can't remember it yet! She'll probably lose her shit! (Klaus definitely will!)
NotRob: As much as I like Katherine, she won't be getting much love in this story, considering that Maya considers Damon one of hers and Katherine just keeps hurting Damon.
Felinegreat: Most of her memories were hidden away from her when she was 10 to protect her because Mother Nature was trying to get rid of them, and she gets them back when something or someone triggers a vision, she temporarily got them all back when she was in Death's Domain because Nature's reach doesn't extend there but she only had a limited amount of time to relay things to Klaus and when she came back to the Living Plain the untriggered memories were hidden again.
TheQueenofGoodbyes: Maya's job is to ensure the vampires survival, the one way to do that is to make sure the Originals remain in existence, so if Kol is in trouble then Maya is going to do everything she can to help him, even if he scares her right now. I figured that the moment Augustine realised that Damon wasn't going to tell them anything about Maya that they would just move on to torturing him, and they didn't have long to do serious damage. I'm not a fan of Haley, I never really have been, she kind of sealed the deal on my hate for her when she tried to run away with Hope permanently. I know that she and Klaus grew to care about each other, but without Haley, a lot of what happened in the Originals wouldn't have, not to mention if Klaus doesn't have a baby that is part of the Labonaire bloodline, how much of a hold can the Hollow have on the Originals?
Ashes2Dust18: Thank you!
WisegirlDivergence46: Thanks!
mrs. morgan 35: So I've had a lot of people tell me that they don't like Rebekah and Marcel together, and neither did I, when you think about the final pairings for the Originals most of them were pretty weird – Rebekah dating her adopted nephew Marcel, Kol dating Marcel's surrogate daughter Davina (so I guess that makes her technically Klaus's granddaughter) who tried to kill Klaus on multiple occasions and severed his sireline , Elijah dating Klaus's baby mama Haley. That's a lot of messed up family drama, hell even Freya and Keelin's relationship started out really messed up.
Xotinkerbella: I had to do it, Damon couldn't just be in Augustine's custody, plus his torture gives Klaus the ability to reflect on how much his friends actually mean to him. I like dangerous Damon, and Kol, they can be soft with the women they love but I don't want them to change, it's how they survived for so long.
Maya was curled up in bed with her mother, needing comfort after seeing what Damon had gone through. Damon hadn't come with her, he'd needed to do a lot more healing, and he wanted to get his pound of flesh from the hunters that had tortured him. So Enzo had strung up what was left of their captives, they had all night to break the humans and find out what they knew. Klaus had had to take Kol back to the Penthouse, Maya had unintentionally revealed something about herself that neither she nor Klaus had wanted revealed, and to Kol of all people, so Klaus needed to do damage control. But Maya didn't want to worry about any of that tonight, she couldn't close her eyes without seeing Damon's tortured body, but she was glad she went. Having her mother hold her close, Maya knew what needed to be done, her uncle couldn't be allowed to live any longer, he'd set the dogs loose on her, and Damon had been caught in the trap instead. She would figure out some other way for Stefan to see Elena, but Grayson didn't get to live anymore, not after what he'd done. It would hurt Jeremy, it would hurt her Aunt Miranda, which would hurt her mother in turn, but Grayson had helped break Enzo, and had been the reason for Damon's suffering today, she needed to tell Enzo that he could get rid of her uncle. If her mother found out about this, then she would just have to ask for forgiveness later.
Kol woke with a start in his brother's study, "Nik!" he growled, "What the hell did you do?"
"You had my witch in your sights Kol, you're lucky you didn't get a dagger in your heart!"
"You didn't see what I saw Nik! She did something to me!"
"She did nothing to you! She can't control what she sees and if you hadn't been trying to force your way into her mind you never would have seen it in the first place!"
"So it's true then! You're plotting against me!"
Klaus snarled, shoving his brother against the wall of his study and holding him there, "I'm not trying to kill you, you idiot! Despite everything you and I have done to one another you are still my brother and I love you!"
"Then what did I see?" Kol asked through gritted teeth.
Klaus sighed, letting him go, he wouldn't be able to keep everything about Maya from Kol, but he had to figure out how to sate his brother's curiosity, whilst keeping his Little Siphon to himself. "Maya gets visions, she cannot control when they appear, or what they are, but they are true."
"You can't be serious, seers don't exist Nik."
"She's not a seer Kol, she's an old soul, and her visions are very real brother, you know me I would never believe anything like this without proof."
"What proof has she given you?" Kol asked incredulously, Nik was many things, but stupid was not one of them.
"Mikael angered a witch in 1996, she desiccated him and locked him in a mausoleum, I didn't know this until she brought it to my attention. But Mikael wasn't locked away with his stake, she found it and delivered it to me along with Mikael's location, where I killed him."
"She's the reason father's dead? Why would she ever help you?"
"I had something she needed and in return she gave me something that I needed."
"And now?" Kol asked, "You seem fond of her."
"Would you just throw away a witch of her power?" he asked a little smugly, Kol for all his recklessness, loved witches, and there were many covens that loved him back, but he didn't have anyone like Maya.
"Since we're on the topic of her power, what kind of witch is she?" he'd never met another like her before, and that his brother had someone new and powerful at his side was killing him, "I can't say that I've seen her kind of ability before, what is she?"
Klaus smirked, "Terribly sorry brother, but I just can't tell you."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both, she gets rather touchy about who knows what she is, if you'd like to know, she needs to trust you."
Kol let out a scoff, "She trusts you?"
"We have an understanding," Klaus shrugged, not for the first time, feeling glad that he had something that gave him an edge over his siblings.
It was lunch time before Damon appeared back in the apartment, Jenna and Maya had been worrying about him all night, neither one of them really able to sleep. The moment she saw him Maya had her arms wrapped around his waist, her head resting on his chest, "Whoa now Red, what is this?" Damon asked, his hands floundering around, unsure of what to do.
"Shut up, you're letting me have this." She mumbled into his chest.
"Am I?"
"Yes, you are," Jenna said coming up and hugging him from behind, "You're letting us both have this."
Jenna's head rested on his shoulder, Damon finally let one of his hands settle on Maya's back while the other held onto to Jenna's arm, and he relaxed into the hug that he was getting from the girls. He couldn't remember the last time he'd received comfort like this, he couldn't remember the last time that he had people that cared about him enough to offer him comfort. "Hey now is this a private party or can anyone join?" Enzo asked walking in, dropping his keys in the bowl by the door.
"Oh no, all of this is mine," Damon replied amused, "Although if you girls want, we can definitely take this somewhere more private," Damon wiggled his eyebrows.
"Ugh!" Jenna groaned pulling away from him.
"Gross Damon," Maya frowned releasing him from her grip, "You're disgusting!" she moved over to her best friend, hugging him instead, "Enzo knows not be gross."
"I don't know love, that would be quite the delectable sandwich," Enzo smirked.
"Oh my god!" Maya pulled back and Damon laughed at the look on her face, "You are rubbing off on him in entirely the wrong way," she accused.
Damon smirked, "There's a right way to rub of on him?"
"Okay you know what I'm done, I was worried, and you're clearly fine, so I'm going to get back to my packing."
"Leaving so soon Darling?" Kol said, standing just inside the entryway, "We haven't even had a chance to get to know one another."
"I already have enough homicidal maniacs in my life, so no thanks," she turned to leave, but was once again stopped by another life.
"I'm not sure whether I should be delighted or offended love," Klaus said, following his brother inside the apartment.
"Seriously? Is this place just like an open house now?" Maya exclaimed.
"We have been invited in," Klaus offered.
Maya rolled her eyes and shot a look at Enzo, that would be rectified soon enough, neither of them trusted Kol and were not about to let him have full access to them. "What are you even doing here?"
"Damon and Enzo spent all of last night getting information from those Augustine members, if hunters are operating in my city we need to know," Klaus replied.
"No, you need to know, that still doesn't explain why he's here," Maya retorted, nodding in Kol's direction.
"Hunting vampire hunters, that sounds perfectly thrilling, New York is getting so boring these days," Kol said, throwing himself into one of the couches in the living area.
Jenna scowled as her daughter joined her in the kitchen, "I'm still not happy about him being here," she whispered to Maya, "He's way too enthused about violence." Kol smiled at her words an offered her a little wave from the couch, causing Jenna to roll her eyes.
"I'm pretty sure that's all vampires mum," Maya replied amused. Jenna shook her head, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the living area.
Klaus came to join Maya in the kitchen, fully able to pay attention to what Damon and Enzo were saying, whilst speaking with his Little Siphon, "I think we need to have a little discussion don't we love?"
Maya's eyes flitted over to Kol and then back to Klaus, "I think that most of that discussion needs to happen when you're alone. Tea?" she asked pouring some for herself.
Klaus nodded and took a cup from her, "Well what can you tell me while I'm here?"
"I already told you that every Original has a sireline," at Klaus's nod she continued, "What I didn't tell you is that when an Original dies, they take the whole sireline with them."
Klaus stiffened, "In other words…"
"You die and every vampire with even a hint of your blood in them drops dead within an hour."
"And you know this because of the knight?" Klaus asked, referring to the White Oak knight that he'd destroyed at her behest. Maya nodded, she could vividly remember Elijah dying after being shot, members of his sireline dropping dead around Kol and Rebekah. "Who?" he asked, the only way she could have known was if one of them died.
"Elijah," she whispered softly.
Finn may be the eldest, but Elijah was Klaus's big brother, the one he trusted the most, the one who had stood by him through his worst and to know that there was a future out there where Elijah was no longer by his side, even if that future was no longer viable, it caused a very literal pain in his heart. Klaus's fingers dug into the top of the kitchen counter, he had no idea what to say, he never thought that he would lose Elijah, never even thought that there was ever a possibility of loosing Elijah.
"Hey," Maya reached out and settled her hand over his, "Nik," she moved closer to him, pulling his hand away from the counter, ignoring the dents that he'd left in the granite, "It's not going to happen now, you got rid of the knight," she kept her voice low, not wanting to draw the other's attention, "It's my job to make sure that you all stay alive, and I'm going to do that, no matter what."
Klaus looked into her eyes, witnessing a sincerity that he wasn't used to seeing in anyone when they spoke to him, "And Kol?"
"I don't know what it was," she hadn't had much time to think about it, too worried about Damon, "The moment I figure it out, you'll know, I swear."
Klaus pulled his hand from hers, they would have to have a much more in depth conversation when he was sure that his brother wasn't listening in, "We'll talk more later, for now we should probably pay attention to Enzo."
Maya nodded and turned her attention to the four in the living room, picking up on the tail end of the conversation, "Wait," she said to Enzo, "You said the orders came from Whitmore Campus, do you know who?"
Damon nodded, "Some professor named Wexfield…or Waxfield?" he looked over at Enzo.
"Maxfield, Professor Maxfield," Enzo said, annoyed that Damon hadn't been paying attention.
"Aah!" Maya grabbed her head and doubled over, she'd just been hit with a whole host of information, and it appeared that her brain didn't like it.
"Maya!" Jenna exclaimed, getting up to go to her daughter, Klaus was there first though, holding her up before she fell to the ground.
"Love are you alright?" Enzo asked worried, he'd never seen this happen to her.
Straightening up, she nodded, "Yeah," she pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose, "I just got hit with a very large info dump."
"About the professor?" Kol asked, was this how her visions usually came to her? If so it seemed counter-productive, what if she was out and came into contact with an enemy and dropped to the ground in pain?
"Yeah, he's going to need to be dealt with, immediately."
"What can you tell us?" Damon asked.
"Dr Maxfield is a biologist, he was using the results he got from the experiments on Enzo and other vampires to try and create a Ripper Virus."
"A what?" Jenna asked, confused at the term.
"Uh, basically there are vampires out there that can't handle their bloodlust," Damon cut in, "They get so into the feed they literally rip their victims apart."
"Oh my god," Jenna murmured, "Vampires like that exist?"
"Not many do," Klaus said, "Most tend to draw too much attention and end up being killed off by those of us that are older and stronger."
"But that doesn't make any sense, why would Augustine want to make vampires even more dangerous for humans?"
"They don't want to," Maya replied, "He's trying to make a virus that will mean that vampires crave other vampires' blood, he's basically trying to turn all vampires into violent cannibals so that the race can extinguish itself."
"I take it from the look on your face, he succeeds," Kol said, he was all for mass murder and chaos, but turning every vampire into a cannibalistic ripper didn't sound like fun.
"It'll take him like another four years to perfect but then he gets help from a coven of witches who make it contagious. So I think I speak for all of us when I say that he and his research need to go, and fast."
"We'll take care of it," Damon said, his face hard, he had first hand experience of rippers and as much as he taunted his brother, he himself would never be able to survive that loss of control, and as far as he was concerned he would make sure that it didn't happen, "We'll drop you off at home, and then go to the campus."
"You have to be careful, Augustine has control of the campus, which means that not all of the buildings are under eminent domain, you'll need invites to get in." Maya said, she could vaguely remember Caroline being unable to enter one of the buildings on campus. "And I swear to God, if you two aren't checking in with me and mum regularly, I will rip out your freaking spleens!"
"Maya!" Jenna exclaimed.
"What it's not like they need them, I don't even need mine, it's just a bag of blood."
Kol laughed, "It appears you have more in common with my brother than I thought, perhaps you do go well together!"
Maya shot him a withering look and Klaus growled, "Say another word and I'll tear out your liver."
"And I'll hold you down," Maya added.
Kol smirked, "You see, you're both so adorably violent!"
Maya narrowed her eyes and Kol winced in pain, grabbing his head, "Aneurism spell, I leaned to do that when I was 10." She flounced off to her room, unwilling to deal with the youngest Mikaelson brother any longer, Kol was definitely going to be a complication in her long-term plans.
"I'm in hell," Maya said, looking around, "I died and now I'm in hell, it's the only explanation."
"Oh stop being so dramatic!" Caroline exclaimed, handing her a bundle of clothing, "You nearly died and your mum implemented the 'No Caroline' punishment, for two months! This is the only way to circumvent that, now stop complaining and go get dressed."
Maya groaned and threw her head back in displeasure, walking into the dressing room, she pulled on the clothes and came back out, ignoring her friend's squeal of delight she frowned, "Seriously, what did I ever do to you? Why am I being punished?"
"Seriously," Caroline threw back, "Stop complaining, or you really will be punished! Now let's get out on that field, the girls are waiting!"
Maya scowled and walked towards the group of girls on football field, "Everybody's staring at me," the skirt was too short, the top to 'peppy', on the whole, the outfit was so not her style.
"They're staring because they're all jealous of how good you look, now quit bitching and show Elena and Bonnie that just because you joined late, doesn't mean that you can't do every single one of these routines better than they can!"
Maya let out a whine and joined the group of girls that had gathered on one side of the football field, "I can't believe she made me a cheerleader," she muttered to herself, privately thinking that this was in fact her punishment from Caroline for almost dying, and if that was the case, she was going to try really hard, not to do it again.
Klaus and Kol were going through one of the Augustine Safe Houses that Maya had named, members of Augustine lay broken and bleeding at their feet as the two vampires searched through the documents that they'd found in one of the back rooms, it appeared that this particular house was a hub for Augustine. "You know eventually we're going to have to talk about your little witch, Nik," Kol said, tipping out a box of notebooks.
"I don't have to talk to you about anything Kol."
"Well, I suppose that I could always speak with Elijah and tell him that I've figured out why you've been in such a good mood…or I could tell Rebekah that you've found a tasty little thing to spend your time with, that should get our sister interested in your comings and goings!"
Klaus growled and shoved Kol up against the wall, "If you know what's good for you brother, you will keep Maya's name out of your mouth! And as far as Rebekah's concerned, you will ensure that she knows nothing about any of this or else I will put you down again! I mean it Kol, I will not give Rebekah the chance to ruin this for me!"
Kol pushed Klaus away from him, his brother was a power hungry, paranoid, narcissistic megalomaniac, and each of his siblings had disappointed him, multiple times, but the way Nik had been acting suggested a betrayal that had cut him deep. The only problem was neither he, Rebekah nor Elijah knew what it was that she could have done to cause their brother to distrust her so. "Enough of the dagger threats Nik! They're getting old! Now what is so bloody important that you're worried our sister will ruin it?"
Scowling, Klaus moved away from his brother, texting some of his minions to come and clear the Augustine house of anything useful, "My private affairs are none of your business Kol! And my issues with Rebekah are my own, they're none of your concern."
Kol shook his head, glaring at his older brother, "What could you possibly be keeping to yourself that's so important that you disregard the feelings of your favourite sibling?"
Klaus rolled his eyes, "Rebekah's not my favourite." This was always a problem when Rebekah and Kol were awake at the same time, both of them always wanted all the attention that he could give them. When they were younger, Klaus was the one that protected them as children, Finn was mother's favourite son, and Elijah was the only one that Mikael could stand. Kol, Rebekah and Henrik were the youngest and Klaus had wanted them to have lives that were as easy as possible (for the time anyway). He'd suffered Mikael's abuse from a young age and hadn't wanted that for his younger siblings, so he'd taken the brunt of their punishments when he could. As a result, he'd been the one that his younger siblings had run to when they wanted something. As vampires, this had manifested in both Kol and Rebekah being overly jealous with their brother.
"Oh please, everyone knows that Bekah's your favourite," Kol refuted, unwilling to argue with his brother about this, "But you didn't answer the question, what is so important to you that you won't tell any of us about it?" When Klaus didn't reply, Kol took a shot, "Is it your curse?" Klaus's jaw tightened and Kol latched on to it, "Your witch gave you the moonstone! I knew it!"
"Enough Kol!"
"Now that you have the moonstone, you just need the dopplegänger, I imagine that's what you're looking for."
Klaus fought the urge to huff in frustration, now that Kol had latched on to his curse, there was no way he'd let it go, he supposed out of all his siblings Kol would be the best one to discuss the newly discovered failsafe with. "I'm not looking for her yet, I have to deal with an unexpected issue with the curse first."
Kol frowned, "What issue?"
"It appears as though mother added a failsafe to my curse, I kill the dopplegänger to become the Hybrid, but I won't be able to turn any wolves because they need human dopplegänger blood to transition on."
Kol let out a scoff, "Your witch told you this?"
"I confirmed with several others, they communed with the Other Side and all of them were very insistent on the fact that the dopplegänger must be sacrificed and stay dead."
"And of course, mother must have known that there was a chance that you'd break your curse so she wanted to ensure that you'd never be able to make anyone else like you." Kol concluded, it was a terrible but brilliant plan, he would admit to that. "Even from beyond the grave, mother's still screwing with you."
"So you see, even if I find the dopplegänger, I need to work around the failsafe first," Klaus said.
"Well," Kol thought for a moment, "It would be difficult but not impossible to bring her back as human."
"But that still leaves my ability to turn hybrids linked to a fragile human."
Kol leant against the desk he'd tipped the notebooks on and frowned, his mother had never written down her immortality spell, it had been taken from Ayanna and twisted into something darker, he knew the components but didn't know exactly what magics had answered his mother's call, "When we turn a witch into a vampire all they need is normal human blood to transition on. But they lose their magic because you can't be both." That was the only thing that he'd hated about being a vampire, his ability to do magic was ripped from him, without his knowledge or consent, it had hurt him for the longest time. "But a hybrid can be both, it would stand to reason that they would need more than just human blood to transition."
"You think the dopplegänger blood is something that I would have been tied to regardless?" Klaus asked.
Kol shook his head, "No, if it was, mother wouldn't have used her to bind your curse, she would have just found a way to stop her from being born over and over again. I'd need to consult with mother's grimoires, even then the curse is old magic, I don't know anyone that would be able to manipulate it the way you would need."
Klaus quirked an eyebrow, "What if I knew of someone that could understand the magic from our time? A witch of mother's bloodline?"
Kol looked at his brother questioningly, what was his brother talking about? "A witch of mother's blood would be exactly what you need, they'd quite possibly be the only one who could unbind you, without triggering the failsafe. But there is none of her bloodline in existence, we certainly had no children."
"Mother's first child, Freya."
"The one who died of the plague?"
Klaus nodded, "According to Maya, she didn't die, she's been cursed to sleep for a hundred years, her magic gathers in her and then she wakes for a year."
"And you believe her?"
"Do you remember the knight that I'd carved for Rebekah as a child?"
Kol nodded, frowning, he'd been unbearably jealous that Nik had carved it for their sister, he'd been in a mood for a week until Nik had carved a horse for him, he was certain that he still had it hidden away in one of his properties. "Yes."
"It was made of White Oak."
"What?!"
"Maya had a vision, of it being stolen and then fashioned into bullets, one of which was used to murder Elijah."
If it was possible, Kol would have paled at the information, Elijah, dead? The idea didn't bare thinking about, Finn was the oldest, Klaus the most powerful, but Elijah was their backbone, without him, their family would have fallen apart centuries ago. "Tell me you destroyed it Nik!"
"I burnt it to ash the moment I got home, not a splinter of the wood remains, but I never would have known about it if it wasn't for Maya. And when she found the moonstone, mother attacked her from the Other Side, she very nearly killed her."
"Which tells you that in this, Maya can be trusted," Kol said in understanding. "Well then, when are you going to get our big sister?"
"Maya has suggested I send Finn, seeing as how he is the only one of us that Freya actually knows. I feel that our brother needs more time to adjust."
"And you don't trust him."
"Would you?"
"Considering that the last time he was awake he was looking for a way to kill himself when Sage disappeared, no I wouldn't, I still can't believe that he welcomed her back with open arms after she abandoned him."
Klaus smirked, "I'll let you in on a little secret brother, Mikael compelled her away, the compulsion broke when I killed him, but father ensured that Sage could not be in the same city as Finn with the hopes that our brother would break away from us in order to find her."
"Bloody hell, father was such a dick!" Kol couldn't believe that he didn't know that.
"I would like to be more confident in Finn's abilities before I send him out on his own."
"I suppose putting trust into a sister that none of us know isn't something that I would want to do either," Kol said thoughtfully, "I'll go through mother's things, see if I can piece together what she did before you wake our sister." Kol was actually rather excited, it had been centuries since he'd had such complicated project, and he'd never had one that had been approved by Nik before, which meant that Kol had much more leeway, he could reach out to witches and research magics without fear of being daggered. And it would give him the perfect excuse to contact Nik's little witch under the guise of research. He smirked to himself, oh yes, this would be very interesting.
Maya had nearly fallen asleep in her bed when she heard a noise coming from downstairs, her mother was out with her sister, Aunt Miranda wanting to take Jenna out for a girls night to help her relax, and Enzo and Damon were on Whitmore Campus, trying to figure out an innocuous way to kidnap Dr Maxfield, so what had made the noise? She jerked in alarm as she heard a shuffle and a thud come from downstairs. Grabbing her mother's baseball bat, she crept downstairs to see who was trying to get into her house, whoever it was, was messing with the wrong girl.
She slunk through the house, only to find no one there, cursing her imagination she turned to head back upstairs when she heard a scrape come from the front porch. Steeling herself she burst outside, bat raised and stopped just short of cracking the intruder over the head, when she let out a yelp of fright, "Caroline! What the hell are you doing?"
"What am I doing? You weren't answering your phone! What are you doing?! Why do you have a bat?!" Caroline almost screeched, she couldn't believe that Maya had nearly hit her with a baseball bat.
"I thought you were a predator."
"A pre- you have magic Mai, if you think there's a predator outside you freeze them before coming outside!"
"I was half asleep! What are you doing here?"
"I know it's late, but mum and dad are arguing again, it's getting pretty loud, I didn't want to be in the house anymore."
Maya scrubbed a hand over her tired face and really looked at Caroline, her parents had been arguing more and more over the past few months and Caroline looked like she was about to break. Grabbing her best friend's hand, she tugged her inside, Caroline had a room set up next to Maya's, fully stocked with clothes and beauty products because the girls liked to spend the night at each other's place more often than not. But Maya knew that Caroline didn't want to spend the night alone, so she pulled her into her room, and grabbed a sleepshirt and shorts for Caroline, "Get changed, and then let's go to sleep, we've got to get to school early in the morning."
Caroline changed and quickly slipped into bed in front of Maya, Maya scooted forward so that Caroline's back was pressed to her front and threw her arm around Caroline's waist, hugging her tight. "Maya?" Caroline whispered.
"Yeah?"
"I think that my mum and dad are going to split up."
Maya nuzzled her face into Caroline's hair, offering her comfort, "If that happens, it'll hurt, but you're strong, and you'll get through it, I'll help you get through it."
"What if he tries to take me with him?"
"You're 15, I'm pretty sure that you get a choice about who you want to live with, but if he tries to take you, I'll cast a spell on him! No one's going to make you do something you don't want to do."
Caroline gripped her best friend's hand, of all the things that Maya said, that was the one that she believed the most, she trusted Maya more than anyone, and she trusted that Maya would figure out how to make sure that they weren't separated, she couldn't imagine ever being split from her best friend.
Damon was leant back in a chair, his feet kicked up on a desk as he watched Enzo slice into Wes Maxfield, they'd compelled an apartment in Wes's building and grabbed him up on his way back from work. The gag kept him quiet as Enzo worked on draining the doctor of the vervain in his blood, he smirked at the Doctor's pained groans, it wouldn't be long now, then they'd be able to compel him and find out exactly how far Augustine's reach extended, their hunt would be delicious, every last one of the humans that thought that they could experiment on them, would find out the true meaning of pain before they met their deaths. Damon would hunt every family member and eradicate them from existence, and he would enjoy every single second of it.
He jolted in his seat when his phone rang, grabbing it from his jacket he frowned, there was still a full half hour before they had to check in with Maya, so why was she calling now? "Hello Red, how may I help you?"
Enzo stopped what he was doing and moved over to Damon, even though he didn't need to in order to hear, "Mum's out, so I thought we could talk about Grayson, Enzo said that he wouldn't do anything without talking to me first, but I don't think I can let him live any longer." Maya said, she wished that it hadn't come to this, because this would be something that she would have to keep from her mother, she never wanted to keep anything from Jenna, but she knew that no matter how much Jenna wanted Grayson to pay for what he'd done (if it hadn't have been for him, Augustine wouldn't know about Maya, and Damon never would have been tortured again), she wouldn't be able to handle the guilt of having Grayson's death on her conscience. So, she was taking the choice out of her mother's hands, "Grayson needs to die, but it can't be here, and it can't look like a vampire did it either. Mum can't know about this, she'd never be able to look at Aunt Miranda or Elena or Jeremy again."
"Your uncle's been keeping to town recently," Enzo said, "We'll need to find a way to lure him out."
"That's the other reason I was calling, there's a medical conference that he goes to every year in California, it's coming up soon, it'll be the easiest way to grab him up."
"Are you sure about this sweetheart? He is your family after all."
Maya pursed her lips, she didn't want to admit that the main reason she wanted Grayson to survive was just because that he was a key point in ensuring that Stefan met Elena, it sounded terribly callous when she thought about it like that, "He stopped being my family when I met you Enzo, if it wasn't for him, Damon wouldn't have been taken again."
Damon ignored the way his heart warmed at her words, so uncomfortable with the open affection that Maya was willing to give him, and gave Enzo a smirk, "Awe Red, I didn't know that you cared so much!"
"Shut up Damon, you know that I love you," Maya said, she knew that Damon had a hard time processing people's feeling for him when they weren't disgust or anger (she blamed his father for that), but she didn't care, her heart wasn't fickle, and to those she cared about, she showered them with affection whenever she could. It didn't help that most of the people that she'd chosen to love had such inadequacy complexes, the only one who didn't was Enzo, and that was because he loved just as hard and fiercely as she did. "You two have to promise me that mum won't find out about this, she needs to believe that Grayson's death is an accident, can you do that?"
"I'll make sure of it sweetheart," Enzo said, he may have to make the death look like a normal human death, but Maya didn't say that he couldn't torture Grayson first.
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