"You're late." Bella crossed her arms and raised a disapproving brow at me.
"Sorry, overslept." I made a face whilst slipping out of my jacket. "Family business." Her features softened at that, and she waved me off to the back of the Grill. Huh. Personal experience? Otherwise, that type of forgiving didn't seem to be a regular recurrence.
Quickly, I changed into my purple t-shirt with the Mystic Grill's golden logo over my left boob, shoving the rest of my stuff into a nearby locker. My new – or actually old – crappy phone buzzed in the back pocket of my jeans, and hoisting it out revealed my sister's name. Despite us having made up, I wrinkled my nose at the sight of it. I didn't have time for her family drama with Jenna right now. Thus, I threw the phone into the locker as well, before closing it with a bang.
There. Now I was all ready for my first day.
A day which mostly consisted of me filling up people's glasses with beer or taking their orders, whilst, of course, flirting with the other bartender, Ben. If I remembered correctly, he had graduated high school a few years ago. Probably knew everyone in Elena's year as well. This was confirmed when I saw him chatting with Matt, who was filling out an application to work here. Good for him? I wasn't not sure. Poor dude had to earn all income on his own; his mother being an absent alcoholic and his sister being, well, dead.
Casually, I wiped my closer across the dark surface of the bar, nearing the pair.
"Cook line?" Ben asked over his back, putting a clean and dried glass back in its place on one of the shelves in front of the blue, glass wall.
"Busboy," Matt called out. He received an almost pitiful look from Ben. Douche.
"Sounds great!" I squeezed in and gave Matt a genuine smile. "Glad to have you on board, Kennedy." I leaned forward. "It was getting boring," I added, whispering.
"Glad to hear you're enjoying your work after just one day, Gilbert," Ben bit off. He seemed to have had enough of flirting, for the time being. I rolled my eyes and turned to face him, planting my back against the bar.
"Don't take it personal, Jockey." Liked my wordplay on the word jock? I know, it's awesome. Ben, on the other hand, took it a bit personal; squinting his brown eyes at me whilst retaining a vague smile.
"Isn't that your sister?" he asked, nodding over my head. With a glance over my shoulder, I spotted Elena and Bonnie just finishing their dinner, getting ready to leave. Elena had just grabbed her bag and jacket, already halfway out the door. Score! Nicely avoided drama there.
However, when Bonnie got up to make her way over to the bar, probably to pay their bill, she walked right into Damon. Dammit; I spoke too soon. Should I save my witchy friend from the hot, but annoying, vampire? Glimpsing Ben staring at the two, a brilliant idea hit me.
"Hey." I gave him a pat on the shoulder, before leaning my chin against it and looking in the same direction as his brown orbs; right at Damon and Bonnie. "She's cute. And single." I gave him a slight push, urging him to go over there. "You should talk to her." Ben looked tempted by my offer, so I continued to lead him out from behind the bar by pushing at his back. "Her name is Bonnie," I whispered into his ear before giving him a last shove.
With triumph, I watched him walk over to the tense pair. Instantly, Ben exchanged some words with Damon, which made him reluctantly turn around and walk away. Probably an assessment of ridiculous manhood, or something of the sorts. Very annoying! But at least I didn't have to do the job myself.
"Smooth," Matt spoke from somewhere behind me.
"Thanks." I walked back over to him, grabbing his application and swirling it around on the bar counter. "No, no," I tsked, tracing my finger over the boxes he had filled in. "You would be an awesome chef, you know." I looked up to catch his light blue gaze.
"I'll settle for busboy." He shrugged, dismissively.
"You're overqualified," I said firmly and swung the application back around to him.
"That's really nice of you, Parks… But I don't think you're the one to make that decision."
"Fine!" I rolled my eyes. "But just so you know where I stand in this." I put my finger on the boxes in the application, which urged you to tick the position you were applying for. "You could do better, Matty."
He straightened up in surprise. "Almost calling me by my real name."
"That's how serious I am," I spoke gravely and leaned back. Matt looked as if he was at least inclined to consider it. "Think it over," I finished and walked away from him, with a bit of a less heavy conscience.
Once I'd finished my shift, I finally dug my phone out from the mess I made in my locker. After just one day, I could barely find a thing amongst the clothes and stuff. Indeed, I was a freaking professional.
The moment I pressed a button, the display threateningly lit up and revealed thirty plus texts and several missed calls.
Oh dear. I flipped them through lazily.
One contained Elena yapping about avoiding Jenna, going to the decade dance at the school tomorrow night and needing clothes: Did I have anything? From the 50s? Please! I wasn't that old.
Another one had Jenna trying to make up for last night. How she even had gotten this number perplexed me the most. Then there was something about chaperoning that dance: eh, no thanks.
Finally, the last five missed calls were from a stressed Elena. With growing worry, I listened to each and every one of them. A guy had called her, threatening her. Saying, and I quote: "I tried getting to you. Instead your sister hit me with a car. I didn't get to you. I will next time." The final voice message calmed me down a little, and stopped me from ignoring to change and run to my sister's side immediately. She had gone to meet Stefan, and he had given her some sort of device that could track vampires.
The funny thing was that she was worried about the vampire going after me. Since I had been the one to hit him. Ah, Elena… When would she get that I could take care of myself? Even against murderous vampires. She was spending the night at the Salvatores, but wanted to talk to me tomorrow after school and before that stupid decade dance thing. Maybe I could convince her of my independence then.
I sent a quick text to Elena, writing when I would swing by tomorrow. Then another one; reluctantly accepting Jenna's offer to chaperone. If Elena would insist on going to that dance, she would need all the bodyguards she could get for the night. I could take care of myself, but I wasn't so sure about my baby sister. And I wasn't sure I trusted her vampire boyfriend enough either.
Adding the finishing touches to my outfit, I cast a glance at my reflection in the tall mirror located in the bathroom. Viewing what I had managed to put together, I came to the conclusion that I pretty much looked like I'd just stepped out from a Grease movie.
Dressed from head to toe in black and tight clothing, only a big, baggy bike jacket and a pair of red pumps – which happened to match my lipstick perfectly – stood out from the rest of the outfit's tight tendencies. I readjusted the boatneck of my tight black top and drew back to give a final look into the cracked mirror. It would do.
Checking the time, I backed out of the ramshackled bathroom, out in the hallway to try to get a clear view of the clock on the wall over the small U-shaped kitchen. It showed that I was finished just in time to get going.
If I were to make it in time to Elena's house without a car at my disposal, that was. Which I did, due to careful planning. But I was really starting to feel the absence of a vehicle at my constant disposal.
Taking the steps up to the Gilbert house in two graceful leaps, I landed stably on my high heeled feet. As so many times before, I entered the house without so much as knocking, just in time to see Elena hang up the phone.
Before a figure dressed in black jumped down from its place braced to the ceiling.
Reacting before thinking, I quickly moved to grab an umbrella with a wooden base from its stand next to the door, jabbing it into the vampire's back before he even had a chance to touch a hair on Elena's head. However, before I could re-pierce his back, not quite having hit his heart the first time, Stefan whooshed in from out of nowhere, throwing me back into a wall and taking on the vampire himself. This gave the vampire the convenient time to speed out of the place, while I was left with the back of my head dully aching from its impact with the wall. Smooth, there Stefan. Real smooth!
"Are you okay?" he asked Elena. Hey! I was the one with a hurting head here! Douche. At least my sister threw a worried look my way from Stefan's 'protecting' arms. I waved off her questioning gaze and stopped rubbing the back of my head. Stefan – finally remembering me – glanced over Elena's head. "I'm sorry."
"Oh, it's fine. I always enjoy being thrown into a wall, head first," I seethed sarcastically. Elena gave me a warning look, but I rolled my eyes to it.
"I should check and make sure he's gone," Stefan spoke and released Elena from his arms. He stroked her cheek gently and asked, in an urging, worried tone: "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes." Elena nodded, bravely. "I got Parker," she added with a smile and a glance my way. If that was enough to convince her to not worry about me, then the pain in my head from Stefan's interference was definitely worth it.
But, sadly, I was wrong
Even after Elena's statement she stood by her opinion that I wasn't safe. Woman, did you not see when I almost pierced that vampire's heart? AGH!
It took some convincing, but after a chat in the living room where Damon joined us, I at least managed to persuade them that I could be of help in their takedown of the vampire at the decade dance.
Surprisingly enough, my will came through with the help of Damon. Of all people! Stefan and Elena still had their arms crossed and shared disapproving looks, but at least they'd shut up. Damon did a dramatic roll of his eyes when he caught me observing them, and I had to repress a laugh.
"So, it's settled then." I felt the need to clarify what we had landed on. "We'll take him down at the dance tonight, since he's been invited in and no one in this house is safe anymore." I turned to point at my sister. "Elena will be bait." Stefan stiffened at my choice of words.
"Technically, so will you," Damon pointed out, and I threw him a glare. Like they needed another reminder of that!
"He'll strike again, and when he does we'll be ready," Stefan stated. I wondered who he was including in his 'we'. Whatever, I would just have to make sure I was present when the action went down.
A rather strong urge to take this new vampire down had begun to grow inside of me. Not just because he'd stood in the middle of the road and caused me to hit him, but more so because he had attacked Elena. And I would very much like to finish the job of driving a stake through his heart.
"You two have to change," I said and pointed between the brothers. They shared a look.
"Is that really necessary?"
"Oh, come on! You lived during the 50s for crying out loud. I'm sure you can dig out something from your closet."
The reluctance was clear, but both still got up to leave, ready to whoosh back home to their closets. Stefan hesitated, stopping in the doorframe, which made his brother put his hands on the younger Salvatore's back to try and push him forward, but the guy still wouldn't move.
"Are you two going to–"
"We'll manage for ten minutes! Gees!" I pushed on Damon's back, applying the last force that was needed to make Stefan budge. "Bye, bye now!" I waved and slammed the door shut behind them. Sighing, I leaned against it, facing Elena's worried and slightly… Offended? Angry? Upset? Whatever! Her look.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Yes." I pushed myself off the door, putting my hands on her shoulders and leading her around the light beige couch to set her down on it with a push. "Sit. Breath. Relax."
"How did you do that?"
"Do what?" I asked and walked around the coffee table, not calm enough to sit down and take my own own advice.
"Act so fast and… stake him. Where did you learn that?" Oh, not this again!
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. "Elena–" A plan for a diversion was already forming in my mind.
"No!" she spoke, suddenly determined. "You've been avoiding my questions ever since you got back. Answer this! Where were you? What did you do?"
I paused my planning, staring down at her. "You're not gonna like my answers."
"I don't care!" Elena claimed stubbornly, staring right back at me, her knuckles curled into white fists on the couch's cushion.
"Fine!" I let out. The room became silent as Elena awaited my answer. "I…" I began, desperately trying to decide how much I could give her, without scaring her to death. "I worked for the government. Or, rather an organization tied to the government. But not in a diplomatic way… More like a, hmm…field agent."
"Wait." Elena frowned. "So you were, like, a CIA agent or something?" she asked me, furrowing her brows deeper.
"No, not exactly." I ran my fingers over my shoulder length wavy hair. The usual messiness was at the moment tamed in neat, voluminous curls, an attempt to mimic Marilyn Monroe's hair.
Dropping my hand, I let out a sigh before continuing with the since long now dreaded conversation.
"This is gonna sound crazy, but you just gotta hear me out. I worked for an organization that took care of different types of threats," I laid out, carefully. "Everything from full-scale terrorists to small town serial killers. But it wasn't the CIA. To be completely honest, to this day I don't even know their actual name. Everyone just called it 'the Agency'. I was recruited right after arriving in London for the college exchange program. Do you remember how I convinced Mom and Dad into letting me go?" Elena didn't move a muscle, her face remaining absolutely blank, listening intently. "Well, you were pretty young then…. Anyway, they trained me and I was given targets to… take out." Elena's eyes widened at this. "Yes, like an assassin," I added, seriously, airing her thoughts for her. "Eventually, bad people wanted me gone, so I disappeared."
Actually, I'd had too much blood on my hands for them. My track record had been too good. I'd known too much. Thus, I had to be eliminated. If it weren't for Hunter, I would lay at the bottom of the Amazon River with a bullet in my head, suffering the same fate as my birth parents. Instead, he had helped me escape and disappear from their records and existence.
Because of his friendship to my biological parents, Hunter thought he owed them to keep their daughter alive. How he had managed to stay alive within the organization for as long as he had, while they'd perished, only made me suspect that he was more involved within the higher ranks than he let on. But I'd never asked.
Instead, he helped me keep other assassins or people wanting me dead off my trail, and I repaid him by staying off the radar, in hiding. Hiding in plain sight, at the last place anyone would think to look for me. In Mystic Falls. My small hometown. That was the reason for my return.
But Elena didn't need to know that detailed version.
"I'm here now and that's all you need to know," I finished and stopped pacing around.
"But…" Elena looked down at her feet planted on the floor, an expression tattling how hard she was thinking and processing this new information. "They wanted you dead? They want you dead! What did you do?"
By now, I had my serious answer lined up and ready. "The less you know the better."
Still, she wouldn't give up that easy. Not once she'd gotten me talking. "But Parks–"
"Elena, I can protect myself. But I can't be responsible for your safety as well. If they come, the less information you know the better. They won't bother you if you're oblivious." At least not as much as they would if she actually knew something valuable, but I didn't say this either. I wanted to keep my innocent sister in the dark about this as much as possible. If, or rather when they came, I needed to be able to run without having to look back at my family getting hurt.
Elena opened her mouth to say something else, but she was interrupted by the door suddenly swinging open and a man in 'bad boy' 50s appropriate clothes strutting in.
"All changed! Ready, Warrior Princess?" Damon asked and held out his arm for me. As a response, I rolled my eyes and searched for Stefan behind him. "My brother will be here soon." Damon smirked. Something about it made me suspect he had ben standing outside, listening in, for far longer than I liked.
I moved closer, lowering my voice. "How much did you hear?" I asked him quietly, hoping Elena wouldn't catch my hushed tone.
"Enough to know that Warrior Princess is now a permanent nickname." Crap. I turned away from his smirk to face Elena.
"So." I clapped my hands together. "I think we've established that I can take care of myself against a vampire." I raised a brow at my sister, and she sighed. "Besides, I'll have the vampire gigolo here–" I nodded towards Damon. "–to watch my back, should things go south. So no worries!"
"Well. We'll see who will be watching whose back," Damon chuckled lowly. I gave him a tired look. "Warrior Princess," he added. While Damon was looking amused and wiggled his brows at me knowingly, Stefan appeared behind him.
"Ready to go?" he asked Elena.
"Just a minute." Her gaze moved to me, but I thoroughly avoided it.
"We'll be outside," I said and grabbed Damon's collar, dragging him with me by it, all the way to the sidewalk in front of the house where his fancy car stood parked. Of course he had taken it; adding to the 50s theme by matching it to his image.
"You know, if you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask…" Damon smirked and leaned closer. Huffing, I pushed him off of me. He pouted a little, then chuckled in response to my glare.
This was going to be a very long and testing night.
No longer amused by flirting, Damon angled his head towards the house, as if he was listening to the conversation going on inside of it. I hit his shoulder, breaking his concentration.
"What do you think you're doing?" I scolded.
"Oh, like you're not curious," he teased, trying again.
"Stop that! Give them some privacy!" Or, rather, don't hear Elena pour out my whole story to Stefan. Damon had heard enough of it. I turned him back towards me by a hard tug hard at his arm. Thoroughly, I pushed down my own impulse to know for sure what they were discussing. And how my sister was painting me out to be. "You lurker!"
"You want my attention instead?" Damon joked and tilted his head to the side, eyeing me up and down.
"Don't start imagining things now." I turned away to admire the lights on the house next door, but was twirled back around, hitting Damon's firm chest. Does the term 'eye-sex' sound familiar? Because that was apparently Damon's favorite activity. And it was extremely hard to avoid his gaze, being so close and all…
"Save it for the dance, will you?" I spoke, my voice a bit muffled, as I patted his chest firmly. A serious smirk was spreading on his face, and I found myself not trying to take my eyes off of it. Or wanting to.
Who knows what might have happened, hadn't Elena and Stefan finally exited the house in that moment. The cockblocking lifesavers.
Thus followed a night of being swirled around on the dance floor by said vampire gigolo.
"You're enjoying this a little too much," I said as I returned from what felt like the umpteenth twirl during the last minute, my back against Damon's front.
"There's no such thing," he sang in my ear. Another twirl later and I was facing his amused gaze.
"Well, aren't you quite the dancer," I tried changing the conversation topic with.
Why I even had agreed to dance with him in the first place was a wonder. Just then, I saw Stefan dip Elena out in the corner of my eye, and further away Caroline and Bonnie talking. Right. It was so that Damon wouldn't bother them. Really, who was watching who tonight? Because it sure felt more as if I was keeping Damon away from interfering with Elena's friends, than him being on the lookout for the murderous vampire.
"I was alive when they invented the moves," Damon answered. "Speaking of which, I've got other moves you might like." He smirked, and I rolled my eyes. As an answer to this, I was dipped, my head nearly gracing the floor. My heart jumped, skipping a beat as a sudden rush of panic gripped me. It was gone in the blink of an eye, but Damon had undoubtedly noticed it. Interpreting it wrong, his wry smile showed. "Oh, I would never drop you." He raised me up again, and I suddenly felt a strong urge to back away. Our faces too close.
"I just have some bad experience with that particular move," I explained and focused my gaze on his lips instead of those darn blue eyes. It didn't help.
Instead, the memory of the event I was referring to resurfaced. And I wasn't sure if it was a better distraction.
It had all happened for what felt long ago, back when a man I had once called my friend had tried to kill me at a grand gala. Slipping into widely different crowd had our bonds of friendship tested, and broken. I regretted a lot of things said and done that night. But, perhaps worst of all, I didn't regret my most awful deed.
What I had done to him had put a target lasting forever on my back. One he would never cease hunting me for it.
Being dipped in a high school gym instead of in the middle of chaotic waltz with bodies falling all around, were two very different things. But like him, the move would forever haunt me back to that time and place.
Soft tunes flowed into my ear, pulling me back from the dark, vile memory. And I caught Damon gave me a meaning look.
Sighing a little, I took his offered hand and placed my other one behind his neck nonetheless. As I felt his hand on my lower back, I found myself being pulled closer to him, and letting it happen.
There was a difference to Damon's face now, the usual tattooed smirk replaced by a seriousness in his eyes. I noticed this, even though there was nearly no space between our faces. My lips so close to his that it would only take a small movement to eliminate the gap and allow them to met. But I didn't move.
It might have had something to do with the fact that he was still an annoying and mass-murdering vampire. Or perhaps that I was as far away from being ready for a relationship as one could possible be. Or maybe it was because someone bumped into me as they hurried past, causing me to nearly fall over, hadn't Damon's arms been wrapped around me so tightly.
Swiftly regaining my balance, I swung around just in time to see a figure wearing a black hoodie make his way towards the exit, where a girl with a white headband and a pompadour was now about to exit. Elena.
As I twirled back around and began saying, "Damon–" I was met with nothing but emptiness.
Damn. Why was I always left out of these things? I knew this would happen!
Instantly, I started making my way towards the door they had disappeared through. But this was nearly impossible since the slow song was replaced by an up-speeded one, causing the teenagers to swing around like there was no tomorrow. Even as I was pushed around, I refused to give up.
Finally, after ages of struggling, I reached the door. Not sparing a moment to pause and catch my breath, I pushed the doors open, leaving the noisy dance behind me. The contrast was astounding, now able to walk through an empty, quiet corridor with ease.
But it wasn't quiet for long. Soon, I heard noises up ahead, and hurried closer.
Behind a pair of blue double doors, I managed to catch a glimpse of some fighting going on. The blue shirt and the pompadour was hard to mistake. I threw myself at the doors, but they refused to budge. Locked from the inside.
The only thing I could see through the oblong window was my sister desperately defending herself against her stalker vampire. I was afraid that if I left, she would get hurt. But continuing to just stand here wasn't going to help her either.
Releasing a frustrated sound, I jerked at the doors again, still without result. But in the sound of my distraction, Elena jabbed a pencil into the vampire's hand.
"GO ELENA!"
Seeing as she had the upper hand, momentarily, I ran away and sprinted through the hallway, stopping to kick off my shoes, ran a few feet further, before turning back to grab my pumps. Since their heels were sharp, they made a good potential weapon.
When I finally found another door into the cafeteria, inches away from racing through them, Damon grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards.
"NO!" I yelled and fought against his grip. "You...are...not...stopping...me!" I grunted and tried worming my way out of his arms.
"Stop it," he wheezed in my ear.
"Never!" I grunted back, elbowing him in the chest before I moved to slam the doors open. I wielded one of my sharp pumps towards the vampire's back, and it jammed into my target perfectly. A fist thrown into the air sadly didn't seem fitting for the situation, but my triumph still didn't last very long, since I realized that Stefan was already standing in front of Elena, a protecting shield between her and the vampire. Dammit! That guy was always stealing my thunder.
The vampire dressed in black grunted, trying to reach for my heel buried in his back, without succeeding.
"Nice aim," Damon commented beside me, no longer trying to hold me back. Why had he even tried to do that? I couldn't dwell on it much longer, since Damon slipped a wooden stake into my hand and gave me a meaning look.
"Thanks."
"Hey, dickhead." Damon's gaze left mine as he called out to the vampire; took the words right out of my mouth there. The vampire swung around towards us. "Nobody wants to kill you." Damon held up his hands in an surrendering gesture "We just wanna talk." The vampire only stared at Damon.
Jumping back around, I understood what the vampire was about to do before he had taken a single step, beating his vamp-speed by throwing the stake at him with dangerous precision. Instead of reaching Elena, he landed on the floor on his knees with a thud; the stake having pierced right through him, sticking out through his stomach and preventing him from falling flat to the floor. The vampire grunted in pain, even before Stefan moved to twist the stake around further.
"Now you feel like talkin'?" Stefan asked as Damon and I zigzagged our way between the round tables to reach them.
"Screw you," came the weak answer, resulting in Stefan swirling the stake around again to make the vampire groan in pain.
"Wrong answer," Stefan spoke, in a completely different voice than I was used to hearing; a dark and grim one. He continued moving the stake around. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because it's fun," the vampire admitted. He chuckled faintly, before crying out in pain. I wasn't sure weather I thought his cockiness was brave or just plain stupid. Probably the latter.
"What do you want with Elena?" She was right here, Stef! The woman could speak for herself! Then, I remembered that my sister wasn't used to this type of cruelty, and moved to stand beside her, hugging her elbow lightly. I merely received a faded smile, since her entire focus laid on the vampire ahead.
"She looks like Katherine," the vampire got out in a weakening voice, tilting his head to the side as he observed my sister. Stepping in front of her, I squinted my eyes at him, only getting a small but smug smile in return.
"I remember you." He laughed weakly.
"If you didn't, you now have a reminder in your back," I pointed out. Without releasing my gaze from his, I called out, "I'd like my heel back, Stefan." The Salvatore followed my request and ripped the pump out of the vampire's back, who released a groan louder than ever before. Stefan tossed the shoe over to me, and I wiped it clean on my black pants. "Thank you."
"I should have killed you when I had the chance," the vampire hissed at me.
"Yes. You should've," I replied coldly, without ever breaking our eye contact.
"Easy, Warrior Princess," Damon spoke lowly. I rolled my eyes. "You knew Katherine?" he went on to ask the douchey vampire, sounding almost surprised, but hiding it well.
"Oh. You thought you were the only ones?" he teased with a shaky laugh. Damon and Stefan exchanged a look, sibling mindreading in its purest form. I took the opportunity to do the same with Elena, but she only looked as if she was going to throw up at any minute. "You don't even remember me." I tried getting eye contact with Stefan to alert him of Elena's sickening state. However, neither he nor Damon were reachable, both focusing solely on the tiring vampire in front of them. Damon leaned forward, down towards the vampire.
"Tell me how to get in the tomb. Hmm?" Voice cold and threatening. Really? Did he have to nag about that Katherine bitch right now?
"No," the vampire said, stubbornly. That was it.
Before neither Stefan or Damon had time to react, I moved to push the stake even in deeper into the vampire's chest, also swirling it around the edges of his wound roughly.
"Spill," I ordered.
"The grimoire," he cried out.
"Now, that wasn't so hard," I taunted.
"Where is it?" Damon demanded from next to me. I jabbed the wooden stake around harder, and the vampire gasped in pain. He clenched his jaw and glared up at me, daring me to do my worst. My pleasure. I removed my heel from my belt, where I had conveniently tucked it in earlier, and jammed it into his neck a few times. That seemed to do the trick.
"Check the journal!" he let out. "The journal. Jonathan's journal. Jonathan Gilbert's." As the words left his mouth, I saw something move in one of the small oblong windows on the blue doors, but waved it off and concentrated on the vampire in front of me instead. Revenge was sweeter.
I more felt than saw Damon straighten up next to me, probably to share a look with his brother. Since I'd taken over as the main inflictor of pain in this unconventional interrogation, I could only hope that Stefan was comforting Elena right now, because I truly wished she didn't have to witness this. However, neither of the vampire brothers apparently had enough brain cells to figure out that you could spare someone from a cruel sight. Still, I certainly wasn't going to lead her away; I had been sitting out enough fights as it was. My turn now.
"Who else is working with you?" Stefan asked. Brilliant question.
"Who else is there?" Damon urged.
"No." The vampire's gaze was focused on me when he added: "You're gonna have to kill me." Damon blew out a frustrated sigh. I glanced at them over my shoulder, spotting that Stefan didn't even have his arm wrapped around Elena. The one time he actually should! The two brothers were both looking at me, since I was momentarily holding the power in my hand to seal the vampire's fate. Damon rolled his eyes a little, but nodded, and I drew the stake out.
"Sorry, Elena," I spoke over my shoulder, alerting her boyfriend of her existence, before I jabbed the stake back into the vampire's chest, this time instantly piercing his heart.
Even over the sound of the desiccating vampire, I heard my sister release a sharp gasp. Soon, the vampire fell to the floor and I wiped my hands clean from his blood on my pants before bending down to retrieve my shoe from the now dead vampire's neck.
"What do we… How are you gonna find the others now?" Elena questioned desperately from Stefan's arms. Finally he had gotten the message!
"He had to die," Damon spoke calmly with his gaze on me, as if searching for a sign that I would, just like Elena, crack to the pressure. He was in for a disappointment there.
"But…" Elena's gaze roamed over to me as her mouth gaped. Confusion, in all sorts of forms, seemed to be written all over her face more and more often these days.
"He had been invited in," I clarified, and Stefan nodded as his chin rested on top of Elena's head. That would ruin her pompadour, although I doubted that she cared much about silly things like that right now.
A sound of a door opening somewhere out in the hallway was heard, and it reminded me of the movement earlier. I knew I had seen something out there then! Or, rather, someone.
"Go," Stefan told Damon. "I got this."
Hello? Remember me? At least Damon did, since he looked at me, as if for confirmation. He received a small nod from me, before he left to see to our observer. I was sure his compulsion skills would come in handy.
Elena stared at the dead body on the floor, and I moved to stand in the way for her tearful gaze. She buried her head against Stefan's chest and let out a soft sob. Stefan looked to me, a question in his eyes.
"Go," I reassured. Take care of her, I really meant. I hoped Stefan at least understood that, as he quickly led Elena away from the body and out of the room.
Well, I suppose you could say that I'd gotten my wish. I stated this as I turned around, tilting my head to the side to observe the newly made corpse with a sigh. Finally, I had at least managed to contribute with something. And now I had also been given the privilege to clean up the mess.