Last massive update, and then, waiting for me to get back into mood and write the next chapters...
Somehow, I added a chapter without even noticing. Oh well. it'll be 39 chapters, then. Which means that I'm ( almost ) halfway done. Cheers!
(cough)for this part(cough)
Each a monster, part 19: Waiting
Damon was sitting on a chair, waiting.
That was all he could do.
To wait.
Alaric had almost died protecting Elena, and the vampire had only stood there, unable to do anything. Shock, fear, and mostly incomprehension. This couldn't be happening.
This couldn't have happened.
When Galswinthe had shouted at him, he had finally understood what was going on, but hadn't been able to do more than what he was ordered to do.
Alaric wasn't supposed to die. The man could take care of himself, and Damon could take care of his lover too. So how had it happened?
The young vampire saw Bonnie doing her witchy things on Ric, and he felt a pang of hope, as well as one of fear. The girl was powerful, he knew it, and she wouldn't let her teacher die if she could do otherwise. But the witch was young and inexperienced. She knew little of her powers, and could only do so much.
Damon saw the worried expression on Gal's face, as her eyes darted between her descendant and her husband. He saw Hans Falkenbach staring dumbly into nothingness, and anger seized his heart. The young vampire wanted to stand up, punch the older vampire and yell at him until he ran out of breath – that is, never. But he did no such thing. He was too dazed to do anything.
And the Falkenbach really seemed lost, so yelling at him wouldn't do any good. Now that he had his wife back he had no real reason to hate Klaus so much, even if he still didn't like him, after all, he had spent decades desiccated thanks to the Original. He had no reason to attack the Petrova doppelganger anymore. And he looked like a man who had just tried to kill his own flesh and blood and couldn't possibly comprehend how in hell that had happened.
Hans Falkenbach seemed to be a lot more okay than before. Damon wouldn't put him in the newly-turned-good-guy group yet, but there was definitely some progress. Before, the Falkenbach vampire had been creepy. Now, he was nothing more than a dangerous vampire with no reason to threaten anyone.
Someone sat next to Damon, and the vampire looked up, his eyes falling into two light brown eyes.
"You really care about him, don't you, Damon?"
Elena's voice was soft and caring, and the vampire couldn't find it in him to argue that thinking the other way was the stupidest thing to do in the world. So he only nodded, glancing at the sleeping form of his boyfriend, laid on his bed with a witch trying to save his life. Soon enough, the vampire's eyes went back to Elena, because he didn't want to think that maybe, Ric could die this night.
The young woman looked at him fondly, and let a small smile creep up on her lips.
"You know, the first weeks I got to know you, I thought there was no way in hell that you'd ever remember what it was like to love someone. You were so engrossed with Katherine, getting her back and everything else, but you didn't really love her anymore, even then. Maybe, if you had freed her and her love had been genuine, and not that masquerade that we now know of, you could have learned anew, I don't know. But then, you didn't love anyone anymore."
Damon said nothing.
Maybe Elena was right, Katherine had only been an obsession, as making his brother's life a living hell had been another one.
Maybe not.
But he knew that, even if maybe the girl wasn't completely right, she certainly wasn't exactly wrong eitherway. At a time, he had turned off his emotions, and when he had come back to Mystic Falls the year before, they still weren't completely back on.
Elena continued, speaking softly, because the room was full of vampires who could hear what she was saying anyway, and because that was nobody's business.
"And eventually, I saw you softening. Sure, you were still out there killing people, but not as much, not as often, and rarely without a half-good reason. When you killed Ric, you didn't think he'd come back to life, but he did. And you two hated each other. But in the end, you were the only ones who could become friends with the other one. Alaric was broken because of Isobel, and he knew of things one should not know about, especially in Mystic Falls. You, Damon, you were broken because of Katherine, and you were one of those things that nobody should know about, especially in Mystic Falls. You two had only the other one to speak to."
A pale smile twisted the vampire's face. About this, she wasn't wrong at all. It was surprising that the sometimes-so-childish Elena could be so wise, as long as it had nothing to do with herself, or her and Stefan, or her survival.
"Stefan, myself, Bonnie, we weren't right to talk to. I'm just a kid, compared to Alaric, and even more compared to you. Stefan isn't close to Ric and was completely wary of you, and I can't blame him for that, honestly. Bonnie is supernatural too, but she's as young as I am, and she rightfully hate you after what happened with her grandmother."
Yeah, Damon had to admit that he hadn't been keen on making friends at the time. But now, things were starting to become better, and he didn't want that to disappear.
This time, Ric had the ring. But one day, maybe he wouldn't have it anymore. Maybe there was a limited number of resurrections in the ring, maybe someone would take it away before killing the hunter, maybe...
Maybe one day Alaric would definitely die, and not of old age.
For the first time, Damon really thought of asking the teacher to become like him, to turn and be with him forever and ever. He dismissed the idea. It wasn't the right moment, the right person to talk to about this. And he was a bit insecure, that Alaric wouldn't accept.
Yes, he'd ask one day, but not now. He was going to wait, and maybe to prove to Ric that he was worth it, that they could have an eternity of happiness together, if only the hunter agreed to become a vampire. One day, he'd ask.
Elena's voice took him back to reality.
"If you love him, Damon, if you really love him, then do whatever is necessary for you two to be happy. For now, he hasn't been very lucky in love. Try to change that, because Ric deserves a bright future."
And that being said, the young woman walked away, taking a last look at her kind-of-father-in-law / closest-person-to-a-paternal-figure / history teacher before leaving. She sincerely hoped that for once, Damon wouldn't blow it all up.
After a while, Bonnie left, ignoring Damon and observing the two other vampires warily. She had bandaged the wound, and used her magic to fasten the healing and clear the inside of the hunter's body, since there was blood everywhere between his organs, mostly where there should be none.
Obviously, they had had the right idea not the call for a doctor or send Ric to the hospital, because they'd certainly would have asked, A, why and how the local history teacher had been injured, and B, why he had so much internal damages when the wound was this little. And there was the fact that if Ric died at the hospital, it would be hell to compel everyone to forget about it once the hunter would have come back to life.
So there they were, three vampires, Damon Salvatore, Hans and Galswinthe Falkenbach, and the silence was unbearable.
After a while, Gal looked at her husband and asked, clearly upset, what the hell he had been thinking. The vampire looked sheepishly at his wife and responded that he hadn't been thinking, not for ages, not since the original vampire Kol had barged into a feast with Klaus, his other siblings, some other vampires, and a lot of bleeding humans. The Original had walked straight to Hans, and boasted about having met his wonderful wife that he had abandoned at their daughter's death. Hans had tried to ignore him, for he had always refused to acknowledge the issue and his distasteful behavior, but had failed when Kol had finally said that, being in a generous mood, he had fixed the problem by killing Galswinthe Falkenbach.
Damon listened, half-interested, half-worrying about the sleeping hunter, because he had nothing better to do except to worry about Alaric, which he was already doing.
"That's when I completely lost it, Gal, and you know me, I mean, you know how we are, me and my family, I've told you. I froze, and everything, everything went completely blank. It was the same with Leona's death. There was nothing that mattered anymore, so why should I bother with the consequences? We, the Falkenbachs, me, since I'm the only one, I'm not the... the same as the other vampires. There's no turn-humanity-off button. Maybe because we're, because I'm already half-turned off. I grabbed the nearest vampire and literally sent him flying into Kol. The poor guy was cut in half, but I couldn't care less. You weren't there anymore, and it was all that mattered. Love, one of those things that I can feel, was not anymore, but murder, torture, guilt, all those things I can't feel, were still there. And I... I did what I do best."
Gal nodded. She knew what Hans did best.
"It was a carnage. I'm not sure how many died that night, but I know that Elijah and Klaus themselves had to step in to stop me. After that, they locked me up in a cell, and left me there to desiccate for years, decades even. And that was always the same thing. At some point, I'd escape, slaughter tens of vampires, werewolves, witches, wizards, humans alike. And then I'd calm down. And then I'd go mad once again, a word, a sentence about you, and I was back in the cell."
The vampire glanced at the man sleeping, in whom he recognized some of his own features.
"Have you..."
Galswinthe smiled a bit, a sad grin.
"Kept an eye on the family? Yes. They are the last of the Falkenbach, you know? Your brother and sisters' line died out sometime around the fourteenth century. One day, the family divided between the Falkenbachs, who stayed in Germany, and the Saltzmans, who started their own estranged branch here in America. The Falkenbachs eventually disappeared with the last great war in Europe."
Hans stared in front of him, understanding that he was the last one of his family to bear the name of Falkenbach. It wasn't sad, only a bit strange.
The vampire then turned to the younger one, still silent and watching over his descendant.
"His name is Alaric, isn't it?"
The question startled Damon, who blinked before nodding.
"Tell him I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
And Hans stood up, looking meaningfully at his wife. Gal nodded and he walked to the door.
Damon looked up at Galswinthe. The older vampire caressed her descendant's hair with the back of her hand, a soft smile on her lips, and sat on the bed next to Ric. She then turned to Damon.
"I'm staying in the motel out of town. I'm taking Hans with me. He needs to heal mentally, and that could take a while. Visit us when Alaric wakes up, and then, we'll be on our way."
"You need some time alone, don't you?"
Gal shrugged.
"I'm not sure how much. Visit, and we'll give you a way to contact us no matter where we are, as well as my phone number. I know what you're thinking about Ric, and if he says yes, or if the situation gives him no choice, you'll need help to deal with the turning. A Falkenbach doesn't become a regular vampire, as you heard. The switch, but also the feeding, it's really different for them."
Damon blushed a little.
"We're not there yet. And I don't think he wants it."
More like, he feared that Alaric wouldn't want it.
Gal walked to the door, and before leaving, said one more thing.
"He might change his mind. And you never know, if, as we were, he's forced to either die or turn, I believe he will take the opportunity to be with you, Damon. Eitherway, our second honeymoon could as well be years long, so you're welcome to call once in a while."
And she shut the door quietly.
Damon went to sleep next to the hunter, trying to ignore the for-once-harsh smell of blood coming from Ric's wound. When he woke up the next day, Alaric was already up, as if nothing had ever happened. They took a quick breakfast, and Ric frowned as he smelled his cup of coffee.
When they arrived at the motel, Damon knocked on the door, and it opened on a very surprised Gal who looked at the coffee-drenched vampire in front of her. Alaric came in, ignoring his boyfriend.
"Don't be surprised if Damon stinks of cat pee; he poured some in my coffee, I returned the favor."
