Well, my summer job has ended, I'm back to school... Hopefully I'll update regularly again
One world apart, part 21: This was going to be messy
Damon had just been threatened by the dead ghost of a vampire he had previously killed – and yes, her name was Lexi – which simply wasn't supposed to happen in the grand scheme of life / unlife / whatever,-even-the-supernatural-side-of-the-world-wasn't-that-cracked-up-usually, but he didn't care.
Or, obviously he was concerned that Bonnie hadn't managed to put the Veil back into place and that a few dozens of vengeful ghostly beings were hanging out in Mystic Falls, but it still seemed a bit dull of a problem when he thought back to the previous night he had spent with Ric, who was supposedly dead too.
He'd have done without being threatened by Lexi, but as Alaric had told him before leaving to grab something to eat with Elena and Jeremy at the cemetery, Damon certainly had deserved it. Hell, he was surprised he hadn't been killed by the blonde already.
Not that, considering the current circumstances, it'd have changed much right away. Dead or not, Damon would have stayed present to grate on Lexi's nerves.
Damn, they had to find a way to drop back the Veil...
Even if it meant Ric would be physically gone, again.
Luckily for Damon, the doorbell rang before the vampire's heart could clench so much it would probably have been reduced to ashes.
Unluckily for him, the sight waiting for him on the other side of the door wasn't one he was happy to see.
Vaughn.
Damn. So, supernatural hunters counted as supernatural beings? He should have seen that one coming, considering Alaric and Elena were eating with Van Helsing Junior in a graveyard right now. Stupid Damon.
Let's just hope cursed men didn't count as supernatural beings as supernatural hunters did, because Damon did not want to have to deal with Theodoric Saltzman again on top of everything else.
Eitherway, things happened, as they were meant to. Or maybe not, but how would the vampire be able to tell? He had yet to find the Book of Destiny, thank you very much.
Things being, Vaughn was a bit pissed at having been left to starve on the island, Vaughn wanted both the Cure and Silas, and Vaughn had a frigging wood-loaded-gun with him.
Since when were ghosts allowed to have weapons? That was clearly cheating, since they couldn't die definitely!
The hunter almost shot the vampire, and Damon found himself catching his breath when the ghost bursted out of his field of vision and landed on the lawn, a few metters away from the door.
Wait, what?
Damon blinked, his sight suddenly invaded by something... red.
His brain rebooted – and why had it disconnected itself in the first place, really? – and the vampire recognized the nature of the red thing clutching onto him. Hell, the red thing had a heartbeat. An erratic heartbeat. And the red thing had a well-developped chest, if what he felt pressing against his arm was anything to go by. The red thing seemed very familiar, all of a sudden.
Like, the red thing was a woman. The red thing was a friend. The red thing was Magdalena.
And the red thing smelled of blood.
Now that Damon's brain had successfully reconnected, the vampire could appreciate the fact that Magdalena Haguenhauer was bleeding on him while Vaughn was getting back on his feet.
He wasn't exactly sure how everything had ended up that way, but he sure as hell didn't want it to go souther than it already had. Apparently Mag had spared him a gun wound, and he guessed she had ended up wounded instead. He certainly wasn't going to let that sacrifice go to waste. He wasn't that kind of psychopathic vampire.
And he didn't want to be the one to tell Ric he had gotten his cousin killed, too.
Then again, this time either he didn't get to do anything about Vaughn, and damn, what was it with him today? Was it because he had gotten laid the night before, after many, many nights of nothing? Had it made him lax? Or was it because he was becoming a loser?
Damon kind of hoped it was the latter, surprisingly, because he sure as hell didn't want to forget about sex with his boyfriend – not that it would be an issue for long.
Before he could become more depressed than he already was, the vampire turned to look at his younger brother while still holding Magdalena tight, just in case.
Stefan looked up from the bleeding heart in his hand – and damn, wasn't that appropriate? – and turned his attention back on the older vampire.
"You're welcome."
Damon winced a thankful smile.
"Thanks, as always, brother dearest."
Stefan rolled his eyes, but soon enough a moan ended their antics, and the two brothers were looking at Mag. Who wasn't as passed out as Damon had first believed.
They carried her inside.
Lexi joined the two vampires and the injured Falkenbach with a frown on her face.
"Well, you can say I'm impressed. I had barely seen her arriving that she was round kicking that guy away from you, bastard. I wish you weren't so lucky."
"Wait, so you saw what happened?"
"Obviously. He already had a finger on the trigger, and being kicked in the head might have slightly unfocused him. That's why the shot went off. Look at her leg."
Stefan took a deep breath, and actually looked at the bloody wound that they should already have been examining. Damon watched him, a bit anxious as to his reaction to the scent of human blood, but there was nothing to worry about. Sure, Stefan still wasn't comfortable with blood around, but he wouldn't jump at anyone's throat anytime soon. He could handle himself.
The vampires looked at the wound through the torn fabric of Mag's pants, and winced.
This was gross. And it had to hurt a lot. And it'd be a bitch to get out. Damon didn't envy Magdalena, right now. Never shoot a human being with a wood bullet, duly noted.
Brown flickered between the Falkenbach's partly parted lashes, and the oldest vampire in the room caught sight of the woman's awareness.
Lexi bit her lower lip, and sat down next to the woman.
"Alright, this will hurt a lot, but I absolutely have to get the bullet shards out of your thigh before we can even think about healing you. I don't think you want shards in your leg anymore than I want to see Stefan in drag."
Magdalena chuckled at the randomness, while Stefan looked a bit offended. Then the woman winced in pain.
"Just do it. I can deal with pain easily."
After all, just like Alaric, Magdalena Haguenhauer was a Saltzman, in curse if not in name. Cursed to withstand pain through any ordeal, as long as it had a point. Cursed and able to get past suffering if there was a goal in sight. Here, preserving her health, because she was pretty sure the human body wasn't meant to host any wooden parts.
Pain was not a comfortable state of being, obviously. But she could ignore it without trouble.
Lexi nodded, and glared at the boys to turn around and not look as she took off the other woman's pants. She was not going to dig into flesh through the hole in the pants. And the boys had no business looking. Especially since they were both taken.
Once Lexi was certain no Salvatore sibling could see, she did her best to relieve the redhead of her pants without moving the injured leg too much. Once that done, she flexed her fingers, and took a deep breath. She wasn't used to doing this on someone else than herself, or on someone who did not heal magically afterwards either.
This was going to be messy.
Stefan and Damon did their best not to peak, even when they heard the squeeshish sounds of...
Anyway.
Even if they were worried for Magdalena, they weren't supposed to look, so they wouldn't look.
It wasn't as if Lexi could literally butcher the lawyer's leg with a wrong move, right?
Oh hell! Just what was that sound?
Eventually the oldest vampire sighed, and took out the three freaking bits of bullet. She put them in a small cup that one of the boys had brought.
A critical eye to the wound and to the blatant lack of color on her patient's face told her everything she needed to know.
Lexi bit her own wrist to the point of bleeding, and forced it against the woman's face. The redhead almost threw up at the contact – not because of the coppery taste, but simply because her stomach was behaving strangely for some totally obvious reason that she'd rather not think about. Still, Lexi finally saw the gaping wound close a bit after a minute, so it had to mean the other female had to have drank her blood, if only a bit of it.
The vampire took back her wrist, bit back into it because the wound had already closed, and offered it again to the wounded woman.
Magdalena seemed a bit wary of her at first, but maybe she was just weary of it all, with an "e", because, damn, it wasn't everyday someone had to search your flesh for a split wooden bullet, especially not when you were human.
It took another minute, but by then the gross mess in the woman's thigh had gone away and into oblivion. Mag was still white as a ghost – or, considering Lexi was in the room and not that light as to her skin tone, whiter than this ghost in particular – and her pants were obviously ruined with blood and a gap in the fabric, but hell. She was alright.
Not healthy, but alright.
She wouldn't try to stand up right away, though.
Lexi stood up and took a step back, grinning faintly.
"Et voilà! 'Twas but a flesh wound."
Mag arched an eyebrow at her, but a smile still tugged at her lips.
"Obviously."
It was the moment Damon chose to make his presence known again by clearing his throat rather soundly.
"All is well in wonderland, but, girls, what do we do now?"
And he pointed at the for-now-deader-than-dead body of Vaughn, who presented a great view on the lawn just outside the boarding house from where they were positioned in said boarding house.
Stefan glanced at the body, and back at his brother.
"Find a way to keep him dead, I'd say."
For some reason, taken over by a short case of hysteria perhaps, Damon waggled his eyebrows at his brother.
"Stefan, I said 'girls', so unless you didn't tell me something important all these years... Though that might explain why Elena was not interested in me and rather in you despite all my efforts. You know, if you're secretly a girl, and she's a les..."
"Damon."
Stefan was giving his brother a long-suffering glare.
Wonder why.
"Be serious please."
Lexi chose that moment to pop into the conversation.
"Actually, Damon, Stefan is..."
Another long-suffering glare. This time aimed at the female vampire.
"Please, for the sake of our friendship, Lexi, don't."
Lexi only shrugged.
It was Magdalena who spoke up next, giving an answer to the original question. The bantering had been sympathic enough, but they had to deal with the dead body on the lawn, didn't they?
"Concerning the ghost... Alaric told us, the sheriff and me, to bring any dead-dead ghost to a clearing outside of town. I was just coming back from my guard duty when I saw him attack you, Damon. The sheriff Forbes must be still be there, beheading whoever needs to be beheaded."
Stefan nodded, Damon sounded impressed, and they decided to bring Vaughn to the clearing right away. As for Lexi, she was sniffing the wooden bullet with a disgusted look on her face.
"Damn, Damon, you bastard, you really got lucky. Those things reek of werewolf venom."
