A.N.: So, I've been thinking – Kendall Jenner is a huge inspiration for me writing Giulia, fashion-wise (at least while she's a teenager); but check out my aptly-named 'Giulia Salvatore' board on Pinterest for more inspiration.
So, had no clue Candice Accola has a bun in the oven. Don't know why everyone keeps asking what kind of parents "Stefan and Caroline" would be, if they write the bump into the show – blurgh! It's all about Enzine for me. Hell, I can even see Damon being a doting daddy figure – calling Caroline's baby "sweet-pea" and "baby vamp" and opening up opportunities for people to call it "Rosemary's Baby" if it was ever Damon's kid (although technically the nickname would be far more apt for Hayley/Klaus' baby!)
Dangerous Beauty
04
Lapis Lazuli
"It's grungy and disgusting," Caroline said, raising her voice over the music. A live act – a god-awful metal din – replaced the Stevie Wonder they had driven into the city playing; the echoing silence of the underground parking garage beneath the club had made Giulia's ears ring as the Camaro had lurched to a stop, wiggling the gear-stick into neutral. After driving just over five hours, it was pushing one a.m., and they had entered the city with music blazing, the wind whipping their hair, laughing, and Caroline awed by the glittering skyline as the sky-scrapers rose from obscurity.
She'd had Caroline flash her fangs to the bouncer and he'd promptly let them skip the line to get in – the club was heaving with people, sweaty bodies, the scent of beer pervasive, a melange of different perfumes, shouts of laughter, the subtle whine of a badly-tuned speaker, flashes of light from photographers, flashes of glowing light through colourful shots and Giulia laughed. The energy was astonishing; it was a Battle of the Bands, four local bands competing for $1,000, some recording hours at a local studio and press opportunities, and they had only missed the first act. The second was this awful metal mess and Giulia grabbed hold of Caroline's hand to pull the conspicuously out-of-her-element cheerleader toward the bar.
"It's Billy's," Giulia grinned, glancing over her shoulder as Caroline bit her thumb-nail uncertainly. This definitely wasn't her scene. She was a Katy Perry girl. "During the Seventies this was the underground of the Underground! Damon had his humanity turned off then – you know the Son of Sam murders? All Damon. This is where he partied and fed and watched the best underground punk bands of the Seventies perform." She grinned, shouldering her way through the crowd at the bar, and grinned at Billy. He did a double-take, his face breaking into a smile, and he reached over the bar to give her a hug.
"Hey, Giulia," he beamed.
"Hi, Billy," she smiled. "Billy, Caroline." She introduced Car with an enigmatic wave of her hand.
"Get you something to drink?"
"Yes – and something harder for my sexy blonde BFF."
"She's a newbie?" Billy asked, nearly shouting over the music, and Giulia nodded, smirking playfully.
"She's only a few days old," she said back.
"Just take it in the back, give 'em some of your blood before you compel 'em," Billy said, leaving Caroline looking a little stunned, like he'd skipped a step.
"She hasn't tried snatch-eat-erase yet," Giulia told Billy.
"Well, my club is your playground," Billy grinned warmly. "Anything for a friend of Giulia's. How's Damon?" He turned to Giulia. "Still in Mystic Falls?" Giulia nodded. "Still causing trouble, huh."
"Less so, now; new old player in town," Giulia said enigmatically, and Billy pulled a face, shrugging, and set two neat bourbon double-shots on the bar in front of her.
"Is that Damon?" Caroline asked suddenly, pointing to something on the wall behind Billy. The entire wall was papered with photographs – old pictures, posters, Polaroids, promotional concert posters, dating back to the 1970s – and, yes, Giulia followed Caroline's gaze and laughed out loud at the photograph tacked almost in pride of place, one of the largest black-and-white photographs framed neatly in a plain, thin black frame. There was Damon, in all his irreverent, 1970s punk glory. Rad leather jacket, the tousled hair, artfully rumpled t-shirt, tight jeans. Standing with his arms slung around Billy, and a gorgeous guy with the kind of shining Andy Gibb hair Caroline had always been jealous of. Despite the monochrome picture, he could only be a blonde, and he was beautiful. Frowning, Giulia filed the photograph away, sure she had seen that face in a picture in Damon's sole footlocker of memories he cared to keep.
"Look at that hair!" Caroline laughed, pulling out her phone. She zoomed in on the photograph, taking a picture on her phone. "Oh, I'm so gonna torture him about that."
"You should've seen Stefan's Eighties hair," Giulia said, smirking.
"No!" Caroline gasped, then laughed.
"Hey, who's the gorgeous blonde?" Giulia asked Billy, still leaning against the bar with his ratty dishtowel, smirking reminiscently at the photograph on the wall.
"You've seen Princess Bride, right?" Billy grinned easily. "Call me Dread Pirate Roberts." He pointed at the photograph. "That is Billy – or Willem. One of the first." Giulia glanced back at the photograph.
"He's an Original?" she said, stunned.
"Yeah. He took off four months after that picture was taken," Billy said, sighing. "Bangkok, he said. Whether he went there is a different story. But he gave me the name, and the club." Giulia stared at the photograph. An Original, right under her nose for months. She hadn't been paying attention the first time Damon brought her to Billy's but she remembered being told there were possibly three, more likely only two Originals walking the earth nowadays. Cara had told her that of all the Originals, the one she had never met, the one shrouded in mystery and the mists of time, a distant memory, almost a legend to his own siblings, was Willem.
Immediately upon looking at him in that photograph, Giulia didn't see Elijah. Blonde hair, and his features were almost…his broad high cheekbones were almost Native American – but he had a beautiful strong jawline and straight nose, and there was something about his mouth, the shape of his eyes, crinkles at the corners of them, that reminded Giulia of Elijah. This was one of his fabled brothers. Willem.
"Surprised Damon never mentioned him," Billy chuckled, shaking his head. "They wrote the book on bromances." Giulia raised her eyebrows; Damon had a bromance? Reflecting on the emerging frenemy-bond he was nurturing with Ric, it wasn't a surprising thought, and then there was the ghost of the prisoner Enzo too. Stefan was the good boy but it was Damon who made great friends with strong bonds.
"I didn't even think Damon had friends," Caroline sniffed, frowning dubiously at her bourbon. She glanced sceptically at Giulia, who downed hers in one, raised her eyebrow at Caroline, and placed the glass on the bar, where Billy refilled it. Called away by other patrons, he left Giulia with the half-full bottle; she kept refilling Caroline's glass – mostly so she didn't drink it all herself – and they turned to watch final act competing in the Battle of the Bands. An all-female group in victory-curls and smirks climbed on, plugging their instruments in – and raised the roof. They were insanely talented and Giulia filmed them on her phone as much as she could, and on Caroline's camera. The two guitarists were extraordinary. They whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and the atmosphere, the energy in the club while they played was staggering – even Caroline was infected by it, grinning and applauding, screaming her support.
Giulia got their band's name, the location of the record shop where their vinyl was sold exclusively, and, downing her bourbon, Giulia laughed raucously and had to peel a giddy Caroline away from a handsome guy by the bar; she drew Caroline out onto the street, and they started walking. Caroline had never been to New York and Giulia would be damned if they wasted one minute of their time together in Manhattan. She plugged a dual-headphone jack into her iPod and, holding hands and skipping, they laughed and sang along to Giulia's favourite new Playlist, dancing their way down the streets, unselfconscious and giddy, Caroline becoming more enthusiastic, letting loose much more, relaxing, having fun, singing along to Old Blue Eyes, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera's Burlesque soundtrack, giggling loudly Giulia whooped, her favourite song in the entire world, Let's Spend the Night Together by The Rolling Stones, playing – "No, no, no – we gotta dance!" Caroline declared excitedly; she was a manic drunk, Giulia loved it! She gurgled a laugh, glancing around, and grabbed Caroline's hand, giggling as they ducked behind a bouncer arguing with two guys, into a dark club, winding the earphones around her iPod and tucking it into her purse. Several drinks bought for them later, they tottered out into the brisk cold of three a.m., the leftover sludge of a New York spring crunching underfoot as cabs zoomed past, and Caroline laughed delightedly, skipping ahead with bare arms as Giulia's teeth chattered and goose-bumps rose violently on her skin.
"Where next?" Caroline giggled.
"Mm – oh no!" Giulia groaned, as Caroline gasped in delight, grabbed her hand, and half-ran toward another bar – where a karaoke competition was in full swing. She groaned; Caroline loved karaoke. And Giulia was the terror who always submitted songs on her behalf, forcing Caroline to get up in front of people and sing and actually show people just how astonishing her voice was – even as Giulia descended into tears of giggles, while Caroline shot her the finger and performed "Thong Song".
She also submitted a song to perform herself; she dedicated it to Caroline, and their weekend: Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen". Ferris Bueller had had a very big impact on Giulia when she was twelve. It was one of her dad's favourite films; he'd seen it in the theatre with his brother Joshua when they were young teenagers. And it was in homage to the tone of this entire trip. Best-friends relishing the delights of one of the greatest cities in the world, together, no rules. Just their daring, their imagination. And, like Ferris, Giulia had known what she was doing when she woke up this morning.
Now it was getting late, and Giulia was half-dozing by the time Caroline jumped down off the stage, hair shimmering in the multi-coloured strobe lights, and handed her a sweating bottle of ice-water.
"Okay, what now?" she asked, as Giulia twisted the cap open, yawning. Without the aid of alcohol, Giulia's endurance was suffering: but she was determined this wasn't about getting drunk, she didn't want to drink. She was enjoying herself with Caroline, in a very real, free, intimate way they'd not really done before. Something had changed: Caroline had made the leap into this part of Giulia's life that she had always kept entirely separate. This new Caroline, the more self-assured, discerning Caroline, fit there, where the neurotic, easily-deflated Car would have disappeared into the shadows, downtrodden by her own insecurities.
"Mm. I know," Giulia said, smiling. She had received a text from Elijah confirming he'd left something for her at Cara's. She had a little cash, so she paid for a cab to Cara's street – rather than get the Camaro out of the private garage beneath Billy's – and they clambered out into the snow-strewn street, the ivy-covered Victorian townhouse beautiful and incongruous, lamps glowing outside the sand-coloured stoop. Giulia let them in, having been told via text by Cara to just pick the front-door lock to let themselves in; the housekeeper would be in at seven a.m. if they needed anything. Elijah had also sent her a message; his own housekeeper had delivered a parcel for Giulia.
"So…who lives here?" Caroline half-whispered, awed by the Gossip Girl-esque beauty of the foyer. It was very Edith Wharton, Giulia mused as she retrieved the black velvet case on the side-table Elijah had said to look for, if one stayed in said foyer. Upstairs was a different story. The jalapeno pepper fairy-lights, the shrine to Barry Gibb…
"This is Cara's house," she explained, as the housekeeper went to retrieve the parcel Elijah's housekeeper had brought by earlier, she said. "She lives here with Ashlyn."
"Oh," Caroline nodded. "So, they like know we're breaking in to crash here?"
"First of all, Cara said I should pick the lock, there's a spare key she thinks in her child-proofed armoire," Giulia said, grimacing in amusement. The armoire was full of Carafina's Lenten contraband. "And they're in Cancun so it doesn't really matter either way. Just as long as we don't touch the Patrick Swayze photograph we're okay. She has encouraged any and all theft, graffiti, and pranks."
"She seems like a handful," Caroline said, still gazing around the foyer, as Giulia tucked the black velvet case under her arm. Giulia curled her finger at Caroline, who followed her up the stairs; the guest-bedroom was outfitted as Cara had hinted, with a dresser full of never-worn pyjamas in funky patterns, onesies and fluffy socks, face-masks and night-cream, soft microwaveable curlers, and mounds of blankets over the eiderdown and Egyptian cotton sheets, an entire wall dedicated in a very Digger Stiles way, to pop-culture: books, movies, bobble-head dolls with rude bits stuck on, at least seven lava and glitter lamps, a gumball machine in the corner, and hanging from the ceiling in place of a central light fixture? A disco ball.
Giulia pulled her combat-boots off, stripped out of her clothes and wiggled into a fluffy bear onesie, tied her hair up into two sloppy buns and climbed under the covers, setting her alarm. She needed to get her contact before they wasted the day, and they had a couple of hours to nap. She set the black velvet case on the bedside cabinet as Caroline, hair pulled into a ponytail, self-conscious in the borrowed, brand-new pyjamas, arranged her fluffed-up pillows (Giulia had given Car hers, she disliked pillows) and climbed into bed beside her.
"Did you get any REM, sweets?" Giulia asked, four hours later, her shower having woken Caroline, who was stretching and preening like a kitten.
"This bed is gorgeous," she mumbled, yawning. She sniffed, frowning, looking bleary-eyed and tired. "Is there a toothbrush I can borrow, do you know?"
"Only pink glitter ones," Giulia said grimly. She smiled brightly, "You have to take care of those dainty lady-vamp fangs." Downstairs she used Cara's hyper-expensive and glorious espresso machine to make coffees, and dressed in a borrowed top and her jeans, Giulia sat in the drawing-room where during her first Lost Weekend with Cara, Ashlyn &c, Elijah had happened upon her during a slight, completely internalised, meltdown.
Opening the black velvet case, Giulia sighed to herself, smiling. It's all about the setting, she thought, warmth spreading through her entire body, joy and gratitude at such kindness. He hadn't even met Caroline. And yet he had offered her choice in jewels set with lapis lazuli stones, all, Giulia believed, designed by Elijah himself. There were earrings and studs, pendants, tennis-bracelets, and rings, the settings ranging from the simplest solitaires, intricate filigree Art Nouveau, striking Art Deco halos, ultra-minimalist bands, every one of them unique, stunning, some with quirky details like two tiny birds and a filigree nest set with tiny lapis lazuli eggs, statement rings, ultra-modern, and with Egyptian vibes, settings like flowers, a gorgeous gold band in the richest gold, almost reddish, designed as an ouroboros with tiny lapis stones set in the eyes. He had used precious metals as well as stones – opals, diamonds, onyx – to offset the lustreless lapis lazuli, outshining that necessary aspect of the spell.
"Pretty," Caroline breathed, teasing her fingers through her freshly-tonged curls with one hand as she kept her cell-phone to her ear with the other; she leaned down to press a kiss to Giulia's head before sliding onto a stool beside her at the island; Giulia pushed a cup of strong coffee – loaded with creamer, hazelnut syrup and sugar – toward her.
"Who is it?" she mouthed, and Caroline mouthed back, "My mom." Giulia nodded, and Caroline eyed the rings delightedly, and Giulia rolled her eyes in amusement as Caroline plucked out the jewellery Giulia had seen and known she would like out of the black velvet case to examine closer as she chatted with her mother.
"Dinner – um? Tomorrow night?" Caroline said, grimacing inquisitively at Giulia, who shook her head, frowning. "I can't do tomorrow, Giulia has a lot planned for us. Maybe…" She glanced at Giulia again, who pushed out her lower-lip thoughtfully, frowning, and mouthed, "Tuesday." "Tuesday night? Dinner at the Grill? Okay. Okay. I love you. Bye." Caroline hung up the phone and raised an eyebrow at Giulia.
"So what're we doing today?" she asked, smiling warmly.
"Well, first, you have to pick something," Giulia said, pushing the velvet case toward Caroline, who raised her eyebrows.
"What? Just pick one? This case was just lying in the foyer, it doesn't belong to you," Caroline blurted.
"It was delivered to the house specifically for you, actually," Giulia said, smiling. "Pick one."
"Okay…why?" Caroline asked.
"They all have lapis lazuli stones in the settings," Giulia said, picking out a tennis bracelet for Caroline to examine.
"Lapis – oh. That's the stuff in Stefan and Damon's rings," Caroline nodded.
"It's necessary for the spell to create daylight-jewellery," Giulia sighed. "It's just a shame the stone isn't prettier. What about this one? Lapiz lazuli set into an eternity-ring. Some irony there, one thinks." Caroline chuckled. "Actually, you know what – I'd rather we took advantage of the generosity and got you fully kitted out."
"Okay…what do you mean?"
"You're a girl who accessorises," Giulia said, perusing the velvet case. "And, besides that, I think it's quite daring for the boys to risk only having the one ring – if someone destroyed it that's a lot of witch strong-arming before they can go out in daylight again."
"Okay, so what?" Caroline said, glancing at the jewellery. "What do I pick out?"
"Necklace. Two rings. Hey, this can go on your charm bracelet," she smiled, at the delicate little filigree-inlaid lapis lazuli egg drop. "So you can switch things up, and you've always got spares just in case."
"Okay," Caroline said, though she looked uncomfortable about taking more than what she thought had been offered. If Elijah ever met Caroline, though, Giulia believed he wouldn't mind that Giulia had taken extra precaution protecting her. Maybe he already knew enough of her from Giulia that he didn't mind: after all, instead of just giving Caroline something of his choosing, he had given her the choice. "Okay, so… I'm gonna be wearing this for the rest of my life. What do I choose?"
"I'd choose something simple and subtle," Giulia said. A delicate heart-shaped silver locket caught her eye, no larger than her thumbnail, detailed with delicate swirls and either a daisy or a sunflower – it was so evocative of Caroline's sunny personality that she lifted it carefully from the box. The locket opened – unwillingly – to reveal a tiny lapis stone nearly entirely encased within a silver bracket. "What about this?"
"That is so cute!" Caroline gasped, latching onto it with near vamp-speed. "Oh my gosh." She grinned jauntily. "It's perfect."
"Now, a ring," Giulia admonished, and after trying on handfuls of them – Art Deco 'halo' rings, filigree ones, an ultra-modern one – Caroline decided on the eternity band Giulia had picked out, a rich 24-karat gold channel setting with tiny alternating lapis lazuli stones, turquoise, diamond and apatite. "I can wear this with any kind of blue, it's perfect." A single lapis lazuli stud for Caroline's second piercing, and the tiny egg charm, and Giulia closed the box, set it on the leather-topped desk in Cara's office, grabbed her bag, and tried to lead Caroline out of the house by the hand.
"No – Giulia – the sun!"
"It's overcast," Giulia said, opening the door and indicating the sky. "Besides, this is New York; your chances of getting direct sunlight are slim. Be bold!"
"Alright, but if I burn to a crisp, you're explaining everything to my mom," Caroline warned, but she did brave the streets. New York in early-April was like Mystic Falls in the heart of their "winter"; snow was melting everywhere, churned up by traffic into toxic greyish sludge, bright but overcast, the sky a blanket of illuminated cloud, indirect wintry light. She grabbed Caroline's hand and pulled her into the subway – Caroline's expression of disdain as she attempted to navigate the subway gracefully was classic! – and they emerged close to Elijah's ballroom, and the indoor mall full of witch shops. Giulia stopped them by the small independent café with the gorgeous fully-bodied espresso and phenomenal pastries, and they sat in the warmth by the window in a snug little corner, Caroline texting people and flicking through Vogue and Giulia unfolding the Arts & Leisure section of the day's newspaper.
"So, why aren't we asking Bonnie to do this?" Caroline asked, referring to the daylight jewellery, frowning slightly at Giulia, whose answer was to scoff.
"Because I don't trust her," she said, with a bite of finality that shocked Caroline. Giulia glanced at her with a shrug, then laughed, "I don't know where she gets off being such a hateful little bitch, if she's still pissed at Damon for attacking her as Emily, she needs to get over it. But the irony of a black witch being so racist to a vampire who was in her life one of her best-friends, is delicious to me. And just cements the opinion I've had of her for a long time that she's small-minded and bitter."
"Bonnie's not that bad – a little judgemental, maybe," Caroline said fairly, and Giulia gazed at her sadly; even after everything, she was still sticking up for someone who had treated her so poorly.
"Caroline… She cared more about a dead carnie than the fact you were murdered," she said gently. "Disregarding the vampire thing entirely, you were killed as a direct consequence of her actions. And she refused to even acknowledge her part in it. That isn't okay. I won't forgive that. I won't forget that when you really needed us, she failed you. She failed us." Caroline sighed, and Giulia shrugged her shoulder again. "I'm not going to say you shouldn't try with her, if that's what you want – but with everything I have going on, I don't want to spend time with someone who makes me feel less for being around her. I just…don't feel like myself when I have to spend time with them."
"Bonnie and Elena?" Caroline said, and Giulia sighed, nodding.
"I mean, you could pull it up to simple jealousy in Elena's case –"
"But the situation isn't simple," Caroline interjected gently, understanding written on her face, and Giulia nodded. "And there's no way you could ever be jealous of someone like Elena." Surprised by Caroline's comment – not the fair tone in which she had said it – Giulia quirked an eyebrow at her. "The two of us, we're – we're the hard-working, driven ones, we're motivated; we go above and beyond at school and devote our time to the children's hospice and I'm helping at Girl Scouts and you're going to be helping with Buzz's soccer team and you do so much work as the Historical Society's junior representative, you always drop anything no matter how much work you've got to do if I need you, and despite everything when the boys needed you, you were there to save their butts. Yeah, our family situations aren't perfect like Elena's used to be, and this whole Elena-being-adopted thing really could've gotten to you if you'd let it because of your mother but, you're bigger than that. You tried to remind me at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant that I had nothing to worry about when it came to Elena being the competition. You just said what I'd always known I just…didn't like to think about it…"
"We have so much more going for us," Giulia said, finishing the thought so uncomfortable for Caroline, smiling sadly.
"Yeah… Because we put the effort in," Caroline said quietly. "I get it, not everybody's like us, but Elena's just become so lazy, she's just being pushed around by her life, going with the flow rather than forging ahead on her own, and Bonnie… It just seems like she's isolating herself so she can continue to keep feeling victimised and alone – she did it with Elena for months and I was the one trying to figure out what the hell was going on and how to fix it, and now I'm a vampire, and she's pushed me away to hang out with Elena."
"Well, even then there's still the lingering issue of Stefan," Giulia said. "She may know Elena loves Stefan but she doesn't like vampires so she'll put everyone in an awkward position about it when she won't hang out with Elena…"
"And then there's you… I only really noticed Bonnie was being a bitch to Elena, because you and Bonnie, and Elena even, haven't hung out in months," Caroline mused. She sighed softly. "It wasn't even anything malicious, you weren't fighting like Elena and Bonnie were, you just…"
"I realised that I don't have to feel bad about not spending time with people who have proven themselves to be not very good friends," Giulia said, sighing. She didn't feel bad – the saddest thing about the situation was, she didn't miss spending time with Bonnie or Elena; and their absence from her life didn't take anything from it. Which meant they couldn't have contributed anything either.
Caroline sighed heavily. "So that's it? You're just…walking away?" Giulia shrugged. Caroline sighed again, frowning thoughtfully at her. "You know, I thought you'd changed…" Giulia stared at her, not knowing where Caroline was going. "But I get it, now… This is who you've always been, you just…instead of doing everything to make other people happy you're…doing things to make yourself happy too… You haven't changed…you're just better."
Giulia smiled, uncertain how to respond beyond her eyes burning and her throat closing up with emotion. It was one thing to tell her best-friend that she wasn't going to put any effort into a relationship with her other friends, but it was another for Caroline to accept without judgement that Giulia had moved on, and to say Giulia seemed better for it. There was no-one else in Giulia's life at the moment who could say something like that…something almost – maternal. She and Car looked out for each other, they always had, but it had always been Giulia consoling Caroline, building up her confidence – now Car was telling Giulia that sometimes it was okay to let things go if they just weren't working.
"I had to make some changes," Giulia said, feeling the desire to explain herself. It wasn't about being malicious toward Bonnie and Elena, she wasn't Regina George and she didn't want to punish anyone, that would imply an undercurrent of anger or hurt feelings, she just…didn't feel anything for them anymore, too much had happened, and where so many lines had been drawn, she was on a very different side. She had a very different perspective and it wasn't one shared by the old group of friends she had once been a part of.
She guessed that was high-school, and growing up.
"So…what does that mean for us?" Caroline asked hesitantly, and Giulia frowned.
"What do you mean?" she asked, and Caroline gave her an enigmatic shrug.
"I – you've got these new friends here, you're going to college classes, you're just… I don't know…"
"Car, you're the only thing that kept me from – I don't know, moving here," Giulia said, waving a hand around, meaning New York itself rather than the coffee-shop. For some reason, Caroline's face fell. Thinking it absurd that she had upset Caroline, she asked, horrified, "What's wrong?"
Looking so sad and so lost, Caroline barely made eye-contact as she said, in a tearful voice, "I never wanted to be the one who held you back, Giulia." Giulia blinked, then frowned, biting her lip. That wasn't what she meant.
"That's…that's not what I – maybe I said it wrong," she said softly. "Ever since…my dad died…you've been the only good thing in my life. You've never held me back, Caroline… You've kept me sane. You're my humanity." Caroline's expression was so sad, so heartrendingly earnest, searching Giulia's face. She sighed softly.
"Oh, then," Caroline said softly. The finished their coffees, Giulia tucked the Arts & Leisure section of the paper into her purse, and they walked under cover of a light drizzle and some dangerously darkening clouds to the underground mall where the witches traded. She knew which shop she needed, though she had never been inside it and had only met the owner at Chocolat's: and that was why she had chosen this place, this particular witch.
"Well, well, la Bella," Elise grinned, as she unlocked the front-door to her small boutique. "On my doorstep at daybreak. What can I do for you?"
"Daylight jewellery," Giulia said.
"No messing around, huh?" Elise said, raising her eyebrows. But she shrugged, indicating they come into her shop. Caroline wasn't stopped at the threshold, but then, this entire building was owned by Elijah. "Witches of New York aren't in the habit of creating daylight rings for people. Especially unsanctioned ones."
"Elijah gave me the jewellery," Giulia said, and Elise glanced up, her expression shrewd and surprised. Her dark eyes flicked to Caroline, who was gazing around the shop with something close to wonder in her eyes.
"But not the spell," Elise said softly, glancing back at Giulia. "He keeps that grimoire close to his chest and few witches in the city know that spell. It's a self-preservation thing. The more vampires know we can do the spell, the more they'll ask, the less likely they'll listen when we say No."
"Giulia's very good at keeping secrets," Caroline spoke up, glancing over from the corner where she was investigating a display of scented oils. "She kept her vampire family from everyone her entire life." Elise sighed, as Giulia rummaged in her purse, producing a plain white envelope, unsealed. She handed it to Elise with a smirk. Elise took it sceptically, not looking impressed, until she peered inside.
"Polaroids?"
"Mm. I hear you and your BF are on again. Those are the originals – the only copies," Giulia said, as Elise sifted through the photographs, a blush rising in her cheeks. The Lost Weekend had been an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways – and Giulia had learned the supernaturals loved their leverage, no matter what form it took.
Elise sighed heavily, but she was smiling. "Alright. I need the lapis lazuli. And a little daylight." She locked the shop door behind her as they made their way onto the street; the brilliant thing about a city this large was that it was full of people – and nobody ever made eye-contact. No-one paid any more attention to them as they would a homeless man, a mom of three juggling diaper-bags and bottles and subway tickets, or a drug-deal. Elise performed the spell in mere seconds, eyes closed, the jewellery in her palm as daylight made the metal settings twinkle and shine. Caroline remained just inside the doors, watching curiously.
"That's it?" she asked, perplexed.
"The more subtle the magic, the more powerful," Elise said, and Caroline pulled a considering face. As the sky warmed – the black clouds had drifted further away, still in sight but now burnished with a fine layer of gold from the sun – Caroline donned each piece of jewellery; the tiny lapis stud in her ear, the locket, the ring on her forefinger. She tucked the charm onto the necklace for safe-keeping until she could attach it to her charm-bracelet. But she beamed at Elise, surprising the witch by giving her a hug.
"Thanks," she beamed, examining her ringed hand in the sunshine.
"You're welcome," Elise smiled, a little thrown by Caroline being…so bubbly and friendly. To her knowledge Elise was more Chocolat's friend than the others', who knew her only through Chocolat's parties, but Ashlyn frequented her shop a lot, and she always gave Ashlyn sound advice regarding her magical study. "Enjoy the city." With that, they were dismissed; witches in general distrusted vampires, and though Caroline was the poster-girl for any sorority in the United States, she still had fangs and a newborn's appetite. But they didn't know Caroline.
"So, what now?" Caroline asked, beaming, practically bouncing on her heels as they stood in the street outside the hidden mall. "I know! Shopping! You need a sweater! Your nipples are distracting me." Giulia rolled her eyes but grinned. Caroline had never been to New York, was a lover of Gossip Girl, and Giulia's best-friend: there was nothing Giulia wouldn't do for her, and a whirlwind tour of the city was just what she wanted for Caroline.
"–because you can get over all the perks here, now, you can push yourself, test your compulsion, practice snatch-eat-erase on the streets, go crazy – and there's no-one here to judge you for any of it," Giulia said, wandering out of Saks with bags laden with treats – a sleek sharp-cornered cognac Saint Laurent purse for Giulia with gold details, and a sparkling pearl-studded Valentino purse for Caroline; designer dresses, amazing jeans and a pair of Louboutins and Manolos each – and gazing around. Their trip up the Empire State Building had been great, they had stopped for brunch at a tiny place where Giulia had eaten cheese on toast – homemade bread with mushroom pâté drizzled with truffle-oil and gruyere cheese melted on top – with mimosas, while Caroline chatted happily about the places she'd like to see in the city. They had walked up and down Fifth Avenue, gazing into the glittering windows, Giulia had taken the obligatory picture with Caroline drinking coffee in big sunglasses gazing at a Tiffany's window – they explored inside for a little while, coming out with dainty powder-blue bags filled with a jewellery-box and a leather diary.
"Okay, so, what do I say to my mom, the sheriff, when she finds all these goodies?" Caroline asked, half-laughing. The thrill of compelling the snooty staff to give them the pieces for free with gift-wrapping and a smile squashed most of the guilt of 'stealing' in the first place.
"Mm. You tell her that we went through the Salvatore family jewels," Giulia said, smiling. "And I let you take your pick… I should do that, though, go through all the jewellery my family has amassed, get it valued."
"Do you have a lot?"
"Well, considering we're a small family but my grandmother, etcetera, were very fashionable and cultured, yes, there's a lot of jewellery," Giulia said, frowning subtly. "And where there were no female descendants to split it all between when people died, we've just kept it all."
"That's kind of nice, though," Caroline smiled. "I remember when my grandma died, my mom got so upset because her two sisters kept bickering about Grandma's jewellery, it's like all they cared about. Eventually Mom went all Sheriff on them and she's locked it in a safety-deposit box for when I'm twenty-one. Except the charm-bracelet she gave me on my sweet-sixteen."
"That's quite sweet," Giulia smiled; she could remember Caroline's Sweet 16 as clear as this morning. Mr Forbes had come to town with Stephen and his daughter, and Giulia, Elena and Bonnie had all worked together on a surprise performance (with full dance routine) to "Spice Up Your Life" – Giulia had been Posh, Elena Sporty, Bonnie Scary, Caroline's pseudo-stepsister Ginger, and Caroline, she'd always been Baby. Giulia had still been in her soccer phase, she felt if it meant she got to marry David Beckham, she'd try to sing in front of a hundred people in a strappy black mini-dress. "So – why the diary?"
"Oh. Well, it's kind of – I don't know – I just thought, Stefan keeps a journal, there are all these diaries the Founders wrote back in 1864 and I hate that they're so full of hate, and, I can't tell my mom about any of this, so I thought what if I wrote it all down," Caroline winced slightly. "I might make it like a scrapbook, too, you know?" Giulia smiled; Caroline and her scrapbooks! She kept the local scrapbooking store in business. Giulia bought stickers there for kids at the hospice when they did really well on practicing their music.
"Just be careful your mom doesn't find your scrapbook about this weekend, or I'll be in jail for kidnapping," Giulia said.
"Orange works on you though," Caroline shrugged, and Giulia stuck her tongue out, chuckling. With the effortlessness of their friendship, they had struck a balance: after binging in Sephora in Times Square, Caroline suffered to let Giulia browse an amazing vinyl record store, they both enjoyed traipsing around Vera's favourite antiques warehouse to start furnishing Giulia's house, finding a couple of exquisite pieces - a mid-century telephone-chair and a Victorian rosewood dressing-table.
Giulia treated them, actually paying, for lunch at the hardest-to-get-into restaurant in Manhattan that Vera had created a frenzy for after critiquing it a few months ago, a Japanese-American fusion place owned by an English ex-pat and it was flawless. Giulia had to write down every detail of the dishes she and Caroline ordered to share and – as they had been all day, at every opportunity – took pictures of the exquisitely-presented dishes. The starter was a trio of 'sliders', the 'Los Angeles', a Wagyu beef tartare, smoky beer and jalapeño marmalade, avocado and butter-bean mousse, the 'Tokyo', which was monkfish liver, Umeboshi ketchup, jellied ponzu, and mayonnaise, and the 'London', curried lamb cheeseburger with apple and ale chutney and raita mayonnaise – all made from scratch, served on homemade mini beer-buns. The main course was a dish of Kyushu-style pork ramen noodles with pork belly, truffled lobster gyoza topped with porchini crisps, julienned rhubarb and spring-onion served with aromatic oils and pork broth, and they rounded up the meal with a trio of desserts, sticky toffee crème brûlée with blackcurrant stout sauce, deep-fried rhubarb and custard crumble balls, and a mini cheddar cheesecake with whisky jelly.
She was glad to undo the button of her jeans after that, booked in for full works at a spa Vera had not only recommended but owned, and gifted both Giulia and Caroline whatever treatments they would like. Giulia had been to a spa once, a present from Carol for her sixteenth birthday (and a little gift to herself from Carol, who had taken her; they had spent the day together, being pampered, although Giulia had also signed up for an intense boot-camp they ran at dawn), and Caroline had never been to a real spa. They weren't exactly Liz's thing and the closest Caroline had come was manicures during slumber-parties. So, they changed into fluffy robes and flip-flops, sipping detox smoothies and lemon, rosewater and mint water, munching on fresh fruit and nuts in between treatments – Giulia had an amazing-smelling facial and scalp-massage, and a full-body massage combined with a warm brown-sugar aromatherapy wrap that had her dozing on the padded bench, although a few texts between her and Elijah after Caroline went off for her facial and Giulia was called in for her full-body massage had her a little overheated and wishing he had been there rubbing her down giving her an erotic massage with camellia oils… After Caroline's chocolate wrapper was rinsed off, they met for more lemon, basil and ginger-infused water, fresh figs and honey and mani-pedis (herbal-floral hand-soaks, and intensive-moisture chocolate pedicures with a hot-chocolate each).
"So," Giulia yawned, her hands wrapped in heated pouches, camellia-scented oils slathered on, cuticle-oils softening her skin, anticipating the hand-massage, "when I turn the Boarding House into a spa…you'll be the first guest, right?"
"Totally," Caroline sighed, eyes closed and half-smiling.
"Cool," Giulia mumbled.
"So is that what you're gonna do? With the Boarding House, I mean," Caroline asked.
"I haven't decided yet," Giulia yawned. "I know I've got to do something with it, I've been thinking about it. A private boarding-school, a real hotel, it's just – who is going to run it if I open it up as a Boarding House again, because I don't want to, and where are Damon and Stefan going to come back to?"
"Yeah, but – they're big boys, Giulia, it's not your responsibility to look after them," Caroline said fairly. Giulia shrugged.
"My family always has. Mystic Falls is still their home. Stefan's been hoarding things in that attic room for decades," Giulia sighed.
"When he and Damon leave town, put their things in storage and tell them how it's going to be from now on – don't forget, they'll have to deal with me," Caroline remarked, with an amusing bite of sternness to her tone. Giulia chuckled softly, then sighed heavily.
"Maybe I could turn it into a bourbon distillery, that would save so much time," she yawned, eyes sliding closed as her beauty-therapist started massaging her hand. Caroline laughed.
"With cocktail-making classes," she giggled. "Carol would be first in line if Damon was making cocktails with Tanqueray." They enjoyed a good giggle at Carol's expense for a while, and Caroline, flicking through a rag-mag, sat up suddenly, eyes bright. "Hey, so what's your dating-life like right now? You know all the ins and outs of the Donovan Saga, what's up with you, are you going out with Cade or what? And don't think it escaped me that you're talking to Tyler again."
"His father just died," Giulia said fairly.
"So nothing's going on with him?"
"No!" Giulia laughed. She sighed. "I just sort of miss hanging out with him."
"Well, that's natural. You were friends for like ever before you started dating," Caroline mused. "And I'll bet he misses you, too."
"Yeah," Giulia mumbled.
"So. Not Tyler. What about Cade?" Caroline asked, with a little smirk. "So you've like closed up shop?"
"Yeah. Well, no – I've been having phone-sex with this guy every other night," Giulia admitted idly, shrugging, and she cackled with laughter at Caroline's reaction, almost spitting hot-chocolate down the front of her fluffy cream robe.
"What?!" Giulia laughed and laughed and laughed. "Who?"
"Can't tell you that," Giulia smirked. Caroline scoffed, but she grinned, shaking her head.
"You're terrible," she remarked, and Giulia grinned. When their manicures and pedicures were finished, they walked zombie-like to protect the polish to get their hair done: Caroline had her hair highlighted and her makeup done using organic mineral cosmetics, while and Giulia had her hair cut, eyebrows threaded and eye-lashes tinted.
Caroline never asked "What're we doing next?" because she seemed to realise Giulia had it all figured out – she could live in the moment, relax, and it was blissful. Giulia had ideas, but she did ask Caroline what she wanted to do, not just steamroll ahead with what Giulia wanted to show Caroline. The balance was wonderful – and Giulia realised it wasn't the spa-visit that had lifted so much weight off her.
It was Caroline knowing.
A.N.: Okay, am I the only one who wants to go on a Lost Weekend with Caroline and Giulia? Seriously.
