A.N.: The quote from the new WonderWoman trailer really encapsulates Giulia: "What I do is not up to you." So perfect. Add a splash of Gal Gadot to Damon Salvatore and Kendall Jenner, with, well, boobs, and you've got Giulia. Anybody seen the trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword?
Dangerous Beauty
26
Bound
"You know, if you're going to ground me, you could at least limit it to house-arrest. Having Bonnie magically bind me to being within fifty feet of Caroline all day, was that necessary?" Elena asked, stomping through the front-door. She let it slam shut, scowling as she trudged into the kitchen, where she could see Jenna's textbooks spread out on the table.
"Elena… I'm glad you're home," Jenna said sombrely, and Elena immediately frowned, deflated by Jenna's apparent lack of desire to hash out last night's argument again. She had never seen Jenna angrier than last night – the atmosphere in the house this morning had been sub-arctic as they had all prepared breakfast and brown-bag lunches in absolute, glacial silence.
Props to Ric for sticking it out, though. Anyone else would've run a mile; he'd only ever seen feisty Jenna, sweet Jenna. He'd seen scared-out-of-her-mind Jenna and been there all night, staying up with her while she waited for Elena to get home, utterly panicked.
And when she had guiltily explained why she had missed curfew, well… That was a kind of rage Elena had never seen, would never have dreamed Jenna was capable of. But it was Ric's disappointment in her, his concern for a panicked, upset Jenna, that had made her truly ashamed.
Elena had…had hurt Jenna.
She hadn't even realised the implications of what she was doing – just leaving.
Not even saying goodbye – Jenna had asked how Elena could do that to them. To Jenna, who had given up her life as a grad-student who smoked pot and couldn't keep a plant alive to be her parent, and Jeremy, who had suffered through the loss of more people in his sixteen years than any kid should ever have to – all of them devastatingly sudden deaths he still had no closure from.
Jenna had asked how Elena could be so selfish.
She was the second person who had asked her that. Giulia had been the first, pointing out how Elena manipulating her had put Rose's life in danger.
Elena just…didn't want anyone to get hurt because of her.
"I came straight home from school, just like you said," Elena grumbled, defeated. After really thinking about what she had done, the ramifications she hadn't even considered, she had spent the entire day replaying what happened at Slater's studio and her argument with Jenna.
She kind of saw that having no car-privileges, no social-life and no Stefan was Jenna letting her off light for what she'd done. Binding her to the only vampire who was paranoid about her GPA dipping past a 4.0 and so never skipped a math class, even, was a creative way of ensuring Elena didn't slip away when she was supposed to be at school. There was no way Caroline, who was the yin to Giulia's yang in Team Giuline, would ever be convinced to let Elena do anything stupid like give herself up to Klaus.
"We're in here," Jenna said, and Elena glanced into the den.
She was actually so shocked she dropped her backpack, her body juddering with fear and recognition.
Elijah smiled from the leather couch, completely out of place in his expensive suit and shiny hair amongst unfinished jigsaw puzzles, Jeremy's video-game cases and the clutter of a busy family-home where no-one even knew where the Swiffer lived.
"Elena, why don't you come and sit down," Jenna said gently, seeing that Elena was frozen in place, gaping at Elijah. He looked so calm, so unconcerned. Jenna looked nervous, but no more than she had when the social-worker had made their scheduled visit to check things were going okay. She glanced from Jenna to Elijah and back.
"You invited him in?" she breathed, her stomach disappearing entirely. Jenna glanced at Elijah.
"Please do forgive the intrusion," Elijah said, in that gentle, intriguing, terrifying voice of his. His features were handsome, his expression mild. Everything about him said…manners. He was from a time the rest of the world had forgotten. Old-world elegance with very expensive shoes. "I mean your family no harm. Your aunt Jenna and I both agreed it high time we all had a little chat. Please, if you need to have a snack, I'll wait; you must have had a long day." She was actually starving for dinner, too annoyed to eat her lunch, and granted no cash from Jenna to assign to her student I.D. to scan in the cafeteria for something during break. But the idea of even turning her back to Elijah for a second made her nerves stretch so tight she thought they might snap.
"I'm good," she said tersely. He had been invited in. He was allowed into her home – he could come in any time he wanted… Just like Slater's studio, were he had killed the third vampire who had been regaining enough equilibrium and mental faculties to maybe have put Giulia through her paces. She hadn't even known he was there until he was smirking at Giulia almost teasingly as that bloody heart he'd yanked out through the vampire's back rolled to the floor.
She swallowed, watching Elijah fiddle idly with a few of the Scrabble pieces Giulia had laid out in a dirty word when she'd been playing with Jeremy the last time she'd come over to tutor him in Chemistry. "Why did you kill that vampire when he and his friends came to take me?"
"Because I didn't want you to be taken," Elijah said simply, giving her a beguiling smile she couldn't make out. He reached for the coffee-cup Jenna had just refilled for him – she was using her mom's prettiest cups and saucers, and Elena could see why. Elijah looked like a guy who was used to the finest things in life. He probably had an Aston Martin and his girlfriends were all staggeringly beautiful Bond girls with fangs.
At her suspicious, disbelieving look, Elijah smiled slightly. "Klaus is the most hated and feared of the Originals, but those who fear him are desperate for his approval. Word gets out that a doppelgänger exists, there'll be a line of vampires eager to take you to him, and I can't have that." He set his coffee-cup down with a gentle chink and an enigmatic smile.
"Isn't that exactly what you're trying to do?" Elena asked, frowning. She couldn't believe she was having this conversation – with Elijah, whom she had seen staked through the heart, pinioned to a door by Damon, in her house, where she was supposed to be safe from vampires.
"Let's just say that my goal is not to break the curse," Elijah said, with a subtle shrug.
"So what is your goal?" Elena asked.
"Klaus's obsessions have made him paranoid, he's a recluse – those in his immediate circle would claim they alone are who he places his trust in. In truth, Klaus does now know how to trust," Elijah explained casually. He gave her a measuring look. "For decades I have been trying to track him down. You are the very thing I needed to draw him out of hiding."
"You're trying to use me to get in contact with this Klaus guy?" Elena frowned. That seemed a little extreme. Hadn't he heard of social-media?
"Well, to do that I need you to stay put and stop trying to get yourself killed," Elijah said mildly, accusation lacing his words. Jenna, who'd stayed very quiet, glanced at Elena. "I'm very glad at least you have one friend with the presence of mind to take mystical precautions against vampires. As a species we're the devil to kill. I was pleasantly surprised two of your assailants had already been killed by the time I showed up."
"How did you know where I was – that I was in danger?"
"You know, I noticed you have a friend – Bonnie, is it? – who seems to possess the gift of magic," Elijah said softly, and Elena swallowed. Had he been spying on her? For how long – clearly, he hadn't stayed dead when Damon had pinned him to that door through the heart – had he tracked them down? What about – had Rose helped him? What if she'd returned to the house after she had left with Stefan and Damon, to get her things, and maybe bury her friend? What if she had come to Mystic Falls offering to help Stefan and Damon for Elijah? "I also have friends with similar gifts."
"You know witches," Elena sighed. Bonnie had been gushing about the new kid in their History class, Luka. Grams hadn't liked him when she'd picked Bonnie up from school one day; she'd warned Bonnie to stay away. So Luka and his creepy dad were Elijah's witches.
"And a good thing. If I hadn't arrived when I had, there was a good possibility your friend Giulia Salvatore might now be dead," Elijah said softly. "Miss Salvatore is gaining notoriety in the supernatural community, people are becoming very aware of what she is capable of – yet she is still so exquisitely human. Astounding, what she is courageous enough to attempt, and yet that vampire last evening would have still had the strength to rip her head off despite his mental confusion."
"You mean, the way you bitch-slapped Trevor's head off right in front of his best-friend?" Elena said coldly. She'd gone through a lot in the last eight months, but that was now a recurring nightmare.
"Precisely," Elijah answered, unfazed. "I noticed Rosemary fled the sight of me. I do hope she has the presence of mind to stay away; after earning her freedom with such bitter consequences, it would be such a waste that she get tangled up in all this."
"You want me to believe you actually care about her getting mixed up with this sacrifice crap?" Elena asked, raising her eyebrows. "You murdered her best-friend right in front of her."
"For half a millennium, Rosemary's loyalty to Trevor never faltered," Elijah said softly, something gentling his features. Sadness, Elena thought. "That kind of devotion is rare, I have seen it in my long lifetime…perhaps a handful of times. It would be a shame to lose a soul as loyal and compassionate as Rosemary's."
"You're the one who said she now has the freedom to do what she wants, to not be afraid of you anymore," Elena pointed out. "If she stays and gets killed, that's on you." Elijah's smile remained, but an edge crept into it, making her stifle a shiver.
"And your friends? Will you be able to bear the weight of their deaths, killed as they try to protect you?" Elijah said. "I should kill Damon Salvatore for having the audacity to think he could ever kill me. However, I am here, and together Jenna and I have settled on a negotiation that will keep everyone you love safe."
"You want to make a deal?"
"Why shouldn't I?" Elijah asked, gazing at her. "It's a far more civilised way of doing things, don't you agree? There's no reason for things to turn nasty."
"And how do I know you're telling the truth?" Elena asked. Make a deal with him? And he'd only said he'd keep everyone she loved safe – nothing about her.
"Well, if I wasn't being truthful, Jenna would be dead and I'd be taking you to Klaus right now," Elijah said thoughtfully, and Jenna blinked very quickly as she lowered her coffee-cup, staring at him.
"And so what if I go along with this deal, what do you want me to do?" Elena asked.
"Do? Specifically, I wish you to do nothing. Live your life; stop fighting," Elijah said, turning the pages of Jeremy's sketchbook. "Then, when the time is right, you and I shall draw Klaus out together and I shall make certain your friends and family remain unharmed."
"And then what?"
"And then I kill him."
"Just like that?" Elena said lightly, mocking his confidence.
"Just like that," Elijah smiled. "I'm a man of my word, Elena. I make a deal, I keep a deal." And make sure the fine-print suits you, Elena thought. More assurances her friends and family would be safe, unharmed – nothing about her. This was exactly what she wanted, though, wasn't it? She'd been willing to give herself over to Klaus to protect everyone she loved – even Damon – and Elijah was offering her assurance Klaus wouldn't hurt anyone, would be dead before he could even try.
"Elena…" Jenna spoke up for the first time. The vervain bracelet Giulia had given her was clasped around her wrist; she was sure Elijah could smell the perfume she wore, because Elena sure could. The lotion she used on her hands, the vervain-water she sprayed on her hair each night – Jenna swore it helped her sleep better. "I've accepted Elijah's terms. I think they're very fair."
"You're kidding me," Elena breathed, a little stunned. Last night Jenna had been raging that Elena needed to drop Stefan, the first step to removing all influences supernatural from her life. No supernatural entities, no attached supernatural drama.
"No, I'm not," Jenna said, with a stern bite Elena rarely heard.
"Well, I believe I shall take my leave and let you discuss matters in private," Elijah said politely, setting his coffee-cup down on the tray. "Thank you so much for your time, Jenna."
"Oh, yeah," Jenna blurted, thrown off by Elijah's politeness. "Er – you're welcome. Thank you." Elena frowned at her; she watched Jenna fuss as Elijah took his leave of them, buttoning his suit-jacket as he stepped out onto the porch into a light early-summer drizzle that was like a breath of fresh air in the stifling heat.
She knew Elijah could still hear them as Jenna closed the door carefully behind him, pointlessly locking the door. Elena rounded on her, appalled.
"Why would you invite him into the house?" she gasped. He could come back any time he wanted. She understood the irony of being terrified a vampire had unimpeded access to her, after she'd just been willing to hand herself over to one. But this was her house – it was just different.
Jenna frowned at her, sighing. "Go upstairs and do your homework, Elena." There was no fight in her voice; she sounded exhausted. Elena grabbed her backpack and trudged upstairs. Jenna called up to her, "And, by teh way, you're bound inside the house 'til Caroline picks you up in the morning." Elena stared after her, long after jenna had returned to the kitchen, her cell-phone to her ear.
"Hey, Giulia, it's Jenna. Just give me a call back when you can," she heard Jenna say, and scoffed to herself. Elijah had been invited into their home, and Jenna was calling Giulia. Jenna felt Elena owed her an apology; she shouldn't have had to protect Elena by risking her own neck to kill three vampires. Elena scoffed irritably to herself, shut her bedroom-door, grabbed her journal and threw herself on her bed, uncapping her pen. Jenna wanted her to do homework? She'd been so distracted lately she had to text bonnie for her assignments. Five minutes later, Jenna appeared, carrying a cup of coffee.
She took Elena's cell-phone, and tucked her journal under her arm.
"I said homework," Jenna said sternly, before going back downstairs, leaving the door ajar. Elena stared in disbelief, wondering how she'd known. She dragged herself to her desk, cracking open her Algebra II textbook, grimacing guiltily at the red C- on her latest quiz. It wasn't like she had a tone of free time to study, she thought fairly, ignoring the tiny voice in her head that said Giulia had graduated early to attend UV full-time in Richmond. She rubbed her face, flipped to the correct page and got to work, struggling the whole way through. She hadn't absorbed anything the last few weeks of class.
Jenna sat at the kitchen-table, powering through the next few handful of pages of her thesis. Ironically, she needed it ready for Giulia to proofread. Giulia had offered, and Jenna had been inspired by her annotations; Meredith had chuckled, and told her Giulia had been instrumental in her passing her exams. And Meredith was the brightest doctor Mystic Falls General were privileged to have on their staff.
She needed to call Giulia for a couple of reasons – at the moment, Jenna's thesis, something she had been working toward for years, that would define her future, wasn't even the most stressful part of her life. In a fairer world, only her thesis would be keeping her up all night, working and worrying. Before Elena had come home from school, Elijah had filled her in on certain things that had Jenna very concerned. Not about Elena – for Giulia. She'd learned some things that, as a psych-grad working on her Masters, and Giulia's friend, she thought it would be a good idea to talk to her about.
The fact this strange, elegant guy knew things about Giulia they had no clue about made her feel like she was an awful friend, made her worry what else they had all missed.
"Are you still not speaking to me?"
Giulia raised her face to Elijah's. Her expression said it all.
"I apologise if I have neglected to make you feel cherished and adored recently," she said politely. "At the moment I'm rather more concerned by my friend going through his first werewolf-transformation than your feelings."
Elijah sighed softly. "I…realise you may also be upset about other things," he said carefully.
"Upset? Yes, upset is a good word… You're a thousand years old. And you couldn't get more creative than killing someone who could be such an asset, because you think they're a liability?" Giulia said coolly. She opened her mouth, thought better and closed it, breathing out through her nose, shaking her head slightly. She glanced from her laptop screen to Elijah, removing her fingers from the keys she had covered with Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night skin stickers. Quietly, she sighed and examined his face. "You killed my friend."
Elijah paused, then said, "Technically, he staked himself."
Giulia's expression didn't change; suddenly, however, she looked ten times more vicious. "You're directly responsible for the death of my friend – a good man – and now you're sass-mouthin' me about it?" She snapped her laptop shut, reaching for her bag. She had been getting ready to leave for The Grill, where she was meeting up with Tyler and Caroline for dinner – Giulia was going to eat; they had decided it was probably best Tyler didn't eat directly before his transformation, with what his body would be going through. She paused at the front-door, Firenze peering at her curiously from his favourite spot, under the occasional table that always caught the sun first-thing in the morning. She said softly, "You disappointed me."
As she arranged everything in her car, she sighed and slung herself into the driver's seat, cranking the ignition. She hadn't slept well last-night – hadn't slept at all, really, too worried about Tyler, too upset by Elijah.
She was angrier at Elijah for disappointing her, for taking the easy way out, than at Elena for putting herself and a lot of the rest of them at risk. The uncertainty of whether those loons had told anyone else about the doppelgänger hung over her, not too heavy, but it was concerning enough that she was glad she had asked Sheila to cloak Elena from locator charms after Rose and Trevor had kidnapped her.
She couldn't blame Elena for her stupidity; she was used to that. But she had…expected more of Elijah. And that was what irritated her the most – Elijah had proven himself oddly…human. Flawed.
Slater was dead, and Giulia knew Elijah had killed him – correction, compelled Slater to stake himself in the heart – because he was too clever and knew too much, he asked the right questions and had a lot of connections dangerous to Elijah's plans – and because it sent a message to Damon and Rose and Elena and anyone else digging into the sacrifice and the Originals. Psychological warfare… Killing Slater was the easiest, cleanest way of tidying up some complications. He had been clever enough to discover the doppelgänger's existence, but willing to divulge her whereabouts to those he was loyal to, and who he'd wanted to help – even if it meant kidnapping a teenage girl.
Slater had chosen his side – Rose's. She was now allied with Damon, who would help Stefan, who would do anything it took to protect Elena from the sacrifice ritual Elijah wanted to happen so he could avenge his family. Honour demanded amends. Elijah's honour was compelling him to move against one brother to avenge the others.
Slater, Rose, Stefan, Damon, they were all obstacles to what Elijah wanted, and if they weren't careful they could all end up like Slater.
If Giulia hadn't also been playing the game.
Elena had suspected it, and Elijah knew it to be absolute truth, because he understood what others overlooked – that there was absolutely nothing Giulia was not capable of: She did have the moonstone.
While she had that, and while he refused to wean her off of vervain so he could compel its location from her – because that would ruin the game – she had just enough leverage to keep them safe. If he caused any harm to them whatsoever, he'd never get that talisman.
Because Giulia's contingencies would last longer than her death. It helped to be human, to have access to a lawyer, and the friendship of a very talented witch who could be trusted to know the true details of their situation.
She could never think of everything, though: Tyler was proof of that. She had slipped up, hadn't thought Katherine would already have made her own contingencies in the time between Giulia flipping Mason and imprisoning her.
Tyler looked pale and jumpy when she met him at The Grill. Caroline had arrived early, gotten them Giulia's favourite booth and ordered them drinks – even if it might not be a good idea, Tyler would probably burn through the booze in no time at all with his metabolism the way it was now, and he looked like needed the triple-vodka.
"You didn't watch Mason's video again, did you?" Giulia asked quietly, sighing. Once was enough for her. The idea that Tyler would go through that tonight… He had to get through it tonight, the first time, and then once every month… She and Caroline would be there for all of it, and their dread was tangible. Giulia did not want to watch Tyler going through the transformation, couldn't bear the idea – but neither could she fathom the idea of letting him go through it all alone. Even though he was friends with Matt and was the star of the Varsity teams he was on, Tyler was…pretty isolated. He didn't exactly have the personality to draw or keep a lot of friends.
"Uh, yeah, I've had it on a loop," Tyler admitted edgily, and Giulia sighed, shaking her head.
"So – why didn't you tell me that Elijah is still alive?" Caroline asked, as Giulia sipped her drink.
"Because apparently Elena already has."
"Stefan called me in a panic last night because apparently, Elena is grounded!" Caroline said, giving her an accusatory frown.
"So that made the headlines, not Elena wanting to pull a suicide-mission off, manipulating Rose into an accessory after the fact?" Giulia raised her eyebrows. Typical.
"You told me Elena was on a suicide-mission, and to watch her at school, you didn't say anything about Elijah being immune to a banister being shoved through his heart!" Caroline blurted.
"Actually, I think it was a coat-stand," Giulia mused. Caroline gave her a dangerous look.
"Did you really make Elena just sit in the library for four hours?" Tyler chuckled suddenly.
"She needed a time-out," Giulia said lightly. "And I had work to do."
"Who is Rose, by the way?" Caroline asked.
"One of the vampires who leveraged Elena for their freedom," Giulia said. "Half a millennium old – really pretty. Poor judgement when it comes to picking her friends – and making off with stolen tech." She perused the menu, deciding on what she wanted, and let it slap to the table. "Hey, you'll meet her, I was invited to a couple parties off-campus, I accepted on our behalf. We can invite her; great buffet."
"That'll be fun," Caroline beamed; she liked to be included in some of the fun things Giulia got up to with her college friends, though she admitted she worried about Giulia taking part in some things.
"Tyler, you in?" Giulia asked.
"Just FYI, when Giulia says 'buffet' she means all-you-can-eat drunken snatch-eat-erase for me," Caroline clarified, "not dinner."
"Got it," Tyler nodded. "Sounds good to me."
"Excellent. Then I shall invite Rose if she reappears," Giulia said.
"I wouldn't," Tyler said plainly. "Five hundred years on the run from this guy and she was there when he was killed? He's gotta be pissed – now he's skulking around Richmond? And her friend is dead? I'd be long-gone." Caroline sighed, and they fell silent as their waiter arrived to take their order.
"So why would this Elijah guy kill one of the vampires who came to take Elena?" Caroline asked.
"Probably because he didn't want her to be taken," Giulia muttered. "Look, Bonnie's here. Who's that she's with?"
"Some new guy," Caroline shrugged. She shot a thoughtful frown across the room, then leaned over the table. "She says he's a witch, she met his dad and he out and asked her whether she had family from Salem. She said she got a vibe, you know how she gets, and apparently his kid levitated salt to show her that he's a witch."
"And she doesn't find the timing suspicious at all?" Giulia smirked, eyeing the boy flirting with Bonnie. In her opinion he looked too old for high-school.
"She's pissed at her Grams," Caroline told her. "Miss Sheila's told her to stay away from Luka."
"Sheila thinks there's something untoward in his interest in Bonnie?" Giulia chuckled, eyeing the steaming garlic-bread placed in front of them.
"Just because Elena was kidnapped doesn't mean we all worry about stranger-danger," Caroline said. "What, we're all gonna wear chastity-belts for the rest of our lives because they might be after Elena?"
"If Miss Sheila is telling Bonnie to give that kid a wide berth, I'd listen," Giulia said firmly. A young witch who had homed in on Bonnie? Elijah's, definitely. Firstly, Elijah needed a witch to perform the sacrifice; and him being a young, relatively attractive male gave him an in with single, desperate-for-affection Bonnie. Not that Giulia didn't have her flaws, but it wasn't a surprise Bonnie had been pinpointed as the easiest target. "Sheila's instincts, I trust. She isn't flattered by every carni who flashes her a pretty smile. Bonnie does leave herself open to this kind of thing – target of opportunity. Happened with – whatshisname? That bartender Matt used to know? Ben?"
"You're single," Caroline pointed out.
"Yeah, but she's scary," Tyler teased. Giulia blinked at him. Scary? Caroline's expression was thoughtful as Tyler's eyes twinkled. If he could laugh, tonight, despite what they all knew was coming, she didn't mind that it was at her expense.
"I'm not scary. Am I scary?" she asked Caroline, who grimaced.
"Uh – yeah. I'm a vampire and I wouldn't piss you off."
"That's because you know me."
"Yeah, but you've got this aura right now that's really like…ferocious."
"It's not a bad thing, you're just intense," Tyler shrugged. "If I didn't know you, I'd be terrified to talk to you, let alone ask you on a date."
"Well, that's ridiculous, I love to go out on dates, I get asked all the time," Giulia said, frowning, but her heart sank. She put on a good show of being the unshakeable badass everyone thought she was, and usually it was effortless, because she, well, was. But she was still seventeen, and she no longer had that steadying influence from her dad to settle her when she had been ruffled up the wrong way. Nobody else knew her the way her dad had.
Was this really what people thought of her? She knew people thought she was an emotionless, callous bitch, but – scary? She didn't want to seem unapproachable. She'd had a lot going on recently, and perhaps she needed to learn to handle things differently – but she was doing her best, damn it, nobody else was taking on as much as she was… Admittedly, she piled it on herself, so she couldn't blame anyone else – she just knew she was too clever, and knew too much to just sit back and watch things unfold. Though they weren't really speaking, and she had little to no interest in maintaining her friendships with Elena and Bonnie, she was still invested in their wellbeing. She had grown up with those girls; they were in nearly every photograph from any major event during her childhood. That bond of loyalty just didn't break overnight. Just because she had outgrown them didn't change the fact she would always do what she could to help, to protect them – whether it was from playground bullies, Mean Girls or supernatural asswipes, it was the same. She was too clever to sit by when she could actively make a difference to a devastating outcome.
"It's okay," Caroline assured her. "I mean, you're going through a lot. And at least people know you won't let them get away with anything." Giulia shrugged, consuming her garlic-bread thoughtfully. When Caroline went to refresh her lipgloss, Tyler gently punted her leg under the table.
"Hey…you know we didn't mean to upset you," he said.
"I'm not upset."
"Yeah, you are," Tyler said, giving her a look. "You think I can't tell when someone's hurt your feelings? I was the best at making you look like that. You let me treat you like crap."
"Maybe I thought you'd change," Giulia said pointedly, and Tyler sighed, observing the restaurant. Everything looked just the same as it always did – normal. But this devastating and life-altering thing was going to happen tonight.
"Hey…are you sure it's okay for me to stay at your place tonight?" Tyler asked. "Caroline said Damon's pretty unfriendly."
"He's changeable," Giulia said lightly. She shrugged. "The Boarding House is actually perfect. We have huge tubs and beds, an enormous liquor cellar, and absolutely no parental supervision. Unless you want to explain to your mom why you have me and Caroline sleeping in your room."
"She'd think we're getting back together," Tyler said, smirking. Giulia grimaced, and he chuckled. "Why's the tub important?"
"Ice," Giulia said, glancing at him. She had filled the deep chest-freezer in the Boarding House with bags of ice, intending to run an ice-bath for Tyler as soon as they could get him to there after his transformation; the steam shower was also going to be handy, though she wouldn't dare invite him to use Damon's. Even her dad had never used that room.
"You two've really thought of it all, haven't you?" Tyler frowned thoughtfully. Giulia had rarely seen him so introverted. He was a kid who reacted, he didn't think things over. Or, he had been.
"Well…it's what we do. Did you get the chains?" Giulia asked.
"Yeah, in my bag," Tyler said, nudging his gym-bag, which rattled noticeably.
"And you told your mom you wouldn't be home tonight?"
"Yeah. She knows I'll be with the two of you," Tyler said. "Caroline said her mom will cover for us. Homework; you helped me with my math. You and Caroline shared her room, I was on the sofa-bed." Giulia nodded. Telling Liz was one step closer to telling Carol. Liz needed to be kept in the loop; Damon had finally filled her in on how and why Sarah had died at the masquerade party. Liz appreciated the kids not being implicated, but Giulia was right; she would never have gone along with tampering with a crime-scene.
"I should probably actually do some of your Geometry homework for you so it looks like you got smarter through proximity," Giulia mused. Tyler rolled his eyes; he wasn't mathematically, scientifically-minded. He was better with words, could quote movies and TV-shows he'd enjoyed correctly months later after one viewing, he was artistic. But he'd had no support for that aspect of his personality, had learned to just hide his enjoyment of it, and struggled with the rest, too embarrassed to ask for help.
"Make sure you get at least a half-dozen problems really wrong," Tyler said, and Giulia chuckled as Caroline bounced back toward them.
"I settled the bill," she declared with a smile. "Are you ready?"
Tyler sighed heavily, clenching his jaw. "Let's do this."
A.N.: Keep reading…
