Author's note: It's been a while, I know. Sorry for the delay! But here we are again. This one is long. Many words, you're warned ;)
And… I remember I promised adult content somewhere in the beginning. You will find it here if you search real hard. Nothing too graphic as (1) I'm not good at writing this kind of stuff and (2) I cannot exactly hide it under spoiler cut here for younger audience, so – it's the second warning lol
Also… someone wanted some Anna. Here she is ;)
Chapter 4
Soft knock on the door stopped Elena in her tracks when she was heading from the kitchen to her room with a cup of tea in her hand. Puzzled, she put the cup on the table near the door and reached for the knob, half-hoping it was Stefan. She could really use some company now, she thought ruefully. Upstairs, Jeremy was listening to the music in his room, the drums making china set in the cupboard downstairs clink. He still wasn't talking to her, and she felt helpless not knowing how to fix it. Not that she could blame him, she thought sourly, but it hurt to know that he couldn't understand that she was only trying to protect him.
It wasn't Stefan though.
It was Damon who stood on the porch with a somewhat thoughtful and surprisingly serious expression on his face, a wall of rain falling from the sky behind his back. The water-drops were glittering in his hair and rolling down his leather jacket dripping to the wood floor beneath his feet.
"Damon?" Elena frowned.
"I hope you don't mind," he squeezed past her into the house. His eyes darted towards the second floor landing for a moment but then returned to Elena. "Stefan here?"
She eyed him suspiciously. "No, he is… he was going to stop by later." There was some uneasiness about him that bothered her a lot and she didn't like it because it never meant anything good.
"Hunting the bunnies?" He snickered making his way into the living room where he flopped down onto the couch. "Feel free to spare me the details."
"Damon," she started, her voice warning.
"Whatever," he rolled his eyes. "I wanted to talk to you while dear Uncle John is playing with the Council, meaning – too busy to eavesdrop." He patted on the seat beside him.
On a sigh, Elena lowered herself down, one leg tucked beneath her. "You make it sound so sinister."
"Just telling the truth," he shrugged. "He is out there making plans about hunting the vampires knowing where he can find at least two. Or should I say three, your mother assumed?"
Mentioning Isobel was a mistake, and even Damon realized it when awkward silence fell between them. Everything inside of Elena tied into a tight knot. She and Damon never talked about when Isobel said the last time they met but the question seemed to always hang in the air as they danced gracefully around it.
"Isn't it exactly what you're doing, too?" She asked at last bringing them back on track.
"For me it's a matter of self-preservation," Damon explained willingly not at all taken aback. "I would like to know if they plan to come for me with stakes and torches in advance." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"Yeah," Elena shook her head on a small smile and then locked her eyes on his. "What are you doing here, Damon?"
"I came to ask for some milk and cookies," he confided in a low voice. "Since you don't have blood and chips." She rolled her eyes. "And also, I wanted to ask you for a favor."
"A favor?"
"Can I please borrow that magical vampire compass of yours?"
To say that the request surprised her was to say nothing. Elena studied his face searching for… something. And she didn't like what she saw behind the witty façade and cockiness. He looked troubled and concerned, and the line between his brows seemed to be deeper than she remembered. There was some nervousness about him and his mind seemed to be somewhere else too, which was so Damon-unlike that she couldn't help but feel worried about it, too.
"What's going on?" She asked carefully, all alert by the moment.
"Didn't Stefan tell you?" It was Damon's turn to all but gasp in bewilderment.
"Not really. He… he mentioned something… vague." She clearly fought to recall the conversation. "About some… possible danger."
"Sounds like my brother," Damon scoffed. "Possible," he mimicked with a funny face. "Yeah, something like that." He sighed when he saw her confused expression. "Why do you think John practically lives in the Founders Council Hall lately?"
"Is there a specific reason? It's not like we have heart-to-heart conversations," she replied honestly. "I simply marvel in the fact of his absence."
"Nice. But… looks like we've got company and, like it or not, but there are limited ways to detect it. That's why I need you compass."
Elena frowned. "But you can't use it, can you? It'll keep pointing at you. I could…"
"Oh, don't worry about that," Damon interrupted her. "I've got a school history teacher to do dirty work for me." He watched her expectedly for about half a minute waiting for the information to sink in. "So, can I take it for a while? I'll bring it back, scout's honor!"
Now, that made her laugh in earnest. "Scout's honor, Damon? Really? Do you even know what it is?"
He nudged her playfully. "Come on! Don't be so mean! Will you give me your little toy?" He batted eyelashes pleadingly at her.
"Yeah, sure." Elena rubbed at her face, her voice losing its easiness. "Things can hardly get any worse anyway." She got up.
"What's wrong?" He followed her suit.
"Oh, where to start?" She barked out a short bitter laugh spinning at the base of the staircase… and ending up face to face with Damon. "My brother hates me. My birth mother is a homicidal vampire. My Uncle can expose my vampire boyfriend to the entire world any moment should he see any potential benefit for himself in it." She paused to take a breath. "And also, there's this parade which drives me nuts. Your news arrived just in time, Damon. So, take your pick!"
They were standing so close that her body was practically touching his… and she couldn't be bothered less, Elena thought absently. Weird how the tables could turn. Of all people – and vampires – in the world, right now Damon was the only one she knew she wanted to talk to.
"Personally, I'd cross the Founder's Day out of the list," he said after a short consideration.
"You're unbelievable," she shook her head.
He watched her for a long moment, his gaze traveling around her face making her feel a little edgy but for some reason not at all uncomfortable. And when he spoke again, he voice was soft, even somewhat soothing. "You take it all too seriously, Elena, don't you think?"
Her own voice dropped, mimicking his, "Someone has to."
A knock on the door broke the moment giving them both a start and they whipped their heads to it simultaneously.
"It must be Stefan," Elena breathed out, missing Damon's grimace entirely.
He hemmed as he followed her to the door staying practically on her heels. Elena gave him a frustrated glare over her shoulder but he chose to ignore her. It wasn't Stefan and he knew it – if only because his brother's heart hadn't been beating for the last 145 years – so he preferred to stick close in case the company turned out to be unwanted.
She swung the door open. "Mr. Saltzman?"
"Hi, Elena," Ric started on a small tired smile. His hair and jacket were wet from the run from his car to the porch. "Is-?" And it was then that his glance shifted past her shoulder and Alaric saw that she wasn't alone. His smile faded and eyes darted from Damon's face to Elena's and back to the vampire's again. "Damon."
"Hey, Ric," he wiggled his fingers at Alaric, lips stretched into s smirk. "We're just… hanging out here." Damon added on a shrug even though no one asked him anything.
Alaric's brows quirked up slightly but he did not acknowledge Damon's words in any way. Instead, he turned back to Elena.
"Come in," Elena stepped aside.
"Is Jenna home?" He asked walking in and looked helplessly at the phone clutched in his hand. "I tried to call her but her phone goes straight to the voice-mail, so I thought…" He trailed off and cleared his throat.
"She… she should be here any moment," Elena replied in a light welcoming voice. She locked the door behind him. "Why don't you-?" and cut off when the situation kicked in and her eyes shifted to the clock on the wall.
It didn't go past Alaric. "What?"
"She…" Elena looked at Damon and then at Ric again. "She should have been back already."
Just calm down, she told herself. Think.
"Elena, where is Jenna?" Ric asked in what he probably thought was a steady voice, but she knew better than that. She heard the same panic in it that was coursing through her own veins.
She ran her fingers through her hair feeling the eyes of both Damon and Alaric on her. Her insides twisted uncomfortably making her feel physically sick. She took a deep breath but it didn't help.
"She went to the university library in the morning to work on her paper, said she'd be home by dinner." Replaying the facts in her head was comforting and surprisingly, her voice didn't give in. "I talked to her about… two hours ago, maybe. She was just leaving the campus." Not waiting for any of them to say a word, Elena fetched her own mobile from the back pocket of her jeans and hit the dial button as soon as she found Jenna's number on the quick dial list. Listened patiently to the rings on the other end and then swallowed hard. "Voice mail." Okay, don't panic. She marched to the staircase. "Jeremy!" She shouted and waited for a moment. "Jer!"
The door on the second floor opened letting the blasting sounds of music out and Jeremy bent over the railing. "What?"
"Did Jenna call you?"
"No." He gave her a weird look as if not sure she was in her right mind. Blinked in surprise at Alaric and Damon in turns then. "Why? What happened?"
"Nothing," she attempted to muster a weak smile and failed miserably.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Is everything okay?" Jeremy asked addressing Alaric this time.
"Yeah, just… checking," Ric reassured him with fake lightness and none of them said a word until they heard the door close again cutting them from the sounds of electric guitar.
Elena bit her lower lip, her mobile pressed to her ear again. "Maybe something's wrong with the phone," she said grasping at straws. "The rain…" she froze at the sight of their sullen faces. "You don't… Please tell me you don't think she's-" No, she definitely wasn't able to finish the phrase. No, please. It couldn't be the true. It could be happening. Her head was spinning. Yeah, Damon couldn't have found a worse time to drop that bomb on her.
Alaric and Damon exchanged a look, as if having a silent conversation. None of them said a word but the expression of their faces spoke volumes.
"Oh God…" Elena whispered covering her mouth with her hand. Oh God, please no. Automatically, she kept dialing Jenna's number over and over again disconnecting upon the voice-mail greeting message.
"It's going to be fine," Ric's voice broke through the kaleidoscope of her chaotic thoughts and she felt his hands on her shoulders, his face right before her. "Look at me, Elena. Where did she go?"
"To the library," she repeated.
"Where is it?" She told him. "Okay, stay here, and try to calm down. Like you said, it must be the storm. She's going to be fine, you hear me? She's going to be fine." Elena knew he was telling it more to himself than to her. And he had no idea how unconvincing he was in his false optimism.
She nodded reluctantly. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going there."
"Don't be ridiculous," Damon stepped forward.
"You better stay here, too."
Damon scowled, obviously not being used to taking the orders from anyone, let alone humans. "And you're going to do what, exactly? Play a hero with that collection of stakes and knives of yours? We don't even know-"
"Wait!" Elena's sharp request cut them off and made them turn her way. "Jenna?" She could barely hear anything, the static on the line was horrible but it wasn't a mistake – someone out there had just picked up the phone. "Jenna, can you hear me? What happened? Are you okay?"
Alaric was by her side within a blink of an eye. "Elena, give me the phone," he whispered and reached out for it, and hearing his strained voice she obliged without a word. "Jenna?" His expression was almost unbelieving. "Where are you?"
Why was the chirping so damn loud and annoying? It seemed to be practically drilling right through her skull and into her brain making Jenna wish she could just cover her head with something and die. And she was cold, too. So cold that she felt like she was wrapped in a cocoon made of ice.
She moaned quietly as reality started to slowly come back to her. Why was she so cold… and wet?
Jenna forced her eyes open, gasping for breath. Her head was lying on her arm that rested on the steering wheel. Cautiously, she lifted it up blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness all around her. The windshield before her was a cobweb of cracks, some fragments of it missing and lying on the dashboard, and the passenger's seat, and the floor. Through them the rain was dripping inside soaking her hair and jacket and bringing chill and ozone freshness to the air. The thunder that scattered across the sky made Jenna all but jump in her seat. Her body responded to the move with dull pain. Her head pounded like hell as if promising to blow up any moment. God, even breathing seemed to be making it worse.
Carefully, she straightened up taking small shallow breaths and trying to avoid any jerking moves. There was still hope that no bones were broken.
The chirping that annoyed her so much when she wasn't even conscious yet started again and it took Jenna a moment to realize that it was her mobile ringing in her bag. She never got to take it out.
With the fingers that didn't seem to belong to her at all, Jenna unbuckled her seat belt and reached for her bag, brushed the shattered glass off of it cursing when she scraped her skin on one of the sharp fragments. Her hands trembled when she fought with the zipper. Blindly, she groped for her phone in the depths of the bag. Grabbed it once, but it slipped out of her grip.
"Damn it," she muttered and finally managed to get hold of it. "Yes," she breathed out into the receiver, her voice sounding hoarse and strange even to her own ears.
"Jenna?" Elena's voice pierced through her brain, and she winced expecting it to explode any second. She pressed the heel of her palm into her forehead and squeezed her eyes tight for a moment. "Jenna, can you hear me? What happened? Are you okay?"
Hardly.
"I…" she began but was interrupted by the noise on Elena's end of the line.
"Jenna?" Ric. Involuntarily, she let out a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice feeling a little better by the second. "Where are you?"
The thoughts were still struggling through the fog in her head, but his question made the events of the night rush into her mind like a flow of water that broke through the dam and was now on the loose, uncontrolled and erratic. Her blood ran cold in her veins when she saw the bright light of the headlights in the rearview mirror before her mind's eyes.
Jenna whipped her head around – which was a very, very bad idea. The whole world seemed to explode before her blinding and deafening her with pain and she clenched her teeth not to moan.
"Jenna?" Somehow, his voice made its way through this carousel of madness into her mind. Apparently, he had said something that she missed completely.
"I'm here," she responded now that the bright stars before her eyes started to fade and her senses began to get back to normal except for the dull headache that settled behind her eyes. "My car—" is a wreck.
"Where are you?"
Good question!
She tried to focus. "North-west highway, about 20 miles outside Mystic Falls," give or take a mile or two. And that was as much as she could tell.
"Oh… all right," he paused, probably considering her words. "I'll be right there. Just… don't go anywhere, okay?"
Not a problem at all!
"Okay."
He hung up then and Jenna simply started at the phone in her hand listening to the silence.
And then suddenly the car seemed to shrink in size and become too small for her to stay in. Feeling like she was going to suffocate of she didn't get out, Jenna groped for the handle, her fingers scraping in panic on the inside of the door. Everything about her concentrated on breaking free as fast as she only could. It turned to be an almost impossible task though. The car was inclined forward and to the right, its left back wheel probably hanging in the air judging from the angle of the seats, and the door seemed to weigh a ton. Jenna pushed at it with her whole body and all but fell out when it finally gave in with a grating creak.
A wave of cold air and the rain that it threw in her face nearly pushed her back inside but she climbed out and into the downpour taking short convulsive breaths. She leaned against the back door and closed her eyes feeling dizzy and nauseous and not quite stable on her feet, the adrenaline rush in her blood was making the world spin around her. The rain was so hard that she drenched to the skin within moments but truth be told, Jenna couldn't care less. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she feared it could break through her rib-cage any moment as she gasped for air. She could hardly see or hear anything behind this waterfall of a rain around her but so far beside the water-drops hitting the ground, and the grass, and what was left of her car there was nothing. And still… she couldn't help but wonder if whoever was after her was still hiding somewhere out there.
She forced the thought away and willed herself to focus on here and now. Eventually, the first shock let go of her and she noticed that she was practically freezing in the wind that kept cutting through her like a knife with each gust, throwing ice-cold needles of rain in her face. Her fingers were numb and her teeth started to chatter unevenly. But her breathing slowed down and the reality became more or less bearable again, which probably was good news.
Alaric did come fast, or so it seemed to her. Not that she was tracking the time, Jenna thought absently. She was standing at the roadside with her arms wrapped around her shoulders as if trying to hold together whatever was left of her when the headlights of his car pierced through the darkness of the night. He must have seen her in the light because the car skidded to a halt, its tires squealing on the asphalt, and he hopped out before it even came to a full stop nearly tripping in a hurry, the door left open behind him.
"Jenna," he was beside her in a moment, his hair wet and flat against his head, his expression incredulous, relived and unbelieving at the same time, or so she saw through the rain that blurred her vision. His eyes darted all over her body, obviously looking for visible injured, and then his palm cupped her cheek when he found none.
"How many traffic laws did you break on the way here?" She asked in a shaking voice as her hand went up to cover his, the skin of his palm felt almost burning hot on her cheek. Now that Alaric was there and the whole situation wasn't as nightmarish as several minutes ago, she simply wasn't able to hold back the comment. Sarcasm felt comforting. Maybe she wasn't that bad after all.
His mouth curled into a small smile that probably mimicked the one that she had. "You're incredible," he shook his head as Jenna watched the crease between his brows smooth down at her words, the line of his shoulders relaxed visibly. His eyes traveled around her face once again. "Are you okay?"
"Yes."
"You're not hurt?"
"No."
"Thank God." He looked up and down the highway then, his other hand flexed on her arm. "Come on, let's get out of here." Ric pulled her to the car.
"No, wait," Jenna threw a quick look over her shoulder.
"What?"
"My car… I need to get my stuff from the car."
As much as she didn't want to go there, leaving her bag, with the wallet, and the house keys, and some other stuff, wasn't such a good idea whatsoever.
"Sure," Ric followed her off the road. The grass was slick beneath their feet. He caught Jenna by the hand when she slipped and nearly tripped over something and squeezed it tight. "Wow," he whistled in astonishment when they finally reached the spot a minute later. "How did it happen?"
"It's a… long story," she replied evasively.
Ric didn't say anything to this. He only hemmed, let go of her hand and circled the car to study what was left of the hood, not that there was much to look at. She already had a pleasure to observe the disaster and knew it wasn't pretty.
"That's a nice piece of work," he commented after a while.
"I am not sure my insurance company will use a word nice to describe it, but hey, I will give them an idea."
Jenna made her way to the front passenger's door. Her fingers slipped several times off the handle before she finally managed to grab it. The door fell open heavily and she held onto it not to be knocked down to the ground.
Most of her books fell to the floor when the car hit the tree and although they were all sprinkled with the glass now, it saved them from the rain for the most part. She shook the glass off trying not to add other cuts to those that she already had. Put her phone into the pocket of her jeans then, grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder.
"Here, let me," Ric appeared at her side and took the books from her. "Is that it?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "Um, wait a moment."
Jenna dove inside again and reached for the car keys that still were in the ignition. She climbed out, pushed the door close and locked it. Not that it made much sense since the windshield could be practically blown away with the wind, damaged as it was.
Once inside Ric's car, Jenna pulled off her jacket that resisted persistently clinging to the long sleeves of her soaked through shirt and threw it to the floor behind her seat. She'd deal with it later. When she would feel a little more alive than now perhaps. It didn't help much of course. When the cool air went through her wet clothes and touched her skin she only started to shiver from head to toe.
Alaric started the car and turned on the heater. Following Jenna's example, he shrugged out of his jacket then and tossed it into the backseat.
He stole a worried glance at her as she was struggling with the seatbelt, her lean fingers pulling it from the holder and adjusting it on her chest. He buckled up, revved backwards to make more room for the maneuver and then U-turned and sped for Mystic Falls.
They drove in silence for a while with Jenna staring out the window and Ric throwing quick looks in her direction every now and then still caught up between the fear that swallowed him at the thought that something could have happened to her when he arrived at the Gilberts' house and the relief that took over it when he saw her in one piece, standing in the rain. She seemed to be fine, except for some scratches that he managed to make out, given the fact that he could hardly see anything at all.
His thoughts drifted back to when he saw her in the morning when she dropped Elena off at school. He was checking his notes before the class and arranging them in his mind when something nudged him to look up and out the window. The dark-blue car was parked right across the lawn in front of the history classroom, and Elena got out of it and slammed the door shut on a small farewell wave. And for the first time in a very long while Alaric felt something warm inside of him, something long forgotten that gave his heart a leap and made his lips stretch into a smile without any apparent reason. The feeling that he never thought would be back.
With all the events of the past few days, and the killings, and possible new vampire in town, and the whirlpool of memories that sucked him in at Isobel's return and made him go through the past over and over and over again to try and understand where the things had gone wrong, he had no physical or emotional strength left to even remember about the present, which surprisingly didn't consist of sorrow and pain and emptiness anymore. Well, not completely at least.
Through the half open window he saw Jenna wave at Elena and then he thought that she hesitated for a moment to look at his windows. It was too far. He couldn't be sure, and of course she couldn't see him. But he suddenly caught himself wishing that she did. In fact, he wanted her to get out of the car, and walk into his class, and say Hi, and just make his day a little better. But instead she rolled up the windows and drove away, and all he could do was follow her car with his gaze until it was out of his sight with the feeling that something good was slipping though his fingers and he was doing a very lousy job to keep it… And that he'd be such an idiot if he didn't do something about it…
Alaric stole another glance at Jenna. Her brows were furrowed thoughtfully and she was biting at her lower lip every now and then – something he noticed she was doing when she was nervous. Her eyes were locked on the windshield but it didn't look like she would notice a herd of elephants crossing the highway had it ever happened.
"You can start telling me what happened to you," Ric was the first to break the silence.
Jenna didn't reply right away. In fact, she stayed silent for so long that at some point he started to think that she didn't hear him, too lost in her thoughts.
"Someone pushed me off the road," she said when he was about to ask her again, and her voice implied that she couldn't quite believe her own words.
"What?" He whipped his head around not sure that he understood her right. "But… Who was it?"
"I don't know, Ric. He didn't bother to stop and introduce himself."
"Are you… sure that it was what had happened?"
"Yeah." Their eyes met for a moment, and she looked just as confused as he felt. "I'm not an expert but I guess it's hard to push someone off the road and not notice it."
"We should have called the police," he said, the uneasiness in the pit of his stomach that he hoped had finally gone was back and kept growing stronger by the moment. His gaze shifted to the rearview mirror.
"And tell what? I hadn't seen anything, except that the car was big and… and that's pretty much it." She turned away again. Something in this situation bothered her so much, but Jenna couldn't quite put her finger on what it was and was uncertain if she should try and figure it out or just let go and write it off to "I nearly got killed" stress. No need to be paranoid, she told herself. Except that she actually nearly got killed.
Alaric slowed down the car when they passed the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign to the town speed limit. The relief that he felt for such an oh-so-short time was gone without a trace. Instead of it the feeling that something was wrong came. Something he couldn't see yet, but it was there, and he knew it – and he hated it.
"Do you want me to take you home?" He asked Jenna when it suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea where she wanted to be right now.
She looked at him again, her blue eyes uncertain and still bearing the remains of shock and disbelief.
"No," she said after a short hesitation.
He watched her for another moment, not really surprised, and then nodded curtly taking the right turn on the crossroads instead of the left one.
There was light in only one window of the small house that stood lost in the woods practically in the middle of nowhere when Damon pulled his car over at the side of the gravel driveway. He walked up the steps and across the porch leaving wet tracks after him, his footfalls dull and echoing in the trees around him, somewhat muted by the rain.
He knocked impatiently on the door, waited for a moment and then knocked again wondering how bad it would be for a friendly visit if he simply forced his way in in that charming manner of his. It was infuriating and annoying not to have any idea of what was going on in Mystic Falls, and he didn't do infuriating and annoying, mostly because tearing throats out was more his idea of fun, especially as long as it had something to do with Elena.
The thought made him cringe inwardly and scowl at himself. It has nothing to do with her, he reminded himself, and besides, it was her boyfriend's duty to be obsessively overprotective about her, not his.
And yet, there he was…
The door creaked open and Damon pushed his way in without so much as Hello before the dark-haired girl on the other side of it had time to react and probably try to slam it in his face. Not that it would be a big deal, but he still preferred to stick to as little trouble as possible now that they were sort of friends and neighbors, or whatever.
"Hello, Anna," he drawled once inside the dimly lit hall that looked exactly like the last time he'd been there, minus blood and dead vampires on the floor of course.
Once again the expression "dead vampires" caught and amused him. Weren't they all dead by definition?
"Damon," she acknowledged with a sigh. Looked out the door to make sure he came alone and then locked it behind him. "What do you want?"
"What do you want?" He repeated almost horrified. "Where are your manners, for God's sake? Aren't you going to offer me a cup of tea? Or a glass of blood?" He cocked his head. "What would your mother say?" He paused and looked around taking in the silence of the house. The light that he saw from the outside was coming from the kitchen. "Speaking of… Is she at home?"
"My mother is dead, thank you." She fought to keep it cool but her voice cracked a little and she hurried to purse her hips right, her eyes glaring daggers at him.
Damon froze, stuck. Pearl was dead? "I… I didn't know."
"Whatever," her expression was blank now like she really didn't care about what he said or thought. "The question remains – what do you want?"
"How many of you are living here?" He asked pushing down the pity that he – surprisingly – felt. Now that he knew it, he noticed that Anna looked totally crashed, her eyes empty and pained.
"In this house?" She specified. "Just me now. It was me and mom before… And you know it."
"Actually, I don't," he disagreed. "You sure?"
"No," she rolled her eyes. "There's always a chance that someone is sneaking around the house without me noticing."
"Well, the problem is – you can be right," he grimaced.
"Why so interested anyway?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"I believe you have already heard about the vampire on the killing spree in town," it was a statement, and he said it matter-of-factly too, but his eyebrows quirked up in silent question.
"What?" She frowned, obviously caught by surprise.
"Seriously? So I am what, a messenger this time?" He shook his head in disbelief.
"Seriously, Damon, what's going on?" She sounded really concerned and worried now.
He hesitated eyeing her thoughtfully, his gaze sharp and his lips puckered as he made a circle around the hall before Anna who stood with her back leaned against the door.
"You sure that the rest of your little uncontrolled family is gone?" He asked folding his arms across his chest.
"They are. What the hell if going on?"
Damon ignored her demand completely though. "Do you know if there is something new in town?" He asked instead.
Anna blinked. "New, like-?"
"Yeah, fangs and all Arrr," he imitated the throaty growl. "Saw anyone?"
"No! Are you saying there's a new vampire in town?"
"Actually, I hoped it was someone old, less suspense and drama this way." He snorted. "You really know nothing?"
"No," she ran her fingers through her hair. "What happened?"
"The usual. A killing here and there, missing people. I kind of hoped you'd know who it could be. Some friends of yours used to like to do that stuff."
She stepped aside when he walked up to the door, obviously intending to leave. "For what I know, they all left when you made your point clear by nearly exterminating them."
"It's not like I did it for fun," Damon's voice dropped to a cold and dangerous level.
"You made that point clear, too," Anna reminded him looking up at him.
They glared at each other for a long while, the outburst of storm outside the house reflecting the tension, making the moment even more drastic and intense.
"What are you going to do now?" He asked surprising both himself and the girl.
She paused, her gaze dropped to the floor for a moment, then went up to his face again. "I don't know," she said honestly looking somewhat lost by the second. "I haven't thought of it yet."
He nodded after a short hesitation. "If you are going to stick around, do me a favor, keep your eyes open and give me a call if you run across something suspicious, okay?"
"The vampires from the tomb would never come back while the Salvatore brothers are in Mystic Falls, they are not stupid."
"Let's wait and see."
On that he went out and in a moment was swallowed up by the rain, his form disappearing in the darkness.
"Here we are." Alaric pushed the door open before Jenna and walked in after her reaching for the switch to turn on the lights in the hall. "Make yourself at home."
She followed him into the depths of his apartment looking around curiously. They ended up in the living room that was separated from the kitchen area by the counter with three tall wicker stools on the living-room side of it. She took in a couch and two armchairs on either side of it, a low coffee table and a TV set in the corner with some disks and magazines on the shelf under the TV itself, a bookshelf – all stuffed from top to bottom – and several boxes by the wall under the window. A few were still sealed and two stood open but not fully unpacked yet. There were no pictures on the walls or framed photos here and there. Nothing to define the personality of the owner – beside the books of course – but somehow the room still looked cozy.
Her gaze slid along the leather covers that looked old and worn and thus somehow valuable. The titles carved on the spines were unreadable from where she was standing, and her fingers itched to run down them if only to feel their age and texture. Alaric had a magnificent library, and that alone was telling a lot about him. Two pots with some plants on the windowsill made Jenna's lips curve into a small smile. They were probably left by the previous residents, she decided. For some reason she couldn't imagine Ric traveling around the country with the flower pots in the backseat, but it didn't matter. They were still making the place look a little more homey. Especially a place occupied by a single man who was probably spending more time outside of his apartment than inside of it.
The realization that Alaric had moved to Mystic Falls just a couple of months ago struck her. Weird, but it felt like he had always been there.
Jenna put her bag onto the coffee table near her books that Ric left there earlier and rubbed her shoulders with her hands in a vain attempt to get a little warmer.
Alaric came up to her from behind. "You okay?"
She turned around. "Yeah," which sounded almost like a joke, what with them both knowing that okay was as far from being an accurate description of her state as possible.
"Um…You should probably change before you got pneumonia or something."
"That bad?" Jenna tried to scoff but it sounded pretty miserable, assuming her teeth were still chattering.
"Your lips are blue," he informed her smiling softly and shook his head, amusement twinkling in his eyes brought something boyish to his looks. "The bathroom is the second door to the left," Ric waved his hand toward the hall. "I'll find something dry for you."
"Thanks."
The reflection in the mirror above the sink was beyond horrible. On the scale from one to ten her bad looks could be rated as fifteen. There was a cut on her forehead right below the hairline, and it looked rather nasty. Strange that she didn't feel it before. Her shirt was covered with dirt and blood on the sleeves where the glass had cut through it and scratched her skin. Her hair was simply indescribable, period, hanging around her face in untidy strands. Jenna took in the whole picture not able to process the fact that she was looking at herself at first.
And beside that, she looked horrified, her entire expression shocked and her eyes big and frightened. Where the physical damage could easily be fixed, the emotional wreck seemed to be another thing entirely. She simply could not shake off the feeling that it wasn't over yet, and her being here, in Ric's apartment, safe and finally warm – it was just an illusion, something that could fall to pieces any moment to reveal the true reality that she wasn't sure she wanted to see. And being paranoid wasn't exactly her thing but it was something she couldn't help or run away from. All she could do was wait…
Inside the shower cubicle, Jenna turned on the hot water and then simply stood there until it started to hurt, her scratches and cuts burning like hell but she couldn't care less. She held her breath and let the water flow down her body as if it could wash off the events of the night just as easily. The whole bathroom filled with steam but she was still shaking from cold that was coming from the inside. With the adrenaline still running through her system, her knees were shaking as if ready to give in any moment, all her senses strangely sharp and somewhat magnified.
She could have died, Jenna thought numbly. She could have died and it was a matter of a pure and almost unbelievable luck that she didn't. Her heart constricted at the realization and her chest tightened. She swallowed hard fighting to shake off the belated panic, closed her eyes and lifted her face up to the water.
Jenna turned it off only when she thought that she was getting sick from the heat. She slid the door open and stepped out, her body less of a piece of ice and more of a mass of melted wax. She brushed her hand against the misted mirror and stared at herself. Her skin was flushed, and she could finally feel her limbs again, and it didn't look like her heart was going to jump out of her chest anymore. Now that was good news, wasn't it?
Her mind was blank and the whole accident started to look oddly unreal. Like a bad dream. Only the one that was burned into her memory forever with the exception that it was hard to make difference between what had actually happened and what her imagination and fear added to the picture. She could be distracted but she couldn't forget.
She slipped on the t-shirt that Ric gave her and was washed over by the smell of the winter-fresh fabric softener, and his after-shave lotion. The scent that probably all of his clothes bore, Jenna thought absently feeling a little dizzy and seriously overwhelmed by the rush of feelings that swept over her. It was probably a bit too much for one night.
Outside, she found Ric in the kitchen rummaging through the cupboard under the cooking counter. He must have heard her footsteps as his head snapped up at her approach. Over the time that she was in the shower he had changed, too. Now he was wearing light-blue faded jeans and a tight short-sleeved t-shirt that revealed a tattoo on his underarm that she had no idea he had. An intertwining of lines and symbols… It looked fascinating, until she realized that she was gawking at it and jerked her gaze up.
Alaric couldn't hold back the smile when he saw her. In the oversized t-shirt that went down past her hips and his jogging shorts that were almost knew-long she looked small and fragile. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were glinting again, as opposed to what he saw half an hour ago. The iron grip that held him tight finally let go.
"Feeling better?" He asked getting up to his feet and closing the cupboard door shut.
"More human, that's for sure," Jenna smiled back and ran her fingers through her wet hair that hung loose down her shoulders.
"Elena called," Ric's eyes darted towards her mobile that was lying on top of the counter. "Hope it's okay that I picked up."
"Sure. Um… Can I use you phone?"
"Of course." He nodded towards the living-room. "It's near the couch."
Elena picked up after the first ring. "Hello?"
"Elena-"
"Jenna, what happened?" Her voice was ringing with worry and relief, and Jenna couldn't make out which one was dominating. "Are you okay?"
"I'm…" She paused for a moment, took a deep breath and willed herself to sound casual. "I got in a small car accident."
"A small… what? Oh God…"
"It's okay, really. I-I lost control of the car." Yeah, right, let's freak everyone out. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "The road was slippery. You know, this rain…" She hoped her voice was light and steady enough not to give away her inner turmoil.
"But you're alright?" Elena pressed on.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm… I'm at Ric's." She threw a quick glance over her shoulder. "He'll drive me home a bit later."
"But… you really are not hurt?"
Jenna smiled to herself touched by the concern in Elena's voice. "Shaken but not damaged. I promise. Don't wait up and don't worry. It's nothing." And then, "Is Jeremy okay?"
"Yeah, we're both fine. He stays holed up in his room, probably hiding from Uncle John."
"I can see why," Jenna snorted, and then added in a softer voice. "Look, everything is fine, I swear. Don't stay up late. I'll be home soon."
Elena heaved a sigh. "Okay."
Jenna hung up then cringing inwardly. All the things she accused Elena of – she was doing them herself now, and how mature was that? Well, not that she lied, she told herself. Not really. She just spared the details that could wait for a little while. For one night definitely. Not that worrying Elena even more now would change anything, she'd tell her everything tomorrow anyway when they would both be less on edge than now. Pushing back the guilt, she returned to the kitchen and leaned against the counter, arms folded on her chest.
"Is everything all right?" Ric put a cup of tea beside her.
"Yeah." She inhaled a warm steam rising from it – chamomile and mint mixed with something sweet. "She sounded worried."
"Not without reason."
"I know. I hate to be the cause of that. She and Jeremy… instead of making it easier for them, I-" Jenna trailed off on a rueful chuckle.
Alaric hesitated. "No, it's not that," he said on a sigh.
"What do you mean?"
"There were several vampire attacks in town in the last couple of nights," he said slowly, eyes locking on hers. "I—We thought-" her face froze. "Thank God we were wrong." His voice dropped, his fear making its way out from deep inside of him again, and his gaze saying everything that he couldn't put into words.
Yeah, that was exactly what she needed to hear. On top of everything, another killing creature on the loose was making the whole picture look just perfect.
"Do you know who it could be?" Jenna forced out struck by his words.
"Not yet," he shook his head and leaned against the counter beside her so that their shoulders almost touched heaving an exasperated sigh. "Damon was going to try and track them down. But-" he cut off and shrugged, knowing that there was no need to finish the phrase for her to understand it.
Jenna took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, fighting to keep the pieces of her world together, unable to wrap her mind around all of that just yet, the things kept piling up around her before she had time to process and accept them, and she thought that she was going crazy.
"Well, I guess it changes everything, right?" She let out a short laugh – more bitter and nervous than humorous, and then confided in a low voice answering the silent question he asked by quirking up an eyebrow, "My story had just lost all the drama."
Ric couldn't help but smile at that. "Yeah, you can say that." The silence fell between them for a while, until he broke it saying, "I think we should take care of these," and nodded towards the scratches on her right arm that went up from the wrist and almost to the elbow.
"Oh…" she dropped her gaze to study them. "It's nothing, Ric-"
"It's not."
He was gone before she could say anything else, only to be back a few moments later with what looked like a medical kit and a pack of cotton balls. He retrieved a bottle with a milky liquid that smelled like a body lotion and sprinkled a cotton ball with it. His palm was warm and a little rugged when he took her arm and lifted it up for a better view.
"Why won't you tell me now everything about what happened to you?"
"There's not so much to tell," Jenna rubbed at her forehead, doing her best to keep the emotions in the back of her mind and concentrate strictly on the facts. "It was a car, Grand Cherokee type, maybe a bit bigger. The color – anything from dark-red to black. No registration numbers. I mean, I didn't see them. He… or she, or they –mm, the car, it followed me for quite a while, speeding up and slowing down every time I did the same. It didn't look like a coincidence to me. But… honestly, come to think of it – someone decided to have some fun and then freaked out when the situation got out of control." That at least made some sense. "Because I don't know what else to think."
"You could have been killed," Alaric tried to keep his voice calm even though everything inside of him was boiling with anger. At the situation in general and him being helpless about it in particular.
"Yeah, I noticed that, Ric. But it could have been worse. I could have been killed."
He lifted his head up and watched her for a short moment, his face concerned, and Jenna's stomach twisted – and this time it had nothing to do with the events of the night, or the vampires, or the car crash. On the moments like this she thought he could see right through her, and it made her nervous and excited and not quite herself by the second, which felt like losing control, and it was scary.
Alaric reached for another cotton ball then. "Now, this one."
He brushed the hair off of her forehead to reveal the cut. Her skin tingled where his fingertips touched it and Jenna shifted from foot to foot torn between the wish to run away and a desire to absorb in the warm feeling that spread all over her body.
"It can hurt a little," Ric warned her in a small apologetic voice.
"I have just got out of the car crash," she reminded him. "I think I can survive that."
It did hurt though. the burning feeling that made her wince involuntarily as her entire body tensed in protest and she fought an instinct to lean back and away from his touch. Instead, she forced herself to concentrate on something neutral, like taking one slow breath after another and counting in her mind.
"Sorry," Alaric said softly when he noticed it.
"It's okay," she let out in a whoosh of breath.
Her gaze shifter to his eyes, and suddenly Jenna became aware of how close he was standing to her. Very close in fact. Their bodies were practically touching and their faces were only inches apart. Her breath caught up in her throat and she swallowed hard fighting with all her will to focus on reality that kept slipping away. She was vaguely aware of his fingers that slid down her cheek leaving a burning trace that she thought would leave a physical mark on her skin. His eyes lingered on her lips and she suppressed an urge to lick them. Jenna could feel the strength and heat radiating from his body, and it was like standing on the edge, a moment away from falling into the abyss.
The sharp intake on his breath made her head spin and her heart suddenly became too big and heavy in her chest, every dull beat of it deafening her.
The tension was so thick around them that she thought she'd be able to touch it, and all she had to do was to stretch her arm out. She longed to gasp for air, her lungs burned and all in all she feared that she was going to suffocate, but she couldn't move and couldn't take her eyes off of him grasping at the moment, wishing to feel every ounce of it.
She didn't know who of them moved first, or maybe they both did, but the next thing Jenna knew was that he was kissing her, his lips tracing the outline of hers before he pressed his mouth fully to hers, and she was falling off the edge at last loosening her grip on reality and then letting it go.
His lips were soft, and he tasted like coffee, and rain, and need, and the combination made her lightheaded and weak, and his arms were the only thing that kept her together and in one piece.
The lights in the room blinked once and then went out plunging the whole place into the darkness.
"What happened?" Jenna whispered when he pulled back and looked around, her voice oddly dull and somehow foreign to her ears.
"It's the rain," Ric explained hoarsely. "The house is old and the wiring is crap. One day I'll get it fixed… maybe." He paused. "I've… I've got candles somewhere." His voice dropped by the end of the phrase and he didn't move looking down at her again instead, his fingers playing absently with her hair.
"Ric-" she started not quite sure what she was going to say but wanting to give them both a chance to back off before it was too late.
But he put his fingers on her lips silencing her. His thumb moved gently along her lower lip and then the line between the real world and a place where only the two of them existed started to fade until it was gone for good.
Alaric deepened the kiss and Jenna leaned willingly into him. Her eyelashes fluttered shut when his lips left her mouth and moved down her cheek and along her jaw-line and then down her neck as he showered her skin with light kisses wishing to taste every inch of it. A mix of thrill and sensation shot through him when he heard her soft gasp and felt Jenna's fingers catch the thin fabric of his t-shirt and clench onto it tight.
Another peal of thunder rolled across the skies outside making him pause in alarm when he felt—sensed… The lightning followed casting eerie silvery shades to everything around them. Ric pulled away a little and froze when he saw a circle of bite-marks on the nape her neck.
"What is it?" Jenna's whole body tensed when she felt him go rigid, finding it hard to concentrate on anything, her mind fogged and slow.
"Nothing."
He lifted his head up again and framed her face with his hands taking his time to just look at her memorizing every feature of her face. His gaze went to her blue eyes first, clouded and somewhat confused and then slid along the fine line of her eyebrows and down her porcelain skin to the full lips that were half-open, calling for him. With the anger at someone who had dared to touch her building inside of him, he had to make an effort to force the helpless fury down. He leaned in to kiss her again, with uncontrolled fierceness this time, as he wrapped his arms around her pressing her to his chest, torn between boiling desire and a desperate wish to just hold her tight and never let go.
Jenna tugged at the hem of his t-shirt and felt a shiver run down his body when her nails accidentally scratched the skin of his back. He unlocked his grip on her to let her pull his t-shirt off and toss it mindlessly to the floor. Slowly, her fingers traveled up his chest, and around his shoulders, and then ended up raking through his hair still wet from the rain as she pulled him back down to her, desperate in her need to touch him, feel him, to lose herself in him completely. It seemed to be the only thing that mattered, the only thing she knew would keep her alive.
The kiss was deep and slow this time, and Jenna just let go. Leaning into him, she let her mind drift allowing her body to response to the touch of his hands as it willed, her every essence dissolving in the moment. Ric pulled her t-shit off over her head and then gathered her in his arms again, his skin feeling so hot against hers that she thought she was going to melt right there and then turning into the pool of liquid desire on the cold tiled floor beneath her feet. Her fingers went down his stomach, and then around his waist trailing along the waistband of his jeans, the fingertips barely touching his skin as if teasing him and she bit his lower lip lightly when low growl formed in the back of his throat.
She buried her face in his chest when Ric bent down to press a gentle kiss to her curve of her neck and then her bare shoulder, feeling that his lips were curved into a smile as his breath tickled her skin arising goose-bumps on her flesh. She stiffened when his hand brushed against some bruise she didn't even know she had.
"Sorry," he murmured in a barely audible voice peppering his way back up her neck and to her lips with small kisses. Breathless, Ric rested his forehead against hers. "The candles are still an option."
"Not now," Jenna found his mouth with hers again, longing for more but never having enough.
…Ric lay awake for hours after Jenna fell asleep tugged against his body, listening to her soft deep breath and unable to find his own rest. The storm was over and the rain turned into a drizzle that rustled against the roof.
Everything was changing fast. The past was fading, the things he believed strongly in were proved false, the unbelievable became his reality. There were too many things he had to deal with, things that were new and scary and failing meant dying in most cases. His head was spinning from the enormous amount of information he had to learn to live with, with the only exception that he didn't exactly know how.
Jenna's bite-marks… he couldn't get them out of his head. Someone did it to her, and that alone was enough for him to want to hunt this creature down and make its death long and brutal. Someone did it to her but didn't kill her, which didn't make any sense to him. Why would they leave her alive? His fingers traced her arm that lay on his chest from shoulder to the wrist where her vervain bracelet felt cool against his skin.
Alaric let out a long breath.
"Ric?" Jenna whispered sleepily scooting even closer to him.
"Sh-h, sleep," he kissed the top of her head.
Somewhere along the way something clicked inside of him, and there was no turning back and no walking away. And it was probably the most shocking thing he had to deal with ever since he moved into the Mystic Falls. Somehow it turned out that he didn't have to look back to see something good anymore. It was right beside him, blissfully unaware of his thoughts – probably for the better. The grief he held onto for so long moved into the shadow, still remaining close but letting go of him at last. His black and white days – more black than white perhaps – plunged into routine that helped him survive started to get others colors to them.
And yet… there was so much to be solved and done and dealt with. His life was a mess and being involved with someone required more responsibility than that. And he felt guilty for giving in to the weakness and letting them go that far but the temptation was too strong to resist.
To be continued…
Hopefully soon!
Thanks for reading! Comments and reviews are very welcome! Feel free to ignore typos ;)
