II.
Alaric stuffed the rest of the streamers into a trash bag and ushered the remaining party planners out of the gymnasium, grabbing a few of the trash bags on his way out. This year's Decade Dance (the 80s) had been a great success, despite all the big hair and neon-colored clothes and acid-washed denim-no evil forces had attacked the school or killed students this time-but it had been boring as hell. Now that Stefan and Elena had long graduated, Damon no longer saw any reason to help Alaric chaperon. No matter. Alaric would just drop by the boardinghouse and drink some of Damon's bourbon before heading home to Katherine.
Alaric's stomach twisted as he realized the direction his thoughts had taken. Home to Katherine. Where had that come from? Damon and Jeremy were right. It was time he got her out of his loft. And out of his life.
He made his way through the dark parking lot and tossed the trash bags into a dumpster before heading over to his car. As he approached, his footsteps slowed as he saw a familiar figure standing next to it. He wasn't sure if he'd imagined it, but she seemed to tense as he approached and then relax when she saw it was him.
"What took you so long?" she asked irritably when he reached the car, her eyes darting from side to side. "The dance let out ages ago."
"I'm a chaperon, remember? I had to help clean up."
Katherine huffed in annoyance.
"Whatever," she said. "C'mon, get in, let's go."
He just rolled his eyes and raised his key to unlock the doors when he heard a sound coming from the other end of the parking lot.
"You hear that?" he asked, taking a step toward the sound.
"No!" Katherine seemed to be on the verge of panic, but he ignored her as he started to move. She was such a drama queen sometimes. Worse than Caroline.
"Rick!" she called again and then suddenly she screamed in pain. He whirled around just in time to see her drop to her knees, her hands pressed to her temples. A chill running down his spine, he glanced from side to side, looking for the witch or warlock who was attacking her and then he crouched down, pulling her into his arms. He held her tightly, her body small and trembling, and a feeling of protectiveness washed over him. He pulled her to her feet and started to guide her towards the car when suddenly something tore him away from her. He cried out as he flew through the air, landing hard on another parked car and setting off the car alarm. He hit his head so hard that everything went dark for a moment.
As his head cleared, he heard voices approaching and felt someone tugging his arm.
"Stop it," he murmured, trying to pull his arm away.
"Rick, c'mon!" Katherine said, dragging him off the hood of the car. "We have to leave."
"What about that witch?"
"Warlock," Katherine said absently. "Gone. For the moment. But we're about to have company. Can you drive?"
"Of course I can..." Alaric clutched at her as his legs suddenly gave out under him. "Drive."
Katherine sighed. "Give me the keys."
When they reached the car, she situated him in the front seat like he was a child and buckled him in and then raced around to jump into the car, tearing off just in time to escape unseen by the cop car approaching the parking lot. They made it back home in record time.
Once they were inside, she guided him over to the bar in the kitchen and helped him get up on a stool before turning away to grab a dishtowel. Opening the freezer, she dumped the contents of an ice cube tray onto the towel and then brought it over to Alaric, placing it in his hand and then raising his arm to press it against his head.
"Don't move that," she said. "Now look at me."
"You can't compel me," he said, a petulant tone creeping into his voice. "I have vervain."
"I know," she said through clenched teeth. "I'm not trying to compel you, Rick. I just want to check your head."
"Oh." Alaric felt foolish so he held still for a moment as she stared into his eyes, her brow furrowed in concentration. He didn't really pay attention as she did stuff with her fingers, probing and poking him. Instead, he focused on her eyes. All brown, like chocolate. Chocolaty goodness. And her lips. Red like strawberries. So soft and perfectly shaped... His eyes fell closed and he started to lean forward.
"I told you to stay still," Katherine said, pushing him back onto the stool. "You have a concussion. And we have to take care of it."
"Your eyes are like chocolate pools," he said. "Like the river of chocolate in Willy Wonka."
Katherine raised a brow. "My eyes are like a river of chocolate?" She shook her head, her tone a mixture of scorn and amusement. "Is that your idea of a compliment? No wonder you couldn't keep your wife."
Alaric frowned. Her comment stung a little, but he knew she was right. He obviously hadn't been man enough for his wife, anyhow, otherwise she wouldn't have ditched him to become a monster.
"That was my favorite movie when I was a kid," he said. "I liked the chocolate river."
"Uh, huh. Watch my finger." He tried, but failed to follow her finger with his eyes, giving up when he started to get dizzy. He focused on her instead. Her tongue was pressed against her upper lip in concentration, and he found the mannerism oddly human, not to mention adorable.
"My favorite scene was when they flew away in the glass elevator at the end," she said suddenly. "They seemed so... free." Her expression turned wistful, and Alaric wondered how she'd coped for all those years, never free, always on the run from Klaus. He had an urge to pull her into his arms and just hold her.
"You watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? It doesn't seem like it would be your... thing."
"It was the seventies, Rick," she said. "We didn't have the Internet. Just TV, movies, booze, and acid."
"You used to drop acid while watching Willy Wonka?" he asked incredulously. "Whoa."
"Best way to watch it," Katherine said dryly. She raised her wrist to her mouth and bit into it before holding it out to Alaric. "Here, drink."
Alaric shook his head. He might be concussed, but he knew drinking blood was a bad idea.
"Uh uhn, no way," he said.
Katherine sighed. "C'mon, Rick. Just a little. Just enough to heal your concussion. You don't want to go to the emergency room, right?"
Alaric stared at her bloody wrist for a moment and then nodded.
"Okay," he said. "But just this once."
Katherine smirked. "Of course," she said, pressing her arm against his mouth. "Now drink."
Alaric grimaced as the taste and smell of her blood filled his senses and he went to pull away, but her hand slid up the back of his neck and held him still. He probed the cut with his tongue, eliciting a breathy gasp from Katherine, and then sealed his lips around it, letting the blood flow into his mouth. Revulsion soon gave way to appetite, and, before he knew it, he was swallowing her disgusting-delicious life source in large gulps. From a distance, he could hear her calling his name, exhorting him to stop. He only stopped when she twisted her fingers into his hair and pulled his head back with a sharp tug.
"Enough," she said, panting hard as she gave him a wide-eyed, searching gaze. "Don't be greedy, Rick."
"That's weird coming from you," Alaric said, a somewhat nasty tone creeping into his voice. He was feeling refreshed and brave now that his head was healed. In the next instant, however, he regretted it as something akin to hurt briefly flashed in her eyes before her face hardened.
"You need to shut up," she said, her gaze dropping to his lips. Before he could respond, she was on him, straddling his lap as her mouth attacked his, biting and licking and kissing his lips. He returned the kiss fervently, grabbing her hips and pulling her against his erection. She moaned and wrapped her legs around his hips, grinding against him as she sank her teeth into his bottom lip and then sucked it into her mouth. The blood lay thick and coppery on his tongue, mixing with the taste of her blood, and he thought he'd never get enough of it. Of her. With a fluid motion, he pulled her off his lap and bent her over the bar, yanking down her jeans as he undid his fly and released his cock. He drove it into her, hard, and she cried out, tightening around him reflexively. She gripped the opposing edge of the counter as he moved, using it as leverage to meet his thrusts.
Her dark locks fanned out over her shoulders, and he scooped them up, twisting them around his fist. She grunted as he tugged her head back roughly by the hair and then ran his tongue up the side of her neck, nipping her earlobe hard.
"Rick..." she breathed, and she started to tremble, coming apart as she climaxed. Her spasms sent him over the edge as well, and he came with a shout, filling her.
Alaric stayed still for a few moments as he caught his breath, just holding her close, and she thankfully seemed just as disinclined to speak as he was. He knew he was going to regret it in the morning-technically, he couldn't even blame it on the head injury since she'd healed it first-but, right now, he didn't care.
Finally, he pulled out of her gingerly, setting her on her feet as he stepped away. Katherine whirled around and looked at him, her expression oddly vulnerable for a moment before her usual mask of disdain slipped back into place. "Well, well, well," she said, reaching out to tease the skin above the top button of his shirt. "I didn't realize you had it in you, Rick." She smirked as he slapped away her hand and she reached down to grab her shirt by the hem and then pull it over her head, exposing her perfect, perky breasts. "I hope you can get it up again. Because I'm just getting started..."
It was only much, much later, when they were lying entwined and exhausted in his bed, that he realized he hadn't thought of Jenna all night.
xXx
"I slept with Katherine," Alaric announced without preamble as he walked past Damon into the boardinghouse.
Instead of looking surprised, Damon just raised a brow.
"You mean you haven't you been hitting that all along?" he asked. "Why else would you put up with her?"
Alaric stopped in his tracks and turned to Damon. "Do you realize how misogynist that sounds?"
Damon snorted. "Rick, everyone knows she's a raging bitch, but she's hot and tends to get what she wants. That's an establishment of a fact and has nothing to do with misogyny." He put his arm around Alaric's shoulders and guided him toward the library as his other hand cradled his bourbon to his chest. "Now tell Uncle Damon all about it."
Alaric let Damon push him onto a chair by the fire and then took the glass of bourbon the other man had poured him.
"It just happened," he said with a sigh as Damon sat down across from him. "I dunno... she gave me some blood to heal my concussion and one thing let to another."
"Okay, wait, what?" Damon said, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. "Concussion? What are you talking about."
Alaric took a sip of his drink.
"We were attacked last night," he said. "In the parking lot after the dance. Some warlock. He used that aneurysm thing on Katherine and some sort of invisible force on me. They took off when someone called the cops. Katherine gave me some of her blood to heal me."
Damon narrowed his eyes.
"And what did she say about that?"
Alaric shrugged.
"Nothing," he said. "First I was too confused to ask and later I was too... occupied."
Damon snorted.
"You obviously weren't right in either head last night," he said. "But don't worry, Rick. Better people than you have fallen victim to Katherine's charms."
Alaric groaned and raised his free hand to his face.
"What am I gonna do?" he asked. "This is just so wrong, I don't know where to start."
Damon sighed.
"I don't know why you don't just kick her out," he said. "I know she saved our skins, but that doesn't mean you have to let her mooch off you."
"It's more complicated than that," Alaric said, taking a draft of his drink. "I... can't explain it." He knew Damon would probably downplay Alaric's feelings of responsibility for the stuff Klaus had done to Katherine while in Alaric's body and he wasn't in the mood to hear it right now.
Damon gave Alaric a long, considering look.
"It's obvious she has some kind of hold on you, Rick," he said finally. "Even if it's just the clutches of her vagina dentata. Just... be careful, okay? Sometimes I think you have a death wish." His voice trailed off and Alaric could tell Damon was thinking of Jenna.
"I'm always careful," Alaric said, forcing himself to give Damon a reassuring grin.
"Liar," Damon said.
Alaric just snickered and rolled his eyes, but he was relieved when the conversation moved to less controversial topics.
xXx
A few evenings later, Alaric was relaxing in his favorite easy-chair grading papers while sipping bourbon from a tumbler, soft jazz playing in the background, and Katherine was out doing whatever it was she did when she wasn't around and getting on his nerves. He thus had the place to himself for the first time in days, and he planned to take advantage of his temporary reprieve-even if he somehow wasn't able to get Katherine out of his head. She'd blocked his every attempt to discuss the warlock who'd attacked them, telling him she had a lot of enemies and to drop it, before shutting him up... creatively. Ever since their "mistake," Katherine seemed intent on repeating it on every free surface of their apartment. As he remembered what they'd done on the very chair he was sitting on the night before, his cock started to harden and he dropped his hands to his crotch and squeezed.
At that moment, his phone beeped and he jumped, feeling very much like he'd just been caught in the act. Hastily, he picked up his phone, his ears burning in embarrassment.
Meet me at Mirage.
Alaric rolled his eyes. Mirage was a popular night club in Charlottesville that Katherine frequented and totally not Alaric's thing at all.
Sry, not my scene.
He stared at the phone as he waited for her to text him back, not caring how obsessive he seemed. It wasn't like Damon was here to mock him. After a minute or two, he was rewarded.
Plz? Need u. He's here.
Alaric's heart plummeted. Oh, fuck, What had Katherine got into?
The warlock? he typed.
Hurry. Her reply was fast, too fast, and Alaric's stomach tightened in fear.
On my way.
xXx
Alaric arrived at the club about a half hour later. He started to get in line, but the bouncer-no doubt compelled by Katherine-waved him over and told him go right in.
He paused as he entered the main part of the club, looking for Katherine, but she was nowhere to be seen in the mass of people. His stomach twisted as his eyes combed the crowd-what if the warlock had found her before Alaric could get there? He was about to give up and check the back rooms when he spotted her on the dance floor, her long dark locks swinging around her as she moved sinuously to the rhythm of the music. He started towards her and then stopped, just staring for a moment as he took in the sight. Her eyes were closed as she undulated in obvious bliss, and she was smiling-real and natural for once-erasing the cruelty and cynicism that often made her seem so much older than her apparent physical years. Instead, she looked like a young girl again, innocent and without a care in a world, and his chest just ached.
As if she knew he was there, her eyes flew open and caught his, and her lips curled in a smirk, and the moment was gone. Still, he was drawn to her, his feet moving practically without his noticing it. When he reached her, she grabbed his hands and pulled him towards her, sliding her hands around his neck as she writhed against him without a word-not that he'd be able to hear anything over the loud pounding of the music. His hands slid down to her hips and he pulled her closer, burying his face in her hair. She smelled like his shampoo (like him), he noted, but instead of being annoyed about her using his stuff again, he felt an odd sort of possessiveness.
The music ended and the spell was broken, just like that. She pulled away and grasped his hand, tugging him towards the bar. As they slid onto stools, she called out their order to the bartender and then slouched against Alaric, her body soft and warm and loose against his. He shook his head as he realized that she was too relaxed. Typical.
"He's not here, is he?" he asked, nodding at the barman and he showed up with their drinks.
He could hear the smile in Katherine's voice, and his own lips curled up in response.
"No," she said. "I was trying to lure you here."
"'Lure' me?" he said, his voice reflecting his doubt. "That doesn't sound good."
Katherine let out a sound of amused exasperation and she pulled away from his side to gaze up at him.
"We're here so that you can have fun, Rick," she said, giving him a scolding look that reminded him discomfitingly of Elena for once. Fuck. Her resemblance to his stepdaughter was disturbing enough as it was. He was not going to go there. He resolutely pushed the thought from his mind.
"I do have fun," he said with a frown.
Katherine snorted. "Whittling stakes and preparing vervain darts is hardly 'fun'," she said, rolling her eyes. "Not to mention it's kinda creepy and insulting, like you expect me to kill you in your sleep." Alaric squirmed on his stool at that last comment and she sighed. "You can't spend the rest of your life getting drunk with Damon and moping about your dead girlfriend. Live a little, Rick."
Alaric's fists clenched on the bar. "Fuck off, Katherine," he snarled. "You're the last person to lecture me on the right way to mourn. You wouldn't know a true feeling if it smacked you upside the head."
She flinched visibly at his words and then her face hardened.
"Oh, fuck you, Rick," she hissed, jumping off her stool. "I hope your self-righteousness keeps you warm tonight because I am done with you!"
Alaric muttered a curse under his breath. "Katherine, wait!" he called, wincing when all he got in response was her middle finger. He turned back to the bar and shrugging as the barkeeper gave him a sympathetic look. He downed his drink and then tossed down a few bills on the bar before heading to the door to the hall leading to the restrooms and other back rooms. He was going to hit the men's room and then head back to Mystic Falls. Maybe Damon would want to join him for a few pathetic drinks at the Grill.
He was just leaving the men's room and turning to head out of the club, when he heard a familiar voice crying out. Rolling his eyes, Alaric stopped short and whirled around, a cutting remark on his lips, but he froze when he saw a man dragging a struggling Katherine out the back door to the alley behind the club.
"Oh, fuck," he muttered. The warlock. He took off at a run after them.
A few seconds later, he burst through the door into a dimly lit alleyway, glancing up and down before spying them a little way down the alley, the warlock pressing Katherine against the wall with his body, while Katherine's hands gripped his shoulders. Without over-thinking it, Alaric looked around for a weapon and saw a sharp piece of wood broken off a nearby crate. Counting on an element of surprise against such a powerful warlock, he picked up the piece of wood and rushed forward, grabbing the warlock and pulling him off Katherine.
"Leave her the fuck alone," he growled and then he drove the makeshift stake into the man's chest. The man stared at him in shock for a few seconds, his hands gripping and tugging at the stake as he slid down the wall in what seemed like slow motion.
Alaric stumbled back a few steps, suddenly feeling violently ill.
"I thought you said he wasn't here," he rasped. "The warlock."
Katherine stared down at the man as he shuddered one last time and then expired. She turned toward Rick, giving him a considering look.
"That wasn't him," she said, an odd sort of excitement in her voice. "That wasn't the warlock, Rick. It was just some asshole." She was gazing at him intently. "He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer so I thought I'd make a late night snack out of him."
Alaric drew in a shaky breath, wrapping his arms around himself as he stared down at the dead body. "You mean I... I killed an innocent man?"
Katherine snorted. "He was hardly innocent," she said, her nostrils flaring in disdain. "You didn't do anything wrong. He was planning to rape me."
"I know," Alaric said. His whole body felt like it was going numb. "I just... I never... Katherine, he... he's a... a man." He started to sway and she grabbed him under his elbows.
"Hey," Katherine said, her voice devoid of any mocking tone for once-almost as if she cared, Alaric though, half hysterically. "C'mon. I'll take care of this. You just sit down over here, okay?" As she spoke, she was guiding him over to a crate a short distance away.
Alaric sat down heavily, shivering violently as he stared down at the ground unseeingly. He'd just killed someone. A bad someone, sure, if Katherine was to be believed, but it was a person. Not a vamp or a werewolf or some other monster. A human being. Alaric Saltzman was a murderer.
With a groan, he screwed his eyes shut and pressed his hands against his face. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be. It had to be a dream. He was going to wake up in his armchair at home and none of this would have happened.
He was vaguely aware of Katherine moving in the background, the sounds of a body being dragged, the smell of something burning. Finally, he became aware of her approaching him, her spicy perfume driving away all the other bad smells.
"Rick."
She crouched down in front of him, grabbing his wrists and pulling his hands away from his face.
"Hey," she said. "C'mon, Rick. We gotta get outta here."
Alaric whimpered and tried to pull his arms away from her, but her grip was ironlike. Her eyes were just as hard, but they softened after a moment.
"Rick, please," she murmured. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. "We have to go. I got rid of all the evidence, but no one can know we were here."
Alaric shook his head, tears welling out of his eyes. How had it come to this?
"Leave me," he rasped. "I just... I can't do this anymore."
Katherine's fingers tightened on his wrists, grinding the bones together, but he didn't cry out.
"You can," she said firmly. "You're strong, Rick. It's one of the things I lo... like about you. C'mon." She rubbed her face against his, her cheeks wet as well, from his tears, he assumed. "I can help you. I can make it go away. The guilt, the shame-you don't have to care anymore."
"No." Alaric should his head. "No compulsion. I don't want... I just... I can't. I want to stay in control."
Katherine pulled away, fixing him with her gaze.
"I'm not talking about compulsion, Rick. I can help you turn it off entirely."
He stared at her for a moment, his eyes widening as he caught her drift. Then again, he wasn't sure why he was so surprised. They'd been headed down this road all along.
Finally, he nodded almost imperceptibly and she raised her wrist to her mouth, tearing open the vein with her teeth before pressing it to Alaric's mouth. He clung to her as her blood slid down his throat, his eyes on hers. Then he leaned back, feeling her hands on his neck for just a second before everything went black.
xXx
As he slowly came to, Alaric noted the soft mattress beneath him. Dismissing the vague images in his mind as an ill-remembered bad dream, he snuggled under the covers and stretched out his hand automatically for Katherine. He cursed as he felt a burning sensation on his chest and he sat up with a start, grasping at the chain holding Jenna's vervain charm. He tore it off and flung it into the far corner of the room with a hiss and then looked around wildly.
Katherine, who'd been sitting on the chair watching him, jumped to her feet and approached the bed, mustering him with a critical look.
"How're you doing?" she asked.
Alaric was still speechless. He stared at his hand, now healed, and reached up to probe his gums, gasping in surprise as his fangs suddenly elongated, driving one of them into his finger. He sucked the finger into his mouth, shuddering as the taste of blood hit his tongue, repugnant, but delicious, too. His mind worked feverishly to put together the events of the past weeks and his head jerked up to stare at Katherine as he realized something.
"You never compelled me," he said in disbelief.
Katherine gave him an earnest look, or at least a close approximation of one.
"Of course not." She glanced over at the necklace where it lay on the floor. "You had Jenna's charm. Anyway, you're my... my friend, Rick. You can trust me."
Alaric snorted. "Yeah, right," he said. He held up his hands in a placating gesture when she narrowed her eyes. "Okay, okay. I just... I wasn't expecting that. I thought maybe you did and I just couldn't remember."
Katherine laughed. "Wait, you thought I've been compelling you, but you haven't actually tried to do anything about it? God, Isobel was so right about you, Rick," she said, approaching the bed and crawled onto it, coming to a halt in front of Alaric. She cupped his face and leaned in. "It's all you. You've been sleeping with me of your own volition all this time. And you like it." She pressed her lips to his and then pulled away. "You like me. Admit it."
Alaric's heart started to pound. He didn't really like Katherine, did he? He loathed her. She was an evil-hearted, lying bitch who'd earned him a concussion and turned him into a vampire and god knows what else she had planned for him, but he was done with her. For good. He opened his mouth to tell her just that, but then her earthy, womanly scent assailed his senses and he was gone. Reaching for her, he dragged her into his arms, pressing his mouth to hers. She gasped into his mouth and he took advantage of her surprise to thrust his tongue into her mouth, moaning at the taste of blood in her mouth. He kissed her savagely as he pushed her onto her back and climbed onto her, his hunger for her, for blood all consuming.
"Need you," he growled, rutting against her. "So hungry."
Katherine pushed his head away from her throat and gazed up at him, her customary smirk back in place. She pressed her fingertips against the veins that now lined his cheeks with a gentleness that belied her expression.
"We have plenty of time for sex later," she said, her voice strained and breathless. "You need to eat, Rick. You're still transitioning."
Alaric took in a deep breath as he stared down at her. He wanted to keep making love to her, to drink from her, but logically he knew it wasn't enough. He had to drink real blood.
"Okay," he said, rolling off her reluctantly. "Eat first. Then we fuck." She rolled her eyes and tensed as if to jump to her feet, but he pressed his hand to her stomach. "Don't be like that, Kat. You know you want it. I can smell how you want me."
Katherine snorted and shook her head, but he could see amusement in her eyes.
"First, don't call me 'Kat'," she said, pushing his hand off her. She sat up and shook her hair out. "And second, I should've known you'd be completely insufferable about this."
Alaric chuckled as he turned onto his back.
"Yeah, you probably should've," he said.
Katherine sighed and got to her feet.
"Fine," she said. "I'll go get you a snack."
Alaric crossed his arms behind his head as he waited. He reckoned he could get used to this life, despite the blood drinking-or because of it, a treacherous voice in his head said. He pushed the thought away. What had happened the night before was an aberration. He wasn't going to turn into a cold-blooded murderer due to one mistake. If Caroline could get by on blood bags without killing anyone, so could he.
At that moment, the door to his room opened and he looked up, expecting to see Katherine enter with a few blood bags. Instead, she was leading a pretty redhead into the bedroom.
"What that-" Alaric jumped to his feet and turned a glare on Katherine. "No fucking way!" he shouted. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"
Katherine frowned and made a downward motion with her hand.
"Watch it!" she hissed. "Do you want the neighbors to hear?"
"Of course not!" Alaric looked from Katherine to the woman in disbelief and then he continued, lowering his voice. "I'm not going to kill someone again! What about blood bags?"
Katherine let out a loud, put-upon sigh.
"I suppose they would work in a pinch," she said. "But you'll become a much stronger vampire if you drink directly from the source. We still have that small matter of that warlock who's after us, remember?"
"He's after you," Alaric said absently. He suddenly realized that he'd somehow moved closer while Katherine was talking until he was standing directly in front of the woman. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, inhaling her scent as his fangs emerged.
"She's been bad, Rick," Katherine whispered, reaching up to slide her hand around the back of his neck, tugging him oh-so-gently closer. "She deserves to die. Ask her what she did to her children."
Alaric's eyes flew open and he gazed into the woman's eyes.
"What's your name?" he asked, concentrating. He was rewarded by a slight dilation of the woman's eyes.
"Sheila," she said, staring at him blankly.
"What a lovely name," he murmured, shivering as Katherine's fingers teased the base of his neck. His hand slid up to Sheila's shoulder, her skin seeming to burn him. "Sheila... Where are your children, Sheila?"
Sheila's brow furrowed slightly.
"At the bottom of the river," she said. She sighed and pouted. "I didn't have a choice. Dwayne said he'd leave me if I don't get rid of them somehow. And God knows where their daddy is. It was the only way."
She whimpered as Alaric's hand tightened on her shoulder, his fingers digging into her skin, bruising it almost instantly. But that was the least of her problems.
"The only way," he said, his mouth hovering right over her jugular. A voice in the back of his head was warning him off, telling him to leave Sheila to the authorities, but he pushed it away. He was hungry. "I agree."
He drank and drank until the woman's body grew limp in his arms.
xXx
A few hours later, he awoke again. The body was gone, and his hunger was slaked-for the moment. He glanced over to see Katherine sitting near the window with a book in her hand, and his chest tightened. The sun glinted off her hair, bringing out golden highlights, and she seemed at peace, lost in whatever she was reading. He cleared his throat.
"Hey," he said.
Katherine looked up and closed the book, setting it down on the chair next to her.
"Hey," she said. "How're you feeling?"
Alaric drew in a deep breath as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Fine."
"Good." Katherine smiled, an actual smile, not a smirk, and reached into her pocket. "I have something for you."
Alaric stared at the object in her hand for a moment. A daylight ring? He started to reach for it, but then froze, his eyes narrowing. How'd she find a daylight ring for him so fast? He doubted that she would have gone to Bonnie in the few hours since he'd turned. Which meant...
"Just how long have you been planning this?"
Katherine's lips twisted into a petulant frown.
"I just... took precautions," she said. "Nothing more. Don't be so suspicious, Rick."
"Katherine..."
"Fine," she said, turning her nose in the air. "If you don't want it, I'm sure I can find some other vampire who-"
"Here," Alaric said in exasperation. He held out his hand. "Just give it to me."
Katherine put her hands behind her back and shook her head.
"Give me your hand," she said.
Alaric sighed and held out his right hand.
"The other hand," she said.
Alaric raised a brow and held out his left hand. She took it and turned it over, holding it in her smaller one as she slid the ring onto his ring finger. Alaric swallowed hard as he gazed at her face under the curtain of her hair, the significance of the gesture not lost on him.
"So, we goin' steady now or somethin''?" he asked, forcing a joking tone into his voice.
Katherine looked up at him, her expression devoid of emotion, though he imagined-hoped-that he recognized a flicker of something behind her eyes. "Whatever floats your boat, Rick," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She started to turn away.
Alaric's hands reached out to grab her, his speed astonishing himself.
"Wait! Maybe it does," he said, pulling her closer. "Float my boat."
Katherine eyed him suspiciously, but she didn't resist as he dragged her against his chest and slanted his mouth across hers.