Eyes of Humanity
Stefan stared at the dancing waves of orange and red in the fireplace as he struggled with the weight of the beam on his back. Vicki had placed him in front of the fireplace and lit a fire, even though late summer weather certainly didn't call for it. However, there seemed to be a method to the madness.
"The heat will help to break down your will," she said before she went off to satiate her blood lust.
Stefan could hear her victim's life gurgling away as Vicki lapped up the blood flowing from the neck. He didn't need to actually see what Vicki was doing—he could hear it—he could smell it—he could almost taste it. Stefan realized just how far his resolve had become weakened because he felt like he could feed on a human being without hesitation. He licked his lips, which were already becoming chapped. His tongue was dry and parched. The smell of the blood was already forming as a taste on his tongue. Copious amounts of saliva soon began to drench it but it only seemed to act like a lubricant, to prepare his taste buds for a sensation that they were not going to enjoy.
This is Elena's fault! Damn it! If she hadn't gone to run to see her precious boyfriend, none of this would be happening! None of it! None of it!
He struggled against the beam, trying desperately to get up but his legs had gone numb. Seething and grinding his teeth, he stared into the flames of the fireplace, finding a strange comfort as though the flames themselves were dancing in sympathy to his anger.
Why the hell did I have to save her? Why?! Why do I always have to save her? She couldn't care less about me. She wants Damon. Damon! After all I did for her she wants my dick of a brother. Typical 'nice guy' syndrome. And where did it get me? Like Damon said…where did it get me?
Heaving deeply as he continued to watch the frolic of the flames echoing his rage, Stefan could feel his eyes begin to change, to feel his fangs form in his mouth.
That bitch can piss off, because it's the last time. What did I ever see in her? What? How could I waste so much of my damn time and energy on her? I should have gone for Caroline. She likes me. Oh, the things I'd do to you, Caroline. The things I'd make you do. But then again, she likes prick guys too. She banged Klaus. Of all people…Klaus! Screw her! She can go and piss off too. The only cool chick there ever was Lexi. And Damon had to go and kill her. But Lexi was nice. I should have banged—
Stefan clenched his eyes shut and shook his head violently. He was going too far and he knew it. Never had such thoughts entered his head, especially about Lexi, who was as close to a sister that he would ever have. Even when he his humanity off, it seemed the Ripper was more concerned about feeding and killing than he was about matters of lust and sex.
He clenched his eyes tighter, desperately trying to think of other thoughts rather than the ones that were invading his consciousness. He would not give into the fate that Damon had for him. He would not let his humanity die and let the Ripper live.
"Shutting off your humanity is like closing your eyes. At least, that's how I look at it," Lexi said in a memory that Stefan was immediately transported to as he thought of keeping his humanity intact. It was a brisk night in the fall of 1925—a couple of years after Stefan had first met Lexi and began to train under her. He had just successfully gone through another whole night without feeding on a human being, satiating his blood lust by feeding on a rabbit. Even though it was an animal, Stefan couldn't help but still feel guilt over killing another living creature.
The two of them sat at the end of a pier, Stefan dressed in a dark suit and loosened black tie and Lexi dressed in a long skirt and sweater that reached to her hips, with her chestnut hair cropped short as was the style back then. While looking out at the black liquid mirror reflecting the night sky and it's lights, Lexi had told him that it was good that he still felt guilt as it meant his humanity was still alive and well.
"I think it's a bit more complicated than that," Stefan replied, sighing while looking out into the vast watery darkness.
"I'm talking metaphorical, ya sap," Lexi said, smiling while gently nudging her shoulder against his. "But when you think about it, it's kind of true."
"Alright, let's hear it, though I think it sounds like bunk," Stefan said as he lay down on the pier, staring up at the stars.
Lexi too lied down and stared alongside him. "When you turn off your humanity, you're basically turning off all your human emotions. But it's not like you become a golem or stone monster or something like that."
Stefan often remembered this conversation and is positive that Lexi would have used the word "robot" or even "android" instead of golem, but of course neither of them had heard of such things until later in the century.
"Turning off your humanity means turning off all ability to feel remorse and guilt and basically anything that makes you 'feel' anything while killing. At least, that's how I felt when it happened," replied Stefan.
"Yeah, but notice how you 'felt' it? I always found it rather bushwa when vampires talk about it, as though you're turning off your human emotions. Not exactly like that, is it? You enjoyed torturing and killing even though you had your emotions off."
Stefan sighed and squirmed a little. It clearly wasn't a subject he was comfortable talking about with Lexi at that point.
"Hey! I'm here to help, remember? You have to be open and admit certain things and be honest about them if I'm going to get you through this."
"Okay, okay! It's just…you talk about it so nonchalantly. I'm not proud of what I've done," replied Stefan.
"I'm not saying you are. But with your humanity off, you didn't feel that guilt. You were cut off from that. That's why it's like closing your eyes. When you close your eyes and keep them closed, you're keeping all light and visual perceptions from entering you. You're in darkness, basically. You're blind. But I've met blind folk who you would never guess were blind when you first meet them, especially if they were born like that. Their other senses compensated and it was almost like they could 'see' without eyes. Likewise, a vampire can still 'feel' things even though his humanity is turned off."
Stefan lay there contemplating the correlation. He had to admit, it was strange that a vampire with no humanity could seemingly enjoy various emotions even though they supposedly weren't able to feel them. But he also had to admit that to 'enjoy' something wasn't the same as it was when he had his humanity on. Indeed, it was like experiencing the sensation of sight with your nose or ear—like you were feeling something but not in its purest, intended form.
"So what about when a vampire turns his humanity back on?" he asked.
"To do that means to get a vampire to feel human emotions. That's like forcing your eyes open again, even a little bit, to let those bits and pieces of light back into your sight. Once the eyes are fully open, the sudden barrage of light entering your eyes, that had become so used to darkness, is overwhelming. So much so that you want to close your eyes again and not experience that pain. So, too, is turning your humanity on and experiencing the emotions that you weren't feeling before. It's overwhelming."
He breathed out slowly as the memory of turning his humanity back on came to mind, the deluge of guilt and remorse over the atrocities he had committed as the Ripper drowned his renewed conscience to the point that he could barely breathe. It was indeed overwhelming that he wanted to turn it off again; to weather that storm of emotions is perhaps among the hardest things a vampire ever has to do.
Lexi looked over to him with her greenish-brown eyes, held onto his hand and gave a reassuring smile. "I know, Stefan. I know. But you did it. You opened your eyes and let the light in. Now, you have to fight to keep your eyes open, no matter how tempting it is to close them again, no matter how much you just want to wallow in blackness. That's easy to do. Keep your eyes open, Stefan. Keep the light in your eyes."
He shuttered open his clenched eyes, frantically looking all around, staring back into the flames in the fireplace, staring as though the act of staring into the bright flames themselves were somehow his salvation. He blinked rapidly, breathing in deeply as his body tingled with fright and anxiety, realizing now the end goal that Damon—or whatever entity was in him—was truly threatening him with. It wasn't like when Klaus compelled him to turn his humanity off. Because whatever is turned off implies that it can be turned on again. He could open his eyes again at some point.
No, what Damon was threatening to do was not just simply getting Stefan to close his eyes—he was seeking to ensure Stefan would have no eyes at all by taking them out permanently. That's what the ring seemed to be doing, slowly dissolving Stefan's humanity to the point that he could never get it back. There would be no on/off switch. His humanity would simply be dead.
Stefan looked over at his left hand that wore the ring. His arm was tied to the beam at the wrist, so he had some room to wiggle and move his hand around. His hand was already soaked with sweat from his internal struggle as well as from the heat from the fireplace. With his thumb, he tried to push the ring off of his middle finger. He could barely see his hand so he was largely going by touch, feeling his thumbnail constantly scrape against the base of his finger, scratching and drawing blood at the joint while trying to dislodge the ring. Partially successful, getting the ring to lift up from the base, he moved his thumb to the left side of the finger, pushing and scraping the ring until it moved up. Trying to manipulate the ring from the right side was proving a bit more difficult, but the sweat was showing to be a useful lubricant. He managed to get the ring up even further, and was a few millimeters away from moving the ring beyond the first knuckle. Once past that, Stefan knew he could shake the ring off.
A wicked roundhouse kick to his midsection viciously interrupted Stefan's ring quest. Keeling over from both the impact of the kick as well as the awkward weight of the beam on his back, Stefan slammed face first onto the floor, teary eyed as he desperately tried to breathe in any air he could as he felt as though his stomach had been pushed back into his spine.
"Tsk-tsk-tsk! Fiddling with that ring?" Vicki mockingly asked as she wagged her finger, contemptuously looking down at Stefan. "We can't have that now, can we?"
Ripping off a long piece of Stefan's shirt, Vicki repositioned the ring and then tied Stefan's fingers and thumb back against the beam so that it was impossible for him to even move his hand. Pulling him back up to a kneeling position by his hair, Vicki steadied Stefan's body so that he was not in danger of teetering over. She knelt down before him and clasped his face with both her hands.
"Ya know, we can't really say that we have any soft feelings for you, Stefan," Vicki said, her eyes soft and half closed as though she were a mother condescendingly speaking to her disobedient child. "After all, you killed me. You stopped me from taking the life of that bitch, Elena Gilbert. Yet, had you not done that, I'd never would have made it to the Other Side and would never have been privileged to be recruited into the Sovereignty. So in some ways, we have you to thank for this—unification."
With her mouth plastered in fresh blood and Stefan still heaving in big gulps of air, Vicki moved her face closer to his so as to let him breathe in the iron scent to the point that it would be all that he could smell.
"We've just received word from Damon. We've got to go. But you? You're staying here. But don't worry. We've got someone to keep you company."
She stood up and disappeared from Stefan's view for a moment. When he heard her return, it wasn't Vicki but a semi-conscious body that landed in front of him. The man's throat had a huge gash on the side of it, clearly where Vicki had been feeding. Stefan could hear the man's laboured breathing. He wasn't dead but was pretty close. Blood was still trickling out of the wound, indicating that Vicki had not drained the man completely dry.
Vicki knelt down again and began whispering into Stefan's ear. "Here's the deal. You want to get out of your bonds? You need sssssstrength to do that. If you feed on our friend here, you'll get the all strength that you need. Of course, you risk awakening the Ripper, don't you? Decisions, decisions!"
She patted Stefan on the shoulder as she and Valene walked out the door. Stefan stared at the near dead man and glared at the open wound, the dark crimson liquid still seeping out of it. Stefan felt woozy as his mouth felt dry and parched while he breathed in the scent of fresh blood coming from the victim. His eyelids felt heavy and came very close to closing completely. Stefan shook his head and clenched his teeth, trying to breathe in solely through his mouth to avoid the scent of blood from overwhelming him.
He turned his gaze away from the body and towards the fire, staring intensely into the flames, desperately fighting to keep his eyes open.
Unrequited Lust
Sheriff Liz sighed as she ran her fingers through her short, dirty blonde hair after having hung up the phone on Jeremy. She couldn't believe his plan to evacuate the town, especially without giving her any time to create a plausible excuse to as to why the entire was being evacuated—again! She knew the tired excuse of a 'gas leak' wasn't going to cut it this time.
She leaned back in her chair, picked up her mug and sipped some coffee while glancing over the photos on her desk. One photo of a young Caroline, with pig tails and a pink dress on when she was in grade school, brought a smile to Liz's face; a smile and a sense of appreciation for simpler times. Things were much less complicated back then. Of course, there was always the threat of vampires, but the Founder's Council seemed to really keep everything in check and nipped any vampire activity in the bud. It never got out of hand and things never got to the point where they had to go and evacuate the whole damn town in order to quell a vampire uprising. Even the arrival of a powerful vampire like Mikael didn't seem to disturb the tranquility of their quiet little town. Of course, there were casualties in the form of Abby Bennett leaving Mystic Falls after putting Mikael down. But in the end, the town's citizens were none the wiser about knowing the existence of vampires.
Then the Salvatore Brothers came back into town and everything seemed to spiral out of control from there. Multiple vampire attacks that she and the Council had to chalk up to animal attacks to protect the townsfolk, but it got to the point that they had to employ various Gilbert gadgets to flush out all the vampires that had invaded the town. From there, it got worse, with werewolves and witches and Original vampires and then Klaus and his hybrids and the Travelers and Markos—and now some mysterious threat that endangered the entire town yet again. She had to give an ironic laugh at how things were simpler when it was just vampires they had to worry about!
Liz got up and went over to the coffee machine at the other side of her office. She poured herself another cup and held it in her hand, sighing once more. She didn't know how she was going to evacuate Mystic Falls this time. The last time, it took a coordinated effort and time. She had to give people a chance to get their belongings together and find suitable lodging outside of Mystic Falls. But now, she had to oversee an expedient evacuation and she was at odds as to telling people why.
Walking back to her desk, she thought about it some more and had to admit—Jeremy was right. Both Jeremy's witness as well as her deputy's more detailed report about the three bodies that had been brutally mutilated and left on the street for all to see was indicative that something was happening. And unlike before where she had the Founder's Council to back her up, she essentially had nobody to help contain the attacks and cover them up. The Council had been all but dissolved after most had died in the fire set by Pastor Young. And even if they had been around, Liz was under no illusions whatsoever that they would have probably proved ineffective in dealing with the new threat that had apparently descended upon their town. The months of supernatural inactivity had basically dulled all of them including herself. She had even stopped taking vervain on a daily basis since it felt unnecessary.
"Hello Liz!"
Liz violently flinched, spilling hot coffee all over her hands and desk. She quickly put the mug down and tried to wipe away the coffee on her hands with some loose papers that were on her desk.
"D-Damon! I…uh…I didn't…hear you!"
Damon was leaning against the door frame, smiling while watching Liz fumble around with the papers on her desk. "Didn't mean to scare you, Sheriff."
"No…no, I…I just—"
"Were you expecting me?"
"I mean…I—"
Liz continued to try and wipe off the coffee with whatever papers she could grab, but the papers were visibly quivering in her hands. She tried her best to disguise her nervousness by rapidly wiping her hands and throwing away the papers as quickly as she could. She looked up at Damon and scrutinized him. She was somehow expecting him to look different, based on what Matt and Jeremy had told her. But he looked as he had always looked, dressed in his signature black leather jacket and black jeans, his skin as smooth and white and flawless as ever, his piercing blue eyes seemingly scrutinizing her in return.
"You're looking good, Liz. You always looked good. Especially for a mom. Especially in that uniform," Damon said, smiling while slowly walking towards her. "But I can't help but feel somewhat confused. You don't seem that surprised to see me."
Liz backed up and went around her desk as Damon approached her, making sure that the desk was always between them. "No…no, of course I…uh…of course I'm surprised to see you. It's just that…well…heh, heh, heh—"
She tried to fake a laugh but realized that she wasn't doing a very good job. As she continued to circle around the desk, Damon continued to slowly pursue her, looking at her in a way that it made her feel somewhat surprised if not uncomfortable. She expected to feel like a prey being hunted by the predator, given that Damon was still a vampire. Instead, she felt like she was being watched as a target for seduction. Even though she felt it had been many years since any man had taken an interest in her—her job as sheriff certainly didn't help to make her more appealing and less intimidating to men in general—she still remembered what it was like in her high school and cadet days, when she would catch the eye of some young stud hoping to sow his wild oats. It was remarkable to her that she could still remember what that felt like.
"I'm—" Liz started, breathing in deeply as she stopped backing away from Damon and stood still, calling on her police training to calm her nerves and steady her resolve. "—I'm not going to lie to you, Damon. I've known about your return. And so—no—I'm not surprised to see you."
Damon smiled his boyish smile. "That's what I always liked about you, Liz. You were always straight with me. In fact, there are a lot of things that I've always liked about you."
Even though Liz had stopped her retreat, Damon had not stopped advancing. Liz summoned up the courage to stand her ground, believing that to show any fear was to tip her hand in an unknown contest with a Damon she feared she didn't really know. What she did know was that Damon was still a vampire and could kill her in an instant if he chose to, but she was hoping he wouldn't. She couldn't just run out of the office and she couldn't fight him without some kind of an advantage. Until she could determine what he wanted, she had to try her best to keep things as casual and as normal as they had always been between her and the man who she once considered her closest ally.
"So, what is this, Damon? A friendly visit? A—" Liz stuttered as Damon continued to advance, invading her personal space, causing her to instinctively retreat back until she hit the wall. "—a…a…catching up of old—"
Damon stopped advancing when his body was practically flush against Liz's. He gently moved strands of her blonde hair that was partially covering her face aside as he moved his face closer to hers. She could smell the leather on his jacket combined with his natural musk, which immediately soothed and animated her at the same time.
"I need your help, Liz," Damon whispered close to her face, sending shivers throughout her body. "We need your help. These attacks, they…they aren't us. You know that, right? You know that I would never do such a thing. I respect you too much to make so much work for you."
Damon ran his fingers as light as a feather along the side of Liz's thigh. It sent shivers along her leg, through her stomach, all the way up to her neck. Liz found herself breathing slightly more rapidly than before as she felt the length of Damon's body up against hers, felt his hot breath deflecting off the skin of her ear and neck, electrifying and charging her entire body.
"Damon!" Liz said breathlessly. "Damon, what—"
"I've learned now," Damon whispered, "not to waste any more time. While on the Other Side, I've learned that time is of the essence. That even for a vampire, time can be a thief. That I have to go for what I want when I can. And I want you!"
"Damon! I…I—"
Before she could react, Damon had deftly turned her around and pressed her face first against the wall. He pinned his body against hers, his groin pressing against her backside. He brushed aside the hair that was covering the right side of her neck and lightly licked her there, running from her ear to her collarbone.
"DAMON! NO!" Liz said frantically. Her eyes were wild eyed as she struggled against him, trying to push herself off the wall. Her heart was beating so rapidly that she honestly thought she'd have a heart attack. Sweating and quivering, she cursed herself for allowing things to get so far to where Damon could bite her.
"Shhhhh! Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I could never hurt you, Liz," Damon whispered, gently kissing and then caressing her neck with his tongue. He moved his lips up to her earlobe and enveloped it in his mouth, lightly sucking on it.
Liz gasped and began to inhale and exhale deeply, closing her eyes as she seemed to become dizzy, thankful that the wall was there to hold her up as the erotic electricity coursed throughout her body, making her legs as steady as cooked spaghetti.
She continued to curse herself however; cursing herself for falling into the trap that she had condemned others for falling into so many times in the past. It was so cliché, the allure and eroticism that gothic teenage girls seemed to be enraptured with in regards to the vampire culture and how they glorified it to a ridiculous degree. Liz was no teenager. And even when she was a teenager, she never fell for such adolescent nonsense. She knew what vampires were all about. They weren't sexy, cool and sleek. They were brutal killers. She had fought their existence and what they stood for her entire life.
And yet here she was, becoming enthralled by the sensual actions of a vampire who could easily rupture the carotid artery on her neck and drain her of her blood, ultimately killing her. But the mere thought of it somehow excited her. The thought of a long, slim, sleek shaft puncturing her delicate skin, burrowing itself into her, releasing a flood of liquid that was produced by her and unique to her, being swallowed and enjoyed by a man such as Damon, sustaining him and giving him life. She couldn't believe how erotic and even empowering the thought of it was.
"Do you want me, Liz?" Damon asked, hissing into her ear.
Her response was barely audible, though Damon could clearly hear her. But he wanted her to be clear.
"Don't lie to me. Not now. I know you do. I know you've been holding back. Oh, Liz," Damon whispered, sighing as he continued to kiss her neck and caress her thighs with his hands. "It must have been so hard for you. All these years, dedicating yourself to your work and never finding any kind of release. After your husband left you for another man, I can only imagine what that must've done to you. How that must have made you feel. That must've hurt a lot!"
Liz leaned her head against the wall and sighed deeply. It did hurt, more than she had ever let anyone know.
"It's okay, Liz. I know," Damon continued. "We know how hard it's been. And we know you've needed this release. You, of all people, deserve this release. You deserve to feel this joy, to feel this pleasure, to feel this bliss. Do you want to feel all of this with me? Do you want to feel me?"
She closed her eyes as her head continued to lean against the wall. It had been so long. So very, very long.
Damon grabbed her hair and with gentle force, pulled her head back against his shoulders and put his mouth to her ear.
"Answer me!"
"Yes," she whimpered.
"What?"
"YES!"
Damon licked and kissed her neck as he ran his hand inside and down the front of Liz's trousers. She gasped as she closed her eyes and brought her hand up, tugging at Damon's hair while pressing his face into her neck at the same time.
He pulled his head back as his fangs protruded out. "I've wanted you for so long, Liz. It's our time now. It's time to stop being a cop, time to stop being neglected, time to stop being a mommy to Caroline. It's time to be the woman that you are!"
Liz opened her eyes and immediately pushed herself away from the wall, forcing Damon to back up as well. She turned around and looked at Damon with bedroom eyes, slowly unbuttoning the front of her shirt while she took a single step towards him, her right foot placed ahead of her left.
"But what about Elena? What will she think of this?" Liz asked, coyly smiling.
"Elena?! She—"
It was a tactic she had learned in her police training—ask your assailant a question, no matter how bizarre, to get him to think about something else, if even for a millisecond. Once that happens, attack!
Despite Damon's speed and reflexes, he was distracted by the question for a moment—a moment that allowed Liz to bury the tip of her right boot into his groin. She didn't get the power she wanted, but that wasn't her objective anyways. She had moved her right foot forward to make sure that the main target she was aiming for was closest to her longest weapon. Even for a vampire with the speed of Klaus, it would have been near impossible to pick up on Liz's intent and stop her as she practically gave no pre-attack cues.
As Damon reeled over onto one knee, Liz curled her lip as she took more time with her second kick. She had more time to draw her leg back like a soccer player readying to kick a ball the length of the soccer field. Caroline, in her pink dress and pigtails, flashed in her head as she pushed off on the ball of her right foot, took a small step with her left, and then brought her right leg from the back to the front, burying the tip of her boot into Damon's nose, hoping she would smash it into the back of his brain.
Damon flew backwards as blood arced from his nose and onto the floor. Momentarily dazed, Damon flailed on the floor, seemingly lost and confused as to where he was.
"You BASTARD!" Liz snarled. "I TRUSTED YOU! I—"
This time, she had been the one who became distracted by her mental process—and Damon took advantage. With lightning speed he pushed Liz up against the wall again with one hand grasping her throat.
"And to think that I was going to be gentle with you, Sheriff," Damon mused. "But it's obvious you Forbes women don't like it gentle. You like it rough! Like mother, like daughter. Our kind of girls. And like sweet Caroline, you too will be a part of the Sovereignty."
Damon wiped the blood from his nose, generously covering his hand. He then forced two bloody fingers into Liz's mouth. She gagged and coughed as she tried not to swallow. Damon grabbed her jaw, forcing her to look at him.
His compulsion from before was gone. The smell of leather and musk was gone, replaced by an odour she couldn't identify. Damon's skin was suddenly different, like weathered and beaten stone. But it was his eyes that terrified her, eyes unlike any she had ever seen.
Damon placed his hand on her chest, preparing to rip her blouse off. "You should be thanking me, Liz. We suppose Damon's sweet spot for you is what has saved you in the end. You will not be our food. You will be our ally. As you always have been, and forever will be. But you need to be taught a lesson…mommy! And that's what we're going to do. We're—"
The strange smell emanating from Damon was suddenly interrupted by another smell. Liz couldn't identify it either, although the closest thing she could compare it to was cooked bacon. She noticed Damon's hand that was on her chest began to tremble, with Damon looking at it oddly. He finally backed off from her, howling in pain as he grasped his quivering hand.
Liz stared at the hand and noticed a strange shape burned into it. It was a cross. She instinctively reached around her neck and felt for the necklace that her mother had given her when she was a teenager; a small cross that her mother had hoped would bless her and protect her from the dangers of vampires that had haunted Mystic Falls.
She didn't dwell on the irony for too long as she saw her opportunity to strike. With a deft motion that only years of practice and training could pull off, she pulled out her gun, switched the safety off with her thumb and fired two wooden bullets into Damon's head. Ever since she heard of the increased body counts that seemed to signify a resurgence of vampires, Liz thought it best to carry her revolver that housed wooden bullets—just in case.
As Damon lay unconscious on the floor, Liz circled him with her gun trained on his chest. With her lip curled and her eyes uncompromising, she held the gun out, pointing it straight at Damon's heart. Her eyes became watery as she stared down at Damon's lifeless body. For as livid as she was with him for violating her daughter and coming so close to doing the same with her, she couldn't forget the past few years when he stood by her, when he was an ally and friend to her. And she couldn't believe that all of that was just for show.
Her hand began to quiver as she stroked the trigger with her finger. She breathed in deeply as she willed her hand to steady itself for the shot. Regardless of Damon's past deeds or misdeeds, this Damon that lay before her was an obvious threat. Maybe it wasn't the real Damon. Then again, maybe it was. Either way, if he was the ringleader of these new vampires wreaking havoc in Mystic Falls, then she knew it fell on her to put personal feelings behind her duty to the community. Gritting her teeth, her insides a vicious battle between righteous anger and potential regret, she slowly began to depress the trigger.
Before she could take the shot, she repointed the gun to the entrance of her office once she heard the sound of gunfire in the hallway. She took a quick, cursory glance at Damon to ensure he was still out before peeking out her open door. She saw nothing other than the hallway being unusually dim, with some of the ceiling lights out. She slowly ventured out into the hallway, gun pointed up ready to re-target if a new threat presented itself. As she slowly made her way through the hall towards where she thought she heard the gun shots, a body suddenly flew across the hallway, slamming against the wall. Liz pointed her gun at it before being startled again by seeing a dark figure descend on the body, biting into his neck.
"Hey!" Liz bellowed as she watched the dark figure respond to her. Liz could immediately tell it was a woman from the long flow hair silhouetted against the light still emanating further down the hallway. But what Liz could also tell was that she was a vampire like Damon, as the woman's eyes glowed golden like his.
The woman leapt up and clung to the wall, crawling towards Liz like a warped version of Spiderman. As the woman's face came into view under one of the few ceiling lights that was working, Liz gasped as she saw a familiar face.
"Vicki Donovan?" Liz said, mesmerized by the grotesque look of Vicki's eyes and skin with blood swathed around her mouth.
Vicki lunged at Liz with incredible speed that Liz was only able to get two shots off, but it was enough. Vicki fell to the floor and began thrashing and floundering around like a living fish on dry land, screeching and wailing as she reached for the wounds on her shoulder and neck.
Liz ran towards the man that had been thrown against the wall. She pulled him along until his body was in sufficient light that she could properly check on him. She knelt down beside him and groaned in sorrow as she realized it was one of her deputies and that it was already too late. He was dead. However, she noticed something on his face—blood trickling from his lips though he seemingly did not suffer any damage to his mouth.
My God! They're trying to turn them!
She turned her attention to Vicki, who seemed be trying to dig out the wooden bullet from her shoulder. Liz realized she didn't have much time or bullets left and with a deep breath, pushed the barrel of her gun into the chest of her dead deputy and shot a bullet into his heart. She wouldn't let him suffer a fate worse than death.
Liz ran out of the building and was headed towards her police cruiser when she heard more gunfire coming from her left. She turned to see two more of her deputies, a man and a woman, both firing on seemingly another vampire. With blinding speed, the vampire threw the male deputy against another police cruiser with one hand while she pushed the female deputy onto the ground, preparing to feed on her. Liz took aim and fired two more shots, just missing Valene's heart. Valene, like Vicki, thrashed around on the ground as she suffered the effects of the wooden bullets. Liz ran to her female deputy, helped her off the ground and then helped her male deputy, shuttling both of them into her police cruiser.
"What the hell is going on, Liz?" the female deputy asked hysterically. "What the hell was that?"
"Not now, Andrea. We need to get out of here, fast!" Liz responded, revving up the engine and shifting the car into drive. She sped out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell, constantly looking in her rear view mirror to see if they were being followed. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her phone and handed it to her male deputy, Tom, who was sitting in the front seat.
"Find 'Caroline Forbes' and put her on speaker phone," Liz ordered frantically. "I need to speak to her…now!"
The Ride from Hell
A few miles away from the border of Mystic Falls, gathered in the empty parking lot of the same diner that Stefan had stopped at before, Elena stood with her back against the car and as well as towards the rest of the group as she listened to Alaric and Istas argue about strategy.
"We can't just go in there, guns blazing. We did that already and we got owned. We need to go in with a plan," Alaric argued.
"What for?! There are two vampires and one witch. Now that we can all get into your little town without any problems, I say we go in, 'guns blazing,'" Istas argued back. "We've got the numbers on our side. And besides, those vampires were tough but they weren't invincible. Maybe your ego took a bit of hit, hmmm?"
Alaric cocked his head to the side in disbelief. "My ego? First of all, this isn't about ego. I was made to be stronger and faster than Klaus Mikaelson himself and Damon barely broke a sweat in beating me."
"Neither did I!" Istas retorted, wryly smiling.
Clearing his throat, Alaric continued. "Whatever. Either Bonnie enhanced him or that entity inside of him did. Either way, it'd be stupid to take either him or Bonnie lightly. Secondly, we don't know if we can get into Mystic Falls yet. Luke said that his sister Liv was taking care of that but we have no way to know if she was successful."
"But we do," interjected Abby. "We haven't even tried to enter Mystic Falls since Luke left. Liv might have been successful."
"You're right, Abby. We haven't," Alaric responded. He glared at Istas and continued. "But I'd like to have some kind of plan in place before we just go barging in there if we do discover that the Traveler spell is down. And we need better weapons, like the crosses and holy water that I asked you to bring!"
Istas stood cross armed and shook her head. "And you still haven't explained why. I don't even know why I'm listening to you. Who the hell made you captain of this crew? Screw this—I'll go take care of these jokers myself."
Istas marched past Alaric but didn't get very far when he grabbed her by the arm and twirled her around, bringing her close to him.
"And what exactly are you going to take care of?" Alaric interrogated.
"Take your hand off of me!" Istas threatened, sneering as she bore a hole into Alaric's eyes with her own. She began looking around his eyes, his nose, his mouth and his lips. Breathing in his sweat and scent, she felt a mixture of excitement and anticipation. It was for combat—at least she thought it was.
"We want the same things here," Alaric said, releasing his grip on her arm. "You want to find your sister. We want to save our friends. But we're dealing with something here that none of us have faced before. Damon and Bonnie, oddly enough, may be the key to figuring out this new threat."
"And why should I even care about this so-called new threat?" challenged Istas.
"Because Damon and Bonnie were on the Other Side along with your sister. Therefore, they are the only link to any possible answers that we have as to what happened to everyone there. You take them out and say goodbye to those answers! Do you really want to do that?"
Elena shook her head as she listened to the back and forth between Alaric and Istas. She was soon joined by Caroline who leaned beside her against the car.
"Hey. You alright?" Caroline gently asked.
Elena sighed deeply. "I don't know why I did it, Caroline. How could I take Abby out like that and rush into Mystic Falls? Now Damon has Stefan and who knows what's happening to him right now. If it wasn't for Luke and Liv, we'd probably be more screwed than we already are. And all because I had to see Damon."
"We're not screwed yet," Caroline answered. "Luke put up a boundary spell. We have these little—strands—or whatever they are that Luke gave us to help us all get into Mystic Falls if and when the Traveler spell is brought down. We'll find Stefan and he's going to be okay."
"You don't know that!" Elena argued, her voice cracking, signalling her being on the precipice of breaking down. "You know as well as I do that the last person in the world who should be wearing that Amber ring—or whatever their called—is Stefan! The lust for blood…the anger…the…the—craving—to just give in to all of your illicit desires…. It's the worst thing that Stefan could willingly take on. And once again, he did it save me! Once again, the damsel in distress, Elena, has to go and put everyone else in danger in order to save her stupid life!"
"Stop it, Elena! Just stop it! Don't make this about you."
"Why not? Everyone else is. That Amazon chick seems to blame me for everything. And I don't think Ric or Abby are impressed with me either," Elena pouted, turning around to look at the group.
Caroline sighed. "Look, they have their gripes. I'm not saying that what you did was smart. It wasn't. But we're dealing with something here that is far bigger than you or I or any of us. What I saw in Bonnie was definitely…disturbing! I think Alaric is right. We're dealing with something really different here."
"What was she like?" Elena asked. "You told me what happened but you didn't really tell me how Bonnie was different, other than how she looked."
"It was horrible. It's like if Bonnie could turn her humanity off, I imagine that she would behave similar to the Bonnie I saw. But—"
Caroline paused as she looked away from Elena.
"But what?"
"I heard her, Elena! I heard Bonnie. The real Bonnie. I swear I did. She called out for help. I thought I imagined it, and maybe I did. But what if I didn't? That means the real Bonnie is in there, somewhere."
"Bonnie and perhaps Damon too," Elena remarked. "Then maybe there's hope? If the real Damon is in there, maybe he and Bonnie can be rescued. It also means that Stefan might be safe. Damon would never hurt Stefan."
"I don't know about that," Caroline said snidely.
"Look, I know you don't like him. But give him some credit. He's changed over the years. At least give him that!"
"I'll admit, he's…less selfish. But as far as hurting Stefan, I—"
Caroline was interrupted by the buzzing of her phone in her pocket. She grabbed it and noticed her mom's name on the display.
"Hello? Mom?"
"Caroline! We're…whoa!—"
"Mom?!"
"—we're under attack. Damon and Vicki Donovan are attacking me and some other officers. We're being chased by Vicki right now!"
Elena's brows furrowed. "What? Vicki Donovan?"
"Mom! What are you talking about? Where are you?" Caroline asked, trying to decipher the noises coming from the other end of the phone. She could tell that her mom was on speaker phone and that she was driving.
"We've just drove off from the police station. I shot Damon—"
Elena's eyes widened as she moved her head closer to Caroline's phone"
"—in the head. Then I encountered Vicki and another vampire. We got away but…damn it!—"
"Mom? MOM!"
Alaric, Istas and Abby heard Caroline's agitation and soon huddled around her.
"What's going on?" Alaric inquired.
"We don't know," Elena answered uneasily. "It's Sheriff Liz. She said that she was attacked by Damon and Vicki Donovan. She's on the run, I think, in a car with some other people. We can't really hear what's happening."
They all listened intently to Liz on the other end.
"—Vicki is on the roof of the car! Just…shoot up Tom! SHOOT!—"
The group could hear multiple gun shots, the sound of the car's wheels screeching as it sounded like Liz hit the breaks.
"She's right in front of us!" Tom exclaimed, breathing heavily. "She's getting back up!"
Caroline gripped the phone tighter as she could hear her mother slam on the gas. The revving of the engine was quickly followed by a loud bang, presumably the car ramming into Vicki. The car's engine was all that could be heard until suddenly the sound of glass breaking and a woman's scream rung out from the phone. The car's screeching breaks were heard as Liz's panicked voice soon replaced them.
"My God! ANDREA!" Liz shouted.
Thuds and muffled thumps preceded silence as everyone intensely listened to Caroline's phone.
"MOM?! MOM!"
"Stay in the car, Tom!" ordered Liz as she unbuckled her belt and got out of the car.
Vicki had smashed the back seat passenger window and dragged Andrea out. Liz quickly circled the car and trained her gun on Vicki who was using Andrea as a shield.
"Let her go, Vicki!"
"Awww! It seems I'm always getting into trouble with you, doesn't it Sheriff? Just like old times!" Vicki snidely responded.
"Let-her-go!"
"We don't want to hurt you. We want to invite you! Stop making this difficult!"
With her free hand, Vicki bit into her own wrist and mushed the open wound across Andrea's mouth. Andrea gagged and sputtered as her mouth became covered in blood.
"We mean to enhance you. We mean to augment you. We mean to make you better! Stop fighting us!" Vicki growled as her demonic eyes began to glow.
"Don't do this, Vicki! Please, let her go!" Liz pleaded as she tried to steady her aim at Vicki's head.
Valene's speed and approach was so quick that Liz had no time to respond. Liz suddenly found her arm twisted to the point that she dropped her gun as Valene grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up off the ground.
"¡Pinche puta!" Valene cursed in Spanish. "You almost killed us!"
"Wait!" Vicki interrupted. "She's mine. Take this one!"
Vicki abruptly dropped Andrea while Valene did the same. Both Andrea and Liz dropped to their knees as Vicki and Valene switched places. As Valene approached Andrea, Tom got out of the car with his gun raised at Valene, but she quickly knocked the gun from out of his hand and back handed him in the face, sending him slamming against the car and onto the ground. Vicki, meanwhile, grabbed Liz by the hair and pulled her up until she was suspended in the air, causing Liz to scream in pain.
"MOM?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?! MOM!"
Vicki smiled as she peered into the car through the open driver side door, seeing Liz's phone on the floor near the gas pedal.
"Hello, Caroline!" Vicki bellowed. "Hope you're listening really well!"
Vicki dropped Liz, allowing her to crumple onto the ground. As Liz reached up with her right arm to grab Vicki's shirt to pull herself up, Vicki grabbed the arm and grinned.
"Ya know, my mom never spoke very highly of you. And I never liked you that much either. Always looking to bust me. Consider this as payback for all the grief you've given me, as well for the wooden bullets!"
Liz screamed as her arm was snapped at the elbow, with Vicki making a completely clean break so that the only reason Liz's arm was still attached to her body was because the skin was holding it together.
Liz wailed and cried in agony as Vicki pulled her up by her hair again.
"Don't worry, Sheriff. By the looks of it, Damon already gave you some of his blood. And we hope you've let it settle in your stomach. Because you're going to die now. Soon, you and your fellow cop will be reborn in the Sovereignty. And you'll have a tasty treat in the form of this heroic young gentleman beside the car. Say goodbye to mommy, Caroline! She's going to be a new woman soon…or a dead one!"
Vicki's fangs appeared as she twisted Liz's head to the side. Liz wept as she stared at her phone in the car.
"Caroline!" Liz sobbed. "I love you!"
"MOM!"
Caroline gripped the phone so tight that a single crack appeared on the screen.
Wiping tears away from her eyes, Caroline bolted towards Mystic Falls at a speed faster than she had ever gone before. She almost made it across the border when she was stopped by Alaric.
"Caroline, wait!"
"LET ME GO, RIC! GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
"Caroline! The Traveler spell. It might be still up!"
"I SAID GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
She struggled and managed to break free momentarily before Alaric once again stopped her by grabbing her from behind in a bear hug.
"Caroline, please! If the spell is still up…you won't make it. You don't…even know… where they are!"
"LET ME GO, RIC! I HAVE TO SAVE HER! LET ME GOOOO!"
Elena, Istas and Abby soon joined them.
"Alaric, we have to do something!" Elena pleaded.
"Like what?" Alaric replied, still struggling with Caroline. "We have no idea where they are!"
"We can't just stand here and do nothing!" Abby retorted.
Alaric heaved a sigh as he let Caroline go. Caroline collapsed on the ground, sobbing as she gathered herself together. She may not have known exactly where her mom was, but she knew where to start. She stared into Mystic Falls, prepared to bolt towards the Sheriff's office when all of them suddenly heard the faint sound of a car horn.
They all looked around but there was no car near them that was making that sound. Caroline suddenly realized that it was coming from her phone.
Vicki turned her head towards the sound of the horn. She was partially blinded by the headlights of the bus. It was enough of a distraction that she couldn't react to the vervain grenade headed towards her until it was too late.
The grenade blew up a foot away from her head, enough to send her sprawling on the floor howling in pain, her face sizzling from the acidic explosion.
Valene was about to feed on Andrea when she heard the explosion and Vicki's subsequent anguish. She was too distracted to hear the whizzing sound of an arrow signalling its approach to her, finally impaling her in her neck, the impact sending her backwards onto the ground, blood spurting out from the wound.
An old looking 'chicken bus,' the kind that one would find in rural areas of Central America or the Caribbean, that looked like a yellow school bus but decked out with weird paint and a railing that crowned the roof to keep luggage and other items secure on top of the bus, stopped beside Liz as the side doors opened up.
"SHERIFF, GET IN!" Matt hollered.
Liz collected herself quickly and rushed over to Andrea to help her up and then over to Tom, who was still somewhat groggy from Valene's attack. Liz grabbed him with her good arm and did her best to drag him to the bus before Andrea recovered enough to help her.
"Matt, go! GO!" Liz urged as soon as all three were inside the bus.
Matt stepped on the gas and headed towards the border of Mystic Falls.
Tom and Andrea lay down on the benches, exhausted and confused, while Liz slumped down beside Matt, clutching her arm.
"How…how did you know?" Liz asked, panting.
"We didn't," Matt replied. "We were on our way to get your help in evacuating the town when we saw the damage at your office. We arrived just in time to see Vicki and that other vampire leave to hunt you down. We tried to catch up but this bus isn't exactly built for speed."
He looked down to see Liz cradling her right arm.
"What happened to your arm?"
"Vicki Donovan."
"Heh! You too?" Matt replied, giving a soft chuckle as looked down at his own damaged arm. "I'm hopped up on ibuprofen to ease the pain, though it's kind of wearing off right now."
Liz looked around at the bus. "Where…and how…did you two get this wonderful piece of transportation?"
"You're the law. Therefore, you don't want to know."
Liz softly laughed. "You're right, I don't! So where are we going?"
"We have to get out of here. We can't take these guys on our own. We're heading out of Mystic Falls and getting help."
"CAN'T YOU MAKE THIS PIECE OF JUNK GO ANY FASTER, MATT?" Jeremy hollered from the roof.
"HEY! YOU PICKED IT OUT! I'M PUSHING THIS THING TO THE LIMIT," Matt hollered back through the open driver side window.
"Matt, do you have your phone on you?" Liz asked while grimacing.
"Yeah. Here."
Matt took his hand off the wheel momentarily and reached into his pocket and handed his phone to Liz. She scrolled through his contacts and found Elena's number.
"MOM? MOM?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Caroline kept asking into her phone. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and then looked towards Mystic Falls before Elena's phone suddenly started ringing.
"Hello? Matt?" Elena answered.
"Elena, it's me," Liz replied.
"MOM!" Caroline bellowed as she heard Liz's voice through the earpiece, quickly grabbing the phone from Elena. "Are you alright?! What happened?!"
"I'm okay, Caroline. Matt and Jeremy saved me and my officers. We're on a bus, heading towards the border right now."
"Matt and Jeremy?" Alaric remarked, surprised.
"Looks like your training paid off, Ric!" Matt said. "Jer got his Hunter powers back and kicked some serious butt!"
The five all looked at each other.
"Jeremy got his Hunter powers back? So that means, the Traveler spell is broken," Elena remarked with delight.
"Matt, where are you? We'll come help you," Alaric said.
"We're on Samp—what the?—"
Jeremy lay on top of the bus, with one hand hanging onto the railing, trying to keep his body from flying all over the place and off the bus, with his other hand desperately trying to keep his crossbow steady. A small bag of weapons tied to the railing jangled back and forth, bopping between his body and the railing itself.
"JUST KEEP DRIVING, MATT! I'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS," Jeremy hollered as he looked at Vicki while she stood at the tail end of the bus.
"WHAT'S GOING ON, JER?" Matt asked.
"JUST KEEP DRIVING!"
Jeremy scrutinized Vicki's face. As the bus passed underneath lamp post after lamp post, Vicki's face reminded him of a cartoon sequence drawn on the corners of each page in a book, and the cartoon suddenly came alive when the person would rapidly flip through the pages with their hand. Her face, which was still heavily scarred from the vervain grenade, frame by frame, lamp post by lamp post, started to clear up. What made the sequence all the more haunting were her demonic eyes that served as the only source of light during the periods of darkness.
"Get off the bus, Vicki! I don't want to hurt you," Jeremy warned, trying to steady his crossbow at her.
"You've already hurt us," Vicki said smoothly. "That's twice already! Besides, I made a man out of you, remember? And this is the thanks we get? You little puke! Once again, you want to prick us without any kind of foreplay. Didn't that Bennett bitch teach you anything?"
Jeremy felt a clash of opposing emotions battling inside of him. On the one hand, he really didn't want to hurt her. He did remember how she was his first, how much he loved her and angry he was at how Tyler had treated her and how Damon had turned her. On the other hand, he hated her. He hated what she was and wanted to wipe her off the face of the Earth. He realized it was his Hunter instincts kicking in, and he needed to temper those feelings or they would run out of control.
He let go of the railing to hold his crossbow with both hands, trying to counter the chaotic commotion of the bus with his legs and shoulder muscles. He watched in small amazement as Vicki walked closer to him, somehow balancing herself quite well despite the turbulence.
Jeremy gritted his teeth as he let an arrow fly towards Vicki's shoulder. She twisted her body slightly, dodging the arrow with ease. Jeremy shot another arrow, this time towards her abdomen. In one fluid motion, Vicki caught the arrow and lunged towards Jeremy, impaling his right thigh with the arrow in her hand. Jeremy screeched as he dropped the crossbow, clutching at his leg.
"JER! ARE YOU OKAY?" Matt hollered.
"You will be soon, won't you, Jer?" Vicki said, clutching at Jeremy's throat.
"GET—AWAY—FROM MY—BROTHER, VICKI!"
Elena sped headlong towards the speeding bus. She leapt about ten yards in front of it, timing her jump perfectly so that her right foot landed on the nose of the bus, barely touching it before pushing off again and extending her body length-wise so that her feet hit Vicki square in the chest, drop-kicking her off the bus like a pro-wrestler in a WWE ring.
Vicki rolled and tumbled along the ground as the bus sped away from her. Elena twisted in the air as the bus sped underneath her, barely catching the rail at the tail end of the bus in time, her body slamming against the back door. The impact jarred her grip that she let go, only to have Caroline grab her by the wrist before Elena fell to the ground.
"I got ya, Elena!" Caroline said as she reached from the top of the bus, pulling her up.
Once Elena was on top, she crawled over to Jeremy, who was already being tended to by Alaric.
"Are you okay, Jer?" Elena asked as she looked him over.
"Yeah! Just my leg," Jeremy said, wincing.
Elena looked up and saw Istas and Abby in the distance. She realized they were close to the border and reached into her pocket and gave Jeremy one of the strands that Luke gave them.
"Here, hold onto this."
"Why?"
"Just do it!" Elena ordered.
Jeremy held onto the strand as the bus passed the border without incident, much to everyone's relief. The bus came to a stop beside Abby and Istas.
Caroline jumped down and immediately went to her mom once Matt opened the doors.
"Oh my God, mom! Are you okay? I thought you were gone!" Caroline said, sobbing, holding onto Liz tighter than she had ever had before.
"I'm fine, Caroline," Liz replied, crying also. She winced as Caroline's hug started hurting her arm.
Caroline let go and examined Liz. "Mom! Your arm!"
"It looks worse than it feels. I'll be okay."
"Here."
Caroline bit into her wrist and offered her blood to Liz. Liz grimaced as she stared at the open wound, the image of Damon shoving his own blood onto her mouth made her want to wretch.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"It's…it's nothing. Just something that happened with Damon. I'll explain later."
The adrenaline rush that helped to numb the pain was quickly dissipating, and suddenly the rush of throbbing and aching in her arm started to become unbearable. Reluctantly, she scooped up some of Caroline's blood with her finger and ingested it. She held her dislocated arm together to help it heal better.
Istas and Abby quickly boarded the bus as Matt shifted it into drive. On the roof, Alaric decided to wait until they were somewhere safe to pull the arrow out of Jeremy's leg. As the bus was moving, Elena and Alaric could hear someone clapping their hands in the distance.
They both turned to see Damon walking up to the boundary wall, clapping and smiling like a spectator at a play, with his demonic eyes shining brightly in the darkness like two stars in the night.
Elena instinctively moved towards him but was held back by Alaric, who looked at her and shook his head. She looked back at Damon and fought the incredible and confusing urge to run to him. She pounded her fist on the bus rooftop in frustration as the bus slowly drove away from Mystic Falls.
Damon stopped at the boundary wall and blew Elena a kiss and waved goodbye as the bus slowly drove out of sight. He was soon joined by Vicki and Valene, whose eyes were demonically glowing as well.
"Well, that was melodramatic!" Bonnie said from out of the darkness. She joined the trio as they watched the bus become a speck on the horizon.
"The gateway is still closed?" Damon asked.
"Our little blonde bimbo has some explaining to do," Bonnie replied.
"No matter," Damon said lightheartedly.
He turned around and spread his arms towards Mystic Falls.
"We have a whole town of new recruits and fresh food. And neither daylight nor the Kingdom nor the High Enemy nor anyone…can stop us!"
The quartet strolled together back towards Mystic Falls, all grinning, all of their eyes gleaming in unison with demonic brilliance.
"Blood alone moves the wheel of history!" Bonnie quoted while beaming.
END OF PART 1