As always – TVD theme, characters etc. belong to the CW, Warner brothers and surely half a dozen other people. Think of fanfic as a tribute to your work.
Once again, I find myself apologizing for how long it took to post a new chapter. My excuses are lame, but valid. I need 30 hour days, and the ability to function well on four hours of sleep.
This chapter is a little short, but this was a good place to stop – especially if I wanted to get something out soon. The next installment needs its own chapter anyhow.
Enjoy the read, send me comments and reviews, and of course any suggestions. The comments make my day. Actually, the comments get me through my day sometimes.
~~OFANV~~
It had been three hours since Alexandra had taken off. The household was tense. Tense because they were worried for Alexandra. Tense because they were worried about what she was doing.
Darren was pacing. He'd been ready to chase after her until Damon stopped him. Let her blow off some steam, Damon suggested. The last thing you wanted to do was have a big fight with her out in the street, where half of New York could see, after all.
Darren had lasted about 30 minutes, and then he blurred up stairs to his computers to track her cell phone.
"You know that's just going to piss her off more!" Damon called up the stairs after him.
"Fuck this! I'm pissed off too!" Darren snapped, and Damon and Elena could hear him slamming around the room.
Elena had kept busy clearing the dishes, but now she was at loose ends. She sighed deeply, and sank down onto the sofa, and picked up a throw pillow, and hugged it to her chest. Her body language screamed tension, and she had a pensive look on her face. "I can't even begin to imagine where she went. Her life here has revolved around going where we go. We've kept her busy enough to keep her under control, so far."
Damon poured bourbon into a glass for himself, Tequila into a glass for Darren, and vanilla flavored Vodka into a glass for Elena, schooling his features as the scent from the Vodka wafted up. He couldn't begin to understand why Elena liked this crap. Her tastes in liquor changed often – as if she went through phases – even after 40 years.
He set Darren's Tequila on the coffee table and sat down next to his wife, handing her the Vodka, and then he draped his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into his side instinctively.
"New Vampires are emotional wrecks," Elena added, "Heightened emotions, super strong senses . . ."
Damon brought the hand that was on her shoulder up to her hair, pulled her closer for a moment, and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Makes for great sex, but a tough life for a while," Damon quipped, "Doesn't help that Darren's got that Latino, possessive, in control thing going on either."
Elena almost laughed at out loud. Darren wasn't the only possessive, control freak in the house. Damon was just as bad.
As if on cue, they heard Darren's temper explode, "God Damnit! She fucking did it on purpose!"
Damon sighed, raised his glass to his lips, "And that would mean she turned her phone off – or at least the GPS."
Darren came down the stairs slowly. Damon held up the glass of tequila. Darren stalked over, took the glass, and dropped down into a chair facing them.
"If she thought about turning her phone off, that means she's thinking clearly," Damon pointed out, taking a sip, "How much damage can she do if she's thinking clearly?"
Elena snorted, "Are you serious?"
"Not helping Elena," Damon pointed out, rolling his eyes.
"She did it too piss me off!" Darren said, "She knew I'd try to track where she went!"
"Let the girl burn off some steam! She'll come back," Damon said, as if they were talking about something inane, like the weather, "She's just pissed off right now."
Damon did think she'd come back. He just didn't want to think about what she was doing to burn off steam.
"I remember vividly the shit I did when I first turned and was pissed off," Darren snapped, and he took a big gulp of the tequila, "I left trails of bodies in my wake – I don't want her to go through that."
Damon opened his mouth to tell Darren it was going to happen sooner or later, but then stopped. His friend didn't need him to state the obvious.
"I was so angry, so furious, I killed this hunter," Elena said. She felt Damon draw in a deep breath, and she rubbed his leg, squeezed for a moment, then said, "Everyone wanted to blame it on that whole sire bond thing, but it was all me. I was so furious. He was messing with my brother, my friends – Stefan was hiding things from me again, he snapped Damon's neck and took his ring – right in front of me, and I was just wound up with all this anxiety and frustration and anger, and I just lost it. The hunter was taunting me, and I bit him. Then I just snapped his neck. Didn't hesitate. I didn't even drink him dry."
She sipped her drink, "I felt bad about it later, and then there was the consequences of killing a supernatural hunter . . . but . . . it wasn't the last time I lost my temper and killed someone."
"Only when they deserved it," Damon added, his voice a little defensive, "God only knows how high my body count is – and a lot of them didn't deserve it. I learned to live with it. We all do."
Elena didn't point out how hard it was for Damon to learn to live with it. Some days, she thought he was still trying to make it right.
"When Alex and I went out clubbing that night, she saw a pimp going after a woman. She stalked him, drank from him, and snapped his neck, but she was smart about it. She thought about how to cover her tracks. She didn't drink him dry. I was actually impressed with how much control she had."
Darren ran a hand through his head, "Her anger had probably cooled off by then."
"And it probably cooled off today after the first 10 blocks," Damon said, "Baby vamp is smart! She grew up in some pretty bad circumstances and managed to survive, and not make the same mistakes her mother did. Maybe she's just going for a run, or getting drunk at a bar."
The front door opened, and Alexandra stomped in, and pulled something out of her coat, and tossed it on a table by the front door, and started to pull off her coat.
Darren was on his feet in a millisecond. Damon groaned, rolled his eyes, and Elena just shook her head. It was like looking at herself and Damon 40 years ago.
"You turned your phone off!" Darren snapped, "What if something had happened?!"
Alexandra sighed, unwound her scarf, and hung it up, "Then I would have turned it back on."
She picked up the rubber bound stack of money and tossed it at Darren, "I got us our booze money for tonight. The rest you can throw in your Robin Hood fund. The guy I took it off of won't miss it."
"Damnit!" Damon whispered, he hung his head for a moment. If she had that kind of money, she'd definitely killed someone.
"Jesus Alex, what did you do!?" Darren snapped, grabbing her arm as she moved to walk past him.
She froze for a moment, then looked over at him, her eye's flashing anger, "You've never manhandled me before, so don't even think of starting now! And if you must know – I had an afternoon snack. New York now has one less drug dealer."
She yanked her arm out of his grasp, "I'm going to take a shower – back the hell off. I'm still mad."
She blurred up the stairs.
Darren stood there, at a loss for words.
"Brother, now is not the time for make-up sex," Damon said, "I strongly suggest another glass of tequila – and leave her alone for now."
Darren sighed, picked up the rubber band bound cash, and stalked back to his chair and his glass. He leaned over to the drink table, refilled his glass, and sat down. He ran his thumb along the edges, looking at denominations. It was sort of organized – 5's, 10's, 20', and 50's, some one's.
"How much?" Elena asked, looking for something to fill the tense air with.
Darren shrugged, and said bitterly, "A decent haul for a morning's work - guess if I ever got staked, she'd at least be able to support herself."
He spread it out into piles, shoved half of it across the coffee table towards Elena and Damon. Elena scooted forward to the edge of the sofa, and started to count it out.
"You better not be getting cocaine or heroin on my coffee table," Damon quipped.
Elena laughed, "I've heard about the things you did in the 60's, quit complaining – I'm a little over 12 grand here."
"I've got about 9 grand," Darren replied, "It's early in the day too. Maybe she got the courier."
"New year's," Damon replied, "Damn . . . we should find out what she did with that body."
Elena stood up, "I'll go up and talk to her – she's not pissed at me."
Before Elena headed up the stairs, she fixed a captain and coke, heavy on the rum, and refilled her glass.
~~OFANV~~
Alexandra heard the footsteps on the stairs, heard the bedroom door open. She was in the bathroom, just getting out of the shower.
"I'm not in the mood for makeup sex!" Alexandra snapped, her tone angry and hostile.
Elena snorted, and leaned against the wall, next to the door that lead into the bathroom, "Good, because I am just not that into redheads."
Alexandra laughed, the tension bleeding out of her as she recognizing Elena's voice, "That's so disappointing – I let you take pictures of me with damn near nothing on!"
Elena stuck her hand with Alexandra's drink through the door, "Put something on so I can come in. I don't want to fuel any lesbian fantasies for those perverts downstairs."
Alexandra wrapped a towel around herself, and took then drink, "OK, it's safe."
Elena came through the door, and sat down on the edge of the tub.
"Is the whole house pissed?" Alexandra asked sheepishly, sipping her drink.
"Worried," Elena said, "do we need to dispose of a body?"
Alexandra shook her head, "No – I did the beer bottle thing – and dumped him – whole – into a dumpster. It should look just like another bad guy taking out bad guy thing."
Elena sipped her drink, "Decent haul by the way, a little over 20 grand."
Alexandra sighed, "Taking the money was an after-thought. I was half way home before I thought to taunt Darren with it."
She started to work some product into her hair, combed it through, and started to fluff her hair out, so the natural curl would take over.
"He's a little off kilter," Elena said, "He's been raging around half insane, especially when you turned your phone off."
Alexandra sighed, "Yeah, I knew that would do it. Probably not my smartest move. I'm . . . I'm sorry you and Damon had to deal with him and I today."
Elena shrugged, "Don't worry about it. This is nothing. Damon goes off the deep end when he's worried about me. Which is pretty often, even after all these years."
Alexandra nodded, and then sat down next to Elena on the edge of the tub, "So what are we going to do about who is going to confront Richard?"
"We let them think they won, and we follow them," Elena said, "They get to be big bad manly protective vampires, we get to watch their backs. It all works out."
There was knock on the bedroom door as it opened, and both Alexandra and Elena leaned forward to look. Darren stood in the doorway.
"I think it's time for you two to hash it out," Elena said, "I've got half a dozen people to call and coordinate where we're meeting up tonight. I'm wearing a jeans and a scoop neck top – because most of the time we'll be outside with heavy coats and hat's on since it's like 15 degrees outside."
Alexandra nodded, "Ok – jeans it is."
She followed Elena out in the bedroom, watched as her friend slipped by Darren.
"Be nice," Elena said softly to Darren.
He stepped aside, closed the door behind him.
"I'm in a lot of trouble, aren't I?" Alexandra said.
"Yes, no, we both are," he sighed, "Fuck Alex . . . you turned your phone off!"
She tossed back the last of her drink, set the glass down on the bed side table, "I didn't want you to track me, and follow me. I needed some time to burn off some steam!"
He walked towards her, and when he stopped in front of her, he ran a finger along her cheek, down her neck, along her collar bone to her shoulder.
"I know you're stronger now, that you heal," he said, and sighed deeply, "I know what you're capable of. But you can't expect me to not worry about you just because you can heal from a broken arm in minutes instead of months."
"I'm a vampire now!" she said, "I'm capable of protecting myself – of protecting you!" She said.
Darren cupped her cheek, "You've been a vampire for a whole 5 minutes Querrida – and Richard – for centuries – the older we get, the stronger we get. This isn't an arm wrestling match."
She groaned, "I can-"
He moved so fast, she barely saw it. But it was his hands that suddenly grabbed her, threw them both onto the bed, and she was pinned down underneath him. He had both her hands over her head, held down with one hand the other was pulling the towel the rest of the way open, exposing her to his eyes. She struggled against him, but it was like she was weak, a limp rag – compared to his strength, and for him it was effortless.
"I'm just shy of a century older than you," he said, "And I'm faster and stronger – because of my age."
She sighed, "Fine! I get it! Stop being an asshole and let me up!"
"I don't know what I'd do if someone hurt you," he murmured, and he traced a line down her throat to her curve of her breast.
She shivered, all her nerve endings suddenly very alive and firing all at once it seemed. Sex had been so much more intense for her since she turned, and it amazed her still, even though it had been a few months.
He cupped her breast, stroking his thumb over her nipple, watching her face, watching how she shivered and trembled under him.
He smiled smugly, and pushed his knee between her thighs, nudging her thighs apart. He slid his hand down her body, feeling her as he went, combed his fingers thought the small triangle of curles, and then slid his fingers along the moist cleft of skin. She was wet already, just from having him look at, stroking her breast and nipples, and he just smiled, pressed in, and spread her juices around, stroking over her clit.
She moaned softly, her eye's drifting closed as she arched her back. She heard him chuckle a little, and then he slid his finger inside her.
"Fuck, your nice and wet already . . ."
He reached down, unzipping his jeans, pushing them down a little, and freed his now swollen hard cock, nudged her legs open a little wider. She took the hint and wrapped them around his hips, and he eased the tip of his cock inside her, and then thrust forward.
"Ung!" Darren grunted, enjoying the tight feel of her around him. He waited for a moment, letting her get used to him, then he pulled back, and roughly thrust into her again.
Alexandra knew what he was doing. He was turned on, he loved her, lusted after her, she drove him crazy, and he going to fuck her hard and fast to prove a point. She'd let him too, because even though part of her wanted to rebel against his controlling nature, she loved it when their passion made sex a little rough.
She arched her hips up, trying to meet this thrusts, and she was so close, and then he abruptly stopped, and pulled out of her. In a blur of movement, he flipped her over, shoved her onto her knees, and had her arms pulled behind her back, pressed her head and shoulders down onto the bedding. The position left her exposed and vulnerable, and she felt him thrust into her again, driving into her mercilessly. It was intense, erotic, it felt darkly wonderful, and she came hard and fast, moaning meaningless sounds.
Darren could feel her body clench and convulse around him, and he let himself come moments after she did. If he was being the kind, good boyfriend, he should have made her come twice, spent some time teasing and taunting her into an ecstatic fever pitch. But he was still a little mad – and damnit – he just fucking wanted her, badly.
He let go of her wrists, pulled out of her, and just flopped down on the bed next to her. She stretched out, and after a moment, gingerly snuggled into his side. He slid his arms around her, pulling her into him so he was spooning her.
"Still love me?" she asked softly.
He snorted, "Yes . . . no matter how much you piss me off I still love you."
~~OFANV~~
Elena glanced up towards the closed bedroom door, and poured another glass of vodka or herself. Damon smirked. They could both hear the sounds of what was going on up in that bedroom. Vampire hearing was a blessing and a curse.
"Make-up sex is always a good sign," Damon commented, "I was kind of worried we'd have to deal with two pissed off vampires tonight."
Elena shook her head, smiling, "No, I knew this fight was going to last two minutes when he got into the room with her. I'm going call our friends, and firm up our plans."
Damon sipped his drink, "I take it we don't have to worry about a body?"
Elena shook her head, "Nope – just another murder between drug dealers. Did you call your buddies from the bar?"
"They know we're hitting the square," Damon said, "I got a maybe, and a hell no."
Elena shrugged, "Their loss."
~~OFANV~~
OK, here's the part where I beg for reviews. I don't know if what I'm writing is working for you all, if you hate it, love it, or wish I'd go another direction unless you let me know!