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 longer days, cancer docs for my sister who give a shit about quality of life, and I need the ability to function well on four hours of sleep.

I barrowed a term from Trogdor – Barbie Vamp – so thank you! If someone else has been using it, thanks to you too. Too nice to pass up.

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~~

Chapter 16

Darren pulled his mouth away from the man's wrist, licking his lips clean of any blood. The man had almost tasted bitter, probably a combination of the cigarettes and the steroids the man had been using. After 70 years, Darren could tell a lot about a person based on how their blood tasted. Diabetes, high cholesterol, alcoholism, drug use . . . in this case steroids.

"Go home. You got these wounds on your wrist from bad steroids," Darren said, compelling him.

The man nodded, his eyes glassy. He turned away, and started walking out of the alley towards the street. He was tall with large build, and he'd been bitching about how much he had to pay in child support. Anyone who complained about taking care of his own kids deserved to give up a pint or two, Darren figured.

Alexandra had a bored look on her face, tossed her flame red hair back over her shoulder. She liked watching him drink live and she'd drank her fill already. They'd been out most of the morning. It was a snatch, eat and erase kind of day.

"You know, it's not hot watching you drink from a guy," She teased him.

Darren rolled his eyes, "I'd say it's not hot watching you drink from a woman . . . but it actually is, so . . ."

She shook her head, but she was smiling, "Perv!"
He smirked, "You'd get bored if I wasn't a perv."

She got a devilish look on her face, "maybe if it was a hot guy . . ."

His answer was to smack her ass, which sent her skittering ahead of him back inside into the billiards bar. He moved up next to her quickly though, draping his arm around her shoulders. The light inside was dim and stale cigarette smoke hung in the air. He hated that crap, but places like this made for decent hunting. No one looked too close, and if they did, they didn't talk to cops. They moved slowly through the room, made their way to the main door, and then back out onto the street. They could have left the same way Darren's meal had left, there were a lot of reasons to not be seen walking out with your meal.

"How do you think this is going to work?" Alexandra asked him, once they were out in the daylight, "There was a lot of ego in the room last thanksgiving . . . and I remember some of those conversations vividly . . . they're not all going to agree with us about how to handle this."

Darren pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to her temple, "Honestly – as long as we kill Richard and whoever his network of human pals are – I don't give a fuck how we will kill them. In a few more days, the tub arrives for our house, a few days after that our stove and fridge arrives – and as long as Damon and I are installing it all and sipping beer after – knowing that Richard isn't a problem – and our little world isn't threatened – I don't care how it happens."

~~~OFANV~~~~

Elena was playing hostess, and if she was honest, she was enjoying it – for all of them, except one of their guests. She had cold beer, liquor, wine, and soda out. She had plenty of bagged blood on hand if they got hungry for that. She'd sort of helped Alexandra put together a large tray of meats, cheeses, crackers, and various fruits – and that was all set up out on the sideboard. Sort of helped meant that she pulled out the trays she'd picked up at some party planning store – somewhere, sometime. Arranging them? Nope, not her talent. But she could stand by and smile and nod while her friend worked her magic. It should probably bother her that Alex was good at something she wasn't – and that Damon shared the same talent, and the two of them talked about things like cooking and food and presentation and all that with such glee. But it didn't bother her at all. Elena had total confidence in her relationship with Damon – and it was kind of nice to see Damon enjoy that conversation with someone who could appreciate it.

Elena looked around the great room from the doorway of the kitchen. She saw that Caroline was actively involved in another kind of planning, but Caroline was a detail person, and she enjoyed a good fight. Even though her friends body language said relaxed and lazy, Elena knew inside she wasn't. Katherine was offering the occasional comment, but mostly it was an excuse to have the attention turned in her direction. She wasn't a team player, never would be. If she had a small role to play, it was fine. But you couldn't depend on her much. She'd arrived flashing a heavy bracelet encrusted with gemstones on her wrist. It was obviously an expensive piece that Stefan had given her for Christmas.

Elena walked back into the kitchen, intent on seeing what Alexandra needed help with. The less she had to see Katherine, the better.

"What else can I do?"

Alexandra looked around, "I'm pretty much good actually. The pork loin is in the oven, and so is the vegetable dish. I was just about to start working on the salad."

"Salad I can do," Elena said, walking over to the sink to wash her hands.

"Is she still flashing the bracelet around?" Alexandra asked quietly.

Elena knew Katherine could hear them, if she was paying attention. Surely Alexandra must know. Alexandra wasn't going to hide her opinion or placate Katherine though.

"Pretty much," Elena said, "You have to admit – it is a beautiful piece."

"Oh it is," Alexandra said, "I'd wear it with a dressier outfit – but not with . . . well, whatever the hell that is she's wearing. I think I saw that corset top in 'hookers-r-us'."

Elena laughed little, and looked out towards the dining room where the planning was going one. Stefan shot her a look that spoke volumes. Elena sighed, leaned over and whispered in Alex's hear, "We should behave . . . Stefan will have to deal with the aftermath."

Alexandra sighed, nodding, then said, "Then maybe he should reign in her flirting shit. She practically groped Darren when we came back this morning."

Elena picked up a cherry tomato, popped it into her mouth.

"She does that stuff to get a rise out of us," Elena reminded her.

Alexandra passed the head of lettuce to Elena, "Doesn't make it ok. Shred."

So Elena started to tear the lettuce up into bite sized pieces, tossing it into the bowel. Alexandra shredded up a little bit of red cabbage, sliced radishes into very thin slices, cucumbers, slivered carrots, cut up some colored bell peppers into thin slivers. Then she added diced up boiled egg. It was all added to the lettuce and mixed. The salad was covered and put into the fridge, and then they sat on the breakfast bar stools, and just listened and watch.

Damon took a deep steadying breath, and reminded himself that Klause had some useful skills as an Original vampire. Really useful skills. He was incredibly strong, being one of the oldest Vampires that Damon knew. Because he as an original he could compel another vampire, and it was technically damn near impossible to kill Klaus. Since Richard was a little older than Damon, Klaus's strength could come in handy. That made him the perfect assassin.

The pisser was, Klaus knew it.

"Tell me again why it is that we're planning this big campaign, when I could just stroll right in, compel the whole lot of them, and then kill Richard and fix this mess you made?"

Damon sighed, rubbed his hand across his forhead. Was he actually getting a headache? Bonnie wasn't even pissed at him. He dropped his hand, looked around for the petite little witch. She was absorbed in her grimoire, looking for something. Clearly not taking the opportunity to screw with any of them. As if she knew what he was thinking, she looked up, a smug smile on her lips.

Damon had learned to appreciate Bonnie over the years, even harbor affection for her. They weren't exactly besties, but she was one of his wife's closest friends, the love of Jeremies life, and they'd come to an understanding. They could agree to disagree if there wasn't a body count of innocents.

Klaus sat back on one of the plush chairs, a glass of expensive bourbon in hand. His body language was grandiose – he was preening under Caroline's watchful gaze. Damon glanced over at Vampire Barbie to see if the blond noticed. She had, but she wasn't feeding Klaus's ego today, so she wasn't climbing into his lap.

Back to business, Damon thought, and looked back at Klaus, "Because if you go in like the lone-goddamn-ranger and Richard gets away, we still have god knows how many others we still have to find and clean up after."

Darren set glass he'd been sipping from down, eyeballing it, as if suddenly realizing he'd drank the full glass of tequila. Damon wondered what had Darren drinking to take the edge off. He knew Darren had gone out hunting with his little redheaded girlfriend this morning, so it shouldn't be hunger.

"I can track Richards whereabouts, and the people he contacts the most through their cell phones, assuming they don't dump them," Darren said, and he keyed something up on the computer screen he'd carried down from the home office of computer mecca he'd set up in one of Damon's guest rooms, "That should allow us to get Richard, his freaky pet, and Richard's partner, in the first round. I think after that, if we at least have names, cleaning up the loose ends should be easy. No matter how good our timing is – we're going to have some loose ends."

Stephen cleared his throat, "How far out are you planning on taking this? I'm not going to kill people who aren't involved in the murders."

"I'm with Stephen on this," Caroline added, "I agree we have to take out Richard, and his little fetish freak, but people who are just hanging out at this club – I'm not ok with that."

"Caroline, sweetheart, sometimes you just have to send a message," Klaus said, looking over at her.

Caroline had been sitting back, somewhat sideways, her legs crossed and dangling over the armrest.

"Klaus, sweetheart," Caroline said, her tone sugary sweet and somewhat mocking, "We're not killing someone who's not a murder. We're better than that. You – are better than that. You know how I feel – with great power-"

Klaus rolled his eye's, "Comes great responsibility, My lovely little queen, always reminding me of my responsibilities. If you weren't so important to me . . ."

Caroline raised eye eyebrow, challenging him.

Damon pressed his lips together, trying to avoid the smug grin that was trying desperately to spread across his face, but he looked over at Stephen, then Elena. They were both smiling, enjoying the moment. Who knew that anyone could tame Klaus. If anyone could, it was Barbie Vamp, Damon figured.

"No one is killing someone who isn't asking for it," Damon finally said, "I think we can agree on Richard, Thomas, and Nigel, if he's involved in it. The rest of the hit list get determined when Klaus compels Richard to give up his murder club list. Agreed?"

Darren reached over, picked up a beer, twisted the top off, "I think our best opportunity to do this is the warehouse. We can have Klaus compel Richard anywhere we find him, but to take out the whole crew –have Richard direct them to the warehouse. It's secluded, not a lot of foot traffic and it is set up for clean up."

"What about body disposal?" Stephen asked, "We need a better way to dispose of the bodies."

"We need a pig farm," Darren said, "But I don't know what eating a vampire would do to a pig – not sure I want to find out."

"Crematorium," Damon said, "It's New York – a big city – with a long history of organized crime. Classic way to get rid of the evidence. We find a crematorium, compel ourselves some cooperation, and we dispose of the bodies. We'll just throw them into a truck and drive them over."

"So we need a truck," Stephan said, "And a crematorium – a secluded one."

"They don't build them next to the mall," Darren said, "It's creepy . . . give me about ten or twenty, I'll find out where they are – and Alex and I can go scout them out tonight."

Jeremy had been sitting back with Bonnie, listening to all the banter going on back and forth.

"So why is it that Bon-Bon and I are here? I don't see a role for a witch right now."

Elena spoke up, "Actually . . . I do. Can you cast a spell to keep people away? Like some kind of imaginary line? So they just want to turn a corner, and go in a different direction?"

Bonnie smiled, "Of course I can. I need some salt - actually, a lot of salt – how far out do we want to take it?"

"We need a map of the warehouse district," Damon said, looking over at Darren.

Darren did something on the keyboard, pulled up an aerial photo, zoomed in.

"I think we should do Bonnies salt thing here," Darren said, "and here."

"That's a lot of space to block out," Jeremy said.

"Our targets will be here – if we do this right," Darren said, "When I was making my living as a cat burglar –the secret to success wasn't speed and compelling my way out of everything. It was not being seen. The less witnesses the better."

"I can do it," Bonnie said, "This distance isn't an issue."

Damon moved back, over to the side board, snatched up a piece of cheese, "So we find Richard, compel him to get all the participants of his murder club in one place, we kill them, cremate the bodies. Can you start tracking Richard now?"

The last question had been directed at Darren.

Darren snorted, as if insulted, "Please . . ."

He typed for a few minutes, and a map of New York came up, and four dots appeared on the screen, two of them together.

Damon looked at the screen, "Who are the love birds?"

Darren sighed, "Nigel and Richard . . ."
Darren typed something else in, the map zoomed in, he typed some more, and a street name came up on the bottom of the screen, with a range of addresses.

Damon shook his head, "I knew they were working together – where are they?"

Darren swore under his breath, a long string of expletives. It was enough to draw Alexandra out of the kitchen, enough to draw Katherine's attention, and enough to make Damon very nervous.

"They're at our fucking house!" Darren snapped, looking over at Alexandra, "Our new place! Our nice, cozy, friendly human neighborhood! Son of a bitch!"

~~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!

So give those follow and favorite button's a work out. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you'd like to see more of. The Reviews and comments stimulate the muse, and believe me, right now my muse is about ready to for hospice care.