While they waited Damon picked up the short sword, carefully placing it so the tip was held by his jeans and the rest confined by his leather jacket. He practiced pulling it out, making sure he was both comfortable and fast.
Katherine looked up and said, "Time to prepare."
The hood nodded and stepped around in front of the coffee table. "The three of you line up and kneel on the floor in front of me."
Katherine immediately knelt, and Stefan and Damon cautiously joined her. The man picked up the amulet and clutched it in his hand. He shuddered as if an electric current ran through him. He gave a lower murmur of satisfaction. "She's a thing of beauty, Katherine. This alone is probably worth all of this."
Katherine slyly replied, "But there's so much more."
He didn't respond; just began chanting, the cadence and tone sounding familiar to the Salvatores. They had heard language akin to this when Bonnie had cast spells.
He placed the amulet on each of their heads. They felt like something oozed through their pores and slowly penetrated into their skulls. It didn't hurt exactly, more like their heads were carrying an unaccustomed weight.
When he was done the man witch carefully put the amulet back in the little pouch. Katherine immediately put out a hand. He paused for a moment and then dropped it in her open palm. She quickly tucked it back in her pocket.
"Are we ready?" she asked. Both vampires nodded. The four of them exited the house through the door they had entered. It was a dark moonless niht and the hooded man lightly held onto Katherine's arm for guidance as they walked through the woods back to their car. Katherine got behind the driver's seat and drove to an isolated driveway not that far away. The hooded man got out without a word. Damon looked at Katherine who whispered, "Lilibet would sense his power. We're on stage now. Act your parts."
She drove down a long dark driveway until she came to a cute little house. The front porch light was on and the light spilling out the windows looked inviting.
"This looks like the house," Katherine said. She poked Damon in the side.
"Yeah, yeah it does. Do you really think she can help us?"
Stefan joined in. "She said she would. We should be okay."
Katherine nodded approvingly. They knew the vampires inside could hear their every word.
The three got out and walked up on to the porch together. They bunched up and stayed alert just in case they were attacked outside. Both Katherine and the man witch were positive that Lilibet would invite them in and then prevent them from leaving with a spell, but Katherine had warned them to stay vigilant just in case.
Damon knocked on the door and it opened. The middle aged red haired woman, with pale skin and a smattering of freckles across her nose, talked through the screen door.
"Damon?" she inquired.
"Yup. I'm the one that called you." Damon confirmed his identity. "I'm the one that needs help."
"Then I invite you in." She opened the door, but Damon didn't move.
"You can come in," she said as if he didn't understand.
"Not without my friends." He refused with a firm shake of his head.
"You want me to let three vampires into my house?" she asked. "I would be greatly outnumbered." Her lilting voice was calm and reasonable.
"We can talk here then," Damon countered. "We don't need to come in. Either you can help me, or you can't."
She sighed and said to Stefan, "Who are you?"
"Stefan."
"Stefan, you can come in." The woman formally extended the required invitation to the vampire.
"All of us," Katherine insisted.
The woman looked at them for a moment and then smiled. "All three of you may enter my house."
She stepped back, and they rushed through together. They were in a good sized living room, and they clustered in the center.
The woman calmly examined them and held her hands out slightly and mumbled a few words. The three vampires had no trouble recognizing the words as a spell.
"You cannot leave this house." Lilibet spoke directly to them. She raised her voice slightly and called out. "Come in now."
Three men armed with wooden stakes and two women stepped into the room and stood in a row.
Katherine and Stefan appeared shocked while Damon, playing his role, asked, "What's going on? You said you'd help me?"
"It's time for you to pay for what you did to Lexi and Bree." Stefan and Damon recognized Lee as the speaker.
"Lee. Please don't do this!" Stefan spoke quietly. Katherine laid a cautionary hand on his arm and squeezed hard.
One of the women spoke up. "He's gonna pay for what he did to Bree. We have nothing against you, Stefan or you." She addressed Katherine. "But he's going to pay."
Lilbet spoke up. "If you two stay out of it you won't be harmed."
"Not a chance!" Stefan countered.
Lilibet's chin rose, and they could feel her spell beating around their heads. They all clutched at their heads, fake crumbling away from each other, moving closer to their targets. As they moaned and appeared to collapse, the group of five separated. The women moved towards Lilibet while the three men approached the seemingly crippled vampires.
Everything happened at once.
Stefan rushed the two women as soon as they were separated from the men and got between them, snapping one's neck and cracking the other one's skull with a hard punch.
At the same time Katherine snapped off a short wooden stake from her arm holster at one of the younger vampires, just missing his heart. He crumbled from the pain. Then she and Jeremiah were grappling, Katherine turning his body so Lee couldn't attack her from behind. They wrestled for control of the long stake he had aimed at her.
Damon pulled out the sword slipping off the patch. Lilibeth's eyes widened, and she stepped back. Damon swung at her neck and as the hooded witch warned she was able to block it. He came in close and plunged two fingers into her lower belly pulling out a loop of her intestines. She gave an agonized cry and collapsed to the floor, hands trying to cover the hole in her abdomen.
Stefan turned and fired a stake into Lee's back while Damon's found the heart kill on the vampire that Katherine had just missed. He sped over grabbing the stake that fell from the vampire's rapidly graying hand and plunged it into Jeremiah's back, piercing his heart.
Stefan rushed over and grabbed the thick wooden stake from Lee's hand, rolling him over, ready to plunge it into his heart. He hesitated when he caught Lee's eyes.
Lee's voice barely rose above a whisper. "Do it! This life is nothing without her."
Damon, catching sight of Stefan's face, pulled the stake out of Jeremiah and started towards Lee, but Stefan beat him to it and plunged the one he held in his hand into his friend's heart. He watched as Lee's face and body slowly marbled and grayed.
Damon protested. "Why didn't you let me do it?"
"Because you always do the difficult things. You've always stepped in when it's the tough decision to make or the hard thing to do." He looked at his brother. "'I'll have to face Lexi for this one." Stefan slowly sank to his knees and then to a cross-legged position. He pulled Lee's body partly onto his lap and gently closed the eyes.
Katherine, a smug smile on her face, was checking the others to make sure they were really dead. She was totally satisfied with the way the evening had played out. She loved it when her plans went off without a hitch.
The hooded witch, carrying a metal can, casually walked in and looked around. He walked over to where the red haired woman writhed on the floor. He stood over her, his head held so she could see his face.
"You!" she moaned.
"Did you think I wouldn't pay you back?" He tilted his head. "Did you really believe me when I said we could let bygones be bygones? I'll make sure your death is felt by all." He knelt and mumbled a spell over her stomach. "This will keep you from bleeding to death."
"No," she pleaded. "Just let me die."
"Oh, you'll die alright. That I promise you." He got up ready to finish what they had planned.
The hooded man looked from a jubilant Damon and Katherine high fiving each other to Stefan's tear streaked face as he held Lee's grey veined body in his arms.
He called to Damon. "Are you sure your mam didn't play your da false? How could you possibly be brothers?" He sounded sincerely puzzled.
Damon shrugged and spread his hands helplessly. "I sometimes wonder about it myself."
The man witch jokingly asked as he moved to go upstairs, "Ever think about DNA testing? You could get blood samples from your living relatives."
Damon was pulling Stefan up to his feet and shot a retort back. "Small problem there. I killed all of them."
The hood swiveled from Damon to Katherine who was already walking up the stairs. He muttered to himself, "Guess it's true opposites attract and likes repel."
The man witch held out the metal can to Damon. "Accelerant." He explained in answer to Damon's unspoken question. "We need to torch this house. Do you know h—"
Damon quickly interrupted him. "Leave it to me. You wouldn't believe the massacres I've had to clean up after my brother."
The man's head jerked up, and he again looked from Stefan to Damon. "You two are certainly a puzzle." He then quickly climbed the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Katherine called to Damon before she disappeared upstairs. "When you're done get Stefan into the car and keep him there."
Damon and Stefan sat in the car for only about ten minutes before they were joined by Katherine and the hooded man. They each carried a bundle. Katherine opened the door on the driver's side popping the trunk. They both put their bundles in, and Katherine rushed back to slip into the driver seat and start the car.
The hooded man raised his hands and chanted loudly. The house burst into flames. He jumped into the car, and Katherine sped away, but not fast enough to prevent the vampires' keen hearing from picking up the scream of terror.
Damon jumped. "She's alive, shouldn't we—"
"No." The hood swiveled back towards him. "I prolonged her life for this."
Damon looked stunned.
It was Stefan, hand shielding his eyes, who spoke quietly. "You're forgetting your history, Damon. When a witch dies a violent death by fire her spirit marks the spot." He sighed. "Every witch that comes around will know this was no accident. Word will spread very fast."
He dropped his hand. "This is why you're sure Damon will be safe. No one will think he's capable of this. They won't know who helped him, but they'll know it was someone with real power. This will spread like wildfire. No vampire will mess with him. The witches won't be concerned with him. They'll be afraid for themselves." He sounded very tired.
Katherine looked in the rearview mirror at him. "Very good, Stefan. When you're on the trail you never get distracted. You get right to the important points."
Damon asked, "He's right then?"
"Oh yes, he's definitely correct." The hooded man confirmed. "That's mine." He pointed out a gray van, and Katherine pulled up next to it. He got out saying, before he slammed the door shut, "I'll be in touch."
Katherine immediately left and got on the highway as quickly as possible.
"Where are we headed?" Damon asked her.
"As far away as possible. We'll stop when we get to Tennessee. We'll need to wait at least a week for the word to spread. We'll check the usual lists and forums, and then you can go home to Mystic Falls."