CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED.
"So…." The word stretched and hung in the air as Leya raised an eyebrow at Caroline's prolonging of the question she wanted to ask, for the fifth time. "How are you?"
"Fine." Leya answered simply taking a sip of her hot chocolate leaning comfortably back into the chair at the Grill.
"Seriously?" Caroline asked exasperated with her new friend. "You can't not be fine. Ok, your aunt left I mean you have to feel, like, a smidge sad, right?"
"Caroline, really I'm fine. I admit Daisy wasn't the best aunt or the aunt I imagined but I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
"That's not what I mean. It's just… don't you get lonely?"
Leya's eyes flickered down as she stared at the contents of her drink. A cool breeze swept across her face as the sun brightened when the clouds moved, it was a beautiful day and Leya didn't want to ruin it with talk of her A.W.O.L aunt.
"Everyone gets lonely at one point in their life, Caroline." Leya replied softly before looking at her concerned blond haired friend. "I'm used to it."
Caroline sighed. She was beyond worried, but she knew that if she kept pushing, Leya would only retreat further into her shell.
"Ugh, fine. Be that way. But you should know, I'll always be here."
Leya chuckled and smiled brightly. "That's all I ever wanted."
Caroline sighed again shaking her head. "Anyway, I have to go. I promised the girls that I would show them a new routine and I have no idea how long I'm gonna be there. Don't get me wrong I love those girls but, ugh, talk about not being able to keep in count."
"Go." Leya urged with a giggle. "I'm sure the cheerleaders of Mystic Falls High need you much more than I do right now."
"Ok." Caroline said standing up and backing away to her car. "But remember, I'm only one phone call away."
Leya waved her hand carelessly tilting her head back and closing her eyes, she soaked in the sun. The screeching of the chair Caroline had only moments ago occupied pierced her ears as someone sat down.
"Someone looks bored out of their minds."
Leya groaned when she recognized who it was. Immediately she straightened up and stared boldly into his ice blue eyes. "Far from it, Damon. I was actually content until you arrived."
"Someone's cranky." He commented, Leya shot him a frosty glare as he smiled 'innocently'.
"Only when you're around." Leya snapped back, her once good mood turning sour.
"Look I'm just gonna get straight to the point, since Elena is Elena Gilbert she'll be on journal duty, which you are going to help out with."
"And pray, tell when exactly did I decide this?" Leya asked with a scowl.
"Well you didn't." Damon replied with his (in Leya's opinion) annoying smirk. "But you are my new bestie, and as said bestie you are obliged to help a friend in need."
"Ok, fine I think since you've labeled me as your new 'bestie' we're gonna need some ground rules." Leya said with an innocent smile. Damon tried to say something, but she spoke over him, cutting him off.
"Rule number one, personal space. Meaning you stay the hell away from my house and out of my personal bubble space. Rule number two, ask nicely and I might consider doing it. And rule number three, never ever bite or hurt me or any of my friends ever again. Because if you do, you will regret it."
"Fine. Just get me that journal, we'll take steps from there and you'll never have to see me again." Damon said with a serious look on his face.
"Deal." Leya replied. And in the next second he was gone. With a reluctant sigh and an exaggerated groan Leya heaved herself off the chair placing a few bills on the table she walked to her car.
The ringing of the doorbell echoed through Elena's house as soon as Leya took her finger off the button. Stefan met her at the door.
"So I guess he roped you in too, huh?" Asked Stefan with an amused smile. 'He' obviously meant Damon.
"We made a deal." Leya replied with a small smile, adding with an afterthought. "Kind of."
Thirty minutes had passed as Leya was bored; they had looked through Elena's ancestor's things for the mysterious journal that can't seem to be found. Among cob webs, dust and the occasional dead insect Leya was over searching for some silly little journal.
"Do you think Damon really believes us?" Elena asked Stefan, rummaging through one of the old boxes. "That we're trying to help him?"
"I don't think Damon knows what to believe. Trust isn't something that comes naturally to him." Stefan replied from where he sat at the kitchen counter.
"You know, I really think that Damon believes that everything he's done, every move that he's made, he's done for love." Leya said flicking through an old photo album. "It's twisted, but kind of sad."
"There are other ways to get what you want." Stefan argued. "You don't have to kill people. Damon has no regard for human life. He enjoys inflicting pain on others."
He paused turning his attention to Elena. "For 145 years, every single time that I have let my guard down and let Damon back into my life he's done something to make me regret that. I'm not gonna make that mistake again."
"So what do you think will happen…?" Leya asked slowly gaining Stefan's attention. "If the tomb gets opened and Damon gets Katherine back?"
"I think that no matter what Damon promises, a lot of people will die." Stefan answered.
"That's Johnathan Gilbert." Stefan said seeing the picture Elena was holding up. Leya in interest leaned over to see an old black and white picture of a man with dark hair and a beard, a hat perched on his head.
"What's this?" Elena asked opening a wooden box. Leya's eyebrows furrowed as she saw a muzzle of sorts inside the box but it wasn't an ordinary one used for dogs it was structured differently.
"What are you guys doing?" Jeremy asked walking into the kitchen.
"Plotting your untimely demise." Leya retorted which made Elena slap her arm lightly and Jeremy chuckle.
Jeremy like Leya, she seemed to be slowly worming her way into the hearts of everyone that knew her and she didn't even realize it. She was fun to be around, and it was a nice change to always having to hear conversations about boys and makeup when Caroline and Bonnie were over.
"We're just going through some stuff. Feeling sentimental." Elena said closing the box and putting it away. "Dad had this old family journal from years ago. Thought we'd dig it up."
"Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Jeremy asked hopping up on the counter.
"Yeah. Do you have it?"
"No, uh. I gave it to Mr. Saltzman. He wanted to see it." Jeremy replied. Stefan, Elena and Leya exchanged looks.
This was bad, Mr. Saltzman saw something at the Decade Dance, Damon said he compelled him but Leya didn't think it worked because the next day at school he kept giving Elena, Stefan and her shifty glances when he thought they weren't looking. Jeremy soon left and Elena turned to Stefan nervously.
"What are we gonna do now?" She asked.
"I'll go to the school when it's dark and grab it; hopefully it'll still be there." Replied Stefan.
"I'll go with you." Leya added. "It's not like I have anything better to do."
Stefan nodded his head once in confirmation, and they parted their ways waiting until it was dark to meet back up.
The school seemed almost eerie to Leya at night, the key word being almost. She walked the halls of Mystic Falls High so silently she bet she could've given Snape a run for his money on the amount of times he's sneaked up behind her.
Stefan had gone ahead checking all the other floors just in case there was someone loitering around, although Leya couldn't fathom who would be at school at this hour.
Her destination was the history classroom. From the information Jeremy had given them, Leya would bet anything that the Gilbert journal they were looking for would obviously be in Mr. Saltzman's classroom.
Leya paused for a second, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the hallway. She could've sworn she saw something move, it was fast, really fast, meaning it could only be vampire. Her wrist twitched and immediately her wand shot out from underneath the sleeve of her shirt into her awaiting hand.
For once, in what felt like forever since she came to Mystic Falls, she was prepared. She walked slowly, silently towards the door of her history classroom, wand at the ready.
There was no one inside. But the lamp on Mr. Saltzman's desk was on meaning he was probably still here. Leya stuffed her wand into her back pocket and rushed to the desk shuffling through all his papers. There were nothing but graded and un-graded papers, no sign of a creepy, dusty, hundred and plus year old journal.
Leya straightened hearing a noise coming from the doorway, Mr. Saltzman stood there holding some strange contraption and without wasting a second he fired.
Leya could only see this blurred outline of something brown and sharp come at her. And before she had the chance to dodge it, Stefan appeared in front of her catching, what she now realized was a stake.
They watched for a second as Mr. Saltzman fumbled putting another stake in his compressed air gun. Stefan rushed at him wrestling the gun out of his hands.
"You shouldn't have done that." Stefan said lowly to him.
Leya walked around to Stefan's side as he pushed Mr. Saltzman into the desks. Terrified he quickly scrambled up to his feet.
"Have a seat." Stefan said intimidatingly pointing towards one of the many desk-chairs that surround Mr. Saltzman. He reluctantly obliged.
"What is this? Compressed air?" Stefan questioned turning the gun in his hands. "Did you make it yourself?"
When he didn't answer Leya and Stefan exchanged looks.
"Who are you?" Stefan continued to ask as he walked closer to Mr. Saltzman who shrunk back in fear.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, unless you try that again." Stefan said reassuringly handing over the gun as a peace offering.
"So." Leya interrupted the stare down between Stefan and Mr. Saltzman. "Who are you?" She questioned as Stefan backed up near her and perched on one of the desks.
"I'm a teacher."
Leya and Stefan exchanged another glance. "Are we gonna have to do this the hard way?"
"I'm also a historian." Mr. Saltzman added. "And while researching Virginia I made a few discoveries about your town."
"So, you show up like Van Helsing?" Stefan asked sarcastically knowing he was lying. "Come on, tell us the truth."
Mr. Saltzman scoffed at being caught out. "My wife was a parapsychologist, she spent her life researching paranormal activity in this area. It was her work that led me here."
"Where's your wife?" Leya asked.
"Dead. Vampire killed her."
"Where's the Gilbert journal?" Stefan asked un-fazed.
"What do you want with it?" Mr. Saltzman asked a little confused about the change of subject.
"Where is it?" Leya persisted.
"It's on my desk."
"No, it's not."
Mr. Saltzman looked over his shoulder at his desk where the journal no longer was. "It was on my desk."
Leya let out a frustrated sigh as she exchanged yet another look with Stefan. This was turning out to be a lot more complicated than planned.
"How long have you been aware of me?" Stefan asked.
"I learned just recently. What about your brother?"
"You've met Damon."
"Who do you think killed my wife?" Mr. Saltzman asked rhetorically.
"You certain it was Damon?" Leya questioned.
"I witnessed it."
"If you're here for revenge, this is gonna turn out very badly, for you." Stefan advised.
"I just wanna find out what happened to my wife." Mr. Saltzman replied.
"I thought you just said that Damon -" Stefan questioned confused but was cut off by Mr. Saltzman.
"Yeah, I saw him draining the life out of her…" He started pained. "He must have heard me coming and he just disappeared. So did her body, they never found her."
"Damon can never know why you're here." Stefan stated after a short silence while Mr. Saltzman composed himself. "He'll kill you without blinking."
"I can take care of myself." Mr. Saltzman scoffed.
"No you can't. We can help you. But only If you let us." Interjected Leya making Alaric remember that she was still there.
"That was certainly a change of events." Leya muttered as she and Stefan walked up the steps to the Gilbert household.
"Tell me about it." Stefan murmured lowly as he rang the doorbell.
It was Elena who opened the door, only she wasn't alone. Leya couldn't help but let her eyes flicker between the two feeling just a little bit more than confused.
"Well…" Damon asked waiting impatiently for answers.
Stefan relayed everything that happened, excluding of course the photocopied papers of the journal Mr. Saltzman made before the journal vanished, currently hidden behind Leya tucked into the waist band of her jeans.
"Who took it?" Damon seethed as he walked the length of the porch.
"I don't know."
"I bet it's that teacher. There's something really off about him." Damon suggested.
"No." Leya interjected. "He doesn't know anything. Somebody got to it right before us."
"Who else knew it was there?" Damon asked aggravated.
Almost instinctively Stefan's head turned towards the window where a clear sight of Jeremy was playing video games.
"No! Damon, leave him out of this!" Elena warned.
"Why? What's the big deal?"
"Damon." Elena called out.
They all walked inside, Damon perched on the arm of the couch beside Jeremy as he continued to play the Xbox.
"So, I heard you found a really cool journal from back in the day. Who else did you show it to?" Damon questioned.
"Huh?"
"Don't ask questions. Just spill." Damon demanded.
"You're kidding me, right?" Jeremy asked chuckling.
"Jer, did you tell anyone else other than Mr. Saltzman about Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Elena asked before Damon could compel him.
"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?" He asked confused.
"Who else did you tell?" She pressed a little frustrated.
"Hm, just that girl Anna."
"The hot, weird one?" Damon asked.
"Yeah."
"Wait, who's Anna?" Stefan asked confused.
"That's what I wanna find out. How do you know her?"
"I just know her." Jeremy shrugged. "She wants me to meet her at the Grill tonight."
"Perfect. I'll drive." Damon said grabbing Jeremy's arm and hauling him off the couch. "Let's go."
"Okay." Jeremy muttered confused shooting Leya a look. She couldn't do much but smile feebly and wave goodbye.
As soon as Stefan heard Damon's car startup he turned to Leya, who already had a knowing look on her face.
"Follow him." Stefan stated. "Elena and I will look through the papers, I'll text you when we find something."
"Sure." Leya replied, pulling the papers from behind her and handing them over.
And without another word Leya walked out the Gilbert household and to her car on her way to the Grill.
You would think that when you follow someone in your car it would look and feel as cool as it did in the movies and crime TV shows. Then again Leya should've known better, it was all just Hollywood made up crap like that really lame vampire movie, 'Dusk' or 'Dawn', Leya couldn't remember but she knew it had something to do with a certain time when the sun rose or set.
So she sat in her car outside of the Grill where Damon was currently inside, checking her phone every thirty seconds. Thankfully Stefan had finally texted her where he might think the Grimoire was just when she was about to start banging her head against the window.
Leya stumbled through the grave yard her wand lighting the way, she paused when she heard Elena and Stefan's voice coming from up ahead.
"Nox." Leya whispered lightly and the florescent light coming from the tip of her wand extinguished.
"Why isn't your father buried in your family tomb?" Elena asked as Stefan walked around his father's gave setting up for what they were about to do.
"It wasn't built until well after he died."
"Are you sure the Grimoire's in there with him?"
"As sure as I can be."
"This is really weird…" Leya said her voice cutting through the silence. Elena jumped frightened as Leya walked into sight.
"God." Elena sighed, rubbing a hand down her face as she tried to calm her heart.
"Sorry." Leya said unapologetically a grin worming its way onto her face.
"Elena, Leya I can do this on my own." Stefan said noticing how freaked out Elena looked.
"And I said I would do whatever I can to help." Elena countered.
"I know and I appreciate that -"
"This town is my home, Stefan. My friends and my family are here, you're here. I don't want that tomb opened any more than you do." Said Elena.
"She's right, Stefan." Leya said softly walking closer to him. "We're sorry that you have to do this. But that tomb shouldn't be opened."
He nodded his head in understanding and handed Leya the spare shovel. They started to dig as Elena watched on aiming the flashlight in their direction.
They dug and dug moving the soil to the small pile beside them getting closer to Stefan's father. Leya could tell Stefan was having a hard time, but he concealed it.
Stefan looked up from his digging as Leya continued on. "What?" He questioned as Elena stared at him.
"Not many girls can say they've done this."
And just as Elena uttered the last few syllables Leya's shovel hit something. Leya looked towards Stefan both of their faces displaying shock. Stefan got onto his knees as he started to push the dirt off the top of the coffin while Leya jumped out of the grave.
"Is that it?" Elena questioned slightly fearful as Stefan pried open the top half of the coffin.
He pulled out what looked like a book covered in wrapping. As he tore the wrappings off and got onto her knees to take a closer look. She was sure if Hermione were here with her she would either die or burst from happiness with how old the book looked.
"Well what do you know." An all too familiar voice uttered from behind them. "Isn't this an interesting turn of events."
Immediately all three got to their feet, Stefan walking to stand defensively in front of the two girls. "I can't let you bring her back. Sorry."
"So am I." Damon countered. "For think for even a second I could trust you."
Stefan scoffed. "You are not capable of trust. The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."
"Of course I was gonna do it by myself, because the only person I can count on is me. You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan." Damon shifted his eyes looking at Elena. "But you… you had me fooled."
Leya looked at Elena to see her look down guiltily. She knew that the only reason Damon hadn't called out her name was because he knew from the start he couldn't trust her, Leya had always expressed her dislike for him.
"So what are we gonna do now? Because if you try and destroy that I'll rip her heart out." Damon said his gaze solely focused on Elena.
"You won't kill her." Stefan replied confidently.
Leya didn't even see him move but she turned around and saw Damon hold Elena in a head lock. Instinctively her wand shot to her hand.
"I can do one better." Damon muttered intensely, biting his wrist, he force fed Elena his blood. "Give me the book, Stefan, or you and I will have a vampire girlfriend."
"Let her go." Leya said lowly raising her wand, all eyes turned to her, then to her wand.
"A stick?" Damon asked, and amused smile playing on his lips. "What are you gonna do? Poke me?"
"I can do a lot more than you know. Now, let… her… go." Leya replied threating, announcing the last part slowly.
"The book." Damon countered.
"We are not going to give this to you until she is standing next to us." Stefan said fearful knowing Damon wouldn't think twice about killing Elena.
"The problem is that I no long trust that you'll give it back."
"You just did the one thing that ensures that I will."
Damon nodded his head. Stefan slowly held the Grimoire up showing it to him as he slowly bent down to place it on the ground. Slowly Damon's arm started to unwind from Elena's neck, Leya's hand gripped a little tighter around her wand.
Elena carefully walked away from Damon and when she was far enough ran into Stefan's awaiting arms. Stefan and Elena left first.
Damon stared Leya down testing her to see if she would try and take the book, she would fail of course, he would kill her as soon as she took a single step towards the book. He eyed the stick she held in her hand, it was weird. Damon was sure he sounded pretty pathetic but that stick kinda gave him a bad vibe.
And it was strange stick too, at first he thought she might've picked it up off the ground with all the other fallen sticks and branches. But the one she held in her hand was polished, and oddly straight for just any other ordinary stick.
With one last look Leya left, not even glancing at the book that lay between them. He would find out what she is, and he'd find out soon. But first he had a book to read.
A/N: So things are getting interesting, and I'm slowly getting to where I've left off. I just wanted to thank everyone who has favorite and followed and reviewed you guys are awesome *gives virtual hug and complimentary cookie. So as usual read and review, also I've posted another story if anyone is interested check it out! It's called Hunting For Hearts, I would seriously love you to death if you reviewed that story