Hey guys I'm back with a new chapter. I got some sleep...well I literally just woke up lol so I guess this is my good morning to you all!
I went back and edited the last chapter, thankfully it didn't need much.
2- PrincessFergie- Your update is here!
2- APeaceOfPie4Everybody011- Your update is here!
2- Fallen Witch Angel- hee hee...maybe...
2- guest- I like to keep it intense!
2- WearRedTonight- lol sorry sorry sorry! but you gotta admit, you liked it lol
2- The Cuteness- yeah, I just had to give him someone in his life like that, its idk so damon, yeah know? damon without someone trying to blow him off isn't damon to me.
2- Heavenlie- lol thank you, and Kol better take care of bonnie right? esp since he wants her to be 'grateful' lol. and you are right about the damon thingy. lol. oh and I understand you perfectly, your fine!
2- tinnycsixx- Hee Hee guess you're just gonna have to find out!
I would totally love it if someone made a banner for this story...
Now onwards with the story...
Chapter 9 Lemme See Your Game Face!
Damon's POV
Damon strode into the arcade and flashed his badge at the attendant. The place looked deserted and the attendant was busy counting little ticket on the glass counter.
"Matthew Donovan?" Damon asked.
"Who?" The kid asked with a frown.
"Trigger finger." Damon said using his informant's street name.
"Oh him?" the attendant said nodding to Damon's left. "He's in the back."
Damon walked to the back of the arcade to find a figure with his hoodie up, playing a first person shooter game. He came up to the right of the guy.
"Police." he announced.
The figure elbowed Damon in the side. His hoodie got knocked back to revel the baby bottom smooth face of a thirteen year old boy.
"Damn it Salvatore!" Matt shouted. "You almost get me killed every time you do that!"
Damon was glad to see the kid still had some spunk. He was one of the few people who treated him the same as they did before the injury. Damon pulled out a few quarters and popped them into the machine. It looked like Matt was busy killing zombies.
"You mind?" he asked before he hit the second player button.
"To play against the only zombie hunter who's ever come close to besting my high score? A pleasure, always."
Damon took that as quite the compliment and pulled the games gun and began firing at the zombies heads. There was quite the horde.
"I've got a problem." Damon explained.
"Level seven?" Matt asked.
"Well, yeah." Damon admitted. "But I've got this case, only I'm not sure if I've got a perp, or even a victim."
"Sorry buddy." Matt said dodging his head to the left as if he could avoid the zombies attack that way. "I can't help you."
"Maybe after the game we could talk about it?"
"No dude." Matt said. "You've got to figure out what game you are playing first."
Damon took a hit to the leg. His life meter plummeted to a quarter full. "What do you mean?"
"It's like we can't talk specific strategies until you know what your game perimeters are. House of the dead you need to come out shouting. Mortal combat is all about combo moves. Call to arms is all about stealth. Long terms goals." The kid ducked and dived bobbing up and down. "No point in talking about lateral flanking maneuvers if you're playing gyro the dragon. Know what I mean?"
Even though Damon took a hit right to the chest and died a painful death on screen, he didn't care. "Yes!" The light bulb went off. "Absolutely!"
He shoved a bunch of quarters into the slot next to Matt.
"Thanks Matt. Play some on me."
Damon turned to leave as Matt called out. "I'm here until mom calls me for dinner."
Bonnie's POV
"Come on. Come on, come on." Kol murmured, but their trapdoor had yet to open. A loud twang filled the air and the trap door above Alaric opened up. A large, antique looking rifle with a bayonet fell to the floor.
"That's more like it!" Alaric exclaimed as he dragged himself across the floor and snatched up the weapon.
Bonnie looked at Kol. Even he looked worried.
Next came Jeremy's weapon. A small pocket knife. "No way!" he yelled. "What the heck is this?"
Stefan got a sling shot. He stopped his scripture just long enough to say, "If David did not complain then neither shall I."
Tyler got a short bow and a quiver with four arrows.
"Way to go Katniss!" Jeremy said, chuckling then looked to Bonnie. "That was the right pop culture reference right?"
Bonnie nodded.
"Whew, it had just blown up when I got captured." Jeremy explained.
Kol was still staring up. So far, no weapon at all.
Elijah got a pair of hedge clippers and Klaus couldn't be happier with his sickle. He kept slicing it through the air. Yet none for them, yet.
"No, no, no, no." kol lamented, no matter how many cloths strips she had, they wouldn't make it. Not against the arsenal out there.
Damon's POV
Damon watched as Conner turned the collar of his jacket up against the growing wind as he trotted down the steps towards him.
He opened his mouth, but his friend held out a hand.
"Save it man. Your lieutenant already warned us you were on one of your benders."
Luckily Damon had a secret weapon. He pulled out a picture of bonnie holding an eight week old chocolate Labrador retriever. The cuteness oozed off the photo paper.
"You ready to see morgue pictures of her starved and dehydrated?" Damon challenged Conner.
"Okay, okay fine." Conner answered. "I tracked down the fiancée-well ex-fiancée. Looks like he knocked your girl up then split. She lost the baby a few weeks later. I can try to track him down but-"
"No." Damon said. The guy seemed to be in Bonnie's rearview mirror. "That won't be necessary. I know who took her."
Conner eyebrows went up "starving Stanley?" Conner patted Damon's shoulder. "Dude you really need to go back on Paxil."
Damon was ready for this, however. He counted off on his fingers all his points.
"Look, we haven't identified these deaths as due to a serial killer because we were going at him like a regular criminal. We've got to think outside of the box. Or under the radar."
"Clichés aside, how exactly do we do that?"
"He may know forensics. He may know police procedure, but avoiding us at every turn forces him down a path that is predictable."
He handed a thick set of folders to Conner. "At each crime scene-"
"You use that term awfully loosely." Connor commented.
"Each site has van tire tracks."
Conner sighed. "We've already been over this before this chick went missing. Each of those tire tracks from your previous victims was a different van."
Damon held up a finger. "Which to an untrained mind could imply that there was no link between them."
Conner noticed a few cops coming down the steps and moved them off to the side. "Or, to the trained mind?"
"He just used five different vans."
"That's a hellauva lot of vans for any one person. All of the abandoned vans during that period were registered to different people."
"Ah." Damon said "but we didn't look into their insurance companies."
Conner flipped through the files. "But these vans all had different insurance companies."
His friend was acting like that was a bad thing. "That's because Stanley doesn't want questions about his ever-revolving van collection."
Suddenly Connor's eyes opened, his pupils dilating. "Which means he couldn't prove previous insurance."
Damon nodded. "Now you're on the path, grasshopper."
"So any agent worth his salt is going to want to see the new van that they are being asked to insure…his options are getting limited."
Conner clapped his gloved hands together, "so we pull footage from the last insurance office and compare it to the other insurance offices and once we get a picture…"
"We get a name. Then we get financial, phone records." Damon added. "Then find restate acquisitions isolated enough to hold a hostage for a week."
Conner looked at Damon sideways, then sighed. "You are…an evil, evil genius when you're not slacking."
"Thanks." Damon said grateful his pitch had worked. He turned to walk off.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Conner said grabbing Damon by the sleeve "where do you think you're going?" This is a hell of a lot of groundwork to go over.
"Do you really think starving Stanley just drives along and says hey she's cute. I think I'll take her?"
Conner shook his head.
"I'm going to trace Ms. Bennett's movements so that I can give you specific traffic corners to check the license numbers you uncover then trace his movements back to his lair."
Conner clapped him on the back. "Damon you and your evil genius."
Bonnie's POV
Bonnie stared up at the trap door, it was solidly closed. The other men were busy practicing with their own weapons.
Klaus looked a little too skilled with that sickle for Bonnie's taste.
And the sharp clack of Elijah's hedge trimmers filled the dungeon.
"Come on…" Kol urged the trap door, but it didn't seem to be listening.
"Guess your fucking luck isn't holding Kol." Klaus sneered.
"Yeah take this!" Tyler said as he shot an arrow into their cell. It missed wildly then skidded into Jeremy's cell.
"Hey!" Jeremy shouted.
"Not yet!" Klaus yelled at Tyler. "You idiot!"
Bonnie looked to Kol. "Why haven't you gotten a weapon?"
He seemed to busy trying to make the trap door open with his mind that he didn't answer. As always Jeremy was more than willing to step into the void.
"Once in a blue moon, one of us doesn't get a weapon."
"Not right away!" Kol snapped. He looked to Bonnie. "One will drop."
"Before or after you're sliced up into tiny ribbons is yet to be determined." Klaus challenged.
Bonnie hugged herself.
Could it be true was Kol going to lose today?
"Random cell opening will commence on the count of three."
Well if he didn't get a weapon in the next few seconds it looked like it was going to be all over. Klaus certainly seemed to think so.
"Maybe I'll let you live long enough to cut the flesh off your body."
"Three."
"Inch by square inch." Klaus said as he sharpened his sickle.
"Two."
"You know your pubes would make a nice trophy."
"One."
Bonnie had to keep herself from hyperventilating. She grabbed Kol by the arm. "Keep him away from me and I'll make sure you get back in."
"Then I'll tie you to the bed, belly down so I can take you whenever the fuck I want."
Kol looked to her. "Maybe you'll be…grateful?" Bonnie frowned. "Maybe just a little?"
"Kill him and we'll talk."
Bingo.
Bonnie held her breath waiting to see whose door was the first open. It turned out to be Alaric's. Sweaty and weak he propped himself up on his cot aiming for the door way.
"Anybody and I mean anybody who dares come in here, dies."
"Found something to replace your cock there, Alaric?" Tyler teased.
The big man charged the door. "Shut the fuck up!"
Tyler pulled back on the bowstring. "One shot man."
"Don't!" Klaus ordered.
Tyler swung around aiming straight at Klaus. "Or maybe I'll just prove that I'm the real Boston Strangler after all."
Klaus pointed at Bonnie. "How does that get you any closer to drilling that?"
Bonnie tasted metal. Iron to be exact. She must have bit her lip and not even realized it.
Then Elijah's door popped open. Alaric re-aimed at the older man.
Elijah put his hands up. "Son, I have no quarrel with you."
Instead he sat down and glared at Kol. Those two had some serious bad blood between them. However it was Tyler's cell door that opened next. The man rushed out of his cell and set up at the far end of the room.
Bonnie looked up
Still no weapon. They were so screwed. No actually, she was going to get screwed, in the worst way possible.
"Listen to me, you morons. If we gang up, he's got no fucking chance. He's defenseless."
Stefan's door swung open. Very slowly reciting scriptures the man made it out of his cell, his sling shot dangling from his belt.
"I pray the lord my soul to keep…"
Klaus wasn't giving up though. "Stefan you know I'm right."
Bonnie held her breath as Stefan walked up to their cell and glared in. Kol stepped in between them
"Do your worst rippah." Kol challenged.
Bonnie didn't think they were in the best please to taunt anyone, but she was glad he was standing between her and Stefan as he drew his sling shot. The man looked like he knew his way around the archaic weapon. He loaded a large pebble into the sling, but instead of shooting it at Kol, Stefan swerved at the last second and flung it at Alaric.
The rock hit him square in the forehead. Alaric pulled the trigger wasting his only bullet into the ceiling. Bonnie barely blinked before Stefan was on Alaric, grabbing the rifle out of his hands then turning it around burry the bayonet into his belly.
Alaric didn't scream so much as gasp. Stefan pulled the blade out and shoved Alaric down on the floor.
"No." Alaric begged. "please no. no"
Too bad Alaric… Bonnie thought. Begging's not so much fun when you are on the other side of it is it?
Then Stefan dropped to his knees and used the knife to slice open Alaric's belly.
Bonnie turned away, her stomach in revolt. But she also couldn't keep herself from glancing over her shoulder.
Alaric reached out toward Elijah. "Elijah, Elijah please help me."
Stefan expertly fished around Alaric's belly, then pulled out the spleen. Using the bayonet knife he cut off a thin slice of the organ then took a bite
Bonnie s stomach threatened to revolt.
"Most make the mistake of starting with the bowel. However, consuming the spleen will leave you alive the longest."
There was no doubt that Bonnie hated Alaric. Hated what he'd done to her. Hated what he'd wanted to do to her. But no one deserved to be eaten alive.
Stefan smacked his lips. "Delicious!"
"Sweet Jesus!" Klaus yelled. "You can eat him later!"
Stefan shook his head as he took another bite. "The flesh is the most flavorful when the heart is still beating."
Alaric moaned so deeply that Bonnie felt it in her stomach.
"Fucking kill kol first!" Klaus yelled.
Stefan rose from his knees to stand.
"Finally!"
But it wasn't to come after Kol. Instead Stefan squeezed some blood from the spleen then used it to scrawl scripture on the wall.
"No!" Klaus yelled but that didn't stop Stefan one bit.
Damon's POV
Damon juggled three bags of groceries as he tried to get the key into Bonnie's lock. Finally the key slipped in and Damon was able to open the door before all the apples he bought tumbled out into the hallway.
As he entered the apartment he announced. "Honey, I'm home."
He chuckled to himself as he passed by the hamster. "And imagine Herbie, everyone is amazed that I'm still single."
After putting the groceries away in the kitchen and cutting Herbie a few slices of apple Damon actually got down to work. He pushed the power button on Bonnie computer and sorted through her bills as it booted up. Besides making some crab soufflé tonight with caramelized cinnamon apples, he needed to get Bonnie's routine down.
The bills were in perfect order by due date. And her checkbook was immaculate. She was up to date to the penny. "Well if I save you, maybe you can balance my checkbook."
Behind the computer screen Damon found a digital camera. He flipped through her most current pictures. Herbie, Herbie, Herbie and more Herbie the hamster.
"Okay your life is about as exciting as mine." That Caroline had been right. Bonnie didn't get out much.
Finally the computer booted up. The first thing that Damon noticed was a file on her desktop labeled "Internet Dating Profile. Version 8."
Damon opened the file and read it out loud.
"Down to earth financially stable girl seeks down to earth financially stable guy."
The financially stable guy was highlighted and in a bright red font. Guess the girl had dated enough slacker/writer/actor types. Although he didn't think that she was necessarily highlighting those words-it looked like it was a track changes bolding.
"Alright let's see what the original title of your profile was."
"Down to earth girl seeks a guy…any guy (Non-serial killer types preferable, but not a deal breaker)."
Damon chuckled until Herbie started on his wheel again.
"Okay so not so funny now, but out girls got a sense of humor." Damon went back to skimming the profile.
"More stay at home kind of girl. Not sure about starting a family."
He remembered Conner description of her fiancée leaving her once she became pregnant. Clearly she had wanted to keep the child, then lost it not a few weeks later. He could understand why she might be conflicted about starting a new family. He had far less traumatic in his past and wasn't sure himself.
Damon went back to reading. "Collects antique perfume bottles."
Leaning back in his chair Damon shook his head. "Now why can't I ever find a profile like this?"
"Oh crap!" Damon looked at his watch.
"Crap, crap, crap, crap!" he muttered as he dialed the phone. A woman answered "Hey, Rebekah."
"Damon, what's going on?" The woman asked "I've been waiting at the restaurant for fifteen minutes."
"Yeah I'm sorry that I'm late."
"So you're just late you aren't standing me up?" Rebekah asked.
"Standing you up? No way. No how." Damon said yet the sad truth was that he had totally forgotten about the date. Of course it was horribly rude to say that. He needed to find a way to cover although he wasn't necessarily quick on his feet in situations like this.
"I was…I was in a meeting with the DA?"
Okay, maybe he shouldn't have made that sound so much like a question as a fact. Although Rebekah did seem to be buying it.
"Really the DA?"
Alright maybe he had shot too far with that one.
"Yeah it ran over, but hey what can you do? Tell the DA, 'I've gotta go?'"
"No, of course not." Rebekah said.
"So I'm super sorry but I'm across town. So I'm not going to make be able to make it."
He heard an audible sigh on the other end.
"But let me make it up to you. Let me take you out to dinner. How about chez appetite?"
"Chex appetitt? You don't have to. That place is so expensive."
Yes, it was, but he really didn't want to lose the one person he'd been able to stand since his injury. "Tonight then?"
"Are you sure you aren't just trying to delay our meeting?" Rebekah asked.
Sure he'd screwed up but not for that reason, so he could honestly answer no, not at all. "I'll meet you at the restaurant at eight tonight."
"And you'll be there?"
"You know it." Damon said, then clicked off the call.
A loud knock came at the door. "Hey, you in there?"
The knocking repeated, this time even louder and more obnoxious. Damon rushed to the door and opened it. The manager bursts in. he pointed at the hamster.
"I told you that rat had to go."
"When Bonnie's back from, you know, being kidnapped and all, you can take it up with her. But for now, I need to finish my investigation."
The manager looked around the room. "Aren't there supposed to be a bunch of guys in grey jumpsuits dusting for prints when you investigate?"
Damon urged the manager towards the door. "This apartment wasn't the crime scene. I'm just doing background work here."
The manager's bushy eyebrows shot up as he scanned the empathy wine glass and grocery bags in the kitchen. "Well the lease is only for one person. Two of you staying here means more rent."
"Bonnie has been kidnapped and most likely is being starved. We are not cohabiting."
"Coulda fooled me." The manager said nodding to the towel draped over the couch.
Damon put his hand on the sweaty man's back and more forcefully guided him to the door.
"I'll call if I need your services any further."
Finally the pudgy man who smelled of pastrami was out the door Damon shut the door and leaned back against the wood as he looked at Herbie.
"Your mom has got to move…" Then Damon thought about it. "Assuming that I save her."
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Next time on: The House Of Seven,
Kol's cell door is opened, Klaus's cell is opened and Elijah is waiting, a threesome insues... and not the kinky kind we want...
Jermey's cell is opened and he's...wtf? just gonna over look that idiot...why is he in there again *sighs*
Bonnie and Rippah Stefan face off...
No one is safe. Game continues on bitches!
Stay Tuned lol