The Silver Witch
There was a knock on the door and without even turning around, Damon made a short 'mm' and the visitor walked in. He heard the clicking sound of high, pointed heels on the old, wooden floorboards of Mrs. Flowers's boarding house – well, it was Mrs. Flower's boarding house but seeing as she was dead and his brother has been nothing but M.I.A for the past two weeks, Damon had nonchalantly called this place home. Even Elena seemed to have moved in to either Bonnie or Meredith's for the past few weeks. It was mostly Bonnie, Damon thought as he flipped the pages to his book. But then again, Elena has been spending quiet some time at Meredith's lately. He'd give Bonnie a 60 percent, give or take.
"Damon go to sleep." The visitor spoke with tedious authority and without even looking at her, he sensed her crossing both her arms across her chest. The crackling sound of Elena's nylon sleeves against one another were like ear-splitting fireworks now that he had enough of blood in him. It was almost as though those gallons of stolen blood from the blood bank had amplified his five senses and probably added a sixth one that allowed him to envision things without turning around to actual look at them.
"Good morning, nice to see you too." He responded with a hint of mock sarcasm and scanned the flimsy, brown piece of parchment that he had found folded in between page 207 and 208. Elena sighed, a habit that seemed too often now days, and took a seat on his bed.
"Damon, you haven't slept ever since…what happened." He sensed the inconspicuous delay in her speech and her face grew slightly uncomfortable for half a second before easing again. The both of them knew what happened the other day but neither understood what really happened. "And you're going to have to heal."
"I heal fast, thanks." He crumpled the paper when it came to no use and tossed it to one side of Stefan's old, mahogany desk. The wound that came as a result of the inexplicable stake last week had left a rather prominent scar on his right neck and at the sight of it, Elena would always sigh. It took a lot of resistance to prevent himself from actually snagging some of Mrs. Flower's powder to conceal it just to satisfy Elena's eyes and escape her whole 'Damon blah blah blah' speech. But of course, the scar still stood out like a Swan in a flock of dull, grey pigeons. Maybe now, I finally know how Harry Potter feels, Damon thought and chuckled to himself only to regret it a minute later when he sensed curiosity in Elena's eyes.
"Oh God, I was thinking of Harry Potter?" He told her and flipped the pages once more. "You don't have to keep worrying about me. I'm not a baby and just so you know Elena, I've had worse injuries." He pointed out but she didn't seem the least convinced.
"I know Damon." She pulled her toned legs onto his bed and crossed them. "But don't you get it? This is a wound that isn't actually healing."
Damon placed a hand on the silver slash on his neck and looked at her.
"Okay so maybe it is healing but it's healing at a really slow rate." She argued but he seemed satisfied enough by the fact that it was healing. Elena remembered the first few hours after the injuring and how the wound never stopped bleeding. It had actually taken her courage to try and focus all of her power onto him just to heal it. Of course, even combined, their powers weren't strong enough to heal this thing and by the time they managed to seal the wound up, Damon was burnt out and she had sensed a migraine in her overworked mind.
"Which is why you need sleep." She butted and Damon finally snapped his book shut.
"Dear, dear Elena." He peered at her through those ice black eyes. "First you come up with a theory that Vampires should drink coffee to improve their health." He stifled his chuckles, not wanting to hurt her. "And now you're telling me to get adequate sleep so I would heal?"
Elena felt her cheeks grow warm and scarlet when he spoke. Why was it that she sounded dumber when he said it?
"It sounds dumber than the time Stefan told me starving ourselves was a form of detox." He snorted but at the mention of that name, Elena felt herself grow queasy. Stefan.
Damon sensed the sudden change of air that beleaguered them. From dry humour, the atmosphere was suddenly lachrymose and Elena's youthful glow had changed to anxiety and worry.
"Hey." He tried to offer some comfort and took a seat beside her on the bed. "We'll find Stefan, I promise." A part of him was astonished at how sincere and real that promise sounded. Elena's gaze dissolved into his and a part of her felt relaxed and assured by Damon's sincere words. It was like a promising but dim radiant light of hope bright enough to shower her with warmth and assurance. Elena tossed him a smile and even though seventy percent of herself had hoped to get one back in return, she wasn't surprised when Damon immediately averted his glance and got up to being his normal self.
"After all, the cinemas are out of good movies now days." He rubbed his supple chin urbanely and flashed her that kilowatt smile that sent a thousand of pulsating electrical nerve impulses through her nodes of Ranvier. "I'm in the mood of a soap opera right now."
Elena rolled her eyes, having been accustomed to his sarcasm and tucked a lock of silky, russet brown hair behind her ears. "Mmmm-hmm." She pursed her lips and stretched her legs so that they hung over Stefan's tall mattress. "Don't forget you'll be part of the soap opera."
"Wrong." He pointed out and Elena watched him unbutton his black chemise only to change into another identical but clean pair. Uniform, Elena thought and laughed secretly to herself but of course, she was stuck in a rather small room with one of the most powerful vampires so it wasn't a wonder when he noticed it and grew curious himself.
"You were saying?" She quickly posed, not wanting him to broach the topic of her laughing. It seemed pointless and lately, there was never time to do pointless things. Not when Stefan was probably being tortured somewhere.
"I mean I'll be sitting back with a bag of popcorn while you and my brother get everyone else teary when you exchange those vows."
Elena sighed, not wanting to argue anymore. It was pointless arguing with Damon Salvatore and if he were to be thrown into a debate competition, it was undeniable that he would win it, hands down. With or without the support of his fellow teammates.
Elena was on the verge of calling his name when Damon pulled a chair up to sit opposite of her then ignorantly rested both his legs on the bed and slouched back.
"So did you find anything about what happened?" He questioned and Elena sighed pathetically.
"Not really." She murmured and pulled several old, dusty books from her bag. "I got these from the library yesterday." Elena watched Damon scrutinize it from behind those hawk eyes. "I thought we could probably go through it together but Bonnie called up last minute to get me to help her with the Fells Church Dinner Gala tomorrow." She pressed her lips together and sighed. "She's a member of one of the founding families, figures."
A wave of monotonous silence drowned them for a moment when Damon kept his gaze locked onto the books as though he hadn't heard a single word she said. Sighing, Elena stood up and fixed her coat.
"Anyway, I thought you could start first and give us a head start." She went on and he finally looked up.
"Where'd you get these anyway?" He wondered and scanned the viscous, red stamp marks on each of the book. "These stamps indicate that they're from–"
"The restricted section." Elena spoke calmly and shrugged. "I know."
Damon eyed her curiously for a moment and when Elena couldn't stand faking her cool any longer, she began to chuckle and rolled her eyes.
"I'm a bad girl sometimes, so what?" She tugged her bag closer to her and turned to leave, smiling the whole time as she approached the door. For once, being bad gave her a sense of pleasure like an adrenaline rush. Except a good one. This wasn't normally her. She didn't like risks or danger but I guess after dying twice and hanging out with two vampires, things in Elena had begun to change.
"Any clue about the silver liquid thing?" Bonnie asked as both herself and Elena continued to sew sheen sequins onto the burgundy piece of fabric as part of the décor for tomorrow's Arabian Nights Themed gala dinner. Elena shook her head and completed her fiftieth sequin while Bonnie struggled with her tenth.
"I gave Damon some books. He's probably reading them right now." She told her and looked up when she sensed the tickly feel of smoke in her nose. Across her where Bonnie sat, the fabric was in flames. Panic erupted in Elena and she peered around to make sure no one was looking.
"Bonnie!" She hissed and repeated it, louder to cut Bonnie out of her trance. It worked and the fire immediately extinguished, scarcely leaving a speck of ash to mark its occurrence.
"Sorry." Bonnie's fiery, flaming hair seemed to have drooped down the same time the fire got put out. Her beady eyes were filled with insincere remorse. "I was angry and frustrated with this thing." She gestured at the innocent, glittering sequin that seemed to reflect all seven colours of the rainbow as it shone beneath the ceiling light.
Rolling her eyes, Elena went on but Bonnie beat her to it and spoke.
"Elena, do you remember that spell I did when Damon ran out of town?"
Elena searched her mind and shook her head.
"The one where with bits and pieces of his DNA, I could reach him and call him back?"
Elena nodded.
"Well, I tried it on Stefan…" Bonnie began almost in an inaudible murmur. She sensed the rising hope in Elena and could almost see the pulsating nerves through her chalky, translucent skin but it all stopped but she tossed her a look of disappointment. "It didn't work Elena."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Elena spoke between her quivering lips.
"He's not dead." Bonnie concluded, reading Elena's mind. "There are two possibilities."
Elena sat up alert.
"He's either put up some form of barricade to shield his mind contact or he's in an undetectable place. Like…nowhere on earth and the grave doesn't count because I would know if he was dead. I'd get back black matter instead of a void." Bonnie told her and Elena bit her lip.
An undetectable place? She kept repeating those words in her mind over and over again until something like faint ember sparked up in her mind.
"Like another dimension?" She suggested and watched Bonnie merely shrug her shoulders.
Both girls got back to sewing the sequins but Elena had her mind somewhere else. Another dimension….she hasn't heard of one except for the one she sort of lived in while being semi dead and semi not dead. What does a person call a dead immortal? Yeah, exactly.
Bonnie was still fidgeting with the loose diamonds as Elena peered around to think but then something caught her eye. Her cerulean eyes landed on two young women- or rather ladies with silky, silver hair of the colour of a million of assorted translucent cobwebs. For a moment, Elena found her eyes focusing on them that the whole room blurred out but then she realized she wasn't hallucinating. Those two witches were sucking in all the detail from the room so that they stood out like a pair of diamonds in grey dust.
Elena blinked for a moment to redeem her vision and when the details finally returned to place, she sighed in relief. Elena was on the verge of looking away when she caught the witch peering around. For an inexplicable reason, the silver-haired lady with porcelain skin didn't seem to notice her and turned back to look at her fabric in satisfaction. She was sewing on sequins just like Bonnie and Elena. However, she didn't seem to be using her hands. Instead, Elena saw her locking her gaze onto the fabric just like how Bonnie had when she had been in a trance then in a second, the sequins – all of them, were completely sewed onto the fabric.
The lady smiled in satisfaction and slouched back nonchalantly as though proud of her work. Biting her lip, Elena turned back to look at Bonnie who seemed to had witnessed the whole thing too.
"What…"
"Bonnie." Elena began and quickly turned her head when the silver-haired lady caught them staring. Damn, Elena swore under her breath and got back to her work but before she could make her first stitch, she sensed a shadow over her burgundy fabric and a blatant squeak from Bonnie told her that the lady was standing right there.
"Hey." She spoke in a voice akin to the sound of harps playing. Slowly and reluctantly both Bonnie and Elena turned to face her. For a moment, the lady stood there staring at her and Elena noticed the icy, white rings that enclosed her dark pupils but after a moment, those cobalt blue eyes turned into a shade of dark, menacing grey as she spoke through her thin, pale lips.
"Forget what you saw…"
Elena wasn't sure if that was meant as an influence – something Damon and Stefan had told her about earlier where vampires use mine controls to influence people, or that the girl was trying to scare them.
Either way, it didn't work.
"Umm…"
The girl's eyes returned to normal immediately when she sensed her failed attempt and an expression between embarrassment and anger emerged on her face.
"Sorry." She apologized without sounding the least sorry. Elena found herself tongue-tied for a moment and merely sat there, clueless of what to say until the girl spoke up again. "It's just.." She paused and scanned the room. "I'm Azures." She shoved a hand out and before Elena could send a telepathic message or an inconspicuous gesture to warn Bonnie not to shake it, she did. The expression on Azure's face changed immediately to something Elena couldn't read.
She prayed the whole time hoping Azures wouldn't shove a hand out to her but then she did and without wanting to seem indecorous, Elena shook it.
An electric wave gushed through her veins upon contact with Azure's creamy skin and Elena watched those icy blue rings in her eyes stiffen, causing it to seem like sharp sheaths of ice instead of an ethereal glow. Something in Elena told her that this contact was tormenting Azures either physically or mentally and for another inexplicable reason, Elena enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that whatever Azures had planned to 'influence her' was not working.
Elena expected her to pull her hand instantaneously or gasp in fright or terror but Azures never released the grip but continued to stare at her before finally speaking.
"You're Elena Gilbert."
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Yes, I've been M.I.A for as long as I can remember.
Well, I blame RL mostly and my finals are this year so updates might be less frequent. To those who don't know, L.J's Shadow Souls was released this year and I finished it in like two..three days! xD Haha, but I wasn't thoroughly impressed with it though :S But that's just my opinion.
But to those who watch the TV show. Aaaahh, can Damon get any more yummier xD LoL.
Enjoy! Thanks so much for the reviews, favourites and alerts.
Seriously, you guys inspire me to keep writing.
Xo.