He'd been a demon for eons.
There's a lot of hullabaloo about demons, but they're nothing special. It's not hard to become one. Once you kill the right number of people, meet your quotas, so to speak, it's smooth sailing all the way to the top.
Eons he'd been at it. And never once had he felt sympathy for another creature. Never once.
Then up popped the blue-eyed baby Salvatore, tugging at his heart strings…
Jaxxon sighed. They'd take away his "League of Evil" membership card for sure, but he had to do something. Klaus was the one who'd summoned him, so absolutely jumping sides was out of the question, but maybe… just maybe… he could squeeze out some juice for this Damon. He let out some of his own power, shielding the baby vampire from the magic storm going on inside. "To reiterate, you really shouldn't be here." He spread his arms out on the unnaturally hot stone bannister. The temperature of the air alone was enough to kill a human. Add the lightning above… his day ring had cracked and he hadn't even noticed. The sun was going to be up soon. He'd die, and wouldn't even notice. "This is so far out of your league Damon, why don't you just scat? This is no place for youth. If I were you, I'd be airborne by now. What's stopping you, man? Or are you one of those blokes who need to get burnt to learn that fire is hot?"
Honestly, those were his favourite people.
"Youth?" the baby vampire scoffed. "I'm a senior citizen… Coming up on two centuries in a couple decades."
I know. Don't you want you to live to see it? He painted his face in pleasant amusement. "If only all senior citizens looked like you…" He had no end to that so he left it hanging and winked. Drawling out the end of a sentence, adding a wink, a smirk… neat little tidbits to make tedious conversations entertaining. He'd been having fun with that lately, generating innuendos and utter nonsense.
"I know, right?" Damon quipped.
Jaxxon smiled. "You've got heart, laddie."
"So, you're not going to kill me, then? Or is this the "we could have been friends" speech?"
Technically, the latter. He'd come out on the balcony to end the little vampire-ling's lights. Turn him to ash. Dasvidaniya… "No… I'm not going to kill you," he said as he decided right there on the spot. At no point in time had Klaus specifically ordered him to kill Damon. He wasn't doing anything to specifically hurt Klaus' plans. And it wasn't as though Klaus had put all his eggs in his one demonic basket. Technically, he was just there for back up, if, if the summoning actually worked."I'm going to help you."
"Thought you were helping Klaus…"
And I'll help you too. "Yeah…" Trouble with that was demons never really help anybody. It's kinda implied just by the title. Helpful demon? Pshh. "You know what they say about meeting your heroes in real life…" Not that Klaus had been his hero. Demons don't like heroes. They like villains, and their favourite trick is turning regular old good guys into villains. "I was destined to be disappointed." Maybe it was just bad timing. Simple bad timing. Understandably, with the ruggedly handsome Maddox abandoning him and the witch-girl getting taken out… anybody'd be in bad mood. But still… A badass demon likes to feel appreciated every now and then.
"Klaus not evil enough for you?"
"Neither of you are. You sell yourself as villains, but I'm the only villain here. The rest of you are just anti-heroes."
But you've got potential, my little Damon.
Poor, little unloved Damon… Only give him a millennium or two and who knew? He'd never met a man with so much raw ability at the supernatural… He had 'legend' written all over him. Well, maybe not… "This thing with Bonnie serious? No offense or anything, but last week you were serving yourself up to Elena–"
"You too?" the vampire scowled. Even his scowls were nice. "If I was still sniffing after Elena, you'd think I'd be here?" Damon ran his hands up his own arms, doing his pitiful best to suppress a shiver and chuckled. "I'm on team Bonnie, now. I love her."
"Ooo," he flinched, "L-word."
Yeah… Vampires. Sad little shadow creatures they were. Singular creatures of the night. Withering, apathetic shades lingering in a world that longed to forget them. 'You are dead, man,' he wanted to say. 'Don't you remember dying? Isn't it coming back to you a little?'
They never do, though. Not for long.
'You are a rotting corpse.' A good-looking, well preserved rotting corpse, but still… Sad, sad, funny little things, these vampires. They start out as human and then the shadows set in and lure them into oblivion.
Damon. So much of his humanity gone, so much still to be done away with. What would he have been like, this boy, as a human? What manner of man? Dynamic, surely. Epic. The world would have been at his feet. Instead…
"You love her?" You vampire? You dead thing? You, scum of the underworld, dare to love a witch? What do you hope for? Why do you hope? Why do you persist? Jaxxon let more of his own shielding power flow out as fresh, more dangerous lightning stabbed through the black sky.
Vampires. Doomed spawn. Festering sores on the backside of all creation. Parasitic charlatans in a timeless mummer's farce, mimicking choruses and fancy dance steps to beguile young, nubile prey… "You love her?" he repeated to himself.
Vampires cannot love, and that is a fact. The skin and bone and muscle might remain intact, but the spirit is where love is born and it is the spirit that decays in a vampire.
Do you still have a soul, Damon? Somewhere inside that marvellous body? In a locket, maybe?
He should know. He was a demon, and his was the business of souls…
Vampires obsess.
Feed, fuck, kill – and all together now!
They possess and envy and covet. They trap. They ensnare. They lust…They…
They treasure… They protect…
Above all things, know thyself.
Do you know yourself, Damon? Can you even see how the night clings to you? As steadfastly as you cling to the light? You belong to the darkness… Even though you fight it so…
"You say you love her but–"
"A demon's going to tell me about love?" The vampire said with a belittling smirk, "I'm all ears."
"Why, don't I look like a wine and chocolate type of fella?"
It's a popular misconception that demons can't love. They're known only for their uncompromising talent at hate, but the propensity for hate is always mirrored by a well of love. They only hate the people they love. They only destroy that which they cherish. It is a wicked love, almost. A wicked system.
We fall in loveconstantly, indiscriminately! The effect is the same as if we never fell in love at all. Or worse. But we still love.
Look, right now, I'm falling in love with you. You and those blue eyes.
Unlike vampires who get filled up with any passing trinket, who can only manage one singular passion at a time, demons are creatures of variety. They are nothing if they aren't multi-taskers. Multifaceted and poly-sided. Okay, Damon. I'll add you to my list. Let this Bonnie destroy you the way they all do. Let her chip away at you, fixing you. Let her break you into pieces. Then I'll glue you back together with my own special brand of TLC. "You love this girl thing… This Bonnie, and you want me to arrange a 'happily ever after' for you?"
"Not really but–" another pillar of dazzling white electricity touched down, hitting the power lines and setting off sparks. Damon flinched. Every vampiric instinct in his body telling him to get away. One single affection for one single human keeping him there. "What the fuck is she doing?"
"Channelling."
"Can you help her?"
Yes. But I won't. I don't help. "Not really. Where Geraldine is, I can't breach that. Geraldine's in what I like to call Fluffytown. Everything over there is all sugar cubes and happiness. It's like an upscale version to the Other Side. Better than Witch Side too. Very posh. Gated community kind of posh. Her reward for killing one thousand demons."
"Jeez, she really tore into you guys."
"Tell me about it… Anyway, It'll take a lot of mojo to actually get Geraldine to come over. A summoning is like a finger up the ass. You can't expect a woman to come if you shove a finger up her ass," and he only just heard the way that sounded… "I mean, it all depends on the woman and whose finger it is. You see, I don't mind it at all having a finger stuck up my ass. In fact, I encourage it. And if it's Klaus' finger to boot? Have you seen him? I'll let him stick anything anywhere… but Geraldine is one of those 'London lady' types. Doesn't like being fingered, not one bit. Magwyr's going to have to pull her back to this dimension."
"I feel like if I'm catching fire from the inside out."
Because you are. "That's a vampire thing. Magic and the undead don't really mix." Which is the understatement of all time. Witches… Holier than everything to walk the earth with their 'servants of nature' bullshit… They never really get along well with the other members of the supernatural community. Vampires? A vampire is the muck under a witch's nails. The dog-shit under their shoe… "This 'love' between the two of you… before I get all excited, you figure it's mutual?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"It has to be. She has to love me. I can make her love me."
Classic vampire talk.
"I mean," Damon continued, "She has at least ten thousand reasons not to, and I don't really have a working gameplan, so I'm more or less going to wing it and rely on my charm and good looks."
"What woman could resist–"
"Bonnie," Damon cut him off. "Bonnie's like one of those dolls that come with stock phrases – 'I hate you, Damon'; 'Fire'; 'Get away from me'; 'Don't touch me'; 'Eww,'; 'I hate vampires'.
And you need conversation? Gag her and be done with it, mate. He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you'd worked through that. I can smell her all over you…"
"Yeah… That's more Magwyr than Bonnie. The closest I've gotten to Bonnie turned out to be hallucinatory."
"Isn't that good enough?" It should be. "You have Magwyr working the behavioural angle for you… The sex ought to be off the walls… After this entire shebang goes off, she'll have time for you. You give her some blood, she gives you a fuck or two…"
"That's not what I want…"
Vampires. Always wanting more than they deserve.
"I want Bonnie. My Bonnie. The only Bonnie that should exist."
"But you need Magwyr." He pointed to the maelstrom churning above their heads. "Bonnie couldn't do this by herself."
"And I care?"
Vampires don't care about anything… except what they want.
"All I want is Bonnie. I just want to grab her and get away from all of this."
"She's killing Klaus, saving the day, saving Elena–"
"Do I give a fuck?"
With his eyes all black, his fangs dripping red, his lips curled back in one of the most savage snarls Jaxxon had ever seen, he couldn't tell.
"What do you want me to do about it? Go back in time?" The look of pure hope and adoration that flashed across Damon's face in that moment was too much to bear so he added quickly, "Cause I can't."
He could. But he wouldn't. The last time he went back in time… shit had hit the fan. "What I can help you out with is keeping her alive."
"Why?" Damon's face blanked… It hadn't even crossed his mind that his little Bon Bon might be giving a little too much to summon this Geraldine. The winds were dying down. The fire and lightning was gradually becoming less and less intense. Damon might not be able to tell, but he was a trained demon, old in the ways of ritual resurrection.
"Why do you think Klaus summoned me? My presence here distorts the dimension. I'm too upper level for this realm, I make it unstable… Her magic I daresay, is going to be iffy."
"You're blocking her?"
"Not intentionally. It's just me being me. Geraldine's going to be a no-show." Of course, it was intentional. He couldn't very well sit back and watch themopen up that can of worms again. However Klaus wanted to get his kicks was one thing but Geraldine was another fucking matter entirely. He had his demon peeps to look out for. Geraldine and her fucking buck teeth could go get bent.
"The resurrection's not going to work?"
What I just said…"No… If she was coming, she'd have been here already… You don't think she knows thatKlaus undid the curse? You don't think she noticed the big fucking hybrid in the room? I noticed and I'm all the way in DemonSide."
"If Geraldine doesn't come…"
Ahh, it's beginning to dawn on you… The lot of you are fucked.
If he was Magwyr, or Damon, or Elijah, he'd already be so far 'd have taken to the , eternally stubborn, stupid wench as she was, would not stop. Of all things, she is not a woman of moderation. Insteadof realising that her slayer was a no show, she'd kept amping up the magic. She doesn't care that it's Bonnie's body she's breaking. It's been centuries since she's channelled that much magic. It's been centuries since she's had a body that could hold her power… And what does she do with it?
Magwyr will make a very fine demon.
Inside… what's happening inside?
He let his power slip out again, just a faint flicker…
Ahh. He's back… My main man.
He really was a handsome fella, that Klaus. The beauty was in his lips… in the slender line of his hips… He was passable attractive as a woman, but watching the hybrid strut about… flexing his own power in response to Magwyr…
This is why I love Klaus. Klaus, Ricky Ponting and Stone Cold Steve Austin – his top three men in the world. Count them out, go ahead. Close your eyes. Blink, and you miss it. The fucking Comeback Kings.
So fucking confident! Who shows up to a duel and says to the other guy, "Hey, why don't you go first?"
Motherfucking Klaus is who. Brilliance.
One stone and he gets Bonnie, Magwyr, Elijah and Damon all gathered together for the slaughter. In one single day… he'd managed to deal with all the pesky nuisances of his life.
He'd blinked and missed it! Damn…
Curse you Damon. You infernal distraction!
Hestudied the little child witch, making her way around the circle, crushing the precious items under her heel. No Greta, no Maddox, no problem. Witch number three steps up to the plate and gets things done. She'd put Klaus back in his body. Blown Magwyr out of the fucking water. Good for her.
I came all the way from Demon Side and still missed it?
Damn… Klaus had just gotten him so fucking pissed though… going on and on. "Oh, I don't have any friends…" "Oh, I miss my girlfriend…" "Woe is me…" I hate mopey, suicidal wankers…
He wasn't moping now though. He was back to action. Like the days of yore. A mouthful of fangs… Claws… a half-mane thing going… Someone or something had tripped him off.
Anastasia was positively glowing with that evil, child prodigy energy. She'd be one to watch in the next coming decades. They'd make such a badass team.
Kill them all! Kill them all!
He kept the smile from reaching his face, and by reflex, slowed time down.
Just in time to catch Klaus mid-lounge, claws outstretched and aimed at Bonnie's little heart. Shit.
How would Damon deal with that?
Not well…
And vampires do tend to go into sleep mode when the going gets tough…
He slowed time down even more, down to a crawl. Klaus was still moving, at about an inch a minute… his facial expression shifting ever so slowly to one of utter confusion. He's going to be pissed. "If I help you–"
"Help me with what?"
Your girlfriend's about to get her heart ripped out of her chest. And as much as I like a heart-ripping, I don't want to see you get lost in the darkness without her. You'll end up like Stefan, or worse. Sad and brooding…
I prefer you raging. Smashing the china.
He snapped his fingers bringing time to a stop altogether. Fuck…
Less worse than going back in time, but barely.
And how is that fucker still moving. You had to give it to Klaus, he had a lot of tricks up his sleeves. There weren't a lot of hybrids out there that could resist a demon stopping time. Tricks, witches, charms…
"Well," he slapped the vampire on his back. "I'd tell you to seize the moment but I've stopped time, so strictly, we'll be stuck in the moment for a while, but you get my meaning." He pointed to the snarling hybrid moving in slow motion towards the witch. "He's going to rip your girl's beating heart out. Maybe you want to go back inside and try to save the day? I don't know... Be heroic, why don't you? Ask yourself what Kevin Costner would do. Nothing says I love you like stepping up to a raging millennia old hybrid. You'll never live it down."