Hi, there!
I am back from my holidays, and unfortunately into studying mode once again. However, this chapter basically wrote itself, so.. here it is!
I hope you'll enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own TVD, even though I'd love to.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Elena and John were finishing their dinner when the front door of the house opened, making them exchange worried looks. John was quick to get out of his seat, and within seconds, a scary looking knife was nestled into his right hand, and he was motioning for Elena to move away. She obeyed without second though, her arms reaching behind her to grip at the counter, her eyes following John's body as he approached the door of the kitchen with steady and silent strides. Her heart was racing wildly within her chest, her brain failing to comprehend that they were once again in danger.
Three loud gasps sounded in the room when Jeremy appeared at the doorstep, his arm extended to shield himself from John's knife.
"Jeremy?" John asked bewildered, lowering the deadly weapon, and inspecting his nephew's form. He looked healthy. A haunted look in his face, but alive, and standing on his own two feet. "What are you doing here?"
"Gee, it's good to see you, too, Uncle John," Jeremy said mockingly, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"I thought you were supposed to be staying at Anna's," John explained, shrugging his shoulders. He hadn't meant to sound cold, he was just taken aback.
"I was… I mean, I am… I just… I wanted to come see Elena," Jeremy whispered, and his words finally brought her back to reality.
Her heart-clenching fear had transformed into all consuming relief the moment she laid her eyes on her brother, and noticed that the ugly marks were no longer covering his skin. He was wearing clean clothes, and he looked like he had had a long bath, and an even longer sleep.
"Jeremy," she cried out, tears filling her eyes, as he smiled gently, and approached her, his arms open. She couldn't help but flinch a little at the feeling of someone's body enveloping her own, despite the fact that she knew she was safe.
Jeremy bit down on his lip, his chest rising and falling quicker than usual. She was fine. Despite everything she was alive.
"Elena, I am so sorry for everything," he breathed into her hair, and felt her shaking her head from side to side.
"You are sorry?" she asked, tightening her hold on him. "I am the reason you were even in there."
"But I'm your brother," he countered back. "I should have found a way to take you out of there, instead of standing there like a useless dick and watching him torture you."
"Ssssh, it's over now, it's okay," Elena tried to soothe him. She was reminded of the day of her parent's funeral. That was the last time they had hugged each other, that was the last time they had even been that close. So much had changed since then, they had both grown up so much. But this, their bond, this hadn't been affected, and as long as it was in her power, it never would. With people outside your family, there is always a doubt, a tiny flicker of dread that maybe, just maybe a time will come when they will hurt you. But she knew one thing for sure. There was nothing that would ever lead her to risk Jeremy getting hurt. And she knew him well enough to know that he felt the same way.
"Let's sit down," she sniffed, taking a step back, and motioning towards the living room.
"Yeah, sure," Jeremy nodded, letting her lead the way. He waited until she was out of earshot before moving his attention to John.
"Hey, John… I...okay, here's the deal. I know we've had our differences, but Anna told me about your part in our rescue," John looked away. "I just wanted to thank you."
"I don't approve of what you have with Anna," John said stiffly, and Jeremy's expression instantly hardened.
"I never asked for your approval. You are not my parent, you don't get a say in who I spend my time with."
"Go talk to your sister. I'll clean up in here, and go to bed," the older man replied, not wanting to start a fight.
Elena sat down at the corner of one sofa, her knees drawn to herself, her fingers absentmindedly toying with the ends of her hair. She hadn't had the chance to give much thought to Jeremy. Damon had told her that he was safe, that Anna had it under control. At the time that had been enough. But now that she was calmer, she realized that Jeremy must be feeling as terrified as she was. They had been in there together, he had suffered great pain, and he had witnessed a murder. Him and Caroline would also have to face the world again, find a way to recover after this life-changing weekend. Instead of offering her consolation, the thought brought on guilt. Suffocating guilt.
"I can hear your brain working from over here," Jeremy broke her train of thoughts "or whatever exists inside your skull." Elena smiled against her better judgment.
"I would come see you," she whispered remorsefully, and he shrugged as he sat down on the coffee table, his elbows resting on his knees, his entire body turned in her direction. Under normal circumstances she would have scolded him, like her mother had taught her so many years ago. This used to be Miranda's favorite piece of furniture after all, for whatever reason.
"I get that getting out of this house is the last thing you want to do, Elena," Jeremy said honestly, because really, he felt exactly the same way. "Don't think it was any easier for me."
"Then, why did you rush it? You could have just given me a call, and we would have met when we were both ready."
Jeremy took a deep breath, one that put her immediately in a suspicious mode.
"I am a horrible brother for what I'm going to say right now, Elena, and I am so sorry…" his voice broke, and she leaned forward, hesitantly grabbing his hand.
"Talk to me, Jeremy. Tell me," she encouraged, and he squeezed her fingers for a moment.
"I need to get out of here, Elena," he murmured, standing up abruptly, her arm slipping to rest next to her feet. She nodded, even though she couldn't understand the sudden turmoil inside of him.
"Of course, Jeremy, go. We will talk later."
"No, you don't get it," he ran his hands through his brown hair, his head thrown back, and his eyes closed. He inhaled again, praying for strength that he definitely didn't have left inside of him. He was drained. Exhausted, and fed up. He felt lost, and powerless. "When I say out of here, I don't mean this house, Elena. I mean this town, Mystic Falls."
She jerked back shocked, her jaw dropped.
"Why? Where would you go?" she whispered slowly, unable to mask her pain.
"I can't be here. Everywhere I look I see pain. Everywhere I look I see mom and dad, I see Vicky, and now I see Stefan," he gazed at her apologetically. "I could deal with their absence, with the pain of their loss… but this? The fear? I can't live every day of my life like this. I need to see something different. I need to be somewhere else."
"So, you want to go? I don't know if I can come with you, and somehow I doubt Jenna would let you leave in the middle of the semester. She's cool, but not that cool." Jeremy sighed.
"I wasn't planning on asking her," he said gently, and Elena's eyebrows raised in disbelief.
"Compulsion?"
"It's the best solution. She'll just know I am in Denver, to the house of those relatives we have there, that I want go to school there because of an art program and that I'll be safe. You two won't have to worry about me. I can recover on my own pace."
"But, Jeremy, I want to be there for you. I want to help you." He shook his head.
"What you should want to do is help yourself, Elena," he replied, sitting next to her, and staring lovingly into her eyes. He needed her to see that he wasn't abandoning her. "We have both been through a lot. We have a long way ahead of us. I just think it's best if one's progress doesn't affect the other's."
"I want you here," Elena confessed quietly, and Jeremy frowned.
"And I wish I could be here for you. But if I stay…. Elena, if I stay I am afraid it will be like it was after the accident all over again. I need to leave. There's no other way. Please, understand this."
Elena fought back down the lump that had formed on her throat as she nodded repeatedly. Stopping him would be wrong. She had taken his free will once, she had influenced his life because she thought she was doing the right thing. They had ended up even more estranged than they already were. She didn't want to get through that again.
"When are you leaving?" her voice was hoarse and her vision blurred with tears. But that didn't mean she couldn't see it on his face that he was greatly conflicted.
"Probably some time on Monday. Anna is making a few calls to find a house for us to stay, but it won't take long." She nodded. "Elena, we will be in touch, okay?" Jeremy stressed, his eyes wide, sincere. "I am not going to disappear. I am just taking a break."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. It's good for you."
Elena inhaled deeply through her nose as she stared at her reflection on the mirror. Jeremy was leaving. Her immature younger brother wanted to go out of town with a girl, a vampire he had known for barely a few months. And there was nothing she could do, or say to change his mind. She wasn't even sure she wanted to. Was it good for him to stay in Mystic Falls? Who was supposed to protect him? Jenna? She had no idea how dangerous the world really was. Herself? Elena snorted as she turned off the lights and hurriedly made her way back to her room. She smiled adoringly at her fluffy blanket, wrapping it around her body, before sitting down on the bed, her legs crossed beneath her.
She couldn't even protect her own self. She had a tendency to trust all the wrong people. Her lower jaw trembled as images of Stefan started making their way inside her head, but this time she didn't try to stop them. She let her tears run down the sides of her face, pause on the edge of her cheeks and then drop on her shirt, wetting it. She had cared for Stefan. Their relationship might have not been everything she had initially expected it to be, but what they had was nice, safe. She had thought Stefan was a person she could lean on, someone she would be friends with a few years down the road. How could she had fallen so out? She delved into her memories, she searched for any hints in his behavior that things were bad, that he wasn't who he was supposed to be. She found none. And that angered her. To her mind, there was no way Stefan could be such an amazing actor. The problem was her. She was the stupid one, she was the one with the bad judgment. If she had been wiser, more careful… if she had been less stubborn and maybe taken Damon's advice, then none of these tragedies would have happened. Caroline wouldn't be in transition right now. Matt wouldn't be dead, and Jeremy wouldn't be packing his stuff.
An image suddenly rushed behind her momentarily closed eyelids, and she gasped loudly. The memories of her last day in the boarding house were rather blurry. Stefan's compulsion had confused her mind, and she only remembered bits and pieces. Sometimes only a facial expression, a shriek of pain, a drop of blood as it made its way to the wooden floor. She knew everything had to be stored somewhere into her subconscious, and she dreaded the moment when everything would come back to her. She dreaded moments like this one.
She hadn't asked Damon about Bonnie. He hadn't looked particularly interested into revealing more information, and she hadn't pressed the issue. Now she knew why. As she watched on repeat his hands slipping around Bonnie's neck, the bones breaking with a powerful crack and her body collapsing on the floor.. she understood that so far her mind had been shielding her from the horror of witnessing another friend's murder. But why wasn't she feeling that horror? She waited, and waited, fully prepared for the pain to rip through her heart, for the sorrow to make her feel weak and little. None of it happened. None. Elena frowned in confusion as she put more effort than ever before in understanding what she felt and why.
She went a few hours back, when Bonnie had walked into Stefan's bedroom, and Elena had felt for a few moments relief running through her body. It didn't last long.
"I had no choice, Elena," were Bonnie's words. There was nothing she could have done, not a single action, using either her human, or her witch powers to save her friends.
"There is always a choice," Elena muttered under her breath. Even without putting much effort into it, she could think about a hundred things she could have done to avoid the Barding house mess. That was why she couldn't accept Bonnie's reasoning. Her not helping save them wasn't Bonnie's biggest mistake. No. The fact that she had helped Stefan with his plan was. Without her, without the barrier she had set up, Damon or Anna would have been able to get inside, take Stefan down, and them out. Without her, they would have all been alive and un-traumatized. For that… for that no, she couldn't forgive her.
Elena's train of thoughts was rudely interrupted by the sound of the window breaking open, and the curtain waving wildly in the cold wind. She gulped down her shock, hesitantly standing up and approaching the window carefully. Was she actually expecting someone to attack her the moment she was standing beside it? Whatever she had expected didn't happen, and she couldn't help but rest her head against the cold glass and let out a ragged breath. Her skin left a mark on the smooth surface, and for a moment she thought that maybe a cleaning spree would help her get her mind off everything. The corners of her mouth were almost turning upwards in a smile when she span around, and her heart jumped all the way up to her throat. Because she had believed that she was alone in the bedroom. Wrong. Because she had believed that Stefan was locked in the Salvatore cell. Wrong again.
Damon had never exactly loved sleep. Especially after turning into a vampire, he considered it a necessary nuisance. So, the fact that he was losing his sleep wasn't the reason why he was pissed that night. He was pissed there was a beautiful girl inside that house who was blaming herself for things she had no control over. He didn't need to be one of the sparkly vampires in Caroline's idiotic book. He could practically hear the gears in her head spinning, spinning all together in the same direction, in the wrong direction. He didn't like that she was doing that to herself, but he didn't know how to put some sense into the girl. She had looked so delicate, so fragile earlier that night, and he was afraid he might do something to scare her, or say something to break her. His insides ached for some alcohol. Rich, expensive alcohol dripping down his throat and burning its way down his stomach. He would even like the company of his newest drink-buddy at this point. He would even let him punch him in the face again. He rubbed the side of his jaw instinctively. He could still feel the force of Alaric's blow. The man definitely knew how to throw a punch, especially considering he was human. He shook his head. No. He refused to leave Elena alone. He refused to let her down for the second time.
The buzzing of his phone caught his attention, and he fished it out of his pocket curiously. He didn't recognize the number, and with everything that had happened lately he couldn't help but hit the accept button, and hope that this wasn't somehow baby bro's plan, part 2.
"Katherine got Stefan," Anna's now familiar voice called through the line, and Damon's eyes widened considerably.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that she turned back to her bitchy self. She went all primal on my mom, unlocked the cell and disappeared with him." The moon was high in the sky, its glimmer faint due to the clouds that occupied the greatest part of the sky. The wind had picked up again, making his hair fly around his head as he was perched on the roof of the Gilbert house.
"Well, where did she go?" Damon requested as he stood up on his feet and gazed ahead into the forest. He couldn't make out anything, not even with his vampire super eyes, but that didn't mean they couldn't be out there.
"How am I supposed to know? There is no living, or un-living person that can get how her twisted brain works, I'm telling you!" Anna exclaimed in frustration, and there were several sounds in the background.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you think I am doing? Locking up the house. I have no idea what they want, but I am sure as hell not going to let them hurt Mother, or Jeremy again. You should do the same."
"I am already playing neighborhood watch," Damon mumbled. These were the last coherent words he managed to utter. Everything that came out of his mouth afterwards was a combination of curses and groans of pain. He didn't get to see who jumped him, the sucker got him in the back, although he had a pretty good idea of who it was. He felt the sharp prickle of the needle as it went through the skin of the back of his neck. His body went limp, and he lost his balance, the wind slapping his flesh harshly as he dropped into thin air, which was by far more fun than the moment he hit the ground with a loud thump. He could faintly hear several bones of his body cracking, but his senses were overwhelmed by the disturbingly familiar sense of vervain spreading through his veins. He took a long, strained breath. The air felt stale in his mouth, his lungs not really able to function properly at the moment. Through his daze, he managed to pick up the sound of distinct conversations, and a frantic rhythmic beating that he would always be able to recognize. His mouth opened, his tongue moved. No sounds came out, but if someone had been looking at his lips, he would have been able to read one word. Elena.
Stefan was sitting on her bed, casually leaning on his forearms, a simple smile on his frozen expression. Her body shook as his eyes drank her in, slowly inspecting her long sweatpants and the baggy t-shirt. It wasn't her usual attire. She knew it, he knew it. He almost looked proud of himself, for making her change her habits, for ruining her life, for being a monster. She wasn't scared. This time there really wasn't a single thing he could do to make her feel worse. Whatever he did, her emotions would remain a flat line of sorrow and regret.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she spat angrily at him, her expression distorted in a grimace of pure hatred. Stefan shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
"Just passing by to see how you are doing. Is that an acceptable reason?" Elena scoffed at his forced kindness.
"No, it's not. Wherever you go, disaster follows. But between you and me, Stefan, there is nothing here left for you to crush between your fingers. You have taken people I loved from me. You have given a life's worth of nightmares to the rest of us. So, if you are here to kill me, I suggest you get it over with. Otherwise, get the hell out of my house."
Stefan's eyes sparkled as he stood up to his full height. Even through her angered state, she had the wisdom to take a step back. Not that there was much floor behind her to step up on.
"You should know by now that when I go out to kill, I do it with more style."
"Congratulations," she replied quickly, sarcasm colouring her voice "you are quite the artist, aren't you?"
"You are so young, Elena," Stefan whispered, blurring to her and delicately tracing the outline of her jaw. Elena's entire form clenched. She was ready to defend herself if she had to. "You don't understand how it feels, knowing that you will be young, and strong, and beautiful, forever. Contrarily to common belief, it can become quite boring at times, and that's when you have to pick something up to keep yourself entertained."
"You could have written a book instead of becoming a killer," she whispered. She was certain he had heard her, but for whatever reason he chose to ignore her, and reaching behind her, pulled the window back open. Her hair flew in a frenzy, and she wound her arms around her to protect against the biting chilliness that came with the wind.
"I need you to invite someone in for me," Stefan explained, or rather ordered, his expression hardening when she started shaking her head from side to side. "You know I can get very persuasive if I want to. Please, don't make me go there," he warned, but Elena was already retreating.
Her gaze was fixed in the darkness outside of the window frame. What evil lurked out there? She didn't have to wait long to find out, since this was apparently a particularly impatient evil. One moment the windowsill was empty, and the next one, a petite figure was sitting there. Long brown curls hid her face from sight, riding all the way down the middle of her back. Elena could also see a high heeled boot pressed against the edge of the window, at the end of a long leg. A long leg that she knew a little too well. She realized who the woman was, moments before she turned her head to the side, and the two pairs of perfectly identical eyes met for the first time.
"Hello, Elena," Katherine drawled, making her shudder. Elena wasn't aware her voice could sound so seductive, so mysterious and so dangerous.
"What is this, Stefan?" Elena requested, regaining her composure. "What game are you two trying to play?"
"Why? You wanna play with us?" Katherine asked excitedly, and Stefan rolled his eyes. There was no way Katherine could have known what a boring person to be around Elena was.
"No games," he piped in. "Just say the words, and we will be gone." Elena shook her head.
"I don't believe you."
"Clever girl," Katherine breathed, lightly running her fingers over the invisible barrier keeping her out of the room.
"Maybe you should carve that onto Damon's gravestone. I'm thinking something close to… Damon Salvatore. Beloved monster. He died because Elena Gilbert was too stubborn to say four little words." Elena's face noticeably paled at the mention of his name, and Stefan felt a pang of something deep inside his chest. He pushed it away.
"What are you talking about?" she looked around, this time desperately searching for a way out. "Where is Damon? What have you done to him?" she owed him her life, and Jeremy's and Caroline's. She wouldn't hesitate to save him back if he was indeed in danger. Whatever the cost.
"He's taking a nap in your backyard," Katherine replied calmly "a vervain induced one, of course. And you know how vampires get with vervain. It's like anaesthesia to us. I could push a big thick stake through his long dead heart and he wouldn't have the mind to move a single finger to stop me."
Elena's breath quickened at the purposefully poorly concealed threat. Her eyes were fixed on her evil twin, Stefan almost forgotten. That's why the words were out of her mouth before Katherine had even fully stood up.
"You can come in." Everything froze for a few seconds. Elena's chest heaved as realization sunk in. Katherine's little smirk made her look like a mischievous cat, and then, with the blink of an eye, said cat was standing impossibly close to her, head cocked to the side, eyes narrowed, but never once touching her. It was as if Katherine was studying her pray. Namely, her. Elena swallowed, and Stefan rubbed his hands together.
"Can we have a little fun, now?" he asked, walking towards them. From the corner of her eyes, Elena saw his arm raising, and between his body and Katherine's, she felt trapped. The room was suddenly too small, the air not enough, her heart beating a tad too fast.
Before he made contact with her skin, though, Katherine's hand shot out, and Stefan went flying down the floor. Elena sighed in relief, silently thanking Katherine, even though she had to have some kind of ulterior motive. Katherine removed her gaze from the human girl, and glared back at Stefan, who was still on the ground, looking too shocked to even consider moving.
"That wasn't a part of our deal, Stefan," she stressed strictly. "I got you out of the basement to help me get in here."
"You never said we were to keep her intact," Stefan protested. Katherine growled, and kneeled over him, pinning his arms on the floor. Tightly, judging from Stefan's grunts.
"You need to remember, Stefan. I turned you, so you will never be stronger than me, regardless of how many states you drain of blood. This is your best chance. You want to go against me? No problem. But I am handing you back to Pearl, and Damon, and something tells me that he won't be very happy to see you again. Actually, I think he might even want to kill you."
"Our mama is right, Stefie," Elena's head whirled so quickly, that the muscles of her neck all but screamed in protest. Damon had appeared through the window, his clothes torn, and muddy, but his body tense, his eyes alert and glinting dangerously. He was gone as abruptly as he had showed up, and for a moment Elena wondered if she had imagined him. It was only after Katherine had resumed her position next to her that she realized what was going on. She gazed around, struggling to follow the movements of the blur around her room. Even with her keen-for a human- eyesight, she couldn't see much. Every now and then, the Salvatore brothers would pause. Once, it was Stefan pushing Damon against the door of the wardrobe, which resulted in a deep crack on the wood. Next, it was Damon who slid Stefan on the surface of the desk, dropping all kinds of objects to the floor. She heard the sound of a photo frame shuttering, but she didn't look down. Her eyes were focused on the two vampires.
"Hello, brother," Stefan said cockily, and Damon hissed in anger, raising his brother by the collar of his shirt and banging his head against the desk.
"Don't steal my lines," he growled, landing a punch straight on to Stefan's nose. Elena didn't flinch at the crack that resounded in the room. She smiled. "Find your own god-damn ones." Elena's eyes widened as they moved again, but to her great horror, it was Stefan who had the upper hand, now. He kicked Damon, again and again, with unprecedented viciousness. Katherine leaned closer to whisper to Elena's ear.
"Don't worry, it's the motive that plays the greatest part in a fight." Elena raised an eyebrow in confusion, even though most of her attention was still on Damon. "If Damon cares about you as much as you do for him, he will put Stefan down in no time at all." Elena considered her words for a moment, as Damon ducked to avoid Stefan's punch, and managed to grab him from the back of his legs.
"I thought you wanted Stefan to be all right," Elena murmured, as Damon brought Stefan on the floor. The force of the knock left the younger one motionless for a few moments, long enough for Damon to jump on top of him, and start hitting every inch of his brother's body he had access to. Blood was oozing out of both of them, but it was clear who had the most injuries.
"Stefan is a big boy," Katherine eventually replied, watching the fight in front of her, with what could only be described as less than mild interest. "He should be able to take care of himself."
Elena was taking particular joy every time Damon's fist made contact with Stefan's body. She was mesmerized by the strength behind Damon's muscles, by the concentration and vile etched on his face. With every growl that escaped Stefan, with every drop of blood that left his body, a little of her own pain vanished. But even she was shocked when Damon sat up, and letting out a feral growl snapped one of the legs from a nearby chair. Katherine's sharp intake of breath made it clear that she wasn't expecting this turns of events, either. Stefan's eyes were closed, his arms lifelessly resting on the carpet, but he seemed to come back to his senses when Damon straddled his waist again, the stake raised high above his head. Stefan whimpered and struggled beneath him, but none of it mattered. Damon was able to keep him down with one hand.
"I have killed thousands of people. Humans, vampires. I have never been so excited. I have never been so fucking pissed."
"Damon, don't…" Stefan begged, and Elena nervously clenched her hands behind her back.
"You fucked up big time, Stefan. No one hurts Elena and lives to talk about it. You are no exception." For a moment Damon stopped, and turned to stare at Elena. Her eyes were filled with tears, but they weren't of sadness. They were of relief and justice. She nodded once. It was enough. Damon rearranged the stake in his palm, and gritted his teeth as he gave his brother a last look of pure contempt. "Rot in hell."
Elena held her breath as he lowered the stake. Inches before it slipped into Stefan's chest, Katherine's hand was wrapped around Damon's.
"If you do this, you will regret it in a few decades." A low growl built within Damon's throat.
"Stay out of this," he barked, and Katherine shook her head.
"Sorry, can't do."
In another blur, the stake flew in the air, landing near the bathroom door, and Katherine had dragged Stefan back to his feet. He was barely conscious, but she didn't seem to struggle too hard to carry him.
"Trust me, you will be thanking me in a few years," she said to Damon, who instantly rose up to his feet, and made a move to approach her. She raised a hand warningly.
"Don't make a fool of yourself by thinking that you can go after people stronger than you are, like your brother did." That stopped him dead on his tracks.
"I will be seeing you around, Elena," she called cheerfully, as she climbed over the window. "I think I like your small town. We might stick around a little bit."
Lucy looked up from the magazine she had been flipping through over the last hour, when Katherine blurred into the room and deposited a very unconscious Stefan on the couch.
"He is going to get blood on the carpet," she pointed out, her lips forming a disapproving scowl.
"Then, you will do one of your magic tricks to clean it. I am not willing to play maid for you," Kat shot back, walking towards the wet bar and pouring herself a generous amount of the first kind of alcohol she came across. Vodka.
"Whatever happened to him, anyway?" Katherine shrugged indifferently.
"Damon knocked him down. He was quite sexy while doing it, I might add." Damon had always been hot, even when he was nothing but a mere human. Now… well, it turned out that immortality really suited him.
"Damon?" Lucy placed the magazine on the coffee table and sat up straighter. "I thought you were supposed to make sure that Stefan was kept locked inside a cell."
"I don't like doing what I am told," Katherine smirked. "Things were getting boring for my taste. I decided to spice them up," she ignored Lucy's head moving from side to side in disappointment. She would gladly see that head rolling on the floor, if only she didn't need a witch by her side. "I freed Stefan, met Elena, and helped Damon burn off some steam. Plus, I got myself a Gilbert device. Busy day." She fished into her pocket for a few seconds, and then triumphantly held the precious object up. Lucy stood up, and stretched her hand towards her. Katherine instantly hid the device behind her back.
"No one is touching this," she warned sternly, and the witch rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. So, now that you have it, what are you going to do with it?"
"Wait for the right moment to kill a bunch of vengeful vampires."
Lucy sighed and glanced around the room. The house they had chosen to live in while in Mystic Falls was in fact a mansion. It was beautiful, decorated with all sorts of ridiculously expensive items. She appreciated the luxury and comfort that came with it, but terribly missed her own humble apartment.
"You got what you wanted. I have paid my debt to you, which means I am free to go." Her words made Katherine stare at her incredulously and chuckle. She set down the glass, and slowly approached the younger woman.
"We both know that wasn't our deal, Lucy." Katherine said, a sinister smile on her lips. "By helping me get the device you have repaid your own life. However, I clearly remember saving not only you, but also your mother, father and two annoying sisters." She cocked her head to the side as Lucy fixed her eyes on the floor. "It will be a long time before you will not be in debt to me. Deal with it, please, because right now, I have to welcome someone into the vampire world," she added, as a faint gasp from the second floor reached her ears.
Caroline was awake.
Don't think I have forgotten of our beloved Caroline. We will see more of her right at the beginning of the next chapter. Will she complete the transition? Or not? If yes, will it be her own choice? Hmmmm….
Chapter 11 is actually in progress… I have two scenes completed, but the two waiting to be written are much lengthier. Hopefully, I will be able to update before the end of August. (not making any promises, though)
I would be delighted to hear your thoughts on the way the story is progressing. I understand that the pace might seem a little slow right now, but there is a saying that I think is very fitting in this case… something about the calm before the storm? *winks*
Anyway!
For update news, TVD rambling and general discussions you can follow me on twitter: ts_eirini
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Take care, you amazing readers!
Eirini.
P.S. Big fat thanks to my friend and beta Grace4Delena aka Frickholic for helping me perfect this story. You should read her two brilliant one-shots if you haven't already! Trust me, you won't regret it! The girl has talent!