Chapter 17
"Is that it?" I asked as Stefan opened the book.
The pages crackled with every turn.
"Yeah…I think so" he said.
"Well what do you know?" We heard a voice say. I stood up immediately and turned around pointing my wand at the voice behind me. The light reviled Damon. With the dirtiest look I've ever seen on him. "This is an interesting turn of events"
The day started like any other day…well…almost. This morning, instead of waking up in my fluffy, soft bed, I woke up in the arms of Stefan, in his bed. My first 'sleep' with Stefan. That morning was rudely interrupted by Damon ordering us to look for Emily Bennett's grimoire. Like that was going to be easy. I got dressed for the day and after that, Stefan and I started looking for Jonathan Gilbert's journal, with the help of Elena, or coarse.
We went back to the house where Elena took out some boxes and and we started searching.
"Stefan," I said. "Do you really think Damon believes that were trying to help him free, Katherine?"
"I don't think Damon what to believe," Stefan said. "Trust isn't something that comes naturally to him"
"Yeah…I actually think Damon's that gullible to believe us. I just…feel bad for him. All this time, he didn't do all the bad things because of the person he is, he did it for love. Cute but…twisted"
"There are other ways to get what you want. You don't have to kill people. Damon has no regard for human life. He enjoys inflicting pain on others. 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 going to make that mistake again"
"So….if the tomb, somehow, gets opened….and Damon does get Katherine back…"
Stefan stopped me. "I think that no matter what Damon promises, a lot of people will die" I gave him a nod. I pulled out an old picture of a man. "That's Jonathan Gilbert" Stefan said as he pointed to the picture that I was holding.
Elena came over and took a look. She then went back to her seat and kept looking in the boxes. "What's this?" she said as she opened a box. Inside was something that looked like a dog muzzle.
Stefan was about to answer but then Jeremy came into the room "What are you guys doing?" Jeremy asked as he took a seat on the kitchen counter.
"Hey," Elena said. "Just going through some stuff, feeling sentimental. Dad had this old family journal from years ago. I thought I'd dig it up"
"Jonathan Gilbert's journal?"
"Yeah, what do you know about it?"
"I just did a history report on it"
"Where is it now?" I asked.
"I gave it to Mr. Saltzman. He wanted to see it"
Looking for that journal was going to be harder then I thought.
Max, Mom and Dad decided to go home for a while to take care of the shop and they were going to be back the next day. Stefan when to go find Mr. Saltzman to find out about that journal while Elena, Justin and I were in the basement looking for something related to the witches here in 1864.
After hour and a half, we found nothing. I decided to take a break and go get a glass of water from upstairs I opened the door and saw Damon cutting up something on the kitchen counter. Aunt Jenna was sitting on the counter across from him with a glass of red wine.
"Hello, Alex" Damon said to me with a smile.
"Hey. Where have you been? We're cooking dinner" Aunt Jenna said.
"Is Stefan with you guys, down there?"
"No, he'll be here soon" I said with a glare
I decided to help Damon set up for dinner. Aunt Jenna was upstairs, Justin and Elena were still downstairs and Jeremy was too busy with his video game. I grabbed seven plates from the cup boarded and went to go set them up in the kitchen. As I was walking to the table, Damon ran right into me.
I glared at him. "Don't do that" I said
"Do what?" He asked.
"Come on Damon. You did that on purpose"
"Well, yeah, I was purposely trying to get to the…sink...Speaking of Stefan, where is he? He's missing family night, which I am enjoying immensely" I rolled my eyes. "Is it real?" Damon asked.
"What Big Foot? I don't think so but after the thousands of different creatures I've run into, I wouldn't doubt it"
Damon turned around and gave me a glare. "No, I'm talking about this renewed sense of brotherhood…Can I trust him?"
"He's your brother…of coarse you can trust him" I turned around and set the napkins beside the plates.
I heard a gust of wind behind me. Knew it was Damon. I rolled my eyes, turned around and looked Damon straight in the eye. "Can I trust him?" He asked.
He meant it. He was asking for the truth…in me. I kind of laughed inside. Him trust me…but…it was kind of sweet of him to put so much trust in me but Damon was Damon, never to be trusted because in the end…he'd still stab you in the back.
"Damon. You. Can. Trust. Him. Why would I lie to you…Signor Salvatore?"
Damon's eyes opened wide. "What did you just call me?" he asked softly.
"What…did I just call you?" I asked. I looked at Damon straight in the eye. "I…read to much downstairs…probity…no, never mind. I need a drink of water" I walked around him and grabbed a drink of water.
What did I just do back there?
I helped Damon make dinner. He then started telling me about how he use to trust Stefan "There was a time when I trusted him more than anyone" he said.
"Well, as Ralph Waldo once said, 'Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great'"
"Are you lecturing me?"
"Depends, do you need to be lectured?"
"I just want her back. I'm sure you can understand that"
"What about, Isabella? What did she mean to you? Did you truly love her or…was it all…nothing? Was it just forced between your parents?" Damon didn't say anything. He got up and passed by me to go to the kitchen. I took the deep breath. "I'm sorry. I understand…you would do…everything in your power to get the woman you love…Katherine"
I grabbed the bowl of salad and placed it on the table. I heard another gust of wind. "Then you understand what I will do If anyone gets in my way" he whispered in my ear
Stefan came half an hour later telling us about the meeting with Mr. Saltzman saying that someone stole it from him. Elena and Justin were both upstairs at the time when they heard the news.
"Who took it?" Damon said as he paced down the porch outside. Stefan, Elena, Justin and I were outside with him.
"I don't know" Stefan said.
"You know what, it's that teacher. There's something really off about him"
"No, he doesn't know anything. Somebody got to him caught before me"
"Who else knew it was there?"
We all turned to the window and looked at Jeremy. The look on Damon's made this look like it was turning into a bad situation.
"Damon, no," I said. "You leave him out of this. You hear me?"
"Why, what's the big deal?" he said as he walked side.
"Damon!" Both Elena and I screamed at him.
"So...I heard you found a really cool journal from back in the day," Damon said as he sat on the arm of the couch Jeremy was sitting on. "Who else did you show it to?"
"Huh?" Jeremy responded.
"Don't ask questions, just spill"
"You're kidding me, right?"
"Jer did you tell anyone other than Mr. Saltzman about Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Elena asked.
"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?" Jeremy asked.
"Jeremy," I said. "Who else did you tell?"
"Just that girl, Anna"
Anna? Never heard of her until now.
"The hot weird one?" Damon asked.
"Yeah" Jeremy said.
"Wait, who is Anna?" Stefan asked.
"That's what I want to find out" After Damon finished that sentence, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I dug for my phone and pulled it out of pocket. On the screen, it showed Bonnie was calling.
I quickly picked up the phone and ran upstairs to my room. "K, sorry about that, had to find somewhere to talk. So…Spill, what's going on? I really, really want to know.
Bonnie laughed. "It's going great," she said. "He's a perfect gentleman"
"Gentleman…really?"
"Yeah, I know, boring, huh? I just want to grab him and lay one on him"
"Then, do it then"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"Cause...I'm a chicken"
"Ok, Willow Rosenberg, you can handle any spell but you can't handle one boy?"
Bonnie laughed. "Okay. I'm going to text you later with more details"
"You better, Bonnie Bennett" I hanged up the phone and put it back in my pocket.
I turned around to leave but I saw Stefan, Justin and Elena walk into my room. "Hey, where did Damon go?" I asked.
"He left," Stefan said. "To track down Jeremy's friend, Anna to see if there was anything there"
"You sure that was smart? I mean, if he gets that journal before we do, we're…"
Stefan interrupted me. "Doesn't matter" he said as her pulled out a bunch of papers from his pockets.
"What is that?" Elena asked.
"It's a copy of it"
"The journal?" I asked.
"How did you get it?" Elena asked.
"Well, Mr. Saltzman made a copy and was kind enough to loan it to me"
I raised my eye brows. "You sure her did?" I asked.
"Not exactly, but I got it" I gave him a smile.
We all grabbed a bunch of papers and started searching.
"Here's a reference that, he wrote about Emily," Elena said as she was reading the papers in her hands. "'The Fell family believed it should be I, not them, who protected the witch's spell book but I feared she would haunt me from the hereafter. They mocked my fear, but it was Giuseppe Salvatore who…'"
We all looked at Stefan.
"That was your father" I said.
"Uh…yeah…how did you…" Stefan shook his head. He grabbed the papers from Elena and started reading the rest. "'It was Giuseppe Salvatore who removed my fear. He told me he would protect the secret of the spell book. He said he would carry it to his grave'"
Those words kept on running threw my head over and over.
"I know where it is" Stefan said…faintly.
The room started to spin in my head. "Alex?" I heard someone say. "Are you ok?"
Then it all went black.
Everything started coming back. I was standing in the hallway in front of an open door. In the room ahead of me, stood an older man with grey hair and a wrinkly face and there was another older man with grey hair and a wrinkly face as well but her had a grey moustache and beard. Both men had old fashion clothing on.
"Giuseppe," the bearded man said "Si deve promettere di non dirlo a tuo figlio"
It sounded Italian but for some odd reason...I could understand it. The only language I knew was English. I then started concentration on what the man was saying in English.
"Se fosse per scoprire…about my family secret…I'm sure my wife, my daughters and I would have our head slit"
"Don't worry, Jacopo," The other man, known as Giuseppe.
Giuseppe? As in Giuseppe Salvatore? Stefan's dad?
"I shall carry this secret to the grave"
The man known as, Jacopo gave Giuseppe a big smile.
"Father," I heard the woman's voice coming from the door across from me. "Am I interrupting something?"
"No, Isabella," Jacopo said as he and Giuseppe turned to the door. "Signor Salvatore and I were just finishing up"
There at the door stood Isabella. I couldn't believe how similar we looked. Same colored hair, same smile, and same eyes. Everything was the same.
"Wonderful," she said.
She had this beautiful yellow dress with red flowers on it and the top had two green lines. Her hair was too beautiful to look at. It was designed into this…bun, I guess you would all it and on her left hand was this beautiful engagement ring.
"The younger Signor Salvatore wishes to speak to you, Signor Salvatore"
Giuseppe gave Isabella a smile. "Grazie," he said. "Is it your fiancé that wishes to speak to me or his younger brother?"
"His brother" Isabella said with a smile.
"Wonderful!" Giuseppe said as he left the room.
Jacopo walked up to Isabella and planted a kiss on her for head. He looked back at his daughter with a smile. Isabella smiled and laughed as she looked at her father then…the room disappeared.
I woke up on my bed looking at Stefan, Elena and Justin who were standing above me.
"Alex" Stefan said. "Are you alright?" he said as he helped me up.
"Yeah I'm fine," I said. "What happened?"
"Stefan," Elena said. "Was just finishing reading the journal and then, you…fell"
I looked at Stefan. "Stef, Isabella's father, was his name Jacopo?"
"Yes. Jacopo Giordano. Why?"
"I…think I just met him?"
I wanted to get my mind off of what I just saw and get the grimoire before Damon got to it. Stefan said he knew where it was. In his father's grave. Elena and Justin stayed behind to do more research just in case we missed something.
Stefan and I decided…to go dig up the grave.
"I thought you guys had a family tomb. Why isn't your father buried in there?" I asked.
"It wasn't built until well after he died"
"You sure it will be in there? I mean, it was just talk. It not like he could have made somebody put the grimoire in there"
"This is as sure as I could be"
"Ok…"
"Alex. I can do this on my own"
"Stefan, I don't care what you say; I'm helping you do this"
"I know, and I appreciate that, but…"
I interrupted him. "No buts! I want to help you. I may be new here but I'm starting to love this town. It's…my new home. Everyone I love lives inside of this town…including you. I don't want this tomb open. Now, pass me a shovel and let's get to work" Stefan took a deep breath and passed me a shovel. He looked at his father's grave and took another deep breath. "Stef…I'm sorry that you have to go threw with this"
He gave me a nod and we then started digging. We kept digging for a while until both of us couldn't fit in there anymore, so I jumped out and Stefan kept digging.
I took my wand and use the Wand-lighting spell. It's like the Lumous spell in Harry Potter. It produces light from your wand and you can use it like a flash light.
Stefan kept digging until his shovel hit something. Stefan gave me a look and so did I. Stefan bent down and started clearing some dirt until he saw a wooden coffin. He opened it and inside was the Skeleton on Giuseppe Salvatore holding a book in his arms.
"Is that it?" I asked as Stefan opened the book.
The pages crackled with every turn.
"Yeah…I think so" he said.
"Well what do you know?" We heard a voice say. I stood up immediately and turned around pointing my wand at the voice behind me. The light reviled Damon. With the dirtiest look I've ever seen on him. "This is an interesting turn of events"
Stefan jumped out of the grave and walked up to Damon. "I can't let you bring her back…I'm sorry" Stefan said.
"So am I," Damon said. "For thinking for even a second that I can trust you"
"You're 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 going to do it by myself, because the only one I can count on is me! You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan. But you," Damon said this time looking at me. "You had me fooled" I didn't have the heart to look at him. Yeah I lied but it was for a good cause.
"So what are you going to do now?" he asked looking at Stefan this time. "Because if you try and destroy that, I'll rip her heart out"
My eyes opened wide.
"You won't kill her" Stefan said.
Damon raised his eye brow and nodded at Stefan. Stefan shook his head. In a second, Damon blurred right beside me and grabbed hold of me. I dropped my wand and it was hard for me to get out of his grip. "I can do one better," he said. Damon then bit his wrist and forced fed the blood into my mouth. I tried to resist by shaking him off but he wouldn't stop. "Give me the book, Stefan," he said. "Or I'm snapping her neck and you and I…will have a vampire girlfriend"
"Let her go first" Stefan said with pleading eyes.
Damon removed his wrist from my mouth. I then spit out some of the blood from my mouth but I was for sure some went down my mouth. "The book" Damon said.
"I'm not going to give this to you until she is standing next to me"
"Problem is I no longer trust that you'll give it back!"
"You just did the one thing that ensures that I will" Stefan slowly dropped the book on the ground.
I then heard Damon sniff my hair he then let got of me. I slowly picked up the wand from the ground and slowly walked over to Stefan. When I was close enough to Stefan, I quickly ran into his arms and we left right away.
We got home and told Elena and Justin what happen. Justin was pissed off then he has ever been. Wanted to go killed Damon but I told him it wouldn't matter. My head was hurting like a bunch of knives were stabbing me in the head.
Stefan and I went upstairs to the bathroom to look for some aspirin. "Is my head supposed to hurt like this?" I asked as I was looking threw the cabinet.
"You'll be fine," Stefan said. "That was just a small amount of blood. It should pass out of your system by tomorrow"
I closed the door and walked up to Stefan who seemed depressed. "Are you ok?"
"Damon was right. This is…uh...This is my fault...I put my faith in my father…but Damon put his faith in me…and I destroyed that. This is my fault"
"Stefan, You didn't do anything wrong," I said as I cupped his face with my hands "You're a good person…don't you ever forget that"
"Okay…I'm…going to get you that aspirin"
I gave him a nod. He kissed my forehead and then walked out of the room. I went to my room and laid on my bed.
"You ok?" I heard someone say. I looked up and saw Elena standing there.
"Yeah I think so…" Elena walked up to me and sat beside me on the bed.
"Well, well" someone said. Both Elena and I looked up and saw a girl with dark curly hair standing in front of the door.
"Looks like I've hit two birds with one stone"
Clothing on my profile.
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