AN: Just wanted to say thank you to all my readers and that I am so sorry. I did not mean to wait nearly ANOHER year before updating. A lot has happened since i last updated. I've finished grad school, moved three times, left a job, lost a family member (over the holidays no less), dealt with a lot of family drama, started a new job, left that job and then there's been the lack of muse for this story. This story really writes itself with particular scenes that just happen to jump out at me and then there are the scenes that I have to actually think about and trying to piece them together. I can say for certain that I know where I want to take this story and its just a matter of getting all the details out.
Several oncoming chapters are already in the works and have been for some time. I will try to not keep you waiting so long. Now on a more positive note, this story has reached over 7,500 views. Thank you! Now as promised, Chapter 9. Also, the previous 8 chapters have all been updated. You don't have to go back and re-read to understand anything that takes place further down the line, its just merely corrections of grammatical error and more detailed information. However, since it's been so long since some of you have read this story, it wouldn't hurt to start from the beginning, but as I said it's not necessary if you don't want to and you won't be missing out on anything important. Please Review. I do like to hear what you guys think. As always, I own nothing, but the lovely Sara and the formerly resurrected soul Pelicarpo. Enjoy!
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Chapter 9: Search and Disappointment
The early morning sun light filtered into Damon's bedroom. As early as it was the two occupants in the bed were not sleeping. The bed creaked and the sheets ruffled as Damon moved off of Sara and laid down next to her, wrapping her in his arms and placing a kiss to the top of her hair as she rested her cheek onto his bare chest. The two supernatural creatures let out a content sigh while they basked in their post coital bliss.
"That was amazing." Sara sighed.
"You're amazing. Though I have to say, even with the few times we've been together, I never thought of you as a screamer." Damon grinned.
Sara giggled. "What can I say, you have quite the effect on me. You really know what you're doing." She purred before she paused. "I take it the other two aren't as loud as I am?"
Damon raised an eyebrow. This could be dangerous territory. "You really want to know about this?" he asked, cautious.
Sara leaned up on her elbows. "Well, we doppelgängers are compared to each other concerning everything else, why not sex?" she mused with a smirk on her lips. "I genuinely want to know."
"Well, I haven't slept with Elena…"
"No, but I'm sure you've heard her when she's with Stefan. If this makes you uncomfortable we don't have to talk about this. I'm just curious, but the saying 'curiosity killed the cat' was said for a reason." Sara said as she propped herself up with her right elbow while her left hand drew patterns over Damon's chest absentmindedly.
"I guess you do have a point. Ah, you weren't the one who started that, were you?" Damon said with a grin, an eyebrow raised.
"No, I was not." Laughed Sara. "In fact, I've never met Benjamin Jonson."
"Who?"
"Damon." Sara groaned with a roll of her eyes.
"Alright, alright. No, neither Katherine nor Elena are as loud are you can be. And if you really want to know, sex with you is far better than any I've ever had with Katherine." Damon said with a devilish grin.
"Well thank you for that, but I already knew that last one." Sara grinned before she leaned up and kissed him. "The original is always better." She said after she broke their kiss.
"Well I've never been with Crazy Pants so… Ow!" Damon groaned as Sara smacked him on the arm and moved her knee dangerously close to his semi-erect penis in a threatening manner.
"That is not funny." She growled only half meaning it. She couldn't be really mad at him when she was the one who initiated this whole conversation, but he didn't have to take it that far. Unlike the others who came farther down the descending line, Amara was her aunt and only a few hundred years older than herself and that was small hundred at that.
Realizing his mistake, Damon was quick to apologize. "I'm sorry, Baby." He said as he gave her his puppy dog eyes and an apologetic look on his face. "Forgive me?"
Though the face was cute yet ineffective, Sara accepted his apology anyway. "It's alright." She said with a smile before giving him a quick peck on the lips.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?" Damon asked when they pulled apart.
Sara sighed. "There's nothing to tell." She said as she moved herself from on top of Damon. "Pelicarpo grabbed me, I killed him and had a lovely chat with the Shadow People and whoever that fucker is that's the cause of all this." She huffed as she laid on her back beside him.
"That's it?" Damon said as he shifted to his side and propped his head up in his hand, looking down at Sara.
"That's it."
"That can't be it."
"But it is." Sara whined. She was getting tired of this conversation. They had gone over this before they went to bed last night and Sara had been able to distract him with sex, all night long, and now here they were talking about nothing he didn't already knew about before the all night sex session.
"How is that it?"
"Damon, I love you. Please, stop." She pleaded as she sat up and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. "That's it, that's all that happened. Just let it go." When she didn't receive and answer she turned back to see him starring at her. "What?"
"You love me?" Damon asked, clearly shocked.
"Of course I do. I thought that was obvious." Sara said as she threw the sheet away from her body, moving to stand up.
Damon quickly grabbed her and pulled her back into bed against him causing Sara to squeal. "I... love... you... too!" he said in between placing kisses all around her face and neck. He paused briefly, a large grin broke out on his lips before he kissed her deeply.
Sara kissed him back before pulling apart, a grin just as big as his on her face. "Join me in the shower?" she asked as she tried to get her breathing back to normal. Damon never failed to take her breath away when he kissed her.
His response was speeding them off into the bathroom.
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Downstairs, Stefan stood in the kitchen making breakfast with Caroline. Elena sat at the table drinking coffee as Jeremy and Bonnie joined them.
"Did anyone get any sleep last night?" Jeremy yawned. 'No' was the collective response. "Didn't think so." Jeremy said as he plopped himself down into one of the chairs. Bonnie shoved a cup of coffee into his hands.
"Who wants toast?" Caroline asked as she grabbed the loaf of bread. A few hands were raised.
"Eggs are done." Stefan said as he set a large plate on the counter.
"We are so sleeping at home tonight." Elena said with a yawn as she put a spoon full of eggs onto her plate. 'Oh yeah' was the mutual response from everyone in the kitchen.
"Good morning." Sara chimed as she came into the kitchen.
"Don't know what's so good about it." Jeremy grumbled into the table. He had gone from sitting slumped in the chair to having his head resting on the tabletop.
"You know Sara, you could wake the dead with how loud you are." Katherine sneered, hoping to make the Striga feel slightly self-conscious.
"Thank you." Sara grinned, knowing she hadn't meant it as a compliment. Katherine stomped out of the kitchen in response.
"Don't take it personal Sara. She doesn't like anyone." Caroline informed her.
"Oh I'm not worried." Sara smirked as she picked up a plate and began putting food on it.
"So what's on the agenda for today?" Stefan asked once Damon had made an appearance in the kitchen. Said vampire made a bee line straight for the coffee pot where he was currently filling two mugs.
"I'd appreciate it if we could all look around town, make sure the Shadow People have indeed left town. Just to make sure some didn't decided to stick around. I doubt they did, but it'd just be nice to be sure." Sara said as she bit into a piece of toast. "Then I want to search the house they were staying in, see if there are any clues of what Pelicarpo's Master has planned. I saw a car in the driveway when Damon and I left yesterday. From what I saw the house is pretty empty, but they could have hidden something somewhere."
"Well it certainly wouldn't hurt. What are you gonna do with the phone you found?" Bonnie asked after taking of sip of her orange juice.
"I've got to make a call, but I've got a friend that I'm hoping can help with that." Sara said in between bites.
"Friend?" Damon asked.
"Friend. Mindless Slave. Same thing in my book." Sara laughed as she waved her hands around for emphasis.
"Wow. That's really sad." Jeremy smirked causing Sara to flick a small piece of egg at him. It landed in his hair. "Hey!"
"How is it that a nearly 3000-year-old being doesn't have any friends?" Caroline asked in good nature.
"I'm not that old Caroline." Sara chuckled, though the vampire was only off by a short 500 and something years. "I've had some friends throughout the years, but at some point it was just easier being alone than watching those I had come to care about age and eventually die while I stayed the same." Sara explained.
"You never…" Jeremy made a sucking face "Did you?" he asked causing both Bonnie and Elena to hit him. "Ow." He whined as he rubbed the sore spots.
"Only if they asked." Sara said, not offended by the question or action.
"Really?" Caroline asked in disbelief.
"For others it was better than the alternative." Sara said with a nod.
"Okay, new topic please. This is a little depressing for breakfast conversation." Elena said.
"I agree." Sara smiled as she set her empty plate in the sink. "Baby, can I use your phone?"
"Sure." Damon said as he fished his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. "Friend call?"
"Friend call." Sara confirmed. "Might as well get the ball rolling." She said as she hit the unlock option and began to dial the number she needed.
"Where is it that you're calling to this time? India? China? Africa?" Damon laughed.
"I believe you said France was more acceptable last time." Sara smirked before the other line picked up. "Bonjour." Sara greeted and Damon just rolled his eyes as he bit into a piece of bacon.
"Exactly how many languages do you know?" Jeremy asked.
"All of them." Sara smirked as she walked out of the kitchen. Jeremy's jaw dropped.
"What are you so surprised by, Jer? She is over 2000 years old." Stefan said matter-of-factly.
When Jeremy didn't respond Bonnie moved her hand under his jaw and closed it for him. The others continued on with their breakfast as they discussed who would be doing what concerning the items on today's agenda.
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"So you think we'll find something in there?" Jeremy asked as he, Sara, Damon and Bonnie got out of Damon's Camaro.
"I don't know. It looked pretty empty. Though to be honest I didn't really see much of it." Sara said as they all peered at the abandoned house Damon had found her in the other day.
The grass was over grown and the yard was littered with junk. The house didn't just look abandoned it looked condemned. Windows were glass-less and some were boarded up. The small connecting garage was marked up with graffiti and the large metal door hung crooked. The front door to the house itself was still knocked in, barely hanging onto the frame by its hinges.
"Where do we start?" Bonnie asked as she looked from the three possible places they could search for information.
"Why don't you and Jeremy take the garage that way Damon and I can search the car. When we're done we can all search the house." Sara suggested. Everyone nodded and went off to their designated areas.
"Let's see what we've got in here." Damon said as he opened the driver's side door and got in behind the wheel. Sara opened the front passenger door and opened the glove box.
"Let's see, no registration, no insurance, no operation's manual, no rental information." Sara listed.
"Damn. Is there anything useful in there?" Damon asked as he pulled a few papers out of the visor.
"For there to be anything useful there would have to be something in here." Sara huffed.
"Huh?" Damon turned his gaze from the folded papers to the glove box. It was empty. Not even a single napkin in sight. "Oh." He chuckled before turning his gaze back to the papers. "Well, maybe some of that is in here." He said as he began to unfold the papers.
"What are they?" Sara asked, almost hopeful.
Damon read over the papers and realized it was just a list of addresses. But not just any addresses, their addresses. All of theirs. His, Elena's, Bonnie's, Caroline's, hell even Matt's was here along with The Grill's, the High School's, the Mystic Motel's and Elena's Parent's cabin was on there. They were all there.
"Jesus Christ!" Damon growled.
"What? What is it?" Sara asked as she snatched the papers from his hand. "They're just a bunch of addresses." Sara said, confused.
"Yeah, our addresses. The fucker knew where each of us lived and places we could be. Hell, even Matt is on there." Damon cursed again.
"Matt? Why would he be on there?" Sara asked as she looked over the papers. She hoped there would be some explanation, but all that was on there were the addresses. No names or anything else. "What's this addresses that isn't in Mystic Falls?" she asked.
"Elena's Parent's cabin."
"Oh. So if he had all these addresses, a list of where you all live and where you could all possibly be, then they've been in town for some time. They've gotten to know your habits." Sara offered as some sort of explanation.
"It would seem so." Damon said as he popped the trunk. "I'm gonna check the trunk, why don't you check the back seat?"
Sara nodded. "Sure." She said as they both exited the front. Damon walked to the back of the vehicle while Sara opened the back door and looked in the back seat. She checked the backs of both seats and found nothing. The car was practically as abandoned as the house it seemed, but at least it was in working order. She checked the floor and the seats, finding nothing of use. She sighed in frustration. "Any luck back there, Babe?" she called as she peered out of the back window.
Damon stood behind the car, just staring at the contents of the trunk. Spare tire, extra fluids, a few tools, all those he was not surprised to see. It was the shovel, the tarp, what appeared to be some bloody towels and bindings that had been cut off of something or someone as he could see the clear knots tied in some of them that surprised him. At first glance he thought that maybe Pelicarpo had killed someone and buried them, but the shovel wasn't used. There was no dirt, but he could see a bit of blood and hair on the shovel. It was as if it had been used to knock someone out, was Damon's guess. Damon then thought that they would have to see if anyone was missing from town over the last few days, but as he grabbed one of the bloody towels his hand recoiled as if they had burned him. There was no vervain, but it was the fact that they were still damp that had shocked him. It meant fresh blood and there was only one person that he was aware of the bastard having taken as of late. Damon inspected his hand and sniffed at the blood smeared on his skin. He barely had enough control to keep the beast inside him at bay.
"Damon? What is it?" Sara called as she came to stand beside him. The scene in the trunk caused her to gasp.
"It's your blood." Damon whispered.
"What? My blood?" Sara said as she looked from the trunk to Damon. It couldn't have been her blood, could it? She didn't remember bleeding when she came to in the basement. She thought back to when Pelicarpo had grabbed her and all she could remember was being taken from the boarding house and then waking up in the basement, feeding off of that son of a bitch.
Damon reached out and pulled a few strands of hair from the shovel head; long, brown hair with a slight wave to it. It wasn't as curly as Katherine's or as straight as Elena's but he knew this hair. It was her hair. "He hit you with a shovel and then tied you up and…" Damon had to stop. He couldn't finish his trail of thought as a growl ripped through his throat. The thought of that bastard harming his girl, well he currently wished Sara hadn't killed him so he could do it himself.
"Hey." Sara said softly as she placed a hand on his cheek and made him look at her. "I'm fine now and he's gone. He can't hurt me anymore." She said as she reached up and placed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth, trying to calm him down.
Damon closed his eyes as he tried to get his breathing under control while wrapping his free arm around Sara's waist, pulling her closer to him. She was here, she was safe, and more importantly she was his.
"You know, for someone who claimed to have loved me, he knocked me out, tied me up and threw me in his trunk. Not exactly how I envision romance to be." She grinned with a slight giggle.
Damon couldn't help the smirk that formed on his lips. Damn, he loved this woman. He opened his eyes and looked down at the grinning Striga in his arms. "You are terrible… and I love you." He said between placing kisses to the top of her head.
"I love you too." She said with giggle. "Now c'mon." Sara smiled as she slammed the lid to the trunk down and took his hand. "Let's go see if Jeremy and Bonnie found anything in the garage." She said as she led him away from the car and towards the garage.
Damon shook his head as he grinned at the Striga's antics as she tugged at his arm. There was no need for it, he'd gladly follow her to Hell if she asked. God was he whipped, but he loved it.
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While Damon, Sara, Jeremy and Bonnie searched the abandoned hide out Stefan, Elena, Caroline and Katherine were searching various locations throughout town to ensure that the Shadow People really had left Mystic Falls as their leader said they would. To cover more ground, they had split into two groups; Stefan and Katherine and Elena and Caroline.
"This is stupid!" Katherine groaned as she and Stefan searched the quad. She'd had enough with these stupid shadow creatures. Hell, what she'd really had enough of was that damn Striga. Screw the fact that she was her doppelgänger ancestor, she was tired of being ordered around by the immortal bitch. If she thought she'd stand any chance against her, Katherine wouldn't hesitate to put her down. Unfortunately, she was immortal and if the pansy ass cat fight Elena had tried with the Striga taught Katherine anything, it was that Sara was not to be trusted. She may have had everyone else fooled, but not her.
Everything was going far too smoothly in Katherine's eyes. Jeremy's 'kidnapping' was nothing but a way for Sara to infiltrate herself into their group and from there she gained Jeremy's misguided trust by apologizing and sharing her sob story with Damon who was a fool and a sucker for not only a damsel in distress, but a damsel that looked as she did. It was no secret that while Katherine had used Damon back in 1864, he had still been in love with her and then his feelings shifted towards Elena after he stumbled upon her deception of having not been in the tomb for the last 146 years. Sara was merely using his fatal attraction towards women who looked like her to her advantage. Knowing that by having Damon's approval, everyone else would surely follow suit. It was brilliant and if Katherine thought she stood at even a fraction of a chance at succeeding, she would've done something like that herself.
The only thing Katherine couldn't figure out was what Sara's plan was. Only she and Damon had seen these shadow things and after a few days of conflict Sara had sent them away just like that, along with that pathetic excuse of a doppelgänger Pelicarpo. Katherine didn't understand what he had seen in the immortal creature and it was such a shame she never got a chance to meet him. Who knows what sort of fun they could've gotten into. And once again only Sara and Damon had seen him. Katherine believed that it was Sara behind these events in order to gain everyone's trust. Anyone with a bleeding heart would've taken the side of the eternally young, abused an cursed girl and her sad life story and Sara had everyone like putty in the palm of her hand because of it. Katherine was determined to reveal Sara for what she really was; a fraudulent monster that deserved eternal damnation.
"Katherine, you think you could stop whining for, oh I don't know, 30 seconds before you continue again?" Stefan grumbled, breaking Katherine out of her internal monologue. He was tired of her whining.
Katherine rolled her eyes at her former lover. "Sure, whatever you want." she shrugged before she went back to pretending to look for signs of the Shadow People. Despite not trusting Sara, she knew the Shadow People were gone. Having Sara feed, or whatever she had done, off her had left Katherine with a feeling she had not truly experienced since 1492; complete and utter terror. She knew that even as old and dangerous as the Shadow People were claimed to have been, Sara was far worse than anything else Katherine had ever heard of. She was perhaps even more sadistic than Klaus. Katherine knew she would have to be very careful when it came to plotting on how to do away with the Striga.
"I'm not seeing anything, what about you?" Stefan asked as he shifted his gaze from the many regular shadows towards the vampire.
"That's because there is nothing. They're not here, personally I don't think they ever were." she sneered.
"What?" Stefan asked, incredulously. "How can you even say that?"
"Think about it Stefan. Only Sara and Damon have claimed to have seen these creatures when we were all split up and then the moment were all together they're gone just like that? Sounds pretty suspicious if you ask me."
"Well I don't recall asking you for your opinion." Stefan sneered. "Whatever it is you're thinking Katherine, just stop. Sara is a friend. End of story."
"Is she? Is she really, Stefan? For all we know she's controlling Damon into thinking all this happened. No one else saw these things or the ex she claimed to have risen from the dead over a thousand years ago. Who plans something for that long except for someone who has that kind of time, hmm?"
"You think Sara's behind all this? Why? What would she have to gain?"
"I don't know, but I don't trust her."
"You don't trust anyone Katherine and quite frankly I don't trust you, so as far as I'm concerned this little exchange didn't happen. Sara's a friend until she proves otherwise, I can't say the same for you." Stefan growled.
He was tired of the doppelgängers fighting amongst each other. It was like they were programmed to dislike each other. Even he and Silas hadn't gotten along and now all the women were turning on one another. Sara had been right, they needed to put aside these petty differences in order to work together against this new enemy. An enemy that once again wants the doppelgängers for some unknown reason and had Sara been mortal like the rest of them, would be after her as well. That was all Stefan needed to know in order to put his faith in the woman who was currently making his brother the happiest he'd ever seen him.
"Like it or not Katherine, we need her. If you can't put your differences aside, then accept the fact that if you want to continue to live as you do now then you need her too. Unless you'd like to run for the rest of your existence like you have for the last 500 years?" Katherine's glare told him he'd hit a sore spot and he knew it the moment the words left his lips. The look on his face said that he wasn't sorry either.
"Hey!" Came the voice of none other than Caroline.
Stefan looked past Katherine to see the blonde vampire and his girlfriend coming towards them. Their search of the school, he figured, having been much like their own here; empty handed and glad. Katherine growled at having been shot down and really just plain insulted as she shoved her way past Stefan, not wanting to deal with the two youngest vampires as they approached.
"What's her problem?" Caroline asked as she and Elena came to stand beside Stefan, watching the older doppelgänger storm of.
"What Katherine's problem always is; not getting her way." Stefan grumbled before his features softened. "Any sign?" He asked.
"Not a one. Seems Sara was right in thinking that they were gone for good." Caroline chimed as she flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"Well the search was just for a precaution. I doubt anything would truly believe that they could get away with deceiving a creature like Sara." Elena said as she actually gave the Striga praise. Stefan couldn't help but think that if it wasn't one doppelgänger it was the other that had an issue with Sara.
"Indeed." Stefan said, giving a small nod in agreement. "Why don't I call Damon and see if they need a hand over at the house." He offered as he pulled out his phone. The girls nodded and Stefan quickly dialed his brother's number.
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"Well, this was a waste of time." Jeremy grumbled as he scuffed his foot across the dusty floor. As the dust particles filtered into the air the others coughed.
"Do you mind!" Damon scolded as he waved his hand in front of his face to disperse the annoying particles.
"Sorry." Jeremy murmured as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.
After searching the car and garage, the four had joined in to tackle the two story house along with the basement and probably an attic. Unfortunately, Sara's memory of the place had not be wrong. There was nothing inside except for the remains of rundown furniture and empty liquor bottles. The walls were covered with local teen graffiti, abandoned paint cans left behind in their wake. There hadn't been much to sift through, any papers left behind were useless. What rooms they could get into without fear of something falling down were just as empty as the main floor of the house. There was no access to any attic to be found and even if there was, they feared it wouldn't have held any of them long enough to search the space.
Sara and Damon had searched the basement and it was just as empty and cold as she remembered. No signs of the shadow people having ever been down there and all that was left of Pelicarpo's presence in the room were the dusty, abandoned clothes he'd been wearing. At first Damon thought he was still roaming around free somewhere, naked at that, but Sara assured him that it was impossible and all that was left of the body were the desiccated, dusty remains within the clothes. Never the less Damon wanted out of the basement and after a quick, thorough check of the clothes the couple returned upstairs.
So now here they stood, giving the place a quick, second glance before leaving the abandoned building. The answers Sara was hoping to have find there and didn't left her with a feeling of disappointment and dread. While the others headed for the car, Damon tried to straighten the front door when his cell phone began to ring. Abandoning the crooked door, Damon quickly removed his cell phone from his pocket.
"What's up Brother?" He answered. "No, we're done here. How'd your search around town go?" He asked as he made his way to his car, getting behind the wheel and starting her up. Beside him he saw Sara light up a cigarette before releasing a puff of smoke from her lips and out the open window. He could practically feel her disappointment. "Well, that's good. No sign of the Shadow People." Damon spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. Even with their small smiles, he could still see that Bonnie and Jeremy were also disappointed at their lack of findings. In the others' case it was a good thing, in theirs', well not so much.
"I need a drink." Sara sighed as she took another drag, quickly releasing the puff of toxins into the air. Despite her mood, she was still careful enough to ensure that the smoke was kept away from the humans in the backseat. The others nodded in agreement.
"Stefan, why don't you and the girls head back to the house and we'll meet you there... and it probably wouldn't hurt to have the booze at the ready." Damon muttered that last part, but apparently it wasn't as quiet as he thought because Jeremy had shouted out the need for food as well. With Stefan's confirmation that he'd see them back at the house with food Damon hung up the phone. He quickly put the car into gear, driving away from the house that if possible had left them with more questions than when they had arrived hours before.
"Perhaps your friend will have some answers, Sara." Bonnie said softly as she placed a hand on the woman's shoulder in front of her.
"Perhaps." Sara sighed before flicking the remains of her cigarette out the window. The fact that nothing caught aflame left Damon surprised, since it seemed to be the woman's way of dealing with unwanted things. Damon reached over and took her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze as he increased the pressure on the gas pedal.
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"Another bottle?" Stefan asked as he stood from his spot on the couch. They had just finished off their third bottle wine, the decanter of bourbon was near empty, and it his turn to fetch more alcohol. The grunts and groans of his friends were all the responses that he got. Stefan merely shook his head before heading down into the cellar and fetching a bottle of wine and a new bottle of bourbon.
Since returning to the boarding house several hours after breakfast, the group had settled on a late lunch and an early happy hour. Food had been prepared shortly upon everyone's arrival and the booze had been flowing freely since then. Seeing they'd been at this method of operation for nearly three hours now, Stefan was surprised that they hadn't gone threw more alcohol than they had. He was sure Damon was happy where his bourbon supply was concerned, but from the depressed look on the striga's face and the concerned one Damon had displayed told him that his brother would gladly given up his entire alcohol collection just to see his girlfriend smile.
As Stefan returned to the main level of the house a knock on the front door sounded, alerting those who were sober, tipsy and drunk of the visitor.
"I'll get it." Damon said as he walked into Stefan's view, nodding back towards the room he had just come out. Stefan nodded, getting the hint that he should hurry with the booze. Damon quickly threw open the door, wondering who on earth could be on his front steps. To say he was surprised to see a short, Asian man with several bags behind him was an understatement. He appeared to be in his late 20's or early 30's, with short, spiky, black hair and he was dressed in a black suit. "Uh, can I help you?" Damon asked.
The man smiled at him before bowing in greeting. "Hello." He said and despite his ethnicity, Damon could clearly detect the French accent in just the single word he had spoken.
"Uh, Sara? I think your friend is here!" Damon called over his shoulder, his gaze never leaving the man in front of him. While he had expected Sara's contact to show up eventually, Sara had only placed the call this morning, albeit it was early, but still. Damon quickly checked his watch, it was after six pm and Sara had placed the call around seven that morning. Damon figured the guy must've jumped on a plane the moment Sara called him.
"Ah Miss. Sara. I have come to provide my services and have brought the items as you requested." The man spoke in French with a smile as Sara appeared beside Damon.
"Excellent. Please come in and we can get started. Do you have any updates, Sinjin?" Sara replied in French.
Damon missed the man's response as he was certain that every word Sara had just said had gone straight to his stiffening member. He'd heard her speak Bulgarian and Japanese in the past, but they did nothing to him like her speaking French did. He wondered what would happen if she spoke Italian? The answer came to him the instant as he thought about it. He'd lock them away upstairs and would only come out when there came the need of a new bed.
"Damon, a little help?"
Damon shook his head as Sara called to him. She was looking at him expectantly. "What?" He asked.
"Can you help bring these in, I said." She said as she picked up one of the several duffel bags. Despite having had four glasses of wine and three glasses of bourbon, she wasn't slurring her words or swaying on her feet. Either her recovery time was off the charts or she was hardly buzzed to begin with.
"Certainly." Damon said as he picked up two bags and slung one over each shoulder. "How was he able to get through customs so fast with all these bags?" Damon asked. With all the packing, traveling through the airport, flying, going through customs, baggage claim and then traveling to Mystic Falls from Richmond, there was no way he could've done it in the near 12 hours it had occurred in. The flight itself would've been nearly that long.
"Private jet." Was the answer Sara gave him as the three of them carried the bags into the foyer.
Damon just shook his head at her answer. 'Of course.' He thought as he followed after her and Sinjin.
"Now which one have these has..." Sara started, but her question was answered before she could finish as Sinjin handed her the smallest of the five bags. "Thank you." She said as she dropped the bag she had carried in and took the one he handed her. "Damon if you could show him to a place where he can set up, I'd appreciate it. I have to run up stairs for second."
Damon nodded. "Sure thing baby." He said as he lead Sinjin to one of the lesser used rooms down the hall as Sara made her way up stairs. He figured she had the man bring her some of her own things from Paris. She had once said that she had kept some items over the years that she had deemed sentimental in the places where her contacts in each major country were located.
As Damon showed Sinjin into the rarely used dinning room, seeing as they all preferred to eat in the kitchen if and when the inhabitants of the house actually feasted on normal food, the man quickly began setting bags down and pulling items out. Damon quickly determined the reason for the private jet as Sinjin pulled several technological instruments from the bags. The only one he was able to identify was the laptop and a set of speakers.
"What's all this for?" Damon asked as he watched him set up.
"To read phone." Sinjin said. Damon quickly realized that English was not a major contributor in the man's language skills.
"How's it going?" Sara asked as she appeared in the room, the phone she had taken off of Pelicarpo the day before in her hand.
"Few minutes." Sinjin replied as he plugged in cable after cable into the wall and the machines.
"Take your time Sinjin. Here is the phone, pull off any information you can without destroying it if possible." Sara said, giving Sinjin his orders in French as she placed the phone next to laptop.
"Qui Miss. Sara." Sinjin nodded as he continued setting up.
"Call if you need anything." Sara said, this time in English as she grabbed Damon's hand and lead him from the room.
"So we're just going to leave him there? Alone?" Damon asked as he was lead from dinning room.
"Yes. He's under strict orders Damon, he knows what he's doing." Sara assured, knowing that Sinjin would perform at his highest level possible to achieve the answers Sara required. Unfortunately, he had no updated report to give her when she'd asked. Sara had all her contacts on high alert concerning traveler activity, trying to find how who their leader was. Unfortunately, this bastard was flying so low under the radar that not even her contacts could find him. With any luck, Sinjin may provide the answers they were looking for.
AN: And that's chapter 9. Hope you all enjoyed it. Please review and be on the lookout for chapters ten and eleven. They will hopefully be up soon. They're mostly written, just need finish those last few scenes to tie them all together. :) If the muses are nice they'll be done soon enough.