Chapter 11- Secrets in the Blood
"The travelers were given orders to move into Mystic Falls and collect the last remaining Silas doppelgänger." Nadia informed Katherine, taking a sip from her glass of blood provided from their waiter Katherine had compelled upon her arrival.
"They're here? Now? Why?" Katherine asked, wondering if this attack was going on now while they spoke.
"Because the other remaining Silas doppelgänger body was destroyed. Stefan's role in this plan was intensified when the other doppelgänger was killed. "
"Pelicarpo. Sara said that when she killed him his body was completely disintegrated when they went back to the house the next day. Will they be taking Elena as well then?"
"I'm surprised you care." Nadia said with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't. Not about her, but it'd be nice to know if they were going to be coming after me as well." Katherine sneered. She did not care about what happened to Elena. They could have her for all she cared, that would leave Stefan all to herself. Well, she would if they didn't need Stefan as well.
"They won't be coming for you or Elena ... at least not today."
"How can you be so sure?" Katherine asked with a raised eyebrow, skeptical.
"Because they're not ready for you two. If they were to take the two of you along with Stefan, they wouldn't have enough time to bring Pelicarpo's soul back." Nadia informed as she leaned in closer onto the table.
"Bring him back? What for?" Katherine asked, wondering how the hell they were supposed to bring back a soul that had already departed from its body.
"Because their Master wants the last four remaining doppelgänger souls."
"But Sara killed him."
"The Striga destroyed the body. Just because the lamp is broken doesn't mean the genie is gone. Pelicarpo's soul is still available. They just need a vessel to put it in. Stefan's body is the perfect cage to house the last two Silas doppelgänger souls."
"So why bring Pelicarpo back 1,000 years ago?" Katherine still believed that Sara had something to do with all this. Who the hell, but her, had the kind of time like she did? Vampires weren't created till nearly 1000 years after she was cursed and that was about the same time Pelicarpo was brought back.
"Because back then and even now, finding doppelgängers is not easy and they are hundreds of years apart. If you find one, better to snatch it up before it gets away. The original inhabitant of the body was dying, his soul weakening. By placing the soul of a former doppelganger into another doppelgänger body it not only returned the body to perfect health, but gave the transferred soul new abilities."
"Yes, Sara mentioned that he wasn't exactly human, but then again he wouldn't be if he's been alive for 1,000 years. So, doesn't this Master want Sara as well then? She has a soul. It can't be just because of this whole immortal bullshit." Katherine said with a sneer.
Nadia sighed, despite wanting to help Katherine she felt some of this information was rather obvious. Never the less, she carried on. "The only way to gain access to one's soul is by killing them. The Travelers don't have the abilities to siphon souls as the Striga does and she's immortal." She paused, considering what she about to say next and if she should even bring it up. "Now I don't know how much of this is true, but there are rumors floating around the travelers' circles that the Striga doesn't even have a soul and that's why she needs to feed on them. There's another one stating that this is all happening because of her. Apparently, she knows him."
"Are you saying that it's the Striga who's doing all this?" Katherine felt that she finally had the proof she'd been looking for. She knew this all because of Sara.
"The Striga is not the ring leader." Nadia said with a shake of her head. "I do not know their master's name, but I do know that he is a He."
"She could be, after all she claims to have never met anything she couldn't control." Katherine accused. She really wanted to peg this all on Sara. She hated how she had just waltzed in here and everyone just immediately fell in love with the woman. "How is it you know all this? I wouldn't have guessed that a vampire would willingly hang out with a group of outcasted witches."
"My boyfriend is one of them. He is my source."
"Then why tell me all of this?" Katherine narrowed her eyes, wondering what the woman's motives were for helping her. "You are betraying your lover to help me, why?"
"Because I have been looking for you for quite some time. I want to help you. I won't let them kill you." Nadia said sincerely. She wasn't going to allow them to kill Katherine, not when she had finally found her after 500 years of searching for her.
"Well that seems a little inevitable if this master of yours is coming for my soul." Katherine said with a snort.
"Not if we do to you what the travelers plan to do to Stefan." Nadia grinned.
"What and put my soul in another doppelgänger body? Uh, I hate to break it to you, but the only available Amara doppelgänger body is Elena's. And in case you forgot, they're after her for the same reason they want me so I don't really see how that's going to work."
"Not if we put you in an immortal body. The Striga's body."
"How..." before Katherine could finish her sentence her phone began to ring. "Hello?" She answered. "Caroline, what the hell do you want? ...What? ... No, I...Fine, I'll be there in a minute." Katherine snapped as she hung up the phone. "Seems you were right. The Travelers have taken Stefan. However, I thought you said they didn't want the Striga?"
"They don't. I do." Nadia grinned. "My boyfriend is part of the group that took them."
"How was she able to be captured?" Katherine demanded. Clearly, the woman knew some things about the Striga that even Sara wasn't aware of.
"Sleeping spell coupled with a magic powder. The Striga is not as immune to everything as she thinks she is."
"I have to go, but I'll be contacting you again Nadia." Katherine grinned as she quickly scribbled her phone number down on a napkin before she quickly sped off to head back to the boarding house to meet the others.
x-TOPD-x
"Damn it!" Stefan growled as he slammed his hand against the bars. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't bust through the metal bars of his make shift cell that was clearly located in the basement of someone's house. It didn't help that they were coated in vervain, though he had built up a slight immunity to it burning him it was still strong enough to keep him from busting the metal.
"Save your energy Stefan." Sara grumbled from where she sat in her cell, her back up against the wall. Her energy was draining, since feeding off Pelicarpo's soul she had found herself needing to feed far more often than she used to. She should've known that nothing good would ever come from feeding off him. Unfortunately, being stuck with Stefan was not helping matters any better. Her Overdose Feed was stuck in the cell next to her and even he was weak. He really needed to get off the bunny diet. If she'd been stuck with any other vampire, their chances of getting out of here quickly would've been far greater than they were now. She would've traveled through the bars using her little smoke trick, gotten her captive partner out of their cell and then fed off their captors upstairs. However, because her captive partner was Stefan and because of his collection of souls that surrounded him, had she the strength to travel through the bars she would've lost all control the moment she got out. She knew her limitations and it seemed so did their captors. She had no doubt that those that had captured them were Travelers.
"How can you just sit there? We have to do something!" Stefan growled as he looked at the Striga before his gaze shifted around, looking for anything that could help them out of their current situation. Since coming to in their current holding cells, Stefan had been in a pissed off mood, not that Sara could blame him. She too was pissed that she had been taken down in mere seconds. Something like that hadn't happened in hundreds of years and what had taken place then had been anything but pleasant.
"We are. We need to conserve what strength we have left and come up with a plan." Sara said before her body was wracked with coughing. Whatever the woman had blown in her face it was messing with her system. Unfortunately, she couldn't recall what the woman had chanted.
"Hey, are you okay?" Stefan asked, traveling across his cell towards the wall of bars closest to her.
"I'm fine." She said as she closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing. Whatever that woman had done to her it had messed with her control. She passed out, what was the big fucking deal? It wasn't like she was injured or anything.
"No you're not." Stefan eyed her with concern. Despite their strained relationship, Stefan did care for the woman. She was dating his brother after all and Damon would rip his heart out if he let anything happen to Striga despite her immortal status. "When was the last time you fed?" He asked. Since the death of Pelicarpo, Sara had been needing to feed at least once a week and Stefan couldn't remember if she had done so this week or not. To make things easier on Sara where her control was concerned, Stefan had been staying at Elena's more often than not as of late.
"It's been a while."
"We need to get that guard back in here. You can feed on him." Stefan said as he moved back towards his cell door, trying to think of way to get their captors attention.
"Won't do much good." Sara mumbled. "I need more than one soul and quite frankly, given the option, the human traveler would not be my first choice in a meal." Sara's words caused Stefan to look at her, the hungry look she gave him as he watched her eyes flash from brown to white caused him great concern.
"Ah, but that's a bad idea, right?" He asked cautiously.
"Right." Sara said as she closed her eyes and when they opened they were back to brown.
The silence between them was interrupted by the sound of the heavy metal door that separated their holding cells from the upstairs unlocking and opening. A single man entered the room. Though he was not the same guard as before, they recognized him as one of those in the group that had taken them hostage. He was tall, light skinned, looked to be in his early 30's and had a head of unruly dark hair and the full beard he had was just as unkept as the rest of him. His tan suede jacket was dirty and his dark jeans had holes in them. They looked to Sara like they were intentionally put there by the manufacturer.
The man glared at them with beady, dark green eyes. Sara knew the look well. It was a look of pure hatred and disgust. He continued to stand by the door before he switched the lights off and they were plunged into darkness before another switch could be heard being activated. The metal vents that ran along the walls near the ceiling creaked open, the sound like nails on a chalk board, letting in sunlight. Stefan howled in agony as blisters formed on his body where sunlight hit.
"Stefan!" Sara shouted in concern as she tried to get up off the floor as quickly as she could. How had they not realized they had taken his day light ring? "Stop this!" Sara shouted, glaring at the traveler.
After a few minutes the vents were closed. Stefan gasped for air, the smell of burning flesh hung heavily in the air. Sara knew these travelers worked for the man behind all this chaos that had been in their lives, so she knew they needed Stefan alive or at the very least hoped. It now seemed that they also needed him weak. Without a word the man turned the lights back on and left the room, leaving the supernatural creatures alone once more.
"What...what the hell was that for?" Stefan groaned as he sat up, uncurling his body from the fetal position it had been in. He wiped away the saliva that had trailed down his chin with the back of his hand, the small amount of pain that occurred caused him to assess the damage that had been done. Unfortunately, the blisters and burns were healing slower than he would've liked. "Torture?"
"I know torture Stefan and that wasn't it. My guess, they're trying to weaken you. Why else take your daylight ring? They can't kill you, you're needed for their Master's plan after all." Sara said as she came to terms with what she was about to do. She just hoped that Stefan and the others, should they find out, would forgive her.
"Fuck! How did I not realize that they took it?" Stefan growled as he looked at his hand, the finger he usually wore the ring on was bare.
"Because when we came to we weren't thinking about jewelry." Sara stated rather bluntly with a roll of her eyes as she pushed herself off the wall and moved towards the bars that separated them. "You need to feed, Stefan."
"What? How?" Stefan gasped as he stared at her. She couldn't have been suggesting what he thought she was suggesting. "No! No, Sara. I can't. I won't." He flat out refused.
"You can and you will. Stefan, I can't save us in this situation, but you can! You can feed off me and get us out of here." Sara stated a matter-of-factly.
"I can't feed on you Sara. I'll kill you." He shouted. Stefan was not comfortable with this, never mind the fact that Damon would kill him if they ever got out of here.
"Can't die remember." Sara mused with a watery smile. "I'll be fine. I won't let you feed too much, I promise. Just enough so you can get your strength back. Stefan trust me." She pleaded with him. She wasn't so weak that she couldn't stop a ripper from feeding, quite frankly that was the least of her concerns as of the moment.
Stefan fought with himself, but if he could put his trust in anyone in a situation like this, it could be Sara. If anyone could stop him from going blood crazy, she could or so he hoped. "Okay." He sighed, giving in. Stefan shuffled over from across his cell so that he came right up next to her. "You're sure?" He asked, his worried gaze focusing on her calm face.
"Trust me." She said again as she offered him her wrist through the bars.
Stefan nodded. "I trust you." He said as the veins around his eyes bulged underneath the skin, his eyes turning red before he tore into her wrist causing Sara to hiss at the sudden burst of pain.
"Easy!" She hissed through clenched teeth. Just because he was feeding on her blood doesn't mean he had to be so rough. Sara could feel her blood being drained from her body, but she wasn't concerned. If anything, she'd pass out and it would be better for them both. The sound of the locks on the metal door opening caused Sara to turn her focus from Stefan to the door. When she tried to pry her wrist out of Stefan's grasp, he growled, dug in deeper and sucked harder.
"Stefan, they're coming!" She shouted as her head whipped back to focus on the feeding vampire. "Stefan, stop! Let go!" She commanded. Stefan quickly released her wrist and Sara pulled her hand back through the bars, cradling it in her other hand as she watched it heal instantly. She raised her gaze to Stefan as she watched his eyes return to normal. He wiped her blood off his face and then quickly sucked his fingers clean.
"Holy shit!" Stefan exclaimed as he stood up. He felt like he could take on the world. Never had a feeding left him feeling so charged. Not human blood and most certainly not animal. "What a rush!" Stefan grinned as he looked to the Striga on the floor below him. Concern quickly filtered across his features. "Are you okay?"
Sara nodded. "I'm fine." A small, sad smile appeared on her lips as she heard the door open and close.
She watched Stefan turn his gaze to the man, the same one as before, enter the room. The man gave a sickening smile before he turned the lights off and opened the vents.
Stefan flinched as he felt the rays of sunlight hit his skin and when he opened his mouth to scream he was surprised that nothing came out. In fact, he felt no pain at all. Stefan looked at his skin covered in sunlight and there were no blisters. "H...how?" He stuttered, stunned.
"That's impossible!" The traveler growled before turning on the lights.
"Impossible you say?" Sara mused as she glared at the traveler from where she still knelt beside their shared set of bars, a knowing smirk on her lips. "Check."
"What did you do to him, Bitch?" The man spat in broken English.
"Sara? What's going on?" Stefan asked, fear creeping into his voice. Despite getting to know Sara over the last few weeks, they still knew very little about her and what she was truly capable of.
"Sorry, Stefan. I had to." Sara said shooting him an apologetic look as the traveler came up to Stefan's cell.
"What did you do?!" The traveler shouted once more as he pulled his keys out.
"Stefan." Sara said calmly as she stared at the traveler. "Kill him." She commanded.
Stefan soon found himself in front of the man, who was startled at the suddenness of the vampire's movements and dropped his ring of keys. Stefan's eyes shifted as he reached through the bars and snapped the man's neck.
"Good. Now…" Sara paused as she stood up and grabbed a hold of the bars to aid her. "Get. Me. Out. Of. Here." She said through gritted teeth as she stared at him through the bars.
Stefan, once again, did as he was told. It was like he'd been compelled and his humanity was turned off at the same time. It was worse than when he had been under Klaus' control. He knew he would do everything Sara told him to do and wouldn't give it a second thought. Stefan snagged the keys from the ground and after finding the one that fit his door he could finally leave his prison cell. He quickly unlocked Sara's door and moved to her side. He gathered the Striga into his arms and vamp sped them out of the makeshift prison and up the stairs to the main level of the building that they were in.
The main floor was full of energy and as they came out of the basement they were faced with a room full of travelers. Stefan quickly counted seven men and four women and all looked surprised, angry and terrified that their captives had escaped. The look on Sara's face did not ease their emotions.
"Perfect." She grinned as Stefan let her go and her feet were on the floor. Her eyes shifted from brown to white. Everyone in the room tried to move, tried to speak, to stop the supernatural creatures before them from escaping and they all found that they could do none of it. "Stefan. Go outside and wait for me." She commanded and Stefan was gone in a blink of an eye. She didn't want to accidentally feed from him. Feeding in a large cluster like this, she didn't want to get carried away. Sara's eyes shifted from white to black as she opened her mouth and the white, whispy, vapors of soul filtered from the mouths of the travelers to her own. As she fed on the 11 souls at once, a white glow filtered from her black eyes. In a matter of minutes, one by one the 11 bodies fell to the floor and the last of vapors were consumed by the immortal creature.
X-TOPD-x
At the boarding house, everyone was in full panic mode as they waited for Katherine to arrive.
"The cute one's here!" Katherine's voice rang out as she entered the house. The front door slamming shut behind her as she walked into the living room.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Damon spat from his position by the mantel, a glass of bourbon in his hand.
"We were beginning to think that the travelers got you too." Caroline said as she stood up from sitting next to a distraught Elena. Her voice held a slight concerned tone to it. She may not have liked Katherine, but they were all supposed to be working as a team.
"Please." Katherine snorted. "They could've taken sweet Elena here too, but they didn't." She sneered as she poured herself a drink. "Do we have any leads?" She asked, feigning interest. While she may have already known what had happened and why, Nadia had never disclosed the place that they were taking the two doppelgängers.
"None. We could try tracking cars, but neither Damon or Elena got a good enough look at license plate numbers to send to my mom. I did ask her to keep an eye out for any unfamiliar vehicles and suspicious groups of people." Caroline said as she shoved a glass of alcohol laced blood into Elena's hands.
"I thought these people didn't want Sara?" Jeremy asked from his position next to Bonnie, his words starting to slur from the amount of alcohol he'd consumed. It's effects finally catching up to him.
"It's strange. You said she fainted Damon?" Bonnie asked as she stood up and walked over to said vampire.
"That's what it looked like. Who knows what they did to her to have caused it." Damon said through gritted teeth. His grip was so tight on the glass Bonnie was surprised it hadn't shattered yet.
"Well, whatever's going on we'll figure it out and I'm sure they'll be fine. Stefan's pretty tough and to be honest I'm not all that concerned since he's with Sara. She won't let them do anything to him if she can help it." Bonnie spoke softly as she took the glass from Damon's hand. "I know you don't like not doing anything, but right now we have two doppelgangers here that they could very well be coming after. We need to get things ready here while we come up with a plan to get Stefan and Sara back." Bonnie continued, cutting off the near murderous gaze Damon had tried to give her.
Damon realized she had a point. His baby brother was probably safer with Sara than if he had been captured with anyone other than Elena and Katherine. Although, Bonnie seemed to be forgetting that Stefan may not have been as safe as she thought he was. Stefan was still a danger to Sara's control and he knew she hadn't fed in over twelve days. Something he normally wouldn't have concerned himself with if it weren't for the fact that these witchy wannabes seemed to have been able to take down his girlfriend in 2.5 seconds. If she hadn't been struggling with her control before, he knew she must've been now.
X-TOPD-x
With all 11 bodies drained Sara closed her eyes and when she opened them they were back to their normal brown hue. She felt better, but not perfect. Whatever they had done to her was gone, but she still didn't feel like her old self. The self that felt more in control before feeding off Pelicarpo, but for now she was calling this her new normal and she was back to it. Sara looked around the room and took in the boxes, papers and random items that were spread around the room.
"We're gonna need some help." She said to herself before a 'ping' reached her ears. Sara looked around and found Stefan's cell phone on the table. She picked it up and pressed the home button. the screen lit up and she saw several missed calls from just about everyone. The latest one being from Damon. Sara slid the notification and when his contact info came up she was about to press the call button when she realized she had no clue where they were. "Where are we?" She muttered as she looked around for something with an address on it. She found nothing, typical. Sara heaved out a sigh before she remembered that Stefan may know if they were still in Mystic Falls. She quickly dashed to the front of the house and out the door, finding the vampire waiting like a sentry just outside. "Stefan..."
"What did you do, Sara? How did you..."
"Never mind that! Do you know where we are?" She asked with a wave of her hand, dismissing what he had been saying. Now was not the time.
"Well yeah, but..."
"Tell me." She commanded
"Pleasant Drive."
"Note the irony." She mumbled as she opened up the text messaging option for Damon's contact info.
'Pleasant Drive. Brown house. Need everyone.' Sara sent the text and no sooner had it gone through did Damon's name come on the screen and the phone began to ring.
"Hey Baby." Sara greeted, a genuinely happy smile appearing on her lips as she put the phone on speaker volume even though it was unnecessary with the vampire next to her.
"Sara? God, baby! Are you okay?" Damon asked, his tone was filled with relief. "Is Stefan okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine, Damon. Stefan is fine." Sara assured him.
"Where's Stefan?"
"Right here, Brother. We're okay." Stefan reassured though he gave the Striga a look that said he was unsure. He still didn't understand what she had done to him. He knew she didn't compel him, at least not in the usual sense.
"What happened?" Damon asked once more.
"We'll explain later, Damon. Right now we need you all here to help sort through some things." Sara said.
"On our way, Baby." Damon said before the line disconnected.
"Sort through what things?" Stefan asked with a raise of an eyebrow.
"There is a crap load of stuff in that house. The stuff I was hoping to find when I got rid of Pelicarpo and didn't, could be somewhere is all that mess. We're going to need some help." Sara stated as she moved to go inside. Stefan grabbed her by the arm.
"What did you do to me?" He growled.
"I thought you trusted me?" Sara said as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"I did...I do. I just don't..."
"Understand?" She finished for him.
Stefan nodded. "How was I able to withstand the sun? Hell, I still don't have my ring." Stefan said as he looked to his bare finger. How was he able to be out in broad day light without his daylight ring? It was impossible. At least it was supposed to be.
"Tell me, Stefan. How do you feel? Strong? Powerful? Invincible? Like you could do anything and no one could stop you?"
"Yeah." He breathed. "It's like I have full control. I can do anything without feeling the consequences. I just snapped a guy's neck and I didn't care. Sure, he was part of the group that kidnapped us and he tortured me but still it was, like, blank."
"That's because you don't have control Stefan. I do." Sara paused, now really wasn't the time to be going over this. There was so much more to it, there always was. "I told you to kill him and you did. I told you to get me out of the cell and you did. I told you to go outside and you did just that even though you knew you didn't have on your daylight ring, yet here you are out in the sun. You feel great, everything is heightened more than before, except your emotions. It's like you've been compelled and your humanity is off, am I right?"
"Yes, but you didn't compel me. Did you? I don't remember..."
"No, Stefan I didn't compel you. You fed off me." She stated sadly. She hadn't wanted to do it, but it was the only way for them to get out of there. It wasn't that she didn't trust the others to find them, it was the fact that she didn't know what these people were up to and feared that time was something that was not on Stefan's side.
"I still don't..." Stefan trailed off confused. He thought back to what had happened after he had fed off her, she had apologized to him. Suddenly it clicked. "It's your blood." He whispered.
Sara nodded. "Yes, Stefan. It's my blood." She confirmed before the screeching of tires could be heard.
Their focus was turned to the three cars speeding down the road and towards them. Damon's Camaro was in the lead, followed by Elena's SUV, and Bonnie's Impala. All three cars pulled up against the road and their friends poured out from cars to greet them. Damon sped from his car towards Sara and lifted her into his arms while Elena sped into Stefan's. Katherine exited Damon's car, Caroline Elena's, and Bonnie, Jeremy and Matt exited Bonnie's car. They all rushed over to the two couples.
"Are you guys okay?" Caroline asked, concerned for her friends.
"What happened?" Matt asked.
"We've been looking all over for you guys." Jeremy stated, glad to see they were okay. He never would've guessed that they were on this side of town, though in hind sight it made sense. The road was practically abandoned and was only a mile away from where Pelicarpo and the Shadow People had set up their hide out.
"You know a phone call would've been appreciated." Katherine sneered as she stood farther away from the group, her arms folded over her chest.
"Concerned, Katherine?" Bonnie snickered as she glared at the vampire.
"Not at all. But because these two went off and got kidnapped, my day has been interrupted." Katherine huffed. She may care a little bit about Stefan, but she couldn't have cared less about Sara. More importantly, her meeting with Nadia had been cut short.
"We're fine, everyone." Stefan assured his friends, for now his and Sara's conversation was put on hold.
"What the hell happened?" Damon asked as he looked from Sara to his brother. "Where are the travelers?"
"They're dead." Stefan stated, pretty certain that Sara had asked him to leave so she could feed. He looked to her for confirmation and she nodded.
"Okay, so what now?" Jeremy asked.
"There's a ton of stuff inside that looks promising. I thought we should either sift through it or take it back home with us. So, the fact that we have three cars here is good." Sara smiled, a small chuckle escaping her lips.
"Okay, so let's do this!" Caroline exclaimed with a clap of her hands, ready to get to work. Everyone nodded in agreement. Their friends were safe and unharmed; the threat was extinguished for now and they could relax for the time being.
"Alright, follow me everyone." Sara said as she led everyone inside the house. "Oh and ignore the bodies." She said as she passed the threshold.
"Bodies?!" Caroline screeched as everyone entered the house and followed Sara towards the room that contained everything she wanted to look at. There on the floor were the 11 bodies of the travelers that looked to have had the life sucked out of them.
"Holy shit!" Damon swore as he took in the scene in front of him before looking to his girlfriend. "You...how did you...I mean..." he stuttered, unable to get his thoughts out.
"I can feed on more than one person at a time you know." Sara stated like it was the most natural thing in the world as she made her way into the room, stepping over bodies here and there.
"Remind me to never piss her off." Matt whispered to Jeremy. He hadn't spent as much time with Sara as the others had so she still terrified the shit out of him.
"Ditto." Jeremy responded before making his way into the room.
"Can someone check the bodies? Look for wallets, ID, papers, cell phones, anything that seems interesting just put on the table and we can go through it later." Sara suggested as she rifled through the items on the table she had found Stefan's cell phone on.
Very quickly everyone set about doing different tasks around the room. Sara had one table, Caroline another, Bonnie, Damon and Elena search through the many boxes in the room, Jeremy searched one of the cabinets, while Katherine, Stefan and Matt searched the bodies. Only two cell phones were pulled from the bodies, no one had identification. Stefan got lucky and found his daylight ring in the pants pocket of one of the bodies he was searching and quickly put it on before anyone finally noticed he wasn't wearing it. Finding his ring brought back his and Sara's conversation from earlier. What was so special about her blood? It had been nothing like he had ever tasted and if he was being honest with himself, he wanted more. This realization startled him and he looked to the Striga as she moved from the table to some of the strange relics on some of the shelves.
Feelings eyes on her, Sara looked up see Stefan staring at her. She noticed the hunger in his eyes. "Stefan, make sure you check the body down stairs." She stated, but her tone made it sound more like a suggestion than like the command that it really was. No one looked up from their tasks or even inclined that they had been listening as Stefan quickly disappeared from the room.
"So what exactly is it that were looking for?" Katherine whined as she joined the Striga at the set of shelves she was at, picking up some strange item of the shelf. She had no idea what it was or if it did anything, she just knew it probably belonged in a museum or the garbage.
"Anything that could involve any of us, Mystic Falls, doppelgängers in general, whatever you think that could be important." Sara said with a roll of her eyes. "Bonnie, do you see anything that pertains to magic?" Sara asked as she looked to the woman who was the anchor to the supernatural limbo. Being as old as she was, Sara was able to identify several items that the travelers and even other witches used in their practices. There were a few items she was able to identify as known talismans, a couple sacred daggers, there was even some ancient spear amongst the relics. What that would've been used for she didn't know and quite frankly she didn't want to.
"I don't know about magic, but this thing must be important if it has its own chest." Damon said as he removed said chest from the box he was look though and placed it on the table. From inside he pulled out a silver chalice that contained an intricate gold pattern and the lip was encrusted with gems that had lost their sparkle. It was tarnished and looked to have seen better days. Everyone turned their attention to Damon and Sara's eyes widened.
"Let me see that." She said as she joined him at the table. Damon handed the object to her and upon closer inspection Sara could see that the intricate gold design was of an intentional design. It was a crest and not just any crest, but her family's crest. Though she hadn't seen the chalice in over 2000 years she'd know it anywhere. She had looked at this chalice and its partner everyday for the first 16 years of her life, knowing that she was supposed to drink from it one day at her wedding. Needless to say, that day never did occur with everything that followed after her arranged marriage had been broken off. "Why would they have this?" Sara whispered. It didn't make sense. As far as she knew this chalice was nothing special other than for celebrating weddings and the births of new family members. There were no magical properties to it that she could recall.
"Do you recognize it Sara?" Bonnie asked as she placed a hand on the Striga' shoulder.
"Yes," She whispered. 'But I haven't seen this over two millennia... not since..." Sara stopped herself as that terrible day made its way to the forefront of her mind. The day she returned to her village, killed the men who had wronged her and was cursed for her revenge. However, that wasn't all that happened that fateful night. After being turned into the creature that she was she had killed everyone in her village, trying to quench the uncontrollable feeling of hunger. Her final victims had been those who had casted her into exile: her family. She fed from her parents and then burned her ancestral home to the ground, but not before taking one of the two matching chalices that looked like that of the one in her hand and threw it with all her might away from her in anger.
"This shouldn't be here." Sara said as she came back to the present. She looked around to see everyone staring at her, including Stefan who had returned from down stairs. "Pack everything up. We'll take it back to the boarding house and sort it out there." She ordered as she threw the chalice back into the small chest Damon had dug it out of before carrying it outside. Everyone stared after her, wondering what the hell had just happened while Stefan moved around putting things in boxes to be carried out to the cars.
"Well, you heard her the girl. Move!" Caroline barked as she joined Stefan in picking up. Everyone snapped out of whatever trance they were in and quickly moved about filling boxes and carrying them out to the cars.
Damon, not understanding what exactly had happened with his love quickly vanished from the room and appeared outside where he saw Sara staring into the trunk of his car. In a split second he was at her side. "Hey." He said softly as he put an arm around her. "What's going on?" He asked as he searched her face. It was blank except for her eyes. Her eyes were a myriad of emotions. The one he picked up on immediately was intense hatred. "Sara?" He pressed again.
"Why would they have this Damon? They shouldn't have this." She whispered and Damon felt her body begin to shake.
"Hey, hey." Damon said as he pulled her fully into his arms. "Talk to me. What going on inside that pretty head of yours?" he said as he kissed the top of her head.
"I don't understand why they would have this. There's no magical ties to that I'm aware of. Gods, I thought this was gone. After all these years." She said as she leaned again him, pressing her face into his shoulder. She didn't know wither to scream or cry.
"Sara, what exactly is this?" Damon asked as he looked at the open chest in his trunk, eyeing the ancient drinking glass.
"It's my family's ceremonial chalice. It was used for weddings mostly, but every once in a while it was used to celebrate the birth of child to someone high up in our family. It was part of a matching set; each partner would drink a special elixir from one of the cups. I remember my father saying that they were used at my birth and that I was to drink from one on my wedding day. Obviously, that didn't happen, but I haven't seen either one of them in a very long time."
"Since they disowned you?"
Sara shook her head. "No, after that. The day I went back."
"The day you were..."
"Cursed? Yes."
"You went home?" Damon asked, surprised. She had never mentioned returning home. He knew she went back to her village to get revenge on Them, but she never mentioned seeing her family again.
"I got revenge." Sara clarified as she moved out of Damon's arms. "We should help the others." She said as she watched their friends go in and out of the house as they removed boxes and large items and placed them in their vehicles.
It was obvious to Damon that she had ended the conversation and considering how personal and painful the subject was to her he'd let it go, for now. "Alright." Damon nodded and together they helped clear the rest of the house. Within the hour the cars were loaded up, the house was double checked before it was set aflame. The house was clearly abandoned and the only one set apart from the others on the near abandoned street. As the flames engulfed the house everyone loaded themselves into their cars and drove towards the Salvatore boarding house.
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Upon returning to the boarding house the cars were unloaded and everything that was taken from the house was locked up in a single room to be inspected later on. For now, everyone wanted to relax in the fact that their friends were safe and back where they belonged. While ideas of what to do for dinner was filtered around the group, Stefan and Sara had gone up stairs to shower and change. Stefan had been the first to return downstairs, but after an hour passed without Sara coming down Damon had gone in search of the Striga. He found her in their room, dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a blood red, long sleeved, sheer top with a black tank top on underneath. Her dark chestnut hair fell in loose, damp waves. She was standing at the window, staring out at the back yard, but from the far away look on her face Damon had a feeling she wasn't just looking at the scenery.
"I thought we decided not to focus on that stuff for a while." Damon said as he came up behind her. Sara turned around and stepped into his arms, wrapping hers around his waist. "Where'd you go?" Damon asked as he wrapped his arms around her, planting a kiss to the top of her head.
"To a time long, long ago." She sighed. "Sorry, were you all waiting for me?" She asked.
"We were just figuring out what to do for dinner. Jeremy suggested Pizza and Katherine suggested the Pizza Delivery Boy." Damon snickered as he felt Sara try to contain her laughter.
"Typical Katherine. Unless the freezer full of blood bags has suddenly turned up empty, I'm guessing you all shot her down." Sara said, looking up at him,
"In a heartbeat." Damon smirked. His answer caused Sara to roll her eyes. "Ah, there's my girl." He smiled before placing a kiss to her lips.
"C'mon Romeo, let's go settle on some food before Katherine tries to eat Matt." Sara said after breaking their kiss. She took ahold of Damon's hand and led him out of their bedroom and down stairs.
Ordering from the grill was quickly decided upon and Matt and Jeremy had been sent to pick up their orders mainly so Matt could use his employee discount on their bill. Over the next few hours everyone relaxed, ate, talked and drank. Damon's poor liquor cabinet supplies was quickly deteriorating. The others, namely Caroline, was surprised that he hadn't complained about them drinking all his booze. She almost made a comment about it, but when she went to say something she noticed he was no longer in the room with them. In fact, Sara had disappeared from the room as well. Well, it didn't take a genius to know what those two were up to and she didn't feel the need to use her vampire hearing to try and locate them. Instead she smiled, laughed and chatted with her friends as they continued to drain Damon's alcohol supply, thankful for the Striga's use of sex as a distraction.
After a few more short hours of drunken bliss everyone retired for the evening. Bonnie had gone up long before everyone had called it a night and when Jeremy went upstairs, Stefan noticed that he did not go into the same room as Bonnie as he and Elena went up to his room. Caroline, Matt and Katherine also went to their own separate rooms, leaving the living room to be cleaned up in the morning. For some time, the Salvatore home was quiet till footsteps reached Stefan's ears, bringing him out of his light slumber. Beside him Elena was in a deep sleep, no doubt due to all the alcohol she had consumed combined with the two mind blowing orgasms he had given her when they went up to bed. Stefan got up, put on some sleep pants and went in search of whoever was up, though he had an idea as to who it was. Her blood still called to him.
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AN: Okay, that's chapter 11. Hope you all enjoyed it! Chapter 12 is finished and uploaded. Hoping to post it in a few days when I have more done for chapter 13. The muses are being kind and being productive. Also, almost to 9,000 views. Would love to get to 10,000 before the end of the month. Who thinks it's possible? Please review! Perhaps if there are more reviews, I'll post chapter 12 early.