WE'VE PASSED THE NUMBER 10!
Well, since we've now gotten up to the 11th/12th chapter in this story/series I want to thank all those on FF who've supported this Story :D
Special Thanks to ILoveYou1978, Tvdlover87654, anonymous1397, NightlyLexie, Aphroditethatsme, NightlyLexie, Truly1OfAKind, TANYA, raven, OriginalGirl, NIGHTANGEL21, Kira Tsumi, , CantGuessThis, Kiari Salvatore, Annie L. Kiro, Alison M. Peters for all your wonderful reviews! I love reading them, and I'm grateful for all the wonderful compliments you're all too kind! :D
Special Thanks to ISgrl15, anonymous1397, Aphroditethatsme, Vampire Lover Forever123, brightcat12, Dame-Of-The-Living-Dead, ElenaZoylaSmith, EmmaStylinson-Malfoy, ILoveYou1978, It' , Paris101, salvatoresister887, splash1998, stargirl276, StarReader2009, The Charmed Rose for putting this story on their favorites list! I hope you all enjoy coming updates in the future! :D
Special Thanks to brightcat12, Vampire Lover Forever123, CandyMe21, Elena Spath, ILoveYou1978, It' , Jen2626, kate takes no shit, Kira Tsumi, MischiefManaged8, salvatoresister887, SonnyC88, Tvdlover87654 for putting this story on your alerts lists! Thanks so much and I hope you love every update that comes out from me! :D
I also have a riddle for you to figure out the next story ark:
Faces are faces
They are different and individual to each person
But what if three faces were one, two yet unknown traces
Two shuffled off their mortal coil but one still walks in the sun
Sins of the mothers will test all their trust
Into chaos and confusion we are thrust
To settle scores and debts in this bloody auction
And ask "Why are two faces now separate worth the price of one?"
Chapter 11
Savior
***Third Person's POV***
Damon gently placed Elena on the ground, and sped over to Katy, turning her on her back and revealing just how bad her condition was.
There was a huge gash around her hairline, her face was scratched up with glass, her mother's vervain ring tangled and matted in her blood-soaked hair.
But worst of all, her eyes were filled with glass and bleeding heavily.
With all the blood, Damon was very tempted to finish her off, but the smell of vervain from the ring helped him calm down-along with his years of learning self-control.
Even with his vampire hearing, he had to concentrate on hearing her heartbeat-which was fading to almost a stop. He knew she had little to no time left.
With quick speed, he started using CPR to pump her heart back into some kind of motion, then bit his wrist and shoved the wound into her mouth. She of course made no movement, but Damon pinched her nose and sat her up until the blood slid down her throat.
He saw the wounds beginning to heal, quickly plucked the glass from her eyes so they could heal, and twisted her wrist back in place when he saw it wasn't.
He saw her begin to breathe and relaxed as he heard her heart beat faster until it was at a normal pace.
Damon looked from Katy to Elena and sighed, "What am I going to do with you two?"
***Katy's POV***
I was walking down a long dark hallway, it was damn near impossible to see anything and the only thing I could vaguely see were mirrors on the walls beside me-but I couldn't really see into them when I looked, I only saw a vague outline of what was probably just my own reflection.
Needless to say, this place was giving me the creeps so I sped up my pace down the hallway.
I got towards the end of the hallway, seeing a dark worn out old door in front of me. I looked around, and seeing as there wasn't anywhere else to go I opened the door and went inside.
When I got inside, I saw an old library, filled with probably millions upon millions upon millions of books and documents.
The room was perfectly lit for reading, but the room itself was messy and unorganized, almost like everything was shoved in without care.
I walked over to some of the papers sitting on the empty librarian's desk. I sorted through, though it was somehow very hard to read, like the words on the paper were becoming blurrier whenever I tried to read them.
I came to a picture of a house, and upon closer inspection, saw it was MY house!
Well, it was one of them at the very least, not the one I lived in when my parents died, but it was an older home of mine that we had when I was about six or seven. I put the picture aside and looked through the files for anymore, sure enough there was.
It looked like a crayon drawing, like something a young child had made, of a white van-nothing else just a white van. Not thinking much of it, I tossed it aside and continued looking for more.
I found three more pictures, this time of people.
The first one I saw was a woman in old-fashioned dress, I couldn't pin-point how old but it was definitely around the medieval time.
She had long dark-shaded chestnut hair, coppery brown eyes, and insanely pale skin. She wore a long emerald dress lined with gold, and sat regally on a red velvet bench. She was posed and painted like a Mona-Lisa-like painting, but something about this painting gave me a feeling of fear and slight panic.
The second one was also of a woman, but this time she appeared to be from a time long after the first, probably around the Victorian era I thought.
She had blonde highlighted red curls, lovely translucent skin, and round silver/grey eyes. She had a long white hoop-skirted dress, which was decorated with blue-lined ruffles at the skirt, and a dark blue sash that surrounded her shoulders.
When I touched the picture I felt a surge of depression run through me, slowly, as if taking its sweet time to make me feel every drop.
The third picture was of a child, around eight maybe, with the same red/blonde curls as the woman in the last picture (same skin too actually), but she had more dark grey eyes then silver. The child seemed happy as can be, but I felt the same surge of sadness and loss like I felt with the other picture.
The picture of the second woman fell from my hands, and just before it drifted to the ground it became a book and slammed to the ground.
I let the other two pictures slip from my hands, forgetting them almost instantly, and bent down to pick up the old-looking book. I opened it, and my dream-self appeared to be reading it with interest, although I could not see what I was reading. Suddenly, I was just about to turn to the last page, but when I did it began to pour out blood from the crease and onto the floor.
Before I could react, the blood was gone, and the page was empty-of both writing and blood.
I stood up and walked back towards the door I came in, continuing to look at the book in awe, and opened the door. I took one step out the door and suddenly the dark hallway lit up, revealing the many mirrors that held several different women screaming and banging on the glass.
I turned to try and retreat back to the library but saw the room was in flames!
I turned back around to run past the mirrors, but as I began running I heard them hissing incoherent things to me all at once, and I began crying and tried to cover my ears to block them out. The more I tried to block them out the louder they became, and I could only make out one voice screaming "Return our secrets! Return our secrets!"
I looked around and saw them all slam against the glass so hard it shattered, but they still seemed to be pounding their fists against something, like an invisible barrier between them and the hallway.
I looked at all these women, all seemed to be unknown to me but also familiar, and then I saw the woman from the first painting in one of these 'mirrors'.
I kept trying to block out their angry voices, but nothing seemed to work, then I felt the book slip out from under my arm and begin to fall to the ground.
"The book! The book!" One of them shouted.
When the book crashed the floor it sounded like a bomb went off-
"AH!" I awoke with a shriek.
My breathing was fast and heavy, I felt like I had been wacked by a ton of bricks. But what freaked me most was that my sight wasn't right, I couldn't see!
I tried blinking, but I only felt tears in my eyes well up and an ache whenever I did.
"Katy what's wrong?!" I heard a voice say.
"Elena? Where are you?" I asked frantically.
"I-I'm right here." I felt a hand on my shoulder, "Katy calm down-"
"I will not calm down! I can't see!" I screamed, "What's going on?!"
I felt a jolt around me and I squeaked in surprise, still shaking slightly.
"Hey girlie! Calm down and hold still okay?" said the voice of Damon.
I tried to stay still but it was hard with all the adrenaline still pumping through me. I felt a hand move my chin in a certain direction, and another holding my head still.
"You have some blood in your eyes." I took in a strangled breath on that one, and then felt some kind of liquid being poured into my eyes.
I tried to jump back, but the hand from before kept me in place, and then I felt something like a damp cloth wipe around my now closed eyes. After a minute or two, the hand released my head and the cloth was removed from my face.
I blinked a few times, at first just seeing blur but then began to regain my vision. I relaxed after as I took in where I was, which Damon's car was apparently.
I was in the cramped back seat lying on a dark-colored blanket that had dry dark stains on it, and when I looked down at my jeans, shirt, and hands I saw dried blood on them.
I scratched my head, which began to itch, and found it felt sticky and matted. I looked at a piece of my hair and saw dried blood in it also.
When I looked for the source of the blood, I found no wound or anything, but that didn't make any sense seeing as I began to remember being through forward through a-
"You gave me vampire blood?" I demanded, looking at Damon.
"Yup, you're welcome."
I felt my lip curl in anger, just begging to spit out as many swear words my twelve-year-old brain knew.
My mom had made me promise when I was young, that I would never take vampire blood. She told me it was dangerous and that if I did it would mess with my head. I suppose she was vaguely referring to the Lexi situation then, but regardless, she made me promise.
But as soon as the anger came, it disappeared; I realized Damon probably wouldn't have given me blood if he hadn't thought there was a need.
Probably didn't want to have to deal with Sheriff Forbes, I thought.
I looked out the car to see where we were and saw some unfamiliar looking places; I turned to Damon and Elena asking, "Where are we?"
"Georgia." Damon answered, seeming to be almost bored.
"Why?"
"Because I have some errands to run."
"In Georgia?"
"Yes, are you always this redundant?" he smirked.
"Yes, I'd ask if you're always this much of an ass, but I need not bother on that one." I smirked back.
I saw the damp cloth (which turned out be a hand towel) and took it to try and get some of the blood out of my hair.
"How did you manage not to eat me in my sleep?" I asked, referring to my blood-soaked state.
"A mixture of self-control, rolling the windows down, and not to mention your little ring mixing with the available blood-so not appetizing."
I starteded running my fingers through my hair until I found my mom's ring, tangled just as he said in my hair. I sighed with relief and began untangling it,
"Thanks. For everything." I said, rather reluctantly, than continued to my task.
"You're welcome." He said nonchalantly.
For the next few minutes it was silent, until Elena spoke.
"So where's my car?"
"I pulled it off on the side of the road. I don't think anyone with bother it."
"What about that man in the road?" At this time I began to actually listen to them, seeing as I was curious myself, "Was he a-"
"From what I could tell. Yeah."
"Fantastic." I muttered.
"You didn't know him?" she asked.
"I never met him, wouldn't know him. I mean, it's not like we all hang out together at the 'Vamp Bar and Grill'." He joked.
"I think she was referencing the fact your 'kill 'em all' attitudes are a little too similar Mrs. White."
He smirked, "If that were true young Watson, you wouldn't have been able to make that reference."
Just then we pulled up in front of a bar, one that looked rather familiar to me as I looked at it.
"You brought us to a bar?" Elena asked rhetorically, "Damon, I'm not old enough and neither is Katy, they won't let us in."
"Sure they will." He said walking towards the doors.
"Uh, Sherlock." I started shifting my hand over my head to reference my height, "she's got a point."
He ignored me without even turning around and continued inside, with me and Elena following.
Boy, would Terrance have a field day with this, I thought.
We walked inside the bar, and were immediately greeted by a woman at tending bar, who also looked very familiar to me.
"Damon?" she literally jumped over the bar and went over to him, "My honeypie."
And as cruel irony would have it, I began to miss my inability to see when they started making out in front of the entire bar.
You never again see a twelve-year-old do a better impression of Blind Mag's last performance.
***Couple minutes later***
"Listen up everybody! Here's to the man that broke my heart, crushed my soul, destroyed my life, and ruined any and all chances of happiness." The woman, Bree, said with a smile on her face as she poured shots.
"Or what Damon would call a Tuesday night." I said aloud, smirking.
Bree seemed amused, and took her shot. She looked at me for a second and smiled, "The littlest Weston girl. Second only to your father. I didn't think I'd see you around here again."
I gave her a confused look, "We've met?"
"Well, I did babysit you once or twice. Colleagues with your parents."
And then it hit me! "Oh right! When I was seven, just before we moved from here! You bought some blood from them."
"Yup."
"Wait," Elena interrupted, "bought what?"
"Blood. Little business my folks ran for a while." I explained, "Vampires sometimes pay a little extra under the counter to bartenders who know about their-condition for a little kick in their drink. Turns out, they do hang out at the 'Vamp Bar and Grill'."
"I heard about them, sorry honey." Bree said sympathetically.
I took a breath and nodded, "Thanks."
She nodded back and then turned to Elena, "So how'd he rope you in?"
"I'm not roped in, actually I'm dating his-"
"Honey, if you're not roped, you're whipped. Either way just enjoy the ride."
Elena seemed to have wisely retracted herself from getting into that topic and tried to change the subject, "Okay. So how did you guys meet?"
"College." She laughed.
Both Elena and I looked at Damon with some shocked looks, "You went to college?" she asked.
"I've been on a college campus, yes." He replied.
"Good, otherwise that college deserves a refund." I said.
"About twenty years ago when I was a sweet young freshmen," Bree began, "I met this beautiful man, and I fell in love."
I quietly muffled a snort on that one.
"And then he told me about his little secret, made me love him even more. Cause, I had a little secret of my own, that I was dying to share with somebody."
Damon leaned over to Elena and I whispering, "She's a witch."
"Changed my world you know?" She said to Damon.
"I rocked your world." He replied smirking as usual.
That's sweet, I thought, It's gonna scar what little is left of my childhood but sweet.
Then Bree made a comment that I really tried to tune out and I started murmuring to myself, "TMI. TMI. .TMI…"
"But mostly he's just a 'Walkway Joe'." She said.
"Now that's more accurate." I mumbled.
***About an hour later***
It turned out Bree lived only a block away from the bar, you could literally see it from there, and she allowed me to borrow some of her sweats to change out of my bloody clothes. Guess she didn't want any patrons getting anxious.
I ended up wearing some long black tie sweat pants that I needed to roll the ankles up on, and a fitted T-shirt that basically looked like a regular T-shirt on me.
When I had changed, I threw my old clothes in the trunk of Damon's car and went back inside where we ended up eating lunch and talking. Well, more like eating lunch and creating a verbal 'Vampires 101' book.
We went as far as to bring up the Wicked Bitch of the south. I still hadn't told anyone about her yet, it just didn't relevant since she was gone.
"Let's say I'm descended from Katherine, does that make me part vampire?" Elena asked.
"Vampire can't procreate." He said, "But we love to try."
I made a 'throwing up' gesture shook my head, "Thanks for that."
He smirked, "No, if you were related, that would mean Katherine would have to have had a child before she was turned."
"Did Stefan think he could use me to replace her?" she said disdainfully.
"It's kind of creepy if you ask me."
I nodded along with that statement, then she turned to me and asked, "And what about you? Why did your parents sell blood? Where did they even get it?"
"Where do you think they got it Elena?" Damon said snarkily.
I rolled my eyes the comment and Elena's horrified expression, "Not like that. We stole it from blood banks, hospitals, or just anywhere they had it on stock. Some do take it from themselves, but that's more of the vampire groupies crowd, so the vampires just take it straight from them."
"But why sell it at all? Isn't it dangerous?"
I gave her a look, "No, did I mention my parents died from a ripe old age of 37?" I rolled my eyes again, "Of course it is, but it pays really well. The dealers risk their lives and freedom to get them the blood, and in exchange the vampires compel some bank tellers to hand over one grand per bag. It's its own circle of life sort of thing."
She seemed to accept the answer and started pushing around the pickles on her plate. I kind of tuned those two out for a while and stared off into space, until I heard something about beer (Lord knows it sounded tempting to me) and looked to see Damon and Elena clinking together their bottles-God that shouldn't have sounded that way!
I gave them both a look this time and said, "I think I've just become a witness to a crime… Story of my life."
Bree shook her head at me, "Hey Katy, it's getting pretty dark soon and some of the guys around here get pretty rowdy. Why don't you go hang out at my place for a while, and I'll come get you when it's died down okay?"
I looked over to Damon with my best pouty-child-do-I-have-to look, to which he nodded to. I sighed and got down from my stool.
"I feel so degraded."
"Have fun at Auntie Bree's!" Damon sing-songed.
"Bite me!" I mimicked as I walked out.
***Bree's House***
I had been hanging out at Bree's for a long time, and I decided after a while to start looking around.
I had pretty much went through the tiny house about four to five times by then, and I ended up looking around the tiny office she had. I looked through the books on the self, looking for anything that looked interest to read, until I came to the bottom shelf and saw a cardboard box shoved in. After a bit of maneuvering I released the box from its tight corner and saw it was filled with some books, herbs, and talismans.
Obviously some witch stuff, I left alone the talismans and herbs but took a look at the books. And I just moved one heavy book aside and saw something I couldn't believe I was looking at.
The book from my dream!
I pulled it out slowly and carefully, brushing off some of the dust and opening the book to the first page. At the center of the page it was entitled Clara in perfect script.
I turned to the next page, but was a little confused seeing as a few pages seemed to have fallen or had been ripped out (Whoever this Clara chick was, she must have pissed someone off), but I read what I could read:
-why?"
"You know perfectly well why, Kol." She had told me.
I tugged on the piece of her hair I had been dangling between my fingers until she turned her face to me. I saw her building her walls back up, and I could only see the faintest trace of sadness before they came up.
I had looked at her swollen stomach, glowing with health and promising new life, mercilessly teasing my self-control with its very being.
"You know that is easily tended to." I told her, probably a bit too angrily.
She attempted to look away from me, but I grabbed her chin and held it in place. She only sighed and told me how her husband was a good man, and that it was not just her child she carried.
I had told her, "I wouldn't have to harm him, you know. He doesn't know of my tricks like you do."
She wouldn't respond and simply sat herself up from the grass, looking at her belly with her round silver eyes. I had had enough of this song and dance and finally asked her, "Why are you so set on resigning yourself? You have such a stubborn strength, more so than any woman around, why do you refuse to use it when needed?"
She turned to me, her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowing, she was ready for a fight. That stubbornness I loved and hated was back.
I'll always remember her high regal voice when she replied, "Have you ever considered, it takes more of my stubborn strength to resign then to fight my circumstances?"
"No," I told her, my stubbornness matching her own, "I think you are simply too scared to use it."
She once again replied stubbornly, "I am not. You know I do not get scared so easily."
"That does not mean you aren't scared now my dear. You may boast about your strength to me all you like, because I know you truly have it, but do not lie to me and tell me you are not scared. I know that too, but why are you scared? Are you scared of what I am? What you could become?"
I had taken her hands as I said so, hoping to win her over, but she tore her hands away from mine.
"I think you are not considering the future of your own offer. It's not just our future you change if I agree and" she seemed almost hesitant to continue, "if I end up turning. It's not just our lives, it's my child's life too."
"We could change your child too, when he's old enough." I told her, though I knew why that couldn't be, but I never thought about the other reason why we couldn't the reason she brought up.
"And what if he wants a child? And that child's kin? And their kin, and their kin? One after another they will die, and I am alive?"
Her finally came down, but they revealed such sadness in her eyes.
"Children bury their parents, that is how it should be. I have resigned myself to many things Kol, but I shall not resign myself to eternal torture, by watching countless generations of mine die before my eyes over and over. There is your reason why Kol."
I know she's right, but she promised her heart to me before that child came to me. I was the one who saved her from that husband whom she carries that child for.
She owes me her love, why does she refuse me so?
I looked up that first page, just looking off into space for a moment or two.
"Wow." I said, and then took the book back to the living room and read on.
***Third Person's POV***
It had been hours since Bree had sent Katy to her house. She felt guilty about making that call, but she had been pushing it aside, but now she drank more than her fill when she couldn't push anymore.
She didn't really know what she would tell Katy when she got home, but after hearing what happened to her from Lexi she wasn't going to let that child witness anymore of this.
She sighed and turned to leave and think about what she would say, when she came face to face with Damon.
"We were just leaving, I wanted to say goodbye." He said, "I'll pick up Katy on my way out."
Bree paused, trying to hide her fear and grief but couldn't, "Tell her I said bye. Good to see you again Damon."
"No kiss?"
Bree tried to regain her confidence, "I'm full of vervain, I put it in everything I drink."
"And you're telling me this why?"
"Lexi was my friend! Katy's Godmother! How could you?" She turned to try and get out but Damon sped in front of her, angry.
She said the only thing that she thought would save her, "The tomb can be opened."
He looked at her for a minute and replied angrily, "You're lying!"
"Emily's grimoire! Her spellbook!" she said quickly, "If you know how she closed the tomb, the reversal process will be in her book you can open that tomb!"
"And where is this book?" Damon said, backing her into a corner.
"I-I-"
"You have no idea."
"No, I am telling you the truth." She said desperately.
He looked at her a moment, "And I believe you." He said, gently touching her face.
"My dear sweet Bree, that's why I'm sorry." And he reached into her chest and pulled her heart out.
He had the vaguest look of sadness on his face when she fell to the ground, but it was gone as quick as it came. And with that, he washed the blood from his hands and grabbed his jacket as he left.
Damon had put the hung over Elena in the front seat, who was now resting quietly, and drove one block to Bree's house. When he arrived, he walked inside and was greeted by the sight of a sleeping Katy under the coffee table. He laughed slightly at the sight and bent down to get her.
He saw she had her face resting on an open book- or old journal from what it looked like, which he plucked out from under the table, and began trying to gently pull her out too.
His attempts stirred her half-awake and she groaned from the disturbance.
"Hey," He said quietly, "Come on, time to go."
"Where's Bree?" she asked, her eyes fluttering open and closed rapidly as she pulled herself out, though still lying on the ground.
"Still at the bar, she told me to say goodbye for her." Katy nodded slightly, but immediately fell back asleep on the floor.
Damon sighed and rolled his eyes slightly, picking up the sleeping child and leaving the book on the floor. He brought her outside and gently placed her in the backseat, even wadding up the blanket from earlier and putting it under her head.
He soon got back into the driver's seat and drove off.
***A Few hours later***
"So why did you bring me with you?" Elena asked.
"Well, you're not the worst company in the world Elena." She tilted her head at him as he added, "You should give yourself more credit."
"Seriously?"
"I don't know; you were on the road, all damsel-in-distress-like, and I knew it would piss off Stefan, and you're not the worst company in the world Elena."
They smiled at each other for a second, both appreciating the time they had as they thought about it.
"I used to be more fun." She stated, then seemed to fully realize something, "I saved your life."
"I know." Damon smirked.
"And don't you forget it." She smiled.
They went back to silence for a minute or two; as she looked in the backseat at Katy who had yet to wake up, she asked, "What about her?"
Damon looked to where she was looking and replied, "I saved her life too you know."
"No not that. I mean, what are you going to do? Are you gonna stay?" He smirked at her, twitching his eye in a flirtatious manner before she added, "For her?"
Once again he looked at the young girl in the back, his face was unreadable, and to make things more frustrating for Elena he didn't respond to her question. She sighed and turned to look out her window as they drove on.
When they returned to the Boarding House, Elena headed up to Stefan's room; Damon brought Katy up to her room and placed her on her bed as she continued sleeping soundlessly.
He closed her door behind him and started to head back to his car when his cellphone rang. He didn't recognize the number but answered anyway.
"Yeah?"
"Hello, I'm Toby Marshall, attorney with Gregory & Marshall Family and Property Law Firm. Is this Damon Salvatore?"
"Yeah, how'd you get this number?"
"Miss Branson gave me this number, she's made plans to adopt a Miss Katherine Weston, and I need to discuss some things with you."
"Why?"
"You're listed as the temporary primary caregiver of Miss Weston, legally I need you to come in, make a statement and sign a few documents to finalize the matter."
Damon paused for a minute, "Alright, look I'll call you back okay?"
"Sure, Lexi has my office number when you're ready to talk to me. Bye."
"Bye." He replied, hanging up afterwards.
He looked at his phone for a moment and sighed, he was definitely going to need a good bottle of bourbon before he got to some serious thinking.