Chapter seven
"I'm sorry it didn't work." Alexandra said dosing his breakfast and handing it to him. She was still feeling her way with Damon now. It was different. She'd never felt insecure with him before. She wasn't sure she liked that part of it.
"It's alright. You tried. We'll figure something out." Damon said as he downed the blood in one shot making a face as he did so. "In the mean time you have students dying to pick up that accent of yours and I have a brother to make amends to. Or at least furniture that needs to be replaced at the house."
"Alright, do you want a ride into town?" She asked as she finished tidying up the kitchen.
"Absolutely." Damon said and went to close his arms around her as she worked at the sink. He pulled her close and leaned in to nibble at her ear. "I'll pick up a few things while I'm at the house. Think you can spare a drawer? Or do I need to pick up another dresser. "
"I don't know where we would put another dresser." She said laughing lightly. "Let's try for a drawer for now. Although there is room for a smallish one in the bathroom."
"I'll see what I can find today." He told her and kissed her hair. "I think you're right about the bathroom."
"I don't know when I will be done today. The Valentines dance is coming up and they are trying to rope teachers into helping."
"oooh just say no. We'll be on chaperone duty anyway and you will need your rest. We've got bad dance karma around here." He laughed a little. "Almost everything bad that happens here starts at either a school dance or some social event planned by the founders Counsel."
"I thought you were part of that. The counsel I mean."
"I am. Now that Evil Alaric's plan to take over has been undone by Elijah. Still not sure its safe but I go anyway and they all stare. It's pretty funny really. I would take you along but well… I don't want Elijah's attention on you."
"I can handle myself. Besides I have a feeling we will be meeting soon enough. Parent teacher conferences are in two weeks. I doubt he will miss the opportunity to talk to me, especially if they are behind the other necromancer."
"Good point. Let me know when that is. Stefan and I will be there."
"That's not generally how those meetings work you know." She said slipping out of his arms to grab her bag.
"True. Usually the students are younger than the teacher and aren't in school merely to spy and make people miserable." Damon said.
"Okay you two can be there. " She laughed. "Now come on. I'm going to be late." She gave him the keys to her car, letting him drive.
"Want me to meet you for lunch?" He asked.
"Not today. I have a quick errand to run. I have an idea about how to make the rings work but it requires a witch and Bonnie does not like me."
"That's probably because she doesn't like me. I turned her mother to stop a ritual and she apparently took that personally. I don't know why the woman abandoned her for crying out loud." Damon said with a shrug.
"People are funny about their mothers," She told him, "even the ones that abandon them."
"I guess." He said turning toward town "never been much of a problem for me." He looked over at her. "So you have a lead on a witch who will help?"
"I think so yes." She said. "I need to send a message to her. That's my errand today. "
"Good luck. I had forgotten how horrible that stuff makes everything taste, "Damon said. "It would be worth it to be leeched dry if I could taste everything else again."
"You don't know what other necromancers are like, Damon. I'm a soft touch. Always have been. Its not worth the risk."
"I'm taking the stuff aren't I? You gave it to me yourself. "
"I know. I'm sorry." She said. "Guess this is what they call being blessed with understanding. Here I am worried sick about what another necromancer could do to you and you're worried what Elijah could do to me."
"The only down side to our relationship. We both bring enemies to the party." Damon said.
"We're going to have to work at narrowing down our guest list." She told him as he parked the car in the teacher's parking lot.
"I like the way you think." He purred and leaned in to kiss her, not caring that there were people looking into the car as they passed. "I'll see you after school."
Stefan pulled Bonnie aside in the halls. "Were you able to find anything?" He asked.
She shook her head. "Not yet, no. But I will." She said. "I have a lot of books to go through and grimoires aren't exactly set up in any logical order."
Stefan nodded. "Maybe I should just lock him in the cellar until we sort this out."
"All you will do let her know you're on to her. She'd bust him out and they'd disappear." Which would suit her just fine but she knew that Stefan would hunt Damon down if that happened and that would take the situation completely out of her control and she had little enough of that as it was.
Stefan sighed. "You're right. I have to just keep an eye on him and hope that we can actually break him free of her."
"Have you told Elena?"
Stefan shook his head. "She'd just feel guilty. He called Alex out here because he was having a hard time dealing with the fact that she chose me. "
Bonnie sighed. "Well, then we just keep this between us until I find a way to free him."
"Thank you, Bonnie. You don't know how much I appreciate this."
"He's family. Family is important." Bonnie told him and walked away to get to class. Family was very important and Damon was responsible for the loss of her grandmother and her mother being turned. She would never forgive that. If things went her way, he'd be either dead or an outcast before the year was out. For now having another wedge between him and Stefan would have to do.
Damon looked up as his front door opened. "What are you doing home, Brother? Are you cutting class?" he asked as he picked up another armload of books to put back on the righted bookcase.
"I forgot something this morning. Figured I'd get something to eat before going back to class." Stefan said. "I can stay and help if you want."
"I got it. " Damon said
"So you didn't come back this weekend does that mean you and Alex are back to normal?"
"Flowers did the trick. Thank you. Although I should have known that myself. I just never figured her for the soft and flowery romance type."
Stefan chuckled although he felt his stomach knot up as he thought about all the parts of a relationship that Damon was effectively being forced into. He'd kill her. If that's what he had to do he'd do it. He smiled a little slower than he should have. "Good. I'm glad."
"No you're not." Damon said frowning. "Come on. Out with it. You've never been slow to voice disapproval before."
If it was possible for a vampire to look like a deer caught in the headlights, Stefan did. " I… worry that maybe it's too soon after Elena is all. I don't want either of you to get hurt."
Damon laughed. "You're funny." He told Stefan. "Relax. I'm still in love with your girl. Don't see that changing. " he shook his head, putting another armload of books on the shelf.
"Well, I hope it changes eventually, but I do understand it takes time. You don't have to fake that for me. I don't feel threatened. She made her choice."
"I told you I'd respect her choice." Damon shrugged. "I'm happy with Alexandra." He told Stefan, wanting to reassure his brother. There was something bugging him, and Damon didn't know what. He could only assume it had to do with Elena. "I've always been happy when I'm with her. I'm willing to see where that goes."
"When did you grow up?" Stefan asked, smiling, even though it didn't reach his eyes. Normally this would be one of the best things he could hear from Damon. Something not laced with pain, bourbon and resentment, something that said he was looking at life and maybe even love with something resembling maturity. Instead it broke his heart because when Damon was free he'd never trust those feelings again.
"Long before you did." Damon said, "What's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing." Stefan lied. "Things are just tense right now is all. Elena is worried about Jeremy and wants me to fix it. "
"She doesn't need to worry about Jeremy. Alex says he's doing great." Damon told him, knowing that Stefan had just lied to him. Were they starting that again? Well at least it wasn't him that fell off the honesty wagon this time. "So who am I taking hunting tonight?" He asked. He'd get one of them drunk and find out what was going on.
"You want to do something tonight? Sure. " Stefan laughed. "It's either that or go help with the preparations for the Valentines dance."
"I don't know… Caroline and pink glitter. You might want to go save Elena before she comes out looking like a Disney channel reject." He teased.
"I think she can face the peril." Stefan said. "So Eight O'clock good? "
"Absolutely. " It would give him time to spend a little time with Sacha first.
"I'll meet you back here then." Stefan said and headed up the stairs to his room to grab the homework he had forgotten.
Caroline frowned as Bonnie went to sit at another table to work on the decorations for the dance. She had been distant since the night they'd discovered their French teacher was a necromancer. Bonnie had been so angry that they had trusted the woman that she hadn't talked to any of them for the rest of the weekend. Her phone had been turned off and she was nowhere to be found.
Since then they had become little more than acquaintances. There was something a little sad in the other girls eyes too, and that made Caroline more worried than angry.
Elena noticed the split and sighed. She remembered being the odd man out at the beginning of the year. She didn't know why Bonnie was avoiding Caroline now. It was almost as if she was distancing herself, expecting there to be trouble.
"Hey." She said sitting down with Caroline. "She'll come around. She always does. She's just stressed right now I guess."
"That's when you need to be closer to your friends, not avoiding them. " Caroline said, handing over the paper hearts to be decorated and then strung on ribbons.
"I know." She said. "Jeremy has to work tomorrow so he's not going to take her to the dance. "
"Ouch." Caroline said. "Okay, when we are done with all the decorating tonight, we pick up double chocolate ice cream, Brownies and whipped cream, and then we go get Bonnie. That is so definitely a chocolate overload problem ."
Elena smiled. "I like that plan. I'd be on my own tonight otherwise. Stefan and Damon are having a brotherly bonding night. "
"ooh definitely don't want to be around that. They tend to bond over stakes and tree trunks and things." Caroline laughed.
"They're actually getting along better now."
"That's because Damon is happy. " Caroline said. " Who knew he was capable, but he is. I think it's great."
"Yeah." Elena said, "Me too," Although for some reason she wasn't. She really wasn't.
Alexandra held Damon's hand as they walked. There was no particular destination in mind. They were just walking to be walking. She could remember a time when that was a nightly event. Just walking the French Quarter, doing nothing but talking about nothing.
Well that part had been rare even then. There was almost always something happening somewhere that had to be dealt with, avoided or exploited. So the times that they spent just talking about the mundane things in life were special.
"We look old." He said grinning at her.
"We are old." She said laughing at him. "Remember when all that you would find wandering the parks were young couples making eyes at each other."
"I remember eating those couples." Damon pointed out.
"I remember our first walk together. You tried to eat me."
"Then promptly passed out, and woke up tied to a chair." He said nodding. "Not our best date."
"But the dancing had been incredible."
Damon placed his hand at her waist and moved gracefully, whirling her around with him, until she laughed with delight. He loved that sound. More than anything else he loved that it was meant for him and that she wasn't secretly wishing it was Stefan who was taking her breath away.
"You're spoiling me again. " She said once they stopped.
"And now the rules don't apply." He told her. "you'll just have to learn to live with it."
"How will I ever manage."
Stefan watched from a distance. Everything he saw told him that his brother was happy. He wanted to believe that this was what he wanted and no amount of black magic could turn a slave into a happy man. Maybe Bonnie was wrong. Maybe the ghost who spoke to Jeremy lied, or was just being insulting…
But this wasn't Damon. He'd never seen him act like this. He had seen almost every aspect of his brother there was from homicidal to suicidal and everything in between. He'd seen him with Katherine, and Elena, and he had loved both of them with everything he had in him. Stefan had no doubt of that. But he had never seen Damon like this.
He needed more information. There were too many conflicting details. He took one last look at the couple before turning to go back to the house to wait for Damon to show up.
Damon paused and scanned the area. "Did you feel that? Like we're being watched?"
"I hate to break it to you but people stare when couples are being cute." She pointed out but she had felt it too. They exchanged a look and continued on. She scanned the area as well but spotted no one. "Be careful when you are out tonight." She said softly.
"I'll be with Stefan. I'll be fine." Damon figured the two of them could take on almost anything and come out the other side one way or another. "Speaking of which I should get going. "
"Are you coming back to my place or staying home tonight." She asked.
"I think I'll stay home. With any luck Stefan and I will drag in drunk and stupid just short of dawn." He told her.
"I hope so. I feel like I'm keeping you away from him."
"No. Believe me it's not you keeping me away. "Damon said. "Just hoping that we can get through a night without talking about Elena." Talking about Elena was fine. Talking about how he felt about her was another thing.
"So just don't talk about her." She said standing on her toes to kiss him lightly. "Go have fun with your brother. I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll walk you back to your car." He said.
"I'm a big girl. I can find my car all by myself." She told him.
"Be careful." He told her and was gone in the blink of an eye.
The air was crisp and she shivered a little as it seemed to suddenly cut through her thick sweater. The clouds that had been a solid swath of light gray were darkening in patches and growing thicker, more textured. The storm was coming in quickly.
Alexandra leaned into the increasing wind, and hurried toward her car. With one hand she held her hair out of her face so that she could see and with the other she struggled to put the key into the driver's side door.
"Allow me." The voice was thickly accented, deep tones, without a doubt masculine, as was the hand that covered hers, another at her back to steady her in the wind. "It seems the wind is winning, Miss Sauveterre."
She pulled her hand away and looked up at the man. He was tall, a broadly built man. "Do I know you?" She asked loudly against the wind, although she knew already who she was looking at. The bone jewelry that he wore even though discrete was obvious to anyone who knew what to look for.
"I knew your father. " He told her. "I had heard that he taught his daughters our path. It is unfortunate he had no sons." He did not mean it as an insult to the woman. But Necromancers were a chauvinistic lot. The Sauveterre line would die with his daughters even if they were to have children. Not merely the mortal line, but the line of Necromancers as well. "However, you are as lovely as your mother, so it is not a complete loss."
"Who are you?" She asked, yelling against the wind. "What do you want?"
"My name is Timon." He answered, looking her over with nearly black eyes. "What I want is for you to leave town. Take your vampire if you must but go."
"Why?" She asked. "Why are you looking for Tyler Lockwood. You are the practitioner looking yes?"
He leaned in close to be heard over the growing wind "I am warning you because of the affection I have for your parents. That is all you need to know, Girl. You think you are powerful but you are not. If you fight me you will die. "He gripped her chin. "Do you understand me?" He demanded. "Leave Mystic Falls."
He released her chin, not waiting for an answer he took her keys from her hand and opened her door for her. "Good bye Alexandra. "He said pointedly. "Tell your mother of the deep affection I have for her."
Alex closed the door and locked it. She started the car and pulled out of the parking space, barely stopping before rear ending an approaching car. She drove home pushing the speed limit the entire way. She considered calling Damon but decided against it. She would tell him tomorrow. There was no danger that night. It wasn't as though she was going to leave town, with or without Damon. Such a warning … or threat… did nothing but make her angry, very angry. And if the man knew anything about either of her parents he would know that they would have never taught her to back down from anyone or anything.