Chapter nine
Damon woke to the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen. Alexandra was still sleeping hard, the wound looked a little better but that was because of what Meredith had done the night before. He eased out of the bed and padded into the living room in his pants and no shirt.
"Hey, you stayed." He said spotting Meredith in the kitchen.
"I'm not going anywhere until she's better." She said. "Apparently neither are they " She nodded toward the front porch, where Stefan, Elena and Caroline sat waiting. "They wanted to make sure there wasn't a second strike." She said handing him a cup of coffee.
"Thanks." He said reaching across a sun beam streaming in through the kitchen windows and cried out in pain, dropping the coffee cup as the sun burned his arm. "What the hell?!" He tentatively reached out again and as expected he was scorched.
"Are you alright?" Elena asked worriedly from the door.
"My ring doesn't work." He said moving quickly to the door and outside onto the shaded porch. He stepped over his sleeping brother, and steeled himself before putting his hand out into the patch of sunlight. He swore as there was no damage taken. "Emily" He growled "You get the hell out of my house."
"What are you talking about?" Caroline asked.
"The only being that can make my ring not work, is Emily Bennett. She does it all the time at the Witch house." Damon said. "If she's keeping Sacha from healing …"
"We'll take her to our place. " Stefan said sitting up and wiping the crust from his eyes. He'd only had about an hour to nap. "I'd feel safer there. "
Damon nodded. "I'll go get her." He said motioning for Meredith to move away from the door, before he sped inside as quickly as he could. He scooped Alexandra into his arms, grabbing her cell phone as well. He would have to call Julianna once they were settled.
He reversed the process, running out to the porch once more, breathing a sigh of relief to be back where his ring worked again.
"I'll pack some things for her and meet you over at the bed and breakfast." Meredith said.
"Thank you." Damon said, carrying Alexandra to his car. "Caroline, can you ride with us? I want someone in back with her."
"Yeah, okay." She said, "I'll see you guys there." Caroline grabbed her purse from the porch and followed Damon out. "Do you think it's safe for me to touch her now? Stefan explained that we had to wait because of the poison."
"I think so. " Damon said "If it starts looking bad again, pull back."
Caroline nodded. "Okay." She said getting into the back seat first and then helping him ease Alexandra into the car, with the woman's head in her lap. She gently stroked her brow, ran her hand down her arm.
Damon looked in the rear view mirror at the two of them. "Thank you." He told her. "This is the second time you've helped me take care of her. I owe you." He pulled out of the driveway and started back toward town and his own house.
"You don't owe me. " Caroline said. "I like who you are when you're with her, I think we all do. Besides, she promised to help Tyler and I believe her."
It was on the tip of his tongue to say something caustic. He wanted to burst her bubble and tell her that nothing was different. To him nothing had changed. But he decided not to and told himself it was because he was too tired to argue .
He pulled into the driveway and parked near the door. Caroline helped ease her out of the back seat and back into Damon's surprisingly gentle arms. He carried her inside and up to his room where he tucked her into his bed and sat waiting.
He hadn't taken the drugs that morning. He'd be able to feed her himself soon. He smiled a little sadly at Caroline who climbed into the bed with them and nestled in close to Alexandra. "You know if the circumstances were different, I'd have a lot to say right now."
Caroline laughed softly. "You are so bad." She teased.
"Hey, I've got a reputation to uphold. So just saying… damn." Damon took Sacha's hand in both of his.
"As if." Caroline said "Did you really nail a corpse to Elijah's door and set it on fire?" She could hear the other cars pulling into the driveway.
"I really did."
"Not the most amazing thing I have ever heard of a guy doing for a girl but it's pretty up there." Declaring war on creatures that could kill all of them in a blink if they wanted to was pretty ballsy.
"Well not everyone can break every bone in their body a hundred times over." Damon said then sighed. "I really did try and keep Klaus alive."
"I know." Caroline said. "I know."
Meredith came in first carrying a bag of Alex's things and her first aid bag. "How's she doing? Her color looks a little better."
"Caroline's giving her strength." Damon said, wishing his system would clear of the herbs faster.
Elena sat on the side of the bed and took Alexandra's free hand. She might share Bonnie's distrust of the woman but she couldn't bear the tormented look in Damon's eyes. It tore her heart apart to see him look adoringly at another woman but it was even harder to see how much it hurt him to have come so close to losing her.
Stefan took a post as well, his hand just up the arm from Damon's. "We'll take care of her." He promised his brother.
"As much as I would rather swim through vervain and razor blades I need to call her mother." Damon said and rose from the bed, letting Stefan take over his post. With the three of them giving she was looking better. Which meant something was blocking her from feeding at Fell's Church. Combined with his ring not working he had a sinking feeling he knew what witch had created the poison, although for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. He could understand Bonnie lashing out at him, but why Alexandra? Why would she work with the originals?
He stepped out into the hall and down the stairs to the parlor where he poured himself a glass of bourbon, even though it was still early, and dialed Julianna's number.
"Alexandra?" She asked, recognizing the number.
"No. " Damon said quietly. "She's still sleeping. " he explained what was happening, and his suspicions. "So the question I have for you is how do I stop her? "
"From what you've said it's entirely possible your witch is not completely in control of herself. She's tapped into something incredibly powerful but any spirit that lingers in between for too long risks madness. Make sure that the living witch is indeed the one responsible before condemning her. Trust that those words are not easily said by me."
"I know." Damon said. He knew from experience how fiercely protective Julianna was of her daughters. "How do I keep her and the ghost off of the property?"
"Rowan boughs wrapped with red thread. " She said. "Horse shoes nailed up." Julianna then told him how to protect the households from curses and spells. "She told me that she let you go again. Yet here you are protecting her."
"After the first few years it wasn't necessary. She's my friend. Maybe more I don't know."
"Interesting. " She said. "Call me when she wakens. " Julianna ended the call.
Damon put the cell phone on the mantle and pulled out his own. He called the florist and arranged for a large number of rowan bows, angelica, as well as magnolia's and night blooming jasmine. The latter was not for getting rid of witches.
He walked up the stairs slowly. He thought of how to tell Elena that Bonnie was apparently working with the people that had repeatedly tried to kill her. He just couldn't find a way to do it, especially since he had no proof.
Julianna was right; the girl had been manipulated and even possessed by Emily Bennett before. It might not even be her fault. He needed more information before he acted, even though every instinct in him screamed to just go and break her witchy neck.
He needed to talk to Stefan. Bonnie trusted Stefan more than she did him. He might be able to find out what was going on. He hoped that it was that she was being used. He didn't want to kill Elena's best friend, but he would if she was willingly responsible.
He entered his bedroom and found a place on the king sized bed to join the vampiric puppy pile. Alexandra stirred for the first time since her collapse and Damon let out a sigh of relief.
"Hey beautiful." He said smiling as she opened her eyes.
"Hey." She breathed quietly, taking in her surroundings.
Caroline eased out of the bed, and Damon slid in to fill the vacancy she created beside Alex, pulling her into his arms. "Don't scare me like that." He said kissing her hair.
Stefan motioned for the others to follow him out of the room and leave the couple alone. "I don't know about you two but I am exhausted. "
Elena nodded and slid her arms around Stefan, trying not to look back into the bedroom at the tender scene playing out on Damon's bed. "Conveniently there is another bedroom we can invade." She told him. She rested her head on his chest. "He almost lost her. It really was that close."
"I know." Stefan said. "He doesn't even realize he's in love."
"He is definitely in love." Caroline said smiling. She didn't mind looking back on the couple at all.
Stefan hoped it was the real thing. Part of him still worried about whether it was love or the emotional bond that a vampire felt for the necromancer who had bound him. "There are several open bedrooms. Why don't you find one and get some rest. " He told her. At least Alex wasn't feeding from him. Maybe there was genuine affection going both ways, perhaps in spite of the bond that Bonnie was sure was there.
Caroline nodded, "I will. Thank you."
Stefan led Elena down the hall toward his room.
Bonnie paced the confines of the old slave's quarters on the Lockwood property. It hadn't worked. None of it had worked. She had been so careful to make sure that every possible escape was covered. She'd done everything right and still the woman was alive and now Klaus was in town. Not just a voice on the phone but in town and demanding to meet her. Everything was falling apart around her ears.
She had done what she had to do in order to save them all. It hadn't been an easy decision. It was one that haunted her sleep every night even before Damon had summoned his necromancer to Mystic Falls. Every time she looked at Caroline it ate at her conscience.
If they found out what she had done to Tyler …
"I would have thought that with all you have accomplished, you could slay a female necromancer." Klaus said. It was Tyler's voice, but the arrogant delivery was all Klaus.
"It should have worked." She said "You compelled someone to make the vampires and forget, I gave them the poisoned blood. She was bitten. Damon should have given her his blood to heal her. That's his answer to everything, shove blood down your throat." She said a bitterly. "It should have accelerated the poison and killed her."
"Why didn't it?" He demanded angrily.
"I don't know." Bonnie said. "Somehow they had the antidote or something. But according to the witches this isn't a poison that's known. It would take a powerful witch to sort out the remedy. I'm the only living witch in Mystic falls."
"Well apparently either you or they are mistaken." He said. "Is it possible to be a witch and a necromancer?" He asked.
Bonnie shook her head. "Not really. Magic ages them. They can reverse that if they consume enough death. But it's not something she should have been able to survive when that weak to begin with. "
"Can a vampire perform the necessary rituals?"
"Vampires cannot use magic. " Bonnie said. "It goes against nature. Its one of the balances."
"Necromancy is not witchcraft. " Klaus pointed out. "And until a few months ago, hybrids couldn't be created either. Nature isn't as inviolate as you might think. Bonnie. You are going to have to start thinking outside of the Bennett Box."
She glared at him. "The fact that you are alive is proof that I have already done that."
"Yes and for that I am grateful. Just remember you have more to lose than I do by the Salvatore's discovering our little arrangement. So get rid of that Necromancer before she starts revealing secrets." He told her. "You could have a long and promising career ahead of you at my side, but you need to prove to me that you are consistent in your powers."
"I don't want to work for you." She said looking him in the eyes. "I don't want anything to do with you once this is taken care of."
"Strange how that is precisely what you are doing." He told her. "I think perhaps you need to take a long hard look at what it is you really want in life. How much you are willing to sacrifice for your friends, and how much you are willing to reach out and take for yourself. There is an entire world out there to be seen. Help me convince Caroline and the three of us could see that world together. "
Bonnie shook her head. "I don't want to travel with you , and Caroline will stake you herself even if it means she goes down with you. She isn't in love with Tyler's body. She's in love with Tyler."
"She'll learn. As far as she needs to know Tyler is in here as well. But I am not ready yet. I need that final stake and you need to get rid of the necromancer. If you can't kill her make the others distrust her and they will get rid of her on their own. "
"I've tried convincing them that she's enslaved Damon but they don't completely buy it. "
"Because he is acting like a man who is falling in love, not a man who is bound. Make them see things differently. Make him act differently." Klaus said. "You should read more Shakespeare my girl. I would think Othello would be appropriate."
"Leave you alone for ten minutes and you are waking up in my brother's arms " Damon teased.
"Did I?" She said, snuggling in closer. "I hadn't noticed. Caroline I noticed… Elena I noticed… then there was you and I didn't look any further."
"Good." He said. "You're still grounded. No dance for you tonight." He closed his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.
She laughed quietly. "I'll be fine. How taxing can it be to chaperon a high school dance."
"You have no idea how bad our Dance Karma is." He said. "I don't want you there tonight. Don't make me call your mother."
"If you and my mother start getting along I'm going to hire an exorcist." Alexandra said.
"You can't do that?"
"I have no power over Demons." She said. "Vampires, zombies, ghouls, Specters, wraiths, poltergeists and any other ghost you can think of but Demons are not in the necromancer's handbook. My father was able to pull the soul from a body at the moment of death but I don't think that was completely necromantic. I think he had a little help from my mother. Hers was the soul in question"
"Do I even want to know?" He asked.
"My mother was born Julianna DuPre. She was a member of the royal court during the French revolution. My father, for some reason finding the job of executioner fitting for a necromancer, fell in love with her while she was awaiting execution. She agreed to marry him if he could save her life. His answer to that was to let the body die and keep the soul, and put it in another body. "
Damon was silent a moment. "Do you know what happened to the consciousness that was in the new body?"
"There was none. The body she is in belonged to a female necromancer. We're rare now, back then we were practically unheard of because no one taught their daughters. So when the abilities manifest in spite of lack of training you can get in over your head. Sometimes the ghosts if they are strong enough win, and it's effectively brain death by the time they are done. "
"Well that makes me feel all kinds of confident about your life style." Damon said.
"I'm strong enough. My father taught Yvette and me well." She said. "I also know when to pick my battles and when to draft this amazingly handsome vampire I know into service to help me." Her sister Avril was a witch like their mother.
"Amazingly handsome. I like the sound of that." Damon said grinning. "Still, no dancing for you."
She made a mock frustrated growl "You are no fun."
He looked at her worriedly. "I almost lost you. " he told her. "If you hadn't been on the phone with Julianna, you would have died. Everything I know to do to save you would have killed you."
"I'm alright, Damon. I promise you I am fine." She paused. "I met the other necromancer in the park after you left. " She told him.
"Sacha, why didn't you call me? "
"Because there was no point. He was telling me to leave town and take you with me apparently because he knew my parents and didn't want me to die if I should interfere with his plans."
"What?" Damon sat up. "You didn't think that was important enough to call me?"
"First I wanted to find out more about him so after I calmed down… "
Damon laughed a little, although it wasn't a humorous sound. He knew what her temper was like. That temper had landed him in a world of hurt the first night they met.
"… I called my mother to talk to her about him. I don't think he sent the vampires. He would have simply raised the dead under my feet and turned them against me. "
"Okay so that's two things we need to make sure can't happen."
She frowned "What else happened that you aren't telling me about?"
He explained what had happened with his ring that morning. "Somehow Emily Bennett has infested our home."
She smiled at the words 'our home . "When you and Meredith decide I am no longer grounded I will see about getting rid of her. "
"Your mother told me what to do." Damon said. "I've got it covered. "
"You and my mother. I never would have thought it."
Damon shrugged. "She wants to protect you as much as I do. We've called a truce. I expect it to last until … oh… she hears your voice and knows you're safe."
"Sounds about right." She said. "Just be careful. I don't believe that it had to do with Timon. I think the attack was meant to get at you. "
Damon nodded. "I know. I took care of it." He kissed her temple. "you'll be safe. I promise. Go back to sleep. I'm going to stay right here until the dance."