Chapter thirteen
He'd been compelled not to escape and to cooperate with the upcoming ritual. There had been someone constantly in his head, pushing and pulling until he thought he was going to go mad with it. The moments that his mind was his own Damon had spent imagining ways he was going to kill his brother and everyone he ever cared about. Then he thought of the white oak stake, and entertained notions of wiping out his entire line. Who knew which one of his current captors started the line. He'd just have to work his way through them one at a time. Then his thoughts turned to Alexandra and Timon's plans for her and his plans had shifted. He had to get free somehow. Some things were more important than revenge.
He let them lead him out of the cellar, and out into the light of day. His skin crawled as Timon grasped his arm to pull him along more quickly to the car. He couldn't pull away, couldn't so much as complain or mock him. Damon had never felt so completely defenseless and weak in his was put in the back seat of the car and he turned his head to look out the window as they drove out of town. He remembered the first few years with Sacha. He used to think that she had taken his life from him, that she controlled him too much. He knew differently now.
(April 30 1870
He had been with Alexandra for four years. He could honestly say that it was far better than being chained and tortured by sadistic carnival owners. Then again, there was very little that wasn't better. The down side was his emotions weren't his own. He loved the woman seated beside him more than life itself. He'd kill or die for her. He knew that it was part of the spell or whatever it was she had cast on him and most days he didn't care. Most days he rode the emotional high of it all and didn't think about it. If he did he'd go insane he was sure. Sometimes, when he thought of his human life; when he thought of having choices, and the illusion of being the master of his own destiny, he hated her as much as he loved her.
"Why are we in Stockton again?" He asked with a tired sigh.
"Because someone has to support our lavish lifestyle. " She said "And that would be me. "
"Thank you for the non answer, Miss Sauveterre." He said sarcastically. It wasn't as though he didn't have access to everything of Charles Dunham's still. Not that she allowed him to take advantage of that. It was only used when there was absolutely no other option.
"I don't like it when you do that." She sighed.
Damon chuckled. "Is it a new rule? Don't call you by your formal name?" She had her rules. She had too many of them for his taste. Especially as he found it impossible to break those rules once she laid down the law.
"No, it's not a rule. I just don't like it. It sounds more like what you're saying is you fucking bitch."
"Such language, Alexandra." He said in a more teasing tone which got a smile in return.
"I've been hired by a woman who says that her grandfather is haunting her." She said with a shrug. "We'll find out tonight. So shall we say you are my husband or my brother this time?" Alexandra asked.
"ooh I get to make a decision." He mocked.
"Not if you keep giving me attitude." She laughed.
"Husband," He said. "It's marginally less embarrassing when the maid walks in and finds me tied to the bed."
"You like it when I tie you to the bed. " She said laughing.
"Do I? I don't know what I like anymore." He said, blue eyes clouding over.
She laid her hand over his. "Tell me things you remember liking from before me." Alex said softly. This vampire would be her undoing one day. There were days that he drove her completely insane to the point that all she wanted to do was drive a stake through his heart and call it a day. He did it intentionally. Not that she really blamed him. This was precisely why she didn't kill him. She thought perhaps there was a bit of a death wish there.
Then there were days where he did nothing but make her smile and laugh and those days she could almost believe the illusion was real. That the friendship was real, that maybe he cared for her underneath the illusion. And then there were moments. Fleeting moments like this when he broke her heart.
He looked at her a moment, suspicion in his eyes. He laughed a little then "Dancing." He told her. If he had liked dancing a little less he might not be in this predicament. "Riding. There's a waterfall near where I grew up that I used to play in and swim near. I liked competing with my brother. Anything would do from skimming stones to… Katherine."
"Has she been on your mind again? You always get maudlin or angry when she is." Not that she blamed him for that either. Sadly,the one thing even she could never do to a ghost, was compete with it. Her hair would never be black silk the way Hers was, her eyes would never be the bottomless black pools Hers were. She could be the most beautiful woman alive and she could never compare to the image of Her in his heart. That didn't upset her or make her angry with him, she found jealousy to be the most useless of emotions imaginable. It made her angry with herself that she was beginning to fall in love with the illusion that would never become a reality.
Damon nodded. He hated that he had to answer her. That was his least favorite of the 'rules'. When she asked a direct question, in private, he had to answer honestly. Occasionally he used that one against her. Most of her rules he could turn against her with the right planning and a nearly herculean feat of willpower. She'd eliminated or reworded more than one because he'd managed to work around it.
"Im sorry." She told him. "If I could chase them from your mind entirely without destroying who you are I would."
"What if I don't care if you destroy who I am."
"I'd care."
Damon looked at her intently. Would she? Would she really care? "I'm nothing but a pampered guard dog. You can always find another vampire. I would recommend my brother but I'm not sure that I hate you enough to arrange that meeting. Besides he'd just get you killed. Women tend to drop like flies around him." He said grinning with the memory of killing Callie Gallagher. "And in my current condition well, I don't want you dead." He looked her in the eyes as the coach came to a stop. "But don't think for one minute I believe that you actually care about any of it."
"Ahh, and the angry phase begins. Good. I was getting tired of watching you mope. " She said in a teasing tone to hide that his words did indeed have weight. She would have to give it thought. But perhaps … just perhaps… he could be trusted with a little more of his will being his own. "and as I am sleeping beside you at night, it's good to know you don't want me dead."
"It's not the sleeping that bothers me." He said blandly, before getting out and offering his hand to help her out as well. He was amused that she didn't take it. He was amused when she requested adjoining rooms for herself and her brother at the hotel. "You'll be fending for yourself tonight. Don't leave a string of bodies, " She said, and gave a list of things not to do while in Stockton. Most of them involving being overly vampiric and obvious.
It wasn't until three days later that it ceased to be amusing and he realized that maybe he had said the wrong thing. She wasn't just in a tiff over his off handed remark. Alexandra had actually taken it to heart. She didn't take him with her when she had gone to speak with her client. She didn't tell him what she had found out. She didn't banter, she didn't converse, and she didn't touch him at all if she could avoid it.
"Where are you going?" He asked that evening. It was late enough that usually she would have been in bed by now.
"I have work to do. With any luck we'll be out of here by morning." She said gathering up the bag she kept her tools in.
"I'll go with you." He said reaching for his coat.
She shook her head. "I'm sure you can find your own entertainments this evening." She told him "Do what you like."
"Alexandra… this has gone on long enough. How long are you going to stay angry with me."
"I'm not angry." She said quietly, almost sadly he thought. "You've no need to worry. I will see you later, most likely right before dawn. I've made arrangements for the morning stage." And with that she was gone.
Damon sighed and began to pace the room. She was going to get herself hurt. You didn't go out at night to find ghosts. The restless dead were always around, he'd learned that over the last four, nearly five years. You went out at night to avoid being seen. This meant she was in one of two places, either the cemetery, or somewhere on her client's estate. In either case she was doing something that the normal every day upstanding citizens of Stockton would fine distasteful at best.
He hated that she hadn't told him anything about this particular case. It was as if she was trying to wean herself off of him and his assistance. Why would she be doing that? He wondered as he pulled on his coat.
He decided to check the cemetery first and work outward from there. As long as he was trapped in this damnable situation he was going to protect her. Besides, he told himself, who knew what would happen to him if she were killed. He might be freed, but he might also die along with her. It gave him pause for a moment, but his need to protect her overrode the desire for death.
It didn't take long to find her. He just had to follow the sounds of the fight. Apparently Mrs. Lake's grandfather was a cantankerous old goat even after 20 years in the grave, and pretentious during life by the size of the mausoleum. Occasionally the spirits didn't want Alexandra's help. Those were the times she gave it to them regardless. Those were the times she needed him the most. Why was she doing this without him? Because he had mouthed off? The entire situation made no sense to him.
He stood in the door way taking in the scene before entering. He'd learned that lesson the hard way. Nothing like slamming face first into a protective circle, or worse, disrupting a ritual she was doing to drive those lessons home.
Alexandra had taken a beating, dark bruises were beginning to form, there was blood on her face, blood on her hands from where she had sliced the palms to fuel the rite with her own blood. She was weakening. He suspected the goose egg at the side of her head had more to do with it than any expenditure of energy.
Damon shed his coat, he opened his shirt as he approached. She needed skin against skin contact to draw energy from him. He moved behind her and tugged her blouse up just enough that pulling her back against him formed the first connection. His hands slid around her and up under the now loose blouse.
They both gasped as the energy flowed between them. Damon loved this sensation. He didn't have to be bound to her to enjoy it, he was sure of that. Unfortunately he could also feel the pain she was in and he doubted that an energy exchange was going to be enough this time. Why did she have to be so stubborn?
She didn't use the energy to heal herself as she probably should have. She used it to force the spirit back into its grave and bind it there, and then promptly collapsed in Damon's arms.
"I've got you." He said and eased her down to the floor of the mausoleum. He bit his wrist and forced it into her mouth keeping it there until he was sure enough blood had gotten into her system to heal her. "you need to stop doing this, Alexandra." He said as he got up, lifting her into his arms. "You can't keep putting yourself at risk because you're mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you." She said softly, resting her head on his shoulder.
"You're a lousy liar, you know that."
He took the back streets and alleyways back to their hotel and leapt to the balcony outside their rooms. "You'll feel better in the morning. We'll shake the dust of this town off our feet and get back to normal."
"I'm sorry." She told him as he helped her change for bed, and settled in close to her for the first time since arriving in Stockton.
"That would be the head injury talking." He said, pulling her over onto his chest. She needed more energy, and he needed to lose himself in the sensation, in the moment, or he would go mad. He'd felt that way since waking up with a bullet hole in his chest. It wasn't his situation with Alex that created the seething self loathing only surpassed by the loathing he had for his brother. He knew that. She was just the convenient scapegoat.
"I wasn't lying you know." She told her even as her eyes drifted closed. Not that she was sleeping or even close to it. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at me."
"For what? Needing someone else?" That he could understand. Needing someone else created a gaping whole when they left, or turned on you.
"Using you."
Damon let out a long sigh. "Okay, it's time for me to explain the facts of life. Or death as the case may be. I am a vampire. I eat people. It's what we do." He said not quite sarcastically. "You are a necromancer. You enslave dead things to do your bidding. That's what necromancers do. Now I think we have both been over thinking this thing for the last few years and its time we put that aside as a bad idea."
"You want to put aside thinking?"
"About us? Yes. We are what we are, Alexandra. I am not miserable with you. You don't appear to be miserable with me. So we continue our lives as they are with no more dodging me, or putting yourself in danger without me."
"That would be the bond talking." She said, using his words against him. "you were more honest in the coach.
"We have been together for almost five years. Have you not noticed that I am a complete dick? "
She laughed and it hurt her ribs a little "I've noticed." She was healing it was just slower than most who received vampire blood.
"I say things to hurt people. Quit taking it personally . Now go to sleep. Neither of us is going to get much rest in that stage coach.")
Things had changed from that point. They'd learned to work together, to understand one another until one day she had decided to let him go. She had simply broken the bond, and he had stayed because he wanted to. Eventually, as he always did with everyone, Damon had pushed too far too often and she had left him. The fights that did them in were always about Katherine back then.
He wondered if she would think that he had just left town after Stefan had betrayed him; that he had left her as well. He hoped so, because then she would leave and be safe.
He stayed silent as they parked the car and the door was opened. He leveled a heated glare at Kol who pulled him from the car. He was the one wielding all the compulsions currently. He really hated that little prick. He wanted nothing more than to reach over and break his neck. But he couldn't so much as lift his arms to try.
He wasn't surprised that they had chosen one of the oldest cemeteries in the area. He had been told once as a boy by Jonathan Gilbert that it was originally a native burial ground. There had been bodies dug up and cast aside when they put in the bodies of the original founders. It had been rumored to be haunted even back then.
"Damon. Come here. It is time." Timon said.
The vampire growled low in his throat but did as he was told. There was no choice. He lifted his chin and strode confidently over to where Timon stood. He stared into his tormentor's eyes for several seconds then got onto the stone slab that covered one of the oldest graves in the country. He swallowed hard as he unbuttoned his shirt and cast it aside, and then lay down on the cold stone.
A black candle was lit at the head of the slab, the other by Damon's feet. He knew what incense was used, what oils would be used. Damon had never witnessed this done with a corporeal victim but he knew the smells of a divination ritual. He'd witnessed Alex performing enough of them.
He groaned when he felt Timon's hand pressed into his forehead. He could feel the connection form, the much older man's presence force itself into his mind, and his energy flooding him. Damon had thought being compelled was mind rape, but this was worse. His entire being was invaded by the necromancer's presence and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Timon began to chant, and Damon felt the hooked blade against his skin. His screams echoed through the cemetery and surrounding woods as the blade sank within, and was pulled downward opening him from sternum to pelvis. Timon's hand slid within.
The images flooded Damon's mind instantly . He could see the dead surrounding them, could feel them begin to rise up in anger, swirling around them. He moaned softly, unable to scream anymore.
"Where is the boy." Timon asked. "Where is the one called Tyler Lockwood." He demanded looking into Damon's eyes, seeing what he saw.
Klaus in his coffin, the body destroyed, Tyler was screaming as Klaus was yelling forcing himself inside. The two images merged and swirled warping out of shape like a cubist painting until Tyler was still standing, smiling that smug amused smile, and he laughed, Klaus's laugh. Tyler's spirit stood to the side trying to get back into his own body but he couldn't.
Suddenly the connection faded enough that he could focus again on the real world.
"Let him go, Timon. " It was Alexandra's voice.
"No." Damon said "Run." He tried to yell it at her but he could barely speak above a whisper.
Blood dripped from the woman's fingertips onto the ground and the spirits took heed. Through the pain and blood induced haze he could see them rising up. No… they weren't rising they were being ripped up from their graves violently.
"I cannot do that just yet. Soon. I'll allow you to keep him as a pet if you like." Timon told her.
"You do not allow me anything." She said, stepping far enough into the ritual site to draw from the power that Timon had already summoned.
"I warned you to leave town. You cannot defeat me alone."
"Who said anything about alone." She said and began to sing softly, the words were older than the French she normally used for her rites, her voice was joined by another.
The spirits that surrounded them dove at Timon, fueled by anger, rage, hatred and blood.
Elena crept up on the stone slab. Her mind was on Damon and nothing else. Both Stefan and Alex had made it clear that she was to get him and get as far from there as possible. She looked up to see the other two vampires creeping into position as well.
Damon shook his head seeing her. "I can't" He mouthed silently. "Compelled."
She looked at him quizzically then glanced to the Michaelsen's then back to Damon.
"Kol" He mouthed. "Get out of here"
Caroline crept up behind Rebecca. She knew that the only way she'd get the upper hand on any of them was by surprise. She reached up and in a move that she had witnessed Damon use more often than any other, snapped the girl's neck and as ordered by Alex she gathered a sample of Rebecca's blood with a small thin bone blade.
That left two vampires. One of which had actually lived his thousand years gaining in strength and power not staked and in a box like the others. The only one that had defeated him single handedly was Damon and he was still on the altar.
She looked to Stefan and they converged on Elijah hoping that they could just hold the vampires off until Elena got Damon out of there. Why wasn't she doing that? What was going on?
"August." Timon said stumbling backward.
"Ah you remember my father." Alexandra said in her own voice. "You didn't think I would come alone did you? I am my father's daughter and he taught me better than that." She said and her voice began to grow louder, the second voice taking on its own sound separate from hers, echoing her words, merging his power with her own. Together they began to force the spirits back into their graves decreasing Timon's power base with each spirit they banished.
"I told you I would see you dead for your treachery." Her father's voice rang out above the chanting, and the wailing of spirits.
"Elena!" Alex yelled and tossed the bone shaft to her.
The girl caught it and with one quick move rammed it into Timon's side, the tainted blood that Alex had put back in it flooded the man's system and he grew instantly weaker sinking to the ground. "Damon's compelled." She called out. "By that one." She pointed to Kol.
"He's all yours papa." Alex said softly and let her father's spirit go to exact his revenge upon his murderer. She turned her attention to Kol who had gone to help his brother who was held firm by Caroline and Stefan, the white oak stake held firmly against his chest.
"Don't make me stake him. "Stefan said and Kol backed off, glaring at them.
She shook her hands and fresh droplets of blood hit the ground, "I don't want a war." She told them as she approached Kol. "I like vampires. " Her green eyes had gone dark, and something in her tone gave them chills when she said it and Kol backed away.
Again droplets hit the ground, and two specters rose at her side. With a nod they swooped forward and grasped the boy pulling him back against the nearest tree and holding him in place. She sauntered forward, not rushing, lost in the rage and hatred. She grasped his face with blood soaked hands and turned his head to the side. She pressed a smaller version of the bone shaft into his jugular. "Do you know what it means when a necromancer has your blood, Vampire."
Kol shook his head. "But I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"It means I have the power to own you. I have the power to make your life a living hell for so long as I live and you can't do anything about it. Now unless you want me to make good on that threat, I suggest you release Damon from any compulsions you have put on him. " Her eyes were now black as she looked into his.
"I have to see his eyes. "
She grasped his hair and pulled him that direction, specters holding him tightly as they went. She bent his head over Damon's. "Be careful what you say. You could wind up taking his place there for all eternity" she whispered darkly.
Kol very carefully released Damon, and then Alex snapped his neck. It didn't take much strength to do. You just had to know how and Damon had been a good teacher.
Alex looked to Elijah. "I understand you were once a man of your word."
Elijah nodded once.
"It ends here. This feud between your people and mine, ends here one way or the other." She said as Caroline took a sample of Elijah's blood. "Do we have an understanding?" She asked coldly.
Again Elijah nodded.
"Say it." She said
"It ends here." Elijah said.
"Then gather your family and go home. " Alex moved quickly to Damon and she and Elena took him off of the slab, easing him down to the ground, careful of the gaping wound that exposed his insides which were dangerously close to becoming his outsides. "There is duct tape in my car." She told Elena who was instantly off to go get it.
"Took you long enough." Damon attempted to tease.
"I know." She said easing under him and resting his head in her lap. "It took a while to get hold of my father. Parents." She said shrugging, she looked over at Timon, the poison was taking its toll, but her father had taken his mind already. The necromancer would no longer be a problem. She leaned forward and kissed Damon gently. "I love you."
He reached up weakly and touched her face. "you too."
Elena paused for a split second hearing that, but continued on. "Here you go. Not sure that it will stick but we'll try."
Alexandra nodded then offered her wrist to Damon. "You need to drink." She told him.
"Are you trying to roofee me?" He asked with a weak smile.
"I am." She said and then felt his body stiffen. She followed his gaze to Stefan. "He can't hurt you anymore." Alex told him.
"It's not me I'm worried about." He said attempting to sit up only to fall back into her arms.
" Easy. I have his blood" She whispered softly to him. "Now I need you to take mine. You need to sleep and you need to heal."
He closed his eyes, trusting her completely, and sank his fangs into her soft flesh. He drank until the vervain in her system took effect and he slid into oblivion.
"Okay let's get this wrapped up so that we can move him." Alex said and she and Elena gently wrapped the duct tape around his midsection, pulling the wound closed.
Stefan came closer once his brother was unconscious. Damon was covered with blood and for once it was all his own. He had left him to this. "I'll take him to the car." He said moving to pick him up.
"No that's okay. I've got him." Caroline said and moved in to scoop him up in her delicate arms as if he were a child.
Alex got to her feet doing her best to shake off the darkness that covered her along with Damon's blood. "Go help Elijah with his family." She told Stefan. "The feud is over. " She held out her hand for the stake, which Stefan did not hand over.
"That's okay, I'll be keeping that." Stefan said.
"That was Damon's until last night I believe, or at least it was in his possessions. You will hand that over."
"Elijah breaks his word all the time. You can't trust him." Stefan said. "I will not have the rest of us defenseless out here."
"Let's just say the war has gone cold and I'm the one with my hand on the button." She told him. "Doesn't matter what he wants or you want. It's over. Besides you won't like it when Damon comes to collect that thing."
Stefan glared at her but handed it over. Maybe his brother would take it as a peace offering.
"Now go make nice. I need to go take care of Damon. "