Chapter twenty two
"I'll be late-ish. " Alexandra put breakfast on the table. "Off to get my sisters today and getting them settled in to the apartment."
"Yay, a visit from the in laws." Damon said and sipped at his blood before sitting down at the table. "What's this?" He asked, finding that he tasted absolutely nothing but A positive.
Sacha smiled at the in-law reference. "I thought I would leave it up to you whether you wanted to continue taking the willow tincture." She said. "The rowan and vervain are in the whiskey so I know you get plenty of that. "
"Really?" He asked, studying her a moment. "Your sister is coming into town and you're letting me go unprotected?" That part was teasing. It was bad manners to poach even if you weren't family.
"I trust Yvette." She said laughing. "And you can take it if you want. I'm not saying no… I'm just not forcing the issue."
"I will think about it. But god this tastes good." He said with a grin. "So when are we taking the girls out to see the witch house?"
"I was thinking tonight after dinner, unless you have other plans for the evening." Alex said, cutting into her omelet.
"Nah, I'm free. I'm meeting with the contractor today. Stefan paid him to have our window replaced this morning and I want to go over the final details on the site of the new house. I'm looking forward to getting it done and being able to move in. I know you still have things in storage in New Orleans and I've got a place in Savannah."
"We're going to need one of those rooms to be a library that's for certain," She said with a laugh, "Not to mention a bookcase or two in every room. One thing neither of us lacks is books."
"Which is why we are blissfully television free." He pointed out. "So have you thought about whether or not to keep the bond?" He asked.
"No, so for now things stay as they are. It's what you want and to be honest I'm still a little too angry to make a proper decision."
He winced a little. "Ouch. " he said "I'll let you punish me later if you want." He said waggling his eyebrows.
"Damon, Darling. If I wanted to punish you, it wouldn't be with fun and games in the bedroom." She laughed.
"I don't know there was the time you left me tied to the bed for three days." He grinned at her as he began to eat.
"Yes, because you had tried to escape and it had taken me a week to find you." She pointed out."We had a very different relationship back then if you will recall. In fact I don't think we'd ever had sex at that point. "
"If we had, maybe I wouldn't have tried to get away." His blue eyes twinkled at her. "I mean, I'm not trying to get away now."
"You're incorrigible." She said smiling.
Elena watched as Jeremy grabbed a cup of coffee and toast with peanut butter and honey for breakfast. "So, does it bother anyone but me that Damon has a more structured life than we do right now?" She said shaking her head.
"He also has a mom now," Jeremy teased, "mom, wife, fill in the blank, to take care of him. And we're fine. We're not starving and we get the job done."
"Not sure I'm comfortable with calling her a mother figure." Stefan said. "Aside from obvious reasons, she is nothing like our mother."
"Adult then." Jeremy said. "He has an adult in the house. " He laughed "Later." He was out the door moments later.
"So what was your mother like?" Elena asked as she hopped up on the island and took a drink of her coffee.
"Delicate." He said. "She was the absolute opposite of our father. I never understood their relationship. Then again I didn't understand anything about my family. She was patient and gentle. She loved art, poetry, music and dancing. The only time I saw my father really smile or laugh was when he was with her. "
"Well okay, aside from that whole delicate, patient and gentle thing, they aren't so different." Elena said with a quiet laugh.
Stefan laughed. "So we should get going and greet the substitute-substitute French teacher this morning." He said.
"That's right, she's going to pick up her sisters today. Do you think we'll meet them?" She asked hopping off the island.
"Probably not. Generally speaking necromancers don't mix with vampires. At least not well."
"I guess not. Witches bullied or compelled into serving vampires… vampires turned into slaves… Now we just have to figure out where the wolves fit into it all" She said laughing. "That's going to be a really uncomfortable family reunion for Damon."
Stefan grinned "I'm looking forward to hearing about it already." He said leading the way out to his car.
Katherine entered the university and strode toward the languages department. Even at her age there were dialects and languages she didn't know. Particularly dialects of what she thought were French that were older than she was.
She rapped on the door and entered the professor's office.
"Office hours are posted. " Professor Hanlon said not looking up. "I have appointments open tomorrow."
"I'm not a student." Katherine said as she closed and locked the door. "You'll have time for me."
The professor closed his book and looked up at her. It was on his lips to tell her to get out but he made the mistake of looking into her eyes. "Of course, "He said smiling. "There's always time for you. How can I help you?"
Katherine smiled winningly and pulled a chair around to sit beside him. She set the book in front of him. "I need this translated and I understand you are the best in the state."
"Where did you find this?" He asked. "This should be in the antiquities department." He said looking over the hand bound book.
"It belonged to the mother of a friend of mine," She said, "A very dear friend." Katherine said. "I need you to translate this to English. I am especially interested in this section here." She opened the book to a page that showed a sketch of a donut shaped disk.
Alexandra threw her arms open wide and embraced her sisters enthusiastically. "I have missed you two so much." She said smiling broadly.
"Well you don't have to be such a stranger you know." Yvette said motioning for Henry to grab her and Avril's bags. "It's not that far from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. You should have come around more when you were closer."
"I don't know how you can live in nowhere Virginia." Avril said linking arms with her baby sister and leaning in close. "You're out here because of him aren't you?"
Alex laughed. "Yes. I am. "
"And all this trouble you are having is because of him." Yvette added.
"Not all of it. " Alex said. "I know you two don't approve, but I'm with Damon. That's not going to change so please, please, please just try and get along while you're in town. For the sake of my sanity, please."
"It's just so…" Yvette shuddered "Necromancy and Necrophilia are not supposed to be interchangeable. It's disturbing." She sighed at the look from her sister. "Fine, I won't make things unpleasant for you."
"Are you telling me you've never slept with Henry?" Avril asked raising an eyebrow at her twin's hypocrisy. Henry was handsome, well made and eternally 23. Her sister hadn't chosen him because of his great conversations. The man rarely spoke.
"He's an instrument to be used. You don't literally fall in love with your vibrator."
"Yvette!" Alex exclaimed.
"I'm not the deviant in the family." Yvette said, dark eyes twinkling. "That would be you dear sister. Not even Avril moving to San Francisco and getting married to a cute little wiccan girl topped what you are doing. Repeatedly I might add. Mother is having kittens."
"I'm not worried about mother and her kittens anymore." Alex said. "We get along beautifully from a distance and that includes me distancing myself from her opinions."
"Even now you're a daddy's girl." Avril said, rolling her eyes.
"He wouldn't approve either." Yvette pointed out. "At least tell me mother was wrong and he's still enthralled. "
"Mother was wrong." She said after a moment's thought, but only because if her sister thought for a moment that Damon was a free agent she'd swoop in and enthrall him under the banner of saving Alex from herself.
"Well that's a relief." Yvette said.
"So tell us about this witch problem you are having?" Avril said hoping to derail the subject.
"Teen witch may or may not be the actual problem. She has tied herself into a place of power." Alexandra said. She fell silent until they had loaded everything into Damon's SUV that she had borrowed for the occasion. Her car had been towed that morning from its location near the Millhouse.
"The witch house you were telling us about." Avril said. "Really? Witch House?" She asked once they were out of the echo chamber known as a parking garage and on the road.
"I'm not responsible for its moniker. It is however built over the site where 100 witches were murdered during the witch hunts. One of them the girls ancestor from what I understand along with Emily Bennett who was killed in 1864." Alex told them.
"Figures it would be Bennett Witches." Avril said with a sigh. "That blood line is trouble." She told her sister. "They're backstabbing holier than thou hypocrites. Very much the ends justify the means type."
"Aren't most people?" Alex asked.
"Yeah but most of us admit it." Avril said with a shrug. "It's like the TV evangelist wearing his Christianity on his sleeve going home from his mistress's house to beat his wife. They give the rest of us a bad name."
Yvette snorted at that.
"Anyway, Bonnie has tied herself to that particular place of power. Damon and I want to cut off access to that power. There is evidence that Emily Bennett possesses Bonnie when it suits her or puts her in a trance and puppet masters her. If we can get rid of the influences she might be salvageable. "
"She's a witch. No offence." Yvette said to her twin. "Once they get the taste of blood in their mouth it's too late. "
It was Avril's turn to snort.
"You know I'm right." She said. "You all have your little crusades, your ways of championing nature. Most of you are harmless enough. You do your own thing, live in your own reality and save the planet, the whales and family values."
"Vett!" Alex admonished.
"But once one of you gets into that mindset that you have to right the wrongs and champion poor put upon Mother Nature by whatever means necessary, even if it means breaking the so called balance of nature a little more in the process, it's too late." Yvette insisted.
Avril sighed. "I would love to argue with you but I can't. But if we are going to defeat her, we need to take down her power base. I agree. "
"Three of us after one little witch?" Yvette laughed. "Really ? Are you that out of practice?"
"Did I forget to mention there were a hundred of them in that house, and that they seem to be more than happy to funnel themselves through one little girl?"
"Okay, a hundred to three doesn't sound so much like over kill." Yvette said smiling. "It's been a long time since we've worked together. "
"You were with Damon then too weren't you?" Avril asked, looking over at her sister.
"Yes. Although I don't know that you could really say we were a couple then." Alex said.
"You were coupling enough to make up for any lack of real romance then." Yvette said rolling her eyes.
Alexandra blushed.
Damon opened the wooden box and placed the disk inside. He covered it with rowan and then closed and locked it. He placed it in an oil skin bag with willow leaves. This he tied tightly before getting out of the car, carrying that and a cardboard box with him.
He hadn't been back to Veritas proper since returning to Mystic Falls. The section of land with the mill house was as close as he had gotten. He felt guilty about that but put it aside as he hiked through the over grown brush eventually coming to one of the many mausoleums that dotted the country side.
He looked at the ground at the base of the structure and saw that it was covered in vervain. "Really Dad? You planted vervain around Mom's grave? Nice." He said stepping over it and walking inside. If he hadn't been taking a daily regimen of Vervain amongs other things, the sheer volume of the stuff would be hard to walk past. "You're a real bastard you know that?" Damon was certain if there was a way for his father to be hovering around in the afterlife he would be.
He went down the steps to the graves below. "I know. It's been too long." He said standing at his mother's sarcophagus. He traced the lines of the intricate sculptures on the surface. "And I didn't come just for a visit, so if you're here instead of passed on, I'm sorry. " He pushed the lid to the side at a pivot point and frowned. "Willow… " He said looking at the long thin tendrils from a weeping willow that draped the coffin within. "What the hell… " He said and shook it off. He placed the oil cloth bag within. "Yeah I know, language. Sorry Mother. " He said and then took the flowers from the box and scattered them within. The aged willow nearly covered with white flowers. Jasmine, gardenia and magnolias.
He closed the sarcophagus once more, and began to wipe down the surface. "He shouldn't have put you here. You should be in the cemetery with the rest of the family." Damon said. "Not here to be neglected. You deserve better. I'll be back to clean things up later. I'll take care of you now. "
Damon left, and Alaric frowned "Now that's odd." He said stepping closer to look over the sarcophagus. "That's very odd."