Chapter twenty seven

"You want me to what?" Tyler asked looking at Jeremy incredulously. "I barely escaped being trapped in that thing to begin with. " He moved to stand beside Caroline and tried to touch her hair. He'd always loved the way it felt in his fingers. Like cool strands of silk. He couldn't feel her and she couldn't hear him.

"It's the only way to get you back into your body. We have no way of knowing when we'll have Klaus cornered. So it's just best to be prepared." Jeremy said.

"You don't know if you will get Klaus cornered." Tyler pointed out. "Can you tell her I love her?" he asked not taking his eyes off of the girl before him.

"He says he loves you." Jeremy said, and almost wished he hadn't when Caroline's eyes misted over in tears.

"I love you too, "She said looking around, her eyes instinctively finding him, even without seeing him.

"Don't cry, Baby." Tyler said "It'll be alright. Please don't cry." He looked to Jeremy. "I'll do it… if she wears it."

"He says not to cry, and that he'll do it if you'll wear the necklace." Jeremy said.

"Of course I will." Caroline said.

"That is a bad plan. Even I can see that. " Damon said, "It's too easy to get to you. If he is anywhere near here, he has been watching you all this time. And if he's not he's had his fur balls doing it for him. It's what he does."

"What are you my father?" She asked both hands on her hips. "Your days of telling me what to do are long gone mister."

"He's in trouble now. I know that look." Tyler said and Jeremy chuckled. That was something he was not going to repeat.

"Kind of…" Damon said. "I don't know." He sighed in frustration. "It would make you a target. Klaus has to know what that thing looks like. He was in it. "

"Good" Caroline said. "Then we don't have to depend on Katherine. I can do this, Damon. "

"And if he finds out you're luring him in, he will bite you. I don't care how much he thinks he's falling in love with you. He locked his family in coffins for centuries. Love doesn't matter to him when he's angry."

"I'm going do this." Caroline repeated firmly.

Damon threw his arms up in the air and walked out of the room. "Fine. What ever." He said going to pour himself a glass of bourbon. He looked up seeing Stefan there. "What?" He asked.

"That's what I was going to ask you." Stefan said leaning against the bar. "You've been in a mood since we left Katherine's yesterday. "

"I'm fine." He said. "I just don't like putting all of this on her. She's too young and we don't have a convenient lookalike for this one."

Stefan laughed "At her age you were fighting a war. "

"Believe it or not Stefan, the civil war was a vacation for me. You at that age however, being the family golden boy that you are, were studying, learning the family business and writing poetry in your journals. Who was it you were writing about before Katherine? Elizabeth Lockwood? Clarissa Fell?" He asked. "Does Meredith know that you were entertaining thoughts of being her great great … great… however many greats… grandfather?"

"Damon." Stefan sighed. "This isn't the time to go into how you felt cheated somehow because Dad and I got along."

"I don't know if you've just got a selective memory, or if you really do think the world revolves around you. That is not what was wrong between me and our father. "He said with a bitter laugh. "Gotta say though, all that love and respect he had for you didn't stop him from using you as vampire bait, or putting a bullet in your chest. " he took a long drink " Then again it didn't stop you from eating him either, did it Brother."

"Why is all this coming up now?" Stefan asked, worriedly.

"I don't know, maybe wracking my brain to see some sort of supernatural menace from our past." He said. "There's more than one sort of monster in the world, Stefan." He set the glass down. "Let Alex know I've got some errands to run. I'll see her tonight. The rest of you apparently have a handle on the situation without me."

"Damon. " Stefan said and sighed as his elder brother left the house.

Alexandra came from the library where the others were making plans. It was ironically not something she could help with. The one thing you would think would be the purview of a necromancer belonged to the witches.

"He said to tell you he has errands to run." Stefan said with a frown. "He's on edge and he won't tell me what's going on."

Alex rested her hand on Stefan's arm. "You may be vampires, but underneath it all you're only human." She said. "You've both been under unbelievable stress the last few years, and he's still processing the abduction."

Stefan closed his eyes slowly.

"Now isn't the time for guilt. He doesn't blame you anymore. That's part of what Bonnie was trying to do to both of you. Tie you up in guilt and anger so tightly that you couldn't see past the lies. "

"She was trying to drive me to kill you." Stefan said. "And if you had treated Damon the way Yvette treats Henry… I would have."

"Fortunately for you and Damon, that will never be an issue." Alex said with a smile. "Just give him time. I know you have always seen your brother as larger than life. But he's not. He's just a man like any other"

"No he's not." Stefan said with a faint smile. "I thought you would have figured that out by now."

"You don't remember much about your child hood do you?" She said quietly.

"Why do you say that?" He asked.

"If you remembered, maybe you'd understand him better."

"I know what he was implying. My father was not a monster. He was just… afraid … like most people are of vampires. Most of the time they're right to be." Stefan said.

"Monster is such a subjective word. " She said. "Your father was kind to you. He was open with his affection and respect with you. He was just the opposite with Damon. "

"Our mother made up for that. " Stefan said a little stiffly.

"Nothing makes up for that. But I think you already know that." Alexandra told him, and turned to walk away.

Damon scrubbed at the sarcophagus until it gleamed in the light. With the vervain gone from around the mausoleum light was able to come through the narrow windows that sat at ground level. He smiled looking at it and nodded "It's looking better don't you think?" He said, not expecting a response. "Soon it'll be as good as new."

He picked up the broom and began to sweep at cobwebs preparing the clean the cold marble walls.

(1854

Damon scowled staring at the workmen as they lined the hole they had carved out of the bedrock with marble and travertine.

Madelena Salvatore rested a hand on her ten year old son's shoulders. "Why so angry?" She asked.

"He's digging your grave, Mother." Damon said looking up at her, wondering why she didn't understand.

"Yes, but he's building someplace very special for me. He's not being ghoulish. He's honoring me." She told him, "Its nothing to be afraid of or angry over."

"You're not going to die, I won't let you." Damon said fiercely and if the determination in those blue eyes, so much like her own, was any indication he would succeed in making her live forever.

She hugged him. "Death cannot be stopped, my darling. " She said kneeling beside him. "It's not like the priests say you know. There is no eternal damnation, no fires, no torment. There is either peace, or there is waiting and watching over those you love. "

"When you die will you still be watching over us?" Damon asked.

"I will always be watching over you.")

Alaric watched as Damon moved on to scrubbing the walls and then the floor. "What are you doing?" He asked, remaining unseen and unheard to his friend. The man was moving as if driven to some purpose. Why all the fervor now when for the entire time he had known him, he had never so much as come here once.

"Avril is at Stefan's place dealing with the disembodied boy." Yvette said letting her mother into the apartment. "So we have time to work."

"Good. I don't want either of them knowing I'm in town." Julianna said as she entered her daughter's temporary home. "Do you have everything I asked for?"

"Yes." She said and led the way to the kitchen where she had set up her work space on the island. "I'll get the crucibles."

Julianna nodded and looked over the work top, wrinkling her nose occasionally. She hated working with necromancers, even her own daughters. Unfortunately it was a necessary evil in life; much like putting up with vampires.

Her daughter returned with two small well worn ceramic bowls, blackened from previous usage. Yvette set them on the island.

"Here are Giuseppe's bones, ground as you said." Yvette told her.

"And the others?"

"I can't" Yvette said. She was willing and capable of committing almost any act upon the dead. She hated them. She had always hated them. The feel of them, the taste of them, it all came together like sack cloth and ashes. But her father was another matter.

Julianna rolled her eyes and held out her hand. "Of all of my daughters, you were the one I never expected to be crippled by sentiment." She said sharply.

Reluctantly Yvette handed over her father's bones. "And you're the last person I expected to be so callous about my father." She countered.

Her mother slapped her and gave a warning glance to Henry to stay in his place. "It's what your father would want." She said as she placed the bones into the mortar and pounded them into a powder with a fervor Yvette equated with hatred more than expediency.

Julianna poured the powder into the crucible, and Giuseppe's into the other. Into each she also added the appropriate herbs, willow, vervain, angelica root, and aconite. She added Damon's blood to Giuseppe's as well as some from another vial that she took from her pocket. It was old, and the blood within was powdered and she measured it out carefully. She then placed a silver ingot in each bowl.

She took her daughters hands in her own and held them one over each crucible. They began to chant and the heat filled the bowls, the ceramic glowed first red then white hot as it heated the contents to a molten mass. The silver absorbed the other contents, eventually becoming an homogenous liquid.

Yvette set the molds on the table and took the tongs to pour the mixture into them. She stood back as her mother once more began to chant in a language she did not understand. Yvette took great satisfaction in the fact that the spell seemed to drain her mother's resources by the time she was done and the molds opened.

Julianna eased onto one of the bar stools and looked over her work. Two rings, bone and silver twined together even though it should not have been possible. "Good. Those will do nicely. " She said and took the glass of juice that Yvette handed her. "Tell her they came by mail. She'd spoken to me of it the night she was attacked.

"You should be careful, Mother. She could have died that night. If Damon had acted on instinct rather than grabbing the phone first she would be very much dead."

"Would she? Are you sure?" Julianna asked, dark eyes twinkling. "Where do you think the Bennett girl got the recipe for the poison? "

"What are you playing at?" Yvette asked.

"I'm not playing, girl." She said. "I'm paying an old debt. That's all you need to know."

"To that vampire they are looking for? Klaus?" Yvette's eyes narrowed.

"Dear god, no." She said laughing. "You will understand when all is finished. In fact I think you will be pleased. So long as you keep your mouth shut, and do as you're told all will end well." She gathered the bottles containing Damon's blood and put them in her bag. "What of your pet?" She asked glancing to Henry.

"He doesn't speak unless I allow it. He can't reveal anyone's secrets."

"Good. See that he stays that way or you will be looking for another pet. I hear Damon has a brother. He's of no use to me. "

Yvette frowned. "Don't threaten me, Mother." She said. "Not even through my thrall. Even I have my limits."

"There may be hope for you yet." She said.

Avril held out the obsidian disk, and made sure that the lock was opened. "Alright, we'll begin." She said and Caroline unfolded the spell holding it out for her to read from.

"He's ready." Jeremy said.

Tyler watched with more than a little trepidation and the spell began. Instantly he felt the pull toward the pendant. He didn't really want to be trapped inside of something that small, even if he didn't have any mass or size any more.

"It's okay." Jeremy said. "We'll pull you out again. I promise."

Tyler looked at his friend and nodded, with a stern sort of resignation and let himself go.

Caroline drew in her breath as the stone changed from obsidian black to garnet red. She waited until Avril turned the key to take it in her hands. "It's warm." She said breathlessly. "I think I can feel him in here."

Avril smiled "I can add a spell if you like to prevent its being removed. I'll have to be there to transfer him back to his original body so I can undo it then."

"Yes please." She said, and slipped it around her neck. She felt a tingle as Avril said a few words and touched the pendant.

"There you are. Secure as it can be." Avril said. Even if the girl died they wouldn't be able to take it from her. If they couldn't take it from her they couldn't use it.