Chapter twenty nine

Stefan stirred and stretched, then sat up looking perplexed. "Katherine…" He said looking around him. He was laying on the floor in front of the fire place. Katherine's fireplace. He didn't remember getting there. He remembered coming to talk to her. He remembered them talking until near dawn, but he didn't remember falling asleep in front of the fireplace.

"Don't worry. You fell asleep. That's all." Katherine said as she walked through the living room toward the kitchen. "Sorry I've got an appointment to get to so you'll have get your own breakfast and see yourself out."

"What appointment is that?" He said getting up and putting the blanket on the sofa.

"I have to see a professor about a translation. " she paused. "Want to come?"

He frowned a moment then nodded. "Yeah I do." He said. She'd told him about the book and where she had found it along with the moon stone and the garnet disk. It was beginning to look more and more like his mother had at the very least been heavily involved with the Necromancer Katherine had been looking for. It was more likely that she had actually been the woman in question but he didn't want to believe that until he was certain. He hoped the book would lead to proof one way or another.

He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Elena that he was headed out of town to do a little research. She was probably furious with him right about now anyway for slipping out in the middle of the night but he didn't have time to deal with that at the moment. He needed information and Katherine was the only place to get it.

"Good, you can drive." She said as she headed for the door.

Stefan chuckled.

Damon pulled into the high school parking lot. "Do you want to get together for lunch today?" He asked "I'm going to be in town. I want to look through the library at the boarding house." He said. "Found a few books missing from my collection. I probably put them away down there for some unknown reason."

"No. I've got a lunch date with Meredith today. I've been neglecting her since my sisters arrived. We're going shopping or at least window shopping. I need a dress for the Founders ball." Alex said with a smile.

"That's right, it is that time of year isn't it. It looks like we get to go dancing after all." He grinned at her. "And they play all that old stuffy … stuff… that you like to dance to at those things too."

"It's not stuffy it's just old." She said laughing. "And you loved it back in the day."

"Only with you." He said and leaned in to kiss her. "Now get out of my car." He added with a grin. "I'll pick you up at three and you can show me that new dress when we get home."

"You don't want to see me in it you want to see it on the floor beside the bed."

"That too, but its only fun when I'm the one that puts it there." Damon teased.

"I'll think about it." She said getting out of the car. "But not as much as you will. I hear every two minutes is the average."

Damon laughed and pulled out of the parking lot. He had to find that book. Katherine had to have brought it with the disk. So it had to be hidden there somewhere.

He parked in front of the house and frowned. Stefan shouldn't still be there he should be off at school. Well he'd have to be cautious was all. He strode into the house as if he still owned it, and went straight for the library.

"There you are."

He frowned and turned to face Elena.

"Oh… sorry… I thought you were Stefan."

"I can't say that's ever happened before. Shouldn't you two be in class? "He said. "You're gonna be late and the fact your first period teacher is practically your sister in law is no excuse. So when is the big day anyway?" He asked as he started looking through the shelves, peeking behind books, and definitely not thinking about the fact that his mothers engagement ring was on her finger.

"We've postponed it until the Bonnie and Klaus situation is dealt with. " She said standing in the doorway. "Stefan was gone when I woke up but his car is still here."

"He likes to walk. He really likes to just… walk. Call him." He shrugged continuing to look at every single book, checking under dust covers.

"I will. I just thought he was still here. What are you looking for anyway?" Elena asked. "Are you and Alex getting that serious? You did say practically my sister in law. "

Damon ignored the first question. "Promises were made, none of them involving wedding rings or any plans for wedding rings. "

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked. "I mean… you asked her out here to help you get over someone else and you moved in with her because you were angry with Stefan. That's kinda shaky ground for a serious relationship." Damon was her friend, in spite of how they felt about each other, in spite of the past. She didn't want to see him get hurt.

"I think you don't know as much about my relationship with Alexandra as you think you do." He told her. "I also think that while your intentions are presumably good, and I appreciate the concern, you should butt the hell out especially since you are the someone else in question."

"You know, this sort of attitude is why it was so easy to convince Stefan that you were enthralled." Elena said.

"What attitude is that, Elena? The one that accepts that you chose my brother instead of me, even though we both know I was the right choice? The one that has me sticking around to help you when I should be heading for the hills at Mach speed? Or the one that has me actually happy with someone that isn't you or Katherine?" he asked bluntly. "Because if you mean the butt the hell out attitude? I've had that a hell of a lot longer than you've been alive little girl."

"I made the right choice." Elena said. "I love you, but I'm in love with Stefan."

"And I wish you all the best. I do. I've respected your choice. Now you need to respect mine." He said firmly. "You don't get to hover and be all judgy about my love life. I'm not going to play that game with you. Sort it out or when this latest Klaus drama is over, I'm out of here for good. "He turned his attention back to the books "Go check your phone. There's probably a dozen please forgive me for disappearing messages."

Elena turned on her heel and left the library. Damon was not being rational. If he were, he would understand what she had meant.

She found her cell phone but there was only one message. *sorry I disappeared last night. Heading out of town to do some research. Should be home late tonight or tomorrow morning. Love you.*

She frowned a little but grabbed her back pack and headed out the door for school. She was already half an hour late. Damon was right about one thing. She couldn't expect Alex to keep covering for her tardiness. Beyond that he was completely wrong.

She made it to class just before the bell to leave class and approached Alexandra's desk.

"Is everything alright?" Alex asked her.

"I need to talk to you about Damon." She said quietly.

"Close the door, we don't have long but alright." Alex said suspecting that the girl had noticed the strangeness in his behavior.

Elena did as she was told. "I know you care about him, and you think you know him, but –"

Alexandra raised an eyebrow, and signaled her to stop there. "Is this where you try to tell me I should go away and give him time to get over you?" She asked. "You have had several years of him playing the bad boy version of Lancelot to your Guinevere. You miss that. What girl wouldn't." She emphasized the word girl. "But you need to stay out of it."

"I don't want you to go away. I just think it's going too quickly."

"Don't confuse taking on adult responsibilities with being an adult. You're an intelligent girl, but I'm a little old to be taking romantic advice from a teenager. Now you should go to your next class before you're late there too."

Elena blinked and pulled away. She was being dismissed? She couldn't remember the last time she had been dismissed, and now twice in one day. "I'll see you later then." The four of them had plans to meet up at the grill that night for dinner. Damon and Stefan apparently liked that whole family get together thing. "If Stefan is back anyway. He's out of town doing some sort of research."

"Alright." Alexandra said with a nod. "Let us know."

Elena left the room and turned to come face to face with Matt Donovan. "Hi." She said.

"Hey, " he said. "So when did Stefan get a new car?" he asked, adjusting the books in his arms.

She blinked. "He didn't."

"Then whose car was it that you were in this morning?" He asked.

"I- ah- " She started.

"That was Katherine wasn't it." Matt said, feeling like a jerk for bringing it up.

"Yeah they're off doing research somewhere today. They left early this morning." Elena said. Why hadn't he told her he was with Katherine? Why was he with her to begin with? Why sneak off ?

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah… just really hungry. " She lied. "I should go before I lose control and confuse the lunch lady with lunch today."

"Want me to drive you?" He asked.

"No I'll be fine I just need to go eat. I'll see you later."

It was nearly noon when Stefan parked the car in the University parking lot. He sighed looking at his cell phone when it beeped.

*why didn't you tell me you were with Katherine? Is everything alright?*

*I'm fine. We're at Duke University. I'll tell you more later. Love you.*

He smiled when she responded in kind. And he closed the cell phone.

"So you two are getting married." Katherine said as she got out of the car and started toward the language arts department.

"Just as soon as Klaus is dealt with, yes," Stefan said."We don't want his shadow looming over us."

"Think how I feel." She stopped and waited for Stefan to open the door. "I've been under his shadow for 500 years."

"Hell of a way to live."

"It was either that or not live at all." She told him as she headed down the hall. She rapped twice on the office door and opened it.

Professor Hanlon lifted his head from his desk. "Miss Pierce, it's good to see you again."

"Thank you, professor. This is Stefan, the friend I told you about." She said.

"Ah so this treasure was your mother's. " He said pulling a copy of his translations out of the drawer and handing them over. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and reached for a bottle of ibuprofen, downing five in one go. "Forgive my rudeness. I just can't shake this head ache."

Stefan frowned slightly as he studied the man. "That's alright. We understand. What did you do to your hand? He asked.

Professor Hanlon lifted his right hand "Ah that. I was cleaning the gutters and sliced my fingers pretty good over the weekend." He said "I keep telling my wife I'm not the right man for the job but she seems to think otherwise. "

Stefan chuckled and nodded.

Katherine smiled winningly at the professor. "So what did you find when you translated it?"

"Took longer than I had expected, it's not in French. It's in pre-Latin Sardinian , however the way its worded is closer to the renaissance."

"What does that mean in English?" Katherine asked, not liking the man's coloring at all. He'd better not be having a heart attack before they could get the information out of him.

"I am only presuming mind you, but I believe that it means that whoever wrote this book knew ancient Sardinian but it wasn't their native language. " He said and drew in a quick deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, as a wave of pain hit him. "I believe this book was actually written in the 15th century. "He got out once it had passed."Especially given their fixation with the occult then, so called hermetic orders were cropping up everywhere.

Katherine looked through the pages. What she saw there was enough to get them all killed. A necromancer's book of rites was as sacrosanct as a witch's grimoire. She looked from the pages to the professor. "Where is the original?"

Hanlon's head lolled on his shoulders and his eyes rolled back in his head. Stefan checked his pulse. "Call 911. " He told Katherine. He would heal the man but he wanted to know what was wrong with him first. His condition looked all too familiar to him. As she did so he lifted the man's hand to look at the jagged cut across his fingers. It was angry and red looking; hot to the touch, but there was no sign of blood poisoning.

"What is it?" Katherine knew that look well.

Stefan shook his head. "I'll tell you later. I want to make sure first." He didn't like where his mind was going. His stomach rolled and he swallowed to ease the sudden tightness at his throat.

Alex and Meredith settled down for a cup of coffee. It was about all she'd have time for before going back to class. It was far from a restful lunch but she had the perfect dress for the founder's ball and was looking forward to showing it off to Damon later that night.

"So, were you able to find anything out about the Andreassi family?" she asked.

"I've got a friend of mine looking into them. He's a genealogy buff and does a lot of research into that sort of thing. So I gave him Madelena and Giuseppe's names." Meredith said.

"Thank you," Alex said taking a long drink of her cappuccino. "I just can't shake that I know that name from somewhere and it wasn't something Damon mentioned to me. He doesn't talk about his parents."

"Damon isn't the sharing type I've noticed. Not that I know him all that well. " Meredith admitted. "So you are actually building a new house on the property. Does this mean you two are permanent?"

"I think permanent is a word that rarely applies to vampires. " Alex said honestly. "But we're giving it a shot."

"I would think it would be easier since you can live as long as he does."

"I have to admit that's a powerful draw where I'm concerned. I've watched too many people die. Not that we're truly immortal. We're all too easy to kill if people go about it right."

"The place is protected enough. All you need is a bumper crop of wolf's bane and you're covered." Meredith laughed. "Have you been out to look at the ruins and the tomb yet?"

Alex looked at her quizzically.

"You didn't know? The ruins of the original Fell's Church is out there. The infamous tomb where the vampires were sealed is underneath it."

"Where Katherine was supposedly entombed?" she asked.

"Yeah that's the place."

"No." she said a little more sharply than intended. "I had no idea he had purchased the land with her tomb… supposed tomb… place he has been fixated on since the day I met him." So much him for being over Katherine. She fought the little green monster back into its box. It was a terrible struggle and she nearly lost the fight. But in the end her dignity won out over her jealousy.

"Did I just create a problem, oh god I did…" Meredith said.

Alex shook her head. "No, you didn't just create a problem. More like created a reason for us to have make up sex in a couple days." She laughed, pushing the box further into the recesses of her mind. He was with her. He had chosen her. She wasn't going to be threatened by either Elena or Katherine.

Elena had gone home to try and calm her temper down. She hated being this out of control of her emotions. Everything was larger than life and she was going mad with it all. The thought of Stefan alone with Katherine sent waves of anger through her so intense that all she had wanted to do in those first few moments was rip Matt's throat out.

She'd passed it off as hunger but it was rage. She trusted Stefan. She did not trust Katherine at all. She was up to something or she wouldn't be in town and that something usually involved Stefan and his brother. Usually she was trying to take Stefan away from her. She hit the work out bag, lashing out at it with everything she had in her until it flew off its hook and slammed into the wall opposite her.

She stared at it a moment, backing away and then turning to run for the door. She kept going until she got to the boarding house and went inside. "Damon." She called out, not knowing where else to go. "Damon?" She went into the parlor and found him draped across the sofa, sound asleep.

The room was a mess. It was littered with books that had been pulled from the shelves and tossed aside. She knew he'd been looking through the books earlier but why would he toss them around like this? This was not Damon-like behavior, unless something had thrown him into one of his own rages.

She walked over to the sofa and knelt down on the floor beside it. "Damon?" She said brushing a lock of dark hair from his face. "Damon, wake up."

He sniffed a little and made a displeased noise before rolling onto his side facing the back of the couch. "Go away." He muttered.

"Damon, wake up." She said again, more firmly this time.

Again that displeased half whine half growl. His I don't want to do this but I'm going to any way sound. She'd always found that sound adorable.

"What?" he asked turning over again to face her, not bothering to get up. He planned to stay there sleeping once he got rid of her. Once his eyes focused clearly on his surroundings he frowned. "What the hell happened in here?"

"That's what I was going to ask you." Elena said."When I left this morning you were searching the book cases for something. Now this." She indicated the scattered books.

His brow furrowed. "Huh." He said. "Remind me to ask Alex to check the place out for ghosts. A lot of people have died in here," he said. Usually they died by his hand. He sat up. "I'll sleep when I get home. Best to get this cleaned up now." Again he frowned when he looked her over. "You didn't come over here to talk about illiterate poltergeists. What's wrong?"

"I almost lost control at school today." She admitted as she got up and started gathering books.

"Hunger?" Damon asked joining her in her task.

She shook her head. "Anger." She said and explained the situation. She became infuriated all over again just by explaining it to him.

"Welcome to my world." He said sympathetically. "I would love to tell you that the emotions ease up over time but they don't. You just learn to control them better, " he put his hand full of books back on the shelf, " most of the time anyway. And for the record, nothing is happening between him and Katherine. It won't matter what she tries or how much he loved her a hundred and fifty years ago. You have nothing to worry about."

"That's what makes it so frustrating." She said. "I know I can trust him. I know he would never hurt me like that. But I still got so mad and every time I think about it I get mad all over again. "

"They have history. You're going to be jealous. It's a given." He told her. "We're a possessive race; predatory, possessive and vengeful."

"I'm not a jealous person. It's a waste." She said.

"You're right. It is. Think of it as Territorial. Yes there is a difference. When you see someone else encroaching on your territory you are going to react. It's just the way it works." Damon told her. " Everything you knew about yourself has changed, Elena. You're a vampire now. "