Chapter thirty three
Elena looked up as the door of the boarding house opened and a rain soaked Damon and Alexandra entered the house. She remembered all too clearly the endless people asking if she was okay when her parents had died. Of course she hadn't been okay. How could she have been okay? So she didn't ask. She simply went to the older woman and pulled her into a hug. "I've got water on for tea, do you want some?" She asked.
Alexandra simply nodded. She was still feeling the effects of the ativan and just wanted to sit down. So she allowed Damon to lead her over to the sofa next to Avril.
He then followed Elena into the kitchen. He filled her in on what was happening with Bonnie and what he had done. Damon expected the girl to lose her temper. Bonnie had been her best friend since they had been very small. Their mothers had been best friends. It was a tight bond. He knew that.
Instead she simply nodded. "Thank you. For not killing her." She said instead.
"Don't thank me. If I'd had my way she'd be dead and I would be back to day one tomorrow." He said. "So any word from my absentee brother?"
Elena made a frustrated growling sound. "He and Katherine are stuck out at Duke because of the storm. They're getting a room tonight. Please don't tease about it."
"I wasn't going to." Damon said. "You okay? No need to fly out into the night and save Stefan from the clutches of the wicked Katerina?"
"No. I'm okay. I'm just going to have to trust that he can protect himself and wait for the rains to stop."
"That's my girl" Damon said. "I saw Meredith's car out front."
"She's down stairs hooking Henry up to a blood and vervain IV. " She said. "He's not taking it well. You would think he would be relieved."
"Part of him is." Damon said. "I've been lucky. Alex and I… we do this dance every few decades. I get out of control… more so than you've seen, yes it's possible." He grinned a little. "And either she swoops in and saves me from my homicidal rages or I call her and she … saves me from my homicidal rages. Regardless, she always reverses it. It's easy that way. The ability to control me just goes away. I don't have any after effects and it never lasts that long to begin with. Henry on the other hand has been a slave for well… longer than I've been a vampire and Yvette was more traditional than Alex. He was an animal to be used and abused by her and nothing more. "
"All the more reason to be glad to be free."
"Except the bond also created a need to protect her, to make her happy, to… love. And the hell of it is that you know it. You know it isn't real but it's more powerful than anything you've ever felt before. Now after all this time, that's suddenly gone, and it's gone because he failed to protect her. Honestly, I'll be surprised if we don't have to put him down." He'd experienced those feelings before, but it had been Katherine he'd rather have died than live without.
Elena sighed. "Makes me glad that Bonnie was wrong about you and Alex," She said.
"I'm gonna go check on her again."
"Is she gonna be okay?" Elena asked.
"Eventually." He said leaving the kitchen. "Hey, why don't you two go and get some sleep upstairs." He told the sisters. "Tea can wait for morning." He thought for a moment Alex would protest but then she nodded and took Avril's hand. "My room is open. I'll be keeping watch tonight."
Alex nodded again and led the way. She doubted she'd be truly sleeping no matter how medicated she was, but she and Avril both needed away from all the sympathetic stares and consoling hands. She attempted to smile her appreciation to Damon as she went up the stairs.
Stefan put the possibly poison book into a plastic bag and sat down near the window, watching it rain.
"I'm not going to molest you. You can come to bed." Katherine told him as she came out of the shower and climbed into bed. "I'll respect your engagement."
"It's not that." He said smiling a little sadly. "I just got off the phone with Elena. Alex's sister Yvette was murdered tonight. Bonnie ran her down with her car."
"Why would she do that? Yvette's the necromancer right? She's no threat to Klaus, they need a witch to put Tyler back ."
"She and the Witch in the family are identical twins." He said. "Apparently she didn't see Henry until it was too late. I don't know. I don't have all the details. Elena took Henry back to the house, and Damon took off after Bonnie. She hasn't heard from him since. I'll call him a little later and find out how Alexandra and Avril are doing."
"I'm gonna get some sleep." She said. "Don't stay up all night worrying. They'll be fine. They always are."
Stefan nodded and she turned out the light. He didn't need the light to read by .He was a creature designed to live in the darkness after all. He looked through the pages of translation and wondered if his mother really could have been a creature that dark and twisted. Had she kept a vampire enslaved and mute? Why didn't he remember her? Or had she resided elsewhere, perhaps even within the slaves quarters where he wouldn't have been able to sort her out from the other servants. Not that he or Damon had known what to look for then. Was his father a murderer?
He glanced over at Katherine and listened for the sounds of her sleeping, then picked up his cell phone and called Damon.
"About time you called." Damon said instead of hello.
"Busy day." Stefan said. "How's Alex?" He asked.
"Strung out on Ativan at the moment but she'll be okay eventually." Damon sighed. "Unfortunately I didn't kill the little witch. Liz showed up and I couldn't have done it before she shot me, so I rewired her head instead. She's going to be in the booby hatch until I get over being angry."
Stefan scoffed. "You'll still be angry when she's been in the grave a hundred years." He knew his brother too well.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Just as well with our luck we'll need her for something." Damon said rolling his eyes. "So spill brother, why did you disappear in the middle of the night over to Katherine's? Are you insane? "
"I started remembering things." Stefan said.
"Remembering things in a good way or remembering things like someone let you have your memories back. Last time that happened you found out you were Klaus's hero and drinking buddy. You don't have a good track record there, Stef."
"Just remembering conversations with Katherine." He said. "And how she would ask a lot of questions about Mom."
Damon sighed. "Yeah, now that I think about it, she did come up in conversation more than I liked. I love our mother, but the thought of her can be a real buzz kill when you're in bed with a beautiful woman."
Stefan laughed quietly."I can imagine." He wondered if Damon realized he'd said that in the present tense.
"So you thought of Katherine and Mother, and went over to chat her up? Were you looking for another maternal based conversation? This is like pulling hens teeth here. Give me something to work with."
"I went over because I wanted answers. Apparently she was in a more talkative mood." Stefan outlined what he had found out about Katherine's motives for being in Mystic Falls the first time. "Of course this is also based on Katherine's veracity. She also told me stories about how she found you and Alex once in1865 and tried to save you from her."
Damon laughed. "Trust me, if she had been there I would have known."
"That's what I thought." Stefan said. "But this book… I'm pretty sure Mother at least had possession of it." He told Damon. "The professor that Katherine gave it to for translation died today. I won't know for sure until tomorrow but I think it was poison. He had the same symptoms Mother did." He frowned at the silence on the other end. "Damon?"
"Now do you understand?" He said tightly. "Do you understand why I hated him so much."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Stefan asked.
"You were twelve. " Stefan said. "What was I supposed to say, hey sorry kid, your mom just died and guess what your Dad did it. He's been slowly poisoning her for years. Yeah cause that would go over well. Ironic that you were the one to kill him. I envied you that… when I wasn't throwing up."
"Yeah you didn't do so well with the thought of blood in the beginning." Stefan said.
"Unlife and its little ironies." Damon said. "Other than confirming that Katherine is a consummate liar, what else have you discovered on your trip. "
"We ended up going through the comparative folk lore department looking for the book, found a few other things on necromancers and witches… I haven't had a chance to really look through it all yet. I figured I'd wait and go over it with Alex since she'd have a better idea about what's real and what's just propaganda of the era."
"Yeah, just … get that book home. I'll put it up for safe keeping with the disk." Damon said rubbing at his temple. He had a nasty headache forming.
"Hmmm… Something else that occurred to me." Stefan said. "When Elena found the Klaus pendant, for lack of a better word. It was black. Once they put Tyler in there it turned red." He pointed out. "I think there is someone in that disk we found."
"maybe, or it's just a chunk of rock from one of mothers gardens." Damon said. "Either way it's on the back burner for now." He said and sat down on the sofa.
"Agreed. About the back burner part anyway." Stefan said. "you sound tired. I'm gonna let you go."
"Yeah. Stay out of trouble out there. Saving your hide is not the way I want to get in between Elena and Katherine. " Damon said.
"You don't want to get in between them at all."Stefan said laughing.
"You have to admit, it's visually appealing."
"Good night Damon." Stefan said still amused. He hung up.
It was still raining come morning, as Damon sat in the chair beside his bed in his old room, watching over Alexandra and her surviving sister. He hadn't bothered to sleep the night before. He'd been too keyed up. The conversation with Stefan hadn't helped.
"Hey Beautiful." He said quietly as Alex stirred in the bed.
"I thought I was cuddled up to someone with the wrong configuration." She said quietly, easing out of the bed, and going to curl up in Damon's lap.
He kissed her brow and held her close. "I love you." He told her.
"You too," She said. Her eyes were still misting over with tears. "I want to kill him but I can't."
"I can identify. But as someone pointed out last night there are other ways to deal with things. And you know… there are worse things than death. I say we put him in that pendant and melt the key." Damon said. "And what happens from there… depends on how much Tyler says he could sense while in there."
"I like that plan." She said and laid her head on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry I got you into this." He said softly.
"You didn't." She said. "They chose to stay. I chose to stay. You aren't the author of all the evil in the world, my love."
"I know it's too soon to think about it, but I think the ball is the best time to lay a trap. If he's in the area it will be a draw. Especially with Caroline going."
"It's never too soon for a healthy case of vengeance. " She said. "And I have a promise to keep anyway."
"When this is over, let's get out of here. Just leave town for a while, come back when the house is finished. I think it's time to shake the dust off."
She nodded. "If you're sure."
"I'm sure." There were too many ghosts in mystic falls. He was ready to leave it behind again.
"You're mad at me." Katherine said staring at Stefan, arms folded across her chest.
"I'm not mad at you." He said packing up the reference materials he had been looking at.
"You're not talking to me."
"I just spoke."
"That's not the same and you know it." Katherine said.
He looked over at her. " I talked to Damon last night. Either you are lying to me, or someone has messed with his head and you abandoned him twice over to save your own hide. Neither of which puts you on my happy list at the moment."
Katherine glared at him. "Fine, give me my book and you can leave. I'll find my own way back to Mystic Falls when this storm has died down. "She held out her hand.
"Technically it's my book. Mine and Damon's since it was our mother's."
"You have no proof it was hers. It could have just been left there by any number of guests that came through."
"We both know this is my mother's book. I recognize the handwriting." Stefan said.
"Are you really willing to consider that you are from a necromancer bloodline? That the two of you could have become monsters if I hadn't turned you."
"Yes to the first, no to the second. I'm not a monster now. Why would I have become one just because I had the power to control the dead?" He said stuffing a hotel towel into the box to protect the papers inside. "I appreciate the help Katherine. I do. If you want a ride back to town since it's your car I'll drive you. But we're going now."
"Fine but if we get stuck on the side of the road for days on end and I get hungry, you're the one I'm eating."
Stefan laughed and headed out to the car, putting the box in the trunk where Katherine's hands would be nowhere near it. He unlocked her door and went to the driver's side to get in.
"I wasn't lying." Katherine said as she fastened her seat belt. "And it turned out okay. I mean… he at least thinks he's in love with her and happy." Her tone gave away exactly what she thought of that.
"You had no way of knowing how it would turn out. For all you knew she could have turned him into little more than a zombie." Stefan said. "You're not winning points."
"I'm not looking for points this isn't a game to me." She insisted. "I saw what your mother did to my friend. I know what they're like. I'm sorry I couldn't save him from her. I tried. But I wasn't about to become one of her minions when there was nothing I could do to save him."
"No third attempt? No giving him time to win back her trust?" Stefan asked pointedly.
"I couldn't find them again." She said, although there was something off in her tone and Stefan didn't miss it. "And when I saw Damon next he was flying solo."
"And you didn't say anything then either."
"No, I didn't. I was trying to keep a low profile. If he'd still been enthralled I would have tried again but he wasn't so I didn't. It was a century and a half ago. Let it go Stefan." She looked over at him. "So you two are really pulling the brother act again huh? No more fighting? No more sabotaging each other's plans?"
"So far we're doing well." Stefan said. "I screwed up big time but he's forgiven me. So … we're doing well."
"So what are you going to do with the book?"
"I don't know but it's not leaving our hands. It's killed two people. I'm not going to let there be a third." He told her.
"I'm a vampire. The only thing poisonous to us is Vervain."
"That we know of." Stefan said. "One thing I am learning from this endless drama is that we don't know jack about anything. Even Elijah is missing a few key points along the way. "
"Okay. So what's the plan with Klaus?"
"We have to figure out a way to contain him, not only in place but in his human form, without anyone being bitten so that Avril can cast the spell for the gem stone. I'm hoping there is something in mother's book that will help. He's undead so there might be." The one thing he could count on Katherine for was being on board with anything anti-Klaus.
Katherine nodded. "We never seem to have a chance at an easy shot at him do we?"
"The one time we did Elijah wimped out. Just as well. It would have killed us all." Stefan said.
"There are days it might have been worth it but … no." She said.
"Yes, we all know you are not a sacrificial lamb." Stefan said.
"Hey! I have come through for you when you needed me." Katherine said firmly. "For you and for Damon, even if you don't believe me. Just because I could care less about Elena's little family or the friends you pick up along the way doesn't mean that I don't still love you, Stefan."
"I don't think you know what that word means." He said.