Chapter 14

The Founder council meeting was traditionally held in the oldest building of the town. The Founder's Hall. In 1946 a fire had destroyed over half of it, leading to it being rebuilt in a more modern fashion that still mimicked the original traditional style fairly well. But, as a result the rooms that weren't used as often remained in their old style, hidden away from the public eye, leading anyone who visited the building to have a sharp sense of stepping back through time. It wasn't easy to find the meeting room, for it wasn't listed in the directory by the main doors but Bella had been given instructions by Liz. Up to the second floor and then to the right at the Files room and then up the round staircase to the frankly huge attic.

"If we stumble upon Scooby and the gang in here, I get dibs on Freddy."

Jenna muttered as she was behind Bella holding her hand.

"You sure about that? I thought you'd go for Scooby himself."

Bella joked in a hushed voice. It felt wrong to speak at a normal volume somehow.

"Fuck you."

Jenna hissed, laughter coloring her voice.

"That's the idea, dear."

Bella responded with a giggle and the two had to stop and compose themselves before knocking on the grand double door at the end of the short corridor of the attic.

"Here goes."

Jenna breathed before squaring her shoulders, fixing the perfect empty 'you will listen to me and I do not care how little you want to' air hostess smile on her face, and knocked.

The door was answered by the mayor himself. Jenna brushed his arguments about her being there and how improper it was since she wasn't a founder family descendant aside easily.

"It's my sister that was murdered Richard. I have every right to find out what you're doing about it. I am also Elena's and Jeremy's aunt and legal guardian. Until either reaches adulthood, I'm afraid you're stuck with me representing them."
"But John..""John has washed his hands off the children. He doesn't get to pick and choose, Richard. I could always of course submit an article at the Herald about how only the male descendants of the Founder families are allowed and the only reason you're not scowling at Liz being here, despite it being her job, is that Bill has moved away. I don't think you'd like being outed as a sexist on an election year Richard, would you?"

Jenna finished with the perfect Crest smile. Bella, much like Carol Lockwood, was hiding her smile behind her hand when she barely heard Liz mutter under her breath.

"Burn."

The awkwardness of the situation finished abruptly as Carol lifted a fairly archaic looking carafe and offered coffee. Bella greeted the esteemed mayor with a soothing hello but his grip on her hand was as limp as wilted cabbage.

Carol Lockwood made a show of introducing them to the rest of the attendees. Logan Fell, who was a journalist at the local paper and handled the news.

"What about the news on TV?"
"I dabble."
"To anything with a skirt."

Jenna informed Bella in her ear. The latter smiled and had to pull her hand back rather forcefully to release it. Carol went on with the introductions. Then was Liz, whom Bella knew already, Richard and Carol herself who, as she said, made sure the public events went on smoothly.

"It's a tough job but someone has to do it."

Carol self congratulated. Bella nodded, thinking that she could grow to like the woman if she had to.

"What about Mr. Salvatore? I don't see him around but it was him who invited me."
"Where is Zach, Liz?"
"How should I know? He said he'd meet me here."

Liz responded, her eyes falling on Bella's bandaged hand.

"Are you alright?"
"Bella is an incredible klutz."

Jenna snorted, making Bella poke her in the ribs. The two had decided not to share Bella's burn as being caused by the plant. 'You don't want these idiots going after you with stakes' Jenna had reasoned. Bella had sighed 'I definitely wouldn't mind a steak though. I'm starving.'

"The dog bit me this morning. He didn't like waiting to head out for his morning business"

Bella lied with a practiced shrug. As she had hoped, the mention of Barkley sent Carol to cooing sounds.

"Where is the little guy? Why didn't you bring him over?"
"Jeremy said he wanted to draw him."
"It's not like this room could fit all of us plus Barkley's ego"

Jenna said causing everyone to laugh, even though she wasn't joking. The laughter was cut short when a lean form filled the still open doorway. Bella sucked in a breath as she recognized her vampire attacker.

"I'm Damon Salvatore. Uncle Zach sent me in his place; he had a sudden trip to take. Down Under"

Liz and Richard spoke at the same time

"He didn't tell me anything."
"Welcome aboard, son."

And then glared at each other. Damon handed a small-ish wooden box to Liz.

"Uncle Zach wanted me to hand this to you Sheriff. He said it was this week's vervain supply."

Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, Bella thought and immediately lost all respect she could have for the Sherriff when she accepted the box with a smile (had she never seen a good looking guy before?) and proceeded to open it, extract a small amount of dried flowers and dumped them in the water carafe. Carol poured it in glasses and handed everyone a glass. Bella noticed Damon brought it to his lips and then lowered it just before it had time to reach his lips. Then he smiled at her.

She took a sip, grateful for her foresight to pop a strepsils candy in her mouth beforehand and swallow both the sore throat candy and the vervain infused water both at the same time, minimizing the burn. She gave Mr Charmypants a smile of her own, enjoyed seeing his frown, and then let out a sigh when no one else seemed to have a problem with the herbal water.

"Now onto business."

Richard said, and then embarked on a speech no one paid attention to. Damon spent the time his eyes locked on 'the girl'. The girl whose vampire look-a-like he had paid near no attention to back in the day, choosing to spend his time near Katherine. The girl his father had taken an easy liking to and whom he kept closed in his office for hours at a time. He and Stefan had joked that someone their age was going to become their step-mother, neither noticing how little Katherine had liked the idea. The girl his father had invited to the council meeting a few times. The human girl he had tried to bite and stopped short as a memory of her arguing with Katherine about how cruel it was to play with humans like they were dolls.

He came to his senses when he felt his fangs emerge, and hissed at her, but she only rolled her eyes at him. How could two people look so alike? Katherine and that Elena girl, Stefan was so enamored by. Isabella and this Bella chick. Just what were the chances?

"..And now, onto the new issues. First, who is going to replace Grayson at the hospital?"
"My sister is returning soon from her Doctors Without Borders tour. She knows all about our little issues here. I can ask her to move and she'll do it. "
"That's a good possibility. It'll add more women to the roster."

Liz barely kept herself from rolling her eyes as she muttered under her breath.

"Idiot."
"It'll also add more Fells though, isn't that going to be an issue when it comes to voting?"

Carol said thoughtfully. Liz nodded her agreement and even Jenna voiced hers. Logan's mouth twisted in displeasure

"What do you suggest then? An ad in the papers or to let more outsiders in?"

His eyes fell on Bella as he stressed the word 'more'. Jenna's pinkie finger tightened around Bella's.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea you know. If we assume that the vampire that killed my sister and Grayson, did it knowing they were members, what best way to ensure the safety of the rest?"
"Yeah, yeah. I agree with Logan. We shall make do until Meredith returns and takes over."

Richard's tone was final and he banged the little gavel by his hand on its matching base.

"Speaking of my sister's murder, where are you with finding who did it?"
"Unfortunately we don't exactly have a list of vampires in the area for me to go and question, but that's what Bella is doing here. She had a run in with his vampire, at Wickery Bridge the night before last. She also has experience with vampires in general."

Damon sucked his breath as Bella nodded. He forced himself to chuckle along at Logan's lewd joke that everyone seemed to choose not to hear. He watched as Bella stood, opened her purse to retrieve a sketch and a handful of photos.

"Let me start by saying my experience with vampires comes first hand. I was stupid and naive enough to date one, back when I was in school. It ended with me bloodied and fighting for my life in a hospital bed. That's how I know that you're completely wrong about them coming out only at night. That's the boogey man."

Silence greeted her.

"They're fairly easy to spot actually. Just look for the overly pale people with the strangely colored eyes. The newcomers that seem to avoid direct sunlight. The people with large blue jewelry. The ones that stay slightly out of the public eye but gather all attention."

Damon noticed how her eyes slightly shifted out of focus when she mentioned the Lapis-antisun-cheat jewelry as if she had no knowledge of that little tidbit, yet she included it in. Interesting…

Bella handed the glossy photos to Jenna, who in turn gave them to Liz to study. As the photos made the rounds, Bella kept speaking, her fingers on the left hand, absentmindedly stroking the flesh of her right wrist. Her voice kept going from conscious to the absent tone Damon always associated with compulsion.

"The unwashed blond guy is the vampire that tried to kill me. The other photo is of my vampire boyfriend. Notice how the unwashed vampire has red eyes, while my ex had golden eyes. That indicates their difference in diet but makes zero difference when it comes to killing a vampire."

Bella's eyes found Damon's and held them.

"And this is the guy that attacked me on the bridge"

She held up the sketch.