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Chapter 014

Story Time

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Friday, June 25, 2010; around 1:20 a.m.

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I lay Elena down on my bed and then crawl in beside her pulling her into my arms. Jeremy knocks on the door a minute later, and I tell him, "Come in, Brother."

Jer has tears building in his eyes, but they haven't broken the surface of his eyes yet, so I look him in the eye as I hold his dead sister in my arms and tell him, "She was protecting Matt from some Vampire that tried to eat him. Since it's Matt I'm pretty sure it counts, so I need you to hold on to hope for the next half hour at the most, okay, we'll know by then if something isn't right."

His chin is quivering as he nods and comes over to lay on the bed on the opposite side of Elena. He strokes her hair as he says, "I really hope it counts because I've buried way too many fucking people this year, and the last person I want to lose is 'Lena."

I nod and tell him, "I know, but I really do think it counts. I mean think about it. She and Matt have, by all accounts that I've heard, been best friends since they were in diapers, even before you were born, if I recall correctly. I doubt her feelings for him are anything other than unadulterated love."

He nods and says, "I know, but waiting is killing me."

I laugh and tell him, "I hope not because 'Lena will be pissed if you die for any reason but especially from having to wait."

He laughs too and we lay there for ten minutes before she wakes with a series of gasps so I tell her, "You're okay, Elena, try to breathe through your nose," as her breathing regulates I tell her, "There you go."

I kiss her forehead and then ask, "How do you feel?"

She frowns and apparently doesn't realize Jer is also beside her as she says, "Everything seems brighter and I think I hear Matt and the others talking downstairs. How do I hear him all the way from here?"

I don't answer her question instead asking one of my own, "What do you remember?"

"I remember calling Matt and arranging to meet up with him at the Grill when he was done with work. When I got there, I heard him scream, so I went around towards the alley and there was a Vamp snacking on him, so I took the stake out of my purse. Oh god, I, I died, the Vampire snapped my neck. How am I alive when I haven't had any Vampire blood in weeks?"

"Remember when I told you there were things I wasn't telling you?"

She nods so I tell her, "Well the main thing is that you are Briseis. You sacrificed yourself to save Matt so you should be returning to yourself. I'm unclear why you don't remember being Briseis."

Jer says what I'm thinking, "It might be because you're still Human, and you're probably in transition since your natural form is a 490,000-year-old Vampire."

She turns her face towards him, and he kisses her brow before he says, "I'm glad it counted 'Lena."

I nod and ask Jer, "Would you mind donating blood? Or would you prefer I go get a blood bag?"

He frowns and asks, "Will it hurt?"

I smile and tell him, "No, I'll bite your wrist, which shouldn't hurt more than a second and then she can drink from it. She'll only need a little and probably won't take much."

He nods and tells us, "Okay then."

I look down at the back of Elena's head and ask her, "'Lena will you drink from him?"

She has tears in her eyes as she turns back towards me but she nods so I take Jer's wrist in my hand and gently make a small bite before handing her his wrist. She drinks for about 30 seconds before she pulls away and whispers "Thank you Jer. I love you Drago," as she falls back to sleep.

I look at Jer on the other side of my love and tell him, "Here, drink and I'll keep an eye on you for a day or two, that way you won't have an open wound while around a newly returned Briseis."

He smiles and nods so I bite into my own wrist and he drinks for a minute as we watch his wrist heal then as I pull my wrist away from his mouth I tell him, "Let's bring her downstairs since I have a few questions for the Witches in the house."

He nods and gets up, so I rest her on the bed to get up, and then I pick her up and carry her downstairs where everyone stops talking when we enter. I tell them all, "She woke and drank from Jer then she fell asleep. Do any of the Witches in the house know what to expect since she was still Human when she died?"

Laraina and Bonnie both nod and Bonnie says, "I think she'll sleep for about three hours then wake up with all her full powers and memories."

I nod and lay her down on the couch with her head in Matt's lap as I ask him, "Will you keep an eye on her while I go get some blood for when she wakes."

He nods with wide eyes and says, "Yeah of course."

I nod back, hurry downstairs, and grab three bags of blood before hurrying back up to the living room. I quickly reposition Briseis so that she's in my lap as I want to be the first thing she sees when she wakes and remembers herself.

As I reposition her, Matt is explaining what happened to him and Elena, "So I was taking out the bags of trash that piled up during the day when some Vampire attacked me. So I figure I'm going to die, right, but then over his shoulder I see Elena trying to sneak up on him. I barely saw him move but the next thing I knew she was lying on the ground in a crumpled heap and there were three blurs fighting with the Vamp that attacked me. It was over pretty quickly. Actually I'd be surprised if the whole thing took more than three minutes from start to finish."

He pauses a moment then says, "I was pretty shook up and certain 'Lena was dead but then I think her name is Laraina said 'Lena would wake up again later as a Vamp. Then Care and Bonnie showed up and Care brow beat me into taking her blood."

He smiles at her as she huffs and tells him, "Well I wasn't just going to let you bleed to death, and you're so pigheaded Matthew Donovan."

He laughs, "I'm pigheaded? Um, have you looked in the mirror lately, Care?"

She laughs and says, "Okay, I might deserve that."

Everyone else laughs too then after everyone calms down a bit, I turn to the three Vampire Witches and tell them honestly, "Laraina, Reyna, and Carys, thank you for helping my love and my brother."

Matt's head snaps up and his eyes widen slightly when I call him my brother, but as far as Elena and Asya are concerned, he's family, so as far as I'm concerned he's my brother.

I look in front of the fireplace for the first time and see the desiccated corpse of a Vampire with a stake in his heart. I raise my brow as I ask, "Is that the asshole that attacked Matt?"

Everyone nods as Laraina explains, "I brought him with us so we could burn him after you got a chance to see him just in case he looks familiar to any of you."

I nod back and say, "He doesn't look familiar to me, what about the rest of you?"

Everyone else shakes their heads no so I ask Balthazaar, "Brother, would you mind taking him out to the garden and burning him in the new fire pit? I think burning him in here would upset Matt, Jer, Ty, and Bonnie's breathing since it's such an enclosed space. The rest of us can just not breathe the disgusting scent but they're not so fortunate."

He laughs and stands before grabbing the lighter off the mantle and then carrying the Vampire out the French door to the fire pit I added to the middle of the garden last week.

Asya hugs the Witches, who were all born before one of my descendants, some 3,000 years ago, met and fell in love with a dark skinned woman, so Bonnie's three Witchy ancestors have skin tone similar to mine rather than like Bonnie's. When Asya finishes hugging them she makes official introductions. Bonnie smiles and leans over to tell Matt, "They're my Witchy ancestors that Damon turned thousands of years ago."

Matt's eyes widen with shock before he asks, "Uh, don't take this wrong, but if you're their descendant then how come your skin is brown and theirs isn't?"

Bonnie laughs and says, "I think the dark skin didn't get introduced to Damon's line until some 4,000 or so years ago."

I nod, "It was actually about 3,000 years ago when one of my great-great times a thousand grandson's, a boy named Lucian, fell in love with one of his family's slaves, a dark skinned woman named Masha. She was actually much darker than Bonnie. Anyway interracial relationships, never mind a free man marrying a slave, wasn't really accepted back then, even more so than during the 1800's in this country, so it was a big scandal, but I knew they were in love and meant to be, so I sort of forced his parents to accept her into our family."

I pause then tell them, "Unfortunately, his parents treated her and their grandchildren that she gave birth to like second rate citizens, so I took the whole family into my home. Now don't think I was some forward thinking person who was ahead of his time. I wasn't really progressive, but I knew Lucian loved her, and I could understand when he said he'd never want another woman, since I had thought the same thing the first time I was re-introduced to Briseis.

I smile and tell them, "Anyhow Masha was very beautiful with skin the color of dark chocolate, and I've rarely seen a more beautiful woman, so naturally their children were beautiful, but dark skinned like their mother, and after that most of their descendants fell in love with people who looked more African than European like me. Through the years, though, the skin tone has gotten lighter and lighter, so Bonnie's a rather light skinned black woman as opposed to Masha who looked like she was made of the finest dark chocolate."

Everyone nods and sits for a minute then Matt seems to recall the second part of Bonnie's sentence as his stance goes tense and his eyes shoot open wide and then focus on Care as he says, "Wait, thousands of years? Care, I thought you said Damon was born in the mid-1800's?"

Jer looks at him and says, "You ready to know what's going on or do you want us to continue to keep you in the dark. We'd love your help, but if you don't want to know we'll keep respecting that."

He thinks for a minute, and I can tell when he decides he'd rather not be in the dark anymore, and I smile. Finally, the last member of our family will now be in the know as he says, "I want to be able to help from now on. Not wanting to know was just a knee jerk reaction since Vicki had just happened and then me kicking my mom out and then finding out that Care became a Vamp. I needed to take a step back, but I'm ready to know what's happening and help if at all possible, though I'm only Human, so I'm not sure what good I'll be, but if you want it you have my help."

Jer nods and Asya says, "We always need you, even if you are only Human." She winks at that so he chuckles and takes a seat for story time. To say he's shocked by the time Asya finishes mostly filling him in is a huge understatement.

When Jer, Tyler, and Kol get to the part about the Indian Ocean Matt tells them, "The Indian Ocean is pretty treacherous and Kol was it?" Kol nods so Matt nods back and continues, "He's right about shipwrecks being lost permanently out there, but if you're looking for the deepest ocean that's actually the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific Ocean… I did a paper on it for my geology class last year. It's something like 6.8 some odd miles deep and I'm pretty sure modern technology is nowhere near able to get that deep. And what I know of oceanography says it's going to take some major technological advances before we'll be able to get even close to exploring it."

Kol laughs and says, "I swear this whole damn family, not a single unuseful individual in the lot. You all know the most random things, and I'd bet most of you have pretty high IQs too."

Matt and I both laugh as Matt tries to tell him "I'm not really part of the—"

However, Asya interrupts him before I can and says firmly, "You are so part of this family Matt Donovan. The only reason we've kept you in the dark was at first to keep you safe and we were keeping everyone in the dark. And then after that we kept you in the dark because you asked to be kept out of it, but now that you feel like you're on solid ground again I don't think there's a single member of this family that wouldn't include you as part of it if asked."

All his friends and I are nodding very deeply causing a blush to rise on his cheeks as he says, "Uh thanks guys, I love you too."

After a minute, Matt asks no one in particular, "So how is Elena in transition since Care said she hasn't had any blood recently?"

It's Laraina who answers, "It's because in reality she's not Human but rather an almost 500,000-year-old Vampire, so she needed to drink Human blood or Drago's, either would probably work, and then she'll sleep and then wake up in about three hours or so with all her memories and her full powers returned to her."

"Uh 500,000? You just said really old Care. 500,000 is a little older than really old! That's like ancient!"

She laughs, "Sorry, but you know it's not nice to ask a lady her age and technically I'm only 35,000 years younger than the rest of them, well except Katherine, she's only 100 years older than me."

"Elena's evil twin has the spell on her too? Uh, maybe someone else should take over story time and fill in the holes Care apparently left."

Jer laughs and he, Bonnie, and Ty proceed to fill in the rest of the gaps.

Matt sits quietly absorbing all the information he's been told then asks, "So what are we looking for in the books? Give me one and I'll help." Finn hands him a book we haven't read yet and explains what we're looking for, so after Bonnie does the quick spell so he can understand all the languages he will encounter in the various Grimoires he starts reading as does everyone else.

Almost two hours later Elena moves in her sleep. A minute later, she wakes and looks at me with a sleepy smile on her face, "Drago?"

I smile, "It's me, Briseis. What do you remember?"

She smiles and says, "I remember everything now."

I nod, lean down, kiss her softly, then pull back, and pick up one of the blood bags lying beside me on the end table before handing it to her, "Hungry?"

She chuckles and says, "Yes, just a bit."

She drinks the bag of blood slowly, so I relax a bit realizing I don't need to worry about her accidentally attacking any of the breathers in the room.

I hand her another blood bag when she finishes the first one, and then when she finishes that one she leans up to my ear and says softly enough that I know I'm the only one who can hear it, "I want to help Tyler now." I don't want to let go of her, and her arched brow tells me she clearly knows that, but she tells me, "Seriously Drago, I'm fine. I sense all the Humans in the room, and I don't feel like eating any of them. My control is even better than it was before we were spelled, promise." It's not just that I'm worried about her control. I have truly missed my wife, but I understand that she can help Tyler.

I nod and reluctantly let go of her, so she can go help Tyler but first she kneels in front of Matt. She raises her hand towards his neck, and I smile when he doesn't flinch as Asya said he did when she first told him about being a Vampire. In his defense, it was probably a lot to take in all at once, and I think he handled it pretty well all things considered.

She touches his neck and inspects the clear patch of skin that only hours ago was a torn bloody mess, "Care took care of me, 'Lena, no worries." She lets out a sigh of relief and hugs him, which he quickly returns. "I'm okay, you saved me."

She laughs, "Didn't do a very good job of it though. Thank you, Sisters, for protecting him while I couldn't."

Laraina, Reyna, and Carys all nod and tell her, "It was nothing."

But Matt seconds her, "No seriously, you didn't even know me, and you protected me, and while I know it was because you recognized Elena I still really appreciate it."

They smile and Carys asks, "Didn't we just cover that you're part of the family?"

He laughs and nods, "Yeah we did."

She smiles and nods once, "Okay then, nuff said."

I stand and tell her, "Elena and Klaus' blood are in the basement, let's go get them."

I lead her out of the room and down to the freezer where she promptly proceeds to drink several mouthfuls each of Klaus' and then Elena's blood. She closes her eyes, and then tells me, "I can feel the difference. It should work just as you suspect."

I nod and lead her back up the stairs and then address Tyler from across the room, "Wolf-boy, we should be good on the cure from now on."

Tyler lets out a heavy sigh, and his shoulders relax noticeably, and I can understand why. It must have sucked thinking he almost killed Asya and did kill me. Briseis walks over to him and softly says something to him that I can't make out before his eyes go wide and he says, "Right now?"

She smiles and says, "Well sure, the full moon is tomorrow night so you probably don't want to wait. I'm willing to do it right now so you don't have to shift tomorrow if you don't want to." When he nods with wide eyes she says, "Give me a sec." She closes her eyes and then rips open her wrist and hands it to Tyler who looks around the room quickly receiving nods from everyone else before he begins drinking her blood. He drinks a lot and then Briseis pulls away and wipes his mouth with her hand.

Before the Humans can process what's happening she snaps his neck, and Matt's on his feet, "What the hell?"

By this time, I have pulled my one true love, my wife, back into my lap. I've missed her and I need to touch her in any way that I can right now.

Asya walks over to him and puts her arm around his shoulders as she says, "Relax Matt, she's turning him into a Hybrid. It's like turning into a Vampire. He has to drink her blood and then die before waking, only once he wakes he has to drink her blood again instead of Human blood. He'll be fine, and he'll be able to control when he changes. In fact, he won't have to change at all if he doesn't want to. We've seen this done before, a very long time ago, so he should be fine, okay?"

He just nods with wide eyes and sits back down while he waits for his second friend in four hours to wake from having his neck snapped.

Tyler comes to an hour later with a gasp. Briseis has been sitting leaning against me while we both read Grimoires, but as soon as he gasps, she's by his side and petting his hair cooing, "You're alright Ty, you're alright."

I'm surprised when he laughs and kisses her cheek before saying, "Thanks for doing that so fast. I didn't even see it until it was too late."

She smiles back, "I didn't want to give you time to think about it and freak out."

He nods with a smile on his face then asks, "What now?"

She nods and tells him, "Now you drink again, but you should move to the middle of the room and take off any clothes you don't want ruined as the first time you won't be able to prevent the change."

He nods and stands before he starts stripping down to his boxers. When he finishes he moves to the clearest part of the room right in front of the fireplace. She moves to stand beside him, closes her eyes again, then bites her wrist once more, and feeds it to him.

When she pulls away, she quickly zips back over to my side and we all wait to see what will happen. I'm hoping it works and we're going to see him shift again. And sure enough he drops to his hands and knees and then much quicker than before he becomes a huge Wolf. Shocked Matt asks, "Is it just me or did that happen a lot faster and seemingly less painfully than when Damon got bit?"

Asya and I both nod and say, "Yes."

Tyler huffs in his Wolf form for a minute and then a second later, he's on his knees naked and all the girls are looking away. "Holy shit, I barely felt that. How is that possible?"

I throw a blanket to him and he covers up as I try to explain, "Vampire blood causes super quick healing so I assume the healing happens fast enough now that you barely feel the pain of your bones and muscles shifting and breaking. You should practice doing it in the next couple of days so that you can do it at will, which will be especially useful in a battle setting if necessary since as you know a bite from you will kill any Vampire enemies we have other than Klaus."

I pause to let that sink in then tell him, "You're now a very powerful creature and in a fight against Vampires, and other Hybrids if Klaus succeeds, you'll probably win. Honestly, despite your age you're now just as dangerous as the other Vampires in this room, and all due respect to Kol, Rebekah, and Finn you may be even more powerful than them since technically Elena, or Briseis really, is your sire. Based on the other times we've seen this done the only way to kill you now is to tear out your heart, fire won't work on you, though it will hurt."

He nods so I continue, "You might want to spar with some of us older Vamps later tonight or tomorrow to get a feel for how your body works now, and don't worry about biting any of us. As I told you before, the Pervonachalnyue as well as Kol, Finn, and Rebekah are all immune to Werewolf and Hybrid venom."

When Matt looks at me with a raised eyebrow and quirked lips I add, "It has to do with the spells used to turn us into Vampires, only descendants are vulnerable to Werewolf and Hybrid venom. The Pervonachalnyue and the Originals are immune to its effects."

I smile and tell Tyler, "Since you are now obviously a Hybrid via Briseis' Mimicry we now know that the cure will work through her too. Plus, the blood of the direct first generation of descendants that the two previous Hybrids before Klaus created was also a cure for Werewolf and Hybrid bites. So provided you or Briseis are alive then any descendants who end up being our allies won't be killed by yours or any other Werewolf's or Hybrid's bite or Klaus' either for that matter because we can simply feed them Briseis' or your blood."

Tyler smiles and lets out a breathy, "Thank god, I hated that I was a threat to you guys."

I smile as I get up and grab Tyler's clothes off the other couch, "We know. That's why Elena wanted to do this now. She knew how heavily it weighed on your mind. To be honest the Vampires here heard you talking to Asya the other night too about how you didn't want her near you tomorrow night even if she did think she was immune."

He blushes just slightly before I tell him, "We all heard enough to know your statement was because you felt it was too dangerous, and you wanted to leave Klaus' blood for when we battle Klaus so it wouldn't go to waste."

He nods, so I look him straight in the eye as I tell him, "As if any of us actually think helping you is a waste, but that's another matter we'll get through your thick skull later." When I finish I hand Tyler's clothes to him and offer to hold the blanket up for him so he can put his clothes back on.

Tyler grins and quickly, I mean Vamp speed quick, has his clothes back on and is sitting back in his seat. He smiles widely and says, "Shit I didn't even know a non-Vamp could move that fast."

I laugh and as I throw the remaining blood bag at him I tell him, "You're technically half Werewolf and half Vampire, so really you are a Vamp now. You're going to need blood to survive. You should drink that now and try to keep the hunger satisfied to prevent you attacking anyone. As I said, Briseis is technically your sire despite her having used Klaus and Elena's blood so your control should be much better than it was for any of us when we were first turned."

He smiles and opens the blood bag so I tell him, "If you can get your mom off of Vervain I'll compel her to let you move in here to make life easier if you want."

He pauses from casually drinking the blood and says, "No need man but I will take you up on the place to live though."

I narrow my eyes and raise my brow as I ask, "How do you plan to get your mom, who didn't even want to let you come to Chicago with us for a week, to let you move in with me?"

"Easy, she already knows I've mostly been crashing here these past few weeks and technically I'm already 18. So really, I can do whatever the hell I want. I mean I'll probably keep most of my shit at her house for now but—"

I interrupt, "You can all bring as much or as little of your stuff here as you want. I want all of you to consider this your house too. I'm just grateful I built four full sized wings when I built this place. There are four floors, two above ground for each wing that form the arms of an 'X' that branch off the center 'body' of the house and two floors below ground that cover all of the space from the outer edges of the property in a big sort of rectangle. The two above ground floors of each wing each have eight bedrooms. Before all of you, we only used the upstairs part of the Southeast wing that has mine and Stefan's rooms in it."

I frown then tell them all, "My great, great, great nephew, Zach, used to bitch about how big and empty the place was. He admitted he didn't fill it with a family for fear of what I might do to them. Sadly, he was right to worry while I was Damon as I killed people he cared about one of the times my switch was off, but I think he'd kind of smile to see me now."

I turn and look at Bonnie as I tell her and the rest of them, "Zach's death and his fiancée's death back in the '90's are two more deaths I regret, as well as his lack of family. Admittedly, when I killed Zach, he and Stefan had starved me for close to a week, so all the deaths that happened that day were more a result of me going a week without blood rather than any desire to kill and wreak havoc."

I pause and frown at the memories then tell them all, "Still I pretty much regret every life I took that day, including your sister's Matt. I can't express how truly sorry I am about what I did to her, and I know I have no right to ask for your forgiveness, so I'm not going to ask for it, but I do want you to know that she's on my list of regrets."

He looks shocked and I wonder if he hadn't known that part of the story yet, but still I continue undaunted, "I didn't do right by her at all. Incidentally, she's also on the list of people and deaths who taught me important lessons."

He nods slightly so I tell him, "She's one of the lives I ruined that showed me with Elena and Jer's help that I was on the wrong path. So I don't know if it'll help you deal with your grief or not to know this but her death was very important to me, in that it was the beginning of me wanting to be different."

I look at Briseis and then look back to Matt, "I don't think I can properly describe how I felt when Elena turned her disappointed and disgusted eyes on me after Vicki died while I tried to tell her it didn't matter. She insisted that it did matter and that she knew I knew it and as usual she was right. That unfamiliar pain in my chest when she looked at me with those sad disapproving eyes was the very beginning of me wanting to be a better man. Suddenly I found myself wanting to be the man she apparently thought I could be, one who wouldn't dare turn messed up but innocent girls into monsters."

I pause to let that sink in then tell him, "If I had stopped and truly thought it through, I would have known that Vicki's addictions would cause her not to be suited for this life. I don't want any of you to think that you'll turn into the mess she was if we turn you because all of you have your heads on straight for the most part and none of you really have addictive personalities, well other than Stefan but that ship sailed a long time ago."

I stop and smile then continue, "And as stated several times before, my door is always open to all of you if you have any questions about becoming a Vampire. Matt I know this is all new to you, and your sister's death has probably made you all 'down with Vampires', but the offer extends to you as well. I would happily and confidently turn any of the Humans in this room right now, and Bonnie too."

I look around the room and tell them, "I'm not sure who I told, but being the direct Childe of a Pervonachalnyui is much different than being the so many times removed descendant of an Original. Vicki might have actually faired a lot better if I had been myself when I fed her my blood, of course if I had been myself I would have simply healed her and then kept an eye on her until my blood was out of her system."

Matt's obviously trying to process that I'm sorry for killing Vicki. His rapidly relaxing body language and his eyes going from slightly unfocused to not only focused but meeting mine head on tells me he knows I genuinely mean it. He's also probably shocked that I'm willing to turn him and don't think he'd go psycho like his sister did, but his acceptance of my apology seems to be overriding his shock at the moment.

A moment later Bonnie interrupts his internal musings, "I actually have thoughts on us turning. I found the spell Lilith used. Apparently, the Witch who wrote it, Fontina, who for those of you who don't know was Drago's great, great granddaughter and my ancestor, is the author of many of the books I got from the cavern so the spell is actually in one of the books."

She smiles then continues by saying, "Her descendants even added a list of all the times it's been known to have been used. You six were first, 455,000 years ago and then the seven younger Pervonachalnyue between 450,000 and 300,000 years ago, and six other families between 200,000 to 170,000 years ago. There is mention that Esther knew one of my ancestors and snuck a peak at the book and therefore likely read the spell and then copied it with a few minor changes."

She frowns then looks at the Originals and tells them, "From what I gathered from her memories and the notes written in the margins of the spell by the ancestor of mine that knew Esther, the changes your mother made are why you lost your Magick and were even more violent than the six older Pervonachalnyue. Some words she used made your switches more likely to turn themselves off, and honestly, I'm pleasantly and gratefully surprised they broke in the on position."

She sort of half frowns and half smiles as she tells us, "Anyway Esther was powerful but not very well educated in Magick and at the time she did it she really had no business tinkering with a spell that powerful, especially since there was proof that it worked and didn't require the kind of tinkering she did. She basically didn't want her children to be more powerful than her, so she altered the spell to steal your Magick from each of you, and it back fired in major ways."

She smiles fully and tells us all, "Personally, I need to know a lot more before I'd be willing to use the Pervonachalnyue spell, but if none of the current Pervonachalnyue in the family mind, it might be better to skip being sired and go straight to the source if you will. And the spell actually has a second spell that was started by Fontina after you all first turned and then was worked on by multiple generations who somehow knew we'd all be here, so it's actually a mix of siring and spelling all in one.

Balthazaar and I look at her for long minutes before I ask, "What exactly do you mean by a mix?"

She sits up straight and tells us, "Well the Vampirism would happen due to the spell but the potion would have the blood of all of our family members in it, Vampires included. And everyone including the Vampires would have to drink. Plus, if Briseis bleeds Klaus' blood into the potion and Tyler participates, once we drink and the Vamps snap our necks when we wake we'd need to drink from Elena through Briseis instead of a Human and yes that includes the Vamps too and all of us would be Hybrids."

She pauses and then adds, "Oh and by all Vamps I mean anyone who wants to participate, Originals and my ancestors included. The spell would make all of us stronger and, as I said, Hybrids as well as it would link any who participate as true family and pretty much turn those who were originally sired or spelled with the incorrectly altered spell into true Pervonachalnyue like the rest of us would be."

She smiles as she looks at Kol, Rebekah, and Finn and tells them, "I also think it will give the Originals their Witchy powers back so you should keep that in mind you guys. I can't imagine what it must have been like all these years not having your powers, so I'm hoping you'll all agree to officially become members of the family and I can right that wrong."

Laraina nods and adds, "My mother was one of the Witches who worked on the second spell, and she taught me everything she knew, so my sister Witches and I will be able to teach Bonnie all she needs to know before the time comes, if she wishes that is."

Bonnie smiles and says, "Oh I wish alright. Oh and while Tyler moving in here is fresh in my mind I think it's time to do the cavern spell. I can do it for any of you and move everything that is rightfully yours into your rooms. I think I need to do the spell a separate time for each person though since it's going to be so much stuff all at once and moving everything from the cavern kind of drained me a bit afterward, so I should probably only do it one person a day though."

She looks at the older Witches who smile and tell her, "That would be wise, but remember you now have four Witches as well as Briseis who can harness our combined powers, and Balthazaar who has his own Magick. Except for the Pervonachalnyue spell, which needs to be stirred by a live Witch or Briseis, using your abilities she's gotten from you while you are alive, we can do just about any spell you can. So we could each do one person and get everyone moved in in a couple of days."

I see Briseis and Jer conversing with Ric before she speaks up, "Jer and Ric would love to have the spell done whenever you can and I'd like to watch so I can do it in the future, maybe after I watch I can do it on my own belongings with your supervision."

They nod so Tyler adds, "I'd like it done too," as do Care and the Originals.

Laraina smiles and says, "If Bonnie is in agreement we'll start tomorrow with Tyler, Briseis, Ric, Jeremy, Asya, and one of the Originals. Then the next day we can do the two remaining Originals, Balthazaar, and the three of us. Then we can do Bonnie whenever she's ready. And Matt if you ever choose to move here just let us know, and one of us will see it done for you."

Bonnie nods, and Matt's smile wavers, and he's suddenly avoiding eye contact with everyone, so I'm sure he's wondering if he'll ever be comfortable enough with me and more importantly my role in Vicki's death to actually live here. I totally understand, so I sit beside him and say, "There's no rush, and if you never move in that's your call. We'll all respect that, but know even if you don't live here you're welcome anytime, and you can stay over whenever you wish for however long you wish. Besides, I'd be a little worried about you if you were ready to move into my house so soon after discovering I killed your sister."

I pause then bring up something I've wanted to mention to him for a while now but knew I couldn't since he didn't know I was the one who killed his sister, "Though, I do want to talk to you at some point about supplementing your income. I took away an able bodied person from your family who could have contributed to your household finances, so I should make up for that."

His eyes pop open wide and his brows nearly go into his hairline they're raised so high as he asks, "Seriously dude?"

I smile, "Seriously, back when I was the Demon equivalent of your age that would have been legally mandated, and I could have gotten into a lot of trouble if I killed an able bodied adult and then didn't take on their financial responsibilities. It was supposed to prevent folks from challenging others to a duel if the situation wasn't already a blood offense since if you won you'd be responsible for the loser's family and if they had any debt it would become yours. Of course then you had those who dug themselves so far into debt they would go challenge a much wealthier peer and then intentionally get killed to clear away the shame they brought upon their families."

I shake my head to clear it of memories of several times I personally saw it happen and tell him, "Anyway, if you're willing to let me help you out I'd be happy to. It's the least I can do, though know that I know it doesn't really change anything about what I did."

I hope he thinks it has a sense of honor to it and a moment later it seems as though he does as he nods back and tells me, "Let me know what you need from me to help out."

I smile widely and say, "Bring copies of all your recurring bills and your bank account number and your bank's routing number, and I'll do the rest. And if you want to quit working I'll make sure you have an allowance for living expenses, such as groceries and such, as well as fun money too, that way you can focus on school and our family without having the added stress of having to hold down a job."

He shakes his head no as he says, "Oh I don't—"

Briseis interrupts as she sits on the other side of him, "Let him do it Matt, your mom should be paying your bills not you, so let Damon take over as head of your family at least where the finances are concerned for now. The rest will take care of itself when you're ready."

He just nods so she smiles and gives him one of her much sought after hugs. He whispers, "I'm glad you didn't die today, 'Lena."

As she pulls back she smiles big and touches his neck where he was bit as she says, "Me too and I'm happy you weren't hurt too badly."

He smiles back and asks, "So uh, what did you want to talk to me about when you were coming to see me?"

"Oh uh, just the whole thing with Stefan. Drago's been keeping the fact that the victims he's been tracking are Stefan's not Klaus' from me, so I was angry about that. I wanted someone to talk me out of being mad because I knew you'd see and say that he was only doing it to protect me. I'm pretty much over it now that I have all of Briseis' memories, which reminds me I need to go hug my older brother."

She hops up, taps Balthazaar on the shoulder, and immediately throws her arms around him when he turns. He picks her up and swings her legs from side to side a bit before placing her back on the ground and kissing her forehead.

I smirk and turn to Matt who's still sitting beside me and ask, "So Matt, I know you work at the Grill, but can you cook, or are you another member of this family I need to ban from attempting to use my kitchen?"

He laughs even as he frowns, so I tell him, "You should have seen the disaster Elena and Jer made for lunch yesterday. I think they were supposed to be grilled cheese sandwiches but they were burnt and soggy with butter all at the same time, which I didn't even know was possible. Pretty much the only ones who don't destroy what they're trying to make are Ric and Tyler."

He laughs again and nods as his smile grows and he tells me, "My mom and sister were even worse than 'Lena and Jer, so I had to learn how to cook or starve, so I think I've got some kitchen skills that might prove useful to you."

I smile widely, "Excellent, we are apparently pulling an all-nighter tonight, so it's almost breakfast time, and research happens best on a full stomach, so I need to go make breakfast. Do you want to join me in the kitchen, and I'll test your skills?"

Chuckling he tells me, "Sure, why not. Lead the way," and we get up and head to the kitchen followed by most of the rest of the family who apparently wants to see how the new guy fares against me, as I hear the others refer to me as the 'Kitchen Snob'.