AN: I just loooove it that my threat works on you guys to effectively. That's why I love you all so much. Thanks a lot for the reviews. And like I promised, here is another chapter. Hope you enjoy it...
Chapter 15: Encounter with Isobel
I was still living in the episode 'Isobel'. Even though I had decided to stay away from everything for a while and let things happen on it's own way but I couldn't help but stay close to the drama. What if something new happens and I miss that out for staying away. Thinking that I decided to go to the Grill and watch the scene between Elena and Isobel unfold in real this time. When I got there, I saw Damon and Alaric just outside the Grill across the street. They looked restless, well Damon looked restless and Alaric looked tensed, very tensed indeed.
Isobel is probably having her meeting with Elena right now. I couldn't let Damon or Alaric see me otherwise they won't let me enter so I had to wait for a while and when a crowd of people started to walk with me I was able to hide myself behind them. That's how I got to the entrance of the Grill successfully. Once I entered the place, my eyes immediately landed on the mother and daughter. Isobel was sitting across from Elena and they were talking formally. Well it looked like a formal meeting but I knew it was far from formal or normal. I also saw Stefan over at the pool table. He was watching over Elena carefully. Any wrong move from Isobel and he was ready to kill her. I walked up to Stefan, and he was shocked to see me to say the least.
"Jacq, what the hell are you doing here?" Stefan whispered at me with concern and fear in his voice and a bit of anger as well. Obviously he was worried about me for being in there at that time.
"Nothing interesting, is that Isobel sitting with Elena?" I asked Stefan looking over at them.
"Yes." Stefan quickly replied and continued. "Jacq you need to get out of here right now or I will call Damon." He threatened me impatiently. I held up my hands in surrender.
"Fine, I am leaving, no need to go all broody over me" saying that I left Stefan and started to walk towards the exit door. However, when I was walking out I saw Isobel's eyes following me. She must know who I am so I didn't bother to ignore her stares at me and kept my eyes on her as well; until I reached the door and got out of the place. When I got out I saw Damon noticing me immediately and in a blink of an eye he was in front of me. Damon dragged me across the street as fast as possible without using his vampire speed. Alaric was still standing there but now with a worried look on his face as he saw me coming out of the grill.
"What do you think you were doing in there?" asked Damon with gritting teeth and narrow eyes. I just shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly to answer the question.
"I was just curious about Isobel." I said innocently and received a glare from Damon right away.
"I thought you never get curious about anything" said Damon with stern tone of voice. I took a step back from him instinctively. He did look kind of dangerous that time.
"Cool it off Damon, I just wanted to see how she looks like. Besides, no harm done and nothing happened to me or anyone else." Damon closed his eyes shut and controlled the urge to yell at me. Ric was right beside us, ready to stop Damon if things got out of control. Damon opened his eyes again and looked at me with a glare.
"Go away from here right now." He said in a low dangerous whisper that a wise person wouldn't disobey.
"Fine, I am going." I said and left but not before throwing a glare at Damon's way for being so bossy. I went back to school to help out Caroline and Bonnie. But Bonnie was no where to be seen. She must have gone to talk to Elena. I hope things will work out for them. I saw Tyler and Matt talking with each other. Obviously Tyler was trying to apologize and Matt was telling him to fuck off. I think I should talk to Matt about it. Then I noticed Jeremy. He was making his way towards me.
"Jacq, is it true that Elena's biological mother Isobel is in town?" Jeremy asked making me frown at him. He wasn't suppose to know that so soon.
"How do you know?" I asked instead of answering him. Now that I recall the show Jeremy wasn't suppose to know until he gets kidnapped by Isobel.
"Anna told me. She is still keeping an eye on us." Well that figures. As there was no point denying it, I nodded to Jeremy's question.
"Yes, she is here. I saw her at the grill today." I replied and sounded as much uninterested as possible. However, Jeremy's curiosity was radiating off of him.
"What does she want?" Jeremy asked with way too interest in it. Should I tell him, why not? He would find out anyway.
"The same device Uncle John wants. Which currently is in Damon's possession. Isobel wants that too." As I answered Jeremy, he frowned in confusion and wondered.
"Is Uncle John working for Isobel?" He asked suspecting that already. I nodded my head.
"They are working together in this. Apparently sharing a mutual goal." I replied as if that's the most obvious thing.
"Yeah and what that goal would be?" Jeremy's curiosity wasn't decreasing a bit but only increasing by every minute. I sighed tiredly this time.
"Jeremy, I am not their partner in crime. How would I know?" I said sounding as much convincing as possible but Jeremy narrowed his eyes at me in a suspicious way.
"You are lying right now. I know you know. Come on spill." Just to get rid of Jeremy and his questions, I told him why Uncle John wants the device. After hearing everything out Jeremy spoke up and said something I knew he would say.
"Then we should help them, don't we?" Jeremy suggested which made me roll my eyes at him.
"No, Jeremy we can't help them. Let them do it their own way. Uncle John already knows that Damon has the device. Isobel would find a way to get it from him. Lets not butt in their plans." Jeremy nodded but obviously not happy with the plan of staying out of it. Maybe I shouldn't have told him anything about it. I just hoped that he wouldn't do anything stupid. Besides, he is going to get in trouble soon enough when Isobel's men would kidnap him. I don't need him adding more trouble to it. I know I can stop Jeremy from getting kidnapped but if I do that Isobel would never get the device and therefore won't be able to kill the tomb vampires. So as much as I don't like it but it needs to happen. Besides, nothing bad happens to Jeremy because of getting kidnapped.
I looked around the field and spotted Matt working alone with a bitter look plastered on his face. I made up my mind about talking to him and knock some sense into him. I know what happened was a lot for him. But Tyler is constantly apologizing to him. He should forgive him by now. I was making my way towards Matt but a man stood in my way and blocked my path. I looked at him and he had this cold face as if compelled. I knew right away that he was under Isobel's compulsion. But why was he standing in front of me. He should be kidnapping Jeremy. Before I could think of anything else or run away from there, he grabbed me and threw me in a car. I didn't struggle knowing it will only waste my energy. Why was I getting kidnapped by Isobel's men instead of Jeremy? Not that I was complaining. I didn't like the idea of Jeremy getting kidnapped much either but I knew Isobel wouldn't have hurt him that's why I didn't want to interfere in it. But I guess the whole thing has changed this time. I should have seen it coming. The way Isobel was looking at me at the Grill. There was something. I should have known that she would prefer kidnapping me over Jeremy this time. Now all I have to do is wait and watch as everything is going to change eventually.
The car pulled over soon. The man who kidnapped me, dragged me out of the car even though I was being very cooperative. We were standing in front of a luxurious house. So this is where Isobel must be staying, I thought to myself. I was dragged inside even though I was willingly going. The dragging was getting on my nerve slowly but I remained quiet about it. Once we got inside, the man forced me down on the couch. I sat up properly and looked around. Isobel's puppets were surrounding me. Soon enough Isobel came into the room and took a sit right across from me and looked at me with interest. I looked back at her with fearless eyes and leaned back in my seat, making myself comfortable.
"You didn't need to kidnap me you know. I would have come here if you had just asked me to." I said calmly. It made Isobel smile coldly at me, kind of in a menacing way.
"Jacqueline Gilbert, quite a mystery you are. I know everything about Elena, her life and about her friends. It was quite easy to find out everything about them." Her eyes gleamed with curiosity suddenly. "But you are particularly exceptional. I know nothing about you. You are quite good at making people clueless about you. And that is why I kidnapped you instead of Jeremy Gilbert when I had planned earlier to get the handsome Gilbert son." I smirked at her blunt confession.
"Why am I not surprised? You may know nothing about me Isobel, but I have a lot of information on you. You see I am not as clueless as the people that you already know about. I know what you want exactly and why you are here?" As if I am joking with her, Isobel laughed out loud in a mocking way at me.
"Is that so? Then tell me why?" The vampire challenged me. She was too sure that I was bluffing with her. I smirked at Isobel before answering.
"Because you love Elena and you would do anything to protect her." It sent a slap on her face but she still remained unaffected outside and appeared cold.
"I can kill her if I want to." She said confidently.
"I know you can kill anyone you want to. You can kill me, Jeremy, John, all of Elena's friends, even the Salvatore brothers. You can kill everyone else but not Elena." Isobel this time stared at me with a hard expression on her face. She could kill me any moment for saying all these things to her but fortunate for me she didn't. And I gathered up more courage to speak up and say the rest of the things.
"I know what you want to do with the device. You are here to kill the tomb vampires. Not because Katherine wants you to but because they are threatening to kill all the descendants of the founding families. And that includes Elena." I took a deep breath. Wondering why Isobel hasn't snapped my neck yet.
"You maybe pretending to work for Katherine but you are doing this for the sake of your daughter's safety. Killing Elena is far out of question. You may haven't stick around to watch your daughter grow up and be there for her in every step of her life. But you will do anything to protect her when she needs it the most." I purposefully leaned in close and lowered my voice.
"I can see right through you Isobel, right through you." I thought she would lash out on me now and probably kill me out of spite but surprisingly her expression softened and she looked at me with sadness in her eyes.
"You can't let her know this." The only thing Isobel said and I just nodded to that knowing why she would want that.
"I know that." I said sighing out heavily. Isobel frowned at me with confusion because of saying that.
"How do you know all these? We never met before. How do you know about Katherine?" Isobel bombard me with questions. I didn't get nervous though even though I didn't know how to answer them or if I really wanted to answer those question for that matter. Isobel can't know anything about me.
"You think it's possible not to know about Katherine when I am hanging out with the Salvatore brothers most of my time. As for you, well it's not hard to figure out a mother Isobel. I am a woman too." Isobel lowered her gaze from my eyes thankfully buying my explanation without much difficulty.
"Then you must also realize how much I regret becoming a vampire. And I am gonna regret it my whole life." I could see she really regretted it.
"There is no going back for you, what's the point in regretting it now." I stated the obvious and her eyes snapped back to mine again.
"That's why I refuse to feel anything. Because whenever I let myself feel something, I feel only regression." I was surprised that Isobel was saying all this to me.
"I understand what do you mean." I said and really meaning it. I could at least guess what she must be going through. She heard something from distance and concentrated on it. A smile slowly spread across her lips which kind of looked evil.
"Your Uncle John is here. This conversation never happened" said Isobel and I nodded right away. The vampire went back to her cold cruel mode again. Isobel went to get Uncle John. After a while both her and Uncle John entered the room. Uncle John was shocked to see me there. Obviously he didn't know I was here or that Isobel had kidnapped me.
"What the hell are you doing?" John asked to Isobel and began to approach me.
"Getting what I want." Isobel replied with a coy careless smile.
"Isobel, she is my niece. You can't hurt her. She is just a kid." This was the first time I saw uncle John so expressing with his emotions. Isobel however just smirked at him.
"I can kill her to prove you wrong, so don't tempt me." Uncle John tried to reason with her and persuade her to let me go but instead he ended up getting thrashed. He was lying on the floor unconscious. I felt bad for him but didn't say anything to Isobel. She was calling someone. She spoke up when the person she was calling picked up the call.
"Hello Ric, how are you? Fine, I hope" Isobel started talking in her sweet seductive tone of voice. I rolled my eyes at that. Though this incident never happened in the show but I could tell what she was planning to do. By that time everyone probably found out that I have gone missing and that Isobel has kidnapped me. She was trying to provoke them more and force them to hand over the device to her without wasting anymore time. She turned on the speaker for me to listen to the conversation as well. Why she did that I had no idea? Maybe she just wanted me to realize how she was putting everyone I cared about through hell.
"Where is Jacq?" I heard Alaric asking with worried and tensed tone of voice.
"Oh she is right here with me. Quite an interesting girl I might add. I am trying to make her afraid of me but she is being stubborn and won't fear me." Suddenly one of her puppets yanked my hair hard enough that a scream unwillingly escaped my mouth. I tried to get away from my torturer but couldn't do that.
"Don't you dare touch her." Ric growled angrily on the phone. Isobel however started laughing like a maniac at that.
"Oh dear, I think I am doing a lot more than just touching her, you know." In a blink she was near me and twisted my arm in a firm grip threatening to break it in pieces. Again painful screams came out of my mouth. I assumed everyone was together that time at the boarding house and probably listening to my painful screams as well.
"I hope everyone heard that especially Elena." She said sweetly. "I hope she has already started thinking of a way to get the device from Damon. You should also tell her that her sister still has a few unbroken bones left in her body and it would be a pleasure breaking them if I had to wait for long" said Isobel and waited for response from Ric. However, this time it wasn't Ric who spoke up. It was Damon. Obviously he heard everything. I could hear others' voices in the back ground as well.
"You do remember that I killed you once Isobel and I will kill you again if you don't release her right now." Honestly I haven't heard that tone of voice from Damon before. He sounded so angry and dangerous. I was surprised that Isobel didn't shiver with fear hearing that voice. Because at that moment I was feeling scared myself hearing him talk like that.
"Give me the device Damon and I will let her go, until then-" She twisted my arm again which again made me scream painfully.
"Listen you bitch-" He growled but Isobel cut him off.
"Meet me tonight in front of the church at the square, and you better be with the device." Isobel ended the call and checked my arm. "Nothing broken." She said coolly and settled on the couch again. I felt pain in my arm but it was easing up slowly.
"What makes you think that he will give the device to Elena just because you threatened to kill me. That device could kill vampires and he knows it. Damon is not going to give it up so easily." I couldn't help but ask her. I guess I just wanted to know what Isobel was thinking.
"Oh he will, because Elena cares about you and Damon cares about her." Isobel said that with nonchalant tone of voice. I felt a pang of jealousy and also felt hurt when Isobel said that so boldly and clearly. I didn't know what exactly I was wanting to hear from her other than that. I already knew she would say that. But I still didn't like it. But then she spoke up again.
"But now that I heard Damon talking, I think he cares about you more" said Isobel smirking at me. I scoffed at that, not really wanting her to know that I liked what she said.
"Now why would he care about me? I am just a stupid teenager girl for him." I said softly knowing somehow that was the truth. Isobel stared at me for a while with calculating eyes then smirked at me again but knowingly this time.
"You are in love with him, aren't you?" I felt my cheeks turning five different shades of red immediately.
"What rubbish!" I snapped at her trying to hide my shyness in my anger. But Isobel downright started laughing at my out burst. "I am not... in love with... Damon." I tried to make my voice strong but failed miserably. And under Isobel's stare I faltered completely.
"Okay, maybe I just have a stupid teenager crush on him. But what the hell, Damon would never feel anything for me." Isobel laughed again and I rolled my eyes at her this time.
"This conversation never happened." I said with dead serious tone of voice.
Third Person's POV
Everyone was at the boarding house when Isobel had called Alaric. After that phone conversation, Damon was shaking uncontrollably as if he would explode any moment. No one has seen him angry like that before, not even Stefan. Ric gathered some courage and put a hand on Damon's shoulder to calm him down. But he pushed Ric away from him but thankfully not with his vampire strength.
"I am gonna kill that bitch." Damon growled out and started walking towards the door. But Stefan blocked his way and pushed him back.
"Control yourself Damon." Stefan didn't step back as Damon charged at him. "You are not thinking straight. The second you are gonna walk through the door to get Jacq, Isobel will kill her." Damon snarled at him for saying that. But he knew that Stefan was right so he glared less heatedly at him.
"Stefan's right Damon. Isobel is a strong vampire. We can't take that risk" said Ric supporting Stefan. Bonnie, Elena and Jeremy stood at a distance and watched Stefan and Alaric arguing with Damon. At last Damon gave up when Stefan made a full proof plan of getting Jacq back safely. Damon didn't care about the device anymore. All he wanted was Jacq, safe and sound in his arms. He tossed the device to Elena and faced away from everyone and stood quietly in the room.
"Bonnie will lift off the spell then we will hand it over to Isobel and get Jacq back" said Ric summing up the whole plan.
"I am still gonna kill her afterwards" spoke up Damon with bitterness and rage in his voice.
No one said anything to that. Elena handed the device to Bonnie. Bonnie was worried about Jacq too but she couldn't inactivate the device. Not that she wasn't capable of doing it but it wasn't the right thing to do. Her grams would have never allowed it. But still she has to pretend to do it. Besides, no one would know. Stefan was holding Elena, her eyes were full of tears. She loves her sister and can't let anything happen to her. Stefan wasn't as furious as Damon was but he was mad too. Jacq helped him so many times, stood by him when there was no hope for him. Stefan promised it to himself that he won't let anything happen to her. Stefan realized that Jacq meant something for him as well. Jacq is a lot more than just his girlfriend's sister. Even Alaric was going through hell thinking that Jacq was in the evil clutches of Isobel right now and being tortured to death. However Jeremy was in worst condition. He looked so broken already as if he lost his sister forever. No one could measure how much he loves his little sister and it won't be possible for him to survive if something bad happens to Jacqueline. Elena watched her younger brother feeling devastated. She went to Jeremy to comfort him.
"Everything is gonna be okay Jer. We will get her back." Instead of taking the comfort, Jeremy glared at her hatefully.
"Then it must be a lie too. Because everything you've ever said to me was a lie. You lied to me about Viki's death. You lied to me every time I asked you something. Just don't talk to me right now Elena. You are nothing but a liar." Elena was shocked and taken aback to hear that. Actually she was more than shocked.
"Jeremy I- I lied to you because I wanted to protect you from all this" said Elena trying to explain her actions to Jeremy but it fueled his anger even more.
"Don't give me that protecting you crap Elena. The only reason Jacq is getting tortured right now is because she is your sister. It could have been me too. Isobel knew hurting us would get her work done. Even though you claim to protect us, you are the one who actually gets us in trouble in the first place." Elena was beyond shocked at what Jeremy just said to her. Both the vampires in the room heard their argument pretty clearly. Damon couldn't help but agree with the Gilbert son on this. Stefan however felt sorry for Elena and went to comfort her. She didn't mean any of it to happen.
"Now is not the time for this Jeremy" saying that Stefan took Elena away from him and kept his arms wrapped around her as she silently sobbed into his chest. Bonnie was still working on the device when Ric spoke up. He had heard the argument between Elena and Jeremy partially and couldn't help but talk about it.
"I don't understand why John is working with Isobel. And how could he get his niece kidnapped?" as Ric asked that others had the same question on their minds as well.
"Uncle John wants all the tomb vampires dead with that device. Isobel is helping him actually" answered Jeremy shocking everyone in the room.
"How do you know that?" asked Damon curiously.
"Jacq told me. She overheard Uncle John talking about it. That's why she asked Pearl and Anna to leave the town. To keep them safe." Everyone gaped at Jeremy as he explained but Damon however glared at him. How come Jacq told Jeremy about this but not him? Even though he shouldn't but Damon couldn't help but feel jealous of Jeremy for the affection and attention he gets from Jacq. If Jeremy wasn't Jacqueline's brother Damon would have considered him a threat and therefore killed him a long time ago.
"You and Jacq both knew about this the entire time?" Stefan asked with disbelieve in his voice.
"You keep your secrets, we keep ours" said Jeremy smugly to which Stefan shook his head only. Alaric sighed out at what he just learned.
"How does she do that? Getting involved with everything and finding out the secrets before anyone else. She is just a kid. You both are." Ric referred to Jeremy as well. Before anyone could say anything Bonnie spoke up to say something.
"Jacq maybe just a young teenager girl, but she is way mature than many grownups. She is the reason I am helping you guys right now. If she hadn't knocked some senses into me, I would still be avoiding Elena and wouldn't be here right now."
Damon was listening to all of these chatters silently. The more he listened the more Damon realized that he actually knew very little about the girl he so deeply cares about. And it wasn't just him who cared about that stubborn little smart ass girl but everyone in this room cared about her. And there were more outside of the room. Damon promised himself that he would learn everything about Jacqueline because he not only cared about her but he loves her. He loves her more than anyone or anything else. He loves her more than blood. And for a vampire like him it was a lot to say.
"Would you please hurry up?" said Damon rushing Bonnie and receiving a glare from the young witch that didn't really affect him much. Damon was just waiting. Once he gets Jacqueline back with him, he swore to himself that he would make Isobel pay for this with her life.
AN: I know this chapter doesn't have much Jacq, Damon interaction but I promise the next chapter is full of it. So review guys and I will update sooner. *wink*