Early next morning Damon drove to the sheriff's office and presented the dead vampire to sheriff Forbes. She waived a few deputies over who took the body away. "Do you have any idea if there are more of them out there?" she asked worriedly. Damon shrugged. "I don`t know. But I think we should be careful. It`s possible." Liz nodded grimly. "I`m just glad we have you. You`re good at this. I don´t know what we`d do without you." she told him sincerely. Damon shrugged it off. "Actually … I wasn`t alone this time." He had no idea what possessed him to say that. But it was too late to take it back now. Liz was already looking at him questioningly. "You had help?"
Okay, might as well go through with it. "Alaric Saltzman. The new history teacher. Turns out he knows quite a lot about the history of Mystic Falls." Damon went on, absently wondering if it was such a good idea to point the sheriff towards Ric. The teacher might take the chance to out Damon as a vampire. But somehow he refused to believe that.
Still couldn`t hurt to be careful. "Don`t question him about it, though. I think he`s still a little shaken up over the whole encounter. He`ll need some time. But I think he could be a valuable ally." Liz nodded slowly. "Alright. If you think he can be trusted… I`ll leave it up to you to deal with him. We`ll take all the help we can get." Damon promised to keep her up to date and then took his leave, wondering what the hell he`d been thinking by bringing Ric into this.
When he entered the boarding house again, he found Pearl and Anna waiting for him. "Ever hear of knocking?" he asked annoyed. Why were they still here? "An invitation wasn't necessary. I'm surprised that no living person resides here. Is it just you and your brother? How do you keep out unwelcome vampires?" Pearl asked. Damon gave her a tight smile and muttered that he just killed them. He ran towards Pearl and tried to strangle her, but she was too strong and overpowered him easily. "Have a seat, Damon. I was hoping we could have a word." Gritting his teeth he complied.
Pearl let him know that they had taken up residence at a farmhouse just outside the town. "All 25 vampires?" he asked, shocked at the prospect that really all of them could have escaped from the tomb. Bonnie must`ve screwed up her little hocus pocus This wasn`t what he`d planned, but lately his brilliant plans seemed to fail more often than not. Pearl shrugged it off. "Not all, some. I imagine that a few have already left town. Others are probably still in the woods."
Just great. Those stupid witches had really unleashed all 25 vampires. And it had all been for nothing. Could it get any worse?
Obviously it could, because Pearl demanded that he helped them plot revenge on the council and take over Mystic Falls. Thanks to Anna snooping around she knew that Damon had infiltrated the council and was supplying the town with vervain. "I'll need to know everything they know. Starting with a listing names of all the council members and their families as well as everyone you've supplied with vervain. Of course that will have to stop immediately." she ordered. Damon looked at her like she`d gone mad and told her exactly where she could stick her plans.
Pearl just smiled at him like he was some stupid schoolboy. In her eyes he probably was. "As a reward for your help I'm willing to give you what you want most." she offered. "I want nothing." he spat, watching in mild alarm as Pearl´s smile grew wider. "Katherine." A few month ago the mentioning of her name alone would have spurred him into action. But now it didn`t. He`d spoken to Anna after they had opened the tomb, after he had learned that Katherine had never been inside. She had told him that Katherine had known where he was the whole time. She hadn`t wanted to see him. The love of his life had only been toying with him, had actually always favoured Stefan.
As much as he wanted to believe that Anna had only said those things to hurt him, deep down he`d known she told the truth. Maybe he`d always known. He had spent 145 years chasing after a woman who never loved him. It hurt like hell, but once he´d gotten over the initial hurt, it had also been strangely liberating. He was free now. His obsession with Katherine finally broken. He could move on. And he would.
"I no longer have any desire to see Katherine ever again. She can rot in hell for all I care. And there's no way in hell I'm gonna play the role of your little minion." he spat. And he meant every word. Unfortunately Pearl didn`t take no for an answer. "I'm not asking for your help, Damon. Finding Katherine was just a mere gesture of kindness. The rest is non-negotiable. You will do as I say." She pushed him to the floor and loomed over him like a goddess of death. "I have four hundred years on you, little boy. I'll rip you from limb to limb without even blinking and you know it." she threatened. And he didn`t doubt for a second that she could.
With a grim smile she hauled him up again and pushed him down onto the couch, promising to stay in touch. He watched the two women leave the house, stifling a groan at the unfairness of it all.
####
From there on things only got worse. Stefan had left the house this morning to go hunting. Now it was early afternoon and he had yet to return. When Damon couldn`t reach him on his cell phone he started to get worried. Calling Elena proved completely useless, since the stupid girl just didn`t answer her phone. In the end he drove to her house.
Elena opened the door and started snarking at him immediately and he wondered if the bitchiness was a special trait that ran in the family. Katherine had certainly always been a heartless bitch and Isobel was just as bad. "Is Stefan here?" he asked, ignoring the dark look Elena was giving him. That effectively shut her up. "No. Why? Something wrong?" she asked, getting worried immediately. "He went out in the woods and didn't come back. I can't get him on his phone. I figured he was here with you." Damon told her honestly.
Elena frowned and tried to call Stefan herself. "It's going straight to voice-mail. Where could he be?" Damon sighed. "You're not going to like what I'm thinking."
He left the house without waiting for her reply and rushed to the old farmhouse Pearl had mentioned. It had been raining all day and the storm was only getting worse. Despite the early hour it was dark outside, heavy clouds hiding the sun. This day was really getting worse and worse. Arriving at the house he banged on the door, waited impatiently, his pissy mood growing by the second. Finally the door opened to reveal the guy from last night. Frederick, he suddenly remembered.
"Pearl's not home. Hmm. Beautiful weather. Not a ray of sun in the sky." Frederick muttered with a grin. It was a threat. Damon was all too aware of that. But it didn`t make him back down. "Where's my brother?" he demanded. Frederick smiled and motioned to someone Damon couldn`t see. Seconds later two vampires dragged Stefan into the hallway. The younger Salvatore was bleeding from several wounds and groaning in pain. Damon tried to rush to his brother`s aid, but couldn´t get past the threshold.
"I'm sorry. You haven't been invited in." Frederick mocked, before ordering the owner of the house, some poor middle aged lady, never to let Damon in. The older Salvatore had to watch helplessly as one of the other vampires stabbed Stefan with a stake. "145 years left starving in a tomb, thanks to Katherine's infatuation with you and your brother. First few weeks, every single nerve in your body screams with fire. The kind of pain that can drive a person mad. Well... I thought your brother might want to get a taste of that before I killed him." Frederick told him with a cruel grin. Then he simply shut the door in Damon´s face.
The dark haired vampire banged against the door again, yelled and spat curses, but it was no use. Calming down he realized that he needed a plan, if he wanted to free Stefan without getting both of them killed in the process. And he needed help. Since he couldn`t call sheriff Forbes for obvious reasons that left only one option.