Monday started with a call from Sheriff Forbes, who asked him to join her for an emergency meeting. Damon didn`t like the sound of that. And he liked it even less when he arrived at the founders hall to find not only Liz, but also John Gilbert already waiting for him. The three of them strolled through the hall and Liz informed Damon that there had been a disturbance at the hospital blood bank last night and that some of the supply was compromised. "Compromised? You mean stolen?" Damon checked.
Liz nodded gravely. "We almost missed it. The inventory records were altered, but when the night manager was questioned he had no recollection of changing them." she let the vampire know. Of course John had to chime in there, clarifying that this meant the vampire who stole the blood used mind control to hide the theft. Damon rolled his eyes. "I know what it means." Did the guy have to be that annoying? Just hearing his voice made Damon want to strangle him and it took all of his willpower to stay calm.
Sheriff Forbes went on about the theft and how they probably wouldn`t have noticed it, if John hadn`t told them about the problems in other hospital blood banks in the county. "How lucky for us, we have John." Damon retorted sarcastically, barely listening to Liz who told them about stepping up security at the hospital and handing out vervain. He startled out of his thoughts when John proposed that he and Damon could work together to find the one responsible.
Damon really wanted to rip out his throat right then and there. Even more so when Liz gratefully accepted the offer and asked if he would be willing to do it. He couldn`t very well say no to that, so he swallowed his anger and nodded. Liz thanked him and John actually had the audacity to grin and claim they could make a good team. Damon forced a smile to his face. "John, I`ll do whatever I can to help keep this town safe. Even if it means spending time with you."
John took his leave shortly after, while Damon hung back to talk to the sheriff. "What did you call him again? Jackass?" the vampire asked. "Quite fitting." Liz sighed. "Yeah, I know he`s … difficult. And believe me, I`d love to see him walk out of town again as soon as possible. But unfortunately he`s right. We have a major problem here. And we don`t have enough capable people, who know how to deal with vampires." She sounded truly apologetic. Well, at least she seemed to despise John almost as much as Damon did. "Yeah, I guess we`ll just have to deal with him." he agreed, musing silently that he would find a way to deal with John once and for all.
"What about Mr. Saltzman? You mentioned that he helped you once. Do you think he´d be willing to team up with you and John as well?" Liz asked suddenly. Damon shrugged. "I`m not sure. I think he`s still a little shaken up over that encounter with the female vampire back then. But I can ask him." he offered. "Do that. We can really use every helping hand." Liz muttered with a strained smile. Damon promised to talk to Alaric and went home, wondering if the teacher would agree to help if he told him it had been the Sheriff`s idea and not his.
###
He had only been home for about half an hour when the bell rang. Damon opened the door, surprised to find Anna standing there. "I suppose I should be grateful, you learned how to use the bell." he muttered sarcastically, while he stepped aside and allowed her to enter. "I'm sorry about what the other vampires did to Stefan. Abducting him, torturing him… It wasn't supposed to go down like that." Anna assured him. Damon snorted. "You're playing house with half of a tomb of really pissed off vampires. What did you think was going to happen?" Really, how stupid could they be?
Anna told him that Pearl was devastated about what had happened, but Damon wasn`t really in the mood to hear apologies. He had other things on his mind. "If you're going to continue playing house with these little vampire pets, you might wanna stop robbing the blood bank dry, because they're onto it." he let Anna know. The girl told him that she hadn`t been to the blood bank in more than a week and that the other vampires were gone. "After what happened with your brother my mom kicked them out and they took off. It's just us and Harper now."
Damon groaned. He believed her. Which meant they had another problem. Because if it wasn`t her or one of the others, that meant someone else was robbing the blood bank. And he had a good idea who it could be. He noticed Anna giving him a weird look and shrugged. "Anything else you wanted to chat about? Cause I`m actually quite busy." She frowned, but shook her head. "No, I just wanted you to know that mom`s sorry. We want to stay in this town. So.. no hard feelings, yeah?" she asked, hopeful. "Yeah, fine. Whatever." Damon dismissed her. He really had other things to worry about right now.
###
When Stefan finally came home from school, Damon strode to meet him. He asked about his school day, which of course raised Stefan`s suspicion that something was up and made him snarky. Deciding to skip the niceties, Damon accused him of drinking human blood again. Stefan denied it. Not that the older one had expected anything different. After a while Stefan obviously ran out of arguments, because he huffed: "Believe what you want." and stormed off.
Damon watched him go suspiciously. He knew his brother and he could tell that Stefan was lying. Usually he would be happy that Stefan had finally given up on his stupid bunny diet. But he knew all too well what happened when his baby brother lost control. And he really had enough problems on his hands right now without Stefan in ripper mode topping it off.
He heard Stefan`s phone ring and crept closer to eavesdrop. It was Elena. Of course. Who else would call his brother? The girl kept babbling some nonsense about competing for the title of Miss Mystic Falls and Stefan was all eager boyfriend, happy to be her escort. Damon rolled his eyes about the lovey-dovey couple and debated just leaving the matter alone for now. In the end he decided against it and luckily his patience paid off.
After his talk with Elena, Stefan crept down to the basement. Damon followed him stealthily and caught him at the fridge filled with blood bags. Caught in the act, Stefan couldn`t deny it any longer and instead snarked at his brother and claimed he had everything under control. Damon was slowly starting to miss boring, broody Stefan. At least he was relatively easy to control. " Right now is not a good time for me to be worried about you snapping. I have enough other shit to worry about." Damon warned.
His outburst didn`t bother Stefan in the slightest. He still claimed he was fine and told his brother to back off. Damon watched him stalk back upstairs with an uneasy feeling. He had a pretty good idea how this could play out. But right now he could do nothing about it. Short of locking Stefan away there was really nothing he could do at all. And he wanted to wait until he had to take that drastic measures. Maybe, just maybe he was wrong and Stefan would manage this time.
###
Tuesday was no better. Stefan was still snarky and annoying, Alaric wouldn`t answer his calls (Damon had gotten his number from Elena – or rather from Elena`s phone, while the girl wasn`t looking) and instead John Gilbert kept calling him. The vampire had no idea where that stupid Gilbert had gotten his number. He suspected Sheriff Forbes.
Unable to take a hint, John actually showed up on his doorstep in the evening, whining that Damon didn`t return his calls. "Most people take that as a hint." the vampire grumbled, while John walked past him and sat down on the couch without waiting for an invitation. The guy really had some nerve. "Where do we start looking for vampires?" he asked eagerly. Damon wasn`t in the mood for his stupid games and told him so. Sighing dramatically, the stupid Gilbert decided to skip the niceties and cut to the point.
He told Damon about his ancestor, the original Jonathan Gilbert and one of his inventions, that was stolen by a vampire named Pearl. That vampire was then burned alive in Fell's church and the invention was supposedly lost forever. But since the vampires weren't killed the invention wasn`t really lost. John explained that he wanted it and tried to force Damon into helping him retrieve it.
The vampire frowned. Not another one of those stupid inventions. He was really starting to wonder how many there were. Of course he could ask Pearl about it. But Damon wasn`t about to let John know that. He`d heard enough. And he`d seen more than enough of that stupid Gilbert idiot. He wanted him gone. Now. "You know what? I'm not playing anymore. Get out. Get out." he ordered. John looked truly surprised. Had he really thought Damon would just do his bidding? How stupid could one person be? "I said get out!" he shouted again, when John made no move to get up. "I'll tell the entire council what you are." John threatened, getting up slowly.
Damon stalked towards him and noted the flicker of fear in John´s eyes with satisfaction. He was done with being friendly, done with those stupid games. "Go for it! I'll kill every last one of them. Then I'll sever your hand, pull your ring off, and I'll kill you too. Do you understand that?" the vampire growled, his eyes flashing dangerously. "You`ll regret that." John promised, even as he hurried out of the house. Damon stared after him, barely resisting the urge to smash something to pieces. God, he needed a drink!
###
Strolling into the Mystic Grill a couple of minutes later, Damon was pleasantly surprised to find Alaric sitting at the bar, nursing a glass of bourbon. He slid onto the barstool next to the teacher and ordered a bourbon himself. "Are you stalking me now?" Ric greeted him with a sideways glance. "You think I`m that desperate?" Damon shot back. Ric shrugged and looked away. The vampire rolled his eyes. "This is the only bar in town, in case you haven`t noticed."
"With a lot of empty seats." Alaric muttered without looking at him. Damon smirked. "But you looked all lonely, sitting here by yourself. Thought I`d keep you company." This elicited a chuckle from Ric. "Because you`re known for your good deeds." he mocked. "I am. Just ask Sheriff Forbes. She has me working with John Gilbert of all people to take care of our newest vampire problem." he grumbled, before continuing: "She also suggested you could help as well." Ric looked at him in surprise. "Why me?"
Now it was Damon who averted his eyes. "I might have mentioned that you helped me take down a vampire once." he mumbled. "You did what?" Ric`s voice was getting louder and Damon flinched. Some heads turned their way. Matt Donovan was looking at them strangely again. "Felt like a good idea at the time." the vampire defended himself. Ric looked at him like he`d lost his mind. "A good idea? What the hell where you thinking, Damon?" the teacher whispered harshly, obviously not pleased to be outed as some sort of hobby Van Helsing. "I was thinking that we`re a good team. That`s a fact, Ric and you know it." Damon stated, discreetly scooting closer to the teacher. So close they were almost touching.
He knew exactly what kind of effect he was having on Ric. He could hear the man´s quickened heartbeat, the slight hitch in his breath at Damon´s sudden closeness. Even before Damon had taken the compulsion off and he remembered their shared past, the teacher had been affected by his close proximity. Had felt drawn to him. He hadn`t been able to hide it. Damon was sure it wouldn`t be too hard to seduce Ric, if he really put his mind to it. But somehow he wanted Ric to come to him. Wanted it to be his decision. He could be patient, if he had to be.
So back to the most urgent topic. "John Gilbert showed up at the boarding house earlier. He wanted me to find some device, Pearl stole from Jonathan Gilbert back in 1864. He threatened me. Again. We really have to do something about him." Ric shifted, subtly bringing more space between them and turned to look at him. "We don`t need to do anything. He`s your problem." he insisted. This was really getting old. "Come on, you can`t still be mad at me." the vampire whined.
"I can`t? You compelled me, Damon. You took my memories away. You were my friend, my closest friend. I trusted you and you betrayed me. I have every right to be mad at you." the teacher hissed. "You got your memories back." Damon reasoned, noting with surprise the flash of anger in Ric´s eyes. "That doesn`t change anything. You didn`t even apologize!" The vampire had a hard time trying not to squirm under that intense gaze. Ric looked damn hot when he was angry. He really wanted to kiss the teacher right now, but he feared he would only get punched again.
"Okay, maybe it wasn`t the best idea I ever had. Sometimes I just do stupid things." he muttered. Ric`s eyebrows shot up. "Was that supposed to be an apology? Cause it didn`t sound like one. If you really want me to forgive you, you`ll have to do a lot better than that." Damon frowned. The teacher was really starting to grate on his nerves and he was so not in the mood to play games right now. "Fine, don´t help me then." he ground out, downing his drink and leaving.
Completely furious he stalked down the street, muttering under his breath. Why couldn`t Ric just get over it already? Really, this pissed off act was getting old. Why couldn`t they just continue where they had left off? It would be so much more pleasurable for both of them.
"Having a bad day?" The voice made him stop dead in his tracks. John Gilbert. Great. Just when he thought it couldn`t get any worse. "Really bad timing." Damon ground out. He turned towards the voice, ready to attack. He was going to get rid of that annoying Gilbert once and for all. But before he could pounce a gunshot rang through the air and Damon crippled to the ground, pain shooting through his right leg. John didn`t miss a beat. Within seconds another bullet pierced the vampire´s shoulder and a third one hit his stomach.
He was squirming in pain, the wooden bullets burned like hell. John laughed at him. "Painful, isn`t it? Those aren`t your average wooden bullets. I soaked them in vervain." he bragged. Yes, that would explain why Damon was feeling so damn weak all of a sudden. He inwardly cursed himself for not paying better attention. For underestimating John. The guy was a Gilbert after all. They were known for their hatred of vampires. He should have remembered.
"What do you want?" Damon ground out. He tried to pull the bullet out of his leg, wincing when it burned his fingers. The vervain was spreading through his body quickly, making him so fucking weak. "I haven`t decided yet, to tell you the truth. I could just kill you here and now. Or I could drag you to the sheriff and let her deal with you. She´d probably be happy to kill you, seeing how you tricked her for month. Maybe she`d draw it out, make it painful." John mocked.
Damon finally got the first bullet out and was about to retort with some snarky comment, when John shot him again. The bullet narrowly missed the heart and got stuck between his ribs. He was getting light headed. Blinking he fought against the dizziness, thought he saw something move in the shadows behind John. But he wasn`t sure and then he lost the battle and everything went black.