Chapter 2: Be our Guest

"So if I get it right, you feed on people to stay alive."

"Or animals, depends what you're used to." Stefan explained.

"Mostly we just steal blood bags from the hospital, my brother here prefers not to make a big drama by actually killing people." Damon took a seat on the leather couch in Regina's office.

"Right, very interesting." Emma replied again, sipping on her hot chocolate from Granny's.

"So what brings you here, to Storybrooke?" Regina was quite suspicious, obviously not the person who would trust someone very quickly. She had some bad experience with trusting people, and she would be very careful with it now a days.

"Actually... We need help." Bonnie stood up and walked over to Regina. "Do you know anyone in this town who practices magic? But not as a witch, a sorcerer."

Regina smirked, "I do, if I may say. Miss Swan over there has some too but it depends on what you're looking for."

"I thought we had this conversation about calling me miss Swan..." Emma rolled her eyes and threw away her paper cup, she sipped out for the hot coco. Unfortunately she finished it. Emma and Regina had a very hard time getting along with each other, but after a while they had no other choice than teaming up. They actually became friends.

"A protection spell." Bonnie marked.

A great silence fell, "We can't help you with that, and we're not planning to." Regina snapped.

"Listen missy, we need that protection spell to keep the bad vampires out of our own town so the good vampires stay in. So it's very, very important to us because we'd like to stay alive." Damon got cut off by his brother pinching his arm.

"You're dead already anyway, what's next? Hell?" Regina didn't like Damon quite that much, he should better shut his mouth and realise that he was not the king in her town.

"What Damon means is that we try to keep our own town safe and we need to keep others out of it, can you please help us?" Stefan had stood up by now and tried to talk some bits straight.

The mayor rolled her eyes, "Find Mr. Gold, he might be able to deal with this but I am not at the moment."

The group of new comers were all looking at each other, the dark haired mayor was clearly hiding something from them, but compelling her for the truth would make their bond even worse. After all, Regina did invite them in. Stefan had told her that vampires need to be invited in by the owner of the building, and even though it didn't suit the sassy natured woman, she did let them into her office.

"I'm on my way to pick up something anyway, I can show you the Pawn Shop, where Mr. Gold has his office." The blonde lady was quite different after all, Damon remembered her name was Emma. She was as she herself stated, interesting. She didn't interfere in the conversation, she just listened. But Damon could see that she was a very passionated woman, full of power. He liked that, but for as far a good first impression goes, he shouldn't tell her that he had been lurking around in her head as vampires can read thoughts.

"Perfect, let's go." Damon already walked off and wasn't waiting for anybody.

XXX

Mr. Gold was standing behind his counter as the bells of the door rang. A small young lady walked in, Belle of course. He heels were clicking on the wooden floor of the shop as she walked over to her husband, carrying some books. "Good evening darling." The man planted a kiss on his love's lips. They were soft, gentle, and mostly pleasant to touch with his own lips. She looked quite stressed out, but gorgeous after all as she had quickly pinned her hair up in a bun. He found it quite cute.

"Regina asked me to look into some spell... But it is nowhere to find. Of course I haven't checked out all the books in detail yet, but there is not any witchcraft book that talks about this spell. Eventually I got so tired that I fell asleep on my desk chair." Belle had laid the books down in order to strike her hands through her husband's hair. She loved to do that, as he always tried to push her hands away. It made her giggle as he thought it was embarrassing.

"What kind of spell did she want you to look for specifically?"

Right when Belle was about to answer him, a knock on the door came through. "That's weird, the open sign was still on, why wouldn't they get in?" Belle gave a quick look at Mr. Gold as he made his way to the door, "Wait, I'll get it." The young lady said as she held him back by laying her hand softly on his warm chest. She walked over to the door to see what would be going on, opening it quite slowly. "Hello, can I help you?"

"To answer the man's question over there, we're looking for a protection spell." Damon shouted.

"Mr. Gold was your name right, sir?" Caroline quickly said to snap Damon off, she usually played it very cool.

"Regina..." Mr. Gold spoke softly.

"She send us to you, we're wondering if you can help us." Caroline still had the leading word.

"I thought I told the damn woman that it's her problem to take care off and not mine." Mr. Gold snapped as Belle looked at her husband, turning back to the strangers, "Regina asked me to search for the protection spell, we're facing some problems with it."

"Problems?" Bonnie stepped forward, into the shop.

"How would you've come into Storybrooke otherwise? The spell is not working currently." Belle stared at the others outside, "Why aren't you coming in?" She asked.

"You see.. This might scare you off a bit. We're vampires so..." Damon got cut off by Belle herself, "Of course, you have to be invited! Well come in then, I assume the young lady standing here next to me is not a vampire?"

"I'm a witch, how do you know what they are?"

"She owns a magical library and spends quite some time over there..." Mr. Gold added.

"But wait a second. You don't have the spell?"

"Unfortunately not... I'm searching for it still. Since you're a witch, why can't you do it yourself?"

Bonnie sighted, "We as witches don't have enough power, sorcerers do in fact."

"Well you heard Belle, we don't have it." Mr. Gold grabbed his cane and walked over.

"Wow wait, Belle? What are you then, the Beast?" Damon started laughing already before the joke was even funny.

"Actually... His name is Rumplestiltskin." Belle wrapped an arm around her husband.

"Now I see where the surname Gold came from." Damon snapped, "Be our guest... Be our guest..." He hummed with a smirk.

"Look, we came here because our own town isn't safe anymore. We're trying to block it for others who might interfere with... Bloody plans." Stefan pushed his brother back, he had spoken enough by now.

"Well we don't have it... Not now. But I will certainly try to look further tomorrow." Belle took a short break, thinking about the night, "Do you have a place to stay at?"

"Belle, no." Mr, Gold roughly said.

"Rumple they can't sleep on the streets..." Mr. Gold couldn't say no to his good hearted wife and nodded as an approval.

"I can bring you guys to the upstairs apartment in the library if you'd like? I don't think Granny's Bed and Breakfast would really appreciate your stay at her place... I'm sorry."

"We would love to, thank you so much Belle." Caroline said as Belle gave her a kind smile.

XXX

"What was that about?" Emma had stood up by now, leaving her second empty paper cup in the trash can again. She got back at Regina's after dropping off the group of vamps.

"We don't have a protection spell at the moment, Belle's working on it." Regina stared out of the dark window.

"She might need some help with that."

"Henry would love to I would think, operation Cobra was one of his favourites. But you know more about that than I do." Regina snapped.

"I think she needs a little more help than that..."

"Let's talk about it tomorrow, those blood sucking creatures give me a headache."

"Not enough blood in your system, Regina?" Emma giggled as she thought her own joke was quite funny. Regina just pretended to ignore her.