Twisted Love
Season Three
Break On Through
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Vampire Diaries, I only own Grace and Fayth :)
Grace's Dream
"Damon, that was amazing" Grace breathed as she lay on top of the raven haired vampire, he brushed his fingers through her long chocolate brown hair messing around with the waves and curls, the thin blanket tangled between their legs as they lay, sprawled out over his bed.
"Gracie, I've missed you so much." Damon groaned gently as he ran his finger tips up and down her bare back, stopping at the adorable dimples at the small of her slender back, playing with them carefully, massaging them with his thumbs "I've missed touching you so much."
The younger vampire traced her lips over his pecs lovingly she was startled when a low snarl came from behind the, moving to stand they saw Niklaus standing in the doorway with a deathly look in his eyes mixed coloured eyes, swiftly they clothed themselves.
"What's going on here?" Klaus growled as he looked between the two, Damon smirked a little bit trapping his arms around her little waist the Original growled at the movement about to pounce on him.
"What does it look like, Hybrid? We've reconciled our relationship... And there is nothing you can do about it, because Grace loves me. Only me." Damon growled protective of Grace, she gave Klaus a pleading look seeing the scorn that was rising in his eyes.
"Is that why Grace slept with me?" Klaus retorted and the youngest vampire felt Damon's grip begin to loosen as he found out Grace had betrayed him "And is that why she fed from me? Accepted my blood?"
"No." Damon growled as he let go of his little vampire fully, stepping away from her, Grace turned to him with teary eyes "Grace, please tell me he's lying."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you." She whispered "It was one night. One night. I'm so sorry, Damon-"
"Stop talking." Damon ordered as he moved away from her "I can't believe you would do this. I can't believe I ever fell in love with you!" He yelled and she flinched at his words.
Grace gasped loudly as she woke up sitting completely upright in her bed, her breathing was heavy as small tears threatened to fall, pulling her knees up into her chest Damon's words stuck in her head, she knew she had to see him today, tell him what happened before Klaus could, but she was scared about what he would do, of course he had every right to react like that.
The door suddenly opened and Elena was standing there with a kind smile asking if she was ready to leave, the small vampire began to wonder where they were going then everything hit her, Meredith had taken Alaric in to the hospital to do some tests on him.
The vampire hunter was laying down in a MRI machine whilst Elena, Grace and Meredith stood in the viewing room about to scan him to see if there was any abnormal things that would be making him into a psychotic murderer.
"What are you looking for?" Elena questioned in a small voice was she wrapped her arms around herself watching Alaric on the screen, she felt so bad for him, it must have been terrifying being in there.
"I don't know." Meredith admitted and both the twins exchanged looks "A tumour, vascular anomalies, anything physical that might explain his behaviour. If it's medical, I can treat it." She answered truthfully
"And if it's not?" Grace questioned skeptically, she found it hard to believe that anything that had something to do with something supernatural, like the Gilbert ring, would then have something to do with real medical work.
"Well, then we'll deal with that too." Meredith answered as they looked on the screen at Alaric, he was just staring up at himself, just thinking.
"When did you suspect him?" Elena whispered fearful of the history teacher hearing her, even though she knew he couldn't "That it was Alaric who was killing all those people?"
"It was after he told me about his ring." Meredith replied looking over her shoulder at the distort brunette doppelgänger "I remembered a story my grandmother had told me about Samantha Gilbert and her secret journal. I don't know if you know this, but we Fells are notorious busy-bodies." She smirked and Grace gave her a look remembering Logan Fell who had tried to kill her once upon a time, it seemed like a million years ago now back when her and Damon fought like cat and dog before they fell madly in love with each other.
"But then, why did you protect him?" Elena questioned in a small voice breaking Grace's train of thought.
"Because I'm a doctor." Meredith answered with a small shrug "I don't like to see someone hurt by something they have no control over. And because when he and I first met I felt like... I don't know, I-I just kind of want to help him." She looked back on the screen to see Alaric slightly panicking inside of the machine "Everything alright in there?" She asked over the speaker and he immediately calmed.
"Yeah. Yeah, everything's ok." Alaric replied to her looking up at himself a scared look on his face.
It didn't take long for the scan to be over and Alaric was getting re-dressed in a regular hospital room, the door knocked and both Elena and Grace entered the room slowly with small smiles.
"Meredith says that everything is normal." Elena informed him and he rolled his eyes, of course nothing supernatural could ever be normal or straight forward.
"Yeah, well, everything is normal because there is nothing wrong with me." Alaric looked over at her to see her unsure look "I didn't kill Brian Walters. I didn't kill Bill Forbes. And I sure as hell didn't shove a hunting knife into my stomach!" He looked down on the be to see his ring sitting there, rolling it between his fingers carefully "Or I did and I've gone insane, just like your ancestor who... wore that ring."
"Look, I'm going to call Bonnie, the rings were made by a Bennett witch so maybe a witch can reverse the damage." Elena nodded at them both, patting Alaric's hand before turning and walking from the room, digging her phone from her pocket.
"Take it." Alaric told the young vampire placing the ring in her palm, closing her fist around it "I don't want it anymore."
"You ready to ditch this House of Horrors?" Damon's deeply sarcastic voice came from behind them, Grace shuddered as she turned around to see his worn icy blue orbs that were fixed on her before they looked up at Alaric "Oh, you look terrible." He joked.
"Yeah, let me... let me check out of here." Alaric walked past them and Grace exchanged a guilty look with Damon, he creased his eye brows as she walked past him gnawing on her bottom lip.
After Alaric was checked out they all made their way out of the hospital towards Elena's waiting car, Grace was bitting at her nails dreading having to speak to Damon alone.
"You know, I've known you a while now, Grace, I know when there is something wrong." Damon rose his voice as he caught up with her, grabbing her wrist making her face him "You get this little crease between your eye brows." He pointed to it carefully "You bite anything you can get your teeth on like your nails or your lips." He ran his fingers over her bottom lip "Your eyes are all wide and nervous looking."
"There is something wrong." She whispered nodding "Can we go somewhere and talk? Alone?" She looked over her shoulder at Elena who was watching the two, Alaric quickly climbed in the car with the doppelgänger following.
Damon paused looking down at her concerned "Have you been sleeping very well? You look... You look a little tired." He informed her running his fingers over the dark circles around her eyes, she shook her head slowly "Alright, let's go to the Grill, grab a coffee?"
"Ok." She whispered.
Both Grace and Damon arrive in the Grill, they took a seat in the booth and just stared at each other for a long moment before the younger vampires eyes flickered across the room looking at all the people.
"Have you been drinking enough blood?" The raven haired vampire questioned in a low voice and Grace gave him a skeptical look "Listen, we may not be... together anymore, but I worry about you, Grace, I don't want you to get an eating disorder." A playful look in his eyes as he looked over at her.
Rolling her chocolate brown eyes she clasped her hands around the mug in front of her "I've had enough blood, thanks." She answered in a small voice "And, uh, thank you for your concern."
"Good." Damon paused sipping at his coffee "So, what did you want to talk about? Please don't let it be about Elena and Stefan problems?" He begged in a low tone and slowly she shook her head again answering his question "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Uh." Her breathing increased as she looked over into his patient, tranquil bright blue orbs a soft smile on his perfect, masculine lips "T-There is no easy way to tell you this..." His eye brows rose in concern "But... But the other day I got some training from Klaus."
"Klaus." Damon growled nodding a little before looking up at her she looked so scared and a little pale, more pale then her natural complexion, almost like a ghost "Just tell me."
"He offered me his hybrid blood." She whispered looking down into her almost completely full mug of dark coffee "To make me stronger and faster, but it came with other side effects."
"Like what?" Damon was almost scared to ask, he knew where this conversation was going, him and Grace weren't together and Klaus would have taken any opportunity to get in her pants, he was preparing himself for the worst.
"Like, erm, like sharing emotions and... being able to know where each other are." She answered in a small voice, tears tracing her large, liquid eyes he nodded a little just listening.
"How long does the blood last?" The older vampire questioned in a husky voice watching the unreadable look on her face, he could normally read her like an open book but not today.
"H-He doesn't know." Grace whispered looking up at him "It could last a couple of days and it could be permanent." She paused looking up into his eyes "So, after we were hanging out in his house and we..."
Damon shook his head lowering his voice to a respectable level "Please don't say it."
"I have to, Damon. You need to know. I feel so guilty, it's eating me alive." Grace leaned closer to the table to look into his pain stricken eyes "I'm sorry, it was a spur of the moment and our emotions..." She paused her bottom lip quivering " I-I slept with him."
There was a long pause, Grace had expected him to start yelling and screaming at her and causing a scene and then going off and ripping people apart and never speak to her again, but the silence lingered for longer than it was comfortable.
"Damon." She looked up into his unusually calm eyes "Why aren't you yelling?" She questioned it was so uncharacteristic for him to be not going crazy and lashing out verbally.
"I don't know." Damon answered honestly looking into her scared waiting eyes, they were wide and he saw the fear visible in them, that was the last thing he wanted her to be petrified of him.
"Say something." She whispered begging for him to say something, yelling was bad but the uneasy silence was worse "Please say something."
"Have you seen him since?" Damon questioned and she shook her head answering his question "Do you feel him?"
"A little bit." She whispered honestly, she could feel his emotions if they were really strong and usually for Klaus they were never earth shattering "I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry?" Damon creased his eye brows and her tears were stopped as she looked up at him "What do you want me to do, Grace? Yell at you? Tell you that you're a bad person for doing something that when we weren't even together?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that you're going to live for eternity." Damon looked over at her before taking her hand off the table carefully holding it in his hand "And I want you to be happy whether it's with me... or with Klaus... or with anyone who can make you feel that way." She opened her mouth "I've been around a long time and I didn't know who true happiness was until I met you."
"Please don't say that."
"With Fayth it was a chase with you it was real." He put his head down before looking up into her wide eyes "I don't want you to be sorry, or feel guilty, or be depressed. I want you to choose." she opened her mouth to respond but he shook his head "Think about it first, I want you to make the right decision."
"But... But when you were going to sleep with Rebekah, I was so angry and upset, and you didn't even sleep with her!" Grace whispered as she looked over at him Damon nodded a little before glancing around the room.
"I didn't say I'm not angry, because I am." Damon growled under his breath and she moved back, she liked calm Damon a lot more "But it's you're life and I screwed us up... And if you choose me I promise to never hurt you again." He rose from his seat looking down at her "The fact is, Grace, I've done a lot worse things to you." He turned on his heels and walked away.
Pulling up at the old Wickery Bridge fundraiser Damon caught up with Alaric who had promised to meet him here, the teacher was concerned about his talking with Grace but the vampire was in no mood to speak about it.
"What did she say to you?" Alaric quizzed as he stood with Meredith, Damon glanced over at them before looking around "Damon, what did Grace say to you?"
"Rebekah's up to something." Damon quickly changed the subject tucking his hands into his pockets "She's been snooping around in places she shouldn't be."
Alaric rolled his eyes seeing that the vampire wasn't going to talk about his interaction with his ex-girlfriend any time soon "Tell me again, why are we here?"
"Ric, the world can't stop just because you're an accidental psycho killer." Damon reminded the teacher of his alter ego that was going around and murdering members of the founders council.
"Do you have any tact whatsoever?" Meredith growled at the vampire as Carol Lockwood approached them all with a large smile, for the cameras obviously.
"Alaric, I'm glad you're here." Carol smiled at him looking around for a moment "Did you bring the sign?" He had promised that the history department would make a sign commemorating the new new Wickery Bridge, but the teacher just seemed confused "The restored Wickery Bridge sign. The history department promised me you'd have it today."
"I-I don't have the sigh actually it slipped... It slipped my mind." Alaric admitted with everything going on he didn't even have time to think about trivial things like a sign for a bridge "I've been... busy."
"Well, it's not an emergency." Carol gave him a kind smile "We'll just, um, unveil it when the bridge is complete." She turned on her heels to go mingle with other people who had come to help.
"Get me out of here." Alaric begged looking at both Damon and Meredith who smirked smiling at him.
"My pleasure." Meredith answered linking her arm in his, the vampire's attention was drawn else where to across the area, her messy red locks were shorter than he remembered cut into a flared ended style by her shoulders.
"I'm gonna stick around for a bit." Damon answered and Sage flashed him a quick grin, a suggestive look in her large sea blue eyes, her hands tucked into her long coat pockets.
"Who is that?" Alaric questioned a little confused, he had never seen the woman around Mystic Falls before and it was a small town, you were bound to know everyone if you lived there long enough.
"Blast from the past." Damon purred as he crossed the distance towards Sage, Carol was up on a small makeshift stage making her usual speech for everyone who was helping and the cameras.
"Damon Salvatore, my favourite student." Sage grinned flashing her pearly white teeth at him before beginning to gnaw down on her juicy bottom lip seductively.
"Sage, my hottest teacher." Damon smirked glancing around "What are you doing here?" It had been a long time since she had returned to the small town, or since he had seen her for a matter of fact.
"I'm just passing through." Sage answered vaguely, but the younger vampire had the ability of being able to read people like an open book, especially woman, and even more so with woman he had slept with.
"Oh, come on, nobody just passes through Mystic Falls." Damon countered before seeing a mass of blonde locks standing next to him with her hands placed on her narrow hips looking at the red haired standing in front of him.
"Look what the cat dragged in." Rebekah's British voice announced, it was filled with the spite and hate making Sage smile along with Damon.
"Easy there, Rebekah. You know she used to beat up mean for sport." Damon reminded her making Rebekah scoff, the blonde wouldn't have any trouble in killing the red haired bitch that was in love with her brother.
"She always was quite common-"
"Rebekah." Sage cut off the rest of her insults before she could say them "What a happy surprise." Sarcasm was thick in her voice.
"What are you doing here Sage?" Rebekah questioned as she flipped her beautiful blonde locks over her shoulder placing both of her hands on her narrow hips raising an eye brow questionably.
"Well, I heard Finn was finally freed from that casket your rageaholic brother Klaus carted him around in." Sage retorted in a voice as sharp as glass, Rebekah gritted her teeth and Damon watched the scene unfold awkwardly.
"Mmm, Finn, you just missed him." Rebekah pouted patronizingly looking straight into Sage's icy blue orbs that were narrowing quickly "He left town and didn't tell a soul where he was going." She added in a low voice, Rebekah had never liked Sage since she had met her.
Sage smirked a little seeing that the Original was trying to offend her "He probably went looking for me." She bragged fluttering her eye lashes smugly.
"Or quite possibly he forgot all about you." Rebekah shrugged her shoulders catching the deathly look the 900 year old was giving her.
"I doubt that-"
"No?" Rebekah questioned looking over at the red head "Cause he didn't seem to mention you." She was closely inspecting her newly manicured nails carelessly knowing she was winning the argument "Sorry you came all this way for nothing. Have a nice life." She spat before turning on her heels and walking back into the crowd.
"God, I hate that elitist Original bitch." Sage growled narrowing her eyes crossing her arms over her chest "So, Damon. Tell me about your love life."
Stefan was walking into the parlour room holding a blood bag when he saw Elena and Grace standing there fingering through some leather bound books reading the page carefully, they both looked up to see him pouring himself a drink.
"Hi." Elena's voice was shy and small, she couldn't get used to him drinking human blood again, she remembered the last time and that secretly scared her, he would always change so much.
"Hey." Stefan's voice was small as he placed down the blood on the side looking over at them both, the girl he loved and the girl he thought of as a sister still.
Grace looked between them both sensing the tension, Elena had told the girl what had happened with Damon, but the vampire couldn't bring herself to be mad at Damon especially after the talk they had had.
"Sorry for just walking in, Damon told Alaric that there was no one home, otherwise we would have-" Grace's apology was cut short when Stefan quickly shook his head from side to side.
"I just got home." He explained in a small voice and Elena nodded slowly gnawing on her bottom lip nervously.
"We just came by to pick up this book that you found on our ancestor, Samantha." Elena answered as she held the large book in her hands, close to her chest.
Stefan nodded a little "That's fine." He saw the brunette make her way closer to him, but Grace fell back giving them some space to speak privately.
"How are you doing?" Elena questioned creasing her eye brows concerned for him, even thought they weren't together didn't mean she didn't care for him "Damon said that you were-"
"Yeah, I'm – I'm ok." Stefan nodded vaguely answering her questioned, she was only human she wouldn't understand the blood lust that he felt every waking hour "Did you get everything you need?"
"Yeah." Elena whispered slightly hurt by his vagueness with her "Well, if there is anything we can do to help..." She ducked her head as she walked back over to Grace."
"You don't have to read that, you know." Stefan quickly told them both and they turned to face him slightly confused "I can just tell you what happened. Samantha Gilbert was committed to an insane asylum, she tried to give herself a lobotomy with a knitting needle, and bled to death on the blood of her cell. If the same thing is happening to Alaric then there is nothing you can do." Elena gulped at the story and Grace had a horrified look on her face, her mouth slightly ajar as she heard what happened to her ancestor.
"Well, thanks for telling us, but we're just gonna let you get back to... whatever it was you were doing." Taking Elena's hand Grace swiftly lead them both from the room.
Sage and Damon were walking casually through the woods, he was telling her all about Grace and she continued to coo over whatever she told her.
"So, this Grace... She's young and inexperienced." Sage announced with a sneaky smile "She sounds just like someone that you would go for..." He glanced over at her slightly confused by her accusations for picking Grace "You can teach her and have fun with her at the same time."
Damon smirked to himself looking over at his older mentor "Yeah, Grace was a lot of fun to play around with. She made the most adorable noises and... I can't even explain."
"So, why isn't she here with you now?" Sage questioned looking over at her friend "I mean, you claim you love this girl, but whilst all these damned Original's run around you're not protecting her."
"We, uh, we broke up." Damon answered rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, Sage gave him a questionable look and he shrugged a little "We ran into difficulties where the Original's are concerned."
"What kind of difficulties, Damon." Sage stopped dead looking over at her young friend, he looked around for a moment before looking back at the red head.
"I cheated on her with Rebekah." The raven haired vampire answered and Sage gawped at him "Not fully, I mean, we didn't completely have sex... Grace walked in on us making out without clothes. But I really hurt her."
"And you hate yourself for it?" Sage looked over at him, she had never seen her student like this before, he used to be so un-human, more of a monster, but now he was feeling and hurting.
"Yeah." Damon creased his eye brows slightly confused, no other woman had made him feel this way, apart from Fayth, but even that wasn't real "I screwed it up. I hurt her so bad I drove her into the arms of a psychotic hybrid that doesn't love her as much as he said he does, I know it. All he feels if lust, but Grace doesn't see that-"
"Wait. Klaus. As in Klaus Mikaelson?" Sage questioned looking over at the blue eyed vampire who nodded slowly, she smirked a little rubbing her bottom lip in a pondering way "Well, isn't she a lucky girl, two amazingly gorgeous older vampires swooning over her. She must be in heaven."
"It isn't like that." Damon hissed narrowing his icy orbs at his teacher "He doesn't love her and she feels guilty, I spoke to her this morning, she was so caught up in the moment-"
"She hoped into bed with him the first chance she got, Damon." Sage cut him off and he growled menacingly at her.
"Klaus thinks he's madly in love with her and assumes she feels the same way." Damon growled his hands turning into fist from anger, he would obviously never fight Sage, that would be an idiotic fight that he would lose "She was blinded by blood, but what about you? Finn, really?" He changed subjects talking about Grace was too painful right now.
"He's my one true love. He turned me so we could be together forever." Sage's cold heart fluttered remembering the man she had fell truly head over heels for "Then Klaus daggered him and locked him away and I've been waiting ever since." She glanced over at his waiting face "Please don't tell me you like Rebekah in any way, at all."
"Are you you crazy? No." Damon hissed shaking his head quickly "She's the reason I lost my one true love." He added with pain evident in his voice.
"Good, cause her and Klaus always treated me like some peasant whore." Sage answered with a small shrug, those types of things didn't bother Sage, all she wanted was the man she loved back with her for eternity.
"Ah, she's just lurking around because she wants something from me." Damon replied swiftly looking into her sea blue orbs, he hadn't failed to realise Rebekah was up to something when he was at the bar with his brother, all the questions "Can't figure out what it is though."
"Why don't you get inside her head and find out?" The red head questioned along with a small shrug, like it was that simple to get into an Original's head.
"Cause it's impossible." Damon replied firmly "She's too strong." He reminded her in a 'are you stupid' tone.
"I bet I could get in there." Sage grinned smugly, she was rather good at sneaking around in people's head, even Original's, if they were vulnerable and weak enough.
"Sage, she's an Original, it's not gonna happen." Damon hissed shaking his head from side to side, she was acting crazy, did she really want to get her suicidal boyfriend back that much she was willing to risk her life.
"Have you forgotten everything I taught you?" Sage smirked placing her hands on her hips "Rebekah may be an Original, but she's a girl." She added with a playful look in her eyes "You find her weakness and exploit it and I'll walk right in. That is if you want my help."
Back at the Wickery Bridge Fundraiser Rebekah was sticking around the catering table scrunching her nose up at the disgusting looking human food when suddenly she saw a lean body standing next to her, looking up she caught sight of his baby-blue eyes fixed on her body.
"Did I ever tell you you're sexy when you're bitchy?" Damon purred in a seductive voice, the Original's insides fluttered secretly, her heart pounding in her chest.
"We're talking now, are we?" Rebekah's voice wavered as she answered in a snarky voice, she tried to be mad at him, but Damon had a knack of being able to get back under your skin with just a look, most women knew this quite well "Cause you were quite rude the other day, using me to help you with Stefan and then shooing me away like a stray dog."
"Oh, but that was brother business, you can't hold that against me." Damon shrugged a little, surely she would understand she had a crazy blood drive brother too, actually she had four of them "Besides, I really did appreciate your help even if I don't show it."
"You were mean." She pouted crossing her arms over her chest, if he was going to flirt with her she was going to play hard to get, it was much more fun that way.
"You like mean." Damon countered his eyes flashing with seduction, she got caught in the trace of his beautiful icy blue orbs, something in them seemed broken, he wasn't the same man he used to be.
"No, I don't." She answered in a tough voice, he didn't know anything about her they almost slept together one time and that was it.
"No?" Damon smirked a little a questionable look in his eyes "You didn't get a thrill back there pushing Sage down, crushing her dreams of true love?"
She paused pondering over her emotions, she had loved every second of winning that argument, she really did love being mean to people, it was fun, exciting "Maybe a little." She muttered putting her head down.
"See? Mean." Damon placed one finger under her chin raising it to look into her glassy orbs "Can Sage and I interest you in a drink back at the house?"
"Not a chance in hell." She spat moving away from him gritting her teeth together, she didn't want to spend one minute trapped in a room with that woman.
"Well, you know what they say, two's company, three's a party." Damon wiggled his eye brows suggestively and she stared at him, her mouth slightly ajar just at the thought of him, Sage and herself together "Fine." he went to walk past her, running his finger tips over her bony hip, she shivered at the touch "Enjoy the rest of your day." He muttered in her ear before leaving her standing there completely flustered and puzzled.
Grace and Elena were sat outside of the Gilbert house on the porch, they had needed to get some fresh air and needed to call Bonnie too, unfortunately she wasn't answering either of their calls and who could blame her, Grace's ex-boyfriend had turned her mother into a vampire in order to save her twin sister.
"I'll try Caroline." Grace murmured as she hit call holding her iPhone to her ear it was after a few rings that the blonde picked up on the other end.
"Hey, what's going on?" Caroline questioned she sounded slightly frazzled like she had just been having an argument with someone, but Grace wasn't about to question it, they were lucky the blonde was speaking to them.
"Bonnie's not returning any of mine or Elena's calls." Grace informed her as she looked over at her twin, the doppelgänger had a deeply guilty look on her face.
"Sorry, she's still mad and Abby's transition has been a little rough, so she's got a lot on her mind." Caroline retorted in a small voice, she didn't blame the two, but still felt bad for Bonnie and her mom.
"I know and I get it, we are both really sorry, but something really terrible has happened to Ric and... and we really need her help."
After a long conversation with Caroline they both hung up, she was glad she hadn't asked about anything that had been happening or told her about sleeping with Klaus. Caroline was very old school with relationships and would have given Grace a piece of her mind.
"Listen, Elena, I'll be right back." Grace muttered as she stood up running her hands through her thick chocolate brown hair.
"Where are you going?" Elena questioned looking over at her twin a little confused.
"I won't be long." Grace replied vaguely as she grabbed her keys from the porch and ran over to her car, in truth she was going to see Stefan, she had seen the way Elena had looked at him and knew how hard it was for him being back on blood.
Inside of the Gilbert house Alaric was sat at the dining room table with the file about himself placed in front of him, it varied from everything from police records to medical information.
He was slightly startled when the incredibly beautiful doctor that had been keeping an eye on him placed two large shot glasses in front of him and was holding a bottle of finely aged whiskey in her hands.
"I really don't think you should be looking through that stuff." Meredith muttered as she unscrewed the lid to the alcohol before pouring it out into the waiting glasses.
"Ah, it's the truth, restraining orders and all." He answered with a small shrug turning the page "My life is a series of police reports." His eye brows raised a the words.
"You don't strike me as a angry guy." The doctor took a seat mauling over the whiskey in the glass carefully looking up at him "Which sounds weird, given everything, but you don't." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Yeah, well I was stupid when I was younger." Alaric murmured looking at the record with almost pride every fight had a story behind them "But, listen, it's not like these guys didn't have it coming. I mean, this guy here, broke a beer bottle over a bartender's head..." He scanned down the list again "This guy, hit his girlfriend." He looked at the next name "This guy, ok, this guy was just a douche." He laughed a little and so did she.
It felt so good being able to laugh at a critical time like this, he couldn't help but feel as if his whole family was falling apart in front of him they always seemed so strong. Stefan and Elena were having troubles and he never thought he would have to witness that. Grace and Damon were struggling and that surprised him, out of everyone he thought them two could make it out of anything. Grace, Bonnie, Elena and Caroline were falling apart at the seams and they were the best of friends. Damon and Stefan were meant to be brothers, yet they fought so much. It hurt him to see his family like this.
Alaric saw the concerned look on Meredith's face so he quickly continued the conversation trying not to express his true feelings "Everyone needs to find a way to deal with their dark side. Some people meditate, I became a vampire hunter."
"Mm, semi-retired." Meredith muttered jokingly seeing the teasing look in the history teachers eyes.
"Listen, there's something that's not in these reports that I need to tell you about." Alaric swigged at his whiskey carefully before looking into her waiting eyes "Your cousin, Logan Fell, the one who was vampire slain... I did the slaying." He added in a small voice.
"The vampire thing, it's not my fight; I use their blood for what I need and leave the judgement to everyone else. Although, I have been kind of wondering who you never drove a stake through Damon's heart." She muttered in a thoughtful voice only to be cut off by his low chuckle.
"I tried once." Alaric nodded remembering the first time he had tried to kill Damon and he turned the tables on him and punctured his lung with the stake "He killed me. Yeah, yeah, figured." He was unconsciously rubbing his finger where his resurrection ring used to lie "The thing that started all this ring stuff was me being angry enough to think I could take on vampires in the first place."
Meredith reached across the table and took his hand gently, holding it firmly between both of hers, it was a subtle gesture that make Alaric feel safe with her. Like nothing could ever go wrong with her love.
Grace pried the door open to the Salvatore Boarding House to see it was empty, walking in further she saw that the door to the basement was open, after living at the Boarding House for a certain amount of time she had learned that Damon never left it open and Stefan barely ever set foot in there as he was on the 'bunny diet' as Damon would so kindly put it.
Slowly she walked down the stairs into the basement, she was greeted by the sight of empty blood bags layering the floor, following the trail they lead to the large freezer, she gasped when she saw Stefan in heap on the floor, clasping a blood bag in his hand.
"Stefan." She whispered moving towards him, he unclenched his hand and let the bag drop to the floor completely empty "Elena told me you were back on human blood, I didn't think... I didn't think you were this bad." She whimpered beginning to gather all the empty bags off the floor.
"Really, Stefan?" Damon moaned as he walked down into the basement seeing Grace cleaning up his mess "Will you slow down? We're not going on some blood pub crawl, alright?"
"You knew he was this bad and you let him continue to drink blood?" Grace rasped at her ex-boyfriend with a scornful look in her chocolate brown eyes.
"Listen, Grace, my brother and I are just trying to pay a little visit to our friend moderation, the more he gets used to the blood the less he will want to rip people open to drink it, including people like, I don't know, your sister." He added with a deathly voice, he knew what he was doing with his brother and he did not need any advice from Elena or Grace.
"Then why weren't you here helping him?" Grace growled throwing the bags to the floor, she was right Stefan was going to need constant supervision if he was going to get over his drinking problem "Does this look like moderation to you, Damon?"
"I've been busy with Alaric and other things." Damon shook his head looking away from her for a moment to close the freezer shut firmly "It doesn't matter whether it's blondes or blood bags, same principles apply."
Stefan pulled himself up drying his mouth from the excess blood before looking over at both Grace and Damon who were staring each other down intently.
"He's stress eating. Sublimating. You know, Elena and Stefan really deserve each other with all their pining and moping." Damon informed Grace in a cold voice, she went to hit him but resisted things were bad enough between them already without adding violence to the list.
"Elena hates me." Stefan muttered looking over at Grace, the hard look on her face soften when she saw the look of loss and pain in forest green orbs.
"Stefan, you're just reminding her of something she already knows." Damon butted in before Grace could get a word in, she threw him a filthy look "You're a vampire and you drink human blood, she just needs to get over it." He paused for a moment "And you need to get over it too. Own it, live it, love it. Stop being ashamed of who you are." He turned to leave again, but stopped for a moment turning back to them both "Now, I suggest you both make yourself scarce, I have some friends coming over." Stefan quickly left the room and Grace watched him with a hurt look on her face.
"Friends?" Grace questioned in a deeply sarcastic voice a smirk falling from her perfectly sculptured lips "Who do you have coming around?"
"Why don't you come up and see." Damon taunted and she took his offer stepping in front of him to see a beautiful red head lounging on the couch with a glass of thick red wine in her hands.
"Fayth Petrova?" Sage questioned she had seen the beautiful doppelgänger in pictures Damon had kept of her, according to others that had known her she is a self aware bitch and the only other person she cared about was her sister and that was only because she had her back for 500+ years.
"Not Fayth... Grace Gilbert." Damon answered placing his hand on the small of her back without even realising, but the younger vampire did, she stiffened before remembering how much she missed his touch, the way he rubbed her skin beneath his smooth finger tips, it made her quiver.
"Ah, the famous Grace Gilbert." Sage muttered speaking her name like it was mud as she rose from her seat and walked towards the younger vampire looking into her tranquil chocolate brown orbs "I heard a lot about you."
"Good things I hope." Grace whispered awkwardly as she pushed some of her hair behind her ear, the red head rose her eye brows a little and smirked as she turned away returning to the couch.
"Some good. Some not so good." Sage answered, she had known Damon longer and despite her emotionless personality she did care for his feelings and didn't want to see him get hurt like he had done with Fayth once upon a time "I heard about Klaus' infatuation with you, dear. That must just be horrific." She murmured sarcastically.
Grace turned to her ex-boyfriend who was on looking innocently, he head told Sage in confidence that she would not say a word to the woman he loved and there she went blurting it out to her like they were talking about the weather.
"Uh, well. I think I'd better go. Leave you two to catch up." Grace gathered her bag from the table looking at the red head an almost hurt look in her eyes as Sage continued to stare her down "It was nice to meet you Sage."
"Yeah, I do hope we meet again, Grace Gilbert." Sage smirked a little bring her legs up onto the couch to sit on them whilst giving Damon a playful look.
Grace quickly turned and walked from the house when her wrist was caught, she turned to be looking into a blue set of eyes staring down at her hurt.
"I was hurt. I needed someone to talk to-"
"Damon, stop" Grace covered his mouth with her hand "I understand, ok? I'm not angry. I promise. I'm sorry." She whispered weakly looking up at him, love and admiration in her eyes, Sage had just mocked her but she wasn't angry with him at all.
"You don't have to go. We can go somewhere-" He hadn't noticed how close they were standing, her hand was pressed firmly on his pecks and her lips were awfully close to his own, he could feel her heart racing in her chest at his touch.
"I'm sorry, I need to get back to Elena. I just came here to see if Stefan was ok." She whimpered as she tore away from his hypnotic look taking the step away from him giving them both some distance "Have fun with Sage, ok? I'll see you soon." There was no spite in her voice when she turned and left, deep down she felt jealously but it was overridden by guilt.
"I hope so."
As Damon walked back into his house he heard a soft melody playing on the piano, grabbing a bottle of wine he uncorked it seeing Sage continue to lounge on the couch whilst an unknown human man played the grand piano beautifully.
"Remember this song?" Sage questioned with a sensual look on her face, Damon just shrugged her off and poured himself a glass of wine swiftly drinking it down "Don't tell me that you're feeling guilty about this, Damon?" She sauntered over to him, swaying her hips along with the music "She didn't hesitate sleeping with Klaus when you two weren't together, why shouldn't you have fun?"
"Stop talking." Damon ordered in a deadly low voice "Just stop talking, Sage. You don't know anything about Grace and I, don't act as if you do."
"Mmm. Good point." Sage muttered as she played with his shirt flirtatiously, licking her crimson red lips, he watched completely uninterested "She's pretty, a straight haired Fayth, if I'm correct..."
"What are you trying to say."
"Well now I know why you were drawn to her, Damon. I'm not an idiot-"
"Is Rebekah actually going to come to this, or were you lying to me?" Quickly Damon changed the subject crossing his arms over her chest with an angry look on his face.
"I know girls, alright? Now between her craving for affection and her pathological fear of being alone, our little get together is too tempting to resist." Sage purred and the younger vampire gave her a questionable look.
"Finn's gone, you know." Damon muttered to her and she looked down at her feet for a moment before stiffening her upper lip and giving him a firm look.
"I choose to believe otherwise." Sage argued in a low voice, Damon looked over at her if she was going to smack talk his relationship then he could do the same.
"He strung you along for 900 years, didn't bother to call, he's gone." Damon retorted and she turned away thinking for a moment before looking back with death written in her eyes.
"Don't start, Damon, because I can tell you a few home truths about your sweet little Grace that you wouldn't take too kindly either, so unless you want to head down the road I suggest you stop talking." Sage spat squaring up to him, Damon was about to lunge at her but the doorbell chimed sweetly a cold silence filled the air as the room brushed open and Rebekah sauntered into the room holding a bottle of wine.
"I stole it from Nik who stole it from a Queen. Not sure which one" The blonde almost bragged before feeling the tense air that filled the room "Well this is depressing. What happened to the party?"
"It just arrived." Sage purred as she stepped towards the lost looking blonde with a seductive look in her eyes, Damon was already regretting doing this.
It didn't take long for the females to begin their idle chit-chat, sitting close on the couch, practically on each others laps downing their wine, getting incredibly drunk, just the way dear Sage enjoyed it.
"What's with you, grumpy?" Rebekah slurred as she rose and walked towards him with a pout on her lips, Damon turned away nursing his wine that he had barely touched "Is Grace about to walk in and you're going to boot me out again?"
"He booted you out?" Sage smirked sipping her wine locking eyes with Damon "Bad vampire."
"I wouldn't worry, Damon. She didn't stay mad for long. Practically hopped straight into bed with my brother, so, there is no need to feel guilty. Oops, did you not know-"
"I knew, Rebekah. Don't worry she told me." Damon answered in a cold voice, she slightly pouted thinking she was telling him some juicy gossip which he already knew "Because unlike you Grace is actually something special in my life and we'd never lie to each other."
"Never lie?" Rebekah questioned with a knowing smirk, the younger vampire gulped as she pulled out her phone "Does little Grace know I'm here now?"
"She knows I'm here." Sage spoke up wiggling her fingers drunkly, Damon quickly took Rebekah's phone and slid it onto the piano.
"You know what? Let's forget about Grace, huh?" Damon moved towards Rebekah with a seductive look in his eyes, brushing his lips against her cheek making her heart flutter, she took a deep breath "This is your night, so just close your eyes and enjoy the ride..."
"What about her?" Rebekah muttered looking over at the red head who sat on the couch watching the two with a sensual look in her eyes, gnawing on her bottom lip.
"I don't want her, I want you." Damon smirked as he kissed her passionately, moving them both back against the wall, she hooked her legs around his waist and they bashed their way to the bedroom laying her carefully on his bed, Sage stood in the doorway a playful look in her eyes as she licked her lips.
Undressing the blonde fully he hover in between her legs skimming his lips over her slender neck, she arched and moaned at his subtle touches, this was as far as they got the first time before Grace burst in and ruined everything.
"Oh, Damon." Rebekah breathed locking her long fingers in his raven black hair as he played with her soft skin, he smirked and nibbled on her ear lob teasingly before kissing it once.
"You like that, Gracie?" He questioned unconsciously, Sage's jaw went slack and Rebekah went rigid in the bed her eyes bursting open utter confusion and astonishment written in them, the raven haired vampire cursed under his breath before looking up into her scorn filled eyes.
The blonde sat up quickly and pulled her under clothes on herself quickly "What?" She pulled herself from the bed completely clenching her hands into fists looking down at him furiously.
"Rebekah-" Damon stuttered and before he knew it a loud crack filled the room, Sage was standing over the unconscious blondes petite she had just snapped her neck.
"Are you a complete idiot!" Sage growled "You're trying to seduce her into unconsciousness and a vulnerable state! Not moan your ex-girlfriends name!" She cursed loudly "You're lucky I stepped in before she ripped your head clean off, my friend."
Grace walked back into the Gilbert house to see Elena sitting on the couch fingering through Samantha Gilbert's journal a sad look plastered on her face, her twin gave her an assuring look as Alaric approached her with a pad of yellow paper.
"Listen, I want you to have this." He put it inside of her hands and she creased her eye brows opening the pad to see numbers and random names with password next to them "This is the list of my back accounts, passwords, where to find my will, and how to contact my family, just in case this doesn't go away."
Grace forced it back into his hands with a devastated look on her face, shaking her head quickly "No, no, no. Don't even think like that. Don't let this thing win." She hissed, none of them knew what this was controlling Alaric, but he could see that it could only get worse from here on.
"Grace, I need to know that you, Elena and Jeremy are going to be ok." Alaric gave her a pleading look, but she just shook her head again "I need you to do me a favour, protect your family at all costs and... be good to Damon, he loves you a lot."
"We're going to be fine and you will get over this." Grace told him in a sure voice as Elena approached them both speaking on her phone.
"It's Caroline." Elena's voice was hushed as she stood next to her twin, not needing to put it on speaker because she knew Grace could hear it with her supernatural hearing.
"So, Abby thinks Bonnie can reverse the damage of the spell. I guess the same thing happens to witch who get obsessed with dark magic. They lose control and start acting out their darkest impulses." Caroline replied and the vampire creased her eye brows listening to her friend speaking.
"Thank you so much." Elena replied eternally grateful to the young witch, both of the Gilbert sisters knew how mad they must be at them, but Alaric was family and family came before fights.
"Hold on." There was a shuffling on the other end of the phone before a voice came through that none of them expected to hear.
"I need a personal effect of Alaric's, something he wore before he started wearing the ring." Bonnie informed Elena and she gulped loudly listening to her witch friend speaking to her, it felt so good to hear her voice once again.
"Ok, yeah, I-I'll get it." Elena stuttered over her words quickly jumping to an apology before the witch could hang up "Bonnie, I'm so sorry for everything, thank you for going this-"
"Be ready to do the spell as soon as I get there." Bonnie told her firmly in a short voice, no apology could make up for what happened, her mother was now a vampire at her hands, because everyone was willing to risk everything to save precious Elena, the other twin gritted her teeth at Bonnie's tone "We have to work fast. I'll see you soon." She hung up without another word.
"Good news? Bad news?" Alaric questioned from where he sat at the table, unlike the young vampire he didn't have the handy ability to listen in on peoples conversations like she did.
"Bonnie thinks she can help you with a spell." Elena answered sitting down at the table with her guardian, Grace continued to stand, leaning against the kitchen wall now, she felt bad that she couldn't keep her mind off Damon with all of this trouble going on.
"Well, it's worth a try." Alaric's beaming optimism shined through for their sake, he wasn't sure it he was going to get better, but he had to hope for them both if they were going to continue to refuse to believe.
"She needs something that you wore before you put on the ring. Something personal." Elena added as the young doctor walked into the kitchen holding a coffee in both hands watching the three have their conversation.
"Well, there's uh – there's my wedding ring." Alaric glanced over to Meredith awkwardly, it was never a good move in a new relationship to be speaking about a past one, whom used to be a vampire and was killed "It's at the loft."
"OK, yeah, uh – that's a – that's a good idea." Grace nodded tucking a piece of her chocolate brown hair behind her ear "I'll head over there now-"
"I'll come with you." Elena added in a small voice, the vampires turned to tell her she was going alone but the look on her face told Grace that she needed to get out of the house.
"I think it's better you stay here with me." Meredith told Alaric in a firm tone and he nodded as he took his seat again on the wooden chair.
"Oh, you and your tranquillizers. It's in the dresser by the kitchen. It's in a, uh, an aspirin bottle, probably covered in cobwebs." Alaric joked and Elena grabbed her keys exchanging a look with Meredith before leaving with her twin.
"Did you find anything?" Damon questioned as he saw Sage bowed over the blonde who was still unconscious with her fingers pressed to her temples searching through her thoughts trying to find a reason to be snooping around the raven haired vampire so much.
"Yeah. I got something." Sage pulled him from the room closing the door quietly behind the, nothing would wake Rebekah at the moment but she wasn't about to take chances with an Original.
"Well?" Damon asked impatiently the red head took his hands, he went to pull away when flashback erupted into his head.
Mystic Falls, Mystic Grill
Rebekah was sat with Carol Lockwood discussing the where a bouts of the white oak tree, or the milling records where she could find out more information, but all her attempts seemed to be futile and dead ends.
"I've been to the Founder's archive, but I can't seem to find any record of the tree I'm looking for." Rebekah informed her, she had looked through what seemed to be every logging book from the past of Mystic Falls and she found nothing.
"It probably got cut down." Carol shrugged a little as she sipped tenderly at her milky coffee "Big old tress built half of this town in the 1900s." She answered in a small voice.
Present day Mystic Falls
Damon pulled his hands away from the red head with a small smirk on his face, he pulled away completely and started to walk towards the library "There's another tree." He bent down and grabbed a large leather bound book from the shelf.
"Milling records?" Sage questioned in a small voice and he nodded as he flicked through the old pages, careful not to tare the brittle pages or smug the ink.
"Our family made one of its many fortunes selling lumber." The raven haired vampire replied "It's why Rebekah's been digging around about this stuff. That tree was on our land and milled by our yard. The ledgers will tell me where it was shipped. Business archives should be around here somewhere." He glanced over his shoulder to see that the red head was waiting patiently looking at her freshly manicured nails "Go upstairs make sure she stays unconscious."
"I'll see what I can do." The crimson haired vampire muttered as she turned on her bare feet and trotted back up the stairs at a faster pace.
The younger vampire stopped on a page with the heading for all the milling records in 1912, he saw the tree he was looking for and groaned internally when he saw the answered he was looking for. Wickery Bridge was written in a beautiful script in large letters.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"So..." Elena looked over at Grace as they pulled up outside of Alaric's apartment building, the vampire glanced over at her as they sat in the car, she turned the engine off and utter silence filled the small space "I want you to know if you ever want to talk about anything, I'm here to talk." She promised reaching over and taking her hand carefully.
"Thanks." Grace whispered nodding at her "I'm sorry I've been so... cut off from you lately, Elena. I don't mean to abandon you."
"I know. You've got a lot going on with Klaus and Damon-"
"Shall we, uh, shall we go and get Alaric's wedding ring?" Grace questioned as she quickly climbed from Elena's car, bolting into the building almost at supernatural speed, when she reached the top apartment she stopped as she saw a pair of forest green eyes watching her.
Elena was only steps behind her, she stopped dead when she saw her ex-boyfriend leaning casually against the wall outside of Alaric's apartment.
"Missed you at the house." He directed his conversation at Elena, Grace stepped back giving them both a little bit of space, the same space Elena would have given Grace if it had been her and Damon "Alaric told me you'd be here."
"You made yourself perfectly clear this morning, Stefan." Elena's voice was sharper than usually, as much as she loved Stefan she had a hard time adjusting to his vampire mood swings, especially on human blood "You don't want to be around me." She pushed past him and unlocked Alaric's front door.
"I'm not trying to hurt you, Elena. I just can't be who you want me to be right now. I'm not in control." He tried to explain, but it was so hard for her to understand a type of addiction that could make you into two different people.
"So the, what are you doing here?" Elena questioned in a harsh voice, pushing the door open and walking inside, Stefan followed her like a lost puppy and Grace stood in the doorway watching the two secretly, ready to step in if anything got out of hand, but staying back to give them the privacy they deserved.
"I, uh, I did a little more digging on Samantha Gilbert." He turned on the lights illuminating the apartment for her to search for Alaric's personally possession "Founding families were always pretty good about destroying records, but I found a couple of newspaper articles. It seemed she killed two people while she was in the institution. A nurse and a guard."
"So, she was a psychopath. I get it." Elena muttered as she began to search around the desk where Alaric had told her where it was.
"She was under suicide watch. No personal effects, no jewellery." Stefan tried to tell her that in black and white that Samantha Gilbert wasn't wearing her ring when she killed the two people in the asylum, but Elena was just ignoring him now seeing the look on Grace's face took her by surprise.
"Wait." Grace whispered looking at the forest green eyed vampire "So, you're saying that the violent behaviour can still happen even if the person isn't wearing the ring?" slowly Stefan nodded confirming her assumptions.
Alaric's eyes were closed and he looked so peaceful as he sat on the couch in the Gilbert living room, Meredith walked into the kitchen and began searching for some mugs.
"You still with me?" Meredith called over to him and immediately his eyes burst open but there was a cold look that filled them, none like he had felt before.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm still with you." Alaric called back over to the doctor who was smiling as she made them both some coffee, caffeine would help their situation right now.
"I'm half-dead too." Meredith informed him rubbing her tired eyes, if she had to stay away to supervise him then so did he, it was only fair "Neither one of us has slept in two days. Don't worry, I've got coffee on." She smirked turning towards the cupboards trying to find the coffee.
Rising up from his seat Alaric moved into the dinning room to see the doctors bag sitting on the table, he glanced over at the woman to see she was looking the opposite direction absolutely exhausted.
Unzipping her bag as silently as he could he reached in and saw the tranquillizers looking at it suspiciously he pulled of the cap where the needle was and poured out the liquid onto the floor, doing it again for the second that she kept stashed in there.
Damon was knelt down by the roaring fire place ripping up the milling record from 1912 and throwing the paper inside to make sure that Rebekah never got any knowledge of it.
"She's gone." Sage abruptly ran down the stairs to see Damon burning the milling records, he turned and looked at her suspiciously, the blonde would be pissed and God knows what she would end up doing.
"I take it she wasn't happy-"
"She attacked me and then left, Damon. She's pissed." Sage answered in a thick voice moving towards him to smell the burnt paper "What are you doing?"
"I found what I was looking for. 1912, the Salvatore milling company chopped down a forest, its most valuable wood came from an old white oak tree that was used to make Wickery Bridge. These aren't public records, so Rebekah's gonna chase her tail for a long time."
"So all the wood stripped from the underside of that bridge is basically a weapon that could kill an Original?" The red head questioned slyly folding her arms over her chest pressing her hip out to the side.
"Yep."
"You see how this could be a problem for me, right?" She looked over at him we an 'are you an idiot?' look and his face hardened as he stood up straight turning to face her before walking towards the 900 vampire.
"Why?" Damon scoffed a little "Because of your true love Finn?" He smirked and she started to see red with rage, no one was allowed to question her love for the Original "Let me tell you something, I met the guy, you're not gonna miss him."
She zipped towards him stopping only inches in front of him with a deadly look in her frosty orbs "I will rip your head off in two seconds if you say another word." She growled in a low tone.
"Alright, let's make a deal. You let me kill Rebekah, I consider Finn untouchable, you guys walk into the sunset together." Damon was not about to tell the woman who was blinded by love that her Original was linked to the others is she was successful in killing Rebekah.
"Is that a promise?" She questioned looking over at him gritting her teeth placing both of her hands on her narrow, bony hips.
"Yes." Damon nodded slowly trying to look truthful as he spoke to his teacher in seduction "It's a promise."
Elena was continuing to search through all of Alaric's personal items, she felt as if she was invading his privacy by going through his draws, even though he had permission.
"What if Bonnie's spell doesn't work?" Stefan questioned looking between Grace and Elena, the small vampire wasn't about to answer, this was between him and her twin "What are you gonna do with him?"
"I'm not gonna do anything, Stefan." Elena's voice was low as she glanced over to him before looking back into the draws "I'm gonna keep looking until we find something that'll help him."
"You don't know how long this has been going on. Might be too last." Stefan argued and he had a valid point, but when he came to Alaric she wasn't going to listen to any kind of reason, family was far too important to Elena.
"It's my family's ring that's doing this to him." Elena answered in a soar voice, both of the vampires saw the guilt burning deep in her eyes and shook their head, it wasn't her fault that the rings turned people into knife wielding psychopaths.
"You can't put that on yourself." Stefan's voice was small yet Grace sensed the care that was buried in there "Not everything is your responsibility. Not everyone can be saved-"
"Are we talking about Alaric here or are we talking about you?" Elena pushed away from the table a set look in her eyes "Because I wasn't planning on giving up on either of you." She answered in a deathly voice.
Stefan turned away from her to see Grace looking through a draw with a surprised look on her face, there was pictures of dead bodies and the young vampire recognised them, Bill Forbes, Brian Walters. Newspaper clipping accompanied these and other pieces of information about the murders.
"What is that?" Elena questioned as she stepped towards her twin, Stefan slowly pried the pictures from her hands.
"Pictures of his victims." Stefan replied in a sure voice and it was then that it hit both of the twins, secretly they had both been denying that it was Alaric doing these murders, but now that they had seen this...
Damon entered the library with a different set of clothes on, he glanced over at his wrist watch for a second before looking up to see the room was desolate room Sage no where to be found.
"Sage, let's go, we have Originals to kill." He called but there was no answered, he continued to search the house calling her name, but it fell of deaf ears.
Grace, Elena and Stefan continue to search through the draw contain items about the murders the history teacher had committed, the youngest vampire picked up an envelope with Jeremy's name written in black ink on it, she handed it to Elena who quickly tore it open.
She glanced at the note that was stuck to another piece of paper, reading the note first "Jeremy, if anything happens to me, carry on my work. You have the other ring, let the ring make you strong. The council must be cleansed before the work can begin." She stared blankly at it, surprised that Alaric had written this.
"It's the Founder's Council roster." Grace muttered as she checked the other paper in Elena's hand, Stefan glanced over her shoulder to see the names written there "Looks like some sort of a... a hit list, or something."
"No, Alaric didn't write this." Elena stumbled over her words pulling the paper from Grace's hand scrunching it up into a tight ball before launching it across the room in a fit of anger.
"Who else would have written it, Elena?" Stefan looked over at his ex-girlfriend with a questionable look on his face, she proceeded to tear up the note addressed to her young brother, searching through the draw again she spotted the aspirin bottle Alaric had mentioned before, popping the cap off she poured the contents into her hands revealing the wedding ring.
"C'mon, Grace." Elena told her keeping her voice as level as she could "we need to get back to Alaric." She swiftly walked from the room and Grace towed along behind her.
Meredith stumbled sluggishly into the kitchen lazily glancing around the cupboards trying to find what she needed to make some more coffee, she felt as if she was about about to crash completely, but her love for Alaric kept her awake almost.
"Looking for something?" Alaric suddenly appeared in the kitchen behind her, his silent approach took her by surprise and she jolted as she heard his eerily low voice.
"I don't know where anything is in this house." She muttered as she grabbed two mugs from the shelf placing them on the side grabbing the coffee from the maker beginning to pour the liquid inside "I'm sorry, I can't remember, do you take cream?"
"No cream." Alaric answered his eyes were blank of any emotions and she couldn't read them completely, the doctor assumed the lack of sleep had gotten to him and shrugged a little.
"I was gonna make sandwiches. I'm starving." Meredith informed him making her way over to the fridge beginning to search through it with a pondering look on her face as she searched the insides.
"Can I ask you a question?" Alaric looked over at the doctor cocking an eye brow, Meredith smirked a little as she looked over her shoulder at him.
"No mustard. I hate mustard." She replied with a teasing look in her dark brown eyes, Alaric nodded but his face was filled with no humour at all, the doctor began to wonder if she had done something wrong.
"Do you ever feel remorse?"
Meredith quickly turned back to the history teacher surprised by his question, her face was filled with confusion whilst his was filled with nothing she had ever seen, there was a darkness that filled his usually timid orbs, his mouth a thin line as he watched her carefully.
"I'm sorry?" She stuttered taken back by his question not following where he was going.
"Well..." He picked up a sharp knife from the cutting boarding, rolling it in his hands with expert skills whilst taking slow steps towards the doctor "You are a council member. And the council was formed to protect the people of this town from vampires and yet, here you all are, just looking the other way, ignoring your responsibilities. Like you and your vampire blood." His voice was low and threatening "So I'm asking you, do you ever feel remorse? Because you should."
Alaric swiped down and slashed her hip with the knife, a deep gash, she called out and dropped her mug from her hands making the mug and the liquid spill out on the floor. She dashed into the dinning room over to her purse searching through with one hand whilst adding pressure to her wound with the other, she was taken by surprise when she saw the tranquillizers were completely empty.
Making a run for the stairs she managed to dodge past Alaric and reach the bathroom locking the door that lead from Jeremy's room and from the hall way, turning to lock the way from Elena's room but as she did Alaric grabbed the handle trying to pull it open with all of his masculine strength.
Releasing her hand from her wound for a moment pulled on the hand with all of her strength, but it was no use against his rage, seeing a pair of scissors on the side she grabbed them and sliced them into his hand, he called out and released the door allowing her to slam it shut and lock it quickly before falling to the floor seeing her wound was bleeding continuously.
Damon drove at breakneck speed as she approached Wickery Bridge, he saw a bonfire as he slammed his foot on the break, opening his car and climbing out to see the blonde Original smirking at him, crossing her arms over her chest as she faced him.
"Your grand plans always seem to get ruined, don't they." Rebekah pouted her eyes filling with a devilish look "Sorry to disappoint you. Again." With that she zipped away from the burning wood Damon noticed as the white oak tree.
Damon swore under his breath he turned around and saw his red head teacher standing next to his car with a tough look on her face.
"You set me up!" Damon advanced towards her but Sage gave him a look that made him stop dead in his tracks, he would surely die if he tried to fight her, there would be no point in it.
"No. I'm just looking out for myself." Sage shrugged a little bit, sticking her hip out to the side whilst crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.
Damon growled loudly as he looked into the frosty eyes of his mentor "I told you I'd save your creepy boyfriend-"
"And you lied to me, Damon!" Sage interrupted him and his mouth went ajar " I spoke to Rebekah whilst you were burning the milling records, she told me all about her mothers linking spell! If one dies they all die, and you know what? She's pissed at you Damon and she knows better ways to get back at you than just going got you"
Damon's anger flared up when she stated this, he rushed for her slamming her down against the hood of his car by her throat "If you're even trying to threaten Grace, I am going to end you"
"I'm 900 years old, Damon. You're not capable of ending me!" Sage retorted in a rasped voice as she flipped him holding him against the hood of the car this time, denting it ever so slightly.
"How do you think Mama Original linked them?" Damon growled at her "Someone had to spill blood from their family and I'm willing to bet Rebekah didn't tell you that it was your suicidal boyfriend Finn!"
"You're lying! He wouldn't do that!" She hissed flashing her fangs at him threatening, tightening her grip on his neck cutting off his air flow and cutting off his speech.
"He didn't want you! He didn't want to live." Damon managed to rasp out, clawing against her tightening grip but he could feel it loosening as he hurt her with words "Not for you. Not for anyone! He doesn't love you, Sage. Now, when I do find a way to kill those Originals, I'll start with Finn."
Elena and Grace both entered the Gilbert house when suddenly the younger vampire stopped dead seeing a trail of blood leading up the stairs, the doppelgänger's arm was grabbed as Stefan walked into the room, he signalled them both to be quiet as he entered the kitchen to search.
"Hey there." Alaric took both of the females by surprise as he walked down the stairs drying his bloody hand with a towel, Grace sniffled a little before placing Elena behind her protectively.
"Hi." Grace's voice was shy and small as she watched the man reach the very bottom of the stairs, she saw Stefan approach from behind now letting Alaric know he was there "Where's Meredith."
"Oh, she got called into the hospital for a last minute surgery, but she'll be back later." Alaric lied convincingly through his teeth, but Stefan saw through it and so did Grace when she smelt the blood fill the room again.
"What happened to your hand?"
"You and your vampire senses." Alaric cursed giving her a cruel smile "I, uh, I broke a coffee cup and sliced my hand open trying to pick up the pieces. Did Stefan catch up with you?"
"No." Grace answered quickly as Elena looked over her shoulder concerned, she was clutching the back of her twins shirt a little scared of his up beat attitude.
"Did you find my ring?" He looked directly at the doppelgänger who gulped sliding the ring secretly into her pocket so he couldn't see it.
"I couldn't find it." She whispered in response and Grace shrugged a little.
"Yeah, well my place is a bit of a disaster." Alaric reasoned in a smirk "I guess I'll just have to go get it." He went to step forward when there was a clutter, a knife fell to the floor it was covered in blood and Elena stepped back hitting the door, Grace quickly grabbed the knife and Stefan attacked Alaric putting him in the sleeper hold.
"Don't hurt him!" Elena called out, he may be a serial killer, but he was still Alaric, her guardian the man that had been in love with her aunt and had been looking after her and her brother.
"I'm not trying to." Stefan answered as he felt Alaric fall limp in his arms, laying he carefully on the floor he looked up the stairs "We need to go up there, but I-"
"I'll help you." Elena assured him a soft voice as they all made their way up the stairs as they reached the top Stefan broke the door down to see Meredith sitting on the floor covered in blood, Stefan held his breath and Grace rubbed his back soothingly "Meredith. Hey." She tried to wake her.
Stefan's face changed at the smell of the blood, his throat burned terribly and his muscles flexed, tightening when Elena turned back and looked at him it assured him and he restored himself to its normal state. Quickly he bit into his wrist and fed the doctor and Elena smiled thankfully at him, love shinning in her wide orbs.
A little while later Grace turned and walked into the history teachers room to see Damon collecting some of Alaric's things, he gave her subtle smile as he bagged them messily, just throwing things in the bag without a care.
"So, uh, was your night as eventful as mine?" She leaned against the door frame crossing her arms over her chest he nodded smirking a little as she stepped further into the room perching on the end of the bed.
"You could say that." He muttered as he ruffled his hands through his raven black hair "You were brave today." He rubbed her back as he took a seat next to her "And Sage... Sage is a bitch anyway."
"Yeah, I noticed that." She joked looking up into his icy eyes that melted her heart, loving how close he was to her, their lips were so close he could feel her bottom lip quiver as he brushed his against it, she gulped when suddenly the door opened.
"Just to let you know, Alaric is waking up downstairs, might want to get him out of here now." Stefan entered the room and Grace abruptly moved away from Damon startled, the older vampire closed his eyes and let out a breath from raising from his seat.
Later on Alaric's eyes fluttered open and he saw that he was laying in his bed in his apartment, glancing to the side he saw Damon lunching on a chair waiting for him to wake up.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Alaric's voice was raspy and his throat was bruised from where Stefan had man-handled him.
"Just making sure the witch didn't turn you into a toad or a block of salt. Bonnie did a little spell, it's nothing to worry about, it's just something to keep the killer in you at bay." Damon replied with a smirk as he sat up right.
"Did something happen?" The teacher questioned as he looked down at the gasp in his hands, he creased his eye brows unsure to why he had them.
"Let's just say you've got an alter ego hell bent on killing council members. So we're gonna pack up some of your stuff, we're gonna stay in this loft, just for a little bit. You know it's like house arrest." Damon shrugged a little as he glanced around the room.
"Wait, where's Meredith?" Alaric's suddenly began frantic and worried, trying to get out of the bed as fast as he could, but Damon was faster and made him stay.
"She'll be fine, Ric."
Elena was doing the kitchen in silence with Grace sat on the island in the middle of the kitchen drying the dish absent mindedly, she glanced over to the side when she saw Bonnie enter the kitchen with a solemn look on her face.
"Hey." The witches voice was small and awkwardly as she stood there, Elena stopped washing up and looked over at the twin with a grateful smile "You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Elena answered drying her hands on a tea towel, Grace smiled softly at her twin an assuring look.
"Abby says that all the dying and coming back to life might have chipped away at Alaric's psyche, making it easier for the darkness to take hold." She placed a small circular container on the side "These herbs are the binding element of the spell. He needs to take them twice a day." Grace picked them up and observed them before handing them to Elena "I'll get you more. Abby and I are working on her garden."
"How is she doing?" Elena questioned rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly before placing the container safely on the side.
"The transition's been hard, but I think she'll be ok. Eventually." Bonnie muttered "I'm gonna go back and stay with her for a while, it'll give us a chance to work things through."
Elena began to tear up feeling so much guilt take up her emotions "I'm sorry, Bonnie, I – I didn't – I didn't want this to happen." She stuttered "If there was anything that I could do to make it different, I..."
All the girls were surprised when the witch quickly embraced the doppelgänger tightly holding her in her arms "I know."
"Please say that you forgive me." Elena sniffled looking into the witches sad, wide eyes.
"Of course I do." Bonnie purred reaching over and squeezing Grace's hand gently giving her a kind look, Grace sniffled and hugged them both.
Later that night Elena glanced over at Grace who was passed out on the couch with an open book on her chest, her twin moved over and closed it, folding the page first before placing it on the side. She grabbed a blanket from the cupboard and placed it over her lovingly tucking her in.
Grabbing her phone she called 'Jeremy' holding the phone to her ear walking over to the window in the living room, her brother picked up after two rings.
"Hello?" He questioned.
"Hey, stranger." Elena joked in a smirk she could feel the fear and pain of missing him deep in her chest, but he could hear it in her voice.
"Hey, are you checking up on me?" Jeremy joked and Elena laughed a little, honestly she just missed him, she had never been away from him for so long.
"Do you need checking up on?" Elena smirked and he chuckled on the other end continuing to pack his bag.
"Well, I'm not flunking any of my classes. Yet." He added with a laugh "And I got a dog!" He informed her and she smiled, he sounded so happy, Grace's compulsion had worked perfectly.
"Hey, have you talked to Alaric lately?" The fact that Alaric had left Jeremy a letter scared her that he might be going the same way.
"No, why? Is everything ok?" Jeremy asked and if Elena really thought about it nothing was ok, she felt as if she was so alone even though she was surrounded by so many people that loved her, she felt as if her life was falling apart at the seams.
"Yeah, everything's fine, erm, I just wanted to hear your voice." She hiccuped trying to mask her true feelings and trying not to wake her sleeping twin, she looked so peaceful and even though Grace tried to hide it she saw the pain that she was feeling.
"Ok. Hey, can I call you later? I'm actually on my way out with some friends." Jeremy replied smirking a little not catching that his sister was so upset.
"Yeah, oh yeah, of course." Elena smiled drying her eyes looking over her shoulder as Grace moved around in her sleep "Go out, go have fun, and, erm, I – I just miss you."
"Yeah. Yeah, I miss you too." Jeremy answered as he hung up, Elena stared at the screen of her phone beginning to ball her eyes out, she slowly walked over to her twin and moved her legs sitting down with her.
Stefan was sitting in the Salvatore library with a drink of whiskey when Damon walked in with something cloaked in a white sheet, he couldn't work out what it was.
"What are we celebrating?" Damon questioned as he walked over to him "I'm pretty sure the Original's aren't dead yet."
"I'm just having a little toast." Stefan replied raising his glass, but Damon creased his eye brows unsure as to why he was celebrating "To control."
"If you're happy, I'm happy." Damon nodded grabbing a glass for himself.
"Why are you in such a good mood?" The younger brother questioned looking over at Damon who was smiling almost smugly "Sage double-crossed you, tree's a pile of ash, Alaric's got a psychopathic alter ego."
"Well, dear brother of mine, I'm philanthropist, I make the world a better place." Damon smirked with a beaming pearly white smile "Restoring bridges, landmarks and..." He uncloaked the sheet to reveal the Wickery Bridge sign "Historical signs made of the same white oak as the Wickery Bridge."
"They think the wood burned." Stefan smirked a little knowing that all the Original's, including the bitch Sage was all fooled thanks to his brother and finally they could take care of the pesky Original family once and for all.
"I sold my rage." Damon smirked shrugging his shoulders egotistically "You should have seen me."
"We have a weapon." Stefan ran his hands over the wood carefully glancing over as his brother rose his glass in a cheers fashion at him.
"Game's back on, brother. Let's go kill some Originals." Damon retorted with a knowing smirk, he could finally kill Klaus and have Grace all to himself, finally he could be happy and with the one he loved.
Hello Everyone!
Thank you so much for reading this chapter and this story, I really appreciate it everyone who faves, alerts, reviews, I really love you all!
I know some of you were a little pissed or upset, or whatever that Grace got with Klaus last chapter, and I do apologise if you felt that way, but if she didn't she would have lived her whole life thinking 'what if' so it had to happen in a weird way.
Who do you think loves Grace more? Damon or Klaus? And why does he love him? I really want to know what you think :)
If you want to see pictures of Grace Gilbert, read sneak previews, ever want to speak to me then you can catch me on tumblr little-vampire-girl1 . tumblr . com or you can just speak to me on here!
Graciiee xx