[1x13; Children of the Damned]
"Why are you waking me up at eight on a weekend?" Lucy groaned into her phone, eyes squinting from the bright light the screen was giving off.
"Because, Twitch," Damon drawled, turning signal clicking in the background. "Stefan promised to help me get Katherine out of that tomb so that means you and Elena are helping too."
Lucy sighed heavily and rolled onto her back. "That still doesn't answer my question about you waking me up."
"Well, Stefan and Elena are shaking up in his room and I'm coming to get you so we can have a team meeting," Damon informed her. "Get dressed. I'll be there in five."
"No, Damon—and he hung up," Lucy rolled her eyes and reluctantly rolled out of bed, tossing her phone onto her nightstand.
Knowing that Damon would probably drag her out of her room whether she was dressed or not, Lucy quickly pulled on some clothes and pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, not bothering to put any work into her appearance. She quickly brushed her teeth and went downstairs, not surprised to see Damon sitting casually on the couch in the living room.
"Morning," she greeted him with a sigh as he hopped up at her entrance.
"Good morning. Let's go," he said, hurrying her out of the house. Lucy could hardly keep up with his fast pace and she was pretty sure he was going human-speed.
"You're awfully eager," Lucy commented, slipping into Damon's Camaro that strangely smelt like apples and cinnamon. It was a welcoming scent that had her thinking more of fall than the upcoming winter.
"Well," Damon started up the car and pulled away from the curb, speeding down the small street Lucy lived on. "I'm getting Katherine back soon. All is well in Damon's world."
Lucy smiled; despite Damon's actions since he arrived in Mystic Falls—actions that she did not approve of in any way, shape, or form—she was still happy for him. He spent one hundred and forty-five years waiting for Katherine and it was obvious how much he missed her. In a strange—very strange—way, it was kind of romantic.
"I'm happy for you."
Damon gave Lucy a skeptical look; she didn't even like him all that much. Why would she be happy that he was getting Katherine back. "No, you're not."
"I am," Lucy insisted. "Don't give me that look, Damon. Everyone deserves love, okay? Even murderous vampires who want to kill me half the time."
The corners of Damon's lips turned up slightly. "A quarter of the time," he corrected her. Lucy wasn't half bad, especially when she wasn't being all high and mighty. He hated to admit it, but the youngest Gilbert sister was growing on him.
Lucy grinned; never would she have thought a couple months ago that she was one day going to enjoy spending time with Damon Salvatore. He wasn't off the hook for all the things he had done and he could be pretty idiotic at times, but maybe he deserved a second chance.
Damon and Lucy arrived at the Salvatore Boarding House within minutes. As Lucy followed Damon into the house, he pressed a finger up against his lips, silently telling her to keep quiet. She nodded and took light steps as they went up the stairs.
"Where are we going?" Lucy whispered, quietening her voice when Damon sent her a sharp look.
"Stefan's room," Damon practically mouthed.
Lucy grimaced—she didn't particularly want to see whatever state her sister and Stefan were in. Nevertheless, she followed the oldest Salvatore and tip-toed into Stefan's room after he opened the door.
Stefan's room was huge, maybe twice the size of hers. There was a large round table in the middle of the room, a king-sized bed against one of the walls, and a sizable walk-in closet and attached bathroom. The décor was rustic and what Lucy expected out of Stefan, but the mess horrified her. There were numbered journals thrown all over the place, half-burnt candles scattered here and there, and papers piled high and messily.
Lucy avoided looking at the bed where Elena and Stefan were sleeping and wandered over to the large bookshelf that was packed to the brim. There were two deep shelves devoted just to journals, each with a different year printed on the spine. They went all the way back to 1863.
Stefan's whole life were in these journals…it was amazing.
"Rise and shine, sleepyheads!" Damon's voice caught her attention. She looked over to see that Damon had perched himself at the edge of Stefan's bed. Elena and Stefan startled at his voice and quickly pulled the sheet covering themselves higher on their semi-nude bodies.
"Damon!" Elena gasped, her eyes jumping from Damon to Lucy. "Lucy!"
"What are you doing?" Stefan groaned at his brother.
"Oh, stop being smutty," Damon smirked at them.
"Seriously," Stefan snapped. "Get out of here."
"If I see something I haven't seen before, I'll throw a dollar at it."
"Is that a Katherine-and-Elena-being-identical joke or is it you being a man-whore joke?" Lucy asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked over to Damon's side.
Stefan rolled his eyes and sat up against his headboard while Elena groaned in annoyance.
"Both," Damon winked at Lucy before turning back to Stefan and Elena. "Now, listen, we have some very important business to discuss."
"And it has to be right now?" Elena glared at Damon.
"He dragged me out of bed on a Saturday morning so we could meet up," Lucy sighed, giving Elena a pointed look. "If I have to deal with him, so do you."
"Well, we have lots to do now that we're all friends and working toward a common goal," Damon explained. "So, in order to open the tomb, we need to find the journal to get the grimoire to undo the spells. First thing's first," Damon gave Lucy and Elena separate but significant looks. "Since you are Elena and Lucy Gilbert," he emphasized their last name. "You two are on journal duty."
"Since when am I helping?" Elena grumped.
"Well, Stefan's helping and you've taken up residence in Stefan's bed, ergo…"
Lucy rolled her eyes as Stefan looked at Elena and said, "You don't have to do anything you don't want to."
"Yes, she does," Lucy interjected; if she had to help an ancient vampire break out of a spelled tomb, Elena had to help too. "We'll look tonight. It shouldn't be hard to find."
"Good," Damon gave Lucy a nod of approval.
"How do we know that this journal will hold the location of the grimoire?" Stefan wondered, looking at Damon curiously. "We're really going to take the word of this vampire? He seemed like a bit of a dimwit."
"Or desperate," Lucy added thoughtfully; since the vampire confessed while Stefan was stabbing him in the abdomen with the broom handle, he could have said something random.
Damon shrugged. "In lieu of any other options…"
"Okay," Elena sat up on her elbows. "What exactly is a grimoire, anyway?"
"It's a witch's cookbook," Damon supplied.
Lucy shook her head at Damon and informed Elena, "Every spell that a witch casts is unique unto itself. So, every witch would document their work."
"Yeah," Damon rolled his eyes. "Cookbook."
"What about our mystery vampire?" Stefan asked quickly, noticing that Lucy was getting annoyed with Damon's lack of respect toward her newly-found life. "Dimwit obviously wasn't working alone, so whoever is out there knows who we are."
"And I don't like that disadvantage, so—" Damon stood up and nodded at Lucy, gesturing her to follow him. "Chop, chop."
As Damon and Lucy were walking out of Stefan's room, Damon turned and said, "You know, I really like this foursome team thing. It's got a bit of a kink to it."
"You did not just say that," Lucy groaned, disgusted.
"Shh," he shushed her before pointing at Stefan and Elena. "Don't screw it up."
"Okay," Lucy said as she led Elena and Stefan through the house to the dining room and kitchen where she placed the boxes that held the Gilbert family possessions. "I got all the boxes out of the closet. I didn't see anything at the top, but that doesn't mean that the journal isn't there."
Elena's eyes widened at the boxes sitting in between the kitchen island and dining table. "You got all these out by yourself?"
"Jenna helped before she went to Whitmore," Lucy explained before adding, "I told her it was for an extra-credit project for History, don't worry."
She knew that Elena was worried about Jenna finding out about the existence of vampires and magic. To be honest, Lucy didn't mind if Jenna knew. She wanted to share her species with her aunt because she knew Jenna wouldn't care about her powers.
"Those boxes were Mom's things," Lucy pointed to the stack of three boxes separated from the rest. "I don't think the journal should be in there, but sometimes things get mixed up. I usually keep things organized but Jeremy got into the boxes a couple days ago."
"You spend a lot of time with this stuff, huh?" Stefan asked her, hands stuffed in his pockets. He had to admit that it was cute the way Lucy was passionate about her family history, even if she was adopted. She got a little twinkle in her eye when she was explaining.
"Yeah, it helps with my place on the planning committee," Lucy nodded. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom and then we can get started."
As Lucy walked out of the room, Elena gave Stefan a significant look. "Did you tell her that we're not really going to help Damon?"
Stefan shook his head. "No. Did you?"
"No," Elena sighed and sat down at the table, dragging a box in front of her and opening it. "There's no sense to now…Do you think Damon really believes that we're trying to help him?"
Stefan pressed his lips together thoughtfully and sat down at the island, facing Elena. "I don't think Damon knows what to believe," he admitted. "Trust isn't something that comes naturally to him. I'm surprised that he's dragged you and Lucy into this."
Elena silently agreed, pulling an old photo album out of the box. "You know, I really think that Damon believes that everything he's done, every move that he's made—he's done for love. It's twisted but kind of sad."
"There are other ways to get what you want," Stefan countered, crossing his arms over his chest. "You don't have to kill people. Damon has no regard for human life. He enjoys inflicting pain on others. For 145 years, every single time that I have let my guard down and let Damon back into my life, he's done something to make me regret that," he inhaled deeply. "I'm not going to make that mistake again."
Elena gave him a sympathetic look, wishing that the Salvatore brothers' relationship was more like hers with her siblings. "So what do you think will happen if the tomb gets opened and Damon gets Katherine back?"
"I think that no matter what Damon promises, a lot of people will die," Stefan stated seriously.
Stefan straightened up when he heard Lucy walking down the stairs, steps light and bouncy. He pressed his index finger to his lips, warning Elena that Lucy was coming and to drop the subject.
It was best that they kept Lucy out of their plan.
"Okay, I'm back," Lucy proclaimed as she walked into the room, taking a seat next to Elena. "Did you find anything?"
"Not yet," Elena answered as she picked a photo out of the box. The picture was of a man, dated back to the late 1800s.
"That's Jonathan Gilbert," Stefan, who stood behind Elena to get a look at the picture, informed the girls.
Lucy recognized the name as the man who owned the journal they were looking for. Thinking that the journal would be in the box with the rest of Jonathan Gilbert's things, she dug further through the items. She pulled out a heavy wooden box and opened the clasp.
"What's this?" she wondered. What looked to be a crude muzzle made out of metal was snuggled into the box, looking threatening.
Lucy looked up at Stefan to see if he had any clue and realized that he must have recognized it. His worried-vampire face was on as he stared at the box's contents.
Before she could prod him for more details, Jeremy walked into the room.
"What are you guys doing?" he asked, looking over the many boxes.
"Hey!" Elena greeted him, pulling the box from Lucy's hands and closing it back up. "Just going through some stuff, feeling sentimental."
"Dad had this old family journal from years ago," Lucy informed Jeremy. "We thought we'd dig it up."
"Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Jeremy jumped up, sitting on a counter.
Lucy raised her eyebrows, surprised. "Yeah," she confirmed. "What do you know about it?"
"I just did a history report on it."
"Oh," Elena seemed just as surprised as Lucy. "So, where is it now?"
"I gave it to Mr. Saltzman," Jeremy stated. "He wanted to see it."
Lucy and Elena immediately looked at Stefan; he had some work to do.
Stefan doubted that anyone would be at the school on a Saturday afternoon, but luck was nearly never on his side. As soon as he entered the building, he could hear a heart beat thumping slowly from the history hallway.
If it was Mr. Saltzman who was there, all he had to do was distract him and speed into the classroom to search for the journal and get out as quickly as possible.
Before he could even kick a locker to make a noise, another noise came from a few feet away. Stefan quickly hid and when Mr. Saltzman came out of his classroom, loudly asking the empty hallway if anyone was there, Stefan ran into his classroom.
As Stefan searched for the journal on the desk, he listened to Mr. Saltzman running around and opening a locket. He couldn't find anything on the desk—there was no journal in sight, which pissed him off.
Who knows where the journal could be now?
Next thing Stefan knew, he was dodging a flying stake. He grabbed the wooden stake midair and glared at the perpetrator, surprised to see Mr. Saltzman holding what looked to be an air-pressure gun, more stakes in a holster.
Who the fuck was this guy?
Mr. Saltzman hurriedly grabbed another stake and shakily loaded it into the gun. Stefan rolled his eyes, annoyed, and flashed behind the teacher, grabbing the gun out of his hands.
"You shouldn't have done that," he scolded the man as he grunted. He pushed Mr. Saltzman away from him, causing him to crash into the desks in the middle of the room.
Mr. Saltzman jumped to his feet, giving Stefan a cautious look.
"Have a seat," Stefan advised him, pointing to the desk he held onto. As Mr. Saltzman slowly lowered himself into the seat, Stefan looked over the gun. He had to admit, he was slightly impressed with the way the man created a gun specifically for wooden stakes. "What is this, compressed air?"
Mr. Saltzman nodded, a bewildered look on his face.
"Did you make it yourself?" Stefan asked, interested. He shook his head, quickly realizing that this wasn't the time to geek out about an air-pressure stake-gun. He moved on, "Who are you?"
There was no way this guy was simply a history teacher.
Mr. Saltzman hesitated and Stefan sighed, "I'm not going to hurt you…unless you try that again," he handed Mr. Saltzman the gun back and hopped onto one of the desks across from him. "Now, who are you?"
"I'm a teacher."
Stefan couldn't help but smile in amusement; he knew without a doubt that the man was lying. Sure, he was a teacher, but he was also something more. "Are we going to have to do this the hard way?"
"I'm also a historian," Mr. Saltzman admitted. "And while researching Virginia, I made a few discoveries about your town."
"So you show up like Van Helsing?" Stefan raised his eyebrows. "Come on. Tell me the truth."
Mr. Saltzman exhaled shakily. "My wife was a parapsychologist. She spent her life researching paranormal activity in this area. It was her work that led me here."
"Where's your wife?"
"Dead," Mr. Saltzman stated, jaw tensed. "A vampire killed her."
Stefan wanted to sympathize with Mr. Saltzman, but he couldn't ignore what he was sent here to do. He needed to get the Gilbert journal before Damon and burn it. "Where's the Gilbert journal?"
"What do you want with it?"
"Where is it?"
"It's on my desk," Mr. Saltzman nodded over at his desk.
"No, it's not," Stefan just searched the whole thing and there was no sign of the journal.
Mr. Saltzman looked at his desk, his eyes widening when he saw that the journal wasn't where he left it. "It was on my desk."
"Do you have a copy of it?" Stefan asked, hoping that the teacher would. Then he didn't even need to find the journal.
"Yes."
"Good. How long have you been aware of me?" Stefan wondered.
"I learned just recently," Mr. Saltzman gave him a pointed look. "What about your brother?"
"You met Damon," Stefan assumed.
Mr. Saltzman scoffed. "Who do you think killed my wife?"
Stefan wasn't surprised that it was Damon that killed Mr. Saltzman's wife, but he had to make sure. "Are you certain it was Damon?"
"I witnessed it," Mr. Saltzman insisted.
Stefan inhaled deeply. "If you're here for revenge, this is going to end very badly for you."
"I just want to find out what happened to my wife."
Stefan furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "I just thought you said that Damon—"
"Yeah," Mr. Saltzman sighed. "I saw him draining the life out of her. He must have heard me coming. He just…disappeared. So did her body. They never found her."
Stefan sighed, this time allowing himself to empathize with Mr. Saltzman. He lost someone and he didn't deserve to die just because he wanted to find out what happened to his wife—who was more likely to be tossed in a random ditch somewhere.
"Damon can never know why you're here," he told the history teacher. "He'll kill you without blinking."
"I can take care of myself," Mr. Saltzman proclaimed. "Besides, your brother isn't the only reason I came to Mystic Falls."
"And that reason is…?"
"I want to find my daughter."
Lucy sat on the couch, lodged between Damon and Jeremy as all three of them stared at the divided television screen where Lucy was in tenth place in Mario Kart. She cheered when the blue shell she had her character throw hit Damon's character, who was in first place.
"Yes, yes, yes!" she hissed, passing three more characters to be in seventh.
"You're no match for me, Twitch," Damon taunted her.
Just as she was about to reply, the doorbell rang. Damon paused the game and got up, Lucy following after him. She vaguely heard Jeremy complain as she and Damon walked behind Elena to answer the door for Stefan.
Stefan looked surprised to see Damon with Lucy and Elena but Lucy thought nothing of it. It was pretty weird that Damon showed up to cook dinner for them—and the fact that he was playing video games was pretty out there as well.
"Well?" Damon asked impatiently.
Stefan gestured for Lucy, Elena, and Damon to join him on the porch and quickly explained that Mr. Saltzman didn't have Jonathan Gilbert's journal. He had spoken to the man and discovered that it had been taken when the teacher was out of his classroom.
"Who took it?" Damon hissed, frustrated.
"I don't know," Stefan sighed.
"You know what, it's that teacher," Damon declared, quickly turning around to face Lucy, Elena, and Stefan. "There's something really off about him."
"No, he doesn't know anything," Stefan replied immediately; he didn't want Damon to find out about the vampire-hunting teacher or the reasons he was in Mystic Falls. "Somebody got to him right before me."
"Who else knew it was there?" Damon wondered.
Stefan looked to his right, through the window where Jeremy had started up a new video game. Damon followed his sight line and started walking to the door, wanting to get some answers out of Jeremy.
Lucy realized what Damon was about to do. "No, Damon," she warned the oldest Salvatore. "Leave him out of it."
"Why, what's the big deal?" Damon said nonchalantly, walking into the house.
"Damon!" Elena scolded as she, Lucy, and Stefan followed him.
"So…" Damon sat on the couch arm next to Jeremy. "I heard you found a really cool journal from back in the day. Who else did you show it to?"
"Huh?" Jeremy was sufficiently distracted.
"Don't ask questions," Damon advised. "Just spill."
Jeremy scoffed. "You're kidding me, right?"
"Jere, did you tell anyone other than Mr. Saltzman about Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Lucy asked her brother firmly. She just wanted this whole thing over with; vampire drama was tiring.
Jeremy gave Lucy a weird look. "Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?"
"Who else did you tell?" Elena huffed.
"Just that girl, Anna."
"The hot, weird one?" Damon recalled his conversation with the youngest Gilbert about the girl he was dodging.
"Yeah."
"Wait, who is Anna?" Stefan was confused, as was Lucy and Elena, who had no idea that Jeremy was hanging out with anyone.
"That's what I want to find out," Damon stated as Elena's phone rang. Elena walked out of the room and Damon turned back to Jeremy. "Who do you know her?"
Jeremy shrugged. "I just know her," he said like it was obvious. "She wants me to meet her at the Grill tonight."
"Perfect," Damon smiled tightly. "I'll drive. Lucy, you're with us. Come on."
Lucy nodded and gave Stefan a small smile as she followed Damon and Jeremy out of the house.
Fifteen minutes later saw Lucy and Damon sitting at a hidden table at the Grill waiting for Jeremy's mysterious friend, Anna, to show up. Much time didn't pass before a girl, around Lucy's size, walked into the restaurant and approached Jeremy.
Lucy saw Damon's eyes widen as he watched Jeremy and Anna rack up the pool table to play a game.
"Do you recognize her?" Lucy asked him.
"Yeah," Damon threw down the rest of his bourbon, setting the glass back on the table. "Back in 1864, Katherine had a best friend named Pearl. That girl," he pointed to Anna. "is Pearl's daughter."
Lucy groaned shortly and leaned back in her chair. "So, Anna stole Jonathan Gilbert's journal, presumably to find Emily Bennett's grimoire to open the tomb?"
"Yep," Damon pursed his lips. "Which means that we have to have a little visit with Annabelle."
"Oh, goody."
At first, Lucy didn't know exactly she and Damon were going to be able to break into Anna's motel room, but she knew she didn't want to be arrested for breaking and entering. Luckily, Damon was a vampire and could easily compel his way into a room key. The motel receptionist was obviously not wearing or ingesting vervain, because she complied, handing out the room key like it was candy at a parade.
Lucy and Damon waited an hour, chatting quietly about the vampires he knew of in 1864, for Anna to come back from the Grill. It turned out that Damon didn't know most of the vampires stuck in the tomb, just Katherine and Anna's mother, Pearl.
Finally, the door unlocked and Anna stepped into the dark room. Almost immediately, Damon sped at her, grabbing her around the neck to press her against the wall. Unfortunately, Anna was stronger than Damon and wrapped her hand around his throat, both of them choking against each other's grip.
Lucy stepped forward to help Damon, but he held up his hand at her, stopping her before she could do anything to help him.
"All right," he choked out through Anna's grip. "I give."
Anna and Damon let go of each other at the same time and coughed harshly as their bruised throats healed.
"Damn," Damon groaned hoarsely. "You're strong for a little thing."
"I was wondering how long it would take you to find me," Anna said, taking her bag off and setting it on the table next to Lucy. She gave the Gilbert girl a curious, but not-surprised, look.
"How long have you been here?" Damon asked the older vampire.
"I arrived around half-past comet," Anna turned back around to face Damon. "Watching you screw up every chance you had to open that tomb."
Damon gave her a sarcastic smile. "How did you know about the spell?"
"I didn't say much back then," Anna stated matter-of-factly. "Which means I heard everything."
"So if you've been here the whole time, then why are we just crossing paths right now?"
"I like to use others to do my dirty work."
Damon scoffed in realization. "Like Logan Fell?" Lucy raised her eyebrows in surprise as Damon continued, "Oh, yeah, thanks for that, by the way. The little bastard shot me."
Anna laughed. "Logan was an idiot," she rolled her eyes. "We slipped him some blood when he started getting all poser-slayer with that compass. I needed his family's journal so I couldn't let him die."
"What did you want with the Fell journal?" Lucy spoke up, curious.
Anna narrowed her eyes at Lucy and crossed her arms. "I thought it contained the location of the witch's spell book. I was wrong. According to her journal, Honoria gave the grimoire to Jonathan Gilbert. And, according to this," Anna walked over to her bag and slipped the journal from it. "he gave it to your—" she nodded at Damon. "—father. So, now you're going to help me find it."
Damon gave Anna an incredulous look. "Why would I help you?"
"'Cause you and I both want that tomb opened."
Anna opened the journal to a bookmarked page and handed it to Damon. Lucy stood on her tip-toes to read whatever Damon was looking at, but all she could see was scrunched up cursive that was hard to read in the dim light of the room.
"Hmm," Damon closed the journal and handed it to Lucy, who pressed it protectively to her chest. "Sorry. We work alone."
As Damon ushered her out of the motel room, Lucy wondered if Damon found what he was looking for.
"Do you know where the grimoire is?" she asked as they walked to Damon's car.
"Yep. In my dear, old Dad's grave," Damon said flatly, both of them getting into the Camaro. "So, that's where we're heading."
"Should I call Elena or Stefan?"
"No," Damon sped down the street, heading toward the old cemetery at the edge of Mystic Falls. "This is now a solo mission, Twitch."
"So why am I still here?"
Damon was silent for a moment, wondering to himself why he was including Lucy. The answer came to him quickly; she was the only one that actually wanted him to have Katherine back. Sure, Stefan was helping, but he only did so that Damon would leave once he got Katherine back.
…and he also figured he could use her to break the spell on the tomb if he couldn't get his hands on the Bennett witch.
So Damon settled with, "You're useful."
It was pitch black outside when they entered the cemetery, so Lucy pulled out her cellphone and turned on the flashlight so she could see where they were going. Damon informed her that his father wasn't in the family crypt, so they had to wander the aisles and rows to find him.
Incredibly enough, when Damon pointed in the direction he remembered his father's grave to be, a fire was made. Damon scowled when he saw it and started to stalk over. Lucy followed him for the thousandth time, wondering what made him grumpy.
She saw what had him aggravated when she spotted Stefan and Elena standing by Giuseppe Salvatore's grave. Stefan was actually in the grave, looking at a fragile-looking book that had to be Emily Bennett's grimoire.
Obviously Stefan and Elena had their own little mission; destroy the grimoire before Damon could get to it.
"Well, what do you know?" Damon drawled as he and Lucy approached Stefan and Elena. "This is an interesting turn of events."
Stefan jumped out of this father's grave and faced Damon. "I can't let you bring her back. I'm sorry."
"So am I," Damon scoffed. "For thinking for even a second that I can trust you."
"Oh, you're not capable of trust," Stefan sneered. "The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."
"Of course I was going to do it myself because the only one I can count on is me!" Damon exclaimed. "You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan. But you…" he looked at Elena, disappointed. "You had me fooled."
Elena had the sense to feel guilty; she looked down at the ground, unable to meet Damon's eyes.
"So what are you going to do now?" Damon looked back at Stefan. "Because if you try to destroy that, I'll rip their hearts out."
Lucy stiffened, shocked by Damon's threat. She had nothing to do with this betrayal and even if she did, no one deserved to die over it. She didn't know if Damon was telling the truth, but she didn't want to find out.
She slowly stepped away from him, wanting out of his reach.
"You won't kill them," Stefan stated confidently.
There was a rush of wind before cold hands wound themselves around Lucy's throat. Lucy gasped, frightened, and tried to reach Damon's skin, but he grabbed her covered arms and held them behind her back.
Lucy made eye contact with Elena and Stefan, heart beating wildly in her chest. Elena looked terrified and even Stefan looked panicked.
"I can do one better," Damon snarled. He pulled his arm from around Lucy's throat and bit his wrist before bringing to Lucy's mouth.
Sensing what he was going to do, Lucy shouted, "Damon, stop!"
Damon didn't listen; he shoved his wrist into Lucy's face, allowing his blood to flood her mouth. Lucy choked, stomach squirming and twisting violently, but she had no choice but to swallow the blood.
"Give me the book, Stefan," Damon warned his brother. "Or I'm snapping her neck and you and I will have a new baby vampire to take care of."
Lucy squealed in protest against Damon's wrist. She didn't want to be a vampire. Never would she ever want to be one. She wanted to grow old, have a successful career, and start a family with the man she loved. She definitely didn't want to drink nauseating blood for the rest of her life.
In Lucy's struggle, to her amazement, she began to siphon from Damon's newly-healed wrist. Damon hissed as his skin glowed red and ripped his arm away from Lucy, making sure he was only touching her clothes.
Lucy gasped, inhaling the cool, fresh air. She promptly gagged, still tasting Damon's blood on her tongue.
"Let her go," Stefan stepped in front of a teary-eyed Elena, making sure Damon wouldn't go for her next. "Let her go, Damon."
"Drop it," Damon demanded, nodding at the grimoire in Stefan's hands.
"I'm not going to give this to you until Lucy is standing next to me," Stefan glared at Damon.
"The problem is, I no longer trust that you'll give it back!" Damon yelled, tightening his grip on Lucy's collarbone.
"What you just did ensures that I will," Stefan promised. "Come on, Damon. She had nothing to do with this."
Damon hesitated for a few seconds before shuffling himself and Lucy forward two steps. Stefan dropped the grimoire, making sure that it landed closer to Damon than himself; he wanted Damon to know he was serious and he wasn't playing around with Lucy's humanity.
Damon looked down at Lucy and frowned for a second before letting go of her arms. He allowed her to step away from him and watched as she slowly walked over to Stefan and Elena's sides. As Lucy fell into her older sister's arms, Damon quickly grabbed the grimoire and sped away.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked Lucy frantically, tightening her arms around the younger girl's shaking frame. "Lucy, are you all—"
Lucy didn't let her finish her question as she broke away from Elena's grasp and bent over, throwing up whatever was in her stomach. Elena grimaced and rubbed Lucy's back, biting her lip as she listened to her sobs.
She knew that Lucy shouldn't have been involved. And even though she and Stefan didn't tell Lucy what they were planning, somehow Lucy got hurt anyway. She tried to push the guilt away as Lucy wiped her mouth with her sleeve but it was overwhelming. Lucy being fed Damon's blood? This was her and Stefan's fault.
"Come on," Stefan said quietly, placing a comforting hand on Lucy's upper back. "Let's get you home."
Lucy didn't respond but allowed herself to be led to Elena's car.
She didn't see her life flash before her eyes like most people said they saw with near-death experiences. Maybe it was because if Damon did actually kill her, she'd wake up in transition. Either way, it shook her to be so close to dying.
Lucy hoped that Damon didn't actually intend to kill her, but she knew he did. In the grand scheme of things, Lucy's life didn't mean anything to Damon. It was probably best that she stayed away from him and started to train her powers better. She didn't want to get caught in a situation like that again.
It was a shame that she was just starting to trust Damon, too.
Lucy brushed her teeth with foamy toothpaste, hoping that the taste of blood and vomit would be taken care of. She scrubbed her tongue as Elena rummaged through the drawers next to her, looking for pain reliever for Lucy to take.
Elena groaned and slammed the drawer shut. "The Aspirin must be downstairs."
Lucy spit out her mouthful of toothpaste and rubbed her temples, wincing at the random sharp aches that presented themselves. It had to be a stress headache—she didn't think vampire blood gave humans headaches like this.
"Does your head hurt?" Stefan asked, leaning against the bathroom doorframe. He and Elena hadn't given her a moment of time alone, scared that something would happen to her.
"Yeah," Lucy sighed, putting her toothbrush back into its place. She scooted past Stefan and entered her bedroom, sitting on her bed while Elena and Stefan hovered near her. "You don't have to hover, you know."
"You have vampire blood in your system, Luce," Elena pointed out, eyebrows raised.
"It was a small amount that should be out of your system by tomorrow, but just in case…" Stefan shrugged, not wanting to take any chances.
Lucy rolled her eyes and looked at Stefan, noticing the prominent frown on his face. She understood that the night went horribly wrong and he lost whatever trust Damon was starting to have in him again, but something else was bothering him.
"Are you okay, Broody?"
Stefan pressed his lips together. "Damon was right," he admitted. "This is my fault."
Stefan explained why Damon had hated him for one hundred and forty-five years. Long ago, after their father had informed them about the vampire problem in Mystic Falls, Stefan felt like he could tell his father the truth about Katherine. His father saw right through him and dosed his drink with vervain, eventually catching Katherine when she drank from Stefan. Damon blamed him for her capture even now.
"I put my faith in my father," Stefan sighed. "But Damon put his faith in me and I destroyed that. This is my fault."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Elena assured him with a gentle smile.
"Elena's right," Lucy added with a firm nod. "Damon's actions are his own fault. You can't be blamed for everything."
Stefan gave the Gilbert sisters a small smiled and sighed, "I'll go get some Aspirin for your headache, Luce."
"Thanks, Stefan."
After Stefan left the room, Elena sighed heavily and walked over to Lucy's dresser, opening the drawer full of pajamas.
"What pajamas did you want to wear, Lou?" she asked, rummaging through the soft clothing.
Lucy rolled her eyes and laughed. "You don't have to get my pajamas for me, Lenabug," she stood up to walk over to Elena. "I can do it my—"
Lucy didn't get to finish her statement as Jeremy's vampire friend, Anna, rushed into the room, knocking her and Elena out within seconds. She pulled both of their unconscious bodies into her arms and jumped out the window, knowing that Stefan wouldn't know about Lucy and Elena's disappearance for another minute or so.
Anna didn't have the witch's grimoire but now she had the witch's incentive.