Hello! I'm back with a plot heavy chapter~ Sorry it took so long but when I was writing the chapter it took a hard left turn and I had to replan a lot to make it work.
Hopefully you like the chapter cause I'm rather happy with it!
In other news, I posted two new stories. One for Buffy the Vampire Slayer that will be an OZxOC and then a Stranger Things story that is an EddiexOC. If you like Ghost of Lifetimes Past then you'll definitely enjoy those!
Thank you to everyone that reviewed, favorited, and followed! It really does keep me motivated to write!
With a thump, the body dropped to the floor, veins gray.
"I cannot believe I forgot to deal with this fucker." Lissa complained. "His whole stalking shtick is so damn annoying."
"No finesse either. It's a shame so many vampires go for cliches." Kol critiqued.
She snorted, leaning over to grab the dude's feet and drag his body to the back of her SUV. Lissa hadn't expected Anna's little minion to come after her since he was pretty gung-ho for Katherine look-alikes, and she'd made it her mission to look as little like her ancestor as possible for a failed doppelganger, but apparently he was curious about why she had the same face but it was 'all messed up'. He'd tried sneaking up on her as she picked up some food for her and Caroline that night, but hadn't expected Lissa to just flat out slice his head off with her shield.
To be fair to him, most vampires wouldn't expect the magical shield turned deadly disk. Clicking her tongue at the sight of the blood trail, she dropped the dude's head onto his stomach. At least the body was out of sight now.
Pulling out her phone, she played with her tongue piercing as she stared at the blood trail in the parking lot. Enzo was out of town on his monthly live dinner night, so her options were Damon or Stefan. Damon would ask for something annoying in return while Stefan would be heroically worried and probably bring Elena into it.
Damon it was.
She needed to talk to him anyway about Emily's grimoire.
"I was just about to call you. We have a bit of a situation with a vampire stalker." Damon said as a way of greeting. "Apparently your sister got a threatening phone call from the dude she hit saying he was going to come for her and you."
"Bland, brown hair, black hoodie?" Lissa asked.
There was some murmuring over the speaker before Damon answered. "She said that sounds like him. Why did you see him too?"
"He's currently laying on the ground behind my car, sans head."
"What? What happened? Are you okay? I'm coming-"
"Woah, woah, woah, slow your roll, speedster. I'm fine. Pretty sure he was thinking I'd be an easy mark since I'm, you know, me." She shrugged, not that he could see her. "Too bad for him. I'm a kill first, ask questions whenever kind of girl."
Damon chuckled and she could hear him telling, who she assumed was Stefan and Elena, about what she did. Even over the tiny speaker she could hear Elena's 'What?!' before the phone was snatched and Elena started speaking. "You killed him? Did he hurt you?"
"I'm starting to get offended you think I can't handle some weakass vampire. I'm fine. I just need someone to come take the body and hose down the blood trail." She leaned against the side of her vehicle, keeping an eye out for anyone coming by. "I'm supposed to meet Caroline to help her get ready for the dance before I get a night to myself."
"Damon said he'd come do it and is asking if you got any information out of him before you…killed him?"
Lissa hummed, thinking over if she wanted to give anything away. "Tell him he mentioned the name 'Anna' again and that she wasn't working alone. I think there's a third person in town. Or never left. If this Anna changed one person we know, who's to say she hasn't changed other people?"
"Oh, god. I hadn't thought about that." Elena gasped. "You really think someone we know could be changed and we not pick up on it?"
"Yeah, 'Lena, I absolutely do." Lissa laughed. "Did Damon already leave? I don't particularly want to just leave this blood-"
A rush of air interrupted her, and suddenly standing there was a smirking Damon. "You rang?"
Lissa rolled her eyes. He just had to be dramatic. Not that she was one to talk. "Nevermind. He's here. Have fun at the dance, tell Stefan he still sucks."
"Why does she hate me so much?" She heard him ask before the line went dead, causing her to chuckle. Honestly, Stefan was starting to grow on her like a bad fungus. But probably because he hasn't done anything particularly annoying recently. She's sure once he starts shenaniganing again, he'd be right back into the bad books.
Damon, while she was putting her phone up, had made his way over to the end of her car and looked down with a whistle. "You really took that head off. Clean cut too. What'd you use?"
Lissa wiggled her fingers on her left hand, 'shield' tattoo prominent. When the guy had grabbed her, all she had to do was put her hand against his head and make a sphere around it. Turns out the shield will cut through anything to make the shape she wanted it to make, including muscle and bone. She would have to be careful not to cut something off of someone or herself that she didn't want to.
Damon gave her an impressed look before holding up a bucket and some bleach. "Alright, well I'm here to do your dirty work. Just know I'm going to want something in retuuurrn, Snow Princess."
Lissa rolled her eyes as she opened the back of her car for him to grab the body. "Yeah, yeah. I figured. Now can you get him away? It's already gonna be a bitch getting the stain out of these pants." She gestured down to the oversized holey boyfriend jeans she was wearing. Underneath were a pair of fishnets, but those didn't really protect her skin from getting some blood specks.
"Ooh, bossy. I like being told what to do~" He flirted, as he threw the body into the dumpster nearby. "I'll come get him with my car later, but the dumpster should be good for an hour or two."
"My oh my, sounds like the older Salvatore is getting a bit desperate for you."
Lissa rolled her eyes, as she thanked Damon before getting into the SUV. "Please, Kol, Damon is just like that. Out of me and my sister, he'd go for Elena every time. Plus he still has his head up Katherine's ass."
Kol snorted, mean mugging the repaying image of Damon staring after Lissa. The good thing about being in someone's head? You notice things they see but don't acknowledge. Like dark haired Salvatore's staring that Lissa barely caught in her peripheral. It wasn't something humans' brains would notice, but since he had nothing but time? Well, it was fun to analyze people. "Say what you will, Darling, but I see a cruuuushhh forming~"
"Oh, fuck off. You know nothing would happen with Damon." She shrugged. "He's hella attractive, yes, but we'd be so fucking toxic? Like I can't stand people thinking I can't handle myself and sidelining me and that's all Damon would do."
"And you're quite a bit better than him, too."
Lissa grinned, winking into the rearview mirror as she pulled into Caroline's place.
A pillow slammed into Lissa's face early the next morning. Caroline moaned at her to either answer her phone or turn it off.
"What?" She snapped into the phone.
"Hello to you too, Princess." Damon greeted her.
Lissa groaned, loud and annoyed. She very much did not want to deal with his brand of bullshittery this morning. "No. Absolutely not. I'm hungover and do not want to deal with whatever vampire drama you have going on."
"So you don't want to know how me and Stefan have made a truce and now all four of us are working together to get Katherine out?"
"First, don't trust them, we both know this is a trick. Second, how'd that happen?" She asked, getting out of the bed and hurrying to the bathroom to pee.
"Stefan made a good argument about me already trusting you to help and him wanting me out of here and blah blah blah. Honestly, I don't remember the whole speech. It had a bunch of hero flower language."
Leaving the bathroom, Lissa was greeted with a glaring Caroline. Mouthing a 'sorry' at her, Lissa replied. "Is there a reason you're calling me at ass o'clock instead of just telling me later?"
"Besides me wanting to hear your delightful voice?"
"I'm going to hang up on you."
"Fine, I was wondering if you had even a slight idea where Emily's grimoire would be?" Damon relented.
Lissa blinked, remembering she'd forgotten to give it to him before Caroline called her for best friend time. "Yeah, give me the morning to do some digging and I'll have it by dinnertime, now bye bye"
Before the dark haired vampire could say anything else she hung up and plopped back down next to Caroline on her bed, head pounding. After helping Caroline do her hair and makeup for the dance, Lissa had gone home only to be called back to Caroline's at midnight with one sentence. 'Matt kissed me in the middle of the road.'
A siren's call for any best friend.
Bringing over the stuff for Strawberry Daiquiris (hiding it until she knew that Liz was going to be gone) and an armful of snacks, Lissa got the play by play with director's commentary and side stories of Elena being on both Damon and Stefan's arms despite insisting her Caroline and Bonnie she only wanted to be on Stefan's.
Lissa honestly believed that. Currently, she doubted Elena even liked Damon beyond an intense attraction. Give it a couple of weeks and that'll change, but right now? Naw, she was still 'in love' with Stefan.
Then, if she remembered right, Caroline had gone on and on about Kennedy being with 'the dumbest jock in the field.' But they were also around seven daiquiri's in at the time so by then Lissa was more focused on Kol's commentary of the horror movie Caroline had put on than what Kennedy was doing.
"Damon may be nice to look at, but he needs to know not to call at…9 AM." Caroline complained. "Also, I may be remembering this wrong, but did you say you have a, like, super vampire stuck in your brain?"
"Shit."
"That one's on you, Drunkard. You and the rum you drank."
Lissa winced, turning over to face her blonde friend. "Can I say I can't talk about it? Or is that bad best friend etiquette?"
Caroline rolled her eyes at the sweet apologetic smile on her face. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. It has something to do with one of your schemes, doesn't it?"
"What can I say? I like a good scheme."
Thank fuck, she has made such an eclectic reputation for herself.
"But I should get breakfast for being so understanding."
Lissa stuck her tongue out, but did end up getting up and going down the stairs; a duvet wrapped Caroline coming behind her. Sitting at the island a coffee drinking Liz was reading some files laying in front of her. "Good morning, girls. Did you have fun last night?"
"Morning, Mom." Caroline smiled, grabbing her own cup of coffee for her hangover. "Yeah, it was good. Lissa came over for a gossip session afterward. Hope you don't mind."
"Considering she's already stayed, I don't think asking after the fact works. But no, I'll never mind Lissa staying over, especially if she's making those chocolate chip waffles." Liz answered, throwing her a wink as she got out the ingredients to make the Forbes' girls' favorite.
Breakfast was quickly laid out and eaten between the three of them it was quickly decimated. Liz leaving as the two girls headed back upstairs. Lissa plopping down on the bed while Caroline started digging through her closet.
"We totally need to go shopping soon. Out of all these clothes I like maybe two things." Caroline complained, holding a skirt up to herself. She wasn't wrong. Half the clothes she had were rather…outdated.
Not that Lissa was the pinnacle of good fashion. She dressed half like some cyberpunk and the other half like some alternative school girl. "Sure, this weekend? We can go to a couple of towns over and make a day of it."
Caroline spun around, grinning. She'd taken her shirt off to try on some flowy yellow shirt that she had in her hand. "Ooh, we have to get our nails done. Kennedy was telling the cheer squad about this really good nail spot she'd found."
Lissa stifled her grin as she agreed. She knew exactly where Caroline was talking about. Kennedy had gone hunting with Enzo a few weeks ago when Lissa was in New York and had near killed some nail tech in a bar. Then the next day went back and got her nails done by her to 'make sure the compulsion stuck'.
"Hey, by the way, does that Kol guy, like, spy as you're changing and stuff?" Caroline wiggled her eyebrow at her, smirk on her face.
She grabbed a pillow, dropping it on her face as she laughed. Leave it to Caroline to make her and Kol's situation sexual the minute she knew about it.
Lissa tapped her pencil on the paper, calculus formulas flowing from her mind as she failed to focus on the homework. It was basically done, only a couple of problems left, but it was obvious her mind had checked out on math at this point.
Still ahead in her classes, she wanted to make sure she stayed ahead. She was determined to graduate this year despite the drama. That being said, calculus sucked.
Huffing, she slammed the textbook closed on the notebook before grabbing the spellbook that had caused the connection with Kol.
"Hey, Witch Bitch, wanna help me actually translate this? Since I'm apparently so bad at it."
"I wouldn't be opposed to it. St. Claire kept this thing under lock and key and even back then I knew not to piss off a witch by stealing her grimoire."
Getting comfortable in her bed, Lissa felt weightless for a moment before opening her eyes to her former living room.
"Nice glasses." Kol snickered from his place laying across the fluffy black chaise.
Lissa rolled her eyes, fiddling with the glasses on her face. She very rarely wore her glasses since the glass was so thick it completely warped her face. "I ran out of contacts and the pharmacy won't get anymore in until tomorrow. It's not my fault my albinism makes me nearly blind."
Kol smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at her. "Excuses, excuses. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're trying to seduce the vampire stuck in your mind."
"Oh yes, Kol, take me, please." She laughed, sitting down on the couch as the grimoire appeared in front of her. Her and Kol had a good coexistence going on. She'd even call them friends. "Now are you going to help with this or just sit there looking pretty?"
"You think I'm pretty?" Kol gasped, hand over his heart, but he did sit up and scooted closer to the table. "Clearly your Elder Furnik is shit, so let's treat this like you're translating it yourself and I'll just correct your mistakes. Of which will probably be numerous."
Flipping him off despite the blush at being called out, Lissa did as he suggested. She had already tabbed the spells she could do, so she started with that one. Very quickly it became obvious she hadn't taught herself Elder Furnik well at all. Kol had to correct her grammar or translation every few minutes. Sometimes she'd translated it well but he knew a different way to use the runes and would start tangents on how certain words or ingredients or movements affected how spells and rituals turned out.
There were times he'd pause and seemingly pull himself back on task, but normally she'd ask him to finish as the information was interesting. Kol had spent so much of his life learning magic and random things that she was near in love with listening to him. She, at her core, loved information. New, old, well-known, obscure; she loved learning things.
They did eventually make it through the ten spells out of around a hundred she could do, namely blood based casting, before a loud knock echoed through her mind.
Someone was trying to get her attention.
The two of them blinked at each other, sound ripping them from their conversation. "Damn. How long have I been in here?"
"Eh, not too long. Time passes a bit differently in the mind if we're both in here." Kol shrugged, leaning back into the chaise, eyes studying her with a smile. "You're not too bad for a self taught witch. Now if only we could get it where you can absorb magic on command instead of subconsciously."
"Next lesson, promise!" She grinned, handing the grimoire over to him. He'd mentioned that if he was holding it when she popped away, it would stay in the mind. Lissa would obviously have to write everything they'd done down in the real world, but Kol had promised to help her remember; her human brain not being near as eidetic as a vampires.
Blinking as she slipped out of her mind, Lissa called for whoever was knocking to come in. Jenna's head stuck through, wine glass in hand and sheepish smile on her face. "Can you come downstairs? Damon showed up to make dinner for all of us and Stefan and it's kind of awkward."
Lissa pointed at her glasses and frowned and all Jenna did was stick out her bottom lip in a beg. Sighing, she relented. "I want a cheesecake out of this."
"Promise. I'll even buy it from 'Baked'."
Lissa shooed Jenna out of the room as she rummaged into her closet. Grabbing some bright red joggers and a cropped black t-shirt, she spun around in the mirror before shrugging. Putting on some white socks, she headed downstairs. Stepping into the kitchen, she snorted at Jenna near laid out on the counter with her wine in hand. All she needed to do was ask Damon to paint her like one of his french girls and she'd complete the picture.
"Well, well, well, where have you been, young lady? Don't you know you're supposed to help with dinner?" Damon snarked, throwing the towel he was using for his hands over his shoulder. Sauntering over, he smirked, poking the side of her glasses with a raised eyebrow.
Frowning, she batted his hand away. What was with people being interested in her glasses? A lot of people wore them. "I'm out of contact. Drop it."
Hands up in surrender, Damon backed away. "Alright, I know when not to poke a bear."
"Sense when? I'm pretty sure you've actually fought a legitimate bear."
"You're right, but I know not to comment on a woman's appearance unless I want my ass kicked."
Lissa rolled her eyes as she went to the fridge to get some water. After last night, she wasn't going to be touching alcohol even if Jenna would let her. "What were you guys talking about?"
"Dating." Jenna groaned. "Our mutual failed dating."
"Please, didn't you have a cute chaperoning date with Alaric that ended with you getting asked out again?" Lissa asked, jumping up onto the island, next to the bowl Damon had the salad in. Grabbing a cherry tomato, she shot him a grin at his faux annoyed look.
Jenna snorted before finishing off her wine. "And he hasn't called since."
Before either of them could reply, Elena came hurrying into the kitchen; Damon being a show off and greeting her before either of the human's even heard her. How did everyone Damon interact with not figure out his vampirism? Actually, thinking about it…most vampires are shit at hiding it.
How many people had figured it out and just kept their mouth shut? Probably more than people expected or knew about.
A pat to her thigh pulled her back to the kitchen. "You gonna help or just sit there on the counter?" Damon asked.
"Eh, I don't really want to cook tonight. Do you need me to move?"
Damon shook his head, handing off a plate to Elena who was moving behind him. "I'll be nice just this once. But you better have some good information about what we talked about this morning."
"Oh, I do. Promise."
Elena furrowed her brow, stopping next to them. "What'd you talk about this morning?"
"Stuff and things, Elena." Lissa nudged Damon out from in front of her to jump down off the counter. "I'm sure Jer will want to finish the game we started earlier this week, so I'm just gonna set that up. You two finish up dinner."
"I was just asking, Lissa, we're supposed to be working together."
Lissa shot a glare over her shoulder. "And if it was relevant, we would tell you. Otherwise, mind your business."
Damon stepped between the girls, hands in the air. "Woah, no reason to fight, you two."
Lissa snorted and walked away. She loved her twin, but damn did she want to love her from a distance. Sometimes she can deal, and even enjoy, being around her twin. But then Elena goes to demand everyone fall to her whims and it ruins it. It could be a tone. An eyebrow raise. A question worded a specific way. But she could hear it. And when she didn't give into it, Elena would go on the defense, making her the bad guy. Because why can't you just answer the questions, Lissa? Just do what she wants, Lissa.
Fuck, she was making herself angry.
Jeremy thumped down next to her, game controller in hand. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just Elena being Elena."
"Ah, did she dude the tone or the question?"
"Both."
Jeremy winced and turned on Super Smash Bros. They spent the next while just beating each other up on the screen, Elena and Damon's conversation washing over them in soft murmurs, so quiet their human ears can't pick out the words but do know that it's happening.
After the smell of food had infiltrated the house, Damon sat down next to Lissa, hand held out making grabby motions. "Let me try. I've never played this…or many video games, honestly."
Jeremy and Lissa quickly turned to each other, fist out. "Whoever wins plays him?"
"No, whoever loses." Jeremy corrected. "Played it before or not, the guy is, you know. He's gonna crush it."
Three shakes later and Jeremy is handing over his controller with a grin. Derek grabbing it with a smirk before absolutely destroying her character. Jeremy tried cheering for her but quickly abandoned that and switched to Damon when it was clear Lissa would be tanking. Occasionally he'd hit a button on his phone.
It had happened so much that finally Damon's curiosity got the better of him. "Who's trying to get ahold of you? I thought your only friend was your sister and her friends?"
"Haha," Jeremy mocked. "This girl Anna. She's homeschooled but I occasionally see her at The Grill. She's…weird."
Damon and Lissa shot each other a look at the name, game being paused as they turned to him as a pair. "Anna, huh?"
"Is this some weird supernatural thing? Am I going to be eaten?" Jeremy whined, looking disappointed.
Lissa shook her head. "No, no. She may…try if she's who we think she is."
Before anything else could be said the doorbell rang, signaling the end of the conversation until they could sneak away from Jenna.
A door slamming outside pulled them out of their quiet bubble. Lissa's eyes slid past the now bare side table next to her spot on the couch. After she'd told him what Stefan and Elena were doing, Damon had thrown the lamp against the wall. Luckily Jenna had decided to run to the Grill with some college friend she had or else they'd have a lot of explaining to do.
Damon had expected the betrayal from Stefan, as bad as it hurt despite his words, but it was Elena's that had genuinely surprised him. Not that she understood why. Lissa had warned him that Elena would put herself and those she deemed worthy ahead of anyone else. And Damon, with his 'Villian' tendencies, most definitely was not on that list.
But he 'had a heart to heart with her' just like she knew he would. Damon'd tried telling her that Elena promised without a hint of a lie that she, that they, were on his side; if only to get him out of town. Apparently Elena had said she didn't like how close her, meaning Lissa, and Damon were. She was worried he'd be a bad influence on her and drive her to 'be as depraved as you'. Or so Damon had explained.
Lissa would have been offended at that if it didn't tell her she'd been successful at making people believe she was just eccentric instead of murderous.
A mud covered Stefan and Elena crept into the house, stopping in their tracks at a glowering Damon. Stefan sighed, stepping a little in front of Elena, worry tightening his shoulders. "You're still here?"
"What's with the new looks? Dig up any graves recently? How's Dad looking?" Damon hissed. Both of them opened their mouths to explain. Explain what, Lissa didn't know. It was pretty obvious, even without her telling him what they had been doing. He snorted and continued. "Imagine my surprise when Lissa, apparently my only friend in this place, told me that you two had lied, had planned to betray me." He held up the worn leather book, the name prominent in the front, and watched in cruel satisfaction at the shocked horror that painted its way across the couple's face. "Too bad she's been a step ahead of all of us. I'd told her about the grimoire in Georgia. Even back then she knew how to get it to me."
"Everyone seems to forget; I'm a history nerd. You think I haven't read Jonathan Gilbert's journal? I knew exactly where it was and had dug it up a few days ago. I was going to give it to Damon then…But when he told me about Stefan digging, trying to worm his way into this?" She tutted dramatically, pout on her lips. "I'm a dramatic bitch. How could I pass up the chance to catch you guys in the act? It was just too good an opportunity."
Stefan took a step forward, eyes flitting between Damon, Lissa, and the book like he wasn't certain who or what to keep his eyes on. "Damon…you have to understand, I, we, can't just let you free the vampires in the tomb. They'd wreak havoc on the town."
Damon stood up, tossing the grimoire onto his seat, and walked towards the two of them. "I had hoped that this time would be different, Stefan. Didn't think it would be, but there was a glimmer of hope, especially when Elena got involved." He turned to her sister, eyes stabbing into her. "You really had me fooled; playing the worried sister card, swearing that you guys just wanted me gone. I asked if I could trust you and you lied. I guess now I understand who I can trust in the Gilbert family. And it's certainly not you."
Elena stepped around Stefan, hands wringing and guilty expression on her face. "I'm sorry, Damon, but Stefan is right. You'd free those vampires and not care who they killed."
"I don't care about all those vampires! All I want is Katherine!"
Stefan shook his head. "Exactly. You wouldn't even think about the destruction you'd cause. How it would affect everyone around you and those we cared about."
Damon's face darkened, snarl on his lips. "You want destruction? Fine."
In a flash, he was standing in front of Lissa, hand wrapped around her arm. She attempted to jerk her arm out of his grasp, arm throbbing as his grip tightened. Ripping her upwards, he bit into his wrist and wrapped his arm around her neck, holding her against him and put the bloody wrist to her mouth.
Copper filled her mouth as a snarl echoed through her head. Lissa could feel Kol push himself forward in her mind before suddenly her body wretched itself from Damon's hold. Now across the room from him, she was bent over, sputtering, bloody spit falling from her lips.
She should have expected this.
"Lissa!" Elena cried, running over to her sister. "Damon, how could you? You said she helped you!"
"Which is exactly why I'm not killing her. This?" He paused gesturing to Lissa whose face was scrunched up in disgust, wiping the back of her hand across her bloody mouth. "This is your fault, Elena. Yours and Stefan's. You two have a choice; either you help me open the tomb or your sister gets her neck broken. I guess you and Stefan could bond over having vampire siblings then."
Stefan looked at his brother, horrified. "She helped you! She's been your friend. Lissa had nothing to do with my decision, Damon."
"Whoops~" Damon and Lissa's eyes met and he gave her snarky wink before running from the house before she could so much as lift her hand.
Hurt and anger filled her as she pushed Elena's worried hands away. Faintly she could hear Elena calling for her but Lissa didn't care to try and talk about what happened. Outside she could hear Damon's car rev and speed away and that should have been it. But she was never one to let someone get away when they do something to her.
When they take advantage of her.
Body shaking in effort to keep her emotions in, she stalked to the door, grabbing her keys from the bowl as she did. Just as she was leaving, her wrist was grabbed by Stefan. Head snapping to him, she ripped herself from his hold with a snarl. Lip curling at the sight of his concern. "Don't try and stop me, or you'll be the first Salvatore I turn to ash."
Stefan, who had been moving towards her to most likely wrap an arm around her in some form of 'comfort' stopped as if he had hit a wall. "Lissa…" He trailed off.
Huffing, she stomped out the door, slamming it to stop Elena's cries for her. Hearing her sister beg her to leave Damon, to ignore this? It would make her more murderous than she currently was and killing her sister would be the worst thing that she could do in a flash of rage.
After all, even in her blind rage she still knew Klaus would kill her if something happened to Elena that made her not available to the ritual.
Peeling out of her driveway, Lissa broke every speed limit she knew of as she made her way to the Salvatore Boarding House in record time. Walking up the porch she didn't even wait, just slashed her foot into the door, kicking it open. "DAMON!" She screamed, voice echoing in the big house.
Damon appeared like she thought he would. Bourbon in hand and smirk on his face. "So this is your choice? You know I can kill you?"
"You made the choice when you put your wrist to my face."
There was a pause as they stared at each other before they both smiled. "They bought it then?" Damon asked, making his way over to hand her the liquor before going to pour his own.
Sipping the alcohol to get the copper taste out of her mouth, she nodded. The two of them had made two different plans. It was up to Damon to choose which one he wanted since Lissa didn't care either way. Both plans would help her in the long run.
All Damon had to do was choose which sister he fed his blood to, that told her which plan they were going with. Pretty smart of her, if she wanted to toot her own horn. Stefan would believe the worst of Damon. So he either betrayed the girl that's been helping him in an effort to punish both Stefan and Elena or he went after Stefan's girlfriend.
"Believed it, hook, line, and sinker. Hell, Elena is probably begging Stefan to come find me still. She was going on about how going after you would get me changed." Lissa rolled her eyes. The lack of confidence in her was starting to grate. She didn't go around going after people without a plan or without the knowledge she could take them. That was Elena.
Plus, it's not like the vampire blood would actually change her. It wasn't obvious to people around her, but vampire blood didn't work on her.
Literally. When Kol had mentioned it to her she'd immediately gone to Enzo and tested it, not wanting to take the original on his word. But the slice on her arm was still there even after she'd had some of Enzo's blood. Enzo near had a gasket, neither of them having imagined her powers would block vampire blood from working on her. After all blood magic was one of the very few branches of magic she could do.
But according to Kol the magic that changed humans and people was too diluted in normal vampires–the magic was immediately absorbed by the blackhole that was a void witches soul. It may work if she had taken in an insane amount of magic recently but she didn't particularly want to test that.
That being said, an Original vampire's blood did work having been the source of the spell. It was a bit slower to heal apparently–it wasn't like Kol could hand over blood to test and Klaus was states away–but they're originals for a reason. They have the biggest tie to the original spell that created vampires.
"Enzo is picking you up, right?" Damon asked, sitting down on one of the couches.
She nodded, downing the rest of the alcohol. "Yep. Should be here any minute. I sent him a text on the way over. I don't care what you tell them about why I'm not around. Just make sure I can come back."
"Kidnapping it is. Also explains why your behemoth of an SUV is in the driveway."
She shot him a glare as the door to the house opened. Enzo hurried in, beelining to her like some worried soccer mom. Lip twitching at the mental image, she wasn't surprised when he frowned at the blood on her chin and neck. "What have you gotten yourself into this time, Snow White?"
"Just some shenanigans."
His thumb wiped at the dried blood on her neck, eyebrow raised. "And these shenanigans made Damon feed you his blood?" He shot a glare over at the lounging vampire, annoyed at the was out of the loop. Enzo didn't believe Damon would cause Lissa to die, but that didn't mean he wouldn't hurt he in other ways. And Lissa was terrible at recognizing when something wasn't right with how people reacted to her. As long as her and the few people she cared about were okay and happy in the end, she didn't care what happened to her.
Meaning he had to care.
Lissa waved a hand in front of his face when she saw his attention had moved to Damon. "How does a week long road trip sound?"
Damon cleared his throat, nodded to the clock on the wall, essentially telling them to 'GTFO' before Stefan came to lecture him and he could play the big bag kidnapping villian. Grabbing Enzo's hand she led him out of the house, calling for Damon to keep her updated on what was going on in town.
Enzo shook his head, confused but willing to go along with her whims, which apparently included going on a secret road trip to help move along some plans. As they got back to the house, he followed Lissa around as she started packing. "So Damon wants the tomb open to get Katherine out?"
"Yep!" She held up a purple shirt, frowning as the color washed her out more than normal. That shade of purple really wasn't her color.
"The tomb that she's not actually in?"
"Correct. So Stefan and Elena, and honestly a lot of other people if they were here, don't want this to happen." Two separate boots, one white and one black were held up to Enzo. Pointing at the white one, she tossed the black one back in the closet. "Or at least they didn't."
Enzo moved to lay down on her bed, waiting on her to be done. "But they do now?"
Throwing in socks and cute underwear, Lissa zipped the suitcase closed. Anything she didn't pack she could just buy. "Now that Damon has 'betrayed' me? Yes. Now, to them, that's their only option unless they want Damon to kill me."
"And Sheila and Bonnie will agree? Don't they need them to open it?" He asked, letting Lissa pull him up and towards his room to pack his own clothes.
"Especially Bonnie. I did save her life from Damon, or did you forget that? She has to repay the favor." She smirked. Plans working out how she wanted was always satisfying.
Enzo laughed, grabbing his suitcase from his closet and throwing a handful of v necks in. "Hence the road trip. And I'm coming along because no one would expect me not to go after Damon."
Grinning at him already understanding her thought process, she handed him some jeans and sweatpants to sleep in while he grabbed some boxers. Since Enzo had a simple style, as disappointing as it was, everything he owned could be mixed and matched really. Including his winter jacket. "And Damon can just say that he subdued you too. I mean no one really knows how strong you really are, whereas Damon is their big bad right now."
Disgust colored his face, but she knew he knew it was a good plan. Plus in the future they'll underestimate him since they'll think Damon is stronger than him. She didn't know who out of the two was better, but after being tortured for so long, she would put her money on Enzo.
The Englishman was a former boxer back when he was human. Or an underground fighter. Either way he could take a punch as a human let alone a vampire.
Packed and in the car, they had already called and booked their hotel a few towns over when she turned to him, pout on her lips. "Can you stop by Bonnie's?"
"Wasn't the plan not to be seen?" Despite the words, he did a u-turn and made his way towards the witch's home, idling in the road so as not to alert the house's occupants when they got there. Digging into her suitcase she pulled the smaller Bennett grimoire from the confines. Hurrying to the front door, she dropped it off and left a note saying they–no actual name included–thought the Bennett witches should have the Bennett grimoire.
It had taken an afternoon and some counsel from Kol, she was able to add a couple of paragraphs mentioning doppelgangers and the effects their blood have on spells and rituals. She had attempted to forge the handwriting but she was shit at cursive so, head hanging, she'd gone to Enzo who managed it in two tries.
She'd even gotten Kol to cough up a couple of tiny rituals that honestly didn't do much, but were made stronger with doppelganger blood.
Grimoire planted, she hurried back before Enzo drove off.
They had driven a couple of hours before getting to their hotel. Enzo had headed out to get food, both blood and actual food for her. She had decided to stay in the room, needing to talk to Kol. He'd taken over her body when Damon fed her his blood for reasons unknown.
And she needed to know the reasons. If only to keep him from doing it again.
Eyes opening to her mindscape, she walked over to the chaise sitting down before turning to the original. "Wanna tell me why you freaked at what Damon did? It's not like you didn't expect it. You helped with the plan." She asked when it became clear Kol wasn't going to talk.
Unlike before, Kol was laying down on the couch, arm behind his head, frown on his face. "No real reason, love. Any vampire would react the same. You have to remember I'm watching and sometimes feeling what you feel. And if you die, I go back to being stuck in that bland place with only the feeling of a dagger in my chest for however long my brother deigns to keep me there."
Lissa chewed on her tongue piercing as she studied the vampire in front of her. "That's why you spend so much time in my head, isn't it? I've noticed you hate it when I go to sleep or ask for time alone. It's like pulling teeth to get you to go back to your own head. You can actually feel the dagger in your chest."
"I can handle being daggered!" He snapped, veins darkening as he sat up to glare at her.
"I never said you couldn't. But that doesn't mean you like it." She said, "It's basically an extreme form of solitary confinement for you. You're awake, kind of, and stuck inside your own mind the whole time."
"Drop the subject, Gilbert, or have you forgotten you're not the only one that can affect your body?"
Her fist clenched, nails digging into her palm as Lissa's own temper rose. She knew he was just baiting her. He was searching for a fight that she refused to give him as hard as it was to swallow the anger. After a few moments of them just glaring at each other, she backed down. "Fine. I'll drop it. But you should probably talk to someone about it whenever I get you undaggered, if you don't want to talk to me."
"You're still planning on getting Nik to undagger me? He was pretty adamant in his refusal before." Kol's own anger must have receded like her own since his vampire face had faded.
Lissa waved her hand in the air, uncaring. "So? That was like a soft ball question to see where he stood. Now I work on chipping away at him. I'm already planning on getting him and Elijah to make up. Because, while being between the two of them sounds fun. Doing it while they're fighting doesn't."
"Oh," Kol muttered, staring at her in wonderment. He hadn't expected her to genuinely want to help him. Sure, she'd said she would but say it and doing it was two different things. He should know. He said a lot of stuff he didn't mean. But it looked like the pale girl was actually keeping her word. She wanted him undaggered.
Lissa shot him a weirded out look, not understanding the silent staring her words had prompted. It wasn't like she'd said anything she hadn't before. She told him she would get him undaggered, so she would. He could help a lot more if he had an actual body instead of just a voice in her head.
Wanting the stange air gone, she changed topics. "So do I just not understand what a void witch is or is the near super strength and compulsion just special to me?"
Blinking Kol's eyes focused back, shaking his thoughts away. Mind going through what she meant, he realized that maybe the smell was affecting them more than they'd first thought. "The spell may have…mutated a bit more than we first thought."
Of course it did, because when one thing goes wrong it had to go wrong in the weirdest of ways. "How mutated? Am I going to start changing physically?"
"You shouldn't. Though you may want to figure out how to not compel people. Or keep doing it, I don't care. It may be more entertaining that way."
Easy for him to say. He'd been a vampire for a thousand years. It was also only when Kol was too close to affecting her body that the extra abilities came out. Any other time she was a normal human, witch person. "Or you could just not get so close to my subconscious. That sounds like an easier plan to me."
"Boring~ I'm stuck either in my own mindscape or yours. And yours has entertainment."Kol shrugged, face hardening for a moment as his thoughts drifted as to why he was stuck in his mind. He pushed the thoughts back for a different day as he paid attention to a contemplative Lissa.
"Do you think…" She shook her head. The thought was ridiculous. Kol as a normal witch turned vampire. The only reason she even had the extra abilities was because she was shit at translating and void witches have a history of making spells go wonky. It was exactly why, instead of just occasionally hearing each other's thoughts, Kol and her could literally go into each other's mindscapes and physically affect each other. She'd caused the spell to go wonky.
But if it wonked enough…"Could?" Lissa sighed, resigned to the fact she was about to piss him off. "Do you think that whenever you're undaggered you could use my magic?"
Kol's immediate response to her question was to snarl, lip curling as if disgusted with her very being before snapping over to where she was sitting, hand around her throat before she could even blink. "How dare you joke about that. Do you think in a thousand years I haven't tried everything to get it back? To feel whole? Yet here you are trying to say you just stumbled into a solution?"
Lissa tried to hold back her reaction–truthfully she did– but like anyone faced with looming death she defended herself. Hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist holding her throat she pushed and the skin started bubbling as his hand tightened. "Let…go…Kol."
She didn't think he was going to as his glare hardened, but finally, as his wrist was nearly burnt to the bone, he released his hand, the burnt meat of his wrist sticking to her hand as she let him go. Gasping, she scrambled away from him. She didn't know what would happen if he killed her in her mind but neither did she want to find out.
As her breath came back to her, she tried again. "Without any more near death experiences on my end, can I explain my thoughts?"
"That's exactly what I want to hear. Some untrained magic user with ideas." He huffed.
"Fine, don't. It's your opportunity you're throwing away. Not mine." Lissa snapped, suddenly not in the mood to reason with the stubbornly angry vampire. "When you're done being pissy, let me know. Until then keep your comments to yourself."
Without a second thought, she stood up and stormed out of her mindscape, the minute her hand touched the doorknob, she opened her eyes to the hotel room. Her head pounded for a second, hard enough she was partially scared it would pop like a balloon, before she mentally pictured a metal door, akin to a cartoon bank door, slamming shut and locking before the pressure died down.
A few moments passed without any words, she sighed. Somehow, she had blocked Kol.
Good. She was furious. Try and help the bastard and his response was to choke her? In her own damn mind, too.
Not a surprise, Kol was the hardest original to predict. Klaus you can always expect to ruin his own happiness to meet his current goal. Elijah to choose his family over everyone. And Rebekha to just want love, contentment, and sometimes revenge even if it means killing people.
"You done with your conference with the voice inside your head?"
Lissa jumped, heart skipping a beat as she hadn't expected Enzo to be back yet. She must have spent longer in her head than she'd thought. Not unreasonable to lose track of time with being strangled . "You could say that."
Enzo knew that tone. It was her 'I need to kill someone but can't' tone. Passing her the bag holding her pasta, he raised an eyebrow at her. "What'd The Voice do to piss you off. You sound a bit murderous."
"The Voice is an ass that I don't wanna talk about."
As she dug into her food she watched Enzo pour a blood bag into a glass to microwave. He never was one for cold blood, not understanding how others could deal with the thick texture it had. Turning the TV on, she grinned as the sounds of The Nanny filled the room. Scooting over in the bed, she patted the spot next to her so Enzo would lay down.
Lissa had gotten the King Suite room solely for the giant soaker Jacuzzi tub it had. But that also meant there was one king bed and a pull out in the couch. It was a no brainer to just share the bed, neither one going to let the other use the pull out. And it wasn't like they hadn't shared a bed before. Sometimes when they watched movies or something they would just conk out wherever they were.
The amount of times Lissa had woken up with Enzo's loud ass snoring in her ear was more times than she wanted to.
"Do we actually have a plan for the week or is it a wing it type of trip?" Enzo asked once he was comfortable and food eaten. He didn't care either way. It was nice to get away with Lissa. Normally whenever he left Mystic Falls it was for a hunt, which Lissa didn't come on. Not because she hadn't offered, but because half the time he ended up in some woman's bed and he didn't want to leave the seventeen year old alone in a bar.
Lissa smirked at him, excitement growing as her argument with Kol faded from her thoughts. There were a few different things she wanted to do this week but first…
"How would you like to meet the one and only, Katherine Pierce?"
Thank you for reading~