OH MY GOD I'm almost upto a 100 reviews. I cannot believe this and nor can I believe that I have such amazing readers, I love all of you guys. Especially keeeeeez whose review actually got this update finally done. Not to mention the lovely lavanyalabelle, without whom you would not have such a fine reading experience. If this chapter seems slightly off on the grammar side, it's because this one isn't Beta-ed yet but it will be soon!
Also, sorry for the lateness as I got sick and lost inspiration to update etc but I am back now. I really really hope you guys like this one and I cannot wait for your response! Thanks to all you guys and guest reviewers and kate, for the support and love. Enjoy this one guys!
Chapter 7
It was an hour before he could hear sounds at a normal volume. He'd realized later that everyone had been whispering, and also that he had apparently been out for fifteen-something hours. More than half a day. He was going to strangle the bitch the next time he saw her. Was that her way of imbibing trust?
They still couldn't figure out what the hell she had given him, 'cause it wasn't vervain because he remembered sniffing it, and it wasn't poison because the bitch had drank it herself before he had. He probably shouldn't have drunk it all in one gulp.
When he had told this to the false-alarm-funeral procession waiting in the living room, and thoroughly abused the Brit, Blondie had laughed. Laughed in his face, saying she actually like the little – little curly-haired, stupidly wise British thing. He would have snarled at her, or threatened her, had he not known that it would cause him another brain-splitting headache. He had glared at her for good measure, and she had left with Elena and Bonnie in tow, all three giggling nauseatingly like a pair of - a pair of girls.
Rick had just waited around to make sure he wasn't poisoned or anything, as they had all theorized before he woke up and then left for school as well, along with his little brother. He had spent the day sleeping it off, cursing the midget in his dreams for the spectacular headache he was supporting, and the fact that he had to hold the railing before walking proper for at least two hours. He'd also spent some time recalling the conversation from yesterday – the lesser known facts about Katherine's family, the fact that she was running from a psychopath, and that she was clever bitch; the last of which he'd already known.
That still didn't solve the mystery of the Brit – she was in town only to search about Katherine, she was eager to end the useless conversation and get back to her house, she couldn't be compelled, though that could be easily chalked up to vervain, although it didn't explain her reaction when she found out she had resisted compulsion – like she wasn't sure vervain worked? Then there was that drink – not vervain, not poison, not a sedative, as she should have passed out before him if that was the case. Also, she wouldn't say why it was that she was searching for that bitch. It didn't add up. She didn't add up.
It was evening when the doorbell rang. Weird – no one ever rang their doorbell, everyone mostly just waltzed right in. He was glad to find that he could walk properly though, and reached the door the same time as Stefan, who looked as confused as him.
His brother opened the door to find no one outside. Huh.
"What's this?" Stefan muttered, picking up two packages from the ground. Damon risked moving out in the sun and checked outside – there was no one in sight as far as he could tell.
"Wonder who rang the bell." Damon muttered, as Stefan turned the package over in his hands.
"There's one with your name on it." He said, and handed him a package, one which was slightly bigger than Stefan's. Sure enough, his name was written in green ink on thick yellow paper and he carefully opened it.
"Is this parchment?" He heard Stefan ask, but he was too busy examining the contents.
A small flask had fallen into his hands – 'For the Hangover' a slip on the side said. There was another smaller packing. He opened it and found little colored balls – it looked like some sort ofcandy. He frowned and looked up at Stefan to see him mirroring the expression. Stefan paused for a second and sniffed the little round balls, before his face cleared.
"It smells of blood." He stated, and Damon sniffed his. Yep, it was blood alright. Was this some sort of joke? Had someone sent them candy, made of blood? How sick was that?
He was about to voice his thoughts when Stefan's phone rang, and he picked, throwing him a meaningful look. "Yes Caroline?"
Had Blondie got them too-?
Stefan nodded at his unasked question, "Yeah we got them too. Why don't you come over and bring Bonnie? Don't do anything with them."
"Alright, and no need to tell Elena, it could be nothing." Stefan added and Damon found himself rolling his eyes, his brother was so whipped.
"It's that little British bitch Hermione." Damon said, as soon as Stefan had shut the phone.
"What? The same who gave you the drink yesterday? How do you know?" His brother said, pouring two drinks and handing him one, while they waited for Bonnie and Blondie to arrive. Hey, that rhymed! He was so using that today. He also handed Stefan the little bottle and the slip she had sent 'For the Hangover'.
"Yesterday, before I drank whatever magic juice she was drinking that didn't effect her – we were talking about Katherine. She wanted to know about 1864, and I wanted to know how and whyshe knew Katherine."
Stefan thought carefully before replying, "You think she knows what we are, and she wants to know how we turned?"
What? No wait – that had never occurred to him… And neither had the Brit mentioned anything about him turning, or other vampire stuff. "No, she never mentioned me or you. She was only interested in the bitch and what happened to her. Not a sniff about us." He said, frowning, watching as his brother thought it through.
"Huh. Why did she want to know?"
"I don't know, Stefan. We played the trust game, she told me she only knew that Katherine's family was slaughtered by a psychopath which means she was running scared from someone. She apparently wanted to satiate her 'academic curiosity'." He replied, rolling his eyes as Stefan took time to catch on to that piece of information.
"The Atlanta fires were obviously a lie. Didn't know her family were actually gone. It makes sense though." Stefan said finally, pouring himself another drink.
"How so?"
"She got caught because father laced my blood with vervain, so she's been sipping that ever since. Means she doesn't repeat mistakes. Makes sense that she lost her family once, that's why she didn't consider the tomb vampires family at all. When she ratted them out, it was with no regrets."
"Whatever. She never seemed the family type anyway." Damon replied after a while, his brother's explanation made sense. Katherine with a mother and father seemed completely surreal, even in his mind's eye.
"Who never seemed the family type?" A voice asked from the door, and Caroline entered, followed by Bonnie and Alaric.
"Hey, I thought I would check up on you and I ran into Caroline and Bonnie outside. What's this about suspicious candy?" Rick said, coming to a halt by Stefan and pouring himself a drink.
Sometimes, Damon thought the guy might hate him, but then sometimes he had his back, and then there were times like this – that assured him that Rick only put up with him because of his generousness with the bar.
"Thought we made clear she just happened to get me drunk on some really strong stuff." Damon said, snatching Rick's glass for himself as he tsked.
"Could be a slow acting poison." Rick countered, and poured himself another drink.
"I was counting on that!" BonBon said, fake-smiling at him, and plonking down on the couch.
"Again, she drank it herself. What idiot would do that?" Damon replied to her again, watching the witch as she examined the contents of his brother's packet.
"What if it was just some really concentrated vervain?" Blondie asked, and he took a deep breath to calm himself – how many times was he going to repeat that part?
"Caroline, what is this?" he said, pointing at his nose, and the blonde looked at him confusedly. "It's your nose, Damon…" she said uncertainly, looking sideways at Stefan.
"Exactly. And I know how to use it. SO it can't be vervain because I sniffed it before drinking. It smelled nothing like it."
"Okay, I'm just saying that if she has something that can cause – whatever happened to you, in a vampire, we should know what it is. It can be dangerous."
"It could be an accident – you did say you shouldn't have drunk it at once. It would also explain why she left you at the bar. She could have kidnapped you or something if she wanted."
"Yeah, no." he scoffed, "Have you seen her? I think she's not even of age. She is minute, BonBon, maybe even smaller than you."
"Alright, fine. So what's wrong with this candy? Or whatever it is?" she said examining the bottle that had come with his package.
"It's made from blood. Whoever sent it, knows about us, and this could very well be a threat." Blondie replied, coming next to Bonnie and frowning, "Hey, this says 'for the Hangover'. Why haven't you drunk it yet?"
"Because of the fact that I passed out for half a day the last time I drunk something she gave me?" he replied, rolling his eyes again. Why did she keep on asking such obvious questions?
"That means these are from her too?" She said, as Rick moved over towards her, frowning. He uncorked the little flask – it barely had a mouthful of the syrup – and sniffed it carefully.
"Her who? The British girl who almost poisoned Damon?" Bonnie said, and he sighed loudly, wondering why everyone kept mentioning the obvious.
Though that meant the witch had apparently not met her yet. Caroline had met her in the woods during the days her mother had been in the cellar, and had a drink at her house; Stefan had met her at the Lockwoods; and Alaric had been introduced to her yesterday, after which he had deliberately suggested her to go to the Grill and messaged him immediately after, so that he had a chance to talk to her. Bonnie, on the other hand, hadn't had the honors yet.
"The very same. She was desperate for some answers yesterday and kept saying we needed to trust her. This might be a pathetic attempt at that." he said, and wondered if that was the case, why had she sent these things in such a threatening way? Why hadn't she come herself? She knew where the house was, she had dropped Jeremy the other day.
"I think you're over estimating her. She doesn't sound very dangerous to me. Looks like she just wants to be on friendly terms, as far as I understand." Bonnie said, handing back the packages, and Rick frowned, "How'd you figure that?"
"Well, it looks like she got Damon drunk, then sent him something to help with the hangover, and thought it would be nice for you to have something as a replacement for blood bags – sounds good to me." The witch explained complacently, hoisting her bag up, getting ready to leave but Damon moved in front of her before she could take another step.
"Yeah, I don't think so. I think she's not completely human and is screwing with us on purpose, and is definitely hiding something." he replied, smiling at an infuriated Bonnie, who gave up trying to side step him, and sat on the couch again.
"Okay, why do you think she's not human?" His brother asked, moving to sit opposite Bonnie with a drink.
"Well, for one, I couldn't compel her yesterday – "
"She could be on vervain – "
"Yes, I considered that Rick, but ah – how do I put this? You know how Bonnie smells different to us?" He asked, turning to Stefan and Caroline, who both nodded unsurely, casting uncertain looks in the witch's direction, who looked slightly alarmed.
"What? How – what exactly do I smell like?" She asked, looking very much creeped out by the fact, and he found himself smirking at her.
"Like blood mixed with natural grass, if you must know BonBon." He said, and she shivered disgustedly, to which he smirked, "Anyway, the first day I met her, we were talking and I happened to get a sniff of her blood, which turned out to be quite… unappetizing."
"What do you mean? I never noticed that." Blondie said, thinking hard, probably trying to remember if she had gotten a chance to smell her blood.
"She smelled like some sort of half-animal… like a badger or something." He said, looking at Stefan, "You could probably guess the right one – you're the animal blood expert."
"Wait, you think she's some sort of half-animal or something? She's not a werewolf, is she?" Rick said, looking disturbed with the thought.
"No, werewolves have a very specific stench, that we can very easily tell apart." Stefan said, looking deep in thought.
"Yes, well there's that, and also the fact that if she really wanted to just play good, she should have come herself. And I don't know if you noticed, but she's pretty reluctant to get out of her house." Damon finished, looking at Stefan, "You get why we need to have a talk with her now? She is definitely not human. Or just human. And she's hiding something."
Stefan nodded, conceding his point but still looking unsure. "Fine then. We talk to her, but civilly. No threatening or anything."
"That's not gonna be of any use brother. I've already tried that twice. I say we go to her house, get her to invite us in, then try to threaten her with a show of white pearly fangs, and hope she talks."
"But no biting!" Caroline said, looking as unsure as Stefan, and he remembered how she had bonded with the girl at the Grill yesterday, and he had to message her twice to get her ass out of there.
"And that's my cue to leave." Bonnie said, standing up and getting her bag, but Damon frowned and caught her arm before she could leave.
"Oh no. You're gonna help BonBon. You'll be going inside the house, and do some convincing to let us in."
"Yeah, like hell. I'm not gonna help you torture some innocent just because she pissed you off." She replied, glaring at him her usual witch glare, the one that threatened to pop his blood vessels in a minute if he didn't let go.
"Because she pissed me off?! Have you not been listening-?" He pulled back suddenly as she fried his hand, and he was about to grab her neck, when Rick spoke up from behind him.
"Hey hey! Let her go, I'm human, I can get in and do all that stuff." Rick said, coming forward towards him and slapping his shoulder.
"Still, a little witchy help wouldn't be terrible." He said, glaring at Bonnie as she stared back at him with equal loathing. Why were these witches so damn stubborn?
"Just let her go, Damon. I've been invited in as well, I'm sure we can manage without Bonnie. I'll lure her out and you can question her outside." Caroline said, exchanging an unsure look with his brother, who shrugged. Because Saint Stefan knew he was right to ask for Bonnie's help, but no, the stupid witch was just too stubborn to see the damn point.
"Fine. But if anyone gets hurt, it's on you Bonnie." He said finally, and the witch left with a last sneer in his direction. He turned back to his bar, pouring himself one last drink before they left for the Brit's house.
Half an hour later, they were standing outside the large mansion-like house, one which rivaled the Lockwood's house in size. The gate was large and black, and unlocked. If everything went according to plan, this would be easy as hell, because whatever the Brit was, they had the numbers on her. Rick and Stefan were standing on either side of him and Blondie was looking at the gate, still unsure.
"You won't hurt her, right Damon?" She said in a small voice, turning to him, eyes worried.
"Do you want me to hurt you?" He said impatiently, rolling his eyes as the blonde turned back, she was so overly emotional about everything.
"Okay, it's just that she's my friend-" She said, turning back again from halfway to the gate –
"Yes. I know. Get on with it." He snapped, and she nodded and took another deep breath before walking forward.
She reached the gate and was about to pull it, before stopping again. Seriously, what the hell had they been thinking when they brought her along? She was such a freaking softie.
"Are you going to do it or do I have to snap your neck -" He began, walking towards her, but Stefan stopped him.
"Wait – Caroline, what's wrong?" Stefan said, frowning at the blonde's back. She pulled her hand back and tried again, but it stopped at the same place as before.
"I can't – I can't get through." She said turning back to them with a frown, and tried again, with more force this time, but it stopped there again.
"But you said you were invited in." Stefan said, and walked to stand beside her. He tried to touch the gates, but his hand stopped at the same distance as her. Huh, what the hell was going on?
"Rick, you try." Damon said, and Alaric tried, but the result was same. He couldn't get through. After they had all tried once again, they wandered around for a minute in silence, trying other parts of the gate, but it was impossible to touch.
Stefan tried jumping on the wall, but collided with what looked, or didn't, like an invisible barrier. They tried the same around the whole property but there was no part of the house that was breach able. Even Alaric was unable to touch the gate, or wall, or anything else.
"I don't understand. If you were invited in, it shouldn't be a problem." Stefan said, frowning at Caroline.
"Maybe she transferred the ownership of the house or something?" Damon suggested, his mind running miles ahead, as he realized that she barely left the house. At least, he hadn't seen her in town much. And now this barrier, she was definitely hiding something in the house.
"I should still be able to enter, I'm human." Rick said, frowning at the gate.
"The day I entered the house, I remember passing through here, there was a weird feeling when I got through the gate. I dismissed it at the time, thinking I was just being paranoid, but now that I think about it, it felt like a force field of some kind." Caroline said slowly, hands still trying to touch the gate. She was moving them along thin air, like following a wall, but it didn't seem to make any sense.
"What like an electric force-field?" he said, trying to make sense of her words, but he couldn't. He hadn't come across anything like this in the last century, and from the look on Stefan's face – neither had he.
"I don't know. But she's home. Her car's in the garage." The blonde said, squinting through the gates. He moved next to her and saw the black SUV parked in the rather small shed, those weird tattoos visible even from afar.
"Maybe it's something related to that? Her being home?" Damon said, and Caroline frowned, shaking her head, "She was in last the time I came. It can't be."
"Still, it doesn't hurt to check." Rick said, taking out his phone and moving away from them.
"What's he doing?" Caroline said, but Damon could hear him – he was talking to Jenna.
"He's checking up on Jenna." Stefan said, looking at Alaric's back, "I have an idea. How about we draw her out of the house tomorrow and come back and try again? One of us can stay with her and the others can try getting in the house. Even if we don't get anything out of her, we can search her house for information. She's definitely hiding something here."
Rick walked back to them, cutting off his phone, and nodding at Stefan, "Exactly. She didn't visit Jenna today. So she's going to go tomorrow. That'll be our chance."
"What if we still can't get into the house?" Damon, still frowning at the car – there was something weird about those tattoos. He remembered seeing her car at the Lockwoods – there was a quote in Latin on one of side of it, but he couldn't remember what it was. And who used Latin these days? Except for horrible proverbs and innuendos.
"Well, then we make sure we corner her outside. She hasn't met Bonnie yet, right?" Stefan said, turning to Caroline, who shook her head, "Good. Then Rick, you make sure Bonnie visits Jenna tomorrow. If we can't get in, we'll head to the hospital and see what happens."
"And if we do enter, you keep her busy, so we can poke around for a while." Damon said to Rick, turning away from the car as he finally remembered the quote.
'Never tickle a sleeping dragon' – why did that suddenly sound so ominous to their situation?
Jenna was sleeping when Hermione arrived at the hospital with some homemade cookies for her the next morning. Well, they had been made by Mrs. Weasley, but they didn't need to know that. Jenna's room was unusually crowded that day, Alaric was there, busy on his phone, and Elena was talking to a dark skinned girl when she entered.
"Hey Hermione. How are you?" Elena said, and Hermione could spot an undercurrent of extra effort in the smile when she looked towards her. She knew then. Damon had most probably informed her about their unsuccessful attempts to enter the house yesterday.
Hermione had been inside, working on the weapons in the basement, when she had felt the wards tingle late in the evening. It was a vampire and it took her some time, and a set of George's Extended Extendable Ears, to recognize that it was Caroline trying to get in. Soon she had heard Stefan and Damon there as well, along with Alaric, and had considered lowering the wards. But then, she would have to invite them in and answer questions about the wards, not to mention that she had been reeking of vervain at the time, which would be impossible to explain to them without getting a hostile reaction – something she was trying to avoid at all costs. Then she had heard of their plan to lure her out, so that they could check out the house.
That had felt like a good idea, and this morning before leaving, she had made sure that the door to the basement was well-hidden, the pictures were not moving, and that all traces of anything magical in the house were gone. Except Crookshanks, who she could do nothing about, except hope that he didn't claw someone's eyes out because he didn't like them.
She had also heard them mention Bonnie, who had to be the dark-skinned girl smiling at her right now.
"I'm good Elena. I brought cookies for Jenna." She smiled at both the girls and Bonnie stood up to make place for her to sit.
"Hermione, this is my best friend Bonnie. Bonnie, Hermione. You two haven't met before, have you?" Elena said, and Hermione smiled and shook her head, moving to sit beside Bonnie, who smiled at her.
"Hi." Hermione returned the dark girl's smile a bit apprehensively as the three sat crammed together on the couch. It was a second before Alaric seemed to take Elena's hint and got up from his chair with a "Oh sorry!".
"Cookies smell nice Hermione." Alaric smiled at her in greeting, picking the box from Jenna's side and curiously biting into one. "These taste even more amazing!" he moaned through a mouthful, smiling widely at her, grabbing another cookie and passing the box to Elena and Bonnie.
Elena and Bonnie tried one each interestedly and Hermione watched Mrs. Weasley's cooking do half her work as the girls hummed satisfactorily. "Thanks Hermione, though I think these won't last till Jenna wakes. Girls, I'll be outside." Alaric said, smiling awkwardly and walking out, phone in one hand and snatching another piece from the box on the way.
"Hermione, these are absolutely great. They remind me of the ones Bonnie's grams used to make." Elena said happily, before she caught Bonnie's eye. Her smile seemed to have frozen into place, though she recovered relatively quickly. "Yeah, actually they do. Freakishly so, now that I think about it." Bonnie quipped, though her voice sounded a bit strangled to Hermione's ears. She hadn't known about this little piece of information, but that made her wonder if the death was because of a natural cause.
"I'm sorry, Bonnie. I didn't know." She said, looking apologetically at Bonnie as her green eyes looked suddenly too bright. Her eyes were almost the same shade as Harry's - if not a bit darker. It did nothing to help Hermione's nerves. Elena rubbed Bonnie's arm and tried to smile supportingly as Bonnie wiped her eyes with a half-smile. It was such a Harry-like attempt at being brave, Hermione felt a sudden stab of longing for her best friend.
"No, it's okay, Hermione. You didn't know." Bonnie said finally, trying to smile again, "Anyway, did you make these yourself? Because they do taste like Grams' cooking..." She said, taking another bite slowly.
"Uh, actually, one of my friends Mom made it. She has a knack for this sort of thing." Hermione replied, her mind running another way - she knew Mrs. Weasley's recipe like the back of her hand, and it definitely contained at least three magical ingredients that she told no one about - except her and Ginny of course. Could it be that Bonnie's grams was a...
"Well, these do taste exactly like hers, I think I would love to meet your friend's Mom." Elena said, and Bonnie giggled alongside her. "Bonnie, what did your Grams do?" Hermione said, watching as the two stopped laughing again. Elena looked ready to glare at her but Bonnie seemed... disoriented.
"She taught occult at the University. Whitmore, it's about a two hour drive from here." Bonnie said, her voice a bit off, as she exchanged a meaningful look with Elena. Hermione couldn't care less that they were suspicious - Whitmore rang more bells in her head because of it's role in the Augustine Society and their illegal experiments. As far as she could remember, not many of the staff were involved -
"Is that so? What was her name?" She asked again, and there was definite apprehension in Bonnie's voice as she replied, "Sheila Bennett. Why? Did you know her?"
Bennett - the key to breaking every damn curse in Viking history. Bonnie was a Bennett. Hermione wanted to laugh at the irony - this was so absurd. There was a bloody Bennett witch in Mystic Falls. Everyone in this town was totally screwed.
"Oh, uh I guess no." She replied to the staring girls, who looked just this side of alarmed. Bonnie hadn't recognized her - did that mean she was unaware of the wizarding world, or was she playing coy? As Hermione looked back at the pair she dismissed the second possibility - Bonnie looked very confused right now. The Bennetts had most probably fled from Salem during the witch trials. If Bonnie's grandmother taught at the University, that meant they were one of the few families who had dispersed into muggles after the witch trials. It would make sense that Bonnie was home schooled and wasn't aware of the wizarding world at all.
The witch, the dark haired Bennett witch, completely unaware of what she was and where she actually belonged, was staring at her right now with a completely confused expression on her face. It reminded her of Harry in first year, when she had met him on the train - new, innocent and unaware.
"I'm going to drink water. See you in a bit." Hermione said, and quickly dashed out of the room before the girls could reply. This revelation had also reminded of the other problem on her hands -
Bonnie was a witch.
A vampire, a werewolf, a witch and the moonstone. Only the doppelganger was missing. Now if only she could spot two versions of someone running around. Or found a picture of Katherine somewhere. Then she would know what to look for.
If Katherine's doppelganger was out and about, she was sure she would have heard about it, right? It would be Breaking News in the supernatural world… Unless they didn't know about it. But Stefan had dated Katherine, so he should know – right? But he was also dating Elena – this was such a mess!
As Hermione walked through the hospital, trying to find water, she felt a push at the wards. Right. So Alaric had probably told Damon and Co. that she was here. She took a breath and lowered the wards just enough so that they could pass through. It took about half a minute, Damon, Stefan and Caroline seemed to be testing them – to make sure they could come in and go out as they pleased. A minute later, it was over, and she could feel them finally entering the gates.
Well, that was done. Caroline wouldn't find anything suspicious so if she could explain the wards somehow, hopefully, they would start trusting her. And even if they didn't - she would have Bonnie at her side. She had no idea what the girl knew or didn't know - about herself, her history, her importance - but she needed to be told all of that and Hermione had a feeling that it would have to be her who had to set off that firework under Bonnie Bennett's nose.
So, so, so? What are we thinking? Will Caroline find anything? Do you think Hermione forgot something important? Well, sure she's the brightest witch of her age, but eh...
What do you think?