"Hello Bree, how are you? Everything going well?", I asked her with amusement in my voice.
Yes, this is the same Bree that Damon killed in season one on a field trip with Elena. Stefan knew her through Lexi.
"Hey Stefan. Didn't think you'd ever call. I am doing fine. Opened a bar recently, in Atlanta. You should visit", she said curiously.
"I'd love to check it out."
"Hey listen, I needed a favour from you. Would it be possible for you to lend me all the grimoires you have currently in your possession? I am doing a bit of research on witchcraft, and it would help me out a bit", straight to the point, it's just easier this way.
"What research are you doing that requires all my grimoires?", she said, here curiosity was piqued.
"Was just curious. My mom was a witch (no need to tell her I am a siphoner), so I was always fascinated with the concept of magic. Can you lend me the grimoires? I'll get them back to you in about a week's time."
"Sure. When will you be here to collect them?". I thought she'd be more reluctant, that was easier than expected.
"I'll be there tomorrow, just text me the address. Thanks Bree."
"Anytime, see ya tomorrow then."
"Yup, Bye."
That went smoothly. Being friends with Lexi helps, I'll have to make sure she doesn't die this time around.
Let's see if I can perform basic feats of magic by channelling my vampirism. Levitation should be a go too beginner practice. So I sat there with a book, trying to clear my mind as I have read hundreds of times in novels, and concentrate on lifting the book up.
At first there was nothing, I could feel nothing. But after some concentration, I was able to feel a force, sucking energy out of my body.
"That must be me siphoning my vampirism."
The book shook. Lightly at first, but then slowly it levitated right in front of my eyes. The excitement of accomplishing the task had me lose my concentration, and the book dropped with a thud. But that was soooo cool!
"This feels just as amazing as I imagined it would. But it needs a lot of concentration, and the siphon also makes me hungry. This shouldn't last though, hopefully after some practice the toll on my body reduces, and I can use magic more freely."
I continued working on the levitation magic until I couldn't resist my hunger anymore. But I made decent progress, levitation already feels much easier to me. I was a quick learner, even in my past life, and vampirism only seems to have heightened it. I can also feel my other qualities heightened. I can think and process data much faster, faster than even what vampires should be capable of (If you are wondering how I know that, I just ran some tests to check my reaction speed, and it seems to be much better than what the show depicted for Stefan and Damon who were older than I am right now). Another perk of my past life I guess.
This feeling, the magic, the quirks, just makes me want to revel in them. Alas, I still have things to do, so after a quick bath, I decided to lay down. Even though I don't need to, having some sleep as a habit can't be that bad.
Scene break, in Stefan's car.
"Along with this guy's broody habits, I also am not a big fan of his car. It is a nice drive though, a 1963 Porsche (I am more into supercars and hypercars, also don't hate sedans). At least it's a short drive, just 35 miles (Mystic Falls to Atlanta), shouldn't take long."
I decided to start early. Although Atlanta is closeby, it would be nice to get my hands on the grimoires early on. The view during the drive was amazing though, would have been better with some company not gonna lie.
Scene break, Bree's bar.
"Hey Bree! Nice to see you, you look good", she did in fact look good. Not hot by any standards, but much better than she looked in the show. Which should've been obvious, she look as if she was 40 in the show, here she looks to be in her late 20's.
"You are early, I wasn't expecting you here at 8 am when you said you were visiting", surprise evident in her voice.
"Well, what can I say, I like to surprise people. The area seems nice, a good choice of materials and colour theme. Do you need any help in setting things up?", always good to be polite.
"Not unless you have any ideas that could liven this place up", she said gesturing around the empty areas in the bar.
"You can always add a pool table. A dart board would be a welcome addition as well", I guess witches weren't that good at business back in the 1970's.
"I didn't think of it, that's a great idea actually. Thanks! This deserves a toast, on the house of course"
We continued to chat for a while, talking about how things are progressing, and had a couple of drinks. Bree asked me to stay a while so she could pack the grimoires up. She really wasn't expecting me this early. Deciding to be vigilant, I stretched my senses to their limit so that I could be aware of any potential threats, not that I was expecting any. Stefan and Bree were on good terms, and I didn't kill one of her friends either, so there was nothing much to worry about.
Bree brought a decent sized bag, full of grimoires, and I did my best to control my expressions, to not give away my happiness. Putting the bag carefully inside the trunk, I promised her to visit more often, before taking my leave. Saying that I was rushing home would be an understatement. I was back at the boarding house in a jiffy, checking out all the grimoires. It was like a harry potter fan let loose in the room of requirements, there was no stopping me.
The next couple of days were spent studying the grimoire and were totally a blast. Although the grimoires didn't contain any ground breaking spells or rituals, it still gave me valuable insight as to how magic works in this universe. I memorised all the books, obviously, and also made a copy just in case. Trying out the potions and the spells was thrilling. I was able to brew a potion to speed up my healing, it wasn't much of a boost, about 20%, but I wasn't expecting it to work on a vampire anyways, so that was still a welcome surprise. Other potions weren't that great. There was a potion to incapacitate someone, a potion to improve concentration and a bunch of others which I'd rather not mention. The burning sage is sick though, and I still can't believe burning a herb would stop someone from eavesdropping. But my thorough testing says otherwise. If I could just improve it so that it works like a two way mirror….
I still need to study the rituals mentioned in the grimoires though, they need a bit more preparation. Creating amulets that have magic stored in them would be a priority, because siphoning my vampirism when I am not used to controlling my hunger could cause some serious trouble.
Ran into Matthew a couple of times, we live in the same house duh, what was I thinking. But I didn't interact with him much. Just left him on his own. On my way to delivering the grimoires back, I also made nice contracts with a few more blood banks (read compelled the shit out of everyone who works there), so my supply could be upped to 4 blood bags a day. I'll be needing all the blood I can get, considering my training. Magic does take a lot of juice. All in all, it was a good week.
"Hey Matthew, I'll be out of town for a while, just thought I should let you know. You can relax buddy", and I left without even waiting for his response. Well I am a vampire, wouldn't look too good if I am overly polite to a mere human.
Next order of business will be to strengthen my body. In virtually no time at all I'll be going up against Originals. Better to get stronger asap. There are layers to this though. I need to learn martial arts, strengthen my body, strengthen my mind, find ways to not die due to a missing heart (unlikely to find anything, but a guy can dream right), build up a tolerance against vervain and lobelia (a flower to render witches useless), strengthen against decapitation (I have a few ideas that could work), find ways to have resistance to magic (say no to aneurysms), and that's just all I can think at the top of my mind.
There might be more things that I need to do too. And all this cannot be done alone. I'll need allies, people that I can count on. And some good choices would be Enzo, Hayley and Damon along with any witches that I can befriend. Befriending Klaus again might just be too risky. Not to forget, my crush exists in this universe (lewd smirking). There is a lot to do, and not a lot of time to accomplish all of it. Just 31 years until season one starts, and I need to make sure I don't mess up the plot till then.
AN: The story was from Stefan's point of view until now. It will be from a third person perspective from the next chapter.
PS: The reviews are helpful. Thanks for pointing out the flaws. Keep em coming.
