Children Of The Damned - Part 1
Something was poking her.
And she was about two pokes away from committing mass genocide on such a large scale that Klaus Mikaelson would be proud.
Victoria let out a grunt of displeasure and flipped around, snuggling deeper into the covers of her bed. She adjusted the blankets wearily over her body, keeping her eyes shut tightly and her face smashed into the pillows. The poking sensation continued and Victoria let out a growl, trying to warn the poker. They only had one more poke. One more, and then...
Poke.
It was at this moment that Victoria Khalida LeBlanc (formerly named Victoria Khalida Vanacore) promptly lost it.
Victoria opened her eyes in a snap and flipped around, throwing herself at the attacker with a primal scream. The poker let out a yelp of surprise as Victoria collided with them, the two of them falling back onto the bed. Victoria quickly grabbed ahold of their wrists and used her body weight to pin them above the attacker's head. She straddled them, her hips pinning the attacker down onto her bed. She panted in the darkness, ready to demand who the hell was disturbing her slumber when the early morning sun shone through the window in her room, promptly showing the attacker.
She let out a frustrated sigh and hung her head, shaking it in disbelief. "Seriously, Damon?"
"I must admit that this is not how I originally foresaw this conflict ending," Damon admitted slowly, his eyes taking in the position that Victoria had him pinned in. He caught her eye and raised an eyebrow, sending her his signature smirk. "Though I'm not complaining."
"You are disgusting," Victoria sighed, letting go of his wrists. She sat up straighter and Damon used his newly freed hands to sit up, positioning himself with his back against the mounds of pillows. Victoria didn't even bother to get off of his lap. Something told her that he would fight against that and she wasn't in the mood to argue. "It's got to be before seven in the morning and I had a shitty night last night. You seriously couldn't wait until later to wake me up?"
"I got bored," Damon mused, shrugging his shoulders in a 'what can you do?' manner. He brought his hands around and rested them firmly on her hips, preventing her from leaving his lap. "There's only so much one can do in this house before they promptly go insane."
"Talk to someone."
"Lexi and I are tolerating each other for your sake, Lee's asleep, Zach's in the library and when he reads, no one can disturb him, Kelly doesn't like me, Caroline and Bonnie haven't gotten up yet at their houses and Stefan is with Elena, obviously," Damon snorted, rolling his eyes. "Those two bunny rabbits were going at it all night long. They only stopped like six hours ago."
"Why do you think I had a shitty time going to sleep?" Victoria grumbled, reaching up to rub one of her eyes as a yawn escaped her.
The evening had been going fine until Victoria tried to fall asleep. She was comfy, wearing cozy pajamas that she had stolen from various members of the boarding house (sweatpants from Lexi, socks from Lee, oversized t-shirt from Zach, and a hoodie from Damon), when she first heard it. Moans of pleasure and delight had reverberated throughout the walls of her room. It had left such a sour taste in her mouth and her stomach tied up in knots. She had tried playing music softly to fight back the noise, but it wasn't loud enough. Not when Victoria started to hear Elena sigh Stefan's name, or Stefan whisper Elena's name, followed by flowery compliments. Victoria didn't know what her feelings towards Stefan were just yet, whether they were platonic (most likely) or romantic (probably less likely, but Vicki kept bringing it up to her at every possible chance so it was hard to truly rule out), but she did know that she didn't want to listen to him and Elena having sex.
"You heard them?" Damon asked incredulously, leaning to one side to peer at the door behind her. He looked back towards her with slight disbelief and awe.
"Who didn't hear them is a better question, I think," Victoria sniffed. "You know, the walls of this boarding house may be thick, but they aren't that thick."
"Mama Bear," Damon said slowly, licking his lips. There were many thoughts flying behind his eyes and he seemed to settle on one. He talked gently, as if he was approaching a wild animal, "Yes, they are."
"No, they aren't," Victoria insisted, shaking her head. "I can give you a whole play-by-play if I have to over what was said last night, but I would really like to forget last night ever happened."
Damon shuffled slightly on the bed, repositioning the two of them. Now she was on the mattress with her back towards his chest, sitting in between his legs. She was angled towards her door and Damon's arms moved to wrap around her stomach. He leaned forward, his breath ghosting her ear. "Can you try something for me?"
"If you are about to put some sort of sexual innuendo right here, I will not hesitate to punch you," Victoria warned him.
He squeezed her stomach gently and continued, ignoring her last statement, "I want you to listen. Think about Elena," there was a pang in her heart that Victoria decided to ignore, "and then think about the room that she is in with Stefan. Listen for her. Tell me what you hear."
Victoria huffed, rolled her eyes, but relented to what Damon wanted.
She closed her eyes and tried to block out the sounds of Damon breathing and her own heart beating swiftly in her chest. Victoria focused her mind on the layout of the boarding house, which she had memorized pretty early on in her fangirl life. Her room (aka the room that she was currently occupying while she and Kelly stayed at the boarding house in case her powers went haywire) was right across from Damon's. In the wing right across from the one they were in sat Stefan's room, all the way on the other side.
Victoria imagined walking down the hallways of the house, the cool soft wood underneath her toes. She imagined opening the door to Stefan's room. Much to her discomfort, she imagined Elena and Stefan lying on his bed together, tangled up underneath the covers. The room was silent, no one was speaking, and yet Victoria could hear the steady pounding of drums. She furrowed her brow in slight confusion. Why would there be drums within Stefan's room?
Victoria listened to the rhythm of the drums and used her free hand to tap the rhythm onto her leg. Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump. It was a rhythm that seemed all-too-familiar with her, but she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out what it was.
"What are you doing, Mama Bear?" Damon whispered. Or, at least, it seemed like he whispered it. In reality, he could have shouted it, but Victoria was trying her best to concentrate on the drumming noise. "What's with the tappy fingers?"
"I hear something weird," Victoria commented, biting her lower lip as she continued the rhythm. "I-I don't know what it is, but it's a sound that overpowering everything."
Victoria felt Damon's fingers ghosting her leg, and even though she was wearing sweatpants, it still sent shivers down her spine. She hoped that Damon didn't notice that (though knowing her luck, he probably would have). His fingers rested themselves gently onto her leg and then they started tapping.
In rhythm with her tapping.
She opened her eyes and stopped tapping her fingers, looking back as much as she could towards Damon's face. The man's eyes were closed, and he was tapping away. When Victoria looked back towards his fingers and paired it with the sound of the drumming she still heard pounding in her ears, her eyes widened in disbelief and shock.
It was the same rhythm. Still perfectly in time, never faltering. Not even once.
"You hear the drumming noise too?" Victoria asked in shock, glancing towards Damon for an answer.
Damon's eyes opened and the look in his eyes spoke more than words could, but he still answered her, "It's not drumming, Mama Bear. It's pumping."
Victoria wasn't an idiot. There was a specific reason why Damon had said 'pumping'. Only one thing in Stefan's room currently was pumping (and not in a sexual way):
Elena's heartbeat.
Instant fear and shock coiled in Victoria's stomach and she managed to muster up a "What the hell?" before her body started to feel numb. Nausea swirled around deep inside of her and Victoria did her best to keep it from rising to the surface.
"Up and at 'em, Mama Bear," Damon ordered, all but shoving Victoria off of the bed. She stumbled, trying to get her grip on the floors, when Damon appeared beside her, grabbing her elbow.
One moment, Victoria was standing in her room. The next, she was at the foot of Stefan's bed with two very naked people snuggling and giving each other morning kisses underneath the sheets. Victoria let out an awkward squeak and quickly covered her eyes, squeezing her eyes shut tight. At the same time, Damon cooed, "Rise and shine, sleepyheads."
From the verbal reaction that Damon received, it seemed like his goal to wake Stefan and Elena up was a success.
"Damon! Please!" she heard Elena plead awkwardly.
"What are you doing?" Stefan demanded. His voice seemed to take on an awkward tinge when he added, "Victoria? What's going on here?"
"Oh, stop being smutty," Damon snickered.
There was rustling of the sheets and Victoria hoped that that was a sign that she could open her eyes. She opened her fingers slowly, wanting to be able to slam them shut again if something showed that she didn't need to see. Everything seemed to be good so she let out a sigh and dropped her hands.
But oh...she was not prepared for what she saw.
She knew that Stefan was a pretty toned guy (hell, even if she hadn't seen the show, she had seen Damon's chest and Stefan's biceps. She knew the guy was solid), but hot damn, Victoria was not prepared to see Stefan's shirtless chest in real life. The man had abs for days, and each were defined and perfectly sculpted, as if he was a Greek statue. The rose tattoo on his shoulder was delicate and yet fierce and it was so beautifully crafted that Victoria just wanted to trace every edge of it.
Victoria quickly looked away, her face flushing in embarrassment. She hoped that she hadn't been staring at her close friend's boyfriend's chest for too long, lest she have another awkward fight with Elena over nothing. Stefan was Elena's boyfriend. No matter what her feelings were (again, platonic or romantic), she was not about to get into the middle of all that.
"Seriously, Damon, get out of here!"
"What, not Mama Bear too?"
"Damon..."
"If I see something I haven't seen before, I'll throw a dollar at it," Damon snorted. "Now listen, we have some very important business to discuss."
"And it has to be right now?" Elena demanded, and Victoria weakly seconded that opinion. She'd be willing to have that discussion at ending time. Just so long that Stefan was wearing a shirt. And so was Elena.
"Well, we have lots to do, now that we're all friends and working towards a common goal, and I don't want to lose my train of thought," Damon commented. He clapped his hands together. The sudden noise didn't scare Victoria; in fact, it was almost like she had seen it coming. Maybe I am getting better after all! "So, first thing on the to-do list: in order to open the tomb, we need to find the journal to get the grimoire to undo the spells. The journal in this case being Johnathan Gilbert's journal, as so kindly pointed out to us by Mama Bear." He nodded his head towards Victoria and she nodded her head back. "First things first." Damon pointed towards Elena. "Since you are Elena Gilbert, you're on journal duty."
"Since when am I helping?" Elena questioned, glaring at Damon.
Damon shrugged. "Well, first off, I know that Mama Bear's going to help. I can use her influence to convince Kelly-Beans and Blondie to side with me. Little witch might take more persuasion, but I can be persuasive when I want to be." Victoria rolled her eyes at that statement. Yeah right. Bonnie and Damon wouldn't be #bestfriendgoals until many seasons later. "Zach will help just because he's a nice guy, and Lexi and Lee have nothing better to do. Plus, Stefan's helping, and you've taken up residence in Stefan's bed, ergo..."
Stefan glanced towards Elena and there was a softness in his eyes. It made Victoria bite her lower lip and look down at her feet awkwardly. She felt like she was intruding on a private moment. "You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do."
Elena just gave a little sigh of defeat, but nodded her head nonetheless. "I'll look for it tonight." After saying that, Elena flopped back onto the bed and grabbed the sheets, pulling them up and over her heard.
"Good," Damon mused.
"How do we know that this journal will hold the location of the grimoire?" Stefan asked, looking away from his girlfriend and back towards his brother and Victoria.
Damon slung his arm around Victoria's shoulder, pulling her close to his side, and Victoria didn't miss the way that Stefan's eyes darkened dangerously at that. "The great and powerful Mama Bear has spoken, Stefan." Damon fake-gasped. "Don't tell me you're not a believer."
Elena pulled the sheets back down from her face, sparing Stefan from having to answer. "Okay, what exactly is a grimoire, anyway?"
"It's a witch's cookbook," Damon stated, and Elena just gave him a look that said she didn't understand anything he had just said.
Victoria stepped in, hoping to progress the conversation along so she could leave the room. "Every spell that a witch casts carries their own personal signature, like how paintings by the same artist always have little quirks that tell you who painted it. Witches like to write down their work into books to be used at different times."
"Cookbook," Damon repeated.
Elena nodded her head gratefully towards Victoria, taking her statement easier than Damon's.
"What about these mystery vampires?" Stefan asked, snapping his fingers. "Ben and the other one?" Victoria nodded her head. "So it's obvious that they are out in Mystic Falls somewhere, and they know who we are."
"And I don't like that disadvantage, so..." Damon began, clapping his hands together once more. "Chop, chop."
Damon moved to turn around, but Stefan stopped him by clearing his throat. Damon raised an eyebrow at his brother and asked haughtily, "Yes?"
"You implied that there was a second thing?" Stefan said.
"Did I?"
Stefan just sighed. "Yeah, Damon, you did, so just rip the band-aid off right now. What happened? What's the other big thing we need to discuss?"
"Oh, that," Damon chuckled, before all the humor vanished from his face and he pointed sharply towards Victoria. Victoria's eyes widened in confusion and she couldn't help but look between his finger and her chest. "Dying messed her up, and we need to figure out how."
"Okay, run that by me again because I am more confused than a beaver who got lost on his way to church," Lee sighed, shaking his head. He flopped onto the ground outside, leaning up against a tree. He folded his arms across his chest and looked towards Victoria. "You can hear things now and Damon's freaking out?"
"I'm going to ignore the fact that you believe beavers go to church and just say yes," Victoria said after a moment of silence. "It started because of," Victoria paused and blushed furiously, "some late night activities that I was apparently not supposed to be able to hear. And then I was able to hear Elena's heartbeat from across the entire house. Damon's now convinced that I need to test my senses to see if anything else was 'heightened'."
"It is actually a pretty good idea," Zach admitted. He strolled up beside Lee's tree and leaned up against it, looking thoughtful. "Not much is known about the Immortalis. I haven't been able to find anything so far, so all we have to go on is Kelly's description from the breakfast discussion."
"Thank you, Zach," Damon hummed, appearing seemingly from nowhere. Kelly was right behind him, and much to Victoria's surprise, so was Caroline. In total, the group seemed to consist of Zach, Lee, Damon, Kelly, Caroline, and Victoria. They were situated in the clearing that they had found Victoria in on the night of her rebirth (or technically, morning). The area had seemingly been cleared out, but it was clear that something devastatingly powerful had torn a wide circle through the trees. Damon clapped his hands, drawing Victoria's attention back towards him. "It's rather a simple task, Victoria. We're just going to run some trials I made up to see just how skilled you've become now that you are this Immortalis thingy."
"Eloquent as always, Damon," Victoria snickered, folding her arms across her chest. She had changed into some workout clothes that Kelly had grabbed from home (a dark blue sports bra and the sweatpants she had been wearing earlier). "Alright, so what are we testing first?"
"Reflexes," Damon snickered, and then his arm was suddenly moving.
Victoria didn't even think; her body planted itself into the ground and she swiveled her upper body. Her left arm shot out from her side and the moment she felt her fingers touch something, she squeezed her hand shut. The object that had been flying stopped moving and it was only afterwards that Victoria felt like she could breathe again.
In her hand, she held a rock. A small rock, just slightly smaller than her fist. Given how fast Damon's arm had moved, if the rock had hit Victoria, she could have broken a bone or even died.
So how the hell did she just catch it?
"Guess that answers our question," Lee couldn't help but comment. Victoria straightened out and looked towards the group with wide eyes. Her hand started to shake and she dropped the rock, bringing her other hand to cradle her hand. "A normal human shouldn't have been able to catch that."
"T-That could've killed me," Victoria couldn't help but whisper, flinching at the thought.
"But it didn't."
"But it could've!" Victoria shouted, her angry eyes directed straight towards Damon. Both Kelly and Caroline looked confused at Victoria's outburst, looking around.
"Nobody said anything, Tori," Caroline said slowly, confusion etching her words.
Damon simply held up two fingers, as if he had been counting on his fingers. "Test number two: hearing. Normal humans couldn't hear me speaking, but you, who's a good distance away from me, did."
Victoria bit her lower lip and sucked in a sharp breath. Don't panic. Don't panic. You're alright. You're okay. "A little warning next time would be swell, Damon."
Damon shrugged. "It's less fun that way."
"Asshole," Victoria grumbled angrily, but gestured for Damon to continue.
"Next task will be testing your sense of smell," Damon explained, stepping forward. He walked over to Victoria and placed a hand on her shoulder, gesturing towards Caroline with his other one. "Do you know what Caroline smells like?"
"White chocolate and lavender," Victoria immediately recited. Damon's eyes widened in disbelief and he shot a glance between her and Caroline. "What? I know what my best friend smells like."
"Now I definitely know that women are weird," Damon mumbled under his breath. Louder, he stated, "Alright then: you are going to have noise cancelling headphones on and you're going to try and track Caroline. Sense of smell only. She'll be teamed up with Zach, so it's not like she's going to get lost out in the woods."
Victoria looked past Damon and towards Caroline. "You okay with this, Care-Bear?"
"I actually volunteered, if you can believe it or not," Caroline laughed weakly, reaching up to throw her hair up into a ponytail. "I figured the best way to get over the fact that the supernatural are taking over our town is to just immerse myself into it. Plus, I have something I need to tell you later."
"Of course," Victoria confirmed, nodding her head. She held a hand out to Damon and Damon produced a large pair of chunky headphones from nowhere. He had to have a Mary Poppins-style bag. There was no way that he all of these items on himself without an additional bag. She slipped the headphones up onto her ears. And hot damn, they worked. Perfectly. She couldn't hear anything. Victoria tried concentrating, to see if she could hear Caroline's or Kelly's heartbeats, but neither of them stood out to her. She grinned widely and gave Caroline a thumbs-up, telling her that she was good to go.
Caroline nodded and headed over to Zach. The elder Salvatore grabbed the blonde around the waist and behind the neck (to prevent whiplash) and disappeared in a flash. Victoria waited and counted to ten silently in her head. Once she hit 'ten', Victoria turned in the general direction that they went.
Damon squeezed Victoria's shoulders, signaling that it was time for her to start.
Victoria took a deep breath and released it. She breathed deeply in her nose. Immediately, she was overwhelmed by all the smells. Had she never noticed how many smells there were in the forest? Victoria winced as a spike of pain hit her forehead. She staggered backwards and brought a hand up to her forehead.
She felt Damon's hands on her hips and Victoria couldn't say anything because her headache spiked again. Pine needles, feces, dirt, fur. All the smells overwhelmed her. Damon's hands squeezed her lightly, and Victoria could hear his voice in her mind. She knew what he would say if she could hear. Narrow it down. Block out the smells one at a time.
Victoria patted his hands on her hips and centered herself. She took a deep breath through her nose and closed her eyes to focus better. She tried to narrow down the smells. There was just one smell that she needed. White chocolate and lavender. One of the most soothing smells that Victoria had ever known; it radiated friendship and safety to Victoria, and it was...
There.
Victoria's eyes snapped open and she immediately started to run. Her feet pounded against the earth as she dodged and weaved between trees. She sniffed again, and she was able to pinpoint the smell again. Victoria switched directions again, heading directly towards the smell. After about a minute or two of running, Victoria stumbled to a stop. Zach and Caroline were right there in front of her...
In a tree.
"Why are you two in a tree?" Victoria asked. She tilted her head to one side, really confused.
Caroline mouthed something to her, but Victoria wasn't the queen of reading lips. She squinted, trying to understand what the heck her friend was saying.
"What?" Victoria asked. She shook her head. "I can't hear you."
Hands grabbed the headphones around her ears and yanked them off. Victoria yelped at the sudden blare of noise and she clapped her hands onto her ears, wincing as her headache spiked again.
"They were trying to disguise her scent with the smell of the tree," Damon commented, and Victoria winced. Was his voice always that loud or was she just used to it? "Didn't work it seems. Test three and four done."
"And four?" Victoria hissed, gently moving her hands away from ears. "There was only supposed to be one test, the smelling! What was the other?"
"How fast you can move," Damon supplied, shrugging his shoulders. "Not as fast as the night after the dance, mind you, but still much quicker than normal. Could be due to your powers being held back because of your anklet."
"Again, Damon, a little warning on the tests!" Victoria huffed, folding her arms across her chest.
Zach jumped from the lowest tree branch and turned around, helping Caroline descend from the tree as well. Once she was settled on the ground, Caroline moved to Victoria's side. "You're doing great, Tori. Damon's just being a dick, which didn't change even now that I know he's a vampire. We already know that your reflexes are fast, you can hear superbly, you can run like a devil, and you can track my scent down. That's really cool."
Victoria sighed and tried her best to relax. "Thanks, Care-Bear. I needed that."
"No problem," Caroline teased, nudging Victoria's shoulder with her own. "I got your back, girl. Now, what other tests should we do?"
"Well, we've done hearing and smell. Touch doesn't really matter, but your reflexes are fast, so there's that. Sight can't be done until it gets darker out, and then we'll really find out," Damon counted off. "I guess the next step would be to see what you can exactly do with your magic."
"And that's where I come in," Kelly panted, coming up on Damon's other side. Lee appeared on Kelly's other side, looking way less winded then Victoria's mother looked like. "Thanks for ditching me, Damon."
"You are the woman who refused to let me carry you here!" Lee grumbled, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "I would have done it readily."
"Let's just move on with these tests," Victoria sighed, waving her hand dismissively. "Okay, Kelly, you're the magical user person thingy. Hit me. What am I supposed to do?"
"It helps that your Immortalis magic is styrenes magic, like my magic is," Kelly said, rolling her shoulders. She shooed the other members of the group back, and Zach grabbed Caroline, pulling her away from Victoria. "The best way to teach you is to just let you go wild."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me right, baby girl," sniffed Kelly, shaking her hands out. "Trial by fire, you know."
It was at that moment that Victoria saw literal lightning arc in the white of Kelly's eyes.
"Shit!" she yelled, knowing exactly what was about to happen next.
A loud boom echoed throughout the woods and Victoria threw her hands up, waiting for the moment that her body would be hit by lightning.
Only...it never did.
Victoria peeked an eye open hesitantly. There was no bright light, nothing that should indicate that a large lightning bolt had been shot out towards her.
Instead, there was what Victoria could best describe as a shield standing in front of her.
Her arms were crossed in front of her body, her hands closed into fists. In front of her, the white ooze from that night was there. But this time, it was more malleable, and it created what could best be described as a mandala in front of her. It was large, covering her body safely without any chance of the lightning sneaking through. Something had hit it, because the side facing Kelly was smoldering. Victoria could also feel a tingling sensation in her fingertips.
"What the hell..." Victoria murmured, her eyes wide with shock. She dropped her arms and the shield faded away too, allowing Victoria to gaze at her mother. Kelly was looking towards Victoria with a grim expression on her face. She didn't look that satisfied by what had just happened. "What was that?"
"That was your magic responding automatically and protecting you from harm," Kelly explained slowly, giving her a quizzical look. "Your advanced reflexes definitely helped out too."
"Your eyes were also really weird. One black, one white," Caroline piped up helpfully.
Kelly continued, undisturbed by Caroline's interruption, "If you were any slower...you'd be toast. Literally. Like sourdough that's been toasted."
Victoria slapped a hand over her face and groaned. "Please tell me that wherever you're from they didn't have the stupid trend in 2020 as well."
Kelly grinned sheepishly at that moment and scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. "Yeah...we did. And I may or may not have hopped onto that trend as well."
Victoria groaned good-naturedly and shook out her arms. "Are you just going to keep throwing lightning bolts at me?"
Moral of the story: yes. Yes, Kelly was just going to keep throwing lightning bolts at Victoria. Over and over and over again until Victoria was positive that Kelly was low-key trying to kill her.
They eventually broke for lunch, and by 'they', Victoria meant Damon, Lee, Zach, and Caroline. Kelly refused to stop training and even tried to shock Victoria through the ground when Victoria took a step towards the quartet who were happily munching on sandwiches from the sideline. It was only when evening began to start that Kelly finally decided the evening was over.
"Oh thank everything good and blessed in this world," Victoria couldn't help but moan as she staggered off towards Caroline. The quartet had left once more and returned with dinner for the evening (taco soup, crafted deliciously by Caroline and Zach).
Caroline offered out a bowl of food and Victoria took it gratefully. She breathed in the heavenly scent deeply. For once since that morning, her advanced sense of smell was awesome because she was able to take in all of the delicious smells. Victoria licked her lips, ready to swallow down the taco soup with or without a spoon...
...when her phone rang.
Victoria was having a bad day.
Victoria groaned and yanked her phone out of her pocket (the phone that Kelly had kindly bought for her during their few off days). She angrily hit the 'accept call' and whipped her phone up to her ear. "I'm warning you: this better be life or death or I will personally rip your heart out. With my teeth."
"...Did I interrupt something?"
"Just my will to live, Stefan," Victoria grumbled angrily. "I haven't eaten all day, I had a horrible night's rest, and I could kill and skin a bear myself, advanced powers or not, so yeah, please tell me that whatever you want is life or death."
"I was wondering if you wanted to visit Mr. Saltzman with me...?"
Victoria sucked in a sharp breath and let it out in a swift rush. She flipped around and stalked off, heading straight towards the house. "Meet me at the boarding house. And bring your wallet. You will be buying me all the food that I want, Salvatore."
"All the food?"
"You think I've eaten a lot before? Oh sweetheart, you haven't even seen anything."
Victoria angrily hung up the phone and broke out into a dead sprint.
A/N: This chapter's probably the shortest one I made (only about 5.5k words) but I got sick and it could potentially be COVID, so I had no will to try and make it longer. Plus, it ended at a natural feeling place. Because I am sick, don't except a chapter by Monday. Again, no will to do so.
THE SHIPPING WARS! (feel free to keep on voting (you can vote for more than one ship!); 1 full point for if you choose one ship, two half points for two separate ships, more than 2, smaller decimals. Anything that is not a full point will be italicized. This will not decide the final pairing; I already know who Victoria will end up with, I just want you all to be able to guess):
ROMANTIC:
Team Stetoria {Victoria/Stefan} (17): insert name here XD, sammyleann's dad, TikiKiki, Maistryia, Don't-Say-It-Feel-It, another guest, Lime, herewegoagain, K, Yukihino-Sama, emma, just another guest, BookwormStrawberry, heyyeah, Guest (3), guest4ithinklol, Guest (6), Guest (9), guest (1), theappleseed, Anaidiana, Hayden, Takinginspiration1, Serena Salvatore
Team Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (35.5): Sciave, Guest, ArganRose, CrystalAris, Marine76, Assenavira, CarlaPA, Guest (1), Maistryia, emma, just another guest, Freeshavacahdoh, Guest (3), Guest (4), Guest (6), sabrinaannpierson, Guest (7), Guest (8), Guest (9), guest (1), hfgfgfrdr, lillen20, Yolo, theappleseed, Guest (10), Juko, Bulma, Ellay, V, Ghest, charlievini, Guest (13), Guest (14), Guest (15), TrembleB4DietCoke, dhariti, Hayden, Guest (17), Elyse1821, Dannn, Prometo
Team Vilijah {Victoria/Elijah} (36): guest, Guest, SoraLover987142, insert name here XD, sammyleann, Orange keys 25, LoyalElijahFangirl, Hinata Megumi, A. G Herz, Aryabloodlust, ferallahey, AngelColdHeart, BlueDragibus, dreamwalkerlisa, Guest, Stachelbeere, Guest (1), jocillyria, Guest (2), BookwormStrawberry, Ieviheichu, Teghan-Potter1370, karenc0r, Hachiko33200, Guest (11), Anaidiana, Dalia2009, wolfcorgi, Nia, Rory, Teghan-Potter1370, Guest (12), Shiro7, alessandra92, Guest (16), Guest (18), Karina, Prometo, Serena Salvatore
Team Klatoria {Victoria/Klaus} (5): Tayla141, TikiKiki, Guest (9), Mythology216 the Beard King, thisIsNotATest, Guest (10)
Team Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (2.5): DreamerPop, MelissaMorningstar, Guest (11)
Team Vinn {Victoria/Finn} (1): silentmayhem
PLATONIC:
Vinn {Victoria/Finn) (1.9): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, silentmayhem, Prometo
Varcel {Victoria/Marcel) (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, jocillyria
Zinn {Zach/Finn} (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, karenc0r, Prometo
Jol {Jenna/Kol} (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Lime, Orange keys 25, karenc0r
Kelas {Silas/Kelly L.} (.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25
Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (1.2): Orange keys 25, Serena Salvatore
Kennett {Kol/Bonnie} (.5): Lime
Autoria {Aurora/Victoria} (1.2): LoyalElijahFangirl, hfgfgfrdr
Vonnie {Victoria/Bonnie} (1): bpopa7110
Vibekah {Victoria/Rebekah} (1): BookwormStrawberry
Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (1): Guest (10)
New Followers!: Mel2121, xXSweet Little BumblebeeXx, Yaiza Pariente, Takinginspiration1, InfinityMars, Wildheart75, Timaza, Elia Chanel (you're the 300th follower! Congratulations!)
New Favoriters!: xXSweet Little BumblebeeXx, Yaiza Pariente, Wildheart75, Timaza
Onto reviews!:
edwardsgirl21: Awww thank you!
DBZFAN45: Oh trust me. I can guarantee you that whoever she ends up with, it will definitely be the longest slow-burn probably in the history of slow-burns. You really gotta be in the long haul with this story. I don't think we've had a real romance scene. Ever. Thank you! I think that MacKenzie Vanacore (Tori's biological mom) is a real jerk too. There might not have been physical abuse, but Tori still suffered underneath her hand in one way or another. Stetoria is the lowest in points between the Big 3 (in order of points, highest to lowest, right now it's Vilijah, Datoria, then Stetoria) and I think it has a lot to do with Stefan still having the Elena blinders on. Ahhh yess...sexual tension has become my best friend. I love making everyone on the edge of their seats, or just sitting there at home going, "Dang...that's hot."
CrystalAris: Ahhh, I see now!
Shiro7: Your vote has been added! Everyone's honestly an emotional mess in that town, you know?
Prometo: So, it'll probably be a little longer before you reach this chapter, so if you're reading this, this is in regards to your Chapter 4 review. Ahhh, I see! Well thank you for taking a chance on this story. I understand the struggle. Awww, thank you! And yes, you can vote for two people (I put your name down in the votes. You can change your answer at any time, so no worries!). Finn will be having friends, no worries about that! Finn does deserve more, and he will get more with this story.
Anaidiana: You're welcome! It's been a while since our last little Stetoria fluffy moment, so yeah :). There might be another one in the next chapter, but I'm not quite sure just yet. That was the second time they cuddled in bed. It's slowly becoming their "thing". Awww thank you! I got even more crazy plot twists involving the family coming up, so stay tuned!
Takinginspiration1: Your vote has been added!
Serena Salvatore: Awww, thank you! I can confirm that the identity of Noble won't be revealed...for a loooooong time. That one you're just gonna have to be patient on. It'll be worth the wait, I swear! Oh yeah, if she's friends with Damon, she can be friends with Kol...or can she? (Spoiler alert: she can).
Lime: Ahhh! Limey-Slimey (can you tell that I'm reaching for nicknames? XD)! Daaaaaang. The worst teacher story I have is I had a History professor give out reasons for why the Great Flood (from the Bible; Noah's ark and all that jazz) happened, such as multiple flood "myths" from around the world, and then he proceeded to immediately tell us that all that information was false and the Flood didn't happen. I'm a religious person, so it was suuuuuper awkward. But it turned out alright because when we had to discuss with the other person seated at our tables with us, I found out that the girl I had been seated next to was also religious (and with my same religion). We may or may not be seeing Henri again soon, sooooo...more soft boi! Aww, that's cool. I was wondering how people would like her little diary entries. I just had to throw that in to make it Immortalis canon. Yay! Mind Vicki seems to be quite the success. It's really interesting to see. I'm wondering if it's because everyone enjoys the way I wrote Vicki as a larger part... You know right? He probably would. It's true. And especially if witches don't particularly like the Immortalis, he would definitely know about it then. No worries at all! Until next time!
I think we might hit 400 reviews with this chapter (which would be suuuuuper exciting! I've never had a story with this many reviews before!)! And if not, we'll definitely hit it by our 40th chapter. Some interesting things will be going down, so stay tuned!
Until next time, my dear readers!
Stay healthy and stay safe!
BecomingFearless1F