Under Control - Part 2
"How did John find out about the ambulance and the EMTs?" Victoria asked, her hands clasped together tightly in her lap.
After the phone call from Damon, she had rushed outside only to find her mother waiting there with an office permission slip to let her off for the rest of the day from school and the car parked and raring to go. The two LeBlancs had driven in silence, neither knowing what was the proper thing to say. They were meeting at the LeBlanc house for once. It was closer to the school than the boarding house was. Zach was there, along with Damon, Kelly, Lexi, and Lee. Harper had gone to visit Pearl (Anna was in school), and everyone else was presumably busy (everyone else being Noble). Everyone was scattered throughout the living room, Victoria sitting on the couch with her leg bouncing up and down. She continued what she had been saying earlier, "There's no way that Sheriff Forbes would have made those records available to anyone outside of the Council; not if she thought it was a vampire."
"I thought John was a member of the Council?" Lexi said, confusion littering her voice. She was sitting on the other side of the LeBlanc's coffee table, her legs crisscrossed and her arms folded and propping her upper body up and off of the table. Lee sat next to her, fiddling with a strand of her hair as he listened to her talk. "Or did I get that information wrong?"
Kelly sauntered in from the kitchen, a platter of mugs filled to the brim with hot chocolate in her hands. She set the platter down onto the coffee table and stood up straighter, brushing her hands off on her jeans. "John is a member of the Council, but he's also a member who just got back today. Unless he had some insider information, there's no way that he would have even know about the documents pertaining to that night."
"And what about the old Fell's Church incident?" Victoria asked hesitantly, glancing down towards Damon for an answer.
"Liz had to create a fake report of hooligans messing around with TNT over at the ruins to explain the massive crater in the ground," Damon grunted. He was sitting at Victoria's feet, his shoulder brushing against her thigh with every breath he took. He leaned forward and snagged two of the mugs, passing one up to Victoria without looking at her. "That was her best suspicion of what happened because even she knew that a vampire couldn't do something like that."
"Okay, so in addition to John deciding that the Council needs to bump up their vampire stalking regime, he now also has people looking into weird events that will all coincidentally connect to me," Victoria groaned, taking a long drink of her hot chocolate. She brought the mug back down with a 'hmm' noise and swallowed her drink. "I mean, do these events even connect to me?"
"Theoretically, no," Zach explained. He was seated on one of the armchairs, his hands cradling the hot chocolate mug that Kelly gave to him before she went and took a seat on the other available armchair. "No one, besides me, Kelly, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie, knows that you died that night. It was especially helpful that you regenerated only six hours after you died so it was just the next day. If you had been gone for months, then that would have been harder to hide. As for the Fell Church incident, again, no. There's nothing that can securely place you there that night. On either nights."
"Yeah, I guess that you're -"
A thought suddenly entered Victoria's mind, fast and hard, and Victoria froze.
Shit.
Shit.
Double shit.
There was something, though.
Something that if someone found, would severely indicate that she was not only at the scene of the crime, but that she had helped cause it.
Shit.
"Mama Bear, you're freezing up. What's wrong?"
"There is something that could place me at the ambulance," she whispered, her voice sounding weaker than it had in quite a while. Everyone sat up a little straighter after those words.
Damon reached forward and set his mug down and then hoisted himself up onto the couch, coming in close to her side. He spoke softly, as if to not spook her, "Come on, Mama Bear. Use your words. What's there?"
"My necklace."
"What necklace?" Kelly asked, not at all getting the point that Victoria was trying to desperately get across.
Lee, however, understood immediately. He was the one who had ended up delivering it as a gift from Noble to her, after all. A grave look came over his face and he slouched a little in his spot on the floor. His eyes were filled with worry. "Noble's necklace."
"The vervained one?" Zach stated, looking towards Victoria for clarification. She nodded her head wearily. "But I thought that you lost that months ago."
"I used it against Noah at the Decade's Dance," Victoria confessed, feeling a chill race down her spine as she thought of the frightening vampire. "I-I found him about to confront Elena and attack her and Stefan, who was supposed to jump in to save her, was nowhere in sight. I took the actual pendant of the necklace off of the chain and put it in the cleavage of the dress for safe-keeping. I used the chain to try and choke Noah and that gave you Salvatore boys enough time to get there. I died with that pendant still in my dress; and yet...when I woke up the second time at the boarding house, still in my ruined dress and everything, the pendant wasn't anywhere on me."
"That doesn't mean that it's in the ambulance," Damon argued.
"If it's not in the ambulance, then it could be somewhere hidden away in the woods, where a bunch of hikers have gone missing in the past month!" Victoria fired back, twisting her head to give Damon a sharp look. "That pendant has my blood on it; I was practically the Nile River that night so that definitely means it got some on there. If it's in the ambulance, I'm screwed. If it's not but it's found in the woods, what am I to say if someone figures out it's my blood? I've certainly been to the hospital enough times that they would recognize the readings."
"Are you sure that it would've gotten blood on it?"
"I had a hole in my chest with the diameter of a Snapple lid, Damon. Yes, I am sure."
"Then we simply have to find the pendant before John does," Damon finished, leaning back and clapping his hands together. Victoria groaned and rolled her eyes. She did not have the bandwidth to put up with him when he acted like everything was easy-peasy lemon-squeezy when it was most certainly not easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. "Does anybody know where the ambulance has been impounded?"
"Either at the Sheriff's office or at the junkyard," Zach offered up, sipping at his drink. "Though I'd wager my money towards the junkyard. If the Sheriff decided that the case was clear, the ambulance would have been sent there for scrap."
"I disagree," Lee grunted, shaking his head. "Given what I've learned about the Sheriff from the few months I've lived here, that woman does not like cold cases. It's probably still open, but placed on the back burner. It would definitely be at the impound lot at the Sheriff's station."
"Well then, we go fifty-fifty," Damon announced, spreading his hands out as if he was a conductor of a well-placed orchestra. "I'll go with Lee to the Sheriff's office; Lexi, you can head with Zach to the junkyard. Whoever finds the ambulance, search it quickly and make sure to not leave any marks. If the ambulance isn't at your place, go to the woods and start running around the areas that Victoria was at. Shouldn't be that hard. We're all familiar with the scent of your blood by now."
"That blood is almost two months old now, Damon," Victoria shot back. She sighed and shook her head. "Okay, now before any of you go running off, you need to be careful. John is a slippery bastard. Hint: he knows way more than he is letting on. If the ambulance hasn't been made into scrap metal already, then he'll be on it like a bloodhound."
"Well then, it's a good thing that both Zach and I were Council members that were called to the original scene of the crime," Damon snickered. "We can handle John, alright, Mama Bear?"
"Damon," Victoria said sternly, reaching out and grabbing Damon's shoulder. The vampire paused and she used her free hand to grab his chin and wrench his face towards hers so they were staring eye-to-eye. In the firmest voice she could manage, Victoria hissed, "He knows more than he is letting on."
He knows you and Stefan are vampires.
Maybe he knows that Zach is a vampire too.
Maybe he knows about Lexi and Lee.
Does he know about Bonnie and Kelly?
What about me?
Does he know about the Immortalis?
All phrases left unsaid, but given the shimmer in Damon's eyes, it seemed he understood where her concern was stemming from. He licked his lips and nodded seriously. "Got it, Mama Bear. We'll take care of ourselves."
"Good talk, everyone," Kelly interrupted, clearing her throat while doing so. Victoria dropped her hand away from Damon's face, feeling suddenly embarrassed. What for, she didn't know. "If we're done game-planning the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, then I am stealing Victoria. We're going shopping with Jenna for dresses for the party tonight and then we're going to her house to bake goodies. Don't wait up."
Victoria had to admit: when Elena, Stefan, and Jeremy walked back into the Gilbert house after the end of the school day, all tired and tuckered out, things were not looking good. All three kids (because one could quantify Stefan as a child since he was turned at seventeen years old back in the 1860s) froze at the doorway to the kitchen, their eyes wide and mouths agape.
"I swear," Victoria began, feeling both embarrassed, sheepish, and yet, justified. "I can explain everything."
"Tori..." Elena started, trailing off. Her eyes blinked rapidly.
Jeremy broke the silence, erupting into fits of laughter as he pointed and gasped out in between peals of giggles, "What the hell happened to your face?"
Victoria frowned and swiped a thumb over her cheek, her frown deepening when it came back with a pure white powder. "Damn it. I thought I got everything." She licked the flour off of her thumb, wincing at the taste. It certainly was a unique tasting flour, that was for sure.
To say that the Gilbert kitchen was a mess would be an understatement. There was flour everywhere, at least two egg yolks and whites splattered on the ceiling, and butter spread across the countertop of the island. Victoria was not surprised that she was covered in all the icky debris as well. She was just sure that she had gotten it all off.
"Do we even want to know what happened here?" Stefan asked, glancing at everything with a raised eyebrow. "Wouldn't you be cooking at the boarding house or your house instead of here?"
"I have to take the blame," Jenna sighed, sauntering into the kitchen with wet hair and a damp towel around her neck. She had been the last to take a shower, claiming that since it was her kitchen, 'she could deal with the mess for longer than the others had to'. Jenna grabbed the towel around her neck and gave her head an aggressive scrubbing dry. "I wanted to make some cookie dough bars and I figured that if I had the baking extraordinaire wonder twins, aka Victoria and Kelly, by my side, what could go wrong?"
"Have you never baked with Kelly before?" Elena snorted, rolling her eyes. "Did I never tell you about the Great Cake Incident of '05?"
"What about the Red Velvet Cupcake Conundrum of '02?" Jeremy laughed, his smile big and wide. "I may have only been eight, but oh. I will remember that day til the end of my life."
"And I must not have mentioned the time Tori and I walked in on this exact sort of scene at the LeBlanc household with Kelly in the middle of it all," Stefan chuckled, shaking his head.
"It has been a solid year or two since the last time I baked with Kelly, alright?" Jenna grunted, sticking her tongue playfully out at her niece and nephew. "I have learned my lesson. Now come on, you three. You can help me get this mess sorted out before your uncle shows up."
"Too late," Kelly said suddenly, pushing past the trio of teenagers to come around the island. She sidled up next to her daughter just as the man in question walked into the kitchen.
Victoria's rather joyful mood suddenly crashed and she frowned at the appearance of John. She never really liked John Gilbert. He wasn't worse than Logan Fell, but oh, was he a close second in her mind's eye in the first season. John greeted his niece and nephew warmly, despite the rather frosty hello from Elena in return, and then he turned towards Stefan with a guarded expression. "And who are you?"
"Stefan Salvatore, Sir," Stefan introduced himself, offering out his hand in greeting. John looked at it for a moment, warily, before he grabbed the hand and shook it. "I'm Elena's boyfriend."
"I see," John sniffed, narrowing his eyes lightly. He turned towards Elena and gave her a confused look, but even Victoria could tell that it was fake in its concern. "What happened to that Matthew fellow?"
"We broke up months ago, Uncle John," Elena explained hurriedly, obviously not wanting to linger on the topic. "I've been dating Stefan since the start of the new school year."
"I see," was repeated once more.
Then John turned around and locked eyes with Victoria for the first time and time around Victoria froze.
Because in that one moment, everything in Victoria's system was yelling at her to run, to escape, to abandon. Her joints were locked up and she might have even stopped breathing. Darkness was started to appear at the corner of her eyes. In a flash, the world around her faded away and she was -
- She was back in the Salvatore logging mills?
Victoria spun in a quick circle, taking in the sight. She hadn't seen the logging mills in almost three months, and yet, everything in front of her was exactly like she had remembered it. The only thing that was missing was...
Victoria finished the spin and stilled, her eyes widening in disbelief. Her. The only thing that the logging mills was missing was her.
Vicki stood before her, her eyes wild and fearful. She was dirtied and looked like a wild animal that had been cornered. She wore the outfit from that week that Victoria would never forget about. Her shoulders were heaving as if she had run a marathon.
Without warning, Vicki leapt towards her and Victoria let out a yelp of fear. The younger teen tackled Victoria to the ground, and Vicki's hands immediately went for Victoria's throat. Victoria's hands shot up instinctively and she wrapped her hands around Vicki's wrists, thrashing underneath the teen to try and usurp her. Vicki's fingers started to squeeze, starting off gentle, but then getting tighter and tighter. Victoria gasped, struggling to breathe. Vicki's eyes flickered and Victoria watched as her pupils dilated just a bit. The tiniest amount. There was a sparkle in them; an all-too-familiar sparkle. Compulsion. Vicki was trying to compel her, just like that night.
"Don't make a sound," Vicki hissed. She sounded like she was pleading more than Victoria had ever seen her. "Please, Blankie, you need to be quiet; otherwise, they are going to find us."
"This isn't real," Victoria whispered, gagging as Vicki tightened her grip on her neck. "This isn't real. You're dead. We did this already."
"Shut up!" Vicki growled. But she didn't tighten her grip anymore.
In fact, in her eyes, there was a distinctive twinkle that appeared out of nowhere. A warm feeling that Victoria was quite familiar with washed over her. Vicki's fearful demeanor didn't change, and she still spoke with gritted teeth, but her words were different then before. It had gone off-script. "Why am I trying to kill you?"
"Vicki?" Victoria rasped. Realizing her folly, she clarified her former statement, "Mind Vicki?"
"Gosh, I should really change my name," Vicki grunted, the muscles in her arms straining. She looked like she was trying to tug her arms back away from Victoria, but all her attempts were failing. "Double names get confusing."
"What the hell is going on?" Victoria demanded, trying to help Vicki in tugging her arms off of her neck. "Why are you doing this?"
"I'm not purposefully trying to kill you," Vicki spat, shaking her head. "I was just in your place of peace, messing with Henri and pissing him off, and the next thing I know, I'm straddling you and trying to choke you out."
"Do you have any idea what is going on?"
"You didn't die, right?"
"Would have gone to the place of peace if I did."
A warm voice filled the space, different than the ridiculously deep voice that Victoria knew was supposed to be speaking at this point in time. "I am rather confused as to how I have wound up in these circumstances myself, but I do have a few theories."
Both Vicki's and Victoria's eyes widened in shock and they both let out shrieks of relief, "Henri!"
"It seems that you two are pleased to hear from me."
"Stop being a douche, Henri, and tell me how to stop from choking Tori out!" Vicki shrieked, flipping her hair out of her face as she turned to look towards the ceiling. Well, that had been more movement than she had been able to do within the last minute, so they were making progress there.
"And there is the wretched wraith I know all too well -"
"- Shut up, Henri - !"
"- Quit it, you two!" Victoria snapped. "Henri, get us out of here!"
"I am trying, but something is stopping me," Henri grunted, sounding as if he was trying to physically move something. "Something is blocking the Immortalis powers."
"Well, tell it to unblock!" Victoria growled, but she had to cut herself off in a strangled gasp as Vicki's hands began to clench down. "V-Vicki!"
"It's not me!" Vicki insisted, looking panicked. She tugged aggressively at her arms and her fear tripled when her arms didn't move, but instead, began to tighten even more in retaliation. "Henri!"
"I'm trying!"
"Try harder!" Vicki pleaded, looking towards the ceiling fearfully. "I'm going to end up killing her unless you figure something out."
"Damn it. Victoria, this is going to hurt."
"When does it ever not?" Victoria tried to choke out, but it came out more as a mangled mess, so she just hoped that Henri understood what she had been trying to say.
A blinding pain struck Victoria in the temple and she let out a pained cry of distress, her eyes slamming shut against the pain. She could feel her mouth open and the words that spilled out of her came from her voice, but they were not her words. She could feel the space beneath her nose dampen and the smell of copper radiated in the air. Blood...I'm having a nosebleed...is Henri...using me?
"KELLY! WATER!" It was her voice, but it was Henri who was pushing the words out of her.
Wait, hold up.
Water?
Henri was asking for water?
That didn't make any sense at all -
- Victoria let out a gasp as she bolted upright, her hands reaching up to claw her throat. The lining of her esophagus felt raw. She wheezed and stumbled to her feet, her hands slamming down onto the countertop. Everything was burning. Her eyes were watering. Every breath felt like she had been laboring for twenty. What the hell was happening?
A glass filled to the brim with water appeared in her line of sight and instincts made her grab the cup. Victoria brought the cup to her lips and chugged the water, not caring that the water spilled over the sides and soaked her face and clothes. Once the cup was drained, her throat was starting to feel better but she was still disorientated. The cup was stolen from her hands, making her feebly whine, but another, filled cup entered her hands a moment later. She quickly chugged that one too and it was only after all that water was gone that Victoria was able to see what was happening.
She was still in the Gilbert kitchen. She stood by the back door, with the kitchen slightly to her diagonal left and the table in front of her. Stefan was gone and so was Elena. Jeremy was standing on the other side of the table, looking confused and frightened and worried. John and Jenna were on the other side of the kitchen island, and Kelly was right at her side, taking the empty glass from Victoria's hand to place it down onto the countertop.
Victoria swallowed heavily. Her throat was still raw, but it was much better than it had been before. It felt similar to when she sang too much and exhausted her voice. She leaned onto the head chair at the table, her hands clenching onto the top of the chair. When she spoke, her voice sounded rough around the edges. It reminded Victoria of when she regenerated after her deaths. "What...the hell...was that?"
"You tell us," John said, looking confused as to what happened. Jenna elbowed him aggressively in his stomach and he jerked away from her, giving her a "What?" look.
"You, shut up," Jenna growled, pointing her finger at his face. She pushed past John and came up around the island to stand by Jeremy's side. She kept her eyes on Victoria and her voice sounded softer than it had been when she was speaking to John. "Tori, are you feeling okay?"
"I-I think so?" Victoria winced, knowing that her statement came out more as a question. She swallowed and didn't bother hiding the wince. "I-I have no idea what that was, though."
"Given the such violent reaction?" Kelly murmured, taking her wrist and pressing it against Victoria's forehead. Victoria swayed at her mother's touch. She was soooo cool and that felt wonderful. Kelly dropped her voice, whispering the words to Victoria so only the LeBlancs would hear what she said, "I think you were poisoned."
"Poisoned by what?" Victoria murmured, licking her lips. Victoria gagged after that moment; her tongue was buzzing as if it was numb. "W-Who'd..." If she had been poisoned, then why would Vicki and Henri be there? If she was poisoned, she would have just died, not gone to some weird nightmare sequence with her weird mind-neighbor and the Keeper of the Immortalis about her dead sister-like friend who looked exactly like her weird mind-neighbor. That didn't make sense, unless... "N-Not poisoned. Not really. Wyrmwood."
Kelly nodded and turned to look at Jenna. "I think she had a bad allergic reaction. Do you have wyrmwood here at the house?"
"Wormwood?" Jenna questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not a herbs and spices kind of girl, Kelly."
"Not wormwood with an 'o'. Wyrmwood, with a 'y' where the 'o' should be. It's this weird plant that we've just found out recently that Victoria is horribly allergic too."
"Causes rashes, numbness, burning pain, and crazy hallucinations," Victoria supplied to her mother in a low whisper. She shivered. "And maybe chills and a slight fever."
"Causes all kinds of bad things," Kelly summarized. "It's not so bad that Victoria needs an EpiPen or anything, but it can make her feel terrible and sick for a while."
"That was my fault, then," John admitted, and all eyes (Victoria's included) turned towards him. He had the decency to look a little sheepish. "I have this particular concoction of herbs that I like to put into a lot of my homemade bread, so I must have automatically placed it into the flour that I made this morning."
"We used flour that John created?" Kelly questioned, flipping her head around to give Jenna a narrow-eyed look.
Jenna held up her hands in defense. "I forgot about it because I thought it was really weird and creepy and I didn't want anything to do with it. Blame him! He didn't label his flour correctly!"
"Enough," Victoria groaned, and surprisingly, the three adults noticed and silenced themselves. "Thank you. Now, I feel like literal shit, so -"
"- You can nap upstairs in my room if you'd like," Jeremy offered, blushing when Jenna turned towards him with a certifiable 'Mom' look. "N-Not like that, Jenna! Sheesh! I just figured that Elena was in hers with Stefan so we probably shouldn't interrupt them."
"Smart thinking," Kelly agreed. She came up to Victoria's side and placed a hand gently on the small space between her shoulder blades. "Do you want help getting up there?"
"I-I'll take Jeremy," Victoria rasped, wincing at the ugly sound. "I hope I don't sound like this all night."
She made a grabby hand motion towards Jeremy and he raced around the table, coming up to Victoria's other side. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and Jeremy reached around, grabbing her waist firmly. She thanked him with a quick nod and they started to sidle their way down the hallway, past Jenna and John.
They made it to the bottom of the stairs when there was a loud, intrusive knock on the door. Victoria grabbed onto the handrailing of the staircase and motioned for Jeremy to answer it. Jeremy gave her a concerned look, but she returned the look and raised it with her own pointed look, one that she knew Jeremy wouldn't fight. He let out a sigh of defeat but untangled his limbs from hers and stepped away. He moved to the door and glanced through the peephole. His eyebrows shot up in disbelief and he turned towards Victoria and said, "It's Damon."
"Right on time," Victoria wheezed, and the door flew open the moment that Jeremy had unlocked the piece of wood.
Damon stood on the precipice of the house, looking furious. He stomped over to Victoria and immediately started feeling for a pulse around her neck and staring into her eyes as if they held the answers to the universe. Victoria weakly tried to swat him away, but Damon growled, "Not now, Mama Bear." Victoria stopped and just numbly allowed him to continue on with his physical examination of her.
Once he seemed satisfied, that righteous fury of concern turned into simple, plain, righteous fury. He hissed through gritted teeth, "What happened?"
"Wyrmwood got into the flour we used for baking," Victoria murmured, keeping her voice low as she was well aware that Jeremy was watching the two of them from beside the opened front door. "I ingested some. Bad reaction."
"You sound like you smoked a pack a day for the last year," Jeremy stated incredulously, drawing the attention of both Damon and Victoria to him. He gestured wildly towards her. "That's not a simple 'bad reaction'."
"Okay, so worse than bad, but I'm not dead, so I count that as a win," Victoria mumbled.
"What are your symptoms, Mama Bear?"
"My throat is raw, I think I have chills and a baby fever, I just got out of a hallucination, I can't really feel my tongue, and mouth is on fire," Victoria rattled off, taking another wheezy breath. "Oh, and I sound like that."
"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Damon demanded, his voice sounding gentle to her, but there was also a deadly note there that could get someone killed if Victoria wasn't careful.
"More like a nap," Victoria answered honestly.
"Kelly, I'm kidnapping your daughter!" Damon shouted, swooping Victoria up into his arms in the blink of an eye. She let out a surprised yelp and wrapped her hands around Damon's neck in frightened worry. "You'll see her tonight at the party!"
"I'll bring her dress over later tonight then!"
"Traitor!" Victoria shouted back to her mother sleepily as Damon pushed his way past Jeremy. Victoria took a moment to call out, "Bye Jere-Bear!" to which Jeremy responded, "Bye, Tori." As Damon hopped down the front steps and Victoria bounced, she mumbled to him, "Don't you have to meet Elena?"
"McJudgey can wait. I'm making sure you're all curled up and cozy like a bear in hibernation first and then I'll come back. I'm sure whatever she's calling about can't be that big of a deal."
"Yeaaaah...that's not true," Victoria murmured, her eyes drooping before she passed out in his arms.
Victoria flattened out her dress, twisting and turning several different ways so she could get the full look of how the dress looked on her. Never, ever let it be said that Kelly had poor fashion taste. The woman knew just which dress to pick before Victoria ever stepped into that store, regardless of the fact that the shop only a dress size that was one too big for Victoria for that particular dress. Kelly had gone home after the horrendous wyrmwood flour incident and tailored the dress to fit her perfectly, and brought it over to the boarding house, where Victoria had been relaxing in the library. She had been placed by Damon in her bedroom there (the room with the red sheets) but she had gotten bored and moved downstairs to hang out with Zach who was studying some random language in the library.
She was now sitting in the front seat of Damon's convertible, using the drop-down mirror to see if everything looked good.
Damon shot her look from the driver's seat. "Mama Bear, you look good. Come on. At this rate, we're going to be late."
"Did you almost die this morning? Hmm?" Victoria questioned, turning towards Damon with pinched lips. "Yeah, I didn't think so. I had a bad allergic reaction that left me with rashes on the inside of my mouth and all over my skin. Inside my mouth, Damon. I just want to make sure that there isn't some rash that I missed with foundation."
"Lexi or Kelly would have spotted it way before you did," Damon shot back. He slipped out of the driver's side door and waltzed across the front of the car. He got to Victoria's side and purposefully opened her door. He offered his hand out to her. "Now come on. I want to party."
"So needy," Victoria grumbled, but she reached out and grabbed Damon's hand, allowing him to help her up. She brushed her dress out of the way so her heels wouldn't get caught on the hem.
Once she was stable on two feet, Damon turned and slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. The two set off towards the Founders' Hall, and Victoria couldn't help but reminisce that that was the same position the two of them had gone in with when they went to the Founder's party months ago at the Lockwood Estate.
There were even more similarities to that night, but the most notable one would be the fact that Victoria was decked out in a red dress again. Unlike that party, though, Victoria's dress was floor-length with a cozy leg slit that went up to her right knee for better maneuverability. It also wasn't strapless; this cocktail dress had a wide v-neck neckline with thick straps, and it even had additional halter top straps to make the dress extra secure. Victoria absolutely loved it, and it looked even better when Lexi dragged all her hair up into a messy, but cute bun with a few pieces dangling by her eyes.
They met up with Stefan and Zach by the door. Lexi and Lee had arrived earlier with Elena and Kelly, promising to keep an eye on them and to keep an eye out for any rogue tomb vampires. Harper was staying with Pearl and Anna for the night, and Victoria knew that the two of them would be safe where they were.
The quartet entered into the room, and Victoria was immediately hit with the extreme scents of ladies' perfumes and the smell of food and drinks. She didn't bother to hide her curled nose of disgust at the overwhelming sensations. "Oh yeah, that's nasty."
"I shouldn't be here," Stefan breathed, looking around the room like he had just made the biggest mistake of his life (one of them, that was for sure).
"Come on, don't be a downer, it's a party for the founding families!" Damon insisted, shoving Stefan in the shoulder. The quartet started to move forward, away from the door so they weren't blocking up traffic. They sauntered slowly, taking in all the sights of the bright lights and the people decked to the nines. "That would be us. That would be rude to skip it."
"I really liked you a whole lot better when you hated everybody but Victoria," Stefan sniffed.
"Oh, I still do," Damon reassured his brother, slapping his free hand firmly on his younger brother's shoulder. "Well, most people. A few more unsuspecting victims have wiggled their ways into my heart, but for the masses, yeah, I hate them. I just love that they love me."
Victoria rolled her eyes as Damon laughed at that joke, and she just heard Zach sigh in frustration and disappointment from beside her. Damon looked towards Stefan and gave him a narrow-eyed look. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm good. I'm fine."
"No cravings? No urges? Is that whiskey you've been drinking all day doing its job?" Stefan let out a skeptical laugh and just rolled his eyes at his older brother's antics. "We are who we are, Stefan. Nothing's going to change that."
"Ah!" Stefan laughed, whirling on his brother with an accusatory finger. "Nothing will make you happier than to see me give up, huh, Damon?"
"Whatever," Damon snorted. "It's inevitable."
"Well, while I wait then, I'm going to find Elena," Stefan dismissed, sauntering off away from the group to who-knows-where.
"Don't embarrass me, young man!" Damon called out, making sure his voice was loud and proud.
"You're embarrassing me, Uncle Damon," Zach grunted, shaking his head. "Are we sure we should just be letting him go off on his own?"
"We just need to have a tail on him whenever he goes off by himself," Victoria explained gently, taking her free hand and resting it gently on Zach's upper arm. Under her touch, Zach seemed to deflate, all the tension racing out. "I've got Stefan. It'll be more believable if I'm hanging around him more than you or Lee or Damon. I'll tag-team it with Lexi. Damon, you make sure to talk to the Sheriff tonight and please, don't aggravate John when you see him. It won't work out well. Just play dumb. Zach...uh...run defense with Kelly on Kelly. She'll explain more."
Victoria took off with Damon, dragging the older Salvatore brother away while he cackled maniacally at Zach's confused and frustrated face.
Victoria will explain the following events in the fastest, most quickest way possible because honestly?
She has never been more bored at a party in her entire life, and she had gone to some pretty boring ones back in her original world. Not even Lexi or her own mother helped to ease the boredom.
Well, it was more than just simple boredom. It was boredom, mixed with anxiousness, mixed with anticipation, mixed with fear, and then mixed with just plain old boredom. It was boring just watching Stefan dance, trying to ensure that he didn't make a mess up. She had barely managed to send Lexi into the spree of dancers when the man who bumped into Elena got grabbed by Stefan. His vampire bestie was able to diffuse that situation in a hot minute, making Victoria breathe easier, but it had been a close call. That was one major conflict of the night eradicated.
Well, then, sort-of. Because, of course, there was the killing of John Gilbert, the rebirth of John Gilbert, followed by Damon's flamboyant "Why the hell is John Gilbert alive?" to both her, Zach, and Alaric, followed by his quick explanation that he had killed John Gilbert (against Victoria's wishes, which she promised him a huge reprimanding for). Kelly, her mom, was able to stop Kelly, Matt's mom, from doing something stupid (such as kissing Tyler Lockwood), but she wasn't able to stop the mom from finding the same kid from the night of the disastrous double date that she had made out with. That led to another major make-out session that Kelly LeBlanc apparently had the "unfortunate luck to walk in on". Cue Matt losing his cool, punching the other kid in the face, and a whole bunch of political drama as Kelly Donovan was kindly escorted out of the Hall. Stefan was lost during John Gilbert's announcement, Tyler was MIA as well, and overall, the whole evening just seemed to be a walking nightmare.
The only respite Victoria got were the drinks that just seemed to keep on coming. They weren't alcoholic (she made sure they weren't) but they definitely had caffeine and that was helping take the 'I'm starting to hate everyone in this room' edge off.
Victoria had been the one to spot John subtly leaving the party as the evening started to wrap itself up. She nudged both Damon, Zach, and Alaric (the three men she had been standing around) and jerked her head towards the door. The three understood what she was silently saying immediately and said their whispered goodbyes to Kelly, Jenna, and Elena before talking off towards the doors in a calm and impressively controlled manner. Victoria feigned disinterest for a few moments before claiming that "she had forgotten something in Damon's car" and took off running after them.
She reached the bottom of the Founders' Hall's stairs just as Damon, Zach, and Alaric started to confront John. It was thanks to her enhanced hearing that she caught what Damon was saying to Elena's uncle/father. "Going somewhere, hm?"
"I've never liked to be the last one to leave a party," John confessed in a sociable tone. "It's too desperate." He paused for a second, silently studying Damon as Victoria moved to stand up beside Zach. The vampire spared her the tiniest of glances, his shoulders dropping in disappointment when he saw who it was, but he quickly covered it up. John didn't seem to notice at all as he continued, "You're going to kill me again or you're gonna let Mr. Saltzman do your dirty work?"
"Okay, you obviously know who I am," Alaric grunted, looking John up and down. He didn't seem all that impressed.
"I do," John stated confidently. "Alaric Saltzman, a high school history teacher with a secret."
"Sure know a lot for someone who just got to town," Damon commented offhandedly.
John nodded his head seriously. "More than you can imagine, Damon. My knowledge of this town goes beyond anything that you," he points to Damon, "or you," and then to Alaric, "or you," this time at Zach, "or even you, sweetheart," this time, the finger was pointed towards Victoria and she reeled a little that John was finally acknowledging her presence in the group, "or the council knows."
"I'm going to say I highly doubt that," Victoria interrupted, and John's beady eyes landed on her in curiosity. Okay, she really did not enjoy him looking at her like some sort of oddity. Really unsettling. "You haven't seen Zach when he's in the middle of a research binge. Some crazy things go on."
John just turned his head back towards Damon and asked in a way too-demeaning tone, "Do you always let your little Mama Bear interrupt or am I just special?"
Zach's hand flashed out and he grabbed the back of Damon's collar. It was the only reason that Damon didn't pounce on John with a vengeful hiss. John flinched back at the sudden movement, but he immediately started to laugh, shaking his head in a mix of awe and disbelief. "Wow. You know, I knew you were really protective of your little White Witch, but I didn't know to what degree."
"You know about the White Witches?" Victoria asked in shock, her eyes widening.
"I know about a lot of things, sweetheart," John said condescendingly. "So, if you all are planning on some clever high speed snatch ring vamp kill move, know that if I die, everything I know goes to the council from the fascinating little tale of the original Salvatore brothers and their present day return to Mystic Falls to the wonderous history of the LeBlanc family witches."
"How did you get that ring?" Alaric demanded.
John flexed his hand, glancing down to stare at the pretty decoration on his finger. "I had inherited one; my brother, Gray, had the other. This was his," he brought his hand up to be level with his heart and he wiggled his fingers, "and I wouldn't have given mine to Isobel if I had known she'd hand it over to another guy."
"So you did know her?" Zach asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Who do you think sent her Damon's way when she wanted to become a vampire?"
"You sent her?" Damon gasped.
"Guilty," John chuckled, shrugging his shoulders as if the whole ordeal was 'no big deal'. "Why, did you think someone else sent her? Maybe...Katherine Pierce?"
"How do you know about Katherine?" Damon questioned.
"How do I know anything, Damon?" John fired back.
"What do you want, John?" Victoria interrupted, giving John a glare. "And stop the misguiding bullshit."
"So many questions, so much language," John snickered. He nodded his head to each of the men. "It was a pleasure meeting you all. You especially, Ric. I've heard so much about you." He then turned his attention towards Victoria. "And sweet little Victoria LeBlanc...the golden child of Mystic Falls."
"Watch what you say, Gilbert," snapped Zach, his eyes narrowing. "You are treading on very, very, very thin ice."
"I'm not going to insult her, Zach. Give me a break," John grunted, shaking his head. "No, no. I just have one thing to say to her." He leaned forward towards Victoria and there was a sadistic grin that crawled onto his face. "Say hi to Raphy boy for me, 'kay?"
With that, John flipped around and stalked off.
"Welp," Damon groaned, swallowing heavily. "That...went."
"You're telling me," Victoria murmured, narrowing her eyes down at John's retreating form. "What do you think he -"
"- Hello, Ms. LeBlanc. Pleasure to see you again."
Victoria froze.
No.
No.
Nononononononono.
He was dead.
He died.
Zach stabbed him.
Killed him with a stake.
He couldn't be here.
He couldn't be alive.
"Victoria?" she thought she heard Zach asked cautiously, picking up the way her breathing just stopped.
Victoria didn't want to turn around, but something inside of her forced her to do so. She let out a panicked gasp of air at who stood in front of her.
Jeans, graphic shirt covered by a long black trench coat. Dark brown hair that was sparse around the top and black framed glasses. The man stood at the foot of the Founders' Hall, his hands placed in the pockets of his trench coat. He gave Victoria a single nod and she felt her knees give out. If Zach hadn't been right beside her, she would have faceplanted into the ground. Her jaw clenched shut. Her breathing restarted and started to pick up and up.
The man in front of her just tilted his head and sighed. "Really, Ms. LeBlanc. I thought we were past this. Are you not going to greet me in return?"
"Y-You're dead."
"Am I?"
"H-He killed you!" Victoria sobbed, lurching in Zach's hold. "You died!"
"Who are you talking to?" Zach pleaded, looking between Victoria and the spot that she seemed fixated on.
Damon was on her other side in a blink of an eye, his hand wrapped around the nape of her neck. "Mama Bear, look at me." Victoria shook her head, tears pouring out of her eyes as she kept her gaze on him. "Victoria, look at me!" He pulled her head towards him and she couldn't stop the shoulder-wrenching cries that took over her body. Damon stared at her head and if she didn't have her anklet on her, Victoria would have been convinced that the vampire was trying to compel her. "It's not real, Victoria. Whatever, whoever, you're seeing, they're not real."
"H-He's right there," Victoria cried, raising a hand and pointing it shakily towards the man. "H-He's right there and he's going to try and kill me and I-I can't, Damon. I can't! He'll kill L-Lexi and then h-he'll kill you and -"
"- Victoria, calm down. He's not real. Whoever he is, he is not real."
"He is real! He is real!"
"Who is she seeing?" she heard Alaric ask.
The name came tumbling out of her mouth as a sobbing cry as she lurched into Damon's arms, her face hidden away in his neck.
"Raphael! It's Raphael!"
A/N: Tada! A day early cuz I love you guys so much ;p. Thanks everyone for your patience! This chapter did not turn out the way that I intended, but eh, what can you do? We get to Miss Mystic next chapter and I am soooooo pumped for that. Great plans in store. Great plans!
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} (17.5): insert name here XD, sammyleann's dad, TikiKiki, Maistryia, Don't-Say-It-Feel-It, another guest, Lime, herewegoagain, K, emma, just another guest, heyyeah, Guest (3), guest4ithinklol, Guest (6), Guest (9), guest (1), theappleseed, Anaidiana, Hayden, Takinginspiration1, Serena Salvatore, Prometo, Lolita, MoonlightMiracle-SakurianaHime
Team Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (45): 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, Yukihino-Sama, Dede, 4day, jazica, Guest (20), Unnisa, MoonlightMiracle-SakurianaHime, Tik, 00esoteric00, Hariana Halone, jenniferchase2402
Team Vilijah {Victoria/Elijah} (45.5): 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, Serena Salvatore, xrysatsan, Lolita, jazica, Guest (19), MoonlightMiracle-SakurianaHime, TheLadyO, jjaejjae, Guest (21), Guest (22), NovemberSagittarius, RandomRivers
Team Klatoria {Victoria/Klaus} (6): Tayla141, TikiKiki, Guest (9), Mythology216 the Beard King, thisIsNotATest, Guest (10), Tris Hart
Team Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (2.5): DreamerPop, MelissaMorningstar, Guest (11)
Team Vinn {Victoria/Finn} (1): silentmayhem
Team Vioble {Victoria/Noble} (.5): Shiro7
New Followers!: Kiran Kazi, FabyVane, Dreamreader13, Animaniac95
New Favoriters!: Goddess Cure Mystic, millegna, Kiran Kazi, FabyVane, AlecLightwoodMagnusBane, sakurashirogatsu, Dreamreader13, Ashes2Dust18
Onto reviews!:
jenniferchase2402: Your vote has been added! Thank you!
DBZFAN45: It was never directly stated that Victoria was buried alive, cuz I was already worried the chapter was super violent (but it was heavily implied). It's actually funny, cuz Victoria tells Stefan after she's first resurrected as the Immortalis when she and Stefan are cuddle-buddies in bed that she was glad that he didn't come into the cafeteria while she was dying because she didn't want him becoming a Ripper because of her, and then Stefan becomes a low-key Ripper because of her XD. Yeah, Lime said that the site was acting weird too. I wonder if it's just for the guests of the site. Huh.
Elyse1821: I love writing cutesy, flirty Damon. It's just so satisfying. Well, John did make Damon all murdery, but Zach's trying to keep his uncle on the straight and narrow path. Perfect! I just put out the first chapter out on that story (you can find it if you look at my profile page for the site). I haven't seen Bridgerton, but I did buy the first two books, so yeah! Totally go for it! I'd love to hear it! No Datoria smooch, but we will get more sexual tension next chapter, I can say that ;p.
NovemberSagittarius: Awwww :D Thank you so much. That really means a lot to me. When I started this story, I sat down and went, "Okay. What is something that no other fanfics with OCs I've read does that I could do in this story?" and just went from there. Thanks! Your vote has been added!
Lime (Ch. 52): Don't worry; I figured you were talking about the site. Yeah, it was really weird; DBZFAN45 said they were having a hard time with the site as well, so I'm thinking it might be something involving Guests. And thank you for your compliment of canon characters that have become my adopted OCs. Yeah, "Poor Tori" is the moral of every chapter, so you're never wrong XD. The chips were meant to be sweet, but to each their own XD. I felt like that Southern line was something that Damon would say.
Lime (Ch. 53): I won't make a Caroline, Tori, and Octavia one-shot because (spoiler), Octavia will be making a cameo one of these days. Noble is honestly the standard for good boyfriends and no one can convince me otherwise. She did finish her explanation about toaster ovens (funny enough, that was a lowkey callback to when Damon and Victoria danced at the Halloween festival, because she wonders how Damon knew the dance and he's like, oh, I watched you and Stefan dance, and she goes, but I thought you were researching toaster ovens XD). I figured that that was a way Damon would label the blood bags. Lexi is also big sister standards. Oooooh! Group therapy session led by Zach! That would be a really good chapter idea. That'll definitely come up. As for the Britney Spears song, Imma add a little baby bonus snippet in the A/N's note for the next chapter hopefully that'll answer that question. I was hoping you'd notice that middle name thingy. I don't like John in Season 1, but he definitely gets better in Season 2, but my man killed Harper and Pearl, so heck no.
RandomRivers: Hello! I'm glad you caught up! Awww, thank you (what are the other two? I'm curious now XD). Awww shucks. Yeah, a lot people act that way, but I don't honestly know how to write them shorter XD. I'm glad that you are enjoying it. Thank you! Here's your update!
Thank you guys! You guys have all been so sweet and you guys just make me smile :).
Hope you all have a great day! Kick any bad moments in the back and go tell Kelly. She'll help you feel better with some great hot chocolate.
Until next time,
Stay healthy and stay safe!
BecomingFearless1F