Blood Brothers - Part 2
Victoria
"I have a gift for you."
Victoria perked up an eyebrow at that comment from Noble and she pushed herself up so she was propped up onto her elbows. The picnic blanket (which she recognized from their first and only memorable picnic) that was underneath her scrunched up as she moved, as if it had waves. Noble, who was outstretched next to Victoria upon the small blanket, sat up straight and rummaged around the picnic basket that he had produced out of nowhere (quite literally; Victoria had been talking with him and then in a blink of an eye, the picnic basket had appeared. Noble's vampiric speed was something to marvel over, for sure).
Victoria had to comment teasingly, "My first Valentine's Day in a semi-relationship after being kissed once last week and I'm already getting gifts? I must be the luckiest girl in the world."
Noble, without even looking towards her, reached over and shoved her playfully. Victoria let out a lighthearted laugh, one that Noble joined in with with a chuckle. Noble continued to search through the picnic basket before he managed to finally find the item he was apparently looking for.
He pulled out a leather-bound book that looked Old (with a capital 'O'). It was the kind of leather-bound book that had a leather strap that was wrapped around it all in order to keep all the pages from falling out. The leather sides were etched and carved with different symbols that seemed vaguely familiar to Victoria, but not in a way that she could understand.
Noble held the book out towards Victoria and common courtesy told her to grab the book, but to be careful and to be mindful of just how hold the book looked. Victoria's fingers grazed the leather and she sucked in a sharp breath as a staticky tingle raced up her forearms. Her hands latched onto either side of the book and she pulled it out from Noble's hands.
She tilted the book back and forth, observing it from all angles with wide eyes, before lifting her gaze to meet Noble's. "What is this? Something about it...it has power. Old power."
"Open it."
An odd command that was more request than demand, so Victoria unfurled the leather straps that held the book together and carefully peeled the front cover open. Inside the cover, written in curly writing with more flourishes than seemed even necessary, sat a single phrase:
Property of Octavia R. Larsen.
"Holy shit."
"Language, Victoria. What are those barbarian Salvatores teaching you in the way of manners? For shame -"
"- Holy shit, Noble!" Victoria swore again, tapping the book rapidly with her finger. She looked back up towards Noble with eyes wider than before and she let out a gasping laugh. "This is Octavia's journal! The most recent Immortalis' journal!"
"That is correct."
"I mean, Zach, Lee, and I have all been trying our best to gather what information we could on Octavia since Henri told me about her, but we never got anything concrete!" Victoria laughed in shock, running a hand through her unruly locks. She closed the book and hugged it close to her chest, giggling uncontrollably. "Noble, you have no idea how much this means to me."
"I have a vague understanding," Noble chuckled, giving Victoria that little sideways grin that just made her heart flutter. His grin widened and Victoria blushed even harder as she realized that Noble probably could hear her heart when it started to flutter more.
"Shut up," she grumbled, her blush darkening as Noble's sideways grin turned into a full-on smile.
"I do not believe I was speaking."
"Be quiet, you little sassy man," Victoria snapped playfully, wagging her finger lightheartedly towards Noble.
Noble reached out and grabbed her finger, leaning forward so he could press his lips against the tip of her finger in a gentle kiss. Victoria's blush reached extraordinary levels and Noble tugged her hand forward.
Her whole body followed through with the movement until their foreheads were resting against each other and their noses were bumping against each other with every movement. Like the time time it had occurred, Noble did not wait for Victoria. Noble leaned forward and brushed his lips gently against Victoria's. Victoria let out a little moan at the feeling and she pushed herself further into Noble's embrace. She vaguely recalled setting Octavia's journal to the side so it wouldn't get crushed by their bodies.
Noble moved to recline himself onto the blanket and Victoria followed suit, moving so she was now straddling him and was resting lightly upon his chest. Noble's hands rested on her hips and Victoria's moved so one was resting on his collarbone and the other was curled around his neck, her thumb gently stroking his jawline as their lips carressed each other.
After a few mindblowing kisses, Victoria pulled back just enough to murmur, "It's so much nicer to be the one on top." It took her a hot second to realize the other way her words could have been taken and she blushed harshly. "T-That was a lot dirtier than I intended."
"I figured," Noble replied reassuringly, looking up at her with curiosity in his gaze, but also caution. He gave her hips a gentle squeeze and asked, "You have been in this position often?"
"Mostly when people are trying to kill me," Victoria answered. She slipped off of Noble and instead, curled up close to his side, leaving her leg hooked around his hip. She rested her head onto his shoulder, her line of sight making her look at his beautiful neck. That was such a weird thing to find beautiful, but on Noble, his neck was. "Suffocation through strangulation seems to be a fan-favorite among my murderers."
Noble tensed up at hearing that, but he thankfully didn't decide to dwell on that comment. "May I ask a question that may seem, at first, insensitive?"
"Of course," came Victoria's immediate reply.
"What is your preferred method of death and which method would you not care to repeat?" Noble asked, flipping so that way he was also lying on his side.
His dark eyes looked deep into Victoria's and she bit her lower lip as she contemplated Noble's question. After about a minute of thoughtful silence, she answered slowly, "I would very much prefer to remain alive -"
"- A sentiment I agree with whole-heartedly -"
"- but if I had to choose one, I'm getting a little desensitized to having my neck snapped," Victoria admitted. "It's quick and relatively painless. Just a blink of an eye and I'm at my place of peace. It gives me a killer neck ache when I wake up again, but all I need is some Icy-Hot or a vampire who's drunk a lot of coffee who's willing to be my own personal heating pad and I'm all-set. As for my least favorite..."
Victoria shivered as she felt the phantom traces of water lapping at the edges of her body. She closed her eyes momentarily when she felt the pang in her heart that had come from being stabbed by a wooden stake.
"I really don't like drowning and getting stabbed with a stake. Would not recommend, zero out of ten."
"How many times have those specific events happened?"
"All of them or just the last two?"
"The last two."
"Just once each and that was more than enough," Victoria confessed.
Noble made a small humming noise that let Victoria know that he was listening and he just nodded. He pressed Victoria a tad harder against his chest and Victoria accepted the movement, cuddling closer and enjoying the warmth that radiated off of him in waves.
But, alas, she pulled away from him with a little sigh and sat up. Noble raised an eyebrow at her actions and a splash of dark eyebrow hair poked out from underneath his mask. Victoria reached over the towering, reclined vampire and grabbed Octavia's journal from where it was resting on the blanket. She brought her legs up and crisscrossed them underneath herself and she set up the journal on Noble's flat and, might she just say, rather sturdy stomach. He propped himself up on his elbows and the raised eyebrow that was already raised moved even higher.
"Victoria."
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
"I want to start reading what I can before we both have to go," Victoria told him. She raised a hand when he opened his mouth to protest her actions. "I have things that need to happen tonight and I do not trust myself to not damage this book if it is in my possession while I do said things, so I need to read what I can and then I need you to take it to the boarding house. Lee should be there and he'll be able to take care of it until Zach shows up from his thing with Pearl. Pretty please?"
Noble gave her a narrow-eyed stare, one that Victoria matched. After about a minute of their contest of wills, he sighed. He nodded his head gently and Victoria cheered, leaning forward to give him a quick peck on the lips. "You're the best. Thanks!"
"I must admit, I do have some things to take care of with Jeanine and Markus, so it will be convenient to drop off the journal with Alexander before I meet up with them."
Victoria grinned and clapped her hands together happily before she turned her attention back towards the journal. She neatly unfolded it again, turning the pages with an elegance she had (unfortunately) learned from her biological mother. Victoria's eyes scanned the page as she tried her best to take all the letters in. Some of the words were written incorrectly, which struck Victoria as odd, but she was able to scramble them together for her own sake.
Property of Octavia R. Larsen.
If you are reading this, then that means I am dead.
That's...disappointing.
Victoria snorted and couldn't help but mumble under her breath, "Mood", before she kept reading.
I was really wishing to get along far in my age. Maybe I have. I have no idea, because, as of right now, I am writing this as someone who was hiding behind some barricades within my small town when a stray bullet arrived from nowhere and hit me right in my chest. I may not be well-versed in the sciences of the human body, but I believe that it hit one of my vital organs. A lung, I believe my brother (who is a doctor) called it once as he was explaining anatomy to me. I was forced to die a slow and painful death, one that was filled with screams, blood, and pain.
And yet, while I had died during the early mornings, I awoke that evening (that evening being nearly two days ago) to my being about to be buried in a large field with many other dead souls and a coroner who looked ready to die of fright. He hurled many holy verses at me in an attempt to save his soul and to, I suspect, cast out any strange demon inside of me.
It was...very traumatic, to say the least.
This must be very confusing to you. I shall do my best to clarify what I can, and to provide what backstory I may of my life. Perhaps, this will help you in your own life. Maybe you will even meet the nice gentleman who insists I call him Noble and the young woman Jeanine who accompanies him.
My name is Octavia Rosalind Larsen, and I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1750.
"She was two hundred and fifty-nine years old when she died?" Victoria gasped, her head shooting up to look at Noble with shock.
Noble frowned, his lips pursing in thought, but then he nodded. "Yes, I do believe that that is accurate. I did not meet her until the twenty-first of April in the year of 1775, so I cannot confirm or deny if there are any inaccuracies in her age, but I would assume that you are correct."
"April 21st, 1775," Victoria murmured, rolling the date around in her brain. "You didn't meet her the day she woke up right?"
"No, it was not until a few days after she arose from the dead that the two of us, plus Jeanine, became acquainted. We were in Boston doing business when we heard rumors about a young woman rising from the dead, so we went to investigate and found her. We realized that she was the new Immortalis and explained what little details we could to her. She took to it remarkably well, if I remember correctly."
"Okay, so if you met her on the twenty-first of April, and we backtrack a few days, past the twentieth, then we hit the nineteenth. She said she had died early in the day, so when she woke up, it must have been the same day. Okay, so let's assume April 19th is the day we have to work with. So what happened on April 19th? April 19th, 1775...holy shit!"
"Language, Victoria."
"Noble! Octavia turned into a Transitioning Immortalis because of the battle of Concord and Lexington?" Victoria gasped in astonishment, the history nerd in her flaring to life. "She was killed and transitioned because of the 'shot heard round the world'?"
"Perhaps," Noble mused, shrugging his shoulders from where he still laid on the ground.
"The history nerd in me is freaking out right now."
"It may be wise to consult Ms. Branson more on this particular subject matter."
"Lexi? What could Lexi possibly know about the Battle of Concord and Lexington?"
"Quite a bit, if I remember well, and if the stories that Alexander have told me are true. Ms. Branson was herself in the town of Concord during the whole affair."
"Holy -!"
Victoria was interrupted from letting out another curse word by the sound of her phone ringing. She groaned in frustration and quickly answered it without checking to see who was calling, "I need you to talk fast because I am pretty sure I was just seconds away from finding out why Lee calls Lexi Lexington and you interrupted me, so now I'm starting to get pissed off."
"Yeah? Well me too, Mama Bear!" she heard Damon's voice growl right back at her through the phone line. "You want to tell me why you couldn't have given me a hint that some tomb vampire was going to try and kill me and Alaric when we got to the Grove Hill residence?"
"Neither of you were in mortal danger, so I didn't figure it was necessary," Victoria defended herself. "Also, I warned you that you were going to be busy tonight. It just happened to be the murdery kind of busy. Why are you calling now though? Hasn't the vampire been taken care of already?"
"Oh, he has, and Alaric left me stranded in Grove Hill. I said something that made him pissy, so I need a ride."
Victoria just let out a little sigh and grunted, "I am currently unavailable, as I already stated earlier this afternoon. You're a charming young lad. I'm sure you can either hitchhike your way home or you can just literally start running. You're faster than a car, Damon, when you try to be. You could be back at the boarding house in fifteen minutes, half an hour tops."
Victoria's phone started to buzz again and she pulled it away from her ear just long enough to see that Zach was trying to call her. She murmured a quick, "Hold on, Damon, Zach's calling." She answered Zach's call and placed Damon's on hold. To Zach, she said, "Hey Zach, what's up?"
"I'm heading back to Pearl's house with her in tow. Figured you'd like to know."
"You're absolutely right I'd like to know," Victoria agreed. "Stay with her and Harper, Zach. Don't let either of them out of your sight, even for a moment, and I'll be over there soon to help you out." She quickly hung up on that call and switched back to her phone call with Damon. "Okay, Damon, I really need to go now. Can you just pretend that you're an actually well-functioning adult in our society and find your way back home?"
Victoria heard Damon sigh over the phone line and then he murmured, "Yeah, sure. It's just not as fun."
"I know, I'm sorry. Maybe we can find a McDonald's Play Place that you can compel your way into next weekend or something to make it up to you. Thank you. I'll see you later."
Victoria hung up on Damon and folded Octavia's journal back up. She carefully patted the journal on Noble's stomach (it was a shame that Victoria never got a chance to read more) and she stood up. She shook her legs out to get the residual numbness out of her limbs. Victoria did a few hops, waking her feet up and getting her body and muscles warm for the quick sprint that would be required to get from the picnic area back to Pearl and Harper's new home.
Noble was slower to get up. He took his time and he set Octavia's journal down onto the picnic basket. Once he was fully standing up, he grabbed Victoria's hand and gently tugged her into a loose hug. He dipped his head down and quickly captured Victoria's lips in a slow, but steady kiss. Victoria's eyes shut automatically and she hummed in contentment as she let Noble take control.
Noble pulled away, but not before nipping lightly at her bottom lip, which resulted in Victoria feeling more flushed than usual. He just had that ability. Victoria's eyes fluttered open to see him looking down at her with his usual patented concerned gaze. He rested his forehead against Victoria's and licked his lips, making them glitter in the already faded light. He took a deep breath and whispered in his beautiful, Scottish tilted voice, "Please, be careful."
"I will," Victoria promised him. She would've made a joke, asking 'wasn't she always careful?', but there was something in his voice and his words that made Victoria think that joking right then would be in bad taste. "Just get that journal to Lee. I need to go."
"Stay safe, Victoria."
"You too."
Victoria stood up on her tippy-toes to give Noble a quick peck (or two or three) before she dropped back down onto the balls of her feet. She couldn't delay any longer.
Victoria turned around and started to run in the direction that she vaguely remembered Pearl's house to be located. Her footsteps were heavy on the ground as she tried her best to get the most purchase of foot-to-ground that she could in her little ankle booties without completely wiping out.
Luck was on her side for once, it seemed, because she found herself skidding to a stop in front of an all-too-familiar house, Harper standing on the front porch with an arm raised in greeting towards Pearl and Zach. The duo seemed to be just exiting out of a car that looked suspiciously like Lee's SUV. Harper caught sight of Victoria and, though he seemed startled at her sudden presence, he wasn't displeased. He turned his arm towards her and waved. "Good evening, Ms. LeBlanc!"
"Hi, Harps!" Victoria called back out, giving the Civil War vampire a little wave. "How are you doing tonight? Holding down the fort?"
"Compared to the forts I held down in the war, watching over this place is like a children's game," Harper replied with a low chuckle. He turned back towards the approaching Pearl and Zach and gave them each a head nod out of respect. "Ms. Pearl. Mr. Salvatore."
"Evening, Harper," Zach replied. He was a gentleman and walked Pearl up to her porch before immediately deviating and connecting with Victoria as she started to move closer to the house. "You owe me forty-two dollars and seventy-six cents, by the way, and an evening back to myself. Never again, Victoria. You hear me?"
"Enjoyed yourself that much, huh?" Victoria snorted sarcastically, grinning with pleasure as she watched Zach's undead face begin to blush a little. She let him be and jogged up the steps to get onto the front porch of the house. To Zach, she added, "Listen, we need to keep an eye on Pearl and Harper. Hopefully, you intervening at dinner tonight between Pearl and John stopped this next part from ever happening, but if not...it's going to get messy."
"Well, Pearl told John to go to hell, so I'm not sure how much I managed to prevent from your timeline," Zach grunted, shaking his head. "And wait, how messy are you talking about?"
"Coachella level of messy," Victoria mumbled absentmindedly.
Pearl entered the house and Victoria was almost right behind her, ready to walk in, when Harper's voice caused all three of them to pause. "Ms. Pearl? Were you expecting a package of any kind?"
Pearl's brow furrowed as she took in Harper's words. She glanced towards Victoria and Zach with a raised eyebrow, and the two of them shook their heads. They certainly had not ordered a package of any kind. Victoria would've first put her house address, and then the boarding house, and then Caroline's house, then Lexi and Lee's place before she would ever put Ms. Gibbons' old place of residence. She didn't even know what the house's address was!
Pearl turned back towards Harper, who seemed to have moved from the front hall to the kitchen, and replied slowly, "No, Harper, I was not expecting any sort of package. Is it addressed to my daughter?"
"No, Ma'am, not addressed to Ms. Annabelle, but to you," Harper called back. There was a recognizable rustling noise, as if he was starting to unpackage the box.
A loud and irritating humming noise started to fill the area and Victoria reached up, wincing at the high-pitched noise. Her hand massaged her ear as the 'ee-ing' noise didn't let out. She glanced back towards Zach, who had both of his hands up to press them against his ears. In his eyes, however, Victoria saw a look of disbelief, shock, and pure, unadulterated fear.
Harper managed to croak out a, "What the hell -", just as Zach shouted, grabbing Victoria and swinging her around to place himself between her and the house, "GET DOWN!"
Victoria didn't remember much of what happened next, except these:
A loud explosion.
Ringing noises.
Pain.
Darkness.
And blood...
A lot of blood.
Amber
It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that Amber Bradley was as close to being a social outcast in Mystic Falls as one could be without being a stoner or drug addict. She didn't party hard, like many of the other teens around her age, and she wasn't all that involved with committees like some of the other Miss Mystic Falls girls were. She was just Amber Bradley, the odd girl who had moved to Mystic Falls four years ago with her slightly deranged father. The best way that Amber could describe it would be to say that her father was Maurice to the townspeople, and she was Belle. Kind of quirky, not really understood, and just standing off on the sidelines (Amber liked to think that she was pretty, but that didn't necessarily seemed relevant to admit).
What didn't help their oddness and quirkiness was that fact that the two of them lived deep in the woods of Mystic Falls. It took her nearly fifteen minutes every morning just to drive into town for school, and if she wanted to go anywhere special, might as well rack on another fifteen minutes. She thanked her lucky stars that her mother had given her driving lessons before the messy divorce. Amber had no desire to ride a bike through the haunting forest.
The reason she was walking through said forest now, in the deep dark night (which she had promised to herself that she would never do, under any circumstances) was due to the fact that she and her father had just gotten into a row over one of his crazed tendencies. Her father was borderline a die-hard conspiracy theorist, and sometimes his insistence that one of his theories was true made Amber crazy angry. He wasn't true. None of his theories would ever be true because he was just a crazy old man. How he had ever won full custody over her was a question that Amber didn't think she'd ever learn the answer to.
"Vampires aren't real," Amber grunted to herself, shaking her head with annoyance. She kicked a pinecone sullenly and folded her arms across her chest. Jeans, boots, a tank top and a fleece cardigan did not a cold weather outfit make, but she had been in such a rush to leave home that she had just left with what was already wearing. "Seriously, the mere idea of vampirism is so well-explained that anyone who thinks differently is just -"
Amber never got to finish her thought as a loud BOOM echoed across the woods. She stumbled as she felt the literal ground shift underneath her and she wobbled into a nearby tree, throwing her arms around the trunk. She held onto that plant like it was her lifeline, waiting for the rumbling to stop. It seemed to go on forever. Really, probably was only a second or two, but oh, did her adrenaline make it feel like it was a lifetime.
Amber tentatively tore her arms away from the tree and took a step, noticing with keen eyes that the dirt underneath her feet was noticeably looser than it had been before. She sniffed gently with her nose and gagged almost immediately. The scent of burning wood and...ugh...was that human flesh?...filled her nostrils. And the smell of...an herb? It was a woodsy smell that Amber was familiar with. Vervain. It grew in a good abundance around her home (her father decided two years ago that it was vital for him to start growing some. Odd, but Amber tried not to question her father's odd habits, lest he monologues about the little plant for hours).
Subconsciously, Amber tugged her lower lip in between her teeth and shifted on the balls of her feet. The burning smell and the sound had come from southwest of her current position. That was the home that Ms. Gibbons lived in. Well, Ms. Gibbons had lived in. Amber hadn't spotted the really nice woman by that property in ages. Instead, it seemed like this new mother had taken hold of the property. She had a daughter that was around her age, if not a little younger...Annabeth, maybe? No, it was more like Anna. Yeah. Anna Zhu. Amber had bumped into her while she was heading upstairs for the Miss Mystic Falls event. The two had introduced each other after Amber had complimented the girl for her outfit.
What if Anna was still in the house? Or her mother, or that other random guy who had seen Amber walking in the distance and taken the time to wave at her? Was she an accomplice to murder if she knew that the three of them lived in that house and she had done nothing to see if they were alive and well?
"Damn being an Empath," Amber grumbled worriedly to herself. She turned her feet towards the direction of Ms. Gibbons' former home and set off at a strong pace, trying to do her best to breathe through her mouth rather than her nose.
Many things became apparent as Amber got closer and closer towards the house. First, something was terrifyingly wrong. The smell of burnt wood and burning wood was growing stronger by the minute, as was the scent of burning flesh. The smell of burnt vervain was also strong and it was almost too strong. Amber had to stop twice to dry-heave into a bush as she approached. Still, she tried her best to not let her stomach get the best of her. She needed to make sure the family was alright.
When she happened upon the little clearing that led to Ms. Gibbons' former house, she didn't know what to expect.
But she could confidently tell you that she hadn't expected that.
Ms. Gibbons' house (or, to be more precise, Anna's house) didn't exist anymore. Half of it was blown away, scattered in either large or small shards of wood across the clearing. What little of the house that did remain remained on fire, the flames licking at the dry wood like it was a meal for an inmate on death row. The dirt and foundation that the house had been built on was all shifted and thrown about, like a contractor had tried to move it all.
What was most notable about the whole mess was the fact that there were four bodies in the clearing.
And Amber recognized them all.
What was even more shocking?
Three of them were still moving, despite the fact that they were all stabbed with random shards of wood and each of them looked like a terrible extra in a horror film.
Amber went to the body closest to her, dropping to her knees beside the person. Her hands fluttered at her sides and she quickly brushed the loose hair out of the person's face so she could clearly look into their eyes. Panic filled Amber's voice as she cried, "Victoria! Are you okay?"
Amber immediately regretted asking that question (of course she isn't okay, you freaking loser! She is covered in blood and looks like a character out of a Stephen King novel!), but Victoria let out a wheezing sigh and nodded her head, albeit slowly and looking like she was in a great deal of pain. She gritted her teeth (her beautifully white teeth that all looked pink from the blood in her mouth) and she spluttered, "A-Are they okay?"
Amber glanced behind herself and towards the other three bodies on the ground. The two who were moving were moaning in pain and neither of them looked like they were getting up anytime soon. The other...they were still and it hurt Amber to look at them for even longer than a second.
Amber turned back towards Victoria and answered honestly, with a hint of hysteria because boy howdy, was she starting to panic. "T-Two of them are. O-One isn't."
Victoria's eyes widened in shock and much to Amber's complete surprise, the teenage girl shoved herself into an upright position, gritting her teeth harder as a grunt of pain escaped her lips. Out of all the injuries on all the bodies located at the site, Victoria definitely had the lightest amount of damage. Hers was still very significant though. There were two large pieces of wood stabbed into her body: one at her right hip, and the other at her left shoulder. In the act of sitting up, Amber could physically hear the squelching noise as the piece of shrapnel at Victoria's hip dug deeper into the girl's skin.
Victoria's eyes, partially dulled with pain but seemingly bright and alert, scanned over the destroyed yard. When her eyes rested on the body that wasn't moving, she froze and her eyes lit up with tears. A gut-wrenching wail of pain, sadness, and pure agony came ripping from her mouth as she screamed, "Zach, no!"
Victoria was mobile now, scrambling away from Amber and pulling herself with one strong arm across the forest floor. Her goal was Zach Salvatore, the man who had a large piece of wood dug deep into his heart. In the light of the burning building, he looked almost peaceful, in an ashy-gray sort of way. Amber wasn't startled to see his body. She was pretty sure she was falling into shock. She'd probably break down and be an emotional mess later.
Amber shook herself out of her daze and she rushed to Victoria's side, grabbing her as carefully as she could. "Victoria! You need to put pressure on your wounds! You have to stop moving!"
"I need to get to him!" Victoria pleaded, tears falling from her eyes. The way the fire glimmered off of her tears, it made her eyes look like they were two pools of the purest, cleanest water around. "P-Please, not him. Anyone but him."
"H-He's dead, Victoria..."
"No!" Victoria screamed, and Amber felt her own eyes start to water with emotion. There was that stupid Empath feeling stuff that she hated to have. Her own heart started to ache at Victoria's loss.
"I-I'm sorry, Victoria -"
"- He does not get to die!" Victoria hissed, and to add more insult to freaking surprise, the teenage girl shoved herself to her feet, her whole body shaking with adrenaline. Amber pushed herself away from the girl and rose to her own feet, watching Victoria with wide, worried eyes. "Not like this. No...no..."
Something was wrong with Victoria's eyes. These inky substances were starting to pool in both of her eyesockets, but one was like a black ebony and the other was an ivory white. Victoria stared towards the dead Zach with her terrifying eyes and she staggered towards him like a drunk man leaving the Grill. Amber could only watch in stunned silence.
Victoria fell to her knees besides the Salvatore. Her shoulders were tense and Amber gagged when she saw that the shard of wood at her shoulder had actually gone through to the other side. Victoria's hands reached around and wrapped themselves around the piece of shrapnel by her hip. In one quick swoosh, Victoria ripped the piece of wood out of her body with a pained cry. Before Amber could react, Victoria reached towards Zach's still body and grabbed the wood by his heart, taking that out of him as well.
Victoria pressed two hands against her bloodied (and getting even bloodier) side and when she brought her hand out in front of her, presenting them over Zach's dead body like an offering, they were soaked in her own blood.
"He does not get to die," Victoria was murmuring under her breath and there was a sudden chill in the clearing. Amber shivered, her eyes glued to the teenager in front of her. "He does not die. Not today, not tomorrow."
Victoria lifted both of her hands into the air and with a primal scream that felt like a sucker-punch right to Amber's core, she slammed her two hands, curled into fists, right into Zach's chest. A white ooze-like substance shot from her hands and into Zach's body.
Maybe Victoria was Jesus (it was blasphemous of Amber to say and she knew that once she got a clear moment to think properly, she would know that Victoria was not Jesus).
But in Amber's defense, it wasn't every day that a normal person brought somebody back from the dead.
Zach sat upright with a gasp of breath, his eyes wide and filled with fear. The ashy, peaceful look on his skin was replaced immediately by tanner, more terrified appearance. The moment he was ninety-degrees upright, though, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed back onto the ground. This time, Victoria joined him, finally passing out from the exertion of whatever the hell she had just tried to do.
Amber was panicking, but not the same kind of panicking that she had done at the pageant. That had been a light panic attack, one that Amber was easily able to play off as being nothing at all and pretending to be perky and happy and nonchalant. No, the panic that Amber was experiencing now was a full-body shake, with teeth chattering and her eyes dripping tears down her dirt-stained cheeks.
What the hell was happening? What the hell had happened? What the hell was she going to do? She needed something. She needed someone. Someone who could help her.
A voice popped into her head, one that spoke the words on the day of the pageant that she had desperately needed to hear.
"I know what you are. When you need help or want answers, just call me."
He had gone as Caroline Forbes' date, and it was well-known around the Mystic Falls community that Caroline Forbes' best friend was Victoria LeBlanc. Victoria LeBlanc was a teenage girl, and no teenage girl would be caught dead without her cellphone on her.
Amber, doing her best not to vomit all over someone she hoped to call a friend one day, quickly patted Victoria down, laughing in triumph when she finally got Victoria's phone. She scrambled through the call list, biting her lower lip as she tried to search for the one name she needed. When she found it, Amber almost felt so relieved that she could cry.
She hurried hit call and prayed that he would answer.
"Hey Sugar, do you know when Zach's coming home with the dinner? He's been gone for a while and I think Lexi's getting anxious. Only so much heated AB negative can do for a girl, you know?"
"Lee?"
The tonal shift in Lee's voice was almost immediate, and his kind Southern drawl dropped to a reassuring, yet cautious kind of tilt. "Amber Bradley. Why are you answering Victoria's phone?"
"T-There was an accident. Ms. Gibbons' place up in the woods. S-She's hurt, and so is Z-Zach Salvatore and Anna's mom and that other really nice guy who says hi to me on my morning walks and -"
"- Doc, I need you to take a deep breath, okay?" There was a rustling noise from over the phone and Amber distinctly heard the sounds of a frantic female on the other side of the line. "Focus on answering these questions. How bad is bad?"
"E-Everyone's bleeding and t-the house is literally gone! It blew up!"
"Is there a car there, like a large black SUV?"
Amber looked around hurriedly, but spotted one just outside of the shrapnel's area of damage. "Y-Yeah. I-It doesn't look like it got damaged in t-the explosion."
"Hey, hey, hey, you're okay, Doc. You're doing great. Now, is it just you there with them?"
"Yeah."
"Are any of them awake?"
"N-Not really."
"Are they dead?"
"N-No..." Amber whimpered, her eyes falling to rest on Zach Salvatore. "N-Not anymore."
Lexi
When Lee had burst into the living room of the boarding house, declaring that shit had hit the fan and they needed to go to Ms. Gibbons' old house (where Pearl and Harper were currently staying) now, Lexi knew not to delay. She ordered Elena to stay with Stefan (she seemed to be the only one who could help him control his bloodlust) and she asked Ms. Gibbons to grab as many blood bags as she could possibly manage and to start bringing them up to the living room. Also, to make sure that there were spaces for four people.
Zach had taken Lee's SUV for the night, so the two opted for running. Had it been any other situation, Lexi would have expected Lee to comment (for the seven hundredth time since they had officially moved to Mystic Falls) about how they needed to get an off-roading buggie for when they had to go running through the woods again. "I'm just saying, I think it would save us a lot of time!" Lee had insisted multiple times whenever he and Lexi went for walks in the woods.
Lee didn't make that comment now.
The run itself took maybe a minute, and that was with Lexi and Lee sprinting like they had Usain Bolt chasing after them. Lexi smelled the wreckage before she saw it. Burnt vervain and charred wood were the most prevalent of the smells, but she did pick up on the smells of burnt flesh.
Lexi had never really seen what Ms. Gibbons' house looked like. The last time she had been there, she had been a part of the security detail to make sure none of the tomb vampires escaped (she knew some had managed to slip through; Victoria had told her so a week after the event) so it wasn't like she had necessarily had the time to stop and marvel the architecture.
Lexi was sure, though, that the wreckage she looked upon now was not what the house was before.
Once the two of them reached the house, Lee made a beeline for Amber, who Lexi recognized as the young woman that Lee had danced with at the pageant. She was kneeling besides an unconscious Victoria and Zach and she was rocking herself and back and her eyes looked like she wasn't really seeing everything happening in front of her. Her hands were planted firmly on Victoria's hip, though, and Lexi could spot the pools of blood seeping from the Immortalis and onto the young girl's hands.
Since Lee was heading that way, Lexi turned and made her way towards Pearl and Harper, who were clumped together across the clearing that had acted as a front yard. Pearl had a large gash straight across her face and it wasn't healing as well as it should have been. Little pieces of wood were scattered throughout the rest of her limbs, but none of them looked life-threatening, so Lexi pointedly ignored them. Lexi dropped down into a crouch in front of Harper, who was sitting up with Pearl's help and wincing. Harper had the worst injury by far. His leg below his right knee was just gone. Poof, disappeared, no longer there. The wound was starting to knit back together, but it too was taking too long. The skin was also all charred, like a burnt steak, and Lexi couldn't help but wince.
She looked up towards Harper, who was breathing heavily through his mouth. His vampiric features were on display, the traditional red eyes and dark veins underneath his eyes and, of course, the fangs, and he was looking past Lexi, straight towards Amber and Victoria. Lexi glanced back at Harper and murmured, "Don't even think about it, Harper. It will only cause more harm than good."
Pearl's hand that was resting on Harper's shoulder tightened immensely and the eldest vampire nodded her head once firmly. "I have kept an eye on him, Ms. Branson -"
"- Just call me Lexi. None of us have time for full names right now -"
"- and he won't do anything harmful towards the child or Ms. LeBlanc. Not under my watch."
"Well, if he's under your watch, then get him to hide the fangs," Lexi ordered, glancing over her shoulder towards Amber and Lee. Lee was speaking in a soft tone to Amber, who was still pressing her hands hard against Victoria's unmoving side. Lexi looked back towards Pearl and Harper. "We've already got a whole slew people on Team Mystic Falls and we don't need to add any more -"
"- She already knows."
"Excuse me?" Lexi spluttered, not entirely believing what she was hearing from Pearl.
Pearl nodded her head firmly. How the hell a woman could look so elegant despite the fact that blood was covering half of her face and she had just been in what looked like to be ground zero for an explosion was something that Lexi wanted to take notes on. "The only reason we are even conscious right now, Alexia, is because that child gave us some of her blood. Cut her arm and dripped it into our mouths. It's why Harper is having issues."
"I'm not even going to argue it."
"She's still alive!"
Lexi perked up at hearing Lee shout that in disbelief and her head swung around so fast that she heard a little crack as she went. Lexi knew who Lee was talking about in a heartbeat. "She's what?"
"Sugar's still got a heartbeat," Lee called back out, looking down at Victoria like she was a mystery. "It's faint and definitely not strong, but she's not dead."
"Start getting them into the car!" Lexi ordered, taking charge as the oldest, non-damaged vampire. "I'm calling for back-up."
Lexi was glad that she had had enough foresight to bring her phone with her on their crazy run and she pulled it out and scrolled down until she got to Kelly's number. Bless that crazy, wonderful Wanderer, because she picked up on the first ring. "Lexi, what's going on?"
"Please tell me you have or you know someone who had a little bit of surgical prowess," Lexi begged, watching as Pearl helped Harper up and Lee left Amber with Victoria to grab Zach.
"I do. Where do you need me to meet you?"
"Boarding house, as fast as you can get there. Bring whatever you need. It's bad, Kelly, and I can't lie, Victoria's a part of it."
There was a little hitch in Kelly's voice, but it was surprisingly strong given the news that Lexi had just dropped on her. "I had a feeling that was the case if you were asking for surgery. Is she still alive, despite whatever has happened?"
"She is."
"Shit. Has she mentioned anything recently about whether or not we should send her to her place of peace instead of trying to save her?"
"Not that I've heard."
"Alright then, the mom in me is going to do everything I can to make sure she doesn't meet this Henri fellow again. I'll be at the boarding house with backup in ten minutes. Keep her alive, Lexi."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Stefan
Stefan smelled them before he even heard the car turn into the driveway. It made him pause in his pacing and the hairs on his arms stood up on end. He felt a shiver race down his spine and his hands tightened in their already white-knuckled fists. His fangs wanted to drop in his mouth. the blood he could smell the clearest was the highest form of temptation after all.
"They're here," Stefan announced, and Elena's head snapped up from where she was busy rearranging the blood bags by species. Stefan turned towards Ms. Gibbons, who had thrown on an old pair of clothes that had once belonged to Zach's uncle (actual uncle, not Damon or Stefan). "Get ready."
The boarding house door swung open fast and hit the wall so hard that Stefan could hear the wall cracking underneath the force. Lexi was the first to come in, and in her arms lay an unmoving Victoria. She was drenched from head to toe in her delicious blood and it was taking everything in Stefan's being to not picture himself licking all of that blood off of her sweet, salty skin and just devouring her whole. What really kicked him out of his delusional bloodlusty fantasy was the fact that her heart was still beating a weak rhythm.
"She's alive?" Stefan couldn't help but murmur in shock, watching as Lexi moved to set Victoria on the dining table that Stefan and Ms. Gibbons had worked tirelessly to bring into the main living room.
"Who knows for how much longer," Lexi grunted as she set Victoria down onto the dining table. She pointed roughly towards one of the couches and said, "Grab that pillow."
Stefan just grabbed the nearest one and hoped that satisfied his best friend. He came up beside Lexi and while she held up Victoria's limp body, Stefan positioned the pillow underneath her head. Lexi laid Victoria's head back down onto the pillow and then moved to press her hands tightly against a large, blooming patch of red at the top of Victoria's hip.
Noises behind him drew Stefan attention back towards the living room. Lee was stumbling into the room with a heavy and unconscious Zach Salvatore in his arms; meanwhile, Ms. Gibbons had rushed to the door and was now helping an almost legless Harper into the room while Pearl trailed behind him with...a random teenager?
"Who are you?" Stefan couldn't help but asking, speaking as Elena also cried out, "Amber! What are you doing here?"
"Later, Ms. Gilbert," Pearl stated sternly. She had an arm wrapped around her torso and the other was resting on Amber's shoulders. The human girl helped the vampiress to one of the couches and Pearl let out a hiss of relief as she sunk into the deep cushions. "Thank you, my dear."
"O-Of course," the teenager, Amber, stammered, looking terrified at everything surrounding her and yet, looking completely at ease with what was happening.
More footsteps from the front room and this time, Kelly came striding confidently in. And she brought along an entourage, one that made Stefan widen his eyes in disbelief. It was so startling, in fact, that Elena jumped to her feet and shouted, "Jenna? Jeremy? What the hell are you guys doing here?"
"We should be the ones asking that to you, Elena," Jenna snapped. She and Kelly were decked from head-to-toe in scrubs and Jenna was holding a small purse in one hand. "But now is not the time to worry about that. Where's Victoria?"
"Over here," Lexi called out, waving them over.
Kelly, Jenna, and Jeremy (who was looking paler by the minute, but wasn't being deterred by the fact that a person he had known since he was a child was lying on a table looking close to death) swarmed the dining room table, descending on Victoria like a pack of flies. Kelly was by Lexi's side in a flash and her hands gently pried Lexi's up so she could see the damage. Jenna set down the purse and opened it up, pulling out multiple bowls, needles, and a large spool of thread.
Elena pushed herself onto her feet and marched her way over to the table, not seeming to like the way her aunt had just shut her down. "No, we need to talk about this now, Aunt Jenna. You are not freaking out about anything in this room when you really should be. Look at Amber!" The teenage girl in question flinched at having her name called out by Elena and she looked extremely uncomfortable with all the attention that was suddenly directed onto her. "She's having a proper reaction to all of this!"
"I've known Kelly LeBlanc since I was a child, Elena," Jenna snapped, slamming down a scalpel onto the wooden table. Her eyes burned with neatly hidden rage and frustration. "Our friendship is over twenty years old. You honestly think that she wouldn't have mentioned that vampires were real, or that she was a witch that could control lightning or that she was someone from another world in those twenty years? You think that she wasn't keeping me in the loop about all of this." Jenna waved her arms around her head as she gestured to the room as a whole, and all the inhabitants within it. "I've known about Stefan and Damon Salvatore being vampires for longer than you've been alive. So watch your tone with me, young lady. I've already had my overreaction to this whole mess. In 1993, when I watched this woman," Jenna pointed a rough finger towards Kelly as the woman gratefully accepted towels from Ms. Gibbons, "still a literal thunderstorm so her daughter wouldn't have nightmares."
"B-But...Jeremy!"
"She told me about the supernatural a week after Uncle John showed up back home," Jeremy whispered, his throat tight with emotion and his eyes misty with tears. He couldn't look away from Victoria and the box in his arms was starting to shake as the teen boy tried to hold back his tears. "Guess Jenna had more faith in me than you."
"It wasn't about faith, Jeremy! I didn't tell you guys to keep you safe!"
"'If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them'," Jeremy quoted sagely.
"Isaac Asimov," Stefan whispered and Jeremy looked up. The two guys locked eyes and Stefan was hit by the sudden feeling of guilt. Keeping the truth about the supernatural from them had caused them more harm than safety, hadn't it?
"Yeah, that's right."
"As much as I am loving this philosophy debate we have going on," Kelly growled, drawing the room's attention back to her, "my daughter is currently bleeding out and I need Jenna to start suturing up this wound while I work my magic. Literally."
"Are you sure you're the best person to be doing this?" Stefan couldn't help but ask, watching as Jenna took over by Victoria's hip. "We should be going to an actual doctor."
"We have an actual doctor," Kelly snapped, stepping to the side. She raised her hands and they started to crackle, very faintly at first but slowly growing with strength, with lightning. Little lightning bolts arced across her pupils and there was a faint rumbling to be heard outside of the boarding house. Inside the boarding house, there was complete silence.
Until Lee asked from the other side of the room, his voice filled with incredulousness and disbelief, "You're a doctor?!"
Damon
Damon was never taking Uber again.
Ever.
If Future Damon even thought about the idea of taking an Uber, even fancied the notion, Past Damon would find a way to travel through time and kick his ass.
Never, in his whole life (and that was a long time), had he been as bored as he had been while riding in the shotgun seat of a minivan-driving forty year old man who thought that D&D was witchcraft and of the devil. Damon had wanted to drain the man dry of his blood, just to show him that D&D had nothing on vampires, but decided that it was be too messy and bloody to try and just write off as an accident. So Damon just hummed and nodded in tandem with the man and hoped that the drive would be done quickly.
He basically flew from the minivan the moment that it stopped at the base of the boarding house's driveway and compelled the man to drive away and to never talk about D&D again. Watching the minivan drive away was satisfying in its own right, and Damon just sighed with completion.
He flashed up to the front door and started talking even as he was opening the door, "Honey, I'm home! Does anyone got an ETA on Mama Bear? I want to gripe with her about the issues with Uber. Do you think that its still running in 2021 -"
A loud scream cut him off. Human, a young girl, terrified, worried, scared.
Victoria.
Damon's protective instincts took over. He flashed down the entryway and into the living room. He saw red covering his precious Mama Bear and he let out a hiss of rage. He leapt towards the attacker, the woman with lightning in her hands that stood above his Mama Bear as the teenage girl writhed in pain underneath, but he was stopped just as his hands grabbed onto Mama Bear's hand that was closest to him. His spine stiffened as a sudden swell of electricity hit his core, but he just gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain. Two strong arms around his waist, preventing him from getting any further. Damon let out a hiss and made an attempt to punch one of his holders, but they easily caught his arm and kept him pinned.
"Damon! You need to calm down!"
"Stop hurting her!" Damon heard himself spitting out, his anger directed towards the woman with lightning. "I'm going to rip your throat out and watch as you die a slow, painful, and terrifying death!"
"Damon!"
"Damon!"
"Damon!"
It was like a swift punch to the stomach.
That wasn't a voice that was supposed to be there. He knew that voice, and that voice was dead.
Damon turned his head just enough that he could see his faint reflection within the random mirror that hung on the wall of the living room. "Artistic decoration," had been what Ms. Gibbons had said when she had first hung up the mirror. The men of the house knew that it was just because the women of their lives liked to check themselves one last time before heading out.
His reflection rippled a little and he wrinkled his brow, confusion littering his bones. The reflection continued to ripple until the person staring back at him wasn't him.
It was her.
"Vicki?" Damon breathed out, the word coming out almost like a whimper of disbelief.
"Damon, Kelly is the only thing keeping Victoria alive right now," Vicki murmured, her words soft and reassuring. She held up two hands in an almost placating way when Victoria let out another cry of pain. "I know, I know that she is in a lot of pain right now but trust me, Kelly and Jenna are doing everything that they can to help her, to stop her from coming to give me and Henri a visit. So please, don't hurt Kelly or Jenna. Help Victoria, comfort her, but don't hurt two pf the three people who can help her right now."
"H-How...?"
"I don't know, Damon, but we can figure it out later. Right now, Victoria needs you. Your Mama Bear needs you."
It was like a flip had been switched in Damon. His fangs, that had apparently dropped without his knowledge, retreated back into his gum line. He shook off the two people holding him (turning out to be power couple Lee and Lexi). He tightened his hold on Victoria's hand, just a little, and leaned over to be semi-kneeling by her head. "Hey, Mama Bear."
"D-Damon?" Victoria whimpered, her eyes squeezed shut with tears leaking out of the crevices.
Damon's heart hurt as he watched her suffer. He lifted his free hand and gently brushed the tears out of her face with his thumb, gently shushing her as he did so. "Yeah, I'm here. It's me."
"I-It hurts..."
"I know, baby. I know it hurts, but your Mom knows what she's doing. She's helping you out, okay?"
"O-Okay."
"That's my girl," Damon purred, leaning forward and pressing a messy kiss to the corner of Victoria's eye. She relaxed marginally underneath his soft kiss and that made Damon smile softly. As much as it hurt him to ask, he questioned softly, "Do you want me to go find Noble?"
"C-Can't. Gone."
"He's gone?" Damon parroted for clarification. Victoria nodded again as another tear leaked out and once again, Damon was quick to wipe it away. "Where is he?"
"C-Crucifix stuff."
"Course," Damon grumbled to himself, rolling his eyes in exasperation. Louder, he said to Victoria, "Do you want me to call him? Ask him to come back down? You and I both know he'll drop everything in a heartbeat."
"L-Later. D-Don't leave."
"Okay, okay, I won't leave."
Victoria's shoulders shook more as the look of concentration on Kelly's face peaked and more tears came from her tightly closed eyes. "P-Please don't l-leave m-me."
"I'm right here, baby," Damon whispered, squeezing Victoria's hand and giving her cheek another kiss. "I'm right here and nothing's going to take me away."
"P-Please don't leave me. Please, p-please...p-please..."
Her body was starting to shake more and more and Damon looked up towards Kelly, who was starting to look worried. "Kelly?"
"She's starting to panic," Kelly grunted, her hands moving to tighten into fists. "I'm having a hard time concentrating on cauterizing the right internal wounds with all her movement. Calm her down!"
"I'm trying!"
"Try harder!"
Lee whistled loudly, dragging all attention to him. He stood at the head of the table, right behind Victoria, and he held a hand out towards the couches, looking towards someone over there with strong eyes and a steady voice, "Your moment to shine, Doc."
A weak and feeble voice just squeaked, "What?" Damon recognized it, but only faintly. It was the Legally Blonde chick from the dance. She had a stereotypical white person name that was also a rock. Geode? No...Emerald? Also no...wait, Amber. That was it. Amber. She spoke again, her voice quiet and yet louder than Victoria's cries and pleas for nobody to leave her alone, "I-I can't help her."
"Yes, you can," Lee stated, offering his hand out again. "Listen, I told you I can help you, but I need you to trust me. You can do this."
At that moment, Victoria let out another cry of pain and Amber was suddenly there, her clothes and hands covered in blood that smelled just like Victoria's. Her terrified look reflected in how Victoria's screams were progressing.
Lee grabbed Amber's wrists and gently brought them around. He placed Amber's hands both on top of Victoria's head, placing the tips of her thumbs against her temples. Lee whispered to Amber, "Think of a calm memory. The calmest one you can imagine."
"I-I can't -"
"- Yes, you can, Doc. You need to be strong for Victoria. I know you can do it. Strong, calm memory, Doc. That's all you need to do."
Amber licked her lips and nodded after a moment, her grip tightening on Victoria's head to keep her from moving too much. "I-I got it."
"Good. Now, Doc, think of that memory like a river. You're the mountain, Tori's the sea. Direct the memory like a trickle of water from you and into her."
Amber nodded again and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and let it go.
It was like a day and night effect. Victoria was immediately still, her breathing no longer labored or anxious, and there was even the smallest trace of a smile on the corners of her lips.
Damon looked up towards Lee and demanded quietly, "What the hell is she?" Not Victoria, obviously, but Amber.
Lee looked towards Amber with a proud, almost fatherly smile and replied, "You and the rest of Mystic Falls are looking at a true, bonified Empath. One of the last of her kinds."
A/N: Ladies and gents and all those in-between, we have officially hit half a million words! Whoo! And we are just two episodes away from being down with Season 1! Whoo whoo!
Couple of announcements:
1. The Shipping Wars will be closing very soon (after the end of Season 1) so make sure you got a vote in if you want to (if you have a vote but don't want to cast it, that's cool too! Lemme know if the ship you suspected will win won or if they sank).
2. Did I give yet another 5-minute character more backstory, detail, turned them into an odd supernatural creature, and subtly make them another main character? Yes, yes I did. Do I feel any shame? No, no I do not XD.
3. Just a heads-up: this story is only published by myself on Fanfiction and AO3. I recently found out that there is this website that does its best to archive fanfics to help preserve them (a noble cause, honestly, that I think is neat) but three of my stories are on there and I did NOT put them up there myself (Immortalis and Oferswíðestre being two of them). It's nothing too bad because they credit it with my name (BecomingFearless1F) but just know for future reference that this story is only on those two accounts. Anything else (Quotev, Wattpad, etc.) is not me and should be reported. I'm going to email this site later and ask them to kindly take my stories down (which they say is totally acceptable to do) so yeah XD.
New Followers!: N/A
New Favoriters!: Jesika1024, ciyatodd
Onto reviews!:
Guest: I think I just like the secrecy. We never know who people are going to end up with in real life? Also, I do plan on doing the whole "Canon character, OC" pairing thingy when the pairing actually happens in this story, y'all are just so early that we haven't gotten there yet. Tbh, Victoria does act like she's in love with everybody XD. I feel like my readers care more about Victoria as a person then they do as a love interest and so as long as she's happy, they'll be happy (at least I hope).
Goodboiii: Aww thanks! I'm glad to hear its a good, bingeable story! Trust me, I understand getting sad at the Datoria angst. I was originally planning for Damon to be a hateable character in this story, but then he just snuck his way into my heart! XD.
BrookeWorm3: Poor Damon indeed.
Child of Dreams: I mean, I sort-of...did? But I brought Zach back! And hehe, it made me laugh that you called them Tori's vamps. Maybe...or maybe someone else saved Tori ;p.
DBZFAN45: I'm glad that you're alright and oh no for your uncle! (I just saw Top Gun: Maverick in the theaters last night and it was A-MAZ-ING). More unintentional Twilight references. I haven't read the books in almost 4 years nor have I seen the movies and yet, they are still coming back to haunt me with references XD. I know, right? The CW is cancelling all the superhero shows. I'm glad Superman & Lois is still going, but I honestly feel (and I say this as a huge fan of the show) like The Flash needs to stop soon. I stopped watching at halfway through Season 4 and I have no idea what happens next, but yeah. Who's your favorite Legacies character? Mine was Leonard Snart. He's so sarcastic.
Charlie0925: Thank you! And thanks for your feedback on a potential Zach/Pearl romance. They are honestly the adult vampires of the group and I can see them radiating Grandpa and Grandma Bear energy, you know (to Victoria's Mama Bear and Damon's Papa Bear energies). Yes, I did, and it really gave me the motivation to push forward!
KEZZ 1: Thank you for reading! Here's this chapter for you, fresh out of the oven!
SorayukiChinastu: First we need Elijah to even show up in the series XD. You're welcome and thank you for reading!
Elyse1821: Girl, I totally understand. You are a hardworking Mom (right? I'm not mixing you up with someone else?) who is doing grad school and a new job. You are much more productive than I am, for sure, so take all the time you need to read. At least one class is good; it could've been both of them being 'meh'. Yeah, you can see Noble getting on Damon's nerves in this chapter for sure. Ugh, I am soooo excited for Katherine to join. You're not the only one who thinks Noble is kind of creepy. I remember distinctly when he was first introduced, LoyalElijahFangirl kept saying that she thought he was creepier than Raphael and that she trusted Raphael more than she trusted Noble. It's not intentional to make him creepy, but I guess protective and sweet can come across as creepy in a multitude of different situations.
Over half a million words, Zach dying but coming to life (with some consequences, perhaps?), Amber's a what now?, and Noble pissing off Damon. I'm so proud of this, you guys!
Until next time,
Stay healthy and stay safe!
BecomingFearless1F