A/N: Hey! Welcome back to A Thousand Years! Thank you to those 3 reviewers. You are awesome :)
I update this story every two or so days, so keep up with the reviews guys. They really help me figure out if this story is worth continuing or not.
Just letting you all know that when we get closer to Grace and Klaus reuniting for the first time in a thousand years, I might call upon you all for ideas on their reactions to seeing each other. Just a little spoiler: Grace won't immediately fall head over heels for him on first sight, it will a gradual romance. I really dislike fics where the main characters immediately fall for each other without building up to the moment.
Please no flames ;)
I don't own The Vampire Diaries. All characters (except for Grace) are owned by L.J. Smith.
Enjoy xx
MOONSTONE
"… And if you're ever feeling lonely, just look at the moon. Someone, somewhere, is looking." ~Unknown Author.
I went to bed that night knowing the name of the man who had ruthlessly and viciously murdered me in front of Niklaus, a thousand years ago.
Mikael…
I don't think any of you can imagine the rage that I had been feeling, now that I knew the name of the bastard who ruined what could've been. The only positive I can take from this was that eventually, Niklaus and I will reunite, and we will be happy again.
"Don't dwell on it, Grace. It's all in the past. I doubt my father is around for you to worry about." Henrik attempted to reassure me, as I got ready to head back to the Salvatore Boarding House.
"I appreciate your concern, Henrik. But you haven't been subjected to dreams that you couldn't understand for the first 20-years of your life." I retorted, not unkindly as I wrapped my purple sheer scarf around my neck and grabbed my keys. Henrik sighed.
"Fine. Be it on your own head, Grace." He said. "What are you doing today at the Salvatore's?" He asked, curiously.
I shrugged.
"The only thing we can do: More research. Since werewolves are known to be rare, due to numerous vampires over the years almost wiping them out of existence, there's not a lot of information out there to go on. The only thing we have to go on is the 'Sun and Moon Curse' text." I explained.
Henrik already looked bored. I smiled at him.
"I'll tell you all about it when I get back." I promised. Henrik grimaced.
"Oooh, can't wait." He drawled, sarcastically.
I giggled.
"See ya later." I blew him a kiss and walked out.
The drive to the Boarding House was a lot faster this time round because I knew where I was going, and I managed to get there in record time. Despite the fact that I now knew the name of the murderer of my past life; I was in a fairly good mood … which immediately soured when I realized that I had almost forgotten about Caroline and her mother, and I hoped that things weren't too horrible or awkward between mother and daughter at the moment. As I parked my car and strolled up to the front door, I paused for a moment; pondering if I should reveal that the 'Sun and Moon Curse' was actually fake. The front door opened revealing an irritated looking Damon, who immediately relaxed when he saw who it was standing at his front door step.
"Oh, Grace! It's you. I thought it was my loved up brother and his extremely confusing girlfriend again." He said, looking relieved. I frowned.
"What do you mean again?" I asked, as Damon stepped aside and allowed me to walk on through. Damon had a pained expression on his face.
"Elena caught Stefan holding a blood bag yesterday after you escorted Caroline upstairs." He explained.
I nodded, confused.
"Uh-huh. And?" I prompted, dumping my purse on one of the red couches.
"And, Elena thought that he had gone off the bandwagon again because of the last time Stefan started sucking down the blood bags like juice boxes." Damon supplied.
I looked at him blankly.
"There are some gaps you still need to fill in, Damon. I have no idea what you're talking about." I pointed out. "Why would Stefan be falling off any 'bandwagon'?" I asked. Damon looked at me in annoyance before he realized who he was talking to and immediately turned sheepish.
"Oh, right. You weren't here when it happened last." He remembered. "Stefan is what is known in the supernatural world a 'ripper'." I nodded.
"That term means nothing to me. But I'm assuming that it's bad thing and quite possibly dangerous?" I guessed.
Damon smirked.
"You're not just a pretty face." Damon said. I grinned.
"Words I always like to hear." I said. "But you still need to continue filling me in." I insisted. Damon nodded as he fetched his usual glass of bourbon, but I made a disgusted face when he mixed in a little bit of blood from a blood bag. "Charming…" I commented. Damon shrugged, not at all put off by my reaction.
"Stefan has a problem with blood; meaning he doesn't know the term moderation when he drinks it, so he just drinks and drinks and drinks. He can't stop." I nodded, getting it.
"Great. All caught up with the 'ripper' thing. Now explain how Elena is involved in this?" I asked curiously, as I flopped down on the couch.
"Well, apparently. Stefan wants to slowly build up a tolerance to human blood, so he doesn't end up in a similar situation as he was in yesterday when he took longer to heal." Damon looked a little smug during this explanation. "Which I could've told him if he had bothered to even fill me in." I nodded.
"Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda." I said, earning yet another weird look from Damon, who just pretended I hadn't said that.
"So Elena volunteered to help him, by donating a little bit of her blood every time he was hungry so that he could gradually build up his tolerance." Damon explained the long and short of it. "Which I can only say, is about time." He added, sighing and leaning against the chair I had taken a seat on.
"How are Caroline and Liz?" I asked, as I uncomfortably changed the subject. Damon frowned, glancing towards the stairs that led down to where he and Stefan were keeping Liz captive until the vervain had been flushed from her system.
"Liz won't talk with Caroline, which is not really helping Caroline's issues with becoming a vampire against her will." Damon explained.
I winced, sympathetically.
"Is there anything we can do to help them get past this?" I asked, hopefully. Damon shook his head.
"I'm not in Liz's good books either, considering I technically lied to her as well. So anything I have to say about this won't sink in." He explained, looking frustrated. I turned to glance at the door that led to the basement.
"So basically, time is what we all need for everything to settle down." I confirmed, rhetorically. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, you know." I attempted to reassure him, but Damon continued looking unconvinced. There was a knock at the front door, and Damon got up to answer it.
"I need to talk to you." Came a very familiar voice. I blinked in astonishment, what the hell was Jeremy doing here? I eagerly pricked up my ears to listen to their conversation.
"And why do I need to talk to you?" Damon asked, evenly. I rolled my eyes. Damon needed to work on his people skills a bit more.
"Tyler Lockwood has to kill someone to activate his curse. He's not a werewolf yet." Jeremy explained, sounding determined. Okay, so Jeremy Gilbert is aware of the existence of werewolves. How interesting.
"Wow, fascinating. Not enough." Damon deadpanned. There was the sound of somebody holding a door open. Damon must have tried to close the door in Jeremy's face.
"But Mason Lockwood is and he's looking for a moonstone, a special rock connected to the werewolf legend. That's why he's here." Jeremy persisted. I immediately perked up. New information! Finally! I got to my feet, racing for the door to help support Jeremy if Damon attempted to shut him out again. Any information was good information.
"A moonstone?" Damon questioned, and I paused halfway to the foyer to listen.
"And I know where it is." Jeremy confirmed.
"And you're bringing me this why?" Damon sounded confused. I rolled my eyes and skidded into the foyer, surprising both Jeremy and Damon in the process.
"Does he need a reason?" I pointed out. Damon scowled at me, while Jeremy eyed me with curiosity.
"What is she doing here?" He demanded, suspiciously. I immediately jerked my head towards him.
"She has a name." I retorted back at him, annoyed.
"And Grace's presence here isn't of any relevance to this discussion, so back on point." Damon added, a little snappish. Jeremy raised an eyebrow before deciding to follow Damon's suggestion and continued to barter entry inside to continue discussing his werewolf findings.
"Look, I just want to help, okay?" Jeremy insisted. I glanced at Damon who looked at me with a highly skeptical expression on his face.
"What's your sister say about this little discovery?" Damon asked him, casually.
Jeremy was silent.
"Wait. Elena doesn't know?" I asked, a bit surprised. Jeremy looked a little sheepish and slightly defensive that Elena had been mentioned. Clearly, there still wasn't a lot of love lost between brother and sister/cousin.
"Well, Elena doesn't want me getting involved in all this." I smiled at him, sympathetically. Jeremy made another attempt to walk inside the house, but Damon pushes him back out again.
"And like a typical Gilbert, you just can't help yourself." Jeremy grimaced at Damon. "Wow. Your search for life's purpose is as obvious as it is tragic." Damon obviously was not in a particularly forgiving mood at present.
"You going to let me in or not?" Jeremy asked, sounding irritated.
Damon debated this for a few seconds, and I rolled my eyes and turned to walk back inside the house. If Damon wanted to be immature, then I wasn't going to stop him. But eventually, I heard the sounds of two pairs of footsteps following me down the corridor to the parlour. I smiled, Damon was just messing with him; he just needed to choose the moment a little more carefully next time.
"Hey Grace." I glanced up automatically and noticed an unusually shy Caroline travelling back down the staircase that led to the bedrooms upstairs. This disposition really didn't suit her; and I was hoping to see the bubblier and outgoing personality Elena had described to me long ago, sometime in the near future. I smiled at her and walked to the base of the stairs.
"Hey Caroline. How are you holding up?" I asked her, politely. Caroline smiled a little.
"Not great. But I'll get there." She admitted. I nodded, accepting the answer. Then Caroline looked a little nervous. I frowned.
"What's up?" I asked, eying Damon and Jeremy immerging from the foyer and discreetly making their way back to the parlour. Damon had obviously noticed Caroline wanted to talk to me privately, and made a point of hastening Jeremy into the other room. I was grateful, this conversation between Caroline need not be more troublesome than it probably was.
"I just wanted to apologize for the way I treated you yesterday. It wasn't called for." Caroline explained. I gestured dismissively.
"It's understandable. We barely know each other, and I was giving you information you probably didn't want to know at the time. It's me and my bad timing." I reassured her.
"Still, I didn't have to be a bitch about it." She insisted. I smiled.
"You weren't being a bitch. You were expressing a genuine concern about your mum and yourself. It's a natural reaction." I told her. "But what I'm sticking to what I said yesterday: your mum doesn't hate you. She just hates what you've unwittingly become." I explained. Caroline nodded, heading for the basement stairs. "If it helps, I'm offering you my friendship. It's up to you, of course." I said, putting it out there. Caroline looked surprised, but smiled warmly.
"I'd like that. Thanks, you've been a lot of help." She told me. I grinned.
"What can I say? I aim to please." I joked, trying to make her laugh. Caroline didn't, but I wasn't expecting her to.
"I'll see you later." She promised before opening the heavy door to the basement and disappearing down it to see her mother. I turned to head back to the parlour. I walked in just as Alaric walked in carrying a box. We both stopped and looked at each other with surprise.
"Hey Alaric." I greeted him, just as Damon looked up at him with surprise as well.
"Ric!" He exclaimed. Alaric opened his mouth to talk to me when he also noticed Jeremy sitting on one of the red couches, looking a little defiant.
"What are you doing here?" Alaric asked Jeremy.
"I'm helping Damon, and apparently Grace." Jeremy looked between Damon and me, obviously questioning what sort of relationship we had together. "I'm the one who found out about the moonstone." Jeremy replied. Alaric looked at both of us, questioningly; earning a shrug from Damon.
"Does Elena know you're here?" Alaric asked.
"Not exactly." Jeremy replied, looking cornered. I waded in to rescue him.
"Where's the harm letting him help research? Elena isn't his keeper. His aunt Jenna is." I reminded him, earning a triumphant grin from Jeremy that I saw out of the corner of my eye, until I mentioned Jenna. Then he glowered at me a little.
"You're not helping." He told me. I grinned, not fazed by Jeremy's annoyance. Damon shrugged and turned back to Alaric and the box he had carried in with him.
"What you got?" Damon asked as he started digging through the box, taking out a book. Alaric takes a seat.
"This is Isobel's research from Duke." He explained. "Her assistant sent it to me." Damon smirked at the memory of the trigger happy assistant.
"Mmm, Vanessa. The hottie." I rolled my eyes, as I reached in and pulled out other familiar items from the box, and Alaric takes the book out of Damon's hands; also grimacing at Damon's reaction to Vanessa.
"Yeah. Now, do you and Grace remember the old Aztec curse she told us about?" Alaric asked, flipping through the book. Damon immediately looked disinterested.
"Sun and the moon, blah blah blah blah blah." He said. Jeremy comes over, taking an immediate interest.
"An Aztec curse? Cool." He grinned. Alaric nodded.
"Yeah, supposedly vampires and werewolves used to roam freely until a shaman put a curse on them to limit their power." Alaric explained. Thankfully all three of them had their backs to me. I hated that I knew the truth and was unable to reveal that to them. "Since then, werewolves can only turn on a full moon and vampires are weakened by the sun." I reached over and tapped Damon's ring.
"Except for those who have these babies."
Damon grinned, wiggling his fingers. Alaric nodded, and read on.
"According to the legend, the werewolf part of the curse is sealed with the moonstone." This part grabbed my attention. This must've been the part relating to Niklaus' curse; how his mother bound his werewolf side. This made me angry. Alaric showed Jeremy the pictures that related to the fake curse. He frowned in confusion.
"What do you mean sealed?" He asked. Damon snorted.
"It's a witch thing. Whatever seals the curse is usually the key to unsealing the curse." He explained, flippantly.
"Maybe Mason Lockwood believes he can use the moonstone to break the curse." Alaric suggested. Both Damon and I looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"I'd rather not be dubbed naïve or idiotic for believing something that may or may not be true." I stated.
"I second that." Damon agreed. "Who has the stone now?" He asked Jeremy.
"Tyler." Jeremy replied promptly.
"Can you get it?"
"Yeah." Jeremy was practically vibrating with excitement. It must've been one hell of a high to be included in something that your sister/cousin had been shielding him from. Damon smirked at him, condescendingly.
"See, now your life has purpose." He informed the teen. Jeremy looked at him, curiously.
"So, you do believe it?" He asked Damon, who made a face.
"It's the same book that says a werewolf bite kills a vampire. Ignoring it would make me an even bigger idiot." He knocks back his drink. "Let's go." Damon replaces his glass on the table beside the decanter of bourbon, as he walks past Alaric and Jeremy. They quickly follow him, while I trailed behind in the rear. I eyed the old book containing the Hybrid's curse in it with trepidation. "You coming, Grace?" Damon's voice rang out, sounding a little impatient.
I huffed and stomped to the front door, making a face at Damon as I walked passed him.
We all piled into Damon's car and drove towards the Lockwood Mansion to 'retrieve' the moonstone from Tyler. The second we set foot inside, Damon immediately went into 'bodyguard mode' and played 'me and my shadow' with me.
"Not that I don't appreciate the fact that you want me safe, Damon, but I'm a big girl; I have been for nearly 22 years. I can take care of myself." I reminded him. I pretended not to see the curious expression on Jeremy's face as he studied us.
"After what almost happened yesterday, I'm not taking any chances." He told me, his voice indicating that there was no room for arguments. I rolled my eyes.
"I'll make sure I don't do anything stupid." I said, resigned. But if you keep this up, I'll kick your arse! I silently promised him. But I was pleased that he was concerned for me … even if it did get a little annoying after a while. Damon looked at me sternly before nodding. "What are we doing now?" I asked, falling back on him for directions.
"Just keep a look out for Stefan." Damon ordered, brusquely. Jeremy sidled up to me, smirking.
"You're really going to take that from him?" He asked, indicating Damon's overprotective behaviour.
I shrugged.
"I think I've been unceremoniously adopted by Damon. I almost got killed yesterday, and he's decided that I'm a delicate little flower that needs protection." I replied. Jeremy sniggered.
"Sucks to be you." He teased. I made a face at him.
"Pot. Kettle. Black." I reminded him, causing the smirk to drop from Jeremy's face. "Sorry, that was a low blow." I said.
"No, I walked right into that one." He conceded. I giggled. Damon wasn't paying attention to us, but apparently found what he was looking for.
"C'mon, Grace. Little Gilbert." He said (earning a scowl from Jeremy), before walking towards what he had found. It turned out to be Elena sorting through some masks, and looking towards something just beyond her with concern. I glanced up a fraction and noticed Stefan and Bonnie, who were talking in muted, frantic voices.
"Wonder what they're talking about." I commented, grabbing Jeremy's attention.
"I dunno, but I bet it's pissing off Elena not knowing what's going on." He had a triumphant smirk on his face that made me a little worried.
Maybe Elena shouldn't have kept her brother out of the loop. He clearly didn't take too lightly to being left out. But whatever Stefan and Bonnie were talking about, it was obviously something that either Elena wasn't supposed to know about, or both Stefan and Bonnie didn't realise that Elena was looking directly at them. Damon got to Elena first. She glanced up at him in surprise.
"Damon, what are you doing here?" She asked him. Damon barely looked her in the eyes. Guess he was still holding onto that grudge.
"Looking for my baby bro." Then he looked down at her and finally made eye contact. "Speaking of, would you tell yours to stop following me around?" Damon requested. Elena looked shocked at this. As Jeremy and I approached, Damon glanced up at us and looked me in the eye; warning me about my promise.
"What's going on?" Elena wanted to know. Damon jerked his finger at Jeremy and me before walking away.
"Ask eager beaver." Damon yelled over his shoulder. Elena turns to Jeremy for an explanation.
He groaned.
"Jeremy, what is he making you do?" Elena interrogated Jeremy. I stiffened at the same time as Jeremy did.
"He's not making me do anything." Jeremy argued, defensively. "Damon and I…"
"Uh, no. No way. No, no, no, no." Elena immediately interrupted, making Jeremy bristle. "There is no "Damon and you". There's Damon and whoever Damon is using, and those people, they end up dead." This time I bristled. "Whatever is going on Jeremy, I want you to stay out of it." Elena practically ordered him. This time I had to step in. Not only in my defense, but also Damon's and Jeremy's.
"So according to you, Elena, I'm being used by Damon? Just so I am I hearing you correctly?" I inquired, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I stepped up from behind Jeremy. I watch Elena's eyes widen when she realised what she had said, and who exactly had been hanging around Damon lately.
Namely, me.
"No, Grace! I didn't mean…" But I interrupted her mid-sentence.
"No, no, no, no. I know exactly what you mean. I'd just like to thank you for the warning." I said curtly, glaring at Elena with contempt before walking off in the direction Damon took. I was beginning to see what Damon meant by Elena being manipulative. I caught up with Damon who had located Stefan, but I didn't immediately join in on the conversation, which didn't exactly look very harmonious from my viewpoint.
"Katherine's with Mason Lockwood?" Damon sounded shocked and appalled. I scoffed. It figures Katherine would be involved in this somehow.
Stefan looked pained.
"We missed it." He confessed. "He got into town right after she did. It makes perfect sense." Stefan insisted. Damon apparently agreed with what Stefan said, but it didn't make him sound any less disgusted.
"I know, but Mason Lockwood?!" Damon whined. "Werewolf thing aside, the guy is a surfer. She's got to be using him. She has to be." He insisted. I decided to join the conversation.
"Would not be surprised." I muttered, darkly. Damon looked at me with surprise; but I think it was probably because of how angry I sounded.
"What's wrong with you?" Damon wanted to know.
"Don't ask. It doesn't matter." I brushed aside the question. Damon raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder towards where Elena and Jeremy were. Except that Jeremy must've walked away between what I had to say and walking over here, because Elena was standing by herself again; looking put out.
"Okay then, back to the topic. Katherine's gotta be using Mason Lockwood." Damon reiterated. Stefan frowned at the suggestion.
"Using him for what?" He asked. I fielded the question.
"Mason Lockwood is looking for a moonstone that apparently can break the full moon werewolf curse." Niklaus' curse… I silently corrected. "I'd bet good money that Katherine wants it too for another reason entirely." I put it out there. Probably as a bargaining chip against Niklaus…
"Why?" Stefan asked.
"No idea. That's the beauty of Katherine; she's always up to something." Damon stated, agreeing and looking at me with concern. Stefan nodded.
"So how are we gonna find this moonstone?" Stefan mused. I was suddenly pleased that Damon and I were one step ahead of both Stefan and Elena. This time it was Jeremy's turn to stake his claim in the supernatural world.
"Jeremy is getting it from Tyler." Damon answered. Predictably, Stefan threw Damon a disgusted look.
"Why would you involve Jeremy?" Stefan demanded and slaps Damon on the arm as he walks off.
I saw red.
"Hey! Stefan!" He stops and turns to look at me with surprised eyes. Even Damon seemed taken aback by my furious tone. I ignored him, focusing on Stefan. "Maybe you and perhaps even Elena should get your facts straight before you start accusing people with your controlling, 'holier-than-thou' attitudes." I spat, before turning and storming off.
Damon caught up with me and gently grabbed me by the arm, stopping me in my tracks.
"Woah, woah. What the fuck's going on?" He demanded, urgently. "Not that I didn't enjoy seeing Stefan get a verbal backlash, but you haven't gotten that angry before." Damon pointed out. I turned and glared at Damon's shoulder, refusing to look him in the eyes.
"Elena had the absolute cheek to forbid Jeremy from getting involved with our werewolf investigation. Claiming that anybody who associates with you … no wait, sorry, gets used by you in your schemes, gets killed." Damon's eyes darkened.
"She said that huh?" His voice was stony. I nodded.
"To which I challenged her by asking if she believed that you were using me?" I added. "She tried to justify what she said. But I had reached my quota for bullshit at that point, and just shut her down and walked away." I clarified. "Stefan chastising you just lit the fuse." I confessed. "I'm sorry about that." I apologized.
"No, no. Don't apologise." Damon insisted, looking thoughtful. He grabbed my hand and pulled me along. "Come on, we're gonna observe Jeremy gathering information from Tyler." I nodded. We walked over to where we could see Tyler and a sweet looking blonde boy who looked like a quarterback, hanging lanterns.
I think Elena once told me his name was Matt.
"I forgot to ask, do you know what they're setting up for?" I asked, remembering the masks Elena had been sorting through, and at all the lanterns that were being put up. Damon was focused on the two boys.
"Don't know, don't really care." He responded, then let out a low whistle and a wince. "Whoa, that's harsh." I looked at him in surprise.
"What?" I asked, curious.
"Lil' Lockwood just called Caroline an insecure, neurotic, bitchy little twit." Damon replied, frowning. "Somebody's gotta teach that punk some manners." He stated, looking serious. I smiled. This was the Damon I enjoyed seeing: the sweet, caring, compassionate and charming (for the right reasons) man. Too bad he had be buried deep inside in public. That bitch Katherine really did a number on him.
I spotted Jeremy making his move.
"Oh, there's Jeremy." I exclaimed. Damon and I watched as Jeremy sauntered over to Tyler and engaged him in conversation. I looked to Damon for the transcript. "What are they saying?" I asked him. Damon focused on them both, listening.
"Jeremy is telling Tyler he did some more research about the moonstone. Tyler had shown the stone to him." Damon translated.
"Why did he have the moonstone?" I wondered. Damon shrugged, then frowned again. "What?" I asked.
"Jeremy told him the connection between the stone and the 'Sun and Moon curse' and asked Tyler if he could have the stone." Damon told me. I frowned, not understanding why Damon would be frowning about that.
"But that's a good thing. What's with the frown?" I questioned him.
"Tyler gave the moonstone to Mason." My face fell. "Son-of-a-bitch!" Damon swore. He was pissed and I didn't blame him. Mason was the worst person to have the moonstone. We'd probably never see it again. I glanced at Damon, and realised he was looking at somebody. I turned and saw that person was Stefan. But instead of looking pissed off like his brother; Stefan merely shrugged. I made a face. Seriously? How could he be so blasé about this? "Come on, Grace." Damon said, leading me away from the scene.
I followed Damon and Stefan as they continued on their investigation. Apparently, the brothers decided to set aside their differences and work together to get what they wanted. In this case, to track down Bonnie. It was clear that there would be no love lost between Bonnie and I, the second she clapped eyes on me when we found her; which meant that Elena had obviously told Bonnie that I had called her out on her bullshit. Currently, Damon was 'leading' Bonnie to wherever we were going, which was somewhere on the Lockwood ground. I walked behind them, with Stefan trailing along behind us; texting somebody.
Elena most likely.
"Okay. This is as far as I go." Bonnie announced, breaking Damon's hold on her arm. Damon nodded in agreement.
"Okay." He replied. Bonnie folded her arms across her chest.
"What do you want?" Bonnie asked.
"A favor." Damon replied, succinctly. Bonnie instantly shut down.
"Like that's gonna happen." Bonnie said, flatly. Damon groaned.
"So predictable." He muttered underneath his breath. Bonnie turned to walk away, when I stepped into her path. I was getting fed up with petulant teenagers. Bonnie glared at me, and I just gave her a look.
"Can we put aside the drama for the moment? This happens to be a serious problem we are trying to solve." I explained, as calmly as I could. Bonnie remained stubbornly unmoved. Damon sighed before turning and indicating towards Stefan.
"That's why we brought him." Damon told Bonnie, whose glare softens a little. Stefan stepped forward to help.
"I know how you feel about helping us out, but since you're the one that linked Mason with Katherine—" Say what? Damon and I exchanged disbelieving glances with each other, then at Stefan. "—we finally have an opportunity to get an upper hand on both of them. So, just hear us out." Stefan asked, patiently.
"Pretty please?" Damon added, a little mockingly. I threw him an unamused look, which he ignored. Bonnie was silent for a few minutes before sighing and nodding.
"I'm listening." She relented. Just then Stefan's phone began to ring. He sighed impatiently, and looked up apologetically.
"I have to fill Elena in on what's going on." He told us. I rolled my eyes. Of course you do… I thought, dryly. Stefan eyes me warily before he glanced over at Damon. "Can you play nice, please?" He asked. Damon gave an exaggerated sigh.
"I guess." He agreed. Stefan walks aside and answers his phone. Damon gets straight to the point.
"All you have to do is touch Mason Lockwood again to see if he gave Katherine the moonstone." Damon instructed. Bonnie frowned at the request.
"My visions don't work like that. I don't get to ask questions." Bonnie explained.
"That's annoying." I commented. Damon shook his head.
"Try 'inconvenient'." Damon corrected me, but then suddenly looked curious. Something that caused Bonnie to frown suspiciously at him. "But I could like to ask about that witchy juju thing you do with me. You know, the fun one where my brain bursts into flames? What is that?" He demanded.
Bonnie smiles sweetly at him. It makes Damon frown immediately.
"That's me giving you an aneurysm." She replied, simply. "Your blood vessels go pop, but you heal quickly; so I do it over and over again." Bonnie seemed to be taking great delight in describing how she tortured him that time back in the alley, the night of the school carnival.
"And you think that's okay?" I demanded, dubiously. But Damon, much to my dismay, looked intrigued.
"Is it vampire specific?" He asked, and I frowned wondering where he was going with this. Bonnie shook her head.
"It'd work on anyone with a supernatural healing ability." Bonnie confirmed. My face lit up when I understood where Damon was heading with this.
"Good. Good, good." Damon looked pleased. I frowned when I realised his intentions. So did Bonnie.
"Uh, Damon. Not happening. There must be a better method to get Mason to talk without giving him an aneurysm." I protested. Bonnie seemed to agree.
"I'm not gonna help you hurt him." Bonnie stated. Damon fixed me with a 'humour me' look as he explained to Bonnie the 'methods to his madness'.
"Mason Lockwood is a werewolf. Katherine is evil. They're the bad guys." Bonnie scowled at him. "Really? You're gonna play morality police with me right now?" I sighed, knowing that was exactly what Bonnie was intending on doing, and normally I'd hop on the bandwagon with her, but Mason was playing dirty by involving Liz – which could still ruin her relationship with Caroline – and attempting to poison Damon with tainted Lemonade.
Mason's time was up.
"Let us persuade you another way. If you don't help us, they're going to go after Elena and quite possibly kill her." I tried to appeal to her conscience.
"Exactly." Damon agreed. "So you, witch, are gonna get over yourself and help us." Damon stated, firmly. Stefan walked back over to us.
"I believe he meant to phrase that as a question with a 'please' on the end." Stefan told Bonnie, scowling at his brother who gave both him and Bonnie a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Yeah, absolutely." Damon lied.
Using Elena's pending demise as persuasion turned out to be the little nudge Bonnie needed to help us. She reluctantly agreed to get as much as she could from Mason's head, while Damon attempted to incapacitate him for further interrogation at the Boarding House. Damon, Stefan and I waited in some nearby bushes, waiting for Bonnie to complete her part of 'Operation: Jump Mason'. As predicted, Mason appeared on cue just as Bonnie pretended that she was struggling with a heavy load.
"Hey, can you move your van? I'm blocked in." Mason asked Bonnie. Then he noticed that she was struggling to get a table out of the car. Mason sighed and got out of his car to assist her.
"All the guys bailed." Bonnie said, faking an irritated face. "Something about draft picks. I don't know. I don't speak that language." Mason wondered over to her side.
"Here let me give you a hand." He offered. Bonnie nodded gratefully and took a step aside to let him past. Mason grabs the table and starts to pull it out. Bonnie looks around for anybody watching before focusing on Mason. She uses her aneurysm spell on him, causing Mason to grab his head and yell out in pain.
He falls to his knees.
"Sorry." Bonnie says regretfully, as Damon and Stefan burst from the bush and surround Mason. Damon knees him in the face, and Mason drops to the ground unconscious. I came over to stand next to Bonnie as I watched Damon open the passenger door and signals for me to get in the front and Bonnie into the back.
"That was easy." I mused, as Bonnie and I watched Stefan retrieve Mason's keys from his pockets and tosses them to his brother. They were both like a well-oiled machine. Bonnie rolls her eyes and gets into the back while I hurry into the front seat.
Both Damon and Stefan pick up Mason and stick him the trunk of the jeep, before Damon gets in and drives off with Bonnie and me. A short time later, we arrive back at the Boarding House. Damon bursts into the house, carrying Mason over his shoulder and depositing him into a chair, as Bonnie and I wrestle Mason's heavy duffel bag onto another one.
"What does he carry in here anyway? Bricks?" I commented. Bonnie turned towards Damon.
"Here's his bag. As requested." She said. Damon nodded.
"Alright. Grab that corner." He indicates to the Persian rug. Bonnie frowns but follows his request.
"Why are we doing this?" Both she and Damon flip back the rug out of the way.
"Because I don't want to stain the carpet." Damon replies, like it was obvious. Bonnie shudders with disgust, as I came over to help her.
"I knew you were going to say something like that." She responds.
"Don't judge." I suggested. Damon instructed the both of us to spread out a blanket over the rug as he walked over to inspect Mason's bag. Bonnie glances nervously over at Mason.
"He's not gonna be out much longer." She reminds us, as Damon pulls out some large, heavy looking chains from the bag. My eyes widened. So that was what was making that bag so bloody heavy. Damon seemed to be thinking along the same lines as I was.
"Woah, this guy is used to be tied up." Damon observed.
I smirked.
"If one didn't know better, I'd say he had a kinky fetish." I joked, trying to lighten the mood. Both Bonnie and I suspected that Damon was going to be torturing Mason into spilling the beans about the whereabouts of that stupid moonstone. However, Bonnie decided to cut to the chase. She takes Mason's head into both her hands. Damon stops what he is doing and observes her.
"What are you doing?" He demanded. Bonnie gave him a look.
"You're looking for a moonstone. I'm trying to help you find it." Bonnie replied, closing her eyes and using her premonition powers to search for clues. Damon brightened a little.
"Oh, good, yeah." He agreed. "Find out if he gave it to Katherine, and find out where she is." He requested.
"Could you also find out what they're gonna do once they get it?" I added. I help Damon tie Mason down into the chair as Bonnie closed her eyes and concentrated on the images revolving through her head the second she touched Mason's head.
It was interesting observing Bonnie in action; all her facial expressions and the way she sometimes twitched, flinched or jerked when she reacted to something she saw. But it also made me wonder if these powers of hers could also be a massive burden. Eventually, Bonnie started giving us the information.
"Somewhere small. Dark." A pause. "There's water." Bonnie relayed. Damon and I exchanged glances.
"Like a sewer?" Damon guessed.
"Can you be more specific?" I asked. Bonnie's frown deepened as she concentrated on the images she was sifting through in Mason's head.
"A well? That can't be right." Then the frown disappeared, as Bonnie relaxed; sincere in her findings. "Yeah. It's a well." She confirmed confidently.
"Why would it be in a well?" I asked out loud to nobody in particular. Bonnie opened her eyes and lowered her hands from Mason's skull. She shrugged at my question.
"I told you, I only get what I can see." She reminded us. Mason suddenly grunted and with lightning fast reflexes, grabs Bonnie by the wrist. She jumped out of shock and Damon calmly pulls off Mason's hand, which Bonnie saw as her cue to leave; clearly uncomfortable with this entire situation. "That's it. That's all I got." Bonnie stated, firmly. I didn't entirely blame her for being a little shut off because of all the weirdness currently in our lives. But we needed all the information we could get to solve the werewolf mystery that seemed to be revolving around the Lockwood Family. She was kinda essential, unfortunately.
I followed her to the door.
"Thanks for your help, Bonnie. I know you don't agree with what Damon is doing, but every little bit helps at the moment." I told her, smiling at her gratefully. Bonnie didn't smile back, but at least her eyes weren't hard and unforgiving anymore. I could definitely see disapproval, but it wasn't fully concentrated. Bonnie clearly could be reasoned with if you used the right words.
"Hey, judgey!" Bonnie let out a frustrated sigh and turned towards Damon, who smiled a little at her. "Thank you." He said sincerely. Bonnie nodded once, and walked out; leaving Damon and I with a securely trussed up Mason. I went to walk back over to them, but Damon stopped me. "Uh, uh. You better go too, Grace. This could get dangerous, and not to mention probably a little messy too." He said. I frowned at him and folded my arms across my chest.
"What if I refuse?" I challenged him. Damon straightened up and walked over to me, getting into my face with a no-nonsense glare.
"This isn't a game, Grace. I'm serious, this will get dangerous." He insisted. "I don't want to, but I will knock you out if I have to. Now stop being stubborn and just do what I ask." Damon requested. I wanted to argue, claiming that I needed to be there to help with the interrogation. But at the same time, Damon did have a point: he was a vampire, Mason was a werewolf. I was just a vulnerable human with medium abilities. I would be the equivalent of a squeaky toy for Mason should he somehow escape his confines. So I nodded.
"Okay. But you let me know what you find out." I said, looking at him with warning.
Damon nodded curtly.
I turned and followed Bonnie, almost bumping into Caroline along the way.
"Hey Grace!" She greeted me, smiling a little more warmly than the last time I saw her. She glanced up, noticing Bonnie. "Hey!" Bonnie pauses mid-step and turns to look at both of us. Caroline jogs out to Bonnie, while I follow her a little more sedately. Bonnie frowned at me, looking a little confused.
"Grace? Aren't you staying here to help Damon interrogate Mason?" I shook my head.
"Nope. Damon sent me home. He says it's too dangerous for me to be there while he's getting the information from Mason." I filled in the blanks.
Bonnie looked surprised.
"Seriously?" She sounded dubious. I nodded, poker-faced.
"I don't tend to lie, unless the situation warrants it." I reassured her. To be honest, it was a little bit insulting for Bonnie to think that Damon – who is quite obviously trying to become a better man – would intentionally put somebody in harm's way, just so he could gather up new information. He's not a complete tool. Bonnie shakes her head and turns towards Caroline.
"How's your mom? Elena filled me in on everything." She told her, ignoring when I bristled slightly at the mention of Elena. Caroline's smile brightened even further.
"I'm gonna take her home tonight." Caroline reported back, excitedly. Bonnie nodded, then hesitated.
"Caroline… uh… never mind. I've got to go." Bonnie turns to leave again. But Caroline intercepts her.
"Did you guys find the moonstone thing?" She asks us both. We shook our heads.
"Not yet." I replied, feeling frustrated as I pulled out my phone to check the time. Bonnie suddenly looked determined. Like she wanted to do something.
"Hey, do you remember that old well where we used to play when we were kids?" Bonnie asked Caroline. The blonde nodded, looking a little confused.
"Yeah?"
"It's in the woods. Do you remember where?" Bonnie asked her, urgently. Caroline nodded.
"It's on the edge of the old Lockwood property. Why?" She asked. Bonnie immediately turned and started to text somebody, leaving me to explain everything to Caroline.
"We think that's where Mason is keeping the moonstone." I told her. Bonnie puts her phone away and starts walking.
"I got to go." I frowned and jogged after her.
"Uh, I'm coming with you. If it's in a well, you're probably going to need some help." I stated, challenging Bonnie to argue. She didn't, surprisingly. Caroline trotted after us.
"Well, I can come with you." Caroline volunteered, looking hopeful. I turned and grinned.
"Sure, the more the merrier." I told her, just as Bonnie went to decline the offer. I elbowed her in the ribs gently and Bonnie sighed.
"Sure." Bonnie replied. Caroline smiles. I headed straight for my car.
"I'll drive. You give directions." I told the girls, who pile into my car, Caroline shotgun.
A/N: Please review xx