Kathrine? The name confuses him as he thought the name of the current doppelgänger was Elena. With a mental shrug he gives the generic blonde a once over before moving his gaze to the handsome blue eyed creature studying the curious magic pulsing off him.
It's strange, the magic radiating off the creature that is.
The wolves he met before his… slumber, had a similar feeling. Though instead of a soul of a beast he feels a multitude of magic from the mundane, life's blood is what he senses flowing through the creature, but it's not the creature's essence? He's vacant himself, it's almost like death.
'how curious'
Blinking at the duo, he lets a benign smile appear as the blonde steps through the door at his silent insistence the blonde gave him a wide berth as he heads towards Thurma. Ignoring the blonde he keeps his gaze on the unknown entity
The quiet murmur that drifts from his ears as the man asks if Katherine had done anything to her.
Again he wonders who this Katherine is?
He'll look through the blonde's mind when he gets the chance. He has to deal with the mysterious creature.
He turns his head back towards the creature, hearing
"So, are you gonna let your pet invite me in or will we just have to kill her?"Giving the backette an inquiring look as the creature seems to be smug, his blue eyes opening wide in mock innocence.
A startled gasp makes him twist his head to see the blonde holding an L shaped metal object to the elder woman's head. The frightened eyes of hers burning into him. she practically reeks of confused fear.
"What do you mean by inviting you in?" Natanail asks not understanding the significance of the weapon, he also doesn't want to pull a charade of a person he doesn't know, or knew existed.
The smug creature's face shifts into irritation as blue eyes clash with genuinely confused brown ones.
The creature's whole demeanor changes at seeing the confusion before letting out a mocking laugh saying "How desperate are you for that little stone? that you've made such a pathetic attempt? I mean, seriously using a grandma to lure us with a tale of a lost relative found in the woods"
Natanail's brow twitches at the mockery, especially since misplaced. Though he does wonder what stone he is talking about?
"Nathaniel, is this some prank you youngins are pulling for Halloween this isn't funny." Thurma's soft voice draws everyone's gaze to her as she puts on a false vibrato. Seeing her concealed frightened gaze brings him back.
He really needs to stop drifting off especially since there's seemingly danger, but he's been in a dreamlike state for over a millennia.
Can you blame him?
"Nathaniel, Really? Have you gotten desperate for the moonstone that you'll pretend to be a guy now?"
The snarky voice of the creature makes him itch to boil his insides. He's not sure how much more of this petty mockery he will be able to handle.
'Wait, did the creature say Moonstone?'
He gives the walking pile of lifeblood a glance before walking towards the blonde holding the first person since he's awoken to show him kindness, despite the manipulation he has done to her.
He ignores the threatening energy flowing from the creature as he turns away feeling content that said being can't do anything.
The fact that they're doing so much to enter means the magic he felt enchanting the doorway when the creature neared is the reason.
The blonde tenses as Natanail walks towards him, his sight which he enchanted as he felt the danger near catches the tiny piece of metal in the center of the loop of the weapon twitching against the blondes finger.
Not wanting to find out what happens should he pull it, Natanail quickly flicks his wrist towards the man causing the metal to spring out of his hands, before flying into his outstretched fingers while simultaneously freezing the man in place.
Ignoring the confused commotion coming from the entrance where the creature is, he gently grasps the cool metal between his palms with a firm hold, trusting that the slow drain of his magic shouldn't be a problem to uphold long enough for him to defend himself should he need to, after he finishes scrying through the object.
The drain of acquiring information from an inanimate object has always been daunting on him, especially since it's not his forte nor is he a psychic, but the influx of information he receives as he skims through the object is worth it.
The object, or gun as he now knows has seen so much in the supernatural world. He might keep it for the information the little thing has alone. Sadly he can't search through all it's seen at the moment with the threat and limited supply he has left he ends the scrying. He could have searched the man's mind but an object records more than a single mind.
The life of the gun he just grazed through is an informative one.
He finally knows who Katherine is, or should he say, Katerina Petrova, it seems his parents had another child, obviously he knows the current Doppelgänger is a part of that line but to hear his former name on another is really surprising.
'It has been over 1,000 years. I should be grateful I have family still extant' Turning towards the blonde he meets the man's frightened gaze.
The man, John Gilbert, the owner of the weapons in his hands has a novel's worth of knowledge about a lot of things a normal man shouldn't know. He's quite surprised to have seen him on speaking terms with the very woman they are hunting.
He wishes to meet his great, great, great… nieces.
Family has always been important to him, Cilo will always have a special place in his heart regardless of the predicament she has forced upon him. The two personal guards of hers who indulged in his wish to learn how to fight.
They sure beat him into a warrior of their standards, though he still relied upon his craft more than anything, his mastery over his siphoning is terrifying, in Cilo's words.
'Or it was' as the drain he feels is more than he is used to but the well of power he has is so vast it's hardly a dent. He's not sure how it's working. it's strange for him to have to compensate for the influx of a constant flow of replenishment.
He wonders if his fellow practitioners felt as bloated, though thinking about it it probably wouldn't feel any different than him having to constantly, or formerly constantly having to measure his usage to the miniscule amount.
It's gonna take him some time to get used to the constant flow.
"What the fuck? Since when can you do that Kathrine!" The Vampires yelling snaps him out of his musings.
He really should start calling the thing by its name, but he gets a certain amount of amusement knowing it will irritate the prideful Damon.
He has seen enough both with the flashes from the gun, and his own recent experience to know this vampire, 'what a weird name for them', will get irked.
Pulling his gaze away from the scared blonde he responds to the obnoxious being
"Listen creature, I don't have the patience for dealing with you at this early in the morning, you two should get blatant hints by now.."
"I'm not this Kathrine you speak of." He finishes
Walking up to the old woman he gently cradles her hand in his he feels sorrow enter his soul, he didn't notice in the commotion but now that he can sense more clearly, her life force is wavering.
The old woman's heart not liking the situation, he crouches getting eye level with her, before his eye catches a darkness pooling on her side.
"Not Katherine? Then who the hell can you possibly be? There is only one other Doppelgänger besides Elena, and you expect me to believe you're another?"
He ignores the shouting of the vampire as he turns his gaze to the blonde, his eyes keen on the blade sticking out of his pocket having been used in the surprise of the commotion to take out the only thing keeping the vampire from entering. He can feel the magic on the door wavering as the woman's heart starts to slow.
Standing up he carefully sets his hand on the unconscious woman seeing throughout her core to search for the magic tethering the place to her, before realizing he can't sever it.
Seeing as there is nothing he can do he quickly struts to the blonde not caring for the fear present in his gaze just as he reaches the man he senses the woman's heart stop at the same time the vampire moves, quickly putting the blonde in a choke hold he puts him between the vampire and himself.
The vampire lets out a laugh "Really a hostage, luckily for me this particular hostage is expendable"
Before he can register the vampire's words he feels a sharp pain piercing his abdomen looking down he sees the vampire plunged a broken edge of wood into the blonde and him.
He quickly prioritizes his magic towards his wound, astonished to find it answered so readily, it seems his magic is wanting to keep him alive?
Feeling the weight of the blonde increase brings him back out of his musings, he needs to stop drifting off especially in a situation like this.
Pushing the blonde off of him he waved his hand while snapping the vampire's neck, blasting the man's body for good measure not knowing how long the temporary death will last.
The information he gained from the gun was generic as he hasn't had time to fully acquaint himself with his newfound boost.
He gently grasped the broken table leg, 'really?' He does not believe he has a table leg sticking out of him, as he pulls the leg out he holds back a scream.
He doesn't know how he's still alive. While witches can heal wounds it's nowhere near this capability.
He carefully sits down on the chair next to the corpse of the woman for a second as he gathers himself, while letting the magic pulse throughout his body to heal. He hopes he'll have enough left to secure the vampire before it wakes.
—-
He jerks his head as the influx of magic pulses throughout the air, he must have dosed off for a second.
Quickly standing forgetting that he had a wound as the pain was gone. He finds the spike to be the blonde man.
'Interesting'
Careful to what could come he curiously observes the man as the magic courses throughout his body, specifically the ring on his finger..
'What a cute little object' the magic pulsing off of it reminds him of Cilo. similar to the creations made by her. He wonders if her ancestors profited off of her creation. He hopes to meet one of her ancestors despite his confusion with her; he still respects her.
He'll hopefully be able to contact her through one of her relatives, and get an explanation.
The blonde's finger twitches seeing that he steps back as the man startles awake.
The blue eyes of his frantically darting.
"Elena?"
The man's obviously disoriented from the ring's resurrection, seems the creator didn't perfect his teacher's spell after all, as the lingering sense of malice clings to the blonde.
"Again not a girl, it's Natanail, not Nathaniel, Natanail," clearly not liking his name being butchered with such a plebeian sounding name.
"Ah yes… is he?" The blonde asks in a daze, seeming to not know what to do with the situation.
"Aren't you a, what do they call them? Vampire hunter? Can you not tell?" he responds feeling petty.
Getting a glower in return.
"Do you know how long they stay dead?" He asked the impudent man.
"…it depends on how well fed they are though the shortest is an hour." John speaks out after a second
Natanail doesn't mind the absent minded answering, seeing that the blonde is docile he stands, trusting his gut as he holds his hand out.
The man stares at his hand before clasping it, something in him pulling towards the boy, who looks so much like his daughter. His eyes widened as he felt a jolt pulse throughout his body, the flow of euphoria purging him of the negative after effects from the rings, not that he knows this.
The connection allows Natanail to glimpse into the man's feelings.
Said man hasn't felt this clarity sense since his brother introduced him to the supernatural.
Taking pity on the man who died so many times and somehow managed to hold back the entity that could have wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting.
"You're a good man, Mr. Gilbert, your daughter should be grateful to have a father love her as much as you have, to allow your own brother to raise your child that's integrity, knowing the fact that you couldn't have raised her with the life you lead, sacrificing a normal life so your brother could have a semblance of normalcy."
"You are the father to my niece, no matter how many times you are removed."
The man's face is stunned.
"Family means a lot to me, if you'll allow it I'll help you protect your daughter but only if you don't stop me from also protecting Kathrine" at that John opens his mouth, but Natanail continues.
"I don't care how evil your people see her, to me she is just my niece"
"That's a great speech and all but how can we trust you not to choose one over the other? What would you do, would you interfere should Kathrine attempt to kill your other Niece. Will you be able to choose one?" The voice of the Vampire makes him jolt as he wasn't expecting the man to be up so soon.
Pulling away from his connection to John he spins towards the threat, knowing the blonde is too euphoric to be of any danger.
He meets challenging blue eyes, as the vampire stands before him, he marvels at the species in front of him, while he's heard of immortality, obviously from his lineage, but to actually see it. He had been skeptical despite the visual proof from the gun.
The look in the vampire's eyes morph into a smug look as the edge of his lip curls up making him realize how long he's been gazing, more so at the magic in the Vampire, but the cocky man in front of him seems to think otherwise.
"Finally noticed my devilishly good looks," Damon says, spreading his arms out like a king would grace his people, though his mocking wide eyes ruin the image.
"I've seen better" he says purely just to watch the man's face scrunch up as if the possibility is incomprehensible, despite the situation he feels a fondness seep out his walls.
He can say he has a weakness for confidence, and humor.
He hopes that the situation doesn't escalate into enemy territory,
He doesn't know, doest trust himself to be able to do much more at this moment, he really shouldn't have let his good will guide him, he didn't realize until it happened that he was purifying the blonde.
It was like he was being led by an indescribable force, nothing like Lady Qetsiyah, who he remembers vague encounters during his dream-like state, but something just, if not more powerful, almost instinctual.
Pulling away from his thoughts, seeing as it's not the best time, he turns his attention back to the man who seems to be more civil after waking from the temporary death. Well the man hasn't attacked him while he was lost in thought, so he finds that a plus.
"What you asked before, should Katherine try and kill Elena, that's simple, I won't let it happen."
The man gives him a deadpan stare "That's it?"
"What else do you want me to do?"
"Do you hear yourself? No plan, just I won't let it happen?" The disbelief is astounding.
"how will you exactly stop her? And is this how Sefan feels? The man mutters the last part but Natanail was able to catch it.
"Well, there's multiple things I could do, for instance find out why she's so persistent on getting Elena?"
"We know why, her only goal is to cause chaos and ruin my brother and I's life"
Giving the borderline condescending man a look he can't help but wonder what kind of life this man has to think everything revolves around him.
"No, no one goes to this much trouble just to destroy their former lovers life, unless there's something they get out of it"
"Yeah, our misery" Damon growls out, clearly not willing to see that nothing it black and white.
The first thing his teacher taught him was, balance is accepting that the world is filled with different shades, and that there was no black and white, or even grey, no the world was filled with an abundance of color, and no one is simply doing something for a single reason.
But knows his words wouldn't reach the man's ears.
"I'll be quite frank with you Vampire, I don't care how evil she is to you, until I get my own judgment on either of the other two Doppelgängers, I won't let others cloud my view, so why don't we shelf this conversation, and you can start the first part of protecting Miss. Elena by giving me the rundown of the pieces I couldn't receive from blondies gun"
"What do you mean, from his gun?"
'Out of all that he ask that'