I spent the whole night going through Emily's Grimoire, fighting a major headache and nausea and doing small bathroom and snack breaks every three hours. I considered meditating to restore my powers a few times, but in times like this, when my magic was utterly spent, it was better to let it refill by itself, so I decided that there was still enough time and let it be.
I had to read Emily's "cookbook" as Damon would call it, from the beginning to the end to make sure that I didn't miss anything important and after I was done, I came to a few very important conclusions.
First conclusion. Emily was really smart and powerful in her own right.
Conclusion number two. While being just a maid she managed to play everyone around her like a good strategist. Even while being indebted to Kathrine she managed to do everything she could to help humans and enchanted the tools that led to the infamous vampire hunt. The Gilbert Watch, The Gilbert Device and The Gilbert Rings, none of them were created by Jonathan Gilbert as everyone thought, in fact, everything was enchanted by her. I don't know why she chose him as a tool in her plans to help Mystic Falls' citizens. Maybe because he was a little bonkers and truly believed that he was a great scientist and she just made his ideas become real and workable. Who knows?
And third. She was smart, but not smart enough to calculate the fallout of her actions. With all that help she was still accused of witchcraft and burnt alive. Some of her spells were ingenious indeed, but not in a long run as it could be seen in her notes concerning the ritual she used to seal the vampires under the church. For some reason she didn't consider that the magic would wear off with time and will be needed to be recharged when the time came, she hadn't even left any pointers for her descendants to recharge the seal when the comet returned a century and a half later. She did nothing.
Which led us to our current problem. But that wasn't important really, as I finally managed to figure out a safe way to break the seal, or to be more precise, to reverse engineer the ritual.
I put the book aside with a thought of returning it to Bonnie later, and stretched on my bed, where I was sitting in a lotus position all this time. The room was lit with... sunlight, I realized, after throwing a quick glance towards the window and I had an hour left before school started.
I took a quick shower (well it took me almost half an hour honestly, the nausea was driving me crazy) and got dressed while my mind kept going back to a mystery named Alaric Saltzman. With the problem of the Grimoire finally out of the way, my mind found another thing to "chew on". The Gilbert ring that he was wearing confused and intrigued me at first, but I was so busy with everything that was going on that I let myself bury that little mystery in the back of my mind and now it all started coming back.
I wondered why he had it in the first place. Did my father give it to him? Because I was pretty sure that uncle John had his ring on last time he visited, so it must be my father's ring. But dad was a hunter and maybe he encountered Mr. Saltzman and shared some tricks with him or something. And not only tricks if he ended up giving him our family ring. But the important question was how many times he died already wearing that ring.
With all these thoughts running through my head I went downstairs and took out a bag of cereal with a bottle of milk and turned on the coffee machine, not feeling like doing anything else, and went to wake up my siblings.
I left Jenna alone and went straight to Jeremy's room only to find him coming out of his bathroom already dressed up and ready to go. I nodded at him and went to wake Elena up but found her room empty.
"She didn't sleep at home last night?" I asked out loud and frowned looking at her untouched bed.
"I dunno, when I went to my room they were being all lovey dovey with Stefan," Jeremy huffed, appearing behind my shoulder.
His reply took some tension off me. She must've spent the night at Stefan's, I thought and we both went downstairs.
Some part of me (probably the "overprotective big sister" part) kept bugging me about that situation, but I managed to reassure myself that everything was fine and I didn't have any reason to worry. Elena was a big girl after all. Still I couldn't help but be annoyed over the fact that she hadn't even left any note to inform me of her impromptu midnight date with Stefan.
And probably the reason why I managed to distract myself so quickly was my condition. Don't know why I thought that I would be able to recover so quickly but I was slightly concerned and very annoyed when it didn't happen. My magical reserves filled a bit overnight but the progress was so minuscule it was almost nonexistent. And that's not counting my overall shitty condition, it felt like every nerve in my body was on alert and painfully so, add to that a major headache (and did I mention nausea?) and you will get "a very annoyed Thalia".
Jeremy kept sending me concerned looks but I think I managed not to show the severity of my condition. There was also something akin to suspicion in his gaze, which was new, but I tried not to dwell on it.
At school we both went our separate ways and I only started to notice that something was wrong when I couldn't find Elena near her locker during a break, but I managed to calm myself down when I found out that Stefan wasn't at school either.
But when worry washed off I started getting angry. She could've told me that she wanted to skip school and spend some time with her boyfriend to save me some nerve cells, that little brat. I texted her saying that her ass was in danger if she didn't show up to the second period, but received no reply.
As classes went by I started becoming more and more worried. When I met Caroline during lunch my worry went on a whole another level when she told me that Bonnie was MIA too.
"What do you mean she's not answering your calls?" I hissed scaring some poor student who was passing by.
"I know, I've been monitoring her date yesterday and when she stopped answering me I assumed that she was doing naughty naughty with that Ben guy because the last thing she texted me was how badly she wanted to jump his bones," Caroline whined chewing on her nails and I slapped her hands away from her mouth.
"That's it. I'm calling Stefan." I took out my phone and dialed his number waiting impatiently for him to pick up.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Hi, Stef. Can you please put Elena on the phone?" I asked, still clinging to a hope that she was with him.
"What do you mean put Elena on the phone?" he asked slowly his voice becoming more serious with every word and my soul filled with dread.
"She's not with you?" I whispered feeling all color draining from my face. "She didn't sleep home last night and I thought she was with you."
"Where are you right now?"
"I am at school, sitting at our usual place with Caroline. Why?"
But he already ended the call. Not a minute later him and Damon were approaching our table with poorly concealed anxiety but I didn't even notice, I was too busy thinking why I hadn't had any visions or premonitions or something about my sister being in danger. Why didn't I see it coming?
I was shaking in fear and rage so I missed when they started asking me questions, thank Allmother Caroline was there and pretty much knew everything I did about the whole situation and was able to answer their questions.
I should've seen it coming. Why haven't I seen it coming? What is wrong with me?
I must have spoken out loud because Caroline squeezed my hand gently and gave me a sad look.
"Hey, everything will be okay, we'll find them."
"What are we gonna do?" Stefan asked. "We need to do something, who knows what Anna's been doing with them."
That last phrase made me snap out of it. It wasn't time for self questioning, I needed to find my sister and my best friend.
"I would've done the locating spell using a blood relative's blood, but we don't have any with Elena being adopted and I..." I stopped when a sudden thought went through my mind. "I enchanted her bracelet with a drop of my own blood and put a tracking spell on it. I can find her."
Ignoring their confused looks I closed my eyes and concentrated on the vervain necklace that I gave her on her birthday and later enchanted with my blood. The outside noises died out and my head became eerily silent as I tried to will my magic to start looking for a piece of myself but felt nothing but a small painful movement of my power right under my skin. I huffed in frustration and tried again willing all the reserves I had to do what I wanted. My headache started becoming worse with each second I spent trying but failing to feel anything. Finally anger and frustration took over me completely and I lunged right at my magical core squeezing all the power at my disposal outward in a wave and instantly five different directions appeared in my mind.
The most visible and closest to me led like a shining golden thread straight to the bracelet on Caroline's wrist. Another thread, a little bit weaker this time led into the building behind me and I realized that it was Jeremy, while the third one led somewhere in the direction of our house.
Which left me with the last thread. Or should I say the last two, which wasn't obvious at first because they were overlapping, meaning they were really close to each other. But the problem was, with Elena and Bonnie being further away from my location than anyone else plus my weakened state, the direction kept disappearing from my metaphorical grasp which in turn made me concentrate more on holding onto it which in turn skyrocketed my pain.
"I've found them," I gasped out opening my eyes and holding the mental image of a weak thread leading me into direction where Elena and Bonnie were.
I didn't wait for their reaction and stood up quickly ignoring the fact that it felt like my brain shook inside my skull from a sudden movement and started half walking half running to my car. Swallowing down sickly rising nausea I unlocked the doors intending to get in but was stopped by a steady hand on my shoulder that managed to snap me out of my concentration for a second.
I turned around and met Damon's piercing gaze and looked at him inquiringly not trusting myself to hold in my breakfast if I opened my mouth to speak.
"I'll drive. Just lead the way."
His tone implied that he wouldn't take no for an answer, so instead of wasting our precious time I just handed him my keys and went to the passenger's door. While on my way, I tried to focus on the direction once again completely missing Stefan asking a very pissed Caroline to stay behind.
The second I took my seat both brothers appeared in the car as well, Damon didn't waste any time and took off following the direction that I gave him.
With every passing second my headache was becoming worse, it was by the sheer willpower alone that I managed not to lose my concentration, but as time passed the strain on my magic kept growing and it didn't take me by surprise when my nose started bleeding.
Both vampires' attention zeroed on me when they smelled blood, and while Damon gave a look full of barely concealed concern, Stefan's expression was a mask of painfully growing hunger, when I met his gaze in the rear view mirror. I didn't have attention to spare to that problem as well, so I retuned back to the task at hand, trusting him to get his hunger under control.
It took me a while to notice it at first with all the pain that I was going through, but with each passing minute the thread that was barely more than a whisper before, kept growing more and more prominent indicating that we were close.
I sent a silent prayer to Allmother asking her to keep the girls safe, because if they were harmed in any way, hell would appear as a safe haven for those who touched them.
Elena woke up with a silent gasp, painfully aware that something was terribly wrong. The last thing she remembered was the message from Bonnie that got her out of the house, followed by a sharp pain and then nothing. The survival instinct and long self defense lessons with her sister prevented her from bolting up right away and notifying whoever that was who kidnapped her that she had woken up, instead she tried as hard as she could to keep her breathing as even as possible in her panicked state and slowly opened her eyes.
She observed the shitty and chipped paint of the ceiling for a few seconds before following the equally shitty wallpaper down one side of the wall and finally took in the rest of the room. She was in a motel room, she realized, with rapidly beating heart. She was about to get up and run for her life when she finally noticed that she wasn't alone in the room.
The sleeping figure of a young man was sprawled in a chair right between two beds one of which was occupied by her, which left her barely any room to sneak past without alerting her kidnapper. It was too dark to tell who the guy was with the blinders being shut tightly so not to let any sunlight into the room, but she thought he looked familiar.
After considering her chances for a few seconds, Elena slowly took a sitting position and stood up, her eyes glued to the sleeping figure the whole time. She eyed the space between his legs and the other bed and her heart sank when she realized that it was even smaller than she thought, but the door was right there just a few steps away and she decided to take the risk.
Her first step made the floor creek beneath her foot and she froze like a deer in headlights when the man stirred a bit, but that was the only reaction she got so she grew bolder and slowly approached him, flinching internally every time the floor made an unpleasant sound.
Somehow, probably someone above heard her desperate pleas, she made it past the guy without waking him up and with her hopes up, she quietly ran to the door and turned around to make sure that her kidnapper was still asleep. Reassured by his lack of reaction to all the noise that she was making, she turned back to the door and attempted to turn the doorknob only to freeze in place upon hearing a man's voice right behind her back.
"I wouldn't."
She turned around with a gasp and came face to face with the bartender from Mystic Grill who was also the same guy Bonnie had a crush on, that's why she thought he looked familiar.
He came closer looking intently right into her eyes making her move back and press against the door in a futile attempt to put some distance between them.
"Don't try to escape, don't even move," he said slowly and she realized that he was trying to compel her. "Do you understand?"
She remembered everything Thalia taught her about compulsion and willed her face to relax making her eyes as dull and empty as possible. She remembered him being human which meant that he was turned not that long ago, so there was a possibility she could trick him. This could be her chance to escape.
"I understand," she said in a monotonous voice and braced herself for any negative reaction but to her relief he looked like he believed her, if his victorious smirk was any indication.
He turned his back on her confidently and Elena saw her opportunity to escape and didn't wait to take it. She instantly turned around and threw the door open ignoring his angry yet somehow painful hiss, but her triumph lasted only for half of a second as she suddenly came face to face with Anna who, by the looks of it, was just about to enter the room.
Anna's reaction was instantaneous. The second she saw Elena trying to escape she launched at her and grabbed her arm before not so gently dragging her back into the room and closing the door shut behind them.
"Seriously?" she hissed angrily at the male vampire, clearly pissed that he almost let their "prisoner" escape.
"I told her not to move," he stuttered defensively. "I did that eye-thing you taught me!"
"But forgot the lesson about vervain," she huffed and completely dismissed him before dragging terrified Elena to another door at the opposite side of the room. "She dates a vampire, Ben. Duh!"
"What do you want from me?" Elena managed to ask while being pushed towards the door which she assumed led to the en-suite bathroom.
"Does it matter?" Was the only response she got before she was pushed inside and came face to face with her own reflection in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. In the reflection she saw the door being shut tightly behind her and instantly turned around but it was too late, Anna already locked it before she even reached it.
She still tried the door a few times just out of desperate hope but of course it didn't bulge.
Elena sighed in defeat and turned on the lights hoping it would get slightly less depressing but the lights painted the room in sickly yellow which made her a little nauseous.
Just to be sure she tried to open the small window, but it didn't bulge either, not that she really thought it would, she just hoped that her kidnappers were a little dumber. She turned her back to the window, her mind rapidly trying to come up with anything that could get her out of there, when her eyes fell on Bonnie's unconscious body uncomfortably sprawled in the bathtub.
"Bonnie?" She gasped and ran to her best friend trying her best to keep the tears from streaming down her face. She tried to shake her awake hoping that her best friend wasn't dead.
When Bonnie didn't react to all the shaking she was doing, Elena tentatively put her shaking fingers to her neck trying to feel her pulse and only after making sure that she was indeed alive, allowed herself to let out a shaking sigh.
Seeing that all her attempts failed, Elena grabbed a small towel and soaked it in cold water, then went back to Bonnie and put the towel on her forehead while gently pulling a few strands of hair away from her face.
"Bonnie?" She whispered caressing her cheek, while relentlessly pressing a cold dripping towel to her forehead hoping that the sensation would be enough to wake her up. She was rewarded for her worries when her friend stirred awake a few moments later and slowly opened her eyes.
"Elena?" She asked groggily and scrunched her face at the sudden pain that shot through her skull.
"Oh, you are okay," Elena choked out, feeling the wave of relief washing through her body.
"My head." Bonnie groaned after trying to take a sitting position, it felt like someone hit her in the head, she thought confusedly, then all the memories from last night came crashing back.
"Here," Elena whispered trying to help her friend out of the tub when Bonnie gasped in horror.
"Oh my God! Ben is a va-" she attempted to say, but was shushed by Elena who pointed at her ear and then at the door mouthing "they can hear you".
Elena then went to the sink and turned the tap, hoping that the sound of running water would hide their conversation from their kidnappers' ears.
"I'm so stupid," Bonnie chided herself when Elena came back.
"No, he had all of us fooled," Elena shook her head.
"What's going on? Why did they take us?" Bonnie whispered.
"It must've something to do with the tomb," Elena sighed. "He's with Anna. You remember I told you about her? The vamp girl who was stalking Jeremy to get the Gilbert journal?"
"Oh my God!" Bonnie groaned closing her eyes shut in annoyance, but Elena could tell that she was hurt. "Now I understand why he was flirting with me! They want me to open the tomb!"
"Yeah and they want me to get them the Grimoire I imagine," Elena added, looking at her friend with pity and concern. "But that's not gonna happen. Thalia will find us and I don't even feel sorry for what's she about to do to them."
"Are you sure though?" Bonnie finally opened her eyes and gave Elena a look full of hidden fear. "Is she even alright after what happened?"
"She's..." Elena fell silent. "I don't think she's okay, but I know she will find a way to save us. I just know it!"
They fell silent for a few moments, both their thoughts filled with concern for their friend and sister.
"How is she?" Bonnie asked quietly, squeezing her friend's hand in silent support.
"I think she's hurt more than she's showing," Elena answered after a long pause.
"Well of course she is," Bonnie rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. "She's Thalia and Thalia loves to pretend to be a tough nut."
"Yeah," Elena weakly smiled back at her friend. "But I think she's hiding something. Something really important. And I don't want her to get hurt. I can't lose her, Bon."
Elena's eyes shone from unshed tears and Bonnie couldn't help but give her friend a warm reassuring hug.
"You are not gonna lose her. Everything will be okay," she whispered in Elena's ear and patted her back.
"I know, I know..."
As Elena was struggling for her words the door flew open and angry looking Ben entered the bathroom. He gave them a pissed look then headed to the sink and turned off the water.
Elena stood protectively in front of her friend and gave Ben a furious look.
"You are wasting your time," Bonnie stated confidently. "I'm not gonna help you."
Ben smiled at that, his smile making Bonnie feel sick in her stomach, and approached them before grabbing Elena's arm and yanking her upwards only to hold her tightly against his chest.
"That's why she's here. A motivation for you to behave," he told Bonnie while Elena kept struggling to get free from his hold. "You know you shouldn't be so desperate. You made it too easy."
Bonnie didn't say anything to that, just looked at him angrily but from the shining of her eyes Elena could tell that she was hurt. The desire to protect her friend gave Elena motivation to try harder to get free, but it was almost impossible, the vampire was just too strong.
Ben gave Bonnie last mocking look before dragging struggling Elena out of the bathroom.
"She wants to talk to you," he whispered right into Elena's ear making her shudder from disgust.
The male vampire pushed Elena into the room and while she struggled not to fall closed the door behind her back, but when she turned around he wasn't there which, she though with horror, meant that he stayed in the bathroom... with Bonnie.
"Well, well. Elena Gilbert. You really are Kathrine's doppelgänger." The voice came from behind and Elena whirled around again to come face to face with Anna. "You must have the Salvatore boys reeling."
Anna smiled smugly at Elena's angry expression and Elena thought she looked completely different from the sweet but weird homeschooled girl that she was trying to pretend to be to befriend her brother. She must be a really good actress, she thought, if she could hide that bitchy face behind an "innocent girl" mask.
"You are screwed, you know that?" Elena growled, thinking about her friend locked with Ben in the bathroom.
"Oh, you think your Salvatore boy toys are gonna rescue you? How cute." Anna laughed and turned around to peak outside through the blinders.
"Who said anything about Stefan and Damon?" Elena retorted.
"Well who else has the power and motivation to save you? Your witch friend is not in full power yet, which was why Ben took her without an issue, which was really pathetic, by the way."
She kept rumbling with her back still turned to her hostage and Elena rolled her eyes at her cliche villain bragging while absentmindedly rubbing her chest. Her fingers touched her necklace which was twisted a little and fixed it absently until she froze from a sudden thought.
The necklace! Thalia said she enchanted it with her blood so if Elena was in any danger she was told to squeeze it and think of Thalia loud and clear in her head.
She did just that and concentrated on her sister's image in her head, chanting her name like a mantra, hoping to heavens above that it would work. Anna went on, blabbering about Salvatore brothers' (and many others' apparently) infatuation with Kathrine Pierce, which never did them any good and Elena realized that for her plan to work and for Thalia to reach them as soon as possible she needed to buy more time.
"If you are obviously not friends with Kathrine, why do you want her out that bad?" Elena asked interrupting Anna mid sentence. Apparently that was enough to get her attention and made her turn around and look at Elena with something akin to disgust and hatred on her face.
"Trust me. No one I know wants to see that girl again," she said calmly without her usual smirk. "Except Damon, the love-struck idiot."
"Then what is it?" Elena pressed while chanting internally her sister's name over and over again. The expression on Anna's face told Elena that she asked the wrong question. "Or who is it?" she corrected herself and narrowed her eyes seeing as the vampire went almost completely still.
"My mother's in there," Anna replied quietly which made Elena lose her concentration for a second. She didn't expect that answer. "Kathrine couldn't help herself. She just had to toy around with both Salvatore brothers. Then when she got caught, so did my mother." She left her place near the window and approached Elena, her expression becoming darker with every step she took. "I watched Jonathan Gilbert take her away."
Her last words made Elena flinch internally, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. She realized that she could relate to her as she herself would've done anything to get her mother back, except Anna's mom wasn't dead and Elena's ancestor was responsible for taking her away.
"I'm sorry," she said sincerely which made Anna frown in confusion before she relaxed her face again.
"You really mean that, don't you?" Anna muttered, then smiled and that smile didn't bode well with Elena. "Yeah, I think we'll skip the "dead mom" bonding so you can start serving your purpose."
The changes in the vampire's mood were getting on Elena's nerves, if she was completely honest. It looked like being forever stuck in your teenage years was one hell of a way to spend eternity. So she decided to ignore that and return to the task at hand and started trying to reach her sister once again.
"Which is what?" she asked, seeing that the vampire was waiting for her reaction.
"Leverage," was Anna's instant response, she then grabbed something from the nearby table which turned out to be Elena's phone. "This belong to you?" she asked mockingly and took a quick step back when Elena made a motion to get it back. "Uh-uh."
Anna dialed some number and put the phone to her ear while Elena's burning gaze followed her every move. She waited and waited but it looked like no one was going to answer.
"Who are you even calling?" Elena asked annoyed, she was getting tired from waiting.
"Why, your boyfriend of course," she replied and dialed Stefan's number again. "But it looks like he doesn't care about you that much, huh?" She sent Elena another smirk of hers, then spoke again when the call went right to Stefan's voicemail. "It's Anna. I have your girl and a witch and if you want them back you're going to meet me in a very public town square in 20 minutes and don't forget to bring the Grimoire. Or I'll send your little Kathrine 2.0 back to her family in pieces."
At the end of her message her voice turned into a growl and Elena realized that she was pissed because nothing was going according to her plan.
Fuming Anna suddenly threw Elena's phone into the wall breaking it to pieces and scaring Elena by the sudden movement, then she vamped to the bathroom door and knocked once before picking up her jacket from a nearby chair.
"I'm leaving," she told Ben when he came out of bathroom bringing Bonnie along with him and then pushed her to nearest bed, which Bonnie ignored and went straight to Elena.
"You managed to set up a meeting?" Ben inquired eyeing the witch with sultry look which made the said witch shudder in disgust.
"No," Anna snapped. "But I left him a message, he's gonna come."
"What if he doesn't?" Ben raised his eyebrow, finally leaving Bonnie alone and turning to Anna. "What if he didn't get the message? Maybe we should cut off a piece of our little doppelgänger here and send it to his house? That will definitely get his attention."
The sick cruelty of his words made the girls press against each other with Bonnie hiding Elena behind her back protectively as if showing that to get to her friend they would need to get past her. Which didn't really impress any of the vampires as they didn't consider her to be a threat.
"Don't be stupid, Ben. It will only make them angry. I need them to work with me since the Grimoire is in their possession." She gave him a look while finishing buttoning her jacket. "Keep them buttoned down. Compulsion won't work. Just use violence."
"Right. I got that," he replied and gave the girls a sinister smile.
"I'm off to town square," she grabbed her messenger bag from the chair and turned to Elena. "And if Salvatore junior doesn't show up I might go looking for Jeremy. But don't worry, I'm not gonna kill him... yet." She gave Elena an evil smile. "After all, I made a vow to myself that it will be the Gilbert blood that will revive my mother. I mean he's cute, but mommy's in such a condition that she might end up needing all the blood in poor Jeremy's body."
"Don't you dare touch him, you bitch!" Elena lost her composure after hearing her threatening Jeremy and in a fit of blind rage launched herself at Anna only to be slapped right across her face by Ben who appeared on her way out of nowhere. The slap was so powerful that Elena ended up being thrown onto the bed with such a force that she skipped further and hit her back against the headboard.
"Elena!" Bonnie cried out in horror and tried to run to her best friend only to be painfully yanked back by her arm.
"Where do you think you are going, bitch?" Ben growled in her face and squeezed her arm harder making her cry out in pain.
It was in that moment when the door suddenly burst open and a few things happened at the same time. Ben hissed in pain from exposure to the sunlight and vamped to a dark corner to curl into a pathetic whimpering ball, while Anna went flying into a nearby wall, hitting it so hard that the sickening sound of breaking bones could be heard in the small motel room. Bonnie who fell on the floor by inertia after Ben abruptly let her go while she was still struggling to get free, looked at the front door and couldn't help but cry in relief after seeing Thalia standing in the doorway looking like a very furious and equally bloody Goddess.
"Thalia!" Elena gasped out when she as well saw her sister, happy to the moon and back to see her but too hurt and disoriented from the power slap to run to her right away.
A second later a very pale Stefan appeared beside her and helped her get up while frantically checking her for any injuries. She could see from the corner of her eye Damon helping Bonnie up as well.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Stefan kept asking her but her attention kept slipping to her sister standing in the doorway and she started noticing more details in her appearance that she missed the first time, like deathly pale skin that made her hair and eyes stand out even more, dark circles under her eyes, but the most concerning fact was that all of the lower part of Thalia's face was covered in blood, which kept streaming down her neck soaking her t-shirt. She looked like hell.
"Thalia! What is wrong with her?" Elena groaned pulling free from her boyfriend's hold in a desperate attempt to reach her sister but had to stop when her world started spinning around her like she was riding on a carousel. "Is she...?"
She didn't get to finish her sentence as the room went for another spin and suddenly the floor disappeared from under her feet.
"Elena!" Stefan managed to catch her before she hit the ground and scooped her up in bridal style. Upon looking closer he saw an angry red bruise that was starting to appear at the side of her face. "What happened to her?"
He turned to Bonnie waiting for her answer, his voice filled with cold rage, which made Bonnie think that she never saw a usually level headed Stefan that angry before.
"Ben hit her," she answered, her eyes darting between Elena and her other friend who looked even worse.
The room was silent aside from groans and whimpers of defeated vampires, then they all heard a voice void of any emotions.
"Get them out of here, Stefan."
Stefan gave his girlfriend's sister a glance full of grim understanding and carried Elena out while motioning Bonnie to follow. Bonnie hesitated for a second before glancing at Thalia one last time then following after them. She wasn't stupid, she knew what was going to happen and some part of her was okay with that.
"No, Stefan, she's hurt! We need to..." Elena's complains grew quieter as the distance grew between them until they died out completely.
"Damon."
Damon understood right away what was needed from him and vamped towards Anna, who at the time was slowly bit by bit pushing herself from the wall, struggling against the invisible force that was pushing her back. Neither Damon nor Anna realized it, but the fact that Anna almost got free was another indication that Thalia was feeling much, much worse than it looked like. She didn't want neither of them to know that, so she asked Damon to hold her back while she dealt with something else. There was a better way to spend the last drops of her power after all.
Upon approaching Anna, Damon plunged his hand right through her chest and squeezed her heart tightly which made Anna choke on her own blood. It looked like he damaged her lungs in his attempt to reach her heart.
"Hey, Anna-banana," he greeted her joyfully as if they were just having a casual conversation. "Long time no see. Didn't know you were in town. You should've at least come over to say hello, that's what old buddies do, right?"
"Screw you," Anna choked out and groaned when Damon pulled at her heart a little, to show her that he didn't appreciate her sass.
"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say, is it?" he chided her merrily and turned to look at his loyal sidekick (which he would never call her to her face of course, since he loved and cherished his "family jewels" thank you very much) who looked like she was pulling herself together after she let Anna go while staring unblinkingly at the baby vamp's whimpering figure in the corner. "What now, Glinda? Me thinks all this blood is making everything slippery, you know? So the chances of me slipping and accidentally ripping Anna-banana's heart out are pretty decent. You better hurry up with whatever evil torture plan you cooked up for that pathetic excuse for a vampire over there and we can skip to the better part."
"Later." Was the only answer he received.
"Inarticulate as always, I see," he rolled his eyes. "So how are you gonna kill the dimwit? You know I can snap dear Anna's neck over here and do the honors if you..."
Before he finished the sentence Thalia made a grabbing gesture with her hand and Ben suddenly was thrown towards her and landed right in the middle of the room. In the very sunny middle of the room...
The combustion was instantaneous. It was really fascinating how vampires reacted to sun, like gasoline that was set on fire. But of course the burning vampire wouldn't just stand still until he turned into a pile of ashes, so Thalia had to use her last drops of magical power to hold him in place. Which meant that she didn't have enough to silence him as well.
The three of them watched silently as Ben's body writhed on the floor like one huge chunk of burning flesh, his agonizing inhuman screams filling the dingy motel room making it all look like a scene from a horror movie.
Damon looked impressed yet also a little unnerved by the show of violence and brutality from Thalia, the unnerved part was probably due to the complete lack of reaction from the witch as she stood there unmoving, her face void of any emotion.
Anna on the other hand was terrified, but not because of her "boyfriend's" misfortune, no. Ben was nothing more than a tool that was created to help her achieve her goal, so he was completely disposable. She was terrified because she had no idea that Gilbert senior was a witch and, by the looks of it, nothing like the weak Bennett witch and now her miscalculations could destroy all her hopes to get her mother back.
No one uttered a single word until Ben's body stopped moving completely and all that was left of him was a pile of almost completely burnt out remains that appeared to be a mixture of flesh, bones and clothes. A truly disgusting sight to behold.
Both remaining vamps got snapped from their thoughts when the witch slowly turned in their direction and looked at Anna with the same empty eyes and Anna instantly realized that she was about to be next on the menu if she didn't do anything and fast.
"No, please! I didn't touch them... I swear," she choked out and coughed on her blood, but her words did nothing to stop Thalia as she slowly set off in their direction. "Please... My mother's in that tomb! I just want my mom back! I wasn't gonna hurt anyone!"
That made Thalia halt, as she realized that the girl was speaking truth. Some part of her that still grieved heavily for Miranda made her sympathize with Anna's situation, but still she hurt her sister and that was unforgivable in Thalia's book.
But Anna got lucky, because the next moment Thalia's body jerked with pain, a payback for straining her minuscule reserves and she realized that if she didn't take a rest in the near future she would likely collapse, but what was even worse she wouldn't be able to perform the ritual later that night.
She composed herself rather quickly and shot Damon a look that told him everything he needed to know.
He rolled his eyes not liking her decision, it wasn't in his character to let his enemies live but there was nothing he could do about it, it wasn't his decision to make. So without further ado he pulled his hand out of Anna's chest leaving her heart right where it was and without giving her any time to adjust, simply snapped her neck.
Thalia was already on her way out, so she missed Damon taking Anna's lapis lazuli ring after making sure she was hidden from the sun and wouldn't end up like poor Ben. If he couldn't kill her, he could sure as hell do everything to prevent her from interrupting the ritual. Everyone should know by now that Damon Salvatore would do anything for the woman he loved.
Anything and everything.
The way back home, dropping Bonnie off by her Grams' house, getting to my room... I was barely conscious to remember what was going on around me. I didn't say a word while joining Bonnie and Elena in the backseat of my car, not when they hugged me despite the stench of burnt flesh, not when they kept asking me if I was okay, I didn't do anything to wipe the blood from my face, I didn't say goodbye to Bonnie, I didn't even ask Elena if she was okay. I did nothing.
I was nothing.
I was empty.
Empty of emotions, of thoughts, empty of pain, empty of magic.
I hadn't felt this way since I escaped my personal hell fourteen years ago, I never thought that this feeling of... devastating helplessness would ever return, I thought that I did everything I could to make sure that it never would. I guess it wasn't enough after all.
It was never enough. I just allowed myself to let my guard down, take a slower pace, convinced myself that I was powerful enough to face anything and everything that gets thrown in my way. And now I was being punished for my arrogance.
Maybe this was my punishment altogether, ever since grandma sealed my magic away I should've realized that it happened for a reason, that maybe it was a lesson that the Allmother was trying to teach me.
And now it was too late. I was stuck always being mediocre at best. I just never imagined it would concern my magical prowess as well. I had never been strong enough, empathetic enough, feminine enough. And now I wasn't powerful enough either.
Thankfully, self pity was never my favorite way to spend free time, so as soon as I managed to shake off depressing thoughts and found myself seated on my bedroom floor I decided it was time to get myself into a proper condition if I wished to survive the ritual.
"Hello! Earth to Almighty Witch!" Damon's voice pierced through the fog in my head and I was surprised to find him standing in the doorway, looking like he'd been there for quite some time. "Good, you are finally back from la-la-land. Now, can we discuss this huge elephant in the room that we've been ignoring the whole time? Hm?" he inquired walking straight to my bed and making himself comfortable.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I croaked out and looked longingly at the visible part of the mini fridge under my bed. I needed to power up and fast.
"Of course you don't," I wasn't looking at him but I was pretty sure he'd just rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll say it! You look like shit, Thalia. Like you were brutally murdered and buried but then you somehow found your way out of your grave and now became a vengeful spirit. I can't believe that I'm asking this, but will you even be in good enough condition to open that tomb tonight?"
I could detect a hint of anxiety deeply hidden under the layers of sarcasm in his voice and I couldn't help but feel confused. Perhaps I was so exhausted that I started hallucinating?
"Wow, I must really look like hell if you're endangering your long awaited date with Kathrine by implying what I think you're implying," I muttered and gave him a mocking look. I didn't want him going soft on me. Not now when I desperately needed to man up.
He observed me silently for a few seconds, clenching and unclenching his jaw as if having trouble picking his words.
"I've been waiting to get her out for a looong time. Trust me, I can wait for another month. Because if you end up dead I'll have to wait much longer than that," he finally gritted out and gave me a serious look. "So I'll ask again. Are you prepared to open that tomb tonight, or not?"
His piercing blue eyes bore into mine but I didn't cave. He probably wanted to look indifferent or cold hearted, but despite all his sarcastic words I could see the internal battle that was taking place inside his soul. He was finally close to getting what he desperately craved for a century and a half now, the very thing that he did anything and everything to get. And yet he was hesitating for some reason, the reason that was out of my understanding. I couldn't be the reason for his hesitation, could I?
I slowly lifted my hand and rubbed my face so I could shake off these crazy thoughts. It was obvious that exhaustion was taking over my ability to think logically.
"Can you pass me the mini fridge from under my bed?" I asked him with a sigh, completely ignoring his question and closed my eyes as I let my head rest against the wall behind me.
It was silent for a few seconds while he considered my request, then I heard the floor creek under his feet when he stood up and a few seconds later I heard him putting the fridge on the floor right beside me.
It took me a huge amount of effort to simply sit straighter, my head felt extremely heavy when it wasn't leant against the wall, then to open the lid of the fridge and take out the remains of Nik's blood. There was only a quarter of a bottle left, but it would be more than enough to boost me until I recovered my magical reserves through meditation.
"Is it what I think it is?" Damon frowned thoughtfully.
"The nicely aged vampire blood," I smirked at him. "Cheers."
I gulped it all down and closed my eyes savoring the sensation. It felt like every little cell in my body was being charged up to 100, like all the strain on my body from overusing my already minuscule reserves almost completely disappeared. The only problem that remained was my empty reserves, but there was another way to fix that, but first...
I stood up with ease and headed to my bathroom to wash off all the dried blood from my face... yet again. I guess it did in fact became a habit after all.
"Well, that was fast," Damon whistled following me to the bathroom. "He must be really old, that boyfriend of yours, if his blood reacted so fast."
"You have no idea," I muttered while scrubbing my face clean then threw his reflection in a mirror a glance. "How's Elena?"
"Well, I did what you asked and gave her some of my blood so she's out like a light," he shrugged. "Stefan's with her."
"I told you to do what?" I frowned turning the water off and whirling around.
"You don't remember?" he narrowed his eyes. "Just how damaged are you, really?
"I'm fine," I rolled my eyes at him and returned back to my room leaving him with nothing else to do than to follow me. "Just need to restore my reserves, that's all. So I'm going to the backyard to meditate, while you are going to prepare everything for the ritual."
I handed him the list of everything required for the ritual that I made this morning and turned to my closet in search of a clean t-shirt. I didn't even bother going to the bathroom and started changing right on the spot ignoring the vampire completely.
"Aye, aye, captain," he mockingly saluted me and headed out of the room, but not before letting his eyes travel down my naked skin, without really being subtle about it.
Before leaving the house I checked on Elena and found her peacefully cuddled up in Stefan's arms which put a small smile on my face. They looked cute together.
Jenna and Jeremy weren't home when we arrived which made everything hell of a lot easier, they would've freaked if they saw the condition we both were in. They would still freak of course, but much less. At least I hoped so.
Upon reaching the backyard I took my shoes off, shivering slightly from the cold and found the spot on the ground that looked greener than others (which was almost impossible considering that it was December) and made myself more or less comfortable.
I hadn't used meditation for a purpose of restoring my reserves since I was a kid and grandma had been giving me a crush course of how to be a Black witch, but the knowledge was fresh in my mind. The seal that covered my core left me with only a small part of my previously vast reserves at my disposal, but even that small part was a result of my painful experiments and even more painful ritual involving the comet. It was why I didn't feel any pain while using my powers anymore, all that torture that I went through only to loosen up the seal enough to be able to use hardly the tenth of the power that I used to have at my disposal. But every time I tried to use more power than I had an access to would end really badly for my body, I could ignore the pain but the pain meant that I was damaging myself every time I reached my limit. And now, in order to refill my reserves, I was about to do what any regular witch would, draw the magic from the world around me.
I spent the rest of the day meditating, slowly pulling the much needed magic from the ground beneath me, the air and sun. I synchronized with the beating pulse of the earth, feeling like a small atom against a huge endless ocean. I could feel the nature welcoming me with the trees leaning their branches down to gently caress my hair, the grass growing under me a little to coil around my bare feet and fingers that were slightly plunged into the soil, drawing the power directly from the ground. The nature was generous, giving without asking anything in return, like a loving mother would.
All that time I relentlessly prayed to the Allmother to bless me in the face of approaching ritual, to give me just enough strength to make it through without an issue even though I knew that it would be almost impossible if my paintings were any indication. At least I prayed that none of my loved ones would get hurt. That would be more than enough.
Sitting at the Grill and looking down at his homework, Jeremy thought back on his mostly uneventful day and sighed. An essay that he was working on was almost finished but he couldn't make himself focus any longer with Thalia's condition and the ritual that was about to take place once the moon was in its apex.
Sometimes it seemed so surreal to live his ordinary every day life, go to school, do his homework and hang out with the few friends that he had, while knowing that the world was a really dangerous place with all those vampires roaming around and doing whatever they wanted. He realized that if it wasn't for Thalia, his opinion of supernatural world would've been much more different, but with his sister teaching him, he was starting to see that it wasn't all just black and white.
Thalia was a witch and she was the most amazing person that he knew, but after meeting Emily's spirit that possessed Bonnie he also realized that witches, even though not as dangerous to humans as vampires, were equally cunning and unstoppable when it came to something they really wanted.
And vampires... well, now he knew what Thalia meant that day when she introduced him and Elena to the supernatural world. Vampires and witches were just like humans, there were bad ones out there and good ones. Nothing and no one was truly evil and that, he realized with an internal groan, made everything even more complicated. It would've been so much easier, he thought, if they were all just evil like the guy that was stalking Elena. He hadn't been there when Thalia and the others caught Noah but from their words he understood that the guy was just crazy and he was glad that they got rid of him.
The situation with Logan Fell was an eye opening one. He was just a regular human, of course Jeremy thought that he was a douchebag, but he wasn't a psychopath or a murderer, at least he didn't think he was. But as soon as he turned into a vampire he became a completely different person. Jeremy thought that Logan probably had some mental issues while being a human and that's why he went off the rails as a vampire, but something that Thalia said at the time came to his mind. She said that all our inner restrictions, such as the upbringing, social norms, pretty much everything that we were taught as humans all of our lives would stop being of importance with our emotions skyrocketing and base instincts taking the lead once we turn into a vampire and only those of strong will would remain unchanged.
The only good vampire that Jeremy knew was Stefan. He didn't like him at first but the vampire grew on him with time and he was madly in love with Elena so it was a plus in Jeremy's book.
And then there was Damon, Jeremy thought and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Damon was... well, Damon. He wasn't a good guy but Jeremy wouldn't call him evil either. He was just an annoying asshole but he was funny, even though Jeremy would never admit it out loud.
He came out of his thoughts when he caught a snippet of the conversation from the nearby billiard table. It appeared that he was so wrapped up in his own stuff that he completely missed the presence of Matt Donovan and Tyler Lockwood, or Dickwood as Thalia loved to call him. It looked like they came out of nowhere but soon Jeremy realized he must've just completely missed their arrival while being too deep in his own thoughts.
"Ten kegs? You know how much damage we could do with ten kegs?" Tyler asked while aiming his cue at the ball. "Duke's got it all hooked up!"
It looked to Jeremy that he was trying to convince Matt to attend a party of some sort. Sometimes it seemed like partying was the only thing that Tyler Lockwood was capable of.
"Duke's a douche," Matt told him while wiping the table. All of his demeanor was saying that he wasn't interested in Tyler's proposition, but of course Tyler was too unobservant to notice.
"Yeah, a douche with ten kegs," came Lockwood's instant reply. "a.k.a my new best friend."
Jeremy couldn't help but scoff at Tyler's behavior, it looked like he was doing everything he could to maintain his own "douche" reputation.
"What's the problem, Gilbert?" he heard Tyler ask through gritted teeth, but didn't even spare the older guy a glance.
"Don't have one, Lockwood," Jeremy shook his head and returned to his essay. With all the shit that was going on in his life he realized that bickering with Tyler wasn't really worth his time.
"Yeah, I didn't think so," Tyler stated smugly, taking Jeremy's lack of interest for cowardice.
"Do you ever get bored of it?" Matt rolled his eyes at Tyler's behavior picking up a tray full of dirty dishes and turning to leave.
"Of what?" Tyler frowned not really following what his best buddy was implying.
"Yourself," Matt shook his head and disappeared in the kitchen leaving the offended looking Tyler behind.
Even as Jeremy tried to keep his cool he couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Tyler's face which of course didn't go unnoticed.
"Keep laughing buddy," Tyler huffed and returned to his own table in the corner.
The whole encounter was so... mundane, that Jeremy even felt himself relaxing a bit and felt all the remaining tension from his previous gruesome thoughts leave his body. He threw a glance at his aunt seating at the table with his history teacher and smirked at the sight of them leaning so close to each other that their cheeks were almost touching as they both laughed at some of the essays that Alaric was marking. It felt really nice to have a normal day for a change.
It was at that moment when he heard someone calling him by his name and before he could turn around Caroline dropped hastily on the seat beside him.
"Hey," she greeted him with a small smile. "Bonnie just called me. How's Elena? Is she okay after what happened? I tried to call her and Thalia, but no one picked up."
Jeremy couldn't help but frown in confusion. "What are you talking about?" he asked and suddenly felt his stomach sinking. "Why shouldn't she be okay? She was supposed to be with Stefan."
"Oh you don't know," Caroline flinched guiltily and internally cursed herself for spitting everything.
"Don't know what? Caroline, what's going on?"
At this point Jeremy was already freaking out and Caroline couldn't help but feel guilty for being the one to bring bad news to the boy.
"Neither Elena nor Bonnie showed up at school and weren't answering their phones so we started getting worried. Then Thalia called Stefan and it turned out that he hadn't seen Elena since yesterday so..." Caroline explained everything what happened, about Salvatore brothers showing up, Thalia trying to find the girls and Anna being behind all of this.
With every word that came out of her mouth Jeremy's face became paler and paler until he stood up hastily and started collecting his belongings, throwing everything carelessly into his backpack.
"Hey, they are okay now, I swear," Caroline reassured him standing up as well. "Sorry for dumping it all on you out of the blue. I thought you already knew." She then paused and sighed. "On the second thought, I should've guessed that you wouldn't have been sitting here if you were in the know."
"No, no, it's okay," Jeremy reassured her quickly. "Thank you for telling me. I gotta go."
"Yeah sure."
She gave him one last apologizing look, but Jeremy was already gone.
His first instinct was to bolt out and run to his house but as soon as his eyes fell on his aunt he instantly changed his direction, doing his best to calm down as he didn't want Mr. Saltzman asking questions.
Jenna looked up the moment his shadow fell on the paper they were reading and one look at his face was enough for her to realize that something must've happened.
"Um, sorry to interrupt you guys, but I really need a ride," he said looking intently into Jenna's eyes so she would get the hidden message behind his words.
"Is everything okay?" Mr. Saltzman frowned feeling Jeremy's uneasiness.
"Everything's fine, it's just..." he mumbled not really knowing what to say. "I don't feel well, I think I might've ate something and... I would've walked but..."
He realized that he was rumbling but he couldn't help himself, something happened to his sisters and his mind couldn't concentrate on anything else, even on coming up with a decent lie. But it turned out that he didn't need to, as an understanding flickered in his aunt's eyes, before she grabbed her car keys and threw her belongings into her bag.
"It's okay. Come on," Jenna reassured him as she stood up and turned to Alaric with an apologetic look. "Sorry for cutting it short, I can call you later and we can set up time for another date, if you don't mind of course."
"Are you asking me out, Ms Sommers? I'll definitely hold you to that," he gave her a teasing smile then looked at his student sympathetically. "It's okay. See you in class, Jeremy. Jenna."
Jenna threw him last flirtatious smirk before ushering her nephew outside.
"Are you okay? Maybe we should go to the hospital?" she asked Jeremy while rubbing his back soothingly, her gentle voice laced with concern.
Jeremy hurried to reassure her. "No, it's okay. I'm completely fine," he took her hand and ushered her to her car. "It's Elena and Thalia I'm worried about."
"What? Why? What about them?" Jenna frowned at her nephew slowly realizing that something must've happened.
Jeremy quickly filled her in on everything that's happened and not long after both of them took off running to Jenna's car.
It took them roughly three minutes to reach their home and they hurried inside.
"Elena!" Jenna called for her niece the second they entered the house Jeremy quick on her tail with Thalia's name on his lips.
"I'm here!" they heard Elena's voice from the kitchen and second later she appeared in the doorway only to be smothered almost to death by her freaked out aunt while Jeremy loomed behind her waiting for his turn.
"Thank God you are okay!" Jenna sighed and leaned back holding her at arm's length and gave her a quick once over, searching for any injuries.
"It's okay. I'm totally fine, not even a scratch," Elena was quick to reassure them, purposefully not mentioning her injury thinking that there was no point in worrying them when all was healed. "Thalia got there before anything bad could happen. I'm completely fine."
Slowly bit by bit all the tension left Jenna's body and only then she noticed Stefan sitting quietly at the table with two steaming cups in front him.
"How did that even happen?" Jeremy asked clenching his fists. "I thought Thalia protected the house so no one with bad intentions could come inside."
"It's my own fault," Elena admitted bitterly. "They texted me from Bonnie's phone making it look as if Bonnie was waiting for me outside and the moment I left the safety of this house someone knocked me out and the next thing I know I'm waking up in some dingy motel room in God knows where."
"It's not your fault, sweetheart," Jenna was quick to reassure her. "You couldn't have known." Then she turned to Stefan and he straightened up absentmindedly seeing the furious look on a usually gentle and level headed woman. "I really hope that those who did this are dead, Stefan. Please tell me that they are gone for good."
Stefan shifted uncomfortably in his seat and threw a quick glance through the window looking at the backyard. "I uh, I'm not sure what happened to them. I was busy getting the girls out of there. You should ask Thalia or Damon, they were the ones that remained behind to deal with Anna and her minion."
Stefan couldn't force himself to tell them about what he heard while he'd been waiting in the car with the girls. Those inhuman screams were still ringing in his ears, he didn't feel sorry for the guy who hurt Elena and Bonnie, not one bit, but he didn't know if Thalia would want him to tell them about what she did, because whatever it was that she did, it was truly brutal.
At this point both Jeremy and Jenna followed his glance and looked out of the window but didn't see anything.
"Where's she?" Jeremy asked urgently. "She was still hurt when we left for school in the morning. Is she okay?"
At his question both him and Jenna turned to Elena waiting for her to answer, but Elena just clenched her jaw tightly and took a deep shaking breath to calm herself before answering.
"You should've seen her," she went quiet and rubbed her eyes to shake away the tears that threatened to start pouring down her face. "She was deathly pale and so emotionless that it was just so... and there was so much blood... I never thought that a simple nosebleed could be so..."
Jeremy swallowed down the lump in his throat and asked again. "Where... where is she?"
It was Stefan that answered this time. "She's in the backyard. Meditating."
He stood up and hugged his girlfriend giving her a silent comfort and she didn't wait to bury her face in the crook of his neck. She was exhausted both physically and mentally, after all Damon's blood healed her wounds but the sensation it left behind... At first she felt like she was high on drugs, for a shortest amount of time she was energized in a weird kind of way, but after that... She was so exhausted that she almost collapsed on the spot, but thankfully Stefan was there to catch her and take her to bed.
Jeremy lightly squeezed his sister's shoulder before heading outside closely followed by his aunt, he needed to make sure that Thalia was okay.
The sight that they came upon made them stop in their tracks and take a moment to comprehend what they were seeing. Both of them saw Thalia performing magic before and the most exciting one in Jeremy's opinion was an illusion spell that allowed her to switch appearances with Elena but this...
Thalia was seated on the ground, her back turned to them and with her fingers plunged into the soil under her or he supposed so, as her hands were barely visible under the layer of fresh green grass. Green freaking grass. In December.
The circle of grass was small and it looked like it was moving... no it was growing, slowly sure, but it still looked like it was moving.
"The tree," he heard his aunt mumble in astonishment and looked up following her gaze.
The tree indeed, he thought, eyes huge and mouth agape. The tree under which Thalia was sitting had grown its branches it seemed, as he was completely certain that those branches weren't that long last time he checked. They moved in the wind, stroking his sister's face with every move and tangling in her hair like vines. It looked like a scene from a fairy tail.
He took a tentative step forward, his sister's name on his lips ready to be spoken when they both heard Damon's voice from aside and turned in it's direction.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he hummed without taking his eyes from the book he was reading.
He was lounging lazily in one of the sunbeds that were yet to be stoked away till next summer, his eyes glued to the pages of the book, which, Jenna slowly realized with a hint of amusement, was Elena's edition of Twilight.
"And why is that?" Jeremy inquired with confusion, throwing his sister a quick look.
"Because our little garden fairy over there is currently in the process of restoring her juju so she asked me not to let anyone interrupt her," he shrugged and licked his forefinger before turning over the page.
"How long is it gonna take?" Jenna frowned. "And what happened to the vampires that kidnapped Elena and Bonnie? Are they dead?"
"I have noooo idea," Damon shrugged still engrossed with the book in his hands, which looked quite ridiculous in Jeremy's opinion. "And about the wannabe kidnappers... well," he finally turned in their direction and smirked merrily, sending chills down their spines as there was not an ounce of warmth in that smile. "Our dear Annabel decided to take a quick nap for a time being, I really hope she would get the message that our Sabrina the teenage witch sent her and won't do anything stupid like interrupting the ritual. Hmm," he then hummed thoughtfully, "on a second thought, I really do wish that she shows up, my hand is twitching at the missed opportunity of ripping her heart out and I will be more than happy to finish the job."
He gave them a wink and returned to his book, whistling a merry melody under his breath.
It took them both a moment to digest the information that Damon so generously offered and both of them felt the grim satisfaction at the image of suffering Anna.
"Was it really a smart thing to do to let her live?" Jenna frowned but upon seeing her nephew's slightly shocked look, sighed and rubbed her face tiredly. "Wow, that came out so not how I expected."
"I never pegged you as a bloodthirsty type dear Jenna," Damon's smile grew bigger and he gave her an appreciating look, which made Jenna feel oddly proud and disturbed at the same time. "She would've already been dead by now if it was my decision to make, trust me," he then rolled his eyes, still annoyed at being interrupted in his attempt to separate Anna with her most important organ. "If Glinda over there didn't look like she was about to go greet her ancestors, quite literally I might add, I would've finished the job."
That last sentence made Jenna and Jeremy share a concerned look then they both glanced at Thalia's still figure. Jeremy was about to say something when he was interrupted by a quiet voice that came from behind his back.
"What about Ben?"
The three of them turned in the direction of the voice and saw Bonnie standing in the doorway of the kitchen, looking small with her hands curled protectively around her torso, while Caroline could be seen behind her giving Elena a comforting hug.
Jenna immediately engulfed the girl into a hug which Bonnie returned with a shaking sigh, she couldn't even imagine how the girl must be feeling after everything that happened.
"Oh our dear Ben went out with a bang," Damon exclaimed with a sinister smile plastered on his face. He didn't feel any of Stefan's hesitation upon revealing the way that Ben met his end. "Our Almighty Witch exposed him to the sunlight and bam! One vampire kebab as you ordered."
Stefan couldn't help but shake his head at his brother's theatrics, Damon was such a drama queen sometimes. No one else shared his exasperation though, as all the humans in the company were faced with a gruesome mental image of a burning vampire.
"Good," it was Bonnie who interrupted the silence, her voice loud and steady. "He was a monster."
Others aside from Damon gave her concerned looks, but she avoided them looking right ahead with her head held high.
"So what now?" Jenna asked no one in particular, giving Bonnie a reassuring squeeze.
"Now we wait," Damon shrugged nonchalantly and returned to his book making himself comfortable on a lounging chair.
I breathed out a long sigh and straightened my back, humming in pleasure when my spine made a crunching noise, which told me a lot about how long I'd been sitting there even before I opened my eyes and observed the velvety darkness of the night.
The air to my endless pleasure smelt like fresh greenery and oddly like snow. I took a few more deep breaths letting my magic settle in and relaxed for the first time in a long while. My reserves, or more precisely the available part of my reserves, were full to the brim. It still felt like it wouldn't be enough to open the tomb but it was okay, as I planned to channel the power of the full moon to aid myself in the upcoming mess. That should be more than enough.
After a few more minutes of listening to the quiet noises of the night forest, the rustling of the leaves, bushes and small rodents scurrying in the grass, I gently untangled my fingers from the grass that curled around them as it was growing from the excess magic that my body was emitting around me and slowly stood up.
I looked inside myself once again and smiled. I wish I could say that my body hummed with power after spending half of a day restoring my magic but it would've been a lie on my part. But, well, I wasn't about to complain, lately I figured that I would just take anything that I was given and make the most out of it. As the saying goes: if life gives you lemons...
Chills went down my spine and I shuddered, telling myself that it was because I was outside wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and sweatpants and not because of the foreboding feeling of the upcoming doom.
As if someone suddenly turned up the volume, the distant murmur of voices reached my ears with a strong gust of wind and I finally turned around and headed towards the house and the warmth and safety of our kitchen.
No one noticed me at first as I quietly appeared in the doorframe and observed the packed room. It seemed that the whole gang was gathered in our kitchen, occupying all of the sitting places with serious expressions on their faces. Caroline, Bonnie, Jenna and Jeremy were seated at the table while Stefan took the chair with Elena comfortably curled in his lap and Damon lounging on the couch with Twilight book in his hands looking like he was engrossed in the book, but it was obvious to me that all of his attention was concentrated on the discussion that was taking place at the table.
"The party must be in full swing right now," Caroline frowned thoughtfully. "It's too close to the tomb for my liking honestly. What are we gonna do if some drunk student stumbles upon us while we are in the middle of the ritual? What happens then?"
Everyone shared concerned looks but one person apparently already had an answer to that question.
"That's why you and baby Gilbert are gonna go there and make sure that no one wanders anywhere near," Damon stated closing the book in his hands dramatically and sitting up to face everyone.
"What? I'm not going to leave my sisters in a potentially dangerous environment and go to some stupid party!" Jeremy exclaimed heatedly followed by Caroline's retort.
"Yeah, what he said! Why should we be on a watch guard?"
"He's right," Jenna nodded her head and met two enraged looks. "Caroline is a queen b and is fully capable of stopping anyone coming anywhere near the tomb, while Jeremy can help her turn around some of the more stubborn or drunk ones. I'm not risking someone interrupting Thalia in the middle of an important ritual when we all know that she's not at her best at the moment. She told me that any kind of distraction may end up horribly mostly for her. So you two are gonna go there and make sure that no one distracts her."
They both nodded, albeit begrudgingly, at Jenna's words, understanding her reasoning.
"What about Bonnie and Elena?" Caroline asked sending both girls a curious look.
"I'm gonna be right there with Thalia along with aunt Jenna in case she needs something," Elena stated giving everyone a warning look, daring them to challenge her decision.
"And I'm never gonna miss the opportunity of watching a powerful ritual," Bonnie added mirroring Elena's look.
"Well, see? That's settled," Jenna shook her head exasperatedly. "Damon is going into the tomb after his girlfriend, while Stefan will prepare everything to burn those suckers down. That's about it."
Everyone nodded and fell into thoughtful silence for a moment until Jeremy spoke again.
"What if..." he started slowly gathering everyone's attention, his gaze fixed on his own hands that were lying on the table. "I know that you were all thinking about it, but... what if Thalia couldn't handle it? She's not feeling well and anything could happen. What if..."
He didn't finish his sentence and I felt myself dying to hug him to my chest and was relieved when our aunt being the nearest to him did that for me.
Everyone shared concerned looks as Jeremy indeed voiced out what they were all thinking but were afraid of saying it out loud. The uncertainty hung in the air, turning the atmosphere into something heavier.
"Maybe we should ask Grams to help us," Bonnie offered. "She kept asking me questions and I had to lie to her, but what if we asked her to help us? I'm pretty sure that she would agree if we told her that..."
"There's no need," I interrupted her, speaking for the first time since I entered the house and alerting everyone to my presence. "Sheila may once have been a powerful witch but she's more of a theorist now rather than a practitioner. Participating in a powerful ritual may end very badly for her."
They all shifted as if about to swarm me with questions and comforting hugs but I knew that we couldn't afford to spend our precious time on something so useless, so I just gave them all a small smile and headed right to the fridge to pour myself something to drink.
"And I'm fine, by the way, there's nothing to worry about." I added feeling them exchanging concerned looks.
"What do you mean, it would end badly for Grams?" Bonnie asked hesitatingly. "She said that we Bennetts were one of the most powerful bloodlines among our kind. She's old, there's no question about that, but surely she's powerful enough to..."
"Your Grams will die if she participates in the ritual tonight." I calmly stated and finally turned towards them before taking a sip of my water, while their expressions turned to ones of alarm and shock.
"What? How do you..." Bonnie asked with fear.
Instead of answering that stupid question I just looked at her calmly, letting that realization to sink in.
"The painting..." Stefan murmured quietly, but not quietly enough for everyone else to miss his words.
"What painting?" Elena frowned at her boyfriend, dragging everyone's attention to him.
Stefan saw that everyone was waiting for him to elaborate and looked at me thoughtfully.
"One of the painting of the future that Thalia created was of two women standing in front of the entrance of the tomb holding hands and by the torches that were lit up around them, they were clearly performing a ritual to open it. But one of the figures had a dark shadow-like figure behind them, with its hand on their shoulder. When we asked what it meant Thalia said..."
"Death." Everyone's heads snapped back at me, their expressions alarmed. "I said it was Death. My visions not only show me the possible future, but also the future that might have been there if it wasn't for my existence."
"What does it even mean?" Jeremy frowned curiously.
"It means that if I was never born or didn't become the part of this family for whatever reason, the tomb would've been opened by Sheila and Bonnie and because of it being not an easy ritual to perform, Sheila, being weaker due to her old age and due to Bonnie being not strong enough yet as she was just starting to explore her powers, would've ended up dragging the ritual almost on her own which would be the cause of her death. I'm not about to allow my best friend to lose the only mother figure that she has when I could easily prevent that."
I let them all soak that information in and meanwhile turned back to the fridge where I remembered seeing an apple. I didn't really like apples, but I was hungry and needed something to calm my growling stomach.
In complete silence I took a crunching bite of my apple and headed towards the hallway.
"I'm gonna go change and grab the Grimoires. We have an hour to get there and set everything up. I hope you've prepared everything I asked you to, Dracula?" I paused in the doorway and threw a look at Damon who was already putting on his jacket, eager to finally get it all over with.
"Everything's ready, Sabrina. Even though it was a pain in the ass to acquire torches."
I ignored his annoyed grumbling and turned towards the kitchen for the last time. Everyone was already on their feet, determined to do everything in their power to make sure that everything goes without a hitch. I observed them all, seeing clear signs of worry and yet again squashed down the urge to comfort them and tell them that everything was going to be fine.
Those may be my last moments with my family for all I knew.
I wasn't about to spoil them with lies.