Author's note: My brain really wants to continue telling this story, so here we are! :D
ENORMOUS thanks for the favorable feedback, making my creative's heart burst with joy. I appreciate it so much more than I can ever conceivably hope to express.
Throughout the entire trip home thus far, Elena kept her hand in Damon's, their fingers intimately entwined, taking occasional seconds to trace soothing circles on the back of his hand. She fought to keep any anxiety from her voice, instead actively focusing on a smooth, soothing tone. "Are you okay?"
Damon closed his eyes for a few moments, as though trying to will an image away, and squeezed her hand in response. "What were you thinking?" The anger that Elena expected to hear in his voice was distinctly missing; instead, with a sorrowful pang, she thought she heard a trace of disappointment.
"That I found the best part of being a vampire, aside from getting to spend eternity with you, of course," she cajoled, her valiant effort to lift the mood.
"I thought we were done with the reckless kamikaze missions, Elena."
"What!? Damon, come on. You know that's not what this –" Elena balked. While she understood that a lot of her behavior as a human could kindly be called "self-destructive," there was certainly a difference here. She was not helplessly running into a tomb to battle a five-hundred-year-old vampire in a misguided and feeble attempt to save her then-boyfriend. She was an empowered supernatural creature with actual superpowers secretly and sneakily fighting comparatively weak and powerless humans. Surely, he had to see that these were not comparable.
"You have no idea the danger you're putting yourself in," Damon interrupted hotly, becoming increasingly agitated, though Elena could clearly see the underlying anxiety in the way he squeezed her hand.
"It's a college campus! Practically a safe haven for weirdos. I'm just the latest 'it' event. They'll move on to something else as soon as – someone decides to answer every question in class through interpretive dance – I don't know. Everyone's just trying to find themselves, and have some fun along the way. In the meantime, at least I'm able to help people and save some lives," she argued, her voice instilled with passion, but also pleading for him to understand. "I really feel like this is giving me a sense of purpose in my vampirism."
"Or, they'll just set a trap for you, and then dissect you in some lab!"
"You're being ridiculous!" She threw her hands up in frustration. Even though Damon was an admittedly emotional person, he had a strong propensity for logic and deductive intuition, so his current behavior was just baffling to her. Attracting a council of vampire hunters, fine. But a secret lab? This was starting to sound like science fiction.
"No, I'm not! Because that's exactly what could happen."
"How do you know!?"
"I – " Damon began, but suddenly halted, pointedly turning away from her and toward his open window, hiding. "Heard about similar experiments being done. There was a rumor about it in the fifties." Something about this action seemed peculiar to Elena, though she knew him well enough to understand that if she pressed him now, she wouldn't get anywhere. This was best stored to be revisited later, when he's more relaxed.
"Since when do you listen to idle gossip?"
"Just please promise me you'll stop. Elena, please," he softened, finally facing her. "I'm begging you." The look in his eyes was so raw, and terrified, and exposed that all Elena could do for a few moments was struggle to breathe again. There was definitely so much he wasn't telling her.
"You made a promise first," she quietly replied, after the ability to think and reason mercifully returned, though her emotions at his vulnerable display were still in disarray. "You said that you would trust my judgment. This is it. I'm using my pass."
"You planned this," he smiled with grudging affection, admittedly impressed. "You came up with that idea because you knew you were going to do this."
"What can I say?" She asked with a laugh that was perhaps too loud, driven by the heightened roller coaster of emotion from seeing him so distraught, then the sharp relief of the subsequent genuine smile. You're rubbing off on me," she purred, affectionately caressing his cheek. "You and your diabolical plans."
They continued driving through the town for several long moments. Soon they would be home. "Fine. A compromise then," Damon finally broke the silence. "It'll help you be a lot more careful."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I'm going to teach you a rare vampire trick – not to be shared with anybody. That includes Vampire Barbie."
"Why are you so secretive about this?" Elena inquired, amusement adding to her piqued curiosity.
"Because the first rule of successful vampirism is that if you have a tremendous advantage, you aim to keep it," Damon explained importantly.
"So, what is it?"
He smiled in a way that was almost uncomfortable. Sheepish, Elena would have called it, if the adjective didn't seem like a direct contradiction of his entire personality. "Remember that raven that used to follow you around at the start of your junior year?"
"You mean the one that used to mess with me – oh my God. That was you!?" Elena widened her eyes, aghast.
"My familiar," he corrected.
"I felt like that bird kept deliberately trying to scare me. What the hell, Damon? So, you're telling me that it was you the entire time?"
"No, it was my raven," Damon calmly retorted, desperate to shift some of the blame, though he looked entirely too pleased with himself.
"Which you evidently controlled."
"Elena," Damon widened his eyes in an exaggerated show of innocence that she didn't buy for a second. "Ravens are very intelligent and independent creatures. Far be it from me to expect to command – nay – control one's every whim. They're free birds. They do what they want."
Elena studied him with narrowed eyes, head tilted to the side in a manner she likely picked up from spending so much time with him.
"Oh, really?"
"Absolutely!"
"Okay, Damon," Elena acquiesced patiently, belying a twinkle of mischief in her eyes that gave Damon pause. "You're right. Let's begin our lessons."
"We'll take a trip into the forest to pick out some new familiars tomorrow. In the meantime, try to figure out if you want a raven or a crow. There are pros and cons to both. I usually went for a crow, but except for my last one."
"What happened to him? Her?"
"I had to drain her when Stef near-desiccated me in that basement cell." He winced, then recovered almost too quickly. That entire period was still a source of shame for him, not the least of which because he used a friend of hers as a personal juice box.
"Oh no!" Elena's hands covered her lips in horror and sympathy, having lost beloved pets before. "Oh, Damon. I'm so sorry. Do you ever miss her?"
"It's just a bird, Elena," he replied flippantly, though she could tell by the barely-perceptible catch in his voice that he did – and perhaps something deeper, as well, like he was thinking of an entirely different avian altogether.
"We'll take good care of the new ones," Elena smiled reassuringly, taking his hand. "So, what did you want to tell me before I left my room this morning?"
"Ugh, I completely forgot," he groaned, becoming visibly annoyed." I almost wish I had. So, no big deal," he began in a faux-placating tone that made Elena believe that the exact opposite of what he said was true. "But Katherine's staying at the Boarding House."
"WHAT!?"
"Oh, little Gilbert!" Katherine called, drunkenly sashaying toward an increasingly disturbed Jeremy after raiding Damon's bourbon stash. "I think I've had a little too much to drink. Grab me a glass of water?"
"Get it yourself, Katherine!" He shot back, annoyed that the woman directly responsible for one his deaths had the audacity to demand favors, though that train of thought only added to his disturbed feeling the more he analyzed it.
"But my feet are tired," she pouted, falling into his lap as Jeremy scurried to get away from her roaming hands. "I've been wearing these high stilettos all day, and I could use some help from a big, strong man."
"Ugh, gross!" Jeremy quickly shot up, shoving Katherine aside unceremoniously. "You look like my sister. All that's going to do is make me want to throw up."
"And where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but Bonnie asked me to check out a lead at the witch house," he called before closing the door behind him.
"God, men are so stupid," Katherine mumbled to herself once she was sure that Jeremy was out of earshot, suddenly a lot more visibly sober and removing Jeremy's phone and wallet from her hiding place underneath her, after her successful pick-pocketing attempt. "Now let's see if you're as basic as you look and made your passcode something easily findable on your ID, because I've had a craving for sushi for weeks," she quietly sang, having fallen into a habit of speaking her thoughts aloud since losing the powerful hearing of the supernatural.
"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity, Katherine," a voice so sweet and familiar called from across the parlor. How did she not hear him come in? Oh, right, she was a pathetic human now.
"Stefan?" She breathed his name in almost hopeful reverence – hard, jaded eyes softening at the sight of the only man she's ever allowed herself to love.
Jeremy walked into the abandoned house that held the restless spirits witches betrayed and subsequently burned by the townspeople. Healers, teachers, diviners all dwelt here, condemned to a brutal death mere hours after several used their powers and risked exposure to heal the mayor's daughter.
Not for the first time, he felt abject disgust at the mores of his town's inhabitants of yesteryear.
"Hey," he spoke uncertainly to an empty, abandoned house. "I know it probably doesn't mean much to you, but I'm really sorry about what happened to you. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair."
He thought he felt a distinct stirring in the air, when Bonnie suddenly appeared.
"Hey, Bon. What did you want me to do here?" Jeremy asked, before fully taking in her appearance. Her gaze was distant and unsettled, almost traumatized.
"Let me guess. You just came back from Elena's, and my sister's life is still a porno," he flatly quipped.
She shook her head vigorously in response, snapping out of her stupor at the mention of her friend's name. "We have to talk to Elena now – right now. I was in Whitmore Hall's basement. There was a vampire," she rushed to get all the words out, her voice trembling with distress, as Bonnie did everything she could to not burst into tears. She had never before witnessed something so horrifying. "He was carving into him. It was all so horrible. He called him by a number."
"Bonnie, slow down. Who's carving? What are you talking about?
"We have to call Elena right now and tell her to stop! She has to stop. She's in terrible danger."
"Stop what?"
"And," she allowed her varied thoughts scattered across the expanse of her mind to gather, with one dominant yelling above all the others. Hitherto, she didn't think she could feel so ardently for the plight of a vampire. "We have to save him." As she said it, she knew it was one of the most viable truths she's ever uttered.
"What? Save who?" Jeremy questioned, confused.
"Just call her!" She screamed, panic bursting forth from every fiber of her being.
Nodding numbly, Jeremy searched his pockets for a phone that was no longer there, while the door to the house promptly shut, locking him inside.
Cliff-hanger! :D
The witches have a reason for locking Jeremy in, but I won't reveal it yet! I would love to hear your speculations, though. ;)
So, Damon isn't ready to give Elena the full-full explanation. There needs to be a catalyst for that. He's hoping that what he said is enough. YAY, animal familiars are back! :D As much as I didn't like the first half of S1 (it took itself, way, waaaaaaay too seriously), I loved the raven so much.
The super-talented scarlett2112 started a gripping her story called Until Proven Innocent. Please do yourself a favor and check it out!
Reviews are always appreciated, so please show some love! :D Wishing everyone great joy and love.