Author's note: So grateful for all the love given to this story, truly! You're all amazing, and I count myself truly blessed.
Sorry it took a while to get this chapter out, but there are a lot of moving parts in this story, and I wanted to make sure that all my bases were covered. They are, mostly – just peeking out like mischievous little coquettes – but it's more fun that way! :D
A part of Damon wanted to bristle at the extra show of affection from Elena and moodily inform her that he wasn't going to break, but mostly he just allowed himself to enjoy the adoring softness in the glances she would steal in his direction, seemingly every chance she could, a secret smile gently curving her lips; the way her hand refused to leave his, tracing soft circles into the palm with her thumb while their fingers stayed intertwined; the soothing timbre of her voice when she would sporadically lean toward him to ask a question about their trip, or about familiars, or anything seemingly unrelated to what just happened, while assessing his voice and gaze and overall self to make sure he's still okay. It filled him with a curious warmth that was especially poignant because of the torrential tailspin with which Katherine's words assaulted his emotional state.
The sudden juxtaposition of the two had sent him reeling; but at the moment, he could almost swear he felt warm, save, loved.
The problem was precisely that it came on the heels of such a tumultuous roller coaster that cut so deeply into his every natural wound, and unbeknownst to each other, they both wondered when the consequences of Katherine stirring such old and intrinsic hurts would make themselves known.
Elena was determined to lessen the impact in any way she could; and Damon sincerely hoped he would continue to let her.
"Toronto is over ten hours away, so I was thinking we could stop somewhere for the night, and do some exploring? We'll probably have to make a straight drive on our way back because we'll have to get the familiars settled," Damon prompted, subconsciously leaning in her direction.
"That sounds perfect," Elena smiled, squeezing his hand. "Where do you want to go?"
"We could revisit New York, now with the humanity-on tour," he wryly suggested. "Or we can make most of the drive and make our stop by Niagara Falls."
"Let's do Niagara Falls," Elena reasoned. "I'd want to take in some Broadway shows if we visited the city, and that would take longer than one night. We'll save it for a time that's more serene – more peaceful."
"Like that'll ever happen!"
"Damon!" Elena admonished. "Everything will be okay and peaceful again. You'll see. We'll find Stefan and Bonnie and we'll train our familiars," she explained, hoping the playful tone she injected into her words would soothe the statement that followed. "And then when I go back to my adventures at Whitmore," she inflected up, trying to sound very casual, to Damon's answering groan, "I could be much more careful! Since I'll have some avian assistance."
"Right," he deadpanned, dropping the matter for now. "Speaking of our missing persons, I doubt your Douchey Doppelgänger is going to be much help with finding Stef now."
"We don't need her!" Elena announced with considerably more confidence than she felt. "Any leads on that, by the way?"
"No idea. Maybe he got sucked into a parallel universe where he's happily draining all hundred and one Dalmatians," Damon quipped, though Elena could tell he was nervous and his brother's lengthy disappearance.
"Hey, we'll find him," Elena squeezed his hand reassuringly, then allowed her lips to curve into a mischievous grin. "Even if Pongo does taste better than the typical Mystic Falls squirrel," she added hoping to gage his interest in the details of the film.
"Elena, I'll happily watch some anime with you, but Disney cartoons are where I draw a hard line. You can borrow Steffie for that predictable sap-fest. I don't do formulaic," he shuddered. "Whenever we actually find him."
Silas walked out of the room after having taken the Cure from Katherine's prone body. It was done. He was a witch again. All he had to do now was find the anchor to the Other Side, and he would finally be reunited with his beloved Amara.
He stepped out of the cell, feeling more pleased than he had in weeks, completely unaware that Katherine was losing entirely too much blood for someone who had just been exposed to the healing properties of an immortal's saliva.
As the incense spread through the house, Jeremy found himself feeling increasingly fuzzier. Although he'd been around the sweet-smelling smoke before – especially when helping Bonnie cast spells – something about this batch in particular felt altogether different, almost surreal. His vision started to blur, and Bonnie's concerned voice began to turn into an indecipherable echo.
Suddenly, the room around him disappeared, and Jeremy looked to be standing in a field of clouds.
"Where am I?" he hazily questioned, feeling his own voice more than hearing it, a though he was speaking inside his own head.
"You are on the Astral Plane," answered a woman with a kind face, baring a striking resemblance to Bonnie – perhaps familial. "I'm Emily. Emily Bennett."
"She's my ancestor – the witch whose grimoire I've been using," a very corporeal-looking Bonnie explained beside him, as though suddenly materializing. She looked so real.
Jeremy reached out to touch her, his eyes widening when he was able to feel her skin. "You're alive again?" he shakily queried, scarcely allowing himself to feel hope.
"Not quite," Bonnie lamented. "The Astral Plane transcends the physical – it's a place of both knowledge and imagination. The rules are different here."
"Why does it look like we're standing on field of clouds?" Jeremy inquired, glancing about and stomping on the loud below him for good measure, testing its sturdiness, then realizing that perhaps it wouldn't be the best idea if it gave way and he fell thousands of feet to the ground.
"The Astral Plane is how you imagine it to be. To you, it is a field of clouds. To me, it is a blooming meadow. To others still, it is the place that gives them the most peace."
Jeremy nodded, trying to make sense of this new and unusual development, when Bonnie's voice impatiently cut through his reverie, all business.
"What was the lead you wanted to show us? Because we need to leave," Bonnie prompted.
"We wanted to alert you that Silas still walks free, wearing his real face – his own face – one with which you are very familiar," Emily replied solemnly.
"What does that mean?" Jeremy queried, confusion seeping into his features. Combined with this strange, ethereal plane, he felt entirely out of his element.
"It means that Stefan never threw him into the quarry – it means that –"
"Your friend has been made to take his place," Emily completed Bonnie's explanation.
"Then we have to go!" Bonnie replied, panicked. "If Silas is walking free, our friends need us even more!"
"There is another matter now," Emily continued grimly. "One of which I am not at all fond."
"Do you ever just speak in complete thoughts?" Jeremy inquired, earning a glare from Bonnie for his rudeness, to which he responded with a shrug. He was kidnapped onto a witchy realm. They could deal with a bit of attitude.
Choosing to ignore Jeremy's outburst, Emily elaborated, "in the last few minutes, a lifeforce connected to your Pendant of Life began to fade away –"
"Jeremy, where's that talisman I gave you?" Bonnie interrupted, her eyes growing wide with significance.
"In my phone case," Jeremy grumbled, slapping his forehead at his own folly, "which Katherine stole. Why?"
"I gave it to you for protection," Bonnie stressed. "I made it, so it's connected to me."
"And now, the other end is connected to a woman who is being both drained of blood and simultaneously healed."
"What?" Jeremy asked, becoming annoyed Emily's lack of explanation – as she continued to behave as though he was also a witch and privy to knowledge he didn't have.
Emily sighed patiently, unused to dealing with complete novices. "When vampires drink a victim's blood, they release the healing properties in their saliva to prevent said victims from quickly dying of blood loss. This is how they are able to feed from the same human multiple times."
"So, someone is feeding on Katherine now?" Bonnie quickly deduced.
"That is correct," Emily concurred. "However, my sisters and I had a bit of a disagreement, and I was overruled. Since she is connected to your Pendant of Life, we were able to use the magic connecting us to the Astral Plane to cease the healing, and transfer most of the remainder of her lifeforce to you, Bonnie. Only death can pay for life."
Bonnie's eyes widened in understanding, though she didn't want to immediately voice her suspicions.
"So Katherine was sacrificed to bring back Bonnie? How is that a bad thing?" Jeremy asked, frowning.
"Because it's blood magic," Emily spat distastefully. "And that always has consequences."
"What consequences?" Bonnie asked frightfully, as the forest she saw began to dissipate with her returning heartbeat, her corporeal form. In the distance, she saw Emily open her mouth to reply, before immediately fading out of existence as she and Jeremy were promptly returned to the witch house.
Breathing heavily, Jeremy grabbed an armoire to steady himself. That had to have been one of the most surreal and frightening experiences of his young life, though all negative emotion was cast aside when he saw a very living Bonnie in front of him.
"Bonnie!" he shouted gleefully. "You're alive!"
Gathering her into an embrace, he didn't notice the new figure that joined them in the corner of the room, glaring proverbial daggers into their backs.
They could hardly ignore her when a pebble landed squarely on the back of his head. "Ouch, what was – Katherine!?"
"Yeah, somehow," she drawled, looking positively annoyed. "Does someone want to explain to me what the hell I'm doing here!?"
Surpriiiise! Katherine's a poltergeist! Why a poltergeist and not a regular ghost? Great question! You'll get the answer in a forthcoming chapter. This is going to come with consequences yet to be revealed.
I know, I knoooooooow – (almost) everyone hates Katherine and wants her gone, especially after how awful she was to Damon last chapter. I get it. :D But I have plans for her. That chapter was a pivotal one for them both (and Elena by extension) – but for very different reasons. I really hope you like where her arc is going, and that I'm able to pull it off. It's a bit lofty, but I'm hopeful! (FYI, Silas was deliberately written to be the more evil one there, so food for thought for forthcoming chapters.) :D
Considering how often vampires feed on very vital arteries – and Stefan even mentioned the carotid artery by name in Miss Mystic Falls, I'm left to assume that TVD vampires are able to heal as they drink. Otherwise, they'd just be killing people left and right, which obviously isn't the case. So, yay for fun head canons! :D
I don't know why I had Damon diss Disney movies. It just felt amusing to me. :D He strikes me as someone who seeks originality in all things, and a lot of the movies follow a formula (formulas in mathematics are a beautiful display of esoteric truth; formulas in art are hackneyed and take away from it). I actually like some of them, but Damon's a lot stauncher about this sort of thing than I am.
This is such a delightful community, and I just wanted to extend the warmest, most sincere hugs to you all. Special thanks to Kriz03 (who's had full discussions with me about both Timey Wimey and Serendipity that were enormously helpful) scarlett2112 (who's kind enough to listen to me explain planned plot points for Timey Wimey), and Florencia7 (who's just super-awesome).
I'm super-eager to hear all your thoughts and feelings and speculations, so please leave a review!
Have a lovely weekend, all. Be kind to yourselves, and each other. Much love. :D