Author's note: You are all fantastic! I'm awed, and floored, and so very happy by the awesome response to this story!
I have to be perfectly honest – if not for you, and your delightful insight, I wouldn't be quite so motivated to continue this story. So thank you, truly, from ever fiber of my being. I'm so grateful to you. :) We are all artists in our hearts, so please let your creativity shine! I will be happy to support you, just as you've supported me. So much love, all.
They'd been driving for a few hours, finally finding themselves somewhere in western Pennsylvania to stop for gas and to stretch their legs for a bit. Having left in the late afternoon, Damon estimated that they'd likely make it to Niagara Falls sometime after midnight if he violates a few speed limit 'suggestions' and compels a few over-inquisitive traffic officers. Worth it. Vampires have excellent reflexes, he mentally shrugged, so it's highly unlikely that their vehicular misbehavior would lend itself to any actual consequences.
While Damon was filling up the Camaro, Elena allowed herself a short walk around the nearby greenspace, when suddenly her heart leapt into her throat with excitement when she saw a phone call – an actual phone call that was decidedly not a text message – from one Bonnie Bennett. Both Elena and Caroline had left her messages for months, practically begging to hear her voice, but were always treated to some level of flimsy excuse, usually from an increasingly anxious Jeremy.
"Bonnie!? Is that really you? I can't believe it! Where have you been?" Elena beamed as she answered the phone.
"Oh, you know," Bonnie's voice replied into the phone evasively. "Around."
"Around!? Bonnie, we've been trying to get in touch with you for months. I need something better than that," Elena scolded with no small amount of affection in her voice for the friend she missed all summer.
"I promise I'll explain everything when we see each other," Bonnie pressed, before frowning. "Hey – where are you? What's all that background noise?"
Elena quickly snuck toward the highway where she hoped some of the vehicular noise would hide her words from eavesdropping vampires. "Damon and I are taking a little trip up to Toronto. Our resident psycho freeloader said a few things that really messed with his head, so we're taking a little time out," she whispered, then her voice suddenly gushed with excitement, "and getting some familiars!"
"Familiars? Vampires have those? What kind?" Bonnie inquired, intrigued.
"Damon said he always had crows and ravens, but I found a place that actually succeeded in mating them, so I'm getting a hybrid," Elena replied, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm.
"Wait! That bird that kept messing with you during junior year – that was him!?"
"His familiar, apparently. He claims complete innocence. Do you buy that at all?" Elena sassed, raising her eyebrow skeptically.
"Nope," Bonnie concurred flatly.
"Yeah, neither do I. I'll make him eat his words. Just you wait," Elena grinned mischievously.
"I'm sure," Bonnie laughed, eager to see this vengeance scheme come into fruition "So why now?"
"I've been involved in some … extracurricular activities … at Whitmore," Elena reluctantly replied, biting her lip nervously, "and Damon's convinced that having one will keep me safer, since I'd be able to use one for surveillance."
"Great idea!" Bonnie forcefully retorted. "You can tell Damon that I'm completely with him on thi –"
"Bonnie, are you okay?" Elena interrupted, laughing. "Since when do you and Damon agree on anything?"
"Since I realized that he really does love you," Bonnie replied after a long pause, clearly thinking about her answer, though Elena could hear the sincerity in her voice.
"What made you finally see it?" Elena asked, touched by her friend's insight.
Hearing a loud crash in the background, Elena was about to inquire about its origin, when Bonnie hastily spoke first. "Listen, no need to hurry home. Go get your familiars. I'll be here when you come back, ready to have a proper girls' reunion."
"Are you sure, Bonnie? Is everything okay? We've been so worried," Elena stressed.
"Positive," Bonnie insisted, before a male and female voice argued in the background, followed by what Elena presumed was more damage to Damon's prized furniture.
"What was that?" Elena asked hesitantly.
"Just Katherine acting out," Bonnie ground out, clearly irritated. "Nothing I can't handle. Have a great trip and come back with that friendly super-bird! Maybe we can teach it to claw holes into Katherine's shoes."
"Living the dream," Elena concurred with a smile. "Okay, I'll talk to you later. Love you."
"Love you, too. Stay safe. Both of you."
"…Thank you, Bonnie. We will. You, too," Elena replied finally, both touched and surprised that her affection and well-wishes in this instance seemed to extend to her erstwhile vampiric nemesis, as well. Maybe getting her friends to accept her relationship would be easier than she feared. She knew that Jeremy was already on board, and Bonnie's reaction was much more favorable than she could have imagined. The biggest hurdles would be Stefan and Caroline, but Elena finally had hope that she would be able to convince them.
Filled with renewed vigor and confidence, Elena took a cursory glance for bystanders around the sleepy town's gas station, and when she saw no one around, she blurred to Damon, who was about to call her over to leave, and pulled him into a passionate kiss. He melted into it immediately, pulling her closer by her waist, his other hand threaded in her hair.
"What was that for?" Damon breathed, after they finally pulled apart.
"Just that I love you, and I'm thankful that you agreed to this, and for caring about me, and looking out for me, and letting me into your little familiar secret," she swooned, cupping his cheeks to lose herself in his azure eyes.
"And it is a secret," Damon insisted, though his voice failed to have any of the severity with which he aimed to inflict it. Instead, his smile was practically goofy, giddy – one few could ever claim they've seen grace the handsome face of Damon Salvatore. But there was something beyond that – a small crack that seemingly widened after they returned home, no doubt assisted by Katherine's cruel tirade, which worried Elena immensely. She resolved to discuss this with him as soon as they stopped for the night.
"And Bonnie's back! She just called me!" She opted instead to focus on happier news, for the time being.
"Did you tell Elena about our latest supernatural development?" Jeremy called, dodging yet another tumbler care of poltergeist Katherine as soon as Bonnie hung up the phone.
"No," Bonnie admitted. "They're headed far away from Whitmore, thank God – and Damon's going to get Elena a familiar. Anything that keeps her safe at that torture chamber of a college is a plus in my book."
"Vampires have familiars? I thought that was a witch thing." Jeremy inquired, completely misunderstanding that Bonnie was being quite literal.
"Apparently," Bonnie shrugged.
"I will not be ignored!" Katherine roared. "What is going on? Why am I forced to follow you around?"
"Believe me, Katherine. We don't like it any more than you do," Jeremy deadpanned.
"Emily implied that there's some kind of connection between Katherine and me now," Bonnie speculated. "What's the farthest you can travel?"
"I have a better question," Katherine snarked. "Is my corpse still in that cell my dear doppelgänger locked me in, before I was murdered?"
"So why crows and ravens?" Elena asked after they'd been back on the road a while. "What about other animals?"
"I'm not sure," Damon answered honestly. "The woman who taught me really only favored corvids, so that's what I learned."
"How'd you meet her? Why did she teach you? Was she a vampire, too?" Elena asked excitedly, the words leaving her lips in a speedy blur, scarcely giving him a chance to reply. This was all so fascinating.
Damon laughed at her enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity, squeezing her hand affectionately. "I met her shortly after I left Mystic Falls in nineteen twelve. Sage finally taught me to embrace the pleasures of vampirism, and Stef and I just had a falling out, so I set my sights on exploring the world. Within a few months, I found myself in a small Oregon town that had been overrun by poltergeists. There, I met Elucia, a witch and healer. The town was suffering from a bout of dysentery that only she had been able to cure, but she was dying from a mortal inflicted on her by one of the poltergeists. Even though she knew she would lose her powers and connection to the Earth, she asked me to turn her. She was the only healer left who knew the secrets of the herbs – when to gather them and how to concoct the life-saving potions," Damon explained.
"Poltergeists are real?" Elena asked, alarmed. "I thought they were just created for horror movies. How come we've never encountered one?"
"How come we've never met any werewolves until the Lockwoods?" Damon countered. "The supernatural world is huge, and I'm constantly surprised by its breadth. I used to think I've seen everything until I met an actual werewolf, but nothing actually surprises me anymore."
"What makes them different from regular ghosts?"
"They can become corporeal for seconds at a time, which doesn't sound like much – but can actually do a lot of damage, considering that can phase and teleport. Everyone can see them – they basically look like living people, until you try to touch them. And they can possess people."
"Everyone?"
"I think only humans, but I'm not sure."
"Why did the poltergeists pick that town?"
"I don't know all the details, but they're not natural. They're artificially made from a blood sacrifice. Really hardcore, dark magic. My guess is that they were betrayed by the townsfolk."
"So, they were vengeful," Elena deduced.
"Yeah." Damon confirmed. "But they were taking it out on the entire town. When I turned Elucia, I stayed behind to teach her some tricks of the trade, since I was her sire – and she did something really unexpected," he paused, still in awe at her cleverness and ingenuity. "She used compulsion on a crow. She built an empathic link."
"No one's ever done that before?" Elena breathed, clearly impressed.
"Not to my knowledge, at least. I asked Elucia if she invented that ability – and she had this really otherworldly, sage way about her, where she liked to speak in riddles. Witches," he scoffed, though there was clear affection in his voice. "She just said that creativity is bestowed to us when we need it most, so I think she meant to imply that others could have figured it out as well, if they ever needed to."
"And then she taught you?"
"Not right away," he admitted. "Even though she was now a vampire, her lifelong witch prejudices still prevented her from trusting us immediately. But she needed my help. The poltergeists, when they finally began working together, had become an enormous menace, and she had to evacuate the town. To do that, we would need to communicate over great distances. So, she taught me her trick in exchange for my help."
"And, of course, you're going to play off the fact that you helped save an entire town as some selfish attempt to learn animal empathy," Elena deadpanned, by now used to his tendency to deflect from admitting his own noble deeds.
"Elena," he replied with an exaggerated show of patience, rolling his eyes. "I did learn an invaluable skill. I don't know of any other living vampire who knows how to do this."
"You didn't have to stay behind and help her adjust to vampirism – you didn't even have to turn her!" Elena cried, exasperated. "You chose to do this, because you wanted to help."
"Did I? Maybe I was just bored," Damon grinned, unable to resist teasing her.
"Arg, you are so frustrating!"
"I know a great way to ease frustration," he leaned toward her, flashing his eyes suggestively with a waggle of his eyebrows.
Elena giggled, "I'm sure you do. But not for another, ooh," she raised a finger to her lips in an ostentatious show of thinking. "Another five hours? Because I want to get there, as soon as possible. No more pit-stops! I want familiar-hunting, first thing upon waking up!"
"Nope!" he grinned. "First thing is me showing you the Falls, then familiar-hunting."
"Nope again!" Elena countered. "First is me showing you exactly how much I love you, and in great, graphic detail," she purred, sounding considerably more awkward than a seasoned seductress like Katherine Pierce would, which he found adorable. "Then the Falls, then familiar-hunting!"
"You drive a hard bargain but sold. I'll allow you to woo me first thing in the morning – or possibly afternoon, depending on what time we actually get there."
"That's all I ask," Elena replied in mock-innocence, one hand splayed on her chest in a jest of sincerity, and the other in Damon's squeezing it with genuine affection and love.
Sorry, everyone. I couldn't resist Oregon and dysentery. I checked to see where crows and ravens overlapped - and Oregon was on the list - and the idea was born. Ahaha! :D (I was originally going to go for a different part of the world entirely, but this amused me far too much.)
Sooo, that's some poltergeist lore that I created for this story. So, uh, it's WGP canon now. :D
Great thanks to you all for being fantastic, especially scarlett2112, Kriz03, and Florencia7. So many hugs. Just so many!
Sorry there's not much Bonnie/Jeremy/Katherine action in this chapter, but I decided to make up for it with some poltergeist lore – since this story features one now! :D Uh-oh. And Katherine is not a happy poltergeist yet, at all.
Please make sure to leave a review! I love hearing all your insights. Be loving to yourself and each other. And have a fantastic day! :D