A/N: Woohoo, 86 reviews! THANKS to all of you for reviewing, favoriting and following! What do you say we make it at least 100 reviews, guys? Chapter 15 will be published as soon as "My Paper Heart" reaches the 100th review! (:
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes, but the original characters and original storylines present in "My Paper Heart" are my own work.
MAYA'S POV
Damon and Bonnie had insisted that I explain them everything that had happened before their arrival, so I did- with the most precise details that I could provide.
Neither of them had been able to find a plausible explanation for it. They were as confused as I was. Bonnie had decided to sleep with me in case it happened again, and Damon had taken possession of the downstairs couch without even asking.
We didn't get much sleep throughout the rest of the night. Every time I did fall asleep, I would awaken with a start. And I could feel that Bonnie had been sleeping with one eye open. I had probably managed to sleep two hours end-to-end, and when the clock blinked 10am, both Bonnie and I had already gave up and crawled out of bed. Damon had cooked us breakfast. Shirtless, of course. Bonnie had been offended by it, but it was so typical Damon for me that I didn't even acknowledge it.
We had all decided that Bonnie and I were going to spend the day at her house trying to find clues about what had happened while Damon would be going on patrol to see if he could catch anything out of the ordinary. Like another witch.
He had left us on Bonnie's doorstep with the order to not leave the house, especially before we knew exactly what we were dealing with.
Bonnie had been looking through her spell books for hours now, but since I couldn't possibly understand the language they were written in, I decided to busy myself by cooking us a nice late lunch. It was either that or fall asleep in the armchair and let her do all the work.
I opened her fridge and, considering what was left in it, managed to come up with an arguably nice recipe. I served us both the salad I made and took the plates back into the living room. I handed Bonnie her plate and she took it, her nose still buried in one of her books. I let myself crash into the armchair and started eating.
"Oh my god! That's delicious!" she exclaimed, her words muffled by the food in her mouth. "How did you make that?"
"With what was in your fridge…" I giggled while taking another bite.
"Really?" she looked down at her plate with a confused look on her face. "It looks really… healthy," she added skeptically. I laughed at her comment.
"Well, since it's healthy, you can have some more if you like it."
"I do!" she confirmed, while taking another mouthful. She drove her attention back to the book she was studying but sighed desperately after a few minutes. She tossed it down on the table in frustration.
"It's pointless…" she finally said while rubbing her face with her hands. "All of those books talk about spells! But the thing is, you're not supposed to feel them!" she continued, her pitch getting higher with irritation.
"What do you mean?" I asked quietly, my brows furrowed. She looked at me and took a few seconds to find the right words to explain it to me.
"You can't feel that a witch is casting a spell on you… human kind or supernatural kind," she started in a teaching tone. "I don't know how to explain this… It's like when I fry the brain of a vampire. He can't possibly know I'm doing it until he feels his veins bursting inside his skull… You know what I mean?"
"Yes. You can only feel the result of a spell, not the spell itself…" I developed to make sure I had it right. She nodded at me with a pleased smile on her lips. "What makes you think that what I experienced was not the result of a spell?" I added, a confused look on my face.
"I don't know… The way you described it, I guess. And the fact that you're obviously okay."
"Well, in that case, there's only one way to find out!" I exclaimed, forcing my enthusiasm.
"Which is…" she drawled, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
"Cast a spell on me."
"What?" she shot in disbelief. "Have you lost your mind? I'm not casting a spell on you!" She frowned deeply, using an irrevocable tone.
"Why not?" I asked, a little bit baffled by her strong reaction.
"Because magic can be a dangerous thing!" she exclaimed, a grave expression on her face. "If I make a mistake, you'll die."
"Oh come on Bonnie! You're being hypocritical," I chided her gently. "I know that witches are supposed to balance good and bad, so there must be some positive spells!"
"Well, I can make a plant grow, but I'm not sure what it would do to you…" she tried, a half smile on her lips. I raised my eyebrows incredulously and gave her a knowing smile.
"Fine… Let me think of something," she sighed. I stayed quiet to give her time to think and finished my salad in the meantime. After a few minutes, she finally spoke up.
"I could do a healing spell…" she suggested hesitantly.
"You can do healing spells?" I shot back, surprised.
"It requires too much power to heal… let's say… broken bones? Without using black magic at least. But I can do it for a cut or something like that."
"I'll remember that next time!"
"I'm not a bandage," she shot back jokingly. I laughed and she gave me a conniving grin.
"So how do we do that?" I asked, intrigued. Suddenly she was serious.
"You're really sure about this?"
"Yes, Bonnie. I trust you."
"Okay," she sighed lightly. "Lay down on the carpet then…" I did what I had been told. She kneeled next to my side.
"Close your eyes and relax, OK?" she said in a reassuring tone, hovering her hands over me. I gave her a quick nod and closed my eyes. After a few minutes of silence, I couldn't take it anymore, so I opened one eye cautiously. She was staring intensely at my body with an upset expression.
"So?" I finally asked.
"It's not working."
"What do you mean, it's not working?" I mimicked her puzzled expression.
"Maybe it's because you're not hurt…" she mumbled, more for herself.
"Okay then!" I shot with a raised eyebrow. I stretched out my arm to reach the table and grabbed the knife lying there.
"What are-" she started to shout in disbelief. I stuck the point of the knife in my fingertip. "-you doing?!" she finished, snatching the knife out of my hands.
"I think I'll survive, Bonnie…" I said, laughing.
"Oh god, you're impossible." She pinchedthe ridge of her nose in annoyance.
"It's just a little prick with a drop of blood… see?" I insisted, showing her my fingertip. "And don't tell me you're not as curious as I am to know if it's going to work now!" I flashed her a playful grin.
"Fine," she growled. "But no matter what happens, you stay away from anything blunt!"
"Deal," I chuckled lightly. I leaned my arm along my side and closed my eyes again. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes when I felt Bonnie grab my hand a little too strongly. She was looking at my finger very closely, an irritated expression visible on her face.
"I assume it didn't work…?" I asked tentatively.
"No," she answered, irritated. "It doesn't make any sense…" She was still scrutinizing my fingertip.
"Maybe my skin is a little bit thicker than most peoples'?" I tried, half joking. She shot me an annoyed look and let drop my hand carelessly. She stood up and left the room.
"Bonnie?" I called after her, surprised, not sure of what had just happened. "Bonnie, I didn't mean it like I was questioning your powers!" I said more loudly, so she could hear me from the next room. No response. I straightened myself to stand up and go after her when she came back with her arms full of candles, a determined look on her face. I smiled to myself. Of course Bonnie would be up for the challenge…
She arranged the candles in a half circle and kneeled in the middle. She lit them with her magic and positioned her hands above my legs to encourage me to lie down.
"Ready?" There was a daring glint in her eyes. I smiled knowingly at her and nodded. I laid on the floor again and closed my eyes, taking a deeply calm breath. I didn't have to wait more than a minute before starting to feel tingles running along my skin.
"Bonnie… I'm starting to feel it again," I whispered, not moving an inch. As soon as I said that, the tingles became more and more intense. They were running from my limbs up to my chest. I took a deep, forced breath to try to stay calm, but as soon as the familiar feeling attempted to invade my insides once again, I panicked. It was a too strong reminder of what had happened last night. I sat up abruptly, shooting my eyes wide open.
"Bonnie, stop," I said firmly. But she didn't hear me. She was too focused on chanting and casting the spell. The feeling was starting to make me nauseous again. I grabbed her shoulders strongly and shook her.
"Bonnie, stop it!" I shouted loudly and urgently. She opened her eyes swiftly and looked at me, astonished. Our faces were just a few inches away and we both stared at one another for awhile, completely confused.
"You're hurting me…" she finally murmured, a little bit hoarsely.
"Sorry." I immediately removed my hands from her shoulders.
"Does it mean that it worked?" I finally whispered hesitantly.
"No." I was now even more confused.
"But ifit was the same feeling… it would logically mean it was the same spell. Right?"
"Actually, no." She was deep in thought, but her voice was clear and firm. "First, I don't see why a witch you don't even know would cast a healing spell on you in the middle of the night when you're not even hurt…" My jaw dropped a little when I realized that the answer was so obvious, it went without saying. She definitely had a point.
"Second…" she trailed off, settling for grabbing my hand and raising it in front of my eyes. The small cut was still at the tip of my finger. My eyebrows disappeared in my hairline and I stuttered a few incoherent words.
"It's already really incredible that you can feel the spell but it just gets better! No matter how hard I try, my powers just rebound against you!" she exclaimed, looking at me in awe.
"You mean, like I have a shield up or something?"
"Yes. But it's more like… you're immune to magic," she almost murmured, obviously fascinated.
"Tell me it's something not that out of the ordinary and that you know exactly what it is…" I said lowly, an hopeful look in my eyes.
"It's definitely extraordinary. And I don't know what it is… yet!" She stood up quickly, grabbing all the spell books she had already studied and putting them onto the couch. She went to her bookcases and selected a half-dozen of books. She turned around and went straight to me, shoving the books into my arms.
"You'll look into my Gram's witch history books to find clues while I'm going to search for a chapter mentioning people immune to magic," she ordered simply, letting herself crash into the couch, a resolute look on her face. I was a little baffled by her pragmatic reaction but did what I had been told.
I was reading for so long that my eyes were stinging and were trying to close by themselves. I was looking through the last book Bonnie had given me and I still hadn't found anything worthy. Hope was leaving me more and more by the second and I was seriously starting to think that what our research was pointless.
I was closing the book reluctantly when Bonnie shrieked suddenly in victory.
"I found it!" she exclaimed loudly.
"What?" She jumped out of the couch and rushed toward me to sit on the arm of my armchair. She pinned the book on my lap triumphantly.
"Look!" She pointed to a page with her index finger. I glanced down at the page and back up at her.
"I don't read gibberish," I deadpanned.
"Oh yes. Right. I forgot, sorry…" she giggled while circling her hand over the book. The words suddenly turned into perfectly readable English.
"Wow," I whispered, always amazed by her powers. "Really convenient."
"It is," she said with a cocky smirk on her lips. "But hurry. The spell doesn't last for too long, to avoid the book falling into the wrong hands… I'm going to make us a sandwich while you're reading it," she added, taping gently on my shoulder before getting up. I watched her leave the living room and then turned my head again to look carefully at the book.
The first chapter talked about the rare humans who had been identified as immune to magic through the ages. But for some reason, my attention was irremediably drawn to the next paragraph. It was talking about a particular species living among the Incans and the Mayans. The text explained that the species had completely disappeared- along with the two mythical civilizations- around the sixteenth century. At those words, my heart started racing frantically. There was no logical explanation for my reaction, but an irrepressible feeling in my gut was screaming at me that what I was about to read was going to turn my whole world upside down. I swallowed hard and forced myself to read the rest.
It was specified that this kind was classified among the supernatural kinds because of their amazing abilities, which surpassed humans' capacities by far. Hearing, sense of smell, and eyesight were a select few of the many examples… One of them was particularly eye-catching: immunity against magic. I couldn't believe what I was reading. My eyes were popping out of my skull and my head was spinning.
"Did you read it?" Bonnie asked, entering the living room with two plates. I flinched violently and closed the book in a hurry. I was so immersed in the reading because of the information it was giving me that I didn't hear her approaching. I looked at her like a deer caught in headlights.
"What's going on?" she asked lowly, her voice dripping with worry- but with a clear, suspicious undertone.
"Nothing… you scared me, that's all." I casually slid the book on the coffee table. She stared at me for a few seconds and finally handed me my sandwich, taking a seat on the couch in front of me.
"So?" she asked impatiently.
"So, I'm one of the rare people immune to magic, among gazillion of humans?" I said hesitantly in a questioning tone.
"Yes, you are!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands in enthusiasm. "Why are you not excited about it?" She frowned, obviously annoyed by my lack of reaction.
"Why are you so excited about it?!" I shot back, a little bit baffled.
"If you were a psychotic monster with great schemes to kill us all, I would obviously not be thrilled about it. But since you're not and you're in fact my friend, I find it extremely exciting!"
"I wish I could be more enthusiastic about it since being immune to magic is pretty cool- knowing the kind of world we're living in- but the thing is, what a spell does to me is still… really unpleasant." I grimaced at the reminder.
"Right," she mumbled, her face thoughtful. "What do you say about some practice? Maybe if I cast enough spells on you, you'll get use to the feeling and will be able to handle it?" I groaned reluctantly at the thought. I wasn't looking forward to feeling it again.
"That's actually not such a bad idea but not today…" I sighed. "I think I'm going to go home," I added with a tired smile.
"Maybe you should stay here…" she said, chewing her bottom lip.
"We know now what it was and we also know that I'm safe, so no need for house arrest," I pointed out in a joking tone. "Plus, we both definitely need a good night sleep!" She seemed to think about my argument intensely before finally speaking up.
"I'll drive you," she announced, standing up to look for her keys.
"Thank you, Bonnie. For everything…" I paused and ran a hand through my hair. "But I think I need… some time alone. To take in everything that happened since yesterday, you know…" I concluded quietly, hoping that she would understand.
"Sure…" She gave me a sympathetic look. "But it would be safer if I give you a ride, don't you think?" The worry in her voice made me feel the urge to reassure her.
"It's okay, Bonnie, I'll be fine. And I really could use the walk to clear my head…" She took the hint silently and hugged me good night.