Cursed Blood and Bound Fates
Chapter 19
The microwave jolted Renfri from her thoughts as she waited for her vervain tea to be ready and she hurriedly grabbed at the door, only to hear a snapping sound. She looked down at her hand to find the handle sitting in it, having detached from the door of the device.
"What the fuck?!" she exclaimed and Stefan appeared behind her.
"What's wrong?…Oh." When his eyes found the plastic gripped in her hand and not on the microwave, he looked confused, "How did that happen?"
She looked up at him, just as perplexed, "Hell if I know, I went to open it and it broke off." She eyed it uncertainly, "Maybe you or Damon pulled too hard and weakened it or something, enough for it to break when I used it." She shook her head and dropped the handle on the island counter while Stefan just raised his eyebrows doubtfully. She removed the mug from the now broken appliance and dropped a tea bag from the box into it. She grabbed some honey and milk to add and stirred it as she followed Stefan back out into the den. She caught a whiff of aftershave and vervain as they turned into the living area.
"Ah, Alaric's here," she commented as she saw him seated across from Elena on one of the couches.
The teacher nodded, "Yeah, Elena mentioned you needed my help?"
"Yeah, we were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family," Stefan replied as he sat next to Elena and Renfri sat on the girl's other side where Ash was lying by the foot of the couch.
Elena turned to her curiously, "What happened in the kitchen? Stefan just disappeared."
Renfri shook her head in annoyance, "Just me breaking kitchen appliances while trying to make my morning tea. The handle of the microwave snapped right off, I blame living with vampires, they must have damaged it before it broke off in my hand."
Elena raised her eyebrows as her friend took a sip of her tea and wrinkled her nose before reaching to set it down on the side table. The brunette turned to look at the other men who only looked back in confusion. Alaric just looked between them all uncertainly before looking back to Damon who sat on the arm of the sofa by his niece.
"Okay, well, why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?" he asked, bringing the conversation back on topic.
"Well, you wouldn't," Damon said immediately, "but your dead, not-dead vampire wife might."
"Isabel's research," Elena added when Alaric took pause at Damon's answer, "You said when you guys were together she had spent years researching this town."
Renfri sat forward a bit, "You said she researched the supernatural, right? That's how she became obsessed with vampires?"
Alaric tilted his head to the side, "Isabel's research, here, in Mystic Falls, was rooted in folklore and legend. At the time, I thought most of which was fiction—"
"Like that amazing vampire story," Damon added with a sarcastic smile.
Alaric nodded at him obligingly and Ren asked, "Aside from vampires, what else did she research?"
"The lycanthrope."
They all glanced at each other suspiciously and Elena leaned forward, "Wait, like, werewolves?"
Damon leaned back and shook his head, "No way, not possible, way too Lon Chaney."
"Is it?" Elena asked.
"I've been on this planet a hundred and sixty some odd years, never come across one," Damon insisted but Renfri looked thoughtful.
"But that's not that long compared to other vampires, what if you just never met any? Or didn't know you did? Vampires look normal up until they try to bite you, what if werewolves can too?"
Damon huffed, "Okay, if they exist, where the hell are they?"
Alaric shook his head, not having an answer, so he asked another question, "Why do you suspect the Lockwoods?"
Damon glanced at his niece and said, "Because vervain didn't affect the mayor on Founder's Day and the Gilbert device did."
"It affected Tyler too…and me," Renfri added and Alaric's eyebrows raised a bit.
"And at the school carnival his uncle, Mason, exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought one of the carnival workers, it suggested some sort of a supernatural entity," Stefan concluded.
Elena joined in, "We were hoping Isabel's research could help us figure out what it is and maybe what Ren could be too." The other teenager nodded in confirmation when the teacher looked at her.
"Well, her things are still at Duke, I mean her office is still there…she's technically still missing." They all looked around awkwardly at that, knowing the truth behind that.
Damon threw up his hands in question, "So, can we get access to it or not?" Alaric rolled his head on his shoulders, seemingly hesitant, and Renfri frowned.
Damon continued to push before she could, "Ric, we don't know what we're dealing with. If this wolf-man thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good. It means Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney Jr., which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is screwed."
Despite his cavalier language, Ren could tell that Damon was actually serious about his concern, and she added, "We should also look into any other supernatural research she had. The Lockwoods may be werewolves, though I'm still not sure about Tyler, but we don't know if I am. I could be something else we haven't thought of yet or don't know about. We don't really know anything about why the device affected me, we're only guessing at this point."
Alaric looked between her and the others for a moment before he sighed, "Alright, I'll call her office to see if we can go under the guise of packing up some of her stuff."
Renfri nodded and smiled gratefully as the others seemed satisfied to be able to research the recent supernatural oddity in town; hopefully getting some answers to their questions.
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Alaric's white SUV was parked on the street outside the Gilbert house as Damon and Ren leaned against it, waiting for the rest of their group to come out so they could leave for Duke.
Renfri shifted towards her uncle and asked, "Is it bad that I can hear most of Ric and Jenna's awkward conversation across the yard?"
He glanced at her curiously, "Hmm, not sure, but I'd guess that that and the fact that you broke the microwave means you've got enhanced senses and strength. And don't even argue about it, you know Stefan and I didn't break it, you did, so suck it up."
She pouted a bit before sobering again, "Do you think I could be a werewolf or something else?"
He shrugged, "Who knows, though I'm hoping you're not a werewolf, because it'd be a bit awkward if you decided I looked like a tasty treat each month. Who knows, you could be a fairy for all we know." She rolled her eyes and turned to watch as Elena and Stefan trotted down the porch steps and headed their way with Alaric not far behind.
As they came up to the vehicle, Damon remarked, "Sorry you can't come too, Stef," and gave a smug smile.
Stefan ignored him and told Elena, "Call me if you need anything."
"Oh, I'll take really good care of her," Damon replied despite not being addressed, clearly trying to piss off his brother. Elena obviously did not appreciate it because she tossed her jacket and bag through the window before grabbing her boyfriend by the back of the neck to pull him into an intimate kiss. Damon just looked at them neutrally for a second before turning his head away. Renfri mentally sighed and decided to break the awkward tension.
"Elena, you harlot!" She slapped a hand over Damon's eyes, making him jump slightly in surprise, and the other over her own as the couple parted, "How dare you sully our eyes like this, I thought you were pure!"
Jenna laughed from the porch as she and Alaric parted ways while Damon pushed Ren's hand away with a chuckle. He winked at her before turning to open his door and get in the passenger seat. The brunette only shook her head at her friends' antics but allowed a small smile, like Stefan. She hopped into the back seat, quickly followed by Ren who pushed her further in, deciding it was best not to have her sit directly behind the man who thought it was smart to provoke the person he wanted forgiveness from.
"Alright, let's get going. This is going to be nearly a full day trip and I can't tolerate all of you together for that long without aid, so shut it and leave me be," Renfri declared before stuffing her earbuds in and settling in for the ride.
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She'd ignored the others for the most part, blasting her music while getting some homework done (purposefully ignoring Damon and Elena's bickering about Jeremy and whether or not he saw the ring) then took a short nap for the last leg of the drive. Once they arrived and Elena had shaken Renfri awake, allowing her to stretch and crack various parts of her stiff body, they filed out of the vehicle and followed Alaric to Isabel's office. Renfri checked her phone, which she had put on 'do not disturb' for the ride. Caroline had texted her with an update which she announced to the group as they walked across the campus.
"Looks like Stefan convinced Bonnie to make Caroline a daylight ring, it's the least she can do since she keeps fucking up," she told them, "Care's not too happy about the ring itself, but is excited to not burn in the sunlight."
Damon nodded, "Yeah, it's a nice little treat. Blondie should be grateful, daylight rings aren't common among vampires."
"Why is that?" Elena asked.
"Let me guess," Ren answered, "because only witches can make them and witches tend to hate vampires?"
"Got it in one," Damon said with a grin as he pointed at her. "Emily was kind enough to give Stef and I our daylight rings, probably because she felt bad about helping Katherine cause chaos and turn us, but it's pretty convenient to have."
"I bet it is, I'm sure you'd have a harder time finding victims or blending into small town life if you couldn't come out during the day," Alaric remarked dryly and Elena hummed in agreement exaggeratedly.
"Well, it works out for me, at least. I get a legal guardian who is visibly part of the town populace and not some mysterious loner who only comes out in the dark like a serial killer," Ren commented.
"I'm pretty sure he's worse than a serial killer," Ric replied.
"Oh, Ric, I'm not that bad," Damon assured him.
Renfri raised her eyebrows, "Yeah, right now, but what about when your humanity's off? Has that ever happened?"
Damon deliberately looked away before he cleared his throat, "Yeah, that's nothing you want to hear about. Anyway, where's the undead bitch's office?"
Renfri silently took note of the quiet pause he'd taken before deflecting the conversation away from his time with his humanity switched off, but decided not to address it unless it seemed dire. She had assumed he'd had his off before, like Stefan clearly had, but wondered how his experience might have differed. She supposed it wasn't something someone easily talked about, Stefan was obviously ashamed of those times and maybe Damon was too. She glanced at her uncle and wondered how long ago, or how recently, his humanity had been off.
"Here we are," Ric said as they entered one of the buildings, "So Isabel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomena are rooted in folklore." As they entered the main lobby and saw a young woman, he called out, "Excuse me, hi, I'm Alaric Saltzman, I called earlier?"
The young woman with medium brown hair and blue eyes closed the file drawer she was in and nodded with a smile, "Yes, uh, of course, I'm Vanessa Monroe: research assistant in comparative folklore." As she shook his hand, her gaze strayed to the other three, lingering on Damon and Elena, before she started talking again. "Oh, let me just grab Isabel's keys—"
Alaric, catching her stare, introduced them, "Ah, I'm sorry, these are my friends Elena, Damon, and Renfri, I hope it isn't too much of an imposition."
Vanessa gave a pleasant smile and quickly waved him off, "Please. Isabel's office is right through there. Isabel was one of my first professors, I'm a grad student. She was…brilliant." Vanessa opened a drawer and pulled some keys out then leaned on the desk, "She's one of the reasons I went into folklore…I have to ask, has there been any news?"
At this, a bit of tension leaked into the air and Alaric's face became stoic, "No. No, I'm afraid not."
"Oh, well, this way," she said as she unlocked a connecting door and led them into a spacious office filled with dark wood, antique looking furniture, and the walls covered in bookshelves and old looking file cabinets. Every surface was chock full of books, tomes, and papers of a large variety. "Feel free to look around, I'll grab the light," she told them and walked out again.
The four of them split apart to different areas of the room to look through the materials but after a little bit, Ren looked up and around the room curiously, looking for the research assistant.
Clearly thinking the same thing, Damon asked, "Where'd she go?" Ren heard footsteps and Elena turned to look with her as Vanessa stopped in the doorway holding, to their surprise, a loaded crossbow.
They both sucked in sharp breaths and Damon looked up just in time for the woman to pull the trigger while aiming at Elena. Renfri lunged desperately for her friend, crossing half the room's length quickly in an attempt to block the shot, but Damon beat her to it. In an instant, Damon was in front of Elena and the arrow pierced his flesh before a groan was heard as he stood protectively over the shocked girl. The crossbow bolt was sticking out from between his shoulder blades and he grabbed a shelf behind her in an attempt to hold himself up before he collapsed to his hands and knees on the floor. Renfri stared at him in horror, realizing the bolt was wooden, but felt immense relief when he didn't turn gray and desiccate. She whipped around to bare her teeth in an angry snarl at the woman who had attacked her uncle, rushing towards where Alaric was already holding her against the doorframe. The teacher held her firmly, having thrown the weapon away from them, but was shocked when Renfri shouldered him aside and grabbed the woman by the throat.
Vanessa's hands immediately went to yank at the one squeezing her neck so tightly that air barely made it through but the furious girl's grip didn't falter as she glared at the woman.
"What the fuck was that!?" Renfri growled into the woman's face, but she couldn't reply and only continued to sputter in an attempt to suck in air. When she clawed at Renfri's hands, digging in her nails in her desperation, the girl hissed but just threw her to the floor, causing Vanessa's head to bounce on the wood panels.
"Hey, Renfri!" Alaric yelled and got between them, his hands raised up defensively to ward off any further advancement on the young woman. Elena had gasped at the display of violence from her friend and Damon had turned his head enough to see his niece attacking the woman who had shot him. From his position on the floor, he was able to watch with some surprise and pride as her eyes blazed with protective rage while grabbing the attacker in a chokehold before sending her to the floor when scratched. Elena ran forward to wrap her arms around Ren whose chest was heaving from the anger coursing through her at the research assistant who had shot her uncle.
She had almost elbowed the person who had grabbed her in the gut when she heard Elena's voice shushing her, "Ren, it's okay! Damon's gonna be okay, calm down, Ric has her. You don't need to hurt her, let's help Damon, okay?" Elena's murmured reassurances helped take the redhead's focus off of the young woman now gratefully sucking in gulps of air as Alaric hauled her up and pulled her into the other room, away from the others.
Elena tugged on Ren's shoulders, which were still trembling with emotion, to get her to face them. When she heard a groan, Renfri allowed herself to be turned and saw Damon slowly and carefully getting up from the floor, the arrow shifting as his muscles moved. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths as Elena continued to make shushing noises intended to help calm her down before she opened them and moved toward her uncle.
"Don't move too much, the wood will shift inside you."
Damon laughed dryly, "Yeah, well I'd rather be standing when this damn thing comes out, gotta maintain some dignity." He was hunched over the top of the built in shelves underneath the large windows letting the sunlight into the room. Elena released her, seeing that she was now calm and wouldn't go after the woman…at the moment. Renfri was still fuming inside but she'd calmed down enough to decide to focus on getting the arrow out of her uncle's back.
She stepped up behind him hesitantly, unsure of he had a preference on how she should go about getting it out when he interrupted her speculation.
"Just pull the damn thing out already, Red," he hissed, "I can't reach it and it hurts." She glanced at him before nodding and, without a word, yanked the wooden bolt from between his shoulder blades. He straightened immediately after a grunt and shook his shoulders out while Renfri fiddled with the hole in his shirt, checking to make sure the wound was healing and he shrugged her off as he relieved the tension in his muscles.
"Ooo, haaa, yeah, that bitch is dead."
He turned to head for the door but Elena quickly intercepted him, holding up a hand, "Uh, you're not gonna kill her."
Damon only smirked gleefully, "Watch me."
"She kind of deserves it," Renfri muttered resentfully, the anger still bubbling under her skin.
As he nodded and moved past Elena, the girl turned to call out, "You touch her and I swear that I will never speak to you again."
He stopped to face her as his face twisted at the statement, "What makes you think that has any power over me?" Renfri rolled her eyes and looked away from the two as she crossed her arms, seeing the beginning of more bickering about to happen.
When Elena looked down without answering, he sauntered towards her, "Because I took an arrow in the back for you? You are severely overestimating yourself right now." He casually reached over to sling an arm over her shoulder which was quickly pushed away.
"Right, I forgot that I was speaking to a psychotic mind who snaps and kills people impulsively," she shrugged, "Fine, go ahead, do whatever you want."
Damon stared down at her, "You're trying to manipulate me."
"If by manipulate you mean 'tell the truth,' okay, guilty," she looked back at him calmly while he only smirked at her attempts to control him.
When he said nothing, Renfri interjected, "Well, back on topic. Although I'd have liked to kill her in the moment, upon reflection I realize that we would likely be caught walking a dead body across campus, and at the very least, Alaric's call would be on the phone records and the campus security cameras would show us having visited. Not the most well thought out murder, yeah?"
Damon chuckled and shook his head as he moved over to her. He surprised her by cupping the back of her head and pressing his lips to her temple quickly.
When she looked up at him in surprise he drawled, "Thanks for defending my honor, Red, but I prefer to get my own hands dirty when it comes to revenge." He stepped back and Ren noticed that Elena's eyebrows had shot up. Clearly she had never seen him act so caring and…familial. Well, neither had Ren, but she was delighted. She allowed herself a small smile, not too big in case he got twitchy at what he would deem an overly sappy reaction, no doubt.
"I reserve the right to get angry on your behalf," she said and he raised an eyebrow at her in disbelief.
"Sure, but that wasn't just anger, Red, that was rage. Maybe even some supernatural strength, you had a pretty tight grip on her with only one hand and she still couldn't fight you off. Looks like you are…something."
Renfri dropped her smile, not having thought about that aspect of what she had just done. She supposed it wasn't normal that she could hold a full grown woman who was about her size against a doorframe with one hand tight enough to cut off her air and it not even loosen when pulled at. So maybe she did have some enhanced strength…and possibly speed, she had moved for Elena, and then Vanessa, pretty quickly, though clearly not nearly as fast as her uncle could.
"I guess you're right," she muttered, having thought it over, "I don't know where it came from, what if it was just adrenaline?"
Damon shrugged, "Who knows? I guess we'll wait and see. You weren't kidding about getting angry though," he cocked his head to one side before turning away, "almost like that Tyler kid."
Renfri raised her eyebrows at that but said nothing, only glancing at Elena who gave her a small hesitant smile.
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out, maybe Isabel will have something in her research that will help us figure out what you are," Elena reassured her, patting the redhead's shoulder as they moved to follow Damon into the other room where Alaric and Vanessa were.
They found the research assistant sitting in the desk chair while Alaric leaned on the desk beside her. As the other three entered, the woman visibly stiffened but didn't move, watching warily while glancing at the teacher.
Elena walked up to her as Damon and Renfri stopped on either side of her, facing the desk, and said, "I'm Elena Gilbert, Isabel's daughter and the descendant of Katherine Pierce." Vanessa looked at Alaric as if to check if the girl was lying but his straight face seemed to confirm it for her and Elena continued, "And this is Damon Salvatore, who you just shot, and Renfri is his niece."
Damon grinned savagely, "I'd be extra nice to me right now…and Red, she just might choke the life out of you if you try that again."
Ren snorted while still frowning deeply at the woman, "I'm pretty sure you'd get to her before I could. Besides, if she's stupid enough to shoot at what she thought might be a vampire when it wasn't actually threatening her, she could be stupid enough to try again, then it'd be perfectly justified." Damon hummed in agreement while the woman tensed even further, if that were possible, but Elena put her hands out in an attempt to ease the tension.
"Look, we need your help, okay? We need to see all of Isabel's research, anything related to Mystic Falls and supernatural creatures in the area." The woman looked shocked that she was being asked for help rather than bound, gagged, and thrown in a trunk for later disposal. Renfri didn't care what the woman thought though, as long as she understood the consequences of acting rashly a second time.
"Umm, okay…I can do that," she paused and her eyes moved to Renfri as she rubbed her bruising neck, "Are you a vampire too?"
The redhead snorted, "No, but that's part of what we're here for. It turns out that I have some kind of enhanced abilities, indicating I could be something supernatural, but we don't know what."
The young woman nodded uncertainly and slowly got up from her chair, watching them for sudden movements as she moved towards a pile of boxes in the corner. Renfri and Damon had moved back into the other room and were digging through boxes and scanning the bookshelves when Vanessa lifted a box onto the desk beside Elena.
"This box tracks Katherine's arrival to Mystic Falls in April of 1864."
Elena looked at the files and a leather bound book, "Is that all there is about her?"
"All that I'm aware of," the researcher replied.
Renfri listened as she scanned the shelves in the connecting room, making use of her new enhanced hearing to follow the conversation. She didn't trust the woman further than she could throw her…which might be farther than she originally might have thought.
"Here," she heard Elena say in a hushed voice, "take this."
"Does vervain really work?"
"Nope, not at all," her uncle called loudly without turning as he sifted through a box of artifacts and papers.
There was a pause, "Can he hear us?"
"No, that would be creepy!" Damon said in a stage whisper.
Renfri snorted and said clearly, "We both can."
Vanessa's voice came out slightly more nervous, "Can he read minds too?"
"You know, if you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask," Damon replied and faced the girls, making Renfri roll her eyes.
"No, he can't do that," Elena told her firmly and Renfri peaked over her shoulder to see the woman tucking the vervain Elena had handed her into her shirt pocket. She snorted and shook her head, just because vervain prevented compulsion didn't mean it could save you from being killed. She'd bet that if a vampire compelled this woman, she wouldn't have the calm and sense to pretend she didn't know what they were and they'd kill her anyway.
"He is capable of being a first-rate jackass," Elena said quietly to Vanessa, fully knowing they could hear, and Ren couldn't help but smirk as he turned to give the girl a look before smiling himself.
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As they continued to dig through some of the boxes of Isabel's research, Renfri chose to ignore the continued bickering between Damon and Elena, flipping through some old history book about the commonwealth of Virginia, checking the marked pages for anything relevant.
"Hey guys, look at this," Alaric spoke up and they all gathered around the desk as he turned a wide book towards them. It had faded but colorful sketches in them in a foreign language from some ancient civilization, possibly in southern North America or even South America by Renfri's guess.
Vanessa took the book and reviewed the page for a few seconds before telling them, "There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls but here are some records of some of the lesser-known legends, everything from the Scandinavian skinwalkers to the Maréchal de Retz." She pointed to the page it was open to and handed it to Damon who had come up next to her with Ren peaking over his shoulder and Elena on his other side, "Tonantzin li metzly, which roughly translates into 'the curse of the sun and the moon.'"
Alaric looked contemplative, "It's Native American?"
"Aztec," she corrected as Damon turned the page to more related sketches, "It explains one origin of the werewolf curse through Virginia. The short story: 600 years ago the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside and made farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only come out at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon crests in the sky, whoever's unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."
"Can they control the transformation?" Damon asked.
Vanessa looked at him like it was obvious, "If it were a choice it wouldn't be called a curse."
Renfri let out a little sigh, "Well, at least we can rule out that option for me, I haven't been turning into a wolf on full moons, as far as I know."
"Wait," Elena said, her voice revealing a hint of hope, "but didn't the warning Emily tell you say something about 'a curse in your veins'? What if it's the werewolf curse and you just didn't know you were changing?"
Renfri looked at her skeptically, "I doubt my parents or Zach wouldn't have noticed me turning into a furry four-legged animal once a month."
"Oh, I guess you're right," Elena remarked as her hope deflated a little.
Vanessa continued, grabbing their attention again, "Werewolves will attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice: vampires."
Damon's head shot up at this and his eyes met with Ren's, who looked worried, before he said, "Well, if werewolves were hunting vampires, I would know about it."
"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive," the research assistant replied, "Hundreds of years ago vampires hunted them almost to extinction."
Elena's eyebrows furrowed, "Why would they do that?"
"To protect themselves," Vanessa said simply, and Damon tilted his head in agreement with raised eyebrows, as if in grudging respect, making Renfri huff a quiet laugh.
"Legend has it that a werewolf's bite is fatal to vampires."
Alaric, Elena, Damon, and Ren glanced at each other in concern before the redhead commented, "If a werewolf's instinct is to go after vampires on a full moon, and they can kill them, it stands to reason that a lot of vampires would try to eliminate that threat…though committing genocide isn't a great look for any species, undead or not."
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While Elena was on the phone with Stefan, warning him about what they had learned of werewolves and that Mason might be one, Renfri was skimming the bookshelves more closely. Her stomach was twisting into knots and she was getting a headache from clenching her jaw so much as she continued to only find scraps of information related to other supernatural creatures, none having reliable sources or origins and unseemingly related to her situation. She chose to ignore the pains and attributed them to stress. Instead of relying on the titles on the spines alone, she was opening each one and skimming the contents briefly for relevance. After several books, she reached one that looked quite old and worn with a European sounding name on the spine.
She flipped it open as Elena came back in and was rifling through the box related to Katherine, finding a photo of her from the 1860s, and asked Vanessa about doppelgängers.
Ren flipped through the yellowed pages but stopped when she caught a glimpse of something familiar, she turned a few pages back until she reached one that had a loose leaf of paper with a sketch of three people. She pulled it out and her eyes traced Elena's face sketched into the parchment. She looked up, finding Damon across the room. He looked up, sensing her eyes on him, and she tilted her head, indicating for him to come over. He sidled up beside her casually as she showed him the hand-drawn portrait and the book.
"Is this another ancestral look-alike or is this who I think it is, despite the book being about a Bulgarian family line called 'Petrova?'" she asked quietly.
Damon scanned the page then nodded, "No, that is Katherine. Little known fact, she was actually born in Europe and her real name was Katerina Petrova."
"So it's about Katherine's family? Elena might be interested in this," Renfri murmured suggestively, closing the book and handing it to him with a meaningful look, "maybe even enough to be accepted as an olive branch?" She thought he might need the help, especially after that 'friends don't manipulate friends' comment Elena had made during the discussion regarding doppelgängers and Katherine.
He rolled his eyes at her but still took the book from her hands as she turned away with a small smile to start gathering the handful of materials she had deemed somewhat relevant to her searches.
A few minutes later, the group had taken all they had found, which wasn't much, and packed it into the car. Renfri had immediately crawled into the back seat and put her headphones in after stripping her sweatshirt off, feeling hot despite the cool air outside. She leaned her head against the window with her eyes closed and attempted to ignore the interaction happening between Damon and Elena, though it was quite impossible because it was only a few feet away and could be heard loud and clear with her new and improved hearing. She frowned and looked at her friend in disappointment when she crawled in after she had left him hanging and refused to tell him if he'd lost her or not. She knew Damon was taking it seriously, despite his attempts to be nonchalant about it and downplay how much it would affect him. When she raised her eyebrows at Elena the girl just shook her head wordlessly as Damon climbed into the passenger seat. She made eye contact with Damon through the rear view mirror but he quickly looked away so Ren just sighed and closed her eyes, letting her head rest against the window again as Ric finally joined them and started the car.
Renfri let herself drift off, wrapping her arms around herself tightly as her stomach tied itself in knots and her skin itched with warmth, sweat breaking out in her hairline and dampening her back. She blindly felt around for and pressed the button to lower the window a bit, sighing at the wind that blew through her hair and over her face. She found that after a while it just wasn't enough and she felt so stiff and achy, constantly shifting to get comfortable and failing.
"Ren, are you okay?"
Renfri cracked her eyes open and tilted her head to see Elena peering at her with concern.
"I don't know, I think I'm getting sick, maybe the flu or something," she mumbled back and the two men up front glanced at her in the rearview mirror as she groaned and shifted again, hugging her knees to her stomach.
Elena looked at her sympathetically and patted her shoulder, "Why don't you lie down across the seat, you might feel a bit better. I don't mind, consider me your leg rest," she said with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood. Renfri let out a shaky breath but nodded, unbuckling her seatbelt and laying her legs across her friend's lap and putting her back flat against the seat, her hair splaying across the surface around her head.
Most of the ride passed like this, her fever flaring and surging pains causing her to squirm and groan, increasing her heart rate and breathing. Damon kept glancing over his shoulder into the back seat at her. By the time they had reached the woods on the outskirts of town, Renfri couldn't take it anymore and something shifted inside her body that made her gasp.
Everyone in the car heard a dull snap followed by rippling cracks and Renfri loosed a bloodcurdling scream.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!"
Alaric jerked the wheel to the right and swerved the car, jerking it to a stop on the side of the empty road lined by trees on both sides.
"Oh my god!" Elena shouted as her friend continued to shriek and she stared with wide eyes along with the men as they watched as the ribs exposed by her shirt having ridden up moved under her skin, breaking and rebreaking, causing the girl to cry out in agony and gasp for air intermittently with tears freely falling down her cheeks.
Damon opened his door and sped around to the other side of the car, ripping the back door open to lean over his niece.
As he tugged the hem of her shirt up more to see the breaking of the bones in her midsection, she grabbed his forearm desperately and sobbed, "What's happening to me? Why is it—It hurts!"
The other three just glanced at each other as they noticed that her ribs had stopped moving and the snapping sounds had ended, leaving only the sounds of her chest heaving and her cries to fill the inside of the car.
"It stopped?" Elena remarked hesitantly.
"What the hell?" Damon mumbled, "I'm not sure what this is, Red, just hold on." He gripped her arm back, reassuring her that he was with her. Renfri had curled up nearly into a ball, pulling her legs off of Elena's lap in the process. She took the chance to catch her breath since whatever was happening had stopped for the moment.
"Why the hell would her ribs start breaking?" Elena questioned, completely confounded as to where this came from.
Before anyone could answer, Renfri let out another high pitched shriek as her right arm shot out, the veins bulging from her fair skin as her elbow fractured and bent in the opposite direction it was meant to, making everyone around her jump in alarm.
"Jesus Christ," Alaric breathed as he watched her arm right itself again amidst cracking bone and ripping tendons, dragging more tortured screams out of the girl as Damon held her other arm tightly.
"Oh god, why is this happening!?" Renfri rasped as her body shook with the pain.
Damon glanced up into the sky and Alaric followed his gaze, voicing the vampire's thought, "She's a werewolf, it's a full moon." When the girls looked at him in question and disbelief, he added hurriedly, "Her bones breaking is probably her body trying to change its form, into a wolf. God, no wonder they call it a curse."
Renfri took shuddering breaths as she panicked, "No, no, no, I don't want this. Please, make it stop!"
Damon stared at his niece, blue eyes wide, and muttered, "'Beware the curse that runs through your veins…'"
Elena looked at him, "'Through your veins,' does that mean it runs in your blood, through your family?"
"It has to be," Ric answered, "How else would Richard and Mason show signs of it and Tyler as well. If Renfri's mother was adopted and didn't know her family, for all we know she could have had werewolves for birth parents."
"AAAAHHH!"
They all jumped again when the poor girl's spine began to jut from her back, the vertebrae pressing against the skin in various places as the bone and cartilage fractured and then healed. Renfri rolled onto her stomach and scrambled to hold onto something, kicking out and nearly hitting Elena with her boot. She made contact with the passenger headrest instead, making a sharp noise as the metal pegs holding it in place broke off, and it was sent through the passenger side window, shattering the glass.
"Oh!" Elena yelled as she startled and ducked down and back to avoid the blow.
Damon quickly reached down and gathered his niece in his arms, "Alaric, take Elena home. I'll stay with Ren."
"Damon, no, I'm staying. I can't leave her like this!" Elena protested.
"Not an option," he told her immediately, "she clearly can't control it and could hurt you…or worse."
He stepped back from the car and reached out to close the door when Elena leaned forward hurriedly, "What about you? A werewolf's bite can kill a vampire, you're in just as much danger as us if you stay with her."
He just rolled his eyes, "I'm the only one fast enough to evade her if she comes after me, you two would be wolf chow in seconds. Now go." He slammed the door shut and stepped back as Alaric peeled out to get himself and Elena away from there.
Damon flashed into the forest and found a clearing not far from the road, he didn't want to chance someone driving by and seeing them. If some idiot Good Samaritan thought they needed help, they might just end up as a werewolf chew toy…or his dinner if they pissed him off enough. He sat on a bed of pine needles at the base of a tree, leaning back against the trunk while placing his niece on the ground between his knees, holding her to him.
As he settled in, Renfri's wrists both shattered as her hands jerked backward and she cried in agony, hugging them to herself as her uncle kept her huddled against him in an attempt to comfort her.
"Why—why are you staying?" she asked, her voice ragged, "I could kill you without meaning to."
He rubbed her shoulder soothingly, "I'll stay as long as I can, Red. But don't worry, I'll hightail it once you grow your doggy fangs. I'm not leaving until then, alright?"
She frowned and more tears spilled from her eyes as she nodded against his chest. Damon pulled Ren's phone from her pocket and searched through her contacts before pressing 'call,' waiting for the other person to pick up.
There was a click, then a voice answered, "Hello, Renfri."
"It's Damon," the vampire corrected them, "This is a 'Hail Mary' call on her behalf as she is incapacitated at the moment."
"What happened?"
He paused, "Pearl, do you know anything about werewolves?"
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, "And why should I tell you anything, Mr. Salvatore? We don't exactly have the best relationship."
He scowled at the ground, "Because you owe Renfri and promised to help her when she asks, and I'm asking for her."
"For her? That's the second time you've implied she can't ask herself, why is that?"
"As I said, incapacitated at the moment," it was punctuated by the renewed crunching of bone beneath skin and another ear-piercing scream as she writhed in his hold.
Damon heard the older vampire suck in a breath, "She's one of them, isn't she."
"Yep, and I'm fairly certain this is her first time turning, because we had no clue what she might have been until just recently. We were driving back from North Carolina after doing supernatural research on werewolves and doppelgängers when her bones started breaking. What do you know?"
Pearl sighed, "Not much, but I do feel badly for the girl, she's in for a rough night. You shouldn't linger too long either, Mr. Salvatore, not unless you want to lose your life."
He nodded impatiently, "Yeah, I already heard about their bite being fatal, I'll deal with it. Back to what you know…?"
"Yes, well, werewolves are quite rare now, as far as I know. I haven't run into one since the 18th century. An older vampire at the time had been conducting a hunt to take down a pack that was residing in the Black Forest in Germany. Their monthly transformations were affecting a nearby mining settlement that he had invested in, which was how word of wolves attacking the workers in the dead of night once a month spread to the vampires residing in the region at the time. After massacring the werewolf settlement, they captured a woman and tortured her for information. She revealed that they could not force or stop the change as it only occurred on a full moon regardless of what they did. They have limited control and awareness while in their wolf form once they transform each month but are drawn to vampires instinctively when hunting. In their human forms, they have enhanced senses, speed, and strength, but not at the level of a vampire's. Their sense of smell is especially strong and their anger is more easily triggered than a typical human's. The woman didn't say much more than that, which was knowledge that mostly had been assumed by observing the werewolves on and around the full moon."
Damon sighed as he thought it over before pausing, realizing they hadn't considered one thing.
"Did she say how and when they start turning? What starts the transformations? Ren hasn't changed at all up until now." He held the girl to himself as she squirmed through another bout of bones breaking and loosed more screams, this time from her ribs breaking again. She gripped his arms hard and he let her as he held the phone to his ear with his shoulder to keep her in his hold as she shouted her pain into the forest.
"That was something that she was a bit vague on, "Pearl replied, "She'd told them that only when they'd spilled someone's blood until the point of death that their curse would be triggered. Some in the packs intentionally triggered it to gain the accompanying increase in senses and power, but others avoided it due to the torturous pain that had to be endured each month and the guilt that came with each unintentional kill during transformations."
"What's unclear about that? You kill someone and you start changing into a wolf once a month," Damon commented impatiently.
Pearl sighed, "The confusion lay in whether a vampire counted as a person; whether killing one would trigger a werewolf's curse or not.
The blue-eyed vampire looked down at his niece as she shivered against him, the breaking paused for now, and thought about the tomb vampires.
"You know, Renfri had staked a vampire when your tomb boys took her and Stefan," he supplied.
"Hmm, there was a full moon about two weeks after that, so that wasn't what triggered it for her. What has happened between now and the last full moon that could have triggered her curse?" Pearl asked.
Damon groaned along with his niece, although hers was more of a pitiful whimper, and she whispered, "Caroline."
He nodded, "Katherine has been out to play and she compelled Red to suffocate her friend in the hospital who had vampire blood in her system. She came back a vampire but Ren did kill her in the process, technically."
Pearl sighed, "Poor girl. I suppose that answers that question, it must be a human that dies at their hands to trigger the werewolf's curse."
"Looks like it," Damon replied, "Thanks for the story time, but it's time to tell the gang now, bye!" He hung up before the older vampire could get another word in. He tucked her phone into his other pocket and went to fish out his own when Renfri jerked, screaming as her shoulder blades reshaped themselves and her leg broke as well, her cries splitting through the air as she collapsed onto her side in his lap. He tried to hold her still but she began to thrash around as she cried out and he realized that they had soon turned into snarls. When he shifted her so that he could see the side of her face, his eyes widened at the sight of her blazing amber-gold eyes and elongated canines.
Damon leaped up and flashed across the small clearing, making sure to stay facing her to avoid being jumped with his back turned. Renfri pushed herself to her hands and knees, an elbow and then a knee snapping causing her to collapse to the ground again as she howled in pain. He eyed her carefully as she managed to get to all fours again and met his eyes with her own glowing ones, lips pulled back over her teeth. She gave an animalistic snarl and lunged forward, speeding towards him far faster than she had ever moved before. Damon managed to avoid her but she continued to go after him, so he sped off deeper into the woods, leading her further from the town's edge. She chased after him mindlessly, her werewolf instincts taking over, failing to catch him as he kept dodging behind trees to cut her off when she got too close. The vampire came to a halt again when he heard what sounded like a tree branch splintering then a thud as his niece snarled and he knew another bone had broken. He turned to see she'd fallen onto her stomach and was gripping at her hip and shaking.
He stayed standing where he was, hand on a tree as he watched her body continue to break and reshape itself just to undo it all again over several minutes, her eyes shifting between a glowing orangey-gold and her usual hazel.
He took the opportunity to pull out his phone while keeping his eyes on the girl on the ground and made a call, putting it on speaker.
"Damon, what's going on? Elena and Alaric just pulled up, why aren't you and Ren with them?" Stefan asked without preamble.
"Yeah, about that, we're still in the woods," the older brother answered quickly, "and we will be until further notice since it is a full moon and apparently our niece is a werewolf like we think the Lockwoods are."
There was a pause before a sigh was heard on the other end, "Well, that's two confirmed werewolves, then, I just hoped that Tyler might be the other one, not Ren." Damon raised his eyebrows when said girl's head jerked up again and her wolf's eyes locked onto him, so he sped off into the forest. He took the phone off speaker and put it to his ear as he ran.
"So Mason is one for sure?"
"Yeah, probably. A wolf jumped through the back window of a truck in the woods on the Lockwood property and chased Caroline and I through the woods. We'd made it to the old cellar on the property and Tyler came up out when the wolf attacked Caroline and nearly bit her but Tyler…told it off?"
"What do you mean 'told it off'?" Damon asked as he glanced back at the half-shifted girl who stumbled when her ankle broke and he came to a halt again, watching from a distance.
"I mean he yelled 'No!' when he saw that Caroline was being attacked and the wolf stopped and looked at him before running off."
"What the hell?"
"Yeah, so it looks like Tyler isn't one but Mason likely is. That thing was way faster than a normal wolf and was able to take us by surprise." He paused, then asked, "What's that in the background, how's Renfri?"
"Oh, you know, just playing a good ol' game of tag with my niece while her bones keep breaking and rebreaking between bouts of animalistic rage. I'm still winning, if you must know," he remarked casually, keeping his gaze on the girl grinding her face into the dirt as she clutched her abdomen.
"Geez…are you sure you should still be there? She could bite you if she's already lost control," Stefan asked hesitantly, concern bleeding into his voice.
Damon shook his head, "Come on, Stefan, would you leave her alone out here to go through this if it was you?" To hammer the point home, he held out the phone so the younger brother could better hear his niece scream and her bones snap and crack. Another sigh through the line was his reluctant answer.
"Just be careful and keep your distance…and thanks for staying with her, she shouldn't have to go through it alone, especially not the first time if it's this bad."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm just making sure she stays away from town so we don't have any more bodies to clean up. I have a reputation to maintain, you know, and keeping a low profile with the council is part of it," Damon deflected.
Stefan huffed, "Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Just watch over her, you owe her…for Zach."
Damon lost his easygoing facade, "I know." He hung up and crouched down to his niece's level as she gasped for breath while sprawled in the dirt and pine needles.
"Don't you worry, Red," he told her quietly, "I'll stay with you. I'll make sure you don't chew on anyone." He smirked, "It seems like I'm the perfect distraction to keep you occupied, as long as I never become 'it.'"
This one-sided game of tag continued for a couple hours with Damon running through the woods from Renfri, a slave to her instincts, and continuing to dodge her attacks and outmaneuvering her. In the periods when she couldn't give chase and was forced to stop as her body fractured and warped itself only to reverse it all again Damon remained nearby, watching over her. A few times, their eyes connected as she lay on the ground panting and screaming through the pain. Her eyes would turn back to normal and recognize that her uncle was still there with her, even if he couldn't hold her through the pain as he did earlier.
"I'm here, Red," he would say and she could only grit her teeth and nod as she held eye contact until she was lost to the change again.
It was late into the night and Renfri had been led so far out by Damon that they neared the old quarry, where he and Stefan had woken up after first turning. When Renfri collapsed again mid-chase and her body began to break itself apart again, it didn't stop.
Damon's blue eyes widened and his breath caught as he watched her head, limbs, and midsection reshape themselves in brutally sharp movements; veins rippling across her skin as her screams echoed through the forest. The transformation stretched the clothes until it tore or loosened in some areas. Her shrieks became toothy snarls and fur burst from her skin all over her body along with an extra limb. The end result was a large, gray wolf with reddish brown tinges in its fur and piercing golden eyes. The wolf had barely stood up straight and swished its bristling tail before its eyes had locked onto the vampire hiding amongst the trees. She shook off the tattered remains of the clothes she'd been wearing and growled viciously at Damon's tense figure.
"Well fuck, tonight's going to be a workout," he muttered to himself and took off again, this time with more haste. He led her through the woods and around the edge of the quarry, using boulders and trees as obstacles to slow her down and make it more difficult for her to reach him. This went on for a while and Damon took advantage of the surrounding trees to take breaks. He would leap up into the foliage and climb high to avoid her snapping teeth. She sure could jump high but she still couldn't climb a tree, thank god for that. He watched as she stood at the base of the tree, growling at him, clearly frustrated at being unable to reach her prey. Occasionally, she would be distracted by smaller opportunities to hunt and he listened carefully and tracked her movements as she took down a few small rabbits and a deer and fed on them. A few times, he moved to get her attention again when he thought she had strayed too far in the direction leading to town and the game would continue.
It was when Damon heard the wolf's snarl turn into a high pitched whine and it began to squirm that he realized the moon had waned and his niece began to transform again. He dropped back down to the ground from his perch high up in the old oak tree he'd kept circling back to and cautiously approached the heaving body as the fur receded to reveal her fair skin again. Renfri was huddled on the ground, smeared in dirt with a bit of blood around her mouth from hunting animals. The teenager blinked her eyes open and they shifted around the clearing slowly until they found her uncle crouched beside her, purposely avoiding looking anywhere but her eyes as she lay naked on the ground. He stripped off his black button up, leaving him in a white sleeveless undershirt, and held it out to her.
"Hey Red, looks like you made it through the night," he said calmly. Renfri stared back at him for a moment before tears welled up in her eyes and she broke into hysterical sobs while curling up into a ball. Damon watched solemnly and let her just cry for a minute before he reached out to pull her up into a sitting position.
"Come on, Red, let's get you covered up a little bit, I'm sure the winter chill isn't feeling too good right about now." He gently pulled one arm away from her body, allowing the other to still cover her chest as he tugged one sleeve on, then switched to do the other, and finally did up a few buttons to keep it closed. It was a bit long on her, just enough to barely cover what underwear would normally conceal. She was still sniffling and taking shaky breaths, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes, when he cradled her in his arms and stood. She leaned against him and buried her face into his shoulder as he began to run for the boarding house.
Renfri couldn't stifle the onslaught of emotion and it kept coming in waves, just as the pain had during her transformation. Her body ached and her joints and bones throbbed like they had their own pulse. She felt like she was an 80 year old with advanced arthritis, but she could still move oalright despite the pain, it was the mental anguish that was debilitating. She kept her face pressed into her uncle's shoulder as he sped through the woods towards home, but she managed to whisper one thing before the exhaustion pulled her from her conscious state.
"Thank you…for staying, Uncle Damon."
She saw her uncle's lips twitch up a bit before she sighed and let her body pull her into a much needed rest.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Renfri cracked her eyes open as bright sunlight filtered through her eyelids, waking her from her deep sleep. She groaned and turned her face away, reluctant to move much due to the stiffness in her limbs. She opened her eyes fully when she felt a weight on her hip and she turned her head back to see Ash's head resting on the blanket covering her. He stared back and as she continued to look at him blankly, he began to wag his tail.
She cracked a small smile, "Hey, buddy."
She slowly lifted a hand to pet his head, as he clearly wanted, and she took stock of where she was. The large leather couch of the study was covered in an old sheet with her on top of it and bundled in a thick blanket; the Dutch Shepard lying beside her as the fire crackled. Just as she pushed herself up to sit, realizing that she was still in Damon's shirt with dirt smattered all over her and a rat's nest in place of her hair, the two brothers entered the room.
Stefan approached with a glass of water as Damon leaned against the back of the couch, "You're up. Here, I'm sure you're thirsty." He handed her the glass and she took it gratefully, downing the whole thing in seconds. When she swiped a trickle of water from the corner of her mouth, her thumb came away tinted pink and her eyes widene and wiped at the rustiness around her mouth.
She looked up at them, "Did I…?"
Damon shook his head, "Nah, you just got some bunnies and a deer. I kept you away from the humans." When she released a deep breath, the brothers exchanged a look before returning their hesitant eyes to their niece.
"I can't believe this," she sighed. "I turned into a wolf, I ate animals," she looked apologetically at the oldest Salvatore and whispered, "I tried to kill you."
Damon shrugged nonchalantly, "All's forgiven. You never got close enough to sink your teeth in, so no harm no foul."
Renfri pressed her lips together, clearly not agreeing, then said in a breathy voice, "Thank you, for staying with me and making sure I didn't—didn't hurt anyone."
"Are you okay?" Stefan asked with quiet concern, his green eyes soft.
She shook her head and fought to keep the tears from falling, "No. I've never felt anything like…God, it hurt so much, and I had no control over myself." Her voice cracked at the end and she couldn't keep a single tear from falling. She looked down, swiped the tear away, and dug her fingers into Ash's thick scruff. The dog whined sympathetically and nuzzled his head into her lap while Stefan sat on her left and pulled her into a hug. She leaned into it, glad for the comfort, as Damon spoke up.
"We should figure out what to do on the next full moon, because playing tag in the woods when one bite could kill me isn't something I want to do every month, no offense."
She leaned back from Stefan and he let go as she replied, "No, you're right, I don't want to put you guys in danger. What can we do?"
Stefan answered reluctantly, "We thought—we could use the basement cells to keep you…isolated during the change."
Damon nodded, "We'll have to outfit one of them with a stronger door, reinforced steel or something, to make sure you don't get out. You're damn strong as a wolf, you clipped a few trees when chasing me and took a good chunk out of them and completely snapped some of the smaller ones."
She raised her eyebrows but nodded in agreement, "Okay, whatever works. I don't want to hurt anybody, especially not after Caroline."
Stefan smiled comfortingly, "We'll make sure you don't." Ren nodded and managed a small smile back before he added, "You should call Elena, she's worried about you. We told her you got home okay, but you should talk to her, Caroline too."
She nodded and leaned back into the leather seat, "Yeah, but I'm gonna go shower first, I feel filthy." She peaked an eye open, "Could I get some Tylenol too? I feel like I got run over by a truck, like I'm one big throbbing wound." Damon snatched her glass and sped from the room, returning in seconds with more water and two white pills. She smiled gratefully at him as he passed it to her over the back of the couch.
Damon leaned over to ruffle her already messy hair, and picked a sprig of pine needles out of it, as he reassured her, "Don't worry, Red, we'll take care of it by next month. You'll have a fully refurbished werewolf-proof room to rage in come the next full moon, and you can howl all you want since we don't have any close neighbors." He grinned and walked out while she rolled her eyes at him but was silently pleased. Damon may act aloof and falsely pleasant, but the two had bonded lately. She was incredibly grateful that he had stayed with her the whole time she changed and even while she was a wolf, risking getting a fatal bite. Stefan saw the reflective look on her face as she looked after Damon and smiled softly, glad that his brother had gotten close with Ren, it solidified his belief in his brother's ability to be good, be human.
When she looked his way, he smirked, "School started a few hours ago, wanna play hooky with me?"
She barked out a weak laugh, "Absolutely."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
*Thank you for your patience, I've been busy with work and social commitments, but the last few chapters have been a bit longer too. Please review, it's much appreciated!