15

—15. Crying Wolf

ALWAYS AND FOREVER

Andie checks her watch and puts on her jacket as she walks down the stairs. Damon follows behind her, carrying her scarf.

"I'm late. This is such a crazy day." Looking in the mirror at the bottom of the stairs. "I'm, uh, covering the Historical Society's High Tea."

Andie has a bandage over her bite mark on her neck.

Damon said Sarcastically; throwing the scarf up, "Ooh! Thrilling."

They walk together down the main hallway leading to the front door. "Yeah. It's for some visiting writer. He's writing a book on small-town Virginia. It's a big snooze."

"Writer? What's his name?"

"Uh, Elijah Smith."

Aurora walks around the corner of the hallway, seeing both Damon and Andie, "Smith. He's using Smith?" She asked.

Could he have chosen a more common name? Aurora internally rolled her eyes.

Andie looks at herself, yet again, in a different mirror. Damon places the scarf around her neck and ties it.

"Okay. You have your story straight in your mind, right?"

"I can't say that you bit me or drank my blood, just that we hit it off and I really like you. You are terrific, though. You're sweet, funny, you're honest."

Damon smiles, places his hands on either side of her head, and compels her. "And you're falling hard."

"You might be the one."

"Dames, don't you think this is a bit much?" Aurora asked, leaning against a wall.

Damon shrugged, "She likes it, right?"

"Oh, yeah." Andie nodded with a big smile, one that did not reach her eyes.

"Right." Aurora muttered.

Damon opens the front door for Andie. Alaric, not having knocked yet, stands on the front porch.

"Have a great day, honey." Damon kisses Andie.

"Ew." Aurora mumbled.

They pull apart and Andie walks out the front door, acknowledging Alaric. "Oh. Hey, Alaric. Later."

Andie gets in her car and leaves. Damon waves goodbye to her. Alaric moves to stand in front of Damon.

"My new girlfriend. Andie Star, action news."

"It's not called action news."

"I know. I just like saying it. Come on." Alaric enters. Damon shuts the door behind him and leads Alaric and Aurora into the parlor.

"So, John Gilbert gave me this to kill Elijah." Damon unrolls the dagger from its protective cloth.

Aurora gasped quietly, taking a small step back from Damon. How did John Gilbert, of all people, get a dagger?

"Said you have to dip the dagger in the remains of an old white ash tree that dates back to the Originals, if there's any truth in that." Damon hands the dagger to Alaric and Alaric takes it.

"So you think it's a setup?"

"It could be. Guy's a weasel. Wouldn't put anything past him. Ro?" Damon looks at Aurora, watching as her eyes were wide, staring at the dagger, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Aurora shook her head, and walked towards the bar.

Damon turns around and heads to the bar with her. "What are you up to today, Mr. Saltzman?"

Alaric gets up and walks over to Damon and Aurora. "Well, Jenna and I were supposed to go to her family's lake house, but somehow, we both got roped into doing this Historical Society thing at the Lockwoods."

"Where Elijah's the guest of honor."

"Tell me you're not gonna kill him at the tea party."

"No. That would be stupid." Alaric gives Damon a skeptical look.

"I want to know his endgame before I kill him, but I do think it's time Elijah and I officially met." Damon annoyingly taps Alaric with the dagger. Alaric looks on at him, clearly not amused.

As Alaric and Damon walked out of the room to get ready for the party, Aurora reached up and traced the m crescent on her necklace.

The Historical Society's Tea Party has commenced. Elijah and Carol are speaking with each other as they sip their tea.

"Have you spent much time in Richmond for your book? There's such a wealth of history there."

"No, I'm focusing mostly on the smaller regions of Virginia. Lots of research. Strictly academic."

"That's fascinating."

Damon and Aurora enter the house. Jenna intercepts them. "Aurora!" Jenna smiles at the Salvatore sibling before looking at Damon, "Damon, what are you doing here?"

Suddenly, Andie walks up to Jenna, Aurora and Damon, notepad in hand. Damon looks over at her and smiles.

"Hi. You came."

"Hi."

"Hi."

Damon pecks Andie on the lips. Jenna looks at the two, surprised.

"Thanks for introducing us, Jenna."

"Yeah, it's disgusting." Aurora muttered to the ginger woman.

Damon walks out of the room with Aurora. Andie smiles at Jenna and stands next to her as they watch them walk away.

Damon and Aurora approach Carol and Elijah.

"Damon and...?"

"Aurora Salvatore." She introduced herself, shaking Carol Lockwood's hand.

"Oh, I didn't know Damon had a sister." Carol chuckled.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Aurora mumbled, smiling at Carol.

"What a surprise."

Damon and Carol exchange kisses on the cheek. "Hi. Elijah, I want you to meet Damon Salvatore and, I guess, Aurora Salvatore. His family is one of Mystic Falls' founding families."

"Mm-hm." Damon looks at Elijah, "Such a pleasure to meet you."

"No. Pleasure's mine." Damon and Elijah shake hands.

"Miss Salvatore." Elijah gently grabbed her hand, pressing a small kiss to the back of it.

"Mr. Smith." Aurora nodded, saying his name in a mocking way.

Alaric watches as Damon opens the door to the study and gestures for Elijah and Aurora to enter. Damon follows the duo in and shuts the door behind them.

"What can I do for you, Damon?"

"I was hoping we could have a word."

As Damon and Elijah talked, Aurora sat on the couch in the office, listening to them.

"Where's Elena?"

"Safe with Stefan. They're laying low, you know, bit of a werewolf problem."

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that."

"I'm sure you did since it was your witch that saved the day."

"You are welcome."

Damon sits down on the desk. "Which adds to my confusion on exactly why you're here."

"Why don't you just stay focused on keeping Elena safe and leave the rest to me."

Elijah moves to exit the room, but Damon vamp-speeds in front of him, blocking the way out. "Not good enough."

"Damon-" Aurora tried to warn but Elijah grabs Damon by the throat and vamp-speeds him into a wall before she could, "This is not good." She shook her head, but she knew Elijah wouldn't kill him.

Damon, in retaliation, grabs Elijah's throat. Elijah grabs Damon's hand and easily pulls it off of his neck, making sure to crush Damon's hand as he does so. Damon groans in pain.

"You young vampires, so arrogant." Elijah drops Damon's hand from his own, but continues to hold Damon up against the wall by the throat. "How dare you come in here and challenge me?"

"You can't kill me, man. It's not part of the deal."

"Silence." Elijah grabs a pencil lying on the desk and stabs Damon in the neck with it. Damon clutches at the pencil and yells in pain.

Elijah lets go of Damon, who falls against the desk and removes the pencil, painfully. Damon claps his hand over the bloody wound. Elijah whips out a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes the blood off his hands.

"I'm an Original. Show a little respect." Elijah dangles the handkerchief in front of Damon, who grabs it hastily, and places it on his wound.

"The moment you cease to be of use to me, you're dead, so you should do what I say. Keep Elena safe."Elijah leaves the room.

Aurora races over to Damon, holding the handkerchief to his wound, "Why did you do that?"

"Because I'm me. Why were you just standing there!?" Damon complained.

Aurora looked at him as if he were dumb, "What was I gonna do? He's an original."

Damon rolled his eyes, getting up off the floor and leaving the room with Aurora.

Damon, Aurora and Alaric are sitting in the library, drinking bourbon. "Today was a bust."

"Yeah. How's the throat?"

"Sore."

Aurora nodded with a smirk, "I bet it is."

"Yeah. That Elijah's one scary dude, but with nice hair. Hey. You guys want another one?"

Alaric gets up, Damon hands him his glass while Aurora shook her head, saying she didn't want anymore, Alaric takes Damon's glass and walks over to the bar.

"He's gonna be hard to kill." Damon mentioned, and it took everything in Aurora not to show how alarmed she became.

"Yeah. I'd think twice before I'd trust that dagger and some ashes to do the job." He pours more bourbon in their glasses. "You're gonna need more info."

"Yeah, who knows, it could end up killing you instead."

"How is that possible?" Damon asked.

Aurora shrugged, "We are currently living in a town full of supernatural creatures, I'd say anything is possible at this point."

Alaric nodded his head agreeing with the Salvatore girl, while Damon stared at her with squinted eyes, before he continued talking about the dagger, "I'm out of sources."

"What's up with you and this news chick?"

"Ooh." Alaric hands Damon his glass of bourbon. "She's got spunk, huh?"

Alaric sits back down on the couch and looks at Damon significantly.

"Just don't kill her, please."

"If I did, who would report her death?"

"Just don't do it, all right? She's friends with Jenna, and it's bad enough that I'm lying to her about everything else. I hate the lies." Alaric takes his phone out of his pocket and looks at it. "Oh, God. I got to go. I got to pick Jenna up." standing up, "Don't worry. I'll, uh, show myself out."

Damon places his hands on the back of his head and shuts his eyes.

"Good luck."

Alaric walks out of the library. Damon and Aurora remain in their relaxed positions until they hears a loud, crashing noise from the hallway.

They share a worried look before they walk out of the library and into the hallway. Out in the hallway, they see that Alaric has a large knife plunged into his stomach. Alaric looks at Damon as he clutches at the knife and groans as he falls to the floor.

Suddenly, from the rafters of the parlor's ceiling, Stevie drops down with wolf-speed. Damon and Stevie engage in supernatural speed combat.

While another wolf attacked Aurora, two syringes of vervain in hand. Aurora snapped the wolfs wrist, causing it to groan in pain. The wolf stabbed one of the syringes in her arm, causing her to hiss and fall to the ground in pain of the internal burning.

Because of the lack of blood in her body, she was easier to take down, but if she was a full blown ripper right now, the boarding house would be a blood bath, caused by her.

Stevie, with the element of surprise, stabs Damon in the neck with a syringe full of vervain. Damon grunts but is not completely affected by the vervain and vamp speeds around the room, crashing Stevie into several walls. Finally, Damon weakens and falls to the ground. Stevie removes the syringe from his neck and stands up.

"Whew! Damn, you're strong. It took the whole syringe." Two more werewolves walk through the front and look down at Alaric's dead body. Damon, weak, but still awake looks up from the floor and Aurora who was unconscious from the pain.

"Grab that one. He's dead."

Jules enters the house with a shotgun over her shoulder. She looks down at Damon. "Hi, Damon. Nice to see you again."

Alaric's body lies on the floor of the parlor room. Damon and Aurora have been chained to a chair with a wooden spiked metal collar around their necks.

Damon has become less weakened by the vervain, but is still unable to move much. He sees Ric's dead body on the floor and looks worried for a moment, before spotting the Gilbert ring on his finger. Damon looks to his left, seeing Aurora, unconscious and tied to a chair with a collar around her neck. Damon sighs and glances over to his right. Stevie is standing there, holding the ends of two chains which attach to Damon's spiked collar.

"Morning, sunshine." walks in front of Damon, "I saw this movie once, some torture porn flick. Anyway, they had this collar device that was really cool, so I just modified it some with some wooden nails, and when I pull..."

Stevie pulls the ends of the chains forward. The wooden spikes insert themselves in Damon's neck and Damon groans in pain. Suddenly, Jules speaks up from the corner.

"So I hear you have the moonstone." Jules and two other werewolves walk farther into the room.

"laughing, "Oh, if you only knew the irony of this moment right now. Let me tell you how this is gonna go. You're gonna torture me, I don't talk, someone loses a heart. Last time, it was your boy Mason."

Stevie wraps the chains around his hand. Jules inches closer to Damon.

"This time, it'll be you." Jules looks at Stevie and nods. Stevie pulls on the chain again, impaling Damon's neck. Damon groans in pain.

Hearing Damon's groans caused Aurora to squirm in the uncomfortable chair, she opened her eyes, seeing the wolves with guns and Damon tied and being choked with the wooden collar, "I thought the dogs were supposed to wear the collars." Aurora groggily spoke.

Jules turned to her with a slight growl, "We are in control now, sweetheart."

Jules leans against a shotgun as she talks to Damon. "You know what the great thing about buckshot is? It scatters through the body. Maximum damage."

Damon and Aurora look at her with feigned intrigue. Jules lifts the shotgun up and points it at Aurora.

"Where's the moonstone?" She asked Damon.

"Get over it, honey. You're never gonna get it."

"You looking for this?" Elijah, leaning against a banister, twirls the moonstone in his hand. Everyone turns to look at him. Elijah walks down the stairs and places the moonstone on an end table. He backs away.

"Go ahead. Take it." One of the werewolves uses his wolf speed to rush towards the moonstone, but Elijah, being quicker, plunges his hand into the wolf's chest and rips out his heart. The wolf falls down onto the couch, dead. Two other wolves rush at Elijah and Elijah, without any effort, plunges his arms into their chests and rips out their hearts as well. Jules wolf-speeds out of the house before she is killed.

Elijah walks over to Stevie, who crouches down and pulls his jacket over his face in fear. Elijah pulls him up from the ground. "What about you, sweetheart, hmm? You want to take a shot? Yes? No? Yes? Where's the girl?"

Damon looks around, "I don't know."

"It doesn't really matter." Elijah punches Stevie in the face and Stevie falls to the floor. Elijah then removes the chains strapping Aurora down into the chair offering her a hand to help her up.

When she did, she stumbled slightly, causing Elijah to place a supporting hand on her lower back, after making sure she was okay, he helped Damon with his chains.

"So you realize this is the third time I've saved your life now?"

Damon doesn't respond. Elijah turns around, grabs the moonstone, and walks out of the house.

Damon, still at the Salvatore house, moves the chair back to its original place as Aurora held a blood bag in her hand, just staring. Damon talks on the phone with Bonnie who is at Caroline's house. "So he planned to kill her all along."

"Yeah. The sacrifice is part of Elijah's plan."

"Got it loud and clear." Damon hangs up. Alaric suddenly comes back from the dead. "Finally. You missed all the fun." Damon picks up the chains from the floor as Alaric attempts to awaken.

"You gonna drink that?" Damon asked Aurora, who still hasn't taken a sip of the blood.

Aurora looked up at him and paused, before silently handing him the bag. "Thanks." He said, immediately ripping into the bag.

WORD COUNT : 2716