Chapter Text
“Are you saying you have the moonstone?”
Klaus’s voice jumped with a strange mix of wariness and glee.
Damon had no idea why he was gleeful, because the Original vampire had just thrown off any chance of them having a good relationship with this little stunt. True, they didn’t really know each other, but Damon thought there was at least some form of trust, considering he practically hand-delivered Mikael. Apparently not. Damon gave him a dismissive glance and turned back to the real enemy in front of him.
Klaus bristled like an offended cat but surprisingly stayed quiet and subdued.
“Now then,” Damon started. “What should I do with you?”
He took a step forward and another and another until he stood before John Gilbert.
“Where is Mason Lockwood? Did you kill him?”
Damon questioned. John’s face twisted into a scowl.
“I’m not telling you anything, Damon,” John spat his name like it was a curse.
Tonight was a full moon. Damon didn’t want this much trouble on a full moon. Things could always go unexpectedly wrong in Mystic Falls.
“Look, John. I don’t have the time or the patience to coax answers out of you. And I don’t need to torture it out of you either. I can take the answer out of you right this instant.”
Damon leaned into John’s personal space.
John narrowed his eyes.
“I am on vervain. You can’t compel me.”
He said confidently.
Damon just sighed and in one smooth motion, grabbed John by his neck. He reached for his archaic magic.
No matter how much the witches prattled on, vampires were also creatures of death and part of Nature. Otherwise, they wouldn’t exist.
Damon had researched the archaic magic only a few vampires exhibited. From what he understood, vampires themselves had magic in their veins and essence-old, archaic magic that not every vampire could access. Considering how the original vampires were created through magic, magic flooded any vampire’s essence and blood, which was a life force itself continued the process of feeding the old archaic magic within them.
Moreover, how potent and powerful this magic would be depended on many things. The amount of an original vampire’s blood the vampire had was one of them. Sage, who was directly turned by Finn could even lure an Original with her ability to manipulate dreams. Age was also one of them. As a vampire grows old, the magic in them grows old and strengthens. Then there was another fact that many vampires were unaware of. The lineage. Damon was a prime example of this. He awakened telepathy, shape-shifting and fog manipulation.
It wasn’t hard to guess whom he had inherited these abilities from. Silas, the first immortal was a warlock who had immense mental manipulations, shape-shifting, illusions in his repertoire. Damon, who had inherited his magic through archaic means, had researched and trained his abilities. He did have Silas as an example. (He was a terrible example but still an example nevertheless.)
As always, his magic answered him and he heard Kol take a sharp intake of air. His archaic magic, calm and composed but hiding a sharp edge under the surface was like the ocean.
He delved deep into John’s mind. The outer reaches of a mind are always easy to breach if one doesn’t have sufficient defenses. For a human, his mind had a decent defense. But for a hunter that dealt with vampires, they were truly tragic. Damon tore through the defenses as he searched for the recent memories.
John’s mind wasn’t complex and Damon picked apart what he has seen. Mason was still alive though he was tortured. The remaining vampires of Pearl’s coven had sided with Annabelle except for Harper. They planned to attack the Salvatore House while unleashing a werewolf on them. It filled him with an urgency and bubbling anxiety to get to his coven. Having seen enough, he retracted and in one smooth motion, snagged the Gilbert ring on his finger and snapped his neck.
As John lied there dead, Damon contemplated the merits of calling Jules. But tonight was a full moon. If Damon had to consider only himself, a pack of werewolves wouldn’t be a problem. But he had Stefan, Caroline and Hendrick to consider.
He turned to leave the cramped alley along with the whole mess. He could call someone else to clear up John’s body. A hand clamped around his wrist to stop his motions.
“Where are you going?”
Klaus demanded and Damon had to bite back the urge to snap at them. He wasn’t in a charitable mood. He shrugged off his hand with enough force for Klaus to stumble.
“Home,” Damon began.
As he hurriedly took off towards his car only for the Mikaelsons to follow.
“Did you find out where Annabelle was it- where that girl is? Do you know of their plan?”
Elijah inquired.
“Even if I knew where she is and her plan is, there’s no reason to tell you.”
Damon said as he got into the driver’s seat. Before he could tear off from the parking lot, Kol got on the passenger’s seat.
“I guess the girl plans to attack your home when you are distracted with the human then?”
Kol asked.
Damon didn’t find it strange that Kol was the one to figure out Annabelle’s plan. After all, misdirection was one of Kol’s own favorite tactics. With that Elijah and Klaus got into the backseat.
“Even if she planned that, I don’t want your help,” Damon began as he drove fast towards the house.
“Don’t be stubborn, Damon. Don’t tell me you don’t want to see the end of that vampire girl with your own eyes?”
Klaus asked with a sickly-sweet smile.
“I don’t need your help for that. Killing Annabelle is something you yourselves would take satisfaction in.”
“See, all of us are on the same side.”
Klaus added.
“Debatable,” Damon began. “I would rather have an enemy on my back than someone who turn coat from mere simple words.”
“I was wrong to simply listen to John Gilbert,” Klaus hesitantly admitted for the surprise of everyone there.
“Elijah,” Kol started. “Check whether someone has cursed our brother or replaced him.”
“Stop spouting nonsense.” Klaus snapped. “I can admit when I have done wrong.”
He admitted begrudgingly.
“Should I remind you I am not the only one who joined into accuse Damon?”
That was a reminder he didn’t need at the moment with his precarious emotional situation. The sting of betrayal, hurt and anger that lanced through him earlier threatened to resurface. Damon understood logically that they had no memories of the previous timeline, that they didn’t truly know him. But it meant nothing to his heart.
“I believe an apology should be given considering how hasty we were and we deliberately ignored the goodwill you showed us with handing our father over to us.”
It was Elijah that apologized.
“I don’t need your empty platitudes.”
“Is our relationship truly shallow that you would assume my words and intentions insincere?”
Elijah questioned. Damon couldn’t believe his ears. The scathing look he aimed at Elijah made the original vampire wince.
“Is our relationship truly shallow that you would assume I would betray you over a stranger’s words, Elijah? Then again, we don’t have a relationship and we won’t.”
“There was a misunderstanding that we never got to clear about our relationship.”
Elijah added.
Damon snorted. “Like this misunderstanding?”
Elijah pursed his lips.
“Looks like our brother won’t get to wine and dine Damon?”
Kol questioned with a mocking smile on his face.
“How about me then? I am not so boring and stuffy as my brother.”
Kol’s words had Damon snapping his head towards him.
“Kol isn’t the only one who would like to take you out for dinner?”
Klaus’s voice while mildly irritated was charming as he aimed it towards him.
“What makes you think that any of you have a chance at that? Even the two of you didn’t seem to care whether I actually betrayed you or not.”
“Of course we cared Damon. If we didn’t give you the benefit of the doubt you would be without a head by now. We don’t let traitors walk.”
Klaus continued. Damon had to concede at least that much.
“That doesn’t mean much when you haven’t apologized.”
Damon spared Klaus a glance, pleased to see his face twisted at being called out. About being called out…
“Now why don’t you really ask what you actually want to know instead of using Annabelle as an excuse to come with me?”
“What makes you think you are not what we want or enjoy the company of?”
Klaus hinted.
Damon couldn’t tell whether he was lying or not.
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere with me.” He leveled an unimpressed look at him.
“It’s not flattery if it’s true.”
Kol seemed to be playing along with whatever Klaus was playing at and that itself was a surprise. Because Kol lived and breathed to create chaos and disagree with Klaus.
“It’s flattery because you don’t know enough about me to make a genuine opinion of me.”
Damon countered.
People remained multifaceted even if you knew someone their whole lives.
“The things I know about you are enough,” Klaus noted. “You are beautiful, brave even when vampires that are far older than you threaten you. You are obviously smart, sly not to fall for cheap tricks.”
Damon willed the blush that reddened his cheeks and the emotions Klaus’s plethora of praise evoked within him.
“It could be a facade. I could be showing you what I want so I could ensnare the oldest vampires in existence in my pretty little undead grip.”
Let it be never said that Damon was ever helpful to him. No, he had to go and plant little doubts in the minds of the most paranoid men in existence.
“Yes. But someone like that wouldn’t try to point that out like you have,” Elijah added with a chuckle.
The chuckle sent shivers down his spine and Damon had to forcefully shake himself of the reaction.
“I could be trying to get on your good side. Anyway are you saying you are fine with not asking me about the moonstone?”
The way he tried to change the topic wasn’t subtle at all. If the amused stare Kol leveled at him was anything, they noticed but let it pass.
“The moonstone is too important for us as an specie-”
Whatever Elijah was about to say was interrupted. Damon snorted.
“I don’t know how you passed along the fake story of the Sun and the Moon curse to fool others. But don’t give me that bullshit.”
While Damon knew exactly what the moonstone held, he wasn’t supposed to know without someone actually mentioning it. And what better way to get it out than the mouth of the originals.
“What makes you so sure that the curse is fake?”
Klaus looked contemplative as he asked.
Damon scoffed and then turned to Kol, who also shared the same mockery.
“Do you wanna do the honors or should I?”
Even Elijah looked uneasy as his gaze snapped between him and Kol.
“If a curse is as powerful as you guys fabricated existed that affected two species, then there would be no loopholes like daylight rings.”
Kol explained disdain barely hidden.
“Neither would there be something like only the species that break the curse would be free of the curse. I shouldn’t have let you concoct that ridiculous curse.”
Kol continued.
Damon nodded along.
“Fine. It’s fake. I was born a werewolf when my mother cheated on Mikael. We didn’t discover this until I killed someone for the first time. To appease Mikael, mother bound my werewolf side using a ritual. The moonstone is what holds the curse.”
Damon felt the same disgust and agony run through him like the very first time he realized all the consequences of Esther’s actions.
“You must be in unimaginable pain. How do you deal with that?”
Damon asked softly. Elijah and Kol looked surprised, like it hadn’t occurred to them.
Klaus managed to shrug off his surprise. “It’s fine now.”
They were nearly at the house. Damon could see that the wards around the house held up. None of Annabelle’s vampires had been able to get close and Damon’s coven members were pushing them off.
But…
What he saw as soon as he pulled up there had his blood running cold.
Because that was definitely Stefan’s heart that Annabelle, with a crazed smile had pulled out from his body.
It was like a haze invaded him. There was a distinct blood curdling scream someone let out. It took a moment for him to realize he was the one screaming. It was hard to snap out when he couldn’t recognize if the soul-damning agony came from where his heart was or where Stefan’s bond to him was supposed to be.
The scream Damon let out as they got off the car and watched as the girl pulled out her hand from Stefan’s body was one of most horrible sounds Elijah had ever heard.
The transformation from the agonized victim to the wraith wrapped in grief and pain was in an instant. As fury etched across his face, Damon went so still and sprang into action in a split second.
If Elijah wasn’t as old as he was, even he would have a hard time trying to keep track of him. Damon was a blur that set his enhanced senses on edge. Elijah’s instincts warned him not to let a predator like that out of his sight. Alarm bells started ringing in his head. Elijah suppressed a shudder that ran down his spine. He could definitely tell it was not from fear.
Even though they came here with the intention of helping, it became obvious the dozen or so vampires were no match for Damon on a good day. No were they match for a rage fueled Damon either. Like the few times Elijah observed before, Damon had far superior senses a vampire his age shouldn’t possess.
The heads and the hearts of the vampires flew as he tore through them. The previous triumphant joy etched on the faces of the vampires vanished without a trace. The blank emptiness that was gaping open in his eyes even when he was elbow deep in someone’s chest, the calculated and precise motions that waste no energy as he went only after vital points, the smooth and fluid grace of his body decimated the enemy vampires. In the blink of an eye, more than half of them lied dead while the other half had the presence of mind to flee.
Even though it was for naught. A heavy pressure from one of the people who collected Stefan’s body fell on them as she started chanting.
It was the magic of a witch.
The tingling sensation of the magic setting his nerves on fire disappeared. The magic that directly drew power from the wards around the boarding house that Elijah realized about only now, was aimed at the fleeing enemies like blades.
They fell to the ground writhing in pain and Damon stalked towards them like he expected this. As he descended on them, he killed off everyone except Annabelle.
Even while twitching and trembling on the ground in pain, the gleeful smile she had was mixed with triumph and arrogance.
“H… How does it… Huff… Huff… finally feel to lo… lose your family?”
She panted. Elijah wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Damon snorted as some emotions finally pierced through his eyes.
“Stefan won’t be dead for long. I love my brother more than anything in the world. You think I won’t have any measures to prevent his death even if it meant mine?”
He asked as he gently lifted his brother’s hand that had his coven ring on from where he was laid down on and caressed it.
Right before their wide eyes, Stefan’s wound started closing in and a similar patch of blood spread on Damon’s chest at exactly the same spot of Stefan’s injury as Damon’s chest opened up. Elijah watched in surprise as whatever magic cast on their coven rings reversed the damage done to Stefan.
“No… no.”
Annabelle started shouting desperately as her bold plan failed. But that wasn’t what captured Elijah’s attention.
The dangerous silhouette of Damon as he prowled towards Annabelle’s body.
“Looks like you’ll be seeing your mother sooner than you thought.”
With that said, he pulled out her heart and stood up.
The moment Stefan opened his eyes gasping, Damon fell unconscious with a gaping maw of a wound right into Elijah’s arms.
“Damon! Damon !!”
He called out in alarm. This had to be a nightmare.
Because there’s no way Damon laid on Elijah’s arms dead. And Elijah didn’t know whether he would ever see Damon’s beautiful blue eyes opened again.
It was like a blackhole had sucked out all the meaning of life and feelings from him. Elijah felt him move towards the red door he kept closed in his mind. He was close to opening it without a care for anything the vampiric beast within it would tore apart other than the precious body in his arms.
He felt hollow and miserable with no end in sight to tragedy before him. He bared his teeth at the person who tried to take Damon away from him hard enough for them to flinch away.
“Elijah!”
It felt like someone called out to him multiple times.
“Damon!”
Only the name of his beloved broke through his haze. He focused his attention on Stefan who was crouched beside them.
“Let’s take him to his bed and clean up his body. He’ll want to be clean when he wakes up.”
It was like the whole world breathed with him. Because Damon was going to wake up. Damon was going to be okay. Elijah followed after Stefan, carrying Damon’s body gently. He didn’t have the presence of mind to notice Stefan’s sympathetic looks.
The boarding house was blanketed with heavy magic that held many protections, wards and shields. Damon’s room that Stefan directed him was also swathed in more potent magic. As an ancient vampire he was sensitive to magic after all. He could tell the room itself felt like a fortress of magic.
As he deposited Damon softly on the bedding and started removing his shoes and bloodied clothing, he only remembered this wasn’t one of those adventures of hunting prey with is Damon he had when they were still lovers when Stefan moved to browse through Damon’s closet.
As Stefan moved to dress Damon in comfortable sleep wear, he parted his lips.
“No matter how many times you see him like that, it never gets easy.”
“This wasn’t the first time?”
Elijah had guessed before.
“Yeah,” Stefan mentioned with a guilty expression.
“You would think with his carefree personality, Damon would be the one that often gets in trouble.”
Stefan added.
“That’s not the case?”
It was Klaus’s voice that entered the room from where he was standing in the doorway with Kol.
“No. Damon never gets into trouble he can’t finish. I am the one who always need protections like this.”
Stefan pointed at Damon with a sad smile.
“Anyway, you guys can stay if you want. It will take few hours for him to wake up.”
Stefan continued as he tucked Damon in with the blanket.
That was all the permission Elijah needed to remove his shoes and outer coat to get in bed beside Damon. Elijah watched from the corner of his eyes as Klaus and Kol moved into the room and settled on the large bed.