Chapter Text
The French Quarter was flooded with midday sunshine. Tourists and natives merged together as they browsed the street wares and unique shops open to their perusal. The air was thick with the smell of delicious foods. At a tiny café on a corner, two people sat at an outside table. Their playful bickering was lost to the vibrancy of their surroundings, but their smiles were obvious to any who glimpsed them.
“I thought it would have improved since the last time I was there,” Kol grumbled. He had been stirring his coffee for the better part of three minutes.
“You have thought that about the last ten cities,” Lissa said dryly. Just as she was about to forcibly remove the spoon from him, he put it down. “Where will you go next?”
“South Asia somewhere, I think. Europe is just so disappointing. What of you and Elijah?”
“We’re staying here for a while. Elijah is worried about Klaus.” Kol gave her such a dry look that it could have turned water to sand. “He is well aware I think he is being ridiculous. Klaus is fine.”
“I wouldn’t say fine, but he doesn’t need a babysitter.”
“I resigned myself long ago to his endless need to protect his siblings to the point of over-protection.”
“You’re a huge hypocrite.” Lissa raised an eyebrow. “Remember when Kat pissed off that werewolf pack in Thailand? You were there so fast she thought you’d time travelled.”
She smiled sadly.
“We don’t have the luxury of surviving if we are bitten by a werewolf.”
“But you do have the luxury of access to the only cure.”
“If I remember correctly, Klaus was in Peru at the time. Katherine would have been dead long before he could reach her.” Kol had no argument for that, which was refreshing. “When you have lived as long as any of us, hypocrisy is natural.”
“I’ll drink to that.” They clinked their cups together and sipped. “Maybe East Asia. It’s been a while since I went to Japan.” Lissa’s phone buzzed. Kol waved at her. “By all means, be rude and answer your phone when you’re with company.”
She frowned deeply when she saw who was calling her.
“Sheila?” she said worriedly. The whiskey-rich voice was not one she’d heard for several months, but she would never forget it. Kol straightened from his slouched position. “What is it?”
“There are vampires in Mystic Falls. Bonnie says she thinks one’s hurtin’ Caroline.”
“Hurting how?”
“She’s actin’ different, strange. Bonnie says she keeps forgetting things.” Lissa closed her eyes. She could hear Kol’s teeth grinding. “She’s wearing more scarves and long sleeves when it’s warm.”
“What about Bonnie? Has the vampire done anything to her yet?”
“No.” The pause could only be described as uncomfortable. Lissa didn’t push. Kol flagged a waitress for the bill. “Lissy . . . it’s the Salvatores.”
“I’m on my way.” Kol’s expression was full of concern when she stood up and shoved her phone into her purse. “Please . . . don’t.”
“I won’t say anything. For now. You’re going to have a hell of a fight from everyone else, though.”
“I know.”
XXX
“What a repugnant piece of trash he is,” Rebekah said lowly. Across the square, Damon was leaving the Grill with Caroline Forbes. Lissa had only seen the girl in person once, and that had been a decade ago. At eighteen years old, she should have been finding her way towards being a flourishing young woman. Instead, she had a terribly false smile painted on her pale face. Blue eyes should have been sparkling with life, but they were dull with fatigue. A silk scarf was tied securely around her neck and a long-sleeved flowing top hid her arms. Though it would seem to the casual observer that she and Damon were simply holding hands, it was frightfully obvious to Lissa that he was pulling her along.
“How would you like to proceed?” Lissa asked as the pair got into Damon’s blue convertible. There was absolutely no chance that Rebekah and Kol would let her near him without at least one of them as back-up, so she didn’t bother suggesting it.
“I’ll follow them. If he takes her to the Boarding House, perhaps Stefan will be there, and I’ll get to string them both up,” Rebekah answered.
“I’ll scope out the Gilbert house,” Kol said.
“Then I’ll meet with Bonnie.”
Rebekah took the car they’d been spying from on her tail, and Kol took the second, leaving Lissa to sit on a bench in the town square as she waited for Bonnie. According to the research and Sheila’s information, Mystic Falls had become a hub for “animal attacks” in the last few weeks. More and more people were being found dead, supposedly mauled by a mountain lion. Lissa didn’t know the exact members of the council, but she imagined they were largely the same families as they had been in 1864. Based on the news reports, law enforcement testimony, and the official causes of death, it was likely there were council members in each of those occupations.
The damage being wreaked was symptomatic of a vampire who had gone completely off the rails. Were it not for Lexi’s confirmation, Lissa would have suspected Stefan over Damon first. Damon was much more careless, yes, but he also preferred cities to small towns. To hunt so violently and obviously where town officials considered themselves vampire hunters was foolish (even if they were terrible at handling anything supernatural). And going after the Sheriff’s daughter? Lunacy.
“Lissa?”
“BB!” she cried jubilantly. She hugged her fiercely, inhaling the sweet scent of honey and sandalwood. Green eyes were bright with happiness, and her smile should have sonnets written about it. Unlike two years ago, her natural hair was haloed around her head. Lissa smiled. “Sweetheart, you are making me feel old. You’ve grown so much!”
“Really glad I have. Sixteen was not my favourite age.”
“I wish I was seeing you under better circumstances.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know Grams would call you, but I’m glad she did. It’s just-.”
“You would not apologise for getting school help from someone who understood a subject better than you, and you should not apologise for this.”
“Slightly different things, Liss.”
“Not really. You reached out for help when you needed it from people more qualified than you.” Bonnie didn’t seem to have an argument for that. “Besides, I’ve missed you dearly.” Lissa began guiding Bonnie through the square. “Kol wants to know what you want for a graduation gift.”
“I didn’t think he was allowed to get me gifts after Christmas 2007.”
“He seems to believe Sheila has forgotten that.”
“He’s met Grams, right?” Lissa rolled her eyes. “How has he survived a thousand years?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
They entered an apartment building and took the lift to the top floor.
“So, where’s the calvary?” Bonnie asked knowingly when Lissa let her into the apartment. Last minute rentals weren’t her favourite real estate option, but she also hadn’t wanted to hole up in a hotel.
“Tailing their respective targets.”
“You’re like Charlie’s Angels, except you’re also Charlie.”
Lissa snorted mildly. Kol would enjoy that comparison more than Rebekah.
“Bonnie, I need to tell you something, and you are not going to like it.”
Lissa sat on an armchair facing the door. It gave Bonnie plenty of room to pace, or sit far away, or flee the premises. As it was, she sat on the sofa and frowned at Lissa.
“Is it about what Damon Salvatore did to you?” Lissa’s stomach dropped. She tried to speak and couldn’t, so she gripped her knees tightly. Bonnie understood her abrupt silence far too easily. “Grams got super skittish when I told her about him, and I know you’ve got a history in this town, or at least . . . Katherine did. I put two and two together.”
When would people stop hesitating to mention her sister?
“This isn’t about Damon.” Bonnie’s chest puffed up as she went to protest. “Someday, maybe, I will tell you that story. For now, we need to discuss Elena.”
“What? Elena’s not involved, is she? I mean, Stefan’s a vampire and he totally told her, because she was freaked out and weird for days, but he’s not doing anything to hurt her.” Lissa unlocked her phone and put it face-up on the coffee table. Confused, Bonnie picked it up. “Why do you have a picture of Elena?”
“That is Katherine.”
“They look – why – what the hell?”
“Elena is the latest in a line of supernatural doppelgangers. 500 years ago, so was Katherine. 500 years before that, there was Tatia. It was her death and her blood which bound the hybrid curse that Esther placed on Klaus. Doppelgangers were nature’s solution to breaking the curse. When Katherine and I met the Originals and subsequently discovered their plan to sacrifice my sister, she agreed to die, so long as she was brought back as a vampire. That was supposed to be it. Yet, it was discovered after the curse broke that only the blood of a human doppelganger could create more hybrids.”
“Uh – Lissa, are you telling me that you came here to save one of my best friends and make a blood drive from the other one?”
Bonnie was flexing her fingers restlessly.
“No!” Lissa protested instantly. Then she grimaced. “I see why you thought that. No, Elena is safe from us. I’m telling you this because you need to know that doppelgangers – especially human ones – are rare and coveted. If word was to ever get out that Elena was one, people would come for her. Her blood is absurdly potent in magic.”
“Oh Jesus.”
“I apologise for scaring you.”
“I forgive you. You suck, but I forgive you.” Bonnie raised an eyebrow. “Is this why I never met Katherine in person?”
“Yes. Based on the time between Tatia’s death and Katherine’s birth, we had guessed Elena was the one. When the two of you became friends, Katherine elected to stay away from Mystic Falls. Then, of course, that became what I believe people these days refer to as a non-issue.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“Sweetheart, it has been ten years. I can talk about her.”
“Stefan and Damon knew you guys, right?”
“Yes. Katherine met them in 1864. Stefan did not speak to her after he became a vampire, and Damon limited his contact after a time.” Bonnie looked ready with a thousand questions. “She did not treat them kindly.”
“Why do I feel like that’s an understatement?”
“Their history with Katherine is theirs. I won’t disrespect their right to privacy.”
“Okay,” Bonnie said, drawing out the word to emphasise her doubt. Lissa pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Make no mistake, Bonnie, compulsion is a vampire’s greatest tool. We can replace or erase the memory at our leisure, allow our victims to feel as much pain as we wish, unmake and remake the human mind. Using it correctly is paramount to remaining undiscovered. You’ve said Caroline is forgetting things, which indicates Damon is only erasing certain memories and not replacing them. I would also wager he is compelling her to act “normally”, but not erasing her fear. He is removing Caroline from herself entirely. Soon, all that will be left is a shell.”
The silence was long and painful. Lissa let Bonnie process.
“Anything else you want to tell me?” she asked eventually.
“That’s plenty to be getting on with, I feel.” Her phone buzzed.
[Group chat: we definitely started the fire]
Kol: Stefan and Elena may be the most boring couple on the planet
Kol: But at least I don’t have to go anywhere
Rebekah: I suggest we convene at the Boarding House. Damon has compelled Caroline to sit uselessly on the sofa whilst he ignores her. I do not think that will last very long.
Lissa: Try not to kill him until we get there.
Rebekah: No promises.
XXX
The Salvatore Boarding House was a large property on private land, complete with a beautifully maintained driveway and front lawn. The building itself wasn’t Lissa’s tastes, but then again, nothing in Mystic Falls was. She had used vampire speed to get there and drew to a graceful halt next to Rebekah and Kol. Inside, music was blaring at an unnecessarily high volume.
“His complete lack of self-preservation would astound me if I cared that much,” Rebekah drawled. They approached the front door. The borderline-maniac glee pouring off Rebekah made Lissa smile slightly. Kol was much more reserved, sombre even.
The door was unlocked.
As a unit, they crossed the foyer and stood in the archway into the living room. Caroline was on one of the sofas, staring blankly into space. Her scarf had been removed, exposing a vicious, deep bite on the left side of her neck. Damon was at the mini bar, back to them, pouring a large helping of bourbon.
“Knock, knock,” Kol said. Damon whipped around, decanter and tumbler still in hand. Slowly, he raked his gaze over each of them. When he reached Lissa, he went deathly pale, and dropped everything. The glass shattered. Amber liquid splashed the floors and furniture. Caroline didn’t even blink.
“Wh- how?”
He blinked several times in quick succession. Rebekah sped over and held him several inches off the ground. Her fingers were tighter than necessary around his throat, but Lissa said nothing. She approached Caroline, Kol at her side. Her gaze was completely vacant.
“Caroline? Can you hear me?” she tried. Caroline jumped and then smiled. It was painfully forced and didn’t reach her eyes.
“Hey! Have we met?”
Lissa pressed her lips together and bit down on the ferocious rage boiling under her skin.
“I’m Bonnie’s friend, Lissa. She’s having a sleepover tonight, and I’d love to get to know you better. Are you joining?”
When Caroline looked at Damon for permission, Rebekah hissed too quietly for human ears to detect. She put him down, keeping hold of his wrist firmly enough that at least two bones cracked. He nodded with gritted teeth.
“Yeah, that sounds great!”
“Let’s go, then. Miss Sheila’s making brownies.”
Kol helped her stand and took her to the car. Rebekah flicked her hand up. Damon’s head snapped 180 degrees and he crumpled to the ground.
“I’ll find a safe place to put him. You should go with them.”
“He doesn’t die unless Caroline says so,” Lissa reminded her softly. Though she grimaced, Rebekah nodded.
XXX
Caroline’s sobs were like hundreds of splinters piercing Lissa’s heart. For every tear that poor girl cried, Damon would suffer another month, she would ensure it.
The ruse of a sleepover and Caroline’s relative complacency had made getting her to the rented apartment easy. Bonnie’s presence when she arrived helped keep her calm. From there, Kol had undone the compulsion, and Caroline had somehow kept it together long enough to get her memories back, and hear a brief overview of the supernatural world before she’d collapsed in a cataclysmic explosion of grief and terror.
“In a thousand years, I have never hated anyone more than I hate Damon Salvatore right now,” Rebekah said in a hushed voice. Apparently, Stefan had returned home with Elena when Rebekah was loading Damon’s body into his car. She had left him to explain himself and locked Damon in the basement of the apartment complex, drugged to the gills with vervain.
“He learned it from somewhere,” Lissa said darkly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rebekah look at her in shock. Kol was the brave one.
“Lissy, we’ve all done monstrous things.”
“Never this. We have to acknowledge that her actions could have at least contributed to Damon’s behaviour.” The siblings were silent. “I am not saying we shouldn’t deal with him. Whatever the catalyst, he is still abusing that girl, and that needs to be remedied.”
“We need a plan.”
“Glad you mentioned that. I already have one.”
XXX
July 1993
“Horror movies must base their houses on this place,” Ava said blandly. Despite it being broad daylight, the white mansion loomed ominously behind its wrought iron fence.
“Did you bring me here on purpose?” Klaus asked, somehow glaring and raising an eyebrow between Ava and the house. The very fact that it was referred to as a cottage was ridiculous to Lissa.
“And me?” Elijah said from Lissa’s right.
“You’re responsible for this place becoming a magical loony bin, so yeah, I brought you here on purpose.”
“We did no such thing,” Elijah protested. Ava rolled her eyes.
“Remember 1914 when you locked Mary-Alice Claire and Astrid Malchance in there? Yeah, it became a prison/asylum because of that.” She patted Klaus’s shoulder patronisingly. “You really suck.”
“I assume that is why Kol is not here also?” Klaus guessed. Ava nodded then smacked her temple. “What is it that is here that’s so important?”
“Not a what. A who. Your big sister.” Lissa blinked. Elijah went very still. Klaus scoffed. “Not lying or being tricked or whatever shit you’re about to spout. Freya, the kid Esther claimed died a thousand years ago, is still alive. And she’s in that house.”
“Something tells me that we can’t simply walk in and retrieve her,” Lissa said, ignoring the thunderous glare rapidly growing on Klaus’s face.
“Nope. There are some tough-as-shit spells around the perimeter and an invite is needed if you make it as far as the door. Freya’s powerful enough to break out, but she’s asleep.”
“I assume you don’t mean an afternoon nap?” Elijah said dryly. Ava raised an eyebrow at him. “I thought so. Can you break whichever spell she’s under?”
“Are you kidding? It’s some super powerful, super dark shit, and she didn’t even cast it. Your insane aunt did.” All three of them stared at Ava, who abruptly looked sheepish. “Did I not mention that?”
“Not that I don’t love hearing family stories,” Bonnie started, “But what has that got to do with this?”
“The Fauline cottage is a prison for unstable witches. It is a permanent residence that cannot be escaped from,” Lissa explained. Whilst Freya had broken herself out, none of the other prisoners were powerful enough to do so. “Caroline has expressed that she does not want Damon’s death on her conscience even though it would not be her doing.” Kol and Rebekah had been baffled by the very concept but had conceded to the girl’s wishes. “My suggestion is that we imprison Damon.”
“In the cottage?” Bonnie asked doubtfully.
“In the Garden.”
“The garden of the cottage?”
“Sort of. Though technically outside the boundary line of the property, there is an underground cellar from the prohibition era. It was agreed several decades ago that it would serve as the vampire equivalent to the cottage. Vampires that Marcel or any of us do not kill are sentenced to time in the Garden. They are not fed and so desiccate, left there until they are released, or we kill them.”
“I probably don’t want to know this, but why would they be released?”
“Remorse, regret, redemption – the usual. Death is usually deemed too quick for them, so putting them in the Garden gives them plenty of time to contemplate their wrongdoings.”
“Wow.”
“Yes. Do you think this will sit better with Caroline?”
“He won’t escape?”
“There are around-the-clock vampire guards, and similar spells to those on the cottage on the cells and the perimeter. He will not escape.”
“How long will you put him in there for?”
“That’s still up for debate, but nothing less than twenty years.”
“Then I think it’s going to sit great with Caroline.” There was a brief silence where Lissa could feel Bonnie’s intense stare as she stirred some sugar into her tea. “Who’s Ava?”
“A story for another time.”