The Devil Takes Care of His Own

Empty Threats

It was pretty dark when Nik dropped me off; I hadn't realized how late it was until now. He walked me to my door and if I wasn't already a vampire, my heart would have stopped when he looked down at me again.

"I had a wonderful time today. I hope we can do it again soon." He said sweetly.

"I did too. I'll see you tomorrow, right?" I began as I watched him nod in agreement, trying not to seem as clingy as I actually was, "You're going to pick me up after school tomorrow afternoon?"

"And I'm dropping you off at school in the morning. Don't worry, you'll see me in a few hours." He moved a bit closer towards me and his voice got quieter, "I suppose the normal thing to do right now is to kiss you, but I think we both know that Damon would be out here in seconds to rip my head off."

I groaned in response to what he said but nodded and moved to the tips of my toes to kiss his cheek, smiling softly.

"Bye Nik, I'll see you tomorrow." I told him before turning and walking into the house.

I was still smiling when I closed the door behind me. Despite the fact that I should have waited longer since he wouldn't even be in his car yet and he would soon be driving home, I was already texting Nik and thanking him for the wonderful time we spent out together. I turned to go up the stairs but I was stopped when Damon and Stefan called my name in unison. I turned and looked at them confused as I walked into the study.

"Is everything okay?" I asked them in a bit of confusion, knowing that I should probably be worried about why they called me over.

They stayed silent for a few seconds even after I walked in, looking at each other and then back at me as if they didn't know how to break bad news.

"What were you doing tonight?" Damon asked me, always the over protective best friend.

"Oh. Is that what this is about? Look, I wanted to hang out with my new friend Nik but I didn't want you to spy on us like you usually do when I'm on a date," I teased, sitting across from him, "besides, I was gonna tell you when I saw you upstairs."

"Nik?" Stefan questioned with a heartless chuckle, "Is that what he told you his name is?"

I looked even more confused but Damon was happy to clear it all up for me as he started ranting again.

"His name is Niklaus; he's the big bad original that we were plotting against." He stated, making me laugh as he got up and went over to the cabinet to get a drink.

"Guys, you can't be serious, Nik is the sweetest guy I've met in a while. There's no way he's this psycho killer that you guys make him out to be."

"Why wouldn't you believe us? If anything, we've always been some of the only people you can trust. Besides, everyone has a dark side."

"Oh please, you are the dark side." I said with a chuckle, noticing that Stefan had walked out so Damon and I were now alone.

"You're kidding, right?" He began, "If I recall correctly, you're the one that dumped your boyfriend even though he was sired to you because he proposed and you thought that was too serious."

"I'm nineteen. I'm not interested in getting married. He deserves someone who will be."

"First of all, you're not nineteen. You're as old as Stefan. Second, Max is sired to you. He won't get anyone else because he is going to spend his entirety in love with you. But you probably didn't break the sire bond because you wanted to know that someone will always be there to love you when no one else will. Am I right?"

"I liked you a lot more when you were terrorizing young women all across America. Where is this high and might act coming from?"

"Don't start with me Ashley; you know it isn't an act."

You're right. The only act around here is when you pretend that you aren't hopelessly in love with your brother's girlfriend."

"I'm going to ignore that statement and the urge to snap your neck because I love you and you're my friend."

"Did you call me in here just to criticize my life choices and threaten me?" I asked after a scoff as I stood up.

"No. We called you in here because you promised to help us and now you seem to be going over to a different side. I thought we could trust you."

"I'm not going over to any side, Damon. You know my loyalty has always lied with you. Just like yours has always lied with me. You can trust me."

"No matter how you try to spin this to make it sound better, you can't trust him. I hope you figure that out before you end up heart broken, or dead." He finished his drink and walked away.

I sighed and decided to let him go. After thinking about all of this for a few minutes, I walked out of the study at the same time that the doorbell rang. I groaned and opened it, seeing that there was no one there but there was a single envelope lying on the step on top of a rather large box. I walked in with the box under my arm as I read through what seemed like an invitation.

"Ash, are you alright?" Stefan asked me as he walked by me since he was coming up from the basement.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You know by now that you don't have to worry about me. Your brother, however, seems to be in a perpetually bad mood."

"Well, he thinks that this is going to lead to the death of his best friend. Considering the fact that you are also his only friend, I wouldn't be happy either." He said with a shrug, watching as I kept reading from the envelope in my hands, "Is that an invitation to the ball that the original's are throwing?"

"Um, yeah. It seems like it." I looked down at the box and set it on the table so I could open it and see what was inside, "How do you know about it? Did you get an invitation too? "

"No, but Elena did. Esther wants to meet with her and she really wants to go. Damon is going to try and keep her home, but I think she should go. I want to find out what they want from her."

"Do you think I should go?" I asked him, not sure if I should go now that I knew the truth.

He held his hand out for the invitation so he could read it over while I opened the box with a gasp and saw the gorgeous gown that was inside. Stefan chuckled at my reaction and raised an eyebrow as he thought it over.

"Well, it seems as though Klaus wants you to go as his date. I think it would be a good idea. At least to keep up appearances and act like you don't know anything new." He said with a small shrug of his shoulders as I was still blushing softly.

"When is it? Saturday?" I asked him, standing up so I could hang the dress up.

"Yeah. Do you want to go?"

"Of course I do. I'll tell Nik next time I see him."

"And when is that going to be?" Stefan asked me as I bit my lip in response, not sure if I should tell him the truth even though he would be finding out tomorrow morning.

"Actually, he's driving me to school tomorrow." I cleared my throat and thought about it, "and he's picking me up."

"You're going out with him again tomorrow?" Stefan was obviously very amused by this whole thing despite how worried he was originally.

"What can I say," I began as I felt my phone vibrating in my hand, "Nik can't get enough of me."

"You do realize that eventually you're going to get fed up with him?"

I shrugged since I was looking down at my phone and wasn't paying enough attention to him for me to actually give him a legitimate response. He laughed at me and ushered me upstairs so I could hang the dress up and make sure that it wouldn't get messed up. I plugged my phone to charge and went to Damon's room which was right beside mine. I was hoping we could talk things through and he would calm down a bit.

"What do you want?" He asked me, his words a bit harsher than what I expected as he kept his eyes on me.

"Damon, don't be mad at me." I whined, walking towards him and sitting beside him on the bed.

"Mad? Oh, I'm not mad. I'm just trying my best to come to terms with the fact that my best friend whom I love and care about may be dead in a few days because she has a crush on the most powerful and devilish creature she could find."

"He isn't that bad-"

"-isn't that bad?! Ash, that man is the reason that we're in this mess. He's using Elena as a walking blood bag so he can make his army of hybrids."

"Well, he isn't that bad to me."

"Of course he isn't bad to you. Don't be naive, Ashley. He wants to get into your pants," he mumbled, obviously upset, "and by the looks of it, you're going to let him because you can't see that he's the devil."

"You have no faith in me."

"Why should I have faith in you right now? You're a few steps away from dealing with the devil. Oh, and I heard you and Stefan talking downstairs, you aren't going to the ball." He looked away from me briefly to check something on his phone, "And I will not hesitate to snap your neck and keep you home for a night, so don't tempt me."

"Damon, I'm not your girlfriend or your child, you can't tell me what to do. And you can't threaten me just because you might not get your way."

"You're right, I'm just your oldest friend and one of the many people that know more about this guy than you do."

"He isn't a bad guy!"

"Did you miss when I said he was the devil? It doesn't really get any worse than that."

I groaned and stood up, really upset about all of this since I felt as though they didn't trust me enough even though they should know I wouldn't do anything stupid.

"I came in here in hopes that we'd make up. You know I hate being mad at you. But, no. You have to be a dick about it." I mumbled as I walked out and walked back into my room.

AN: Remember that I have this on Mibba so you can read it there if you don't want to wait!!

Also, I would love some comments to let me know how everyone likes this and I am still following everyone back!