Broken Home | 1

twenty-eight

A gunshot in the front of the house gets everybody's attention, and Paul immediately stands up and moves to Jay's side. Stefan tells them to stay put and then he disappears from the room.

"Oh my God!" Bella yells, and Jay runs from the library with Paul right behind her. They stop in the living room when they see Stefan drop someone's heart onto the carpet.

"What the hell is wrong with this town?" Jake questions, keeping Bella behind him.

"Uh..." Jay glances at him, and then looks between the Salvatore brothers. "Who the hell was that?" She asks.

"Vaughn." Damon tells her. "He's one of the Brotherhood of the Five. He's also a ghost."

"Oh." She nods.

"Lexi told Jay about the cure." Stefan tells him brother.

"Snitch." The blonde shoots him a dirty look.

"We don't have time for games or prolonged decisions." He says as he looks at the little brunette. "You need to choose what you want to do."

"You say it like it's easy." Jay scoffs. "This... This isn't easy, Stefan. I'm fifteen for Christ's sake!"

"So go get a blood bag from downstairs, turn, and then take the damn cure." Damon says as he walks over to her.

"And then do what about that?" She points at the dead-twice-over Hunter on the floor. "I don't think he just popped in to say hello. Something tells me that he's still interested in fulfilling his supernatural destiny to kill a certain pain in the ass immortal."

"So I'll leave him in another well." He argues as he steps forward, and then he flinches.

Her dark eyes narrow as she looks at him. "What was that?" She questions.

"My irritation with the stubborn, pigheadedness that runs in your family."

"Mhm." She nods, and then reaches for the top of his shirt.

Damon grabs her hand and she brings up her other arm and elbows him in the face, causing him to stumble back. She slams her knee into the side of his leg, forcing him down, and then she pulls on the neckline of his shirt to reveal a bullet wound in his shoulder.

"I hate that Ric taught you that." He grumbles as she looks at the red hole in his flesh.

"Your friend here shot you?" She asks, and he nods. "With a bullet laced with werewolf venom?"

"It would appear that way. Hunters are dicks." He knocks her hand away, and she nods.

"Okay." She then turns away from him, and he grabs her arm.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"To beg Klaus to heal you."

"Klaus would rather see me die." He reminds her.

She shrugs. "Well, if he won't, then I guess you'll just have to take the cure. If you're human, then the werewolf venom won't affect you."

"And here I thought you were worried about the Hunters' motives in Mystic Falls."

"After everything that I've lost, Damon, you are going to keep your promise." She says, and his expression softens as he looks down at her. "Even if I have to make you."

—

Jay knocks on the door to Klaus' mansion, and it opens soon after. "The littlest in the Gilbert family. What an unexpected surprise." He says as he looks from her to Paul and Marie. "What are you doing here, and who are your friends?"