Chapter Three
"Whooo!" I cheered as I met the gang at Damon's car. "Myrtle Beach, here we come."
"This is not a vacation," Damon scolded me.
"Yes, it is," I laughed. "Road-trip with my favorite people. Heading to the beach? We can say drink, Damon."
"Cut her some slack, she was being super mom all summer while we were drinking our way through Europe," Alaric said.
"Just get in the car," Damon grumbled.
Bonnie and I hopped in the back while the two men were upfront. "How exactly are we going to find this person? We don't even know what he looks like," Bonnie said.
"Donovan checked Lily's phone records, we have the guy pinpointed to a specific hotel."
"That Phoenix Stone that I touched yesterday... you did destroy it like you promised me, correct?" Bonnie asked as soon as Damon was pulling off onto the road to leave campus.
"Why? What happened?" Ric asked instead of answering.
I frowned, adjusting myself and keeping my red tank top tucked under my high waisted black denim shorts. I was ready for some sunshine and some liquor. Unlike my trip to New York, I planned to have more fun today. No drama, no baby, no arguing with my husband. Just a girl out with her friends.
"I just had another vision back in my dorm. A flash of horrified people with x-shaped wounds on their skin. And, when I opened my eyes, ten minutes had gone by," Bonnie said.
"The stone's gone," Alaric replied, squirming in the front seat. "I, you know, watched in dissolve in hydrofluoric acid."
"You're positive?"
"Bonnie, the stone's gone," Ric scoffed in disbelief that she was second guessing him.
"Hey, kitten, where's that husband of yours?" Damon changed the subject.
I pursed my lips, glaring at the back of Alaric's head. I didn't believe him. He was lying. His heart was racing and every move he made was twitching with guilt. But I said no drama.
"He's to call me when he's within hearing range for Lily. We're set to argue about my whereabouts and my choice in company. I'm asking for space. That's the story," I shrugged.
"And how is that going to help Caroline?" My friend beside me questioned.
"Stefan lays on the charm, he asks for a Caroline back and he gets her. Trust me, he can be persuasive. Think of how everyone in this car hated him at some point and forgave him."
Bonnie hummed, "let's hope it's that easy."
***
"Okay, so... what's the plan?" Alaric asked as we headed down the hall to the hotel room, Damon sleuthed the heretic was in with a little compulsion.
"Okay, fair trade. One Heretic in good condition for the coffin housing Elena," Damon said.
"No, I meant the plan where we try to capture a powerful Heretic who'd prefer we were dead."
"Easy!" Damon rejoiced, gesturing to Bonnie with a wave of his hand. "B-Town stuns him with magic, you shoot him with vervain, I—" he clicked his tongue, "snap his neck. Kenzie is backup in case something goes wrong."
"Yeah, but after we get him to siphon away my visions," Bonnie said.
"Wait, what?" Alaric frowned.
Bonnie simply shrugged, lWell, the visions are magic. He's a Siphon. It's worth a shot, right?"
My phone loudly started ringing then, "I have to take this," I said, eyeing Damon with a stern look. Ric didn't destroy that stone. I know it and I'm sure he knows it too.
"Any other suggestions of how we can rid Bonnie of this mysterious pain she's in, Ric?" Damon asked as I was walking away.
Ric shook his head. I shushed them all as I answered Stefan's phone call. "Hello?" I grumbled in a fake tone of annoyance.
"I've been calling you all day!" He sighed exasperated. "Where are you, Kenzie? A text that you need space, is not okay. You may or may not be home tonight? Why?"
I sighed loudly, "look, I had to get out of town. I just... we're fighting too much and I'm miserable. I need a break..."
"From me?"
"From everything, Stefan."
He scoffed, "But you're with Damon, right?"
"Don't make this about Damon. He was leaving and... I took the opportunity to get away."
"He's never coming back... are you?"
"Of course I'm coming back."
"When?"
"I don't know, Stefan. Don't you have some other girl to rescue?"
"It's not about Damon, but it can be about Caroline?" He retorted angrily, voice raising.
"You're always about Caroline. I'm sick of it. If you want her—"
"I don't want her!"
"Then stop acting like you do!" I snapped. "I'm... I'm so sick of it."
"We're arguing in circles, I'm sick of that."
"I have to go," I sighed.
"But, wait, Kenz—"
I hung up the phone then, wincing. We may have been faking it, but... it still took a lot of energy. And it was another thing that had us yelling at each other instead of coming together. It's also not like we didn't mean the words we said. He didn't like me leaving, I did need a break... I wasn't miserable just stressed and over exerted physically and mentally, and arguing about Caroline had grown old now but still here we were.
"You okay?" Bonnie asked me.
"I'm fine, let's get this show on the road. Then it's to the beach for drinks," I said.
The rest of them nodded, and Damon took off leading the way to room 227. Upon getting there Damon knocked hard, "Room service, free shrimp!" The four of us crowing the entrance in case the Heretic immediately attacked.
When the door opened, we were revealed to a short, Asian guy with long hair and a disbelieved appearance. "Hey, you folks have the wrong..." he trailed off before eyes widening in realization at something, "Holy—Damon Salvatore!" He exclaimed with a grin.
"You know me...?" Damon frowned in confusion, giving me a side eyed look.
"Of course I know you! It's good to see you're well, old friend. Come here, man!" The heretic, Oscar, chuckled, hugging Damon now. "Hey, all right."
I snickered softly as Damon patted the guy on his back, his face expressing discomfort. Oscar stepped back then, "Ha! Come in, come in!"
I stepped in first after Oscar. The hotel room was dim, sunshine peeling into the tropical leaf wallpapered room. The whole place was trash. A few bodies across the room, laying down on furniture as if they were sleeping and not as I expected, dead. Food, booze and all the reminisce of a party left behind to be cleaned.
"Uh, you caught me in the middle of a seventy-two hour social gathering..." Oscar mumbled, kicking some beer cans out his way and tossing clothes across the room to free up a couple chairs for us. "Make yourself at home... Uh, friend with the vervain gun? If you could holster that, I sure would feel a lot more comfortable."
Alaric glanced at all of us before turning his back to us and putting his gun away.
"How do you know Damon?" I asked, trying to break up this awkwardness and confusion.
Oscar laughed, "Oh, he's Lily's son! The hero soldier. We-We met at a bar near Gettysburg, July of 1863." He waited for it to click on Damon's head but my friend simply shrugged, scrunching his face in a not impressed way because he didn't remember. "Nothing?"
"I go to a lot of bars," Damon replied. It would have been an okay answer but it was the tone in which he said it. He had this creepy predator voice. He was ready to attack. Or... he was hiding something.
Gettysburg, 1863? He was in the war. I doubt he was at the bar that often then. He didn't talk much about his time with their Confederate, except that he was against it and didn't want to be there. But I surely find it hard to believe that he forgot about all his time there. Especially because that was a little before he met Katherine, who he remembered detail of.
Oscar chuckled, "Heh, right, right, right. Uh, well, your mom was going through a rough patch. She could not move on until she knew her boys were okay, so she sent me out to find you," he filled us in as he plopped down on the couch behind a full coffee table.
"My mother abandoned her family and ran for the hills. She doesn't give a flying crap about me," Damon retorted.
I took a seat across from Oscar on a wooden chair, reaching for an unopened beer on the table. I got looks from my friends but they went ignored. We didn't want to upset Oscar. He was being hospitable.
"I sense hostility, and that's fine," Oscar told Damon in a gentle tone. "All emotions are valid and welcome here. But, it's the truth. She just wanted to know you were happy, Damon. She loved you."
"Hey, you guys, what can I get you? Cocktail? Joint?" Oscar offered. He then waved an arm at the women across the room. "Jenny?"
"Does my mom know you're here?" Damon asked him.
Oscar looked uncomfortable as he started giggling, "Hey, hey, hey! Shhhh! Hahahahaha!"
"Oh, my god, I want to be you," I stated, amazed. "Stoned, drunk, full of blood and just plain happy hiding from your family? Dude."
"Dude," Oscar grinned, tossing me a clear baggie off the table. I caught it, eyes wide at the bag of white powder in my hand.
"Absolutely not," Bonnie said.
"I'll take that," Damon hissed, snatching it from me while I rolled my eyes.
"I'm dead, could it hurt?" I taunted my friends.
"Stefan will kill you," Damon said.
"Stefan?" Oscar frowned. "Are you his girl? I thought Valerie said they were holding Stefan's girlfriend hostage."
I scowled as Bonnie snickered. "I'm his wife. The girl they have is just jealous of me," I informed Oscar, taking a sip of my drink now.
"Oh, someone should've told Valerie that," he chuckled.
"Who's Valerie?" Bonnie spoke up.
"Let's just say... someone protective of Stefan Salvatore," Oscar smirked mischievously.
I narrowed my eyes, "Stefan has never mentioned a Valerie to me."
Oscar shrugged. I turned to Damon who grimaced, "He knew a Valerie once. A long time ago, kitten... there's no way they could be the same girl."
Oscar giggled, "or could they?"
Damon narrowed his eyes now. Either wondering if Oscar was implying the same. I mean Lily sent Oscar supposedly to see Damon while he was at war, it goes to show that another heretic was sent to Stefan at the same time. But was the Valerie, Damon knew about from the same time period or was it a coincidence. I had a bad feeling regardless. What right does any woman have to be protective over my man?
"So, why did Lily send you here?" Alaric chimed in, getting us back on topic now.
"She didn't send me here, exactly..." Oscar said, moving to lay on the floor. "She had a job, and I volunteered. And she has the family on a short leash back home, with this whole, 'I took you in as orphans, so I know what's best for you' vibe. Nooooo, thank you."
Damon took a seat on the couch while Bonnie sat in the wooden chair next to me. Ric finding a table to lean against as we listened to the stoner ramble. I liked him. I couldn't wait to tell Jeremy about him. He'd like him too.
"You know you can get a drink served to you in a fishbowl here? Hahaha!"
"Oh, my god, I want one!" I squealed, looking at Damon with a pleading face. Ric rolled his eyes behind him.
"Oh, hey! The other day, I called a number on this card, and just like that, I had a girlfriend!" Oscar grinned, sitting up to pull out a business card from his pocket.
"It's called an escort service."
Oscar frowned, slightly confused or processing hurt with the reality of the subject. "But she really got who I am, you know?" He shrugged.
"I know," I assured, slipping onto the floor to sit across from him.
"It was a beautiful human experience! And that's what I've discovered here... freedom. The bad trip inside that prison world has ended, my friends, and I am breathing in what my soul was craving: f-r-e-e-dom."
"Well, in the spirit of helping others with their freedom, I have a favor to ask you... You know, as a Siphoner," Bonnie said, standing up.
"Huh?" Oscar uttered, staring at her confused before looking at me.
"Let me translate for you, my friends were playing with some mystical tool they didn't quite understand, and now Bonnie's chasing her own white rabbit around the farm," Damon further complicated.
"So, you want me to, what, siphon her problems away?" Oscar scoffed.
"Please?" I pouted, placing a hand gently on his forearm as he seemed weary all of a sudden.
"Just think of it as one big magical toke!"
"I don't... I don't really like to mix mediums, if you know what I mean?" Oscar chuckled.
"It's a piece of cake. My pretty friend is having magical nightmares from touching a magical rock. So if you could please, siphon the damn visions, we won't have to tell Lily that we saw you avoiding whatever mission you were sent to do, and we'll call it a day. Maybe go get some fishbowl drinks after," I said as nicely as possible even though it was sort of blackmail and we were intending to betray him.
"Okay, then. Come on,"Oscar mumbled, standing up.
I got up to, moving to the side as the two magical ones came face to face. "Ready?
"Yeah," Bonnie answered.
He raised his hands to either side of Bonnie's head and both of them closed their eyes. A slight red glow came from his hands. But for only a minute before he dropped them, opening his eyes and looking sober for the first time
"Where's the Phoenix Stone?" Oscar asked.
Alaric alarmed, straightened up onto his feet. Damon and I exchanged looks before, glancing a Bonnie who confused my looked at all of us for help. "Uh... How do you know about the Phoenix Stone?" She questioned instead.
Oscar turned his head and squinted his eyes suspicious, "How do you know about the Phoenix Stone? What are you people up to?"
"Calm down, we can explain," I said.
But before anyone took a beat, Alaric was aiming his vervain gun at Oscar who magically did a spell to send the gun across the room. And with the clenching of his fist a millisecond later, I was struggling to breathe. I groaned in pain, Damon's hand grabbing on to me suddenly.
And then in another moment, it all went black.
***
I glared at Ric as he was waking up. I was drinking out of a bottle of vodka as Damon had the bourbon and was shaking Bonnie back to consciousness. Ric woke seconds ago, after me cause Damon was up before me, drinking liquor to help with his snapped neck pain.
"Good news? Your visions are gone. Bad news? So is Oscar," Damon filled Bonnie in.
"Ohhh..." Ric groaned, checking all his pockets in a frenzy. I rolled my eyes. What an idiot. "He took the stone."
"Uh, how is that possible when you destroyed it, Ric?" Bonnie sled as she got to her feet, rubbing her throat with her hand.
"We need to find him right now," Damon told us, trying to focus on our mission to capture a heretic. I agreed. My sister was in danger. I wasn't trusting her body with Lily of all people.
"Did you know he still had it?" Bonnie questioned Damon.
Damon shrugged, grimacing as he uttered sounds trying to find the right words, "Aw, come on! I mean, y—I...A litt—Kind of. Ric, tell her what happened."
"No, I'm asking you
"I live with the guy! Guys... know stuff."
"You lied to me."
"He didn't lie to you. Ric lied to you! We just kept our mouths shut on what we were suspicious of," I chimes in. "Let's go, Damon. We don't have time to be in the middle of this. We need to find our bargaining chip."
I hauled ass out of the room to avoid Bonnie's look of annoyance or disappointment with me and Damon hurried behind to leave the other two to talk it out. Ric deserves an earful.
However, luck was on our side as we found Oscar in the bar just through the lobby. Damon and I hurried to join him, standing on either sides of his bar stool. "I lied. I do remember you. I was fighting for the South. It's not exactly a time I like to reminisce about in front of my friends," Damon told him.
"Yeah, you had the same opinion back then. Hated everything your side believed in. Hey, you wanted to desert, but feared shaming your old man," Oscar shrugged. But he seemed calmed down and delighted that Damon admitted remembered him.
Damon frowned, eyes swirling with conflicting emotions but his voice settled for accusatory as he said, "You compelled me to take sick leave. The next day, my entire regiment was slaughtered in Gettysburg. You saved my life."
Oscar shook his head, "I couldn't compel you back then. All I did was talk to you, from one human to another. I told you to follow your heart. Now, it's my turn to desert. I don't want to be part of Lily's cavalry, okay? I-I don't want rules, or-or a chain of command. I just want to have fun."
"We can see that," I snorted in amusement.
"You know what? A little extra piece of advice—A lot of people want the Phoenix Stone. Mess with it, and you end up dead," Oscar told us, leaving the bar. Of course Damon and I followed behind him.
"Full disclosure, we don't care about the stone. That's one guy trying to bring his wife back from the dead," I shrugged.
"Then why are you chasing me, guys?" Oscar questioned totally bewildered now.
"Let's just say we'd like to cash you in for something way better," Damon said.
In a flash, Damon pulled off a wooden railing from the corridor we were waking in and stabbed Oscar in the stomach. Damon followed up with two punches in the face and then a kick sensing Oscar across the room. I winced, feeling bad. He was a nice guy.
Oscar raised his hand and chanted, sending Damon crashing into the ceiling. Then he went to rip the stake out of stomach, charging for Damon who he now staked in the stomach. Just as I jumped in to run interference, he started screaming in pain and wind surrounded the dark hall near what I assumed was the janitor's area.
"Ahhh!" Oscar was screaming in pain as Bonnie's chanted filled the room. He was holding his hand but still standing. Ric came from behind Oscar, shooting to vervain darts in his back.
"Sorry, dude," I mumbled before I punched Oscar in the face with my right fist then my left until he crumbled to the floor.
Bonnie waltzed over and picked up something from the floor. I rolled my eyes as I noticed it was the damn Phoenix stone. I was sick of it already. "Never lie to me again," she told Ric in this cold, threatening tone.
"Aw, my besties are buds again!" Damon joked, panting in pain.
I turned to him, yanking the stake out of his abdomen. "Let's go make a deal," I suggested.
***
"Honey, I'm home!" I heard Stefan.
I smiled in relief, "in the shower!" I shouted back, before hurrying to rinse the conditioner out of my hair.
"Can I join you?" He asked in a husky voice as he was clearly on the other side of the shower curtain now.
"Yes," I laughed, pulling the curtain open.
"Mmm, bubbly," he commented, running a hand up my torso to grab hold of my left breast.
"How was your day?" I asked slightly breathless as he rolled my nipple under the pressure of his thumb.
"I spent it with my mom. Teaching her how to drive, actually."
My brows raised, "oh wow. That's funny."
He nodded, smiling softly, "how was your day? Was it as much of a vacation as you were wishing?"
"I'm a little tipsy," I admitted. "We got dinner and fishbowl drinks before we came home."
He chuckled, stepping back to undress. I shut the shower curtain a little bit to keep the water from splashing out. "I assume your day was a success?" He questioned then.
"Yup," I answered. "Damon has Oscar held hostage, hooked on vervain."
"So it was easy then?" He teased, slipping into the shower behind me where the hot water was pouring onto my back.
"I wouldn't say that," I said as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing his hard body against mine. "Ric lied to Bonnie about that damn Phoenix stone. He didn't destroy it. So that created some drama and tension. Then Oscar was this cool ass stoner dude who wanted freedom from your mother. I really feel bad for turning him in—"
"You have to," he said before kissing the side of my neck.
"Stefan," I whispered. "Are we talking or—?"
"Can't we do both?"
"Anyways," I laughed, slipping out of his arms and turning to face him. I reached up to push the shower head slightly towards the wall so it wasn't on my face and instead brushing only the right side of my body. "Oscar knew Damon, met him while he was in Gettysburg. And then he brought up some girl... Valerie? Another heretic? Said she was protective of you. Do you know who he's talking about."
Stefan sighed, "before today, I didn't have any idea who any of the heretics were."
"So you know her? Damon said you knew a Valerie once. A long time ago. They're not the same, are they?"
Stefan frowned, nodding, "They are."
"Let me guess, 1863?" I asked, raising both of my eyebrows.
He nodded, "yeah. How'd you know?"
"Figured if Lily sent Oscar to Damon, she had to send someone to you. Valerie is another heretic, makes sense... Who is she? Or was she? Why would she be protective over you?"
"Promise not to get upset?" He asked with a slight wince.
My face fell, the thought I desperately forced from my mind because I was in denial. I thought I was done with Stefan's exes. Weren't the women he's told me about enough? Katherine, he dated Elena, Rebekah, and practically Caroline. I didn't want to hear anymore.
"An ex?" I scoffed.
He nodded, "sort of."
"What does that mean?"
"Want to get out of the shower?"
I rolled my eyes, "hurry and wash up. I'm done."
"You're already mad," Stefan chuckled as I slipped out of the shower then.
"As if we need another woman fawning over you! I'm enough," I spat, irritated as I headed to our bedroom.
I hurried into pajamas, slipping on a comfy onesie for extra comfort. Then I curled up in the living room on the couch with a glass of wine, ordering pizza and cake to our apartment. I needed to relax to handle this noise. Something about Stefan's ancient exes hit different. He had a thing for powerful women it seemed. Guess that was a compliment.
Katherine was a bitch, but a total badass and dominated due to her vampiric age difference. Rebekah was an Original vampire. Also a bitch and a badass. Her power was unlimited. And now Valerie? A heretic? Half vampire, half witch, 600 years old at least? Mind blowing.
Here I was a 21 year old girl, a toddler in vampire power. Talk about a blow to the ego. It's not like I could fight Valerie over him. She'd snap me like a twig, I wasn't dumb. Yet, I had my spars with Katherine and Rebekah and survived. So, at least I'm resilient.
Stefan joined me eventually, freshly showered and in grey sweatpants and a black tank top, showing off his tan arms and tattoos. Mmm. I licked my lips as he slid onto the couch next to me, raising one arm behind my back onto the top of seat cushions. "Hi, daddy," I mumbled, turning my entire body to face my sexy hubby.
Stefan furrowed his eyebrows, "What?"
"You look so good," I said, placing a hand on his shoulders. "You must be really worried about my reaction, huh?"
Stefan rolled his eyes, "I'm ready for bed."
"Then put those muscles away."
He chuckled, "Kenzie, how much have you had to drink? Are you drunk right now?"
I scoffed, moving to place my wine down on the makeshift coffee table we had. Furniture was the best minimum. We wanted this move to be temporary. "I'm not drunk," I stated.
"Mhm."
"Stop stalling," I said. "Who is Valerie?"
"Remember this was a long time ago—"
"Decades ago doesn't feel like long when the person is present in our lives."
"It was 1863."
"Katherine was 1864. Is there a Miss 1865?"
"We met at a fair," Stefan told me, ignoring my sarcasm. "She approached me. I was... 16. I was young, inexperienced, never been in love before... Never... been with a girl before."
"She was your first girlfriend?" I asked, getting comfortable as I cozied up next to him. I liked when he shared his past. Human Stefan just seemed so vulnerable and innocent, without all his trauma and suffering.
He gulped audibly, "It was more of a... fling."
"If Lily sent her, she couldn't have stayed long."
He nodded, "She didn't... two days. We spoke about everything. I told her about Damon fighting in the war. I opened up about losing my mom years before and she... she truly comforted me. Part of me blamed myself for not being able to help my mother when she was sick. Valerie told me the flower I was picking to save her was just a myth, my father had sent me on an errand to distract me and give them space to be alone in her last moments or so we thought."
I caressed Stefan's cheek, "We've never really talked about your mom. Not before she came back."
He frowned, "it used to upset me." I smiled softly, nodding, letting him continue on with his story instead of dwelling. "Valerie had this chaperone who disapproved of me. He didn't like us together so we snuck around... I didn't know it then, but when she used magic, or said she was, it was real... we avoided... Julian I think was his name."
"She was a witch or siphoner," I smiled softly, not threatened at all. Two days with her? It was puppy love.
He hummed, "then she left. A day later."
"And that's it?" I asked, sitting up and looking at him slightly confused. "I guess she's a little protective because you might've been the last man she interacted with before the prison world lockdown for decades."
"She was my first love," he whispered.
"Love, Stefan? Really?"
He let out a shaky breath. "I was taken with her, almost immediately. We had connected like... I felt seen, wanted, and cared for. In return, I longed for her, cared for her, and desired her. Even after she was gone."
I raised a brow, "that's cute and all—"
"The same day I met her, we slept together."
I froze then, "Your first one night stand?" I wanted to sound like I was teasing but my voice came out distraught. Only because he had this panicked look on his face.
"Yes," he choked out. "My first one night stand... my first time... ever."
I moved away from him, jaw dropped. Oh. His first—Oh, my God. Obviously he wasn't a virgin when I met him. But for the girl he lost it to... to appear suddenly like this. Her life never moved on. She was desiccating months ago since the late 1800s!
"You lost... okay, um, I need a moment," I whispered, almost speechless. I grabbed my wine glass with a shaky hand, trying to brush off this feeling of anxiety. But one sip of wine had me gagging.
"Babe," Stefan said worriedly.
"I think I have to throw up," I said, placing a hand over my stomach and then the other over my mouth as nausea hit me. Stefan's first love made me sick? Just great. Maybe my heart couldn't take anymore of the idea of sharing him with these other women!
I rushed to the bathroom in a flash, barely making it in time to throw up. Stefan was by my side a couple seconds later, looking at me horrified with wide eyes. "Are you okay?" He questioned me.
"Obviously not," I scoffed, wiping my mouth.
"Kenzie, throwing up isn't normal. You're not supposed to do that."
"I eat human food more than any vampire on this earth. I've been drinking all day. And the idea of you losing your virginity to some other woman who's one town over clearly pushed me over the edge!"
"Babe, it was a long time ago."
"You fell in love in 48 hours?"
Stefan cringed, "Yes, but it was different. Not how I love you. I love you like—"
I gagged, leaning over the toilet bowl as I dry heaved for a moment before vomiting again and again. "Ugh," I groaned in pain and discomfort.
"Something's wrong, Kenzie," Stefan said, crouching down next to me to hold my hair back and look me over. "This isn't normal."
"Is anything in our lives? I'm fine. Just... tell me the rest so I can be sick of it all at once. I don't want to find out anything else from anyone else," I warned him.
"That was mainly it... um, the following night we were caught together by Julian, he told her it was time to go and board a boat to New York. That was the last I ever saw her."
"That's it?" I asked, panting as I tried to fight my overwhelming nausea.
"She left then, saying she'd find her way back to me... Later on sent me a telegram, said she was coming back and when and where to meet her. She said she wanted to runaway with me. And I... I was prepared to go. I went to the meeting place, that Friday at noon. I showed up 2 hours early," he scoffed. "I sat around all day like an idiot. Past sundown, after nightfall, but she never showed up. I never understood what the point of it all even was."
"Maybe something kept her from meeting you," I replied. "Because... what woman could be loved by you and not want more?"
He smiled softly, "I don't wonder anymore. I don't care. She's a part of my past. Just like Katherine, just like Elena—"
I gagged again, "oh stop, the idea of you with anyone else is literally killing me."
Stefan chuckled, "But you got over it."
I nodded, "I'm already over Valerie. But she better understand, you're mine now and she needs to move the fuck on. Or I'll kill her."
Stefan smiled in amusement, helping me to my feet. He flushed the toilet as I moved to the sink to rinse out my mouth and brush my teeth. "I'm going to get you a blood bag. Maybe you need to flush out everything else in your body," my husband suggested.
"Okay," I agreed. I'd try anything to keep from being sick again. That was just plain gross. I was ready for bed immediately. Just to be in Stefan's arms without another sickening thought.
~Picture: Kenzie drinking in Myrtle Beach
So we got a little bit of action there. Who else liked Oscar? Anyone surprised by Kenzie's reaction/demeanor. She needs a break from her daily life.
Yet her 'break' was just as stressful. Ric lying to Bonnie... Here comes the Phoenix stone drama escalating. It's gonna be an interesting season, book 7.