CHAPTER ONE:
MAGIC THEIF
[season two, episode eighteen]
'that hurt...bitch'
KLAUS MIKAELSON OPENED
Alaric's closet and pulled out two shirts grimacing at the designs on them. "Oh! Who is this guy, Safari Sam?" He held the options out for Katherine to look at. "Okay, bad, or badder?"
Katherine practically shook with fear as the person she had spent five hundred years running from compelled her to stay in the chair. "The dark colours suit you better."
"Oh, thank you, honey." He tossed one on the bed. "Okay, pop quiz. The dagger and white ash are in the Salvatores' possession, correct?"
"The dagger was used to kill Elijah. You'll find him in the basement of the Salvatore house." She informed him.
"Okay." He sighed. "That dagger needs to stay exactly where it is. The last thing I need to do is resurrect Elijah. Oh, that guy is a buzzkill."
The only other time Katherine had felt this much fear was her last day on earth as human. "Don't forget you're on the outs with your girlfriend Jenna."
"Right. Elena's aunt. For all the lies about Isobel. What else?" If he was going to use Alaric's body he had to know all the facts.
"That's it." She answered, looking around the room.
Klaus walked over and gently touched her face, Katherine flinched away, shuddering with fear. "Oh, so jumpy." He teased as she turned her head away from him.
"Please, just...kill me." The vampire whimpered. "I've told you everything that I know."
Klaus puts his hands on the armrests on Katherine's chair and looks her in the face.
"You see, I believe that you believe that, but what would you not know? What could they be keeping from you? Hmm? Anything?" Klaus put his hands on the armrests of the chair looking to her eyes. "Tell me."
No matter how much she tried to resist the compulsion, it was impossible. "They were trying to see if Bonnie could find a way to kill an Original without a dagger."
She would rather sacrifice Bonnie than Cassie — the only person who Katherine liked in Mystic Falls and dare she say it, her only friend.
"Bonnie the best friend?" The Original raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said she didn't have her powers anymore."
"She doesn't or didn't. I don't know. You kidnapped me, remember? I'm kinda out of the loop." She responded.
"Well, we'll have to get to the bottom of that." Klaus stated.
"Please, just kill me, Klaus, and be done with it." Katherine pleaded, sitting on her hands to stop them from trembling.
"And show you kindness? I've searched for you for over 500 years. Your death is going to last at least half that long." He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear leaning closer, his breath fanning over her face. "Besides you know something else."
Katherine almost let her eyes go wide. Not Cassie, she would let anyone (not herself, they weren't that close) be victim to Klaus just not Cassie. "I don't know what you're talking about." She told him unconvincingly.
Klaus smirked. "You forget we courted Katerina, albeit it was five hundred years ago, I know you." He compelled her again. "Tell me what you know."
"Cassandra Parker." The name escaped her lips against her will. "She's best friends with your precious doppelgänger and would do anything to save her. She'd sacrifice herself any day for any of her friends. She's a force to be reckoned with, Klaus, she's friendly to most people but can snap at any given moment."
"And?" He urged her to continue.
"She's a siphoner." Katherine clenched her eyes shut, everything the teenager told her was in confidence. "Cassie despises what she is and it doesn't help knowing her coven gave her up because of it. Every witch she's met apart from the Bennett's have called her every cruel name in the book."
And that's all she knew, aside from the fact that her brother had done something evil. Sheila Bennett was beyond confused when a two year old was left on her doorstep but it all made sense when a red glow emitted from her plan as she held the girl.
The Gemini Coven could never handle siphoners.
Klaus felt a tug on his small cold dead heart, growing up with someone who despised his existence had caused him to hate himself at times, even his siblings at times they were particularly mad at him (mostly after being undaggered) call him cruel names.
"A siphoner." He repeated. "A rare species, haven't heard of one existing since the early nineties, then he went mad and massacred most of his family." A grin crept up on his lips. "Joyous moments they are, silencing your family."
Cassie had no idea who Malachia was; she had no interest in finding the people who gave up on her so Katherine was planning on keeping it that way.
"Please, leave her out of this Klaus." She almost begged. "She's innocent." Not in the way her hands were clean innocent but innocent nonetheless. "Alaric and Cassie are basically father and daughter, if she doesn't sense the magic radiating off you then she'll sense there is something wrong with Alaric."
"Then it's a good thing I can act." Klaus took a pocket from his pocket, opened it, and held it before Katherine. "I want you to take this knife...And stab yourself."
The vampire unwillingly complied, wincing as she stabbed herself with the sharp blade. "Now take it out." He instructed watching as she did so and the wound magically healing itself. "Now while I'm gone, I want you to do that over and over and over again and if you get bored, switch legs."
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"I'm gonna go lay eyes on my precious doppelgänger and maybe I'll run onto the siphoner." A sadistic smirk to make Katherine's blood run cold. "Cassandra, was it?"
He kissed her on the forehead. "Oh, don't look so glum, Katerina. The fun is just beginning. Again."
+ ̊・༓────── ⋅ʚ☆ɞ⋅ ──────༓・ ̊+
Cassie Parker walked down the high school corridor with her arm linked with Elena's. Despite her deep rooted hatred and many, many attempts to murder Damon Salvatore ever since Rose explained that Elena would be sacrificed to break the sun and moon curse the two spoke of ways to save her, despite Elijah's commands.
Over her dead body she would let Elena die, she was the first friend Cassie ever made — despite Bonnie but that was only because Sheila insisted it — and was practically her sister. For Damon, well it's self explanatory, it's obvious to everyone that he's madly in love with Elena.
"I'm just saying..." Cassie began to explain detaching herself from the doppelgänger to open her locker. "As cool as the sixties were, I would look much hotter wearing those dresses from like the regency era or something."
"Why do you love ball gowns so much?" Elena asked.
She thought back to when she and Cassie would run around in princess costumes with a plastic tiara on their heads with Caroline and Bonnie, often the two blondes would fight over who would be queen but then Jeremy would break out the makeshift pillow prison they forced him into momentarily distracting them.
"They're so pretty." The siphoner said a sparkle ignited in her eyes. "I swear if I don't go to a ball at some point in my life and dance with someone who is head over heels in love with me then there's no point in living. "
If there could be one thing on her bucket list it would be that.
"I'd dance with Stefan at a ball, it would be ten times the dance that should've happened at Miss Mystic Falls." Elena told her as they continued their journey to history.
Miss Mystic Falls was a day only fun to people outside of the 'Scooby Gang'. Stefan broke his bunny diet and disappeared leaving Elena to be humiliated if it wasn't for Damon stepping in. Cassie was forced to enter the outdated tradition by Caroline but was far too awkward to ask anyone to be her date so Bonnie stepped in at the last minute causing them to fall victim to a lot of dirty looks.
Originally, her boyfriend Tyler Lockwood was going to be her date; they planned it together in sophomore year but their relationship fell apart at the beginning of Junior year. They tried to keep their friendship alive after the breakup salvaging something from their childhood but they quickly grew apart.
The two teenage girls entered the classroom and sat down, Cassie behind Elena. The latter took a poster for the sixties decade dance out of her bag and held it for Stefan to see. He shook his head in disapproval then Elena turned to Bonnie and Cassie to show them the poster, who both nodded in approval. She looked back at her boyfriend with a smug smile as Alaric entered the room.
"Hello, class. What are we learning today?" Klaric asked. Cassie frowned in confusion, noticing he was a bit dishevelled, never once did he forget what they were learning about.
"With the decade dance tonight, we've been covering the sixties all week." Dana answered.
"Right. The sixties..." Klaric drawed out. He glanced around the room, eyes stopping on the precious doppelgänger.
Five hundred years of searching for another one and there she was. A note landed on her desk and he looked to see the person who threw it, a blonde girl resting her chin on her hand with a small smile on her face. Elena opened the note covering her laugh behind her hand once she read it. She scribed a few words down on the crumpled piece of paper then turned around to place it on the blonde's desk.
The girl didn't notice, lost in a daydream. "Cass." She whispered, bringing the girl out of her thoughts.
Cass. Could this be the Cassie Katherine begged him not to harm?
Realising he had been staring for too long he awkwardly cleared his throat. "The, uh, ahem..." He writes on the board. "The sixties. I wish there was something good I could say about the sixties, but...Actually, they kind of sucked. Except for the Beatles, of course. They made it bearable. Uh, what else was there? The Cuban missile thing, the...we walked on the moon. There was Watergate."
"Watergate was the seventies, Ric." Elena corrected, cheek tingeing pink. "I-I mean, Mr. Saltzman."
Cassie narrowed her eyes at the teacher, he never messed up but she shook it off, blaming it on his breakup with Jenna.
"Right. It all kind of mushes together up here, the sixties, seventies. Thank you, Elena."
As Alaric taught the class Cassie couldn't help but slowly drift off into sleep, late night 'save Elena' meetings with Damon — they had to be late so Stefan wouldn't interrupt — and her overall habit of staying into the early hours of the morning catching up to her. Plus, although she loved Alaric, his lessons were really boring.
Once the bell rang everyone left, Elena and Bonnie shared amused glances as they saw Cassie fast asleep before leaving themselves, it wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep in class she was lucky it wasn't another teacher who'd give her detention for it.
Klaus sighed in relief knowing he had no more teaching to do. He went to sit at the desk to plot his next ways to torture Katherine when he noticed her asleep.
He stared at her for a few seconds wondering what to do? It's been a thousand years since he had a full conversation with a teenager — unless you count his sister.
"Cassie?" He called out her name. When there was no response he thought he got her name wrong, Katherine called her Cassie but Elena called her Cass. Maybe Alaric had a different nickname for her. "Cass!" He called out, this time louder.
The second time she stirred, Cassie lifted her head off the desk, she looked around the room in a state of total confusion. "What? Did I fall asleep again?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.
"You did. Are you okay?" Something Alaric would ask.
Cassie frustratedly ran her hands through her hair. "I can't sleep peacefully at night knowing my best friend, my sister, is going to be sacrificed. It's just this whole Klaus situation. I just feel so useless, I can't do anything to help. Damon gives me crap for it all the time. Y'know he's a fast and strong vampire and I'm just a defective witch."
He frowned. "You're not defective."
She laughed dryly. "Tell that to the entire species of witches."
Klaus was being sincere that time and she didn't believe him, it was weird being Alaric, usually he had people hanging off his every word.
He got up from the chair and leaned against the front of the desk, keeping his distance so she couldn't detect any magic.
"I feel useless too, I'm a crappy, borderline alcoholic human hunter." He knew the basics of witches but they were more his youngest brother's department. "Cass, you're a witch, a powerful one. You're not a defect or useless damm those who think you are."
"Thanks Ric." She smiled at him, dismissing him calling her 'Cass' the only person who called her that is Elena and she was the only person to call her ''Lena' it's the way it's always been. She gathered her stuff together. "See you later." She waved at the history teacher.
As she walked to the door she read the latest message on her phone causing her to stop dead in her tracks. Klaric watched her sceptically as her face dropped, the smile vanishing into thin air.
"Klaus is here."
News travels fast around here, he stopped himself from smirking.
"He's here and he compelled Dana, fucking Dana, of all people to taunt us." Cassie seethed. She stalked over to the desk opening the bottom draw.
She pulled out a half empty bottle of bourbon and took several long sips. When she passed the bottle over to him, their hands brushed Klaus almost flinched back, she could sense magic.
"I need to go check on Elena."
+ ̊・༓────── ⋅ʚ☆ɞ⋅ ──────༓・ ̊+
At the Salvatore Boarding House the 'Scooby Gang' gathered to talk about Klaus' sudden appearance.
"So we go to the dance, we find him." Damon declared.
Cassie almost scoffed, there was no way an Original who had been waiting five hundred years to break a curse would be hiding in plain sight.
"Really? How are we going to do that?" Stefan asked. "We don't even know what he looks like."
"If he and Elijah are related like I suspect, then hot." Cassie commented playing with the ends of her hair absentmindedly ignoring the looks the people in the room were giving her. "And with good hair."
Damon glanced at the witch weirdly — Elijah attempted to kidnap her and Elena but she still found him attractive — before turning back to the others. "Something tells me he's not going to be sixteen and pimply."
"He could be anywhere at any time. He compelled somebody at school." Stefan said, turning to Elena and Bonnie. "I guess it's not as safe as you guys thought, huh?"
"Bonnie's ready to kill the guy and I could simply suck all the magic out of him if I could make contact, I think it's safe-ish" Cassie stated.
The amount of dark magic that an Original possess would simply be too much for Cassie to handle if she siphoned too much it could kill her but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make if it came to it. Anything for her best friend.
A knock at the front door echoed through the house and Klaric entered. "There you are." Damon huffed.
"Sorry I'm late." He apologised.
"Hey, I need you to put me down as a chaperone at the dance tonight. Klaus made his first move." The eldest Salvatore brother said. "And I need a date." He looked at Cassie, making her grimace.
She scrunched her nose up in disgust. "Not even if you brought Shelia back to life."
He rolled his eyes. "You still milking that? She's dead, get over it."
Suddenly, like a switch had been flipped, Cassie stood up marching over to Damon. She grabbed his arm roughly smiling as the familiar soft red glow emitted from her hand, ignoring his painful exclaims she continued to drain the life out of him.
Klaus observed intently, he had never seen a siphoner before, with an idea forming in his head. He would do the ritual as planned, he did not find the doppelgänger after five hundred years for nothing, but if his mother had found a way to screw with him from beyond the grave stopping him from unlocking his full potential then he always had a backup option and that is now what Cassie is.
It was when the weak vampire was on his knees and Cassie had thick black veins crawling up her arms, looking like she was almost enjoying it did someone intervene.
"Cass!" Elena grabbed her shoulders. Cassie glanced at her, not an ounce of regret on her face, chest moving up and down rapidly. "You're okay, Cass, breathe."
The defective witch buried her head in Elena's shoulder cringing at the scene she had just caused. Evil. Just like her brother.
Stefan rushed to his brother's aid. Damon let out a weak chuckle. "Damm Sabrina you almost got me there, you little magic thief." She wanted to wipe that smug smirk off his face.
Sometimes Cassandra Parker struggled living with Damon Salvatore.
Elena with her arms still around the blonde changed the subject. "Okay, so we find him and then what, hmm? What's our plan of attack?" She asked.
"Me." Bonnie answered instantly. "I'm the plan. He has no idea how much power I can channel. If you can find him, I can kill him."
"That's not going to be that easy. I mean, he is the biggest, baddest vampire around." Klaric said.
"Mostly self proclaimed." Cassie reported, Elijah had briefly mentioned that his younger, Kol, was a lot more psychotic. "This guys a narcissist that desperately needs humbling."
"Alaric has a point. I mean, what if he..." Damon started then rushed towards the Bennett witch, she simply sent him flying across the room with ease. Cassie did not bother hiding her wide smile.
"Well, I was impressed." Stefan said with a smirk.
"It doesn't matter if he's an Original." Bonnie said full of confidence. "I can take down anyone who comes at me. I can kill him, Elena. I know I can."
Cassie was hopeful with no other options she had to be. "It's all going to be fine, 'Lena." She assured her best friend deep down knowing she was really talking to herself.
Given the last decade's dance, a part of her was expecting nothing to go according to plan.
+ ̊・༓────── ⋅ʚ☆ɞ⋅ ──────༓・ ̊+
As much as Cassie loved a ball gown she couldn't deny she looked good in a dress actually from the sixties — she found it in one of the abandoned bedrooms at the boarding house. She entered the school alone with no date waiting for her arrival. The search for her friends lasted several minutes. "Bon, you look gorgeous." She said as she joined them "Stunning as always, 'Lena."
"You look beautiful, Cass." Elena told her.
Dana stood on stage grabbing the microphone to make an announcement. "Thanks for being here, everybody. We have a special shout-out tonight." She spotted an oblivious doppelgänger in the crowd. "This is for Elena. From Klaus."
"Son of a bitch." Cassie muttered, storming over to the punch bowl over by Klaric hoping someone spiked it. She narrowed her eyes at the history teacher. "You look happy."
Klaus cleared his throat, he'd been distracted by observing Elena's reaction to his taunt that he didn't see the blonde walk up to him. "I'm drunk." Given the amount of empty bottles he found around Alaric's apartment it seemed like a reasonable excuse.
"I understand you are still processing your breakup with Jenna but you have been a mess today." Cassie spoke softly. "The one day we desperately need everyone in check, even Damon's sobre, Klaus could be anywhere."
Elena wasn't allowed to die.
"I understand, I'm drinking water for the rest of the night." Damon stood next to Klaric. "Special dedication, huh? This guy's a little twisted."
Damon shook his head. "I'm not impressed.
Cassie noticed the look of disappointment that flashed across Alaric's face. "Let me know if you see anything out of whack." He patted his arm and headed for the dance floor.
"Cass, what do you think of the dedication?" Klaric asked Cassie.
She stared at him blankly in response. She sensed something was off about Alaric the second he entered the classroom. She reached out to touch his arm.
Magic.
"Of course you'd want to know," Cassie put the pieces together. "...Klaus."
He laughed. "Klaus? You think I'm Klaus?" He roughly yanked her arm to bring her closer to him. "Play along or I'll snap Jeremy's neck."
Cassie clenched her jaw but complied as Klaus dragged her into an empty hallway. "Katherine warned me you'd sense the magic." He said, pushing her into Alaric's classroom.
She stumbled, almost losing balance. A part of her was relieved that Katherine was at least alive. "Only Elena calls me Cass, not Alaric." For every step Klaus would take towards her she took one backwards, eventually falling back into the desk chair. "You got me here now what? You kill me?"
"You're a siphoner, you are much more use to me alive than dead. " He stopped right in front of her. "But you are no use to me right now and I can't have you telling your friends I'm here."
Cassie put her hand underneath the desk, feeling around for the weapon that was sellotaped there. "Ric if you're in there, I'm sorry." She said before driving a wooden stake through his leg.
Klaus groaned in pain though it was nothing compared to the torture he expierenced through out the centures. "Going have to try better than that."
"You're fucking crazy."
"You have no idea." He replied in a low voice. When he charged at her she punched him in the face harshly panic seething in when he didn't even flinch. "Did I sinking I know a witch?" He questioned backing her up into a wall.
Cassie tilted her head to the side. "Did I mention I am a witch? Motus!" She called out slamming the Original back into the wall and quickly picked up the disregarded stake.
If there was one thing Klaus Mikaelson hated more than anything in the world it was witches.
"Bloody hell." He breathed out picking himself up off the ground.
The teenager was prepared to sacrifice her life if it meant Elena would be safe. She's so anything for her family. She stood tall and showed the man possessing Alaric no fear.
Gripping the bloodied wooden stake tightly Cassie adjusted it in her grip staring down Klaus on the other side of the classroom she knew there was zero chance of beating him but she was more than willing to go down trying.
Klaus raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do with that? You stake Alaric and I'll just hop into another body."
"But it'll buy us time, Ric would understand." Sbe said, swallowing thickly. She did not want to kill him. "Maybe I'll undagger your brother, he doesn't seem to like you very much, a bit of convincing and he'll help us kill you."
"You underestimate the bond a family has, especially after being together for a thousand years." He said.
"Bond?" Cassie scoffed. "You threw your family in the ocean!"
Klaric stalked towards her, he had all his vampire strength plus whatever spell Maddox put on him to make him stronger there was nothing stopping him from achieving his goal especially some girl who was hell bent on protecting her best friend.
He pushed her using his enhanced strength, not giving her any chance to fight back, Cassie's head collided with the wall harshly. "That hurt...bitch." Distracted by blinking away the black spots that clouded her vision Klaus wrapped his hands around her throat.
She scratched and clawed him the feeling of her windpipe being crushed sending her into a frenzy. Cassie's eyes turned wild, thrashing around in his arms. She placed a hand over Klaus' siphoning
He clicked his tongue. "Tut-tut, Cassandra, just because I admire your gift doesn't mean you can use it on me." Klaus whispered into her ear, tightening his grip.
Fighting in his arms only made Cassie lose her breath quicker. She tried to choke out a spell - Incendia, she loved fire. He finally let her body fall to the ground with a thud when her head rolled to the side and she went limp in his arms.
"Sorry little witch but I've got a curse to break." Klaus said, looking down at the unconscious girl before stepping over her and leaving the room.
+ ̊・༓────── ⋅ʚ☆ɞ⋅ ──────༓・ ̊+
A loud persistent ringing in Cassie's ears brought her back to reality. She sat up slowly in a confused daze looking around her surroundings, a couple tables were flipping over and lots of paper had flown around. She rubbed her head in an attempt to seize the painful headache only to end up hissing in pain when she touched a fairly large bruise.
Everything rushed back to her and she quickly rushed to her feet, exiting the classroom and running down the corridors to look for her group of friends — and Damon.
"Cass!" Cassie whipped her head around to see Elena and Stefan running in her direction. She gasped, noticing the bruise. "Oh, my god what happened, are you okay?"
"Klaus is here." That's all she said.
"We know." Stefan told her. "Bonnie's trying to kill him."
She shook her head. "What! No, she won't survive. We have to stop her. Now!"
"Let's go." Elena said and the three took off tuning in the direction of the cafeteria.
The closer they got the more lights started flickering. Cassie and Elena banged on the glass doors as hard as they could to try and stop Bonnie from sacrificing herself.
"Bonnie, no!"
Tears poured down Cassie's face as she placed her hand on the glass to siphon whatever spell she was using to keep them out. Given she had been smashed against a wall and then strangled the magic was too much to take but she kept absorbing it until the doors opened.
Bonnie turned to her two childhood bestfriends with a sad smile, sparks flew all around her before suddenly falling to the floor.
Elena rushed to her side "No! Oh! Bonnie! Bonnie, Bonnie! Bonnie! Hey, hey." She takes Bonnie in her arms. "Stefan, she's not breathing!" She cried out in hysterics. "Stefan! Stefan, I can't find her pulse! Stefan! Do something, please! Stefan, please! Just give her blood, do something, please!"
However, Cassie stood in the door staring at Bonnie's dead body. She's sleeping. She's asleep just perfectly still. A few stray tears
escaped her eyes but she wiped them away.
Why am I crying? She asked herself. Bonnie's asleep just like Sheila was.
Stefan slowly looks up at Elena. "It's too late. I'm sorry."
Her cries echo throughout the room, Cassie slowly walks towards her and knelt down besides them, running a hand through Bonnie's hair.
No magic.
For the first time in her life she didn't feel any magic radiating from Bonnie.
A tear escaped her eyes.
"Get them out of here. I'll deal with the body." Damon told his brother.
"What do you mean, deal with it?" Cassie snapped her head up to face him.
"The sheriff can't know about this. Last thing we need's another mysterious death." He told her.
She stood up. "Bonnie just died, my sister, Elena's sister and the first thing you think of is covering the fucking tracks?" She cried, punching his chest harshly over and over. "I hate you! I hate you so much."
For once he didn't fight her back he simply accepted it. "Get them home. Now. So I can clean this up."
Stefan gently grabbed Elena's arm and helped her to get up. "Cass." She hugged Cassie and cried in her arms, clinging to one another like their life depended on it.
+ ̊・༓────── ⋅ʚ☆ɞ⋅ ──────༓・ ̊+
At the Gilbert residence Cassie and Elena sat on the floor in front of the fireplace next to each other. The latter continued to cry a river but the former simply stared blankly at the clock on the wall in front of her with dry tears on her face.
She hadn't said anything since they left the school. It was like looking at a robot.
Stefan handed Elena a cup of tea and held the other one out for the Parker girl to take but she didn't move. "Cassie..." He trailed off the only other time he had seen her like this was when Sheilia died.
"This is my fault." Elena cried again.
Cassie clenched her eyes shut. It was her fault. She should've fought better against Klaus, draining every last drop of magic from him.
Damon enters the house and Elena immediately goes over to him. "What did you do with her?!"
He looks at Stefan. "Will you please calm her down?"
"Don't talk like I'm not standing right in front of you." She demanded. "You knew! Didn't you? You knew that if she harnessed all that power, that she would die, didn't you?"
"Yes." Damon nodded. "Yes, I knew."
Elena slapped him across the face, Stefan glanced at Cassie knowing she'd usually be laughing like she did any time Damon got hurt however she remained emotionless.
"You need to listen to me." He looked in between the best friends. "both of you, and prepare for what I'm about to say. Bonnie had to die. Klaus using Alaric's body was a total surprise. She wasn't prepared for that. And he wasn't going to stop, and we weren't going to be able to stop him until he knew she was dead. He had to believe it. She cast a spell. Bonnie's okay."
"Bonnie's okay." Elena repeated a smile forming. "Cass, Bonnie's Okay." No response. "Cass?"
She went over to check on Cassie to see her silently sobbing. She immediately engulfed her into a hug. "She's okay." Cassie choked out struggling to breathe.
"It's okay, you're okay. Deep breaths." Elena instructed softly like when they were kids. "In through the nose, out through the mouth."
AUTHOR NOTES:
— no elena slander shall be tolerated...yet. their friendship is gonna be so fun to write especially since she and jerbear kill koala.
— i would start this book at s3 but cassie has to meet the in-laws first.