Chapter Twelve
“Good morning everyone,” an unfamiliar voice said. A man who looked like one of those middle aged guys who are still considered young with sandy brown hair followed the last student into the classroom and closed the door behind him, “alrighty,” he said after setting down a pile of papers that he had carried in.
He turned immediately to the blackboard and began writing, once he was done he finally turned to face the class and read what he had written, “Alaric Saltzman.” With a smile he continued and said, “it’s a mouthful I know, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Saltzman is of German origins, my family immigrated here in 1755 to Texas. I however was born and raised in Boston. Now the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great grandfather who I will never be able to thank enough. You’ll probably want to pronounce it Aleric but it’s Alaric, okay? So you can call me Ric, I’m your new history teacher.”
The class exchanged looks, he had a way of capturing their attention without inspiring the same terror as Mr. Tanner always had. Judging from the way he was beaming at all of them while judging their reactions he seemed nice enough.
Elena looked over her shoulder at Bonnie who smiled and waved. She had been one of the last students to arrive and Elena hadn’t had a chance to talk to her yet today. Having everyone mad at her was getting old and she was going to make good on her promise to herself to make amends before their relationships were ruined for good. And even though Bonnie wasn’t technically mad at her, she was definitely on her list of people to talk to.
Mr. Saltzman or as he had said Ric began his lesson immediately. He picked up right where Mr. Tanner had left off and began explaining how the Civil War had ended. However Elena wasn’t listening to a word she said because when she glanced to where Stefan usually sat she just saw an empty desk.
So Stefan still wasn’t coming to school. In all reality there was no reason for her to be so surprised; he was after all a vampire who was over a hundred years old. He probably had better things to do than go to high school again.
For the rest of the talk she tried to focus on facts about the period of time immediately following the Civil War but kept finding herself getting distracted. Her mind would slowly drift to either think about how she was going to repair her friendships, whether her and Damon would actually be able to find Sadie and whether or not this Sadie would have any answers. By the time the bell signaling the end of the period rang Mr. Saltzman could have been talking about waltzing dinosaurs and she wouldn’t have been the wiser.
The halls were filled with everyone filing out of their classrooms and to their lockers to dump their books before lunch. It didn’t take Elena long to do this and luckily right when she closed her locker she caught sight of a familiar blonde head.
“Caroline,” Elena shouted desperate to be heard over the chattering students, “Caroline please wait. I just want to talk.”
The blonde suddenly whipped around and despite the death glare she was sending at Elena she didn’t back down. It was obvious that the time and space Elena had been giving one of her best friends hadn’t eased or taken away any of her anger.
“What do you want Elena?” Caroline asked with a sharp edge to her voice. Elena had no idea why but something about Caroline was making her feel uneasy. Although she had every right to be mad she had never seen her friend like this and she thought that she might be as desperate to make up as she was.
Quickly Elena shook her head to get rid of these thoughts. Making up with Caroline was going to be hard enough without all these unnecessary worries and doubts running through her mind.
“I wanted to apologize Care,” Elena said as gently as possible, “I know you’re probably still mad at me and I don’t blame you, but I hate fighting. Is there anything I can do to make it better?”
If anything Caroline’s glare just became more intense and icy. The blonde took a small step towards Elena whose eyes were wide with shock. Caroline shook her head and laughed, but it wasn’t the laugh Elena was used to. Her usual care free laugh that sounded very much like the tinkling of bells was now harsh and clipped.
“Oh how wonderful,” she snapped, “perfect Elena has come to apologize. What do you just expect me to forgive you right away and start groveling at your feet again?”
Elena narrowed her eyes and replied, “of course I don’t expect you to start groveling Caroline. Why would you think that?”
“You think you’re so much better than everyone else,” Caroline told her as she crossed her arms over her chest, “you always have and you always will. Like it wasn’t bad before but after your parents died you got all the pity, and poor little Elena could do no wrong. She just lost her parents poor thing, she must be so brave and strong to just keep going like she is.”
Never before had Elena heard this kind of bitterness from Caroline and she immediately went on the defence and asked, “don’t you think I would rather it not be like that? It’s like you don’t think that I wish they hadn’t died. I don’t want to be pitied.”
“First it was Stefan, but having the hot new guy drooling after you wasn’t enough. You had to go after his brother, who one of your best friends was with by the way. But it’s not like you didn’t know that, because it doesn’t matter what everyone else wants or feels as long as precious Elena gets her way.”
Elena opened her mouth but found herself at a loss for words. Caroline smirked when she saw her dumbfounded expression and immediately pounced on her momentary hesitation.
“It’s been like this for way too long and I’m sick of it. Not everything is about you despite what everyone seems to think. You may have everyone else under your little spell but not me, not anymore. I can see you for who you really are and you and Damon really do deserve each other. You and the asshole vam-”
Caroline stopped midsentence and all the malice disappeared from her face as her hands flew up to her mouth as if covering would take back what had just slipped out of it and her blue eyes widened in alarm.
Elena looked at her friend in surprise. Damon had told her everything that happened with Caroline, he hadn’t wanted to that was for sure but in the end he had. He approached her on the night of the comet and ended up going home with her, once they were alone in her bedroom he drank her blood. The next morning he compelled her to keep it a secret, to not be scared and to hide the marks his bites had left. He had used her for information and took advantage of her in every way that he could of, that was the moment that Elena was the most unsure of what she wanted.
She didn’t want to believe that he was capable of something like that even though she knew from one of the visions she had that he had done far worse. It had been one of her most recent dreams, at first she wasn’t even sure it was considered a vision seeing as by that point she had been in his room enough for it to appear in her dreams. But the conversation they had while sitting on the bed and everything else that filled her mind in the dream eventually made it clear that it was far from normal.
Although all this popped into her mind it was only for a moment and was immediately pushed into the back. She knew exactly why Caroline would say that he was an asshole after everything he did but he said he had compelled her to forget. Caroline wasn’t supposed to remember anything Damon did to her. Not to mention just before she had stopped herself she had been about to call him a vampire, how did she know that.
Was it possible that Caroline had vervain the entire time and none of his compulsion had worked? She couldn’t have ingested it because it would have poisoned Damon when he drank her blood and Elena immediately started scanning Caroline’s body for any jewellery that might hold vervain. It only took a couple seconds before her eyes landed on a ring.
It was made from silver and took Elena’s breath away. It wasn’t just a plain silver ring, the stone on it was the exact same as the one on both Damon and Stefan’s ring. For a moment an image popped into her mind, of a different conversation with Caroline that she instinctively knew she had never had before.
After cheerleading practice, Caroline offering her a ride home and her catching sight of the exact same ring. Both then and now she knew immediately that the ring was no normal ring, it was a daylight ring. The only reason Caroline would be wearing a daylight ring was if she had been turned into a vampire.
Before she could stop herself Elena reached out and grabbed Caroline’s hand. She had to see it closer, to make sure it was really what she thought it was. However the closer look told her what she already knew,
“Caroline,” Elena whispered her voice shaky and weak.
Caroline snatched her hand away from Elena with inhuman strength and just continued to glare at her. The blonde shook her head a muttered, “of course you know exactly what this ring means. You know what I am and I bet you know what he is to. Well let me tell you something about your boyfriend, everything he told you is probably a lie. Let me guess, he didn’t tell you what he did to me.”
Although Elena was still horrified by her new discovery anger flared up inside her at Caroline’s words. She had no right to assume she knew what Damon told Elena.
“Actually he told me everything that happened. You brought him back to your room but instead of sex he bit you. He drank your blood and when you woke up the next morning he compelled you so you wouldn’t be afraid and keep his secret. Do you honestly think that I would let him lie to me about what he did to you, do you really think that I wouldn’t care?” Elena asked, “despite what you think you don’t know everything about me and Damon.”
Caroline glanced around and when she did Elena became aware that the hall was now empty. No one really tended to linger in the halls and it would be awhile before anyone came back for their afternoon classes. Right now they were completely alone.
Even though she was fairly sure that was exactly what Caroline was thinking she had no chance of reacting soon enough to get away. She whirled around and started to run to the nearest exit before she saw the change she knew Caroline’s face would go through, but she barely ran a couple steps before a hand with a vicelike grip grabbed her arm. She came to a sudden and violent halt and Caroline wrenched her around so Elena was looking directly into her now red eyes.
Elena gasped in pain as Caroline bit into her neck and as she drank struggled to get away. She knew it was useless because even when she was distracted by the blood Caroline was way stronger than her and even if Elena did manage to break contact it would be impossible to get away.
Both girls were too absorbed in what they were doing that they didn’t even hear the fast approaching footsteps. Caroline didn’t even have a chance to look up before the vervain dart Alaric Saltzman, the new history teacher had shot at her sank into her side. She straightened up and for a moment she just looked rather shaky but the high concentration of vervain eventually made her collapse.
Her hand immediately went to the bite on her neck and Elena turned to see Mr. Saltzman panting in the middle of the hallway. Their eyes met for a couple seconds during which Elena could have sworn she knew him but after awhile he looked away.
“Help me with her body, it can’t be here when students come back. My classroom should be okay for now, I don’t have a class after lunch,” he said in a brisk businesslike tone. It was the exact same voice he used when teaching despite the fact that he was talking about hiding the body of one of his students who had turned out to be a vampire.
However Elena just nodded and helped him drag Caroline’s body into his classroom and glanced back to make sure there was no evidence of what had just happened before she closed the door behind her. Even though the blood was still flowing from her neck it was all pooling into her hand so luckily she hadn’t left a blood trail.
Once she closed the door Alaric brushed her gently to the side and turned the lock and lowered the blinds. Quickly he went to all the windows in the classroom and did the exact same thing, only once he had done this did he glance at Elena. His eyes flickered down to her neck and he went to the supply closet at the back of the room and pulled out a roll of paper towel.
Elena took the roll gratefully a ripped off a huge piece that she pressed to her neck. She was no longer bleeding as heavily and she was able to wipe her one hand clean from the blood it had been collecting.
Caroline’s unconscious form was lying where he had left it, just by the door. Elena could only look at it for so long before she had to force herself to look at something else. Alaric had taken a seat at his desk and was running his hand through his sandy brown hair.
Finally Elena could keep herself quiet no longer and asked, “how did you know...how did you know that she was a vampire?”
Alaric raised his eyebrows and replied, “well it was pretty obvious considering I came across her drinking your blood.”
“And you just so happened to be carrying around a gun that shoots darts filled with what’s probably vervain?” Elena asked tilting her head towards the gun and vervain dart he had set on one of the student desks near the door.
“I happened to look out into the hall when you started to run, I keep that,” he pointed to the gun, “in my desk just in case. Though it’s quite lucky I did, she doesn’t seem to happy with you.”
Elena shook her head, “Caroline wouldn’t have killed me. She wouldn’t do something like that.”
He nodded and his eyes were filled with something that looked like sympathy, “so she was your friend before she turned then?”
“She’s still my friend now,” Elena snapped narrowing her eyes. It didn’t matter that Caroline was mad at her or that she drank her blood, it didn’t change the fact that they had been friends for most of their lives. It meant something to Elena and she knew deep down it still meant something to Caroline too.
Slowly Alaric got to his feet, he walked over to Elena and pulled away her hand that was holding the paper towel to her neck. He moved her hand so it was directly between them and the bloody paper towel was in full view as he said, “really? Well this is what your friend did to you. If you ask me you should probably rethink who you hang out with.”
Although his words were harsh he looked very pale and slightly wary. Even though he seemed calm and collected as if he had done this countless of times it looked to Elena like this was his first time ever dealing with a vampire.
“So how do you know about vampires?” Elena asked gently tearing her hand out of his grasp and putting it back to her neck when she felt the trickle of blood. She was tired of talking about Caroline, she didn’t want to hear his doubts.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” He asked.
Elena raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything. When Alaric remained silent as well they ended up just staring at each other, both caught up in a silent battle of wills. After a couple minutes of this Alaric chuckled, looking just like the good natured teacher she thought he was before he turned up and rescued her from Caroline.
“Seeing as you know so much do you think you know anyone who could help us with this little problem?” He asked his eyes darting over to where Caroline was still lying unconscious in the exact same position they had left her in.
After a moment of shock Elena nodded and pulled her phone from her pocket with her free hand. Quickly she pulled up Damon’s contact and hit the call button. When she held her phone up to her ear she turned and began walking idly around the room so she wouldn’t have to resume the staring contest with Alaric. It only rang three times before she heard his voice.
“Elena, is something wrong?” Damon asked.
“What makes you think something is wrong?” Elena asked.
Damon sighed in exasperation and said, “you’re at school, why else would you call me when I am picking you up in a couple hours?”
Elena thought about it for a moment before she agreed that his conclusion that something was wrong made sense.
“So, what’s going on?”
“I tried talking to Caroline, ever since I told her about us she’s been mad. When we were talking she let slip that she uh-” Elena glanced over at Alaric who was now leaning against the board and watching her with a bemused smile, it was obvious he was listening intently to every word she said, “knows everything that happened between you two. Then I saw her ring, and it reminded me of the one you and Stefan wear. I tried to get away but she got me, she was uh-feeding on me when Alar-I mean Mr. Saltzman showed up. He’s the new history teacher and he shot her with-uh-something and well she’s unconscious. Do you think maybe you could help us with the body?”
For a moment there was just silence but then she heard a muffled sound. It only took her a couple of seconds to realize Damon was trying not to laugh but failing miserably.
“It’s not funny,” Elena said sharply.
The laughing died down a little but he was still chuckling when he told her, “I’ll be at the school soon to help you with vampire Barbie.”
Elena rolled her eyes and hung up. That was just like Damon, he had just found out that Caroline was a vampire and he already had a nickname ready for the occasion. She glanced over at Alaric who raised his eyebrows and was watching her put her phone back in her pocket with an expectant look.
“Well?” He asked when she didn’t say anything.
“He’s on his way,” Elena replied.
Alaric’s eyes flickered over to Caroline and he said, “class is starting in a couple minutes. You might want to go.”
Elena looked at him in disgust, “one of my best friends is a vampire who just sucked my blood. She is now lying on the floor in a classroom thanks to the new history teacher and we are now waiting for my boyfriend to get here so we can decide what to do with her. Going to class isn’t all that high on my priority list right now.”
“So not only are you friends with a vampire but you’re dating one too?” Alaric asked.
Elena opened her mouth to retort but closed it immediately. She definitely hadn’t meant to let that slip. When she didn’t say anything they just both stood there in complete silence. The listened as the halls began to fill up again and then become empty as classes resumed. The tension was just beginning to become unbearable when there was a knock on the door.
Immediately Elena made a move to go open it but Alaric held up a hand to stop her.
“Who is it?” he asked.
The familiar voice of Damon replied, “it’s me. I was called about a body.”
“Can you be any louder, you may as well run down the hall screami-“ Alaric began. He stopped dead when he opened the door to reveal Damon. His eyes flickered to Damon’s face and he instantly pale, his body became rigid and his breath caught in his throat.
Damon just rolled his eyes and brushed past him completely ignoring all the changes in Alaric. He smiled at Elena and bent down beside Caroline who was still out cold.
There was a rustle and Damon straightened up just in time to see Alaric grab his vervain dart gun and aim it at Damon. His hands were a little shaky at first but the soon steadied and his finger hovered over the trigger.
“What are you doing?” Elena asked.
Alaric didn’t respond and neither he nor Damon even acknowledged that fact that she said anything. In fact both of them seemed to have forgotten about her presence altogether.
“You don’t want to do that,” Damon warned.
Alaric smiled but it was so distorted that it seemed more like a grimace, “oh yes I do.”
After that everything happened so fast that it was almost impossible to take everything in. Alaric’s finger pressed down on the trigger just as Damon started to take a step towards the teacher. The vervain dart went soaring through the air, with his fast vampire reflexes Damon easily sidestepped it. However Alaric was fast too and by the time Damon reached him a stake appeared in his hand, Elena assumed he had been keeping it hidden up his sleeve.
Damon was now closer to him and from the side Elena saw that his eyes were the color of blood and his mouth was open to reveal his fangs. However Alaric was not shying away from this display and only clutched the stake tighter and remained in his stance, ready to either defend or attack.
However they were both distracted when Caroline began to stir. They both turned to look at the blonde when they heard a soft moan coming from her spot on the ground.
Elena took advantage of this and jumped in between them. Alaric staggered back a step, clearly surprised that she was either brave or stupid enough to jump in between them. Damon however just snarled, “get out of my way Elena.”
She shook her head wildly and argued, “no, you can’t kill him Damon. He saved my life.”
Her brown eyes looked pleadingly at him. Slowly her movements slightly robotic she moved closer to Damon who was still glaring resolutely at Alaric. He finally turned his eyes to her when she lightly stroked the side of his face with her hand.
“Please Damon,” she whispered.
After a couple seconds during which she actually doubted whether he would listen to her his fangs disappeared and his eyes returned to normal. His eyes darted down to her neck where there were still two puncture wounds and some dried blood before he finally looked away. He was still wary of Alaric and didn’t look happy in the slightest but it no longer looked like he was about to kill the him.
Elena turned to Alaric who was still holding the stake at the ready and asked, “why did you do that? You knew he was a vampire the entire time but you freaked out when you saw him.”
Alaric said, “you asked me how I knew about vampires. I knew because of my wife’s research, she made a career out of trying to find the truth about the supernatural. She has files all about vampires, I read through it all after she died. After I watched a vampire kill her, or more specifically after I watched your boyfriend kill her.”
His tone was sharp but the pain was easily heard in it. Elena instantly stopped being angry at him and now instead she wanted to comfort him.
Damon however didn’t seem impressed he just scoffed and said, “I’ve killed a lot of people.”
“Damon,” Elena snapped turning back to face him.
“What?” Damon asked his voice a little softer while speaking to her, “it’s the truth. How am I supposed to remember one girl?”
Alaric made a noise that made him sound like a strangled animal and quickly moved towards his desk. He snatched a picture of a young woman with long black hair smiling at the camera in an ornate silver frame from his desk. He practically shoved it in Damon’s face as he snarled, “her name was Isobel, she taught at Duke. Does that help jog your memory?”
Not saying a word but looking at Alaric like he was a stubborn piece of gum that he couldn’t get off the bottom of his show Damon grabbed the picture from him. He examined it for a moment, his brow furrowed until a look of dawning realization crossed her face. This wasn’t missed by Alaric either.
“What?” He asked, now sounding more desperate than angry.
“I killed her,” Damon said giving him back the picture, “but you already knew that.”
Alaric’s face was turning red and when Damon started to chuckle his features screwed up in fury.
“Come on man,” Damon taunted, “you really have no idea what happened? Not an inkling?”
“Damon,” Elena cautioned. Alaric was gripping the stake so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. If Damon kept this up he just might find himself with a stake in his heart.
However both of them ignored her and continued acting as if she wasn’t even in the room.
“What are you talking about?” Alaric muttered darkly as he subtly lowered himself into the ideal position to attack from.
Once again Damon just laughed and stood there like he didn’t have a care in the world. He said, “did you ever think, did you ever even consider the possibility?”
“The possibility of what?” Alaric snapped edging closer and closer to Damon.
“I turned her,” Damon said like it was obvious, “she came to me. All pathetic and looking for vampires, but there was something about her. Something I liked.”
Alaric looked shocked, it was like all the anger had drained out of his body to make room for that. He asked, “you turned her...because you liked her?”
Damon shrugged, “actually I slept with her because I liked her, I turned her because she begged me to. I guess she wasn’t happy with life at home, wasn’t happy with you or life in general.”
This made both Elena and Alaric do a double take. Yes she knew Damon had been with other woman, it was a given considering he was a vampire who had been set in his early twenties for over a hundred years. But it was another thing completely to have it flaunted right in front of her like that.
The rage it seemed had returned to Alaric with a vengeance and with a roar full of anger and pain he launched himself at Damon. Before she could even blink Damon sidestepped his attack and in less than a couple second had Alaric’s arm in his grasp. The stake fell onto the floor with a clatter when Damon bent it at an angle that no human limb should be bent to.
Elena knew exactly what Damon was planning to do so before he could do anything else she shouted, “Damon stop.”
His head snapped up and when he saw her surprise flickered across his face. So she had been right he had indeed forgotten she was there. That explained the slip about sleeping with Isobel, he definitely wouldn’t have said that if he had remembered that she was there.
Now that he was paying attention Elena shook her head desperately, “please don’t kill him. He doesn’t deserve that.”
Damon sighed heavily and told her, “he just tried to kill me. Now I bet he won’t stop until he has gotten revenge for what I did to his wife. It’s either him or me Elena.”
Elena opened her mouth than closed it again. She hated to admit it to herself but Damon’s words made sense. In his world, and she guessed it was hers now too if she wanted to be with him, it sometimes came down to kill or be killed. But when she looked at the slightly line face now filled with hopelessness and the way his sandy brown hair was now falling over it she knew she couldn’t let Damon kill him.
“Damon he saved me,” Elena said, “in the hall when Caroline was drinking my blood he saved my life. Please do the same for him and save his. If he is smart,” Elena was now directing her words to Alaric as much as Damon, “he won’t attack you again because he knows how easy you will have him back in this position. And he knows that maybe that time I won’t be here to talk you out of breaking his neck.”
She sounded a lot more confident than she felt and when Damon’s pale blue eyes met hers she looked back, burying all her doubts deep within her. Finally the hesitancy disappeared from Damon’s face and he let Alaric go with a little push.
Alaric gasped in pain when his arm hit one of the desks but didn’t look to either Elena or Damon for help. Instead he just gritted his teeth and told them, “class will be over in ten minutes. When it is twenty or so kids will be coming into this classroom, and her body needs to be gone.”
“And you will be expected to teach them,” Elena said, “how can you do that with a broken arm?”
When Alaric just stood there silently she looked over at Damon. However he too just stood there without saying a word.
With an exasperated sigh she said, “Damon give him some of your blood,” when Damon looked like he was about to argue Elena snapped, “don’t argue just do it. You’re the one who broke it and you’re going to fix it. Once you’re done we will take care of Caroline.”
Damon bit into his wrist and although Alaric looked on the verge of arguing he let Damon press his wrist to his mouth and drank his blood. Once he had enough Damon tore his wrist away from Alaric and offered it to Elena. He said something about her neck and once she was done he said, “first of all Elena, we will not be doing anything. I will take care of the body and you will go back to class.”
Elena narrowed her eyes, “what? No, she’s my best friend I want to help. I want to know who did this to her.”
“I will take her to the cellar and you can talk to her...after school. You already missed one class today Elena. Let’s not make it two,” Damon replied.
She put her hands on her hips and was on the verge of asking when he starting caring about education when Alaric cut in, “he’s right. It would be best for you just to go to class.”
With both of them arguing against her she had no chance of getting to help Damon with Caroline. If the two who had been seconds from killing each other than it was easier to just stop arguing. She admitted defeat and when the bell rang she went off to her class and tried to distract herself from the thought of a vampire Caroline.
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So since I did a dedication last chapter I figured I would do this one to. This is dedicated to classicandvampire. They share the same obsession with Damon and Delena and I love reading their comment. I always see them voting on the new chapter right away and it is just so awesome. Sometimes I can't always thank them and this is my way of saying thank you for everything you've done and hopefully will keep doing :). Your support means alot.
Now I hope everyone liked the chapter :) and I do want to ask all the readers a little favor. Besides all the voting and that stuff which I always like I would like to ask that you comment any characters that you would like to see more of because sadly when I write I always seem to forget about some.
Anyways thanks for reading!!!! :)
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