CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS the day after the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Kristina had, had an eventful previous day that was filled with many mixed emotions that exhausted her, almost like she had been on an emotional rollercoaster and went round the whole track ten times before stopping. To say she hated spending the day and having a supposed date with Klaus would be a complete lie, but also saying she loved it was also a lie. In fact her life still was not as straightforward as she always hoped it would be but yet she still continued to push through.
When she woke up that morning she had received a text from Stefan telling her to meet him at Caroline's. It sounded urgent. So when she finally arrived she had come to learn that her friend Elena Gilbert was in fact sired to Damon Salvatore. Her best friend, partner in crime and brother. But it all made sense. Elena agreeing with Damon on everything, doing exactly what he says. It was like an exact replica of what Klaus and his hybrids were like.
"This is a disaster." Caroline bellowed.
"Look." Stefan raised his hands "We don't know anything for sure."
"Yes, we do." Kristina confirmed "Elena is sired to Damon, which means her one singular burning desire is to make him happy, just like Klaus and his hybrids."
Stefan shook his head "No. It's not. A vampire sired to another vampire is one in a million. Maybe it won't affect her the same way."
"We already know it's affecting her." Caroline stated quite harshly "She's become Damons lapdog. It's true. Everything he says she agrees with. Everything he asked her to do, she does. We need to do something." Caroline picked up her phone.
Kristina frowned "Woah, what are you doing?"
"Yeah Caroline, this isn't gossip. You can't just drop this on her before we know it's happening for sure."
Caroline lowered her phone "I need to talk to Tyler, Ok? Maybe he'll know what to do."
"All right talk to Tyler, but please don't tell anyone else." Stefan firmly warned "If this is true, then it may have influence on Elena's every action and emotion since she became a vampire."
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Kristina and Stefan had left Caroline's and returned home where Elena was now living with her and Damon, Stefan had left due to unwanted feelings and tension of their past together. As they approached the large mahogany door, it was being pulled open by a person or persons. Elena and Damon. The pair stared at Stefan uncomfortably as Kristina watches on, wincing at the awkwardness she felt.
"Hey." Elena greeted, chirpily.
Stefan shifted his weight from side to side "Hey." Then exhaled, lowering his muscular shoulders.
"See you in history?" Elena asked Stefan as she began to leave. "Yeah." He nodded. The vampire girl looked to her best friend who watched amused, whispering as she went past "We'll talk about this later."
Kristina smiled "I think it's perfectly clear. It's a wonderful scene you've all created and I'm a first hand witness." Elena left and Kristina snickered to herself.
The blonde vampire and the werewolf walked inside as Damon shut the door behind them. The two brothers then folded both their arms as they awaited for one of them to say something. Kristina glanced between the pair. "Yeah, this is a conversation I don't really want to be apart of...I'll be upstairs." She pointed awkwardly to the staircase and patted Damon on the shoulder as she went past to say 'have fun' as she made her way up to her room.
As Kristina stepped through the doorway and made her way to her vanity table, she sat and stared at her reflection until something caught her eye. Her attention was drown from her reflection to the drawing of herself she received from Klaus after the Mikaelson ball. The one he drew for her. It made the thoughts she already had of him in the back of her mind take front row as she cast back to last night.
flashback
It was a cold night in Mystic Falls. Cold enough that if you blew oxygen into the air it would be visible but not cold enough that it nipped your skin and was unbearable. But for hybrid and a werewolf, weather didn't really affect them. It was after the Miss Mystic Falls pageant and the pairs so called 'owed-date' didn't seem to want to end. Maybe it was the universe and fate or maybe it was just the two of them secretly trying to prolong the time they were spending together. Still, they both were not complaining whatsoever. Klaus being the old-fashioned man he is (quite literally) had put his jacket over her shoulders to which he insisted after she rejected his offer.
The pair were never short of conversation. "Tell me more about your family." Klaus said.
Kristina pulled the jacket tighter around her small frame "Well there's not much to know. In all honesty I know as much as anyone else does."
Klaus stopped her mid stride as he stepped in front of her "Indulge me."
The werewolf stared at him and sighed and she began to tell him about her life "It was always my brother, sister and I for as long as I can remember. Our parents weren't around and we were basically left to fend for ourselves. We only had each other. So when the three of us were separated all them years ago, it felt like one of the missing pieces of myself had been returned when I reunited with Hayley. Which I suppose I have you to thank in way. But family is everything to me, no matter what."
Klaus laughed slightly "I wish I could say the same for myself but sadly I cannot. You see my family have some...unresolved conflicts from the past."
"Yeah. That wasn't really a secret." Klaus smiled at the werewolf's comment.
As the pair reached the doorway of the Salvatore boarding house, the hybrid turned to her "But surely enough amongst the hatred and misery my family brought upon me." He shook his head "I still somehow recall the good memories of me and my siblings as young children. Before vampirism took over us." Kristina smiled slightly at his image that he created "Memories are a funny thing."
The werewolf nodded "Indeed they are."
flashback over
Kristina smiled to herself at she recalled back to last night. As realisation struck her to what she was doing she shook out of her dreamy state, forty minutes later, after showering and cleaning herself up she came bouncing down the stairs and into the parlour where she returned to Damon and Stefan discussing the problem of Elena being sired to Damon to which he had only just discovered for himself.
"But what are we gonna do about it?" Stefan said as she entered the room.
"Well I'm working on it." Damon handed Stefan a piece of paper that had an image on the front "Here. Remember that?"
Kristina asked as she stared at the photo "Where is that?"
"New Orleans." The werewolf looked at the photo with adoration, she'd always wanted to go to New Orleans from a young age. The stories she heard of the magic it held within the streets and the building that intrigued her.
"1942, to be exact."
"What was in New Orleans in 1942?" Kristina asked.
Damon smirked "Other than bourbon and beads, us, Stefan."
"Oh yeah." He realised as he inspected the hat he pulled from the box "What was the name of that girl you used to hang out with?"
The dark haired vampire stifled a laugh "That was no ordinary girl. That was Charlotte. She was crazy about me from the minute we met. So of course when she asked me to turn her into a vampire, I did. One night in a bar I told her if anyone touches my drink, show no mercy. Of course she took it too literal and killed the guy. That was my first clue."
"She was sired to you, and I can only assume you took full advantage of that until you got bored of her, right?" Stefan assumed, folding his arms.
Damon furrowed his brows together "More like when she went all 'fatal attraction' on me. Then I had to make a clean break."
"How'd you do that?" Kristina queried.
Damon began to rummage through the box again "Ah, phew. Here." He handed her a coaster with a name and address on the back.
"Who's Valerie La Marche?"
"The witch that I found to help me break little Charlotte's sire bond." He stood up with his drink "Pack your bags, little bro and little sis. We're going to bourbon street."
As the werewolf sat in the back seat of the car later that evening, she received a text from Elena.
Girls night at boarding house, raiding the cellar for drink, you in?
-Elena
Can't i'm with the sis, family bonding. Maybe next time?
-Kristina
She sent the text attempting not to feel the guilt of lying to her best friend. She sent a quick text to she sister before shutting off her phone and enjoying the ride to the city.
I'll be out all night with the boys, don't wait up for me, I'll text you when I'm home.
-Kristina
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The werewolf and two vampires walked through the parading streets of New Orleans, Kristina loving every minute of it. The beauty that the city radiated everywhere you looked. It was definitely an upgrade from Mystic Falls according to Kristina.
"Well, the city is the same." Stefan noted as he walked in the middle of the others "Just brighter."
Damon turned his head "Have you been back here since '42?"
"Nope." Stefan simply answered "Not since I shipped off to join the war effort and you didn't."
The older Salvatore raised his brows "Somebody had to entertain the ladies who had been let by their menfolk."
"Always been the charmer haven't you, Damon." Kristina commented as she gazed at the fluorescent people.
Just as she said that, Damon cell phone began to chime. He looked at his phone before speaking "Hey, good news." The other two paused in their steps "Elena's at the house with the girls where she can't get in trouble. Bad news- think they got into the dom. Told her to make herself at home."
"Yeah." Stefan rolled his eyes "You told her, so she does, right?"
Damon scoffed "Sire bond is not that literal, Stefan."
The werewolf girl turned on her heel to watch as Damon walked away "Are you sure?"
Stefan nodded "Name on thing that you've asked her to do that you haven't gotten, huh?"
"You know what I haven't gotten?" Damon asked "Blame, guilt. I get it, Stefan. I get that you're pissed that Elena dumped you because she has feelings for me. But you blame the sire bond for that, too."
"Yeah. You know what? I absolutely do." Stefan admitted as Kristina watched their argument unravel.
Damon snapped "Why, because it's impossible to think she could have feelings for me?"
"No, because it's impossible for her to be so blind that she doesn't see how wrong you are for her." They stared at each other for a moment before Damon took off without a word. Guilt began to sink in as Stefan watched his brother leave.
Kristina exhaled "Come on guys, this is meant to be a little bonding trip. I get there's tension and we all want what's best for Elena but don't let it get in the way of your relationship.
Stefan nodded. "Hey, wait, Damon I'm sorry."
"What'd you say?"
Stefan sighed "I apologise alright. As much as I hate this side bond thing, I shouldn't take it out on you. It's not really your fault."
"Well don't get all warm and fuzzy on me yet. It's where the witch lived." Damon said as they stood in front of a black door with a white frame surrounding the edges.
"What, you weren't expecting to find the same exact witch in the same place." Kristina acknowledged.
Damon shook "No, but since I couldn't remember where the store was, figured I'd get us a start."
The younger Salvatore raised his brows "Maybe there's another place to start. You think Charlotte might be in New Orleans?"
"Yeah, maybe."
Stefan pressed "Where's the last place you saw her?"
"Corner of bourbon and dumaine. Kind of told her to count every brick in every building in New Orleans, and I'd meet her at the corner. I was gone by morning."
Kristina stifled a laugh "I swear to god if I find out she's counted every brick in New Orleans I'm gonna lose it."
Damon tried to contain his smile as he looked at Kristina. Only for it to turn into a frown as Stefan walked away "Where are you going?"
"Corner of bourbon and dumaine, see how literal the sire bond is."
______
The trio trekked the back streets of the vibrant city in search of the corner where Charlotte was supposed to be in the eyes of Stefan. The parades had ended and all that remained was the silent streets. "No way is she gonna be in the same spot after seventy years."
"So what are we gonna tell Elena?" Stefan said.
Damon spun on his heel "I was hoping we wouldn't have to tell her anything."
"We can't just lie to her." Kristina stated as they stopped.
"It's not a lie." Damon claimed "Its omission for the greater good."
Stefan became agitated "Oh, I see, I see. That's Damonspeak for, 'let's not do the right thing. Let's just do what's right for me.'"
"Oh, what about you, o selfless one? Are you doing what's best for Elena or what's best for you? Because it looks to me like the only reason you want to break Elena's sire bond is to restore her original factory team Stefan settings." The pair fell silent before Damon returned to his natural sarcastic self "I'm gonna go get a drink. Hunt me down when you stop being a dick."
Damon moved away from Kristina and Stefan, leaving the two as he went to find a bar. "You two can never just get on for more than ten minutes can you?"
"Well it's not entirely my fault." Stefan told the young werewolf. Only a moment later they both heard the sound of Damon struggling. The werewolf and vampire ran to where Damon was, Stefan using his super speed. He slung the woman attacking Damon off of him and she fell to the ground a few meters away.
"What the hell just happened?"
Damon hesitated as he stared at the girl in shock "She kissed me."
"What!" Kristina exclaimed from confusion. The woman stood up and stepped into the light. She was tall young woman with auburn hair that cascaded past her shoulders.
"Damon, I always knew you'd come back for me." The woman stoped closer as she smiled hopefully "I must have counted literally every brick of every building in all of New Orleans."
Kristina snorted, unable to contain herself and Damon nudged her with his arm which caused her to want to laugh even more.
"Literally every brick?" Stefan pronounced and she nodded as she went to hug Damon.
Damon smiled uncomfortably as he tried to push her away "Uh, Charlotte- heh heh- please tell me you had a full life and that you've done something other than counting bricks."
Kristina tried so hard to control her laughter as the woman spoke "Of course I have. I'm not crazy."
"Then why are you still here?" Stefan asked.
Kristina leaned over to Stefan whispering "Because she thought she'd count every piece of confetti the was thrown in the Mardi Gras parade." She snorted. He nudged her with his elbow a bit harsher.
She glanced to the three people around her "You know, when someone breaks up with you and there's a song that reminds you of them. First, you hate it, but then it brings back all the good memories of them. Counting the bricks is my song, and I've been playing it for decades."
"That's a really long time. Stuck listening to the same song." Stefan stated.
"Yeah. Heh." Damon chuckled nervously "Well, you know, in the plus column, you know New Orleans better than anyone in the world, which is really nice. Because we need your help finding someone."
______
After speaking with Charlotte, the trio finally found the witches shop that Damon and been talking about. As they stepped inside the bell rang and an older woman came out from the back room. "Can I help you, gentleman...and lady."
"Hi. Looking for a witch. Sorry. No time for pleasantries." Damon said being upfront.
The woman frowned slightly "I'm sorry. I don't understand."
"Look-" Damon narrowed his eyes as he looked to the chalkboard "Nandi, is it? Let's skip to the part where you pretend like don't know what we're talking about. We need a spell that could break a vampire sire bond. Now, there's a witch here named Val. Ring any bells?"
The witch Nandi sighed as she answered "She was my great-grandmother."
"She had a grimoire, and it had spell." Damon said as he begin to explain what was needed to complete the spell.
"Twelve human souls. You brought us here knowing the spell required a human sacrifice." Stefan argued.
Kristina stood with her eyes widened slightly "Well we all know how this is gonna go down."
Damon struggled to find an appropriate answer "Well, I was hoping the recipe had changed."
The witch leaned on the counter "Look. There's no magic like that here. I sell herbs and homeopathic remedies and dress it up with a little witchy-woo for the tourists but I don't practice."
"Ok, fine. Listen." Damon tried once more "Just tell us where we can find someone like your great-grandma who can break the sire bond and won't flake out on us like old Val did."
The witch shook her head "There's no one. All of her stuff is gone-the grimoires, her journals we lost it all during Katrina. If a spell like that ever existed, it's gone for good."
______
Kristina, Damon and Stefan left the witches shop and began to walk down the dimly lit streets. Kristina as she walked couldn't help but sense something was off about the witch they spoke to. "That witch...something wasn't right."
"Witch is liar." Damon assumed "Doesn't practice magic, my ass."
"Human sacrifice?" Stefan brought up again "Did you really think that I would go for this?"
Damon tutted "Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures."
Kristina stepped forward forcing Damon to stop "Be honest with me D, did you kill those twelve people in 1942?"
"Absolutely, I did, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant a clean slate with Elena." Damon explained as Stefan and Kristina sent each other a glance "Are you gonna help me good cop bad cops this witch, or not?"
A few minutes later Damon and Kristina walked back into the shop, finding the witch in the back room with candle smoke surrounding her "What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Calling you out. You're not Val's great-granddaughter. You're her daughter." Damon accused as Kristina folded her arms beside him "You're eighty years old. You don't look a day over fifty. You're a practising witch."
The witch continued to tend to what she was doing before "Get out of my store."
"Give me what I want." Damon went to step towards her in thought of scaring her but instead she turned around as she held her hand up causing an aneurism.
Kristina held her head as she felt it getting tighter, the pain nearly unbearable to the point where she groaned in agony "I gave you a chance to leave with your life."
"Wait, wait, wait. We don't want any trouble." Stefan said as he came out of the shadows "We just need your help. That's all."
"I told you," Nandi warned "There no one who can help you." Damon and Kristina continued to groan, the were wolf now being on the floor "The kind of magic my mother practised, it's unnatural. Witches don't even call it magic. We call it expression."
The witch finally stopped working her magic and released the two. Kristina exhaled a breath of relief as the pain eased. Stefan began to question her "Is that like black magic?"
"Worse." Nandi stated "Channeling the powers of human sacrifices calls on darkness that can't exist on this plane without swallowing it whole. She sold you a bill of goods about breaking the sire bond because she wanted to access to that power, and you gave it to her when you killed those twelve people."
"Are you saying there's no spell?" Damon asked dauntingly as he stood up from the ground.
The witch stared at him intently "The bond can't be broken with magic. A vampire only bonds to her sire when she has feelings for him before she turns, human feelings. Vampirism only heightens those emotions." The others expressions changed to confusion "You want her free? You have to set her free. Tell her to live her life without you and never think of you again, to stop caring about you, and then leave her. That's the only way around the sire bond."
______
Stefan and Kristina sat on a bench outside the bar where Damon was with Charlotte, awaiting on him to set her free from the sire bond and see if it worked to take the new information with them back to Mystic Falls to free Elena. As they waited, they sat in a comfortable silence. Kristina once again glanced at the streets of New Orleans before she broke the silence. "Someday I'm gonna live here. You know when there's no evil force trying to kill us or some bad supernatural creature out to get us."
"Really. Why?" Stefan asked as he twisted to face her.
Kristina shrugged as the wind blew her hair "I don't know. I just feel at home here, like being here - it's right. It might not make sense to you but once Hayley and I find my brother I'm going to bring them here."
The vampire shook his head as he smiled slightly "No I get it. It feels safe for you. All you want is your family to somewhere safe where you can be together away from threats."
Kristina smiled and hummed "Yeah. But until that time comes, which I'm sure is gonna be a long time, we have to take care of what's going on now."
Stefan put his hand on top of hers hand in comfort, knowing Kristina was too loyal as a friend to ever live her one dream. Instead she would rather sacrifice her own happiness to help her friends for as long as it took even if it meant delaying her life. A moment later, Damon was seen nearing them. "How'd it go?"
Stefan and Kristina stood up as Damon spoke to them "Set her free."
"Must've been hard, doing the right thing, especially when it's something you want to do." Stefan said.
Damon rolled his eyes "Get to the point, Stefan. You think I'm gonna be able to do what I need to when I have to tell Elena to stay away from me."
"Well, I mean, selflessness isn't exactly one of your most obvious character traits, Damon." The youngest vampire explained as he spoke to his brother.
"Yeah? Well, one of these days, you're gonna realise you don't know me half as well as you think." Damon whistled for a cab as he raised his arm. Explaining to Damon and Kristina that he decided to let Stefan go for their own good which is why he didn't turn up to serve in the war all them years ago.
Stefan immediately regretted his words "I didn't know about that."
"Yeah." Damon nodded walking towards the cab "Well, next time, I'll hang a billboard."
"I know it may seem like I'm being unfair about this, like I'm upset about losing Elena up to you, and I am, but after all this is over, if she never feels the same way about me as she used to at least it'll be her choice." Stefan described.
Damon furrowed his brows "The dreaded C-word. I know what I have to do, Stefan." The three then jumped into the cab to where they would make their way home.
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a/n: loved/hated this chapter all at once. thanks for being so patient after all of these months but this chapter is just to tie you all over until June/July where i will be free for ten weeks and will finish the story.
word count: 4154
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q: where do you think kristina and hayley's brother is? do you think he's dead or alive?