The next day, Stefan and Jeremy weren't home.
I walked downstairs and saw a dead body in the living room.
"Oh, are you kidding me?" I asked in a complaint under my breath, walking forward.
"Hello," an accented voice from behind me said. I turned to face the brunette-haired man. "I'm Enzo. And who might you be?"
"She a descendant," Damon's voice came from behind me. I turned to face him. "The last human Salvatore. Name's Nicola. I call her Nikki or Cola."
I smiled sarcastically. "Stop talking about me like I'm a pet to play with or to feed on."
Enzo rushed up behind me, his head close to my neck. "What a good idea."
I pushed away from him, turning to face him defiantly.
"Isn't it?" Damon asked. "Surprised I haven't ever thought of that myself."
Enzo tried to compel me. "Where's Jeremy Gilbert?"
"I'm not gonna tell you if you're gonna be acting like a dick," I told him.
Enzo smirked in amusement, looking over my shoulder to look at Damon. "You could've told me that she was on vervain."
"Oops," Damon said. "Must've slipped my mind."
"I've lived in a house with two vampires who can't decide if they're good or bad for two years, and you think I'm stupid enough to not have vervain?" I asked. Enzo smirked, taking a step closer. "Or this."
I punched Enzo in the stomach, ejecting two stakes into his gut.
Enzo groaned, looking up, smiling. "Feisty. I have been an Augustine vampire for many, many years, Nicola. Anything that you do to me is less than what they did a thousand times over."
"That sounds like an interesting story," I told him. "Too bad I'm not interested enough to care."
Enzo took another step forward. I tried to punch him again, this time in the heart. Enzo used vampire speed to catch my arm. I kneed him in the stomach, making the stakes wedge into his gut further, making him let go. I backed away, looking toward the wall.
Damon walked toward me, holding up the sword. "Looking for this?"
"What are you doing?" I asked incredulously.
"We asked you where Jeremy was," Damon told me. "You didn't answer."
"Are you kidding me?" I asked. "This is because of the break up? You're trying to convince yourself that you are exactly what Elena told you last night, maybe even worse?"
"You should really be a psychiatrist, Nikki," Damon told me. "I just don't know what those talents would do for me, or if they would do anything at all."
Enzo was suddenly behind me, grabbing both of my arms, wrapping his around them and holding them behind me in one fast vampire move. I struggled against him, but he held tighter. Enzo leaned his chin against my shoulder, smirking at Damon.
I still couldn't break free.
~~~~~
Damon dragged me to the cell. Enzo opened the door. Damon pushed me inside, both of them following inside.
I turned toward them, trying to fight my way out.
Enzo pointed the sword at me, making me stop. "I wouldn't."
There was yet another dead body in here.
I looked at them incredulously. "You're gonna lock me in here with a dead body?"
"Till we can get the vervain out of your system . . ." Damon trailed off. "Yes."
"You're better than this, Damon," I told him.
"Oh, no, Nikki," Damon told me, kneeling next to me, grabbing my chin lightly to make me look at him. "I'm better like this."
I turned my head away forcefully.
Enzo chuckled, kneeling next to me, grabbing my arm, rolling up my jean jacket sleeve.
I tried to pull it out of his grasp.
Enzo looked at me, smirking. "Ah-ah." He pulled off the stake mechanism, tossing it up to Damon. "Inventive."
Damon caught it. "Something she learned from a vampire hunter."
"Yeah, a vampire hunter that used to be your best friend and would really hate this version of you," I told him.
"Possibly," Damon told me, ripping through my other jacket sleeve to take the other stake mechanism.
"Yeah, it's probably a good idea to get rid of this thing altogether," Enzo told him.
They each grabbed one side of the jacket, ripping it off, leaving me in a spaghetti strapped black shirt.
I tried to push away from the wall to get past them.
Enzo rushed to grab the handcuffs we had used for Amara to lock it around my wrist, and then the other to keep me there. He took out a knife to show me, taunting me. "Does this look familiar?" It was the same knife that Silas had mind-controlled me into slicing my own wrists. I didn't react. Enzo chuckled, slicing down my arm from forearm to my wrist. I didn't move at the pain, trying not to make a sound, looking up at Damon. Damon looked a little guilty. Enzo looked at Damon. "You think that's enough to get the vervain out soon?" Damon didn't answer. Enzo nodded. "You're right. Maybe a little more."
Enzo took my other arm, slicing down my arm from forearm to wrist.
I pressed my lips together to keep from making a sound, looking at Damon angrily, but my voice was calm. "All this to find Jeremy? Why?"
"Because to get to Jeremy, we can get to Bonnie, who might know a witch who can do a locator spell to find Dr. Wes Maxfield," Damon answered.
"So this is about revenge," I said with honest sarcasm. "Now--now it makes sense."
"No need to be sarcastic about it," Enzo told me. "You could just tell us."
I looked at Enzo. "Screw. You."
"So you'd rather go through all of this pain just to avoid from telling us where they are?" Enzo asked.
"Because I'm pretty sure you're gonna use Jeremy as leverage, and to do that, one of you are gonna try to kill him," I told them.
Enzo looked at Damon.
Damon shrugged. "She's the smart Salvatore. And incredibly stubborn."
Enzo nodded.
I glared at them.
~~~~~
I was weak. Already. I breathed heavily, weakly, looking up at the wall.
I was pulled into a memory. Of my mom and my dad.
At first, it was just my mom. I saw both of us at the Wickery Bridge, on the river bank, both of us sitting down. I had been six then. She held her arms around me comfortingly, like we had used to before she had died.
"I miss you, Mommy," the younger version of me told her.
"I know you do, sweetheart," Mom told her, pulling her arms away from her, standing, turning around. "But do you know why I died? How I got sick?"
The young me shook her head. "No. Do--don't say it."
"You made me sick," Mom told her. "A daughter like you . . . How could I ever live with someone like you? You made me sick. You made you sick, too. Maybe you still are."
"No," the young me told her, tears in her eyes. "Stop."
"You killed me," Mom told her. "Now you're killing you."
"No," the young me told her.
~~~~~
I saw my dad in the basement hall, standing outside the cell.
Damon walked out angrily, snapping his neck.
My dad fell to the floor.
"No!" I told him.
"It's horrible, isn't it?" I heard from behind me in present-day Damon's voice. "You killed both your parents."
I resisted a groan, closing my eyes, my hands going to my head, knowing exactly what was happening. "Get the hell out of my head."
"What would be the fun in that?" Damon asked.
I didn't answer, scoffing. "So what, Damon? You're just gonna let me bleed out and die in the cell?" Damon didn't answer. "Just because you dumped Elena, and she didn't want you back? You can do better than that. Please, Damon, just don't do this. You can stop all of it right now."
"No, I can't," Damon told me. "It's already way too late."
I walked closer to him. "It doesn't have to be."
"I killed Aaron Whitmore, Nikki," Damon told me. "Elena's friend. So once she finds out, and once Stefan finds this out, there's no coming back for me."
"Is that what you want?" I asked. "Just to push everyone away, make them hate you, because it's just easier to be hated? Just so you can have Enzo as your killing buddy, someone who would never judge you because he's done worse? Is that it?"
"What do you want to hear me say?" Damon asked.
"I want you to stop," I told him. "Please, Damon, just stop. There's a chance that if you make up for what you've done, you can still make it through. Just don't give up. Please."
Damon didn't answer.
~~~~~
We were out of my head. Finally. I could tell because I felt physical pain, felt weak. My eyes were closed, light-headed because of loss of blood. I opened my eyes.
Damon was kneeling in front of me, looking at my arms as the blood continued to slowly flow.
"You think the vervain's out yet?" Enzo asked.
"One way to find out," Damon told him.
"Or you can go kill someone else," I told them.
"Oh, Nikki, we don't wanna kill you," Damon told me.
"We don't?" Enzo asked.
"No," Damon answered in annoyance. He compelled me. "Where's Jeremy?"
I hated compulsion. "Date . . .with Bonnie. At the college. Some kind of dance."
"Hmm," Damon hummed. "When's the dance start?"
"When the sun goes down," I answered.
"We still have a few hours, then," Enzo told him, standing, turning around, walking out of the cell, leaving. "Enough time to get there."
"You know, Nikki, today's close to Valentine's Day," Damon told me. "Remember, two years ago, on this day, I had tried to turn you into a vampire as leverage against Stefan so he would give me Emily's grimoire. I like to keep a history repeating theme going on here."
I slid weakly away as I realized what he was saying. "Why are you doing this?"
"I don't belong here, Nixs," Damon told me. "I never did. I'm not welcome anymore, and I don't want to me. The only way for me to truly be free is to end all of the ties connecting me to this place. Including you."
Damon wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer.
I struggled weakly. "No. Stop." Damon pricked his finger against one of his teeth, pressing it against my lips. "What are you doing?"
"I'm not gonna kill you," Damon told me. "I'm gonna do something that will only kill you more. Turning you into a vampire. Giving you just enough blood for you to turn into a vampire, but not enough to heal you before you die." I pulled my head away weakly. Damon let go of me, standing, turning around, walking out of the cell, closing the door and locking it behind him. "You're fiesty as a human. Imagine how you'll be as a vampire. Goodbye, Nicola."
"Damon," I said to stop him from leaving. Damon looked at me through the bars. "Don't bother coming back."
Damon looked hurt, but like he knew that he deserved that. "I wasn't planning on it."
Damon walked away, leaving.
I couldn't die. I would stay awake until Stefan found me and healed me. He always did. He would this time.
~~~~~
After what felt like hours, the pain dulled into absolute numb, and instead of feeling afraid of the numb, I felt grateful because it was better than the pain by a thousand times.
But it also meant that I was shutting down.
I forced my eyes to open weakly, unable to lift my head.
It was getting harder and harder to stay awake as the time went on.
I knew that I was fading. I couldn't hang on anymore.
Even if Stefan found me . . .
It would be too late.