Talia's POV
The boarding house was in pristine order as everything was in its place and under management of its keeper and mistress. All was tranquil as the lady drifted from the rooms and made sure that everything was spotless as well as intact from her husband's tirades and frequent tantrums including her brother-in-law's occasional spats. She had appreciated that Damon had put a tarp down when he killed Mason Lockwood and was frustratedly angry when he trashed the place after opening the tomb. A small part of her was hurt that Damon had seemed to have forgotten about her while remaining fixated on his past ex until Stefan and his girlfriend-copy found one of their albums. Talia would sometimes glimpse the rare times that Damon would either look at their rings or take out the picture of them on New Years that was hidden in the opposite bedside table.
Sometimes at night when he'd sleep she would run her fingers through the inky locks that fell on his forehead. She missed being alive but didn't hold a grudge like the vampires that were trapped in the tomb and that had escaped from it. She was just worried about her family and the involvement that they were getting into because of Stefan's girlfriend.
3rd POV
The town of Mystic Falls was getting ready for their Founder's Day festivities as well as the citizens having returned to normal as their town could get. Stefan and Damon were now having to deal with knowledge that the tomb vamps somehow got out and were amongst the modern world. The weather was heavy forecasts that called for rain as well as a slight chill factor while the rest of their gang was dealing with emotional issues like Sheila Bennet's passing and Bonnie leaving town. The Mystic Falls gang were dealing with many problems like Elena's birth mother being brought up and her death in question, the tomb vampires escaping the tomb and dealing with any lead the led to Katherine. A storm as brewing but they didn't know what it would result for them when it hit.
It was night at the boarding house with rain beating down on the roof as Stefan found Damon in the library. Both brothers had been dealing with the knowledge of Katherine's betrayal as well as the existential-crisis that was Damon's life while Stefan was fed up with Damon and his meddling. The new issue that the brothers were dealing with at the present moment was the possibility that the entrapped bloodsuckers from their time could have escaped their stony cage. Stefan had just entered the library with an argument starting on his lips while Damon was seated in one of the dark leather chairs when the window blew into the room, glass spraying all over the wood and carpets as multiple figures bloomed from the now smashed frame. The first figure was male and had gotten the upper-hand on Stefan, being the one who was closest to the window at the time, laying on top of the younger Salvatore and stabbing him in the chest. The unidentified man was pulled off by the older Salvatore and slammed into the banister that separated the room from the entry way/hall.
While the brothers were distracted, Stefan with the task of pulling out the large shard of glass protruding from him and Damon with the intruder, barely noticed the second figure entering the same way as the first. This person was female and took a survey of the room before determining her target after eyeing the struggle that her partner was giving the darker Salvatore. Unbeknownst to the fighting figures another was witnessing the brawl; noting the damage that was the window, cracked bannister, chipped hardwood, and bloodied rug. This person was both worried and angered by the display going on that it caused a faint film of gold dust to blanket her frame, shooting down into the floorboards and into the underlaying earth that cradled the house. The mist snaked into the bedrock and triggered an increase in plate shifting, accelerating movement in that specific spot, causing the house and foundation of the place to shake. The shaking intensified with the unnoticed being's level of anger at the destruction being done to her home, becoming more noticeable to the vampires, and causing them to stop their actions in shock at the mini earthquake that was happening.
The shifting foundation and shaking walls startled the supernatural creatures to separate and take precaution, not knowing if it would last or that it was happening to the town as well as the boarding house. The male figure with Damon looked around the room seeing the items on bookshelves and tables bounce on their spots with furniture trembling at their posts. Taking quick inventory and scanning the surrounding rooms, Damon spied a glimmer near the doorway standing in the entry hall that nobody else seemed to catch in their sights. "Seems like the lady of the house doesn't like unannounced and unwanted guests." he commented mostly to himself, a smirk taking purchase of his features that his brother didn't miss as the intruders were too focused on not losing their footing on the rattling floor.
The quaking subsided with the decreasing level of worry she had, allowing the brothers to have an upper hand on their opponents. Stefan was exchanging blows with the woman while Damon was keeping the man at bay and restraining him from trying to double-team. Spotting a shard of wood from the windowpane, he grabbed it and thrusted into the woman's chest multiple times while Damon kept slamming the man into solid objects like bookshelves and walls. With a final blow, Stefan plunged the stake into the woman's heart- killing her instantly and causing the graying process to spread throughout her body while her accomplice watched. A look of anguish overtook the man's face before he disappeared from the house, via vamp-speed, and left the Salvatores in his wake; both looking at each other with looks of shock and dread mixed on their faces. "I remember them from 1864. They were in the tomb." Stefan stated with a horror-tint to his voice as he watched the vampire speed away into the night.
"Yeah, about that..." Damon started, not looking at his brother as an indicator of already having the knowledge of the escapees. They spent the night cleaning up the mess as well as disposing of the decayed body of the tomb vampire that had been caused by their scuffle earlier before heading to their respective rooms for some much-needed sleep. While the brothers slept an uneasy night, a mist went through the house going from room to room mending the manageable damage that was left in the struggle; the shape of the wisps took was that of a female with glowing eyes. She had studied the spiritual residue that the attacking vampire had left in her death, a small gray mass that was trying to reorganize itself due to its new form and expelled from the library into the surrounding woods. A last final check on her handy work of repairing the chipped flooring, the caved handrailing, and leftover shards of wood and glass that was embedded in the old rug before drifting up the staircase to the room on the right.
A gentle turn of the doorknob allowed the door to inch forward for the fog to seep around the frame and reconfigure on the other side of the oak door. The room was spacious and done up in a dark color-scheme with a large bed covered in black silk sheets as the centerpiece which included the figure that was resting under the sheets, unaware of the other presence. It gleamed as a more solid form came to be a silhouette of a curvy woman moved towards the male on the bed, settling next to the sleeping figure and watching the dark-haired man slumber. Her gaze was loving as pieces of hair fell onto his forehead causing a furrow brow that she lightly smoothed while pushing the hair back off and calming the man in the process. A look of sadness mixed in with the love as she continued to run her fingers through his dark mane which resulted in a smile to grace his features as she leaned down to press a gentle kiss upon his brow before fading into golden stardust.
Morning...
The next day brought more rain and gray clouds as Elena came over after hearing about the new threat to the town. She came into the house with Stefan by her side as Damon was taking sheets of plywood to board up the broken windows that the previous night had acquired as the trio was unaware of a fourth person being in the room. The interloper was near the bookshelves as the conversation was focused mainly on the tomb vampires. "Well, you don't have to be snarky about it." Commented Damon towards Elena from the window while she was leaning against the leather couch.
"I woke up this morning to learn that all the vampires have been released from the tomb. I've earned snarky." She retorted back.
"Ah... How long are you going to blame me for turning your birth mother into a vampire?" he questioned as he continued working, catching a glimpse of shimmer in his peripheral that led to a smirk being pulled on his lips. While his brother and his girlfriend hadn't noticed, he noticed that the repair list had been decreased while they were sleeping since he checked the areas that sustained damage that morning, noticing the fixtures that were smashed before were now in pristine condition as if the intrusion never occurred. With that smirk in sight of the faint glow, Damon felt a sudden jab of pain at the back of his head- which caused it to jerk forward at an angle to be undetectable by the others.
"I'm not blaming you, Damon. I've accepted the fact that you're a self-serving psychopath with no redeeming qualities." Elena countered with a smirk; she and Stefan not aware of the mysterious presence or the interaction that was going on with Damon.
"Ouch." He commented, both sarcastically to Elena's righteous conclusion and to the real pain he felt from the entity in the room. A soft, light giggle drifted by the bookshelf as their unseen visitor chuckled at Damon's childishness while feeling irked by Elena's spite towards her husband- causing the house to creak loudly with a sharp jerk of the flooring. The movement surprised and shocked mostly the younger couple as they searched for the cause while the older male smirked again from the powerplay that confirmed his suspicions of his dearly departed.
"What was that?" Elena asked the brothers, hoping they had an answer for the weird phenomenon that just occurred. Stefan looked just as confused on the event as she was, but the other Salvatore had a glint in his eye that told of unspoken knowledge.
"Seems like the Mrs. doesn't like your tone now Elena. She gets offly annoyed when people barge in and disrupt her household, that includes the people in it." He off-handedly stated, turning to the high schoolers after he finished nailing the boards in place to keep the down pour out.
"This isn't being very productive. We're gonna figure out a way to deal with Pearl and the vampires, yeah?" Stefan stepped in, trying to prevent another argument from starting in between the two since that's all they've been doing recently from the discovery of Damon killing and turning her mother. He separated the two by taking Elena closer to the door while Damon went over to the bar and poured himself some bourbon.
"I'm sorry. He just makes me so cranky." She apologized with crossed arms, anger simmering towards the older Salvatore while her boyfriend was caught playing mediator for them and feeling bad for adding another thing to his already loaded plate.
"I know...he makes everybody cranky. Wait, what did you mean by 'Mrs.'?" Stefan accepted by pulling her closer before realization struck. He quickly turned to the man drinking while making the distance between them shorter, trying to process and find the answer to the mysterious word usage.
Damon lifted an eyebrow as he retorts, "Caught that didn't you? Well it would appear that my hypothesis has been proven as of last night and just now dear brother. It would so happen that we aren't the only ones in this house and that it is in fact, a-she that has been taking care of the manor and has been here for a while, while being right under our noses." He had meandered to the couch by the end of his speech and lounged back as he watched his brother try to figure out the riddle and mystery he had just presented to the group. Seeing that it was taking the two so long just to get a grasp of concept that was presented, Damon took slight pleasure and pity to spill the beans.
"Well, from the time you two had dug up my albums I have been taking account of all the things that have been going on around the house, things that are out of the normal and yes; I know that nothing is normal around us or about this town. I've been accounting for the stranger phenomenon like how even when we're not here the house is always clean and perfectly organized while we don't have any maids or servants on call or staff. That includes the damage done last night which you two haven't noticed but I have, pairing with the occasional moments of seeing gold dust out of the corner of my eye that accompanies creaking floorboards at random times during the day. Plus the rare instances of light sensations of touching I sporadically feel from time to time; but my main key evidence is the repairs from the night and how my bed is always made with tight hospital corners that I only know one person always liked to do when she made the bed, since most of the time we would leave it a neat mess. Seems like my lovely wife isn't so departed yet as I've been led to believe and have only just realized that she's been here the whole time. The house shaking was a display of her presence while also a way to protect us from the invading tomb vampires."
This stunned the teens in disbelief, trying to swallow this heavy finding that was so like Damon to randomly drop on them at any given moment that suited him. Stefan was raffling through his memories to see if he had picked up on any of the activity that Damon mentioned, only noting on the cleanliness of his home and how sometimes things would end up in different places than they were originally; but still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that his newly discovered dead sister-in law could be in the house and cause such a quake that it shook the whole house to its foundation.
"So if she's dead, then how is she still here and how could she cause the entire place to shake if she's not physically here?" questioned Elena, confused and completely out of her element with the increase of supernatural activities that have amplified since the brothers came to town.
"Emily Bennett came back and possessed Bonnie when Damon was after the crystal, so the possibility of her being a ghost isn't so weird since we live in Mystic Falls.' Stefan theorized, 'But that still doesn't explain the house."
"Well she was a very skilled and powerful witch, so it only makes sense that she'd take that to the other side with her. Plus she really liked the boarding house when we visited and when push comes-to shove, she could pack a wallop. God, I love that woman..." Damon filled in the blanks as he reminisced about the spitfire that rocked his world and loved him fiercely with a faint smile. He suddenly felt fingers gently run through his hair and trail down to stroke his cheek, his eyes closed as he reflexively leaned into the hand and purring from the familiar gesture.
"Now that that's been addressed, let's get back to the tomb vampire problem. So...What are we gonna do?" Elena drew back their attention to the original issue of what they were dealing with and the danger that came with it.
Stefan went to his girlfriend, gently gripping her arms in a comforting way that spoke of his care and concern for her wellbeing that anyone would give to a loved one. Rubbing her arm a few times before his hands trailed to both tangle his fingers with hers and to place onto her shoulder reassured, "Damon and I are gonna handle everything. I promise."