Opposites Attract

“You told her what?” I asked in disbelief.
Damon’s clear blue eyes narrowed at me. “Out of everything I just told you, that’s what you heard?”
I blinked and sunk into the porch swing. “Sorry. It was a lot to take in but telling Elena that you love her is a pretty big deal, especially if you already staked the vamp that took her. But she’s not going to remember any of what you said? Damon, I’m sorry.” It must have been tough for him considering that Stefan and Elena were now officially back together.
He glowered at me for a moment. “I don’t want you to get all mushy, Margaret. I just thought I’d tell you about Elena so that you can go in the morning,” he said in his signature sarcastic tone. “I mean, you’re still planning on leaving Mystic Falls, right?”
I bit my bottom lip and thought about when I’d seen him earlier in the parking lot. I’d trusted Damon to kill Katherine and he’d lied. Yeah, I was so done with the Salvatores. “Uh, yeah. First thing in the morning,”
I didn’t get to sleep that night. After what Damon had told me about what had happened to Elena, I was curious. I stayed up all night going through my family’s history books and found the names Rose and Trevor but they were nothing but footnotes about Katerina Petrova. I scowled but dug deeper into those entries. There wasn’t much about her before Mystic Falls but I did find out that the Elijah guy Rose was going to hand Elena off to was a pretty big deal and Katerina had seriously pissed him off.
“Katherine did it, not Elena,” I muttered to myself. “Katherine’s the one that’s gonna get the shit stick so this isn’t my problem.” I slept a little after that and started packing up my stuff as soon as dawn crept into my window.
Everything was set and I was ready to leave Mystic Falls when the pounding started. “Ugh! What?” I called.
The old hinges creaked as the wooden door opened. “Are you going somewhere?” Elena’s voice demanded.
I peeked around the box in my arms to see her and Caroline looking around the junk-packed parlor in confusion. “Uh, I’m thinking about it. Why? What’s up?”
My little cousin frowned slightly then pursed her lips. “I need your help with something. Can you come with me somewhere for the day?”
I should have said no but the desperation in her voice made me say otherwise. Elena explained that the vampire that had tried to give her up to the original was back. Rose, I guess, had said that the oldest vampire in history was coming after Elena. No one knew if Rose could be trusted or if she was making shit up to save her own ass and Stefan was trying too hard to act like Elena wasn’t in danger. There was only one person in Elena’ s mind who might have answers.
Caroline parked and we marched through the thin woods to where the church once stood and the Tomb beneath. “Just tell everyone that I went home sick,” Elena was telling the blonde vampire.
“I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”
I swept a hand through my hair and frowned. “I agree, Caroline, but I’m staying with her so Elena will be fine.”
“You guys know I’m a bad liar. And I’m even worse at duplicity. Stefan’s gonna see right through me!”
Elena turned to face her as we reached the entrance of the Tomb. “Caroline, as my friend, do you promise or not?”
“You had to break out the girlfriend code.” Caroline was a lot of things but one thing she wasn’t was a bad friend.
“Look, Caroline,” I said, “just answer direct questions without actually giving away what we’re up to. Lying is so much easier when you mix a little of the truth into it. Can you at least handle that?”
She hesitated and looked between us. “Okay,” she finally said. “I promise.”
We went into the rocky underground by the Tomb’s vampire-resistant entrance and Caroline once again tried to talk her out of her plan. Elena wasn’t budging. She wanted to know the truth about Klaus, an original vampire like Elijah had supposedly been only a thousand times worse.
Caroline used her vampire strength to pull the huge rock slab that was used as the door. Elena hesitantly went closer to the dark, gaping hole and called for the vampire-look-a-like before insisting she’d be okay.
“Hello, Elena. Come to watch me wither away?” she croaked. “Goodbye, Caroline and Margaret.”
“As long as I stay on this side of the door, she can’t get me.”
I tossed my head back to get my bangs from my eyes and met Katherine’s gaze square on. “And I’m not leaving. Elena will be fine,” I hissed more to the 500-year-old vamp than the newborn one.
Elena started pulling clothes and other things from her big brown carpet bag as a bribe to get Katherine to talk about Klaus. Neither the clothes nor Katherine’s family’s history book had any effect on her; but the bottle of blood did. That’s when she started to open up about her past- her baby, being disowned by her- and Elena’s- true family, meeting Klaus and running away.
“So what did Klaus want?”
“The same thing he wants from you. He wants to break the curse.”
“By sacrificing the Petrova doppelganger.” My stomach tied itself in a million knots when I realized that even with Katherine locked up, my family still wasn’t safe. Well, shit.
I guess I couldn’t leave Mystic Falls, not after everything that was going on around here. I slid down onto the stone steps to think for the first time in my life that maybe my mom was right. It was there that my phone buzzed against my hip. I pulled it out and Damon’s name flashed across the screen. ditched out on Mystic Falls yet?
My jaw locked but I answered anyway. no
good, be ready to go. You’re coming with me to Richmond, he texted back immediately.
cant
Why not?
busy, I answered back. I was so not in the mood to chat with Damon so I shut my phone off completely and turned my attention back to Katherine’s story.
“What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?” Elena asked as she pushed another cup of blood toward the imprisoned vampire.
“It’s really tedious but the curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to undo the spell. Once the doppelgänger reappeared, the curse could be broken.”
Elena had a look that said she was thinking hard about something but part of what Katherine had said bugged me. “Why the doppelgänger? Why can’t it be any Petrova?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Katherine eyed me but answered, to my surprise. “Like I said, witches are crafty. The witch that made the curse wouldn’t want to make it easy.”
“So why have a way to break it at all?”
She stared at me as if I had two heads or something. “I don’t know,” she finally said quietly.
“So you ran before he could kill you?” Elena asked, once again getting back to her story.
“Something like that,” Katherine answered. Was it just me or was there something in her tone like regret? Probably just me.
At this point she started talking about Rose, the vampire that had had my cousin abducted. This was part of the story that was written in my family’s history books. I mean, I knew that I came from a long line of hunters but it was strange to hear about that time from someone that was actually there rather than reading about it from old books.
“You killed yourself?” Elena said in horror as Katherine got to the part about how she was turned.
“Klaus needed a human doppelgänger. As a vampire I was no longer any use to him.”
Un-freaking-believable. She was willing to sacrifice the only ones to help her and use them for her own gain. So apparently this girl wasn’t a bitch just because she was a vampire. She’d been totally fucking psycho since her human days. Probably since she’d had to give up her baby. I wondered what she would do to that kid now if she had her.
“Don’t want to die?” she taunted. “There’s another way out.” She nicked her wrist with her nail so a tiny line of blood formed. Elena eyed the blood appalled by her offer. “Better hurry. Your opportunity’s going. And going. Going. And gone. I made the other choice.”
“Rose and Trevor spent the last 500 years running because you used them,” Elena admonished. “Trevor just got killed.”
“Never thought he’d last that long,” Katherine said callously as she started thumbing through the Petrova family book.
“You don’t even care that you ruined their lives.”
“I was looking out for myself, Elena,” she defended. “I will always look out for myself. If you’re smart, you’ll do the same.”
I didn’t want to listen anymore but I couldn’t leave my cousin alone. She sat staring off into space looking lost in thought. I stood up and started pacing, tapping my phone against my thigh and actually hoping Damon would text so I could think about how pissed I was at him.
“You’re sick, you know that?” I finally muttered. “Even when you were human, there was just no humanity in you at all.”
“You sound surprised, Margaret. We both know that your view of me wouldn’t have changed if you thought I had any humanity left. The Petrovas weren’t Hunters like you but I know how much I remind you of them, of yourself. I can see that you’re scared you’ll be just like me.”
I opened my mouth to argue but my phone buzzed suddenly, making me nearly drop it. ok, taking care of the distraction thing. crap part is now stefan knos that i told tyler. Said he wont tell damon but idk if i made a good choice. Help asap! Caroline had texted.
its fine. ill handle it l8er. b careful.
“So how much of your little story is true?” Elena finally demanded, getting to her feet.
“I have no reason to lie, Elena. I have no reason to do anything except sit here and read. And rot.”
“Okay, so even if it’s partially true. That’s the reason you came back, isn’t it? Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus.”
She slammed the book shut and slowly got up, using the wall as support. “Hmm. 500 years on the run I figured he’d be willing to strike a deal.”
“So you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone.”
“Right again.”
“What else is needed to break the curse? It’s not just me. Or the stone, is it? Otherwise there would be no reason to trigger Tyler Lockwood’s werewolf curse.”
“Witches and their spells. So many ingredients. So many people to sacrifice.”
“So you need a werewolf. What else?”
“A witch to do the spell. Mine bailed but little Bonnie will do just fine. Vampire.”
“Caroline,” Elena and I said simultaneously.
“It could have been anyone, I suppose, but I like the poetry of Caroline.”
“So you were just gonna hand us all over to be killed.”
“Better you die than I.” Katherine turned and retreated back into the dark tomb.
I rubbed my fingertips to my temples. “Okay, relax for a minute. Klaus doesn’t know that you’re here. If he does, we don’t even have the moonstone. Besides, Katherine can’t go anywhere anyway.” I knew that I was probably rambling but Katherine presenting most of my friends to be slaughtered was some heavy shit.
My phone started buzzing again. I barely glanced at the name and the words didn’t quite make sense because I was so distracted. Busted. Stefans gone and looking for Elena. Okay, so it was Caroline. I was about to relay the message to Elena but when the vampire in question walked in.
“Elena,” he said in relief.
“Stefan? What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
She sighed. “Caroline told you.”
“No, she kept your secret. But it didn’t take long for me to figure out what was so important that you’d have to keep it from me.”
“I knew that you’d stop me.”
“Listen to me. Whatever she said to you is a lie. Do not listen to her. She is a liar, Elena.”
“What if she isn’t?” Elena suddenly snapped. I could hear the desperation in her voice. “You didn’t hear what she said.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“That’s the problem. You won’t. You’ll die trying. How is that any better?”
I’d kept out of the conversation as long as I could. I rested my small hand on her shoulder but I felt sick to my stomach. “Elena,” I said gently. “You can’t think like that. You can’t be self-sacrificing. I won’t let you.”
Katherine slowly shuffled to the mouth of the tomb. “There’s nothing you can do. I haven’t even told you the best part of the story.
“I went back home to Bulgaria. When I got there, everything was destroyed. Everyone was dead. Even my mother. He killed them. My entire family. Just to get back at me for running.” Her voice was monotone but I could sense the strain that it took for her having to say it. “Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance. On your friends, your family, and anyone you’ve ever loved.”
“No. Don’t listen to her,” Stefan said quickly.
“Always the protector. But even you must realize that she’s doomed.”
“We’re not like your family, Katherine,” I said smugly. “We can protect her and ourselves. That list of people you were going to let be sacrificed? None of them are going to die because you brought this into our town.”
She ignored me, of course. “There’s nothing you can do to stop it. Unless of course, you had this.” She held up the moonstone.
Stefan went a little psycho. “That’s the ultimate lie, isn’t it? You spun this whole thing so that we would let you out of the tomb,” he accused. Okay, so maybe he did have a point. “Let me guess: you want to trade that stone for your freedom, you manipulative, psychotic bitch.”
“My freedom?” she laughed. “That’s where you’re wrong, Stefan. I don’t want my freedom. Because when Klaus shows up to kill us all- and he will- I’ll be in the tomb where no vampire will enter because they can’t get out. I’ll be the safest psychotic bitch in town.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” I said. “Sounds more like reverse psychology.” I didn’t even really buy what I was saying. If Katherine felt safer in the tomb than there was definitely a storm about to hit Mystic Falls.
Elena was pretty freaked out when Stefan dropped me off and went to take her home. I was still plenty pissed at Damon for everything but he had let me know that Elena was safe- even if he was hours late in doing that. I hopped on my bike and sped to the boarding house. I didn’t bother knocking or anything because I figured he would hear me anyway. I walked through the foyer and into the parlor. The fire was blazing and Damon sat in front of it half covered by a blanket and shirtless. A woman with short, pixie-cut brown hair sat with him. I cleared my throat awkwardly.
“Margaret. What are you doing here?”
“I had to talk to you.” I eyed the girl skeptically. “I take it that you’re Rose?”
“Um, yes.”
“Fabulous,” I replied sarcastically. I don’t know why I was so annoyed to see them together. I let out a huff and turned on my heel to go. Damon was in front of me in an instant. Well, at least he had pants on.
“What’s wrong? You wouldn’t come over here unless it had something to do with Elena.”
I shrugged and tossed my red mane away from my face. “It can wait until tomorrow.”
“I thought that you were leaving.”
I exhaled deeply. “That’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about. But it’s fine. I’ll tell you tomorrow. Meet me at the grill at 8-ish?”
“Yeah. Are you sure you don’t want to just stay.”
I glanced back to the girl in only a thin cami top. “I’m positive. It’s been a long day and I’m tired. I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow. ‘Bye, Damon.”
I walked away quickly, hating the uneasy feeling that was gnawing at the pit of my stomach.