Beyond the Blood

Chapter Three

Stephen paced around the room at the top of the boarding house, throwing pages this way and that in attempt to find something that might explain what he had seen that day. His hands fell on books, before throwing them to the floor in anger when it wasn't the right one. The mocking portrait sat upon on the bookshelf, almost laughing at his inability to find what he needed to answer the questions burning at his brain. Never in his wildest dreams, or nightmares had he supposed that this was even possible, never mind two -

- He heard the creak of the floorboard the second pressure was applied to it and he whirled around, his eyes dilating in shock at the sight that met him.

"Hello, brother" said the figure that stood just inside his open window that had been closed, and surely locked, only moments before. Stephen's every instinct was telling him to either attack the suave face that was presented to him, either that or get as far away from it as possible. He repressed both with a shudder.

"Damon" he said, his voice making it perfectly plain what he thought about the sudden apparition of his older brother.

"I see you decided to come back then," Damon said, moving away from the window and towards the beat up couch in the corner.

"As did you," Stephen replied coldly, wondering why his brother had to show up now, of all times. It was usually to cause some kind of trouble, whether his brother went, bad news followed.

"Ah, I just heard a few rumours as to why you might have come back," said Damon moving over the to the bookshelf where the portrait stood, "And I just had to see for myself"

Damon picked up the yellowing portrait that was sketched in charcoal and Stephen let out a hiss like a cat.

"Don't touch that," Stephen said

Damon laughed softly but put the portrait down anyway.

"So what did you think brother? Moving back and you'd get your second chance with Katherine?" he said mockingly, "She's not Katherine by the way"

"I know that," said Stephen sharply, unwillingly to be played the fool, "Katherine's buried"

Damon shrugged and turned away from the bookshelf and looked back at his brother.

"I met her today," said Damon, a sneer in every word he said, "Down by the bridge, out of breath from running from some imaginary beastie. She's really very pretty, took all my self-restraint not to just have a little taste…"

Stephen's hand clenched upon the book he was holding, his knuckles turning the colour of snow. He was, however, aware that Damon was only talking in the singular – perhaps he hadn't found out what Stephen had seen today?

"You won't touch her Damon," said Stephen roughly, wondering which of the Gilbert twins Damon had met today.

"Or what Stephen?" Damon asked, "We both know I'm stronger than you. You know, we could do it together! Can you imagine the taste and thrill of going to straight for Elena?"

This was too much for Stephen and we an animalistic growl from the depths of his throat he launched himself as his brother, meaning to smash that smooth face to oblivion. He was stunned when his hands met with simply air and it took all his effort not to overbalance and crash to the floor.

"Apparently I'm faster than you as well," said Damon's voice smoothly from beside the door, "Well we'll see anyway brother. You take care of yourself now"

And with that he was gone. Stephen knew he wouldn't have gone far, possibly only to his own room on the other side of the house. He just liked to play his tricks to leave Stephen as riled up and miserable as possible – well it was safe to say that he'd certainly achieved that. Now, on top of the mystery of what he'd seen today, he also didn't know which Gilbert girl Damon had had his encounter with. Whichever one it was, he didn't envy them.



Autumn closed the door with a snap behind her and turned to take her shoes off.

"Hey Autumn," said Aunt Jenna from the lounge where she was watching the news, "Where have you been? Elena got back ages ago"

"Oh yeah, sorry, I went to the cemetery and walked the long back over Wickery Bridge" Autumn said with an apologetic shrug.

"You went via Wickery Bridge and the road?" Aunt Jenna repeated, her face going white.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Autumn asked uneasily

"Oh Autumn! Have you not heard, there were two people attacked out there last night!" she said, her voice rising slightly.

"Attacked?" Autumn said blanching, "By what?"

"Animal attack" Jenna said gesturing towards the news that was showing the faces of two young people who were assumedly the victims.

"Are they okay?" Autumn asked moving into the lounge. Jenna shook her head, and made an unpleasant face.

"Oh," Autumn said and pulled a face that matched Jenna's, "Well it was daylight and stuff…"

"I'm pretty sure an animal isn't choosy when it comes to what time of day it is" Jenna said, "But anyway, let's not talk about it anymore. Just please, please don't go down there anymore until they've found and caught what's been doing it"

"Okay fine, but what about the party tomorrow?" Autumn said

"I doubt even the strongest animal in the world would target a party of over a hundred kids" said Aunt Jenna with a small smile, "Alright, well dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes, if you're heading upstairs would you mind telling Elena and Jeremy?"

"Yeah sure," Autumn said absently as she wandered up the stairs. She couldn't help but wonder about her experience in the cemetery today; she had felt so scared, it was as if her blood had turned to ice. But no animal could do that, right?

Her mind slid to the man she had met today and the fact that he had called her Katherine. Who was Katherine? She couldn't think of anyway called that who lived in Mystic Falls. Then again, she didn't know everyone who lived here so she was probably mistaken. Her mind drifted to what he had looked like; his angular face accentuated by his almost ebony hair, and the tight shirt that did almost nothing to hide the muscled body underneath. She giggled a little to herself, here she was thinking about how hot a stranger was, whilst she was supposed to be figuring out a mystery. Oh well, maybe the girls would know more about it later.

When they were just clearing away the dessert dishes about forty-five minutes later there came a clang of the doorbell and Autumn jumped up to let Caroline and Bonnie in.

"Hey Jenna!" said Caroline as she came bounding in with her usual bright smile. Bonnie followed behind her, a little more reserved.

"Hey girls, are you going upstairs?" Jenna asked

"Yeah," said Elena and then gestured to the dishes, "Is that okay?"

"Yeah it's fine, Jeremy can help me for once" Jenna said

Autumn heard a groan from the end of the table where my brother sat with his hood up.

"Alright, well thanks Aunt Jenna," she said and proceeded to shove Caroline up the stairs whilst Bonnie and Elena followed behind us.

They decided to go chill in Elena's room, considering that it would probably be infinitely tidier than Autumn's.

"Alright, Night of the Comet!" said Caroline excitedly, the minute the door had snapped shut behind them, "What's everyone wearing?"

"Oh Caroline," said Bonnie exasperatedly, "Why does it matter?"

"Because I want, most importantly, to make sure we're not wearing the same thing, and secondly that we're not going to clash" Caroline said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Alright, wouldn't this be more suited to something like the Founders Party?" Bonnie asked

"Well yeah, but we'll do it all again then!" Caroline said with a smile, "It's not going to take long, just humour me"

"Alright," Autumn said with a grin, "I'm going to wear the short red dress that I got about three weeks ago?"

"Oh yeah, I know that, teaming it with the boots right?" she said

"Right," Autumn said, "Gonna look particularly grungy"

"Not as grungy as Jeremy so that won't be an issue," said Elena from the end of the bed.

"True" Autumn said with a tinge of sadness in her voice at the thought of their brother, who was probably next-door by now, searching for his next hit.

Caroline could sense the conversation slipping off topic so she turned to Bonnie interrogate her about what she was wearing.

"A red dress, Autumn?" asked Elena whilst this was going on, "Isn't red a bit risqué?"

"Why?" Autumn asked, "It's just a summer dress, of sorts, there's nothing particularly risqué about it… and teamed with boots"

"I guess, for some reason I just pictured a ball gown," Elena said with a grin.

"Ha! That's more your area of expertise isn't it?" Autumn said, "Leave that for Miss. Mystic later in the year"

"Mmmm, are you going for that this year?" Elena asked, biting her lip.

"I figured," Autumn said with a shrug, "I mean mom did put both our names in"

"Oh yeah," Elena said with a shrug, "I meant nothing by it. Just wondering whether you were still intending to do it,"

"I don't see why not," Autumn said with a smile, and turned back to the others to save Bonnie from Caroline's questioning about what colour her toenails were going to be painted.

"I'll be right back," said Elena getting up and heading off in the direction of the bathroom.

"So, once she gets back I'll sort her out and then we can talk about dreamy Salvatore today at school," said Caroline with a grin, "Did you see the way he looked at me in history class?"

Autumn smiled at Caroline's enthusiasm, deciding not to mention the way he had looked at her, the horror in his hazel eyes. Caroline was like an over-excited puppy and she didn't want to be the one to kill the buzz.

"He is fairly gorgeous looking," said Bonnie with a smirk and then she shivered, "Hey Autumn, do you mind shutting the window, it's getting chilly in here"

She slid off the bed and headed to the window to close it, but just as her hand closed on the latch, a large black crow landed on the windowsill, causing her to let out a little shriek.

"What is it?" asked Caroline, assumedly looking over but seeing nothing because her back was blocking the view.

"Err, nothing, a bug landed on my hand," Autumn said still looking at the crow. She didn't know why she didn't tell Caroline, but something told her not to mention it. She could've sworn this was the same bird from earlier, and she couldn't believe that it was so close to her; normally a bird wouldn't dare get this close. It had its head tilted upward so that one beady eye was looking closely at her face and she couldn't help but stare back, captivated by its presence.

"What are you doing with that window?" asked Bonnie from the other side of the room, "Building it?"

"Sorry," Autumn said and made to shoo the crow away, but before she could do so it had flown off into the night, its inky black feathers swiftly becoming obscure in the darkness. She shut the window with a snap, closed the latch and turned back to the group just as Elena came back into the room.

"So, I'm quite excited about tomorrow," Autumn said, "Also, be nice to have a chance to get to know the new guy a bit better"

She smiled as the other three dissolved into chatter and she was able to slide back onto the bed, her time at the window drifting into obscurity at the back of their minds.