Beyond the Blood

Chapter Seven

When Stephen walked into the library he was met by an interesting sight; Damon, glass of whisky in one hand, a book in the other. His brother's brow was furrowed as he concentrated on the text in front of him. It wasn't exactly unusual to see Damon reading, he read quite a bit, but the look of rapt attention was something not often seen.

"What are you reading?" asked Stephen as he moved further into the library. He received no response from his elder brother so he moved around himself to the read the front cover.

"Really?" he asked, "I swear you've read that before?"

"I have" said Damon, not moving his eyes from the page, "A friend reminded me how good it was though"

"A friend?" asked Stephen, "You've actually made a friend?"

"Yup, sister to your little girlfriend," said Damon eventually looking up at his brother.

"Autumn?" asked Stephen surprised, "Since when?"

"Since the night of the comet," said Damon, "She interests me and there's something about her that I can't put my finger on – I like that"

"So basically she's a fascination for you?" asked Stephen with something close to a sigh.

"For now," said Damon, "I'd forgotten this book was so philosophical; the part about eternal return especially gets me. So what do you think Stephen, if your life is repeated over and over, is it meaningless?"

Stephen shook his head slightly, "Read, if you live forever?"

"Quite," said Damon and then smiled slightly, "Couldn't help but find it slightly ironic that Autumn was reading it"

"When did you meet her?" asked Stephen, dumping his school satchel on the floor next to the sofa.

"In the park yesterday," said Damon, "Whilst you were trying out for football"

"Are you seeking her out?" asked Stephen sitting down on the couch opposite his brother.

"And what if I am?" asked Damon, "As I just said, she interests me; I'm not going to hurt her,"

"Well just make sure you don't," said Stephen quietly.

"Or what, little brother?" asked Damon sticking his bottom lip out in a mock pout, "You'll brood at me?"

Stephen didn't rise to the bait, "No, I won't. But I will see you live to regret it. The Gilbert's have strong family ties, I will see you pay for it if you do"

Damon couldn't quite decide whether he was being serious or not, "Whatever, relax. I won't touch her,"

Stephen didn't say anything in return, he just shrugged his shoulders, "Talking of Gilbert family ties, for some reason, we have been invited to dinner tomorrow night"

"We?" asked Damon, surprised momentarily, "Oh okay,"

"Yeah apparently Jenna's planning a dinner with a few of friends of Elena, Autumn and Jeremy and apparently we fall into that remit"

Damon raised his eyebrows at his brother, "Okay, not complaining, just seems a little odd. Nice, but odd. People are very… accommodating in this town,"

Stephen once again ignored the jib, he knew that Damon had been responsible for the attacks on various people since he had arrived in the town. Part of him wanted to kill him for that, the other half restrained itself because of the brotherly bond they shared. As much as Damon pissed him off, there was something undeniable about family.

"Whilst your indiscretions haven't yet come back to bite us," said Stephen, "You will not bring them up to me again"

"Why are you being so damn overbearing today?" asked Damon, "Scared?"

"Well I don't know about you," said Stephen, "But I actually quite like it here; it's my home. I'd like to be able to stay for while, but if you keep killing everybody in sight then I won't get a chance"

"That's a little bit of an over-exaggeration," said Damon, "I don't kill everyone in sight"

Stephen rolled his eyes, "Whatever, just tomorrow be on best behaviour"

"I will, don't worry," said Damon holding his hands up, his thumb keeping the page in the book, "Are we done with our little bonding session now?"

Stephen didn't answer him, just got up and headed off upstairs, leaving Damon to his book.

^^^

Autumn had the job of helping Jenna lay the table the following evening, Jeremy and Elena somehow having wiggled out of it. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but seeing as there were about 80 people coming to dinner this proved to be something of an issue. Okay maybe not 80, but there was Damon, Stephen, Jenna, herself, Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie and Caroline – that was at least four extra places to lay.

She was secretly glad that Damon was coming, even if the invitation was a little out of the blue; she had enjoyed talking to him in the park yesterday and the memory of those blue eyes made her smile. She knew it was utterly stupid, she'd known him for all of a week and yet somehow she just wanted to spend more time with him. Something about him intrigued her.

"Is that alright, Jenna?" she asked after she had finished, "Do you need anything else?"

"No that's fine, I've got mushroom soup on the hob, the beef's in the oven… should be good to go!" said Jenna with a bright smile on her face, "Are you going to go get ready?"

"Why? Do you think I need to?" asked Autumn slightly sarcastically

"Not at all, you look beautiful just the way you are," said Jenna sweetly, "I just know that Elena was worrying about looking good for Stephen – what's going on between them by the way?"

Autumn chuckled to herself, "They're 'seeing each other', her words not mine"

Jenna laughed a little, "Well that's the way the epic love stories usually start – not"

Autumn shrugged, "I'll be down in a bit then, what time are they all coming by again?"

"Supposedly half seven," said Jenna, "But you know Caroline, she's usually early"

Autumn grinned before turning around and heading upstairs, vaguely wondering that if Elena was making an effort, whether she should to. She looked at herself in her bedroom and decided that she wasn't going to bother; she looked fine. This was dinner, not a formal.

She heard the doorbell ring about ten minutes later and grinned when she heard Caroline announce to Jenna that she had bought n bottles of wine and hoped that they would be allowed to share them out. Autumn almost heard Jenna think about it for approximately ten seconds before agreeing. Everyone at the table would be over sixteen and as long as they didn't have too much, she couldn't see the problem with it.

Autumn decided that now would be as good a time as ever to go down and wait for the rest of them.

"Hey Autumn!" said Caroline, "I love that top – have I seen it before?"

"I think so," said Autumn, looking down at the white lace top she'd paired with her pale blue skinnies.

"No effort, eh?" asked Jenna coming into the lounge and laying some nibbles on the table for people when they arrived.

"Well I thought I might at least change," said Autumn with the slightest hint of a blush.

"Oooh effort?" said Caroline, "Who for? Not for me, clearly, unless you've got something to tell me Autumn,"

"Not for anyone really," said Autumn with a shrug.

"Sure it's not your knight in shining armour?" asked Jenna, just as the doorbell rang again.

Autumn didn't reply just shrugged before calling after her aunt, "What's wrong with wanting to look nice?"

Obviously there was no reply as she heard male voices joining her aunt's in the hallway. They were joined in the lounge by Jenna, Stephen, and Damon a few moments later.

"Hi guys," said Caroline, "Nice to see you here"

"Nice of us to be invited," said Stephen with a nod in Autumn's direction.

"Well you're the new guys in town," said Autumn, "It's only fair, right?"

"Something like that," said Damon as Jenna went to the bottom of the stairs to holler at the others that our guests were here.

Bonnie appeared a few moments later, having let herself in, "Sorry I'm late,"

"You're not late," said Autumn going over to hug her, "Nice to see you – didn't see you in school today?"

"Oh yeah, grams kept me out today – she just wanted to spend the day with me," said Bonnie with a small smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Oh okay?" said Autumn, knowing there was more to that story. Elena and Jeremy joined them and they moved through to where the dining table was. Elena had done her hair so it was twisted up off her neck, showing off the white length of skin contrasting against her brunette hair. She looked really nice and Stephen definitely seemed to have noticed as he sat down on her right, his eyes sweeping over her face.

"So is it nice to be back in town?" asked Caroline as Jenna started to dish up starters, "How long were you away for?"

Stephen looked uncomfortable for a split second, Autumn didn't think that anyone else at the table had seen except her.

"I lived here when I was very little, but then moved away after our parents died. Damon and I agreed that after he'd finished college then we would move back here," said Stephen, "And that I'd transfer"

"What did you study in college, Damon?" asked Jenna

"Human biology," said Damon, "Always interested me at school, so I figured I'd carry it on – not sure what I'm going to do with it yet"

"Always the problem," said Jenna, "I'm doing a Masters in animal psychology at Duke – not sure what I'm going to do when that's over! Maybe a doctorate, just for the sake of continuing study"

"Why would you wanna stay in school for that long?" asked Jeremy, "I can't wait to get out"

"Ah, you think that now," said Jenna with a grin, "But when the big bad world comes up to bite you on the ass… right Damon?"

"True, you never know when it hits you," said Damon with a shrug

"My brother and his words of wisdom," said Stephen with a grin.

"Sounds like Autumn," said Bonnie looking over at her friend.

"What?" asked Autumn.

"You can be a bit emo when you want to be," said Bonnie with a smirk.

"I can not!" said Autumn, wondering why Bonnie was having a dig – especially after what had happened the other night, "When I have ever sounded emo?"

"And anyway, are you calling me emo?" asked Damon, calling Bonnie's bluff.

"No!" said Bonnie with a slight blush, "But Autumn, when you were talking about crows in the graveyard and such like"

"Yeah, well the setting lends to that tone, right?" said Elena, "You could hardly tell stories about graveyards and it not be slightly gothic sounding,"

Autumn grinned across at her sister, she could always count on her to stand by her, whether it was trivial, like now, or in more serious situations.

"But they don't want to hear that anyway," said Autumn, "They already know; it was where I first ran into Damon and mistook him for a tourist,"

"Whoops," said Jenna

"Yeah by the way, where did you go that day? I meant to offer you my apologies for being so rude but when I turned around you'd just gone?" said Autumn looking across at Damon.

"I'd parked my car around the corner," said Damon with a shrug, "And it was about to rain…"

Autumn shrugged, "I was just startled was all, one minute you were there, the next 'poof'!"

Damon grinned, his blue eyes lighting up somewhat as he did so, the piercing gaze never leaving hers. She looked away first.

As dinner progressed talk turned to families, with Damon and Stephen both expressing their regret at the passing of Elena, Autumn and Jeremy's parents. Autumn let it pass, it didn't seem too difficult talking about them anymore, in some ways she even enjoyed it, it brought their faces back to the forefront of her memory.

"Check out the picture of baby Elena… or Autumn – we still haven't figured out which!" said Jenna motioning behind Elena's head. Both girls immediately groaned in unison as the two guys turned to look, Elena had a blush creeping up her cheeks but Autumn managed to keep it under control.

"Jenna!" she said, "Can we not?"

"What?" asked her aunt innocently as Stephen laughed at the picture of one of the twins dressed up as a caterpillar, "You look cute!"

"Well it's fine," said Autumn, "Cause it's not me anyway,"

"It definitely is," said Elena, twisting around in her seat, "She's got the set of the chin, just like you,"

Autumn raised her eyebrow at her sister as the proclamation of a challenge.

"How come you're not together in that picture?" asked Caroline, looking across at it.

"Our parents didn't take many pictures of us together when we were babies," said Elena with a shrug, "Guess we were too difficult to get happy and smiling at the same time, only when we get a bit older are we in the same frame – it must have been easier then!"

"Something like that," said Jenna, "Your mom always did say it was hard work!"

"That's what my mother used to say," said Stephen with a smile, "And we weren't even twins…"

"Urgh, can you imagine – being the same as you?" asked Damon with a mock-grimace at his brother, his brother ignored him somewhat but Autumn felt a little ripple of tension between them.

Just at that moment the phone rang on the telephone table, causing Jenna to get up to go answer it.

"I see you have a piano," said Stephen looking over into the corner of the room, "Do you all play?"

"No," said Elena, "We all took lessons as kids but Autumn was the only one who kept it up. Our mom used to play too,"

"That's cool," said Stephen, "I used to play as well, but I gave it up"

"I haven't played in a while though," said Autumn apologetically, "I'm probably a little rusty,"

Jenna came back into the room, her face white.

"What's wrong Jenna?" asked Caroline, who noticed first.

"You know Vicky Donovan went missing last night?" asked Jenna shakily, "Or rather she didn't show up at school this morning? Well they found her. She'd been attacked by an animal along with three other people. They're dead, but somehow she survived. She's in the hospital now. They called here to tell us because they knew you guys are friends, and might know why Vicky was where she was in the first place"

There was immediate uproar at her words. Jeremy wanted to go to the hospital to see Vicky, Caroline wanted to go with him as she and Vicky were probably the closest. Bonnie and Elena were confused and in shock, Autumn was wondering aloud to them what sort of animal would attack a group of four people. Only Damon and Stephen were relatively quiet during the explosion of noise; letting the friends of Vicky figure out what they were going to do.

"Alright!" yelled Jenna over Jeremy's insistent shouting that he was going to the hospital whether she liked it or not, "I will drive Jeremy and Caroline to the hospital, Bonnie do you wanna stay here…?"

"No, I'll drive home and speak to my dad. As a warden he might know something," said Bonnie.

"Elena and Autumn, what are you going to do?" asked Jenna, already reaching for her car keys.

"I'll stay here," said Autumn, "We don't want to overcrowd things at the hospital"

"Yeah me too," said Elena, "We'll clear up,"

Jenna nodded and then turned to the brothers, "I am so sorry to ruin your evening like this guys,"

"It's fine," said Damon kindly, "It was very enjoyable up until the upsetting news,"

"Jenna, do you want us to stay here until you get back," said Stephen, "We can help the girls clear up and wait for news…?"

"That would be very kind of you – yes, Jeremy I am coming! -," said Jenna, "You don't have to do that,"

"It's the least we could do," said Stephen.

Jenna nodded and with that turned and left before Jeremy stole her keys and drove himself. Caroline and Bonnie disappeared swiftly after her leaving just the twins and the Salvatore brothers in the house.

"I hope Vicky's going to be okay," said Elena, "An animal attack? There seems to be have been a lot of those lately…"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," said Autumn, "At least they found her when they did,"

Elena had already stood up and walked away to start doing the dishes, but Autumn didn't miss the look that passed from Stephen to Damon. It wasn't just a look of annoyance; it was a look that conveyed a conversation between the brothers, because Damon's face went from his easy smile to a look somewhere between determination and anger.

Then Damon's eyes slid across and met hers and she quickly looked away, hoping that he hadn't caught her staring at the two of them.

"Are you guys coming to help or not?" came Elena's disembodied voice from the kitchen. Autumn jumped up, and picking up some of the glasses off the table, moved away to help her sister.