Beyond the Blood

Chapter Eight

"You are such a fucking idiot," said Stephen the second he and his brother were safely in the car on the way home, having waited for Jenna and Jeremy to get back from the hospital. Jenna had thanked them profusely for staying, even if Elena and Autumn technically didn't need 'looking after', the support was beyond invaluable.

'Thanks for the heads up," said Damon, his eyes on the road in front of him, "I didn't know she was still alive,"

"I can't decide which part of that sentence is more disgusting," said Stephen, anger etched onto his face, "That we're in this mess because you attacked one of their friends or because you thought you left an innocent girl dead."

"I didn't know she was their friend," said Damon with a nonchalant shrug, "She just looked like another stoner kid to me – and I was hungry, you know how it goes"

Stephen would've punched him if it weren't for the fact he was driving the car and there were other vehicles on the road. He didn't want to cause a fatal accident.

"No I don't know how it goes, Damon," said Stephen after repressing the urge to kill his brother.

"Don't worry about it," continued Damon, ignoring his brother, "I'll sort it out,"

"You're not going to kill her," said Stephen, "Compel her to forget"

Damon rolled his eyes, "So much messier and more potential for mistakes"

"She's their friend Damon," Stephen reiterated, "You can't kill her! Do you know how suspicious this looks already?"

"I know," said Damon with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes, "How many more excuses d'you think they can come up with?"

"Damon, you're playing with fire!" said Stephen angrily, "You know what happened before – we cannot risk that again,"

"It's not going to happen again," said Damon, "Katherine got reckless… and she paid for it. Maybe."

There was brief beat as Stephen registered what he'd said, "Maybe? What do you mean?"

Damon didn't answer as he turned into the Salvatore driveway, "Nothing."

"What are you hiding from me?" asked Stephen, his eyes widening as he looked over at his brother.

Damon shrugged as he parked the car, "Being alive for so long – you hear so many things brother,"

Stephen narrowed his eyes at his brother, but knew due to Damon's intensely stubborn nature that he wouldn't be getting anything more out of him unless he forced it, or until Damon was ready to tell. He didn't know whether it was worth the energy, with everything else that was already going on.

Damon parked up the car and got out, walking towards the front porch and then into the house, Stephen trailed behind him, musing on his words.

"Speaking of our little Katherine lookalikes, what did you think about tonight?" asked Damon heading straight for the whisky. He always did enjoy his after dinner drink.

"What do you mean?" asked Stephen moodily, still unwilling to be nice to his brother after what he'd just said about Vicky Donovan.

"The picture thing," said Damon, taking a sip of the golden liquid in the crystallized glass, "I thought it was a little odd"

Stephen tried to keep his face totally blank, musing on whether he should tell his brother what he knew about the Gilbert twins, or rather didn't know. Then again, if he didn't, would he just attempt to figure it out himself – with who knew what consequences?

Damon's eyes were locked on his face and Stephen realised that he'd figured out he was holding something back.

"What?" asked Damon, demanding he spit it out.

"Well you know after the car crash?" said Stephen, "And I told you that I was interested in Elena because of how she looked?"

"Yes," said Damon, wondering where this was going, but interested nonetheless.

"Well I did a bit of digging," said Stephen, "Because she looked so much like Katherine that I thought it was beyond coincidence. I found that Elena was… adopted"

"Adopted?!" asked Damon's eyes flying wide open, "But Katherine died without children right?"

"Well we always assumed that, we never actually knew," said Stephen with something of a shrug, "Elena could be a distant descendant"

Damon paused for a moment, looking back across at his brother, "Wait… you said Elena was adopted? What about Autumn?"

"That's the thing," said Stephen, thrusting his hands into his pockets, "There was nothing about Autumn at all. That's why I was so surprised on the first day of school when I saw them both there. For a minute I thought it was Katherine, but swiftly realised it wasn't…"

"So Autumn wasn't there at all?" asked Damon, just to be doubly sure.

"Nothing on the records," said Stephen with a shrug, "When I looked I surmised that Elena must be part of Katherine's bloodline… but I have no idea where Autumn fits into that,"

Damon narrowed his eyes very slightly before drinking the last of his whisky and placing the glass down on the sideboard. He looked as if was chewing something over, before he clearly decided to divulge whatever it was.

"I saw something the other night," he said, looking across at Stephen once again, "When I went to the window"

"Oh?" asked Stephen

"It was when Autumn and that Bonnie girl were alone," said Damon, wondering how to phrase what he'd seen, "Autumn woke up and Bonnie went to comfort her, but the second they touched she was thrown backwards. And I don't mean in a shock sort of way, I mean in a right-across-the-room type of way,"

Stephen didn't say anything for a moment as he digested this information, before speaking again, "So what are you saying?"

"I don't know Stephen!" said Damon, "That's the point – I have no idea. But that's why I'm interested in her; the fainting, the feeling I get from her, the thing with Bonnie, and now what you've just told me as well. There's something go on with her, I just don't know what it is"

"Could she be a witch?" suggested Stephen

Damon shrugged, "I don't think so. I don't know why – she doesn't give off that vibe unlike Ms. Bennett"

Stephen nodded slightly, "And if she was, they would probably recognise each other as akin?"

"Probably," said Damon, "I have no idea how that witchy voodoo works, I don't even know if Bonnie has figured it out yet"

"Well, she will soon if she's getting thrown about by..," said Stephen and then paused.

"Precisely… by what?" asked Damon, before sighing slightly, "Well at least it gives me an excuse to stick around for a bit longer,"

Stephen shrugged in resignation, knowing better than to argue with his brother when he was onto something.

"Right, well you sort out the Vicky mess – I'm going to bed," said Stephen turning away from his brother, "Oh, and try not to kill anyone on the way to the hospital"

A derisive snort came from his brother as he left the library behind him. Damon watched his brother go dispassionately; he could be so judgey sometimes, just because he lived the life of a vampire saint – most of the time anyway. Damon turned back to the fireplace, glancing at the flickering flames before him.

He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was about Autumn that he felt. When he'd touched her it was like an ultimate radiation of life, a power inside that seemed to just breathe existence, a total vitality that he had never felt before; not from a witch, not from another vampire, and certainly not from a human. It almost made him feel alive again it was that powerful. Secretly he wanted to feel that again. It wasn't the only reason he wanted to be around her; he liked her smile – the way it turned up at the corner in small, reserved picture of happiness, as opposed to her sister's total radiate smile that hide nothing of her thoughts.

If Elena was an open book, with pages written about her openness, her truthfulness and her kindness, then Autumn was a locked diary, with the script written in code. Damon didn't think this lessened Elena, it just made her totally different. They both had a purity to them, Elena on what she projected out, Autumn because of something deep within.

Damon shook his head, he had stuff to get on with and couldn't spend the entire night perplexing about the twins. Or maybe not twins after what Stephen had told him tonight – that was another mystery, or maybe the key to the first; where had Autumn come from?

^^^

Autumn wasn't sleeping either. She was lying awake in her bed staring at the ceiling, thoughts and feelings whirring through her brain. It was completely dark, bar the moonlight peeking in through the crack in her curtains.

She didn't know why she couldn't sleep, her brain just didn't seem to want to switch off. She was thinking about the events of the evening, or rather the previous evening as it was now creeping towards 2am. Her mind kept drifting back to all the encounters she had had thus far with Damon, the first time at the bridge when he disappeared, as if into thin air. The second time, at the party when he had looked after her, the look he'd given her when she'd told him her name. The time in the park, when they'd talked about literature and life, making her lose track of the seconds on the clock. And tonight, when they'd shared a glance across the table, his interest in her family history, and the way he and Stephen had stayed after the news about Vicky broke.

Then her mind moved over to Vicky – caught up in an animal attack out in the forest. There had been a lot of those lately, and apparently the sheriff and the gamekeepers were no closer to finding out what was doing it than a few weeks ago. Some people said mountain lion, others said actual lion – whatever was doing it, she hoped they caught it fast. At least Vicky was alive and safe in hospital, where no more harm could come to her. Autumn had never been that close to Vicky, but she was glad that she was going to be alright - even if only for Jeremy's sake.

She rolled over and closed her eyes, attempting to shut the events of the last two weeks out of her mind, just so she could get a few hours of shut-eye. Thankfully, within a few minutes the edge of sleep was creeping up on her, as if the sense of lethargy was creeping from her fingers all over her body. Just as she was about to fall over of the abyss of sleep she saw a flash of blue eyes in front of her vision. Less than a split second and then she was gone.

Her dreams were troubled that night. Dark shapes on the edge of her vision, leaning over faceless people, their necks exposed to the sharp whiteness of teeth, before fading into obscurity. She awoke at dawn, a small frown on her face, her dreams slipping away like sand through her fingers.