17. Troubles

            “It doesn’t look like a hunter made it,” Stefan said. He was fondling the stake. “It looks too…too—”

            “Too poorly made?” Damon butted in. He was sitting on the arm of the couch. I sat close to where Elena and I had found the stake.

            “Yes, something like that.”

            Elena and I had disrupted the boys’ conversation when they overheard me panicking about why there was a stake in the couch. I had been glad that Jeremy hadn’t come back yet from work. Still, he was going to find out eventually what we found.

            “What I’d like to know is how that got in this house,” Elena said, pacing in front of the empty fireplace. The sun was starting to set; I could see it on the floor. “Faith said it was there since last night.”

            “Last night?” Stefan probed. He looked to me for an answer.

            “The couch had felt uncomfortable since then,” I confessed. “I just thought it was a hard cushion.”

            “And nobody has any idea as to how it got there?”

            “No.”

            “None of this makes sense,” Elena sighed. “Ever since we moved in here, Faith has been feeling weak, she tried to kill Damon last night, and now we find a stake in the couch! We’re missing something.” She messed with her hair as she continued pacing.

            “You don’t feel weak now, do you?” Damon asked me.

            “I feel fine,” I lied. I wasn’t weak, just paranoid beyond belief. When were these hunters ever going to stop? Wait, I knew the answer to that. Never—they were never going to stop!

            Our heads snapped to the doorway. Even Elena stopped her pacing to stare. Jeremy was back. He stopped as he searched each of our faces. His brown eyes found the stake in Stefan’s hands.

            “What’s going on?” Jer asked.

            “We’re not sure,” Elena huffed. “Faith attacked Damon last night, she’s been having weak moments, and now we found a stake in the couch.”

            “Did she go after him with a stake?”

            “No, we just found this—or Faith and I did, at least.”

            “Whose is it?”

            “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Stefan murmured. He turned the stake in his hands. “There aren’t any marks. I don’t think this is a hunter’s work. There’s no symbol or anything on it.”

            Elena, Stefan, and Damon all turned their heads in separate directions. Jeremy and I looked at the vampires, confused. Did they hear something—like Stefan had earlier when we were out walking?

            It happened so fast that I almost missed it. One minute, everything was quiet, and the next, chaos erupted. Something shot through the window, breaking the glass, exploding into gas. Everybody started coughing; a few screams of pain rang out. I nearly fell to the floor from the stench. Just by the smell, we all knew what this meant.

            The hunters had found us.

            More glass shattered, and I heard feet thumping along the floor. Hissing erupted, following some grunts and battle cries. As I tried to focus despite the coughing and dizziness, I saw that Brooke and Chase had decided to join us tonight. Brooke lunged for me, but I ducked and she flew over me, landing onto the ground. I jumped on her, wrestling for the stake she had in her hand.

            I yelped as a strong hand grabbed my throat and ripped me off Brooke. Chase, I thought immediately. I kicked him in the legs, trying to get him off me so I could grab Brooke. She was getting up now, going for Jeremy. She aimed for his head, but Jer moved out of her way.

            Chase was ripped from me, tossed into the fireplace. I nodded to Damon, thanking him. I could see he was burned slightly. I headed for Brooke, knowing Damon would be fine. They looked to be minor anyway, the burns.

 Intense pain suddenly crippled me; it felt like I was burning inside. I screamed, grabbing my stomach, collapsing to the floor. I wasn’t the only one in pain.

            Elena, Stefan, and Damon all were crying out. I squinted my eyes shut so I couldn’t tell why they were in pain. I could hear Brooke and Jeremy continue to fight it out. I forced my eyes open—tearing from the vervain gas bomb—to see Jer get knocked in the face with the stake.

            Brooke was in killer mode as she continued to go after Jeremy. I tried to get up, but my internal pain subdued me. The most I could do was crawl along the ground.

The vampires’ screams drowned out my own. I stole a look at Elena, who had her hands on her temples—like she was having a massive migraine or something. If she, Stefan and Damon were all like that…

The witch. He was using magic to make them hurt, like me. There was no way vervain was making us all act this way. Whatever James was doing was effective, but lucky for us Chase was knocked out—because Brooke was too preoccupied with Jeremy to really stake any of the vampires in the house.

            Somehow I got the strength to stand, but I nearly wanted to fall back down again, screaming. Brooke had gotten Jeremy right in the heart with a stake. I screamed, not bothering to hold back. Jeremy stood there in shock, looking at the stake in his chest, and then his body fell to the ground. It was like Trevor’s death all over again, only this time it was family that just got killed.

            Brooke towered over her kill, her shoulders heaving. That bitch was going to get it. No matter how much pain I would end up in, I’d take her down. She was not going to get away with killing Jeremy.

Despite the searing pain I felt, anger burned within my veins. I forgot I was in pain; my mind was now driven to end that bitch’s life. With a hoarse battle cry, I knocked into Brooke, crashing her into and out the door, tumbling into the woods. The sun was halfway gone already.

            Brooke threw me off her. I staggered to my feet while she nimbly sprung back onto hers. She had a stupid smirk on her face. She charged, I mirrored her. I tucked myself in, knocking into her gut. I heard the air leave her lungs as she and I moved a few feet. I crushed her against the ground. She tried pulling on my hair, trying to throw me down on the ground. I yelled, clawing, punching anything I could of her.

            We cat fought until she backhanded me, making me fall to the ground. Her hands snatched my throat. I struggled for breath. Brooke cackled.

            “You were a waste, anyway. No use in keeping you around when we found the nest,” she crooned, her fingers squeezing my throat harder. I coughed.

            I wanted to call out for help, but I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t have enough air.  

            But it wasn’t like I needed to call out anyway. When Damon said that no hunter was going to get me ever again, I had no doubts that he was one hundred percent serious about it.

            With blinding speed, Brooke was launched off me. I sputtered; sitting up, blood returning to my body. I heard her whimpering. I didn’t feel my pain return, so whatever James had done to me and the vampires had stopped. No wonder Damon was able to be in top shape again.

            “Go on. Go ahead, kill me!” Brooke screeched. “There are more of us! You can’t kill us all!”

            “Oh, I’m sure we could,” Damon crooned. I heard Brooke let out a strangled gasp. What was he doing to her? I didn’t dare myself to look; I’d have an eerie sense of déjà vu that I didn’t want to experience anytime soon. “Now, I know you did something to Faith. What did you do to her?”

            “Like I’m going to tell a leech like you?” Brooke snickered. I heard her hiss. “I’d rather die before I tell you anything.”

            “Suit yourself.”

            There was an awful ripping sound, and something fell to the ground. I inhaled deeply, prepping for the worst. Immediately, my eyes widened and I scooted against the nearest tree. This beat out Trevor’s death by quite a bit.

            Brooke’s limp body was in an odd position. Her neck wasn’t snapped. Damon towered over her, heaving with a deep sense of satisfaction. I blanched and nearly puked at what was in his hand—Brooke’s heart: fresh, dead, and bloody.

            I looked away, covering my mouth. That image was burned into my brain already; there was no time to tell myself to erase it.

            “Faith.” Stefan’s voice made me look at him. He didn’t look bloody, he had been burned like Damon had, but the burns were practically invisible. He grabbed my arms gently. “Just breathe. Don’t look, okay?”

            I nodded absently. I still felt uneasy with a murder scene close to me. Apparently keeping away from violence wasn’t an ability of mine. I always seemed to be around death lately, ever since my parents’ deaths…

            Death. Murder. Jeremy, I remembered. Forgetting the queasy feeling in my stomach, I got to my feet and dashed into the house. I didn’t hear Stefan try to come after me, and even if he did, he would’ve easily stopped me by now. I was human after all, and I couldn’t outrun a vampire.

 Elena wasn’t around. Jeremy still lay on the floor, stake still stuck in him. Tears welled in my eyes as I slowly approached him. I should’ve moved away from his lifeless body, but I felt the odd need to comfort him even though there was no point in trying.

            I kneeled beside him, pulling half of him onto my lap. I sobbed, burying my head into his hair. First my parents, then Aunt Jenna, and now Jeremy. I blamed myself for this. I couldn’t blame myself for Mom and Dad’s deaths, or Aunt Jenna’s. I could have saved Jeremy. I could have acted quicker to help him take on Brooke, but I didn’t.

            An unexpected sound made me jump: a cough. It wasn’t from Elena, and it wasn’t from Stefan or Damon either. Jeremy.

How was that possible?

 I looked at my younger cousin in shock and awe. I saw his arm twitch and his eyelids blink. I gasped, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest and run away in fear.

            “How—how—?” I stammered, my arms now quaking. Jeremy looked at me, then down at the stake in his chest. How was he breathing?

            I cringed when Jer yanked the stake out of him, leaving a bloody hole. It could be worse, I thought positively. It didn’t sound like much of a positive thought, though.

            I realized now that I didn’t have to feel guilty for Jeremy dying, because he was somehow alive.

            I didn’t know how I didn’t faint at the sight of this. I didn’t see why it shocked me so much. After all, I had seen murder. I had seen people die, and I was part of a supernatural world now. You would think that nothing would surprise me at this point.

            “How much did I miss?” Jer croaked to me. I looked at him, startled. His brows creased with concern. “What’s wrong, Fay?”

            “You—you were dead,” I blurted. “I saw Brooke stake you! You were just dead minutes ago, and now you’re—you’re alive.” I pursed my lips. “Are you sure you aren’t a vampire, Jer?”

            “No, I’m not.” He chuckled. “I’ve just got luck on my side.” He showed me a ring on his finger. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been killed and brought back to life by this ring. It’s saved me.”

            “You have a ring that makes you immortal? When were you going to tell me this?” I groaned, smacking him on the back of his head gently. 

            “Sometime soon.” Jeremy shrugged.

            “I should invest in one of those.”

            “Eh, you probably shouldn’t. Just because it saves your life doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with a price.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “Maybe when the chaos dies down, I’ll tell you.”

            “Good, Jeremy’s up,” Elena called as she came from a hallway. Jeremy and I gazed at her. “What’s the report?”

            “I killed the she-hunter,” Damon piped, strutting into the open threshold, Stefan right behind him. I couldn’t look at Damon right now, not after the image I had seen. “Where’s the other one?”

            “I have him locked up,” Elena sang. “Maybe we’ll get something out of him. Did you get anything out of the girl?”

            “No,” I mumbled. “Damon killed her before she could answer.”

            “Hey, she said she’d rather die than tell me anything, so I made her wish come true,” Damon snapped lightly at me.

            “And the witch?” Stefan prompted Elena, ignoring Damon and me bickering.

            “Couldn’t find him. He probably realized he was outnumbered and ran for it.”

            “Typical. All the magic in the world, yet they tuck their tails and run the other way when they’re outnumbered,” Damon sniggered. “If I had caught him, I could’ve made him squeal.”

            “Oh please,” Elena muttered.

            After the shock wore off on me—knowing that James was still on the loose, Brooke was dead, and Chase was a captive in the house—we all did cleanup duty. I couldn’t hang in long enough; I had been hit with fatigue. I lounged in the leather chair while everyone else cleaned up the damage dealt today. I closed my eyes but had a hard time keeping them shut—terrible images flooded my brain whenever I tried to doze off.

            I hadn’t realized I had successfully napped until I heard the soft crackling of fire. I jolted awake, blinking my droopy eyelids. Noises from outside were louder due to the broken window that would definitely get repaired soon. I stared dully at the flames. It didn’t feel cold in here…maybe because I was closer to the fire than the window.

            I shrugged myself into an upright position, yawning. I shuffled to my feet only to plop right in front of the fire, letting it hug my body. I wondered where everyone was. Nobody had come to check in on me yet.

            I heard something being poured behind me. Somebody was in the room with me. The bottle of wine was set next to me while Damon sat beside me. I didn’t look at him, I stared at the fire.

            “In a celebratory mood?” I teased grimly.

            “A little,” he retorted before taking a swig. I rolled my eyes. This was the side I had yet to see from Damon—the alcoholic. “I figured you wanted something in your system.” He placed a wineglass filled with red wine in my hands. I stared down at it.

            “I don’t drink,” I said flatly.

            “Have you ever tried it?”

            “No.”

            “Just take a small taste.”

            “Is there a reason you brought this out here besides your joyous mood?”

            “I figured you might want to drink away your problems.”

            “Wow, and you know I don’t drink,” I huffed.

            “Actually, you didn’t tell me that, but now I know. Just drink one; it’ll make you feel warm.”

            “The fire already does that. Why are you so insistent on making me drink, anyway? Are you hoping to get something out of it later tonight?”

            “You’re snippy tonight.”

            “I’m exhausted, Damon, mentally—and slowly, physically.” My nails tapped against the glass. “All this is happening so fast—I’m barely having time to grasp all this!”

            “That’s why wine will help you relax,” he said smoothly. His fingers skimmed my neck, I shied away. “That’s a first for you.”

            “That’s the hand you performed heart surgery with,” I whispered, looking down at the wine in my hands. “I’d prefer to not have it touch me.”

            “I washed it,” he said in a playful, defensive tone. “Or are you afraid that someone will see?”

            “I’m actually not concerned about that at the moment,” I realized. “Speaking of everybody else, where are they?”

            “Interrogating our prisoner.”

            “Any luck?”

            “None so far. Don’t worry, we don’t think his hunter buddies will try and spring him anytime soon. We’ll have enough time with him to get what we want from him.”

            “What if he tries to kill himself before then?”

            “There’s no way he can. He’s stuck in a cell in our basement.”

            This made me look at Damon. “W-what did you just say?” I swallowed.

            “We have a cell hotel in our basement.”

            “I didn’t know that.”

            “Now you do.” He smiled at me.

            I looked down at the wine. My throat was a bit dry. Sighing through my nostrils, I took a sip. My face scrunched up. Ugh, such a sour taste! Wine had to be an acquired taste, because there was no way I was drinking this—not unless it had something else in it to make it more tolerable.

            “How can you drink this?” I whimpered. “It’s horrible.” I handed over the glass full of wine over to Damon. He sat it down on the side opposite him.

            “You get used to it.” There was a small silence between us. “Do you think you’ll be okay tonight?”

            “I don’t know,” I said honestly, shrugging. A small pop came from the fire, drowning out the noises of outside.

“I’m hoping that what happened last night was a onetime thing.”

            “I think we all are.” I wrung my hands. “What if it does happen again? What can we do?”

            “Well, Stefan, Jeremy, Elena, and I can start by not trying to hurt or kill you if you do that again,” Damon listed. ‘Then there’s the matter of restraining you and snapping you out of it.”

            “And what if I can’t be snapped out of it?”

            “We just have to hope the restraints hold up.” He shrugged. I yawned. “You can take my bed for tonight. You shouldn’t be stuck to the couch.”

            “Are you sure?”

            “Of course I am.” He slipped a hand through mine. This was the first time we had actually held hands. “It’s time you got an upgrade.”

            “I’ll take the upgrade on one condition.”

            “Oh? What’s that?”

            “You carry me to bed.” I carefully leaned against his arm, warmth spreading all over my body.

            “That’s got to be the wine talking, and you only had a taste.” He chuckled.

            With ease, Damon picked me up bridal style. Being in his arms felt strangely right. It was odd, because I wasn’t afraid of Damon anymore like I used to be. At the time, I had had reason to—he had looked suspicious, like Trevor. The only difference between him and Trevor was that Damon hadn’t tried to murder me, and what was going on between us was something real.

            But I still had to be wary of Damon at times, what with the actions I saw him commit. However, both actions I saw were to save my life.

            I didn’t feel like I was in a house full of vampires, excluding Jeremy. To me, they were still human. They acted so much like me that if the hunters hadn’t come back and tried to attack us anymore, I would’ve possibly forgotten what I was living amongst, what world I was actually living in.

            Once Damon set me on my feet, he disappeared to the basement to help with the questioning. I shuddered, remembering him saying that the house had cells in the basement. How old was this place? I stared at the bed, sighing.

            I wondered what actions tonight would bring for me in the morning.

**Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Brooke. Not a good death. But it proved something: Damon was true to his word.**