caught in a lie

"WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?" Athena looked up at Jeremy as he walked back into the study, looking at Mason Lockwood's blood-stained shirt warily.

"I thought I found something in Ric's box of stuff,"

Damon drops the hot poker that was in his hand, brows raising at Jeremy's apparent findings. "What is it?"

"I did a search on my phone. It's a plant, Aconitum Vulparia."

Athena narrows her eyes at Jeremy but shifts her gaze back to Mason to gauge his reactions.

"It grows in the mountainous areas of the northern hemisphere, commonly known as Aconite, Blue Rocket, and–"

"Wolfsbane," Athena mutters, earning two looks from Damon and Jeremy that she shrugs off. "My dad told me about it when I was little because I had an obsession with werewolves. Didn't know they'd end up being such dicks, though."

Jeremy shifts, looking at Athena. "Well, do you know anything about it? Every search I did said something different, so,"

She rolls her shoulders back, looking down at Mason as he grimaces his way through the pain and does his best to hide his reactions to their new information. "It's like vervain for vampires, it's toxic. A little bit burns, and a little more will kill them."

She holds her hand out for the wrapped wolfsbane that Jeremy had taken from Alaric's things. "Let me see it,"

The boy hands it off to her, and she holds it in her hands, examining the flower-like substance closely. Her dark gaze shifts upwards, and she looks at Mason from beneath her dark lashes watching the werewolf writhe in pain.

"Why is Katherine in Mystic Falls?"

Mason clenches his teeth and Athena drags the tip of the wolfsbane plant against his cheek, watching a trail of welted skin form in its wake. "Why is she here?"

"She's here with me," Mason's eyes shot to where Damon was standing beside her. "Why do you ask, you jealous?"

Athena scoffs, stepping in front of Damon to stop him from lunging. "If anyone should be jealous, it's you, Mason. Katherine's not exactly loyal, you know."

Confusion fills the man's eyes for a moment before he pushes it away, but Athena doesn't miss it. Suddenly smiling, Athena tilts her head down at the werewolf. "Damon, we've been awfully rude to our guest, haven't we? We haven't even offered him anything to eat,"

Athena crumples the wolfsbane in her hand and wrenches Mason's jaw open with her free hand, shoving the toxic plant into his mouth forcibly. Mason yells out, choking around the plant, and Athena steps away from him as he tries to spit it out.

Damon steps around Athena, his frustrations curbed at the sight of the werewolf's pain. "Why do you want the moonstone?"

"Screw you!"

"Eh!" Damon makes a buzzer noise with his mouth, his blue eyes hardening. "Wrong answer."

"If he was going to say anything, he would have already," Jeremy stops Damon in his stride towards the werewolf, making Athena shoot him a warning glare.

Damon ignores the kid, leaning down with another handful of wolfsbane. "I'm taking your eyes next,"

Mason holds his head back as far as he can from the wolfsbane. "The well! You can find it there."

"We already know that," Athena kneels, narrowing her eyes at the man. "We want to know what it does– and why you want it."

Mason shakes his head. "I'm getting it for Katherine,"

"Why?" Damon inquires.

"She's gonna use it to lift the curse,"

"Of the moon?" Athena echoes incredulously. "There's no way that's a real thing! And why would a vampire help a werewolf break a curse that keeps them from turning whenever they want?"

Mason spits out another mouthful of wolfsbane. "So I wouldn't have to turn anymore,"

"Why?"

"Because she loves me!"

Athena scoffs, a short laugh leaving her as she turns to face the fireplace. Damon echoes the sound, his one of incredulous understanding. The vampire turns and faces Athena, the two having a conversation with just a look.

"He's delusional,"

"He's stupid," Damon corrects, an amused look in his eyes as he faces the werewolf again. "Katherine doesn't love you, she's using you, you moron."

Mason shakes his head stubbornly, the hurt in his eyes proving that Katherine Pierce had sunk her fangs into yet another innocent bystander for her sake. "I'm done talking."

"Yes, you are," Damon nods in agreement, handing the wolfsbane in his hand back to Jeremy. "Time to take a walk, Jeremy."

"I'm staying,"

Athena shakes her head. "You need to leave,"

"I'm staying," Jeremy looks at them stubbornly. "He's had enough."

Mason cranes his neck back to look at Jeremy, resigned to his early fate at the hands of Athena and Damon. "Just help Tyler. Don't let this happen to him."

The teenager looks pleadingly at Damon and Athena. "Guys,"

In a blur, Damon has Jeremy pinned with a hand around his neck. "You want to be a part of this? Well, here it is. Kill or be killed. The guy's a werewolf, he'd kill me the first chance he got! So you suck it up, or leave."

Damon lets go of Jeremy, leaving the teenager to cough and choke for air on the couch.

Athena heaves a sigh, taking a regrettable amount of pity on Jeremy. "He wants us to kill him anyway. Don't you, Mason?"

"It really is a curse, isn't it?"

Jeremy grits his teeth and storms out of the room, leaving Damon and Athena standing before Mason.

"You know, I look at you and I see myself. A less dashing, less intelligent version," Damon amends, rolling his eyes slightly.

"I love her," Mason chokes out, his eyes glassy.

"Oh, I know! I've been where you are. But Katherine will only rip your heart out," He leans down to meet the man's eye. "Let me do it for her."

Mason grunts in surprise as Damon punches a hand into his chest, wrapping it around his beating heart. Athena's eyes widen briefly, but she rolls her shoulders back with a sigh as Damon rips his heart out and steps back as the werewolf slumps over in the chair, finally free of his torment in every way.

──────

Athena grunts as she bends down, lifting one side of Mason's body where it's wrapped in the cloth that had been on the floor. Her eyes widen as she and Damon stand up straight, falling to Stefan as he walks into the house with Caroline behind him heading straight for the basement where Liz is.

Carelessly, she drops Mason's body, and Damon grunts, giving her a look of irritation she ignores as she rushes towards Stefan.

Her hands cup his cheeks and she looks him up and down, brows furrowing worriedly. "Where have you been? What happened?"

Stefan gently takes her hands in his own, smiling down at her. "It's alright, I'm okay now. There was some trouble getting the moonstone, but it all worked out."

Athena's furrowed brows deepen into a frown and she looks at him confusedly. "What happened?"

"The well was full of water, but when I got down there it was all vervain," Stefan winces as he remembers the excessive burns that had riddled his body. "I guess Caroline and Elena had been nearby and heard me yelling, so they helped Bonnie get me out of the well."

"Do you have the moonstone?" Damon questions from behind them, and Athena shoots him a brief look that he waves off.

Stefan nods, pulling it from his pocket and throwing it to Damon who catches it mid-air. "All that trouble for this?"

Stefan sighs, nodding his head.

"How'd you heal so fast?"

Stefan furrows his brows, looking down at Athena. "What?"

"You just said you were fully submerged in vervain, but you're fine now,"

The vampire's eyes widen briefly, but he quickly schools his reaction and shrugs his girlfriend's questioning off. "I stopped before I came home, I figured I couldn't exactly get through town with third-degree burns all over me."

Athena hums, flicking her gaze away shortly to hide her suspicion. Sighing, she turned her back to Stefan and trailed back over to Mason's body.

"I see you two exercised your usual restraint,"

Damon shrugged his brother's comment off as he grabbed Mason's keys, phone, and wallet off the ground. "Of course," He shot a quick text to Carol Lockwood, explaining his sudden disappearance, but his eyes shot to an unsaved number in the call log.

"Last number dialed, I wonder who that could possibly be,"

"No, no, no, don't provoke her," Stefan rushes at Damon, who lunges out of his grasp as the number begins to ring.

Athena huffs a laugh at their immaturity, but her eyes follow Damon as the other line picks up.

Damon smirks as he smacks Stefan's hand away. "Wrong boy toy,"

There's a slight pause as Katherine replies, most likely with something just as sarcastic as Damon. "He's right beside me. Although his heart's across the room."

Athena winces as she recalls the unbeating heart Damon had thrown in the fireplace as Stefan shakes his head, exasperated with his brother's actions.

"I've had a very busy day today. Killed a werewolf, and found a moonstone. Hey, did you know that he hid the moonstone in the bottom of a well full of vervain? Guess he didn't trust you very much," Damon shrugs. "Although he did love you, poor guy. Hey, where are you, 'cause, you know, I could bring him over. Last goodbyes and all that."

Stefan crosses his arms over his chest, awaiting a volatile response to yet another one of Katherine's threats.

"Awh, did I put a kink in your master plan? I'm so sorry."

Slowly, Damon's face falls and he hangs up the phone with a clenched jaw.

"What? What did she say?"

Damon shakes his head with a sigh at Athena. "The usual. She's got another plan, and she's warning you to stay away from Stefan."

Rolling her eyes, she bends down and kicks off her heels, flat feet falling silently on the carpet. "Well, we were one step ahead of her today, and that's a small victory if anything. Without Mason to do her bidding, her manipulation pool got smaller."

"She won't give up," Stefan mutters, frustration tensing his shoulders. "She's just going to get worse."

"Then we'll handle it," Athena gives him a weird look, eyeing him oddly. "We always do."

──────

Athena wakes with a groan as her phone vibrates, but as she turns in bed to grab it, she realizes that Stefan isn't lying beside her like he was a few hours ago when they finally settled in. Phone forgotten as it lights up in the dark room, she throws the covers off her body and slides her feet into her slippers.

Groggily, she steps to Stefan's nightstand, grunting in pain when her shin hits the corner of the drawer. Frowning, she turns the lamp on the table on, her eyes falling to the bottom drawer that's just barely slid open.

Kneeling, Athena pulls the drawer completely open and a gasp echoes in the silent room as she sees the empty blood bags piled in it. Confusion seeps into her body as she grabs them, unable to count with even a glance how many had been stuffed into the drawer.

She opens the top drawer, her frown deepening as she sees it's free of blood bags. As if he'd been hiding them purposefully.

Slowly, she stands again and slides her slippers off to keep her footsteps silent as she trails down the wooden staircases and through the dark boarding house, careful to avoid the creaky floorboards she'd learned to memorize in a house full of people with sensitive ears.

When she reaches the kitchen, she sees that the basement door is cracked open and the light above the stairs is on and shining brightly. Slowly, she pulls the door open a little more and begins down the stairs, every step wary and almost fearful.

She hears a shuffle against the dusty floors of the basement, and she anxiously bites her lip as she comes to a stop at the bottom of the stairs.

Just a few more steps before her is a familiar frame, and her eyes widen when she sees him hunched over the freezer with a handful of blood bags in his grasp.

"Stefan?"

Startled, the vampire snaps his head towards Athena and drops the blood bags. Athena inhales sharply when she sees his blood-stained lips and the black veins beneath his eyes that lead to reddened pupils.

"Athena, I– I can explain,"

"I don't understand," She shakes her head, her mind racing with a thousand different questions. "How– how long have you been doing this?"

Stefan shakes his head, looking at her pleadingly. "I didn't mean to lie, I swear, I just– I didn't–"

"You just didn't tell me?" She scoffs, immediately earning exclaims of denial from Stefan. "Stefan, I would've been fine if you'd just told me, but you didn't,"

"Athena, please, just let me–"

"Do you not trust me? Is– is that it?" She looks at him, swallowing around the lump in her throat. "Have I ever given you a reason to not trust me?"

Stefan reached for her, his green eyes glossy with tears. "I do, I promise. I trust you more than anyone else, I promise. Just trust me when I say that I didn't do any of this to hurt you."

Athena inhales shakily, tears warm as they stream down her cheeks. "How can you ask me to trust you and then turn around and lie about this? I– I never would've judged you or had a problem with it, but you lied. I asked you earlier how you healed so fast, and you lied to my face."

She stops suddenly, recalling his odd behavior. "Stefan,"

His thumbs stop while wiping her tears from beneath her eyes, and his frown deepens at her sudden stiffness.

"Who did you feed on earlier?" She whispers the question, looking at him with a gleam in her eyes that makes his stomach clench in fear. "How did you heal so fast after the well?"

He's silent for a moment too long, he knows it.

She bats his hands away, pushing his touch away from her as she practically stumbles back from him. "You didn't," She shakes her head, muttering to herself. "No, you didn't. Please tell me you didn't feed on her, Stefan,"

"Please look at me. Please, sweetheart, I can explain,"

Athena sniffles and shakes her head, taking another step away from him. "I want to go back to bed."

"Okay," Stefan nods. "Okay, let's go. We can just go back to bed."

"You should go lay down," Athena turns away from him. "I think I'm gonna sleep downstairs."

"What? Athena, wait–"

"Goodnight, Stefan."

──────

author's note; heyyy im back with a filler chapter and a sad ending :)

originally published; 12.29.20.

edited: 11.30.23.

- liz