Chapter 10: Our Town.

The water runs in Damon's bathroom as he takes a shower, absolutely relaxed. Sure, the world could end tomorrow, but he's got his brother in a somewhat tight leash, Cassandra hasn't run down the hills yet and he knows two powerful witches who are going to get him what he wants. Everything seems to be on the right track.

"Do you think we should have done the same with Ana?" Cassandra asks as she brushes her teeth, looking at him through the mirror. "Compelled her to go somewhere safe?"

"No." Damon scoffs.

"She sent a knife flying at someone." Cassandra reminds him, turning on her feet to point at him with her blue toothbrush. "Given, it was a hybrid but—still."

She mumbles the last part while she turns back to the sink to spit out the residue of toothpaste foam. She's all ready to go meet Bonnie at the old witch house but Damon is extremely late. We'll that's an interesting turn of events, she muses as she pulls out a piece of dental floss and leans closer to the mirror.

"She was asking all these questions about Klaus yesterday when we got here." She continues worrying out loud. "I don't want her snooping around."

Damon turns off the shower, putting a white towel around his waist as he walks out. He gets closer to Cass, his dry hand on the low of her back.

"You're worried, I get it." Damon comments. "But your sister is going to be fine." He assures her, giving her a kiss on the cheek before walking out of the bathroom.

"You're both late," Stefan, who is leaning against the doorframe, complains. "We're supposed to meet with Bonnie in a few minutes, did you forget?"

"Relax, brother," Damon tells him.

"And I'm ready," Cassandra points out, walking out of the bathroom as well. "He's the one who overslept."

"Are you forgetting we have things to do?" Stefan questions, completely annoyed at how chill they other two vampires are. "Klaus is not going to magically self-destruct."

"Wouldn't it be lovely if he did, though?" Cass asks out loud, taking her bag from the perfectly made bed. She turns to Stefan, expecting at least a small smile but is received with nothing but impatience. She rolls her eyes. "Right. Damon, move it."

"Right away, Miss Woodhouse." Damon nodded teasingly before walking towards the closet.

Cassandra giggles before following Stefan down the hallway. She notes he's still wearing a frown. Well, one thing is to be emotionless and another is to be a complete nuisance, for Christ's sake.

"You know, constant frowning provokes wrinkles." She comments.

"Funny," Stefan says sarcastically as he sends her a bitter smile.

"I liked the sappy, broody version of you so much better, to tell you the truth." Cassandra shoots back just as bitterly as they stand by the front door, waiting for Damon to come down.

"And I never liked any version of you, since we're being honest." Stefan retorts, crossing his arms over his chest.

She tenses. That hurt a lot. She always considered Stefan her friend, one of her best, and his current behavior bothers her. That's why she always sends him snarky remarks but his sudden blunt honesty hit her too close to home. Does he really mean that? Has he been simply civil to her for all these years out of pure politeness?

"I'll wait on the car," Cass says, done with this conversation.

"You didn't tell Elena, did you?" Stefan asks as the three of them near the old three story white house.

"I said I wouldn't." Damon shrugs.

"Why are you so obsessed about that?" Cassandra asks as she walks between the two brothers.

"I'm not," Stefan shoots her a look. "Just the less people know about the location of Klaus' family, the better."

Cassandra rolls her eyes. Right, the first plan was even more secret than this one and look how that one turned out. She doesn't mean to be a pessimist but secrecy is not their strongest suit.

"Should've told me that before I posted about it on Twitter." She mentions with a tone that screams out 'oops'.

Damon tightens his grip on her hand, making her turn towards him. He's deeply focused on the house. Stefan is about to keep talking but Damon shushes him.

"What?" Stefan asks, turning to look at the house again.

Cassandra focuses on the house as well, expecting to hear only Bonnie trying to open the spell of something of a similar manner. And that's when she finally senses it, a presence that's not mortal, footsteps that don't belong and the very obvious contemptuous murmurs of the witches' spirits against unwanted dead. Someone's inside, someone who is not on their side. Damon flashes inside the house. Cass and Stefan share a look before starting to walk towards the house. They slow down when they hear footsteps approaching the front door quickly. A strange man, the intruder, comes out, looking behind him, before coming face to face with the two vampires. He shows his true nature then, with double fangs and yellowy golden eyes accompanied by a hiss. It's a clear way to intimidate but Cassandra is bored. She just raises her eyebrows. Hybrids have started to be more common than a cold in autumn, there's nothing scary about this useless young attempt at a new species. Before he can attack them, however, he screams out in pain and falls to the floor, dead.

"Well," Damon says as he holds the bloodied heart of the hybrid in his hand. "These hybrids are just bringing the neighborhood down." He jokes before throwing the heart next to the body.

"Oh, my god." A new voice shrieks, making them turn back to the entrance of the house.

Cassandra frowns, although she has to admit she expected this. Anastasia wasn't just going to sit around in an obedient manner if she knew what they were hiding was the protagonist of her dreams but Cass was still half hoping she'd be nice and go to school.

"Anastasia!" she scowls. "You are supposed to be at school."

"And I will be!" Anastasia exclaims in a defensive manner. "Just after this. Anyway, let's go. Bonnie thinks she may have found something and I agree."

With that the teenager twirls around and walks back into the house. Cassandra turns to glare accusingly at the Salvatore brothers, her gaze lingering on Damon for longer. He knows how worried she is and he didn't tell her Anastasia was involved.

"I was going to tell you," is Damon's only defense. At least, he does look apologetic.

"Right." She nods, believing him. The point is not that; the point is he didn't.

"Come on, you two can fight later." Stefan urges, walking past them and into the house.

Cass knows he's right, so she breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth before walking into the house. They've got work to do.

There's a loud clank as the shovel connects with the coffin's surface. It happens again several times as Damon tries against all odds to open the sealed coffin. Cassandra sighs from her spot atop one of the coffins.

"It won't open." Stefan calls as he comes down the stairs. "Did you bury the body?"

"Yeah," Damon sighs, throwing the shovel to the side in frustration. "Any sigh of other hybrid buddies?"

"Nope," Stefan says nonchalantly. "Just the dead one."

His facial expression makes Cassandra wary.

"Okay, so Klaus had six siblings. One dead on the old world, one dead on the new world, Rebekah is with Klaus." Damon starts to count.

"That leaves three daggered brothers." Cass nods before turning to face the sealed coffin. "So, who is in there?"

"Whoever it is, Bonnie and Anastasia believe can help us kill Klaus." Stefan comments.

Cassandra bites her lip. Right, kill Klaus. But who? There are millions of people who want Klaus dead but who would Klaus know well enough to carry around in a high security coffin? Marcel's face comes to mind and she nurses the idea for a moment before dismissing it. Marcel saw Klaus almost as a father, he loved Rebekah. It wasn't him.

"You know, you'd think a bunch of witches that can make coffins invisible would be powerful enough to know how to open one!" Damon says, raising his voice at the end as a poke at the witches.

Cassandra snorts. "You do know they're witches and not genies, right?" she defends. "Their job is not to make your three wishes come true."

"Thank you, Cassie." Damon smiles at her sarcastically.

"None of this is going to be any good if we have Klaus' pet hybrids snooping around for our hiding place." Stefan intervenes, clearly in thought. "They need to go away."

"Sure, why don't you tell them to pack their things and go on a long vacation while you're at it?" Damon rolls his eyes.

"The more you insist on them leaving, the more you prove you have something to hide." Cassandra points out, agreeing with Damon.

"No, no," Stefan shakes his head, starting to get frantic. Yes, there is nothing worse than humanity-less Stefan thinking. "I'm not going to play defense when I have something he wants. Klaus either does what I say or I dump his family in the ocean."

"Yes and he kills you and everyone you know." Damon reminds him. "Like I don't know, us." He points at Cassie and himself.

"And my sister." Cassandra adds.

"He's bluffing." Stefan denies. "His family means everything."

Cassandra hates to admit he's right.

"You sure about that?" Damon demands.

"I don't know." Stefan shrugs. There's a cocky smile playing on his lips. "let's call his bluff."

"Woah!" Damon shakes his head, taking a step forward. "The only way to call someone's bluff is to be willing to lose everything."

Stefan only shrugs.

Ten minutes after Stefan's stormy exit, Damon is still trying to open the coffin. This time, he's decided to force the lip open with his own strength. Obviously, it's not a successful tactic, but Cassandra is too busy thinking to tell him this. She jumps off the coffin she's been using as a chair and opens it. A desiccated and very dead Elijah meets her. Poor Elijah, all he'd ever wanted was to have his family again. And Klaus had made him paid for his betrayal centuries ago. She wonders if Nik ever gets tired of that; holding grudges as old as the beginning of time. Elijah had been her friend; he'd helped her, saved her life. If things came to worst, she'd trust him with her life, with her loved one's life. Not that she would tell anyone that, especially Damon, who hated the Original with all he has. So she shuts the coffin close again and moves to the one in the middle.

"What are you doing?" Damon asks, stopping on his attempts to force the fourth coffin open.

"I'm thinking." She replies.

"While gazing at dead Originals?"

Her only response is to shush him as she opens coffin number two. She blinks in surprise. Kohl Mikaelson is lying inside. Kohl Mikaelson. He was one sneaky son of a bitch; she never thought he'd actually get himself daggered. But then she remembers how in 1920 Klaus joked about his family being dead and she supposes that was kind of a given. Still, she's so glad.

"Kohl is dead." She laughs. "Oh, wow, that's a relief."

She snaps the coffin shut without even glancing back at it twice. So there's only on coffin left and that means Fin is inside. He was the first daggered, of course he's inside. But she's kind of hoping the third coffin is empty. That way her theory that Klaus was so hateful of his oldest brother as to stick him in a magically sealed coffin so he'd never escape would be right. But the third coffin is not empty and that shoots her theory right on the butt.

"Ugh, who are you?" she snaps at the ugly thing, walking past Damon until she's standing in front of the fourth coffin. "Who could you possibly be?" the last part is said in a more calming manner as she submerges herself in thought again. "You tell my baby sister she has to help you; why else would you give her nightmares. But, why not just Bonnie?"

There's a whisper around the room, like someone's trying to tell her a secret but she doesn't quite hear what they're saying. She simply leans on the coffin, her hands splayed on the surface, as if that way the person stuck inside may contact her. She just wants to know. This past year has been worse than any of her five hundred and she feels like she's about to lose her mind out of fear. If she were able to figure this one thing out, she thinks she'd feel slightly better. Damon puts one hand on her shoulder while the other wraps around her elbow. She knows what that gesture means; you're worrying me, calm down, please.

She sends him a small smile, before walking to one of the shelves and grabbing the rusted knife that's there. She doesn't know what to do, so she's going for the oldest trick on the book.

"What are you doing?" Damon asks.

"I have an idea." She shrugs before slicing her palm open and pressing it on the coffins surface.

"Cassandra—" Damon starts but he shuts up the moment there's a small creaky sound.

"It moved." She blinks. "It—it moved, right?" Cass asks Damon, trying to hold back a victorious laugh.

"Yeah," Damon nods, slightly amazed.

"Give me your phone," she requests, outstretching her right hand.

Damon hands her it, not bothering to ask why. As far as he knows, she's already discovered America. Cassandra dials the number without even thinking and waits, her heart on her throat.

"What do you want, Cassandra?" the voice reaches her over the phone and she tenses for a moment.

"How did you know it's me?" she asks, trying and failing to hide her disappointment.

"You really think I wouldn't have Damon Salvatore's number?" His voice is angry, just like it has been for a very long time. Damon frowns, confused.

"I need a favor, and it's really, really important."

"Yes, well, I don't really care."

She bites her bottom lip, hesitant, before throwing caution to the wind and telling the truth.

"Kolya, this is a life or death situation." She admits, hoping it'll work enough for him to help from a distance. The last thing she needs is him coming down, this town has enough Woodhouses.

"I'll write you a nice eulogy." He says with incredible amounts of distaste.

"Rebekah is dead." She rolls her eyes at Damon, signaling how fed up she already is. "I killed her myself."

"Nice try," Nikolai scoffs. But he hesitated and Cassandra already knows this is still his weakness. After four centuries, talk about loyalty. "Stakes can't kill Originals."

"True. That's why I grabbed the dagger, dipped it in white oak ash and drove it through her heart." She dismisses. "Now, unless you want me to throw her body into a raging volcano or maybe a sinkhole, you'll do as I say." She says this with a sweet tone, not making it such a big deal. But she knows Nikolai has already lost, all he has to do is be smart and pay attention.

"What do you want?"

She tries not to smile. He'd probably hear it in her voice. So she just asks him to go to the central library up in Kitterland, where their family stored all their secrets. And she tells him to look for any relation, excluding the two of them, between their family and the Mikaelsons. Nikolai says he'll look into it before hanging up immediately, not even a goodbye. Cass pretends it doesn't hurt.

Cassandra calls Caroline on her way to the Lockwoods, wishing her a great happy birthday and apologizing for not being able to be there today. The blonde vampire sounds slightly depressed over the phone and Cass gets the idea that maybe she's happy that there aren't that many people making a fuss out of her.

The Lockwoods are taking restoring an ugly little bridge way too seriously, considering this place looks more like a party than a fundraiser. She knows it's also a Council Meeting but she's not a founder so she only has to worry about hiding her booze and avoiding drunken old married men. Shouldn't be too hard. She finds Damon by a miniature version of the bridge, with a small little river underneath, some trees and everything.

"Hi," she says, hugging his arm.

"Hey." Damon sends her a smile. Not a smirk or a forced smile, no, a real one and she wonders if he's feeling as relaxed as she is. All they have to do is get the information Kolya is looking for and they might be able to open the coffin. "Heard anything from your mysterious Kolya?"

This time though, she can hear his jealousy plain as day. She laughs, shaking her head.

"He's my cousin, Damon." She lets him know. His eyes widen. "Rumor has it Nikolai Woodhouse went looking for me when he turned twenty. Some people say he was sent to kill me, others that he just wanted to see me one last time. I never found out which one but considering I'm not his favorite person in the world…" she trails off, sad.

Kolya was once the light of her life. She'd taken care of him since he was a little baby; he'd taken his first steps with her, he'd learnt how to say Cassie before he knew the word mum. She'd been more than forgiving whenever he didn't remember a spell, she'd broken the rules of the game, which was more a training tactic than a game.

"But his information was outdated and he found the Mikaelsons, instead. Rebekah and Kolya fell in love and she turned him." She explains after a moment. "One day he wakes up and they're gone. He claims having moved on but I know different. Love like that never dies."

Because it was a very profound, maddening love if Nikolai had agreed to be turned into the creature he was taught to hate. Their coven forbid anyone from turning into vampires, it was almost like breaking a sacred rule. The arm she's hugging moves until it's around her shoulders, bringing her closer as Damon presses a small kiss on her temple. She closes her eyes, enjoying the warm feeling spreading through her body.

"I'm going to write a big check and then we can go home, okay?" Damon's voice is soft, almost as if he fears if he talks any louder she'll break. Her nod is accompanied by a reassuring smile his way.

"The mayor is pro-Klaus now?" Cassandra asks Damon as they walk around the second floor of the house. This place is beautiful, she has to admit, even if it's infested with werewolves.

"Yep." Damon drawls, slightly bitter. "And Liz also wants us to stop Stefan from making this town a burial ground for hybrids."

"How are we going to accomplish that?" Cass scoffs, leaning on the railway to the stairs.

Damon shakes his head. Things are getting more complicated. He only hopes this Nikolai guy, who is a total dick as far as Damon's concerned, does have the answers they need. He perks up, however, when the sounds of a struggle reach him. He and Cassie share a look before both of them flash towards the commotion. One of Klaus' hybrids is kneeling on the floor, obviously hurt, and an enraged Stefan stands above him, a cooking knife pressed to the hybrid's neck.

"What are you doing?" Damon snaps at Stefan once he's pushed him off the hybrid. "No killing hybrids at a founder's party."

"No, Klaus didn't pay attention to my message so now I'm telling it louder." Stefan shakes his head. Cassandra can't help but notice he's the perfect image of desperation.

"You don't think Klaus will make another one after this one?" Damon demands. "There are ten more from where this one came. And if you kill them, Klaus won't make twenty more?"

"Did you forget Elena is part of this now?" Cassandra asks. She hates to admit she's almost scared of the answer. "Or do you just not care if she's a blood bag for the rest of her life?"

She holds her breath for a second, waiting. Stefan has to care about Elena, right? I mean it's Elena and Stefan, a love story written by the gods or whatever. Right? But Stefan is definitely clouded by hatred and something else she can't quite identify, because he shakes his head and almost shrugs.

"No, no, protecting Elena? That's your responsibility now. Not mine." Stefan denies. "I'm not compelled anymore."

"Oh, cut it with the no humanity crap!" Cass snaps.

She knows he cares, at least, at some point. He saves his brother's life; he throws everything he holds dear out the window. It makes no sense but surely that doesn't mean he doesn't have humanity anymore.

"You want to beat the villain?" Damon asks him. "You have to be smarter."

His anger towards his little brother is barely contained, Cass can sense it. She hopes Stefan will make the right choice.

"No, no. To beat the villain, you have to be the better villain." Stefan riddles before walking away.

Cassandra scrunches her face up in distaste. 'To be the villain, you have to be the better villain'? That sounds straight out of a really bad, low budget gangster movie. Stefan is definitely losing his touch. But then she has an idea, an idea that makes her undead heart rise to her throat.

"Elena," she says, turning to Damon with worried eyes.

Even though, they've been through hell, Elena is her friend. All of them are, actually, even Stefan. She loves them and she doesn't want anything bad to happen to them. Being the better villain could easily be riding Klaus of his hybrids once and for all, as in, taking away the very person who can make hybrids happen. And if, heaven forbids, something bad happens to Elena, then all her friends and loved ones will follow as well, because there's no way in hell Niklaus won't retaliate. Damon seems to get it, though, because in one moment his phone is out and he's dialing Elena's number.

Stefan answers. And he confirms Cassandra's suspicions. She's down the stairs and looking for Klaus before Damon or Stefan can hang up the phone.

Klaus enters the room, annoyed.

"Stefan took Elena." Cassandra jumps to the point before he can even open his mouth and complain about how delightful the conversation she interrupted was. "And, unless you want the unthinkable to occur, I suggest you do what he says."

It doesn't occur to her that this is the first time she talks to Klaus like this after having walked out on him.

"He's getting desperate." Klaus chuckles. Her blood boils. Is he really this stupid? Has he not notice all Stefan has been is reckless? "He won't hurt her. Love like that never dies. He's bluffing."

Damon steps in then, looking pissed. "Maybe, but if you want to believe anyone, believe me." he snarls, walking closer to Klaus. "I know my brother better than anyone and even I don't know what he's going to do. So if he says blink, I suggest you blink."

A few moments pass before Klaus breaks their staring contest.

"Very well," he says, before walking out of the room.

Cassandra lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"I'm fine, really, Cass," Elena says over the phone.

"And you're sure you don't want me to go over?" Cassandra asks, still slightly worried.

She's in her old room in the Boarding House, changing her clothes for her pajamas. Elena says Damon's on her way here.

"No, it's fine really." Elena denies, taking in a deep breath. "Damon helped a lot. He was there in minutes. I don't know what I would've done without him."

Cassandra can hear gratitude and something else in Elena's voice and while she should be glad that Damon is helping her friend, his friend, she can't help but feel the little green monster known as jealousy crawl into her blood.

A/N: Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in. So, chapter ten is up, I'm late as always and I apologize. Life sucks, work is a bitch and I'm obsessed with Supernatural so yeah. I'm only in season 1 and I want to sort of burn through all the episodes because I want to know what happens, so I've been binge watching.

Anyway, thoughts?

I want to thank all of you who favorited, followed and reviewed! specially, grapejuice101, aceofthefool13, gothickurocho69, Charmedgrays, amisam47, cynical owl,Nerissa Blackwell (your name reminds me of ASOIAF) , MariaAquarius, EXotic7889, and geekspec.

Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR BECAUSE I SUCK AND PROBABLY WON'T PUBLISH ANYTHING TOMORROW. I LOVE YOU ALL I HOPE YOU HAVE AN AMAZING DAY YOU CUTIES AND IF YOU DONT IT DOESNT MATTER CAUSE I'M HERE FOR YOU SO MESSAGE ME IF YOU NEED ANYTHING!

i'm screaming because i'm excited over the holidays.

love,

Ella. (BAM, BAM, BAM, is that the first time I give you my name? idk, but hwatever.)

P.S. I was thinking of publishing one of my orginal stories in FictionPress. Would you like to read it if I did?