Disclaimer: I do not take any ownership of any elements of the Vampire Diaries franchise found within this story.

This story is Rated M for violence, swearing, and generally mature themes and content.

PROLOGUE

Mystic Falls, Virginia

The Mystic Grill & Bar

Closing hour at the Mystic Grill was fast approaching and Matt supposed that with all things considered it had overall been a pretty good Saturday night. There was of course a pretty substantial crowd of customers but that was to be expected for weekends so he couldn't really complain. The loud and boisterous throng hadn't once gotten out of hand so his shift had ended up being pretty boring to be honest. Once the mob died down around ten he found himself with not much else to do other than busy his thumbs on his phone in the back room. He'd spent his time torturing himself, scrolling through old text messages from Elena from when they were still together. He'd never changed her contact in his phone, she was still listed as his girlfriend her caller being "LenaBear" with two heart emojis on either side symbolizing the time they'd been together, two years and two days since their first date, with the two of them kissing on top of the Ferris wheel at last year's carnival saved as a picture.

Rubbing his thumb over the image he thought he could feel his eyes starting to cloud and he hoped that someone in the kitchen had chopped onions before they left. He swiped away a few stray tears and ran his hands down his face in frustration. 'Maybe I should try calling her again,' he thought sadly knowing all too well how much of a loser his constant calls made him look like. The last time they spoke Elena Gilbert seemed to want to talk about literally anything else besides their break up, even going so far as to bring up the boring history project they had due at the end of the semester to avoid the conversation.

'That was the day that he came to town.' Matt's thoughts went to a dark place then. A place they rarely ever did before but seemed to be going to a lot more lately as it became obvious that Elena and Stefan Salvatore were an item. She'd moved on so quickly and Matt still had no idea what he did wrong.

Silently shaking his head at the thought he let his eyes wander around the back room packed full of boxes until he glanced at the time on his phone which read 11:34 p.m. With a tired grunt he quickly hopped up off the wall he was leaning on by the freezer shuffling as he re-tucked his work shirt. Finished, he gave the old text messages one last lingering scroll before closing them and shoving the phone angrily into his back pocket. Heading back out into the front of the grill he took in the handful of people still left, counting around seven or eight. Clearing his throat he raised his voice to get everyone's attention announcing that the grill would be closing soon and thanking them for their visit.

He stood there and smiled for a second longer waiting to see the reaction as a few took the hint and got up to leave. However, for the most part he was ignored as people finished their conversations and picked at their cold food. Sighing to himself Matt frowned grabbing a used apron from the back and dusting it free of sauerkraut and coleslaw. He was about to look for a broom and dustpan to finally start to clean up before his eyes darted to one of the remaining patrons with surprise and exasperation.

'I'm really starting to hate that family.' Matt thought heatedly.

Sure enough, at the very end of the bar Damon Salvatore remained passed out among the few who hung around. Damon has been at the grill since before Matt came in, drinking the night away and giving drunk pillow talk to any and everyone he laid eyes on. Matt first met Damon pestering some family of four almost starting a fight with the father as he ruined their night out spouting some incoherent nonsense about his brother Stefan being a pain in the ass and the whole town being on vervain, whatever that was. Tonight he has been droning on and on about some girl named Emily who he called a witch and claimed messed up all of his "plans"..

Matt didn't know who Emily was but he liked her already and doubted she deserved to be called such a harsh word by the likes of Damon Salvatore. The man was totally zonked causing trouble all day, now blacked out, and still here hunched on top of the bar snoozing over dozens of empty shot glasses even as it neared midnight.

Matt guessed Damon must have run out of stuff to drink at home because somehow he managed to clear four whole bottles of clear rose bourbon and two glasses of tequila straight. The man still somehow made it through a schooner of 150 proof Everclear mixed with grape kool-aid and sprite at the end before he'd finally passed out around 10 p.m. and stayed that way. Matt thought it was sad but couldn't help but be grudgingly impressed by it.

He didn't even know the grill served kool-aid and he'd worked there here since freshman year.

With Damon's vicious reputation around town no one wanted to be the one to wake him not even the owner, Jerry Horton, a big and tall hulk of man with forearms that make Matt's own large frame look like a twelve year old's by comparison. But not even Jerry wanted to be the one to wake the drunk and clearly distraught Salvatore up from his impromptu nap and kick him out of his family's restaurant.

"And so of course he leaves the psycho Salvatore to me." Matt groaned under his breath as he stared at the devil loudly snoring on the counter.

A tension was starting to build in Matt's shoulders as he swallowed thickly considering the best way to go about waking him up. As if sensing what Matt was about to do he saw a few more people get up to leave trading sympathetic glances with him on the way out. 'Yeah I really hate the Salvatores.' he thought morosely. He debated waking Damon to tell him to leave right now while there were still about five people left.

He was no coward but if half the things he heard about the man were true he'd rather people be around as witnesses when he woke him. He remembered a few weeks back after the Founder's Ball when Elena warned him to steer clear of Damon. He'd told her he could handle himself, not wanting her to think he was scared of Stefan's older brother but Elena had been adamant that if he saw the man he should keep his distance. She wouldn't say much other than it had something to do with Caroline. However, upon prompting Caroline gave even fewer details.

In the months since the Salvatores moved here, or since they moved back depending on who you asked, the town rumor mill had quickly spread word about how temperamental and dangerous the older half of the Salvatore duo could be. Damon however was a regular at the grill so it wasn't like Matt had much choice on whether he saw him or not. To be fair, he didn't really need the warning from Elena anyway. He had always thought the Salvatores were bad news, the both of them. Sure, his distrust started with Stefan because admittedly he was jealous of him and Elena but it quickly grew to extend to his brother as well. Between Elena's parents dying in that car crash, his sister Vicky running off to go walk the streets somewhere in a drug haze, and all of these weird unexplained animal attacks everything bad seemed to start happening just as the Salvatores came around.

Matt's sometimes thought about Coach Tanner and Stefan's frequent trivia battles in history class. The teacher had wound up dead from mysterious causes shortly after his arrival and Matt privately thought it was weird that Stefan didn't seem too surprised by it. Matt was ninety-six percent sure that the Salvatore brothers were the heads of some kind of Italian mafia family or something like that. Maybe their primary product was whatever vervain was and Emily was their competitor drug lady in the area like Griselda and Pablo. Yeah, Coach Tanner probably blew the lid on the Salvatores operation at Mystic Falls High. Vervain was probably some kind of steroid Stefan used to be good at football and Tanner figured it out. When the Salvatores found out they got him scratched before he could make it to the papers.

Matt laughed at his silly train of thought sobering up as he stepped towards Damon jumping back when he heard something crack loudly beneath his sneakers, a few heads turned his way and the quiet chatter in the grill died a little. 'Jeez this place is trashed. Is that a broken glass?' He thought annoyed, waving off the inquisitive looks. The night may have been manageable but all of that time in the back clearly meant no one else up front kept the floor cleaned before they went home. The entire lounge floor from wall to wall looked like a tornado had touched down and it was hard to keep imagining Stefan Salvatore as the godfather because of it.

'Waking the devil can wait,' Matt thought, eyeing the mess as one more table got up to leave. "If I don't get started now I'm not getting out of here until the morning crew arrives.'

Matt finally located the broom and dustpan and began sweeping up the trash on the floor into individual piles mindful to avoid the shards. Carefully he bent down and collected the glass; it was more than just a single glass it seemed. He deposited the biggest shards directly into the pan before sweeping up the rest and dividing it into the piles of trash. Sweeping bits of salad, a bunch of stale half eaten pieces of toast, and thousands and thousands of napkins up into the pan along with glass he unloaded it into the huge overflowing trash cans in the back.

He wrinkled his nose at the smell. 'That is gonna be hell to take out.' Matt realized, already worn out at the thought of it.

Cleaning at the end of a night shift on the weekend was always when Matt seriously considered quitting his job. He knew he needed the money to help out at home but Saturdays always had a way of making him wonder if it was really worth it especially with Vicky gone who knows where. Tyler had told him before that he could get his dad to land him a better job in town and while Matt didn't like the idea of handouts from his rich best friend's dad, Mayor Lockwood, maybe he would consider it. Mayor Lockwood did like Matt anyway, at least he was pretty sure he did. At hearing the chairs scraping against the ground Matt paused in his cleaning as the final couple of people got up for the exit. 'Great. Now it's just me and the creep.' he thought sourly. A tinge of fear entering his chest as the doors closed behind them.

The silver bells chiming on top of the door triggered the instinct to check his watch, it had just hit eleven 12:03 a.m., past closing time. Cursing under his breath he dropped his broom where he stood in the middle of the lobby and rushed behind the front counter to the small office in the back whose translucent windows were vibrating with the sounds of rock music.

As he swung the door open and burst inside he definitely wasn't expecting to have a severe coughing fit, but as he ran opened mouthed into a cloud of smoke that smells strongly like marijuana that is exactly what he did. Clamping a hand over his mouth he tried to breath out his nose glaring at the man sitting lazily in the office chair without a care in the world.

"Jesus Cody! Can't you do that shit outside?" Matt fumed through his fingers shouting out over Led Zeppelin while fanning the air with his other hand desperate to keep the smoke out of his lungs. It was so ridiculously foggy in the cramped little box that his eyes had started to water.

Cody is an extremely tall redhead college stoner completing his senior year at Whitmore while working full time as a manager at the Grill. If you've been around him for more than five minutes you would never guess that he was top of his class at Whitmore but Matt knew that he was smart and that the only reason Cody wouldn't do shit around the grill is because he's lazy. He was the only manager that Jerry ever put on night shift and no one was really sure why but some of the hosts said that they'd seen Cody sell weed to Jerry before. That however was too easy an accusation to make, Cody always had weed and always asked if anyone wanted to smoke with him even though the answer was always no. At least he was generous.

Still glaring Matt grabbed the doorknob throwing the door back open as he stumbled outside into the hallway, sputtering and coughing as he watched a thick cloud of smoke creep out of the room behind him. Cody didn't even spare him a glance, mumbling the chorus to the song as he readjusted in his chair pulling in his long legs to make room. The entire room wasn't even as wide as he was long so he had to bend his legs at an awkward angle to make it fit. He didn't seem to mind the change though, breathing in deep he took another drag off his joint not even acknowledging Matt's presence. Matt shook his head in exasperation at his antics, why Cody didn't get fired he had no clue. How he became the night shift manager was an even bigger mystery because the man truly did nothing but sit in his office getting high all night long as soon as Jerry left.

Spying the power cords on the floor Matt followed where they led holding his breath and stomping over to the only outlet in the room before promptly unplugging the radio. The music stopped and Cody turned around in the office chair to look at him then, a brief flash of actual annoyance crossing his face before he brought the joint to his lips taking another deep and soulful hit. Leaning back slightly his long spindly arms easily picked up the plug putting it back in the socket. He turned the music down halfway and regarded Matt with a look that said; 'You need a bong.'

"Bro... Chill..." He drawled. His eyes closed again as he continued muttering the chorus. "...I'm vibing."

"That music is ass." Matt jibed getting virtually no response. "Look, can you just give me the keys, please?" Matt sighed in annoyance as he was again ignored, taking another look at his watch before holding out his hand expectantly. "It's past closing, dude, come on."

Cody turned his head slowly blinking red eyes up at Matt in the doorway as if he were the lamest person he'd ever seen. Wordlessly pointing to a file cabinet to the left where a lanyard with a single key attached lay on top he made a shooing gesture at the teen before turning the music back up to full blast and taking another hit.

Grunting his thanks Matt snatched the keys slamming the office door closed behind him before hurrying back to the lobby.

The entire front was dark, the lights were set on auto dim after closing and Matt had never really realized how creepy the grill looked like that until just now. In the low light the still crackling fireplace in the seating area to the right is casting ghostly looking shadows dancing all over the floors, tables, and walls giving the bar a sinister look and feel . The grill was completely empty except for Damon Salvatore who was still passed out at the bar so why did Matt feel like he had a restaurant full of eyes on him. Suddenly Matt wished he had taken Cody up on one of his ''smoke breaks''. Twisting the key to the doors in the palm of his hand Matt found himself dragging his feet as he approached the bar. "Hey, uh, Damon." Matt called with no response. He was getting tired of people ignoring him. "Come man, it's closing time." He said banging on the table a bit in front of him, still the man would not be roused save for a light groan. Matt bit his lip coming closer and raising his hand to shake him awake only to stop, his fingers just inches away from the Salvatore. He barely had time to recognize the feeling like something was right behind him when suddenly the sound of creaking floorboards came to his right. He turned his head finding nothing only to whip it in the opposite direction and nearly have a heart attack as he thought he heard a breath by his neck.

"Excuse me?" A smooth baritone voice spoke sounding like it was coming inches from his ear. Matt screamed jumping in fright, his heart raced as he wheeled around to face the intruder almost tripping over himself in his shock as he realized the man was actually standing ten feet away just inside of the lobby. 'Jesus, it sounded like he was right next to my ear,' Matt thought, rubbing the side of his neck where he could have sworn he almost felt a breath before. 'And the floorboards...'

This type of situation is exactly why he locked the doors at closing and not after.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." The man said sounding apologetic. He stepped neatly over the broom Matt dropped earlier taking a few slow steps towards him. As Matt took the measure of the stranger that wandered in, he took some comfort in the fact that he was much bigger than the other man. He honestly didn't look that much older than Matt himself at all as a matter of fact, maybe twenty or twenty one and of average height and build with light brown skin that looked a shade darker than it really is under the blaze of the firelight. He had a kind and warm face with lines at the corner of his eyes that bespoke a lot of time laughing and smiling and deep dark brown eyes coinciding with his handsome features.

"It's okay...I just... yeah?" Matt trailed lamely off, frowning in embarrassment chuckling uncomfortably and rubbing the back of his neck.

The man smiled the corner of his eyes crinkling as he stopped his slow approach a good ten feet away which Matt appreciated. There was a faint smile playing on his lips like he found something funny but Matt wasn't laughing. He wanted to know exactly how the hell the man had gotten in without the bells on top of the doors chiming but then remembering Salvatore he realized that maybe his scream had woke him, his eyes darting to the bar trying to pierce the darkness.

Damon's figure was cloaked in shadow but for a moment he thought he saw his head on the table facing him, the Salvatore's bright blue eyes wide open and staring before he blinked again and observed that he remained as asleep as ever, his eyes firmly shut and his head turned the other way. Suddenly the key in Matt's hand felt like it weighed a ton. He wanted nothing more than to get these two out and lock the door before any more stragglers came in.

Finally finding his voice he spoke up more sure of himself this time. "It's fine. We've actually just closed though, you can come back tomorrow."

"Oh. Well, I'm not so sure," The stranger had a disarming smile that cut clean through Matt's dismissal. His gaze briefly flitting towards Damon at the bar before slowly falling back onto Matt blinking hard and slow. Suddenly Matt found himself hanging on to every word the man said. "Actually I was just hoping for some directions, you see." He continued in his peculiar accent, it sounded impossible like it came from all over the place all at once and his tone was deep and hypnotic. Again the man took another deliberately slow step towards him and Matt found himself taking a step back before he could help it.

The man tilted his head frowning a bit as Matt widened the distance further. He did that thing with his eyes again, slowly blinking big brown orbs against Matt's own blue ones. Matt couldn't help but begin to feel calm under his warm gaze stopping in his tracks. There was something about the way that he talked and especially the sight of his deep brown eyes locked intensely onto Matt's own that was slowly putting him at ease.

"Directions?" Matt asked, feeling his blood rush to his head.

The man smiled again nodding as he stepped forward. Matt stayed still. "Yes. I just ..drove.. into town you see and I'm a bit lost." He smiled a gentle smile. "Could you help me perhaps?" The man questioned, blinking slowly, his gaze piercing and intense but his smile friendly and inviting.

Matt's hands were shaking and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was very wrong about the stranger in front of him. Breaking eye contact with great difficulty and looking down he ran a hand through his golden blonde hair. He needed to get this stranger out and fast. He steeled himself to refuse the request looking back up only to have his heart drop to his stomach as he realized the man was now a lot closer than he was just a second ago, his face just inches away from Matt's own.

Suddenly having no space to avoid the stranger's gaze he felt anxiously calm and at strange ease. His hands stopped shaking his entire body becoming stiff as he found himself confused and forgetting what he was supposed to be doing. It felt like he was just flung off the edge of a cliff into freezing cold water. With some serious alarm now slipping through Matt's eyes widened, he was too sure that something was going very very wrong here but couldn't think of what. He could barely speak with the stranger's eyes consuming everything in sight. "..Stop!" Matt managed to grind out the single word through gritted teeth. He knew he was fighting a cloud falling over his thoughts blanketing them and making everything slow, dark, and murky.

The man arched a perfectly shaped brow like he was impressed with something before squinting his eyes in focus, blinking hard again.

Matt's jaw went slack.

"Now, now. It won't take but a second, I'm sure. I've misplaced my telephone, and I just need some directions to the nearest hotel that's all." The man spoke with his voice like warm butter on toast and Matt felt his resistance to whatever force the man was conjuring crumble into tiny little pieces.

Matt suddenly felt completely at ease about the time of night, he felt at ease about Damon, he felt at ease about everything really but especially this stranger. After all, the stranger was nice and trust worthy. Matt just knew he could trust him. It would just take a second for him to give the man directions. No big deal at all, and no problem. The stranger wouldn't hurt him. The stranger was his friend. He should just listen to what he says…..

Abraham wasn't totally lying.

He did just arrive into town, but he had never owned a telephone. He always hated the little devices. He did feel a little guilty about bewitching the handsome mortal but in his defense he had thought the grill closed down ages ago. The building was abandoned the last time he came to Mystic Falls.

Granted that was in the sixties during the peak of the civil rights movement when the building was burned down by fascists for daring to serve people that looked like him but the point remains, it really was not his fault. Besides, teleporting all the way here from Georgia had taken a lot out of him so if Abe needed some directions then this boy could be a good man and hold the place open for a second longer. It was actually a very simple request and Abe honestly hadn't thought he would need to charm him.

"What's your name?" Abe asked the now much more agreeable glossy eyed worker with impossibly blue eyes like something out of a romance novel. "Matt Donovan." The boy, Matt, slurred a drone-like reply face completely lacking any and all concern at the situation. Really people should be more like this all the time.

While Abraham himself had never been on the receiving end of this kind of magic he'd heard the more scholarly minds in the occult community hypothesize that being under such a spell was like having thoughts too heavy for your brain to process so it began dropping them at random making it almost impossible to do even the simplest things, like breaking eye contact. However, as he examined the far away look in Matt's eyes he personally thought it looked more like the teen was just seriously stoned. Come to think of it he could smell a faint scent of marijuana coming from the blonde so there's that.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Donovan," The witch began, introducing himself out of courtesy and force of habit more than anything else. "My name is Abraham."

There was a lag like the boy took a second to buffer. "Like the president?" Matt finally burst out accidentally dropping his key on the floor as his hands slacked up. He didn't even notice.

Abraham rolled his eyes bending down to pick up the dropped key before snapping straight back up, frowning at the man at the bar. He thought he saw the mysterious man sitting upright turned around in the stool staring directly at him but upon blinking his eyes he saw that the man still had his head down and was snoring softly. Long distance teleportation did use up a lot of energy, and he was rather tired.

'That jump must have taken more out of me than I suspected.' He thought, narrowing his eyes. Tutting to himself Abraham shook off his paranoia and tentatively stooped to pick up the key off of the floor, deftly tucking it safe inside of Matt's apron. He pulled the boy's cell phone free from where it poked out of his back pocket, the man at the bar dismissed.

"Yes, Mr. Donovan, like the president," he muttered. There was a moment where he forgot how to work the touch screen before the phone blinked to life startling him.

'Kids and their technology.' Abe rolled his brown eyes, poking around the icons a bit clumsily before finally discovering the teen's contacts and scrolling through them for someone to text. Abraham quickly came across someone named Elena listed as 'girlfriend' with two hearts. Excellent. Sending her a quick text as Matt, he simply asked her to come pick him up from work because he was drunk. Abraham could not in good conscience have this child getting into a car accident on his watch if the glamour doesn't completely wear off by the time he's done here so having someone come pick up the boy is best. As an afterthought he threw in a "I love you" and then a smiley face emoji. Biting his bottom lip he scrolled further before finally settling on adding a gif of a kitten hugging a teddy bear for the full effect. That's how young people talk to their significant others these days right? With smiley face emojis and cute gifs?

Content with his successful text message he easily slide the phone back into Matt's back pocket smiling back up at the taller man. "Just like the president, actually, but you may call me Abe instead."

"Hi, Abe Lincoln." Matt deadpanned in a flat tone actually making the witch snicker into his hand. "Hello, Matt. Now, about that hotel..." Abe trailed slowly looking past Matt over his shoulders to the bar as his sixth sense suddenly screamed out at him.

In hindsight he should have noticed the bar stool was now absent. He should have noticed the slumbering patron that slept there earlier, who he thought he saw move, had now disappeared entirely but it was too late for that. With a gust of wind Abe suddenly found himself both choked and slammed, pinned up against a wall. His throat was captured in a bruising vice-like grip as he was forced to look up into a pair of bloodshot icy blue eyes framed by a curtain of raven black hair.

"Well well," Damon began in a slur before snatching a fistful of Abraham's jet black curls and slamming his head against the wall. "What do we have here?" he taunted evilly as Abe grunted in pain and surprise caught completely unaware.

Unable to retaliate in time Abe's head head hit the wall for a third time with a hard thud letting out a yelp of pain before crushing grip was once more wrapped around his throat cutting off all oxygen. His eyes bulged out of his skull as felt a trickle of warm blood flow down his neck and his vision started to swim. Abe thought he saw stars, grabbing fruitlessly at the hand clamped tightly around his throat desperately digging his fingernails into pale skin. He tried to summon a spell, any spell at all, clasping manically through his panic trying to bring a defense to the forefront of his mind coming up blank. All his efforts got as response was a dark chuckle a sinister smile spreading across the vampire's face. Abe wanting nothing more than to torch that slimy smirk off of Damon's face but all he could think about was the lack of oxygen getting to his brain with dark spots beginning to enter his vision. His hands fell to his sides and he thought he felt a blood vessel pop.

"Oh no you don't, Potter. " Damon admonished, the sly smirk still playing on his lips. He just ever so slightly loosened his grip on Abe's throat as he saw him starting to lose consciousness but Abe swallowed the few gulps of air greedily. "At least, not until we've been properly introduced. I'm Damon. Damon Salvatore. You"

Abe breathed in deep as the loosened grip let sweet air fill his lungs. He scrunched up his nose at the smell, the air tainted by the heavy stench of alcohol coming from his attacker's breath. Through watering eyes he looked over Damon's shoulder and saw the look of puzzlement on Matt's face. It was slowly giving way to terror with what he was seeing, conflict clear on the teen's face, as Abe's glamour on the teen's mind began to strain, struggling to explain away what was in front of him as "nothing to worry about".

"You know I really thought that I would have to go poking all over the place looking for a witch to solve my little conundrum and then poof! Here you are! It's like magic!" Damon ranted clearly enjoying the sound of his own voice. "I mean Emily goes and screws me over, destroys the amulet, and for a second it's all over, you know?" Abe most certainly did not know but he nodded anyway for some unknown reason, instinct perhaps. Or maybe he was curious as to know what a vampire was doing getting drunk in Mystic Falls or why exactly he thought that actually laying hands on a Bennett witch was a smart idea.

"I thought for sure there was no way to get into that tomb without the amulet and then boom!" Damon exclaimed some of the words slurring together but clearly excited nonetheless. Abe let himself calm down realizing the vampire was still very drunk. "The dead Bennett witch's cook book has a secret recipe? And, even better, I now have my own witch to bake me the cookies." He finished looking at Abraham like he was the answer to his prayers before narrowing his eyes and tilting his head. "Or should I say warlock?"

Abraham rolled his eyes. 'Does he think a witch like some sort of trained circus animal?' Many Bennett witches ended up dead entangled in vampire affairs. While that hadn't hardened his heart towards the entire species, Abe certainly was most certainly not in the habit of helping vampires with anything. At the mention of "Bennett" however his interest was officially piqued.

A lost Bennett grimoire, perhaps? Containing instructions to open a tomb of some sort not that Abe cared about that part. Abraham didn't think he'd ever met an Emily Bennett, not in his 428 years as the head of the Bennett family, scattered about as it was currently; it's not that surprising. Things have changed and solitary witches were very disorganized. Coming to Mystic Falls was supposed to be the first step to fixing that, to bringing the Bennett line back to its former glory, but if there are vampire schemes afoot that complicates things. Witches were being constantly dragged into vampire affairs and the thought alone was enough to get Abraham's blood boiling. Witches were the sword of nature, their superiority at the top of the supernatural pecking order was never meant to be challenged by the creatures of the night. 'Magic created vampires damn it.' Abraham thought angrily. This is why he rarely left his coven in Georgia. It's why he believed no witch, whether they come from a pure-blood line or not, should ever have to go without the safety of a coven.

Abe knew that over one hundred Bennett witches had died, murdered and burned, in a purge of all things supernatural, one that was only eventually stopped by his direct intervention. Abe's vengeance for the death of the Bennett coven in Mystic Falls was still regarded as a story of legend. Abraham Bennett, First Witch and Head of the Bennett Line considered the vampire's words having tuned out the rest of his speech. If this Emily was really a Bennett witch and her grimoire was never recovered then it belongs with the Bennett witches that remained in this town or Abraham himself not in the claws of a vampire. Making up this mind, Abraham decided that he'd heard enough.

"Malu psynthos!" Abe bellowed out a blast of pure kinetic energy surging from his palm and striking Damon squarely in the chest sending him flying clear across the bar and crashing into the wall.

The vampire was back to his feet in a flash of movement. Raising both hands he quickly envisioned a wall of protection separating the half of the bar with him and a now fully panicking Matt Donovan from the other with Damon. The vampire blitzed across the bar floor so fast Abe's eyes couldn't hope to keep track only to slam bodily into Abe's hastily erected barrier. Dazed and confused Damon began banging on the invisible wall but it would not budge. Narrowing his eyes as he felt the vampire's preternatural strength struggle against the shield Abraham decided to end this quickly.

"Forbearne!" He chanted as a lance of electricity arced towards the vampire from his outstretched palm striking him in face and sending him careening twenty feet through the air crashing into tables and turning wood into splinters. He screamed in pain clutching at his face making no move to get up right away with little bits of wood sticking into his skin.

"What the hell is going on?!" Matt's voice boomed in place of the lag in motion completely distracting Abraham.

The glamour was collapsing as it failed to explain away the impossible things the teen was seeing. Managing to catch Matt's wide fearful eyes in his own Abe entered his mind quickly moving past any left over haziness from his bewitchment and seizing full control. Pushing his will behind his intent he hammered a single command into Matt's mind with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

SLEEP.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, Matt's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he dropped to the floor with a loud thud.

With Matt out of the way Abraham turned slowly back to Damon narrowing his eyes, his earlier surprise at seeing a vampire after all these years fleeing in wake of his anger. This vampire, Damon, had caught him completely unaware, touched him. He truly thought the man at the bar to be some ordinary mortal that had too much to drink one Saturday night but, no, instead it was a vampire. A leech. And one that dared to accost him after he'd not even done anything to cause him harm. One that dared to threaten him and by extension his family here in Mystic Falls.

This would not stand. Damon's eyes widened at the look of murder on Abraham's face the image of Emily Bennett impaling him on a tree flashing through his head. With his wounds all healed he blurred back to his feet blitzing towards the door in a burst of movement, strategic retreat clearly in mind.
'Yeah, no.' Abe thought, raising his hand as he reached out with his power putting crushing physical force behind his magic as he caught Damon mid-run, halting his escape.

"Let me go!" The vampire hissed, struggling against the invisible force pinning him in place. With a simple thought Abe suspended the vampire in the air before hurtling him towards the far wall slamming his head against the bricks again and again before dropping him to the floor his face a bloodied mess.

Abe easily walked through his own barrier, it parting around his skin like a waterfall before snapping back into shape. He approached the downed vampire bending down with a sneer on his face and electricity crackling between his finger tips.

"I'm going to be honest." He started lowly, snapping the vampires heads towards him with a flick of his wrist eliciting a deep groan. Damon struggled to stay conscious, the vision of Abe kneeling over him blurring. His skull split open and gushing blood and his healing slowing from the blood loss. Abe watched as the vampire began to very slowly deteriorate. His skin growing sunken and turning ashen gray in color. "I don't know who you are, leech, and I certainly don't care," Abe said, continuing his threat with his chest heaving. "But let's get one thing straight. So long as I am in this town, I am the only authority there is." He didn't need to think as this next spell came easily to mind.

"Corthal malu dominus!" Abe chanted savagely.

He felt familiar magic of the spell flowing through him and brutally attacking the vampire's unprotected mind. Damon screamed in pain on the floor trying in vain to reach out towards a necklace around Abe's throat only for him to move easily out beyond his reach. His arms flopped back down his strength completely failing him as he screamed into the floorboards.

Abe lifted the vampire up into the air once more, the vampire wheezing as he was levitated. Suspended by Abe's power he watched as the vampire's entire body convulsed and contorted with pain from the spell before slowly releasing it. The vampire sighed in relief, the tension in his body slowly abating before he yelped as Abe suddenly flipped his palm right side up spinning the vampire in the air until he was upside down.

"Please..don't!" Damon begged. Abe almost stopped taking in the bloody and battered form of the vampire with a pang of pity but he could he, he realized. While Abraham wouldn't kill him he would make sure this vampire remembered the night he met the new witch taking up residence in Mystic Falls.

Lifting the vampire up higher Abe brutally slammed him onto his head. Once. Twice. Three Times the Charm. Four Times for Funsies.

Considering whether to light him on fire or not Abe decided the man had enough watching as the vampire whimpered in pain covered head to toe in blood, sweat, what really Abe hoped was tears but smelled like something else. Crinkling his nose Abraham idly rubbed his throat looking down dispassionately at the dried blood on his fingers.

He hadn't even seen his family here in town yet and already there's been lethal drama.

One minute he's teleported into a building he thought was long ago closed off, then he's glamouring a teenage mortal for directions, and finally the next thing he knows he's got a young vampire inches away from ripping his throat out. Or at least making the valiant effort of trying to. And he was young, strong no doubt about it, but Abraham could sense the vampire before him couldn't have more than a couple centuries under his belt. As he surveyed the damage done to the grill two things became very clear. One, he would not be cleaning this mess up. And two, this certainly was not how he expected his first night back in Mystic Falls to go, but then again, looking down at Damon he guessed this wasn't how he expected his to go either.

Suddenly not hearing anymore groans of pain or whimpering Abe stilled becoming suspicious and readying himself to shatter Damon's spine before relaxing once he realized the vampire simply blacked out.

"Well this was all..very unexpected." Abe spoke aloud to the empty restaurant not expecting an answer and relieved when he didn't receive one. "And exhausting." He hasn't had to throw around magic like that in decades and he was already feeling it.

He breathed in and out deeply summoning his magic to heal the bite on his neck. It responded slower than he was used to much to his chagrin. His own magical reserves were quite vast but in using such magic in quick succession he'd definitely given himself a work out. The fatigue was setting in as his bones creaked and his head and neck throbbed painfully. He wasn't young anymore, though he may look like it, and all of this spell work was quick to catch up to him.

"I'm getting too old for this shit." With a simple thought he dispelled the shield as the two punctures on his neck finally closed over he watched it wink out of existence with a sharp pop.

Cracking his back he straightened up letting out a short yawn as he loomed over to the unconscious vampire, considering what the hell to do with him. Damon was nearing full desiccation, his healing factor unable to compensate his condition with steady streams of his blood still slowly pooling out onto the floor. Looking down at the vampire's face Abe took in his handiwork with a grimace of distaste, lightly kicking him in the head with the tip of his boot to turn the grizzly sight away. Abe briefly thought of killing him. It would be easy to send his heart flying out of his chest but he quickly dismissed the idea. He didn't know if the vampire was alone in this town and without the knowledge of where exactly this grimoire was he couldn't afford to be hasty. He'd meet with his family in this town soon, tomorrow if he's up for it. He would not do something rash potentially putting them in danger from a flock of vampires.

It has been some time since Mystic Falls last saw Abraham Bennett who knows what's happened here since his last visit.

Abe didn't have the energy to wipe memories of this encounter , at least certainly not neatly and he wouldn't risk the chance that he would accidentally wipe the vampire's slate completely clean essentially creating a newborn vampire running around. Damon would not remember a single thing, and would be forced to relearn his abilities all over again. "No that will not do." Something else would need to be done to handle the situation or at least put it off and vampires were too resistant to glamours to take the risk of doing something similar to what he'd have to do to Matt. Making up his mind he decided he'd settle for banishing him to someplace far away and dealing with this whole thing later.'I could send him someplace with daylight.' Abe thought before an idea came to mind.

Scanning the vampire's bloodied hands he spied a silver ring sitting on his left ring finger and after taking in its ornate detail he found that sure enough it held a lapis lazuli stone. Reaching down he pulled the ring off of the vampire's finger for closer inspection, probing it with his magic as he let the hand flop back to the ground. He sensed the sun magic the ring held as soon as he touched it narrowing his eyes in irritation. "Friends with any witches in town, little leech?" Abe whispered the question examining the ring's beautiful craftsmanship and again not expecting an answer. "Not likely." Quickly Abraham stashed the daylight ring into his coat pocket resolving to figure out exactly what witch the vampire terrorized to make charm it for him or, he pondered, at the very least use it as a bargaining chip if and when he ran into the blood thirsty young vampire in the future.

Readying himself for the banishment Abe cleared his mind. He needed to picture some place far enough that it'll take a vampire absent a daylight ring a good minute to get back. For some reason Chicago, Illinois came to mind but with some further consideration he wasn't opposed. It was certainly far enough away but not too far as to where he'd end up in another time zone for it was early morning there as well. As opposed to teleporting, banishing was simple if not easy. It required equal energy but a lot less focus especially when you don't particularly care exactly where the object of the spell ends up. With a few whispered words Damon Salvatore vanished from the Grill, whisked away to the windy city.

The pool of thick and coagulating blood however remained.

Grimacing in distaste at the display Abraham vanished it as well with a wave of his hand, cracking his knuckles before finally turning to the still sleeping Matt Donovan. "Well. Now that I've taken out the trash. Where were we?"

AN: This story is not one where the OC has no real effect on the plot and will start getting majorly AU pretty soon. I will generally stick to uploads being on a weekly basis with new chapter updates between 7,000 to 10,000 words each or as much as I feel necessary to move the plot really. I am editing as I go and I do hope you enjoy it and encourage you all to stay safe and healthy : )