Chapter 7:

"Emily."

Stefan's voice was hoarse as he stared at the young witch. Her deep brown eyes bored through him while he stood in front of her. He could see how she quickly looked him up and down before her eyes returned in a hard stare to his eyes.

"What do you want, Stefan?" she repeated. Her voice was like he remembered, deep and husky. However now he heard a threat in it that he never heard to her lifetime. Or maybe it was just that Stefan now, more than a lifetime later, realized how dangerous this woman could really be.

He couldn't help it; he felt himself grow stiff under her in intense stare. He didn't even know how it was possible for witches to grow even stronger when they were dead. But he could feel the power radiating of Emily and it made the vampire in Stefan want to run from the powerful witch.

But the brother in him made him stay and face the possible threat.

"Damon. I need help for Damon."

He held his chin high and met the hard eyes of Emily. He wouldn't back down, not if she was able to help. And he was sure she could.

But her next words shattered the little hope that was left in him.

"We can't help you."

Emily's voice was grim, as were her eyes. Nothing in her face told him if it was a lie. But it had to be because no matter what, there was always a solution. That's what Damon told him when they were kids. And it seemed that Damon was always right.

So that left only one possibility:

"You don't want to help." Stefan stated calmly even when rage started to fill his whole body and he could feel the ground vibrating under his feet. It was a difference if the witches were able to help or if they just refused to help him.

But Emily shook her head and said determinedly: "We won't help you."

Stefan's soulful green eyes blazed at her. Pain was clearly written in them with desperation carefully underlining it. They had to help him because he didn't know where else he could get help. His request to the witches was already desperate, they were his only hope.

The pain in his shining eyes intensified when he thought about his brother writhing in pain, surely dying if he did not get help soon. How many vampires before Damon had been infected with the werewolf poison? Surely all of them had suffered the same fate as well. But how many of them had sought for help from the witches? And how many of them had help been granted? Why had he to beg for it?

"Because it's Damon?" he asked, his voice cracking on his brother's name. Was the world really that cruel? Was it decided that some people weren't going to live, no matter how loved they were or how much they would be missed?

And as Stefan looked at Emily's unchangeable impression he decided that yes, the world really was that cruel. So where was the one who decided that Damon was one of those persons who would not live to see the next morning? Because Emily sure as hell wasn't one of them. She wouldn't hold that much power to decide Damon's fate. Or did she?

"You know why."

Why? Why they didn't help? Because it was Damon. Why they refused to help Damon? Because he killed humans. But exactly! He was a vampire and vampires kill. That's what they are, that's what they do. It's not like witches and humans are better, they killed as well. So why exactly was Damon dying again?

"No. No, I don't! So please enlighten me." Stefan shouted furiously which earned him a disapproving look out of doe brown eyes. Emily held his gaze for a few more seconds before she turned away and took two long steps away from him. There she stood with her back turned on him for minutes until she continued to speak.

"To keep the balance. Vampires are not allowed to survive a bite. That's the way it always was and always will be." She explained with casual voice, stating rules that she didn't made and wouldn't break.

Stefan blinked.

"Keep the balance?" Balance of what exactly?

"Of nature." Emily retorted and Stefan couldn't help but hear the boredom creeping into her voice.

"So you're saying he has to die to keep the nature stable." He repeated slowly. Stefan shook his head. That didn't make sense. But Emily nodded once sharply, still not looking in his direction but gazing out into the forest.

And then suddenly realization slammed into Stefan. Nature was unbalanced. Something had changed, something that wasn't allowed to happen. It combined the fates of werewolves and vampires. Klaus.

Stefan's gaze tore away from the forest ground where it had dropped during his train of thought to linger on Emily's small back. Anger once again filled his inner core to an extent that would be considered unhealthy for people as calm as Stefan.

"Then, Emily, tell me. Why is Klaus allowed to live? Why is he allowed to turn into something that's not natural? Why is Damon being punished for something that never was his doing?"

Stefan's vision was pulsing red as he thought about Klaus and his stupid curse and that now again this was costing one more life even after all those they already paid with. It wasn't fair! They tried everything, they paid with blood for the failure but still they couldn't stop it.

The vampires couldn't stop Klaus from turning just as the werewolves couldn't. And Stefan was pretty sure that the witches just didn't. They spoke the curse, they had the power to break it. Which means that they had the power to prevent it from being broken. But they didn't.

"We didn't allow it! We couldn't change it; it happened and now we can't turn back time to avoid it." Emily's tense shoulders and her denying words just strengthened Stefan's assumptions.

"It was a witch's doing. A witch broke the curse! And now I call for vengeance." Stefan threw at Emily's tight back, his voice laced with angry demand.

This finally got him a reaction from the small witch. Emily spun around and looked at him with shock written all over her face.

"You do what?" Her voice was shrill as she stared at him with wide eyes. But Stefan met Emily's surprised gaze with his own hard one.

"It was the witches' place to keep Klaus from becoming a hybrid. A hybrid is not natural. So it has to be erased out of the equation to keep the balance. It's your job to do so." Stefan almost shouted the accusing at the witch. He slowly but surely lost the grip on his anger while confronting the dispassionate woman. He continued to yell his demands at her, his voice rising with every accusing word.

"But since you're not able to kill Klaus, nobody will be expecting it from you. But we are some of the direct victims. And we demand repayment for the lives that your failure cost us. And we want the witches to save Damon as a compensation."

Emily's eyes widened even more when she heard his final demand and she began to slowly stalk back in his direction. Her eyes now flashed with the same anger that Stefan's whole stance shouted out and her voice was low and threatening.

"How dare you to demand the life of one single indifferent vampire for the failure of one witches doing? She did wrong in supporting Klaus. But that doesn't mean that Damon is to live!" She pronounced Damon's name with emphasize to make sure that Stefan saw how unimportant his brother's life was in considering the world's greater good.

"Klaus is altering the life of every single creature living on earth. He affects humans and witches as much as he affects vampires and werewolves. He has to be taking down, I understand that. But Damon is not to be considered with the same amount of attention on witches' side. He is not worth the importance of Klaus!"

Stefan took a step back at her furious words. They hit a sore spot in his heart; it didn't handle the topic of how lowly Damon was considered by everybody well in the moment. His heart denied the truth in Emily's words even while his head agreed with her.

But his heart would always be the more convincing one in relation to his logic.

So he continued to deny her words, shaking his head and throwing trembling words back at her.

"No. You don't get to say what Damon is worth!"

Emily looked up at him and he could see a sad smile play around the corners of her mouth. He shook his head even harder and could feel the tears rising in his eyes at the display of pity from the coldhearted witch.

"It doesn't matter, Stefan. It doesn't matter how much you love him. Don't you understand? Damon is doomed, there is nothing that anyone could do to save him." Her voice was quieter now, almost calming as if she really was trying to comfort him while taking his last hopes.

"No. No, don't say that." His vision blurred as he felt the first drops of sweet moisture run out of the corners of his eyes and down his cheeks, leaving behind wet scars of hopelessness.

"Stefan, maybe it's his time to go now. You know how much he suffered through life and death. Maybe this is the salvation for him."

He heard her but he denied her words, not acknowledging that she was lying out Damon's last comfort in front of him. He was openly sobbing now.

"I know you don't want to let him go. He's your brother and you love him. But it's his time."

He sank down to the earth under her words, crying uncontrollably as the meaning finally hit him with full force.

"Let go." said the calm whisper in his ear for him only to know.

"I can't." screamed his heart out into the world for everyone to hear.

"But you need to. And you need to go now. Go to your brother. You need to be there."

Emily's voice started to fade away along with the surrounding forest. But just as Stefan thought she was gone he heard the wind carry one last goodbye of her light voice in his ear.

"Just remember, there is nothing natural in this world that is able to save your brother."

A/N:

Back from the dead... Not for long but anyway...

So I guess this one's a bit jumpy. But it feels like everything I write is jumpy so no real difference there...

I'm probably going over this one again but I'm just not in the mood right now, so I hope that this is satisfying for now.

Yeah, I'm off hiding in my dreamy head again and don't expect to come out soon, so I guess I see you in a while...

LaLaina