(2) Just Magic (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Mason walks down the front steps and towards his jeep, which is blocked in by a transportation truck. He sighs and hangs his head before moving around to the back of the truck.

"Hey, can you move your van? I'm blocked in" He asks then pauses as he reaches the back. He sees Cassandra trying to remove a table from the back of the truck. "Why don't you just...?" He wiggles his fingers at her, she shoots him a look and then almost tumbles with the table. He moves over to help her. "How did you get stuck doing that by yourself?" He asks as grabs the table and starts to pull it out.

"All the guys bailed. Something about draft picks. I don't know, I don't speak that language" Cassandra looks around, to make sure that they're alone, and then back at Mason. She curls her fingers slowly at her side. "That's a nice bracelet" She comments as he sets the table down. He touches his wrist but finds that the bracelet is gone. He lifts his eyes to her, to find that she has the bracelet in her hand. She holds it up and smirks at him.

"Give it back" He snaps and takes a step closer to her. She tilts her head with an intense look, curls her fingers on her free hand, pulling on her powers, her eyes glowing red and then she throws the table at him, sending him flying backwards. She tucks the bracelet into her pocket and makes her way towards Mason, holding her hands out at her side, her mist slivering through her fingers and towards him, entering his mind. She jerks her hands a little, the mist thickening. He grabs his head and yells in pain and falls down onto his knees. Damon appears at Cassandra's side and nods.

"Boy, I remember how that feels" He comments and looks at Cassandra. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Buttercup" She glances at him, he winks at her and she smirks. Turning back to Mason, she curls her hands, a blast of energy leaves her hands and hits his mind with full blast. Knocking Mason unconscious. Damon whistles impressed.

.............

Damon glances at Cassandra as he drives Mason's jeep, she's curled up against the passenger side door, her phone in her hand, her legs tucked under herself.

"What are you doing?" He asks her, she hums and shrugs.

"Texting Bonnie" She answers. "To say thanks for....you know the whole bracelet thing" She reaches into her pocket and pulls out Mason's bracelet, turns it around in her hand. "You know what this means, right?" She asks him, he frowns a little. "It means Katherine has a witch on side" She throws the bracelet onto the dash of the jeep. "She has someone doing the spells to block me..."

"Cause she's scared of you" He adds and gives her a look. He knows what that means. It makes her a target. If Katherine is this threatened by her, she might just go after Cassandra to get her out of the way. "Cas, what you can do....you are a real threat to her." He looks back at the road, his fingers tightening on the wheel. He knows Katherine. He knows that she won't hesitate to kill Cassandra if she gets in the way. Cassandra slides her phone into her jacket pocket and then slides along the seat bench to his side.

"We'll get what we need from Mason," She tells him as he wraps an arm around her shoulders to hold her close to him. "And we'll stop her from whatever it is she is planning" He hums a little and looks at her. "Happy endings all around...except for Katherine, obviously" He smirks a little and then kisses her softly, quickly, before going back to concentrating on the road.

"So you and me together" He starts. "That's your...happy ending?" She shrugs a little.

"Maybe. But mostly me being alive, my friends being alive..pretty much everyone being alive, that's....that's my happy ending" He snorts a little and nods.

"Simple. But...yeah, I get it" He teases a little and squeezes his arm around her. That her happy ending involves people living, is actually rather tragic, that it's not college or 2.5 kids or whatever. It says a lot about her life. That all she wants to do is make it out of it alive. That her friends and family make it out alive. He kisses her head and sighs a little.

..............

Cassandra grabs Mason's bag from the back of his jeep as Damon hoists Mason up and over his shoulder before heading towards the boarding house. This is beyond weird. This whole thing is not something a normal teenager would be doing. It's no wonder her life plans are all out of whack. She lets out a breath and closes the back of the jeep before following Damon.

...............

Damon carries Mason through the house to the main living area where Cassandra drops the bag into an armchair as Damon places Mason into a chair set up in the centre of the room. He glances around and then down at his feet. He pulls a face. It's a good rug, it would be a shame if it ended up covered in blood.

"Okay, grab that corner," He tells Cassandra who gives him a look back before moving to grab a corner of the rug as he does.

"Why are we doing this?" She asks him.

"Because I don't want to stain the carpet" He answers, she snorts and then chuckles a little.

"I knew you were gonna say something like that" She offers fondly. She shouldn't be so fond of this stuff, of him doing this stuff, but she honestly doesn't really have a bad feeling about it. Yes, he hurts people and kills people, but so far, in her life, it's been bad people. And she can't really hate him for that. Or even judge him for it. That probably says a lot about her actually. And she shouldn't linger on the whys about it. The two of them roll up the rug and Damon lifts it out of the way. He then walks over to Mason's bag.

"He's not gonna be out much longer" Cassandra comments as she cocks her head, watching Mason. "His mind is stirring" Damon takes chains from Mason's bag.

"Whoa. Looks like this guy's used to being tied up" Damon comments and then stops, cocking her head hearing something outside.

"What?" Cassandra asks him.

"Car" He answers and nods for her to go have a look. She hums a little as she walks away.

......

Outside, Bonnie climbs out of Cassandra's little yellow bug just as Cassandra leaves the house. She raises an eyebrow seeing Bonnie. This is a surprise, considering her stance earlier.

"What are you doing here?" Cassandra asks Bonnie who shrugs a little.

"I brought your car over" She answers and hands over the key. "And well...I'm curious as to what is going on" Cassandra smirks a little.

"It's very hard not to get sucked in, isn't it?" Bonnie nods in agreement. "Do you want to stay?" Cassandra asks her, Bonnie looks up at the house.

"Is Caroline in there?"

"Yeah" Cassandra answers.

"Okay," Bonnie offers. And it's a step forward. She's not running away from Caroline. She's going to see her. Be polite and nice and friendly. It's progress.