(3) Just Magic (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Forty-Six

Cassandra pulls on her shawl as Damon paces a little along the length of his car, trying and failing to hide his annoyance. Cassandra knows more than she is letting on, he can read it on her face. Something about this whole thing is rubbing him up the wrong way. He is sure though, that if she did hide something from him, she had a good reason too. He did assure her that he trusted her. He's not annoyed at her. He's annoyed at Stefan.

"Ready?" He asks her, she hums a little and then shakes her head.

"You should go home without me" She offers, he looks at her and frowns. "I should be the one to tell Rebekah about Mikael" She admits, Damon touches her cheek and then nods. Can understand why she thinks that. "I know she left with Matt, but I should try and find her...." Damon kisses her forehead and then pulls back.

"I'll have the drinks ready" He teases and pokes her nose before he climbs into his car and drives away. Cassandra lets out a breath and pulls out her phone, she'll try texting Rebekah first. She is quick to type it out and send it before sliding her phone away again before she makes her way away from Tyler's house.

"Cassandra" She stops and turns, finds Klaus leaning against the wall in the shadows with a bottle of whiskey in hand.

"What do you want?" She complains and folds her arms over her chest.

"It was very clever of you" He offers, she gives him a look. He holds up a bracelet in his hand, the Anti-Cassandra bracelets. "Stefan's" He points out. "He wasn't wearing it tonight..." He lifts his eyes to her. "You had him step in when it looked like Damon was losing" She shrugs a little. "I understand" He admits, she frowns at him. "That special little bond you Scarlet Witches forge..." He leans up and moves towards her, Cassandra takes a step back. "My lovesick little brother who would have done anything to save Alina" Klaus comments, staring off into the distance. "And vice versa" He looks back at Cassandra. "Despite the way it played out" He adds. "You saved my life..." She scoffs.

"That was an accident" She argues, he shrugs.

"Still....not sure how I feel about it" He looks over her and then holds out his drink, she shakes her head. Not wanting to do this with him. She just wants to find Rebekah and then go home. "About owing you" She snorts and looks at him.

"I never even considered that" She points out. "But thanks, now you do owe me one" She backs up a little and smirks. "I think I'll keep it for another day...." He shakes his head but smirks. "Pick my moment to call it in"

"And no doubt I will regret it" He comments, she shrugs and then turns, walking away from him. There is no way Klaus would have let her live if he knew just what she's done. She is pretty sure that even the conception of his hybrids needing her magic won't save her.

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

At the Salvatore Boarding House. Elena and Damon are in the living room, talking about Homecoming, about Stefan, about everything that went wrong. About all of it. Elena wasn't there, so Damon is stuck filling her in on everything that did happen. All of it. Including Stefan's betrayal of them.

"How did this happen?" Elena asks.

"We thought of everything. Klaus having hybrids. Mikael turning on us. Anything that could have gone wrong we were prepared" He then stops and seems to realise. He turns to find Cassandra in the doorway, she gives him a small smile. "This was your plan" He whispers and lets out a breath. "With Stefan...you planned this"

"I told you I had everything under control" She points out. "Stefan is now free of Klaus' compulsion...." She moves into the room to join them. "And you are safe" Damon frowns at her. "You facing Klaus head-on like meant there was the possibility of you dying. He would take you with him, I couldn't let that happen...I couldn't let you die" She worries her hands a little. "I got everything for everyone....even Ally" Damon and Elena frown at her. "I got Kol" Damon stands and looks rather surprised. "Sort of. I mean...Stefan is about to get Kol....but it was my plan" Damon grabs her face and kisses her. She literally saved everyone, even if Klaus is alive. She kept Elena out of it tonight. She stopped Klaus from killing Damon. She freed Stefan. Got Mikael killed. "I tried so hard to make this all work" She whispers against his lips.

"I know" He assures her and pulls her into a hug, she curls into his chest and lets out a breath. He also knows why she kept the Stefan part of the plan from him, it needed to be believable that Stefan betrayed him to side with Klaus. Damon needed to look betrayed. "I know" He kisses her head and rubs her back. "We'll figure out another way to kill Klaus" He adds as he pulls back.

"One where we all live" She points out, he smirks and nods.

"One where we all live" He agrees.

"And you know what.....I'll give it a shot, with Stefan and his humanity" She adds as Damon moves away, towards the little drinks table. "I'm more powerful now, more so than I have been before....with him free of the compulsion, I can try and find that switch, force it back on" She offers and lets out a breath. Damon pours them all a drink.

"Do you think that will work?" Elena asks.

"I have no idea" Cassandra admits. "I've never done it before....but I can't make it any worse, right?"

"Right" Elena agrees and then lets out a breath. "Well...tomorrow we can talk about this...I'm going to go home" She whispers as she stands. "Cas, are you...?" Elena leaves that there, Cassandra and Damon share a look, Damon shrugs back in way of answer.

"I'm going to stay" Cassandra answers turning to Elena. "Me and Damon, we have something to finish..." Damon raises an eyebrow and shrugs at Elena's questioning look.

"Alright, well" Elena shrugs a little, she waves over her shoulder as she leaves. Damon shifting closer to Cassandra as she sits on the couch, stretching out slightly to get comfortable.

"What's this thing then?" He asks as he sits at her side, she hums and turns, straddling his lap, he raises an eyebrow at her.

"I don't like feeling....empty" She answers, he smirks at her.

"Ooo" He pulls her closer, running his hand up under the back of her dress, she smacks his chest and smirks.

"No, I meant..." She touches his head. "In here"

"Oh" He realises and then leans forward to kiss her, nudging her nose. "Well, we can fix that too" He agrees before he kisses her along her jaw. "But first things first, we celebrate..." He stands, lifting her up with him, she chuckles and wraps her arms around his neck.