Savior | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 48

Now that she wasn't a vampire, she was basically useless.

Immediately, everyone started demanding for her to go into one of the buildings of Whitmore College to 'rest' while everyone else solved their problem.

"This is ridiculous!" she said sharply. "I can't just go and sit down while you—"

"Mads," said Stefan firmly, "don't argue. You could get hurt."

"But vampire blood still heals me!"

"Maddy," said Damon, holding her shoulders before she could follow after Elena and Caroline, who were going to get the Parker twins while Bonnie looked over the spells Klaus had sent. "Just because you can be healed doesn't mean that you're not in danger."

"What if this is like the cure?" piped up Stefan. "What if you start to age rapidly? What if you immediately get sick, like Katherine did? First thing that happened to her was a sinus infection."

Maddy looked down at the scrape on her knee. "I don't think it'll hurt me to keep active for a bit."

Damon bit into his wrist, offering her more vampire blood to heal. She drank it, but this time, the wound didn't disappear.

"Oh, come on," said Maddy irritably. "Now you don't want to work?!"

"I think I know why," said Meredith, who'd been observing them. "We'd need to run some MRIs and blood tests to be sure but I think it's because I kept you stable long enough for the vampire blood to do something last time. You should have died, Maddy. You would have bled out just like you did when you were human. But I... I intervened and now you're human, and I think the Traveler Magic might have settled into a sort of veil around you. That magic might eventually run out, and then you'll start to rapidly age. In the meantime, it won't allow you to be healed by vampire blood anymore because—"

"— vampires were created by Spirit Magic," Maddy finished. "Right." She huffed in annoyance. "So I'm just expected to sit here and wait?"

"Or," said Stefan, "you could hop on a plane—"

"I can't compel people now!"

"But you still have that Salvatore debit card that'll get you whatever you want, whenever you want. Go to New Orleans right now. See Klaus again while we figure this out. At least if we don't make it out... you get to hug him one last time. There's no more time to argue, Mads, we have to go deal with this right now. If we keep wasting time—"

"What are you gonna do?" asked Maddy worriedly, seeing the determined look in Stefan's eyes.

"A doppelgänger has to die to stop this spell," he said. "If I let someone rip my heart out—"

"No! Stefan, are you crazy?!"

"Mads," said Damon, who seemed to have already discussed this with him while everyone had been bombarding Maddy with questions during the first instant that she'd realized she was human. "We have to stop the spell. Bonnie might find a way to bring Stefan and herself back from the Other Side."

"And if she doesn't?!"

"Then I'll just be dead," said Stefan calmly. "It's okay, Mads, I'm not afraid. This is what needs to be done. You and Damon are all I have. I've already lived. It can't be Elena, it has to be me."

"Stefan, no..."

Stefan pulled her into a hug, though he squeezed so hard that she whimpered a bit as her back cracked. "Hey," said Stefan, drawing back and cupping her face. "It's gonna be okay."

"How can I just sit here and wait for news while you go and sacrifice yourself?" asked Maddy. "The least I can do is help..."

"No," said Stefan. "You need time to relax and take note of the changes you feel in your body, because if there is no 'veil of Traveler Magic' keeping you young, we need to immediately start intervening to keep you from aging and dying. Call Klaus again, ask him to meet you at the airport in NOLA. Stay out of harm's way. We'll update you."