Wayward Heart: Book 1

Part 9

In Alaric's classroom Damon sat at one of the desk while Emma sat on the top of the desk he was at, Alaric leaned against his desk while Elena and Caroline each sat at a front row desk. They had been running through plans for over an hour, Emma was becoming impatient and Damon could tell she was itching to start when she started pulling on a loose string on the side hem of her jeans. He grabbed her hand to settle her and she looked down at him with an appreciative smile.

Elena wanted to go over the final plan one more time, "I'll lure Stefan away from the bonfire, and while he is distracted."

"I'll shoot him," Alaric finished.

Damon scoffed, "Can't Bonnie just juju him or something?"

"After what you pulled last night we need to leave Bonnie out of this," Emma said quietly, hoping only he could hear her.

"What did you do now Damon?" Caroline, who was across the classroom from them, demanded.

Emma stared at her shocked, she out of everyone there should not have heard her, Damon noticed her confusion, "Vamp."

"What?" Emma tried to hide the disgust that was in her voice, "Is any one else here a freaking vampire?"

Elena ignored the exchange and tried to break the sudden tension that had suddenly enveloped the room, "Caroline, are you covered?"

Caroline stopped glaring at Emma and turned to Elena, "I'll make sure the old Forbes jail cell is ready."

"We are forgetting a key player here," Damon sat up slightly, "Rebekah, anywhere Stefan goes, the blonde ponytail tends to follow."

"Which is why it is your job to keep her away," Elena said plainly, Damon looked over at her incredulously.

"How?" Damon wasn't catching on, "She's an Original, last time I checked, we are out of daggers."

Emma had already picked up on what Elena was asking Damon to do, "She wants you to use your charms."

Alaric scoffed, "Might have a better chance finding a dagger."

A giggle escaped Emma which made Damon let go of her hand and cross his arms across his chest.

"Are you ever not going to be mad at me for a day?" Damon questioned Alaric.

Alaric looked over at Emma and then back to Damon, "Doubtful."

The door to Alaric's classroom opened and everyones heads snapped towards whoever it was. Emma was shocked to see Tyler Lockwood.

"Sorry I'm late. What's going on?" He apologized.

Elena informed him of his role, "We need you to raid your mom's vervain supply, enough to keep Stefan down for a while."

Tyler was suddenly very animated, "You can't do that to Stefan."

"Why not?" Caroline looked at him like he was crazy.

Again Elena sought to calm down the room, "Trust me Tyler, it's in his best interest."

"Yeah, it's not in Klaus's," he defended himself.

"Klaus is the bad guy Tyler," Caroline gave him a judgmental look, "why are you acting like some freaky hybrid slave minion?"

"A what now?" Emma had never heard of a hybrid until now.

Damon began to stand, "Uh-oh."

"Klaus made me who I am Caroline," Tyler continued to defend himself, "I owe him everything."

"Oh boy," Damon commented as he snuck a vervain syringe from behind Alaric, as soon as Emma saw him do that it set her on edge and she began to stand, ready to defend herself.

"What's going on?" Elena was visibly confused.

Tyler started backing out of the classroom, "I'm just going to go."

As soon as Tyler's back was to him Damon made his move and grabbed Tyler in a half choke hold as he injected him with the vervain.

Caroline jumped up as Tyler's body went limp, "What are you doing?"

"He's been sired," Damon pulled Tyler over to the side of the desk and laid him there before stepping back over to Emma.

"What?" Alaric asked as he walked past him.

"Sired," Damon clarified again, "he feels loyal to Klaus because it was Klaus's blood that created him."

"Creepy," Emma commented and Damon nodded in agreement.

"He'll constantly seek acceptance from his master, it's rare, but maybe less so in hybrids," Damon shrugged.

"What the hell is a hybrid?" Emma asked looking at anyone for clarity.

"Half werewolf, half vampire," Damon gave an over simplified answer.

Just as Emma was about to ask more Alaric interrupted, "I'll catch you up later Em, we don't have time right now."

"How do I fix him?" Caroline hadn't looked away from Tyler.

"Get a new boyfriend," Damon grabbed Emma's hand and headed for the door so they could get started on getting his brother back under control.

It was agreed that Emma needed to stay away from the bonfire in order for everything to work out properly, she watched the scene from the hood of Damon's Camaro. She watched as Elena set up the ruse for Stefan and as Damon sat next to Rebekah. Watching him flirt with Rebekah was amusing, it was so obviously over the top that Emma couldn't believe that a woman that had been alive for thousands of years was falling for it. All of a sudden the scene changed and Rebekah was tense, the stick that had a marshmallow on it just a moment ago was suddenly sticking out of Damon's chest. Emma got off the hood of the car and started to run for Damon, her feet slipped slightly on the fallen leaves as she stopped in front of him but she caught her balance quickly.

"Oh my God," she started looking for ways to help him but he began to pull it out on his own, a sharp breath and a groan later he had the stick out and was throwing it in the fire pit in front of him, "are you okay?"

Damon stood up and inspected the hole in his shirt, "That sucks."

"What happened?"

"Barbie might be a little less air headed than we gave her credit for," Damon looked around as if he heard something, "let's get out of here."

He grabbed Emma's hand and pulled her with him towards the parking lot. As they headed back Emma noticed smoke coming from the other side of the parking lot.

"Damon look," she pointed towards it.

"Pretty sure that is where Ric's car is," Damon said.

He kept pace with Emma as they both ran for the area, Elena and Ric were sitting on the ground with an unconscious Stefan next to them; Ric's truck was on fire in front of them.

"What the hell happened?" Damon asked.

Neither Elena or Alaric could figure out what had happened, all they knew was that the car doors wouldn't open and then it was suddenly on fire with Elena and Stefan trapped inside.

"Clearly it's some kind of witchy voodoo," Damon looked between Emma and Elena, "so can we involve Bonnie now?"

Emma agreed with Damon, "I don't think we have a choice."

Elena rolled her eyes and helped Alaric get Stefan into her car.

Back at the Salvatore boarding house Damon and Emma were up in his room, Damon was leaning his back against the headboard while Emma laid her head on his chest.

"Today did not go how it was planned," Emma commented.

"Trust me, this is about as close to staying on plan as we have ever gotten, so I'll take the win."

Emma rolled her eyes and snuggled into Damon's side, both of them were nodding off when a crashing noise woke Damon up. He was immediately alert, gently he got out of bed so he didn't disturb Emma. It was silent as he walked downstairs and saw a broken vase in the hall.