Warrior | Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 16

Stefan called her once she was back at the loft.

Elijah was going to spend the night at Gia's apartment, which meant Graciela could talk to him all night, if she wanted to. It left her feeling excited.

"How did it go?" she asked. "Did you talk to Jo?"

"I did," he said. "Ric didn't get the Ascendant. Both were hurt, obviously, and Damon wasn't happy, but it's going to go in our favor, anyway. The twins did a spell and found out Kai is out in our world already. Alaric and Jo are preparing to go into hiding. Jo gave us the Ascendant willingly. Damon and Elena went in to get Bonnie. She's back now. Shaken, injured, but she's alive."

"Your voice," she murmured. "Something... is off. I would expect you to sound happy, but you don't. You sound angry."

"I... I need to tell you something. A secret I've kept from my brother for a long time. Something that came up today and... almost made me lose control."

"What is it, Stefan?"

"My distant nephew, Zach Salvatore... he um... in 1994, was with a lady named Gail. She was pregnant when Damon and I came to stay at the Boarding House. Damon fed on Gail, and she died. Years later, he killed Zach. I never told anyone that the baby survived. Damon thought it was dead. But I kept her safe... I had her adopted by a good family. Her name is Sarah, and she's a photography student at Duke. This girl came to Whitmore today, claiming to be Sarah. But it wasn't her, I knew it. Enzo saw us. He tried to get me to spill my secret about Sarah. He killed this girl... and I almost retaliated viciously. I was so angry."

"Oh my god," whispered Graciela. "When the hell is Enzo going to let this grudge go? Damon's alive again! He doesn't need to do all this... Stefan, don't feel bad, you didn't lose control, from what I'm gathering, and in a situation like that... hell, I'd snap, too. You've done a good thing, keeping her safe. I understand why you wouldn't want Damon to know, really, I do. Unless you can ensure he'll never hurt her, I imagine it would be best to wait. I'm so sorry that Enzo killed that girl in front of you."

"I wanted to kill him, Gigi," he admitted. "I wanted to... to rip him apart for that. Because now, I know he won't stop until he finds out the truth."

"Then you make that truth meaningless," she whispered. "You can choose to tell Damon the truth, so that Enzo has nothing to reveal to him. You can choose to contact Sarah somehow, to warn her, so that Enzo can't find her."

"Yeah... I should probably tell Damon. To avoid problems in the future if anyone else tells him, instead of it being me. I just feel like lashing out. This is why I didn't want to come back. I didn't want to feel like this anymore. And... and there's more."

"Tell me. Get it out of your system."

"Bonnie came back with a booklet she found when Kai took her to Portland. Gemini Coven history. And... a notebook that mentioned all prison worlds created. All are collapsed except two... the one from 1994 and one from 1903. There was a name and a picture, on the page for 1903. My mother."

Graciela's mouth dropped open. "Your mother? But you said your mother died of consumption."

"She did," he murmured. "But according to that booklet, she's a vampire, and she's in a prison world. There's no other information, no descriptions of why she's there, just that she is."

"And do you want to go in and get her?"

"I do. Damon doesn't want to, but I do. The only problem is we need the 1903 Ascendant. And to get that, we need to either go back to Portland, which will lead to us getting killed for even asking, or... helping Kai so that he'll give it to us. I just don't know what to do. I don't know how to feel. Right now, I think... it's not a priority. And as much as that hurts I know I need to prioritize keeping Jo safe, keeping the Gemini Coven from being led by a sociopath. But I also know, and will know forever that my mother didn't die the day I thought she did. I have a chance to see her again."