Wayward Hearts- Book 4

Part 30

 Emma groaned as she awoke, her entire body felt like it was burning. She was almost afraid to open her eyes and find out what level of hell she had entered. As she tried to move her hand, her wrist started burning. Iron. She finally opened her eyes.

"No! No! No!" Emma began yelling and fighting against the restraints.

"Looks like my newest subject is awake," Wes smiled down at her.

His smile was unnerving. No actual emotion beyond joy for the torture he was inflicting. It was more of just a muscle spasm he couldn't control.

"You are one sadistic son of a bitch," Emma gritted her teeth through the pain as she watched Wes grab a scalpel from a table next to her.

Wes paid her no mind and started looking for the area he wanted to cut open first. He settled on her hand. He wondered if there was a source for her flames there, Emma began to scream in agony despite her best efforts to keep herself stoic. Before he could get very far with his procedure, Emma was healing. Wes sighed in frustration and reached up to an IV bag that was hanging above Emma's head, he hastily stabbed her with the needle and turned on the drip as fast as it would go. The bag was filled with diluted iron, just enough to keep her weak and unable to heal or hurt him, but not enough to weaken her to the point that she would lose consciousness. Emma started screaming again as he returned to him work.

________

"Holy Roman Empire?" Stefan quizzed Elena, he had agreed to help her study for her history exam, they were working by the fireplace in the library.

"Not really an empire, but 1648," Elena answered smugly.

Stefan smirked, "There goes your perfect score."

"What? No! That was right!" Elena moved to look over Stefan's shoulder, leaning into him closely

"The book says it was 1806."

"Okay, well 1806 may technically be right, but it was the Peace of Westphalia that truly ended the empire and that was in 1648, trust me," Elena corrected.

Stefan looked at her confused. She had never shown interest in the Roman Empire before and he wasn't sure how she could be so sure on her answer.

"I may have done a paper on the Holy Roman Empire in high school," Elena tried to shrug off his curiosity.

"Well if you want to pass the test I suggest you write down exactly what's in the textbook," Stefan told her; they were interrupted by the sound of knocking at the door, "oh, that would be Caroline. I asked the sheriff to help me track down Damon."

Stefan stood up from the couch and jogged to answer the door. As soon as he did, he was greeted by a concerned looking Caroline.

"You were right," she informed him as she handed him a pile of police reports, "he is off the rails. This is from my mom."

Stefan shuffled through the papers quickly, "Let me guess, animal attacks and missing persons?"

"Check and check, but there is something else. All of the victims were found desiccated, in their homes, and without their heads."

"Damon's...feeding on vampires?" Stefan looked at Caroline for clarification before he looked through the files one more time, memorizing the crime scenes, "I should not have let him go."

"No. Uh uh. No, You are not turning Damon's roosting chickens into a Stefan Salvatore guilt trip," Caroline waved her finger at Stefan, "what I don't understand, why is Emma letting him do this? I thought she was with him?"