Empath ‣ Klaus Mikaelson [1]

Four

It was a little early in the morning when Talia was woken up by her very loud ringtone. She almost never kept her ringtone on unless it was morning, and it just so happened to be convenient.

"Hello?" Talia murmured groggily.

"Hey," Elena greeted on the other end of the line. "Do you wanna come to the Grill with me? I want to brief you on what happened at Duke yesterday."

"You want a boring adult in on your mystery gang?" she asked in disbelief.

"We already have Damon and Alaric," she said. "What's one more?"

"Your flattery is overwhelming, but why do you want to suddenly include me? Yesterday, no one cared."

"Well, as it turns out, you may be right about the whole werewolf thing. Something happened with Stefan and Caroline last night."

"Caroline?" she asked in shock. She sat up in bed, very awake and worried, and grabbed a towel to bring into her shower. "Was she bit? Please tell me she wasn't bitten."

"She wasn't bit," Elena assured. "Everyone's fine. No one got hurt."

"Thank God. So, you think it's Mason, 'cause I sure do."

"I don't know. I wasn't there to see the Lockwood wolfman. Just come down here soon."

"I'm just gonna shower and stuff and walk over. I'll be there in twenty to thirty. Also, how did you get my number?"

"Literally everyone in the group has your number now. Emergency contact sheet and very gossipy vampires."

"And I thought I wasn't important. See you there."

She hung up, showered, and dressed in one of her jeans and shirt combo that she threw into her travel bag. Marcel should have a compelled mover to bring her her stuff any day. Then she walked to the Grill, where Elena was reading from a book.

"What do you want?" she asked a little bitterly before looking up. "Sorry. Thought you were someone else."

"Damon?" Talia asked.

"Maybe," she answered shyly. "Come, sit down with me if you want."

Talia sat down and started picking nail polish off her nails in boredom, watching as the teenager across from her tried to ignore the world and read her book. Curious, she asked, "What's up with you and Damon?"

"I might have done something not good," Elena admitted, sounding uninterested as she continued reading. "It had to be done and Damon's pretty pissed at me."

"When is he ever not pissed at someone?"

"That's funny coming from you."

"Are you saying that I'm an angry person?"

"Yes."

"You'd be surprised how calm I can be, Elena."

"Talia, you broke a guy's nose in your freshman year because he looked at you funny."

"Well, he was emoting some stuff I didn't like," she admitted, throwing her hands up in mock surrender. "I'm an Empath, remember? I can feel your annoyance pouring from your aura."

"How does that stuff work, anyway? I'm kinda curious since Damon said you gave him an aneurysm."

"I kinda absorb people's emotions naturally and more when I feel it's needed. I always know what someone is feeling. It's kinda overwhelming, especially around vampires since everything is heightened, and I can also kinda throw feelings back in defense. It causes, like, witchy aneurysms, but they're not as strong."