ALMOST IS NEVER ENOUGH | TVD [3]

XXI • PROMISED LAND

twenty-one. promised land

Salvatore Boarding House

A middle-aged man, who's harboring a passenger inside of him, is helplessly restrained down to an armchair in the middle of the parlor room; Damon sprays water in his face to wake him up, "Wakey wakey. Mister..." He grabs an ID tag from the man's shirt and read it, "Sikes...Head of corporate accounts." Whoever he is, he's one of the many leads to be his urgent aide.

The traveler tries to speak, but the vampire also has his mouth bound, "Oops. Sorry about that! Yeah. Can't have you mumbling any of those annoying traveler ditties. It's a sure migraine. So, here's the deal. My brother and my two exes have all been kidnapped by travelers and I can't seem to find them anywhere. I mean, like, poof, gone. Right. So besides a completely clueless hybrid in my basement and a cave full of sleeping travelers, I've got nothing to go on except you. So I'm going to need you to tell me where I can find your leader, Markos." Damon sits on the double seated couch just before the main door opens behind him and he already knows who it is without even looking behind him, "What's up, Team Meryl Streep?"

Caroline and Isaac share a tired look just before April Young speaks.

"Liv and Luke aren't answering any of our..." She trailed off when she sees who Damon has captive in the living room, "Oh my God! Mister Sikes?"

"You know him?" The eldest vampire in the room looks at the human, unsurprised considering both humans in the room are local residents here.

"Yeah! He helped me open my first savings account! He gave me a lollipop." When she was almost thirteen, April recalled aloud, when life was simpler.

"Well, unfortunately, Mister Sikes here is occupied by some low-life traveler. I saw him and his buddies chanting in the town square last week. I also know that Markos and your traveler comrades are planning some big, flashy spell to undo some super-boring, ancient, witch curse. And where that sucks for us; it just happens to undo all witch magic, i.e. kill, me, him and my sexy blonde frenemy here." Damon gets up to get close with the man once more.

Isaac simply shrugs, "I can be sexy too, you know."

The perky blonde vampire spoke up to the familiar man, "If you know where Markos took Stefan, Rosie and Elena, you need to tell us." ASAP.

"Yep. Sorry. You're going to have to speak up." Damon mocked him, knowing full well that he can't speak with his mouth restrained, "Hmmm. Nope. Didn't quite catch that either." He takes the iron poker by the fireplace and pierces the man's leg with it, causing the traveler to mumble in pain and April to cringe, "I think he's trying to say something." Damon takes the cloth out from his mouth aggressively, "Come on, sweetie pie." Speak.

"Speak." The twenty-one-year-old college junior demanded.

"It doesn't matter where Markos is. Nothing you do can stop him now."