An Elemental Difference - AIR - Book 1 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 58 - Silence is Golden

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

Damon and Jeremy sat in the family room playing Call of Duty 4. Jeremy glared over at Damon as his points increased from a direct kill shot, "You said you never played this thing before."

Damon grinned slyly, "I'm a fast learner. Quick reflexes."

Jeremy groaned, "I knew Stefan was going easy on me! You're using your vampire abilities to beat me, not fair dude!"

Damon chuckled, "Saint Stefan would purposely lose, not with me, little Gilbert."

Jeremy's phone interrupted more of his groans at losing, pausing the game he pulled the phone out of his pocket only to ignore the call when he saw the name flashing. He threw his phone next to him and unpaused the game, missing Damon's curious look.

"Who are you dodging?"

"This girl Anna," Jeremy shrugged and gunned down some more enemy. "She can be, uh, persistent."

Damon, being Damon, asked, "Is she hot?"

Jeremy had to chuckle, "Yeah, yeah, but she can be weird."

Damon shrugged carelessly as he killed more, and his points jumped up again,  "Hot trumps weird, trust me."

Jeremy didn't say anything, even though he wanted to tell Damon about Anna's eyes at the dance, his first thought had been vampire, but then he laughed it off. There couldn't be that many vampires in Mystic Falls. And the chances she would bump into him in the library were astronomical.

Jeremy saw his chance to take over on points when Damon suddenly paused the game and hightailed it to the door, "Dude!"

Damon ignored his calls and opened the front door, just as Stefan was about to enter. Stefan's brow raised, wondering what his brother was doing there, but Damon just stared at him, "Well?"

Stefan frowned as he stepped into the house, "Well, what?"

Damon sighed loudly, "Well, forgetting how long you just girly chatted with Caroline. Well, where is the journal?"

Stefan ignored his quip about Caroline, and groaned internally at Damon's question, "Elena didn't tell you?"

"That pixie still can't find her little witch cousin," Damon gloomed. "Yes, what of it?"

Stefan decided to bite the bullet and tell Damon the truth, "Someone took the journal."

The air seemed to have been knocked out of Damon as he stared at his brother before snapping out, "What? How the hell does anyone know about it?"

Stefan's eyes couldn't control themselves, and when they landed on Jeremy, Damon grilled, "Who did the little shit give it to?"

"Alaric," Stefan admitted as Damon seemed to get tenser. "Jeremy thought Ric was interested as a teacher, nothing else. I found out earlier he's actually a vampire hunter, but after I confronted him, we realized it had been taken."

"Another person knows about it?" Damon snarled out, he then pointed at his brother, "I told you there was something off about that teacher!"

Stefan decided to stay quiet that Damon was the reason Ric was in Mystic Falls and why Ric hunted down vampires.

"So who took it?" Damon demanded.

"I don't know." Stefan shook his head.

Damon glared at the wall until his ears focused on the video game that had been restarted. His glare quickly turned into a smirk as he looked to his brother and motioned to Jeremy with his head. "Well, it looks like baby Gilbert likes to share things he shouldn't."