Coalesce (Book Six of The Vampire Diaries)

Ch. 9: I Alone

In Alaric's office, Stefan, Damon and I were talking about Alaric.

Stefan looked at Damon. "You didn't compel him to get her drunk."

"No," Damon agreed. "I compelled him to do whatever it takes, and considering the Ascendant is the key to her psycho brother's weird prison world, I'm sure it's gonna take her a few to open up about it."

******

I poured some booze from a flask into a coffee mug. 

Stefan looked at Damon. "You realize he is gonna kill you when he finds out what you did to him."

"My relationship to ruin, thank you," Damon told him.

"We didn't complain when you ruined yours with Caroline," I told him.

"I didn't ruin my--" Stefan started.

"Yeah," I told him. "I'm sure she's fine. She's on vacation with her mom, eating ice cream out of the carton, convincing herself she never liked you in the first place." 

Stefan took the mug from me. "You done?" 

"Careful, Stefan," Damon told him. "I know it may seem easy to be the big, bad Salvatore, but soon, you'll find yourself lying in the middle of the road, pouring your heart out to a stranger, having an existential crisis." 

"Yeah, great," Stefan said sarcastically. "So, uh, when's the grand theft gonna happen?" 

"Assuming everything went well, it's already happened, which means..." I trailed off, looking toward the door expectantly.

Alaric opened the door, walking in, handing the Ascendant to Damon. "Here it is."

"Thanks, buddy," Damon told him, handing him a tray with coffee and a bag of breakfast food. "There you go." He compelled Alaric. "Go home to Jo, be a good boyfriend, forget this ever happened." 

******

Matt had called Stefan and me to meet up with him at a diner.

We walked in to see a girl sitting at a table.

Matt and Enzo stood face to face, confronting each other.

"Enzo, leave," Matt told him.

"Or what?" Enzo asked.

"Or maybe I'll pick up where Tripp left off," Matt answered.

"Go on, then," Enzo told him.

"Hey," Stefan told them. "I really wouldn't do that if I were. You hurt him, and, uh, I hurt you, and I really don't feel like cleaning up two corpes today, especially when Kaylin here will hate me forever because Matt's her ex and Enzo's her current." 

"Unofficially," I told them.

"Making threats and complicating rather easy relationships in front of impressionable family," Enzo told us. "How brutish."

I looked at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?" 

The girl at the table stood up. "Me. He's, uh, talking about me. I'm Zach and Gail's daughter, Sarah Salvatore."

I looked at her in shock, looking at Stefan in confusion.

I had thought that she had died along with Gail. 

Stefan didn't look shocked. He looked confused and suspicious. 

******