Carefree shadows. #3

[ Seattle ]

[ Hotel Plaisance ]

Lizzie takes a look at the quantity she has harvested then take a step back, carefully moving out of the reach of the two remaining legs.

" I think we're good. " She announces to Alec and Hope while walking beside them.

" Alright... We need to behead it now. " He answers as he keeps holding the Empu'sa head locked between two pieces of wall, it doesn't look like it appreciate it, the furious kicking and hissing don't help it freeing itself.

" Really ? " Hope asks reluctantly but she still lift her arms in preparation.

" It can heal itself if it has digested humans bones, but section its head from the rest of its body and it'll be unable to do so. " Alec explains why. " We could also send it back to its limbo but it would take too much time and your father don't have the luxury to wait Lizzie. " He adds to drive the point home. What he refrains from saying is that it arranges him well if it die. Like that, their interaction will be kept confidential and it could even be more useful, who knows, necromancy can do interesting things he muse as he waits for her to do it.

" Phesmatos Conscidisti ! " Lizzie ruthlessly casts the spell, comsuming the last drops of magic she siphoned off Hope who's looking at her with a surprised expression.

A red line appears on its neck and its head falls on the floor with an unimpressive sound for such a majestic creature. They can see it with clarity thanks to hope who has in the palm of her hand a flame that lights up the hallway.

They don't linger any longer, a man's life is at stake. They rushes into the room 38 and approaches the bed where Alaric's a little more gnawed body still lies down.

" Dad.. It's going to be okay. " Lizzie says to her unmoving father, despite knowing that he can't hear her for she placed him herself under a spell.

" How should I go about it ? " She asks while making sure she didn't spill saliva when she was running.

" Give it to me, I'll do it. " Alec says kindly to her and she slowly gives him the plastic twisted to hold the saliva.

After grabbing it, he uses his other hand to hold Alaric mouth open, he then unceremoniously dump the saliva inside before forcefully closing his jaw to make him swallow.

" Eurk... " Lizzie makes a sound of disgust from the scene playing in front of her. Hope is in the background, watching silently and with attention. Both of them impatient to see it work.

Unfortunately, it will take several minutes. Meanwhile Alec undresses him, his shirt and socks peeling off large pieces of skin when he takes them off. This is why he decides to stop there, he let his jean where it is, as its been the most touched by the corrosive bile of the Empu'sa. Lizzie can't help but look at her father's raw wounds, tears pooling in her eyes.

" Well, everything seems to be handled here so... " Alec says while getting farther from the shirtless man on the bed.

" What's that ? " Hope ignore him and asks while holding her personal source of light close to the floor. " It looks like a magical circle, maybe it has something to do with the monster.. " she adds as she inspects the circle drawn in chalk and the melted candles almost fused to the floor.

" Who cares Hope ! I'm the same as- " Lizzie begins to answer but she realize halfway that she didn't register his name in all the chaos. " Alec. " He offers in a quiet voice as he rolls up Alaric in clean sheets he took from a drawer.

" I'm with Alec, we need to get to fuck out of this hotel. My dad need help, real help like an hospital or somethin'. " She finishes her phrase as she stands by her father's bedside while he's swaddling in the sheets.

" Fine, let's go. " She concedes but still, she takes a picture of the circle, theories flying in her mind as her curiosity grows.

While they extricate themselves as best as they can with a grown man weighing his weight on their arms. Each girls glances at the young man who accompagnies them, similar but different thoughts passing through their minds.

[ Kerry Park ]

[ Two hours later ]

After they got to a hospital, he left without saying goodbye. For Hope however, it justified the use of a locator spell, luckily she has an object he touched, her black suede jacket.

Hope enters the park and glances around her. The rainy weather from earlier gave way to a sky almost completely free from the presence of clouds. The setting sun casts an orange aura over the city, the peoples strolling through the park seem, happy, cheerful.

She finally sees him, sitting on a bench with a hot drink in his hand. She stays there for a while, observing him in his natural habitat. Her overdeveloped sense of smell capturing his fruity scent, a scent of apple and cherry.

Hope walks towards him, her steps silent and akin to the ones of predatory animals, her werewolf gene don't stop only at shape-shifting into a wolf, her human form is also affected.

" You found me..." Alec speaks before her and invites her to sit on the bench with his hand.

" Did you doubt my capacities in witchcraft ? I thought our fight with the Empu'sa was fairly self-explanatory on my capacities. " She says while imitating him when he said it, it makes him chuckle and that makes her smile.

" Still, you haven't answer the question... We helped each others out of necessity, the situation called for it, you don't owe me anything, so, why are you here Hope ? " Alec asks as he turns his head to stare at her, his grey eyes flecked with amber dots makes her feel as if he can see, what she is, what she think and what she want.

" I wanted to thank you, if you didn't helps us... Lizzie's dad would have probably died. " Hope answers after collecting her thoughts.

" I also remember saving you, no thanks for that ? " He retorts with a raised eyebrow, one of his quirks she noticed when they were going to the hospital.

" So did I. " She responds playfully, as she ponder the best way to approach the reason she came here.

" Look- actually I think you guessed but we're not from around here. " She starts and continues when he nods. " There is a school in Virginia, a place for people like us, special. " Hope finishes in a bitter tone.

" Uh... I didn't know but that's good. " Alec answers awkwardly, he wants to say yes however he doesn't find the right words.

" You'll be welcome there. After all, you have the headmaster in your debt. " She adds while taking out a small card from her pocket then she gives it to him. " There's the address on it. " she adds.

" I'm sorry I can't stay any longer. Lizzie and Alaric must be worried that I'm not back. " Hope explains before standing up as Alec follows her example.

" I hope to see you again soon. " She says as he leans forward to lay a gentle kiss on her cheek while she stays immobile, still as a statue.

" Me too Hope. " He responds before walking away, leaving her alone, her cheeks pinkish for a moment before she leaves too.

[ Hospital ]

As soon as Hope enters the sanitized room where Alaric is being treated for his wounds, Lizzie questions her.

" So, did you managed to talk to him ? " Lizzie asks with a mischievous smile as she sends a suggestive look at her.

" Talk to who ? " Hope plays the one who can't understand what her friend and occasional enemy is talking about.

" A-ha ! I don't know, why not the grey-eyed guy who fights like a god and saved our collective asses ? " Lizzie answers sarcastically but she's truly thankful, she can't imagine what she would have done if her dad had died, how she would have announced it to her sister.

" I thanked him for his help and invited him to the Salvatore boarding school. That's all, so don't start. " Hope says in a exasperated tone as she sits on the chair beside the window.

" Oh.. Then I should have gone myself, I could have forged more intimates links with Alec... " Lizzie says after making sure her father is still deeply asleep.

" I don't think he's like that. He seemed rather more intellectual, pretty much the opposite of what you are. " Hope launches a scathing response in her turn.

" Because you've proven that you understand guys so well... " Lizzie retorts shrewdly.

Once again their verbal confrontation is interrupt by Alaric, who's waking up from his long dreamless sleep.

" Ahh.. What a shitty day. " His voice is tired, low, rough because of his dry throat.

Lizzie immediately takes him in her arms, forgetting everything else except that her father is alive and well. " Careful ! You're old man can't handle bear hug right now.." He says as her arms presses against his injuries.

" Well I'm, not completely fine-" Alaricsays as he stares at the peeled portion of skin. " Can you give my bag Hope please. " He adds then search inside his bag once she give it to him.

He pulls out a vial of blood from it then uncork the cap before gulping it down in one go. His wounds covered in petroleum jelly and bandaged close on their own, the skin grows back... In a few seconds he is in the same state as when he arrived in Seattle, healthy, old and tired.

[ Mystic Falls ]

[ February 28, 10h24]

[ Salvatore Boarding school ]

" Home sweet home ! " Lizzie says enthusiastically as the taxi drops them from the airport the school's fence.

They walks to the entrance where a girl with long straight black hair is standing hand in hand, waiting for them.

Lizzie accelerates, eager to tell her every little details about their unfortunate adventure in a hotel ironically named Plaisance.

" Finally you're back ! Something happened..." Josie, the girl who's waiting for them says to her sister, dad and friend, Hope.

" What it is it ? Are you alright ? What of the students ? " Alaric asks without pause as he looks her up and down with a protective gaze.

" I'm fine dad, no need to be so paranoid. " She answers while looking strangely at their grim faces. " Dorian wanted to do something, not stay idle on the sidelines you know.. " She adds while staring pointedly at her dad.

" Come on Josie, don't let the mystery last longer ! " Lizzie says while the four gets inside the school in direction of the headmaster's office.

" I was saying that Dorian wanted to make himself more useful than he's as a professor, so he recruited M.G, Jed and me to find a lead on- " Josie pauses to throw a sorry look at Hope. " Landon. " She finishes her sentence.

" And did you find something ? " Hope asks curiously, with less virulence than Josie expected.

" Uh yeah.. A bus. " She says while Alaric walks in the front and opens the door to his personal office.

Occult books littered shelves on the walls already well filled with trinkets and artefacts of incalculable historical value.

On his oak desk, the family photos with his daughters and their mother who's bring them to term, as well as those of his marriage to his late wife, Jo, the woman with whom he conceived his daughters.

" A bus ? " Lizzie shares her thoughts out loud while he seats on the comfortable leather chair placed behind the desk.

" Jed used his wolf senses to track Landon's scent, it lead us to a school bus. Inside... There was a dozen of kids.. Carbonized. We couldn't find in what directions he left from the bus. Th- the corpses blocked Jed from finding him. " Josie explains, her voice showing how much it has shaken her to see these innocents kids, some were probably the same age as her she thought.

" In short, we still don't know where he is, only the has already made victims and that he's not ready to stop. " Hope intervenes with an aggressive and hurt voice. She trusted him and now he has killed, she can't help the small part of her that feels responsible for this mess.

" You're jumping too quickly to conclusions Hope, we don't what happened. Landon could also be a victim. " Alaric tries to temper the discussion despite that he also has some doubts.

" It was horrible dad ! They were literally burned to coal. " Josie adds her grain of salt, her dark eyes alternating between him, Lizzie and Hope.

" We've also seen gruesome things Josie, so calm down, okay sis ? We get it. " Lizzie says as she puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.

" I think we should all take this day off, we need rest. We won't get anything done if we don't have an objective view of the situation. " Alaric opens a drawer and grab a bottle of bourbon as well as glass, he pours himself a drink then continues. " We're on edge, we'll talk about it later, alright ? " He says rhetorically, take a sip and a show them the exit with the glass.

He waits for them to leave before relaxing his tense muscles and sink into the chair. He takes another sip, bigger this time, then he closes his eyes.

His mind travels, he remembers walking into the room to find Hope, the circle painted with blood on the destroyed door, then the smooth and utterly bizarre texture of the Empu'sa skin rubbing against him as it strangled him in its hold and the total paralysis that followed. Time seemed long to him with the 8 eyes of the creature a few centimeters from him, it's forked tongue buried in the wounds caused by its corrosive bile.

His hand shakes as he brings the glass of liquid forgetfulness back to his mouth.

[ Seattle ]

[ An hour later ]

On the other side of the Hotel's Plaisance street. Alec dressed in a black sweatshirt and gray chino pants watches the building surrounded by yellow banners and some poorly trained cops.

He is holding in his hands two bags soaked in a greenish liquid which drips on the concrete of the sidewalk. In front of him, the roads form a hollow where it meet the sidewalk where rainwater is accumulated in large quantities, alimented by hours of rains from today and yesterday.

Alec steps forward into the puddle, his leg sinks as if the puddle is an abyss, his other leg follows then he falls in the bottomless puddle and disappears from the sight of a shocked and stunned policeman who'll swear he saw the best magic trick in his life when he'll go home to his husband.

He's peticular and unique way of traveling brought him a few meters away from his lair, his precious home. More accurately, he exited from a puddle to exit from another puddle on another sidewalk, not a speck of water on him or the bags as he did.

His apartment is large enough, there are two bedrooms with enough space to fit three beds, he only uses one to sleep. The second is intended for a much more messy use, magic can be abject in some cases, he discovered it too soon in his life, so a dedicated place is always a good idea in his opinion.

He walks through the living room that only contain, a flat TV, a big blue cushy couch and books sprawled on the tiled floor in an orderly chaos understandable only by its creator, him.

He grabs an assortment of knives in the kitchen equipped with robot arms that makes his daily life so much more pleasant, especially since he hates having to cook himself.

He heads for the bedroom, the one where he doesn't sleep with the knives with him.