An Elemental Difference - FIRE - Book 2 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 11 - 1% humor and 99% idiot

SALVATORE BOARDING HOUSE

"This is what Katherine wants?" Damon looked down at the milky stone, unimpressed. "And she chose Mason Lockwood to do her dirty deeds? Werewolf thing aside, the guy is a surfer."

Surrounding the large table in the library was the group, which Aella had officially coined: Murder Inc. Stefan, Caroline, Elena, Jenna, Jeremy, Anna, Alaric, and Damon, each wore the official badges Aella had spent a sleepless night making that she had - not too forcefully at all - pinned to their clothes.

Ignoring Damon, Aella's green eyes narrowed on the stone before she looked up at him. "For once, my vision allowed me to see the two as clearly as I see you. Katherine said, 'I don't want you to get distracted. I need you to find the moonstone'."

Caroline turned to Stefan, "That's what she meant about George Lockwood when you asked her how he let her go."

"Something he wanted desperately," Stefan nodded at her.

"So, if she's the one that gave the stone to Georgie Lockwood," Damon picked up the stone, examining it closer. "Why does she need it back? That's the beauty of Katherine; she's always up to something."

Jenna looked to Alaric, who stood next to her, "Has anything like this come up in Isobel's research?"

Ric shook his head, "No, but there's a lot that I've yet to get through. This was Isobel's life work; it's going to take more than a few days to get through it. More like months."

"You've not heard of anything like this?" Anna asked Aella. "Jeremy said you've got a large collection of Grimoires."

Aella shrugged, eyes wide, "You mean a magical stone that vampires and werewolves need for some special reason." She scoffed, "For once, that seems a little too bedtime stories for us."

Elena frowned, trying to remember why something about Aella's words sounded so familiar. Then it clicked, and she looked at the witch with a grin, "Because it was a bedtime story."

"Doppelgänger 2.0 say, whaaaaaat?" Damon smirked. He'd found Caroline's name for Elena entirely humorous when she'd recalled her remarks to Katherine.

Elena rolled her eyes, ignoring Damon as she looked between Aella and Caroline, "When we had sleepovers when we were like five or six? Aella couldn't sleep without the story her uncle used to tell her."

Jenna scoffed, "You mean the one he tried to scare her with, and instead, she ended up loving it so much and needed it told to her whenever she was away from home."

Elena looked to her Aunt, "You remember?"

"The story? No," Jenna shook her head with a smirk. "But I had met Nate the year before, and of course he hit on me with this ridiculous line about nachos and jalapeños-"

"You mean: You and I are like nachos with jalapeños. I'm super cheesy, you're super hot, and we belong together," Aella mocked her uncle's voice as she recited the line. At Jenna's wince, she laughed, "Yeah, that was his go-to line for so long."

"It's still one of the worst lines I ever heard," Jenna shuddered. "I remember the story because I thought it was karma in its purest form, as Aella would only accept hearing the story from Nate and no one else."

"I remember that," Caroline's eyes lit up. "That's when my crush on Nate first started; his voice was so dreamy."

Aella was perplexed, "Why do I have no memory of this?"

"I don't know how," Elena's eyes were wide with surprise as she looked at Aella. "It happened for at least three or four years..." She frowned, trying to remember some of the stories so Aella could recall the memories, "Something Van something."