Wayward Heart: Book 1

Part 32

Emma jumped out of Damon's car when she saw Alaric leaning against the Salvatore tomb in the cemetery, her heart thumped hard against her chest as she ran across the lawn and into his arms. He held her close, neither of them wanting to let go.

On the way Elena had called to let them know that Ester had turned Alaric into a transitioning vampire, but his evil alter ego was at bay, at least for now.

"Oh my god Ric," Emma tried to hold back tears, "we have to get on the road, I think we can make it to the Winchesters in time."

Alaric sighed and pulled away from Emma, "Em, listen to me, I'm not going to complete the transition. My dark side was bad enough as a human, whatever Ester did, I can't be a vampire."

"You don't have to," Emma shook her head, "Sam knows how to prevent it, he has done it before. As long as you don't feed, we can fix this."

"Different kind of vampire," Alaric reasoned, "not to mention we would never make it on time."

"You're not even willing to try?" Emma released Alaric completely and stepped back, "What do you want me to do? Lock you in a tomb to die?"

Alaric said nothing, Emma shook her head in defiance as Meredith came up beside her.

"Meredith, can you give him enough sedative to knock him out until I can get him to Kansas?" Emma asked her.

"Probably but-" Emma cut Meredith off before she could finish her explanation.

"Then do it," Emma turned to Damon, "help me and hold him down."

No one moved.

"Please, Em, let's not make this any harder than it already is. You should go," Alaric looked to Damon briefly, "Damon is here, he'll make sure it'll all go down the right way."

Damon stepped forward slightly but Emma shoved him back again.

"No!" She screamed at him, "Get in the damn car Ric."

Alaric stepped up behind Emma, who was facing away from him. He pulled her into his chest and held her there as realization came crashing down around her. Her body shook as sobs began escaping her, finally her knees gave out and she pulled them both to the ground. Alaric kept her close and continually tried soothe her.

"Em, I love you," Alaric said quietly, "you are always going to be my weird, little family member, but I have to do this to keep you safe."

Alaric looked up to Damon and motioned for him to take Emma away. When she felt Damon's arms around her, she began punching and scratching at him to keep him away from her. Even after all the loss he had seen her go through, this way by far the worst. His heart felt heavy as he finally managed to pry Emma, still kicking and screaming, away from Alaric and towards his car. Meredith held up one of the syringes filled with a sedative and offered to use it on her to calm her down, Damon reluctantly nodded and fought Emma to give Dr. Fell a fighting chance at injecting her. Damon only had to hold on to her for five more minutes before the medication finally started to take effect and she wasn't able to fight him as hard as before, eventually he was able to get her into the back of his Camaro. He sat there with her for another moment, brushing her hair with his fingers, until the sedative completely started working and Emma nodded off to sleep.

Damon met Meredith back at the front of the tomb.

"I gave him a sedative, he'll fall asleep first, he'll go comfortably," she looked down at the ground, still trying to control her emotions.

"Well," Damon shrugged, "I would offer to snap his neck but I don't think he would take me up on it and Emma might actually kill me."

"You seem surprised."