Warrior | Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 24

House arrest sucked.

And it wasn't even a full-on house arrest. Graciela could still move to and from school, but if she wasn't in class, then she had to be at the loft. She supposed it could have been worse.

Her only outing in the days after the full moon was to Hayley and Jackson's new apartment to babysit Hope. She did homework while the little girl practiced walking around, making her stuffed animals talk to each other.

Elijah informed her that he'd seen Tristan. He and Lucien seemed motivated to protect their sires from the prophecy, but according to Tristan, there was a weapon in play that Lucien either had already or knew where to find. Elijah elected to not trust either of them. He and Klaus intended to kill their First Sired as soon as they had this supposed weapon under their control.

Stefan was good company, virtually. Graciela tried to pretend Valerie didn't exist, and it helped significantly. Things were back to how they usually were— they'd rant about their days to each other and at least get some frustration out of their systems. Lily had finally realized Oscar was missing, which meant it was only a matter of time before the Heretics realized that Damon had him. In which case, it was about to become very hard to convince them that Damon hadn't been the one to kill him.

"It's only been a week and a half and I already feel like I'm going insane," said Graciela. "I finally have college friends. You know, like the ones you don't really talk to outside of class unless you're complaining about a professor or an assignment, but they're still technically friends and have a potential to become closer friends once you know them more? A group of them from my inorganic chem class invited me to this Halloween party, it's taking place at Rousseau's, not at one of the Tulane frats and I really want to go but I know that if I ask Elijah he'll probably say no."

"You can't know for sure if you don't try, right?"

"Do you think it's better to ask him last minute and give him puppy eyes or ask him in advance?"

"Good question. Umm... how well do you think he'd react if you went with the first one? The second leaves too many opportunities for him to say no and stop you from going."

"Puppy eyes last minute it is, he'll have to let me go."

She dropped the bomb on Halloween morning.

They were in the middle of a training session when she burst out, "There's a party tonight," loud enough that it echoed around St. Anne's Church. He stopped focusing on his punching bag. "Can I please go? My friends invited me. It's at Rousseau's, really close by."

Elijah turned to face her. "A party?" he repeated. "Why do you need to attend a party?"

"To have fun," she said, holding her hands out. "To mingle with people my age. To pretend I'm normal even though I'm not."

"It's far too dangerous."

"It's at Rousseau's! That's like two steps away from the Compound."

"The situation is far too uncertain— anything could happen."

"You know I don't drink or do drugs and I'll probably be tired and in bed by ten o'clock. I can spend the night at the Compound afterward. Klaus would love an opportunity to boss me around."

He sighed heavily, crossing his arms. "Who is going?"

"Just some friends from my chem class. And a bunch of other Tulane students I'll meet that night."

"Their names?"

She held up her fingers. "Phoebe Velazquez, Maribel Coria, Elaine Garcia, Pedro M—"

"A boy?"