You Called, I Answered (Salvatore Shield)

0.06: Tension

Later that night, several hours after the meeting for the Shield agent candidates, Caroline and Alaric are off-campus, having a night out with Damon and Elena Salvatore in town.

Surprisingly, most of the students still made curfew, though.
Even more surprisingly, Josie did not.

She waited until her sister fell asleep before grabbing her coat and shoes, slipping out from her room and down the stairs.

She's about to make her way out the front entrance of the school, but she hears faint rustling coming from a little further down the hall.

Her parents definitely aren't back yet, and the students are all in their dorms.

Her curiosity gets the best of her, urging her to follow the sound, down the hall, until she sees that the door to the basement is wide open, a sliver of light coming from inside.

As she approaches the door, she siphons a bit from the walls of the school, making sure she has enough magic for a quick defensive spell if needed, then she carefully tiptoes down the stairs, going as slow as she can to not make any noise.

As she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she takes a breath before turning the corner with her defensive spell ready to be cast at the intruder in the basement.

When she turns the corner and sees the figure of a person there, she casts the spell without a second thought, sending a mist of something similar to pepper spray in the person's direction, only it works on supernaturals as well, combining vervain, wolfsbane and a magic muting herb. The three combined can weaken any vampire, werewolf, or witch.

She realizes her mistake not even a second later though, as the girl in front of her immediately closes her eyes in pain, "Ow!"

Josie is equally as shocked as the girl is, "Hope? What are you doing here?"

Hope is about to rub her eyes but stops herself, fanning at them instead, a failed attempt at stopping the burning sensation in them, "Well I was making sure the werewolf transition cells were ready for the full moon, but currently I'm considering gouging my own eyes out."

As Hope struggles to open her eyes for more than two seconds at a time, Josie reaches out to hold her forearm, unnecessarily providing support for Hope, "I'm so sorry. Does it hurt?"

"No, not at all. I love the feeling of fire in my eyes," Although her voice sounds soft and reassuring, Josie knows her words are laced with sarcasm, "What spell was that anyway?"

"It's a defensive magic spell. It creates a mist of a few herbs to weaken any vampire, werewolf, or witch."

"Oh great, so you got all three in your first try," Again, her tone sounds like a genuine congratulations, but Josie knows better.

"Here, let me try something," Josie reaches up with her other hand, brushing a strand of hair out of the way as she cups Hope's cheek, rubbing the pad of her thumb under Hope's eye as she attempts to siphon some of the magic from the spell she cast, "How's that feel?"

Hope is finally able to actually open her eyes, without the intense burning and blurred vision, seeing how concerned Josie looks.

Hope clears her throat, suddenly more aware of how close Josie is as she continues to caress her cheek. And the softness of her voice is much more genuine as she answers this time, "Better, thank you."
Hope can sense the sudden vulnerability in her own voice, so she diverts her eyes from Josie's.
But when she does, her eyebrows furrow in confusion when she notices how Josie is dressed, "Why are you wearing a coat?"

Josie finally removes her hands from Hope, taking a step back to glance down at her attire, "Oh, well I couldn't sleep, so I was gonna go for a walk to clear my head, but then I got distracted when I heard you down here."