Kismet | Damon Salvatore

Chapter 4

Wes was surprised to see her.

"Maribel," he said, blinking several times to make sure it was her. It appeared he'd sustained a small head injury when Jesse made his escape.

"You're going to answer my questions and you're going to answer them honestly," she said angrily. "Or I'll make you watch as I destroy every last piece of your work... before I hand you over to the vampires so they can decide what to do with you."

"You're unhappy," he noticed, as if this was a surprise to him.

"You have been on my ass about morality and honesty in research for as long as I can remember. The whole time, you're performing illegal and secret experiments on vampires? What the hell is wrong with you?"

She forced him to sit down, grabbing a scalpel and holding it out threateningly. "Do you know why Caroline is a vampire? She was turned by an evil five-hundred-year-old bitch who wanted to use her as a sacrifice. She never asked for this, but she's made the best of it. Want to know why Elena is a vampire? An evil thousand-year-old vampire caused her to sustain a cerebral hemorrhage. My idiot sister gave her vampire blood without her consent and because of her being linked to my sister's ex— who was also turned into a vampire against his will— said thousand-year-old vampire's sister ran her car off a bridge and left her to drown. She has tried so hard not to hurt people and admittedly, she went off the deep end for a while, but she lost everything so I don't even fully blame her for it. Both she and Caroline are just trying to lead normal lives because they have put up with what was forced on them."

She held out the scalpel. "There are severe ethical guidelines when you perform any kind of research. There are standards you observe with cells, with mice, with people. And you've violated all of it. All of it. What kind of doctor are you? What kind of researcher are you? You are cruel and I can't believe I ever trusted you."

"You're wrong, Maribel," he said, shaking his head. "I've violated nothing. Vampires aren't people."

"There are rotten vampires out there, but nobody deserves to be kept prisoner and experimented on. What about Jesse? Jesse was innocent. He's never killed anyone in his life, and you forced him to become a vampire. You don't get to play God and decide who lives or dies. You don't get to decide to end a person's life like that. It is not your place, it is not your choice. None of these kids had a choice! And that is immoral, that is unethical, even by non-supernatural standards. Do no harm. But from what I'm seeing, you've done plenty of harm. You are a liar and a cheat and you don't deserve your research money, you don't deserve this lab, you don't deserve anything."

The door opened behind her, revealing Damon had arrived. "You struck me as a kinky bastard, so," Damon held up some ropes. "Time to be restrained."

Maribel stepped back, allowing Damon to tie him up. She seated herself on one of the lab benches, allowing Damon to take his turn with the questioning.

"What do you want?" asked Wes, staring at Damon boredly.

"What I want," said Damon, venturing to a nearby refrigerator, "is to be drinking copious quantities of booze and making out with my girlfriend, but unfortunately, I can't do that until I get a bunch of answers out of you." He opened the refrigerator door and withdrew a tray of vials. "Whoa!"

Wes tried to reach out, "Careful with those!"

Damon feigned innocence. "These?" He held up the tray as if he was going to drop it. "These, right here? What? I mean, we're on a college campus, right? Full of students? I mean, I can't imagine an M.D. with a bunch of infectious diseases just lying around."