Kismet | Damon Salvatore

Chapter 20

Her mother was displeased.

"Oh, that boy," she said when Maribel was rushing to put her shoes back on. "I haven't even met Damon yet and Vincent is already causing problems. They won't kill him, will they?"

"Kill who?" asked Maribel. "If anything happens to Damon, cousin or no cousin, Tripp isn't going to live to tell the tale."

Marina stared at her. "Your cousin, Maribel! Will they kill him?"

"No! We don't want him dead, but that all depends on what he does to Damon."

"Don't let them kill him. He is still your cousin. He is family."

"Damon is my family too, Mom. I don't know Tripp. We may share blood but beyond a few pictures of him holding me when I was a baby, I have nothing that connects me to him. And I will not tolerate anyone hurting the people I care about."

She found Stefan and Alaric had parked their car right at the edge of the border on Route 9, blocking the road if Tripp tried to drive by. Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie were doing a similar thing on Old Miller Road. Liz Forbes had managed to shut down Route 13, leaving only two paths for Tripp to try and enter town. No matter where he went, they'd intercept him.

"Meredith is trying to help us find out where he is and which path he's going to take," explained Stefan upon her arrival. "She's going to try and call him, see if they can get a trace on his cell."

"Okay," said Maribel nervously. "What's the plan for us, then?"

"Well, each team has two vampires and a witch. We stop them before they cross, stop Tripp, get Damon out safely."

"But I don't really know how to do anything, I don't know how to control my magic, I could hurt somebody. Is it really wise to trust me with this?"

"Bonnie said that she thinks you're ready. Just breathe and let your gut guide you."

Maribel wasn't sure that would be enough. She was angry enough knowing that Tripp had targeted Damon. If worse came to worst, she wasn't sure she'd be able to control how she'd lash out.

She was getting Damon back, no matter what it took.

So far, the plan was to pretend to have car trouble so that Tripp would have to stop and help them. It seemed she wasn't the only one who was anxious. Stefan was ripping away at the engine as if it were his substitute for picking at his cuticles.

"You don't have to take apart the whole engine," said Alaric. "We just need to lure Tripp in so we can grab him." This didn't seem to comfort Stefan. "You know, it's not your fault."

"Pretty much is," muttered Stefan.

"Look, you're not the only one who gave up," said Alaric. "You know, every second for the last three months, all I could think about was when I'm gonna get my next sip of blood... when am I gonna screw up and hurt somebody... why did I come back to life just to be this thing. I used to hunt vampires, and suddenly I was one. Searching for Damon was the only thing that could take my mind off of it, but I was basically going through the motions as a distraction because... honestly, Stefan? I'd given up, too."

"You guys couldn't have possibly known what happened to us," Maribel tried to comfort.

"We still gave up," said Stefan bitterly. "Your sister didn't, but we did. And the whole time, you guys were alive. What was I doing? Pretending everything was fine."

"Look," said Maribel, seeing headlights approaching. Alaric was quick to text Elena and Caroline to let them know Tripp was arriving on their end.

"That's him," confirmed Stefan.