Miles From Normal

Chapter 9

Percy knocked on the front door of the Salvatore house. She waited for a good minute before the door opened to reveal Damon.

"Oh, my god!" were his first words as soon as he opened the door. "Little Gilbert is pissing me off."

"You mean Elena's brother?" Percy walked into the house, without waiting for Damon to invite her in.

He didn't have to reply. Jeremy Gilbert was inside, and he was saying, "Damon, you have to help me-"

"And why do I have to do that?"

"Tyler Lockwood has to kill someone to activate his curse."

"You already said that. And I already said that it's not enough."

Just then, the door opened and Alaric Saltzman came in, holding a box.

"Ric," Damon called out, looking pleased to have the interruption.

"What are you doing here?" Alaric said, his eyes on Jeremy.

"Helping Damon," said Jeremy. "I'm the one who found out about the moonstone."

Damon rolled his eyes at that.

"Woah," Percy interrupted. "What about the moonstone?"

Damon pointed at little Gilbert. "He allegedly knows where it is."

"Does Elena know you're here?" asked Alaric.

"Not exactly," answered Jeremy.

"What you got?" Damon eyed the box that Alaric had set on the table.

"This is Isobel's research from Duke," said Alaric. "Her assistant sent it to me."

"Who's Isobel?" Percy questioned.

Alaric looked pained at the mention of his wife. "My wife. She left me to become a vampire."

"Oh, that's - I'm sorry," said the raven-haired goddess.

"It's okay. I'll get over it." He turned to look at Damon. "Do you remember the Aztec course she told us about?"

"The sun and the moon, blah, blah, blah."

"The Aztec curse? Cool," said Jeremy, looking interested.

Percy wondered what was Isobel's research contained. Possibly, more information on how to break the curse using the moonstone, Percy thought. But then, that isn't likely. If the curse was that easy to break, someone would already have done it. Maybe it contained more information about werewolves.

Alaric was speaking, "Yeah, supposedly, vampires and werewolves used to roam freely, until a shaman put a curse on them to limit their power. And since then, werewolves can only turn on a full moon, and vampires are weakened by the sun."

Damon wiggled his fingers, showing off his daylight ring. "Most of them, anyway."

Alaric ignored him. "According to the legend, the werewolf part of the curse... It's sealed with the moonstone."

"What do you mean sealed?" Little Gilbert asked.

"It's a witch thing," Damon replied. "Whatever seals the curse, is usually the key to unsealing the curse."

"Maybe Mason thinks he can use the moonstone to break the curse," said Percy. "I mean, why else would he be looking for it?"

"She's got a point, you know?" Jeremy said.

Damon rolled his eyes. "If we start believing in some supernatural witchy-woo legend from a picture book, we're idiots. Who has the stone now?"

"Tyler," answered Jeremy.