The Bourbon Diaries ✢ The Vampire Diaries FanFiction ✢ TVD FanFic ✢ TVDU FanFic

Chapter Nineteen - Zara Ali

Present day

Atlanta, GA

It was six o'clock in the morning when Zara made her way to Stefanie's apartment block to check on Flick. This had to be the craziest time to check on a teenager. What teenager was going to be awake this early? Though it's not like Zara had a choice in the matter as she had a long drive ahead of her, with Gabe expecting her to arrive at the safe house later that morning. He was also expecting her to arrive with blood bags, which she didn't have. Fuck it, that was a problem to solve later. She might get lucky and find some hospitals that weren't warded against vampires on the way there, but that was doubtful if Dimitri and family were already heading back in that direction towards Mystic Falls. There was no reason for them to remain in Atlanta knowing that Stef was no longer there.

As she started up the communal staircase, Zara wondered whether she should have bought Flick some groceries. How much money did Stef even leave Flick? How quickly could a teenager blow through that money? Probably extremely quickly. Oh well, not her problem, Zara finally decided. The kid has to learn to stand on her own two feet eventually.

At the final landing towards Stef's apartment, Zara noticed a woman huddled in the corner, her knees up to her chest, an unzipped sleeping bag wrapped around her. She was shivering fiercely---too fiercely to be from the cold alone---and she tightened up in fear the moment she spotted Zara. She was making odd, warbling sounds to herself, sounding much like a prayer that was being repeatedly interrupted by wet sobs. Zara kept her distance from her as she rounded the stairs, but the woman recoiled tightly at her close presence regardless, her shivering becoming almost convulsive. Likely the withdrawal symptoms of a drug addiction, Zara concluded as she continued onwards to Stef's apartment.

She froze to a stop outside of Stef's front door, suddenly on high alert, her vampire features emerging fleetingly in anticipation of a threat. The door was closed but the panelling near the lock was ripped away, wood shards jutting in all directions, a spindle hanging where the door handle used to be. Zara stepped closer, pushing the door open slowly and carefully.

A few books had fallen to the floor in the entrance hallway, though nothing suggested any confrontation with the intruders had taken place in this area. Zara was hoping that no confrontation had taken place at all, wishing instead that Flick wasn't home at the time of the break in. She stepped cautiously into the living area where all hopes were immediately lost. There had been a major struggle in this area. Everything that could be kicked or pushed into someone's path, had been. Anything that could be picked up and used as a weapon, had been. A window leading to the fire escape remained open and, for a moment, Zara was hopeful that Flick had made her way outside and escaped. However, it had lightly rained in Atlanta early that morning and there were wet foot prints---small enough to only be female---pressed into the couch cushions, suggesting she needed to climb over it at some point after being outside.

This couldn't have happened more than an hour or two ago.

Opening up the door to Flick's bedroom, she saw clothes strewn over the open bed covers. This was not something Flick had done herself---someone had gone through her clothes, likely to take some with them if they were planning on kidnapping her. This was a good sign. It meant that Flick was alive and they meant to keep her alive, at least for now.

Zara then went into Stef's bedroom, expecting to see that they had gone through her personal items to perform a locator spell, but she was surprised to find her room untouched. That was odd. Maybe they had taken something of hers and performed the spell elsewhere? No, that wouldn't make sense either; it would just cause unnecessary delays and the spell wasn't accurate enough to waste time if they were looking for her.

Walking back outside, Zara tried to search the apartment for clues where they might have taken Flick. It was too much of a mess for her to even begin to know where to look. She went into the kitchen, avoiding the cutlery that had fallen to the floor from the open cutlery drawer, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the money left for Flick, sitting on the kitchen counter. Next to it she saw a note.

The note was the address of the safe house.

Shit, of course, it was just like Stef to give away her location rather than put Flick at risk. Fat lot of good it did, since they took her anyway.

Zara scrunched up the note and threw it across the room in frustration. She took out her phone, typing a message out to Gabe.

Zara: The Coven knows where you are. Why don't you just tell Stef to drop them a pin next time and save them the effort?

Gabe: Where are you?

Zara: At Stef's apartment. Flick's missing.

Gabe: What do you mean, she's "missing"?

Zara: I mean, she's either very fucking good at hide-and-seek, or they've taken her.

Zara: Don't you dare tell Stef that until I get there. I don't want her going AWOL.

Gabe: Then get here fast.

Zara: And here I was thinking of taking the scenic route, dumbass.

Zara: I couldn't get any blood bags, by the way.

Gabe: Got any other good news for me?

Zara: The apartment Stef rents from you needs a new door, it's pretty fucked.

Gabe: Forget I asked. Just get back here.

Zara put away her phone and started heading outside. She expected to see Loony Landing Lady still sitting in the corner of the stairs, but was mildly surprised and spooked to see her in the same location but standing upright, the sleeping bag on the floor. She was barefoot, wearing an oversized cardigan and dirty sweatpants. She was no longer shivering, but she still looked frightened. She took a cautious step towards Zara as she headed in her direction down the steps.

"A young man took her," the woman said with a shudder. "Just over an hour ago. There were four of them altogether. They told me that if anyone came looking for her---the young girl that lives with Stefanie---then I should give them a message."

Zara came closer to the woman than it appeared she was comfortable with, watching her step back towards the wall. "What message?" she asked firmly. Perhaps a little too firmly. She needed this information and she wasn't going to get it if she frightened the woman more than she had already been.

"You're not one of them, are you?" she asked cautiously. "They weren't right, none of them. The poor girl was unconcious. She was upright, but she was being dragged along by... by the air, it seemed. None were holding her. There was evil about them."

Zara didn't have time for this. "No, I'm not one of them," she stressed as calmly as she could. "Now what was the message?"

"The young man said he wants to meet you somewhere," she said ominously. "Not just Stefanie, but all of you, he said."

Of course he did. Zara didn't need to have magic of her own to know that she was talking about Cristian. "Where?"

"He wants to meet at the Hanging Fields," she whispered, as though the words were a curse. "He said that you'd know where that was."

Fuck, they were all screwed. "When?"

"At the hour of the witches deaths."