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

Chapter Twenty-One - Gabe Morelli

Present day

Outskirts of Albemarle, NC

With the final message typed and sent to Zara, Gabe stood in his bedroom considering all the options. He could tell Stef immediately. But how would she react? Guns blazing. That wouldn't do. Zara was right, they needed to deal with this together. He could wait for Zara to get back. That would be in a few hours. He couldn't sit around with this information until then, doing absolutely nothing. What he needed was to get more information. But who could he contact?

Suddenly he had an idea. He dialled a number and put the phone to his ear.

"Gideon, I need you to get me Winifred's number," Gabe said into the phone.

"I'm sorry," Gideon replied, "did you confuse me for a switchboard?"

"Gideon, it's important," Gabe insisted. "I know you have the numbers of all the High Coven witches."

"I would have thought you'd have Winifred's yourself, given your history with her."

Gabe's eyes shot skyward as he shook his head. Why did it always come down to this? It's been five hundred years. "Well, I don't. Could you please message me her number? I wouldn't ask unless it was urgent."

"Normally I wouldn't, but I always did cave in to the requests of handsome men, so why stop now? Fine, Gabe, I'm sending you over her number."

"Thank you." Gabe hung up, waiting for the number to arrive. As soon as it did, he sent Winifred a message.

Gabe: We need to meet. It's Gabe.

Winifred: By the Pee Dee River in an hour. You know the spot.

Well that was easier than he expected. He wondered if he should be concerned. Not that he had the luxury of acting on any concern. He had to go through with this either way.

He went downstairs, already seeing that Phoenix and Adam were awake and sitting at the table with coffees. As he passed the living area he saw balloon remnants scattered over the floor. He picked one up and then dropped it in annoyance at the mess. If he ever saw another balloon throughout the rest of his immortal life it would be too soon.

"Phoenix, I'm going out to feed shortly, I suggest you do the same," Gabe said.

"Not that I'm going to turn that offer down," Phoenix said, "but isn't Zara coming back with some blood bags this morning?"

"She wasn't able to get any," Gabe informed him. "She ran into some... complications."

"What kind of complications?" Adam asked.

"She'll explain when she gets here," Gabe said, remaining vague.

"Shouldn't we wait for Stef to wake up so she can come too?" asked Phoenix, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Firstly, Phoenix, you aren't 'coming' anywhere near me---"

Phoenix barely managed to swallow the coffee before bursting out laughing at the double entendre, slapping his hand repeatedly on the table.

Gabe took a deep breath in aggravation, shaking his head and muttering under his breath, "I'm dealing with fucking children." He waited for Phoenix to stop laughing; then to stop coughing after he'd finished laughing. When it was finally over, Gabe asked, "You done?"

Still amused and suppressing his laughter, Phoenix gave him a thumbs up.

"As I was saying... for reasons you've just demonstrated, we're going our separate ways to feed. Secondly, Stef will feed on nothing but a blood bag, you know that. She won't feed directly from humans and she certainly won't kill animals. Besides, she can last longer than us without blood." Gabe couldn't help but be irritated by Stef's principles. If there was to be any kind of confrontation with the Coven, she needed her strength. But there was no point in arguing with her. They'd been down that road too many times before and she'd never budged on the matter.