The Second Life Of Stella Salvatore

The Beginning of the End

Gabriel's POV:

"Be careful. And don't screw things up," Damon said as I headed out the front door. I flashed him a smirk that we both knew meant we always screwed things up. My twin and I may have had an extremely rocky start, but ever since we teamed up against the Travelers I feel like we had created some kind of connection. We seemed to know what the other was thinking and we even started finishing each other's sentences. It was kind of creepy to be honest.

My thoughts wandered over to Samantha as I drove toward the destination Sloan had texted me before I left. I knew Sam was safer not being around me, but the feeling of her breaking up with me still hurt like hell. I would never admit that out loud, though, because I learned at a young age to hold my feelings in. Anyway, Sam and I had a lot more history than she even knew about. But I wasn't going to get into that.

I finally arrived at the place Sloan told me to come and I shut off my engine before I proceeded to wait. While I was waiting, my ears picked up on a song playing on the radio. I reached over and turned up the volume to be certain it was the song I thought it was. And it was. It was the song Sam and I listened to all the time. We had listened to it so much that it had become our song. Now it was just a song full of painful memories riding on every word of the lyrics.

I didn't even hear Sloan getting into the passenger seat until she slammed the car door closed causing me to jump out of my skin. "Someone's a little skittish tonight. Stuck in the past, Gabriel?"

I quickly turned off the radio and the music disappeared along with the memories. "No."

She smirked and brushed her short dark brown hair back away from her face before she spoke again. "You came alone?"

"I'm the lone wolf." That seemed to cause her to go silent.

"Have you heard about the 52-hertz whale?"

"What?"

"She's also called the loneliest whale in the world." I looked at Sloan in total confusion. What did a damn whale have to do with anything? The moonlight provided enough light for me to see Sloan's face and she didn't look hostile like she usually did. She actually looked kind of beautiful and...sad. "She doesn't have a family or friends or a mate and she doesn't belong to a group or to anyone because no one can hear her. Her songs - her calls - are beautiful and sweet, but her voice...her voice is different than any other. Unique. Every one of her kind calls between 12hz and 25hz, but she calls at 52hz. That's why no one can hear her. She calls and she sings, each call more desperate and each song more mournful, but no matter how long or hard she tries, her songs will never be answered. That's why they call her the loneliest whale."

I suddenly realized we weren't talking about a whale anymore and looked over at Sloan's soft face. "We aren't talking about a whale anymore, are we? We're talking about you."

Sloan looked up at me and I saw a hint of emotion on her face that I had never seen before. "My people expect me to lead a family I feel like I don't fit into. I don't remember my childhood or anything before Markos."

"Markos? Who's Markos?"

"He's the true leader of the travelers. But we have to bring him back in a very confusing ritual with a complicated spell."

"So that was your plan? Bringing back Markos? May I ask what the Salvatore baby has to do with it?" I tried to pry casually. Now we were getting right where I wanted to be.

"He's the pure soul that we need. We'll sacrifice him to Markos and Markos can use the pure soul as an anchor to return to us," Sloan brushed her hand over mind and looked at my daylight ring. "Strange how you and your twin have identical rings when your brother's was given to him by the first woman to abandon him."