Black Magic ▹ The Vampire Diaries [1]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SHATTERED GLASS

"Cruelty isn't a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     There was a gas station fifteen minutes away from Mystic Falls, right before the road merged with the highway. It served more as a rest stop than anything else, and that was where Henrik was headed now. It felt almost therapeutic to drive past the "Welcome to Mystic Falls" sign on the way, and he tried not to think about it too much. It was bad enough that he was, once again, ignoring Ethan's calls. In his own defense, he was a man on a mission. It had only been two days, and what he was more focused on now was a matter of life and death. Besides, he wasn't completely ignoring Ethan. He had texted him to tell him he was dealing with yet another family emergency. He was just ignoring the calls that came afterward.

Once Henrik reached the gas station, he parked his car, rolled down the driver's side window, and then shut off the engine. He didn't know how long he would have to wait. He was just relieved that the weather was still cool and comfortable. He sighed and rested his head back against the headrest, letting his eyes slip shut. He had spent the entire day yesterday explaining over and over again what he needed for the spell. The chalice was easy enough—Henrik had supplies in his room, and the chalice was on one of his shelves—but the blood was the exact opposite. Blood was required for any delinking spell. In this case, they needed the blood of everyone who was linked.

Henrik and Rebekah had already put their own blood in small plastic test tubes, the openings sealed shut with rubber stoppers. They were now in the passenger seat with Henrik, inside a cushioned black bag. Klaus said he would give his blood last before he and Rebekah had gone off to find Finn and drag him back home by force. Henrik hadn't asked where Finn and Esther were hiding. He just focused on getting Elijah to meet him at the gas station.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out already knowing who it would be. His thumb hovered over the screen, contemplating sending Ethan to voicemail, before he released a sigh and did the exact opposite. He felt too guilty already. He pressed his phone to his ear and waited for Ethan to talk.

"I cannot stand you," was how Ethan greeted him, sounding beyond irritated. Henrik bit back a smile. "Will you just tell me what's going on? I'm not going to run away scared." Henrik doubted that, but he didn't see any way to avoid talking to him in that moment. He didn't have anything to distract him and he had a gut feeling that if he continued to avoid Ethan whenever something supernatural-related happened, it wouldn't bode well for them. Henrik barely had a handful of people he could fall back on, and Ethan was one of them. He didn't want to lose that.

"You remember how I told you that my siblings and I are linked?" Henrik asked. Ethan confirmed that he did. "And you remember how my mother is trying to kill us?" Ethan said that it was a pretty hard thing to forget. Henrik was surprised when the comment made him laugh. "Well, I've been busy writing up a spell to delink us. I'm waiting for my brother Elijah now."

"Oh," Ethan said. He didn't sound very irritated anymore, but he didn't sound happy either. Henrik bit the inside of his cheek to keep from babbling on. He tended to ramble when he felt nervous or unsure of himself, and he was certainly nervous now, though he didn't know why. He hadn't done anything wrong. Ethan was silent for so long that Henrik wondered whether he had hung up. When he spoke, he still sounded unhappy. "I don't really understand what's happening, and I don't want you hurt because of it, but...what's going to happen when the link is broken? Will Klaus do something?"