The Vampire Diaries: Blood and Fire

9. Problems with Elephants

"That's impossible," Niklaus whispered. Then louder, so most people could hear him, especially Lillian, "That's impossible!" Hundreds of thoughts were streaming through his head, each one trying to dominate the rest. Pictures of Mikael plastered themselves in his mind. Mikael, beating him after he lost his dagger. Mikael, scouring the Earth for his children. Mikael, his body burning as Niklaus drove the white oak stake through his heart. "I killed him!" Klaus shouted, but no one seemed to be paying him any attention. Those who were wouldn't remember it the next morning. "She's lying." She's lying, he said in his head over and over, in an attempt to reassure himself. I killed him. He never turned anyone.

"No one as drunk as that would lie," Damon replied. "Not her. She's telling the truth."

"No," Niklaus said through gritted teeth. "I know Mikael. He would never have turned a human into a vampire. And even if he did, he's dead. Anyone he turned would be dead as well."

Damon seemed to have no sarcastic or witty remark for that. Niklaus watched him clench his jaw. He said no more.

Frustration gripped the Mikaelson Original's heart. She's lying, he thought again, but it only made him angrier. One emotion took dominion over all his thoughts. Doubt.

Lillian stumbled through the crowd, pushing others aside to get to the stairs. She found herself laughing most of the way; the look on the two other vampires' faces when she told them the truth was hilarious, but she couldn't understand why they had looked like that.

Most of the people she pushed away made eye contact with her, and Lillian compelled them and their friends to leave. She was done with the party. She'd only thrown it in celebration of finding the note from Katerina. Hopefully, by the end of next week, she'd be leaving Mystic Falls with the reason she'd come in the first place.

Lillian had long ago decided that Mystic Falls was a dreadful town. Most of the memories she had shared with it were unpleasant, and those that weren't, Lillian had banished from her mind many years ago.

By the time Lillian reached the stairs, after tripping over multiple people, most of the crowd had left. Cans and bottles littered her floor, and Lillian thought she would have to compel herself a maid to clean it up for her. She hated housework.

Lillian walked up the steps, using the rail to keep her from falling backward. The world was spinning from the alcohol, but it created a pleasant feeling. When she was almost at the top, Lillian looked back down to see Damon and Niklaus watching her. She stared back at them for a few moments, then retreated to her bed. She was asleep in minutes.

Damon shut the front door to the boarding house quietly in an attempt to keep Stefan from waking up. It was past midnight--the clock on the end table said 1:13--and he had just left Lillian's party

The scene from just an hour ago played through his head, as it had the whole drive home. "Who turned you?" "Mikael." It was impossible, just as Klaus had said, but Damon couldn't shake off the feeling that everything Lillian had said was true. Even he couldn't lie when he was as drunk as that.

Damon walked as silently as he could across the wooden floor. The lamp beside the couch was on, as well as the kitchen light, but no one else was on the first floor. Damon turned both lights off, then turned around to walk up the stairs to his bedroom. But he didn't go to bed.

Opening the cupboard beneath his nightstand, Damon pulled out the bottle of Scotch he had compelled from a grad student long ago. The date on the bottle said "1937".

He drank from the bottle instead of pouring himself a shot. He'd only made it a fourth of the way down when his bedroom door opened.

"How was the party?" Stefan asked.