A life in the shadows

7

"Beer, please." Siobhan ordered first.
"I'll have something strong. Anything strong." Damon said. The other guy, Alaric, sat on his other side.
"I'll have the same." He said.
"I screwed up." Damon said
"Yeah. Yeah, you did." Alaric shrugged.
"Yeah."
"Gentlemen? Why so glum?" A voice called from behind them.
"Ugh. Klaus, I presume?" Damon rolled his eyes.
"In the flesh." He smirked. "Siobhan, nice to see you again."
"Funny, I was about to say the opposite." She looked away in disgust.
"Thanks for the loaner, mate." Klaus said to Alaric, and Damon stood up, angrily.
"Any reason you stopped by to say hi?"
"I'm told you and your brother fancy my doppelgänger. Just thought I'd remind you to not do anything you'll regret." Damon looked stonily at him but broke out into a smile.
"Ha. Thanks for the advice. I don't suppose I could talk you into a postponement, by any chance, huh?"
"You are kidding?" He scoffed and looked over to Alaric. "He is kidding, right?"
"No, not really."
"I mean, come on, what's one month in the whole grand scheme of things?"
"That's a valid point. You've waited a thousand years," Siobhan spoke up. "I don't think a month would be that terrible."
"Let me be clear...I have my vampire. I have my werewolf. I have everything I need. The ritual will happen tonight. So if you want to live to see tomorrow, don't screw it up." Klaus said and walked out. "Keep Matteo out of it, Siobhan."
"I don't take orders from you!" She called after him. He walked back to her.
"Whatever happens tonight, Matteo stays out of it."
"Or what?"
"I'll introduce a little complication into your life. His first love- surely you don't think he cares more for his..." Klaus looked her up and down distastefully, grimacing. "Sidepiece than he does for the first woman to take his heart."
"You'd abandon the one woman you've been chasing for five hundred years, just to satisfy your own pathetic grudge against me?" She scoffed.
"Siobhan, I would do anything to destroy you."
"Joke's on you." Damon moved in front of Siobhan, protectively. "Matteo loves Siobhan more than he could ever love Katherine. She blew her chance."
"How sure of that are you?" Klaus smirked before walking out.
"Pig." Siobhan muttered.
"Why does he hate you so much?"
"Yeah, I mean he doesn't seem to hate Matteo." Damon added.
"It's a long story." She shrugged.
"You're going to screw it up, aren't you?" Alaric asked Damon.
"You think if I took his werewolf out of the equation, she might.." Damon thought of the right word. "Get over the fact that I tried to turn her into a vampire?"
"I think it won't matter, because you'll be dead."
"But without the werewolf, he can't perform the ritual tonight," Damon explained, "which means I would have bought her one month before the next full moon."
"And you'll still be dead." Alaric said cheerfully.
"You will have only succeeded in taking away yet another person she cares about." Siobhan told him.
"Are you going to help me or not?"
"What do you want us to do?" Alaric sighed.
"Follow me." Damon grinned.

Alaric opened the door to his apartment.
"Look who's dumb enough to come back." The girl, who Siobhan could tell was Katherine, called.
"Well, somebody had to invite them in. Damon, Siobhan. Would you like to, uh, come in?"
"So this is the delightful Katherine Pierce." Siobhan drawled sarcastically as she stepped inside after Damon, who didn't even attempt to hide his laugh. Katherine rushed at Damon and held him against the wall.
"Are you trying to get me killed?" She hissed at him. Damon looked as though he got fed up and pushed her against the wall.
"I gave you vervain, now I'm here to collect. Don't worry, we've got it from here, Rick."
"You sure?" He asked.
"Yeah, we don't all need to get blamed for this. Keep Elena from handing herself over."
"Okay." He said and left.
"Get blamed for what?" Katherine asked. "And who's she? What happened to the human?"
"I need to know where Klaus is keeping his werewolf." He said ignoring her questions.
"Why? What are you going to do?" She asked suspiciously.
"Dead werewolf equals no ritual."
"You are not going to kill the werewolf." Siobhan said.
"Yeah. You can't interfere, Damon. Klaus will kill you and everyone you've ever met."
"Don't agree with me." Siobhan grimaced as Damon chuckled.
"I just need to delay this thing."
"No. No way." Katherine shook her head.
"You should like this." He told her, matter-of-factly. "It's going to buy another month of your pathetic life."
"Right. Except that I'm not the vampire he's planning on sacrificing."
"What?"
"Yeah. He's got Caroline Forbes and Tyler Lockwood. Therefore, I'm in the clear."
"And where'd he get that idea from?"
"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, I'm just trying to stay alive long enough to get myself out of here." She shrugged, no remorse on her face.
"What if I told you Elena had vampire blood in her system?"
"What?!"
"Imagine how much fun that will be competing with Elena for Stefan's love for, I don't know, forever."
"She can have him." Katherine said. "I know you know Matteo's still alive."
"You have even less of a chance with him than you do Stefan." Damon snorted. "I should make introductions. Katherine, meet Siobhan. Matteo's girlfriend."
"Excuse me?" She asked. She walked up to her. "She's not even pretty."
"Jealousy looks bad on you, Katherine. Accept it. Matteo upgraded. Besides, do you think letting his brother's girlfriend die will win you any favours?"
"The tomb. He's got them in the tomb."
"Thank you."

"Damon, I can't go rescue the werewolf with you." Siobhan said. "I have to go check on your brother."
"That's okay." He told her. "Just make sure he's fine. And don't listen to Klaus and Katherine. I mean, I haven't known you for long, and it has been a while since I saw my brother, but even I can tell he adores you. He wouldn't drop you to go to a bitch who messed with his head and screwed his brothers, broke his heart, and killed him."
"Thank you, Damon."