Potential (Book Four, The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 23__Graduation

Lexi was here.

Lexi was dancing, rocking out to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name."

Stefan was sitting on the couch, drinking from the bottle, head banging.

I walked in with a small smile.

Damon was watching with a skeptical look.

"Nikki!" Stefan said when he saw me. "Help me celebrate my 17th high school graduation." Damon turned off the music. "Hey, Damon, you remember my friend, Lexi, of course?"

"Lexi, back from the dead," Damon said. "Goody."

Lexi rushed at Damon and pushed him against the wall, gripping his throat. "What's up, buzzkill?"

"Stefan, you're just gonna sit there and let her enact her ghostly revenge?" Damon asked.

"You reap what you sow, buddy," Stefan told him.

"Nikki?" Damon asked.

"Don't look at me," I told him.

"Let's be very clear," Lexi told him. "Whatever time I have left here, I sure as hell don't plan on wasting on you. You got me?"

"Yeah," Damon answered. "Got ya." Lexi released Damon, walking away. Damon gasped. "So if you and Ric and Little Gilbert are all flesh-like and real-seeming, that means something went horribly wrong when Bonnie tried to put that veil up. And here you two are, having dance party USA."

"You're right," Stefan told him sarcastically. "How selfish of me to be indulging in these precious moments with my formerly dead best friend. I should be sacrificing my own happiness for the good of others, right? I should be upstairs grooming my hero-hair."

I smiled, sitting on the arm of the couch.

"Are you drunk?" Damon asked.

"I don't know, Mom, am I?" Stefan asked.

I took the bottle from Stefan, chuckling. "Well, I guess that's one way to celebrate our supernatural apocalypse." I took a drink. "Now, care to hazard any guesses on what the hell went wrong?"

~~~~ 

Damon opened the door to find an unexpected visitor. "Vaughn?"

Vaughn lifted a gun and shot Damon in the shoulder. The force of it caused Damon to step back, groaning in pain.

"Got a little message for you, laddie," Vaughn told him. "Straight from the mouth of the witch Qetsiyah."

They wanted the Cure and Silas.

~~~~

Damon and Vaughn hadn't seen me.

I took my sword off the wall, admiring the blade, looking toward them.

Damon groaned as he pulled the bullet out of his shoulder.

Vaughn checked his gun. "Yeah, borrowed it from my jarhead friend, Connor. Shoots wood like lead."

"Come on, man," Damon told him. "I didn't kill you."

"No, but you left me in that well on that island, where I starved to death," Vaughn told him. "There I was, all alone on the Other Side, till Qetsiyah found me and reminded me of my supernatural destiny. To cure Silas, and then kill Silas. Just as how your 'cousin' Nicola was supposed to activate it."

"You make it sound like you don't think she's capable of killing," Damon told him.

"She's a woman," Vaughn told him. "There's no way--"