The Dragon's Moon 24

The Dragon’s Moon 24

Damon’s POV
“It’s from utter importance that you all get to the tunnels the moment I disable Esther’s magic.”Hope told us all as we crowded into the empty tent at the carnival that would function as our base of some sorts.
“How will we know when that happens?”Caroline questioned. “Trust me, you’ll know.”my girlfriend promised her. “Neutralising magic of such a high level means there will be a throw back. My money is on the power going down for a small amount of time.”.
“But that’s horrible!”the blonde vampire spoke. “Then all the rides will go out! The Ferris Wheel! Oh, I need to call the fire department to be on a standby…”. The moment she grabbed her cell phone however, Rebekah quickly took the device from her.
“You can’t call them.”the Original pointed out. “If you do so you give away you know something is going to happen which means questions will be asked.”. “I don’t know if you guys realise this, but I’m the head of the carnival organisation.”Caroline answered. “If something happens, I have to deal with it. How am I going to deal with it when I can’t call the fire department?”.
“Guess you’ll have to wing it.”Hope said with a shrug. “Why can’t you wing it?!”Caroline shot back. “Last time I improvised, I ended up being a witchpire.”Hope replied. “You really want to risk that?”.
“Fine.”Caroline huffed after a few seconds. “I’ll wing it.”. “Awesome.”Hope concluded. “So, to get back to what I was saying, you guys will know when the magic is down which means Katherine will know it too.”.
“So basically we’re racing against our own possible death the moment the light goes out.”Elijah summarized. “We better run fast then.”Klaus offered.
“Exactly.”I agreed. “And that’s why you can’t wait up for Hope and me to join you. The moment the light goes out, you all go to the tunnels. We’ll meet up with you as soon as we can. Just make sure Katherine doesn’t get her hands on the Dragon’s Moon.”.  

With the plan been run through one last time, Hope skilfully kicked everyone except for me out of the tent next claiming she had to concentrate for the task at hand. Her nervousness rolled from her form as she set up the few things she needed. A circle of salt, five candles and objects that represented the elements. It looked exactly the same as the preparations she had taken when Dahlia had been sucked into the spirit world, only now the setup from the circle was larger so that I could be in it with her.
“I… I don’t know if I can do this Damon.”Hope whispered as her movements grew slow as if she tried to gain some extra minutes. “There has only been one moment in my life that I let the fire take control, and that was when I got turned. The heightened emotions, the hunger for blood, the fire magic running through my veins… It wasn’t a pretty sight.”.
“This will be different.”I promised her. “You’re stronger now, smarter and way more skilled. Plus, this time I’ll be here.”. Hope’s greyish blue eyes looked at me concerned, clearly not convinced. “What are you afraid of?”I wanted to know.
“That I’ll fail and everyone will die.”she told me. “If we don’t do anything, we’ll die as well.”I reminded her. “A smart witch once told me that trying something isn’t the first step of failing but the first step of succeeding.”. A smile grazed her lips as I repeated the words she once told me.
“Sounds like a pretty smart witch.”she muttered. “You have no idea.”I assured her with a grin and wrapped my arms around her waist. “And the best part of it all is, that she’s mine.”I added. “You can do this Hope. Just don’t forget to breathe.”. She chuckled slightly at my last comment before she pulled back from my embrace.
“If it only was that simple.”she whispered as she took a seat Indian style inside the circle of salt that was drawn on the wooden underground of the tent. I quickly joined her into the circle, taking a seat on the floor myself so that Hope was seated in between my legs.
“It is that simple.”I told her. “Just keep your cool and blast her away with everything you have.”. At this is slipped my daylight ring from my hand and placed it on Hope’s left ring finger. “I’ll be right behind you no matter what.”I promised in a whisper before she started to say the spell and eventually collapsed unconscious in my arms.

Hope’s POV
It wasn’t a big surprise for me when I found myself back into the cave maze Dahlia had been trapped in before the moment I entered the spirit world.
“Okay, keep your cool Weatherly.”I spoke to myself. “Esther is stuck in one of the pre-phases of the actual spirit world as a punishment for her sins. Good news: that means she can be killed, bad news: that means she can still use magic. The maze is an illusion she cooked up. So that means… I can burn it down.”.
Somewhere in my stomach I felt how an incredible heat started to build up as if a collection of flames was burning inside of me. Those flames appeared on my hands and without hesitating, I threw them at the nearest wall. The moment it collapsed, so did the maze.
“Now look at that.”I mused. “Damon was right. Keep my cool and blast away.”. “Congratulations, you just destroyed my maze.”a voice said which I immediately recognised as Esther’s. The Original witch stepped out of the smoky shadows to face me. “You want a standing ovation now?”.
“Nah… All I want is you dead.”I remarked. “Oh sweetheart, I’m already dead.”she answered. “This is the spirit world, isn’t it?”.
“Not really.”I countered. “The spirit world is build up like a huge skyscraper. The top floor, were all the fancy penthouses are, now that’s what most people commonly call heaven. It’s top of the bill and every soul wants to get there. However, souls get weighed when they check in. The ‘good’ souls go up high, the ‘bad’ ones down below. Each of them get housed onto one of the skyscraper’s floors, the better you lived your life, the higher your floor and the more privileges you have.”.
Esther’s face twisted from her mask of serenity into one of fear mixed with anger.
“Oh, you thought I didn’t know how the spirit world works?”I questioned with a laugh. “Oh sweetheart.”I spat out the nickname she had used for me. “Never underestimate a Weatherly. Now, seeing the grim world you are residing at I guess we’re on floor three? No, two.”. Esther balled her hands into fists and took a deep breath but it was no use. I already saw through her masquerade.
“It’s called karma Esther, and you spell it: haha, you’re screwed.”I told her. “Because I came to send your soul to purgatory.”. The Original witch smiled cruelly at me. “I’d like to see you try.”she said and snapped her fingers causing the scene to change. I couldn’t help to smile at the familiar sight of the fire pile I was standing on with the fire already raging on around me.
“Oh, please…”I sighed and just stepped through the flames without getting burned before walking to Esther who stood into the still crowd of my memory. “Tell me you have something else up your sleeve.”I challenged her.
“As you wish.”she growled before she disappeared into a cloud of dust, leaving me alone in a poorly lit room. I frowned, not recognizing the setting at all. That meant she had jumped from my memories to her own twisted plays.
My train of thoughts got interrupted by moonlight entering the small window and casting a beam of light onto the old wooden floorboards until the contours of a man lying completely still on the floor became visible. Armani shoes, leather jacket, raven black hair…
“Damon…”I gasped and ran towards him as tears burned into my eyes. I turned Damon’s body over so he was lying on his back only to discover his heart had been literally ripped from his chest. “No…”I whispered. “No… Damon? Damon, please… Don’t…”. I choked on my words as sobs accompanied my tears.
“If only you would cry over me like that…”a voice, coated in an English accent, mused. “Because darling, even when you cry you’re the most beautiful creature that walks this damned world.”. My tearstained vision settled on Kol who was leaning against the wall across the room.
“But alas, it was always Damon Salvatore that made your dreams pleasant, always Damon Salvatore who swept you off your feet, always Damon Salvatore who held you heart… Well, guess what? Now I’m holding his.”he chuckled and tossed up the bloody organ that used to be in Damon’s chest.
“Don’t worry though, I didn’t do it.”Kol assured me. “I made her do it.”. At this another figure stepped from the shadows and my breath got caught in my throat when I saw it was Dahlia. Her hair was a mess, while her green eyes were wild. Her mouth and clothes were full of blood –Damon’s blood- but what scared me the most were the teeth that spilled over her lips and the claws that were once her perfectly manicured nails. A dangerous snarl left her lips as she looked at me as if I was her next prey.
“This… Isn’t real.”I told myself in a shaky voice, though doubt had settled heavy in my mind and heart. “This can’t be-…”. My second shaky and doubtful sentence got interrupted by Kol throwing Damon’s heart on the floor with a sickening thud. The organ rolled over the creaky floorboards until it bumped into Damon’s still body.
With sickness already swarming in my stomach, I watched the organ’s travel. All the way until it bumped into Damon’s corpse. Damon with his raven black hair, ice blue eyes that were staring blankly into nothingness, his leather jacket he always wore but still looked as new, his daylight ring,… Wait a minute.
He wore his ring. Corpse-Damon wore his freaking daylight ring! The same ring I was wearing on my left hand. So if I was wearing it, how could he be wearing it too? A smirk broke on my lips.
“You almost had me there.”I said as I got back to my feet while Kol raised an eyebrow at my move and hybrid-Dahlia growled lowly. “Yes, Kol may be in love with me but he will never hurt Damon because of it. He knows I will never forgive him if he did so. Dahlia… Dee rather dies herself before even thinking about hurting one of her brothers. And Damon…”, I brushed with my fingers over his daylight ring that adorned my left hand, “he only has one ring and he gave it to me before I came here. Time’s up Esther! Because now, I’m pissed!”.
The anger I felt towards the Original witch for using the ones I cared about against me fuelled the fire that my magical blood carried. The heat that had formed into my stomach spread through my whole body and it didn’t take long before the whole illusion went up in flames.
Esther, who had turned visible again thanks to the shattering of the illusion, tried to back away as she looked at me in fear. In her eyes I could see the image of flames burning bright with in the middle the outlines of a person. I knew it was me, that this was how it felt when fire took me over.
“You… You can’t be that strong!”Esther cried out as I inched closer to her. “I’m not.”I agreed calmly. “But my fire is.”. I raised my hand towards her and as the world around me imploded, my ears were filled with the screams of a damned witch.

Damon’s POV
The minutes passed by slowly as I sat on the floor of this empty tent, protected by a circle of salt around me and a witch in magical coma on my lap. Outside the fair was raging on and I could hear the excited shouts and conversations of the teens who had no idea hell was about to break lose.
To myself I admitted I was worried. About the whole dying thing, about my siblings, about Hope. To others… I admitted nothing coming close to it though I had a hunch Hope, Dahlia and Stefan picked up on it. That’s the thing about the people you love, isn’t it? That they know all of it without you saying a word?
Suddenly it became very, very dark since the electricity gave out. The whole thing got accompanied by some annoying screams of distress of some kids and I couldn’t help to smirk at the thought of all the idiots who were now stuck at the Ferris Wheel.
“That’s my girl.”I told the still unconscious form of Hope in my arms and kissed her forehead in pure happiness. I frowned however when I felt how hot her forehead felt. Her body temperature seemed to raise with the minute along with my panic level.
“Come on Hope, we didn’t get this far only for you to burn yourself to a crisp!”I told her as my mind tried to think of a way to get back in touch with her humanity instead of the raw magic form of fire.
“Hey, remember the first time we danced?”I asked her. “I joked that I would try to not step on your feet on which you replied I better tried hard to not do so because you would turn me into a vampire frog if I did.”. I couldn’t help to smile at the memory since it was one of the many times were I had been reminded why it had been Hope I had fallen in love with.
“It was a waltz.”I continued. “The Swan Lake one. I bought you a music box a few days later that played the same tune.”. Her temperature had ceased a bit, giving me a hint it was working. At a loss of anything else coming to mind, I started to hum the tune of the waltz and ever so slowly Hope’s body temperature became back to normal. Her blue-grey eyes fluttered open and looked at me confused.
“Why the hell are you humming the Swan Lake in my ear?”she groaned as I helped her to sit up. “To get you back to me.”I explained. “It was our first dance, remember?”.
“Right…”she replied. “Now I can’t get that song out of my head.”. I chuckled as I got back to my feet before offering her my hand to help her up as well.
“You defeated Esther.”I stated proudly as I pulled her into my chest. “I did.”she sighed into my shirt. “It wasn’t easy though… She used everyone against me. She… She made me believe you died.”.
“What made you realise it was a lie?”I asked. “This.”she said and gave me back my daylight ring. “The… Illusion-Damon still wore his ring so… I knew it wasn’t real since you gave me it before I took off to the spirit world.”.
“My smart little witch.”I complimented her before I drew her in for a kiss. Hope pulled away quicker than I liked but we both knew our work wasn’t done just get.
“We need to get to the tunnels.”she stated. “I know.”I replied as I grabbed her hand on which we vampire speeded away together.