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She ran, uttering a prayer of thanks to the spirits that all witches in their covens were taught that protection spell as soon as they were old enough to cast it.
She had messed up.
Messed up wasn't strong up. Fucked up was better. There had to be some better phrase that properly encapsulated the apocalyptic-level error that she'd made, but right now wasn't the time to rack her brain to find it.
Swearing, she pulled the car door open and jammed her keys back into the ignition, saying another small prayer as the car started up and she was able to peel out of the parking lot at Fangtasia.
The plan was so simple.
Give Damon the Teddy Bear, he'd find the phone number on the ribbon around the neck and she'd get a call and be swept off her feet.
But she never got a call.
She should have let it go; called the spell a bust and moved on. But no. She just had to know, so she had gone back.
Stupid on top of stupid.
She didn't know what to do. One angry vampire she could handle. A pack (or kiss or nest or whatever the hell they called themselves) of angry vampires was a whole different story.
She turned onto the highway. Her best friend Michelle would know what to do. Michelle always knew what to do. She was so smart, and so talented. She'd know what to do.
She began to whisper the words like a mantra, willing the words to be true.
***
Michelle didn't have the answer.
She had some spiked tea and some really good cupcakes from the old-school cupcakery down the road, but no answers.
"I don't know Kaylee," she said as she dug a raspberry chocolate chip cupcake out of the box. "I think you're going to have to fess up to the Elders."
"But Michelle!" she whined. "I'm already on probation!"
"Shouldn't you have thought of that before you cast the spell?" her friend chastised her.
Kaylee took a piece of a strawberry cupcake.
"All it was supposed to do was get him to notice me! There isn't anything wrong with that."
"But a simple Nosse shouldn't have caused the kind of murderous reaction that you're describing."
"Nosse," Michelle said. "You know, to notice?"
"Uh oh."
"Uh oh?"
"Uh oh."
"Oh Ser, what did you cast?"
She smiled weakly. "Enamorata?"
Michelle's eyes went wide. "That's not funny, Kaylee."
"I’m not joking!"
"How could you mix them up?"
"I didn't mix them up! They were talking about enamorata a few months ago and I remembered that it could bring your love to you."
"If they had any affection for you! Didn't you say that he never even looked twice at you?"
"Of course he was playing hard to get! It's part of his job!"
"I need to call my mom."
"Michelle! Please!" she pleaded.
"You messed with a vampire, Kaylee! Vampires aren't exactly known for being forgiving! You need protection!"
She pushed her cupcake away.
"Can I at least get a shot before she arrives?"
Michelle smiled and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Of course. What are friends for?"
***
It went virtually without saying that Kaylee was in more trouble than she had ever planned for.
She expected the monitoring spell – she had been warned that if she transgressed again that they would do as much. It was mostly an inconvenience, though the faint glow around the bracelet that those who could communicate with the spirits could see was a minor embarrassment, since its purpose was obvious to all. Mothers would put such bracelets on their newborn daughters. It was the first assurance that the gift had been passed down, and it served as a warning since witches that young were known to have small surges of magic in times of intense emotion. To wear one past the age of five or six was seen as a sign of shame.
She half-expected the house arrest. Anytime she was not at work, she was to be at home, day or night. She protested the 24-restriction, he was a vampire. Surely should could go out during the day. They wouldn't hear any of it, no matter how much she protested. She guessed it was a measure of just how angry they were.
Even so, she didn't expect for the full coven to be called. The full coven to be called. As in any witch from Louisiana who practiced Eastern magic was going to be here tonight. It was the first time in decades such a meeting had been called.
It terrified her, because the meeting could not be anything but about her. The covens didn't get along well enough to cooperate otherwise.
Michelle had tried to convince her that she was over-reacting; that maybe she would just be banned from practicing for a year, but that they still just wanted to make a point.
It would be more than that; they wouldn't go to such extremes just for a ban; even as rare as they were.
She didn't sleep a minute the night before. Her hands jittered with the amount of sugar and caffeine from the Starbucks coffees that were running through her system unhindered by food she was unable to eat. She glanced at the clock in the multi-purpose room at the local church. She smiled at the fact they were in a church. It was kind of the anti-cemetery at midnight.
Five minutes 'til nine pm. She glanced towards the front of the rooms where the Elders would sit. None had yet arrived. Even without those five women, the room felt stuffed to the brim with witches; most of whom she could at least vaguely recognize. She was probably related in some distant manner to at least half of them, and many of them seemed to be taking this as a chance for an impromptu reunion, adding an almost misplaced sense of levity to the proceedings.
"You ready for this?" Michelle asked as the clock struck another minute closer.
"Yeah," she said, her voice weak as she forced a smile. "It'll all be fine."
Michelle led her to chair that had been set in the middle of the aisle, ahead of the chairs for the other sisters, but a few feet from the row for the Elders.
"Good luck!" she whispered as the clock struck nine and the Elders filed into the room.
The other witches quickly took their seats and the room came to a hush.
"Sisters," Elder Aimée's voice rang out confidentially over the crowd. "We thank you for assembling on such relatively short notice. We would not burden you if we did not feel the matter at hand was worthy of everyone's attention."
She felt eyes begin focus on her, the judgment forming before her crimes had even been read.
Covens were worse than the meanest of the mean girls in high school.
"As you all have undoubtedly noticed, before you sits one of our youngest members, Kaylee. She is a girl who is well meaning, but whose emotions have always gotten the better of her common sense.
We gather tonight, because in her short-sighted selfishness, she has angered the vampires, thus putting us all at grave risk."
"He's just a dancer!" she blurted out.
"Silence, Kaylee, or we will silence you," Elder Helen cautioned her.
She slumped in her seat.
"Did you think that this vampire who did not wish to give you the time of day would reveal his importance to you?" Aimée asked rhetorically.
"He is a daywalker," Elder Helen stated.
Kaylee winced as whispers erupted behind her.
"He works and reports to the King," Elder Grace added.
Her eyes went wide and the whispers grew to murmurs.
"And he is a confidant of Niklaus Mikaelson," Elder Grace continued.
The murmurs became a full on buzz.
She went ghostly white. She had been taught their history. She'd heard the tales of massacres and the fragile peace that had been wrought in the past decade.
"I'm sorry," Kaylee whispered. "I didn't know."
"And your selfish ignorance put us all at risk." Elder Martha added.
"You have put all of us at risk of war just for a date."
The disdain in Elder Mary's voice brought a new flush of embarrassment to her cheeks and she felt tears beginning to form. "I didn't want to hurt anyone."
"I wish you had thought of that before you gave me that teddy bear."
She, as well as all the witches, except the Elders, turned to face the masculine interruption.
It was Damon Salvatore.
The hatred in his eyes was impossible to miss. There were two vampires flanking him. The seemed no friendlier.
Another vampire was approaching the Elders. "Grace," he said, "I wish we were meeting under better circumstances."
Kaylee couldn't tell whether there was sincerity in this vampire's voice.
"It is a sentiment we return, Your Majesty."
Her jaw dropped. That guy was the Vampire King? He looked so…normal.
"Mary," the third vampire added. "I was hoping not to see you again so soon."
"The sentiment is returned, Niklaus," she replied.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
All the Elders. All her Sisters. The King. An Original Vampire. The vampire she harmed.
Her heart pounded. "No. no. no. no."
She was not going to get out of this alive.
Panic set in.
She had to run, had to get out of there. She tried to stand, but she could not move. She looked helplessly in the direction of her friend, who was quietly chanting under her breath.
Her friend stopped her casting and mouthed "I'm sorry," before looking away.
Tears began to run down Kaylee's cheeks. She had no doubt that Michelle was forced to help keep her there if she didn't want to get into trouble herself, but it also meant she had no allies; nowhere to turn.
She was at the mercy of angry witches and angrier vampires.
She began to pray for a quick death.
"Sisters," Elder Helen raised her voice to bring an end to the conversations that had popped up. "Due to her repeated misbehavior, and to avoid unnecessary bloodshed between our people, we have come to an accord: Kaylee Young will be given to those she has wronged, and in exchange, they will swear a binding oath that no further harm will be brought on any other witch in retribution for harm done."
The silence only lasted as long as the announcement. There seemed to be some division in the crowd; with older witches more agreeable with the decision and some hesitation in the voices of the younger.
Bitterly, Kaylee noted, a coven wasn't a democracy. Even if the whole room was against the decision, it would mean nothing.
"What will happen to me?" she asked, not caring if they would gag her after. They had clearly already had cast her aside. It looked like she might get scolded again, but Damon beat them to the punch
"His Majesty has been gracious enough to let me choose your fate and I've been giving it some serious thought. You see, you have to be punished. Period. Your little stunt has left my girlfriend feeling betrayed beyond expression and my best friend so embarrassed that he can't look me in the eyes. You almost ruined my life because you wouldn't take the half-dozen "noes" as a hint."
Damon walked up to her chair, placed both hands on the top and leaned closer to her.
"The question became, what would be suitable."
He stood back up and walked towards a table resting behind the witches.
"I thought about just snapping your neck and being done with it. But it's not really punishment if you die quick and painlessly."
Kaylee swallowed nerviously. That had been the best she could have hoped for, right?
"My girlfriend voted to torture you. Torture you until we broke you and turned you into a perfect little pet who couldn't imagine doing anything other than serving us in any way we desired until we inevitable tire of you and kill you."
There were gasps, and at least one of them was hers.
"Good thing for you, I recognize that your stunt was idiotic, not malicious. And I've done enough stupid shit in the name of love that I can't find it in my heart to do that, though I have to admit that if you had cost me either relationship, I probably would have."
Damon glanced at the Elders, and then back at her.
"So then I had a fantastic idea. I'm going to turn you."
Her eyes went wide. Become a vampire? That was…awesome. How could that be a punishment? She sighed in relief.
"She has no fucking clue, does she?"
"It is not something we commonly teach," Elder Grace responded. "Most sisters are never tempted by what your kind offers."
A trio of snorts came from the vampires. There must be a joke Kaylee was missing.
"You want to fill her in?" Damon asked.
Enlighten her? About what?
Elder Aimée was the one to answer. "You cannot be both witch and vampire, child."
Kaylee frowned.
"The spirits consider our kind an abomination," Damon said in a faux-helpful manner. "You wake up a vampire and they say "sayonara, bitch" and you'll walk the earth the rest of your days cut off from the very thing that has brought us here today. And I have it on good authority that you'll be keenly aware of the difference for at least a decade. You are young though, maybe it won't be quite so bad for you. Maybe. Of course, if you'd rather die than transition, far be it for me to stop you."
Kaylee looked up. "So…die a witch or live unable to do magic?"
"Ding ding ding. Of course, if you do transition you'll have to follow the rules set out by myself, the Sheriff and the King. If you don't think you can handle it, don't bother. You're getting this chance at a second life because I'm in a good mood. It won't last and I won't hesitate to kill you if you blow it."
"Will I have time to think it over?"
Damon didn't answer, but seconds later his wrist was in front of Kaylee's mouth, held up so tight against it that she had no choice but to swallow.
"When you wake up."
Her world went black.
***
When Kaylee woke up, she was in what appeared to be an unfinished basement.
If unfinished basements came with chains. She tugged on them, but it was obvious they weren't going anywhere.
She shivered and wondered if this is what like when witches were sentenced to die back in the burning times.
Her stomach growled and she realized she was ravenous, like spell take all your power out of and then some ravenous. The last time she was this hungry, she and Michelle had hit up an all you could eat buffet and they got kicked out for eating too much.
She chuckled at the memory before a wave of sorrow rushed over her as she remembered that her friend had been forced into betraying her.
"You're awfully chipper," a voice said from behind.
She turned and found Damon leaning against a wall, a bag of blood in the other hand.
She took her eyes off the blood, but it was difficult.
"Where am I?"
"You're at Fangtasia," he said sounding bored. "Its where the bad little vampires are kept while Sheriff Northman figures out what to do with them."
"Why am I here?" she tugged on the chains again.
"Transition can get messy and I don't want to get blood on the carpets. We just got them replaced a few months ago. And you can stop tugging them. They aren't going anywhere."
She tugged them again, just because he could, but he didn't seem to take her bait.
"Have you made up your mind?"
"Turn or die?"
"Yep. A nice straight forward decision." He waved the bag of blood in front of her face. "Just say the word and your pain will end. You'll get your fangs and you'll feel stronger than you have before."
"But the spirits will forsake me," she protested.
"Haven't they all ready?" he asked. "They let me bring you here in the first place."
She frowned and tried to center herself. If she concentrated, she could still feel the warmth that she associated with her magic. It was already feeling weaker though. They hadn't left her entirely, but she knew it wouldn't be long.
"No, they have," she declared. "It is I who failed them. I should have done better listening to my Elders and their advice."
He raised an eyebrow. "And you came to this conclusion now and not six months ago after I told you off because…"
She smiled wryly. "For some reason you can see things more clearly when you're on your death bed."
"You sure you don't want to drink? The witches gave you to me. What loyalty do you owe them?"
She scowled, stubbornness setting in. "They are my sisters. And you promised me that you'd let me make my choice."
He pushed off the wall. "So I did. And I am a vampire of my word when it is convenient. I will ask you one final time and there is no going back. Do you want to transition?"
She raised her head. "No."
"So be it." He turned his back to her and started to head back upstairs.
"How long do I have?" she called out.
He looked over his shoulder.
"Twenty four hours, give or take. You won't be disturbed."
She heard him begin to climb.
"Take my body back to the witches!" she pleaded. "Show them I was faithful to them, please!"
He turned and took a step down, then nodded.
"If they will have you."
"I'm sorry," she finally said.
"You and me both."
She heard his feet climb the stairs one last time and the heavy door slam shut, the room being cast into almost total darkness except for a small sliver of light from a window up on high. She scooted back against the wall and curled up into a ball, waiting for the darkness to claim her once and for all.