chapter thirty-eight

at some batting cages near a high school close to where he'd been staying. Though Marian knew why he was in Denver in the first place, she hadn't expected to see the first boy who'd broken her heart in this life standing right in front of her.

"Annie?"

She felt herself freeze up. It had been a long time since she'd even thought about Jeremy.

"Hey," she breathed out, smiling shyly.

"How've you been?" the boy asked, not knowing whether he should keep his distance from her or whether he could try and mend at least part of what he'd done. He'd used Marian as a way of getting over Anna, Vicki, and Bonnie, which was unforgivable, but he hoped that one day they would be able to be friends, even if it was distant friends who would smile at each other if they saw each other on the street but never said a word. He felt terrible.

She shrugged. "I've been better," she admitted. "How about you?"

"I got a B in History," he told her.

Marian looked down, shaking her head as her smile grew. "So you've been making an effort in school, then?" she inquired.

"Yes, mum," he teased.

The girl went to make another remark when they heard another voice in the distance calling Jeremy's name. Looking behind Marian, Jeremy frowned as he saw his sister walking towards them from the car park.

"Elena?" he asked. She hadn't mentioned anything about coming to visit him in Denver. Whatever reason she had for being here, it had to be something bad. His suspicions were only confirmed when he realised that Damon was walking behind her. "What's wrong?"

Turning around, Marian felt anger bubble inside of her when she caught sight of the oldest Salvatore brother.

"Damon," she sneered. Ambrose stepped closer to the girl, whispering in her ear to try not to react. It would only provoke the vampire more.

"Pretty Girl," he greeted sweetly, his expression turning dark. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm running away," she answered simply. "Looking for a fresh start."

"Running from family problems? Been there. Done that. Don't recommend it," Damon replied, a sarcastic tight-lipped smile on his face.

"You know, it's funny. I don't remember asking for your opinion."

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy interrupted, looking at his sister for an answer.

Elena eyed Marian and Ambrose suspiciously before opening her mouth, cautious of what they might do. "We're trying to find out who Rose was sired to." Marian groaned.

"Why?" Jeremy asked.

"So they know which members of my family they can kill," answered the girl.

"When we killed Finn, every vampire connected to his bloodline turned up dead within the hour," Damon explained.

"I'm sorry, you killed Finn?" Marian asked.

"Yeah. And?"

"Your sad little brother didn't tell you, did he?" she taunted, taking a step closer to Damon and bringing a hand up to cup his right cheek. Damon didn't move. "I killed Finn. Just like I killed Mikael."

"Who's next on your list? Me?"

Marian didn't break eye contact with the vampire. "What you did to me was disgusting, but I'll get over it in a hundred years or so."

Suddenly, she found herself being pulled forward, her body pressed against his and his arms wrapped tightly around her head. "You're assuming you'll live that long," he told her, his cruel frown turning to one of confusion when he heard the girl laugh.

"I'm assuming you'll still be heartbroken that long, because I know you wouldn't let anyone do anything to your precious, fragile little fiancée." Before Ambrose could rush forward to help her, she'd shifted her weight and pulled him over her shoulder, his body landing with a loud thud on the ground beneath her.

She promptly stepped forward and dug her shoe into his chest, and Ambrose suddenly realised why she'd decided to wear small heels on the plane. "It's a shame these aren't made of wood," she said. As the heel pierced Damon's heart.

"Annie, stop!" Jeremy called out as Ambrose shuffled forward—leisurely and definitely not in any rush—and placed a hand on Marian's arm, prompting her to take a deep breath and finally take a step away.

"Katherine sired us, Rose sired Katherine, all we need to do is find out who sired Rose," Elena told her brother, trying to ignore Marian and the hybrid, and helping Damon back to his feet.

"So, you travelled across the country to get me to talk to a dead vampire?" Jeremy asked.

"Dead vampire is redundant, but yes," Damon quipped, making Marian scoff.

"Well, I can't. I could talk to Anna and Vicki because I knew them. I've never even met Rose."

"What good is you dying and coming back to life if you can't talk to a ghost when I need you to?" Damon asked.

"What good is you being undead if all you do is annoy everyone?" Marian argued.

"Rose spent a long time running from Klaus as well," Elena continued, eyeing the girl. "She and Damon were close, so maybe we can use him as a connection."

"Fine, fine," Jeremy dismissed, looking down at his phone. "But can we do this later? My friend just got here and yes, Damon, I actually have some. I'll call you when I'm done."

"He's here," Ambrose whispered in her ear.

Following Jeremy's gaze, Marian was half shocked to see that it was her father who Jeremy had been expecting.

"Damon, it's Kol!" Elena exclaimed, stepping back in fear.

Walking past Jeremy, Kol made his way toward his daughter's ex-lover, swinging the wooden bat in his hands at Damon's head. The Salvatore fell to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Jeremy shouted.

"Jeremy, get back!" Elena warned. "He's an Original."

"What?"

"No hard feelings, mate," said Kol, turning to the confused boy. "But we're not buds." he took an aluminium bat from the rack and stood over Damon, the others watching helplessly as he brought it up in his hands. "You know, I'll never get used to aluminium. But hey, at least it won't break."

As he brought the bat down to hit the younger vampire, Damon quickly reached up and stopped it, picking up part of the broken wooden bat Kol had used before and stabbed it through his chest. Kol fell to the ground.

"No," Marian whispered, rushing forward. She collapsed next to her father, her hand stretched out but still too far to reach him.

"Did you kill him?" Jeremy asked, horrified. How could he not have known that Kol was an Original?

Damon quickly flashed behind Ambrose, swiftly snapping his neck, before rushing to grab Marian who had fainted.

"No, but it'll give us a head start. Okay, come on."

...

When Marian woke up, she found herself in a bright room with two beds, Jeremy sitting on the one next to hers. She had no idea how she got there, but she had no doubt that it had everything to do with Damon Salvatore. She'd always been told to keep her enemies closer to her than her friends.

"You're awake," the boy said, glancing away from the TV. "I was worried. You were unconscious all night."

"Where are we?" she asked him.

"Some motel. We needed a place to crash while Rose digs around for answers."

"You mean you found her?"

"You sound surprised," Jeremy stated.

"I've lived for a thousand years, Jer. I've seen a lot of things, and what you have, it's super rare," she said.

He nodded. "So what's up with you and Damon?" he asked, the question being on his mind since the two had seen each other that afternoon.

"It's complicated."

"I've got time."

Marian huffed. "We were engaged in 1864," she revealed. His jaw dropped. "And then I died. Um... After you left Mystic Falls, we got closer again. Or I thought we had. But he was just a distraction so they could use me in a sacrifice to murder my family."

"Annie, I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"I'm kinda used to it, I guess," she replied. "It comes with being a Mikaelson."

"Speaking of them, is Kol—"

"My dad. You've been friends with my dad this whole time."

Horror flushed through Jeremy when he realised he'd told Marian's father about how much he'd liked her—how much he still liked her.

"Do you know who everyone's sired to?" he asked her. Marian thought for a moment, wondering whether it was a good idea to tell him the truth or not. After a few seconds, she nodded.

"But if I tell you, they'll slaughter my family. And, if it so happens that they're not a part of my father's bloodline, I'll be killed too."

"What?"

"We're linked, Jer. Kol and I. It's why I fainted when Damon staked him. It's why I've lived for a thousand years," she explained. "If they kill him, I'll die too, and no amount of magic will be able to bring me back."

Why had Damon and Elena not told him about this? Surely they knew. They had to have known. And Bonnie, too. Why had they kept him in the dark about everything?

Jeremy told her that they were headed towards Kansas, which is where Rose had discovered Mary Porter lived, who'd sired her. Marian, of course, knew already that the vampires of Mystic Falls were all part of Klaus' bloodline, but she didn't dare tell Jeremy that.

Telling her that Damon had no intention of slowing down by stopping somewhere for breakfast, Jeremy went out of the motel room to get some chocolate and water from the vending machine.

...

Jeremy barely spoke to his sister and Damon as they all got into Elena's car and drove to where Rose had told them they could find Mary Porter. Marian stayed silent, holding Jeremy's hand and staring blankly out the window. Her cheeks were stiff from the tears that had dried, and her eyes hurt.

She'd ignored Damon's questions the whole way there, and when they finally reached their destination, she stayed seated.

"What's wrong with her?" the vampire asked Jeremy as they and Elena got out of the car.

"Leave it alone, dick," Jeremy replied a little too harshly for Elena's liking.

"What's wrong with you?" Damon pressed, an eyebrow raised.

"Stay away from my sister," the boy hissed.

"Of course." Damon smirked, pulling a set of handcuffs from his back pocket. "But what will I do with these?" he teased, looking back at the car. "I know." He walked to Marian's car door and opened it, clipping one handcuff around the handle on the inside of the door and the other around her wrist.

"Kinky," she muttered emotionlessly, staring down at them.

Damon paused. "You lied to me, you know. That night," he told her. "You told me you loved me."

Marian looked up at him, and for the first time he could tell that she'd been crying. Immediately, he felt guilty. "I've never lied to you once, Damon Salvatore."

"Jer, I want you to wait here," said Elena, causing Damon to take his eyes away from his ex-fiancée. "You can keep Annie company."

"Why? So you guys can make out some more?" he challenged.

Annoyed, Damon forcefully shut Marian's car door and made his way back to the siblings. "Don't be a dick," he said. "Listen to your sister."

"Imagine if you'd listened to your brother when he told you not to fall in love with me," Marian muttered from the car, watching as the vampire turned to her and glared. Neither of the Gilberts had heard.

Jeremy scoffed, walking back to the car, muttering curses that only Damon could hear under his breath. He sat grumpily in the passenger seat of his sister's car, arms crossed and pouting. The two sat in silence, Jeremy holding a grudge and Marian wondering if her father had found Mary Porter before them or not.

"Damon kissed Elena," he blurted out, though Marian wasn't surprised.

"So I gathered," she replied. "He's had his eye on her ever since he saw her."

"I mean, what does she even see in him?

"The bad boy with a hidden soft side. She thinks she can fix him," she explained.

"Is that what you thought?" Jeremy prodded.

Marian scoffed. "He may be a total asshole now, but a hundred and fifty years ago, Damon was actually the nicest, most sincere, sweetest person there was. He wooed me right off my feet. He's a totally different guy, and I was stupid to think he was the same."

Jeremy didn't know how to respond. Damon didn't deserve her, no matter how caring and loving he was when he was human. Marian had lived a thousand years of hardship; she deserved only the best, and Damon most certainly was not that. He'd like to have said he was right for her, but he knew that despite how they both felt (or how she used to feel and he felt too late) they would never have worked as a couple.

He turned his attention to the house, wondering what Damon and his sister were doing. "What's taking them so long?" he asked.

Marian shrugged. "With Mary? Who knows."

"What do you mean?" He looked down at the buzzing phone in front of him. It was Marian's. He passed it back to her; Damon wasn't there to stop him.

"Mary's a freak. She'll probably torture Damon for leaving her, and drink Elena dry the first chance she gets."

Jeremy quickly scrambled up from his incredibly slouched position—he'd let himself sink lower and lower into his seat as she'd talked—and quickly opened the door. "Jesus Christ!" he cursed. "And you didn't think to mention something earlier?"

Marian grimaced as she lifted her phone and unlocked, opening her new message. She almost dropped it when she saw the words written in French on the small screen. It was from Andrea.

Il est mourant. Il veut vous voir.

(He is dying. He wants to see you.)

A sob escaped her lips and she immediately brought the back of her hand to cover her mouth. She was shocked: her son—her only child still living—was dying. Below the message was an address she recognised immediately as the house she'd lived in with her husband before she'd died in the sixties. He had remained there all these years and yet she'd never visited. How could she?

Outside, Jeremy felt himself be pushed into the side of the car as he slammed the door shut to rush into the rundown house after Damon and his sister. The air left his lips with a loud 'oompf'.

"I can't let you go in there."

Marian took a deep breath when she saw Ambrose standing there, his hand wrapped around Jeremy's neck. She didn't want to believe the little voice inside her head that told her that he had to have known about her son, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Andrea had whispered something in his ear before she'd left, and he'd never told the truth about what she'd said.

"Screw you, man," Jeremy seethed, struggling to breathe. Rolling his eyes, Ambrose snapped his neck and let him fall to the ground.

Hearing the girl sob, Ambrose immediately went to her car door and opened it, frowning when he saw tears falling down her cheeks. "Are you okay?" he asked her carefully.

"Did you know?" she asked him, her voice coarse. He tilted his head, not understanding. "Did you know that my son was sick?"

Ambrose took a deep breath, his grip on the car tightening. He knew he couldn't lie. "Yes."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" Her tone was sharp now. It hurt her to know that he'd kept this from her.

"I was going to tell you when you woke up but then—"

Marian shook her head furiously. "He's my son, Ambrose. My last living child." She laughed humourlessly. "And he's dying."

"I didn't know how to tell you," he rushed pleadingly. "I swear, I was just trying to find the right time."

She knew in time she'd probably forgive him, and she knew that had she been in his position she would've found it just as hard, but in this moment she didn't care. She was hurt and in pain. She needed to find her son before it was too late. "You know what? Just go."

"Annie..." he tried.

"Brody, please, just leave. I can't deal with you right now. I need you to go."

Ambrose stared at her for a moment, a million emotions and feelings flashing through his eyes, before he disappeared into the streets of Denver.

Marian took a shaky deep breath and planted her feet on the back of the seat in front of her, bringing her head to her knees. She felt herself begin to cry again.

"Where's the puppy?"

It was her father. She would've jumped if she hadn't been so distraught. Instead, she pushed herself out of the car and into his arms, burying her face in his shirt and hugging him tightly.

"Marian, what's wrong?"

Everything. Everything was wrong. She'd killed her grandfather and her uncle, she'd been used in sacrifices by her grandmother and another uncle, her friend had chosen her as a rebound rather than as someone to love, she'd been pitted against her best friend because of her family, her heart had been broken by the one man for the second time, her magic was gone, and now her son was dying.

"I need you to take me somewhere," she whispered. "I have to go home."