[VD] 27 ~ 28: Plan B

Ch 27: Meeting to Discuss

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"All right, let's do this. Tomorrow we pick a place and have a proper talk about whether to open the Tomb," Jack said after a moment's thought. "Even if we decide to open the Tomb, there's a lot we still need. You probably haven't found the Grimoire yet. And we'll need a witch. Right now Bonnie's the only witch in Mystic Falls, so we'll need her agreement."

"Jack, what about Damon?" Stefan asked.

"Damon? Didn't he leave yesterday? I'm actually surprised you're still here. I gave you an exit window and you blew past it." Jack's tone carried a trace of ridicule.

"Sorry, Jack. With more vampires showing up in town I couldn't just leave Elena here, you know that. And you know I mean no harm." Stefan's apology was paired with an explanation. He probably guessed Damon was in Jack's custody but still felt he needed to justify himself.

"Forget that for now. Tomorrow, meet at the bar. Seven in the evening. Bring everyone you can. If I find out you lied to me, trust me, neither you nor your mother will be leaving Mystic Falls." Jack set the time and then turned to Anna with a warning.

"All right. I will," Anna replied.

"It's getting late. Elena, remind Bonnie about this. I've got to go." Jack started to leave.

"Jack, you really don't know where Damon went? If you don't know, we should look for him. Who knows what trouble he's hiding," Elena said, fishing for information.

"If he's hiding somewhere, I'm not bothering to hunt him down. Once I see him he's done. And as for his crimes—besides Sarah, whom he targeted and killed—Zack, Tanner, and the others, I hardly spoke to any of them. Why do you care? Why should it be my problem?" Jack sneered. He wasn't going to indulge people who already knew Damon's misdeeds but still tried to pry for his whereabouts.

"Enough of that. This masquerade doesn't suit my taste at all. I'm going home to rest." With that he left, leaving the two speechless.

...

Jack drove straight back to the cabin. A new shipment of vervain had arrived and he needed to prep more weapons. Dealing with twenty-seven vampires would not be simple.

"Guess what. We might have a way to open the tombs. And we're actually planning to open them," he said when he returned and saw Damon. The vampire looked drained from the last dose of vervain, but he was conscious; the drug's effect was fading.

"You're being charitable now?" Damon glanced at him, clearly skeptical.

"Anna. You know her? She says her mother's locked in the Tomb, and she brought the method to open it," Jack baited him.

"If Bonnie agrees tomorrow, I'm likely to go along and open the tomb to free her mother. You were trying to patch things up with Bonnie earlier, weren't you? You must know how to open the Tomb already?" Jack reminded Damon of the scene from before.

"No way. Stefan would never let you open the Tomb. Opening it serves you no purpose," Damon replied. 

"Maybe. But if Anna agrees that she only wants her mother and gives up the other twenty-six vampires, do you think I'd pass up the perfect chance to remove that problem?" Jack said with grim amusement.

"No. You can't hurt Katherine." Damon spat out the name and stood up in alarm.

"Don't worry. Once the other vampires are dealt with, you'll be dry enough. I'll put you in the Tomb with Katherine. Whether she's alive or dead then, I can't promise," Jack said, and gave Damon another syringe of vervain.

Jack processed the new vervain and unboxed the compact crossbow he'd ordered online earlier. The custom mini-crossbow had decent accuracy and accepted small bolts that could be soaked in vervain. Those tiny bolts would penetrate a vampire and be hard to pull out. One shot, one vampire down.

He soaked the bolts in concentrated vervain and packed everything away. Satisfied, he went to sleep.

...

The next evening, the bar was filled with people.

"Hi Bonnie," Jack said as he walked in and saw her already sitting alone.

"Hi Jack, you made it," Bonnie waved.

"Are we really going to open the Tomb?" Bonnie asked as soon as he sat down. Twenty-seven vampires were enough reason to be scared.

"We'll see. We'll discuss everything first," Jack said quietly and tapped his ear, signaling they'd talk privately later.

Bonnie nodded. Before long Stefan arrived with Elena and Caroline.

"Caroline, what brings you here?" Jack asked but watched Stefan the whole time.

"I wanted to come. Bonnie and Elena are here. I wouldn't miss it," Caroline replied.

"You brought them into this so it's your responsibility," Jack said to Stefan.

After a while... Anna arrived with another man.

"Ben?" Bonnie exclaimed, surprised. After all, he was Ben McKittrick from their school.

"So he was your backup all along," Jack said. He'd suspected Anna had a plan for Bonnie from the beginning.

"Yes. I had Ben approach Bonnie to see how to persuade her to help break the seal," Anna admitted.

"All right, here's the situation," Jack said. He outlined the plan and asked for questions and conditions. In the end they would vote.

"I won't waste time. Here are my thoughts and conditions," Jack said. "Keeping the Tomb sealed is safe for now, but it's a ticking problem. Starved vampires don't die. They only suffer. If they break free uncontrolled, it will be a disaster."

"So I'm open to opening the Tomb, but I have three conditions. One, only your mother may be rescued. Two, I will go in and personally kill the remaining twenty-six vampires to eliminate the future threat. Three, after this you and your group must not kill or feed on humans. I won't force you to be like Stefan, but you must limit feeding to hospital blood bags. Any objections or additions, speak up now," Jack said.

"If we find Emily's Grimoire, I must take it," Bonnie said. "Emily is my ancestor. It belongs to my family."

"No problem," Jack replied. The others stayed silent. A Grimoire was more useful to Bonnie and she had claim by blood. Besides, Jack's power made objections pointless.

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Ch 28: The Plan B

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"Jack, can't you let Damon go just this once? When the time comes, let him take Katherine and leave the town," Stefan pleaded.

"We can talk about this when I run into him," Jack replied coolly. It was clear he had no intention of forgiving Damon that easily. Honestly, since coming to this world, Damon had been the one person Jack truly couldn't stand. There was no way he'd let him go just because Stefan asked nicely.

"Jack, we all know you've already taken Damon. Please, just this once, let him go," Elena said softly from the side.

"So you're all that sure I took him? Damon's been missing for days—what makes you think he's even still alive?" Jack shot a glance at Bonnie and Anna. Both of them knew he had Damon, but only Bonnie knew about his plan to dry Damon out. So even though Jack didn't want to accuse anyone, it was pretty obvious who'd slipped up.

Anna shook her head slightly, while Bonnie pressed her lips together and said nothing. Jack understood. Bonnie must've said something—he just didn't know if she'd done it because she thought drying Damon out forever was too cruel, or because Elena and the others had pressed her until she broke.

Regardless, he felt a twinge of sadness

"When we were looking for Damon, someone told us you took him," Elena said carefully, glancing at Bonnie. "And the reason we think he's still alive is because if you'd killed him, you wouldn't have hidden it."

"Oh really? And what's your angle here?" Jack's tone turned cutting. "Are you speaking to me as Sarah's friend? Tanner's student? Or maybe as Vicki's ex-boyfriend's sister? No—wait, that's right, you're Damon's sister-in-law right now."

He said it with a mock look of realization that made Elena's face tighten.

"Hey, Jack, don't talk to Elena like that," Caroline snapped, unable to listen any longer.

"Did I say something wrong? And who are you to tell me how to talk? Don't think too highly of yourself, Caroline," Jack shot back. Now he understood why Stefan and Elena had brought her along tonight — they were hoping she could sway him, using her as emotional leverage.

Too bad for them, that card didn't work anymore. Maybe in the past, Jack would've gone soft because of Caroline. But ever since she'd moved on so quickly, he'd cut all emotional ties. He'd already decided—if he was going to be a bastard, he might as well be a proper one. Whatever he felt for her before, it wasn't enough to make him compromise.

"Jack, you…" Caroline started but couldn't find the words.

"What, me? Do you have any idea how many times Damon's used you to threaten me? Every time he escaped, it was with your name in his mouth. And Stefan? He just stood there watching while I was being threatened. So tell me—when Damon's killed all those people, don't you think you share some of that blame? You're lucky I have protected you. So don't you dare act self-righteous in front of me."

Jack's anger came out sharp and direct, leaving everyone silent.

"And Bonnie," he continued, turning toward her, "don't think I'm being cruel for drying Damon out. Stefan—his own brother—has done the same thing before. The difference is, he didn't have the guts to kill him. Me? I just don't think Damon deserves the easy way out."

The room went quiet. No one dared respond.

"All right, sounds like we're done here," Jack said finally. "If no one else has objections, that's settled. Once you find the Grimoire and pick a date, let me know. I'll show up then."

"I'm leaving."

He exchanged a brief look with Bonnie and got up.

"Jack, can you give me a ride?" Bonnie said quickly. "I just awakened my powers and I need to visit my grandma to ask her a few things."

"Sure," he said, heading for the door.

Once Bonnie got into the car, Jack spoke up again. "Actually, I was planning to go to your grandma's too. I need to ask her about a backup plan."

"A backup plan?" Bonnie frowned. "What kind?"

"I want to ask if it's possible to only partially break the seal—make it so vampires can go in, but not come out. That way, if Anna keeps her word, I'll let her rescue her mother. But if she turns on us, I'll kill them all while I'm inside. I don't care how many there are, I just don't want any of them escaping."

Bonnie blinked, processing that.

"And besides," Jack added, "that place already has a seal—it'd make a perfect prison. Once Damon's completely drained, I can throw him in there too. If any other vampires ever need punishment, we can toss them in as well."

"Jack, you're not mad that I told Elena about Damon?" Bonnie asked cautiously.

"It's fine. Elena's your best friend, right? Whether you said it yourself or she figured it out, it doesn't matter. You didn't tell them where the hidden cabin was, and that's what counts. If you had, they'd have been raiding the place instead of showing up at the meeting," Jack said easily.

"Thank you, Jack." Bonnie looked relieved—she'd honestly expected him to be furious after she'd leaked something he trusted her with.

"No problem." Jack smiled faintly.

"Wait, Jack—this isn't the road to my grandma's house. This leads to my place," Bonnie said, realizing they'd gone the wrong way.

"Oh, right," Jack said, smacking his forehead. "I just realized I don't actually know where your grandma lives."

Bonnie laughed. "All right, turn around. I'll give directions."

They arrived at her grandmother's place not long after—it wasn't far. The two got out of the car and went inside.

"Grams, is there any way to do what he's asking?" Bonnie explained the situation and looked at her expectantly.

"It's hard to say without seeing the Grimoire," the old woman said after thinking for a moment. "When Emily cast that spell, she used the power of the comet. Now the crystal's gone, so even breaking the seal will be difficult—let alone sealing it again afterward. But if it's just making it so someone can go in and not come out… that might be possible."

"That works," Jack said. "Once we recover the Grimoire, check if it's doable. I just want a way in. I'll go in with Anna—if she stays true, I'll spare her and her mother. If she betrays me, I'll kill every last vampire inside, and we won't have to worry about breaking the seal again."

"That sounds reasonable," Bonnie's grandmother, Sheila Bennett, agreed. "At least that way, it keeps the rest of us safe."

"It's just… why are you acting like you're invincible, darling? You could die out there. Bonnie told me about your magic, but healing and speed alone don't make you untouchable."

Jack began explaining his powers to her. Sheila seemed trustworthy, and he needed her to take it seriously.

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