The atmosphere in the living room had grown unbearably stale. Even the scent of Elena's blood felt suffocated by the heavy rugs and polished wood.
"We can't do this indoors." I stated as I lift the bag of Elena's blood.
"The strength required to break that shield needs the raw power of the earth beneath us. And if that witch retaliates again, I don't want my house collapsing around us." I said as I look at Elena who is now weak after giving me a whole blood bag worth of her blood.
"You stay here Elena. Rest for a while. The spell that I am about to do is very strong. You will only tire yourself waiting." I said and Elena was about to disobey me before Stefan step up and agree with me.
"You should rest Elena. Once the spell is done, we will tell you everything." Stefan said and Elena nod, agreeing with him. He then help her to lay down on the couch.
"Where are we going?" Stefan asked with his face set in a grim line as he follow my steps.
"The south clearing. Now."
`we moved quickly and silently through the back of the estate and into a secluded meadow surrounded by thick and ancient pines. The moonlight offered a cold and sterile illumination. I place the copper bowl directly onto the damp and cool earth. The ground itself felt alive, humming with latent energy.
I poured a significant portion of the blood into the bowl. The thick and crimson liquid gleaming darkly under the moonlight.
Stefan remained close to me. He watched my movements with curiousity.
I knelt, placing my hands over the bowl. I didn't bother with the elegant posturing of a human witch, this was a war chant. I closed my eyes as I accessing the deepest, coldest well of my own thousand year old power. A source that I usually kept locked down but today I channeled it like pure electricity, through my vampire-witch hybrid blood.
My eyes snapped open, and they were no longer human. The deep brown of my irises vanished, replaced by a terrifying and turbulent change. They turned a solid inky black, fractured by veins of pulsing, molten red and gold. The change was jarring as a sign of me signaling the full engagement of my ancient, monstrous nature.
"Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Astem Mihan Ega Petous!" My voice was no longer my own, but a deep rolling growl that sounded ripped from the earth itself.
Magic surged, hot and wild. The blood in the copper bowl didn't just spin but it began to steam, a small, terrifying rising into the cold night air. I pushed my consciousness forward, a focused, powerful spike of energy slamming into the defensive shield.
The opposition was instant and brutal. It felt like plunging my hand into molten iron. My teeth clenched, and a thin sheen of sweat immediately broke out across my brow, despite the chill. The air grew suddenly humid around me.
But the force of the concentrated doppelganger blood, amplified by my own forbidden power, was enough. I heard a screaming shriek echoing only inside my mind. It was the sound of the opposing witch's barrier being violently breached.
I was in.
The vision was chaotic and brutally fast.
The first thing I saw was the witch. She was standing in what looked like a white laiving room She was throwing up a desperate shield, but the force I sent instantly overwhelmed her. Her eyes widened in pure terror, and then her hands and hair ignited in a flash of raw, magical fire. It wasn't a physical fire, but a searing psychic combustion that left a lasting magical scar on her. She crumpled, clutching her head, her screams muffled in the mindscape.
The next frame centered on Isobel, who looked pale and brittle, standing next to a woman with familiar, coiled dark hair. It was Katherine Pierce. They were not alone. There was another men with them. Isobel was wearing the distinctive antique silver necklace. As the opposing witch screamed and fell, the room erupted in shocked panic. Katherine's eyes, usually calculating and cold, were wide with genuine fear and realization.
I heard Katherine's voice, a horrified whisper that resonated directly in my mind.
"She's burning! The spell, it's Natalia! She's here! She knows!"
Katherine's entire posture shifted from guarded contempt to frantic retreat, I now divide my concentration on her too. I made one of her hand moving towards her chest. She is trying to resist, but I continue to made her hand move.
Meanwhile, as I do that to Katherine, I managed to focus on Isobel's neck before the vision fractured. The thick, elaborate silver necklace was clearly the focal point of a powerful deterrent spell, a sophisticated block that was designed to make her undetectable or magically resistant. It shimmered, pushing my connection back immediately, preventing me from gathering more details about her environment or status.
As she and the mysterious man helped Katherine stopping her hand from ripping her heart from her chest, a second witch. He is an older man, calm and deadly. He stepped into the burning room. He looked at the collapsed woman with cold disdain, and then towards the chaos between Katherine, Isobel and the mysterious man , before he then immediately raised his own, steady hands. He began chanting a different, more powerful blocking spell, a complex weave designed not just to block, but to destroy the intruder's presence.
The surge of energy required to fight this second, prepared spell was immense. I was kneeling effortlessly, but the force of the concentration was warping the atmosphere around me. My muscles trembled beneath my skin, my forehead shining with perspiration. I pushed every bit of my will into the final blast of energy, snapping the connection cleanly before the second witch could sever my mental link and cause catastrophic damage.
The moment the connection broke, I felt the massive recoil. The raw power that had been flowing through me slammed backward, leaving my system cold, empty, and burning simultaneously. My eyes faded, the terrifying black and red receding, leaving them a dull, exhausted brown eyes. I pitched forward, the world tilting violently.
A pair of strong, rapid arms instantly caught me.
"Natalia!" Stefan's voice was sharp with alarm. He had been watching every subtle tremor, every flicker of golden light, and that sudden, horrifying change in my eyes had clearly shaken him.
He caught me around the waist and under my shoulder, preventing my collapse into the cold ground. His face, inches from mine, was etched with raw worry and concern.
I gently pushed him from me. I gasped, my head swimming as I remained kneeling on the ground. The silence of the clearing rushed back in, broken only by my ragged breathing.
"I'm fine." I said as I remained in my position.
"Your eyes, they changed." Stefan said.
"What happened in my eyes is irrelevant." I retorted, the exhaustion making me short tempered.
"I broke through. I did damage. The witch protecting them is burned, incapacitated. I saw Isobel. She's a vampire, and she's being heavily guarded, not just by the second witch, but by two unknown men. And Katherine was with her." I met his horrified gaze.
"Katherine? She's involved in this?" Stefan's eyes widened, the realization hitting him like a physical blow.
"More than involved. I think she is the mastermind. But she was terrified when she knew I found them. Which means that my involvement in this is without her knowledge."
"And Isobel is wearing a magically shielded silver necklace. That's what prevented me from getting a clean location before the second, stronger witch cut me off." I took a deep, steadying breath, the exertion leaving me trembling slightly.
"We can't track her directly again, Stefan. The witch knows I'm coming now. The next defense will be lethal, and it might put Elena is a dangerous scenario if she is involve in their plan."
"So what now? The trail is cold again." Stefan asked.
"Not completely cold." I admitted, my mind already calculating the new strategy.
"I couldn't track Isobel directly, but the witch protecting her didn't erase human ties. We need to track the path of least resistance." I said.
"Elena mentioned Jenna helped her find some information about Isobel's high school life. Trudie Peterson. She is one of her high school friends." Stefan said, his face serious.
"Focus on that.That witch isn't guarding every person Isobel ever knew. Use Jenna's lead. Track the human connection. It's subtle, it's slow, but it's the one way that witch won't expect us to approach."
I pushed off the ground, intending to rise again, but the cold void in my core immediately took hold. The exhaustion was absolute. My vision grayed, and the energy that had kept me upright vanished. My knees buckled, and I crumpled sideways.
Stefan moved instantly. He catched me before I hit the cold ground. He scooped me up, one arm beneath my knees, the other supporting my back.
Stefan moved with silent urgency. He entered the mansion. The living room was dimly lit by a few lamps. Elena was curled up on the large sofa, wrapped in a throw blanket, having succumbed to immediate exhaustion. She was deeply asleep, her breathing slow and even. Stefan didn't stop or even glance toward her. His immediate priority was me.
He took the grand, sweeping staircase two steps at a time. He found the master bedroom. It was a sprawling, dimly lit space that felt both regal and strangely impersonal. He walked straight to the large, canopied bed and gently lowered me onto the cool sheets.
I lay like a statue, my skin possessing the unsettling ice cold temperature of a preserved corpse, yet drenched in sweat from the internal fire the spell had demanded. My clothes were damp, sticking to my skin.
Stefan's concern sharpened, the chill radiating off my skin deeply unnatural even to a vampire. He felt an urge, a profound, almost protective instinct to stabilize me in his care. It was a reaction he hadn't anticipated, a genuine anxiety that had nothing to do with Katerina or his brother, or Elena but with me.
He quickly searched the room, finding a heavy quilt and a fleece throw in a large cedar chest. He stripped off my damp jacket, then covered me with layer after layer of thick blankets. He stacked them high, yet when he placed the back of his hand on my forehead, I remained stone cold, radiating a deep, internal chill.
Frustration creased his brow. Vampiric healing was failing, and blankets were useless. He realized this wasn't a physical injury, it was a magical depletion he couldn't fix.
He pulled out his phone, his fingers flying across the screen. He sent a text to the only person he knew that can help Natalia now.
Bonnie.
Natalia need your help. Something is wrong. Please come now.
He put the phone away and dragged a heavy armchair closer to the bed, sitting down with a sigh, his gaze fixed on my still face. He sat in tense silence, waiting.