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Growing Pains

Chapter II

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"And then Stefan literally had to cry in front of this old wicked farm man, while I was tied with a rope in the corner of the stable, about the burst out laughing"

"All of that, just for releasing his mice?" Katherine asked, in unbelief. " It is not fair that your younger sibiling has had to save you all the times, you know?" she giggled while he told her about their experiences and adventures together when the two Salvatores were nothing more than young and innocent brothers.

Damon's sincere laugh was enlightened by Katherine's giggle, who was now looking at him with a different light in her eyes.

"What?" his intense stare made it possible for her to let her guard down for some seconds, and actually be honest about her train of inner thoughts.

She beckoned a bitter smile,losing herself in the eternal path of memories.

"I just wish I had appreciated more the time I was given with my family, before they all died." She stared at the characteristic landscape before her, reminiscing.

That corner of paradise that she thought Mystic Falls was, the open fields and the horses wandering freely, the limpid lake that swarmed with lives of fragile creatures, almost brought her back to her days as a young girl, in Bulgaria.

She would run and play with her younger sister, pretending to be whoever they wanted to be. Just like children were supposed to do at that age.

Pretending to be free.

Her destiny, instead, had been meant to be something that was going to be farther away from her once naive perspectives.

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"I see." Damon replied, trying to show as much emotions as he could manage. "But, Katherine, you are not lonely anymore. And you don't have to be."

His words, so true to his unbeknown, made her cold heart somehow react in her chest. Her breath stopped circulating and soon enough she knew that it had been some kind of destiny's twisted games playing on her conscience right now.

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His hand wandered on the edges of her linen sleeve, exactly where her flesh had been exposed to the warm rays of the morning sun. She adverted his erratic breath on the delicate spot behind her right ear, as she leaned in into his arms.

"Not now, Damon" she whispered, gazing at the sky up above their heads.

"You don't seem convincing enough,Katherine" he replied using an husky tone.

She tried to focus. As much as she loved his body, she had an important matter to be taken care of.

Sure enough she would have let herself be pleasured later.

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She sighed. "I have an errand to run."

Turning slowly, she almost gave totally in at the flawless sigh before her.

Damn these Salvatores. Why did they have to be so perfect?

His eyes, now darker from lust, were gazing on her lips, worshipping them and praying for a contact that she immediately consented.

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Damon kissed her hungrily, if she'd been a human, she'd have collapsed by the lack of air.

He plainly knew what rough was.

Stroking her air, he ruined the low and complicated pony tail in which the Petrova's curls had been secured. In the meanwhile he tried to caress every inch of flesh he could reach, as to claim her as his own property.

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Katherine moaned, grasping at a lock of ebony hair in her tight grip, hardening him even more.

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Then she heard him.

A well known speeding heart, along with its magnificent and unique scent, just not that far away, coming straightly from the mansion at their back.

She realized how much,lately, she'd become so addicted to that human to be able to unconsciously advert his presence.

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Katherine pulled away from the steamy kiss, realizing her assumptions were right when a woman's voice called "Mr. Salvatore, your father requires your presence in his library."

Catching a glimpse of his hair, she peeked over Damon's shoulder to see Stefan getting down of the carriage and head towards the house.

She turned to the eldest Salvatore and in a rush ,announced. "I'll see you later."

Then,she disappear at vampire speed to the closest spot she could get without being seen.

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Once she got in Stefan's auditive reach, she called him.

Gathering the long gown in her hands, she ran at human speed next to him, while he carelessly tried to focus his attention somewhere else.

"What do you want?" he asked coldly, only looking at her for a second.

Her heart broke, as she felt neglected by him.

"But what is wrong,Stefan?" she demanded , already knowing the answer. Her soft smile was not reaching her own eyes. It was torn in unbelief and urge.

"My father requires my presence." He stated, detached and formal. "I shall go find out what is it that he needs from me".

With that, he simply turned his back and left her standing still and surprised.

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She hurried and harshly grabbed his wrist, locking her fingers tightly around his flesh, forcing him to look at her.

"Stefan I know what you saw." She spoke clearly, narrowing her perfectly shaped eyebrows. "And it's not like what you suppose." That last sentence was almost cut off in the air.

"Then how is it,Katherine?" he burst out, abruptly interrupting the bare contact between them.

She let him do it, maybe too crippled from her assumptions on what was about to happen.

"We both know how your brother feels about you" he spat, bitterly. "How am I supposed to share you with someone else?"

The way his green eyes molded with surrender, made her hate her own person even more.

"You won't" she readily replied, gaining a puzzled stare from him.

"What game are you playing? After everything we've been through last night? Isn't my love just enough?"

Katherine let her jaw fall, feeling hurt by how her emotions had been underestimated. And along with that, determination ran through her veins.

"It's there where you're wrong, Stefan! And I will prove it to you. I will show you. Just give me some time."

Stefan hesitated, the light in her eyes was way too strong and feverish to be ignored.

It was not compulsion, just an avalanche of humanity getting in the way of a vampire.

He relaxed, taking a deep breath.

"Make your choice, Katherine" he prompted her, his voice on the edge of the emotional.

Stefan suddenly took some steps ahead, now getting only some inches away from her tiny face.

"Just know..." he breathed, inhaling her sublime scent. "that I'll always love you."

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"I need you to perform the ritual this night fall." The request echoed in the empty room of Emily's dormitory .

"This kind of magic we are talking about leads back to black magic, Miss Katherine. It's not a choice to be taken lightly. The witches' spirits could turn against us, it's against the balance of nature. No human in this world has ever done all the evil a single vampire could commit in his existence"

"I know that." Katherine spoke slowly, making eye contact with the powerful witch. " I do know that,perfectly. But it's either me or Stefan and Damon…"

Emily stopped dead in her tracks. "You can't do that!" she hissed,trying to keep her voice low.

"Fine" Katherine replied, honor and pride showing when she rose her chin up. "Try me. Do I have to recall you that there is still some deal to get even with?"

There was a pause, in which none of the two dared to breathe a word.

Meet me at the old cemetery when the moon reaches its apex." Emily gave in.

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Two hours later, Mystic Falls' Cemetery

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« Phasmatos morte et damnatos animu … » the chanting had been dragging on for minutes.

Katherine stood alone in the center of a circle traced with salt, vervain and candles, while Emily sat on the ground, right in front of the vampire; keeping her eyes shut close in order to gain as much concentration as possible.

Katherine knew well enough there would be no come back.

That as a pathetic human, she would have had the chance to be killed right at the first chance given to Klaus, her worst enemy. But of course, that was a secret she was not going to share.

Then, immediately , abruptly ,something changed.

All of the muscles in her seemed to shrink, something shattered in her chest as the woods spun around her head, and all went blurry.

"That's it" she though. "That's my death".

But instead, the pain dragged on until she fell unconscious on the ground.

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As the first rays of morning filtered through the thick curtains, they hit the paleness of the young girl's flawless face, still soundly asleep.

"Miss Katherine" Stefan called from the other side of the door, knocking hardly on it.

She hadn't reached the others downstairs for the breakfast, like she was used to. And he adverted something was extremely off.

He had seen it the day before, the way she looked in his eyes at a thread of dark secrets even worse than the ones he already knew.

If Damon hadn't been with him and their father some minutes before, Stefan would have thought Katherine had made his choice.

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Still no answer.

"What do you want, Mr. Salvatore?" somebody asked, from his back.

He turned to see an upset Emily.

"What's wrong with her?" he let out, in a rush.

"She just needs some rest. I am positive she will tell you all about it when she awakes." The witch talked in a low voice, trying to transmit him as much security as her black depths could manage.

"Let me see her" he begged, with those pleading, expressive eyes.

Emily nodded, shutting easily the door open with one of her tricky spells.

What Stefan saw almost had him die from an heart attack.

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