CHAPTER ELEVEN | PRAYER FOR THE DYING

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DAMON SALVATORE SAUNTERED THROUGH THE HALLS OF THE SALVATORE HOUSE AND HEADED STRAIGHT UPSTAIRS. As he walked back into his bedroom, Evelyn was still very much sound asleep with the curtains drawn shut considering she still hadn't managed to get a daylight ring. Damon wanted to let her rest as long as possible since she obviously needed the rest. With an adoring smile on his lips, Damon turned on his heels and attempted to leave the room but suddenly the noise of Evelyn stirring awake caused him to stop.

"Don't go." Evelyn's voice was soft but just loud enough for the Salvatore to hear and obey her instructions. The brunette sat up slowly in the bed, then glanced at her phone to check the time. "Damon, what— it's almost eleven."

"I'm glad that in your old age, the ability to tell the time didn't escape you." Damon teased as he dropped himself on the bed beside her. "Honestly, you looked like you could do with the rest. Plus, it gave me a little time to sort a few things."

"Things?" She raised an eyebrow toward him as he dropped two velvet boxes onto the bedsheet in front of them. "What's this?"

A smirk swept across Damon's face like a wildfire as he noticed the dumbfounded look on Evelyn's. "Open them and find out."

Evelyn reached for the first box, closet to her. It was a small, blue velvet box and when she opened it, there was a silver engagement ring staring back at her with a beautiful large diamond in the middle. "Oh, Damon. It's beautiful."

"I tried to get it similar to the last one, you know, the one that that dick Kai melted. But, I figured this would be more your speed."

Evelyn wasted no time lifting it from the box as she slipped it into her finger. "It's beautiful. But, you didn't need to do that. You know—"

"I wanted to." The Salvatore immediately cut her off before he gestured to the other box. "I'm sure you can guess what's inside that one."

A chuckle left Evelyn's lips, then she opened the second box to reveal a daylight ring. It was a simple ring with a blue pendant in the middle, similar to Elena's. The Austin vampire slipped it onto her index finger and then held her hand in the air, admiring the sudden inflex in jewelry.

"Just go careful with that. Jo made it, so if you burst into flames, I'll know who's ass I need to kick."

"Uh, you won't be doing that." Evelyn immediately furrowed her brows toward her fiancé. "Jo's trying to get back into the swing of things, so even if I do burst into flames, which I won't. Cut her a little slack, okay?"

Damon's face suddenly softened as he placed a gentle kiss on Evelyn's lips. "Hm. You're lucky that I'm in love with you." As their kiss began to get a little bit more heated, Damon's phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket. He broke away from Evelyn's lips, leaving the brunette a little irritated as he answered the phone. "Better be good, brother."

"How quickly can you and Evelyn get to Whitmore medical?"

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Shortly after Stefan's call had interrupted them, Damon and Evelyn headed straight to Whitmore Medical center to meet with Stefan, Elena, and Jo. Apparently, Stefan and Caroline had gone on a trip to Duke to meet with a cancer specialist in the hopes that they would be able to treat Liz, but instead, all Caroline was met with was a harsh reality. So, Caroline met a patient with the same stage cancer as her Mom and fed him her vampire blood. Coincidentally, the patient died shortly after Stefan and Caroline had left Duke. He was freshly turned, but he was still critically sick, so the vampires had taken him to Jo.

"I had Duke send over Colin's medical records," Jo told the group as she placed one head scan on the board in front of them. "This head scan is from earlier this week." Then, she placed a second one right beside it. "This one was taken right here, ten minutes ago. See all that red?"

"Well, I'm no doctor but that guy is screwed." Damon puffed out as he observed the giant spots of red that had appeared in the scan that was taken ten minutes ago.

"So, the blood didn't heal him, it sped up his cancer and killed him," Stefan spoke with wide eyes as he pieced together what had happened to Colin right after he and Caroline left Duke.

Jo nodded slowly. "So now, I have a stage ten cancer patient, which by the way, doesn't exist. Who is beyond terminally ill, and a vampire, meaning all of his emotions are heightened, and he can't die."

"Oh, my God. That's just— that's horrific." Evelyn breathed out as her eyes glanced between the two head scans.

"Hey, no offense, but could someone tell me why Evelyn and I were called down here to listen to the story of Colin the Cancer Vamp?" Damon asked as he glanced between his brother, Elena, and Jo.

Because Caroline fed me her blood last night." Liz's voice echoed from behind the group. They all turned around with widened eyes to see both Caroline and Liz stood at the door, behind them. "So, the same thing is gonna happen to me."

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"Medically speaking, this is our best option," Jo told Evelyn and Damon as the three stood outside of Liz's hospital room. They were attempting to come up with a way to reverse the effects of Caroline's vampire blood so that Liz didn't suffer the same fate as Colin. "If vampire blood is the issue, then a full transfusion of human blood might stabilize her condition."

Both Damon and Evelyn's eyes widened at how unsure Jo was about her plan. "Your use of the word might there is very reassuring, Doc."

"Look, we are in uncharted territory here. This isn't just a medical problem, it's a magical one."

"Well, then you're uniquely qualified. Witch Doctor and all." The Salvatore answered back with a harsher undertone. The thought of anything happening to Liz, someone he regarded to be one of his friends made his stomach turn.

Jo rolled her eyes and glared at the Salvatore. "Now you believe in my magic? Gee, thanks." The witch's eyes then turned back to the hospital room. "Unfortunately, this goes beyond any witch ability I've ever heard of. But, please, if either of you has a better plan I'm all ears."

Once the witch rolled her eyes and headed back inside Liz's hospital room, Evelyn glanced at Damon with a flicker of hope in her eyes. "So, about that whole better-plan-thing. I think I might have something, but it's a long shot."

"Oh, baby, long shots happen to be my specialty," Damon smirked toward his fiancé.

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Evelyn's plan was to get Kai to siphon the vampire blood out of Liz's system, which in theory, was an amazing plan. But, Kai was unfortunately comatose in Alaric's apartment, and the vampires knew that the second they woke him from his drug-infused slumber, he would want something. But, Evelyn knew just how close Damon was with Liz, as well as the fact that she was her best friend's mother, and she would move the world to make sure nothing happened to her.

As Evelyn and Damon walked into Alaric's apartment, they immediately caught sight of Tyler Lockwood, attempting to remove all of the medical equipment that kept Kai sedated. "Tyler. What the hell are you doing?"

Damon sped straight for Tyler and slammed him against the wall in a choke-hold. After a few minutes, he tossed Tyler to the ground. "Liv's dad is in town. She's trying to convince him to let Jo and Kai do the merge."

"Oh, so you thought you'd come grab Kai as a failsafe in case Papa Paker says no to Liv and Luke. Turns out, Eve and I need him for something a little bit more pressing so I guess you'll just give to wait." Damon tilted his head before Evelyn sped over to one of the sedation tubs and plunged it into Tyler's neck.

The Lockwood boy immediately fell unconscious at Evelyn's feet, while Damon pulled his phone from his pocket. "Okay. What now?"

"Twin-derella, big pitch going south, is it?" Damon spoke with Tyler's phone pressed against his ear as Liv's breath hitched in her throat the moment she realized who was calling.

"Where's Tyler?" She asked, anxiety lacing her words.

"Well, the good news is we've come up with a solution. Now, it's a bit of a Hail Mary, but I think everybody gets what they need. I just have to ask Papa Paker one question, so you mind putting him on?" Damon smirked toward Evelyn as they heard a little shuffling of the phone exchanging hands.

"Yes?"

"Hello, Sir. Damon Salvatore here, we had Thanksgiving together. Anyway, I've been sitting here Googling celestial events happening today, and I was just curious, would a Mercury-Venus conjunction give you enough juice to do a little Gemini merge party?"

"Why?"

Evelyn took a deep breath and moved closer to the phone. "Okay, so that's clearly a yes. We need you to merge Liv and Luke as soon as you can because Kai is gonna be on the loose shortly and hell-bent on beating you guys to it. Just thought I should let you know."

As soon as Kai began to stir awake, Damon ended the call. His eyes fell to the Parker boy. "Rise and shine, you little weasel." Kai lifted his hand as if he were attempting to do magic, but nothing happened. "Ooh, trying to pop a blood vessel in my brain? Sorry, not gonna work.

"That's a shame. All your magic drained away whilst you were napping." The brunette vampire folded her arms over her chest, tilted her head, and pouted. "Here's the thing, Damon and I can get you more."

A soft chuckle escaped Kai's lips as he sat upright. "You really think I'm gonna trust you?"

"No. And, we're not gonna trust you. We just happen to need a magic siphon, and you're the only game in town."

Just as Kai was about to jump off of the bed, he noticed Tyler Lockwood unconscious at his feet. "Hi." He jumped over his body and stood in front of the two vampires. "Let's discuss my fee."

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"Alright, I need a twelve-gauge-needle, stat." Kai chuckled to himself shortly after he wandered into the hospital room and washed his hands. He moved over to Liz's bedside whilst Elena, Damon and Evelyn stood silently. "Don't know what I'm gonna do with it, but I need it."

"Kai, I swear to you, if you screw this up, will rip your heart out and feed it back to you," Evelyn promised with a vicious look in her eyes, whilst Elena nodded.

"What she said, so do your stupid little magic-suction trick and suck the magic out of her. Right now." Damon folded his arms over his chest and gestured to Liz, who looked anxious.

"I get what you two see in each other. It's very dys-fun-ctional. See what I did there? Stressing the fun in dysfunctional." Kai chuckled to himself as he glanced between Damon and Evelyn whilst Elena rolled her eyes.

"Just get on with it, Kai. Listening to you talk makes me wanna die." Liz Forbes cut him off with a bored tone of voice, which earned a scoff from the Austin vampire.

"That's good." Kai chuckled. He then extended his hand, placed one at Liz's cheek and the other on her arm. The heart-rate monitor began to beep rapidly just as Jo walked in, clearly startled by the fact that Kai was stood vertical.

"What the hell is going on? What is he doing here?!"

"Hey, Sis. Little busy. Be with you in a jiffy." Kai smirked.

As Jo's eyes fell to Elena for some sort of explanation, she gestured to the engaged couple beside her. "Uh, I'm gonna let Damon and Evelyn explain."

"Have the pair of you actually lost your minds?!" Jo yelled out in disbelief the minute she and the vampires stepped into another private room.

"Hey, shh. Listen." Damon told the Doctor just as he closed the door behind him. "You told Evelyn and I that Liz was gonna die in eight hours if the magic kept doing its thing. He steals magic. You made it through med school, figured you knew where we were going with this."

"If you think Kai's doing this out of the goodness of his heart, I can assure you, he doesn't have one! What's the price?"

"So, uh, he wants to merge— tonight." Evelyn breathed out finally as she watched the woman's eyes widened in fear.

"No, Evelyn, I can't merge tonight. I'm not ready!"

"You almost burned my house down, don't you think I know that?" Damon scoffed. "Luckily for you, it's all been taken care of."

Jo's heart began to thump against her chest. "What the hell have you guys done?"

Before Damon could even speak, Kai appeared in behind him and broke his neck. "Magic neck-snapping. Never gets old. Isn't this the part where you start running?" He questioned his sister just as Evelyn sped straight for him and pinned him against the wall. "Oh, I forgot about you. God, you're hot, you know that."

"Shut up," Evelyn growled as she attempted to snap his neck, only to have her's snapped before she could manage it.

Jo glanced at the pair of unconscious vampires on the floor, then she turned back to look at her brother. "I've spent my entire life running from you. I'm not running anymore."

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