Chapter Three: Arrival of The Salvatore Brothers
Dec. 11th, 2005
Max sat alone in his room within the confines of a magic circle made of salt and lined with fire lit candles. He was chanting as he had been doing it off and on.
For days on end—he had been searching, with hardly any results despite being a master of Earth magic and quite fluent in Spirit magic, with a world map spread out before him as a talisman.
"Pou lespi yo ak té a revele sa ki kache…montre m kote yo kenbe nwa a. Ostende mihi locum Sancti Augustini headquarters!" Max chanted on repeat yet again.
Despite the power Max was pouring into the spell, the entire map caught fire, turning to ash almost instantly.
"Gods dammit! Max exclaimed in frustration. "Figures."
For the better part of three weeks, Max had been intending to find where the Augustine Society held Enzo, to rescue the tortured, abused vampire. Why? Because Max was a Benzo shipper, and those two were endgame in Max's eyes.
'But everytime I perform the spell, the map burns, and I lose connection!' Max thought privately in protest. 'Its like the place is…protected… Don't tell me… Fuck!'
"If I can't use this world's magic to find him, then I'll just use otherworldly magic to do it," Max murmured, "NhoJ .tS ozneroL ot em tcejrop yartsA!"
A beat of a second later, Max found his soul leaving his body, traversing vast distances in mere moments and blurs, before arriving in a basement of sorts where a blond guy that actively reminded Max of Eddie Thawne from a certain speedster show was actively viviseccting a familiar raven-haired vampire, who was propped on-top a table and bound in reinforced — and likely enchanted — chains.
"You know, all these years with you doc and you never once ask to court me — Makes one wonder if ya really like me," Lorenzo said, snarkily, sounding bored as his organs were actively being dissected alive.
The "doc" in question merely continued his dissection, offering Enzo no words or response to his blatant baiting. From the practiced patience, Max could pretty much guess that this was not the first time the "doc" had to deal with Lorenzo's bullshitting and foul mouth.
And yet, still, it did not appear that Lorenzo was intending to give up on his attempt to annoy the doctor — An endeavor Max approved of significantly. It immediately earned Max's respect for the vampire even more so.
"Come on now, doctor, you could at least feign a bloody verbal reaction to my words," the vampire baited, still snarky. "I've got all the time in the world, mate."
Silence.
"Don't tell me a cat got your tongue already, doc," the vampire grinned, smug.
Silence.
"My, how boring you are," Enzo said, smirking. "Should've jumped into the flames with the other vamps. At least, that way, I wouldn't die of boredom. I hear Death is far more intriguing than your baseborn company, no? Blood Hell!"
Pausing from his dissection, the doctor got up, wiped his gloved hands of organ juices and gore with a towel and ungloved his hands. Picking up his generic recorder, the doctor spoke.
"Subject attempts to bait Augustine doctor into a conversation to distract from the pain of being vivisected on is to be dully noted…yet again. The psychological conditioning required—-."
"YlralucatcepS flesruoy llik ,kaep eht ta ,dna ssendam eht ot flesruoy esoL," Max chanted, utilizing a huge portion of his magic reserves to cast the curse on the doctor. "Repulso!"
An invisible force caused the doctor to fly across the room — But not before a skull mark found its way on the doctor's syndactyly, between his right middle finger and ring finger.
CRASH!
The doctor had crashed into the concrete lining along the wall, creating a mini crater in the concrete.
Turning to Enzo, Max noticed that the vampire's eyes were locked on him, intrigue born within them like a flame to a spark.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of a warlock's aid?" Enzo asked, eyebrows raised.
Max merely hummed in response, walking over to Enzo casually. Then, with various hand movements, mended his chest cavity, much to the vampire's surprise.
"And a talented one at that," Enzo chuckled, amused. "Blimy! You are an interesting one. I must say, though, I thought witches weren't known for their tolerance of my kind."
"I don't hold discrimination against vampires like my more self-pretentious witchy warlock brethren. I also believe no one should be tortured and experimented on…At least, no one who doesn't deserve it, anyways," Max admitted, mildly noticing himself vanishing; he decided to speak faster and get his point across sooner. "I placed a curse on the doctor. His insanity will take him out. He'll be dead within the week. I can't rescue you yet — The astral projection and curse casting cost me my energies — but I will. Soon."
A moment of silence passed between them as the vampire digested Max's words.
"What do you get out of it all?" Enzo asked, suspiciously. "From rescuing me, I mean. Our communities aren't known for their 'free' collaborations."
"You have a living relative — Alexandria St. John. Find her," Max answered, catching Enzo off guard. "She intends to free a powerful pair of dangerous psychics into the world, albeit unintendedly. I want you to gain control of the Armory and the organization your father founded. Do this, and your debt of freedom will be paid."
"That's all?" Enzo asked, incredulously. "Just talk down a distant relative and gain control over their organization? And you'll free me?"
"Honestly, I would've freed you regardless," Max muttered loud enough for the vampire to hear, given his widened eyes. Coughing into his fist, Max spoke. "But yeah, pretty much. That is all."
Lorenzo nodded in surprise. he 'd never met this boy before nor did he know a thing at all about him. But it was evident that he knew about Enzo, given his knowledge of his father and his organization. As he contemplated this, he noticed the boy was fading out of existence.
"At least tell me your name before you leave me here, darlin'," the vampire said in a rushed manner, just before Max could vanish.
"Bennett," Max answered. "Maximus Bennett."
And, with that, Max vanished, leaving the old vampire alone with his thoughts.
"Bennett. A Bennett witch? This is getting interesting," Enzo released a lopsided, lazy grin. "I remember Damon mentioning something abut a witch of that lineage once, long ago. Maximus Bennett. How intriguing…".
Max's soul returned to his body, his exhaustion evident. Sweat poured from every pore in his body and his breathing was heavy. He felt like he'd just ran a marathon with weighted shoes and bands.
Gathering himself, Max took stock of his energy reserves. "Nearly depleted….I think the astral projection alone took up a little less than half of my energy reserves, and the curse itself took up a literal half of it and then some. I'll need to rest up, recuperate my strength, and then I can save Enzo… For Bonnie."
In the end, Max would rest for a 2 days and free Enzo three days later, and Enzo himself would carry out the mission he'd been given during a three year crusade for control over the Armory.
So much happened during these three, long years, too. In fact, it was during these three long years that Elena's adopted parents died and Max himself had tried to be more present in Jeremy's life, curbing some of his more toxic habits like drugs as best he could. He couldn't un-emo him, but he didn't even try to to begin with. That whole emo phase was a part of Jere; he wouldn't change that. But the smoking had to go, lest he develop cancer later in life. Matt and Elena broke up and Bonnie had told her grams of her practicing magic with Max.
Suffice to say that conversation was a rocky slope, but it was over and done with, thank the gods.
It was also that summer after the 3 years that the Salvatore Brothers ame back into town, and the cannon officially started…