Ch.2: Return of An Old Enemy

      A couple days later, they'd gotten settled into the town. Damon had learned the rules Regina had for vampires, as well as most people here, so he was no trouble. Kat had gotten to know the other residence more, and had also gotten to learning the strange family tree with Rumple and Regina. And so, she'd already gotten to meet Rumple's son, and had gotten news that Hook had tried taking vengeance on Rumple by shooting Belle. Now, Belle seemed to have a new name. Because Kat had expertise with knowledge of hundreds of years of magic, she knew there was a way to get Belle's memories of who she was back. 

        Kat entered his shop she remembered quite well, hoping to find Rumple here and alone. She was in luck, since he was on the other side of the glass counter. 

        "I hear you need some help in the magical department," she greeted, walking up to where he was. 

        "And I hear you're the one that brought him here," he replied, obviously unhappy. 

        "Look, I wasn't going to make a deal with your past self, so it was Regina's past self or Hook's. I chose the safer option. Deals aren't exactly my way of life anymore. I didn't know Belle would be a part of his vengeance against you. I guess I should've known. But I can help you with the Belle problem. I was a vampire for hundreds of years, always dealing with witches, and I learned a long time ago that I'm descended from Travelers. They're gypsies that adapted to the times. I have magic myself. If you let me, I can make her remember who she really is. No need for that kiss or trying to make her fall in love with you again. What do you say? And when we're done, you can do whatever the hell you want to Hook. He was just a means to get out of your world."

        "What do you need?" he inquired, ready for the help, since he clearly couldn't get her memory back himself, and he'd already tried to get Regina to undo it. 

        "I don't need any ingredients, unlike you fairytales. You just need to put her to sleep. I'll do the rest," she replied. 

        Later that day, after she'd done the spell, her memories had been restored, so Kat left his shop. She wasn't one to intrude on people unless it suited her plans, after all. And here, she didn't have any plans in motion. She just wanted to enjoy herself when she could, since she'd had such an eventful time in the last who knew how long she'd been in that prison world.

        That night, after finding out that Regina was MIA, she'd gone searching for her in both the obvious and not so obvious places, only to run across an old enemy of hers. She'd gone by herself, so Damon wasn't with her, so the 180-year-old vampire, Ambrose, successfully was able to capture her. With Damon in town though, she knew she'd eventually be found. Especially, if everyone was looking for Regina, and because Damon wouldn't take long to figure out that something had happened to her. He knew her habits, after all. And even with her, as she liked to put it, he couldn't resist being the hero. 

        When she woke up, it was still dark outside. At least, she thought it was. The place that looked like maybe a shack looked dark. She was injured from the capture. She also saw that she was on a table. It made her remember Wes Maxfield's science lab table, back when she'd been teaming up with Caroline. At the time, the blonde had been in college, as well as her doppelganger. She was thankful she hadn't been a part of his experiments, but she'd always hate him for using her own daughter to finish his experimental stuff, in order to make it so vampires would feed on each other. That was a low blow in her book.

        "Ambrose," she stated, and tried the restraints on the table, but found that she wouldn't be getting out anytime soon. She wasn't the only one there, though. Regina was on a second science table, also restrained. And it looked like she'd been there for a while. "Your vengeance is with me. Leave Regina and the others out of this. This is between us," she asked of him, since she didn't need to ask what he wanted. She knew he wanted vengeance for her killing people he cared about. It had been 180 years ago, but she knew vampires could hold a grudge for their entire existence. 

        "Give me a reason why. You took away people I cared about. It's only fair I do the same to you. Now that I finally found you after all these centuries."

        "For starters, this town is full of magic. If a certain someone found out what you've done to us, that's a threat to the town. Rumple may not be happy for me needing to bring someone here with me to leave a certain place, but he's always had my back. If he gets to you first before Damon, it'll be fun to see what kind of magic he'll do to you. I have a lot of friends in this town. You come after the two of us, you better be prepared to take some residence along with you." 

        He stood by her, a knife in hand. 

        "Then I guess we should get started before we get interrupted," Ambrose replied, before giving a smile at her.

        After a while of the torture both had endured, but mostly towards Kat, Ambrose was rudely interrupted. Kat was still awake, but with blurry vision. She could vaguely hear Damon and Ambrose, as well as Regina getting rescued. She then heard the very familiar sound, making her assume that Damon had ripped Ambrose' heart out, killing him. That was a relief to her, as everything began to quickly fade.

        Damon dropped the vampire's heart, having killed him for what he'd done. Mostly, to Katherine. He'd never been that much of a fond of witches, but Katherine? Nobody got away with trying to hurt or kill her without consequences. They'd always had an unspoken rule. They'd punish whoever hurt the other. That rule still applied, even now. There would always be a part of him that still cared about whether she lived or not, even if he didn't currently love her.

        He turned around to see that the witch had already been rescued, so it was just him and Katherine now. 

        He blurred over to stand by her, before quickly getting the restraints off her wrists. He then put her arm around his shoulders, gently pulling her close, crook of arm supporting her head. She'd clearly lost a lot of blood from her injuries. He'd done quite a number on her. He could hear that she was still alive, but with shallow breathing and a slow pulse. 

        "Hang on, Katherine," he called to her, and bit his wrist, putting it to her lips, making his blood go down her throat to heal and save her. "Come on, Katherine. I need you to stay with me. Open your eyes for me," he called, as he fed her his blood. Despite the last time they'd been in the same town, he didn't want to watch her die. Especially, from an enemy. 

        She didn't know how long it had been, but when she woke up, she was in what appeared to be a familiar room of sorts. She was healed, which she assumed was from Damon's blood. She figured with all the injuries, Ambrose had probably almost killed her. She still felt weak though, so she assumed it was from the blood loss. She saw that Damon was seated on her bedside too, and could feel a hand on the side of her face, as well as his hand on hers. He looked relieved when she woke up, so she assumed she was probably right that he'd almost killed her.

        "You're finally awake," he stated. 

        "I must've been out for a while for you to actually be worried," she commented. "How long?"

        "A few days. I killed the vampire. I think you can assume the rest. Do me a favor. Don't die or almost die again," he informed and replied to her. 

        "His name was Ambrose. I killed people he cared about not long after I turned him. He became my enemy because of that, and hunted me for centuries. I didn't think he'd actually find me, though. How's Regina?"

        "She's been recovering, but I think she has most of her strength back now," he informed her. 

        "Good. I did what I could to make sure he kept his attention on me. He would've killed anyone I care about if he could," she replied, relieved to know that Regina would be just fine. 

        "You just need to concentrate on getting your strength back. You lost a lot of blood."

        He took his hand away from her face.

        She slowly sat up, even though she was weak, which was when she saw him come in, standing not far from the threshold. 

        "I'm glad to see you awake at last," he commented. He then added, "I could help with that, you know."

        "Anything to not feel weak," she replied, not caring about the price right now, if there was a price. Most things Rumple offered her, he normally paid the price himself. She just wanted her strength back as soon as she could get it. 

        After she didn't feel so weak anymore, she got into some new clothes, before going downstairs to get something to eat from Regina's kitchen, Damon following her. He wasn't going to be taking chances with her for a while. If she wanted him to go though, he would. He always knew better not to do something she didn't appreciate.