Chapter 16: Revelations and Blues
The night was getting old, and people were starting to leave the Bennett estate one by one until the almost immediate circle was all that remained. Jenna and Alaric were shredded drunk, Grams counted her money, and Vanessa was beyond tipsy, but she insisted that she wasn't.
Gyda was making conversation with Tyler. Caroline and Matt were laid up on the couch with cups of some ungodly mix that they seemed to enjoy. Solomon had no idea when Damon arrived, but he was there with a glass of bourbon.
Elena and Stefan were near Solomon as she watched him strum the guitar as it brought back an oddly familiar feeling that she just couldn't seem to remember. Jeremy and Anna were in the kitchen as Pearl and Bree played quarters at the table.
Between Solomon's legs, Meifeng sat on the floor, resting her head on his thigh. Bonnie was at the edge of consciousness as she used her brother's shoulder as a pillow.
Suddenly Elena shouted, "I was wrong!"
Solomon's eyes snapped up as he thought Stefan had compelled her memories of the intimate time together away. At least, that what Bonnie told him earlier that night. The girl wanted to play with vampires, and that's the result.
"That's your song, right?" Elena asked with a victorious smile as she assumed that she found the source of the familiar feeling that was eating at her.
"You sing, man?!" Tyler asked drunkenly.
"Yes! He does. My twin is the shit." Bonnie sang as she shoots up to a fully awakened state, "Sol, play something for us."
When Solomon had gotten tired of the same old blues and jazz records in the Fauline Cottage, Qetsiyah had taught him songs that she heard and liked during her past life. So, basically, songs of the future. "I Was Wrong" by Chris Stapleton was one of his favorites.
Solomon was fairly drunk and he couldn't say no to his Bonnie-Bea. Even the thought was heresy.
"Go ahead, baby, let loose." Grams spoke with a warm smile.
Solomon sighed, stood up, then walked to a place they all could see. He then began to strum louder and producing a sweet composition that caused the body to rock to the twang of his cords instinctively. Elena instinctively closed her eyes and habitually began to mouth the first verse as Solomon began to sing with a shockingly harmonic voice that penetrated the soul with groovy waves.
"I've been thinking 'bout my thoughtless words
And I know just how much they must have hurt
And I take it back," Solomon sang.
But at that moment, a voice came to him. A voice only he could hear, it was Qetsiyah as she appeared and sang with him of one heart. Solomon turned his head to look at her, and the two shared a lingering gaze as the song continued.
"Won't you let me take it back?
You know I told you that I don't love you
That I'd be better off with someone new
But I take it back
Won't you let me take it back?
Girl you know that I still love you
And you know that I'm so alone
I don't know why
I told you that I didn't need you
Can't you see that baby I was wrong?"
Solomon walked closer to Qetsiyah as he expertly shreds his guitar. It was almost as if she could feel him. And suddenly, she craved his touch for the first time. No longer was she at peace with death.
"What I wouldn't give to be your lover again
All I want to do is touch your skin, yeah
If I had you right here right now
I'd tell you, tell you, tell you, tell you
Girl you know that I still love you
And you know that I'm so alone
I don't know why
I told you that I didn't need you
Can't you see that baby I was wrong?"
Solomon sang like no one was in the room, and everyone felt his love riding his melodic tone. Solomon then rocked out a guitar solo that was mind splitting, heart-quaking, soul-defining, a life-changing ode that conjured a harmonic convergence of the heavenly laws of Blues in the middle of the room.
Love and yearning were in the air, and everyone grabbed their lovers as if they were going to run away from them at any moment. They held them tight and swayed to the music.
Meifeng watches from her seat, and she finally realized the whole in Solomon's life was Qetsiyah. She didn't know exactly how Qetsiyah connected to all of his problems. But she knew that Qetsiyah was closer to him than anyone in the world yet so far away. How can Solomon ever fall in love with anyone else when the one he truly loved constantly hoovered over his shoulder from beyond the veil.
Qetsiyah shakily extended her hand, but when she touched Solomon's face, she was shocked to feel him as she gasped. Solomon kept playing, and his guitar gained another level of soul as he tilted his face into her touch instinctively. He relished in the feel of her soft loving caress.
Everyone watched in awe. It was obvious that Solomon was missing, yearning for someone's touch. When the song finished, not a sound came from the guitar. In a rare moment of vulnerability, Solomon trembled, but Meifeng was there to hold him. When he held her back, even his embrace was a world different from what she was used to.
Elena suddenly had a tear fell from her eye as she had no idea why she was so hurt and had a gaping hole in her heart and a void in her memory. When more tears followed, she rushed out of the room. Stefan went after her, and Damon caught him to ask what was going on. Stefan shook him off and kept going.
Damon, obviously worried about his brother, followed.
At the same time, everyone was drunk and high, too wrapped up in their on linger feeling to care about what Elena was going through.
"I love you. I honestly think I am in love with you," Jenna suddenly confessed to Alaric, and he ceased her lips in a burst of passion.
Qetsiyah looked at Solomon with tears and confusion and watched Meifeng hold him as old curses of jealousy, and world-shaking anger was conjured up. She might be from the future, but her past self was still apart of her and strong, the same past self that tried to burn Elena alive when she was a toddler for being too close to Solomon.
But what scared, Qetsiyah was that her past self was only shining a light on how she currently felt. She wanted to feel him, but she was realm apart from him. Qetsiyah took a deep breath and remembered that she was the one that told Solomon to get into a relationship with Meifeng in the first place. Qetsiyah likes Meifeng, and her anger was unfounded.
Qetsiyah took another deep breath and regained control. She was dead and still had things to do. Love aside, she had more important things to pursue. Solomon was of a similar mind as he held Meifeng and once again buried all his feelings. He had more important ventures to deal with than an ancient dead witch.
Outside of the lodge, Stefan had called for Elena, and when she finally turned around, she was angry. And Stefan knew she had remembered everything.
"That...What you think of me is a lie!" Elena growled. " What you think I feel for you is a lie! I was having fun. I was playing my own little game to pass the time of my boring ass life, and deep down, I was hoping that you'd turn me before I turned sad and wrinkly. But you what did to me...Taking my memory of him! That was wrong!"
Stefan was all red and teary, and his vampiric urges were slowly bubbling up.
"I enjoyed watching you and that pathetic brother of yours banter over me like I was that bitch who screwed you over all those years ago. I am not who you think I am, and you took away the only person you could understand me!"
"I understand you, Elena! Y-you would be dead if it wasn't for me!" Stefan shouted.
"So you think you own me! You think you can play with my head and it's okay because you saved my life and let my parents die?! I do not love you, Stefan! You amuse me...That's all! If it wasn't for you, Meifeng would be the one crying her eyes out right now, not me! He wanted to see if I was strong enough to come back, and you took that choice from!"
"Elena, that is crazy! Meifeng could have killed you. She would have killed you if you went back--"
"He wouldn't have let her! But you wouldn't understand. You aren't like us. I don't even know what you are, you can't even compel me properly, and you're a vampire. You're even more pathetic than I thought." Elena wiped her eyes and pushed past him to go back to the lodge.
A moment later, her eyes went wide as Stefan had grabbed her from behind and sunk his teeth into her neck. Suddenly Damon threw his little brother off. Damon snatched off Elena's Vervain necklace and began to compel her. Elena instantly calmed down and forgot everything after Solomon picked up his guitar in the lodge that night.
Damon had also been listening to the conversation and began to surgically extract Solomon from her mind. All that was left in Elena was that she knew Solomon Bennett as Bonnie's Twin brother. They don't hate each other, but they aren't friends. Damon then compelled her to feel repulsion every time she felt attraction for the Bennett witch.
Damon then gave Elena his blood to heal her wounds then cleaned her up before taking her back home to the Gilbert house.
Meanwhile, Pearl was looking out the lodge window and focused on the entire altercation. She then remembered her conversation with Solomon and decided to leave the matter alone. Elena was a human playing with vampires. What she got is what she asked for—no need for supernatural to fight amongst each other over her.
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The next morning, Solomon woke up and found the lodge filled with people in a drunken coma. The house was clean, courtesy of the slaves, so Solomon decided to go for a run.
However, Meifeng woke up while he was changing into his workout clothes. She then chooses to join him. Together they ran the property a few times until Meifeng collapsed in the Hanging Garden.
Solomon chuckled and sat beside her. "You're pushing yourself. Why?" he asked.
"Because you're in love with Qetsiyah." she replied, " You can't blame me for working to keep what's mine. But then again, she sort of had you first. So I figured I'll just be what you need until you love me like you love her. It's not healthy to hang on to the dead for so long."
Solomon sighed and laid back on the grass. "This is why I fuck and have fun with it. Emotions aren't efficient. In fact, they're detrimental to progress." said Solomon.
"But, since we're on the topic, I don't know what love is, nor do I know what it feels like. But I know I want you and her in my life. You both make me feel different things, and I rather not dwell on it because your both here, we're happy, and my mind power can be put to more important things than reassessing what's already fact. We are together. We are developing, and Qestiyah has been in my life forever, so there is a connection. Compare our relationships is only going to complicate things."
"Fine." said Meifeng, "I guess it doesn't matter anyway since she's dead. But I won't stop working until I'm satisfied with our relationship."
"Fine by me." said Solomon, " besides, when I feel deeper for you, you'll know it. Hell, I don't even know how to have sex with you right now."
Meifeng was struck dumb, "What?" she asked.
Solomon is a shameless man. "I want to hug you and kiss you and stuff. But I also want to tie you down and fuck you until you cry out because your body won't stop shaking from pleasure. But one is associated with my whores and playthings that I had fun with while the other makes me think of Tess, and she's dead, so we never had sex."
"Wow! That surprisingly makes sense to me. And I think I know exactly how you feel for me now." Meifeng smiled happily, "We can work on this. If love is your problem, then you just need to talk to Qestiyah about how y'all feel for each other."
"She avoids the topic. And she's a spirit, so when she runs, I can't chase her."
"Good point... Then there's only one solution," said Meifeng as she looked at Solomon seriously. "Fuck me."
"...later," said Solomon as he pushed himself. Never had he ever turned down pussy. Whatever he was feeling was doing a number on him. Then Solomon attributed his confusing emotions for Meifeng into a simple phrase.
'I don't know how to love you.' he thought in his heart as he walked away.
Meifeng just smiled and shook her head before running to catch up with him. She then hugged his strong arm and walked in silence with him. She understood where she was in his heart, so she just decided to wait until he figures it out.
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After that day, the Bennett lodge was the place to be. And Solomon's music was the stuff to vibe to. Solomon eventually got to Richmond, where he made a daylight ring for Slater and put him under a witch's compulsion to turn his girlfriend, Alice.
Solomon then made Alice a daylight ring, then compelled loyalty from her. All she had to do was learn from Slater and serve as a backup and honest account manager while watching Slater.
Solomon then gave the man the rest of his diamonds to sell with a 7 percent commission for Slater. Along with slaves, Solomon purchased mining equipment. Like Alexandrite, Black Kyanite Gems are $70,000 per carat, mostly due to its rarity.
Solomon spent the next week getting his slaves situated and distributing tasks. He was also taken to the village that Gyda grew up in. It wasn't far from where Solomon dug up Ayana's grimoires.
After Slater moved money to purchase the land, Solomon started a small mining operation. At this point, money wouldn't be a concern for a long time.
The full moon came quickly. It was December 30th, and the first unpredictable event happened far outside of Qetsiyah's expectations.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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