Paranoia threatened to swallow them whole.

Sleeping beside one another wasn't peaceful. In fact, they could hardly sleep no matter how hard they tried.

Maribel had it bad enough naturally as her mind wandered around, making it impossible for her to feel safe even before they entered this prison world. The darkness and what could be lingering in it caused an uncomfortable twinge in her back. Sounds of small cracks and thumps around the building had always made her sit up in fear of an intruder or an earthquake. Being beside Damon helped, but not enough. Not anymore.

Damon was having a similar problem. He'd never been plagued by insomnia, never lost sleep out of fear. Even when he was scared, he managed to rest. Suddenly, all he could do was remain alert. While Maribel managed a few moments of rest, he had his eyes open constantly, listening to every creak of floorboards, wondering if Kai might burst in to try and kill Maribel.

He kept witnessing the most terrible scenes, all figments of his own imagination, forcing their way into his mind to make him feel much worse than he already did

He saw Kai tying a rope around Maribel's neck, hanging her from the stairwell just around the corner while she struggled, crying and bleeding.

He saw Kai beating her to the floor, then withdrawing from his belt a knife he used to stab her in the abdomen over and over again while she begged him to leave her alone, while she attempted to crawl away, only for him to kick her and leave her too dazed to move.

He saw Kai forcing her head into a pool while she flailed her arms, attempting to escape. He'd pull her up to let her get air for a second, snarling in her ear that she was going to die, that he was going to be her downfall. And then, at last, he slit her throat and let her fall into the water that turned crimson. She died partially because of the cut and partially from drowning in her own blood.

At one point, he realized he'd managed to get some sleep. He turned to the side and was horrified when he reached out and Maribel wasn't there. He sat up, frantic, feeling around and confirming she was not, in fact, anywhere on the bed.

Then, he heard the sink running and realized she was in the bathroom.

He watched the light turn off in the crack between the door and the floor. She emerged rubbing her stomach, appearing ill.

"My body is tormenting me," she said, slipping back into the bed. "All my worries, turning into psychosomatic symptoms. Stomachaches. As if things couldn't get any worse... that look he gave us, what he said. How he walked away afterward. I just wish I could know what he was thinking. If he's just taunting us or if we should really be worried. I was already wary of him but this is unsettling me. Which I guess is his aim."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," Damon promised, reaching out to caress her face. "He's mad at me. I'll deal with this."

"Why would he be mad at you?"

"I let him get under my skin. Snapped his neck. Turns out the little fucker won't stay dead in this world. I killed him even though I knew what it would mean to you. 'Cause he says shit about you and it makes me mad. I hate him, he knows it. And he hates me now. He'll destroy what I care about to affect me. I won't let it happen."

"You know I don't give a shit about who you kill as long as it doesn't affect me. Until I am cured of this genetic mutation, you leave him alone, please. To save us the burden of finding another siphoner. After that... I don't care what you do to him."

"He'll want you to cure him first. He'll be willing to be the test subject, the guinea pig, to make sure you can't screw him over."

"I don't want to hurt him if he doesn't give us a reason to. If he doesn't actually do anything, I won't hurt him. But if he does anything to you, to me, to Bonnie... then I can very easily make sure that when I give that injection to 'cure' him... well, I won't cure him at all. Quite the opposite, actually."

He'd never seen her eyes so dark. And it wasn't just the lack of light in the room. She looked willing to kill Kai if it came down to saving their lives.

The prison world had changed her. And Damon loved it.

He leaned over, daring to kiss her on the forehead. "Try to sleep."

She caught his hand before he could withdraw, holding it and scooting herself closer to allow her to lay on his chest.

"Just tell me if you don't like this," she mentioned as she cuddled up to him. "Admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of physical touch, it's never been one of my major love languages, but right now it makes me feel safe."

He smiled slightly as her hair tickled his nose. "What are your love languages, Beli?"

"Words of affirmation and quality time. Third being acts of service. Then physical touch. Receiving gifts is at the bottom. You?"

"Never really thought of that. Guess I'll give you an answer to that in a few months. Depends how good you are at teaching."

"Very good at teaching, and very good at learning. I'll show you what a healthy relationship is like. That is a promise. We both deserve to be happy. As long as we can vow to respect each other, our space, our time, our friendships and family. Communicate and not control... we'll be okay."

Kai watched them closely the next morning. Maribel made french toast for breakfast, even serving Kai a slice personally despite Damon trying to get her to hand him the plate so he could deliver it. The sociopath merely watched her as he ate, noticing the way she cut up her french toast into small squares before she even started eating it.

Maribel spent most of the morning in the library, reading and preparing for her spell. In the afternoon, she asked them to meet her in the living room to perform it. Kai, once again, was observing. He had yet to do anything rude or outright inappropriate. So far, he, like Bonnie and Damon, were just watching as she set up for her spell.

"I was looking at the different spells in the grimoire," explained Maribel as she set out a bowl with water. "I made a note of the effects of different herbs, and what certain items magnify in spells. And I learned that I don't necessarily have to have an incantation for this."

Damon raised a brow. "You weren't there," recalled Bonnie, "but when I wanted to find out why Luka Martin and his father were interested in the moonstone, I was able to use candles and water with no spell to hypnotize him and make him give us the information. Since she's conjuring up her own memories, it's possible for her to just bring them all out at once for you to look through and copy down her notes."

Maribel took several containers of herbs, starting to sprinkle them into the water. She looked nervous, which was a given considering that she was already jumping to performing spells when a few days ago, she'd barely been able to light a paper on fire.

"Diviner's Sage," she explained, "to make a deep connection with my own mind and draw up the vision. Witch Hazel, used in divination to procure images. Merlock orchid, for mental manipulation, drawing deep into the mind to access memories." She then took some salt, adding a pinch. "To magnify their effect."

Next, she placed five candles in a semi circle around the bowl, letting her body essentially be the other half of the circle. "Symmetry, for emphasis," she murmured, much less confidently. "Candles so I can channel the flames and enhance my magic. The water in the bowl will serve as a conductor. Lastly..." she took the damaged journal and tape recorder, setting them inside the mixture, then placing her hands over them to hold them down.

"You need a source of magic," Kai reminded her as Bonnie waved her hand over the candles, lighting them.

"That's where this comes in," said Bonnie, plopping a small orb into the water where Maribel could wrap her hand around it. "My Grams had it with her grimoires and I felt magic lingering inside of it. I don't know what it does but it won't matter. It'll give her the power she needs and soon enough, she'll be able to perform magic on her own."

"I'm ready," said Maribel. "Damon, when I tell you, place your hand on my shoulder, withdraw the memories. I'll hold the spell as long as I can to give you time to write everything down."

"Just make sure you keep the mind penetration PG," said Kai wickedly when Damon readied a new journal to write her notes in.

Maribel glared at him. "Keep your mouth shut."

She started to swirl the herbs around, mixing and concentrating, hoping she was right, that the incantation didn't need to be verbal and she could just withdraw it as needed using the remnants of where her procedures had been stored.

At first, she sensed nothing happening, try as she might to focus her power, clutching the orb tightly. Then, she saw a flash of light despite her closed eyelids.

"Now," she told Damon. She felt an invisible force building in the back of her skull as the memories surged forward.

She felt a pain in her temples as she started showing them to him chronologically, thanking herself for meticulously writing the date on the corner of each page without fault. It helped her brain sort them so she didn't miss a single one. She could hear Damon scribbling away, and she wished he'd write faster. This was starting to ache.

One by one, she went through her pages, also noting the numbers at the bottom to ensure she didn't miss anything. She felt herself starting to tremble as she reached the last twenty pages. Sweat beaded over her forehead, and an audible whimper left her as the burning became far worse.

"Uh oh, someone doesn't know enough magic yet," said Kai in a sing-song voice.

"Done!" she gasped when she reached the last memory. She yanked her hands out of the water, immediately splashing it over her face. It calmed the uncomfortable heat that'd been searing through her skull.

"You were just taking in," noted Kai. "Not pushing out. That feeling like you're lighting yourself on fire? Biggest 'no no' for a siphoner."

"What do you mean?" she asked tiredly, pulling her shirt up to clean the herb residue off of her face.

"Well, you're sucking up all this power for your spell and concentrating it on your own mind. It all stays inside you. That's bad. If you're sucking up power for that long, you have to perform an actual spell simultaneously. Directing the power elsewhere. In which case it would have been better for you to use the spell to make the journal write itself. Which was a possibility. You keep doing magic like this, you'll fry yourself from the inside out."

"Could have told me that before I started!" she said indignantly.

He shrugged. "It was fun to see your face turning red and to have you looking all sweaty and pouting. Made me think of—"

"Don't finish that sentence," snapped Damon, handing Maribel the completed journal. "Got all the numbers."

"Good," she said. "It worked. I can get back to my research. The Ripper cure I can make in the real world, and I no longer need to figure out why Bonnie can't do magic so the only focus is getting us siphoners to do magic without having to siphon. But I'll need more blood samples from Kai."

"Hear that?" said Kai. "She wants to be inside me again."

"Stop," said Maribel, exasperated. "Let's just get this done so we can get out of here."

"I'll keep trying to figure out the spell to get us out," said Bonnie. "With any luck... we'll be out by tomorrow."

Damon kept Kai restrained while Maribel set up for the procedure, doing her best to keep her hands steady. She still looked tired, but Damon hoped it was the sort of spell exhaustion that just needed to be slept off.

"Last time we were in here, you two hadn't confessed your feelings for each other," said Kai sweetly. "How the tables have turned."

"Gag him," said Maribel coldly. "I don't need him to be able to talk for this."

Kai no longer seemed playful when Damon shoved a rag into his mouth. Maribel leaned over him. "Listen here, you ungrateful and immature piece of shit. You stand to benefit from what I'm doing here, so why can't you just do what I ask and keep my lab environment peaceful? I don't have to help you. I don't have to advocate for you to be released from this hellhole. So if you keep being an asshole, I will not only leave you as you are, but I will make sure we chain you to a tree so you can't come with us when we leave. You want freedom? You want magic? You respect me, you respect this lab space, and you behave. Twenty-two fucking years old and you act like a child. It's pathetic."

His eyes were dark, glaring holes into the back of her head as she walked to the other side of the lab bench and prepared her syringes. Damon smirked in satisfaction, leaning back in his own seat. He let Maribel do her extraction prior to siphoning, then offered his hand to Kai for the siphoning blood drawn. He clamped his hand tightly around him, siphoning with all the fury in the world while Maribel took her draw. Surprisingly, he actually let go to allow her to do the post-siphoning draw.

Damon watched him closely, fearing he might send the magic toward Maribel to hurt her, to ruin her experiment again. Or maybe he'd use the magic to bust out of the restraints so he could choke her. The way Kai eyed her neck (or any part of her body, really) unnerved him.

But he did nothing. He let her work, making no attempt to spit the gag out or to cause further disturbances.

"Okay, this procedure is going to take many hours, including overnight," said Maribel at last. "Assuming I'm right about how this needs to go, we're set and I can finish this tomorrow."

She reached out to remove the gag from Kai, but Damon stopped her, doing it himself. "Come on, Damon," said Kai lowly, "do you think I'm some sort of rabid dog? I wouldn't bite your girlfriend like that. Not unless she wanted me to. On her neck. Her chest. Her thighs..."

"Not in my lab," warned Maribel when Damon's fists clenched. "Kai, you will have a multitude of women and men that would love your attention in the real world. You'll get your needs met soon enough. Just not with me or with Bonnie."

"Not even for one night?" asked Kai sweetly. "Come on, he doesn't even have the balls to fuck you because he's afraid to hurt you. But I think you like pain, don't you? You're too adventurous to like vanilla sex."

"I'm not interested in you like that, Kai," she said with a shrug. "Might be hard for you to hear but it's the truth."

"But you're interested in him?"

"Yeah, I am. Seriously, your insistence is more pathetic than annoying. I'll help you get access to your powers and that's it. Stop with the comments or I won't give you the power you really want. Got it?"

He pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek. "Got it."

"Good." She undid his restraints, allowing him to be free. "Garage is off-limits 'til tomorrow. I have three simultaneous procedures running and they can't be disturbed. We'll test it out in the morning."

Damon led her back to her room once they'd ensured Kai was properly distracted with the pool table. "Hate that guy," he muttered, watching as she started preparing her items to shower.

"He's frustrating, yes," she admitted. "But I think any of us would be crazy if we hadn't had sex in eighteen years. He did something awful but I can't imagine this isolation made him any better. This isn't how you deal with someone who did something bad, this isn't how you address a psychological issue. Kai isn't just a sociopath, I think he may have an actual mental disorder that needs treatment."

"Are you not bothered by what he says?"

"I am, but I'm not going to let him know that. If I get flustered or nervous in any way, or even if I just ignore him, he'll convince himself that I want him in some twisted way and I'm worried he'll hurt me. I wouldn't do it with him, ever. He's too immature. And too kinky, probably."

"What about you?" Damon asked curiously. "You once wanted to name all the places you and Wes had sex to steer me away and I saw you covered in hickies after your night with Silas. What are you into?"

"I guess you'll have to wait to find out."

"Wouldn't it be more fun to fuck where he can hear us?"

"What about poor Bonnie?"

"Bonnie can be given a heads-up so she can go to her Grams' house if she wants."

"Are you seriously suggesting our first time together be used as a big 'fuck you' to Kai?"

"Maybe. Unless you want it to be special. In which case I'm fine with that."

"I don't care if it is or isn't 'special' in that way. As long as we're clear on what's going to happen in the real world. I want a relationship this time, not a friends-with-benefits arrangement. Until we establish that, we're not sleeping together."

He tucked his hand under her chin, making sure she was looking him in the eyes. "I know that. And I'm all for a relationship. I want you to be mine, always, not anyone else's ever again. If you're mine, I want you to be mine fully, and I'll be yours just as fully. I don't want you even slightly available for other people. I want us to be partners, Maribel. Not fuck buddies. That's not enough for me."

"And you're sure about this? Even with my work, my school—"

"I'll sit and read in the corner of your lab while you work. I'll go drive around or drink while you're in class. I don't mind if you don't reply to a text for a few hours, I don't mind if you're just as devoted to the research as you are to me. I just want you, all of you. With all those brains and all the stuff that'll come when you make those cures and help all those people. As long as I get to see you, talk to you..." he ran his thumb over her lip, "Among other things..."

She stared up at him, cracking a small smile. "Good. Then, in that case... maybe a little show would be fun. Let's see if you're really as good at sex as you claim to be."

"Please, compared to everyone else you've ever been with, I'm sure I'm gonna be the best. Nobody else will ever fuck you the way I will."

"You talk a big game, but are you going to deliver?"

"I'm all yours for the night, Baby Fell. You'll see that I always deliver."

Bonnie was warned about what may or may not take place that night in Maribel's bedroom. She happily went to bed earlier with a Silencing and Barrier Spell around her own room to keep from hearing anything and to make sure no one would bother her, either.

Damon was making sure Kai witnessed every moment of affection with Maribel while she made herself something to eat. Purposely pressing up behind her when he reached for a spoon. Sliding his hand over her hips whenever she leaned down to retrieve a new utensil. Kai was refusing to leave the kitchen despite their little display, making sure he got some of the banana bread Maribel had ended up baking.

"What do you say we take this up to the bedroom?" asked Damon loud enough to Kai to hear while Maribel was washing the dishes and he was drying them.

"Are you sure you want to start there?" she asked innocently. "There are so many other places to try out."

"Like?"

She shrugged, innocently leaning on the counter for Kai to see. "Maybe... here? The couches are comfortable, too. And I know how much you love your car..."

That one struck him much more, and for a moment he forgot this was supposed to be playful. "What about my car?"

"I've never been laid down in the back seat of a car before... or on the hood of it. Or the trunk, if you're feeling adventurous. I just figured it was a special place for you... something you'd like filled with good memories."

Maribel was surprised that Kai hadn't outright left the room. He was still watching, perhaps wishing looks could kill so Damon and Maribel could be dead for taunting him.

Damon wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He reached out to hold the back of Maribel's head, stopping what she was doing. "You have no idea what you just started," he whispered.

"Don't I?" she asked innocently. "You know me, I plan every step of my life meticulously." She grabbed at his belt, tugging him out of the kitchen. She heard the scrape of a chair as Kai tried to follow, likely thinking they weren't being serious about this.

As soon as Damon sensed this, he scooped Maribel up, and she buried her face in his chest to not watch the world blur around her when he sped them to his bedroom, slamming the door shut and flipping the lock.

"Well, that definitely drove him a little crazy," said Maribel proudly when he set her down. She curtsied playfully. "Do you—?"

She found herself pressed to the door, pinned and unable to escape as he towered over her, watching as she relaxed, hands reaching up to start removing her clothes.

He caught her wrists, pinning them above her head, making the thump loud with his own knuckles and daylight ring in case Kai had followed them upstairs.

"You sure about this?" he asked her quietly.

"I'm sure," she said smoothly. "Are you?"

He kissed her in response, making sure to pick her up and press her body hard enough into the door that it creaked, threatening to break open.

"Seriously, how are you not tired?" she cried when he pulled her body to the edge of the bed, kneeling between her legs and wrapping her thighs around his head. "Oh, nevermind, why am I even complaining—?"

Her back arched off the bed, and though she normally tried to keep her sounds at a minimum, she allowed a desperate moan to escape her lips. Damon reached out to pin her hips back down, maintaining control of every movement. She didn't mind it. Wes had never been so devoted to her pleasure.

"Shh," he said when he was on top of her again, teeth grazing over her neck as he listened to her plead for more. "Let those noises be just for me, now."

She lowered her voice, holding the back of his head and nipping at his ear as she whispered, "I'm all yours. Go ahead. It's okay."

He didn't need to be told twice. He bit in as gently as he could, but still enough to draw blood, starting to feed. She tensed, but let out a few breaths until she was able to relax, no longer aching.

"You just spent your immortal years learning how best to fuck, didn't you?" she inquired when he'd placed her on top of him, despite knowing that she wouldn't last much longer, legs already trembling as she held onto his chest. "Going from innocent human Damon to sex demon Damon."

"When you put it that way, it sounds like a bad thing," said Damon, sitting up and eliciting a squeak.

"Not a bad thing at all," she said. "If I were immortal, I would have done the exact same thing."

"Would you? Become a vampire?" He held her hips, letting her rest.

"You know me... a human existence was never enough even with all my research. A witch's existence probably won't satisfy me for very long, either. I would love to live a bit longer, to see just how far science can really go, to be at the forefront of developments for decades more than I would be able to if I was mortal and eventually plagued by disease and lapses in memory that can't be cured with my genetic manipulations. Maybe. Maybe, I'll think about it. Not yet. Once I get my PhD... probably. Why?"

"I like being a vampire. I'd like to stay a vampire, permanently. Being human again won't make me happy, I know it. What I want is you. You, by my side, forever."