| “ | There's nothing else I could do. She'd force you to talk. Find out you were a Union spy. Force you to tell everything... Katherine doesn't care who wins this war. I do. I have to. | ” |
— Emily about Mary in Part Three
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Laces is the eighth volume of The Vampire Diaries Digital Comic and the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth issue in the series.[1]
Summary[]
Part 1: Damon Salvatore returns to Mystic Falls carrying a Confederate communiqué, too ill to deliver it promptly. How will Mystic Falls' townfolk react?
Part 2: Damon has returned from the war, and battle has taken its toll. He's desperately ill, but Katherine's more interested in scoring points against a rival for his affections than worrying about his interests.
Part 3: Katherine's lust for revenge against the young woman chosen to heal a fine specimen of Southern manhood take a twisted turn. Will her actions lead to disaster for The Cause?
Plot[]
Part One[]
Mystic Falls, 1864. The Jefferson Plantation. Katherine, Annabelle, Julie and other girls are being fitted. Annabelle's father has returned from New Orleans with many beautiful laces which she decides to share with her friends. Katherine particularly likes the saucy red lace, but Annabelle promptly gives her another, something small and narrow like her waist.
Outside the window, they spy a solider on a horse. It's Damon Salvatore, but something is wrong. He appears to be wounded and has fallen off the horse. Mr. Jefferson and several other men arrive and call out for a rescue. Upstairs in the bedroom, Annabelle deduces he's sick - it looks like scarlet fever. She tells the others that her daddy is a doctor and has tended many of his patients, soldiers from the field. Annabelle has the other leave the room and she begins to undress Damon, telling Mary to take the underclothes. She'll also need ice to bring his fever down. The girls begin to ogle Damon's physique. With his clothes removed, she instructs Mary to boil his underclothes as he also has nits.
Mr. Jefferson asks the ladies to leave their all of their modesty. Annabelle remains and tends to Damon, though with the room to herself, she searches his coat. She's looking for something particular and she eventually finds it in his boot - plans for the secessionists. She attempts to rouse Damon from his weakened state; she needs to know where they need to deliver the plans, where she needs to go. The girls, outside the room, continue to gossip about his naked form, but Katherine decides to enter the room herself. She's determined that Annabelle is trying to keep Damon all to herself and that she's not been truthful. Her father is a blockade runner; her father is also a doctor. It's fortuitous and believe her to be lying about Damon having scarlet fever. Entering the bedroom, the girls gasp of Damon's nude body with barely a sheet covering him. Javins returns and confirms to Annabelle that the carriage is ready. She also instructs Mary to stay and tend to Damon and to boil the uniform in strong lye soap. She and Jarvins are going to fetch her father since Damon's apparently deathly ill. Jarvins and Annabelle depart, informing Mary that her father is encamped at the Military Institute in Lexington.
Part Two[]
On the road, Annabelle pushes Jarvins that they must go faster. She needs to get the plans to the checkpoint before Damon awakes and realizes they're missing. If they continue at this pace, they'll wear out the horses. She confesses that she would have slipped Damon arsenic if the girls hadn't burst into the room when they did.
Before them, Katherine appears and removes her cloak. This isn't the road to Lexington. Annabelle and Jarvins are shocked to see her and wonder how she's caught up to them. Katherine shows her true face and attacks, ripping into Jarvin's neck first. Annabelle doesn't know what Katherine is but points a pistol at her anyways. She bats it away and grabs Annabelle by the throat. Spitefully, she takes the red lace from her and strangles her with it. Unfortunately for Katherine, another horse and carriage is heard down the road and she's forced to make the kill quick and decides to break her neck.
Giuseppe and Stefan Salvatore approach their corpses. They identify the pistol beside Annebelle as a Yankee gun. Back at the Plantation, they inform Mr. Jefferson of their demise and that they believe to have spotted someone running into the woods. They believe that such a lovely flower of southern womanhood was violated at the hands of a Union soldier. Upstairs, Katherine tends to Damon. She bites into her wrist and feeds Damon her blood, healing him.
Later that evening, Katherine with getting dressed with Emily. Katherine admires the laces, particularly the long red lace. They're truly the finest. Annabelle wasn't half as pretty as Katherine, Emily complements her. Katherine instructs Emily to lace her up with the saucy red ribbon. She's going to wear red around her neck, hair and next to her skin, then she'll put her red lips on Stefan and Damon. It's only her duty as a daughter of the south. Emily loses control of the laces, as if they're acting on their own accord. Katherine tells her it's more than enough, that it's too tight. She get angry at Emily, but she swears she's not doing anything. Katherine falls to the floor, unable to breath, yelling at Emily to take the lace off, but she Emily can't. It's not her. Stefan runs into the room and finds Katherine swooning on the floor. He rips the lace from the corset and frees Katherine. She gives him her thanks by giving him a kiss
The next morning, Damon is awake and feeling better. He lives to fight another day. Katherine's miracle worked. Katherine lies and explains that she saw some herbs in the garden that proved to be useful, an old recipe. In the same red lace as the previous day, the lace comes alive and entangles Katherine, strangling and wrapping around her head. Stefan rescues her again and rips the lace from her. Katherine's angry; this isn't funny anymore. The lace on her boots being to trip her and she falls to the floor. Stefan and Damon are both confused. At the door, Mary appears, asking if there's anything she can do her her.
Moments later, Katherine with Emily by her side, confronts Mary. She asks what she thinks she's playing at. Mary talks back to Katherine; she dares say this to her when she's taken her mistress' things. Katherine asks if she's calling her a thief and threatens to whip her. Mary continues. Katherine has her mistress' things and she'll have no joy in them until they're returned. Her spirit is haunting her and believes Katherine deserves it. Katherine's done with her insolence. She knocks over the basket of laces and tells the hoyden to take it. Such impudence and rhetorically asks Emily who had ever made that foul-mouthed slattern a Lady's slave.
Part Three[]
Later that night, Mary, with the impertinent mouth, as Katherine calls her, runs along a path through the woods. Mary's meeting with a man who heard about what happened with Annabelle. Mary's sure graybacks got her, but they hadn't. She still had the papers, and Mary was fortunate to get them - Damon doesn't even know they're missing. She gives the man fake orders and instructs them to trade them so they'll have Johnny Reb chasing his tail for weeks.
Katherine with Emily confront Mary. She proposes that she's found a runaway, or rather perhaps the slattern having a midnight tryst with a field slave. Mary attempts to address her, but Katherine shuts her down. She won't have Mary's sass. She wants to know what she's been doing around the house, if she's been casting spells on her. Mary tells her that she's no witch. Katherine wants to test her. She does have a special way of making people tell her the truth. Emily speaks, she thinks she knows whats happening. She's seen Mary with papers that belong to Damon. When she went to wash his clothes, she thinks she saw her put something in her bodice before she left the house.
Katherine attacks her. Ripping open her cloak, she finds the papers and bites into Mary's neck. Katherine was hoping for love letters or something, but in fact they're Confederate Army dispatches. To her, it's boring. It's what troops are supposed to go where. She reckons they'd be worth a lot of money to the right people. Emily agrees. Katherine, however, finds some things even better than money and Damon is as sweet as a sugar drop. Should she return them, then she'll get a lot of sugar. She asks Emily to be a good girl and to get rid of Mary's body. Emily complies with her demands.
Back at the plantation, Katherine returns the papers to Damon. He asks if he heard a scream, but she lies. She's just terrified of spiders. Damon thanks her for the papers and she informs him that Emily had found them when she took his clothes for a wash. Damon tells her that these papers will save the Confederacy. He goes to explain, but she stops him. She respects his noble devotion. He insists that he needs to get them to Richmond, but he's too weak and it's dangerous. She won't stand between him and his duty, but she embraces him in a kiss. Though, now he's found anew sense of duty.
Later, Stefan runs into Katherine. He asks how Damon's doing but he's fine. He confesses that she's saved his brother's life and he'll never be able to thank her enough. They embrace in a kiss, too. With her fainting spells, delicate health, and all, Mr Jefferson has given her a room to herself. They're not the only couple making trysting plans in the hallway by candlelight.
Elsewhere in the woods, Emily digs a shallow grave. She apologies to Mary. There's nothing else she could do to help her. Katherine would have forced her to talk and she would have found out that she was a Union spy. Emily loves her dear friend, Katherine, and Mary too, but Katherine doesn't care who wins the war. She does. She has too. She didn't know Katherine would have attacked Annabelle like she did all for a bit of lace. In truth, she cast those spells on Katherine to help her get those papers back. She thought it would have sacred her off her too. She thought she was doing what was right. In the grave, she commends Mary, she died a valiant soldier.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
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Supporting Characters[]
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Trivia[]
Credits[]
- Art by: Xermannico
- Colored by: Cat Staggs; Wendy Broome (Part 2)
- Cover by: Cat Staggs
- Page Count: 23
- Age Rating: 15+ Only
Gallery[]
References[]
See also[]
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