Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries.

A/N: Many of you may have read my original Darkness Within, but I truly despise the writing on that. So I've decided to rewrite it, making it much more interesting. And if you're new to the story, then welcome! (-:

Summary: AJ Echo, long time friend of Elena, knew about vampires and the curse for as long as Elena knew. But she never realized just how much of a role she would play in it. Lucky for her, she's under the protection of a powerful Original. But will he be enough to keep the darkness from tempting her, or will she succumb to the side of herself she vowed would never see the light of the day? Elijah/OC and eventual Klaus/OC.


One

AJ's eyes fluttered open, and a feeling of vertigo twisted up in her stomach. Arms were braced under her knees and supporting her head, holding her close to a warm body. The creaking of wood could be heard as whoever was holding her carried her through a room. A dull pain lulled in her head, throbbing at the back, and she groaned. What happened? She remembered she was on her way to leave the Lockwood's party after she'd made sure Elena was okay… and then nothing. No. There was something else. A person came at her—they jumped her.

Squinting, her eyes stung even as the light was dim in whatever building she was being carried through. Looking up at the ceiling, she could see chandeliers hanging, lit up with real candles that provided the faint light. She tried moving her arms, but they were bound together with rope. Attempting the same with her legs, she found the situation to be identical. Frowning, she rolled her head to the side to see whoever was carrying her.

It was a man; that much she was sure about. He wore dark sunglasses and clothes, with a hood over his light hair. His expression was grim as he took large strides down into a new room. She thought that they were maybe in a house—a large, old, abandoned house, from the looks of it. Her heart sped up, pounding with a relentless force against her ribs. What did he take her for? What did he want? Elena was okay, wasn't she?

With her eyesight still a little groggy, she watched as the man headed towards a small couch placed against the far wall in the room and settled her on it. She propped herself up on her elbows the moment he began pulling off his sunglasses and hood, exposing his face. Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as she took in his features. He was handsome, she had to admit, with his golden hair reaching his shoulders, and the masculine angles of his face. But no amount of handsomeness would calm her down; not when he kidnapped her. He sat down on the couch as well and grabbed her legs, beginning to untie the rope binding them.

"Who are you?" she asked, flinching away from him.

He held a finger to his lips, shushing her. Then he grabbed her arms roughly and quickly undid the rope from them, tossing it to the ground.

"Careful," she frowned even deeper at the sting in her arm. It took her several moments to remember, but she'd gotten a little too close to Katherine at the party the previous night. The vampire had managed to inflict a lesion along her right arm. "I'm hurt."

"I know," he said, his eyes ablaze with something new and hungry. He held a finger up. "Just a taste." He bent over her, his mouth directed at the bloody wound on her upper arm.

"No!" she shouted, shoving at his chest. No vampire had ever drunk from her before, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let it happen now.

"Trevor!" a female voice called out from behind him, firm and peeved. Looking beyond him, AJ could see a woman with light brown hair, cut short, above her shoulders. Her features were more austere and blunt, her eyes glaring down at Trevor. Neither of them was even remotely familiar to AJ. But they were obviously vampires.

Trevor pulled away from AJ obediently, and stood. As he passed by the woman, he said, "Buzz kill."

AJ's breathing had been shallow, and she tried to slow it back down. "What do you want with me?" she asked, meeting the woman's eyes fearlessly.

"My God," the woman murmured to herself, stepping closer to AJ. Her eyes flicked down to the wound on AJ's arm. "You really are the Warrior—I can smell it in your blood."

AJ's eyebrows pulled together tightly and she snorted. "The Warrior? Did you seriously just call me 'the Warrior?' Aside from seriously damaging my femininity, I'm curious. What the heck is a—"

"Be quiet!" the woman snapped.

Sitting up straighter, she shook her head. "No—no, I'm not whatever you just called me. I have no clue what you're talking about." She stood, approaching the woman. "My name is AJ Echo—I'm not whatever you think I am. I'm telling you that I'm not."

"I know who you are, and I said be quiet!" The woman's patience was wearing thin.

AJ met the woman's irate gaze evenly. "What do you want?"

In an instant, the woman had raised her hand and slapped AJ in the face, sending her flying back into the couch. She grunted as she hit it, and the pain in her arm grew exponentially.

From behind her, the woman said, "I want you to be quiet." Then she could hear footsteps retreating back into a different room. She pulled herself upright on the floor, holding a hand over the wound in her arm. What the hell was going on? Why did the vampire call her 'the Warrior'? Where were Elena and the others? Looking around, she decided she wasn't going to get any answers unless she demanded them.

She shoved off the ground, but stumbled forward once more, bracing herself against the couch. Her balance was spoiled from getting hit by the vampire. A fire built up inside of her at that thought, and it gave her the extra strength to stand. Slowly, she made her way over to the doorway she thought the woman had left through. Using the doorframe as support for her maxed out muscles, she watched the two vampires argue. It was like listening to an old married couple. Well, an old married couple that'd decided to spice up the marital fun, kidnap her, and start up the passionate arguing with one another. She wondered if they were role-playing vampires. Bleh. She shoved those thoughts out of her head.

"It's not too late," Trevor was saying, appearing to be on the verge of panic. "We can leave the girl here—we don't have to go through with this!"

"I'm sick of running," the woman refuted, crossing her arms firmly over her chest.

"Yeah?" Trevor said, growing angry. "Well running keeps us from dying, Rose!"

The woman—Rose—gave Trevor a hard look. "Elijah's old school, so if he accepts our deal, we're free."

AJ stepped forward slowly, her eyes roaming around the eclectic house. There was another doorway to her left, and it looked like it led out to a main area. Just as she stepped towards it, a floorboard creaked under her weight. She cringed.

"You!" Rose said, marching towards AJ. There was a scowl on her lips as she approached, getting in AJ's face. "There's nothing around here for miles," she hissed. "If you think you're getting out of this house, you're tragically wrong. Do you understand?"

Rose turned to leave, but AJ kept her head up, defiant. "Who's Elijah?"

Turning back to face AJ, her features were imbued with wariness and fear. "He's your worst nightmare," she said ominously. AJ's insides squirmed uneasily, but she remained defiant. A silly name wasn't going to frighten her. Yet as she watched Rose walk off again, a heavy feeling of dread settled on her shoulders. She had no clue where she was, what was going on, what a 'Warrior' was, nor who this Elijah person was. Was she afraid? No, not really. But was she super excited to figure it all out? Well, the term super wasn't what she'd use.

Rose had moved into yet another room, and AJ slowly followed, using walls for support until her legs felt normal once more. She leaned against the doorframe and watched as the vampire walked around a patch of light, heading to a lamp. Rose flicked the lamp on, and it gave off a soft glow. But AJ didn't see what good it really did. The windows let in enough light to see properly.

"Why am I here?" she asked wearily. It was getting old—asking questions without being given a straight answer.

Rose shoulders drooped momentarily, then she moved towards the other side of the wall, to block off the sunlight. "You keep asking me these questions like I'm going to answer them."

AJ scoffed. "So why won't you? I can be very persistent, you know. And since we're in the middle of nowhere, I suppose I have time. You being vampires and all, have loads of time. So why not answer a few questions?"

"Well, that's another one," Rose commented dryly as she hefted a large board up to cover a crack of sunlight.

Rolling her eyes, AJ stepped down into the room. "You got me, okay? It's not like I can go anywhere—well, at least not without sustaining some serious injuries, and I mean that for the both of us. The least you can do is tell me what you want with me."

"I, personally, want nothing. I'm just a delivery service."

"A delivery service to who, exactly?" AJ asked as she stepped further into the room. "Elijah?"

Rose laughed bitterly. "Two points to the eavesdropper." She began rummaging through dusty old books on a desk, putting them in strange piles.

"Who is he?" AJ pressed. "Is he a vampire?"

Not taking her eyes off the books, Rose said, "He's one of the vampires. The Originals."

AJ's eyebrows pulled together again. Did this woman assume she had worldly knowledge about everything? "What do you mean 'The Originals?' First it was 'the Warrior,' and now 'The Originals'?"

"Again with the questions," Rose groaned, flipping through a small book. "Haven't the Salvatores' been teaching you vampire history? You are friends with them, aren't you?"

"Wait—so you know Stefan and Damon?" Things only seemed to get weirder. Did she know Elena, too? Or Katherine?

"I know of them," Rose said, amused. "A hundred years back, a friend of mine tried to set me up with Stefan. She said he was one of the good ones. I'm more of a sucker for the bad guys, though. But, I digress."

AJ frowned, crossing her arms. It still felt like she'd gotten nowhere. "Who are the Originals?"

Rose shut the book she'd been looking in and turned on her heel to face AJ, sighing lightly. "Trevor and I have been running for over five-hundred years. We're tired. We want it over. So we're using you to negotiate ourselves out of an old mess."

"But why me?"

Rose looked at her significantly, and it almost seemed like the vampire pitied her. That sent chills from the top of her spine to the tips of her toes. "Because," she said. "You're the Warrior. Your best friend is the Petrova doppelganger. She's the key to breaking the curse, but you hold the true power."

"A curse?" AJ was baffled, pressing her lips together. She remembered what Elena had been talking about the other day. "You mean the Sun and the Moon curse?"

Rose rolled her eyes dramatically. "So you do know your history."

"Elena—wait, what do you mean Elena's the key? The moonstone is what breaks the curse. And what does the Warrior have to do with it?" In that instant, she felt grim. With every day, things only seemed to get more hectic. And this definitely took the cake.

"No," Rose said firmly. "The moonstone is what binds the curse. A sacrifice is what breaks it."

"Sacrifice?" AJ whispered, her thoughts reeling. Whenever she thought of sacrifices, images of the Aztecs rose in her head, cutting out the hearts of their human sacrifices on altars. She pinched her eyes shut, ridding herself of the image.

Rose looked almost put out at AJ's lack of knowledge. "The blood of the doppelganger. Your friend, Elena, is the doppelganger. Which means in order to break the curse, your friend is the one that has to die."

AJ's heart sank into her stomach, and she felt dizzy. Elena had to be sacrificed? No way. No way in hell. "What about the Warrior?" she asked, her eyesight fading in and out. "What does that mean? Why do you have me here, if Elena's the key to breaking the curse?"

Rose sighed. "The Warrior is the only person with the power to stop the sacrifice altogether. You are a very important player, AJ. That's why you're here, not the doppelganger."

AJ shook her head, crossing her arms as she looked pensively around the room. This couldn't be true. None of it made sense—not really. And who was this person coming to get her? Did he pose any real threat, or was Rose just being dramatic? Why did she call him an Original? She felt sick, but stayed strong. Nothing bothered her. She never showed it. Tuning back in to her surroundings, she realized Trevor had reentered the room. She had to suppress a shiver at the sight of him. Her eyes flicked to Rose, who was still sorting through books.

"Tell me more," she demanded.

Trevor laughed. "Captivity's made her pushy, eh?"

Glancing back at him, AJ shot him a dirty look.

"Ooh," he taunted. "She's feisty. Just like a true Warrior, I would guess. What do you want to know, darling?" He picked up another board to seal out the last bit of sunlight.

"Who are you running from?" she asked, undeterred by his innuendo.

"The Originals," he said simply, brushing dust off of his jeans.

Rolling her eyes, she sighed. "Yeah, she said that. But what does that mean?"

"The first family," he said, kicking a book on the floor into pieces as he walked over to Rose. "The Old World. Rose and I pissed them off." Rose gave him a pointed look. "Correction," he mended. "I pissed them off. Rose had my back, and for over half a millennium, they've wanted us dead."

"What did you do?" AJ asked.

Rose answered. "He made the same mistake countless others did. He trusted Katerina Petrova."

AJ raised an eyebrow. "Katherine?"

"Yes," Rose said grimly. "The one and only, and the very first Petrova doppelganger."

Rose moved away, and AJ's attention returned to Trevor. "I helped her escape her fate," he explained. "And now I've—sorry—we've been marked ever since."

"Yes," Rose said pointedly, from behind AJ. "Which is why we're not going to make the same mistake again."

Trevor slammed a book loudly onto the desk, giving AJ an unreadable look as he passed by her, heading after Rose. It seemed that wherever one went, the other followed. She trailed behind them back to the other room, and went down the steps leading to the couch once more. Settling on it, she pulled her knees up to her chin. Getting conked over the head did little for her, sleep-wise, and she felt exhausted. She wondered if the others even realized she was missing by now.

Watching as Rose began moving more things, she flinched when Trevor quickly entered the room at the top of the staircase. "He's here!" he said with a tinge of panic, descending the stairs. AJ sat up quickly, biting her lip. Her nerves began popping like fireworks, building up in her stomach. "This was a mistake, Rose."

"No, I told you I would get us out of this—you have to trust me," Rose assured him.

He swiveled around to face her. "No!" he shouted, taking in short, concise breaths. "He wants me dead, Rose!"

"He wants her more!" Rose tried to reason with him.

"Look—I can't do this," he said, growing more fervent. "You give her to him. He'll have mercy on you, but I need to get out of here."

Rose approached Trevor, catching his hands in her own. "Hey!" she said, getting him to calm down. "What are we?"

Trevor breathed out slowly, his eyes intent on Rose. "We're family," he said with certainty, nodding his head. "Forever."

Rose gave him a small smile. "Yes," she said. "Forever."

AJ would have thought the scene to be cute, were it not that her two British captives were about to hand her over to some stranger. Suddenly, two loud knocks sounded somewhere upstairs. AJ sucked in a silent gasp. The vampire, Elijah, really was here. What did he have planned for her? Would he simply kill her, so she couldn't stop the sacrifice? Both Rose and Trevor grew worried, looking from the doorway to AJ.

"You're scared," AJ said quietly, looking at them with newfound shock.

Neither of them answered her. Rose took Trevor's hands once more. "Stay here with her," she said firmly. "And don't make a sound."

Rose hurried up the stairs, leaving Trevor staring at AJ, eyes wide. Several silent minutes passed when suddenly, something appeared in her hands. Looking down, she almost flinched away from it in surprise. But it was a note—from Bonnie? She unwound it and smoothed it out before reading it. It was a message: Damon and Stefan are on their way. We know where you are. Relief suffused throughout AJ, but then reality set in once more. Elijah was already here. Damon and Stefan would be too late.

She stood, feeling too anxious to sit any longer. Pacing back and forth, she kept the note in her hands. Biting her lip, she tried thinking of a plan or leverage—anything she could use to get out of this. Trevor was braced against the banister, trying to retain his composure as well.

Footsteps at the top of the stairs made her turn around immediately, but she remained impassive. That is, until she saw the man she presumed to be Elijah step in, beside rose. He had dark hair, kept neat, and was wearing a business suit. Although it was the furthest thing she'd thought of when she pictured an ancient vampire, he definitely emanated authority. His dark gaze locked on her, and she felt the strangest emotion go through her body. Her heart began beating hard and fast, throbbing in her chest almost painfully. Come on, AJ, she thought to herself. He's just another vampire. Practically harmless. Well, if harmless had fangs and was God-knows-how-old… So no, he really wasn't harmless at all.

In a flash, he'd descended the stairs and was standing in front of her. She sucked in a gasp, but held her ground. His face was stone-like and impassive. There was only one word she'd use to describe him, as a whole. Impervious. He looked absolutely impervious to anything and everything. It was as if, yes, he stood before her, but she couldn't touch him. She wasn't meant to.

"Rose," he said crisply, in a smooth, rich voice. "I see an ordinary girl standing before me. Anyone could have picked anything up off the street and claimed it was the Warrior. You know that as well as I."

Rose sighed deeply. "Yes, I'm aware. But you know there are ways of telling. It's her blood. We knew it the moment we smelled her."

He said nothing. Instead, he leaned in close to her, his gaze locked on her hazel eyes. To prevent her body from trembling, she ground her teeth together and made her hands into white-knuckled fists. For a moment, she almost thought he'd kiss her, because of how close he was getting to her mouth. Instead, his head tilted to the side, and he breathed in the scent of her blood pulsing through her neck. Heat rolled off him in waves, and the sensation, mixed with fear and uncertainty, was nearly overwhelming. Then he slowly pulled back, a look of strange realization on his face.

"So a Warrior has risen," he said quietly. "But it's impossible… the doppelganger has not surfaced."

"She has," Rose spoke up from behind him. "She is this girl's friend, back in Mystic Falls."

Elijah spun around, a scowl on his face. "You bring the Warrior, but not the doppelganger?"

Rose looked surprised. "Well—we thought the Warrior was more important. She could lead you back to her friend. Anyway, this girl is the one that stands in your way of breaking the curse. We just figured she would be more valuable to you."

His eyes remained on Rose, dark. "Would it really have been very hard to capture two girls?"

Blanching, Rose tried to remain calm. "It was hard enough getting this one—she has the instinct to survive, to fight back. Besides, one disappearance should go unnoticed for several days. Two would not."

Elijah nodded briskly, then, content with her reasoning. Turning back to AJ, his eyes piercing eyes softened, however they were darker. He smiled. "Hello there," he said softly, almost friendly.

AJ did everything she could to remain detached and unaffected. The tilt in her chin was still defiant and rebellious, and for that, she was thankful. No person, no vampire, nothing would scare her. She wouldn't let it happen. So instead, she studied this creature before her. His eyes held a glint of amusement in them, and she decided he could probably hear her racing heartbeat. They were a liquid brown, a striking color on him, and not nearly as dark as she'd previously thought. His posture was beyond perfect, and he was calm and composed, obviously very aware of the fearsome vibe he created. But not for her. She was stronger than that.

"Well," he said, still sounding friendly. "We have a long journey ahead of us. We should be going."

AJ's gaze flicked to Rose. "Don't let him do this, Rose," she said, trying to appeal to the humanity she knew was in the vampire. "You can stop it." Rose said nothing, and she closed her eyes with remorse. AJ shook her head, her mouth hardening into a thin line. Turning back to Elijah, she said, "No. I'm not going with you. I refuse it."

He simply smiled. "One last piece of business," he said. "Then we're done." Slowly stepping away from her, he turned around to where Trevor stood, remaining as composed as possible in front of the staircase.

Trevor took in a deep breath, meeting Elijah's eyes. "I've waited so long for this day, Elijah. I'm truly very sorry," he said, his voice imbued with guilt.

"Oh no," Elijah said lightly, circling Trevor. "Your apology is not necessary."

"Yes," Trevor said sadly, his eyes on the floor. "Yes, it is. You trusted me with Katerina. And I failed you." On the staircase, near the banister, Rose frowned uneasily.

Walking in front of Trevor once more, Elijah said, "Well, yes, you are the guilty one. Rose aided you because she was loyal to you—that, I honor." He stopped, standing directly in front of Trevor, his eyes dark. "Where was your loyalty?"

Tears had surfaced in Trevor's eyes, and in the dim lighting, they glittered. "I beg your forgiveness," he said imploringly.

Elijah paused, a small smile playing at his lips. "So granted." In a flash, his hand came out and a splash of red squirted into the air, plashing on the floor. AJ nearly flinched, and she held a hand over her mouth, her eyes widening. Elijah had just decapitated Trevor. Rose let out a plaintive cry, losing her balance at the stairs. She slid to the ground, holding on to a banister for support.

"You!" she said aguishly, but was cut off.

"Don't, Rose," Elijah warned. "Now that you are free."

Rose sobbed, holding a hand to her heart. AJ felt pity for the vampire—she'd been so confident that Elijah would pardon them both, and now her only family was dead. Elijah walked towards AJ again, extending a hand out. "Come," he said.

Glancing back at Trevor's remains, the words left AJ's mouth before she could even think about what she was saying. "What about the moonstone?" she asked quickly, taking a single step back.

Elijah grew grim. "What do you know about the moonstone?"

AJ inwardly chastised herself. She straightened up, meeting Elijah's gaze. "I know that you need it, and I know where it is."

Raising an eyebrow, he looked intrigued. "Yes?"

"I can help you get it," she said strongly.

"Then tell me where it is," he suggested lightly. It'd been the same amenable tone he'd used with Trevor. She clenched her fists tighter.

Shaking her head, she said, "I don't know how you usually do things, but it doesn't work that way. Not with me." Maybe, she thought grimly, it didn't matter to try to settle her way out of this. Rose did say that she was expendable. Very expendable. Now she'd just have to see how true that was.

There was a glint of dark amusement in his eyes once more, and he crossed his arms. "Are you truly trying to bargain with me?" He cast a sideways glance at Rose.

Rose glowered at him. "It's the first I've heard of it."

Returning her dark look with a peeved one, he turned his gaze back to AJ. Their eyes met, and AJ could feel him trying to compel her. Suddenly, she was so grateful that Damon had given her a charm bracelet filled with vervain. Then his eyes flicked down to her wrist. "What is this vervain doing here?" He reached down and snapped the bracelet off. Pieces of it clattered to the floor, and AJ sucked in a silent gasp. Since when could vampires do that? When she looked back up, Elijah grabbed a hold of her by the hair, pulling her close. She tried pushing him away, fighting back, anything so that she didn't have to look at him. But when he pulled her closer, her eyes found his as she struggled.

"Tell me where the moonstone is," he demanded.

Robotically, her eyes stayed on his. As she tried to fight him internally, she found she couldn't. Her lips moved and words formed against her will. "In a tomb underneath the church ruins."

"What is it doing there?"

"It's with Katherine."

"Interesting," he said, releasing his control on her. AJ glared at him, feeling completely violated. He was unfazed, of course.

Unexpectedly, something made of glass shattered in the next room over. Elijah looked around, grave. "What is that?" he asked Rose.

"I don't know," she answered, her voice shaking.

Elijah grew annoyed. "Who else is in this house?" he demanded.

"I don't know," Rose said again with more fervor. She was standing now, her composure slowly returning to her. AJ felt relieved—Stefan and Damon had made it in time.

Looking back at AJ, Elijah grabbed her roughly by the arm. He pulled her toward the stairs, keeping her close even as she stumbled to keep up. "Move!" he told Rose, and she headed up the stairs quickly and into the other room. Elijah dragged AJ in. She looked around quickly, realizing they were in the foyer. A large staircase was before them, and sconces on the wall lit the room faintly. Elijah pulled her so that they were standing in the center of the foyer.

Figures began racing past them, moving too fast to make out even the slightest details. Shoving AJ towards rose, who caught her, Elijah paced around, his eyes piercing Rose. "Rose?" he inquired darkly.

"I don't know who it is," she said, panicking. Someone else moved down and around the corner, moving so fast that a wind caught AJ's hair slightly.

"Up here," Stefan called from upstairs. In a flash, Elijah had moved to the center of the staircase, growing irritated.

"Down here," Damon said, back on the first floor, and in a flash, someone had grabbed AJ, pushing her up against a wall. It was Stefan, holding a finger to his lips. She had to squint through the darkness to see him properly.

As this happened, a pencil flew through Elijah's hand, getting caught in the middle of it. Elijah looked down at the tedious thing, pulling it out of his hand slowly without showing the slightest bit of pain. His gaze flicked around the room. "Excuse me," he called out as he walked back down to the first floor. "To whom it may concern. You're making a great mistake if you think that you can beat me. You can't. Do you hear that?" He walked over to an old coat rack, breaking it from where it stood. "I repeat, you cannot beat me."

Back down on the first floor, in a different room, Damon had Rose pinned to a wall. He held a finger to her lips, making certain she remained quiet.

Elijah continued on. "So I want the girl," he said as he broke hooks off the end of the splintered coat rack. "On the count of three, or heads will roll. Do we understand each other?"

Stefan placed a vervain grenade in AJ's hands, and she immediately knew what to do with it. She stepped out onto the top of the staircase, her arms crossed over her chest, concealing the grenade. "I'll come with you," she called down to Elijah, whose back was to her. "Just—please don't hurt my friends. They just wanted to help me out."

Elijah slowly turned to face her, the makeshift weapon in his hands. "Funny," he said, sounding like he thought it was anything but. "You didn't seem like the type to surrender so easily." He sped up the stairs toward her, angry. "What game are you playing with me?"

AJ smirked as she pulled the pin on the grenade and launched it at him. It burst like shattering glass, splaying vervain onto Elijah's face. Stumbling away into the corner, she watched how it burned his skin. He cried out with rage, holding a hand to his eyes. Then he looked back up at her, and she could tell he was no longer amused in the least. Just as quickly as his skin burned, it healed again, and he began taking purposeful strides up towards her.

Stefan quickly came down the second floor staircase, firing wooden bullets into Elijah's chest repeatedly until he came face to face with the unaffected vampire. He dove forward, sending himself and Elijah tumbling down the staircase. Elijah was back on his feet in an instant, preparing to decapitate Stefan. AJ sucked in her breath when Damon appeared out of nowhere, wielding the broken coat rack. He plunged it into Elijah's chest, striding forward until Elijah hit the wall and was completely impaled. His skin grayed into an ashen color, and his head fell forward. He was dead.

Damon stared at him a moment, smiling with satisfaction. Rose came out immediately, her mouth gaping open. In a flicker, she'd disappeared.

AJ climbed back to her feet, walking wobbly down the staircase. "Let her go, Damon," she advised upon seeing Damon start after the other vampire. She grinned on her way down. "I didn't think you two would make it in time."

Stefan appeared behind Damon, and Damon walked towards her, holding his hand out. She took it, and pulled him in for a hug. "Thank you," she said into his ear, and looked over at Stefan. "Thank you, both. I really thought I was going to die this time."

Damon snorted, pulling away from her. "Yeah, well, with the things you do, it's amazing you're still getting into messes like these."

AJ looked dubiously over at Elijah's body. She was relieved that he couldn't take her anymore, but there was some other emotion, too. It had to be the other part of her, she decided. Putting it back into the depths of her mind, she tried to ignore it, so that it couldn't reach the surface. But she knew it was only a matter of time before it did. The darkness always found a way to get out.


Let me know what you think! (-: