Chapter three
Joshua groaned and pulled the pillow over his head. It didn't help. The rhythmic banging continued to find its way to his ears. He tossed the pillow aside and picked up the clock, squinting to see it without his glasses. "2am? What the hell?" He grumbled and put on his glasses as his feet found slippers. He pulled on his bathrobe as he padded down the stairs to open the front door. "May I help you?" He asked trying not to sound cross as he stared bleary eyed at the county Sheriff.
Liz looked back at the man in confusion. "I'm here to speak with Stefan Salvatore. Is he home?" She asked, wondering who this stranger was opening the door and why he looked vaguely familiar.
"Is this official business?" Joshua asked. " Sheriff-" He looked for her ID badge. "Forbes."
"May I ask who you are?"
"Joshua Salvatore. I'm Stefan's uncle." He said slipping into the role of guardian, on more than one level.
"Zack's brother?" She asked smiling a little, although her expression managed to remain serious. "I remember you. Yes its official business. Stefan's not in trouble. I need to speak with him about his sister in law."
"Has something happened to Damon and Alexandra?" He asked, stepping aside to let her in.
Liz entered the boarding house. "Alexandra's been taken to the hospital, I don't know about Damon. I haven't been able to find him. That's why I need to see Stefan."
"I'll go get him." He said with a nod, and headed back up the stairs. He banged on Stefan's door then walked in without waiting for an answer. "Sheriff Forbes is down stairs." He told Stefan, relieved to actually find him there. He'd expected to see Elena though. "Apparently Alexandra has been taken to the hospital, and she doesn't know where Damon is."
It had been on Stefan's lips to yell at Joshua for just walking in but he bit it back and nodded. "Thank you Joshua. I'll be down in a minute."
Josh headed back to his room to dress. This was not good. No matter what he might think of Damon, he would never have abandoned Alexandra willingly.
Stefan pulled on a pair of pants and took his shirt with him as he headed down stairs. "What's happened?" He asked padding over to Liz on bare feet.
"There was an accident on Fells church road, about a mile from your brother's place. A Dodge pickup rammed into Alexandra's SUV. I can only assume Damon was driving because she was found in the passenger's seat, unconscious. There was no sign of him anywhere near the accident."
"Is she going to be alright?" Stefan asked worriedly.
"Well, she's alive when she by all rights shouldn't be. I can only assume he gave her some of his blood." Liz said and looked up as Joshua rejoined them. "She was still unconscious last I heard. They called in Meredith to look after her."
"Kol Michaelson invaded our home earlier tonight. He and Damon got into it up in the attic. He's behind this." Stefan said.
"We can't jump to conclusions. Especially not now. Lets find out what Alexandra knows before jumping off the rails with this." She advised.
Stefan nodded. "You're right. I'll finish getting dressed and head over there. "
Damon winced as he tried to move. He was bound to a chair, and the ropes were soaked in vervain. Every struggle seemed to press the fibers deeper into his flesh. "Ow." He growled and leaned back against the wooden chair. He looked around the room, more like a mausoleum. "Great, " He muttered and began to slowly work at the knots holding his hands captive. His wrists were blistered from the vervain already, and his fingers quickly followed suit, but he didn't care. He had to get out of there. He had to find Sacha.
He looked up as someone entered the dimly lit room. "Kol." He said, glaring at the original. "Where's Alexandra?"
"Where's Niklaus?" Kol countered.
"I don't have him. You'll have to find Katherine for that." Damon said, slowing the motion of his fingers, not wanting Kol to see what he was doing.
"Now see I don't believe you." Kol said as he pulled the long insulated gloves over his hands.
"I told you before what you believe doesn't change the facts." He said not liking where this looked to be going. He drew in a deep breath and prepared for what was to come, as Kol reached into a bucket and pulled out a sharpened dowel, dripping with what Damon could only assume was vervain. He growled in rage and pain as it was plunged into his leg. The wood and vervain created a whole new level of pain. One that he was all too familiar with. "Go to hell. "
Kol laughed and grasped Damon's face with the wet gloves. "Tell me what I want to know. Where is the soul stone."
"Katherine stole it." He said honestly. "where's Alex? If you've hurt her-" His sentence was cut off short as another dowel was plunged into his flesh. "Gaaaaaah!" The pain in his voice was overridden by his anger.
Kol simply smiled. "Tell me the truth, Damon."
"The truth is I'm going to kill you." He said raggedly.
Kol twisted the dowel. "I didn't ask for your fantasies, Damon. Tell me where Klaus is."
"I don't know." Damon repeated.
Stefan walked into the hospital room and frowned. "How is she still unconscious?" He asked Meredith.
"She was in pretty bad shape when they brought her in. She's been slowly recovering." She told him. " If she hadn't been given his blood I don't think she would have survived the accident at all. From the MRI I had done it looks as though her spine is healing from what looks to have been major trauma. Especially to the neck. Her skull was fractured, and there is still extensive swelling to her brain. It's coming down. It's just taking time."
"Have you given her more blood?" Stefan asked, rolling up his sleeve.
"No not yet. She was already healing at an accelerated rate. "
He nodded and gently moved the doctor out of the way. His face shifted, fangs elongating, and he bit into his own wrist, holding to Alexandra's mouth. Damon's life might depend on what she remembered of the accident. He didn't have time to let things slowly take their course. Besides, Damon would never forgive him if she didn't make it, if she transitioned. No. there was no time to wait.
Alexandra sputtered, showing signs of life, but didn't rouse immediately. Stefan ran his hands through his hair and paced the room waiting. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed Elena's number. The first time it went to her voice mail, he left a message just in case, and then called it again, and again, until it finally wakened her.
"Stefan?" Elena asked. "What's wrong?"
"Alex is in the hospital and Damon's missing. Some sort of car accident. Apparently Damon gave her blood, and so did I, but she's not waking up."
"I'm on my way." She said. "I'll be there soon."
"Thank you." Stefan said sinking into a chair. " I love you." He told her.
" I love you." She echoed and hung up the phone. She dressed quickly, and thought about waking Jeremy but changed her mind. She left a note instead on the refrigerator, then grabbed her purse. Elena stepped out the door and tried to scream as the hand closed over her mouth, another arm around her waist pulling her tight against the body behind her.
"Don't fight, little girl. You don't want me to bite you. " The man growled in her ear.
She stopped struggling, eyes wide, as the second man, presumably another hybrid, approached with a syringe.
"Fortunate for you, we need you in one piece." He said. "Because I would seriously love another taste of you." He said and jammed the needle into her side, injecting her with vervain. Elena's eyes slammed closed. "Lets get out of here before the kid wakes up. We're supposed to leave him alone"
Damon's flesh felt as though it was on fire. He was barely conscious as the vervain mingled with his blood and leached into his system through his wounds. "I told you, we don't have the stone." He said weakly. His swollen, blistered fingers still worked to loosen the vervain soaked ropes around his wrists. "what have you done with my wife?" Damon asked for what he was sure was the hundredth time.
"Don't you worry about her. She's dead." Kol whispered into Damon's ear.
Damon chuckled. "You're a lousy liar." He said breathlessly.
"Why? Because you gave her your blood? All that means is she isn't going to stay dead. " He said slowly pushing the final dowel into Damon's chest. "And if you don't tell me the truth, I will lay her out in the sunniest room I can find and let the sun take her. "
With that the rope fell away from his hands. Damon found the reserves somewhere inside to move quickly pulling a dowel from his thigh and jammed it into Kol's side. The original stumbled backward and Damon brought his hands around to grasp the arms of the chair and broke them, loosening the ropes enough to shrug out of them. He got to his feet and staggered backward, pulling another dowel from his legs, ignoring the searing pain where his hand touched the wood. "You stay away from her."
Kol hadn't expected it to take this long for Damon to find the strength to escape, he had prepared for it. What he hadn't expected was for Damon to fight the pain and vervain and charge him in a complete rage. He brought the baseball bat up, swinging it hard connecting with his prisoners head.
Damon hit the wall hard, his vision swam and he slid to the ground, the dowel slipped from his hand. He struggled to get to his feet, as the bat hit his ribs, several of them breaking. The next blow was to his knee, the next to an arm. "I don't know where it is. " He whispered, nearly unconscious. " Don't hurt her, I don't know where it is. "
"I almost believe you." Kol said as he turned Damon onto his stomach and pulled his arms behind him, tying his wrists once more, and then his ankles. He lifted his head "We'll find out for sure tomorrow. Your so called wife isn't enough to make you talk; I think I know someone that can."
"I swear to god I'll kill you." Damon breathed, and then his eyes closed, the pain and vervain having won the battle against his will.
Stefan looked up as Caroline entered the hospital room. "Thanks for coming to sit with her." He said as he once again called Elena, only to have the phone go straight to voice mail.
"Yeah, its okay." She said going to stand by her friend's bed. "Who did this?" She asked, her mouth tightening, "It was Kol wasn't it."
"Yeah… I believe it was. " Stefan said, calling the boarding house, hoping that Elena had misunderstood and gone there.
"Salvatore's." Joshua said as he answered the phone.
"Hey, Josh. Has Elena shown up there?" He asked.
"No, I haven't seen her since the party." Josh answered, and Stefan could almost hear the frown. "What are we going to do?" He asked assuming that the vampire had a plan of action.
"We aren't doing anything." Stefan said. "You are staying there and I am going to pay Kol's family a visit."
"Hardly seems the brightest of plans. They have your brother and you're just going to walk in without back up?"
"They're immortal." He said. "I don't want you in the line of fire. I may need you later. So" he sighed," I guess for now prepare for war. I'm through putting up with their crap."
Joshua nodded. "I'm on it. After a pot of coffee and a sugar high, but I'm on it." He said walking toward the kitchen. "Be careful." He said hanging up.
Stefan shook his head. Of the two brothers, Joshua had been the one he had least expected to wind up a vampires first line of defense. He'd always figured he'd go to college and become an accountant or a tax lawyer or something. Under difference circumstances it would be amusing and something to discuss over late night coffee, now it was just something that he was grateful for.
Stefan left the hospital and drove straight to the Mikaelson's estate. He'd been invited in before so he didn't bother with formalities or niceties. He simply kicked in the door. "Damon?" He yelled his brother's name, shoving aside the servant who had come running. "Go get Elijah. Unless you want to become breakfast I'd make it fast." He continued through the first floor opening doors and knocking aside what ever happened to be in his way or convenient. "Damon!" He yelled again.
"He's not here." Kol said, in amusement. "But by all means keep looking. I'm finding all of this very amusing. You're quite the little terrier aren't you?"
"Where is he?" Stefan demanded.
"Do you really think I would bring them here?" Kol asked, grinning.
"Them?" Stefan asked. "Who else have you taken?" His heart suddenly pounded in his chest.
"Kol what have you done?" Elijah asked arriving on the scene.
"What you don't have the strength to do." He said glaring at his older brother. "I'm going to make them return Klaus to us."
"We don't have Klaus. " Stefan said, insistently. "Who else do you have?"
"Ah but you know who does have him, don't you." Kol said as he tossed two rings onto the dining table. Damon's signet ring, and Elena's engagement ring.
Stefan lunged at Kol but Elijah grabbed him from behind and pulled him back. "You can't help them if he kills you." Elijah said.
"Elijah's right about one thing. We have all the time in the world. "Kol said. "And your brother and your lover do as well. Of course they'll be getting hungry soonish I would imagine. Fortunately they won't die of it. So take all the time you need, Stefan. Chase down Katerina, bring my brother home and I will let you have your family back. I have no intention of killing them. After all that would be breaking Elijah's rules now wouldn't it. "
"When this is over, I will kill you." Stefan said calmly and coldly as he shrugged out of Elijah's grasp. "And if you're smart, you'll pray that I'm the one that comes for you." He picked up the rings and walked out the house.
"Stefan-"
"Not now Elijah." He said coldly.
The original moved in between him and his car. "I did not instigate this." He said. "I would never have harmed Elena."
"Tell you what." Stefan said "you find them. You find them and I won't bring this house of cards down around your ears."
"You can't defeat us, Stefan. Don't make idle threats." Elijah said in a placating tone. "I will try and find them for you."
Stefan looked him in the eyes. "I don't know. One dead, one on ice and your mother out of commission. I don't think the odds are completely out of our favor. If anyone else comes to harm while I'm gone… that's on your head. "
"Find Klaus and return him to me and I will deal with Kol."
"If I do that he'll never tell me where he has them." Stefan said. "If you want him handed over to you and not Kol, you'd better look for them while I look for Klaus." He got into his car and slammed the door.
