"Chapter 3 – Search Party"
Things were quiet after Elena's disappearance. With Damon dashing off to find her and Stefan presumably doing the same, life was quieter—if not a little lonelier.
The boys were doing their best to get her back, but they needed help if they were going to get anywhere. She was on the verge of psychotic at this point, and even the strength of an older vampire wouldn't do much to restrain her.
Whether they knew it or not, the Salvatore brothers needed a witch.
"Did you get it?" Bonnie asks from her spot on her history teacher's desk. The halls were desolate during lunch, and she doubted he'd mind her using his room for a supernatural agenda.
Like she'd tell him anyway.
Caroline, her best friend second only to Elena, holds up a little vial of blood as she enters the room, a sly smile spread across her lips.
"Good," the witch breathes with a relieved smile. It quickly falters. "But before I do this... I need to ask a favor."
"I don't know if I can give you anything," Caroline admits, brows rising. "You're the all-powerful one. But I can try."
"Wherever Elena is," Bonnie begins after a short pause, "Take me with you."
"What? Why?"
"I can't do this right now, Care," Bonnie confesses with a hopeless look. She presses her dark lips tightly together for a moment, looking away from her. "I need to get out of Mystic Falls—she probably left for the same reasons. I just can't deal; there's so much death and destruction here…and there are so many memories of…"
She cuts herself off by biting her lip and looking away.
Caroline places a reassuring hand on Bonnie's shoulder and smiles slightly. "It's not gonna be easy," she says quietly, rubbing her shoulder, "But you can handle it. So... okay."
Bonnie smiles widely and takes the vial from the blonde vampire. "Hopefully I'll be able to track her," she says, moving to the map on the desk. "Vampires and magic don't mix."
"Here's hoping for the best," Caroline offers, watching the witch's every move. "And that she hasn't managed to make it out of the country yet."
With a deep sigh, Bonnie opens the vial and pours it onto the large map of the United States. Clenching her eyes shut, she channels her magic, and Caroline looks on in wonder. Slowly, Elena's blood moves westward from Mystic Falls. As it travels, Caroline notices that it heads to Los Angeles.
With a gasp, Bonnie opens her eyes. "Her trail is still going," she announces, looking down at the map. "But the last place she stopped was in LA." She looks up at Caroline. "We need to get going. When we get there, I'll do another locator spell to see where she is. Hopefully she's not on her way to Canada."
Caroline huffs in confusion. "What the hell is Elena doing in California?"
Getting Damon to willingly comply seemed to prove a difficult task for Klaus. While Stefan had no vervain in his system, Damon most certainly did. It seemed that—with all the commotion caused by the hunt for the cure and Elena going AWOL—Stefan had neglected to supplement the deadly plant into his daily regimen.
Damon, however, remembered his dosages.
So unfortunately for the older Salvatore, Klaus had to resort to other methods. Breaking Damon's neck, carrying him out of his home while his brother sulked in a corner, binding him in an unused room inside his mighty fortress of a mansion, and nearly bleeding him dry until the vervain was out of his system. And much to his dismay, Klaus had to delve into his private stash of human donors for Damon to feed on. But there were many more humans he could replace them with.
Klaus wastes no time in compelling Damon to do whatever he wants, and the two quickly make their way to France—specifically, Biarritz. It had always been Katherine's favorite tourist stop; she loves the city by the sea full of gorgeous human surfers for her to play with. And being the immortal diva she is, she usually checks into the best room of the Hotel du Palais to accommodate her demands. A lead he received said that she'd been spotted in Biarritz two days ago, so he intends to start there.
He stands in front of a small bistro with Damon at his side when his cell buzzes in his back pocket. Pulling out his phone and checking the ID, he answers it with an annoyed grunt. "What is it, Stefan?"
"Caroline sent me a text," Stefan announces. "She's going out of town for a while to look for Elena."
Klaus's face falls; in his attempts to find the cure, he'd neglected the only other thing he cherished most. "Where is she going?"
"I don't know," Stefan answers with a light, mocking tone. "You're the genius who compelled me not to answer my phone, and that involves texting back."
"Count your blessings that I am away in Europe," Klaus snarls, his lips tightly knitted into a grimace. "Now, listen to me. You will track Caroline and keep a close eye on her. I give you permission to leave your home as long as you do just that."
Stefan laughs. "How much of a fool do you take me for?" he mocks. "You and I both know compulsion doesn't work like that. Now that I'm free, there are so many things I've wanted to do!"
"Stefan," Klaus seethes, clenching the phone.
"Goodbye, Klaus. Have a nice trip with my brother."
Klaus starts to call his name again, but the line goes dead. Hurling his phone a lengthy distance over the bistro, his brow furrows and he rubs his temples. He narrows his eyes, spotting the young, redheaded French woman who will know where Katherine is. He roughly slams his hand down on Damon's shoulder, clenching his teeth tightly.
"Once I find the cure and dispose of Katerina," he begins, "I will have your brother's head on a silver platter."
Elena follows Ethan to Beacon Hills on what turns into a five-day journey, feeding on a few innocent civilians along the way. Because she's young and reckless, she leaves a trail of bodies from the edge of LA to a mile from Beacon Hills. Little known to her, Katherine makes her witch dispose of them each time, but the young witch is also careless, using a weak spell that barely masks the scent from Caroline. However, the trail runs cold just outside of Beacon Hills.
Katherine made sure of it.
Caroline pulls the Lexus she 'borrowed' over and sighs. "I can't track her anymore," she states, staring out through the windshield at the seemingly quiet city resting on the horizon.
"Why not?" Bonnie cries. "You've been doing it this long!"
"That's because she left a trail of dead bodies!" Caroline snaps, her blond curls flying as she turns to glower at her friend. "Since you refused to let me compel people and wouldn't let me go over the speed limit, it took us longer to get out here. A vampire's scent doesn't linger very long, you know."
Bonnie sighs and looks at the sign that reads 'BEACON HILLS – 1 MILE.' She purses her lips in deliberation. Why would Elena even want to come here? She glances down at the map in her hands, puzzled by the fact that Beacon Hills is missing from it. How would Elena know about it? There had to be something important if she left a trail this far; there had to be a reason she didn't just stay in LA…
"What do you think she's doing there?" Bonnie questions quietly, her voice barely audible.
Caroline shrugs. "A small town like that is probably the best place to lay low for a while. God knows what she's doing without her humanity…"
"Let's… let's go get her…"
"They almost caught up," Katherine points out angrily.
"Well I'm sorry!" Gen exclaims with a sharp tongue. "I don't have a book or anything to help me out; I'm kinda on my own here."
Katherine narrows her eyes at the young girl. "Just channel your inner witch or whatever. If you really want it, it'll happen."
"And how do you know all this?" Gen questions after a dramatic sigh. "You're not even a witch."
Katherine scowls, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. "When you live as long as I have," she begins, "You meet a few witches. You make allies. If you're smart enough, you might learn something along the way."
Gen looks through the windshield, watching Elena from a distance as she walks up to an old, rundown bank. She closes her eyes and concentrates on the building, sensing more of her surroundings. "There are people inside," she states. Her brow furrows in confusion. "Well, they aren't people, but they aren't more vampires either."
"Are they werewolves?"
Gen snickers, keeping her eyes closed. "Werewolves don't exist."
"Are they werewolves?" Katherine shouts, shocking the witch.
"I don't know!" she exclaims, looking fearfully to Katherine. "I don't know how to sense one."
Katherine huffs, blowing a long dark lock of hair away from her face. "Just keep an eye on her," she instructs, irritation growing. "And be on the lookout for her friends; they made it this far because of your sloppiness."
Gen looks away and shrinks in her seat. "I'm sorry…"
Momentarily, silence fills the car, and she wishes she'd never gotten involved with the bitch from Hell. Every waking moment with Katherine—even occasional dreams—had been threat-ridden and fear inducing. No matter how hard she tried to please the vampire, Gen worried that she would outgrow her usefulness.
None of this would have happened if she wasn't a witch.
Or if she didn't like girls.
She loved her boyfriend, thought he was God's gift to this green earth, but she'd always felt lingering attractions to women here and there. She'd done her best to ignore it, but Katherine was too stunning to let pass by. Her large, brown eyes and heart-shaped face drew Gen in, and she wanted nothing more than to be around her.
Now, God was punishing her.
Suddenly, she shoots up in her seat, alert to a new and potential threat. "There are more people coming."
"You need to be more specific," Katherine mumbles, resting her chin on the steering wheel.
"They're actually people," Gen clarifies. "They're humans, but there's something... different about them. They're here to…to destroy." She turns to Katherine in worry. "What do I do?"
"They more than likely aren't here for Elena," Katherine points out dully, keeping her eyes on the old bank. "I haven't smelled a vampire for miles, so I doubt they're vampire hunters. They probably don't even know what we are. She'll be fine."
"But what about the werewolves?"
"She'll be fine," Katherine growls. Her head snaps to Gen. "I suggest you stop doubting me if you want to see sunset."
Gen sighs and faces forward in her seat. "Yes, Katherine."
Once she got into Beacon Hills, a pretty little blonde girl practically begged to be Elena's snack, and she lagged a little. The girl smelled like her veins were just bursting with AB negative, the rarest and tastiest blood-type, and the vampire just couldn't resist. She told Ethan she would catch up to him—it wasn't her fault he was too gullible to believe her innocent excuse.
Now, she walks up to what seems to be an abandoned bank. She puts up her guard, remaining on alert; Ethan doesn't seem like the brightest bulb in the bunch and may not have told anyone about her arrival just yet.
As she tries to open the front door, she realizes it's locked. Instead of breaking into the back of the bank, she rams her elbow into the bulletproof glass in the front door and shatters it effortlessly. She kicks the rest of it away with her black pumps, completely disregarding the idea of stealth.
Warning or not, let them come. She's been itching for a good fight for a long time coming.
Elena cautiously steps through the broken glass and looks around, scanning the dark building.
"Who the hell are you?" a female voice calls from the darkness.
Elena looks around, probing in the dark for the source. Of course they'd want to remain hidden. "I'm looking for Ethan," she states, refusing to answer the question as she crosses her arms. "Tell me where he is, and I won't kill you."
A laugh resonates from the depths of the bank, and a strong force rushes toward her. Before the force touches her, she moves out of the way and stands at the tip of the light coming in from the outside.
She chuckles proudly. "Missed me."
A shadow charges toward Elena, but she jumps atop a dust-covered table without hesitation. "The werewolves back home are faster than that," she boasts. "They know how to scare me."
The figure smashes into the table and, before Elena can land gracefully on the floor, it knocks her into the wicket. Before she can react, the unseen figure grabs a fistful of her hair and pulls her back. A hand grips her throat tightly, and sharp claws dig into her skin as it pulls her close.
"Gotcha," the woman whispers in her ear.
The amount of human blood pumping through her system heightens her senses, but does far more for her muscle mass, for her strength. Using a fraction of it, she flips the woman onto the counter, releasing her grasp on Elena once she crashes onto the hard surface, and the vampire slams her hand down on the woman's throat.
Now, getting a better look, Elena notices the caramel tone of her skin that is a shade or two lighter than Bonnie's. And, just like her friend's, the woman's hair is long, brown, and curly, but the similarity ends there. Her eyes are a deep, menacing red, and her face is distorted monstrously like Ethan's when she first saw him. She bares her fangs and claws at Elena's wrists.
"Dogs should be on their leashes," the vampire spits before her face shifts and the veins on her face stick out, throbbing slightly. Her eyes darken and her fangs unsheathe. She smirks at the werewolf beneath her. "This'll be the last lesson you ever learn."
Elena raises her hand, preparing to rip out the werewolf's eyes when a firm grip tightens around her wrist. She turns to find a man donning thick black sunglasses slightly shrouded in shadows.
If she could, she might feel ashamed killing a blind man.
"I advise you to let her go," he speaks softly.
"She attacked me first," Elena hisses, clenching her hand tighter around the female's neck.
"What are you doing?"
Ethan's cry rings out against the walls of the aged building, and he inserts himself between the three. "Deucalion, let her go!"
The man holding Elena's wrist sneers at Ethan. "She tried to kill one of ours."
"She attacked me first!" the vampire repeats in a shout. "I was defending myself."
"Can we all just… let go of each other and back away?" Ethan suggests, holding his hands up to diffuse the situation. "She won't hurt us."
Deucalion purses his lips and pulls the young vampire away from her prey before letting her go. The werewolf on the counter rises to her feet and stands at attention, ready to attack.
Elena turns to face him.
"I heard there was a pack here," she tells him after a brief, awkward silence.
Deucalion raises his cane and pokes her in the chest. She narrows her eyes with a sneer, though his apathetic reactions say he doesn't see. "We are an Alpha pack," he states. "We are stronger than you or any other werewolf. State your name and your business."
Elena grimaces. "My name is Jade," she lies, gesturing to Ethan with her eyes, momentarily forgetting that her action is futile. "He said there was a pack of you coming here, and I want to know what you're up to; if I deem it worthy enough, I may just join you."
Deucalion chuckles. "What makes you think we would welcome a vampire into our pack with open arms?" he asks incredulously.
Elena raises an eyebrow. "How did you know what I was?"
Deucalion lowers his cane and leans his weight on it. In doing so, he leans further into the light, allowing Elena to glimpse his cold face, his hard features, his thin lips. His hair is well-kempt considering his circumstances, and she battles the urge to snicker at the thought of a werewolf barber.
And, disgustingly enough, she's beginning to think this is a motorcycle gang than a pack of werewolves with all the leather lying around.
"You're not the first of your kind," he denotes, sounding unimpressed. "And you won't be the last, though you are stronger than most I've seen."
She fights another snicker at the irony, but says nothing.
He straightens his posture, his gaze fixated on her as though he can see her through his blindness "While your strength may be great, your kind is destructive. Wolves travel in packs. Vampires run alone and only look after themselves. They cannot be trusted. These are the facts of life; so, tell me, what makes you think you are any different?"
Elena scowls. "I can assure you—"
Glass explodes, causing everyone but the blind leader to jump. A strange, silver, stake-like object rolls into the middle of the floor, a deafening skitter filling the silence. Before anyone can move, the stake explodes into a blinding white light. The female wolf screams, and Ethan growls loudly.
"Run," Deucalion orders. He knocks Elena down as a thick smoke hisses into the air. It envelops them all, and the werewolves struggle to breathe. They fall to the ground as men in dark clothing flood into the bank, sporting crossbows, large knives, and other deadly weapons. Elena can barely make them out, but she sees one of them jam a loaded crossbow toward Deucalion's head as the blind wolf struggles to crawl away.
Elena seizes her opportunity.
"Help me!" she cries, forcing her face to return to normal and leaning back onto the floor. "Someone help! I can't see!"
It catches the attention of the man by the old wolf, who turns to her as she closes her eyes and pretends to faint.
He eyes her curiously through her mask. The gas would force her to transform if she were a werewolf. But her face is childlike, innocent, not monstrous. There are rips in her clothes as if she'd been attacked, accompanied by a bright red mark on her wrist.
A sign of struggle.
When he assesses her to be human, he wastes no time in picking her up and carrying her out of the bank.