CHAPTER FOUR

The loud rumble of the engine had called their arrival to the attention of the people inside, however, only one of them got up to greet them at the door.

As Damon extended a hand to turn the handle, Alaric pulled the door open from the inside.

"Rick. How pleasant to see you," said Damon, keeping his expression hard in order to mask his worry.

Rick decided to skip the formalities. "It didn't work Damon. We had him. Mikael had him and then…" Alaric made eye contact with Damon for the first time. "Stefan tackled him and Klaus took the stake and he used it to kill Mikael." There. It was out.

Frozen between disbelief and shock and despair, Damon refused to acknowledge what he had just heard, but when Elena stepped into the hallway behind Alaric, her face streaked with tears, Damon's expression cracked. His eyebrows came together and upwards in pain; he moved quickly towards Elena, wrapping her in his arms. He took her face between his hands. It was his turn to tell her not to give up.

"Look at me," he said, tilting her face toward his. "This isn't the end and we won't stop fighting. I don't know what Stefan did or why but we both know that this isn't him. Whatever he's done, whatever he's become, it's not him." He stared back and forth into her eyes. "I brought her back. She's here and she's going to help us."

Elizabeth, who had been quietly introducing herself to Alaric, stepped forward.

"Whatever you need," she said, but she failed to meet Elena's eyes. Her voice seemed a little huskier and it could've been Damon's imagination but her skin looked more golden than the soft silver hue it had seemed to have this morning. Were her eyes darker too? Damon did not choose this moment to question it.

"Sleep Elena. It's late and there's nothing we can do right now," said Damon, gently pushing her in the direction of the spare room.

She pushed back. "No. No I won't just sleep while some monster is controlling my boyfriend!" Her voice was thick with tears and, as adamant as her protesting was, it lacked the energy of a well-rested and clear thinking female.

Alaric turned to Elizabeth, tired as well. "Let me make you some coffee?"

"Oh. Uh yes. Please."

An hour and a half later Damon met Elizabeth and Alaric in the kitchen, looking just as exhausted as the latter.

"Well, that was fun. Really Alaric, there was no comforting you could have done pre my arrival?" questioned Damon, harshly.

"I've been with her all day. It's gotten better, although I don't expect someone without feelings to understand," retorted Alaric.

"Whatever," he said, pushing around Elizabeths empty mug on the granite island. What was he doing. Wasn't Stefan finally what Damon had been trying to turn him into all these years? Didn't he want Stefan to be the cold, bloodsucking and soulless monster that he himself felt like all the time? He walked out of the kitchen not saying another word.

"Well then. How about I set you up in an extra bedroom?" Alaric suggested to Elizabeth. He, like Damon, was uncomfortable in her presence but if he had to be the one to hold things together at the moment then so be it. Jenna was gone and he would make sure that he took care of Elena. He took Elizabeth to the second floor and she sat down on the bed that she would be sleeping in for the next two months.

It took two weeks alone for Damon, Alaric, Elena and Jeremy to even begin trusting this force of nature that had come to reside with them. Most of the hours in the days were occupied by plan plotting but they wasted a majority of their early days with plans that did not use Elizabeth to her full potential. Three weeks into it Elizabeth finally said, "I know you guys don't know me but I will kill Klaus. He's faster than me, but I'm stronger. I just need five seconds, and the element of surprise and then he's gone from your lives forever. Get him alone and get me next to him without him noticing. Even that should be easy! As far as we know, he doesn't even know I'm here. Right? Right okay good. So can we focus more on plans that get Klaus alone and less on plans that involve all of you dying?"

Everyone was a little stunned after that speech. Up until then, Elizabeth had remained fairly quiet, very rarely talking to anyone but Damon.

"Right, of course," said Jeremy, and after that a rough plan started to form. They would take the dagger out of Rebekah and use her to lure him out some place alone… still a very rough plan.

In the late afternoon of one unexpected day the door swung open. Jeremy and Alaric were arguing over whether to force magical compliance from Rebekah or to trust her to aid them whilst Damon and Elizabeth were poring over a map, trying to pick the perfect place for this all to go down. They all heard the front door swing open loudly; Elena poked her head into the living room. "What was that? I thought you all were in here."

"We are," Alaric replied ominously.

From the door they heard "Honey, I'm hoooome," in a sing-song voice.

Elena's face dropped. "Stefan." She looked, panicked, at Elizabeth and Damon. Her eyes scanned over the messy living room, every inch of it covered in plans to kill Klaus. Elizabeth waved her hand over the table and everything disappeared. Before anyone had time to be any more surprised, Stefan appeared in the doorframe.

"I thought you wanted to save me not kill me. What a different approach you took," he said, his tone mocking.

"What are you talking about Stefan?" Elena said, glaring at him. Damon had stood up and oriented himself in an easy position to protect her.

He frowned in mock confusion. "Oh don't you know? If you kill Klaus, I die too. And here I was, thinking you knew. Why else would I stop your little plan? Sure I want Klaus gone as much as the rest of you," his voice dropped and he smirked, "frankly, he's weighing me down. But. Unfortunately if he goes, I go and I can't have that now can I."

There was a pregnant pause while everyone in the room stared at each other.

"Well, I'm glad we had this chat," Stefan said, turning to go. "Oh and, Elizabeth, this came for you." He flicked her a letter the size of a notecard.

Stefan was gone and everyone's attention was back to her.

"Elizabeth-" Damon began.

"Shh stop," she looked down at the card, expressionless. She handed it over to Damon to read.

Luzbel,
Your presence is kindly requested at the graveyard two weeks from tonight and please bring the older Mr. Salvatore.
-Klaus

Damon handed it to Jeremy, Alaric and Elena who clustered together to read it. Damon stepped closer to her. Her skin and eyes once again had shifted color, subtly but noticeably. Her eyes darker, her skin more golden. He lowered his voice, "Why do you look different? And don't tell me you don't. It happened the night we arrived here too." His look was hard.

She looked at him, her own eyes, although darker, had come to be more trusting when looking into his own. They had spent so much time together, learned a lot about each other. She took his hand. "Here, come with me," she said leading him into the adjacent study and shutting the door.

"When I was...you know... cast out of heaven," she began, not meeting his eye, "most of my powers were stripped away from me. The devil, and I mean literally the devil, he tricked me. Hours after I had been earthbound, he came to me, disguised as my brothers human form. He told me that he could give me back all my old power and even more. Of course I said yes! I was angry with God and ashamed that he disowned me. I should have known that Michael would never have helped me. He was too ashamed of me too. Anyways, like I was saying, it was a trick. All my new power came with strings attached. He revealed himself to me as Satan and I knew I made a mistake. If I had known what was going on, I never would've even considered it. It's like my own personal hell on earth. Every time I use it, a piece of my soul goes black, evil. When angels take on their human form, their skin has a silver sheen to it, almost unnoticeable really, but there. When demons take on a human form their skin is the same, but gold. I fight it all the time. I fight for control of my soul and it's hard. When you told me about Stefan, and how he is with animal blood, it reminded me of myself. There are periods when I don't fight it. When I give in because my old feelings of resentment and anger are always there. Not to mention Satan doesn't leave me alone. If I don't use my powers for long enough, my soul eventually returns to it's normal state, whatever that may be. I don't want to rule any underworld with Satan, I want... well, not this."

"Surely my car was not worth losing a piece of your soul to."

"Using my power on inanimate objects barely effects me. It's living things that really change me. The dark part of my soul, it isn't lost. It's in me right now." She seemed to shudder just saying it.

"What will killing Klaus do to you?"

"Oh that? That I can do with my bare hands," she smirked a little.

"There are dark parts of my soul too."

Elizabeth looked up at Damon and held his gaze for the first time since their conversation had begun.

He kissed her. When he felt her press back gently against his lips he took her face in-between his hands. Now he understood why he always felt that they were the same in some way. He acted on the feelings he felt for her that had gone mostly unnoticed underneath all the distractions of their new plan. He would not pretend that he felt the same way for her, that he felt for Elena but he was not entirely sure one feeling was stronger than the other. His love for Elena, always unrequited tortured him in the most powerful way, but his feelings for Elizabeth also had a power over him.

There was a knock on the door. Damon kissed her forehead and then turned to open the door. The three of them were waiting, crammed in view of the doorframe on the other side.

Damon pursed his lips. "What."

Elena waved the letter in his face. "This."

Elizabeth stepped in front of Damon and took the letter. "So he knows I'm here. We revise the plan," she said, setting her jaw in a confident manner. Originals didn't scare her.

Elena stared at her, shocked. "No. There is no plan anymore. Didn't you hear? If we kill Klaus we kill Stefan too."

"Then we wait until the meeting."