Chapter 4

Before they reached the college, Damon received two phone calls, one from Stefan and one from Caroline, but none from Bonnie. Neither Stefan nor Caroline had located the missing Bonnie, nor had they heard anything about Elena. Stefan had talked to their good friend Matt Donovan, but he knew nothing either.

At the campus, Damon and Elijah found the teacher Alaric Saltzman, who had been set to marry Jo and who was now mourning her by being drunk as much as possible while still keeping his teaching job. Damon explained the situation.

"As far as you know, no one has disturbed Jo's grave?" Damon asked his buddy.

"No. This is crazy," Ric said sadly. "Who would disturb Elena's resting place? Or Jo's? Kai is the only one crazy enough to do stuff like that and he's safely dead."

"Let's hope so," Damon said and he explained to Elijah who Kai was, although he had already mentioned him as the direct cause of Elena's death.

"What about Enzo?" Ric asked.

"What about him?" Damon asked back. "I mean, he's around and he's tied to my mother in some deal. Did I tell you good old Mom created him? In a way, Enzo's brother to me and Stefan. Just as a vampire, of course."

"You may be doubly related if your mother is of Niklaus' line," Elijah pointed out.

"Isn't that special!" Damon snarked. "Alright. First, I want to check out the dorm room that Elena, Caroline and Bonnie were sharing. Just to make sure there's no sign of them there."

"Can you go in there?" Ric asked. "I mean, now that Elena is dead and she was the one who invited you in."

"I don't know. The dorm is somewhat public. Vampire Barbie can go in. Come with us. You can go in if I can't."

Caroline returned as the three men were going up the stairs to the second floor. She nodded to Elijah as a greeting and he gave her back a slight nod. Damon had been in the dorm room before and had no trouble entering. Elijah stayed in the hall, having no need to go into the room. There was no sign of either Bonnie or Elena, although both Damon and Elijah caught traces of their scents.

"I haven't been able to reach Bonnie and I hoped she'd be here," Caroline said, a worried expression on her pretty face.

"She didn't say she was going anywhere? Shopping?" Damon asked.

"I haven't talked to her since yesterday, because she didn't sleep here last night. She could be anywhere and she may have forgotten to charge her phone," Caroline said.

"That's true," Damon grudgingly agreed. "But nothing explains why Elena is gone."

"If she is still in stasis," Elijah said, "it is likely a man carried her from the mausoleum down to the car park. Most women cannot easily carry another adult of normal weight."

"Unless she's a vampire," Caroline said. "I could certainly carry her. Which I didn't. Elijah, how is Klaus?" Caroline sometimes changed the subject without notice.

"Acting despicably. Physically, he's fine, of course. He's concentrating on protecting his daughter from assorted threats." He was vaguely surprised to find that the young woman still had an interest in his brother. He decided that the two held onto their odd bond, but did nothing about getting together. That meant that Caroline was reasonably safe from the turmoil that surrounded Klaus.

"Same old Klaus, huh? Damon, we've done nothing about Elena's things here. Shouldn't we pack them up? Maybe put stuff up in your attic?"

"Yeah. Okay, but not now. First, I want to find her." He didn't really want to deal with Elena's possessions, neither the ones there in the dorm nor the ones at his house. In addition, since Elena's old house had not entirely burned to the ground, there were items from that house that she had put in storage. Legally, all that belonged to Jeremy now, but he had made no decisions about any of it. Thought of this made Damon say, "I should call Jeremy, just to let him know."

"I can do that," Alaric said. He still felt like a father figure to Jeremy. "There's no sense in his coming here, though."

"No. Not unless he knows something we don't," Damon agreed.

"Very unlikely, since he's in Arizona. Come on, buddy. This room is not leading us anywhere." He laid a hand on Damon's shoulder, lightly urging him toward the door.

Disappointed in not finding Bonnie or any trace of Elena, Damon willingly left the room, joining Elijah in the hall. Caroline, closing the door, followed the men as they went down the hall and down the stairs.

Damon in the lead stopped short and Alaric bumped into him, knocking him down another step.

"What?" the older man asked.

"Damn! I thought I saw Aaron Whitmore!" Damon said, his eyes searching the lobby of the building. He didn't see anyone who looked like the former student and member of the wealthy Whitmore family.

"Damon, he's dead. You killed him, remember?" Caroline said in a hushed tone because two other students were coming up the stairs and glancing at Damon.

"I know that! That's what surprised me. I don't see him now."

"Maybe you didn't see him at all," Ric said, again laying a hand on his friend's shoulder. He could feel the tension in the muscles. "You're stressed, man. Seeing things."

"I coulda sworn …" Damon shook his head and proceeded down the stairs.

"Look, let me and Caroline ask around and see if any students have seen Bonnie or have heard that she was going somewhere," Ric said.

Damon nodded and he and Elijah headed to where the car was parked. Once in the car, Elijah asked, "Do you think you really saw the Aaron fellow?"

"He looked real to me and he was looking right at me."

"And you killed him?"

"Yes! Told him I would let him get out of town safely, but I headed him off that night and left him dead in the road. He was the last of the Whitmores. I killed a bunch of them over the years."

"Should I ask why?"

"No. I don't want to go into it."

"Let me just say that I have heard of the Whitmore family in that they were, in the past, connected to the Augustine experiments on vampires," Elijah said. "As far as I know, none of my family was victimized by them."

"Well, I can't say the same."

"I see. So, was young Aaron a vampire or anything else that might have come alive again? We have a hard time keeping people permanently deceased."

"Not that I know of. Just a college kid unfortunate enough to be born into that family. Are you suggesting he might have really come back from the dead?"

"If he was somehow other than a normal human, then he could have come back. And if he was rather irate about being killed by you, he could strike back at you by stealing Elena's body."

"That's a real stretch, Elijah. I don't have any reason to believe he was anything other than a normal human. And if what you're suggesting was true, he couldn't get past Bonnie's spell protecting the mausoleum."

"I suppose not," Elijah said as he drove his rented car back toward Mystic Falls. "Do you wish to go home or somewhere else?"

"Let's cruise around town again and see if we can sense either Elena or Bonnie."

The drive around Mystic Falls took time and produced no encouraging results. Damon checked back with Mrs. Flowers, Alaric and Caroline, but none of them had any news. He and Elijah stopped at the Mystic Grill for a drink and they talked to Matt Donovan, who was the bartender and now part-owner of the Grill.

"You aren't going to believe this," Matt said, " but a guy came in with a girl and I swear he looked like that college kid Aaron Whitmore. I spoke to him and he said his name was Barry Sloan from Baltimore."

"Perhaps that is who you saw," Elijah said to Damon.

"When did you see him?" Damon asked Matt.

"About two hours ago, I guess."

"So, he could have driven from the college to here and come in for a drink," Damon reasoned.

"That does not mean he is Aaron Whitmore," Elijah commented.

"You saw that guy at the college?" Matt asked, surprised.

"I did and I wouldn't be so alarmed if he hadn't stared right at me for a second. He knew me and then he disappeared. I thought I was seeing things."

"Aaron's dead. You told me so," Matt said. He had barely known the college student, for Matt neither went to college nor was in the same social strata as the Whitmore family.

"He was very dead when last I saw him. Enzo was with me and can verify that," Damon said with a snort.

"Enzo?" Elijah asked. "The one who is now a vampire brother?"

"Yeah. That vampire. Knew the Augustines way longer than I did."

"Would he know if this Aaron is back?"

"I don't know. I'm not happy with him right now. I mean, he's a friend of my mother's. She's unstable. All she cares about are her group of weird friends from some prison world. She's devoted to them and couldn't care less about her real sons."

"You said she was a hybrid vampire/witch. How strong are her powers?" Elijah asked. He was practically whispering because a patron of the Grill had just sat down at the bar on a stool next to him and Matt moved to take his order. Music from the juke box overrode some of the conversations in the place.

"I don't really know," Damon said, frowning. He had not thought there would be any connection with those people and Elena's disappearance. "Let's go outside so we can talk."

They left the Grill, walked to the town square across the street and sat on a bench. "I don't see why my mother would be involved with Elena's situation. Or Enzo, for that matter. I am sort of worried about Aaron now. You know what? There never was a funeral for him. Someone claimed his body from the coroner's office and took it away."

"So, he could have come back somehow," Elijah said. "Could he have aligned himself with Enzo and your mother?"

"I doubt it. Enzo helped me set the kid up for the kill."

"Enzo the vampire. Perhaps it was you who was set up by him."

Damon stared at Elijah. "He damned well could have! If Aaron was already primed by Enzo to become a vampire, then that would explain a lot. It still doesn't make sense though. Enzo hated the Whitmores and Wes Maxfield."

"Maxfield?"

"Doctor. Was still doing experiments until Stefan got him for trying to experiment on Elena. Uncle or cousin to Aaron."

"This doctor is truly dead?"

"That I know for sure," Damon asserted. "I killed him. And I don't mean I just broke his neck."

"But Aaron could be a vampire now and still alive, thanks to your friend Enzo, who is aligned with your disinterested, but obsessed mother, a vampire/witch who could cast a spell."

"And perhaps open the mausoleum." Damon nodded as he realized it was a possibility.

"Um hm," Elijah murmured.

"And they could have Bonnie," Damon growled.

"All this is supposition on our part," Elijah pointed out. Damon picked up his phone and called his brother.

"You need to keep an eye out for Enzo or Mother or Aaron Whitmore."

"Aaron? He's dead, Damon."

"Maybe not. Have you found out anything?"

"No. Is Aaron back from the dead and responsible for running off with Elena's body?"

"Maybe. And maybe Enzo or Mother helped."

There was silence from Stefan. Finally he asked, "Why?"

"Revenge? I don't know, Stef. Just be on the lookout."

"Okay." Stefan ended the call.

To Elijah Damon said, " Man, I am really grasping at straws."

"The scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility. Is there any chance Miss Bennett would willingly join with Enzo and your mother?"

"No. But I guess there could be circumstances." Damon leaned back against the boards of the bench and closed his eyes. He let out a frustrated sigh. "What a mess. I thought Elena would be safe where we put her."

"Things in New Orleans have been disastrous, but apparently we Mikaelsons are not the only ones trying to deal with incredible and unexpected events," Elijah said. "Mystic Falls is like New Orleans and some other places. The magical and mystical world has powers in such places and events run amok."

"You'd think we all would be smart enough to move to places less weird," Damon said with a snort.

"Ah, but wherever we go, we take some of that mystical power with us," Elijah said with a slight shake of his head.

"Yeah. You're right, so damned right."

A/N Hey, I hope you all liked this chapter. Is Aaron really back or does it just seem like it? Next chapter coming up soon. Thank you to all of you who are reading and especially to Obsess With Elijah, who takes the time to review.