Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries/the Originals or any quotes used/borrowed.
got you shackled in my embrace
"When enemies are at your door
I'll carry you away from war
if you need help, if you need help.
Your hope dangling by a string
I'll share in your suffering
to make you well, to make you well."
.
.
.
Damon blinked awake, his vision blurry and his head spinning with dizziness. His fingers scratched dirt, prompting him to roll his head around to figure out where he was. His back was up against a brick wall and floor was, in fact, hard packed dirt. The air was damp and Damon could smell the mildew growing on the weeping walls. There was a brief clanging of metal and the sharp poke of a needle in his forearm, startling him.
Damon squinted and saw a familiar figure stepping away from him and slipping something – likely the needle – into a medical pack. "What the hell are you doing to me?" His voice was hoarse and it was a struggle to talk.
Professor Wes Maxfield smiled blandly. "I am injecting vervain to your system to keep you calm."
A wave of lethargy swept Damon and he found it difficult to even lift his head. He settled on squinting and trying to make his voice sound less ill and more threatening. "Wes, why am I here?"
"I lost a test subject and you're going to replace him." Wes stepped outside of the bars, outside of Damon's cell, and shut the door with an air of finality. "It was interesting what you told me yesterday, Damon, about you having been here before. An escaped Augustine vampire come home; isn't that almost prophetic? And since I looked into our records and found nothing, it appears that you must have here before that fire that destroyed almost all of our facilities in the fifties. Do you know what that means?"
"You have poor filing systems?"
"No," Wes said, almost sympathetically. "It means that we get to start all of our tests over. I do hope you enjoy your stay with us. Now. I have a few questions for you."
.
.
.
Elena found that she was a giant ball of panic and anxiety as she received Steph's text. Bonnie and Caroline were class of all places, and had urged Elena to go as well, to keep her mind off of things. Elena didn't think she could sit through a single lecture without screaming at someone about her missing boyfriend and so had refrained. Unfortunately, skipping class left her with plenty of time to obsess and worry about Damon.
Instead of waiting for Stephanie's plane to arrive, Elena decided to take matters into her own hands. She was a vampire now, and no longer a naïve one at that; she'd gone through loss and the first – hopefully last – flip of her humanity switch. Elena had grown, and she could handle herself. She didn't need a babysitter and she certainly didn't need anyone to come to rescue anymore. So she would look for Damon and hopefully not even need any of the help she'd asked for.
To do this, Elena decided to ask Aaron. Wes was his uncle, so Aaron had to know where some of the professor's research was done: a lab, a basement, anything at all that might make some sense.
Aaron answered the door to his dorm room when she knocked, opening it only into a small crack and regarded her with wary eyes and a day old scruff on his face. The shadows beneath his eyes and the state of his hair gave her an eye of how he was coping.
"Hi, Aaron," Elena said softly. "How are you doing?" She bit her lip; asking Aaron for help was the easiest thing to do, but also the riskiest, considering his roommate Jesse had been one of his uncle's experiments gone rogue. Elena had had to kill him.
"Jesse killed himself," Aaron said listlessly. The easiest cover story that would explain his injuries leading to his death was suicide. "He's dead, just like almost every other person I care about. So no, I'm not doing too well, Elena."
"I'm so sorry." She stepped forward with the urge to comfort and to told, but Aaron just stepped back. He left the door open though, the only invitation she was likely to get. Since he didn't own the dormitory facility and she lived just upstairs, she stepped over the threshold into his private space. All of Jesse's stuff was still sitting innocently on his side of the room, as if the kind young student would be returning imminently.
"This place was supposed to be different, you know, a fresh start," Aaron continued quietly while Elena stood next to his desk by the door, arms folded comfortably across her chest. "Whitmore was supposed to be somewhere that I could get rid of my past. It was supposed to help me move on from my family's deaths."
"I understand," Elena said with complete sincerity. She knew something about new starts and her heart broke a little every time she thought about Jeremy. Jenna. Her mom and dad. "I get it. After everything you've been through a fresh start is pretty appealing."
"How do you do it? How do you press the restart button?" He was hunched over, curled into himself as if to make him and his grief smaller. Elena wondered if that's what she looked like when her parents died, or maybe Jenna or John. Sometimes she curled up still in the dead of night and cried over Jeremy's life and subsequent death. If only she had avoided the mysteries of Mystic Falls and all of its entrapments . . .
"I don't know," Elena said. "Considering my problems follow me around too, I guess I'm not really the best person to talk to about this." Her only wisdom to impart, she thought, was to stay away from this supernatural stuff and the tragedy that came with it.
"Well, if you're not here to talk about Jesse, what are you here for?" Aaron asked. His voice, she noticed for the first time, was thick; he'd been crying, she thought, this poor boy.
"Last night you told me that Wes was your legal guardian," Elena started guiltily. She didn't want to upset her new friend anymore but Damon could be in danger and though she did at times regretted getting involved in her town's messiness, she loved Damon with all of her heart.
"Yeah," Aaron nodded. "Since last summer when my Aunt Sara died . . ." He started to giggle a little hysterically. He shook his head and blurrily met her gaze. "You see what I'm talking about? Everyone around me ends up dead. My sunny disposition makes me so many friends." Aaron sighed. "I'm sorry. Go ahead." He was so kind. It was awful that he'd ended up living with a psychotic college professor.
Elena bit her lip again and shifted her weight on her feet. "The thing is, my boyfriend went to go talk to Wes last night and no one has seen either of them since. It makes me kind of worried, you know? I'm sorry that the timing is so awful, but I was hoping maybe you would be able to tell me where I might be able to find them." She looked at him pleadingly.
Aaron nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah I think I know where to look." He stood and brushed invisible lint off his pants. "I'll take you," He said to the floor.
"Really?" She asked. "Are you sure? You can't be feeling very well today."
"I can't feel any worse, trust me," Aaron said wryly in a moment of good humor. "Come on." He took the lead and Elena fell into step behind him. They walked side by side on campus and for all the world looked like two average young adults on a date or talking about classes or an upcoming party. Instead, their conversation was far more complex than that.
"I never really took Jesse for being suicidal," Aaron said a few minutes into their walk. "It just doesn't make sense."
"Do you believe what campus security told you?" Elena slowly. She really didn't want him to find out she'd murdered Jesse in self-defense and she was walking a fine line, but shouldn't he know that the one person he trusted in his life was a psychopath who experimented on sentient beings as a side job?
"Why?" Aaron asked. "Do you know something else?"
She debated with herself for a moment. Aaron deserved to know the truth about his guardian, even if she'd rather protect him from it all. "Don't you think it's weird that both of your friends committed suicide before the first semester is over?"
"Uh, yeah I think it's weird." Aaron gave her a strange look. "Jesse loved it here and he had a massive crush on your blonde friend. Megan had plans for her life."
"That's why none of this makes sense," She whispered. "Listen, I found Megan's body that night and I think she was murdered. Wes was the one who signed her death certificate, Aaron. He is a part of something, much bigger than what anyone realizes."
Aaron was shaken. "We need to talk to Wes and I need to hear his side of the story before any conclusions are made, okay? Here." He led up the stones stairs to Whitmore House, where Bonnie had gone to find out more information on the strange happenings at their college.
"Oh, I didn't realize we'd be coming here, to Whitmore House." Elena shuffled her feet at the threshold as Aaron unlocked the door and stepped inside.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, this is where Wes does all of his research. It's like a second home." Aaron eyed her for a moment, confused. "Well? What are you waiting for? Come in." He inclined his head and Elena felt the invisible barrier fall down. Hugging herself, Elena stepped into the house.
"So who owns this place?'
"Not to sound like a douche, but technically I do." Aaron scratched his head self-consciously. "It was a part of the Whitmore Trust I got when my parents died. Yeah, don't hold that against me. Usually when people find out that my name is Aaron Whitmore, they –"
Elena was startled. "Wait, your name is Aaron Whitmore? So you like, own this school?"
"That's what they think," He said slowly. Elena caught sight of a picture and gravitated toward it. She squinted. Her father is that photograph. She'd known he was involved, but . . .
"That's my dad," She said softly.
A new voice joined them, startling Elena into almost jumping. "Grayson Gilbert was one of the best doctors the Augustine's ever had." She turned her head in time to see Wes jam a needle into the side of her neck. She choked as she fell to her knees. "I'm glad he didn't live to see this."
"What the hell?" Aaron's shocked exclamation was the last thing Elena heard before she lost consciousness.
.
.
.
Damon found that he almost wished he was unconscious again after an hour of vigorous questioning. The questioning had been interrupted for a while, in which Damon thought he'd heard something upstairs, and Wes had disappeared for some an undeterminable amount of time. When he'd returned, he'd seemed unreasonably happy.
It made Damon suspicious. He was still weak but he could lift his head up of his own power now, and he was intensely curious about what had brought the professor's mood up so high. Wes was standing on the other side of the cell bars, clipboard, notes and pen in hand. Damon thought he looked entirely too gleeful about his ordeal.
"You know, you're in for a whole lotta bad karma, keeping me in here," He drawled, more out of exhaustion than any sort of bravado.
"Is that what you told Doctor Whitmore?" Wes asked. "I mean, considering the way you looked when I mentioned that fire earlier, it's pretty easy to assume you were around then, with Doctor Whitmore as your head, ah, researcher."
"Give the man a prize," Damon mumbled sourly. "And no, the good doctor wasn't much for talking. He strapped me down to a table and tortured me for years, right after my no rotten relative from Mystic Falls vervain-ed my ass and gave me to him." Joseph Salvatore had been his name, the little wretched bastard.
"It's not personal, Damon." Wes gave him one of his patented bland smiles. "Science is always progressing and where would we be if we didn't take chances and push the limitations set forth for us?"
Damon gave him a dirty look and elected to ignore that question, considering he didn't particularly care. "So your little Augustine Society is still up and running after all these years." The freaks. "Eye examinations and that sort of thing." How many times had Doctor Whitmore gouged out his eyes to see how his healing ability worked and how vampires' vision was so superior . . .?
"Jesse's proof that my research goes far beyond that, Damon. I trained him to crave vampire blood instead of human blood." Wes grinned. "Now, I'm ready to go to the next level. By the way, I have a new friend for you who will be your new cell neighbor. Wait just a moment."
Damon suddenly felt much more alert. "What?" He demanded. Wes didn't respond and disappeared for several tense moments. When he returned, he had a young woman draped over his shoulder like dead weight. Her long brown hair trailed the dirty floor. "Elena?" He caught sight of her unconscious face and he felt entirely too helpless. "What did you do to her?"
Wes laid her down in the cell next to him, separated by a thick wall made of brick and concrete. He heard the door slam and Wes stepped back into view. "I only gave her some vervain. Relax."
"Elena? Elena, wake up," Damon called.
"I think I'll leave you two lovebirds alone now." Wes' receding footsteps were already a memory as Damon focused intensely on listening to the cell next door. But she didn't reply.
.
.
.
Stephanie made record time to Whitmore College. The day was truly beautiful, with a bright blue sky and huge warm sun bearing down on the campus and the students milling about on bikes, in groups and with books, which was a true contrast to the swirling, dark and turbulent emotions inside of her. She needed to find Elena and they needed to hunt down the mysterious Professor Wes. Maybe with the two of them they could overpower the man and get Damon out. They might need Caroline too, she mused. Two to distract, one to retrieve . . .
Elena wasn't answering her phone, while Caroline and Bonnie's went straight to voicemail. Caroline's answering machine said that if she wasn't saying hello right now, she was in class. Bonnie's message was decidedly less perky, but Steph assumed she was in the same place. Elena's phone though just kept on ringing and ringing, which was concerning. Steph wasn't entirely sure where their dorm was, so she couldn't exactly hide out there until one of her friends showed up.
Maybe she could find out a bit more about Professor Wes Maxfield in the meantime; speak with him, even.
"Excuse me." Steph pulled an older student aside, hoping for maturity and a straight answer. "Can you tell me where I can find Doctor Wes Maxfield? He's a professor here."
The girl grinned. "That hot microbiology professor? Yeah, I know him. He'll either be in his auditorium in the science building," she pointed to one of the large campus structures, "or maybe in the Whitmore House. There's this society that he and my mother belong to and they commune there with the other members a lot to talk shop." She pointed out the Whitmore House as well, to Stephanie's immense pleasure and gratitude. "If they're busy, it might be a while and you shouldn't disturb them," the student warned. "My mom gets pretty intense about the stuff they do there and I get the sense that they hate being interrupted."
"Thank you." Steph managed a smile. "My brother was a student here a couple of years ago and I know that wherever Wes will be, so will my brother. He's pretty attached," she lied.
The girl laughed. "A science nerd, huh? I've got one of those in my family too. Not me though; I've known I wanted to be a drama major since sophomore year in high school."
The girl was very friendly, which Steph wouldn't have minded any other time. As it was, time was of the essence. "Thank you again for the directions and it was nice meeting you, but I really need to find my brother."
The other girl wasn't offended at all. "Of course. I hope you find him alright." She grinned and added, "Congratulations by the way! I love babies but I don't think I'll be having any for a few more years. I don't think I could raise one while I'm still in school." She waved and left Stephanie staring and absently placing a hand on her belly. Stephanie shook off her surprise and turned her focus back to her mission: find Wes Maxfield.
.
.
.
"Elena? Elena, you have to wake up, sweetie." When Elena opened her eyes, it was dark and someone was calling her name. She felt sluggish and weak and was unable to keep herself from moaning. "Elena?" The voice called again. "Come, wake up."
"Damon?" Her tongue felt like lead in her mouth.
"It's me," Damon said. "Are you okay?"
"Wes shot me up with vervain," Elena mumbled. "Where are you? Are you okay?"
"We're in a couple of cells next to each other beneath Whitmore House. I'm just behind this wall, Elena. When the vervain wears of we should be able to break through the bars." He sounded like he was trying to be reassuring.
Elena sat up in the dirt and swung her head around to see the entirety of her cell, but it was just a dark square of dirt and brick with a light source filtering in high above her head. "What's going on? What are you doing here?"
"Wes is carrying out the grand Augustine tradition, getting his kicks off of vampire torture," Damon said, trying to be nonchalant. She thought she heard a little bit of a quaver in his voice. "I know, not just because of the questioning I did, but because I've been here before."
"What?" A pit formed in Elena's stomach.
"Someone in my family sold me out to the Augustine's in 1953. Every day this nut-job – Doctor Whitmore – cut in to us, cut pieces of our eyes out, and pushed us to our every limit. He kept me in this very cell, and boy do I appreciate the irony."
"Oh my God, Damon," Elena cried softly. "How long were you here?"
"Years, I guess. It was a long time." She could hear him shifting in his cell and wished that she could see him.
Horrified, Elena demanded, "How did you not go crazy?"
"Believe it or not, I made a friend. His name was Enzo. He was soldier in Europe in World War II." There was a mix of emotions in his voice when he mentioned this friend; amity and thankfulness, but also regret and pain.
"How the hell did Doctor Whitmore get him here?" How did a university professor have that kind of reach?
"He was working in a field hospital when he discovered Enzo was a vampire. He gave him a bunch of vervain and shipped him here in a coffin to start experimenting. He'd been here for ten years by the time I'd joined the party. Enzo told me to live for the future . . . it helped me plot a way to get out of here."
Elena rolled her lips together and her gaze bored into the brick between them. "Damon, Wes knew my dad. They worked together. He said that my dad was in the Augustine too." Tears filled her eyes. "I knew that my dad was a vampire hunter, but he was also the town doctor too. He was and kind and gentle and love and he wouldn't have been a part of a place that would cut our eyes out." A sob spilled out of her mouth and she curled into herself, pulling her knees up to her chin.
"People are full of surprises," Damon said quietly. Then she heard him move closer to the wall and she saw a hand sticking out from his cell. Elena shoved her arm through the bars and tangled her fingers into his. Softer, he said, "Elena I am so sorry I got you involved in all of this. I wish you could look at me. Look, I promise you I will get you out of here, okay? I'll get you out of here."
She sniffled. "I called Steph and she was on her way here," Elena said. "But I couldn't wait so I went and found Aaron to help me look for Wes. Was she . . . was she here with you in 1953?"
"No," Damon barked sharply, and then he apologized. "No, she wasn't here and I'd rather you hadn't called her. The fewer vampires involved the better."
"Well, she'll be able to find us quickly," Elena said, trying to uplift their spirits. Instead of sounding hopeful, Damon only sighed. "Damon?"
"Stephanie doesn't know about this place," Damon murmured. "We were on the outs at the time I was captured and by the time we started traveling together again, I didn't want her to know what had happened. I didn't want her to feel guilty about it. So no, Steph isn't going to be able to rescue us. We're going to have to do that ourselves." Funny how that's what Elena had thought that very morning, that she didn't need any more rescuers, but here she was.
She felt a little indignant on her friend's behalf, however. "Steph's smart. She'll find us, Damon."
"And then what?" He demanded. "She'll get caught, just like us, and we'll have a new neighbor in our cellblock."
Elena only shook her head, even if Damon couldn't see it. She knew Stephanie, and while they hadn't spoken in a while, she knew her friend would do all that she could to get them out of their situation. "Have a little faith, Damon." Damon was quiet for a long time, which was unlike him. She worried and so quickly tried to get him talking again. "How did you survive in here?"
"Enzo's friendship kept me going," Damon explained. "He gave me a reason to hang onto my humanity; even during the times I thought I'd be a prisoner forever. He talked about his girl Maggie a lot." He trailed off. "Once I asked them why they were doing this and Whitmore said he was trying to figure us out so he could put us to good use."
"I'm so sorry," Elena murmured. "Damon, how did you escape this – this hellhole?"
"They let us out of the basement once a year," Damon said. "Every New Year's Eve they had a little cocktail party with a little vampire blood buffet on the side. We were weak and starved from living off of one glass of blood a day, and they chained us up like dogs in this big metal cage. They'd take us out one a time to take what little blood we had in us so he could show his friends what he'd founded all of his research on. Whitmore let his guests drink our blood to prove it would heal human flesh. But on the plus side, that's how Enzo came up with his plan."
"What was the plan?" Elena felt a little hope. Maybe they could do something similar to leave their cells. They'd have to tweak it, of course, but maybe they could use the general idea . . .
"Enzo gave me his share of the blood rations so I could work up my strength for a year, until the next party. I would overpower the humans and we would escape."
"Did it work?" She asked eagerly.
"More or less."
Elena felt hope bloom in her chest. "How did you get out?"
"It doesn't matter," Damon said, his voice suddenly gruff. "I got strong, I got out. It won't work this time though, if that's what you're thinking. Wes is too smart for that."
"Wes is going to come back down here and we're going to be his new Augustine experiments if you don't tell me how you got out of here, Damon," Elena finally snapped.
"You don't want to know," Damon replied tiredly.
"Do you think I'm going to judge you?" She asked incredulously. "After I went on my murdering spree in New York? Damon, I love you. I love you and these people tortured you for years. Whatever you had to do, I don't care."
"Fine," he whispered. "The Augustine's next party was in 1958, and I took the majority of his rations and grew stronger. He was weak and we were ready. They took me out of my cage and I ripped my hands out of my cuffs and I tore into that bastard's throat, along with several other people. Unfortunately, a fire started. The bars . . . the cage bars were too hot. Enzo trusted me with his life. The fire was getting out of control and time was running out. I'd never get another chance to escape, so I did what I had to to save myself. I turned off my humanity and left Enzo there. I left my friend to die."
Elena felt a dawning sense of horror, but didn't let herself make a sound. She tried to imagine leaving behind Caroline or Bonnie or Stephanie to be tortured or killed, and couldn't. Not to save her own skin, never. She loved Damon though; she hadn't lied to him. Elena couldn't imagine her present without Damon, and he wouldn't be there if he hadn't betrayed Enzo. But it was still despicable. Somehow though, she found that she still forgave him. Perhaps it was a testament to her selfishness, to how much she'd truly changed in just two years.
"That doesn't change anything," Elena whispered and she was sure she didn't imagine the breath of pure relief he let out. A sudden clatter on the stairs distracted them soon after; Elena turned her head and almost hoped that one of her friend's had come to let them out.
To her utter surprise, it was Aaron Whitmore who came jogging down the stairs with a pistol clutched tightly in his sweaty hands.
"What the hell is this place?" Aaron's brows furrowed in confusion.
"Aaron?" Elena pulled herself up with the bars, still dizzy, but stronger than before.
"Great, Mini Wes," Damon drawled unhappily.
Elena and Aaron ignored him. "Aaron, listen, you have to let us out."
"I have to hear the truth," Aaron corrected. "I had no idea what Wes was doing and I had no idea this place existed." His haunted gaze trapped Elena. "When you met me at Megan's memorial you asked all these questions." Aaron's hands shook as he loaded it with bullets, dropping a few to the floor.
"Slick hands, cowboy," Damon sneered.
"I've never used one of these before!" Aaron defended loudly. "And I've never killed anyone before either."
Elena's heart skipped a beat. "What?" She asked shakily.
"Wes said a vampire killed Megan." Aaron, finally getting the ammunition in the pistil, leveled it at Elena's face.
"And you thought it was Elena?" If her heart hadn't been racing, she might have been happy Damon sounded so amused at the thought of her killing her roommate. In all reality, it had been a close thing at the beginning of the school year when her humanity had been off.
"Aaron, listen," Elena begged, "she was in this house and I wasn't invited inside! I couldn't have!"
"He also said a vampire killed my parents!" Aaron raged on, arms quivering. "Maybe that was you too!"
"That's impossible," Elena snapped.
"Then why else would you take such an interest in me, huh?" Aaron demanded sharply. "Why would you pretend to be my friend?"
"Calm down," Damon tried to soothe.
"She's a vampire," Aaron shouted at him.
"Not the one that killed your parents," Damon argued. "That was all me."
"What? Damon what are you talking about?" Elena gripped the cell bars in her hands with all of her remaining strength. "Damon?"
Aaron lowered the gun. "What did you just say?" He pointed it at Damon, instead. "Start talking."
"In 1958, after the fire Enzo was dead, so I decided to take revenge on my own," Damon explained. "We'd talked about what we would do after, but since he was gone . . . it was up to me. I decided to wipe out the entire Whitmore family . . . but leave one person remaining. So I did it. And then, after they'd repopulated, I did it again to the next generation. And I did it again and again."
Elena put a hand to her mouth. She could understand killing the people who'd tortured him but she didn't think she could even begin to rationalize the deaths of all of the following family members. Not all of them could have known.
"How many Whitmore's have you killed?" Aaron spat.
"Since 1958?" Damon seemed to shrug, though she couldn't look at him to tell for sure. "I lost count."
"When was the last one? Damon, when was the last one?"
"A few months ago. Her name was Sarah. I had to go all the way to Charleston. It was a weekend trip; you didn't know."
"But I had my humanity shut off then," Elena said. "I was in school with Caroline and Bonnie and you took the time to go kill Aaron's aunt?"
"I had no idea," Elena choked.
"Told you it wasn't pretty," Damon muttered and then Aaron took a shot at Damon.
"No!" Elena screamed. "No, don't!" She dropped to the ground and reached through the bottom of their cells for Damon's limp hand, while Aaron simply turned around and stormed back up the stairs. She cried, even as Wes returned and threw open her cell door. Elena felt her fangs drop and she launched herself at him. Unfortunately, she felt the prick of a needle in her arm and with it, her strength dwindled.
As her world went dark, the only think Elena could think about was Damon's still, cold fingers she'd just barely grazed with her own.
.
.
.
Steph went to the science building first, considering she didn't need an invitation to get inside. She peaked through the window of his class and seeing no students, broke the lock to investigate. The shades were drawn, leaving the room in darkness except for a surprising light coming from the office that sat in the corner of the classroom. Footsteps coming toward her alerted Steph to the other presence in the room.
It was a boy that was physically around her age, maybe a little older, with blond hair and hooded eyes. His hands were trembling and his fingers fiddled with a gold watch on his left wrist. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"I'm looking for Professor Maxfield," Stephanie said. "I was told he might be in here."
"Are you a student?" He asked.
"No, but a few friends of mine go here."
"Well, these aren't his office hours," the kid pointed out. "He'll be at the Whitmore House right now, but he's busy." He squinted. "You look familiar."
Stephanie furrowed her brows. "We've never met," she assured him. "I'm Steph."
His eyes dipped down to her expanded waistline and then back up to her face. "I'm Aaron Whitmore. And you're right; you just looked like someone I know a little, is all, but you couldn't be related."
Suspicion filled Stephanie. "Oh?" Aaron Whitmore?
The kid hummed. "Yeah, uh, don't worry about it. Anyway, you should just come back tomorrow during Wes' visiting hours."
It was still late afternoon, not evening the evening yet; Wes had to come back to his office for his regular students around this time, if not for tutoring, then for class. Unless he was busy with what Elena had called his experiments. Steph narrowed her eyes. "You said he would be at the Whitmore House now? I really do need to talk to him; it's an emergency." She wondered if an invitation from him would get her inside; it had to be the same Whitmore as the school. What kind of coincidence would that have been otherwise?
Aaron sighed. "Let me walk you over, then. I'll see if he's . . . busy." He urged her forward and Steph took the first few steps out of the classroom before the student followed behind her. He led the way out of the science building and toward the Whitmore House, which turned out to be something that looked so historical, it might as well have been in Mystic Falls.
"Come on," Aaron shrugged a shoulder as he stepped into the house. Stephanie wondered if that constituted as an invitation. Finding no barrier between her foot and the threshold was a pleasant surprise. She wandered in after him, only paying slight attention as he commanded her to stand right there and not to move a muscle until he returned. As he walked down the hall, Stephanie looked around the foyer and stepped farther inside to take a look around.
Her belly fluttered, prompting Steph to put a hand to it. She was surprised to find that the fluttering continued, lower. Arching her brows, Stephanie looked down and wondered if it was anxiety of hunger. Then, she realized; it was her baby moving inside of her. She smiled, but forced herself to turn away; she could marvel at her son later. Stephanie looked up the stairs, but heard a sharp clang coming from below her feet.
Stephanie looked down at the floor. "What the hell was that?"
"What was what?" Aaron had returned and was giving her a wary and confused look. "Look, Wes isn't here. He just left to take some of his research over to another lab. He'll be back for the rest of it later."
She heard another noise, this time the dull thud of cement crumbling. Steph forced herself to not twitch at the sound. Steph rolled her lips together. She definitely had not imagined that; there was someone, probably multiple people, underground in some kind of basement. This must have been the place they were keeping their experiments. Or at least some of them, because transporting research to another lab? If it was Damon, Stephanie might not get another chance to get him out.
"I thought I heard something, is all."
"Must have been the pipes." Aaron shrugged with forced nonchalance. "Or maybe rats. There used to be an infestation a few years ago." He looked agitated and his heart was racing. "Look, you really need to go. Like I said, Wes isn't here, so you'll need to wait."
Steph was going to have to compel him. "Are you on vervain?"
"No," Aaron murmured. "What is that? Wes mentioned it was some kind of anti-vampire drug, but –"
"Is Damon Salvatore here?"
"Yeah, he's in one of the cells downstairs," Aaron was forced to respond.
"Show me." Aaron led her to one of the doors and showed her to the basement. There was a set of stairs that went down to a dirt floor that had what looked to be cages lining the sides. Steph turned to Aaron. "Forget we had this conversation and go do whatever you were going to before you ran into me. Forget you ever met me." He blinked and turned around and she waited until she heard the slam of the front door before going down.
It was dark except for some light filtering in from a high ceiling, but Stephanie could see Damon easily enough as his pale arm stretched from the bars, trying to reach what looked like a bullet outside of his cell. "I guess the cavalry arrived just in time," Stephanie drawled.
Damon jerked, surprised. "Steph? What the hell?"
"I know I'm late, but better late than never." She grabbed two of the bars pushed them outwards, using her strength from feeding on both humans and Klaus' hybrid blood during sex. She made the hole wide enough for Damon to squeeze through, and when he was out, Steph put her arms around him in a much desired hug.
He returned the affection and clutched her back, chin resting on her head. "I'm glad to see you, sister. We've got to get Elena out next. Wes took her sometime during my nap." He pulled away and pointed at the dried blood of his forehead. Damon's brows furrowed though. His eyes dipped down. "What the hell . . . ?"
"Looks like we've both had exciting summers," Stephanie said unenthusiastically. She sighed. "I'll explain on the way. What do you mean that Wes has Elena too?"
"No, I'd kind of rather talk about the fact that you look pregnant, and my God, is that a heartbeat?!"
"Like I said, on the way." Stephanie grabbed Damon's shoulder and shoved him ahead of her. "That kid Aaron might come back." They marched up the basement stairs, where they then ransacked the rest of the house, but couldn't find a trace of Wes or Elena or anyone else at all.
"We'll have to find Aaron again to see where that lab might be," Stephanie muttered aloud as they left the Whitmore House. They needed to get Elena back immediately, considering the place she'd found Damon.
"I'll come up with a plan, but you need to start explaining that." Damon pointed vaguely at the small bump on her belly.
"It all started when these two witches came into the Mystic Grill several months ago . . ."
.
.
.
tbc
