Elena is wearing more tinsel than the tree and is clutching her stomach, aching from laughter, when her phone pings. She groans.
"Ignore it," he whispers, and she enthusiastically submits to his lips.
He relents when his own phone rings. He doesn't look at who's calling before he answers. "Damon has better things to do right now, so leave a message at the-" click. "There, all better," he says with a smile.
It's a short-lived happiness, though. It rings again, and he looks to see who's calling. This time, he answers.
"What's wrong?" he says, and Elena straightens up, shaking gold and silver strands from her hair.
"I thought your imminent death might interest you," Katherine speculates dramatically.
Damon rolls his eyes, and Elena sighs. She's glad for her vampire hearing now, because she's not sure Damon would have told her he was in contact with her Doppelgänger otherwise, trust or no.
"How's that?"
"Klaus is coming back with the Huntersprout later today. Stefan's about a day behind them. I detained him for a while, but don't worry, he enjoyed it," she taunts.
"I'll bet." He surreptitiously glances over at Elena to see her drop her eyes in response to this news.
"I took the liberty of telling him all about you and Elena. Save you the trouble," she says. "Guess he might not have taken it very well, if the whole nearly-choking-me-to-death is any indicator. I'd be on Ripper watch if I were you. Good luck!" Katherine hangs up.
"What've you got?" sighs Damon.
Elena reaches for her phone. "911 from Bonnie. But it sounds like a good emergency? I don't know. I better go find out," she says reluctantly. "Guess we'll have to figure out what to do about Stefan later on."
"Damn," he says. "This is really eating into my whole plan for the day."
Elena smiles shyly. "You had a plan? What was it?"
"It involved laying naked in bed all day watching Mae West movies."
"Ooh, mine involved Elvis's Blue Christmas and cookie-baking."
"I like the way you think, Priscilla. Rain check?" he asks.
"Mmm," she replies, punctuating with a kiss.
-
Shortly after he sends Elena out into the cool, gray morning air, Damon remembers his brief, disturbing conversation with Katherine. Any number of possibilities skitter across his mind, but the fact that Katherine was worried about Ripper Stefan worries him, too.
Damon never doubted that Stefan's ultimate goal in finding the cure was so he could ride off into the sunset with Elena, both human again. He's happy to help with that plan except the part where Stefan gets the girl. After the night Damon shared with her, he will fight for her, tooth and nail. For whatever she wants, yes, but he's not about to forfeit anything to his little brother.
But none of that means he wants Stefan to go off the deep end ripping and spend the next year broody and guilt-ridden. And Damon has been through this often enough to know he's not the one who'll be able help Stefan come back from it. With Lexi gone-because you murdered her, he reminds himself-if Stefan's gone off the rails, someone else will have to be the first wave of Ripper offense.
Damon knows just who.
-
Elena knocks on Bonnie's door. Just a few weeks ago, she would have turned the knob and walked straight in, but now, she needs an invitation.
"It's me, Bonnie," she calls.
A strange blond man steps out, Bonnie in tow. He takes one look at Elena and backs her up against a wood porch post, her neck under his arm.
"A vampire, Bonnie?" he demands.
Elena pushes with all her might against his frame, pulls one of his arms behind his back, and smashes his head into the cedar shingles. She snatches the stake out of his waistband and slams it against the door, where it splinters.
"A Hunter, Bonnie?" She looks at her friend incredulously.
The wind whips through Bonnie's hair, and a ten-foot barrier erupts between Elena and Vaughn, which neither can penetrate.
"Stop. Now. We're wasting time. Vaughn, I know you have no reason to, but trust me when I say we all need to work together. It will all make sense soon, I promise."
He huffs and points at Elena. "She so much as sniffs me the wrong way, I'll take her head off."
Bonnie nods, trying hard not to show her exasperation. She turns to her friend, who glares at the newcomer with barely-tempered fury. "Elena, is Damon with you?"
"No. He went to Caroline's to talk about Stefan. He's on his way back, a few hours behind Jer and Klaus. Unless we can find a way to stall them, they'll be here any time now."
"Klaus is coming here?" Vaughn asks, but Bonnie speaks to Elena again.
"Call him. Tell him to come. We need to go, and soon. I'll get Shane."
"Okay, but Bonnie-"
"Now, Elena. Please, I can explain everything when we get there."
Fear flutters up through Elena's stomach and chest at the pleading in her best friend's face. She nods, and pulls out her cell.
Bonnie does the same. She taps out a message to Shane. If you made holiday plans, you better cancel. Pack what you think you'll need to decipher the Mark. We're going now.
-
"Damon?" Caroline greets him at the door.
"Hey, blondie," he says, and shoves past her into the house. "My favorite sheriff here?"
"No, she left for the station early."
"Good." He turns to grip her gaze. "Your keen assistance is needed on a delicate matter."
"Because I woke up this morning wondering how I could help you, Damon," she replies sarcastically.
"It's not for me, it's for Stefan."
She uncurls her arms from her chest. "Oh."
"That's what I thought."
"He's potentially off the rails, Sober-Wan-Kenobi, and he might need your help when he gets back. I'm not sure the details because Katherine wasn't exactly forthcoming."
"You brought Katherine into this?" she demands.
"Like it or not, Barbie, she cares about him, just like we do. Would you have been willing to go keep an eye on him in New Orleans? Klaus would have sniffed you out before you stepped out your door."
"That's ridic-"
"Whatever, Caroline, I'm not here to speculate on his little infatuation with you. Or yours with him?" he adds knowingly. "My point is, Stefan needed watching, and Katherine was willing to help. Now I need to know if you are."
"Of course," she replies immediately. "What can I do?"
"We won't know how bad it is until he gets home, probably tomorrow. Either way, he won't want me near him."
"Yeah, I can relate."
Damon stalks up and towers over her. His cold eyes brook no disagreement. "Do whatever he needs. Lock him up, take him somewhere, I don't care. Get him off the juice. Get him back."
"And how am I supposed to pry Klaus away from him?"
"You're resourceful," he says with a condescending smile. "You'll figure something out."
"Are we not going to talk about how this is your fault?"
"It usually is, Caroline. Why dwell?" he asks, though he disagrees about anything being his fault. But Caroline is firmly on the Saint Stefan train, and he needs to stay on her good side.
"Also," he deflects, "you should go see to your Miss Mystic buddy April Young. Matt made the executive decision to inform her of all the things that go bump in the night here. Guess I'm not the only crazy one, amirite? Toodles."
The curtains on the window swish as he shuts the door behind him.
-
Damon pulls his fangs out of a pretty redheaded girl he lured into the alley behind the Grill when his phone buzzes in his pocket. He zips her jacket back up for her.
"Forget this. Wear scarves until your neck heals. Go." She obeys.
He answers on the fourth ring.
"Everything all right in Oz, Dorothy?"
"I'm not sure if it is, Damon. We have another Hunter, like we were hoping, and his mark is complete. Bonnie says we need to go soon."
"When?" he asks, already running toward the boarding house.
"Before Klaus gets back, so, pretty much now."
"I'll pack a bag and be there soon."
"Okay, good. Damon?"
"Yeah, 'Lena?"
"Hurry."
-
Since the explosion at the farmhouse, April has been staying at the parish house. It was her father's by right as the Pastor, but they'd opted to stay on the farm for as long as she can remember. This place doesn't feel like home, but it's not like she has anywhere else to go.
At least Matt keeps her company in the middle of all the chaos. Even though he's kind of introduced her to a whole new world of chaos in the last few days. But thanks to him, she knows the consequences of the choice of whether to let Caroline in when she knocks on the door.
"Hi, April. Damon told me Matt clued you in to all the creepy in town. I'd love to come in and help you understand it all, if you'll let me?"
Matt appears behind April, but doesn't comment as she decides whether to invite Caroline in. This is where April has to sleep at night, he wants her to feel safe.
April nods.
"I-," Caroline stutters. "I need a little more than that."
"Oh," April replies. "Um. Come in, Caroline."
"Thanks. Hey, Matt."
"Hi, Care. You want some coffee?"
"Sure," she replies brightly. Matt's hair is rumpled, like he slept there. Caroline looks back to April, and catches her eyes following him into the kitchen. She fights the urge to feel momentarily jealous and realizes that she's actually kind of glad that the two of them have someone to share Christmas with.
Caroline follows Matt, and they gather around the kitchen island. She breaks the awkward silence after ten agonizing seconds of it.
"So... Do you have questions?"
"Have I ever been compelled?"
Caroline focuses intently into her coffee cup. "Three times."
April looks at her expectantly.
"Once was Stefan. He compelled you to forget something he said to Rebekah. The other two times were for your protection, I swear. There was a Hunter in town-"
"A Hunter like Jeremy's a hunter?" April interjects.
"Yes, only he was a lot more deadly, and a lot more willing to hurt humans for the sake of his mission to kill vampires. He almost killed you twice and I didn't think you'd want those memories."
"So you did it?"
Caroline shakes her head. "Elena and Stefan."
April nods, but sets her mouth in a thin line. She's too tough, now, to let any tears escape.
"It was really awful, April. You shouldn't have to carry that," Matt says.
"I also shouldn't have to deal with vampires messing around with my memories," she replies harshly. "How do I keep you from doing it again?" she demands of Caroline.
"Your bracelet," Matt says. "It has vervain in it. That will protect you."
April snaps her head back. "The one you and Jeremy-" she says, touching the hemp tentatively.
"Yeah."
"But you shouldn't rely on it always," Caroline says. "Stefan managed to compel Jeremy just by taking it off when he wasn't paying attention. Matt, see if you can get more vervain for tea. It's more reliable if you ingest it regularly."
"Stefan was compelling Jeremy? I thought he was one of the good guys?"
"It's not always as simple as good guys and bad guys," Caroline replies. "When you're dealing with the supernatural, sometimes the ends justify the means."
"And what are the 'ends' that require being total jerks to the humans who are trying to help?"
"April," warns Matt.
"Look, April. I get that you're new to all this stuff. But trust me when I tell you that there are bad guys. Ones who will kill you unless me and my friends are protecting you. I wouldn't hurt you, and I will do all I can to keep other vampires from hurting you. Vampires who don't think twice about the loss of human life, like Klaus. And if Damon is right, Stefan too."
"Stefan?" Matt asks.
"Damon thinks he's fallen off the wagon. I'm going to help him get blood-sober again, but that means we have to get him away from Klaus once they're back in town. I need a distraction. Usually I'm the Klaus-distractor, but obviously that's not going to work this time."
"What about Rebekah?" Matt ponders.
"You're kidding, right? She'd be one more wild card in this oversized deck of crazy!" Caroline screeches.
"Trust me, Care, I know that better than you do. She almost killed me, remember? And so have Elena and Damon. But I'm still here and fighting, aren't I?"
April barely follows this exchange. "Where is Rebekah? And since when were you almost dead, Matt?" Her eyes dart back and forth, demanding answers.
"I thought you told her everything?" Caroline interjects.
"Gave her the basics, but skipped the play-by-play," answers Matt. He turns to April, and switches to a calmer voice. "You already know that Rebekah is Klaus's sister, but they're also the oldest vampires in existence, along with their brothers Kol and Elijah. Rebekah's not so bad, unless you piss her off. Which Elena did, and I was nearly the collateral damage."
"I think I might pass out." April's knuckles whiten as she grips the table.
"Hey, whoa," Matt says as he comes around to steady her. "If you're going to pass out just from that, maybe you shouldn't know any more?"
"No," she replies, and takes a few deep breaths. "No going back, now, right?" she says rhetorically, smiling, but leans away from Caroline into Matt's arms just the same. "So where is she, then? She just disappeared right after her party."
Caroline decides she's right, and fills April in. "We can't kill the Originals. Or rather, we could, but it might be a monumentally bad idea. Klaus and Stefan conspired to dagger her-that's like a temporary death-and Stefan hid her body. Matt," she says, turning to him, "even if we wanted to undagger her, Stefan is the only one who knows where she is."
"Would Damon know?" April asks. "I mean, he's gotta know Stefan better than any of us."
"Ugh," Caroline groans. The last person she wants to admit needing help from is Damon. But waking Rebekah might be the perfect distraction for Klaus while she helps Stefan sober up. She taps her speed dial and hits sends before she can talk herself out of it. "If he knows, he'll spill."
-
Bonnie meets him at the end of the driveway. "Damon, wait."
"Who's the he-man? New boyfriend?" he asks with a lascivious side-grin.
"He's the one about to save all our metaphorical-and physical-asses, Damon. He's the Hunter."
"And you left him alone up there with Elena?" He sprints to the porch and reaches to pull Elena behind him. Bonnie's barrier is still active, and he can't get any closer than a few feet, try as he might.
"I took care of it, Damon," Bonnie says harshly.
"Knew I liked you," he replies with genuine appreciation.
"Are we done with the attacking now? We are on a deadline." Bonnie looks to them in turn, each bursting to know more details. "I'm going to keep the ward up, just in case. We were talking about needing a way to keep Jeremy out of this, and Vaughn's it. He's a Hunter. With a complete Mark."
"Jeremy sent me. Asked me to help. Told me that I'd get answers here."
"You've seen my brother?" Elena asks desperately. "How is he, is he okay-"
"He was okay when I left him, aside from spending too much time with vampires. Though I guess that's what all the cool kids are doing these days," he says sarcastically, scoffing at Elena and Damon. Bonnie he just glares at.
"We can tell you anything you want to know about, and whatever we can't, Shane can. Is he coming, Damon?"
Damon nods tightly. He's beginning to see the stretching tendrils of Bonnie's plan weave together, and realizes why the rush.
"Good."
"We need to go as soon as he gets here," Damon says. "Speak of the devil," he adds as Shane's car pulls into the drive. He retrieves a heavy bag from the trunk.
"Do we know where?" Elena asks.
"I have some ideas," Shane says, eyes alight. "Hey all. You're the Hunter?" He directs that question to Vaughn, who doesn't move. He pulls his hand back. "Okay. I'm Shane. This bag contains everything we need to be able to decipher your mark," he says, and lays it down at his feet. "And a change of socks, but that's neither here nor there."
"Ideas?" Damon reminds him.
"Right. To get to any of the Dark Dimensions, you have to go through a Gate. There are five main Gates scattered across the country, but none within a day's drive. An infinite number of small Gates exist at any intersection of three ley lines-the lines of Power that undergird the Earth. But entering through one of these won't help either, we'll probably just be chasing our tails to find any landmarks to judge where we are on the map."
"And behind door number three?" Damon asks.
"There are certain places where people have used a lot of magic or Power. More Power pulls more ley lines together. When enough of them converge, it sort of punches a hole open to the Other Side, and a new Gate forms. It's likely these will be more heavily guarded than small Gates, but I think it's our best bet."
"There are places like that in Mystic Falls?" Elena asks, but as she says it, she can think of several possibilities. "The tomb under Fell's Church."
"Likely guarded by the spirits of the vampires that spent a century desiccating there," Bonnie speculates.
"The cave behind the Lockwood cellar," Shane guesses.
"Dead werewolves. Or Mom and Pop Originalicus. No go," Damon intuits. "The house where the witches died?"
"That you and Elena can't even enter on This Side," Bonnie reminds him.
"Wickery Bridge," Elena finishes. They all take a beat to consider, and in turn, deflate.
"I'm going to burn that bridge down when we get back," Damon says dramatically.
"I'll help. I hate that bridge," Elena agrees. "When do we go?"
"One more minute." Bonnie relaxes the barrier ward she raised, and reaches inside the threshold to retrieve a few sheaves of paper. "Remember how I contacted you when Rose and Trevor took you, Elena?"
Damon blinks, remembering Rose.
"You told me Stefan and Damon were coming for me."
"Yes. I want to spell this paper ahead of time so that someone can contact us just in case. I need something from you and Damon," she requests as she removes her Grams's ring.
"Who?" Elena asks, removing her bracelet.
"Caroline," Damon interjects, adding the chain that hung under his shirt. "I left her in charge of the kids."
Eyes closed, Bonnie breathes deep and chants a few words in Latin over the paper. Shane looks on in interest, the tug of a smile sending a shiver up Elena's spine. When she looks at Damon, she notices his shrewd scowl and wonders if he's having the same apprehension about the professor.
"Done," Bonnie says, and packs the paper into an envelope. "We'll drive by Caroline's on the way."
Their agreement, though silent as the still air that surrounds them, is absolute.
"Bet you're wondering when your life turned into such a soap opera," Bonnie says to Vaughn, apologetic.
"Nah. It was long before I staked my first vampire," Vaughn reassures her, a half-smile throwing his cheekbones and chin into sharper relief.
"Enough flirting, Anita Blake," Damon says pointedly to Vaughn. "Let's go."
Bonnie blushes that Damon thought Vaughn might be flirting with her. "I'll drive us to the boarding house. We should walk from there," she reasons.
They pile into Bonnie's Prius looking like some deranged, motley supernatural crew embarking on a road trip.
Which is kind of the truth, Damon thinks to himself. His phone jars him out of his sarcastic reverie.
"Queen C. Excellent timing."
"I have a solution for the Klaus and Stefan problem, but you're not going to like it."
"Do I ever?"
"I want to undagger Rebekah. Before Klaus gets home with Stefan and Jeremy. Can you think of where Stefan might have stowed her?"
"I might have a few ideas. Where are you?"
"April's."
"Be there in two shakes," Damon replies, and hangs up. "Oh, Bon-bon. Reroute to April's."
-
As they pull up, Caroline huffs at seeing Damon and Elena together, but holds her tongue. A few moments later, Bonnie shifts the car into park and Damon meets Caroline on the front walk to hand her the manila envelope.
"What's this?" she asks, opening it to find blank paper. Matt and April join the small party on the porch.
Vaughn and Shane, who chose to stay in the car with Bonnie, look curiously on. Damon has one ear on them, but his attention is, at best, divided.
"Glinda spelled the paper so that you can contact us," he explains. "If you come up with anything more on Shade over there," he directs to Matt, "let us know. Where we're going, we need as much information as possible on whatever he's hiding."
Elena chimes in. "Whatever you find out, write it on here and then burn the paper. If Bonnie did it right, we should get it. In theory. This hasn't exactly been tested before, I don't think."
"Better we don't know specifics," Caroline says reasonably. "If we don't know where you are, we can't give you away to Klaus."
"Thank you, Caroline," Elena says earnestly. "I'm glad you're here to look over Stefan and Jeremy."
"Of course," Caroline replies. "I'll keep the home fires burning for you. Damon, about that distraction-"
Damon stops her. "You know it's a terrible idea, right?"
"It's all we've got," Caroline pleads.
Damon raises his eyebrows and laughs. "You didn't think of oh, say, your boyfriend and his pack of anti-Klaus puppies?"
"I don't want to put Tyler at risk while he's still working to unsire the rest. But I'll contact him and see how far along he and Hayley are. And the other? Where would Stefan have taken her?"
"I wrote a few ideas on the envelop for you to check out. He's not very creative, my little brother. Shouldn't be too tough to find her. Also," he adds, "You do know that the only reason I'm letting you undagger Rebekah-"
"Undagger Rebekah?" Elena asks, incredulous. The anger she thought she'd quelled flared up in her gut at just the mention of the name. "Why?"
"Because she's the most surefire way to drive Klaus up the wall," Damon explains. "And because we will be far, far away when she does it. Good luck with that," he says sarcastically.
"Damon, what the-" Elena protests.
"Come on, Elena, you can berate me on the way," Damon says, offering her his hand. She takes it, giving him a disapproving look-the adorable one, he thinks to himself, but won't ever admit it to her-but she lets him lead her back to the car.
-
"Why park here?" Shane asks. "Wouldn't it be better to hide the fact that Bonnie's with us?"
"Klaus will find that part out soon enough. Pretty much all we'll be able to hide is our actual destination," Damon explains as they set out on foot for the bridge.
"And he'll figure that out once he deciphers Jeremy's mark with the sword he unearthed in Italy," Elena adds. "What then?" she asks.
"Time passes differently there," Damon says, and they all turn to stare. "What? I might've been once or twice," he says dismissively.
"Really?" Shane is clearly intrigued. "I'd love to hear more. Which Gate did you take?"
"Story time later," Vaughn says impatiently. "Time passes differently how?"
"More slowly," Damon explains. "Even if we're only a day ahead of Klaus, that might give us as much as a few weeks of time on the Other Side."
"Weeks?" Vaughn demands.
"Which hopefully we won't need," Damon clarifies.
"But we'll have it just in case," Bonnie says.
Vaughn shakes his head, but it's not as though he has any choice but to follow. He knows what they're after over there, and he wants it just as much as they do. He'll keep his mouth shut and play along. For now.
Damon takes advantage of his silence and tells the severely abridged version of the story of the last time he traveled out of this dimension.
"It was several decades ago. I went through the Kimon Gate," he begins.
"That's the one outside Sedona, Arizona, right?" Shane asks.
"Right."
"Why'd you go?" Elena asks, intrigued to hear more details. She knew that he and Stefan had been lots of places, but never would have guessed that he'd gone there.
Damon is quiet for a moment, trying to string together the right words before speaking.
"I'm sorry, you don't-" Elena apologizes.
"No, no. It was... it was one of my many failed attempts to help my baby brother. Hopefully we'll have better luck saving the day this time," he says, squeezing Elena's hand.
The woods open up, and the bridge stretches ahead over the river. Elena takes the first steps onto it, and the rest of her party follow behind. When she reaches the midpoint-the spot where Elena had almost died twice, and actually died once more-she stops. "What now?" she asks.
Shane pipes in. "You and Damon have free passage as vampires. The rest of us, as humans, have to pay." He retrieves a knife from his bag, and hands it to Damon.
Damon pulls three lengths of rope from his bag, and looks apologetically at Elena. "Humans have to go as slaves. That's the only way they'll be allowed down there without actually dying, which is how they'd normally pay their passage. As their 'owners' we'll have to pay in their stead."
He hands the knife to Elena, and in turn, ties Bonnie, Vaughn, and Shane's wrists. He's gentlest with Bonnie, who watches stoically.
"The currency over there is Power, isn't it?" asks Elena.
"Yes."
Without any reservation, Elena pulls the blade through her palm. Damon takes the blade and mimics her movement. Their blood drips onto the roadway, which ripples like water under a skipping stone. Overcome with sudden vertigo at the sight, Elena grips Damon's arm with her free hand.
"Passage for five," he says. In reply, the air in front of them crackles, and the light in that spot alone dims menacingly. "Open sesame," he adds under his breath.
One by one, they walk into the dim unknown.