AN: OK, so here's the next chapter, hope you like it; Founder's Day coming up. As always, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter – forty reviews and over six thousand hits, guys! And a big shout-out to my beta, sunshine2006578!
Disclaimer: The characters of The Vampire Diaries are the property of L.J. Smith and the people at The CW. I'm just borrowing.
Chapter six
"Hey, Jere, you wanna order pizza and watch a movie tonight?" Elena called from the kitchen when she saw Jeremy coming downstairs. "Have a real …" He walked out the front door without answering her. "… movie night."
"Leave the kid alone," Damon suggested. "Let him brood for a couple of days, he'll get over it."
Elena rolled her eyes at him. "It's been a couple of days."
"What I'm saying is that there's no point in pushing him," he rephrased. "You push, he'll just pull further away from you. Trust me. I get teenage boys."
"You should, since you're still one on a mental level," she teased him.
"Ouch. That hurt."
At that moment, I'm Too Sexy started playing from his cell phone and Elena raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"
He just smirked at her as he pulled the phone from his pocket. When he saw who was calling, the smirk disappeared. "Sorry, need to take this," he said, getting up from the table and going out through the kitchen door, making sure to close it behind him. "Yeah?"
"Isn't this nice for a change, me calling you and not you badgering me incessantly?" came a British voice over the line.
"Two calls, Henry, that was all," Damon pointed out. "No need to exaggerate."
"That's funny, it felt like much more than only two calls to me," Henry mused.
"I'm assuming you're calling because you've finally made some progress?" Damon said, wanting to move the conversation along. He glanced through the window, making sure Elena wasn't trying to eaves drop, but she was still sitting at the table, looking through a magazine Jenna had left there earlier.
"As a matter of fact, yes, I have," Henry confirmed. "I am not saying that he's anywhere near back to his usual self, but he has started feeding again."
"Great. Then I can stop worrying about him starving himself to … well, not death, obviously, but, believe me, a vampire who hasn't fed in a while is not a pretty sight."
"That's why I called. I would hate for you to worry yourself sick about your brother."
Damon chose to ignore the sarcasm in Henry's voice. "So what's the next step?" he asked instead.
"Well, I've gotten him to start feeding again, like I said, but he's still refusing to hunt. I've brought him food for a couple of days now, but that's not going to work in the long run."
"Just drag him out into the woods and throw a couple of bunnies at him," Damon suggested impatiently. "How hard can it be?"
"He's worried there will be humans around and that he won't be able to stop himself from going after them," Henry explained. "Not that I would expect you to understand something like that. So I am taking him to a cabin I own in Canada. More than a hundred miles to the nearest town, and the wildlife keeps the hikers to a minimum, even at this time of year."
"Sounds good," Damon agreed. "Just don't get him eaten by a bear or anything, OK?"
Henry ignored that. "It's a long drive, and since we'll only be able to travel at night, it will probably take at least a week to get there. The reception up there is beyond dreadful, so I don't know when I will be able to get in touch with you." He didn't sound too upset about that."But I've got everything under control."
"Fine, do what you have to do."
"Goodbye, Damon."
He hung up the phone and went back into the kitchen. It was Friday night and Jenna was out on a 'surprise date' with Alaric and wouldn't be back for a while.
Elena glanced up when he sat back down at the kitchen table. "Are you going to tell me who that was?" she asked in an off-hand voice and returned her attention to the magazine, as if she didn't really care. But he knew her better than that.
"Just a friend," he replied.
She was quiet for a moment, debating whether or not to confront him with her suspicion.
"Look, Damon," she started, deciding she might as well get it over with. She was sick of secrets and lies. "I get that you're just trying to protect me or whatever, but I know that you know where Stefan is. You've known all along, haven't you?"
The scrutinizing look she gave him told him there was no point in trying to deny it.
"Yes," he admitted. "He's with a friend, the one who got him into the animal diet way back when."
"Good." Elena nodded. "That's probably what he needs right now. Have you talked to him?"
Damon shook his head. "No. The first time I called, he hadn't gotten there yet. And the second time, he didn't want to talk to me."
"OK. But he's doing OK?"
He tried to analyze her voice. Did she sound like a worried girlfriend, asking about her boyfriend? Or just someone wanting to know how a friend she was concerned about was doing? He couldn't tell.
"He seems to be getting better," he hedged a little. He didn't want to tell her about the self-starvation spell; she didn't need that. "They're apparently going to some cabin Henry, that's the friend, owns in Canada."
"Oh." She frowned. "I thought maybe he would be coming back soon if things were getting better."
She didn't sound too disappointed that that wasn't the case, he noted, filing that away for the future. At the very least, she wasn't crying, like she had when he'd told her Stefan had left town.
"He will, eventually," he assured her. "But not yet."
"OK. So, have you heard anything about John's plans for the invention? Not that it matters, since it doesn't work anymore, but it might still be a good idea to stay on top of the situation."
"You're the one who's living with the guy," he pointed out, glad that she had moved so easily to a new subject. "He hasn't let anything slip?"
"No," she replied, frowning. "He's been very careful about what he says around me. He knows how close I am to you."
"Not close enough." He wagged his eyebrows at her and, just as he had been hoping, she laughed.
"First sexual innuendo today," she noted. "You're losing your edge."
"Never. So, are you all set for the big day tomorrow?"
"Yes, I can't wait to be paraded all around town with my escort … oh, wait, I don't have one," she replied sarcastically.
"Right." Damon frowned. "Well, you know I'm always at your disposal. Day … or night."
"That's two, you're getting there," she said, laughing.
"But, seriously, if you want to, I'll be there."
She looked at him, and, for a moment, it wasn't just about the parade tomorrow. Tearing her eyes from his, she pushed that thought into the back of her mind. Not the time.
"That would actually help a lot," she replied. "Mrs. Lockwood's been bothering me to let her know who my escort will be; she's going to be thrilled I finally have one. It's not very Founder's Day-y to have a member of the court unescorted, you know."
"Horrible thought."
"I've never been so glad I wasn't born a hundred and fifty years ago," Elena said breathlessly as Jenna laced up her dress the next morning. "Am I supposed to not be able to breathe in this thing?"
"Yep, breathing wasn't a priority to the rich and beautiful women back in the day," Jenna told her in an amused voice. "You just be grateful it's only for a little while. People back then lived their whole lives like this."
"I can't even imagine what it must have been like," Elena mumbled, trying to picture life in the nineteenth century.
"There, all done." Jenna took a step back and Elena twirled to give her the whole view. "And you look amazing, of course."
"Why thank you, m'am," Elena replied, curtsying. "How very kind of you."
"OK, that's enough." Jenna laughed. "So, Damon's meeting you at the school?"
"Yep," Elena told her, choosing to ignore the way Jenna said his name. She didn't want to get into that discussion again, and not only because she was running late. If she was going to be perfectly honest, she didn't know what to tell her aunt.
"Then let's get going," Jenna suggested, thankfully not pushing the subject.
Elena knew the moment Damon spotted her walking towards him, because his eyes widened and he looked like he had seen a ghost. She glanced down at herself and realized that he must be thinking of Katherine, something she wasn't sure she liked. At all.
"How do you do?" she greeted him when she reached him, curtsying.
"Wow," he replied.
"That's not very 1864," she pointed out.
"On the contrary," he said, offering her his arm. "'Wow' was very common at that time. All the cool kids were saying it."
She laughed a little and linked her arm with his, letting him lead her towards the float with the Miss Mystic Falls Court. She bit her lip when she saw that the spot Amber and her escort should have been in was occupied by a large photo of the girl. Damon must have felt her change in mood, because he squeezed her arm.
The parade was exactly what she had expected. Her arm was tired after only a few minutes of waving and she felt like her face would freeze like that if she kept smiling for much longer, but she hung in there. She wondered what it would have been like if things hadn't gone so horribly wrong that night three weeks ago. If Stefan had been the one standing on the float with her, Amber and her date next to them.
But there was no point in thinking about what might have been.
She was grateful when the parade was over and she could change back into her normal clothes. She stowed her dress away in the trunk of her car and headed for The Grill to meet up with Damon.
"Mind if I join you for a minute?" Damon asked, looking at the empty chair next to the one Bonnie was occupying by the bar in The Grill. Elena wasn't going to be there for a little while; probably longer than she had told him, since she wasn't used to getting out of clothes from the nineteenth century. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he imagined helping her out of those clothes … but no, not the time for fantasies.
"Yes, actually, I do mind," Bonnie replied, not even looking up at him as she spoke.
He ignored her and sat down anyway. "I wanted to say something to you," he said, trying to get her attention.
"Just leave me alone."
"Thank you." She did look up at that, a surprised expression on her face. "The device that Emily spelled could have killed me. I don't take what you did lightly, so … thank you."
"I did it for Elena," she told him stubbornly.
"I know that," he said. "But I'm still very grateful and … I owe you."
He thought he saw something flash in her eyes, but couldn't quite place it.
"Yeah, whatever." She got up. "I have to go."
He looked after her as she left The Grill and shook his head. He could see where she was coming from, he could. But was it too much to ask for her to cut him a little slack? He hadn't even killed anyone in weeks.
He was distracted from his thoughts when Elena walked into the room, wearing her usual, twentyfirst century outfit. He had enjoyed seeing her in the dress earlier, but it had been a little too much like revisiting his past and he was glad she was back to normal.
"Hey," she greeted him as she sat down in the chair Bonnie had vacated a moment ago.
"Hey there." He flashed her a smile. "You enjoying the ability to breathe again?"
"Yeah." She laughed. "I don't understand how women back then could wear clothes like that all day, every day."
"Well, it helped if you didn't have to breathe," he pointed out, hoping to get her to laugh again. But she didn't.
"That's not funny," she mumbled and looked down at her hands, remembering the way he had looked at her earlier. She had been right; he had been thinking about Katherine.
"Sorry, it was meant as a joke," he apologized, observing her closely.
"Yeah, well …" She bit her lip. "Glad I could be of service today."
"What?" He frowned, not understanding what she was going on about.
"Seeing me in that dress must have been just like having Katherine back for a moment, right?" she said, glancing at him with eyes that threw daggers.
Did she think he enjoyed seeing her like that, that he tried to imagine she was Katherine? Another thought occurred to him; was she jealous? No, no, of course not. He quickly shrugged the thought off. She just didn't like to be compared to Katherine.
"I would never confuse you with Katherine," he told her. "And, honestly …" He let his eyes wander down her body, noticing the way her jeans hugged her curves just right. "I prefer you like this."
She blushed and looked away from him. "You're not just saying that?"
He couldn't help but think that she sounded a lot like a jealous girlfriend. Not that he minded. "Look, Elena, I'm not gonna deny that I loved Katherine at one point, or at least I thought I did. But that's in the past, OK? I wouldn't go anywhere near her if she showed up again."
She nodded.
"Do you believe me?" he pushed, wanting to hear her say it.
"Yes," she replied, looking up at him again. "I believe you."
He had never wanted to kiss anyone as badly as he wanted to kiss her right then.
"So, fireworks tonight, huh?" he said to break the tension that he was sure must be visible in the air between them.
"Yeah, should be fun."
They whiled away the time until the fireworks would start playing pool and having dinner. Thirty minutes were spent arguing about whether or not Elena should try to talk to Jeremy, who had come into the restaurant, again, with Damon finally managing to talk her out of it. When it started getting dark outside, Elena threw one last, longing look in Jeremy's direction before Damon dragged her out of the restaurant.
"You don't want to miss the fireworks, do you?" he asked, pulling her along across the square.
She was about to throw back a reply when they heard someone call Damon's name from behind them. They both turned to find Anna walking towards them.
"You're still around?" Damon asked, a little rudely, and Elena elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!"
Anna rolled her eyes. "I'm actually doing you a favor, so you might want to be a little nicer to me."
"I'll get right on that," Damon told her with a smirk.
"The tomb vampires are here. They're planning an attack."
"What?" Elena exclaimed, looking around her as if expecting someone to jump out at her from the shadows.
"How do you know this?" Damon asked Anna, going into business mode.
"I went to them," she replied. "Told them I wanted in, but I was only trying to find out what they were planning. Which is an attack on the founding families."
"When?"
"When the fireworks start."
Damon thought for a moment. "That's what John wanted the invention for," he said as realization hit. "He's going to use it on the tomb vamps, rid the town of vampires again, just like back in 1864."
"History repeating itself." Anna nodded. "But if that's the case, all we have to do is get out of here and let him do his job."
"The device doesn't work," Elena cut in. "Bonnie deactivated it."
"Well, then a lot of people are gonna die," Anna concluded.
Damon scanned the square. "Where are they right now?"
"They're already here."
"Damn it!" He turned to Elena. "OK, you are going to run, as fast as you can, to your car and get the hell out of here, you hear me?"
"No, Jeremy's still here!"
He grabbed her by the arms. "I cannot do this with you here, do you understand that? I need to know that you're somewhere safe so I can focus on killing these damn vampires."
"I'll help her find Jeremy and then we'll leave," Anna offered.
Damon considered that for a moment. He knew Elena wouldn't leave without Jeremy, and he didn't have time to help her look for him himself. Anna would be able to protect her if there was problem. It was probably his best option.
"OK, but hurry. We'll meet back at Elena's house as soon as everything's clear."
Trying not to think that this might be the last time he saw her, he turned away from Elena and went off in search of the teacher-slash-slayer.
He spotted Alaric after only a couple of minutes, halfway across the square. Luckily, Jenna wasn't with him and Damon hoped she had gone home. One less person to worry about.
"Rick!" he called as he approached the teacher and Alaric turned around.
"Yeah?"
"Have you filled up on those little darts since last time?" Damon asked. "Because we're gonna need 'em."
"What's going on?" Alaric looked around him, his body going tense with anticipation.
"The tomb vampires are launching an attack on the founding families when the fireworks start." Damon glanced at his watch. "Which gives us approximately five minutes."
"Damn it," the teacher mumbled.
"Did Jenna leave already?" Damon asked.
"No, she met an old friend and was talking to her last I saw her fifteen minutes ago," Alaric replied. "I told her I'd get us spots for the fireworks."
"Well, we don't have time to look for her," Damon concluded. "Can you text her, tell her to get out of here? Make up some story, just get her to leave."
Alaric thought for a moment.
"She should be fine, she's not actually a Gilbert," he then pointed out, a little reluctantly. "As long as they're only going after the founding families …"
"Then let's hope the tomb vamps are selective," Damon said. "Come on."
They quickly made their way to Alaric's car where they stocked up on vervain darts and stakes.
"Let's go," Damon said, shoving one last stake into his pocket. "We've got some vampires to kill."
Before they got back to the square, however, a horrible sound brought Damon to his knees. It took everything in him not to scream out loud.
"What's wrong?" Alaric asked, alarmed.
"Must … be the … invention," Damon managed to get out. "Bonnie … said she … deactivated … it, little … witch … lied."
"I've got one!"
Alaric looked up to find one of the sheriff's deputies running towards them, stake in hand.
"I've got this one," he quickly yelled back, pulling a vervain dart from his pocket. "There's another one over there." He pointed at a young woman who was writhing in agony a couple of yards away, and the policeman turned in that direction.
"Come on," Alaric said, pulling Damon to his feet. "I won't be able to carry you, you're going to have to do some of the work yourself."
Teeth firmly gritted together, Damon stumbled along, leaning heavily on Alaric. When they finally made it back to the teacher's car, he thought his head was going to explode. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped.
He slumped down in the passenger seat, breathing deeply.
"What the hell happened back there?" Alaric asked, turning the key in the ignition and pulling out into the street.
"Like I said, must have been Jonathan Gilbert's invention," Damon told him, rubbing his temples. He had a splitting headache, and he hadn't had a headache in over a century. "Bonnie told us she had deactivated it, but it seems like she wasn't completely truthful." He remembered the flash of something he'd seen on Bonnie's face earlier in the day, and realized, too late, what it was. Guilt.
"But what was it, specifically, that was so painful?"
"You didn't hear it?" Alaric shook his head and Damon continued. "Some sort of high pitched sound, I guess."
"Like with dog whistles?"
Damon glared at the teacher. "Obviously not exactly like that," he replied dryly. "But basically the same idea, I suppose. A painful sound that only vampires can hear."
"Where are Elena and Jeremy?" Alaric asked. "Did they get out before it started?"
"I hope so," Damon mumbled, looking out the window at the darkness. "Anna was going to help Elena find Jeremy and then they were leaving. We're supposed to meet up at the house."
But when they got there, Elena's car wasn't in the driveway. Just to be sure they weren't back, Damon searched the house, but it was empty. He tried to call Elena, but she didn't pick up. Alaric tried Jeremy's cell, but it went straight to voicemail.
Unable to just sit there, Damon went outside and tried Elena again, with the same result. He cursed and took a couple of deep, unneeded breaths so as not to smash the phone against a tree; she might try to call him. And he started pacing, waiting for her to get back. Because the alternative was not an option.
"Have you tried Jeremy's cell phone?" Elena asked as she and Anna crossed the town square in the direction of The Grill. "I mean, he was at The Grill earlier, but he could have left by now."
"It's going straight to voicemail," Anna said tensely, pulling Elena along a little faster.
"Hey, Anna!" At the voice, Anna froze,
"No, no, no," she mumbled under her breath, but still turned around, a firm grip on Elena's arm.
"What you doing?" The large man – no, vampire, Elena corrected mentally – asked.
"None of your business," Anna snapped back. "Run along now, you don't want to miss the massacre."
The vampire scrutinized Elena. "Isn't that Elena Gilbert?"
"Yeah, so what?" Anna glared at the other vampire. "I got her, she's mine."
"The boss said no feeding, just killing," he hissed. "We don't know which of them got vervain in their blood."
Anna scoffed. "Her boyfriend's a vampire; you really think she's been putting vervain in her food?"
The guy hesitated. "Probably not. But where you taking her? The party's about to start."
"Her brother already left, I'm going to convince her to call him and get him to come back," Anna explained, hoping he'd buy it. "We want all the members of the founding families dead, right?"
That seemed to settle it, because he nodded approvingly. "Good. You take care of that."
As he turned back around and started walking away from them, Anna let out a relieved breath. "I thought I was going to have to kill him," she mumbled, once again pulling Elena along towards The Grill.
Elena didn't know what to say to that, so she just nodded.
The Grill was starting to empty out when they got there, everyone heading outside for the fireworks. Elena spotted Jeremy in a corner booth, alone.
"Jere!" she called, and he looked up at her, getting to his feet. But, instead of walking towards her, he turned in the opposite direction.
"Jeremy!" Anna called as well, and he stopped, turning back around to face them.
"Anna, what are you doing here?" he asked, glancing around the room. "My uncle could see you."
"I don't care," Anna replied, grabbing Jeremy by the arm as well. "We have to get out of here."
She started pulling them along towards the exit, but Elena tugged her to a stop. "There's a back exit; it's closer to my car," she explained, nodding in the opposite direction they had been going.
"Great." Anna headed that way, and they were soon in the hallway with the restrooms.
"What's going on?" Jeremy demanded. "You can't just expect me to … Anna?"
Anna had let go of both of them and was clutching at her head. With a pained scream, she fell to her knees.
"Anna, what's wrong?" Jeremy kneeled down in front of her, shaking her.
"My head," she cried. "Please, make it stop!"
It took Elena a second longer than it should have to make the connection. "Jonathan's invention," she thought out loud. Had Bonnie failed to deactivate it? But wouldn't she have said something if she didn't think she had managed to do it? "No …" she mumbled when she realized what was going on. Bonnie wouldn't do that … would she? Of course she would, Elena realized abruptly. She still blamed Damon for her grandmother dying. Of course she would do something like this.
"Make it stop, make it stop," Anna was panting in-between screams when Elena came back to the present.
"You have to tell me what's wrong," Jeremy pleaded. "I can't help you if I don't know what's going on."
"It hurts!"
Elena pushed Jeremy to the side and crouched down so she was eyelevel with Anna.
"Anna, look at me," she commanded, but Anna was in too much pain to be able to focus.
"What's wrong with her?" Jeremy asked anxiously.
"We have to get her out of here," Elena said, glancing around them. The corridor was still empty, but she thought she could hear voices in the main area of the restaurant. "It's a device that incapacitates vampires; they're looking for them and they're going to kill her if they find her."
"Who?"
"Just help me get her up," Elena told him, tugging at Anna's hand to get her to stand up.
"I've got her," Jeremy said, scooping Anna up into his arms. "Where to?"
"My car," Elena decided, leading the way to the back exit. But when she opened it, she saw two of the sheriff's deputies in the parking lot. She quickly closed the door again and scanned the hall, spotting the door to the storage area. "In here."
She opened the door and Jeremy carried Anna, who was still screaming, if not as loudly, into the room.
"We have to get her to be quiet, or they're gonna find her," Elena realized.
"OK," Jeremy said, trying to cover Anna's mouth with his hand. But she bit him. "Ow!"
Elena spotted a shovel in one of the corners.
"No!" Jeremy exclaimed when she held it up.
"It's the only way to get her to be quiet," Elena insisted, on the verge of tears. "It won't hurt her, and if she doesn't stop screaming, they're going to find us."
Jeremy hesitated for a moment, but then he put Anna down in a chair, trying to hold her in place. "I can't hold her much longer, just do it."
Elena tried not to think about what she was doing. I'm trying to help her, she thought repeatedly. They're gonna kill her if I don't do this.
She wasn't even sure it would work; she wasn't very strong, and Anna was a vampire. But when she brought the shovel down on the other girl's head, hard enough to crack a normal human's skull, she slumped forward and was quiet.
Just to be on the safe side, they stayed in the storage room another five minutes.
"Stay here," Elena instructed Jeremy, who was clutching Anna's unconscious body to him, when she thought the restaurant might be empty. "I'm gonna go see if they're gone."
She opened the door to the hallway a sliver and, finding it deserted, crept down it to the exit. This time, the lot behind the restaurant was deserted, and she hurried back to Jeremy.
As if by a miracle, they got Anna into the car without being spotted and Elena pulled out of the parking lot, trying not to look like she was hiding a vampire in her car. After a moment, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, but couldn't bring herself to release the iron grip she had on the wheel to answer it. She was too afraid it would be Alaric, telling her … no.
She had been able to avoid thinking about Damon out there, incapacitated by the invention, so far. She had been busy worrying about the vampire hunters finding Anna. But now, the idea of them finding him, killing him … she realized she was on the verge of hyperventilating and forced the thought away, focusing only on the road.
Her phone rang again, and she sped up a little, wanting to get home as fast as possible. If she could only get there, he would be fine, she told herself. He would be fine.
She kept her eyes firmly on the street ahead of her, and didn't see him when she came to a stop outside her house. But then he was there, wrenching the door open and pulling her out of the car, into his arms, and she felt her entire body relax.
AN: That's right, I'm not killing Anna. I honestly didn't see why she had to die in the first place, since Jeremy didn't even become a vampire. And since I wasn't putting Damon in the basement, I decided to keep her around. OK, as usual, please click the 'Review'-button and let me know what you think!
