9. Offers
Of all the people who might turn up to rescue her, Elena had definitely not expected Isobel to be on that list. Her birth mother looked the same as ever, a cold smile on her lips, expression giving nothing away. Elena immediately took a half-step back, caught between wariness and surprise. The last time Isobel had visited Mystic Falls, she had shown no interest in the welfare of her daughter. Whatever her agenda was this time, Elena doubted it was anything good.
Irene appeared at her shoulder, saying, "So who's this?"
Isobel caught the woman's gaze at once. "Go back inside. This visit never happened."
Elena felt Irene retreat, leaving her standing alone to face her birth mother. She folded her arms, mouth tight. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to deliver a message." Isobel's tone was matter-of-fact. "We will get you out of here."
Elena shook her head, bewildered. "How? What's going on?"
"I know that you have a lot of questions, Elena, but I don't have much time. Just know that help is coming."
"Stefan and Damon?"
"They're alive," Isobel confirmed. "And everyone else you care about."
Hearing that was like being given a lifeline; Elena wanted desperately to believe her. But this was Isobel. Her vampire birth mother, who had made it very clear that she only saw Elena as a means to an end. Elena couldn't trust her.
"Then why aren't they here? Why are you the messenger?"
"Because I'm the only one who knew how to find you. Listen carefully. I assume Elijah compelled you not to leave the house?"
Elena nodded.
"Then take this." She drew out a tiny plastic wallet from her bag and tossed it to Elena, who caught it. Inside the wallet was a sprig of vervain. Elena tucked it inside her jean pocket as Isobel went on: "You need to convince Elijah to take you out somewhere. I'll return in three days to check on you. But you must break his compulsion, Elena, do you understand? It's our only chance to help you escape."
She didn't know how to react. Giving her vervain, offering her help... What was Isobel up to? Elena bit her lip.
"What about Elijah?"
"I know how to deal with Elijah," said Isobel, smiling slightly. That look reminded her that her mother was a vampire, and Elena shivered. She twitched at some sound Elena couldn't hear. "I have to go. Don't tell Elijah that I was here."
That was it; Isobel turned, becoming a silhouette in the bright light outside, and then she was gone, and the woods and fields once more stretched out over the horizon, empty. She left Elena shivering, clutching the vervain inside her pocket, wondering who on earth to put her trust in. The mother who had been working with Katherine? Or the Original who intended to kill her?
It could be a matter of minutes or hours before Elijah woke up and removed the stake from his heart. Damon didn't know how long, but he did know that without his ring Elijah would not be able to go anywhere during the day, at least not without suffering some discomfort. Until darkness fell, they should be safe to move around.
He therefore hauled his brother out of the Lockwood dungeon with little ceremony, and presented him with Elijah's ring.
"Why are you giving me this?" Stefan asked, clearly still stupid from his lack of feeding on bunnies lately.
"Leverage," said Damon. "You keep the ring, I'll hide the moonstone; we both have something to bargain with. Should let us keep our heads for a little longer."
"Katherine's working with him," Stefan growled. "If anyone should lose their head, it's her."
"Agreed, brother. Why don't we pay her a visit?"
An hour later, they were newly fed, changed and presentable enough to turn up at the Gilbert house with a smile. At least, Damon smiled. Stefan's brow was furrowed as usual. Thanks to Elijah, they had both lost their cell phones, which meant that they had no idea of the current situation with Caroline, Bonnie or Alaric. Damon intended to rectify this soon, but Katherine came first.
He couldn't express how much he hated her. No more messing around with tombs. The next time he saw her, he was going to ram a stake through her treacherous heart and be done with it.
She wasn't at the house, however. Jenna answered the door and did a double take when she saw both of them.
"Shouldn't you be at school?" She licked her lips and shook her head nervously. "I mean, Stefan. Not you, Damon, obviously... What are you doing here?"
"Is Elena in?" Stefan asked.
"No." But there was something shifty about Jenna's expression; she wouldn't meet their eyes. "She's at school. Is something wrong?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," said Damon.
She looked at him for a moment, very much rabbit caught in the headlights. Stefan glanced at him in alarm.
"If it's about the other night," said Damon, "I'm sorry if I came off as a jerk. I'm working on that."
Jenna took a deep breath. "You know, I've been keeping pretty quiet about this thing between you and Elena."
"Uh, thing?" said Stefan, but she talked right over him.
"I figured, Elena's a sensible girl, she knows what she's doing. It's not my business. But what I really don't appreciate is the two of you coming over like you own her or something – one, you're not her boyfriend, Damon – and two, I like you, Stefan, but you should know that Elena's at school because you ought to be there yourself, and I get that you don't have parents or whatever, but I'm Elena's legal guardian and I'm the one who's supposed to look out for her. That is my business. And finally, apparently all of you knew that Isobel was still around, but I guess I don't need to know, right? Never mind that I'm Elena's legal parent and that I was dating the guy Isobel used to be married to. What does that count for? Anything?"
That all burst out of her in almost one breath and Damon raised his hands, stepping back. "Okaaaay. So I'm guessing Ric filled you in?"
"What did he tell you?" Stefan asked.
"Enough," said Jenna, her nostrils flaring. "Elena's at school. Go find her there."
"Jenna," said Stefan quietly. "I'm sorry about Isobel. Elena asked us to keep it quiet... It wasn't our place to say."
She shook her head and smiled bitterly. "Yeah, I get that. Okay. I'm still mad over it. It's just..."
"I understand," said Stefan.
Damon kept quiet. The understanding stuff was best left to his brother, but now that they knew where Katherine was, he was impatient to be off. He gave Stefan a pointed look and his brother went on:
"We've gotta go, but if you want to talk about this any time..."
"Sure." Jenna nodded, but it was obvious by this point that she wanted to be rid of them.
They said their goodbyes and as soon as Jenna had shut the door, Damon zipped over to his car, Stefan following.
"What do you think?" he asked, as he started the engine. "No 'v' word mentioned, but..."
Stefan frowned. "I don't know. She seemed on edge, but for all we know Katherine got to her. If Katherine's compelling her..."
They could be in trouble. But that wasn't anything new. Just another thing to add to the growing list of problems not yet dealt with. Damon shook his head grimly. Time for school. He pulled up outside Mystic Falls High and waited while Stefan disappeared to get Katherine. Several groups of students were hanging about nearby; Damon leaned against his car and amused himself by picking out the ones he'd like to hunt down and feed on. Then his gaze fell on a familiar face: Jeremy.
The kid was walking by himself, hunched over with an iPod in his ears. No point shouting then. Damon considered approaching him when Jeremy looked up and spotted him. He hurried over at once.
"Damon! Hey! You're..."
"Alive? I know. Miracle, huh?"
"Yeah! What are you doing here? What happened?"
Jeremy looked honestly pleased to see him. Damon almost shook his head. Killing Jeremy appeared to have created some weird kind of attachment in the kid's head. But he had a stake in Elena's welfare too, and at this point they needed all the allies they could get.
"We're here to fetch Katherine," Damon told him, and Jeremy suddenly looked nervous. "What?"
"About Katherine... We already decided to do something about her."
Damon swore when he heard the story. He took back any praise he'd ever had for her. Caroline was not in any way, shape or form an effective vampire. She was a liability, and now he had yet another problem to fix.
"Tell Stefan I'll meet him at the boarding house. I'll take care of this."
Finding a secluded area inside the school grounds was difficult, but Katherine had done it. She had tucked herself away by the empty football field, in a corner of the stadium where few people would notice them. Matt was with her.
"I'm sorry to hear about you and Caroline," she said. "I've been hearing it all from Caroline's side, and well, you know how one person's side of the story can be."
"Yeah," said Matt heavily.
She'd already subtly tested him to see if he was immune to compulsion, and found that he was. Somebody was slipping him vervain. It had been easy enough to get Jenna off it, but Katherine didn't know what the source was for this one – though she was certain that she knew who it was. So she had to be careful, but Katherine had long ago mastered the art of getting what she wanted with or without compulsion.
"This thing with Tyler," said Katherine delicately, "you know there's more to it than she told you, right?"
"Right now, I don't know what to believe."
"Well, there's a reason Caroline and I aren't getting on so well right now. And because I'm your friend, Matt, I think that you deserve the truth." She shifted a little closer to him, looking him straight in the eyes, and knew that she had him hooked without the use of compulsion. She took a breath. "There was something going on between Caroline and Tyler. They both went behind your back. I'm sorry."
He swallowed. "I... I thought there might be. Tyler said so, but then he left..."
"I'm pretty sure that it's been going on for longer than you thought, Matt."
She watched his face fall, her expression full of insincere concern. Kindness hurt people so beautifully. He was almost in tears.
"And you knew?"
"It's why I fell out with Caroline," she said softly. "I hated seeing her doing that to you. You deserve better than that." She lifted a hand to stroke his cheek. "You deserve someone who will be honest with you, who would never betray you..."
"Elena..."
He swallowed again, but this time she knew it was for a different reason. Katherine leaned in, hand slipping down to clasp his shoulder. She saw his eyes flick to her mouth, sensed his hesitation, but waited for him to finally close the distance between them. They kissed, and Katherine enjoyed the feel of his lips against hers for all of two seconds before Matt pulled away, eyes wide.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have done that. You and Stefan..."
She resisted an eye roll. "Stefan and I broke up."
"You're kidding."
"No... We've been rocky for a while, so I thought it was finally time to end it."
He shook his head. "I'm sorry. But this – what just happened – I'm not ready for it. I guess... It's stupid of me, talking to one ex-girlfriend about another ex-girlfriend and not thinking that it'd be awkward."
Katherine leaned back again, folding her hands in her lap. "No, it's okay. I know I kind of dropped that on you; there wasn't really any gentle way of saying it."
"No, I'm glad you did. You're being a good friend, Elena."
Oh, he was so nice. It was adorable. The nice, trusting ones were always the easiest to fool. In a way, he reminded her of Damon back in 1864, but of course with Matt she had the advantage of looking exactly like his old flame. Katherine disliked Elena in just about every way, but she had to admit that Elena had good taste in men.
She smiled. "Well, if there's anything I can do to help, to make it better, I'd like to. I know that despite everything, you miss Tyler. Don't you? You guys were such good friends."
"I do," he admitted.
"I don't know for sure, but I think part of the reason Tyler left was guilt over what he did to you. Do you have any way to contact him?" she asked. "You must feel so awful to have parted like this."
He shrugged. "I tried. I've left him messages. Nothing."
"Could I try? I lost my phone and got a new one recently, so I don't have his number..."
"You can have it, and mine again, but you're probably wasting your time. Thanks for trying though. Although if he came back, I'm not sure if I'd hug him or punch him."
He smiled wryly and she laughed. They exchanged phone numbers just as the bell rang, prompting Matt to dash off for swimming practice or whatever kind of jock thing he did. Katherine was just picturing that as she strolled across the school grounds when an unexpected face turned up.
"Stefan!" she said. "What a pleasant surprise."
Behind her pleasure at seeing him alive, there was genuine apprehension. She'd expected Elijah to have killed them by now. This could throw a spanner in the works regarding her plans for Jenna... Stefan had her arm locked in a vice-like grip at once, and she could practically hear the growling deep in his chest. She allowed him to spin her to face him, smiling at his roughness.
"Come with me," he hissed.
"But I'm late for class," said Katherine innocently. "Oh, wait. Last period is history and Mr Saltzman isn't here, so I guess we got lucky. Shall we?"
Just like that, she'd caught him off-guard. "Alaric? What have you done?"
"Ask John."
He became very still for a moment and she wondered if she'd gone too far. Then Stefan spoke, his voice quiet and menacing enough to send shivers down her spine. "You betrayed us. You sent Damon and me to our deaths. Why?"
"Elijah found me. I didn't have a choice."
"You're on vervain. You had a choice."
She curled her hands around his arms, leaning up to whisper to him. "I didn't, Stefan. I'm sorry. But now that you're okay, I can help you. Going after the witches was a mistake. If you want to save Elena, you have to take out Elijah first. Let me help you do it."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I love you, Stefan."
He snorted. "That's not gonna cut it."
"Because the second I'm no use to Elijah, he'll kill me. You know that I'll do anything to survive. I want Elijah taken out before he takes me out. Same goes for Klaus when he turns up."
There was a reason he could believe. Katherine's gaze was calculated as she judged the suspicion in his eyes. He didn't trust her. But that was okay; she could work with mistrust almost as easily as people who believed every word she said. It was a different game, a more difficult one, playing all sides. She had to adjust quickly. Still, she could see Stefan hesitating. He wanted answers. That meant he needed her, and as long as she was needed, Katherine could continue to pull the strings.
"Come with me," Stefan said again. "Damon and I would like a word."
This was one of the most difficult things Caroline had ever done. As she stepped inside the police station and asked to see her mother, she found herself trembling. She, Bonnie and Jeremy had concocted a story, one that didn't involve confessing that she was a vampire or giving much away about what else was going on. She was a terrible liar though. Bonnie and Jeremy had both offered to speak to her mom instead, but it was her idea. Caroline figured that she ought to carry it out.
She was ushered into the sheriff's office where she found her mom looking worried. "Caroline, what are you doing here?"
"I have something to tell you," Caroline began, shutting the door behind her. "It's about vampires."
It was best to come straight out with it, she thought, before she lost her nerve. She just had to lay it all out there, and then they could figure out what to do.
Her mom turned white. "Vampires?"
"I know they exist," said Caroline doggedly, "and I know you know about them. There's one in town. She's pretending to be Elena–"
"What?" Liz stood up, her eyes wide and disbelieving. "You mean Elena is–"
"No! Her name's Katherine. She only looks like Elena, she's not really her, she's impersonating Elena..."
"Wait, wait." Liz walked over to take her hand and Caroline almost flinched. It was unbearable, being afraid of her own mother. She hated it. "Start from the beginning," her mom said.
But Caroline had barely begun to explain when they were interrupted by a knock at the door. She turned, startled into silence, and whoever it was didn't wait to be invited in; the door opened and she stared in shock as Damon walked in. He shot her a hard look before turning his attention to her mother.
"Liz, I'm sorry to barge in, but we need to talk."
Liz shook her head. "What are you doing here?"
"I think he's here for the same reason I am," Caroline interrupted, finding her tongue. "I told her about Katherine, Damon."
She was fairly sure that the only reason Damon hadn't yet throttled her was because her mom was in the room. Caroline trembled. She was swiftly beginning to regret this idea – but she hadn't known that Damon had survived. Everyone thought that they wouldn't be coming back.
"What's going on?" her mom demanded, looking between both of them.
Damon looked at her. "What did you tell her?"
"Only that Katherine's here pretending to be Elena and she's a vampire. I didn't have time to explain."
"You knew that my daughter knows vampires exist?" Liz asked, and Caroline sensed the danger in her tone. Whenever her mom starting calling Caroline 'her daughter', that meant she was mad or being overprotective. Probably both.
"I can explain," said Caroline, shooting a glance at Damon. She placed a hand on both Liz's and Damon's arms, trying to quell them. "Let me explain. I've known about vampires ever since... Ever since Logan Fell grabbed me. I saw what he was before Damon saved me. I was so scared, but Damon promised me that you and he would take care of it, and that I didn't have anything to worry about. He told me not to say anything; he thought I'd be safer that way."
She looked at Damon again, who managed to act as though this story wasn't new. He was good at that though, she thought. He'd been lying to her mother all this time.
"I'm sorry, Liz," said Damon, all contrite. "I never wanted Caroline involved in all this. But then Katherine came along..."
Her mother's mouth trembled for a moment, and then she nodded. "Who's Katherine?"
"A very old and very powerful vampire," said Damon. "She's too much for your deputies to deal with, believe me."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I've witnessed it. Please, Liz. I need you to trust me. Let me handle this."
Caroline stepped back, biting her lip, as she watched the indecision on her mother's face.
"If there's a vampire threatening my daughter's safety," said Liz, "I can't stand around and do nothing."
"The second she knows you know about her, you're dead." Damon snapped his fingers. "I'm saying this as your friend, Liz. I don't want to see you and your deputies rushing in there and getting yourselves killed."
"I know the risk I take every day," Liz told him. "I signed up for this; you didn't. I appreciate everything that you've done for this town, Damon, but it's my job to protect it. Caroline came to me because she was scared. Tell me more about this vampire. Let me help."
Caroline looked at Damon helplessly. She could see the tenseness in his shoulders, but there was nothing either of them could do now – unless they decided to shove her mom in the Salvatore basement for three days again.
"She could help," said Caroline softly. "That's why I came to her."
"All right," said Damon at last. "But no rushing in there."
Between them, they got her mom to agree that she wouldn't act without consulting Damon first, even though she was obviously reluctant. They also explained to a bewildered Liz that Elena was an exact duplicate of Katherine, and that they were distantly related. If Damon hadn't been there, Caroline was sure that her mom wouldn't have believed her, but it was clear that Liz trusted him.
"I can take Caroline home," Damon offered.
Liz smiled tiredly. "Thanks. I'll be in touch."
Damon steered her towards the door with one arm and Caroline was forced to fall into step with him – she was now starting to wish that she hadn't painted Damon as her saviour – but she swallowed her fear as she walked through the police station, smiling at the officers even while her heart pounded. He was going to kill her.
Damon kept up the nice facade all the way through the station and into the car park. Then his grip on her became harder and he increased his pace, yanking her along until she dared to protest:
"Get off me, Damon, I can make my own way home!"
He stopped and stared at her; she cringed under the force of his glare. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
She tried to wrench free. He grabbed both her wrists hard enough to hurt and then the world blurred and she found herself pinned down in a deserted back street, Damon on top of her. She suppressed a sob; the pain that lanced through her skull and back when he slammed her into the concrete vanished quickly, but the real cause of her distress was still very much present. Vampires like Katherine terrified her, but with Damon there was a whole different level of fear, because she remembered him doing this to her when she was human.
He hissed an inch from her nose. "I'm still waiting for an answer, Caroline."
"I was trying to help!" she whimpered.
"Telling anything to Liz is not helping." He had a hand around her throat and he squeezed until the tears filled her eyes. "I have been trying to protect your mom. You set her against Katherine, that is not a fair fight and I will hold you responsible when she gets herself killed, understand me?"
She managed a tiny nod.
"Then think before you do anything this stupid again."
He released her with a contemptuous sneer, and Caroline got shakily to her feet. They stared at each other. She felt dirty and dishevelled, and most of all miserable.
"She's my mom," said Caroline. "I won't let anything happen to her."
"Go home," said Damon.
He disappeared, leaving her to wipe the tears from her eyes. She hated him so much. It was like – he cared, Damon actually cared about her mother and yet it only made him treat her like dirt. And he was so ungrateful; she'd stepped up and done the best she could in the Salvatores' absence and in a few words, Damon brought her right down again.
She decided to take the slow way home.
Damon walked into the boarding house to find Stefan and Katherine sharing the couch. She was sitting with her legs tucked up, sipping one of his whisky glasses and looking entirely relaxed. Stefan had a glass too, though he was anything but relaxed; Damon thought he might break it with a grip like that. It was probably a good thing his brother didn't know what Caroline had done.
He poured his own glass, figuring that they both needed some alcohol. "How was school?"
Katherine gave him a beatific smile. "Great. Mrs Winters gave me an A on my English paper and a cute sophomore was kind enough to provide me with lunch."
Damon glanced at Stefan. "Get anything out of her?"
"I'm right here," said Katherine. "And you can get plenty out of me. I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to talk."
He picked up a stake from a nearby shelf and collapsed into a chair, keeping the stake in one hand and his glass in the other. "Then talk."
"She says she's going to help us," said Stefan.
"Yeah, right. That's why you gave us straight to Elijah. To 'help'."
Katherine shrugged, twisting a lock of hair between her fingers. "I made a deal with Elijah. I promised him that I would continue to impersonate Elena and help him to kill Klaus when the time came, and in return he'd grant me my freedom."
"That sounds real helpful so far," said Damon.
"There's more," said Stefan.
Oh, good. He couldn't wait. He rolled his eyes, but allowed Katherine to continue.
"As long as Elijah believes I'm working for him, I can get close to him. Think about it. I'm stronger and faster than both of you. I know Elijah. I know how he operates, how he thinks. You want to kill him? Then I'll help you."
"And how do we know that you won't just double cross us again?" Damon asked.
"I betrayed you because there was no alternative. Find a way to kill Elijah and I'm on your side. As long as he's around, we're all living on borrowed time, you know that, right? It doesn't matter how many deals you make, how many moonstones and trinkets you hide away. Once he's done with you, you're dead."
It was perhaps the first thing she'd said that he believed. Katherine was opportunistic; she seized every chance to help herself. If she could use them to kill Elijah, she would – exactly as she had done when she was stuck in the tomb. On the other hand, if she thought her chances of survival were better sticking with Elijah, she'd do that too. Hence her most recent betrayal.
Damon thought he had the measure of her now. He also had a card to play that she didn't know about: Liz. As idiotic as Caroline had been telling her mother about Katherine, he had to play smart and use every advantage presented to him. He had to take control of the situation.
"So we're agreed," said Stefan, leaning forward, and Damon snapped his attention back to the pair of them again. "From now on, we work together."
Damon's eyes met his brother's and he knew that was a lie. They'd tell Katherine as little as they could – and if she fell asleep? He'd kill her. But he put the stake aside, for now, and nodded.
Katherine raised her glass. "Here's to teamwork. Oh, by the way, Stefan? I think you forgot to mention what I said about Ric."
Damon was out of his seat and then out of the house almost before Stefan had begun to explain.
