Big fat thank you to ms simmons, Leia Belle Organa, Rachie81, and sander9876 for their wonderful reviews last chapter!
"Enzo? But...Damon told me you were dead. You died in the fire..." Elena began.
"Well, I clearly didn't," Enzo replied. He had an accent. Maybe he was British or something. "Some Augustine member rescued me and I remained here; tortured for the last fifty or so years. I stopped counting a while back."
"Telling your life story there, Enzo?" Wes asked, coming into the room.
"Well, she's the only person I've ever had any interaction with in half a century," Enzo replied.
"Too bad, because she's about to take a nice nap." Wes reached over and grabbed a contraption before setting it down over Elena's face. She began struggling but soon realized that it was no use. She heard Wes count down from ten before the gases overwhelmed her and dragged her into darkness.
Stefan opened the bedroom door and found (out of all people) his brother waiting for him.
"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked.
"Elena's gone, so take off your jammies, get dressed and let's go," Damon responded.
"Elena's gone? What happened?"
"Look, long story short, Wes Maxfield, her biology teacher, is part of an old secret society named Augustine and kidnapped us yesterday. He took her away last night and I broke out this morning to come and get you."
"So, what does Augustine do?"
That was when Damon told Stefan the whole Augustine story.
"So, get dressed and let's go threaten some people."
Normally, Stefan wouldn't go off with Damon and threaten some people, but this was Elena that was in trouble.
And no matter what, he would do anything for her.
Damon went into the library to drink early morning bourbon and wait for his brother. Inside though, he found Katherine snoozing on the couch. Sighing, he pulled out a book, sat near Katherine, put the book by her face and snapped it shut. The book made a loud noise as the pages slammed against each other; making Katherine wake up with a jolt.
"What?" she asked angrily.
"What are you doing on my couch?" he asked in return.
"I came over yesterday and I didn't leave. I was so busy with Stefan I didn't have any time."
"Wait a minute, did you two...ugh!"
"Relax. We didn't do anything. Sure, we made out but he-"
"Nope! That's enough!"
"Let me finish! We made out, but he's still too in love with your girlfriend. Speaking of, where is your girlfriend?"
Damon rolled his eyes. "Out. Now!"
"Hm, touchy." She got up and slipped on her jacket. She waved goodbye and left.
"Ready?" Stefan asked, now downstairs.
Damon nodded. "Let's go threaten a teenager."
Elena woke up a little later and found her surroundings empty. She turned to her side and found out that even Enzo was gone. She tried breaking free of the metal braces holding her down but was too weak.
"Now, now, we don't need you escaping, do we?" Wes asked, entering the room. His cell phone was in his hand. Was someone coming to save her?
"Bastard," she muttered.
"You know, your precious boyfriend just threatened me with Aaron's life. Still think he's good for you?"
Ugh! She just couldn't catch a break! First, Damon killed Aaron's family and now, he was playing games with his life too.
"But, he won't be able to go through on his threat." Wes looked down at his watch. "In fact, he should be having a reunion with an old friend."
Something came into realization. "Enzo?"
He didn't reply. "We have some time now, so why don't I begin preparing the serum?
"Serum?"
"Why yes. The serum I gave Jesse was the beginning. He was a good test subject, but it didn't work very well on him. You though, seem like the perfect candidate. You're going to be the next Augustine vampire."
"But...I'll be a Ripper. No! NO!"
Wes sighed. You were better unconscious. He grabbed the same contraption as before and the last thing she heard before going down under again was him saying, "I'll wake you up when it's time."
She woke up dazedly. It must be time.
"Perfect," Wes whispered while tapping a glass syringe with his index finger.
"What...what is that?" Elena breathed out. She was even weaker than before.
"The serum."
Wes neared closer to her, needle ready in his hand. The closer he got, the closer Elena would get to being a Ripper. Where was Stefan? Or Damon? Or anyone?
"Elena!" someone cried.
"Stefan!" she yelled in return. She saw Wes look around worriedly before gathering up all the strength she still had and headbutting Wes. It must've been a powerful blow, because he ended up unconscious on the ground; the syringe shattering.
Elena laid back down;exhausted. Through her dimmed vision, she saw Stefan come into the room and rip of the metal bearings.
He pulled her into his arms. "Can you stand?" he asked.
Elena attempted standing but fell into Stefan instead. Slowly, she shook her head.
"Okay." He lifted her up and carried her out of the room.
"Stefan," she whispered into his neck. "Stefan. Thank you."
"Don't worry about it," he whispered back.
She repeated his name over and over again; just to make sure this was happening. "Stefan. My Stefan. Are you really here?"
She looked up and saw a slight smile on his face.
"Yeah. I'm here," he softly whispered.
"Good. Thank you..."
He kissed the top of her head. "There's nowhere I'd rather be."
"Mmm..." Sleep was overwhelming her. "I'm so tired, Stefan..."
"It's okay. You can sleep now. As long as you want."
"I love you..." She felt him tense for a moment but he soon returned to his former state.
"I love you too."
She smiled before letting her eyes close; cutting her away from reality and drifting her off into the nether world of sleep.
When she woke up, she lay in a bed that should've been unfamiliar to her by now. Not that it was. It was still as comfy as she remembered.
Elena sat up and let Stefan's blanket slip off of her. She looked around at her surroundings. The last time that she was in this room was a few days ago; when she gave Stefan a wakeup call and got her heart broken.
She soon found Stefan asleep in a chair next to the bed. "Stefan?"
He blinked his eyes open and smiled. "Hey."
"Hey."
"Feeling better now?"
"Much better. Thank you."
"No problem. Well, I'm going out. I didn't want to leave until you woke up." He got up and slipped on his jacket.
"Wait!" she began before he could leave. "Do you remember what I said earlier? When you saved me?" She wanted to know. She had forgotten.
"You just said 'thank you' and that you were tired."
She nodded. "Okay. Thanks again."
He nodded. "Stay here as much as you want," he said, before zooming out of the house.
Elena got up off the bed. Sure, Stefan let her stay, but she didn't want to. She couldn't stay here for too long. It didn't feel right.
Which was how she ended up downstairs by the fireplace. For once, she sat in front of the fireplace and didn't feel the need to burn herself. It seemed as if Stefan forgave her.
Soon, Damon came in and joined her. She stood up and looked at him.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. You?"
"Now I am." He approached her and leaned in to kiss her.
But he immediately backed away when she gave him a good hard slap.
"What the hell!" he shouted.
"How could you, Damon? How could you kill Aaron's entire family?"
"Hey, his ancestors tortured me for five years!"
"Yes. His ancestors. You shouldn't be killing the newest Whitmores just because they were too unfortunate to be born with the name!"
"Elena, we've been fighting a lot lately."
"Because you're changing me!"
"For the better!" he returned.
She scoffed. "Yeah, right."
"Stop acting like this!"
"Deal with it!"
"That's it!" he proclaimed. "We're over! This relationship clearly isn't working! So why don't you just go back to college and leave me alone!"
"Fine! I will! We're through!" She stormed back upstairs and packed her things. She put them into the car and avoided a pouty Damon.
This was good. This was right. She wasn't in this horrible relationship anymore and he ended it himself; meaning that he probably wouldn't kill innocent people.
It was time to finally move on.