A/N: So this chapter kind of grew and did it's own thing. My muses are insane *nod*
Disclaimer: If I owned TVD Elena would not be causing so many problems
"Clock's ticking," Damon reminded, eyes still stormy as she walked into the basement. "You gonna help me brainstorm a plan or are you too busy fixing yourself a snack?"
Stefan was still looking down at the blood bag in his hands but muttered, "We need to call Bonnie. There's got to be a way for her to stop Esther from channelling all that power."
"A: What if she's with Esther?" Damon started, ready to enter full rant mode. "B: What if she can't cut her off? C: I don't know how any of this stuff works and D: neither do you!"
"You got a better plan?" her brother asked, finally looking up from the freezer full of blood and meeting her eyes.
She sighed softly before replying, "Worst case scenario, simple mechanics. Can't draw power from a dead battery."
Stefan nodded slowly, reiterating, "Kill them."
"If it comes to that," Damon agreed, reaching forward and snagging the blood bag from her brother's hands. As Stefan thought through everything, probably trying to come up with a better plan, she sank her fangs in through the plastic and drank quickly. In seconds the bag was empty and Damon passed it back, licking the excess blood off her lips as Stefan drew a blank.
"There's got to be another way."
"Well, what if I told you I had a less diabolical plan," Damon asked, shoving down a wave of hesitance as she raised the silver dagger she had pulled from Elijah. Part of her didn't want to even consider this but if it gave them time to save Elena that was what mattered. Losing her would hurt Stefan too much.
His eyes widened slightly as he asked, "You want to dagger Elijah?"
"They're all linked. One goes down, they all go down," she explained, trying to justify her idea. "The witches live, Elena's safe, problem solved."
"We don't know if that'll affect Klaus," Stefan protested and Damon knew exactly what the real meaning was. He didn't want his werewolf boyfriend unconscious.
"Yeah, well, ironically, Klaus isn't our current problem," she pointed out, fiddling with the dagger.
He was grasping at straws when Stefan objected, "But the dagger is lethal to any vampire who uses it."
"Well, luckily we know a hunter who's just crazy enough to try it," she smirked, pulling out her phone and waving it in Stefan's face. "So, all I need now is a Stefan-shaped distraction for the hybrid. Going to help?"
"They're still there right?" Damon asked, ignoring the background noise from the Grill and focusing on her only friend's voice.
Ric replied, "Yeah, they've drunk through about half of the liquor supply but they're here."
She nodded, checking her watch and trying to guess if Stefan would be at the Grill yet as she muttered, "Good. This'll be easier if they're wasted."
"So what's the plan?" he asked, straight to business. From the sound of things he was almost pacing and Damon rolled her eyes.
"Divide and conquer," she explained, checking her watch again. "First we'll need a little distraction for Klaus. Should be there any minute."
Ric hung up without another word and Damon snorted, slipping the phone in her pocket and grabbing a packet of blood for plan B. You can't draw energy from a dead battery and a vampire was definitely dead when it came to magic. Then again, a corpse was definitely dead too.
Damon walked out to her beloved Camaro, gunning it and quickly peeling off for the Grill. If this plan had any chance of working they had to get Kol's body out of there. With Stefan playing distraction that left it up to her.
It felt like there was a dagger sliding into his heart. The gasps of pain escaped involuntarily as he fell to his knees, grasping his chest. His mind raced as he braced himself with one hand, struggling to figure out what had gone wrong in the time until this paralysed him. Damon. Damon had the dagger and they were all linked. He was gone now but Stefan was still there and so was Danielle.
"Danni," Elijah managed to choke out before he collapsed, eyes closing as the dark grey veins ran up along his neck to cover his face.
She was waiting in the alley, waiting for Ric to drag out the Original. Her eyes kept darting up towards the stairs, expecting Klaus to pop up any second in a bout of spectacularly bad-timed coincidence.
"Here, take him," Ric grunted, having trouble pulling the surprisingly heavy body.
Damon moved closer, chuckling, "Tell the sexy doctor good work."
Before he could take Kol someone blurred down the stairs, ripping the dagger free and throwing Ric into the wall. Stefan was right behind Klaus, snarling low, and Damon felt a little bit guilty when her brother was thrown into a wall. Then the pissed hybrid turned to her and those feelings quickly evaporated.
"I should kill you," Klaus mused, moving slightly closer.
It seemed he wasn't in on the whole 'Esther hates you all' secret and she decided to inform him, countering, "Do it. It won't Esther from killing you."
His blue narrowed and darkened as he stalked closer, asking venomously, "What did you say about my mother?"
"Didn't you know Elena and your mummy are friends?" she sniped, watching his eyes grow angrier. "They have one thing in common. They both want you dead."
Klaus snarled, taking that one last step forward as his hand snapped up, ready to rip out her heart. Part of her as expecting it, almost okay with it, but when Damon saw Elijah at the top of the stairs, dark veins still retreating, she relaxed slightly.
"Leave her," the eldest Original commanded, watching Klaus turn from the woman that had betrayed him again. Knowing she had had something to do with this daggering idea hurt more than he liked but he shook it off, turning his attention to his brother and continuing, "We still need her Niklaus."
Damon stepped back slightly, watching Klaus ask, "What did Mother do?" When a response wasn't immediate he repeated, "What did she do Elijah?"
Elijah's eyes darted to Damon's as he moved down the stairs, barely avoiding stepping on the other Salvatore, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Her eyes were defiant but there was the slightest hint of guilt under the cockiness and that just made it worse.
"You tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now," he threatened, walking to her. His voice wasn't as strong as normal and Damon noticed, feeling a pang of guilt she didn't want to analyse. It's not like they would have left them daggered even if Klaus hadn't intervened so it shouldn't matter.
The old clock's ticks were silent to everyone but the vampires and she looked up deliberately, drawing attention to the time and giving herself a quick reprieve from Elijah's angry and almost hurt stare.
"You told me we had until after nine," she protested, looking back at him and hating the look in his eyes. Betrayal.
"I'm sure Rebekah will be more than happy to start her work early."
Elijah's threats had definitely hit Stefan, much to Klaus' visible annoyance. Damon didn't bother trying to mend bridge there, grabbing her brother's arm and pulling him up the stairs to the Camaro as Kol started to stir. Despite her determination not to even acknowledge the people she had betrayed Damon's eyes flicked back to Elijah, trying to convey that she was sorry. If he got the message he didn't respond to it, turning to his brother's as Klaus started to check on the youngest of the males.
Damon sped off towards the old witch house, hating the silence in the car. This plan had been hers. It had been her fault Klaus had thrown Stefan into a wall. It was her fault Elena could die at any moment. Another fuck-up of a plan for Damon Salvatore.
She pulled up and looked over at Stefan, asking "So how do we know they're going to be at the old witch house?"
"We don't. But if they're not, then we have about ten minutes until Rebekah tears Elena apart," Stefan pointed out, slightly bitter.
"You know, if we sit this out, Esther completes her spell," Damon started, trying to skirt around the idea of Elijah dying. "Klaus dies, you get your revenge. It's what you wanted basically the whole time you've been back. The only collateral damage is…."
He sighed, looking out the window. "Elena."
"You know what she'd choose," she muttered, looking towards the old witch house.
Stefan admitted, "She'd let herself be killed to save her friend."
At Damon's mute nod he mused "If we do this, it'll wreck her."
"Well, she'll hate us anyway. Thing is, she only has to hate one of us," she looked over at her brother, hoping he understood what she was proposing. "Only one of us has to do the actual deed."
But of course, Stefan is his usual thick self and refuses to accept she's giving him an out and asks, "So, who's it gonna be, brother?"
With a barely repressed growl Damon pulled out a coin, showing it to her brother and announcing, "Heads I do it, tails you do it."
"Awful lot of effort for someone who pretends not to care about her anymore," he commented dryly, face not changing as she retaliated, "Pot, kettle, brother."
Stefan didn't say anything else so Damon flicked the coin, knowing that it was going to be her even if Stefan lost. She honestly didn't care whether Elena hated her or not, whatever chance they'd ever had was gone now. But Stefan still had a chance to be with his doppelgänger so Damon would take the hatred so she could heal and fall into her brother's arms without a complaint. He was always more important.
The coin landed and the two Salvatore exchanged glances before getting out silently and walking through the trees. For once the younger didn't argue and Damon was glad. Then again, he still thought he'd be killing one of them. She could hear them talking as he and Stefan slipped into the witch house, glad it was night and the ghosts couldn't screw with her daylight ring. Her brother nodded once before darting downstairs to Bonnie, leaving Damon to stalk Abby and eavesdrop.
"Stefan, I- I can't stop her. She's channeling us!" Bonnie cried, catching her attention, and Damon darted forward, wrapping an arm around Abby's shoulders and she bit her wrist.
Before the witch could scream a wrist was jammed in her mouth and the instant Damon was sure there was enough blood she promised, "This will only hurt for a second," before snapping her neck and watching her fall.
Damon left first, making Stefan explain the situation. It was a last-ditch attempt to get away from the Bennett's before Judgy did something violent and painful but it was also trying to find a chance to mourn something. They were the only witches that might be able to help. Now they never would and she'd be stuck like this forever. No matter how much it had seemed like she was adjusting she hadn't. Damon just wanted things to be right again.
"Is she safe?" she asked as she walked back into the room, picking up the glass of bourbon on the way.
Just as she had thought Stefan was standing there, waiting for her so he could tell her, "Elijah kept his word. Rebekah let her go." That was kind of what she'd expected. Elijah was a man of his word.
"Good. All's right in the world again," Damon snarked, hoping her brother would leave so she could get so plastered she couldn't think and just forget all of this for a while.
"I lost that coin toss, Damon. It should have been me who turned Abby. Why did you do it?" Stefan asked, probably completely oblivious to his sister's mood.
"Cause I'm not blind," she retaliated, voice softening slightly after a second. "I see what's been going on around here. You're hanging by a thread, Stefan. Barely over your last ripper binge and all you want is to be the old Stefan again."
The silence spoke volumes before he argued, "That part of me is gone for good."
"Oh yeah?" Damon scoffed, amused by the ridiculous lie. "How long has it been since you've had a drop of human blood?"
"How'd you know?" Stefan sighed and it was almost insulting. Of course she'd noticed. He was her baby brother for Christ's sake.
Her tone was softer then she wanted as she pointed out, "Spend 146 years with someone, you kind of start to pick up on their tells. Answer the question. How long has it been since your last drink?"
"Since the night I threatened to drive Elena off the Wickery Bridge," he muttered, looking down in an emotion that was all too common on his face. Shame.
"See? You have enough to feel guilty about! Why add to the list?" she asked. This wasn't the way it was meant to go, it was too brotherly, too close, and with what she was considering Stefan needed to hate her. "By the way, you're welcome."
Before he could say anything Damon left, heading straight downstairs and hoping that this would change. She'd wanted to be closer to her brother but now he needed to hate her. If he was going to survive this he needed to feel nothing but hate.
They were monsters. Esther was right and Elijah couldn't get that thought out of his mind. He was evil and that's all. He claimed to be noble but really, he was just a monster. They were all monsters. He could hear his sister's footsteps on the polished wooden floors but didn't move, staring out the window.
"Where the bloody hell is everyone?" Rebekah asked, walking over to him as her heeled boots clicked on the floor.
His voice was low as he announced, "It's over, Rebekah."
Her voice was shaky as she demanded, "Where's mother?"
"We have no mother," Elijah countered darkly. "Only Esther and Esther was right."
Her voice was confused, trying not to understand, as she asked "What do you mean?"
"My talk of virtue. When it suits my needs, I kill, maim, and torment," he elaborated, turning to her with pained eyes. "Even today, I terrorized an innocent."
"Elena is hardly innocent," Bekah snapped, eyes darkening.
"And I used your hatred of her to get what I wanted," Elijah retaliated, a jolt of pain stabbing through him. "Wielded you like I would a sword. My sister."
She still didn't see it, snapping, "You did it to protect us, Elijah, and rightly so! We deserve to live! We are better than they are."
"Are we? Mother made us vampires. She didn't make us monsters, we did that to ourselves," he almost-whispered before walking back her and outside, all of his supposed morals and justifying thoughts evaporating.
They were all monsters, every single vampire in existence, and it had all started with them. If he really was so noble and strong he wouldn't have started turning people, he wouldn't have helped Niklaus, he would daggered all his siblings before compelling a human to dagger him so that none of them would kill anymore. But he wasn't that noble. If the murders of the past weren't proof enough then the stupid thing he was about to do now.
"Danielle," he sighed before blurring off, heading to the Salvatore house. If he was going to leave he was going to say goodbye to the woman that caught his attention. Then he was gone and probably wouldn't be coming back.
"I've just come to tell you I'm leaving," Elijah said, voice quiet as he leant on the wall. Damon looked up from the half-full glass of bourbon, meeting his eyes silently.
After a second she asked, "Why would you tell me? I did dagger your brother and basically kill all of your family."
He sighed softly, walking to the couch and sitting down next to her without a word. She flinched away, expecting an attack, and he gave her an annoyed look before slipping the glass from her hand and finishing it.
"You were trying to avoid killing the witch, correct?" Elijah asked, putting the glass on the table in front of them and meeting her eyes. He was still bitter about what she had done but was trying to make sense of it, trying to make sure she hadn't just turned on them.
Damon nodded with a sigh, fiddling with the ring and muttering, "The witches can do something for me, for Damon. He's not here because of some spell and we'll need their help to fix it. I wasn't letting that chance vanish until I had no other choice."
Elijah nodded in understanding, pulling her hand up and looking at the ring. It was Damon's and that was one of the things that had been annoying him since he'd first seen her. Had it only been two days ago? It felt like so much longer. In the time since they'd met his mother had done a spell and tried to kill them all.
After a second he rested their joined hands on the couch, asking, "Is that why you have his ring? I wouldn't think he'd take it off unless he was dead."
"He may as well be," she muttered bitterly, leaning back against the couch and looking at him curiously as Elijah didn't let go of her hand. "I needed their help. Now I'll probably never get it but I don't blame you. You were trying to save your family."
His eyes darkened, still looking at her ring, and sighed, "My family of monsters."
Damon sighed, squeezing his hand and tilting his head up with the other, meeting his eyes sadly. "We're all monsters Elijah. We kill without a thought but guess what? Humans do too. What do you think a serial killer is?"
He almost chuckled at that, eyes still bitter and dark, before a thought drifted through his mind. If he left town and Damon died or was healed before he got back, if he came back, then Danielle would be gone. She was looking down at their hands and Elijah took the chance to memorise her face, committing it to memory. It wasn't enough. If she was going to vanish from his life and there was still definitely the chance he'd die it seemed like a perfect time to be reckless.
"Danni," he said softly, watching as she looked up at him and smiled slightly. Before she could ask anything or he could change his mind Elijah leant forward, kissing her softly.
Damon's eyes widened in shock, mouth opened slightly from when she had been about to ask a question. The Original's aim had either been slightly off or spot on, catching her upper lip between his and landing his lower one squarely in-between hers. The kiss was gentle, light, and it was nothing like she was used to. Before she could really get over her shock he had pulled back, smiling sadly.
"Goodbye Danielle. I don't know when I'll return," Elijah said softly, turning to go.
Her hand snapped out, grabbing his tie and pulling him closer, before Damon teased, "You're not getting out of this house until I get a proper kiss. Not if you're going to leave tonight."
His eyes widened as he asked, "Why? You're the one who insisted I stop courting you."
Damon honestly had no clue why the fuck she was encouraging this except maybe her possible impending death but replied, "Knowing you, you're going to vanish and I'll never see you again. Consider me curious."
Elijah hesitated for a second before kissing her again, pulling her closer. If he was going to run and leave this strangely familiar and fascinating person behind he may as well make the most of it before he lost her.
A/N: So yeah, you wanna hear the conversation between me and my muses on this chapter?
Me: Damon, Elijah! Would you just stick with the plot-line I have?
Damon: We do what we want! *pounces on Elijah*
Me: Okay, gtfo. If you aren't gonna co-operate I'll just write Klefan! You guys aren't meant to be shoving your tongues down each other's throats yet -_-
~Klefan-Lover
