Short chapter, but it's sort of just a filler while i figure out where i'm taking this story next. Hope you enjoy it as much as i enjoyed writing it! :)
Reviews/constructive criticism always appreciated.
Disclaimed : I own nothing TVD related.
'Better do what he says then, mate.' Klaus laughed from behind his protective shielding, gathering an unconscious Bonnie in his arms and throwing a bag full of containers carrying Elena's blood over his shoulder. He disappeared into the dark still laughing cruelly.
Tears threatened to spill over the edge of Damon's eyes once again as he watched Alaric twitch on the ground, his arm reaching and passing over the barrier to their side of the tunnel. Blood bubbled in the corner of his mouth, his eyes fluttered wildly as he fought to stay conscious. Katherine grabbed his arm, pulling him through and depositing his twitching body beside hers, glancing over at Damon.
'I can try, okay, but he's already dead Damon, or close enough. Just save Elena, will you.' Katherine practically screamed at him across the tunnel, ripping her wrist open and pressing it to Alaric's bloody mouth. He convulsed against her leg, his face sliding away from her wrist as he shook and tried to take in a breath that would never reach his lungs. With one final, long shudder, Alaric's body fell still beside Katherine.
Damon let out a horrific growl and ripped into his own healing wrist, pressing the blood against Elena's bruised mouth and watching as in the remnants of her conscious she remembered how to swallow. He sighed, relieved it was getting into her, relieved that soon she would be healed and back to her usually healthy self. Well, physically that is, god knows what this would do to her mentally. Damon watched as her throated moved to swallow his blood, but hardly anything seemed to be happening, it seemed wrong. He knew that he could heard the almost inaudible sound of her lung knitting back together, her rib moving slightly out of it's way, her heart beat a tiny bit stronger and some internal bleeding in her kidney slowed, but everything else remained the same. Her broken bones remained unfixed, her face remained broken, bruised and bloody, she remained in her almost unconscious state.
'Katherine… She's not.. Why isn't this working?' Damon choked out, glancing over his shoulder to the woman sat against the tunnel wall, blood soaking her clothes and her hand still wrapped in Alaric's.
Katherine untangled herself from the dead man beside her and crawled over to Damon's side of the tunnel, listening closely to whatever was happening with Elena's body. All of the internal injuries seemed to be healing, granted it was slowly, but nothing external had been fixed.
'Let me try.' Katherine lowered her still bleeding wrist to Elena's mouth and watched as her throat worked to swallow again, and yet still nothing else changed.
'What the..' She whispered, pulling her wrist away lightly and looking at Damon, 'That's the best we can do for now, just carry her back to the car now that she's recovering from everything life threatening, we can work on the rest back at the boarding house.'
Damon nodded his agreement, looking back at Alaric's body.
' Can you grab…' He nodded towards him and Katherine moved to collect the dead man into her arms. Damon gently, hardly touching, gathered a broken Elena and followed Katherine down the darkly lit tunnels.
Katherine drove Damon's car, Alaric was in the boot and Damon cradled Elena in the back seat. He tried again feeding her his blood, watching carefully that she swallowed every drop, and yet still nothing else healed. Her lung had finished knitting back together and her breathing was stabilizing, but her broken ribs still threatened to rip another hole in it at any minute. Damon winced at every bump, every corner that resulted in Elena having to move at all, she let out painful little gasps every time her body was jostled. She was becoming slightly more conscious, but Damon wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing, with her in this state. It was lucky that they were just pulling into the boarding house when Elena's eyes started to flutter open.
Katherine was out of the car and opening doors before Damon had even gathered Elena closely into his arms again, he lifted her gently and rushed after Katherine towards the house, leaving the running car and Alaric behind for now. He lay her trembling body down on the softest sofa he could find and stroked her hair away from her face, still almost unrecognisable. Her puffy, bruised eyes beginning to stay open longer, her mind was becoming more conscious of the pain she was in. Damon looked up at Katherine, who stood beside him as he kneeled on the floor.
'What do we do?' He growled, quietly, trying not to speed up Elena's awakening.
'If our blood isn't going to heal this, then she's in for a world of pain when she comes around. Do you have anything to knock her out with, drugs or something, just until you find a way to fix this?' She looked over Elena's twisted, contorted body and felt genuine pity, genuine sorrow for what had happened to her. That was new. Damon just nodded and stood quickly, beginning to walk away and towards the drugs cabinet in the kitchen, hopefully he would have some sedative or something around.
He was quick reaching the kitchen, he retched open the drugs cabinet and took a wild glance over everything in there, grabbing the only thing he could find that might knock her out and then reaching for the bottle of whiskey on the kitchen counter beside him. Damon had just turned when he heard a painful groan from the other room, it stopped him in his tracks for a moment, controlling himself, when Katherine called his name. She sounded panicked, strained.
And then the screaming began.