AN: Three chapters left in this story and series. Can't believe this story is coming to and end, but it is and needs to. Not because I don't like writing this story any more, but because I think it's at the point that it should wrap up and I'm way too busy with work. I promise you this story will get finished it just may take some time. Thank you so much for reading as always. Make sure to leave a review.
CHAPTER 12: LET THE BATTLE RAGE ON
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Elena peered out of Damon's office window. The sky illuminated a pink and purple horizon as the sun set in the west. Her eyes scanned the parking lot, the street, and every visible plot of land for movement, yet only the swift motion of an animal was all she could see. "Do you really think she'll come here?"
Damon sat at his desk with his feet up and fumbling with a ball point pen between his fingers. He appeared out of place in his normal clothes behind his desk. A suit and tie was a much better fit for the setting, not to mention he looked absolutely stunning in one. Her mind wondered back to the day they first met.
"If Rebekah is driven enough to make our lives a living hell, then yes." He answered. "She will most definitely show up here. Caroline, Stefan, and Alaric are safe on at our house."
"What about Matt?" She asked panicked.
"Fine, and also with the rest of them." He quickly replied assuring his safety.
Immediate guilt formed in her chest knowing she had almost ended his innocent life. Out of everyone, Matt didn't deserve any of this supernatural bullshit. Even Caroline didn't, but at least she knew what she was getting herself into by dating a Salvatore. The thought of feeding on him made her sick, yet starving at the same time. Her new found diet thanks to Damon was not going over well.
"What about the rest of the town or innocent people that get in her way? We can't all protect them too." Elena said cringing at the ache in her stomach and the stinging in her receding gums where fangs desperately wanted to break free.
He flicked the pen on to the desk and sighed, "No, we can't." Damon cleared his throat. "But I don't care about any of them. All I care about is you."
Her expression alone foreshadowed his reaction. Damon sighed loudly, "Look I know her type. She wants something and she won't stay away from what she wants for long." He explained. "Sure she'll probably kill a good dozen people along the way, but she'll get bored and when she does, she'll come looking for us."
Elena honestly hated the thought of that. The thought that people would die because of them, because of her. Blood was on her hands no matter what.
"Drawing her here to my company gives us the upper hand." He continued to reason his plan with her. "If we lure her instead of her luring us, at least we know our surroundings."
"I guess you're right." She spoke licking her lips and turning away from the window.
The blood cravings were getting worst, especially since she specifically was not trying to demolish a human being or a group of them. It had been 12 hours since her and Damon had their chat in the woods and she confessed she was out of control. He promised to help her and wanted to get her back on track once Rebekah was out of the picture, but the longer they waited for it to happen and present itself, the worse she became. Her insides were twisting together. She was reliving previous attacks savoring the thought of drinking all that blood. For Christs sake, she had not only been staring out the window for hours on end to spot her enemy, but also any sign of human life. This was how desperate she had become.
"Damn it, Elena." Damon moaned and got up from his chair.
He went to his mini fridge in his office and withdrew a blood bag. Using his teeth, he pried the taped tube seperating it from the bag and held it out to her. "Drink." He urged. She shook her head denying his offer. "That wasn't a suggestion. Drink it."
"I can't Damon." Elena barked and crossed her arms. "It won't be enough and I'll want more. I can't drink that."
"You'll be fine. I'll be right here." He stroked her hair. "I promise I won't let you lose control again."
The honest truth was she had no idea if she could contain her deep desire and her sudden addiction. Damon was positive he could whip her back into shape in no time or at least for now monitor her erratic behavior, but she would crack. She was fragile, yet not weak. The strength she perserved was busting at the seams. God help the unfortunate soul that crossed her path wrong. However, with her strength came her madness and that madness was stronger than any muscle in her body. Hesitation lingered as she stared at the answer to all her problems. Damon was willingly feeding her addiction, yet in a managable way through his eyes. All she saw was a small catalyst.
"No." Elena pushed the bag away.
"I'm telling you to drink it." Damon ordered letting the dark orbs of his eyes pulsed. This was no compulsion knowing he was unable to do such a thing. It was merely a harsh demand.
With a shaky hand, she snatched it from him and brought her lips around the edge of the tube. Maybe a second or two passed before she sucked in and let the chilled blood stimulate her. Her shaky hand turned stable and crushed the remains of the bag pouring it into her mouth and devouring without even a minute passing. It was good, but not great. It wasn't warm like a humans. It was a tease. This was just a snack, when she wanted the main course.
The empty bag slipped from her hands letting it fall to the ground. When she opened her eyes, she found Damon's mouth instantly attached to hers. His lips moved with hunger. It had completely caught her by surprise and she felt her body falling backwards. His arm caught the smallest part of her back and he scooped her up. His lips parted open and close with great urgency. Bursts of different emotions sparked inside her head and chest. Was this right? At any moment Rebekah could sneak up on them. They weren't alert. They were putting themselves in the worse position possible, at least when it came to defending themselves. Sex wise, they were in the perfect position to go full steam ahead.
"Damon," Elena mumbled between kisses.
Just staggered breaths and the smacking of his lips were the response she got to his name being said. Elena didn't want to stop, but she knew better than to let them get carried away.
"Damon." She said forcefully pushing him away.
"You want to play rough?" Damon suggested arching his eyebrow.
"What are you doing? Distracting me?" Elena asked.
He shook his head. "Can't a guy want his wife, in his office, on his desk." He casually stated.
"Damon." She shouted not sounding the least bit amused.
No longer wearing his sexy smirk and lustful eyes, Damon sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He looked defeated and licked his lips.
"Yes, I was distracting you." Damon admitted. "I didn't want you think about wanting more blood so I did the only thing I knew."
"Even at a time like this, you're still thinking with your dick?" She chuckled.
And the smirk was back. "Always baby."
The distraction may have upset her only slightly. There could have been worse ways to make her not concentrate on the blood. What would she do without him? He always knew how to calm her down even when she felt like she was about to explode. However, his attempt wouldn't keep her mind cleared for long. The thought and smell of it was fresh and she could feel herself drifting. It was Damon's sudden movement that kept her from spiraling down again.
"What is it? Is it Rebekah?" Elena panicked.
It didn't take an answer from him to confirm what had caused him to bolt to the huge glass window of his office. As she looked down as the sun set was nearly past the horizon and the night sky began to take over, she gasped. A tiny sea of what looked to be people walked toward them down on the ground level. Some limped, some hunched, whlie others held their heads high. The closer she looked at them and examined their odd behaviors and demeanors, it became clearer of what she was seeing. These weren't people. They were once, but now they were vampires.
"You've got to be kidding me." Damon groaned.
"Please tell me those aren't all the people I fed off of." Elena closed her eyes.
With just enough natural light left, she recognized some faces of those she had found lying on the brink of death before she devoured them dry. The blood she had just drank felt like it was coming up and fast. She never got sick before after drinking blood, but right now she wanted to never taste human blood again. All those people now marching toward Salvatore Corporations were once dead because of her. She had killed them because she couldn't help herself. Now they had all turned, meaning they all had vampire blood in their system before they died.
"Oh my God." Elena exclaimed and backed away from the window. Her shock turned to anger and she lunged back at the window before Damon stopped her. "I want to kill her!"
"Elena, stop!" Damon shouted.
"No. No." She thrashed in his hold. "I did exactly as she wanted. I lost control and look, look Damon!" She smacked her hand on the glass. "I killed those people. They shouldn't be walking around, but they are! Rebekah knew I wouldn't stop. She must have fed them her blood before I got to them. She knew! Damn it!"
For a brief instance, she caught sight of him before staring back down at the mess she had created. Conflicted emotions shined in his blue eyes. He tried to hide it by putting on a facade, but he was only fooling himself by doing so. She knew he was worried. The realization of how serious and how dangerous Rebekah was finally was setting in for him. And all this time they thought her brother, Klaus had been the bad egg of the Mikaelson family, when really it was Rebekah. Behind her classic beauty and cocky attitude, she was one crazy bitch.
"Oh I'm so ready to end this." Elena uttered and broke free from his hold.
"Me too, but we need to be smart." Damon suggested.
"Nah, I just want to kill her. It's that simple." She responded.
"Trust me, I'm done playing nice too." He agreed. "But we can't just run in there."
Elena turned around. "Why not?" She argued. "Why do we need a plan? These are newborns. They don't know what they are capable of yet. We can take them."
A chill crawled down her spine as the words left her mouth. Who was this girl? She didn't know her, but she was sure speaking for her. Every day she was still surprising herself. It was almost hypocritical to say the newborn vamps were unaware of their capabilities, when she was still discovery her strengths and weaknesses. Her rendering thoughts were noticed by Damon.
"I can't lose you again." Damon grabbed either side of her face.
"You won't." Elena whispered. "I promise."
"And I promise you that when this is all over, I'm going to give you everything you ever deserved." He exhaled.
Love consumed them both. He radiated it for her and never failed to show it. Elena smiled genuinely leaning in to kiss him one last time before God knows what they were about to head into. A battle, a war, a massacre. They were all fitting descriptions, but none seemed right. The only thing she knew was this wasn't going to end peacefully. For just a second she let herself worry and then she tossed it away.
"You ready?" Damon asked.
She nodded her head.
Expecting to go dashing out the door and flying down a few flights via the elevator, she was alarmed when Damon didn't head for the door. Instead, he picked up a heavy object off his desk and curled his fingers around it.
"What is that for?" Elena questioned his action.
"This." He hurled the object at the window with as much force he could throw behind it. As it hit the window, the glass cracked and shattered falling down on to the carpet of his office floor, while the rest trickled down the outside of the building.
Her mouth hung open in awe and confusion. "Element of surprise." Damon smirked. "Take my hand."
"Why?" She asked hesitantly.
"Do you trust me?" Damon stood in front of her.
"Yes." Her reply was abrupt, but not alarming. She did trust him and more than she ever thought she would.
His hand gripped hers and he took off running. Her body naturally followed and she felt herself propelling out of his office, through the shattered window and out into the young night. Gravity pulled them down and she felt air rushing past her at a million miles per minute. Damon's hand never once let go of her and when they both landed on their feet like two cats, she finally breathed again. This was definitely an element of surprise. Who would of thought of breaking a window and jumping out of it right before an attack? Only a vampire, who knew he could land on his feet ready for action would.
Once finding their balance, they braced themselves for the large group of baby vamps, who were on high alert of what just happened. Their hisses filled the air as they ran toward them. This was going to happen fast and ugly. Elena prepared herself. This sort of kill was necessary. This wasn't like before. She may have been a part of this problem, but she sure knew how to solve it.
"Don't turn your back." Damon advised her.
"She's not here." Elena remarked noticing she still did not see Rebekah anywhere. She had sent her minions to do her dirty work for her. It seemed wrong knowing how bad Rebekah wanted to do it herself, so she could only assume it was a distraction.
"Not yet." He responded and drove his hand in to the chest of a speedy vampire who charged at him. A messy, bloody heart was withdrawn and the vampire fell to the ground to desicate.
Throughout her life she had witnessed horrible things, but it wasn't until recently had she witnessed the true evils on this Earth. Completely horrified and yet impressed by Damon, she turned her attention to a young girl, who looked wild and lost. She was too quick for her to make an immediate kill, so too use her ability to speed up. Darting out of the girls way, she halted hissing at her.
"Please forgive me." Elena mumbled and shot her arm out as the girl leaped forward. Her hand broke through a fleshy wall, while scraping some hard grooved surfaces she assumed were the girl's bones before she found the thumping muscle. It was slimy and warm. Thinking about it for too long grossed her out, and so she retracted her arm backwards pulling out the heart with it. It pulsed in her hand for ten seconds before it gave out. The once mobilized girl looked shocked seeing her heart out of her body and instantly went pale before tumbling down and losing all signs of life. Elena shuddered at the murder she had just conducted, but tossed the heart to the side and continued to not let her humanity get the best of her.
Meanwhile, out of the corner of her eyes she saw Damon throwing people to the ground and killing them without mercy. Just when she thought they were winning, more people turned vampires appeared.
"You've got to be kidding me." She moaned.
There was no way she had helped Rebekah out this much, but maybe she had. Those few days she had gone on a rampage were hazy and there was so much blood on her hands that she had lost track of every body she sucked dry. She had to keep telling herself this wasn't her fault. Not all of it.
"Elena!" Damon shouted.
Snapping out of her trance, she tripped backwards as a newborn vampire tackled her.
Damon growled at the sight of some burly looking man trying to hurt her. He knew Elena was capable of defending herself, but it still hurt to watch. They tumbled and threw their arms around before she got the her chance to end him. He breathed out knowing she be okay.
"Don't worry. They won't kill her." The familiar voice murmured behind him.
"Wondered when you show up." He remarked turning around to face her.
Her long blonde hair fell past her shoulders. The corners of her mouth were turned up in a cocky smile that he was to smack off her face. It was time for this bitch's reign to end and it would be tonight.
"Can't say they won't try to kill you." Rebekah continued to talk. "My only request was to not kill Elena. She's mine. As for you, sorry love. Looks like its time to say goodbye."
"The only way that is going to say goodbye is you." Damon spat.
Rebekah laughed as they circled one another trying each to get the upper hand. While he was a veteran with more experience, her youth made her agile and unpredictable. She was truly insane and it rubbed out in her nature as a vampire. It made her move like no other vampire he had ever seen. Her confidence that she would be the one walking away from this in the end disturbed and it made him even more determined to kill her.
"Why?" A poor girl, no older than sixteen whined a few feet away from her. Elena watched as the girl hunched over and on the verge of tears stared her down. Visibly upset, she was also in a state of rage and ready to combust.
"I saw every thing." Her voice went low and she lunged at her.
Two hands were on her shoulders and Elena did the same in return trying to push her away. She was averagely strong and she knew she could take her down easily, but her outcries distracted her. The five people she had already killed didn't say a single thing, not until this girl. It was like she had seen a ghost. Confliction arose in the girl's eyes.
"Why did you kill me?" The girl asked in the saddest voice.
All her intentions to rip her heart out disappeared. Elena continued to force the girl away, but pulled back some of her strength. This poor girl just wanted answers. She had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Rebekah found her. And she had been in an even more wrong place when she stumbled upon her bleeding body. Her humanity was unstoppable in this moment. Guilt, regret, and remorse all bundled into one. She didn't mean to kill her. She didn't mean for someone so young and innocent to awake to such confusion. Her best bet was to end it for her and put her out of her misery, but she just couldn't. Elena felt for the girl.
As Damon and Rebekah continued to take turns showing off who was stronger unintentionally, he saw Elena fighting off a girl not that much younger than her. "Kill her." Damon ordered hoping his voice would carry over to her. However, whether she heard it or not, Elena stood there losing her stance and appearing distraught.
"Looks like your girl isn't so tough after all." Rebekah yanked his arm behind his back. "I told her to turn it off, but she didn't listen and look how it's doing for her now."
And then it happened. It wasn't the small girl messing with Elena's emotions that had his heart crushed, but it was a middle aged guy who snuck up behind her and twisted her head sharply to the side. Damon heard her spine snap and watched as her body went lifeless. The guy smiled and looked around trying to find something or someone. Right away he knew he was searching for Rebekah. He had been the one to fulfill her request. Injure Elena and leave the rest for her. Not today, not never.
"Perfect." Rebekah cooed behind.
Like a pot with hot water about to boil over the edges, he too snapped. He pulled his arm out of her hold and lost it. He went blind with rage. For the first time in their days of battle and torture, he saw fear in Rebekah's eyes as he mimicked what he had just saw. Taking both his hands, he grabbed the side of her head and whipped it to the side. Her eyes closed and she fell downward. It wasn't death, but it was a temporary time out.
