12. Trust

Bonnie was limp in his arms and Damon twisted his mouth as he looked at her. Weren't these witches supposed to be on her side? Surely they wouldn't have... "Bonnie. Bonnie."

He shook her, but gently, and to his utmost relief she stirred, murmuring something. "Emily..."

"Bonnie," he said again. "Come on. Wake up."

She took her time with it, stirring again but with her eyes still closed, until finally she frowned, blinking, and her eyes focused on him. He stood up, picking her up with him, and Bonnie automatically clutched at his shoulder to balance herself.

"Damon..."

"Right here. You okay?"

"Yeah... I..."

"Feeling witchier?"

She'd better not answer that by using one of her vampire headache tricks, he thought. He was being exceptionally nice to her right now. But Bonnie only nodded, expression clearing.

"My powers weren't gone. They were blocked."

"So are they unblocked?"

She nodded slowly.

"Good." He pulled her to her feet, brushed away some of the dust from her sleeves since he was such a barrel of favours today, and glanced around, conscious that the dead witches who lurked around here were really not his biggest fans.

"Wait," said Bonnie. "There's more."

He raised his eyebrows.

"They didn't just give me my powers. They let me channel their powers. And something else too."

Well, it looked like this little trip had turned out to be more useful than he had anticipated. "What?"

"They gave me the power to kill Klaus."


Elena hadn't realized how tightly coiled her body had been over the last few days. She'd been living on a knife edge, constantly worrying, and with only Elijah to turn to for news. There was still plenty to worry about, as she discovered when she told him about Isobel, but she was no longer helpless. This time, she wasn't alone. She and Elijah would face their problems together.

"I believe that your mother is working for Klaus," he told her.

That made her shiver. It meant that Klaus knew where she was.

"Should we leave?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Isobel found us once. No doubt she could do so again. Klaus and his witches will see to that."

"How can you be sure that he has witches?"

"Klaus always has witches. One of them is a young woman called Greta Martin."

Elena caught her breath. "Martin... as in..."

He nodded. "Jonas' daughter. The Martins wish to save her from Klaus. I've agreed to reunite them once Klaus is gone."

So the Martins were fighting for the sake of their family too. Elena bit her lip, remembering how her friends had kidnapped Luka in an attempt to rescue her. The fury on Jonas Martin's face... Of course, he'd do anything to save his family. Just as she would. Just as Elijah would.

"When Isobel reappears, I'll be waiting for her," Elijah went on. "I won't let her take you to Klaus, Elena. Not until we're ready."

"But I need to stay here, as bait."

He nodded, and Elena leaned back on the couch, sighing. She saw the sense in his plan – the easiest way to get hold of Isobel was to set a trap for her – but she missed her family terribly, and she was bored of this house. With the curtains all shut, dark and enclosed, she felt more stifled than ever.

"You don't have to be a prisoner," said Elijah softly. "Here, let me remove your compulsion."

It was a minute but precise change: he caught her gaze and suddenly every line of his body focused on her, though he had barely moved. It was as though for a moment in his eyes nothing else existed, and she knew how easy it would for those eyes to ensnare her completely, to hold her captive more surely than any walls or chains; but Elena had the vervain. She wasn't afraid. She wouldn't have been even without it, she realized, because this could not be more different to his last failed attempt to compel her.

"Wait," she said.

He blinked.

"There's something I forgot to tell you. Isobel gave me vervain."

She leaned down, breaking their eye contact, hair falling over her face as she drew the tiny sprig of vervain from its hiding place: in her sock. The plastic wallet was crumpled, but it had done its job in keeping the vervain preserved. Elena straightened up again, brushing back her hair to find Elijah watching her, amused.

She shrugged. "I thought my pocket was too obvious. Here." She offered the vervain to him, unable to keep her hand from trembling. "I'm trusting you, Elijah. That you're telling the truth, that you'll keep your word. With everything."

His gaze turned serious again. "You won't regret it."

He took the vervain, his fingers cool when they brushed her palm, and leaned forward. Elena shivered. She had just willingly not only placed her life in his hands, but also her free will. That was something she had not even done with Stefan; Stefan had wanted her to wear the necklace so that she could always be sure that the choices she made were her own. With Elijah, she didn't have that certainty. She only had his word.

His eyes bored into her, and Elena was powerless to resist.

"You are free to leave this house," Elijah murmured.

She found herself hypnotized, repeating his words. "I can leave this house."

Then something in her mind shifted, and it was like remembering somebody's name after her mind had been stubbornly blank: she remembered the compulsion. It flashed through her head, clear as day: in the house with Rose and Trevor, Elijah questioning her about the moonstone. Then just before they left to collect the Gilbert journals, he'd stopped her at the door, placed a hand on her shoulder and forbade her to harm herself. Finally, when they'd returned, he had compelled her to remain inside the house.

That was it. He'd unlocked all her memories, freed her from all previous compulsion. Elena blinked, coming out of her trance as Elijah abruptly stood up.

"Excuse me for a moment."

He disappeared, leaving Elena confused, but grateful for the brief respite. She needed to gather her thoughts. She stretched, paced around, went over to the window again and pulled the curtain open to look outside. She had to squint to adjust to the light, but it wasn't the landscape that interested her. It was enough to feel the sun on her face.

She wondered how her mother could have fallen into Klaus's hands in the first place. Had Isobel cared enough about her to go and try to stop him herself? No, she couldn't believe that. Isobel didn't care. She'd come to Elena with empty promises, and the most awful thing was that briefly, Elena had wondered if there might be some truth to them. She should have known there wasn't. Maybe Isobel wouldn't even care that she was compelled to betray her own flesh and blood.

Elena sighed, her breath misting against the glass. If Isobel had encountered Stefan or Damon... Or John, more likely. If they were working together... That meant Klaus was manipulating them from afar, and she and Elijah would have to counter that. But how could she convince her friends that Elijah could be trusted?

"Elena."

She turned to see that Elijah had come back; he walked over, carefully avoiding the strip of light and stopped in front of her.

"I thought you might prefer to wear this."

She saw a glint of gold; he was holding her necklace. Elena found herself smiling. She hadn't expected to ever get it back again. "Thank you."

He held it out to her, then paused. "I'm trusting you."

He didn't need to elaborate. Elena understood at once, and nodded firmly. "You won't regret it."

She took the necklace and lifted to fasten it around her neck, frowning as she struggled with the clasp. It was so fiddly, and she couldn't see; her fingers slipped over the clasp several times, but it wouldn't lock together.

Elijah raised his eyebrows slightly. "May I?"

She pursed her lips and nodded. He took the necklace, moving silently as a shadow behind her. Elena brushed her hair out of the way and felt his fingers ghost over her collarbone as he drew the necklace up around her neck. She suddenly realized that she had exposed her throat to him. He was right there, at her shoulder, the curve of her neck mere inches from his face.

The correct reaction was fear, anxiety, hesitation – something. Elena felt her heart beat faster, but not out of fear. She looked down, touched the pendant at her neck.

"Is it stupid of me to feel safe with you?"

"No." Elijah fastened the necklace and adjusted it so that its placement was exactly symmetrical, the fastening hidden at the back of her neck. There was something very fastidious about the way he did it, almost like a butler. He stepped back, his tone wry. "I was the foolish one for feeling safe with you."

When he put it like that, she kind of liked the idea. That a teenage girl and a thin blade of metal could inspire fear in an all-powerful Original. She turned and smiled at him.

"Well, you didn't know that we had the dagger."

"You realize that Klaus sent it, don't you?"

She frowned. "Klaus? But – John gave the dagger to Damon."

"And where did John get it?"

"From Isobel... Oh. He sent Isobel with the dagger." That was why Elijah suspected that she was working for Klaus. Elena shook her head as realization dawned. "We were playing into his hands all along."

"Klaus plans ahead."

"Does he plan for failure?"

Elijah paused to consider this. "Perhaps I should rephrase. Klaus is an impulsive mind. As soon as he learns that you are in my possession, he will adjust his strategy accordingly."

She raised an eyebrow at his wording. "Yeah, well, there are a few other things not in your possession. Like the moonstone. Damon won't give it up easily. I could try and persuade him, but he won't listen to me if he thinks I'm being compelled by you."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'll do the persuading."

There was a faint hint of amusement in his voice that told her exactly what sort of persuasion Elijah intended. Refined as Elijah was, he was still a vampire, and violence tended to be their first resort. She'd seen Stefan and Damon do that often enough. But the longer they were at odds, the harder it would be to ever get them to listen. She doubted that they would listen to Elijah at all. And if they thought that she was his puppet...

"I have an idea," she said. "How about we arrange an escape?"


"So basically my mom subscribes to the Buffy theory of vampire evil," Caroline finished. Stefan had become her outlet for her vampire-related crises. She wasn't sure when that had happened, but he was a damn good listener. "She – she thinks we have no souls. Do we have souls, Stefan?"

They were eating lunch in the school cafeteria, and since there was no such thing as a quiet corner in a school cafeteria, Caroline simply blocked out the noise and the clattering of her fellow students and spoke in as low a voice as she could, so as not to attract attention.

She had come to school despite her fear of Katherine's presence because she was no safer at home – less safe, she thought, since she would be alone – and because she wanted to look out for Matt. Stefan had come to make sure that they were all okay, since it turned out that Katherine had actually killed someone already, only it was Alaric and he got better. He'd found a distraught Caroline and even though she knew he must be desperately worried about Elena, he still made time to talk to her.

After her encounter with Damon, Caroline was grateful that Stefan was such a good friend.

He raised his eyebrows. "Well, that depends what you mean by soul."

"I don't know. Whatever makes me, me, I guess."

"You don't think that you're you right now?"

She sniffed, managing a smile. "I guess with all that heightened emotion stuff, I'm kind of more me."

"Terrifying thought, huh?"

"Definitely. I mean... I screw up everything. So now that I'm a vampire, I just screw up everything more. Do you think it was dumb of me to tell my mom about Katherine? It was, wasn't it?"

"I think you did what you thought best under the circumstances," said Stefan.

She shook her head. At least he was being diplomatic about it. Caroline appreciated that. "Well, I'm glad you're okay. I really thought that you wouldn't make it..." She ran a hand through her hair and heaved a sigh. "What are we gonna do?"

He sighed too. "I don't know. Katherine wants us to try and make a deal with Elijah..."

"You're not gonna listen to her, are you?"

"I don't trust her, but... She defected to Elijah because she didn't think he could be beaten. You can't beat 'em, join 'em. If that's her thinking... She has a point."

"Maybe Elijah won't kill Elena," said Caroline, trying to think positively. "Maybe he's going to use the dagger now that he has it, so he only needs Elena to draw Klaus out. He hasn't killed you yet, has he? And I bet he could have. Maybe he doesn't want anyone to die."

Stefan gave her a look. "I'm not sure keeping anyone else alive is high up on his list of priorities, Caroline..."

"Then what are his priorities?"

"All we know is that he wants to kill Klaus."

"Yeah! Which is exactly what we want to do, right? Maybe we just need to take a step back and think of something that won't make him want to kill us."

"So you agree with Katherine."

She paused, surprised. "Yeah, actually, I do. But do it your own way."

He considered for a moment before nodding. "It's worth a try. In the meantime, can you keep an eye on your mom? She might try something with Katherine... I don't want her getting hurt."

Of course, Caroline had intended to do that anyway, so she agreed at once. They parted ways, and though she knew that nothing had yet been solved, she felt a little better anyway. Stefan was here. He could make things okay.


It turned out that Elena was full of good ideas. As she outlined her plan to Elijah, he found himself watching her admiringly. She was not only quick-thinking and determined, she was smart. Her plan was to trick everyone into thinking that she had escaped by herself. She would return to the Salvatore brothers alone, and tell them that Isobel had given her vervain and she had taken the opportunity to escape while Elijah was occupied elsewhere. To make this story more convincing, he preferably ought to be elsewhere in view of one of her friends, so that they could corroborate her story. They could then pretend to negotiate afresh without anyone thinking that she had been compelled.

"Are you comfortable with deceiving your friends?" he asked.

They were having coffee and cake at this point, courtesy of Mrs Roberts, and Elena sipped her coffee, frowning.

"I don't like lying to them, but I will if I have to. They went behind my back when they tried to kill you. They'll understand it's for the best."

They were interrupted by his phone buzzing. Elena raised her eyebrows at him, but Elijah excused himself with a murmured apology. He retreated into the hallway before answering.

"Katerina," he said. "I hope you're about to tell me that you've found the moonstone."

"No," was the reply, and for a moment he wondered at how she had the exact same voice as Elena, yet the pair of them sounded completely different, "but I have the next best thing. Stefan wants to arrange a meeting with you. Of course, he wants it to be a public place, but you can question him all you like about the moonstone."

"I see. Well, in that case you can inform him that Carol Lockwood is hosting one of her many social functions at the Lockwood mansion tomorrow. I hope to see him there."

"Understood."

She was making a fair effort at being civil. Elijah almost believed that she was sincere. He knew it chafed at her to be given orders. Most vampires were the same, especially the older ones; they were used to being at the top of the pecking order. They learned their lesson when Elijah came along. He smiled to himself.

"While we're arranging meetings, I'd like to see you there too, Katerina."

There was a pause. "Is that necessary?"

"Yes, it is."

She caught the warning hint in his voice and didn't protest. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll look forward to it."

He slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket and returned to Elena, who looked up at him curiously.

"Was that Jonas?"

He shook his head. "That was Katerina."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, he saw; she still wasn't used to thinking of her vampire ancestor by that name, and of course she hadn't expected it. But when it did, her mouth fell open. "Katherine? She's out of the tomb?"

He explained the situation, and Elena looked alternately horrified and annoyed.

"I can't believe she just waltzed in and took over my life... She's living in my house, with Jenna and Jeremy and John. And being with Stefan..."

"She won't hurt them. I told her only to watch."

Elena looked at him. "You don't believe that she's going to keep this deal, do you? You can't trust Katherine. She only looks out for herself."

"Oh, I know. In fact, I'm counting on it," said Elijah. The moment she broke her word, he would kill her, and relish every moment of it.

Elena sighed. "Good. She had Damon and Stefan wrapped around her finger in the past, and..." She paused, her expression flickering. It wasn't hard to guess why: he'd told her about obtaining the elixir for Katerina. Once upon a time, he'd fallen under her spell too.

"You needn't worry," said Elijah lightly. "Katerina has no hold over me."

Elena nodded, and to his relief he was spared from having to continue this particular train of thought by the arrival of Jonas and Luka. Elijah heard their car pull up and glanced towards the door. Elena saw his reaction, but of course she didn't know what had alerted him.

"The Martins are here," he explained, and soon enough both witches were sitting in the living room; Jonas passed him a pre-spelled ring and he slipped it on as Luka threw open the curtains, filling the room with light. Elena had seated herself next to him, closer than usual. She seemed wary of Jonas in particular, and it was not hard to guess the reason for the tension between them: Jonas was not happy with the lengths Elena's friends had gone to in their attempts to rescue her.

But he had given his word to Elena that he would spare her friends, and the Martins would simply have to accept that.

"We found the burial ground," said Jonas. "Luka and I already paid a visit."

That caught Elijah's attention. "And?"

Luka glanced at his father, who hesitated. "It worked. We channelled the witches' power. Either one of us could take down Klaus."

He was omitting something, Elijah could tell. "No incidents? Problems?"

"We had a few difficulties," Jonas admitted. "You can't just take the power from a hundred dead witches, you have to ask for it. They were less than happy at the fact that I had blocked another witch's powers."

Elena looked confused. "Blocked another witch's powers?"

He turned his gaze on her, at once intense and disapproving. "I blocked Bonnie's powers so that she couldn't find you."

"What happened?" Elijah asked. If the spirits of the witches had forced Jonas to return Bonnie's powers, that would present him with an entirely new problem. He hadn't been concerned with Bonnie previously. Though she had been involved with Luka's kidnapping, it was the vampires who had done all the dirty work.

"I made it very clear how important this was," Jonas said. "In the end, it worked. It just took longer than expected."

"Then you're ready to proceed," said Elijah, and both witches nodded. He stood up. "If I need you before the full moon, I'll call. Until then."

He held out his hand, a clear dismissal. Jonas shook it, though with a frown, and then Luka. Elena watched in silence as they said their goodbyes. Once they had gone, Elijah regarded her with a faint smile.

"Would you like to get some air?"

She nodded eagerly. Outside, the sun beckoned.


Naturally, the first thing on Damon's mind after Bonnie got her powers back was finding Elena. He'd wanted her to do a spell right there and then, but she'd given him a look, saying that she needed to prepare first. A locator spell required some item belonging to the person they wanted to find, or else a willing blood relative like Jeremy.

"I'll go find him," she said, and they went their separate ways, which suited Damon fine as he had a little preparing to do of his own. He was running low on vervain. There was some left at the boarding house and he wasn't about to let it go to waste.

When he reached the boarding house, however, he was surprised to find Andie waiting for him. She smiled and trotted up to embrace him, looking incredibly relieved.

"Damon! I was worried about you."

Well, he could spare five minutes. He buried his head into her neck, resisting the impulse to bite her right there. "Mmm... Come inside."

She took his arm, talking about how she'd tried to call him, how she'd even started to wonder if he was missing, and Damon checked that she hadn't in fact tried to act on her concerns before he pressed her against the wall, compelled her worries away and sank his fangs into her throat.

After everything that had happened recently, he needed that. She was warm, and he could feel the erratic beat of her heart as he drank, savouring the freshness of her blood. Blood bags just didn't compare. He made a satisfied sound against her throat as she whimpered.

"Damon–"

"Who's the snack?"

His head shot up at once in the direction of the voice while Andie sagged against him. Damon scowled, showing his teeth. Katherine was watching him pointedly, one hand on her hip, a smirk on her beautiful, hateful face.

"She's pretty. Can I share?"

He willed his fangs to retract. "No, Katherine, you can't."

"Isn't that Elena?" Andie murmured, though she looked dozy from the blood loss. Damon curled his arm around her protectively.

"Go clean yourself up," he told her, and she left, dabbing a hand to the wound on her neck.

Only when she had gone did he fold his arms and stare at Katherine. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. Where were you?"

"None of your business."

She gave an elegant shrug. "Fine, be that way. Elijah's going to be at the Historical Society event at the Lockwoods' tomorrow."

"Oh, really?"

"Stefan's going."

He gave her a hard look. Katherine was playing some game here, and he wasn't going to give anything away until he found out what it was. If Stefan was going, his brother would tell him. So what was Katherine doing here?

"Your point?"

She twisted a lock of hair – curly, Katherine had evidently gotten bored of Elena's hairstyle – between her fingers. "I know you're the one who hid the moonstone. If you want to save your miserable lives, maybe you should go too. Make him an offer."

"Or maybe you're just saying that because Elijah wants me there so that he can stab me with a pencil until I squeal."

She smiled. "Keep trying to figure me out, Damon. We both know I'm always several steps ahead of you."

He hated how true that was. He stared at her, fists clenched, and the overwhelming urge to wipe the smug look off her face was too strong. In a flash, Damon slammed her against the wall. Katherine laughed, her eyes glinting, and then he was flat on his back and she was straddling him, every wicked curve of her body making him react in ways he knew he would regret.

She pinned down his arms when he tried to shove her off him, leaned right in so that her lips were practically touching his. "You know you can't beat me," she whispered.

"Get off me," he snarled, and she sat up, though her legs were still locked around his hips. She was looking down the hallway; Damon twisted his head and groaned. Of course Andie had chosen this moment to return.

Andie paused, raising her eyebrows. "Am I interrupting something?"

Oddly, she didn't sound jealous. He felt stupidly annoyed that she didn't sound jealous.

"No," said Katherine, sounding completely unconcerned. "I was just telling Damon that I'm looking forward to seeing him at the Lockwoods' tomorrow."

"Oh, the Historical Society thing," said Andie. "I'd say it sounds fun, but... I wouldn't be covering it if it wasn't my job. Which tomorrow, it isn't, thank God."

"Lucky you," said Katherine. She stood up in one swift movement, releasing him, but Damon barely had time to lift his head and brace his hands against the carpet floor before Katherine grinned, waved them goodbye, and disappeared. God.

"Are you okay?" Andie asked, coming over to help him up.

He stared at her and swallowed. "You. Shower. Now."


Bonnie swept aside the rug in her bedroom to reveal a pentagram drawn in chalk on the floorboards beneath it.

"Do you want me to get the candles?" Jeremy asked. He was staring down at it with his arms folded.

"Yep," Bonnie replied briskly. She stood up to fetch a bowl of water and placed it in the middle of the pentagram while Jeremy lit the candles arranged around the edge. He did so with none of his usual interest; in fact, he was pointedly not looking at her. Bonnie sighed. "You're still mad at me."

"Yeah, I am. Anything else?"

"No..." She bit her lip. "Jeremy, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kept you in the dark. I'm involving you in what's going on now, right?"

He sat down inside the pentagram and held out his wrist to her. "Yeah, but only because you need my blood. I know how this works by now."

She couldn't argue. There was still one thing she hadn't told him – hadn't told anyone. Thanks to the spirits of the witches, she had the power to kill Klaus. She knew with absolute certainty that she could take him out. There was just one problem.

Bonnie wasn't going to survive it.

Jeremy was frowning at her, dark and brooding, and she made herself snap out of it.

"A drop will do," she said. "Just a pinprick."

There were three objects around the bowl of water: a bracelet that belonged to Elena, a scrap of notepaper written in Elena's hand, and a pincushion. She chose a pin and took Jeremy's hand, holding it over the bowl of water. He looked at her and nodded, giving his silent consent.

Klaus was somewhere in the future. Elena was missing right now, and that was all she needed to think about. Maybe there were some things she and Jeremy would never agree on, but she knew that he would do this to save his sister. She touched the sharp pinpoint to Jeremy's index finger and pressed until a bright drop of blood formed around it. Jeremy winced, but made no sound.

They both watched the drop of blood slide down Jeremy's finger and spill into the water. Bonnie let go, satisfied, and curled Elena's bracelet and the notepaper into each hand instead.

"No map this time?" Jeremy asked, unable to stifle his curiosity.

"Elijah's still in town," she replied. "So Elena is probably somewhere nearby. A map isn't precise enough. I want to see exactly where she is."

"And you can do that with a bowl of water?"

"It's not just a bowl of water," said Bonnie, watching as the ripples faded and the water became still again. "It's a mirror."

She bent her head over the water, concentrating, and Jeremy had the sense not to disturb her. For a few seconds, Bonnie saw only her own reflection staring back at her. She tightened her hands around Elena's belongings, thinking of her friend, willing the mirror to show her where Elena was. The more she stared, the deeper the water seemed to get. The image in the water became unfocused; she felt as though there was something beneath it, if only she could pull it to the surface.

There was something. A dark shape in the foreground... Much too blurred to make anything out. It was like focusing a lens. The image came to the surface and Bonnie felt as though she was looking into another world behind the mirror: the depth and clarity of the image was disturbingly real. Elena was walking along a garden path, accompanied by a strange man in a suit. Bonnie's stomach dropped. That must be Elijah. She had never actually seen him, but he fit Stefan's description.

The sun was beginning to set behind them. Apart from that, the image was far too close for Bonnie to get any real sense of their location. Elena's demeanour was strange; she looked comfortable, almost relaxed, and she even looked up and smiled at her captor when he said something that seemed to amuse her. Elijah had compelled her then. But at least she was alive and unharmed.

"Do you see anything?" Jeremy asked, almost breaking her concentration.

"I see her," Bonnie whispered, frowning, "but I can't tell where she is... Wait."

She tried again, now that she had a fix on Elena, willing the mirror to show her where Elena was in relation to herself. This was much harder to control; usually, Bonnie got only flashes, fleeting glimpses of images, but that was what the water was for. Using the element as a tool, she should be able to direct it as she wanted.

A rush of images followed: Elena and Elijah in the garden, sweeping back to reveal an old but well-kept house, then fields, trees; she recognized the countryside around Mystic Falls. An empty road; a sign saying 'Welcome to Mystic Falls'; a garage; a stray cat nosing around a car park; and finally a cross section of streets, including her own. The images flashed back again in reverse order and she understood the directions.

Finally, Bonnie sighed and looked up to find Jeremy watching her anxiously.

She smiled. "I found her."