Chapter 14

As Damon drove, his irritated nerves plagued him. Driving with his right hand, he let his left scratch at the crotch of his jeans. He tried not to be conspicuous about it, since Elijah was sitting in the passenger seat and probably could see out of the corner of his eye what he was doing. Elijah didn't take his eyes off the road ahead.

Damon was also aware of Enzo sitting behind him in the back seat with Bonnie. Under the circumstances, Enzo's presence brought back memories of imprisonment and torture. For several years the Augustine doctors, including a Dr. Whitmore, had done experiments on the vampires, supposedly to find cures for diseases as well as studying what made vampires heal so amazingly. But there had been another side to the situation.

From time to time, special guests were invited to see special entertainment. At the time that Damon was a prisoner, Enzo and one or two other vampires were also there. So was one human after another, none of whom lasted very long. The so-called entertainment might be viewing some surgery, but more often than not, it was a sexual situation. The prisoners each had a separate cell, but two would be chosen to be put in the same cell. They were expected to perform some sexual act, as if they were in a pornography video. Often, the doctors would tell them ahead of time who would be paired with whom and what they were to do in front of the guests.

Initially, Damon had resisted this humiliation, but not for long. It was better than the torture and he hadn't had the strength to put up a fight. He had preferred being the dominant one in these get-togethers, but also had accepted being the submissive one. Because of these various performances, he and Enzo had come to know each other intimately. Memory of this now made him very aware of the other vampire sitting right behind him and he could almost feel him a whole lot closer. What if…?

They quickly came to the center of town, parked and cautiously approached the empty doctor's office. They did not see a car they could attribute to Aaron, although they didn't know what he was driving now. Both Damon and Stefan ran around at vampire speed and touched the hoods of those vehicles that were parked nearby, checking for warm engines, but all were cold.

Enzo, having no intention of going into the basement where he had been a prisoner, guarded the front door. Elijah, Bonnie and Caroline moved around to the back entrance where the plywood door was in place but not secure, since Damon had pulled the pins from the hinges. In a minute, Stefan joined Enzo out front, while Damon joined the others.

Bonnie stood concentrating at the back and finally spoke, "I don't think she's here."

"We still have to check," Damon insisted, although he could not smell any new scent.

In a moment, the door was open and the group entered the basement. Bonnie was right; no one was there. It was a great disappointment, especially to Damon.

"She described balloons and crepe paper streamers and a dance. Could that mean the high school gym?" Bonnie asked her companions. They agreed, left the basement, put the plywood back in place and went around to the front door where they joined Stefan and Enzo and reported their finding.

"We're going to check the high school," Damon said and they went to their vehicles.

"Damon, she might not be there either," Bonnie said as she got into the Camaro. "She sounded very confused. I think she was envisioning high school about four years ago."

"Regardless, she may be there," Damon insisted. "We can't not check."

"Of course. I don't think Aaron went to Mystic High. I don't recall him being there," Bonnie said. "He probably went to some private school." Whitmore College was on the boundary between Mystic county and an adjacent one. She knew he could also have gone to school in a different county.

Mystic Falls' high school and an adjacent middle school (once the junior high) were on the east side of downtown. The two vehicles drove to the street in front of the high school and saw that there was no car there. Damon drove around the block, looking, and finally spotted a car parked in a dark area next to the gymnasium.

"There was a dance here last night," Bonnie said. "The decorations could still be up." She remembered several times when she had been involved with decorating or helping serve refreshments. She had enjoyed dancing, especially with a couple of the boys she had really liked. She also remembered being stalked there by Klaus at one time and by Silas another time. Her last couple of years in high school had been fraught with danger, and she knew the troubles had started when Stefan had moved back to Mystic Falls and Damon had followed him. Added to that was her discovery that she was a witch like her mother and grandmother.

She had not even been able to graduate with her class because of being dead. She had been there in spirit and had watched her friends, those that were left, receive their diplomas. Because Mystic Falls was a magical place, in time, she had been given her life back. Now, a shudder ran through her, violent enough that Elijah asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yes. Just bad memories," she said as Damon parked. "How do you do it, Elijah? Living all these years, suffering one horrible thing or another, and still trying to be optimistic?"

"It is best to tuck those memories away and not dwell on them. However, they do surface from time to time. I myself shudder to think of some of them. I am optimistic only to the extent that I know there will be some pleasant, positive times ahead. Eventually," said the man who seldom smiled and rarely laughed. The past often weighed heavily upon him.

Stefan and Caroline parked close to the front door of the school, but there were many exits Aaron could use. Enzo, who didn't know the school layout at all, hurried around to a side street to watch that area.

"We'll have to try different doors to see if we can get in," Damon said to his two companions. "I don't know how Aaron would get in unless he picks a lock or breaks a window. I'm sure there are security cameras here and there."

With each carrying a weapon Damon and Bonnie went to one door and Elijah went to another. In a minute, the Original found the one that was unlocked and he texted Damon. Mindful of the weapon Aaron likely still carried, Damon and Elijah entered the building. Bonnie hung back at the door, not wanting to be shot at. She didn't have the healing ability the two men had. There was little lighting in the vast place, although some light came from the red Exit signs.

"Smell him?" Damon murmured.

"Yes," Elijah agreed. "Her, too." The scents were weak, but the two vampires were used to it by now. Damon quickly texted Stefan that Aaron was in the gym somewhere.

"There's a light switch here by the door," Bonnie whispered. "Do you want it on?"

"Go ahead," Damon murmured. He was momentarily blinded when several bright lights came on from above.

They saw that the gym was still partly decorated from the dance. There were a few balloons in the air, but most of them, partly deflated, had settled on the floor. Long, colorful crepe paper streamers in the school colors were draped from the high metal catwalks on which lights for sports games were mounted.

When Damon looked up at the decorations, he spotted movement. "Someone is up there," he murmured to those standing close to him. They all looked upward.

"Spread out," Elijah told the others. This now included Stefan and Caroline, who had joined them at the entry and they all moved apart, fearing a blast of gunfire.

"Stay together!" came a voice from above. The people on the floor stopped moving.

"Aaron," Damon sang out, moving slowly out to the middle of the hardwood floor marked for basketball games. "Is that you up there? You still got Elena?" He wondered if he had the strength now to leap up to the catwalk above him. He probably did, but should he?

"You want her, you come get her," came the voice from a different catwalk. The area up there was not lighted like down on the floor.

"What is the point of all this, Aaron?" Damon asked, unable to see the younger vampire because of the glare of the lights shining directly down at him. He worried that the young vampire would drop Elena's body down to the floor, and he feared she didn't have the healing ability she had had as a vampire. Had Kai's spell included healing? It must have to some extent because she didn't have the bruises and small wounds she had initially sustained at the time of the explosion. But what about broken bones?

"You need to be punished for what you did to me and to my family! You're a murderer!"

"I'm a vampire. I kill. You're a vampire now and you have killed innocent people," Damon said as he moved slowly to a different location. He was finally able to see Aaron. A chill ran through him as he saw that Aaron was holding Elena up against his front as a shield.

"You hunted down my relatives specifically! That's different."

"They did really bad things."

"Not all of them. Just a few."

"The others let it happen. It's in the past now, Aaron. Give up Elena and I'll stop coming after you. You can get out of town. Go somewhere where they don't know you and what you are."

"Oh yeah. Sure. You said I could leave safely and then you killed me. I'm not fool enough to believe you again. Especially since all of you are armed. I think I'm not going to get out of here alive."

"You can leave if you hand over Elena. And I don't mean drop her down from up there."

There was a pause, as if Aaron was contemplating his next move.

"Why'd you come here, Aaron? You could have driven away. Why would you come here where you could be trapped? How the hell do you think you can escape?"

"Maybe I don't want to escape."

"What do you mean?"

"I hate being a vampire! Yes, I agreed to it when Enzo told me you were going to kill me if you could. But now I know I would rather be dead than doing what I'm doing."

"If you hate it so much, all you have to do is take off whatever protection you've got and step out into the sunlight. Poof! You'll be gone."

"I don't want to burn to death!"

"It's fast."

"Not fast enough! And the idea makes me sick."

"If you want me to kill you quickly, why have you been running around all over the place, dragging Elena's body with you, evading us at every turn?"

"Isn't that obvious? It's to punish you, Damon! Guess what. I had sex with her. You like that?"

"I don't think you did," Damon said, although he wasn't sure and the idea infuriated him.

"Oh? Why not?"

"I don't think you're the type to molest a basically dead body. Are you, Aaron? Have you sunk that low?"

Again, Aaron didn't answer.

Damon stared up at his opponent and wondered why he hadn't fired the assault rifle. Was he out of ammunition? Or was it that he needed both hands to keep Elena's body shielding his own. If he wanted to die, as he apparently did, why shield himself at all?

Although Elijah, Stefan and Caroline had not moved since Aaron's order, they were actually in positions from which they could likely shoot Aaron with their weapons. The problem was that the slender Aaron was hardly taller than Elena and thus he was mostly hidden, except from behind. And if he were shot from behind, he would surely drop his hostage.

"What do we do now?" Damon called up to the young man. "If you want one of us to kill you quickly, we certainly will oblige you. But first put Elena down on the catwalk so she won't fall."

"Just shooting me won't kill me unless you get me in the heart, vervained bullets or not. Isn't that right?"

"True. You've shot me with wooden, vervained bullets and I'm still here. Put Elena down and one of us will come up there and do it right. It'll be all over in moments."

There was silence again.

"What do you want done with your remains, Aaron? Burial? Cremation?" Damon knew he wanted to take Whitmore body out into sunlight and let it burn up. In fact, if he had his way, he'd take him alive out into the sun and let him burn up.

"Burial. Beside my parents," Aaron finally said. "Someone come up here. One person."

"I'm here, mate," came a voice right behind him. It was Enzo. No one down on the floor had seen him enter and zip up to the catwalks, but they could see him now as he emerged from the shadows. "How about you lay the girl's body down real gentle-like."

"So, it's going to be you, huh? That's okay, Enzo," Aaron said calmly. "You made me; you undo what you did. It's what I want."

"I will, but put her down first."

"Alright. Damon, you want her?"

"Yes."

"Then you catch her." In a blur he turned slightly so that the body was part way over the low rail of the catwalk and he let go. Elena's body sort of cartwheeled downward as Enzo drove a wooden stake into the left side of Aaron's back and into his heart. Death came to the last of the Whitmores quite quickly and his somewhat-shriveled body sank down to the metal catwalk.

Damon dropped his weapon and sprang upward to catch Elena's body as it plummeted toward the floor. He caught it, but very awkwardly. The weight slammed him to the floor with the body on top of him. He managed to keep Elena's face from being smashed on the hardwood, but he had no way yet of knowing what other bone fractures might have occurred.

In addition, he also felt a sharp pain in his back. Like a bolt of lightning, it shot down through his pelvis and his left leg. He reasoned that the piece of bullet irritating his spinal nerves had moved and he hoped that it had made a move away from the nerves. Had the pressure of the body landing on him ruptured his full bladder? he wondered. To confuse the issue, he felt a dampness spreading on his jeans. Was it urine from his own bladder or from that of Elena?

Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie ran to Damon and they carefully lifted Elena from on top of Damon and laid her on the floor on her back. Elijah leaped up to the catwalk to join Enzo checking on Aaron.

With Elena's weight off him, Damon could tell that the urine was his own. He was no longer in urinary retention, but he also could not stop the flow. He got up, turned his back on Bonnie and unzipped. There was not sense in letting all the urine soak him right down into his boots, so he peed onto the glossy gym floor, already scarred from the dance. Someone with the school was going to be upset about the large puddle, but Damon didn't care. He was just happy to get relief, not only from the full bladder, but from the nerve tingling he had had. It was gone.

And of course, he now had Elena safe. He turned his head and saw the others moving her body away from the yellow liquid that was splashing and spreading on the floor. He also saw Elijah and Enzo dropping silently down to the floor, Aaron's body with a stake in the back slung over Enzo's shoulder. So, that was over, too.

In a few minutes, everyone moved outside. They turned off the lights and left the gymnasium in darkness.

"There's a blanket in the trunk of my car," Damon said to Elijah as they walked to the Chevy, and he handed the keys to him. "Put it on the back seat."

Stefan was carrying Elena's body and asked, "How do you want to do this?"

"I'll sit in back on the blanket and hold her. Elijah can drive."

"What about Aaron?" Caroline asked.

"In the trunk."

Elijah retrieved the blanket and Enzo placed Aaron's body in the Chevy's big trunk. With the blanket doubled on the back seat, Damon got in and Stefan handed him Elena's body. He lovingly cradled it, very relieved to have her safe from further harm. He pressed his lips to her cold cheek and tried to ignore the scent of Aaron on her.

Enzo sat in the front passenger seat, while Bonnie squeezed into the back seat with Damon and Elena. Elijah got behind the wheel. Stefan and Caroline returned to the Porsche.

They all returned to the Salvatore house where Damon carried Elena up to the room she used and laid her on the bed. Bonnie, Caroline and Mrs. Flowers said they would take care of her by washing her body and putting clean clothes on her. Elena definitely needed some care for her messy clothes, snarled hair and blotches of dirt on her skin.

Damon left the room and went to his own, where he showered and put on clean clothes. He was pleased that the annoying tingling and other unwanted feelings were gone. He then went downstairs where Stefan, Elijah and Enzo were sitting around drinking.

"Well, you're looking more presentable, mate," Enzo said. "And you smell better, too."

"I feel a whole lot better. Apparently that piece of bullet shifted when I fell on my back and the symptoms I felt are gone," he told the men as he poured himself a drink.

"A considerable relief, I am sure," Elijah said.

Mrs. Flowers came to the door of the study in a few minutes and asked if the group would like to have breakfast in a while and they said they would. Dawn was beginning to brighten the sky, reminding them that a new day had come.

When Bonnie and Caroline came downstairs, they reported that they had Elena all cleaned up and dressed again. They also told Damon that they had examined her body and saw no signs that Aaron had sexually molested her.

Damon remembered to phone the sheriff to tell him that Elena's body had been rescued. He also said that Aaron was dead and suggested that that fact might be kept from the media if possible. The town of Mystic Falls didn't like to advertise that it had vampires running loose and Whitmore college certainly didn't want it known that the last remaining Whitmore had died a vampire/body snatcher.

Damon decided that he would bury Aaron's body in Mystic Falls' old cemetery by the old church's ruins when night came again. None of the Whitmores were buried there, but he didn't care. He didn't feel bound by Aaron's request to be buried with his family.

After a nice breakfast, the group returned Elena's body to her coffin in the Salvatore mausoleum, also in the old cemetery. Elijah stood beside Damon as they stared down at the young woman's pretty face. Apparently, Kai's spell did allow healing, for a couple of marks on the pale skin had disappeared.

"Damon, it is likely that she will lie here for a long time," the Original said. "I know you love her and grieve for what has happened, but you must go on with your life. It is the way of the vampire."

"I know. Wouldn't it be ironic if in that time I died before Bonnie did?"

"Yes."

"I also don't like it that my life depends on Klaus' living."

"I shall try not to kill him."

"Thanks," Damon said and he saw a small smile touch Elijah's lips.

"I shall leave today to return to New Orleans."

"What about your rented car? The seats are ruined with our blood."

"I'll think of something to tell the car rental people. Their insurance should pay for seat replacement."

Damon reached out and stroked Elena's pale forehead. He leaned down and kissed her lips. "I love you," he whispered. When he straightened up, he turned toward the door of the mausoleum. "Let's go, Elijah. I need a drink."

A/N This is the end of the story. I wanted to finish it before the new season starts. I am looking forward to Thursday when both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals start again. I hope you all liked having the Mystic Falls gang, Elijah and Enzo all together in their pursuit of Aaron.