Chapter 14

Elena opened her eyes to find Elijah's arms wrapped like steel around her. They were nose to nose. The eyes that searched hers were darkened with uncertainty.

"It seems you know everything now."

She pushed at his chest, intending only to be able to see him more clearly, but it got her nowhere. The steel of his arms gave not at all, tightening instead, but not enough to injure.

"No, don't pull away, Elena." There was pain there, in his voice.

She laid her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around him again. She closed her eyes thinking of the young man in that battlefield. He had been so young, so hopeful, so certain. Her heart ached for the young man that Elijah had been, lost in time forever. All she would ever know of him now were snippets of memories. So much time he spent waiting, waiting for her, while she was not yet even born. It was so unfair to him, and explained so much. And she wept for that brave young man with blood on his hands and hope in his eyes.

Elijah felt sure that his ribs would crack from the pressure of his heart breaking. His unconscious revelations had frightened her of him at last. Even now he held her as she cried. He had never intended her to know this piece of his history. The fact that he had deceived her about their meeting and his affection for her early on in their acquaintance would be the final straw. She thought he was honorable, honest, but he could not tell her this thing, couldn't tell her years ago when they came together, and would never have told her now. It would be a horror for a young woman to think that some monster had waited lifetimes for her to be born. He didn't want to be that monster. Even if it was true.

Elena had lived under the misconception that their meeting, all that had come before, was chance. But he had known her the moment he drew in her scent. So many others had worn her face. Tatia, Katarina, Anastasia and countless others had littered time with that face and he had at the very least met all of them. At first, he had thought the face would be his answer, but with Tatia, the first, he had found how wrong he could be. She was faithless and fickle. Then Katarina was deceptive and cruel. These were not hearts he could love, so he had kept looking. And the dreams continued, always before a battle. Always she would look at him, appearing lost, and he would melt. She was always so sweet and kind in those dreams that he knew she could not be cruel or faithless.

He began, then, to see that the clothing his lady appeared in had been an indicator to who she was as much as her features and frame. When ladies began to wear pants, as his lady did when she would appear, in the 1920's he had been thrilled. Little did he know then that he had still had another 70 years to wait before she would be born.

The day he met her at last, the dreams had stopped until this one, tonight. Another lie to Elena was that he didn't dream. He hadn't been willing to risk her efforts to see his dreams, rather than just fabricate one for him, for fear of what she'd find. This all now justified his fear.

He had stopped looking, honestly, the day that he had received the message from Trevor and Rose about their attempt to make peace and something he should see. Never had he expected to walk into that old, abandoned house and find his lady there, looking at him with wide frightened eyes. His every instinct that day had been to cart her away, after waiting so long, not for his brother at all, but for himself. When the Salvatores had taken her from him, he had been given time to think through how best to proceed. Force wouldn't get him her heart. He would have to earn that.

And so the dance had begun.

He remembered his horror at the Gilbert lake house when she had sunk a blade into her abdomen to get away from him. He had even dared her to do it, telling her he had to call her bluff. That was a mistake he never made again. After waiting so long, his own horror had echoed in his words, in his actions. His concern for her had nothing to do with Klaus' needs or desires and everything to do with his own. This was how she had so easily slipped under his defenses and sunk that blade into his chest that day.

He learned that day that she was not only lovely and kind, but also had a steel rod for a spine. She had strength that men ten times her size would never be able to match.

His. She was his, damn it.

Elena felt the tension in him increase as she cried. He did not loosen his grip, holding her firmly against his chest. His breathing had stopped altogether. He would forget to breathe sometimes when he was very distressed. She had noticed this about him before only a handful of times. He didn't actually need the breath anymore, as all vampires didn't need it, but it was always unsettling when he would go completely still that way. She wanted to see him, see his eyes, his face, but when she again attempted to push away, he stopped her. He held her head against his shoulder and chest. Her tears had stopped, but he was so upset he wouldn't let her go. She turned her face into his neck, pulling in his warmth and his scent, uncertain how to comfort him. She found his neck warm and damp from her tears and kissed him there, licking away the salt. He moved against her for the first time, gasping in surprise at her lips against his skin.

Fearing this might be the last time such intimacy would happen between them. Elijah bared his heart to her.

Sliding one hand up to cup the back of her head, he groaned. He pulled his head to one side and pressed her there against him, baring his throat for her. He was offering, and she moved without hesitation, kissing a line along his throat to where she could see and sense and smell his jugular pulsing beneath his skin.

Swiftly she opened her mouth wide and sank into him. So many emotions at once swamped her as the rhythm of her heart paused, stuttered and began to match his. Love, pain, shame, frustration and fear all fell in on her at once. It was like standing on the beach during a tidal wave with crest after crest forcing you under and up again for another round. Although they had done this since the night Elijah came after her, for the first time it was as if a window had opened into him, allowing her to see clearly.

Elijah's hips lifted off of the bed as she pulled from the wound. His rumbling groans filled the room as she sank into his heart and his body responded. Without even being aware, he loosened the steel bands that held her to him and writhed beneath her, surrendering completely.

He thought he was a monster and that she would finally recognize it now, too. He thought she would want away from him after seeing that he had lived thousands of years waiting for her, like some dark villain in a horror movie. He had lied to protect the spell his mother had cast, certain of Elena's rejection if she knew that they belonged together and that she hadn't any real choice in the matter. It was fated and unavoidable, even. He also believed she would rebel against that, against him, now that she knew.

She also saw the reason for his withdrawal from her over the last day or so. He was concerned about the coming battle and the lives of her friends and family. Having initiated the battle and drawn the lines, he felt responsible and feared her pain if someone should get hurt because of his failure. With his family, acceptance was always based on performance. Now, with Elena, the stakes seemed higher. He had never gone into a battle feeling he had so much to lose before.

She broke the connection and tipped her head back in the hand that loosely held her against him. Her mouth still red from his blood, she hovered over him, waiting for him to open his eyes. When he did he found her looking at him with tender eyes. She said "This changes nothing, Elijah. Nothing at all. I will never blame you for any what came before, or any of what is to come. We are partners in all of it now. We rise or we fall together tomorrow and every day after. Just as you said so long ago, I am yours." He had gone still, searching her eyes as if he didn't quite dare believe her.

"But I lied to you." He saw something flit across her face then. Pain.

"I know you did, Elijah. And it hurts. But I understand why you did what you did. You just underestimated me, that's all. It's forgiven. Gone. Just that simple." She shrugged. There would be no storing it away for future reference, future use against him. With her words, he knew he would never hear of it again. He had so much to learn from her.

Amazing. Woman. His. Woman.

He took her face in his hands, looking up at her in wonder. When he was able to speak, all he said was "I don't deserve you."

She beamed at him. "Of course you do." Her tone was encouraging. "Surely you must've been a very bad man at least once or twice in all those years…."

The group assembled a few hours later to leave and learned that Suzette had been successful in the small mission they had given her. Brave girl.

The three witches that worked to protect the Werewolf Council also owned a small shop in the outskirts of Washington D.C. Bonnie had worked day and night for two days to create a spell that would disarm those witches for forty-hours. The only problem they had was the only delivery had to be a human. A plain old average human. The spell required it, and the witches would've smelled anything inhuman from a mile away.

Suzette's answer to going into this on her own was a fist in the air and an emphatic "Humans rock!" punctuated with a grin. She had been thrilled to do something other than sit on her hands now that the computer research portion of the work was done.

Suzette wandered into the small magic shop in D.C. and opened her bag at the counter to pay for her purchases. When she did, dust flew up out of her bag, caught her unaware and made her sneeze three times, once for each of the witches. They never even saw her coming.

Bonnie said the spell would work like a virus and by the time they arrived in Great Bend all three witches would be ill, and powerless. Bonnie was a genius.

And Bonnie also wasn't coming. After much argument, Elena had convinced their friend that if she was there, she would be putting herself at risk by revealing the level of her power to other witches. Even she knew that was dangerous. If any coven had any clue how strong she was, they would band together in their efforts to bring her down, fearing that the power at her hands would corrupt. It was a defense mechanism witches had set up for just such an occasion as Bonnie. As long as they knew nothing about her, she was safe.

But the whole thing made Bonnie angry. They were going to need her, was her argument. And she was right. So they found another way.

Elena and Bonnie had bonded together, much like the bond they had used during the explosive night in the woods. Bonnie would be able to see through Elena's eyes. Elena would be able to hear and understand her. If defensive magic was required, Bonnie would say it the spells. Elena would repeat them and Bonnie's presence, bonded to her friend, would make the magic work. But it still made her angry. Her friends were risking their lives for one another, and she risked nothing.

At three AM, in a private portion of Richmond International Airport, Stefan, Caroline, Damon, Elijah, and Elena boarded a Boeing 737 Business Jet owned by Elijah. They followed a very private flight plan that would land them at the Great Bend Municipal Airport in approximately an hour and a half.

They left a very angry Bonnie standing on the tarmac with power popping around her even from the ends of her hair.

The strategy was to eliminate all of the council members in one night. They were able to estimate that the council itself had twenty seats. Some of the members had held their seats for decades. Jonah Walker had held his for an indeterminate period. Elena had suggested eliminating Jonah only, considering he was the leader, but Elijah shook his head. If they brought down the council leader, the council's only response could be a strike back on those responsible. Them. The resulting war would rage for decades and Elijah had seen just this sort of strategy fail many times. Better to do just as Elena had threatened Jack, eliminate the entire council and let the werewolves scatter to the wind in their disorganization. Her words that night had proven prophetic. This left them with little choice about the council members. The other group to consider would be the security team that would be guarding the meeting. They could leave no one alive. Not one.

And so the friends and family gathered one last time, again on tarmac, to finalize plans and split up. When their portion of the plan was finished, they would return to this spot and wait for the others. The plane would lift off no later than nine thirty am, one and a half hours after the council meeting was due to begin regardless of who had returned.

Just thinking about the implications of that made Elena shiver with dread.

Each of them had a five square mile portion of the surrounding land around the courthouse to sweep in preparations. They each carried cell phones and would report to Elijah what they found. They were looking for indicators of werewolf activity, carcasses, large deep claw marks in trees or foliage and (Elena shuddered again, but in disgust this time at the thought.) the inevitable marking of territory that wolves tend to do tracing each individual scent. The information would give them a good idea of how many of the werewolves present were able to transform before the full moon – an indicator of their strength and age. The information would also give them an idea of how strong their enemies would be when it came time for hand to hand confrontations, which were inevitable.

Their target was the council meeting scheduled for eight am at the Barton County Courthouse. The courthouse, centrally located in Great Bend was built in 1912 and suited the purposes of the council, and incidentally, Elijah, perfectly. Each of the great windows, numbering thirty one on each of four sides, was covered in ornate iron bars that sealed intruders out, and council members in. A slow, wicked smile spread across Elijah's face at the thought.

Each of them had memorized the map of the area and the blueprints for the building. The council met on every other full moon on the nearest Sunday. The full moon was in two days. Most of the werewolves would be stronger than humans but would not be transforming because it was daylight, even if they were less hindered by the moon than others. The older the werewolf, the less they were limited by the phases of the moon. Some werewolves could live up to two, sometimes three hundred years possibly longer. Elijah's information suggested that Jonah Walker was one of these older, stronger werewolves. He was possibly the oldest and by reputation, he ruled the council with an iron fist. Regardless of his age, everything they could find suggested that no werewolf could transform without the power of the moon and the cover of darkness.

No time was wasted by any of them. They combed the area, gathering what information they could from the surrounding area, unseen by anyone. They were quiet, fast, thorough and Elijah was the lynch pin that held them all together as he also combed a five square mile stretch just as the others, stopping occasionally as his phone buzzed in his pocket. Elena found evidence of three separate wolves in her area. Two carcasses for one, a messy eater and a glutton. And two areas of urine markings. Each had a separate scent and she gathered samples so they could cross reference when they met again. Their conclusions after comparing would give a firm number of strong werewolves in and around that meeting. Slipping them into the bag at her waist, she kept moving. After several hours, the group gathered outside the city limits and brought the samples they had found comparing scent to be certain each represented a separate wolf. Three were eighteen in all that had recently transformed in this area.

The sun had been up for a while and the day was clear and bright. The group made their way toward the vast courtyard surrounding the Courthouse. They moved quietly, no conversation, no ribbing. Each of them understood what was at stake and took their role very seriously. The building was a massive four story structure made of stone with a pillar at each of four corners providing stability to the structure. The roof was flat with and met punctuated by the flat elevated tops of each of those same four pillars. The courtyard around the building, for half a mile in each direction lacked any real cover at all, decorated only with small trees and bushes, that and a parking lot. There were four doors in, one on each side and a single staircase that stretched from the underground level all the way to the roof. A single door opened to the roof. God bless early twentieth century architectural design and its simplicity.

Elena saw for the first time the iron bars covering each of those windows, and smiled.

The plan was simple. Caroline, Stefan and Damon were to take positions at each of the exits on the three sides of the building, north, south and east. The west side was the front entrance. At the signal Bonnie and Elena had arranged, Elijah would enter the front door and move through the building searching out the leader leaving Elena to guard the west entrance. Bonnie and Elena would force the others out the exits. Since there were an unknown number of staff and security, and the faceless twenty council members, they would not be able to determine identities. Simply put, no one could pass. Elijah would eliminate the leader and sweep the building for stragglers. When the building was empty, they would sweep the grounds and track anyone that might have made it past them in any resulting confusion.

They approached quietly, moving across the ground swiftly, heading for their posts when the ground beneath their feet began to buckle and move. Elena felt the skin across her arms prickle.

Casting her eyes upward, she saw a lightning strike. Four people, one standing on each of the four pillars were looking down, hands cast skyward. They had backup for their witches. Damn it. They were phenomenon witches, using lightning, earthquakes to funnel their power. Bonnie was thinking they were strong and this could be very bad. They had thought when they eliminated the three in D.C. that the magic work was basically done. Not so.

In that moment, all hell broke loose on the ground around them.

Stefan, Caroline and Damon all three screamed in pain. Elena turned and found that each of them was burning in the light of the sun above them. Smoke was rising from blackened, wrinkling flesh and excruciating pain was punctuating every scream as they all three hit the ground writhing.

Elijah realized what was happening. "Their daylight rings have been neutralized!" He was running, attempting to cover Caroline, the closest to him.

Elena covered Damon and was reaching for Stefan. She had no cover to offer them, nothing to hide the people she loved from the destruction of the sun.

Echoing in her ears, she heard Bonnie for the first time. She was shouting, at the top of her lungs. "Elena, Cedo cessi cessum!" "Elena, Yield." Elena dropped her hands and stood. And for a time, she knew no more.

Elijah watched his beloved Elena erupt in flames like the wick of a candle. Yellow and white heat licked up her clothing, across her hair, wrapping her completely for a moment while he screamed in horror. "ELENA, no!"

She turned to him then. The flames opened up as she took a single step toward him and she put a single finger over her lips. Her eyes were no longer brown or red. They were golden, popping with power. She turned to the three on the ground and held a single hand palm up in the air. "Nox." A darkened ball hovered over her hand. She slapped her two hands together and the darkness seemed to splatter like water and spray the three on the ground.

Damon realized the pain had stopped. Darkness had enveloped him like a warm cloak, sucking the light away so that the rays of the sun wouldn't reach his skin anymore. The other two had quieted as well. He could see them through his own darkness. They appeared as if standing in a black whole, void of light. He could see around him, but his eyes were sharper, penetrating the darkness around him first. He saw Elena then, wrapped in fire, wearing it like a flowing gown stretching from her shoulders to pool around her feet on the ground, singeing where she walked. Her hair had worked free of the braids she wore and whipped in the wind created by the fire all around her. Damon's horrified knee jerk reaction was that she was burning up in the sun, then he recalled the day in the courtyard when she had taken off her ring for him. Looking more closely, he saw Bonnie's eyes looking back at him. Bonnie's eyes looking at him out of Elena's features Was. Just. Creepy.

Elena's body turned to the witches standing on their pedestals above the courthouse. She burned a path across the courtyard with her approach and the ground shook under her feet as the four above attempted to gather strength for a second attack, but now Bonnie was angry. Both hands before her, she seemed to scoop some of the fire she wore together to hold in one hand. She knelt, whispering "Terra" as a handful of stone and dirt lept into her palm from the ground the other witches were punishing with their earthquakes. She rolled the two hands together, one with earth, the other with fire together in her hand like a child making a mud ball and tossed it up into the air, once, twice. With the third it seemed to blow up and away disappearing into the clouds above the building that had not been there a moment before.

A few hundred yards away, molten fireballs began to rain from the sky onto the roof of the courthouse. The ground continued to rumble below them, but now it was punctuated with screams.

Bonnie felt a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that those damned witches weren't on their pedestals anymore. She could still see them, even though they were no longer displayed for all the world. They couldn't hide from her. The light around them lent her its eyes.

Elijah approached Elena's body cautiously from behind. He had never seen a witch possess someone before, but with the bond that she and Elena had established, he supposed it was possible. Terrifying, but possible. His heart had nearly stopped in horror. He heard Elena's voice saying "Aeris." As she made a small fist in the air and pulled toward her chest.

Bonnie ripped the air from the lungs of her enemies. The four witches on the roof were no more. The shaking stopped, as did the molten rain. The darkness faded around Stefan, Caroline and Damon. Their daylight rings were working again.

Bonnie stepped back, and Elena had her own eyes again. And her legs gave way. Elijah caught her before she hit the ground.

Author's note:

I thought it might be of interest to know that Great Bend, Arkansas is a real place. On the map, it's situated between two lakes and the town resembles a canine dog's hind leg. It's also centrally located in the United States and a small, unassuming town. I decided that if I was Jonah Walker, the geography of the place would appeal for those private Were Council meetings.

The courthouse, including its description and floor plan is also real. I'm nothing, if not thorough.