A/N: Thank you so much for all the beautiful reviews! :)

Sooo... by now it's rather obvious I won't be able to finish writing/posting this story before the show returns. But I hope you'll continue reading it despite the inevitably wonderful distraction of *real* Damon & Elena being together (!) & happy (!) on our screens in... 3 days! :D

Beta: arabian (aka arabean) - Thank you so so so much! :]

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

Chapter 14

Biting her lip, Elena pushed her hand into Damon's wound, searching for a couple seconds before finding the wooden bullet and tearing it out, her hand covered in blood all the way to the wrist.

Giuseppe Salvatore was sitting on the couch opposite them with his hands bound. He winced in disgust and averted his eyes from the scene.

Elena spared him a fleeting glance, shifting on the couch where she was sitting behind Damon whose eyes were trained on his father. She suspected that a man capable of killing his own sons in cold blood couldn't possibly even appear amiable, but the intensity of his intimidating gaze and a glint of hostility in his eyes still surpassed her expectations.

"Is he a ghost or a hallucination?" She asked quietly, throwing the extracted bullet into the fireplace.

"Whatever he is, his bullets are pretty real," Damon replied sternly. "As always."

Elena looked at the wound on his back, waiting for it to heal and when it did she patted the skin with her fingertips and pulled his shirt back down. She was tempted to lick her fingers, but thought better of it and grabbed a small towel from the table instead.

Giuseppe, however, seemed to have read her first thought or perhaps it was just a coincidence that he whispered vehemently: "Monsters."

He gave her an icily condescending look and Elena wondered if he thought she was Katherine. Not that she believed he wouldn't consider her a monster if he knew she was Elena. She was a vampire and that's probably all that mattered to him.

Damon's mouth twitched, but he curiously found himself at a loss for words. His father's piercing gaze made him feel as if it was the 19th century all over again and he had never had the last word then.

Her forehead creasing in thought, Elena decided that if they were to be stuck with her father-in-law's ghostly hallucination she could as well try to remedy the situation and whatever Silas' intentions behind this were, turn everything around and turn it for the better.

She pressed a kiss to Damon's cheek and rose to her feet. Damon looked after her, his first instinct trying to stop her, but she was already standing in front of his father.

"I'm Elena." She started as casually as possible, the ropes around Giuseppe's wrists making the exchange a little awkward, but she thought that maybe once they actually started to talk, the ropes could be removed. "Would you like something to drink?" She added since they obviously weren't going to shake hands and Giuseppe's eyes clearly suggested that he wouldn't even want to.

He looked her up and down with an indignant sneer flitting across his face. "I wouldn't drink blood even from a queen, let alone a strumpet," he spat.

Elena spun around just in time to prevent Damon from reacting to the words, his eyes ablaze.

"Damon, this is not even him saying that," she said quickly, her hands splayed on Damon's chest. "It's one of Silas' mind games." She looked at him until he at last tore his gaze away from his father and looked at her. "Don't let him provoke us," she said in a low voice.

She turned around toward Giuseppe. "I actually meant tea or coffee," Elena said, undeterred, even though being hospitable to someone who wasn't real was perhaps as purposeful as punching him.

"Iced or with cream and sugar?"

Everyone's eyes shifted to where the new voice had come from. A girl in a waitress uniform was standing in the doorway with a tray in her hands.

Elena blinked, confused by the bizarre appearance, but then the realization hit her and her eyes widened in shock. Damon's arm shot up, keeping her steady when her legs nearly gave way and she glanced at him, the frown on his face telling her that he also recognized the girl.

"Do you want to see my daughter?" The girl continued in an oddly dispassionate voice, producing a picture from her skirt pocket. "She's four and half. Five actually. But I missed her fifth birthday," she said with a rueful smile, caressing the picture and then shifting her eyes from it to Elena, "because you killed me."

xxxdelenaxxx

"So our lovely Elena is stuck in an invisible house with her two boyfriends and a crazy professor," Klaus said, apparently finding the concept very amusing.

"She doesn't have two boyfriends," Jeremy muttered, annoyed with Klaus' antics as stupid and insignificant as they were. Bonnie noticed that he opened his mouth to add something, but then seemed to change his mind.

"We don't know for sure who is in the house," Caroline said grimly. "All we know is that none of them answer their phone and that the house is gone," she said, shifting her gaze to Sophie.

She wasn't sure where the impression had come from, but she didn't trust the newly arrived witch from New Orleans and as much as she could tell from looking at Bonnie, Bonnie didn't trust her either.

"Like Bonnie said, the house is not gone. It's under a spell," Sophie said, slightly thrusting up her chin.

"But why?"

"He needs them for the ritual so he wants to make sure they won't run."

"So you think he'll reverse the spell himself before the ritual?" Bonnie asked with a thoughtful frown.

Caroline's eyes darted to her and then to Sophie who nodded.

"We're not going to just leave them there until then, do we?" She exclaimed, looking to Jeremy for support.

"Caroline, if he's going to reverse the spell..." Bonnie sighed and drew another breath. "It makes much more sense to concentrate on stopping him and the ritual rather than spending all this time trying to figure out an extremely difficult spell that will be broken anyway," she said, determined to brush the doubts from her own mind as well.

"I understand that, Bonnie," Caroline said, even though the expression on her face clearly indicated otherwise. "But what if there is something bad going on in there? What if, I don't know, they are in pain? Or-"

"Getting them out won't help much. It won't stop Silas," Sophie said calmly but also with a hint of sadness in her voice. "The more time we spend on working out the plan to stop Silas the better our chances. I don't know your friends, but if they are reasonable people they would want you to do the smarter thing and the smarter thing is not to think about them right now."

Bonnie glanced at Jeremy, his forehead wrinkled, his jaw clenched.

"I'm with the witches on that one," Klaus said lightly when she noticed Caroline look at him out if the corner of her eye.

"Well, maybe I am not a reasonable person," Jeremy said with irritation, storming off.

"Let me talk to him," Bonnie said softly, exchanging a look with Caroline before following Jeremy.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena." Gently, Damon turned her head so she looked at him instead of over his shoulder and into the living room where Giuseppe was still sitting on the couch, the waitress standing in the same spot as well, her eyes fixed on the picture in her hand.

"I need to talk to her," Elena said determinedly, her breathing ragged.

"Elena, she is not real," Damon said, leaning toward her.

"How do you know?" She asked, looking lost for a second.

"You said it yourself," he said softly.

"I know," Elena said after a pause, leaning into his touch when he placed his hand on her cheek. "But whatever they are, whatever Silas is doing, it is all rooted in our heads," she trailed off, her face clouding over with sadness. "I should've found out later if she had a family, if there was someone who needed help," she said disconsolately. "I don't even know why I didn't," she drew a breath. "Or maybe I do. I just wanted to forget that it ever happened."

"Then we'll do that," Damon said, cupping her face in his hands and inching his face closer to hers. "Once Silas is gone. But speaking to figments of our imagination is not going to help."

"Then what should we do now, Damon? Hide from them? They are here because we let them be here. Because..." she averted her eyes, staring gloomily into the distance for a second. "Maybe they are here because we want them to be?" she said, looking back at him.

Damon's nose twitched and by the despondent expression on his face she could tell that he might just think she was right. "Rationalizing it won't change the fact that this is Silas' sandbox, Elena, and of all the possible reasons why this is happening, giving us a shot at catharsis is the least likely one."

"I know that," Elena said with a hint of impatience, the glimpse in her eye indicating she was determined to have it her way no matter what. "But his intentions don't matter as long as we're able to make it what we want it to be." She covered Damon's hand on her face with hers. "Have you ever wished you had a chance to talk to your father at least that one more time before he died?" She asked softly.

"Well, I kind of lost interest in spending quality time with him when he killed me," Damon replied with a wry smile.

Elena bit her lip with a sigh, sliding his hands off her face and holding them in hers.

"Is everything OK?"

A genuinely concerned, pleasant voice broke into their conversation and they exchanged anxious, confused glances. Elena tilted her head to the side to take a better look at the person who had spoken. Damon turned around.

The red-headed girl looked at them with a friendly smile, her eyes soft, the only disturbing thing about her a messy, bloody gash on her neck.

Elena's eyes widened in further confusion and dismay that only deepened when she noticed the expression on Damon's face.

"I'm not human and I miss it. I miss it more than anything in the world!..."

"I don't think we've met," the girl said conversationally extending her hand to Elena. "I'm Jessica."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Jeremy-"

"Bonnie, I know," Jeremy said in a much calmer voice than Bonnie had expected. He held her gaze for a second before tiredly looking away. "But it's hard to just not think about what's happening in there and focus on a bigger picture."

"Elena's not alone there, Jeremy," Bonnie said softly. "I know you're worried about her. I'm worried too. But if I let myself think about that right now..." she broke off with a sigh. "We have to do what's best for them, not what's best for us," she said in a low, firm voice. "We can't worry about our peace of mind right now."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Jeremy protested. "I just don't trust them," he said under his breath, glancing at Klaus and Sophie.

"Really?" Bonnie said, her mouth twitching in a tiny smile. "I was under the impression you thought Klaus and I would make a good team."

Jeremy chuckled briefly despite himself, closing his eyes for a second. "I am sorry about that," he said, resuming a serious expression. "I'm sure we'll figure something out-"

Bonnie shook her head. "That's another thing I don't want to think about right now," she said, glancing at the newly acquainted witch. "Witches don't betray each other, Jeremy," she said suddenly, her voice carrying that note of bravery he learned to fear, because it was always followed by something bad happening to her.

"You're going to hold on to that?" Jeremy asked skeptically, studying Bonnie's face that grew increasingly pensive and realizing she was saying something between the lines.

Bonnie smiled and in what was probably meant to look from the outside like a spontaneous hug she wrapped her arms around Jeremy's neck and whispered into his ear, "Silas is a witch too."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena brushed the tears off her face with her palms. She should've stayed with him. She shouldn't have left. But back then she had still been at that erroneous stage when she had believed that when someone was saying they wanted to be left alone they meant it.

Now they were in their bedroom and away from three strange ghosts walking around the parlor. Damon looked at her grimly with a glimpse of resignation in his eyes which were brimming with either fear or defiance, she couldn't tell which.

Elena lightly shook her head, not knowing what to say, her heart clenching when she realized that she wanted to cry more for him than for that girl who had lost her life just because she had been at the wrong time, in the wrong place, being a good person, trying to help.

But she couldn't change what she was feeling. There were no conflicting emotions. Despite being fully aware that what had happened was wrong, she found herself not really caring for the circumstances or an explanation of any kind. She didn't need an explanation and that was what frightened her most. It was an atrociously liberating feeling. She didn't need to weigh his virtues and his sins. She just felt the overpowering rush of love through her veins, through every fiber of her body and all she cared about right now was to erase this sad look from his face.

She threw herself into his arms and a few heartbeats passed before, following a moment of startled amazement, he hugged her back, crashing her against him, face buried in her hair.

"I don't deserve for you to love me like that," he murmured without loosening his embrace and she could hear him gritting his teeth when he added in a tortured, dark whisper. "But I want you to. I always wanted you to."

She drew back to look at him, her eyes as shining as his, as if they were both in a fever. "I never thought I could love anyone like that," she whispered, her lips trembling, face glimmering from tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

He couldn't help thinking that she sounded more defeated than happy and that's not what he had ever wanted for her. "Elena-"

"I'm not happy," she whispered, as if reading his thoughts, her voice as faltering as the smile that she gave him through her tears, her eyes bright when she inched her lips closer to his, clutching his shoulders. "I'm beyond that," she said in a hushed, ardent voice, as if she was saying out loud the most astonishing secret she had just discovered.

He weaved his fingers into her hair, held her face near his. "I'm sorry. Elena, I'm so sorry," he whispered the words, meaning and not meaning them with equal measure, a grimace of pain on his face.

"It hurts... so much," she said, choking in mid-sentence, her breath catching in her throat.

He stared at her in breathless wonder, in self-condemnation."I know."

Her eyes fluttered shut, she almost couldn't keep them open overwhelmed by the feeling that was methodically tearing her apart; pain, pleasure, she would never be able to differentiate. She wanted to ask him when he had started feeling like that? When it had happened. How?

She smiled, the most feverish, radiant smile. "I don't deserve for you to love me like that," she whispered, as if it was the last sentence she was going to ever utter, as if in the next moment she was going to die.

And she did, she felt like she did when he crashed his lips against hers and kissed her with such unrestrained, wild passion that she began shaking in his arms, recklessly cradling him as close to her as possible.

They didn't hear anything, but it felt like a gust of cold wind, and all of a sudden they were aware of someone's presence. They drew apart, just an inch or two, their eyes simultaneously darting to the door.

"Do you really think this means anything to him, honey?"

The door was wide open and in the doorway stood Bree with a dark, bloody hole in her chest and her heart in her hand.