21. No Running

Elijah took her home. They stopped on the front porch and Elena fumbled for her keys. The house was dark and silent, which meant that everyone was asleep. At least that would make it easier for her to sneak in.

Elijah touched her shoulder. "I won't be long."

With that, he vanished before Elena could even look up and protest. She swallowed. She was wet, filthy and bedraggled. Elijah had been in much the same state. The stink of lake water was all over her body and her things. If he had gone to wash and change, she couldn't blame him.

She walked inside, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could. It was two in the morning and using the bathroom might wake Jeremy up, but Elena didn't care. She needed a shower.

Forty minutes later, she had wrung the last of the mud from her hair, shoved her dirty things away and changed into her night clothes. She rubbed her eyes as she walked back into her bedroom.

Elijah was sitting on her window seat, as suited and presentable as if she hadn't dragged his dead body out of a lake mere hours ago.

Elena paused, feeling a sense of déjà vu as she remembered the last time he had been in her room. Last time she had been scared and uncertain. Tonight she was still scared and uncertain, but for different reasons.

"You look better," she said.

"As do you."

She nodded, moving to sit down cross-legged on her bed. "There's a lot to tell you... But first I wanted to thank you. You saved my life. If you hadn't woken up when you did..."

"I heard you scream," said Elijah quietly. "But I wouldn't have been able to do anything had you not revived me. You went to incredible lengths to do that, Elena. How did you know where to find me?"

She felt herself blushing at his praise, and ducked her head, playing with a loose thread on her shorts.

"The Martins," she answered. "They helped."

"How long has it been?"

"A few days." She shook her head. "It hasn't been long at all and yet everything feels like it's falling apart."

"Your father..."

She bit her lip. Her father was a vampire. She hadn't even processed that yet. "Yeah, there's John. And Isobel, and Katherine compelled Jenna, but that's not all." She took a deep breath. "Klaus is here."

She saw his eyes widen, heard his slight intake of breath. Elena went on, explaining everything as quickly as she could, and Elijah listened in silence. He looked deep in thought.

"He took Katherine," she said. "I don't know why he went for her first. He must know where I am, but he hasn't come for me."

She looked past Elijah and out of the window as she said it, imagining that Klaus might loom out of the darkness at any time. The thought that he might be able to get inside her house... That he could get to Jeremy or Jenna... She clutched her necklace, conscious that it was the only thing protecting her from compulsion.

"Katerina was always quick to run," Elijah replied. "It suits Klaus to leave you exactly where you are."

She sat up, tucking her knees beneath her as she leaned forward. "I can't just sit here and wait for him. Bonnie and I talked to the Martins. We think there may be a way to kill Klaus without going through with the sacrifice. Will you help?"

His gaze focused. She knew that she had his attention.

"Tell me," Elijah said.

Early mornings were such a bust. Jenna pulled her hair back into a ponytail, decided that it made her look too much like a schoolgirl, and left it loose again in frustration. Her reflection in the mirror was not impressed. Image of a responsible parent right here, she thought. She used to think that she couldn't cope with Jeremy taking drugs. A few months later, she kept a wooden stake in her bag at all times and she knew six different ways to use vervain in food. Nobody had told her that parenting in this town would be such a challenge.

But life went on and she had to at least keep up appearances, so she grabbed her phone and hurried downstairs. Elena had beaten her to it. She was already in the kitchen when Jenna walked in.

Elena put her coffee down and looked straight at Jenna. "John's a vampire."

Well, that pretty much negated anything she might have to say. Jenna gaped at her. "What?"

"He attacked me last night," she went on. "Please tell me you haven't invited him into the house."

"What – no. I haven't seen him since he went missing. He attacked you?"

"He's become the very thing that he hates," said Elena. "Maybe the only way he can cope is by turning it off, I don't know. But he's new, and that means he's dangerous. You have to be careful, Jenna."

Her head was spinning. How had this happened? Elena was pouring milk into her breakfast cereal as though this was just another ordinary day for her. Maybe it was.

"But we have a plan," Elena went on. "Do you know if Damon talked to Isobel?"

"No, I don't." She frowned. "Hang on a second – we?"

"Elena and I have a plan," a smooth voice said behind her.

Jenna froze. Her legs felt like jelly at the same time as they seemed glued to the floor. She thought that she might just keel over. That voice. She turned around and her eyes confirmed the impossible: Elijah strolled into the kitchen, offering her a smile. He looked pretty well for a vampire who was supposed to be dead. Jenna clutched the counter behind her.

She'd killed him. Not even that. She'd kissed him and then killed him. Dear God. What had her life turned into?

"Yeah," said Elena apologetically. "So I... woke up Elijah."

"Hello, Jenna," he said.

"H – hello," she managed.

"You don't have to worry," said Elena, coming around to squeeze her arm. "Elijah's on our side. He's not going to hurt you."

"I killed you," said Jenna, and then wondered if it might be a bad idea to remind him of this.

"I got better," he assured her.

Elena nodded. "Elijah's going to stick around for a little while. We think that John may try to come back to the house. Is that okay?"

Jenna was starting to seriously wonder if Elena was crazy. Wasn't Elijah planning on sacrificing her?

"Um, do I get a say in this?" she asked.

Elijah stepped forward. "I won't be in your way. Shall we agree to put that little mishap with the dagger behind us?"

Elena glanced between them. "I'll let you guys talk it out. I have to get ready for school."

She picked up her coffee and her cereal bowl and left the room. Elijah's eyes followed Elena, but he didn't move. Elena had left her alone with him. Obviously she didn't think that Jenna was in any danger from the Original vampire she had recently murdered in this very kitchen. Jenna wished that she could be quite so sure.

She brushed her hair back out of her eyes and heaved a sigh. Okay.

"So... You're not mad that I killed you?"

He shook his head. "I believe Katerina put you up to it."

"Katerina? Oh – Katherine. Right. But, I mean... you kissed me."

She trailed off, swallowing. It was probably a bad idea to bring this up too. There wasn't any prospect of something happening between them again. Apart from the whole attempted murder thing, Jenna had no intention of getting involved with a vampire.

Elijah gave a slight shrug. "As I was stabbed for my trouble, I'll take that as a rejection."

That startled a laugh out of her. "Yeah... Wow. Sorry about that." She paused. "Are you really going to save Elena? That's not what Katherine said."

"Katerina isn't known for telling the truth."

She bit her lip. "Klaus has her. When you kill him, do you think you'll be able to save her too?"

For the first time, his face darkened, and Jenna felt a tremor go through her body.

"There is no saving Katerina."

He wasn't mad at her, Jenna realized. He was angry with Katherine. The rational part of her mind told her that this was fair enough given that Katherine had plotted to kill him behind his back, but Jenna could see Katherine's side of things too. She was sure that Katherine had honestly believed that Elijah's intentions towards Elena weren't good. Hadn't Elena believed the same? After all, he had kidnapped her.

There was nothing she could do about that. In fact, she realized, Elena had left her with no choice but to accept the situation.

"Okay," she said. "You know what, okay. Let's put this behind us. If you can get over me killing you, then I guess I can get over the fact that you kidnapped Elena and used me to get to her in the first place. Let's all be friends, why not. Get John out of my nose and I'll be forever grateful."

"Wonderful." Elijah inclined his head. "I'll see you around."

He turned to leave, and Jenna hurried after him to check that he wasn't about to trick her and steal Elena away again. She paused in the doorway and watched Elijah murmur a farewell to Elena, who was just finishing her breakfast on the living room couch. Elena leaned up and gave him such a genuine, warm smile that Jenna felt her stomach flip.

She trusted him. He had some kind of hold over her, a connection that Jenna didn't fully understand, but she didn't like it. She had the feeling that something was going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Stefan had been giving her his disappointed face all day, but Elena was unrepentant.

"I asked you to trust me," he said, "and you went behind my back. Why?"

"Because I want to save your lives. Is that so difficult to understand?"

They were at school, which meant that she had to contend with just about everyone when she broke the story. Elena saw no point in hiding the fact that she'd resurrected Elijah. There was nothing any of them could do about it now except for Bonnie – and even Bonnie couldn't do anything, because she was saving up her magic to use on Klaus.

"Elijah's been invited into our house," said Jeremy. "I've gotta say, Elena, I really felt safer with him dead."

"Jer–"

He turned his back on her, shoving some books into a locker. "No, I get it. You decided to put all our lives into his hands. Don't bother telling me or anything. Why don't you carry on and make all our decisions for me somewhere else?"

He slammed the locker door shut and walked off, and this time Elena felt the guilt bubble in her stomach.

When she told Alaric, he actually facepalmed. "Please tell me you're joking."

"No joke, Ric. Think of it like this. With Elijah around, you won't have any problems with Isobel – or John."

"Yeah, bring in a bigger bad to get rid of the slightly smaller bads. I'm sure that always works out so well." He cleared his throat. "Have you told Damon?"

She hesitated. "Not yet."

"Yeah, I think I'll let you spill that one."

"You really are stubborn," was all Caroline said before hugging her. "I hope you know what you're doing, Elena. Elijah scares me."

"Klaus scares me more," she replied.

Bonnie, however, looked betrayed. "What happened to our plan with the Martins? We were looking for another way. I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"If anyone can persuade the Martins to help us, it's Elijah," she pointed out. "He's talking to them right now."

Bonnie looked dubious about that, but Elena would be able to prove that she was right soon enough. Then during the afternoon break, Damon turned up. As Elena had expected, he proved to be the most difficult one of all. He stalked over to Elena and Stefan while they were sitting outside in the school grounds, which Elena was pretty sure wasn't a coincidence. She gave Stefan an exasperated look and braced herself for the inevitable confrontation.

"You're an idiot," said Damon. "He's going to sacrifice you! You can't trust him, Elena. He's turned you into a lamb going willingly to the slaughter."

Elena remained stubborn. "I know what I'm doing, Damon."

"You have no idea. What, did you get Stockholm Syndrome while he was keeping you locked up in that fancy old farmhouse? While you were in there, Elijah was out here making deals with Katherine, kidnapping and interrogating me and Stefan, and generally being the Original dick that he is. He's bad news."

She rolled her eyes. "Just because you're incapable of trusting anyone."

He took in a breath then, looking honestly shocked, and Elena realized that she'd gone too far. She shut her mouth, abashed.

Stefan placed a hand on each of their arms, his voice soft. "Look, neither of us is happy about this. But what's done is done, and now we have to decide what we're going to do about it."

"Do you have a dagger handy?" Damon asked. "Because I don't."

"What we're going to do," said Elena, "is work with him. Both of you have to agree to that. You'll be of no help to me if you don't."

Stefan sighed. "I don't think we have a choice."

But Damon was shaking his head. He stood up, his entire body tight with suppressed rage. "Screw you."

Elena stared after him as he walked off, her heart hammering. "He's going to do something stupid, isn't he?"

"Probably," said Stefan. "I guess we'll find out how reliable Elijah's promises really are, huh?"

She sighed. He was not helping. Elijah wouldn't kill Damon, she was certain of that. Put him in his place, maybe. But Damon's recklessness could lead him into far more danger than that. He'd already had one encounter with Klaus. Elena wasn't sure that he would survive another.

At that moment, Elijah was sitting in the Martins' new apartment, listening to their side of the story. Elena had told him about their meeting with her and Bonnie. The idea of getting a group of witches to work together to take down Klaus had never been suggested to him. Although Elijah had centuries of experience working with witches, he didn't know everything about their craft. They tended to be reluctant to disclose anything about how their magic worked, especially to vampires.

"Bonnie's idea," he said delicately. "Is it possible?"

Jonas shared a glance with his son. "We think so."

Elijah narrowed his eyes, a dangerous tone creeping into his voice. "You never told me this."

"No, because there's only the two of us. You'd need a lot bigger group of witches to stand any chance of making it out alive."

"How big?"

"Ten or twelve witches could do it. They'd all need to channel the power of the hundred, and they'd all need to be strong."

It was difficult enough to find that many witches, let alone find that many who would be willing to help them. Elijah shook his head. "What's the minimum number of witches that would allow you to do this?"

Jonas paused. "Elijah... If we go ahead with the sacrifice, we don't have to find any other witches. I promised that I'd help you carry that plan out. Not to get any other witches involved."

There it was, that witch loyalty again. Elijah leaned forward. "The sacrifice will always be our back-up. If there's another way to kill him that doesn't involve the possibility of turning Klaus into an all-powerful hybrid, I'd like to explore it."

"And a way that doesn't involve killing anyone else," Luka added, surprising both of them. He looked at his father. "Wouldn't that be better?"

Jonas sighed. "I don't want to put you at risk."

Elijah looked at them silently. Luka was giving him an appraising look which made him suspect that the boy had seen through his motives. But he had always been the more sympathetic of the two. The moment Jonas had agreed to work with Elijah in order to save his daughter, he had accepted the collateral damage that he knew would come with it. He had never accepted the possibility of putting his son's life directly at risk from Klaus.

"Seven," said Jonas at last. "And that would be pushing it. We'd need the power of the full moon to help us."

"And you shall have it." He stood up. "Contact all the witches that you know. I'll tell Bonnie to do the same."

Katherine woke up to find herself lying on a four poster bed, a chandelier lit up above her, and Isobel holding her hand. She sat up at once, staring at Isobel with fearful eyes, a single name mouthed soundlessly on her lips. Klaus. He'd taken her. Where was he?

Isobel smiled. "Welcome back."

"Where am I?"

"My place," said Isobel. "This is the master bedroom."

"Klaus... He..."

She looked around. The bedroom was empty except for the two of them. So she could run. She'd get out of here in a flash and then–

"Don't move," said Isobel. "Klaus is close by. He won't be pleased if you try to run."

She sounded as though she was speaking from experience. Katherine frowned. "He caught you too?"

Isobel leaned back, shrugging. "Oh, he caught me a long time ago."

Katherine's eyes widened as the implications of that sank in. Klaus had been playing her. All this time she had been working with Isobel – Klaus had found the one vampire in the world she trusted, and used that vampire to capture her. Silently, she vowed never to make that mistake again.

She swallowed. "What happened? I remember he attacked me and I blacked out..."

"That was two days ago," Isobel told her. "He's been waiting for the vervain to leave your system. He did the same with me."

Without vervain, she was vulnerable to compulsion. Katherine's hand flew to her neck, afraid that Klaus might have robbed her of the ability to walk in the daylight too, but he had not. Her necklace was still there. It was a small comfort.

"Ah, she's awake."

It was him. Isobel stepped away at once, inclining her head as Klaus strolled into the room, smiling at the pair of them.

"Isobel, my love, would you leave us for a moment?"

Katherine watched her only friend, compelled to be her enemy, walk away from her without looking back. She shivered in sympathy when Klaus brushed Isobel's hand with his as she walked past.

She stood up when Klaus approached her, determined to face him on the same eye level. The power imbalance between them was already wide enough. She clenched her fists to stop them from shaking.

"Isobel's been very good to me," Klaus confided. "Mother of the second doppelgänger, best friend of the first. I'll have to thank her for all her help later."

"What do you want?"

"First, for you to stay right here." His eyes bored into her as he spoke, compelling her. "Then, your slow and painful death."

He said it casually, like it was obvious, and Katherine knew that she was stupid for thinking that she could ever strike a deal with him in the first place. She should have run. Running had served her well in the past five hundred years. Now her feet felt like they were glued to the floor. She couldn't move.

"I brought you everything that you wanted. You promised that you'd let me go free."

"Ah, no, Isobel promised you that. I don't believe we ever shook hands on it. See, I do keep my promises, but Isobel... Isobel, she tells a few whoppers from time to time. One of her less admirable traits."

Katherine said nothing. She was breathing hard through her nostrils, waiting for the inevitable axe to fall.

"In the meantime," Klaus added, circling around to clasp her shoulder, "I do have a bit of a dilemma. To break the curse, I have to sacrifice a werewolf, a vampire and the doppelgänger. I have my werewolf, I have my doppelgänger... But I'm still undecided on the vampire. There are so many to choose from."

He paused. Katherine was starting to realize where this was going. Her heart beat faster.

"So who do I pick? At first I thought Isobel, you know, Elena's mother. Keep it in the family. Then there's Caroline, the vampire you picked out for me; the Salvatores, of course – they do love her desperately, I'm sure they'd be happy to die for her... And then there's you."

She caught her breath. "You're going to sacrifice me?"

She twisted her head to look at him as Klaus smiled lazily at her. She could feel him behind her, at her shoulder, and still she forced herself not to shudder.

"It would be fitting, don't you think, dying in the very same sacrifice you turned yourself into a vampire to escape from all those centuries ago."

She didn't think it was fitting. As far as Katherine was concerned, no death was fitting. She was going to survive; she had always intended to survive, and no matter how bleak her situation looked, she wasn't going to give up.

"Then pick me," she said. "I know I don't get a choice no matter what I say. So kill me, or not, but if you do then get it over with."

He raised his eyebrows, slightly taken aback. She knew that wasn't the answer he had expected, but she wasn't going to beg for her life. Not because she wouldn't if she thought it would work, but because appealing to Klaus's mercy would do nothing. All she could do was turn things back on him, and hope that he was toying with her. Telling him to do something might make him do the opposite. It was a calculated risk.

Klaus patted her shoulder. "It's not a full moon yet, sweetheart. There's still time."

He grabbed her by each of her arms and pulled her around to face him. Katherine tensed in his grip, her heart hammering, and found that she couldn't escape his gaze; his eyes locked on hers and she stared, terrified, afraid of what he was about to make her do.

"But first of all," Klaus whispered, "you're going to make yourself useful."