Chapter 25: The Sacrifice

"Okay, I know we need to get our grades up, but didn't we do enough studying last night?" Jeremy said, taking a seat beside Charlotte at the picnic table. They had a free period thanks to their teacher contracting food poisoning. "It's homework because you're supposed to do it at home or in home room."

"My free time is limited. I have dance class after school, and I was hoping we could practice our fighting technique afterwards."

"Fair point," Jeremy said. They did need the practice. "We should also try to make some sort of running schedule around your dance classes."

"Right," Charlotte sighed. "I don't know how Caroline does all her committees, cheerleading and keeps her grades up."

"Because she was superhuman before she was ever supernatural," Jeremy said, pulling his history textbook from his bag.

They worked through the questions Ric set for Chapter 30, swapping answers when one was stuck and sharing a bag of chips from Jeremy's lunch. Eraser marks covered their papers, but eventually they finished the assignment, and the bag of chips. Crushing the bag in his fist, Jeremy went to throw the empty bag away while Charlotte pulled her binder from her bag. Before she could secure her papers, a gust of wind ripped them from her hands, sweeping them away. With a muffled curse, Charlotte chased after them, stopping when a foot stomped down on one of them, keeping it from blowing away until the wind died down. Looking up, Charlotte found the foot belonged to an unfamiliar face.

"Thanks," Charlotte said as he handed her the paper.

"I've got the other pages," Jeremy said, handing them to her.

"Jeremy, Charlotte, this is Luca. He's knew at school," Bonnie introduced them without taking her eyes off Luca. Clearly, she had a thing for him, and noticing how close the two were standing and the way Luca smiled at her, Charlotte would bet those feelings were reciprocated. Just when Charlotte was about to pull Jeremy away to leave the two alone, Luca excused himself.

"He's cute," Charlotte said, nudging Bonnie playfully. "You gonna ask him out?"

"I barely know him. The last time I asked a guy out I barely knew, he turned out to be a vampire who kidnapped me for my magic."

Right. Ben. Anna's boy toy she used to try and get Bonnie to open the tomb.

"I can see how that would turn you off from dating," Charlotte said.

"Yeah, not that dating is a prerequisite for guys using my powers. Neither Damon nor Stefan are dating me, and they're still using my magic," Bonnie said, pulling her buzzing phone from her bag. "Speak of the vampires."

Damon wanted her to meet Stefan and him. One look at Jeremy and Charlotte and she knew they'd insist on tagging along. They'd been pulled deeper and deeper into the supernatural world ever since the tomb vampires were released, and if there was new trouble, they wanted to know about it. And where Damon was concerned, there was always new trouble.

"Fine, you can come with me, but we're not going until after school. We already ditched this week. Two days in a week means a phone call to each of our legal guardians," Bonnie said, turning on her heel and returning to classes.

"Do you think she'll try and leave without us?" Jeremy asked.

"No. She's fresh past the guilt of treating Caroline like crap. She won't blow us off."

And she didn't. She waited for them to follow her in Jeremy's car. When the three of them walked through the Salvatore's front door, one after the other, Damon's eyes narrowed but he didn't say a word. He wished the same could be said for the kiddos after Stefan and he divulged their plan.

"Wait, you want to risk Katherine getting free, for the moonstone?" Charlotte asked incredulously.

"To save Elena," Stefan clarified.

"And do you think she'll be safe if Katherine gets out?" Jeremy pointed out. "No one will. We all played a part in the plan to kill her. And she seems like a vengeful bitch to me."

"Did you not hear the part of the plan where she's weak? We can hold her long enough to get the moonstone. Then Bon Bon will put the spell back up and everything will be peachy keen," Damon said, putting on a southern accent at the end.

"And if you can't? If something goes wrong?" Jeremy asked, thinking back to how Bonnie's nose bled just from sending a message to Elena. Say she could get the barrier down, what's to say she'd be strong enough to put it back up. It wasn't worth the risk.

"Why are you two even here?" Damon asked. He didn't remember texting Barbie and Ken to join them. They'd shown up uninvited with the witch.

"Maybe I could help better the plan," Bonnie cut in. She hadn't wanted Jeremy and Charlotte to tag along either, but Damon didn't have to be a dick about it. "I'll need water, and something that belonged to her."

Bonnie's plan to magically debilitate Katherine for a few moments wasn't bad, but it didn't negate the fact that lowering the barrier holding Katherine in was dangerous. So, while Charlotte distracted her, Jeremy stole some of the magic ash. They needed to come up with a game plan and act fast. Which meant, for the first time ever, Charlotte voluntarily skipped dance class.

"You ready?" Jeremy asked as he strapped the air cannon on his forearm. Charlotte sifted through the bag of weapons Ric lent them as she leaned against the bumper of his car.

"Yeah," she said, pulling out the brass knuckle stakes and slipping it onto her right hand. She had to tighten her hands into fists to keep them from shaking.

She followed Jeremy through the woods and down to the tomb entrance where Katherine stood leaning heavily against the stone. Damon and Stefan were right, she did look weak. Even by human standards.

"Well, well, isn't this an intriguing surprise," Katherine said when the younger Gilbert and Forbes siblings stepped into view.

"We're here for the moonstone," Jeremy said.

"Of course you are," she rolled her eyes. "It's very popular today."

"Just hand it over," Charlotte said. She had very little hope Katherine would give it to them, but on the off chance she felt charitable she figured she'd try.

"Naïve little girl. If you want it, you're going to have to come here and get it."

Stepping forward, Jeremy pressed the release on the air canon, thrusting his arm forward as he released the stake. She didn't have time to catch it before it sunk into her stomach. Charlotte tossed the ashes at her while she was distracted, causing Katherine to choke in the particles before collapsing on the ground, unconscious.

"It actually worked," she mused as Jeremy knelt beside Katherine and patted her down.

"It's not on her," he said.

"Then it's in there." Moving around Jeremy, Charlotte ventured deeper into the darkness of the tomb. He followed her, shining a flashlight from side to side as their eyes searched crevices they passed. No stone. The bitch had kept it in the farthest recess of the tomb, behind metal gates in a tiny alcove in the back.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she said when Jeremy had the stone. Bonnie said the dust would incapacitate Katherine for a few minutes, but they'd only taken a sample of it. Who knew how much time they had. Between the tomb and Katherine, this resembled the bad parts of the horror movies Jeremy made her watch.

Taking off at a run, they maneuvered through the tunnel-like halls, Charlotte right behind him, until they turned the last corner. Charlotte's heart thudded hard against her chest and her throat tightened when he stopped with a strangled cry. Katherine was awake, and she had her fangs in Jeremy's neck.

"Get off him," she screeched. Pulling back her arm she sent her fist into Katherine's side, piercing it with the stakes on her knuckles.

With a hiss of pain, Katherine jerked away from Jeremy. Her gaze moved to Lottie, red and menacing as she backhanded her so hard, she crashed against the side of the tomb and sent dust raining down on them. She stalked towards her with a promise of pain in her smirk when Jeremy slid the moonstone into the pocket of Lottie's pink hoodie and shoved her past the barrier of the tomb entrance.

"Stay out there Lottie!" Jeremy said when she moved towards the tomb. "Get the stone to Bonnie. I'll be fine."

"How gallant of you," Katherine said. He'd managed to get both the stone and the girl out.

"I'm not leaving you alone in there." She took another step towards the tomb, her footsteps faltering as her vision blurred and her stomach churned.

Jeremy watched as Lottie swayed on her feet before falling to her knees. His stomach clenched.

"Lottie, what's wrong?"

"She hit her head too hard. It's called a concussion," Katherine said. At least she'd gotten some retaliation against the plucky bitch after she stabbed her in the side. "Looks like you're both stranded here until the witch or Elena's fanboys come calling."

…

"Charlotte?" Bonnie said when she saw her sitting against the side of the tomb. When she looked up, there were tears streaming down her face. "What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to get the stone without risking her getting out," she said, pulling the stone from her hoody pocket and tossing it at Stefan's feet.

She'd finally resigned herself to waiting for Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie, instead of helping Jeremy fight off Katherine herself. She couldn't even stand without looking like a drunk and feeling like her brain was being tossed against her skull like waves against a boat. It was torture. Every time she heard Jeremy cry out when Katherine would feed again, she'd struggle to her feet only to fight back her gag refluxes when her vision blurred. She was useless. She couldn't even call anyone for help because there was no service out there.

"How did you…what do you mean 'we'?" Bonnie asked.

"Charlotte, where's Jeremy?" Stefan asked, knowing immediately what she meant by 'we.' She wouldn't have come here without Jeremy.

"Keeping me company," Katherine said, dramatically stepping out of the shadows with him. "I'd hurry with your little spell. The longer you wait, the hungrier I become. But don't worry. He has his ring. If I drain him of blood, he'll just come back again. Unlimited refills."

With a deranged smile, she pulled him back into the shadows with her.

"Bonnie," Stefan said as he moved towards Charlotte.

"I'm on it," she said, setting up the torches.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, moving her chin up so he could see her face. There had to be a reason she was out here and not in there with Jeremy. She'd never abandon him.

"He pushed me and the moonstone out, after I attacked Katherine and she retaliated. I hit my head against the stones."

"You have a concussion," Stefan finished, noticing how her gaze seemed out of focus. "That's why you didn't go back in."

"I tried. But I only would have gotten us both hurt." They hadn't been ready to fight a real vampire, even a weak one. They didn't have enough practice. One day didn't make a slayer.

"Looks like you got in a good hit," he said nodding towards the dried blood covering the wood attached to her knuckles. "If I heal your concussion, will you promise not to try and go in there after him?"

"No," Charlotte said.

"If you go in there with my blood in you, you will come out a vampire. Katherine will kill you," Stefan said, trying to get through to her how dangerous it would be to go back in there. But she already knew the danger. "Okay, no blood for you until Jeremy's out."

Hours passed agonizingly slow as day turned to night, and still Bonnie wasn't doing the spell. They were waiting for Damon, who was nowhere to be found. Charlotte desperately tried to stay awake as the fog in her head grew thicker. Stefan kept nudging her awake until he finally bit into his wrist and fed her his blood. It burned through the fog, clearing her head and erasing the nausea. Stefan kept a tight hold on her wrist to prevent her from doing anything stupid while Bonnie started her spell.

Katherine dragged Jeremy back to the entrance when Bonnie started her incantation. Charlotte kept her gaze on him, his neck a bloody mess, until a thud sounded behind her. Bonnie had fainted. Stefan released his hold on her as he tried to revive her, and as soon as he did, she sprinted towards the tomb. Of course, he caught up to her before she got halfway there.

"Let me go, Stefan. I'm done waiting. She can't get the barrier down." Katherine would kill Jeremy, for good, if he no longer served a purpose. He was her bargaining chip for having the tomb de-spelled, but if Bonnie couldn't do it there would be no sense in her keeping him alive.

"Looks like you've reached your best buy date," Katherine muttered to Jeremy, shoving him up against the wall and preparing to rip her fangs into his jugular. No need to be clean.

In a flash, Stefan pulled Jeremy away from Katherine and shoved him towards the tomb entrance, screaming at him to go. He fell to the ground just inside the tomb, and Charlotte rushed forward to pull him all the way out. They sat clinging to each other, their breaths coming heavy and their eyes wide as they realized what Stefan had done.

…

Charlotte drove Jeremy home. With all the blood he'd lost, she insisted it was safer if she drove. She helped him up the stairs to his room and into the bathroom so she could clean and bandage his neck.

"Why'd you push me out of the tomb?" Charlotte asked as she applied a clean gauze pad to his neck. "We're supposed to work together."

"We weren't going to win that fight," he said, his breath tickling her cheek. "I had my ring, but you were vulnerable. I needed to get you and the moonstone out."

"You'll always have the ring." Done with the bandage she stepped back and moved her gaze up to meet his. "You can't just take on a vampire alone because I don't have one."

"I know. And I won't. Once we're better at fighting. I promise."

Wetting a washcloth, she gently wiped the dried blood from his cheek.

"I'll hold you to that."

A/N: Not my longest chapter by far, but it's an update :) I really hope you enjoyed it and the Jelottie moments (that's the ship name I'm giving them. Because I'm lame enough to give my own characters ship names). Do you guys prefer longer or shorter chapters? Would you prefer shorter chapters but faster updates or longer chapters with a bit slower updates?

Rach

xoxo