It was mid morning when Esmeralda's phone went off. Elowen and Josiah were at the dinner table eating breakfast, Eliana was in the shower, Sydney was in the kitchen and Esmeralda had just made it downstairs. Binx was lounging in the living room.
"Hello?" She answered as she rounded the corner and approached the fridge. She hadn't looked at the caller ID before she picked up.
"Hey," Alaric's voice breathed through the line. "Look, there's no easy way to say this. Isobel showed up on Elena's doorstep last night. She asked me to call you so we could both come over and try to explain things to Jenna."
Esmeralda's hand was on the fridge door handle and she stopped mid pulling it open. She wasn't sure how to process this. "Oh," she replied dumbly. "Okay. I'll meet you there."
"Okay. Bye."
Esmeralda hung up and stared at her phone for a minute. Sydney was eyeing her intently.
"Something wrong?" She asked. Esmeralda shook her head.
"I'm not sure, but I'm about to find out."
xxxx
Elena opened the front door and sighed in relief when she saw Alaric and Esmeralda had finally showed up. They both stepped in.
"Hey. Is she up yet?" Alaric asked as Elena closed the door behind them. She shook her head.
"She won't come out of her room."
"What'd you tell her?" Esmeralda questioned.
"Nothing. She won't talk to me."
"We're gonna have to fix this, Elena," Alaric told her. Footsteps descending the stairs caught their attention and they looked up to find Jenna coming down. Esmeralda immediately doubled over. The strong amounts of anger - no, more like fury - emitting from Jenna was almost overwhelming. She was pissed.
"I don't want you here, Ric, Esmeralda," Jenna said with clenched teeth. She couldn't even care to be bothered that it looked like Esmeralda was going to be sick. "You need to go."
"Okay, listen," Alaric started. "I can't even begin to imagine what you must be feeling right now."
Esmeralda growled, straightened up suddenly and slapped Alaric across the face. Both Elena and Jenna jumped back with wide eyes. Alaric grabbed onto his face, equally as stunned.
"How could you?! I trusted you!" Esmeralda yelled. "I thought you were my friend and you just went ahead and lied to me? I can't believe you!"
She drew her hand back to try and land another hit, but Alaric, having regained his composure, quickly grabbed both of her hands and did his best to hold her back as she struggled.
"Esmeralda! Hey!"
"Let go of me! I said, let go of me!"
"Hey! Hey! Esmeralda!" Alaric pushed her against the wall and held her there as she continued to fight him. "Stop it, this isn't you! You're feeling what Jenna's feeling; you're letting her emotions control you. Concentrate!"
Slowly, all the fight started to leave Esmeralda's body until she was left breathing heavily against the wall. Her face was flushed and red and it took a second for her eyes to refocus. She saw Elena's half scared, half worried face, Jenna's look of bewilderment and finally, Alaric's calm, reassuring eyes that were telling her that she would be okay, that this was only a phase. Some of her hair was stuck to her face and she doubted she looked anywhere near decent at the moment.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "She's just feeling a lot of rage right now and it's hard to not let it cloud my judgement."
"Okay, what the hell was that?" Jenna asked. "What do you mean she's letting my emotions control her?"
Alaric let Esmeralda go and she carefully took a step towards Jenna.
"This isn't going to be easy to hear. I'm a witch, Jenna."
Jenna scoffed and shook her head. "God, you must really think I'm stupid, huh? This would be so much easier if you would just tell me the truth."
"We're trying to, Jenna. Just listen to us," Elena said hopelessly. Jenna had come down with a bag and put it down so she could put her jacket on. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to stay on campus," Jenna replied shortly. "I have a thesis to write and I don't want to be in this house."
"Jenna, please, just stop," Elena begged. "Let us explain to you exactly what is going on."
Jenna ignored her. "Elena, I need you to go to the Lockwood's today and accept the Historical Society's check for your mom's foundation." She went over and opened the front door.
"Okay, but, Jenna, please just-"
Jenna turned on Elena, her face both angry and hurt. Her eyes were red and watery as she tried not to cry. "I don't have it in me to hear any more lies from you."
She slammed the door shut as she left and Elena tried going after her. John walked out from the kitchen, having heard everything.
"Let her go," he said. "It's better that she's not here, what with everything that's going on, but maybe, had you been a little more honest with her from the beginning, this-"
Alaric punched John in the face before he could finish his sentence. Elena and Esmeralda stepped back in surprise.
"Sorry, Elena," Alaric mumbled quietly before grabbing Esmeralda's wrist and pulling her to the front door with him. They both left and Elena turned to John.
"You know this is your fault, right?"
John's nose was bleeding and Elena was looking at him with a satisfied smile.
"Right."
She left and went back upstairs without another word.
xxxx
Elowen begrudgingly walked up the steps of Elena's house with heavy footsteps. She really didn't want to be here, but Esmeralda had practically gotten on her knees and begged Elowen to go over there and offer some sort of comfort, assistance, whatever. She had whined and said that she needed to go over to Luka and Jonas's apartment and collect all of their grimoires, but Esmeralda told her that her, Eliana and Sydney would do it. Josiah had been tasked to help Caroline find Matt. So, that's how she found herself knocking on Elena's door.
Stefan was the one to answer the door. She stared at him for a moment, shook her head and turned around to leave. Screw this. She didn't want to be anywhere near Stefan than she did Elena and she was wondering how her mom even talked her into this in the first place.
"Elle, wait." Stefan quickly followed her down the steps and grabbed onto her wrist. Elowen whirled around on him.
"What, Stefan? What? Are you going to launch into some stupid speech about how I'm making the wrong choices and that I should come back and help you? Huh? Well, I don't want to hear it. Let go of me."
Stefan let her go and she continued her way towards her car.
"I hate to interrupt," John's voice rang out. They both turned to the still open front door and found him standing in the doorway. "But, can you come back inside, please? I think you two would like to hear this."
Elowen cast one last glance at Stefan before moving past him and going back the way she came. After a moment, Stefan followed. Elena was making her way downstairs when they entered and she seemed surprised to see Elowen there. There was no time for explanations, because Isobel came walking out of the kitchen.
"I asked John for a do-over," she told them. Elena looked at John in disbelief.
"You invited her in?"
"She has information about Klaus," John replied. "Please, just listen to her, okay?"
"Alright," Elowen spoke up. "I'll bite. What do you know?"
They'd all moved to the kitchen before Isobel said anything.
"Since I was last here, I've been doing everything possible to find Klaus," Isobel was explaining. "We knew our best chance was to find him before he could find you."
"Best chance at what?" Stefan asked.
"Keeping Elena alive," John answered. Elena scoffed.
"You don't get to talk, okay? Not after everything you've done."
"Were you able to find Klaus?" Elowen asked, steering the conversation back to the right topic.
"No," Isobel lied right through her teeth. Elowen knew it. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Isobel wasn't even fazed by her suspicious gaze. In fact, she looked at her in a taunting way that challenged her. 'Say it,' it said, 'go ahead. Say it'. She didn't.
"Nobody knows where he is, but there are these rumors that are flying around that a doppelganger exists and that the Ramirez family has been found."
"Which means that any vampire that wants to get in favor with Klaus will be lining up to capture the both of you," John finished.
"What I'm not understanding," Elowen started to say, "is why you're including me in this. I'm not your daughter. I'm nothing to you. You kidnapped me, used me as bait and were ready to kill me if you didn't get what you want without batting an eyelash and now you want to help? I'm not buying it."
"I agree," Elena said. Her eyes were on Isobel. "The last time you were here, you made it clear that you didn't give a damn about me. Now all of a sudden I'm supposed to believe that you want to help?"
"Isobel's been helping all along," John told them. "Klaus has been obsessed with finding Katherine for centuries. All it would take was any one of those 1864 tomb vampires to spread the word around that Katherine was still alive and it would've brought him straight here to Mystic Falls, where you were bound to be discovered, so we killed them."
"And almost killed Stefan and Damon in the process!" Elena exclaimed. Isobel stood up from her spot and moved towards Elena.
"I have a safe house that I can take you to. The deed is on your name. No vampires can get in without your permission, not even me. Let me help you."
"You wanna help? Then get the hell out of my house."
Isobel did exactly that. Elowen left immediately after, before Stefan could corner her, and instead went after Isobel.
"I know you're lying," she called out before Isobel could leave. "You've found him, haven't you?"
Isobel stopped and turned around. "I forgot. You're smart, and you have that nifty little power to help you, don't you?" She put her hands on her hips. "Hmm. Come with me. Let's have a little chat alone, shall we?"
xxxx
Damon opened the door to the apartment Luka and Jonas had been staying. Eliana, Esmeralda and Sydney were long gone by now. He didn't even have a clue that they'd been there. He put his hand through the door and found that he could get in.
"Yep. Everybody's dead."
He stepped through the threshold, followed by Jeremy and Bonnie. Luka's body was still in the living room, except now he had a blanket covering his body. Sydney didn't want to just leave him there, but Esmeralda said their priority was the grimoires, that they would come back for him later. She was the one who had covered him.
"The grimoires. They're all gone," Bonnie said once she ventured into the apartment. She was looking at all of the empty shelves in both awe and shock. There had been at least a hundred, maybe more, and to see them not there anymore made her feel like the carpet had been pulled out from underneath her. How was she supposed to fulfill Jonas's dying wish now?
"Damn it," Damon swore. "Elowen must've gotten here before we did. She had teamed up with them, after all."
"What are we gonna do, then?" Jeremy asked. "She's squarely on her own team now and there's no way she'd ever give us what we need."
"Can't you talk to your old buddy Josiah?" Damon asked. Jeremy shook his head.
"No. He's made it clear that he's not going to betray his sister. I haven't heard from him in days."
"And if Josiah's running with her, then that means Vampire Barbie is, too. There's no way she'd go against her precious boyfriend."
"Why did you have to go and lie to her? We wouldn't be all divided up right now if you'd just told her the truth."
"If I'd told her the truth, Elijah would be long gone with her in tow right now. I did what I had to do."
"No, what you did was selfish. You should've tried to help her, not-"
"I dare you to finish that sentence."
Jeremy shut up. He shook his head. "Whatever. Let's just get out of here. There's nothing that could help us."
xxxx
Isobel wouldn't say anything until they arrived at the house she was staying at. They entered and Elowen immediately started to speak.
"There's a chance that you'll just rat me out to Klaus the second I tell you what I know. How do I know you won't do that?"
"You don't. You're taking a big risk just being here, witch."
Isobel walked over to a bag and took out a wine bottle. She stopped midway and suddenly sped across the house and pushed somebody who was in the house against the wall. It had been Katherine. She easily pushed Isobel off and had her by the throat a second later.
"Nice house," she commented. Isobel smirked.
"Nicest foreclosure in town."
Katherine removed her hand and smiled. Isobel laughed.
"Come here."
They hugged and Elowen watched them confusedly a few feet away.
"Sorry, am I missing something here?" She asked.
Katherine pulled away from the hug and smirked. Her eyes sparkled with a glint in them, as if she were pleased to see Elowen there.
"Hmm," she hummed as she approached Elowen. "I knew you weren't running with your boy toys anymore, but I didn't realize that you'd be willing to work with someone they view as a threat."
"All the more reason," Elowen replied. "They thought Elijah was a threat, but he was clearly a man of his word."
"That he was." Katherine stopped in front of her and put her hands on her hips.
"It's good you're here. I have a plan that includes you, and it's all coming together perfectly now that Isobel's here. She's found Klaus."
Katherine raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Is that so? And you're so sure that you can trust me after everything I've done?"
"No, but you and I both want Klaus dead and you'll do whatever you think you need to do in order to make sure that happens. I know you think Stefan and Damon are floundering. You don't think they can do it."
"You're right. I was more than willing to play it their way if I had to, but…" She shrugged. "You know, you could easily turn and run back into their arms and tell them I'm here."
"I won't. I'm taking matters into my own hands. I don't need their help."
"You're more like me than you'd rather admit. You're a survivor. You do what you have to do to get what you want. Whatever it takes to get the job done, right?"
Elowen stared at Katherine for a moment and didn't answer. Finally, she looked past her and at Isobel instead. "Tell us what you know. That's the only reason I'm here."
They found themselves sitting on the couch in the living room. It turns out the wine bottle was filled with blood, so both Katherine and Isobel were drinking some of it out of wine glasses. Elowen sat and waited patiently for Isobel to say something.
"I couldn't get anywhere near Klaus," she said at last. "But, I found my way to someone in his trusted circle. One of his witches."
Katherine rolled her eyes and took a sip of her drink. "Klaus and his witches."
"He said that Klaus is willing to grant you your freedom if we delivered the moonstone and the doppelganger."
"I have the moonstone," Elowen spoke up. Isobel and Katherine's eyes were on her in an instant. "Elijah gave it to me before he died. Stefan and Damon don't even know I have it. It's safe in my house, where neither of you are invited in, so don't even think about trying to doublecross me."
"It's your turn to spill," Isobel told her. "I told you what I know."
"Elijah believed that if a witch could harness enough power, they could kill Klaus. I'm already halfway there, I just need the right spell, which is being looked for as we speak. Here's how this is going to work. I'll give the stone over to you," she said to Katherine, "and place a tracking spell on you so I can follow where you go. You'll lead me right to Klaus, and then you can run as far away from here as possible, I don't care."
"I'm liking this plan already," Katherine commented before taking another sip of her drink.
"You'll be tasked with getting Elena," Elowen told Isobel. "It'll be easier said than done. Katherine goes free, you can go wherever you go, and I'll stay here and deal with Klaus. Surely he'll have to come out of hiding with Elena and the moonstone being dangled in his face."
"And you're okay letting poor, little Elena die?" Katherine asked.
"I'm already on top of that, too. I've recently come into dozens and dozens of new grimoires that are bound to have to spell to help in that department. Just leave the rest to me, okay? Only worry about your part of the plan."
"You've really thought this through, haven't you?" Isobel questioned. "It's cute. Looks like I severely underestimated you last time I was here." She nodded. "Okay. Let's do it."
xxxx
There was a knock at the door and everyone paused. Everyone being Esmeralda, Eliana, Sydney and Toby. Josiah and Caroline were still out looking for Matt. It was easier said than done to find the right spell to channel power, but now they were all looking for a spell to help save Elena. Esmeralda was the one who stood up and went to answer the door. Jeremy and Bonnie were standing on the other side.
"We want to help," Jeremy said once the door was open. "Stefan and Damon have no idea what they're doing. Not without Elowen. You guys are our best chance at killing Klaus. Let us help. Please."
Esmeralda sighed and glanced over his shoulder at everyone looking over in curiosity. She opened the door wider to let them in.
"We're looking for a spell to help save Elena."
Bonnie furrowed her eyebrows as she entered. "But, I thought the whole point of killing Klaus was to save Elena."
"Klaus will be his weakest after the sacrifice," Esmeralda replied as she led them back towards the living room. "According to Elijah, at least, which means we have to go through with it. Elowen says she thinks that's our best shot, and, well, she's sort of the one calling the shots right now."
"Hang on, I think I've found something," Toby said when Jeremy picked up a lone grimoire. "This says that if we bind Elena's soul to someone, then… wait. Nevermind. False alarm."
"No, what is it?" Eliana asked as she went over and took the spell book from Toby. "If we bind Elena's soul to someone, she'll live," she continued what Toby had started to say. Everybody in the room perked up. "... but the person she's bound to will die. A life for a life."
The room went silent, then, Jeremy spoke up.
"I'll do it. Bind my soul to hers."
"No!" Bonnie immediately interjected. "You'll die, Jeremy!"
"It's our only shot to save Elena, Bonnie. I'm doing it and you can't stop me."
"Okay, wait, wait, wait. Calm down," Esmeralda cut in. "We'll bookmark this spell and keep it in our pool of options and if we can't find anything else, we'll come back to it. Alright?"
The front door opened and closed before anyone else could say anything. Elowen walked into the room. Binx excitedly bounded up to her while wagging his tail. She stopped in surprise when she saw Jeremy and Bonnie.
"What are you guys doing here?" She asked warily.
"We're here to help," Bonnie responded. "I know you're not sure who to trust right now, but you can trust us. We're not going to run to Stefan and Damon when this is all said and done."
Elowen relaxed. She knew she was telling the truth. "Okay. Please tell me you've found something, because I just made a deal with Isobel and Katherine and it's already been put into motion."
"You what?!"
"Katherine?!"
"You've got to be kidding."
Elowen grimaced at everyone's reactions. Jeremy, Bonnie and Toby were the ones who yelled at her, in that order. Esmeralda was just looking at her with wide eyes. Eliana was the one who broke the silence. She lifted her hand in the air.
"Hi, yeah. I have a question. Who the hell is Katherine?"
"A bad guy," Toby answered. "That's all you need to know."
"Sometimes, you have to team up with the bad guy to get what you want," Sydney said. Everyone except Elowen and Eliana turned to stare at her. She shrugged. "What? It's true. Almost every protagonist does it at least once."
"Look," Elowen started to say. "It's already been done. Katherine has the moonstone; I put a tracking spell on her so I can follow where she goes and it'll lead me right to Klaus. Isobel's supposed to get Elena, so please, for the love of god, will someone tell me whether or not we've found something to help her?"
Everybody took turns looking at each other. Elowen waited expectantly. In the end, it was Toby who spoke up.
"Not exactly. The only thing we've found is a spell that will bind Elena and another living human together, but that means she lives and they die. It's all we've got."
Elowen shook her head. "Nobody else is dying. We have to find something and we have to do it fast." She turned to Esmeralda. "I think it's time we did the spell."
"I want to come," Jeremy said immediately. Bonnie nodded her head.
"Me, too. If we both harness the witches, we'll have double the power to defeat Klaus. We can do this."
After a beat, Elowen nodded her head. "Okay. Let's go."
xxxx
"How did you even find this place?" Bonnie asked Esmeralda as they walked through the woods. She shrugged.
"It was an accident, really. I came across old records at the public library that said there was a terrible fire centuries ago and that dozens of people died inside the house it happened in. It reminded me of something I'd read in one of the grimoires that had been passed down to me and I went to find it to see if it matched up. It did and I knew it couldn't be a coincidence. A quick locator spell told me where to look, and, well, here we are."
They came to a clearing where an old, abandoned, run down house sat. They all stopped in front of it.
"You're sure this is the right place?" Jeremy asked as they approached the house. Esmeralda nodded.
"I'm sure."
They all entered the house and separated as they walked around. Elowen was the one who was holding the correct grimoire and Esmeralda was trailing behind her. Bonnie and Jeremy were in a different room. Suddenly, voices started to whisper all around them and all four of them stopped and listened.
"What is that?" Jeremy questioned as he looked around, trying to find the source of the voices.
"The spirits of the witches who died here," Bonnie responded. "I can feel them."
"Me, too," Elowen said.
"Same here," Esmeralda piped up.
"Alright. What are they saying?" Jeremy asked.
"I can't tell," Elowen replied. Her, Bonnie and Esmeralda all started to venture down into the basement. Jeremy carefully followed behind them.
"Where are you guys going?" He asked.
Nobody answered him. They all stopped in the middle of the basement. The whispers had gotten considerably louder and Jeremy looked around again.
"Here. This is it," Bonnie said. "Help us set the candles."
Jeremy started to pull a candle out of the bag he was holding and continued to look around the room. "What the hell are they saying?"
Bonnie, Esmeralda and Elowen all closed their eyes and concentrated. It was a warning.
We will help you in your quest to beat Klaus, however, channeling all of us is dangerous and comes with risk. If you overuse your powers, it will kill you. If you choose to continue, we will not stop you. Be careful and choose wisely.
All three of them reopened their eyes and glanced at each other. Elowen was already defending her choice to do this to Esmeralda before she could open her mouth.
"I'll take all the precautions I can, I promise. You have to let me do this. Please."
"Precautions?" Jeremy questioned from beside her. "What kind of precautions? What's going on? What did the voices say?"
"Nothing," Bonnie quickly told him. "Nothing important. Just some advice, is all."
"Bonnie is not doing this alone," Elowen whispered to Esmeralda. "You can't stop me."
She left her mom and went to the middle with Bonnie to help set up the candles. When they were done, the candles lit themselves.
"They're ready," Bonnie stated. Her and Elowen took hands and closed their eyes again. The whispering voices kept getting louder and louder until the both of them started to cry out in pain. Their screams echoed out in the empty house and Esmeralda and Jeremy tried to run forward in alarm, but were each thrown against the wall when they got too close. Neither of them could move or get up. Elowen and Bonnie's screaming intensified and got louder before the voices abruptly stopped. Jeremy and Esmeralda quickly got to their feet and rushed over to the both of them.
"Are you guys okay?" Jeremy asked as he took Bonnie in his arms. Esmeralda did the same with Elowen.
"We did it," Elowen told them before she fell over. Esmeralda caught her. Her and Jeremy shared a look and nodded.
"Let's get you two out of here. Come on."
Without even packing up the candles, Jeremy and Esmeralda started to lead Elowen and Bonnie back up the stairs and towards the front door.
xxxx
Author's Note: I'm super excited because next chapter Klaus finally gets introduced! I have a feeling you guys will like it, or at least I hope you do. Hope you enjoyed this one!