Chapter 27

Elena was at the Grill with her friends but she couldn't enjoy herself and relax. She felt safer at home and was afraid that she was putting everyone at the Grill in danger by her presence there. At home, she knew that Esther couldn't get her or anyone else and since she didn't want to interrupt her friend's fun by asking them to take her back home, she walked out back, where it was calmer and started to call Stefan to ask him if he could pick her up but before she could hear it ring even once, the back door opened behind her and someone hit her over the head. After that, it all went black.

She was in trouble. That was the last conscious thought she made as she slowly lost track of them and felt herself being lifted before she even dropped on the ground.

.

Esther had been able to locate Elena Gilbert, the doppelganger, quite easily and it was just her luck that the naïve girl was just walking away from her friends, to an empty hallway, near the back door. Knocking her out with brute force was easy but using magic to transport her back to the witch house took a bit more efforts. Still, she managed to do it unnoticed by anyone and that fact alone made her confident that she'd be able to do what she had planned without trouble.

Her plan was well thought out, it couldn't fail. She was confident that she had prepared for everything and that her children and their allies wouldn't even know where to start.

.

In Mystic Fall's, everyone was frantic.

Nobody had seen Elena since she left to call Stefan and the fact that Bonnie couldn't do a locator spell to find her was proof that she had probably been taken by Esther. It was the only believable option.

Of course, this had pushed Klaus to reinforce the security around Bella, the hybrids that used to patrol around town were now inside her building. Though he was worried because a few of them didn't answer the phone or even when he had shifted and howled for them to come help.

"I can't believe Rebekah chose today to get out of town on a shopping spree in New York... Her timing has got to be the worst." Klaus complained as he texted his sister to come back as soon as possible.

"How do we organize ourselves then? We can't just go running in every direction to look for Elena…" Stefan asked around, eager to leave while his brother looked about ready to run off and look for her on his own.

For a second, Stefan looked at his brother and realized that, maybe, Damon loved Elena a little more than he did. Maybe his relationship with Elena was just because of Silas and Amara, because Damon seemed barely able to stay in place and looked about ready to turn every single rock in town to find a clue about Elena. The younger Salvatore brother realized that the fact that he was able to keep such a cook head about this probably meant that she was just his friend now. They'd have to talk about it eventually, if she survived this.

"First of all Jenna, Jeremy, Matt and Alaric, you stay here with Bella. It's the most well protected place around town and you'll be fine here until we come back with Elena. We'll all report here. Alaric, get all of your weapons out of your car, you might need them. We never know who or what is working with our mother." Klaus declared, taking charge of everything.

"I have some weapons too, hidden all around the place." Bella nodded and they all looked at her, as surprised as they would have been if she had told them the worst obscenity in the world.

"Really? Here?" Jeremy asked her.

"Yes. Why? What?" Bella asked him, wondering why everyone was suddenly watching her and pausing what they had been doing.

"I think we're just surprised that you'd have weapons just lying around when you can be so… clumsy." Elijah replied, trying to calm her down.

"I'm not clumsy!" She exclaimed with a frown.

"You constantly trip over tin air." Jenna argued.

"I… simply… I do random gravity checks." Bella replied with a deep blush, making everyone chuckle for a moment before they remembered that Elena had been taken and concentrated back on the task at hand.

"Should we call Caroline and Tyler for help?" Bonnie asked.

"No, Tyler is out of town with his mother and Caroline is with her dad. They wouldn't be able to make it on time. We have to make do without them." Bella shook her head.

"John is out of town too but I should maybe call him, warn him that Elena is in danger?" Jeremy asked.

"He won't be back on time either but sure, bring him up to date." Jenna nodded.

"He'll want to know." Bella confirmed, thinking about Isobel and wishing she could speak to her.

She was sure that Isobel would be able to tell them where Elena was and what Esther was doing to her.

"What about us? Where do we look?" Stefan asked, knowing that his big brother needed to move now, to do something useful.

Of course, over that past few weeks, he had noticed that they were more like two friends than a boyfriend and girlfriend, but he put it aside for now.

"We start at the witch house." Klaus decided and they all nodded.

"Wait, shouldn't we call Sage and Finn back first? I know they're on a big date and all but this definitely qualifies as an emergency…" Kol asked them.

"I'll do it." Elijah nodded, getting his cell phone out.

"Finn, it's Elijah. Elena was taken, we think Mother is behind it." Elijah said as soon as Finn answered his new phone.

"We can be here in a couple of hours." Finn replied.

"Good, head for Bella's office, that's where we'll regroup." Elijah said before he hung up.

"2 hours… I hope it won't be too late…" Damon shook his head.

"Bonnie, you should stay here too, it'll be safer." Kol suggested.

"No, I'm coming. You might need my help against the dead witches' spirits. I think I know how to do it. I've been researching it lately." She assured them and not willing to waste any time on this, they agreed and left while the two hybrids took post near the door while two more, who had just gotten into town to take over guard duty, patrolled around the street.

"Shouldn't one of us call Carlisle? Just in case something happens?" Jenna asked.

"Let's not be pessimist. He can come back quickly f something does happen but since they're taking their time driving there but... I don't want to make him come back if it's not necessary..." Bella replied, shaking her head.

"He'd want to know, I know this because he told me so. We could simply warn him, this way he could stop or wait until he's called or something." Alaric argued, his cell phone already in his hand.

"You're right, do it." Bella nodded.

Alaric texted Carlisle a summary of the situation and, a few seconds later, received a reply:

"On my way."

Carlisle was coming back to help them. Somehow, it reassured Bella.

.

Elena woke up tied tightly to a wooden chair, in a dark room she vaguely recognized as being part of the abandoned witch house. She was gagged and once her eyes adjusted to the new light, she realized that there was another person in the room with her. A woman. A part of her mind seemed to know who it was and why she was here but for some reason, the thought couldn't make it to the conscious part of her mind. Something blocked it and made her confused.

"Ah, it seems you're finally awake. I was afraid I had hit too hard for a moment. I don't know much about medicine, but I'd bet you have some damages here… Too bad the Cold One doctor left town, he would have been able to help you…"

As the woman spoke, Elena felt the pain on the back of her head and everything became clear to her. The woman standing in front of her was Esther. She needed to get out of here, she knew it, but she couldn't. She was tied up and her head felt really heavy.

Was it wrong that at this moment, one of the thoughts in her head was that she hoped she'd be rescued before the decade dance so she could experience the 20's and that, for some reason, she wanted to experience them with Damon instead of Stefan?

Smirking, Esther walked closer to Elena and cut her wrist with what looked to the young woman like a rusted knife, placing a cup underneath to gather the blood that was pouring before wrapping it up in a dirty bandage.

Obviously the old witch didn't care about Elena getting a possible infection.

Elena was afraid and in pain. She knew that her pain in the head wasn't normal and that if she didn't get vampire blood or a hospital soon, she might die. She couldn't stop the tears from falling down her face. She tried to keep in mind that people would notice that she was gone and that they would come for her, that they would find her and kill Esther.

They'd find a way.

"Don't worry your little head Elena, your friends won't find you here. They could be standing right in front of you and they won't see you because if no witches came to help me, the ones haunting this house decided to help me in my task." Esther said, pulling Elena's gag down so she could speak.

"They'll come for me. They're probably already looking for me. You won't win." Elena insisted.

She wanted to add that Villains never won but she had a difficult time speaking. She didn't know if it was because of the smoke coming from the cauldrons on the table or because of the hit on the back of her head but she knew it was bad.

"Oh, I'm counting on that." Esther smirked before ripping a couple of hair from Elena's head.

Under Elena's questioning eyes, Esther was facing two little cauldrons. In one, she put half of Elena's blood, in the other, she put the rest of the blood as well as the hair.

"What are you going to do with that?" Elena asked, hearing her words slip away from her.

She wasn't speaking like she usually did and she knew that it was a very bad sign. She had seen enough medical tv shows to know that she was in a bad shape and risked dying.

Instead of answering Elena, Esther took some powder from a little cup and blew it on the doppelganger's face, making her fall asleep on the chair.

Esther turned back to her work table and after a few more adjustment to her potions, she put the first one in a syringe in her pocket and grabbed another syringe she had prepared earlier, filled with a very concentrated amount of vervain and wolfs bane. Once that was done, Esther poured the potion with Elena's hair in a cup and drank it, a smirk on her face.

Walking in front of an old mirror on the wall, Esther watched as her face turn into Elena's and managed to magically glamour her clothes into looking like Elena's as well.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me, who is the most powerful one of them all… Oh well…" She joked for herself, confident that she'd win.

In her mind, there was no doubt that if the mirror had been enchanted and able to speak, he would have told her that she was the most powerful one and that she'd end up winning.

.

When someone knocked frantically on the front door, ringing the doorbell just as frantically in between knocks, Bella and everyone stayed on the stairs while the hybrids opened the door to check who it was.

Security first, right?

"Elena? Where were you? Come on in, what's happened to you? You look terrible." Bella exclaimed when she saw her dead best friend's daughter looking so distraught.

Immediately, everyone circled the young girl to make sure she was alright.

"Esther. She took me and… I don't know, she took me somewhere… Then she got angry at someone and I managed to escape… I just ran until I started recognizing things… I came here figuring I'd be safe from her…" Esther whimpered, pretending she was Elena.

She could feel strong magical protections downstairs, just like she had been warned by the witches' spirits (she had no idea where they found out, but they obviously did) and knew that it would all be weaker upstairs so she smiled when they escorted her upstairs to give her something warm to drink and eat.

.

Bonnie was just done doing her spell on the witch house, allowing them all to go inside safely, and they all rushed past her, except Kol who was tasked to keep her safe, no matter what.

"It definitely didn't look like that when I came by this morning. This obviously looks lived in." Damon commented.

"Then Bonnie's spell to block the dead witches' magic worked. Let's hurry before they manage to break through it." Klaus replied.

"Yes, they're bound to be angry at all of us being here later so we should hurry." Elijah commented.

"I can smell Elena's blood." Stefan exclaimed before leading them in the right direction.

"Elena!" Stefan and Damon yelled as they rushed to her side and untied her, trying to wake her up in the process.

"Mother had been brewing several potions in here." Elijah said, pointing to the table that held the reminder of several ingredients.

"Elena, come on, wake up." Damon pleaded with her and the teenage girl finally started to open her eyes.

"Esther… Took my blood and hair…" Elena managed to say, eager to help but feeling excruciatingly tired.

They could hear in her voice that something was wrong and it got them all worried. Well, Klaus was worried because he knew that Elena was important to Bella but still, he knew it would be best if she survived.

"I get why she'd take her blood but why the hair?" Klaus asked his big brother.

"She even left some of the blood behind with a conservation spell on it… She was keeping it for later use…" Bonnie commented disgustingly as she joined them with Kol.

"Listen Stefan, Damon, you take Elena home, give her blood, keep her safe and let her heal. Make sure she doesn't die, even with your blood in her. We'll keep you informed." Klaus told them and they nodded, carrying a once again unconscious Elena out of the haunted house.

"There's even remains of vervain and wolfsbane here… Whatever she did, she used a lot of it… But I still don't get why she'd use Elena's hair though…" Elijah shook his head.

"Whatever it is, it probably has to do with Bella, I can feel it. We need to get back to her quickly." Klaus replied as he started to make his way out of the room, worried for the woman he loved, and for his children.

"Oh no… hair… blood… Yes, we need to get to Bella quickly. Try to call her too." Bonnie said quickly after noticing a few of the ingredients that had been left behind.

"Why? What is it?" Kol asked her while Klaus tried to call the mother of his children and Elijah, Bonnie and himself tried Jeremy, Jenna and Alaric's phones.

"The ingredients here… I think it can all be used for a potion that would allow Esther to look like Elena for a while." Bonnie replied as she tried to call Matt.

"Nobody's answering, not even my hybrids." Klaus growled, leading them back outside.

"You two run there, I'll follow you with Bonnie. I'll carry her." Kol offered, taking Bonnie in his arms while Elijah and Klaus rushed away in a big whoosh.

They really hoped they could get back to Bella's office on time. Klaus even considered calling Liz Forbes for help but it would only be putting her in danger and unfortunately, Bella had made him care about the people of this town and their safety, so he couldn't put them in danger to protect himself and the people he loved.

"Don't worry brother, we'll get there in time. We have to." Elijah told Klaus to try to reassure him.

He knew that his brother had opened up to Bella like he hadn't opened up to anyone before. Losing her would destroy him. It would destroy them all. Would they even be able to stay a united family without her? He was sure that the answer was no. They had all found something they missed in her and losing her would break the stability they had found.

Sure, they'd stay united long enough to get revenge on whomever had hurt her and the babies, but after that, a very dark time would come.

They had to arrive on time, he loved Bella too much to lose her.

What did you think? Not many changes here...

Lorelei Candice Black