At the Lockwood Mansion, Elena and Stefan were waiting for Carol to announce the donation in Elena's mom's name. She was the only one left on Stefan and Damon's 'team' because she believed two vampires were stronger than a bunch of witches and a werewolf. She still couldn't believe Bonnie had ditched her, even though Bonnie promised that that wasn't the case. Regardless of her reason, Elena was starting to doubt putting her trust in Stefan and Damon.

"And here to accept the donation to the Miranda Sommers-Gilbert scholarship fund is Elena Gilbert," Carol finally said. Elena smiled and joined Carol on the stage.

"The Historical Society was my mom's baby," Elena started her speech. "She considered all of you family and would be honored and touched by this gift."

Suddenly, there was a loud noise and Stefan was the first one to leave the room to see what it was. John Gilbert laid at the foot of the stairs, dead. He turned his neck to the side and saw two bite marks. Carol made her way to the front and addressed the crowd.

"Please, let the sheriff do her job."

Sheriff Forbes moved through the crowd and crouched down next to Stefan.

"Uh, he's- he's bleeding," he stuttered out quickly and acted dumb. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, I got it. I got it." Sheriff Forbes looked down and also noticed the bite marks. She stood and started to push the crowd back before they saw anything. "You know what? Let's all back off. He just needs some air. Everything's fine."

Stefan got away and went back to check on Elena, except now it was Katherine posing as Elena. She'd handed Elena off to Isobel when she was alone and Isobel was long gone by now.

"You okay?" He asked and Katherine nodded her head.

"I'm calling Damon," she replied.

"Let's get out of here. Come on."

Stefan grabbed onto her hand and pulled her out of the house. Katherine was on the phone as they were walking towards Elena's car.

"It's Isobel, Damon," she was saying into Elena's phone. "It's gotta be."

"Tell him he needs to get over here and deal with John's body," Stefan told her.

"You've got some serious explaining to do to the council about John being not so dead."

Katherine hung up the phone and Stefan pushed her against Elena's car roughly.

"Where the hell is she, huh?"

Katherine stabbed him with a syringe full of vervain and he slumped against her.

"I'm sorry, Stef, but I can't have you following me."

She tossed him into the bushes and left.

xxxx

Caroline and Josiah were climbing the steps of Caroline's porch in defeat. Caroline was leaving yet another message for Matt, whom they failed to find no matter how hard they tried.

"Hey, Matt, if you're listening to this, that means you've listened to the last 25 messages I've left you, which all say the same thing, so… call me." Caroline hung up the phone and sighed loudly. Josiah had stopped dead and she lightly bumped into him.

"Look." He gestured through the window on her front door. Matt was standing just inside. They both looked at each other and Caroline stepped forward to unlock the door.

"You're here," Caroline said quietly when she went inside. Josiah followed and closed the door behind him.

"Your mom brought me here," Matt told her. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"My mom?"

"I accused her of covering up Vicki's dead and she threatened to arrest me."

"Did you tell her anything else?" Caroline asked anxiously. Even Josiah seemed worried.

"Nothing about you."

Josiah and Caroline both let out audible sighs of relief.

"I got the feeling she wasn't gonna believe anything I said, so I shut up. She brought me here to cool down and then she got called away."

Caroline sighed and walked closer to Matt, but he took a large step backwards. She stopped.

"Why'd you stick around if you're still scared of me?"

"Because I need to know more about Vicki, about you," Matt glanced at Josiah, "how you fit into the equation. Everything."

Josiah nodded. "We'll tell you anything you want to know." He cast a look at Caroline. "Come on. Sheriff Forbes could come back at any minute. Let's go to your room."

Caroline moved past both Matt and Josiah towards her room. They followed quietly. Hopefully, this wouldn't backfire.

xxxx

When Elowen and Esmeralda were back at their house, Esmeralda immediately pulled her daughter into the living room and turned on her.

"Are you crazy?" She whisper yelled. She didn't want Sydney and Eliana to know they were home yet and it was a miracle Binx hadn't come running into the room. "If you're not careful, you could die. Why did you still go through with it? Why did you decide to drag Bonnie into it, too?"

"You're one to talk. You didn't try to stop me. You didn't even put up a fight. And I didn't drag Bonnie into anything, she came all on her own. That's on her. Look, mom, this is our only shot at killing Klaus, so unless you have any other ideas, this is it. This is what we've got."

"You can't go through with it. I can't lose you."

"You won't. I'll be careful. When am I not careful?"

"This doesn't sound like something you can just 'be careful' of. If you die-"

"Die?" Toby's voice cut in. He'd never left after Elowen, Bonnie, Jeremy and Esmeralda took off. Sydney and Eliana were in their room with Binx watching tv and he'd been in there with them, but had come down to go to the kitchen for a snack when he overheard the conversation. "What's going on? Why are you talking about dying?"

Elowen grimaced when she heard Toby behind her. Esmeralda crossed her arms.

"Do you want to tell him or should I?"

Elowen slowly turned around and faced Toby. She mentally took a deep breath. "It's nothing serious. Channeling all of those witches is a lot of power and I just have to make sure I don't use too much of it at once."

Toby warily walked into the room. "Okay, but why is dying the topic here? What aren't you telling me?"

Elowen sighed. Toby was one of the few people she just couldn't lie to. She didn't have it in her. "Magic doesn't come without consequences. The consequence here is that there's a possibility I could die."

"What?"

"It's just a possibility! It's not that big of a deal."

"'Not that big of a deal'? You're kidding me, right? There's a chance you could die and you're really gonna sit here and tell me not to worry?"

"There's nothing to worry about because I'll be fine! I'll be fine. Look, you can't tell anyone, alright? If everyone knows, they'll freak out and if everyone is freaking out, we'll never get anything done. Please."

Toby and Esmeralda looked at each other. Before either of them could say anything, the front door blew open and Stefan and Damon came rushing through. The loud noise was enough to bring Eliana and Sydney downstairs, followed by Binx. They all ignored his growling when he saw Stefan and Damon.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Elowen asked, her voice a mix between confusion and aggression. She was still mad at them and didn't want to see them, so them just bursting through her door was obviously unwelcome.

"Isobel and Katherine took Elena," Stefan told her quickly. "I know you want nothing to do with us, but we need your help. You're all we've got."

"Elena will be fine," Elowen told him nonchalantly. "Isobel promised me Klaus wouldn't do the ritual without a full moon."

"Isobel?" Came Damon's incredulous voice. "Wen, what did you do?"

"I did what I had to in order to lure Klaus out. The rest doesn't concern you. Get out."

"We're not leaving until you tell us what's going on," Stefan said. "We know you've been looking for the sight of the witch massacre."

"And we found it. Is that all?"

Toby stood in between Elowen and Stefan and Damon. "I think it's best you leave."

"Shut it, you mutt," Damon snapped. "We weren't talking to you."

Eliana, not liking how Damon was talking to Toby, let go of Binx's collar. She'd been holding him back this whole time and watched as he lunged at Damon and roughly bit his hand. Damon yelled in pain and, on reflex, kicked Binx away. Binx whined loudly and landed a foot or two away. The reaction was almost immediate.

Sydney and Eliana rushed forward to check on Binx while Toby started for Damon with a deep glower on his face. It took both Elowen and Esmeralda to keep him back.

"Boys, if you don't leave willingly, we will remove you by force," Esmeralda told Stefan and Damon with so much animosity in her tone that they weren't sure it was coming from her at first. Damon was getting ready to refuse when Stefan grabbed onto his arm.

"We understand. Let's go, Damon."

After they were gone, Esmeralda turned on Elowen.

"What part of your deal with Isobel and Katherine did you leave out?"

"Long story short, I'm giving Klaus everything he needs to complete the ritual," Elowen replied. "He'll come out of hiding and then Bonnie and I can kill him once and for all."

"You mean you just handed Elena over?" Toby asked in disbelief.

"The sacrifice would've been done one way or another, remember? Why else would we be looking for spells to help save her? I did what had to be done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a tracking spell that I need to check on."

Elowen moved past everyone and went up to her room, leaving everybody else in the room looking at each other dumbly.

xxxx

"I really wish you'd say something," Caroline was saying to Matt. Him, her and Josiah were all in the living room. They'd started out in Caroline's bedroom, but when it became apparent that Sheriff Forbes wasn't coming home any time soon, they moved out there instead.

"... I'm all alone," Matt said quietly, at last.

"No, you're not," Caroline tried to comfort him, but Matt shook his head.

"My mom doesn't care, my sister's dead and all of my friends are liars, and you're a… and he's a…"

"Hey, we're still us," Josiah gently told him. "We're still us, we're just a little bit…" He shrugged. Caroline came and sat next to Matt, who immediately got up and away from her.

"Don't. No. This is too much. All of this is just too much. I don't want to know this."

"Tell me what I can do," Caroline practically begged. "Tell me what I can do. I… We want to help you."

"You can make me forget. You said that's something you can do, right? Make me forget?"

"I don't-" Caroline started to shake her head. "I don't think that that's-"

"Please make me forget, Caroline. I don't want to look at you, either of you, and see what I'm seeing right now."

Josiah placed a hand on Caroline's shoulder when she opened her mouth to protest. She looked at him helplessly as he nodded his head.

"It's okay. It's what he wants."

It took Caroline a few moments to respond or do anything. Finally, she stood up wordlessly and took Matt's face in her hands.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled to him lowly. "About everything."

Then, she compelled him.

xxxx

"Is that Isobel's?" Stefan asked Elena as he walked in the room. She'd been let go and returned back home after Isobel and Katherine kidnapped her. Isobel had ripped her daylight necklace off and burned to death in front of Elena and she'd kept the piece of jewelry. Elena nodded her head.

"I never thought I would feel bad about her being dead, and yet…"

"She was your mother."

"Why did they let me go? I mean, if what you told me was true, then even Elowen was in on it. Can't you ask her?"

"I don't even think she knows you're back. It sounded like she made a deal with Isobel to draw Klaus out and, well, regardless of how this played out, it obviously worked."

Elena shook her head with a sigh. "I want Klaus dead just as much as everybody else, but I can't believe Elowen would do that to me. I mean, yeah, we're not exactly friends, but…"

"She's doing what she thinks is right. I'm not justifying what she did, but she's just… Look, anything John said to Isobel, we have to assume that Klaus knows, right? So, he knows that you're not gonna turn yourself into a vampire. He knows that you have us keeping you safe."

"He knows I'm not gonna run."

Damon walked into the room holding a stack of papers. "Which is why we need to take some precautions, cause we got played, all of us." He dropped said stack of papers onto Elena's lap. She looked down at them in confusion.

"What's this?"

"It's the deed to our house," Stefan informed her. "It's in Zach's name. As soon as you sign it, it'll be in your name."

"You're giving me your house?" Elena asked in surprise.

"Isobel had the right idea with the safe house. You'll just stay here till it's all over. That way, you can control who gets invited and who doesn't."

"Although, I'll be super pissed if you lock me out," Damon commented. "Also, for the record, if Elowen wasn't going on her little tangent, the deed would so be going to her instead."

John, who'd been lying on the floor for hours ever since Isobel killed him, finally sat up with a gasp. Damon sped over to him, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up.

"Damon, let him go," Elena ordered. "He and I need to talk."

Stefan and Damon moved to the library while Elena and John talked in the living room. Stefan was pouring them each a glass of bourbon.

"We've got to assume that Elowen did the spell to harness the witches' power if she said they found the spot of the massacre," Damon said as he came over and took his glass from Stefan. "Probably Bonnie, too, since our only witch left decided to head over to the other team."

"It's also probably safe to assume that Isobel might've known since apparently her and Elowen had some kind of deal. Maybe Katherine, too."

"And she's who knows where. Probably finally got tired and left, good riddance."

"We've gotta do something about Elowen. We'll work better together, not separated. I think it's time we apologized to her. Properly."

Damon scoffed. "I'm not sorry for lying to her. Daggering Elijah was our smartest option. She was going to just up and leave with him, Stefan. She's so obsessed with this Marisol chick it's starting to get unhealthy."

"And maybe we should help her. If we'd just done that from the start, there's a possibility that she never would've resorted to running away with Elijah in the first place. Be smart about this, Damon. Without her, we've got nothing."

Damon clenched his jaw. Stefan was right. He downed his drink in one gulp. "Fine. We'll go see her tomorrow and try to talk it out like adults."

"Thank you. In the meantime, let's focus on Elena."

"Yeah, whatever."

xxxx

Elowen furrowed her eyebrows. She had a map of Mystic Falls spread out on the floor of her bedroom and a ring placed on said map. The ring was supposed to represent Katherine and it moved wherever she did. Elowen had been keeping track of the ring for the last hour or so and it hadn't moved since then. When she finally checked the street it had circled around, she realized it was the street Alaric lived on.

Getting up, Elowen grabbed her jacket and her car keys and headed downstairs. Toby had finally left shortly after Stefan and Damon did, Esmeralda was working in her study and Sydney, Eliana and Binx were settled in the living room. Josiah was probably still at Caroline's. It was easier said than done to slip out the front door without anybody noticing.

xxxx

Elowen walked down the hallway to Alaric's apartment when she arrived at the apartment complex. She'd just made it to his door when somebody grabbed onto her and covered her mouth.

"Found you, you little bitch."

It was Luis, hissing into her ear. Elowen shoved herself backwards and rammed Luis into the wall behind them. It was a miracle the loud bang didn't send people into the hall to inspect what it was. It wasn't enough to shake him off of her, so she bit his hand, which did the trick in getting him to remove it from her mouth.

"Ric!" She yelled. "Ric, help! Ric!"

"That poor excuse of a man won't help you. You'll be dead before he could even try."

Luis yanked her head to the side and sank his fangs into her neck. She screamed and struggled around in his vice grip. It was no use.

The front door to Alaric's apartment opened and Alaric came into view. He stopped completely at the sight. Klaus had already taken over his body and he quite literally didn't know what was going on or who the two people in front of him were. Katherine hadn't gotten that far yet. Hell, he almost didn't even respond to Elowen's cries of 'Ric!' because it didn't click in his head that that was the name of the man he was possessing.

"Help… help me," Elowen weakly called out. She could feel herself beginning to slump against Luis and black dots were starting to coat her vision. "Ric… please."

Alaric, or better yet, Klaus, finally came to and rushed forward. While he was in a human body, he still had his ability to compel and some of his super strength (it was considerably weaker, but it was enough to fight a vampire), so he was able to easily push Luis off of Elowen. She fell to the ground, only half lucid and barely aware of her surroundings, as Luis staggered back.

"You," Luis growled, blood dripping down his face. "I think it's time I killed you."

Klaus tried his hardest not to laugh. Young vampires were always so… ambitious and pretentious. This one clearly needed somebody to put him in his place. Luis sped forward, but Klaus, already expecting this, grabbed onto him and snapped his neck. He crumpled to the floor in a heap of limbs. Klaus looked down at him in disgust.

A very feeble groan caught his attention and he turned his eyes from Luis to Elowen. He just about froze in his spot. He hadn't gotten a good look at her face before, but now, with the hallway lights shining down on her face, he saw her perfectly.

"Marisol?" Klaus heard himself say before he could stop himself. "Impossible…"

Elowen's eyes fell shut and, before realizing he was doing it, Klaus bent over and picked her up bridal style in his arms. He gently brought her into the apartment and Katherine sat up in her seat at the sight of her.

"Tell me everything you know about this girl," Klaus demanded. "Now."

Marisol skipped up to her precious Nik with her hands behind her back. He was sitting just outside their cottage, resting his eyes as he sat back on a chair. She stopped in front of him, a wide smile on her face, and waited for him to open his eyes.

Sensing her presence, Nik opened one eye. He opened the other when he saw it was her. Marisol excitedly pulled the gift she had out from behind her back and proudly showed it to him.

"Look at what I made you!"

It was a crown made from branches, twigs and flowers. She was wearing one similar on her head already. She'd even made one for Elijah, who accepted it gratefully and was walking around the village with it on. When she saw how Elijah reacted to it, she hurriedly made one for Nik, too. Her relationship with Nik was very one sided. She absolutely adored him, but he usually barely acknowledged her. He ignored her a lot, often pushed her to the side and hardly ever initiated conversation with her. Elijah was always criticizing him for this.

She's just a child, he would say. Be nice to her.

Nik looked at the flower crown, unimpressed and impassive. Marisol faltered when he didn't say anything. She cast her eyes to the ground.

"You don't like it."

Nik sighed and took the crown from her hands, deciding to play along for once. He placed it on his head and lifted her chin up with his index finger.

"What do you think?" He asked her. "Does it make me look pretty?"

A small smile reappeared on Marisol's lips. She giggled and nodded her head.

"Very pretty. Maybe if I could braid your hair-!"

"No," was Nik's immediate reply. Marisol actually jumped lightly at his brash tone.

"Oh," she said very quietly, voice barely above a whisper. "'M sorry for bothering you. I'll go now."

Marisol turned and started to walk away, her head hung low. Nik closed his eyes and sighed again, this time much deeper. He couldn't believe he was actually about to do this.

"Wait," he called out. He opened his eyes and waited for Marisol to turn back around. "I'll let you do it, but only if you promise to not make me look ridiculous."

Marisol's eyes lit up and she came running back towards him. "Really? I'll do my best, I promise!"

She was already taking the crown off of his head and positioning herself behind the chair he was sitting in so she could start braiding his long hair. Elijah was approaching the cottage, stopped and quickly hid when he saw what was going on a few yards away. He knew that if he made himself known, 'Nik', as Marisol affectionately called him, would stop what he was doing and act like nothing had even happened. He wanted Marisol to have this one moment with him, even if it only occurred once.

He smiled softly at Marisol's huge grin and Nik's grumbling face and he knew. Nik was finally letting her in.

xxxx

Author's Note: I'm super excited for the next chapter to be uploaded because we get to see Elowen interact with Klaus for the first time! I hope you guys enjoyed this one :)