AN: Thank you for reading! and I appreciate your reviews! Got another one for you! things are about to get interesting 😉
Hope you enjoy and please leave a review - Vanessa
Chapter 8: The Call
The ride back the next morning was made in a mix of awkward small talk and strained silence. Elena busied herself with reading through the contact book that Vanessa gave them, searching for any clues that may lead them to Isobel. It was filled with notes about vampires; their strengths and weaknesses, recorded vampire attacks nearby, and her research on vampire history. She wasn't surprised to find entries about Katherine, but she was surprised to see Damon make a feature.
Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she scooted further down in the seat and rested her socked feet on the dash, knowing Damon would protest at her shoes dirtying his car. She started reading her mother's loopy scrawl.
Damon Salvatore; turned by Katherine Pierce in 1864 along with his brother Stefan. He left Mystic Falls nearly a year later thinking the love of his life had died in the tomb under Fell's Church...poor sap. She fooled them both. Then he spent the next century and a half tearing his way through the country; a man serving no master but his own darkest desires. His love for Katherine made him a vampire…but her betrayal made him a monster.
Elena slammed the book closed and forced herself to look out the window. She didn't want to read anymore. Isobel went on for another page or two, but she didn't want to see him that way; she didn't want to know that dark part of his past.
"Dead end?" His voice caught her off guard, and her head whipped over to glance at him.
She shook her head, looking out the window again. "Reading is making me car sick." She lied. "What made you want to be a vampire?" she asked, watching the trees along the highway blur passed them.
He cocked a brow, glancing at her briefly before focusing back on the road. "Well…it seemed like the only logical thing to do at the time." Elena swung her gaze over with a curious frown. "I loved Katherine, and if I wanted to be with her forever…then I had to live forever." He shrugged indifferently.
"But did you want to be a vampire?" she pressed.
He blinked. "No. When I thought Katherine died, I wasn't even going to complete the transition." He admitted somberly. "I was fully prepared to let my body die…cash in my chips and meet my maker."
Shifting to face him slightly, she canted her head. "So, what changed your mind?" This was the most they've spoken in the last two hours and the least weird their conversation had been since the hotel.
He gave a contemptuous shake of his head. "Stefan." His eyes darted to her. "We promised each other we wouldn't complete the transition. We made a pact. He left to tell our father, and when he came back, he was different, and he brought a girl. He'd had a taste of human blood…and then he begged me to turn; he basically dropped her in my lap."
Elena was horrified. Her mouth dropped open and her brows furrowed deeply. "Why? Why would he do that?" she swallowed painfully, imagining what that must have been like for him.
Damon threw her a sad smile. "He didn't want to be alone."
She upper lip curled up in revulsion. "Well that's selfish." Her voice was tight and disgruntled. She heard him hum in agreement and after a long pause she continued. "I don't ever want to be a vampire, Damon." She affirmed heatedly. "Promise me." Her eyes snapped to his urgently. "Promise me that it never comes to that."
He pulled his focus away from the road and gave her an honorable nod. "I promise."
Letting out a deep sigh, Elena nodded back and turned her stare back out the window, hugging her arms around herself, clutching the book tightly to her chest. She didn't want to imagine what she'd be like as a vampire; what she'd be like without her humanity. She didn't need another thing in common with Katherine Pierce.
…
Over the next few days, Elena did her best to fall back into a normal routine of school while avoiding Damon and the boarding house at all costs, but with the weekend coming around again, she knew she couldn't avoid her training without rousing suspicion. She would make excuses about homework, or cheerleading, or Jenna roping her into family game night, but there were only so many excuses that she could make before it became obvious.
Thankfully, Damon had his hands full with his brother, who hand finally taken him up on his offer to learn control and started mixing human blood with his animal blood. Just a little bit each day, just enough to make him stronger. It was one of the reasons that she kept her distance from the boarding house, but not the only reason.
The truth was, she was embarrassed. Not for how she felt, but that she thought for even a second that he shared in those feelings. Elena didn't even have the courage to tell Bonnie about the moment in the hotel…no, she was happy to erase it out of her memory forever. It didn't help that ever time she closed her eyes at night she saw a flash of blue; stormy and hypnotic staring back at her.
So instead she focused on Isobel, and learning everything she could from her journal, and the Petrova family book…and that brought on a whole new slew of problems.
Which was why she standing in front of the boarding house on Friday after school hands clenched into fists and biting into her palms. Ringing the doorbell, Elena waited nervously and impatiently for the door to swing open. It took so long she briefly thought about leaving, but she spun back around when the door clicked open.
Damon leaned on the doorjamb, a neutral and unimpressed glower looking down at her. "Run out of excuses for avoiding me?" He grumbled, opening the door wider for her to come in.
She slipped passed him, gripping the book so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "I'm not avoiding you; I've been busy." She rushed out in one breath. He followed her into the parlor and Elena turned to face him holding the book up. "I read the whole thing. Cover to cover." She dropped it loudly to the table and crossed her arms nervously. She didn't know where to start, but she decided to start with their biggest problem. "Isobel knew about Klaus, Damon. There's more about him in that book than Katherine…and she definitely had a starring role." Her voice wavered slightly as swallowed deeply, pushing down her fear.
Damon crossed the floor quickly snatching the leather-bound pages and flipped through them. "What does it say?" his tone was urgent and frantic. This was the closest he'd come to anything on Niklaus other than hearsay.
"Nothing good." She took a deep breath. "In order to break the curse, he needs a vampire, a werewolf, a doppelganger and a moonstone…whatever that is. It has to be done on a full moon and he needs a witch to do the spell." Damon turned wild eyes to her, processing her words. "We need that moonstone, Damon." Her voice conveyed the desperation she felt, but also a strong determination to fight that he was grateful for.
He nodded, agreeing with her. The best way to keep it out of Klaus' hands was to get possession of it first. Giving a little shake of his head, he glanced back up at her. "Where the hell do we even start looking for it?" Elena's tongue prodded the inside of her cheek as she darted her eyes away. "What?" he drawled, dubiously.
Elena wrung her hands. "Isobel said in there that she knew someone who might have an idea."
He gave her an impatient look, encouraging her to continue. "Well…who?" When all he got was a sarcastic raising of her brows and a tight-lipped smile, all energy deflated from his body, and his shoulder fell. "God damnit." His nose scrunched and his lip curled up in a sneer. "Katherine."
"Do you think she'll help us?" she tilted her head to the side to catch his eyes, her hair falling from behind her ear.
Damon scoffed loudly. "Out of the goodness of her dead heart…doubtful." He dropped the book back down on the table.
"We have to at least try. Isobel's book said she has a PO box in Camden, Maine. We can leave tomorrow morning."
He's eyes swung to her disbelievingly. "We are not doing anything. There is no way I'm putting you within sniffing distance of her; you're staying here." He headed for the stairs, fully prepared to pack a bag and leave right away. It wasn't going to be easy finding her, but he knew her patterns. Camden was a small town; there was no way she was staying there and keeping a low profile, but she'd be close.
Elena followed him all the way up to his room, watching as he got a bag together. "I'm coming with you." She stated, slightly out of breath from running up the stairs, her hands firmly placed on her hips.
Damon chuckled. "No…you're not. You have school and Jenna and whatever else teenaged girls do to worry about." Her mouth opened in protest, and he pinned her with a hard glare. "This isn't just some weekend trip, Elena. Do you know how hard it's going to be finding a vampire that doesn't want to be found?" He turned his eyes back to packing his bag, his next words coming out low and irate. "It could take me weeks, maybe months."
Brown eyes widened almost comically. "Months? No, Damon you can't be gone that long." Her voice took on a panicked tone as she stepped further into the room. "I need you here." Elena didn't know if it was for his protection or because she couldn't bare the thought of him being gone for that long.
A deep sigh escaped his lips, and he walked over to her, stopping when he was within a few feet. "What choice do I have, Elena? We need to have the upper hand here; this is the first step. The last thing I want to do is leave, but you have Ric and Bonnie. You'll be fine…and I'll be back as soon as I can." His hands moved to rest on her shoulders, but he stopped himself, letting them ghost over her and instead nodded in reassurance.
"I'll make sure she's safe." Stefan appeared in the doorway; his arms crossed over his chest. "I promise." He'd only been fully in control of himself for the last week and a half, and had he not been his brother, Damon would never trust Elena under his protection. He must have taken too long to respond, because Stefan continued. "Damon…you can trust me."
He fixed Stefan with an icy glare. "Not a hair on her head gets hurt, do you understand me?"
His brother nodded. "You have my word."
When Damon returned his gaze back to girl in front of him, her doe eyes were staring back at him, wide and fearful, her breath hitching in her throat. "It's going to be okay. Stefan is the next best thing." He joked with a little smirk. "Just stay close."
She gave a small shake of her head. "That's not what I'm worried about. What if you get hurt? What if you find Katherine and she kills you, what if you…" she stopped herself before she could finish her thought. What if you fall in love with her all over again?
"If she wanted me dead…I'd be dead." He put some distance between them and went back to packing. "For some reason she sees value in keeping me alive." Elena shifted her eyes away briefly, a pang of guilt rolling over her; because she knew the reason. "Hopefully I can use that to my advantage."
With his bag packed, Damon headed back downstairs to the front door, Elena hot on his heels and Stefan following behind them. He promised to keep in touch, and give them updates, and Stefan vowed to do the same. Elena watched as he loaded his trunk, and waited until he stood in front of her again, a tentative smile on his face, before throwing herself in his arms. It was the first time she'd really touched him since their moment in the hotel, and the relief that came with his embrace seemed to warm her from head to toe.
He hugged her back, just as fiercely, and a part of him resisted the decision to leave at all. He couldn't remember spending more that a week away from her, let alone months. It filled him with a sense of anxiousness he couldn't explain. He knew she was thinking the same, because her heart was hammering against his chest. "I'll be back before you know it." He whispered into her hair, and she only hugged him tighter.
Damon looked up to Stefan, and caught him staring at the ground, lips pursed and a deep frown on his face. He slowly pulled away, and stepped towards his brother. "Keep her out of trouble, okay?" He clapped him on the shoulder and pulled him in for a manly hug.
Stefan nodded, clapping him back on the back, and pulling away to meet his firm stare. "I will."
A grin pulled at Damon's lips. "Want me to put in a good word for you?"
Stefan huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes. "I'm good, thanks. I think it's time to keep the past in the past." Damon gave a nod of approval, his lips turning downward briefly. "Be careful."
The older Salvatore walked around to the driver side of his car, casting one last glance Elena's way, watching as her arms wrapped around herself and Stefan stepped up behind her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. He wasn't sure what it was, but a flare of distress rose up his spine. He hopped in and drove off before he could change his mind.
…
Elena sat on her bed, back leading against the headboard as she reread the words over and over again in Isobel's book. She debated for the hundredth time if she was going to call the number scrawled on the second to last page in different penmanship. There was no name attached to it; just a number, and she couldn't even be sure it would be Isobel on the other end. The blonde vampire's warning resonated in her head, but she had to know more…
A knock on her door jarred her out of her thoughts, and she looked up from the book resting on her knees to see Ric in the door way. "Hey…you okay? You've been cooped up in here all day." she nodded. "You coming down for dinner?" he observed her with concern. It had been two weeks since Damon left and she barely left the house except to go to school or on Sundays when Ric would train with her in the woods, teaching her how to use all his fancy weapons and gadgets.
She forced a smile. "Yeah, I'll be down in a bit." He started to turn to leave and she pipped up, her voice stopping him from moving into the hallway. "Hey, have you heard from Damon at all?"
He chuckled, resting his hand on the doorframe. "You mean since he called yesterday…no, no I haven't." When she let out a disgruntled sigh, he entered her room, sitting on the corner of her bed. "Maybe he's busy listening to the twenty voicemails you've left him." He teased good naturedly.
She rolled her eyes, and tucked her hair behind her ears. "He told you that, huh?" she was mildly embarrassed, but she also knew that Damon told Ric a lot of things…she wondered if he knew about what happened at the hotel. It brought a blush to her cheeks. "Can you blame me? I'm worried. It's been two weeks and he hasn't gotten any closer to finding Katherine. These leads he's following has him running in circles." She slammed the book closed with frustration.
He offered her a sympathetic smile. "He said this would take time. He'll find her." He eyed the book. "Is that Isobel's?"
"Yeah, I'm hoping it will help me track her down. I have so many questions…questions that Jenna can't answer." She added solemnly.
He nodded in understanding. "Just be careful, Elena. She may be your mother…but she's also a vampire. She's dangerous."
She turned her head, and pursed her lips. "You sound like Damon."
"Well maybe he's right." he stood, and ran a hand over the top of her head, in a comforting father-like gesture. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."
She waited until he left, and she opened the book back up to the page with the phone number. She didn't even know why she needed to look at it, she'd read it so many times, she knew it like the back of her hand. Grabbing her phone from the nightstand, she hit *67 before dialing the number, to make her number private. Just because she was doing something dangerous, didn't mean she had to be reckless. It rang three times before it picked up.
"Hello?" the voice on the other end was female. "Who is this?" she added impatiently when there was no response.
Elena kept her voice strong, even though she was panicking inside. "Isobel?" she held her breath, waiting…
The voice on the other end sounded relieved. "Katherine." Elena let out a jagged exhale, and suddenly the line went dead. She hung up. Elena bit the inside of her cheek, angry at herself for giving herself away.
Isobel knew now that Elena was looking for her. And whatever that meant…she needed to be prepared for it.