The Dinner Party

Stefan watched as the stone he threw out on the lake skipped over and over again, more than it should have if it had been human's throw. His mobile phone pressed to his ear. The green eyed vampire observed Louise inside of the lake house before turning back to the lake.

"Tyler Lockwood ran away from home last night." Damon told him brother happily.

"How do you know?" Stefan raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I heard it from Sheriff Forbes, who heard it from a very distraught Carol Lockwood, thus, ending our werewolf chapter, bringing us to..."

"...killing Elijah." Stefan finished.

"Exactly."

Stefan always seemed to be the brother of reasoning. "Well, it's not going to be easy. He's crafty."

"Well, I've got a crafty little dagger."

"He's an Original." Stefan complained. "We don't know what all that encompasses."

"Oh, trust me, Stefan. I'm gonna dot all my t's. I don't want any surprises."

"Wow," Stefan breathed out, genuinely surprised by his brother's actions. "Damon, tell me you're actually gonna be careful for once?"

He could practically hear the eye roll. "Yes, Stefan, I've become you. How tragic for both of us. Got to run. I've a murder to plan. Busy day."

The first thing that Louise noticed when she woke in the morning was that Damon never came to bed. The light was still on from her adventures into her history text books, other books were scattered over the bedspread, and her arm had a cramp in it from sleeping on it.

Damon never came to bed.

She sat up, stretching her tired muscles and pushed the books farther on the bed. The pain in her heart hurts far worse than her cramped arm.

It was light outside and a quick glance to the clock on the nightstand revealed it to be eight in the morning.

Where was Damon?

She swung her legs off the bed and stood up, rubbing her eyes. She walked out of the room, still rubbing her eyes. As she went around the boarding house, she still didn't locate her boyfriend. She hurried to the living room, looking through the window and frowned when she didn't see his blue camaro in the driveway.

The brunette yawned, finding her mouth dry and went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. She pulled a bottle of water out the fridge, unscrewed the cap, and took a massive gulp. The cool water felt good on her dry throat.

As she looked out the window, she thought of Damon. She wondered if he's been out all night. She does vaguely remember hearing the water from the shower run during the night. She's so worried about Damon but knew they are both too stubborn to end this fight. Always before with any fight they had, which were minimal, it would always end with an 'I'm sorry' and myriad of kisses through the night.

But this one was much bigger. It wasn't over John or Vivienne or anything else. It was about their difference of opinion over Louise's life. Her life, the one she was ready, willing, and able to give up in order to protect him and everyone else she loved. As much as she wanted to call a truce, she wouldn't. She believed she was right and wasn't going to give in.

She put the bottle down and started a pot of coffee. Then she moved all of her homework from the bedroom to downstairs on the coffee table in the living room. She pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and sat down in the arm chair.

all darkness and all the things she's done. All the mistakes that could have been avoided if she'd only had the information she has now.

Louise set her pen on the paper, and nothing flew out.

The itch was there, but the editing she had to do was awful. "Damon" and "Elijah", all disappearing beneath vicious cross-outs.

She used to keep her diary pristine, the imprint of her words barely showing on the next page. Some revelations seem obscene when written so freely, though. It's more comforting to have them seem beneath a sea of ink, and Louise does it readily, telling herself of the trouble it had brought when Jeremy read Elena's diary, what seemed like so long ago.

The door opened loudly and Louise jumped out her skin but automatically relaxed when she met icy blue eyes. Damon just looked at her and she could still the anger on his face. She sighed, watching as he took off his jacket and set it on the chair. Then he turned back to her and guilt jumped in her throat.

Her voice was calm as she asked: "Are you still mad?"

He huffed. "Yeah. I'm still mad."

"We have a difference of opinion, Damon. We're not always going to agree on everything." As guilty as she felt, she still wasn't going to give in. She didn't understand why he couldn't see her side of it.

"You've agreed to agreed to sacrifice yourself to Klaus. To stay that we have a 'difference of opinion' is the understatement of the century."

They were both silent for a moment, no one speaking. Just staring at each other. The brunette let out a heavy sigh. "Let's not fight right now, okay?" A small smile spread across her lips. "I was meant to be doing normal stuff with my vampire boyfriend." She repeated her words from yesterday. "Trying to not worry about this stuff."

"This stuff has a habit of following us around, Louise." Damon pointed out. But he didn't have the energy to argue with her anymore- he felt suddenly drained. He didn't feel so much angry that she kept this from him, more numb. The only thing they could do was dagger Elijah and grind this whole thing to a halt. Which he planned to peruse again tonight.

"I'm having a dinner party." The vampire suddenly announced.

"A dinner party." Louise repeated.

"With Alaric, Jenna and Elijah?"

"When were you going to tell me about this?"

Damon shrugged. "Honestly, I only planned it this morning."

"And what are you guys gonna do at this dinner party? Drink wine and talk about the weather?" The brunette questioned sarcastically.

"I'm going to kill Elijah."

Louise simply stared at Damon, not blinking, not moving. The ticking clock suddenly sounded extraordinarily ominous. "You can't kill an original."

Damon smiled slightly. "Actually John told me how to."

"John?" The brunette's eyes widened slightly. "Wait, so you are just going behind my back to do everything?" Louise leapt up and began pacing restlessly. "Damon, you can't do this. Elijah will just get angry and come after all of you, the deal will be off-"

"Louise, Elijah's deal gets you killed!"

"And keeps everyone else alive." Louise resorted.

Damon shook his head. "That's not good enough for me."

"Well, it's gonna have to be, because there really aren't that many options." Louise's voice showed her complete lack of control as her emotions threatened to completely take over.

"Even if you just go willingly to your death, I'm not going to accept that." Damon said simply. "So yeah, I might die, but at least I'm fighting. So, please, will you help?"

Louise can't think straight, not with this new information, not with Damon's pleading blue eyes staring so intently at her. Not that she can ever really think properly when she looks into those eyes.

Yet, looking away doesn't help either. All she saw was images of dead people. The kind that haunt her nightmares: Damon looking grey and rotten, a corpse. Caroline with burn and bullet marks, her blonde hair ashy and pale. Bonnie looking pale and defeated. Stefan on fire. Jenna's throat slit. And standing over all of their bodies was Elijah, a cool, bone-chilling smile on his face as he glanced at them then reached for Louise.

Louise fell back into the chair.

Theoretically, helping the gang find a way to stop Elijah and Klaus isn't breaking the deal with Elijah. Not really. She really only agreed to not go off on any more suicide missions - keep herself, her blood, safe for Elijah. Keeping herself alive so Klaus could kill her and so Elijah could then kill Klaus.

Okay, so it wasn't the greatest plan in the world.

She had never really figured out how she was going to tell Damon about it. She supposed she hadn't really planned on telling him, that she'd just been hoping to avoid the subject. Whenever he had asked her about the deal, her replies had always been vague, even though she had never really certain about Elijah's plan. Even just admitting her doubts about the deal to Damon hadn't been possible for her.

The doorbell echoed throughout the boarding house and within a flash, Damon was pushing out of the door of the library and hastily making his way towards the door where he was sure his guest of honour had arrived.

But who greeted him was a surprise to Louise.

"Hi." Andie, the news reported greeted with a friendly grin on her face. Damon greeted her back before letting the blonde threw the threshold where she moved through the room, about to mingle with the other guest. Louise quickly rushed over to her boyfriend's side.

"Why is she here?" Louise asked in a hushed voice and a frown on her face.

"She wants to interview Elijah. So let her keep him entertained until we get a chance to talk to him. Don't be jealous."

"I'm not jealous."

"Hmm." Damon hummed. "She's ask her questions then leave. Simple."

"Simple." Louise repeated with a nod, trying to convince herself.

Damon was foaming at the mouth.

He planned the dinner party as the perfect opportunity to catch Elijah off guard and dagger him, as he would be on his turf. Stefan and Elena were safely tucked away at the Lake House, which only left him, Louise, Alaric, Andie and of course, the guest of honour, Elijah. So when the doorbell rang once again, he moved forward, expecting the Original's arrival, only to find John Gilbert on the other side of the door.

Jenna stared at John in distaste, her arms folding across her chest as if it would ward off a negative energy from him. "Who invited him?"

"John. Surprise. Leave." Damon said all in one breath, his hand waving towards the front door.

John ignored him and stepped closer to the vampire. "When Jenna told me she was coming to a dinner party for Elijah, I decided I couldn't miss out on all the fun and games."

Alaric ventured closer, detecting the hidden message behind John's words. "There are not going to be any games tonight, John. It's just a friendly dinner party." John raised his brows at this and his gaze flickered towards Louise and Damon who both simultaneously shrugged in reply.

"What he said." Damon said.

An hour later, there was yet another chime of bells from the doorbell and Elijah had finally arrive. The dinner party could being. As everyone sat around the table, Louise couldn't help but steal nervous glances over at Elijah. She wasn't sure if the original suspected something, but then again, Elijah was smart and Damon's random dinner party was definitely something odd.

"I hate to break it to you, Damon," Jenna spoke up, snapping the brunette out of her thoughts. The human poured some wine for the vampire. "But according to Elijah, your family is so not a founder of this town."

Damon's eyebrow arched. "Hmm, do tell." Another issue that frustrated him to the end: Jenna's fascination with Elijah 'Smith'. Sometimes he wished he could just compel Jenna to do his bidding, or convince Louise into finally confiding in her about the existence of vampires, that way everything could go along smoothly.

"Well, as I mentioned to Jenna earlier, a faction of settlers migrated from Salem after the witch trials in the 1690s." Elijah dabbed a napkin against the corner of his lips, subtly shooting Louise a meaningful look. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Over the next hundred years they developed this community where they could feel safe from persecution."

"Hmm. Because they were witches." Jenna chucked, every word laced with scepticism.

"Yeah, but there's no tangible proof there were witches in Salem." Andie chimed in.

Damon tilted his head. "Andie's a journalist. Big on facts."

"Well, the lore says that there was this wave of anti-witch hysteria." Elijah countered to Andie's inquiry regarding the proof of witches in Salem. "It broke out in the neighbouring settlement, so these witches were rounded up. They were tied to stakes in a field together and, uh, burned. Some say you could hear the screams from miles around us. They were consumed by the fire." Louise pushed her plate away as she thought of Bonnie. "Of course, witches weren't the only ones burned; there was a smaller group of women that came from farther up north that claimed to be seers." Elijah's gaze was once again fixed on Louise. She licked her lips and swallowed thickly. "Only a few managed to get away."

"I wouldn't repeat this to the Historical Society." Jenna announced.

"It's starting to sound a little like a ghost story to me." John chimed in but everyone ignored him.

Damon cleared his throat and addressed. "So, why do you want to know the location of these alleged massacres?"

Elijah stared at Damon and casually shrugged, his face a mask of indifference. "You know...a healthy historian's curiosity, of course."

"Of course." Damon smiled nervously, giving Louise a pointed glare that lacked subtlety.

Soon after, dinner came to a close. According to Damon's plan, Andie would announce that the gentlemen take their drink to the study, which is where he'd stab Elijah with the dagger and eliminate the threat he posed. Unfortunately, Stefan and Elena foiled their plans. In a timely fashion, Stefan called Alaric, imparting the revelation that the dagger would kill Damon if he uses it to kill Elijah.

Damon smacked Alaric angrily for intervening in his plan. The history teacher pointed down at the dagger, Damon shrugged his shoulders not understanding what was wrong while Louise raised her brows for the answer. Alaric walked over to a desk, grabbing a piece of paper and quickly scrawled something on it. Louise gritted her teeth as she read the words: The dagger will kill you if you use it.

Damon angrily crumbled the paper and threw it. A furious Louise made a b line to John, dragging him to another room, a good distance away from prying ears.

The slap to John's left cheek rung loud. The force was such that it cause his head to turn slightly to the right. He recovered enough to stare at his daughter in shock. "What the hell what that for?"

"How dare you," Louise began in a trembling voice. "endanger the life of someone I care about? You have some nerve pulling a stunt like that. I should have known that you had some sort of elaborate scheme to ruin someone's life."

"What are you talking about, Louise?" He rubbed his cheek absently.

Louise wasn't about to pay coy with her good-for-nothing father. "Damon." she growled, anger coursing through her limbs at full throttle. "You knew that he would die if he used that dagger and you didn't care!"

John shook his head. "He's a vampire. He's nothing."

"Don't you dare devalue Damon's life like that!" Louise hissed, clenching her fists. Her face became hard as she spoke through gritted teeth. "I suggest the next time you come up with an ill-conceived plan to suit your own needs, you better hope to God I don't find you." Before her anger made her do something she might later regret she stormed out the room.

Just as she walked into the dinning room, Louise witnessed Alaric stab the dagger through Elijah's heart from behind. She watched as the original's skin turned grey as Andie shrieked. Alaric and Damon took Elijah's body down into the basement and laid him in a cell. Alaric left the room and Damon started to move upstairs but he watched as Louise stayed in place. He gave her a knowing look as he ascended the stairs.

The brunette let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding as she looked at the grey veins covering Elijah's handsome face. A brief moment passed before she turned to leave but someone grabbed her and covered her mouth to stop her screams.

"You should have told your friend to keep the dagger in." Elijah seethed in her ear.

In a manner of forced calm, Louise still in his hold, Elijah made his way out of the Salvatore's cellar and activated his enhanced original speed to reach the Martin residence. A bloody stain on his shirt and a dizzy Louise the indicators of his eventful night.

"What happened?" Jonas gasped, concerned eyes flickering from Louise to the stain of blood on Elijah's suit.

Inhaling sharply, Elijah ordered. "I need you to find Elena. Now."

Within minutes Jonas was following orders. The original stayed close to Louise to ensure she doesn't escape. As the witch chanted, Louise stared at Elijah. His face as always unreadable. Curiosity over took her and her eyes fluttered close. She reached out, like she had done with Mason, to Elijah's mind, to the essence of him, feeling for something. His mind was volatile.

Louise pushed. She could feel him, she could almost hear his unconscious thoughts, or at least she knew they were there.

"What are you doing?" Elijah jolted. She retreated, trying to get out his grip. It was a mistake to try and touch his mind. "I asked a question to you, Louise." His voice was soft, unexpected.

Louise gulped.

Stefan ended the phone call with his brother and the look on the vampire's face said it all, spelled out the brand new crisis they now faced.

"Elijah will come here." Elena said faintly, completely still on the couch. "He'll come here to get me. He already has Louise."

"He's not taking you." Stefan assured her, his voice rough and dark.

"The only reason why he let me stay was because of the deal and now that's off."

"He's not taking you, Elena, not now, not ever." He knelt in front of her, grabbed her face. "We can run."

"He'll follow us."

"So we'll keep running."

"Running isn't an option now." she told him softly.

Right now he can't think properly, blind panic was overwhelming him, fear had totally taken control. "Are you suggesting that you just hand yourself over to him?" he demanded. "Giving up- oh, except you've already done that." He tore away from her and kicked a chair, sending it halfway across the room.

The brunette watched him calmly, blankly. "Stefan." she said. "Stefan."

Stefan tried so hard to remain in control at all time, to keep his emotions in check. Elena was one of the only people he's even remotely comfortable with taking that particular mask off. Breathing in and out, he manged, somehow, to simmer down. "I'm sorry." he whispered, his back to her. "I'm sorry."

"I know." She moved towards him.

Desperately he crushed her against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her. They don't have much time, before Elijah got there, but they needed this, this moment.

"There's another way." Elena's muffled voice said. Her mind had been racing from the past couple of minutes, trying to come up with some sort of plan, something that would save the day. Anything that doesn't involve more people dead or her being carried off along with her sister by Elijah to be kept in some liar.

"What way?" Stefan asked.

Shaking, she drew back from him and quickly outlined a plan that, to her, seemed pretty good, especially for the amount of time she had to come up with it. She's even sure it would work.

Stefan shook his head in disagreement. "No. Absolutely not."

"Stefan it's our only hope to get Louise back. I won't hit anything vital, and you'll be there."

"It's too risky, Elena."

"Well it's not like we have a lot of options at the moment." Elena stated firmly. A sudden knock on the door made both of them jump and Stefan instinctively moved in front of Elena.

"It's me!" Damon yelled rather loudly. Despite that, Stefan gestured for Elena to stay behind him as he opened the door, half convinced that it was Elijah doing a fantastic imitation. Yet it was only Damon, his eyes glaring and his hair fantastically dishevelled.

"How did you get here so quickly?" Elena asked.

"Flew." Damn answered, and Elena wouldn't put it past him. "Erm, we just going to stand here with the door open?"

"Oh. Come in." Elena gestured limply.

"Nice place." Damon remarked as he strode in. "So, what's the plan?"

Stefan and Elena glanced at each other, the vampire silently pleading with his girlfriend, begging her to forget the plan and come up with something else. Though his eyes broke her heart, she can't, because the alternative would kill him more.

"You brought the dagger right?" she asked Damon, who nodded. "Okay. If I stab myself, Elijah will be desperate to heal me; I'm no good to him dead. So I'll stumble or whatever out to him, then I'll stab him with the dagger."

"And he'll be dead." Damon finished. "Problem solved."

Elena nodded.

"No." Stefan said again. "Elena, you're not-"

"It's a good plan." Damon cut him off calmly. He would do anything right now to see Louise again. "Well, it's a plan. What's your suggestion, Stefan?"

"You know, I might not be able to enter this house...But I'm a very patient man who also has your sister. I'll wait you out." Elijah called out threateningly.

Elena was scared. She could admit that openly. She was not so much scared about what might happen to her if she failed as what would happen to everybody else. Bravely, she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other and approached the door.

"They shouldn't have done what they did." Elena cautiously uttered. Elijah was standing on the porch, tight hold onto her sister's forearm, looking as ever like he was slightly amused by everything going on, but there was nothing funny about this situation.

"The deal is off." he told her flatly.

"I'm renegotiating." She didn't have much hope he would hope he would agree to that at this stage, and so she wasn't shocked at his response:

"You have nothing left to negotiate with." Eerily, things were going exactly as she had pictured them ever since she had realised that the dagger was not still in Elijah. The scene had taken on a strangely third person perspective in her head, as if she was watching herself rather than taking part in the dialogue with the original. Nothing felt real.

Elena curled her fingers around the handle of the knife she had picked up. She forced herself not to look at Stefan where he was hiding behind the wall just beside the door. She knew he hated this plan, but there was nothing else for it.

She revealed the knife to Elijah, who started to laugh.

Louise's eyes grew wide as she eyed the silverware in her sister's hand. She shook her head. "Elena."

"I'd like to see you lure Klaus into Mystic Falls after the doppelgänger bleeds to death."

"Stefan won't let you die." Elijah chucked amusedly. She tried not to show her distress that he had known Stefan was there all along - she should have known better.

"No, he won't." Elena agreed. "He'll feed me his blood to heal me, and then I'll kill myself and become a vampire, just like Katherine did. So unless you want that to happen again, promise me the same as before...promise me...You won't harm anyone that I love." She allowed herself a glimpse of Stefan then. His eyes were fixed on the knife.

"Even if they've harmed you." Louise added as she thought of Damon.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I'm going to have to call your bluff."

Elena swallowed- again, she had known this would happen, yet she'd hoped it wouldn't come to this.

She exhaled and turned the blade of the knife inwards, point it towards her stomach. Her instinct was to throw away the knife, eliminate the cause of the pain that was bound to follow, but this was her only way out now, her only way to protect everyone she loved. She hoped Stefan wouldn't intervene. Louise began to thrash in the original's arms as she protested her sister's actions. Elena ignored her as she made eye contact with Elijah as she used all her strength to plunge the knife into her stomach.

It took a few seconds before she could feel anything. For a moment she could see but she couldn't hear or feel, and then, somehow she found herself on the floor, though still inside the threshold - out of Elijah's reach. He had rushed towards her immediately when she stabbed herself, but could not get to her.

"No!" He bellowed. "Yes. Yes, you can have your deal. Let me heal you." He cried in panic. Elena dropped the knife to the floor, gasping, in more pain than she had ever imagined.

"Give me your word!" She managed to choke out, forcing herself to her feet, though standing was difficult. Blood was pouring, dark and horrifying, everywhere.

"I give you my word." Elijah promised immediately.

Relieved in so many ways, Elena stumbled outside into Elijah's arms. As she tripped over the doorstep, her hands closed on the second blade handle - that of the dagger. As he caught her, Elena used the last of her strength to plunge the dagger into his heart, along with the ashes she had doused the blade in. She hardly had a thought to spare for him as she fell to the floor, apparently dead. She collapsed herself, dizzy and weak from the loss of blood. In a second, Stefan was beside her, pulling her to him, his fangs ripping into his skin of his wrist before he offered it to her. Elena didn't even cringe at the strange taste of vampire blood, she just drank.

Damon quickly exited the house and was at Louise's side. "It's okay." He soothed, stroking her hair as he pulled her into a tight embrace. "It's over now." Damon looked at his brother and his brother's girlfriend disappointedly. "Little tip. Don't pull the dagger out."

A/N: Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and I hope you all had the best day you could. Here's another chapter, hope you guys enjoy and thank you as always to everyone that reads and drops a reviews. Very much appreciated. I've already been working on the next chapter, which will be a much longer one than this but I cannot say when I'll post it yet.

My responses to reviews;

Sunrise-Escapist: Thank you! So glad you're enjoying.

AB0918: Yes, I'm back haha. Glad to hear you're enjoying and hope you like this chapter and they'll be plenty more to come.

ikran . feysal: Poor Damon indeed.

team steroline mom: Hope you enjoyed.

Wordspin: He does indeed pick his moments doesn't he? Yes I thought I'd throw in some protective aunt Jenna in.