Chapter 56

"You're dead," breathed Damon, his eyes wide in shock and horror as he looked at the man standing before him, a smirk covering his face.

"Nope" replied Kai, popping the 'p' and laughing manically. "I think it's time you wake up, don't you agree?"

"What….?"

Damon opened his eyes slowly, failing to stop a groan leaving his lips as pain washed over his broken body. He lifted his head up, trying to take in his surroundings, the panic beginning to grow as he realised that he was suspended in the air, his wrists and ankles bound tightly by ropes that were eating into his skin. They must be vervained, he thought to himself as he felt the familiar sting. He looked down, noticing the dried blood covering his bare chest and stomach, wondering what on earth had happened to him.

His head pounded and he realised that he was hungry, starving in fact. Where the hell was he, and how had he gotten here? The memories started to come back to him and he began to hyperventilate in panic – Otti, Stefan, Lexi – were they all… dead? He let out a desperate sob as he pulled at the ropes binding him, the futility of his efforts driving him into more desperation.

"Well you're looking a little worse for wear," the snide, jeering voice came from behind Damon, and he strained to turn and see who it belonged to, although he knew deep down, no matter how impossible it seemed.

Kai walked around the restrained, broken vampire, admiring his handywork and inspecting the wounds to Damon's body with a disturbingly triumphant look upon his face. "Draining you makes you more susceptible, you see." He spoke as if it were obvious, and seemed to enjoy the confused look on Damon's face.

"More susceptible?" gasped Damon as another wave of pain rushed through him.

"Yes, more susceptible to the lovely little dreams I've been planting into that mind of yours."

"You mean, they're just dreams? My family are alive?" Damon slumped in relief, the ropes being the only thing stopping him from collapsing to the floor.

"Yep, just dreams. For now, I guess. I mean, don't they say that dreams can come true?" Kai laughed at the look of hatred that Damon shot his way. "It's been fun, you know, your mind is just so open… And there's literally nothing you can do about it."

"What do you want, Kai?"

"Oh my wishes haven't changed since the last time we met. I want the girl, I want her power, you're going to give it to me, yada yada yada."

"Never going to happen, Kai," Damon gritted his teeth as another wave of pain passed over him, trying to stay strong.

"Oh but it is, Damon." Kai was suddenly serious, his gaze penetrating into Damon's blue eyes, his voice hard and cold. "They're going to come and find you, Damon, and when they do, I'll be waiting, in the shadows, as I always do. Waiting for the right moment to strike. But for now, how about we try another little dream."

Kai walked over to Damon who strained at the ropes in an attempt to get his hands on him.

"Tut tut, Damon, you can't hurt me like this, not like you hurt me before. It's my turn now." He stared into Damon's eyes, placing a cold fingertip to his forehead. "You're not going to remember this conversation. You're going to sleep and dream the nightmares that I've put in place for you. Then you'll wake, and we will have this little conversation all over again…"

Damon shook his head in desperation, fighting hard to keep his eyes open but the pull of Kai's syphoned magic was too great and he felt them closing, and the nightmare taking over once again…

"Any news?" asked Lexi, worriedly, as Stefan came back into the house, slamming the door behind him in frustration. Lexi sighed, the answer evident and unnecessary for Stefan to say aloud. She put her head in her hands. "What do we do, Stefan? It's been over a week…"

Stefan shook his head, his mouth set grimly. "I don't know, Lexi, we've been asking around but there's no sign of him."

"Can Hope, Bonnie or Otti try and track him?"

"They've all tried – something or someone is blocking their magic."

"So a witch has got him?"

"It would seem so."

"You don't think it's Kai, do you?"

"Kai is dead."

"Right…"

Stefan flopped on the sofa next to Lexi, sighing in exasperation as he wracked his brains as to what to do next. The Mikaelsons were scouring the area for clues of Damon's disappearance, the witches in their group repeatedly doing location spells to no avail, and Stefan, Lexi and Caroline had been searching every day for him. Ottilie was beside herself with worry, and both Stefan and Lexi were extremely concerned for what that worry might be doing to her health. She'd only recently recovered from her surgeries, and her frail body and health worried them both.

"Do we just wait?" whispered Lexi, not wanting to speak the words for fear that Stefan might think she'd given up on Damon. "I mean, whoever has got him – they must want him for something? For Ottilie? Surely at some point, they're going to contact us with demands?"

Stefan shrugged again, exhausted by the strain of it all. "I can't just wait, Lexi, he's my brother. We have to do everything we can to find him."

"Stefan, Lexi?" The two vampires looked up as the little witch walked down the stairs, her face pale and drawn.

"You okay, sweetie?" asked Lexi, getting up from the sofa to go and hug the young girl, knowing full well that she wasn't. She was worried sick for her dad, and felt responsible, believing that perhaps it was her that was meant to be taken by whoever had him.

"I've been thinking about a way we could find him," she said quietly, looking from vampire to the other.

"Go on?" said Stefan cautiously, not wanting to get his hopes up but interested to hear what Ottilie had to say.

"Well, we know that whoever has Dad is blocking the magic we use to try and find him," said Ottilie, slowly, obviously thinking aloud as she voiced her idea for the first time. "We haven't tried to track whoever has him?"

"Yes but Otti, we don't know who has him," said Stefan, patiently, trying to keep his face clear of the disappointment he felt as her idea amounted to nothing.

"No, we don't know for sure, but we can surely try and track down people it's likely to be? I mean let's face it – isn't it most likely to be Kai or Marcel?"

"Kai is dead, Otti," said Stefan again, this time more firmly.

"You don't know that!" countered Ottilie, "when we left him, he was dying, not dead. That doesn't mean he was killed! He could have recovered somehow, and now he might have Dad!"

"So you want to try and track Kai?" asked Lexi, taking over and ignoring Stefan's glare sent in her direction.

Ottilie nodded. "I want to track Kai and Dad at the same time. If it is Kai, I don't think he'll be able to deflect that much magic, especially if there are three of us doing the spell at the same time. He might only be able to shield either himself or Damon from the location spell."

"It's worth a try," said Lexi, looking over at Stefan, who shrugged dejectedly. He was out of ideas, so why not?

"What do you need?" he asked the young girl.

"I need Bonnie and Hope, we need something belonging to Kai from Jo, and something belonging to Dad."

"I'll call the witches," said Lexi, standing to go and grab her phone.

"I'll call Jo and grab something of Damon's," said Stefan, disappearing upstairs.

Only one hour later, the three witches were seated in the front room of the Salvatore boarding house, surrounded by more candles than Stefan had ever seen. They were surrounded by onlookers – Stefan, Lexi and Caroline, and the Mikaelson family, all with tense, apprehensive faces as they prepared to jump into action should they get any location from the spell.

The three witches joined hands, having gone over the plan once more. Hope was to locate Kai, Ottilie was to locate Damon, and both of them would channel Bonnie's magic to boost their own in a bid to overpower Kai.

"Let's do this," said Hope, smiling encouragingly at the two nervous witches next to her. They all closed their eyes and began their soft chanting, repeating the words that even the rest of the group felt they could recite by heart.

Minutes passed and the two items belonging to the men they were trying to locate began to tremble on the coffee table on which they had been placed. The candles flickered uncontrollably and the wind howled outside, shaking the thin glass of the windows.

As quickly as the effects appeared, they stopped and the three witches' eyes shot open, a triumphant look on their faces as they fell back exhausted against the sofa.

"Kai is alive," announced Hope. "And I've got him."

"Has he got Damon?" asked Stefan quickly grabbing a box of tissues to offer the three witches for their bleeding noses.

"We don't know – if he has, he was able to deflect the magic from locating Damon but not himself" replied Hope, wiping the blood from her nose as it threatened to fall and stain her white top.

"Where is he?" asked Klaus, readying himself for attack.

"About 10 miles away, in Corkwell," she replied, before looking over at her uncle Elijah who was crouched over by where Ottilie was sitting. "Uncle 'Lijah?" she called over to him, but he didn't reply, seemingly focused on the young witch collapsed on the sofa in front of him.

Stefan sped over to crouch next to him, his brows furrowed in worry as he took in the sight of his little niece, unresponsive on the sofa. "Otti?" he called, shaking her slightly in a bid to wake her up. "Otti!" he called more forcefully, starting to panic.

Elijah checked her over, feeling for her pulse and breathing, and sighing in relief as he found them to be normal. "She's okay, Stefan, I think she's just fainted. Maybe she wasn't strong enough to do the spell?"

"She's done plenty of them this week without this happening," replied Stefan, worriedly, taking her gently into his arms and tapping her face lightly, trying to rouse her.

Damon was walking through the woods, gazing around for signs of anybody else being present. He was completely confused, but had the underlying, nagging feeling that he'd been there before.

He suddenly heard a small thud, and ran to where the noise had come from, gasping in horror as he saw the body of his daughter, limp and lifeless on the forest ground. He ran to her and gathered her into his arms, clutching her to his chest. He was relieved to hear her steady heartbeat, and stroked her face gently. "Otti, can you hear me?" he called softly to her, willing her to wake up. "Wake up, sweetheart!"

Her eyes began to flutter open, and it took her a moment to register that she was in Damon's arms.

"Dad!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck and holding him close. "Dad, you're okay! I've missed you so much!"

"Missed me?" he asked, confused at her actions.

"You've been gone for days, we've all been so worried!" she replied, unsure as to why he didn't understand.

"Gone? I only just woke up here," said Damon, wondering whether she'd hit her head and was confused. "Are you okay, Otti?" he asked, genuinely concerned for her.

"It's okay, Dad," she continued, ignoring him. "Hope located Kai, they'll come and get us soon,"

Damon shook his head, utterly perplexed, and completely oblivious to the fact that both he and Otti were trapped in Kai's dream world.