Chapter 44

Greg started to wake up and gazed around him dozily, slowly taking in his surroundings. He was in a house, he thought, although it looked like it hadn't been lived in for some time. The windows were so dirty that you could barely see through them, and the curtains were strewn across them, their rods broken and snapped. It smelled damp and fusty, and he was lying on the cold, hard ground. He turned his head, grimacing at how it made the room spin – the after effects of whatever they'd used to knock him out, he thought. He was now facing the bottom of what he supposed was a sofa, judging by the now faded, but once plush, dark fabric. He sat up slowly, still keeping an eye out for any sign of his attackers, saw Ottilie lying on the sofa, her face turned away from him towards the back of the sofa.

"Otti," he whispered urgently, giving her shoulder a gentle shove, trying to wake her up and alert her to his presence. She didn't stir, and he gently took hold of her chin and turned her head towards him, drawing back in horror as he saw the dark blood stains that ran across the side of her face from the top of her head, and her eyes firmly shut. He scrambled to grab one of her wrists, feeling for her pulse, and sighed in relief as he felt it beating steady and strong, and saw her chest rising and falling gently. At least she's not having one of her attacks, he thought, trying to see the silver lining of the situation.

Just then, he heard voices approaching, and he quickly laid back down in the position that he woke up in, hoping that the attackers wouldn't notice that he'd awoken.

"I don't get why we had to bring the boy," complained one voice.

"Because he saw us, idiot," spat the other man, the one with the gravelly voice.

"I guess Marcel will just want the girl anyway. Shall we just get rid of him?" suggested the first man, and Greg felt his blood run cold.

"Nah, he's good leverage. She's less likely to try and fight back if she thinks he's in danger," countered his companion.

Ottilie started to stir, her eyes fluttering open and her face creasing as the pain from her head began to wash over her.

"Ah, sleeping beauty is awake…" sneered Man 1. "Finally… I was worried I'd hit you too hard," he snickered.

"What do you want?" Ottilie managed to ask, her vision still heavily impeded and her head throbbing.

"We're going to give you over to Marcel," said Man 1, seemingly enjoying the fact as he grinned at Ottilie with a fang-filled smile.

"I won't go." She said shortly, knowing that she could probably bring down the two men if necessary, even in her injured state.

"Shame, that." Said Man 2. "I kinda made a promise to the girlfriend that I'd avoid killing anyone tonight – she said it's so difficult to wash the blood out of my shirts…" he looked over to Greg, who was still lying on the floor, pretending to be asleep.

Ottilie gasped in horror, "let him go!" she demanded, "he's got nothing to do with any of this; he's done nothing wrong."

Man 2 shook his head. "No, I don't think so, little witch, you both are going to stay right here until Marcel arrives. He's coming from Portland so I'd say you have an hour or so left. Hope you're comfy…" he smiled, menacingly at her, and turned with his companion to leave the room.

Once they were safely out of the room, Greg opened his eyes to see Ottilie now sat upright, with her eyes shut. "Otti…" he began in a low voice, but she shook her head at him, still with her eyes closed.

After a few moments, she opened them and looked at her friend with concern and regret. "Greg, I'm so sorry you've been dragged into this. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" she asked him, absentmindedly grabbing hold of one of his hands.

"I'm fine, Otti, you're the one with blood all over your face…" he said, looking at the trails of blood making their way down her head and cheeks. "And what do you mean, 'all of this'? What's going on?"

Ottilie sighed heavily. "I guess you deserve to know now," she said quietly, avoiding eye contact with him. "I'm a witch, Greg."

He almost burst out laughing if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in.

She smiled gently at him, completely understanding his reaction. "I know, it's hard to believe. But it's true, and you mustn't tell anybody, please. My family know, and I think they will be here to rescue us soon."

"Your family? As in Damon and Stefan?"

She nodded. "Yeah, they're… vampires…." His mouth fell open and she looked apologetically at him, feeling guilty that she had to drop so much information on him. "I'm a kind of witch called an Adfectus Witch, and there's a really powerful vampire called Marcel who wants to get me so that I can do a spell for him."

"Aren't there other witches who could do it?" asked Greg, not quite sure why he was so okay with all of this, and why that was the question he wanted to ask.

"Well, erm… no, there aren't. I'm the only Adfectus Witch alive, and apparently it requires all of my power to do this spell. I think those two," she gestured towards the room where their attackers had gone to, "are vampires hoping to hand me over."

"You think they're vampires too?!" he said in shock.

She nodded. "Yes, but I've spelled this room so that they can't hear us talking. I've tried to send a message to my family, but it's quite a new spell, and I'm not feeling too well, so I hope it works…" She looked at her friend ruefully, and he moved to sit on the sofa with her.

"So what do we do now?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know, Greg. I guess we wait. Listen, if I tell you to run, do you promise to run as fast as you can without looking back?"

Greg hesitated, "only if you're running with me?"

She shook her head, "no, Greg, you don't understand. I will have to hold them off, then you can run. Okay?"

"Erm, no?!" he countered, looking at her baffled.

She huffed. "Eurgh just promise me!"

"Fine, but I'm not happy about it."

"I don't need you to be."

They sat in silence for a bit, both angry with the other for asking the impossible of them.

"Stefan, I'm telling you, SHE'S NOT HERE! I've looked all over the place, and there's nobody left in the school. Greg is missing too – his parents are desperate… No, of course I don't think they've snuck off together – they're 13 for Christ's sake!"

Damon was fuming, shouting at his brother down the phone as he countered every sensible explanation that Stefan came up with.

"Do you want me to come over and look?" Stefan sighed, finding a scrap of paper to mark his place.

"No, stay there in case she comes back…"

"Damon…" Stefan was looking in surprise at the scrap of paper he'd placed in the fold of his book. "Damon, something's happening. I think I'm getting a message or something…"

"Stefan, I don't have time for this, Otti could be hurt…"

"Damon, SHUT UP! She's sending me a message!"

"What does it say?!"

"Hope tracks Otti"

"I'm calling Klaus…"

Damon hung up on Stefan and ran to his car, calling for Greg's parents to follow him back to the mansion. He dialled Klaus' number. "Klaus," he said, after his friend picked up almost immediately. "I need Hope to track Otti. Meet me at the boarding house?"

"On my way."

He sped back to his house, the Blythes in tow. Surely Greg must have been taken with Ottilie – the coincidence of the two of them missing at the same time was too great.

He went over to their car, parked behind his and opened Mrs Blythe's door. "You're going to wait here for Greg to return. When he does, you'll remember nothing of this evening. You simply picked Greg up from here after I gave him a lift home from the dance."

He compelled Mr Blythe before heading into the house, waiting anxiously for Klaus and Hope's arrival.

"I've got her teddy," said Stefan, seeing his brother walk in. "Hope can use it to track her. Do you think Greg is with her?"

Damon nodded. "His parents are outside. I've compelled them to forget everything once we've got them back."

Just then, Klaus' car pulled in to the drive and he and Hope sped into the house.

"Okay, I need…" began Hope, before the bear was thrust into her arms. "Okay…" she said, raising her eyebrows at the two anxious brothers before shutting her eyes and focusing on the spell.

"Got her," she said in a minute or so. "She's not far – still in Mystic Falls. Let's go."

She and Klaus got back into the car, whilst Stefan and Damon followed in the camero. Lexi stayed to keep an eye on the Blythes.

They pulled up minutes later outside a dilapidated house, with part of the roof caved in.

"Nice place…" smirked Damon, catching Klaus' eye.

"They're going to be expecting something," said Stefan, "what's the plan?"

"Kill them?" shrugged Klaus, already heading towards the door. Hope grabbed his arm, pulling him back with her superhuman strength, and he grunted, obviously agitated.

"No, they could hurt Ottilie if we aren't careful. We need to sneak in without being noticed, get Ottilie out, and then kill them" she instructed.

Damon raised his eyebrows at her, obviously impressed. "Okay, girlie," he said, "Stefan and I get the kids, you get the kidnappers."

They nodded, and were just about to head off when Damon called over. "Don't make it too quick, okay?"

Klaus chuckled and Damon saw the wolf show in his eyes. Whoever kidnapped them is in for a really bad night, he thought wryly to himself, before following Stefan.

They tracked the sound of the two human hearts, finding a window nearby that was broken. Peering through, they saw a bloody Ottilie and a pale Greg huddled together on a dirty sofa. Ottilie seemed to sense their arrival and looked up hopefully. Her face lit up as she saw her father and uncle, and she made to get off the sofa, before Greg quickly pulled her back.

Damon and Stefan heard the two vampires approaching and quickly hid back under the window, hoping beyond hope that they hadn't just endangered the two children even more.

"Marcel is almost here," announced Man 1, smiling triumphantly at the two frightened children. "Then we will be free for the first time in 300 years."

The other man shoved him hard. "Shut up," he said. "We don't know that yet."

Man 1 shrugged, before they both jumped at a noise they heard from the side of the house they'd just come from. They both moved over to the children, guarding their prize, "Marcel?" called Man 2.

"Nope…" came the response, and the two vampires walked hesitantly towards the door to look for where the voice had come from.

Damon motioned at Stefan to get Greg whilst he got Ottilie and the two brothers sprang into action, bursting through the window and grabbing the children and vamping with them back outside.

Man 2 spun to see them, and picking up one of the broken curtain poles, flung it into Stefan's back. Stefan cried out in pain and pushed Greg into Damon's arms, indicating that his brother go on without him to get the children to safety.

Ottilie reached out for her uncle but Damon, his face grim, kept a firm grip on his daughter, not allowing her out of his grasp. "No, no, STEFAN!" she shouted, watching in horror as Stefan tried to pull the pole, unsuccessfully from his back.

Closing her eyes, she imagined the pole to be in her hands before pulling it up and out, free of Stefan's back. She heard a groan, and opening her eyes, saw Stefan, pole-free and Greg staring at her, gobsmacked.

Klaus and Hope sprinted into the room. Klaus bit Man 2 who fell to the floor, screaming. Hope, using her magic, held Man 1 still in the air, just as he was about to attack Stefan, who was still trying to heal from the curtain pole.

"Why do you want these two?" demanded Klaus.

"We just wanted the girl," stammered Man 2, who was sweating profusely as the bite took hold of him. "We knew Marcel wanted her. We thought she'd buy our freedom."

"You thought wrong" said Klaus, simply, and nodded at Hope, who effortlessly pulled the heart out of Man 1, letting it drop nonchalantly on the floor.

"Well that was fun," she said, helping Stefan to his feet.

"Are you okay?" asked Stefan, looking at the two harrowed children. Greg looked like he was going to be sick, and Ottilie was still bleeding heavily from her head wound, but they both nodded.

Damon crouched in front of Greg. "I can take this whole thing out of your memories," he said, looking seriously at the young boy. "But only if you want me to."

Greg shook his head, hesitantly. "Please don't, I want to remember."

Damon nodded quickly, and stood up, pulling Ottilie to him and looking closely at her blood-matted hair. "We need to get them back. Thank you, Klaus and Hope. I am forever in your debt."

The father and daughter smiled, nodded, and went back to their car before setting off home.

Stefan lead Greg by the shoulders back to the camero, whilst Damon supported Ottilie.

As they pulled into the drive, Stefan turned to the back seat to talk to Greg. "You're parents are waiting for you at your house. They don't know about anything that's gone on. They just think they're picking you up after we gave you a lift, okay? I'm so sorry that you've been caught up in this."

"It's okay," said Greg, looking at his friend next to him whose head was lolling against his shoulder as she tried her best to stay awake. "I want to be there for her," he added, quietly.

"She'll be fine," said Damon, smiling kindly at him through the rear view mirror. "We'll take good care of her."

They came to a stop and Damon lifted a now unconscious Ottilie from the car, noticing her hand slip limply from where Greg had been holding it, trying to comfort her.

"Mr and Mrs Blythe, hi!" said Stefan brightly, being careful not to turn and show his bloody back to them, despite the fact that he was now completely healed. "I think Greg here has had an interesting night!" he said, winking at Greg, who smiled back weakly.

"Thanks for picking him up," said Mrs Blythe, smiling at Stefan.

"Oh it's no bother. Any time!" he replied, returning the smile. "Otti will see you at school on Monday!" he added, and Greg nodded, his eyes fixed on Damon carrying his friend into the house, blood dripping on the stone slabs.