Chapter Twenty-Nine

When Rebecca, Chelsea, and Damon got to the Lockwood mansion they went on inside. Rebecca immediately homed in on Elijah, who was talking to Carol Lockwood. Rebecca went to Carol first and made sure she knew that Robert wasn't going to be there because he was at the construction site of the old Salvatore house.

Carol introduced Elijah and told him that both Rebecca's and Damon's families dated back to the founding of Mystic Falls.

"Pleasure to meet you," Damon said.

"No. Pleasure's mine," Elijah said, offering his hand for Damon to shake. Damon accepted.

When Elijah looked at Rebecca he said, "I believe I've already met the enchanting Rebecca Stone. She briefly helped Jenna with the historical family artifacts the Gilberts had hidden away."

"Yes, I did," Rebecca said. "And I was actually hoping that you, Damon, and I could speak privately. It won't take but a moment."

"Of course," Elijah accepted gracefully.

Rebecca smiled and looked at Carol. "Would you mind us using the study for a few minutes?"

"Oh, sure." Carol began leading the way. "Would you like me to watch Chelsea?"

"That would be great," Damon said. "As Rebecca said, we won't take long."

Once in the room, Elijah said, "What can I do for you, Damon?" Then to Rebecca, "He is the one who wanted to set this up, yes?"

Rebecca nodded. "He wanted to meet you, officially."

"Hm. Where is Elena?"

"Safe with Stefan," Damon answered. "They're layin' low. You know, a bit of a werewolf problem."

"Oh, yeah. I heard about that," Elijah said.

"I'm sure you did since it was your witch who saved the day," Damon quipped.

"You are welcome," Elijah said.

"Which adds to my confusion as to why you're here."

Damon seated himself on the edge of the table that was probably used by Carol now when she was dealing with local politics.

"Why don't you just stay focused on keeping Elena safe? And leave the rest to me."

Elijah turned to walk out of the study, but Damon sped to block the exit. Rebecca had to keep from shouting out for Damon to be careful; he shouldn't be making enemies with an unknown threat.

"Not good enough," Damon said darkly.

Before Rebecca could blink, Elijah had pinned Damon to the wall, a hand holding Damon by the throat. Elijah wasn't really choking him, but he was using enough strength to keep Damon from moving.

Damon began choking Elijah, but it didn't faze him. The Original was stronger than Damon, so when Elijah removed Damon's hand from his throat Rebecca actually heard the bones grind in Damon's wrist.

"Elijah, no!" Rebecca grabbed onto Elijah's arm and pulled. No, she couldn't actually move him, but she did shake him a little. "Please."

"You young vampires. You're so arrogant," Elijah said with disgust apparent in his voice. "How dare you come in here and challenge me?"

"You can't kill me," Damon said. "It's not part of the deal."

"Damon, shut up!" Rebecca hissed.

"Yes, Damon," Elijah said. "Shut up. I'm an Original. Show me a little respect."

Before Rebecca knew what was happening, Elijah had a pencil in his hand and was rushing it towards Damon's neck. She couldn't stop his momentum, but she could keep the pencil from touching Damon.

Rebecca groaned as the pencil went through the palm of her hand. Tears filled her eyes and she wanted to scream, but she wouldn't let herself.

For a few seconds, Elijah seemed appalled that he'd hurt her, but then he seemed to shrug it off.

"The moment you cease to be of use to me, you're dead, so you should do what I say. Keep Elena safe."

Elijah let Damon go, and Damon almost hit the floor. Rebecca glared at Elijah and pulled at the pencil until the offensive thing was completely out of her hand.

"Don't threaten us again, Elijah. Original or not, you don't want me as your enemy."

Elijah actually grinned at her before walking away. He probably thought she was just being protective, but he didn't know what she was capable of.

If it came down to it, she could take him.

As Damon watched Elijah leave he was distracted by the smell of Rebecca's blood. She still wasn't healing the way she should, which meant she wasn't feeding the way she should. This made the third time that she'd been hurt and hadn't healed instantly. It was also the third time he was going to have to remind her to feed from a human.

He grabbed her hand and was relieved to see that her wound was closing, just not quickly. It didn't change the fact that she'd been hurt because of him and for him, but at least she would heal eventually.

"Rebecca, may I ask why you won't feed from the vein?" his voice was soft, but it also had an edge to it.

"Because I know everyone in this town. Unless they willingly let me drink from them, it would be weird for me."

Damon sighed, exasperated. "If we went to another town, would it make it easier?"

Rebecca shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. I've only fed from the vein about three times, Damon. Only one of those was with you. I don't want to risk killing someone just because I'm inexperienced. I mean, I don't even know how to control the blood flow yet!"

Damon realized this was true. He hadn't been able to teach her. With everything that had been going on since she'd turned, he hadn't been able to spend as much time teaching her the abilities she needed to survive as a vampire.

"Okay. We need to get you home, and you drink as much as you need, okay? This weekend we'll go out. Stefan's not home, so it's the perfect time."

Tentatively, Rebecca nodded and began smiling.

At the lake-house, Elena was standing on the pier with Stefan. She was wrapped in a thin blanket because the wind coming off of the lake was chilly. Stefan had his arms wrapped around her, and she was just basking in the memories that were coming back to her.

Jeremy had broken his arm jumping into the water when he'd been six. The reason he'd jumped in the first place was because she had, and he'd wanted to be like his big sister.

Her dad had taught her how to fish one summer when they had come to relax. Elena had then helped teach Jeremy. That was before he'd gotten into video games, of course.

"Do you ever think about us?" she asked Stefan. "What our future will be like? Our memories?"

"I think there are a lot of conversations to be had about our future, about the kind of life we could have together."

"Now, there's a box that we shouldn't open."

Elena knew he was talking about vampirism. Elena didn't want to think about becoming a vampire. She knew it was an option; she wasn't stupid. But she also knew she didn't want to be a vampire. She didn't want to become a killer.

"Oh, we can open it. Whenever you're ready."

"No. I'd rather just be here," Elena said. "Now."

Stefan hugged her tighter to him. "You know, this is a future memory."

He whispered, "I love you," in her ear and then Elena giggled because his breath tickled her skin.

"Come on," he said. "I'll make us some dinner."

Elena had called the local grocer and had asked them to deliver a few things for the weekend. Dinner sounded amazing right then.

"My dad did all the cooking too," Elena said. "My mom sat on the couch and watched. She couldn't cook either."

As they went in the house, Stefan went to the kitchen and Elena went towards her parents' old bedroom. Everything looked the way her memory told her it should. Checkered-pattern sheets on the bed, magazines and a lamp on the bedside table, pictures and paintings on the lavender walls, her mom's cosmetics on the dresser by the door, her mom's perfume.

Elena went to the dresser and picked up what had been her mom's favorite perfume. It smelled of jasmine.

Jenna was supposed to have packed all this up, but Elena was glad that she hadn't.

Elena went to the closet and started going through her mom's old clothes. Elena accidentally hit the wall on the right side of the closet and when she did so, she realized that it wasn't solid. The wall obviously had something inside.

Elena began to feel around the wall and finally found a small enough slit to fit her fingernails in and she was able to pull a board loose. Three more came after it.

There was a door hidden behind the boards she'd just removed, and the door was locked.

"Stefan!" she exclaimed softly. She wanted him to know it was important, but she didn't want to alarm him.

"Yeah?" she heard him in the doorway.

"There's a door here. It was hidden, so . . ."

Stefan came and she could see he was all serious now. He gestured to the lock and she nodded. She wanted to know what was inside. Or at least she thought she did. But what if her parents had been closet freaks or something? She wasn't going to find whips or chains or anything like that, right?

Right.

What she did find, however, were weapons. A crossbow, stakes, even a scythe that looked as if it were used for beheading.

"Oh, my God."

Elena had known the Gilberts were part of the council and that they were a founding family. What she hadn't known was that, apparently, her parents had hunted vampires too.

After Damon had helped clean Rebecca off, she'd gotten a phone call from Caroline. They had Luka, and she, Bonnie, and Jeremy were at Caroline's getting ready to perform the spell to try and read Luka's mind.

"We only have an hour or two before my mom gets home," Caroline said. "So we need to hurry."

"How does it work?" she asked.

"Um . . . I'll put him in a trance and ask him questions," Bonnie answered. Apparently, Caroline had her on speakerphone. "It's like hypnosis."

Damon had Chelsea in his arms and was leading Rebecca to the car. She knew he'd be able to hear everything that was said, so she wouldn't have to bother repeating anything that was being said.

"He's waking up," Bonnie said. "I have to go."

"You guys be careful," Rebecca said before hanging up.

"Ugh. He's gonna be hard to kill," Damon said, opening the car door for Rebecca.

"Well, maybe if you wouldn't antagonize everybody . . ." Rebecca muttered. "What if Elijah isn't the bad guy? What if he really means what he told Elena?"

"What if he didn't?"

Rebecca sighed and shook her head. She didn't speak again for the whole ride home.

When they got home Rebecca got out and said, "Can you get Chelsea? I really need some blood. My hand is still sore."

"Yeah, sure."

Rebecca smiled a little and then made her way inside. She never made it to the basement.

Apparently, they needed to start locking the doors. Anybody could just walk in – any werewolf could just walk in.

"Oh, really?" she mumbled. "You were supposed to leave!"

Jules was there. Why she was there, Rebecca didn't know. Jules had a shotgun in her hand. That couldn't be good.

Damon and Chelsea were outside, at least.

"Look, I have a baby sister. She's not even two yet. Whatever you're going to do, just leave her out of it, okay? She's completely innocent."

Jules softened just a bit. "We won't touch her. Give us the moonstone and no one has to get hurt."

"I don't have it," Rebecca said honestly. "I'm not sure what happened to it."

"Hm." Jules raised the gun. "Pity."

Then all Rebecca knew was pain. Jules had pulled the trigger and Rebecca was now filled with little pellets.

The gun had been loaded with buckshot.

She wasn't even able to scream, she was in so much pain. She could barely move or breathe. She was too weak.

Outside the boardinghouse, Damon was having his own struggle. He'd been getting Chelsea out of her car seat when he'd felt a presence behind him. Before he was able to turn around, a needle was stuck into the side of his neck.

Vervain.

Damon flipped onto his back to try and knock whoever it was off, but it didn't work. He heard something that sounded suspiciously like a gunshot and then a woman was coming out of the boardinghouse and it wasn't Rebecca.

"Hi, Damon," the woman said. She had a smile on her face. "Nice to see you again."

Jules had obviously shot Rebecca, and Damon couldn't do anything about it because he'd been vervained, was still being vervained.

He felt the needle being pulled out as he lost consciousness. He knew he must have a full syringe of vervain in his system now. He would be out for a while.

Rebecca and Chelsea were now at the mercy of werewolves.

At the lake-house, Elena was still going through her parents' things and had come across a box of journals that had belonged to Jonathan Gilbert. They were dated from 1864 to 1865.

She also found wooden bullets, sharpened to points, probably so they could be used to actually kill a vampire and not just wound one.

"I'm gonna go outside for a bit," Stefan said. "Let you have your space. Yell if you need anything."

Elena barely heard him. She did need space, and she was curious. She wanted to read about her ancestor and what his life had been like.

There was no reason why she shouldn't start now.

When Damon awoke, the first thing he realized was that he couldn't move. He was chained to a chair, and there was no way he could undo the bonds. He was too weak. Second thing he realized was that his neck was killing him. He had some sort of wooden collar on and there were spikes – which were also wooden – digging into his skin, leaving bloody marks behind.

He looked around, only moving his eyes, and saw Rebecca off to the side, her hands and feet bound also with chains. Her chest was bloody and he made the connection between the shot he'd heard before he'd blacked out and Rebecca's wounds.

He groaned a little and lifted his head. Chelsea was nowhere to be found, but a young guy was standing beside Rebecca. He looked like someone who should've been at home playing video games, not at someone's house thinking about torture.

"Morning, Sunshine."

Damon's head fell backwards and hit the chair. This shouldn't have been happening. These werewolf-types should've been gone already.

"I saw this movie once, some torture-porn flick," the teen said. "Anyway, they had this collar device that was really cool, so I just modified it some with some wooden nails, and when I pull . . ."

Damon hadn't realized until then that the guy had another set of chains in his hands. They were connected to the collar on Damon's neck and when the guy pulled, the spikes on the collar dug deeper into Damon's neck.

Damon tried not to scream, but it felt as if the guy was trying to tear his head off.

He heard Rebecca start to scream, too, even though moments before she had been unconscious.

The pulling stopped and yet Rebecca continued to scream. She had awoken to having bullets still in her. Damon didn't know if Jules had used metal or wood, but either way the pain would be terrible.

"So I hear you have the moonstone," Jules said, coming into the room.

"Oh, I told you we didn't have it," Rebecca said weakly.

"The thing is, I don't believe you," Jules seethed. "You have it, or you know where it is."

"Let me tell you how this is gonna go," Damon said. "You're gonna torture me, I don't talk, someone loses a heart."

Rebecca groaned again, and Damon caught her gaze. She was basically glaring at him, telling him not to mention Mason, which he'd been about to do, but he couldn't taunt the enemy right now because they had Rebecca tied up too.

"What if we torture here? Will you talk then? She doesn't look like she can take much more."

Rebecca couldn't take much more, there was no doubt there.

"You touch her and I'll find a way to break these chains and I will kill you."

Damon grew even tenser when Jules picked up the shotgun she'd obviously already used on Rebecca.

Before anything could happen, however, Rebecca's phone began to ring. Everyone froze and Jules stepped toward Rebecca. Jules had taken Becca's phone.

"Expecting a phone call?"

Rebecca shook her head.

"Good. You don't have to answer and pretend everything's fine."

At the lake-house, Stefan was still outside giving Elena her space. He had known, of course, that the Gilberts' had been one of the founding families, and Elena had also known. Stefan guessed it had never occurred to Elena that her parents had probably fought vampires too.

Stefan made his way toward the work shed that he had just spotted, but when he got there he was confronted by the werewolf that had spent the better part of yesterday torturing Caroline. Tyler was there too.

The one Stefan knew was bad news held up a gun and shot him right in the heart. Stefan fell to his knees and heard the guy say, "Keep him down," to Tyler. He even gave Tyler the gun.

"If he moves, kill him."

Tyler was then handed a stake and he was left alone with Stefan. Why were they here? If all the werewolves wanted was to kill vampires, why had they only wounded him?

"Don't move," Tyler said.

"Help me get the bullet out. It punctured my heart. I need to get it out. I'm not gonna fight you."

"I don't think so," Tyler said. "I can't let you break the curse."

The curse? Tyler thought he wanted to break the curse? Why would he think that?

"We don't wanna break the curse, Tyler. We don't wanna do that."

"Oh, yeah?" Tyler shot Stefan in the leg and Stefan yelled. "Well, I do. I can't be like this forever."

"Tyler, I'm just tryin' to save Elena."

"Elena will be fine."

"Is that what they told you?" Stefan groaned, flipping over and trying to stand up. "Tyler, Elena has to die for the curse to be broken."

Tyler lowered the gun a fraction of an inch and Stefan smiled sadly at him.

"Who are the liars now?"

"Stefan?" Elena called out as she stepped onto the front porch. She'd gone through some of the weapons that had apparently belonged to her parents and had even gone through a few pages of the Gilbert journals. She would read more of those later, but right then she just wanted to see Stefan.

Stefan, who would've come running when he'd heard her call him, and he would have heard her. Something was obviously wrong.

Elena backed up and slowly made her way into the kitchen where she grabbed the knife Stefan would have used to cut up vegetables for dinner. The blade looked like something from a Michael Myers movie.

She went back to the front door and went outside again. Maybe she'd been jumping to conclusions, but the knife sure was a nice safety precaution.

"Stefan? What're you doing out there?"

She felt a presence behind her and instinctively turned around to shove her knife into the person who'd snuck up on her. She realized too late that the person may have been human, but she didn't care. She rushed past him and slammed the door as soon as she got in the house. She locked it, too, and then began rushing upstairs. Maybe she could use one of her parents' weapons.

The front door burst open as Elena reached the top of the stairs, and Elena had to force herself to keep going. She wanted to freeze from fright.

"I can smell you," the man said loudly.

Elena, who had reached her parents' room by now, realized she couldn't risk staying in there now that she knew he had the advantage of smell.

She quickly removed her over-shirt and left it on the bed to mislead the man. Who was he, anyway? What did he want? And what had he done with Stefan?

She sped across the hall to her old room and heard the man stomping up the stairs. She held her breath so she wouldn't make as much noise, and waited for the sound of his footsteps to fade away. Only then did she make her way out of the room and back downstairs.

She didn't go outside, however, because she knew that if something had happened to Stefan she wouldn't stand a chance out in the open. She slammed the door, hoping the house was so full of her scent that he wouldn't be able to tell that she had gone back into the kitchen.

She grabbed another knife and hid behind the door. She silently cursed when she heard the footsteps coming towards the kitchen. When he was in clear view, she jumped out and sharply jabbed the knife into his shoulder. She yanked it back out and took off running towards the back door.

She felt his presence behind her and knew he was chasing her. Once she got past the door, however, she heard a scream and, against her better judgment, turned around. She was glad she had.

Stefan was there. He looked weak, but he had ripped the heart out of the guy who had been chasing her.

Ignoring the body of the guy, Elena flung herself into Stefan's arms and fought the sobs that wanted to break free.

She's been attacked and could've died. Story of her life, really, but it didn't make it any easier.

Footsteps sounded from her left and she saw Tyler standing off to the side. He seemed almost as traumatized as she was.

"I didn't know what they were gonna do to you. I didn't. I just – I just don't wanna be like this anymore."

Elena let go of Stefan and went to Tyler. She hugged him mostly because he really looked like he needed one. No one had mentioned it except for Caroline, but Tyler was probably really confused. He hadn't known about any of the supernatural stuff until recently, and now here he was – a werewolf.

"I'm sorry, Elena."

"It's okay."

She held him tighter and began rubbing his back. She would be so glad when all of this was over. Maybe then she would be able to know all of her friends would be happy and safe.

"You know what the great thing about buckshot is?" Jules asked, leaning over Rebecca, who was fighting to stay conscious. "It scatters through the body. Maximum damage."

She turned the gun toward Damon, and Rebecca's eyes widened a little, but she wasn't able to do much of anything else.

"Get over it, honey," Damon said. "You're never gonna get it."

"You lookin' for this?" a familiar and welcome voice asked from the doorway.

Elijah! Rebecca just about passed out from relief – as if the exhaustion and pain weren't enough. She had called him when Jules had left her on the floor after shooting her. Rebecca had faked being unconscious and then when the lady-wolf had gone, Rebecca had taken full advantage. That was probably how Jules had gotten hold of her phone. She hadn't been able to put it back.

Elijah made his way into the room and showed off the stone in his hand – proof that Bonnie and Luka hadn't destroyed it. He placed it on a table close to the exit and shrugged and gestured toward it.

"Go ahead. Take it."

What? He had gone to all this trouble to get to it, and now he was just going to give it away?

One of the wolves tried for it and lost his heart because of the effort, and two more suffered the same fate. Jules quickly left, and then only one of the wolves remained: the one that had been torturing Damon. That wolf was cowering on the floor next to the chair Damon was chained to.

"What about you?" Elijah asked. "Wanna take a shot?" The boy was yanked up and he immediately shook his head. "No? Yes? No?"

Elijah looked around and then his gaze landed on Damon.

"Where's the girl?"

"I don't know."

"Well, it doesn't really matter."

Elijah punched the boy so hard his neck snapped, and he fell to the floor, dead. Elijah pulled at the chains binding Damon to the chair and the links broke easily.

"Do you realize this is the third time I've saved your life now?" Elijah asked.

Rebecca noticed he looked haughty, but he didn't sound haughty. He seemed to be reminding them of the fact that he was keeping his word.

"Damon . . ." Rebecca said weakly. She needn't have said anything. He was already trying to stand up so he could get to her.

"You have everything else under control, I assume?" Elijah asked Damon, who nodded. "Good."

Elijah picked up the moonstone and headed to the door.

"Elijah!" Rebecca called, and he turned around. "Thank you for coming when I called."

The Original nodded and smiled softly before turning to walk away.

When Damon was sure Elijah was gone, he knelt down by Rebecca's side and quickly began to unchain her. The task was made harder by the vervain running through his veins.

"Damon, your neck," she said softly.

She tried to reach up but groaned. Damon knew every movement must be more painful than anything Rebecca had ever felt. What was worse was that he was going to have to help get the pellets out of her.

Damon caressed her cheek and said, "You're gonna be okay."

He stood up and went to his little bar and grabbed a bottle of his best bourbon, and then made his way back to Rebecca.

"Here, drink. You're gonna need it."

As it was, Damon needed help himself, so he called the only person he knew would come.

Alaric Saltzman.

Ric was on his way to Jenna's when he got a call on his cell. He groaned when he realized it was Damon. He knew Damon would call only if there was trouble. He needed there not to be trouble. He had a date with Jenna – sort of, anyway. Jenna was cooking dinner for him, and he was staying the night.

"Yeah?" he answered anyway.

"How busy are you right now?"

"Heading to Jenna's for dinner, why?"

"Rebecca needs help, and I can't do it right now because I'm not at my best. Can you call and tell her you'll be running a little late?"

"How late?"

"Maybe thirty minutes?"

Ric sighed and wondered how exactly he had gotten into this mess. He'd come to this town wanting to kill vampires, and now he was friends with four of them, two of which he taught in his class.

"A'right, let me call her."

"Thanks, Ric," Damon said before hanging up.

With mixed feelings, Ric began to call Jenna. He didn't know why he even tried having a relationship anymore. It wasn't like he could ever tell Jenna the truth. She would flip out and think he was crazy. She'd probably call the closest loony bin available.

But he loved her and didn't want to lose her, so he finished dialing the number.

After Damon had finished talking to Ric, his phone rang. It was Bonnie calling. Damon didn't even know how she'd gotten his number, but he answered because for her to be calling him it had to be important.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Where's Rebecca? I can't get her on the phone."

"Her phone was stolen. We just spent the better part of an hour being tortured by werewolves."

"What?"

"Yeah. So what'd you find out?"

"The Martin's have been working with Elijah. Klaus has a girl named Greta working for him. She's Luka's sister. Klaus is trying to find a way to undo the curse without the doppelganger."

Damon listened, but he was watching Rebecca at the same time. He'd even been listening to Chelsea. She'd been asleep for about fifteen minutes. She'd been crying but had obviously fallen asleep – had cried herself to sleep. That was almost better, because she couldn't really come downstairs when he began to get the pellets out of Rebecca.

"Elijah promised the Martin's they would get Greta back if they helped him kill Klaus."

Rebecca groaned and Damon's eyes narrowed as she tried to sit up. What was she doing?

"And how do we kill Klaus?" she asked, her voice even weaker than before.

Damon relayed her message and tried to get Rebecca to lie back down fully. She was just making herself bleed more.

"After the sacrifice, Klaus will be vulnerable and weak."

Wait. After the sacrifice? Damon thought. Elena has to die.

For the curse to be broken, Elena would have to die. They had already known that, but Elijah had promised to keep her safe, hadn't he? That had been the deal she'd made. She would stay put and Elijah would keep her and her friends safe.

"So he planned on killing her all along," Damon said.

"Yeah. The sacrifice is part of Elijah's plan."

"Got it. Loud and clear."

Damon hung up and tossed his phone on the couch. Rebecca had finally lain back down and was now drinking bourbon straight from the bottle. Good. Maybe she'd drink herself unconscious and wouldn't feel when he was pulling the little pellets out of her.

"Damon, take that thing out of your neck. I'm . . . getting sick just looking at it."

Rebecca's speech was already beginning to slur, Damon was happy to hear. She shouldn't have been worrying about him, however, because she was way worse off than he was.

Okay, so I had to copy and paste instead of just upload, so I hope that doesn't mess anything up. To be honest, I'm not too crazy about this chapter. I don't think it's badly written or anything like that, I just don't like all the Elena/Stefan stuff. I'll be glad when I get to the next season so that I can start back on focusing on my main couple. Anyway, let me know what you think, like always.