Gilbert Residence
September 26, 2010
Elena almost felt the urge to ask him to repeat what he had just said, but the taken aback looks Jeremy and Alaric were giving each other only confirmed it. Oh, my God! It was not as if she needed any further proof of what a blood sire bond actually meant.
"You guys sound like Caroline, getting all freaked out over something you don't understand." Tyler said.
"You're right, Tyler, I don't understand. Klaus has terrorized every single one of us, and you're just blindly loyal to him." Elena retorted.
"You're over-thinking it. I can still make my own decisions." Tyler stated. Elena felt sick to her stomach. She was still trying to find some way of showing Tyler the truth when she noticed Jeremy was standing in the kitchen talking on his phone. Was Jer talking to Bonnie again, she wondered. Ever since Bon had found out that he had been seeing Anna's ghost, their relationship had taken on an air of betrayal. So when she finished his call, she couldn't help to ask. "What was that about?"
"It was nothing." He said. After a moment of awkwardness, Tyler broke the silence.
"I got to go. Umm, thanks for the food offer, but-"
"Next time." Ric answered, For the briefest of a moment Elena had the oddest gut feeling that if next time occurred without warning, the resident hunter of Mystic Falls might have something waiting for the Klaus sired hybrid Jeremy's friend or not. Both of them watched Tyler depart.
"That was illuminating." Ric offered.
"So, Tyler Lockwood is a lunatic who has access to our house." Elena said evenly. Now she had another something to worry about. Just how many Vampires can come inside her house now? She thought bitterly. Not counting Tyler or the Salvatore brothers. She knew Elijah had access, but he was currently daggered safely tucked away in a coffin God knows where. The only two other vampires still alive she knew had access was Caroline and Katherine. The latter was Elena's least favorite person, other than Klaus. And thankfully, he so far did not have access to her home.
"Well, great, that's a wonderful influence for you, Jer..." Elena trails off when she notices Jeremy is no longer where he was sitting.
"Jeremy?" She called, hoping that he had gone upstairs to his room, but then she noticed his protection ring laying in the middle of his plate. An icy ball of fear formed in the pit of her soul.
"Is that his ring?" Ric said when he saw Elena holding it in between her fingers.
"W… Where did he go?" She said looking at Ric then as one they ran to the door and found him standing in the middle of the street. Before she could say anything, she noticed a black SUV whipping around the street corner, barreling towards Jeremy. Both Ric and Elena took off running towards Jeremy. To her and Ric's surprise, Elena beat him to her little brother and just as she pushed Jeremy out of the way, she thought they were both safe. When she felt the bumper make a glancing contact with her hip, sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Elena!" Ric yelled. Then before she could try to stand up Ric and Jeremy were both by her side checking her out, asking her if she was alright. She didn't pay any attention to them she just watched as the SUV turned around and in an instant she knew this incident was just another message from Klaus. When the driver pulls up to them and she sees Tony, the hybrid smiling down at her.
"There I go again. Bumping into people…" Tony smiled and with a wave sped away as quickly as he had arrived.
"Oh, my god! Elena! Are you gonna to be alright? What the hell just happened?" Jeremy demanded, his face ashen.
"Yeah, just a little sore. Honestly, I'll be fine. Who was that on the phone earlier?" She asked, already knowing the answer, but she wanted to divert their concern to more important matters than her aching side. It still took a moment for Jeremy to understand what she was asking, but she knew the instant he remembered.
"It was Klaus! I don't understand."
His words were a knife to her chest, and she knew she had to do something or someone she loved was going to die and one more loss would be her undoing. She turned and ran inside to grab her keys and things she would need.
"Elena? I don't understand." Jeremy started again.
"You were compelled, Jeremy! Get inside both of you I've got to do something or someone is going to die!"
"Elena, where are you going?" Ric asked, but Elena was already beside her car with its driver's side door already pulled partially open. Bracing herself, she sought her mentor's eyes and knew she had to do something. Because if something didn't change and fast Klaus was going to harm someone she cared for and she'll be damned if she was just going to sit back and allow it to happen.
"I'm going to make an exchange and hopefully give us some breathing room until we find a better solution." She called back to them, then sped away before either of them could stop her.
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It took driving around for about an hour and then a few rather unproductive phone calls to come up with a plan. She first called Ric to tell him she would be back and not to worry. The next person on her list was Bonnie, and other than finding out about Klaus's missing coffins, her friend wasn't much help either. Feeling desperate, she even tried to call Stefan because at one time he would've been the first person she'd called who could help her, but every call went straight to voicemail. For sake of duality she then called Damon and asked if he knew where Stefan was, but then she noticed that even on the phone he seemed rather evasive so in response she didn't feel the need to tell him what she was currently up to. He wasn't too pleased with her when she hung up on him and turned off her phone and for a while. Then after giving herself some time to work up her courage, she made a phone call to the last person she ever wanted to call voluntarily. Afterward she drove to the Salvatore Boarding house, praying inwardly that the two brothers were conveniently absent.
Damon would hate her plan from the very instant she explained it to him, and when she thought about Stefan, she honestly didn't know how he would react. She would never admit to her realization to anyone, but to herself she could admit for the first time she felt absolutely terrified of her former boyfriend.
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Salvatore Boarding House
September 26, 2010
While Elena waited, she meandered through the boarding house until she was in the study absently sifting through the notes they had been compiling ever since she first found out that about the alleged curse of the Sun and Moon and their most recent attempt to kill Klaus. Her inner calm shattered the instant she heard his voice.
"Well… If it isn't my favorite doppelgänger." Klaus said from the study's doorway.
"I'm not yours, Klaus!" She said. As she expected, he moved faster than her eyes could track and he was then standing very close to her.
"Think whatever you want, sweetheart, but you and I know differently." He whispered into her temple but stopped when he finally notices what Elena is digging through. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, I had some time to kill waited for you so I was just going through items we'd collected trying to defeat you." She stiffens when he laughs harshly. "I'm thinking about making a scrapbook of some it."
Elena held up the supposed Aztec drawing of the sun and the moon curse. "Elijah once told me you created this picture. Although this just a picture of the original, its still rather impressive work." Elena said, admiring the workmanship. In an instant Klaus had her pinned against the bookshelf and she was too stunned to resist.
"What sort of game are you playing at Elena?" He snarled in her face. Gasping for air Elena tried to speak but Klaus was pressing too hard on her neck.
"No games, Klaus!" She wheezed. "I… I just think its splendid work! What the hell is wrong with you?" Something passes beneath Klaus' eyes and before she can beg him to let her go, he released her and moved back several paces. Rubbing her neck, trying to restore the blood flow, Elena couldn't help wondering if he didn't know how to take a compliment.
"Now that we've finished the pleasantries, I trust you have news of Stefan?" Klaus said, as if what had just happened hadn't.
"Sorry! But I've called him more than once and he isn't picking up and Damon is of no help, so I need to make a bargain with you. Before you ask if anyone knew, especially in the case with Damon, they would've told me I was out of my ever living mind."
"Color me intrigued. I'm listening."
"I think that we both can agree on something and that is our respective families." She paused, collecting her thoughts. "You want your siblings back, and I want it known that if I had any knowledge of what Stefan had done, I would have done my utmost to help you get them back, but Stefan is not acting like I've come to expect. No thanks to your influence. Right now I honestly wouldn't put it past him to kill me just to deny you the chance of siring any more hybrids."
"Love, you're exaggerating. The kind of love he has for you can never go away," he scoffed.
"You might think that, but are you willing to bet on it? What happens if it proves you wrong. I'm the last of the Petrova Doppelgänger bloodline and once I'm gone, there is nothing you can do."
She waited for a response, but when she finally looked at him the look, he was giving her almost made her lose her focus. "B… But we are getting off topic. Your family is important to you, mine is the same for me and because of your actions I have lost my aunt and my parents I can't loose Jeremy or even Alaric."
"You give me too much credit love, I won't deny what I did to your aunt, but I had nothing to do with your parents' death." Klaus said. His smile faltered when he gazed into her eyes. "Honest, I didn't know you even existed when they drove off that bridge." He added.
"So you're saying that you didn't know then that the man I had grown up thinking was my uncle was my father and he died because he sacrificed his life so I would be resurrected after killing me to break your damnable curse. Perhaps you should thank him then because if he hadn't done what he did I would have come back as a vampire and that would have meant no hybrids." Elena could help but to bark out a harsh laugh.
"Ah… So that's how you survived. I was rather curious I'd tried to compel Stefan once I found out, but he wasn't aware of that detail. Still, I can't take credit for your mother's untimely demise I never met her."
"Klaus, I watched before my very eyes as my mother commit suicide by burning to the crisp in the sunlight in the middle of a cemetery after you'd compelled her to do so." The look on his face was confirmation enough for her to know he wasn't aware of her connection to Isobel Flemming either. "I can't lose anyone else so here is my deal I can give you back your sister right now for leaving Jeremy out of this."
"Done." Klaus said.
"I'm not finished I will agree to donate two blood bag's worth of my doppelgänger blood to you on a routine basis in return for each donation one of my friends is to be left alone."
She watched him as he considered her offer. She knew he would at least get his sister back and now he wouldn't have to force her to donate as he probably would have done anyway but this was the best offer she could come up with on short notice.
"Where is my beloved sister?" He asked carefully.
"Follow me." Elena turned and limped out of the study with the Original Hybrid not far behind. She didn't want to show any form of weakness, but her hip was hurting now more than before. She knew she had better ice it as soon as her business with Klaus had concluded. As they made their way down the stairs, the silence between them must have gotten the better of him because what he spoke next surprised her.
"Why the sudden need to make a deal with me? And bloody hell why are you limping it better not be for sympathy because I have none to give."
Elena stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at her tormentor, just a few steps above her. "I told you family is family, and I figured that this is the one thing we can agree on. I don't know how to get your remaining siblings back to you but I had to do something. Oh yeah, the limp here is the direct results from me saving my brother's life from your hybrid's latest effort to intimate me."
Even before she finished speaking she felt her body being pressed against the cold damp stone wall and she almost laughed as an inner thought briefly considered asking him what is up with vampires and the need to pin someone against an object. Instead, she just waited for him to say something. It really wasn't a surprise to her, at least it didn't take very long.
"Explain." He demanded.
"Your hybrid must not of explained that I rushed out and pushed my brother out of the way and missed getting grazed by his SUV's bumper. What did you expect for me to do, Klaus! Jeremy is my brother and I can't sit back and watch him die. If I had lost him, I would have been alone, and I wished I had been just a little slower." Elena spoke softly but didn't realize she'd been crying until she felt the tears falling from her cheek. Klaus ground his teeth as if he had bitten into something sour.
"I should compel you not to take your own life then. I wouldn't want to deal with you as a vampire now do I."
For once she couldn't help herself, and she actually laughed. "You don't have to worry about that if I even have a trace of vampire blood in my system, I plan to stay as safe as I can be I have no desire of pulling a Katherine intentionally or not."
"You had better not I would hate to kill you at this point of our deal. Speaking of which, where is my sister?" He said backing away from her.
Elena chose not to answer him directly. Instead she unbolted the door and swung it open revealing Rebekah lying prone on the ground still in her homecoming dress she had Elena pick out for her. The one she had ultimately daggered her in as she admired her reflection. She is going to be so pissed when she wakes up, Elena thought as Klaus walked past her kneeling next to his sister. She stood there silently, watching as he pulled the dagger out of her back.
"My poor sister. I can't turn my back on her for a moment." He spoke softly and Elena wasn't sure if he was still talking to her, himself or to his sister. But she had to press on before Rebekah did wake up and came after her.
"You have Rebekah back do we have a deal?"
"The life of my sister in exchange for your brother? Yeah, I'd say that's a bargain. Consider him spared." He said picking his sister up and cradling her in his arms. Elena felt a brief note of sympathy for the pair of original vampires, but quietly silenced that line of thought. It would only get her into trouble if she started seeing them as human beings instead of the monsters they were.
"You should know I was the one that daggered her. When she wakes, she'll come after me." She warned, stepping out of the room.
"I can control Rebekah. Besides, I still need your help to find Stefan, and then there is the matter of your first donation. I'll send someone to collect you tomorrow."
"I'll do what I can regarding Stefan, but I need at least a day, maybe two, for the vervain to work it's self out of my system." She offered. It was the best she could do, but considering how Stefan hadn't contacted her since after the incident with Mikael. How much influence did Klaus really think she still had over her former boyfriend was a mystery even to her.
"Clever girl, I will collect you in two days then. I'll see you then." But before he left, Elena's words stopped him cold.
"You should also know I'm not the only one that Rebekah wants dead. She knows what you did to your mother. Thanks to me your sister knows you killed her." Elena hesitated by the door and looking back at the sight of an older brother cradling his unconscious younger sister, she felt pity for the two ancient vampires.
"Klaus, I meant what I said before, I hope you can get your family back. You can let yourself out." Not waiting for a response, she moved as quickly as she could up the stairs and back into the study to clean up the mess she had made.
When Elena heard the front door slam shut, she hurried to finish when a picture caught her attention and she stopped cleaning up. Her thoughts churned as she tried to remember what Bonnie had said rather recently. Then it hit her and bruised hip or not, she almost fell back onto her backside. She had almost missed the fact that Bonnie had mentioned the detail of Klaus's missing coffins and then she connected with Bonnie's dream of four coffins there had to be a connection if that was the case. Maybe there was a connection between her own reoccurring dream and the lone glossy photo Rebekah had missed burning just after learning of her brother's centuries long deception. Finding her keys she moved as fast as she could to her car. There was still had enough daylight to check it out and now was the best time as any to find out.
