Chapter Eighteen

After picking Chelsea up from Jenna's, Damon and Rebecca went back to the boardinghouse and went up to their room. Rebecca was in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes. Instead of a shower, though, Rebecca ended up running bath water. All three of them could fit in the tub.

Damon got in first, then Rebecca, and Rebecca fit Chelsea on her lap. There were bubbles in the tub and the little girl liked playing with them and trying to eat them, but she found out real fast that they didn't taste good, so she stopped putting them in her mouth.

A few months ago, Rebecca would've freaked out about Chelsea trying to eat bubbles, but she was more laid back now. She was the type who would let Chelsea try Damon's bourbon if she wanted to just so she'd know it burnt going down and wouldn't drink again.

Rebecca was comfortable leaning back against Damon and he seemed content leaning against the tub and holding her and Chelsea.

"Damon, Caroline was too late and Tyler had already, ya know . . ." Rebecca sighed. "You know what that means. He didn't mean to; it was self-defense, but still. Caroline feels terrible, so I'm gonna go over there in the morning before she goes to school."

Not for the first time, Rebecca was glad she didn't have school to worry about.

After the bath, Rebecca got Chelsea and herself dressed in night clothes. Chelsea was put in her own room and Rebecca went back to hers, where she saw Damon standing in the middle of the room naked.

"Damon!" she exclaimed. "Where are your pants?"

"In the drawer where they always are."

She giggled. "Why are they not on you?"

Damon smirked and rushed toward her. He grabbed her and basically tackled her to the bed. He laughed along with her when they landed with him on top of her.

"Well, we can't really be doing what I want to do if I have my pants on. And you are severely overdressed."

She laughed again but became serious when he kissed her. Damon was in a playful yet gently mood. They were going to have a fun night.

The next morning Rebecca got up and was surprised when Damon had already been up and had gotten Chelsea ready. He wanted to go to Caroline's with her to get the information from Blondie herself.

At Caroline's the blonde let them in and then went to her bedroom to finish getting dressed. She let Damon know what had happened the night before as she finished accessorizing.

"Does Matt remember anything?"

"No. He thinks he blacked out," Caroline said. "But I think . . . I think they were both compelled by Katherine. And that's why I covered for Tyler and said it was an accident."

"Yeah, I don't understand that. Guy's a tool."

"Too!" Chelsea said and giggled.

"Well, gee, duh! Tyler getting blamed for Sarah's death just opens up questions that he can't answer. And do you really think it's a good idea for him to tell his mom he's a werewolf?"

"Well, no," Damon said obviously.

"And that werewolf road leads straight to Vampire Boulevard." Caroline bent down to put on a pair of cowgirl boots. "I thought I was thinking fast on my feet."

"You were," Rebecca said. "Good job."

"Where's your mom?" Damon asked.

"Leading the search party for Aimee Bradley. They haven't found her body yet."

"Oh, teens today and their underage drinking," Damon quipped. "Tragic. Wait, did you see Tyler's eyes turn yellow?"

"They were gold with amber highlights."

"Oh."

"Can he turn into a wolf now?" Caroline asked, worried.

"Only on a full moon. But now he has increased strength and who knows what else? I wonder how much Mason told him. Does he know about us?"

Caroline was busy texting now and ignoring Damon. He didn't like it.

"Hey. What'd you tell him?" he asked.

"Nothing, really. I – I don't think he knows much of anything. He seemed really freaked out, and honestly . . . I felt kind of bad for him."

Caroline grabbed her school bag and then walked past Damon and then past Rebecca.

Rebecca had been paying attention, but she'd also been playing with Chelsea. The girl was at the stage in her development that made her want to get up and run; she didn't want to be held much anymore. At the point, Rebecca didn't mind because it kept the girl from focusing on the conversation Damon and Caroline were having.

"He's gotta know something," Damon said.

"A'right, well, I'll ask him," Caroline agreed.

Rebecca saw Damon rush toward Caroline and noticed the blond flinch when he grabbed her by the collar of her jacket.

"No, you won't, Caroline," Damon seethed. Rebecca moved toward him, ready to intervene. "He cannot know about us. A bite from a werewolf can kill a vampire, so don't be his friend. Do you understand me?"

"I understand," Caroline said. There was fear in her voice and Rebecca knew she'd probably been reminded of the many times Damon had used her when she'd been human.

"Damon, let her go," Rebecca said. "You don't get to treat her like that."

Rebecca realized that since Damon had called Caroline by her name and not by Blondie that he was serious and concerned about her welfare, but he could've been more graceful about it. Aside from that, Rebecca was reminded of how much of a bad friend she'd been when Damon had first come to town. She'd allowed Damon to pretty much do whatever he'd wanted to Caroline. She hadn't cared that Caroline had been a snack food or that she'd been pushed around and semi-abused.

Granted, Rebecca hadn't really known that he'd been that bad with her until they'd found Caroline out on the Lockwood property at that Founder's party, but still . . . she'd known about the feeding and the compelling and she hadn't done anything until weeks later. She still felt guilty about that, especially now that Rebecca was realizing what a special girl Caroline was. She and Caroline had a lot in common, actually.

"I'm late for school," Caroline said softly.

"Right." Damon let her go, but not before patting her gently on the shoulder a few times. "If you wanna drop a hint to your mom that Aimee's body is at the bottom of the ravine with a cracked spine, might save your mom some time."

Damon grinned and went to open the door for Caroline, who was looking at Rebecca strangely. "How d'you put up with his mood swings?"

It had been a rhetorical question and the blonde walked away without an answer. Rebecca grinned though because she'd seen the fear slip from her friend's face – her expression had been one of exasperation when she'd turned to walk out the door.

At the school, most of the students were going by the vigils that had been set up for Sarah and Aimee. No, Aimee's body hadn't been found and everyone only considered her missing, but this being Mystic Falls, no one expected her to turn up.

Of course, Jeremy Gilbert knew what had really happened to both Sarah and Aimee, and he wasn't worried about them anyway. He was looking for Stefan and Elena. Stefan was at his locker when Jeremy spotted him, but his sister was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, Jeremy."

"Hey. Look, Elena's gotta let me know if I'm supposed to cover for her. I mean, Jenna's cool with the two of you, but you guys are pushin' it."

"What're you talkin' about?"

"You and Elena. Look, I'm glad you guys are back together, but if she's gonna sleep over you've gotta –"

"Whoa, hold on a minute. We're not . . . back together."

"Wait. She didn't – she didn't stay at your place last night?"

Jeremy had checked Elena's room that morning; his sister hadn't been home. Her bed hadn't been slept in.

"No," Stefan said. "I mean, I saw her at the party, but that was it. She didn't sleep over."

"Because her bed hadn't been slept it. And Mrs. Lockwood said her car was still in the driveway. Where is she, then?"

Jeremy cursed himself for not checking on Elena when he'd gotten home the night before. But she'd told him on the phone that she'd planned on going straight to bed, so he hadn't wanted to bother her.

Elena was being carried by someone – a male someone. He wasn't Stefan or Damon, either. She knew that much. She didn't know where she was and she didn't know who she was with, but she knew she was tied up. Her wrists were bound tightly, but not tight enough to cut off her circulation.

Whoever was carrying her deposited her on a couch and she saw him take off a hat and sunglasses she hadn't even known he'd been wearing. She didn't know this man, what did he want with her? He took off a jacket and sat beside her.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Shh," he shushed.

He began to undo her bonds and she whimpered when she moved the wrong way.

"Please, I'm hurt."

"I know," he said. He moved closer and Elena saw the veins pop out under his eyes. His canines elongated and he said, "Just a taste."

"No!" Elena screamed but it did no good.

He touched her neck with his teeth and she waited for the pain to come. Getting bitten didn't feel good; she knew that from experience.

Suddenly another voice came from behind the man. It was a female voice. "Trevor! Control yourself."

The woman's voice held admonishment and the guy looked ashamed. He got up and sauntered away from Elena and toward the woman.

"Buzz kill," he said.

"What d'you want with me?" Elena asked weakly. It wasn't just the blood loss – someone had chloroformed her at the Masquerade Ball. She remembered that much because it had happened right after she'd gotten off the phone with Jeremy.

"You look just like her," the woman said.

The woman had short brown hair, a fair complexion, and pretty green eyes. The woman thought Elena was Katherine, though, and yet again being that evil wench's doppelganger was getting Elena in trouble.

"But I'm not. Please, whatever you –"

"Be quiet," she snapped. Elena noticed she had a British accent.

"But I'm not Katherine," Elena said. She sat up, glad she was finally getting her sea legs back. "My name is Elena Gilbert. You don't have to do this."

"I know who you are. I said be quiet."

"What d'you want?"

Elena didn't find out because the woman back-handed her with enough force to knock her out.

Rebecca just couldn't get away from school, it seemed. Stefan had called her saying that Elena was missing. She, Damon, and Chelsea were now out front near the parking lot. There were picnic tables near where they were and Chelsea seemed to like playing underneath them.

"This has Katherine written all over it," Stefan said.

"Katherine's in the tomb. Trust me, I'm the one that shut her in," Damon said.

"Did you?"

"Did I what, Stefan?"

Rebecca knew what Stefan was accusing Damon of. "She in there. I watched her get sealed in."

"But she did say something to me right before I shut her in," Damon said softly, almost guiltily. "I thought she was lying."

"What did she say?" Stefan asked impatiently.

"That Elena was in danger," Rebecca said.

"What? And you didn't think you should ask her to elaborate.

"Everything she says is a lie!" Damon exclaimed. "How was I supposed to know she's gonna start spouting out the truth?"

"We have to go talk to her," Stefan said.

"No, no, no. Let me tell you how that's gonna go," Damon said. "We're gonna go ask her for help. She's gonna negotiate a release. Which you're gonna be dumb enough to give her. Then she's gonna get out and kill us."

"It's exactly what she wants," Rebecca said.

"I don't really care," Stefan said as he began to walk away.

"It's a bad idea, Stefan."

"It's Elena," he said simply. "You would do it for Rebecca, or Chelsea, and she would do it for you."

Rebecca couldn't deny that. If Damon had been in danger, she'd do almost anything to keep him from getting hurt, and she'd do anything to get him back.

Caroline was standing in front of Sarah's vigil when Tyler came up to her. He looked vaguely uncomfortable, but at least he had come to her.

"Hey," she said. "How're you doing?"

"Not good."

"How's your mom? My mom said that she was pretty freaked out about everything that happened with Sarah."

Caroline really didn't know what else to talk about since they were on school grounds; they couldn't talk about anything supernatural.

"How did you know?" Tyler asked. "About me? How did you know?"

"Know what? That you were upset? I thought I was doing a good thing by covering for you."

"That's not what I'm talkin' about," Tyler said.

"Look, it was an accident, okay? And I've gotta run; just please don't blame yourself."

Caroline walked away with Damon's words etched in her mind. She couldn't become friends with Tyler. He could kill her with just one bite. She needed to stay away from him.

Elena awoke hearing a back and forth conversation between Trevor and whoever the woman was.

"So you called him?" That was Trevor.

"No, I called one of his contacts. You know how this works."

"Did you or did you not get the message to Elijah?"

"They say he got it."

Elena sat up when she realized that neither vampire was in the room with her, but they were right outside in the hallway.

"Wonderful. And what?" Trevor asked.

"So that's it, Trevor. He either got it or he didn't. We just have to wait."

"Look. It's not too late. We can leave her here. We don't have to go through with this."

Trevor seemed to be frightened. Who was this Elijah? Why was a vampire afraid of him? And what did he want with her?

"I'm sick of running," the woman said.

"Yeah? Well, running keeps us from dying."

"Elijah's old school. If he accepts our deal, we're free."

Elena had made it to the doorway silently, but once she'd stepped foot into the hallway she stepped on a creaky floorboard and announced her presence.

"You," the woman said. "There's nothing around here for miles. If you think you're getting out of this house, you're tragically wrong. Understand?"

"Who's Elijah?"

"He's your worst nightmare."

Rebecca and Damon had gone to Ric's classroom and he'd been nice enough to move his first class to the library. They were able to have their meeting in the history room. They'd texted Bonnie and Jeremy and Stefan. Everyone had congregated there, but now they only had a short time to get everything done. Stefan seemed impatient, but he was willing to give Bonnie a chance before relying on Katherine.

"I can't undo the tomb spell, Stefan," Bonnie said when he'd told her of his second plan. "Even if I wanted to, it took me and my grams to do it the first time."

"Right, but I can open the door, though, right? I could talk to her?" Stefan asked. He had brought up the fact that Katherine would probably want to get out if she were to help them with the Elena situation.

"Yeah, but Damon's right. She's not gonna tell you anything, not without something in return."

"Finally, the little witch and I agree on something," Damon quipped. Rebecca smiled but hit him on the arm, too. This was serious and they shouldn't be making sarcastic comments. Elena was missing and could possibly be dead, but they had to believe she wasn't so they would work faster and twice as hard to find her.

"I have to do something," Stefan said. "I have no idea who has Elena. I have no idea where she is."

"What about scrying?" Rebecca asked. "Or maybe a location spell. Like the one that Miss Sheila did when you and Elena were kidnapped."

Bonnie shrugged. "I don't know how to scry yet, but I can do a location spell. I'll need some candles, a map, a knife, and Jeremy's blood."

"How does that work?" Jeremy asked.

Rebecca watched Damon go pull a map of Virginia and the surrounding states off the wall, near the blackboard.

"I'll use your blood to draw the energy for the tracking spell," Bonnie explained. "You're blood related, so it'll make the connection stronger."

Stefan went to talk to Alaric to see if he could get weapons from him. Yes, Ric kept them at the school too. It seemed like a valid lifestyle choice since there were two vampires in the school, and now one werewolf.

Rebecca knew they didn't have much time left, so when Damon brought the map over she helped set everything up. Bonnie had brought candles with her, so Rebecca assumed that meant that Bonnie always came prepared no matter where she went. Since they lived in Mystic Falls, Rebecca couldn't say she blamed her.

"Are you ready?" Bonnie asked Jeremy. "I – I don't have a knife."

"How much blood do you need?" Rebecca asked.

"Just a few drops."

Rebecca grabbed Jeremy's arm and brought his palm to her mouth. She glanced at him for the go-ahead and he nodded. She wouldn't have done it if he hadn't been okay with it, but he was so she slid his hand over one of her canine teeth and made a deep enough cut to get the blood Bonnie needed for the spell.

"Hey!" she heard Bonnie exclaim. "Don't do that!"

"Relax, Judge-y," Damon said.

Rebecca let Jeremy's hand go and the blood fell onto the map. The blood drops formed a puddle over the words "Mystic Falls" on the map and then the puddle began moving. Bonnie didn't have a sound coming out of her mouth, but her lips were moving so Rebecca assumed that meant Bonnie was performing the spell. Bonnie must have been practicing how to do spells silently.

The blood went past Lynchburg and Roanoke, past Christiansburg, and Martinsville, and landed on Eden, Virginia. It was near Highway 58.

"There," Bonnie said, pointing. "She's there."

"That's three hundred miles away."

"Can we narrow that down?" Rebecca asked. "We need an exact location."

"That's as close as I can get. We don't have a map of the town, so . . . this is as exact as it gets."

"We can map it. Aerial view. It'll show up what's around there, help us narrow down the area," Jeremy said.

"Perfect," Damon said. "Call us with whatever you find."

"No, I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not," Rebecca said. "My blood is still in your system. I don't want anything happening to you."

"I'm not gonna just sit here. What if she's hurt, or worse? What if she –"

Suddenly Rebecca grabbed her head, and it was just a good thing that she hadn't been holding Chelsea because she either would've dropped her or squeezed her hard enough to hurt; her head was killing her. What was happening? It felt almost like the pain she'd experienced when that device had gone off on Founder's Day.

"Bonnie!" Jeremy yelled. "Stop!"

Chelsea was now screaming along with Rebecca, and Rebecca knew that Chelsea was probably either feeling some of the pain she herself was feeling, or she was feeling the emotions Rebecca was experiencing because of the pain. Either way, this was too big for the girl to handle and so she had to cry.

"Why is her blood in your system?"

As Jeremy explained that Rebecca had been seriously hurt the night before, the pain went away, and Rebecca felt her face change out of anger – Bonnie couldn't just give people aneurisms every time she wanted to. Bonnie thought she was so much better than them because she respected human life, but didn't she see that she lashed out whenever she was angry too?

Rebecca looked to Damon, who looked like he would've attacked Bonnie himself if he hadn't had to take care of Chelsea.

"Shouldn't we be focusing on Elena?" Rebecca asked, getting her anger under control. "Elena is probably fine, okay? I mean, this is just another day at the office for her, but we still need to find her."

"Jeremy, you and Bonnie go home. We'll call the minute we find her."

"Besides," Damon said. "We need someone to baby-sit. We can't go on a rescue mission with a fifteen-month-old."

Oh, yeah. Rebecca hadn't even thought about leaving Chelsea with anyone. She rolled her eyes at herself because she couldn't have seriously been thinking of taking her little sister with them to find Elena, who could be in serious danger.

"No!" was Chelsea's response when Rebecca handed her over to Jeremy. The young girl was holding onto Rebecca's hair and wasn't letting go.

"Chels, come on, babe. We have to go."

"No!"

The girl was about two seconds away from bursting into tears. Rebecca felt really bad for having to leave her baby sister. Aside from now, Chelsea had never acted this way before when Rebecca had to leave her with someone else. Chelsea had been around all of Rebecca's friends enough to know they were also her caretakers.

"She can probably feel the seriousness of the situation," Bonnie said. "If she really is an empath, she'll feel everything. She just won't understand because of how young she is. She'll be fine after you guys leave. We'll take her mind off of it. You guys just bring Elena back."

"We will," Rebecca said. And because something had to be said about what had happened earlier, Rebecca continued. "Oh, and Bonnie? Next time you want to give someone an aneurism . . . make sure Chelsea's nowhere nearby."

Yes, there was an implied threat in there somewhere.

Stefan had texted Damon earlier to tell him that Alaric's weapons were in the closet in the classroom – the closet was supposed to be used for maps and extra textbooks and even a television stand, but since this was Mystic Falls and this was also Alaric Saltzman's classroom there were stakes and other weapons in there instead.

Damon used Alaric's gym bag, which was also in the closet – Rebecca guessed Ric used the school gym on a regular basis so he could stay in shape.

After everything they needed was packed up in the bag, Rebecca and Damon walked out to go to Damon's car; Stefan was going to meet them there.

Outside near the big parking lot, Tyler was with his friends on the basketball court. He'd realized he'd had to hold himself back while he'd been playing because if he hadn't, he would've hurt someone, or maybe would've busted the ball open.

He'd had a lot on his mind what with all that had happened at the masquerade ball. Not to mention, he still didn't know how Caroline had known about him. Mason wouldn't have told anyone about their family secret, and Tyler definitely hadn't been talking about it to anyone. He had barely believed it himself so he hadn't wanted to advertise something so surreal.

But Caroline had known about him anyway. Unless she was a werewolf, too, then she shouldn't have known anything. Maybe Jeremy Gilbert had told people what he'd said? But Tyler didn't think Jeremy would do that.

For all of the little Gilbert's faults, disloyalty wasn't one of them.

Tyler slam dunked the basketball and his friends cheered him on. After putting the ball in the hoop, he saw Caroline walking out of the school with her phone in her hand. She was texting someone.

Tyler passed the ball to one of the guys he'd been playing with and took off toward the blond. She'd already made it to the school parking lot where the busses were kept when they weren't being used.

"Hey," Caroline said. "Um, are you okay?"

"You lied to me earlier. Why?"

Caroline briefly glanced away before speaking. Why couldn't she just look him in the eye and say what she wanted to say?

"Look, Tyler, I think that you misunderstood me at the party. I get it. It was very traumatic."

"You're lying." He could tell because Caroline was trying to brush everything off. Caroline Forbes didn't know how to brush things off. And it felt like she was trying to push him away. Why would she go out of her way to help him and then try to avoid talking to him at all unless she was afraid to talk about it?

"Nope. But I'm late."

"Hey." Tyler grabbed her wrist and she stopped. She didn't want to be grabbed apparently, because she twisted his arm to the point where he almost fell to his knees from the pain. When he began to struggle she did push him down. His knees hit the asphalt and he scrambled away from her.

"How did you . . . ?" Tyler walked back to her when he got back on his feet. "You're stronger than me?"

"Please, that was nothing. My mom is the sheriff – she's taught me a few things."

"Listen, if you know something, you gotta tell me."

He was desperate. With Mason gone, Tyler had no one to talk to and no one to ask his questions to.

"I can't handle this," he said vulnerably.

If Caroline was like him, which appeared to be the case since she was stronger than him, at least he wouldn't be alone.

"I'm sorry, Tyler. But I think that you're still in shock over Sarah dying, and it's understandable."

Apparently he was not going to get any help from Caroline so he stalked off. He took his anger out on a nearby trash can and kicked it. The thing went flying across the parking lot and it hit one of the cars.

Tyler kept going even as the car alarm sounded.

"Alaric sure likes his weapons," Damon said.

They – he, Stefan, and Rebecca – had been on the road for about an hour now. Damon was driving, Stefan was in the passenger seat and Rebecca was in the back. He didn't particularly like the seating arrangement, but . . . Rebecca had opted to sit in the back, so . . .

"What is that?" Damon asked Stefan, who was playing with what looked like a hand grenade – only the thing was clear and had liquid in it.

"It's a vervain bomb or a grenade launcher or something like that."

"Weird."

"Hey, who do you think took her?" Stefan asked.

"Someone from Katherine's past. She said she was running from someone. Maybe they got the wrong girl."

Stefan put the grenade down and Damon felt when his brother looked at him.

"Thank you for helping me."

"Can we not do the whole road-trip bonding thing? Cliché of it all makes me itch."

"I happen to like road-trip bonding."

"Keep it up, Stefan. I can step out of helping just as easily as I stepped in."

"Nope," Stefan said. "That's the beauty of it. You can't."

Damon rolled his eyes. What his brother had said was true. Elena was his friend. Granted, they had a very rocky friendship, but still . . . he couldn't just let it be. He knew she'd been kidnapped, could possibly be hurt, and he wasn't going to let Stefan or Rebecca go alone. Stefan didn't drink human blood, and Damon couldn't depend on Stefan to keep Rebecca safe. Stefan would understandably be focused on Elena; he couldn't protect both girls.

In the backseat, Rebecca was texting Jeremy just to make sure Chelsea was okay. She'd hated the fact that she'd had to leave and Chelsea hadn't wanted her to go. If she'd been able to sense that Rebecca was going and doing something potentially dangerous, Chelsea had probably felt afraid.

Chelsea could feel adult emotions, but she was a baby; she'd have no way of dealing with them.

Chelsea's fine. She stopped crying a few minutes after you guys left. – J

Her phone buzzed seconds later. Jeremy was calling.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"Alaric just left with Jenna," he said. "He's getting her out of the house for a while so she doesn't ask questions about Elena."

"Didn't he have to work?"

"He faked being sick. Jenna thought it was cute. She thinks he did it just to spend time with her." He coughed a little. "Anyway, I pulled something up based on the spot Bonnie found on the map. There's this big stretch of land with nothing on it for miles around. Could be something."

"Yes, good. Send it to one of us."

"Becca, I hate sitting here waiting like this. Bonnie said she might be able to get Elena a message. Um, another spell."

"Long distance magic? Tell her to be careful."

Rebecca wasn't Bonnie's biggest fan, but she didn't want Bonnie getting hurt either.

"Why am I here?" Elena asked the woman who had helped plan her kidnapping.

"You keep asking me these questions like I'm going to answer them."

Elena had followed the woman into one of the many rooms of the house and saw that she was turning on the lights.

Elena realized she was in a library type room. There were books everywhere – on shelves and on the floor.

"Why won't you?"

"That's another one."

The windows that lined the wall were boarded up and Elena noticed that this woman was staying out of direct sunlight. She didn't have a daylight ring then, and would burn if she made contact with the light outside.

"You've got me. Okay? It's not like I can go anywhere. The least you can do is tell me what you want with me."

"I personally want nothing. I'm just a delivery service."

"Delivery to who? Elijah?"

The woman laughed. "Two points for the eavesdropper."

"Who is he? Is he a vampire?" Elena asked.

"He's one of the vampires. The Originals."

"What d'you mean the Originals?"

"Again with the questions. Haven't the Salvatore's been teaching you vampire history?"

"So you know Stefan and Damon?"

"I know of them. A hundred years back, a friend of mine tried to set me up with Stefan. She said he was one of the good ones. More of a sucker for the bad boys, though, but I digress."

"Who are the Originals?"

The woman looked at her now. "Trevor and I have been running for five hundred years. We're tired. We want it over. We're using you to negotiate ourselves out of an old mess."

Elena knew that didn't answer her question, but she had a new one now, anyway. "But why me?"

"Because you're a Petrova doppelgänger. You're the key to breaking the curse."

"Curse? The sun and the moon curse?" What did that have to do with her? What did that have to do with a human, period? She thought that only dealt with vampires and werewolves.

"Oh, you do know your history."

"What d'you mean, I'm the key? The moonstone is what breaks the curse."

"No. The moonstone is what binds the curse. The sacrifice is what breaks it."

"Sacrifice?" Elena did not like the sound of that. Sacrifices never meant anything good, ever. To sacrifice meant to give up something. Life, blood, time – something one could never get back once it was gone.

"The blood of the doppelganger. You're the doppelganger, which means in order to break the curse, you're the one who has to die."

She would have to die? The whole curse was about making vampires burn in the sun and keeping werewolves from turning unless there was a full moon. She wouldn't let herself die for that.

That was a stupid reason to die.

Here it is! I know it took a long time to get this on here, but I've been working on my Supernatural story and my Twilight one. I have about 30 chapter of this one written out, I just haven't typed them up. It definitely will not take as long to get an update next time.

If you could, please take a few minutes to let me know what you guys think. I mean, I'll update regardless, but I'd still like to know.