Well, I've gotta say, out of everything that I've updated, this has to be one of my favourites. You'll see why later, don't worry. xD Thanks so much for the reviews last chapter, and keep 'em coming. (Shall we say about 180? xD) I'm sorry to all the anons who've been wondering when the next update is, and I most likely will never be able to tell them, but I did put why I would be MIA for a while on my profile.
Now that's out of the way, enjoy the chapter, review, favourite, follow, etc, and I'll see you all next time with the next update, whenever that may be. :)
To say Damon was pissed off with his little brother would be the major understatment of the 20th century; the entire ride - with Klaus' corpse carelessly chucked in the backseat like a ragdoll - to Elena's house to drop her off and the drive back to the Boarding House, Damon hadn't stopped grilling Stefan on his stupid decision to dessicate the only one out of them that could fully fight against Alaric, and he made sure there wasn't a moment of silence when it wasn't sinking in to Stefan's pea-sized brain how angry he was with him.
He was still informing him of the latter when they got back; Damon was currently, angrily, stoking a roaring fire and seriously contemplating stabbing Stefan repeatedly with the poker. Stefan sighed in agitation, managing to silence Damon and allow himself a word in edgeways.
"Damon, for the last time, he was a threat to Elena, I had to do it," Stefan said, a tired edge to his voice as he pinched his nose in annoyance. Damon's eyes narrowed; he didn't deserve to be annoyed.
"No, I think you'll find psycho-killer Ric was a much bigger threat," Damon pointed out with a wry smile. "And Klaus nearly got himself killed to help us!" he added incredulously, 'and save my ass' he thought to himself. "Is that what you call a threat?" he asked sarcastically.
Stefan sighed and looked at him pityingly. "Don't let the fact you slept with him a few times cloud your judgement, Damon," he said harshly, eyebrows raising.
A muscle in Damon's jaw twitched; Stefan's own snapped to the side as the force of Damon's impulsive punch sent him towards the ground. His nostrils flared seethingly as he hissed in warning, Stefan looking up at him in shock, the power of Damon's anger looking to be finally sinking in.
"I've seen sides of him everyone else thinks is just a myth," he muttered in a low voice, staring Stefan down with such intensity that he quite literally wilted under his gaze, "So don't insult me by even trying to tell me otherwise," he threatened, jabbing a finger at him.
Stefan rubbed his jaw where Damon had hit him. "I had to do it, Damon..." he trailed off pathetically, continuing to stronghold his weak defense against a much more powerful force.
"No, you didn't," Damon spat bluntly. "Desiccating Ric was the most logical plan, Stefan! Elena would've been able to live out her life and Alaric would've died along with her," he explained.
"Provided Klaus didn't take her blood to make more hybrids," Stefan pitched in, Damon not even bothering to say anything more since his excuse was exactly the same as it had been when Klaus was desiccating before his eyes. He was starting to sound like a broken record; at least Damon's own pissed off rants held some variety to them.
"Well, if he dies, I hope I'll be around long enough to say, 'I told you so', before I start choking on my own blood," he said with a vicious smile, Stefan looking appalled at his ferocity. "Because your 'brilliant plan'" - he made air quotes with his finger, those two words heading his voice into a sarcastic pitch - "has now made Klaus, the only edge we had, unable to fight an extremely pissed off Enhanced Original," he chuckled, choosing to end the conversation on a sour note.
His phone rang suddenly, blaring through the Boarding House. He snatched it out of his pocket, pressing the answer button and hissing a rude welcome into the reciever, "What?!"
"Jeez, Damon..." Jeremy winced from the other side, no doubt taking the phone a few inches away and rubbing the inside of his ear. Damon groaned unceremoniously.
"You take this," he said dismissively, throwing his phone to Stefan. He listened to Jeremy and Damon moved towards his liquor cart to pour himself a drink, or several.
He leaned against the counter, already downing the glass and starting on his second as Stefan placed the call on speaker, Jeremy's voice spelling some unwelcome news that had Damon crushing his glass between his hand. The day just kept getting better and better!
"You did what?" he asked incredulously, walking closer to Stefan to further project his displeasure into Jeremy's ears.
"I took her to the hospital," Jeremy repeated, even Stefan looking disconcerted by the sound of that. "When you find your sister unconscious, you call 911," he said firmly, a worried sounding edge to his voice.
"Not when you have a parade of vampires at your disposal!" Damon said emphatically, throwing his hands in the air and rolling his eyes but not really giving a damn that Jeremy couldn't see the gesture.
"Every remaining Original is gonna want Elena dead to stop Alaric," Stefan responding, looking like he just now understood the ramifications of stupidly descciating Klaus. "She's a sitting duck in there," he added, his brows furrowing.
An over-exaggerated coughing fit from Damon suddenly sounded, the words 'Your fault' briefly making themselves known before it stopped, Damon acting like nothing was wrong. Stefan narrowed his eyes, and Damon sneered in response, showing no mercy.
"Well, Meredith wants to keep her here for observation..."
Damon pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. "Jeremy, get Elena home, we're on our way," he ordered sharply, hanging up the phone, snatching it from Stefan and stuffing it back into his pocket.
"Congratulations, you're no longer the dumbest brother on Earth," Damon said with a harsh snap, narrowing his eyes distastefully.
"You know one of us needs to keep moving, right?" Stefan said and Damon raised his eyebrow; no that idea hadn't possibly ocurred to him! "If Klaus really is the sire of our bloodline, we need to keep his body hidden before Alaric finds him, kills him, and we all end up dead," he added, looking at him solemnly.
"The exact point I was trying to make, dumbass," Damon honestly felt like his head was going to explode; it was Stefan's fault that they were now having to do this. "Our life is just one big proverbial coin toss," he groaned unceremoniously, rolling his eyes and heading down towards the cellar where they had temporarily hidden Klaus' body.
"Don't even think about it, Damon," Stefan's voice chided him in warning.
Damon spun around, retaining an innocent look that did not suit him. "Think about what?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Slipping Klaus some blood," Stefan said knowingly, raising his eyebrows and folding his arms. Damon scowled. "Just because you suddenly trust him now" -
"Hey, he's bitten me in some very intimate places, that trust didn't 'suddenly' come out of my ass, y'know," Damon interjected sharply, smirking at the thought.
- "doesn't mean everyone else'll see it that way," he finished, ignoring Damon's outburst with a pinched look on his face.
"Fine," Damon hissed through clenched teeth, Stefan looking at him skeptically. "I'll go transport beef jerky, you stay here with Elena," he said with a wry smile.
"Are you sure that's the better idea?" Stefan asked, looking suspicious.
"I'm stronger than you," Damon pointed out, Stefan nodding begrudgingly in agreement. "If Ric follows me I'll have a slightly - and I use that term very loosely here - better chance at defending the sire of our bloodline than you, given that I wouldn't even be tempted in the slightest to let Ric take a shot at him," he added with narrowed eyes, Stefan seeming guilty as charged.
"How do we even know he was telling the truth?" he offered as a final - pathetic - defence. "He would've said anything to get our protection," he added.
Damon barked a harsh laugh that didn't suit him: "Stefan, Klaus is the Original Hybrid," he said emphatically, "He can protect himself; he doesn't need vampires only a century and a half old to do it for him," he pointed out with a lazy smile.
"Could," Stefan corrected, holding up a finger.
Damon's eyes narrowed: "What?"
"He could protect himself, you mean," he went on nervously, chuckling to himself. Funny, Damon half expected Stefan to sound smug about the matter, given all his recent prattle about how Klaus needed to die.
"And who's fault's that, exactly?" Damon retorted smartly, wiggling his eyebrows.
He didn't even wait for Stefan's brain to try and form a response; he left the parlour and walked out front to his car, opening the boot - where Damon had thoughtfully placed him after a bumpy ride in the backseat - and running a hand over Klaus' temporary coffin, before unlocking it and exposing the descciated corpse inside.
He was met with a death-glare, Klaus clearly expecting Stefan to have opened the coffin just to gloat, but it softened as he looked at Damon, unable to say anything. But knowing Klaus, it would be something about how he'd spent pretty much the entire ride back unable to remove his face from being smushed into the back-seat.
"Fancy goin' on a roadtrip?" Damon asked with a charming grin, sure Klaus would be looking confused if he could actually move his face.
Instead, he just settled for rolling his eyes, that being the only thing he could really do.
Clenching his fists around the steering wheel, Damon veered violently to the right, nearly dislodging Klaus' coffin onto the floor of the car and taking out a cyclist; he really was not liking was he was hearing at all, not just because it was coming out of Elijah's mouth, but because he didn't seem to realise - and had no idea - how dangerous Alaric actually was, or how much Damon, and he should hope the others, didn't want to die because of his idiot younger sibling.
"All we need is to take that stake away from him," Elijah was saying, the others no doubt nodding in agreement while Damon was very much the opposite; no, that was not all they needed to do. "Once it's been disarmed, the weapon's in my possession, my family will scatter to the ends of the Earth and Alaric will follow us," he explained, but Damon thought he sounded more wistful than anything; either way, all those idiots were screwed to Hell if Elijah's plan didn't work.
There was shuffling; the sound of one of them pulling up a chair. "And you'll just run?" Stefan asked skeptically.
"We've done it before," Elijah said with a shrug, Damon's eyes darting to Klaus for a split second through the rearview mirror. "Klaus and Rebekah spent the better part of a thousand years evading my father. What's another half century while Elena is able to live out the rest of her natural life?"
"We've finally stopped him, Elijah," Elena interjected softly, Damon managing to hold his tongue and refrain from pointing out that Klaus hadn't been a geniune threat to her for a long time; he had just wanted to survive this. "After everything that he's done to us, I can't just let you bring him back," she said, making Damon roll his eyes.
"I give you my word, Elena. I will not revive Klaus within yours nor even within your children's lifetimes," he promised, "Perhaps that will finally teach him some manners," he added with a chuckle, Damon having to stifle his snicker into his fist.
All he got in response was a hard-edged stare, the amber fizzling out of Klaus' eyes almost as soon as it had appeared.
"Why should she trust you?" Matt piped up in confusion. "All you've done is screw her over," he pointed out, Damon knowing that things were going to shit when he agreed with Matt Donovan of all people.
"And for that, I am deeply ashamed," Elijah admittedly apologetically, Damon not failing to notice how hollow his voice seemed. "But know this, she could have been dead the instant I walked through that door tonight, so Elena, I leave it to you to make the decision whether to trust me or not," he finished.
Damon didn't leave a moment for Elena to even contemplate contemplating the offer, his harsh interjection sounding like a harsh buzz in the silence: "Not!"
"Hello, did that nearly-slit throat give you brain damage?!" he sang, having to swerve as he nearly crashed into the car in front of him. "His lunatic siblings will kill you the first chance they get!" he snapped incredulously, not caring that Elijah couldn't see the sneer painted on his face.
"Rebekah and Kol will honor the terms," Elijah continued silikly, as if he hadn't heard Damon's outburst. "If you return Klaus' body to us, Elena will come to no harm," he
"Do we have a deal?" he asked with finality, a silence one again falling that Damon wasn't about to let settle, if it meant giving any of them any funny ideas.
"No!" he interjected once more, "No, no, no, no. Did I mention NO?!" he added emphatically, knowing it was in vain as he wasn't going to be listened to anyway.
"Elena, it's up to you," Stefan said softly, Elena no doubt nodding in agreement with him.
"Oh, come on!" he complained in earnest. Why in the name of all that was unholy were they so set on letting Elena have her way? Nine times out of ten, that would always lead to someone getting killed to save her, or her nearly dying.
"Why do you want Klaus' body?" she asked in confusion.
"He's my brother," Elijah said with sincerity, the first Damon had actually heard since he had called in to check on everyone. "We remain together," he said solemnly.
"We have a deal," Elena agreed with a soft sigh.
Damon angrily smacked off the call, knocking it violently out of the holster on the dashboard. "Am I the only one with a brain, here?!" he snarled to himself, feeling his vampire visage briefly break through.
He shook himself out of it and turned towards Klaus, who was just staring aimlessly at him.
Damon flashed him a reassuring smile: "Don't worry, I've got a secret weapon in case everything goes to shit."
"You think you're the only crafty one around here?" he added to fill the silence left by Klaus' skeptic looking stare. "At least with me, you stand a chance at getting revived sooner rather than later," he added, shrugging to himself.
Klaus closed his eyes and Damon sighed, the tires screeching as he veered down the highway, now no longer stopped by other pesky drivers.
Thankfully, it didn't take him long to reach the storage facility and haul Klaus' coffin out of the backseat, having to physically carry it most of the way until he found a trolley. He wheeled Klaus around, trying to figure out which locker would be inconscpicious enough that Alaric wouldn't be able to find it on the first try.
"It's not five-star, I know," he said jovially to Klaus as he opened a storage locker - 1020, he noted as he looked at the plaque - and wheeled him inside. "But it's better than stuffing you in the cellar back at the Boarding House," he pointed out, only being rewarded with an icy glare.
Damon raised his hands in defense. "Look, if I had my way, I'd be feeding you a nice blonde and getting you the hell out of here," he said, clenching his fists. "But it was 'Elena's call'" - his voice became a higher, distorted pitch - "to give you back to Elijah, so I just have to go along with it," he muttered bitterly.
He then looked at Klaus, smiling warmly at him and patting the side of the coffin. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," he promised, and he didn't think he had ever meant so much in his entire life.
His ears pricked up at the sudden ding echoing through the facility, and the sound of heels.
"That'll be Bonnie," Damon offered as a farewell, closing the coffin lid and stepping out of the storage locker, also pulling down the shutter; he wasn't going to take any chances.
He and Bonnie pratically collided into each other when she stepped out of the elevator, and she began following him back down the hallway.
"You know, I'm not half way out of Virginia and Elena sells our souls to the Originals?" he said, knowing that if anyone was going to even half-agree with him, it'd be Bonnie out of all of them.
"It was her call," she said with a shrug, but she seemed like she thought it was a bad idea too; there was something uneasy in her eyes and Damon could tell her opinions had been shoved under the carpet, just like his had.
"You know what else is her call, Bonnie?" he asked, looking at her expectantly; she shrugged again and motioned for him to continue. "Everything bad ever," he pointed out, Bonnie, for a split second, looking to be in agreement.
"Where's the body?" she asked, "As long as it's unspelled, Alaric is one witch away from finding it."
"Hidden," Damon responded plainly, Bonnie raising her eyebrows. "I was gonna use Unit 666, but figured that would be a little obvious, and he wouldn't exactly thank me for it. So..."
He trailed off as they came to a stop in front of Unit 1020, Damon reaching out for the handle.
"1020," "Mini fridge, a couple bird cages, a box of old Playboys" - Damon opens the unit - "One beef jerkified Original," he said proudly, displaying the coffin to Bonnie in an almost comical manner.
She rolled her eyes and opened it, revealing Klaus' body, sleeping for all intents and purposes, until his eyes flew open; the fires of hell burning in them as they settled on the witch. Damon shuddered lightly, a literal chill going down his spine.
"I need a minute," Bonnie said quietly, her voice low and dangerous as she met Klaus' eyes with equal ferocity.
"Just jam the witch locator, bat signal or whatever and get on with it, Bonnie," Damon said hurriedly, glancing around. If Alaric had followed her, so help them...
"Elena and Jeremy lost Jenna and Alaric because of him," Bonnie hissed angrily, narrowing her eyes, "Tyler's a hybrid, my mother's a vampire. Could you give me a minute to just appreciate the sight of him like this?" she asked.
"No, no I can't," Damon said sharply, briefly glaring at her. "Now hurry up," he jostled her, Bonnie narrowing her eyes and refusing to move.
"Please?" he added in a softer tone, playfully batting his eyelashes despite the seriousness of the situation. "And Abby turning was my fault, not his," he pointed out; Klaus hadn't even hinted that that was what he wanted him to do; all he had done was demand his help by yanking him through his Camaro's window. It was his idea to turn Abby into a vampire all along.
"I'm just sayin'," he went on quickly as Bonnie raised an eyebrow, hands raising defensively, "If you're gonna play the blame game, play it right," he said flippantly.
"I know why you did it, Damon," Bonnie said with an understanding nod, her voice a heavy sigh, "And I do forgive you, it's just that-"
"You don't need to," Damon cut her off gently, almost reassuringly, and she looked at him in wonder. "I'd be pretty pissed if I was in your shoes, especially since vampires are the reason everything bad ever happens to you, and the one you're helping now is the reason your Grams died," he said with a thin smile, knowing back then he wouldn't have cared, and he still didn't, but he felt like he should've at least owned up to it by now, for some strange reason.
Bonnie looked at him incredulously. "Are you actually apologising to me?" she asked in shock, feigning it more than necessary, with a smirk on her face.
"Uh, sort of," Damon admitted with a glance at the floor; he wasn't good at these things, but Bonnie deserved one for putting up with all of them - mostly him - this long. Hell, he'd make her a medal if that was what she wanted.
"Thanks for agreeing to this, by the way," he added as an afterthought, feeling hesitant about it for some reason.
"I didn't have a choice, what else was I supposed to say?" Bonnie said tiredly, shrugging again.
"Tell us to all go burn in Hell; something poetic," Damon said with a sarcastic smile, able to see that Bonnie was tired of being dragged around by everyone; he hated to say it, but she was only a tool to them, they didn't really care about her, just her magic. It was sad. "I'm sure we would've figured something out," he muttered.
"Now, when you've finished, stay hidden somewhere," he went on, looking at Bonnie in all seriousness. "Rebekah's coming to get the body and if Ric's following her, I need you out of harm's way," he finished.
"Didn't know you cared so much," Bonnie said in surprise.
"You are kinda the only one that can protect the sire of our bloodline, who my idiot brother turned into a useless ornament - sorry, Klaus - so I'll be damned if I let anything happen to you," he said wryly, patting her on the shoulder and making to leave.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Damon?" Bonnie asked hesitantly, making him turn back around. "I can always-"
"No," Damon cut her off sharply, raising a finger in her direction, as if it would try and dissuade her from doing so. "That would not be a good idea," he said bluntly.
"Yeah, I guess," Bonnie admitted with a slight grimace, glancing at Klaus' corpse.
"And very dirty, when you think about it," Damon added with a playful wiggle of his eyebrows.
Bonnie raised one of her own. "But you doing it's okay?" she asked skeptically.
"Well, he's already been-"
Bonnie held up her hands and pulled a face to stop him from talking further: "Okay, okay, I don't need to hear the details," she laughed, shaking her head at him.
Damon chuckled in response and left Bonnie to her own devices, feeling a sudden wave of dizziness wash over him, the latter powerful enough to stop him in his tracks, as Latin fluidly poured out of Bonnie's mouth.
An hour or so later, the spell had been completed and Bonnie had - for all intents and purposes - made herself scarce; Damon not even knowing where she had hidden, which was a good thing. If he didn't know, Alaric couldn't try and force it out of him.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts and shifted on the old sofa to make himself more comfy, bringing himself back into the phone call with Stefan. Surprisingly, Elena's 'deal' hadn't managed to screw anything up... yet.
"Rebekah should be here soon to pick up Klaus," Damon informed him, checking his watch.
"I've got Caroline and Elijah in place, and Jeremy is gonna lead Alaric to us," Stefan explained, Damon reflexively touching the wooden posts of the sofa. He wasn't superstitious by any means; he just knew Stefan's plans - and Elena's by proxy - had a knack for failing.
"You just had to let her make the choice, didn't you?" Damon drawled unpleasantly.
"What would you have done, Damon?" Stefan asked aimlessly, sounding like there was no other option other than to listen to Elena; maybe if Damon hated Klaus, he would've went along with what she wanted, but he didn't.
"Fed Klaus some blood and gotten out of here with him," he said incredulously, in a 'duh' voice. Sometimes, they were all so thick he would've had better luck trying to convince a bag of hammers, but then he decided that would be an insult to a bag of hammers.
"You know she'd just hate you for it, right?" Stefan said knowingly.
Damon rolled his eyes. "I'm past caring about what she wants or feels about things, since there's a chance we'd all be alive if I had my way," he said with a wry smile that his brother couldn't see.
"As soon as we get the stake, hand over the coffin and get out," Stefan told him, like he hadn't heard him. "Alaric's got half the police looking for Klaus' car," he added with a worried sounding grimace.
"And again, who's fault is it that he's just a statue in a coffin?" Damon pressed, the ding of the elevator thankfully giving him a chance to end the call before it turned into a full-blown screaming match. "Gotta go, the Original sister is here."
He hung up without another word, walking out of the unit with a grin on his face towards the elevator.
"It's about time, sexy Beks," he called, instantly feeling arms wrap around his throat; he was sure if he was human all the color would've drained from his face as he realised who it was.
"Where is Klaus?" Alaric demanded in a demonic-sounding hiss, increasing the pressure around Damon's neck and crushing his windpipe.
"How did you find me?!" he shot back, gripping Alaric's sleeve in a useless attempt to rip his arm off. His head was starting to pound and he was already seeing black spots.
"Oh, you'd be amazed at how competent law enforcement is when it's not corrupted by vampires," Alaric hissed with a chuckle. "Now, where is Klaus?"he asked again, puncuating each word with a hard press to Damon's windpipe.
"In a storage locker," he revealed, choking rapidly to try and get some air back into his lungs, but blood churned up inside his throat, making that impossible. "There's only about a thousand of them; have at it!"
His voice faded and his mind swam, darkness flooding over his eyelids as his head thudded to the ground.
Damon fought the groggy haze of his mind and forced his eyelids open, finding he was exactly where Alaric dropped him. He hadn't killed him, and he was still alive, meaning that Alaric hadn't found Klaus yet; he still had time to get him the Hell out of here. But that just posed a question - Where the Hell was Rebekah?
"Ow..." he groaned, raising a hand to his neck, trying to simultaneously decide if it hurt more than his head did. "Son of a-"
Searing pain suddenly shot through his lower half as he tried to move: "Motherfucker!" he yelled, clenching his teeth so Alaric couldn't hear that he'd woken up and come back to finish the job.
He looked down and there was a stake firmly embedded into his thigh, pinning him to the ground. Damon tugged at it, but it had pierced through the foundation of the concrete, he couldn't move it. He blew out a breath; he was going to have to improvise.
Pressing his hands onto the floor, he raised his leg upwards, feeling the splinters bite their way further into his skin. He grimaced to stop himself from crying out, practically yelling in relief when his leg lifted over the top of the weapon. He pushed himself to his feet, feeling the wound healing almost instantly.
"Damon!" Rebekah's voice called urgently, Damon turning towards the sound so fast his neck cracked. "Damon, where are you?" she asked, her voice raising.
Damon rushed off in a blur of air towards her; if Alaric got to her first...
Thankfully, he spotted the familar blonde hair walking towards an alcove, the latter berating him. "Damon, this isn't funny," she said in annoyance, a hint of worry creeping into her voice.
He sped towards her, grabbing her and placing a hand over her mouth so she didn't scream. She jumped in his grip and Damon pulled her behind a storage unit, hidden from Alaric's view. His nostrils flared; this was the most deadly game he had ever played in his life.
"Rebekah, shhhh," Damon whispered, slowly removing his hand, but keeping his arms around her to stop her from walking any further. She looked at him, puzzled.
"Unit 1020," he continued in a quiet voice, Rebekah nodding. "Make sure he doesn't see you," he added, looking around just in case. There was no sign of him, and thankfully Damon couldn't sense him.
"He's here?!" Rebekah hissed, paling drastically.
"Wanna see the stake hole he left in my leg?" Damon asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes, "Come on." He motioned for them to get moving.
"My car's not far from here," Rebekah told him as they began walking down the hallway, Damon catching the sound of a frustrated growl not too far away from them. Luckily, they weren't even close to the unit's numbered in 1000's yet.
"Great," Damon said with a smile; they might be able to pull this off after all. "Less chat, more action," he added, looking at Rebekah with determination. She sped off in one direction, Damon taking the other.
They met again at Unit 1020, neither the lock of that one or any of the surrounding ones had been broken off. Damon reached out a hand and wrenched it away, Rebekah keeping a watchful eye out as Damon eased the locker open.
He moved towards one side of the coffin, Rebekah taking the other as they began hauling out of there, the trolley squeaking slightly, but only if they slowed down. As they neared Rebekah's car, they broke into a run.
Rebekah screamed as she was suddenly torn from the coffin, her head being slammed against her car. Damon growled reflexively as Alaric threw her to the ground, rushing at him, only to get kicked out of his way. He rolled across the ground several feet away, while Rebekah was nursing her head.
Alaric grinned maliciously at the two of them, opening the lid to the coffin. He raised the stake high above his head and Damon felt his blood turn to ice. He shot to his feet, noticing Rebekah about to charge Alaric from the corner of his eye.
"No!" she screamed, about to rush forwards.
"No, don't!" Damon called to her, speeding forwards and grabbing her so she wouldn't get caught up in it. She fought hysterically against his grip, Damon refusing to let go, even as Alaric clenched his fingers around the stake, ready for the kill.
"No! No! No!"
The stake hit home; burying itself in Klaus' chest with a sickening squelch of flesh and the bending of metal. Blood flew out of Damon's mouth after a sudden start, white-hot pain spreading through his own chest as Klaus' body was set aflame. He gritted his teeth and struggled to keep a hold of Rebekah, who broke down in his arms, sobbing and screaming hysterics like a mad-woman.
Unfazed, Alaric rounded on her, eyes blazing murderously. "Next," he said, pulling the stake from Klaus' chest and brandishing it in front of him.
Damon shook Rebekah sudddenly, managing to catch her attention. She looked at him worriedly, bringing a hand up to his mouth where a sliver of blood was.
"Damon, what's...?"
"Rebekah, run," he ordered her, ignoring her concern. He shook her again and shoved her away. "Run!" he urged her, Rebekah casting a forlorn look at the aflame corpse of her brother, before she rushed off in the opposite direction, away from Alaric.
Damon snarled and charged towards Alaric, his anger allowing him to knock his former friend to the ground. He smashed his fist into his face, again, and again, and again, Alaric looking like he actually felt some of them. Damon hissed in annoyance as he was thrown off like a ragdoll, Alaric disappearing in a rush of air in search of Rebekah.
He rubbed a hand over his forehead, feeling another tidal wave of blood spilling out of his mouth as the fires continued to burn Klaus' body. Damon stood up and took his jacket off, placing it over the fire and patting the flames, the pain in his own chest receding slightly.
"I swear if you die and I ruined my jacket for nothing," he began in warning, well aware Klaus couldn't hear him. "I'll kill you again," he finished with a wry smile.
The fire was already dying; Damon leaned tiredly against the coffin, pulling out his phone and dialling Stefan's number, nearly crushing the phone in his hand when he was pressing the keys.
"Damon," Stefan answered in surprise, Damon's lip curling into a sneer.
"Bad news, brother," he began, Stefan sighing heavily over the line. "Alaric staked Klaus; he's dead," he informed him, his voice taking on a much more bitter tone.
"I feel okay, do you feel anything?" he asked worriedly.
Damon bit his lip nervously, tapping a finger against the side of his phone. "Not yet..." he trailed off quietly, swallowing.
"It took Sage about an hour before she got sick," Stefan said, Damon nodding in agreement; so why had he been vomiting up blood? That was a symptom, wasn't it? Unless that meant Bonnie's spell had worked...
"Yeah or you were right and Klaus was lying about being the sire of our bloodline," Damon said with a thin smile. He and Bonnie were convinced he wasn't lying, and either way, neither of them had been willing to take a chance on it.
"Well, if he wasn't lying, an hour is not enough time to get you all the way back to Mystic Falls," Stefan pointed out, sighing.
"For us to have our epic goodbye, Stefan?" Damon shot back with a sarcastic chuckle, finding it hard to believe Stefan actually cared. "Call me if you cough up a lung." He ended the call, feeling his lungs burning.
He lurched forwards and coughed up blood, turning around and angrily smacking the side of Klaus' coffin; tears burned in his eyes, whether it was frustration or because he'd lost Klaus, he didn't know.
"Dammit, Stefan!" He fought the tears in his eyes, furiously rubbing underneath them; this was all Stefan's fault; all because he was concerned for 'little miss Elena' he was willing to risk all their lives for the sake of one girl that he only ever became obsessed with because she was a doppleganger of his first ever love that he still held onto with vicious hooks.
"Bonnie, where are you?!" Damon called out into the facility, his voice echoing eeriely into the silent hall. "Bonnie, please!" he tried again, but was rewarded with a silence that filled him with rage so uncharacteristically strong his felt his vampire visage physically burning through his skin.
His phone's ringing once more distracted him, Damon having to take a deep breath to rid himself of his vampire visage before he answered the call, seeing Elena's name on his Caller I.D.
"Let me guess, calling to see if the Grim Reaper's paid a visit?" he guessed knowingly, rolling his eyes somewhat fondly. Even though she thought he hated her, she still couldn't turn her back on him.
"How are you feeling?" she asked in concern, "Are there any symptoms?"
"Not yet," Damon reassured her, glad she couldn't see him simultaneously wiping his own blood off his chin. "But I'm sure we'll have a laugh when we find out that Klaus is a big, fat liar," he added with a nervous chuckle.
"Yeah, I'm – I'm sure we will," Elena chuckled back, her laughter as weak and watered down as his own, her voice closer to breaking with every word.
"You don't think he was lying, do you?" Damon guessed, casting a backward glance at the dying embers of the fire that had engulfed Klaus' body moments ago.
"No, I don't, Damon," Elena admitted, her voice finally breaking as she hiccupped out a sob. "But you're gonna be fine, you hear me? You're gonna be okay and we're all gonna see you soon," she said firmly, willing her voice to get stronger.
"Real soon," Damon repeated back in agreement, nodding even though she couldn't see it.
"You really did love him, didn't you?" she said suddenly, there surprisingly being no jealously in her voice, rather elation, like she had found peace with herself and the matter.
The temperature dropped as Damon's eyes landed on Alaric's shoes. He looked up at him, still holding the phone to his ear, and smirked at him. It only seemed to raise his ire further, but what did he care?
"I guess we'll never know," Damon said with a sigh, shrugging as he briefly looked at the coffin; he would've said Elena didn't deserve an answer, but the both of them had ruined her life at one point or another, he just didn't have one to give in that moment. "I'll see you soon, Elena," he said softly, pulling the phone away from his ear.
"Wait, Damon..."
"I see you're still pissed," Damon stated with a snicker as he looked at Alaric, hanging up on Elena and putting his phone back into his pocket. "I take it Goldilocks gave you the slip," he added, wiggling his eyebrows infuriatingly.
Alaric snarled angrily, rushing towards him with a punch; Damon narrowly missing getting his head taken off. Before Alaric could completely sail past him, Damon grabbed him and voraciously sunk his thumbs into Alaric's eyes, pushing them in deeper and deeper as Alaric began to scream.
"That was for Klaus," Damon hissed triumphantly over the sound of Alaric's screams, pulling his thumbs out and shoving him to the ground, kicking his hands out from under him as he felt around blindly.
Vampire visage popping out of his skin, Damon kicked Alaric towards a wall, speeding over and viciously bringing his boot down upon the man's face and body, again and again and again.
His ankle was suddenly caught in a strong grip, Alaric glaring up at him through his newly-healed, bloodshot eyes. Damon stared him down as long as he was able, before he went flying through the air and landed flat on his back.
This time Alaric's punch hit home; cracking Damon's nose and splitting his lip. He grinned up at him and spat out his blood up into his face. Alaric recoiled in disgust and Damon kicked him off him, the two vampires getting to their feet in a blur of air.
Alaric charged forwards but Damon was ready; he bypassed him with ease, feeling his bones liquifying and his body becoming much lighter. Black feathered wings took flight and Alaric looked around in confusion, Damon fluttering up to rest on one of the rafters above him.
Fog started swirling around his ankles and Alaric looked postively dumbfounded, still looking around for Damon. He looked around himself, his heightened sight of a bird allowing him to finally see where Bonnie had scampered off too. But it was better she kept scarce for this part.
The fog intensified and engulfed Alaric in a mist of white, Damon able to see him through the left-over fire still burning Klaus' body. He fluttered silently down to the floor, regaining his human form.
He sped silently over to Alaric, wrapping his hands around his neck in a tight sleeper hold, hissing in satisfaction when Alaric began choking. Damon increased the pressure until he felt his arms aching, but it still wasn't enough; Alaric flipped him over his shoulder with ease, knocking all the wind out of him.
Crushing pressure was applied to his own throat in retaliation, Damon desperately trying to pry Alaric's hand off while his hand raised above him-
But the blow never came; Alaric's hands went up to his head as a pained cry flew out of his mouth, stumbling off Damon and falling to the ground, Damon seeing Bonnie appearing through the rapidly disappating fog.
Alaric fell down to the ground with a pained grunt, twitching before he succumbed to unconciousness. Damon picked himself up from the floor, dusting himself off and cracking his nose back into place.
"Well, you certainly took your time," Damon said with a wry smile, Bonnie coming closer and walking over to the coffin.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Bonnie asked once more, looking at him for confirmation.
"Bonnie, we don't have any other choice, you know that," Damon said with a gentle nod. "Just tell me what I need to do," he said, turning his attention to Klaus' charred corpse.
"Just touch him and I'll do the rest," Bonnie said and Damon nodded again, taking a breath to calm himself down. If this didn't work, they were all dead, as were one entire quarter of the vampire race.
He picked his - ruined - jacket off of Klaus' body and threw it on the ground, wrenching the chain's off of him and placing a hand over his heart, feeling his own beating faster in response. He turned to Bonnie with a nervous chuckle.
"You'll be able to preserve his body, right?"
"It hasn't completely burned to a crisp, thanks to your jacket," she noted, motioning to the charred, flaking leather on the floor. Damon frowned bitterly.
"Let's just see if this works first, alright?" she said, extending a hand over Klaus' body. She then turned to him, searching for any sign that Damon might change his mind. "Ready?"
Damon nodded with determination, taking a breath: "Go."
Damon awoke to darkness, feeling someone shaking him. He opened his eyes, feeling strangely dormant, even as he sat up, with Bonnie supporting him.
"Damon?" she asked, peering at him worriedly.
He groggily got up, flexing his fingers and a wicked smirk pulled at his mouth that wasn't his own: "I must say you really did that spell brilliantly, little witch," he praised Bonnie lightly, his voice sounding strange. "I didn't think you had it in you," he chuckled playfully.
"I did it to save my friends and my mother, Klaus," Bonnie said icily, the tone clearly not directed at Damon, and he felt a brief moment of pride - but wasn't able to speak his mind - in that the spell had worked. "Not you," she spat contemptuously.
"The spirits won't be happy with you," Damon went on, his voice silky in his arrogance and Bonnie's facial expression indicating that she didn't like it one bit.
"The spirits don't get to tell me what to do anymore," Bonnie said fiercely, eyes glowering. "I'm done getting pushed around by all of you," she sneered, her lip curling. Damon grinned in response, seemingly raising Bonnie's ire further.
Damon felt his eyes roll to the back of his head and his posture changed slightly, slouching a little. He opened his mouth to speak, his voice this time his own.
"Bonnie; thank you." He then walked closer to her, like they were sharing a secret; he supposed they were. "Best keep this between us, alright?" he said, raising his eyebrows.
Bonnie nodded before she turned to leave. He just hoped she did hold her tongue and didn't spill her guts to anybody who could ruin it.
Damon's neck twitched as he felt an incessant tickling on the inside of his brain, then Klaus' voice resonating: "Well, this brings a whole new meaning to being inside you, doesn't it, love?"