We are officially on the island :)
It was cold, cloudy, dreary, and miserable. Seriously, Silas's tomb couldn't have been in the Bahamas, Elena thought bitterly as she climbed out of the boat, all bundled up in her coat, scarf, and hat. No, apparently that would be a crime, because he was buried on some remote island off the coast of Nova Scotia.
She hadn't even known where Nova Scotia was until Shane told them yesterday. They had hopped on a plane and flown there, and today they were all starting the trek to find Silas, 'they' being Elena, Damon, Jeremy, Bonnie, Stefan, Shane, and Rebekah.
Elena was about two seconds away from choking that bitch with her stringy blonde hair. There was no reason for her to be there, yet there she was falling all over Stefan just to piss Elena off while Stefan hardly tried to stop her. Hell, he sometimes encouraged her!
Well, two could play at the game.
She pressed herself against Damon's front and sighed, "Can we go back to yesterday? Or more specifically last night?" A small smirk grew on her lips as she leered up at him.
Damon knew exactly what she was doing. And he might've cared too if he were anyone else other than Damon Salvatore. But a chance to rub Elena's love for him in his bastard little brother's face while pissing off an Original? He was right on board that boat. Hell, he was captaining the boat!
He smirked, "What part of last night?" Knowing that only Stefan and Rebekah would be able to hear since they were the only vampires, he continued, "When I made you scream my name until it was the only word you knew or when you literally broke the headboard because I was making you lose your mind?"
And both of those things did happen, which caused Elena's breath to hitch and Damon's smirk to widen. A subtle glance at Stefan and Rebekah proved they were both steaming with rage, and Elena looked up at Damon through her lashes and bit her lower lip, "Care to give me an encore later tonight?"
"Only if you promise to do that thing with your tongue…"
Elena giggled as his sentence trailed off, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, "I love you."
In that moment, neither of them were focused on the two they put the show on for. Instead, Damon smiled genuinely at her and replied, "Love you too."
Shane announced, "Alright, if everyone's ready now we should head out. There's a cabin a few miles in that miners used to use when the tomb was first discovered and we need to get there before dark. There are rumors of natives living on this island and they don't like people trespassing, so it's dangerous to be out alone, especially at night. A group of spring breakers came here one year and they were all killed by the natives. Everyone beware of booby traps, and keep your senses aware of anything out of the ordinary."
Everyone lifted their bags into their arms or slung them around their backs as Shane began leading the way. Sneaking another glance at the she-devil and her minion, Elena was pleased to see her face tight in anger and her chin haughtily raised as she stomped off with Stefan trailing behind.
Elena and Damon shared a look, then Damon winked and kissed her temple before taking her hand and following the group. As a vampire, it was kind of hard to think that some kind of primitive booby trap set by a native islander was going to hurt them, so the vampires of the group barely even gave Shane's warning a second thought. Elena kept her eyes and ears alert since Bonnie and Jeremy were human and wouldn't have her same reflexes, and Damon did as well just in case.
The terrain of the island was rather rough with steep inclines, jagged and unstable rocks to climb over, and no clear path to navigate through the trees. All of the non-fir trees had lost their leaves, leaving the landscape dull and brown yet easy to see through. They didn't have to trudge through mud or brush though, so that was another plus.
They soon came to realize that Shane hadn't been joking when he said that there could be booby traps. Damon saved Jeremy from getting a hatchet to the back, while Stefan stopped an arrow from hitting Rebekah. Elena had felt it coming, but she didn't do a damn thing about it on purpose. It's not like it could kill her anyway.
They hiked all day long, only stopping so the humans could have some breaks to eat and whatnot. It felt like they had been hiking for ages, and as the sun slowly began descending in the sky, Elena asked, "Are we almost to the cabin?"
"Giving up already?" Rebekah sneered. "Can't even handle a few mile hike."
Elena gritted her teeth but resisted giving her the reaction she wanted. Shane answered, "Just another half mile and we should be there."
She nodded her understanding as she stepped up yet another rock formation. Rebekah jibed, "Yes, and then poor, weak Elena can have the break she needs to survive. After all, that's what everyone is here for. To make Elena happy."
Elena didn't bother pointing out the fact that it was Jeremy they were here for, and when Damon slipped his hand into hers she squeezed until she felt bones snap and quickly shot him an apologetic look. She often forgot the extent of her strength, but Damon barely even flinched. He just laughed silently and shook out his hand before giving it back to her when the bones instantly healed.
"Remind me again," Rebekah started, "Why is Elena even here? She's completely useless. Stefan and I have the headstone. Shane knows where Silas is. Jeremy has the mark for the spell, and Bonnie has to do the spell. She has no purpose."
"What about me?" Damon asked.
She smirked, "You, Damon, have a nice behind."
Elena rolled her eyes while Damon shrugged. She wasn't going to let her win.
"But I guess that's just Elena." She continued. "Playing the damsel in distress while expecting everyone to fawn over her. Perhaps that's why Stefan wanted to sleep with me. He simply tired of the helpless act like everyone else has."
A sharp crack echoed through the trees as Rebekah's lifeless body fell to the ground. Stefan threw her over his shoulder, "That should keep her quiet for a while."
Elena sent him a small and surprised smile before they continued walking. It was growing darker and darker, and just when it got to the point where the humans wouldn't be able to see, they reached the camp.
Shane pushed open the door to the little shack and said, "The people that are actually alive get the cabin for obvious reasons. Everyone else, we brought tents for a reason."
While Bonnie, Jeremy, and Shane entered the tiny cabin, Elena got to work on setting up her and Damon's tent. She was grateful that her parents forced her on all those camping trips when she was little, because now she knew how to set up a tent. She and Damon worked quickly, sliding the poles together and driving the stakes into the ground. Their tent was very small, only fitting the two of them comfortably, but that was all they needed. Though Elena was curious as to how Damon learned to use a tent, she didn't ask at the risk of Stefan and the newly alive and extremely pissed off Rebekah saying something snide.
However, she did get a kick out of watching the two of them try to set up their own tent. It was painfully obvious that neither had stepped foot in one in their entire lives, which was saying something given their ages.
Damon smirked as Stefan threaded the poles into one of the openings and they all fell apart, "Need some help, baby bro?"
"What do you even know about setting up tents anyways?" He bit out.
"Well Steffie, while you were off slaughtering towns of innocents and recovering on the bunny diet, I was living it up at music festivals across the world. If you wanted a place to sleep at Woodstock, then you brought a tent."
Elena made a mental note to ask him about that at some point. She was sure he had some interesting stories about the past, and she wanted to know every last detail.
She resisted laughing when Rebekah eyed one of the plastic stakes like it was from another planet and Damon asked, "Sure you don't need any help there, Goldilocks?"
"I'm quite capable of assembling something as trivial as a tent, thank you very much." She snapped, making Damon hold up his hands in defense.
Elena removed the self-inflating air mattress from her backpack and twisted the latch to let it suck in air. Damon brought out several thick blankets, and when the mattress was fully inflated they stuffed it into the tent. It barely fit, but with the way they curled up in each other's arms all night space wasn't really an issue. Damon spread out all of the blankets until the inside of the tent was a cozy little space for the two of them with a small lantern hanging from a hook at the top. And then there was Stefan and Rebekah's tent that looked a little worse for the wear, to say the least.
Damon sped off into the woods to gather firewood, and ten seconds later he was back carrying a big pile. After arranging it in a stone pit, Bonnie used her magic to start a fire so the three people that needed to eat real food could cook something up. As for blood, they were stuck drinking it cold or waiting ten minutes for it to heat up in a pot over the fire.
Though it was slightly less than appetizing, Elena guzzled down a bag of blood cold. It was still fulfilling, just not as much as blood could be, especially when fresh from the vein.
When Stefan and Rebekah finally got their tent set up, they joined everyone else around the fire and Shane began going over the game plan for the morning.
"Silas's tomb is just over that ridge. There's a mineshaft that was built above it that we can use to go down, and at the bottom is where I'll sacrifice some of my blood and get my wife back."
Everyone stared at him awkwardly, though nobody said anything. If he thought Silas could bring back his dead wife, then that was his problem.
"After that, I don't care what you do to Silas."
Damon narrowed his eyes, his distrust for the professor still extremely high. They finished eating and everyone dispersed. Stefan and Rebekah were still doing whatever they could to piss off Damon and Elena. Bonnie was talking to Jeremy and Elena about something or other, and Damon saw it as the perfect chance to get the Nutty Professor alone for some questioning. Smiling tightly, he walked up to him and clapped a hand around the back of his neck, "I think it's time you and I had a little chat."
Shane rolled his eyes, but allowed Damon to push him through the woods and back a ways to a dilapidated shed. He shoved Shane into an old chair and roughly placed his hand on his shoulder, keeping him sitting.
"So tell me, now that we know where the tomb is, what's to stop me from killing you right now? Frankly, I don't trust you not to betray us."
"Come on, Damon, we've been over this before. All I want is my wife back. I'm sure you can understand missing the dead."
"About that. What aren't you telling us?" Damon asked, grabbing a fistful of his hair and tugging on it painfully.
Shane groaned and confessed, "I lost her a few years ago to expression. She lost control, and it killed her."
He blew out a laugh, "So you taught Bonnie how to do the very thing that took away everything you loved. Poetic, don't you think?" He stepped away and picked up some ropes, tying Shane to the chair before he even finished taking a breath. He grabbed a crowbar and continued, "I myself happen to be more of a novel kind of guy though. Now, are you going to tell me everything or am I going to have to use force?"
"What more do you want from me?" He asked hopelessly. "You know everything I do!" Damon struck his leg with the crowbar, making him groan. He gasped through the pain then said, "You know what I think? You're frustrated with something, my guess would be your girlfriend's desire to show you off to your brother, and you have no way of working out your issues without hurting someone, and I just so happen to fit the bill because nobody here cares if I live or die."
Damon hated that he was partially right, and he slammed the crowbar against his other leg. Not enough to break it, but enough to leave some serious bruising.
Sure, he had jumped on the opportunity to finally be able to be with Elena in public like he always wanted. He wanted everyone to know that she was his now, his brother included. He wasn't going to let Elena go anytime soon.
And while he could rationalize that Elena was just pissed about Rebekah and she was showing off their relationship to make her upset more than Stefan, that didn't change the fact that she was still showing off to him. Damon recalled the time shortly after he killed Jeremy that Elena had kissed Stefan in front of him in a similar manner, purely to spite him. But her and Damon's mutual attraction had been bubbling beneath the surface for months. They both knew that she kissed him to convince both of them that she wanted Stefan while her mind was singing a different tune, thinking about how she desired Damon.
What was the difference between then and now? Elena loved him, sure, but she loved Stefan at the time. If she truly didn't care what he thought, then she wouldn't feel the need to have her tongue down Damon's throat whenever he was around.
"Nice try." Damon smiled tightly. "But I, unlike your witchy minion, am not so easily manipulated.
Shane shook his head, "I have nothing to gain by betraying you, Damon. But you won't kill me."
"And why's that?"
Confidently, he said, "Because it's a big spell for Bonnie to cast tomorrow, and she needs me to be there to keep her in control so she survives it."
Damon smirked wickedly when he realized that Shane thought way too much of him. Number one rule when dealing with Damon Salvatore, never underestimate him.
Sure, Bonnie might lose control, but as Shane once said, Bonnie was stronger than he thought.
He could practically taste the kill as he walked behind Shane and bent down to lean his chin against his shoulder. "There is one flaw in your logic, professor. I don't give a shit about Bonnie Bennett."
He could smell the shift from confidence to fear, and it made his gums ache. He wouldn't drink his blood and risk the vervain he probably ingested, but that wouldn't make killing the shady bastard any less satisfying. Placing his hands just right to snap his neck with one over Shane's mouth and the other on the back of his head, he took one last moment to listen to his muffled cries for help.
Just as he was about to twist, he was shoved back against the wall as Elena hissed, "What is wrong with you!?"
He clenched his jaw in frustration, the itch to lash out tickling just beneath the surface. He could kiss any hope of tying up one of their loose ends right now goodbye, because Elena wouldn't let Shane die for Bonnie's sake. She wouldn't take the risk like he would.
A hard look on his face, he slipped out of the door to head back to camp. With his fun ruined and nobody around to kill, all he wanted to do was sleep.
Elena turned to face Shane and hissed, "What did you say to him!?"
She pulled at the ropes tying him down to release him as he said, "Your boyfriend's a psychopath, Elena!"
When he was freed, she ground out, "Stop messing with my friends. You are only here for Bonnie, and after that, nobody cares what happens to you."
She immediately left to go find Damon. Whatever Shane had said put him on edge, and that was never a good thing. She found him already in their tent, drinking from a bottle of bourbon that he somehow snuck into his backpack. She zipped the flap closed behind her and sat down across from him, grabbing the bottle to take a drink before giving it back.
"You want to tell me what happened or am I going to have to pry it out of you?" She asked pointedly.
He wiggled his eyebrows, "How would you go about prying it out of me?" She raised a brow in disapproval and he said, "Hey, if you're giving me options then I want to know them."
"Come on, Damon, talk to me. You don't have to do this anymore with me. I'm with you, and I always will be."
"Isn't that what you told Stefan once upon a time?" He countered, swallowing another gulp of the strong alcohol.
"That's what this is about?" She asked, confused. "I thought I made it clear that he's my past and you're my present and future. I'm in love with you, Damon. Not Stefan. What I feel for you is so much more than anything else I've ever felt…even when I was human what I felt for you was more. If it wasn't, then I wouldn't be here with you right now." Moving her hands to hold his face, she lifted his head so his saddened eyes could look into hers. "I am not going to leave you. Not now, not tomorrow, not in a year, or even a hundred. I can't, Damon, because when you're not around, I feel like a piece of me is missing. You drive me bat-shit crazy half of the time and the other half all I want to do is stay in bed with you for the next decade. But one thing hasn't changed, and that's the love I feel for you."
In a rare moment when his defenses were lowered, Damon asked, "And all of the showing off to the gruesome twosome has nothing to do with you harboring feelings for Stefan and trying to make him jealous?"
She looked at him sympathetically, "Of course not, Damon. I don't love Stefan like that anymore." He didn't look as convinced as she hoped, so she tried, "You know how I can be so sure that my feelings for him are never going to come back?" He raised a brow in question. "Because I fell in love with you when I was still technically with him. That wouldn't have happened if I loved him the way I love you. We are meant to be together, Damon. I know you feel it. Please, don't fight it."
Abandoning the bottle, Damon pulled her into his lap and hugged her tightly. She always managed to soothe his anger and mend his bad moods. She ran her fingers through his hair like she always did and she had him purring in seconds, nuzzling into her neck. After changing into more comfortable clothes, they crawled beneath the mountains of blankets, wrapping themselves inside of them to ward off the freezing temperatures until it would take the jaws of life to free them from the tangles of fabric and limbs.
Elena lay on her stomach half on top of him, her cheek resting on his shoulder as she traced patterns over the exposed skin from the buttons on his gray Henley t-shirt. His arms were wrapped securely around her waist, keeping her body tight against his as he kissed her forehead a few times.
"When did you fall in love with me?" He asked softly, his lips brushing her hairline.
She smiled at the memory. "My eighteenth birthday party. You gave me back the necklace that Stefan gave me because you knew how much it meant to me, even if it hurt you to do so. You were completely selfless in that moment, proving how much you loved me. You put it on me and when I turned around, all I could think about was how much you meant to me. It was then that I realized I was in love with you."
"That was so long ago…" He frowned slightly, and she brought her hand up to his lips to brush away the expression.
"It was, but like you said, it wasn't the right time. It's right, right now." She reached up to kiss him tenderly and when they separated she asked, "So when did you fall in love with me?"
"When did it happen, or when did I realize it? Because I have no idea when it happened. Sometime between our trip to Georgia and watching you risk everything for the people you cared about. But I realized it when Isobel said it as much as I hate to admit that. Then I struggled with it, before finally coming to terms with the fact that I fell in love with my brother's girl. That was the night I compelled you."
She smiled up at him, "You really do have a big soft spot for me."
He winked, "Only you."
"Forever." She added. "Only you, forever. For both of us."
He nodded in agreement, brushing her hair behind her ear in a repeating pattern, "Big day tomorrow. We should get some sleep. Prepare for the worst."
"You mean brace ourselves for Silas somehow escaping and wreaking havoc on the world? Can anyone ever really be ready for that?"
Damon chuckled, "Fine, then if he escapes, you have to promise me something."
"Hm?" She questioned, her eyes growing heavy from his soft touches.
"You and me are going to get the hell out of dodge, everyone else be damned. We can run away to some remote island where nobody will ever find us and live the rest of our existence together. If they want to come, so be it, but it's their decision."
She giggled lightly, "You've got yourself a deal, Mr. Salvatore."
"That was a charming little love confession last night." Rebekah commented to Elena as they packed up their things the next morning. "Though it was a bit too cheesy rom-com for my taste. I prefer my romance to have substance rather than whatever marginal emotion you're calling it."
Elena had done so well the entire trip. She hadn't lashed out or said something in retaliation. She hadn't given Rebekah a single reaction that she wanted, and she had done a pretty good job of ignoring her for the most part. But she just couldn't stop the words from slipping out before she could catch them, not that she regretted them.
"At least my life has romance, unlike whatever twisted fuck-buddy relationship you've formed with the guy who's still in love with me."
Rebekah's expression turned cold and stony, and Elena was thankful that they were the only ones paying attention to their conversation. Stefan had gone hunting for animals with Damon since they weren't allowed to go anywhere alone. And then there was everyone else that wouldn't be able to hear them.
Elena smirked slightly and continued, "Pathetic, isn't it? You're what, a thousand? And here you are, so bitter and lonely and unsatisfied in your romantic life that you feel the need to attack an eighteen year old girl's. And you know why you're so alone? It's because you're a terrible person that lies, hurts people, and sides with her sadistic brother when he's kept her dead for centuries." Rebekah's body radiated anger unlike anything else, and it was more satisfying than it should have been. Elena shrugged, "But hey, what do I know, right? After all, I'm just a damsel in distress that has the world waiting at my feet to save me."
With her tent all packed up, Elena slung her backpack over her shoulder and eyed the mess of tarps and poles at Rebekah's feet with distaste. The blonde's jaw was so tight Elena wasn't quite sure how her teeth were still in her skull and the metal pole in her hands wasn't snapped in two.
As she walked towards the others, she threw over her shoulder, "Little tip. The tent goes in the bag."
The snap of the tent pole from behind her caused a smug smirk to settle comfortably on her lips. That ought to shut her up for a while, and Elena had plenty more where that came from if she needed to use it.
When the guys got back a few minutes later, Rebekah had finished putting away the tent so they all began day two of their journey. Bonnie's spell should still be holding Klaus for the rest of the day and probably some of tomorrow, so they needed to get a move on before he could come find them. Not that he even knew where they were without Jeremy's tattoo and the sword to decode the location, but yet again, Stefan's stellar ideas put them in another bind. Rebekah's probably been texting Klaus the entire time, or at least when she gets cell phone reception, which is rare in such a deserted place.
The hike through the woods didn't last long, and soon they came to a huge ravine. The steep cliff looked unstable and daunting, and of course the mine they were looking for was at the bottom. The three mortals began the trek down the narrow pathways carved into the cliff while the vampires opted to jump down. Elena and Damon hand in hand, and Stefan and Rebekah on their own.
The four vampires headed inside the above ground area to have a look around while they waited for everyone else to arrive. It wasn't like they could do anything without them anyways.
It looked like it hadn't been used in a century. Dilapidated mine carts, ancient looking tools, broken gas lamps, and a pulley system above a huge hole that looked about as safe as Klaus's temper.
"So this is where the ancient pain in the ass is buried…" Damon mused, looking around at everything.
"Well my guess would be that he's buried beneath us, Damon." Rebekah smiled sweetly. "But I'll let it slide because you've got such a pretty face."
Apparently Rebekah decided that if she couldn't get to Elena about Stefan anymore then flirting with Damon was the way to go.
She was dead wrong.
But again, Elena let it go. With her big mouth, she'd give Elena the perfect opportunity to really hurt her with words soon enough.
Elena turned to Damon, "So Jeremy just has to kill Silas with any old method, right? It's not like he needs a special weapon?"
Stefan answered instead. "Silas isn't a vampire, so wood has no effect on him. Jeremy can only kill him by decapitation or removing his heart, either of which is only possible when performed by a Hunter."
"But it shouldn't be that hard, right? I mean, Silas has been desiccated for millennia…"
"That's the plan." Stefan confirmed. "Assuming nobody gives him blood to wake him up, he'll be easy to kill."
Before Elena could psych herself out with all of her frazzled nerves, Bonnie, Jeremy, and Shane arrived and broke up the conversation. Shane had brought a new pulley system used for rock climbing to use to get down and up, so while he hooked it up above ground the vampires jumped down the hole.
The mine, if you could even call it that, looked a lot like the tomb back in Mystic Falls. The only differences were the lack of a creepy door and the ceilings were raised and carved in a dome-like shape out of the rock, probably blasted by dynamite once upon a time. It was dark, and though none of them needed light to see, Stefan and Damon lit some torches and positioned them on the walls until it was bright enough for the non-vampires to see.
There were several openings with old railroad tracks leading down them, but Elena doubted that Silas was down any of them. If any of those miners that claimed to see their lost loved ones actually found Silas's body, more people would probably know about the place. Instead their hallucinations were chalked up to dehydration and delirium rather than anything supernatural.
Jeremy came down first, then Bonnie, and finally Shane. As they began preparing for the spell, Shane explained, "When the spell is cast, it will open up a passage leading through a short series of tunnels that will take you right to Silas. However, the catch is that Bonnie has to stay out here and hold it open. The second her magic stops, the doors close, including the one to Silas's tomb, so she and I will have to stay out here. And for my part of the deal, I will be bringing my wife back to life as well as anyone any of you want back. All it takes is some of your blood and Silas has promised to free those trapped on the other side."
Elena shared a look with both Damon and her brother, and it was obvious to all of them that Shane was out of his mind. But, as soon as Bonnie finished casting the spell, his purpose would be nonexistent and they could do with him whatever they wanted. They just had to hope that they could kill Silas and get out of the tomb before Shane realized that he wasn't going to get his wife back and snapped.
Playing along with his insane plan, Damon said, "So then get to it, professor."