Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
The Sacrifice
"For the record," Claire began as she followed Damon, Stefan, and Amelia promptly down the stairs of the tomb, "I this is a terrible idea."
"You didn't think it was such a bad idea yesterday when you went gallivanting in here with Elena," Damon pointed out with a small smirk, slowing so that Claire came to walk right up to his side. She crossed her arms defensively.
"Yeah...well...I still think this is a terrible idea. You know exactly what she's gonna say: get her out and she'll give us the moonstone." Claire scoffed, watching as Amelia and Stefan stepped towards the stone door of the tomb. Stefan sighed.
"Right now this is all we've got." He looked over at Amelia and nodded. "You ready?"
"Let's do it." She took the right side of the door and the two positioned their hands to pull the heavy stone out. "1...2...3."
Stefan and Amelia took the door out of the way and pushed it to the side of the tomb so that the entrance was clear and they could speak to who was inside. Damon and Claire stepped forward, standing between Stefan and Amelia as they peered into the dark tomb. Sure enough, Katherine rounded the corner eventually, her eyes stained with dark rings.
"Please...come on in. There's plenty of room for all of us," she quipped.
Amelia wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Never."
"I'd rather poke my eyes out," Damon agreed. Katherine groaned in disapproval.
"Mm...but they're such pretty eyes."
Claire rolled her own at the statement. "All right, Katherine, you know why we're here. Give it up, get it over with. Tell us what you want for the moonstone."
"Feel like tossing it over?" Damon added. Katherine shrugged at him.
"Tell you what; you get your little witch to hocus-pocus me out of here, you can have whatever you want."
None of them were surprised because...well, it was Katherine, after all. There was hardly a surprise anymore when it came to her and her mind games. Stefan just leaned against the side of the tomb entrance and put his arms over his chest. "I thought you liked it in here. Nice and safe where Klaus can't get to you."
"I've had time to reconsider," she whispered dryly.
"Meaning you're hungry," Damon translated. She cut her cold, black eyes towards him.
"I'm starving, Damon. And dirty. But above all, I'm bored. At least running from Klaus wasn't boring," she mumbled as she stumbled her way up to the entrance of the tomb, merely a few feet away from the four who sought her alliance. "So here's the deal: you get me out of here, you get the moonstone, and I'll disappear from Mystic Falls forever."
"Without Caroline," Claire added sourly. Katherine turned her blackened eyes to the blonde vampire a few feet away and just narrowed them into slits, watching as Claire negotiated. "And while I'm at it, that 'forever' you're promising isn't just a metaphoric 'forever'. Forever is forever. Mystic Falls doesn't exist after you leave."
"Fine." Katherine let out a hearty exhale, annoyed with the redundant terms of her agreement. "Without Caroline and forever. Let me know what you decide."
With a quick and drowsy smile, Katherine stumbled her way back into the darkness of the tomb without a word.
Elena pulled the front door open to find Claire and Damon on her front porch, accompanied by Stefan and Amelia behind them. Confused at the house call, Elena looked at Claire for an explanation, who spoke first.
"Hey, Elena. You have time for a chat?" It was hardly a question, but it was phrased like it regardless. Elena arched an eyebrow in bewilderment.
"Why?"
"We went to see Katherine," Damon explained. Elena looked back and forth between Claire and Damon and immediately realized what was going on.
She stepped aside from the threshold and nodded. "Come on in."
Once everything was explained to Elena about the conversation that went on in the tomb with Katherine, Stefan, Amelia, Claire and Damon watched as the human doppelgänger stared at the four of them with an impressive amount of incredulity in her eyes.
"You don't believe her, do you?" Elena scoffed.
"Of course not!" Damon exclaimed, reassuring her. "We just want the moonstone."
"According to Rose and Delia's friend, Slater, there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break," Stefan informed her.
"No spell, no doppelgänger sacrifice; ergo, you live." Damon tilted his head over to Claire next to him. "And this one sticks around to be snarky at everyone and the world keeps spinning."
Knowing she would give him a dirty look, Damon's eyes drifted up to meet that of his blonde companion's to found that pictured dirty look upon her face with a frown for good measure. She countered, "Your life would be incredibly boring without me and you know it."
"So how do you destroy the spell?" Elena moved on. Amelia answered her this time with a light-hearted voice, one much more appealing than the rest of her peers.
"By releasing the spell from the moonstone. Spell goes poof, moonstone's useless, and there's no sacrifice. Ta-da."
The human frowned and looked around her center island at the vampires. "How do you guys even know this is going to work?"
"'Cause we have a crafty witch on our side," Damon replied.
Elena sighed. "You...discussed it with Bonnie."
"She agreed to do anything she could to help us," the other brother informed her, defending their plan. Elena, however, wasn't buying any of it, and that was apparent to everyone.
"It's Katherine who has the moonstone, she's not gonna give it to you."
"We're gonna get it from her."
"Well, what he means to say is," Damon interrupted, adding onto his brother's statement, "that we will pry it from her cold, dead hand if we have to."
"Personally, I'm all for option two," said Claire.
"Bonnie just needs to find a way to release the seal long enough for us to get the moonstone and get out in time for her to return it," Stefan continued. Elena sat down at the center island and rubbed the back of her neck, clearly frustrated.
"Wow," she commented softly. "I mean, it sounds like you guys already have it all planned out."
"Yep!" Damon exclaimed. "We're awesome."
"No, we are awesome." Claire made a triangle formation to her, Amelia, and Stefan, excluding Damon intentionally with a small smile on her lips. Damon chuckled under his breath.
"Come on, sugar, your life would be incredibly boring without me and you know it."
She scoffed. "Now that's just what you think."
"I don't want you to do it," Elena cut in, bringing them back on topic. Everyone in the room went silent, her words causing them all to become extremely and hopelessly confused.
Stefan began, "Elena, what are you talking about? We don't have a choice..."
"What about Klaus?"
"We'll find him right after we get the moonstone."
"Is that before or after he kills everyone that I care about, including all of the people standing in this kitchen right now?" She practically snapped, looking at every single one of the vampires in the room with her, who were touched at the sentiment, but also dumbfounded as to why she would worry about them when it wasn't their lives on the line, with the exclusion of Claire.
"Elena, if we can de-spell the moonstone, we can save your life." Claire stepped forward, her arms crossed over her chest with a concerned expression on her face. "Not to mention mine and...Tyler's. We wanted our out, this is it."
"I know." Elena got up from the stool on the island and started out of the kitchen while mumbling, "Everybody keeps saying that."
She left the vampires to show themselves out, refusing to talk any more about the situation because she did not agree at all with what anyone was saying at that point. When she thought everyone had gone and an idea had formed so solidly inside of her head, Elena went downstairs with the intent to go find someone she thought would help. She wanted to enlist someone, Claire, perhaps, but she knew that Claire wouldn't be on her side with this one.
Only, when she went downstairs, a vampire was waiting for her. A vampire with long, blonde hair and impossibly determined grey eyes. Amelia was leaning against the staircase and watched as Elena, skeptical as she was, descended the last step of the staircase and walked over to the coat rack in the corner.
"I thought you all left..." Elena trailed off, finding the situation to be more than awkward. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was still irrevocably in love with Stefan, and seeing him with Amelia, knowing what was happening that they hadn't talked about, killed her. She didn't have anything against Claire's sister as a person, but out of natural default, she didn't feel comfortable around her.
Amelia nonchalantly straightened. "They did. I didn't." Elena turned around with a skeptical look still in her eyes. "Come on, Elena. It's very easy to tell when you're plotting. You and Katherine have a very similar tell. What are you up to?"
Elena shrugged. "Nothing."
She frowned. "You don't have to lie to me. I might've come in here with Stefan, Damon, and my sister this morning, but honestly, their plan is half-baked. I think Claire just wants this curse thing to be over with because she always underestimates the seriousness of these types of situations. I'm gonna do what I can to protect her so...what are you up to, Elena?"
The human took a moment, deciding whether or not to trust Claire's sister. On one hand, she felt that there was no need for distrust; if Amelia's only fault was that she fell in love with Stefan long before Elena knew him, that wasn't an issue of trust. The compassionate, calm Elena knew that. The other side of Elena, the more irrational side, wanted to cut her out just because she felt angry at Stefan for loving someone other than her.
But she did the right thing, and she sighed while opening the door for them and explaining her plan. A few minutes later, Amelia and Elena arrived back at the boarding house, where all was luckily quiet since Claire, Stefan, and Damon were too busy rounding Bonnie up for the tomb spell. Once they walked inside, they were greeted by Rose, coming from the direction of the right with a glass of blood in her hands.
"Ah, Amelia. Elena." She approached them with a soft smile and confused eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"We—" Elena started, but was promptly interrupted by a louder voice.
"Damon, is that you? What kind of sheets do you have on your bed? 600 thread count? That was literally the best sleep of my entire exist—" Delia stopped short at the foyer to see her sister, Amelia, and Elena watching as she flamboyantly presented herself in an indecent robe. Delia frowned at them. "I mean, I knew you didn't bring Damon along, but would it really have been too much of a hassle to include Claire so there was some point to that?"
As Elena's eyes widened and her heart literally broke for her friend realizing what Damon had done, Amelia turned to Delia with a scoff. "Pretending to have slept with Damon? Come on, now, that's just downright pathetic."
"It's only pathetic if I'd actually had to pretend." Delia leaned against the wall beside her with a courteous smile. "Feel free to relay this information to your lovely sister."
Amelia, now shocked, took in a deep breath. "You did this just to make her suffer? What kind of a person are you?"
"A satisfied one." Her eyes flickered to all of the women in the room. "You'd be surprised how talented Damon Salvatore really is."
"Cordelia," Rose warned her with a disappointed voice. "Please. Do us all a favor and make yourself a little more presentable."
"Fine." After rolling her eyes, Delia walked off in the direction she came from to get dressed. Rose, absolutely embarrassed by her overly promiscuous and vengeful sister, looked at Amelia and Elena without a spoken apology, knowing that it was understood unspoken.
"Sorry, Damon, Stefan, and Claire aren't back yet if that's what you came here for," Rose told them as she finished her blood breakfast.
"Actually...we came to see you," Elena informed her, causing Rose to immediately become suspicious. Once Delia was back downstairs in clothes, Elena relayed her apparently foolproof plan to the two older vampires. Rose, however, was not a fan of it.
"It's a bad idea," she told the human.
"No, it's not. From what Stefan told me, your friend Slater obviously has more information about Klaus. You and Damon just gave up before you got it."
"Somebody blew up a bloody coffee shop with us inside of it!" Delia snorted. "I don't know about you, cupcake, but that's the international sign to stop digging your nose into someone else's business!"
"Elena thinks there's more to learn," Amelia said to them quietly. "And...we just have to find a way to learn it."
"Why are you coming to us with this?" Rose inquired. Elena shrugged nonchalantly.
"Because you owe me. One word from me and Damon and Stefan could've killed you for kidnapping me. Not to mention, Claire, too."
Delia rolled her eyes again. "We don't owe anyone anything. Damon and Stefan could try to have us killed but I can assure you, little doppelgänger, they don't have what it takes. Let's be honest here." She rose from her position on the arm of the couch closest to the fireplace and sighed, turning back at Elena with a knowing look. "You're asking us because you can't go to Damon and Stefan for it because they wouldn't want you to do this. And this drama with the moonstone that Claire is participating in is the perfect chance to do what you want right underneath their noses."
"We're having a disagreement, okay?" Elena snapped. "They're willing to risk everyone that I love, and I'm not."
"And if there's something that can prevent Claire from becoming a vampire power-drink, I'd love to figure that out as quickly as possible, thank you," Amelia quipped with a grimace. Rose sighed.
"Elena, they're just trying to protect you."
"And you've proven that you couldn't care less whether I'm protected or not. So we're back to you taking me to Slater."
"Hold on a second." Delia held up her hands with a scowl. "You just said that we couldn't care less whether you're protected or not. Well, cupcake, I don't care whether Clarissa King is turned into said vampire power-drink, so why would I help you protect the one woman that I don't want to be protected?"
"Because you slept with Damon," Elena countered, looking up at Delia with hard eyes and a quick smile. "And if you don't help us and she dies because of it, he'll kill you...no matter how strong you are."
When everything in the room fell silent, Rose sat down on the other side of Elena to capture her attention with a long-winded sigh. "What exactly do you hope to achieve by this?"
"Does it matter?" Amelia scoffed, looking between Rose and Delia, who was over her shoulder. Making sure to look back and forth at both sisters, she ignored Rose's question for Elena because, simply, they were wasting daylight. "Look, I certainly didn't expect you two to help us without a price. So how about, in exchange for your aid in finding Slater, Elena and I will see to it that you are both able to walk during the day?"
Delia tensed and walked forward. "Rose and I have been slaves to the shadows for 500 years. You say jump, we say how high? Metaphorically, of course." She shrugged. "I don't jump."
And as the room fell silent with this deal on the table, Delia gave them an innocent smile.
"I might be able to lower the tomb spell long enough for you to get in there and grab the moonstone from Katherine," Bonnie assured Stefan, Claire, and Damon as she, Jeremy, and the vampires all gathered around in the empty Salvatore Boarding House.
Jeremy looked at her with concerned confusion. "How? It took both you and your Grams last time and look what happened to her."
"I'm well aware of what happened," the witch countered softly. "But I've leaned a few new things."
"Bonnie..."
Bonnie ignored Jeremy's interruption and looked at Stefan. "How will you get it?"
"She hasn't been feeding. She's weaker. We're not." Damon and Claire tapped their blood glasses together, giving Bonnie the silent explanation with their smiles. Stefan, too, was chocked full of rich, hearty human blood in moderation.
"You wouldn't be underestimating her, would you?" Bonnie accused them.
"It's a plan. Is it perfect?" Damon scoffed at his own statement. "What plan is?"
"Let me do it!" exclaimed the young Gilbert from the corner of the room, thinking he'd had a brilliant idea. "I've got my ring. I can get in, get out, no spells necessary."
"Gee, thanks, you 16-year-old child. Why didn't we think about that?" Damon commented in a snide tone. He narrowed his eyes at the young one. "Why are you even here? Where's Blondie?"
Claire licked her lips free of the human blood she'd drank. "Which one? Because I'm right here and Caroline's off...doing something and Amelia's..." She paused and pursed her lips. "Truthfully, I have no idea where my sister is."
"Maybe I can help better the plan," Bonnie interrupted, trying to move the meeting along as quickly as possible. "Do you have anything that belongs to Katherine?"
Claire smiled bitterly. "You mean besides the hatred in my heart?"
But despite the side-comment from the unserious vampire in the room, Stefan did have something of Katherine's. He went upstairs and was down in less than five minutes, holding a metal picture with Katherine's portrait on it. Bonnie turned around once seeing Stefan's returned and he let out a deep sigh.
"This belonged to Katherine. Found it with her things after I thought she was dead, but...it was hers."
Bonnie took the picture while the room fell silent and she set it inside of a bowl she had ordered Damon to retrieve for her along with a glass of water. Without another word spoken, the young witch took her fingers, dipped them into the cold water, and sprinkled it lightly on the picture before inhaling sharply, where the bowl underneath her fingertips lit up a bright orange from the flames she'd ignited by her magic. As the fire flickered around them, Bonnie began to chant her spell softly.
"What will this do?" asked Damon.
"I can turn the metal to ash," she explained. "Blow the ashes on her and it'll incapacitate her for a minute or two. Long enough for you to get the stone and get out."
No one noticed around her because they were too focused on plans to get ready for Katherine's takedown, but Bonnie felt a warm blood trickle down onto her lip, and she quickly raised her hand to wipe it off. Discreetly, she realized that it was blood, and she removed all evidence before anyone could see and call their brilliant plan off. Right after she did so, Claire, Stefan, and Damon all went in opposite directions to get supplies to incapacitate Katherine in other ways if needed and also to get supplies for the spell lifting of the tomb.
Rose and Delia took Elena and Amelia to a large, deluxe apartment which was also seemingly older than most that they knew was Slater's. Determined to get their reward for showing Elena and Amelia to their request, Rose knocked on the door.
"Slater? Slater, it's Rose. Open up!" There was no answer, so Rose turned to Elena with a shake of her head. "He's not home. Sorry."
The human held up her hand and shook her head. "Mm-mm. No. We didn't come all the way out here for nothing."
Elena made a silent gesture for the vampires to bust open the door, but Rose and Delia were both reluctant and annoyed that they had to go through so many trials to win Elena's prize. Instead of making the two older vampires do it, Amelia just brushed past them with a sigh and broke the chain locking the door on the other side instead so that the double doors to the apartment swung open for them. The blonde made a grand gesture to the vampires and human beside her.
"There? Was that so hard? No? Okay, then. After you." Amelia shot a bitter smile to Delia, who just rolled her eyes and walked forward. Elena and Amelia followed them inside.
"Slater?" Delia called out upon their entrance. Rose and Delia walked forward, side-by-side, but it was Rose who spotted it first, since she was closest to it. Her jaw fell open at the sight.
"I don't think he's going to be much help..." Rose trailed off. Delia rounded her sister to stand on the other side of her and gasped once seeing Slater's dead body on the floor. Elena rushed forward, Amelia following closely behind, and they all stared at the desiccated vampire in disappointment.
Rose and Delia went to drag the body elsewhere as Elena ran a hand through her hair, partially disappointed and partially sad and frustrated, exhaling lightly, "God..." Turning in the other direction, she walked over to the huge desk at the curtained windows of the apartment and grabbed a bunch of papers lying around. "It looks like whoever blew up the coffee shop found him and killed him for his information."
"Yeah. Probably to stop him from helping people like us," Rose murmured. Delia scoffed.
"The guy was a living, breathing vampire encyclopedia. You know what they say about people with too much information. It was inevitable." As Rose walked over to the windows, Delia reached forward on the desk and looked at a picture of Slater with a sigh. "It still sucks, though."
Rose pulled the shades by the windows aside, bringing light into the room. Amelia protested immediately, "Um...hello, hate to burst your bubble but there's no daylight ring on your finger yet!"
"Tempered glass," Rose explained, as if she'd done it a thousand times. She looked out the window longingly. "UV rays can't penetrate. I used to just come here and watch the day."
Elena grabbed the picture Delia had been looking at and instantly felt bad for the two vampires. "I'm sorry about Slater."
Rose turned her head without a response. "Any luck?"
Elena set the picture down, embarrassed, and got back on task. She leaned down to get into the computer and tried to type in a password, but it came up incorrect. She sighed heavily. "It's password protected. I can't get in."
Delia sighed. "Then this whole entire trip is pointless, let's go. We still get our daylight rings, though."
Before Amelia or Elena could respond to the statement, there was suddenly a sound in the other room. Fearing it to be the intruder that killed Slater, Rose stopped everyone from going to check it out with a simple, "Stay here." She walked over to the door the sound came out of and she peered inside while Amelia, Elena, and Delia waited to find out who was in there. Suddenly, Rose said confoundedly, "Alice?"
"Rose!" A dark-haired girl dressed in black rushed out of the room and threw herself into Rose's arms and sobbed. "He's dead!"
Alice sobbed into Rose's arms for about fifteen minutes while Elena made some tea in the kitchen with the company of Delia and Amelia. After a while, Rose joined them just as Elena was divvying up the hot tea for them all, and she looked around at all three of them and sighed. "She found him a few minutes before we did."
Elena felt sorry for the other human, honestly. "How is she?"
"Overreacting. Big time," Rose snorted.
"Her boyfriend just died!" Elena defended Alice, even though she didn't know her at all. There was a place of compassion she drew from, however. "There's no such thing as overreacting."
Delia was the one who responded with a whisper, "This might be extremely hard for you to process, cupcake, but there are people out there in this world who actually want to be come a vampire. Alice was one of them; she only dated Slater so he would turn her."
Amelia wrinkled her nose. "I hate those kinds of humans. Adam Silverman, 1924. He was French, I was young..." She let out a sigh and grabbed a cup of tea that was steaming hot and brought it to her lips. "Little bastard."
But Elena, with a deep exhale, took a cup of tea she'd poured and turned out of the kitchen toward Alice. She handed the small cup to her and, as the vampires in the kitchen listened to them, she began a conversation with Alice.
"Thank you," said the dark-haired human as she took the tea and looked up at Elena while she sat down. "You look...really familiar. Did you know Slater?"
Elena shook her head. "Not personally, no. I just knew that he kept detailed records of all his vampire contacts and my friend and I were hoping he could point me towards Klaus."
"Doubtful. Klaus doesn't want to be pointed out," Alice told her.
"Do you know Slater's computer password?"
"Are you seriously asking me that right now? I just saw my boyfriend with a stake through his heart!"
"I understand that. Do you know his password?" Elena pushed, refusing to give into the theatrics of a self-absorbed girl who wanted to throw her life away for something as terrible as vampirism. Alice, too, was disgusted at the girl.
"Who do you think you are?"
"I think I have three vampire friends in that kitchen." Elena looked up at found all of the said vampires listening to her conversation, their ears perking up hearing Elena's statement. "And, I think, that I can get one of them to turn you into a vampire. Will you show us his files, then?"
Of course, Alice agreed, and minutes later, they were at the computer logging into Slater's files. Alice gave a frustrated sigh. "Someone's been here. The hard drive's completely wiped out."
"Yeah, probably whoever killed him," Rose reminded them.
"Lucky for you, Slater was paranoid. Everything's backed up on a remote server," Alice continued, moving to the computer on the left side.
As Alice fought her way through the password protection, Amelia leaned down and whispered to Elena, "Hey, about that little consolation prize you so generously decided to give to her...you do know that none of us are going to give our blood to a vampire-junkie, right?"
"I know." Elena shrugged. "She doesn't."
"'Kristen Stewart.'" Alice rolled her eyes. "God, was he obvious."
Elena peered over her shoulder to look at the files Alice had accessed, and she blinked at the amount of folders. "These are all links to vampires?"
"Slater was obsessed. Almost as much as me."
"What about that one?" Rose spoke up from the back. "Cody Webber. We exchanged dozens of e-mails about Elijah."
"I could...call him," Alice suggested. Elena reached down and grabbed the phone at the desk, handing it to Alice promptly.
"Tell him that we're trying to send a message to Klaus. The doppelgänger is alive and she's ready to surrender."
"What?!" The sound nearly came from all three vampires in the room, while Alice just laughed and looked up at the brunette standing above her with a smile slapped on her face.
"Oh, my God; I knew I recognized you!" Alice exclaimed.
"Get him the message, please," Elena snapped and walked off to the kitchen. Amelia, furious that she was an accessory to Elena's downright insane plan, followed the human back into the kitchen to find her standing over the counter, exhaling out loud as if she were nervous or something, but this was all her idea. Angrily, Amelia reached forward and grabbed Elena's arm for her attention.
"What the hell, Elena? What are you doing? This wasn't the plan!"
"Yes, it was." Elena snatched her arm back. "I'm getting Klaus's attention."
"No!" Amelia hissed. "No, you're trying to get yourself killed! These vampires are going to come and they're going to take you and they're going to hand you over to Klaus and he will use you in the sacrifice ritual! You will die!"
"And Claire won't," Elena said softly. Amelia's eyes widened. "You wanted Claire to be safe; this is the way. When they come to take me today, they won't ever find Claire in Mystic Falls and she won't have to die. Not to mention the fact that everyone else will be safe."
Amelia gritted her teeth. "You mean to tell me this was all a suicide mission to save everyone back home? Elena, Stefan is going to kill me for this!"
"No, he won't." Elena said the words quietly, and Amelia realized exactly what the young human was feeling. She was about to open her mouth to respond when Alice barged into the kitchen and looked at Elena.
"Cody is on his way. And he really wants to meet you."
"Sorry I'm late," Bonnie apologized as she walked up to Damon, Stefan, and Claire at the entrance to the tomb. "I had to grab the Grimoire from home."
Damon smirked. "Jeremy couldn't take the pressure, huh?"
Bonnie raised her eyebrows, concerned. "He said he'd be here..."
But she didn't waste time dwelling on the fact, but rather walked down the steps to the tomb with Stefan and Claire. Damon was about to follow when he heard his phone ring in his pocket and saw that Amelia's Caller ID was on the screen. He answered it promptly.
"Blondie, where've you been? You disappeared on us. Look, now's not such a good time—"
"Damon...don't be angry with me," Amelia begged, her voice soft and quiet. Hearing the words, Damon froze and listened to her. "I would've called Claire, but she would've been...furious, and I can't call Stefan, so I decided to call you."
He rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks. I feel appreciated. What did you do now?"
She let out a heavy sigh. "Get in your car and come to Richmond. Now."
But while Damon was on the phone, Stefan, Claire and Bonnie all moved down the steps and into the tomb ground, where Stefan bent down to set up the torches for Bonnie's spell. Claire looked at the open tomb that lost light after the first few feet, but when she stepped closer, she found something odd in front of her by her feet. Looking down, she saw a clear stone that looked like the moonstone.
"What the hell..." Claire bent down and picked up the clear stone from the floor, finding that it was the moonstone at a closer look. Bonnie rushed forward seeing the clear stone in her hand.
"Is that the moonstone?" the young witch inquired. Stefan stood up and walked to Claire, taking the moonstone out of her hand in wonder. Katherine wouldn't just toss the moonstone outside of the threshold because it was her only leverage, so what the hell was it doing—
"I hate to interrupt." Katherine caught all of their attentions as she appeared at the threshold of the tunnels and caught the eyes of the witch and vampires. "But today's just been full of surprises."
Suddenly, Katherine yanked Jeremy out of the shadows and it became clear that there was blood on Katherine's lips; and that blood on her lips had come from Jeremy, obviously, and had brought the color back to her flesh. Stefan rushed up to the threshold but stopped himself short while Bonnie peered inside with a shocked and anxious expression.
"I'm sorry," Jeremy mumbled at them. "I took some powder."
"Don't worry!" Katherine exclaimed. "I know that he's wearing his ring, so no matter how many times I kill him, he'll just keep coming back for more...so, I'm gonna be in the back playing with my little toy." She shoved him to the side and looked at Claire, Stefan, and Bonnie. "You guys just give me a holler when you've got the tomb open."
Stefan, defeated, turned around at Claire and Bonnie and gave them a frightened look. Claire crossed her arms angrily.
"I told you this was a bad idea."
From then on, everything was at a rushed pace. Stefan ran all over like a chicken with his head cut off and Bonnie was desperately trying to get the spell started. Claire went up to the ground level to find Damon, but she came up with no luck and went down back into the tomb, just as Stefan asked aloud, "Where the hell is Damon?"
"He's not up there," Claire told him. "But we can't wait. We have to get Jeremy out."
"If she's fed, she has her strength back," Stefan reminded them. Bonnie, realizing that this was an issue, turned and grabbed the bag of ash that was left from what Jeremy had used on Katherine.
"We still have what's left of the ash. Do you think you can get close enough?"
"I don't have a choice," Stefan responded. But Claire reached forward and snatched the bag from his hand.
"You're not going in there, Stefan. Even on human blood, you're twice as weak as a regular vampire because it's not your regular diet. I'm stronger, I'll handle her." She looked up at Bonnie. "How long will it take you to get the seal down?"
"I-I don't know, a while."
Stefan and Claire exchanged a glance, but Claire looked back at Bonnie and nodded. "All right. Just get me in there as soon as you can."
Bonnie nodded, and minutes later, she started the spell.
Elena walked out from the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand as she waited for Cody Webber to arrive and take her to see Klaus. She spotted Alice by the window staring behind her, but without a thought, Elena turned around to go find Amelia when she found Damon standing right behind her. She gasped out of surprise and watched him as he grimaced.
"What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" she repeated. Amelia stepped forward behind Elena, and she turned around to see the blonde King and raised her voice at her. "You called him?"
Amelia shook her head. "No. You don't get to be angry with me, Elena. You manipulated me into going along with this plan."
"I did it so Claire could live!" Elena shouted. Damon groaned behind her.
"Bullshit, Elena. This whole thing is a just some silly little suicide mission."
"Damon Salvatore!" Alice exclaimed as she came up beside Elena with Delia by her side. Damon furrowed his eyes at the wide-eyed human basking in his presence.
"Get rid of her," he demanded Delia.
With a sigh, the dark-haired vampire took the human away as Alice breathed out with a smile on her lips, "No...way..."
"Come on." Damon gestured towards the door. "Get your things, Elena. We're leaving."
"No."
"I said we're leaving!"
"No. I'm not going with you."
"Look at me, Elena, I am doing you a huge favor right now." Damon gave her a bitter smile and looked over at Amelia. "She did you, one, too, because if Amelia had called her sister instead of calling me, Claire would be kicking your ass out of that goddamn door for making such a stupid decision."
"It's not a stupid decision, Damon."
"Yeah? Well, from now on, why don't you not make any decisions, then, okay? Now move."
"When have I ever made a decision?" Elena prompted him furiously. "Everyone else did that for me—you, Stefan, Amelia, Claire...you all try to make decisions for me even though I'm not even relevant to your lives anymore! Now this? This is my decision."
"Relevant to our lives?" Damon repeated with a scoff. "What the hell are you talking about? 'Relevant to our lives'...Elena, just because you stopped seeing my brother doesn't any of us want some evil, psychopathic Original Vampire coming to town and killing everyone left and right over some stupid curse. All we're doing is trying to save you!"
"You're not listening to me, Damon; I don't want to be saved." Damon stared at her with confused eyes. "Not if it means that Klaus is going to kill every single person that I love. One of those people happen to be someone that you love, too."
Damon growled under his breath, "I swear to God, Elena, you use that sentence against me one more time, and I will kick your ass out of that goddamn door myself. This isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship. Now I'm gonna go do a little damage control. When I get back, we're leaving. No discussions this time."
And, without being able to protest against him, Damon turned on his heel and walked in the direction that Alice and Delia had gone, leaving Elena furious with Amelia, the cause of her fury, right at her side.
Stefan and Claire watched as Bonnie stood in the center of the circle that was lit with flames while she chanted her spell. Suddenly, the flames jumped a few centimeters higher, causing them to witness the flickering of the stretch. Katherine came out of the darkness of the tunnel, shoving Jeremy along with her.
"Ooh, something's happening!" Katherine exclaimed enthusiastically. While Stefan and Claire observed Katherine, Jeremy had his eyes set on Bonnie with an extremely worried expression on his face.
"Bonnie, no!" He looked at Claire and Stefan and rushed out, "You have to stop her, she's not strong enough!"
Jeremy struggled against Katherine's all-too-tight grasp, but Katherine was more focused on the concentrated Bonnie surrounded by the flames.
"Maybe she is," Katherine murmured under her breath, impressed at the little Bennett witch. Stefan, however, was growing increasingly worried with Jeremy's protests and the blood that started to trickle down the witch's nose.
"Bonnie..." Stefan stepped forward and tried to get the witch to stop. "Bonnie..."
"You gotta stop her!" Jeremy shouted, but was put down by Katherine who elbowed him in the face. Claire looked back, facing Katherine's cold, heartless eyes, and they didn't say anything to each other but rather stared. Stefan pleaded for Bonnie to stop, and suddenly Bonnie dropped to the floor. Claire rushed over to the witch on the other side of Stefan over the unconscious girl.
"Bonnie!" Claire grabbed the Grimoire out of Bonnie's hands to make it easier to try and shake her back to consciousness. "Bonnie! Wake up!"
"Yes, please, because I'm still in here!" Katherine sang irately inside of the tunnels. Bonnie slowly came back, her movements delayed and her eyes blinking a few times to get adjusted. Stefan and Claire helped her up.
"Are you okay?" Stefan asked. "Here. Are you all right?"
"It...it didn't work," Bonnie whispered as she cried. "I'm not strong enough. Even with help, I can't do it."
"Aw...that's too bad. I'm still hungry!" Katherine held no compassion within her as she forced Jeremy to stand and barred her fangs, plunging them into Jeremy's neck as soon as she finished declaring her never-ending hunger. Bonnie screamed out Jeremy's name and, in the midst of all the confusion and blood, Claire somehow found herself inside of the tomb, pushing Jeremy out of it as she kept Katherine pinned up against the cave wall. Jeremy rolled out to the floor and Katherine snarled with her fangs barred, shoving Claire off of her. Stefan stared at Claire and Katherine with the realization and shock in his eyes while Bonnie and Jeremy cradled each other on the floor and stared as well.
It was then that it sank into Claire when she looked at Katherine and inside of the tomb around her: she was stuck.
Damon swung open the doors of the master bedroom Rose had found Alice in earlier. "Time to go. Alice is soundly sleeping and won't remember a moment of this horribly stupid day—"
Suddenly, the doors of the apartment swung open, and in came three vampires in a triangle formation, staring at Amelia, Damon, Rose, Delia, and Elena intently.
"We're here to meet the doppelgänger," said one of the vampires, assumed to be Cody Webber. Elena nodded.
"Thank you for coming." She tried to walk forward, but Amelia shoved her back furiously.
"Don't you test me right now, Elena. I may not be Claire's sister but I can get violent when I want to."
Damon said loudly to the vampires awaiting to be met with Katherine's look-alike. "There's nothing here for you."
Before anyone could reply to Damon's statement, there was a snap and a groan of pain, and all vampires looked behind them to see a well-dressed man standing behind the dead third vampire. Damon, Amelia, Elena, Rose, and Delia all instantly recognized it to be the person that they thought was long gone: Elijah.
Elena gasped, and everyone widened their eyes as if seeing a ghost. There was a gust of wind, and suddenly, Damon and Amelia were the only vampires left protecting Elena.
Damon narrowed his eyes at Elijah. "I killed you. You were dead."
"For centuries now," Elijah deadpanned and looked at Cody Webber. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" Cody replied.
"I'm Elijah."
Cody's face immediately turned down. "We were going to bring her to you. For Klaus. She's the doppelgänger. I don't know how she exists, but she does. Klaus would want to see her."
Elijah stared at Elena, but asked the vampire in front of him, "Does anyone else know that you're here?"
"No." The response was immediate from Cody's lips. Elijah smiled.
"Well, then you have been incredibly helpful." Without warning, Elijah plunged his hands into the chests of the remaining two vampires looking to take the doppelgänger to Klaus, and the bodies of the vampires dropped while the hearts remained in Elijah's hands. Elijah threw the bloody organs down and looked at Elena, Damon, and Amelia. Damon and Amelia created a barrier in front of Elena, ready to fight the Original, but for seemingly no reason at all, Elijah fled them.
Elena sighed heavily to the two vampires as they walked her up to her front door. "Thank you both for bringing me home."
"Don't thank me," replied Amelia. "Thank Damon. If it weren't for him, we would've been stranded in Richmond with no ride because of Rose and Delia."
"They were just scared. They didn't mean to run," Elena defended them. Damon snorted.
"Yes, they did. They've been running for 500 years."
Elena moved on from the subject and opened her front door. "I can't believe Elijah's alive. Why do you think he killed those two vampires and just...let us go?"
Damon rolled his eyes. "If I had a dollar for every time some evil vampire surprised me. Go get some rest, Elena. It'll wash away the stupidity of what you did today."
She frowned at him as she crossed the threshold. "The only thing that I did that was stupid was that I got caught."
Without saying goodnight to either of them, she slammed the door in Amelia and Damon's face. The two vampires gave a frustrated sigh and started to walk down the porch steps.
Amelia, feeling the awkwardness of the air around them, decided to say something that was on her mind. "So...speaking of Claire—"
"We weren't."
"We are now. Are you going to tell her what I did?"
Damon sighed. "No. You were trying to do what you thought would get her out of this stupid ritual thing. I get it...completely."
Amelia nodded. "Well...are you going to tell her what you did?"
He looked up at her, confused. "I did what you did; therefore, if you don't tell—"
"I don't mean today. I meant last night." Amelia pulled them to a stop at the bottom of Elena's porch with her hand around Damon's arm. "Delia came down this morning flamboyantly showing off that she slept with you because she thought we were Claire."
"Oh. That."
"Yeah...that. Damon, what on earth could've possessed you to sleep with her?" Damon opened his mouth, but Amelia held up her hand. "Shut it. Never mind, I don't want an answer to that question. But seriously...didn't you think about how this would affect Claire at all? Delia hates Claire. You know she only did it to get back at her because she knows you two...have something going on."
The elder Salvatore frowned. "Claire and I don't have anything 'going on', okay? We never have. Now you're starting to sound like my brother."
Amelia grimaced. "You kissed on Founder's Day. Katherine saw it."
Damon shrugged. "And she made it very clear that it was a mistake."
"Damon," Amelia started again, now in a more of a whining tone. "You and my sister have been together for the longest time. Whatever happened between you two in the past, you know it was nothing more than some stupid fight. You have the rest of eternity to figure your shit out. But this? Damon, I'm afraid that she's going to hate you for this again. And you're gonna have to return to the start." Damon fell silent, and Amelia exhaled. "So...just stop sleeping with Delia. Tell Claire what you did and...and hopefully she'll forgive you."
Damon wanted to reply, but he couldn't. Instead, Elena came rushing out of her house, desperately trying to catch up to the two vampires she thought had left.
"Damon! Amelia!" Elena slowed by them as she bounced down the porch stairs.
"Elena, what is it?" Amelia asked, concerned. Elena caught her breath for a moment and looked at Damon.
"It's Claire."
"Claire! Claire!" Damon shouted as he stormed down the stairs of the tomb and walked up to the entrance into the tunnels. Stefan was pacing by the lit flames from earlier, but hadn't gotten to Damon in time. Damon looked around the threshold and, for a brief moment, actually considered going inside. Instead, Stefan came up and pinned Damon to the side of the entrance. "Get the hell off of me!"
Damon shoved his brother off, but Stefan made sure to keep enough distance to refrain Damon from going in if he had to. Damon looked into the tomb. "Claire! Where the hell are you?"
Damon moved forward again, but Stefan pushed him so hard Damon fell into the center of the tomb with all of the flames. Amelia was now with them as well, idly standing by as she watched the two brothers fight. "Damon, she doesn't want to see you."
"What the hell, Stefan? What do you mean she doesn't want to see me? Clarissa!" Damon moved forward for the tomb again, but Stefan blocked it. Damon growled. "You better get out of my way, brother. How in the hell could you let this happen?"
"She had to," Stefan explained. "Katherine took Jeremy and she was going to kill him so—"
"Wait, what? She risked her life for some idiotic little punk who didn't want to sit back and take a knee?"
Claire listened to Damon and Stefan fight as she paced in the back of the tomb, standing as far away from Katherine as she could. She hated it when Damon and Stefan fought, but she didn't want to go out there and break it up—not like she could break it up, anyways.
"Damon, she did what she had to do."
"How can you say that? She is stuck in there with the evil, psychotic little bitch who killed her in the first place! Katherine will rip her apart!"
"She can handle herself."
"I said, get out of my way." Damon stepped forward so that he was level with his brother. "I want to see her."
"What part about 'she doesn't want to see you' do you not understand, Damon?" Stefan snapped. He could see the hurt in his brother's eyes that Damon tried to cover up with coldness, and for a moment, Stefan actually felt sorry for him. If it were up to him, he'd let Damon see Claire, but she asked Stefan to keep his brother away. Damon, with cold, black eyes, stared at his brother for a long time, hoping he'd crack.
Amelia stepped forward and lightly touched Damon's arm. "Damon, let's—"
"Get the off of me." Damon snatched his arm back violently, causing Amelia to jump at his abrasiveness. With a look to his brother and Claire's sister, he stormed out of the tomb promptly, unable to stay with them any longer.
Once Damon was gone, Claire emerged out of the shadows to face Amelia and Stefan as they waited for her entrance. She nodded to Stefan. "Thank you. I-I just...if I saw him, he would've made all of this harder. He would've made me feel stupid for doing what I did."
"It was stupid," Amelia said softly. "Katherine's in there with you, Claire. Don't you realize what that means? She has an unlimited time to kill you!"
"I told Stefan I can handle myself, and I can." Claire crossed her arms over her chest. "Right now, I need to be a last priority. If my only obstacle in here is Katherine, it's a piece of cake." She looked at Stefan. "But you need to get Damon to start working on despelling the moonstone. And Amelia, you need to keep Elena safe from Klaus."
"We'll handle it," Stefan promised. Claire nodded at them.
"And make sure Damon doesn't come down here, too." She sighed heavily and slipped her hands from their crossed position into her pockets and shifted uncomfortably. "Just...tell him I don't want to see him and that I'll stay away from him if he comes down here. That ought to keep him away until I get get out of here."
"Why?" Amelia scoffed. "All he wants to do is see you, so—"
"Amelia, I said keep him away," Claire snapped. Amelia silenced upon her sister's brisk voice, and she nodded at the two of them. "You guys should go now."
Amelia, who was slightly pissed at her sister for her cold tone, turned and headed out of the tomb. Stefan stayed for an extra moment.
"I'll come back in the morning."
"Yeah." She watched him as he left, following behind his girlfriend, and Claire turned around to find Katherine standing a few feet away, behind her, with a cat-like grin on her face.
"This is gonna be so much fun."
This was a special Valentine's Day update because I was feeling generous. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! Review, please!
SomebodyWhoCares: Damn Day indeed...
ThisIsMeAndYou: Delia is definitely a very special character. Damon and Claire will eventually have a talk about Damon and Delia but I want to make sure that Claire isn't like Elena in the sense that she demands Damon stay unhappy until she decides whether or not she wants to be with him. That's going to be one of her biggest struggles because, honestly, she will be jealous, but she knows that she has no right to be. You know, it's funny you mention Claire accusing Damon of hating her because that will be happening in a couple episodes. But it's going to be a lot different than I think most people would expect because it's going to be a really tough time for Claire so she's really going to try and accuse him of hating her so she can feel better but it will end up hurting him for a moment. But we'll see that soon enough. Thanks for the review!
Guest: Delia dying seems to be a very popular idea, but you'll just have to wait and see what happens and who will die, because it will either be Rose or Delia that is bitten by the werewolf but what happens after might surprise you. Claire is always in bitch-mode so that'll definitely be easy. Thanks for the review!
Momsen-xxxx: OH MY GOD you are literally the funniest reviewer ever! That was hilarious. Yeah, everyone seems to be pissed at Damon. Maybe this chapter changed some minds though...
RHatch89: Thank you! :)
NicoleR85: Oh yeah. She definitely will. Claire will find out soon enough, promise! Sorry for the wait on the update.
Savage Kill: Yeah, I'd definitely say so.
Guest: Thank you! Here's the update!
Bella lugosi: Everyone hates Delia lol. Claire's reaction will be...well, indescribable. You'll just have to wait. Payback is a bitch, though, and that's kind of going to be what hits Claire when she finds out.
HPuni101: Thank you. Klaus is coming up soon, promise :) That'll be a hell of a lot of fun.
klandgraf2007: Wow we officially have a ship name now, then? Daire? Ha that reminds me of Gossip Girl but whatever :P Vampire catfight...maybe not so much. Well, there might be a bit of a catfight between Claire and Katherine in the next chapter but Claire feels really bad about what she did to Delia, even though she thinks it's a little unfair of Delia to be hating her so much; she at least understands why. Katherine hasn't really explained it, but we'll get to see Claire's reaction to her explanation in the next chapter. Thanks for the review!