Hey everyone, sorry it took so long. I replaced my AN with a chapter, and it doesn't show I updated so if you don't know there is a chapter before this one. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 18

Step One

Meredith stood in the middle of a bush in the dead of night. She tried looking brave, but who was she kidding, she was petrified. She hoped this plan was worth it. She wanted things to be back to the way they were before Elena left and before Alaric betrayed her. She looked up to one of the trees and saw two bidrs; Sage and John. Stefan lay hidden in the bushes and Tarsal kept watch from the entrance of the little dirt road. The vampires knew what they were doing because of the telepathy but Meredith was left in the dark, literally. An owl hooted somewhere, making Meredith jump and then curse herself for her paranoia.

Meredith. She heard someone call; she knew instantly what this was. She nodded her head.

They just arrived on the dirt road; get ready. You don't need to be afraid. You know the plan, just stand there and wait until they're close enough. Meredith nodded again.

She heard the engine of a car in the distance and readied herself. The engine was cut and then doors slammed. Footsteps were heard in the distance. Meredith didn't dare turn around. They came closer and closer, so close that she could feel ones hot breath on her neck.

Now! She thought. They're close enough! What are they waiting for?

Meredith, this time it wasn't Stefan, but John's voice, close your eyes and don't open them no matter what you hear. Meredith squeezed her eyes shut. A fingur trailed across her cheek.

"Such a beautiful young creature." Said a melodic voice. Meredith let out a little whimper and squeezed her eye lids tighter together.

"There's nothing to fear my love, open your eyes." The voice said again. "I won't hurt you." The voice sounded so nice and sincere. Meredith loosened her lids.

NO! Don`t! He has the power of persuasion, if you open your eyes, you`ll be lost to his command forever! John yelled as loud as he could into her head. She did as he told her. Other footsteps were heard from afar.

"We did as you asked Master. We delivered you to the girl and her guardians." A scratchy voice said from behind Meredith.

"Yes, yes. You did as you were told. Very well, go get the others." The voice said impatiently. "We can all have our turns with this one." The voice said, stroking her cheek.

Meredith blindly did a round house kick connecting to the man's jaw and then hit him where it counted and then punched him in the ribs. She turned her back to him, opened her eyes and ran. The man had only been winded and rubbed at his sore jaw. He stared at Meredith's retreating form and then flew after her.

Damon opened his eyes, but couldn't move. He thought his ribs were acting up. He rubbed his chest to find it gooey and wet. Damon brought his hand to his face to find it red.

"Fuck!" What the hell happened to him?

"Help!" He yelled out. Blood spilled out of his mouth. He knew he was dying. He pressed his hand against his chest. He could feel the hot blood spilling through his fingers.

"Help!" He tried again but there was no answer. He tried sitting up but was hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness. His head was pounding; he couldn't hear anything except for the rush of blood going through his head.

"Damn it! No!" He yelled out in rage.

He couldn't die now, he had everything to live for; he had Elena and Miranda. He had lived centuries and had nothing to live for, but now that he had everything he was dying. How ironic. This was his punishment. He prayed to God that someone would come to help him, if only so that Miranda wasn't fatherless for the rest of her life. He made one last attempt to crawl to the phone on the wall that wasn't even a meter away. This last attempt took too much energy and Damon passed out.

Something hard landed on Meredith's back and she yelped as her body hit the ground with a loud thud. Once the demon had turned away from Stefan, Tarsal and John's eyes, the trance was broken. They flew after the demon. It landed on Meredith and they attacked him. Stefan threw the demon off Meredith as John and Tarsal beat the shit out of him. Sage popped out of the bush and ran to the car with Meredith in his arms. She had a cut on her head from hitting the ground. The other demon's rushed after the three vampires. Sage told Meredith to drive to the boarding house and he started to head back to the fight, but Meredith wanted to help.

"Wait!" She said. "Take this." She grabbed the stave in the back of her car and handed it to Sage.

"Thank you." He said sincerely before running off at super human speed. Meredith pressed the gas and drove out of the bushes.

Elena sat in a dirty old motel room. She kept replaying the scene with Damon in her head over and over again. It just didn't make any sense. Everything had been going fine, until the night they had made plans to fight against the demons. Something wasn't right. Elena took Miranda into her arms and decided to head back. Whoever that was wasn't Damon and she had stabbed him. She felt so stupid. Damon, no matter how sadistiShe wouldn't think about the possibility that Damon was dead. She wasn't far, only an hour and a half away. Hopefully she'd get to him before it was too late.

Meredith entered the boarding house to find it eerily quiet.

"Elena!" No answer.

"Damon? Matt?" Still no answer.

"Bonnie!" She ran around the house; bathroom, no, kitchen, no, living room, yes. Bonnie and Matt were sleeping on the couch.

Oh thank God. She thought. She shook Bonnie to wake her, but she didn't so much as groan in her sleep. She shook Matt, but he didn't wake either. She checked for pulses; they were still strong but they weren't waking.

"Mrs. Flowers?" She yelled out in fear. The old woman didn't answer back.

She ran upstairs to go find Damon and Elena. She tripped over something on her way over to Damon's room. She went to get up but her shoes slipped on something. She looked down and found the floor smeared with blood. She looked behind herself... and let out a blood curdling scream.

"Damon!" She scrambled over to him. His hand was lying on his chest; he was pale and had purple circles under his eyes. He was losing a lot of blood.

"Damon wake up." She checked his chest; it looked like he had been stabbed very close to his heart. She tapped his cheek to wake him. His eyes fluttered open but then they shut closed again. She grabbed her sweater and pressed it against his wound.

"Damon please you have to stay awake." She pleaded. Damon opened his eyes.

"Elena?" He asked with a hopeful tone to his voice.

"No, it's Meredith. You have to stay awake. Do you know what happened?"

"No." He choked out. He had a sudden coughing fit and blood spurted out of his mouth.

"Where's Elena?" He managed to ask her. Meredith looked him in the eyes.

"I don't know, but I'm sure she's fine."

"Good." He said. "Tell her... that... she can't... get rid of me... that easily." Meredith was confused.

"What are you talking about Damon?" He passed out.

"No, no, no wake up." She ran for the phone and dialled 911.

Miranda opened her eyes. She was in her mommy's car.

"Momma where daddy?" Elena looked into her rear view mirror. Miranda was staring back at her innocently.

"Daddy's home. We're going back to see him, okay?" Miranda shook her head.

"Daddy no home. Daddy in place wit bright light." All color drained out of Elena's face.

"What are you talking about baby?" Miranda had big tears falling out of her eyes.

"I scared, momma."

TBC

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