A/N Thank you so much for all the reviews! I love love love them and appreciate every single reader. I know it's been a while since I updated, so I made sure this chapter was nice and long. Stay tuned for more!

"Caroline, did you hear me?" Nik asked.

She just looked back at him, stunned.

"Caroline. Someone took Elena. We need to get back there right away. I'm going to help them get her back. Do you understand?"

She blinked, fear washing over her face.

"We'll save Elena. I just need to get there as soon as possible. Do you understand me?"

"Thank you." She said.

He pulled her up from where she was sitting. "You don't need to thank me."

"Yes I do." She said quietly.

He wrapped an arm around her and led her out to the car.

She had been about to tell him that she liked him too. More than just liked him. She wanted to be with him, whatever that would bring. But now she lost her moment and her mind was swimming with thoughts of Elena. Someone took her. Took her where? How could they be sure she was even alive?

Nik was holding the door open, waiting for her to step into the car. She stood there, looking back at him.

"Sweetheart? We have to go now."

"What if she's dead?"

"If someone killed her, they probably would have left her in the room. Dragging a body out of there would be time consuming and create a higher risk of being caught. Logically, the way these things are done... If they took her out of the room, they'll probably keep her alive for a few days, I'd bet that they're looking for something in exchange for her."

"But what if ..."

"Listen to me. I'm going to take care of this."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Caroline, I promise you, If she's alive, if there's a way to get her back, I'll find it."

"Why would someone do this to her? Elena's never hurt anyone."

"Damon has."

"What?"

"Damon."

"I don't understand."

"Because you don't think like us. You don't even realize how selfish I'm being, how much I'm asking when I say I want us to be together."

"What does this have to do with Elena and Damon?"

"If someone came after me right now, if they really wanted to hurt me, do you know what they would probably do?" He asked.

She shook her head.

"They would go straight for you. They would take you and do terrible things. Do you understand why I don't let you out of my sight? Why I dragged you along with me and hid you away where only I could find you?"

"What does hurting me do? Why not just go right to you?"

"You don't understand the type of people who do these things. If something happened to you, it would hurt ten times worse than anything anyone could ever do to me. Trust me, whoever this is, they want Damon to suffer."

Damon stepped off the chair, holding something in his hand. Someone had bugged their room. He found the device mounted in a place where it had a clear shot of their main door. Someone had watched Elena walk in alone. He glared into the tiny camera, wondering if the person who took the love of his life was looking back at him.

He walked over to the kitchen and placed it on the granite counter. He found a heavy frying pan and smashed the thing into a million tiny pieces. He swept the tiny pieces into the sink and pushed them down the garbage disposal. He flipped the switch and there was a grinding crunch as the little pieces got mangled by the blades.

"We should check for more, just in case." He suggested.

Rebecca and Stefan agreed and wandered around the rooms looking for anything. There was a knock and Damon sprinted to the door.

Katherine flew into the hotel room and flung herself at Damon. Rebecca noticed a heartbreaking look of hope that crossed his face for a second before he snapped out of it and realized that wasn't really her, it was the twin.

Rebecca would have thought it was Elena, had she not noticed the tattoos along her arm and the bright purple streak in her hair. This sister seemed a bit more wild than the subdued, sweet Elena.

"I came as soon as you called" Katherine said, pulling Damon closer. She had mascara stains running down her face and she looked disheveled, like she had run straight out of bed to catch her flight.

Her attention turned to Stefan, who had been crawling around under a table when she came in the room. He had spent the past hour looking for a bug. Whoever took Elena was watching them, and it gave him the creeps to think they might be seeing them all sitting around with no clue as to how to help Elena.

"Stefan!" She beamed, and she ran over to him to hug him.

Rebecca glared at her. Stefan had warned her that Katherine would be showing up. He had hesitantly admitted that they had hooked up once, a few years ago, but there was never anything serious between them. It was enough to make her loathe the girl, but she understood that her sister had been kidnaped and she would want to be close to do anything she could to help. It was what families did. Elijah had shown up in Budapest only hours after Nik arrived that time she was kidnapped. He wasn't able to do anything to help her, Nik had already seen to that, but he was there to give Kol the scolding of his life and to see with his own eyes that his baby sister was ok.

The girl finally broke away from Stefan and noticed Rebecca standing there.

"Katherine, this is Rebecca. My girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend when I was here a few weeks ago." Katherine's hand lingered on Stefan's shoulder and he awkwardly stepped to the side to get out of her reach.

Rebecca glared at her. This girl was obviously trying to make her jealous.

"Rebecca. Pleasure I'm sure." She introduced herself, then didn't bother to give Katherine time to respond before she turned her back and continued her work, looking for possible bugs in the room.

Eventually, Katherine gave up on trying to flirt with Stefan and make his new girlfriend jealous, and instead she went back over to Damon, grilling him for details of her sister's disappearance.

Rebecca stormed into the room she shared with Stefan, and slammed the door behind her. She couldn't stand the sight of that Katherine skank. Who did she think she was, putting her hands all over Stefan like that?

Stefan came in after her. He looked at her expression and could tell what it was about.

"It was a really really long time ago, Becca. And it was never anything serious."

"She doesn't seem to think so." She said.

"No, that's just how she acts with every guy."

"She didn't have her hands all over Damon like that."

"Damon is the one guy she won't flirt with. Her sister's boyfriend and all."

"So, what? I have to be ok with her being all over you like that? You just let her hang on you?"

"No, Becca, I'll have a talk with her and tell her to cut it out, ok? I guess I just got used to it."

"Used to it? So that's what she was like when you were here with her the other week? All over you?"

"Not really, she had a guy with her at the time and.."

Rebecca shot him a skeptical look.

He thought for a moment, unsure of if he could say what he was thinking out loud. "Alright, fine. I guess I can tell you. You already know about us, and we know about your brother, so what's one more, right?"

She looked confused.

"Katherine's kind of a grifter. She hooks up with wealthy men, gets into these quick little whirlwind relationships with them, gets them to buy her expensive thing, and ends up taking all of their money."

"So she's a prostitute." Becca sniffed.

"Not exactly. It's not an upfront money or things in exchange for sex kind of thing. She tricks these guys into thinking she's their dream girl, and she lures them into buying her things, and usually she gets to their bank account information and one day they wake up and all the money's gone and so is she."

"Thats awful!" She protested.

"I know" he shrugged "But she's Elena's sister, and you know, with what we do, it's kinda a stones and glass houses type of thing. It's actually how Damon and Elena met, Damon was working alone in Colombia that month, Katherine was looking for her next victim, considering Damon as a possibility, but she made the mistake of bringing Elena with her on that trip, and the two of them fell for each other instantly. Katherine backed off and found another guy to target, and Elena and Damon have been inseparable ever since."

"So she just keeps doing it? Tricking men out of their money and running on to the next one?"

"Well, there was this one guy who actually got her back." He laughed. "She's still terrified of him. He found her and he made this huge scene at some ritzy party she was at, trying to hook her next guy. He followed her around, outing her to anyone she tried to scam until she finally gave him his money back. I think she had a necklace of his mother's that he was really insistent on getting back as well." Stefan smiled at the memory of it. "She can't show her face in five countries because of him, I would love to meet that guy and shake his hand. He's a legend."

She nodded, feeling a little better that Stefan wouldn't fall under that girl's spell.

"So you're not still interested in her."

"Becca, I never was. We hooked up once, we were both drunk and lonely, it was a long time ago."

"Stefan, did you, I mean, did she take..."

"She never got a cent out of me." He laughed. "I met her a while after Elena started dating Damon. I was warned. She tried, but she wasn't going to get me like that."

Rebecca felt relief wash over her. She didn't have anything to worry about with this girl. Stefan clearly saw right past her. She remembered the first date she went on with Stefan and how shocked he was that she insisted on paying for her half of dinner even though he kept trying to tell her it was his treat. This trip was the first time she had let him spend money on her. It was part of her stubborn willfulness, wanting to pay her own way as much as possible. Now she knew it set her apart from Katherine in his mind, and she was glad he knew that she was never interested in him for his money.

Her phone beeped on the nightstand and she crawled over to get it.

Hello?... what do you mean your plane leaves in a few minutes...you can't be serious...he'll be here soon...I don't need the both of you swooping in whenever something happens...you're being overprotective...fine! Well you can stay in your own bloody hotel room, because I'm not inviting you into this one...this is absurd...fine... goodbye.

She hung up and shot Stefan an annoyed look. "My brother just called to say he's coming here. He's worried about me after hearing about Elena. After what happened to me a few years ago he gets jumpy about everything."

Stefan looked confused. "We already know that Nik's on his way."

"No. My other brother. One of them, anyway. Elijah."

Stefan gulped. Elijah was the brother she lived with when she wasn't staying at school. He was the only one in their family to make his money the legal way. By now he knew her (now very dead) father and Niklaus were both hitmen, and Kol was into underground gambling and not-so-legal stock trading, but Elijah was a brilliant Medical Engineer who made state of the art robotics used in surgery. He was smart, successful, and he wasn't a criminal. The thought of having to meet him scared Stefan senseless. Rebecca always talked lovingly about her oldest brother, about how he was more of a father to her than Mikael could ever be. He just knew this guy would hate him. It was the last thing he needed with all that was going on right now.

"Don't look at me like that, Stefan, I didn't want him to come here. He won't listen."

He shook his head. "It's fine Becca. I knew I'd have to meet him eventually. I'm just a little nervous."

She laughed. He couldn't believe she actually laughed at him.

"Oh, that's rich! You're afraid of Elijah!" She cackled, rolling over on the bed.

"I just want to make a good impression, considering he's so important to you and he's like a parent to you and a sibling..."

She just kept laughing "Not afraid of Niklaus, the killer, but afraid of the little scientist with his robots."

"Becca!"

"Stefan!" she exclaimed, trying to get words in between fits of laughter "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll love you."

There was a knock on the door. They looked at each other.

"Nik and Caroline?" she wondered out loud.

They scrambled to the front door just in time to see a bellhop deliver a package. Damon ripped it open. It had no return address and the bellhop didn't know who had it sent to them. It just showed up on the front desk.

Inside the package was a piece of paper and a dvd.

Damon reached for the paper with shaking hands.

Damon and Stefan Salvatore,

You took a life from me and I will have yours in return.

You have 48 hours to find me and give yourselves up or I will kill her in your place.

M.

"I thought Mikael was dead." Damon hissed at Rebecca.

"He is dead." She said.

Stefan chimed in. "Caroline told me she saw Nik kill him."

"Maybe he just looked dead." Damon offered.

"She said he put the body in a trunk full of acid and she watched it dissolve until his bones were gone." Stefan said.

"Ok, so not Mikael." Damon responded. "Maybe someone who wants us to think he's Mikael? Do we know any other 'M'?"

Stefan ran though a list in his mind, trying to pull up M names.

Rebecca pointed to the DVD in the box. "What's that?"

Damon put it in the DVD player attached to the tv and took a step back.

Elena appeared on the screen. She was only in a bath towel and she was tied to a chair. She was crying. A hand appeared in front of the camera, holding a taser. The hand reached out to her and pushed it against her skin. She screamed. The camera swooped up to zoom in on her face, clearly showing her agony. There was a clicking sound and she screamed again.

A vase went flying through the Tv screen, cutting the picture to static and than blackness before they could see anything else. Damon picked up the table the vase had been on and threw it against the wall. He kicked the broken Tv multiple times before Stefan managed to pull him away.

Caroline watched the countryside whip past them as Nik drove a good twenty miles over the speed limit. She was still beating herself up for not just saying it quick enough. If she had only said it a minute earlier, before he got the phone call, it would all be out in the open by now. There wouldn't be another chance. Not unless she made it happen.

"Nik I need you to pull over for a minute."

"Caroline, every minute counts when it comes to these types of situations, usually if you can't get to the person within 48 hours you won't get to them at all. I can't help them until we get there and know what we're dealing with."

"Just pull over. Please."

"Caroline."

"I need to talk to you about what I was going to say earlier. I can't do it while you're driving."

"You don't need to say anything now. Caroline, we need to get there as quickly as-"

"Just pull over the fucking car, Niklaus Mikaelson!" She screamed.

He slammed on the brakes and skidded off the side of the road onto the grass. He put the car in park and turned the keys so it was off.

She immediately jumped out of the car and started pacing around in the grass. she was freaking out about something and couldn't sit still another minute.

"Happy now?" He said, holding his hands away from the steering wheel.

"No! I'm terrified." Caroline said, her face serious.

He turned to face her. She was crying and shaking. He slowly got out of the car and walked over to her. He tried to hug her but she took a step away so he kept his distance.

She wiped the tears off her face and looked at him.

"You don't need to be afraid. I'm going to find her and bring her back."

"That's not what I'm afraid of."

"I'm not going to let whoever this is get you too. I'll keep you safe."

"That's just it. I know you will." She said, and new tears started to form.

Her looked at her, confused. "Caroline..."

"You're about to jump in to save my friend from some unknown kidnapper. She doesn't mean anything to you and you didn't ask for money."

"I'm doing this because she means something to you." he said.

"I know." She said. "But I need you to know something, what I need to say right now, I was going to say it anyway, before you got that call."

"Caroline, are you sure you want to do this now..."

"Yes. I don't know when I'll get another chance and I need you to know this right now. I've been stalling long enough and I don't want to wait another minute."

He looked at her, trying to keep from hoping she was about to say what he thought she was going to say.

"You keep saying you want to be with me, and you want us to be together, and you like me. For a while I wondered if you only said it because I was fun to chase, but now I think you meant it."

"I do mean it." He responded.

"Are you sure?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yes." He said.

She smiled as she blinked back more tears. "Good. Because I want to be with you too."

He looked shocked. She had actually said it. He suspected she felt it, but saying it was a whole different thing. Admitting it meant they had a chance. He was scrambling through the grass to get closer to her.

"I thought that I could never get the Nik I liked back after I found out about your job and who you really are. I never expected to like a single thing about you after I found that out. But I do, and more every single day."

He took a hesitant step towards her, but she wasn't done.

"I don't care if being with you makes me a bad person or if I lose everything. You're what I want. I just needed you to know that before we jump into everything that's going on with Elena. I need you to know right now that I choose you. I'll tell them too. If they disown me for choosing to be with you, I can live with that. I can't live with pretending anymore. I can't go another day without you knowing how I really feel. I love you. And I don't want you risking your life to save my friend without you knowing that."

He was just looking at her, convinced that it was some kind of dream.

"Nik, please. Say something." She said .

He noticed that she was still crying. She was terrified of opening herself up to him, and even more afraid that she had said too much. That he wouldn't feel the same, or that he would lose interest now that she fell for him.

She said she loved him. No one ever loved him, except his siblings. Not even his parents. It stunned him. She didn't even like him most of the time. How could she love him? How could anyone?

"You love me?" He asked.

She nodded.

He stood there, mesmerized by it.

She looked down, blushing bright red. "I shouldn't have said it. Forget it, lets just go."

Caroline shook her head as she walked away from him, towards the car. It was a stupid thing to do. She announced her feelings the second they became clear to her, not bothering to think if the words were appropriate for the time and place. She always said the wrong things. She had hoped he would feel the same way, but she should have know he wasn't in love with her. She said too much and freaked him out. Great. Now she just had to get through another fifteen minutes in the car with him and then she could go hide in the penthouse where he couldn't see her. How embarrassing.

"Caroline, wait!" He shouted, snapping out of her trance when he noticed her walking away.

"It's ok, you don't have to say anything just because I did."

"I didn't mean to... I'm sorry I didn't say anything right away. I needed a minute. No one's ever said that to me before."

She shuffled uncomfortably. "Let's just get back in the car."

"I don't know if I love you." he blurted out. "I've never been in love with anyone, I don't know if that's how I feel. I can't explain this. You're the only person outside of my family I care about this much, and it all happened so fast. I didn't want to fall for you or ruin your life by being in it. I just know that I want to be with you and you're the first thing I think about every day. You never leave my mind. I want you to be safe and happy, but most of all I want you to be next to me. I know it's selfish, but I can't imagine my life without you now so I'll fight for this. Whatever it is."

She smiled. "Are you saying..."

"I'm saying I'm yours if you'll have me. Still willing to take a chance on a killer?"

She let out a squeak of excitement and ran back to him. He pulled her up so her feet left the ground just before her lips met his. She wrapped her legs around his waist held on tight. He spun her around as he kissed back. She pulled away to catch her breath and he nestled his face in her neck, breathing in the smell of her skin.

"I'm yours" She whispered.

"You're mine." he agreed.

He was walking back over to the car still carrying her, stopping to kiss her every few steps. He propped her so she was leaning back on the hood and she moved one of her arms from him so she could balance herself on the car.

He changed from the quick little kisses to long slow ones. She pulled him closer so he was leaning forward with her pinned under him on the hood of the car. He broke away from her mouth and kissed her neck, shoulders, chest. Her hips rose to meet his each time his lips touched a new place. She didn't care that they were on the side of the road, all she could think about was him. Her arms moved under his shirt and she raked her nails across his back, remembering how much he liked that. One of his hands moved up under her shirt and moved across her chest. She grinded her hips against his and let out a tiny moan. He was kissing every inch of exposed skin, pulling her closer, breathing her in. Her legs were wrapped around his lower back, locking him against her.

A car horn from a passing vehicle snapped them out of it. He reluctantly pulled away and helped her slide down.

She looked bashfully at the passing cars who had all gotten an eyeful of them furiously making out on the hood of the car.

"We have to go." She said reluctantly.

He nodded. "Kidnappings to avenge, and all that."

She smiled. It wasn't funny, but it was a ridiculous situation to think about. Her life with Tyler wasn't ordinary, but she never would have imagined herself getting here. She had just professed her love to a professional killer who was going to save her kidnapped friend. No one had a life like this. It was unreal.

"If we didn't have to get back right away for something so important..." He said, his eyes traveling over her body.

"I know. Me too." She responded.

She sunk back to reality and let him help her back into the car so they could speed towards the resort.

If her best friend wasn't in grave danger, she probably would have jumped him right then and there.

Damon answered the door. Nik and Caroline were standing on the other side. He took a step back to allow them to come in, but didn't say anything. He was too overcome with agony over Elena's kidnapping to bother with social niceties.

Nik didn't bother with it either. There was no time for that.

"Tell me everything." He said, and Damon and Stefan walked with him into one of the bedrooms.

Caroline saw Rebecca and Katherine standing awkwardly near each other and she greeted both of them with hugs. They sat quietly on one of the couches, none of them close friends, but all of them wishing the same thing. For Elena to come back safe.

After a few minutes of them filling him in, Nik popped out of the room.

"Paper and a pen?" he asked.

Rebecca walked over to the kitchen and handed him a notepad and pen.

"The video?" he asked.

"Damon destroyed the Tv when he saw it. We only saw a minute of it." Katherine said quietly. Her stomach twisted into knots just thinking about her sister tied to that chair.

"I'll watch it on one of the laptops." he suggested, and Caroline pointed out Stefan's sitting on the kitchen table.

He went into a bathroom alone to watch the video. No point in making Damon sit through it again.

The video had lasted at least twenty minutes. From the muffled screams they could hear from the bathroom, Damon had broken the Tv before it even began to get bad. Caroline felt like she was going to throw up.

Suddenly it stopped. She felt relief.

Nik closed the laptop and set a few pages filled with notes on the table. He pulled Stefan aside and whispered something to him about Elena losing a lot of blood and that she would need antibiotics because her wounds were likely to get infected. He was smart enough to let Stefan know how serious the situation was without further tormenting Damon.

"I know where she's being held." he said with certainty.

They all looked at him, surprised.

"It's a small island, and I've worked with a lot of people who chose to meet in discrete locations. I'm certain I know this place."

Damon actually looked relieved. Knowing where she was was a great start.

"We still don't know who 'M' is." He continued. "I assure you that Mikael is very dead."

"Mason." Caroline said.

Now everyone was looking at her.

"Mason Lockwood, Tyler's Uncle."

Stefan and Damon looked at each other. Neither of them had heard of Tyler having a uncle.

"Tyler was always on the phone with him. He's the person in his family he's closest to."

Nik looked over the shocked faces of the Salvatore brothers. Even when they found out all about Tyler betraying them and sneaking around, they never traced it back to his family or found out about this uncle. Yet he was in constant contact with him. Something told him that this was the 'M' they were looking for.

He gave Caroline a serious look and reached for his pen and paper. "Caroline, I need you to tell me everything you know about Mason Lockwood."

They all listened while she recounted every detail that had sprung to mind. She had met him once a family event Tyler brought her to, and she could give a rough physical description of him. Nik kept sketching, and she would remember different details until he came up with one she thought was pretty accurate.

"Yeah." she nodded "That's him. And he has this tattoo on his arm, like a coyote? No, a wolf, or a werewolf maybe."

They all took a moment and looked at the drawing. They had a face and a location. Now all they needed was a plan.

They spent the next hour discussing possible ways to get to her. Nik had pulled a map up on Stefan's laptop to give him a rough idea of where Elena was. Damon was asking Caroline more questions about Mason. Katherine and Rebecca were leaning against a wall sipping glasses of wine. They were both trying to calm their nerves and make small talk to get their minds off the fact that none of these plans involved them helping. they were both feeling frustratingly useless.

There was a knock.

Damon looked through the peephole. He turned to Stefan "I don't know who this is."

"Probably Becca's brother. He wanted to come and check on her."

Nik snapped his head up. If Kol thought he could stroll in here and join the rescue party, he would lock him in a box and ship him to Siberia. his kid brother only caused more trouble, especially when Rebecca was involved. "Which brother?"

"The one who worries about me getting in trouble, not the one who gets me into trouble." Becca responded and looked though the peephole. "That's him alright." She said to the others.

She opened up the door. Elijah walked in and hugged her.

Rebecca was smiling despite all her protests about him coming there. She was always happy to see her brothers. "Ok, 'Lijah, let me introduce you to everyone, you have to met Stefan..."

He turned to greet the rest of them, and took a step towards Nik to say hello to his brother.

Katherine dropped her wine glass and let out a squeak.

Everyone's attention turned to her. She looked surprised and terrified and guilty all at once.

"Hello Katerina." Elijah said coldly, observing Katherine's shocked expression. "Thank you for having the good sense to be frightened."