CHAPTER 8

GENERAL POV

Three days had passed since that eventful night when Elena took her stuff and took off. Nobody had seen or heard of her; it was as if earth had swallowed her whole, not leaving any remaining of the latest doppelganger. She didn't answer her phone or the messages they'd left her –they'd at least left her 700 voicemails, none of which was answered-.

Damon pretended he wasn't worried about her, but he wasn't aware that he wasn't as good at pretending as he thought he was. He discretely would sneak up on his brother when he and Elena's friends tried anything on their power to contact the one that got away. They always failed, though. He tried that his sneaking wasn't that obvious, he didn't want to risk Irina finding out about it. His relationship with the Russian was better now that Elena was out of the picture.

Speaking of Irina, she was lying beside him and visibly spent, blissfully naked after a night of endless sex. He would never admit this aloud, but this was, and had always been his coping mechanism.

He was looking up to the ceiling when he felt his girlfriend stir, and moan besides him. He turned his head slightly to look at her, and his eyes found her impossibly violet ones, and he found himself getting lost in them.

"Good morning" she grinned lovingly at him, and he couldn't help but to return her smile, with a lopsided one of his own.

"Good morning to you, too" he smirked and leaned in to peck her pouting lips. All too soon, he felt her responding to his kisses, and they found themselves into a mess of tangled sheets, and limbs, on his large bed. The only sounds in the room were hers and his moans of pleasure.

It was needless to say, that they would not be coming out of his room for a little while.

Meanwhile downstairs, in the parlor, there were two unwilling pair of hears, that were growing more annoyed by the minute, by the pleasure-filled moans and groans that were coming from the blue eyed Salvatore's bedroom.

Seriously? Elena was missing and he couldn't stop being a man-whore? Didn't he love her? Wasn't he supposed to be as anxious as them about her well-being? But, basing on his recent bedroom activities, it seemed like he didn't, and he wasn't.

Caroline really didn't understand what Damon saw in that bitch. How could he be so stupid, to change Elena for someone like that Russian girl?

Stefan was disgusted by his brother. Was he that self-centered as to care more about his needs, than about Elena's life? He thought Damon loved Elena just as much as she seemed to love him. But his last behavior had obviously proven him wrong.

He hadn't, not even once, stopped by and ask if they'd made a little progress on 'Operation: Finding Elena'. He was acting like he didn't care in the slightest whether she appeared or died. And maybe he didn't…

Was it possible, that after everything Damon had done in the past to protect Elena, now he simply didn't care anymore? Was it possible to do that? To care about someone so much that you'd be willing to die for them, and then just simply didn't care about them, simply give up? Stefan didn't think it was possible; at least not for him. But perhaps, after all Damon had suffered in his life; the rejection and hatred their father always expressed towards him, Katherine's betrayal, and his own; and most lately, Elena's. Perhaps, it was just too much. There was just so much hurt a man can take.

Stefan's and Caroline's heads turned to the direction of the grand staircase, where the devil himself was climbing down shirtless, with a thoroughly-fucked looking Irina hot in his tails. She was only wearing Damon's missing shirt, and it seemed like nothing more. Her hair was a mess, and she was sporting a smug smirk, like the cat that caught the canary and ate it.

They stooped hot in their tracks when five faces turned simultaneously to look at them, judgingly, and with different kind of frowns upon them.

"Baby bro, Blondie, Judgy, Mutt, Wolf Boy" Damon acknowledged them with a smug smirk of his own.

"And he's back" Caroline sarcastically said, with a look of self-righteousness that resembled Stefan's a lot, if Damon might say so.

"No need to get your panties in a twist, Blondie" he said back. "What's the commotion about, little bro?" Damon addressed Stefan, although he was pretty aware of why they all were there.

"You know what this is about, Damon" Stefan deadpanned. "Don't think I didn't notice you intruding in our conversations, for the last three days" Damon hated seeing that smug smirk on his brother's face; it was reserved for his own.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Damon dismissed his brother's statement. His body tensed a little when he felt Irina walking further into the room. All eyes were on her, with no-concealed hostility. She just shrugged and made her way to the wet bar, pouring herself, and Damon, a drink from the decanter.

"Can we just focus on the task at hand? Then you can keep your pretending game, Damon" Bonnie spoke to the shirtless vampire. "While we are here fighting over stupid things, Elena's life might be in danger." This seemed to grab the Russian vampire's attention, because her head snapped in the direction of Bonnie's at the mention of Elena's name. She laughed coldly, and its coldness sent chills down all their spines, but Damon's. He had already heard that coldness from her before, so it was nothing new to him.

"Are you seriously making so big of a deal out of her little disappearance?" she scoffed. "Perhaps she's just tired of her pathetic life here, pining after Damon, like the low life she is" the cold laugh returned. "Or maybe she's dead in an alley somewhere, which would definitely make my life and Damon's a lot easier" she smirked and looked at the glaring faces of Caroline and Bonnie.

"Watch your mouth" Caroline snarled, taking a few menacing steps forward, to which Irina had to laugh.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I wouldn't be too confident, if I were you. Caroline, is it?" she warned. "You wouldn't last two seconds against me. I have eight hundred years on you, little brat." Irina spat.

"Well, those 800 years didn't stop Elena when she knocked you out, did they?" it was Bonnie that spoke this time.

"Oh yes, the witch friend" Irina's cold eyes were placed on Bonnie's right now, and Bonnie felt cold all over. "Don't you think I've forgotten about the little stunt you put up in Damon's room. I would be a little more careful, Witch. You're already on my bad side, and let me tell you, it is not a good place to be. Unless, you want to end up like you doppelganger little friend" she spat.

Out of nowhere, Irina felt her brain burning, but this time around she was prepared. She would not be humiliated again. Before anyone realized what was happening, Irina sped towards Bonnie, standing too close to Bonnie's comfort. Bonnie was petrified; she didn't understand what'd happened. How was it that the Russian was still standing? The aneurism she'd given her was at least as potent as the previous one she'd inflicted upon her, and it had easily knocked her out. So, why hadn't it worked this time? She was beyind scared right now.

"You little bitch" Irina spat, before plunging her fangs into the witch's neck. She sucked like she never had before; each gulp gave her an amazing feeling of power like never before. There had only been a few times when she'd fed from a witch, and each of them weren't as powerful as this little one. However, before she could continue enjoying the deliciousness of the witch's blood, she felt movement behind her. She removed her fangs from Bonnie's neck and turned her head back; she saw the blonde vampire tensing her muscles to jump at her, but before she could do so, Irina's voice resonated through the room.

"Stay where you are, Blondie. Don't try anything stupid, or I will break her little neck like a twig. You know I can" she smirked at all the occupants of the room. She looked down to the petrified girl in her arms, and her smirk widened when she saw the pure horror in her eyes.

Bonnie was so scared that she found herself completely unable to move; she couldn't move one single muscle of her body. She couldn't even remember the right spell to knock down vampires.

Damon hadn't moved an inch from his original position, and was watching amused the chaos his girlfriend was causing, and couldn't help but feel pride swelling in his chest. She was doing what he'd always wanted, but never dared doing, out of respect and his love for Elena. There were time in the past when he wished he could just kill those annoying, and judging friends of Elena's, but of course he was too much of a love struck fool, to actually put Elena through that, and risk her hating him forever.

Stefan was beyond horrified; he couldn't believe that she had just done that. But horror wasn't the only emotion running through him right at the moment. Anger, confusion, rage, sadness… Anger and rage over what she'd done. Confusion about what she was talking about, what'd happened in Damon's room that had made her so angry. Sadness over the poor choice his brother had made; choosing that monster over Elena? What was wrong with him?

Caroline's face was contorted in rage. Oh, she hadn't just done that. That stupid whore! She wanted nothing more than to call her bluff and plunge herself at the stupid vampire, preferably with a stake in her hand, with which she could get rid of her. Yes, she wanted to do just that. But she was aware that it was pretty much a suicide mission. Irina was faster than her, and it was most likely that she would be the one to end with the stake through her heart. After she'd have broken Bonnie's neck. No. She could not do what she was dying to do.

The other faces around the parlor were similar to those of Stefan and Caroline, but neither one of them dared to call the Russian's bluff. They knew she wasn't bluffing.

"Thought so" she smirked, grabbing the witch's shoulders and turning her to look at her. "Hopefully, you've learned your lesson. Next time, I won't be as kind" she spat, pushing Bonnie's body to the floor. She sped to Damon, took his hand and dragged him upstairs to his room. Their drinks forgotten on the coffee table, but they didn't care.

Matt was the one, who helped Bonnie clean up her wounds. Given that he was the only human, amongst a mass of vampires and hybrids.

Once Bonnie's neck was clean, Matt bandaged it up. Bonnie had refused to let Caroline heal her with her blood. They both walked into the parlor, and a silence settled upon them. They wanted to address what'd happened but decided against it; it was already done, and their main focus was to find a way to reach to Elena. So they focused all the attention on that task.

Stefan had his phoned glued to his ear, calling her cellphone nonstop, hoping that she'd answer at least one of his calls, or even respond to one of his voicemails. Caroline and Tyler had left the house to go and rummage around the entirety of the town, hoping to find her somewhere. Matt was doing the same as Stefan, and had his own phone glued to his ear. On the coffee table, there was a laptop, where Jeremy's worried face was showing through the magic of Skype. He'd been online since he found out about Elena, and the only time when he disconnected the communication was when he had to take care of his human's necessities. Other than that, he'd been glued to his chair in front of his laptop.

Bonnie was currently looking through her grimoire for a locator spell that could work on vampires –the one she'd always used didn't work in this case, because Elena was technically dead; and that spell tracked the living element of the object it was looking for-. So far, it was being a complete failure. She kept going through the battered pages of her grimoires, hoping that she could find something that could be helpful.

Caroline and Tyler came back from their trip, and upon entrance, and basing on their faces, it was clear it was been unsuccessful.

"We couldn't find her anywhere" Caroline's voice only served to confirmed what they'd already deduced.

"It's like earth has swallowed her whole" Tyler spoke with tiredness in his voice.

They were beginning to lose faith and it wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. They needed to stay optimistic, if they ever wanted to find Elena. But it was proving to be almost impossible.

"Here!" Bonnie's scream filled the tense-filled room. Just as they thought there was nothing else to try, Bonnie had given them back the faith they'd lost moments ago.

The whole gang gathered around the newly joyous witch, and looked at her expectantly. She just smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. The rest lifted an eyebrow, and waited for her to tell them what she'd found; she didn't.

"Well?" Caroline asked annoyed by her best friend's silence.

"I've finally found a spell that could, or could not be useful" she looked at them.

"And?" Stefan pressured, with his brow furrowed.

"It's not gonna be easy…"

ELENA'S POV

Elena woke up, screaming, to find her body in flames. Literally, on flames. What was happening to her? Why did she feel like she might burst at any time? Why was there actual smoke coming out of her burning flesh? Why was her skin burning at all?

So many questions, however she could seem to concentrate enough to find an answer to any one of them. The burning in her flesh was too painful; the only thing she could focus on was that. It felt like a million blades were plunged into her, at the same time. She had never felt agony like this. It was that: excruciating, tormenting, and absolute agony. She knew she was screaming to the top of her lungs, but she simply couldn't concentrate on it, she could hear nothing.

Suddenly, the burning stopped, but the agony didn't. The pain remained on her, while her skin tried its hardest to heal itself. She didn't understand why it hadn't healed by now. It usually healed in a matter of seconds; a few minutes top, if she wasn't feeding regularly. And she had fed last night. Or so she thought…

Little did she know that she had been out of it for three days…

Elena tried to lift her arms to inspect the healing process, but found herself unable to do so. Her wrists, along with her forearms, were restrained by what she assumed was pure steel. She also tried to move her legs, but found them in a similar situation. She couldn't move any part of her body, but her hands, feet, and head. She lifted her head, and inspected herself. She was bound by steel restrains to what seemed to be a metal kind of bed. She looked at her hands, and frowned when she couldn't spot her daylight ring. Where is it? she asked herself.

All of a sudden, the burning feel came back, with a vengeance. It felt just like the first time, but she couldn't help but feel like it was worse this time. She scream with all her being. Asking for someone to stop her agony.

"STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP!" she repeated it like a mantra. "OH GOD, STOP!" it seemed like this last sentence worked because the burning stopped again.

She took a breath of relief, but she wished she never did. The oxygen she was breathing was burning her from inside out. She cried out again, and coughed. The more she breathed, the more it burned. She decided to stop breathing altogether; she didn't need to, anyway. When that new torment finally stopped, she did feel relieved.

She heard a chuckle from the shadows and her tortured body tensed. She sensed the danger, and tried to break free from the restrains, but it proved to be useless; they were far too tight around her, and she couldn't move a millimeter. She struggled against them, but she was only hurting herself.

The chuckle was louder this time, and she turned her head towards where it was coming from; but she could see nothing. The shadows were too dark, and even with her vampire vision, the most she could see, was a silhouette. A male silhouette. It was tall, and broad. But that was as far, as her vision could do in the darkness of the shadows.

"Who is there?" she didn't even recognize her own voice. It was too raspy, and too weak. If she wasn't sure it was her, who was talking, she'd thought it was someone else.

The silhouette moved at vampire speed around the room. It was a blur, and it moved faster than what Elena was comfortable with. She gulped when she realize, it must be a very old vampire. He –whoever he was- didn't stop racing the little space.

"Who is there? Who are you?" now her voice was a mix of fear, confusion, and anger. Who was this man and why did have her restrained to a bed? Who did he think he was...?

Her questions, however, were answered when the man stopped speeding, and stood right in front of her, but she still couldn't see his face.

"Hello, Elena…"