A/N: Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! :)
I'm back from vacation, so the remaining two chapters should be posted within the next two weeks :) I won't be adding an extra chapter, however, this chapter below is VERY long, so it shall make up for the lack of ch.23 ;)
Also, I'd like to give a shout out to Katie from tumblr :) Thanks to the de_daily community on livejournal I came across your wonderful home_is_where_delena_is blog and was completely amazed by a certain gorgeous graphic that you made AND WITH THE FOG TOO *faints*
Beta: arabian – Thank you SO MUCH! :)
Please note: any instances of OOC-ness that you may find in this chapter are all mine. Elena, Klaus and especially my amazing Beta are not to be blamed lol
Disclaimer: TVD belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.
Chapter 20
He knew he arrived too late the moment he saw the door being left open, the wind swinging it back and forth allowing the faint early morning light creep inside.
With a grim expression Stefan walked inside the vacation house, closed the door behind him and looked around, a half-charred journal and an abandoned laptop making the frown on his face deepen. When he noticed a piece of paper nailed to the kitchen door he flashed toward it, grabbed the note and read it with his brows furrowed.
He pulled a phone out of his pocket, but before he managed to make a call, the door was pushed open and Stefan instinctively stepped back into the kitchen and into the shadows. The small kitchen window was still dark, the cloudy sky at five in the morning emitting little light.
Two people walked inside making noise despite hushing each other. Stefan froze at the sound of laughter, both familiar and entirely foreign.
"I don't want to wake Jeremy up," Elena whispered, trailing soft kisses back and forth across Damon's lips, her hands clasped behind his neck.
"We can compel him if he happens to walk in on something he'll consider too disturbing to remember," Damon said dismissively in a matching tone, closing the door with his foot all the while holding Elena in tight embrace, his arms around her waist.
Elena buried her face into Damon's shoulder to muffle her laughter. He smiled into her hair and then started pressing kisses all over her face. She turned her head and placed her forefinger across his lips.
"Shhhh" Elena said through her teeth, her eyes sparkling with laughter.
"If you want me to be quiet, Elena," Damon said, narrowing his eyes at her in a smirk, "you need to stop doing this."
"Doing what?" Elena blinked in amused confusion. "I'm not-" she trailed off and giggled under her breath when Damon took her hands in his and guided them under his shirt.
They stumbled across the room kissing. When they knocked down a small lamp in the process, they broke the kiss and Elena gasped. Somehow when the lamp fell, the ceiling light went on and the room brightened around them.
She looked up at Damon and then quickly turned to follow his gaze.
"At the risk of sounding unjustifiably rude, what are you doing here?" Damon asked wryly, squinting.
"I tried to call," Stefan replied tonelessly, his eyes flickering toward them but then darting away as if the sight burned his eyes, "but none of you was answering." He was grateful for the bright, artificial light making the glow in Elena's eyes less noticeable, but he could still see her tousled hair and that was enough to make his heart clench repeatedly to the point at which he wasn't sure he could take it anymore.
Elena blinked, any embarrassment she might feel because of the situation turning into panic. "Where's Jeremy?" She rushed to one of the bedrooms, then to the other, but both rooms looked just like they had upon their arrival on the previous day.
"Elena." Damon called her, flipping the note that Stefan had handed to him toward her.
She read it quickly, a look of despair appearing on her face. "We have to go there immediately," she said, choking on the words.
"Go - yes, we - no," Damon said, whirling her away from the door.
"Can we discuss this in the car?" Elena asked through her teeth.
He should've noticed this before, Stefan thought dully. When she was glaring at Damon or arguing with him it didn't mean they were at odds. She was just expressing her emotions at the moment. She was being herself with him at all times without worrying what he would think or say or do. Stefan looked away. She was never that brash with him and strangely enough, the realization hurt him. It hurt him almost more than the way Elena's fingers slid in between Damon's when after turning her away from the door he kept her hand in his grasp. Almost.
Jeremy slowly opened his eyes and looked at the dark ceiling above, blinking a few times while trying to remember what had happened. Klaus happened, he told himself with a chuckle that turned into a cough because of how dusty the air around him was. He sat up and giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness he looked himself up and down. His arm was twisted or perhaps even broken, he thought running his other hand over the boned. It was difficult to tell since he couldn't feel any pain.
He glanced around the small room he was in, suddenly noticing someone lying on the floor not very far away from him.
"Matt!" Jeremy leaped toward him, trying to shake him out of unconsciousness as he had no doubt he wasn't dead, considering Klaus' plans. "Matt!"
After a longer while Matt began to stir and at last his eyes snapped open. "Am I dead?" he asked, sitting up with a grimace.
"No, I'm pretty sure you're still alive. And still human," Jeremy added, squinting. "Sorry."
Matt chuckled but a severe headache quickly turned his smile into another grimace.
Jeremy went on searching his pockets, smiling when he found something in an inner one. "Here," he said, unwrapping a cloth from around a small glass vial with transparent liquid inside. "Drink this," he said, giving the vial to Matt.
"What is it?" Matt asked, scrutinizing the vial with one eye closed.
"It's called scutum or something like that. If you drink it, you won't be able to feel pain for three days," Jeremy explained and then seeing a half-skeptical, half-amused look on Matt's face added. "It works. I drank it yesterday," he said, pointing to his broken arm.
Matt frowned and drank the contents but then his eyes widened slightly. "Bonnie gave it to you?" He asked in alarm.
"No. It's from Damon." Jeremy gave him a questioning look. "Why?"
"I'm not sure we should've drunk it had it been from Bonnie," Matt said dejectedly, remembering the circumstances of being brought... wherever it was that they were right now.
"Why?" Jeremy asked again, feeling a twinge of cold at Matt's words.
Matt looked at him for a moment as if he hesitated if he should say what he was about to say. "Because I think she's on Klaus' side."
"Why would you say that?" Jeremy asked after a pause, sounding more annoyed than worried.
Matt sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I heard them talk."
"Bonnie and Klaus?"
Matt nodded and fell silent for a second. Jeremy prompted him to explain giving him a questioning look. "It was Bonnie's idea. She suggested it to him," Matt said in a low voice, wrinkling his forehead in an oddly compassionate grimace that annoyed Jeremy even more.
"What was her idea?" Jeremy asked impatiently.
Matt sighed. "For you to be brought here."
The sky was colorless when they were leaving Sandbridge behind. Elena leaned her head against the window, narrowing her eyes at the gray ocean vanishing in the distance. She pushed her hair behind her shoulders and for a moment felt incredibly sad about leaving this place so soon.
But then she told herself that the main reason for this town acquiring such a prominent place in her heart was sitting right next to her, so there was no real reason to feel sad. She smiled to herself, leaning back in the passenger seat, but deliberately not turning her head toward Damon. There was something so soothing about knowing he was there without the necessity to actually look and check that he was. She wondered if it was because of her heightened vampire senses that she could so intensely feel his presence. Or maybe it was because they had passed all thresholds, crossed all the bridges, made all invisible walls between them crumble into ashes – and millions of glittering stars.
Or maybe it was because his presence made her believe that everything was going to be alright, that Jeremy was going to be alright.
"What does Klaus want with Jeremy?" Elena asked grimly, forcing herself out of her reverie.
Out of the corner of her eye she looked at Damon's hands, his fingers curled up around the steering wheel, black cuffs rolled up above his wrists. She wondered why it made such a great, overwhelming, thrilling difference that now she knew how his hands and his lips felt against every inch of her skin.
"Do you really want to know the answer to this question, Elena?" Damon said in his grim, focused voice that made Elena shot him a sidelong glance.
"Klaus won't do anything until we get there," Damon added reassuringly, prompted by Elena's lack of response to his question. "Well," he drew a breath, "until I get there," he said and just like he had expected Elena's eyes darted to him.
"I am going there, Damon," Elena retorted calmly, smoothing out her dress. "End of discussion."
"There's no discussion," Damon agreed in a mockingly lighthearted tone. "You aren't going," he repeated seriously.
Elena huffed in exasperation. "You can keep repeating that if it makes you feel better, but I'm going anyway," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"This isn't a good idea, Elena," Damon said firmly. "This isn't even a bad idea. This is a not-gonna-happen idea."
"Do you think making Klaus angry is a better idea?" Elena asked with a grimace. "How do you think he'll react when I won't show up?"
"If it interests you so much I'll take notes and relate to you his reaction to that in great detail," Damon snapped, blinking in irritation.
Elena was silent for a second. "This is my fault Jeremy-"
"I was waiting for this," Damon muttered under his breath and looked at her. She was staring at her hands. "Elena. It's not your fault. Had you shipped him to Iceland Klaus still might have found him." Elena didn't look any happier at the suggestion. "Everything that's happening around you – none of it is your fault or your achievement. It's what you do about what is happening that is."
She shot him a sidelong glance and then turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were brighter for a second but then they dimmed again. "But I don't know what to do."
Damon watched her out of the corner of his eye and seemed to struggle with his thoughts before saying. "I'd say walking into the fire is good enough."
Elena's eyes darted to him. "Caroline said Bonnie has a plan," she said with hope in her voice, feeling better now that the issue of her going to the meeting with Klaus was settled.
"Yes," Damon said with a sour smile. "A plan about sums it up."
"Either way, you do know only Bonnie can find a permanent solution to this?" Elena argued in a determined voice. Damon looked away with a frown on his face. "What can we do? Negotiate a delay? Run? We have to trust Bonnie."
"That's what she said."
"You spoke to her?" Elena widened her eyes at Damon, turning in her seat. So many road trips, she thought, so many times they had been driving somewhere like that but only now she could just simply lean toward him and kiss him wherever she wanted and all of a sudden it was the most comforting thought in the world and nothing could threaten the sense of safety that came with it.
"Let's say I didn't feel particularly enlightened by that conversation," Damon said, squinting into the distance again and Elena wondered if he was also juggling two discussions at the same time.
She tilted her head to the side, looking at him intently. "Damon."
He glanced at her. "Don't do that," he said warningly.
"Do what?" Elena widened her eyes at him.
Damon shifted his eyes to her. "That... eye-thing that you do," he said furrowing his brows and imitating her tone.
Elena chuckled and pressed her cheek to her hand after placing it against the back of the seat. "We'll survive this," she said in a low, convincing tone, reaching out and brushing some strands of his hair from one side of his head to the other. "Someone's got your feathers all ruffled," she said, pursing her lips.
"You've no idea," he said, fighting a smile.
Elena leaned across the space between them and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Whatever Bonnie's planning on doing, if I won't show up I'll ruin it." She looked away, for a moment following the changing landscape in her window. "Because if there was anything she could plan ahead of time, it'd be us showing up," she shifted her gaze back to Damon who was pondering Bonnie's words that indeed had suggested something to that effect.
"So much for being sneaky and unpredictable." Damon glanced at Elena with a stifled sigh.
"We tried that," Elena said with a shrug. "It didn't work." She fidgeted in her seat, a small grimace appearing on her face.
Damon watched her out of the corner of his eye for a few moments before leaving only his left hand on the steering wheel and extending his right hand to Elena. "Feeling like breakfast?"
Momentarily caught off guard, she blinked and then shifted her eyes between his face and his hand.
"Eat your breakfast before it eats you," Damon said in melodic voice, running his fingers down Elena's cleavage.
She smiled, glancing at him in amusement. Taking his hand in hers she fondled it for some time before she closed her eyes, bent her head and bit into his wrist.
She had had two blood bags on the previous morning and once again she found herself subconsciously comparing the blood she was drinking now with all the different kinds of blood she had tried. While there was not much difference as far as quenching the thirst was concerned, the difference in taste seemed even greater now and she allowed herself an additional sip or two beyond what she felt was enough.
Drawing back, her fangs retracting, she watched his skin heal. "This is better than blood bags," she said under her breath, running her fingertips over the disappearing wound.
Damon smirked. "Careful. It's a limited edition if you don't drink it wisely."
Elena shot him a look and they smiled at each other.
"Now as for your breakfast..." She unfastened her seat belt and propping herself toward him, placed her right hand on the level of his mouth.
Damon opened his mouth to point out that doing this while he was driving wasn't a good idea, but Elena took this opportunity to press her wrist against his mouth and the scent of her skin and the blood underneath combined with the thirst made him reconsider any protestations. He slowly kissed and ran his tongue over her skin a few times before sinking his fangs in it.
When they had done this before, they had always drunk from each other's necks, so now it was the first time Elena could actually see Damon's face, the veins under his eyes spreading over the upper parts of his cheeks, his eyes turning redder and redder, something she probably wouldn't have seen even now if it wasn't for him keeping his eyes open in an effort to continue paying attention to the road.
It had made her flinch mentally in the past, because it was just too vivid a reminder of someone close to her not being human and it had always made her sad. But it was different now. She didn't flinch, but it still made her sad, even if for a different reason.
"You should've met me in 1864. You would've liked me." What had he meant when he had said that? She had a vague idea, or perhaps not so vague, all things considered. But she wished she knew more. What she could deduce by herself was that he missed it. That he treated being a vampire like a job. He might not like it, might even hate it, but he'd still get up every day and do what he was supposed to do and with a flair too.
"Did I hurt you?" Damon's muttered words shook Elena out of her reverie and she blinked at him in surprise.
"No, no. Why?" She asked, slowly retracting her already healed hand.
"You're frowning," he said, studying her face, shifting his gaze between the road and her.
Elena smiled faintly. "I was just thinking..." she hesitated, and then leaned her head on his shoulder, lifting it again for a second to let him wrap his arm around her. "Would you want to be human again?"
"Why do you ask?" Damon asked after a pause, glancing at her with the faintest shadow of uncertainty in his eyes.
"Because you didn't bite me yesterday," Elena blurted out the first thing that came to her mind that should make it clear she wasn't trying to suggest she was thinking about voluntarily going through with the re-transition.
Damon's eyes darted to her and he seemed surprised, but also mildly amused by her explanation. "Neither did you," he said softly, squinting a little.
She smiled without looking at him, his tone sending her a few hours back in time when the world was safe and calm, because his arms were the world.
But it didn't really change, Elena thought, the world didn't have to be bigger than that. Lifting her head, she pressed a few kisses across Damon's face. It made her feel so absurdly happy and carefree that she could just lift her head and kiss him like that. He kissed her back, briefly touching her lips with his, again and again.
"It just didn't feel..." she continued, trying to answer her own question, "didn't feel... necessary."
She felt him rest his head on top of hers. "Didn't feel right," he murmured.
Elena bit her lip. "So would you want to...?
"No," he answered neither too fast nor too slow.
"Why?"
"Because you're a vampire."
Elena rolled her eyes. "I'm asking," she sighed, searching of the right way of posing her question, "theoretically. If I wasn't a part of the equation."
"But you are."
She swatted at him playfully. "You're just evading answering the question."
Damon groaned under his breath.
"So?" Elena prompted when he didn't say anything for a while. "Would you?"
He was silent for a moment longer and then in a low, somewhat resigned voice repeated. "No." She shifted her head, peering up at his profile. His eyes were fixed on the road. "These kinds of questions are never plain, Elena. There always are some parts of any equation."
Elena bit her lip and then smiled when she understood. "That's a good one to remember in case we decided to participate in the Newlywed Game," she said matter-of-factly.
"I'm not sure looking after baby brothers can count as a common interest," he said, catching her a bit off guard by guessing so quickly what she was about to say.
Elena smiled but then her smile faded into a frown. She drew back into her seat and slowly adjusted and fastened her seat belt. She glanced at Damon noticing he had been watching her intently throughout.
"I know this expression," he said, eying her warily.
"You do?" She asked, arching an eyebrow, trying to sound lighthearted but failing.
Damon's made an incoherent confirmatory sound. "It's a 'don't interrupt my suicidal plans, please' look."
Elena rolled her eyes. "No," she said, leaning her head against the head rest and lulling it toward the window and then toward Damon. "It's a 'please remember that I'll do anything for my brother' look."
Damon twitched his nose. "That's the same look," he said, pointedly widening his eyes at her.
Elena narrowed her eyes at him and opened her mouth to retort, but his hand shot out toward her and she fell silent under the touch of his fingertips against her lips. After a moment his hand slid down her body landing over her own hand in her lap.
"We're all going to get out of this unscathed," he said with calm determination and gave her a slow, lop-sided grin when she smiled.
They kissed but the kiss was brief, the traffic not really allowing for it to last. The sight of Stefan's car in front of them prevented Elena from blurting out a suggestion they stopped for a moment. She looked at Damon who seemed to read her thoughts and she hoped it was just a special ability of his and not the fact that her thoughts were so easy to read.
His eyes lingered on her for a moment longer before he wordlessly reached for his phone, flipping it open.
"Don't know about you," he started without an introduction, "but we're feeling a little filthy here. Can't give Klaus the satisfaction of beating us on appearances, can we? See you in a beat."
Elena blinked in slight confusion, following Damon's hand when he put his phone away and then redirecting her attention to him taking an abrupt turn and pulling off the road, heading toward... a car wash. Even though she still wasn't sure what was going on, she found herself holding her breath. Damon unfastened his seat belt and she automatically followed the suit. The car rolled into the car wash, the deafening sound of water splashing against the car accompanying the world being obscured by rotating brushes spreading soap all over the windows.
Without exchanging a word, they simultaneously fell into each other's arms and started kissing feverishly.
"I thought it's called a touchless car wash," Elena said breathlessly.
Damon smiled against her mouth, his hands roaming wherever they could reach. Then he suddenly pulled away. Elena's eyes snapped open and she looked at him in confusion.
"I'm sorry, Elena," he whispered with a hint of dismay in his voice. "What a stupid idea," he said in a self-scolding tone, glancing around.
Elena followed his gaze, realization hitting her. For a moment she watched the swirling water splashing against the car before looking back at Damon, cupping his face in her hands.
"It's OK," Elena said and when she blinked her eyes were glimmering with tears. "It's kind of symbolic, really," she said, trying to smile and nestling her face into his chest.
Damon wrapped his arms around her, one hand holding the side of her face when she pressed her cheek to his shoulder looking at the whirlwind of water and soap through the back window. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, sifting his fingers through her hair. She slipped her hand under his shirt, placing her outstretched palm over his back.
"I died because I ran away from you," she said so quietly that her voice was barely audible above the buzzing of water. She couldn't decide if the realization was age-old or brand new. "But you saved me anyway," she said with a brief half-sob, half-laugh, snuggling closer.
He tightened his embrace so much she could feel every fiber of her body pressing against him, his hand caressing her hair, his cheek leaning against her head.
"You saved me," he said in a low voice and she thought he meant it as a metaphor, but then he added. "I was... He was... He was out of... He would've..." Damon trailed off with a hasty sigh. It didn't feel right to make it sound as if it was intentional on Alaric's side, so he couldn't bring himself to say it, but Elena understood.
She lifted her head from Damon's shoulder and looked at him. He ran his fingers over the side of her face and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Their foreheads touched and for a few moments they just clung to each other.
After a longer moment of comfortable silence Elena asked. "Is this the drying part already?"
Damon tilted his head, peering out of the windshield. "I think so," he deadpanned.
As soon as he looked back at Elena she crashed her lips against his smiling ones.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't quite prepared for early arrivals."
Caroline tilted her head to the side and very slowly turned around, her well-prepared bored expression failing her as soon as she noticed the person standing next to Klaus.
"What are you doing?" Caroline asked, staring at Bonnie who was looking back at her unblinkingly. The question was pointless but at least it provided an outlet for her thoughts.
Out of the corner of her eye Caroline could see a row of tall windows located so high the light coming through them barely illuminated the interiors. The large room looked like a ruined ballroom decorated with ridiculous amounts of withered flowers and black ribbons and balloons.
"This is for the best." To Caroline's surprise Bonnie spoke and it made Caroline cringe, because it somehow made Bonnie's presence and her apparent alliance with Klaus more real. "Vampires are an abomination," Bonnie continued in a calm, resolute voice, thrusting up her chin. "It's in Elena's best interest to be human again."
Caroline blinked. There was something odd about these words. No. There was something odd... about Bonnie's voice; Bonnie's calm, resolute tone that reminded Caroline of something...
"She'll be able to have a normal life," Bonnie continued in that voice again, her face perfectly composed, her eyes unfathomable.
Caroline glanced at Klaus' smirking face and then shivers ran up her spine.
Bonnie's voice didn't remind her of anything, because it was fake. A part of an act. Caroline drew a breath, switching on her combat mood, shooting Bonnie the most perfect glare she could muster. The whole situation would've been thrilling if it wasn't for the fact that at the end of the day all of them could just end up dead dead.
"How do you know a normal life is what she wants?" OK, that was stupid, Caroline told herself deciding that getting carried away by the act was not a good idea.
Luckily, someone emerged from the shadows breaking into the conversation. "It's about the balance, Caroline," Abby said with rueful solemnity.
Klaus glanced away from them all. "I think our main guest has arrived," he said, squinting into the distance. "It seems everyone's early. If I knew this party would be such a hit I would've ordered appetizers," he said, strolling toward the door. "Bring the rest here," he added over his shoulder looking at Bonnie.
Caroline was afraid to look at Bonnie after Klaus had left the room in order not to ruin something... whatever that something was. Of course it was equally, well, it was somewhat probable that it was just wishful thinking she was holding on to, but regardless of that she tried to occupy her attention with something more practical, like scanning her surroundings in search of a quick escape route- Her breath caught in her throat when she was suddenly pushed to the side of the room by an invisible force. Hardly keeping her balance she shot Bonnie a stunned look. Bonnie shrugged with a smug expression Caroline didn't even try to analyze and then left the room.
Caroline looked around the room noticing nine circles of dim light marking spots on the dark-tiled floor. When she tried to reach out of her own circle her hand collided with an invisible barrier. "Of course," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
Elena couldn't help sighing with relief when they finally arrived in front of the house where Klaus' absurd farewell party was going to take place. She didn't feel guilty about the slight delay, because it couldn't possibly matter, nonetheless she was impatient to see Jeremy.
"How do you feel?" Damon looked her up and down, holding the car door open for her.
"Unreasonably energetic," Elena said pointedly, holding his gaze.
Damon's mouth twitched into a smirk. "Sounds like an appropriate attitude for the occasion."
"Are we going in?" Stefan cut in, hands in his pockets as he looked at them with a desolate expression on his face.
Damon shut the car door and took Elena's hand in his. "Let's go."
The spelled circles were glowing faintly in the dimly lit room. Like spotlights, Caroline thought in annoyance. Fixed spaces, each reserved for one person, spelled to keep the person from moving outside of the circle. The dark floor tiles dully reflected the surroundings, the ribbons and balloons making the room look like some kind of a failed, cheap Halloween party.
Jeremy stared intently into one of the floor tiles as if checking if the looks of sympathy that Matt was sending his way every time Bonnie and Klaus exchanged a word were justified by the expression on his face.
"Maybe he compelled her," Matt offered from his circle.
Jeremy shot Matt a silencing look, feeling bothered enough by his own thoughts and not wishing to have them uttered out loud at all. He was grateful when Caroline broke into the conversation, redirecting Matt's attention to her.
"What is Bonnie's mom doing here anyway. She isn't even a witch anymore," Caroline said, crossing her arms over her chest. Matt shrugged. Caroline glanced at him. "Invaluable input. Thanks."
Matt slightly widened his eyes at her. "Hey, you don't need to lash out at me just because Tyler skipped town."
"Really, guys?" Jeremy looked between them, shaking his head in exasperation. "Shouldn't we like stick together or something?"
Matt snorted.
"Stick together," Caroline repeated in a sardonic tone. "We're stuck anyway," she said, glaring at the outline of her circle.
"Yeah, whatever," Jeremy said grimly. "Arguing won't help, that's for sure."
"Wow," Caroline said wryly. "One month in Denver and you're full of worldly wisdom."
Jeremy shifted his eyes to her but didn't have the time to answer, because Klaus returned to the room, followed by Stefan, Damon and Elena.
"A happy reunion, at last," Klaus said with a smile and then suddenly a gust of wind swept across the room and before anyone realized what was happening, the three latest guests found themselves trapped, each in a separate circle.
Very slowly, Elena shifted her eyes to Bonnie who lowered her hand and seemed to be looking at her without recognition.
Klaus' smile widened. "I see everyone found their assigned seats, so let us begin. It's a farewell party, after all, so it shouldn't be long. Or should it?" He seemed to silently debate over that for a while. "Here's what's going to happen," he continued after a pause. "We'll do our little," he waved his hand, "ceremony and once you, my dear, will become your good, old human self, we'll grab Matt and hit the road."
Elena and Matt exchanged bewildered looks.
"I think you've got some serious plot holes in that scenario," Damon observed wryly.
Klaus snickered. "Have I?" He asked, whirling toward Damon. "Or maybe you have. I'm sorry if my plans don't seem lucid to you. It's not like they need to," he added as an afterthought, "but since I'm feeling gracious today I'll explain it to you in greater detail. Remember our chit-chat over dinner the other night?" He asked looking between Damon and Stefan. "I voiced my concern over Elena's future and it turns out I couldn't have been more right. She ended up a vampire even sooner than I thought."
"You have Rebekah to thank for that," Stefan said coldly, his eyes fixed on Klaus in a dark stare.
"Oh, let's not go all the way back to who put my sister in such a bad mood," Klaus said with a mirthless sneer. "The fact remains that I'm not going to risk my doppelganger becoming a vampire again."
"We could sign an agreement with a liquid of your choice," Damon said through his teeth. "Ink, blood. Wolfsbane potion."
Klaus looked to the floor, absentmindedly tapping the dark tiles with his boot, a smile flitting across his face. "No, no, you see, been there, done that." He grimaced and looked up. "And who would guarantee to me you wouldn't just shove your wrist into her mouth as soon as you got out of here? Certainly not Stefan," Klaus added, chuckling under his breath in exaggerated amusement as if he had just said something hilarious. "So," he continued at last in a matter-of-fact tone, "I really think I'll rather take her out of town with me."
"And in your spare time you're planning on coaching your own football team," Damon said, widening and then narrowing his eyes at Klaus who gave him a confused look but then understanding dawned on him and his face brightened again as he glanced over his shoulder at Matt.
"You're so bad at this guessing game," Klaus said gleefully. "What I'm going to do is help two nice humans start a happy little family that restores my peace of mind concerning the recurring supply of doppelgangers in the future. I also consider this something of my personal redemption arc," he added with a smirk.
Elena stared at Klaus in incomprehension while a shadow passed across Damon's face settling in his eyes in the form of a glare that amused Klaus greatly.
Abby glanced at Bonnie who closed her eyes, mouthed a few words and then opened her eyes again drawing a slow, almost painful breath.
"Go to hell," Matt said from his circle on the other side of the room and even if it didn't help or change anything at all it made Elena feel a tiny bit better.
Klaus laughed soundlessly. "I knew you'd all freak out," he said, spreading his arms in fake boredom and making a mock-horrified look that quickly changed into a series of chuckles only to dwindle into a cold, serious expression. "Of course we can do it the hard way. I don't really care whether the next generation is going to be all uniformly blond hair and blue eyes. If you catch my meaning, sweetheart," he whispered menacingly, squinting at Elena.
That turned out to be one sentence too much, because before Klaus shifted his eyes away from Elena he was punched in the face by Damon, the blow catching him off-guard and sending him down to the floor.
Everyone looked around themselves in bafflement and in the next moment Stefan, Caroline, Jeremy and Matt also tried to break through their spelled circles, but it seemed just as impossible as before, which confused them even more.
Klaus blurred back to his feet, shooting a brief glance at Bonnie whose eyes were unreadable, but from the way her jaw clenched Caroline read a warning that something had gone wrong... or just the opposite, she thought with frustration. There was no way in hell to tell.
"That was... pointless," Klaus said, producing a dagger out of nowhere and stabbing Damon in the chest with it.
"No!" Elena crashed against the invisible wall surrounding her, unable to get out of her circle.
"Don't worry, love," Klaus called to her. "This wouldn't be so entertaining if it was to end so soon," he said, twisting the dagger a few times before tugging it out and then, taking advantage of the supernatural speed of movements, stabbing Damon in dozens of places within a span of a second.
Elena's broken scream pierced the room and she fell to her knees pounding helplessly against the invisible barrier. Stefan's eyes darted to Bonnie who stood with her eyes fixed on the floor. Caroline looked intently at Abby, trying to find something reassuring in her expression but ending up alarmed instead by the hint of fear in her face.
Damon didn't scream, but with a stifled groan tumbled to the floor, into a pool of his own blood, his face contorted in pain, suddenly covered in sweat, his teeth clenched.
Caroline tossed her head away from the sight, her eyes meeting Jeremy's horrified expression. "How does he even feel that?" she hissed. "That stupid potion thing clearly doesn't work."
Jeremy's eyes darted to her and he swallowed. "It does," he said with a grimace. "It just doesn't work for the person who fills up the vials."
Caroline froze, staring at him in silence. Matt looked away with a frown.
Klaus flashkicked Damon's bleeding form back into his circle and looked to Bonnie. "I think you need to fix this one," he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice, wiping the drops of blood that had sprung from Damon's wounds during the attack off his face.
Not watched by anyone, Abby slowly straightened up her fingers, noiselessly dropping a red stone to the floor.
Bonnie raised her hand, apparently fixing the barrier surrounding Damon's circle.
"Now onto the night's main event," Klaus said, regaining his composure and walking toward Elena who scrambled to her feet, swallowing up her tears and glaring at him as he approached.
"I hope that wasn't the gist of your plan," Stefan said under his breath, trying to keep the dismay out of his voice as he looked at Damon whose clothes were soaked with blood and he seemed to struggle to even keep his eyes open.
"That was an extracurricular activity," Damon whispered in a raspy voice, coughing up blood.
Stefan looked toward Elena's circle with a dark frown, watching Klaus grab Elena by the hair and toss her out of her circle. Caroline cringed despite knowing that Elena couldn't feel the pain. She kept her eyes fixed on Klaus, glaring at him when he proceeded to Jeremy's circle and pushed him out of it.
"Now," Klaus spoke in a voice that sounded as if he was dictating a recipe to an annoying cook's apprentice. "You'll kill him, the witch performs the spell and you'll be human again."
Elena's face drained of all color even before the words fully registered in her mind. "What?" She whispered with unmoving lips.
Klaus bent over her, thrusting a stake into her hand. "Oh, come on. It's not like you've never killed anyone before. I'm sure you can find it in yourself to actually enjoy it, at least a little."
Stefan looked at Bonnie while pushing against the invisible blockade around him with all his might, but Bonnie's eyes were fixed elsewhere.
Abby watched her daughter out of the corner of her eye allowing herself to breathe only when she noticed a small smile play about Bonnie's lips as she gazed at Jeremy, an imperceptible shiver rushing through her, leaving her eyes one shade brighter.
Damon propped himself on his hands, so slick with blood that they kept sliding over the smooth surface of the black floor, making it difficult for him to push himself to a sitting position.
"I won't do it," Elena said through her teeth, throwing the stake away.
Klaus rolled his eyes, heading to pick it up. "I really hoped you'd cut on the dramatics, Elena," he said, strolling toward Jeremy and stabbing his thigh with the stake.
In the back of his mind, Jeremy promised himself not to ever make fun of singers faking live singing. Perhaps it wasn't as easy as it seemed, because faking to feel pain turned out to be harder than he thought it would.
Caroline and Matt exchanged a look at the strange sound that Jeremy made. Luckily, Klaus didn't seem to care. Elena on the other hand was so overwhelmed by what was happening that it wasn't until she noticed the look between Caroline and Matt that she remembered that Jeremy couldn't feel the pain.
Klaus brought the stake back to Elena handing it to her. "If you won't do it, I'll do it and then find another human to kill and then another. This may go on forever if you want."
Thrusting up her chin Elena said in a low, shaking voice. "I'm not going to do it." She tried not to think about anything else, push all other thoughts away. "I'm not going to do it."
For a moment the entire room fell silent and Klaus regarded her with his head tilted to the side as if he was trying to estimate the number of times she would repeat her words before giving up.
"I see you might need an incentive," Klaus said barely above a whisper, narrowing his eyes at her and blurring away only to return a moment later with Damon.
Elena jumped to her feet, her heart breaking over and over again at the sight of him. Had he been human, he wouldn't have survived such injuries and the thought made her panic. For a split second her mind feverishly wondered if a vampire could bleed to death.
Her eyes fixed on Damon, her mind reeling. It was only when the words that had haunted her since she had first heard them reached her and she felt a wave of suffocating fear wash over her when Klaus' dark voice reverberated in her ears.
"Turn it off."
"No," Elena mouthed the words, shaking her head, refusing to believe that this was really happening.
"Promise me it won't happen to us."
"You know the drill, Elena," Klaus said with a theatrical sigh. "Although it won't be as drastic this time. I just want him to feed on you. A little."
Suddenly, the fear was gone and for a brief moment all she could feel was anger. Rolling her hands into fists Elena's eyes pierced into Klaus.
"Do you think this will do anything to us?" She said through her teeth, eyes ablaze, tears drying out. Klaus watched her with an amused smirk tugging on his lips. "He can drink from me," she pushed her hair over her shoulders in agitation, exposing her neck with trembling hands. "We fed off each other before."
Caroline blinked and Jeremy stared at Elena with wide eyes but it was Bonnie's eyes that Elena noticed first as they focused on her with an unreadable expression in them. Only then her attention shifted to Klaus who suddenly stiffened, the smirk wiped off his face so completely that it seemed almost impossible to imagine he could ever smirk at all. Taking one, slow step toward her he asked in a voice so low, so chilling that it sent icy-cold shivers up Elena's spine.
"You drank his blood?"
Elena's eyes flickered to Damon whose head was tilted back, his eyes fluttering open and shut, his labored breathing pulsating in her ears. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Caroline, Matt and Jeremy's startled faces. Stefan stood with his eyes cast to the floor. But there was something in Klaus' voice that boded ill and she couldn't find it in herself to repeat her statement.
"You drank vampire blood after the transition?" Klaus asked again his tone now quite obviously sizzling with rage and Elena glared at him trying not to look confused.
"Yes," she said, clenching her fists, stealing a glance at Bonnie, desperately trying to decode the expression on her face but to no avail.
The moment seemed to stretch across time, Klaus' eyes almost vacant when he whispered tonelessly. "You're off the hook, then." There was a shadow of a smirk again, but it was much more frightening now, the finality of the moment hitting Elena before he clarified. "You can't be turned back into a human if you've ever drunk vampire blood as a vampire."
Surreptitiously, Elena let go of a breath she didn't known she'd been holding. She felt a pang of dull relief at Klaus' words yet nothing seemed over and she froze, waiting for him to continue.
Klaus walked toward her, his eyes wandering all over her face. He studied her for a few moments in silence. "You're useless to me," he said quietly in a mockingly rueful tone and suddenly, she saw a blur of a stake in front of her, but then she was pushed out of the stake's way and her stifled cry blended with Damon's quiet groan when he pulled the stake out of his arm and threw it away.
Klaus sneered, half-turned to one side and then back toward them again, shoving Damon against the wall with unnatural force. He picked up the stake again but it was knocked out of his hand by a purse tossed with all the vampire strength Caroline could muster. Klaus glanced at the contents of the purse that now lay scattered on the floor. A lipstick, small mirror miraculously unbroken despite the fall, hairbrush, cell phone... A slightly crumpled piece of paper. He squinted.
"Since this entire hybrid deal is clearly over." Stefan broke the moment of silence speaking in a loud, steady voice. "Maybe we could work out some kind of a treaty."
"A treaty." Klaus chuckled mirthlessly, shooting him a glare. "You suppose that you can just ruin a millennium of preparations and then work out a treaty?" He spoke in a low voice before turning to Elena. "I guess I'll just have to drain the last doppelganger dry and save the blood for special occasions to create a hybrid from time to time."
Caroline darted her eyes to Bonnie giving her an incredulous look. She had thought Bonnie was waiting for a moment to strike, to make something happen, but she just seemed detached, watching everything from the distance like an indifferent spectator. Her eyes moved to Abby who held her gaze for a second in such an intense way that it made Caroline reconsider her disappointment and realize that what she was taking for detachment might be a trance.
"But then again..." Klaus trailed off, his eyes lingering on Damon before shifting to Elena. "Among the many things that I learned from you," he said with a fake smile, turning to look at Stefan, "I'm beginning to appreciate the superiority of revenge." Stefan froze. "And I guess I'm going to sacrifice a coterie of monsters for one hell of a fun evening. Carpe diem, they say," he whispered almost to himself.
"So," he said in a loud, cheerful, sardonic voice. "Elena," he turned toward her. "I think it'd be only right for me to kill you since it's technically your fault more than anyone else's here that we're in this unpleasant little mess right now. But that would be a boring kind of death, don't you think? So let's do something more spectacular," he said, tilting his head to the side and watching her for a second before moving in a flash toward Damon and grabbing his throat. He caught his gaze and muttered the words, eyes dark with the intensity of compulsion being projected onto him. Despite the fact that in his weakened state and because of the significant blood loss it wouldn't probably require much strength to compel him, Klaus made sure to make it as intense as possible. "When I say 'kill her' you'll feed on her until she dies."
Elena's eyes widened, tears welling up in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks when she shook her head. "Don't do this to him," she said brokenly, drawing a hasty breath. "If you want to kill me just do it. What difference does it make to you? Don't do this to him." She gritted her teeth. "Please."
Klaus turned toward her, stepping away from Damon and Elena's eyes flew to his face, his half-hooded eyes dilated, droplets of sweat on his forehead.
"Did you miss the part when I mentioned 'revenge'?" Klaus asked, widening his eyes at her in mock interest. "What kind of revenge would it be if I just ran a stake through your heart?" He spoke, walking toward her. "I want you to die knowing that your love is dead... or rather that it never existed in the first place, because would it really be so easy to break if it truly was unbreakable?" He sighed, pretending to look pensive for a few moments before giving her a slow sneer. "And let the knowledge that once compulsion wears off he'll know exactly what he has done be an added bonus. Well," he clasped his hands together as if to announce the beginning of a show, "if you asked me nicely I suppose I could promise you to stake him afterwards, but then again I think it will be more fun to have him live with that," Klaus said with a wink.
Elena closed her eyes for a second, the insides of her eyelids burning, her entire body on fire with a strange, overpowering mixture of fear, anger and so much pain she didn't know how it was possible for her to stand. She opened her eyes, her gaze immediately darting to Damon and for a second she thought he was looking at her, really looking at her, but she wasn't sure if she could trust her eyes any longer. The room was spinning around her, she was shaking and she thought she'd be able to just block everything else, forget about the morbid circumstances and find solace in dying in his arms, if it wasn't for the certainty that he'd never recover from that.
"You seem to think that I don't like you," Klaus said, putting on a hurt expression. He glanced at Jeremy and kicked him back into the spelled circle before returning his attention to Elena. "Let me prove you wrong," he said in a humming whisper stopping next to her. She was standing straight and rigid like a statue, her hands balled into fists, tears streaming down her face, eyes glittering with stubbornness that made Klaus smile sardonically. "You're not obligated to stay here waiting to have your throat ripped out, collapse into your own blood and let out the proverbial last breath," he said in a theatrical tone, looking between her and Damon. He smirked, watching her taking in Damon's battered form, clothes all torn, soaked with blood. His eyes were closed and he seemed able to stand only because Klaus' compulsion required him to do so.
Klaus leaned very close to Elena's ear and whispered. "You can run."
She cringed. The darkish space around her blended into a dimly lit room for a second, her own earnest voice ringing in her ears. "You can trust me." It might not have mattered that much then. Or perhaps it had, it had a lot, but so differently, only simply so. Now there were no words to be spoken or taken back. All words were ingrained into them. When Elena's eyes fluttered shut she could feel the wind tugging on her hair, the sunlight on her back when she was signing each kiss with a love confession. They couldn't die.
"I won't run," she said, oblivious to everything but at the same time completely aware of the wordless pleas permeating the room, everyone's eyes fixed on her.
Klaus looked at her with mocking sympathy before a smirk broke onto his face, ghosting across his features. "Well then. I'd think you learned something from the last time, but it looks like even as a vampire you wish to hold on to your petty human beliefs."
Elena's eyes drifted to the floor, black tiles mirroring her face, tears rolling down her cheeks and falling back onto her, onto the reflected image of her.
She didn't know what she should think at a moment like this. Perhaps it was easier to just be caught off guard, perhaps she should've drowned those two times before. Death was only a matter of time. As it should be.
Memories didn't flood back to her when she lifted her eyes to meet Damon's bloodshot gaze. She regretted that she couldn't just fall into the past and die thinking about all the beautiful moments... Why weren't they flashing before her eyes?
She drew a breath and held it, held it, held it.
She wasn't going to die.
The thought was soft and feather-light. It was ash pink like her mother's dress, green like the forest she had run through with Bonnie and Caroline on each first day of school, crystalline blue like Damon's eyes.
"You know I won't let you die. I will never let you die."
Why would she need to recall anything if everything was happening right now?
Klaus' voice rang loud and sharp with certainty, with amusement. "Kill her."
Words hot like tears were crashing across her memory. Oh let's not begin, let's not go there, let's never end. She could die. He could die. But they couldn't die.
It was just a thought, just a thought, like a smile, like a tear. "You want passion and adventure and even a little danger." There was a road and the beginning, so many beginnings marked by death. She wanted death no more. For a moment brief and strong like a hurricane she was that girl again, the one who never thought of death, the one with life in her eyes and a heart strong and pure and young enough to believe in mysterious strangers, love at first sight and happy endings.
They couldn't die.
Damon moved, from the other side of the room, a net of veins spread under his eyes, over the upper parts of his cheeks. He ran to Elena, a flash of black and red, a gust of wind and there was the scent of blood – and the scent of him all around her.
Had she wanted to, she wouldn't have been able to utter the words out loud. They just flickered through her mind because they were made of his scent, of his touch.
He stopped right in front of her, his hands grasping her shoulders, lips parting, head tilting to the side.
"I would rather kiss you," she thought, closing her eyes.
And she would never know how it was possible she didn't die when the world around her burst into millions of lights at the sound of his voice in her head:
"That makes the two of us."
He kissed her then. His lips hot and feverish as they molded against hers, his palms moving from her shoulders to her face, her hands unconsciously mirroring his gesture and they made the kiss last for as long as it was possible before they broke apart, gasping for air, like people saved from drowning.
They looked into each other's eyes with invisible smiles edged into every pore, every line, but then Damon's legs failed him and Elena slid to the floor with him, trying to wrap her arms around him, trying to hold him.
"Impressive." Klaus' icy-cold, sardonic voice drifted to them, but Elena didn't even look into his direction, her determination restored, courage mended.
Willing her fangs to come out, she made a deep, long gash with them in her hand and pressed her wrist to Damon's mouth.
"Drink," she whispered softly, her eyes wandering all over his face, flickering back and forth between his parched lips and his half-hooded eyes.
He was barely conscious but managed to obey, sipping the blood while she kept her arm around him, preventing him from collapsing onto his back.
She thought he probably needed more blood than she could give without passing out, but any amount had to be better than nothing and she was gratified by seeing the color return to his skin and his posture becoming a little straighter.
Carefully, she drew her wrist away from his mouth. "Limited edition," she said quietly and he gave her a weak smile, his eyes fluttering open.
Elena pressed a lingering kiss to Damon's cheek and he made a mental note to tell her later that he thought he could pull off being a hero if all that was expected of him was kissing her.
They pulled each other into an awkward, mutual embrace, their cheeks touching when Klaus spoke again, regaining everyone's attention. "After such a touching display I'm sorely tempted to let you live."
Elena's jaw clenched and she felt Damon's arm hold her more firmly, the ominous look on Klaus' face emphasizing the mocking graciousness of his words. Very slowly, he made his way toward them.
"On a second thought, I think killing you wouldn't really serve the purpose," he said in a low voice, tilting his head to the side. "If I killed him, you'd just love him more," he continued, shifting his seemingly blank gaze between Damon and Elena. "If I killed her, you'd still love her. So what do I do?" He asked in a sincerely troubled voice, looking at the ceiling. After a pause, he looked down at them. "How do I make your eternity a living hell?" He asked in a menacing whisper.
Elena's breath caught in her throat when she saw Klaus' eyes shift to Jeremy. After a moment he looked at her again. "You and I have something in common, Elena. We both understand the importance of a family." His eyes moved to Damon. "Or rather shall I say the three of us have something in common?" Klaus sighed, turning away from them and surveying the room. "Do you know what my favorite weakness is?" He asked no one in particular but when he answered his own question it cut through Elena like a knife. "Guilt."
Klaus turned around. "Such a trifling, human weakness," he said, looking Elena straight in the eye and she felt the memory of the dark parking lot and the cold rain fall over her like a heavy shadow. "Yet it can drive a vampire insane." A small smirk flitted across Klaus' face and Elena felt he knew exactly what she was thinking about. "I wonder," he said with a mockingly sincere look of pure curiosity on his face, "will you be able to live with that?" Casting a nonchalant look around Klaus picked up a stake from the floor and turned it in his hand. "Will you forgive yourself for this?" He asked and Elena just stared back at him, trying to guess what he was going to do but getting lost in the maze of all the horrifying possibilities. "Do you think he will forgive you for this?" Klaus asked, his eyes flickering to Damon before returning to Elena.
It was a moment barely long enough to draw a breath and then everything shattered.
In a flash, Klaus moved to the other side of the room and in one, languid movement ran a stake through Stefan's heart.