Chapter Forty-One

When Jeremy carried Ella to the living room she was surprised by the scene. Damon was standing across the room glaring murderously at Marcus who was kneeling on the floor behind Elena and Bonnie. Stefan stood behind Marcus, his hand on the other man's shoulder, holding him down.

Ella looked at Jeremy, who seemed to know exactly what she wanted and he set her gently on her feet. His hands remained at her waist, keeping her steady and she was grateful for the support. She turned to Damon, the same feelings of love, possessiveness and protectiveness were emanating from him, along with hate and anger toward Marcus.

"Damon," Ella spoke, her voice still weak.

At the sound of her voice Damon turned to look at her, his expression morphing into one of relief. He was standing in front of her in an instant, pulling her into a gentle hug. Ella could feel the surprise from the others, they weren't used to Damon showing affection like this.

"Are you all right?" he asked, pulling away and holding her at arms length so that he could check her over.

"I'm fine Damon," she assured him.

Damon growled, swearing under his breath and rounded on Marcus again. "You're lucky she's alive."

"Damon," Ella whispered softly, her tone pleading. "Please…don't kill him."

"I know he's your father Ella, but after what he did to you…"

"You're wrong," Ella interrupted. "But I still need him, please let me speak to him."

Damon looked furious and confused, but didn't stop her as she walked forward. Elena and Bonnie moved aside, but Stefan kept his hand tightly on Marcus' shoulder. Ella crouched down in front of the man she had once adored, he avoided her gaze.

"Marcus," she spoke, her voice steady. "I told you I'd get free, and I warned you what would happen when I did. However, I loved you once; you're the only father I've ever known, so I'm giving you one last chance. Help me, tell me what you know about my biological father, help me find him and I'll let you go."

"I've already told you what I know," Marcus snapped at her. "He's a filthy, disgusting leech. A Vampire, that's all I know, nothing more, so I'm sorry but I can't help you."

There was a collective gasp around the room and a few murmured words of disbelief. Ella chose to ignore them, her gaze focussed on Marcus, eyes narrowed.

"You know," she mused, her voice growing stronger. "Downstairs, when you had me chained up, I wondered how it was possible that I'd never realised you were lying to me my whole life. I can always tell when someone is lying; I detect the subtle shift in their emotions, but not with you. Then I realised it's because you've never told me the truth, so how would I know the difference?"

"What's your point?" Marcus asked, glaring back at her.

"You're lying now," she answered. "You know more than you're willing to tell me. What are you keeping from me Marcus? Either you tell me now, or I'll make you tell me."

Marcus sighed, he may have doubted Ella's ability to hurt him, but there were enough people in the room who would be more than willing to oblige on her behalf. "I never met him," he explained. "I only know what your mother told me about him. He was born here, in Mystic Falls, and…"

Before Marcus could finish his sentence a loud crack filled the room and he suddenly pitched forward, falling into a motionless heap at Ella's feet. Stefan lay on the ground and Damon stood where he had been only moments before.

"What-?" Ella spluttered, staring opened mouthed at Damon. "You…! I…! Why? Why did you do that? You killed him! How could you?"

Ella was furious, power and rage were burning in her veins now and she felt stronger than she had ever felt before. She advanced on Damon, who backed away from her, hands outstretched as if to fend her off.

"I had to," Damon explained, trying to reason with her. Her fury was palpable; they could all feel it bearing down on them, sucking the air from the room. "Ella he couldn't be trusted, you know that. You know that we didn't have a choice, if we'd let him go he would have just tried again."

Not listening, Ella continued to advance. Everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours was crashing down around her. All the anger she'd bottled up, all the pain at finding out the truth, everything was pressing down on her, dragging her down toward the darkness and she welcomed it.

Pain, that was what she focussed on, she wanted to cause Damon pain, she wanted him to cower at her feet and beg for his life. She wanted him to hurt because she hurt. He'd hurt her, she knew rationally that Marcus was evil, but he'd still taken care of her, he'd just been in pain like she was now.

Damon was just as bad as Marcus, he was evil, uncaring, unfeeling, he'd hurt innocent people to get what he wanted. He was no better than her stepfather had been and if Damon's logic was anything to go by then he deserved to die for his crimes. Well Ella could arrange that, gladly.

The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. He'd hurt everyone, Stefan, Jeremy, Caroline he was a monster. He killed without prejudice and he didn't care, he felt no regret or remorse for what he'd done. It was about time that someone did something about it, it was obvious that none of her friends could deal with him and she was sure no one would miss him.

Yes, she thought to herself. It's time that Damon's life came to an end.

TBC…

A/N: I not it's not the longest chapter, but the next one will be longer. There are two chapters left in Mystic Stranger until the end of the fic. I want to thank all those who have stuck with it and I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Still more in store for the Mystic Falls gang so stay tuned for the last two chapters.