Chapter fifteen

The mysterious stranger

Hey there, I'm back with the next chapter! I won't keep you to long from reading, but first I want to thank my friend, cdaye8184, for her great help. She's a great author, check out her stories!
I also want to thank all of you for reading, alerting, reviewing etc. It means a lot to me!
So…have fun reading!

Moonwolflove

Previous

He turned his head and looked straight at a pair of legs. His eyes followed the legs up, until they ran into the face of a total stranger. He hand never seen the man before, but something in his eyes commanded respect…and Damon bet that you had better not laughed with the guy. Damon felt slightly nervous about this but at the same time, not. He was here to help one way or another... that, Damon was sure of.

"Who are you?" He brought out hoarsely.

"My name is Elijah." The man said in a thick British accent. "How do you do?"

Damon realized that he wasn't able to stop staring at the man in front of him. He had heard that name before, but he couldn't exactly place where that should have been.

"Who are-" He begun, but he was abruptly interrupted.

"It doesn't matter for the moment," the stranger said in his English accent. "So…I guess you're Elena's friend? The one who was noble enough to save a little girl from a certain death? Damon Salvatore, am I right?"

Damon was shocked when the stranger mentioned Elena's name. How the hell did he know her? And what was hiding behind his knowledge.

He wanted to ask him how he knew her, but the thought that he probably wouldn't get a proper answer invaded his mind and he just decided to nod.

Ally, who had been sleeping peacefully just a few minutes ago, opened her eyes, blinked a few times and then quickly hid behind Damon, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "It's okay, Ally," he said as reassuringly as possible, while deep down he merely hoped he was right.

She stuck her head out and looked at Elijah with a look that was fairly hard to describe.

"Hello there, young lady," he said with a slight bow, which made Ally giggle. The look immediately disappeared from her face. "You're funny," she said with a laugh. "Who are you? Why do you talk so funny?"

"So nosy." He glared at Damon.

"I am not!" Ally protested. "I just want to know who you are. Are you here to help Damy?"

Elijah raised an eyebrow at that name and his eyes slid back to Damon, who had a fairly hard time not to scream that they really had to stop laughing with his pet name. Why did everybody think it was so funny? She was a kid giving an adult a nickname. It was just a name for God's sake!

Elijah frowned. "She seems to be attached to you, isn't she? I've heard quite a lot about you, Mr. Salvatore, not the most positive things I have to say. But I was rather surprised when Elena told me that you're stuck in here because you…sorry, what's your name, sweetheart?" That last was directed at Ally, who glanced at Damon as if she asked permission to say her name. He nodded lightly and then she said with firm tone: "Ally, sir."

"Elijah," he said. "My name is Elijah."

Ally sent him a smile, one that said that her mind was already planning something.

"Watch out, that smile means that she already has a nickname for you," Damon warned.

Elijah didn't say anything, but it seemed that he found it quite funny in his own way. Although that was difficult to deduce…the guy seemed like he didn't even know what funny meant. "Well…it certainly is clear why you saved her. She's adorable." He eyed the little brown eyed girl, the hint of a smile crossing his face. Damon didn't like that too well.

Damon couldn't do anything else. However adorable was yet too mildly expressed in Ally's case…she was much more than that…she was special.

"Now…back to the important matters," Elijah said as he pushed his fingertips together and looked at Damon. "I promised Elena to help you and since I never break a promise, I've done what I had to do. The spell is broken. You're free to walk out and return to your life." He said it so simply-so casually. Should Damon believe this man?

Damon was in an even greater shock than that he had been in the last ten minutes. He looked at Elijah in an incredulously manner, but something in his words quickly changed that. Something told him that he shouldn't dare to question what he had said. He took Ally's hand and raised his other one to the place where the invisible barrier had been.

Nothing.

No wall, nothing that prevented him from being free.

He heard how Ally caught her breath when she saw it too, but she was also feared of something-someone. And that someone was very close. He turned around when he felt a gust of wind and saw how Katherine stood beside him, her eyes wide with amazement. Apparently she had been hiding when she had seen Elijah coming…wait…that wasn't logical. Was she afraid of him? Why? He decided not to think about it too much, because if you tried to figure out what was going on in that strange brain of hers, you'd never get anywhere.

Suddenly, she shot off like an arrow from a bow, but never got very far, as she was easily stopped by the mysterious Elijah. "Ah, Katerina. It has been a long time," Elijah said with a small smile on his lips.

Katherine automatically backed away, raised her head in an arrogant manner. "Elijah."

It was obvious that she was trying to mask her fear with her arrogant behavior…but you could easily tell that it didn't help her a lot. "I am quite sure that Klaus will be glad to see you," he continued. "He wasn't very happy when you changed into a vampire…and certainly not when you ran off. So I'm sure that you understand that I can't let you go just like nothing happened. After all of the trouble you've caused my family, I can't let you go."

Klaus…now he remembered. He was an original, and so was his brother-this Elijah. But Klaus was the most feared throughout the vampire world, if he could remember correctly.

"No…please…you can't do this," Katherine protested, but Elijah shook his head slightly and spoke smoothly in his calm tone.

"Oh, that's where you are wrong. I can." He grabbed her chin and looked deep into her dark brown eyes "You'll stay here in the tomb until Klaus decides to spend you a visit. There is no longer a barrier keeping you but my words are. You cannot leave."

Katherine's eyes became dull and then she repeated in a blank tone and without any contradiction or arguing. "I'll stay in the tomb until Klaus decides to spend me a visit."

"Exactly," Elijah said with a small smile, after which he turned back to Damon, who hadn't moved one step. It didn't quite get through to him that he was no longer stuck in the darkness. He could go wherever he wanted…and best of all…he didn't have to be in the same space with Katherine anymore! He moved a step forward and a small smile crept up along the corners of his mouth. He hadn't had the smallest idea that he loved his freedom that much, but now he was fully aware of it. It was one of the worst things that could happen…being deprived from your freedom.

Ally almost jumped around in joy; her long, thick curls jumped around her little face as she did and she spoke in a melodious voice. "Damy is free! Damy is free!" She stopped jumping and a little, devilish look appeared in her eyes, as she turned towards Katherine. "And you're still trapped. Serves you right!" She stuck her tongue out at her and Katherine's eyes caught fire. If she hadn't been compelled to stay where she was, she would already have ripped Ally's head off.

Damon thought it was hilarious, of course. She really started to resemble him in some strange way and he simply couldn't resist to shrug while a big smirk showed up on his lips. "Sorry, Kath…well…not really though," he added.
"Yeah, not really," Ally repeated while she stuck her tongue out again in a "that will shut you up" way.

"Screw the lot of you." Katherine pouted before slumping down against the rock wall.

After that, Damon turned back to Elijah, who had watched the whole scene with an raised eyebrow and a skeptical look on his face. "Charmed," he said, but there was no way he had actually meant that. "Well…I've kept my promise, so it's about time that I leave."

He had hardly spoken those words when Ally jumped into his arms and swung her arms around his neck tightly. That must have captured him off guard. The surprise was written all over his face and it was clear that he- unlike Damon-wasn't used to little girls that jumped into his arms.

"Thank you…Lee, for getting Damy out of the tomb," she whispered softly. Damy himself had his arms folded across his chest and he had to bite back a laugh when he heard Ally's nickname for Elijah. The stranger seemed like he hadn't expected a nickname like that…or a nickname at all. He was struggling to wipe the weird look of his face. There was no way that he would ever laugh with Damon's nickname again, not now he had one of his own.
Elijah, at some point, succeeded to compose his face back to normal and he said with a small smile: "You don't have to thank me, dear, thank Elena."

Damon just knew that those last words were directed at him and he quickly made a mental note that he had to thank her. She had kept her promise but after all…he never doubted that she would. He was only a bit worried about her knowing Elijah, who was, not to forget, an original. And why did he made a promise to Elena that he would help him out of the tomb? Don't get him wrong, he was grateful, but he still didn't trust the guy or the mystery that was behind this whole 'good guy' act. Damon didn't buy it for a second.

Elijah put Ally back on the ground, after which she ran to Damon and jumped into his arms. "She definitely is a special girl."

"If you only knew," Damon said while sending a smile towards Ally.

Ally could conquer everyone's heart, whether they wanted it or not. She had something special about her…maybe it was her childhood innocence and her friendly nature. Or perhaps those big, brown eyes that looked at you and told that she understood more than you thought…that she was able to wipe out every bad memory or thought with one of her beautiful, angelic smiles.

Whatever it was, it was unique to her.

Ally was Ally and there was no person in the world who was like her.

"Well then…until or paths cross again, Mr. Salvatore…miss Ally," Elijah said as he made the same slight bow for her as he had made before.

Damon nodded and before he could thank him, the stranger disappeared…with the rustle of the wind.

Ally looked at him with questioning eyes. "Can we go home now…please?"

"Of course we can," he said, and it made him happy that he was able to say those words, because they seemed to brighten Ally's face even more.

He grabbed the basket that Elena had brought from the ground and planned to leave the tomb a long way behind him, when Katherine's voice prevented him from moving.

"Damon, please. You can't leave me here like that," she said pleadingly.

Damon turned to her with a look in his eyes that said as much as "go to hell". "Wrong, be sure that I can do that, because after all you did to me, you don't deserve better than to rot in this nightmare. And besides…even if I wanted to help you, which, I can assure you, won't happen. I wouldn't be able to do so even if I wanted to because Mr. Original compelled you. I can't undo his compelling. You see…I don't want, can't and won't do anything to get you out of here. Have a nice eternity in this hell whole Katherine. May you rot in misery." He smirked at himself for twisted around that limerick.

"Damon, no, wait! Damon!"

He ignored her completely, slightly bent his knees and jumped out of the darkness, as Katherine's desperate screams started to fade. He never thought that he would be so happy to see the sun again or to smell the forest around him. But after all…he had never been stuck somewhere before for two whole days, in the dark. "Okay," he said to Ally, "Ready to go home in vampire style?"

"What do you mean with that?" Ally asked a bit wary.

"You'll see," Damon smirked. "Hold on tight."

Ally wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and then he began to run, till the world around them was nothing more than a blur.

An endless world of endless freedom.

And he loved it.

So…how did you like it? Originally I wasn't going to spend a whole chapter on Elijah, but as he's one of my favorites, I've changed that.
I have to mention that this story is almost finished. It's already a lot longer than I originally planned and I have the feeling that it has almost come to an end.
Stay tuned for the next chapter! It will be up soon, but as usual it can take a bit longer.
Thanks for reading!