Hi ;)

This chapter is pretty tense so I won't be long. I want to thank you, story followers, all twenty of you. This number is really encouraging and if you fell in love with this story at least half as much as I did when I started to write it… You should know that amount of my love towards you is twice as big as yours.

And Sere'sLight: A huge thank you for your reviews. You are the best!

Love,

AGirlThatDaresToDream


Chapter 9

The neighbourhood was dark and quiet; Jeremy could clearly hear the church bell ringing in the distance and looked the time. It was three minutes until eleven on his watch, making him feel more uneasy than he already was. It certainly wasn't the best idea to come here alone, he knew, but he couldn't trust anybody, hell , he didn't have anyone to trust. If he would tell Jenna she would never let him go, so he left the house secretly, walking downstairs quietly and slowly opening the front door, trying not to make a single sound and waking her up. He succeeded in that task, but despite he knew Mystic Falls well, finding Saltzman's house wasn't easy, especially when he was stopping and looking over his shoulders every three seconds. It wasn't the dark what bothered him; it was what or who it could be hiding in it.

The house he found himself standing before was smaller than his family's home, but just as white, almost glowing out of the darkness. He headed towards the front door stepping carefully, scouring big hedgerow with his eyes, praying that this wasn't some kind of a trap. He was too paranoid to relax and his heart betrayed him every time he tried, sending adrenalin trough his body, waking it up completely. His movement activated sensor light on the veranda and the boy jumped, his fist resting on the wood, hesitating. This probably really wasn't the best idea, but it was his only hope to really see his sister again, he reminded himself. I have to do this. Just as he was about to knock the door opened, reviling his history teacher, who greeted him without a word, just moved so the boy would be able to enter. He did and the door closed behind him with a quiet click, but it echoed in his ears. He felt trapped for a moment and that reminded him who he was here for again.

"I am glad you came, Jeremy." The teacher spoke than, motioning towards the sitting area. "We have a lot to talk about."

Jeremy followed the men's moves and sat on a foetal which was most far away from him, still not comfortable. His voice was quiet as he forced himself to speak.

"Why did you want me to come here?"

"I needed to talk to you and the school is not the safest place. It's less possible that someone would eavesdrop…"

"Would you please get to the point? I didn't come here in the middle of the night to listen to covert hints and rubbish." He was tired of waiting and getting false hope, he had to know the answers now. "Why did you need to see me?"

"I want to help you get your sister back." The response came quick, causing the boy to freeze.

"H-ow do…"

"How do I know you want to save her?" Mr. Saltzman clearly expected him to be shocked by his statement. "She is your sister and you love her, so of course you want her back… It's really not the hardest thing to figure out."

Jeremy closed his eyes for a moment, overcome with hope. This could be his only chance.

"So how could you help?"

"I have a few friends who don't agree with the political order here and are not scared to do something about it. We help the people who want to leave the continent, getting them in touch with the right groups. We also have many sources of secret information. It would take some time, but we would be able to get her out." He stopped for a second and scanned him with his green eyes. "We assume you have information about her, and you know her better, so we decided… Or let's say I convinced them to let you help. If you decide to cooperate I will tell you more."

Jeremy already knew what his answer will be, but had to clear one thing first. "But why? Why would you possibly risk everything to get out someone you don't even know?"

"You heard the rumours. If they are true she will be the one to save us all, we have to try."

"And what if they aren't?" The boy asked, not trilled, the tension returning.

"Well we won't be sure until and if we succeed… So you will have her back in both cases."


The time kept passing by unnoticed, as Elena slept most of the time, panic rushing through her every time she heard Damon's footsteps coming closer, but he calmed her every time, saying that they are still not ready for her. It was killing her, the wait not letting the fear to leave her heart not for a second so she wondered sometimes… Wouldn't it been better if she would have to go to under knife the second Damon told her about what they are going to do. The sleep was her only shelter, where the fear couldn't find her. It was more and more common, surprising her with its persistence, scaring her. She wished for the dreams to find her desperately, but for a reason unknown to her they never did. She didn't tell Damon about this, thought, convincing herself that it was nothing important, that he didn't need to know but in reality she just didn't want him to take away the only escape she had. It was her secret, only hers.

She was flapping her wings slowly, concentrating on the felling of wind creasing her feathers so much that she jumped when she heard the key turning in the lock. She could feel the panic returning as he walked through the door, no suitcase this time, and looked at her. All of the hope disappeared as their gazes locked for a second. She knew what his word will be before he even opened his mouth, his voice soft but strict.

"Come. It is time to get you ready."

She obliged, slowly standing up, feeling the cold cement under her bare feet and soon after Damon got the security approval, they found themselves in a room Elena was never in yet. It looked like a consulting room but with much more equipment in the small plastic cupboard that were attached to the wall and three computers. The whole area smelled like disinfectant and a smell she didn't know but guessed that was iodine.

Damon led her to the bed in the middle of the room slowly, observing her before handing her a rubber band "I need you to tie your hair and put this on," he mention towards something that looked like a shower cap and was lying on the bed. "While I prepare the things we will need later, OK?"

She nodded using her shaky fingers to untie the knots in her messy hair, that haven't been brushed since the evening before she headed to Caroline's party. Tears began to gather in her eyes as she thought of all of the times her mother did the exact same thing, or how she used to do that every morning, before all this happened. Strange, how she could not recall any other happy memories like she would have to find something that reminded her of them. Probably because of the fear. She wasn't so afraid that something will go wrong and she will die than she was afraid of the pain she was going to feel if this happens and of what this would cause for Jeremy. How alone he would feel then. She wanted to see him so badly, to hug him, to make sure that he was OK, that he didn't lose hope yet… He needed her and she wasn't able to get to him. She hated this place, for stopping her. She was terrified. A tear fell from her eye, silently drawing a wet path over her cheek.

She tensed as someone lifted her head up, slowly, scanning her face, before whipping the tear of it watching it form a small drop on his finger pad. Damon. He must have noticed that she was done already, even if she didn't realise it. It seemed that he could feel her trembling because he let go of her face, finding her hand and squeezing it, his voice a quiet whisper, his blue eyes sympathetic. "Remember my promise?"

She took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. "I do."

"Good." He let go, picking up a pill and a glass of water from the cupboard. She looked at it, with confusion and caution. "I told you about it once. It will calm you down, so you won't be so scared anymore, nothing else." She took the glass from him slowly, putting the tablet in her mouth and closed her eyes at the taste, before washing it with water.

"Now, it is goanna take fifteen minutes for it to start working. All you have to do is lie down and try to relax." He left the bed side as soon as she did as he told her and she could hear him opening the drawers on somewhere behind her head, the sign of his presence strangely comforting. She couldn't be resting for more than five minutes when the dizziness started, making her vision blurry, before a strange feeling overtook her, like she would be only able to watch her emotions not being able to feel them anymore, like she would be pulled out of her body. She knew she was afraid, but she didn't feel fear or anything else. She wouldn't like it in any other circumstances, but in that moment all she felt was warmth as she sank in to relaxation. …

Damon could see that the pill worked, when he sat on the chair next to her bed again, her empty eyes making it easy for him to notice. She seemed relaxed now, but he knew it was all a trick, a chemistry trick, useful in that moment, but still. He hated to see her emotionless, like she was broken.

He inserted the canals in after that and stuck the electrodes on her, explaining her what he is going to do and why at his every step of the procedure until it came to the key part. She looked him in his eyes, her mouth and nose covered with a plastic mask as he emptied the needleless injection into her holding her graze until her eyelids fell shut and her breathing changed its rhythm in to slower one, her breaths deeper.

….

"Do you have everything?" He asked the co-worker who was committed to look after the surgical instruments. He closed the cork or the swab test, when the man nodded, smelling the iodine through his mask as he signed in relief. "Then we are done."

The operation went as planned, they opened her, found the strange organ observe and took a picture of it before opening it and taking the swab that will revile what is the strange substance in the girls blood. He had a hard time no to be worried and jumping in his surgeon mode during the process, having to look at her as just a piece of meat after she brought him so much hope bothering him. He couldn't help himself as he scanned her sleeping face, surprised how it can look so peaceful even with the tube sticking out of her troth.

"It is going to wake up in ten minutes, Salvatore." One of his helpers reminded him waking him from his thoughts with a robot like voice.

"I know. Hand me the blood, please. It's time to heal her wound." He replied, eager to do so, not wanting to watch her like this anymore, and moment later the needleless injection with vampire blood was placed in girl's canal. He pushed the plug down slowly, counting to ten in his head, observing the injury for the last time. Six…. Seven…. Eight…. Nine…. Ten…. Nothing happened. He waited some more. Still nothing.

"Maybe it is not enough." One of the men cut the silence while other was already holding another dose to him. He said nothing, while he emptied it into her. He has done the computation himself and regarding her body weight one measure should be enough. Maybe he should take into account her wings too after all. The longer they waited the more he became worried. The wound still wasn't healing when he saw one of her fingers twitch.

He panicked. "Get the tube out! Quickly!" He helped one of the surgeons to pull it out of her while the third held her mouth open. Her other palm moved and this time his co-workers noticed it too, screaming that she is waking up and trying to hold her hands in place, handing him another injection, but his teeth already dag into the flesh on his ulna, right where the two stubby veins were, filling his mouth with his blood, before he pressed it against her lips, trying to get as much as he could to run down her throat while Elena's signs of awakening became stronger and stronger.

"Come on, work, come on," he urged, but the girl's stomach was still open and bloody, his hope for the blood to work weaker by the second, but he couldn't give up yet, not on her. He flinched as he felt her whole body jerk and was welcomed by her eyes full of panic and pain as she started to cough his blood up, her body trashing on the table. He screamed for the man to roll her over so she would be lying on her side, fearing that the liquid is going to suffocate her. A scream left her lips before a jet of the blood hit perfectly white tiles, turning them into red ones in a beautiful contrast.

Damon stood in powerlessness, trying to come up with something, scanning the room quickly, seeing the surgeons pressuring gauzes over Elena's wound, so that she wouldn't lose so much blood, but he could see from their faces that they knew what he knew. They had less than two minutes. Another scream left angels lips before she vomited his blood again, like it pained her to have it inside her, like her body couldn't take it… The contrast. She couldn't be compelled; she couldn't keep down the blood, she was sleeping a lot lately… It had to be it. Vervain.

He screamed for the vampires to keep her as still as possible, as he ran out of the room and up the stairs, breaking the house rules, using his full speed, but he couldn't care less. The door of the section in which they were trying to create pills that would, when taken, protect vampire from the effects of vervain flew open, the force he used slamming them into the wall.

"I need a bottle of vervain! Now! It's an emergency!"

Everybody freeze and looked at him, confused.

"Hurry! It's urgent! " The room remained silent and he was preparing to start to threaten someone to get what he needed, when a woman with short black hair stepped in front of him, handing him a bottle. He snapped it out of her hand and not delaying to scream his thanks sprinted back downstairs.

….

The sight when he opened the door of the surgery room again was bad, really bad. The blood was now covering the whole wall he was facing and Elena was trashing around, more and more conscious of what was going on, screaming, the gazes his mates were holding soaked with her blood.

His hands shook as he searched for the injection in one of the cupboards, and tried to fill it with vervain when he found one, making sure to get rid of all the bubbles. He blurred to Elena's side holding her hand as still as he could when she was resisting before the needle pierced her skin at the inside of her elbow and pushed the plug down, hoping he was right and that it will heal the injury. And as soon as he emptied the injection Elena's body stilled as she lost consciousness.


I know this was pretty shocking. Review?