The game begins again...come and play!

Thansk to aj81writing who performed Beta duties on this story. I am grateful (and you would be too if you saw this before she got ahold of it...)

Loyalty

"Voicemail," Elena whispered, "Though it rang first."

"That's good, right?" Stefan said quickly, before Elena scowled and put a finger to her lips to tell him to be quiet.

"Katherine, it's Elena. Can you call me, please?"

"Why would you…" Stefan began before Elena interrupted him.

"Stefan! Let me think."

She glanced at Damon, whose face showed concern, before she closed her eyes to think, her phone still in her hand.

Damon glanced at his brother. Stefan was scowling, though he stayed where he was, a few feet from where Damon and Elena sat on her bed.

"The vampires were outside when you came, right Damon?" She asked.

"Yes."

She took a deep breath and then addressed both of them, looking between them as she spoke. "Will you two see if you can find out where they were, see if you can follow them? Maybe figure out where they went?"

"Why would we do that?" Stefan asked.

"Because she asked us to," Damon growled. He was already headed towards the window, but he turned back to glare at Stefan.

"Then you'd better run along," Stefan said with a dismissive wave of his hand, looking at Damon until he turned and went through the window.

Elena watched Damon go, then stood and faced Stefan. Before she could say anything, he spoke. "Why are you doing this Elena? This is what we wanted – Katherine leaving you alone."

"We?" Elena shot back.

"Yeah, we," the vampire responded. "You did it to save Bonnie, but admit it Elena. You never wanted to make that stupid pledge."

"I made it, Stefan," Elena responded angrily. "It saved Bonnie and more – you know that. Anyway, Katherine has never asked me to do anything I wasn't willing to do."

"Of course not. You do everything she wants you to. You're just her minion."

He knew it was the wrong thing to say, that she hated being called a 'minion'. He had never called her that before, of course. He was trying to get back on her good side, but whatever he tried hadn't worked.

Her reaction was immediate – she was fuming. "Is that what I was when I did what you asked me to do, Stefan? Is that what I was to you?"

"No," the vampire responded quickly. "You know that. I loved you and you loved me. I never demanded your loyalty."

Elena had moved to stand close to him now. She almost poked him with her finger, but was able to hold back, as she said, "But I gave it you. I gave it to you and I gave it to Katherine."

He was trying to think of a response when she spoke again. "I haven't revoked my pledge and she hasn't told me I'm released from it. It's my job to protect her for as long as I live, so until I can tell that she is OK, I'll be looking for her. If you can't understand that, then you don't know anything about loyalty – or me."

She wasn't really glaring at him, but her face was firm as she added, "Now are you going to help Damon or not?"

He wanted to stay there, to stare her into submission, but he knew she wouldn't budge. He turned and left without speaking.

The Prisoner

Katherine was sure her captor was a vampire. She assumed he was incredibly strong, even though she hadn't been able to approach him close enough to find that out for herself. She was also sure there was a powerful witch involved and that some kind of spell was keeping her in her prison.

Not that her prison was all that awful. It was more like a hotel room – everything she would need. There were even a few bags of blood in the refrigerator – not that she trusted them enough to drink any of it.

But somehow she was bound – forced to stay inside. And when her captor did appear, he just entered the room, stopped a few feet inside the door, and spoke to her. She had quickly given up trying to attack him – whatever the spell was, it kept her several feet away from him. Yet, when he left, she could reach the door again.

He hadn't taken anything from her, not even her phone. She had heard it ringing earlier, but had let it go to voicemail when she saw that the caller was Elena.

She thought she had been in this prison for several days – though she wasn't really sure how many. She also wasn't sure why Elena would be calling her now. The human girl was only supposed to call her if she was in danger, though it really hadn't worked out that way. Still, Katherine was sure that, whatever the problem, those who were with Elena could handle it.

Her thoughts were interrupted as her captor entered her room again. This time she stayed put, this time she managed to stay seated and just glare at him.

He looked mildly amused as he spoke to her. "You didn't take her call. You always answer when she calls. Always."

"Her?" Katherine asked, trying to control her surprise.

"Elena Gilbert."

When he said no more, she asked, "How would you know?"

"I have my ways," was his infuriating reply, though she didn't really get upset until he added, "She'll come after you. She'll find you."

"No, she won't, and why would you care, anyway. She's nothing to you."

He laughed this time. "She's not nothing, but you know that better than anyone. And she will come for you – you know that better than anyone as well."

"What makes you think that?" Katherine asked angrily.

"I don't think it, I know it." He no longer seemed amused, his face was hard now. "Some of those you have posted around her aren't quite as loyal to you as you think."

"What do you want from me?" she asked, but he was already out of the room. It wasn't the first time she had asked that question, but it was the first time she thought she knew the answer.

She resolved, again, to not bring anyone else into this, if she could help it. When she was brought to her room, she was out, maybe unconscious, under a spell of some kind. When she awoke, she saw that she had missed a call from Isobel. Isobel had called again, but she ignored it, unsure of what she wanted from the other vampire. She wanted to figure out where she was, why she was here, and then she would decide who to bring into the situation, then she would know what to do.

Whatever happened, she did not want to bring Elena here; not now that the human girl seemed to be the target. She knew she would have to be careful about what she told Isobel. Elena and her mother were fairly close. Either could bring the other here, whether it was intentional or not. Now that she knew her phone was under surveillance, she wasn't going to take calls from either Elena or Isobel.

Still, she was beginning to think she needed help from somewhere.

Not Normal

"Katherine won't be happy," the vampire next to Isobel said.

Isobel was trying to ignore him. She knew he was right, but she had made her mind up. Katherine was unavailable, had been for several days. She had not responded to anybody's messages.

This was not the normal Katherine. The normal Katherine was always doing something, always controlling them. She certainly controlled those around Elena, never leaving them in place for very long . They would come back, of course, after a few days away, but she was always switching them around.

The normal Katherine always responded to Isobel's calls. Not that she answered the phone immediately, like she always did with Elena, but she would respond later that day. Katherine would not have let Isobel's calls go unanswered for days, like she had this time.

Elena's mother was not sure she was doing the right thing, though. She was tempted to talk to her daughter, to bring the subject up. But Elena was no fool, and if Isobel asked if Elena had spoken to Katherine recently, the human girl would know that something was wrong. The human girl would insist on being involved.

Whatever was up with Katherine, if she wanted Elena involved, she would have contacted Elena. Until that contact was made, Isobel knew Katherine would want Elena to be as far away from any problem as possible.

Not that Katherine would want Elena's protectors to be pulled, but there had been no sign of trouble in or near Mystic Falls for weeks. Isobel decided she needed help to find Katherine. Elena should be safe enough with Damon, Rick and her other vampire and witch friends.

The Last Resort

Damon and Stefan entered the room just in time to hear Elena say, "Please call me if you know anything. Thanks."

"Isobel, or Isobel's phone, actually," Elena said in response to Damon's quizzical look. As he nodded, she asked, "Did you find anything?"

"They got into a car, they drove away." She could hear Damon's frustration as he responded.

"Does that help?" Stefan asked sounding annoyed.

Her ex was still being a jerk, so Elena ignored him. She just held Damon's eyes as he moved to sit next to her on the bed. He pulled her into a hug saying, "We'll figure something out."

She already had a plan. First, try Isobel. That hadn't worked, so she spoke into Damon's chest as he held her. "We'll call Sarah."

"The witch that was here?" Stefan asked, this time sounding surprised.

Elena pulled herself away from Damon enough to look at Stefan and nod. "She and Katherine have…some kind of agreement. They're connected. Maybe she knows something."

Stefan was scowling again when she turned back to Damon. "Do you have her number?"

Damon couldn't help smirking, despite Elena's serious demeanor. "Nope. I don't add many witches to my contacts. I can take you there, though."

Elena sighed. She could feel Stefan glaring at Damon's comment about taking her somewhere. "Maybe, but I'd rather call first."

She had hoped to avoid asking, but stood and headed for the door, saying, "I'll bet Jeremy has her number."