The Hordes

Alaric watched Katherine as she talked on the phone. If he understood correctly, they had gone south to almost the edge of town. She had made a couple of other brief stops, but not long enough for him to get down and walk around.

But now it had been five minutes. He had stretched and walked around a bit. He was ready to do something besides stand there.

Several other vampires had joined their group as he waited. As he feared, he had no idea who they were loyal to, no idea who any of them were, except Katherine.

Katherine approached him and spoke. "No sign of any of them in town anymore. Or to the South or West. It appears that Elena leaving the Bennett house put an end to the fires. And we were either wrong about them being Southwest of town, or they have moved."

"Did you find who you were looking for?" Alaric asked.

"No. No sign of them," Katherine said, shaking her head.

"But Elena and Isobel are back at Bonnie's house now?"

"No. They never returned. Not a complete surprise. It seems Elena has managed to achieve her goal of being followed by hordes of vampires."

"The sun will be gone soon," Alaric said. "We need to find them. We should be moving."

"Oh, we'll move. First we need a bit of guidance." Katherine said, pressing buttons on her cell phone again.

Our Isobel

The entire group had been moving at top speed until Isobel slowed it down to answer her cell phone.

"Here." Isobel said into the phone, slowing to a walk. Damon and the others matched her speed.

Elena guessed that they had been busted.

"Your job was to get her back to the Bennett house," Katherine said. Isobel thought Katherine was calmer than she should have been.

"It was. But you have always said that, no matter what happens, we are to stay with her and keep her safe. This is the 'no matter what' part. You know her. This can't be too much of a surprise."

"I know her and it's not."

"Do you want to talk to her?" Isobel asked.

"Oh, I'll talk to her. But it will be face to face when she cannot just send me away with words. Are you out of town now?"

"Yes. Going East, maybe a little North."

"Then they're behind you and to your left. Find a place you where you think you can keep her safe. Leave your phone on, we're on our way. Both Nathaniel and I have more coming, our numbers will be overwhelming if they can be held off long enough."

"Got it. We'll look for someplace to stop."

Katherine turned to Alaric.

"Are you ready Mr. Saltzman?"

Alaric nodded as he climbed onto the back of the vampire.

"Let's go find our Isobel…" Katherine said as she looked that the device tracking Isobel's phone and left in a blur.

The Point

Isobel slowed to a walk and spoke to Damon.

"Katherine wants us to find a place we can hold and keep Elena safe."

"No," Elena interrupted. "We need to keep moving. We can outrun them."

"The sun is setting, Elena," Damon said. "Maybe we could outrun some or even most of them – without you. But not with you. "

"And you are the point of all this," Isobel said. "We can't run forever. It's time to turn and fight."

Isobel put Bonnie down and left to speak to the vampires near them. Three of the idiots increased speed, moving ahead of the rest and disappeared, though it seemed they separated, heading in different directions.

"They will find a place for us that we can hold." Isobel told Damon who was still carrying Elena.

Bonnie was walking between Isobel and Damon.

"You're going to have to put her down and let her walk eventually," Bonnie told Damon.

"Eventually. But not now."

All Roads Lead to Her

Jeremy watched as Marcus and Stefan whispered to each other. Marcus had just been on the phone. He looked like he was ready to move, but Stefan convinced him to wait. He and Jenna stood as Stefan approached.

"Elena has left town going East," Stefan told them. "But she is being followed by a bunch of vampires – the ones that want to take her out."

"Take her out?" Jenna asked.

Stefan nodded. He didn't like it, but he had decided that he, at least, would tell her no more lies. "Yes."

"Why would they want that," Jenna asked. She was getting agitated.

"She's important, Jenna," Jeremy replied. "But she's protected, right Stefan?"

"Yes," Stefan said. "And Katherine is going to join her now with even more help. But the others are between them."

Jenna closed her eyes and tried to calm herself with breathing.

Marcus came to them and spoke to Stefan. "I can't wait anymore. I'm going to find her now."

"Find who?" Jenna asked.

"Elena Gilbert. Katherine is going to her, and I need to be with them."

"He thinks we should go farther into the woods, some of the enemy is between us and her," Stefan said.

"No," Jenna said. "Take us to Elena."

Stefan looked at Jeremy. He nodded.

Marcus did not look happy as he let Jeremy climb onto his back. He turned to and spoke to Jenna who was now being held by Stefan. "You should leave while you can. Everyone is going to Elena Gilbert, but most are not intending to protect her."

Not in Front of My Mother

It was getting dark quickly. Elena tried to make out some of the features of the position they had chosen, but she couldn't see around herself very well. Her eyes were trying to adjust, but it was not enough yet. They were on a hill, and it was steep. After letting her start up the hill, Damon must have decided she was too slow. He had scooped her up and brought her the rest of the way.

She couldn't see what they were doing in the darkness, but Damon, Isobel and the other vampires were making preparations. They were trying to make it hard for those who wanted to get to Elena. She sat in her assigned spot with Bonnie next to her.

"I feel so helpless," Elena said to Bonnie. "I have no power – I can't do anything to help."

"You lured the vampires out of Mystic Falls," Bonnie noted. "That's something."

"They were there because of me."

"Don't be so egotistical, Elena. There were vampires in Mystic Falls long before you were born."

"You know what I mean, Bonnie. It's getting worse. Every time I turn around, there are more. And they are after me, but you and my family get in the way. Eventually, you will get hurt."

"You are doing you best – we are all doing our best. And so far, it has been enough."

"So far," Elena sighed. "But it only takes once."

Isobel approached and spoke to Bonnie. "How far out can your protection spell work?"

"I'm not sure. I can cover the size of my house, maybe more, but less would be easier."

"And do you know for how long?" Isobel asked.

Bonnie shook her head. "Never tried it for more than 10 or 15 minutes. And I do get tired."

"Then that spell is our last resort." Isobel said. "We have it set up so that when they are about half of the way up the hill towards us, we can start a fire and there should be a ring of fire around you. There will be plenty of light for as long as we can keep it up, but I don't know how long that will be. You can hit them with your power before they get too close, right?"

"If I can see them."

"We'll be between the fire and you, but you know what to do if anyone approaches Elena too closely."

"Yeah. I know."

Damon sat next to Elena as Isobel moved back into the darkness.

"Bonnie, can you give us a little privacy? Just for a few minutes?" Elena asked.

Bonnie nodded and moved away from them. She found a tree to lean against as she looked back at them.

"Great way to start off together Damon," Elena said. "I'm sorry about all of this."

"What, you think I want boring? I've tried that before. It was boring."

"Promise me we'll do something together besides fight for our lives."

"Well, you were the one who said we were going to do this forever," Damon reminded her. "You're right so far."

Damon hesitated a minute and asked "Why me?"

"I thought that was what you wanted."

"It was. I wanted a lot of things from you, but I only ever got a fight from you. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Elena sighed and ran her hand over the bracelet. "It wasn't sudden Damon. I decided awhile ago. I should have told you sooner, but then I kept remembering what you were – what you had done. It was hard to get past that."

"So why did you? Why are you past that now?"

"Like you said, I've seen you at your best and your worst. I lived through your worst. I can do it again if I have to. But I've seen you at your best for some time now, and I want your best - even if the price is seeing your worst once in awhile. Then, with all of this stuff going on right now, I realized it could end anytime. I decided I didn't want to waste any more time."

They were as cuddled up as they could be where they were.

"Did you hear from the idiot left behind when we turned from the road?" Elena asked.

"Yes. They're following us. We might have half an hour now before they get here."

"Half an hour," Elena repeated. She looked at Bonnie and motioned for her to return.

"What did you do that for?" Damon asked, annoyed, as Bonnie sat on the other side of Elena.

"I don't know about you, but I need someone to keep me in line for the next half hour. It wouldn't do to embarrass myself in front of my mother, best friend and other assorted idiots."