**Chapter sixty one**

The clearing

*Hailey*

After Nicolai left, I felt his blood start to heal me. My broken arm healed, and I felt energized again. I struggled to understand everything. Less than five minutes ago, I thought that Damon was dead. And now Nicolai admitted that he was still alive. It was too much to handle in such a sort amount of time.

Elena stared at me, shocked and not knowing what to do. I soon snapped out of my thoughts, and focused on the situation at hand. We had to get out of here, and I knew that we would have to fight. I grabbed Elena's hand, and pulled her towards the door with me. I put a finger to my lips, and then put my ear against the hollow wooden door. I couldn't hear anything.

I eased the door open to reveal an empty living room. Someone had gotten the tomb vamps out of the small cottage, and I knew exactly who. Two brothers who were going to get themselves killed for Elena and me.

Quietly, I walked out of the room, pulling Elena with me. We both scanned the cottage for vampires, but we seemed to be alone. Or so I thought.

"Hailey, look out!" Elena exclaimed, and I looked up just in time to see a vampire lunge at me. On instinct, I raised my hands and sent him into wall and held him there. I broke a leg off of a chair telekinetically and sent it into his chest. I didn't bother to watch the nameless vampire die, I just tore another leg off of the chair, and Elena and I sprinted out of the cottage.

It was pitch black outside and raining down on us hard. We ran into the woods, looking for Stefan and Damon. They couldn't be too far away. But outside was where all the vampires seemed to be. There had to be dozens.

I was waving my hands frantically; throwing them away from us, staking them, ripping body parts off. It was slowing us down. "Elena, go on without me!" I screamed at her, as she tried to stake the vampires I held down.

"Are you crazy?" she shouted over the thunder.

I shouted out in pain as a vampire lunged for my neck, his teeth just scraping my neck. I kicked him away and held him still as Elena staked him. There were too many for us, and I was losing energy fast.

"Go! Get Stefan and Damon. They have to be around here somewhere," I shouted at her, breathing heavily, taking a short break just as more vampires noticed us and the heap of dead vampires surrounding us. Elena and I were putting up a hell of a fight.

"GO!" I screamed, putting all my power and energy into sending the small army of vampires running at us flying away, so that Elena could run without being stopped.

With another look at me, Elena took off into the woods. I killed a few that started to run after her, before running in the opposite direction. My heart pounded in my chest and my lungs burned as I struggled to breath. My energy was draining almost too fast- I had never used this much at once before.

I sprinted into a small clearing, forcing myself to keep running. I never stopped waving my hands at the swarm of vampires attacking me. Every now and then, one would get a good hit at me, leaving me bruised and with cuts that bled out my blood. It just drove the vampires even crazier.

It was hard to see through the rain. It was hard to see what to aim for and what to dodge, through the sheets of rain raining down. As I gasped loudly for air, my lungs and chest feeling like they were on fire, a vampire suddenly lunged for my neck and sunk their fangs into my jugular. I cried out in pain, and then felt more teeth sink into my flesh. The blood loss just made my energy drop even faster.

I felt this pressure- this power- build up inside of me. It was something that I had never felt before. I took a deep breath, and then let it out. All the vampires flew off of me and disintegrated in midair. I gasped and started shaking out of coldness and exhaustion. I was alone- but for how long?

Suddenly, my knees gave out, and I fell to the ground. That all too familiar feeling of having absolutely no strength engulfed me. I felt my eyelids droop, as I slipped and fell down a rocky hillside. The rain and mud washed me down. I felt every sharp jab of pain as rocks stabbed into me. It wasn't over until I hit the bottom.

And then I felt nothing when I let blissful unconsciousness take me over.

*Elena*

Elena ran through the woods as fast as she could. She didn't know if the vampires were chasing her or not, and she didn't have any superpowers to defend herself with. She felt terrible, leaving her best friend behind. But Hailey was right, it would be faster if Elena ran and got Stefan and Damon, while she distracted the tomb vampires.

The rain poured down on her, and Elena felt like her lungs were on fire, she was running so hard. But she didn't slow down. She had to get to the Salvatore brothers. She finally slowed down near a clearing, and gasped for air. She heard noises coming from the clearing, and walked out from behind a wall of trees to see what was happening.

She watched in amazement as Damon and Stefan took on an army of vampires all by themselves.

Damon was shouting at Stefan, but he was ignoring his older brother. Stefan looked around after killing a vampire, to see Elena watching him. The way Stefan looked at Elena when he saw her was one that made her heart melt. It was like the sun had finally come out after centuries of darkness. Suddenly, Stefan was at Elena's side, and he pulled her into his arms, hugging her to his chest.

Stefan had his Elena back, but Damon's Hailey was still MIA.

*Damon*

Damon literally ripped the tomb vampires apart. He found strength in the possibility of finally getting his Hailey back. The tomb vampires had to be creating new ones by the boat load, because there seemed to have an army of vampires- and they had already been thinned out before.

Damon wanted Stefan to leave and go save the girls, but his brother refused to leave. They were wasting their only chance. "Stefan, go," Damon growled at him, as he easily ripped the head off of a tomb vampire.

Stefan ignored him, but then suddenly disappeared. Damon wasn't too worried, especially when he saw his target standing across the field, the one he had promised death.

Markus.

Damon ran at the older vampire, but he easily dodged him. Despite the age gap, Damon's anger and desperation fueled him. Markus was the reason that Hailey was taken from him. Markus was shocked by how well Damon rebounded from his attacks, and his surprise was just the opening that Damon needed. He managed to get Markus by the neck, and Damon slammed him against the grounded.

Damon raised his hand to rip Markus' heart out, when he was suddenly distracted. "Damon, we need to go-Hailey needs you."

Damon's head snapped around to face his brother, who was holding Elena tightly. They were across the battlefield, their gaze focused on him. Where was Hailey?

Suddenly, he was slammed against the ground, and watched helplessly as Markus ran away. Damon cursed himself, before getting up. He could've just ended it all, but his heart got in the way.

His stupid, god forsaken heart.

Damon hated himself, as he ran across the clearing to Stefan and Elena. "Where is she?" he growled at them. Elena stammered out a vague location, and then he took off.

As he ran, all he saw where dead vampire bodies. He didn't pay them any mind, and kept searching for Hailey. He entered a small clearing where the dead body trail ended. But a blood trail began in its place.

Damon inhaled the very familiar scent, and his heart wrenched. Hailey's blood. He followed the scent to a muddy hillside, his eyes scanning for his fairy.

At first, Damon didn't see anything at the bottom of the hill. But then he noticed that the small mud pile at the bottom had long black hair, and Hailey's scent radiated off of it. He knew that he was looking at his Hailey.

Damon gently picked up Hailey's bruised and battered body, and searched for a heartbeat. A faint one met his ears. He sighed in relief, before biting his wrist, and forced her to swallow some of his blood. After Damon was done, he held Hailey bridal style in his arms, and took her home.

~LMF~

A/N: thank you to: Kelsey, SomebodyWhoCares, jacquline, Stefanie, Samantha meyers, KimmyWSmith, and Ravenator for reviewing!

Let's keep up with the awesome reviewing!

~Abby ;)