Almost the last chapter, guys! I love your reviews; each one makes my whole day. I even screenshotted one and texted it to my friend, TheGarbageCanIsNotAMonster. Haha!(: Please keep them coming, I was sort of hoping to hit 100. Love youu. Enjoy.
Ps, since I don't think I've said this before: I don't own the TVD idea or anything. All rights go to LJ Smith and the brilliant writer of the t.v. show. Yes, the plot line is somewhat mine, but besides that...just putting it out there so I don't get sued, haha.
Damon and I reached his cellar quickly, not wasting any time. This wasn't over quite yet. I was eager to find Aunt Jenna, Bonnie and Caroline. I wanted us to be together. Until then, I wouldn't be completely calm.
My foot tapped quickly against the cement of the floor as Damon left my side to grab the blood bags. He brought four, and tossed one to me. "A celebratory snack," he said with a grin.
I frowned as I caught the bag out of midair. It was cool and squishy between my fingers. I fiddled with the top. "I'm not quite ready to celebrate yet," I warned, but ripped the bag open. Immediately, the scent made my mouth water and triggered my vampire-reaction, fangs and all.
"We'll get your family here safe soon," Damon comforted me, and flashed to my side to put a hand to my arm and squeeze. "I promise."
I gave him a weak smile and tipped the bag back. The thick liquid swirled around my mouth deliciously as I drank. Too bad it stained my teeth so much. I had half a mind to lick the inside of the bag when I was finished, and maybe I would've if Damon hadn't been standing there watching me.
I felt a drop of blood leak from the corner of my lip and roll down my chin. Embarrassed, I went to wipe it away with my fingers, but Damon beat me there. He bent his head and kissed the spot, sucking the blood from my skin. From there, he kissed my mouth gently. This kiss screamed victory, even if we hadn't quite won yet. His enthusiasm was contagious, and I threw my arms around him and kissed him right back. His teeth snagged my lip and I shuddered.
"Elena," he almost begged. His hands tightened on my hips. I gasped, wanting nothing more than him.
I reached out and brushed his hair from his eyes, which were the sharpest blue I'd ever seen them. I placed a soft kiss under one of them. "We have to go." I started to pull away, but he groaned and yanked me back for one last kiss. I smiled against his lips. His fingers laced with min, and we were off.
"This night is a lot of back and forth," I complained as we were running through the trees. I had to speak to him over my shoulder, as he was lagging behind.
"You're super speed is hurting me ego," he called.
I grinned even though he couldn't see it. "Well now I don't want to give you any blood."
He sped up, nearly running by my side, and teased, "Guess I'll just have to take it."
I wasn't watching where I was going, so when I reached the entrance to the tomb, I nearly slipped and fell right through. Damon grabbed me by my elbows at the last second, and my legs dangled in midair. I giggled at my clumsiness. "Thanks, I owe you."
He smiled as he pulled me back up, something he needed to do more often. "Even though you'd recover in minutes, it's not fun to break your leg."
I nodded my agreement and collected myself. Once my heart stopped thrumming from the fear of nearly falling in the hole, I bent my knees and jumped down. I landed like a cat—on my feet.
Damon hopped down beside me within the second, purposely knocking into me so that we ended up tangled on the ground. I tried not to laugh. "Damon," I scolded.
He gave me innocent eyes. "What?" With a kiss to my forehead, he pushed himself off my and offered a hand to help me up off the ground. I took it graciously and pulled myself up with a fluidity the only existed in supernatural beings. Damon's pupils dilated as he watched my smooth movements, drawing an unexpected blush from me. He reached a hand out and traced my cheeks. "I missed that."
I let myself bask in the moment for a little, but Klaus's strangled cries put me back in business mode. I held my hand out, and Damon placed a blood bag in it. I strolled over to Klaus very slowly. He watched me from the ground, panting. His entire body was covered in sweat. I crouched low, only steps in front of the tomb, and dangled the bag between two fingers. Dark, rich red substance sloshed around the bag. Klaus whimpered.
"Is this what you want?"
He couldn't speak, but he tried to reach for it. I pulled it back quickly, curling my hand over it. "Ah, ah, ah," I tisked. "Not so fast." My eyes grew dark. "Tell me where Jenna is."
He didn't make an attempt to answer.
"No?" I ripped the bag open and let a tiny drop slide out onto my finger. If it was possible, he looked even more tortured. A wholly animal roar of agony tore from him. "If you can make that sound, you can tell me where you're keeping my family." I licked the blood from my finger mockingly. "Bonnie," I said as I squeezed out another drop. "Caroline. Jenna." Two more drops. He watched like a dog begging for a treat. "All you have to do is tell me where you're keeping them, Klaus, and the bag is yours."
He opened his mouth to confess, but was interrupted by a crashing noise behind us. I jumped so fast that I almost dropped the bag right into Klaus's hands—almost. Stefan stood behind us, hiding something close to his chest.
I squinted. Were those…bodies?
Communicating his anguish with his eyes, Stefan rolled the bodies carefully onto the ground. Blood covered both of the throats of the people lying there. A throttled yelp of pain escaped me, and I fell to my knees. There, just feet in front of me, were the ripped and torn bodies of my closest friend, Bonnie, and my Aunt Jenna.
…
"No," I sobbed, and crawled over to Jenna. I wrapped two fingers around her wrist, praying for a pulse. There was none. "No!" I let go of her and moved to Bonnie, already knowing that I would feel nothing but trying anyway. Her hand was cold and there was no thrumming coming from her veins, no pulse in her body. They smelled musty, decayed…dead. I bent my head and cried, unable to help myself. Bonnie's eyes were closed, but Jenna's…Jenna's were opened, and they were petrified. I collapsed onto them, my cheek pressing against Jenna's chest. There was no sound coming from her body—no beat of a heart, no gurgling tummy noises. She was just still. They both were.
Horrible sounds accompanied the sobs, and my entire soul felt like it was being ripped wide open. "No," I insisted over and over again. "No please, please."
Damon's arm came over me, and he gently tugged me into him, hiding my head in his shoulder. He placed his chin over my hair and rubbed my back with his hand. I folded into him, my hands gripping the shirt that was stretched over his broad chest. The tears came freely, soaking his clothes and my face in no time. "Oh, God, Elena," he murmured, patting my back. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
I sniffled and tried to pick myself up off of him. Poor Stefan probably felt very awkward, and I needed to go home, get out of here. The bodies would have to be taken care of, and I needed to get to Jeremy before any of Klaus's people.
But trying to function was eating a gash through my heart. The wounds from losing my parents were cut open and all the grief poured from them. I caved back into Damon, not yet ready to move. "Okay," he soothed, "It's okay. Take it slow, baby."
I felt so small, so alone. All Jenna had ever wanted was to help me…she'd done nothing to deserve this. And Bonnie? How could Klaus—his name tasted like something awful, vulgar— take this out on her? She was so weak compared to him, so defenseless. Sure, witches were strong, but she was new. And God, so, so young.
I cried out as though I'd been punched. This was my fault, all of it.
But I still have Jeremy, I told myself. That was true, and I still needed to be strong for him. This would kill him, but I was going to have to be there. I was going to have to be whole for him; we needed each other. And I had Damon, too, and Stefan. I took a deep breath. It was shattered and it hurt a bit, but it helped me to compose myself. I let myself breathe without hiccupping for a few minutes, and then I lifted my head off of Damon. I was sure I looked like a sloppy mess, but he still looked at me as though I were the most beautiful girl to ever walk the Earth. "Will it kill him?" I asked.
"What?" His voice was feather soft and tentative.
"That," I pointed to Klaus, my voice heavy from the sobs. "Will not having blood kill him?"
Damon shook his head. "No, we can't starve, it's impossible. But he will start to desiccate, and in maybe fifty or one hundred years, he will become completely immobile—like he's dead, except he's not."
"Like he's frozen," I grasped.
Damon nodded, lips brushing my hair. I took another, less choppy breath. "In that case." I picked the blood bag up from where I'd dropped it next to…next to the bodies, and I held it up to Klaus's famished eyes. I spoke to him quietly. "I've never wanted to kill someone so much in my whole life, but this," my voice caught and I gripped the bag tighter. "This might be just as satisfying." With that, I chucked the bag against the opposite wall in the hole, out of Klaus's reach. It exploded and blood spattered my cheek, and in a ring around the tomb, just out of Klaus's reach. I signaled for Damon's help, knowing that right then I wouldn't be strong enough to close the heavy door on my own. He grabbed one end and I held on halfheartedly. Before I moved the ancient rock, I met Klaus's defeated eyes one more time. "I hope you rot," I seethed, and then Damon and I slammed the door right on his pathetic, writhing form.
…
The rain started at 2 a.m. the day of the funeral, and it didn't let up the remainder of the week. It seemed fitting; the whole event was dark, after all.
Never had I ever hugged Jeremy tighter than when Stefan had found him at the lake house and had delivered him to me, his young mind cleared of the compulsion. Telling him about Jenna was the hardest thing I'd had to do in a long time, but after a night or two, we were both able to get more than four hours of sleep.
Caroline had showed up at the wake and funeral, an unexpected guest. She had been with Klaus, but for whatever reason, he'd spared her. She wasn't ready to talk about it yet, so none of us knew why he'd let her go. All I could tell was that her normally light eyes were haunted.
I had a feeling she'd been forced to watch them die.
Bonnie and Jenna's coffins were sleek and black, with plush silk on the inside. In her casket, Bonnie's family memoire was buried, along with a necklace that had belonged to Emily, her wicca ancestor, and a simple bouquet of her favorite flowers. They'd straightened her soft black hair, and she wore a plain dress that complimented her skin tone. Of course, that skin tone now was about three shades lighter than it was supposed to be.
It was even harder to look at Jenna than it was Bonnie. She resembled Mom so much. Her honey hair seemed limp now, though, and her lips were white instead of peach. She had nothing but a cross to hold, and that felt lonely to me. I'd placed a kiss on her forehead and regretted it; she had been ice-cold.
Damon had stayed by my side the entire day, looking way more handsome in his tux than I would have thought possible. It felt good to have him there, the only real relief I'd felt throughout the whole occasion.
Jeremy had gone with me to the burial, and we'd both thrown dirt into the whole. He'd held my hand for the first time in years, and it made me feel stronger somehow, as though this giant weight I held wasn't just being carried on my shoulders. I had Jer and Damon and even Stefan to help me, and I knew better than anyone to count those blessings.
As our car rolled away, after all the tears and greetings of distant friends, family members or just kind people of the community, a small ray of sunshine cracked through the gray clouds. It was still raining, but that sunlight signaled a small sign of hope, and I was going to hold onto it.
:'( This chapter made me sad. But review, please, and I promise, the next chapter should wrap everything up. Love you guys!