Chapter 3

Elijah came to his side and stared at the lovely satin lining of the empty casket. The pillow had a depression where her head had rested. One stray dark hair lay on the fabric. "Would Stefan take her for some reason?"

"Why would he?" Damon snapped, taking his phone from his pocket. Pacing back and forth in the limited space, he called Stefan. "Did you take Elena?"

"What are you saying?" the younger brother demanded.

"She's gone, damn it! Her body isn't in the coffin! The damned door to the mausoleum was open!" he shouted.

"That's not possible. Only you and I can get inside," Stefan growled over the phone. "I didn't go back after we left. Do you think Bonnie went in for some reason?"

"How the hell should I know? I'm here with Elijah and I'm telling you found the door open and Elena's gone!"

"Why is …?"

Swearing, Damon cut Stefan off and then phoned Bonnie Bennett. She didn't answer and he left a message that she call him right away. He then stood thinking, trying to consider who might have removed Elena's body and why.

Elijah, who has listened to both sides of the conversation, watched him. "Any ideas?" he asked the distraught Damon.

Although Elijah's initial interest in Elena had been because she was the doppelganger of Katherine Pierce, or Katerina Petrova, he also admired her for the type of person she was: intelligent, strong and caring. And since he had once loved Katerina, he was attracted to Elena because she was her double. A nicer double. His brother Klaus had had a different reason for wanting to locate Elena, and of course, it had been a purely selfish one. Klaus, in fact, had caused one of Elena's deaths.

"Is it possible that she arose and walked away herself?" the Original asked.

"Of course, it's possible. That's why I tried to reach Bonnie Bennett. If something happened to her, if she suddenly died, Elena could rise."

"And you have not reached her."

"No. There could be several reasons why she's not answering her phone. Let me text her, just in case she can't speak on the phone right now." He did this, but again he received no immediate answer.

"Call someone to check for finger prints on the door," Elijah suggested.

Damon wished Sheriff Liz Forbes was still alive. She had been a trusted person who knew the vampires well, especially since her daughter Caroline was one. He hesitated to call any other law officer, not when there was the possibility that Elena had walked out of the crypt.

"I'll wait on that," he told Elijah. "Let me check with Vampire Barbie. Uh, Caroline Forbes." He put in a call to her.

Elijah waited patiently, although he was concerned about Elena's whereabouts. He knew Caroline, a blonde vampire and good friend of Elena and Bonnie. He also knew his brother Klaus had a love for her. He somehow doubted that it would last and that Klaus' roving eye would settle on any number of females that might temporarily increase his heartbeat and go to his bed.

For a moment, Elijah's heart felt a stab of pain as he thought of the cruel moment when Niklaus had caused the death of Gia, a vampire for whom Elijah had recently had growing feelings. With Haley married to Jackson, Elijah's love for her had to be put aside and he had been developing real feelings for Gia. Niklaus knew how to hurt his brother and was not above doing so. It certainly made Elijah think of vengeance, but there was also little Hope to consider. It was a frustrating dilemma. And now there was this situation with Elena.

"Caroline, have you seen little Miss Witchy?" Damon asked as he reached the young woman.

"Bonnie?"

"Of course, I mean Bonnie!"

"No. Why?" Caroline asked.

"Elena is not in her coffin."

"Someone took her? You think Bonnie would do that?"

"No, I don't think so, but if something happened to Bonnie…"

"Oh my God! You think she may be dead?"

"I don't know."

"Then Elena would have come alive and climbed out of the coffin! Oh my God!"

"Are you at school?"

"No, Damon, it's Saturday. I'm shopping."

"I'm going to go by her house and see if she's home."

"Bonnie or Elena?"

"Bonnie!" Damon snapped with frustration.

"Call me if …"

Damon hung up on her, cutting her off. He shook his head. "Sometimes talking to Caroline makes my head spin."

A small, sympathetic smile touched Elijah's lips. He didn't smile much. What was there to smile about these days?

"I'm going to Bonnie's house. If you want to take me home, I'll use my car."

"No. I will drive you. I wish to solve this mystery, too."

Again, Damon gave directions and soon they were in the neighborhood where the three girls – Elena, Bonnie and Caroline – had grown up. Damon nodded toward a house that was under reconstruction.

"That was Elena's home until she set fire to it after Jeremy died. He's alive again now, but she didn't know he would be brought back from the Other Side."

"My brother Kol has come back a couple of times, but he's gone again. We are hoping to bring him back in a human's body. Again."

"Stop here. This is the Bennett house. Kol is a mean bastard. Why would you want him back?"

"He is not always incorrigible. And he is one of my brothers," Elijah said as he parked by the curb. "Finn I hope not to see again."

"And you'd off Klaus if you could."

"Yes. At least, in my present frame of mind."

Damon shook his head. "Elijah, buried somewhere in your cold heart is a soft spot."

"It is a deep devotion to family, at least to my siblings. I have another sister, by the way."

"Oh? How come?" Damon asked as he got out of the vehicle. He noted that there was no car in the driveway where Bonnie usually parked.

"Long story. The short version is that Mother's first born, a girl, was taken away by my aunt. I always was told the child died of illness. Like Mother, the aunt was a strong witch and worked out a way to live on into the future. The present. She wanted to get her hands on little Hope. She did briefly, but Niklaus was there and, in the end, she died. Our sister, Freya, is part of the family again."

"Does it ever bother you that nothing is ever as it seems?" Damon asked as he walked to the Bennett front door. "Dead people are never dead and gone?"

"It bothers me, yes. Occasionally, I am pleased to see someone I thought never to see again," Elijah admitted. He followed Damon to the porch of a small, wooden house that was next door to the one undergoing major repairs. The place was neatly painted and the yard in good order. "Are either of Miss Bennett's parents still alive?"

"No. Her father was murdered and her mother is off somewhere. She was the one who helped Bonnie to initially open your mother's coffin."

"Ah. Yes, I recall that now. It was a shock to us siblings to be confronted by Mother's reappearance," Elijah admitted. "Niklaus was sure she had come to kill him. Scared the crap out of him." The small smile touched his lips again and Damon noticed. "Ironically, she really had come to kill all of us."

"Can you imagine the thousands of vampires around the world dying if she had succeeded?" Damon said. "All the descendants of you Originals. Neither you nor I would be here now." He was usually aware that, as a vampire, he was a descendant of Klaus, but he didn't dwell on it. "I would rather you didn't kill your brother Klaus. I get depressed, but I'm not ready to die."

"I sometimes forget that situation," Elijah said. "I do not want to be responsible for all those deaths. It is interesting that when Rebekah chose to go into a human body, there was no kill-off of her descendants. Or at least neither Niklaus, Kol nor I heard of that occurring. Damon, there is no one in this house."

"I don't sense anyone, either," Damon said with disappointment and alarm. He led the way around to the back yard, stood there for a long moment and then knew Bonnie was not there either. "Alright. We have to drive to the college and see if she's there somewhere."

"Or if Elena is there."

As they left town to drive to Whitmore University they were silent, each deep in thought. Finally, Damon said, "This doesn't make sense. Bonnie wouldn't take Elena's body. And she wouldn't ignore her phone."

"Perhaps she does not want to speak with you specifically. Allow me to call her. What is her number?"

"And you think she is going to want to talk to Elijah Mikaelson?" Damon asked with a snort.

"Out of curiosity, yes. Why would I be calling her?"

"Yeah, why? Okay." He gave him Bonnie's memorized number. It was on speed-dial on his own phone, but he knew it by heart. In a couple of minutes they knew she was not answering Elijah's call either.

"Something has happened to her," Damon said in a worried tone.

As far as Elijah knew, his companion was not a dear friend of the missing witch. For one thing, he was aware that witches, in general, didn't like vampires and there were plenty of both in New Orleans. There were only a few in the Mystic Falls area. In fact, Bonnie might be the only one at present, while Damon, Stefan and Caroline might be the only vampires there. Of course, he, Elijah, was not aware of the entire population of this small town. He hadn't lived there for over two years and the disastrous family struggles in New Orleans had required his full attention.

"Miss Bennett does not have a grudge against Elena, does she?" he asked as he drove along.

"Not really. They're close friends, despite problems. It's been a disastrous year for us, Elijah. For the whole Scooby Doo group."

Elijah glanced at Damon. Being a man of wide knowledge and a lot of trivia, he knew who Scooby Doo was. He assumed the name now referred to Damon, his brother and their friends with assorted supernatural abilities.

"My mother has come back, too," the younger man muttered.

"Oh?" Somehow, this was not a great surprise to Elijah. He knew too many people who did not stay dead and gone.

"Yeah. Turned out she didn't die of illness way back when. She was a vampire. Still is. And not only that, she is one of those weird combo types. Part witch. You know what I mean?"

"Yes." Nothing was simple in Elijah's family either, of course. When not vampires, his siblings Finn, Kol and even Rebekah had witch capabilities. And apparently even little Hope did, too, besides being the offspring of a werewolf and a vampire-werewolf. "The world is insane, Damon. I feel as if everything is out of control."

Damon looked at the man and could see that he was not as calm as he appeared. "It is, Elijah. It is."

A/N Well, another chapter. I hope you liked this one, even if it has quite a bit of review of the guys' recent history. It's sort of Damon and Elijah bringing each other up to date on the way things have been going as they try to figure out where Bonnie is and what happened to Elena. More to come, of course.