Chapter 6

"Wouldn't we have sensed Bonnie's presence when we tried to locate her earlier? We cruised right by the old office. I mean, if she's also in the basement there?" Stefan asked.

"Not if she is sedated, if she was not sending out strong signals," Elijah said. "In addition, there were a great many people in town when Damon and I drove through."

With dinner over, Damon, Elijah and Alaric went in Elijah's SUV, while Stefan and Caroline went in Stefan's Porsche, and drove through the dark of evening to the center of town again. They found parking and walked to the doctor's office diagonally across the square from the court house. It had been closed for several years, although Wes Maxfield had bought it. He had only been interested in the prisoner cell and the lab in the basement, which was good-sized because it actually extended somewhat under the store next door, which theoretically did not have a basement.

To Elijah Damon said, "There was a fire downstairs when some townsfolk tried to burn some of us vampires to death. With Bonnie's help, Stefan was able to save me. Sometimes, he's a really good little brother."

Stefan, standing behind him, just gave a snarky snort. He added, "As you can see, the whole building didn't burn down, but everyone else down there died."

The group stood behind the building where there was a door to the basement. Heavy plywood had been used to seal the door, but now it was obvious that the plywood had hinges and was a usable door again. Damon used his fingers to try to open it, but it resisted. Not to be denied, he dug in with vampire fingernails and ripped the door off its hinges. They all stood listening in case someone had heard and came to investigate. No one did and they quickly entered the dark basement and pulled the plywood back into place.

The four vampires immediately caught the scents of Elena and Bonnie. It was strong, but not as much as if the girls were actually there. Damon found a light switch and turned it on, helping them to find their way. They were in the lab, with its examining table and various tables and cabinets. Somewhere beyond, the prisoner cell was in darkness.

"I'm pretty sure Enzo said this is where he spent several years. The last couple of years he was a prisoner," Damon said. "It had to have been after the fire."

"And this is where I found Elena," Stefan added.

They checked the cell in the back and could tell both girls had been there.

"There's a television here," Stefan observed. "Maxwell let Enzo watch TV."

"Yeah. He told me that. And he read a lot of books and played video games. It helped him keep up with the world today," Damon said. "But he was still a prisoner and still underwent experiments. Sixty or seventy years of his life under different 'owners.' "

Everyone was silent for a long moment as they thought about this.

"Is it my imagination or is Aaron's scent here?" Stefan asked.

"It's Aaron's," Damon and Caroline said together. The scent was not strong because vampires did not put out a strong body scent, except when they had fed heavily on blood.

"That little bastard!" Alaric growled.

Elijah breathed it in so that he would recognize it if he caught Aaron's scent again.

"Alright," Damon said. "They were here and now they aren't. Aaron was here and now he isn't. So, with or without help, Aaron is the one who has Elena and Bonnie."

"He might have used Miss Bennett's ability to open the mausoleum. Forced her in some way," Elijah reasoned, although he knew some other explanation was possible.

"Looks like it," Alaric agreed.

"The young man is definitely a vampire," Elijah said breathing deeply. He was an expert at catching the faint scent of a vampire.

"And Enzo must have done it to him," Damon agreed. "Damn him! Someone else was here too. Some guy, but the scent isn't familiar."

"I don't recognize it either," Stefan said. "Someone human helping Aaron move his captives around?"

"A possibility," Elijah agreed.

The group left the basement and pushed the plywood in place over the doorway. There was no sense in leaving it open so that unwanted people could get in.

"I want to check the basement of the Whitmore mansion," Damon growled. "I bet he's taken them there."

"There's still the chance that Enzo is helping Aaron and they have taken the girls to Charlottesville," Stefan said. "Aaron might figure you would check the mansion and he doesn't want to come up against you without help."

"I guess that's true."

"Caroline and I will drive to Charlottesville. You and Elijah check out the mansion. Ric, what do you want to do?" Stefan asked.

"Take me back to the house. I can be there if Bonnie or anyone else with word calls there," the man said.

"That's fine," Damon said and in a few minutes he, Elijah and Alaric were in the old Chevy headed for the Salvatore house. They dropped Alaric off.

"If you hear anything at all, Ric, let us know," Damon said. Then he and Elijah headed for the Whitmore place some miles to the south. When they arrived, Damon parked near the back side of the house that he knew so well, the house that still gave him qualms in the pit of his stomach.

"I hate this place," he muttered to Elijah.

"Understandable, since you were tortured here."

They stood staring at the house for a couple of minutes. Although the upstairs was dark, the rooms on the ground floor were lit.

"Janitorial service," Damon said. "I know it's Saturday, but maybe there were some classes anyway."

"What is the best way in for us? I assume we are not going to enter by the front door."

"Let's try the outside door that leads down to the basement. It goes right into the cell area," Damon said and he led the way to a bulkhead jutting out from the back wall. It was mostly hidden by untrimmed shrubs. Because of light coming from a window located almost right above the bulkhead, they could see that the doors were not padlocked. Damon moved forward to lift them up, which would reveal the steps going down to the door into the basement.

Three rapid gunshots rang out from behind the two vampires. Damon was slammed in the middle of his back and knocked down onto the bulkhead doors. Elijah, still standing, was gone in a flash.

Damon felt pain radiate upward in his body from the wound in his back and he recognized that type of pain as coming from vervain. It was a bullet covered with the herbal drug, he knew, but not a dose high enough to paralyze his arms, much less knock him out. He also felt the pain of the wound. In a moment he realized that he could not move his legs. In fact, he couldn't even feel his legs. The bullet had hit his spine and damaged his spinal cord.

The vervain made his weakened upper-body muscles shake as he struggled to turn over so he could look for Elijah. He raised his head and looked around for his companion, fearing to see him sprawled on the ground, but the man was nowhere in sight. He isn't wounded. Good. Maybe he went to catch the shooter. Is it Aaron? He used a gun on me before. Does he still have it? he wondered.

Half turned over, he saw Elijah walking toward him in the dim light. No one else had come to check out the gunfire. Strange.

"He had a vehicle close by," Elijah said, coming close and leaning down.

"Are you hurt?" Damon asked, although the older vampire seemed fine.

"Barely. What is your injury. Can you get up?"

"No. I think the bullet hit my spine. Hurts like hell so it may be wood. And it has vervain on it."

"So did the one that hit me. I am a stronger vampire than you are and I barely feel the effect. Are you saying you are partly paralyzed?"

"Yeah. My legs."

"What course of action do you want to take? Shall I put you in the car? Should I proceed with the search? Or try to remove the bullet?"

"Move me off this damned bulkhead and proceed." Damon gritted his teeth, but he couldn't help uttering a pained cry as Elijah put hands under his torso and lifted him, setting him on the ground beside the bulkhead. "I don't know which hurts worse, the wooden bullet, the vervain or the wound itself."

"All three are sufficient to make you suffer," Elijah said with a trace of sympathy. He left Damon lying on his abdomen and moved to inspect the wooden doors of the bulkhead. He reached down and was easily able to opened the two doors upward, one to the left and one to the right. The dim light was more than enough for him to see the steps and the door to the basement.

"The door is probably locked," Damon said. "Maybe you can kick it in."

Elijah went down to the door and tried the knob, just to see if it was locked. The door opened. "Unlocked," he told Damon. "The scent of the two young ladies is strong. They are either here now or they have been very recently."

"Check it out, but be careful. Aaron's helper may be in there," Damon said. He didn't like how he felt emotionally. It was fear of the prison and a deep memory of what he had experienced there. Now he even feared Elijah would be captured and tortured. A wave of nausea made his stomach contract and what was left of his supper came up. It wasn't much, but it soiled the area of dirt where he wanted to rest his head. Frustrated, he muttered a string of curses as he used a hand to sweep the spot cleaner.

The Original felt around for a light switch, even though he could make out the bars of cells. Bright lights recessed in the ceiling came on when he flipped the switch by the door. Ahead of him was one of the cells and he noted that the bars were very close together. He knew why. The cells had held vampires, a few of whom could shape-shift. Only a small animal like a mouse, a small bird, a snake or an insect could get out.

He quickly checked the cells and found one of the missing women. It was the pretty African-American Bonnie Bennett. She lay on her back on the stone floor with a blanket over most of her body. Elijah tested the cell door and found it unlocked, probably because Bonnie was in no shape to get up and leave. A quick glance around revealed no one else in a cell. Elena was not there. The scent of a male human was still present, but it was not one Elijah had smelled before. Was it someone helping Aaron or some other prisoner?

"Did you find them?" Damon called.

"Miss Bennett. Drugged," Elijah called back as he bent over the woman. Bonnie jerked at the sound of his voice. She half opened her eyes.

"It is alright, Miss Bennett. This is Elijah Mikaelson," he told her.

"Elijah?" she murmured and looked up at him. "Hallucinating," she mumbled and closed her eyes again.

He didn't bother to correct her, but gathered her up in his arms. She resisted weakly and tried to push him away.

"Leave me alone! Don't touch me!"

Elijah wondered what, if anything, Aaron had been doing to her. He didn't shift the blanket to see if her clothing was in disarray. If she had been abused, beyond being drugged, there was nothing he could do about it now. He carefully carried her up the stairs and laid her down beside Damon.

"Bonnie? Can you hear me?" Damon asked. He reached out to touch her shoulder with his shaking hand.

"Damon?" she whispered without looking at him.

"Yeah. I'm here. Me and Elijah. Came to rescue you like knights in shining armor."

A small smile touched her lips. "You're no white knight."

"I suppose not. No shining armor, either. Just a bullet in the back. Elijah, is Elena down there?"

"Not in a cell. The scent of a male human is there along with Aaron's."

"But you didn't see or hear Aaron?"

"No, but he could be lurking."

"The lab is in the next room. The door to the right of the cells."

Elijah went back down the steps and saw the closed door. He found that it, too, was not locked. Either Aaron didn't expect anyone to visit or he didn't have the keys. Elijah opened the door carefully, concerned that an armed person was waiting on the other side.

A/N Is Aaron waiting for whoever comes through the door? I hope you liked the bit more drama.