Chapter 8

One of the two windows in the bedroom was open with café curtains blowing inward. The scent of Aaron was on the breeze, but the young man was not there. Nor was Elena.

"Who are you?" Damon asked the young man lurking by the dresser like a cornered animal ready to charge.

The fellow remained silent, but his expression seemed one of anger and fear. He suddenly leaped at Damon and brandished a wooden stake which he tried to drive into Damon's chest. The vampire knocked it aside and grabbed the arm holding it. He twisted it behind the man's back and held on.

"Who are you?" he repeated.

"Let go!"

"I'm going to break your arm in a second. Who are you?" Damon warned, twisting the arm.

"Larry Nolan."

"And why are you with Aaron, Larry Nolan?"

"Because of Elena."

"That doesn't tell me squat! Why are you helping kidnap Bonnie and hide Elena's body?"

"I love Elena! I'd do anything for her, but she fell for Liam and she didn't even notice me! What does he have that I don't have?"

Damon listened to the whine in the voice and thought Elena didn't like whiny men. This fellow was not ugly by any means, but Damon knew Elena had liked the good-looking guys and ones with a positive personality. The college student Liam was somewhat handsome and positive, he had to admit.

"You realize Elena was lying in a casket? Are you into grave robbing? That's pretty sick if you ask me," Damon growled in his prisoner's ear.

"Aaron said she was going to wake up and she'd be thankful that I was looking after her," the fellow argued, again in a whiny voice. "She would have to notice me then. She'd be grateful."

"And did Aaron tell you she might not wake up for decades?"

"She could sleep for two years?"

Damon wondered if the young man knew what a decade was. How did these people get into college?

"A whole lot longer. How long do you intend to put your life on hold waiting for her?"

"Aaron says she'll wake up real soon. I know who you are. Damon Salvatore, her old vampire boyfriend. Aaron says she doesn't love you like she used to, so why are you here?"

"Aaron's been feeding you a line of bull, Larry, just so you would help him. Where did he put Elena?"

"I'm not telling you. You're the sick one, keeping her in your family crypt," the young man accused. "Aaron says you compelled her mind to take a nap so you could keep her for yourself. Like Sleeping Beauty. I bet you fool around with her while she is in the trance."

Damon gritted his teeth, his indignation and disgust growing. "I sincerely hope the students here at Whitmore are a whole lot more intelligent than you, my friend. You sound like a fourteen-year-old comic book geek. Not that I have anything against them, you understand, but you are in college! You ought to know the difference between fantasy and reality."

Larry swore at him and Damon twisted his arm until the shoulder dislocated. Larry screamed in pain and swore more and tried to kick him.

While this conversation was going nowhere, Elijah was tending to Bonnie. She seemed to be more alert, but still under the effect of whatever drug she had been given.

"How are you feeling?" the Original asked. He could see that her clothing looked to be in place, but that did not eliminate the possibility that either of the men had abused her sexually.

"Drugged. I hate this. I've been carried around like a sack of potatoes and dumped here and there. Can you get me out of here to safety?" Bonnie wearily asked.

"That is my intention. Along with locating Elena's body," Elijah said. "Have you been abused? Are you injured? May I pick you up?"

"Please pick me up, but don't abandon me again. Aaron and Larry came right back and grabbed me. No, they didn't abuse me if you mean sexually."

"I apologize for my negligence in that matter. I should not have left you unguarded," Elijah said. He leaned down, scooped her up into his arms and took her out into the hall. "Do you know if Elena is in this building?"

"From what I heard Aaron say to Larry, he was taking her to the basement of the dorm where she and I and Caroline have been living," Bonnie said. She was alert enough that she was aware that she was in the arms of the one she thought was the nicest and handsomest of the Mikaelson brothers. A damned vampire, but one who was a gentleman and who was carrying her to safety.

Damon, who had heard what Bonnie had said, smiled. Now they had some useful information. He let go of Larry's arm, grabbed his head and twisted the neck. Larry was no longer waiting and watching for Elena's gratitude and love.

Damon followed Elijah along the hall, down the stairs and to the front door. Cautiously, he opened the door and looked out. Seeing no one, he moved to the end of the porch that crossed the whole front of the house. From there he could look down the side to the street behind the house.

"There's a security vehicle parked on the street by the corner," he told Elijah. "Someone reported the gunshots."

"They were slow to investigate," the Original replied. "I had time to dig that bullet out of you and we went upstairs. Poor quality security."

"They probably didn't know where the gunfire was located. But now they are parked just a short way from your SUV."

"Do you see anyone?"

"No. They may have gone down into the basement," Damon said.

"There may only be one security guard," Bonnie said, still in Elijah's arms.

"Alright. Let us go as far as the back corner of the house. If the guard is in the building, we can get to the vehicle."

In a moment they were by the bushes at the back corner of the mansion. It was dark there and they paused to look and listen. No one was visible along the back, although light shown up from the bulkhead area. In a blur, Elijah carried Bonnie to his SUV.

Damon was able to move in a blur now and he did so. He supposed that Aaron would come back to look for Larry and Bonnie. Would he be deterred by the security guard? Would the guard call for reinforcements because of finding the strange basement with cells, an odd lab and fresh blood? Would they search the house? If not, no one would find Larry until his body started to smell.

Elijah put Bonnie into his vehicle and helped her buckle her seat belt. He then got in himself as Damon joined him.

"Back to the dormitory?" he asked starting the vehicle and driving on down the street. He doubted that Damon wanted to do anything different.

"Yeah," the younger vampire said. "Damn it! I can't believe I didn't ask that idiot who let them into the mausoleum! He was there. He must have known! I'm an idiot!"

"You were concentrating on finding out where Elena is," Elijah pointed out, although he too thought Damon had been negligent in not asking who cancelled the spell before breaking the fellow's neck. "In addition, you wasted the opportunity for fresh blood."

"Damn, you're right," Damon growled.

"I did it, Damon," Bonnie admitted from the seat behind Elijah. "I let them into the mausoleum."

"You did? Why?" Damon asked, turning somewhat to look at her. He reminded himself that he had once wondered if she had been the one. She was the one who put the protective spell on the crypt and therefore the one who could most easily remove it.

"Perhaps you didn't notice the hole in the dirt at the base of the mausoleum, in back," Bonnie said. "They had planted dynamite and planned to blow a hole in the wall if I didn't cooperate. They would have blown up Elena, because they didn't realize her casket was placed against the back wall. They captured me at gunpoint. I thought about disabling Aaron when I realized he was now a vampire, but Larry had a gun and seemed willing to use it. I'm sure he's the one who shot at you two."

"He didn't have the gun up in that room," Damon said.

"Aaron took it. Anyway, I cancelled the spell off the mausoleum so they wouldn't blow Elena up. Aaron injected me with some sort of sedative right after that, but I knew they opened the door and took Elena from the casket and carried her to their vehicle. I thought they would just leave me there, but they picked me up, too, and took me with them. They kept moving us; I guess because you all were on their trail."

"You are safe now," Elijah said. "We shall not leave you unguarded again."

Damon, how are you doing?" Bonnie asked. "I mean your back."

"I'm fine. Sore, but fully functional," he assured her.

Elijah drove the short distance to the dormitory building and parked in front.

"There's a back door to the basement," Bonnie said. "Go around the end of the building so you can park out back."

Elijah followed her directions and was soon parked a short way from a panel truck. "That's Aaron's!" Bonnie said, looking over Elijah's shoulder. "You need to leave me here if both of you are going in after him. Let me lie down on the floor back here. Please lock the doors." She undid her seatbelt and moved down to the floor. She was not comfortable, but she was almost invisible down there since the side windows were tinted.

"Are you sure?" Elijah asked. He really did want to go with Damon. "I told you we would not leave you alone again."

"Yes. Go!"

The two men left the SUV with the doors locked and they approached the back door, which was not down any stairs. Damon tried the doorknob and found the door locked. He noticed that the hinges were on the outside, meaning the door opened outward, which was a poor security factor. He lengthened his fingernails somewhat and pried the pins out of each hinge in moments. The door came free and he moved it out of the way.

The stairs going down to the basement were just inside and the two men quietly walked down into a hallway lit by only a few bulbs. They sniffed the air. There were a lot of scents, but two of them were from Aaron and Elena. Both of the men felt encouraged, but they also knew Aaron was tricky and dangerous. He was on the run and now might be cornered.

The scent led them to a room where a washing machine and a dryer rumbled, but no one was there. A quick search helped them find the scent again, this time accompanied by a strong perfume.

"He's picked up some girl," Damon said. "Maybe she was down here doing her laundry."

"They may not be together."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. In fact, let's hope not," Damon said, not wanting Aaron to have a hostage. Besides Elena, that is. He led the way up a stairway at the end of the building. It was late at night by this time, early Sunday morning, but with sensitive ears, they could catch the sound of a radio or television and various voices. Obviously there were a few students about. It was the weekend, with no classes the next day.

"It is amazing that he can carry Elena around without anyone wondering what he is doing with her body," Elijah said. "And the weapon, if he still has it." He and Damon hesitated to step out of the stairwell because of the blood on their clothing.

"If no one recognized her, all he has to do is say she is drunk and passed out," Damon said. "We don't know if the other girl is with him or not." He cautiously looked around, being able to see toward the lobby. No one was in view except a young man and a girl kissing and fondling on a sofa. Neither noticed the two vampires as they moved up the stairs in a blur.

At the head of the stairs, Damon stopped again to look and listen. He thought about the young couple on the sofa and he thought about Elena, Elena in his bed. His damaged nerves tingled around his buttocks, groin and down his legs. To Elijah he said, "Do you ever get any?"

"Any what?" the Original asked, concentrating on the situation at hand.

"Sex."

Elijah stared at Damon for a long moment, wondering where that personal and inappropriate question had come from. Sometimes, he just did not understand today's young people. So many of them did not have good manners. No respect.

"Why should I tell you something of such a personal nature?"

"You don't have to tell me. Just wondered. I know sex is important to me."

"It is important to me, but only with the right person. Usually," Elijah admitted. "Now is not the time to be thinking about such things."

"I know. But thinking about Elena reminds me of our times together. If Aaron has fooled with her, I'll rip him apart, piece by piece, starting with his groin."

"First, we must find him."

A/N Aaron seems to be a particularly elusive fellow, playing a cat-and-mouse game with Damon and Elijah. Is he doing this just to get back at Damon? I hope you like how this is going. It is fun to write.

I have not been getting my Story Stats update for about five days. Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do about it?