Chapter 12

In a minute, Stefan and Caroline entered. The scent that came in with them told Damon that they had stopped and Caroline, at least, had fed on the way. He slightly begrudged her the nice, fresh blood. Stefan tried to stay away from fresh human blood.

"We lost him," Stefan said. "No idea where he is, but he could be right here in town somewhere."

"I don't know if it's worth it to go cruising around aimlessly," Damon said, returning to the study. Elijah had stood up when he heard the voice of a lady.

"There was an accident earlier where County Road 22 crosses the railroad tracks. The place was crawling with cop cars when we went by earlier," Caroline said. "Aaron wasn't involved, of course." She sat down beside Elijah's seat and he sat again.

"Well, that explains why there were no cops at Whitmore. We left a body there ourselves," Damon added. "At the Whitmore house. Plus one Aaron added. He must be stealing cars and maybe leaving a few bodies in his wake. The law must be trying to track him by now, since they've left the railroad accident."

"He is so out of his mind," Stefan said, shaking is head.

"He isn't the confused kid he was a year ago, I can tell you that," Damon asserted.

"Are you both recovered from your wounds?" Caroline asked, noting that neither Damon nor Elijah looked impaired.

"Mostly," Damon said, not mentioning his nerve problem. His phone rang and he looked at it. It was the sheriff, Robert Longley, who asked if Damon had recovered Elena's body or had any leads as to where she was.

"Aaron had her at the Whitmore dormitory, but we lost him," Damon said, telling part of the truth.

"We just talked to a girl there who said he took her hostage in the laundry room and then went up to her room. He had a woman's body over his shoulder. He had an automatic weapon and shot two men who she invited into her room. Were you one of them?" the sheriff asked. He knew Damon was a vampire and would heal.

"Yeah. If we hadn't been wounded by that damned AK-47 he's carrying, we would have caught him. He's smart, but he's crazy, hauling Elena's body all over the place, jumping out windows with her.

"Have you recovered from your wounds?" the sheriff asked.

"We have."

"Who exactly are 'we'?"

"A friend who knew Elena."

"Damon, I assume this friend is like you. I would like a name. I want to know who is wreaking havoc in my territory."

"Aaron is wreaking havoc, not us."

"There are two dead bodies at the Whitmore house at the college. Both with broken necks. Wooden stake lying on the floor by one of them. A very interesting set-up in the basement. Blood. A man's bloody shirt. A couple of bloody bullets. I'm assuming you know something about all that."

"Why would you assume that?"

"Damon, who is hunting Whitmore with you?" the sheriff insisted.

Damon looked at Elijah, who was listening to the entire conversation. So were Stefan and Caroline. Elijah nodded his consent.

"Elijah."

"Elijah Mikaelson?" the sheriff asked.

"Yeah. Look, we know Aaron left Mystic Falls, went to the college, left there and headed for Charlottesville, changed his mind and came back this way. He could be in town or at the college again. Why he doesn't just leave the area completely, I don't know," Damon said with exasperation.

"I wish I had known he was heading for Charlottesville before. I could have alerted their sheriff and their police," Longely said. "They might have apprehended him."

"I don't want Elena's body caught in a shoot-out," Damon said. He noticed the lawman refrained from saying a few bullets wouldn't hurt a dead body.

"I'm going to alert Charlottesville and the county. He might go there anyway. If you spot him or hear of a location, let me know. Hunting a killer is our job, Damon, not yours, even if he has Miss Gilbert's body."

"I'm still a volunteer deputy," Damon reminded him. He had worked with Liz Forbes several times and she had appreciated his special knack of tracking people down.

"I know that, but you're very emotionally involved in this. I'd rather you backed off. I don't want to find Whitmore with a broken neck or his heart ripped out or his head separated from his body."

Longley had witnessed such bodily damage. He didn't like dealing with vampire kills or trying to come up with fake causes of death for the public. Until recently, Dr. Meredith Fell had been the medical examiner for the county and she had been good at naming such causes of death. Ripped necks and depleted blood within a corpse could be blamed on some animal, although it was never figured out exactly what animal.

The phone call ended.

"I feel grubby," Caroline said, standing up. "I'd like to take a shower."

Damon told her what room Bonnie was in and what room Elijah was using. "Use the one at the end of the hall, over the kitchen, but try to be quiet. Mrs. Flowers is sleeping."

"I'm going up to my room," Stefan said. "Let me know when you figure out the next move." He left the room at the same time as Caroline.

"Is there something between those two?" Elijah asked in a low voice.

"I think so, but it's hard to tell. Caroline is still recovering from the death of her mother. Brain cancer."

"A tragic loss. I recall Sheriff Forbes as an intelligent woman," Elijah said.

Damon walked to the bar and poured himself another small drink. "Want one?" he asked.

"No. I'm fine." Elijah stood up and stretched, testing his shoulder. It was still tender, but it seemed to be working properly.

Damon watched him. The nagging tingle in his legs was easing, but not the one in his crotch and his buttocks, including his posterior orifice. It was not an itch, but almost. More disturbing was the idea that Elijah could scratch that itch. It reminded him of the time a boy witch had put ideas into his, Damon's, head about Elijah's brother Kol and had made Kol feel the "itch." They had managed to resist and the boy witch had met an untimely end.

"Damon!" Elijah said, uncomfortable with the stare the younger vampire was giving to the front of the Original's trousers.

Startled out of his thoughts, Damon realized where he was staring and quickly moved his eyes up to meet Elijah's dark glare. Embarrassed, he said, "Damn it, Elijah. Are you sure you got all of that bullet out of my back?"

"I could not swear to that, no. I looked at the bullet, but not that closely. I did notice that it was a combination of metal and wood. It was deformed by the bone it had hit. There could be a splinter of either the wood or the metal still in there. What are you feeling?"

Damon told him with continued embarrassment, but also anger at the situation.

"I suppose an X-ray would show if there is still a metal fragment in your back next to your spinal cord. I do not know if a wooden splinter would show up," Elijah said, sitting down on the sofa and crossing one leg over the other. This prevented Damon from staring at his pants and also suggested that Elijah was not willing to help in a sexual manner.

Damon walked to the fireplace and stared at the low flames. He bent down and added a small log to the fire.

"Meredith Fell or Jo Laughlin would have helped me get an X-ray, I suppose, but I don't know who would now," he said.

"Some other doctor or a technician might be compelled to take one," Elijah suggested.

"Excuse my behavior. It's just that the feeling is nagging at me and putting ideas in my head. I'm not really asking you to do anything to me. I don't mean to offend you."

"No offense taken, Damon. I do wish I could do something more practical to correct the situation."

"If you think of something, let me know. In the meantime, where should we look for Aaron?"

"Do you think Miss Bennett could do a locater spell on Elena? We mentioned this before, but we have not explored it," Elijah said.

"I don't know if Bonnie's spell could penetrate Kai's and if it did, would Bonnie die or Elena become totally dead?"

"A bit of a conundrum. We do not want to lose either one."

"First, we need to let Bonnie sleep off the sedation so she will really be alert," Damon said. "Do you want to rest for a while?"

"I am resting."

"I meant sleep."

"I am fine as I am. What about you?"

"I'm too wired to sleep. All I can think about is Aaron dragging Elena all over the place. What if he abandons her somewhere? What if the bastard molests her?" He started pacing around the room, sipping his drink as he went.

"It is not all you are thinking about."

"Don't remind me. Let's just forget that. I shouldn't have brought it up," Damon said. Nevertheless, he reached back and scratched the denim fabric over his rear end.

"Let us drive over to the hospital and see if we can compel someone to X-ray your back," Elijah said, standing up. He well recalled going with his brother Klaus to have such an examination done when the piece of metal, put in Klaus' back by Silas, had caused the younger brother to have spinal injury symptoms.

Damon hesitated. Could they do it? Would it show anything? If it did, what would they do about it? "Let me tell Stefan where we're going," he said and used his cell phone. Stefan picked up right away and acknowledged the message.

"Alright. Let's go," Damon said to the Original.

"We will have to use your vehicle. Mine is a mess," Elijah reminded him.

"Okay."

Before they could go to the front door, Bonnie walked into the study. She looked tired and rumpled and was wearing a pair of slacks and a top that did not match. She was barefoot.

"You should be sleeping," Elijah told her.

"I know. I woke up and started thinking about what's been going on. I want to try a locater spell. I don't know if it will home in on Elena or not."

"I would like to know if it will work, too," Damon said.

"Is there not some danger in doing that? I mean to you?" Elijah asked.

"Maybe. We'll have to see. I'm willing to take the chance."

They spent the next few minutes gathering what they thought might be used, especially since some of Elena's things were in the room she sometimes used. Stefan and Caroline joined them. During the preparations, Damon took a few minutes to go to the downstairs bathroom. When he came out, he had an odd expression on his face.

"What's the matter?" Stefan asked.

"I don't know. I think there's a piece of bullet still in my back. It's annoying some of my nerves."

"I thought Elijah removed the bullet," Stefan said.

"He did, but we aren't sure a fragment isn't still in there. It may be wood and it had vervain on it."

"That doesn't sound good," Caroline commented.

"That's an understatement," Damon muttered. "Now I can't pee."

"Oh, oh. How bad do you have to go?" Caroline asked.

"Not too bad. It's hard for me to tell. I feel like I should before we go out again, but I can't."

"There must be a fragment still in there," Elijah said, disturbed by this. "I apologize for not getting it all out."

"You did the best you could. I don't blame you," Damon said.

"Do you perhaps have a catheter you can use?" Elijah asked.

"No, not that I remember," Damon said. "Stefan?"

"I don't. What would I need one for?"

"Just asking. Besides, I'm not that desperate yet," Damon said, a bit embarrassed. He looked at Bonnie and said, "Let's do this locater spell."

Damon and Stefan had run out of local and state maps, so Damon drew a reasonable facsimile of the local region.

"That's pretty good," Caroline observed.

"Thanks. I guess I always had a talent for drawing, a talent I share with Stefan."

"We assumed it came from our mother who, in her human days, did sketching and a little painting," Stefan said. "Damon's ability to play the piano also came from her. She didn't pass that on to me. Now, I wonder if she remembers any of that."

Bonnie decided to use a few drops of her blood since she and Elena were somewhat tied together through Kai's spell. "This would be so much easier if my connection to Elena was on a different level and I could feel where she is."

"Do the best you can," Elijah said with encouragement.

A/N The mention of Kol and the boy witch is from my story "You Don't Know Me." The mention of Elijah taking Klaus to the hospital for an X-ray is from my story "Weakness." If you haven't read either one, you might find them interesting. As for this story, thank you to all who are reading it.