When Elena opened the door Sage was already on the porch waiting for her. "Hurry, we haven't much time!" He told her while taking her arm.
"Okay, okay, but can you at least tell me what is going on, am I in danger"?
"Is Delena?" "No but it is a matter of life and death." He replied while pulling out of the drive way. He was driving so fast things were just a blur, and she held Delena tightly, since she didn't have a car seat. Not that Delena seemed to mind. She was cooing and giggling, while wrapping her finger in Elena's hair. She seemed to be enjoying the speed.
Finally Sage pulled onto a side trail into the woods which Elena had never seen before. From there they were on foot. Sage walked briskly making it hard to keep up. She wouldn't have been able to, if it had not been for the fact he still had her by the arm. His large body and chest seemed to knock away the overgrowth of brush and branches, keeping the way clear for her, which was good since she still had to carry Delena. It was a good thing she trusted Sage, because it was very obvious that wherever they were going had not been travelled in a long time. If she was on her own, she would be hopelessly lost.
"Sage I understand the rush, but as we walk could you please explain what is going on, she pleaded again."
Its Markus, he is very ill, he won't listen to reason and return to the underworld to meet his obligations, or to heal. If he doesn't return, he will die."
"I don't understand, what obligations, and I thought vampires couldn't just die, unless staked, or drained or something like that? She asked.
"He was taking care of business is all I'm at liberty to say.
He had been injured for awhile, since he was working in the arenas every day, and some nights, and then he was injured further when you were leaving." Sage said with what sounded like a mix between anger, and sympathy.
"Wait a minute, how do you know Markus, and why exactly do you care?" Elena was genuinely stumped on this one.
"I've known Markus along time, he has his faults grant you, but under it all he's not that bad of a guy. He certainly doesn't deserve to die this way. I can't seem to get through to him, that's where you come in. I'm counting on him listening to you."
"Why would he?" she asked, but was given no reply.
There it was, a decrepit little cabin, abandoned long ago by the looks of it. More like a shack, judging by the size. Hard
to believe the great Markus would be in a place like this.
As they approached, Elena felt a strange sensation come over her, it smelled of death and loneliness, utter despair.
She found herself wondering how she could tell all of that by a smell. The gloom and doom feeling just got worse the closer they got, and Elena was starting to become afraid.
"Sage, are you sure this is a good idea, I mean we didn't part company on the best terms? What about Delena, I don't want her going in there."
I'll hold the baby outside," he reached for Delena with his huge hands resembling what Elena could only imagine, a mountain lion trying to hold an egg in its paws would look like. He must have seen the doubt on her face, because while smiling down at Delena he said, "Your Momma needs to understand you are not the first baby I've held. I've had many. Somebody needs to go back to Sunday school and re-read their bible about the time before Noah's flood...hunh baby girlie?"
Elena had to try to think back to what she had heard as a child. Something about... The Sons of God (fallen angels) finding human women beautiful and taking them as wives.
Was this what he was referring to? Elena really wanted to ask, and engage in a long discussion, but one glance up at Sage and the urgency she saw in his eyes, and she knew it was a topic that would have to wait for another day.
Elena swung open the door to the cabin a little bit apprehensively, but wanting to make sure there would be enough light to see by. It turned out not to be necessary, as there were so many light giving holes in the roof, she could make out the layout of the room, if not all the details.
"Shut the FUCKING DOOR" she heard a screech from a slumped form over in a chair in the still darken corner.
Her heart was pounding and her throat went dry, as she tried to steady her voice and herself. She questioned her own sanity as she heard herself call out "Markus"?
"Oh so the prodigal slave returns. Or should I call you Mrs.
Salvatore? Excuse me if I don't get up to congratulate you, I'm not quite myself. Did you come to gloat, bring the whole damn family along? Why are you here Elena, say your peace and be gone. Or did you come to finish me off? Wouldn't that be fitting?"
Elena nervously looked back to the door, to make sure Sage was still within ear shot.
"Sage, get her out of here, some friend you are, drive the stake in deeper while you are at it." He bellowed, however Elena could see that Sage was now in the tree line with Delena, keeping her amused. She was sure with his vamp hearing he was listening intently even though he gave no indication.
"Well spit it out, can't a guy die in peace, do you have to take all my dignity?"
Elena was confused by his words. "Well, I would if you would let me get a word in edgewise." She answered, deciding not to play into his game of trying to irritate her, or chase her away.
"What are you doing here," she asked. "Sage said you are not well?"
"What else did my dear friend tell you" he asked.
"Not a lot, something about gladiator fighting and an injury...and you refusing to return where you can heal." She answered him.
"Hmm. so at least he knows when to keep his mouth shut. Don't worry your pretty little head about me. You'll excuse me if I let you show yourself out. I'm sure your husband must be missing you... " He sounded jealous almost.
She started to walk up to see him more clearly. However before she could make it to him he seemed to try to jump up, in a recoiling motion, but she could see he could barely stand. Was he afraid of her, or ashamed? Just what was going on here?
"You never were good at taking hints were you. Get out Elena, I don't want you here." He said, and then suddenly stumbled forward landing in a heap in front of her.
She had tried to catch him when she saw him stumble, but it was like trying to catch a falling tree. She was left clutching an arm, of a now passed out Markus.
"Markus, Markus" she tried to bring him to. He looked like he was dead, or at the very least, the closest she had seen to death of a dying vampire.
Desperation took over, she was holding him, calling his name, and shaking him. His shirt barely clung to his lifeless form, and she could feel dried blood on the back o his shirt.
His eyes were sunk in; his hair disheveled and dirty hung in his face. She called to Sage for assistance. He came and picked Markus up laying him on the bed.
Elena asked Sage to undress Markus and get her some water to clean his wounds and a blanket. All of these things Markus did with speed, including starting a fire.
"I'm going to take Delena to get some food, while you tend to Markus" Sage told her.
"What am I suppose to do, he's a vampire? Do you even know what to feed her?" She asked, even though she knew Delena was already starting to eat solid food.
"I told you, she isn't my first baby. At this point you are the only one who can help Markus. If he makes it through the night, it will only be because of you. I must warn you, his desire to go on has left, so prepare yourself little one." Sage told her with a look of sympathy, and concern.
Sage and Delena where gone, and Elena set about cleaning up Markus's wounds. There were so many. Elena found tears had sprung to her eyes, as she steadfastly set about cleaning each one. They were so deep; it was as if she could feel bone, each cut and bruise seemed to hurt her also.
She couldn't understand why he had not healed, and still no healing appeared to be taking place. His breathing was shallow.
More than once she had to stop and make sure he was still breathing. She couldn't help but remember the passion filled nights, they had shared. She had tried so long to deny to herself she had enjoyed any of it. But here in the silence, touching him, with him so helpless, she could deny it no longer.
She had to save him. If it had not been for him, Delena and she would have died in the tunnel that night. Stefan had said Markus had been trying to steal the baby. Her memories of that night were admittedly cloudy, but she did remember the delivery and him saying "don't make me choose between you, or I will choose you." That didn't sound like someone whom just wanted to steal the baby. She remembered him fighting off those things in the tunnel, the very things that Ezra had died fighting, and she remembered the look on his face when he realized there was something wrong, that she was still in too much pain, and bleeding. She also remembered him slumping over on top of her, and then into the water.
The memory made her check the back of his head. As if all his other wounds hadn't been bad enough, he had a gash so deep on the back of his head she could see his skull was cracked. Had he not been a vampire, he would have surely been dead.
She wasn't sure which of the many other wounds had come from that night, or from the arena. She thought back while wrapping his head to the night he had spent in the nursery never coming to bed, and the blood on the back of the chair
She had found the next day. Was the arena the reason for it?
He didn't seem like the type of man who would be a gladiator. He didn't seem to need the money, so Why?
So many things about him she didn't know. Yet he always seemed to have deeper insight into her. It was unnerving.
The nights they had spent together, she had become use to him. Although what choice did she have, she asked herself?
Still she couldn't help but ponder the what if's. What if they had met under different circumstances, or she hadn't runaway that night. Yet why had he taken her in the first place? How had he even ever heard of her? Though she thought she might know the answer to that one. Her name had been quite famous for awhile in the Underworld.
It gave all new meaning to "the talk of the town". It wasn't the type of place you want any type of reputation in.
None the less, she owed Markus, if for nothing else, for saving Delena that night.
The rest of her questions may, or may never be answered with Markus's life, barely hanging on by a thread.
She wondered if she could reach him through her mind, as she did way back when with Stefan. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
She could almost feel something, but it was so faint, she thought she heard a whimper, but assumed it had been only herself, as tears again fell upon her checks. She had never before literally felt someone's life draining away, and the cold creeping in, the way she could now. To make matters worse, she could feel there was no resistance, to the giving up. It was as if he wanted to die.
She had to pull out. She now just sat beside him on the bed, talking quietly and soothing to him, trying to will him to stay.
It was doubtful he could hear any of it, but she had to try. They always said to talk to patients in comas, and at this point she didn't know what else to do.
So she started to pray. "Dear God, I don't know f you can hear me, or if you help vampires, but Lord, I know this one has some good in him. He saved my life, and the life of my child. Please Lord, save him. Amen"
When she opened her eyes it suddenly occurred to her that he hadn't been healing because he hadn't been eating. Markus always had servants to cook for him, and who knows how long he had been here.
She scanned the room for something sharp, but found nothing. She considered biting her own wrist but, just when she was about to, she realized his teeth were probably the sharpest things in the room. So she went to the top of the bed and lifted his head so she could sit there with his head in her lap. She placed her wrist in his mouth and started to scrape her wrist along his teeth. His fangs started to grow, even though she saw no other signs of consciousness.
Sure enough, his fangs were razor sharp, and worked like a charm. The blood started dripping into his mouth. However he didn't seem to be swallowing. She tried holding his nose closed, but that didn't work.
Finally she resorted to treating him like an animal that you are trying to get to swallow a pill. She stroked his throat, and even pushed on his chest, and stomach. When all was said and done, she was unsure how much if any had actually gone down but didn't know what else to do.
That's when it occurred to her. She had a breast pump in her bag. She hadn't gotten to use it, thanks to Bonnie and her giving Delena formula, but it may come in handy now.
She tried to attach to one end to her wrist, but it wouldn't really grip, so she used Markus shirt to tie it down. She took the tube on the other end and started feeding it down his throat. The only thing left to do was work the manual pump.
She had no clue if this idea would work, but at this point felt she had nothing to lose. She had to reopen the slit on her wrist a couple times, but was relieved when she actually saw some blood going through the clear tube. It may not be much, but at least she would know that some had made it inside him.
It was then that Sage returned. He seemed amused at what he saw. "If your blood won't do it, nobody's can." He said.
"What about yours "she asked.
"My blood only works once, and he has had it before. You've given enough Elena, you are growing pale. We just have to wait now and see if he wakes up."
Delena was tied to his back like a papoose. Sleeping like a baby on an angels back. Since that is exactly what she was doing.
After a while Elena got up to check on Sage and Delena which had gone back outside and not returned. Sage was asleep, and he had wings curled up with a sleeping Delena inside. He apparently hadn't been joking about knowing what to do with a baby. If there was ever a time to wish you had a camera, this was it.
Elena smiled thinking about the day she would tell her daughter of the night she spent with her guardian angel Sage. Returning inside she laid her head down on Markus's chest to try and hear his breathing. She had started crying again, and was talking to him, or well more to herself.
She was soo tired. It had been both a physically and emotionally draining day.
"Why did you have to do this, you big idiot. You have a lot to answer for. I don't know why you even took me to begin with, yet alone made me love you, and now you are going to die on me too, just like Damon. I loved him, and he left me, and now, I love you, and you are doing the same thing." She sobbed.
"Okay, okay, but do you have to blow snot all over my chest?" He replied.
Elena was so shocked, she cried harder, and kissed him.
"Thank God, you big idiot, I love you damn it, you can't leave me. Do something like this again and I'll kill you myself" and with that she kissed him again.
"I love you too Princess, always have."
She rose up to look at him, but saw Damon.
"Damon"? She cried out in shock and fell on the floor.
"I'm hallucinating, something's wrong, you're not here." Elena was truly going into shock now, as panic gripped her, that she had lost her mind.
She ran out of the cabin like a woman on fire. Wakening Sage in the process. Sage went after her. Elena ran and ran, until Sage finally swooped in scooping her up. Even then she was fighting with everything she had in her.
"Elena...Elena, calm down, wait a minute and listen to me.
It didn't take much for Sage to pin her arms to her sides to stop her from wildly try to claw his eyes out. "What sick game are you playing, Damon is dead." She wailed.
No Elena, I was able to bring him back. But you were unable to see him, till you were ready to open your heart again. It wasn't my secret to tell. He answered her in soothing tones.
"But, But, why? Why wouldn't he of told me?
"You know Damon, asking why he does something is a never ending question. The best I can say is he is guarded. He wasn't going to expose himself, and risk rejection, after finding out you marrying his brother. Kind of don't blame him there. He was waiting for you to love him." Sage tried his best to answer her questions to the best of his ability.
"Elena you need to listen to me, this is not the time to be running from him, he's not out of the woods yet, and he will take this as a rejection. You have to go back. We have to get him to the Dark Dimension, or he will still die." Sage urged her.
"But I don't understand." She answer
"You will in time, just please trust me on this". Sage told her.
Elena slowly approached the cabin. Damon was standing there looking down at a sleeping Delena.
"Where is my child" Damon asked
Elena was dumbfounded. "You are looking at her", she replied.
"Even now you lie to me? I was there that night, do you think I don't know, I delivered a boy, where is my son?" He said fiercely, and then collapsed in a heap unconscious again.
Elena was sure one of them was crazy which one, she was unsure.
She turned to Sage and he told her it was time, to take Delena to her aunts, and he would put a protection ward over her aunt's house. Because they were taking Damon back to the Dark Dimension, and it was no place for a baby.