Chapter Four: Don't You Wish You Knew

Elena screamed. She shrieked louder than she thought was possible without permanently tearing her vocal chords. Her voice was getting weaker and weaker and for a fraction of a second, she thought it would burn out completely. Her head felt fuzzy and she strained to keep her eyes open to Damon's bewildered expression, but it disappeared sooner than it had appeared in the first place. His hand clamped tightly around her mouth immediately, and Elena's first instinct was to bite down, but she resisted the urge when Damon's terrifyingly cold voice warned her against it.

"You'll regret it if you do. Now, shut up."

Elena glared up at him menacingly as he released her mouth from his hold and resumed his position on the arm of the couch. Within easy reach of her neck, she might add. Elena knew better than to taunt him; he was a fucking nut case! He would have to be crazy to go through all of this trouble, and for who knows what! Attempting to calm her radical breathing, she brainstormed ways of escape and distraction.

For the first time since she had woken up, Elena looked around the room that she had apparently been sleeping in for some time now. It looked suspiciously like the library in the movie Beauty and The Beast. It was gigantic, with double wooden staircases twisting up to the second floor and gold detailing on the extensive, triple height ceiling. Rows and rows and stacks of books lined wall, and a globe that must've been bigger than ten times Elena's size rested up against the farthest door in the room. The intricately woven couch she was perched on faced a huge oak desk on the west side of the room with stacks of papers, a desktop, and what looked like years worth of research notes.

Elena was at a loss of words at the site. She immediately registered that decor was so similar to that of the bedroom she had resided, against her will, in earlier, she had no doubts that this room and the bedroom were both apart of the same enormous mansion. Temporarily forgetting her fury, she stuttered before collecting herself and questioning her captor.

"Damon.. where are we?"

He gave a short, amused chuckle at her awe-stricken face. "Don't you wish you knew?"

Suddenly, everything sunk in and she was reminded that this little act was not, in fact a kind gesture on his part. Elena stepped off the couch warily as she collected herself and then stood in front of the vampire as intimidatingly as she could. She decided last minute that an outright attack would be more effective than prolonging the inevitable.

"YOU. You did this to me, and to Brittany. Drugging me? Hurting her?" She watched his reaction cautiously, but his smirk didn't miss a beat. He though this was funny. "Tell me. What do you want, Damon? Because I can sure as hell tell you what you'll never have." Her glare increased.

Damon's eyes turned dark briefly before he regained his composure. "You," he said boldly, pointing a finger roughly against her chest, "Will shut. up. NOW."

Elena knew she was pushing it, but she had to keep going. She had so much pent up fury inside of her, she couldn't control herself, even as he began to step towards her ever so menacingly.

"No!" Elena returned with just as much force. "You're a fool if you think I'll stay here! What's wrong with you? I thought you were making progress, Damon. I thought you were my friend! Do you have any idea how much it hurts me to know that out of everyone in the world who could have done this to me.. that it is was you?"

Elena's lost puppy dog eyes were gnawing away at Damon's heart and he couldn't take it any longer. The only way that he could control his emotions was if he took control. He had to shut it off. He had to shut her out.

"Stop." He growled, shaking her shoulders as if he was trying to snap her out of something. He had to break it. He had to break her.

"I don't think you get it Elena, I don't care. I never wanted you as my friend. I wanted you as much, much more than that. And finally, for the first time in the past 180 years, I'm taking what I want."

And with that, black veins rippled across Damon's face and suggestively sharp teeth lurched from their spots inside of gums. He took a single, determined step forward and sunk his teeth into a both terrified and unwilling Elena. Blood, lust, and emotion overtook him and he gripped his prey roughly.

Prey.

That's what she was to him. Swallow after intoxicating swallow, he felt the sweetest blood he had ever encountered coat his throat deliciously.

"This isn't right.. " Bonnie sputtered, looking up from her grimoire.

She and Jeremy had returned to his house desperately wanting to be more of a help in finding Elena. The clairsentient dream Bonnie and Caroline had shared was gnawing at her brain and she was trying to interpret what the emotions and symbolism could mean. Meanwhile, Stefan had been forced to consume a small amount human blood in order to compell Jenna not to notice Elena was gone. The situation had worked out very favorably, considering Jenna was now allowing Bonnie to sleep over with said Elena, but everyone knew they had to be careful treading this ground.

Even though Stefan was able to successfully compell Elena's aunt this time, there was no telling if or when it could fail, considering Stefan's lack of regular human blood intake, and the group just wasn't going to take any chances.

Jeremy looked over at Bonnie expectantly, trying to decipher the reason for her confusion. She caught his look and immediately flipped the spell book she was looking at over to him so she could explain the issue.

The witch that is hiding Elena is a Bennett, right? Well, this is one of Emily's most prized grimoire, it has all of the names of her relatives and instructions on how to contact them, except, the entire family tree is protected by a spell of secrecy. That way, only a select few who know how to preform the spell are able to read it. I guess Emily didn't want anyone else in her business."

Bonnie looked up and caught Jeremy's thoughtful eye.

"Okay, I get that, but wouldn't you have the spell? I mean, who else would, if not a member of the Bennett family?"

She forced a tight smile and sighed, biting her lip as she searched for an answer.

'Well, that's just it. The spell is in this grimoire. At the very front," she explained, flipping to the page with the spell. "And only Bennett witch descendants can do it, but the strange thing is, I can't read it. I don't understand it. It's not in Latin or French or any language I've ever seen. Which means, of course, that another Bennett witch is hiding it. One more powerful than I am."

Jeremy's eyes narrowed in utter confusion and he shook his head. "That's impossible, though, you have the power of all of those hundreds of witches. And Emily... I don't get it."

Bonnie looked down at the floor before she spoke again.

"Don't you, though? It's the same witch that's hiding Elena. She knows who I am. She knows what we're looking for, and she definitely knows we're related." Bonnie looked up and her voice faltered sadly. Jeremy placed his hand on hers and pulled her small body into his, wrapping an arm around her securely.

Bonnie continued. "Taking all of that into consideration," her voice was only a whisper now as she tipped her head up off his shoulder and met his gaze. "That can only mean two things. Either she's completely evil and wants to hurt Elena just as much as her captor does, or Elena's kidnapper is a vampire that's powerful enough to compel the most powerful witches in existence into doing, and hiding, whatever he or she wants. And the thing is, Jeremy," Bonnie gulped.

He caught on and finished for her, shocked to his very bones. "...You could be next..."