Klaus sighed deeply as he fell into one of the chairs at the Salvatore's kitchen table, wiping the tears from under his eyes as Rebekah placed a glass tumbler down in front of him, then waived a bottle of scotch in his eye line as she took a seat next to him.
"How about a little liquid courage before we suck it up and rejoin the others?" she asked with a raised eyebrow as she tossed away the bottle top and poured her brother a drink.
Klaus sniffed as he leaned forward, placing his chin in one of his hands as he twirled his glass with the other, eying the fourth in the bottom, before smirking at his sister.
"I think I'm going need a little more courage than that…" he said as she slid his glass gently toward Rebekah, who regarded him with a giggle as she finished pouring herself a drink, then leaned over and filled her brother's tumbler to the half-way point, then set the bottle down.
"Oh, come on Bekah," Klaus wined with a pouting lip, pushing the glass back toward her, "We are facing death by vampire hunter, big brother is out of the picture romping around God knows where with Elena and the ghost of the girl I once loved and killed is in a room down the hall…don't...be... stingy."
Rebekah rolled her eyes with a chuckle as she picked up the bottle again and filled Klaus' glass to the top.
# # # # #
"This is unbelievable…" Jeremy mused as he continued reading the stack of journal entries, written in Emily Bennett's own hand, that Bonnie had pulled from the back of the grimoir, "Elena and I were always curious as to how Johnathan knew so much about the originals—he wrote so extensively about the them in his journals in later years—but it never occurred to us that he would have had psychic visions about them."
"I know, right? "Bonne added in astonishment as she too shifted through the stack, scanning the pages for clues, "We always believed that Emily 'spelled' the Gilbert devices to make it appear as though they were working, but it never occurred to me, especially, that she may have actually used dark magic to make them truly function—"
"Dark magic?" Jeremy asked, his eyes narrowing as she turned toward her, cocking his head curiously
"Well, yeah…" Bonnie answered with a slight shrug, studying the top paragraph of one of the entries in front of her, following the sentences with her finger, "It says here she used a locator spell to find someone with the abilities she required then traveled to New Orleans to find them. She track down the warlock she sought-apparently he had moved on- but she did receive assistance from a voodoo witch in the French Quarter, who, still angry from the years of captivity she suffered under a vampire master, agreed to help Emily call from the ether the soul of the vampire hunter Johnathan Gilbert had seen in one of his many epileptic visions."
"Does this witch have a name?" Jeremy asked, straightening as he sat back in his chair
Bonnie studied the entry for a few moments, her eyes scanning quickly before she answered, "No... It just says it was a woman. But…"
"What?" Jeremy piped up, sitting forward and leaning over to examine the journal entry with her.
'It was only after I mentioned the names of two of the vampires Johnathan saw in his visions—thereby named Klaus and Elijah—that the woman lowered her hood and stepped forward and agreed to help me,' Bonnie read aloud from the entry
"What are the odds..." Jeremy smirked in confusion, his eyes moving to Bonnie's face as the witch huffed and turned the page over
"If you mean 'what are the odds that Misha's hunch and my dream about Johnathan Gilbert and the compass were right?" Bonnie breathed as she suddenly stopped, her eyes widening as she held the yellowed, aged page from the stack and held it out to face Jeremy, "I'd say…excellent."
"Holy shit…" Jeremy mused, stunned as he studied the drawing of the Gilbert device and the compass that Bonnie was now holding up to him, "Emily never told him the truth of what she did to his inventions, did she?"
He then turned and rummaged violently through the stack of Gilbert journals on the floor next to his chair, pulling out one toward the bottom and flinging it open, flipping quickly through the pages until he fell upon a similar drawing the inventor himself had drawn of the device, then held it up next to the one on the back of Emily's journal entry.
"She must have told Johnathan Gilbert that the device was spelled to work, so that he could appease the council and find the vampires and she could keep her family from being exposed, but she never explained to him how she did it…" Jeremy started, looking from one drawing to the next as Bonnie leaned over and took in the drawings herself with an astonished smirk before finishing his thought.
"He never deduced that a real vampire hunter's soul was actually trapped in the compass," she whispered.
There was a moment of silence between them before Bonnie turned to Jeremy.
"We need to find the compass," she stated
"Elena was the last to have it…" Jeremy replied, lowering the journal as he turned to meet her gaze.
Bonnie took in a deep breath before nodding her head in consent as she immediately sensed what he was thinking.
"It would mean breaking Misha's 'no communication' rule and incurring his wrath…" Jeremy added
And Bonnie smirked, but nodded consent again as she watched Jeremy lean to one side and pull his cell phone out of his pocket.
# # # # # #
"Klaus?" Caroline choked in a low voice, blinking as she slowly sat up and looked around. The last thing she remembered was lying against Klaus' chest, watching old movies…but now, she found herself alone in the room—the lights were dim, the television was off and Klaus was nowhere to be seen.
She groaned as she rolled her shoulders and stood up from the couch, tossing her hair and straightening behind her ears as she started off across the room to search for the others.
Suddenly, she stopped as she caught a whiff of something on the air, cocking her head to listen for any noise as she continued to track the scent, immediately turning quickly in a circle and studying the room with cautious eyes.
And it was then that she saw it—the window.
It was closed, seemingly undisturbed at first glance, but the latch was broken.
Someone was inside.
Caroline's eyes widened as she immediately fought the fear that swelled up inside her.
Instead, she closed her eyes to calm herself and, as quietly as she could, turned to face the door that led out into the hallway.
Whoever was in there with her hadn't pounced yet, meaning that if she stayed stoic and didn't give herself away, she might have just enough time to make it out of the room with the aide of vampire speed.
"Don't," a low voice suddenly called out from the darkness behind her
Caroline's breath hitched, her body immediately reacting by turning to face the voice, only to see Elena.
But, after a second's scrutiny, Caroline realized that it wasn't Elena…
"Katherine…" she whispered in surprise and disgust, "What the hell—"
Suddenly, Caroline stopped as something quickly began to sink in…
Katherine looked frightened too.
"Behind you!" Katherine cried, her eyes shifting to the ceiling behind Caroline
And it was then, as Caroline turned, that she saw Dominic, leap down from the ceiling rafters.
# # # # # # #
As Elijah opened the door and crossed the threshold in to Elena's bedroom, he immediately noticed that she was not in bed where he had left her.
Quickly, he crossed the room, his eyes scanning from the disheveled bed to the bathroom, then to the open French doors that led out on to the second floor terrace.
He immediately tossed the blood bags he had promised Vivienne he would deliver onto the bed and walked out, looking over the rail for any sign of Elena.
Moments later, his breath caught when he finally beheld her, standing out in on the immaculate green lawn in the sunshine, wearing only one of his dress shirts and lowering her cell phone from her ear.
He watched as her brow furrowed in concentration, then disappointment as she looked down at the screen for a few moments before she sighed and folded her arms across her chest as she looked out toward the ocean.
Elijah smirked uncertainly, then immediately jogged down the terraced steps and walked out on the lawn toward her.
Sensing his approaching presence, Elena slowly turned back to face him, flipping her dark hair over one shoulder.
"Hey…" she smiled sadly as she watched him close the distance between them
"Hey…" he smirked in return, "You know, you're not going to make it ring by staring at it, right? Believe me, I've tried."
Elena gave one more look down to her cell phone then looked up and met his gaze.
"So I'm guessing that you weren't able to get a hold of anyone either?" she asked
Elijah sighed, then closed his eyes and shook his head
Elena bit her lip and nodded as she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, nestling herself in the crook between his chest and his left shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Elena…" Elijah lamented as he brought his hand up to tentatively stroke her hair, "I suppose we'll just have to be patient."
"I just hate not knowing," Elena whispered
"Me too," Elijah replied
It was then that Elena, not sensing Elijah's arms around her, lowered her right hand to his left forearm, guiding it slowly around her lower back so that he partially embraced her as she snuggled closer.
"But this makes thinks infinitely better for now…" she said in a soft voice
Elijah smirked, his heart leaping at the contact of their skin as he followed her lead and lowered his hand from her hair, bringing the other arm to wrap around her and hold her close.
After a few moments, Elena pulled back slightly, brushing her fingers lightly over the necklace he wore with all of his sibling's talismans hanging upon it, before casting her eyes up to his face.
"And so will this…" she whispered, before standing up on her tip toes on the bare grass and capturing his lips softly in hers, immediately igniting the sparks in their connection.
When she pulled back gracefully from the sweet encounter, she only lingered for a few seconds, waiting for his reaction…
She didn't have to wait long before Elijah immediately tightened the embrace he had on her and returned the kiss with a fevered passion, almost taking her breath away as their lips danced, both of them consumed with the searing heat that now seemed to radiate between their bodies.
Finally, Elena gasped softly as she gently broke their kiss again and smiled, managing to whisper only one thing…
"Bedroom."
Elijah immediately complied, pulling her up into his arms, giving her just enough leverage to grasp his shoulders and wrap her bare legs around his waist as he placed a gentle hand on the back of her neck, guiding her head back toward his so that he could capture her smiling lips again in a hot kiss.
He then spun them around and, with vampire speed, they immediately arrived back in the house in Elena's room.
Elena let out a shriek of glee as Elijah tossed her gently onto the bed and she, in turn, tossed her phone out of her hand over her head, not bothering to look where it landed, as Elijah crawled up covers and came over her, his lips meeting hers again as she ran her hands encouragingly through his hair, deepening the kiss.
Knowing that he was physically stronger than she was, it took all of his control to be gentle and not overtake her.
He immediately decided that he would let her take control...
And she did.
Soon their bodies began to entangle as she pulled him closer, tugging his t-shirt over his head between kisses and hitching her legs higher around his hips so that she could grind against him seductively as she ran her hands moved over his smooth chest, exploring the muscles of his upper body.
This caused Elijah's breath to hitch as he felt the electricity hum between their skin and immediately felt the desperate need to touch her bare skin the way she was touching him.
Through their connection, it was as if she seemed to sense his need and, soon with the aide of vampire speed, Elena had flipped them so that she was on top of him, planting kisses down his jaw line as she continued to move against him, running her hands up his strong abdomen as she kissed down his neck and chest, then tossed her hair over her shoulder as she sat up and began to unbutton the shirt she wore.
Immediately, he shifted their positions and inclined himself, sitting up with her in his lap as he locked their lips again and assisted her nimble fingers with the buttons.
Suddenly, Elena's phone blared its ringtone, shaking and lighting up the end of the bed where it had landed haphazardly minutes before.
Reluctantly, Elijah released Elena's lips and lowered his hands as Elena looked over her shoulder at the offending piece of technology.
"Of course they would call now…" he scoffed, his head falling defeated onto her shoulder
Elena smirked sadly, then climbed off of him as he fell back onto the pillows and watched her scramble toward the end of the bed and pick up the phone.
"Oh, my God! It's Jer!" she cried hopefully before sliding the touchscreen to answer