Chapter 26
To say that Elena Gilbert is having a bad day would be the understatement of the year. First, an immortal version of her from the future shows up out of the blue. Then, she learns that her future includes multiple horrific deaths by drowning, explosion, and vampire attack. Plus, her fate is to be come a blood sucking creature of the night alongside her best friend and the two homicidal Salvatore brothers. Before tonight, she would never have lumped Stefan in with Damon and described them both as such, but today has been a very bad, no good day, and she prays that it doesn't get worse.
Climbing to her feet, Elena touches at her neck where her blood-spewing gash should be. Instead, she finds smooth, undamaged skin. The pain is gone too, and Elena is grateful for the reprieve. She glances around, not recognizing the small apartment.
Vampire Elena walks through the small living area with a nostalgic grin, and inhaling, she savors the odd smell in the air. She tries to touch the mess on the kitchen table, but her hands pass through it. Vampire Elena sighs with a wistful expression that the younger Elena has only seen on senior citizens.
"I miss him," vampire Elena says.
"Who? What is this place?"
"Ric," she says, closing her eyes in remembrance of her long dead father figure.
"Mr. Sultzman?" Human Elena narrows her eyes at her companion. "What were you doing in his apartment?".
"He kept the lease after he moved in with us. I came here when I needed time away from everyone, even after he died. I think Damon bought the building and refused to rent the apartment to anyone." Elena chuckles. "I guess it was a good thing, since Ric moved back in after he came back."
"From the dead? Mr. Saltzman died and came back from the dead?" Human Elena recalls Damon mentioning something like that in the future memory of Atlanta. "Was that when Damon died and came back?"
"Sort of. It actually..." Elena begins but her memory version jerks the door open and slams it shut behind her.
Tossing her stuff onto the already messy table, memory Elena grabs a couple of weights and slips them onto the barbell. She mumbles several curses about Stefan and Klaus as she assembles the proper weight.
"What is she doing?" Human Elena asks, surprised by her future version's desire to strength train. It's not a pastime she'd ever considered.
Vampire Elena shrugs. "She's growing stronger."
A few reps in, Damon opens the apartment door and steps in with an amused smile. He closes the door behind him and raises an eyebrow at the adorable brunette pumping iron.
"What? Are you going to bench press a vampire?"
"Do you understand what's happening, right now?" Elena struggles through her workout while Damon strolls around to stand at her head. "Stefan called me a human blood bag. He's a completely different person."
Damon shrugs in acknowledgment of the obvious. He wants to point out that maybe this is the real Stefan that he's been hiding under the brooding hero mask, but Damon doesn't want to kick the girl while she's down. Instead, he places a hand on the bar and uses his vampire strength to prevent her from lifting it. She struggles against him, groaning and squealing, while he taunts her with a mischievous grin. He's always enjoyed watching her squirm.
"What are you doing?"
"Helping you out."
"Damon."
"Come on, Buffy!"
"Stop it!"
Finally, she gives up and releases the bar. With one hand, he slips it onto the rack and chuckles at her exhaustion and frustration. He tries not to get distracted by the dirty thoughts running through his mind. He'd love to exhaust her in other ways and ease that frustration and tension she carries around like a bag of bricks. The day she says his name from between his sheets while breathles is the day he can die a happy man.
"Like one obnoxious Salvatore isn't bad enough," Elena says between breaths as she sits up on the bench.
Damon retrieves one of Alaric's wooden stakes and twirls it in his hand. "You called. I'm here. What's your plan, oh, Warrior Princess?"
"I want to lock Stefan up. At least until this Mikael guy comes, kills Klaus, and the compulsion breaks."
Damon's playful mood wavers. Locking his brother up won't be an easy task, and he's never really been a fan of the Lexi method. Damon knows that a small part of him would feel guilty about locking Stefan up, even though his brother would probably thank him after recovering his humanity. You know, after a few decades of desiccation.
"Compulsion or not, Stefan's high on human blood. Okay? A lot of it."
"You've gotten him off of it before."
"This is different. It's not a stint in rehab, Elena. His humanity's gone. Lights out. No one's home." Damon tosses the stake back onto the table.
"Then do it for me, Damon," Elena says, and Damon pauses. She stands from the bench to step closer to him. "Every single time I look at him, I feel like I'm going to break. And I'm not going to give him that satisfaction."
Damon considers Elena's recent state of mind. Her stubborn streak is fueling her determination to keep from falling a part. She doesn't want be that weak, little girl that Stefan attacked. She doesn't want to be a victim anymore. She can't rely on Stefan to protect her, and Damon can't be there all the time. Klaus proved that last night. Elena wants to protect herself rather than depend on others to keep her safe, and Damon admires her for it. When she sighs and moves to turn away, Damon grabs her hand and places it against his chest.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
"Feel that?" He rubs her small hand over his lean muscle. Elena's fingers graze the skin above his shirt collar and both his palms encompass her hand, trapping it against him. His smooth, cool skin under her fingers unleashes millions of butterflies in her stomach, and she swallows.
"It's the sternum. Solid plate of bone," he says.
Damon spins her around until her back presses against the length of him. Still holding one arm, he slips his free hand inside her shirt and below her sports bra. He runs his fingers along her ribs with a delicate touch that surprises Elena and sends tingling sensations up and down her spine that sucks the breath from her lungs. With him pressed against her back and his breath against her ear, Elena wonders if his hand will slip lower to more sensitive areas. She ignores the quiet disappointment at the back of her mind when his fingers stop descending.
"Right here, just below the rib cage, next to the spine. That's your way to a vampire's heart."
Elena can barley breath under Damon's electrifying touch, never mind form words, and his mouth curves up with smug satisfaction. He withdraws his fingers from her hot skin, but keeps his body pressed against hers and his face in the crook of her neck so that his husky voice sends shivers across her every nerve. Yes, Damon is very good a sex, but he's also skilled in the art of distraction, and Elena needs to remember that she isn't alone against Stefan. He meant it when he promised he'd never leave her again.
"I'll do whatever it is you need me to do, Elena," Damon says, releasing her. "No one's going to hurt you. Especially, not my brother."
Turning to face him, Elena can only stare at his tantalizing lips as he speaks. She's not sure if it's his words or his distracting proximity that seems to calm her anxiety, but she's grateful for it. Swallowing her palpable desire, Elena steps back to gulp fresh air and meet his gaze.
"Okay," she says.
He smirks. "So what do you want to do?"
"I, uh..." Elena swallows, glancing at his lips again, then she shakes her head. "I think we need to regroup with Ric and Caroline."
"Sounds kinky."
"You know what I mean," she says, rollings her eyes with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah. I always know what you mean." He motions for Elena to lead the way. "Let's go, Buffy. Time to to slay a vampire."
"We're not slaying Stefan. We're saving him from himself."
"What about the people he's ripping? Are we doing this for them too? Or just Stefan?"
Elena pauses in front of the door to glare at Damon. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing. I'm just taking notes. I'm looking forward to giving my brother the goodie-two-shoes lecture about saving Mystic Falls from the big bad Salvatore vamp," he says with a shrug of faux innocence. Elena tries to fight the small smile sprouting on her face by turning to open the door, but Damon spots it and takes it as a signal to carry on. "Of course, it probably won't be as eloquent as Stefan's speech to me when he locked me in the cellar. Unless you help. You're always giving great speeches about the good of mankind, kissing babies, and all that sickeningly sweet shit."
"I'm not going to help you taunt your brother, Damon," Elena says as they descend the stairs together.
"Why not? After all the crap he's put you through this summer? Consider it pay back…"
Two Elenas remain in Alaric's apartment as the sounds from memory Elena and Damon's conversation slowly disappear down the stairwell. Human Elena glances at her vampire counterpart as she tries to organize her thoughts. It's obvious that this memory takes place after Stefan attacks Elena, but before she turns. It seems Stefan is off the wagon, drinking human blood, and his humanity is off. It also sounds like he's still compelled by Klaus and terrorizing Elena. Is that what she should expect from her Stefan now?
No, Stefan would never… Elena stops mid-thought as she realizes the truth. Stefan did hurt me. In this world and mine.
Unbidden tears well in Elena's eyes, and covers her mouth to silence her agonizing sob. Stefan attacked her. He wasn't compelled to do it, and his humanity was intact. She knows that for certain because she saw it in his eyes before he succumbed to his bloodlust. Her boyfriend, lover, and protector…her Stefan. He would've killed her if not for future Elena. She still might die. Even now, she lies on the ground slowly bleeding to death, waiting for Damon to come save her. Because Stefan tried to eat her. How did the world get turned upside down?
Vampire Elena listens to her memory counterpart laugh at Damon's efforts to cheer her up as they descend the stairs and close in on the exit. Since she can remember, Damon has always been able to distract and comfort her when she need it, and she wonders if this is when he learned to do it. It's a skill that's served him well over the past 200 years as her husband. Elena's concern for her friends and family has, and always will, cause great heartache, but Damon never hesitates to do what he can to ease that heartache.
With a gentle smile, future Elena glances at her younger version to find her hunched over and sobbing. She rushes to the human and places a hand on her back for comfort.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not okay," she says through the uncontrolled tears. "I'm dying. We're going to go back, and I'm going to die because my boyfriend tried to eat me."
"You're not going to die. Damon is on his way. He'll be here any minute."
"Ugh, I can't do this. I can't go back. It hurts too much."
Elena chokes on her sobs, and the vampire's heart breaks for the young woman. She remembers how hard it was as a weak human, so vulnerable. She had to rely on the Salvatore brothers for so much. At this point, Elena is still just a teenager thrust into the dangerous world of vampires and werewolves. She hasn't learned to harden herself to death and danger. She hasn't faced the terror of Klaus stalking her, werewolves threatening her, Originals killing her, or the loss of every family member. She's just a normal teenager burdened with the doppelgänger curse. Honestly, vampire Elena is surprised that her human counterpart didn't crack up sooner.
"It's okay. You're just going into shock." Elena slips her hands onto either side of the young girl's face. She looks into the human version of her brown eyes and speaks with the certainty of the devoted. "Damon will get here in time. He always comes when I need him."
Human Elena wants to believe her older and wiser doppelgänger, but it's hard to find her faith. Especially after Stefan shattered it so completely.
Vampire Elena spots her doubt and makes a risky decision. She closes her eyes and coaxes Elena's consciousness into her mind. She doesn't know if it will work since they are already reliving a memory. But maybe it will.
Vampire Elena opens her eyes, and human Elena lifts her head. The apartment is gone, replaced by Elena's home. But blood isn't splattered across the walls and the girls aren't lying on the ground holding on to dear life. Instead, a single pool of blood coats the hard wood floors and couch, followed by a trail from the kitchen. Vampire Elena releases the younger doppelgänger and both glance around. When human Elena spots Jeremy's corpse on the couch, she screams and runs to him. Kneeling, she grabs at him in panic, but her hands fall through the memory.
"Jeremy. Oh my God, Jeremy. No."
"It's okay," vampire Elena says. "He'll be fine. He's wearing the family ring. He'll wake up in just a minute."
"It's not okay. He's dead. Someone killed my brother. Who did this?" Elena turns on the vampire, demanding answers. "How are we here? Why are you showing me this?"
"I didn't mean to pull this memory. I was just trying to jump to another without going back to reality. I didn't want you to suffer while we wait for Damon and Caroline."
"We're in your head, again? You didn't like it last time. I saw stuff you didn't want me to see."
"I know. I'm going to be ready this time, so I'm hoping I can stop any unwelcome memories."
"Why were those memories unwelcome? They were beautiful," human Elena asks.
Vampire Elena doesn't answer. Instead, she motions to memory Elena rushing into the living room with bloody hands. She paces back and forth across the carpet with her arms wrapped around her waist like a scared child. She stops when her head snaps toward the front door. She swings it open at vamp speed as Damon steps onto the porch. He blinks at her abrupt greeting then continues into the house.
"I see you're getting the hang of vampire hearing. So what's this about Elena? Shouldn't you have called your boyfriend to help?" Damon says with no small amount bitterness as he turns to face her. She shuts the door, and he notices the dried blood on her hands.
"What happened?"
"It was an accident." She beckons him into the living room.
Damon spots Jeremy's lifeless body on the couch. "Woah. Elena, what did you do?"
"You did this?" Human Elena spins toward her future version, who glances at her apologetically.
"I didn't mean to do it. I got confused. I thought he was Conner," memory Elena says to Damon.
"What do you mean confused? Conner is dead, so unless someone slipped him vampire blood before you snapped his neck, how could you possible confuse your little brother with a psychotic, supernaturally-charged vampire hunter?"
"I don't know what happened, Damon. Maybe I was sleep walking or something," Elena says, pacing again. "I can't believe this happened. What am I going to say to him?"
"Thanks for not ditching the family ring after it drove Ric crazy?" Damon says but when Elena doesn't respond, he shrugs. "You should've called Stefan."
He looks down at Jeremy with a lack of empathy. Why is Damon here? Jeremy is going to wake up in a few minutes, back to his normal annoyingly useless self. Why is Elena so worked up? It's not like this is the first time Jeremy has died. This is like his what? Twelfth death this year alone? The kid has a frequent flyers card to the other side by now. Sure, okay, maybe it's the fact that she's the one that killed him this time. Yeah, that's definitely something that would upset Elena, but why call Damon? She should be calling Stefan. He's the boyfriend. He's the one she picked, remember? So he should be the one doing this. He should be here calming her down, waiting with her while Jeremy wakes up, and cleaning up the mess. Instead, she called Damon. Why does he get stuck with the dirty jobs?
Why can't she call him when things are going well, and she just wants to hang out. He could go for another sexy dance party with Elena. That would be fun. But no, that type of fun is wrong and evil, and apparently killing Baby Gilbert is not. Except when Damon does it.
Double standards. Damon grumbles to himself until Elena's irate declaration captures his attention.
"I don't want to talk to him. He's been lying to me, hiding things from me. He compelled Jeremy to forget God knows what."
"Well, in all fairness, I think you killing him kind of trumps that," Damon says in a cautious tone. When Elena narrows her eyes at him for daring to argue with her, he frowns. "Hey, you should've called Stefan."
"I don't trust him right now, Damon."
Apparently he's stuck between the quarreling lovers and, for once, Damon is trying really hard not to piss off his brother by interfering. That's why he called him before heading over. In perfect timing, Stefan opens the front door of the house and steps inside.
"Hey," he says, making a bee line for his girlfriend. Said girlfriend huffs at Damon, who shrugs.
"P.S., I called Stefan."
"What happened? Why didn't you call me?" Stefan asks.
"I just…I need…" Elena pulls away from him. "I need to go upstairs and shower. Clean all the blood off my hands."
Elena storms from the room, leaving behind Damon and Stefan to care for her brother. Distracted by her anger with Stefan and her confusing attack on Jeremy, Elena nearly misses her brothers breath of life as she climbs the stairs. When she reaches the top, Elena spots something moving in the corner of her eye, and she twirls around to look for the culprit but finds an empty hall. The voices from downstairs pull at her attention, and she tries to push down her growing anxiety.
"She stabbed you?" Stefan asks from the living room.
"Yeah, in the neck," Jeremy says. "Can you believe it?"
"No duh, Genius. The blood trail all over your neck and shirt is a dead giveaway." Elena can hear Damon rummaging through the kitchen cupboards, probably looking for one of Ric's leftover bottles of bourbon. "Why the hell are you still wearing that ring anyway? The last thing we need is for you go psycho killer 2.0."
Human Elena glances at vampire Elena with a raised eyebrow, and she shrugs. "It's a long story."
"Because without it, I'd be dead. Between bombs, a thousand-year-old hybrid, and your compulsion," Jeremy says. Elena can only assume that he's talking to Stefan now. "I have to do something to protect myself. Now, even Elena's losing her mind."
"Killing you is therapeutic. It helps calm the nerves," Damon says.
Jeremy laughs. " You can shove it."
"Just tell us what happened," Stefan says. He's never had the patience for Elena's little brother, but he's trying not to take his frustration out on him.
Jeremy describes his short and abrupt run in with Elena in the kitchen. It was obvious that she didn't recognize him when she attacked, but it still bothers Jeremy that his sister is now capable of killing another person. Killing Connor may have opened a Pandora's box for Elena, and Jeremy wishes he were able to help her.
"Killing Connor. It's obviously bothering her," Stefan says, echoing Jeremy's thoughts. "We just need to give her time to process it. She'll be back to her old self soon enough."
"Her old self, huh?" Damon snaps at his brother. "You think that'll just fix everything, don't you? Except, if you weren't swimming up stream in that Amazonian river you've spent half your life wading through, you'd realize that there isn't anything wrong with Elena."
"She killed a man yesterday, Damon, and now she's killed her brother. You think that's okay?"
"I think she's doing what she has to do to stay whole. She killed Conner because he threatened to kill Jeremy and her friends. Now she's coming to terms with that decision. It sounds like she's having a hard enough time with it without you putting more pressure on her."
"What pressure?"
"To stay the same. To not change. To not be a vampire," Damon says.
Stefan growls. "That's easy for you to say. You want her to change, to be more like you."
"I want her to be Elena."
"And the real Elena wouldn't do these things."
"Except, she did. Maybe that's why she called me and not you." Damon shouldn't have said it. He's supposed to be staying out of it and trying not to upset his brother. But the self-righteousness really gets Damon's goat. Stefan needs to realize that with or without the cure, Elena is not the same woman she was when they met her.
Elena listens to Stefan stomp away from the kitchen and toward the stairwell, so she rushes into her room.
"Dude, you two got problems," Jeremy says from downstairs. "Come on, just one glass. I just died, man. Ric says it's okay."
"And why would I believe that?" Damon says. "Tell you what, Baby Gilbert. You get Ric to tell you where that 1912 bottle he stole from me is hidden, and I'll be happy to share."
Jeremy laughs. "Ric says, go to hell."
"Fair enough."
Elena can't appreciate the amusing bromance downstairs because the anxiety within her is growing, and she can't figure out why. Taking deep breaths, she slips on her robe as Stefan enters the room. Instead of calming her as his presence used to do, Stefan's entrance enrages Elena. All she can think about is his lies and the compulsion he used on her brother.
"Elena? Hey," he says, but she refuses to look at him. She walks across the room as she tries to calm the storm of anxiety and anger swirling within her.
Stefan doesn't take the hint. "Listen, I know you're still upset about yesterday, and I get it. Believe me. But just…let me help you."
"I don't want you're help right now, Stefan."
"But you'll accept Damon's?"
"Don't make this about Damon." Elena whirls around to glare at her boyfriend. "You've been working with Klaus, doing God knows what, and don't insult me by trying to deny it."
Stefan shakes his head. Why can't she trust him? Why can't she just see that he's only doing what he has to do in order to save her? She seems to have no trouble trusting Damon. She's always going to him. When she couldn't eat animal blood, she went to Damon instead of Stefan. Even lied to him about it. Now she's mad that the tables have turned?
"Listen, it's not what you think, okay?"
"I don't know what to think," Elena says. "But I do know that I don't want to talk to you, and I don't really want to be around you right now."
Elena brushes past Stefan, and he reaches out for her. "Look, please, just…"
"No," Elena jerks away from him for the second time today and holds up her sticky hands. "This is my brother's blood on my hands, Stefan. I stabbed him in the neck last night, so forgive me if I'm not in the mood to listen to you try and talk your way out of this."
Elena storms off and slams the bathroom shut behind her, leaving Stefan in her wake.
As Stefan sits on the bed with a frustrated sigh, human Elena turns to her vampire counterpart.
"Why are you mad at Stefan? You're the one that stabbed Jeremy."
"I was hallucinating. I didn't know what I was doing. We haven't figured that out yet, but we do eventually."
Human Elena watches her epic love as he frowns at the floor. This is the man that she loves, the man that attacked her just a few minutes earlier. Elena is about to die. She should want to sit next to him and savor what could be last time she lays eyes on him. Instead, she stands in the middle of the bedroom, frozen, because he's the reason she's about to die. Stefan is the reason she is lying on her living room floor, bleeding to death. A sliver of fear took root deep inside Elena when Stefan ripped into her neck. Now it hardens within her stomach like a lead ball, and she can't bring her self to step closer to him. So she watches him. She can see the anger and annoyance etched into the lines of his face, but there is something more when he glances toward the open door and descending stair well. Jeremy and Damon's laughter echoes through the halls, and Stefan's expression darkens, sending a cold shiver down Elena's back that sucks the air from her lungs.
"He's jealous," vampire Elena says. "I called Damon instead of him, and he didn't like it. We got back together after his…issues with his humanity were resolved. He wasn't at war with Klaus anymore, so we were suppose to re-connect and fix our relationship. But it wasn't that easy, I guess."
Vampire Elena watches human Elena, hoping to judge her reaction, but the girl doesn't move or look away from Stefan. She just stares, wide-eyed, and breathing heavily.
She's in shock, Elena realizes. She slips closer to the human and places her arms around her. Tears fall, unbidden and unnoticed.
"It's okay. This will pass soon. It's only temporary. Just for now."
"For now…"
Human Elena repeats the phrase in a hoarse whisper as it rings familiar. Stefan said it a moment before attacking her. He said it with the same expression he wears now. A look of jealousy…
With her vampire version on her right, Elena twists to her left toward the door. Again Damon's voice rumbles through the house as he complains about cleaning up Jeremy's bloodied mess. More tears flood down Elena's face, and she whimpers. She's not stupid. She can see the connection in her mind, the two puzzle pieces fitting together perfectly. But the concept is too alien to be truly considered by brain cells that are too overloaded and traumatized by the last 24 hours. It's too much. This is too much. He is too much.
Human Elena crumbles to the ground into sobs and whimpers. "I can't do this. I can't deal with this. I'm going to die…"
"You're not going to die," vampire Elena says. "Damon will fix this. He always does."
"Always?" She asks, hopeful and fearful at the same time.
"Always."
Human Stefan flinches into vampire Elena when Stefan growls and jumps to his feet. Vampire Elena tugs the girl close and glares at him for frightening her until she remembers that he's a memory and unaware of their presence.
Stefan hustles to the door with a determined expression and raises his hand to knock. Elena's hard voice on the other side of the door stops him.
"Leave me alone, Stefan. Please."
With a bitter sigh, he complies and shuffles downstairs.
Vampire Elena offers a gentle smile to human Elena, huddled in her arms. Squeezing her, she shushes the girl when she tries to shift away and wipes the hair from her eyes. Her soft, brown hair is nothing like the wild, red mane she's used to stroking, but the familiar act touches the vampire in an unexpected way.
"You have so much to look forward to…"
Check out my short story blog at kellyanixDOTcom or my new Fantasy Adventure novel series at kellyanixDOTcom/kajiwarriors.