A/N: And here is chapter thirty-four. I've been planning the cemetery scene for quite a while. I've rewritten this chapter several times, but right now I'm reasonably pleased.

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I hope you'll enjoy the newest chapter:)

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Chapter Thirty-Four, Cruel Intentions

High-wrought gates slowly opened and Caroline revved her car to go up the hill, stopping midway up the slope. A rusty metal sign marked the turning to the cemetery to Charlotte and I let my eyes glide over the grassy expanse all around us. The sky above was a cold, and hard blue, devoid of any clouds, and the sun felt overly bright after the previous days of rain. Caroline's metallic Ford grumbled as she took a ditch in the road too fast and again, had to take a turn. Passing the black gate of Charlotte's cemetery, the drive overgrown and full of cracks and pebbles, Caroline drummed her fingers against the steering wheel.

"I hate cemeteries," she grumbled, finger-tapping increasing.

"Yes," I croaked hoarsely.

An air of despair would always rule in a cemetery, but I couldn't help but crane my neck, taking in the high, iron-wrought fence surrounding it. There was a dark, dense tree-line which rose behind the gates at all sides, and within the gates a long field of short-cropped grass, filled with marble headstones and tombs stretched out. Abby Bennett, who we'd only met just a few hours ago, had explained of where Mikael the vampire hunter was resting, but seeing the sheer size of the cemetery, I guessed it would take some time to locate the tomb with the angel guarding it.

Besides, the ease with which we'd found both Abby Bennett and had gotten Mikeal's location from Bonnie's mother felt somewhat anticlimactic. It was almost too easy and that thought left a heavy feeling in my stomach.

"Do you think she'll be here?" Caroline whispered apprehensively, as she parked her car next to a hedgerow. "I mean, I find it hard to believe they would unleash some kind of immortal monster—"

"She'll have to be here."

"What if she isn't anymore?" Caroline replied, her voice hitching.

"She will— and if she won't we'll find a witch strong enough to find her."

"But Bree said—"

"We find a witch strong enough to withstand the spirits' wrath and we'll find her. We will, okay?"

She nodded slowly. "Okay."

I inhaled deeply. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be."

"Perhaps, we should have asked someone else—"

Caroline snorted. "I thought you didn't want Stefan or Damon to date you."

"I don't but in Stefan's case, I'm pretty sure we passed that station," I muttered. "Just— let's go."

It was pleasant outside. Warm enough to forgo my winter coat and I inhaled deeply when I stepped out of the car. The cemetery was large, an ancient oak shaded the right half of the area, bordering around the fences, and trees reached up into the air. Sunlight penetrated the foliage unevenly, dappling the ground with a mosaic of bright splotches.

Caroline beckoned her hand to the larger tombs at the left of the cemetery and I nodded. Caroline had taken the lead and I followed closely behind, anticipating bubbling in the pit of my belly. The canopy around us was dense, the track dank and moist and Caroline hooked her sunglasses in the collar of her shirt.

"Just stay behind me," she told me, looking at me over her shoulder.

"No problem," I retorted stiffly and crossed my arms over my chest. "These look quite new."

And they did. This part of the cemetery had dark earth and gleaming headstones. The weeds didn't grow in an untamed fashion and the grass was well-kept. It didn't look like the part where someone could lure a vampire too and hide him in some tomb.

"I think we should go this way," Caroline mentioned almost off-handedly.

"Okay," I mumbled.

Pushing our way through the scrim of trees around the field, leaving the hill in our wake. Even for a cemetery, the place was mostly deserted and I quickened my step, linking my arm with Caroline's. The recenter made tombs and gravestones made place for the older ones rather suddenly, and I scanned the names engraved on the stones and the small marble wall plaques. None of them seemed all the familiar to me, but then again, why would they?

The path leading ahead would have been easy to miss, overgrown with brambles and nettles and the ground was slippery. My fingers curled tighter around Caroline's arm. The grass was wet and muddy, my hands were cold and I let my eyes glide over the marble stones, the mossy flagstone walls of the tombs and the angelic features of several statues. It didn't look familiar, or much like the guard angel that was supposed to stand watch above Mikeal's tomb, but Caroline seemed to know where we were going. Her nose was wrinkled, making her look not unlike a search dog and her eyes were narrowed.

"Are you sure it wasn't there?" I asked, my eyes fixed on an old large tomb with an angel like statute guarding over the entrance. It fitted Abby Wilson's description to a Tee.

"Not the right smell." Caroline mumbled.

"How do you know what vampire Bonnie smells like anyway?" I whispered.

"I just know," she answered ominously, "but if that guy lied to me—"

"Well, since you— crushed his windpipe, wasn't it? I'm sure he didn't lie." I remarked drolly.

Caroline smirked. "I broke his arm for good measure too."

"Remind me to not piss you off," I mumbled and she smirked.

"Well, he wasn't that useful—" she pursed her lips, "—didn't even know where Bonnie was—"

"I have the feeling that going after doctor Maxfield was more for revenge than anything else."

"It was for Enzo," Caroline agreed.

"Where did he even go off to? Are you two still talking?"

"Sometimes."

"Profound."

We continued our search in silence and late afternoon made way for the evening. The further we moved down the cemetery, the thicker the trees and brushes grew. The cemetery had a placid , melancholy air in contrast to the busy, dusty road that ran beyond the iron-wrought gates. From the gates East I noticed the lamps turn on, the yellowish light gentle and I exhaled loudly.

"God, why is this place so big?"

"There are too many fresh cadavers around this place," Caroline grumbled and I frowned.

"Is that what vampires smell like?"

"No, there's usually the undertone of fresh spilt blood." She answered and pursed her lips. "Just the— formaldehyde, the scent it's so strong!"

"They use it to preserve bodies."

"They use it too much!" She grumbled.

"And to think this seemed like such a cut-out plan— What was I thinking?"

"Doesn't that look like it?" Caroline demanded suddenly, lurching to a stop and I almost tripped over my own feet.

I followed Caroline's pointed index finger and inched on my tiptoes to scan the area. My gaze set over the bushes, the tombstones and finally settled on the marble tomb, close to the iron fence. Made of white marble, gleaming in the early evening sun, it looked exactly the way Abby Bennett had described it the day before, marble angel glaring from above included.

I tucked my hair behind my ears and frowned. "I think so. Does it smell like the place?"

Caroline chewed on her lip for a moment, before squaring her shoulders. "I can't tell. What if she isn't—"

"We've come this far," I said, scanning the names engraved on the small brass plaques on one wall.

"Still—"

"Why would Maxfield lie? More importantly, why would Abby Bennett? She might be an absent mother, but I'm sure she wants her only daughter to be safe." I whispered. "Besides, it makes sense doesn't it? Well, actually it doesn't, but to them, it does. Do you hear anything?"

"No." She grumbled and drew her arm back. "Stay here?"

"What?"

But—

She was gone the next moment. I watched her disappear inside the tomb and I clenched my jaws together. Hell, was I waiting here! And with a nervous tug at the front of my coat, I hurried towards the tomb as well. I pushed past the large, wooden doors and stumbled inside. My eyes flitted around, over the cold concrete floor and the large, white crypt. My eyes lingered on Bonnie's familiar body, sprawled out on the cold floor. Caroline sat next to her, shaking her by the shoulders and I—

I couldn't believe that she was actually there. Caroline turned to face me, her eyes wide and impossibly blue. "I can't believe we actually found her!"

For a moment I was so confused that I simply couldn't form a reply. And then, I skidded over the floor, my hands curling around her shoulders. Her dark hair was fanning out around her face, her eyes closed, lashes dusting over her cheekbones. She looked— shallow, her cheekbones sharp arcs in her youthful face and her lips clapped and parched. I raked my hand through her tangled hair, moving it away from her clammy forehead and— there was dried blood on Bonnie's neck, already crusting along the fine hairs around her ears.

"Bonnie?" I tried, as Caroline's urgings had not woken her up yet.

"She's— do you think they hurt her?"

"Since she turned, or now?" I asked nervously and Caroline gave me a look that made me uneasy.

"Elena!"

"I don't know!" I mumbled. "She looks all right— she looks alive-ish doesn't she?"

And she did. No broken bones, a steady if slow heart rate, if I could be trusted palpating someone's carotid artery that was, and her chest was rising and falling. The only odd thing would be Bonnie's bound wrists. They were red and raw.

"What are those?" Caroline mumbled, having noticed the same thing I had.

"They look like handcuffs," I grumbled back.

Caroline took a deep breath and her shoulders straightened slightly. "Right, we have to get them off."

Stating the obvious, but I still nodded, fingers automatically going to the iron locking mechanism. Bonnie's eyes suddenly snapped open and I squeaked when she stared straight into my eyes. Her eyes were round and cavernous, like those of a doe caught in headlights and then, suddenly, the tension drained from her body. "You came for me?" She croaked out.

"Wha—" I mumbled and tried to loosen the bindings holding her wrists together. They really looked like some kind of high-tech handcuffs and tried to pry my fingers between the lock's teeth. Without much success, might I add.

"You came for me," she repeated.

"Of course, I did," I whispered, my eyes widening when Bonnie's eyes rolled back. She looked as if consciousness was fading fast and I pulled harder. It wasn't enough and I had no idea how to undo the metal cufflink-like bindings either. Breathing hard, I looked around again. Caroline moved forward, curling her hands around the bindings for a second before hissing.

"Fuck, Vervain!"

"Vervain indeed," a new voice agreed gravely and the both of us turned to face the newest arrival.

I had never seen the scruffy man before. He was tall with a square jaw and shaggy blond hair, his clothes not fitting quite right as if he'd lost a lot of weight recently. I'd guessed he must have been around his early thirties and his nose was slightly crooked, as if he'd broken it one too many times. A broken nose healing wrong. Normally, I wouldn't have given him a second glance. Yet, as he stepped further into the tomb, a predator smile curling the corners of his mouth up, and aglacial cold cramped my chest.

"You lay in waiting for us," I whispered and his mean, little eyes flitted to me.

"Indeed, hello, little vampires."

"Who are you?" Caroline growled, slowly getting up from her crouching position and I cradled Bonnie against me.

"You'd want to know, wouldn't you, Little Bloodsucker?" He smiled.

"We're taking her," I remarked working myself and Bonnie up.

"No, you're not."

"And who's going to stop us?" Caroline asked, stepping between me and the man. "You?"

"Me, and a bit of this," he hissed and struck like an angry viper. I never saw the weapon he used, only watched Caroline intercepting his arm, but not the weapon and a second later she screamed. Tripping over her own feet, hands pressed over her eyes, she bumped into the large stone casket. The slab of stone grinding when it moved and I yanked myself and Bonnie away from it when it tilted dangerously our way.

I ended face up on the ground, arms and legs splayed out like a discarded toy, and I tried scrambling to my feet, hands already rummaging through my bag, looking for the kitchen knife I'd taken with me as a foresight.

"Ah," the man whispered and before I managed to find the weapon I was looking for, the man yanked me up, my toes barely even grazing the ground anymore, and shoved me hard against the wall. He slammed me back with such force, my head bounced off the hard marble and I whined when a white hot pain shot through my temples. "Ha— let go off me!"

"You're Grayson's daughter, are you not?" He snapped and I gasped, unable to move away from the foul man as one hand moved around my throat and the other gripped my upper arm. "I recognize you from your picture."

"What of it?" I wheezed.

"Because of you Wes and Dianne died," he whispered and then— with a sharp crack, my head snapped to the side. I hadn't seen the hit coming, but I certainly felt the sting it left.

"You only got yourself to blame for that!" I hissed back, ignoring the sting of my cut lip. "You lot kept that man locked up in there! You lot tortured him. I never asked you to do that! I never asked any of you to take my best friend!"

He slapped me again, but this time the hit sent me to the floor. This time, I'd been expecting it though, and before he could strike me again, I jerked up my knee to the left, swiping his left leg out from under him. He lost his balance, flailing his arms when he fell back. The moment his body hit the flagstone floor, I leaped towards him, ignoring the smarting of my knees and the thundering of my heart, and I pushed against his shoulders, jamming my knee into his chest, pushing my right foot atop of his left wrist and held his other down with my hands.

It was a move I'd seen on the Hunger Games and I breathed hard, pushing most of my weight onto the man's ribcage, lifting my left hand from his chest and pressing it into his windpipe.

"I'm not responsible for the consequences of your creepy science experiments. You're the one who locked that man up. You're the one who removed lungs and limbs and you're the one responsible for those people dying."

His eyes were wide when he looked up at me, surprise and shock marring his face and then— fear flashed across his taut facial muscles. I'd never seen that emotion directed at me. I'd never seen someone be afraid of me and watched, slightly intrigued as the man paled, his cheeks, sprinkled with freckles, becoming so white, they almost looked gaunt.

"Are you going to let us go?" I threatened slowly.

He looked at me, as if he wasn't really seeing me and I swallowed, taking a deep breath. "Are you going to let us go? Can I let you up and will you bugger off?"

"You'll have to kill me," he huffed back, and I felt more than saw the muscles in his stomach bunch up. He was going to try and buck me off and— he would succeed. He was stronger than me. By a lot and I might have the upper hand now, with him thinking— I had no idea what he was thinking. Sweat beaded my lip and dampened the hairs to the back of my neck. I had to do something and some kind of numbness was starting to tingle up my fingertips, up my arms and settled in the pit of my stomach.

—I had to do something—

I realized dimly, that my arm was beginning to shake and I drew my hand back, pushing all my weight into my swing and punched him hard across his face. Hard enough for something in my hand to pop painfully and hard enough to make the man's nose crack sickeningly (well, it wasn't his first time). His head snapped to the side, his eyes rolling back and he didn't move again.

I breathed hard. I had never hit someone so hard before and perspiration dotted my brow and temples.

"Damn," Caroline whispered and I watched her sit up slowly. She'd managed to get up sooner than I'd expected and she rubbed her eyes. "I didn't know you could do that."

"You're up quickly!"

"I fed before we came here," she shrugged as if it was an easy feat and pushed Bonnie up against the crypt, pushing an open blood bag against her lips. I crawled towards the two of them, and met Bonnie's eyes when they snapped open. They were no longer foggy, but clear and alert. The whites had turned red and the darkest kind of veins teased the surface beneath her eyes. I felt like prey caught in her predator's gaze and I forced a shudder down and averted my eyes.

Sweat was still beading on my forehead and I noticed almost absentmindedly that it was growing cooler. From the open doors, a slight breeze lifted my damp hair around my face and I stared around.

The man, body limb and expression slack, was still there.

My eyes found the stone casket in the middle and I froze. My epiphany about Mikeal the vampire hunter had been correct and I realized— we shouldn't stay here. The large slab of stone keeping the hunter inside had been pushed aside and the stone casket was empty. Mikael was gone, only the dusty chains were what remained behind.

I swallowed. Fantastic, as if there weren't enough problems without the narcissistic vampire-vampire hunter around. I rubbed my hands together. "We have to get out of here!" I whispered hurriedly and Caroline's eyes flickered to me and then to the stone casket. I watched realization sink in.

"Was that where he was?" Caroline asked.

I nodded, crouching down beside Bonnie, hooking my arm beneath her elbow, trying to pull her up to her feet. "Yes, I'm pretty sure it was."

"He's gone now." Caroline said, stating the obvious. She had a knack for doing that and I nodded.

"We have to get out of here."

"She's not—" Caroline started, helping Bonnie up to her feet with one hand and taking the last sip from her practically empty blood bag, "She's not strong enough yet."

"Yeah, well, we found her— but we have to get her out of here."

"Yeah," she puffed and pulled Bonnie to her side, kicking her feet from the ground and taking all of the girl's weight. "But first, wipe the blood from your face— it's— distracting."

"Oh," I mumbled and braced myself with one hand on the stone casket and wiped at my face.

"Do you think that Original is somewhere around here, too?"

"I don't know," I answered, my heart drumming like a bass.

"What do we do with him?" Caroline asked, pointing at the fallen man with the pasty white skin.

I shrugged and straightened my shirt. "I don't know, I don't care. Please, let's get out of here!"

Bonnie was out of it again, her eyes staring around somewhat unseeingly, as we quickly went outside. The air was a cocktail of fresh mowed grass and pine and the sun was but a streak of light in the East. The lanterns around the cemetery had turned on, and nothing seemed out of place. Seemed being the key-word.

"Elena?"

I nodded and, in a fit of brilliance or perhaps a sense of clinical detachment and self perspiration, slammed the tomb doors shut, hard. There was an open padlock I could hook around the doorhandles and I moved back. A light breeze kept the trees constantly in motion and somehow that unnerved me. I felt odd, detached and I was afraid. I was even more afraid than I'd been when I'd met Klaus all those months ago. More afraid than I'd been when Enzo had pressed the entire length of his body against my back, threatening to bleed me dry. At first, I'd managed to walk in the same pace as Caroline had, but— with my heart racing and my hands trembling so badly, I felt like I would bolt at any second now.

And somehow, running— the idea felt right. I practically ran across the cemetery on wobbly legs. Caroline easily matched my speed, still fully supporting Bonnie and I could have cried in joy when I noticed the silver of Caroline's car, glinting in the pale light of the rising moon.

Caroline hadn't locked her car. I had no idea if it was intentional but I circled the car to the passenger's seat, opening the door wide for Caroline to lower Bonnie into the seat. She still looked heavily sedated.

"You're terrified."

"You don't know this man."

"You weren't even that afraid when you discussed that creepy ritual sacrifice of yours."

"Yeah, well, compared to this one, Klaus is reasonable." I whispered.

In the distance I heard a dog bark and the cry of a man. I heard a car door slam and then a siren wailing and I clambered in the backseat of the car.

"He won't go after you," Caroline gently shushed and I met her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Klaus doesn't need you anymore."

"Well, that creep doesn't have to know that," I whispered, purposefully forgoing that Klaus would need me, once he learned that he needed my blood to create hybrids. Esther knew that— hence while she tried to kill Elena in the third season so why wouldn't Mikael? "Just, let's get out of here. We figure out what to do once we're out of here."

"I second that," Bonnie mumbled.

"Yeah, okay," Caroline mumbled and started the engine.

I let out a grateful sigh as Caroline started the engine and raced off the cemetery grounds. Within minutes, she was zigzagging through the logjam of downtown traffic and I shared a small smile with Bonnie. She kept staring at me though, though half-lidded eyes.

"Bonnie?"

"I know you're not— Not our Elena."

"Wha—" I gasped. "Did she— did Sheila tell you?"

"Not Elena—" Caroline echoed, but no one listened.

"Yes," Bonnie mumbled, her voice nothing more than a soft sigh leaving her lips.

Sitting back against the cushion, I swallowed. "Oh," and felt something go cold in my chest. Caroline's eyes flitted between us. "What are you talking about? Bonnie, Elena is right there."

"No," I agreed, breathing out loudly, "not really. I'll explain— Once we're safe."

"What—"

"I'll explain. I promise."

(To be continued….)

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Are you all happy Elena and Caroline found Bonnie? It was about time I suppose^^

And I what did you all think about the fight with the scientist? Liked it? Did anyone expect Bonnie to know about Elena?

Let me know what you all think!

Next update in four days!