[1x14; Fool Me Once]
Stefan clenched his hands into fists as he walked into his library, worry pulsing through his veins when he thought about Elena and Lucy being missing. Since Anna had taken them and Damon had located her the night before, his brother most likely knew where Elena and Lucy would be. He just had to ask him.
If he could get Damon to cooperate, it would be a miracle. He knew it was his fault that his brother didn't trust him, but he hoped Damon would still care enough about Elena or Lucy that he'd help.
"Anna took Elena and Lucy," Stefan declared as he took a seat on the couch next to Damon.
Damon didn't look up from the Bennett grimoire, carefully turning the fragile pages to look for the tomb spell. "Yeah. I got that from your 600 voicemails."
"Damon, all night long, every single street in town, I've been searching," Stefan told him. With a sigh, he asked, "What if your blood hasn't passed out of Lucy's system?"
"Well, at least we know we'll see her again," Damon quipped, keeping his eyes on the curvy and cramped writing on the page in front of him.
"Please," Stefan begged. "What do you know? You were with Anna, you must know where she's living. Just tell me where I can find her."
Damon rolled his eyes, tired of hearing his brother talk. "Nope. You can go, really."
Stefan sighed, frustrated but not all together surprised that Damon refused to help. "You know, all I can remember is hating you. There might have been a time when that was different, but your choices have erased anything good about you," when Damon set down the grimoire and looked at him with a glare, he continued, "But, see, I also know that you have just as much reason to hate me. This all began with me. Katherine got taken away from you because of me…and I'm sorry."
Damon smiled at his brother. "Apology accepted."
"So, please…tell me what you know," Stefan pleaded. "It's Elena and Lucy, Damon. If you know something, tell me."
Rolling his eyes, Damon shut the grimoire and stood up, causing Stefan to stand as well. "I mean this sincerely," he looked into Stefan's eyes. "I hope Elena and Lucy die."
Yes, it was a lie, but Stefan didn't know that. As far as his brother was aware, Damon couldn't care less about the Gilbert sisters.
Lucy woke up to the sound of running water and her sister's voice pleading for her and Bonnie to wake up. Lucy blinked rapidly, her blurry eyesight sharpening, and looked around, noticing that she was leaned against a wall in a cramped bathroom. Elena was kneeling next to her and upon further inspection, Bonnie was laying in the bathtub, unconscious.
"Elena?"
Elena looked over at Lucy, keeping the damp washcloth in her hand against Bonnie's head. "You're awake," she breathed, relieved. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Lucy confirmed, groaning in pain as she sat up. "Is Bonnie okay? What's going on?"
"Hopefully, she'll wake up soon," Elena whispered, helping Lucy sit on the toilet. "Some girl took us from the house last night. Ben McKittrick kidnapped Bonnie on their date."
"Ben McKittrick? As in Joel's old teammate?"
"Yep," Elena sighed in aggravation.
Lucy rolled her eyes and, surprisingly, didn't panic. The girl was mostly likely Anna, Jeremy's friend. Anna was clearly holding them for leverage, either for Bonnie or Stefan. They just to wait this whole situation out.
Bonnie moaned lowly as she woke up, looking at Lucy and Elena in confusion. "Elena? Lucy?"
"You're okay!" Elena breathed, relieved.
Bonnie winced, pain pulsing through her head.
"Take it easy, Bon," Lucy warned her; she wet another washcloth and handed to Elena, hoping that it would ease Bonnie's pain.
As the wet fabric hit her forehead, Bonnie gasped and sat up higher in the bathtub, looking at Lucy and Elena with wide eyes. "Oh, my God!" she hissed. "Ben is a—"
"Shh," Elena shushed her. She pointed at her ear and gestured to the bathroom door. "They can hear."
Lucy reached over to the sink and turned on the faucet, hoping that the noise of the rushing water would make it so Anna and Ben couldn't hear their conversation.
"I was so stupid," Bonnie groaned, feeling shameful.
"He had all of us fooled," Elena comforted her.
"What's going on?" Bonnie wondered, moving past her embarrassment. "Why are we here?"
"It probably has something to do with the tomb and Emily's grimoire," Lucy sighed. Why else would Anna need Bonnie?
"Grimoire?" Bonnie narrowed her eyes, even more confused than she already was.
"Damon said that it could be used to open the tomb," Elena informed her.
"Why didn't I know anything about this?" Bonnie looked around Elena at the door, hoping that the vampires wouldn't come in.
"We were trying to keep you out of it," Elena explained herself, looking over at Lucy, who nodded in support. "I hoped it would never come to this."
Bonnie gave her a questioning look. "Come to what?"
"They need a witch to break the spell and let the vampires out," Elena gave Bonnie the bad news.
Bonnie shook her head. "No way."
Elena gave her a sympathetic look. "I know—"
The bathroom door flung open and the familiar face of Ben McKittrick appeared, smirking. As Lucy and Elena shifted in front of Bonnie protectively, he turned off the water.
"You're wasting your time," Bonnie spoke up. "I'm not going to help you."
Ben snickered and grabbed Lucy's arm, harshly pulling her to her feet and making her grunt in pain from his tight grip. Keeping a firm hand around Lucy, he bent down and wrapped an arm around Elena's waist, hauling her up.
"That's why they're here," he informed Bonnie matter-of-factly. "Motivation for you to behave. You know," he grinned maliciously. "You shouldn't be so desperate. You made it too easy."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up, Ben," she snapped and siphoned magic from him, making his hiss.
Ben ripped his hand away from Lucy and grabbed the back of her shirt, practically dragging her out of the bathroom while still holding Elena.
"She needs to talk to you two," Ben told them, glaring furiously at Lucy. He pushed them into the room with Anna and then slammed the bathroom door shut with him and Bonnie inside.
"Well, well," Anna hummed, shaking her head in amusement. "Hello, Lucy. Nice to see you again," when Lucy glared at her, Anna turned to look at Elena. "Elena Gilbert. You really are Katherine's doppelganger. You must have the Salvatore boys reeling."
Elena scoffed. "Who are you?"
"Our brother's creepy vampire-stalker," Lucy sneered, crossing her arms over her chest.
Anna laughed. "Yeah, your brother may have mentioned me. I mean, we're, like, practically dating," her face smoothed into an unreadable mask, probably to intimidate the girls. "I'm Anna."
Lucy rolled her eyes and sat down on the closest bed, readying herself for what she assumed would be an intimidation speech. From what Ben had said, she knew that her and Elena were just leverage and Lucy would play the part she was given.
Did she want Bonnie to do the spell and open the tomb? No, she didn't, but there was a possibility that they—Anna, Ben, and maybe even Damon—were going to force her to do it anyway, whether it was through violence or emotional manipulation. She didn't want Bonnie to get hurt, so maybe it was best that she undid the spell.
It was a complicated situation on all sides. There was no good way to go about this.
"Bonnie's not going to open the tomb," Elena told Anna, taking a seat next to Lucy.
Anna walked over to the window and moved the curtains aside, staring out the window. "Oh, I think she will."
"Do you really want Katherine out that bad?"
Anna scoffed at Elena's question. "Trust me, no one I know wants to see that girl again," she paused for a moment. "Except maybe Damon, the lovestruck idiot."
"Then what is it?" Elena sighed. Her eyebrows furrowed as a new realization came to her. "Or who is it?"
Lucy raised her eyebrows. Didn't Damon say something about Anna's mother…?
"My mother's in there," Anna's face softened as she confirmed Lucy's suspicions. "Katherine couldn't help herself. She just had to toy around with both of the Salvatore brothers. And when she got caught…so did my mother. I watched Jonathan Gilbert take her away."
Lucy couldn't help but sympathize with Anna. After all, she knew what it was like having her mother taken away from her. Even if Miranda Gilbert wasn't a vampire locked up in a tomb for more than a century, she was still gone.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Anna gave her an unreadable look. "You really mean that, don't you?" she chuckled. "Yeah, I think we'll skip the dead-mom bonding you so you two can start serving a purpose."
Elena narrowed her eyes. "Which is what?"
"Leverage," Anna said simply. She picked Elena's phone up from the table next to her. "This belong to you?"
Elena lunged forward and attempted to take the phone from Anna, but the vampire clicked her tongue and backed away, pressing her fingers against the screen to call someone.
The someone—most likely Stefan—answered and Anna smirked.
"She's fine, for now," Anna said into the phone. "Tell me you have the grimoire and she and her sister will stay fine," she paused for a second to allow Stefan to speak. "Which means your brother has it and I have the witch. So, one of you had better meet me in the very public town square in thirty minutes so we can safely discuss how fun it's going to be to work together."
She pulled the phone away from her ear and tossed it back on the table. Giving Lucy and Elena a warning glance, she walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door.
"I'm leaving," she told Ben as he opened the door and dragged Bonnie into the room. "Keep them buttoned down. Compulsion won't work, just use violence."
"Right, I got that," Ben sighed, pushing Bonnie onto the other bed. Anna left, slamming the door behind her. "Sit and behave," he warned Bonnie. He took off his jacket and laid it across the back of a chair across from the beds before sitting in the chair.
"So, you're the key to this," he said to Bonnie. "Literally. The one who opens the door. Tell me, how long have you been a witch?"
"Is there anything to drink here?" Elena spoke up, giving Ben an annoyed look.
Ben jumped to his feet, baring his teeth at her; Elena flinched back. "Are you offering?" Elena scooted away from him. "There's water on the nightstand."
Lucy looked to her left and saw the glass; she picked it up and handed it to Elena. Just as Elena took her first sip of the water, Bonnie spoke up.
"Hey," she whispered. "Can I have a sip?"
Elena nodded and reached around Lucy, handing Bonnie the glass. Bonnie promptly threw the contents of the glass at Ben, narrowing her eyes at him and allowing a fire to break out on his arm.
Ben shouted in pain and tried to pat out the fire as Lucy, Bonnie, and Elena rushed to the door. Bonnie opened the door and ran out, followed by Lucy, but Elena let out a shriek as Ben grabbed her around the waist.
"Come back in," Ben growled as Lucy and Bonnie turned around, shocked that Elena was caught. "Shut the door!"
"Don't hurt her," Lucy warned, scared that her sister would be hurt and fed up with these vampires telling her what to do. Screw what she said earlier, she wasn't going to roll over and let them do anything they wanted.
"Don't make me!" Ben shouted.
Lucy glowered at him as she walked back into the room, Bonnie following and shutting the door behind them.
"Lock it."
Bonnie obediently locked the door and shuffled back over to the bed, taking a seat.
Lucy, though, was tired of being bossed around. There was a way to get this over with, without putting Bonnie in danger.
"Listen," she gave Ben a firm look. "Call Anna and tell her that you don't need Bonnie or the grimoire to open the tomb."
Ben raised his eyebrows and took a step toward her. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Lucy snapped. "I can siphon the spell—"
"Lucy, don't!" Bonnie objected.
Lucy ignored her, keeping her eyes on Ben. "I can siphon the spell from the tomb if you let Bonnie and Elena go."
Ben narrowed his eyes at Lucy and pulled his phone out of his jean pocket. "Sit down while I call her," he gestured to the bed.
Lucy sat down next to Elena while Ben walked a few feet away to talk to Anna on the phone.
"Why would you do that, Lucy?" Elena hissed quietly. "We can't let anyone open that tomb."
"They're not going to stop," Lucy pointed out, her voice loud enough so Bonnie could hear. "Anna and even Damon aren't going to stop until they get Katherine and Anna's mom out of the tomb. In the process, they'll hurt us. Is that what you want?"
"I don't want you hurt," Elena insisted.
"And I don't want you or Bonnie hurt, either," Lucy grabbed Elena's hand. "If I can do something to stop all of this, I will."
"She's on her way back," Ben declared to the girls before Elena could say anything else. He looked at Lucy and asked, "So, you can take spells away from things?"
"I don't have magic of my own," Lucy explained reluctantly. "So, I have to siphon magic from objects or people—" she gave him a pointed look. "—to use it."
"So, you can die, right?" Ben gave his own thinly veiled threat. "You don't have eternal life."
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes, we can die."
"Ah," Ben hissed, smirking. "That sucks."
The door burst open at that moment, causing light to spill into the dark motel room. Ben cried out in pain as the sun's rays hit his skin, causing it to blister, burn, and smoke. He dived into the spot between the two beds as Stefan and Joel stomped into the room, furious looks on their faces.
"Let's go," Joel urged Lucy, Bonnie, and Elena. "Come on. Get outside."
"Stefan!" Elena shouted.
"Get outside!" Stefan repeated Joel's orders.
Lucy hurried outside with Bonnie and Elena, surprised to see Grams standing in the parking lot. Bonnie ran straight into her grandmother's arms while Lucy wrapped Joel in a hug, relieved that they found them in time and she wouldn't have to siphon the spell from the tomb.
"You came," she smiled, pulling away from Joel's embrace to allow Elena to get a hug.
"Of course, I did," Joel rolled his eyes, squeezing Elena. "My sisters were missing. What was I going to do? Stay at school?"
"Come on," Stefan called as he walked out of the motel room. Elena let go of Joel and rushed into his embrace; he wrapped his arms around her and added, "Let's get out of here."
Lucy sat in Grams' living room, her brand-new grimoire in her lap. Grams had given it to her only moments before, after her, Bonnie, and Elena were plied with food and water. Elena and Stefan had stepped out to discuss what was going to happen while Joel sat next to Lucy, reading over her shoulder, and Bonnie and Grams were cuddled together on the couch.
"How did you know where we were?" Bonnie asked Grams, catching the attention of Lucy. She kept her head down, eyes on her grimoire while eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Many things can fuel a witch's power," Grams told her. "Worry, anger…After Joel and Stefan told me that they had taken you, I had a lot of both. A simple locater spell was easy after that."
"I'm sorry," Bonnie whispered. "About all of this."
"Not as sorry as they're gonna be," Grams said matter-of-factly.
Lucy finally looked up as Stefan and Elena entered the room. They needed to do something if they wanted to finish this and she assumed that they had a plan.
"So, what do we do now?" Elena sighed, sitting on the other side of Lucy.
Okay, so, maybe they didn't have a plan…
"For now, you need to stay here," Stefan advised; this was the only house that Damon hadn't been invited into, so it was the safest here.
"A prisoner?" Grams raised her eyebrows in Stefan's direction. "In my own home? I don't think so."
"Stefan and I can't protect you if you leave the house, Grams," Joel pointed out, shifting forward so Grams could see him.
Grams clicked her tongue and gave Joel a fond but firm look, looking as though she couldn't believe he didn't have more faith in her. "We'll protect ourselves."
It was quiet for a thoughtful moment as everyone tried to think of a different plan. Then, Elena spoke up.
"We need to let him have Katherine back," she declared. When everyone but Lucy gave her looks of disbelief, she added, "Lucy was right. Damon's not going to stop until he gets her. If we help him, maybe that ends it."
Lucy gave her sister a grateful smile, happy that someone was listening to her advice for once in her life.
"No!" Bonnie objected. "He doesn't deserve to get what he wants!"
Lucy sighed. "What other choice do we have?"
Grams shook her head. "Witches being pulled down by vampire problems as much as we tried to do to stay out of it," she turned to Stefan, eyes firm. "I'll open the tomb. You get your brother's girl and destroy the rest with fire. Then this will be all over."
"We still have to get Damon to agree," Stefan pointed out, frustrated.
"He already agreed once," Elena reminded him.
"Yeah and then we double-crossed him," Stefan crossed his arms over his chest. "So now he's angry."
"He's hurt," Elena corrected him. "There's a difference. Lucy, maybe—"
"No," Lucy shook her head, already knowing what her sister was going to ask of her. No way in hell was she going to try to convince Damon to work with them; she was almost turned into a vampire and she didn't even do anything to him. "Besides, he trusts you more than me."
"I betrayed him," Elena shook her head in denial. Lucy gave her a look and she sighed, giving in. "Fine, I'll go talk to him."
"Great!" Joel chirped, trying to lighten up the mood. "Let's go roast some vampires!"
Bundled up in her heaviest peacoat, Lucy still shivered from the frigid air surrounding her. She could faintly hear the sounds of Duke's party going on a couple-hundred feet away, but she paid it no mind. If all went well, no one at the party was at risk and maybe she could steal a cup of beer if they wrapped this up early enough.
"Lucy," Grams caught her attention as Joel and Stefan went to clear a path down to the tomb. "Bonnie and I will need your help with this."
Lucy nodded, sobering. "What do you need me to do?"
"The spell will be too strong to pull down with just Bonnie and I," Grams explained, glancing at Bonnie who was standing beside her, holding a bag of supplies. "We will need you to siphon some of the spell each time I tell you too."
"Why can't I just siphon it all away?" Lucy wondered.
"Because, sweetheart, you can't siphon too much," Grams' face was grim. "Like I said, the spell is powerful. If you get too much magic in your system, it can overwhelm you. You could seriously hurt yourself."
Lucy's eyes widened, taken aback. She had no idea that siphoning too much magic could hurt her. She just figured she'd have more magic to use. It was a good thing Grams found them when she did, then. Lucy could have seriously hurt or even killed herself siphoning the spell from the tomb.
"Thank you for telling me," she said gratefully. "Grams, thank you for everything. Seriously."
Grams smiled and placed a hand on Lucy's arm. "It's no problem, dear. You and Bonnie and great friends," she smiled at Bonnie and looked back at Lucy. "and I wanted to help you. You can do great things with your powers, don't let anyone tell you differently."
Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat, willing herself not to cry. She smiled at Grams, happy that she saw something in Lucy that she didn't know if she could see herself.
"We cleared the debris away," Joel announced as he and Stefan walked over to them, carrying shovels. "Set the torches like you asked. We can get down now."
"What is that?" Bonnie asked, looking at Stefan.
Stefan was standing next to a couple gallons of gas and a blowtorch he gathered so he could destroy the rest of the vampires.
"It's everything I need to destroy them," Stefan told her, handing Grams a flashlight.
"Are you sure Damon will come back with her?" Grams asked, referring to Elena, who went to retrieve Damon and get him to work with them.
A whistle answered her question. Lucy and the others turned toward the sound, seeing Damon and Elena walking toward them. Emily's grimoire was tucked safely away in Damon's hands and Elena looked severely annoyed with the oldest Salvatore.
"Brother, witches," Damon greeted Stefan, Grams, and Bonnie before turning to Lucy and Joel. "Twitch, JoJo."
Joel glared at Damon before turning to Lucy and whispering, "Did you tell him about that?"
"No!"
"Everything okay?" Stefan asked Elena, ignoring the whispering coming from the other Gilbert siblings.
Elena sighed. "I just want to get this over with," she turned to Bonnie and Grams. "Are we ready?"
Bonnie, Lucy, and Grams exchanged a look before Bonnie answered, "I guess so."
Their group descended down the path to the tomb, cleared of debris just like Joel said it was. In the tomb's entrance, four torches were situated in a circle in the center, ready to be lit. Bonnie set down the supplies needed for the spell and handed Grams a lighter.
Grams lit the first of the torches. "Air," she said as it caught on fire. She moved onto the next two, setting each of them ablaze. "Earth. Fire."
"Water," Bonnie added, holding up a plastic bottle of water.
"That's it?" Elena asked, looking at the bottle in confusion as Grams sprinkled the ground with the water within it. "Just water from the tap?"
Grams raised her eyebrows at her. "As opposed to what?"
"I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed or mystical or something."
Lucy snickered at Elena's awkward bumbling and shifted, avoiding Elena's incoming elbow. Joel wasn't so lucky; his grunt interrupted his laughter as Elena's fist came in contact with his bicep.
"What's that?"
Lucy, Elena, and Joel turned to Stefan and Damon. Damon was pulling a blood bag out of his jacket and unwrapping the tube.
"It's for Katherine," Damon stated. "Gotta have something to get her going. Unless one of the girls are offering a vein to tap?" he nodded at Lucy and Elena.
Both Lucy and Elena glowered at him; Stefan sighed, exasperated.
"Admit it," Damon whispered loudly to Stefan. "You can't wait to get rid of me."
Stefan chuckled. "I can't wait to get rid of you."
"Join the club," Joel commented, smirking and winking at Damon when he turned around to glare at him.
"We're ready," Bonnie interrupted, looking away from the grimoire as Grams studied the spell thoroughly.
"Lucy, you'll go first," Grams pointed to the tomb door, pentagram carved into the stone. "When we start chanting, I want you to stop siphoning."
"Yes, ma'am," Lucy nodded, walking over to the door.
Rubbing her chilled hands nervously, she looked over to where Joel, Elena, and Stefan were standing together. Each one of them gave her encouraging looks which warmed her heart.
She could do this. She was strong enough to do this.
Lucy placed both hands on the door, rough stone scraping her soft palms. Her arms started to tingle and her hands glowed red as she started siphoning the spell.
Almost immediately she knew Grams was right about how the spell would have overwhelmed her if she did it by herself. Her muscles ached slightly as she absorbed the magic and her temples throbbed but underneath that, she felt enormous power.
When Bonnie and Grams started chanting, Lucy ripped her hands away from the door. Gasping, out of breath, she leaned against the wall, feeling tired.
Normally, she would have felt great having absorbed magic. She could tell it was a little too much.
"What are they saying?" Damon asked, referring to the words Bonnie and Grams spoke.
Grams and Bonnie held hands in the middle of the circle made of torches, standing over Emily's grimoire. The torches flared every couple of seconds, letting Lucy know that the spell they were using had to be working.
"It sounds like Latin," Stefan guessed, giving Lucy a concerned look as Joel helped her over to him and Elena.
Elena shook her head. "I don't think it's Latin."
Bonnie and Grams continued chanting until there was a loud boom and the tomb door opened. Everyone turned to look at it, amazed that it worked.
"What's happening?" Elena asked, confused.
"It worked!" Bonnie exclaimed.
"Of course, it worked," Grams said confidently.
Damon looked back at Stefan and Joel. "We have some fires to build."
Stefan nodded. "We're gonna go get the stuff. We'll be right back."
As Joel and Stefan set down the path back up to the higher ground, Damon eyed Grams and Bonnie and turned to Elena.
"You ready?" he asked.
"What?"
"You think I'm going to go in there by myself so you can seal me in?" Damon asked, glaring at Grams. He grabbed Elena's arm and roughly pulled her to him.
"Don't take her in," Grams warned him. "I'll bring the walls down."
"You'll bring the walls down if I don't," Damon sneered. "You think I trust you?"
"As much as I trust you."
"Damon, seriously, don't," Lucy sighed, though she knew he'd bring Elena into the tomb with him anyway. He needed leverage so he could get out alive and Elena was the most protected of the group. It was natural that he picked her.
"Enough, all of you!" Elena spoke up, glaring at Lucy, Grams, and Damon. She calmed down and spoke directly to Lucy and Grams. "Look, he needs leverage. He needs to know that you're not going to shut the door when he gets inside. I get it," she turned to Damon. "I'll go."
Damon smirked at Lucy and the Bennett witches; he reached for a torch. "May I?"
Without an answer, he grabbed the torch and pulled Elena into the tomb, each set of footsteps sounding fainter the further away they walked.
Lucy, Grams, and Bonnie waited for Joel and Stefan in silence. Not even five minutes after Damon and Elena walked into the tomb, Anna entered the chamber, intent to rescue her mother.
"Hey," Bonnie objected when she spotted Anna. "You're not going in there."
"Do you think you can stop me?" Anna asked; if she had to fight or kill the witch to get her mother, so be it. Nothing was going to stop her.
"Bonnie…" Grams interfered, giving her granddaughter a warning look.
Bonnie frowned but stepped down, allowing Anna to go into the tomb. Anna let out a sigh of relief and grabbed the flashlight out of Lucy's hands, ignoring Lucy's glare of protest. She disappeared into the darkness of the tomb.
Bonnie whirled around to face Grams. "Why did you let her go in?"
"Because she isn't coming out, baby," Grams told her. "None of them are."
"What?" Lucy spoke up, shocked. "What about Elena…?"
"She'll be okay," Grams assured her.
Lucy nodded, believing that Grams was telling the truth. Still, she didn't feel better that the seal was still up. No matter how much she didn't trust or like Damon, she didn't want him stuck in the tomb for all eternity, either. It would be miserable for him.
Not to mention Stefan would lose his brother.
Joel and Stefan ran back into the chamber, carrying the supplies needed to start the fires.
Stefan looked around. "Where's Elena?"
"Damon took her inside," Lucy told him with a sigh.
"What?" Stefan exclaimed, running over to the tomb door.
"Stefan!" Grams called out, stopping him. "If you go in there, you won't come out."
Stefan furrowed his eyebrows. "What did you do?"
"Opening the door didn't remove the seal," Grams informed him. "It just opened the door."
"What's the seal?" Joel asked, setting down a container of gasoline.
"Some seals keep vampires from entering. This one keeps them from…coming out."
"Elena's human," Stefan realized. "She can leave. Anna and Katherine can't…Damon can't."
Grams nodded.
Lucy could tell that Stefan wasn't happy about his brother's imprisonment in the tomb. Even if Damon made his life miserable, he still loved his brother.
"You weren't even planning on breaking the spell, were you?" Stefan asked the oldest Bennett.
"I told you," Grams stepped away from him to stand next to Bonnie. "I will protect my own. Elena can get out. That's all that matters."
Elena's high-pitched scream came from deep into the tomb. Stefan tensed at the sound and turned around, speeding toward the tomb door.
"Stefan, don't!" Lucy shouted, grabbing onto Joel's bicep with all her strength so he wouldn't run into the tomb. While she was able to stop Joel, Stefan didn't listen to her and vanished.
Lucy stomped over to the door and peered inside, only seeing darkness. Anger and fear bloomed in her chest and she turned to Grams and Bonnie.
"We can't just leave him in there!" she said fiercely.
"He made his choice!" Grams argued.
"No, she's right," Bonnie agreed with Lucy. She bent down and grabbed the grimoire. "Just tell me what to do. I'll do it!"
"We're not strong enough," Grams said. "Even if we were able to bring the seal down, there's no guarantee that we can get it back up again."
"Then I'll bring the seal down myself," Lucy was determined to get Stefan—and even Damon—out of the tomb. She couldn't let her best pal down. "You guys bring the seal back up after they come out."
"You said it yourself," Bonnie added, looking at Grams. "Many things can fuel a witch's power. Help me or I'll do it alone!"
Grams reluctantly agreed. "We'll be chanting while you siphon. They'll be able to get out but we'll be able to put the seal up right away," she warned Lucy.
Lucy nodded and walked over to the tomb door, kneeling right beside it.
Elena came running out of the tomb minutes later, wrist bleeding and breathing heavily.
"Elena," Joel pulled her into a hug. "Stefan…"
"He's right behind me," she assured him. She turned around and looked at the tomb door where Stefan was standing, unable to get out. "Stefan, what are you doing?"
"It's gonna be okay," Bonnie told Elena. "We'll fix it."
"What is it?" Elena had no idea what they were talking about.
"I can't," Stefan said solemnly.
"Can't? Can't what?"
"The spell's still up," Lucy told her sister. "We can't get them out yet."
Elena narrowed her eyes at Stefan. "You went in there not knowing if you could come back out?" when Stefan nodded, she gasped. "Oh, my God."
"I heard you scream," Stefan stated.
"You're going to need to go get Damon," Lucy spoke up, looking up at Stefan from her spot on the ground.
"We can't leave him," Elena reminded him, tagging onto Lucy's statement. "We promised him, both of us."
Stefan nodded. "I know."
"When we break the seal, we won't be able to hold it for long," Grams said seriously.
"You need to hurry," Lucy warned him. Stefan nodded and took off to look for Damon.
Lucy looked back at Grams and Bonnie and nodded before pressing her hands to the ground in front of her. As she first started siphoning, her muscles started aching again; this time, though, it was more painful.
Lucy gritted her teeth from the pain the magic she absorbed was giving her. She vaguely heard chanting from Grams and Bonnie and encouragements from Joel and Elena but she couldn't understand them.
It felt like her bones were on fire; her vision was growing blurry.
"I think it's working!" Elena called over the chanting of Grams and Bonnie, watching as the magic of the seal was pulled into her sister's red hands.
Anna appeared at the door, holding a fragile woman dressed in old, wrinkled and dirty clothes. She helped her mother step out of the tomb, walking past a shaking Lucy.
"I just wanted my mother back," she told Elena apologetically. "Jeremy's fine. He's outside. We won't touch him."
Elena was surprised to hear about Jeremy but paid Anna and her mother no mind as Lucy started to scream in pain. She and Joel rushed to her just as Bonnie gasped and let go of Grams' hands.
"Lucy!"
"Bonnie, Lucy, keep going!" Grams called out, loud enough to be heard over Lucy's yelps and the raging flames from the torches. "They better hurry!"
Elena tearfully turned to the tomb door and yelled, "Stefan, they can't hold it for much longer!"
Joel dropped to the floor next to Lucy, careful not to touch her. Her face was ghastly pale and wet from her tears. "It's okay, Lulu," he said encouragingly. "You're almost done. You're doing great," he turned to Elena, angry that Stefan and Damon were taking so long and causing Lucy so much pain. "Go and get them! Now!"
Elena took off into the tomb.
Lucy groaned loudly, sobbing under the strain all the magic she was siphoning was taking on her. All she saw was white at this point so she just closed her eyes, enduring the sharp burning for as long as she could.
She needed Stefan to get out of the tomb; that was what she was focusing on—Stefan.
"Oh, my God!" Bonnie shrieked, bending over slightly. "I can't!"
"Yes, you can!" Grams insisted, grabbing her again.
Joel looked over at the tomb door as Damon marched out, Elena and Stefan following close after him.
"Stop now, Luce," he urged his sister. "Stop!"
Lucy ripped her hands away from the stone and collapsed just as Grams and Bonnie stopped chanting and the tomb door slammed shut.
"Is he okay?" Elena asked, kneeling next to Jeremy on the forest floor. He was passed out, still knocked out from whatever Ben did to him.
"Is…Jere…all right…?" Lucy slurred tiredly, slumped up against a tree trunk with Stefan holding her upright.
"He's all right," Joel assured his sisters, bending down to pick Jeremy up, throwing him over his shoulder. "Let's head home, okay?"
"One second," Elena said, running away from her siblings to go talk to Damon, who was brooding over the fact that Katherine wasn't in the tomb.
Stefan followed her with his eyes and looked away when she hugged his brother. He looked back at Lucy and swallowed his worry for her; she looked horrible and he was afraid she wasn't going to make it.
"We should get her back to your house," he told Joel.
Joel nodded. "Let's go. Elena can catch up."
"Come on, Goofy," Stefan whispered, picking Lucy up so she laid in his arms. Her head slumped onto his shoulder, her body heat calming his fear slightly.
"I'm tired," Lucy whispered, voice thick. Her eyelids and all her limbs felt heavy, her mind sluggish. She couldn't keep her thoughts straight; she just wanted to sleep.
"No, don't sleep, Luce," Stefan didn't know if magic exhaustion—siphoning exhaustion, or whatever—was like a concussion where the patient wasn't supposed to sleep, but he was afraid she was going to die on him.
And that couldn't happen; she was like this because he ran into that tomb.
As Stefan and Joel started walking through the woods to get back to their vehicles, Joel spoke up, "She keeps magic in her locket, right?"
"Yeah," Stefan confirmed, looking down at Lucy. Her eyes were closed. "Lucy, wake up."
Lucy's eyes shot open.
"Maybe if she puts some of the magic in her locket, she'll feel better?" Joel suggested as they reached his truck.
"It's worth a try," Lucy agreed; she grabbed onto her locket and allowed the magic she siphoned from the tomb to transfer into it.
Immediately she felt better. Her thoughts cleared slightly and she felt warmer, more aware.
"That's better," she sighed, leaning her head back onto Stefan's shoulder. "Can I sleep now? It's not like I have a concussion or something."
Stefan chuckled; same old Lucy. "I guess."
"Good," she snuggled her face into his soft jacket and inhaling his comforting scent. "You smell good."
"That's good to know."
"I'm glad you're safe," Lucy murmured.
Stefan just kissed the top of her head, grateful that she was safe as well.