A Single Rose Left To Remember {3/3}
Title: A Single Rose Left To Remember 3/3
Author: not_from_stars // Cover Art By queenmidalah
Link to art master post: Art!
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Characters/Pairing(s): Damon Salvatore/Elena Gilbert, Tyler Lockwood/Caroline Forbes, Jeremy Gilbert/Bonnie Bennett, Alaric Satzman, Klaus, Elijah, Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: Written For tvd_bigbang 2011
Warning: Spoilers for S2.
Word Count: 21,542
Summary: Elena blames herself for everything that has gone wrong in Mystic Falls and when she is sure that Damon is going to be healed, she leaves the only home she has ever known. She leaves letters for those closest to her, but for Damon, she leaves her journal. The journal is filled with all of Elena's thoughts over the last year -- including her growing love for Damon. The last written page in the journal is a letter for Damon -- and a carefully preserved rose. The rose he gave her once. Now, Damon is in a race against time to find Elena, because Klaus is looking for her, too. Klaus has discovered that because Elena survived the spell he used, her blood -- human or vampire -- now has the power to destroy him if used with an ancient spell. Damon is determined to find Elena before Klaus does and he doesn't care how many people he has to kill to save her. However, when Klaus brings in someone to use as leverage, Damon has to make a choice as to which life he's going to save -- Elena's... or Stefan's.
Author's Notes: I want to thank my friend, queenmidalah, for stepping in and doing art for me at the last minute when my original artist had RL issues crop up. I also want to thank my beta and cheerleader, enochiansigils, for not letting me quit when the story was being so stubborn as to send me into tears more than once.
In any normal situation, Elena would have hung up the phone and then called Damon for help. However, this was nothing like a normal situation and she wanted to keep Damon as far away from here as was physically possible.
Besides, she was pretty sure he would want to give her a lecture when he found out what she was doing and they really didn’t have time for a lecture.
Instead, she listened to Klaus’ instructions carefully and wrote down the directions to the place he wanted her to meet him at. Even after she hung up and got back behind the wheel of her car, a voice was screaming inside her head that she was the world’s biggest fool for agreeing to this.
Fool or not, it was the best and possibly the last thing she could do for Damon.
At first, she had been surprised by Klaus’ terms, but realized that she had expected something like this when she had first set out on her journey. It was why she had taken the time to say goodbye to everyone that she cared for back home. When she had the random thought that maybe everyone would move into the Gilbert house together so that they could protect each other, she realized that she was skating very close to hysteria.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to pay attention the changing scenery around her, but she found that she couldn’t tell you after she passed it what she had seen. She wondered if this was all part of the compulsion that she knew she had been under for awhile now. She had remembered belatedly that vervain didn’t work on Klaus and it hadn’t on Elijah, so she had been under a compulsion ever since she left Mystic Falls. What she didn’t know is when the compulsion had been done. Besides the idea to run in the first place, had any of her actions been of her own choice and thought or what Klaus wanted her to do?
Well, there was one thing she had done that she knew was her own choice. Calling Damon hadn’t been a compulsion from anyone. She honestly had wanted to hear his voice - no matter how the call had ended.
However, ever since getting off of the phone with Klaus, every time she reached for her phone to call Damon again, she found that she couldn’t get her hand to pick up the phone. It worried her because she hadn’t felt such reticence ab0ut contacting him. She could definitely use hearing his voice right now.
It had just turned full dark when she drove up to the marshy area Klaus had directed her to. She wasn’t sure how long she had been driving, but getting out from behind the wheel was a relief. She stretched her body and looked around.
The area she was in seemed to be more of a private area of beach instead of belonging to any of the homes and cabins she had passed. Turning to look back the way she had come, she realized that she couldn’t see the main road from here. She wouldn’t have been able to find this place without Klaus’ careful directions.
Turning back with a sigh, she looked in front of her. Everywhere she looked there was sand with some kind of grass sometimes breaking up the smooth surface of the beach. The water wasn’t too far away and the moon made everything look faintly silver and unreal. It was enough to make someone think that they were in a dreamscape of some kind.
Yet, Elena knew that this was no dream. This was the place that was going to seal her fate and that of the people she loved back home. After all, that was why she was here. She was here to trade herself to the Original in exchange for Stefan’s freedom.
She walked down the beach away from her car and closer to the ocean. She didn’t know what Klaus was going to do to her, but she was sure that her existence as a human being had an expiration date. It probably wouldn’t be very long until then, so she was going to make the most of these last few minutes of freedom that she possessed. She walked along the beach, feeling the waves breaking over her feet and she took in the scent of the clean night air.
There were worse ways she could have spent the last few moments of her own life.
“This is type of scenery that one such as you was meant for.”
Elena turned to see Klaus standing close by. He looked the exact same as the last time she had seen him. Of course, this time, he wasn’t killing Jenna or about to kill her.
“One such as me?” She questioned bitterly.
“The beautiful heroine of the tragic gothic tale,” Klaus said smoothly. “You’ve lost everyone that was important to you and still you fight to remain strong. Still you keep holding on to the hope that someone will save you.”
“I don’t need to be saved, Klaus. This was a choice that I had made freely long before you set about compelling me to take the journey towards all of this.” She looked at him. “So tell me, how long have you known I had survived that little ritual you killed me in?”
Klaus watched for a long moment, the hint of a smile on his face. “I should have realized that one of the men that loved you would find some way to save you. I didn’t expect that John would find a spell that would exchange his life for yours. He wasn’t exactly known for unselfish acts - which was one of the reasons he was such a good minion. As long as it didn’t risk his neck, he’d do whatever we asked of him.”
“Until it came to letting you kill me.”
“That was indeed a surprise. I would never have guessed that John was capable of something resembling a father’s love.”
“It seems you underestimated a lot of things when you decided to come after me and make trouble in our town.”
“Did I? I still won in the end. The ritual did exactly what it was meant to do. And, since you didn’t die, I do have access to your blood whenever I want.” Klaus smiled. “Petrova blood. There seems to be nothing quite like it on this earth.”
“As long as you let Stefan free - in one piece and without added injury to his mind or his body - you get to keep me.”
“Not that I will go against the bargain we made earlier, but I must ask why I should give in to your demands? After all, I have you now. You can’t run faster than me and I could keep both you and Stefan to do with as I wish.”
Elena moved her hand and the moonlight reflected off of the blade in her hand. “Because I don’t think that you can get to me before I put this knife into my own heart. I haven’t taken blood in a long time, so I’ll die and you’ll lose the last source of your precious Petrova blood.” This time she smiled. “I read the books, Klaus. You need to feed on one of us at least once a year to keep your body functioning in its hybrid state. You can’t afford for me to bleed out - something that you didn’t find out until after the ritual.”
“She’s right, you know,” a new voice said as he stepped out of the shadows. “If Elena kills herself, you’ll lose because you’ll start dying a slow death.”
Elena blinked when she recognized who was standing there. “Tyler? What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Elena,” Tyler said, his eyes never leaving Klaus. “Did you really think that any of us were going to let you just throw your life away on this piece of shit for the rest of us?”
“But how did you find me? I didn’t even know where I was going when I left Mystic Falls.”
“GPS,” a new voice said as she stepped out onto the beach. “Your car has it and my mom tracked it in order to help us find you.” She shook her head. “Really, Elena, sacrificing yourself was not the best idea that you could have come up with.”
“There was no other choice, Caroline,” Elena said, staring at one of her best friends. “People would have just kept getting hurt or dying if I stayed there.”
“And what about Jeremy,” Tyler asked. “You’re all he has left. Abandoning him to save Stefan doesn’t seem all that loving or fair to him.”
“I’m not doing this for Stefan,” Elena said quietly. “I’m doing this so that all of you are safe and Jeremy doesn’t have to lose anyone else. If Klaus has me, then there is no reason to go back to the town and hurt anyone else to get to me.”
“He doesn’t care about any of that, Elena,” Stefan’s voice preceded him onto the beach. “All your brother cares about is your safety and knowing that you’ll be all right.”
It was Stefan’s sudden arrival that caused the problem. Elena’s hand on the knife wavered when she saw him and suddenly, Klaus had her back against him. One hand was at her neck and the other was holding the knife away from her body.
“And now what do you think you’re going to do, hmm?” Klaus whispered against her ear.
“Never stop trying to send you to hell,” Elena said to him, her eyes flashing her anger and hatred at him.
“Let her go!” Stefan demanded.
“I don’t think so,” Klaus said as he looked down at Elena. “Ahh, you look so like Katerina when you glare at me like that. So like a wild kitten who doesn’t realize that she is out of options except for those that her captor gives to her.”
Elena growled at him, trying to kick at his legs. “I’m not your captive, Klaus,” she corrected. “I came here willingly.”
“But now you have no way of escaping me. I hold all of the cards now.”
“That’s the problem with you, Klaus,” a voice drawled. “You always think that you have complete control over every situation.”
“Damon,” Elena whispered. “Oh, Damon, no. You weren’t supposed to come here.”
“Well, like certain people I can name, I don’t always do what the hell I’m supposed to.” He looked her over to make sure she was unhurt and his gaze lingered on the knife. “And what, do tell, were you going to do with that?” The edge in his voice said that he had a pretty good idea about what she had been thinking and he didn’t like it.
“She was going to kill herself if I didn’t send your dear brother back to you unharmed like she and I agreed upon,” Klaus sounded amused. “She thought that she would deny me the blood in her veins by stabbing herself in the heart.”
Elena struggled in his grasp again. “Making sure that he couldn’t break the agreement. I wouldn’t have stabbed myself unless he didn’t keep his part of the bargain.”
Damon sighed and the look he gave her probably would have made anyone else flinch. However, Elena knew enough about him to know that he was so angry because he was worried about her. She could see how much his dark eyes were glittering and that gave her an idea about the depth of his rage right now.
“I wanted to make sure he gave you your brother back,” Elena said softly, trying to ease the rage in his eyes. “It was because of me that you lost him.”
“No.” Elena and Damon looked over to where Stefan was shaking his head. “Elena, it wasn’t your fault. I made the choice to go with him because I knew he could save Damon. I became what I am by my own choosing - just like when I got Katherine to make Damon into a vampire, too. Both of these were my choice.”
“But it was my fault that he needed saving.”
“Wrong again.” This time it was Tyler who spoke. “I’m the one that bit him, not you. There was nothing that you could have done to prevent what happened between him and I. It wasn’t you who caused the circumstances.”
“And it wasn’t your fault that I got bit,” Damon added, his eyes never leaving her face. He didn’t like that Klaus was holding her and that much shown quite clearly in his eyes.
“Caroline…”
Caroline shook her head. “Not your fault. Katherine killed me to send a message to Stefan and Damon,” Caroline reminded her. “It wasn’t because of you - it was because of them. She didn’t know that I had recently been given Damon’s blood and that when she killed me I would become a vampire.”
“Really, Elena, you need to stop blaming yourself for things that you couldn’t have changed. None of the things that happened to anyone is your fault,” Damon chided her. “And really, if I could get into your brain and just flick out the part of you that is so willing to martyr yourself for others I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Klaus let his fingers stroke Elena’s throat where he was holding her. “I don’t know. I like the fact that she came to surrender herself to me. Unlike with Katerina or with Isobel, I didn’t have to compel her to give herself to me.” He smiled, kissing Elena’s cheek. “Take your brother and go, Damon. I have everything I want right here.”
“We’re not leaving without Elena,” Tyler growled, planting himself in a fighting stance.
“Little werewolf, do you think that you can stand against my pack?”
“What pack?” Damon said conversationally. “Oh, you mean the pack of wolves and vampires that you left back on your island because Elena was such an easy person to deal with? I’m sorry to say, but if everything went according to plans, then Bonnie, Jeremy and Alaric have dealt with them. Elena’s witch wasn’t the witch that died, after all. And Bonnie really does have a bitch of a vengeance streak.” His eyes flicked over Elena’s face and then back to Klaus’ eyes again. “Especially, it seems, when it comes to Elena or Caroline.”
Klaus didn’t let his emotions show on his face, but Damon saw the change in his eyes. They had the Original outmaneuvered and outnumbered. However, he wasn’t sure how much that was going to help things. He still had Elena by the throat and that was something that Damon wasn’t going to risk. Elena’s life had become too important to him to let it be wasted by pushing Klaus too far and too soon.
Unfortunately for the best intentions of Damon, Elena hadn’t thought about how bad it would be for her if she did something. She wasn’t willing to let herself be used to hurt her friends any longer. It had been one thing to be willing to exchange herself for Stefan, but this standoff was another thing entirely.
With another vampire, what she tried might have worked.
Hearing about the destruction of the pack of hybrids he had managed to create caused Klaus’ grip on Elena’s hand with the knife to falter slightly. The others couldn’t have seen it, but Elena felt it. She kept herself as still as she possibly could as she looked at Damon.
“I love you,” she said softly.
Damon’s eyes changed as he read something in Elena’s eyes that he didn’t like. “Don’t.” He swallowed, forcing himself to say something in public that he might never have said otherwise. He didn’t know what she was planning, but he knew that it couldn’t be anything good. “Please.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry.”
Damon stepped forward, but Elena moved faster than she had ever moved in her life. She pulled the hand with the knife out of Klaus’ hand and stabbed downward into his side. Before she could be glad that she had done something, Klaus’ hand curled over hers and there was a sharp pain in her chest. She looked down to see that Klaus had kept the knife moving after she stabbed him and ripped it out across his body before he stabbed her with.
Damon stood, frozen for what seemed like forever as he watched this playing out in front of him. His eyes moved from her to the puddle of blood that was forming in the sand at her feet.
“Elena.” He was surprised that he was even able to say that much as he felt something breaking within himself. He couldn’t have managed anything above a whisper if his life had depended on it at that point.
He heard Caroline screaming from what seemed like far away, but as of yet, he hadn’t even heard Elena make a sound. She had to be in such pain from what had just happened, but she was still standing, held against Klaus’ body as her blood flowed out.
He stepped forward and then moved to grab Elena away from Klaus even as he registered that two figures had also jumped at Klaus, tearing into his throat and neck. He assumed that it was Stefan and Caroline or maybe Tyler, but he really didn’t care. All of his focus was on the girl that was now bleeding to death in his arms.
“No,” he whispered as he dropped to the sand where he could hold her in his lap. “Damn it, Elena, no.” For once, the smell of her blood did nothing to entice him.
“Sorry,” Elena struggled to whisper. “So sorry.”
“Why?” He demanded. “Why? I would have thought of something.”
“C-couldn’t let him hurt you. Couldn’t let him take anything else from you. Lost t-too much.”
Caroline dropped to her knees next to them. “Oh damn it, sweetie. This isn’t good. You didn’t have to do that.”
Damon kept one hand moving across Elena’s face. “Elena… Elena I can…”
“No.” Suddenly Stefan was there. “No, she said she didn’t want that. She wanted to grow old and die as a human.”
“Go to hell,” Caroline snarled. “She wanted to grow old, not die before her eighteenth birthday.” Her hands fluttered as she tried to figure out how to stop her best friend’s bleeding without causing her more pain. “Bonnie!” She screamed, not even sure if her voice would carry, and knowing that her witchy friend probably wouldn’t get here in time. “Bonnie!”
Elena lifted a hand to touch Caroline. “She c-can’t. Too much.”
“Get out of my way,” a new voice growled. “If you don’t want to lose her, Blondie, then move!”
Damon growled as the new scent hit his senses, but the woman crouching next to them in the sand just snarled at him.
“Oh just shut up.” Katherine brought her face to Elena’s so that she could see her. “Drink, damn you. Drink or I swear to god I will drag his bleeding corpse over here and force his blood down your throat.”
It was only then that Damon saw Katherine was holding her bleeding wrist over Elena’s mouth. He lifted his face to look towards Klaus and saw Tyler making quick work of tearing the body apart. Elijah was standing near him and he had a firm grip on Stefan.
He frowned, turning back to the scene taking place on his lap.
“Why?” Elena whispered, even as Katherine’s blood dripped into her mouth and she swallowed. “Why?”
That was the exact question that Damon wanted the answer to as well.
“Ask me some other time,” Katherine said as she pressed her bleeding arm to Elena’s mouth. “Drink.” Katherine frowned at Elena. “Caroline. The necklace. Move it for now.”
To everyone’s surprise, Caroline didn’t even falter in that request. It was probably because Katherine wasn’t using a commanding voice and it was more of a request. Carefully taking the chains between the fabric of her shirt, Caroline pulled until the chain with the vervain broke and fell into the sand.
Katherine’s reason for requesting it became clear almost immediately.
“Drink,” she said softly, her pupils dilating as she stared into Elena’s eyes. “You’re not in pain and nothing is happening that you need to be strong for. Just drink and the blood will help you, I promise.”
If it had been in any other circumstance, Damon would have tried to stop Katherine from using compulsion on Elena. However, she wasn’t using it to get her to drink, merely to make her forget she was in so much pain. He watched the pain and panic in Elena’s eyes fade as she started to drink from Katherine. Elena’s bleeding stopped and when Katherine traded places with Elijah, Damon didn’t even have the energy to comment. He held onto Elena as her heartbeat slowed and as her breathing stopped. Elijah stepped back and looked at Damon.
“Go. Take her away from here.”
Damon got to his feet easily, holding Elena in his arms as he looked from Elijah to Katherine.
“Why?” Tyler asked as he came to stand beside Caroline. “Why did Katherine save her? Why did you help her save her?”
“A promise,” Katherine said simply. She looked at Damon, a faint smile crossing her face. “Go. Get you and your little army out of here. Elijah and I will take care of Stefan. She needs you more.”
Damon frowned and looked over to Stefan. He couldn’t leave him -
But really, his decision had already been made. He would always choose Elena. It didn’t matter who else was in the area, she would always come first to him.
“Stefan.”
His brother nodded. “I know. Just get her some place safe so that she doesn’t freak out more than normal when she regains consciousness and finds out what has happened.”
“Don’t be a sanctimonious bastard,” Tyler snapped. “No matter what you might have done, we weren’t going to just sit there and watch her die when there was a way to save her. If Katherine and Elijah hadn’t shown up then Damon or Caroline would have done it. The life of the supernaturally complex may not be perfect, but at least it’s still a semblance of life where they aren’t getting buried at eighteen.”
“Would you have really let her die?” Damon couldn’t help asking him.
“I brought you over against your will,” Stefan said. “I did it merely because I didn’t want to be without my brother. Elena told me before the death of Jenna that she wanted to stay a human and not be a vampire. I would have honored her wishes.”
“Because you’re so good at that,” Caroline said, shaking her head. “She said that before she started losing everyone around her. She said that before she lost Jenna, John and almost lost Damon. I think that I know Elena better than you do. She wasn’t ready to be dead before she turned eighteen.”
“Then why did she attack Klaus in the first place?” Stefan demanded. “Why did she do any of these things that she did? I compelled her to go one with her life. I destroyed parts of her journal so that she wouldn’t be able to find us.”
“She attacked Klaus to save you and Damon, you idiot,” Katherine said. “She was trying to save you and the rest of her friends. Klaus used compulsion to get her here and that act of defiance was something that she thought would be the last thing she would ever be able to do freely. She knew what was going to happen to her. Better dead than Klaus’ blood bank for the rest of her life.”
Elijah sighed. “Her will was stronger than yours, Stefan. She may have told you before Jenna’s death that she wanted to be human, but I don’t think she will hate what she will become.” His eyes met Damon’s. “Especially as it will let her be among those that she loves.”
Damon didn’t even comment. He still couldn’t believe that Stefan would have just let her die and he didn’t want to get into it with his brother right now. He held tightly to Elena as he ran in the direction of his car. He could hear Caroline and Tyler coming behind him, and let himself relax slightly.
They had saved her.
Yes, granted there would be a lot of explanations needed and a lot of apologies exchanged between everyone, but as Damon lay Elena across the backseat of his car, he allowed a small smile to cross his face. He was going to count this battle as a victory.
He nodded at Caroline and Tyler - knowing that they would go and get the rest of their group. They could handle those explanations. He had something more important to take care of. He turned his car onto the main road and headed in the direction of Mystic Falls.
It was time to go back home.
Home sounded really good right about now.
Author: not_from_stars // Cover Art By queenmidalah
Link to art master post: Art!
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Characters/Pairing(s): Damon Salvatore/Elena Gilbert, Tyler Lockwood/Caroline Forbes, Jeremy Gilbert/Bonnie Bennett, Alaric Satzman, Klaus, Elijah, Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: Written For tvd_bigbang 2011
Warning: Spoilers for S2.
Word Count: 21,542
Summary: Elena blames herself for everything that has gone wrong in Mystic Falls and when she is sure that Damon is going to be healed, she leaves the only home she has ever known. She leaves letters for those closest to her, but for Damon, she leaves her journal. The journal is filled with all of Elena's thoughts over the last year -- including her growing love for Damon. The last written page in the journal is a letter for Damon -- and a carefully preserved rose. The rose he gave her once. Now, Damon is in a race against time to find Elena, because Klaus is looking for her, too. Klaus has discovered that because Elena survived the spell he used, her blood -- human or vampire -- now has the power to destroy him if used with an ancient spell. Damon is determined to find Elena before Klaus does and he doesn't care how many people he has to kill to save her. However, when Klaus brings in someone to use as leverage, Damon has to make a choice as to which life he's going to save -- Elena's... or Stefan's.
Author's Notes: I want to thank my friend, queenmidalah, for stepping in and doing art for me at the last minute when my original artist had RL issues crop up. I also want to thank my beta and cheerleader, enochiansigils, for not letting me quit when the story was being so stubborn as to send me into tears more than once.
In any normal situation, Elena would have hung up the phone and then called Damon for help. However, this was nothing like a normal situation and she wanted to keep Damon as far away from here as was physically possible.
Besides, she was pretty sure he would want to give her a lecture when he found out what she was doing and they really didn’t have time for a lecture.
Instead, she listened to Klaus’ instructions carefully and wrote down the directions to the place he wanted her to meet him at. Even after she hung up and got back behind the wheel of her car, a voice was screaming inside her head that she was the world’s biggest fool for agreeing to this.
Fool or not, it was the best and possibly the last thing she could do for Damon.
At first, she had been surprised by Klaus’ terms, but realized that she had expected something like this when she had first set out on her journey. It was why she had taken the time to say goodbye to everyone that she cared for back home. When she had the random thought that maybe everyone would move into the Gilbert house together so that they could protect each other, she realized that she was skating very close to hysteria.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to pay attention the changing scenery around her, but she found that she couldn’t tell you after she passed it what she had seen. She wondered if this was all part of the compulsion that she knew she had been under for awhile now. She had remembered belatedly that vervain didn’t work on Klaus and it hadn’t on Elijah, so she had been under a compulsion ever since she left Mystic Falls. What she didn’t know is when the compulsion had been done. Besides the idea to run in the first place, had any of her actions been of her own choice and thought or what Klaus wanted her to do?
Well, there was one thing she had done that she knew was her own choice. Calling Damon hadn’t been a compulsion from anyone. She honestly had wanted to hear his voice - no matter how the call had ended.
However, ever since getting off of the phone with Klaus, every time she reached for her phone to call Damon again, she found that she couldn’t get her hand to pick up the phone. It worried her because she hadn’t felt such reticence ab0ut contacting him. She could definitely use hearing his voice right now.
It had just turned full dark when she drove up to the marshy area Klaus had directed her to. She wasn’t sure how long she had been driving, but getting out from behind the wheel was a relief. She stretched her body and looked around.
The area she was in seemed to be more of a private area of beach instead of belonging to any of the homes and cabins she had passed. Turning to look back the way she had come, she realized that she couldn’t see the main road from here. She wouldn’t have been able to find this place without Klaus’ careful directions.
Turning back with a sigh, she looked in front of her. Everywhere she looked there was sand with some kind of grass sometimes breaking up the smooth surface of the beach. The water wasn’t too far away and the moon made everything look faintly silver and unreal. It was enough to make someone think that they were in a dreamscape of some kind.
Yet, Elena knew that this was no dream. This was the place that was going to seal her fate and that of the people she loved back home. After all, that was why she was here. She was here to trade herself to the Original in exchange for Stefan’s freedom.
She walked down the beach away from her car and closer to the ocean. She didn’t know what Klaus was going to do to her, but she was sure that her existence as a human being had an expiration date. It probably wouldn’t be very long until then, so she was going to make the most of these last few minutes of freedom that she possessed. She walked along the beach, feeling the waves breaking over her feet and she took in the scent of the clean night air.
There were worse ways she could have spent the last few moments of her own life.
“This is type of scenery that one such as you was meant for.”
Elena turned to see Klaus standing close by. He looked the exact same as the last time she had seen him. Of course, this time, he wasn’t killing Jenna or about to kill her.
“One such as me?” She questioned bitterly.
“The beautiful heroine of the tragic gothic tale,” Klaus said smoothly. “You’ve lost everyone that was important to you and still you fight to remain strong. Still you keep holding on to the hope that someone will save you.”
“I don’t need to be saved, Klaus. This was a choice that I had made freely long before you set about compelling me to take the journey towards all of this.” She looked at him. “So tell me, how long have you known I had survived that little ritual you killed me in?”
Klaus watched for a long moment, the hint of a smile on his face. “I should have realized that one of the men that loved you would find some way to save you. I didn’t expect that John would find a spell that would exchange his life for yours. He wasn’t exactly known for unselfish acts - which was one of the reasons he was such a good minion. As long as it didn’t risk his neck, he’d do whatever we asked of him.”
“Until it came to letting you kill me.”
“That was indeed a surprise. I would never have guessed that John was capable of something resembling a father’s love.”
“It seems you underestimated a lot of things when you decided to come after me and make trouble in our town.”
“Did I? I still won in the end. The ritual did exactly what it was meant to do. And, since you didn’t die, I do have access to your blood whenever I want.” Klaus smiled. “Petrova blood. There seems to be nothing quite like it on this earth.”
“As long as you let Stefan free - in one piece and without added injury to his mind or his body - you get to keep me.”
“Not that I will go against the bargain we made earlier, but I must ask why I should give in to your demands? After all, I have you now. You can’t run faster than me and I could keep both you and Stefan to do with as I wish.”
Elena moved her hand and the moonlight reflected off of the blade in her hand. “Because I don’t think that you can get to me before I put this knife into my own heart. I haven’t taken blood in a long time, so I’ll die and you’ll lose the last source of your precious Petrova blood.” This time she smiled. “I read the books, Klaus. You need to feed on one of us at least once a year to keep your body functioning in its hybrid state. You can’t afford for me to bleed out - something that you didn’t find out until after the ritual.”
“She’s right, you know,” a new voice said as he stepped out of the shadows. “If Elena kills herself, you’ll lose because you’ll start dying a slow death.”
Elena blinked when she recognized who was standing there. “Tyler? What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Elena,” Tyler said, his eyes never leaving Klaus. “Did you really think that any of us were going to let you just throw your life away on this piece of shit for the rest of us?”
“But how did you find me? I didn’t even know where I was going when I left Mystic Falls.”
“GPS,” a new voice said as she stepped out onto the beach. “Your car has it and my mom tracked it in order to help us find you.” She shook her head. “Really, Elena, sacrificing yourself was not the best idea that you could have come up with.”
“There was no other choice, Caroline,” Elena said, staring at one of her best friends. “People would have just kept getting hurt or dying if I stayed there.”
“And what about Jeremy,” Tyler asked. “You’re all he has left. Abandoning him to save Stefan doesn’t seem all that loving or fair to him.”
“I’m not doing this for Stefan,” Elena said quietly. “I’m doing this so that all of you are safe and Jeremy doesn’t have to lose anyone else. If Klaus has me, then there is no reason to go back to the town and hurt anyone else to get to me.”
“He doesn’t care about any of that, Elena,” Stefan’s voice preceded him onto the beach. “All your brother cares about is your safety and knowing that you’ll be all right.”
It was Stefan’s sudden arrival that caused the problem. Elena’s hand on the knife wavered when she saw him and suddenly, Klaus had her back against him. One hand was at her neck and the other was holding the knife away from her body.
“And now what do you think you’re going to do, hmm?” Klaus whispered against her ear.
“Never stop trying to send you to hell,” Elena said to him, her eyes flashing her anger and hatred at him.
“Let her go!” Stefan demanded.
“I don’t think so,” Klaus said as he looked down at Elena. “Ahh, you look so like Katerina when you glare at me like that. So like a wild kitten who doesn’t realize that she is out of options except for those that her captor gives to her.”
Elena growled at him, trying to kick at his legs. “I’m not your captive, Klaus,” she corrected. “I came here willingly.”
“But now you have no way of escaping me. I hold all of the cards now.”
“That’s the problem with you, Klaus,” a voice drawled. “You always think that you have complete control over every situation.”
“Damon,” Elena whispered. “Oh, Damon, no. You weren’t supposed to come here.”
“Well, like certain people I can name, I don’t always do what the hell I’m supposed to.” He looked her over to make sure she was unhurt and his gaze lingered on the knife. “And what, do tell, were you going to do with that?” The edge in his voice said that he had a pretty good idea about what she had been thinking and he didn’t like it.
“She was going to kill herself if I didn’t send your dear brother back to you unharmed like she and I agreed upon,” Klaus sounded amused. “She thought that she would deny me the blood in her veins by stabbing herself in the heart.”
Elena struggled in his grasp again. “Making sure that he couldn’t break the agreement. I wouldn’t have stabbed myself unless he didn’t keep his part of the bargain.”
Damon sighed and the look he gave her probably would have made anyone else flinch. However, Elena knew enough about him to know that he was so angry because he was worried about her. She could see how much his dark eyes were glittering and that gave her an idea about the depth of his rage right now.
“I wanted to make sure he gave you your brother back,” Elena said softly, trying to ease the rage in his eyes. “It was because of me that you lost him.”
“No.” Elena and Damon looked over to where Stefan was shaking his head. “Elena, it wasn’t your fault. I made the choice to go with him because I knew he could save Damon. I became what I am by my own choosing - just like when I got Katherine to make Damon into a vampire, too. Both of these were my choice.”
“But it was my fault that he needed saving.”
“Wrong again.” This time it was Tyler who spoke. “I’m the one that bit him, not you. There was nothing that you could have done to prevent what happened between him and I. It wasn’t you who caused the circumstances.”
“And it wasn’t your fault that I got bit,” Damon added, his eyes never leaving her face. He didn’t like that Klaus was holding her and that much shown quite clearly in his eyes.
“Caroline…”
Caroline shook her head. “Not your fault. Katherine killed me to send a message to Stefan and Damon,” Caroline reminded her. “It wasn’t because of you - it was because of them. She didn’t know that I had recently been given Damon’s blood and that when she killed me I would become a vampire.”
“Really, Elena, you need to stop blaming yourself for things that you couldn’t have changed. None of the things that happened to anyone is your fault,” Damon chided her. “And really, if I could get into your brain and just flick out the part of you that is so willing to martyr yourself for others I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Klaus let his fingers stroke Elena’s throat where he was holding her. “I don’t know. I like the fact that she came to surrender herself to me. Unlike with Katerina or with Isobel, I didn’t have to compel her to give herself to me.” He smiled, kissing Elena’s cheek. “Take your brother and go, Damon. I have everything I want right here.”
“We’re not leaving without Elena,” Tyler growled, planting himself in a fighting stance.
“Little werewolf, do you think that you can stand against my pack?”
“What pack?” Damon said conversationally. “Oh, you mean the pack of wolves and vampires that you left back on your island because Elena was such an easy person to deal with? I’m sorry to say, but if everything went according to plans, then Bonnie, Jeremy and Alaric have dealt with them. Elena’s witch wasn’t the witch that died, after all. And Bonnie really does have a bitch of a vengeance streak.” His eyes flicked over Elena’s face and then back to Klaus’ eyes again. “Especially, it seems, when it comes to Elena or Caroline.”
Klaus didn’t let his emotions show on his face, but Damon saw the change in his eyes. They had the Original outmaneuvered and outnumbered. However, he wasn’t sure how much that was going to help things. He still had Elena by the throat and that was something that Damon wasn’t going to risk. Elena’s life had become too important to him to let it be wasted by pushing Klaus too far and too soon.
Unfortunately for the best intentions of Damon, Elena hadn’t thought about how bad it would be for her if she did something. She wasn’t willing to let herself be used to hurt her friends any longer. It had been one thing to be willing to exchange herself for Stefan, but this standoff was another thing entirely.
With another vampire, what she tried might have worked.
Hearing about the destruction of the pack of hybrids he had managed to create caused Klaus’ grip on Elena’s hand with the knife to falter slightly. The others couldn’t have seen it, but Elena felt it. She kept herself as still as she possibly could as she looked at Damon.
“I love you,” she said softly.
Damon’s eyes changed as he read something in Elena’s eyes that he didn’t like. “Don’t.” He swallowed, forcing himself to say something in public that he might never have said otherwise. He didn’t know what she was planning, but he knew that it couldn’t be anything good. “Please.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry.”
Damon stepped forward, but Elena moved faster than she had ever moved in her life. She pulled the hand with the knife out of Klaus’ hand and stabbed downward into his side. Before she could be glad that she had done something, Klaus’ hand curled over hers and there was a sharp pain in her chest. She looked down to see that Klaus had kept the knife moving after she stabbed him and ripped it out across his body before he stabbed her with.
Damon stood, frozen for what seemed like forever as he watched this playing out in front of him. His eyes moved from her to the puddle of blood that was forming in the sand at her feet.
“Elena.” He was surprised that he was even able to say that much as he felt something breaking within himself. He couldn’t have managed anything above a whisper if his life had depended on it at that point.
He heard Caroline screaming from what seemed like far away, but as of yet, he hadn’t even heard Elena make a sound. She had to be in such pain from what had just happened, but she was still standing, held against Klaus’ body as her blood flowed out.
He stepped forward and then moved to grab Elena away from Klaus even as he registered that two figures had also jumped at Klaus, tearing into his throat and neck. He assumed that it was Stefan and Caroline or maybe Tyler, but he really didn’t care. All of his focus was on the girl that was now bleeding to death in his arms.
“No,” he whispered as he dropped to the sand where he could hold her in his lap. “Damn it, Elena, no.” For once, the smell of her blood did nothing to entice him.
“Sorry,” Elena struggled to whisper. “So sorry.”
“Why?” He demanded. “Why? I would have thought of something.”
“C-couldn’t let him hurt you. Couldn’t let him take anything else from you. Lost t-too much.”
Caroline dropped to her knees next to them. “Oh damn it, sweetie. This isn’t good. You didn’t have to do that.”
Damon kept one hand moving across Elena’s face. “Elena… Elena I can…”
“No.” Suddenly Stefan was there. “No, she said she didn’t want that. She wanted to grow old and die as a human.”
“Go to hell,” Caroline snarled. “She wanted to grow old, not die before her eighteenth birthday.” Her hands fluttered as she tried to figure out how to stop her best friend’s bleeding without causing her more pain. “Bonnie!” She screamed, not even sure if her voice would carry, and knowing that her witchy friend probably wouldn’t get here in time. “Bonnie!”
Elena lifted a hand to touch Caroline. “She c-can’t. Too much.”
“Get out of my way,” a new voice growled. “If you don’t want to lose her, Blondie, then move!”
Damon growled as the new scent hit his senses, but the woman crouching next to them in the sand just snarled at him.
“Oh just shut up.” Katherine brought her face to Elena’s so that she could see her. “Drink, damn you. Drink or I swear to god I will drag his bleeding corpse over here and force his blood down your throat.”
It was only then that Damon saw Katherine was holding her bleeding wrist over Elena’s mouth. He lifted his face to look towards Klaus and saw Tyler making quick work of tearing the body apart. Elijah was standing near him and he had a firm grip on Stefan.
He frowned, turning back to the scene taking place on his lap.
“Why?” Elena whispered, even as Katherine’s blood dripped into her mouth and she swallowed. “Why?”
That was the exact question that Damon wanted the answer to as well.
“Ask me some other time,” Katherine said as she pressed her bleeding arm to Elena’s mouth. “Drink.” Katherine frowned at Elena. “Caroline. The necklace. Move it for now.”
To everyone’s surprise, Caroline didn’t even falter in that request. It was probably because Katherine wasn’t using a commanding voice and it was more of a request. Carefully taking the chains between the fabric of her shirt, Caroline pulled until the chain with the vervain broke and fell into the sand.
Katherine’s reason for requesting it became clear almost immediately.
“Drink,” she said softly, her pupils dilating as she stared into Elena’s eyes. “You’re not in pain and nothing is happening that you need to be strong for. Just drink and the blood will help you, I promise.”
If it had been in any other circumstance, Damon would have tried to stop Katherine from using compulsion on Elena. However, she wasn’t using it to get her to drink, merely to make her forget she was in so much pain. He watched the pain and panic in Elena’s eyes fade as she started to drink from Katherine. Elena’s bleeding stopped and when Katherine traded places with Elijah, Damon didn’t even have the energy to comment. He held onto Elena as her heartbeat slowed and as her breathing stopped. Elijah stepped back and looked at Damon.
“Go. Take her away from here.”
Damon got to his feet easily, holding Elena in his arms as he looked from Elijah to Katherine.
“Why?” Tyler asked as he came to stand beside Caroline. “Why did Katherine save her? Why did you help her save her?”
“A promise,” Katherine said simply. She looked at Damon, a faint smile crossing her face. “Go. Get you and your little army out of here. Elijah and I will take care of Stefan. She needs you more.”
Damon frowned and looked over to Stefan. He couldn’t leave him -
But really, his decision had already been made. He would always choose Elena. It didn’t matter who else was in the area, she would always come first to him.
“Stefan.”
His brother nodded. “I know. Just get her some place safe so that she doesn’t freak out more than normal when she regains consciousness and finds out what has happened.”
“Don’t be a sanctimonious bastard,” Tyler snapped. “No matter what you might have done, we weren’t going to just sit there and watch her die when there was a way to save her. If Katherine and Elijah hadn’t shown up then Damon or Caroline would have done it. The life of the supernaturally complex may not be perfect, but at least it’s still a semblance of life where they aren’t getting buried at eighteen.”
“Would you have really let her die?” Damon couldn’t help asking him.
“I brought you over against your will,” Stefan said. “I did it merely because I didn’t want to be without my brother. Elena told me before the death of Jenna that she wanted to stay a human and not be a vampire. I would have honored her wishes.”
“Because you’re so good at that,” Caroline said, shaking her head. “She said that before she started losing everyone around her. She said that before she lost Jenna, John and almost lost Damon. I think that I know Elena better than you do. She wasn’t ready to be dead before she turned eighteen.”
“Then why did she attack Klaus in the first place?” Stefan demanded. “Why did she do any of these things that she did? I compelled her to go one with her life. I destroyed parts of her journal so that she wouldn’t be able to find us.”
“She attacked Klaus to save you and Damon, you idiot,” Katherine said. “She was trying to save you and the rest of her friends. Klaus used compulsion to get her here and that act of defiance was something that she thought would be the last thing she would ever be able to do freely. She knew what was going to happen to her. Better dead than Klaus’ blood bank for the rest of her life.”
Elijah sighed. “Her will was stronger than yours, Stefan. She may have told you before Jenna’s death that she wanted to be human, but I don’t think she will hate what she will become.” His eyes met Damon’s. “Especially as it will let her be among those that she loves.”
Damon didn’t even comment. He still couldn’t believe that Stefan would have just let her die and he didn’t want to get into it with his brother right now. He held tightly to Elena as he ran in the direction of his car. He could hear Caroline and Tyler coming behind him, and let himself relax slightly.
They had saved her.
Yes, granted there would be a lot of explanations needed and a lot of apologies exchanged between everyone, but as Damon lay Elena across the backseat of his car, he allowed a small smile to cross his face. He was going to count this battle as a victory.
He nodded at Caroline and Tyler - knowing that they would go and get the rest of their group. They could handle those explanations. He had something more important to take care of. He turned his car onto the main road and headed in the direction of Mystic Falls.
It was time to go back home.
Home sounded really good right about now.