Beautiful madness, Ch. 2: Mirror, mirror on the wall
Beautiful madness
Disclaimer: The characters and other things from The Vampire Diaries don't belong to me. Credit goes to the rightful owners.
Chapter 2: Mirror, mirror on the wall
"Are you done?" Elena asked Damon softly from the doorway, looking around at what seemed like an endless assortment of empty liquor bottles.
Damon made a motion that was halfway between nodding and shaking his head, "Drinking? Doesn't work for me anymore, so yes, Elena, I'm done. She's dead. I can't bring her back, the end."
"How about you?" Damon asked sighing deeply, perfectly unmoving with his legs stretched out in front of him as he sat on the floor with his back on the foot of his bed.
"What about me?" Elena asked taking a seat beside him, clearing away the bottles that surrounded him.
"Are you done making deals now that Stefan is no longer stuck with the ever charming Katherine?" Damon said resting his head on her shoulder, a sigh escaping his lips he did, "Because I have a proposal for you. I think it was on drink number thirty-seven that I thought of it-should be good. It's a lucky number."
Elena nudged him with her shoulder, trying to get him to lift his head but Damon wouldn't budge. She sighed before making another half-hearted attempt and upon failing, she settled down comfortably, letting him lean on her a bit more, "I know I'll regret even asking but what do you have in mind, Damon?"
"My car, the open road, good music and a thousand miles away from this life," Damon said quietly, his eyes unfocused as he forced himself to imagine it and believe it was the answer to the mess he had in front of him, "We can take Stefan, if we have to, but I'm warning you he has absolutely no patience with car games and he's the type to keep asking 'are we there yet?'."
"I doubt that, but go on, what else…where will we go exactly?" Elena said playing along, a lump rising in her throat as she pictured herself in the passenger seat, singing along with the radio, wildly out of tune but laughing with him at anything and everything. The thought made desire burn within her to be that girl again in Atlanta, the one that left her problems behind and just lived.
"Does it matter?" Damon said, "You're running away not going on tour, Elena. We'll go where the road takes us as long as it's anywhere but here. Just us. We can forget."
"We can't keep running forever, Damon," Elena said gently, "One way or the other this will catch up with us and we'll just be back where we started. I'll still be the doppelganger and there will still be a long list of people who want me dead."
"Do you always have to rain on my parade?" Damon said narrowing his eyes, completely annoyed, "Just so you know, the glass can be half full sometimes, Elena. Walk in the sunshine. Sing in the rain. Be happy."
"And this is coming from someone who just finished excessive amounts of alcohol to drown his sorrows," Elena said rolling her eyes.
"Do you know that at one point last night, I actually wished I never met you?" Damon said with an empty smile on his face, ending the few seconds of silence that hung between them, "What if I died in 1864? Or what if I knew from the start that Katherine was never in the tomb and I'm still out there looking for her, still fully convinced that she's the love of my life."
"I had it all mapped out-where I'd look for her, where I imagined I'll find her, how it would be, Katherine won't be a heartless bitch. …and Stefan wouldn't even be in the picture. He'll just be that relative who sends postcards on special occasions." Damon continued, "The vampire version of happily ever after."
"And then," he said finally lifting his head to face her, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, "you show up unannounced, looking ordinary as ever, and completely disappointed that I've been drinking. You come here and just one look at you made me realize I can't give you up….that even in jeans, sneakers and your patented look of concern and worry, you're more beautiful to me than Katherine ever was in my eyes."
"And you've just proven to me how drunk you still are," Elena said rolling her eyes as she pushed herself off the floor and stood up, extending a hand to Damon instinctively to help him stand up, "Fair is fair, Damon-you come and go as you please in my bedroom so you really have no right of holding this visit against me. I just wanted to make sure you're okay…that you haven't done anything stupid."
Damon eyed her hand curiously for a few seconds before placing his hand in it, expecting her to pull back at the last second. He stood in front of her, their fingers still entwined as he looked into her eyes, "Accept the compliment-it has no strings attached, Elena. No hidden agendas, just something I thought you should know. I look at you and see everything that's worth holding on to in this life-that's it. I don't need you to say anything back-I already know I'm drop-dead gorgeous."
Elena pulled her hand out of his to slap him on the shoulder when she felt him pull her towards him, his arms encircling her as his chin rested on the top of her head, "Damon…?"
"Thank you, Elena," Damon said quietly.
"For what?" Elena asked, closing her eyes, forgetting everything but the feeling of his arms around her, living in the moment.
Damon released her and offered her a small smile, his eyes bright with his unsaid confession, "Nothing. It's nothing."
"How touching," Elijah interrupted from the doorway, clapping his hand in mock admiration as he maneuvered his way around the mess, "Really tugs at the heartstrings. Beautiful."
Damon's eyes darkened and immediately took a defensive stance in front of Elena, pushing her behind him to shield him from Elijah, "What the hell are you doing in my house?"
"Easy, Damon, we're on the same side now, haven't you heard?" Elijah said casually moving around the room as if he belonged there, examining various items that caught his eye, "In fact, it was your brother who let me in."
"What have you done with him? Where is Stefan?" Elena asked, her heart thudding in her chest rapidly as her worry increased.
"He's…around. I've asked him not to disturb us. Quite important that I talk to both of you alone," Elijah said serenely, "So Damon, where were we? Ah, yes, our dear Ms. Gilbert here has agreed to stay safe and whole in exchange for lifting the spell on the tomb so that Stefan can get out. And as a sign of good faith, I even made sure Katerina stayed inside."
"Great so all I have to do now is kill you and all my problems will be solved" Damon asked, preparing to launch himself at Elijah.
"No, I don't think so. The second I die, Katerina will be set free. Calm down, Damon, I just want to talk," Elijah said calmly, the words soothing Damon against his will, the shock barely registering as he realized that he was being compelled.
"Damon?" Elena said hesitantly as she felt the change in him and the suppressed indignation that tightly wound around him. She turned to Elijah as realization dawned on her, "That's how you're keeping Katherine, isn't it? You can compel vampires."
Elijah nodded with an amused smile, "Perceptive, Elena. But I still wouldn't advise returning to the tomb, it's a place of old magic and quite unpredictable."
"All right, you have my undivided attention…so talk," Damon said bitingly, refusing to back down, his anger intensifying every second he was under Elijah's compulsion.
"You truly are still young, aren't you, Damon, so much energy and anger," Elijah said, eyeing him with mild curiosity, "Anyway, to business. I find the werewolf situation a bit problematic. I want you to get rid of them. Think about it, you protect Elena and you avenge Rose's death."
"Easier said than done," Damon spat out, "I'm going to need more than that-what's in it for you?"
"You don't need to concern yourself with that, Damon. It will make sense in time," Elijah said evenly, a glint of steel flickering in his eyes as he spoke, "But the only thing you need to make sure of is that they die before the next full moon or before they even get wind of the fact that there's a doppelganger in this town, whichever comes sooner. Start with the youngest one…the Lockwood."
"No, Damon, don't!" Elena said alarmed, "We can trust Tyler, we just need to explain things to him…he won't hurt anyone. Please, don't."
"You can't trust a wolf!" Elijah said, his anger surfacing before receding again behind his cool façade, "No, they all must die. No exceptions."
Damon's hand reached out beside him to hold Elena back as she struggled, trying to reason out. He turned to her and shook his head, giving her a look of warning before turning back to Elijah, "I'll protect Elena, whatever it takes. But I'm not doing it for you. I'll do what's right by her."
Elijah shrugged, "I don't care about your motivations. I want them all dead. And if you don't succeed, I will intervene, make no mistake, and every single one of them will fall. The only question is if you will be left standing or if you'll die with them. I'll be in touch."
Damon remained tense as Elijah turned to leave, his jaw clenched as he watched the older man walk out of the door.
"Oh, and just one other thing," Elijah said turning around, "you might want to study your family history, Damon. There are no coincidences-this Katerina knows well and precisely why she's led us all to this point…to Elena and more importantly, to you, Damon."
In the blink of an eye, Elijah was gone and it was Stefan who stood in his place, a look of pure and utter shock on his face as he held a thick book in his hands.
"Damon…" Stefan said, barely registering the state of his brother's room or the tension that clouded over Elena and Damon, "look."
Bewildered, Damon walked over to Stefan followed closely by Elena. Together they looked at the page open in Stefan's hands, a picture of a man who bore a striking and impossibly uncanny resemblance to Damon that even though the picture was in black and white, they could almost see that the man's eyes were also blue, with a hint of madness staring back at them. But that wasn't what made Elena's heart drop to her stomach.
Written below the photograph was a name-Klaus von Salvator, whereabouts unknown.