A Single Rose Left To Remember {2/3}
Title: A Single Rose Left To Remember 2/3
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.
Elena was positive that this was the best thing to be doing for the sake of everyone she loved back home. However, she wasn’t under any delusions that this was the smartest or safest thing for her to do. She sat in a diner that had just shown up beside the road in the middle of nowhere while she was driving. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten anything substantial and the diner was a stark reminder that she needed to actually keep her strength up if she was going to accomplish anything - and she had to accomplish what she had set out to do. There were too many lives that were depending on her. There were too many people that she owed some kind of restitution to for everything they had all been through.
It didn’t matter how many times her friends told her that she wasn’t responsible. In some ways she was and that was what she needed to fix.
She ordered something from the menu and then looked at her map and her notebook in front of her. Once she was sure she wasn’t being watched, she pulled another book out of her bag and lay it in her lap.
Stefan’s journal.
She knew that at least up until siding with Klaus he had been writing things down in his journal just like she did and she had taken it with her - hoping that it would give her some answers to everything she was trying to understand.
So far, though, it hadn’t given her any hint of where he and Klaus might have gone after Stefan gave in to the monster that Klaus wanted him to become. There were a lot of things in the journal about Damon and herself - and several things about Katherine, too.
At one time, she might have been hurt or upset that he spent so much time thinking on Katherine after she had returned to Mystic Falls. That time had long since passed, though. After all, she had spent a lot of time thinking and writing about Damon in her journal. In fact, it was realizing how she felt about Damon that had given her the final push to try to make things right for him and everyone else.
Reading through Stefan’s words also showed her that he had been aware of Elena’s changing feelings for Damon and no matter what he may have told Damon, he was secretly encouraging of it in his journal. Like Elena, Stefan felt that he owed Damon some kind of chance at happiness after everything he had done to take it away. The knowledge that Stefan was aware that she was in love with both of them surprised Elena, but not as much as reading his musings about whether there could be something between the three of them.
… she’s not Katherine and she will never be anything like Katherine. That’s why I think there could be a good chance of the three of us having something true and lasting together. Elena is such a wonderful person and she has so much love to give and there isn’t anyone in this world that I would trust besides Damon to keep her safe and look after her if something happened to me. He loves her and would never accept anything harming her - even me. That’s something that I can believe in no matter what happens in the coming days. He would die for her and I already know he would kill for her. In fact, I’m counting on that. If anything ever happened where I became a threat to Elena, I know that Damon would do what was right and protect Elena from me no matter what he had to do. It’s that knowledge that lets me breathe sometimes when I think of everything she’s going to come up against. She’s not as devious as Katherine always was and that’s why she needs Damon to be devious for her…
Elena sighed, blinking back tears as she closed the journal and held it in her lap for a moment. Stefan had known that things were going to get really bad and he had put faith in Damon to keep her safe and alive. Only, he had probably never counted on something happening to endanger Damon like the werewolf bite.
Something that would never have happened if it hadn’t been for her. It just added to her guilt that Damon had wanted to hide it from her because he didn’t want her to know she was going to lose someone else she cared about.
She slid the journal back into her bag and poked aimlessly at her food. Everything had seemed so clear and worked out when she had decided to leave Mystic Falls. The problem was, she wanted to stop Klaus and make sure he wasn’t a threat to anyone she loved and she had no idea where to go to find him and Stefan. She didn’t have powers like Bonnie where she could find someone by using magic. The only thing she could do was to keep following her gut instincts about where to go and she wasn’t really trusting of those feelings right now.
Which was how she had made it to this diner in the first place. When she had started driving, she had been making choices on auto pilot and not really thinking about where she was going or why she was going that way. However, the more she thought about how everything had been going since she had left her home, she was beginning to think that she was being led somewhere.
Or compelled.
At that thought, Elena’s hand rose quickly to touch the necklace at her neck. She had braided the chains with the vervain and Isobel’s lapis stone together and she had hoped that it would be enough to protect her on her journey to wherever she was going. However, with everything that had happened, she had never thought to wonder if the vervain was still working - or if she needed to get more. Was it like other plants and lost its potency at some point? She wasn’t sure, but she’d be looking that information up as soon as she decided where she was staying for the night.
Of course, now she couldn’t stop thinking about the idea that someone was compelling where she went while she was driving. She was pretty sure that a vampire had to be face to face with their intended victim to compel them, but she had never really asked the guys about that.
She needed to call Damon.
Oh, she’d have to call him while she was still driving because if she called him a hotel room, he would probably be able to trace the call and track her down and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. She couldn’t allow him to be put right back into danger and that was what would happen if he decided to join her in her hotel room or followed her from it.
She knew Damon. She believed him when he said he loved her and that was how she knew he wouldn’t stay behind if he knew where she had gone. He would find her and insist that she either go back home or he would stay with her until she saw whatever she was doing to the end.
That was something that she just couldn’t allow as she couldn’t let him be put in danger because of her and it would kill her if something happened to him because of her.
Love was like that and she loved him enough to want to protect him from her.
She carefully ignored the voice in her head that sounded just like Damon that was demanding to know who was going to protect her from herself. As long as she stayed safe and alive long enough to make things right for Damon, then she would be happy with that. She had avoided death so many times in the last couple of years that if it was her time, she would be brave and determined like John had been.
She just needed enough time to save Stefan and stop Klaus from ever again being a danger to the ones she loved.
After all, Damon couldn’t stay angry at her if she saved his brother, right?
She decided not to dwell too much on that question and instead put her things back into her bag and finished her meal. When she was done, she got back on the highway. She had a goal -- of sorts -- to accomplish before she had to stop driving for the night. The first city she came to, she went searching for a store that she knew would have what she was looking for.
Half an hour and two hundred dollars later, she her original item plus quite a few more supplies that she would need.
"Elena just used one of her credit cards in a place called Marietta," Alaric looked up from the laptop he had been scanning, "Why is she in Ohio?"
Jeremy shrugged. "We don't know anyone in Ohio, at least, I don't think that we do."
"Could she be going to see someone who knew Isobel or John?"
"John really wasn't too forthcoming with any of us about where he came from or went to when he wasn't here, Ric," Jeremy said quietly. "He'd show up for awhile and then he would leave after he accomplished whatever he wanted to. As for Isobel... I didn't know much about her at all."
Alaric sighed. "I apparently didn't know much about her, either, and I was the one married to her."
"Well, we know that this family has a predilection for writing and journals," Caroline offered as she came into the room. "Maybe when Elena visited that house that Isobel liked to stay in when she was in town, she found something. Maybe she found something of John's beyond the letter and ring he told Jeremy to give her."
"I would have known if she found anything of John's, though," Jeremy insisted.
"Like you knew that she was writing us all goodbye letters while she was planning to do something incredibly stupid?" Tyler asked. His voice was more tired than combative.
"Can't we just track down her cell phone or something?" Caroline demanded.
"That's illegal," Bonnie said, looking up from her spellbook. "That and we don't have the equipment to do something like that and I can't do it with magic."
"I don't care if it's illegal. I mean, killing is illegal and we've certainly planned plenty of that." Tyler snorted in amusement and Caroline glared at him before continuing. "Besides, I bet that there is something we could use to track her phone in my mother's office."
The others in the room stared at her and then Alaric shook his head. "There is no way in hell your mother is going to do anything to help us in this situation. She's not exactly fond of vampires."
"No, she's not, but she's known Elena since she was a child. My mother may not be very good at being a mom, but she's good at her job and she loves this town. If we tell her that Elena ran off in some stupid attempt to forever save this town, she'll do everything she can to find her." Caroline shrugged. "She thinks she owes it to Miranda to find her daughter. They were friends when Miranda and Grayson were alive." Caroline sighed. "She cares about people and she'll help. She may hate what I am, but she's not going to let anyone who is still human die if she can help it. Elena definitely still falls into the realm of human so far."
“Only if one of the Three Stooges hasn’t gotten to her,” Jeremy said.
“They haven’t,” Alaric said with an assurance that didn’t quite meet his eyes.
“How can you know for sure?” That voice was Tyler’s -- even though he knew doubting that Elena was still alive would get him in trouble with Bonnie and Caroline.
“Because,” Alaric said softly. “If she was dead, Klaus or Stefan wouldn’t have been able to resist tormenting us with that news. They wouldn’t be able to resist tormenting Damon with it.”
Damon was looking at the package Elena had sent him when his phone rang. The caller ID was unfamiliar so he almost didn't answer it. However, the thought crossed his mind that it might be Klaus or Stefan calling to taunt him that they had Elena. If he didn't answer the call, then he could lose the chance to bargain for her safety.
"Salvatore."
"Is it possible for a vampire to compel you from across a great distance even if he's not face to face with you?"
It was Elena.
Damon clenched his jaw and took a moment to bite back the rush of anger about the danger she had put herself into. "Where the hell are you?!"
"I can't tell you that and you know it," Elena said with a note of regret in her voice. "Just answer my question."
"What have you done?"
"Damon, please. Just answer my question, it's important."
"If a vampire is strong and he's fed on you before, then yes. It is possible to compel someone over a distance if you're not protected in some way. Please tell me that you're at least using your brains enough to have put on your vervain?"
"Of course I'm wearing my necklace."
"Oh good, then you are not acting completely stupid."
"That's not fair!"
"Do not talk to me about fair, Elena!" Damon growled. "You ran off without a word to any of us. You didn't for once think about your safety and the fact that you are in serious danger. "
"I told you what I was doing and why!"
"When? When did you talk to me about what the hell you were planning?"
"I left you a letter."
"A letter. You left me a letter. How considerate of you." The truth being that he hadn't read her letter, yet. He also hadn't opened the book that had been enclosed with the letter.
"I knew that you would never let me leave if I told you what I wanted to do."
"Because you were too busy being stupid and risking your neck for no reason."
"It wasn't for no reason, Damon! You know me better than that."
"The resemblances between you and Katherine are getting more obvious as time passes. Playing on everyone’s emotions and worries is something that she was really good at, but I guess you already realize that. You’ve learned more from her being around that I thought you had."
Elena gasped when he said that. The fact that he thought she was acting like Katherine hurt. "I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have called and got you upset when you’re supposed to be resting to heal." She swallowed hard, trying to swallow back the tears that she could feel stinging her eyes and throat. Before she could say anything else, she hung up.
"Elena? Elena?!" When he heard the dial tone, he cursed. "Damn it!" The cell phone shattered against the wall as he threw it with as much force as he could.
Damon sat back down on the edge of the bed. He hadn't meant to say that about Katherine to Elena. He knew that she was nothing like Katherine. He had just been so angry about the idea of her being in danger that he hadn't stopped to think about his words. He had hurt her and that was the last thing he had wanted to do. Hurting her like that meant she wouldn’t call on him for help with whatever she was doing. He hated that. He wanted her to call him for help. If she called him, then he would know that she knew he would be there for her. And she needed his help. He could tell in her voice that there was more than one question she wanted to ask him.
Instead, he had snapped at her and hurt her feelings and made her feel like hell. He knew Elena very well and knew that she would be hurting and stubbornly trying to do it all on her own. Whatever it was.
“Damn it,” he muttered, reaching for the letter and the leather-covered book that Elena had sent him.
He pulled the letter out of the book again and carefully unfolded it.
Damon,
I have no doubts that you are going to think this is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. However, there is no other choice I can make. The people I love have lost too much because of me and I am going to make sure that it stops now. I can’t fix things for Jeremy or Alaric or Bonnie or Caroline or Tyler. I can’t give them back the things that were taken away from them. But, in a way, I can fix what was taken from you. I’m going after Stefan, Damon. It’s because of me that you were dying. You were trying to protect me and you almost died from Tyler’s bite. Stefan had to trade himself to Klaus to get the blood to heal you. It’s my fault that you lost your brother and I’m going to bring him back for you -- or die trying. I know that part of you is wondering if I’m just saying that and I’m going after Stefan for me. Well, you’re wrong. I love you, Damon, and it’s because of me that you lost the last member of your family. I can never apologize for that, but I can try to make it right for you.
I hope that one day you can forgive me and understand the reasons for everything that I have done. Please take of the others. They’ll need you.
Elena
Damon just frowned at the note in her handwriting in silence for a long moment.
"They'll need me? They'll need me?!" Damon shook his head. "I'm not concerned with what they need, damn it. I'm concerned with what you need." And what she needed -- now, more than ever -- was him.
He placed the letter back in the envelope and then set it down on the bed so that he could reach for the leather bound book that had accompanied the letter. It only took opening the cover and the first page to realize what he was holding in his hands.
“Elena.”
If he had ever needed a show of proof that Elena loved him - not that he did, mind you - then this would have wiped all of his doubts away.
He closed the book and held it up to his nose for a few moments.
Where she had sent the others long letters of how much she loved them and wanted them to be happy, she had gifted him with something far more precious. She had sent him her journal. The place where she wrote all of her thoughts and all of her secrets - and she had entrusted it to him.
He opened the book again, and caught the scent of something that was familiar. It was a very faint scent and no one but a vampire would have picked up on it. He flipped through the pages carefully until he could find the source of the scent.
He let the book fall open as he stared at what was pressed there between the pages.
A single rose.
He knew that rose and he knew where it was from. It was the first thing he had ever given Elena that didn’t seem to have some ulterior motive attached to it. What was telling in his mind was that the rose had been important enough to Elena that she had kept it. Not only had she kept it, but she had placed it in her journal next to all of the words of her heart and her mind.
Damon lifted the pressed rose to his nose and breathed in. The faint scent of the rose was mingled with the ever fainter scent of Elena. He could recall everything about the night he had given it to her and how she had looked.
“Damn you, Elena,” he whispered. “I will not be left with only a rose to remember you by. I will not let this be the last thing that we share between us. I refuse to lose you so easily.”
It hadn’t been easy to convince her of his love and it bothered him that he could lose her so much easier. Words could be stronger than most weapons, but a human body was so frail and fragile.
Words could do a lot of damage. That was something he already knew and this show of Elena’s affection made him feel even worse about the things he had said to her on the phone.
He leaned back against the headboard of the bed and started to flip aimlessly through the journal. There would be time later when he had Elena back that he could slow down and read every page at his leisure. Right now, though, he was trying to find any kind of clue as to where Elena had been headed when she left Mystic Falls. She wouldn’t have said anything to any of them and she wouldn’t have mentioned it in the letters she sent. However, her journal was like an extension of her she would have written in it while she tried to plan out what she was going to do.
He was flipping through when he came to a jagged page near the back of the journal. It looked like someone had tried to rip the page out of the journal and hadn’t succeeded.
He held it up to the light and then frowned. There wasn’t just writing on this page but dried tears as well. He could make out his name and the words dying, love and blame. He flipped the page to see that the page before was all about her finding out that he was dying from the werewolf bite. The page after the torn one started Elena’s thought process about how she needed to make things up to him for losing Stefan.
That meant that the missing page was probably full of her crying and blaming herself for everything that had happened to him - and how he was finally healed by Klaus’ blood. He would almost kill to know what was on that page that had caused Elena to tear it out.
Almost, because he was pretty sure that Elena would frown on him killing someone just to find out what she had written.
Of course, reading the entries before that one and after that one allowed him to put together a reasonable summary of what was on the page. From the amount of dried tearstains it could reasonably have been the entry she was writing when she thought he was dying. It was probably written after he told her how he felt and she had kissed him.
He knew how upset she was and how she felt about him, so why had she torn out the page before she gave him the journal?
Unless.
Unless she had torn it out before she had even decided to give him the journal. It was possible that she had torn out the page of her thoughts after she knew he was going to survive. Knowing Elena, she had probably written down a lot of things that night that frightened her and she had gotten rid of the page because she didn’t want the memory of that night and almost losing him.
He realized that his deduction didn’t make much sense because she had kept a detailed record of everything else that had hurt her and every person she had lost. So why would she have chosen that page to tear out and dispose of?
He frowned. What if Elena hadn’t torn out the page? It certainly didn’t make much sense that after writing so many details about everything else that had happened in her life she would tear out the page about him and almost dying.
He was trying to figure that out when something else crowded into his mind. The first thing that Elena had said when he answered the phone had been about compelling. What exactly had she said?
"Is it possible for a vampire to compel you from across a great distance even if he's not face to face with you?"
He had been so relieved to hear her voice and know that she was alive that he had reacted before thinking. Instead of asking her why she needed to know he had torn into her. He hadn’t even waited to find out if she was unharmed.
The question though, that question seemed to be an odd one coming from Elena. She knew all about how compelling and wearing vervain worked. He and Stefan had both spoken to her at length on the subject and he had always made sure that if anything happened, she had her necklace that Stefan gave her on.
Why would she ask such a question unless…
NO!
He slammed the journal shut and raced down the stairs.
“Klaus knows Elena is alive.”
Well, that had gone even worse than she had expected it to go.
Elena was sitting in her hotel room turning the disposable cell phone over and over in her hands. The body shaking sobs had long subsided, but every so often a tear continued to slide down her face. She couldn’t seem to stop them.
Damon thought she was just like Katherine.
That knowledge had ripped right into her heart. Of everything for him to say about her leaving, she had never thought he would think something like that. She had left Mystic Falls because she loved him and she wanted to make up for the things she had caused to go wrong. She had wanted to make sure he was safe and get his brother back for him. She had left to keep him and her friends safe and alive.
She wasn’t even sure what she was supposed to do now. Part of her wanted to get in her car and drive back to Mystic Falls and tell him how wrong he was to say that. To even think that.
However, there was the part of her that said she had to remember why she was doing this in the first place. She couldn’t go back home until she knew that everyone else was going to be safe. She definitely couldn’t go home until she at least spoke to Stefan. She had to try to get through to him, now more than ever.
If she could save Stefan for him that would prove to Damon that she wasn’t anything like Katherine. Even if something happened to her, Stefan would be able to tell Damon that she had tried to help him.
If she could save Stefan for him that would prove to Damon that she wasn’t anything like Katherine. Even if something happened to her, Stefan would be able to tell Damon that she had tried to help him.
Katherine would have never risked herself like this for them. The vampire had proven that many times already. How many times had she done something in the guise of helping one of them only to turn around and stab them in the back with her actions?
Too many times.
Elena let herself fall backwards onto the bed as she closed her eyes. She was so tired and emotionally drained. She was tired all of the time lately and she was pretty sure that she would never get her emotional state back into any kind of balance unless Klaus suddenly died. She had lost too many people in her life because of him and his damn plans.
She wasn’t willing to let Damon lose anything like she had. She couldn’t fix everything that had gone wrong, but she knew that she had a chance to get Damon his brother back. It was the one thing that she knew she could at least try . She owed Damon so much, but even more, she loved him. She loved him enough that she had to try to make this right for him.
How to deal with the other problem she was having, though? She had no doubt that she was somehow being compelled to make the trip in the directions she was driving. She hadn’t made a concrete destination choice beyond getting out of Mystic Falls, but she seemed to be following some trail that she didn’t even know she could see.
Her first thought was that she was being compelled. However, Damon had pretty much told her that is she was wearing her necklace, then that wasn’t what was happening to her. No, she wasn’t being compelled. She was certain of that from what she had gotten out of Damon before he blew up at her.
She wished that she could have talked to him more, but that was understandable. He was upset with what she had done and he was angry about the way she had left. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, but the only way she could have done this was to sneak away and keep it a secret. If she had talked to him about all of this, there would have been a fight and it would have meant that they parted ways a lot angrier at each other.
Of course, now the man she loved pretty much despised her and thought she was no better than the one that had lied to him. The fact that he thought she was just as bad as Katherine wasn’t something that she had ever expected for him to say. She wouldn’t be doing all of this if she was anything like Katherine. She wouldn’t be out risking her life to save both guys if she was Katherine. The vampire with her face would be too focused on saving her own ass. She had proven enough times that she had no problems lying and manipulating the Salvatore brothers or pulling their strings to get them to do what she wanted them to do.
She was nothing like Katherine beyond the physical attributes. She looked like her, but that was where the resemblances ended.
Elena sighed, getting up and locking the hotel room door. She wasn’t going anywhere with the wrecked emotional state she was in. The last thing that she needed was to end up in a car accident - again. She locked the windows and then she took out a few stones to put on the window sills and then hung something on the back of the hotel door.
These were a few things that Bonnie had created for her to use in her room as a little bit of a supernatural shield or alarm. It was supposed to give her extra protection for where she was staying when she wasn’t in her room or the houses. Hopefully, they would be just as effective here while she tried to get some rest before starting out early on her hunt again.
She would find Klaus and she would save Stefan.
But after she got some sleep.
She got her things out and took a quick hot shower, hoping that it would help her relax so she could sleep better. Once out of the shadow, she took out her new journal and started writing. Just in case she didn’t make it through this, there would be a record of what she had done in order for the ones that came after to have at least some information.
Soon, though, she had to close the book and lay down. She needed to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be another hard day of searching and thinking.
After all, she still didn’t know how she was going to stop Klaus and get Stefan back for Damon. Those were details that she still had to figure out and plan. It wasn’t like she knew right away how she was going to accomplish such a thing. That had just been the decision she had made after the funerals and after she almost lost Damon.
Only, she guessed that there was no almost to that now. She had hurt him even though it hadn’t been what she had intended. She had only wanted to do something to make up for everything that had happened to him because people were after her. She only wanted to do something for Damon in return for all of the things he had done for her.
She sighed, punching the pillow next to her in an attempt to make it a little more comfortable. She needed to get an early start. She had hoped that the conversation with Damon would last longer, but she guessed that he was feeling betrayed about leaving without saying anything ahead of time. The best she could hope for now was to get Stefan back to him and hopefully they could at least make some attempt to be friends.
Friends
Why did that sound like such a dirty word in her mind right now? Could it be because she knew that Damon had loved her and she loved him, but she had hurt him - just like Katherine had done over and over again.
In trying to do something unselfish and something that would be a good thing for Damon, she had lost him. She had lost him before she had even had him for very long.
She closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears from starting up again. Crying over things never changed them, it just made your head hurt and the rest of you feel even worse.
It took Elena a very long time to fall asleep that night. There were too many things that kept whirling around in her mind. She had to find Klaus and therefore find Stefan. Finding Stefan then required to get him to come back from that darkness inside him and realize that destroying life was not what he wanted to do. He had fought too hard over the years in order to change from that monster that he once was.
She closed her eyes, trying to make her breathing calm down. She needed to relax so that she could at least get enough sleep that would allow her to be able to drive the car the next day without crashing. That also meant she was going to have to stock up on coffee and soda for all of the driving she was doing. She wasn’t going to be comfortable making many stops like this the further she got from safety. Every time she stopped, it was one more chance for someone to attack her or for the people back home to get lucky enough to follow her trail. She wanted to make that as hard as possible for her friends to find her. She didn’t want them to get into any kind of danger.
She tossed and turned most of the night. She managed to catch small snatches of sleep, but they weren’t very restful. If there weren’t nightmares in her head, there were worries that would keep her waking up. The nightmares, unfortunately, were something she had started getting used to with everything that had happened. Seeing things coming out of the dark to attack her was something that had become all too common in her life and in her dreams. If it wasn’t the dreams about being attacked or killed in so many ways, it was the dreams about the deaths of her friends and family. It was dreams of too many trips to the cemetery to bury someone new and lay roses on their graves. Memories of things that she shouldn’t have had to go through.
She finally decided that she wasn’t going to get any more sleep and got up about the same time the sun started to rise. She took a quick shower and pulled on a pair of jeans and boots she could both drive and run in. She wasn’t going to take any unnecessary chances when she was out hunting like this. It was something that she could that Damon wouldn’t view as being completely stupid. If she was going to end up running for her life, she was running in shoes that were both warm and had traction.
She brushed her teeth and pulled her hair back in a ponytail before packing things back into her duffel bag. Once she had made sure all of her stuff was loaded in the car, she gave the motel room a thorough search. She didn’t want to leave anything behind that would make it an easy job to track her. She even used her portable dust vacuum from her car to vacuum the bed and the counters in the bathroom. She was pretty sure that she had removed anything that vampires or werewolves could use to find her.
After she was satisfied with what was not left in the room, she packed everything into her car and started driving again. Like the days before, she just pulled onto the road and started driving. She was glad that she wasn’t being compelled - as far as Damon knew - but she still couldn’t tell why she kept taking the routes that she was taking. It all seemed to be so random. It was just like she got behind the wheel and the car took her where they were going.
Sighing, she put a new CD in the player, trying to get herself into a less tense condition. The more she kept tight and stressed, the more her muscles were going to have a hard time getting past all of her tension to fight if she got herself into trouble. She still had no idea where she was going or what she was going to when she go there.
Two hours later, she stopped to get something to drink and when she came back to her car, her cell phone was ringing.
She didn’t instantly recognize the number, so it took her a moment to decide to answer the phone. “Hello?”
“Hello, Elena. It’s been so long since I have heard that beautiful voice of yours.”
Elena had to swallow and then swallow again so that she could force the words out.
“Klaus.”
Alaric frowned as he looked into Damon’s face. “What makes you so sure that he has her? Did he call?”
Damon frowned and shook his head. “No, but Elena called.”
“Elena called?” “Where is she?” “Is she all right?” “When?”
When it looked like Damon was having a hard time not yelling, Alaric yelled for quiet in his best teacher voice. Stunned, all four teens instantly quieted down and looked at him. Once he was sure they were done shouting questions, he looked at Damon.
“What happened when Elena called?” It couldn’t have been good or else Damon would be long gone, retrieving her.
“She called to ask if someone could be compelled over a distance by a vampire who wasn’t face to face with her. I told her that if the vampire had ingested her blood and she wasn’t protected by vervain, then yes, someone could be compelled over great distances by the same vampire.”
“Why would she ask such a thing?” Jeremy asked. “Where is she, what’s happening to her?”
Alaric was watching Damon’s face and watching the mask of indifference he wore slide over his features. That was not a look that boded good for anything that was going on here.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask her,” Damon said in a carefully even voice.
Tyler frowned at him. “You lost your temper on the phone, didn’t you?”
Alaric really wanted to throttle Tyler right about now - after he figured out when the guy had become so perceptive.
“What did you do?” Caroline demanded. “How could you lose your temper on her when she was calling you and could have given you the first lead in where she was?”
“Besides somewhere in Ohio,” Alaric reminded them. “We know she’s in Ohio.”
“I’m pretty confident that we can guarantee that she’s no longer in some small town in Ohio,” Damon replied. “It wasn’t her cell phone that she called me from and if she’s asking questions about things she already knows, then that means something has happened.”
“Like what?” Bonnie finally asked.
Damon sighed and looked directly at her. “Klaus knows she’s alive and he’s using compulsion on her.”
“But if she’s wearing her necklace like she’s supposed to,” Jeremy said. “Compulsion shouldn’t work.”
“Except for the fact that vervain didn’t work on Klaus or on Elijah,” Bonnie said tiredly. “Remember, Jeremy, she was wearing her necklace when Elijah first kidnapped her and it didn’t do her any good. He was even able to take it off of her as a reminder that she had no protection against him.”
“But how does he even know that Elena’s alive? As far as he knows, he killed Elena. He drained her until she died.” Jeremy looked from Bonnie to Damon. “We were all insistent on being careful after John died so that Klaus wouldn’t realize the like Bonnie, Elena was alive.”
Alaric watched Damon’s eyes and then sighed, running a hand over his face. “Damn it. God damn it and damn him while we’re at it.”
“What?” Caroline demanded. “What went wrong? How does Klaus know that Elena’s alive?”
“Because Stefan told him,” Damon said tonelessly.
Jeremy stared at Damon for a long moment. “But why? Doesn’t he realize that telling him anything could get her killed?”
“What part of Stefan is no longer the Stefan that you knew haven’t you been paying attention to, Jeremy?” Damon’s voice was far too calm for the discussion at hand. “Anything that Klaus wants to know, Stefan will tell him because he’s a good little monster boy now. He’s no longer on your side, people. Stefan is on Stefan’s side.”
Bonnie closed her hand over Jeremy’s arm. “Why do you think Klaus is using compulsion on Elena?”
Damon looked at her for a long moment. “Several things. One being that she called to ask about vervain and long distance compulsion. Another being that she tore a page out of her journal that was discussing what had happened between Jenna’s funeral and the time she discovered that I was dying from that little nip from Fido.”
Alaric frowned in confusion. “Why would you attach any significance to a page torn out of her journal?”
“Because Elena writes about everything in her journal,” Caroline said quietly. “Anything that has happened to her or she has seen, she writes down in her journal.”
“She’s been keeping a journal ever since she learned how to write,” Bonnie agreed. “Whether she didn’t want to admit to something or something happened to really hurt her, she would never have torn a page out of her journal. She kept track of everything in her life and ripping out a page from somewhere that she has as a refuge - sometimes her only refuge - is completely out of character for her.”
“She just wouldn’t do it on her own,” Caroline agreed.
“So you guys think that she was somehow compelled to tear the page out of her journal?” Tyler questioned. “Why would one of them care what she wrote on one page - especially when there were probably so many other revealing things that she had written in her journal? Why not just take the whole journal and compel her to forget it had ever existed?”
“Because someone didn’t want her to have whatever was on the page as a memory - or something that anyone else might see,” Alaric sighed. “It could be that it was Stefan who tore out the page and not Elena.”
“But why?” Tyler insisted.
“Because written on that page was probably all about how she knew that she loved Damon and that she didn’t know what she would do if she lost him like she thought she was about to.” Bonnie said softly. “She also probably went into detail about how much it hurt to lose Stefan on top of almost losing Damon and knowing what Stefan had become to save Damon.”
“In Stefan’s mind, he was doing her a kindness by removing that one page so that she wouldn’t be faced with it every time she opened her journal and before she put her necklace back on, she was probably compelled to forget that she had even written the page in the first place,” Damon said quietly in agreement. “The last non-Ripper thing he could do for her.”
“All right,” Jeremy admitted. “That explains the journal page, but that doesn’t explain why you think Klaus is using distance compulsion on Elena.”
“You said yourself that you and Elena don’t know anyone located in Ohio,” Alaric pointed out. “So why was she in Ohio?”
“That’s a good question,” Caroline nodded. “I mean, if I was running away from a small town and trying to get lost, I’d drive west; not a weird northwest direction. L.A. would make a much better hiding place than some place like Cincinnati.”
“Oh god,” Bonnie said. “Klaus is bringing Elena to him. He’s bringing her to them so that he can finish the job.”
“We have to find her,” Jeremy whispered, his face completely white. “We have to get to Elena before Klaus does.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Tyler demanded. “All we know is that she was in Ohio at some point and now who the hell knows. She’s certainly not going to call on us for help now that Damon got into a fight with her. He probably ruined all chances of her turning to any of us.”
Before Damon could snap at Tyler, Bonnie cleared her throat. “I might be able to do a location spell on her to give us a vague idea of where she is now.”
“I thought you weren’t sure that you could do that,” Alaric reminded her.
“That was before I knew that Elena had left her most important personal item behind. Her energy would be strongest on that or her bed and it seemed rather creepy to try and use her bed for some kind of spell.” She swallowed. “Especially since I don’t know what kind of other energy might still linger in her bedroom that would interfere with such a difficult and personal spell.”
“And you think her journal will be better for this kind of thing,” Damon asked.
Bonnie nodded. “The journal is all Elena,” she explained. “There won’t be any excess energies from you or Stefan hanging around it so it shouldn’t confuse the spell.”
“Will your spell damage it in any way?”
Bonnie gave him a sympathetic smile. “No. It will just be used as an anchor to get a fix on Elena’s energy signature. I promise, the journal will be just fine.”
“Where should we do this spell,” Alaric asked, looking around.
“Out in the back yard,” Bonnie responded immediately. “Doing it in an open space will help make sure that there are no obstacles in the way of the magic.”
“That makes sense,” Alaric agreed. “What do you need?”
“Salt, a candle, a map of the country and Damon and Jeremy.” She looked at them. “The two of you have the closest ties to her right now. It will help give the spell an added boost of power.”
Damon nodded, and Jeremy did the same.
“I’ll do anything to help get her back,” her brother said softly. “She shouldn’t have been made to think that she needed to leave in the first place.”
“She blamed herself for Jenna’s death, Jeremy,” Bonnie said quietly. “She thinks she has caused everyone you love to be taken away from you.”
“I told her that as long as I have her, everything would be all right.”
“I know you did, but I think that Jenna and then John were the last straws for her. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time.”
“Elena is one of the strongest people I know,” Caroline mused softly. “But I think the last few months have just been too much for even her. She must have gotten it into her mind somehow that she could make everything right.”
“She can’t make everything right, Vampire Barbie,” Damon said tiredly. “Nothing that has happened to her has been right or has been anything she could have stopped. The Originals have been looking for her ever since they found out that a member of the Petrova bloodline still lived. Katherine and Isobel led Klaus right back to town. Killing Katherine might have stalled things, but you remember what happened when we tried to do that - we almost killed Elena, too.”
“You couldn’t have known that the bitch had a witch link her and Elena together,” Caroline said practically.
“Wait, link them together?” Tyler was confused.
Jeremy nodded. “If we tried to hurt Katherine, Elena got hurt, too. I was barely in time to stop Damon from staking Katherine because that would have ended up killing Elena, as well.”
Tyler stared at Jeremy and then shook his head. “That’s just really evil. I’m glad that you were able to stop them in time.” He frowned. “Are they still linked?”
“I don’t know,” Bonnie admitted. “But I want to say no. I think that the spell John did negated that connection. Plus, when Klaus drained Elena, it didn’t kill Katherine.”
“Let’s go,” Damon said. “The sooner we get some magic mumbo jumbo mojo going, the sooner we can get to Elena and get her out of danger.”
Alaric went through the papers on his desk and finally handed Bonnie a folded map. “This should work.”
Bonnie nodded and took the map, then looked at Damon and Jeremy. Nodding at them, she led them into the back yard of the boarding house. She stood still a moment and then walked to one of the trees and sat down beneath it. She spread out the map and reached for the journal. Reluctantly, Damon handed it over, watching as she placed it on the map so it didn’t touch the ground.
Jeremy sat down at Bonnie’s side and Damon sat down across from her. Bonnie lit a candle that she pulled out of her bag and moved her hand over the map. Jeremy watched her hand, noticing the pendant and chain that hung from between her fingers.
“Moonstone,” Jeremy murmured. “I remember when your grandmother gave you three girls those pendants. Elena couldn’t stop showing it to me and telling me what she had told you girls about them.”
“Gran loved Elena and Caroline like they were hers, too,” Bonnie nodded. “Elena keeps hers with her no matter where she goes,” she added. “I checked her jewelry box when we found out she was gone to make sure she still carried it. Caroline has hers, too. Sometimes she wears it around her neck and sometimes as a bracelet.” She followed the stone as it moved across the map. “Gran said if we kept them with us at all times we would never be alone. It means something that Elena took hers with her.”
Damon shifted as he usually did when Bonnie’s grandmother was discussed. He knew that he was indirectly responsible for her death and it made him uneasy sometimes around Bonnie when she was doing magic. However, she was doing magic to find Elena and to help accomplish that task, he would stay as still as possible.
“You’re like her sister, so of course she was going to take it with her,” Jeremy pointed out. “You’re like her sister and she would want to have something that connected her to you no matter what idiotic things she said in those letters.”
“She blamed herself for a lot of things,” Bonnie said as she watched the jewel move over a section of the map. “Including surviving the accident that killed your parents.”
“She kept me going after that - even if I didn’t tell her that.” Jeremy sighed. “I couldn’t have handled losing her, too.”
“Maybe you have told her that, then,” Damon muttered, looking at him. “Instead of treating her like a pariah for so long when all she was doing was busting her ass to keep you safe.”
“And whose fault was it that I needed to be kept safe at first in the first place,” Jeremy demanded.
“Schematics.”
Jeremy glared at him. "Not schematics, Damon, and you know it. You killed Vickie and when she tried to kill Elena, she had to be staked. Then, because she didn't want to see me hurting -- again -- she asked you to wipe my memories."
"It wasn't because of anything I had done except exist. She wanted to protect you from the knowledge of vampires and the fact that Vickie wasn't who you thought she was. Yes, I made her into a vampire, but I didn't give her a new personality. She hated Elena even while she was human and hurting you would hurt Elena." Damon frowned at him. "Playing you while she was alive and making sure you had access to drugs tore your sister apart. When she was a vampire, she was going to kill your sister. It's why we ended up having to stake her. She was trying to murder Elena. Elena didn't want you to know what kind of person Vickie was and she especially didn't want you to know that the girl you were crushing on tried to kill her."
"He's right, Jeremy," Bonnie said quietly without looking up. "Elena didn't want you to know that she had almost been killed by Vickie and she didn't want you hurting over losing one more person like you had lost your parents."
"None of that matters right now," Jeremy said quietly. "What matters is that we find Elena before Klaus kills her."
"Guys," Bonnie suddenly interjected. "I think we've found her."
Damon and Jeremy looked down at the pendant that had stopped moving across the map. Instead, the stone seemed to be vibrating over one spot on the map.
"Where is she?" Damon demanded.
"In the middle of Lake Erie."
“How is that even possible?” Jeremy’s voice was incredulous.
“I don’t know,” Bonnie responded. “There’s nothing out there but an island and that’s not where the magic is being drawn to.”
Damon cursed very creatively. “That’s not entirely true, Bonnie.”
“What do you mean?”
Damon frowned, looking down at the map. “Klaus has a home on an island out there that isn’t on the maps.”
One || Three
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.
Elena was positive that this was the best thing to be doing for the sake of everyone she loved back home. However, she wasn’t under any delusions that this was the smartest or safest thing for her to do. She sat in a diner that had just shown up beside the road in the middle of nowhere while she was driving. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten anything substantial and the diner was a stark reminder that she needed to actually keep her strength up if she was going to accomplish anything - and she had to accomplish what she had set out to do. There were too many lives that were depending on her. There were too many people that she owed some kind of restitution to for everything they had all been through.
It didn’t matter how many times her friends told her that she wasn’t responsible. In some ways she was and that was what she needed to fix.
She ordered something from the menu and then looked at her map and her notebook in front of her. Once she was sure she wasn’t being watched, she pulled another book out of her bag and lay it in her lap.
Stefan’s journal.
She knew that at least up until siding with Klaus he had been writing things down in his journal just like she did and she had taken it with her - hoping that it would give her some answers to everything she was trying to understand.
So far, though, it hadn’t given her any hint of where he and Klaus might have gone after Stefan gave in to the monster that Klaus wanted him to become. There were a lot of things in the journal about Damon and herself - and several things about Katherine, too.
At one time, she might have been hurt or upset that he spent so much time thinking on Katherine after she had returned to Mystic Falls. That time had long since passed, though. After all, she had spent a lot of time thinking and writing about Damon in her journal. In fact, it was realizing how she felt about Damon that had given her the final push to try to make things right for him and everyone else.
Reading through Stefan’s words also showed her that he had been aware of Elena’s changing feelings for Damon and no matter what he may have told Damon, he was secretly encouraging of it in his journal. Like Elena, Stefan felt that he owed Damon some kind of chance at happiness after everything he had done to take it away. The knowledge that Stefan was aware that she was in love with both of them surprised Elena, but not as much as reading his musings about whether there could be something between the three of them.
… she’s not Katherine and she will never be anything like Katherine. That’s why I think there could be a good chance of the three of us having something true and lasting together. Elena is such a wonderful person and she has so much love to give and there isn’t anyone in this world that I would trust besides Damon to keep her safe and look after her if something happened to me. He loves her and would never accept anything harming her - even me. That’s something that I can believe in no matter what happens in the coming days. He would die for her and I already know he would kill for her. In fact, I’m counting on that. If anything ever happened where I became a threat to Elena, I know that Damon would do what was right and protect Elena from me no matter what he had to do. It’s that knowledge that lets me breathe sometimes when I think of everything she’s going to come up against. She’s not as devious as Katherine always was and that’s why she needs Damon to be devious for her…
Elena sighed, blinking back tears as she closed the journal and held it in her lap for a moment. Stefan had known that things were going to get really bad and he had put faith in Damon to keep her safe and alive. Only, he had probably never counted on something happening to endanger Damon like the werewolf bite.
Something that would never have happened if it hadn’t been for her. It just added to her guilt that Damon had wanted to hide it from her because he didn’t want her to know she was going to lose someone else she cared about.
She slid the journal back into her bag and poked aimlessly at her food. Everything had seemed so clear and worked out when she had decided to leave Mystic Falls. The problem was, she wanted to stop Klaus and make sure he wasn’t a threat to anyone she loved and she had no idea where to go to find him and Stefan. She didn’t have powers like Bonnie where she could find someone by using magic. The only thing she could do was to keep following her gut instincts about where to go and she wasn’t really trusting of those feelings right now.
Which was how she had made it to this diner in the first place. When she had started driving, she had been making choices on auto pilot and not really thinking about where she was going or why she was going that way. However, the more she thought about how everything had been going since she had left her home, she was beginning to think that she was being led somewhere.
Or compelled.
At that thought, Elena’s hand rose quickly to touch the necklace at her neck. She had braided the chains with the vervain and Isobel’s lapis stone together and she had hoped that it would be enough to protect her on her journey to wherever she was going. However, with everything that had happened, she had never thought to wonder if the vervain was still working - or if she needed to get more. Was it like other plants and lost its potency at some point? She wasn’t sure, but she’d be looking that information up as soon as she decided where she was staying for the night.
Of course, now she couldn’t stop thinking about the idea that someone was compelling where she went while she was driving. She was pretty sure that a vampire had to be face to face with their intended victim to compel them, but she had never really asked the guys about that.
She needed to call Damon.
Oh, she’d have to call him while she was still driving because if she called him a hotel room, he would probably be able to trace the call and track her down and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. She couldn’t allow him to be put right back into danger and that was what would happen if he decided to join her in her hotel room or followed her from it.
She knew Damon. She believed him when he said he loved her and that was how she knew he wouldn’t stay behind if he knew where she had gone. He would find her and insist that she either go back home or he would stay with her until she saw whatever she was doing to the end.
That was something that she just couldn’t allow as she couldn’t let him be put in danger because of her and it would kill her if something happened to him because of her.
Love was like that and she loved him enough to want to protect him from her.
She carefully ignored the voice in her head that sounded just like Damon that was demanding to know who was going to protect her from herself. As long as she stayed safe and alive long enough to make things right for Damon, then she would be happy with that. She had avoided death so many times in the last couple of years that if it was her time, she would be brave and determined like John had been.
She just needed enough time to save Stefan and stop Klaus from ever again being a danger to the ones she loved.
After all, Damon couldn’t stay angry at her if she saved his brother, right?
She decided not to dwell too much on that question and instead put her things back into her bag and finished her meal. When she was done, she got back on the highway. She had a goal -- of sorts -- to accomplish before she had to stop driving for the night. The first city she came to, she went searching for a store that she knew would have what she was looking for.
Half an hour and two hundred dollars later, she her original item plus quite a few more supplies that she would need.
"Elena just used one of her credit cards in a place called Marietta," Alaric looked up from the laptop he had been scanning, "Why is she in Ohio?"
Jeremy shrugged. "We don't know anyone in Ohio, at least, I don't think that we do."
"Could she be going to see someone who knew Isobel or John?"
"John really wasn't too forthcoming with any of us about where he came from or went to when he wasn't here, Ric," Jeremy said quietly. "He'd show up for awhile and then he would leave after he accomplished whatever he wanted to. As for Isobel... I didn't know much about her at all."
Alaric sighed. "I apparently didn't know much about her, either, and I was the one married to her."
"Well, we know that this family has a predilection for writing and journals," Caroline offered as she came into the room. "Maybe when Elena visited that house that Isobel liked to stay in when she was in town, she found something. Maybe she found something of John's beyond the letter and ring he told Jeremy to give her."
"I would have known if she found anything of John's, though," Jeremy insisted.
"Like you knew that she was writing us all goodbye letters while she was planning to do something incredibly stupid?" Tyler asked. His voice was more tired than combative.
"Can't we just track down her cell phone or something?" Caroline demanded.
"That's illegal," Bonnie said, looking up from her spellbook. "That and we don't have the equipment to do something like that and I can't do it with magic."
"I don't care if it's illegal. I mean, killing is illegal and we've certainly planned plenty of that." Tyler snorted in amusement and Caroline glared at him before continuing. "Besides, I bet that there is something we could use to track her phone in my mother's office."
The others in the room stared at her and then Alaric shook his head. "There is no way in hell your mother is going to do anything to help us in this situation. She's not exactly fond of vampires."
"No, she's not, but she's known Elena since she was a child. My mother may not be very good at being a mom, but she's good at her job and she loves this town. If we tell her that Elena ran off in some stupid attempt to forever save this town, she'll do everything she can to find her." Caroline shrugged. "She thinks she owes it to Miranda to find her daughter. They were friends when Miranda and Grayson were alive." Caroline sighed. "She cares about people and she'll help. She may hate what I am, but she's not going to let anyone who is still human die if she can help it. Elena definitely still falls into the realm of human so far."
“Only if one of the Three Stooges hasn’t gotten to her,” Jeremy said.
“They haven’t,” Alaric said with an assurance that didn’t quite meet his eyes.
“How can you know for sure?” That voice was Tyler’s -- even though he knew doubting that Elena was still alive would get him in trouble with Bonnie and Caroline.
“Because,” Alaric said softly. “If she was dead, Klaus or Stefan wouldn’t have been able to resist tormenting us with that news. They wouldn’t be able to resist tormenting Damon with it.”
Damon was looking at the package Elena had sent him when his phone rang. The caller ID was unfamiliar so he almost didn't answer it. However, the thought crossed his mind that it might be Klaus or Stefan calling to taunt him that they had Elena. If he didn't answer the call, then he could lose the chance to bargain for her safety.
"Salvatore."
"Is it possible for a vampire to compel you from across a great distance even if he's not face to face with you?"
It was Elena.
Damon clenched his jaw and took a moment to bite back the rush of anger about the danger she had put herself into. "Where the hell are you?!"
"I can't tell you that and you know it," Elena said with a note of regret in her voice. "Just answer my question."
"What have you done?"
"Damon, please. Just answer my question, it's important."
"If a vampire is strong and he's fed on you before, then yes. It is possible to compel someone over a distance if you're not protected in some way. Please tell me that you're at least using your brains enough to have put on your vervain?"
"Of course I'm wearing my necklace."
"Oh good, then you are not acting completely stupid."
"That's not fair!"
"Do not talk to me about fair, Elena!" Damon growled. "You ran off without a word to any of us. You didn't for once think about your safety and the fact that you are in serious danger. "
"I told you what I was doing and why!"
"When? When did you talk to me about what the hell you were planning?"
"I left you a letter."
"A letter. You left me a letter. How considerate of you." The truth being that he hadn't read her letter, yet. He also hadn't opened the book that had been enclosed with the letter.
"I knew that you would never let me leave if I told you what I wanted to do."
"Because you were too busy being stupid and risking your neck for no reason."
"It wasn't for no reason, Damon! You know me better than that."
"The resemblances between you and Katherine are getting more obvious as time passes. Playing on everyone’s emotions and worries is something that she was really good at, but I guess you already realize that. You’ve learned more from her being around that I thought you had."
Elena gasped when he said that. The fact that he thought she was acting like Katherine hurt. "I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have called and got you upset when you’re supposed to be resting to heal." She swallowed hard, trying to swallow back the tears that she could feel stinging her eyes and throat. Before she could say anything else, she hung up.
"Elena? Elena?!" When he heard the dial tone, he cursed. "Damn it!" The cell phone shattered against the wall as he threw it with as much force as he could.
Damon sat back down on the edge of the bed. He hadn't meant to say that about Katherine to Elena. He knew that she was nothing like Katherine. He had just been so angry about the idea of her being in danger that he hadn't stopped to think about his words. He had hurt her and that was the last thing he had wanted to do. Hurting her like that meant she wouldn’t call on him for help with whatever she was doing. He hated that. He wanted her to call him for help. If she called him, then he would know that she knew he would be there for her. And she needed his help. He could tell in her voice that there was more than one question she wanted to ask him.
Instead, he had snapped at her and hurt her feelings and made her feel like hell. He knew Elena very well and knew that she would be hurting and stubbornly trying to do it all on her own. Whatever it was.
“Damn it,” he muttered, reaching for the letter and the leather-covered book that Elena had sent him.
He pulled the letter out of the book again and carefully unfolded it.
Damon,
I have no doubts that you are going to think this is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. However, there is no other choice I can make. The people I love have lost too much because of me and I am going to make sure that it stops now. I can’t fix things for Jeremy or Alaric or Bonnie or Caroline or Tyler. I can’t give them back the things that were taken away from them. But, in a way, I can fix what was taken from you. I’m going after Stefan, Damon. It’s because of me that you were dying. You were trying to protect me and you almost died from Tyler’s bite. Stefan had to trade himself to Klaus to get the blood to heal you. It’s my fault that you lost your brother and I’m going to bring him back for you -- or die trying. I know that part of you is wondering if I’m just saying that and I’m going after Stefan for me. Well, you’re wrong. I love you, Damon, and it’s because of me that you lost the last member of your family. I can never apologize for that, but I can try to make it right for you.
I hope that one day you can forgive me and understand the reasons for everything that I have done. Please take of the others. They’ll need you.
Elena
Damon just frowned at the note in her handwriting in silence for a long moment.
"They'll need me? They'll need me?!" Damon shook his head. "I'm not concerned with what they need, damn it. I'm concerned with what you need." And what she needed -- now, more than ever -- was him.
He placed the letter back in the envelope and then set it down on the bed so that he could reach for the leather bound book that had accompanied the letter. It only took opening the cover and the first page to realize what he was holding in his hands.
“Elena.”
If he had ever needed a show of proof that Elena loved him - not that he did, mind you - then this would have wiped all of his doubts away.
He closed the book and held it up to his nose for a few moments.
Where she had sent the others long letters of how much she loved them and wanted them to be happy, she had gifted him with something far more precious. She had sent him her journal. The place where she wrote all of her thoughts and all of her secrets - and she had entrusted it to him.
He opened the book again, and caught the scent of something that was familiar. It was a very faint scent and no one but a vampire would have picked up on it. He flipped through the pages carefully until he could find the source of the scent.
He let the book fall open as he stared at what was pressed there between the pages.
A single rose.
He knew that rose and he knew where it was from. It was the first thing he had ever given Elena that didn’t seem to have some ulterior motive attached to it. What was telling in his mind was that the rose had been important enough to Elena that she had kept it. Not only had she kept it, but she had placed it in her journal next to all of the words of her heart and her mind.
Damon lifted the pressed rose to his nose and breathed in. The faint scent of the rose was mingled with the ever fainter scent of Elena. He could recall everything about the night he had given it to her and how she had looked.
“Damn you, Elena,” he whispered. “I will not be left with only a rose to remember you by. I will not let this be the last thing that we share between us. I refuse to lose you so easily.”
It hadn’t been easy to convince her of his love and it bothered him that he could lose her so much easier. Words could be stronger than most weapons, but a human body was so frail and fragile.
Words could do a lot of damage. That was something he already knew and this show of Elena’s affection made him feel even worse about the things he had said to her on the phone.
He leaned back against the headboard of the bed and started to flip aimlessly through the journal. There would be time later when he had Elena back that he could slow down and read every page at his leisure. Right now, though, he was trying to find any kind of clue as to where Elena had been headed when she left Mystic Falls. She wouldn’t have said anything to any of them and she wouldn’t have mentioned it in the letters she sent. However, her journal was like an extension of her she would have written in it while she tried to plan out what she was going to do.
He was flipping through when he came to a jagged page near the back of the journal. It looked like someone had tried to rip the page out of the journal and hadn’t succeeded.
He held it up to the light and then frowned. There wasn’t just writing on this page but dried tears as well. He could make out his name and the words dying, love and blame. He flipped the page to see that the page before was all about her finding out that he was dying from the werewolf bite. The page after the torn one started Elena’s thought process about how she needed to make things up to him for losing Stefan.
That meant that the missing page was probably full of her crying and blaming herself for everything that had happened to him - and how he was finally healed by Klaus’ blood. He would almost kill to know what was on that page that had caused Elena to tear it out.
Almost, because he was pretty sure that Elena would frown on him killing someone just to find out what she had written.
Of course, reading the entries before that one and after that one allowed him to put together a reasonable summary of what was on the page. From the amount of dried tearstains it could reasonably have been the entry she was writing when she thought he was dying. It was probably written after he told her how he felt and she had kissed him.
He knew how upset she was and how she felt about him, so why had she torn out the page before she gave him the journal?
Unless.
Unless she had torn it out before she had even decided to give him the journal. It was possible that she had torn out the page of her thoughts after she knew he was going to survive. Knowing Elena, she had probably written down a lot of things that night that frightened her and she had gotten rid of the page because she didn’t want the memory of that night and almost losing him.
He realized that his deduction didn’t make much sense because she had kept a detailed record of everything else that had hurt her and every person she had lost. So why would she have chosen that page to tear out and dispose of?
He frowned. What if Elena hadn’t torn out the page? It certainly didn’t make much sense that after writing so many details about everything else that had happened in her life she would tear out the page about him and almost dying.
He was trying to figure that out when something else crowded into his mind. The first thing that Elena had said when he answered the phone had been about compelling. What exactly had she said?
"Is it possible for a vampire to compel you from across a great distance even if he's not face to face with you?"
He had been so relieved to hear her voice and know that she was alive that he had reacted before thinking. Instead of asking her why she needed to know he had torn into her. He hadn’t even waited to find out if she was unharmed.
The question though, that question seemed to be an odd one coming from Elena. She knew all about how compelling and wearing vervain worked. He and Stefan had both spoken to her at length on the subject and he had always made sure that if anything happened, she had her necklace that Stefan gave her on.
Why would she ask such a question unless…
NO!
He slammed the journal shut and raced down the stairs.
“Klaus knows Elena is alive.”
Well, that had gone even worse than she had expected it to go.
Elena was sitting in her hotel room turning the disposable cell phone over and over in her hands. The body shaking sobs had long subsided, but every so often a tear continued to slide down her face. She couldn’t seem to stop them.
Damon thought she was just like Katherine.
That knowledge had ripped right into her heart. Of everything for him to say about her leaving, she had never thought he would think something like that. She had left Mystic Falls because she loved him and she wanted to make up for the things she had caused to go wrong. She had wanted to make sure he was safe and get his brother back for him. She had left to keep him and her friends safe and alive.
She wasn’t even sure what she was supposed to do now. Part of her wanted to get in her car and drive back to Mystic Falls and tell him how wrong he was to say that. To even think that.
However, there was the part of her that said she had to remember why she was doing this in the first place. She couldn’t go back home until she knew that everyone else was going to be safe. She definitely couldn’t go home until she at least spoke to Stefan. She had to try to get through to him, now more than ever.
If she could save Stefan for him that would prove to Damon that she wasn’t anything like Katherine. Even if something happened to her, Stefan would be able to tell Damon that she had tried to help him.
If she could save Stefan for him that would prove to Damon that she wasn’t anything like Katherine. Even if something happened to her, Stefan would be able to tell Damon that she had tried to help him.
Katherine would have never risked herself like this for them. The vampire had proven that many times already. How many times had she done something in the guise of helping one of them only to turn around and stab them in the back with her actions?
Too many times.
Elena let herself fall backwards onto the bed as she closed her eyes. She was so tired and emotionally drained. She was tired all of the time lately and she was pretty sure that she would never get her emotional state back into any kind of balance unless Klaus suddenly died. She had lost too many people in her life because of him and his damn plans.
She wasn’t willing to let Damon lose anything like she had. She couldn’t fix everything that had gone wrong, but she knew that she had a chance to get Damon his brother back. It was the one thing that she knew she could at least try . She owed Damon so much, but even more, she loved him. She loved him enough that she had to try to make this right for him.
How to deal with the other problem she was having, though? She had no doubt that she was somehow being compelled to make the trip in the directions she was driving. She hadn’t made a concrete destination choice beyond getting out of Mystic Falls, but she seemed to be following some trail that she didn’t even know she could see.
Her first thought was that she was being compelled. However, Damon had pretty much told her that is she was wearing her necklace, then that wasn’t what was happening to her. No, she wasn’t being compelled. She was certain of that from what she had gotten out of Damon before he blew up at her.
She wished that she could have talked to him more, but that was understandable. He was upset with what she had done and he was angry about the way she had left. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, but the only way she could have done this was to sneak away and keep it a secret. If she had talked to him about all of this, there would have been a fight and it would have meant that they parted ways a lot angrier at each other.
Of course, now the man she loved pretty much despised her and thought she was no better than the one that had lied to him. The fact that he thought she was just as bad as Katherine wasn’t something that she had ever expected for him to say. She wouldn’t be doing all of this if she was anything like Katherine. She wouldn’t be out risking her life to save both guys if she was Katherine. The vampire with her face would be too focused on saving her own ass. She had proven enough times that she had no problems lying and manipulating the Salvatore brothers or pulling their strings to get them to do what she wanted them to do.
She was nothing like Katherine beyond the physical attributes. She looked like her, but that was where the resemblances ended.
Elena sighed, getting up and locking the hotel room door. She wasn’t going anywhere with the wrecked emotional state she was in. The last thing that she needed was to end up in a car accident - again. She locked the windows and then she took out a few stones to put on the window sills and then hung something on the back of the hotel door.
These were a few things that Bonnie had created for her to use in her room as a little bit of a supernatural shield or alarm. It was supposed to give her extra protection for where she was staying when she wasn’t in her room or the houses. Hopefully, they would be just as effective here while she tried to get some rest before starting out early on her hunt again.
She would find Klaus and she would save Stefan.
But after she got some sleep.
She got her things out and took a quick hot shower, hoping that it would help her relax so she could sleep better. Once out of the shadow, she took out her new journal and started writing. Just in case she didn’t make it through this, there would be a record of what she had done in order for the ones that came after to have at least some information.
Soon, though, she had to close the book and lay down. She needed to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be another hard day of searching and thinking.
After all, she still didn’t know how she was going to stop Klaus and get Stefan back for Damon. Those were details that she still had to figure out and plan. It wasn’t like she knew right away how she was going to accomplish such a thing. That had just been the decision she had made after the funerals and after she almost lost Damon.
Only, she guessed that there was no almost to that now. She had hurt him even though it hadn’t been what she had intended. She had only wanted to do something to make up for everything that had happened to him because people were after her. She only wanted to do something for Damon in return for all of the things he had done for her.
She sighed, punching the pillow next to her in an attempt to make it a little more comfortable. She needed to get an early start. She had hoped that the conversation with Damon would last longer, but she guessed that he was feeling betrayed about leaving without saying anything ahead of time. The best she could hope for now was to get Stefan back to him and hopefully they could at least make some attempt to be friends.
Friends
Why did that sound like such a dirty word in her mind right now? Could it be because she knew that Damon had loved her and she loved him, but she had hurt him - just like Katherine had done over and over again.
In trying to do something unselfish and something that would be a good thing for Damon, she had lost him. She had lost him before she had even had him for very long.
She closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears from starting up again. Crying over things never changed them, it just made your head hurt and the rest of you feel even worse.
It took Elena a very long time to fall asleep that night. There were too many things that kept whirling around in her mind. She had to find Klaus and therefore find Stefan. Finding Stefan then required to get him to come back from that darkness inside him and realize that destroying life was not what he wanted to do. He had fought too hard over the years in order to change from that monster that he once was.
She closed her eyes, trying to make her breathing calm down. She needed to relax so that she could at least get enough sleep that would allow her to be able to drive the car the next day without crashing. That also meant she was going to have to stock up on coffee and soda for all of the driving she was doing. She wasn’t going to be comfortable making many stops like this the further she got from safety. Every time she stopped, it was one more chance for someone to attack her or for the people back home to get lucky enough to follow her trail. She wanted to make that as hard as possible for her friends to find her. She didn’t want them to get into any kind of danger.
She tossed and turned most of the night. She managed to catch small snatches of sleep, but they weren’t very restful. If there weren’t nightmares in her head, there were worries that would keep her waking up. The nightmares, unfortunately, were something she had started getting used to with everything that had happened. Seeing things coming out of the dark to attack her was something that had become all too common in her life and in her dreams. If it wasn’t the dreams about being attacked or killed in so many ways, it was the dreams about the deaths of her friends and family. It was dreams of too many trips to the cemetery to bury someone new and lay roses on their graves. Memories of things that she shouldn’t have had to go through.
She finally decided that she wasn’t going to get any more sleep and got up about the same time the sun started to rise. She took a quick shower and pulled on a pair of jeans and boots she could both drive and run in. She wasn’t going to take any unnecessary chances when she was out hunting like this. It was something that she could that Damon wouldn’t view as being completely stupid. If she was going to end up running for her life, she was running in shoes that were both warm and had traction.
She brushed her teeth and pulled her hair back in a ponytail before packing things back into her duffel bag. Once she had made sure all of her stuff was loaded in the car, she gave the motel room a thorough search. She didn’t want to leave anything behind that would make it an easy job to track her. She even used her portable dust vacuum from her car to vacuum the bed and the counters in the bathroom. She was pretty sure that she had removed anything that vampires or werewolves could use to find her.
After she was satisfied with what was not left in the room, she packed everything into her car and started driving again. Like the days before, she just pulled onto the road and started driving. She was glad that she wasn’t being compelled - as far as Damon knew - but she still couldn’t tell why she kept taking the routes that she was taking. It all seemed to be so random. It was just like she got behind the wheel and the car took her where they were going.
Sighing, she put a new CD in the player, trying to get herself into a less tense condition. The more she kept tight and stressed, the more her muscles were going to have a hard time getting past all of her tension to fight if she got herself into trouble. She still had no idea where she was going or what she was going to when she go there.
Two hours later, she stopped to get something to drink and when she came back to her car, her cell phone was ringing.
She didn’t instantly recognize the number, so it took her a moment to decide to answer the phone. “Hello?”
“Hello, Elena. It’s been so long since I have heard that beautiful voice of yours.”
Elena had to swallow and then swallow again so that she could force the words out.
“Klaus.”
Alaric frowned as he looked into Damon’s face. “What makes you so sure that he has her? Did he call?”
Damon frowned and shook his head. “No, but Elena called.”
“Elena called?” “Where is she?” “Is she all right?” “When?”
When it looked like Damon was having a hard time not yelling, Alaric yelled for quiet in his best teacher voice. Stunned, all four teens instantly quieted down and looked at him. Once he was sure they were done shouting questions, he looked at Damon.
“What happened when Elena called?” It couldn’t have been good or else Damon would be long gone, retrieving her.
“She called to ask if someone could be compelled over a distance by a vampire who wasn’t face to face with her. I told her that if the vampire had ingested her blood and she wasn’t protected by vervain, then yes, someone could be compelled over great distances by the same vampire.”
“Why would she ask such a thing?” Jeremy asked. “Where is she, what’s happening to her?”
Alaric was watching Damon’s face and watching the mask of indifference he wore slide over his features. That was not a look that boded good for anything that was going on here.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask her,” Damon said in a carefully even voice.
Tyler frowned at him. “You lost your temper on the phone, didn’t you?”
Alaric really wanted to throttle Tyler right about now - after he figured out when the guy had become so perceptive.
“What did you do?” Caroline demanded. “How could you lose your temper on her when she was calling you and could have given you the first lead in where she was?”
“Besides somewhere in Ohio,” Alaric reminded them. “We know she’s in Ohio.”
“I’m pretty confident that we can guarantee that she’s no longer in some small town in Ohio,” Damon replied. “It wasn’t her cell phone that she called me from and if she’s asking questions about things she already knows, then that means something has happened.”
“Like what?” Bonnie finally asked.
Damon sighed and looked directly at her. “Klaus knows she’s alive and he’s using compulsion on her.”
“But if she’s wearing her necklace like she’s supposed to,” Jeremy said. “Compulsion shouldn’t work.”
“Except for the fact that vervain didn’t work on Klaus or on Elijah,” Bonnie said tiredly. “Remember, Jeremy, she was wearing her necklace when Elijah first kidnapped her and it didn’t do her any good. He was even able to take it off of her as a reminder that she had no protection against him.”
“But how does he even know that Elena’s alive? As far as he knows, he killed Elena. He drained her until she died.” Jeremy looked from Bonnie to Damon. “We were all insistent on being careful after John died so that Klaus wouldn’t realize the like Bonnie, Elena was alive.”
Alaric watched Damon’s eyes and then sighed, running a hand over his face. “Damn it. God damn it and damn him while we’re at it.”
“What?” Caroline demanded. “What went wrong? How does Klaus know that Elena’s alive?”
“Because Stefan told him,” Damon said tonelessly.
Jeremy stared at Damon for a long moment. “But why? Doesn’t he realize that telling him anything could get her killed?”
“What part of Stefan is no longer the Stefan that you knew haven’t you been paying attention to, Jeremy?” Damon’s voice was far too calm for the discussion at hand. “Anything that Klaus wants to know, Stefan will tell him because he’s a good little monster boy now. He’s no longer on your side, people. Stefan is on Stefan’s side.”
Bonnie closed her hand over Jeremy’s arm. “Why do you think Klaus is using compulsion on Elena?”
Damon looked at her for a long moment. “Several things. One being that she called to ask about vervain and long distance compulsion. Another being that she tore a page out of her journal that was discussing what had happened between Jenna’s funeral and the time she discovered that I was dying from that little nip from Fido.”
Alaric frowned in confusion. “Why would you attach any significance to a page torn out of her journal?”
“Because Elena writes about everything in her journal,” Caroline said quietly. “Anything that has happened to her or she has seen, she writes down in her journal.”
“She’s been keeping a journal ever since she learned how to write,” Bonnie agreed. “Whether she didn’t want to admit to something or something happened to really hurt her, she would never have torn a page out of her journal. She kept track of everything in her life and ripping out a page from somewhere that she has as a refuge - sometimes her only refuge - is completely out of character for her.”
“She just wouldn’t do it on her own,” Caroline agreed.
“So you guys think that she was somehow compelled to tear the page out of her journal?” Tyler questioned. “Why would one of them care what she wrote on one page - especially when there were probably so many other revealing things that she had written in her journal? Why not just take the whole journal and compel her to forget it had ever existed?”
“Because someone didn’t want her to have whatever was on the page as a memory - or something that anyone else might see,” Alaric sighed. “It could be that it was Stefan who tore out the page and not Elena.”
“But why?” Tyler insisted.
“Because written on that page was probably all about how she knew that she loved Damon and that she didn’t know what she would do if she lost him like she thought she was about to.” Bonnie said softly. “She also probably went into detail about how much it hurt to lose Stefan on top of almost losing Damon and knowing what Stefan had become to save Damon.”
“In Stefan’s mind, he was doing her a kindness by removing that one page so that she wouldn’t be faced with it every time she opened her journal and before she put her necklace back on, she was probably compelled to forget that she had even written the page in the first place,” Damon said quietly in agreement. “The last non-Ripper thing he could do for her.”
“All right,” Jeremy admitted. “That explains the journal page, but that doesn’t explain why you think Klaus is using distance compulsion on Elena.”
“You said yourself that you and Elena don’t know anyone located in Ohio,” Alaric pointed out. “So why was she in Ohio?”
“That’s a good question,” Caroline nodded. “I mean, if I was running away from a small town and trying to get lost, I’d drive west; not a weird northwest direction. L.A. would make a much better hiding place than some place like Cincinnati.”
“Oh god,” Bonnie said. “Klaus is bringing Elena to him. He’s bringing her to them so that he can finish the job.”
“We have to find her,” Jeremy whispered, his face completely white. “We have to get to Elena before Klaus does.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Tyler demanded. “All we know is that she was in Ohio at some point and now who the hell knows. She’s certainly not going to call on us for help now that Damon got into a fight with her. He probably ruined all chances of her turning to any of us.”
Before Damon could snap at Tyler, Bonnie cleared her throat. “I might be able to do a location spell on her to give us a vague idea of where she is now.”
“I thought you weren’t sure that you could do that,” Alaric reminded her.
“That was before I knew that Elena had left her most important personal item behind. Her energy would be strongest on that or her bed and it seemed rather creepy to try and use her bed for some kind of spell.” She swallowed. “Especially since I don’t know what kind of other energy might still linger in her bedroom that would interfere with such a difficult and personal spell.”
“And you think her journal will be better for this kind of thing,” Damon asked.
Bonnie nodded. “The journal is all Elena,” she explained. “There won’t be any excess energies from you or Stefan hanging around it so it shouldn’t confuse the spell.”
“Will your spell damage it in any way?”
Bonnie gave him a sympathetic smile. “No. It will just be used as an anchor to get a fix on Elena’s energy signature. I promise, the journal will be just fine.”
“Where should we do this spell,” Alaric asked, looking around.
“Out in the back yard,” Bonnie responded immediately. “Doing it in an open space will help make sure that there are no obstacles in the way of the magic.”
“That makes sense,” Alaric agreed. “What do you need?”
“Salt, a candle, a map of the country and Damon and Jeremy.” She looked at them. “The two of you have the closest ties to her right now. It will help give the spell an added boost of power.”
Damon nodded, and Jeremy did the same.
“I’ll do anything to help get her back,” her brother said softly. “She shouldn’t have been made to think that she needed to leave in the first place.”
“She blamed herself for Jenna’s death, Jeremy,” Bonnie said quietly. “She thinks she has caused everyone you love to be taken away from you.”
“I told her that as long as I have her, everything would be all right.”
“I know you did, but I think that Jenna and then John were the last straws for her. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time.”
“Elena is one of the strongest people I know,” Caroline mused softly. “But I think the last few months have just been too much for even her. She must have gotten it into her mind somehow that she could make everything right.”
“She can’t make everything right, Vampire Barbie,” Damon said tiredly. “Nothing that has happened to her has been right or has been anything she could have stopped. The Originals have been looking for her ever since they found out that a member of the Petrova bloodline still lived. Katherine and Isobel led Klaus right back to town. Killing Katherine might have stalled things, but you remember what happened when we tried to do that - we almost killed Elena, too.”
“You couldn’t have known that the bitch had a witch link her and Elena together,” Caroline said practically.
“Wait, link them together?” Tyler was confused.
Jeremy nodded. “If we tried to hurt Katherine, Elena got hurt, too. I was barely in time to stop Damon from staking Katherine because that would have ended up killing Elena, as well.”
Tyler stared at Jeremy and then shook his head. “That’s just really evil. I’m glad that you were able to stop them in time.” He frowned. “Are they still linked?”
“I don’t know,” Bonnie admitted. “But I want to say no. I think that the spell John did negated that connection. Plus, when Klaus drained Elena, it didn’t kill Katherine.”
“Let’s go,” Damon said. “The sooner we get some magic mumbo jumbo mojo going, the sooner we can get to Elena and get her out of danger.”
Alaric went through the papers on his desk and finally handed Bonnie a folded map. “This should work.”
Bonnie nodded and took the map, then looked at Damon and Jeremy. Nodding at them, she led them into the back yard of the boarding house. She stood still a moment and then walked to one of the trees and sat down beneath it. She spread out the map and reached for the journal. Reluctantly, Damon handed it over, watching as she placed it on the map so it didn’t touch the ground.
Jeremy sat down at Bonnie’s side and Damon sat down across from her. Bonnie lit a candle that she pulled out of her bag and moved her hand over the map. Jeremy watched her hand, noticing the pendant and chain that hung from between her fingers.
“Moonstone,” Jeremy murmured. “I remember when your grandmother gave you three girls those pendants. Elena couldn’t stop showing it to me and telling me what she had told you girls about them.”
“Gran loved Elena and Caroline like they were hers, too,” Bonnie nodded. “Elena keeps hers with her no matter where she goes,” she added. “I checked her jewelry box when we found out she was gone to make sure she still carried it. Caroline has hers, too. Sometimes she wears it around her neck and sometimes as a bracelet.” She followed the stone as it moved across the map. “Gran said if we kept them with us at all times we would never be alone. It means something that Elena took hers with her.”
Damon shifted as he usually did when Bonnie’s grandmother was discussed. He knew that he was indirectly responsible for her death and it made him uneasy sometimes around Bonnie when she was doing magic. However, she was doing magic to find Elena and to help accomplish that task, he would stay as still as possible.
“You’re like her sister, so of course she was going to take it with her,” Jeremy pointed out. “You’re like her sister and she would want to have something that connected her to you no matter what idiotic things she said in those letters.”
“She blamed herself for a lot of things,” Bonnie said as she watched the jewel move over a section of the map. “Including surviving the accident that killed your parents.”
“She kept me going after that - even if I didn’t tell her that.” Jeremy sighed. “I couldn’t have handled losing her, too.”
“Maybe you have told her that, then,” Damon muttered, looking at him. “Instead of treating her like a pariah for so long when all she was doing was busting her ass to keep you safe.”
“And whose fault was it that I needed to be kept safe at first in the first place,” Jeremy demanded.
“Schematics.”
Jeremy glared at him. "Not schematics, Damon, and you know it. You killed Vickie and when she tried to kill Elena, she had to be staked. Then, because she didn't want to see me hurting -- again -- she asked you to wipe my memories."
"It wasn't because of anything I had done except exist. She wanted to protect you from the knowledge of vampires and the fact that Vickie wasn't who you thought she was. Yes, I made her into a vampire, but I didn't give her a new personality. She hated Elena even while she was human and hurting you would hurt Elena." Damon frowned at him. "Playing you while she was alive and making sure you had access to drugs tore your sister apart. When she was a vampire, she was going to kill your sister. It's why we ended up having to stake her. She was trying to murder Elena. Elena didn't want you to know what kind of person Vickie was and she especially didn't want you to know that the girl you were crushing on tried to kill her."
"He's right, Jeremy," Bonnie said quietly without looking up. "Elena didn't want you to know that she had almost been killed by Vickie and she didn't want you hurting over losing one more person like you had lost your parents."
"None of that matters right now," Jeremy said quietly. "What matters is that we find Elena before Klaus kills her."
"Guys," Bonnie suddenly interjected. "I think we've found her."
Damon and Jeremy looked down at the pendant that had stopped moving across the map. Instead, the stone seemed to be vibrating over one spot on the map.
"Where is she?" Damon demanded.
"In the middle of Lake Erie."
“How is that even possible?” Jeremy’s voice was incredulous.
“I don’t know,” Bonnie responded. “There’s nothing out there but an island and that’s not where the magic is being drawn to.”
Damon cursed very creatively. “That’s not entirely true, Bonnie.”
“What do you mean?”
Damon frowned, looking down at the map. “Klaus has a home on an island out there that isn’t on the maps.”
One || Three