What's At Stake, Part 20

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Since a couple people have pointed out how hard Elijah has been on Stefan, I should probably make the following disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed herein by Original Vampires belong to the Vampires involved, and do not reflect those of the author.



As for the moonstone thing: I had that planned before "Know Thy Enemy" aired, based on Damon's flippant remark from "The Dinner Party." Just sayin.'
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Elijah knew from experience that he had perhaps a second, no more, before the pain incapacitated him. He used it to surge upward and drive the palm of his hand into the warlock’s chin, snapping his head backward and ripping it clean off of his shoulders. His second up, he dropped to his knees and elbows beside the still twitching body as his torso went super-nova.

The syringe – glamoured to look like the dagger – had pierced his heart and delivered nearly all of the vervain concentrate directly into it. That organ pumped once before it blistered and burst, shooting acid through his veins and into his extremities. With the heart ruptured and burning, the vervain oil invaded and coated his lungs, burning through those in turn and leaking air into his chest cavity so that he couldn’t even scream in agony. Nerves on fire, chest devoured by acid from the inside out, he could do nothing but cough and gag and retch, spewing blood and fluids and pieces of his internal organs onto the ground, where the whole mess flowed into the river of blood that coursed from the warlock’s body. Some small, detached part of his mind remarked snidely that he had been the one to tell them to concentrate the vervain, and had asserted that it would provide only a momentary distraction at best.

It was one fucking hell of a distraction.

He had no way of judging how long he was down, but the first thing to enter his awareness as the pain subsided and his insides started to pull themselves back together was the sound of rifle fire. He looked across the clearing toward the center, where the altar stood, and saw Klaus’s body jerk from the impact as three darts pierced his back, in rapid succession. Alaric’s aim had been true.

Taking advantage of Klaus’s distraction as he reached to pluck the projectiles from his back, Andie spoke a few words and gestured; when Klaus turned back toward the altar and Elena, he came up hard against an invisible barrier. He turned, only to fetch up on all sides, Andie’s shield apparently walling him off from everyone.

At the other end of the clearing from Elijah, Caroline roused herself from whatever the witch had done to her and charged toward Stefan, where he still fought to keep the werewolf’s jaws from closing on any part of him. Hurling herself on top of the writhing animal, she got one arm locked around his neck and fought to pull him back off of Stefan, screaming at him, “Tyler, no!!”

Greta was still standing across the altar from Klaus, seemingly unaware of his imprisonment as she chanted her incantation. She stopped suddenly and her eyes jerked open. She reached for the moonstone and took it into her hands, closing her eyes for a moment as she held it. With a shriek of frustration, she opened her eyes again and broke it in half – not the moonstone at all; just a bar of soap. She looked ready to attack Elena, bleeding and unconscious on the altar, until Bonnie grabbed her arm and turned her around.

Not Bonnie. Jonas.

Bonnie’s hands grasped Greta’s face as she stared intently at her. “Greta, what have you done?” she asked, her voice showing that odd tone and inflection that it had the last time Jonas had taken her over.

“What the hell! Get off of me!” Greta yelled, trying to push Bonnie’s arms away from her, but Bonnie held on.

“We thought he took you. We were trying to save you, baby girl. You need to stop what you’re doing. You need to stop him.”

Greta shook her head. “Who the hell are you?”

“It’s me, Greta. It’s Dad.”

“NO!!” The witch kicked out hard, pushing Bonnie away from her with a foot to her abdomen. Bonnie lurched backward, her head snapping back painfully as she landed. Greta whirled and grabbed the knife from the altar. Bonnie’s eyes went vague for a moment as she battled with Jonas’s spirit for control of her body, leaving her wide open and vulnerable to Greta who, in a rage, swung the knife down to impale her.

A blur shot over Bonnie from somewhere to the left, and Elijah heard a loud crack as Damon snapped the witch’s spine in half. He didn’t even wait for the body to fall before extending his fangs and ripping his own wrist open. He pressed it to Elena’s mouth, lifting her unconscious body into a semi-sitting position with his other arm. “Come on, Elena. Drink it! Drink!”

Andie went to her knees as Klaus continued to batter against the walls of his ersatz prison; with each punch that landed on the invisible confines, Andie flinched and sank down a little further, as though each blow pummeled her and not the walls of her spell. Unable to sustain the onslaught, she collapsed finally to the ground, freeing Klaus, who spun toward the altar, where Damon was still trying to revive Elena.

Hurting, but functional, Elijah gathered his legs under him and launched himself at Klaus, jumping over Jeremy’s body, which shimmered where it lay, once again taking on the boy’s appearance rather than Katerina’s. He struck Klaus mid-body, hurtling both of them several yards away from the altar. More or less on top when they rolled to a halt, Elijah drove his fist toward Klaus’s face. Klaus deflected the blow and grabbed Elijah’s arm, pulling him forward and off balance, using the opportunity to flip Elijah onto his back.

As he rolled, Elijah saw Alaric enter the clearing from the cover of the trees, a pistol in hand. He fired, and the warlock who held Katerina dropped to the ground. Distracted by that scene, reflexes alone – battle-honed over a thousand years – made Elijah dart his head to the side a fraction of a second before Klaus’s fist plowed into it. The force of the blow drove Klaus’s hand several inches into the soil, sending the displaced dirt up in a plume around them.

Elijah grasped the momentary advantage and flung Klaus off of him, crouching into a fighter’s stance as Klaus followed him upright a split second behind him. “Bonnie, now!!” he shouted.

Klaus snapped his attention back to the center of the circle as Bonnie pulled herself together and started the incantation to the spell that would bind Klaus’s blood to Elena’s blood inside of him, her life-force weakening him as it countered the death magic. With a snarl of rage, Klaus lurched toward her; Elijah caught him by the collar and landed a vicious punch to his kidney. Klaus kicked back, his foot connecting with and shattering Elijah’s shin.

Elijah held onto Klaus as that leg collapsed out from under him, keeping him from reaching Bonnie. Klaus let the momentum combined with his weight carry him down, so that his knee landed hard right on the broken bone. Elijah let out a yell of pain and tried to flip them so he was on top, but with Klaus crushing down on the break, he couldn’t gather himself enough to get the upward thrust he needed. Grinding his teeth together, he shot a hand up to grab Klaus around the throat.

Taking advantage of his exposed side, Klaus plowed a fist into Elijah’s ribs, shattering each and every one on that side of his body. He brought his other hand down on Elijah’s collar bone; when it snapped, Elijah’s fingers went numb, and his hand dropped away from Klaus’s throat. Klaus was on his feet in a blur, sneering down at Elijah. “This was your brilliant strategy, Elijah? Your master plan? Engaging me in a bout of fisticuffs?” He drew one foot back and aimed a vicious kick at Elijah’s uninjured side, shattering those ribs too.

Despite the pain of the blows, despite the desperation of the situation, a thought occurred to Elijah: That kick should have broken me in half and launched me into the woods. He’s getting weaker. It’s working!

Movement from behind Klaus drew his gaze. Elijah had to crane his a neck a little to see, shooting a sharp lance of pain through him from the broken collarbone. Moving silently as a ninja, Katerina had her hand raised to strike Klaus, a vervain syringe clutched in her hand.

He gave it no thought whatsoever, just gave way to pure reaction. He would be utterly horrified with himself later, when he realized just how close he had come to losing everything by thwarting his own master plan at the very moment of its culmination. And even then he wouldn’t dare examine his motivation too closely. Drawing on his last reserves of strength, he hurled himself sideways and intercepted Katerina before she could strike.

Her momentum carried her down as Elijah took her legs out from under her, and she landed on him, driving the broken ribs into his already abused lungs. The syringe went skittering away as she fell, sprawling. Her knee in his side as she tried to stand only added insult to injury. “What the hell?!” she hissed at him, bringing a smirk to Klaus’s lips as he looked down on the two of them.

“Well, well, well. Elijah and Katerina: at odds even when they are supposedly working together.” He reached down and took Katerina’s chin in his hand, helping pull her upright. Once standing, she swatted his hand away. Klaus merely stood smirking at her, daring her to attack. She stood her ground, her body limned in a quivering rage. Its impotence in the face of his power had to be maddening.

“You disappoint me, Katerina. I had hoped for a warmer welcome.”

“You shouldn’t have. Not after what you did.”

“What did I do, pet? Other than plan to sacrifice you?” He leaned toward her. "It was nothing personal, you know."

"Was murdering my entire family personal?"

"That?" He tsked at her. "You accuse me falsely. I'm afraid I can’t take the credit for that little endeavor."

Lying there, battered and broken, his body working sluggishly to try and heal this latest round of damage, Elijah closed his eyes and waited for Klaus’s words to indict him, trying vaguely to figure out when that particular tidbit of information had gone from being something he had planned to taunt Katerina with himself to a secret that he wished to keep hidden. But the words seemed to die on Klaus’s lips as an electric charge stole over the circle. Bonnie had finally tapped into the power drenching the burial ground. Suddenly released, it rushed up and into her from everywhere at once, strengthening her voice as she finished her spell, her last incantation almost exultant. A palpable snap whipped through the air as the spell finished.

As the charged feeling faded, Bonnie slid bonelessly to the ground, dropping out of sight behind the altar. Klaus shook his head, falling to his knees as what had to be an unfathomable feeling of weakness stole over him. As he dropped, Elijah saw Andie standing behind him. She had the dagger, unglamoured now that Bonnie was unconscious, grasped firmly in trembling hands. She must have retrieved it from where it had skidded when Elijah had tackled Katerina. With a look of grim determination, she brought it down through Klaus's shoulder and into his heart.

Klaus jerked as though someone had run a live wire through him. Elijah tried to sit up, failed. He locked eyes with Klaus, though, as his flesh started to grey, the veins standing out on his skin. Klaus moved his lips as he tried to speak, but no sound escaped save for guttural noises as he swallowed and breathed his last. It seemed like forever before he finally pitched forward, dead.

Elena, wobbly and pale but somehow conscious, made her way over to him, holding onto Stefan for support. She knelt down next to Elijah, wincing at the twisted mess the injuries had made of his torso. She kept reaching her hands forward as though to touch him, then pulling back, uncertain of how to do so without causing him more pain. He coughed to try and clear his throat, and tasted blood. "Just like that," he whispered to her, letting his eyes drift closed, and his body start to knit the pieces back together.

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Dealing with the aftermath had taken most of the rest of the night, and it wasn't until dawn stole over the landscape that Elijah arrived back at the Salvatore house.

Bonnie, unconscious and unresponsive despite being fed Stefan's blood, had been taken to the hospital by Alaric under some pretext of having been at a sleepover with the girls when she fell ill. Privately, Elijah suspected that medical intervention would be no more effective than the infusion of vampire blood had been, if the cause of her fugue state was what he feared.

Elena and Jeremy had accompanied her to the hospital, along with Caroline; despite her struggles with Tyler Lockwood in his werewolf form, the baby vampire had come out of the experience unmarred, as had Stefan. "I got through to him, I know I did! Maybe I’m, like, a werewolf whisperer or something!" she had enthused. It was as good an explanation as any for why the wolf would suddenly turn away from its quarry when he had it pinned, and bolt back into the woods.

Andie, looking utterly spent, had begged him to call those who held her son. He had done so, alerting them that she would come to retrieve the boy. She had left the clearing as soon as he'd hung up and given her the location.

That had left the four remaining vampires to clean up. They had gathered fallen wood and broken up trees to build a funeral pyre in the clearing, burning the bodies of the witches Klaus had brought with him. Once she'd reverted to human form, Damon had added Jules to the body count and tossed her onto the fire, too.

Klaus lay where he had fallen. Once the bodies were well on their way to burning, Elijah had closed the distance and knelt down beside him, turning him over onto his back. He had straightened his limbs as he waited for the rush of victory, or at least of satisfaction that a foe had been defeated, but none had been forthcoming. The man had, at various times, been his inspiration, his best friend, his leader, his confidante and, on rare occasions, his lover. He had also been a cruel and selfish taskmaster, unreasonable and outrageous in his demands, the murderer of the first – perhaps the only – woman Elijah had loved since he had become a vampire. Perhaps the triumph would come later, when he wasn't so beaten down. Or perhaps he would feel only sadness, for what had been, and what had never been, for what he had only thought existed. But at that moment, staring down at Klaus's lifeless body, there was nothing. Just a weary, bone-deep, aching emptiness. Reaching down, he had pressed thumb and forefinger to Klaus's eyelids, and slid them closed forever.

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Damon took one look at Elijah as he entered the living room and sank into a chair, and left the room without a word, returning a few moments later with an oversized mug full of blood. He had at least thought to heat it. Elijah accepted it and drained the mug without comment, which was probably a good indication to Damon of just how wretched he felt, and how low his reserves were.

"Where are Stefan and Katerina?" he asked, setting the empty mug aside.

"Showering and sleeping, respectively."

He sent up a silent thanks to whoever was listening that he wouldn't have to deal with either of them right then, and wished fervently for a shower himself. He had shed his shirt, fouled beyond retrieval with gore from his own body, and thrown it onto the fire. He would need to go over to the Gilbert house to collect his things and change, but he dreaded the thought of encountering Jenna right then, no doubt on her way home after being released from house arrest.

"Is he dead?" Damon asked at length. "Or just... you know."

Elijah leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. "I'm not certain. If the spell weakened him the way we hoped, he should be. But we're not going to take any chances."

"Which brings us to the next question: what exactly are we going to do with him?"

He opened his eyes and picked his head up, gazing out the window. "You seem to have an area in need of landscaping. How would you like to extend the terrace and put in a swimming pool? One that is set on a nice, deep bed of concrete?"

Damon considered for a moment, nodded. "That works."

Elijah sighed deeply and dug out his phone to start the chain of calls he would need to make in order to have a contractor lined up and ready to work within the next few hours.

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He remained at the Salvatores’ through the day and into the evening, unwilling to leave without seeing Klaus’s body, dagger intact, safely interred in several feet of concrete. He winced at the astronomical price he would have to pay to have the work done ‘on demand,’ but he would not chance the dagger somehow being removed and Klaus reanimated.

Caroline, perhaps at Damon’s behest, took pity on him and brought some clothes over from the Gilbert residence so that he could shower and change. He couldn’t remember the last time he had enjoyed a shower so much. He had a bad few moments, though, when he turned the shower off and heard tearing noises coming from the room below where they had stashed Klaus’s body. Wrapped in a towel, he bolted down the stairs and careened into the room.

Caroline and Damon were wrapping something around Klaus’s body. Caroline looked up and clapped a hand over her eyes. “Oh my God, you’re naked!”

Damon merely raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”

Elijah sighed and closed his eyes in relief, trying to fend off the encroaching feeling of foolishness. ‘I heard noises. I thought…” Well, it was perfectly obvious what he had thought. “What are you doing?” he asked, securing the towel a little more tightly.

“I brought duct tape,” Caroline non-explained, not quite looking at him.

“A little added insurance. Don’t want anything coming loose when we dump him in the hole,” Damon said, pulling another strip off of the roll and nodding his head in the general direction of the back of the house, where noise from the excavators had set up a constant din.

“With that?”

“Hel-lo,” Caroline said. “It’s duct tape. You can fix, like, anything with it. Didn’t you ever see the book, 101 Uses for Duct Tape? My dad even fixed the engine of our car with it, once.” She tilted her head. “Although it did catch on fire a couple of days later.” She shrugged. “He’s gay.”

Elijah rejected any of the possible rejoinders that offered themselves up for consideration, and changed the subject. “What’s the word from the hospital?”

“Bonnie still hasn’t woken up, at least she hadn’t when I left. They’re doing a bunch of tests. One of the doctors told her dad that they can’t find anything wrong with her, like an injury or anything, but she’s in a coma.”

It didn’t sound good. “Keep me posted,” he said, turning to go back upstairs. Only to find Katerina standing there, grinning impishly.

“Nice towel. You should take it off,” she suggested.

Caroline rolled her eyes and groaned. “Oh my God, get a room!”

“Excellent suggestion,” Katerina agreed. “I happen to have one upstairs.”

“Why are you still here?” Damon asked her, straightening up.

“Where else would I be?”

“Anywhere but here. Leave.”

“Before the big victory celebration?”

“There’s a victory celebration?” Caroline perked up.

“No, there is not a victory celebration,” Damon assured her, somewhat testily.

“Oh, don’t be such a bore, Damon. You sound like Stefan,” Katerina whined.

“Well then, you should love that, hmm?”

Elijah backed out of there and went back upstairs to the bedroom whose en suite bath he had used, leaving them to their bickering. Katerina followed him out, though; he was in the room but a moment before she gave a perfunctory knock and let herself in.

He sighed deeply. "Katerina, go away."

Katerina, of course, ignored him. "You gave me the dagger on purpose, so that I would use it on Klaus. Two birds, one dagger. What changed your mind?" she asked, without preamble.

He couldn't even explain it to himself. How was he supposed to explain it to her? "I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe I figured we should see what kind of a life you might build if given a chance."

She didn't look entirely satisfied with the answer, but she let it go. "You should feed," she said, looking him over appraisingly. "You look wrecked."

"I did feed."

"Not enough. That was quite a beating you took."

"Your point?"

"My point," she said, brushing her fingers over his ribs, across his back, as she walked around him, "is that, beating or no, you won. You should celebrate a little." She came back around in front of him, her hand resting suggestively at his waist, just above the towel. "We could make it a private celebration."

The thought occurred to him, unbidden, that perhaps he should just give in. Lose himself in her, stop thinking, surrender his mind to his body and let it rut away the pain, the loss, the emptiness. The indulgence was certainly long overdue. After the ordeal of the last twenty-four hours – hell, of the last several weeks – would it be so wrong if he allowed himself to simply fall, to find some soft place upon which to land?

But this was Katerina; there was nothing soft, or simple, about her. And if he lost himself in her, he might never come out again, not unscathed. Too many had fallen before.

"Katerina," he said, not unkindly, "Go away." Taking her shoulders, he turned her toward the door and walked her out, closing it quietly behind her.

For the first time, it was with a little regret.

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It was well after dark when the first strata of concrete was poured. Consequently, Elijah didn’t pull up to the Gilbert house until after 11:00 p.m. He had held out some small hope that everyone would be asleep so that he could grab his things and slip back out with 'them' – meaning 'Jenna' – none the wiser, but luck was clearly having none of it; the downstairs lights were all on when he pulled up in front of the house. He briefly entertained the thought of just going home and coming back later, but he wanted his laptop, and that was in the house. May as well face the music and have it over with.

He opened and closed the door quietly and zipped past the archway into the living room, heading into the den where he had set up during his brief occupation. He heard footsteps behind him, though, and turned to find Jenna leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. “Seriously? You were just going to sneak past me and not say anything?”

He sighed. “I’d given it some thought, yes.” God, he was so tired. “Are Jeremy and Elena still at the hospital?”

“Jeremy is. I talked Elena into coming home and getting some sleep. Well, I convinced Stefan to talk her into coming home and getting some sleep.”

“That’s good.”

Barefoot, she ran her toes over the fringe edging the carpet, pulling the strands straight. “There’s no change in Bonnie’s condition.”

For which she no doubt blamed him. He did. “I know. Caroline checked in a short while ago.” He gathered some of the paperwork he had scattered on the desk and dropped it into his briefcase, waiting for the castigation to begin. She just stood there, saying nothing. When he had everything tidied up and more or less packed, he turned and faced her head-on, bracing for what he was sure would come next.

She studied his face. “Wow. You look like… Would it be too on-the-nose to say ‘death warmed over?’”

"So I've been told." He snapped his briefcase shut, perhaps harder than he needed to, and pressed his fingers against his eyelids. “Let’s get on with it, Jenna. Say what you have to say. Rail at me for kidnapping you, blame me for Bonnie, yell at me for endangering Elena… whichever it is. I'm not up for getting my ‘ancient evil vampire’ game face on tonight, so let’s just have it – ”

“Thank you,” she interrupted.

He stared at her blankly. “What?”

“That’s what I was going to say. Thank you.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I was good and ready to tear you a new one. Let's see... I spent the first night at your house trying every single door and every single window, only to have Marcus peel me off of them. I spent the next day trying to get one of their phones away from them. The third day, I just up and made a running dash for the door.” She rubbed absently at her ribs. “That didn’t go well. Then I just had a full-on tantrum.” She glanced down, screwing her mouth up to the side. “I, um, hope none of that fancy glassware was worth a lot of money.

"Once I had that out of my system, though, I started to actually think about everything. About having been so clueless, and then just being helpless. I'm not sure which of those was worse, by the way. And about the fact that, even after Isobel showed up on my freaking doorstep, the only one who would tell me everything was you." She crossed her arms, shifting her weight to her other foot.

“I talked with Elena for a long time at the hospital today. She told me about the ritual. I don’t know if she told me everything, but if she didn’t, I don’t think I want to know what she left out.” She pulled away from the door frame, coming a few steps into the room. “So: as mad as I was that you locked me up for a week, and as much as it might piss me off to accept it, you were right: I couldn’t have done anything to protect her and Jeremy. You did. So thank you.”

And a hell of job I did of it, too, he thought bitterly. Elena had nearly died; Jeremy did die. Bonnie might still yet. It had been good luck, more than good planning, that had turned things around in the end. He’d seen enough conflicts to know the difference. Not trusting himself to speak, he swallowed, nodded to her, lifted his briefcase. “I should go.”

Jenna stopped him with a hand on his arm as he tried to pass. “Wait. Elijah... Before, when I was at your house… why did you kiss me?”

“Why?"

“Was it just to keep me distracted while you waited for my babysitters to arrive?”

“No," he told her, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "That wasn’t why.”

“Oh.” She looked down at her toes, blushing. “Well, in that case…” Jenna took his briefcase and set it on the floor beside the desk, and slid her hands up along his arms until they locked behind his neck, and her lips touched his, warm and gentle.

It was, he thought, a lovely, soft place to land.

What's At Stake, Part Nineteen

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The best-laid plans of mice and men...

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Elena rolled her sleeve back down as Elijah capped the third vial of blood he had drawn from her and placed all three in a small, padded wooden case. "So, you're putting my blood into the tranquilizer darts, and Alaric is going to shoot Klaus with them?"

Elijah nodded. "We don't want to give him the opportunity to ingest enough of your blood to be effective, but we need to put a certain amount of it into his system and bind it to his blood if we're to weaken him enough to make him vulnerable."

"Why didn't you say anything about this before?"

"This was on a need-to-know basis."

Elena nodded, her expression rueful. "Which means no one knows the whole picture. Except you."

Elijah acknowledged the comment with a small smile. "It's best to keep everyone focused on the task at hand, rather than have them worrying about what others are doing."

"Or, you don't trust everyone in the group, and this way no one can give the entire plan away, even if they want to."

Clever girl. "There is that."

Unable to keep still, Elena opened the silverware drawer and closed it; straightened the magnets on the refrigerator so they were all in a straight line; and rearranged the fruit in the fruit bowl, oranges at the base, apples on top, and bananas circling around the edge. "All week I've been wishing and wishing today would just get here so it could be over with, one way or another. Now that it's here, I'm suddenly dreading it."

"You're worried we won't succeed?"

"I guess, in a way. I'm not even sure what 'success' means. Stopping Klaus isn't going to feel like much of a victory if the people that I care about are killed trying to stop him."

"That's not going to happen, Elena."

"You can't promise that," she said, meeting his gaze head-on. "Remember what you did promise me. If it comes down to it – "

"I do, and it won't." He took her hand, where it was bouncing a spoon against the counter, to still it. "If it comes down to it, I'll use the dagger on him myself, if that's what it takes to protect you." He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it before giving it a quick squeeze and releasing it.

"I want to call Jenna," she said suddenly.

Elijah frowned. "You'll see her tomorrow." If all goes well.

"I'd like to talk with her now. Just in case."

"Elena, if you call her with some in-case-I-die speech you're only going to drive her mad with worry – "

"Please."

He waffled for a few moments, then decided he would more quickly get Elena out of the house and keep her cooperative if he complied with the request. Taking out his phone, he dialed Marcus. "Put her on the phone," he said, without preamble, when the other vampire picked up. When he heard Jenna's tentative "Hello?" he passed it to Elena without speaking. What in the world could he have said to Jenna at this point that would be of any help in this situation?

Elijah left the kitchen to give Elena at least the illusion of privacy, hoping that she wouldn't say anything to upset Jenna too much. Not that there wasn't reason to worry; there was just nothing that Jenna could do about it.

Jeremy pounded down the stairs, showing off a couple of the moves Elijah had taught him as he hit the bottom. Elijah glanced at his hand to make sure he was wearing his ring. God knew he would need it. "Are you ready for this?" he asked the boy, though privately he knew the question was rhetorical only.

"Yeah. Totally. Although... will I just look like Katherine to everyone else, or am I gonna look down and... you know, look like a chick?"

Elijah put a finger to his lips, glancing toward the kitchen where Elena was still on the phone with Jenna. "The latter, I would imagine. Try not to get too distracted," he said drily.

Jeremy grimaced. "Naw, that would be too weird. I mean, Katherine looks just like my sister, and I don't look at my sister's..." His expression grew thoughtful. "This is not a conversation normal people have."

"Well hopefully, after today, you will all have the opportunity to return to 'normal.'"

"Yeah. Normal. Except with witches and vampires and werewolves."

Elijah's lips twitched. "Oh my."

Elena joined them in the living room, passing the phone back to Elijah. "I trust you didn't alarm her overmuch?" he asked, sliding it back into his pocket.

"I think she's a little numb to alarm right now."

No doubt. He was not at all looking forward to the inevitable conversation with her, post-ritual. He gathered the box and a few other items he would need. "Come. We should head to the Salvatores'. Everyone will be gathered shortly."

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Everyone had arrived by the appointed time, in varying stages of nervousness. Thanks to a text message he had sent on the way over, Damon and Alaric were waiting outside when he arrived. After sending the Gilberts in ahead of him, he passed the box to Alaric. "There are three vials," he told him. "My first inclination was to tell you to put it all in one tranquilizer dart. However, it would perhaps be wiser to split it between two or three, in case you miss a shot."

"Your faith in me is overwhelming," Alaric snarked at him.

"Let us hope that your aim with a rifle is as good as that with a dagger," he told him pointedly.

Alaric gave him a smart-ass look and walked around to the passenger side of Damon's car. The two would leave early, in advance of the others, to get Alaric set up in a sniper's perch before the arrival of Klaus's cadre. Elijah turned his attention to Damon. "Are you ready?"

Damon scoffed. "I was born ready. I got this."

"Jules will already be there, in her cage. Try and show a little restraint."

"Yeah yeah, don't kill the werewolf until after the big hoorah. Got it." Damon took his keys out of his jacket pocket, tossed them up in the air and caught them a couple of times, scuffed at the gravel with his foot. "Thanks," he said at last.

"For?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "You know. Look, we don't need to make a big chick-flick moment out of it or anything." Damon got into the car and rolled the window down. "Later."

Elijah waited until Damon had started the car and put it in gear. "Damon? You're welcome."

Moving inside, he took a few minutes reviewing the plan, at least the publicly known version of it, then sent most of the group outside to load up the vehicles. Once they all got moving, Elijah went out to the terrace to wait for Andie to perform the glamour spell.

Katerina was the first to follow him out, leading to an awkward silence, given what had happened the last time they were out there alone. He waited for the inevitable taunting to start, but Katerina was unusually quiet and subdued. "What will you do?" she asked at last.

"Pardon?"

"After. When he's dead. What will you do?"

Elijah shrugged. "Much the same as I was doing before I came here, I suppose. Return home, look after various business interests..." He studied her more closely. "What will you do with your future, now that you won't need to run anymore?" he asked her. As though he intended her to have a future.

She took a moment before answering. "I don't know. I always figured I would run until I couldn't anymore. Then I'd die." Katerina pulled herself up to sit on the stone wall. "I never really imagined just... having a life. I'm not sure I even know what that means."

"Probably that you should get a job," he said drily.

She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows at him. "Let's keep the discussion within the realm of possibility, shall we?"

Elijah smirked. "Very well."

"Do you ever wonder where the differences came from?" she asked suddenly.

"Differences?"

"Irina. Me. Elena. The spell was supposed to make us copies, but we're not. Obviously. Don't you wonder how Elena and I came out differently, from her and from each other?"

He shifted, not altogether comfortable with this conversation. He had, of course, wondered that many times. It had been such a deep shock to see her when Klaus had brought her home, a perfect twin to Irina. As he'd watched her, seen what she was like, shock had turned to disappointment, disappointment to disillusionment, and so forth until the whole thing had become a deeply personal affront to him, painful and bitter, with a veneer of regret over it all that things couldn't be different. When he had looked at her he had ceased to even see her, really; he had seen only his own pain.

Oh yes, he had certainly wondered. Had he known then what he knew now, about her bastard, about her exile from her childhood home, would that knowledge have changed anything between them?

He cleared his throat. "I presume the causes are environmental. An interesting footnote in the argument of nature versus nurture. Something that shifted, something that got broken along the way." He studied her, sitting there, so unaccustomedly introspective. "Who broke you, Katerina?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he saw some of that banked fire come roaring back to life in them. She hopped down off the wall and approached him, arms crossed in front of her, stopping only when she was directly in front of him, toe to toe. "If I'm so broken, why is it that I'm the one who's still standing?"

The appearance – finally! – of Andie and Jeremy put an end to the conversation. Andie made quick work of the glamour spell. When she was finished, he had to admit, inwardly, to being impressed. Had he not known, he... well, wouldn't have known. He hoped that the glamour he had asked Bonnie to do had been just as impressive. "Remember," Andie warned, "don't say any more than you have to on the way over. Though your voices will be disguised, as well as your looks, your words could give you away."

With that, Elijah sent Jeremy and Katerina out front, toward the vehicles. "One moment," he told Andie, stopping her from following with a hand on her arm. "I assume that Klaus has been fully informed on tonight's plan," he said, once the others had disappeared around the house.

He saw her swallow once, though she didn't let any reaction reach her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Elijah put his hands on her shoulders, a friendly gesture on the face of it, but with an implied threat underneath. "Andie, Andie, Andie. I'm not upset with you. I counted on you sharing our little bait-and-switch with Klaus. However, before the rest of the evening proceeds, there is a little tidbit of information I should share with you." He leaned in, close to her ear. "I have your son."

Andie jerked away from him, shocked and suspicious. She shook her head. "You're lying. There's no way."

"Granted, I had to call in quite a few markers to pull it off. But I assure you: the boy is under my jurisdiction now." She crossed her arms, clearly in doubt. Elijah sighed, pulling out his phone and dialing. "Sean. Let the boy talk to his mother, please." When he heard the little voice say hello, he passed it to Andie.

She snatched it out of his hands. "Baby, is that you?"

"Hi, Mommy. I'm eating waffles!"

Andie pressed a hand to her mouth, tears filling her eyes. "You are, huh?"

"Uh-huh. We're at the ocean. I made a sand castle today. Are you coming home soon? You should come here. I can show you how to make one too."

"I will, baby. I'll come real soon, okay?"

"Okay. I'm gonna go eat my waffle now."

"All right. Mommy loves you, more than anything in the whole wide world."

"Love you too. Bye Mommy."

Andie ended the call and held the phone out to Elijah, stricken. Two tears escaped as she looked up at him, trembling. Elijah pocketed the phone. "I suggest you consider your actions tonight very carefully. Because they will determine what happens to him from here on out."

She wiped the tears off of her face. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just what we planned. Help Bonnie with the spell work. Counter any spell Klaus's witches try to perform. And tell me whatever you know about Klaus's plans."

"I don't know anything, other than that he'll be there and he'll have his own witches with him. He didn't tell me any details. I don't think he trusted me that far."

"No, I don't suppose he would. But just so we're clear: If I don't check in with your son's sitters tomorrow, they've been ordered to kill him. If you step out of line at any time, I will send them a signal and they will kill him on the spot. Please don't think I'll hesitate to do it. Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He gestured her forward. "Then we're ready."

                                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The burial grounds were no more inviting now, just before nightfall, than they had been during the middle of the day. What little conversation had been taking place was quickly silenced as they marched down the path toward the clearing, Elijah carrying Caroline, who was playing possum as though unconscious, the supposed vampire sacrifice. Elijah had that same sense of being watched and whispered over as he had the first time, and every now and then he'd catch something out of his peripheral vision, something that wasn't there when he turned and looked in full. Judging by the silence and the general nervousness of the rest of the group, he surmised that he was not the only one.

They had all donned long, hooded robes, the better to conceal their identities, at least from a quick glance. Elijah knew that, thanks to Andie, Klaus would know who all of the players were, and that they truly had no intention of breaking the curse. But he also knew that Klaus would not be able to resist the gathering of all the necessary components, even though he expected to walk into an ambush. He would think himself well-prepared for it, having been briefed by Andie on what to expect. Which is why Elijah hadn't shared the important details with her.

When they reached the clearing, Elijah bound Caroline to a tree with a pre-weakened chain; when the situation warranted, she would "wake up" and break free of it. Elena, as though compelled to do so, walked to the altar and lay upon it. From the confines of his cloak, Elijah pulled out the dagger and handed it to Jeremy, in his Katerina guise. To Katerina, he handed a large syringe of the concentrated vervain oil. Jules, still knocked out from the wolfsbane infusion, lay in her cage, unconscious; every now and then, her body would twitch violently, starting the transformation without waiting for her mind to realize it.

With everyone in position, he waited until the sun had disappeared below the horizon, then took his place beside the altar. A piercing cry split the air as Jules jerked upright in the cage, her spine rippling as her body started the more active phase of the transformation. During that momentary distraction, Klaus stepped into the clearing.

Elijah nodded to him. And we're underway at last. "I wondered if you would make it."

"Oh, I wouldn't have missed it for the world." He glanced around the circle at the figures standing, shrouded in cloaks. "Did you bring refreshments?"

"Perhaps later." A sickening crunch came from the cage, followed by another scream as one of Jules's legs broke and reassembled itself. "I think the time has arrived. I hope you enjoy the show."

With a mock bow, Elijah walked to the altar, standing to one side of it as Bonnie took her place across from him, on the other. He removed the moonstone from an inner pocket of his coat and placed it next to Elena on the altar, then withdrew a large knife. As Bonnie began to chant, Elijah raised the knife up and prepared to plunge it into Elena's chest.

"You know," Klaus called, before he could bring the knife down, "I've never really been much of a spectator. I prefer to take a more... participatory role."

A wall of force hit Elijah and sent him crashing into the tree line. Four figures, Klaus's witches he presumed, rushed into the circle. The sounds of struggle in the woods told him that Damon was handling another couple. He jumped up to rush back toward the altar, but bounced off of an invisible barrier. Glancing around wildly, he saw one of the four witches who had made it into the circle chanting, arms raised. Across the way, Damon bounced up against the barrier from the other side. Alaric, perched in a tree outside the circle, had no shot at Klaus now.

Inside the circle, Klaus moved in a blur to stand directly in front of 'Katerina.' "Good evening, my dear," he purred, and cupped 'her' face in his hands. "How lovely to see you again." A split second later, he snapped Jeremy's neck.

"NO!" Bonnie shouted, leaving off her show of chanting. She made a rush toward Klaus, only to be grabbed and forced down by another witch. Elena sat up on the altar and would have hopped down had Klaus not noticed and sped over there, slamming her back down on her back with a hand to her chest. Elijah cursed inwardly. The damn fool boy must have clued the girls in on the switch, probably not wanting them to panic if something had happened to Katerina while she was in the guise of Jeremy. Now they faced just the situation Elijah had hoped to avoid.

In the center of the circle, Klaus picked up the knife Elijah had dropped and raised it over Elena. Another of his witches stepped up to the other side and began chanting in earnest. Elijah recognized her from photographs: Greta Martin. Contrary to what Jonas had believed, she looked to be a willing accomplice to Klaus's plans.

Caroline, picking her moment, chose the wrong target by rushing Klaus instead of taking out his witch. Klaus swatted her away as though she were a fly. "Secure that vampire," he called to one of his warlocks, who held her pinned to the ground by some sort of magic. Turning back to the altar, Klaus raised his arms, then brought the knife down and plunged it into Elena.

Elijah hurled himself uselessly against the barrier, the scene before him taking on an almost surreal quality as his mind drifted back and forth from what was in front of him to an oh-so-similar scene a thousand years ago, when he had tried again and again, without success, to save Irina. He could see Damon, across the clearing, doing the same thing in a frenzy to get to Elena. Klaus bent and drank from the wound, blood smearing his lips and chin when he stood back upright. Greta took the moonstone from the altar, smeared it in Elena's blood, and started her spell.

Pressed as he was against the barrier, its sudden disappearance sent Elijah sprawling forward. He was back on his feet in an instant, searching the circle for Andie, who had just downed the witch who had put the barrier in place. He caught her eye and tilted his head toward Bonnie, indicating that she should go and help her so that they could wrest control from Greta of the spell that would bind Elena's blood to Klaus's.

Stefan charged toward the altar in an attempt to get to Elena, but a whir of grey whipped in from the tree line and bowled him over before he could get there. Elijah glanced at the cage, but Jules, in wolf form, was still trapped inside. Stefan struggled to keep the wolf's jaws from closing over his throat.

Elijah searched for Katerina in her Jeremy guise, and found her writhing in a piece of the chain that had held Caroline to the tree. The chain, controlled by a warlock, had snaked itself around her like a boa constrictor; struggle as she might, she couldn't get the necessary momentum to snap it.

As Elena lay dying, as Katerina and Caroline battled the two warlocks, as Stefan struggled against an uncaged werewolf, as Bonnie and Andie fought Greta for control of the spell, Elijah made a dash for Jeremy's body, which still looked like Katerina, even in his death. He knelt and started rummaging through the pockets of his cloak, looking for a way – any way – to salvage the situation. Hearing someone behind him, he whirled to see one of the warlocks standing over him. "Looking for this?" he asked, and plunged the dagger into Elijah's heart.

What's At Stake, Part Eighteen

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Christ. Get a freaking room already, and stop messing with my storytelling!



Three more sections to go, I figure. Unfortunately, they won't be out before the new episode airs tomorrow night. I'll be out of town for dog shows the next three days, and not sure how much time or Internet access I'll have. I may get something posted from there, I may not.    :-/
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Elijah capped the marker and turned to face the room, looking at each of them in turn. “Is everyone clear on his or her assignment?”

“Before the ritual, I switch Tyler for Jules, because she will have him caged for the ceremony,” Caroline piped up at once. “And then I play sacrificial vampire.”

“How’s Tyler doing?” Elena asked. “I haven’t talked to him since the lake house.”

“He just came home the other night. Jules brought him back, after Elijah called her,” Caroline explained. “He was really upset when I told him about the ritual and that Jules was planning on handing him over to be sacrificed for it.”

“So you talked to him?”

“Yeah.” Caroline shrugged. “It was kinda weird, you know? But, like, everything has been so intense, and there’s been no time to breathe or anything, and I know he was upset about Mason, but I don’t think he’s a bad guy, he was just all like ‘Grr!’ because he didn’t know who to trust, and I was all ‘Aargh!’ because hello! Friends don’t let friends get shot in the head! I mean, who does that? But then he was all sorry and – ”

Damon reached over and smacked her on the back of the head. Caroline gave him a ‘what?’ look, which Damon answered by miming zipping his lips.

Elijah cleared his throat. “Moving on?”

“I lie on the altar and bleed,” Elena said ruefully.

“After which I heal her,” Stefan put in, taking Elena’s hand and looking at her with that cloyingly sweet expression that made Elijah want to slap it right off of his face, because God.

“While Bonnie and I fake a curse-breaking.” Bonnie looked dubious at this assertion put forward by Andie.

“And I do stabby time on Klaus with the dagger,” Jeremy finished, which made Bonnie turn the look on him.

“I still don’t – ”

Elijah cut Elena off with a look. “Non-negotiable, Elena. Jeremy and I have another week to practice.” He pointed toward the diagram of the burial ground, indicating three points he had marked around the circle. “While you all play your parts, Damon, Alaric and I will keep whatever mayhem Klaus brings with him under control.”

It was, of course, more involved than that, but Elijah wasn’t going to spell it out in vivid detail in front of the group, and especially not in front of Andie. He had laid out the whole plan – well, most of the plan – for Damon earlier, so that the younger vampire could carry out some of the behind-the-scenes tasks that needed to be accomplished prior to the full moon. The last detail, he would see to himself.

“Then if there are no more questions, I believe we are adjourned.”

Caroline made a beeline for the pan of brownies, followed closely by Bonnie, Andie and Jeremy. Stefan and Elena slipped out of the room. Damon stood in a corner, talking in a low voice with Alaric. Katerina stalked over to Elijah, looking murderous.

“I told you I want in,” she hissed, without preamble.

“Yes, so you said.”

“Then what do I need to do to prove it to you?!”

“You haven’t a very good track record for being trustworthy, Katerina.”

She whirled away from him, crossing her arms as she huffed out a breath. He could see her practically vibrating with rage, a rage that she was, so far, suppressing, probably for fear that if she gave in to it, she’d lose whatever slim chance she had of convincing him. He let her stew for a few more moments. “I did have one idea…”

Katerina turned back to face him, suspicious and hopeful at the same time. Elijah cocked his head to indicate the doorway, then leaned down toward her. “Come out to the terrace,” he told her in a low voice, barely audible. “Bring Andie and Jeremy with you, but don’t be obvious about it.” Without waiting for a response, Elijah made his way outside.

It took a few minutes for Katerina to cull the boy and the witch away from the others and herd them outside, but eventually all three joined him. “Katerina here has requested that she play a part in next week’s festivities,” he told the other two, sounding dubious.

“Vampire sacrifice?” Jeremy volunteered.

“I had something a little different in mind.” Elijah turned to Andie. “Glamours are more or less your specialty, yes?”

“Mm-hm.”

He looked back and forth between Katerina and Jeremy. “Can you switch them?”

“Huh?” “What?” Jeremy and Katerina said together.

Andie considered for a moment. “Visually, sure. A tactile illusion would be tougher, but I can do it. As far as weight and mass go, forget it.”

“A visual change should be sufficient,” Elijah assured her. “The idea is to not have enough physical contact for someone to tell the difference.”

“Um, why, exactly?” Jeremy asked.

Elijah spoke to Katerina. “Klaus will come after you. He will expect you to be frightened of him; moreover, he will not expect you to assault him. And he will most definitely not expect you to stab him with the dagger. By switching your appearances, it will afford Jeremy the opportunity to get close, and will give him the needed element of surprise.”

‘Elijah, I’m the next oldest vampire in the group. You want me to just stand around and pretend to be Jeremy?”

“You asked for something to do, Katerina. If you think you can’t handle it…”

“I’d prefer something a little more proactive.”

“Did you want to wield the dagger?" She rolled her eyes at him. "I thought not.”

“What about a double whammy?” Jeremy asked suddenly. “She hits him with a vervain dart to distract him, and I dagger him?”

Elijah considered. “That’s not a bad idea, actually. We’ll do the spell prior to going in?” He looked to Andie for confirmation.

“Yeah. We’ll do it here before we head over.”

“Then I believe we’re in agreement. Happy?” he asked Katerina, as Andie and Jeremy filed back inside.

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Better than sitting on the sidelines, I suppose.”

Elijah made as though to follow the other two into the house, then snapped an arm around her neck as he passed behind her. "And Katerina?” he whispered, his lips brushing along her ear, making her gasp. “If you’re considering betraying me, I suggest you reconsider. Carefully.”

A shiver ran down through her, and she reached back, caressing his thigh as she wriggled against him. “You’re so hot, Elijah. I love when you’re aggressive,” she purred. “Shall we seal the bargain? We could make it something more than a handshake…”

He started debating which ‘gratuitous act of violence’ to perpetrate on her this time, but something about the utter predicability of it, as pointed out by Katerina herself earlier, made him balk at the idea. That, and her admission that it pleased her to goad him into hurting her. Since he was loathe to please her, he decided to try a different tack.

Sliding his free hand down her back, he extended his fangs and grazed the back of her neck with them, leaving momentary, shallow furrows in her flesh. “Such as?” He nibbled down the side of her neck, pulling her shirt aside to continue along her shoulder. With each nip he pierced her skin, and licked each little drop of blood that he brought to the surface. He eased the iron grip he had around her to stroke down her sides, then back up the front of her, eliciting a sharp gasp when his hands skimmed over her breasts.

Katerina had stiffened when he had first grabbed and threatened her, then frozen when he'd used his teeth on her. She came to life now. Lightning fast, she eeled around so she was facing him and caught his lips with hers as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The force of her eagerness rocked him back against the stone wall that wrapped the terrace. Her tongue darted into his mouth, and he tasted more of her blood as she sliced it against his fangs. The taste of it only seemed to incite her further.

She moaned and pressed against him as she locked her lips on his. Seemingly of its own volition, his hand tangled in her hair and pulled her head back painfully, giving him access to her throat, which he nipped and sucked and kissed, almost in a frenzy before coming up to feverishly claim her mouth again.

Bunching his muscles, he pushed away from the wall until she fetched up against a wrought-iron table. The momentum bent her back and pitched him forward, so that her back hit the table. Never releasing her mouth, he rode her down, groaning deep in his throat as she locked her legs around his waist and ground against him. He vaguely registered the sound of small items tinking against the iron and raining down on the paver stones, then her nails were raking his bare chest, and his body was reminding him painfully that it hadn't done this for decades, and the warning klaxon in his head, alerting him that he had long since lost all control of the situation, was far distant and fading fast...

He would realize later, when he could think again, that he would have taken her right there and then, and damn the consequences, if the french doors onto the terrace hadn't opened at that moment, and Elena hadn't walked out.

"Oh!" She jumped, startled at finding anyone out there, then blushed furiously when the scene before her registered. "Uh... um... I'll... I'm going... To stop talking now." Elena spun around and went back into the house, closing the door firmly behind her.

Elijah peeled up off of Katerina and all but flung himself away from her. Turning and leaning his hands on the stone wall, he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, willing the blood back up into his brain. A breeze against his skin made him look down, and he realized that his shirt was gaping open, the buttons torn off of it – them falling was likely the noise he had heard. Cursing himself viciously for being a fool and getting caught in his own snare, he squared his shoulders and turned around, bracing himself for the inevitable smug look of triumph on Katerina's face.

She had sat up, legs dangling over the edge of the table, panting slightly. She didn't look triumphant. She looked stunned. Well, mission partially accomplished, anyway, he thought, only slightly mollified. With no witty rejoinder leaping to mind, he retired the field and strode inside, leaving her to the night air and her thoughts, whatever those might be.

Making a beeline for the jacket he had tossed across the back of a chair, he caught Damon's WTF look out of the corner of his eye. He ignored him, grabbing the car keys out of his jacket pocket after he had buttoned it as far as it would go. Spotting Jeremy, he held the keys up and motioned him over. "Tell your sister it's time to go home."

"Uh, okay..."

He didn't wait for compliance, just went out the front door and got into his car, turning it on to warm the engine while he waited for the Gilberts to come out. When they did, he thanked whatever gods would listen when Jeremy called shotgun. The boy filled the ride back to the house with talk of martial arts, fighting styles, and so forth.

Elena, in the back seat, remained silent.

                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

School, sparring practice, and last minute preparations kept everyone busy enough over the next week that there was little time for conversation, especially of the awkward variety. Elena had gone straight to her room when they had arrived home; the next morning, they had studiously avoided any mention of the scene. That unspoken agreement had remained the status quo.

The days fell into a strange rhythm and routine. Elijah spent the time while Elena and Jeremy were in school going over preparations with Damon or Andie, touching base with out-of-town contacts about various matters, and keeping an eye around town for any more Klaus sightings. Though he occasionally saw him go in or out of one business establishment or another, neither approached the other in conversation again. It was irrelevant, at any rate. They would say – and do – everything they needed to one another when the full moon rose.

Afternoons, when school let out, Elijah spent a few hours working with Jeremy on basic hand-to-hand and knife skills. Privately, he very much doubted that Jeremy would be able to hit his target, even with the subterfuge of the glamour. It didn't matter; the boy's ring would protect him from harm. It had never been Elijah's intent that Jeremy would be the one to kill Klaus anyway.

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Two days prior to the full moon, Elijah went to visit Andie. He met her outside the news station, leaning against her car in the staff parking lot. She looked surprised to see him, but if it was beyond the normal surprise of a friend dropping by unannounced, she didn't show it.

"Elijah! What are you doing here?"

"I'm just making the rounds, checking to see that everyone has things in place. How is Bonnie coming along?"

Andie fished her keys out of her purse and unlocked the driver's door so she could toss her briefcase inside. "She's doing well. She has basic spell work covered, and some not-so-basic. She'll hold."

"What about her ability to channel?"

She shrugged. "It's really not my area, so beyond general advice, like clearing her mind, centering, etc., there wasn't a whole lot I could do."

"Will I be able to access Jonas if need be?"

"I don't know, honestly."

"Then I'd better prepare some contingency plans." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his camera. "I took some photos at the burial ground when Damon and I visited. There are a couple that are... odd. If you have a few moments, perhaps we could take a look at them on your computer inside?"

"Sure." She locked her car back up and led him inside the building, past the bustling newsroom and through a large, cubicled room to a small, windowless office. "Do you have the USB cable for the camera?"

He produced it out of his pocket. She plugged it into the computer and took a few moments to download the right software. Images of the grounds started to pop up, thumbnail size, on her screen as the download progressed. When he saw the right one pop up, he pointed to it. "Can you bring that one up full screen?"

She did so. And gasped when the image filled the screen. The shot was one that he had taken when they were on the path, headed toward the clearing. A few yards in the distance, looking out of the trees, was a clearly outlined apparition. Three other photos in the series, two more from the path in and one in the clearing itself, showed similar images. "That is... really creepy," she decided, at last.

"It felt creepy. And please consider the source when I say that." Elijah shifted a coffee cup over so he could perch on the edge of the desk. "How do you think this will affect the spell work?"

Andie lifted her hands, let them fall into her lap. "I just don't know. There's power there, obviously, and... echoes, but whether there is any consciousness to them... there's no telling until we're there. If anything, it may affect Bonnie's ability to focus, if there is a consciousness there that wants an outlet."

"That's what I thought, too. I'll talk with her, warn her about what to expect."

"Sorry for the non-answer," she shrugged.

"Your thoughts are running the same direction as mine, at any rate." He unhooked the camera and cord, and stood. "Thank you. For everything, not just for this. You've been a great help to me in getting everyone working together." He took her hand and raised it to his lips. "I won't forget your contributions after this is over."

It was a minute flicker, just a tiny flinch behind the eyes, but he saw it. He pretended he hadn't, busying himself with digging up his keys, and let himself out, leaving her at her desk, looking troubled.

                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most critical preparation, he left for last, just the day before the ritual. He found the house easily enough, and was happy that her car was parked in the driveway so that he wouldn't have to wait. Wouldn't consider it some more. Wouldn't risk changing his mind and seeing everything unravel.

Bonnie answered the door with trepidation, seeing who it was who rang. He suspected she wouldn't invite him in. That was okay. He didn't need her to.

"For tomorrow's ritual, Bonnie: there is one more preparation that I need you to make.

What's At Stake, Part Seventeen

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Well, fuck.  I don't know.  I think the Exposition Fairy must have left this under my pillow.  Not where I had intended to go with the next section.  And I am SO not going to have this story finished before the new episode airs on Thursday.
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When Elijah arrived at the Salvatore House to fetch Damon for their trip to the burial ground, Katerina was waiting for him at the end of the walkway. And isn't this just the day for unwanted encounters. He briefly entertained the thought of driving right back down the driveway and texting Damon to meet him elsewhere, but that tactic would likely only postpone the inevitable. He parked and stepped out of the car, closing the door and leaning against it. "Katerina."

She walked toward him, ticking points off on her fingers as she approached. "Okay: You say something acerbic, I come on to you, you push me away in disgust, I come on to you harder, you 'insert-gratuitous-act-of-violence here' and call me a slut, and I go away in pain, yet still somehow pleased that I managed to goad you into reacting." She stopped in front of him, arms crossed. "There. Can we consider the preliminaries dispensed with?"

The corner of his mouth twitched. "I must admit that I would prefer to actually perform the gratuitous act of violence, but as I'm pressed for time, I suppose we can move on."

"Good. I want to talk about Klaus."

"Funny you should mention him. I saw him this morning. At the coffee shop." He smiled evilly. "He can't wait to see you."

She pulled her arms in a little tighter. "I want in, Elijah."

"In?"

"Don't be obtuse. On the plan to kill Klaus. I want in."

"I'm sure you do. The problem, Katerina, is that I can't trust you."

"You aren't exactly on my list of Top 10 favorite people either. Still, I'd like to call for a cease-fire. Let's worry about Klaus first. We can sort the rest out amongst ourselves later."

Elijah stood there, looking at her doubtfully, letting her squirm while he pretended to consider her offer. Truth be told, he had figured that, if he just ignored her, she would come to him and beg to be included. Letting her think it was her idea would make her more likely to actually do what she was told, more or less. "Perhaps..." he said tentatively, then shook his head. "No. I can't chance it."

"Elijah. If you are ever going to believe me about anything, believe that I want Klaus dead, just as much as you do." She rolled her eyes when he didn't answer. "Do you need me to beg?"

He eyed her curiously. "Would you?"

Katerina ground her teeth together. "If I have to."

Damon's exit from the house prevented him from testing that assertion. He shrugged. "I'll consider it."

Damon came down the walkway, juggling a stack of journals as he shrugged into a leather jacket. Katerina looked from Damon to Elijah. “I could come with you,” she offered.

“No,” both Elijah and Damon said in unison.

“Be smart. I could be of some help.”

Damon paused in front of her. “You want to help?”

“Yes! What have I been telling you for the last three weeks?!”

“In that case… The vacuum and duster are in the hall closet. Spruce the place up a little before everyone comes over.” Damon patted the top of her head. “Go be a good little helper, now.”

Katerina swatted his hand and whirled around, storming back into the house. Damon watched her go. “I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I don’t think the house is going to be cleaned when we get back.”

Elijah smirked as he climbed back into the car. “You have seen her room, yes?”

“I try not to.” Damon got in on the passenger side and set the journals on the back seat. Turning back around, he eyeballed the visible portion of the land to which Elijah had laid waste. “Do you have any idea what a landscaper is going to run me?” he complained.

“You can deduct it from what you owe me for the car." Elijah turned around and headed down the driveway, pausing to look at Damon when he reached end. Damon pointed to the left. "Out of curiosity," he said, pulling onto the road, "why did you allow her to stay?”

“Friends close, enemies closer…”

“No other reason?"

"Such as?"

"I had gathered that you once had feelings for her. You're not still carrying that torch?"

“For Katherine? No. Fool me once...” Damon gestured toward the right. "Turn down here."

Elijah did as instructed. "You heard her back there. What are your thoughts?"

"Of letting her in on the fight?" Damon seemed on the verge of some smart-ass reply or other, but stopped to consider, perhaps surprised to be asked for his opinion.

"Mm. Do you believe her?"

"I believe that she wants Klaus dead." He adjusted his seat belt, which had ridden up on the leather. "But do I trust her to stay on plan? Not so much."

"Nor I." Curious to test Damon's personnel analysis skills, Elijah pressed on. "What of the others? Break it down for me."

Damon slanted a glance over at him. "Is this a pop quiz?"

"Perhaps."

He shrugged. "Stefan's all in. Obviously. White knight, shining armor, the whole nine. Bonnie too; although, I'm not sure about this crazy-ass, channeling, ghost whisperer crap. Alaric's solid. Jeremy is a goddamn pain in the ass, but he's got the magical-ring-of-me-not-being-able-to-kill-him, so maybe once Klaus snaps his neck he'll at least trip over him or something. Vampire Barbie's probably good for talking one of Klaus's ears off. Those are the ones I'm sure of." He motioned. "Take a left up here at the crossroad, then you've got about five miles to go."

"You don't include Isobel on that list?" Elijah asked, making the turn.

"Heh. No."

"Just as well I sent her off to Europe, then."

"Good riddance. Speaking of Elena's biologicals, let's hope Uncle Daddy doesn't show up and throw a wrench into the works."

Elijah smiled. "I don't believe that will be an issue."

"Uh, you've met John, right?"

"Saw him again earlier today, in fact. I don't think we need to worry."

Damon narrowed his eyes and gave Elijah a little sideways grin. "What'd you do to him?"

"Let's just say that, biologically speaking, Elena will remain an only child."

"Nice." Damon stretched his legs out, shifting position again. "So I guess that just leaves our little witchy wild card. Who has already, by her own admission, betrayed Klaus. Soooo, why is it that we don't think she's going to betray us too?"

"Oh, she already has," Elijah told him nonchalantly.

"What?"

"Klaus wasn't at all surprised to see me. Which means that she either resurrected me at his behest from the get-go, or she did that on her own, but reported it to Klaus after the fact. I'm inclined to believe it was the latter."

Damon was starting to get that wild look around the eyes. "And you're... okay with this?"

"I counted on it," he assured him.

Damon clapped his hands together. "Alrighty, then. Now we just need someone to kill her. Ooh, I'll do it!" he added, raising his hand.

"No, you won't."

"Why not, exactly?"

Elijah slanted a look over at him. "There's nothing wrong with your mind, Damon. Think it through."

"Look, obviously she's still working for Klaus, which means we need to get rid of her before we go over the details of the big plan and she relays them... after which you'll change them again," Damon nodded, catching on. Then he brightened. "And then we get to kill her!"

"The situation is a little more complicated than that."

"Hmm..." Damon rubbed his chin, pretending to consider. "Nope! Not seeing the complication. She betrays us, we kill her. Nice and simple." Damon gestured toward the right. "Pull off over here. There's an old access road that all but disappears once you reach the tree line. We're pretty much on foot from here."

Elijah pulled all the way off the road and parked, reaching into the back seat for a sketch pad and the camera he had stowed back there. Damon rounded up the journals and set off toward the trees. Elijah checked the batteries for the camera, then caught up to him. "Andie didn't have much of a choice," he said, continuing the conversation.

"Witches can't be compelled, remember? Can't make 'em do something they don't want to."

"Of course you can," he chided. "You just have to know where to apply the pressure."

"She was here. Klaus wasn't. She chose her side."

"Klaus has her son."

Damon stopped in his tracks. "Wait, what?"

"There's nothing wrong with your hearing, either. Andie has a son. Klaus has him squirreled away. He won't hesitate to kill the boy if she steps out of line." Elijah took advantage of the temporary halt and snapped some photos of the pathway into the grounds for reference. "You can't fault the woman for protecting her child."

"Oh, I think I can," Damon assured him. "You, though... I can see why you would hesitate, since that's sort of your thing."

"My 'thing?'"

Damon rolled his eyes and made his little come-on-we're-all-in-on-this smirk. "You know, the caretaking, maternal thing that gets you all hot and bothered? I mean, I'm not judging or anything. Whatever does it for you, man."

No, there was nothing wrong with his mind. Nothing at all. "And upon what are you basing this conclusion?"

"Please. It's so obvious. There's little orphaned Irina, taking care of her brother and sister; then there's the child-inheriting Aunt Jenna, who – whom – you've been flirting with; and now there's Andie, who wants to gift-wrap you and hand you to Klaus, but apparently it's cool because she's a MILF..." He smirked. "Well, actually, I guess she'd be a MIDF. You know, Mother I DID – "

"Damon."

"Hey, it's cool. I'm just saying, you've got a thing for moms." He lost the smirk as another thought occurred to him. “You don’t actually like the kids, do you?”

Elijah considered. “I enjoy them sometimes. I take it you don't?”

“They're... okay, I guess. I mean, I couldn’t eat a whole one by myself or anything." He made a silly-me expression. "Wait, what am I saying? Of course I could.”

Elijah just shook his head. The brush was growing thicker, crowding the path as they approached the woods. Damon hadn't been joking about it narrowing to almost nothing. He paused to snap some more photos while Damon pushed on ahead. The crunching of their footsteps sounded preternaturally loud to Elijah's ears; the woods were eerily still and silent. There was no rustling under the leaves blanketing the ground to indicate the presence of small animals. No birds called out to warn of their passage, or took startled flight from the limbs overhead. It was as though the trees themselves watched them, waiting.

Damon paused, waiting for Elijah to pull even with him again. “Did you ever have any?" he asked suddenly. "Kids? You know, before?”

Elijah slid the camera back into his pocket. "Speaking of the parent-child relationship, we should discuss Caroline."

"What about her?" Damon asked, letting the unanswered question lie.

"You appear to have been shirking your responsibilities as her sire."

Damon held his hands out. "No. Uh-uh. That was Katherine's mess."

"Oh? I was given to understand that it was your blood that turned her."

"Well, yeah, I suppose, if you want to get technical about it. There was a car accident. She was bleeding internally, and they did surgery, but the doctors told her mother that it was iffy. So, yours truly here – at Bonnie's request, I might add – slipped into her room and gave her a little transfusion to heal her. And that would have been the end of the story, but Katherine overheard Bonnie talking about it, and decided to make Caroline her messenger in one of her twisted little games. Voila, Vampire Barbie."

"Damon, just because it wasn't your intent to sire someone, that doesn't absolve you of your responsibility in the matter. Unless you understand and accept that turning someone is a possible eventuality any time you give them your blood, you have no business giving it." Elijah paused, motioning for Damon to do the same. "There are certain expectations in these situations. I don't think you can be held entirely at fault for not understanding that, given the circumstances – and the perpetrator – of your own siring. Still, you have responsibilities to the girl. You shouldn't be leaving her tutelage up to Stefan." Especially not to Stefan.

Damon bit his lip and gave him a sidelong glance. "Wait, is this... are we having the vampire version of 'The Talk'?" he asked, using air-quotes.

"I suppose, if you will." Elijah started walking again; Damon fell into step.

"Fine. Got it. Next time I try to keep someone from dying, I'll wear a condom. Happy?"

"What exactly is your problem with her? Yes, she can be a bit over-enthusiastic, and does talk a lot, but she isn't a stupid girl. In fact, I think she can be rather insightful, in her own way."

"Okay. Look. We used to date. And by date I mean we – "

"I take your meaning, Damon."

"Right. So, given the past, what with the 'dating' and the chomping and the compelling – which she now remembers – ...let's just say it's a bit awkward." Damon snapped a low-hanging branch out of their way, tossing it off to the side. "I suppose now you're going to lecture me on the compulsion, Dad?"

Elijah shrugged. "If you need to compel a woman to draw her to your bed, that's none of my affair."

Damon stopped, holding a hand palm-down in front of him. "No no no. I don't need to compel a woman to get her into bed."

He shrugged. "To keep her there, then."

"I don't need to compel them for that, either! So not the point."

"If you say so." Elijah stopped suddenly, motioning for Damon to remain still, certain he'd heard something. No other sound came, though; they eventually started walking again. “You should take Caroline out hunting. Now that you know how to close a bite, that's something you could show her.”

"Yeah. Because Damon the Tutor will go over so well."

“You know, you’re clever, you're quick, you're perceptive… With a little work on your impulse control and self-esteem issues, you could have a very bright future.”

Damon gave an incredulous little laugh. “Self-esteem issues? Uh, have you met me? I loooooove me. You have me confused with Stefan again.”

"Do you realize that any time someone tries to pay you a compliment, you deflect it and bring up Stefan?"

Damon broke through the trees and into a large, circular clearing, Elijah following closely on his heels. He didn't need to ask if they had arrived. Every hair on his body suddenly felt as though it were standing on end, almost like he had touched a live wire. Which he supposed he had, metaphorically speaking. Jonas had said there would be power in such a place. He hadn't been lying.

Though no breeze stirred the air, and there were no signs of the wildlife that the woods normally teemed with, Elijah could have sworn her heard muted whispers echo through the clearing, words too indistinct to make out. He walked across the yellowed grass, toward the center of the circle, where a large stone jutted out of the earth, seeing the occasional flicker in his peripheral vision, but when he turned there was nothing there. Elijah took the camera out of his pocket to take some more photos, but when he turned it on, the battery indicator, fully charged just moments before, now showed red, almost completely drained of power. He pocketed it again and turned to look at Damon; the younger vampire looked as creeped out as he felt. It was not a feeling that an almost 1200 year-old vampire was accustomed to.

"We're really gonna do this thing," Damon said grimly.

Elijah opened the sketchpad he'd brought and fished a pencil out of his coat. "Let's start figuring out how."

What's At Stake, Part Sixteen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Damn. When Elijah slips back into BAMF mode, he doesn't eff around about it. *gulp*. o_O
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Elijah poured Jenna another glass of red wine. She picked it up absently and drank, staring shellshocked into the fire that crackled in the big stone fireplace. He had offered her something stronger, but she had refused, laboring as she was under the misconception that she would be driving home tonight. He had tried to convince her to ride with him, up here to the house that he had bought when he'd come to town, but distrustful, she had opted to follow him instead.

The expansive lake house sat high over the water, perched atop ledge on a promontory that jutted out into the lake. From its tall, dramatic windows, Elijah had 360-degree views of the landscape around him; habits from a thousand years as chief of security died hard. While he had no intention of remaining in Mystic Falls any longer than necessary, this house of stone and air and light had called to him, peering down at the world from the top of its lonely hill. It reminded him somewhat of his penthouse in Manhattan, but instead of the noise of the city bustling beneath him, here it was silent save for the occasional call of a bird of prey swooping down on its quarry, or the sighing of the wind through the trees. So instead of picking up a modest, easy-to-turn-over house in town, he had paid a ridiculous sum for this lakeside retreat. He couldn't say he regretted it.

Seating himself on the other end of the leather sofa, he studied Jenna's profile in the flickering light. Having quickly ascertained that she'd been informed about vampires only in the context of the Salvatores and Isobel Fleming, he had told her the rest of the story. All of it. The doppelganger, Katerina, werewolves, witches, the Curse, himself... she was as up to speed as any of them at this point. She had heard it all out, indignant at first that they had kept still more from her, then with increasing concern as the dangers inherent to the situation had begun to sink in. By the time he had finished the part about Klaus and the sacrifice, she had been stunned into a shocked silence. "Are you all right?" He asked finally, breaking that silence.

Jenna took another deep swallow of wine, considering. "I don't know," she answered at last. "Up is down, down is up, and the monsters under the bed are real. And everyone knew it but me."

"Well, not everyone. But I'll concede that it must feel that way." He picked up his own wine glass, drank. "They thought they were protecting you."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah. Do you have any concept of how humiliating that is?"

He frowned. "Humiliating?"

Jenna ran her finger around the rim of her glass, circle after slow circle. In sharp contrast to her earlier outrage, her voice was quiet, subdued, eerily calm even. "My sister. My brother-in-law. My niece. My nephew. My boyfriend. My friends. Not one person in my life thought that I deserved the truth."

"I don't think it was a question of 'deserving', Jenna. They care for you."

"Mm-hm. They do." She took another sip. "You know what you 'care for,' Elijah? Plants. Pets. Children. You 'care for' those things. But you don't respect them."

Jenna took her glass and crossed the room to look out the window, though with the dark outside, only the distorted view of the room behind her was visible. "My sister was twelve years older than me. Did you know that?"

He shook his head.  "No."

"Mm. Miranda was one of those people that just... had everything together, you know? The perfect daughter, popular, pretty, good grades, smart... She graduated from college, married a doctor, raised kids, ran committees... She got everything right."

"It sounds like she cast a long shadow." He knew something of standing in shadows.

She nodded, turning away from the window, and wandered back over to the fireplace, staring once more into its flames. "Me... I was the screw-up. I said weird things, laughed at inappropriate times, ruined my good clothes just before church because Billy Moseley dared me to ride my bike down that steep hill, and the tire got caught on a tree root."

Jenna turned to face him, shrugging a little, a small, sad smile on her face. "Mom and dad never really got mad at me; they'd just pat my head, say, 'Oh, Jenna' and go about their day. What else did they expect, right? Then they died, just after I started college, and left Miranda to do the head-shaking and the eye-rolling, because God knows I was still a screw-up."

"Jenna..."

"I had no idea that Grayson and Miranda had named me as Elena and Jeremy's guardian. Not until John and I were sitting with the lawyer, and he read the will." Tears shone in her large, dark eyes; one spilled over and ran down her cheek. "I was shocked; I mean, yeah, John's a douchebag, but it never occurred to me that they would have named me as legal guardian over him. Then, about two seconds after the shock hit, the terror set in. I couldn't keep a cactus alive, and suddenly I was supposed to raise kids?

"But even with the shock, and the pants-shitting terror, there was this... wonder, and... and pride that they would trust me – me! – with Elena and Jeremy."

Jenna set her glass on the mantle and crossed her arms in front of her, two more tears spilling over. "And what have I done with that trust? I've let my niece have overnights with her boyfriend – her vampire boyfriend – although just the 'boyfriend' part of it is bad enough, really; I've stood by while my nephew smoked pot and did God knows what other drugs, because who the hell was I to cast stones about it; I've had my boyfriend – who is their history teacher – stay overnight at the house, leading to the infamous Chunky Monkey incident..." She shook her head at his questioning look. "Don't ask.

"So it's no wonder they don't respect me. Why would they? Why wouldn't they think I needed to be protected? Aunt Jenna, the big screw-up."

Jenna took her glass from the mantle, finishing the wine in two big swallows. Pushing her hair out of her face, she wiped the tears from her cheeks and squared her shoulders. "That ends now," she announced.

Elijah stood and followed her as she strode through the dining room, to the foyer. "Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Jenna – "

"Home, to do what I should have been doing this whole time: be a parent. It's my job to protect them, not the other way around."

He took her hand as she reached for her purse and keys. "I understand. I do," he said, overriding her protest. He brought his other hand up, tilted her chin up so she faced him. "But you can't protect them, not from this."

"I have to try."

"This was always going to happen, Jenna. Whether your sister were still alive, whether you cracked the whip over curfews and homework, whether you knew about vampires or not. Elena is the doppelganger; this was fated to happen." He released her hand, so he could cup her face with both of his. "It's not your fault."

Her eyes welled again. "It will be if I fail them now."

Every instinct in him warning against it, he pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head as one hand stroked her hair. She stiffened momentarily, and he cursed himself for touching her when he good and goddamn well knew better, but then she relaxed against him, laying her head on his shoulder as her arms came up to lightly encircle his waist. "Jenna," he murmured into her hair, settling her more firmly against him when she sniffled.

I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be doing this! he thought, repeatedly, even as he stroked her neck, her back; even as he kissed her hair and nuzzled his chin against her temple. She tightened her arms around him and pulled her face back a little, looking up at him with those big, dark eyes, eyes that he could – that he would – drown in if he didn't pull it together and get away from her.

He might have pushed her away then, if he hadn't heard a car start up the long, long driveway to the house, and known that he had this one, single, solitary chance to taste her – the last one he would ever have before she hated him, probably forever.

Keeping his eyes on hers, closing them only at the last possible moment, he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers. The lightest of caresses, until he was sure that she wouldn't resist; then he kissed her more firmly. She returned the kiss, pressing against him as it deepened. He felt her lips part, and flicked his tongue over them, drawing a low moan from her. The sound arrowed straight to his groin, and he gripped his fingers in her hair so he could tilt her head back and access her mouth more fully, her tongue dancing with his as he slipped it inside.

She pulled back with a gasp when she heard a car door slam. "Who...?" she asked, breathing deeply, her cheeks flushed bright red.

Elijah stepped back from her, regret knifing through his chest, sharper than any blade. "You can't protect them, Jenna. Not from Klaus. But I can. I need you to let me do that. And I need you out of the way, and safe, while I do."

"What – "

Jenna turned, startled, as a man and a woman walked in. The man was tall and blond, and looked to be in his mid-twenties; the woman had dark hair and an olive complexion, and looked to be the same age. But with vampires, looks were deceiving.

"This is her, I take it?" the woman asked.

This is she, he thought inanely, mentally correcting her grammar. "Jenna, this is Sophia. The gentleman is Marcus. They'll see that you have whatever you need to be comfortable during your stay."

"What the hell?! I'm not staying here!" She took a step toward the door, only to be blocked by Sophia. Jenna pushed her; the vampire didn't budge. "Elijah?!"

Elijah gestured Marcus toward the door. "I'm sorry, Jenna. Klaus would use you against me, against Elena, if he could, and I can't have that. I'll protect them. You have my word on that."

He followed Marcus out the door, closing it firmly on her protests, confident that Sophia could keep her contained without hurting her. Marcus looked from the door to Elijah, raising an eyebrow. "Whatever she wants – food, books, entertainment... just keep her here. No phone or internet. She's not to come to any harm."

"Understood," the other man nodded. He eyed Elijah speculatively. "You're really going to throw down with Klaus?"

"That's the plan."

"And what do we do with her if you don't come back?"

He glanced toward the door, behind which she was still objecting strenuously, cursing his parentage in fairly explicit and creative terms. "Take her home. And pray that her family is alive to greet her there." Elijah turned and gripped his arm briefly. "Thank you."

"We owed you," Marcus said simply. "You called, we came."

"And I appreciate it." Elijah walked to his car as Marcus went back inside, renewing Jenna's string of invective when he didn't return as well. He gave the house a last, long look as he got in and drove away.

To town, to explain to Elena why Jenna wouldn't be coming home for the next week. And why he would be staying at their house in her place.

                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elijah found a place to park and strode off down the street the next morning, annoyance clinging to him like an itchy sweater. He was annoyed with Elena, who had first berated him for telling Jenna the whole truth about what was happening; and then argued with him well into the night about sequestering her before finally – finally! – ceding to logic and packing her a bag, to be picked up later in the day by Sophia. He was annoyed with Jeremy, for trying to slip a cell phone into said bag, even after being warned not to, which had necessitated Elijah having to sort through the bag, item by item, to make certain no other contraband had been included. He was annoyed with Stefan, for being there even though Elijah himself had assigned him there; and for... well, basically, for being Stefan. Most of all, he was annoyed with himself, for giving in to temptation; for getting Jenna to trust him, only to betray that trust; and for skirting perilously close to have actual... feelings about the entire matter.

Consequently, Elijah was in absolutely no mood whatsoever to walk into the coffee shop and discover Klaus in it. But there he was, a newspaper tucked under his arm, chatting up a young woman of some indeterminate Asian lineage as she put sugar in her coffee. Only centuries of hard-won, iron control kept him from having any outward reaction. Klaus waved at him, gesturing toward an open table by the window. Elijah took his time ordering coffee, feeling the weight of Klaus's stare as he nonchalantly added some cream and sugar before finally putting the plastic cover on the cup and sauntering over to Klaus's table. The girl he had been talking with slid away as he approached. "Elijah," Klaus invited. "Join me?"

Elijah took the seat opposite, watching the girl through the window as she left the shop and walked down the street. "Did you order that to go? Because she's going."

Klaus shrugged nonchalantly. "Chinese food. It never stays with you." Klaus slid the newspaper over toward Elijah, pointing at a photo of the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. "Such a tragedy. Did you know that you can send a message to this little number here to donate to the 'humanitarian effort'? I sent mine in."

Elijah quirked a brow at him and took a sip of his coffee. "How generous."

"I'm a great humanitarian." Klaus leaned forward, winking, "My diet consists solely of humans."

"Clever," Elijah said, his voice bored. "How long have you been waiting to use that line?"

"Longer than I like to admit, truthfully. I was saving it for you. No one else has any sense of humor these days." Klaus folded the paper and tasted his own coffee.

Elijah leaned back as far as the hard wooden chair would allow, crossing his legs. "So, to what do I owe this visit? Come to watch me break the curse? Since, you know, you couldn't."

"Yes, I heard that you've been putting together quite the list of party favors. I must say, I'm hurt: Was my invitation lost in the mail?"

"Since when have you ever needed an invitation?"

"True." Klaus sat back, mirroring Elijah's posture. "You know, though, there's one thing that's been bothering me."

"The fact that your tailor can't fit a jacket to save his life?"

"Mee-ow! You always were such a clothes horse. It's one thing you and Katerina had in common. How is she, by the way?"

"Wouldn't know; I haven't had her."

Klaus smirked. "Not for lack of effort on her part. But no. What's bothering me is this new little doppelganger you just magically scared up. I mean, you went to so much trouble to end the line by killing the Petrovas. And yet, just a few short years after you leave me, here you are, with a doppelganger." Klaus lost the smirk. "Someone less trusting than me might think you had been holding out the entire time."

Elijah just smiled at him over his coffee cup, and remained silent.

Klaus took a different tack. "Have you sampled the new one, at least? If it were me, I'd try both she and Katerina. Compare and contrast to the original, see whom you most prefer."

He didn't rise to the bait. "You know, I've missed conversing with someone who knows when to use 'whom.'"

Chuckling, Klaus lifted his coffee cup in salute, and smiled his charming smile. "Eh, just admit it. You miss me. It has to be lonely, out there on your own, since you flew the nest."

"Tell you what: Since you've come all this way, please do join us for the ritual next week, for old times' sake." Elijah put on a smug little smile. "I'd love for you to watch."

"Oh, I wouldn't miss it," Klaus assured him. Klaus stood, leaving the cup and newspaper on the table. "It was good to see you again, Elijah." A tall, Nordic-looking blond picked up a coffee and pastry, and headed out the door, catching Klaus's eye. Klaus smiled down at Elijah, roguish. "I think I'll try the Danish. It looks delicious." With a wiggle of his eyebrows, he left, catching up with the blond out on the street, engaging her in conversation on some pretext or another.

Elijah shook his head and heaved an inward sigh of relief. He had not only survived the opening volley with Klaus, but had actually acquitted himself quite well. Although, he thought ruefully, Klaus hadn't been off the mark altogether; sometimes he did miss him. Not the unstable, increasingly paranoid Klaus of the last several decades, to be sure. But there had been a time when they had been friends. Long winters spent talking in front of the fire, sorting personnel, planning campaigns... there were many times when he had been happy where he was. Now, knowing what he knew, all of those good times were retroactively tainted by the knowledge of what Klaus had done to Irina, what he wanted yet to do with all of them. Elijah wasn't certain which thing he hated Klaus for more – causing Irina's death in the first place, or rendering Elijah's whole life from that point forward nothing but a mockery.

He glanced up as someone approached his table. John Gilbert came slithering over, not waiting for an invitation before claiming Klaus's vacated chair. "Well, that looked cozy," John smarmed, drinking his coffee.

Elijah set his cup down and folded his hands on the table. "Something I can do for you, John?"

"As a matter of fact, there is." He drummed his fingers, the good ones, on the table. "I seem to have missed my invitation to the big meeting the other night."

"No, you didn't miss anything. You weren't invited."

"See, I find that curious. Especially considering that it's my daughter's life at stake."

"Your 'daughter' has no use for you, John. Nor do I."

"Well, that's a mistake, Elijah."

"I don't think so."

"Oh, trust me. It is." John drained his cup and set it aside. "Where is Isobel?"

Elijah shrugged. "Carrying out a little research project for me." It hadn't been difficult to convince Isobel to conduct her research in person, not when he'd thrown in a tidy sum of money for her troubles, and offered the use of his personal jet for the flight.

"Where?"

"I suspect she's somewhere in the British countryside by now." Literally 'in' the countryside; Elijah had been certain to have someone waiting there to take her out. It was unfortunate; she was quite a gifted researcher, but she was under Katerina's thumb, and there were things that Elijah couldn't chance having discovered and reported to her, not if his plan were to succeed.

"She's not taking my calls."

"Somehow, John, I doubt that you're a stranger to the concept of women avoiding you. Your relationship with your ex, or lack of same, is not my concern."

"Actually, that's exes. Plural. I can't seem to reach Jenna either." John sat back, arms crossed, watching Elijah closely.

Jenna was his ex? Jenna? With this buffoon?

Some flicker of expression must have betrayed him. John shot him a self-satisfied smile. "Oh yeah. Jenna and I go way back." Having scored a hit, he rose from the table. "I sure hope I hear from her soon. I'd hate to have to raise the alarm, get people searching for her. There's no telling what they might dig up." Smirking, he discarded his empty cup and headed into the men's restroom.

Elijah remained seated. For about 0.0003 seconds.

One moment, John was standing at the urinal. The next, Elijah was suddenly there next to him, one hand grasped firmly around John's balls.

John started, then froze with a muffled shriek as the movement brought with it a considerable amount of discomfort. His eyes went wide, his breathing shallow as he tried to keep from moving any more.

"You really aren't very clever, are you?" Elijah said, conversationally, as though he addressed him in some fancy parlor somewhere, and not in a public restroom, with the man's testicles in the palm of his hand. "You think, because you're accustomed to wheeling and dealing with the likes of Isobel Fleming, and the Salvatores, that you are of some greater significance to me than that fly on the wall over there?"

John broke out into a sweat. "Elijah – "

Elijah increased the pressure in his fingers infinitesimally; John sucked in a sharp breath. "I'm speaking," he said mildly. "I think it might be a good idea if you left town, John. You needn't worry about Jenna, nor about Jeremy and Elena. I'll be staying at the house with them. Don't go back there. Are we clear?"

John glared, but nodded.

"I can't hear you," Elijah prompted.

"Yes!" he spat.

"Well that's good. And John?"

"What?" he ground out.

"Don't ever threaten me again." He leaned in, close to his ear, and whispered, "You don't have the balls for it." With a quick squeeze, he clenched his fist and crushed the other man's scrotum, slapping a hand over John's mouth to stifle his scream. Elijah didn't release him until his cries became whimpers; then he let him slide to the floor, where he curled up in a fetal position, retching, hands pressed to his mutilated groin.

Stepping over him, Elijah went to the sink and washed his hands thoroughly, then took his time drying them before walking calmly out the door.