Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

28. Behind The Candles

She sighed. "So what happens now?" she asked. "I pick a parent and the other one resents me forever?"

He shook his head. "We wouldn't resent you Riley, we love you. But you're old enough now to make the decision about where you want to stay, and who you want to live with."

She nodded, already knowing what her decision would be.

"I want to stay here. With you."

Chris tried to act nonchalant, but it was obvious that he was overjoyed by her decision. The last thing in the world that he wanted was to lose her.

"That's great," he said. "But from this moment on, we have no more secrets. You and me, we're a team. OK?"

Riley smiled, purposefully not thinking about how her mother would take this decision. If anything, she should be relieved – now she didn't have to feel guilty about working so much. "OK."

Suddenly her phone rang.

"Hey, what's up Care?"

"We're gonna get information out of Luka Martin," Caroline said abruptly. Her tone was assertive, tough. Definitely not the tone of a girl who'd been kidnapped by a werewolf less than 24 hours before.

"How are you gonna do that?" Riley asked. "I doubt he'll tell you anything. He's working for Elijah, who has a secret agenda, remember?"

"That's what I said. But Bonnie's gonna do something witchy to make him talk."

Riley frowned. "That sounds... dangerous. What do you need me to do?"

"Uh, can you meet me back at my place in about 2 hours? Oh, and bring all the candles you own, we're gonna need a lot of them."

"Sure, bye," Riley said, hanging up.

"What's gonna be dangerous?" her father asked, showing his disapproval on his face.

"OK, new rule," Riley proposed. "How about we spill our secrets on a need-to-know basis?"

Her dad laughed. "Nice try, Riles."

***

"I bought birthday candles, religious candles, standard candles, tealight candles, basically anything I could find," Riley said, walking into Caroline's house with two armfuls of different types of candles. Caroline couldn't help but laugh.

Riley dumped the candles into Jeremy's outstretched hands and, for the first time, noticed the unconscious male witch lying on the floor.

"How does this work?" she asked Bonnie.

"I'll put him in a trance and ask him questions," she answered. "It's like hypnosis." She shut her eyes and lit every candle in the room. Jeremy looked at her in awe and admiration, a look that both Riley and Caroline noticed. They smiled at each other.

"That's pretty hot," Caroline remarked.

"Subtle," Riley commended sarcastically under her breath.

Bonnie pretended to ignore the exchange. "I need a bowl of water."

"I-I'll go get it," Jeremy excused himself, leaving the room.

As soon as his footsteps were far enough away, Bonnie gave the girls an accusatory look. "What was that?!" she hissed at Caroline.

"He is so crushing on you!" Caroline whispered excitedly.

"It's so cute!" Riley agreed. Jeremy came back into the room with the bowl of water, and Bonnie tried not to notice the way he looked at her. She couldn't date her best friend's little brother. It was weird, right?

"Looks like he's waking up," Jeremy said. All eyes turned to Luka, who was beginning to move around.

Bonnie put her hands on either side of his head, successfully putting him into a trance. His eyes completely glazed over.

"Why are you working with Elijah?"

"Klaus," Luka answered against his will. "We both want him dead."

"Why?"

"He has my sister," Luka said. "We have to get her away from him. If we help Elijah kill Klaus, he will return her to us."

"And how do you kill Klaus?" Bonnie asked, her eyes closed, allowing her to focus on her mission. It was almost like she was in a trance herself. "How do you kill an Original vampire?"

"After the sacrifice, Klaus will be vulnerable. It's our only chance."

"Wait," Riley interrupted. "After the sacrifice?"

"Ask what he means," Caroline prompted.

Bonnie gripped his head tighter. "Are you saying... Elena has to be sacrificed?" she asked.

"Yes," Luka confirmed. "Elena has to die."

Riley stood up abruptly. "We have to warn her."

***

She walked into the Salvatore house, each step making her more and more angry. How could Elijah pretend to be a man of honor when he was planning to let Elena die all along? How could she have thought for even a moment that she could trust him?

"Stefan? Damon? Anyone?" she called, walking through the house. She went into the library to see Damon sitting on a chair with broken chains around him. "What the hell happened to you?"

"As it turns out," he groaned. "Wolves are still a problem."

"Riley," a voice said. Elijah.

"Don't talk," she said, looking him in the eyes. "You lied to me."

Elijah frowned, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I can assure you, I have never lied to you."

"You're planning on sacrificing Elena," she revealed her newfound knowledge angrily. "You said that you'd keep us safe, but all along you knew that the sacrifice would be going ahead!"

"Wait, what?!" Damon asked, his angry eyes also trained towards the Original vampire.

"Elena is aware of the deal she made," Elijah claimed. "I promised to spare the lives of the people that she loves, I never promised to spare her own."

"You want to get out of this on a technicality?" she asked.

Elijah stepped towards her, until he was right in front of her, almost touching her.

"If there was a way to spare Elena's life, I would," he assured her. "We need Klaus to be weak. After the sacrifice, he will be."

She looked up at him. "You remember when I said that I want to see the good in people? Well, sometimes, there isn't any good to see."

Elijah walked past her, leaving the room. When he was gone, she looked at Damon.

"We're not letting Elena die."

"Duh," Damon said with an eye roll. "Don't worry, I have a plan."

He walked to the bookcase, picked up something wrapped in cloth, unraveled it, and showed her an ancient-looking knife thing.

"We're gonna kill Elijah."

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Will the group succeed in killing Elijah? And if they do, what does that mean for Elena?

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