Eleven | Under Lock And Key
I had come up with the plan to trap Elena inside of her own home so she couldn't try to hand herself over to anyone or see Stefan. Bonnie and Jeremy were inside, testing her to see if she would take the moonstone. I waited on the porch, leaning on the wall near the door. I listened in on them.
"She took the moonstone." I heard Jeremy say. Of course she did.
"How did you?" Elena asked them, confusion in her voice.
"We tested you, and you failed." Bonnie stated.
"Klaus killed Katherine's entire family just because she crossed him." Elena told them, "I can't let that happen."
A few seconds later I heard her trying to open the door.
"What did you do?" She asked.
I opened the door, staring at her from outside, "It's for the best, Elena."
"You're in on this too, Cassie?" She frowned at me, trying to break out the door again but the invisible barrier bounced her back. She groaned.
"Like I said, it's for the best." I entered the house and shut the door.
"Have a movie day... or week." I joked, gently pushing her in the direction of the living room. I headed into the kitchen and pulled out mug, "Anyone want coffee?"
I heard a sighful 'yeah' from Elena and one from Jeremy. I pulled out two more mugs as Bonnie entered the kitchen. I turned to her, "Hey, how are you after doing that spell?"
"I'm fine." Bonnie replied.
"Are you though? Bonnie, you fainted in the tomb. Your nose was bleeding." I worried, "That didn't look fine to me. If you're not strong enough, you can tell me."
"I'm okay, Cassie, thank you for caring. Look, I gotta go back home. I'll see you later." She picked up her grimoire from the counter.
"Take care." I said as she walked out of the house.
I poured coffee into each mug, adding milk or cream to everyones liking. Through the joint hallway, I could hear the door open. I looked down the hall to see Damon enter the house, joining Elena in the living room.
"You should really lock your door." Damon sniggered, "Oh, come on, pouty. At least give me two points for ingenuity."
"Do you think this is funny?" Elena frowned at him.
"Yes, Elena. I find hilarity in the lengths that I have to go to repeatedly save your life." Damon replied sarcastically.
"What does Stefan say about this?" She asked.
"We had a good laugh." Damon said.
"And what did he say about Elijah still being alive?" She questioned.
I dropped the spoon on the side in shock and quickly walked into the living room.
"Yeah, that... I didn't tell him." Damon replied.
"Sorry, what?" I asked in disbelief. They both turned their heads to me.
"And obviously you didn't tell Cassie either." Elena said, looking away from me in a pout. Damon stood up and walked over to me.
"Why didn't you tell me about Elijah?" I asked him, disappointed that he had hid that from me.
Damon frowned, "I didn't have chance between Stefan being in the tomb and Elena trying to get herself killed."
"There was plenty of time to tell me, Damon." I frowned back, "Why would you keep that from me?"
"Look, I'm sorry, okay. You know now." He simply replied.
I scoffed in response and headed back into the kitchen, away from him. He was beginning to irritate me with his secrets and lies.
I picked up the mugs of coffee and brought them into the living room. I placed them on the table, still keeping hold of mine. I took a long sip of the warm liquid before sitting down on the sofa.
"And who's on Tyler Lockwood and the full moon duty?" Jeremy asked.
"Vampire Barbie asked me if she could handle it, and I said, why not?" Damon said, "Figured if she screwed up, he'll bite her and then I'll be rid of two of my problems.
I rolled my eyes and drank the rest of my coffee, avoiding eye contact with him.
"Hold on a second. Tonight's the full moon?" Elena asked.
Damon's phone began to ring, "Yep, but you were too absorbed with all your suicidal tendencies to notice."
He pulled out his phone and answered it. He headed off into the hallway so I decided to make my way into the kitchen, listening in.
"What?" He asked.
"Sheriff Forbes has officially declared Mason Lockwood a missing person." I heard Alaric's voice on the other end. I placed the mug in the sink.
"What? Why?" Damon asked, confused.
"Some girl from Florida showed up on the Lockwood's doorstep looking for Mason." Alaric replied.
"What girl?"
"I don't know but she sure got everyone in a tizzy." Alaric said.
"That's not good. Where are you?" Damon asked.
"I'm at the Grill." Alaric replied. I headed back into the living room before Damon could notice I'd moved.
"I'm on my way." Damon responded before he appeared in the room with us again.
"Change of plans. You babysit." Damon said, pointing to Jeremy, who had his head resting on Elena's lap. He looked to Elena, "Hey you know, you should get out, enjoy the sun. Oh wait, you can't."
Elena frowned, throwing a cushion at Damon. Jeremy and I laughed at her actions which caused her to push Jeremy from her lap onto the floor. I smiled at the two being normal siblings for once before turning my head, watching Damon leaving.
"I'm going to my room." Elena groaned, taking her mug and walking away.
▂▂▂▂
It had been an hour. Elena and I had been talking in her room for most of it. I was laying on my stomach on her bed, flicking through a year book of hers.
"We never got round to talking about you and Damon." She said, seeming interested, "How's it going?"
"I'm still not over the fact he wanted to marry me." I told her, a small grin appearing on my face at the thought. Before I could talk about how she felt about Damon there was a sudden loud bang.
"What was that?" Elena asked, worried.
My brows pulled together, "Not sure, stay here. I'll check it out."
I slowly left the room and crept down the stairs, prepared to break a neck if needed. I knew it couldn't be Jeremy because he'd left. I felt someones presence and sharply turned after reaching the bottom step. I jumped back slightly at the sudden appearance of someone infront of me.
"Jenna, oh my God." I exhaled the momentarily scared breath.
She stood up straight from the cupboard she seeme to be sorting through, "Cassie. Hey, I didn't know you were here."
"Yeah, I've been chilling with Elena." I said, just as Elena walked down the stairs.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Elena asked Jenna.
"Perfect timing." Jenna said, picking up a box from the floor. That must've been the noise we'd heard.
She handed it to Elena who questioningly looked at it's contents, "What is this stuff?"
"Your mom's files from the Historical Society. I got roped into helping Mrs. Lockwood and by roped, I mean very excited to participate."
Jenna closed the closet door and behind it stood a tall man. Dark hair with a curtain fringe, brown somewhat kind looking eyes, and he was wearing a suit.
Elena was startled. The man locked eyes on Elena before they shifted to me. As they locked on mine, his mouth fell ajar and his brows pulled together in the centre of his forehead.
"Cassie?" I heard him say faintly.
I furrowed my brows when he said my name. I had no idea who this man was, "Sorry? Do I know you?"
"I'm Elijah." He said, his accent was strong, possibly British - definitely european.
I gulped in fear. So this was the Elijah that I had seen killed by Damon. I had never seen his face before. And how did he know my name?
"Elijah's in town doing research on Mystic Falls." Jenna said.
"It's a pleasure." Elijah grinned, wanting to shake Elena's hand. She was hesitant, I could sense how afraid she was but I wouldn't let him hurt her. She then politely took his hand and shook it.
"So you're welcome to stay here and rummage through this stuff or Elena, Cassie and I could help you load it into your car?" Jenna suggested to Elijah.
"Or I can get someone to pick it up tomorrow." He said.
Jenna laughed, "Also a good plan."
"Thank you so much for inviting me into your home, Jenna, and Elena -- " He stared at young brunette, "I hope to see you again sometime soon."
And with that he left. Jenna made her way into the kitchen. Elena immediately turned her focus on me, sending me a confused expression, "Do you know Elijah? He said your name?"
"I've never seen him before in my life." I replied, truthfully.
She furrowed her brows, "Oh."
With Elijah now able to enter the Gilbert house, I felt Elena needed even more protection that just her not being able to leave, "Do you need me to stay with you tonight?"
"No, no, it's fine. Jenna's here and it's not like I can get out." She replied, glancing at the front door.
"Okay, I'm gonna see if Damon's home." I gently brushed my hand down her arm in comfort, "Stay safe."
▂▂▂▂
I walked into the boarding house and locked the door behind me, as though that would help keep Elijah out. The living room was empty so I continued walking and made my way into the library to grab a drink. I stopped just before entering as I heard Damon and Rose in there.
"What do you want?" Damon asked her.
"I wanted to apologise." She told him.
"Just admit it, you don't have anywhere else to go." Damon said.
"I'm sorry about Elena." Rose exhaled, "I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't know that she had a death wish but I called you, I tried to make it right, okay? I'm sorry, Damon. And I have nowhere else to go."
"There's nothing here for you, Rose." Damon grumbled.
I decided to leave the two alone and walked back to the living room. I suddenly heard the shattering sound of glass closeby and my head shot up. Damon and Rose ran into the room just when the window shattered a few metres infront of me. A wolf ran into the room. I backed up against the wall and slowly grabbed a stake from the wood box by the fire.
I saw Damon grab a sword that was hanging on the wall and he swung it infront of him. The wolf ran towards Damon but Rose pushed him forcefully out of the way. The wolf pounched on her, pinning her to the floor. It bit aggressively into her shoulder. Damon stabbed the wolf with the sword. It whimpered and ran back out of the window.
I dropped the stake and ran to Rose in concern, "Oh God, how bad is it?"
"It hurts." She groaned, pulling down the back of her shirt. I looked at the large bite as it started to heal.
"It's healing." Damon told her, putting the sword down.
"Oh my God, I thought a werewolf bite was fatal. I thought..." Rose began to cry.
I knelt down to her and embraced her, "It's alright."
Damon crouched down to look at the healed bite, "You're gonna be okay."
▂▂▂▂
Rose had gone for a shower around ten minutes ago. Damon and I were sat in the living room, discussing what had just happened.
"I thought she was going to die from it." I said, my legs resting on Damon's lap.
"I know, but it healed." He replied, tracing his fingers on my thighs. Before long, Rose came back into the room in a bathrobe.
"I talked to Caroline. She said Tyler was all locked up." Damon told her. So the werewolf wasn't Tyler.
"So it was Jules. The other werewolf, the one who attacked you." Rose said, sitting down.
"Jules? The one looking for Mason?" I said, referring to Damon's phone call earlier.
"Yeah. I'm sorry. I picked a fight with her." Damon sighed, "She was coming after me."
"All's well that ends well." Rose grinned.
"You're all healed?" I asked.
She nodded, "Yeah. Seems that way."
"I'm glad that the legend was fake." Damon said, "Maybe the werewolves made it up to keep vampires away."
"Lucky me." Rose smiled at us. It was silent for a moment, "I'm gonna stay and help you."
"Help us do what?" Damon asked.
"Save Elena, protect Elena, all things Elena." She said.
This confused me, wasn't she the one who had tried to hand Elena over to Elijah in the first place?
"Really? Why?" He asked.
"Because I like you both." Rose said, "I believe in friendship. I happen to have a vacancy in that department."
"Mind if I take a look at the bite?" I said, the inner doctor in me coming out.
"Of course."
I swung my legs off of Damon's lap and made my way to her, sitting behind her. I slowly pulled down the silk material of her bathroom to examine her skin.
"Ow." She winched, pushing her shoulder forward as I moved the fabric.
My eyes couldn't miss the blistering bite on her shoulder that had reappeared but ten times worse. It was oozing and full of green puss and dark red blood. It looked incredibly infected. My gaze flew over her shoulder and to Damon in shock but I didn't say a word.
▂▂▂▂
"That bite is incredibly bad, but I can't bare to tell her. I thought it had healed up." I said, falling onto Damon's bed later that night.
"So did I. Maybe the legend is true." Damon replied, rummaging through his drawers, "Elena told me that Elijah was around her house earlier, something to do with Jenna and apparently he said your name. Do you know him?"
"No, never seen him before in my life." I told him, "Today is the first time I'd seen him. I didn't even see his face when you killed him."
Damon glanced at me as though it would spark some kind of knowledge in his brain, before turning his attention back to the drawers infront of him.
"How did he know your name?" He mostly asked himself.
I pondered on the thought, not sure at all. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe someone had mentioned to him that I, along with the Salvatore's, was protecting the doppelganger. I shrugged, "I honestly have no idea."