8

—8. Road Trip Bonding

ALWAYS AND FOREVER

Apparently Elena got kidnapped. According to Stefan she wasn't at home and her car was still in the Lockwood's driveway.

So now Aurora was dragged into another problem. The Salvatore's were gathered outside the school, Stefan and Damon were on the verge of a panic attack.

Aurora didn't understand why, it seemed like Elena was always in some kind of trouble that her brothers save her from. It was normal for this stuff to happen, but how their reacting -it was like the world was about to end but in some cases, for them it would be if they couldn't save her this time.

It was disgusting.

"This has Katherine written all over it." Stefan said.

Damon shook his head, "Katherine's in the tomb. Trust me; me and Aurora shut her in."

"Did you?"

"Did we what, Stefan?" Damon replied with an attitude.

"Well, I know the hold she has on you," He answered Damon, "And you have some weird friendship with her." He looked at Aurora.

"She's in the tomb, Stef. End of story. Now can we get back to saving the lover girl." Aurora replied.

Damon nodded before furrowing her brows, "But she did say something right before I shut her in."

"What did she say?"

"Elena's in danger." Damon answered.

Stefan's eyes widened, "What? And neither of you thought to ask her to elaborate."

"Hey, don't blame me. She's not my girlfriend." Aurora waved her hands before crossing them.

Stefan sent her a look, hitting her arm lightly.

"Everything she says is a lie. How were we supposed to know if she's gonna start spouting the truth?" Damon questioned.

"Maybe because she's been on the run for five hundred years and is absolutely petrified." Aurora thought to herself.

"We have to talk to her." Stefan stated, walking away from his siblings.

Aurora's eyebrows shot up, "Uh, no. Did you not just hear Damon?"

"Yeah. Let me tell you how that's going to go: we're gonna go ask her for help, she's gonna negotiate her release which we're gonna be dumb enough to give her and she's gonna get out and kill us! This is exactly what she wants!"

"Sounds like her." Aurora nodded.

"I don't really care."

"It's a bad idea, Stefan." Damon retorted.

Stefan shook his head, "It's Elena."

Aurora rolled her eyes, "Out of all the people you could have fallen for, it just had to be a doppelgänger."

"Well, you can't do this alone." Jeremy said after he tried to persuade Stefan in letting him tag along.

Aurora and Damon stepped into the classroom, "He's not." She said.

"Let's go." Damon nodded his head in the direction of the door.

"You guys are coming with me?"

"It's Elena." Damon answered, like it was obvious.

Aurora nodded with a roll of her eyes, "Yeah, she's important. I guess." She mumbled the last part before turning and walking out the door with her brothers following behind her.

The Salvatore's where in Damon's car, driving towards the place Elena was being kept at.

"Alaric sure likes his weapons." Damon stated as Stefan pulled out a little bottle of vervain.

"What the hell is that?" Aurora questioned, looking down at the vervain bottle in Stefan's hands.

Stefan shrugged, "I don't know, it's a vervain bomb or a grenade launcher or something like that."

"Weird." She stated, moving her head away from Stefan and towards Damon, wanting to get away from the vervain.

"Hey, how much further is it?" Stefan asked Damon, who was the one driving to the unknown location.

"About 80 miles."

Everyone was silent for a moment but they all had thoughts on their mind of the worst possible thing that would currently be happening to Elena right now. Not that Aurora really cared but for her brothers, she will help.

"Who do you think took her?" Stefan asked, turning his head to look between his siblings.

"Someone from Katherine's past. She said she was running from someone. They got the wrong girl." Damon answered.

Aurora knew who it could possibly be and they definitely didn't get the wrong girl. She just hoped he would have one of his henchman there instead of himself.

"Thank you for helping me," Stefan suddenly spoke, "Both of you." He said while looking back at Aurora.

Damon rolled his eyes, "Can we not do the whole road trip bonding thing? The cliche of it all makes me itch."

"Oh, come on Damon. We all know you being in this car has absolutely nothing to do with Stefan." Aurora retorted, sticking her head between the two front seats.

"The elephant in the room lets out a mighty roar." Damon said.

Stefan shook his head, "No, Rory's right. Let's talk about it."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"That's not true. I'm sure there is. Just get it out. I mean, are you in this car because you want to help your little brother save the girl that he loves? Or is it because you love her too? Hmm? I mean come on, express yourself. I happen to like road trip bonding."

Damon paused before answering, "Keep it up, Stefan. I can step out of helping as easily as I stepped in."

"No, you see that's the beauty of it. You can't." Stefan retorted.

"Well, this is going to be fun." Aurora said sarcastically, leaning back into the leather car seat.

"We're getting close. Jeremy said there's an access road just past mile marker 6." Stefan mentioned.

Damon ignored Stefan, looking back to Aurora for a second, "Hey, Ro. Pass me a blood bag."

Aurora grabbed a blood bag from the floor of the car, she paused -staring at the liquid in the bag before she snapped herself out of it and placed it in Damon's waiting hand.

Damon opens the blood bag. He starts drinking and casually looks over at Stefan, "If you want some, just ask."

"I want some."

"Ah, that's so sweet. You're gonna be all big and strong and save your girl but don't worry, I've got your back. It'll be fine." Damon cooed, "Plus, Ro's here. You want some Gremlin?" He asked, holding out the blood bag for her to take.

"No, no. I'm okay." She answered quickly, shaking her head.

Damon shrugged, "More for me."

"I'm not joking. I've been drinking a little every day. I'm slowly increasing my intake and building up my strength." Stefan redirected the conversation back to him.

Damon gave him the blood bag, "Does Elena know you're drinking blood?"

"I've been drinking hers."

"Hmm, how romantic," Damon drank some blood, "Since we're road trip bonding, remember the days when all you lived for was blood? You were the guy who ripped someone apart just for the fun of it."

"You mean when I was more like you?" Stefan said.

"Yes, Stefan, exactly. Back when you put blood into me so I could be a big bad vampire. I wonder if Elena would be so quick to open her veins to that guy. By the way, what happened to that guy? He was a hoot."

"I guess he found something else to live for." Stefan answered with a shrug and a small smile.

"Oh, ew." Aurora commented.

WORD COUNT : 1211