Damon clenched his jaw and glared harder. Elena simply stood and waited, immovable.
Finally, Damon swore to himself and climbed to his feet. "Let the record show," he said, grabbing her by the arms again and pulling her close to him, "that I tried to save you, and that you are the most infuriatingly stubborn person I've ever known."
"I missed you, too, Damon," Elena said, closing her eyes and pressing her face against his chest.
On the way up the shaft, Elena realized, Damon must have wrapped her in some stray edge of his Power, because the trip had been smooth and almost momentary. On the way down, apparently he wasn't bothering to protect her. Her hair flew upward and the skin on her face stung with the passing wind. He's got me, she told herself, but her body screamed that she was plummeting.
They landed on the top of the elevator amid a plume of dust, and Elena choked and coughed for several minutes, wiping at the tears on her face.
"We have to get in there," she said frantically, feeling around in the dark, as soon as she could speak again. The elevator must have collapsed when it hit the bottom of the shaft. Instead of a neat box of metal, she could feel the sharp edges and long, broken pieces of shattered beams and the remains of walls. "Andres could still be alive," she told Damon. She knelt and began to feel along what had been the elevator's top. The space Klaus and Damon had come through must still be here somewhere.
Damon grabbed her hands. "No," he said. "You say you can see auras now? Use your Power. There's no one in there."
He was right. As soon as Elena really looked, she could see that there was no trace of Andres's green or that terrible chilling blackness that Klaus carried with him.
"Do you think they're dead?" she whispered.
Damon let out a short, bitter laugh. "Hardly," he said. "It would take more than a fall down an elevator shaft to kill Klaus. And if your human pal with the shield was dead in there, I'd be able to smell his blood." He shook his head. "No, Klaus escaped again. And he took your Andres with him."
"We have to save him," Elena said, and, when Damon didn't reply immediately, she yanked on his leather jacket, pulling him closer so she could stare demandingly into his unfathomable black eyes. Damon was going to help her whether he wanted to or not. She wasn't letting him get away again. "We have to save Andres."
Chapter 35
Elena moved fast. She couldn't stop, couldn't think about what might be happening to Andres, or that they might be too late. She had to stay cool, stay focused. She pulled out her phone and called the others, filling them in on the situation and telling them to prepare for a fight and meet her in a clearing in the woods just on the edge of campus.
"We're taking the battle to Klaus," she told Damon, shoving her phone briskly back into her bag. "This time, we're going to win."
They stopped by Elena's room to drop off her schoolbag and, by the time they reached the clearing, the others had already gathered. Bonnie and Alaric were looking through a spell book together, while Stefan, Meredith, Zander, and Shay talked tactics on the other side of the clearing. Zander's eyes, Elena noticed, glanced in Bonnie's direction, but she was focused on her book. Everyone else was busily sharpening stakes or organizing weapons.
Silence fell over the clearing when Elena entered with Damon. Meredith's hand tightened on her stave, and Matt drew Chloe a little closer to him, protectively.
Elena was looking at Stefan, who stepped forward, his mouth grim.
"Damon saved me from Klaus," she announced, loud enough so everyone could hear. "He's fighting for us now."
Stefan and Damon stared at each other from opposite sides of the clearing. After a moment, Stefan nodded awkwardly. "Thank you," he said.
Damon shrugged. "I tried to stay away," he said, "but I guess you can't manage without me." Stefan's mouth tugged up into a reluctant half smile, and then the brothers turned away from each other, Damon wandering over toward Bonnie and Alaric while Stefan came to Elena.
"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked her, running his hands lightly over her shoulders as if to reassure himself that she wasn't obviously injured.
"I'm fine," Elena answered, and kissed him. Stefan pulled her closer and she leaned into his embrace, taking comfort in the strength of his arms around her. "Andres held Klaus off, Stefan. He was so brave, and he told Damon to get me away. They saved me." She swallowed back a sob. "We can't let Klaus kill him."
"We won't," Stefan promised, his mouth against her hair. "We'll get there in time."
Elena sniffed back her tears. "You can't know that."
"We'll do our best," Stefan told her. "It will have to be good enough."
The sun was low in the sky, and afternoon sunlight spread across the grass between the trees. Elena spent the next few minutes sharpening stakes. They didn't have wood from the blessed tree, but ordinary white ash would at least hurt Klaus. And any wood would kill his vampire descendants.
"All right," Stefan said at last, calling everyone together. "I think we're as ready as we're going to be." Elena looked around at the gathered group: Meredith and Alaric, hand in hand, looking strong and ready for anything. Bonnie, her cheeks flushed and her curls going in every direction, but sticking her chin out defiantly. Matt and Chloe, pale but determined. Zander, still human-form for now, shooting wistful, confused glances at Bonnie, flanked by Shay and the other werewolves, an empty space among them.
Damon stood alone on the other side of the circle, watching Elena. When Stefan cleared his throat, preparing to speak, Damon shifted his eyes to watch his brother instead. He looked, Elena thought, resigned. Not happy, but not angry anymore.