Howlin' For You

Chapter 6 - The Friendship

It was well past 2 a.m. when Rhiannon finally turned back into her human form. Elijah had watched her howl through the night from afar making sure she wouldn't cross paths with anybody else. He wasn't worried for himself, because the bite wouldn't kill him, but he also couldn't exactly afford the luxury of coming down with the wolf bite too.

He also noticed she wasn't the only werewolf in town this full moon. When he carried her into the woods to turn, he happened to come near what appeared to be the old Lockwood cellar and overheard Tyler Lockwood's transformation. He also stumbled upon freaked-out Caroline Forbes in the middle of the woods. She had no idea who he was and he managed to compel some information out of her, making her forget their encounter. It seemed like she had taken upon herself to help Tyler through his first transformation, but he was wondering why she wouldn't help one of her best friends. It turned out that Damon didn't want the boy to know about the rest of the supernatural residence in Mystic Falls, including Rhiannon, and helping both of them might bring out questions she couldn't answer.

He watched wolf-Rhiannon crawl into the shadows of trees and when he heard her strangled sobs, he knew it was over. He walked up to her naked curled up body, covering it with the blanket he'd been prudently carrying around with him the whole time. She raised her head as he was lifting her up from the ground, her beautiful face tear-stained, confused and covered in dirt was showing every single emotion that was racking her at that moment. He sat back down with her in his arms hugging her tightly gently. He knew she was in a lot of pain.

"You made it," he whispered soothingly to her. "It's over. You're alright."

"No I'm not," she whispered so quietly that anyone without his enhanced hearing wouldn't notice. "Will you take me home, please?"

"Of course," Elijah whispered pressing his lips on top of her head, too gently for her to notice. "We just have to make one quick stop on our way back."

While he was out following the little wolf, he called the Martin witches to remove the seal on the tomb. Now all that was left to do was let Stefan out and compel Katerina to stay put. He sat Rhiannon down on the wall next to the staircase that led down to the tomb wrapping the blanket tight around her.

"I'll be quick, I promise," he said rubbing his hands on her shoulders to keep her warm.

"It's okay," she rasped, her voice hoarse from all the screaming she did earlier. "I'm just glad you can get Stefan out."

"I'll be right back," he said and shooting her a small smile, began his descent to the tomb.

He removed the huge block of stone, serving as a provisional door, alerting the two captives to his presence. It wasn't long before they both emerged from the shadows, approaching the exit cautiously and it filled him with an extreme amount of satisfaction to see Katerina stop dead in her tracks and nearly wetting herself from fear upon seeing him stand outside the tomb. He once felt something for her, but that all changed once he got the glimpse of her real self-serving personality.

"Elijah," she mumbled, her voice shaking.

"Good evening Katerina," he said. "Thank you for having a good sense to be frightened."

"Your release has been requested," he said turning over to Stefan.

"What?" the young vampire asked, clearly confused. "By whom?"

"The lovely Elena drives a hard bargain," Elijah elaborated. "However we reached a peaceful agreement, she and I."

Stefan still didn't trust him and Elijah was in no mood to prolong his stay in a presence of Katerina.