The Red Herring: A Mikaelson Love Story

Chapter 9: The Red Herring

~Elena POV~

"This is useless." Jeremy said as he and Bonnie flipped through pages of the grimoire in the old witch house. "There has to be something to keep her from becoming a vampire."

"And we'll keep looking for it, until the last minute." Bonnie reassured him.

"No, stop, we have to save Iliana!" Elena yelled as she ran in, near tears.

"Elena, how did you get free?" Jeremy asked in surprise.

"It was Iliana, she freed me and Jenna. Klaus turned her into a vampire and I lost her on the way back. But you need to save Iliana, she's going to give herself up." Elena screeched.

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked nervously. "She's not a doppelganger, it won't work!"

"But she is." Elena said still sobbing. "She found a loophole—the red herring."

Elijah, Stefan and Alaric joined them in the house having caught the last part of the conversation.

"It's fine. The sacrifice is completed in stages as the full moon sets. First the werewolf is killed, then the vampire. Finally, the doppelgänger. Once Iliana dies, the curse will be broken. Klaus will become a hybrid." Elijah told them.

"No, it's not!" Elena shot back. "She's not going to wake up, she's going to die! She doesn't have vampire blood in her or an elixir or anything, she's going to die!"

"No, she told us, she would get you out!" Stefan said angrily. "She said she would find you and take you both out of the equation, not take your place!"

"We have to help her, please." Elena said, sobbing.

"We will, Elena." Bonnie told her. "First you have to explain this red herring."

~Iliana POV~

I sat in the middle of the circle with a now awakened Greta, and a random wolf she had brought when Jenna ran back in.

"Jenna, what are you doing here?" I yelled in a worry. "I told you to get away!"

"I can't do this, Iliana." She told me with tears glistening in her eyes. "I can't be a vampire. I want to die."

"No, it's just new to you." I said, trying to reassure her. "Vampires can turn off the part that's human. The part that hurts."

"I'm gonna die." She told me. "I have to."

"No! Jenna, I will not let that happen to you." I begged her. "Please, I need you."

"You have no control over the situation." Greta told me with a shrug.

"Greta, witches are supposed to maintain the balance in nature. It's your duty to them to keep this curse sealed." I said to her, trying to convince her to free us.

"My duty is to Klaus and the new order." She told me calmly.

"Iliana, what are you doing here?" Klaus asked me in shock when he saw me in the circle.

"What else would I be here for? I'm here to complete the ritual."

~Damon POV~

Damon came down from his deathbed and answered the door that someone had incessantly been knocking at.

"Great. I was just thinking about getting a bite to eat." Damon said when John Gilbert, Elena and Iliana's biological father, was standing in the doorway in frustration.

"Where's Elena? She hasn't returned any of my calls for days. I need to see her." He said impatiently.

"Well you're about a day late and a daughter short, john." Damon told him.