The Sacrifice

Kill or be Killed - 3

Damon and Stefan are now awake. Damon is feeding on one of the deputies and then he checks up on me. Elena is sitting with me and Stefan. Caroline and Liz are sitting quietly in different parts of the cell.

"Help her," Elena says quietly to Damon who complies. I feel so weak, I'm pale, dirty and my body feels like it's on fire. I've lost too much blood. Damon lifts me up, pulling me to him.

 "You're not leaving me just yet Ariel. I have way more nicknames in store for you" I chuckle weakly. "Well thanks, now I wanna die" I say with a raspy voice. They already got the bullets out of me, now with the blood my scars will heal. 

Damon bites his wrist and makes me drink. The blood tastes metallic, I spit some out when I'm done. The color slowly returns to my pale face and I feel my aching body slowly stitch together. 

"Are you okay?" Elena asks worried. I nod and let Damon sit me right up against the wall. "I'll live" Damon stands and clasps his hands.

"This is a most unfortunate situation. Two deputies dead and you." He says, looking at Liz.

"What am I gonna do with you?"

Caroline looks at her mother, her face is still stained with blood. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" She asks. Liz glances at her and looks away.

 "Mom? Mom? Please. Look, I know that we don't get along and that you hate me but I'm your daughter and you'll do this for me, right?" She begs. "Mom, please. He will kill you." She begs.

Liz looks up at Damon with tears in her eyes. "Then kill me."

"No!" Caroline yells.

"I can't take this. Kill me now." Liz begs, her voice thick with tears,

Damon bends down to look her in the eyes.

"But you were gonna drag it out so painfully." Damon mocks, using her words against her.

He suddenly grabs her. She stands up quickly.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Damon, don't!"

"Damon, please!"

Caroline, Stefan and Elena yell out. I'm the only one who doesn't yell at him. If I didn't know Damon as well as I do now, I'd probably yell. But I know better, he won't do it.

"Relax guys'' Damon says looking back at us. "No one is killing anybody." At this everyone breathes a sigh of relief. He looks at Liz. "You're my friend." He looks at the deputy's.

"We've got to clean this up."

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After dealing with the deputy's we all head to the Salvatore Boarding house. While everyone heads inside Damon pulls me to a stop. "What is it?" I ask. I'm already healed, I'm still covered in my blood. 

I had to go in a separate car because the smell was messing with Stefan. "Everyone else was so sure I would kill Liz. They all screamed but you didn't, Why?" He asks. I sigh.

 "Because Damon. I know you better than that. You weren't gonna do it" I express. Damon smiles, pleased by my answer and slings his arm over my shoulder. "Maybe next time, you'll think before running into danger" I laugh and hold his hand.

 "Never" He sniffs my hair as we walk to the house. "You need to change" 

"Yeah I know" I say, looking down at my bloody clothes. "I think there are some clothes in the old room you were staying in. Check their"

I do as Damon says and find a pair of my old clothes that I left here. I took a quick shower, scrubbing away at the blood and when I was freshly cleaned went to join Damon in the cellar with liz. In the cellar, Liz is on the phone while Damon is watching her across the room.

"A stomach bug. Yeah, it came on fast. I'll definitely be out tomorrow..." She explains to the other person. "Tsk, tsk, tsk." Damon says, a warning.

Liz looks at Damon and understands the warning. "...or longer. I'll text you. Yeah. Good night." She hangs up and gives the phone to Damon. 

"Thank you" He says as she makes her way to the small bed against the wall. "It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's secure. Brought you a good thread count" I say, motioning to the sheets. Liz looks up at me and sighs.

 "I'm sorry Ariel. I really thought you were a vampire" I nod slightly. "It's alright, I forgive you" She nods and forces a small but weak smile. 

"And once the vervain works its way out of your system, I will compel you, you will forget everything and you will be a free woman" Damon suddenly says. Caroline, Stefan and Elena arrive at the cell and are about to enter when Caroline stops outside the door and listens.

"Can you keep Caroline far away from me please? I don't wanna see her." Liz asks/explains.

Damon and I furrow our eyebrows. "She's your daughter" I say.

"Not anymore. My daughter's gone." She says with a shake of her head. "You have no idea how wrong you are about that." Damon says to her, and we lock eyes with Caroline at the door. Damon tenses and raises a finger to his lips. 

"What is it?" I ask and he replies with a sentence. "Elena, Stefan, human blood" My eyes widen and I walk out of the cellar and find Stefan in the cooler where Damon keeps his blood. He meets my eye and looks away and stalks off to find Caroline and Elena. 

"Can I take you home?" I hear Elena ask. I approach and stand next to Elena. "I can't" Caroline says through tears. "Why?" I ask softly. 

"Because I'm scared" She explains through a sniff. Elena and I walk to her, Elena sits on the coffee table in front of her and I sit next to her. "Why are you scared?" Elena asks. 

"Caroline you can talk to us" Elena says as I grab Caroline's hand. Caroline sighs. "Katherines gonna be There, and she's going to want me to tell her everything that happened today" She explains. Elena and I glance at each other in masked shock.

 "She told me I had to spy on you and report back to her'' Caroline confesses. "I know" Elena says, making both of us look up at her. "And I've been so mad at you" Caroline sobs.

 "But then I tried to put myself in your position, so that I could understand why you would do this, to me and to Stefan. Because he's been such a friend to you" Elena admits. Elena then moves to sit next to her other side.

 "Who did she threaten?" I ask. Caroline looks at me and cries. "Matt" She says through cries and my eyes widen.

 "I couldn't say no, I couldn't do that to him or you" She admits and cries. "I'm so scared of her." 

"And you should be. Caroline, we all should be." Elena tells her.

"Why is she doing this? What does she want?" Caroline asks.

"That's the million dollar question."