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Damon couldn’t ever remember torture being this bad. As he hung from the ceiling, his stolen blood pooling down at his feet, he hadn’t really notice when Rebeka stopped cutting him. The pain from the clamps and his weakness from being bled all melted into one continuous sensation. All that was left for the moment were sounds and scents. Among the stench of the blood, his nose perked as a familiar scent tickled his nose. The sound of hard, sharp heels against marble floor, make him stiffen for a second before he caught himself.
“Oh my god.”
He was embarrassed at how relieved he was that it wasn’t Rebekah’s voice that greeted his ears.
He opened his eyes to see Elena standing in front of him and felt enough strength build up in him to speak to her.
“What are you doing? Rebekah will kill you...”
“... Kill you ...” her voice repeated, but she just stood there, in the entrance of the doorway, looking at him. He felt his body go a little slack, but tried to keep himself up to keep the claw traps from tearing deeper into him. The chains jangled and he was afraid the sound might call Rebekah back. He didn’t want Elena to get caught.
“Run ...” came his voice.
But Elena just stood there, her head tilting a little to the side. His vision wasn’t the best it could have been - he couldn’t make out her features, only the form- but he thought he saw her shiver.
“I said get out of here!” he tried to sound harsh, but even that took too much strength. She didn’t move to leave. Instead she stepped further into the room and he noticed then that she didn’t move quite the same way. She seemed smaller somehow.
“Elena ...” he begged, but it was too late, a form appeared behind her and his eyes shifted to the movement. He leaned forward pulling against his restraints in an effort to attack. But all it did was serve sever some tendons in his wrist.
The shadow came up behind Elena, dipping its head low to lean close to her ear. When the shadow spoke Damon saw she at least she had the presence of mind to jump.
“H’m, he thinks you’re Elena ... You’ll have to excuse the mess. Apparently, Damon hurt my sister’s feelings.”
The shadow walked past her and Damon could now see that he had been wrong the whole time. It wasn’t Elena standing before him, but Bonnie Bennett. His heart dropped when her face came into sharp focus. It -her face- was like a stone.
--
“What are you doing here?” he asked Bonnie, more than a little bitterly.
“She’s come to unbind my siblings and I. Seeing as how you all killed my last batch of witches, I figured I’d just steal yours.” Bonnie’s eyes fell from Damon and came to rest on the wall behind him. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to hear them talk about her like she was only some thing to be wielded and used up. But she was too tired to do anything but take it. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and lifted her chin, trying to will them away.
“Bonnie ...” Damon said. Being this close to him had the same effect on her as nails being dragged across a chalkboard. She twitched and shuddered when he spoke. Klaus’s proximity didn’t help matters.
“Go ahead Bonnie. Help the man who murdered your mother. I won’t stop you. I’ll even open the chains for you, if you wish.”
“Klaus ... he’s my plaything not yours.” Rebekah pouted as she reentered the room.
“Though,” Klaus continued as if he hadn’t heard his sister. “You know once you got him out of those doors he would feed on you in a second. And if you were lucky he might decide at the last moment to save you the same way he did your mother. He would do it you know ... Anything he could do to get back to Elena faster.”
The fire in the fireplace rose suddenly, and the temporary loss of control took Bonnie’s breath away. She was too close to breaking in front of these monsters.
Damon didn’t know if it was his imagination or if the clamps on his wrist tightened. He didn’t know it was possible to feel anymore pain.
“Oh this could be fun with a witch.” rang Rebekah from her end of the room. The sound of her voice broke Bonnie out of a trance she didn’t know she was in. She let out a breath and the chains went slack. Her first impulse was to apologize, but when she saw Damon sag with his own weight she had to fight back another batch of tears. It felt too good.
“Is there something you want to say, my dear.” Klaus inquired as he came close to spin a lock of Bonnie’s hair around his finger. Bonnie closed her eyes. She could still see Damon's finger prints on Abby's skin.
“Can I?” She stammered and then swallowed to compose herself as best she could in her present company. “I mean, may I ... May I keep his hands?”