12. Road Trip

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Chapter The Next

)Elena's POV(

     I sat in the passenger seat as we hurdled down the roads at an average speed of 80 MPH on the way to Duke University to find answers about doppelgangers and prophets, etc. I looked around Andrea's red Porshe, which somehow had the power to render vampires useless. It was pretty, sure, but I hadn't really gotten why Damon and Stefan had looked as though they were about to go down on their knees and worship the car when they first saw it. To my surprise, Andrea had seemed confused at that as well, but hadn't called them out on it, simply muttering to herself, "Choose your battles wisely."

"What..." I turned around when I heard Damon moan, coughing and clutching his stomach. "Where am I?" 

Fighting Damon for the wheel, Andrea had clung onto the steering wheel until finally calling on Stefan's debt and making him get Damon into the back of the car. It had taken a good hour, but eventually, with the help of a little vervain, we had gotten him into the back, leaving Stefan behind to help Caroline, which I wasn't thrilled about. 

Andrea gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles prominent as they turned white.  

"You don't remember?" Andrea didn't take her eyes off of the road when she asked him. 

"It's all..." Damon grabbed his head, then laughed cynically. "Oh, did I misjudge you or what, Andrea?" 

Andrea turned pale, and her grip on the wheel tightened.

"What?" I tried to make heads-and-tails of the situation. "What do you mean, Damon?" 

He didn't reply, instead staring at Andrea through the mirror. I turned to her. "Andrea, what does he mean?"

Damon smirked as Andrea let out a shaky breath. She looked at Damon through the mirror. "If you're going to puke," she said calmly and coldly. "Do it outside of my car."

     Andrea ignored myself and Damon for the rest of the car ride, despite every attempt we made to get her to talk. Occasionally, her eyes would drift from the road, but always returned after a second. I got the feeling she only had her permit and not her licence.

"Andrea?" I tried again.

From the back of the car, Damon rolled his head back and sighed. "You're wasting your time, Elena." 

"Shut up, Damon," Andrea and I snapped at the same time.

Damon blinked in shock. "And she's alive!"

She closed her eyes and muttered some numbers under her breath. "Why, yes, Damon, yes, I am alive. In fact, one might even dare to classify you as dead."

Now Damon closed his eyes and hissed something under his breath. Andrea laughed at whatever it was, and smirked through the mirror at him. He rolled his eyes at her. "It wasn't a compliment," he muttered darkly.

"Yeah, whatever," she smiled.

Damon's eye caught on something in the back. "What's this?"

He held up a stack of papers. "Hmm...oh, this is really interesting, sooo facinating: 'Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.' —William Penn, 1644–1718, blah, blah, blah."

"Aww, did you know him, Damon?" Andrea smirked, then turned pale and her grip on the steering wheel relaxed drastically.

"Andrea?" I tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "Andrea?"

Andrea didn't turn to face me. 

"Andrea?" Damon tried nervously. "Andrea?"

We were approaching a turn rapidly. Andrea didn't respond. She didn't even blink. 

Damon reached forward and throttled her shoulders. "ANDREA!!"

She turned around in a blur and when the blur focused, she was in the back seats, holding Damon in a choke hold, hissing at him. Her eyes were that pale-green-gold color that sent shivers down my spine.

"Incompetent little fool," she leered in Damon's face. He turned red in rage, and struggled to escape her grip, but, even with all of his vampire strength he couldn't. Andrea was stronger than him.

Throwing my seatbelt off, I leaned over the passanger seat and climbed into the driver's seat, stomped ont the pedals and swerved the steering wheel so the car barely made the turn. Andrea turned her head to me, still easily holding Damon down. "I had that," she whined. "Oh, well."

She flicked her wrist and the car responded, completely ignoring my stomping on the brake, sped up and  swerved, cutting across three lanes on the highway and flying through a red light.

"Andrea!" I screamed, desperately trying to fix the car, which was still haywire, but responding to Andrea's every movement.

"You have disappointed me again," Andrea bared her teeth in defiance at Damon. "And you shall pay for it!"

I screeched, completely forgeting about the car and tackled her over, sending us both into the very small boot. I rolled, and my head whacked into something hard enough I saw sparks in my vision. I saw Damon fly into the driver's seat and take control of the car, looking back with fear for me in his eyes. Andrea rose slowly and looked down at me with those foreign eyes. "And this is it," she threatened, something silver in her hands. Suddenly, she blinked and staggered, sinking into the ground like me, strength draining from our cores. Her eyes fractured, and we screamed at the same time as a skull-splitting pain wrecked us. I collapsed and sank into the bottom of the dark and cold sea of unconsciousness.

)Carlotta's POV(

     My head spun and I blinked rapidly. Where was I?

Rock walls blurred before me. Weakly, I tried to struggle, but something was restraining me. A pounding sound began inside my head, and I moaned, my head lolling limply again. 

The last thing I remembered was hearing Katerina scream...

"Oh, good," a pleased voice said. "You're awake."

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