Bad Feelings (Zach's Daughter series, Book Five, The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 21__Promised Land

Damon had came home to tell me that the Travelers had taken off with Stefan and Elena, and that Stefan had killed Enzo, who was now on the Other Side, and he wanted to get back over here onto this side before he was swept into oblivion like everybody else.

Damon had a Traveler tied to a chair. He sprayed water in his face to wake him up. "Wakey, wakey. Mr. . . " He grabbed an ID tag from the Traveler's shirt, reading it. "Sikes . . .Head of corporate accounts." The Traveler tried to speak, but Damon also had his mouth bound. "Oops. Sorry about that. Yeah. Can't have you mumbling any of those annoying Traveler ditties. It's a sure migraine. So, here's the deal. My brother and my girl have both been kidnapped by Travelers and me and my better-than-ever cousin Nikki over there can't seem to find them anywhere." Damon looked toward me. The Traveler followed his gaze. I waved sarcastically. "I mean, like, poof, gone. Right." 

"So besides a completely clueless hybrid in our basement and a cave full of sleeping Travelers, we've got nothing to go on except you," I told him. "So, we're going to need you to tell us where we can find your leader, Markos."

The door opened behind us.

Damon didn't have to look behind us to know it was Caroline. "What's up, Blondie?" 

"Liv and Luke aren't answering any of my . . ." Caroline trailed off when she saw who we had captive. "Oh, my God! Mr. Sikes?" 

"You know him?" I asked.

"Yeah," Caroline answered. "He helped me open my first savings account. He gave me a lollipop."

"Well, unfortunately, Mr. Sikes here is occupied by some low-life Traveler," I told her. "I saw him and his buddies chanting in the Town Square last week. I also know that Markos and your Traveler comrades are planning some big, flashy spell to undo some super-boring, ancient witch curse. And where that sucks for us--it just happened to undo all witch magic."

"I.e, kill me, my cousin/niece, and my sexy blonde frenemy here," Damon told him.

"If you know where Markos took Stefan and Elena, you need to tell us," Caroline told him. 

The Traveler mumbled something. 

I walked closer. "Yep. Sorry. You're going to have to speak up. Hmm. Nope. Didn't quite catch that either." 

Damon took a knife, stabbing his leg, making him mumble in pain.

Caroline cringed.

Damon looked from me to Caroline. "I think he's trying to say something." He took the cloth off of his mouth. "Come on. Say goodbye." 

"It doesn't matter where Markos is," Mr. Sikes/Traveler told us. "Nothing you do can stop him now."

~~~~~

Stefan called me from a payphone.

"Seriously? Collect calls are still a thing?" 

"Yeah, well, you know what could have saved you the cost of this phone call? You finding us. How long have we been gone?" 

"Four days." 

"Four days?! Four days and you two couldn't track us down? What did you think? We were having a nice spa getaway?" 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We've been searching 24/7, okay? Maybe if you would've been a little more perceptive, you wouldn't have gotten yourselves doppelnapped." I heard a window shattering. "What the hell was that?" 

"Travelers drained us of our blood, so we're having to do a little hunting." 

"Oh, so it's not bad enough that he has you participating in squirrel slaughter, now he has Elena too?" Damon asked.