Coalesce (Book Six of The Vampire Diaries)

Ch. 6: The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get

Come morning, we were still in the mausoleum, embraced.

"I missed you, too, guys," Damon told us.

"I can't believe it," I told him. We pulled back. "I have searched every possible lead there was, and I didn't do it this time. But you're here."

"Which is more than I can say," Stefan told him. "I thought you were gone." 

"Well, you didn't think I was gone gone," Damon told him. "I promised you an eternity of misery."

Damon smiled.

******

We asked where Bonnie was.

"She sacrificed herself so I could come back, but I don't want anyone to know," Damon told us. "No sense making this harder than it already is."

"What are we going to tell people?" Stefan asked.

That Bonnie hadn't been over there.

******

We asked where they had been.

"Mystic Falls?" I repeated in confusion. "1994?" 

"I know," Damon told us. "A bunch of witches were going to get together and create some space time purgatory, you'd think they'd pick a better year than the one Kurt Cobain killed himself in. The whole thing was just very depressing."

Damon took a drink of the bourbon bottle.

"So how did you get back?" Stefan asked.

"Long story, big flash of light," Damon told us. "Two decades worth of jet lag. I will explain all of my adventures in that flannel hell scope, but first, there's someone I got to go see."

Damon held either of our shoulders, walking past us.

******

We told him about Elena's compulsion.

Damon stopped in front of the doors of the mausoleum, turning to face us, shocked. "She did what?" 

I looked from Stefan to Damon. "She had Alaric do it."

******

"I just need to see her," Damon told us. "Our eyes will meet, fireworks will go off, and the balance of nature will be restored. She loves me!" 

******

 Matt had called me to meet up with him, Caroline and Alaric to talk about Enzo in Alaric's office.

Because, while Enzo had been missing, Tripp the vampire hunter had taken him.

Alaric was behind his desk.

Matt sat in a chair across from him.

Caroline stood, her arms crossed over her arms.

I looked at Matt incredulously. "Why didn't you tell us Enzo has been locked up this whole time?" 

"Honestly, I didn't know anybody was missing him," Matt answered. 

"Matt!" I told him.

"I'm sorry," Matt told me. "I was confused about which vampires we like and which ones we don't."