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Klaus, face twisted with rage, was trapped by the glowing green barrier of Andres's protective aura, the eerie green lighting his face. As Elena stared openmouthed, Klaus forced a hand through the green. Damon grabbed her in his arms and leaped straight up into the elevator shaft.
Elena barely had time to take a breath before Damon was kicking his way through a door at the top of the shaft, and she found herself slumped on the tiles outside the elevator door on the top floor of the building. There were no classrooms here, just offices, and the hall was quiet.
Damon lay beside her, still clutching her, and panting harshly. Blood was trickling from his nose and he unwrapped one of his arms from around her to wipe at it with his sleeve.
"We have to go back," she told him, as soon as she could speak.
Damon stared at her. "Are you kidding me?" he gasped. "We barely got away as it is. "
Elena shook her head stubbornly. "We can't abandon Andres," she said.
Damon's stare sharpened to a glare. "Your friend from the elevator made his choice," he said coldly. "He wanted me to save you. Do you think he'll thank me if I drop right back down there instead of getting you out of here?"
A crash came from inside the elevator shaft, rattling the building. Elena pulled herself to her feet, steadying herself against the walls. She felt fragile, but determined, as if she was made of glass and steel.
"We're both going back," she said. "I don't care what Andres would choose. I'm not leaving here without him. Take me down. "
Damon clenched his jaw and glared harder. Elena simply stood and waited, immovable.
Finally, Damon swore to himself and climbed to his feet. "Let the record show," he said, grabbing her by the arms again and pulling her close to him, "that I tried to save you, and that you are the most infuriatingly stubborn person I've ever known. "
"I missed you, too, Damon," Elena said, closing her eyes and pressing her face against his chest.
On the way up the shaft, Elena realized, Damon must have wrapped her in some stray edge of his Power, because the trip had been smooth and almost momentary. On the way down, apparently he wasn't bothering to protect her. Her hair flew upward and the skin on her face stung with the passing wind. He's got me, she told herself, but her body screamed that she was plummeting.
They landed on the top of the elevator amid a plume of dust, and Elena choked and coughed for several minutes, wiping at the tears on her face.
"We have to get in there," she said frantically, feeling around in the dark, as soon as she could speak again. The elevator must have collapsed when it hit the bottom of the shaft. Instead of a neat box of metal, she could feel the sharp edges and long, broken pieces of shattered beams and the remains of walls. "Andres could still be alive," she told Damon. She knelt and began to feel along what had been the elevator's top. The space Klaus and Damon had come through must still be here somewhere.
Damon grabbed her hands. "No," he said. "You say you can see auras now? Use your Power. There's no one in there. "
He was right. As soon as Elena really looked, she could see that there was no trace of Andres's green or that terrible chilling blackness that Klaus carried with him.
"Do you think they're dead?" she whispered.
Damon let out a short, bitter laugh. "Hardly," he said. "It would take more than a fall down an elevator shaft to kill Klaus. And if your human pal with the shield was dead in there, I'd be able to smell his blood. " He shook his head. "No, Klaus escaped again. And he took your Andres with him. "
"We have to save him," Elena said, and, when Damon didn't reply immediately, she yanked on his leather jacket, pulling him closer so she could stare demandingly into his unfathomable black eyes. Damon was going to help her whether he wanted to or not. She wasn't letting him get away again. "We have to save Andres. "
Chapter 35
Elena moved fast. She couldn't stop, couldn't think about what might be happening to Andres, or that they might be too late. She had to stay cool, stay focused. She pulled out her phone and called the others, filling them in on the situation and telling them to prepare for a fight and meet her in a clearing in the woods just on the edge of campus.
"We're taking the battle to Klaus," she told Damon, shoving her phone briskly back into her bag. "This time, we're going to win. "
They stopped by Elena's room to drop off her schoolbag and, by the time they reached the clearing, the others had already gathered. Bonnie and Alaric were looking through a spell book together, while Stefan, Meredith, Zander, and Shay talked tactics on the other side of the clearing. Zander's eyes, Elena noticed, glanced in Bonnie's direction, but she was focused on her book. Everyone else was busily sharpening stakes or organizing weapons.
Silence fell over the clearing when Elena entered with Damon. Meredith's hand tightened on her stave, and Matt drew Chloe a little closer to him, protectively.
Elena was looking at Stefan, who stepped forward, his mouth grim.
"Damon saved me from Klaus," she announced, loud enough so everyone could hear. "He's fighting for us now. "
Stefan and Damon stared at each other from opposite sides of the clearing. After a moment, Stefan nodded awkwardly. "Thank you," he said.
Damon shrugged. "I tried to stay away," he said, "but I guess you can't manage without me. " Stefan's mouth tugged up into a reluctant half smile, and then the brothers turned away from each other, Damon wandering over toward Bonnie and Alaric while Stefan came to Elena.
"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked her, running his hands lightly over her shoulders as if to reassure himself that she wasn't obviously injured.
