Elena frowned. "But you think this is another, more powerful kind of phantom? Why? What did Sage tel you?"
Damon tapped her hand with one finger as he counted.
"One: the names. That's beyond the powers of an ordinary phantom. Two: It took Bonnie. A regular phantom wouldn't be able to do that, and wouldn't get anything out of it if it could. An Original phantom, though, can steal her spirit and take it back to the Dark Dimension. It can drain her life force and emotions to make itself stronger."
"Wait," Elena said, alarmed. "Bonnie's back in the Dark Dimension? Anything could be happening to her! She could be enslaved again!" Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she thought of how humans were treated in the Dark Dimension.
Damon squeezed her hand. "No, don't worry about that. She's there only in spirit - the phantom wil have her in some kind of holding cel ; it'l want her safe. I think the worst thing that could happen to her is she'l be bored." He frowned. "It'l sap her life force, though, and that'l weaken her eventual y."
"You think that being bored's the worst thing that could happen to her... oh, at least until it drains al her life force?
That's not good enough, Damon. We have to help her."
Elena thought for a moment. "So phantoms live in the Dark Dimension?"
Damon hesitated. "Not in the beginning. The Original phantoms were relegated to the Dark Moon by the Guardians."
"Where you died."
"Yes," Damon said caustical y. Then he rubbed the back of her hand in a silent apology for his tone. "Original phantoms are kept inside some kind of prison on the Dark Moon, just itching for a chance to get out. Like genies in a bottle. If something broke the prison wal , their ultimate goal would be to make it to Earth and feed on human emotions. After the World Tree was destroyed, Sage said things changed, which would make sense if an Original phantom managed to escape as things shifted after the destruction."
"Why come al the way to Earth, though?" Elena asked.
"There're al those demons and vampires in the Dark Dimension."
She could see Damon's smile in the shadows. "I guess human emotion is extra-delicious. Like human blood is. And there aren't enough humans in the Dark Dimension to make a real y good meal. There are so many humans on Earth that an Original here can just keep on gorging on emotion and growing ever more powerful."
"So it fol owed us from the Dark Moon?" Elena asked.
"It must have hitched a ride with you when you came back to Earth. It would have wanted to get as far from its prison as possible, so an opening between dimensions would have been irresistible."
"And it was freed from its prison when I used my Wings of Destruction and blasted the moon?"
Damon shrugged. "That seems to be the most likely explanation."
Elena's heart sank. "So Bonnie's vision was right. I brought this. It's my fault."
He brushed back her hair and kissed her neck. "Don't think of it that way," he said. "How could you have stopped it? You didn't know. And I'm grateful you used the Wings of Destruction: That's what saved me, after al . The important thing now is to fight the phantom. We need to send it back before it gets too powerful. If it gets a real foothold here, it can start influencing more and more people. The whole world could be in danger."
Elena half consciously arched her neck to one side so that Damon could get a better angle, and he gently traced the vein on the side of her neck with his lips for a moment before she realized what they were doing and nudged him away again. "I don't understand, though. Why would it tel us who it's going after next?" she said. "Why does it give us the names?"
"Oh, that's not its own doing," Damon said, and kissed her shoulder. "Even the most powerful phantom has to fol ow the rules. It's part of the spel the Guardians put on the Original phantoms, when they relegated them to the Dark Moon. A safeguard in case the Originals ever escaped. This way, their prey knows they're coming, and it gives them a fair shot at resisting."
"The Guardians imprisoned it," Elena said. "Would they help us send it back?"
"I don't know," Damon said shortly. "I wouldn't ask them if I could help it, though. I don't trust them, do you?"
Elena thought of the cool efficiency of the Guardians, of the way they had dismissed Damon's death as irrelevant. Of the way they had caused her own parents' death. "No,"
she said, shivering. "Let's leave them out of it if we can."
"We'l defeat it ourselves, Elena," Damon said, and caressed her cheek with his hand.
"Stop it," Elena said. "We have to concentrate."
Damon stopped trying to touch her for a moment and thought. "Tel me about your little friends. Have people been tense? Fighting? Acting out of character?"
"Yes," Elena said immediately. "No one's been acting like themselves. I can't put my finger on it, but something's been wrong since we got back."
Damon nodded. "Since it probably came with you, it makes sense that it would have targeted you and those connected to you as its first victims."
"But how do we stop it?" Elena asked. "What do these stories you've heard about the Original phantoms say about recapturing them once they've escaped from their prison?"
Damon sighed, and his shoulders slumped a little.
"Nothing," he said. "I don't know anything more. I'l have to go back to the Dark Dimension and see what I can find out, or if I can fight the phantom from there."
Elena stiffened. "It's too dangerous, Damon."