"Humans mostly stay in their own dimension; they learn only the tiniest piece of what's happening, even the most gifted of them. But if Stefan behaved like any self-respecting vampire and didn't go around trying to be human al the time, he'd have a little more of a clue. He's barely even traveled to the Dark Dimension except when he was dragged there to sit in a cage or save Bonnie. Maybe if he had, he would understand what was going on and be able to protect his pet humans a little better."
Elena bristled. "Pet humans? I'm one of those pet humans, too."
Damon chuckled, and Elena realized he had said that purposely, to rile her up. "A pet? You, princess? Never. A tiger, maybe. Something wild and dangerous."
Elena rol ed her eyes. Then the implication of Damon's words hit her. "Wait, are you saying this isn't a phantom?
And that you know what it actual y is? Is it something that comes from the Dark Dimension?"
Damon shifted closer to her again. "Would you like to know what I know?" he said, his voice like a caress. "There are a lot of things I could tel you."
"Damon," Elena said firmly. "Stop flirting and pay attention. This is important. If you know anything, please tel me. If you don't, please don't play games with me. Bonnie's life is at stake. And we're al in danger. You're in danger, too, Damon: Don't forget, your name's been written, and we don't know for sure that whatever happened on the Dark Moon was the attack on you."
"I'm not too concerned." Damon waved his hand disparagingly. "It would take more than a phantom to hurt me, princess. But, yes, I know a little more about this than Stefan does." He turned her hand over and traced her palm with cool fingers. "It is a phantom," he said. "But it's not the same kind we saw in Italy long ago. Do you remember that Klaus was an Original? He wasn't sired like Katherine or Stefan or I was; he was never human. Vampires like Klaus consider vampires like us who started out as humans to be weak half-breeds. He was much stronger than us and much more difficult to kil . There are different types of phantoms, too. The phantoms who are born of human emotions on Earth are able to intensify and spur on these emotions. They don't have much consciousness of their own, though, and they never get very strong. They're just parasites. If they are cut off from the emotions they need to survive, they fade away pretty quickly."
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."