Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from The Vampire Diaries TV show, which is the property of the CW. I do not claim any ownership over the characters or the world of The Vampire Diaries. This story is of my own invention and is not part of the official story line.
"Hold still," Caroline barked. She tugged the blonde wig onto Bonnie's head.
"It's too small," Bonnie said, grunting.
"Your head is too big. Just breathe." Caroline gave it one last yank, the wig cutting into Bonnie's hairline. "There. That wasn't so bad." Caroline smiled in triumph.
Bonnie breathed through the pain. She could already feel a headache setting in. If the wig didn't adjust soon, she planned to toss it while Caroline wasn't looking.
What does a natural blonde need with a blonde wig anyway?
She had agreed to wear it only because Caroline insisted. And sometimes it was easier to just give in to Caroline than to resist.
Bonnie caught her reflection in the vanity mirror. The dark bags under her eyes were a reminder of getting only three hours of sleep last night, and two hours the night before. When she did manage to doze off, flashes of glowing amber eyes chasing her through the woods jolted her awake. The worst - and weirdest - had been this morning, when she woke to find her bare feet caked with mud.
"About that necklace I gave you," Caroline said, adjusting the stylish black hat on her own head. A small black veil completed the look, Caroline's fashionable version of a witch's hat. It had been Bonnie's plan to dress as a witch and Caroline had co-opted her idea. "I'm going to need it back." Caroline leaned toward, applying blood red lipstick.
"What do you mean you want it back?" Bonnie asked, noticing how Caroline was oddly avoiding her gaze. Considering her nightmares coincided with receiving the strange necklace, Bonnie should have been happy to rid herself of the amber jewel. Instead, she had this visceral urge to keep it.
"I need it," Caroline said. "Plus, you said yourself that it was ugly."
Bonnie had actually called it unstylish, and more as an insult to the guy who'd gifted it to her best friend. Damon was Caroline's newest conquest, a recent arrival to Mystic Falls. Something about him, and his younger brother Stefan, seemed off. And from what Caroline had told her about Damon, he seemed to treat Caroline like crap.
"You gave it to me as a gift. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't keep it?" Bonnie asked.
"I'll only be offended if you don't give it back to me."
"Sorry, Caroline. I'm not giving it back."
"But Damon will be pissed at me. And he's scary when he's pissed," Caroline said, a hint of fear in her voice.
Bonnie squinted at her friend in the mirror. "Scary how?"
Caroline shrugged her shoulder and Bonnie felt a sudden surge of anger. "Caroline, does he hurt you?"
"Of course not," Caroline said, though the uncertainty in her voice said otherwise. "Damon's great to me." She smiled lasciviously. "Plus he's really good in bed."
"Eww," Bonnie said. She turned to face Caroline, her voice turning serious. "You would tell me if he ever hurt you, right?"
"Yes, Mom." Caroline rolled her eyes. "How about if I just borrow-" Caroline grabbed the jewel and a loud pop resounded throughout the room. "Ouch!" She cradled her hand against her chest. "What was that?"
Bonnie took a step back. "You were just going to take it?" She wrapped her hand protectively around the jewel.
"You don't understand, Bonnie," Caroline said, desperation eclipsing her face. "I need it."
"Well, you're not getting it. And if Damon has a problem with that, he can come take it himself."
Caroline looked as though she might make another grab for the necklace. Bonnie was a little pissed and offended, but also afraid. She was starting to believe Grams's drunken ramblings about witches and spells and talismans. If the necklace had some sort of protective spell, she wasn't sure what it would do to defend itself, including harming her best friend.
"If you try it again, I won't speak to you for a week," Bonnie said.
Caroline's eyes darted between the necklace and Bonnie's eyes. "Fine!" She grabbed her things and stormed out of the bedroom. "Good luck covering those enormous bags under your eyes!"
Caroline slammed the front door, leaving Bonnie alone in the empty house. She let out a breath. A flash of light in the mirror caught her attention. A dim light sparked in the center of the jewel. "What the…"
The lights in the bedroom flickered and then burned out completely, eclipsing the room in darkness except for two bulbs along the top of the vanity mirror. A figure suddenly appeared - behind Bonnie. She screamed and turned around to find the room empty. She turned back to the mirror and the woman was still there. She was dressed in a beige cotton dress and matching bonnet, her full skirt reaching to the floor.
The woman's intense amber eyes watched her. "Good evening, Bonnie. Pleased to finally meet you."
Bonnie gripped the edge of the vanity, fear screaming at her to flee, but curiosity forcing her to meet the woman's eyes – the eyes from her nightmares. "Who…who are you?"
"Forgive me for not introducing myself properly." The woman took a step forward. "I'm Emily Bennett."
"Emily?" Bonnie recognized the name from a story Grams had told her when she was younger, about an ancestor who had been one of the most powerful witches in the country. And who lived when slavery was legal.
"Yes. I apologize for the nightmares, but it was the only way to communicate with you."
"You're the one from my dreams?"
Emily nodded. "I need your help."
"Why?" Bonnie shook her head. "How is this even possible?" For all she knew, this was just a hallucination brought on by my sleep deprivation.
Emily smiled. "You do not really believe that, do you? I am as real as you are."
"But if you're really Emily Bennett, that means you died - like over 100 years ago."
And that you're a witch. Bonnie chose to ignore that last thought.
"Death isn't as definitive as you think. And I wish I could tell you more – there is so much I could teach a witch like you – but there is no time." Emily moved closer. "Damon needs to know the truth about Katherine."
"Damon? How do you know Damon?"
"That is a long and complicated story, one I hope to share when there is more time. But we must work quickly."
Bonnie shivered at the intensity in Emily's gaze.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt," Emily said in a gentle voice.
"What won't–"
Emily's reflection passed through the mirror and into Bonnie's body, hurling Bonnie's consciousness into darkness.
Damon sipped fruit punch spiked with bourbon, waiting for the witch to arrive. Caroline smiled flirtatiously at him from across the school gym, chatting with the friend he had compelled her to make conversation with. Caroline's incessant chatter would only have distracted him from the task at hand.
He sighed. Once he got the necklace back, he could finally cut Caroline free. Or drain her of blood. He wasn't quite sure which he preferred just yet. She had shown up to the dance without the necklace and without the witch. Now he was forced to endure teenagers in dorky Halloween costumes and the horrendous rent-a-DJ until she actually showed up.
Damon needed the talisman to finally free Katherine from her decades-long captivity. Emily had sealed her and twenty-seven other vampires in a tomb below Fell's Church, shielding them from the fire the Founder's council had set. His life had been empty and incomplete without Katherine, and his desire to be with her outweighed all other matters in his life. Damon had given the necklace to Caroline for safekeeping, not expecting that she'd hand it off to the witch.
Damon spotted Bonnie as she walked through the double doors of the gym. She was dressed in a black mini dress and pointy black witch's hat. Damon admired the contrast of the blonde wig against the nutty brown skin of her slender neck. His canines tingling.
It had been some time since he'd tasted witch's blood and from what he had caught of her scent, he suspected Bonnie's was exquisite.
Bonnie scanned the gym. Her eyes landed on him and she smiled. Not the reaction he was expecting. She usually avoided eye contact or scurried away whenever he came near. Tonight, however, she walked straight for him. Her stride was confident and enticing, so unlike her usual, timid self. Damon kind of liked it.
She maneuvered his way, effortlessly avoiding dancing teens, her eyes locked on him. He downed his fruit punch, wishing he had spiked it with more bourbon. Witches tended to throw him off his game. Bonnie was no exception, though she was nowhere near as distracting as Emily had been when he'd first met her.
"Damon," Bonnie said, stopping in front of him.
"It's about time you showed up," Damon said, crossing his arms.
"Kind of you to wait for me." Bonnie smiled. Damon noticed a tinge of amber glowing around the pupils of her hazel eyes.
Have they always been that color? he wondered. He and Bonnie had only met a handful of times, but he would have noticed something like that.
"Not for you," Damon said, closing the space between them. "For that necklace around your pretty little neck."
Bonnie pouted. "I'm disappointed."
She stepped forward. Her scent, as sweet as fresh cinnamon rolls, flooded his nostrils. Saliva oozed down his aching canines.
Bonnie suddenly wrapped her arms around Damon's neck, pulling him down towards her face. And before he could react, she kissed him.
Her lips were supple, demanding – irresistible. He found himself returning the kiss, clasping his hands along her waist. He heard Caroline gasp from across the gym. Kissing Bonnie reminded him of a happier time, long ago, when he was human and in love for the first time.
Emily.
The realization ripped Damon out of his trance. He yanked her arms from around his neck. "Emily?"
Bonnie smiled, her eyes glowing amber. "I hoped you would remember me."
It made sense now – the confidence, the eyes, the kiss. "What have you done to Bonnie?"
"Bonnie is fine. She is merely sleeping."
"You've been dead for over a century."
"A witch's talisman is more than a source of power – it is an extension of her soul. A piece of her spirit that lies dormant until it finds the right vessel. When you stole my talisman from the Founder's Ball, it sought a host for my spirit and found Bonnie. And what better host than my own descendant; one with the potential to be the most powerful witch of my line."
"That necklace is mine. And you will give it to me."
Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Take it."
Damon swept out his hand with the speed of a cat, barely making contact with the jewel before his hand burst into flames. He yelled more in surprise than pain, though his hand burned with a vengeance. "What the hell?"
"Find me, if you can," she said, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Cool trick," said a teen dressed in a skintight Spiderman costume, as Damon writhed in pain.
Damon dunked his hand into the nearest container of liquid he could find – a barrel filled with water and bobbing red apples. He sighed, the cool water soothing his burning skin.
Damon seethed. Emily had the uncanny ability to blind him with emotions. He needed to focus on getting the necklace back. It was the only way to free Katherine from her tomb and the window to rescue her was quickly closing. He needed to rescue her. She was the reason he'd returned to Mystic Falls after all this time.
Damon caught Bonnie's scent just outside of the gym entrance. He picked up her trail almost immediately. Emily would pay for burning him twice.
Bonnie awoke from her mental slumber to find herself walking in the woods.
Where am I?
"This is where I've been trying to bring you for the last week." Emily spoke in Bonnie's voice, apparently still in control of her body.
This is the way to Fell's Church. Why did you bring me here?
"The truth is buried here." Emily stopped in front of Fell's Church, which was little more than a pile of burnt rubble.
Please let me go. Bonnie just wanted her body back. And to be normal again.
"Being a witch is a gift, Bonnie. The sooner you accept that, the easier all of this will be. Whether you want to believe it or not, you have a role to play in all that is to come soon." Emily turned from the church, facing the dark woods. "That took you longer than I thought it would. Your vampire senses must be declining in your old age."
"I've only gotten better with age, witch," Damon said, stepping out of the darkness.
Damon's a vampire? If Bonnie were being honest with herself, she had suspected he was something less than human since she'd first met him.
"There is still so much for you to learn," Emily spoke to Bonnie, "so much for me to teach you. He's a lot older than he looks - 145 years old. He has not walked the earth as a human since 1864."
"Talking to ourselves now, are we?" Damon asked.
"Bonnie is here with us, though I still control her body. So think twice before attacking, unless you want me to set more than just your hand on fire."
Damon glared but remained as still as a statue.
I still don't understand how you and Damon know each other.
"Katherine Pierce…" Emily said. Bonnie felt a rush of anger that was not her own. "She was a vampire – and the one who turned Damon into the monster he is today."
Damon smirked. "Witches are so dramatic."
"I was her handmaiden and friend," Emily continued. "Until she stole the only man I ever loved."
You and Damon...
"Were lovers."
Bonnie would have shuddered if she could.
But he's a jerk who bullies high school girls. How could you possibly have fallen in love with a creep like him?
"He was not always this way. Katherine erased all traces of the gentle man I loved."
"You've got that backwards, witch," Damon said with venom in his voice. "Katherine saved me. She freed me from a life of human misery."
"She filled your head with lies. She ruined us – she ruined you."
"Enough," Damon said, snarling. "You're the one who broke us. And now you're a spirit with a grudge, hijacking a teenager's body." Damon stalked closer. "I came for the necklace and I'm not leaving here without it."
Emily clutched the talisman around her neck. "You gave this to me the night of the Founder's Ball – the first night we kissed."
"Necklace. Now," Damon said, moving closer.
"It's useless to you. It cannot bring vampires back from the dead."
Damon stilled. "What are you talking about?"
"Katherine is dead."
"Liar," Damon said, snarling.
Emily laughed. "Do you really think I would save the vampire who destroyed my life?
"But I saw you cast the spell…"
"A spell to mask the screams of your precious Katherine as she burned alive."
Bonnie inwardly cringed at the rage twisting Damon's face. "You're lying, I would know if she were dead."
"Obviously not."
Everything happened all at once. Emily slipped from her body, leaving Bonnie standing there, confused and afraid. Damon charged for her. He sank his teeth into her neck.
"Damon, no!" Bonnie yelled. The pain of his razor sharp teeth and the sound of him slurping her blood turned her stomach. "It's me Bonnie," she said weakly, her energy quickly draining.
Save me.
Damon yanked his teeth from her neck as she crumpled to the ground. Bonnie blacked out for the second time that night.
Damon stepped from the steamy shower. He rubbed his hair dry with a towel and wrapped it around his hips.
Bonnie stirred from his bedroom. Something – he guessed some witchy manipulation – had stopped him before he drained her past the point of no return. He even fed her his blood to help her heal.
"Witch's blood," he murmured, heading for the bedroom. Some witches, the most powerful ones, had been known to spell their blood when attacked by a vampire. He'd heard of a vampire dying of blood poisoning after feeding on the life force of a witch.
Luckily, Bonnie hadn't learned that particular spell yet. He guessed she'd spun a cessation spell more from survival instinct than skill. Either way, Damon had saved her from himself and brought her home with him.
Damon entered the bedroom to find Bonnie sitting up in his bed. She looked rather refreshed for someone who had almost died a couple of hours ago. His flannel shirt looked good on her.
Where the hell did that come from?
"Where am I?" Bonnie asked, pulling the blanket up to her chin. Her eyes landed on his bare chest and then to the floor.
"My bed," Damon said, his smile predatory.
Bonnie blushed and Damon realized for the first time how beautiful she was. Bonnie, awkward and shy, yet with energy radiating off of her in waves, was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen in his life.
Witch's blood. He refused to believe his feelings were more than a byproduct of her spell.
He swallowed, hoping his unaffected tone hid his sudden nervousness. "Don't worry, little witch. I won't bite."
"You tried to kill me," Bonnie said, her hand shooting to her neck. "But there's no wound? I'm completely healed."
"Vampire's blood," Damon said, stalking her way. "My gift to you."
Bonnie's eyes raised to his hips and she blushed even more. Her eyes darted to the ceiling.
"So nervous," Damon said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Odd, considering we've kissed already." He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand.
"What?" Bonnie squeaked, scurrying away from Damon and out of his bed.
"At the dance. And it was surprisingly not that bad," Damon teased.
"That was Emily, not me." Bonnie spotted her dress and snatched it from the back of his chair. She began unbuttoning the flannel shirt, stopping when she realized he was still watching her. "Turn around, Damon."
"You're no fun," he said, before turning his back to her.
"And don't even think of laying another hand on me. Or I'll set it on fire."
"Oh, you've got quite a way to go before you master that little trick. You're no Emily."
"Maybe. But at least I'm not a liar like she is."
Damon turned to face her, just as she slipped the dress over her head. "Hey!" Bonnie yelled, yanking the dress down to cover her form.
"Whatever you're hiding, spit it out."
"Katherine's not dead. Emily lied to you."
"I knew it! I knew she was still sealed in that tomb beneath the church."
Bonnie hesitated before responding. "She's not. She was never in that tomb. Katherine's alive because she escaped before they burned down the church."
"That can't be right." Damon had trouble processing what Bonnie was saying. "That would mean she's been free all this time."
The realization filled him with joy - and rage. She was alive and had never bothered to contact him. Not one word or call or sign of her existence. Damon banged his fist against the mattress.
"Watch it, vampire. You can't hurt me." Bonnie inched toward the open door.
"Oh, I doubt that."
"If you hurt me, you'll never find Katherine. I'm the only one who knows where she is."
And with that Bonnie darted from the room.
Damon smiled. He liked a good chase.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I ship Bamon so much and can't wait to see where this season leads. Bonnie is a badass and it makes complete sense that she would fall for someone like Damon. And Damon is a lot more sensitive than he appears, so falling in love with a gentle soul like Bonnie is just inevitable. Looking forward to reading your reviews and I'll do my best to update this story on a regular basis!
