Good evening everybody and happy Tuesday. Here is chapter 8 so please sit back and enjoy.

Kate was standing inside a psychic shop in a small town in Georgia waiting for the cashier to get the woman who owned the place. The room smelled like strong tea and mothballs, was it aesthetic appeal to have cobwebs hanging from the ceiling? Did tourists like that kind of thing? Do they think if it looks old it must be authentic? Kate wondered to herself looking around the establishment.

A younger woman came through the employee door, the owner's daughter, and definitely not who Kate was expecting. "Grace," Kate greeted "It's good to see you, how have you been? Where is your mother?" Not lingering on the pleasantries and getting right to business. Grace looked a little uncomfortable; they never talked much, she would just watch as her mother worked with Kate years past.

"She passed away a few month ago, I run this place now." Grace was very young and not the most talented witch, her mother would tell Kate that she shunned her teachings for a long time. The fact that this very inexperienced witch was now responsible for this job was not good news.

"I am sorry for your loss, your mother was a great woman." She offered her sincere apologies before she continued "I am sorry to have to come at such a bad time, but you are aware of the business your mother and I had?" Grace nodded "Fantastic, it seems that time has come around and I need a refill." Grace looked even more uncomfortable, "do you have them Grace?"

"I am sorry, I know I was supposed to take on my mother's responsibilities after she passed but…"

"Did you contact another witch to fill out your turn in the cycle?" Kate asked, her voice developing a sharp edge. Grace shook her head, she was getting scared, she heard rumors about this woman and did not want to be on her bad side. "Grace, are you aware of the severity of what is happening right now?" Grace nodded "And did you just decide that that was not important when you neglected your responsibilities?"

"I…I have the spell in mother's book, I have watched her make it tons of times"

"And how long will that take Grace?" She asked through clenched teeth

"Seven days." She rushed out. Kate mentally counted her stash in her purse, she had twelve left.

"Fuck" She muttered, she couldn't stay here for seven days. And that was if it went perfectly the first time, which she was not too confident about. "I can't wait seven days Grace" she scribbled down an address on a piece of paper. "When you have it perfect please overnight it to this address. We're gonna be cutting it very close Grace." The girl took the address and nodded. "Show me the recipe, there is a witch where I am staying, I would like her trying too." Grace seemed hesitant to allow another's eyes to see inside her mother's book. Witches were like that, territorial of their family grimours. "It is a hard spell Grace, you have never done it and I am running low. I am going to have another witch working on it as well, to increase my odds." Her voice got low again, the malice cutting through the room like a knife through warm butter, commanding the young witch "You will show me the spell Grace."

Grace nodded and disappeared to the back, reemerging with a large leather book that had a page already marked by a red velvet tassel. Grace opened the book for Kate to look at, who proceeded to take photos of every line of instruction and note in the margins. "I am really sorry Kate." Without another word Kate nodded, turned on her heel and walked out the shop back to her car. Her head was pounding and her vision was going fuzzy, she reached into her purse and took a capsule "eleven left" She muttered as she pulled away from the curb back to Mystic Falls.

She drove as fast as her car would take her while avoiding accidents and compelling her way out of two tickets. She needed to get back to the Salvatore's boarding house, not that she was looking forward to Damon and Stefan's disappointed looks. She pulled into their driveway, gathered her things and made her way into the house.

When she closed the door behind her she heard Damon talking on the phone in an angry voice. When the living room came into view she saw Mason sitting chained to a chair, head leaning against his chest, and hunched forward. Mason's heart was in Damon's hands and Katherine's voice was coming from the other end, made a threat and hung up. "What have you done?" Kate whispered Damon whirled around to face her astonished expression. "What have you done!"

"Mason almost had us killed, he had to go" He tried to defend his motives

"Not that, you don't need to condone killing to me. I understood that he was a threat, Damon. I was going to help you handle it when I got back! You know, planning! Not ripping his heart out because he taunted you about Katherine!" You could still push Damon over the edge by bringing up Katharine and telling him the truth he neglected to face for so long. It pissed her off.

"How do you know that he was taunting me?" Damon accused and Kate could feel her face tighten and her head pound.

"Because it always comes down to that!" She yelled, nails biting into her palms, eyes dilating and the purple ring around her irises coming through "But your continuous jealousy surrounding Katherine is beside the point Damon. You just poked the damn rattle snake, Katherine is always a wild card and now you've made it worse because you just plain pissed her off!" She said between harsh breaths, suddenly dropped her bags and swayed.

"Kate!" He yelled in shock and grabbed her by the shoulders "You have to calm down" Her eyes opened and the violet ring was larger, her pants here shallower. "Fuck" Damon muttered

"It hurts Damon" She went to clutch her head but Damon stopped her by grabbing her hands

"I know honey, look at me though." She ignored him, closing her eyes and Damon clutched her hands harder "Baby you gotta look at me" She opened her eyes and stared at Damon "good girl, focus" Her breaths continued their fast pace and she threw a desperate glance to her purse.

"Damon…" She pushed out of her tightening throat.

"No, you don't need that." He urged "Come on you're okay." He said softly drawing her focus onto his blue eyes, and away from the pounding in her head "We've done this before, come on" He watched her blink and slow her breaths, the purple ring disappearing. "There you go," he said with a smile taking her into a hug. "You're late," He said after a minute.

"There was a problem." She answered simply, wiggling out of his hold "We aren't off you yet" She glanced at Mason again. "What are we gonna do?"

"I'll get rid of the body in a few minutes and we can talk about what to do about Katherine later. I will follow your lead on that," He rushed out. "Now that we are off of me, what happened?"

"Meredith died a few months back, her daughter took over her business but was late to the magic-loving party. She neglected her responsibility to develop my refill." Kate told him glancing at her bag again. "Grace says it'll take 7 days to get the spell right and she can overnight it. But, that's if it goes perfectly the first time which I am not confident about." She looked at him "7 days Damon if it's perfect, and I have eleven left." She leaned back and rubbed the back of her neck, hating her luck.

"It'll work, you'll get them," Damon assured

"I have images of the spell, I was hoping Bonnie could give it a try. Stefan said she's talented and I thought it would be better if I had two witches trying at once." Damon nodded and took out his phone to text Stefan to ask Bonnie for a favor. "I'm becoming more sensitive, taking them two times a day more often." She mentioned looking down.

"I helped you from taking another one when you feel the headaches I'll help you calm down and focus so you don't need another one." He assured her, she nodded and stood up.

"Let's get rid of the body and call your gang so we can come up with a plan. I can talk to Bonnie alone about the spell." She said, swinging her arms to get herself moving. Damon just nodded and together they got Mason's body off of the chair and onto the carpet. "I gave you too many ideas on torture" she joked

"Please, I am creative too, I made up some of my own." He joked back as they rolled up the carpet and Stefan came walking into the living room staring at the scene in shock. "We'll get into it when everyone gets here." He hoisted Mason onto his shoulder "I'll be back, you gonna be okay?" He asked Kate who just waved him off with a smile.

A few minutes later Bonnie and Caroline walked into the living room. " How was your trip?" Stefan asked after a second as the girls settled on the couch.

"I don't really wanna talk about it," Kate answered and answered her ringing phone. "Hello? Yes hello Delilah, I am doing fine and my trip is going well. Thank you again for booking my flight on such short notice." There was a pause as the woman on the other side spoke. Kate let out a sigh, "Put them through, I shouldn't have left you to deal with this." She started pacing and her back straightened. Everyone was looking at her.

"Good evening gentlemen, how was your trip back to Transylvania?" There was some more talking on the other line "I do apologize for having to cancel our face to face, I had an urgent matter outside the state, however, I did have Delilah assure you that I would contact you to reschedule." There was more talking of the other line "Then why in the world would you be contacting my assistant insisting you speak to me? Gentlemen we have been doing business for quite sometime, and if you are unable to wait for the results you know I produce then you are welcome to go elsewhere. Just never contact me again for contracts in the future. Do you understand?" She said, ice in her voice.

A smirk crossed her face "As always, a pleasure doing business with you and I will put you back on with my assistant to take down the best way to contact you. Have a nice evening." With that, she hung up her phone and put it in her pocket. She looked at the group that was staring at her, two other men had joined their group: one in his early forties/late thirties and another that appeared to be sixteen. She offered them a smile.

"Hello, I'm Kate" She greeted, to which the others introduced themselves as Alaric and Jeremy

"Kate?" Caroline asked cautiously, "What exactly do you do?"

"Oh, I'm…" She began but was interrupted by Damon who was wiping his hands

"She is a supernatural bounty hunter, assassin if you will." He answered with a smirk

Caroline laughed "No really."

"He's right, those of the supernatural world, and sometimes not, contract me to find and bring in certain people. Sometimes it's authority figures looking for criminals, others it's someone with a grudge or those who are drawing too much attention." She explained a bit "you probably don't want to know more than that."

"And these two haven't come across your contracts?" Alaric joked

"More than once, but the Salvatore brothers are under my protection." She sat down and explained. "If someone is stupid enough to hire me for one of them I decline and follow their movements to see if they go somewhere else." They all looked at her nervously. "I do have morals if that's what you're wondering."

"Alaric is a sort of our local vampire hunter, a lower rank of what you do but he does it for free," Damon said and Alaric smirked

"Never offer what you can do for free when someone will probably pay for it." She laughed

"You should show her your toys Rick, she'd love them," Damon smirked and Rick became slightly uncomfortable.

"What kind of things do you have? How did you build them?" Kate ignored the older man's discomfort with her excitement.

"I've made a few bombs that explode with vervain and…"

"Can we get back to why we're here?" Bonnie asked. Damon explained, in not great detail what happened with Mason and Stefan informed Damon and Kate what happened with Elena's aunt and how she was in the hospital. Katherine demanded that Stefan bring her the moonstone to the masquerade at the Mayor's house.

"How did we get the moonstone? I thought Mason had it?" Kate asked confused.

"Stefan jumped into a well filled with vervain to get it, and Elena had to go in after him." Caroline explained

"Oh god, are you okay?" Kate asked worried, Stefan just nodded "So what is the plan? We can't just give it to her."

"But if we don't she'll probably kill Jenna next time" Jeremy countered

"Easy," Damon said handing a glass of blood to Kate while sipping on his own "We kill her." Kate just stared at him

"Are you sure you can do that brother?" Stefan asked, unconvinced.

"It's the only option, and don't worry about me." Damon answered

"Okay it's settled, we will meet her at the party and kill her." Kate summed up "Bonnie, do you think you can replicate the spell that locked those vampires in the tomb? It won't have to be for long."

"I can." She said confidently sitting up straighter.

"Great, Bonnie will place the spell on one of the upper rooms of the house before the party begins. Then Damon and Stefan will lead her up there with the promise of the moonstone. The spell won't be lifted until there is a stake through her heart." Kate explained further

"We're gonna have to keep Elena at home, we can't have the two of them floating around at the party," Bonnie said.

"I can keep her there," Caroline said

"I can too, we are going to be bringing Jenna home from the hospital and I was going to help out anyway." Rick offered.

"Fantastic, tonight we kill that bitch," Damon said as Kate watched him sip his drink. Damon was the picture boy for calm and ease, like killing the woman he loved for over a hundred years was as simple as deciding what to drink.

Everyone got up to leave and get ready for the night "Bonnie can I speak to you?" Kate asked Bonnie nodded "Upstairs?" She nodded again and followed up the stairs. When they entered Kate's room she lit a bundle of sage and let it smoke. "A witch gave me the trick once, it stops prying ears. And Stefan is frantic enough. I need a favor."

"What kind of favor?" Bonnie asked, a bit hesitant. Kate pulled out a green capsule from her purse and handed it to Bonnie.

"As you know I am not human, but I am not entirely vampire either. What I am has a side effect that I have been working with witches for centuries to keep in check. We finally came up with a spell that has been put into capsule form that I take when needed. Lately it has been everyday, sometimes more. I have a group of witch families that rotates the production of my supply. Unfortunately a new witch has neglected her responsibility, she says she can get it done in 7 days, if it goes well. That is cutting it close and I was hoping I could have you working on it as well to increase my odds." Kate asked as Bonnie studied the capsule.

"How many do you have left?" She asked

"Eleven, I was going to give you that one to study, which will make it ten. You are under no obligation to help me, and I won't hold it against you if you didn't. Stefan has just told me that you are very talented and I was hoping you would help." Kate confessed.

"What happens if you run out?"

"It is very painful; it starts with headaches that feels like my brain is on fire and my vision blurs, that leads to body tremors, uncontrollable urges, irrational anger. It feels like every vein in my body is filled with acid until my instincts take over and I pretty much am a monster." Bonnie was silent "If I am asking you to do this I am not going to lie to you."

"And this controls all that? You take it every day?"

"No, the likelihood comes and goes. Kind of like a roller-coaster" She admitted "The witches have developed a plan B if I don't get the capsule in enough time to stop the effects"

"What is that" Bonnie asked

"That I don't need to tell you." She smiled "Do I have your help?" Kate asked sweetly.

"Yes, I will help you," Bonnie answered after a long pause. Kate left out a breath she didn't know she was holding and wrapped the young woman in a hug.

"Thank you, thank you!" Bonnie and her exchanged numbers and Kate sent the photographs. "It makes a decent amount, and the end bit puts them in the capsules I believe. You can keep that one for now" She pointed to the pill Bonnie was still holding. "But when I get down to my last few I am going to need that back." Bonnie nodded and placed it safely in her purse.

"I will start reviewing it tonight before the party"

"Thank you again" Bonnie made her way downstairs and walked passed Damon who was holding the door

"Thank you Bonnie" She just nodded and made her way outside and into her car.

"She's going to help, that's great," Damon said standing in Kate's doorway as she sat on her bed.

"It's still going to be a close call, do you remember what to do if I get too far?" She asked looking at her hands. Damon moved quickly to sit beside her and let her lean into him.

"It won't come to that." He assured

"But if it does, I need to know you know what to do. Do we need to go over it?" She insisted.

"I will never forget what to do, it is burned into my mind." Kate nodded silently

"I was going to try and get a nap in before tonight, I am exhausted" Damon made his way to get up and leave her "You can stay if you have nothing else to do." She smiled.

"Just trying to get me in bed again Kat nip?" He joked settling back down with her head on his chest.

"You see right through my games" she murmured as she fell asleep. Damon ran his hands through the tips of her hair as he followed her into slumber.

I hope you enjoyed it, if so a review will be much appreciated