Hey sweethearts !
To all of my anonymous reviewers, those who don't have an account and those who have disabled PMing : I love you all for your reviews, really.
I know the news of Bonnie's death was a shocker ... Here's more explanation about it !
Next update on Saturday ! From Paris, with love.
- M. -
Part 9 - The Sacrifice
It was six months after Damon's almost miraculous recovery. They were all looking for Stefan, night and day. They were living a fast life; they needed to keep up appearances if they wanted to be free to do their research. Their wanderings had already taken them all around the country but Klaus was always one step ahead. Apparently, the witches and warlocks of the world were more than willing to help him: one of them had protected him and Stefan from Bonnie's location spells. Despite the witch's quasi omnipotence, she kept failing.
However, things changed one day. After she had spent another night watching Elena cry her heart out, Bonnie went home in a state close to madness. She set candles all around the room and used the power of the dead witches to break Klaus' protection. Surprisingly, she was successful. Suddenly, she could see the end of this torture, she could see Stefan coming back, she could see Elena being at peace. In the blink of an eye, the clouds vanished and she knew she was the only one who could end this.
The night of the sacrifice, given that Elijah had sworn to kill Klaus, Bonnie didn't have to use all her power. Everyone had been thrilled to protect her life but she couldn't really see how useful that had been. This time, it was different. She was the only to know where Klaus and Stefan were and she had decided to leave on her own. The idea that Klaus had had his protected removed on purpose to lure her out did not even come to the witch's mind. She was determined. Tonight was the end of the terror that Klaus had been forcing on them for the last months.
Bonnie Bennett could be called a lot of things, but she refused to be a coward. She refused to put her own life before everyone else's. As she got into her car, she thought of the consequences her choice would have. Caroline would be so terribly mad at her that even if she came back alive, it was a certitude that the blonde would not talk to her in months – but she would have Matt and Tyler if something went wrong. Bonnie laughed internally; how naïve was she to think in the conditional. Of course, something was going to go wrong. But once Stefan would be back in Mystic Falls, everything would be fine, eventually. Caroline would have her mentor back; Elena would finally be able to mourn the deaths of John and Jenna; and Damon would be free to sink back into his usual depression. As for Jeremy…it was for him that she felt the most sorry.
When she got into her car, some remnant of her instinct of self-preservation made her pick up her phone. She waited for a few seconds and Damon Salvatore's deep voice almost surprised her.
"My favorite witch," he mumbled as a hello, as he usually did.
"'I've found them," she stated. "I'm on my way."
It took a few seconds for Damon to process these words. He had waited for them for so long that they sounded unreal. She told him that she wanted to act alone. They picked a fight for a few minutes; the vampire was defeated before it even started. If he didn't swear to leave long after her, Bonnie wouldn't give him the location. They both knew that it was their last conversation; he said his farewell with the biggest respect, but also with a lot of affection. In spite of their perpetual fights, they were linked by this need to protect the ones they loved; it was in the name of that link that Damon let Bonnie leave Mystic Falls without saying goodbye to anyone; it was in the name of that link that he obnoxiously lied when he promised to leave after her, and just pick up Stefan once she would be done with Klaus.
It took him less than twenty minutes to have Caroline, Ric, Jeremy and Elena at the boarding house. They all rushed into Ric's 4x4 with Damon driving. Three hours later and after they broke the speed limit a few times, they were in the area around a forest that looked very much like the one in Mystic Falls. The adrenaline was rushing through their veins, so much that they could barely formulate a coherent thought. They took off without even bothering to make a plan.
Elena was afraid to confront Stefan: she hadn't seen him in six long months and she was terrified that she would be face to face with a stranger. She had caught a glimpse of Stefan's dark side and she didn't know if she could take it once again, even in the name of their love. Caroline, on a different note, was wondering if she was big enough for the upcoming fight. Damon had been training her for weeks; she wanted to be good at this and she wanted to save Stefan from the bloodlust, just like he had saved her. Jeremy and Alaric were not thinking at all; they knew that when the time would come, they would be asked to be the benchwarmers, as usual. As for Damon, he had stopped thinking.
When he saw Bonnie's car on the side of the road, Damon forbade everyone to leave the car. The protection of the metal wouldn't be very helpful if Klaus decided to come after them, but still. He didn't have to know that they were all here. Damon allowed Caroline to come with him, though; the young vampire had learnt how to use her vampire capacities and she could take care of Stefan and Bonnie. He had her promise that she would run without looking back when Klaus would show up. Caroline wanted to argue but she was silenced by an unexpected kiss. She slapped him hard as she could, earning a smile from him. They entered the forest hand in hand. Caroline's was shaking and Damon held it tighter.
Damon had done everything he could to get there just a few minutes after Bonnie. He knew the witch, so he had assumed she would take the time to spy out a little bit – she was not like him, she was not one to just go there and see what happens. The fan heater of her car was still working when he got there, which meant that she had been there for less than ten minutes. She must be somewhere in the bushes, waiting for the right moment for the final blow. He silently asked Caroline to take a look around but when he saw how livid she looked, he knew that something was wrong. His instinct was warning him about a clear and present danger – he thought about the three humans waiting at a close distance. He contemplated going back to them but the moment he had been expecting happened when he heard Klaus's voice.
"Well, if it isn't the backup."
Klaus was using Bonnie as a shield. Not that he was afraid of Damon's attacks, let alone Caroline's; but he was an aesthete and he simply loved the dramatic impact that this sight could have on the two vampires standing in front of him. From this distance, one could have thought they were lovers, except that Bonnie's dark skin was spattered with blood. She had difficulties to breathe and her legs barely supported her. Her power had been no use.
Caroline pressed Damon's hand to indicate that Stefan had just entered her field of vision. Damon didn't recognize his brother at first. The young Salvatore had this aura of danger and power that would have impressed anyone. When he laid eyes on his brother, Stefan's body tensed immediately. A low growl escaped his mouth as the smell of blood made him forget the unpleasant feeling that seeing these people from the past created in him.
In a desperate attempt to save her life, Bonnie tried to blind Klaus with a spell. All she needed was one second, she thought. One second and Damon would find a way to get her out of this mess. Caroline took it as an invitation and charged at Stefan without blinking. Taken aback, the vampire found himself hitting the ground and he reacted instinctively: he grabbed the first blunt object he could find and stabbed his aggressor. He couldn't explain why, but he hadn't aimed for the heart. Caroline's scream of pain reached the ears of the passengers of the car – damn Damon's recommendations, they all took stakes and air guns and ran to the forest.
In the meantime, Klaus had taken the upper hand on the witch. He had been more than irritated when he saw that she was alive, the night of the sacrifice. Same thing for Elena. These inferiors beings had fooled him once, but he was here tonight to make them pay and remind them that he was now in a position where he could make them do anything he wanted. However, when he saw the rest of the group running to them, he found it much more interesting from a dramatic point of view to not kill the witch himself. He violently hit her on the head, too fast for any human eyes to see. He delighted in the screams of distress that occurred when the young woman fell to the ground.
While Damon was cursing loudly at the humans for being here, Stefan's eyes caught Elena's for a second. He felt something inside of him, something he had been fighting. Elena… The urge he felt to hold her in his arms was soon replaced by violent cravings. Blood. He could feel the voluptuous smell tease his nostrils and he immediately imagined the thick liquid in his throat. What a sweet torture… It took him less than a second to identify the cause of his thirst: Bonnie. The young woman had cut herself open when she fell and the addictive substance was spilling next to her hairline. Stefan went crazy with anger: every drop of blood that was coagulating, every drop that was leaking onto the wet grass was one drop that he wouldn't drink.
From this instant on, the world made a twisted mission of going in slow motion. They all witnessed the events without being able to do anything: their shrieks remained stuck in their throats, their feet refused to run away, their eyes refused to ignore the horror. Caroline was still on the ground, massively bleeding and paralyzed from pain. Damon was about to run into Stefan to keep him away from Bonnie but Klaus came between the brothers. Damon's cries of pain broke the silence of the night when the hybrid broke the bones of his arms and legs like you'd break a match.
No one knew if Bonnie was dead or alive. The doubts were cleared when Stefan jumped on her and sank his fangs into the delicate skin of her neck. One, two, three death throes and then she stopped moving, breathing, living. The world stopped for the long minutes during which Stefan drained her out of blood. When he finally sat up, his face was covered in blood – even Damon made a disgusted face at the animal licking his lips. In the blink of an eye, Klaus and Stefan were gone. The witnesses couldn't fight a sigh of relief: it was finally over. And then, the realized: Bonnie was dead. Stefan had killed her in front of their eyes.
