Note: Because I adore you lot, I'm going to get right down to it. This will be the last chapter for a few weeks (for any and every fic of mine); I've written a few more chapters but editing and all that still needs to happen and it's just not in the cards for me at the moment. Life happened and all I want to do is hide under the covers with my best friend while we watch horror movies and cry a lot - it's my grieving process. So enjoy this and stay as wonderful as you all are. All my love XO

"The fear of death is worse than death."

-Robert Burton, English Scholar

"…Damon, what are you –"

"Ssh!"

"–The neighbours!"

"Voyeurs!"

"Damon!" he cut off her complaints with a hard kiss to the mouth. And just like that her thoughts were quietened; softened…turned to whispers that she could barely interpret. Inside, she was shaking her head at the both of them, but on the outside she pulled him down a little harder by the back of his neck, like she wanted to be bruised by the force of their mouths moving together. And so what if she did? Every time he kissed her, which he now made a habit to do she found herself insatiable and pleased all at once – what a conundrum. "Damon." this time when she said his name her voice was lower, as ragged as her breathing and she felt him smile against her mouth and she'd have said something about it if something far more sly didn't cross her mind then. Grinning in satisfaction when he gasped out in surprise after she pushed him up against one of the back walls of Imran's house she moved her little body, all curves and edges up and down the front of his. Her hands gripped his hip bones, her thumbs pressing into the muscular lines that pointed downward. Without warning she lifted herself up and he caught her without hesitation, walking blindly towards the pool that stood a few feet away.

"Wanna swim?" He whispered as he used his teeth to nibble at her bottom lip.

"We shouldn't." She protested weakly as his hands tightened around her thighs. She felt him growl lowly in anticipation under her roaming fingers.

"We should, we really should." Damon countered and took her attacking his mouth again as a go-ahead. He walked slowly to the water and the steps that led to the shallow end. Bonnie was still the bright summer dress she'd worn after they'd finished training that she'd lay in the sun reading with Caroline in. Damon liked it. More so because her legs were bare but the vivid crimson fabric didn't hurt either as it contrasted with her skin. The water was cool as he stepped into it, grateful he'd opted to stay in his black board shorts; something he'd honestly never thought he'd ever wear again. But living seconds from the beach did that to you, whether someone was trying to kill you or not. He walked until he stepped onto the pool floor and turned to put Bonnie on the last step, putting them almost at eye to eye. "Take it off." He said softly. Bonnie's eyes widened a little at his curt command but she was wearing a bikini underneath it. She pursed her lips playfully but lifted her hands to undo the tie at the nape of her neck, releasing the top half of the dress. Damon watched as she pulled the dress up and off, the hem stained darker where it touched the water. Underneath her bikini was a tribal print of browns, golds and blacks and it made him swallow thickly in response to the sight of her. "Did we die again?" he said, his eyes wide with awe and Bonnie scoffed.

"So help you if you call me an angel…" she growled pulling him closer with her arms around his neck, "Because I'm not." Damon pecked her mouth.

"Yes you are, you're my angel," Damon said as his hands moved from her waist to her hips to the sides of her thighs and back again, just enjoying the texture of her skin, "But at the same time, anyone who looks the way you do…nothing but sin comes to mind." Bonnie giggled softly as she pressed her mouth to his. He pulled away with a frown. "I know we never really hung out before we died, but even then, I kind of feel slighted that I didn't get to see any of this –" his hands gripped her butt and she could have sworn he'd set her body alight in that moment, "…Just selfish really." He clucked. Bonnie's skin broke out in goose bumps when his fingertips skimmed the trail of skin just next to the fabric covering her ass.

"You know me," Bonnie said with mirth clear in her voice, "I'm the most selfish person in the world." Damon chuckled as they kissed again.

"Well isn't this cosy." Enzo interrupted, his grin widening when the couple turned to glare at him as he and Caroline stood side by side. "And here I was thinking that I could have an innocent heart-to-heart with my friend Caroline over here." Bonnie rolled her eyes as she took Damon's hand and let him out of the water. Caroline lifted her brows at her best friend who was surprisingly care-free and indifferent to being half naked in front of two notoriously leering vampires.

"I gotta say Bon-Bon," the blonde added on, "I know we used to cheer and stuff, and all those years of sleepovers…but," her eyes trailed over Bonnie's body quickly with a teasing wink, "If I had known this is what you were working with, I might have made my own move on you." Bonnie wiggled her eyebrows in response.

"You still can." The brunette said with a cheeky wink of her own. The two men stood beside them, frowning; not at all liking being privy to and simultaneously excluded from whatever was happening. Bonnie and Caroline burst out laughing and linked arms and walked off. "You boys are too easy." Bonnie threw over her shoulder as she and Caroline sat down on the edge of the pool, letting their feet slip into the cool water. Damon twisted around to watch them, sighing when he realised that the blonde was sticking around. Turning back to Enzo he narrowed his eyes but jerked his head for the other vampire to follow as they sat beside the girls.

Stefan, Lucy and Fahada were sitting upstairs in the library sifting through everything Fahada had uncovered in their archives about the Seekers the Superior and the Summoned. The latter of which seemed to be pure speculation; being able to create the supernatural equivalent of demon-soldiers but Fahada wanted to be prepared for anything and everything. The Seekers were the right hand 'men' of the Superior; a creature whose Host survived after pushing the limits of Dark Magic – creating another being entirely. The Seekers saw the Superior as the epitome of their ideals; as magic in its purest form. It was twisted but these beliefs had been running rampant in the witch community for years now. And the tides were turning in favour of the literal Dark Side.

"This is so much bigger than Bonnie and Damon," Stefan muttered unhappily as he speed-read through the pages of a record of sightings of the witches that Fahada had compiled – hoping to match it to the sketch of the three witches that had tagged Imran. His fingers fumbled as his eyes ran over a sentence and he purposefully slowed and drew in a deep breath, "…Fahada…Did, did you fall in love with a witch once?" The vampire in question sat upright as Lucy's eyes fell on her face as well. Slowly, she began to nod.

"Remember when I said I've met my fair share of witches?" She asked, looking to Stefan and he nodded, already thinking back to when she'd pieced together that Bonnie must have loved Damon to send him back alone, "Well, I used to be close friends with one, when Imran and I went our separate ways for a decade or so…he's dead now but it was through him that I met Kiera's mother." A bitter smile pulled at Fahada's pretty mouth then, "Years passed and Kiera was born and somehow…somehow we fell in love, despite everything. Now she was the reason why I know witches would do anything for the ones they loved – the coven that raised Kiera and her magic after her parents were killed, they were Puritans so when they found out she was in love with a vampire…they tried to kill me. Our love was an abomination to them – a slight against the very essence of magic itself, and for the girl who was to one day become the High Priestess of their Coven? An end had to be put that immediately." Stefan and Lucy where enthralled with the faraway look in Fahada's eyes, "Kiera almost died protecting me, but luckily she was strong. She cast two spells; one making me forget what she looked like and another was a repulsion spell that would push me away if I tried to find her – so I'd never find her if I was looking; anything leading me to her would push me in the other direction…I spent years looking for her anyway…hence the vast knowledge I have of witches and magic…I dedicated a good portion of the last ten years looking for the girl, well, woman that I loved." Her features hardened, "But I guess it never occurred to me that I would find her if I stopped looking," her hands began to shake then as she lifted as page from one of her journals and dropped it down next to the drawing she'd made of everyone's account of the three women that had tagged Imran at the beach. The newest sketch Fahada had put on the table was of a young girl, no older that sixteen or seventeen? Her hair was long and frazzled with curls and the wind moving through it, her eyes were almond-shaped and glittering, her mouth quirked upward cheekily as she grinned. Fahada had used colour so the reds and golds in the girl's hair shone, her mouth was a blushed pink, her skin fair and her eyes a pale blue colour. Fahada moved the colourful sketch to the one she'd done in pencil of the three women and Stefan's eyes narrowed. The woman in the centre… "All this time, I had a sketch of her with me and I didn't even recognise her anymore, but," Fahada said, her voice so suddenly small, "It's her, look, in the corner I wrote a 'K'…long before…I just…I never thought she'd give into them but I was wrong..." Lucy frowned as she looked between the two sketches, the colourful sketched girl could have easily passed for the woman in the centre of the image and that's when it clicked.

Fahada's Kiera was one of the Seekers.

"My love?" Imran called as he stepped into the Master Bedroom.

"One moment." Amelia called, and he heard the adjustment of fabric and a small sigh before she stepped out of the en suite bathroom. Imran's eyes scanned her quickly first, the way he always did, scared he might have missed something since he last saw her – a injury or fleeting expression she'd try to hide from him for his sake. Once he was sure she was as flawless as she always was his eyes moved over her again, slower this time. Amelia felt the heat rise to the surface of her skin and she smiled at the familiarity. They'd been married for forty years now, since she was seventeen, and she still thought she was the luckiest girl in the world to have met him. She'd only started slowing her aging when she reached the age of twenty five, two or three years physically younger than Imran. She watched as he stepped towards her; tentative and determined, as he always was. He pulled her to him the moment she was within his reach and he simply held her. She pressed her face into his chest and sighed softly. "How are you?" She whispered. She felt him move, resting his chin on top of her head.

"Worried." He replied succinctly.

"As you should be," Amelia said, trailing her hands up and down his back as they held one another, "We're not warriors you and I – we're healers, this is entirely new to us."

"I'm not worried about fighting or killing anyone," Imran said, "It might not be within my usual disposition but physically I am easily capable of defending myself…defending you."

"Then what is it?"

"I'm worried that we're underestimating The Superior, his Seekers…this doesn't seem like a simple execution – hybrids are slaughtered carelessly by Seekers…always have been –"

"These kinds of hybrids haven't existed before." Amelia reminded him. She felt him nod.

"Be that as it may," he went on, "The Superior is haughty in his strength. I fear he may use us to send a message, to the rest of the world…a warning; you know the Dark Side has been growing progressively over the last five years…it scares me." Amelia pulled away then with a frown.

"Darkness never wins," she said, "You know that and I know that, no matter what happens good will always prevail." Imran nodded but he remained grave.

"Yes, good prevails but those who are good are not afforded the same guarantee."

"It is a price we all pay." Amelia said with a sad smile. "Especially with us being who we are and the way we are with one another… Your soul is the most impossibly pure thing I have ever encountered and yet you are labelled a demon by those who assume…Good isn't so cut and dry anymore and neither is evil…But what is right and wrong – that will be all that is left."

"And we're doing the right thing." Imran agreed and Amelia smiled and nodded as she trailed a finger over his cheek.

"What is there to life for but a good reason to die?" She asked as she stood to her toes and kissed the love of her life.

"…Where are you going?" Alaric asked as he stood up from the couch where Elena had yet to move from. Jeremy was frowning and faffing over documents in his hands and he had a bag strapped to his back.

"Cape Town." Was the blunt response. Alaric's eyes ballooned.

"No, not happening." The vampire said with a gruff authority that caused Jeremy to laugh bitterly.

"Save the dramatics for Elena," Jeremy snapped, "Bonnie is in trouble so I'm going to help her."

"Like hell you are." Alaric hissed. "You don't even know what's going on."

"Exactly! But for once in my miserable life I'm going to do the right thing and be there for her and do whatever I can to help instead of standing by while she sticks her head on the chopping block again – because you know she will." Alaric knew little to nothing about the Damon and Bonnie saga but he'd gotten a text or two from Caroline and Elena when she'd still been there…They weren't dealing with the Mystic Falls run of the mill scenarios. The main difference being the development between Damon and Bonnie; that had surprised him most of all. The most recent text from Stefan had all but stopped his undead heart.

"Jeremy…" Alaric began, taking deliberate steps to the younger boy, "Bonnie's changed, and other things have changed too –"

"Nothing you say is going to stop me from going." Jeremy hissed. Alaric gripped him by his shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.

"She's in love with Damon." Jeremy's face drained of colour and he pressed his mouth into a tight white line but said nothing for the longest time. Finally, he shrugged out of Alaric's hold and sneered.

"…Nothing you say is going to stop me."

Oh boy…