Chapter Twenty

"It couldn't have been the same or else he would still be here."

"I don't know. I think that maybe if you woke him up, he would realize what he'd made a mistake."

Damon awoke with a low groan. His body felt sluggish as if he had been asleep for days. The last thing he remembered was getting shot by a bullet from a hunter that had gotten the jump on them. Everything after that was a blur.

Currently, he wasn't sure where he was, but he turned his head to the left to find Bonnie at his bedside, watching him with a grim expression. She was upset. After a moment, Bonnie looked away from him, her long wavy locks, loose for once, shifting across her shoulders as she stared out the window above the bed.

He pulled himself into a seated position on the full-sized bed he'd been laid in. At some point they had taken his shirt off. Where the bullet wound should have been, his skin was completely healed. "Where am I? What happened?" He asked her.

In response, Bonnie handed him a blood bag that had been sitting on the dresser and he ripped into it, his hunger mounting the moment he saw it. "You're at the Abbatoir, Klaus' home, and you've been asleep for the past eight hours. The bullet that hit you was poisoned with dark magic that would've killed you if it hadn't been for me and Freya. You could've died, Damon." She stressed the word, died, her frown deepening as she said it.

At the turn of her lips and the furrow in her brow, his mouth quirked up. "Worried over little ole me Bon-bon?"

Bonnie scowled. "I'm not joking with you about this."

It was a little strange to see her this genuinely upset over him. "So you do care then."

She was still, her pretty green eyes glued to his in irritation. "As annoyed as I've been with you, even you dying would…upset me."

"Good to know."

They stared at one another for a long moment before Bonnie stood up and took the empty blood bag from his hand. "I'll go get you another one." Bonnie left the room, leaving him alone.

Damon had no idea what she was thinking after the talk they had a few days ago. A lot was said. He should've kept his mouth shut, but he ended up blurting things that he hadn't fully recognized as true until the moment they came out, and after spending the last few days reflecting on it, he still wasn't sure about his own feelings. Yes, he had doubts about his relationship with Elena. Part of those doubts stemmed from unresolved feelings towards Bonnie and part of them didn't. But after she admitted that there was something between them, he couldn't deny that for a millisecond, the thought of ignoring his relationship with Elena to explore what he felt towards Bonnie had crossed his mind.

To say he was confused would be an understatement. The more time he spent around her, the more he realized his feelings ran deeper than expected. Yet Elena was who he was supposed to be with, wasn't she? He had shaped his life around this fact and had desiccated for years because of this fact, but none of this changed the strange amalgamation of feelings inside him centered on his little witch, feelings which seemed to be getting worse the more he spent time around her.

Light, child-like footsteps sounded outside the door, and Damon could guess who it was before she poked her head through the crack in the door. Hope waved and invited herself in, taking Bonnie's seat at Damon's bedside and folding her legs up so her feet rested in the chair. She looked over her knees at Damon.

"So we meet again," he greeted, and she smiled.

"Bonnie was in here all night, you know. She was really worried about you."

"Was she?" He wasn't keen on talking to the Mikaelson child, but she seemed to have taken an interest in his relationship with Bonnie.

Hope tilted her head to the side. "Why are you a touchy subject for her?"

"Probably because I did something stupid and hurt her pretty badly."

She played with the ends of her light blue pajama pants. "I think she'll forgive you eventually."

"How do you know?"

She smiled secretively, her blue eyes shining. "I saw it."

That peaked Damon's interest. "And what did you see exactly?"

Her tiny shoulders raised into a shrug. "I don't think I should tell you. I was told that the future is fluid. It might change if I tell the person I've read."

"Or it might come true because you told me."

That made Hope pause. "Huh, I never thought of it like that."

Bonnie came back a few seconds later and paused at the door, staring between Damon and Hope. When Hope saw her, she walked over to Bonnie's side and stared up at her. "It's four a.m. Hope, what are you doing up this early?" A small smile was forming on Bonnie's face, but Damon could read the wary suspicion in her eyes. Did she know about Hope's little vision too?

"I was talking to your friend."

She arched an eyebrow. "About?"

Hope looked back at Damon, but he was busy staring at the way Bonnie's lips were curled into one of her elusive smiles. The sight was far too rare in his presence. "Nothing," Hope said, hiding another smile. She dashed out of the room before Bonnie could question her further, leaving the two of them alone again.

"What was that about?" The smile was gone from her face when she looked at Damon, but she seemed less uptight than before. She returned to the seat at his bedside, handing him another blood bag.

"Don't worry about it," he dismissed the topic as he opened the bag. "Is Eric still alive?" Eric was the vampire who had been in the cell next to him back at Morgan's facility. After being rescued by them, he had decided to stay in New Orleans. And in their brief shared experience of being captive, one might call them reluctant friends. Though if asked, Damon would never admit to it.

Bonnie's eyebrows raised minutely, betraying her surprise at hearing him ask after the other vampire. "He's fine. I heard what you did for him."

Damon had gotten shot while rescuing Eric. Having lost so many vampires, Marcel sent people out in pairs for backup, and Damon had gotten stuck with the guy. They had originally been sent searching through the woods outside town for any sign of hunters, and they ended up discovering a cabin where a bunch of them were holed up. There were too many to kill them off so they headed back, but unfortunately, they ran into three more of them on the way back. They had managed to kill the first one easily, but when Eric was about to be staked and Damon killed the second, he got shot by the third hunter in the process. That's when everything became a blur. But he supposed he wouldn't be there if Eric hadn't killed the last hunter.

"You should be more careful." She was trying to keep her muted expression, but he could see the worry seeping into her features.

His lips quirked back into a smirk of their own volition. "It's cute of you to worry Bon-bon, but I'll be fine."

Damon swung his legs over the bed and tried to stand, but he felt off balance and tilted forward a bit. Bonnie immediately reacted, standing up to steady him. Her hand went to his side and Damon found it hard to ignore the heat from the feel of her thin fingers splayed across his bare skin. "We removed the poison, but your body is probably still experiencing some after effects. You should drink more blood." She moved the hand on his side to his shoulder and pushed him back down to the bed. He sat with her standing between his legs, and as he stared up at her, he caught the way her line of sight traveled down his chest.

"And if I refuse Doctor Bennett?" He couldn't resist teasing her.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't start," she said, but her soft hand lingered on his shoulders.

He smirked at her reaction as she stepped away from him and handed him the other blood bag she brought. Right after, she threw a white shirt that had been sitting on the dresser into his lap. He put it on before he opened the blood bag. "You know, I've heard some rumors about you over the past couple days."

She leaned up against the dresser besides the bed with one palm resting on the edge and the other on her jean-clad thigh. "What rumors?"

"That you saved New Orleans from something called the Hollow."

She raised her shoulders in a dismissive shrug. "I may have helped." There was a forced blasé nature to her tone, but he knew the story. She had almost single-handedly taken down the spirit that had threatened the city by using the younger Mikaelson's blood to destroy it.

"Some people seem to think you're the most powerful witch in existence right now."

"There's always someone more powerful." Her expression darkened over the words, and Damon recalled their almost encounter with the witch who she'd been so afraid of. He chose not to bring it up.

"Ever the modest one." He brought the blood bag to his lips and drank.

Bonnie shifted against the dresser, pulling out her phone to check it. After a moment, she looked back up at him. "When you didn't wake up right away, I almost called her."

He paused, dropping the blood bag from his lips as a frown spread across his face. "But you didn't?"

"I didn't," she confirmed.

"Good." Tension released from his shoulders.

That would've brought Elena down to New Orleans, and Damon did not want to deal with her at the moment. The day after he had come here, after his last conversation with Bonnie, Elena had called, telling him that she missed him and that she hadn't been serious when she suggested that they should spend more time apart. She wanted him to come back so they could talk, but Damon had already spoken to Marcel. When he explained that he couldn't just leave then, Elena asked when he was planning on coming back. Damon didn't give her a definitive answer which made her upset, and they argued again until Damon told her with finality that he still wasn't going to change his mind and leave. After that, she had nothing left to say to him and hung up.

He was tired of it.

Bonnie tilted her head to the side. "Good?"

Damon could sense she wanted an explanation. "She wants me to come back, and I'm not keen on having that argument with her again."

Bonnie let the subject go while Damon continued to drink blood.

He had finished the bag when he stood up again on steadier feet. He did not want to spend more time than necessary in Klaus' home lest he run into the man himself. "I should head back to the hotel."

"Where are you staying?"

"The Ritz on Canal St."

Damon stood up and took a step towards where she leaned against the dresser. She straightened herself so she was no longer leaning, and he was close enough so her honeysuckle scent was the only thing filling his nostrils. "I suppose I should thank you for saving my life." He looked into her green eyes. Her expression was less cold than it had been a few minutes before. The back of his hand brushed against the back of hers affectionately where it hung at her side, and his skin burned from the contact. "So, thank you," his voice lowered emphatically.

She blinked, then unexpectedly pressed her hand back against his. "You're welcome, but don't let it happen again."

"No promises." He backed away from her with a lingering gaze, then disappeared, speeding off and leaving only a gust of wind in his wake.

The next day, Damon was informed of a meeting being held to address the last hunter attack in New Orleans and the poisonous bullets. The meeting was being held in the early afternoon in an empty warehouse by the Mississippi River, and all of the vampires, witches, and werewolves were welcome to attend, but it seemed as if the more important players were expected to be there.

Speaking of, as he was headed to the meeting, Damon happened to see Marcel speaking with Josh on the opposite sidewalk. The former called him over, and Damon crossed the street to meet them.

From his first meeting with Marcel, Damon's impression of the man was that he was putting up a front in order to seem more powerful than he was in this town, but he had proven Damon wrong. The man was the actual leader of the vampires here, and they looked to him and respected him more than any of the Originals. Damon, however, wasn't that fond of him. He was an authority here, and Damon and authority did not mix well, especially when it was clear that he was lower in the pecking order. If he wasn't a part of it, Damon liked to function outside authority, so he had to remind himself that he was doing this for Bonnie and put a damper on his desire to be contradictory and questioning. That being said, Damon didn't particularly dislike Marcel either which allowed for them to get along on a rudimentary level. He felt the same way about Josh, but he liked the younger vampire a little bit better. Compared to Marcel, his attitude was more genuinely lax.

Whatever they were talking about was put on pause as Damon joined them.

"I hear the search turned up nothing yesterday," Marcel said.

In the afternoon, Damon had led Elijah and a few other vampires back to where he and Eric had been attacked. They found the hunters gone with no tracks left behind to follow. "I'm assuming you have a plan?"

Josh answered. "The plan is the same as ever. We keep searching and, in the meantime, we prepare for the next attack and be ready when it happens. There's not much else we can do."

"During the meeting we'll be discussing more cooperative measures between us, the witches, and the werewolves," Marcel said.

Damon's lips curled downwards. "So the plan is mainly to sit tight."

"Until we can find them, there's not much else we can do," Marcel said.

"Well if Eric and I were able to find them once, we should be able to find them again. Are you going to address the whole witch obviously helping them get through the barrier issue?"

"We have to at this point," Marcel said.

"I can't wait to see how that accusation goes over," Josh chimed in. "I can hear the arguments now."

"Why not just do it in quiet? Have a witch you trust check out the covens, see if anyone seems suspicious," Damon suggested.

"See, that would work if the witches I trusted weren't already regarded with suspicion by the covens because of their interactions with vampires. I have thought about having Vincent choose someone he trusted, but there are nine covens so there would have to be nine people involved from each coven, which would be difficult to coordinate when some of the covens have been more recluse lately. And besides, that many people being involved increases the risk of them being found out, and if the witches caught wind of us attempting to investigate them without their knowledge…" Marcel trailed off.

"It would turn into a shitshow," Josh finished for him.

"We can't afford to sow more seeds of distrust between us, but we have to figure out how the hunters are coming in. Until we do, I've increased the number of people on watch."

"I assume you'll want me to continue helping with the search."

Marcel nodded. "We'll discuss it later."

Damon nodded back. "I'll see you at the meeting then."

He walked the rest of the way in silence and as he approached the designated meeting spot, he could see people trickling in through the open door. Following them inside, the warehouse was empty aside from the people milling about. Whatever its previous purpose was couldn't be discerned from anything in the room, but today it was a gathering place for the supernatural beings of New Orleans.

Almost as soon as he was inside, he spotted Bonnie standing near the brick wall on the far side of the warehouse. Beside her was another woman who he presumed to be a vampire.

He approached them, and he could see a shift in Bonnie's stance as she caught sight of him on his way over there. She looked impeccable in a simple black off the shoulder sweater and faded jeans. Her hair was up in a messy bun with a few strands loose around her face and while he preferred it down, he couldn't help but appreciate the pretty sight of her neck.

"Bon-bon," he said in greeting. She had a light layer of makeup on that looked almost natural aside from the smokey eyeshadow making her green eyes more prominent.

"Damon," she greeted back with an unwelcoming look.

Damon was unphased by the return of her cold reception. He noticed the woman she had been talking to was watching them with a bemused expression. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" Damon asked Bonnie.

The vampire-witch sighed. "This is Damon. Damon, this is Sadie."

Sadie grinned. "You must be the former best friend from Mystic Falls."

"Former," Damon threw an arm around Bonnie's shoulder just to annoy her, "soon to reclaim my title as current." With his arm around her, she was pressed into his side, the curve of her hip resting against the top of his thigh. Unexpectedly, Bonnie didn't shrug him off. She merely rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Damon."

He returned her smile. "And how do you and this little ball of sunshine know each other?"

Sadie told him the story of how they met which was apparently a few years ago through Marcel who had known her since before she was turned in 1871. Recently, she had been living in Atlanta for a while and decided to return to New Orleans on a whim.

As Sadie explained, Damon unwrapped his arm from Bonnie's shoulder, his fingers innocently brushing against the side of her neck before letting his hand fall to his side. In that short instance, he could feel her shiver under his fingertips, and only then did she slightly lean away from him and shoot him a look as if to ask him what he thought he was doing. Still, she didn't move away entirely and stood close enough for him to feel her body heat.

"It's a shame about everything that's happening with the hunters, but I'm glad I returned. I've always adored this city."

"It definitely has its charms," Damon said.

Eric came over not long after, looking between Bonnie and Damon who were still standing quite close to one another. "I didn't know you knew Bonnie," Eric addressed Damon. Even though the younger vampire had been in Morgan's facility with both Damon and Bonnie, Bonnie had been kept separated from the rest of them, and he had never seen her there, nor had he seem them interact until now.

"We go way back, don't we Bon-bon." He playfully nudged her with his elbow. She ignored him.

"How far back is way back?" Eric asked.

"Since she was in high school."

Sadie cocked her head to the side, staring at Bonnie with a quizzical look. "I haven't known Bonnie for long, but I can't imagine her as a teenager. What was she like? I'm sure you have at least one embarrassing story."

"Don't answer that," Bonnie said.

"Come on. I'm genuinely curious," Sadie pushed.

Damon grinned. "Nothing embarrassing, but I do miss seeing you prance around in that cheerleading uniform."

Bonnie blew out a short breath. "Pervert."

His eyes traveled the length of her body, lingering over her curves. "Can you blame me?" Damon was trying to be somewhat good, but that didn't stop him from imagining what it felt like to run his hands along those curves when she had fed from him, what it felt like to have her pressed up against him. When their gazes met again, Bonnie had a knowing look in her eye as if she knew his mind had wandered somewhere it shouldn't be. The air between them was charged, and neither Sadie nor Eric missed the exchange.

"There something happening there?" Eric whispered to Sadie.

"Oh something is definitely going on," Sadie confirmed.

Before Bonnie could correct her, the noise died down as Marcel walked in with Josh, Rebekah, and Elijah. When they reached the center of the room, the meeting commenced with Elijah leading it. They wasted no time addressing the main issue, the hunters being able to get through the barrier.

Damon stood beside Bonnie silently listening as Elijah spoke, and when the accusation against the witches came out, there was an uproar on the left side of the room where members of the nine coves and some of their leaders had gathered.

Marcel jumped in on the argument as the witches professed their innocence. "There is the possibility that a witch may not be doing it by choice. The hunters could be threatening them into helping."

A hushed whisper passed among the witches present until the leader of the New Orleans witches, Vincent, stepped forward. Damon had heard about the Vincent, but he hadn't met him personally. "That may be true, but the barrier is made from the magic of all nine covens, using the blood of every leader. The amount of power it would take to break the barrier with only the power of one is enormous, even greater if they don't have access to people with NOLA coven blood. And who's to say an outside witch doesn't have that sort of power."

Vincent's gaze paused on Bonnie and Damon looked to her as well. Bonnie simply frowned. Did he think she was the one who broke the barrier?

"There's a person right here with that kind of power," a blonde-haired witch with sharp features was also looking at Bonnie, except her gaze was distinctly accusatory. A hushed murmur spread throughout the crowd as all the attention fell on the vampire-witch.

"Who is that?" Damon quietly asked Sadie who was standing on the other side of him.

She leaned over to whisper. "Amy LaRue, current leader of the Garden District coven. She's always had a problem with Bonnie."

The vampire-witch, however, appeared unbothered and stepped forward from where she stood near the wall. The room fell silent as she moved closer to the center of the warehouse and turned towards the covens. With her chin high, her gaze passed over the crowd. Many shrank under her scrutiny out of fear or respect, but Amy stood her ground. Bonnie pinned the witch with an icy glare.

Damon was unable to take his eyes off of her, riveted by the way she controlled the room and had everyone waiting on her to speak.

"You don't mean to suggest I'm responsible for this, do you? You think I of all people would bring harm upon this city after all I've done to save it?" She was calm, but her tone was cutting. Power radiated from her voice.

Amy was unable to hold her gaze. "Maybe not by choice, but it's clear you're easily subject to manipulation." Her eyes flicked over to Rebekah who stood just behind Marcel, then to Hayley who stood with the small group of werewolves present.

Bonnie scoffed contemptuously. "Oh please. You're so quick to place blame, who's to say it isn't you or one of your coven members Amy."

"How dare you—"

Bonnie spoke over her in a louder, more commanding voice. "How dare I what? Defend myself? Point out the fact that it could be any one of the witches in this city or a group of them."

Another witch stepped forward. "That doesn't change the fact that you should be a part of the suspect—"

"Stop," Vincent held up a hand. "There's no way Bonnie could be helping them. Have you forgotten how she became what she is?"

"You mean an abomination just like all the other hybrids in this town." Amy nodded over in Hayley's direction.

Hayley bristled at that. "You forget who's been on the front line protecting you witches from the hunters. Sure you've helped by erecting the barrier, but it's us, the werewolves and the vampires who are out there trying to hunt down the hunters."

"There is no need to point fingers and argue about this now. All we ask," Elijah interrupted, "is for you to be aware of a possible traitor and to be vigilant of those in the witch community who have perhaps been acting strange lately, whether that be an individual coven member or a group of coven members. And if someone is suspected, they should be reported to the appropriate people and handled appropriately." He paused. "Moving forward we need to talk about an attack that happened the other day."

The older vampire looked to Marcel, and he began to speak. "The hunters are using wooden bullets laced with a dark magic poison that acts quickly. Bonnie and Freya have figured out a spell to reverse the poison, and we need a few more capable witches to learn the spell and be available in case another attack happens." He paused letting his gaze sweep across the witches. "Any volunteers?"

A few witches and warlocks stepped forward, predictably none who had appeared to support Amy. Among them was one of the guys Damon had seen Bonnie speak to at Rousseau's.

"Great. Freya will teach you the spell tomorrow morning at the cathedral."

When Marcel finished, Elijah took over again. "We also need to discuss a more integrated attack plan in the case of the hunters coming in…"

The rest of the meeting dragged on for almost an hour before it was over. Afterwards, people immediately began to leave. Eric also left right away, and Damon watched as Bonnie made her way towards Vincent. He observed from afar as they proceeded to have a quiet conversation in the corner. Damon wondered about the look he sent her earlier when he had suggested there could be another more powerful witch helping the hunters from the outside.

That's when he remembered the witch they had almost encountered again, the one that Bonnie had been so afraid of when they were in that coffee shop in Kansas. It might very well be possible that she was the witch helping the hunters.

While Damon was distracted by staring at Bonnie, Rebekah, another girl, and two guys had approached Sadie. The two guys were the ones Damon had seen Bonnie hug at Rousseau's. There was the shorter one with short brown hair who had asked her on a date and the other taller one with black curly hair who seemed interested in Sadie more than anything. The girl who came with them had wild dark curls sitting on top of her head in a bun and a round face with brown eyes and brown skin. She was giving Damon a once over with her eyebrows raised. "Is that who I think it is?" The girl asked Rebekah and Sadie while motioning towards Damon.

Sadie nodded.

"That would be Damon, Bonnie's stalker." Rebekah explained.

"Bonnie's stalker?" The brown haired guy looked at Rebekah with a frown.

"Ignore her. That was a bad joke," Sadie said. "Damon is an old friend of Bonnie's."

Damon ignored Rebekah as the girl extended her hand and Damon shook it. "Nice to meet you. I'm Lauren." She turned to look at the boys next to her. "And this is Collin and Brendan." They nodded at him in greeting and Damon did the same, though his eyes kept going back over Lauren's shoulder to look at Bonnie and Vincent.

"Did you end up here because of the hunters?" The one called Collin asked him.

"I'm here for more personal reasons." Damon didn't care to elaborate, and it was obvious that he wasn't particularly interested in speaking with the two guys. But Brendan, the one who was interested in Bonnie, pushed.

"Based on what Rebekah said, I'm guessing those reasons involve Bonnie?" He was clearly fishing for the extent of their relationship.

"That would be correct, sherlock," Damon responded with needless condescension and a nearly territorial undertone. He wanted to ward him off of her if only because within these first minute of meeting him, Damon had decided that he wasn't worthy of even seeking Bonnie's affections.

The two men stared at one another until Lauren's voice broke the rising tension. "So," the witch turned to Sadie, "Should we head out tonight? All this talk about the hunters has dampened my mood and I know our girl could use a pick me up after dealing with Amy."

At the mention of her, Damon's attention returned to Bonnie and Vincent again. He barely payed attention to the conversation happening beside him as they made plans to go to some club. Bonnie's demeanor worried him. She was opposite of the way she'd been earlier when she commanded the attention of the room. Instead, she was frowning and looked upset. Vincent touched her shoulder, obviously trying to comfort her and Bonnie looked down at her feet for a second before raising her head back to his. She said something, then the conversation ended, and she made her way back to them.

"You can come as well, if you want," Sadie said to Damon as Bonnie returned. She stood beside Rebekah who also seemed to immediately notice that the vampire-witch seemed off. Leaning towards her, she whispered something in Bonnie's ear and Bonnie nodded at her. Rebekah took off, but the group continued as if her sudden exit hadn't happened.

"Maybe," Damon said noncommittally.

"You're coming too, right B?"

"Coming where?" Bonnie asked.

"Out tonight."

The look on her face signaled her refusal. "I don't know Lauren, I think I'm going to go—"

"I swear to god, please don't say home. Come on Bonnie, just for a little while." Lauren smiled at her, and Damon watched as the vampire-witch's lips to quirked up reluctantly, but the smile didn't reach her eyes and she had a look of regret on her face.

"Maybe some other time Lauren."

"Hey, I'm sorry about Amy, Bonnie." Brendan said. He reached out to touch Bonnie's shoulder and Damon's jaw involuntarily clenched as she graced him with a small smile even though the expression was a little forced.

"You don't have to apologize for her."

"Since you became a vampire, you technically aren't a part of her coven anymore," Sadie said.

"Still, I don't understand why she seems to have it out for you."

Bonnie shook her head. "She's all bark. I don't waste my time thinking about her." She looked towards the door. "Anyway, I need to get home guys, but have fun tonight." She looked at all of them, her eyes resting on Damon for a second longer than the rest.

Damon watched her leave and then went to catch up with her.

She stopped when Damon appeared beside her, but then resumed walking. "Is everything alright with you?" he asked, walking beside her.

"Everything's fantastic." Her voice dripped with sarcasm, a sure sign that everything wasn't alright.

"What was that about with Vincent?"

She glanced at him with that forced neutral expression of hers. "Nothing that concerns you."

"Does it have anything to do with that witch we ran across in Kansas?"

He must have hit the mark because she stopped completely then, and turned to look at him. "Like I said, it doesn't concern you. None of this does." There was a tired look in her eyes as she let go of hiding it. "I really wish you would go back to Mystic Falls." The words are tinged with hopelessness probably because she already knew it was a lost cause to try and convince him. However, the uneasiness rising behind her tired eyes made Damon concerned.

"I'm not going back so you might as well let me know what's really going on." Bonnie sighed, then to Damon's surprise, she actually appeared to be considering it. "It does have to do with the witch doesn't it. She's the only person I've ever seen you so afraid of. You said she was after you for something you did and that she was extremely powerful and extremely dangerous. That sounds to me like someone who might be capable of making poisoned bullets or opening a hole in the barrier for hunters to get through."

Bonnie touched the necklace that hung around her neck, the one with the onyx stone that she always wore. She let out a long sigh. "It's only a possibility, but she shouldn't know where I am."

"And if she does?"

Her expression darkened. "Then I need to prepare."

"Let me help you."

"And how do you propose to do that? She has far more power than me and it is very likely that aside from her, I'm the strongest witch alive. You can't help me, Damon. Whatever happens, you'll end up being a liability. And she's my responsibility, so I have to deal with this alone." With that, Bonnie sped off before he could get another word in, leaving Damon alone on the sidewalk.

Rousseau's was always crowded and always populated with members of the supernatural community, so Damon preferred not to go there. He wasn't trying to get close to too many people in this city, and there was a high probability of recent acquaintances being there. Instead, he stayed in the bar area of the hotel restaurant.

After another long day of searching for the hunters to no avail, that's where Damon was when he happened to see Rebekah and Marcel being ushered to a table by one of the waiters. It seemed they were on a date, and Damon wondered how they were able to find time for themselves between all the searches being carried out and trying to prepare for a possible attack, but he supposed Marcel wasn't bad at delegating responsibilities. And there were enough people helping that everybody seemed to be allowed a break at some point.

Fingering his drink, Damon mulled over the idea of bothering them to ask about Bonnie and whether or not they'd heard from her. It had been two days since the meeting, and Damon had texted the vampire-witch with no luck. She wasn't responding to him, and he was a little worried about her. It could be nothing, and Bonnie could be fine, but something in his gut was telling him that he should probably check in on her.

When their waiter left, Damon approached the couple at their table. Rebekah caught sight of him first. "I'd heard you were staying here," she said as he came to a stop. "Don't you have anything better to do than disturb us?"

"Not really."

"Did you need something?" Marcel asked.

"Have either of you spoken to Bonnie lately?" Damon asked.

They looked at each other, and Rebekah's lips pulled into a tight line. "Why are you asking?"

"What's going on with her? I know she's trying to figure out how to deal with the witch that's after her, but—"

"She told you about Vanessa?" Rebekah looked surprised.

Damon paused. So the witch had a name. "She wouldn't tell me any details, but I know she exists. I don't suppose you'll tell me who Vanessa is?"

"She's an insane witch who's been chasing Bonnie since before she was turned," Marcel informed him.

"Why? What did Bonnie do to her?"

They looked at each other again. "That's something only Bonnie can tell you, but I went to see her earlier, and she wouldn't let me in. She said she was fine, though knowing her, she's probably buried herself in grimoires and spells more than usual. I'm sure you know how Bonnie can be when she gets stubborn. She's great at pretending everything's okay when it isn't. And when it comes to this witch, she…," Rebekah trailed off. "Let's just say she's probably stressed out, and she won't tell me anything or let us help her. If I keep pushing her, she's practically threatened to leave and go on the run, which she has done before."

"Maybe you can talk some sense into her," Marcel suggested. "Get her to at least see that she should let us help this time. Besides, if the hunters are involved with her, like Vincent suspects, this affects all of us."

Rebekah snorted. "If I couldn't get through to her, I doubt he could, but I suppose it couldn't hurt to have him try. Lesser miracles have happened."

"Maybe you just don't know her well enough, Rebekah. Here's a pro tip, one of the best way to get through to Bonnie is by being just as stubborn as she is." He turned away from their table and started towards the hotel exit.

"Are you going to see her right now?" Rebekah asked.

He didn't bother to respond because the answer was obvious.

A/N: Thanks for reading!