Chapter 25
After the ceremony at the bridge, Bonnie went home and decided to try and call Lucy. If she still wasn't answering, then she could be either dead or still captive… She knew that it was a long shot but she wanted to try. It made her feel like she was doing something. She had done it a few times already over the past few weeks and had found solace in hearing Lucy's voice on the answering machine.
"Oh hey Bonnie. It's been a while girl… How are you doing?" Her cousin's voice replied enthusiastically.
"Lucy? Is that you?" Bonnie asked her, relieved but sensing that something wasn't right.
Her cousin shouldn't be this cheerful after her last message, something was very wrong.
"Well, of course it's me. Who did you expect to get by calling my number?" Lucy chuckled.
"When did you get back? Why didn't you call me?" Bonnie asked her.
"Back from where? Why should I have called you?" Lucy asked her, confused.
"What... What's the last thing you remember? Where were you for the past few weeks?" Bonnie asked Lucy.
"I… I was in Chicago for a while… You know, doing a little bit of shopping, having fun with friends… But that's it, I didn't go anywhere…" Lucy replied.
"They erased your memory !" Bonnie exclaimed.
"What do you mean? What do you think happened to me?" The older Bennett asked her.
"You were kidnapped by a coven from Chicago who wanted to bring back the Original Witch and needed a Bennett to do it. Before they took you, you left a message on my phone to warn me that they had found you." Bonnie explained.
"Oh come on, I wouldn't have forgotten that!" Lucy chuckled.
"Unless the Original witch did something to you… You should try to get your memories back, we might need them." Bonnie suggested.
"Fine, if you insist, I'll try but I still don't believe you. I wouldn't have forgotten something like that." Lucy replied.
"Wasn't anything weird or out of place in your house when you got back?" Bonnie asked her to try and convince her.
"Well, now that you mention it, there were a few things out of place. A bookshelf had fallen, the floor was dirty with mud tracks… Maybe you're right, I don't know why I didn't suspect something sooner…" Lucy shook her head.
"That might be because of the spell they did on you… I have to go but keep me informed of what you find, alright?" Bonnie asked her cousin before hanging up.
Bonnie put her jacket back on and made her way to the Mickealson's house, in the brand new car she had bought with the money the Cullen's had paid for the rings, where she knew they were all spending the afternoon. She needed to warn them about Lucy being back and without her memories and doing this over the phone didn't seem right at all.
.
When Bonnie arrived at the Mickealson's house, she saw a few cars parked in front of it, meaning that they had guest. She could see Damon's car, along with Alaric's, Liz Forbes' and Carole Lockwood's.
Might as well tell everyone the bad news at once.
"Bonnie, nice of you to join us. I wanted to invite you but since you said that you had a lot of things to do…" Kol told her as he let her inside the house where she saw Stefan, Damon, Jeremy, Elena, Caroline, Tyler, Alaric, Jenna, Liz and Carole.
"I do, and I should be but there's something important I need to tell your family." She said, bringing everyone's attention to her.
"What's going on? You look so serious Bon'…" Elena asked her, worried.
"I tried to call Lucy when I got back from the ceremony… It was a shot in the dark, I was hoping she'd answer while knowing she wouldn't and that I'd at least be able to hear her voice but… she did. She answered." Bonnie explained.
"What? How? Did she manage to convince the other witch not to do anything?" Bella asked her hopeful, coming closer.
"By the look on your face, I'd say not… What's going on Bonnie? You can tell us." Elijah reassured her and while the young witch felt self conscious about everyone watching her, she knew that she had to warn them.
"She has no memory of being gone at all… She thinks that she went to Chicago for a shopping week-end… When I told her about her message and what's going on she realized that there was a few weird things in her house when she came back like a broken shelf and mud tracks on the floor when it's usually spotless and it was like she couldn't worry about it before I asked her to concentrate on it. I'm sorry… She's trying to get her memories back but I think it's obvious what happened…"
"Esther's back from the dead." Bella guessed, feeling worried for her babies.
Klaus immediately went closer, to take her in his arms, to reassure her and reassure himself.
"It's okay Bonnie, you have nothing to be sorry about. You warned us, that's more than we could ask." Klaus told her as he guided Bella so she could sit down, noticing how pale she looked.
"Bella? Are you okay?" Rosalie asked her while Carlisle, who had been talking about history with Alaric, rushed to check on her.
"I'm fine, don't worry, I just got light headed for a while there… I'm fine now." She replied, brushing it off with a smile.
"Stay in this seat, I'll get you something to eat." Carlisle told her after checking her pulse.
"Do you know how long she's been back for?" Kol asked Bonnie.
"I'm not sure, no… The last time I tried to call her was about two weeks ago though…" Bonnie replied while she was being led to the living room and given something to drink.
"That's enough time for Mother to make her way back here…" Klaus noticed.
"Has she tried to contact you, Finn?" Elijah asked his only big brother.
"No, I would have told you if she had." He shook his head honestly.
"What is so bad about your mother coming back from the dead though?" Stefan asked.
"She'll try to kill us all, and with us, every vampire of our race that was ever created." Klaus replied.
"How charming." Damon rolled his eyes.
"Our mother's plan is a bit bigger than that. She wants to kill us as vampires and bring us all back as witches so we can be an all powerful coven of witches. She'll want Bella dead because she unites us and her children dead to sooth her older sister Dahlia and that pact they made a long time ago. Maybe she'll even try to use the second twin baby as an exchange, something to get Freya back or something like that." Finn explained.
"Can she really do all of this?" Carole Lockwood asked.
"Yes, and she'll need doppelganger blood to do it." Finn nodded and while most of them looked at Elena, Bella asked:
"Which doppelganger?"
"What do you mean? Elena is the only one." Jenna replied.
"While Elena is the only female Petrova doppelganger, that's not exactly true… Doppelganger are much older than Esther's use of Tatia in the spell to turn her children into vampires. They date back to Silas, over 10 thousand years ago, and there are always two of them born. A pair. One of Silas and one of his love Amara. Elena is the last of Amara's doppelgangers but Silas… Well, his doppelganger's blood is just as powerful…" Bella explained.
"Let me guess, you know who it is?" Sage smirked.
"Yes… I don't know who is the last one, the one born around the same time as Elena, but there is another one still alive, as a vampire…" Bella said.
"Let me guess… Amara was Silas's love, the one he betrayed Qetsiyah for and broke all the promises he made her. Doppelgangers were created as a mortal version of Amara and Silas and they're doomed to end up together just like the original copies, repeating mistakes all over again, so Stefan is a doppelganger?" Kol guessed, knowing the story of Silas very well.
"I'm what?" Stefan exclaimed.
"According to my sources, yes, he is. All I have is an ancient portraits of Silas but it has to be Stefan… I don't see who else it could be. If one of you wants to go and get my file about this, it's in my private vault. It's hidden on the wall behind my diplomas. You need a drop of my blood and my parent's divorce date to open it." Bella explained.
"I'll go and get it." Rebekah nodded, taking what she needed before she left.
"Do we really need information about this Silas now? Shouldn't we concentrate on doing something against your mother?" Caroline asked Klaus.
"Yes, we should but there might be something there that could help us. Maybe the history behind the existence of the doppelgangers is important in their use. No offence." Klaus replied, apologizing to Elena.
"None taken. I know all of this already because Bella warned me a while back but I completely forgot to tell Stefan…" Elena blushed.
"You forgot? You forgot to tell me that I was a doppelganger?" Stefan shook his head.
"Why don't we get back to the wicked witch back from the dead for now? Can we stop her and do we know how to find her?" Alaric suggested.
"She's mortal for now, so she can be killed like any other witches." Finn replied.
"But she could always come back, right? I mean, if she did it once, she could do it again…" Esme added and Finn nodded.
"Or she could jump into another body and take control of it." Bella commented.
"If things are moving well with Jo, we could always lock her in the supernatural prison with Kai and Dahlia…" Kol suggested.
"Putting the three of them together, even without magic, could be dangerous… But it's an option we should definitely keep in mind." Klaus nodded.
"Vampires can't be witches." Bella whispered and they all turned back to look at her.
"What?" Sage asked her while Jenna and Elena came to sit with her.
Rosalie had stepped behind Bella and was listening to the babies' heart beats, making sure that Bella and her little ones stayed fine.
"The tomb under the old church is still locked. We could force her to turn into a vampire and push her in the tomb… She'd be locked there forever without access to any magic." Bella explained.
"That's actually not a bad idea…" Damon nodded.
"I have to admit that I like the idea of her suffering the fate she once forced on us…" Klaus nodded, along with his brothers.
"I could even put more protections around the tomb to prevent people who don't have the right password or code from coming close to it." Bonnie offered.
"Yes, by using a constant power source it'll be even stronger." Kol nodded, already making plans in his head.
"Elena will need to be protected. Esther will try to go for her as soon as she can." Elijah declared.
"I'll keep an eye on her." Stefan and Damon said at the same time.
At this moment, they all saw the results of Bella's good work: the Salvatore brothers didn't glare at each others, they accepted that they were both in love with the same girl and that Elena was unable to make a decision for now.
"I'll try to always be somewhere safe, like at home." Elena offered.
"She's not a vampire honey, but a witch. She'll be able to come inside if she wants to…" Jenna told her.
"I can put protections around your house to prevent her from coming inside… It's temporary and only lasts one moon cycle but I'll be able to renew it if necessary." Bonnie offered, thinking of a spell she had found in her grandmother's old books.
"I'll call Enzo and ask him to help us. He shouldn't be too far at the moment." Damon declared, already taking his phone out.
Rebekah came back at that moment, with Bella's file and while Alaric and Stefan read it, they told her what she had missed.
"We have to organize better protections around Bella until we can find where our Mother is." Klaus declared, worried for his love.
"I know that you don't have a picture of her but do you have a portrait or something? I can have my deputies on the look-out and we can have the members of the council keeping an eye out as well." Liz offered.
"I have a drawing of her." Klaus nodded and rushed off to get a couple of the best drawings he had done of his mother.
He came back a few seconds later and gave them to her.
"Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, Rosalie, I don't need to have Edward's mind reading ability to know what you're thinking and the answer is no. You're not postponing your trip back home for this. We'll be fine. Especially since it's a big anniversary for your family. Go and have fun. We'll make it, we'll be fine." Bella told the four Cullen.
"Are you sure? I'm sure Alice would understand and find a good excuse for Edward…" Carlisle argued.
"I'm sure. Don't worry." Bella nodded.
"You'll call if you need Carlisle back though, right?" Esme asked and Bella nodded.
"Of course we will." Klaus nodded before Bella could argue.
"I'll show Stefan a few emergency tricks in case anything happens." Carlisle offered and the youngest Salvatore, who had bonded a lot with Carlisle over the past month, nodded and followed the doctor into his office immediately.
"I'm sure Alice will warn us if she sees anything Bella... She might not see anything though..." Esme said and Bella nodded.
She knew that with one phone call, Alice would be here, ready to help and she was ready to see her again, once the Esther threat was dealt with.
"After Esther's been dealt with, you can have Alice, Jasper and Edward come here. I'm ready, I'd just prefer to not have to see them before we are done dealing with the grandmother evil witch."
"What about the witch house?" Damon suddenly asked.
"What about it?" Tyler asked, taking a break from devouring the toasts.
"I was actually thinking about it as well. We should check it out later. It would be the perfect place for our mother to hide in and find help." Elijah nodded.
"The witches could be hiding her and me coming along won't help anything since they're mad at me now…" Bonnie shook her head.
"Well, we can always try. Maybe we'll catch them off guard at some point." Damon argued and Tyler said:
"I'll come with you. I need to feel useful."
"Don't worry Carole, I'll keep an eye on him, he'll be safe." Damon told the mayor before she could say anything.
"Thank you." She nodded.
"Now, why don't we all move to the dinner table? I'm hungry and Tyler ate all the appetizers." Bella suggested.
"Aren't we waiting on your apprentice?" Klaus asked Bella.
"Matt isn't my apprentice and he can't make it, he's got to work a double shift today. Someone called in sick and since he needs the cash, he volunteered." Bella replied.
"Too bad, I might stop by the Grill later." Rebekah commented, making Caroline and Bella chuckle.
They tried not to think too much about the bad things happening to them for the time being but when Bella insisted that it was time for her to go home, Klaus drove her and stayed with her all night. Rebekah was spending the night with Caroline and Elena so they were completely alone.
"You know I'm safe in here Klaus. You don't have to worry so much." Bella told him.
"I know but I still worry." He whispered as he came to sit by her side, trying to stop watching out the window.
"I know. Don't worry, it's different now, your siblings are all by your side. You have a family. You're not alone." Bella smiled.
"I know and I owe it all to you." He nodded.
Bella liked it when Klaus stayed the night, or even when he came back in the middle of the night to stay with her but it didn't stop her form feeling guilty. She knew that he should be spending more time with his siblings, and he did during the day, but she felt guilty that she enjoyed his presence so much and that she took him away from the rest of his family, though he did his best to reassure her.
With the danger of Esther looming around them, she liked it even more when he was close, and she definitely wasn't complaining about her hybrid secretary or the two hybrid bodyguard that patrolled around in the street.
Since Rebekah was thinking of moving in with her brothers after Christmas, Bella decided that she, too, would move in with Klaus at that time, leaving her appartement empty and free for the hybrids to use whenever they wanted. No use for them to waste money on a hotel room when she had enough space for them here.
Klaus, of course, agreed. Any excuse to have her with him, in his house, was welcome.
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Lorelei Candice Black