Bonnie's POV

"Bonnie."

My eyes popped open. Without even looking around, I knew where I was and who I was with.

"Qetsiyah." I tried to stare holes into her face as I kept my fierce eyes locked onto her playful ones. As I did this, I slowly got up from the tombstone I had been slumped over against.

"Aw, don't be like that, honey. I know you love our meetings."

"I'm not sure if love is the correct word, exactly. I would, however, like to be able to take a nap or go to bed at night and not be transported into another dimension most of the time."

I watched as Qetsiyah walked toward our signature bench in the graveyard and took a seat. Her long, wavy hair and worn, tattered robes flowed slightly in the mild breeze. I took my seat beside of her as she rolled her eyes.

"Always with the dramatics. This is not another dimension. As I've told you before, it's the Bennett Family plot. Witches such as myself, aka dead, can come and go freely. Only the most powerful of living witches can set foot here. Bonnie, you are one of those witches. It's why I asked you to help me in the first place."

"I was the last practicing Bennett witch left. You and I both know that."

Qetsiyah laughed lightly as she her mischievous look intensified.

"If I wanted your grandmother to practice magic, I could have persuaded her to do so." Qetsiyah smirked. "You're stronger than all your ancestors combined, Bonnie Bennett. You just don't know it yet. Once we complete my plan, you'll see."

"I still don't understand how some long dead guy is supposed to—" I froze as I felt my throat tightening. It was like someone had a permanent vice around me and kept squeezing. I sat up straight and pressed my back firmly against the back of the bench as I stared at Qetsiyah. Her eyes were suddenly blazing as her right hand trembled in mid-air. She closed it into a fist and I started to gasp for air.

"His name is Silas and you will not disrespect him again! He was on a mission in this world to get rid of all the evil that inhabited it. Without him, we are all doomed." Qetsiyah let her fist go limp, and I sucked in a big gulp of fresh air.

"I'm sorry." My voice was raspy as I quickly apologized. I did not want to be on Qetsiyah's bad side. I had been let into the memories she allowed me to see, and it never ended well for anyone that had went up against her.

"It is quite alright, Bonnie. Let's get to work." Qetsiyah closed her eyes and peace was written all over her face.

I closed my eyes as well, but I'm sure worry was written all over mine.

What had I gotten myself into?

..

Klaus's POV

I leaned against the bannister as I watched Elena Gilbert encourage her immortal boyfriend to blow out his 18 candles on his birthday cake. I had gathered from Damon that for the past two years of being in Mystic Falls, Elena had always put 18 candles on Stefan's birthday cake because it was the golden age he had never reached. Apparently, it was a distasteful joke that seemed to be just tasteful enough to keep going.

I allowed my eyes to dance around the room again. Some of the people here I had not met but recognized from around town. Others were friends Stefan had met throughout the years.

It seemed like no matter how much I tried, my eyes kept finding their way back to her.

Caroline Forbes was smiling and laughing across the room as she stood beside of her newly present date; her boyfriend Tyler Lockwood.

I knew I was staring, and I knew I should have stopped, but just as Caroline's laugh ended, her eyes made contact with mine. Even though to humans it was only a second, if that, to me it was similar to a lifetime.

"Sup, lover boy?"

I was snapped out of my trance by Damon announcing his presence next to me. I tore my eyes away from my own personal Hell just as I noticed Bonnie Bennett approaching Tyler and Caroline. I turned my attention to my new acquaintance who, oddly enough, I was growing quite fond of.

I had never gotten a chance to formally meet Damon all those years ago when Stefan was taking a break from humanity, but for some reason, I sensed a comradery with him that I hadn't with Stefan. It didn't take me long to figure out that in this lifetime, Damon was the odd older brother with a murky past and confusing love life. His bad deeds outweighed his good ones, and most of the time, he kept to himself. Unlike his younger brother, although he was haunted by his past as well, the big difference was that Damon was proud of his previous actions. He always would be.

"Hello, Damon." I looked in the direction of him just as another man stepped from the other side of him. The other man looked to be a bit older than Damon, and a bit wiser as well.

"Dracula, this is Alaric Saltzman. Alaric, this is Dracula, a.k.a. centuries old baddie, Klaus Mikaelson. We've just approached him doing what he does best; stalking the high school girls."

Damon chuckled at his own joke as Alaric rolled his eyes and reached toward me for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you. Damon already told me the story, and I must say, I'm fascinated. Time travel? I've heard of teleportation, possession, maybe even pausing time for a few moments, but never what has happened to you."

"Ah, well," I cleared my throat and let my eyes dart back to Caroline just as she and her suitor turned away from Bonnie and started walking away from the festivities. "Join the club. I've come a long way. I've probably spoken to thousands of witches, and none of them had ever heard of what was done by Qetsiyah. It wasn't until the 1920s that I encountered a witch who even knew an inkling of what I was talking about."

"Well, who was it?" Damon was eager to know. For some reason, I didn't think many events of interest happened in Mystic Falls.

"Helena Bennett. She reassured me that Caroline wasn't—"

"Bennett? Like Bonnie Bennett, Bennett?" Alaric interrupted me as I noticed Damon's eyes soften for a fraction of a second.

"Yes. Her great-grandmother Helena was a huge help to me." I let my eyes wander over to the Bennett witch just as she and Elena shared a laugh. Something about Bonnie was off, but as I spoke to her earlier, she seemed normal enough.

"She's been acting strange lately." Damon voiced my thoughts as Alaric just nodded in affirmation.

"Yes. She has." I agreed. "The Bennett witches have always been, and are, a very powerful lot. Their one downfall is that they often seem to underestimate themselves. I met Helena while she was serving up drinks in a speakeasy. Imagine that." I watched Damon's eyes drift over to Bonnie again. Pride and adoration flitted through them, as well as one final emotion: pure, unfiltered love. Anyone not paying attention would have missed it.

"Has she started practicing yet? Like really practicing?" Alaric's eyes had moved over to the young Bennett witch as well.

Damon's attention came back to us as he started to speak. "From what I hear from eavesdropping in on my little brother and his gossipy girlfriend, she's currently taking lessons at good ol' Sheila Bennett's humble abode on the weekends. Apparently, BonBon has went from knocking over tiny salt shakers to lighting candles.

"Already?" Alaric's eyes went wide.

I must have had a questioning look on my face as I looked at Alaric. I wasn't sure how a human knew so much about the supernatural.

"My now-dead wife was a witch. Gemini Coven. And my also-dead ex-wife was a vampire." He stopped as he now looked in the direction of Elena and Stefan. "She was also Elena's bio mom."

I laughed inwardly at myself as I tried to keep my eyes from going big. I found myself actually interested in the small-town gossip. I'm not sure what was happening to me. Alaric seemed to know I was very interested in the information he was providing me.

"I'm not Elena's biological father, though. He's also dead. I'd like to think I'm just some weird occult professor who illegally adopted a teenager who actually doesn't hate me. Most days."

Damon rolled his eyes, and his voice was void of all tones of a patient man. "Now that the Life and Times of Alaric Saltzman has been ran down, can we get back to Bonnie, please? Ric, what do you mean "Already"?"

"I mean, both tasks are fairly simple as far as magic goes, but one involves completely bending elements to your will, while the other is just an advanced form of telekinesis. Jo said that messing with elements was the last thing she remembers doing just before her family deemed her and Kai ready. Element bending this early on? Bonnie has a lot of power behind her. I just hope she knows how to keep it under control."

I allowed myself to glance at Bonnie Bennett one more time. If she were to be anything like Qetsiyah was, I strongly hoped the teen girl in front of me had an idea of how much power she was holding.

As I saw her laughing and being care-free with Matt Donovan, something told me she didn't. That, or she was a very good actress.

..

Caroline's POV

My back screamed in protest as it was dragged down the thick tree trunk he had left me leaned up against. My legs seemed to slip out from under me as I sank lower and finally ended up on the forest floor; ice cold from low temperatures of mid-October fall. My ribs screamed in protest, and my right collar bone felt as if it was on fire, but the fire had burned through and was coming for me a second time.

For the first time since becoming a vampire, I wished with every bone in my immortal body that I was dead.

"Caroline, you have to get out of here!"

My boyfriend, Tyler Lockwood, painfully screamed at me through clenched teeth as the chains he was being restrained with groaned loudly.

"No! You said you wanted to try and that's what we're doing. How else are you going to learn self-control?"

"Just because I want to try doesn't mean my wolf does. Caroline—" Tyler winced in pain as a tremor shot through his body. Tears immediately sprung from his eyes as he opened them. "I have killed people! The past few months, every full moon, someone dies and it's my fault. Why do you want to help someone like me?"

I stepped closer to Tyler and put my hands on each side of his cold, clammy face. "Tyler, I love you. I know that deep down you're a good person. You'd never hurt a fly on purpose—"

Tyler jerked away from me as he screamed. I stumbled back.

"You have to get the Hell out of here! I can feel him coming and I can't control it any longer."

"I'm not leaving!" I yelled back at Tyler with just as much ferocity. His body started to shake as sweat poured from him. The iron smell of blood permeated the room as I watched his body transform. He was now on all fours as his fingers and toes stretched out into sharp claws stained with his quick drying blood. His body began to elongate itself as he became nothing but lean muscle.

Everything went silent.

"Tyler?" I walked closer to him and could feel the thick heat coming from the beast in his body. "Ty?"

I felt my eyes go wide as a sharp pain went through my neck and kept going down my chest. I took in a deep breath, and never let it back out.

As I thought back to waking up in the middle of the woods all those months ago, dazed and confused as to why Stefan Salvatore stood in front of me with two blood bags, I couldn't help but wonder who was going to find me this time. Would someone find me? And even if they did, how could they save me? I was already dead, but somehow, I knew I was dying again, and it was one of those final deaths that people wish for at their end of their fully-lived lives. A death that they knew would bring them peace.

I didn't know how, and I didn't know why, but deep down inside, I knew death was coming for me.

And at this point in my life, on the lonely forest floor with my body on fire, I welcomed it.

I welcomed it just as the stranger in the forest welcomed me into their arms.