10
What Lies Beneath
June 2011
"You, Bonnie Bennett, are the living embodiment of every bad thing that has ever happened to me."
Perhaps the words might have hurt her nine years ago. Or eight. Or five.
But now, Bonnie just cocked her head to the side, and stared hard at the monster that bore her childhood friend's face, and wondered clinically what was the quickest way to get out of this unpleasantness.
"I'm sorry about Jeremy. I truly am. And Jenna… and Uncle John… But you can't really believe that any of those things were my fault."
"If you had been here, they'd still be alive. If you had been in Mystic Falls, instead of traipsing on West Coast. Why do you still come back here, anyway? To taunt us? To show off how powerful and connected you are? To show off how perfect your life is?"
Laughter burst out of Bonnie – suddenly, incongruously. But she really couldn't help it. What a ridiculous thing for anyone to say about her life.
"You really think my life is perfect?" she gasped.
"It would be if you didn't whine about it all the time. Oh 'Mommy didn't love me and left me with a coven that taught me magic and kept me safe.' ; 'Oh Grams didn't fight to keep me in this wretched, haunted, backwater, wreck of a town.'; 'Oh my Dad died and left me all alone. I mean, he was barely around when he was alive. He spent all that time travelling, and coming home late, and I practically lived at my Grandma's. But boo fucking hoo, he's gone and I'm so, so, so sad'-"
"Watch it-" Bonnie said, her voice dropping in degrees. The small fraction of earlier amusement have vanished now. The urge to laugh was being fast replaced by something more lethal.
"'Cos let's all pretend he was such a great dad, and you two had such a close relationship…"
"Elena, I swear…"
"… and not that he avoided you as much as he could because, just like for me, you were a reminder for him of his bad luck. A reminder of the woman who abandoned him and left him to raise her child. A reminder of the biggest tragedy of his life-"
Her voice cut off, her poisonous words sticking in her throat as the bones in her neck fused together. The vampire clawed at her throat as Bonnie advanced on her, her right fist clenched at her side, her mouth spitting out curses as cold rage pounded in her chest.
"Shut. your. mouth," Bonnie hissed.
Elena couldn't speak, but she could grin, her already twisted face distorting even further.
Then the grin broke as Bonnie started pushing aneurysms into the vampire's brain. Elena fell to her knees, one hand on her head now, while the other stayed on her throat, as she choked on her screams.
Bonnie was standing over the vampire now, watching the pathetic whimpering creature, and her anger dulled into disgust so strong, it was almost pity.
She's pathetic. Completely dependent on everyone but herself. I thought she was stronger than this, stronger than Caroline but I was wrong. She's weak. She couldn't survive three months as a vampire without turning off her switch.
Bonnie took in a deep shaky breath and raised her arms, drawing magic into her body. Her grip on the vampire's throat shifted to the bones of her spine and Elena's whimpers turned into guttural cries.
Killing her will be an act of mercy.
"Stop! Witch – argh!"
Bonnie started, so caught up in her thoughts that she barely felt the vampires bearing down on her.
Her magic did, though, her shields raising up on trained instinct.
That was the first time Bonnie met the Salvatore brothers – flying through the air like scarecrows in suits, until they crashed against the trees and collapsed onto the ground in a tangle of broken limbs.
Behind them, Caroline stood in her prom dress, her arm stretched out beseechingly.
"Bonnie, don't do this."
The pleading in her friend's voice almost moved Bonnie, but she was resolved.
"Someone needs to," Bonnie said quietly.
"She's your friend… your best friend…"
Bonnie shook her head, and tears stung her eyes. "The Elena that was my friend was a good, kind person. A strong person. A person who would never choose to become a monster, no matter how bad life got. A person who would never turn off her humanity switch. I don't know who this person is… but she has to be stopped." Her hand flexed. Elena's cries had stopped. The vampire now lay still on the ground.
Bonnie's magic was creeping towards its heart.
"But she didn't turn it off!" Caroline cried desperately. "She didn't! That was Damon! Elena was sirebonded to him, and he is the one who made her to turn it off."
Bonnie's magic stilled. She stared at Caroline in shock. "What?"
"You are right. Elena would never have chosen to be this, to do this. And she didn't choose to do this. She didn't have a choice, Bonnie. He took it from her. If you kill her for this, then you're punishing her for someone else's decision, someone else' crime."
Bonnie's hand fell to her side. She staggered to the prone body of her once-friend, and she stopped. She swayed on her feet, shock rushing through her body as the enormity of what she had almost done hit her.
She would have fallen herself if Caroline had not rushed forward to catch her.
That was the day of the Mystic Falls Homecoming Dance. The day that Bonnie had finally appreciated the enormity of the damage that the Salvatore brothers had wrecked in her friends' lives. Having been away from her hometown for so long, only seeing Caroline and Elena during brief holidays, spread thinner and thinner over the years, she had been unaware of just how bad things had gotten since the advent of Damon and Stefan Salvatore to Mystic Falls.
When she returned to Portland, she had gone straight to Joshua and petitioned him to send Gemini Envoys, the elite witches who carried out most of the coven's missions, to destroy the vampires.
For a long time, Bonnie had known that she was Joshua Parker's favourite. The tragedy that had taken away half of his children had left him a cold, closed man. He raised Luke and Leia like young apprentices, not like his own children. He had no affection left for his blood. But with Bonnie, he could be kind, could be a true father. And in turn, even though he would never replace Rudy Hopkins in Bonnie's heart, she had grown to love the old Gemini leader. She rarely asked him for anything because she knew he would deny her nothing.
He denied her this.
No matter how much she pleaded, no matter how articulately she made her case, listing all the events and the monsters that the Salvatores had heralded into Mystic Falls - the answer remained the same.
No.
Bonnie was bitter. It was the first and only time that she quarreled with her guardian. She shunned him. She refused to attend lessons and ceremonies. She was rude and cold.
It made no difference.
Eventually, she made her peace with his answer, with him, but the disappointment lingered.
So when Liv first started talking about Expression, about Silas, about the Cure for vampirism - Bonnie listened.
She was halfway down the airport hallway from the bathroom, when she made up her mind.
She turned back.
Damon Salvatore was still lying in a heap on the bathroom floor, unconscious.
Bonnie knelt at his side, and stared down at him.
It would be easy to rip out his heart now. She won't even need magic.
She stretched out her hand and ripped out a lock of his hair. Then she got up, and left him there.
Caroline was just about to leave for her theatre group when Bonnie arrived at the dorm.
"Yay, you're back!" she squealed, giving Bonnie a warm hug.
When Bonnie didn't return it, she pulled back. "Are you OK?"
Bonnie stared hard into her friend's guileless blue eyes.
Damon Salvatore had to be lying. There was no way - no way - that Caroline would bring him and his brother back into her life after everything that had happened. After Bonnie had practically died because of them.
Caroline could not betray her like that.
Could she?
"I met Damon Salvatore at the airport."
Caroline's face flashed through a dozen different emotions before it finally settled on wide-eyed shock. "What?"
"You won't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
"H-how… what… why would I know?" Caroline stammered, stepping backwards, walking agitatedly to her desk. "Why? Did he say something?"
Bonnie shrugged casually, even as her heart fell. "We barely spoke. He said he was glad I was back and he needed a favour. I gave him an aneurysm until he passed out, and walked away."
Visible relief crossed Caroline's face. "Good. Good."
"Yes," Bonnie said quietly. "Good."
The first thing Bonnie did after Caroline left, was to skim through friend's clothes until she found a strand of long yellow hair.
A few minutes later, Bonnie was searching through the rest of Caroline's things with a fine-toothed comb.
Caroline was lying to her. Her best friend since forever. The one person in the world from Bonnie's old life in Mystic Falls that was left. Her sister in all but blood.
Caroline was lying to her; and if she was, then Bonnie wanted to tell herself that Caroline had a good reason to. She needed to. And if not for the involvement of the Salvatores, that might just have been enough for Bonnie.
Because she had already too much going on in her life.
Her wedding.
Kai Parker.
The last thing Bonnie needed was the Salvatores in her life and the wake of destruction that followed them. Stefan and his schemes and his blood-soaked past. Damon and his vicious pettiness and his absolute amorality.
Bonnie had died the last time she was involved with the Salvatores. How dare Caroline invite them back into Bonnie's life?
"Your father's death. … I know you have questions. … I can help you."
What did that mean?
Her father's death? Rudy Hopkins had died in a road accident on his way back home one rainy night. He had taken a curve, spotted a deer, swerved, lost control of his car and driven into a tree trunk.
The coroner had told Bonnie and Sheila that his death had been instantaneous. Her father hadn't suffered.
Bonnie paused in the middle of ransacking Caroline's still unpacked luggage and sank, sitting, into her friend's bed.
Even now, after all these years, her heart still ached at the memory of her father's death. Of the loss of his life, of their time together. He had been a busy man, yes. There had been a lot of business trips, and she rarely saw him outside weekends. But he had loved her, fiercely, unconditionally. To Rudy Hopkins, Bonnie hadn't been a powerful young Bennett witch. She hadn't been someone he needed to inject fresh blood into his coven. She hadn't been a resourceful friend that would be a useful ally in dealing with the supernatural.
She had just been herself - just Bonnie. And when he died, 'just Bonnie' had died with him.
Now, Bonnie Bennett rubbed her hands over her dry face, wiping away the memories and the heartache, and tried to think.
Whatever it was that Caroline had shared with the Salvatores, it had to be something from her and Bonnie's recent trip to Mystic Falls. Now that Bonnie thought of it, Caroline had been strange on their way back. Bouts of extreme chattiness and moody silence in turns. Bonnie had been too wrapped up in her own head, in her own recent trauma to pay attention. But now, she realized that her friend must have had something on her mind.
And where else would Caroline get information about Bonnie's father's death than her mother, the Sheriff of the town?
Bonnie went back to Caroline's luggage.
So Liz Forbes had known something about Bonnie's father's death that she had kept from Bonnie herself. Lying to her by default. At least Caroline couldn't have known about it for very long. Bonnie could forgive her friend a few days's secrecy.
But she couldn't forgive Caroline taking said secrets to the Salvatores.
Half an hour later, she gave up. Whatever it was that Caroline had, she must have passed it on to the brothers. There was nothing incriminating in their dorm. Later, Bonnie will check her friend's car but she didn't hold out much hope for that.
Of course, Bonnie could have just told Caroline the truth - confronted her point-blank with her encounter with Damon and what he said. But Caroline didn't deserve an honest conversation. If she was going to go behind Bonnie's back and scheme with the Salvatores, then Bonnie was going to return the favour.
She went to her side of the room, and looked at her reading desk. After Caroline had left, and she found a strand of her hair, Bonnie had cleared her desk for a spell. Half a dozen candles lined up as a square on the perimeter of a map of Virginia that Bonnie had printed in the common room. On the map were two red dots. One was stationary, and the other was moving towards the first.
As Bonnie watched, the two dots met and mingled.
She peered at the map, chewing her lip thoughtfully. The cafe on the North side of campus was a good rendezvous spot. But what she needed was where the Salvatores were lodging while in Whitmore. Even if they were commuting from Mystic Falls - and from what Bonnie had seen of that town, she strongly doubted that - they would still want a place near campus.
'Follow the blood.'
The blood of the tracking spells she had made from Caroline's hair and Damon's hair.
The blood of the victims that the Salvatores would inevitably leave in their wake.
Bonnie pulled out her laptop and went to the campus security website. She smiled grimly at the pop alert.
Three animal attacks in 48 hours. Campus security is proposing a curfew.
'Follow the blood.'
Bonnie turned away from the gory police reports and pulled out her cell-phone. She was going to need help for this. Luke and Liv were out of the question. She was planning a wedding, for one, and it was all she had done to prove to Luke that she was capable of being included in the mission to find Kai.
Her heart thumped as Luke's words echoed in her head:
"They may not just catch him. They may…"
Bonnie shook her head, chasing away the sudden thick lump that filled her throat. She didn't have time for such nonsense.
She dialed Faye's and Melissa's numbers.
They had a second fitting scheduled for the next day. Bonnie didn't even think about the Liv vs Caroline problem until she showed up at the bridal shop, and found the two tall blondes in the waiting room. They were sitting in almost identical poses - arms and legs crossed, faces closed and eyes watching the other warily.
"Uh… hi…" Bonnie said, awkwardly.
Faye and Melissa, who were sitting on either side of Liv and Caroline like referees, were exchanging glances, their mouths twitching as they struggled against giggles.
"Hello, Bonnie," Liv said coolly, never once taking her eyes off Caroline. "Isn't this fun? Us five girls together?"
"Hi, Bonnie," Caroline said cheerily, eyeballing the blonde witch. "Thank goodness for auto-reminders, right? Because I haven't updated my calendar in days. Obviously."
"Don't …" Bonnie warned, raising her hand. "I'm having a … just don't."
Liv and Caroline turned from each other to look at her with concern.
"Bonnie, is everything alright?" Caroline asked.
"What's going on?" Liv demanded.
Faye and Melissa's glances went from amused to knowing.
Bonnie stared hard into Caroline's worried face and considered spitting out the truth there and then.
She shook her head mentally. "I'm getting married in less than… in a week!" Her yelp was genuine, as the lack of time left suddenly hit her. "How am I supposed to be alright?"
"That's what we're here for," Caroline said at once. "To help. All of us." She went back to glaring at Liv.
Liv glared right back. "You want to say something to me, Vampire?"
Caroline looked like if she was just bursting to. But one glance at Bonnie, and she pressed her lips firmly together.
Liv flipped her blonde curls back. "I didn't think so."
Bonnie sighed. It was going to be a long fitting.
As soon as Caroline stepped behind the fitting room doors, Melissa placed a travel size tin of lip balm on the magazine stand, and flickered her fingers over it as if she was sprinkling salt.
It ignited and a familiar odour filled the air.
"Pocket sage," she said with a grin, at the surprised looks on the faces of the other three witches. "Neat, huh?"
"Clever," Faye drawled. Then she leaned forward conspiratorially. "Any change on the map?"
Bonnie looked at each of them in dismay.
"What?" Melissa asked, confused. "Caroline can't hear us. The sage is better than a smokescreen spell because it will distract the mundane seamstresses from our conversation and keep vampires from overhearing."
"Uh, guys, she means me," Liv said quietly. "I'm the one who shouldn't be listening in on this."
Bonnie flushed as the Gemini witch gave her a wry glance. The other two girls started.
"Oh," Melissa said, and looked acutely embarrassed.
Faye was more articulate about her confusion. "I thought you guys had made up? We've never excluded her from things like this before."
Bonnie sighed. Faye was right, of course, but she had wanted to keep this apart from the Gemini coven for as long as she could.
She still remembered how she had asked Joshua Parker to deal with the Salvatores and how he had refused. And Liv had been part of the whole mess with the Salvatores and Expression Magic and the Cure.
Yet, Liv had made it clear that there was no love lost between her and the Salvatore brothers while Caroline had not. Caroline had strongly believed that Stefan was the 'good' brother while Damon was the bad one, refusing to see that there was not much to choose from between the two.
Bonnie eyed Liv speculatively.
"I'll just leave," the blonde witch said abruptly, getting to her feet as she obviously mis-read Bonnie's glance.
"No," Bonnie said firmly. "Stay."
"Look. I get it." Liv smiled wryly. "You don't have to-"
"I want to," Bonnie insisted. "I might need your help in this, too."
With a reluctant sigh, Liv sat back.
Bonnie leaned forward. "I think I've found where they're staying. I triangulated the locations of their victims to an apartment building a half-hour's drive from campus. I have a plan…"
When Liv finished talking, her brother leaned back into the fast food booth with a heavy sigh. His face was solemn.
She fidgeted in her seat, fiddling with the straw of her drink. "Please don't tell me I made a mistake telling you?"
For a moment, he didn't say anything and her anxiety increased. Then he ran his hand through his hair with another sigh. "No, you did the right thing. It's just that it's one more thing to deal with… One more thing to lie about… to keep a secret…"
You have no idea, Liv thought wryly.
"We don't have to tell him, you know," she said tentatively.
He gave her a mocking glance. "Of course, we have to tell him. Father specifically instructed us to let him know if either brother ever tries to contact her again."
"Yes, but…"
"The last time Bonnie had anything to do with those vampires, she died, Olivia. Or have you forgotten?"
She bristled, hated his use of her full name. It was something he only did when he was annoyed with her. It was a clear sign that he, at any rate,hadn't forgotten.
"Of course not," she snapped. "That's why I'm telling you now."
Faye had been right - in the past, Liv would have automatically been included in something like this. Liv had known the two girls longer, but it was Bonnie who became fast friends with them. Bonnie had always been closer to Luke than his sister but she had, for some vague 'girls-only' reason, included Liv, not him, in her friendship with the other girls. It had ended up helping their relationship - Bonnie's and Liv's - tremendously. With everyone else, there was baggage. For a long time, Caroline saw Liv as her rival for Bonnie's affection, loyalty and general pseudo-sistership; similarly, Liv saw Bonnie as her rival for Luke, her father, and the Gemini as a whole. They had grown past that, for the most of it, but the old scars were still there.
But Melissa and Faye were neutral territory. Neither Bonnie nor Liv could lay a greater prior claim to the girls. So it didn't bother Liv that Bonnie was closer to the girls, nor did Bonnie feel she needed to moderate her relationship with them to accommodate Liv. The two of them - Bonnie and Liv - generally got along better with those other two as a buffer.
But that was before … everything.
"Bonnie's only just started to trust me again," Liv said with a sigh. "Whatever you do, you can't let her know I told you about this."
"These things have a way of coming out no matter what you do," he said coldly.
Liv glared at him. For the first time, she realized how alike her two brothers could be.
"You do realize, don't you, that if Bonnie thinks I betrayed her, she'll never trust me again and next time something like this happens, I won't know to tell you?" she asked waspishly.
He threw money on the table and started gathering up his things. He gave his sister a stern gaze. "I'll tell Father that I saw Damon at the airport, did some checking around and found out what was going on. If Bonnie ever finds out the source, that's the story she'll be told."
"And you're OK with Bonnie thinking you betrayed her?"
"She didn't confide in me so there was nothing to betray," he said simply. "And besides, she knows that I love her, that I want to keep her safe. You don't have that benefit of the doubt."
Liv set her jaw and looked away.
She was going to let him leave without saying another word. But he had slid out of the booth and grabbed his jacket, when she broke.
"I did it for you, you know."
He paused.
"The whole Expression fiasco," Liv said hoarsely. "I did it to protect you. So I won't have to kill my brother sometime in the near future. How does that make me the monster in this story?"
Liv didn't think it was possible, but her brother's eyes grew colder. "I'm gonna ask you a question, Liv and I want a true answer."
Startled, she nodded.
"Suppose you had 10:0 odds of winning the merge… no, let's say 90:10 … no, let's say 60:40… Would you have risked so much to change our fate?"
Liv held his gaze for as long as she could.
Then she looked down at the table.
"No," Luke said quietly. "I didn't think so."
Bonnie's message came early the next morning. The buzz of her mobile woke Liv up from an uncomfortable sleep.
"We're going at 0800hrs."
Liv quickly deleted it, throwing a nervous glance at the hunched figure at her reading desk. She set her alarm discreetly, and pretended to go back to sleep.
"Booty call?" Kai drawled.
Liv sighed. She lifted her head to see that he hadn't even turned around to speak to her. To all intents and purposes, he was still nose-deep in the books before him. Which he probably was. Since they had returned from finding Josette, Kai had buried himself in the study of the Bennett Grimoires, barely eating or sleeping in his quest to find a loophole to undo Jo's sleeping curse.
Liv was just thankful that he hadn't recruited her in the effort. She knew that he believed that Sheila's magic could be undone. But it would be at the cost of very powerful, and probably dark magic.
Luke still hadn't forgiven Liv for the last time she played around by proxy with powerful, dark magic.
After the initial shock at his declaration in Jo's hospital room, Liv figured out that Kai must have found out about Bonnie's brief experiment with Expression from the girl herself during their time together in his 1994 Prison World. Liv had never really understood what happened between her oldest brother and her sort-of sister in their time together in his cell. Liv had been in disgrace then over the whole matter, and had been barred from the coven's interrogation of Katherine Pierce, and later from Bonnie's own testimony. Bonnie, of course, hadn't confided in her.
Liv couldn't, in her right mind, ask Luke either.
That left Kai…
She sat up in bed, watching him speculatively.
He threw a glance over his shoulder. "You can go, if you like. I won't judge."
It took her a moment to realize what he meant, then she made a face.
"Ugh, no. I wanted to ask…" And now she hesitated.
"The anticipation is killing me." He sounded absolutely bored. His focus was back on the two Grimoires spread open before him. A notepad was by his hand and he scribbled in it intermittently.
"What did Bonnie tell you about Expression magic?"
It was as if she had poked him with a live wire. He froze, his body stiffening with tension.
Liv gulped. By now she knew him well enough to anticipate his moods.
This was going to be bad.
She pulled her magic to her, determined to defend herself from the inevitable lashing out. But after a long tense moment, Kai just turned a page of the Grimoire.
"Not enough apparently," he said mildly. "Besides, I think you are the resident expert. It was your plan to harness her Expression to change the Merge spell, right? Good plan, by the way. The technique was a little crude, but the foundation was solid. I was impressed with your notes."
"Thanks," she muttered after an uncertain pause. She eyed him warily, checking his mood but that momentary tension seemed to have passed. He was back to studying the material before him. "So… do you plan to use it to break the Sleeping Curse on Jo? Or to merge with her while she's still in the Sleeping Curse?"
He heaved a long-suffering sigh and she was sure he wasn't going to respond to her. Then, to her surprise, he swivelled his chair to face her, his gaze keen.
"Well, it's the same fundamental problem you had, isn't it? A spell that should work in theory but drawing on a source of power that is logistically impossible."
"Expression isn't impossible."
"It is now that she died with the power. She didn't carry it with her into the Prison World…" His voice trailed off.
Liv stared at him, at the faraway look on his face. "Kai?"
He came to slowly, a grin spreading across his face.
"You just got an idea?" she asked eagerly.
His gaze sharpened at her. "Maybe," he said, his voice cryptic but his eyes were dancing. "Although I don't appreciate being the one doing all the grunt work in this team assignment of ours. What exactly are you bringing to the table besides boarding and dubious meal tickets?"
Liv bristled at that. "My magic?"
Kai scoffed. "I can take that anytime I want, whether you like it or not. While I'm here, literally burning the midnight oil to crack this, you're either lazing your fat ass around this place or micro-managing me."
Liv blinked, completely at a loss for words, not sure whether to be infuriated - fat ass? - or relieved at his relative calm. Kai gave her a stern look, incongruous with his still twinkling eyes, then turned back to the table. He started writing into the pad in earnest, his pen flying over the paper.
He had got an idea, Liv thought, her hopes lifting despite herself.
She was still wondering what to say or if she should say anything at all. Her brother's mood swings were completely unpredictable and she certainly didn't want to unnecessarily evoke his ire…
When her phone buzzed again.
"They just left. We're going NOW!"
She sat up with a jerk, the urgency of the text gripping her, and then she froze, as she stared at Kai's back. He hadn't noticed anything untoward - he was still reading - but surely he would notice if she started getting dressed in a hurry, packed a magic bag and rushed out of the dorm before 6 o'clock in the morning? He would notice and he would ask questions.
She hadn't told Kai anything about Bonnie's new involvement with the Salvatores. Bonnie's confiding in her in the first place had caught Liv unawares, and then her first instinct was to tell Luke, because of their father's mandate on the Salvatores and Bonnie.
The two brothers had been wanted by the Gemini since that fateful trip to Nova Scotia. The role they had played in almost unleashing Silas, and in leading to the death of the coven's much sought-after Bennett bride was almost certain to guarantee their immediate execution. It was still a wonder to Liv that her father hadn't simply sent envoys to have the brothers killed. They won't have put up much of a fight against magical assassins. That they were spared was a mystery. Similar to the mystery of why Katherine Pierce was allowed to keep her life - and their secrets - after she returned from the Prison World.
What was not a mystery was Joshua Parker's clear instructions on what to do if the Salvatores ever tried to approach Bonnie again.
But it was one thing to tell Luke about the Salvatores and what amounted to Gemini business - it was another thing to tell Kai. It didn't concern him … that Liv was aware of.
Although Kai tends to have a strange reaction whenever I bring up Bonnie or Bennetts…
Making up her mind to hold her peace, Liv got up slowly, and started gathering her things as sedately as possible.
Kai didn't once pause his rapid writing. Liv kept glancing over her shoulder as she crouched in front of the closet, discreetly packing her witch's bag. But, to all intents and purposes, he was so engrossed in what he was doing that he barely noticed her.
When she was done, she stood by the door, and hesitated, wondering what best to do. When she was going to class or errands, and he was in, she just left the room. If she said something now, won't it be suspicious?
She made up her mind, and turned to go.
"What kind of booty call needs a bag of magic tricks?"
She froze, her hand on the door handle. She deliberately stood with her back to him, not wanting him to read her face. "Won't you like to know?"
"Good point," he declared and she could hear the grimace in his voice. "Make yourself available this evening. We might need to do some travelling."
That sounded nebulous. "Where?"
"I'm still working that out," he muttered, sounding distracted. "Get lost, Liv and let me concentrate here, will you?"
As she turned to slam the door shut, she gave his back the finger.
"Anyone want to explain why the sudden change of plans?"
Liv Parker was the last to turn up. The other three were already waiting in Bonnie's car, parked in the lot of a rather ritzy apartment building. The car had been glamoured into a service van.
"Bonnie's trigger went off," Melissa explained. "The vamps' apartment is empty now, so we can check it out."
Liv gave Bonnie a sharp look. "You came in here by yourself to set a trigger? What if they had seen you?"
"We set the trigger," Faye replied. "Bonnie just directed the magic. Obviously, the Salvatores have no idea who we are but they'd have recognized Bonnie at once. She spiked it with an eavesdropping spell so we know that they'll be out for some time. Hunting."
Liv looked grudgingly impressed.
Now complete, the witches did another glamour spell to change their varying outfits into generic tech service uniforms.
It had been Faye's idea.
"Team of four women?" Liz muttered. "Rather forward-thinking tech company."
"Refuge in audacity," Faye insisted, as she led the way into the building.
Liz blinked at the back of her head, then turned to catch Bonnie's eyes. The two shared identical exasperated looks before they followed the tall brunette.
It was almost like good old times, working with these three, Bonnie thought. She even felt a return of the old rapport with Liv. They made their way through the building without drawing attention to themselves. Apparently, Faye was onto something after all.
The Salvatores had let out the apartment on the top floor. It was obviously the most expensive lease in the building and Bonnie wondered skeptically, if the Salvatores were paying a dime for it.
Melissa put her tin of sage at the inner threshold of the front door.
"Phaesmotos Cochlea," Bonnie murmured, touching her ear. The other girls whispered in turn, and after a pause, thoughts flooded Bonnie's head.
Eww, this place reeks...
In and out, they won't ever know…
He'd better be on to something concrete…
"Hush," Bonnie said, trying with effort to filter and focus her own thoughts. "We can't flood the stream with everything that enters our heads. We need to focus."
There was a chorus of Sorrys then the girls separated to go search the rooms.
There was no spell to find what Bonnie was looking for. She barely knew what she was looking for. She vaguely imagined a police report, contained in either a flash drive, or a manilla folder. She made a beeline for the main bedroom, and started to thoroughly rifle through the sparse luggage in the closet, all the while ignoring the smell and general sense of dread from being here.
"Ewww!"
"Faye!"
"I can't help it. What is that smell?"
It really was dreadful, Bonnie agreed but there was nothing to be done about it. It was a vampire's den after all.
She found what she was looking for. It was tucked into one of the numerous cupboards in the closet. A manilla folder, just like she suspected. The vampires hadn't bothered hiding it, clearly not expecting to be raided.
Case #C200409-721A
Hopkins, R.
Bonnie stared at the letters on the cover, her heart slamming in her chest. Now that she held the evidence in her hands, the reality was inescapable.
There really was something wrong about the way her father died.
"Any luck, guys?" That was Liv's voice.
"Nothing from me…"
Bonnie shook herself mentally, sealing her spiralling emotions for the moment, and was starting to say: "I have it. Come to the bedroom."
Liv and Faye got there just as Bonnie finished laying out the sheets of paper on the bed. She took out her camera and started snapping.
"Copies?" Faye wondered. "Why not grab the originals?"
"They'll miss them," Bonnie replied. "Remember this is a quick move-in and move-out. I don't want to show my hand before I need to."
She worked quickly, and was just packing the folder back, when Liv looked around.
"Where's Melissa?"
Bonnie's head snapped up; and she and the other two exchanged alarmed glances.
"Melissa?"
"I'm fine. I'm trying to find what's causing that smell…"
Bonnie rolled her eyes as she put the manilla folder back in its place.
"Be fast, we're almost done…"
"ARRRGH!"
The last was not a mental thought but an actual scream. Bonnie, Faye and Liv ran in the direction of Melissa's scream and found the petite girl throwing up in the bathroom. The sunk tub was filled with blood … and an exsanguinated corpse.
'Follow the blood.'
It had once been a young girl, probably their own age, but it was hard to tell from all the bloating.
Bonnie stifled a horrified shriek. She fought down the bile that rose in her throat - she'd have thrown up too if Melissa wasn't already crouched over the toilet. With a cry, she flung out her hand and the tub obliterated, blood, flesh and porcelain turning into a pile of ash.
"Woah!" Faye said.
Bonnie looked at her and Liv. Both girls were green.
"They'll know witches were here when they get back," Liv pointed out.
"Let them," Bonnie snarled.
With furious steps, she walked out of the room. The other three exchanged glances - Melissa had got to her feet, and wiped her face - and followed.
They marched through the living area which had been upturned during the search.
"Shouldn't we…?" Liv gestured at the mess, trying to suggest that they clean up.
"No," Bonnie hissed.
They were almost at the door when they sensed it - the stench of decay and cold suddenly got stronger.
The four exchanged alarmed glances. "One of them is here," Liv hissed.
"What do we do, Bon?" Melissa asked quietly. Even though she was still green, she was already rolling up her sleeves and flexing her wrists.
Bonnie nodded in approval. "An aneurysm and a barrier spell. Liv, you take point. Faye and Melissa..."
Faye brushed past her. "Come on, Bon. I thought the whole plan was a quick move-in-and-move-out, ruffling very few feathers? You want to show your hand already?"
"I don't give a damn about that anymore," Bonnie snapped. "I should have killed these guys a long time ago."
"We're not killing anybody," Liv said quickly.
"Oh, they'll definitely die," Faye said grimly. "But let's not kill them before you've got everything you need from them. Think about it for a minute."
She spoke earnestly and after a moment, the hot rage that had filled Bonnie at the sight of that body, left like so much decaying trash in the water, faded somewhat. Faye was right. She hadn't wanted to show her hand so soon.
Faye's plan was simple enough - the other three hide behind the door, the vampires step in, and Faye simultaneously distract them and talk her way out of the situation, while the others sneak out through the spelled wall.
Bonnie, Liv and Melissa got into position. Faye stood in front of the door, cracking her knuckles. At the last possible moment, she extinguished the sage and pocketed it.
Stefan Salvatore stepped in.
Stefan started at the sight of the tall, dark-haired stranger in front of him.
"Excuse me?" he muttered, looking around. "Am I in the wrong apartment?" And why was I caught unawares? She's human. I can hear a heartbeat. I can smell her blood. NOW. But surely if she had been in here all this while, I would have heard or smelt her long before I entered the room?
"Comcast," she said curtly. "We fixed the bad cable." She waved a toolbox in his face.
"We?" he asked, slowly.
"My team have already moved." She whipped out a form from her box. "Didn't expect to meet anyone at home so if you'll just sign here, sir…"
He glanced at the form, back at her. "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"
She frowned, pushed the form at him. "Don't think so, sir. The form?"
He stretched his hand to take it, but grabbed her wrist instead. In one quick movement, he had snapped it. As she screamed, falling to her knees, he roared. "Who the hell are you?"
She looked up, tears running down her cheeks, and her hand went up as if in pleading… and a sudden force slammed into him, throwing him against the wall. Pain exploded from his tail bone to his spine when he made impact; and he distinctly felt something break.
"Now you know," she snarled, rising to her feet, cradling her broken wrist.
But he had already healed and was on his feet, charging at her - only to fall to his knees as an aneurysm hit him. He could barely hear past the pain of blood vessels tearing and healing with equal violence in his brain, so he didn't know if he imagined the sound of voices chanting in the air above him, the whistling of wind through the air-tight room. Then he felt hands gripping his hair, pulling back his neck. He didn't have the strength to even moan a protest before a blade slit his throat.
"I wanted him dead-dead," Faye growled. "Why didn't you let me stake him?"
The question was for Liv Parker, who eyed the other tall witch warily.
"Can you keep your voice down?" she hissed. "We're in a library and you're talking about killing people?"
"Sage, remember?" Melissa said testily as she peered hard at the laptop screen in front of her.
Beside her, Bonnie didn't even raise her head from her own screen, the entire conversation background noise to her.
The four witches had moved to the library after leaving the Salvatores's building and un-glamouring themselves. They had been poring through Bonnie's photos for the past few hours. They had hacked into the Mystic Falls Sheriff's database, and the Medical Examiner's records and were cross-checking information.
"Weren't you the one telling Bonnie not to kill them?" Liv hissed now.
"That was before he broke my wrist when I was trying to give him an easy way out!"
"Shhhh!" Melissa snapped, raising her head. "If all you two are going to do here is attack each other while Bonnie is…" She cocked her head in Bonnie's direction.
The other two fell silent, ashamed as they eyed their friend. As they uncovered more and more of the elaborate layers that had been used to bury the true cause of Rudy Hopkins's death, his daughter had grown more and more silent, her face paling, her eyes turning dull, her spirit wilting before their eyes.
Everything had been covered up. The first officer on the scene's report. The eyewitness testimony. The medical examiner's report.
But the most horrifying thing they had discovered was what had happened to his body.
For nine years, Bonnie had thought she, her mother, and her grandmother had buried her father in Mystic Falls after his viewing in an open casket. But the truth was that Rudy Hopkins's corpse had been incinerated to destroy all evidence of his death; and the body that had been buried had been the glamour of a John Doe.
"Bonnie," Faye asked softly. "Are you OK?"
"Of course, she's not OK," Liv snapped. "She just found out that her father was murdered and his death was covered up in a large-scale conspiracy. What the hell kind of stupid question is that?"
If looks could kill, Faye would probably have murdered the blonde. "Who the hell are you calling…"
Melissa turned on them in fury. "Shut up, both of you!"
"What I don't understand is" - and they all fell silent when Bonnie spoke, her voice dull and scratchy - "why go through so much trouble? Daddy wasn't… anything, really. He wasn't a witch. He wasn't a doppelganger. I can understand some stray vampire murdering him. I mean, it's obvious, isn't it? The bite marks, the staged accident… He was killed by a vampire who had been lying on the road, waiting for him to hit the brakes, come out to help and then …" Her voice trailed off, and tears rushed down her cheeks.
Melissa put an arm around her shoulder. "Bonnie, it's OK… it's OK."
"No, it's not!" Bonnie snapped, wiping her face angrily. "It's not OK. I didn't know it when I was a kid, but I know now that Vampires killed people in Mystic Falls all the time. The Sheriff's department called them 'random animal attacks' and buried the evidence. But not like this… Not to this extent. Burning his body... replacing his body... They don't burn corpses of 'random animal attacks'. They just pay the undertaker to surgically disguise the bite marks. This is… this is large-scale. All these people… involved in covering up my father's death?"
"They might have been compelled," Liv suggested. All eyes turned to her and she shrugged. "That makes more sense than everyone being in on it. And if the records were sealed by the old Sheriff, then Liz Forbes only found out when she took his office."
"Vampires don't clean up their own messes," Bonnie said hoarsely.
Liv shrugged again. "They usually don't but in this case…" She cut off speaking to pull her phone out of her coat. She frowned at whatever she was reading on it. "Shit."
"Everything OK?" Melissa asked.
"Yeah," Liv muttered. "I'm just late to… meet with someone." She got to her feet abruptly. "I… I have to go. Bye." She had already taken a few steps away when she turned around and looked straight at Bonnie. "Hang in there."
Then she left.
She found him in the lot, watching the library with an inscrutable look in his face that morphed into irritation when he saw her.
"Took you long enough," Kai muttered. "Did you forget our appointment?"
"I'm sorry," Liv stammered as she hastened to meet him in the shadows of the library parking lot. "I was…" Her voice trailed off.
"Yada yada yada, spare me the minutiae of your college experience. I need your car."
She was already handing them over, when she hesitated, suspicion streaking across her face. "What's going on? Is this about Jo and the Spell? What are you going to-?"
He scoffed, and with a sudden flick of his wrist, her keys had zapped from her hand to his own. He turned to walk towards the car.
"Wait- Kai! Kai!" she yelled. "Where are you- How the hell do I get back to my dorm?"
"Not my problem," he called back. "And keep your voice down if you don't want the whole campus to know who I am."
That shut her up. She fell silent and watched with powerless rage as he got into her car and drove off.
There was nothing left for it but to go to the library and ask the other three for a ride. Bonnie would wonder what happened to her urgent appointment - what happened to her car. A story about sudden car trouble and triple AAA towing it away, should be convincing enough.
She was just pushing through the double doors when she felt a familiar presence looming behind her.
A hand gripped her elbow hard.
She whirled in surprise to see her twin brother's grim face glaring at her.
"You and I need to talk, Olivia."
Faye and Melissa wanted to leave. Bonnie could tell from the way they kept looking at each other over her head, and dropping hints about picking this up tomorrow.
"Did Caroline blow up your phone too?" Faye asked with a nervous chuckle. "How many appointments did we have lined up for today again?"
"No idea," Melissa said quickly. "But we'd better go in early so that we can be prepared for her tomorrow. You know she'll double our schedule to make up for 'slacking off'." She gave Bonnie an uneasy glance.
Bonnie sighed, and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She had stopped crying almost as soon as she started. Not that the grief from this had passed already. Oh no. But witch or not, she was only human. There was only so much her emotional system could process at once.
"You guys can go. I'll be fine on my own."
At once the two girls protested. "No, we won't leave you by yourself at a time like this!"
Bonnie raised her hand tiredly, warding them off. "Please go. I actually need… I need a moment to myself, if you don't mind."
They exchanged guilty glances now.
"If you're sure…" Faye asked, and to her credit, she sounded completely sincere.
"I'm sure," Bonnie said and even managed a tired sigh.
They left and she was alone in the library, going over her photos and the records they had dug up, checking the original, authentic information against the doctored ones on file, and trying to find a pattern, any pattern.
"Jigsaw puzzles are your jam, huh?" Kai asked.
He found her at the pool, sitting under an umbrella in a bikini, sipping a drink that Katherine had mixed and trying to pretend that this was just another summer pool party at one of the mansions in the upper scale part of Mystic Falls.
"I guess," Bonnie said, nervously, trying not to stare too hard at the broad chest on display inches away from her. She couldn't help sneaking glances though, and everytime she did, she felt a little more light-headed. He had pulled off his shirt as soon as he stepped into the pool yard, and she hadn't been able to look him in the face since then.
The bikini she had on was the most modest thing she could find in the shops in town. Compared to what Katherine was wearing as the vampire cut through the pool, Bonnie was sure she looked positively prudish.
But the way Kai's eyes kept sweeping over her exposed skin made her feel like if she might as well have been naked.
"I like the challenge. I like figuring things out," she muttered, keeping her eyes on the paper before her.
He came closer, close enough that she could smell him - he smelt of sun and pork rinds; close enough that she was sure he could hear the rush of blood roaring through her ears, feel the way his presence was affecting her.
"So do I," he murmured.
She looked up then, and wished she hadn't. His gray-blue gaze was searing into her. "I like challenges, too." He lifted a finger to brush against one of her curls. She was completely frozen, unable to move or breathe. "I like figuring things out."
Bonnie snapped out of that memory abruptly and immediately felt her face heat up with rage.
What was wrong with her? How could she be thinking about him in the middle of discovering this?
But she couldn't help it. Couldn't help that after Mystic Falls, he was never far from her mind. Couldn't help that that kiss was not far from her thoughts, that Damon's revelation to her was almost - and it made her sick to think this but it was true - a relief to her because it distracted her from everything Kai Parker.
Kissing Kai Parker.
Volunteering to kill Kai Parker.
Wishing she could confide this devastating discovery to Kai Parker.
You're crazy, Bonnie Bennett. She told herself now.
She shook herself mentally, shook out those nefarious thoughts of an impossible relationship with a madman, and tried to refocus on what was important right now. Getting to the truth of her father's death. Finding out who was responsible, why and…
... ending that person.
A sudden stench assailed her nostrils. Blood. Gore. Cold death.
Bonnie was halfway out of her seat when they materialised before her. They had moved so fast that it was as if they had appeared out of thin air.
"Hello, Bonnie," Stefan Salvatore said grimly.
His brother's smile was a snarl. "Thanks for cleaning up the flat today."
Bonnie threw aneurysms at them.
They flinched - then stopped. They blinked at her. Then eyed each other.
"I think that tickled a little, didn't it, Stefan?" Damon mused.
Her heart slammed in her chest as fear gripped Bonnie and she turned to run.
Only to slam into Caroline Forbes, her best friend. "Bonnie…"
"Caroline," Bonnie gasped. "Get out of my way before I hurt you."
Caroline smiled sadly. "You can't hurt us, Bonnie. Not for another twelve hours at least. We swallowed witchbane."
Surrounded on all sides by three vampires who were immune to her powers, Bonnie collapsed into her seat in defeat.
"See guys?" Damon drawled, plopping himself into the seat that Melissa had vacated. "I told you that she can be reasoned with."
Bonnie threw Caroline a long look, and filled it with all the sense of betrayal that she felt at that moment.
Caroline's eyes shone. "Bonnie, I swear, if you'll just listen to us…"
Bonnie cut her gaze away, unable to bear to stare at her supposed friend's face for one more moment.
She looked Stefan Salvatore right in the eye and asked her question bluntly. "What do you want from me now?"
A/N: Thank you to everyone who's ever reviewed or sent me messages about this story. This update is entirely due to your encouragement and motivation. I love you all!