A/N: For now I'm tentatively continuing this. Chapter 2 wasn't a true ending, but I felt I couldn't add more because of ongoing stories with conflicting story lines, didn't want to end up telling the same story twice. So as I said, I'm tentatively continuing this because as usual the badass Bonnie SL JP was going on about she failed to deliver. This is me correcting that. But thank you to everyone who reviewed!
Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. All OC's are mine. No copyright infringement is intended.
A log cracked in the hearth, its grooves burned bright blood-orange. The heat from the fire warmed her tepid skin while the light emitted a soft glow casting objects into shadow. She felt partly entranced by the dancing flames, sparks shooting from the fiery tips like pale yellow moonbeams. Yet her mind, her entire being was focused on the vampire pacing from one end of the floorboards to the other.
"Look I understand it's your mother and her staying away hurt you far more than you're willing to admit, but Damon, come on."
"Come on, what, Elena? I have a million problems on my plate right now all vying for my attention. I don't have time to sit down and break bread with this chick when I have a brother who is one artery away from being a ripper once again. She said she's not going to help me with Stefan so I'm not going to indulge her Little House on the Prairie fantasy about the three of us having dinner."
Elena sighed and mentally flipped to the next item on the script she could use to get Damon to see reason. "Have you stopped to consider that you're lucky?"
Damon rolled his eyes already foreseeing where this was going. He shook his head. "Do you remember what it was like meeting Isobel for the first time and how much of a crushing disappointment she was?" he waited for her to answer. Elena merely compressed her lips together. "Mine is like that but maybe a thousand times worse because my mother is more concerned about her family of mummies than she is with her own living sons."
"But maybe," Elena stressed, "if we sat down together and have dinner you can air out your grievances, put the past behind you, and move forward. We all need to get to know each other."
Damon scoffed hard at that. "The only forward Lillian Salvatore is interested in…is freeing her family into this world." He inhaled an unnecessary breath and stared at Elena. What he wanted to add was: I made a promise to Bonnie that we weren't going back and they weren't getting out. I can't break that promise.
"I can understand but at the same time don't on why you won't compromise on this. She's not asking for an organ or a ridiculous sum of money. She just wants to sit down and have dinner. I want her to like me, Damon. And this may seem pointless, but I want her to approve of our relationship."
Perhaps if he told his meddling girlfriend that his mother could scarcely remember her name maybe she'd change her tune. Then again, that would probably be extra motivation for Elena to see this dinner come to fruition because if it was one thing she couldn't abide by it was someone treating her with indifference.
Damon, in the far recesses of his brain could admit to still being a tiny bit salty that Elena inserted herself on the trip to the 1903 prison world. Whether she had been joking about her outfit being "time appropriate" or not did little to ease Damon's nerves about seeing his mother for the first time since he had been seventeen. He hated being seen as anything less than formidable, and though vulnerability couldn't be helped at times, Damon liked to handpick those times. In short, he hadn't wanted Elena to tag along.
His sodium levels continued to rise when Elena mistakenly gushed over Stefan's baby picture thinking it was him, and his head nearly exploded when she made the comment of "meeting the mother of my two epic loves". The fuck? It may have been true but didn't need to be said. Damon had ignored it, excused it because he had an agenda—get Bonnie her revenge, get Lily and get out.
They were out now and Elena appeared to be more concerned with making a good impression on a woman who could give a rat's ass about her, and not the emotional turmoil it was doing to him though he was doing an excellent job of concealing it.
At that moment Damon wanted to talk to Bonnie. She had a sharp way of simplifying a situation that the answer almost seemed trite. But he hadn't seen or talked to Bonnie since spying on her at the B&B and caught her literally in action.
Even now the memory of that was engraved and it…it irritated Damon but for the love of him he didn't know why. If she were happy as her friend he should be happy for her. That was pragmatic thinking at its finest. However, he wasn't happy and it annoyed him that he wasn't because he didn't understand why he wasn't.
All right so maybe having her undivided time and attention for four months spoiled him. The both of them being back in their rightful world during their rightful time meant the reinstatement of living separate lives. Joking about getting away from each other to talk to other people had been all fine and good when it had been them against the vacant world. Now that they were in essence doing it…Damon missed those days and nights where it was just the two of them, getting on each other's nerves, being all the other had.
But there was another reason he wanted to talk to Bonnie and it entailed that dastardly cure. That was still one of Damon's top secrets and the person he should have been informing was standing next to the fireplace in her dorm room.
It had been three weeks already and Damon's jaws were on maximum security lockdown. Bonnie had given him the cure and left it up to him on what to do with it. Whatever he did…was none of her business according to Bonnie. He stared down at his hand, the one she touched and the one that had held the small ornate chest holding the erasure of immortality. Damon had wanted her counsel then and he could sure as hell use it now.
Bonnie had assumed he wanted to get the cure for Elena, but she had gotten it all wrong. No. Damon's lips flattened into a hard line. His intent was to get the cure for himself. The only soul on the planet who knew he missed being human—well that individual was dead via his fangs. Becoming a vampire had been motivated by loving a vampire, not something he expressly wanted for himself. Turning had been about delivering a lifetime of misery to Stefan. Once again it had nothing to do with the perks, and it certainly hadn't been about blood becoming his food of choice. Damon wanted his humanity back plain and simple.
Yet…perhaps he saw being a vampire as penance for failing everyone he had given a damn about. Death would have been too easy.
Damon had seen no point in correcting Bonnie's assumption. Wasn't Elena the bottom line for everything he did? At least that was the general consensus.
As he snapped out of his thoughts he realized Elena was still yapping at the mouth. He grabbed her by the arms to shut her ass up. "All right, fine!" he said. "If I can sit down and eat an Original out of house and home it won't kill me to have a nice, lovely meal with the woman who ejected me out of her uterus."
Elena grimaced a bit at the imagery that sentiment sparked, but lit up triumphantly the next second as she wrapped her arms around Damon's neck. She kissed him as an added bonus for bending when she knew he hated compromise. Or rather…learned that through the grapevine since her memories of him were still in protective custody.
"You won't have to do anything but show up," Elena vowed. "It'll be a nice, beautiful evening, and painless."
"I hope," Damon muttered dryly. "I need to go. I can't leave Lily on her own for too long. I haven't finished child proofing the house."
Elena smacked him playfully on the arm and kissed Damon deeply, implanting smaller kisses on his jaw and neck.
He pulled away, "You keep that up and I won't leave this room."
The doppelganger smiled lazily and was tempted to detain Damon for a little while longer knowing it would be worth bought of their while. But she didn't. She wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of leaving his mother isolated and alone for long periods of time, either. Things happened to those who grew curious.
"All right," she groaned and walked him the short distance to the door, holding his hand and temporarily laying her head on his shoulder. "I'm missing you already."
"Me, too," he said and dropped a quick kiss to her forehead and promptly left her room.
Damon may have journeyed all of seven feet from Elena's door when he heard the unmistakable sound of Bonnie's voice. His steps slowed and then he decided to linger and wait for her to make it up to the second floor. Leaning his back on the wall, Damon crossed his arms.
Bonnie's distinctive voice soothed his eardrums. "I've been wanting to see that for the longest but finding someone to go with me has been hard."
"Well, I'm available to hang out, chill, check out a flick, whatever. Just hit me up."
"I'll remember that. Thanks, Austin."
The twosome had arrived on the second floor. Bonnie's head was turned in the direction of her associate who smiled at her. Damon lifted a brow. Bonnie had been speaking with a girl who was into the androgynous look. Her raven hair was cut into a page boy style. The sleeves to her button down were rolled to her elbows showing that her forearms were completely covered in tattoos. But she was hot, Damon couldn't deny.
The two girls went their separate ways, Austin headed to the left, Bonnie to the right who jumped at seeing Damon.
"Hey," Bonnie's heart boomed in her chest.
"Hello, stranger," he exaggerated the pronunciation of the word 'stranger'.
"Stranger?"
"Did I stutter? I haven't seen you in almost two weeks. You've seem to have forgotten where I live and my phone number."
Bonnie adjusted her hold on her rolling suitcase. "I can say the same thing about you, Damon."
"Ah, but my address hasn't changed. Yours has."
"And you mean to tell me that your nosy ass hasn't sniffed out where I now store my broom?"
Damon chuckled and wagged a finger at Bonnie. "I will neither confirm nor deny anything. I've been trying to do the polite thing and give you space."
"Wouldn't you say I've already had months of space?" the green-eyed young woman hinted.
"I would, but something tells me that a part of you has gotten used to the solitude, and prefer it over being surrounded by people who don't know when to shut up."
"How very astute of you, Damon," Bonnie began rolling her suitcase behind her as she walked down the hall to her dorm room.
Damon fell in step beside her, "Moving back in?"
Bonnie shook her head. "Just here to collect more of my stuff."
Dark brows furrowed, Damon unconsciously pouted, "Don't you think moving out and into the B&B is a bit extreme?"
Bonnie halted and turned to face the skulking vampire. "What I find extreme is picking up as if everything is the same. My first year as a college student was spent being a corporeal ghost slash anchor. Most of my sophomore year was spent being trapped in a prison world reliving the same day for months. I want…I want a fresh start. And I want this fresh start far from Whitmore."
Bonnie continued on to her soon-to-be "old" dorm room. Damon didn't follow. He chewed on her words, digested them and came to the conclusion he didn't like the taste.
"Walk with me outside," Damon petitioned.
Bonnie's hand hovered over the knob and she brought her gaze to Damon. "Why?"
He stared pointedly at the door she was two seconds from opening and then tilted his head in the vague direction of the exit.
Huffing, Bonnie left her suitcase right there and hoped no one would steal it. She and Damon left the residential building, trekked across the parking lot to his vehicle.
"What is it, Damon?"
Suddenly he felt foolish but here was his opportunity to talk to Bonnie. "First…how have you been?"
"Good. What about you?"
"Good," he growled slightly earning a small smile from the witch. "Good as can be expected when you have a rogue brother on the loose, and a mother who I can tell is getting impatient. Other than that…life is peachy king."
"How is the situation with Lily coming along? Is she still on about releasing her family?"
"She hasn't mentioned it but I can tell it's heavily on her mind. Listen just try to keep your guard up. Lily…she may seem calm and amiable but there's no telling how long her composure will last, and what lengths she's prepared to go to get what she wants."
"A trait shared among Salvatores," Bonnie quipped.
Damon didn't even try to dispute that.
She appraised Damon and could tell this warning about his mother was nothing more than a smokescreen. There was something else he wanted to talk to her about but didn't want to come clean. "What did you really want to talk to me about, Damon? No, let me guess. The cure. You still haven't told Elena and I know because she hasn't talked my ear off about it."
"Am I that transparent?"
"Like your eyes when the sun hits them directly."
Said eyes widened and Bonnie had the grace to stare down at her feet. She wasn't supposed to notice things like that about him nor speak them aloud.
Bonnie sidled next to Damon leaning her butt against the passenger side door of his car. "You're scared that if she takes the cure, becomes human, she'll be on the first train smoking back to Stefan. I can…understand your hesitation about the whole thing, but have you stopped to question what you want out of this?"
"It's not about me," he hunched a shoulder.
"Let's pretend it is. If Elena becomes human again where is that going to leave you? Have you thought about that?"
"I have."
"And that's why you haven't told her because you're so sure of the outcome. Your relationship started because of a sire bond, don't hold on to her because of immortality."
Damon waited a beat before saying inaudibly, "What if I want to take the cure?"
Bonnie strained to hear and when his words computed she jolted away from the car and stood in front of the blue-eyed vampire who was doing everything in the world to avoid looking at her.
She impulsively grabbed Damon's chin and jerked his head up leaving him no choice but to see her. The earnestness of his words radiated from a place hardly accessed by anyone let alone Damon himself. She couldn't explain the knots forming in her belly or why hearing him say he wanted to take the cure…excited her beyond imagining but shock usurped everything else.
"You mean that?" Bonnie wanted clarification.
Damon grabbed the hand that held his chin in a vise and slowly peeled it off, but didn't release her limb. His lips parted to give confirmation but at the least second old pride reared its head. "Mean what?"
Bonnie blinked. "You said…"
"The cure can wait a little while longer. Pacifying Mother Dearest and convincing Hodor,"—Bonnie snickered—"to switch on his humanity…takes precedence. Thanks for the talk. I'll see you later, Bon."
"Damon."
She was ignored and stepped out of the way as Damon clamored behind the wheel, started the engine, and peeled out of the parking lot.
His face was caught in a web of silky flaxen hair. Stefan spit out a few strands before abruptly brushing it aside. There was a weight pressing on his chest and when he looked down he could only make out the forehead and tip of the nose of the chick using him as a pillow. With one eye barely open, the other still shut, Stefan blindly reached for his cell phone and that's when he noticed he was sleeping on the floor. Luckily his pants were right by his head and he dug through them for his phone.
He groaned. It was barely eight in the fucking morning and he was already up. How was that even possible when he was sure he hadn't crashed until five a.m.?
Stefan nudged the woman off him and ogled her tits. Nice, he smirked but her face was not the blonde he had assumed it would be. Her upper torso was speckled with blood and peppered with bite marks. Her neck was especially nasty looking; her flesh ripped near savagely.
Had she bled out, Stefan wondered and checked for a pulse. She still had one but it was extremely faint. He shrugged and figured the humane thing to do would be not to let her last remaining drops go to waste. Picking up the woman's wrist, he sank his fangs into her near depleted veins and drained whatever was left.
At that time the bathroom door flew open and there in the threshold stood a very naked Caroline Forbes running a towel through her hair. Stefan's eyes widened in appreciation and the wrist in his mouth fell limply back to the floor.
"Good you're up," she began without taking her eyes off her reflection. "You're on clean up duty since I got rid of that guy whose neck you snapped."
What guy? Stefan wondered and then it came back to him. "He spilled his drink on my boots."
Caroline laughed dryly and whipped around to face Stefan. She glanced at the dead girl sprawled out beside him. Vampire Barbie was pretty sure they shared a class…Fundamentals of Speech. Whoops, guess she wouldn't be doing her presentation this Wednesday.
Her assessing gaze then lowered to a very noticeable stain, a bloom of dark color marring rich lavender cotton. "Ugh, she ruined my duvet," she complained. "I just bought that."
Stefan leaned back on his elbows in all his naked glory and felt the familiar twitch of arousal in his cock that was slowly lengthening. "I'm loaded. I can buy you a new one. Though stealing one would be more fun."
Caroline shrugged. She didn't care either way so long as it got replaced. She hung her towel back on the rack and reached for her bra. A breeze fluttered the still wet strands of her hair and lips were adhered to her neck laying siege to it.
"Why are you up so early? I thought we could play with our toy a little longer," Stefan spoke huskily into Caroline's ear. "Granted she's already dead but she has other uses."
"You thought wrong. I have things to do today."
"Like what?"
"Things," Caroline exasperated and maneuvered her neck out of Stefan's mouth. She picked up her panties and slid them on.
He glared for a second but then thrust his hips forward, dick poking her in the crack of her imaginary ass. "You mean to tell me you're passing up the chance to feel that again."
"I'm all about delayed gratification at the moment. I'll see you…when I see you," she said dismissively cold.
Stefan snorted and then retraced his steps back into the room where he quickly dressed. He spared the dead coed one final look and promptly left.
Caroline stomped out of the bathroom vexed he was leaving her to clean up yet another one of his messes. "You little bastard! Come get rid of this body, Stefan!" she yelled loud enough for him to hear but no one else.
Stuffing his hands in his jean pockets, Stefan wandered around the vacant campus, breathing in the cold, dry air. He was tired, cranky, and hard as a brick with no one to help him alleviate his affliction. Going home was the last thing Stefan wanted to do. With his mom and Damon loitering around the place not to mention the self-centered doppelganger, hell no going home was out of the question. Caroline was acting on some bullshit. What did she have to do so early in the freaking morning that couldn't be postponed for a fuck?
Was it really so hard to find someone to break the rules with who didn't care about behaving like her life was an episode of Glee?
Feeling a brush of irritation, Stefan unconsciously drew his shoulders inward. This of course threw the myth into question whether or not a humanity switch even existed in vampires if a vampire could still in a sense feel other emotions outside of compassion, mercy, sympathy. Being completely emotionless meant nothing should piss me off, Stefan considered. Point blank, I certainly should not give a shit, he concluded.
A flicker that he did resided in him and Stefan wanted it gone.
He hopped in his car and drove back to Mystic Falls blasting Bon Jovi the entire way.
By mid-afternoon Stefan was freshly showered, changed, and whistling as he entered Mystic Grill. His whistling came to an abrupt halt when he saw someone he hadn't really seen since she came back.
Her back was to him but there would never be any mistaking the set of her shoulders, or mostly in particular—her scent. A scent that inspired daydreams about sinking his fangs into her pretty little neck. Stefan pretty much knew he'd never get the chance. He had tasted her blood, but it mounted to being just that. A taste. A taste he had to split between himself, his brother, and the hybrid.
Stefan "appeared" at her table, helping himself to a seat. Bonnie Bennett didn't jump, grab her heart, didn't even look up from the hot plate of food she was spearing her fork through.
His head tilted to the side while he watched her eat. "Hello, Bonnie."
"Stefan."
"I'm not surprised to see you."
"Hmm."
"Not in the mood to converse."
"Not really."
Stefan chuckled. Bonnie finally lifted her head and stared at him. "You look good. Being locked in a prison world and a failed suicide has improved," his eyes salaciously roamed over her person, "your assets."
A glint darkened the hue of Bonnie's irises yet she said nothing. "Let's not do this, Stefan. Let's not trade barbs while we attempt to illicit an emotional response out of one another. I'm not one."
"Why not? It's fun."
"Perhaps it is, but I've had my fill of sociopaths."
Leaning back in his chair drumming his fingers on the table, Stefan smirked almost eerily similar to Damon. He sat forward again and placed his elbows on the table, "What was it like? Being over there?"
Bonnie mimicked his movement, "You really want to know?" He nodded. Pausing for effect, she finally answered. "It was like… being thrown into a safe and that safe being pitched over a cliff into a quarry," Bonnie's eyes narrowed deliberately. "It was like drowning every single day for three months straight; waking up and realizing you're still trapped in a locked iron box unable to break free, unable to take a breath despite not needing to breathe.
"It's like being lucid long enough to hope someone will rescue you only to realize that no one has any idea where you are, and no one cares. It was like feeling water rush into your lungs and airways suffocating you until you lose consciousness and hallucinate about being freed. You dream about being on dry land and in the arms of the person you love who couldn't wait forty-eight hours before christening their new relationship with your sibling. That's what it was like."
Other than the sound of conversations, the clank of silverware on plates, and the shuffling of feet as the servers raced from one table to another it was deathly quiet between the vampire and the witch.
Ideally Bonnie could have provided a dramatization of what Stefan had gone through locked in that safe the same way she showed Damon what her time alone with Kai had been like. But from the green pallor overtaking Stefan's skin and the tenseness of his jaw…he was already reliving that experience.
The memories snuck up and gnawed at Stefan like a flesh eating bacteria. For one harrowing moment he swore he felt lake water flooding his nostrils, esophagus, filling his lungs drowning him once again. He flirted with having shortness of breath and balled his hand into a fist trying to master his emotions.
Stefan smiled through his discomfort. "I see someone has finally learned not to pull any punches."
"As the kids say these days, just keeping it one hundred."
"And as T-Pain said, let me buy you a drink," he winked and headed over to the bar, his gait stiff.
Bonnie's hands shook and she dropped her fork and placed her trembling limbs in her lap while she inhaled and exhaled. The silverware on the tabletop rattled and Bonnie slapped a hand over them to cease their shaking.
Much too soon, Stefan dropped his weight back on the chair startling Bonnie slightly. He filled one glass with bourbon and slid it over to her prior to filling a glass for himself. She hardly waited a minute before chugging it back and thrusting her glass for another. Maybe she adopted more habits from Damon than she realized.
Thinking about Damon and dealing with his brother was not how she envisioned spending her afternoon.
A peculiar scent began to waft from the witch, and Stefan tried not to smile too broadly. She was nervous around him, as she should be, but naturally was opting to hide that behind misplaced bravado. Though hurting Bonnie would get his brother riled up. Stefan sipped his bourbon slowly—contemplating.
As if reading his mind, Bonnie said, "Heads or tails?"
"What do you mean?"
"Stay on my good side and you'll never have to find out."
Collecting her handbag, Bonnie rose from the table with the sound of Stefan's laughter trailing behind her.
The following night Bonnie's toes and feet were being massaged by a very strong pair of hands. Lying curled up on her side on the carpet at Hayden's modest two bedroom apartment he shared with his best friend, she giggled.
Being around him was grotesquely simple and easy. She didn't have to be a witch or have all the answers, be a shoulder to lean on, or someone's moral compass. She could just be…Bonnie Bennett a young woman finally living her life.
Despite Hayden's masterful skills in turning her muscles into putty with his angelic touch, her thoughts were a perpetual sea-tossed boat. Damon tried to play her the other night which was nothing new. She knew she heard him say that he wanted to take the cure.
Did he want to take the cure to be human with Elena and give her the life her friend wrote tirelessly about in her journal? Did he want to be human because he had simply outgrown being a vampire? Was it all of the above?
Why do you even care, Bonnie, she groused. Damon is your friend but he's not your problem. You don't have to tell him it's okay to give up a lifestyle he's lived far longer than he's spent being human. He's going to have to step into his big boy boxers and decide that for himself.
She knew this and somehow couldn't override feeling responsible. After all, she was the one to give him the cure. She was the one to place that meaty decision in the palm of his hand, and left him to it knowing how he felt about the cure since they learned of its existence. Yet that had been before Damon dropped a bomb on her that he longed to be human.
"Bonnie, where are you?"
Hayden's voice lassoed her back into the moment.
"Sorry," she gifted Hayden with a conciliatory smile.
Hayden released her foot and prowled over to Bonnie on his hands and knees, covering her with his muscular frame. She rolled to lie flat on her back, legs spreading to accommodate Hayden's weight. He was human, single, interested in her; more than interested in her by the erection he was sporting, but…
Bonnie threaded her fingers through his hair silencing her misgivings. "Kiss me."
Hayden did as he was ordered, hungrily slanting his mouth over hers. His hands explored Bonnie's terrain, groping her breasts, sliding between their bodies to cup her sex through layers of fabric.
"Are you happy, Hayden?" Bonnie questioned huskily when they broke to intake a much needed breath.
"In general or right now?"
"In general. I can feel how happy you are." They both shared a chuckle.
Hayden stared down in Bonnie's celadon irises. "I don't have much to complain about. In general I'm pretty content. But I think everyone wants to be happier than what they are. Blinding happiness I feel happens in periodic bursts. It happens during certain moments and can last for hours or be over in seconds. Right now…I'm a happy guy. What about you? Are you happy?"
Bonnie trailed her fingers over Hayden's jaw. Her answer came swift and cracked like thunder. No, she wasn't happy.
Something just didn't feel right.
"I guess I'm like you. I'm content," she lied and brought Hayden's head down to hers, kissing him and wanting to dissolve into this man in ways that would erase the niggling feeling tightening the muscles in her neck.
At some point they transitioned from the living room floor to Hayden's canopy bed, christening his new sheets. Passing out from erotic exertion, glowing and warm, Bonnie sailed into the land of unconsciousness…
…Crystals in the chandelier quaked with each step he took as he surveyed the damage. Bodies on the ground, some of them unconscious and helpless (most of them his coven members whose powers he was going to take great joy in siphoning). He had to wait though. He promised chow to his new besties and they were not the sort you reneged on. The rest of his captive and terror-filled audience were moving slightly and attempting to belly crawl their way to freedom.
Arms stretched out to either side, Kai Parker closed his eyes and began waving those same arms as if conducting an orchestra. Five, six, seven, eight. Pieces of wood paneling from the barn began to groan, bend separating from the foundation, and once free flew through the air at terrifyingly fast speeds. Two people were impaled, and landed with a bone crushing thud on the rough-hewn floor.
Stefan yanked Caroline down and covered her with his body once wood started flying. Tears and mascara tracked lines down her cheeks.
"Don't move," he hissed.
Ah, no kidding.
Crouched, Damon frantically switched his gaze from the crazy little shit (whose head he was so totally gonna rip from his shoulders), to an unconscious Elena. He listened with everything he had for her heartbeat. It was beating but slowly, slower than it should be.
"KAI!" Damon snarled.
"I'll be with you in a minute, honey," the warlock crooned.
Kai concentrated on one area in particular, drawing his hands together as if he were holding a baseball bat, moved his arms in an arc like he were swinging at a ball, and three people who were running toward the exit, were suddenly catapulted up to the roof, their skulls making fatal contact with the wood beams.
Seeing his opening, Damon rose to his feet with the intent of speeding over to Kai, but of course he didn't make it. Didn't even come close to taking one step.
A vise gripped Damon, pinning his arms to his side. His feet cleared the floor and he was levitating only…whatever telekinetic force held him suspended began to curl around his neck strangling him, which even for a vampire was still unpleasant as all hell.
"I thought," Kai began his oration, "you would have learned by now that you can't beat me, Damon."
Alaric who was using his hands to try to staunch Jo's bleeding abdomen growled, "How did you get out?"
"Oh, hey my almost brother-in-law…one word: loophole." Kai's eyes shifted ever so slightly in her direction. He smiled. "My delicious BonBon stick around for the grand finale. It's going to literally steal. Your. Breath."
Bonnie jolted up in bed, forehead peppered with sweat. Her heart which had already been beating abnormally fast…it stuttered and then resumed its frantic beat.
Nightmare…dream…premonition…no nightmare, Bonnie's erratic mind ruled and licked her dry lips.
There was a body cushioned beside her and when she whipped her head in the person's direction…
She let out the breath she had been holding. It was Hayden. That nightmare—it felt too real. Bonnie hoped it was a nightmare and not a vision of things to come. But…and this was the real chilling thing. Her dreams sometimes became a reality. She dreamt about Emily who began haunting her and later possessed her. Dreamt about Klaus attacking her and throwing her into a coffin where a woman showed up who turned out to be her mother. Now she was dreaming about Kai! Kai getting out. Kai discovering a loophole. But what loophole could he have been talking about?
He needed Bennett blood to make the ascendant work, and he was fresh out. Pushing the covers off, Bonnie attempted to roll out of bed, but then Hayden reached for her.
"Hey," he muttered groggily. "Where are you going?"
"Bathroom," she leaned over and planted a swift kiss on his cheek.
Bonnie needed room to think, room to analyze. Shuffling to the bathroom, she flicked on the light which her eyes protested greatly at its brilliance. Bonnie braced her quivering hands on the porcelain sink, head down, chin nearly touching her chest.
She didn't want to think about Kai getting out. She didn't want to think about seeing him ever again, but witches and warlocks always had one remaining trick up their sleeve. There were something's which were absolute and plenty more things that weren't. If he got out he'd want blood, gore, revenge and not necessarily in that order, and most assuredly he'd start with her.
A trembling hand covered her belly, fingers seeking out the scar left by the arrow he shot into her. A few inches under that was another scar, the landmark of where he buried a ten inch hunting knife into her guts.
Bonnie's eyes pierced closed as a wave of hot tears were released from her ducts. The lights in the bathroom flickered and the sink faucet and shower blasted on. A crack splintered the mirror and a set of shelves hanging over the toilet were knocked loose and crashed, the contents spilling everywhere.
"Bonnie?"
She reacted, arm thrusting out and before she could stop herself, Bonnie sent a pulse of energy at the intruder. A bundle of arms and legs went careening into the bedroom wall and landed with a horrible sounding thud on the floor.
"Ohmygod," Bonnie lamented when she snapped out of it and realized what she had done; that she had turned her magic on Hayden.
He was slowly propping himself up as she ran out into the bedroom. Hayden instantly looked weary and terrified as he furiously blinked the sleep out of his eyes. He winced and grabbed a hold of his right shoulder that pretty much took the brunt of the fall.
Bonnie kneeled down beside him, "I'm so sorry."
"What the fuck are you?"
"Hayden, let me take a look."
"Stay away from me."
"Hayden please."
Bonnie reached for him, but he dodged her outstretched hands and managed to get to his feet.
"I don't know what the hell is going on or how you pushed me without touching me…you need to…" Hayden rotated his shoulder. A spike of pain had him biting into his lower lip. "Gotdamn," he cursed softly. "I need to go the hospital."
Getting to her feet, Bonnie twisted her fingers. Her secret was exposed and yes she had inadvertently injured Hayden but that wasn't her main concern.
"I'm sorry but I can't have you telling anyone what happened tonight," Bonnie whispered and grabbed a hold of Hayden and turned him around to face her where she then leaned on her toes and kissed his snarling mouth.
He was on the ground in five seconds after she pulled away. Bonnie calmly walked to her purse to retrieve her cell phone.
The doorbell sounded ominous when it rang ten minutes later. Thankful Hayden's roommate was cohabitating for the weekend with his girlfriend that was one less person she'd have to have handled.
Bonnie opened the door.
"Your anti-hero is here," smirked Damon Salvatore.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Reviews are love.