11: When All is Lost and Daylight Ends.

"Please tell me that I wasn't out of my mind leaving Damon in charge of Vampire Amnesia 101," Elena spoke into her phone.

Nova chuckled as her heeled feet clicked by the brunette. "No, that was pretty insane."

Elena tried to ignore her to hear Caroline on the other end. "What did he say exactly?"

"One text - 'So far, so good.' Which, in Damon speak…"

"Means that they probably devoured a troop of Girl Scouts by now."

"Caroline!"

Nova was laughing while pouring herself a cup of whiskey. "Well she probably isn't terribly off. I wonder if even Stefan's amnesia forces him to toss back Bambi." She pouted mockingly.

"I mean," came Caroline through the phone, "it's not exactly uncommon for patients with retrograde amnesia or other traumatic brain injuries to turn volatile…"

To the Romanian's wide spread grin, Elena deadpanned up at her. "And that's exactly why it's at least only Damon with him." She turned and started walking away from Nova to continue her conversation when Daciana ran down the stairs.

"I thought you said Auriel Cressida was unconscious in one of the beds," she spoke with haste.

"Why didn't you ask my twit of a sister on your way down?" Nova bit back before sipping her whiskey.

Daciana cut her eyes at the Romanian. "Because we seem to be having an issue with Clara and I now have reason to believe that it's Auriel's doing." A pained screech came from upstairs and the Original flew back to Clara's room.

Elena ran upstairs and checked the room Auriel had been laying in. The sheets on the bed were only slightly wrinkled from where she was laying on top of them, but there was no trace of Riel anywhere. She ran into the hallway as Nova made her way up slowly and Clara let out a cry of agony. "Riel is gone," she told her sire.

Nova shrugged, continuing her waltz down to Clara's room. She paused only for a second when she heard Zarya's voice in the room as well. "Oh God!" The hunter cried. "What the fuck is this?!"

"I can hear them!" Clara sobbed with Nova in the threshold of the room. "They are killing us!"

"Who's killing who now?" She demanded. A thud caught her attention; Zarya's back slammed into a wall with her hands clutching her head. Her eyes fought desperately to focus on anything but she was losing the ability to breathe. Nova could hear the human's heart rate speeding up rapidly and dangerously. "Zarya!" She called to deaf ears as she raced over and grabbed the girl's arms. She could hear Zarya choking, gasping, for air.

Nova knew she smelled it first, but it was seconds before the other two vampires in the room did too. A part of Nova somewhere was bitter and angry that Elena had dashed off to check on Stefan and Damon, but she would deal with it later. Zarya's green-blue eyes finally met Nova's emerald ones and her bottom lip trembled. The Romanian could see tears shining in the girl's eyes. Nova's eyes traveled down to the hunter's side where blood seeped through her grey shirt.

"You said someone is using magic to fry Clara?" She called to her psychic sister.

"Clara and clearly Zarya," Zina shouted back in the midst of trying to shield Clara's mind from the spell.

Nova's jaw set tightly. She moved her hands onto Zarya's that were still on her head. Against Clara's screaming, she locked eyes with the hunter and spoke as loudly and clearly as she could. "Ea este vulnerabilă, nesigură și neprotejată. Puterea luminii, o protejează de orice situație, poate că puterea pietrei să fie în os, poate să fie în siguranță de la toți cei care ar face rău, fie lumesc, fie cu farmec. Acum, în magia mea, protejați-i de alți magi ca mine. Așa că este." (She is vulnerable, insecure and unprotected. The power of light, protects it from any situation, the power of the stone may be in the bone, it may be safe from all who would do harm, either worldly or with charm. Now, in my magic, protect them from other magicians like me. So it is.)

She repeated it over and over again until Clara stopped screaming, but Zarya continued breathing.

Zina and Daciana watched the humanityless vampire pick Zarya up when she finally passed out and walk her down the hall. Daciana turned to look at the younger twin whose gaze was still fixated out the door. "I was not aware that Nova knew any form of magic."

"She doesn't," Zina spoke softly. "It's a Romanian gypsies prayer. She used it so frequently it's what actually protected her mind from abuse like compulsion."

"And it actually worked?"

"Until Klaus attempted to break it."

Zina thought she finally heard other people in the boarding house. What a joy it was when she caught sight of Jeremy Gilbert on the stairs. "Oh, good, what are you up to, brat?" As she rounded the corner she blinked a couple of times, also staring at Bonnie Bennett. "Bennett witch? It's about time from what I've heard. They're up in arms without you and apparently Auriel-"

"You can see me?" Bonnie interrupted.

Again the young Romanian blinked in confusion. She looked around hoping for some sort of explanation. "Well, last I knew nobody in our family was blind and I certainly have never worn glasses." Her dark eyes darted back and forth between Jeremy and Bonnie's astounded and concerned expressions. With realization she lifted her arm with the ruby bracelet on her wrist. "You're dead then…" She breathed.

The witch stood so she was level with Zina. "So it's true - that your bracelet is a window to the Other Side?"

"Is that how you were able to come back?" Jeremy added.

She cradled the bracelet on her wrist to her chest thoughtfully. "Yes," she admitted. "And yes. Though I can't give you the details on my resurrection as I'm unaware myself."

Jeremy could see in Zina's eyes that she was lying, but Bonnie couldn't. Something sparked then, and the young Romanian went dashing past them up the stairs. "It was a psychic link," she told her sister and Daciana when she found them. Jeremy and Bonnie could still hear at the bottom of the stairs. "Meaning the magic linked Clara, seemingly Zarya, and whoever else."

Nova rolled her eyes carelessly. "Come on sister, what did Clara and Zarya have in common? Who else of us likely have the same feat about them?"

Daciana gasped. "You don't think…"

"Clara was a dhampir. Zarya carries the gene for when she dies suddenly. How many other dhampirs are - or, were - still alive?"

Jeremy froze stiffly the same way Zina did at the realization. Her lips trembled and a gasping sob escaped. Bonnie had walked up the stairs knowing she would go unnoticed. She couldn't make it to the top before she became aware that Zina was no longer looking to her sister or Daciana for they couldn't see. A tear slipped down Zina's cheek as she stared into Katia's black eyes that only she could see. "Katia…"

For some reason when he heard the brokenness in her voice, Jeremy got up and bolted out of the boarding house. It wasn't a coincidence. As he walked, his phone rang; Damon's name stared back at him. Enough was enough. "Hello."

Back inside, the three were beginning to argue as tears streaked Zina's face. Their attention all changed when their enhanced hearing picked up a loud crash onto the pavement. The three ran to a window where they caught Zarya standing from her tuck and roll. She ran straight to her car and grabbed spare keys.

"Wow," the elder Salvatore greeted, "Jeremy Gilbert picks up. It's a Remembrance Day miracle. Now tell me you found Bonnie because I have a hungry vampire who forgot that he's the hero of the story."

"I need you to come meet me, and I need you to come alone."

"And I need you to be less vague and less weird."

"I know where Bonnie is. Meet me and I'll explain."

Daciana moved to retrieve Zarya when Nova put her hand up. The engine of the coup deVille roared to life. "Let her go," Nova voiced calmly as the girl peeled out down the street. "We do not need the Winchesters in town more than we already have. Besides," she smirked, "she's got the most to lose."

"Shouldn't that be why we keep her around and protect her?" Zina shouted. "She clearly has a target on her back now!"

"That's enough, sister. We all have targets on our backs."

"And Zarya's just became the largest," Daciana defended. "Do you not see how badly Remiel wants the girl? The turmoil her human life has been put in because of it?"

Nova's chilling emerald eyes stared off after where the de Ville had been. Her dark maroon lips were pulled into a smirk. "Yes, but now she is aware that there is a war she feels inclined to win. And thanks to the ideology of the Winchesters she also feels inclined to take as little of personal sacrifices as necessary. I may have to bear the burden of Romanian queen, but that girl is destined to lead us all."

"You don't even want to be queen," Zina argued. "What makes you think she will take reign of our clan?"

"Because it is burned into her blood to."

"Okay, where is she?" Damon questioned as soon as Jeremy was in his sights. "Call her. Get her here."

Jeremy sighed. "That's the problem… I can't actually call her. No one can."

Bonnie appeared beside him with a pleading look. "Please don't do this, Jeremy."

"I've been lying to everyone for months, and I can't keep lying knowing that everyone's waiting for her to swoop in and save the day."

"I don't speak 'crazy person', Jer," Damon spoke slowly. "You're gonna have to translate that for me."

"Think about it, Damon. I was dead. I wasn't supposed to come back."

"Yes, exactly. The beauty of Bonnie magic, which is what we need right now."

He sighed again and Katia appeared behind Damon. "You're not hearing me. Magic finds a balance. I'm not supposed to be here. And… neither is Zina."

The vampire's blue eyes widened. "No."

"You can't just bring somebody back from the dead. There is always a price to pay for it."

"Don't say it, Jeremy. Don't you dare."

"She didn't show up to her dad's funeral, Damon. Nobody has spoken to her all summer."

Bonnie looked up to him with tears in her eyes. "Please, Jeremy."

Damon shook his head. "You say it, and everything in Elena's life goes to hell, do you understand me? You say it and the Murder Twins just might snap one last time. Everything changes if those words come out of your mouth, Jeremy."

"Do not say it, Jeremy," Bonnie pleaded.

Jeremy's hazel eyes remained on Katia's black ones. She nodded solemnly. "Tell them the truth, Jeremy."

"Bonnie, Katia, and all of the dhampirs of the Vasiles are dead."

"You sure you want to be doing that, Steffie?"

The younger, memory lacking Salvatore turned to face Nova as he tossed his diaries into the fireplace. "They're so desperate they finally sent you to jog my memory?"

"Nope." She sipped some whiskey casually. "I'm just trying to get away from all of the tears because people in this town don't know how to stay alive very long. What are you doing here?"

He shrugged and tossed in another journal. "Just tying up a few odds and ends."

"By burning your memoirs? Forgive me if I don't feel the sentiments that you must."

"Ah, right. It took some poking around but I finally found out why no one wanted to talk to me about you."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You had shut off your humanity and the biggest issue with that and my situation is that you're volatile and we have never liked one another."

She chuckled and stepped closer, her heels clicking on the wood floor. "Now that doesn't sound like something any one of these delicate little creatures would say. So what's the real reason you're burning all those pages and having the balls to stare me in the eye finally?"

Stefan held up the last journal, possibly the oldest looking one. "Monday June 18, 1860. Prior to this date you were barely mentioned except when my father took pity because Damon brought home an abused refugee a month earlier. We had been arguing all day because you found out it was Damon's birthday and nobody said anything. I read that I was angry that some strange young woman was waltzing in and trying to do something she shouldn't. Something we apparently no longer did as a family."

"You told me the three of you didn't celebrate birthdays anymore. That you hadn't in years."

"So you apparently had to go snooping and find a photo of our mother. We argued, and you ran back upstairs to your bedroom."

"I could only take a few things with me from Romania and I swiped a bottle of my family's brandy in a crystal bottle with our family crest on the front. I was going to give it to Damon that night whether you knew and approved or not."

Stefan was quiet a moment. "What happened?" He finally spoke.

Nova cut her eyes at him. "You read it," she hissed back. "What happened? Go on, Stefan. Keep going."

"That's it though… the next part written is that you got into an accident later that night - you fell down the stairs with a bottle in your hand."

She scoffed, her grip tightening around the glass. "Are you fucking serious? You couldn't tell the truth to anyone, not even yourself!" She threw the cup past him and into the fire where it shattered. "You're hopeless, Stefan. That will never change."

He shrugged before tossing the journal into the flames. "That's fine, Nova, because I don't want to be the person in these journals anymore. I don't want to live in this house. I don't want my brother's advice. I don't care about what happened between you and I, and I definitely do not want to continue this conversation."

"Good," she called as he grabbed his duffel bag and started walking past her. "Maybe your brain frying is exactly what you needed then."

Stefan looked over his shoulder at her with a partially taunting half smile. "Maybe it's something you should look into as well."

After the door closed behind him, Damon and Elena were walking in from the back of the house. "Was that Stefan?" Elena jumped in front of her sire. "What the hell happened?"

"You got dumped kid," she replied coldly. "Try to let him go this time."

She moved towards the stairs so Elena directed her attention back to Damon. "We need Bonnie. Why hasn't she called us back? It's so unlike her. He can't stay like this!"

"Elena," Damon sighed, prompting Nova's feet to stop at the base of the stairs, "Bonnie can't help us…"

"Did you talk to her? What did she say? There's got to be something that she can do. I mean, she'll figure it out. She always does."

Nova's head turned slowly to see the ache in her sire's blue eyes. No, she thought as he met her gaze. You are not about to say it…

"Bonnie is dead, Elena."

"What?!" the brunette cried.

"She's dead… I'm sorry."

The Romanian bit her lip and dashed up the stairs to her sister's room. Zina sat curled up in an armchair next to the window still crying. When the door opened and shut she jumped. Nova stood with her back against the door. Zina didn't like the grim look on her sister's face. "We need to do something."

"What are we supposed to do, sora mai mare? Have we not lost enough? We are their creatures…"

"Enough, Zina," she demanded firmly. "For a royal there is no such thing as safety. I am nobody's creature; I am not a piece of clay to be molded by any hand."

Zina scoffed and jumped to her feet. "Royal? Our parents made certain I never came anywhere near such a title. They handed it to their green eyed child. The one meant to have the most humanity and ended up with the least."

"There is nothing older or stronger than royal blood, sister. Especially that of the Vasiles. For better or worse the crown had landed on my head. You were born with the Vasile blood and name. Now use it!"

Her fists were balled at her sides with fire burning in her raven eyes. "And what exactly do you propose the usefulness of our blood will give to us, Nova?" She backed down a notch when she saw the all too daring look in her sister's expression.

Nova's maroon lips pulled into her signature smirk. "Blood for blood, Zina. Where one life is given, one is taken. We take a life and we get a life."

"I'm not certain that's how it works, sister…"

"It does with the right magic."