Elowen groaned, shielding her face from the light trickling in through the window, as her eyes squinted open. They landed on Veronica, who was sitting at her desk. She looked over at her and grinned.

"Good! You're awake. Your phone has been going off all morning, so I gave you the pleasure of answering it. Damon told me some really, really good news that I think you'll really appreciate, so get dressed. You're going back to Mystic Falls."

Elowen slowly sat up in her bed. "My head is killing me."

"There's aspirin and a glass of water on the nightstand."

Elowen looked over and sure enough, there was. She reached over to grab both of them, popping the aspirin in her mouth and downing some of the water. Veronica came over and sat on the edge of Elowen's bed.

"So, tell me, what do you remember from last night?"

"Um… we went to the costume ball… I danced with Stefan, Damon got pissy with me, then Stefan danced with Tessa, and… I ended up at the bar."

"Good. What happened after?"

Elowen furrowed her eyebrows together, deep in thought as she tried to remember.

"You brought me back to the dorms, and…" Elowen's eyes slowly widened. "Oh my god."

"Yeah, you kinda threw yourself at me, but hey, what's a friendship without a little flirting?"

Elowen covered her face with her hands and shook her head.

"Oh my god," she said again into her hands, her voice muffled. "Oh my god. I can't believe I did that."

Veronica shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, you did, but I'm willing to move past it. In fact, I'm already over it. Now get up. You really need to get back to the boarding house."

Veronica got up from Elowen's bed and walked over to her own bed. She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Elowen asked as she watched her.

"To class," Veronica answered as if it were obvious. "Caroline's already gone ahead, and Toby called Elena and she set off for Mystic Falls hours ago. She's probably already beat you there. Now shoo, get going."

Veronica walked across the room, opened the door, and left. Elowen blinked dumbly for a few moments before she slowly got out of bed so she could get ready and leave.

xxxx

Elowen tiredly walked through the front door of the boarding house, where Damon was standing in the living room. He turned at the sound of the front door opening and closing and saw Elowen.

"Please explain to me why I'm here," she said as she walked into the room. "I've already missed enough school as it is, and it's only been a few weeks."

"Are you okay?" Damon asked instead, crossing the room to stand in front of Elowen. "I'm sorry about what I said last night. I didn't mean to push you to drink."

"Well, you did. I mean, it wasn't just you. Stefan danced with Tessa last night, and I guess I just sort of-"

"Yeah, that wasn't Stefan."

Elowen furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

"It was Silas."

"What? Why was Silas there?"

"He needed to figure out where the anchor to the other side was."

"Okay, I'm not even going to ask what that is. Just tell me what's going on."

Damon reached out and took Elowen's hands in his own.

"Wen, listen to me carefully. There's a way to bring Josiah back."

Elowen felt her heart stop.

"What?" She asked in a whisper. "How?"

"When Silas finally dies, he's going to trade his life for Josiah's. He's already taken the cure, and we know where the anchor is. Josiah's coming back, Wen. He's coming back."

Elowen's eyes started to water. She shook her head.

"Wait, I need to tell my mom. I need to-"

She couldn't finish her sentence because the front door suddenly burst open. Elowen and Damon looked over to see Silas entering the boarding house.

"Greetings!"

He held out his hands and opened the curtains with his magic.

"Good morning, frenemies!"

Elowen and Damon shared a look of disbelief before looking back at Silas.

"Ah. You know, I'm only a few hours into my old life as a witch, but somehow, the sun feels warmer."

Silas walked over to the open window and stood in the sunlight.

"Probably because I'm not cursed with having to outlive it anymore."

"What's with the home invasion, Silas?" Damon asked.

Silas turned around. "Well, Damon, after 2,000 years of miserable existence, I finally get to die."

xxxx

Later, Elowen, Damon, Toby and Elena all sat in the living room with Silas.

"We all know that Tessa was a real vengeful bitch," Silas was saying. He pointed at Elena. "Your doppelganger, Amara, died at her hands, but today, after 2,000 years, Amara and I will finally reunite."

Damon stood up from the couch. "Alright, skip the mushy parts. Look, my girl here is just trying to have a good day, and there are promises that she's expecting you to keep."

"Oh, you don't think that I keep my promises?"

"You said that now that you're a witch again, you would bring Josiah back from the other side," Elowen spoke up.

"I did and I can," Silas replied.

"And you promised Damon you would do that if he helped you."

"Yeah."

"But you're kind of evil. No offense."

"None taken."

"So, I'm just trying to figure out how I can trust that one of your last acts in the world will be to bring my brother back."

"Did you want me to pinky swear?" Silas asked sarcastically, holding out his pinky.

"Look," Elena interjected. "I'm only here because I want to know if there's a way to bring Bonnie back, too." She shot Elowen a look. "Someone seems to have forgotten that she also died-"

"Excuse me?" Elowen cut her off. "Did you seriously just say that? Like, not jokingly?"

"Elena," Toby chided, but Elena ignored him.

"Yeah, I did. Is that a problem?"

"Get off your high horse, Elena," Elowen snapped. "You don't care about Josiah coming back. You just want Bonnie. Stop acting like you're any better."

"If these two keep fighting like 12 year olds, I'm not helping anybody," Silas said, looking between Elowen and Elena. "I agreed to bring back the brother, not the best friend, so that's what's happening. Sorry to disappoint."

Elena faltered. "So, there's no way to bring Bonnie back?"

"Nope, and it's not really my problem."

"Look," Damon cut in. "Just tell Elowen how this is gonna go down."

Silas looked to Elowen. "I just want to destroy the other side so I don't get stuck in that pit of purgatory when I finally do kill myself. Before I do that, I'll bring Josiah back, and being the amazing and incredible and all powerful witch I am, I can totally do both things. I just have to find the anchor first and destroy it."

"Right, the anchor," Elowen said. "The thing that binds the other side together. Where is it?"

"New Jersey."

"New Jersey?" Damon asked. "The supernatural other world is bound by an object in Snooki's backyard?"

"It's in a stockyard and it's being shipped out," Silas told them. "So, we really need to…"

Jeremy, who had tagged along with Elena, stepped into the room holding a crossbow. Without looking over, Silas addressed him.

"Hello, hunter." He turned to face him. "Where's the other one of you? You know, the pretty one."

"Put the damn crossbow down, Pocahontas," Damon told Jeremy, who ignored him.

"We're just supposed to believe that he's going to bring Josiah back to life out of the goodness of his heart?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, I hope not," Silas answered. "I mean, I am kind of a monster."

Jeremy held up the crossbow again.

"You know, guys, I'm feeling really ganged up on right now, okay? I would hate to lose my temper and do something…" Silas raised his hand, and flames shot up from his fingers. "... crazy."

Josiah, who had appeared a few seconds ago to join the conversation, grinned at the sight of this.

"Hey! I can do that, too."

He lifted his hand and mimicked Silas. Elowen looked around the room and started to speak loudly.

"Josiah, if you're in here right now, put the hand down."

Josiah grumbled, but put out the fire. Elowen shook her head.

"That was his favorite party trick when we were kids." She looked at Jeremy. "Did he put it out?"

Jeremy's eyes flickered over to Josiah and nodded. "Yeah."

Silas extinguished the flames on his fingers as well.

"Ah. Man, I really love being a witch again. I feel like I'm constantly reinventing myself. I'm like a supernatural Madonna, don't you think? Alright, we gotta get going." He looked over at Jeremy. "You grab a crowbar, or four, from the garage."

"What for?" Jeremy asked.

"Does it matter?" He looked at Elowen and Elena. "You two aren't going. Men only."

"Are you serious?" Elena questioned. She looked at Toby. "He's not serious."

Elowen rolled her eyes. "Why do you even care, Elena? You're not getting Bonnie back and you could care less about Josiah. Actually, why are you still here?"

Josiah sighed deeply and looked at Jeremy. "Can you tell them to stop fighting? I'm dead, but it's giving me a headache."

Jeremy nodded and turned his attention to Elowen. "Josiah wants you to stop fighting. It's not going to get us anywhere."

Elowen glanced at Jeremy and took a deep breath.

"Okay, look, me staying here is fine by me. Damon and Toby have this under control, and Stefan's missing. Besides, I have a bad habit of making friends with the bad people, and this time I'd like to not do that."

"Hm," Silas hummed. "That's right, I remember coming across that when I was digging around in your head. Klaus seemed interesting, but this one?" He pointed over at Damon. "What were you thinking?"

"Hey," Damon grumbled in annoyance. "I'm standing right here."

Silas ignored him. "I mean, Stefan is clearly the better looking brother. Granted, your relationship with him is doomed, but at least he didn't pine after a woman who didn't want him for more than a century. Ooh." Silas looked over at Damon. "Too soon?"

Damon clenched his jaw, but forced on a smile. "Can we go now?"

"Oh, one more thing." Silas faced Elowen. "Can you still do that cool ice trick?"

"Oh, yeah, totally." Elowen lifted her hand, her fingers already glowing a bright, icy blue, and reached over to touch Elena on the shoulder.

Elena hissed in pain and pulled away. A patch of frostbite was left behind, but Elena was already beginning to heal. She glared at Elowen.

"What the hell was that for?"

Elowen shrugged. "Demonstration."

Silas looked like he was contemplating something.

"You can also make duplicates of yourself, right?"

"Why are you asking questions you already know the answers to?" Elowen asked. "You've already been in my head."

"You're right. I changed my mind. You can come."

"What?!" Elena's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding me?"

"She's useful. You're not," Silas replied as if it were obvious. "You're a freaky carbon copy of my one true love, Amara. You can understand why I don't want to stare at your imposter face all day."

"That makes no sense," Toby deadpanned.

Elowen tilted her head. "Well…"

"Elowen!"

Bored of the situation, Silas lifted his arm and flicked his wrist, sending one of Jeremy's arrows into Elena's leg. Her mouth opened in pain and she sank to the ground.

"Hey!"

Toby ran over to her and helped pull the arrow out.

"The next one goes in the heart," Silas said. "Now hurry up. I only have until sundown before Tessa tries to stop me."

"Okay, well, Stefan's still missing, so…" Elowen trailed off, before a duplicate popped up beside her. "She's going with you to New Jersey, and I'm gonna find Stefan. Sound good? Okay."

Elowen pointed towards the front door and left. After the door closed behind her, Silas looked at everyone else.

"Are we all just gonna stand here, or are we leaving?"

xxxx

Veronica walked into the dorm room with a sigh and found Elena opening a box of hair dye.

"Oh, you're back." Veronica walked over to her bed and tossed her bag on it. "What's with the hair dye? Are you getting rid of the red streak? If so, good. It's ugly as hell."

Veronica looked over and frowned when she found a streak of grey in her hair instead of red. Her eyes flickered to Elena's face, and realization hit her.

"... Katherine?"

"Huh, so you're more than just a pretty face," Katherine drawled. "There's hope after all."

"You know, Damon once referred to me as the human version of you when you were still a vampire. Still not sure if that was a compliment or an insult."

"Coming from Damon? It was an insult."

Veronica shrugged. "I've been called worse."

Veronica turned back to her bed, pulled open her bag and took out a notebook and a textbook, then walked over to her desk and set them down. Katherine watched her as Veronica sat down, opened the textbook, found a fresh sheet of paper, and clicked her pen open.

"What are you doing?" Katherine asked.

"School work," Veronica answered as if it were obvious. "You're clearly not diabolical anymore, and you've done nothing to piss me off, therefore we can coexist without trying to kill each other." She glanced at Katherine over her shoulder. "Do you need something?"

"You're a snotty one, aren't you?"

"Again, I've been called worse. Are you done?"

Katherine threw her hands up and went back to the box of hair dye. She pulled out the instructions and read them over. Veronica snuck another look and saw that Katherine was frowning down at the paper.

"Do you need help, or…?"

Katherine scoffed. "No. I can figure something as simple as hair dyeing out by myself, thank you very much."

"You sure? Because your face tells a different story."

Katherine huffed and turned to look at her.

"What? Are you going to offer your services?"

"I've been dyeing my hair since I was 17. I know a thing or two about it. Do you need help or not?"

Katherine looked down at the box of hair dye and then held it out in annoyance a second later. Veronica clicked her pen closed and stood up. She took the box of hair dye and took out the rest of its contents.

"Brown hair dye. Easy enough."

Veronica started opening everything up to mix it together, and without looking at Katherine, addressed her.

"Towels are in the bathroom. You can just borrow some of Elena's clothes, even though her sense of fashion is horrible, and for that, I pity you."

Katherine looked Veronica up and down and crossed her arms.

"Hm. You're not half bad. At least you aren't annoying. Thank god for that."

Veronica closed up the bottle after pouring everything in and started to shake the hair dye and the activator together.

"Unless you want to get hair dye on what looks like a very expensive shirt, I'd change into something else if I were you."

Katherine threw her hands up and went over to change.

xxxx

Sometime later, Caroline entered the dorm as Katherine exited the bathroom, fresh out of the shower. Veronica was back at her desk and she looked up when Caroline came in.

"So, do you want to do small appliances, or toiletries?" She asked Katherine, thinking she was Elena, as she started putting things into a box.

"Um, we're moving out?" Katherine asked.

"Hello? Dr. Maxfield thinks we're vampires, you know, threatened to expose us, told us to drop out."

"Actually," Veronica piped up. "He told you and Elena to drop out. I'm nowhere in this equation."

Caroline shot Veronica a look. "Don't remind me that you and Elowen are the only two who get to have a normal college experience."

"That sucks," Katherine said, clearing her throat.

Caroline looked over at Katherine and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. The next second, she sped at Katherine and pushed her against the wall, her hand wrapped around her throat.

"What the hell are you doing in my dorm, Katherine?"

"I just need a place to crash," Katherine replied.

"What? I loathe you."

"I'm desperate, okay? Damon kicked me out, Stefan doesn't remember me, and I just spent my last 20 dollars on a meal that I didn't even get to enjoy."

"Aw. And how is this my problem?"

"Look at you. Moving out, giving up? It's very un-Caroline of you. You need me. Bad."

Caroline loosened her grip on Katherine and took a step back. Katherine cleared her throat again.

"In exchange for a place to stay, and Elena's meal card, I will help you deal with Dr. Whoever."

"Dr. Maxfield," Caroline corrected. "He teaches bio."

Katherine snickered. "I'm sorry, what? You're scared of a teacher?"

"That's what I said," Veronica commented. Caroline shot an annoyed look at her over her shoulder, but didn't say anything.

"Honey, you really need to take a crash course in Villain 101," Katherine continued. "Luckily for you, I have an honorary doctorate. What do you say, roomy?"

Veronica gasped excitedly. "Ooh! Does this mean we get to torture someone? Because that was really fun last time."

Caroline faced her. "Okay, you really shouldn't be getting excited about that. It makes you look like a psychopath. And last time doesn't count. All you did was verbally assault Elena."

"No, I pulled back the curtain, too. Give me at least a little credit."

Katherine quirked an eyebrow. "So, how about it?"

Caroline turned back to Katherine and sighed, giving in.

"Fine."

Katherine smirked. "Perfect."

xxxx

Elowen sat in her room, her phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder, as she prepared to do a locator spell in case Stefan didn't answer. The call was just about to go into voicemail when the line picked up.

"Stefan's phone," a woman answered.

Elowen frowned.

"... Tessa? What are you doing with Stefan's phone? What did you do to him?"

"Relax, he's fine. He hopped in the shower. Between us girls, he works up quite the sweat, but I guess you know that."

"If you're trying to make me jealous, it's really not gonna work."

"Hm, is that so? Because if memory serves me right, you went straight for the bar last night when you saw me dancing with who you thought was Stefan."

"I wasn't jealous. I was hurt. Those are two different emotions. Try again."

Tessa sighed. "The thought of Stefan coming to me after last night doesn't bother you at least a little bit? Not even the slightest?"

Elowen didn't say anything.

"Thought so. Hm, I think I'm getting a little bored of him. Maybe I'll just get rid of him."

Elowen widened her eyes in alarm, but before she could respond, Tessa hung up on her. She frantically stood up, shoved her phone in her pocket and was getting ready to teleport to the cabin Tessa was staying in when Eliana poked her head through the door.

"Hey- Whoa. What's with the face?"

"Stefan might be in danger," Elowen hastily replied. "I'll talk later."

"Hold on. You might need backup."

"Eliana, while I appreciate it, I can handle this on my-"

"I'm not taking no for an answer. Let's go."

She started to leave the room when Elowen stopped her.

"Wait!"

Eliana came back. "What?"

Elowen held out her hand.

"Take my hand."

"Huh?"

"Just do it."

Eliana walked over and did as Elowen asked. A soft, golden glow engulfed them and the next second, they appeared in front of Tessa's cabin.

"Whoa." Eliana wobbled for a second. "How about a warning next time?"

Elowen ignored her, going up to the front door to push it open. Tessa looked over from the couch and stood up with a smile.

"Well, you certainly got here faster than I thought you would."

"Teleporting perks," Elowen replied shortly. "Where is he?"

Stefan walked into the room and Elowen breathed a sigh of relief.

"Stefan. Oh my god. I thought something happened to you."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Why?"

"Tessa threatened you over the phone and I freaked a little."

Stefan looked over at Tessa. "What were you doing with my phone?"

"It rang and you weren't around to answer," Tessa replied. "Was I not supposed to do that?"

"Okay, well, he's obviously fine," Eliana spoke up. "Stefan, come on, let's just get you out of here."

"He can't leave," Elowen said. "Silas cast a spell on the cabin. They're stuck in there until sundown."

"Ah. Aka, one of the oldest tricks in the spellbook."

"Elowen," Stefan called out from behind Tessa, gaining her attention. "Look, I just wanted to apologize for last night. Some girl chewed me out for it, but that wasn't me who was dancing with Tessa, it was-"

"Silas, yeah, I know," Elowen cut him off. "And the girl was Veronica."

Stefan frowned. "Wait, you knew Silas was there?"

"What? No, obviously not, since I thought he was you. All I know is that Silas was there to find out where the anchor to the other side was."

"So… you don't know what him and Damon had to do to make that happen?"

Elowen looked at Stefan warily. "... No."

"In order for Silas to get back his mind reading powers to dig through Tessa's head, I had to be dead. Damon sat there and broke my neck for half the night."

Anger filled Elowen's face.

"I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna-"

"Let me guess." Tessa raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna kill him? So dramatic."

"I'm dramatic? You're the woman who created a whole supernatural purgatory to prevent Silas from finding peace because he cheated on you. You're one to talk."

"Speaking of being cheated on, does Stefan know about your little tryst with that Original vampire?"

Elowen didn't say anything. Her eyes flickered over to Stefan, who was staring at her in confusion. From beside her, Eliana looked at her with wide eyes.

"You slept with Klaus?!" She yelled in a whisper.

Elowen grit her teeth. "Not Klaus… Kol. And I didn't sleep with him... I just kind of made out with him."

"Kol? The one Jeremy killed to complete his mark? Also known as the one Marisol was in love with?"

"Who's Marisol?" Stefan asked from inside the house.

Eliana glanced at him. "Long story." She trained her eyes back on Elowen. "Did this happen before or after her soul was exercised from your body?"

"... After," Elowen replied quietly.

"So this was a conscious decision and not one made for you?"

"Not exactly." Elowen glanced at Stefan before looking at Eliana. "I mean… I'm her reborn, regardless if she's still living in me, and she loved Kol."

"She also loved Klaus, but you didn't jump into bed with him." Eliana paused. "Did you?"

"No! It still doesn't change the fact that after she left, I didn't sever any ties with him. I ended up becoming like… the only friend he had. I mean, he trusted me enough to drag me to New Orleans, remember?"

"Okay, I'm lost," Stefan spoke up. "You cheated on me with a guy named Kol?"

Elowen grimaced. "Yes, but you forgave me for it. I took full responsibility, by the way, and I even tried to break up with you, but you didn't want that."

Stefan thought this over for a second before shrugging. "Okay."

Tessa looked at Stefan incredulously. "Okay? That's it? That's all you have to say?"

Stefan looked over at her. "I'm not you, Tessa. If I forgave her, then I forgave her."

"Okay, enough with the crap."

Tessa raised her hand towards Stefan and started chanting a spell. He immediately grabbed his head and grunted in pain, sinking down to his knees. Elowen took a step forward, but Eliana grabbed onto her arm.

"You can't go in!"

Elowen watched helplessly, looking at Eliana for an answer.

"What do I do? Do something!"

Thinking fast, Eliana lifted her hands and flicked them. Tessa froze in her spot. Stefan gasped in relief, lifting his head. It didn't last long, because Tessa unfroze a second later. Eliana widened her eyes in horror.

"How did you do that? You shouldn't have been able to resist-"

Tessa smirked. "I'm stronger than I look."

She turned back to Stefan and continued her spell. He yelled out again and Eliana had to hold Elowen back to stop her from running into the cabin. Tessa walked over to one of the chairs and broke off a leg. Elowen started to struggle against Eliana even harder when she realized what was happening.

"No! No, please, stop! Please, don't!"

As Tessa walked over to Stefan and raised the makeshift stake, Elowen finally broke free from Eliana, ran into the house, and flung her arm at Tessa, sending her flying across the room. She ran over to Stefan and dropped down to the ground to take his face in her hands.

"Stefan? Stefan, are you okay? Stefan?"

Stefan lifted his head to look at Elowen, breathing heavily to try and catch his breath, and placed his hands over Elowen's.

"You really shouldn't have come inside," he mumbled.

Elowen shook her head, trying not to cry. "I don't care. She was going to hurt you."

"Ugh, I thought you were never going to pass the threshold."

Stefan and Elowen looked over to see Tessa climbing back onto her feet.

"You're more stubborn than I thought. Really thought I had to kill him for a second there."

"You were trying to lure me in this whole time." Elowen shook her head. "Of course you were. You need leverage."

"Your reputation for being the smart one precedes you."

"Elowen," Eliana called softly from the door. Elowen looked over.

"Eliana, just stay there. I'll be fine."

Eliana looked from Elowen to Tessa, and then stepped through the door.

"Eliana!"

"I'm not leaving you in here alone with the ancient crazy bitch."

She walked over and helped Elowen back up, leaving Stefan to get up on his own. She looked down at Elowen.

"Esme would kill me if I let anything happen to you on my watch."

Elowen sighed, but cracked a small smile. They both looked over at Tessa and their smiles dropped into annoyed sneers.

Tessa smiled.

"So, where were we?"

xxxx

Damon, Jeremy, Toby, Elowen and Silas all got out of the car as they pulled up to the warehouse. Elowen immediately walked over to Damon and slapped him across the face.

"Ooh!" Silas winced. "That looked like it hurt."

Damon grabbed his cheek and looked down at Elowen. "What was that for?"

"Doing whatever the hell you did to Stefan last night," Elowen spat angrily. "Breaking his neck? Are you kidding me? Did you just think I wouldn't find out?"

"Okay, I get that you're mad, but it was the only way Silas could find out where the anchor was. I was just trying to get Josiah back."

"Doesn't make me any less angry at you."

Elowen left Damon and met up with Toby to walk up the steps to the warehouse. Toby grabbed the doorknob and broke it off, allowing them to enter the building.

"Okay. Where is this stupid anchor thing?" He asked, handing a crowbar over to Elowen, who took it.

"I have no idea," Silas replied.

"What do you mean you have no idea?" Damon questioned.

"Give me some credit, man. I did psychically dive into Tessa's mind to see this specific warehouse."

"What does it look like?" Jeremy asked.

"Again, I have no idea. Tessa created it after she locked me away in a tomb for 2,000 years and left me to starve, remember? Remote island, creepy hallucinations?"

"Wait." Damon stopped. "You don't know where it is or what it looks like?"

"It binds a spell to a supernatural hell dimension. It's not going to look like a freaking IKEA sink."

"You've been making pop culture references this whole time and now you name drop IKEA?" Elowen looked over at Silas. "You've been away from civilization for a couple thousand years. How do you even know who Madonna is?"

"See, Elowen, back when I had my psychic abilities, I spent a lot of time picking at people's brains to catch up on what I missed out on. Madonna was one of those things."

"You're never gonna live another day to go into an IKEA, but it's a maze in that place. I got lost in there once when I was 8. That wasn't fun."

Toby chuckled. "I remember that."

"You better, because it was totally your fault."

Toby opened his mouth to retort, but Elowen was already walking away down one of the rows of crates to start prying them open. He sighed and also went his separate way.

xxxx

"What did you inject him with?" Caroline asked Katherine as she waited for Dr. Maxfield to wake up.

"I don't know. It just said 'avoid contact with eyes'," Katherine picked up the bottle, "... and 'do not ingest'. Oops."

"It's etorphine," Dr. Maxfield mumbled as he came to.

"Oh, I read about that," Veronica piped up from where she was sitting on top of tables. "It's an opioid that's like morphine, but on crack."

"What are you doing, Elena?" Dr. Maxfield asked in confusion.

"We're draining the vervain out of your system so I can compel you to forget that Elena and I are vampires," Caroline said simply like there wasn't an issue with this. "This would be so much easier with Elowen here, but she's a little busy."

"Wait, what? You'll kill me!"

"Ssh!" Caroline put her hand up to silence Dr. Maxfield. "I'm just- I'm trying to do some math. Okay, uhh, so, the average male has 5 liters of blood in his system…"

"I think it's more like 5.5," Veronica supplied.

"... then, carry the one…"

"Just round up," Katherine commented with a shrug.

"Perfect! 4.7 pints." Caroline turned to Dr. Maxfield. "Should I use the right arm or the left arm?"

"Untie me," Dr. Maxfield said. "I'll find the vein myself. You will kill me."

"It's fine, I got this." Veronica held out her hand for the IV. "My mom's a nurse. I know what I'm doing."

Caroline handed over the needle.

"I need one of those tubes and some tape."

Katherine walked across the room and got Veronica what she needed and passed them over. Veronica felt around for a vein and then poked the needle through Dr. Maxfield's arm. Blood started running through the IV and Veronica placed the end of it into a beaker, allowing the blood to drain in there.

"Oh my god!" Caroline gasped. "It's totally working."

Veronica rolled her eyes. "Of course it is. When my mom was taking her phlebotomy class at nursing school, she used to practice at home and I liked to watch. Never thought it would come in handy, but here we are."

Katherine reached over for one of the scalpels on the table and dragged it across Dr. Maxfield's face.

"So, doctor, you tell me, who else knows about us?"

She trailed down to his neck and held the scalpel there.

"If you were willing to kill me, you wouldn't have gone through all this trouble," Dr. Maxfield replied

"Personally, I told them to just off you, but Caroline said that would be too suspicious," Veronica said with a shrug. "You got lucky."

Dr. Maxfield looked at Veronica briefly, but went back to Caroline.

"You should have left when I told you to. They're on to you."

"Who's 'they'?" Caroline asked. "The people you want to expose us to? That secret society thingy that you belong to?"

"There's a gathering today at Whitmore House. The society is using it to suss out potential candidates. They were going to invite you, until they started suspecting that you were a vampire."

"Gee, I wonder who could've given them that idea," Veronica drawled sarcastically.

Katherine tilted her head. "So, all I have to do is convince them that Elena Gilbert isn't a vampire? Done."

Dr. Maxfield shook his head. "They'll never let you in and a vampire could never get past the threshold."

Katherine, Caroline and Veronica all looked at each other, smirking knowingly.

xxxx

Silas, Damon, Toby and Elowen were all breaking open crates together while Jeremy was off on his own.

"Quit dawdling," Silas said. "We need to find this thing before the travelers show up."

"Why are they so interested in this anchor?" Toby asked.

"They hate me for creating the immortality spell and they know the anchor's the only thing standing between me and my soulmate. Every love story needs to have one thing that keeps getting in the way." Silas looked between Toby and Elowen. "Kind of like you two."

"You know, you might be an all powerful witch, is that what you call it?" Damon asked.

Silas nodded. "Yeah."

"But I will happily kill you if you keep that up."

"Oh, no, you won't. Not until I bring your girlfriend's brother back."

Damon's phone started to ring at that moment. With a glare, he turned to pull it out and saw Elowen's name on the caller ID.

"Hey. Did you find Stefan?"

"Oh, she did," Tessa's voice rang out from the line. "Since I'm occupied at the moment, I need you to go ahead and kill Silas for me."

"What did you do with Elowen?"

"Don't worry, she's fine. Her aunt's here, too, actually. I only wanted her, but I guess the extra person won't hurt anybody. Now, killing Silas."

"Look, I'd gladly do it, but he's such a control freak, he wants to off himself, himself."

"You mean, after he destroys the other side? Yeah, that's not gonna happen, plus I want him dead before he has the pleasure of finding the anchor."

"Yeah, I'm not following."

"Kill him. Now."

"Or what?"

Tessa raised her hand towards Elowen and cast a simple spell. A head splitting sensation shot through Elowen's head and she grabbed at her temples, screaming in pain. Eliana ran over to her side as she fell to the ground.

"Tessa!" Stefan yelled before kneeling down next to Elowen with Eliana.

"Stop!" Damon shouted into the phone, hearing Elowen's cries. "Stop it." He lowered his voice. "I can't kill him yet. He has to do something for me first."

"Is that something more important than Elowen? Because Silas put a spell on this house and bound it to the sun, which means we're trapped here until sundown, which means you have until then to kill Silas or I kill Elowen."

"Eliana wouldn't let you get anywhere near her."

"Then I'll kill her, too, and you'll have two dead family members on your hands. Too bad Stefan can't remember that he loves her, or else maybe she'd stand a chance. Bye now."

As Tessa hung up, Elowen lifted her hand in Tessa's direction and shot a sharp, piercing noise through her ears. She covered her ears to try and block out the sound, dropping Elowen's phone in the process. This was enough to lift Tessa's spell on her, and Elowen gasped out in relief as the pain went away.

"Are you okay?" Eliana asked worriedly, and Elowen nodded her head. Eliana looked up at Tessa and a dark look crossed her face. She slowly stood and tried to advance on Tessa, but Stefan quickly placed a hand on her chest to stop her.

"Wait! Let's all just calm down."

"Calm down?" Eliana asked loudly. "You want me to calm down? She just threatened my niece's life!"

"I won't let anything happen to her, okay?" Stefan reassured, glancing back at Tessa. "I promise."