this is how i died
May 2013
Whitmore
"Bonnie… Bonnie, wake up!"
In the early hours of the day that would end with a wedding and a massacre, it was fitting that Elena Gilbert woke up Bonnie Bennett from a nightmare.
Bonnie sat up, her eyes wild as they latched onto Elena's face. For a moment, what Bonnie saw was not the tear-streaked, anxious face of her oldest, dearest friend but a tall, dark-haired female vampire looming over her; and reflexively, her hand stretched out, magic lashing at its target.
Elena fell to her knees, holding her throat with one hand, gasping for breath.
"Bonnie, it's me!" she managed to choke out.
It took Bonnie a moment before she could realise her mistake. Not Lily Salvatore. Elena. Not a vampire. Elena. Then she pulled back the spell with a little scream. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Are you OK?"
"I-I'm fine," Elena croaked, standing up slowly.
Bonnie started climbing out of the bed to help her, when she realized that she couldn't. Her arms were attached by tubes to medical equipment by her bed. With a start, she realized that she wasn't where she assumed she'd be when she woke up in a bed – in her dorm room – but apparently, in a hospital ward.
"What am I doing here?" she asked, confused.
"Don't you remember?" Elena asked hoarsely as she fell back into the chair by Bonnie's bedside. "Jo's bachelorette's party? The bar? Lily?"
And slowly, it came back to Bonnie. She shuddered violently and clamped her hand on her neck. The skin there was smooth, unbroken.
"She attacked me," she whispered, more out of anger than fear. "Even after I let her go and she…" Then panic hit her, but not for herself. "Oh my god, Jo!"
"Jo's fine," Elena said quickly. "She followed in the ambulance that brought you here."
"Where's she now? Is she safe? The baby?"
Elena laughed ruefully, her eyes shining. "The babies are fine. Jo's fine. You're the one we were all worried about."
"What about Lily? We need to track her down. We only just got Stefan and Caroline under control-"
"Lily's not your problem anymore, Bonnie. You're not listening to me, are you? You were in the hospital all night."
"I got blood from you, didn't I?" Her brow furrowed. "Why am I even here?"
"Oh, Bonnie," Elena breathed and in the next moment, she had enveloped Bonnie, tubes, wires and all, into a fierce hug. "I was so worried about you."
Why? Who's in danger now? What new spell do you need? Bonnie wondered. "I'm fine," she said, choking a little under Elena's hair. "Can you…?"
Laughing softly, Elena pulled away. She sank back into her seat and wiped at her eyes.
In an effort to lighten the mood, and dispel her own bitter thoughts, Bonnie said glibly, "You can make up for your crazy future-mother-in-law by compelling a cute resident to check me out in the next five minutes. We've got to get out of here ASAP. Do you have any idea how many texts Caroline must have sent by now? She must be freaking out right now."
"Ugh, don't remind me!" Elena groaned. "Whose bright idea was it to let her take over the wedding?"
Bonnie cleared her throat loudly.
"That was a rhetorical question!"
Bonnie laughed and in a few moments, Elena joined her. After a while, they fell silent, and simply stared happily at each other as they shared a rare, peaceful moment in their supernaturally melodramatic lives.
And then it was back to business.
"So where is Lily now?" Bonnie persisted.
"I told you. Gone."
"What do you mean gone?"
Elena looked at her uncertainly. "After she attacked you, Kai Parker was there-" She broke off, dashing quickly to one of the monitors in the room that had just given a shrill beep. She looked down worriedly at Bonnie. "Calm down."
"I am calm," Bonnie muttered, trying to even out her breathing that had hitched at the mention of hisname. "You were saying…"
"I don't think-"
The door flung open and a group of medical staff, headed by Dr. Jo Laughlin rushed in.
"You're awake!" she gasped.
The others started poking and prodding at Bonnie without so much as a by-your-leave.
Dr. Jo hung back, staring at Bonnie.
Bonnie smiled uneasily. "I think so. Ouch!" she cried, when a nurse stabbed her with a needle.
"Oh god," Jo said softly.
The good thing was that they removed half of the wires holding Bonnie in place. There was another doctor with the others, and after he checked the monitors, he spoke to Bonnie softly, asking her questions about her name, age, the current President, and then asking her how she felt.
"I feel fine," Bonnie said quickly. "I think I'm good to leave now."
The doctor and Jo exchanged glances, then he turned back to Bonnie. "I'm sure you do but I'm going to ask you to stay for a few more hours. You gave us a real scare, young lady. These machines tell me you're fine, and everything checks out so we've unhooked you a bit but I'd like to run some tests before you leave and you're going to get a few more hours of rest." When Bonnie started talking, he waved her silent. "I know you have a wedding to go to, but trust me, I think the bride will understand." He winked.
After a few minutes, the rest of the crew left. The doctor lingered at the door. "I'll be honest with you, I've seen some medical miracles but yours takes the cake. I don't know if you're a religious person, but you definitely need to check in with your Guardian Angel sometime today."
He chuckled to himself. While Bonnie was still staring, he turned to Elena with a parting shot. "Ms. Gilbert, are you on call today?"
Elena shifted nervously. "Just staying with my friend, Dr."
"Visiting hours are over," he said sternly.
"Oh, let her stay," Jo said, speaking up for the first time since she stepped into the room. "She'll know not to wear her out."
"She'd better. Miss Bonnie needs to rest. Next time, there's a spike, Ms. Gilbert, I'll have you thrown out."
He left and Elena made a face at his departing back, making Bonnie giggle a little.
"I saw that," Jo said sternly, but absentmindedly. She came to stand by Bonnie. Her face was filled with wonder as she looked down at Bonnie, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.
Bonnie fidgeted a little under the scrutiny.
"I really am fine." She snorted. "Medical miracle, huh? More like vampire blood."
"Yeah," Jo said slowly. "That was probably it."
She bent down and carefully, navigating through the wires and tubes, gave Bonnie a hug. When she straightened up, her eyes were shining. She looked away quickly. "Gotta get ready for a wedding. You take care, Bonnie."
"Bye Jo," both girls said softly.
Bonnie turned to Elena when the door closed. "What happened to me last night?" she asked at once.
"I told you. Lily attacked you. We thought you won't make it."
"But I did."
"Obviously," Elena said with a shaky smile.
Bonnie shook her head, confused. There was something more to all this.
And Elena hadn't answered her question about Lily's whereabouts.
She asked her again, leaning forward earnestly. "Look, I need to know or I'll just imagine the worst."
Elena sighed. "She's been banished to the 1903 prison world."
Bonnie fell back against her pillows. "Oh."
Elena was staring at her worriedly, as if she expected another of Bonnie's monitors to start beeping.
But Bonnie merely said quietly, "so that's over, then." She exhaled heavily. "The whole trip might as well have never have happened."
The whole trip should never have happened whispered a treacherous voice in Bonnie's head.
"Not really," Elena said hesitantly. "I got the Cure. I'm not sure Damon would have given it to me if she hadn't made him."
Elena had been doing that more and more of late, Bonnie managed to observe despite the thoughts swirling in her head. Speaking with a candidness about Damon, and her relationship with him in a way that Bonnie had never known her to do before.
"So, what did you decide?" Bonnie asked. She reached over and touched Elena's cheek.
Even before her fingers made contact with warmth, Bonnie realized it. In truth, she should have realized it from the moment she woke up, and saw Elena, felt her presence. But she had got so used to Elena's aura as just hers, not a vampire's or a human's, just Elena's that it didn't quite dawn on her until this moment.
She sank back into her pillows. "You did it," she breathed. And now that Elena had actually done it, it struck Bonnie that a part of her had expected her friend not to go through with it. "You took the Cure."
"You sound surprised?"
"I don't really know why," Bonnie admitted. "I mean, you've wanted to be human again since the moment you became a vampire."
I should know. I died the first time I tried to Cure you. Before then, I helped build the spell that killed your father so that you won't wake up as a vampire after Klaus killed you. So I don't know why I'm surprised you took it after a little second-guessing. Heck, you even managed to spare a few seconds from your night of 'worrying' over me to swallow it down.
The angry voice wasn't a complete stranger to Bonnie. She had first started hearing it during those months of isolation in 1994, when reflection had led to despair. But then she found Damon's map – hah!the voice said now – and found her way out of that prison and the voice had seemed to quieten when she returned home.
If she were honest with herself, Bonnie knew that the voice hadn't completely left her in those early days. It had whispered to her when the morning after her return from 1994, Elena had asked her to babysit Caroline at the rave. It had rumbled at her when Damon had orchestrated that vomit-inducing encounter with Kai at the same rave. It had muttered the morning that he had appeared in her dorm, demanding her help with his mother.
But when she had been bending over Kai in the snow, holding her knife ready to strike – it had been quiet. And Bonnie had thought – hoped – that she had finally silenced it.
She hadn't, though. But it had been quieter, only whispering words of uncertainty in the dead of night.
Then Jo told her that Kai couldn't die, Bonnie had had to go back for him, and he had told her the truth – about her birthday, about Damon's 'rescue' – and the voice had come rushing back in all its poisonous self-doubting glory.
Elena's eyes had taken a distant, faraway look. "So because I've always wanted it I should get it? How is that fair? No one gets what they want all the time. Life doesn't work that way."
Bonnie stared. "Why're you talking like this?"
Elena looked down at the hands that were folded in her lap. "It just makes me wonder sometimes… if things don't always work my way… usually at the expense of other people."
Damon's hands around Abby's neck. The cracking sound of her mother's neck being snapped.
Jeremy dying. Jeremy coming back.
Bonnie dying. Bonnie coming back.
Bonnie looked away. "That's ridiculous, Elena. You've suffered more than anyone I've ever known."
"I used to think so. But now I'm not so sure."
"What are you trying to say, Elena?" Bonnie said, getting irritated. "Do you regret taking the Cure or what?"
"No," Elena said firmly. "I don't."
"Sure about that? Last night you sounded completely unsure of what to do."
"Last night you seemed mad that I hadn't taken the Cure already."
"I wasn't mad," Bonnie said testily.
"Are you sure?" Elena snuck a glance at her from beneath her lashes. "Because I think you were. You're also mad at me right now, aren't you?"
"Why should I be?" Bonnie muttered.
Mad at you for second-guessing the reason why Expression drove me half-mad? The reason we all risked apocalypse to get the Cure for you? The reason your brother died? Why I died bringing him back to life? Suffered for months as the Anchor and ended up in Kai's prison world?
Raised Silas who murdered my father?
Why ever would I be mad at you for that?
She kept the words in her head, but she couldn't keep the bitterness from her gaze – not if the dejection on Elena's face was any indication.
Guilt battled with fury inside Bonnie, and confusion came out top. Why was she so angry? Yes, she was furious at Damon over the whole Kai affair. Damon hadn't just hidden the truth from her – he had taken credit for her rescue when Jeremy and Kai - Kai! - had done the heavy lifting. And to free his mother, he had lied to her and used her. Again.
But after the first flash of rage, it was almost a joke how unsurprised she was at Damon's actions. Damon had just been Damon. He had not changed in the least, not really. It was Bonnie who had decided that he had, who had developed this idealized version of him in her head after four months of their time together. A version of him that simply did not exist in the real world.
He had given her no reason to believe he had changed.
Bonnie only had herself to blame for wanting to think he had.
But Elena…
Elena hadn't known about Damon's and Bonnie's plans to trap Kai in 1903. Hadn't even been meant to come along on that trip. Had explained to Bonnie in the middle of the massive blowout with Damon that she hadn't known that Bonnie had been kept in the dark about the events that took place during her 'birthday party'.
But at that time, Bonnie hadn't cared and she had lashed out at Elena as well. They were reconciled now – something Bonnie was sure she could never be with Damon. Yet this lingering resentment, well, lingered.
Why?
"Bonnie-" Elena whispered. She gave the at-the-moment silent monitors a worried glance.
Bonnie forced a smile on her face, pushing her confusing thoughts far into the back of her mind.
"No biggie, Elena. If you hadn't taken it, I bet there are a million uses I could have found for the only known cure to immortality in the world. Or I could have auctioned it on the supernatural black market and paid off my student loans. Live rich as sin for the rest of my life." Bonnie waggled her brows.
Elena managed a tentative smile. "Says the girl who has two trust funds and a college scholarship."
"I kind of lost my scholarship when I died."
"And all you have to do is give a name and number, and any one of a half dozen vampires would gladly compel it back to you. And talking of compulsion addicts, I don't care what bonding experience you two went through in 1994 but please, don't ever do that twitchy eyebrow thing again. That's Damon's thing. It looks ridiculous on him and it looks ridiculous on you."
Despite herself, Bonnie snickered.
Elena rolled her eyes dramatically. "What's even worse is that he thinks it's sexy and I've never been able to break it to him that -."
"Liv? Liv Parker?"
Elena cut herself off, to follow Bonnie's gaze to the figure of Liv Parker, standing in her doorway, with the oddest look on her face as she stared at the two girls inside.
"Elena? Bonnie?" Her voice was hoarse.
"Liv?" Bonnie answered, echo-like. When Liv just kept staring, Bonnie and Elena exchanged confused glances.
"Are you OK?" Elena asked, slowly. "You look like if you've seen a ghost." She chuckled uneasily. "Which isn't figurative in these parts…"
"No, I…" Liv shook her head and the reflection of fluorescent light on her massive blonde curls almost blinded Bonnie. The white shock on her face had morphed into nervousness, which was an even stranger look on her. And considering that she had disappeared from Whitmore since her brothers merged and her twin lost – her presence alone was a bit of a surprise to the girls inside the room.
She stepped inside uncertainly. "I was looking for my sister. I went to her apartment and she wasn't there… They told me at the desk that her shift just ended and I don't know where Alaric lives…"
Elena stood up. "I can give you the address where she is." Then she hesitated. "Only I don't completely trust you, Liv."
Liv blinked. "She's my sister."
"So you should have her number," Elena countered.
Liv turned to Bonnie but the other witch's face was blank. The blonde pursed her lips and tried to glare down the younger girls.
When it became obvious that they were not going to back down, Liv finally admitted, "I threw away my phone when I went on the run with my Dad. Everything I had on Jo was there. We and most of the witches in my coven just came out of hiding. Dad made us come back for Jo's wedding. To show support. Apparently he and Kai have worked something out." The look on her face spoke volumes about what she thought about that.
"So get her number from your Dad."
"He doesn't have it either."
Elena and Bonnie looked at each other. Both shook heads imperceptibly.
Elena turned back to Liv. "Then you can come to the venue early and try to catch hold of her. Or wait until the wedding, and see her with everyone else."
Liv's blue eyes flashed. "What the hell?" Magic crackled at her fingers.
"Hey!" Bonnie snapped and both witches locked gazes.
The sparks around Liv's fingers vanished. But the ones in her eyes were still there.
"Please," she tried for placating. It sounded painful. "I really need to talk to Jo. It's important."
"What is this about?" Elena asked. "Maybe if you explained to me…"
"What's so difficult to understand that I want to be there for my sister on her wedding day?"
Elena snorted. "Did you remember that Jo was your sister when you were trying to kill Kai Parker? When he was trying to help us bring back Bonnie? Besides, you're not always the most trustworthy person, Liv and you come from a really weird coven so forgive me if I don't jump at the chance to reconnect you with my friend and mentor on her wedding day."
"Wait a second… I'm the bad guy because I tried to kill Kai?" Liv sputtered.
"You knew Kai's life was linked to the rest of your coven and you were going to kill him and everyone else anyway."
"I was upset," Liv said through gritted teeth. "My twin just died and I wasn't thinking clearly."
"Obviously."
Liv's face turned wrathful. "What happened? He did a few freebie spells for you vampires and he's now everyone's BFF?" She threw a poisonous glance at Bonnie. "Careful, Bennett. You're dispensable now. Mega-powerful Gemini coven leader trumps self-tutored witch any-day."
"I'll keep that in mind," Bonnie replied at once but the barb had struck, and her voice didn't sound quite as glib as she hoped. She felt Elena give her a look of concern, then turn to hiss furiously at Liv.
Liv raised a hand, staving the irate girl off. "As for you, Gilbert, your brother died and you and Rebekah Mikaelson racked up a massive body count when you went on your little Thelma and Louise trip from Virginia to New York. I would have thought that you of all people would have some freaking sympathy."
Elena visibly wilted. "If you leave a number," she conceded, "I'll pass it on to Jo immediately, and she can decide to call you or not. That's the best I can do for you."
Liv glared at her but Elena straightened her spine, and didn't waver.
In short violent movements that rattled Bonnie's magic, Liv pulled out her purse, scribbled on a piece of paper, scrunched it into a ball and threw it at Elena.
She added a little juice to it, too because when Elena caught it, she yelped and dropped it.
"Ooops," Liv said in the fakest way possible. "Let's hope you have better luck catching the bouquet."
She turned on her heel and slammed out the door.
"Bitch," Elena muttered.
"Bitch," Bonnie murmured at exactly the same time.
Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
June 2014
Portland
Bonnie sat at Liv's dresser, hastily writing a thank you note. She hadn't seen the blonde witch since morning and guessed Liv was probably giving her work presentation right now. She put a mention in her note, hoping that it went well. When she was done, she folded the paper and left it on Liv's pillow. Then she picked up the notes she had already written for Jo and Alaric and tucked them into her purse,
It was all rather old-fashioned, but Bonnie was raised by her grandmother after all.
She had written a note for Kai, as well. Something incoherent and stupid and she had burnt it the moment she was done, feeling a little cathartic as she flushed the ashes down the toilet.
For the millionth time that morning, she fought her mind not to dwell on what had happened between them a few hours ago. Almost happened.
But how could she stop thinking about it? About him? This whole house was drenched with his essence. She felt his presence everywhere, and if she didn't leave soon, she'd probably do something crazy.
Damon had come through – they had tickets to the 1245 flight – and Bonnie looked around the room to make sure she wasn't leaving anything behind. Her eyes caught on the set of grimoires on Liv's desk, where Bonnie had left them earlier. After chewing on her lip in thought, she quickly snatched the four at random and stuffed them into her suitcase, before she could change her mind. She'd send Liv a text from Virginia.
Of course, she could send one right now, asking for permission and probably get an answer before she left. But why risk Liv saying no?
Which reminded Bonnie of the strange way Liv had acted that morning, when she came to the nursery to call Bonnie. Frowning, Bonnie wondered what was up with that.
Or Kai's anger that morning in the kitchen. She never did quite find out what it was that she did – and she was sure that she was the one that ticked him off. But why?
Was he mad that the Council had sort of come around to her in the end, and was sending that Quentins Asshat dude to Mystic Falls?
Or was it from their conversation the night before? That she had the audacity to come to Portland and ask him for help after everything that had happened between them?
Or maybe Kai was angry at her for purely existing, Bonnie thought bitterly. She could relate to that. Sometimes she felt that same way about him. Other times, she had no idea what she felt about him – only that it was extremely strong and mostly irrational.
She thought again about Liv informing her that Kai was around. And how unsurprised Bonnie had been. Because subconsciously, she had known he was around, hadn't she? She had felt it. Up at the nursery, that sense of mingled dread and anticipation… it had been for Kai.
The realization that she was that attuned to him was alarming.
"You ready?"
She came out of her dark thoughts to realize that Damon was in the room, bouncing on her bed as he tipped his head towards her luggage.
Bonnie nodded, then slapped her forehead. "I haven't called the cab yet."
"Already did that, Bon Bon."
She could tell that he was pleased they were leaving. She couldn't blame him. He hadn't wanted to come; he had been against the idea of seeking the Gemini's help from the start; and then he had been proved right that his presence here was completely redundant. If this trip had been a heart-wrenching disappointment for Bonnie, it had been a complete waste of time for Damon.
Or had it…?
"…rumours of the Augustine Society being revived…"
Suddenly, Jo's words from that first evening popped into Bonnie's head. She had been too preoccupied then – was still very much preoccupied with everything going on – and had completely forgotten about it until now.
"Damon, have you heard…?"
"Heard what?"
She paused, staring at his mildly curious expression. Jo had said 'rumours'. Bonnie certainly hadn't heard anything about it and if Damon hadn't either – then she'd be tipping him off. Why should she? The last thing needed was Damon going off on a rampage to murder the members of the fledging Society. Definitely, the last thing she needed was more blood on her hands.
"Bon, what's up?"
She shook her head. "Nothing," she said firmly. It was best to leave well enough alone. She resolved not to even mention it to anyone when they got back.
"Mmmm…" His eyebrows jumped a little. "You sure you're ready to come home? You could stay a little while. Your ticket's refundable."
Bonnie eyed him warily. "Of course, I'm ready. What's keeping me here?"
His eyebrows were going crazy now but whatever he had in mind, he opted to keep it himself, and as he stood to leave, Bonnie remembered something else. "What did you mean earlier in the kitchen? What you said about him laying down the law in Mystic Falls?"
"Oh. That."
His tone was dismissive and Bonnie was immediately suspicious.
"I asked for full disclosure, Damon. Don't you even th-."
"Relax, Judgy. This is stuff that happened ages ago, nothing at all to do with our witchpire crisis."
"I'll be the judge of that. Spit it out."
"Liv is right. You really found your inner T-Rex, didn't you?" When she made a threatening move, he raised his hands placatingly. "OK, OK. If you really have to know every single nitty gritty of everything…"
She crossed her arms sternly.
He rolled his eyes and plumped back on the bed with a dramatic sigh. "Sometime last Fall, a gang I used to roll with back in the 70s came to town. Wanted to see their good friend Damon, party some, you know, the usual?"
He grimaced at the look on Bonnie's face. "Forgot for a moment who I was talking to. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the partying led to bodies. I try to get them in line, and that led to more bodies. Everyone's getting pretty tense. Stefan, Matt, Ty, Caroline… Heck, you'd probably have been getting tense yourself if you weren't too busy not giving a damn about us back then," he added, glibly ignoring the sharp glare threw his way. "So there I was in the middle of it, trying to smooth things over. Which would have been so much easier if I had a witch helping me. Not accusing anyone here. Just saying, you know. Just stating the facts."
"Enough with the guilt-tripping, Damon," she snipped.
"Like I said, just saying things as they are. So… around this time, I get a call from Portland."
He mimicked the call, the gist of which apparently was some high ranking Gemini, speaking with the coven leader's authority, had offered to send 'help' to Mystic Falls.
"The 'shoot first, ask questions later' kind of help."
In not so many words, it was made clear to the Salvatores that it would be in their best interest to solve the situation in Mystic Falls themselves and in the future, make sure that whatever went on in that town was never high-casualty enough to blink on the Gemini radar.
"I almost wanted to take him up on the offer. Let them come in to 'help'. Get a chance to break some Gemini skulls. But Reason, also known as Stefan Salvatore, prevailed."
"So what happened after that?" Bonnie asked quietly.
Damon shrugged. "I sent my old friends on a one-way ticket to Permanent Retirement; and ever since then, Stefan and I have managed to keep the mundane population safe enough not to warrant a Gemini intervention. We've had a couple of setbacks and it's been a struggle without a witch to help us. But we've managed."
Bonnie was silent.
"And you'd think that now that we're actually asking for help, he'd be jumping at the bit to give it…" He shook his head, then winked. "Ah well. At least we have you, don't we, B-Bomb?"
Bonnie forced back a smile. "Right."
"Don't you worry, BB, we're going to beat those guys. Show these Oregon stiffs how we kick ass in Virginia."
He got up again and bent to pick up her bags. He pretended to gasp. "I thought you dropped off the babies' gifts? How the hell are these heavier now than they were a few days ago?"
"Is someone letting himself go?" Bonnie murmured, more out of habit than anything.
"Maybe I should let you carry your own weight?" he retorted snidely.
"Do that, Damon, and there's no telling what you'll find when you open your backpack in Mystic Falls."
Their back and forth lasted a few more minutes but Bonnie won in the end – and he shuffled out of her room with her bags, muttering under his breath.
The moment he left, the weight of what he had just told her seemed to settle on Bonnie, and she remained sitting for a moment longer.
So Kai had threatened an intervention in Mystic Falls, enough to make Stefan and Damon take direct responsibility for keeping the town safe. She had thought all this while that it was mostly Stefan being Stefan – he had always been protective towards the town – and Damon going along with his brother more for the thrill of conflict than anything else. But now she realized that the extra motivation of keeping the Gemini away from the town had probably helped. She remembered Enzo's paranoid rants and, before that, gossip from the witches she had hung with briefly in Europe: once in a while, the Gemini coven would descend on extremely problematic towns and sweep out the supernatural population en masse, skipping straight from arrest to executions, and jumping over the trial portion of supernatural criminal justice.
But if all this was true, how did the Gemini leader go from threatening that intervention a year ago to washing his hands off the town now that, as Damon admitted, it definitely needed his help?
It was so maddening, Bonnie realized with no small frustration. His inconsistency. His inability, his resistance even to be someone that she could figure out easily and immediately dismiss. She felt like if she kept on getting pieces of the puzzle that was him, but she had no idea where they fit or even how large a picture she was supposed to reconstruct.
With a defeated sigh, she stood up and pulled on her jacket. Her gaze snapped to the black band on her wrist. Yet another puzzle piece. She rubbed her thumb over it, felt the magic – his magic – thrumming beneath.
What the hell is this thing?
She remembered the look on his face when he cast it and shuddered. Then she frowned at herself, abruptly snapped her cuff closed, and stepped out of the room.
Alaric had long gone but Jo was just shuffling out of her room. They both could hear Damon on the steps, perversely walking and carrying Bonnie's luggage at a human pace, and grumbling all the way.
"Hey Bonnie," she said with a smile. "You really have to leave right away?"
"There was another attack last night."
Jo's face turned grave. "So I heard."
Feeling a bit self-conscious, Bonnie reached into her purse and handed over the notes. "I made these. Just a thank you to you guys for having us."
Jo's face smoothened into a smile. "Awww, this is so sweet. You know, Sheila used to do this, too."
Bonnie blinked as her heart filled with the familiar poignant feeling that always hit her at the mention of her grandmother. "I know."
Jo looked at her face, then pulled the younger woman into a hug. Bonnie returned it gratefully.
"Can't you stick around a little longer?" Jo asked, still in the hug. "You're not taking Summer classes, are you?"
Bonnie sighed, pulling away. "Mystic Falls will literally burn down if I don't get back soon."
Jo shrugged. "Let it."
It was a good joke but Bonnie laughed with a touch of bitterness. She stopped when she realized that the other woman was serious. "Tell me you're joking?"
"Why not, Bonnie? Don't you think you've done enough for that town? Enough for," she jerked her head in the direction of the stairs and Damon's general location. "Elena walked away from it all. Why can't you? Isn't it time you cut yourself some slack? Let someone else shoulder the burden?"
She had tried that, hadn't she? Bonnie thought bitterly. Turned her back on Mystic Falls for a year.
It had cost April Young her life.
But all she muttered now was, "Asking for help was kind of the idea when we came here." On an impulse, she asked, "Did you know that the Gemini mandated Damon and Stefan to protect the town?"
Jo was clearly surprised. "First I heard of it. Normally, the coven would never ally or partner with vampires but… in this case, I guess it makes sense? The whole 'it takes a thief to catch a thief'… Sounds like something my brother would come up with."
"I guess it worked," Bonnie admitted. "The number of 'animal attacks' last year was at an all-time low. What I don't get is how the coven went from threatening to take over Mystic Falls to refusing to help now."
"Well, priorities are shifting all the time. Do you have any idea just how vastly spread supernatural activities are? The coven is stretched thin. Finite resources and infinite obligations and all that. But I bet you, if you ask any of your cop buddies to check the statistics of 'unexplained deaths' and 'animal attacks' nationwide, you'll see that it's dropped rapidly in the past year. Kai's getting stuff done. A lot of stuff, not just in Mystic Falls."
That was surprising news to Bonnie. And yet still, "but the heretics are uniquely a Gemini problem. They should get priority, Jo. No one else knows how to deal with them."
Jo's lips twisted, like if she was biting back something. But all she said was, "well, you're not exactly leaving here empty-handed, are you? You're getting help – a Councilman for that matter."
"We're getting an asshat in a suit."
Jo burst into laughter. "Yeah, that's a good way to describe Quentin." Her eyes became soft. "Don't be too hard on him. He's not a bad sort."
"Really?" Bonnie asked, highly skeptical.
"He was friends with my younger siblings growing up. He and the twins served as Envoys together, and he must have been good to be in their team. From what Liv's told me, he and Luke even…" She blinked a little. "Well, he was a different person before. Then Luke died, and he got a seat on the Council. And he became a bit …"
"… of an asshat?" Bonnie suggested, but she smiled a little.
Jo returned her smile. "I'll give you a good reason to be friends with Quentin," she whispered conspiratorially. "Kai doesn't like him. You two getting along will tick him off."
Bonnie fought – and won – against the blush that wanted to fill her face. "I don't care what Kai thinks."
"Really?" Jo said, with a mocking smile that was uncannily like her twin's.
"Yes," Bonnie said firmly.
Thankfully, Jo dropped it. She hooked her arm around Bonnie's and took her to the nursery to say good-bye to the twins.
The two little darlings were fast asleep, lying side by side in the same crib. Even though there were two cribs, on the rare occasions when the twins' schedules aligned, they tried to put them together.
"Bye girls," Bonnie whispered softly and on an impulse, she sent a little shimmer of happy magic above their heads. It shattered into tiny sparkles around the crib.
She glanced at Jo with a smile and saw the woman looking at her solemnly.
When they stepped out of the nursery, she turned to Jo at once, feeling awkward. "Hey, I hope you don't mind." She had no idea of the etiquette of magic use around little witches – one more thing to chalk up to her lack of proper witchy Disciplina. "It's just a little light show that they'll see when they wake. It'll fade in a day, maybe less."
Jo's serious face broke into a chuckle. "Oh no," she said. "That was me being silly. I was only…" She laughed again and looked a little embarrassed. "Sometimes, I miss magic, you know? I remember doing things like that for my younger sisters and brothers. It would have been nice to be able to do it for my own kids. Poor Martha and Rachel are going to be brought up by a pair of mundanes."
"Hey," Bonnie said. "I didn't know I was a witch until I was sixteen. My all-mundane dad raised me and I think I turned out pretty OK."
Jo gave her a grateful smile and Bonnie remembered what Liv had told her about the coven's initial intention to take the twins from Jo and Alaric.
What creeps.
"You were great with the twins, by the way," Jo said now. "So whenever you're ready to have kids of your own, just know you'll be fine."
Bonnie shrugged. "That's not likely to happen soon." Her love life was non-existent. After she got back from Europe – and none of the randoms in Europe counted – she had probably gone on a total of three dates with a couple of guys in her major.
And before Europe, there had been…
Nothing, she told herself firmly. Nothing but a phenomenally bad idea and a waste of both their times. An impulsive and ultimately stupid decision based on a long night of magic, adrenaline and hormones.
OK, maybe more than one night.
She was blushing now. And from the meaningful look on Jo's face, the older woman knew exactly why.
Thankfully, she didn't probe. "Did I ever tell you that I once caught Damon in a staring contest with Rachel? He said he was scanning her for Evils."
Laughter sputtered out of Bonnie. "Well, it takes one to know one, I guess?"
The two women were struggling to contain their chuckles and didn't hear the soft footsteps behind them.
"Bonnie Bennett, is it?"
An unfamiliar voice wheezed the question from behind her.
Bonnie spun around and found herself looking at an old lady with hair almost as white as her skin and bright blue, bird-like eyes that stared hard at Bonnie with disconcerting curiosity.
Jo stepped up to stand between them. "Bonnie, this is Gab. She stops by on occasion to help with the twins. She and my family go a long way back."
"Nice to meet you," Bonnie said, shaking hands.
Gab's small fingers, ringed with stones the same shade as her eyes, were surprisingly firm and she peered hard into Bonnie's eyes as if she was trying to see through them to Bonnie's skull.
"'was her nanny, too, and all the other Parker bunnies that their folks kept breeding. Liv don't remember me 'cos by the time she was born, Micah'd pop out one 'n' give it to Jo–"
"-right in the delivery room. Yeah, I remember, Gab. I was there." Jo said, dryly.
"Sounds kind of sexist," Bonnie muttered. "What happened to your twin?"
A cloud passed over Jo's face. "No one was going to allow Kai anywhere near witch babies." She saw the way Bonnie looked, and smiled airily. "Which was a pity because the times we went behind our parents back and let Kai help, he was better with them than me."
Bonnie tried to return the smile, but the sick feeling inside her barely allowed her to stretch her lips.
She felt a tug and looked at Gab with a gasp. The old woman was still holding Bonnie's hand and still glaring up at her. "Known this family for a long time. Messed up family. Don't need nobody's help making a bigger mess of things, know what I mean?"
Her grip was becoming painful, rings digging into Bonnie's flesh. "Ouch!" Bonnie said, yanking her hand away.
"Gabby." Jo spoke up sharply.
"Hush, child. Bit of Parker in me, too and don't you forget it. I speak my mind. Always have. Always will. Did it to ya pop. Did it to ya ma. Did it to ya grandma, Bonnie Bennett," she said and Bonnie started. "I do to ya brother, his High and Mightyness 'n' I'll definitely do it to ya, little Bonnie."
"You knew my grandmother?" Bonnie whispered.
Gab sniffed. "You go ask your Sheila if she knew Gabrielle O'Sullivan," she declared, puffing herself up.
Jo looked mortified. "Gab…" she said, despairingly.
Bonnie stared at the old woman. "My grandmother's dead."
Gab scowled. "So? She can still talk, can't she?"
And with that, she shuffled into the nursery.
Bonnie turned to Jo with what must have been a "what the-?" look all over her face.
Jo laughed and hugged her, apologetically. "Oh my goodness, Bonnie, I'm so sorry! But she really does treat everyone like that. Even my father." She hooked arms with Bonnie again and they started walking down the corridor to the steps.
"You guys let her watch the twins? Isn't she a bit?" Bonnie pointed a finger at her temple and twirled it in a tight circle.
Jo shrugged. "She's old, and half the people she's known in her life, from your Grams to her brother, are dead. Can you blame her? In her own way, she's probably saner than you and I and she is a brilliant witch. Most importantly though, she's one of the few people that didn't give Alaric and me any grief when we came here." Her eyes suddenly narrowed. "I'd be stupid to trust any of the other witches that offered. They'd probably hex Alaric and me in our sleep and steal our Rachel and Martha."
Bonnie shuddered. "Your coven is so…"
"Disturbing? Scary? Evil?"
"You said it not me."
"It won't be for long, not if Kai has anything to do about it." Bonnie stumbled a little but Jo held her firmly. "My Dad was Praetor way longer than he ought to have been. It affected the coven. Now Kai's in charge and he has some great ideas. He's been shaking things up for a while now and he's going to do even more once we get the coven to fully accept him. It's been an uphill journey, yes. I keep thanking heavens every-day that Kai had the sense to make Dad a member of the Council. I thought it was a bad idea myself but it's turned out to be for the best. Who would have thought? Once Kai and my Dad were probably going to kill each other and now, they're a team. You never know with people, right?"
Bonnie said nothing.
Jo pressed on. "I'd never have imagined I would ever say this about my brother but he just may be the best thing that's happened to our coven."
They were almost at the bottom of the stairs and Bonnie had a clear view of Damon, standing on the porch besides their bags, looking out for the cab. Just a few steps to the door and Bonnie would escape Jo and her Kai Appreciation monologue.
But when they reached the last step, Jo held her firm, stalling her to a stop. She turned so that she was looking right down at Bonnie's morose face.
"Kai's going to find a way to help you, Bonnie. Depend on that."
Can you please shut up about him? Bonnie thought, despairingly.
Instead, she replied in what she hoped was a neutral voice, "Liv already explained to me about coven politics and I do understand. The Council recommended not to get involved with Mystic Falls and he has to…"
"Kai doesn't give a crap about the Council," Jo said with a short laugh. "And he's going to find a way to help you not Mystic Falls."
Bonnie felt her heart flutter with hope and she damped it down at once.
Feigning indifference, she answered, "Thanks for saying this, Jo but I'm not going to hold my breath. Besides, we've," – and she jerked her head towards Damon – "been handling things for years before we even heard about the Gemini. I think we'll do just fine."
Jo frowned. "Or you could just go to the airport now and change your flight to Europe. Visit Elena. Give yourself a vacation."
Bonnie smiled. That wasn't such a bad idea. The three of them – Bonnie, Elena and Caroline had had a blast the previous summer – and she told Jo so. "Elena's probably in the middle of some crisis zone at the moment. But afterwards? After all this crazy? Definitely." Her smile turned mischievous. "We can all go. I'm sure three vampires can wrangle up tickets and visas for all of us, and the babies."
Jo chuckled ruefully. "There's no talking you out of this, is there?" She unlinked her elbow from Bonnie's and gave her a little shove towards the door. "I'll hold you to that vacation someday, Bonnie Bennett." And they went outside to meet Damon.
The taxi pulled up just as Jo finished saying her goodbye to her husband's best friend.
"You're always welcome back. We'll miss you."
"Aw, Jo," he said with an uncharacteristically fond smile and hugged her. "Had a great time last night?" he quipped.
Bonnie bowed her head in shame.
"The best," Jo shot back at once.
"Did he do that thing with the lemon?" Damon asked in a loud whisper. "'Cos I told him that."
Bonnie groaned.
Jo patted his cheek. "Ask him about that thing with the jam."
His eyebrows went crazy. "You know about the thing with the jam?"
Jo winked. "I taught him the thing with the jam."
And on that happy note, she gave a laughing Bonnie another hug, blew a kiss at a dazed-looking Damon and flounced into the house.
"You know I'm going to have to kill Alaric and steal you from him now, don't you?" he shouted after her when he had managed to pick his jaw from the floor.
As they piled into the car, he asked Bonnie, his eyebrows jerking in earnestness, "Remind me again why I didn't date her?"
It got boring fast and she gave him an aneurysm to get some peace for the rest of the trip to the airport.
May 2014
Mystic Falls
Latent magic tingled against Bonnie's fingers as she manually configured the Gilbert device. She had already set up the candles in preparation for the first vampire to walk into the War Room for testing.
She didn't expect said vampire to prance in bare-chested, shirt hooked with one finger over his shoulder, and his jeans low on his hips. Bonnie nearly levitated one of Matt's freshly whittled stakes into his bare white chest.
"What the hell, Damon?"
His leer was wide enough to split his face into two. "Like what you see?"
Bonnie threw the stake. His vamp speed just got him out of the way on time.
"Whew! That's new," he chortled, mock-confused. "Women usually react differently to the sight of nearly naked me."
"You idiot," Bonnie hissed. "Caroline is upstairs." Was he really that insensitive?
The leer slipped out his face at that, something like contrition taking its place. "Uh, sorry. My bad." He turned defensive. "But I heard you were looking for a vampire guinea pig to test some of the Gilbert devices on."
"And you thought I needed a naked Guinea pig?"
He leered again, but only half-heartedly. "If you want to be thorough…"
"Put your damn clothes on, Damon."
He heaved a big sigh, then made a production of twisting around to pull on his shirt. Bonnie snuck a quick glance – she was only human after all – and gasped.
"What is that?"
"What?" he asked, half-in and half-out of his shirt.
She turned him around – ignoring his lewd quipping at that – to get a closer look.
It was raised skin, thicker and whiter than the rest, low on his back. Its covered area was about the size of her palm and its shape was like an…
"Oh, my old war scar?"
"Your old scar?"
"From, you know, the time I was an idealistic human, fighting for the wrong side." His voice was uncharacteristically bitter. She looked up at him as he made a face.
She stared back down at the scar. "You've always had this scar?"
"Sure thing, Bonnie. Most women who've had the pleasure of my company are intimately aware of it." She didn't need to look to know that he was leering again.
She ignored it, her eyes focused on the scar. She and Damon hadn't exactly spent their time in the Prison World prancing around half-naked in front of each other; but it had been a perpetual May and skin had been shown once in a while. Even before then, surely Elena's one-time boyfriend must have tagged along to a beach-party or two? Shouldn't something this size and this prominent have jumped out at anyone?
Her palm hovered over it, and she felt a tinny tremor of magic. From the scar? Or an echo from the Gilbert device that she had just fiddled with?
"You're freaking me out, Witchy. Or checking me out? I can't tell the difference."
Bonnie stepped back. "Sorry. Just a little bit… Of course, it must have been as you said, right? You can't get scars on vampire skin."
"Yep." He turned around, tucking in his shirt and grinned up at her.
"Unless," she said quietly, "you got some kind of magic brand on yourself. Like a tattoo for vamps?"
He stared. "Why would I want to mar all this perfection?"
"It's a very neat scar, Damon," she said carefully. "In fact, it doesn't look much like a scar. It looks more like a brand… in the shape of the Viking symbol for the letter 'E'." The moment she said it, she almost bit her tongue but it was too late.
Shutters fell over his face.
Ah, one of those beautifully awkward moments where she knew that she had crossed a line – and crossing back was probably going to be even more awkward than just digging her heels into the mire of invasiveness that she had stumbled her way into.
But as the saying went: in for a dime, in for a dollar. Bonnie cleared her throat, trained her gaze on his left ear, and shoved her big nose right in.
"Before we left for Europe, you came crying to me about how you planned on taking the Cure with Elena and you didn't understand why she had suddenly ended things…"
Damon said nothing. He didn't have to, because his eyebrows were clearly doing all the talking for him.
"You don't talk about it at all. No ranting. No venting. It's almost creepy, really. Heck, when I came back from Europe, I half-expected to find half of the town's population in a cemetery or something."
Still more dead silence.
"Which, by the way, is a good thing. I'm actually kind of impressed? I mean, a tattoo, magical or not, is pretty much standard fare for a bad breakup. Heaven knows that the Damon I knew before… Well, when you were having a bad day, you made sure that everybody else was having an even worse one…"
"Finished yet?" He asked, his voice level and pleasant.
She gulped, then nodded.
"So are we taking turns in this little tête-à-tête?"
"Damon…"
"I've done all this sharing – or rather, you've done all this sharing for me. Now Busy B, it's your turn to share. Let's start with the real reason why you shot down Stefan's idea that we page Portland for backup."
She inhaled sharply. "I said I was finished."
"Or even better, let's call everyone back and have a revote. All it takes is just one disgruntled vamp to change his mind and hey presto! the Calvary will be here with bells and whistles. I suddenly don't mind a little spontaneous Class of 1994 reunion. You, me, and one Malac-"
"That's enough, Damon!"
Her head pounded with tension.
Damon, on the other hand, looked serene. He smiled at her, almost kindly.
"You don't poke my scar and I don't poke yours, BonBon. Got it?"
Her lips tightened. "Got it."
He hopped on the table, knocking down one of her candles. "So… let's get started."
June 2014
Mystic Falls
The flight from Portland was peaceful – no turbulence, clear skies – and across the aisle, Damon was sleeping like the dead. Bonnie had been restless all through out, trying to distract herself with the inflight entertainment but only ended up with her mind wandering to things – and people – she'd rather not be thinking about.
His fingers lined up with hers, his own long, slender and rubbing slightly against the spaces between her own…
His fingers in her hair, wrapped so tightly that she could only move her face a little as his mouth devoured her own…
His fingers deep inside her, his rings literally working magic in her core…
She turned to the window, blood rising in her cheeks, shifting in her seat, and said silent thanks that she had the row to herself.
It was evening by the time she and Damon hiked the ten miles to where the Camaro was packed. They had had one of their spats when they were leaving Virginia and so to spite her, even though he could obviously afford it, he had deliberately not paid for airport packing. In between bitching under her breath as she panted along behind him, she called to check in with their friends.
Caroline's and Stefan's numbers were both busy. Ignoring Damon's string of pornographic speculations as to why this was the case, Bonnie tried Matt's number and he picked up on first ring.
"Bonnie!" he said with his usual warmth. "Am I glad to hear from you."
"Hey Matt," she said with a smile. "How're you doing?"
"Great now that you're back. How was your trip?"
She told him, but she kept the pleasantries brief, moving the conversation quickly to the latest murder. She put the phone on speaker so Damon could chip in.
"We've got a little more information about Judith Stewart. She was an unorthodox pharmacist in Nebraska. She had just opened shop there about a year ago. The plane ticket in her wallet brought her to Virginia the night before she died."
"What was she doing here, all the way from Nebraska?" Damon wandered, voicing Bonnie's own question.
"No idea yet. We're going through her things to find something."
Judith Stewart had been found in a motel room near the town.
"There's a pattern here, I just can't see it," Matt continued.
"Well, keep your deerskin cap on, Mattlock…" Damon started, and then trailed off as he grinned at Bonnie. "Get it? Matlock?"
Bonnie frowned at him, wondering who was the butt of this joke – her or Matt? "No, I don't." She turned her attention to Matt. "Any sightings of the heretics?"
"None whatsoever. I'm worried, Bon. The days before an attack, we'd spot them hanging at a corner, or in a bar, or at a rave. Somewhere. Now. Nothing."
"They're planning something," Bonnie concluded, apprehension filling her. Instinctively, she glanced around her but the street lights on the fairly empty airport road just blinked innocently back.
"Great," Damon said, his eyebrows shooting out in opposite directions. "Alaric's and Jo's anti-vamp house had started making me feel almost human. I'm spoiling for a fight."
May 2013
Whitmore
The soon-to-be Dr. Jo Saltzman's bachelorette party was over – well, if one called three women and an empty bar a party. Of course, if Bonnie had taken up the offer that the gorgeous hunk of a stripper had clearly been offering before he left, she'd probably be having her own party of two right now. It was almost a shame, because Elena and Jo were all respectably taken women. She felt like if she was letting the team down.
But the carefree party girl mode – a relic from her old cheerleading days – had long timed out and Bonnie was running on empty, sipping her drink quietly and letting the fake, bright smile on her face fool Elena and Jo into thinking that she gave a damn about the ongoing conversation.
It was something about Elena and Damon and the cure. Honestly, if Bonnie had realized that bringing the cure to them was going to cause such drama, she'd have left the stupid thing in Nova Scotia, circa 1994.
"What's your opinion, Bonnie?" Elena asked at last.
About what? Bonnie took a big gulp of her glass and tried to think fast.
Thankfully, Elena's phone buzzed then. "It's Damon," she whispered to the others and looking tense, she slipped out to the back of the bar.
Bonnie made a face and hid it behind her glass.
Jo reached out a hand to grab hers.
"You doing OK, Bon?" she asked.
Bonnie grinned broadly. "Just peachy."
Jo cocked her head in a gesture that reminded Bonnie of her brother. The grin wavered.
"I called my med school classmate. He didn't get a call from you."
"Oh, you mean the shrink?" Bonnie said casually. "I forgot about that. I don't think I really need one, you know what I mean?"
So what if she couldn't remember the last time she had a good night's sleep? If it wasn't nightmares, it was insomnia – the sound of silence, and her own internal musings spinning round and round and round in her brain until she passed out.
She'd get over it. She was Bonnie Bennett. That was what she did.
Jo frowned. "I stand by what I said when you came in for your physical. The ordeal you went through – the isolation – there's a reason why solitary confinement is a method of punishment for hardened criminals. And that's not counting what my brother put you through. And before that? Your time as the anchor? What you must have gone through…?"
Bonnie laughed hollowly. "Are you sure you're not trying to take your friend's job? I think you could do some part-time as a shrink yourself."
Jo's hand on hers became tight.
"Ouch?"
"You did a lot for me, for my entire coven when you went back for Kai." Bonnie froze at the name. "And that was just you going back. I didn't expect the heretics… I promise you, Bonnie, I had no idea they were awake. Damon and Elena assured me they weren't and I couldn't imagine that Kai would, for any reason, wake them."
"I don't think he did that on purpose," Bonnie said, squirming.
She didn't want to think about how Kai had been when she found him. About what he must have gone through before she did.
She had had Qestiya's magic in addition to her own to fight those creatures and even then she had barely made it back alive.
"Turns out that I owed Kai my life anyway," she mumbled. "So you gave me a chance to pay him back." Her voice wavered a little. The confused emotions that usually assailed her whenever she dwelt on this – on the idea that Kai, that anyone had almost died saving her life - threatened to overwhelm her.
"Bonnie?"
She took a long draw from her glass, waited until the burn pushed away that dark storm of emotional turmoil for another day. Ignoring the voice whispering coward in her head, she smiled at Jo. "Besides, we've had this conversation already. You thanked me. You'll name your firstborn after me. Yada yada yada."
"I'm not thanking you again," Jo said, then she laughed. "OK, maybe I am thanking you a little. But I'm also saying that you need a break, Bonnie. You've been through a lot in the past … years now, if Elena's stories are anything to go by. I went through one traumatic event and I gave up my magic, changed my name and ran away from my family for eighteen years."
"Sounds wonderful," Bonnie said and she was only being half-sarcastic.
"Sheila never wanted this life for you," Jo said sadly. "She did just about everything she could to protect you from the supernatural."
"Maybe instead of spending all that effort protecting me, she should have spent some more teaching me how to protect myself," Bonnie said bitterly.
Jo leaned back in her chair, folded her arms and stared at Bonnie.
Bonnie bit her lip, feeling ashamed. "Sorry. I shouldn't have talked about Grams like that. Sometimes I feel like she was the only person who ever cared about me." Sadness washed over her. "I miss her. Yet sometimes I'm so angry with her, you know?" She sighed, and shifted in her seat. "Look, I don't want to spoil your day. I guess the party's over. You have your beauty sleep to catch up with…"
"It's good to be angry," Jo said, cutting her short. "It's good to feel angry at Sheila. And Damon. And Caroline. Stefan. Even Elena."
Bonnie shifted, guiltily under Jo's prying eyes.
"Anger is healthy. My goodness, Bonnie, you were stuck in a Prison World for half a year and your friends –"
"Good evening, Miss Bennett. Miss Laughlin."
The two women looked up in surprise. There had been no sound of a door opening. Or of footsteps walking across the empty bar.
The moment they saw the woman who stood above them, her posture ramrod straight, oozing old-time propriety even in her slacks and shirt, Jo and Bonnie sprang to their feet at once.
Lily Salvatore smiled, but her eyes on Bonnie were like ice. "I was out for a walk and I saw you through the window and I thought to myself, 'I know her. That young lady broke my trust and ruined my life.'"
"I never meant to hurt you, Lily," Bonnie said quietly, her magic rushing to her fingers. Slowly, she started edging nearer Jo. Something nagged at her thoughts, but she couldn't think past getting herself and Jo safely through this moment. "I was only ever going back to get Kai. It's over now. The Ascendant is no longer in my possession."
"Surely we can retrieve the device and bring my family home?" Lily said, and there was a touch of desperation in her voice.
Bonnie shook her head. The idea of those things getting loose was enough to make her skin crawl.
She was now close enough to Jo that her shoulders knocked against the other woman. She tried to move the few inches needed to shield Jo completely from Lily; but Jo must have realized what she was trying to do because she pushed back against Bonnie.
"Not with my blood. Not with any help from me or Kai," Bonnie said coldly. "Your so-called family are monsters and we're never letting them out."
The veneer of propriety slipped off like a mask to reveal the monster beneath – red eyed, red veined and Lily lunged forward.
Bonnie was ready, her hands already curled up and aneurysm after aneurysm hit the vampire, making her scream and fall to her knees.
"It's over, Lily. Let it go," Bonnie warned, "and get out!"
Lily stretched out a hand to the table near her for support, her other hand still holding her head. She raised her head enough to stare at Bonnie with pain-filled eyes. "Your mistake," she hissed.
Then her hand flew out and pain exploded in Bonnie's neck.
Bonnie screamed and she grasped her neck, swaying, the spell breaking as the pain radiated like a spider's web from her neck to every part of her body. There was something there – a dagger, a pin, and her blood was gushing through her fingers. She fell to her knees, her hand on the cold floor, the only thing keeping her from falling to her face.
She was suddenly choking and when she coughed, blood spurted out.
After surviving death twice, the agony of being the Anchor, a prison world and the psychopath it was built for, Bonnie Bennett was going to bleed to death on the floor of the grill from a fucking pin.
Lily's steps were light, measured – still walking in that precise, finishing school trained elegance – as she stepped towards her. But she still had to go past Jo.
Bonnie heard the bride-to-be scream and tried to summon her magic but she couldn't. She was in too much pain. She was losing too much blood. She couldn't save herself. And she certainly couldn't save Jo and her baby.
Too late, far too late, the memory of a nightmare gripped Bonnie.
This is how I die.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt the edges of her vision begin to darken. Above her, Jo and Lily were talking but Bonnie couldn't hear them above the rush of blood in her veins. Her arm, the one that was keeping her face from the floor, was trembling now with the effort of holding her weight.
Finally her elbow slackened and she was about to land on the floor…
When strong arms caught her, lifting her from the ground.
Bonnie gazed up into a pair of stormy blue eyes. They were the last things she saw before the darkness overcame her.
Whatever dark reputation the Genovas bore amongst their fellow Gemini, cowardice was not one of their flaws. The family of three that had turned up with Matt Donovan earlier that day had seemed more in awe of being hosted by the Praetor himself, than they were afraid that Joshua's mad boy would murder them in their sleep. It wasn't Kai's choice to have company, but the wedding of Joshua Parker's long-lost daughter – who had resurfaced after nearly two decades and somehow managed to survive her Merge Ceremony – was the stuff of dreams for his gossipy coven and now that Joshua Parker had called the exiles back, every Gemini in the world seemed to be in Virginia this weekend. There was only so much magic could do about unavailable hotel rooms.
Kai left them pottering through his flat, and wandered the streets, his plans chasing each other through his mind. There were a dozen ways it all could go wrong, and a dozen more it could work and still blow up in his face. But he was too close now to back down and he needed…
He needed an outlet for the fury that had been building inside him since his first horror-filled night in 1903. Apparently one of the down-sides of pesky emotions was that it laced the feelings he was already so familiar with – rage, bitterness, the need for vengeance – with an added bite of hurt that elevated them to the power of infinity. Downside or upside, depending on which self-help book he read. Kai didn't much care.
One way or the other, heads would roll for what had been done to him.
And what about what you did to others? Whose heads rolled for that?
Shut it, Luke.
He turned the corner of an abandoned newsstand, and that was when he first felt the warm stirrings of recognition that he only ever associated with…
His steps faltered. No. They had managed to stay out of each other's paths since their escape – her rescue of him – from 1903, and it had been long enough that the thought of inevitably bumping into her at his sister's wedding tomorrow plagued him with both dread and anticipation.
Not for the first time, Kai asked himself what she would think about his plans – and not for the first time, he shut down that idiotic thought furiously. Like he gave a damn what she thought of him. Not anymore.
He turned on his heel, not interested in more self-torture this evening, when he recognized something else – her offensive magic spiralling all around her.
It was perverse the Pavlovian way everything in him snapped to in reaction to that.
Had no one ever taught the woman how to shield properly? He wondered furiously, as he turned back. Just to see, he told himself, what tomfoolery she had got herself into now. And maybe he'd lend a hand, or maybe he'd just conjure himself some popcorn and watch.
Her casting – an aneurysm, he recognized as he drew nearer and nearer to the source, the local bar – ceased abruptly. Even before he recognized his own twin's aura and the way it radiated fear, he had already started running.
He burst through the doors of the bar, and the first thing he saw was Bonnie seconds from smashing her head on the floor. He caught her in the nick of time, lifting her into his arms. Later he would think about how light, how right, she felt in them, only the second time he had ever held her without trying to actively hurt her. But right now all he could think of was that she had lost so much blood she was almost as pale as him, and her pulse was an erratic bird beating in her throat.
All this went through his head as he whirled to face the person responsible for this, who was using his sister as a body shield.
He briefly locked gazes with Jo, was surprised at the relief shining from her eyes, and then shifted to a few inches from her face.
Oddly familiar pale blue eyes glittered at him with malice. "Good evening, Mr. Parker. We haven't been properly introduced although I have made several unsuccessful attempts to seek audience with you."
Lily Salvatore, ripper.
It was amusing really, that they had never actually met until now. It hadn't been so long ago that they were swapping jail cells, courtesy of her son and her son's BFF, the witch she had just injured.
Kai couldn't even savor the supreme ironic karma of it all.
Not when Bonnie was bleeding in his arms and a ripper had his sister in the grip of her claws.
"Been a bit busy of late," he hissed, "but you sure got my attention now."
His mind was working double-time. He was silently casting a healing spell over Bonnie's unconscious body; at the same time, he was trying to figure out an exit for all three of them – and coming up blank. Jo's neck was in the grip of a madwoman and Bonnie's lifeblood was spurting out of her throat like water from a tap. Kai was a gambling man but even he won't risk these odds.
"You will provide me the Ascendant, Mr. Parker, or I will end the life of your pregnant sister," Lily Salvatore warned.
Another irony. Kai had an Ascendant for her alright, just not the one she wanted.
He concentrated on the mental recitation of the spell, while holding steady eye contact with the vampire.
"You're going to let my sister go or I will boil your blood where you stand," he said conversationally.
She glared at him, her grip on Jo tightening. Jo's eyes widened but they were more filled with anger than fear.
"You'll risk your sister's life?"
"It's not a risk," Kai said levelly, keeping his rage at bay, lying through his teeth and willing her not to call his bluff. Desperation was building in him. He could feel Bonnie's essence slipping out of her. His spell was not working. Time was running out.
Lily's brows shifted rapidly – apparently her equally odious son got that annoying habit honestly – as she visibly calculated her options; and then with a snarl, she flung Jo against the wall.
Kai's hand reached out to break his twin's fall – the distraction the vampire had obviously counted on to flee safely and flee, she did.
Jo slid slowly to the ground, landing on her tailbone with a little jolt. Then she was on her feet and running towards Kai and Bonnie.
He was already placing Bonnie on the floor beside him, folding her hands over her chest. She was so silent, so pale, so cold. She was still breathing… but barely. The bleeding in her neck had slowed but he didn't know whether it was from his magic or because she had already lost so much blood.
His hands were shaking.
Jo knelt on Bonnie's other side, across from him, and looked at him with horror on her face. "Kai…"
"Help me," he snapped as he conjured what he needed – candles, chalk, moss… They landed with a thump by his side.
"My doctor's bag is in the car. Get that, too," Jo said as she hurriedly started drawing the marks around Bonnie.
"I don't need your medicine, Jo…" he hissed.
"I know you were trying to heal her while you talked to Lily and it wasn't working," she hissed back. "This is Sheila's granddaughter. You do your magic. I do mine. Now get me my bag!"
He spared a moment to call for the stupid bag. It came flying through the door of the bar, smashing the glass to land beside his sister. Then he started pouring everything he had into calling back Bonnie's essence.
It wasn't working.
Kai's heart was pounding from exertion, his chanting quivering a little by the twentieth iteration. A drop of blood landed on Bonnie's shimmery pink blouse, then another. Jo raised her head from staunching Bonnie's neck wound and pointed a shaky hand at his nose. He touched his face instinctively and noted absentmindedly that it was wet, and his fingers were now red.
He felt faint. But whether that was from the magic he was expending or from feeling Bonnie's life slipping away, he couldn't tell.
"What's going on?"
The twins turned to look at Elena Gilbert walking into the bar with her phone in her hand and confusion on her face.
Kai stretched – more like flung – out his hand and dragged the vampire with magic. She skidded to a stop on her knees beside Bonnie.
"What the –" she yelled then froze at the sight of Bonnie. "Oh my god, Bonnie!"
"Your blood. Now." Kai snarled but even before he finished, Elena had already torn out her veins and was pushing her wrist into Bonnie's mouth.
Kai's eyes were fixed on Bonnie's face, waiting for the colour to return.
It didn't. Her breathing was so faint now, he couldn't hear it. He could only tell from the infinitesimally slow rise and fall of her chest. She was fading.
Jo's phone was in her hand and he could hear, distantly like from a radio in another room, her conversation with the 911 dispatcher.
Elena pulled her wrist back, horror on her face. "Bonnie!"
"Give her more!" he shouted, pushing her wrist back down.
"It should be working by now," Elena cried, yanking her hand back. She bit through her wrist again – the wound had healed – and returned it to Bonnie's mouth. Blood bubbled past her lips. She should have been choking on it.
No.
The vampire made a sound that was between a gasp and a wail. She was staring at the twins with horror on her face.
A split second later, Kai realized why.
Bonnie's heart had stopped.
No. No. No. No.
Jo's hands were pushing Elena's wrist away, and she was tipping Bonnie's head back and breathing into her mouth. "Elena, her chest."
In a blur of movement, Elena was on the other side, now kneeling beside Kai and bent over Bonnie with her hands locked on her chest in the style he vaguely recognised – what must have been eons ago – from Jo practising on him.
They were counting. Jo's face determined, Elena's desperate.
There was a storm in his head. Water crashing and dying against the rocks beneath. He watched them with a sense of surrealism. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.
No.
The windows started cracking, tiny little slivers that they barely heard over their own bated breathing, until they shattered and burst, glass flying every which way.
Jo and Elena looked up then, wide eyes full of fear. But, Kai noted absentmindedly, they didn't lose count, they kept going at the CPR.
Bonnie's body spasmed under his sister's and the vampire's ministrations but otherwise, she was still. The delicate features of her face were frozen in a way he had never seen before, not even the times in the 1994 prison world that he had spied sleeping, in the months before he made his presence known to her, when he thought his fascination with her had only lied in the fact that she was the first living, breathing person he had seen in nearly two decades, and his ticket out of his hell.
Bonnie.
The upturned tables slid across the room, smashing into the walls.
"Kai!" his sister shouted. "Control!"
He climbed to his feet, his hands rising to grip his head, his fingers tugging at his hair. The chairs climbed up with him, into the ceiling and bounced off it, smashing into the ground. A storm was rising in the bar, wind whipping from the centre and catching the debris around it in a narrow cyclone.
"Get out!" Jo screamed.
No. He couldn't leave Bonnie. Not again. Not this time.
As if she could read his mind, his sister shouted, "You're not helping her by being here, Kai. You have to go!"
She was right, a small sane part of his head realized, watching that cyclone get wider and wider. Very soon the debris would be smashing against the people that were fighting for Bonnie's life.
Bonnie.
He stared at her tightly shut lids and it hit Kai like a moving train would hit a jumper – the thought that it was very possible he would never see those fiery green eyes open again.
He turned on his heel and fled.
A/N: Edited by the lovely and talented thenameismaynard a.k.a. keenan24 of "By and Down" infamy. Thank you to everyone that wrote and replied, for sticking with this story so far! And special thanks to the reviewers who've left feedback for the re-write. I really appreciate your appreciating (lol) the changes between the old and the new versions. Next update should be up very soon! I've got a nice little stockpile of chapters thanks to my dear beta. :D
