There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent. Once upon a time, Bonnie had read that apropos quote in a book and it had stuck with her. Unfortunately, she could not seem to remember the source right now. She was certain that no one would hold her lapse in memory against her since she was bleeding out at an incredible rate. If the girl were a more experienced witch, she would be able to cast a healing spell that would at least slow the bleeding. She had come across the spell in her great-grandmother's grimoire a few months ago. However, she had not committed the spell to memory because she did not have access to her magic at that time. It seemed like a life-changing oversight at this point.

Bonnie felt a familiar coldness begin to seep into the very core of her bones. She was dying. She was tempted to laugh at how incredibly bad she was at something that most people found to be relatively simple—living. A strange stirring deep within the young woman distracted her from her rapidly approaching death. At first, she thought it was her wolf trying to help her stave off the inevitable. If Bonnie survived the trauma of shifting, she might actually survive her injuries. The wolf's physiology was better suited for surviving mortal injuries. Moreover, she remembered Tyler telling her that werewolves healed faster in their lupine form.

Her green eyes dulled as she watched the bloody battle playing out within the confines of the forest behind the Salvatore boarding house. Obviously, Enzo had turned on them because the Augustine Group had shown up at the boarding house prepared for all out war. Bonnie had erroneously assumed that her group of friends could handle ten humans. Tyler greatly enhanced their odds by calling in a few members of his pack. Unfortunately, they did not count on fighting eight very old vampires controlled by the Augustine Group. The vampires were not merely old but they had been altered in one of the group's inhumane experiments. The vampires not only craved the blood of other vampires but their bites left behind necrotized flesh that weakened their victims.

Tyler's pack had easily ripped the humans apart. However, even with their human masters' dead, the altered vampires seemed determined to kill them all. Frankly, it looked as if they would be successful in their endeavor. Things had gotten so out of hand that Tyler had shifted into his wolf form. The large black wolf was currently ripping an Augustine vampire apart—literally. Unfortunately, Tyler was the only hybrid in his pack and therefore the only one that could shift without the full moon. Moreover, a vampire had bitten Bonnie's leg and injured her before she could shift to help him. Perhaps the only good news was that the vampires' bites only seemed to be poisonous to other vampires.

Damon crashed into a nearby tree after a female vampire tossed him around like a ragdoll. He had several patches of decaying flesh where he had been bitten by vampires. However, the blood covered vampire refused to lie down and die. He staggered to his feet again and grabbed a tree branch from the ground. Damon blurred several feet and launched the branch through the air like a missile. The branch traveled through the air so quickly that it barreled through female vampire's heart and kept going.

Caroline and Stefan were working with two men from Tyler's pack. They had an Augustine vampire trapped near a small gully at the edge of the property. The group was trying herd the vampire into the gully in hopes that it would be easier to kill after the disorientating fall. It wasn't a great plan but fighting heads up had only led to grievous bodily injury. The only reason that the Augustine vampires had not been successful in killing them yet was because of a large contingent of werewolves from Tyler's pack. It was obvious that they were all skilled fighters.

Suddenly, Cary and four other men arrived without warning. They threw themselves into the fight without an invitation. The werewolves from Tyler's pack pointed out the Augustine vampires but it wasn't really necessary. The faces of the Augustine vampires looked deformed. The black veins that normally only appeared beneath a vampire's eyes spread across the entire face and down the neck like a tangle of spider webs.

Several minutes passed before Bonnie realized that there was magic thrumming inside her. The magic was faint and unfocused. More importantly, the magic did not belong to her. It was a perplexing situation made more confusing by her diminished mental state. Then as if she had been struck by lightning, Bonnie understood with crushing certainty what she was feeling—a life. To be more accurate, she felt the stirrings of new life inside her. This was one inconvenient time to realize that she was indeed pregnant. Bonnie's bloody hand left the jacket that she was using to stop the bleeding from her thigh. She touched her flat stomach with a feeling of awe and wonder.

"You have to keep pressure on your leg, Bon," Matt implored his friend.

Matt scooted closer to Bonnie when he realized that she was not listening to him. He put pressure on her wound in hopes that it would stymie the blood flow. He was nursing his own less severe injuries but he wasn't about to let Bonnie die without a fight. He had just finished calling Nadia for help. She was not exactly their biggest fan but he knew how to play hardball when necessary. His request had been fashioned as a threat. He simply asked if Nadia thought Lucy would allow Katherine to live if Bonnie died. Matt had no way of knowing if Lucy would really renege on the deal. Fortunately, Nadia was in exactly the same boat that he was and would not risk her mother's life on a whim. Nadia threatened Matt with bodily harm but agreed to help. Matt didn't know how long it would take for her to make it from McKinley using vampire speed but he hoped that it would not be too long. He had not done particularly well in anatomy and physiology but he was almost certain that one of those creatures nicked Bonnie's femoral artery. Creature was the only thing that Matt could think to call the things that attacked them because they certainly weren't vampires any longer.

Bonnie barely heard Matt's urgent words. The startling revelation about her pregnancy had her full attention. On some level, she had known that it was likely given her circumstances but the confirmation was still unexpected somehow. She had never really considered what it would be like to be a mother seeing as she did not have one. Despite the pregnancy being unplanned and completely unexpected, she was happy. Bonnie tried to power through the lethargic feeling that accompanied near exsanguination. She did not intend to die—again. She certainly was not going to allow a psychotic group of humans to kill her unborn child that was barely a clump of cells right now.

She muttered, "Help me up."

Matt glanced at Bonnie's ashen face. "You shouldn't stand up, Bonnie. You are in bad shape."

She groaned and started standing up on her own. Bonnie cried out in pain but pressed forward. She had to do something to put a stop to this.

Matt scrambled to keep up with her even as his ribs screamed in protest. He pleaded, "At least let me make a tourniquet for your leg. We have to slow down the bleeding."

Bonnie looked at her friend with dark golden eyes. She knew that Matt was right but her instincts demanded that she put an end to this protracted battle. However, she relented and nodded at him. "Okay."

Matt crouched down and fumbled with his blood soaked jacket. It took a couple minutes for him to fashion it into an effective tourniquet. "If you move too much it will loosen."

She leaned against Matt and said, "It's a good thing that I don't plan to move too much."

The blond young man helped Bonnie walk but he had no clue where they were going.

Bonnie abruptly stopped and closed her eyes. The talisman around her neck started glowing brightly as Bonnie channeled her magic. Bonnie did not have the physical energy to incapacitate the Augustine vampires one at a time. Therefore, she decided to attack all of them at the same time. Bonnie only hoped that it would be enough to give her friends and Tyler's pack the opening they needed to end this before they began taking casualties.

Matt stared as the talisman hanging from Bonnie's neck began to levitate in mid-air. The sight immediately reminded him of what happened in the basement the other day. He was worried that Bonnie might faint again. However, he figured asking her to stop would be a waste of breath and breathing was painful enough right now.

Bonnie let out a bloodcurdling scream as she released a powerful wave of her magic. The invisible energy spread across the forest like a heavy blanket of fog.

Suddenly, the Augustine vampires stopped fighting. They simultaneously grabbed their heads and emitted a chorus of frightening screams.

Tyler howled as Bonnie's magic swirled around him.

In fact, everyone in the forest felt the witch's magic even as it left them completely unharmed. The power behind the spell caused their nerve endings to tingle in response.

Bonnie grinned manically when she realized that her spell was working. However, she refused to let up. She couldn't allow the Augustine vampires to regain their strength. She wouldn't have the energy to cast this spell for a second time.

Matt winced because the screams made his ears ring. He turned to look at Bonnie and felt his stomach drop. Blood was practically streaming from both of her nostrils. He said, "You have to stop, Bonnie!"

"Not yet," she muttered. Bonnie's fists clenched at her sides as she gave the last bit of her energy.

Just as quickly as the screams began, they ended.

Matt caught Bonnie before she crashed to the ground. He groaned in pain as he lowered them both to the ground. Matt was too injured to even think about carrying Bonnie to safety. All he could do was shield her with his body because he anticipated the fighting would resume soon. Fortunately, he didn't need to wait for too long. Matt didn't know what Bonnie had done to the Augustine vampires but they had become sitting ducks. The creatures seemed to be alive still but they were as still as statues.

She groaned and muttered, "I may have over done it."

"You think?" Matt quipped.

The two friends looked around as a strange silence descended over the once noisy forest. For a moment, it felt as if time had frozen. Everyone stood in place and stared at the Augustine vampires in confusion.

Klaus and Elijah sped into the forest and ended the confrontation by decapitating the frozen Augustine vampires. They had arrived to the party late because the elder of the two brothers had to convince the other to assist in the situation. Klaus had been livid when Cary and the other wolves ignored his decree that they not involve themselves in whatever troubles had befallen the Salvatores. In his own way, Klaus had been trying to protect them. He knew how easily bodies seemed to drop around the Salvatore brothers. Surprisingly, neither Salvatore was ever on the receiving end of the cloud of death that followed them. Klaus was just getting acquainted with his relatives and had no interest in them being killed.

Elijah came to a stop once he was certain that all of the Augustine vampires were dead. He scowled at the blood and viscera on his tailored suit. He brushed most of the carnage away but the blood remained. He stooped down and picked up one of the creatures heads because he wanted to examine the deformed face. Liquid came pouring out of the skull but it wasn't blood. He said, "Niklaus…"

Klaus ignored his brother because something else had caught his interest. He could feel the witch's magic thrumming around him. It had been a long time since he had felt such raw power. He was also interested in the wolves that did not belong to Cary's pack. It seemed that his progeny had been a busy boy since his defeat at Klaus' hands.

Elijah said, "Niklaus!"

The original hybrid turned to look at his brother. "What has you in such a tizzy, brother? I helped you save this lot as you requested."

He gave a long-suffering sigh at Klaus' petulant attitude. Cary had explained that he had a personal grudge against the Augustine Group. Elijah had hoped that his brother would have understood why Cary felt he needed to intervene in this situation. "You need to see this."

Klaus joined his brother over the dead vampire's body. He was about to make a biting comment about one dead vampire being the same as the thousands of others he had seen over the years. However, he stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of the puddle next to Elijah's shoes. He crouched down and picked up what had to be a chunk of brain. The chunk of brain turned to mush between his fingers when he squeezed it.

"What did this? Could it have been caused by this Augustine Group?" Elijah asked curiously.

The original vampire was concerned about this group's antics. The strange deformity to the vampires' faces was disconcerting enough. He had heard tales of the group during the last hundred or so years. He never gave them much thought. Only one nearly unobtainable weapon was capable of killing Elijah and his siblings. Moreover, no group of humans had ever come close to beating the Mikaelson siblings before they encountered the vexatious residents of Mystic Falls. However, Hayley and her child would be vulnerable to attack by these Augustine lunatics.

Tyler's golden eyes set on Klaus as a sense of alarm overwhelmed him. His thoughts immediately went back to his first pack. The wolf raised his large head and let out a powerful howl to rally his pack.

The werewolves from his pack turned to look at their alpha. They heeded his warning and left the forest with haste. It was better to disappear before the original hybrid decided to investigate their allegiance.

The younger Mikaelson brother sped over to another decapitated vampire to examine its brain. He found that vampire to be in the same state.

"What is it, Niklaus?" Elijah asked.

Klaus smiled in amusement as his eyes scanned the forest for Bonnie. He got to his feet and said, "The witch."

"The Bennett girl turned their brains to mush?" he asked in disbelief.

Tyler ran through the forest at his top speed uncaring of his nude state. He didn't have time to look for the clothes he had discarded before shifting. He could feel Bonnie growing weaker by the second through their bond. The teenage hybrid bit into his wrist before he even came to a full stop in front of Bonnie and Matt. His eyes lingered on the bloodstain that ran the length of her pants' leg. He brushed off the overwhelming feeling of guilt so that he could take care of his mate now. He could berate himself later for having left her alone in the first place.

In a voice thick with emotion, he begged, "Drink…"

Bonnie knew that she would be making a gamble by accepting Tyler's blood. She had consumed his blood a few days ago while in throes of her heat. They had been safely ensconced in her home without any reason to leave. However, the danger had returned to their lives and she could be killed at any moment—as evidenced by the ambush this morning. She had no way of knowing what would happen if she died with vampire blood in her system. Bonnie was also quite aware that if she didn't accept Tyler's blood that she would die before they could get her to the hospital.

Matt was so relieved that Tyler arrived in time to help Bonnie that he wasn't even made uncomfortable by his friend's state of undress.

Tyler saw the hesitation in her eyes. It didn't take a genius to figure out why Bonnie was reluctant. Tyler growled at his mate and commanded, "Drink!"

Bonnie couldn't help but think how sexy Tyler was when he got all 'growly'. She started to giggle at having that train of thought in such a serious moment. She swore, "I will. I'm okay, Ty."

He sat down on the ground and held his wrist over her mouth. Tyler used his other hand to stroke Bonnie's hair. He promised, "No, you aren't okay but you will be soon."

Bonnie held onto Tyler's arm as she latched onto his bleeding wrist. She had almost grown accustomed to drinking his blood because of her heat. Bonnie had fed from him more than once that week to ease the inevitable soreness that came with hours of spirited pheromone induced copulation.

Damon limped over to three teenagers. He was in worse shape than Tyler was. He would need to grab a couple bags of human blood from the boarding house to help speed up the healing process. First, he wanted to check on Bonnie. His blue eyes were trained on the blood soaked witch. He couldn't believe how quickly everything had gone to hell.

His jaw clenched in anger as he snarled, "I am going to rescue Enzo from that hospital just so that I can rip out his heart."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Tyler growled.

Bonnie frowned at both of them. She reluctantly pried her mouth from Tyler's wrist. She licked the last vestiges of his blood from her lips.

She asked, "Is that really necessary? We don't know how long the Augustine Group has been torturing him. Maybe he had no choice but to give them information."

Tyler looked away when Bonnie licked her lips. This was precisely the wrong time for him to become aroused. Unfortunately, Bonnie drinking his blood always had that effect of him. Apparently, a near death experience only slightly diminished those feelings. Perhaps the only redeeming aspect was that Tyler knew it had the same effect on Bonnie.

Damon said, "This is the second time Enzo has been under these assholes control. Next time one of us might actually die."

"He is your friend," Bonnie argued.

The raven-haired vampire replied, "He almost got you and my brother killed. Enzo knows me well enough to have understood the possible consequences if I survived."

Bonnie winced as she thought about the moment when an Augustine vampire had speared Stefan with a tree branch. She had thought he was dead for a brief moment. Fortunately, the branch had missed his heart by a few inches. Bonnie gave up on convincing Damon to show mercy towards his friend. The Salvatore brothers had their share of drama but they wouldn't stand for anyone killing the other.

Damon looked at Bonnie's leg. "How are you doing, witchy?"

"Better," she admitted.

"Thanks for the assist by the way," he added with a smile.

Tyler asked, "What exactly did you do?"

Klaus sauntered over to the group with Elijah at his side. "I am wondering the same thing, Miss Bennett."

Bonnie looked up at the siblings and said, "I don't know. I tried giving the vampires multiple aneurysms to slow them down. I think something went wrong because I was trying to give them all aneurysms at the same time. Why?"

Stefan and Caroline slowly made their way over to the group. They were both uncomfortable with Klaus and Elijah's sudden arrival.

Caroline couldn't help sneaking a peek at Tyler's face to gauge how he was handling Klaus' presence. Fortunately, Tyler seemed too focused on Bonnie for Klaus to rile him up.

The original hybrid shook his head. How could someone with so much power be so clueless about her abilities? It reminded him of another Bennett witch he had crossed paths with a some years ago. He had found the girl using her immense power to perform acts of petty theft. He said, "You used too much power and essentially liquefied their brains, dear."

"Liquefied?" Bonnie asked with wide eyes.

"Chunky soup," he added for clarification.

Elijah gave his brother an unimpressed glare for the needlessly graphic description.

Matt felt somewhat ill after hearing that.

"I am curious as to how you managed to spare the rest of this lot with your magic being so uncontrolled," Klaus remarked.

Bonnie bristled at his remark. She snapped, "My magic is not uncontrolled."

He laughed heartily at the fire in the girl's eyes. "Several minutes have passed and yet your magic still hangs heavy around us. You haven't the foggiest idea how to recall it...do you?"

She blinked at him. "What are you talking about?"

Klaus looked between Damon and Tyler because he knew that she would trust their word over his. "Surely the two of you still feel her magic swirling around us. I would say that it has grown stronger now that she is no longer on the brink of death."

Damon frowned at the original but he was right. He could still feel Bonnie's magic pulsing around them like a heartbeat. "Uh…"

"I see that you are as articulate as ever, Damon," Klaus said smugly.

Bonnie looked up at Tyler questioningly.

"As much as I hate to agree with Klaus about anything, he is right, Bon."

Matt nodded. "Yeah."

Her head whipped in the direction of their blond friend. Normally, humans could not sense magic. "You can feel it, too?"

"I didn't know it was magic but the air feels pretty thick like when it is humid before a thunderstorm," he explained.

Bonnie was somewhere between annoyed and embarrassed. However, it shifted to rage when Klaus began laughing at her expense. If she wasn't certain that he would snap her neck in retaliation, she would throw a nasty hex in his direction. She cleared her throat. "I just got my magic back the other day. I might not have as precise control over it as I once did."

Klaus looked even more smug if that was at all possible. He said, "I could teach you how to recall your magic. You have to be exhausting yourself."

She knew better than to accept anything at face value from Klaus. Bonnie shook her head. "I am sure I can hold on until I get home. I have a cousin staying with me. She will be able to help me recall my magic. Thank you for offering."

The original's interest was piqued at the mention of another Bennett witch in Mystic Falls. He asked, "What is her name?"

Bonnie was caught off guard by Klaus' question. She wracked her brain for any name other than Lucy's. However, her command of the Bennett family tree was somewhat lacking. She knew the names of many deceased relatives but she drew a blank on living witches. Bonnie decided to blurt out the first female name that came to mind. "Her name is Delilah."

Klaus had to give the girl some credit. Her lie was smooth and quick off the tongue. Unfortunately, Bonnie didn't know that Klaus' interest in witches was no passing fancy. He had made it his business to track the bloodlines of a few powerful magic wielding families. The Bennett family was of course the cream of the crop. He would have to consult his records to be sure but the only Delilah Bennett he knew had been dead for quite some time.

Rather than calling Bonnie out on the lie, he merely smiled. "Perhaps I will have the pleasure of meeting this cousin. We are...family as you said earlier."

Tyler felt his mate's panic through their bond. He hadn't put together all of the pieces, but he now understood why Lucy lied to him last night. She obviously knew Klaus but didn't want anyone to know that. Moreover, Lucy didn't want Klaus to know that she was in Mystic Falls. He decided it was time to get Bonnie away from Klaus. Tyler knew his sire well. The man was a master at setting traps for the unsuspecting.

Tyler stood up with Bonnie in his arms. "I am going to get Bonnie home."

Matt cleared his throat and asked, "Without your clothes?"

He smirked. "I run fast enough that no one will see me."

Bonnie tightened her arms around Tyler's neck before he took off like a flash.

Klaus gave his brother a pointed look.

Elijah nodded in silent understanding. It was high time they had someone watching Bonnie Bennett.