I am sorry that this chapter is so late. I hurt my arm and it has taken me time to start writing again. I am on the mend now. I hope that I will be able to post again soon! Please enjoy!

P.S. A few chapters back someone asked what Katherine's new vessel looks like. She looks like actress Odette Annable. And Elodie looks like actress Candice Patton.

Stefan's eyes sprang open when he heard something slam against the metal roof over his head. He had opted to sleep in the uncomfortable backseat of his brother's beloved vintage car. Perhaps the only redeeming quality about the small backseat was that Damon kept it pristine. Stefan sat up in the cramped space only to see his brother smirking at him like a Cheshire cat. He had to tamp down the urge to snap Damon's neck. The move would feel incredibly satisfying after the night Stefan had but they really could not afford to waste more time. They needed to be in Mystic Falls protecting it from everything that wanted to destroy it. Frankly, they should have returned to their hometown last night but, as usual, Damon had other ideas.

The irritable vampire unfolded himself from the Camaro's backseat and stretched. Despite being turned as a teenager, he suddenly felt every one of his 150-plus years. He glared at his brother and asked, "Are we leaving now?"

Damon looked relaxed in a pair of black satin pajama bottoms that were suspiciously his size. He clapped the younger man on the back and handed him a mug of blood. He asked, "What's your problem?"

Stefan lifted an eyebrow at his brother's attire but gratefully accepted the blood. The vampire didn't have time to feed before he left Mystic Falls. He sipped it and replied tersely, "I slept in the backseat of your car, Damon. What type of mood did you expect I would be in this morning?"

He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the car. "Elodie offered you a perfectly good guest room last night. It was generous considering the fact that she doesn't make a habit of inviting strange vampires into her home. You are the one that preferred the backseat of my car to a queen sized bed with Egyptian cotton sheets."

Stefan shot his brother and unimpressed look. He said, "I am grateful for Ms. Bennett's generosity but I was uncomfortable in the house, Damon."

The older vampire was genuinely perplexed by Stefan's choice. "What are you talking about? Elodie used a silencing spell to protect your virgin ears. Have you become so Puritanical that the mere thought of two adults having sex makes you flee like the French?"

"I might not have been able to hear anything but I smelled her blood," he muttered. Stefan closed his eyes and tried to forget the heady scent of Elodie's peculiar blood. "She smells incredible."

Damon frowned when he saw Stefan's vampire face surface. He hadn't considered how the scent of Elodie's blood would affect his younger brother. Damon had built up a tolerance against the potency of her blood many years ago. He shrugged and said, "You should have just gotten a hotel room. You're an idiot for sleeping in the car all night."

Stefan rolled his eyes but his annoyance had shifted to himself. He hadn't considered finding a hotel. He asked, "Are we leaving now? I would like to get back home, Damon."

"No, we're not leaving yet. You know how long it takes women to get ready under normal circumstances, brother. Well, double that because she's a witch that is over 100 years old," he quipped.

Stefan didn't know if witch was the right word for the woman he met last night. Damon claimed that he met Elodie in 1931 but she didn't look a day over twenty-five. Moreover, Stefan had listened carefully and noticed a distinct lack of a heartbeat. Yet Elodie exuded magic in the same way that all Bennett witches did. He asked, "What is she?"

Damon lifted his eyes from the manicured lawn and said, "She's a nearly insatiable lover."

"Damon…"

He chuckled, "Put your brooding forehead away, brother. It is far too early for you to be so incredibly serious. Elodie is a witch but she is more than that. However, I am sure that you would agree that it is impolite to divulge other people's secrets."

Stefan studied his brother's expression and deadpanned, "Yet, I get the feeling that perhaps you are heavily involved with this secret. Did you turn her, Damon? And if she is a vampire, how is it possible that she still has magic?"

Damon rolled his eyes and said, "You're a hopeless case, Charlie Brown. Elodie has to explain her situation to her family. It is a bit presumptuous to assume you deserve answers before Bonnie and Lucy do. I am going inside to finish cooking breakfast. You're welcome to come in and eat with us but leave the brooding out here."

He nearly choked on the blood. Stefan swallowed quickly and asked, "You are cooking?"

The vampire grinned shamelessly. "What can I say? She likes my frittata. The door will be unlocked if you decide to join us. The frittata should be ready in another ten minutes."

Stefan watched his brother walk back into the house. Damon looked to have a near spring in his step. He shook his head and tried to remember what he was doing eighty years ago. Unfortunately, the brothers were estranged for about 30 years. Stefan didn't see is brother again until 1942. He had no inkling of how Damon had even crossed paths with Elodie. However, he decided that his brother was right. He had no right to ask for answers about this woman before her own family. Moreover, he could acknowledge that his interest in learning the truth was about satisfying his curiosity and not a matter of necessity. As he grew closer to his brother again, Stefan often wondered about the time they had spent apart. Damon didn't share his brother's desire to reminisce about the past. He hadn't even deigned to tell Stefan about his time as the Augustine Group's prisoner.

Stefan finished his cup of blood before walking up the steps to the house. He tried the front door and found it unlocked. He paused in the doorway because he knew better than to enter a witch's house unannounced. Stefan called out, "It's only me…"

Damon poked his head out of the kitchen. "I'm in here…"

Stefan walked into the bright kitchen and placed the mug on the counter. He had to admit that the aromas emanating from the room were appetizing. He knew that his brother could cook but he did so sparingly.

Damon had dressed in the time it took for Stefan to come in the house. He was wearing different clothes from the ones he wore last night. He motioned to a pitcher of blood that was nearly empty. "Help yourself if you want a refill."

Stefan shook his head because he still refrained from consuming human blood regularly. He was always mindful that his addiction could rear its ugly head at any moment. Fortunately, he had Caroline to help keep him on the straight and narrow. He said, "No, I shouldn't but thank you."

"Coffee?" the vampire asked as he poured a cup for himself. Damon spiked the steaming hot brew with a healthy dose of whiskey.

"Yes, please. But hold the whiskey," Stefan replied with a mild smile.

"Suit yourself." Damon filled another mug and set it on the counter. He said, "I talked to Bon-Bon this morning."

Stefan perked up as he sat down at the island. "How is she doing?"

"She is safe for now. Wolf Boy took her and the kid to stay with his pack. Apparently, the place is in the middle of nowhere and Bonnie is going to ward it against Klaus and his psycho siblings," he replied.

Stefan held the hot cup in his cold hands and took a sip. He asked, "Are we ever going to address the fact that Tyler had a pack for months without telling us?'

He shrugged. "It might be a subject to bring up but I don't think you are the person to do it. He still wants to turn you into a chew toy. Who would have thought that I would be on better terms with him than you are?"

The younger vampire geared up to defend himself but stopped when Damon waved him off. It was a conversation the brothers had several times.

"I have no interest in hearing the recap for the latest installment of The Young & The Boring. If you two are going to kill each other, I'd like for you to wait until after we kill the travelers."

Stefan scowled in response.

He continued, "Anyway, they're still moving forward with getting personal items from the Augustine Group. Bonnie thinks they can have the hex bags finished and planted in the rooms before 3 o'clock. They are planting a bag in the Director of Medicine's office, too. We might be able to get into the basement of the hospital to kill Enzo tonight."

"That is great news. I am grateful that Bonnie and Tyler are still able to help us. How certain is Bonnie that these hex bags will work?" he asked curiously.

Damon took the frittata out of the oven and placed it on the counter to cool. He said, "Bon-Bon said that Lucy left her the instructions for how to put them together. Barring any mistakes the hex bags should give every last one of the humans a massive heart attack."

Stefan knew that method would draw unwanted suspicion. However, it was the safest route. They needed to get rid of the humans so they could scour Whitmore's campus for more of their sick little experiments. If there were more creatures like the ones they faced yesterday, they could not allow them to fall into the wrong hands. Stefan wasn't sure if they would have won yesterday's fight without Bonnie's magic.

Elodie walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of black leather pants and a wine colored off the shoulder sweater. She had left her chocolate brown hair in its naturally curly state. The springy curls framed her youthful face almost like a crown. She greeted, "Good morning."

Stefan's eyes lingered on the talisman hanging around her neck. It looked nearly identical to the one Bonnie wore daily. He couldn't help thinking that she reminded him of the younger Bennett witch. Her friendly smile and diminutive stature would make many people disregard her. However, he didn't need to see Elodie use magic to know that she was powerful. He had smelled it in her blood last night. Stefan admired his brother's willpower. He would be tempted to drain a witch whose blood smelled so decadent. He stuttered, "Uh, morning."

Damon shot his brother a curious look but then shrugged it off. He moved over to Elodie and kissed her. "The frittata should be cool enough to eat in a couple minutes. Did you manage to rally reinforcements?"

Elodie smiled lightly after the kiss. She moved around the vampire and pulled a travel mug from the cabinet. She said, "Yes, but I did not expect anyone to reject my request. Everyone should arrive in Mystic Falls by tomorrow morning at the latest. However, most will arrive tonight."

"That's good news. Talking to witchy this morning made me worry that she might try to stage a rescue on her own," he complained.

She added cream and sugar to her coffee. She hummed in agreement, "Bennett witches take care of their own…"

"And occasionally die for their trouble," he added bitterly.

Elodie offered a knowing smile. "Are you saying that you wouldn't die for your brother?"

Damon huffed, "Not at chance. Stefan is a big boy. He is old enough to pull his own bacon from the frying pan."

Elodie's smile only grew larger. However, she didn't pursue the subject further. Damon didn't like admitting just how attached he had become to his younger brother again. She couldn't remember another time when the two brothers had stayed in touch for so long.

Instead, she grabbed a couple plates and a knife. She cut the frittata into several slices and looked at Stefan. She asked, "Would you like some? I am sure you know how delicious Damon's frittatas are."

Stefan glanced at his brother and smirked. "Yes, please. Actually, I can't say that I have ever had the pleasure. Damon doesn't often cook for me."

She placed a slice of frittata onto the plate and placed it in front of Stefan. She replied, "That is a pity. He is brilliant and classically trained."

"Classically trained?" he asked.

Damon rolled his eyes and said, "I am in no mood to go for a walk down memory lane. Both of you need to finish eating so that we can get on the road."

Elodie laughed softly as she served herself and walked around the island. She sat down beside Stefan and quipped, "Oh, no. I believe he's cross with us now."

"Don't worry yourself too much about it. I find that my brother is often cross," he replied tongue firmly in cheek. "You mentioned that Damon is classically trained. I would love to hear more about that."

Damon leaned against the counter with his cup of coffee in hand. He knew kicking up a fuss would only further encourage Elodie. She took an uncomfortable amount of pleasure in irritating him.

She grinned at Damon's sour face but then turned to look at Stefan as she delicately cut into the frittata with her fork. "Damon and I spent nearly two years in Italy. He worked his way up the entire boot learning how to cook the cuisine from each region."

Stefan lifted an eyebrow at that detail. He glanced at his brother. "You never mentioned your time in Italy."

"It's been a long life. I didn't spend it journaling like a teenage girl like some people in this room." He pushed himself off the counter and said, "I am going to go load the car. She is literally bringing trunks of witchy stuff. Who owns trunks anymore?"

"Spoilsport," she quipped.

Damon walked out of the kitchen and eyed the four trunks and three suitcases situated in the hall. He lifted two of the heavy trunks and wondered just what Elodie had stashed inside them. He was tempted to make one trip. However, he didn't want to attract the attention of her neighbors. Elodie lived in a bustling neighborhood full of young professionals. She easily blended into the neighborhood's aesthetics. She had only been living there for three years. Elodie might be able to stay there for another seven years before people began to realize she hadn't aged a day. Recently, Damon had begun to consider when he would have to leave Mystic Falls again. He had already stayed in town longer than he had since being human.

He bypassed the dark blue SUV in Elodie's driveway because she would be riding with him. It took three trips to load the car. Afterwards, he climbed into his Camaro for some quiet time. Spending the night with Elodie had brought up some uncomfortable feelings for Damon. He rarely felt shame for anything. However, he had been out of line when he propositioned Bonnie the night of his party. He was glad that she had turned him down. Moreover, he was even happier that she was not angry with him for blurring the lines of their friendship. He only hoped that Bonnie remained unperturbed once she learned the nature of his relationship with Elodie. It had been quite some time since he had faced the wrath of the judgy little witch.

Damon took out his phone and checked to see if he had any new messages from Bonnie. There was just one from the witch. The message contained a location for the meet up. However, the remaining messages were from Elena. Anyone with common sense would recognize that Damon was avoiding his ex-girlfriend like the plague. He understood that the break-up had been the work of his sadistic sire. Katherine was a manipulative bitch but she had unwittingly done him a favor. He had spent months brooding over the failed relationship but not for the reason that everyone had assumed. Bonnie and Stefan locking the vampire in the cellar had afforded him time to reconsider his decisions. He now fervently believed that pursuing Elena had been one of his more self-destructive acts—and he had dozens from which he could choose.

Damon and Elena's relationship had been dysfunctional and unbalanced from the outset. It never really had the chance of being anything but an unmitigated disaster. Pursuing his sadistic sire's doppelganger was an extreme case of masochism. Yet watching his brother fall in love with the same face that he had waited 150 years to see again sent him down a dark path. The path grew darker once he learned of Katherine's betrayal. Realizing that she had never loved Damon made him feel even more worthless. On some level, he wanted Elena to love him as some warped form of validation.

Damon had pulled out all the stops to garner Elena's attention and it worked. She was tempted by him. He would even go as far as to she say had been attracted to him-because not many could resist his charms. Their mutual attraction and fondness for each other grew while Stefan was off playing Klaus' unwilling sidekick. However, the girl only fell in love with Damon after she was sired to him. Afterwards, Elena had been so desperate to prove her faith in him was justified that she made excuses for all the shitty things he did to hurt other people. Damon and Elena's relationship had been toxic. Yet neither vampire had been willing to end the farce. Damon had tried pushing her away after the debacle at Whitmore but she held on even tighter. Katherine possessing Elena was the only reason their merry-go-round relationship stopped.

Damon had left town once Stefan and Bonnie let him out the cellar. That time away was desperately needed. When he returned to Mystic Falls, he was in a better place mentally. Damon had come to the realization that they were better apart. He decided to ban her from the boarding house to help bolster his willpower. Fortunately, it had worked. Damon hadn't sought Elena out once. Now he just had to find a way to tell her that they were never getting back together. He wondered if Caroline would try to kill him for sending his sentiments in an edible arrangement. Damon shook his head because Blondie would definitely try to stake him for that.

He sat there for nearly 30 minutes trying to figure out how to respond to Elena. He wanted to be somewhat sensitive since he did not know her current state of mind. He had secondhand reports from Caroline that Elena was confused about many things. Damon figured that was to be expected after losing so much time.

Damon: On a road trip. We should talk once I am back.

The vampire drummed his fingers against the dashboard as he waited for Elena to respond. He knew that she was awake because she sent the last text message about an hour ago.

Elena: K.

Damon was suspicious about her simple reply but he didn't plan to look a gift horse in the mouth. As he put his phone away, he heard the front door open. He looked up to see Stefan and Elodie exiting the house together. The two of them looked chummy. Damon was certain he was going to regret leaving them alone. Aside from Katherine, Stefan and Elodie were the two people that had known him longest.

Elodie and Stefan stopped laughing abruptly as they approached the car.

The vampire lifted his eyebrows in response.

Stefan slipped into the backseat so that Elodie could sit up front with Damon.

He said, "Bon-Bon sent me the location. We're meeting at a diner about an hour from here."

Elodie fussed with her hair in the mirror as Damon backed out the driveway. She smirked, "I am sure we will make it there faster with your lead foot."

Damon smirked and stepped on the gas for emphasis.

Stefan nudged the back of Damon's seat with his knee. "We're in a residential neighborhood."

"Don't start or you can walk," Damon huffed.

Elodie laughed at the brothers' antics. However, her breezy attitude was merely a façade. She was nervous about reuniting with her family. Certainly, they would all feel betrayed by her actions. Yet the threat of the travelers meant that she could no longer stay hidden. Elodie knew that she owed her family an explanation. She only hoped that Bonnie and Lucy would be open-minded enough to accept it. There had to be level of trust for them to work together.

The witch pulled an aged leather journal from her purse. The small book was a portable version of her grimoires. In her long life, she had accumulated a handful of grimoires filled with her own handiwork. Those precious volumes were safely tucked into one of the antique French steamer trunks. She leafed through the well-worn pages for a spell that had been on her mind since she awakened. It would be potent enough to stall the Originals for a few minutes. Yet that was all they would need to rescue Lucy.

She looked up from her book. "Are you certain that Bonnie has mated with this…hybrid boy?"

Damon glanced at her curiously. "She's been squirrely on the details but yes."

Elodie frowned. "And it was successful…"

"How do you mean?" he asked.

"Never mind," she replied.

He glanced at Elodie because now he wanted to know what she was holding back. However, Damon knew he wouldn't be able to convince her to speak freely in front of Stefan. He would just wait until they were alone to probe her for answers.

Damon obviously knew very little about the mating cycles of werewolves, but Elodie was well informed. If Bonnie was with child it would limit the types of magic she could perform safely. In the first trimester, a witch could suffer a miscarriage if she overexerted herself magically. It took years of practice to avoid overexertion. Unfortunately, her great-great niece was extremely powerful, young, and untrained. Elodie had left her family behind long ago but she never stopped caring about them. She would not put Bonnie or the baby at risk. The girl's child would be a tribrid that would lead the next generation of Bennett witches.

An hour later, Damon pulled into the parking lot of an unassuming roadside diner. He was actually impressed with Bonnie's choice of meeting place. The diner was off a major interstate. He would need to be clairvoyant to discern where Bonnie and Tyler were staying. He regularly dosed his bourbon with vervain. Therefore, Damon didn't think he had been compelled by an Original but he couldn't be sure. However, he planned to do everything in his power to avoid leading Klaus to Bonnie's door.

He found a parking spot near the front of the building and turned off the engine. His blue eyes scanned the parking lot looking for Tyler's douchey car. He said, "I don't think they are here yet."

Stefan asked, "Should we wait inside?"

Damon's phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and read the message from Bonnie. "Scratch that. Witchy and Wolf Boy are inside waiting for us."

The three travel companions climbed out of Damon's classic car and walked into the diner. People filled nearly all the tables and booths in the diner. It was the perfect place to blend into the crowd. They probably also chose the location because of the food. Bonnie was demolishing an impressive stack of double chocolate waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

The young couple had wisely chosen a large table at the very back of the diner. They had clear lines of sights to both exits. Moreover, they could see out the wall of windows that compromised the front of the diner. One of the diner's wooden highchairs was situated beside the table. Mari seemed content in the contraption as she mashed chunks of fruit with her hands before eating them.

Bonnie's hand froze in mid air when Elodie came into view. She had not known what to expect but it certainly wasn't a woman that looked mere years older than her. Bonnie knew of witches that were capable of slowing the aging process to a crawl. However, Elodie would have had to tap into some seriously dark magic to preserve her youth to this degree. She tried focusing on Elodie as she listened for a heartbeat but found it too difficult with so much competing stimuli.

She slowly lowered the fork to her plate and said, "Hi…"

Elodie smiled at Bonnie. The girl looked so much like Amelia that it made her heart ache. As she stepped closer to the table, she felt Mari's magic. Elodie noted the power dampening charm that prevented the child from using her magic. "Hello, Bonnie. It is nice to meet you."

"It is nice to meet you, too." She cleared her throat and said, "Please, join us."

Tyler said, "Sorry for not waiting for you guys to get here but Bonnie and Mari were hungry. Do you want to order anything?"

Stefan shook his head and said, "No, thank you. Damon made a frittata for us this morning."

The hybrid lifted an eyebrow in surprise.

However, Bonnie looked peeved. "You made a frittata?"

Stefan chuckled. "Apparently, it is his specialty."

She scowled at the smirking vampire. "It is your specialty? How come you only make me your stupid vampcakes?"

Tyler and Stefan simultaneously asked, "Vampcakes?"

Bonnie's cheeks heated up in embarrassment. She shrugged her shoulders. "Damon cooks stupid pancakes. He uses fruit and whipped cream to make a vampire face on the top."

He grinned at the witch. "You love my vampcakes. Besides, you have an underdeveloped palate. You wouldn't appreciate my frittata, Bon-Bon."

"I don't have an underdeveloped palate! What does that even mean?" she huffed.

"I've caught you eating Cookie Crisps with a glass of milk. Those things taste like cardboard," he replied skeptically.

Bonnie recognized that she was behaving petulantly. She wasn't really upset about his secret aptitude for cooking. Her real issue was that Damon had neglected to tell her about Elodie. He knew how alone she felt after being resurrected. Meanwhile, she had a relative living in the same state with her. On the other hand, Elodie obviously wanted nothing to do with the Bennett bloodline. Perhaps he had been sparing her the pain of rejection. It all left her feeling oddly discomfited.

She mumbled, "I wanted cookies but didn't have any in the house."

He snorted and said, "Uh huh…"

The rush of various emotions prickling the bond perplexed Tyler. He reached under the table and took Bonnie's hand that was clenched into a fist. He stroked two fingers over her pulse to calm her.

Bonnie immediately felt more at ease. She glanced at Tyler and flashed a grateful smile. She turned to face Elodie once more and smiled. "I'm sorry. I have been so rude. I got caught up in Damon's cooking skills and didn't introduce myself. It is very nice to meet you. I don't even know what to call you. It would be weird and disrespectful to call you by your first name. I'm Bonnie and that messy bundle of joy over there is Mari. She is Lucy's little girl."

Elodie smiled at the girl. Bonnie had obviously been raised to respect her elders. She said, "I wouldn't object to being called 'Auntie'. It is nice to meet you, too. Damon speaks very highly of you."

"I told you that she was a judgy little Bennett witch that takes an unusual amount of pleasure in frying my brain," he argued.

Elodie laughed softly. "He did say that. He also said that he couldn't count the number of times that you have saved his ass."

Bonnie looked over at Damon as he pointedly wouldn't meet her gaze. She said, "Well, he's helped me keep our friends alive. We joke that the rest of them are lemmings."

Stefan balked at the word 'lemming' but had to admit it might have been an apt description. The Gilbert siblings definitely exhibited some lemming-like behavior.

"It is amazing that you have done so much without proper training. You are a natural, Bonnie. It was a rare thing. You remind me a great deal of myself. I had to learn how to be a witch without any help from my family."

"Because you faked your death?" she winced at her accusation laden tone of voice. "I'm sorry. That was rude."

Elodie chuckled and said, "Perhaps but it was a very Bennett thing to say. We are not the type of women that mince words. I was perhaps a few years younger than you are now when circumstances forced me to leave home. A sinister coven of witches wanted to use me. They were powerful, sadistic, and relentless. Our family felt certain that they could defeat the coven but only if I wasn't in the way. My grandmother located Damon and asked him to look after me. It was only supposed to be for a few months but that quickly turned into a couple years. Our family eventually succeeded but not without paying a great cost."

Bonnie blanched as she thought about the family tree. Several members of their family had died over a three-year span. Bonnie didn't know the cause of those deaths until now. "That must have been awful."

"It was. My grandmother was one of the people that died at the hands of those witches," she replied bitterly.

Stefan said, "I am sorry for your loss. I hope this isn't out of turn but I am surprised that a Bennett witch would have gone to my brother for help. Most witches are not fond of vampires."

She smiled. "My grandmother trusted Damon because he saved her life when she was a little girl. She saw the good in him."

Damon muttered, "Ernestine was one of Emily's daughters. The only goodness I showed was by keeping my promise to Emily. I made sure that her children got as far away from Virginia as possible."

Stefan nodded in understanding. Everything was starting to make more sense to him now. He vaguely remembered Ernestine. She was the oldest of Emily's children.

Elodie continued, "She trusted Damon to help me stay under the witches' radar. However, she was more concerned about the humans. The witches only wanted me to join their ranks. Racist white men in the 30's would have had a more nefarious interest in a 16-year-old Black girl traveling alone. Even with Damon as my chaperone, we ran into many unfriendly men along the way. Fortunately, he had a particularly voracious appetite."

Damon smiled wide enough to expose his gleaming white teeth. "And Elodie was ever so good in leading them to me like lambs to slaughter."

The woman dipped her head to hide a devilish grin. She dug the heel of her boot into Damon's foot. She hadn't intended to reveal that tidbit to her great-great niece. She assumed the girl would disapprove. Elodie's mother and sisters certainly had disapproved when they heard about her adventures with Damon.

"I went through a very dark period when I learned my grandmother died protecting me. I would have gladly given myself to the coven if I had known that I would lose her. I was inconsolable for a time. I had been home for only a few months when I took off again. This time I was on my own and I was reckless. I made many mistakes…"

Damon snorted and added, "She got knocked up."

Elodie huffed out a laugh. "I did do that…a couple times. I had a nice little life but I heard through the grapevine that my family was looking for me. My sisters were creating a Bennett coven. Some new threat was on the horizon and I was needed. They were closer than they had ever been to finding me. I found Damon first and asked him to help me fake my death. I didn't want to go back to my old life. I certainly did not want my children indoctrinated into the strange cycle of death and sacrifice that claimed so many members of our family. I also decided that if I was going to protect my children that I needed to become more powerful. I asked Damon to turn me. I was born a witch without her own magic. I am a siphoner. Being both a siphoner and a vampire is to have an almost endless reservoir of power. I can literally draw power from the magic that created me. I can also draw power from other supernatural creatures and magic artifacts."

Bonnie's eyes went as wide as saucers. She probably should have connected the dots before then. However, Damon siring one of her relatives had been unfathomable. Her green eyes went to his for answers to the questions she didn't have the words to ask.

Damon met Bonnie's eyes and nearly flinched at the look of betrayal he found there. He said, "When I came to Mystic Falls I hadn't seen Elodie in almost fifteen years. We had a…disagreement."

"Damon did something stupid. Instead of owning up to it, he ran away," Elodie snapped.

Stefan nodded. "That sounds like my brother."

He glared at Stefan and added, "I figured whatever friendship had been there was gone for good. However, the end of our friendship didn't mean I would violate Elodie's confidence by telling anyone she was still alive. But circumstances changed once you became the anchor, witchy. I went to Elodie for help because even if she hated me, I figured that she would still help you. I was right…"

Elodie looked at Bonnie and said, "I should have reached out the moment Damon came to me for help."

Bonnie asked, "Why didn't you?"

"I was ashamed for the way I abandoned my family so many years ago," she confessed. "My mother and sisters died long ago. I will never be able to right the wrong I committed against them."

"But you were just a kid at the time. I understand why you went your own way. Certainly, they would have, too," she replied.

Elodie smiled wistfully. "You know from personal experience that age doesn't exempt a Bennett witch from her duty. When a threat presents itself, we always answer the call. To not do so is cowardice and I can't think of anything worse."

Bonnie bit her lip because Elodie was right.

She said, "I cannot change the past but I can forge a different future. I will help you save Lucy. Then I will help you dispatch the travelers."

"Thank you," Bonnie replied sincerely.