Damon collected a couple bottles of bourbon and dragged a chaise lounge outside. The cold weather had very little effect on the vampire and he appreciated the solitude. Damon couldn't listen to another minute of bickering without murdering everyone in the boarding house. At the very least, he was tempted to kick them all out of his house during the worst snowstorm Virginia had seen in more than 40 years. Instead of either extreme, Damon collapsed on the chaise lounge and proceeded to get blind drunk. The pleasant buzzed feeling wouldn't last long but he would enjoy it. Meanwhile, he trusted Alaric to keep their little three-ring circus from burning down the place.

He didn't think that Alaric would have much trouble keeping the peace in his absence. The biggest troublemakers were sidelined for the time being. Stefan seemed resolute in his decision to stay by Bonnie's side during the trance. His younger brother was concerned that she would start to desiccate quicker than Jo anticipated. The more power a witch possessed, the more blood she would need to complete the transition. Damon had little choice but to defer to Stefan's seeming expertise on the situation. He didn't trust his brother in this moment, but he felt confident that Stefan wouldn't allow anything to harm her.

Damon stayed outside until after the sun started to set. He was tempted to remain there for the rest of the evening. He could slip inside for blood once everyone was in bed for the night. However, his solitude was disturbed by the rumbling of a large truck. He heard the truck approaching for blocks before it finally pulled onto his property. Damon lifted an eyebrow as he realized that it was a massive snow plow. He couldn't imagine who it could be or how this day could get any stranger. Then again this was Mystic Falls and the place was practically a magnet for chaos. Damon studied the driver's face and didn't recognize him. However, he wouldn't discount Klaus compelling some poor bastard to kill them in the middle of a blizzard. He had to know that his first swipe at Bonnie had failed miserably.

Lucy Bennett opened the passenger door and hopped out of the truck gracefully. Her chocolate brown hair fluttered violently in the brutal winds but her cat-like eyes were sharp as she took in Damon. She studied him for a long moment before breaking eye contact and looking into the truck once more. She grabbed a duffel bag and her purse from the backseat. "Thanks for the ride, Billy."

The burly trucker grinned and his dark eyes seemed to twinkle as he looked at her. It was obvious that the man was smitten with the witch. He said, "You know that I would do anything for you, sweetness. You just give me a call after your business here is finished and I'll come pick you up."

She winked at him and closed the truck's door. "I have your number. I'll call you. Be careful on the roads."

He nodded at Lucy and then drove away from the boarding house.

The caramel skinned woman strutted toward Damon confidently.

Damon asked, "Who are you?"

Lucy said, "Well, I'm Lucy Bennett but you might as well call me the cavalry. I heard you have an emergency on your hands. Where's my cousin?"

"Your cousin?" Damon asked skeptically. He couldn't help admiring Lucy's side profile in those leather pants. Damon wondered how she managed to pour herself into them.

She rolled her eyes at Damon's less than subtle attempt at ogling her. She snapped, "I am in no mood to play games, vampire. Where is Bonnie? She's in trouble and I am here to help her. You really don't want to get in the way of that."

"I have no proof that you are who you say that you are. You're not coming into the house and Bonnie is indisposed. Come back later," he growled irritably.

Lucy took a step forward. "Listen up, I was having a great time with Billy until last night when I slipped into an unexpected trance. I had to play it off as an alcohol-induced blackout. He thinks I'm a lightweight now. Anyway, imagine my surprise when it's my very dead…very demanding grandmother. She told me that Bonnie had been turned and that she needed my help. I dropped everything and convinced Billy to drive me two hours to get here. You are going to let me in or I am going to burn this place down with you in it."

Damon growled at the threat but he was almost certain that he could trust the woman standing in front of him. Her magic pulsed and grew more aromatic as she became angry. Lucy certainly smelled like every Bennett witch he had ever encountered. He could at the very least confirm that she was a witch. Therefore, Klaus couldn't have compelled her to kill Bonnie. Damon begrudgingly said, "She's in a trance… for now."

Lucy relaxed somewhat upon hearing that Bonnie was in a trance. During the ride to Mystic Falls, she had worried about the excruciating pain the girl must be experiencing. Lucy wouldn't wish that sort of pain on her worst enemy. "That's good news, it means that she can't feel the pain of transitioning right now. There's less chance of Bonnie deciding to take her own life. Shall we go inside?"

Damon eyed her for a moment but then opened the front door for her.

Stefan was walking down the stairs as they entered. He was prepared to goad Damon again but stopped short because of their guest. Stefan eyed her warily. He asked, "Are you going to introduce your friend, Damon?"

The elder Salvatore brother bit back the acidic retort on the tip of his tongue. "This is Bonnie's cousin…Lucy."

"I'm here to help. Where is my cousin?" she asked.

Stefan lifted an eyebrow at her imperious tone of voice. "She's upstairs in my bedroom. However, she doesn't need your help."

"Your bedroom?" Lucy asked. She looked at Damon and said, "I thought you were the soul mate?"

"What?" both brothers asked in unison.

Lucy rolled her eyes and said, "I was told that you spoke with Sheila. She didn't tell you about being Bonnie's soul mate?"

Stefan eyed his brother carefully. His voice was calm but he hard the urge to rip out Damon's heart on the spot. "What is she talking about, Damon?"

"I don't know! The old witch didn't say anything about soul mates. She just did the locator spell so that I could find you and her blood-thirsty little grandwitch before you went on a killing spree."

Lucy huffed. "Of course they would leave the most difficult part for me. The elders just love punishing me for my romp on the wild side."

Damon idly wondered what Lucy considered the 'wild side'. However, he knew that it didn't take much effort to draw the ire of the witches. They were not a particularly forgiving lot, not even towards their own bloodline.

Ric walked into the hallway. "What's going on?"

Damon groaned because he really didn't want the rest of the Scooby Doo Gang turning up to offer their paltry two cents on the issue. He wanted to understand what the hell was happening first. Damon was so far out of his comfort zone, he might as well be on another continent.

Lucy was rattled by the turn of events but hid it well. She could see that Stefan was unhinged but she couldn't risk hurting him. He would be instrumental to keeping Bonnie sane, if he was her soul mate. Lucy said, "I want to see Bonnie first."

Stefan said, "I'll take you upstairs."

The witch and Damon followed him upstairs to the bedroom.

Lucy made a beeline for the bed once she was in the room. Her hands hovered over Bonnie's body as she tried to get a read on the girl's magic. Lucy quickly pulled her hands away. She frowned and looked at the vampires. "What did you do?"

Damon glared and grabbed Stefan's collar. "If you've hurt her…"

Stefan slapped Damon's hands away as if he were little more than an insignificant gnat. "I haven't hurt Bonnie. I wouldn't do that to her. She was in pain this morning, so I helped her achieve a meditative trance. She let me into her mind and I built the perfect scenario to keep her calm."

The witch looked between the two brothers but then turned her attention back to Bonnie. "Her magic is spiking...it's almost like a fever. Bonnie's power will turn this house into a pile of ash if we don't help her. The meditative trance is good, but she is not an ordinary witch. You couldn't have anticipated this side effect."

The younger vampire swallowed thickly and moved to stand beside Lucy. "What can we do? How can we help Bonnie?"

Damon was startled by his brother's reaction. It was the closest to sincere that Stefan had been since flipping his humanity switch. It was also a reminder that his little brother was still in there-somewhere.

"The only way to help Bonnie is for her to expend the energy that is building up inside of her. We're going to have to wake her up, but that can wait for a couple hours. I would like to sort out the soul mate issue before she wakes up. I want to have answers for my cousin, not more confusion. She will be unpredictable enough without becoming more agitated."

Stefan asked, "Is it safe to wait a few hours?"

Lucy nodded and said, "Her magic hasn't reached a critical level yet. We still have time. Let's move this conversation somewhere else. Even in the meditative trance, Bonnie might be able to hear us."

Damon nodded. "Let's go downstairs."

The trio left the bedroom and reconvened in the living room. Unfortunately, Alaric and the rest of the Scooby Doo Gang were waiting on them. Damon said, "This is Bonnie's cousin, Lucy Bennett. She's here to help us with Bonnie."

Caroline breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Lucy nodded in the teen's direction.

Alaric cleared his throat. "I believe that you mentioned something about...a soul mate."

The witch nodded and took a seat in an armchair. She said, "Centuries ago, a Bennett witch named Qetsiyah was in love with a warlock named Silas. They were both powerful but Qetsiyah was descended from one of the four original witches. Silas wanted to be immortal and he convinced Qetsiyah to create an immortality potion for the two of them. They planned to take the potion together after they were married. Unfortunately, Silas had been playing Qetsiyah the entire time. He was actually in love with her friend and handmaiden, Amara. Qetsiyah flew into a rage and killed her friend. However, Silas had already taken the immortality potion. Qetsiyah decided to create the Other Side. It is like a purgatory for the supernatural. Then she imprisoned Silas in a tomb with a cure for immortality. She hoped that one day he would take it and join her on the Other Side."

"Talk about being bitter," Damon muttered from behind his glass of bourbon.

Lucy scoffed. "Her fury was righteous but she took it too far. Qetsiyah's actions inadvertently cursed our family and created the doppelgangers."

Elena asked, "Your ancestor is the reason that I exist?"

She shook her head. "Not just you, Elena. You are Amara's doppelganger and Stefan is Silas' doppelganger. It is nature's way of punishing Qetsiyah. From the Other Side, she has watched her enemies fall in love for thousands of years."

Stefan glanced at Elena for a moment. He had a sickening feeling as if his life had never been his own. The spirits had pushed him into Katherine and Elena's paths. Both times he only had heartache and loss to show for the relationships. "You mentioned that your family was cursed, too?"

Lucy nodded and looked down at her hands. "The spirits decided that Qetsiyah's actions should serve as a warning to all witches but especially those of the Bennett line. We are not above the rules of nature. Therefore, each century the most powerful witch born to our line is cursed. The witch is cursed with a soul mate that is in love with Amara's doppelganger."

Realization washed over Damon as he listened to Lucy. "Bonnie is the one that is cursed this time around. And you think that I am her soulmate?"

Jeremy looked as if he wanted to murder Damon. "You can't be serious! Soulmates are storylines in trashy novels. It's not a real thing. Bonnie certainly wouldn't be bound to a vampire. She hates them and so do your ancestors."

In a cutting tone Lucy asked, "Just as vampires and werewolves are the things of fantasy?"

He clenched his fists in anger but fell silent. As much as he didn't want to consider this idea, he doubted this woman would travel in a blizzard to lie.

Lucy said, "I assumed that Damon was Bonnie's soulmate because of his interest in her but perhaps our ancestors misread the situation. We never know who the soulmate will be until we see the mark."

"What is she talking about, Damon? What interest do you have in Bonnie?" Elena asked.

Stefan smirked. "Yes, brother. What is dear Lucy talking about?"

Damon glared at his younger brother, but realized that lying was not an option. "I've been looking out for Bonnie. I was trying to make sure that Klaus didn't kill her. She's the only way we're going to be able to defeat him and I was right about that."

Caroline scoffed at his partial explanation. She interjected, "Miss Sheila said that you've been breaking in Bonnie's house at night."

Elena's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "What?"

Even Matt looked startled by that revelation.

Tyler frowned at Damon as if seeing him in a new light. "Why?"

Damon ignored the teenagers various looks of condemnation and suspicion. He didn't feel like discussing this any further and they didn't have the power to make him. "What mark are you talking about?"

Lucy said, "It is usually a crescent shaped blemish that appears on the back, chest, or sometimes on the wrist."

Damon's mind raced. "I…"

Stefan chuckled heartily. "Damon and I both have the same mark. We thought that they were birthmarks."

Lucy stood up quickly. "That's not possible. There can only be one soulmate."

The caramel haired vampire removed his t-shirt and then stood in front of everyone. Sure enough, there was a crescent shaped birthmark on his left shoulder blade. "I noticed that Bonnie has one just like this...I thought it was a coincidence."

Damon unbuttoned his shirt and revealed the crescent shaped birthmark on his right pec.

Caroline asked, "Could Bonnie have two soul mates?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, there must be some other explanation for this. For over a thousand years there has been one soul mate for the cursed Bennett witch." She frowned as if she was mulling something over in her head. "There is a chance that one of you was Emily Bennett's soul mate. The two of you being turned into vampires may have changed something. Did either of you feel drawn to Emily?"

Stefan frowned and then said, "I…I thought that she was beautiful and interesting. I used to seek Emily out to talk but then Katherine started compelling me. Suddenly, I only thought of her as a servant. Katherine didn't like sharing the spotlight with anyone."

Damon looked down at this glass. He remembered trying and failing to save Emily from being killed. They had grown closer after Katherine was out of the picture. He said, "Maybe…"

Lucy said, "I am going to have to do some research. There has to be a way to figure out which of you is Bonnie's soulmate."