The woman has not said much since I arrived, the two of us sitting in her living room. She's currently holding a too-full glass of wine, and I'm not one to stop her. The talisman lays flat against the coffee table, gem pointed toward her, as though it were trying to reach her.
She downs half of the glass in one long draw, and any confidence I had that this would be a cogent conversation fell down the drain. Damn it.
"What do you want with my granddaughter?" Despite the lull in her speech, it's terse and to the point.
"Nothing more than what you want, as far as I'm concerned. She's not accepting her gift, is she?"
The woman pauses, hesitates, but eventually, the alcohol decides for her. "Her father wanted nothing to do with our side of the family, and despite all the signs pointing to her abilities manifesting, she's just not getting it."
Ah. So let me fill in the blanks here. Rudy, Bonnie's father, noticed Sheila's alcoholism and convinced Bonnie that everything the woman said was a drunken delusion.
"Do you want a glass of water?" I ask pointedly, and she just looks at me for a moment.
"Are you insulting-" hic! "-the choices of an old woman, son?" Such a question would sound much more tenacious if everything she said were with sobriety.
"Of course not. I'm far too liberal for that. What you do with your body is your business." Honestly, that's not exactly my true opinion; if someone is hurting the relationships of the people around them, then they have an obligation to change their habits. But the damage is already done at a woman her age, so it might be too late to do anything worthwhile. "But I think Bonnie might not share my opinion. She's… not listening to what you're saying, Sheila. Not learning from you like she could be." And if you watch your alcohol, your body will be strong enough to not die attempting a simple spell like opening the damned tomb. "She probably thinks you're delusional."
She hesitates, staring at the glass and then at me before she downs the rest of the glass, setting it down on the table. Her eyes flicker toward the rest of the bottle, but eventually, she turns back toward me.
"How do you know so much anyway?"
Ooh, pointed question. I don't let it phase me. "I don't know if you ever met my mom in your dealings with the Coven, but Megan's something of a seer, and I think the talent for it passed down to me. I have… dreams of the future, of this town and the people that live here, and one of the most important figures in them is your granddaughter Bonnie." She isn't skeptical, per se, but I'm not sure if she's sober enough to try to pass an insight check. "Do you want specifics?"
She nods once, head slowly tipping back as she clenches her fists.
"Well, I don't know much about this talisman," I point to it, "but I can tell that it's intimately connected to your family, to a legacy of vampires, and to Bonnie. I think it will serve your granddaughter well to possess it in the near future, to act as a focus for her magic."
Something comes to mind, and I realize that the amulet might not actually possess any magic of its own right now, at least until the comet passes in the next couple days. I'm not sure if Sheila knows this or not.
"It belonged to one of my ancestors, acted as her personal talisman," the woman begins after a short moment. She opens her mouth to continue and then stops, clearly not wanting to speak further. Good instincts, though I already know about it being a key to the tomb.
I don't wait for an invitation to continue. "There are already vampires in town again after all this time-"
"Doesn't take a genius to figure that out." The woman snorts. "Animal attacks."
"Yes. I'm not sure how many there are in Mystic Falls right now, but there are two of them, a pair of brothers. They are intimately connected to Bonnie's future."
The woman's eyes widened. "What do you mean? Is my Bonnie in d-" hic! "danger?"
Loaded question. "Yes, but not really from them. Assuming that what I've seen is correct, I think they will eventually become allies against greater threats to the town at large."
"Allies?" She laughs. "My granddaughter will not ally herself with vampires. Those abominations only bring chaos into the world, and Bonnie will not be any part of it."
I don't know how to react to that. The witches' hatred of vampires has always bugged me. Understandable, yes, but not all vampires are the same. Hell, even someone like Elijah proves that not all vampires are the same from their very conception. Not that Elijah is exactly a paragon of morality a lot of the time, but I digress. If you twist the perspective a bit, I'd argue Mikael might be the witches' favorite, given his diet.
"Good. Then help me to make sure that Bonnie has the tools and the power that she needs to protect herself in the future, should such a future come to pass." I stand up and head to the kitchen, ignoring her protests. I pilfer through her cabinets, taking time to appreciate her spice rack, before finding a glass.
I follow back to the living room with a glass of water in tow, sitting it down on the table in front of her.
"I told Joshua a long time ago that my affairs with the Gemini Coven are done." She doesn't make a grab for the water, but she doesn't try to pour herself another drink either. I consider it a win.
"This isn't for the Coven. I'm no longer linked to them in any way." Never really intended to ally myself with them long term anyway. They didn't care for my kind any more than witches as a whole care for vampires. "My dreams have brought me here, to Mystic Falls, because somehow, this place is important. I want to be of use, to prevent tragedies from occurring." I point to the talisman. "Already, by bringing this to you, I'm certain that it can't be used for any nefarious ends. It's Bonnie's birthright; it belongs with her."
Damon will be pissed that it's not where he left it, but who cares what Damon thinks?
Reflexively, I knock twice on the wood of her end table.