Over the next few days, Bonnie went with her Gran to collect wild flowers, seaweed and other local things that could be used in herbal remedies. Bonnie also started meditating and practicing how to use her powers and to block them when she didn't need to use them. One day her Gran gave her a small, plain gold ring and asked to Bonnie to tell her about it.
"I feel very down, very sad. But loved as well, the person whose ring this is was loved a lot, to the end."
Her Gran nodded, "aye. That was a ring that was given to me by my mother when she died. It was her wedding ring. You're doing very well Lass, I'm proud of you." Bonnie wasn't so sure, she hadn't even begun to start thinking of her awful situation and she didn't even know where to start, it was impossible. "Oh Gran, what am I going to do? I'm in such a mess. Matt's great, he's perfection, but Damon's, well, unpredictable, dangerous and gorgeous to boot. But that night in the clearing when he looked at me, his barriers were down just for a second. Oh Gran, he's so lonely." Bonnie sighed and stared into her tea.
"If you're going to choose him, it has to be because you love him, not because you want to heal him. In my day it was a lot simpler, we went on dates." Bonnie suddenly collapsed into a fit of giggles. "Oh, that's so funny. I can't imagine going on a normal date with Damon!" The giggles soon subsided as suddenly as they started "Damon isn't looking to go on dates," she explained to her bemused Gran. "Damon is looking for someone to spend all eternity with and she has to have power. Elena could barely resist him but she's with his brother and he's sort of accepted that so now he's after me. He scares me," Bonnie sighed again.
"Enough of this moping around. You see those big black clouds out at sea? They mean that there's a storm brewing and we're going to need a few supplies before the storm sets in. Could you drive to the village and get some things for me? I have a list here and if there's anything that you want then just get it." Bonnie was given some money and the list and as she went out the door her Gran called after her "drive straight back now, you need to be here before the storm or else you'll need to stay in the village where it's safe," Bonnie turned to question her Gran but she'd gone so she shrugged it off and drove to the village. As Bonnie hurried round the shops getting her Grans' shopping she bumped into Ursilla "Hello Bonnie, getting some emergency supplies are we?" Ursilla grinned as she looked at Bonnies' basket. "I prefer Tuna to chocolate as comfort food myself, but I suppose everyone's taste is different."
Bonnie pulled a face at her new friend's teasing "urgh! Gross! Chocolate is the best any day of the week. Do storms round here usually cause this much panic?" Ursilla nodded, her expression suddenly serious. "Aye, we're on the coast and if there's a fierce one then it'll land here first and your Gran's house may be cut off. Good luck with your shopping Bonnie, I'd better be off now." Bonnie stared after Ursilla, there was something in this storm that people were scared of and they weren't telling her and that made Bonnie scared as well so she hastily grabbed the rest of the list and ran back to the Land Rover, the clouds were already closing in but Bonnie was sure that she'd make it back in time.
Bonnie drove as fast as she could drive safely, but halfway to ColliGhilly she realised that she might not make it, but as the mountain road had nowhere to turn round she carried on. All the while the sky was getting darker and darker and she began to sense a heavy presence. Thunder crashed suddenly over her head, making her jump and scream a little she was nearly at ColliGhilly and not far from the house, there was no turning back now.
Suddenly the thunder crashed again, this time lightning followed with an almighty crash and almost too late Bonnie saw a tree falling down the mountain side into the road. She slammed on the breaks and got out of the car, the tree was too big for her to move she'd have to go back to the village but as she got in the land rover and put it into reverse the rain came down so hard she couldn't see out of the windscreen, she put her hazards on and started to reverse slowly but it was impossible. She tried to phone her Gran but she couldn't get a signal. There were two options, sit tight or start walking.
Back at the house Tara was getting worried as the phone line was down, there was no signal on her cell and there was no sign of Bonnie. The storm was close now and she could feel the black presence inside getting angrier and then there was suddenly a knock at the door. Tara rushed to the door and her heart sank as she opened it, it wasn't Bonnie. "She isn't here, she went to the village but she's not back yet" she said. "The storm's getting stronger, she has to be here before it hits." With that she shut and locked the door, praying her granddaughter would come back to her safe.
Bonnie meanwhile, had decided to walk as she had a niggling feeling that it would be safer then staying in the car. She had managed to clamber over the tree and started to walk along the mountain road jumping at every clap of thunder. She walked close to the crash barrier trying to keep an eye on the mountain, the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled. Bonnie suddenly regretted her decision to walk and she turned around, but when she got back to the land rover she found the tree had started off a small landslide that had hit the land rover, she was trapped.
"I wouldn't say trapped, but I'd say you needed rescuing." Bonnie jumped out of her skin and gasped in shock when she turned around and saw a rather wet Damon Salvatore standing besides her smiling smugly, the light in his otherwise black eyes dancing. "How? Why? Where?" she couldn't get the words out of her mouth.
"I'll explain later. Right now we need to get out of here." his expression turned serious and Bonnie just nodded. Damon lifted the tree from one end and with not too much effort dragged it out of the way, then after clearing a couple of small boulders from around the land rover he opened the door for Bonnie on the passenger side and then the next second Bonnie found him sitting next to her and the engine of the jeep running."Damon?" she whispered staring out of the windscreen, "what's in the storm?" Damon turned to look her, his face cold and hard."I don't know what it is but it's angry. Now buckle up." With that he put his foot down on the floor leaving Bonnie bracing herself as they sped round the hairpin bends at top speed despite the rain.
In no time at all they arrived safely at ColliGhilly, but as they drew up to the car park Bonnie could see someone standing on the edge of the foreshore in the wind and rain gazing out to sea. "That's Ursilla!" she cried as Damon stopped.
"Whoever it is can stay there. I have to get you back" he snapped but Bonnie unbuckled her belt, opened the door and ran towards her friend.
"Ursilla!" she shouted, the Selkie looked round startled to hear her voice. Her expression changed to horror the next second as Damon caught up with Bonnie and in one fluid movement he had his arm around her waist and had lifted her off the ground."Damon let me go!" yelled a furious Bonnie as Damon began to walk towards the track, but he didn't reply.
Ursilla started running towards him yelling at him as well. "Put her down Vampire or you'll get us all killed! This is the work of the blue men, they'll not be after her!" she yelled. Bonnie chimed in "she's a Selkie Damon, she's needs our help!" whilst she was trying unsuccessfully to wriggle from his grasp. Damon stopped and put Bonnie down, muttering a curse under his breath. Ursilla rushed over to them, her face was pale and her eyes were red and puffy where she'd been crying "Oh Bonnie! I saw my brother the other night and I told him that you'd found my skin and it was on the boat, he was so angry he went to the chief of the Blue Men," she started sobbing and Bonnie gave her a comforting hug.
Damon just stood there listening intently, Bonnie could feel his power and it fascinated her, she felt almost drawn to it. "Who are these Blue Men?" Damon asked abruptly, Ursilla turned towards him and told him of the men with blue skin who were the Scottish branch of the Mer. Family who lived in deep caves underwater caves and like their more well known cousins they would swim alongside ships and try to lure the sailors into the sea, or create a storm like the one that would be upon them at any moment. Ursilla told how her brother had swum to one of these caves and had struck a deal with the chief, her skin in return for her husband whom they both knew would be taking his boat out round Skye to Lewis. Then she told how he left very early that morning whilst she was still asleep and when she woke up she found that he had taken her boys with him, now the storm was here and they were in the Minch and she had no way to reach them.
Bonnie felt a huge surge of power from Damon and she turned to see him staring out to sea, she tried to comfort her friend as she waited for Damon to finish finding her husband. A minute later he turned to her and said harshly "they've been picked up by a coastguard, they're going to be okay but their ship sunk so no doubt you'll get your skin. Now we need to go to the house, I don't think the chief of these Blue Men will be very happy that your husband was rescued." With that he picked up one woman under each arm and ran at supernatural speed to the house in about a minute. The storm continued to roar overhead as he knocked on the door and Bonnies' Gran opened it. "Oh Bonnie! Thank the Gods you're safe! Come in- all of you" she yelled above the wind looking especially at Damon.
Once inside she made the girls change from their wet clothes into some dry ones, whilst Ursilla was changing and her Gran was making the hot toddy Bonnie cornered Damon. "I thought you were going to wait for me to come back to America" she said softly so no one could overhear.
"I got bored" Damon shrugged. "If you want me to go when the storm's over I will, but whilst I'm here it would make more sense for me to stay." He smiled with one corner of his mouth and Bonnie smiled back.