Battling my Demons (Book 1 of Trilogy of War)

by naleysocute23

A prophecy foretold years ago of a witch hybrid to being the end of the original hybrid. Stories told to witches that were just learning of their powers. A witch hybrid to be a savior or a threat to their world. There was just one problem. They failed to inform Bonnie Bennett that she to become the prophesized witch hybrid. (Bonnie-centric)

7. A step back home

~ Chapter Six ~

"Like a pheasant fleeing a falcon,
the darkness has escaped through my window,
and I savor the magnificent fragrance of the sacrifice,
which fills my room."- Yun Dong-Ju (A Single Candle)

Monday, 1st February 2010

In one of the many guest room of the Bennett house, Matt Donovan, and Bonnie Bennett laid on top of the queen size bed set up for him. After being caught up to date about herself and the supernatural world, the blonde teen turned his head to look at her amazed "A witch hybrid."

Bonnie looked at him and nodded.

"Are you okay? I mean I haven't scared you away" she notes.

"Are you?" he asked back causing Bonnie to look at him confused.

Matt turned to his side and leaned his head against the palm of his hand. "Not only as a witch did you have troubles in Mystic Fall but you're this prophesied witch-hybrid that is supposed to battle the Original hybrid. Then you find out that your family line is not only witches but assassins for so many generations. That alone is a lot for me to take on and I can't begin to imagine how you're trying to accept all of this after losing your Grams and Dad."

Bonnie looked up at the white ceiling, her fingers rhythmically tapping her stomach speaking her thoughts out loud "I have to accept it and become the best I can be."

"No anger?"

She smirks "A lot, but that fuels my powers" she looks to him "You?"

With a sigh, he lies back down comfortably beside her "A lot. Every time I see Damon or Stefan I just want to-" he paused a little ashamed that his mind has reached that side of him.

"Kill them" Bonnie supplied.

Matt looks to her "It's okay to feel that" she assures him "it's what drives me to become a better assassin. To kill."

"It shouldn't be. We're only seventeen; this shouldn't be our lives, to have this urge-"

"It's human nature to kill; we just have the strength and enough sanity to hold back on acting upon it-" she pauses and looks to him "-Are you sure you're okay to train with my uncle?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine, right? He sounds like a tough teacher."

She nods looking back up to the ceiling "My uncle is strict, but you'll learn how to defend yourself against vampires."

Silence settles between them until Bonnie asks "You want to tell me why you broke up with Caroline beside wanting space from her. You know she believes there's a more to your reason."

Matt chuckles sadly of his relationship status " I liked Caroline, and I did want a relationship with her but since finding out about vampires and witches I just kept thinking about keeping all of it a secret from her."

"You don't want to lie to her."

He shakes his head "That, and I don't want to put her in danger of what I know. Isn't that why you never told me?"

She smiles nodding "Yeah" she mouths then asks "Have you spoken to Elena since she told you how Vicki got killed?"

He chuckles bitterly at the thought of Elena "I've been avoiding her at every chance she tried to talk to me again. I know Vicki wasn't the best person to be around, and I get that Stefan was saving Elena but Vicki-"

"Is still your sister. She's your family, and she got taken away so brutally. I get it" she looks to him "It's okay to be angry at her, at Stefan and Damon."

Matt breathes in and out humming in agreement.

He turns his head to look at her "Bonnie?"

Getting her attention, Bonnie turns to look at him "I'm sorry for yelling at you last time" he says

Her lip turns upward a little and says back to him "I'm sorry too for not telling you the truth about vampire" she begins to tear up "and I'm sorry about Vicki."

"Hey, hey come here" he stretches out his arm as Bonnie lifts her head and moves closer to him.

Laying her head on his shoulder "No more secrets" he said.

Bonnie nods into Matt's shoulder mumbling "No more secrets."

"I missed having you around," he said looking down at her.

"Me too. I'm glad you're here now"

---

Tuesday 2nd February 2010

Nearing midday in the Bennett household, Michael and Bonnie were to be found in the library, busy shuffling through their piles of notes and articles collected over the weeks. With Robbie, Alexis, Derek, and Marcus at school and Matt training with her uncle, it left Michael and Bonnie the time to go over their case in peace and quiet. Not that the quiet would last long if these two would clash head.

Taking a bite out of the apple, Bonnie laid back frustrated on the couch "Mike! He can't be that difficult to find."

Michael looked up from his notes to his cousin beside him "Well he is. Unless somebody was able to pinpoint the location from the blood of that vampire."

"Yeah well it was my first time with the whole blood memory thing on a mission," Bonnie said annoyed that her cousin was bringing that up.

Raising his hands up in defense "I'm not blaming you on that, I'm just stating the facts. We had a lead and now we need to find a way to a better lead."

"Need some help on the case?"

Bonnie and Michael looked up to see Rosario and Amerie walk into the library.

Swallowing the piece of apple, Bonnie sat up and looked at the two woman standing across from them. Nudging Michael she motioned with her head for him to recap it, but instead he motioned his head back to her.

"Me?" she said surprised.

"Good for practice when you're presenting an assignment to the coven," he said.

"Fine" she mumbled and handed her unfinished apple to him. Michael took a bite of it and laid back on the couch to watch his cousin present the case.

"You know about the kidnappings in Redwater" Rosario and Amerie nodded.

Bonnie pulled out snippets of newspapers articles speaking of animal attacks over the week "Michael was able to track the group of vampires with the same M.O. All attacks lasted for a week and were covered up to be animal attacks. The last attacks were always at motels or bed and breakfasts" she pulls out the map pointing to Redwater "the attacks began in Chicago then to Richmond then to the recent one in Redwater, where we were able to intervene before the last day of the attack."

Amerie looked at the map "That's pretty specific areas they were targeting. While I wouldn't question if it was Richmond, then Redwater give that they are not far distance from each other. But to travel from Chicago to Richmond means they could be searching for someone or something."

"Exactly what Michael and I concluded" Bonnie answered "Going to Redwater we discovered that they were searching for the moonstone" and picked up a drawing only to pass it to the ladies. Alexis was able to sketch the man from Bonnie's description from the blood memories.

Rosario picked up the piece of paper that held a sketch of a good looking man "Who's this?" , she asks

"Domenic Maestri"

"The brothel owner?" Rosario said surprised looking to her son and niece "How did you even get a good look at him?"

Michael while chewing, proudly pointed to Bonnie "This one and the blood memories from the leader of the ripper vampire group that were responsible for the kidnapping."

"They were working under the orders of Maestri?" Amerie questioned catching on to the story.

Bonnie nods "From the blood memory, it seems Maestri had blackmailed the leader that he would reveal them to us. Domenic wanted them to search for the moonstone to get rid of his debt."

"To Klaus?"

Bonnie nods "Yep."

"We shouldn't be surprised, he got Chiara breaking into mom's office for that information," Rosario said.

"That would've been a waste of time since it was a recount of everything we knew so far about the moonstone and the curse," Michael said before taking a bite out of the apple.

"Chicago…Richmond…Redwater…" Amerie whispered in thought as Rosario, Bonnie and Michael looked to her.

"What're you thinking?" Rosario asked

"These locations must be where the moonstone was. Domenic is following the moonstone's track meaning he is following a track of somebody."

"Then we're screwed. We have no idea what this moonstone looks like let alone who had or have this moonstone today."

"Maybe this will help," a voice behind them said.

"Eric," Amerie chirped walking up to greet him with a chaste kiss.

"I thought you were coming back tomorrow?" she wondered after the kiss.

Eric Johnson was a man of dark complexion. Dressed in a blue t-shirt and black cargo pants he said with a smile "Well, got the job done and I missed my beautiful wife."

"Not your kids?" she asked

"Eh a little" he joked back.

Grabbing his hand, he followed her to the table and gave Bonnie the folder "It seems your kidnapping case was connected to my case in England."

Michael sat up intrigued and looked down to the manila folder Bonnie opened to see a sketch of a familiar face "What the hell?" Michael and Bonnie whispered looking up to Eric

"Katherine Pierce a.k.a. Katarina Petrova" Eric supplied.

Michael looked back down "Shit she looks like Elena or I should say the other way around."

Bonnie looked back down "They were tracking Katherine."

"The vampire I interrogated confessed that Domenic was tracing Katherine tracks from words of Klaus. Apparently, Katherine had stayed with Klaus years ago then betrayed him when she stole the moonstone from him."

"Why?" Michael asked.

Bonnie looked at him as he asked: "Why would she betray Klaus?"

Thinking for a while, Bonnie suggests "Protection for somebody" she looks down at the sketch "Or herself" she mutters.

Rosario looks to Eric "Guessing you began to make the connection."

"Yeah, it took awhile, " he said motioning to the folder.

Michael took out the page of the written timeline Eric drew up. The older man continued to explain "I noticed where the kidnappings happened Domenic left his mark there" he steps forward to pull out photos and hands it to Bonnie. Bonnie looks through the zoomed up pictures of a small red spray painted omega sign in the different locations either on the wall or spray painted on the ground.

"Wait-" Michael said in remembrance "When we moved into the attack that's what that vampire was spray painting" he places his hand over the symbol showing only half of the omega symbol "Well what he had started spray painting on the wall. Didn't think much of it."

"Omega sign," Bonnie says "The end of what?"

"The search in that town" guessed Michael.

"Literal meaning. I like that" Amerie said impressed "Straight to the point."

Bonnie looked down to the map and chuckled in realization "Meaning Katherine was once at Redwater. The old lady said it was a generational B&B meaning there's the possibility of Katherine staying there. Those vampires would've had access to the logbooks dating that far back."

"Damn! How did we miss that?!" Michael said frustrated

"Firstly we didn't know about the Katherine link," Bonnie said then looked to the adults "Mystic Falls is going to be next place, Domenic search."

"He would have to do it himself since you two got rid of the vampires he sent out or he may send out another team himself," Amerie said only to add "Unless we..."

"I know that look," Eric said looking down to his wife then looked to Bonnie and inform her "This look," his finger motions in a circular motion around Amerie's face "is not a good look that you should be happy to see. Her plans are usually the ones that are too risky and almost cutting it close to putting us in danger."

Amerie looked at Eric and gasped offended "I will have you believe that what I'm thinking right now is not dangerous" she looked to Bonnie and Michael "We spread the word that the moonstone has been seen in Mystic Falls with a couple of vampires."

"No," Bonnie said immediately surprising everyone as they looked to her "I'm not putting the lives of the people I care about in danger."

"Bon, it's just the Salvatore vampires we need as bait and they can defend themselves," Michael said in confusion that Bonnie considered them necessary

"Elena is important to them both. She could be put into danger or even Caroline because she's friends with Elena."

Amerie assured her "That's why we put together a team that will lay low in Mystic Falls. They will monitor the movements from the Salvatore brothers and Elena. Even though we may not have faced Domenic, we know how his mind thinks. When he knows who the target is, he goes for them. Besides what we know of his profile is that he doesn't like the blackmailing scheme unless it is necessary."

"How do we know Klaus won't show up, with Domenic?" Bonnie asked.

"We can't be sure, but we'll know Domenic is the only one to get the word of this, definitely, " Amerie said

"Ahh Chiara" Rosario said catching on looking to Amerie "Get word to Chiara who will tell Domenic."

Bonnie leaned towards Michael "The crazy witch that broke into Gram's office?" she whispered

Seeing Michael nod she wondered of their method "Are you guys just going to spread the word and hope it gets to Chiara? Isn't there a chance that she would not get word of that."

Amerie smiled "Fear not my doubting Bonnie, we just need to get word to a particular witch I know that knows Chiara personally. This particular witch owes a debt to Domenic."

"A witch in debt with a vampire?" Bonnie said surprised.

"Oh trust me the number of times you hear of a supernatural being in debt with someone will become old news to you, especially when it comes to Tristan." Michael said knowingly and looked to Amerie "How much does he owe Domenic now?"

"Too much, and I think he's getting tired of always looking over his shoulders for Domenic," Amerie said

Piecing together the plan in her head, Bonnie looked to Amerie stating out loud "So let me see if I got this right. You're going to lie to Tristan about the moonstone in Mystic Falls. Tristian will then tell Chiara that Damon and Stefan found the moonstone. Chiara will tell Domenic, and you think he'll rock up to Mystic Falls and what? Kidnap Damon or Stefan for the stone?"

Amerie merely nodded seeing nothing wrong with her plan

Bonnie shook her head stating knowingly "We save them and you know they'd want to know what is going on."

"Who?" Amerie asked confused

"Damon or Stefan if they catch us," Rosario said looking to Bonnie "We don't need to tell them anything not unless it is necessary. Besides I know you guys will stop Domenic before he has a chance to do any damage" she finished confidently.

Bonnie and Michael looked to each as he said "Mom's right. We can do this, and it is a good plan."

"Yeah, it is," Bonnie admitted pushing aside her guilt of using the Salvatore brothers as bait.

Looking back at Amerie "Thanks for the plan" she says.

"No worries, but your uncle and aunt get the last word in the plans," Amerie said looking to Rosario.

"Plans seems alright. I know Gabriel would want Marcus and Bonnie to deal with the interrogation of Domenic and ask the whereabouts of Klaus if he isn't there" she looks to Eric "Best you join them and oversee them."

Bonnie rolled her eyes "Marcus and I will be okay with the interrogation. We've done enough training for it so far."

"Well consider this your first practical assessment and Eric will be the one accessing it," Rosario said waiting for her niece to challenge her.

"Fine" Bonnie said not wanting to test her aunt from the look she was giving her

"Hey Bon-" Matt stopped when he saw that it wasn't just Bonnie and Michael in the room "I'll come back later," he said sensing that the conversation was not something for his ears.

"No, no we're done," Rosario said waving him in looking to Eric "Eric this is Matt Donovan a friend of Bonnie that will be staying with us for a while."

Eric looked to Matt and reached out his hand; the older man shook it while Rosario continued the introduction "Matt this is Robbie and Alexis' father, Eric Johnson."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Johnson," Matt said respectfully.

"Please call me Eric," he said then asked curious "Witch, vampire or werewolf?"

"Uhh human," Matt said taken back from the unexpected question.

The man pursed his lips in surprise letting go of Matt's hand "A human, staying in this house? Well, that's a first."

"So I'm told," Matt said with a smile.

Eric looked to Amerie "I'll go pick up the kids."

"I'll join you. We can have dinner at the bar after the meeting tonight" Amerie finished then looked to Rosario "Talk later."

Rosario nodded and watched Eric and Amerie leave the library then looked to Bonnie and Michael "Once Gab, and I approve of the team and the plans we'll move pretty swiftly with this plan."

Michael and Bonnie nodded as the older woman said "I'll leave you three" she looks to Matt "Gabriel still in the training room?"

Matt shook his head "No he said he needed to grab something from his office."

"Okay," Rosario said and left the room.

Once alone Matt couldn't help but look down to the coffee table and frown "Elena?" he said picking up the sketch

"Nope, Katerina Petrova"

Matt looked to Bonnie "The one that Damon wanted to open the tomb for?"

Bonnie nodded as Matt looked down to the picture "The resemblance is scary."

"Think vampire version of Elena" Michael inputted causing both Bonnie and Michael look to him with a raised eyebrow "Hey her personality could become like that or worse."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and looked to Matt "Training go okay?"

Placing the picture on the table "Yeah. Your uncle is a strict teacher."

"Told you that it might have been better to train with Scott."

Matt shook his head "No, I need someone that will give me a reality check. I got to start protecting myself now knowing about vampires and who knows what when I get back to Mystic Falls"

---

Later that night: Gabriel Bennett's office

After a long day of teaching Matt, the core combat skills, looking over what Michael and Bonnie had gathered along with Eric's findings, Gabriel tiredly leaned back in his office chair.

Gathered this late evening before dinner, Amerie just finished explaining her plan to him. Gabriel tilted his head a little to his right and looked past the back of Rosario who sat on the edge of his desk. He could sense Rosario's uneasiness about sending Bonnie and Marcus so soon for interrogation.

"Michael, Marcus, Bonnie and Eric is a good team to put together for this, " he said looking to Eric seated on the couch in his office "Eric will be capable of watching over them."

With her arms crossed over her chest, she looked behind to Gabriel "I know" she looks down at the ground "I'm just still getting used to the idea of Bonnie going out on her own so soon."

"She needs us to do this. She'd hate us for sidelining after her battle with Adara" reminded Gabriel.

"I know," Rosario said knowingly of the many times Bonnie has expressed that she is in control of her powers and ready.

"I know" she repeats softly and looks to Scott seated across from Eric and Amerie "Do you think they are ready for interrogation?"

Scott nodded "Yeah I do. Your aura reading was right about partnering Marcus and Bonnie together. Out of everyone, they are more in tune in battle and interrogation" he leans forward "Been a while since I've seen Marcus become more focused in his training since his parent's death."

"Mike has said that Bonnie knows her limits when it comes to interrogation. Who to keep alive and who to not keep alive" Gabriel explained leaning forward in his seat "We should start partnering them up now for missions. Everyone in agreement of this?" he asked but mostly wanted to hear the final word from his wife.

Rosario looks to Eric "One slip up from either Marcus or Bonnie in interrogation report to us."

"Yes ma'am," Eric said.

Rosario looked to her husband "Yes let's start putting them together" she chuckles a little looking to Amerie "Besides don't they look cute together."

"Yes," Amerie said in agreement "From the moment I walked in on them training I could feel the chemistry that I wanted to cry."

"I know! The way they just tether towards each other when one senses the other to be sad" Rosario gushed as the men looked at the two women in confusion. How did such a tense situation turn into a gossiping session?

"Ladies!" Gabriel said getting the women to glare at him "Can we please get back to the plan?" he asked nicely.

They nodded as he continued "So to sum up. Amerie will call Tristan giving him a way to get rid of his debt with Domenic of the moonstone being in the hands of the Salvatore brothers in Mystic Falls. Tristan will talk to Chiara and Domenic should then be on his way to Mystic Falls. Bonnie, Michael, Marcus and Eric will lay low monitoring their allocated people while waiting for Domenic to make the next move on the Salvatore brothers. From then everything will fall into place. We'll finally figure out Klaus' location. Any questions?"

Rosario, Amerie, Eric and Scott shook their head.

"Then let's begin" Gabriel said with a smile.

---

In the hallway, outside of Gabriel's closed office doo, Derek looked down at his vibrating phone and sped away into the guest room he uses when he stays over.

Answering the call he laid back on his bed "Yeah."

"Now that's a little rude to somebody that raised you."

Derek rolled his eyes "Forcibly turned me into a vampire and trained me. Yeah sure let's call it raising" he thought but said back to the caller "Sorry, Klaus."

"That's better," the older vampire said "It seems the Bennett cover got in Domenic's way of finding the moonstone. You want to add on to that report or are you forgetting why you're there?"

Derek clenched his jaw of the reminder "No, sir. They are planning to feed Domenic a bait through Chiara. It'll lead him to Mystic Falls. Eric, Bonnie, Michael, and Marcus are put on this mission to capture Domenic in Mystic Falls."

The young vampire cringed to sound of his master's laughter "Oh brilliant, Derek. Just brilliant. Well, they will be in for a surprise when they get the wrong Maestri."

Derek's eyes widened to Klaus's words. He knew the rumors were true, but he couldn't have Bonnie know that he knew it was true that Domenic had a twin brother. Sebastian Maestri, the sadistic twin brother. Domenic was the brain of the entire brothel for vampire operations, but it was Sebastian that did the dirty work of anyone that got in his brother way, and he enjoyed it. Derek often wondered if that enjoyment of killing was heightened the moment he became a vampire.

"Is that all? How is my dear, witch hybrid."

"She's good, getting stronger," Derek said as his grip on his phone tightened. He regretted telling Klaus about Bonnie being the chosen witch hybrid of the Prophecy. A prophecy that Klaus knew about already.

"Magnificent work, Derek. Goodbye," Klaus said and hanged up.

Derek sighed letting the phone fall from his hand and onto his pillow. He didn't know why he felt guilty, but the more Derek spent his days with the coven, the more he felt included. Derek was betraying their trust in him; Derek knew that. He would have been thrilled and laughed at the idea of betraying the coven when he first started but now-

"We're going out for dinner" Alexis' voice exclaimed as she walked into his room.

Derek smiled at the sound of her voice and raised his head a little to see the beautiful girl waiting for him "A little rude to just barge in here. I could've been changing."

"Oh darn it. I came in too late then" Alexis teased and jumped onto the bed.

Alexis grabbed Derek's phone and placed it on the bedside table. Grabbing Derek's arm she stretched it out. Alexis laid her head upon his shoulder.

Derek smiled and with his outstretched arm pulled her closer to him "I thought you said it was dinner time."

With her eyes closed, she nodded "Hmm it is, but I missed seeing you today" she breathes in his scent.

He kisses the top of her head "Me too" he said truthfully.

Now meeting Alexis, getting to know everyone, this mission was becoming too much for him. He wanted to tell them the truth, but Klaus had compelled him to kill the person he loved the most if he spoke a word to the assassin coven about working for Klaus.

He looked down to the peaceful looking Alexis and pulled her closer to wrapping his other arm around her. He was going to protect her. She wasn't going to die by his hands or anyone else. The moment the coven killed Klaus, then the compulsion will be over, and he can tell her. Tell them the truth.

"We should go before my father comes looking for me," Alexis said opening her eyes.

Derek shook his head "Ten more seconds" he said hugging her.

Alexis chuckled and wrapped her arms around his waist repeating "Ten more seconds."

In the silence of his room, Derek wanted time to stop to have this moment imprinted in his mind. The feelings of being around her burned into his heart. He wanted this moment to last forever.

---

Wednesday, 3rd February 2010

It was late afternoon and the team set up was already at Mystic Falls, preparing for their mission. Well not really, since Matt, on the other hand, was having trouble convincing Bonnie not to feel guilty for leaving him behind when he was her guest.

"Are you sure?" Bonnie asked for probably the most billionth time to Matt.

He rolled his eyes "I swear Bonn if you ask me again I'm hanging up. Besides it gives me a chance to get to know your coven, without you here."

"By playing video games with Robbie and Derek, and having inside jokes with Alexis," she said deadpanned.

"Hey, that's how I bond."

Bonnie laughed "Okay, well enjoy bonding time and try not to drive Alexis crazy."

"Can't promise on that. Don't get caught by Damon" he teased

"I will choose when to get seen by Damon."

Matt frowned "I don't even want to ask what you mean by that" he paused hearing Robbie calling his name "I gotta go but stay safe."

"Will do" she responded and hung up on him to a knock on her door

"Come in," she said

"You ready?" Michael asks entering her room of the quaint bed and breakfast owned by Miss Flowers. Knowing the old lady may have helped to secure a room for the coven on such short notice.

Facing him, she asked him pleadingly "Can we please have me following Elena. I'm not sure I know how I will react seeing either Salvatore brothers."

"You're emotionally attached to Elena. So no. You had a friendship with Stefan whether you like to admit it or not. You've had no personal attachment to Damon, meaning no emotional distraction."

"Besides my anger for what happened to Grams."

"That I know you can control," he said with a smirk turning away to leave but stopped turning around back to her "Don't even think about proving me wrong on that."

Bonnie's jaw clenched cause she may have been thinking about doing just that as Michael raised an eyebrow at his cousin "Promise me that"

"Fine," she said in defeat raising her hand "I promise to control my anger around Damon."

Michael stared at her to reassure himself and then turned to leave her room.

"Are we keeping to the promise?" Adara asks in her mind.

"We have to" Bonnie thinks back only to sigh in reality "We can't let our emotions screw this up. We just tail Damon and make sure he don't get killed by Domenic."

Grabbing her black bomber jacket off the bed, she looked to the desk where a black sheath laid.

"It's just tailing" she reassured herself to leave her sword behind. She should be strong enough to get out of danger during this tailing. Bonnie put on her jacket and left the room to meet with Eric, Michael and Marcus at the reception area.

---

From late afternoon to night of monitoring their allocated people in Mystic Falls. Bonnie groaned in annoyance of tailing Damon. Looking through her sunglasses, Bonnie frowned in confusion watching Damon drunkenly walk further into Mystic Falls woods.

"I'm tempted to make my tailing visible. I want to test how bad Damon's awareness is when he's drunk," Bonnie said into her earpiece go see Liz on vervain matters than most his day drinking and now here wandering into the woods.

"Bonnie" she hears Eric's warning tone

"I'm not" she assured him then asks "Any luck for you guys?"

"I may have finally found a house here. It's a foreclosed one with a car parked nearby. On standby for any movement," Eric said.

"Nothing on Elena here in the Grille. Just hanging out with Caroline and boring my brain out" Marcus said taking a bit out the fries and flip the next page of his book to keep his disguise.

"I'm at the hospital. Can't go in further not without getting caught by Stefan or staff of my wandering. He doesn't seem to be visiting anyone here" Michael said

Bonnie sighed a little worried about when Domenic would make the next move. Shaking her worries she looked around for any eyes on her once assured she sped into the woods keeping a safe distance between her and Damon.

After what felt forever of following the drunk vampire. Was Damon drunk? Or just faking it?

She looked from behind the tree she hiding where Damon was walking. Bonnie felt her heart constrict whispering angrily "What the hell is he doing here?"

She felt her fangs extend in anger and clenched her fist as she watched him walk towards the ruins of Fell's Church.

"Come on out!" he drunkenly called out.

About to step out of her hiding place, she paused from Michael's loud voice "Shit! Domenic just kidnapped Stefan!"

"Michael go pick up Marcus. Bonnie, report back to base to gather the weapons. I'm going to stay here and see if I can get eyes on Stefan. I'll send you all the coordinates."

"Yes, Sir," Marcus and Michael said while Bonnie quickly vampire sped not before hearing Damon yell out "Yeah you run, coward!"

Bonnie chuckled wondering did he catch her or did he think she was a drunken hallucination.

Back out in the public eye, Bonnie asked: "Meet you at the Grill?"

Marcus watched Elena and Caroline stand up to leave "Stay out of sight for awhile. Your friends are just leaving" he said closing his book and stretching.

Putting her hands in her pockets, Bonnie walked towards the town square catching sight of the big Grille sign from afar.

"I'll be there in ten minutes" Michael reported into their ear-coms.

"Roger that," Marcus and Bonnie said.

---

Meanwhile, in Light Haven, Robbie yawned and tiredly rubbed his eyes. He leaned against the wall of the back alley of Haven bar. Robbie should be getting back inside to his friends but at the same time, Robbie didn't. Either way, he regretted taking his mentor's advice to go out with his friends. How did Bonnie even convince him? Did she compel him? God no, she can only compel vampires. He does remember her saying something about wanting Alexis and him to try and have a normal social high school life that didn't consist of studying and coven-related things. Robbie sighed. His life wasn't already average and truthfully he didn't mind. Why should he even be trying to get along with kids in his grade when he rathered be home right now helping his mom looking through the information about the moonstone.

"Well, well, well…"

Robbie turns his head to see an unknown petite woman walk towards him. She was cute, might he add.

"Lucky me that I didn't have to plan to get you alone. You did that for me."

Cute, but not good. Robbie sighed in disappointment that he would have to fight this beauty. Was every woman Robbie found cute bound to be evil? Maybe he has a type he wonders.

Pushing himself off the wall, he turns to face her, "Who are you?" he asks.

With a flash of her smile she says "Chiara."

He takes a quick intake of air remembering Bonnie informing Alexis about Domenic and Chiara's involvement and their search for the moonstone. Robbie looks around his surroundings. This late at night, there were no casualties in sight. He can make a move to attack her, but he would need to be quick before anyone could come outside now, especially if their battling commotion were loud.

"From your silence, I take it that you know who I am."

Her hands moved outwards, but Robbie was quick in his defense. He raises his arms causing the ground to lift upwards and create a shield in front of him. Protecting him from being thrown back from Chiara's magic.

"Oh you assassin's are fast in your magic, but that shield won't keep you safe."

In an instant, Robbie's shield splits in half. Before he could react, he felt her powers wrap tightly around his throat and drag him to stand in front of her. He begins to cough from the choke-hold she had on him. His hands are scraping at his neck to release the hold. She didn't even look like she was performing magic. Chiara spoke no words. No hand movements to perform her magic. Chiara was just looking at him. She was merely a spectator admiring their works.

"You know I've heard about your assassin coven for as long as I can remember. You were highly respected among other covens, among the witches and feared by vampires. The way my coven used to talk about the assassin coven was if you were gods!" she exclaims tightening her hold around Robbie's throat causing the boy to choke up from the restriction of air.

"Now what I want to know is can gods bleed?" with a hard strike she releases her hold on him and with her magic punches him hard in the stomach that sends him flying back, wincing when his back hits the graveled ground.

Holding his stomach he turns to his side to look at the smiling Chiara "Jesus Christ!" he coughs "Is your hand made out of metal?" he wheezes out.

"Aww," she places her hand over her heart "Thank you. Why yes my magic is powerful" she magically turns him back on his back and pulls him across the graveled floor towards her "you haven't seen nothing yet, handsome" she says looking down at him.

Looking up to her "Either have you" he said grabbing her ankles he magically manipulates the ground to go upwards and wrap around Chiara's legs then outwards to wrap around her wrists.

He pushes past the pain in his stomach and lifts his legs pushing himself back up. His hand goes to his belly and bends over in a hunched position. In grief, he looks at the held down Chiara.

"You think this will stop me?!" she exclaims breaking the hold on her.

Robbie shuts his eyes and turns his head away from the flying small rocks comings his way.

"Yeah, he just stepped-" the both turn to see the door open and one of Robbie's friend step out with Amerie following behind.

Chiara throws the human against the wall causing Robbie to scream in anger and pain. He crouches to the ground and slams his fist against the ground. The ground shakes causing Chiara to lose balance and fall on her ass. Robbie winced from the stabbing pain inside and sees a shadow fall over him.

"Stay down and give me another mini quake when I tell you" is all he hears from his mother standing in front of him.

Robbie looks up to warn her that Chiara was dominant, but he stills when he sees her pull out two hooks bladed knives from the back pocket sheaths. Chiara stands up, her eyes flicker down to see the blades in the woman's hand.

"You assassin coven always have something up your sleeves. An injured witch assassin and a witch assassin. Please, I've taken on worse."

The wind starts to pick up in the alleyway "Now!" Amerie yells.

Pushing past his pain, he gathered his powers and slammed his closed fist against the ground in time to see Amerie levitate and throws a hooked blade towards Chiara. The ground begins to split leading towards Chiara who successfully avoid the flying blade, but Amerie smirks and manipulates the air to cause the blade to come flying back and stab Chiara in the back of her neck. The woman screams in pain and surprise. Falling to her knees, she falls forward and places her hands on the ground to stop herself falling face first to the ground. Amerie's feet touches the ground and approaches the heavily breathing witch.

Amerie pulls out the knife "Don't even bother moving, I spelled it to restrict your magic. One spell, and it'll backfire on you."

Chiara laughs when she feels her magic healing her.

"What the hell?" Amerie whispers stepping back at the sight of the knife wound healing.

She lifts her head to look up to Amerie "I know that spell only works on those that use traditional magic. My magic extends a little more than traditional" her eyes bleed black.

"Expression?! Shit!" Amerie thinks in panic stepping back. She looks back to see her son still crouching on the ground in pain; she couldn't get him to perform another spell while injured.

Looking back at Chiara who was slowly getting up meaning she was still a little weak from the stabbing. She pulled out another hook blade and with the two blades now in her hands she manipulated the air around her to push her high up in the air and somersault over Chiara and land to stand behind her.

"Nova caeli" she whispers before putting one blade into Chiara's spinal cord causing the witch to freeze and the next blade just under the short woman's shoulder blade. Chiara's eyes widen in fear of what she was feeling. Her eyes still black but she gasped in fear that she couldn't move and suddenly she couldn't breathe.

"There's a pressure point just under your shoulder blade that is usually used to help with asthma problems, relieve the pressure and let the person breathe in some oxygen" on instinct Chiara tries to breathe air into her lungs.

"You can keep trying, the more you try to breathe the more my blade will absorb it. Almost feeling like I'm suffocating you right now."

Amerie uses her magic to manipulate the oxygen out of Chiara's body, "Let's quicken this so I can get my son to a hospital" she says waiting for Chiara to pass out.

Suddenly someone wraps their arms around her throat from behind putting Amerie in a sleeper hold, causing her to release her grip on the handle of her blades. Amerie's hands fly up to seize the masculine bodyguard-sized arms across her throat. Her nails scraped the stranger's skin, but slowly she begins to lose consciousness that seemed enough time for the vampire to toss her aside.

The big burly white man kneels down to Chiara and quickly pull out the blades. The stranger feeds the woman his blood. Minutes past and Amerie weakly opens her eyes to see the man finished feeding the cradled Chiara. She still seemed weak as he lifted her bridal style and sped out of the alleyway. The older woman lifts herself up and looks to see Robbie now rolled on his back still holding his stomach.

Stumbling and rushing towards Robbie "Baby, tell me what's wrong?" she says in a panic.

"I don't know" he winces "My stomach hurts."

"Okay, baby we're going to get you-" Amerie tries to help Robbie sit up, but he screams in pain crying out

"No, no! It hurts when I move."

She lets him lay back down on the ground immediately dialing her contact for the paramedics. Pros of being in an assassin coven you meet a lot of people and create a network over the years to keeping the secrecy of your coven, especially living in Light Haven for so long.

"Check on Kenny" she hears Robbie say weakly.

Amerie looks to the other side of the alley, with the phone still against her ear she stumbles towards the knocked out Kenny. Kneeling down to her son's friend, she checks his pulse and sighs in relief at the feeling of a pulse. It was weak, but it was a pulse.

"He's okay" she yells out for Robbie to hear.

Robbie just nods weakly. The caller on the other line captures older woman's attention. She quickly explains the situation.

Like a blur, time passes, and she is entering the back of the paramedic van watching the paramedics stable her son as they drive to the Haven Hospital. Paramedics said Kenny was okay, but they were going to need Bonnie to compel the memories away of this night. Eric wasn't picking up his phone meaning they must be in the middle of their mission. Alexis wasn't picking up, not even Derek. Rosario picked up and told her to focus her attention on Robbie, and she'll try and get a hold of everyone else. The older woman takes a deep breath to calm herself and stay strong for her son.

"He's going to be okay, Amerie" she hears the older paramedic say

She looks to the brown-haired man and questions him "He is?"

With a dimpled smile, he says as assuring as he could "He's stable for now, when we get to the hospital they will find out more."

She just nods looking to her son who smiles at her "We're almost there, son."

Robbie nods weakly trying to manage the excruciating pain.

---

Back in Mystic Falls, Michael parked his jeep behind Eric's vehicle. Bonnie, Marcus and himself got out of the car all dressed in black and their weapons on them. Walking up to Eric who was leaning on the car

"Is that the house?" Michael asked motioning to the daunting looking mansion.

Eric nodded "I saw them bring in Stefan with his car" he looks to Bonnie "Seems like Stefan is back to his ripper phase, the boy was robbing the blood bank and a lot of it."

While opening the small box in her hand, she sighed disappointed remembering what her uncle told her about what each Salvatore brother is remembered among the witch covens, like Stefan's past as a ripper.

"Easy torture?" Bonnie asked while putting her ear com back in her ear and hand the small box to Eric followed by Michael and Marcus doing the same.

Eric nodded "Yeah, for a ripper the torture is in the blood."

"Are we sneaking in or through the front door?" Marcus asked

"Marcus and Michael go through the front door" he looks to Bonnie "Stefan's located on the second floor. So you're going to sneak into the house while Marcus and Michael be the distraction" he looks to Michael "Be careful I've only spotted two more vampires besides Domenic and Stefan. So I don't know how many vampires are inside."

"We got you for backup if things go sideways," Michael said before pulling the black mask that hung around his neck over his mouth.

Looking to Marcus and Bonnie "Ready?" he asked.

They nodded and pulled the black mask over their mouth and made their move towards the house.

Bonnie craned her neck up to guess the height from where she stood at the edge of the brown bricked side of the house. She just needed a boost in her jump. Looking to the red 1963 Porsche 356B Karmann Coupe parked beside her she cringed at her idea of even putting her foot on this car, but with her speed and jump from the car she knew she would be able to the top of this building.

She moved to now stand in front of the car "I'm sorry, Stefan, but there's no other way here" she said. Her heightened hearing zeroes in to hear Marcus and Michael enter the big house.

"Hey assholes!" she hears Michael's voice as Marcus's blast open the door with his magic.

Bonnie rolled her eyes at her cousin's language and with her vampire speed ran up the car and jumped off the roof in time for her foot to land on the edge of the building. With wide eyes, her palms touched the ground and pushed her body forward causing her to body roll across the top of the building and stand up so quickly. She blew out a breath of surprise followed by a giggle thankful for her cheerleading experience that helped her with her acrobatic skills.

She frowned at the sight of the open window up ahead.

Tapping her ear com on "I have a bad feeling about this, sir" she said in her ear piece.

"So do we," an out of breath Michael said "These vampires were too easy to take down. Six max here. No more are even coming down, not even Domenic."

"Maestri! Come on down! All your underlings are dead!" they all hear Marcus sing-song followed by Michael slapping the back of his friend's head "Seriously Marcus."

Stefan's screams are heard causing Bonnie to indistinctly rush through the window towards the room of the screams.

"Oh my god" she whispered at the sight of Stefan seated on a wooden chair. His arms were tied to the armrest with his palms facing upwards. Two needles inserted in the middle of both arms drawing blood to lead into two buckets on either side of Stefan.

She rushed to him placing both hands on either side of his face.

Her eyes full of worry "Stefan" she softly taps his cheek "Stefan, wake up."

With heavy eyes, Stefan opened his eyes a little to the familiar voice "Bon; he's-" but Bonnie didn't hear the rest of his words when her back hit the wall of the room.

Opening her eyes, she looked at the smirking dark brown eyed vampire in her vision. Domenic Maestri. Looked to be in 30's, the stubbled beard didn't hide the strong jaw line as she looked down to his beige hand around her throat.

"He has been around for awhile," she thinks.

During her training and fighting other vampires, she has been able to sense the age of vampire. Not their exact age just know who the newbie vampires and who has been one for a long time. It was all in their strength and at times how they approach situations. Newbie vampires, tended to be amped up on their new found power, speed and blood lust which at times makes them impatience and stupid. Stupid makes an easy target.

The vampire's hand gripped her throat, and the other hand was on her shoulder to hold her back. This vampire has been around for centuries.

She looked back up to his face to see him look at Stefan briefly. She catches sight of three prominently aligned scars across his cheek. What the hell? That wasn't in her vision. She used her strength to swat his hand off her shoulder, catching him by surprise for a split second. His grip around her throat loosened giving her enough time to grab his wrist and twist it causing the vampire to scream in pain and step back from her.

Bonnie pulled her sword from its sheath and held it in front of her "Where's Domenic?"

The Domenic look alike laughed twisting his wrist back in place and held his hands up in defense "So you're the witch hybrid" he said impressed.

"Italian?" she guesses from hearing his prominent Italian accent.

Walking towards him, Bonnie asks him again "Where's Domenic?"

"I am him" the look alike said only to hiss from a sudden burn on his neck. The vampire chuckled sensing Bonne's presence behind him. His hand went to his neck to feel a cut now healing. The girl was quick with her sword.

Bonnie raised her curved-sabre.

The tip of the blade was touching the back of his neck "The next cut will be offing your head. Now who the hell are you?" she said warningly.

The look alike smirked at the challenge presented in front of him and turned to face her.

Not phased with the sword at his neck "I don't think you should be so demanding while your friend over there is having his blood drained" he eyes Stefan and continues to taunt Bonnie "The same friend that has fallen back to his ripper state. I hear Ripper Stefan is legendary."

She gritted her teeth in frustration. She shouldn't just kill this Domenic look-alike now. She needed answers from him. Her eyes widened at the sight of a small knife flying into her peripheral vision straight through the side of the vampire's neck. The vampire laughed while pulling the knife and dropping it to the floor. He looked at the knife than to Bonnie only for his smug look to shift to confusion before passing out.

Bonnie lowered her sword and looked to see Marcus and Michael walked into the room towards her.

Michael picked up his knife "Glad to finally use the incapacitating spell with my weapons."

Bonnie placed her sword back in its sheath to nod in understanding of the red handle knife "That's why you made that knife your emergency knife."

Michael nodded and looked at Stefan.

"Stefan doesn't look so well," Michael said into his ear-com.

"Are the blood bags he robbed nearby?" Eric asks while Bonnie and Marcus carefully remove the needles.

Marcus looks around "Yeah here," he says motioning to the bag near his foot behind Stefan's chair. Michael steps over to the past Domenic look-alike and crouches near Marcus to open the bag.

"Okay grab two blood bag and give it to him one at a time. We can't have him losing control now. He needs to be able to have strength to be able to walk to his car" Eric orders them.

"Yes, sir," Michael says grabbing two blood bags and looks up to see that Bonnie and Marcus had tied their black masks around his arm and was applying pressure to stop the bleeding.

Standing up, he motioned for Bonnie to open the semi-conscious Stefan's mouth.

Placing the tube on his lips for the vampire to drink "Yeah he don't have enough strength even to be consciously aware" Michael said.

"I know," Marcus said grabbing one Michael's small knife around his waist and cut diagonally across his palm.

He winced at the deep cut as Michael moved the tube away and watched Marcus with a closed fist raise it above Stefan's lips. They watched drops of Marcus's blood drop into Stefan's mouth. Veins appeared on Stefan's face as he opened his eyes to reveal it to be pitch black and suddenly thrashing his chair to be free when Marcus moved his hand away.

Michael immediately touched the vampire's forehead causing him to sleep as Bonnie looked to Michael "What the hell was that?"

"That Bon is a ripper or the beginning of one" he explained before speaking to the ear piece "Sir, were you able to get into Stefan's car."

"Yeah. I'll come and help you, Michael. We'll drop him off at his place and come back" Eric responded in everyone's earpiece "Marcus, Bonnie are you sure you can handle the interrogation?"

"Yes, sir," Marcus said looking to Bonnie "Besides we know you're going to rush back quickly to watch over the interrogation."

Eric chuckled gripping onto the black gym bag that Marcus and Bonnie packed "Actually I'm going to let you kids run this on your own."

"Really?" Marcus said surprised.

"Yeah I'm still going to watch and hear it from the car, but other than that it's your show, guys."

Eric walked through the front door of the now empty house his voice echoing "Alright let's get this ripper vampire out of here"

---

Joshua walked down the hallway of the emergency section of Haven Hospital towards the waiting area after seeing his friend was okay. He had gotten a call from that he was involved in a minor car accident on his way to visit him. He was all right, just a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises along with an injured tree and car now in need of repair. Luckily the dog on the road was safe. The vampire chuckled to his friend's positive outlook of the accident.

Approaching the waiting area he sees paramedics roll in bed with a familiar face following behind."This one is stable, and we have another one coming through."

Joshua watched the paramedics disappear and looked around in disbelief that no one was checking on the kid. He approached the woman and looked down to recognize the witch on the bed. He was one of the twins; Bonnie was training.

"Robbie?"

"Josh?" Robbie responds back confused about why Bonnie's blood bag vampire was here.

He remembered meeting the guy once or twice when he would come to Light Haven. The first time was to drop off some of Bonnie's Grams things and then lunch happened between the two and before he knew it they were meeting almost every second weekend. His excuse of wanting time away from Whitmore College was an invalid reason because everyone knew he just wanted to see Bonnie, and then the coven found out that Bonnie was getting blood from Joshua. Bonnie said that he was just a friend, but Robbie and everyone else knew she wanted more than a friendship with him, but she was not going to admit to them, to Joshua or herself.

Joshua picks up the clipboard laid on top of Robbie "Whoa what are you doing?" Amerie asks.

"Saving your son, ma'am" he places the clipboard underneath his arm and looks down to the young witch "Where does it hurt?"

"My stomach" he croaks out.

Joshua nods "Okay show me where?"

Robbie weakly taps his left side of his abdomen.

Joshua places his hands on both sides of his stomach "Okay I want you to take a deep breath."

The moment Robbie does, Joshua applies a slight pressure on the left side causing Robbie to groan from the sudden.

"Ahh ugh," the boy says.

Amerie worriedly looks at Joshua when he grabs the clipboard "You're going to be okay, Robbie."

"What are you doing? Let the hospital do their work" Amerie says while trying to take the clipboard away from Joshua.

"He's not stable at all" is all Joshua says to stop Amerie's movements "I know you don't know me but he needs to be seen right now, or it's going to get worse for him where humans can't save him. I would offer my blood, but I know Bonnie has told me that it is looked down upon when a witch from your coven drinks vampire blood. Let me save him now."

She moves her hand away and let him continue writing on the papers clipped on the clipboard.

Joshua looks around the hospital "Oh hey orderly, come here," he says seeing an orderly stride into the waiting area.

With the clipboard in his hand he places his arm over Robbie and grip the railing and roll the bed towards the orderly "Get this kid to OR stat, okay?" he hands the clipboard to the orderly "Oh and here" he says.

Taken by surprise, the orderly takes Robbie from Joshua "Thanks, doc."

"Yeah," Joshua says waving him off without the realization that the orderly referred to him as a doctor.

He turns back around to face the distraught Amerie "He's going to be okay."

"That's what the paramedics said."

He places his hand on both of her shoulders "I assure you he'll be okay. If I'm correct, he may have ruptured his spleen."

"What?!"

Joshua turns the woman and guides her to the chair "Let's just wait here until the nurses call for you. For now, let the doctors do their work."

Amerie just mutely nods. The emergency doors open again and the paramedics roll in Kenny.

"This one is stable," one of the paramedics say.

Amerie looks to Joshua who nods to her unasked question "Yeah he's stable."

Then it clicks to her "Would you be able to compel him to forget what happened tonight?"

Joshua nodded "Yeah sure. Is there a cover story?"

She nods "Attempted mugging on Robbie. Kenny got there in time, but one of the muggers pushed Kenny to knock him out."

Joshua nods in understanding and motions with his head for her to stand up "Cover story" he says.

They approach Kenny's bed "Hey Kenny, is everything okay?" Joshua asks.

Kenny nods.

"Do you remember anything from tonight?"

"A little."

"Let me help you remember," Joshua says before starting his compulsion.

Amerie waits for Joshua to finish his compulsion on Kenny before asking "How did you know about Robbie?"

"I was a doctor once, in this vampire life of mine," he says.

She nods a little relieved he was here "Thanks. I don't know what I would have done with everyone not picking up their phone."

"Bonnie too?" he said surprised.

"She's on a mission in Mystic Falls; she didn't tell you?" Amerie said only to remember that Bonnie has said multiple times that they were not together, together. Just a vampire she got along with that would supply her blood. They had their lives. He would see other girls and she would put her focus on her training and finding Klaus.

Joshua's eyes widen a little to that piece of news. Why would she go back there? Is she okay? Did she need help? Did she- no. He is not her boyfriend. They both made that pretty clear to each other. He shouldn't be worrying about her like this; no he should be hitting on the next girl for his feed or just looking over the notes to teach for class tomorrow. He should be doing anything but thinking about her, but all he wanted to do right now was ask all those questions and be by her side.

---

Back in the abandoned house in Mystic Falls, Bonnie stared across to Marcus and began "Scissors, paper, rock."

The Domenic look alike groaned opening his eyes to the sight of the witch-hybrid sitting cross-legged with a blonde stranger also sitting cross-legged across from her.

"Ha! Paper covers rock" Bonnie's hand covers Marcus's closed fist "Seriously Marcus you're too easy" she teases.

"No, I'm not! This game is stupid" he mutters.

In the jeep parked outside, Eric watched from the screen of his phone of the video feed set up in the room of where the interrogation was to take place.

"You guys do know he's awake?" Eric says into the ear com.

"Oh, " Bonnie says raising her eyebrows looking to the tied-up vampire "He's finally awake. I swear I was going to kick Michael's ass if his spell made us wait for another hour" she said.

"At least he knows this spell works, he has been dying to try the spell out on his weapons," Marcus said standing up and holding his hand towards Bonnie.

She placed her hand into Marcus's outward hand and stood up with his help.

Putting her hands on her hips, she tilted her head to the now awakening vampire "Now where shall we begin?" she asked.

The vampire chuckled admiring the beauty of the now unmasked witch-hybrid "Oh sweetheart; you think you can hurt me? Do you think these ropes can hold me back?" to prove his point he moved his arms upwards only to wince from the ropes tightening around his wrists on the arms of the chair.

Bonnie leaned forward placing her hand on his forearms stating in a low tone "Yeah my partner in crime created a unique spell for those ropes,"

Her finger grazes down his forearm "Every movement that moves a thread of this rope causes it to tighten-" she pauses to pick the thread with her nail causing the rope to tighten a little "-every movement."

The vampire blew out a breath a little turned on. The tied-up vampire looks to Bonnie impressed. Under that innocence, there was a sadistic side simmering out to play. Oh, now he wished to switch side just to get to know her more.

He leans forward not even bothered by the ropes tightening a little almost to be a breath away from the beautiful hybrid "I'll answer that question, now" he looks from her lips to her eyes "I'm not Domenic. I'm his twin brother, Sebastian."

Marcus cleared his throat causing Bonnie to look to her right at him "Do I need to give you guys the room? The sexual tension is killing me right now."

Bonnie chuckled looking at Sebastian who just raised an eyebrow at the suggestion stating "I'm all for it, but you're gonna have to release me from the ropes."

With a smirk, she moved her face towards his neck, the sharp scent of his blood hitting her nose "Tempted I am," she whispered in his ears and pulled back "but I need answers from you."

Bonnie took a step back from Sebastian and looked at Marcus with a prideful smirk, "At least we know his name is Sebastian" she says.

"We can add your seductiveness persuasion in our interrogation tactic," Marcus said teasingly only to say "Ow" from Bonnie nudging him in the ribs "I'm kidding," he said rubbing where she elbowed him.

She looked to Sebastian explaining the situation to him "Now to avoid torture, you just have to answer three questions-"

"Two" Marcus corrected her

"Oh yeah, two. So let's begin with the first question. How did Domenic know he was bait?"

Sebastian wordlessly leaned back in his seat with a smirk upon his face.

Marcus proceeded to ask the next question "Where's Klaus?"

Sebastian tilted his head "Looks like you're gonna have to torture the answer out of me. Trust me, I've been on both sides of torture, so what you hit me with won't break me."

Bonnie smiled a little to the challenge looking to Marcus who was already crouching and unzipping the gym bag Eric brought up.

Grabbing the blood bag, Marcus tossed it to Bonnie "At least give him some strength to withstand the torture," he said.

"Hmmm true," Bonnie said walking back to Sebastian, she placed her legs on either side of him and sat on his lap. She removes the clip from the tube and tosses it aside and raises the bag towards his lips, but he didn't budge.

"Oh come on Sebastian amuse us. We're rookies in the interrogation tactics. My uncle hates that Marcus and I always start our questioning trying to befriend the person we're going to interrogate-" Bonnie paused to down to the crouching Marcus.

Marcus grabbed another blood bag while Bonnie continued to explain"-it probably explains why we never get answers" she looked to Sebastian "yet Marcus and I can't help ourselves of at least wanting to get to know the person we're forced to interrogate."

She moves the short tube towards his lips.

"Only for you," he says and wraps his lips around the tube and begins to suck the blood he stops after drinking almost half of the bag "Satisfied?"

Bonnie smiles handing the bag back to Marcus who places the clip back on the tube and places it back in the gym bag.

He stands up along with Bonnie as they both step back from Sebastian who states "You're uncle is right. You will never get an answer if you contin-" he pauses at the sudden burn inside of him causing him to scream out in pain.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Bonnie asks "Can't hear you over the screaming."

Sebastian's eyes bleed black, veins prominent upon his face "What the hell did you do to me?" he roars out in pain. The pain he had felt before but never to the point of ripping his insides out. It felt like acid was inside him burning everything in him.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry," Bonnie says uncaring "That wasn't just blood. Marcus and I had this idea of mixing a little bit of vervain in blood and often wondered what would happen if a vampire drank it."

Sebastian threw up blood all over his lap causing Marcus and Bonnie to cringe in disgust at the non-stop coughing Sebastian. The sound of bones from the rope digging too hard around his wrist causing the vampire to thrash around in pain.

"Ooo this looks painful," Marcus said.

Bonnie sped to stand behind the chair and leaned down to whisper in his ears "We can stop this pain with the vervain-free blood bag, Marcus holds in his hand" Marcus raises the blood bag tauntingly as Bonnie continues "All you have to do is answer those two questions. How did Domenic know it was a trap? And where is Klaus?"

Sebastian breathed short breaths feeling his throat nearly closing up from the vervain.

"Let me take away some that pain" she whispers in his ears. Her fangs elongate "All you have to do is answer the questions. Let's start with answering question one."

Before Sebastian could recite some coherent answer he gasped painfully at fangs piercing into the side of his neck only to sigh in relief at the feeling of some of the vervain leaving his system but she stopped, and the pain was still there.

"Please," he wheezed out pleadingly.

"How did Domenic know he was bait?"

"No" he shook his head.

"I think he said no" Marcus clicked his tongue disappointed "Maybe we should just empty the whole vervain blood bag in his system" he suggested causing the vampire to take quick breaths in panic.

"How did Domenic know he was bait?" Bonnie asked again running her finger along her bite marks on the side of his neck.

Sebastian doesn't answer causing Bonnie to sigh displeased.

"Do you want more vervain?" she says.

"Mole!" he screams out pausing Marcus in his movement as he looks to the sickly looking Sebastian

"Mole…in our coven?" Marcus says questioningly.

Bonnie speeds to stand in front of Sebastian placing both hands on his shoulders "Who?!"

Sebastian shakes his head "Klaus… would kill… me" he breathes out painfully

"Where is Klaus?" she asks gripping his shoulders tightly

"I'd rather die than tell you where he is."

Bonnie scoffed "You rather die for that vampire? What good has he done for you?"

Sebastian looks at Bonnie and laughs with his bloodied lips "What is good…in this world? He's a sur…survivor"

"You need to wrap this up," Eric says

Marcus grits his teeth knowing they needed time to clean this place and leave before getting caught by anyone "He's too loyal, Bonnie. We don't have enough time" the young witch says.

Bonnie nods "I know. We have what we have, but Domenic needs a message from us."

Stepping back and in one quick motion she pulls her sword and beheads Sebastian.

Marcus and Bonnie watch the head fall to their feet "I did say the next cut would be to off his head" she said with a small smirk.

Bonnie places her sword back in her sheath on her back.

The blonde haired witch picks up the decapitated head "I think Domenic will get the warning" he said and placed in on top of the bloodied mess on Sebastian's lap.

Bonnie speaks into the ear piece "Were you able to see all that?"

"Of you decapitating a vampire's head or about the mole in our coven?" Eric voices back in the ear piece "Rosario was right to match you two. Scary skills you kids got."

"Thanks, sir?" she said confused if it was a compliment

"It's a compliment, Bonnie. You and Marcus may not have gotten all the answers, but you got us a starting point."

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Leave Sebastian. Domenic will send someone to check on his brother. Clean evidence of us ever here. Michael should've already dropped off Stefan. In the meantime, we're going back to the B&B and report this back to Gabriel and Rosario."

"Yes, sir," they all say.

"You do not repeat the issue of the mole in out coven to anyone but Gabriel and Rosario, okay?"

"Yes, sir," they all say.

Bonnie watches Marcus zip up the black gym bag "Ready?" he asks her.

She nods only to remember something "Umm sir, can you stop by the Salvatore house before we go back to the B&B, I just need to see Stefan."

"Bonnie…" Eric starts, but Bonnie gives him a reason

"I need to compel him not to repeat about what happened tonight or about me coming back to Mystic Falls."

Eric is silent for awhile that Bonnie wonders if he's pretending not to have heard her but he responds back "Okay. I'll drive you there tonight before we drive back."

"Thank you, sir!" Bonnie said.

"Ready for clean up?" Marcus said.

Bonnie nodded. They both looked around the room readying themselves to spell the place to remove all evidence of the coven being here.

---

Late at night back in his house, Stefan stared at his bathroom mirror still unsure of what just took place not so long ago. He woke up on his bed with blood on the corner of his lips and on his shirt. After showering, was when Stefan started to remember bits and pieces. He was kidnapped, and he was sure it was Bonnie that saved him. Stefan grabbed his shirt and put it on. Walking out his bathroom, Stefan freezes in surprise at the sight of Bonnie Bennett sitting on his bed.

"Bonnie?" he said surprised.

She smiles weakly holding back on the sudden hit of memories of her Gram's death "How are you feeling?" she asks

"It was you" is all Stefan can say standing there with his unbuttoned shirt staring at her.

She gets up from his bed and walks towards him "You need to control your ripper state."

"I am. It's just that Elena had given me her blood to save me and I just hadn't had human-"

Bonnie laughed causing Stefan to stop mid-sentence "I don't give a shit about how you fell back into your ripper state. The matter of fact is that you're still dating Elena," she walks towards him and stands in front of him.

Bonnie raises her hand and begins to button up his shirt "If I hear that you have hurt Elena or anyone else in this town because you can't control this blood lust then I will come back and kill you without hesitation."

Stefan gulped nervously from their proximity and the fact that he knew she wasn't lying in her warning.

"I will" he assures her.

Not bothering to finish buttoning the rest of his shirt she just patted his chest "Good" she said.

His green eyes stared down at her as she placed a hand on the side of his face. Bonnie smiles a little when she hears him take a small intake of air from her touch.

Her pupils dilated as Stefan's eyes widened at the sight of Bonnie's green eyes shifting to red but he was in her trance.

Her voice echoed in his mind "When I leave this room, you will forget everything that happened yesterday to now. Yesterday you were on your way to the hospital to grab blood bags but decided to-" she paused already hearing her uncle's lecture for meddling with Stefan's blood lust state "-you decided to come back home and drink away your cravings."

Seeing him nod a little let her know that her mind compulsion had worked and stepped back to see the still in the trance Stefan.

Closing her eyes, she opened it to reveal her green eyes and whispered "Bye Stefan" and vanished from his sight.

Stefan let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in and blinks in confusion "What the hell?" he wonders of why he was just standing alone in his room.

He looks up questionably "Damon?" he says watching his older brother walk hastily into the room to his window.

"She's gone. What the hell?" Damon thinks in confusion. He swore he heard Bonnie Bennett's voice in his brother's room.

"Was the little witch here?"

"Huh? Little…wait you mean Bonnie?"

"Yeah, who else?"

Stefan shakes his head "Damon, she left months ago. Why would she even be here?"

"I need a drink" is all he says before leaving the room muttering "Going stir crazy that I'm hearing her voice now."

---

Thursday, 4th February 2010

In the early hours of the morning, Bonnie rushed into the Haven Hospital following Eric, Michael, and Marcus. The hospital was their first destination the moment they left Mystic Falls after Eric received the message from her Aunt.

They rush to the reception desk Eric immediately asking the receptionist "Hi my son. My son, Robbie Johnson came here last night and-"

The curly red-haired receptionist cut Eric off "Yes, Robbie Johnson he is in room 203" she says and looks at him about to comment about the visiting hours but stopped seeing the distraught look on the man's face.

The nurse motions with her hands to the small hallway next to the reception desk "Just walk down the hall here and it's the last room on your left."

Eric mumbles a rushed thank you and goes to the allocated room with Bonnie, Michael and Marcus following closely behind.

Once approaching the room the trio told Eric to go in as they didn't want to overcrowd the place knowing Matt, Alexis, and Amerie were already there.

The man shakes his head "At least see Robbie, and then you can leave. I know you were all worried."

Michael, Bonnie and Marcus cracked a smile a little at the truth of his words. The twins were the babies of the coven and the three felt responsible for them, so when they were hurt it impacted them all.

They entered the room to see Robbie sitting up on his hospital bed.

He smiles at them, "I'm okay, Dad" he says to his father.

Amerie turns in her seat to see Eric now standing behind her "He's okay" she says.

Eric lets out a breath of relief and walks around Amerie to place a kiss on the top of his son's head. He puts his forehead against Robbie's. With eyes closed, Eric mentally said his thanks to the higher beings for keeping his son safe. He looked to Amerie and bent down to places a kiss on her lips.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't here," he says when he pulls back.

Amerie grabbed hold of his hand "You're here now" she says as he stands between the bed and her.

Bonnie walks around the bed passing Matt and Alexis and hugs Robbie tightly "Ah, Bon" she pulls back quickly apologizing.

"I'm okay Bon, still a bit sore after that operation."

She stands up straighter to feel Matt wrap his arm around her shoulder in comfort.

Michael and Marcus stand at the head of the bed both tapping Robbie's feet "Can you feel that?" they both asked.

Robbie rolled his eyes "Guys, I'm not paralyzed. It was a ruptured spleen. They were able to stitch it up so I avoided having a splenectomy."

Bonnie looks to Alexis standing near her and places a comforting hand on the back of the girl's elbow "What happened?"

"Chiara," Robbie says, "I think she wanted to attack the coven while you guys were going after Domenic."

"Why would she when my uncle and aunt are here?" Bonnie questioned confused.

"One by one she was planning to get rid of us." Robbie said he winces adjusting his seating on the bed "Mom got there in time, but-" he looks to his dad "we should thank Joshua as well. He picked up on the ruptured spleen."

Michael and Marcus awkwardly look to Bonnie as she repeated "Joshua?"

Robbie nods "Yeah he was here last night and knew what was wrong with me. Chiara had hit me hard in enough to cause the burst in my spleen."

"It seems Joshua was once a doctor. His heightened senses were able to pick up on why Robbie was in so much pain" Amerie explained.

"Oh" is all Bonnie says surprised of this new knowledge.

Matt's fingers tap her shoulder causing her to look up to him. He motions with his head to talk outside the room.

"We'll be back," she says following Matt.

Standing outside, she looked briefly down the hallway to see Joshua pacing around the waiting area. Did he just arrive or was he here all night and they just missed him when they arrived?

She looked back to Matt who answered her unasked question "He has been here since last night" he says with a shrugging unsure of what the guy's intention was.

He didn't know much about Joshua, which was funny because Bonnie always became secretive with her crushes. She catches a glimpse of him walking up to the reception area and can't help but focus her hearing just in time on hearing him questioning the orderly walking to the reception desk.

"Hey, how's that kid doing? The one with the internal bleeding" she hears Joshua's wondering tone.

"Oh right, sorry. Yeah, he had a burst spleen. You caught it just in time. Good call Doc."

Joshua smiles and looks down the hallway to her.

Matt's voice captures her attention "I'm going to go check on Robbie" but he gives her that look of you-should-go-talk-to-him.

Bonnie sighs nervously looking down to the waiting vampire. Ugh! Why did have to look so handsome smiling knowing that she eavesdropped on the conversation? Shaking off her nerves and the butterflies that were becoming more frequent the many times she got to know him.

Joshua turns to watch the beautiful girl walk towards him. She stops in front of him "I guess I should be saying thank you."

"Well, I did just save a life. No biggie" he said with a teasing shrug.

She smiles at him "Thank you for saving him. Why were you here?"

"Ah one of my friends got into a minor car accident, was going to give my blood, but that has had a habit of biting me in the ass in the future. Besides he's alright, he just needs a couple of weeks to heal."

She nods buying his story "Well thank you and for staying around all night, you didn't have to."

"Well, I stayed till your uncle and aunt came with the others. Amerie told me you guys were at Mystic Falls" he looks at knowingly.

She rolls her eyes answering his unasked question "Nothing bad happened" she thinks of the dead Sebastian.

"Well bad to me" she corrects herself as he steps closer to her.

She takes a sharp intake of air when he places his hand on the side of her face "Truth."

With an assertive nod "Truth" she replies.

He stares at her for a while waiting for any slight indication that she was lying to him. There was none. He pulls her into a hug that catches her by surprise. Not the hug, the feeling of it. Something was changing between them, the more she got to know him the more she wanted to be with him. She wasn't ready for a relationship and yes she'll admit it she was scared to start one, especially with Joshua. She wraps her hand around his torso. Friends. They were better off just as friends.

---

Friday, 5th February 2010

It was two days since the incident of hearing Bonnie's voice in Stefan's room. He didn't even know if it was her. Damon shook his head annoyed that he was distracted by such a minuscule incident when he had bigger things to deal with like John Gilbert trying to take control of the Founder's Council or his brother falling off the wagon and drinking human blood. Now Damon was sure he'd have to add this to his list of 'shit to worry about' after getting called in by Liz.

Damon got out of his car and looked to the foreclosed house. Seeing no crime scene tape around it got him a little more curious about what he was going to be stepping into after Liz called him to meet him in the afternoon to check in this particular case she got today. Special meaning, supernatural related.

"Hey, Damon!" Liz says spotting Damon she waves him over to follow her into the house.

"A little low on cops?" he questions Liz after passing only two officers standing in the front yard.

Walking up the small sets of stairs she explains "We just need enough to keep this under wraps. I don't need the town knowing about this" she opens the door and steps inside.

"Well I'll be damn" is all he says at the sight of six dead vampires. Ranging from being staked to one having their heart ripped out. He walks past Liz and crouches down to the staked vampire. Grabbing the dead vampire's chin, he tilts it to the left and right "Any idea who would be stupid enough to kill vampires and not clean up their mess."

Liz chuckled to Damon's bluntness "My same thought until I got upstairs" she goes on ahead knowing Damon would follow behind.

Damon's eyes widen to the bloody scene he enters. A headless vampire tied to a chair. The head of the said vampire placed on his vomit bloodied lap. Damon had seen some gruesome things in his life; heck was even the one to do the gruesome killing, but this was in the top ten of killings that made him want to throw up. Pushing down the urge to do so he stepped towards the body to get a closer look at the head, which he strangely recognized.

"This note was in his mouth," Liz says. She passed the evidence bag that held a slightly bloodied paper with scribbled writing.

"See you soon; Maestri" Damon reads out loud.

He looks to the head quickly in shock "Sebastian Maestri?!" he thinks now spotting the prominent scars on the man's face. He had a run in a couple of times with the Maestri brothers over the years of being a vampire. They operated moving private house parties for vampires popping up randomly in different towns or even different countries. Of course, Damon had the honor of attending these private invites. Domenic was the face of the business yet a rarely seen one. His twin brother, on the other hand, was the one that did the dirty work of anyone that threatened their business. He was the one that liked the violence, and not many lived long enough. He had bared witness to that, and that was the last time he attended one of their parties. He looked to the dead Sebastian. Who in the world would be that strong and daring to kill him? It couldn't be Katherine. It makes no sense. Did that mean somebody dangerous was coming their way?

"Do you recognize him?" Liz asked.

"Uh no."

"I thought it would mean someone dangerous is coming to Mystic Falls, but it seems that they just wanted to send a message to-" she motions to the paper "-this Domenic. Unless he's in town, then it's dangerous for us."

Flashback… last night

Damon walked lazily into the house after the night out with Alaric.

About to yell out Stefan's name he pauses at the new yet familiar voice his hearing picks up in the house "-you decided to come back home and drink away your cravings."

"Bonnie?" he mouths in confusion and speeds up to Stefan's room to see his brother standing dumbly in his room then look up to him.

He walks into the room already smelling her scent and walked to the window

"She's gone. What the hell?" Damon thinks in confusion. He swore he heard Bonnie Bennett's voice in his brother's room.

"Was the little witch here?"

"Huh? Little…wait you mean Bonnie?"

"Yeah, who else."

Stefan shakes his head "Damon, she left months ago. Why would she even be here?"

"I need a drink" is all he says before leaving the room muttering "Going stir crazy that I'm hearing her voice now."

End of flashback…

"Bonnie" Damon shakes his head only to chuckle at his thought "She would never do this."

He passes the evidence bag back to Sheriff Forbes and looks back to the headless vampire "It can't be a coincidence she was here in Mystic Falls" he thinks confident that it was Bonnie's voice he heard in his brother's room.

"So what do you believe we should do?" Liz asks.

"Let me see what I can find out but you may be right that this is a one time killing to send a message. Mystic Falls was just the crossfire, but be ready if this fight comes here."
"Sheriff?" one of the officers says entering the room.

"One moment, Damon," Liz says excusing herself as she goes to the tanned middle-aged officer.

Damon cautiously walk around the room pretending to inspect it but eavesdrops on the conversation taking place outside of this room "Ma'am the team checked that room and everywhere in this house, but it's clean."

"Clean?"

"Yeah, not one set of footprint, fingerprints, saliva or any other types of blood that are not any other of these vampires. It's like they just all… magically disappeared."

Damon smirks to the officer's choice of words as Liz asks "Are you sure?"

"We're going go through the house again, but so far nothing has turned up."

"Okay," Liz patted the officer's shoulder "Keep me updated," she says.

With a curt nod, the officer goes back downstairs.

Liz enters the room "Everything okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, the forensic team wants to go through the house again. To be thorough."

He nods "Well I'll be going and keep you updated if I find out a connection to this."

"Thank you, Damon," Liz says with a smile.

Damon walks out of the room "Just what are you up to, little witch?" he thinks leaving the house.

---

Late at night back at home in Light Haven, the blindfolded Bonnie takes another careful step down the stairs with the guide of Rosario and Alexis standing on either side of her.

"Is this necessary?" she asked taking another step-down.

"I know the surprise party is downstairs, and I can hear Marcus' and Michael arguing about the lights and if it's enough."

Alexis snickered while Rosario muttered "Damn vampire ears."

Bonnie gasped offended "Hey!" turning to walk down the last set of stairs.

"Can you at least act surprised for them? The boys worked hard on putting this together" Rosario said low enough for Bonnie to hear

"Yeah, they even Skyped Robbie to learn how to bake a cake. The boys were just lucky Matt understood Robbie's instruction. My poor brother would have ruptured his spleen from yelling at the others" Alexis said giggling at the memory Derek, Michael and Marcus arguing about the different flours and that it wouldn't make a difference while Robbie just sighed in frustration that they weren't paying attention to his instructions.

Bonnie chuckled and nodded as she placed her foot at the bottom of the stairs "Okay, for them. For Robbie." she says while Rosario and Alexis guided Bonnie towards the backyard.

Once outside Rosario stands behind Bonnie and takes off the blindfold and joins in with the chorus of "Surprise!"

Bonnie wanted to feign surprise, but instead, she felt tears well up in her eyes at the sight in front of her. A wooden pergola had been set up not far from the walkway to the spring water. Fairy lights wrapped the wooden frames and high above illuminating light in the space. A beautifully set dining table with white lace tablecloth and plates that her Aunt Rosario only brought out for special occasions. She looked up to see a white banner with purple painted words 'Happy 18th Birthday Bonnie!' with attempted hand-drawn balloons, streamers, presents, and cake. She looked ahead at Michael, Marcus, Matt, Derek, Uncle Gabriel, and Scott standing on the other side of the dining table

Marcus nudged Michael "She's not saying anything? Good thing or bad thing?" he looks to Bonnie "it's the light, isn't it? I told Mike we put too much-"

"No" she cut him off and wiped away her tears

"Oh god, is it that bad?" Derek question as they looked at him "What? A girl crying must be bad."

Bonnie laughed out loud "No! These are happy tears" she sobbed out as Rosario pulled into a side hug as she continued "This…this is beyond…what I imagined" she sniffled "Thank you."

Rosario laughed to the sound of relief from all the men "Good work guys! Now lets' eat!"

Bonnie wiped away the remaining tears and nodded happily when the smell of lamb, chicken, pork ribs just being taken off the BBQ infiltrated her nose and made her mouth water.

Gabriel pulled out a seat at the head of the table "For the birthday girl" he said motioning to the seat.

Bonnie smiled and took a place at the head of the table.

Pushing the chair in, Gabriel kissed her on the top of her head and whispered "Happy Birthday Bonnie. They would be so proud of you as I am of you."

She bit the bottom of her lip to stop herself from crying again and nodded "Thank you" she mouthed when he took a seat on the left side of her.

"Someone wants to talk," Alexis says. She passes her phone to Bonnie to see Robbie, Amerie and Eric on a video call.

"Happy Birthday!" they say together only to hear "Shhh" in the background from the other patients in the room.

"Sorry," Robbie says causing Bonnie to chuckle.

"Thank you," Bonnie says thankfully "How are you feeling?" she asks.

"Doing better. Doc came around this afternoon and said I might be able to leave in two days."

"Really?! That's the best news I've heard today" she exclaims.

"Sorry we couldn't be there," Robbie said.

"Please, I need you to get better. I'll leave some food aside for you to bring tomorrow" Bonnie said

Robbie smiles widely to that as Bonnie says "Oh and thanks for helping the boys bake the cake."

"It's the least I could do," he said.

She looked up from the phone to around the table at everyone seated- no her family. This coven was a family. Her family.

Looking back down to the phone when Eric spoke up "We better let you go and eat."

Bonnie just nods while Amerie says "Happy birthday again, sweetie. We love you, and we'll see you tomorrow."

Saying her goodbyes, she ends the call and passes the phone back to Alexis.

"Let's eat, " she said as everyone cheered and began dishing out their meal and for the rest of the night it was filled with conversations and laughter that warmed Bonnie's heart for this moment would forever be remembered.

---

Alexis and Marcus agreed to go anywhere with Bonnie after dinner because it was her birthday, but this was the last place she'd expect to go. Her dark brown eyes look around at the hanged up tattoo images in Carlos' Ink stop.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked eying the chair Bonnie was sitting on and the small table near her mentor with needles and inks.

Bonnie looked up, from the folder she was flicking through "I've turned 18, and I want a tattoo to commemorate this night."

"You could just, have your brain hold on to the memory" Bonnie raised an eyebrow to Alexis' sarcasm, but she just shrugged her shoulders "I'm just saying," she says.

Alexis looked over to Marcus motioning her hands towards the older boy "I don't even know why you're getting a tattoo. Bonnie wanted this not you."

Marcus sighed exasperated "I'm doing this for support-ahh what are you doing?" he asked the man that grabbed his arm.

The tattoo artist looked at Marcus weirdly "I'm holding your arm still-" he paused "Are you sure you want a tattoo? You can just be supportive of your friend by holding her hand."

"What? You think I'm scared of getting a tattoo?" Marcus asked in a challenging tone.

With his black gloved hand that held Marcus' hand, he picked up the tattooing gun and switched it on to prove a point in which Marcus immediately moved back in his seat "Okay. Okay, you made your point!"

Bonnie laughed at the scene of the tattoo artist turning off the tattoo gun and putting it back into place "I'll give you a tattoo when you don't squirm to the sound of a tattoo gun. Or would you like me to call your uncle and tell him about this?"

"No, no, no. It's okay" Marcus said getting out of the seat "I'm just here supporting Bonnie."

Bonnie smiled and looked down to the portfolio of tattoos turning the page she froze at the drawing of a yin-yang. Noticing the change, Alexis moved to stand beside Bonnie looking down to where her teacher's' hand was running over "Really Bon, a yin-yang tattoo?"

She couldn't explain the pull to it. Call her crazy but it was as if the image was appealing to her. Her left-hand runs over her right shoulder; she needed to have it on her back. She didn't know why just that could feel the imprint of the tattoo there.

She looks to the tattoo artist "Carlos, I know what I want."

"You won't be squirming like Marcus?" he motioned to the now standing Marcus.

Bonnie giggled "No," she said.

Carlos stood up from his seat "Alright lets' get you tatted up"

---

Leaning back in their seats, Michael and Matt looked out to the water with a bottle of beer in their hands. After sending Marcus and Alexis off with Bonnie for her to get her tattoo everyone else stayed back to clean up. Gabriel and Rosario had now gone to bed. Derek had gone to look up something in the library leaving Michael and Matt alone to grab the lawn chairs and enjoy the sight of the spring under the night sky.

"It was a good thing your family took Bonnie away from Mystic Falls," Matt said.

"Yeah?" Michael said.

Matt nodded taking a sip of beer "Hmm she's different. Different good. She doesn't have that look carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders" he looks to Michael "I believe that's thanks to this coven."

Michael laughed knowingly "She always did look like she had the weight of the world."

"Yeah. Now that I know about the supernatural world now I know why Bonnie had that look. She didn't have anyone to share the burden of what she knew. She wanted to protect Caroline and me from knowing. Elena was dealing with vampire issues, so I know Bonnie wouldn't share her feelings with Elena."

Michael nodded "It's why we keep reminding her that she isn't alone, that she can come to us when things get tough" he looks to Matt "Now she has you too."

"She does" he replied back

"You know you have our coven too. Don't try to do everything on your own, and you're still in high school so try to do fun high school stuff."

Matt chuckled "Thanks, and I'll try."

They both looked out to the spring water as Matt closed his eyes comfortably. It has been a long time since he felt this comfortable…since he felt like he was at home. He knew he would have to get back to a new reality soon, but knowing that Bonnie was going to be okay made everything seem a little better.

"Another one?" Michael asked

Matt cracked one eye open to see Michael holding an empty bottle of beer "Nah I'm alright."

"Let me go grab another one and see if Derek's free for a game of FIFA. You in?"

Matt nodded sitting up "I'll go set it up, and you go check on the guys"

---

Michael made his way down the hall towards the library. Entering the library, he finds it empty.

"Where is this nerd" he muttered knowing for sure Derek said he would be in the library.

About to call out Derek's name but he noticed the door upstairs to the room of their coven's ancestral journals open "He wouldn't go in there without dad's permission" he thought and walked towards the spiral stairs. He quietly made his ways up the stairs and then up the small set of stairs leading into the room. Michael hears Derek's agitated voice. He couldn't see Derek due to the back of the wooden bookshelf blocking his view, but he could hear him clearly. Michael placed his back against the back of the shelf and eavesdropped on the conversation.

"I'm not holding back information, Klaus. I told you everything that I know. They honestly don't know where the moonstone is."

Michael's eyes widened to the words as he was met with silence then Derek answering the person on the other line "It's not my fault Sebastian is dead. You underestimated, Bonnie. I told you she was strong and will continue to get stronger."

Not wanting to hear any more or get caught he slowly crept back out of the room not before hearing Derek's threat "Don't you dare touch, Alexis or I will end my loyalty to you."

Michael quietly and quickly stood at the top of the stairs and quickly composed himself and to calm his rushing heartbeat of his discovery. Derek was the mole.

Shaking his head "No, it's Bon's birthday. We'll deal with this tomorrow" he thinks settling on his decision.

Clearing his throat he called out "Yo! Derek! Where you at?!"

He makes his way into the small room and once he passes the bookshelf he catches sight of Derek hanging up the phone and pretending to read a journal open on the wooden desk.

"Dude what the hell you doing here?" Michael asked trying not to give into the urge to ask all the other bubbling questions or strike at him.

"Oh I asked your dad if it was alright to check out some of Emily Bennett's journal, maybe we might have missed something about the moonstone, and that maybe there might be more about Katherine's whereabouts we might have missed."

He actually could lie.

"Ah good idea, fresh eyes wouldn't hurt, but what do you think about calling it a night, and having a game of FIFA with Matt and me until the rest of the gang gets back."

Derek nodded "I like the sound of that," he said carefully closing the journal and putting it back into its place.

"Don't whine when I kick your ass at the first couple of games" Derek teased picking up his phone.

Michael faked laughed "Whine? I think you're referring to yourself" he said as Derek placed arms around Michael's shoulders

"Trust me; I know your every move. That's why you haven't been able to beat me," he said teasingly and then walked ahead of Michael out of the room.

Michael closed his eyes "Just for tonight" he mentally assures himself and continues to repeat this mantra throughout the rest of the night.

---

AN: I'm so sorry for the delay of this chapter! Got sick during the week so editing the chapter was slow for me. The next chapter I'm hoping to have posted sometime next week. Thank you for the comments! So glad you guys are enjoying this fic so far!

Oh, and apologies for grammatical errors.