My friends are my friends.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The enemy of the boyfriend of my friend, and the enemy of my friend's boyfriend's brother is also my enemy.

The boyfriend of my friend is my friend. The friend's boyfriend's brother is my friend… for now. Until he does commits a fresh atrocity…

And the friend's brother is my boyfriend…

Bonnie eyed her coat on the hook with longing. Was there a spell in the grimoire for teleporting? She'd check the next chance she got. Jeremy was sitting next to her on the carpet talking about something trivial and pointless. That was the good thing about Jeremy. It was hard to have a serious thought with him around. That was the bad thing about Jeremy, too. His cuteness was jarring at times. He came with more tied on obligations than a three week old puppy. Give it water. Take it for a walk. Shots. Is he pre-neutered, or will I have to bring him back in? Does he have a worm infestation? Feed him four square meals of love daily. Grooming. Shit-cleaning.

Well, no. The ghost-shit was more or less her fault. She'd done that. It wasn't as if someone had held a gun to her head and forced her to bring him back to life. Not literally, at least. But had it played out any other way, the invitations to the Best Friends Club Meetings would have gotten lost in the mail for sure. Hey Bonnie, remember my brother? The one you let die? Yeah, we're having an anniversary brunch, wanna come?

"I thought you'd be finished here by now," he said under his breath, and she can relate to that feeling.

Something had rekindled the old animosity between him and Damon. It would have had to be a pretty massive 'something', given that he'd taken having his neck broken by the guy not too badly. He was all smiles with Caroline and her mom, considering that Ms Quick-Draw had plugged him with a bullet. Jeremy was all 'forgive and forget'. Not to say that he was stupid. He wasn't. He just wasn't… vengeful.

"I'm going to try something. Probably safer that I do it here. Damon's right, we need to accelerate this resurrection spell. We have the first two items – Tongue of the One-Eyed Tiger and Heart of the Striped Cobra. We're not going to be that lucky with the rest. You can't go to the zoo for everything–"

"What about the ash?" he asked. "Damon got it as yet?"

She tapped the bulge in her purse. "Ash of the Heartless Witch. Got it. That makes three. I've tried a summoning twice for the Sword of White Bone, and it's failed. Twice. What does that tell you?"

"That someone's blocking it? Someone already has it? Someone like Klaus, maybe… That's why he came earlier… To see what we were up to?"

Well, give the boy a cookie. She flashed a smile. "Exactly, which leaves us one of two options."

"Hard way or easy way," he nodded. "And of course, Damon suggests the hard way, because 'hard way' for you is 'easy way for him'. I don't want you to try something you're not ready for, Bonnie. I mean, you're still learning how to–"

"I'm the strongest person in this house, Jere. If I don't do it, it doesn't get done! If Klaus was only coming after Damon, I'd let Damon die," she mouthed silently, "but after he kills Damon, he's going after Stefan again and Stefan doesn't deserve that. If there's such a thing as a half decent vampire, it'd be Stefan. And Caroline. The two of them are vampires, but their our friend to. Not to mention, I did try to screw him up during his sacrifice and I don't want to rest easy counting on the saving grace of his mercy. If there's going to be a fight, the best thing to do is to arm up early and try to take the bitch down."

"I get that, but–"

"You don't have to stay–"

"Yeah, you really don't. See you later." Damon sat down on the carpet on her left side, looking… refreshed. Still, with both hands. Hair, wet and pulled back from his face. His face, almost pink, he seemed flushed. Lips almost red... He'd fed. Oh…

Before he could catch her staring, or remark on catching her staring, she diverted. "Come to lend a hand?"

"Ha. So funny. Rolling on the floor laughing my hot ass off," he sneered at her then called to the rest of the guys in the kitchen. "Are we ready or what?"

They we're ready. They'd been ready since Jeremy had arrived. She'd run over the plan with Stefan and he'd thought it was solid. Five items remained – Sword of White Bone; Eye of the Yellow Yeti; Ring-Finger of the Imp King; Blood of the Underwater Beast; and Guts of the Apocalypse Walking. Five of them capable of going out and getting it – herself, Damon, Stefan, Tyler and Caroline. All they had to do was–

They made a circle on the floor, Stefan next to her right, Tyler continuing the chain, Caroline, and all around to Damon on her other side. "Okay," she took a deep breath, tightening her grip on Stefan's hand. Damon's grip was warm and tight on her other. His new hand, she noted. "Everybody–"

"Wait!" Tyler pulled his hands free of Carline's and Stefan's. "I'm not sure what's going on here. Caroline said, that you're a witch, and I'm cool with that…" he paused, picking his words slowly, "Except I don't want to get cursed or anything. I'm already cursed with the werewolf thing and–"

If Mags was here, she'd eat him for sure. "No Tyler, I'm not going to curse you."

"Then how come–"

"Are you a werewolf or a wereass?" Damon shot.

"Asks the fulltime, live-in ass," Caroline quipped.

"Tyler," Stefan in his world weary voice, "Just sit down and hold our hands, okay? Bonnie's not trying to curse you. I swear. We need to find some things and this spell is going to bind us to the items. Make them easier for us to locate, okay? It'll work better with us instead of regular humans, but that's it. Please?"

Tyler remained frozen for half a minute more, wrestling with his thoughts before sitting back down. Jeremy and Elena took their place in the middle of the circle. "Remind me again…" she asked, half laughing, half trying to not look afraid, "Remind me why we have to take centre stage in your spell?"

"Because as the only two good old regular humans in this house, the two of you have to represent Mystic Falls. The five of us are naming ourselves, protectors over 'Mystic Falls' and by doing so, the spell is going to 'guide' us to the 'equipment' we'll need as protectors."

"And there go all of my misgivings about this," Elena chuckled. "Remember that I love you like a sister…" she smiled.

"I trust you completely, Bonnie," Jeremy chirped in.

That made her smile for the moment, because the expression on his face didn't match what he was saying at all. The expression was saying something more along the lines of – I'm already haunted, so unless I actually get sent to hell this time, it can't get worse. "You can always trust me to–"

"Easy on the Hallmark moments, Bon," Damon cut in, and near crushed her hand in his with a sick grin. "Everybody trusts everybody. We're sitting in a veritable circle of trust. No one's cursing anybody, and everybody loves Jeremy and Elena. Amen. Now, can we do this? Some people don't have curfews and have other places to be on a Saturday night."

Ignore him…

She shut her eyes and closed her mind off from all the distractions. The diamonds flared hot against her skin as if they were on fire. The magic came to her so swiftly, so powerfully… She'd barely had time to chant the words out loud, just thinking them had got the spell going.

It was as if she were moving at 1000 miles per hours. Flying. Traveling through night and day… Through time. Turn left and go into the past. Turn right and enter the future. "I…" She stopped. Who was she speaking to? Was she still sitting on the carpet in the Boarding house, or was she… in a different dimension… Drifted out of space and time… Lost forever… There was nothing around her. Nothing. Nothing under her feet, nothing over her head… Just nothing…

Except a voice. A shrill, cracking, unused voice.

"Looking for something?"

…

"Did it work for you?" Stefan asked. "I got 'Blood of the Underwater Beast'. It's nothing special… Just a two-headed shark… somewhere in the ocean."

Damon took a breath to steady himself. "I got the Sword. It's with Elijah. The bastard." Bonnie wasn't breathing. Otherwise she was doing fine. No nose bleed. No ear bleed. No bleeding at all. She hadn't toppled over or collapsed or anything. She was still sitting there holding his hand… Except she wasn't breathing.

"I had a vision…" Tyler or someone was saying, "The Yellow Yeti is… a giant. Not like a real giant but like a ten foot dude… He lives in Belfast…"

Still, no breathing. Why was no one else noticing, Damon wondered. Should he panic? Should he be panicking?

Caroline, "And the Imp-king's a dwarf. Midget. Little person. What's that, irony?" she giggled at Tyler, "You get a giant and I get a little person?"

Don't panic. Do not panic. Somebody else is bound to notice. Stefan is bound to notice. Stefan does these things all the time. He's the good brother. He's the responsible brother. You're the scoundrel. The one with the devil-may-care attitude. He shifted. Squirmed, more like. His free hand quivered and before he knew it he had his own wrist in his mouth, ripping through his skin.

"Woah!" Stefan shouted, jumping to his feet. Elena screamed.

"What are you doing?" Jeremy yelled.

"She's not breathing!" he yelled back. "She's not breathing!"

"Shit," Stefan bit off and had two fingers on Bonnie's neck feeling for a pulse. One second, two seconds… "Shit."

Damon pressed his bleeding hand to the girl's mouth and waited. Hoped. Prayed even…

This is just my luck. Just my fucking luck. I hold her hand for five minutes and she dies…

If she comes back to life, I won't ever drink human blood again. If she comes back to life, I donate my entire bank account to charity. I won't ever think about killing Jeremy again. Neither Stefan. I won't kill anything, ever again. Not even werewolves. Let her come back and I'll be good. I swear–"

Too quickly for him to process, the life returned to her body. Her hot tongue flickered over his wrist, and she sucked.

She could as well have been sucking his dick for the effect it had. God…

He'd never been fed on before… and it was…

Just the slightest bit painful. She'd moved without him noticing, somehow. She was kneeling now, right in front of him, with one hand on his throat. Amazing grip for a cheerleader. He could feel the cartilage around his windpipe splintering. A thumb was moving uncomfortably up into the soft spot under his chin. And still, she sucked at his hand – the one he was still holding out to her willingly. His other hand…

What the fuck was he doing with his other hand? Not touching himself, surely. No. It was there on her chest, feeling her steady thumping heartbeat, innocently enough.

Ah. She broke something. Hot, thick blood gurgled his throat, filled his mouth, leaked out from the corners of his lips.

Ah… She kissed him. Tongue and everything. Her cute, bloody-red chipmunk tongue darted into his mouth. Their teeth clashed and he opened to give her free entry to his mouth and the blood in it. He'd always been an open-access kinda guy. 'Bonnie…' he moaned mentally, trying to close the distance between their bodies. He needed friction. He needed–

Ah! She broke the hand that he'd been trying to use to pull her head closer to his. Just broke it. Kinky, but super painful. His new hand, to boot.

He pulled away sharply. "Bonnie–"

A knee rubbed against the hardness in his jeans. His body trembled.

Was he being raped? Could it be rape if he wanted it with every fibre of his being? Was rape a matter of desire or control? He had at least two dozen rape fantasies, but none of them quite like this one. He'd allowed for being tied up, for being blindfolded, drugged, held down telekinetically by a coven of witches and forced to breed with them for the rest of his natural life… but he'd never put Bonnie in one.

And he'd tried to think about everything when it came to Bonnie. He'd replayed the "I'm a virgin' scenario so many times he'd bruised himself. He'd even run the prospects of a threesome with she, him and Jeremy. He'd put that down at the very most extreme limit of possible, but still, he'd catered for it. If he'd been willing to suffer that, what was a little rape?

"Bonnie…"

"Vampire," a mocking cold voice echoed in his head. A blade or a fingernail punctured a vein in his neck and his body tensed and shivered cold. She pulled away from him for a half instant, her eyes bright as stars, and cold as starlight too. Full of lust and hunger. Then her lips, those sumptuous, kissable, suckable lips latched on to the wound in his neck.

His vision blurred.

Just like Katherine after all. From one blood-sucking bitch to the other – story of my life. Out of the frying pan into the volcano.

"Help." Didn't he have a brother somewhere? What were they doing, just watching him get raped? "For fuck's sake, somebody help me!"