Present.

The grimoire was massive. It was leather bound and the pages were yellowed with age. Bonnie hadn't touched it since Grams had passed away. Just thinking of it made her sick. She pulled it out of a dark sack and placed it on the coffee table. She paced around the room, biting her nail, while Damon sat on the sofa and retold to her what had happened.

"And you just let her go," Bonnie asked suddenly.

Damon paused and turned a hateful gaze on her.

"Are you serious," he deadpanned.

"Well, I mean, Im sorry. I just…I thought you hated him."

"I do," Damon said suddenly and then corrected himself. "I did."

He stared off vacantly, "It's just feels…different."

Bonnie paused, ervous, before opening the grimoire.

"I haven't…gone through a lot of it."

"Well I hope you're a fast reader."

Bonnie shot him a scathing look as she began to flip through the pages.

Damon's mind wandered to thoughts of Elena. Why did he want to protect her so badly? Why was he risking his life to save her? It confused him and angered him just the same. He pictured her face, so crestfallen, as she was pulled out of the basement by Katherine. He was jealous of his dead brother. He saw her pain. But he could not analyze its depth. He wasn't sure he wanted to. He knew there had been residual emotion between the two of them. In essence, his brother died for her. His last grand and heroic gesture. Damon's hand dug into the arm rest of the couch as she stared out the window.

Bonnie looked up from the grimoire.

"Um…"

Damon relaxed and turned to Bonnie.

"What," he snapped.

Bonnie furrowed her brow and looked back down at the book.

"Nothing," she muttered defensively.

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"Answer me this," Bonnie said suddenly, looking up.

"How come Elena never asked me to make to enchant something for her so that she could walk in the daylight like you?"

"She didn't want me to after what happened with your," he paused, "and I wasn't that desperate to ask you."

"So…she was okay with never seeing the light of day?"

"I didn't say that."

"So what were you going to do?"

Damon's mind flickered to the ring that was around his brother's finger. On his rotting brother's hand. He had planned to take it by force when the time was right. He was going to pull it off his Stefan's finger and shove him into the sunlight. He had fantasized about it. And now…now it would be with Stefan forever—dangling against a skeletal finger, long after his flesh disappeared.

"Don't you have more pressing matters to attend to?"

Bonnie huffed as she went back to reading.

It was roughly 17 hours from Virginia to Louisiana but Katherine and Elena made it in less time. The windows were rolled and the top was pulled down in Katherine's 1961Ferrari 250 GT. It was sleek, black and expensive. She had easily "convinced" the owner to hand over the keys to the car. It was like taking candy from a baby. It amused her a great deal. Katherine turned and watched as Elena stared out of the window.

Elena's arm was propped on the side, her face leaning into her hand. Her hair whipped behind her in the breeze. She had cried for hours until Katherine slapped her into silence. Stefan's ring glinted in the sunlight as it lay at the crest of Elena's breasts. She wore it around her neck. Katherine almost had a twinge of guilt for killing Stefan. But it was for a greater good. In Katherine's mind, she herself came before all others. When Stefan began to crumple to the floor she had taken his hand in hers and slid the ring from his finger. She gave it to Elena with a lethal warning that if she thought it would be easier to escape, she was mistaken.

The humidity was palpable as they got closer to the Louisiana Coast. Elena could almost taste it. She blinked slowly, difficultly. Her mind was locked on Damon, on Stefan. The look of pain and shock on Stefan's face chilled her to the bone. Now she felt…disconnected. Almost as if it happened to someone else. And so she sat, zombie- like, and stared at the nothingness that whizzed by.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," Bonnie ran her hands through her hair.

Damon bent over her, looking at the grimoire. Bonnie shrank at his closeness.

"Oh please," Damon scoffed and moved around the living room. "Look…just…I don't understand how Katherine can compel Elena. She shouldn't be able to. The only thing I can think of is if she has some sort of spell—courtesy of your lovely great-whatever, Emily."

Bonnie shot Damon a look.

"Despite what you think, if Emily did this then she was looking out for what was best."

"Right."

"If she gave Katherine that ability, she had a reason for doing it."

"Well I suggest you find out how to un-do it. Or figure out why she did."

The seduction of New Orleans came at nightfall.

The sounds of jazz music poured onto the French Quarter—sliding through Canal and onto Bourbon Street. The heady scent of man, swirled with spicy dark liquors, was intoxicating. Elena was suddenly on the alert with all the sights and smells.

"Tempting, isnt't it," Katherine purred.

Elena said nothing as she watched people as they roamed on the streets.

"Back when Absinthe was legal here—that was some real fun. Catching a lovely Creole woman with dusky skin and vibrant eyes while she's dancing with the green fairy? Blood mingling with absinthe…it was magical."

Elena closed her eyes.

She saw a woman. She wore a white dress with delicate ruffles at the neckline. Her skin was a delicious coffee tone and her eyes were like almonds. She swayed as she spoke in French, obviously drunk.

"Shhh," Elena heard herself say.

"Qu'est-ce que tu veux ?"

"Voulez-vous venir avec moi, ma cherie."

And then the overwhelming sweet taste of blood…

Elena opened her eyes. For a moment, it felt so real…she could nearly taste it. But just as suddenly, the feeling was gone and she was left with confusion and emptiness.

She wondered where Damon was. She wondered if he hated her. And she thought about Stefan and the look of betrayal on his face before he died.

"I keep coming back to this…"

Damon lifted his head.

"To what?"

Bonnie pointed at the book.

"This. It's a Separation Spell. It says here that you can separate part of your consciousness…the things you don't want with you. The spell doesn't destroy that part it just…takes it."

"I don't follow. What part that you don't want? Takes it where?"

Bonnie flipped back several pages.

"Well, if maybe you're a vampire—maybe your morality, your goodness. It's like…cosmic energy. And look here…on this spell, a Creation Spell. You can take the energy, assuming you know about it—you conjure it up- and create it into something tangible. Something you can touch. The spell here just took some energy from a rose bush and created a butterfly."

Damon looked down at the picture. It was a crude drawing of a butterfly beside a wilting rose bush.

"Why does the flower look like its dying?"

"Because it is."

"What are you saying?"

"Okay—imagine you are a flower. And some magic is used on you by a witch and a part of your soul is taken away. Harvested. Now, that energy can be stored away for hundreds of years. Not physically. You can't see the energy but its there. Now, another person, if they know about this, can conjure up your energy and with the right amount of the dark arts can create…life."

"So what in the fuck are you saying? That Elena is just a part of Katherine? That Elena doesn't exist? You're crazy, lady. This is fucking crazy."

"No! Look—all of this is in theory. If in theory Elena was created with the energy of Katherine's separated soul, she is still her own person. She lived, she breathed, she felt. Those were all her feelings, her experiences. Yes, her psyche might be a bit more frail than others, but she isn't some clone. It's just the energy that was used to create her. Do you understand?"

"No," Damon said, exasperated. "Look—I don't really care how you think Elena was created. I just need to fix this."

"Okay, this was just a long winded answer to get to the point I'm about to make. The reason Elena can be compelled by Katherine is because, in essence, they are the same person. Katherine isn't controlling Elena, she is controlling a part of herself."

"You just said they weren't the same person!"

"They aren't!"

Damon looked as if he was about to strangle her.

"They have the same cells. The same energy. But their minds are their own. I think. I don't know! Fuck, I'm just figuring this out as I go along."

"If what you say is true, then who used magic to make Elena's Mom pregnant with her, huh?"

Bonnie's eyes went downcast.

Damon moved closer to Bonnie. Uncomfortably close.

"You know something. What aren't you saying?"

Bonnie lifted her head defiantly.

"I don't know anything! Im trying to help you!"

Damon grabbed Bonnie by the throat, his fingers digging into her neck.

"I don't care if Elena loves you or not. I can kill you without a second thought."

"I don't know anything!"

Damon squeezed harder and Bonnie began to feel lightheaded.

"Okay," she rasped.

Damon let go.

"What? What did you say?"

"Okay," she repeated. "I know."

Damon was thunderstruck. He had been bluffing.

"What do you know?"

"I've known for years that Elena was part of Katherine…Grams…" Bonnie trailed off.

"You better fucking finish that sentence…"

"Grams was always after me to take care of Elena. To watch her. She did it," Bonnie's eyes flickered up to Damon's. "She had to. She was fulfilling a promise."

"A promise made by who?"

"Emily. Emily loved Katherine. She always loved Katherine. And she gave specific instructions to see that this was carried out. Grams didn't agree with it. Grams said that it felt like playing God. But she swore, as a Bennett, to uphold the vows of the coven. And when Mom was pregnant with me…well, Grams thought maybe this was the best chance that the baby would ever get. I could grow up with her. We could protect each other. Grams told me when I was 12. A part of me never believed her…"

"And why didn't you ever say anything?"

"How could I? 'Oh Elena, guess what?' I didn't know Katherine was back. I didn't know. Otherwise I would have tried to do something."

"You and yours have done more than enough," Damon spat. "So what now?"

"They've met. They are together. Katherine can't kill her with her own hands, if that's what you are worried about. But now that they've been brought together…its like two magnets trying to fuse back into one. One of them has to be weaker. And my guess is that it isn't Katherine. It won't kill her, but she will be weak."

"Do you think Katherine knows?"

"She might. To an extent. And that can be dangerous."

"How so?"

"One of them has to be destroyed."

"What? How?"

Bonnie shrugged.

"I don't know. All I know is Katherine can't do it. I don't even know why she would care to do it. She seems to has been fine just the way she is. I don't see what she would gain."