DISCLAIMER: The respective copyrights belong to LJ Smith and other relevant title holders.
WARNING: Some spoilers as to recent episodes. Will address how continuity will work later.
SLOPPY SECONDS
10
On Sunday morning, Elena comes by bearing a box of donuts. Bonnie has just stumbled out of the bathroom, the remnants of toothpaste a minty stain above her lip.
"I brought your favourite!" Elena says in a singsong voice. "Triple chocolate glazed with blueberry jelly in the middle. Hot too!" And then she smiles so sweetly; alarm bells go off in Bonnie's head.
Elena has a beautiful smile, there's no doubt about that. Bonnie's seen boys quiver in their shoes at a mere glimpse of Elena's glossy lips curving, the beginnings of the indentation of a dimple. But even such a smile has no comparison to this – a devastating combination of playfulness, promise and deliberation.
Katherine. Again. Bonnie wonders whether she should be feeling flattered about receiving so much attention from the Big Bad vampire.
Her face must have been like a book, because Katherine's beatific smile takes a cattish edge. "Why, you aren't going to invite me in?"
"No," Bonnie says abruptly.
Katherine looks her over smiling, up and down, and then opens up the donut box. Steam rises, carrying the distinctive smells of chocolate, blueberry and blood. With all the leisure in the world, she lifts a donut to her mouth and takes a bite. Blood dribbles out.
"Recognise this?"
It takes a moment for Bonnie to realise Katherine's not referring to the donut, but the necklace wrapped as a makeshift bracelet around her risk. The pendant has been sealed with sticky tape.
It is Caroline's necklace, the one Elena gave to Caroline, with the vervain.
Seeing the terrified comprehension dawn on Bonnie's face, Katherine's smile widens. "You see, I have a proposition for you, Bonnie. Say you will accept, because if you don't, I have a friend who is with your friend Caroline right now. If I don't call him within say," she checks her watch, "two minutes, he will snap her neck."
The words hit Bonnie hard. She watches numbly as Katherine finishes off the bloodied donut, licking the tips of her tapered fingers. A perfect dark brow arches. "So?"
"What is the proposition?" Bonnie's voice cracks.
"Who cares? All that matters is that you must swear upon the honour of your family, upon your blood, that you will do any task I command of you."
"Just one task."
"One task."
"With no parts. It will be one spell, and one spell only."
"You are hardly in the position to bargain," Katherine says softly. "Step outside your door, Bonnie."
She does so. "I want to make sure I will only be obligated to what I promise." Despite her fear, she forces herself to stand upright, not like she's ready to duck back to the safety of her house at any minute. "No more. I will swear then, on my family's honour and my own blood –" she stifles a gasp when Katherine calmly pulls a knife from a hiding place in her sleeve and slashes Bonnie's skin, "and my own blood, to serve you in one task, consisting of one spell only."
She's not sure what numbs her to all sense when Katherine takes out a vial and catches the dribbling blood. Only when the vial is almost full to the brim, Bonnie remembers the old sayings about witch blood and its power.
Instinctively, she moves to dislodge it at once, but Katherine blocks her.
"That's not part of our deal," Bonnie hisses.
"Time is ticking." Katherine says, not moving her hand. "Any minute, Lucas may lose his patience."
"Witches' blood is only powerful when it is willing taken," Bonnie says, thinking fast. "I will give you the rest willingly, if you call off your man right now. You know, I haven't even heard evidence that he has Caroline."
Warily, Katherine pulls out her phone and puts in the number. Ringing through, she murmurs a few words of French and then passes the phone to Bonnie.
"Caroline?" Hearing the panicked, sobbing gasps over the phone, Bonnie immediately knows the situation is true. "Caroline? Where are you? What happened?"
"Right outside my house … before I could even go in…" Caroline's voice is hysterical. "Bonnie, what's happening? What do they want?"
"I'll explain later," Bonnie begins to say, but then Katherine snatches the phone back.
"The blood," she hisses. Her face has started to take on the traceries of vampirism. "Now."
A crazy idea comes to Bonnie. She sneaks a glance around. Her porch is made of stone. The outside of the house is brick. Nothing that could catch fire…
Concentrating, in an instant, Katherine's alight. Her jacket must be made of polyester, Bonnie thinks absently, observing the way it flames up.
"You bitch," Katherine breathes.
Reacting at once, Bonnie snatches the phone out of her hand. "Lucas?" she snaps out. "Are you there? Tu comprend anglais?" She tries for a garbled attempt at French. At least, she thinks that's French for 'do you understand English'. Well, linguistics had never been her strong suit.
"Yes." The man's voice is gravel.
"Your mistress is on fire. She'll turn to ashes in any minute. If you don't let go of my friend now, I'll let Katherine burn, and then I'll hunt you down and burn you to ashes too. Do you understand? Give Caroline the phone."
"Bonnie?" Caroline's voice crackles onto the receiver almost immediately. "He's let me go! What's happening?"
"Caroline, RUN to your house. Go in. Lock the door, and hurry."
"I'm running!"
Katherine's had the sense to pull off her jacket. She's now trying to simultaneously pat down the flames and go after Bonnie, but the fire is still the more pressing issue. Bonnie's also is starting to feel queasy. Whatever vampires are made from – the same stuff as humans on the outside, maybe – it isn't flammable. The flames burning Katherine are entirely magical, and the magic is starting to take a toll on Bonnie.
"Are you inside?"
"… the k-keys won't fit."
"Hurry." Bonnie's backing to the door herself. "Are you inside?"
"No! Don't rush me!"
"Please, Caroline…"
Caroline screams. From across the receiver, there's a sound of a metallic clank. "He's got hold of me!"
"OPEN THE DOOR!"
Katherine's got the flames under control. She turns towards Bonnie, vengeance in her eyes.
"I'm in! He can't get in! Bonnie! I'm safe!"
Relieved to hear the words, Bonnie stumbles into her house, stands within the threshold, hand braced against the doorframe. She's panting like she's won a marathon.
Katherine, who has rushed forward, recoils away from the magic that stops her from entering.
"Bonnie," Caroline's voice in the receiver is tinny. "You better explain everything to me later."
"I will. Don't go out until I call you later, okay?"
Bonnie hangs up and looks towards the raging vampire outside her door. Katherine's completely turned, her face shot with bulging veins, her eyes swollen and red. "You will pay for this," she hisses.
Breathless, Bonnie can only dismiss the threat with an offhand gesture.
Then Katherine's gaze drops to the porch, to the debris left of their fight. Her vial is still on the ground, whole and lolling. There are still a few good inches of blood in there. Bonnie resists the urge to duck back out and rescue it.
Turning back to a 'human', Katherine picks up the vial, regarding it with something akin to curiosity. In that moment, she almost looks to be in deep thought. Then she smiles, "This may be enough after all."
"Enough for what?" Bonnie's stunned response squeaks through.
Katherine gives Bonnie a long, lingering look… and then disappears.
Of course, Bonnie inevitably has to tell Elena and Stefan. Unfortunately anything that gets told to Elena and Stefan of this nature inevitably ends up with Damon. And so Bonnie has her first conversation with Damon since that unfortunate morning after, whose events will not be mentioned.
"Blood of a Salem witch," Damon nurses a glass of brandy in his hand. "What is that sneaky bitch up to?"
In an attempt to avoid directly addressing Damon, Bonnie turns to Elena for her musing brainstorm. "Blood is used to quicken most spells, but usually on a drop or two is needed. Spells that use blood in larger quantities usually work to kill something, or bring something to life."
"Katherine, being Katherine, probably has a long list of people she wants to kill," Stefan says.
"You being on the top," Damon drawls. "How did she put it again? If she can't kiss you, she'll kill you, because if she can't have you, no one else should?"
He's clearly referencing something Bonnie's completely unaware of. Sneaking a glance at Elena's worried expression, it is something Elena's aware of too.
But it is none of Bonnie's business. Fixedly, quelling her curiosity, she focuses on the task at hand. "What if she's trying to bring something back to life?"
"Ah, you don't know Katherine." Damon turns his vengeful attention towards Bonnie, a vicious smile on his lips. "Katherine likes being a destroyer. That's her thing. Destruction."
"She sounds perfect for you." The bitter retort rises to Bonnie's lips before she can force it down.
"But she doesn't want me," Damon snarls, equally as bitter.
Quite the contrary from his complete indifference days ago, Bonnie notes with some surprise. She returns fixing her gaze towards the interesting detail on Elena's jacket shoulder. So something of the angstily romantic nature has definitely happened, in respect to Katherine. And it is still none of her business.
"You have to put that aside," Elena says to Damon, her voice pitched to soothing. "Caroline almost died today."
"God damn it, I don't care." Damon slams his glass down on the mahogany table and stalks across to the fireplace.
"What if," Bonnie desperately tries to revert the conversation back to where it was originally, about Katherine and her blood, "what if Katherine plans do bring something back to life that will help her destroy even more things?"
Damon's brooding over the flames. Stefan and Elena are looking concerned. Bonnie's starting to doubt whether they even heard her speak, then Damon turns, his eyes dark, the light of fury gone. "You might be right," he says mutedly. "I think I know who she's trying to bring back."
"Who?" Bonnie asks, fearing the worst.
Her fear increases as Damon picks up his abandoned brandy glass, downs it and pours himself another. He starts to laugh, small chuckles at first that increase to the point where his shoulders shake with mirth.
And then he throws the full glass into the flames. As the glass shatters, Stefan and Elena jump up, worry etched over their faces. Bonnie slumps onto the couch, her head in her hands.
"She's going to bring back Emily. Your grandmother so many times removed." Damon's reverted to emotionless, his voice flat and smooth. He turns to Stefan with those same, deadened eyes. "She really is after your heart, brother."
A/N: I really wanted to finish this fic off before season 2 started, but of course, inevitably, after season 2 started, the muse would be leaping again. I'm sorry, I really am the kind of writer who writes on impulse. Originally, the person who was supposed to be resuscitated was Klaus (Katherine's maker from the books), and I'd gotten some of this chapter written up, but it was just terribly flat...
And then season 2 came along, and voila. New directions! I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what happened in episodes 1 and 2! Nothing in my mind could match the awesome!
Because this story is AU, it won't be following the new episodes precisely, but I will be taking certain bits from them from time to time, like the reason why Katherine came to Mystic Falls. Honestly, I still don't know why. I'm positive that Katherine isn't in love with Stefan in the show, and there's a marvellous plot twist along the way...
Anyway, thank you for stick to this story, and thank you to everyone who left reviews for the last chapter!