In brightest day, in darkest night, Peachie X works her Beta magic on this...

The Role and the Ring

Alaric walked next to Katherine. He was uncomfortable with the role she had talked him into playing with her. The role of bait. He wasn't really comfortable being alone with Katherine, either. He had done it before, left someplace with Isobel, and ended up alone with Katherine. She had always seemed fine around him, but he knew she had a bad side – he had seen that before as well.

If he understood properly, they were walking on a path where the hostile vampires and witches had been seen. The path led to a building that Katherine thought might be some kind of meeting place or headquarters, but they walked away from the building. They were hoping to be confronted far enough away from it that they would not attract the attention of whoever was inside.

Alaric had been killed by vampires and watched Elena as she was killed by a witch. Though they both had recovered, he remembered the drama and the pain involved. He really did not want a repeat of those events, and he couldn't help wondering if it was such a good idea to keep testing the ring. Maybe it had a limit of some kind.

He did know that, bait or not, he was as safe now as he would be anywhere anytime. With Katherine next to him and her vampires scattered in various hiding places nearby, it was very unlikely that any of the two witches and two vampires likely to spring the trap they were setting would get to him. Well, he knew it intellectually. He was still nervous. Even his bag of supplies was with one of the hiding vampires. He was virtually unarmed, just a couple of vervain darts hidden in his jacket.

His eyes were getting used to the darkness. They seemed to be in a park, though he was not sure where. A few nearby street lights provided some light, along with a fairly bright moon.

When he was this close to Katherine, paying this much attention to her, he was again amazed that she and Elena were essentially twins. He thought that if he had not known it was Katherine, he wouldn't be sure who it was.

"Everything's in place." Katherine said to him, speaking very softly. "We could be approached or attacked anytime."

Alaric only nodded, knowing his heartbeat would give away his nervousness to her. He didn't look at her.

"I don't like it here," the vampire told him in a normal voice. "I'm not sure it will help."

Her voice startled him. She had barely spoken to him, and when she had it had been very softly. It took a few seconds, and a jab from her elbow, for him to remember that the plan required them to be walking and talking.

"You asked me to bring you here." He said. "Here you are."

"Do you really think they'll let me live?" She asked in a small, hesitant voice that he barely heard.

"We have to ask. They'd find you eventually." He was having trouble keeping his own voice calm.

"We don't know that." This was almost a whisper. Then she hesitated, causing him to stop and look over to her. He thought she was doing good job looking nervous. While he looked at her, she spoke again. "Are we going the right way?"

He felt someone knock him down before he saw the vampires. Two vampires were there, seemingly coming out of nowhere, grabbing Katherine and holding her on both sides. It looked like she was trying to pull away from them.

One pulled Katherine's face, forcing her to look at him. "She looks like the picture."

The other was glaring at Alaric, though continuing to hold Katherine. "She's supposed to be with a witch. Is this a witch?"

"Not a very good one if he let us get this close without a spell."

"Either way, we don't need him." the vampire said, releasing Katherine, pulling Alaric to his feet and holding him with neck exposed.

"Wait!" came a voice from behind – a man's voice.

The vampire glared, but stopped. The man ignored Alaric when he arrived. He just looked at Katherine.

"She does look like the picture," a woman said from behind him. She arrived just after the man and shone a flashlight on Katherine's face.

"Are you Elena Gilbert?" She asked.

Katherine nodded, trying to look afraid. All eyes were on her, so Alaric reached into his jacket with the arm that was not being held, and removed one of the darts.

"I'll tell them we have her." the woman said, reaching into her pocket.

"As soon as anyone reaches for a phone, we move." Katherine had said. Alaric plunged the dart into the vampire holding him. Before it hit the ground, before the woman had her cell phone out of her pocket, her arms were being held on both sides by Vampires. The vampire holding Katherine was dead, the man's neck had been snapped.

As the woman began to chant, one of the vampires holding her collapsed.

Katherine bit the woman. The bite was quick, too short to be fatal, but it had stopped the chant. Then she spoke to Alaric.

"Use your ring!"

The teacher was confused, and hesitated.

"Put your ring on her!" Katherine yelled at him, repeating the message. "She won't stay down. We need to take her out, but for her to come back."

He understood her now. He began to pull his ring off, but hesitated, thinking it might not be the best idea when surrounded by vampires.

He was looking at the ring on his hand, the fingers on his other hand still holding it, when Katherine used her hand to pull his head up. He found himself looking into her eyes.

"Do it for Elena." The vampire said her eyes so soft, so earnest, he thought they could belong to her doppelganger. "I promise no one will get near you."

Alaric muttered something about 'vampire promises' as he pulled the ring off his finger and placed it on the thumb of the woman. As soon as it was in place, Katherine snapped her neck.

"Thank you," She whispered to Alaric in the same tone she had used to get him to remove his ring. Her tone changed to forceful as she spoke quickly to the nearby vampires. "Get the bodies out of sight. Leave the dart in place and bring the vampire." Then speaking to one in particular, she said "Bring the witch." She spoke to another "Bring him." She said, pointing at the vampire that had collapsed at the witches spell.

Alaric had to run as fast as he could to keep up as she moved to where they had been deemed safe from the passing vampires and witches and from whoever was in the building.

The Code and the Math

"We have to talk to them. They won't go away." Bonnie was glaring at Stefan. She was becoming increasingly annoyed at Stefan. She blamed him for talking her into letting Damon and the other vampire into her house.

"What they want isn't here, Bonnie," Stefan replied. "when they figure that out…"

"You've got to be kidding, right?" Damon interrupted. "You're really going to tell them she's not here?"

Stefan and Bonnie both looked at him, Bonnie still glaring. Stefan looked uncertain.

"If it'll get them away…" Stefan began, but stopped when Damon shook his head.

"Wherever she is, she's not here," the older brother said. "As long as they're here, they're not where she is."

Bonnie understood and continued to glare at Damon. "You expect me to lie? To tell them she's here?"

"What, there's some kind of witch's code against that?" Damon smirked back.

Bonnie just glared at him. The silence between them allowed the noise from the door to be heard clearly by all.

Stefan spoke first, turning to his brother. "We can't ask her to do that."

Damon kept his eyes fixed on the witch. "She knows she's only alive because of Elena, and she knows the promises she's made to Elena."

Bonnie closed her eyes and shook her head. "I won't lie."

"Then stay silent."

Bonnie glared at him again. Stefan spoke as she finally nodded in reply. "What are we going to do, wait them out? They'll come in."

"The house is protected." Damon said, finally pulling his eyes from the witch to look at his brother.

"Yeah," Stefan agreed, "against vampires."

Damon turned back to look at Bonnie again. "I betting it's more than that. Some kind of ancestral protection against anything hostile to the family." He turned and began to walk to the door.

"Damon!" Stefan called after him. "What are you going to do?"

Damon didn't answer. He latched the chain at the top of the door into place, wondering to himself why he was bothering, and opened the door as far as the chain permitted.

"Yes?" He asked sarcastically, looking into Heather's glaring eyes.

"Where's Bonnie?"

"Kind of busy right now."

Heather glared and looked at another woman standing next to her before turning her attention back to Damon.

"What are you doing here?" She asked angrily.

"Me? I heard you want Elena. If you want her, you have to go through me. You want to know why I'm here? Do the math."

"More will come." Then she tried to yell over his shoulder. "Don't do this Bonnie Bennett!"

"More will come!" She repeated as Damon closed the door, locked it, and turned to face his brother.

"Wherever she is, she's safe as long as we can keep them here." He said softly, the knocking on the door and calls for Bonnie having resumed.

"As long as she doesn't come looking for you." Stefan said, turning away from his brother, walking towards Bonnie, who had moved to sit at the kitchen table, burying her head into her hands .

The Knife and the Call

"Just take us there!" Elena yelled back at Isobel.

She had stopped to argue with her mother again. It was, again, turning out to be futile.

"She doesn't want you there."

Elena rested her head on the steering wheel. "Why does she have to know?"

Isobel didn't respond. Sarah turned back to look at the vampire.

"It's getting late. Elena and I are both getting tired. We need to do something."

"You're not doing anything," The vampire told the blonde witch. "Katherine is handling it."

Elena's forehead still rested on the steering wheel. She was really thinking out loud as she spoke softly. "Sarah can find her."

Isobel glared. "No!" She said firmly.

Elena lifted her head a looking into the mirror, her eyes narrowed. "You or her. One of you is taking us to Katherine."

The witch glanced back at Isobel before leaning towards Elena and whispering "I don't have the knife."

"We don't need it," Elena replied, her eyes still on the mirror. "A vampire's fingernail will work just fine."

"Not happening, Elena." Isobel said forcefully, enunciating each word.

"Fine." Elena spat back, reaching over Sarah to open the glove compartment. "Jenna should have a screw driver or something."

Sarah felt a little sick as she began, "Elena…" before being interrupted by the vibration from her cell phone. Elena sat back up and looked at her as she pulled it out and looked at the screen.

The witch answered without telling the others who was calling. "Yes?"

Elena watched as her friend just listened for a few seconds before speaking into the phone again.

"On our way."

The witch turned back to look at Isobel. "Katherine needs me. She says you know where to take us."

The vampire shook her head, wondering why Katherine called the witch instead of her. It didn't really matter, she was tired of fighting with her daughter anyway.

"Fine." She said. "Go back into town."