Eighth.

Bonnie got back just as Elena was coming down the stairs rubbing a towel in her wet hair. "Please tell me I smell fresh coffee." She said as she reached the bottom of the staircase.

"Come and get it," Stefan responded as he handed her a cup.

"Ooh, mocha, nice touch." She said hanging the towel on the back of a chair and sitting down.

"And I got cinnamon rolls," Bonnie announced as she unpacked the grocery bag. She washed her hands and pulled a pan out from under the counter, turned on the oven and popped them in. We all sat in silence letting the smell of cinnamon fill the room.

Finally I took the lead and spoke up. "So Stefan did you have a late night?" I asked him curiously.

"Uh, no," he replied, "not really. Did you really want to talk about this?"

I shrugged, "We might as well, its hanging like a pall over the room, kinda bringing down the mood. So out with it, how miserable did she make you last night?"

"Actually she never showed up," he told us all. "Damon told her that if she wanted to talk that she'd have to do it face-to-face, no more phone calls or messages left somewhere that we would be sure to find it, otherwise he might just have to give Klaus a call and alert him that we had a new house guest, but she called his bluff and never came by."

"Wait," I said a little surprised, "Damon was going to tell the Originals that I was here?"

"No, of course not," Stefan assured me, "but he needed to get her attention. That was his way of doing it.

I was shocked. All this time I thought he cared about me, but he was just using me in some sick game he was playing with Katherine. "So that's what I am now? Some pawn to use in this never-ending ridiculous game." I pushed my chair out and stood. I felt betrayed.

"No, Norrah, that's not it at all," Stefan said standing as well and reaching for my arm. "He's trying to help you, we all are. It's just that when it comes to Katherine you have to play dirty sometimes."

"Yeah, Norrah he's doing it because he cares." Elena chimed in, "he doesn't want anything to happen to you, none of us do."

I stood in silence contemplating what they were saying. When the oven timer rang we all jumped. It broke the tension and I sat back down. Bonnie opened the door and we were all overwhelmed by the scent. I still felt uneasy and unsure of Damon's tactics, Elena knew him better than I did, and she wouldn't lie to me, right? Bonnie plated the rolls and iced the tops while they were still hot, then passed them out. At that moment I couldn't think of anything but that roll, and we all started tearing them apart.

As we all sat and ate I thought I smelled something strange. "Bonnie, did you turn off the oven?" I asked her.

"Yeah, why?" she asked back.

"I smell something burning," I told her.

I looked over at Stefan, "Me too, he said. We all started searched the kitchen for the source and then I saw it.

"Smoke! The basement!" I cried as I saw it starting to creep beneath the door.

"Everybody, out, now!" Stefan herded us past the basement door and out to the front of the house. I still had my phone in my pocket from earlier so I called 911.

We all stood huddled on the sidewalk as the engines pulled up, broke a window in the basement and put out the flames. I thought back on Katherine's words from earlier "…don't let your guard down. I may not be able to get into the house but I have ways of getting you out."

"Stefan," I turned to him, "it was her. She called me this morning, left a message warning me that she would get us out of the house." I frantically searched my phone but the message was gone. Something must have happened when I dropped it. I looked back through my call log but the number wasn't there. "It's not here, how is it not here?" I asked no one in particular.

"I believe you, just stay close. She's not likely to come after you in the daylight with all of these people around. It's a scare tactic." He told me as he pushed me in closer to the girls. The fire was out, it had been fairly small and contained to the basement, but there was some minor smoke damage on the first floor. Once we got back into the house the police came in to interview us and file a report. I gave one of them a quick account of what happened and then ducked out of the kitchen. Elena and Stefan were talking to the Fire Chief in the living room. She looked over at me and I motioned to her that I was going to go upstairs, she nodded and turned back to the Chief.

It was now or never, I grabbed my bag by the door, slipped out and made a run for it. I knew I would probably only have a 10-15 minute head start before they noticed I was gone so I ran as fast as I could back towards the boarding house. Once there I threw my bag on the bed as the contents spilled out, picked up my backpack and started shoving my clothes in. Once I had collected all of them I walked into the bathroom, grabbing a few towels, my toothbrush and a few other things. It took me a minute to zip up the bag, it was filled to the max. I'd just have to carry my other bag separately.

I was still looking down at my bag, struggling with one of the zippers as I walked back into the room. I sensed her before I saw her, and when I looked up I dropped the pack to the floor, breaking the zipper and causing a volcano of clothes across the floor. My breath caught in my throat as my jaw dropped. She sat on the bed, leafing through my journal making faces at whatever she read. "What the…? How the…?" I couldn't get complete a sentence. Shock was clearly written all over my face as she looked up and smiled.

"Hey friend, did you miss me?"

"Lexi?"