"How can it be back?" She shrugged, and he sighed. "Last time, we could only sense feelings, and now we're reading each other's thoughts?"

"Depends on the strength of the bond I guess, you're forgetting I'm not an expert." She projected back.

"Maybe you could go through the notes again." He suggested.

"We'll see."

The next morning, Elena woke up in her room to find Stefan still asleep next to her. She smiled. She knew they would have to figure out how to break the blood bond, although since it was stronger than last time, she was worried they might have to do something more drastic to break it.

"You're staring." He said.

"I'm gazing." Elena corrected.

"It's creepy."

"It's romantic." He looked over at her, then covered his face with a pillow.

"Hey!" They fought for a few seconds, then Elena quickly knocked it away from him with her speed and kissed him.

"This is bad of us." She thought as they kissed. "If Katherine finds out…"

"Katherine who?" She heard him reply.

After a few minutes, Elena broke the kiss. "Okay, I need to get ready. I'm late. I'm decorating at the Lockwood charity thing." She told him.

"So am I." He said.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Elena asked.

"It's not like we have much to worry about, other than being seen together." He pointed out.

"Okay, no talking or gazing at each other from afar." She told him.

"Of course."

"If she finds out we're faking this fight…" She said telepathically.

"We'll be okay, I know we'll work it out." He responded.

"Are you sure about this?" Elena asked. "If I do this again, it might make the bond even stronger."

"I don't mind, besides, you're still not fully recovered from yesterday. I can feel that." Stefan pointed out. She bent over and drank from his wrist again. She bandaged it with the first aid kit she'd kept under her bed.

"We'll get through this, no matter how hard it gets." Stefan said.

"I love you, Stefan." Elena said. They kissed again, gently.

At the Boarding House, Jeremy knocked on the door. Damon seemed surprised to see him. "Hey, we need to talk."

"What's up?"

"Tyler's not a werewolf yet." Jeremy told him. "In order to trigger the curse, he has to kill a person."

"Whoa." He let him into the house. "Does it count even if it's an accident?"

"Afraid so, Damon." Jeremy said. "According to Tyler, Mason triggered his by accident because someone picked a fight with him. Speaking of Mason, you might want to be careful around him."

"What do you mean?"

"He's looking for a moonstone, a special rock related to the werewolves legend." Jeremy told him. "That's part of why he's here."

"A moonstone? Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be telling your sister?" Damon asked.

"I didn't tell her I saw Tyler." Jeremy explained. "And she seemed kind of distracted when I tried to tell her."

"Well, she has been dealing with a lot lately." Damon pointed out. "Especially with Caroline."

"Yeah, I know." Jeremy said. "But I figured I should tell someone and you're the only other person I could think of."

At the Lockwood's, everyone was helping set up for the masquerade ball. Elena noticed Bonnie carrying a box of decorations. "Hey, you're here."

"Like I had a choice. I signed on to help a month ago and forgot until the last second." Bonnie said. She looked around.

"Caroline's not here, I told you she wasn't coming." Elena reminded her.

"I just wanted to be sure."

"You need to talk with her eventually, you can't just avoid her, Bon." Elena pointed out. "How's it any different than ignoring me if the situation were reversed?"

"I get it, but that's not it. Ever since she turned, we've barely seen each other." Bonnie told her. Elena felt like she'd been slapped. True, she'd been busy helping Caroline, but it's not like she was trying to Bonnie on purpose.

"Come with me?"

"Where?"

"If you still trust me, come with me." Elena said, extending her hand to her. Bonnie seemed to hesitate, but she finally took her hand and let her lead her toward the river.

Damon and Jeremy noticed Alaric a few feet away. "Rick!" Damon called.

"What's up?" He asked them.

"I found out something. Mason's been looking for a moonstone." Jeremy told him.

"Does Elena know about this?"

"Not yet." He admitted.

"What is that?" Damon asked.

"Isobel's research from Duke. Her assistant sent it to me." Alaric told them. "Remember that curse she told us about?"

"Yeah, the one where wolves could only turn on the full moon and vampires were weakened by the sun." Jeremy said.

"Well, with some exceptions." Damon pointed out. Jeremy looked at his ring self-consciously. "What did you find?"

"According to the legend, the werewolf part of the curse is sealed with a moonstone." Alaric told them.

"Sealed? You mean, like with magic?" Jeremy asked.

"Sort of like that." Damon said. "Whatever seals the curse is usually the key to unsealing it. Kinda like the tomb, for example."

"Don't remind me." Jeremy said. "Besides, we swore never to talk about that again. Bonnie still gets upset if you bring it up."

"Maybe Mason Lockwood believes he can use the moonstone to break the curse." Alaric said.

"If that's true, then why would he want to turn at wi…" Damon began, then he figured it out. "If he wanted to break the curse, he wouldn't want it for himself. He'd want to make sure his nephew never turned." He turned to Jeremy. "You said you know where the stone is?"

"Tyler has it." Jeremy told him.

"Can you get it?" Damon asked.

"I can try." Jeremy said.

Elena was walking with Bonnie in the garden. She'd told her everything that was happening. "I can't believe this." Bonnie said.

"I know it's a lot. Katherine's gonna do everything that she can to drive me and Stefan apart and Caroline just got trapped in the middle." Elena said.

"It's not that you and Stefan are pretending to fight, is that I didn't even know you guys were fighting at all." Bonnie told her.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to keep things from you, but it's been really complicated." Elena said. "And now we've got to deal with the blood bond between us. Again."

"I could try to help, but if it's strong, I doubt I could do anything."

"Thanks anyway, but this whole thing with Caroline…she needs you more than I do right now." Elena said.

"I'm still getting used to the idea of her being one." Bonnie said. "We should get back before they notice we're missing."

A few minutes later, Bonnie passed Mason and accidentally bumped into him. "Sorry."

"No problem." She said, getting a weird feeling. Stefan walked over to her.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Bonnie said. "I think I had a vision."

"What did you see?" Stefan asked her.

"I saw Mason with Elena. They were together."

"Was anyone else with them?"

"No, it was just them. Why?"

"Because I know Elena would never go near him alone." Stefan told her. "She's been trying to avoid him when she can, and now I think she was right to not fully trust him."

"So that girl I saw…" Bonnie began, realizing what he'd already figured out.

"Was Katherine." He finished for her.

A few feet away, Elena noticed them talking. She was trying not to listen in, when she got the feeling she wasn't alone. "Bad idea to sneak up on me."

"Someone's paranoid." She turned and saw Damon behind her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for my brother," He told her. "And trying to ditch yours."

"Jeremy's here?" Elena asked.

"He's probably behind me."

"Stefan's with Bonnie." Elena told him. He left the second she found Jeremy.

"What are you doing, Jeremy?" Elena asked.

"Damon and I are looking into something." Jeremy told her.

"Are you crazy?"

"Look, we're always going to be a team." Jeremy pointed out. "I'll catch up with you later." He left.

Meanwhile, Damon found Stefan. He was explaining what Bonnie had found. "Katherine's with Mason Lockwood?" He asked.

"It makes sense. He shows up in town a day after she does. We should've connected it sooner." Stefan said.

"I know, but it makes no sense. Aside from the werewolf thing, he's a surfer." Damon said. Then he realized it. "She's using him. That must be it."

"What do you mean?"

"Mason's looking for a moonstone that allegedly can break the full moon werewolf curse." Damon explained. "I think Katherine might be the one who's really after it."

"Why?"

"I have no idea." Damon admitted. "But think about it: she leaves without letting anyone know where she is, then she just shows up out of the blue three years later? She must be up to something."

"How are we going to find the moonstone?" Stefan asked.

"Jeremy said he could get it from Tyler." Damon told him.

Jeremy walked up to Tyler as he was working on the decorations for the party. "Hey, man."

"Hey!"

"I did a little research on that stone you showed me." Jeremy told him.

"Why?"

"I told you, my family's into those weird legends." Jeremy said.

"Right." Tyler said. "So, what'd you find?"

"Well, it turns out that it's part of this really old legend, but I want to make sure it's the same stone." Jeremy said. "You don't mind if I check it again, do you?"

"I'm sorry, man. I gave it to my uncle." Tyler said.

"What? Why?" Jeremy asked.

"Because I'm done with legends and curses. I don't want anything to do with it, okay?" Tyler told him. Jeremy was surprised by his tone, then noticed his expression. Tyler Lockwood, one of his oldest friends, was scared.

He knew the feeling all too well, he was completely freaked out when he first turned. If Elena hadn't been going through it with him, he wasn't sure he would've made it.

"Okay." Jeremy told him. "It's probably for the best, anyway."

"Hey, thanks for being cool about all this." Tyler told him.

"Hey, it's no problem." Jeremy said. "Besides, I know that if I told you any supernatural secrets, you'd do the same for me." He walked away then. He knew he couldn't reveal their secret to him. But right now, they had other problems to deal with, like finding the moonstone.