A/N: At the beginning of this chapter, I have to thank and congratulate my most wonderful beta, Dreamthrower. She made it through all the remaining chapters and finished proof-reading this story. And I really owe her a lot. It was so much fun working with you and I'm going to miss our email exchanges! Who would have thought that learning grammar could actually be fun? Well, who knows, I might keep her busy with changes or additions, still, or maybe even a sequel, who knows?
ALYS
Fuming with anger, I ran up the stairs from the basement, searching for Damon. God, this was incredible! I couldn't even leave my dear brother out of eyesight for even an hour! I cursed my own negligence. Running out of blood bags was never advisable, but with Elena in the house, it was plain stupid. I still had cow's and pig's blood in plenty, but while it kept my cravings in check, it still lacked certain ingredients that kept a vampire healthy. Living solely on animal blood might be manageable for a younger vampire, but for older ones like me it wasn't advisable.
On Thursday, the consequential migraine had forced me to bed early and adversely affected my intentions to chaperone – just after having found Damon all over Elena. My stockpiling blunder had forced me to drive back to Mystic Falls today, to see Elijah at the hospital. I had just gotten home and gone down to the basement to put my new supplies into the freezer, when I made my discovery. Thank God Elena wasn't home yet!
I found Damon in the study and, arms on my hips, called him out on his latest endeavor to inflict misery. "Just who is the guy I found locked up in our basement, and what exactly is he doing there?"
Damon didn't even look up from whatever he was reading. "Some serious soul searching," he said, unperturbed by my outrage. "Reflecting on whether it wouldn't be wiser for him to do what I have asked him to do."
"Which is?"
He shrugged. "To tell me everything he knows about Katherine, her whereabouts and what happened the day she vanished."
"Katherine?" Damon mentioning his ex-lover had me momentarily confused. It was the second time this week that her name had come up in a conversation – after roughly 140 years with no mention of her at all. "What brought her up again?"
"The guy in the basement did. He's the vampire who attacked Elena."
"What? You found him?" Incredulous, I looked at him. Sharing this vital piece of information would have helped me and Elena to lay some of our worries to rest and get a good night's sleep again. Withholding it on purpose to keep Elena in the house longer and play guardian was wicked and cruel. "When? Why haven't you told us?"
Noticing the reproach and disappointment in my voice, he finally raised his gaze. "Simmer down! I only found him today." Damon seemed vexed now, but he quickly shrugged it off. "For a vampire as old as he is, he's awfully clumsy," he remarked contemptuously. "He's been feeding on street scum mostly. Alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes – not the healthiest people. It was pretty easy to track him down, he left enough bodies in his wake."
"So who is he and what has he got to do with Katherine?"
"Apparently, he is another resentful member of her entourage of ex-lovers – a former slave she used for feeding and later turned. He hadn't asked for it, though. He said she did it just for fun."
That about fit what Elijah had told me about Katherine. He had filled in all the gaps that Damon had left in his description of her, and I couldn't say that I regretted that she had left him. Her influence on Damon had been bad. "Now, wasn't she charming?" I asked ironically.
"Katherine always did as she pleased. That's one thing that always fascinated me about her. Anyway, her toy-boy is still pissed with her. And with me." Knowing my brother, probably for a good reason. "What did you do to him?"
Again, Damon shrugged, as if it was a detail of small importance. "I might have killed his sister while in transition. Not that I remember, but he clearly does. And he's still holding a grudge, can you believe it?"
"Yes, some people are just like that," I said drily. "They have problems with forgiving murderers who don't even show remorse for their deeds. So that would explain an attack out of vengeance on you, but not on Elena or Bonnie. What do they have to do with it?"
"I don't know yet. He seems to believe there is a connection to Katherine. He's afraid she might come back here."
I snorted. "After 150 years? Not very likely." Damon couldn't be still hoping for that, could he? He surely wasn't as pathetic as that. The girl was a bitch, and she had left him. "Obviously she didn't think there was anything or anyone worthwhile to come back for," I pointed out a bit unkindly. "Her family were all dead, no one survived the fire." Except for Damon that is. But she hadn't come back for him, and I knew that it had been eating him up.
I might have been more sympathetic to his heartache at the time if he hadn't taken his hurt at her loss out on me. I had always felt that he had changed me not only to make sure I stayed with him, but also to punish me for declining his offer when he suggested turning me. I had wanted to stay human, and Damon had reacted as if I had just told him that I didn't love him and would leave him, too. Because eventually, that would have been the outcome: One day, I would have left him – not for lack of love, but by dying a natural death. He hadn't been able to accept that.
"Or maybe there's more to the story, after all," Damon surmised, having followed his own trail of thoughts that still circled around Katherine. "I think the guy knows where she is – or at least where she went to. But after he realized that I didn't, he refused to say more. I'm intent on making him reconsider."
"By starving him?" I asked irritably.
Again, he shrugged. "I thought it was a little more civilized than torturing him. Though I admit I toyed with that notion, too."
Somehow, his casualness made me angry. I had known a different side of him – caring and warm – that I longed to see again as desperately as a thirsting plant longed for rain. I knew that it was in him, and that he wasn't as hardhearted and untouchable as he continuously pretended to be. Elena had seen it, too. But that made it even harder to face the one and only aspect of his personality that he cared to let people see – the coldness, the contempt and the cruelty.
"Damon! You can't do that!" I protested, not so much for the sake of his victim as for my own. Or his. But of course, he couldn't grasp that.
"Are you kidding me? The guy tried to kill Elena – twice! And he very nearly killed Bonnie, though that doesn't bother me half as much. Still, those are three good reasons for him to die. He can count himself lucky to find himself still alive at this point."
"And what will you do after he's told you what you want to know? Kill the guy to avenge Elena before starting to chase after Katherine again?"
"Well, I guess that depends on the mood I'm in after having heard what he has to say, but I'm doubtful that it'll be good enough to let him live."
He clearly hadn't gotten my point. It was probably impossible to make him see it. And just as useless to try and talk him out of this. But whatever he decided to do, I didn't want anything to do with it. "Listen, Damon, I'm saying this once now and in a civil way: You get this guy out of our basement, or I'll do it. This is not open for discussion. I don't want a torture chamber down there. And I don't like the idea of living with a psychopath under the same roof." I looked him straight in the eye, intentionally leaving the question of who I considered the psychopath open.
At least Damon caught the strength of my determination. "Very well." He sighed theatrically, got up and stretched. "I guess I just have to press my point with him, then."
About a quarter of an hour later, I heard Damon coming up the stairs, carrying what looked like a body bag over his shoulders. He took his keys and made for the door.
"Is he dead?" I asked, wondering if he was going to bury the body.
"Not yet," Damon said. "But he most likely will be by the end of the night. Watch out for Elena. And don't expect me back anytime soon." And with that, he was gone.
ELENA
Alys was in a sour mood all day, though she wouldn't tell me why, exactly. Apparently, Damon had successfully tracked down the guy who had attacked us and was dealing with him – whatever that meant. I guess I didn't really want to know. He'd been out since the afternoon and had not returned.
Alys and I had lit a fire, snuggled up on the sofa, and watched a DVD. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when I was suddenly jolted by the sound of a door falling shut, the fire had nearly died and I was alone in the room. Apart from whoever had come in and was now lurking in the shadowy hallway.
My heart pounding hard in my chest, I slowly sat up, trying to get my bearings. The lights were too dim to see much, but there was definitely someone there. Someone who had stopped dead in his tracks.
"Elena?" I then heard Damon's familiar voice ask. "What are you still doing here?" His words were slightly slurred and he wasn't walking with his usual grace when he stepped into the parlor.
"I must have fallen asleep watching TV," I said, disentangling myself from the blanket Alys had kindly thrown over me, and got up. Belatedly, I wondered if I had misunderstood his question. Maybe he had meant it as in 'what are you still doing at the boarding house'. But I hadn't thought he would expect me to move out the very hour I learned that I was out of danger. Well, I was surely not considering it just now. "What time is it, anyway?" I yawned.
"Way past your bedtime, sweety!" Damon leaned on the wall, seemingly casually, and gave me an empty smirk. I frowned. Something in his voice and demeanor was slightly off.
"Wow – you look..." I groped for words, trying to put my finger on what I thought was wrong with him.
"Handsome? Dashing? Irresistible?" he suggested cheekily.
Well, I wouldn't deny that with a hand on my bible. But he had surely seen better moments. His hair was tousled, his shirt was half unbuttoned and he obviously hadn't shaved for at least a day. He looked even more like the typical bad boy than usually. I frowned. "Wrecked. You look wrecked."
Nonchalantly, Damon threw his keys onto the small side table in the hallway. Except that he missed, and the keys fell rattling to the floor. I got up and approached him carefully. "Have you been drinking?" I asked, sniffing. I couldn't detect anything, but Damon surely did look slightly off track. His grin was pained as he lifted his fingers to illustrate just how much he'd been ingesting.
"Wait a minute – you said vampires can't get drunk, unless... Oh my God! You fed on someone who was, right?"
He nodded. "I had more than one..." he admitted obligingly. "Just drowning my sorrows."
Dear God, he hadn't killed anybody, had he? But if he had fed on more than one drunk, chances were they were still alive. "This doesn't look like grief," I said, frowning. "It looks like you being spiteful again."
"I just made a world-shattering discovery," Damon declared with emphasized and surprisingly articulate pronounciation. "I have earned being spiteful."
On second glance, he did look shattered. It wasn't so much anger that I saw in his eyes – it was grief – and guilt.
I wasn't sure if there was a point in reasoning with him, yet I tried. "Damon, can we just skip my second guessing you and get straight to the part where you tell me what's wrong? You're obviously upset – and drunk – which is not a good combination. What brought all this about?"
"Well, if you desperately need to know..." He walked over to the coffee cart and picked up the bottle of bourbon that was obviously his most trusted companion in times of need. I expected him to pour himself a glass, but he ignored the glasses completely and brought the bottle to his lips instead. Whatever had him this upset, it must be bad.
"I had a busy evening," Damon said, his light tone mocking the darkness of his expression. "Tortured a vampire – didn't like what he told me. Killed and buried him, snapped some drunken bar flies off the street and had a few drinks. Ran some errands – broke into a house, scared the wits out of a servant, stole a book, found out I was fooled, cheated and betrayed. Tried in vain to raise the dead. Drank some more. Like I said – bad night." He shrugged, smirked and saluted to thin air before setting the bottle to his lips again. His whole demeanor was so disdainful and mocking that it would have fooled me – a while ago. Before I had come to notice that pretending to be unaffected and blasé was just the kind of act he pulled when he was deeply perturbed. This looked far worse than just perturbed.
I stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words. I hadn't been able to make much sense of what he had just told me, but again, his intent had been to shock me and scare me away. Though I had no clue why he kept doing that. Especially since he had to know by now that this wasn't the most promising way accomplish it. I could be pretty stubborn, too.
"Okay, so I take it I don't need to be scared of guys in black hoodies anymore?" I asked in a light tone, picking up on the one piece of information that had stuck.
"Nope," Damon said, popping the 'p'.
"So there's a bright side to it." I found that it didn't bother me in the least that Damon had killed the vampire who had tried to murder me and Bonnie. Strange. When he had killed my potential rapists, I had at least felt a stirring of righteousness that demanded outrage at the fact that he had taken the law into his own hands. What had changed?
"Glad to know you're less judgemental this time," he remarked. Clearly, his observations skills hadn't suffered. Nor had his memory.
"Where did you break in and why?" I probed further, hoping to find out what else had happend tonight, as killing the hoody-guy could certainly not have made Damon fall into depression.
He reached into his jacked and pulled out a small, leatherbound book, something that had started to look familiar. Another diary, though not one of mine. He carelessly threw it onto the table.
"Whose is this?" I asked, picking it up and looking inside the cover. There was the name, in proud and elegant handwriting. "Benjamin Lockwood?" I asked superfluously. "As in mayor Lockwood?"
"The very first mayor of Mystic Falls – back in 1864." Damon raised his eyebrows and gave me a conspiratorial smile that was bereft of any warmth. "You know, I'm really grateful that so many people kept a journal in those days. It'd be impossible to put all the little bits and pieces together without the written report of eye witnesses to rely on."
I spared myself the trouble of expressing outrage again. He was immune to that even when he was sober, which he clearly wasn't at this point. Besides, it seemed somewhat silly to berate him for stealing a diary after he had just committed murder. "What did you find in it that has you so upset?"
"Proof," Damon said rather cryptically. It also sounded gloomy, bitter and vengeful. "It was an eye-opening lecture, not to mention a very enraging one. You see – our dear Mr. Lockwood meticulously put down all his vile acts, every perfidious scheme he had come up with and all the wicked people who helped him to carry them out – the most vicious one being a certain Emily Bennett. That little witch can count herself lucky to be dead, by the way! I'm getting into a killing mood just thinking of her."
"Bonnie's ancestor? The one who saved Katherine?"
"Except she didn't." With a wry, humorless smirk, Damon took another sip from the bottle before he turned his eyes back on me. They had an unholy glow to them that revealed his true frame of mind. He was seriously, deadly and ravingly mad. "She betrayed her. And me."
"What did she do?" I asked, softly, my heart jumping to my throat, suddenly remembering what Damon had told me just two days ago... That he had himself firmly under control, unless he was extremely upset, angry or hungry. Thank God he wasn't hungry...
"The promise she made about protecting Katherine, in return for my pledge to make sure her line continues – she broke it. She didn't lift a finger to keep her part of the bargain. Instead, she helped Lockwood to get rid of his unfaithful wife and played me for a fool."
I recalled the deal Damon had made with Emily when he feared that Kathrine's life was in danger. He had asked her to protect her, and supposedly Katherine had been the only one to escape when the vampires had been rounded up in and locked into the chapel. But if Emily hadn't upheld her part of the bargain... "She was killed in the fire?" I stared at him in shock. Oh my God – if Damon had just found out that the love of his life had been dead for over a century and a half, no wonder he was in this state!
"No." Damon said gloomily, surprising me again. "I just found out that she never left Mystic Falls. She's still around – locked away in the family tomb, a living corpse."
Wait a minute – what? "I don't understand..."
"I had a chat with the crazy nut this evening. Turns out he wasn't so crazy, after all. He gave me a rough outline. The rest was all in there." He pointed at the book. "Lockwood had it all pinned down neatly: How they spiked Katherine's favorite toy-boy with drugs and waited for her to drop. How they brought her into the tomb beneath the Pierce's chapel and left her there – in a tomb that was bewitched with a spell that trapped her inside. A day later, the vampires were burned to death in the very same chapel, but the fire couldn't harm the tomb. When it was out, she probably found that she couldn't leave the ruins. She has been trapped inside since 1864."
The news took a moment to sink in. All those years he had believed her gone for good... and now this. That was quite a pill to swallow. "God, this is terrible! How could they do such a thing?" She had been buried alive, while the other vampires were burned alive right above her grave. How could people be so cruel?
"Lockwood probably didn't want to be guilty of murdering his wife. So he just did away with her by locking her up and starving her into a coma."
"So Katherine is still there – trapped by witches' magic, in death sleep but still alive?"
"As alive as you can be, all dried up and mummified."
"I can't believe this... Damon, I'm so sorry!"
"Guess how I feel!"
Betrayed, most likely, eaten up with guilt and regret. Probably also fueled with a potent desire to take revenge. At least that's what I would have felt.
"It was my fault," Damon said, his voice strangely devoid of emotion. "I never should have trusted a witch. But I'm going to make it right."
His words made something in the back of my brain tingle. "How so?"
He gave a smile that made my hair stand on edge and suddenly had me scared. "I'm gonna free her, of course."
ALYS
"Are you quite insane, Damon?" I stared at him in disbelief when I learned about what had happened last night and, even more shockingly, of his intentions. Damon was sober again this morning, so this wasn't the by-product of a drunken mind. "You can't bring a vampire back to life who's been locked away for over 150 years! You've got to let her rest!"
When I had gotten up this morning, the noises from his bedroom had told me that Damon was up and already awake. Wanting to know what had happened to our basement prisoner and if Elena and Bonnie were finally safe again, I had gone to his room and just caught him stepping out of the bathroom, halfway dressed.
On hearing about last night's events, it soon became clear that Damon hadn't slept at all. Small wonder, given that he had been to Mystic Falls and back, burying a body and getting totally buzzed besides. Yet the news he had just shared with me was much more unsettling. I sank onto his bed as my legs suddenly felt weak.
"Rest?" He spit the word back into my face with utter repulsion. His eyes were still blood-shot, as happens from over-indulging in blood and alcohol. But apart from that, he was back to his usual, spiteful self. And clearly a man on a mission. "Being trapped and starved, buried alive in a tomb is hardly 'resting'! I'm not gonna leave her there. I owe her!"
"You don't owe her anything after what she did to you."
"She hasn't done anything to me. She did not leave me, Alys!"
Leaving him would have been the kindest thing she could have done. I wasn't referring to that. "She turned you!" How could he forgive her that, if even I had trouble forgiving him?
"Because I asked her to! Don't you get it? I wanted it! I wanted to spend my life with her. It was not her fault that it hasn't worked out. I just blamed her for it for 150 long years."
He had said so before. But I had never really believed it. I would have been so like Damon not to admit that he had been seduced, played and strung along by Katherine. It would have been so like him to justify even this vile act. He surely had justified all the others, before. Had he really loved her that much? I still didn't believe it. But obviously, he did. "Look, I understand that this must have hurt you..." I started again, trying for a more understanding, soft tone.
Damon scoffed. "I don't get hurt."
Yeah, another thing he possibly really believed. "You just don't admit you get hurt," I corrected. "Instead, you lash out and cover it up."
"Wrong again," he said in a low voice that was icy and deadly. "I get even!"
I felt my stomach sink. There was no talking to him when he was in this particular set of mind. "With whom, Damon?" I asked desperately. "There is no one left to blame!"
He smiled ominously. "Why – with the Bennett witches, of course," he responded. And I so didn't like the glint in his eyes.
ELENA
Four days had passed since Damon had killed our attacker and learned the truth about Katherine. I had moved back into the dorm, given that Bonnie and I were no longer in danger – or at least not in that kind of danger. Alys was concerned about Damon's plans to free Katherine and possibly take revenge on Bonnie's family. Funnily enough, I wasn't. I knew Damon well enough now to know that he wouldn't murder my friend in cold blood for a crime she hadn't even committed.
Besides, Damon was suspiciously absent, even from campus. Whatever scheming and plotting he was doing, we weren't privy to it. He was probably busy robbing the members of the Founders' Council of their ancestors' journals and reading them all for a clue about how to open the tomb.
I only wished I could talk to Bonnie about this, but without unveiling the secret that vampires were roaming our world, I could neither tell her about Stefan nor about Damon's ominous plans to break a spell that was cast by her ancestor. So she and Caroline were blissfully unaware of the ongoings in the underworld, and much more concerned about things going on in Mystic Falls.
"I will definitely drive back home tomorrow," Caroline informed us about her plans for the weekend. "A friend of Tyler's has come back from an extended trip to Europe and is throwing a party in the woods."
"What guy?"
"Klaus, Michael or something."
"Klaus Mikaelson?" Bonnie asked. "I know him. The guy's a total ass. A wealthy, sophisticated snob." Caroline shrugged. "Who cares – he buys the beer. Besides, Matt has asked me to come. It's a date."
"So, the two of you are dating now?" I asked. "Just how did that happen?"
"Well, he's actually a very sweet guy. A bit clumsy and rough around the edges, but he has a good heart. Too bad that his mother is such a failure at her job. Instead of being able to go to college and get a decent education, he has to work two jobs just to get by. And Vicky sure is no help either."
"Is that why you have suddenly become so studious and diligent?" Bonnie asked in amazement. She was thrilled about the change in Caroline that Bonnie attributed to getting out of Damon's influence. To her, it just went to prove that Damon was all bad news.
"Well, looking at things from Matt's perspective made me realize that it's not something you can take for granted, and that I should be grateful to have the chance. Besides, since all the fun things now tend to be happening back home on weekends, there's nothing better to do during the week than use the time for studying, anyway. Which brings me back to the topic of our plans: Are you coming to Michael's party with me?"
"It's Klaus Mikaelson," I corrected. "I thought it was supposed to be a date?"
"It still can be," Caroline smiled wickedly, "party first, private make-out session later." I rolled my eyes at her.
"Why not?" Bonnie asked, shrugging. "Just because a psychopathic killer was after us last time we partied doesn't mean we can't go to a party ever again. I'm sure Stefan will come if we ask him. He'll watch out for us."
"It's Mystic Falls, girls!" Caroline chided. "Nothing bad ever happens in Mystic Falls!"
*'*'*'*'*
The welcome-back party took place at a clearing in the woods that was a notorious partying spot. It was halfway between the old Pierces' and the Mikaelsons' property, and sufficiently distant from other residences. I remembered having been here a couple of times while still in high school. Just like back then, there was big bonfire in the middle of the clearing. Fallen tree trunks made for seating – for anybody who cared to have grilled marshmallows with their beers. The good thing about being in the woods was that no one had to clean up the mess when people got sick from it.
Someone had brought speakers, and music was blaring through the trees. Roughly estimated, there were about 60 people milling about. Either Klaus was still very popular, or people were here for the free beer.
The party was already in full swing when Stefan and I got there a little belatedly. We had left Greenville a little later than usual this afternoon, because I had wanted to finish a paper beforehand. As so often happens when in a rush already, we had been further delayed because I hadn't been able to find my phone. I had probably left it the pocket of another jacket, and with bad luck, it was still at the boarding house. We had finally left without it. I guess I could do without a mobile for two days – after all, I had survived four after having been robbed of my old one. Still, it felt weird.
Walking into the clearing, we immediately spotted Tyler, Matt and Caroline, who were in a group of people that I didn't know. Jeremy was there, too, and came over when he saw us. "Hi! You finally made it. Caroline and Bonnie have been wondering if the two of you had bailed out. Drinks are there in the cooler, on the back of Matt's truck. Serve yourselves."
"I'll get that," Stefan offered. "You want a beer?" I nodded and he headed off.
"So – I take it you couldn't persuade Alys to come, huh?" Jeremy asked.
"Alys?" I asked back, wondering. "How come you're asking about her? She doesn't go to parties."
Jeremy shrugged. "We met in the library a couple of times. She helped me out with an English essay on poetry. She's pretty cool."
I eyed him in wonder. "Pretty cool?" Was it possible that my little step-brother was actually smitten with my friend, who just happened to be a 170 and something year old vampire?
He must have picked up on my reluctance. "Look – I know she's way older than me, but I really like her." Way older! That's one way to put it. He had no idea. "And I know she's not into partying, so you should be all the more pleased I've been hanging out with her. She is a role model, after all. So far, I've only been seeing her in sort of a work environment, except for that one dinner at our house. And I think it'd be good for her to get out of her shell a little. I mean, while I obviously overdid it with the partying, there's no harm in going out every once in a while with friends, right?"
Right. Yet another amazing turn of character. What had brought that about? Knowing that Alys neither could nor would use her manipulation powers on anyone, it was probably just due to the fact that he was outgrowing puberty. Looking at him now, I realized that he had changed in the last couple of months. He was already towering a head over me and must have started to work out. Never before had I noticed how muscular his arms were and how toned his chest was. He certainly didn't look like a kid anymore. When had that happened?
"Why do you keep looking at me like that? Would it be so bad if I actually asked her out?"
He wanted to date her? Wow – he definitely had some confidence if he thought that Alys might be interested. Yet, I couldn't deny having mixed feelings about it. There was the obvious age difference – him being in his last year of high school, she being a college student. But Jeremy had always had a thing for girls that were slightly older than him. But 170 years older?
"No. Maybe. I don't know, Jeremy. This is – unexpected. I hadn't even known that you guys were speaking to each other." Alys had never mentioned him. Was she afraid of my reaction or simply not finding him noteworthy? "Are you even sure she's into you like that?"
"No, I'm not. But I'd like to find out. I thought you could probably feel her out for me..."
"Okay..." I was going to have a talk with her anyway. Hopefully, she'd laugh. I liked Jeremy and felt protective of him. And I wasn't sure if I wanted him to date a vampire. We were experiencing a little too much of a supernatural influence on our lives already.
"Thanks, Elena. You know, you're pretty cool yourself. And by the way – I really like Stefan. You two make a nice couple." He winked at me and was off again. I sighed. Could things really get any more complicated?
Stefan came back with our beer, Caroline in tow. "I just met that Klaus-guy, awh!" she exclaimed, shuddering in exaggeration. "Can you believe it – he actually had the nerve to call me 'love'! Is that a usual British endearment or just a real creepy pick-up line? The guy has even acquired a fake accent in the year he's been over there. He sounds like Prince William – but he's got more hair. Admittedly, he's also pretty good-looking, but terribly blasé."
I rolled my eyes. "Sounds like someone we know..."
Caroline grinned. "I have no idea who you might be talking about!"
"Where have you left Bonnie? I haven't seen her anywhere yet..."
"Haven't you just met up with her yet?" Caroline frowned. "She was with me before you two arrived - then she said she got a text message from you and went looking for you."
I frowned and exchanged an uneasy glance with Stefan. "I sent her no message. I didn't even bring my phone."
"Hang on, I'll call her." Caroline pulled out her phone and speed-dialed Bonnie's number. "Bonnie? Where are you? Huh? What are you doing there?" She turned back to us, a deep crease on her forehead. "She's over at the ruins near the old Pierce's property. She said you had asked her to meet her there because you needed her help with something?"
"This is weird." I had a real bad feeling all of a sudden. Someone else must have used my phone to text her. And given that I had already lost it in Greenville, I had a fair idea who that someone was. "It's Damon." I said to Stefan. "It has to be." His expression mirrored my own concerns. He had already turned on his heels. "Come on, let's go! We'll get her."