Chapter 4

Damon took a protective stance in front of Bonnie and frowned at his mother.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I believe that I owe Bonnie an apology," Lily said as she smiled at Bonnie. "I'm afraid that I misbehaved the last time we were together."

"Misbehaved?" Bonnie scoffed. "You stabbed me in the neck and left me to die."

"And I genuinely apologize for that. You must understand that I was upset about the prospect of never seeing my family again. Now that I've had some time to reunite with them and get my thoughts together, I realize that I acted atrociously to you and I hope that you can forgive me."

"She doesn't forgive you," Damon said.

"I can speak for myself, thanks," Bonnie reminded him. She looked at Lily and said, "but he's right. I don't forgive you, at all."

"Perhaps with time, then," Lily said with a smile. She turned to her group of friends and gestured to the bowling lanes. "I see that entertainment has not evolved much in a hundred years. Throwing a heavy ball at some sticks. I think we can do that."

She and the witchpires crowded the lane next to Bonnie, Damon and Stefan and Damon held up his hands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell are you doing?"

"We are going to play this game."

"Why?"

"Because, Damon, we live in this time now and we want to play games just as everyone else does. We only want to assimilate, I assure you. And this appears to be a place where people congregate to have fun."

"If you want to fit in, here's a tip. Tell your friends to invest in some jeans and stop looking like freak shows at a circus. And don't say words like 'assimilate' and 'congregate.' Don't use any words with 'ate' at the end."

"Noted," she said, looking slightly amused. "Would you three care to engage in a competition?"

"Uh no," Bonnie spoke up. She turned to Stefan and said, "I'm ready to go."

"Yeah, sure, I'll drive you back."

Stefan gave his mother a look, then escorted Bonnie out of the bowling alley. Damon only stayed long enough to glare at Lily and issue a warning.

"I don't know what you're up to, but if you have plans to hurt Bonnie, believe me when I say that I won't hesitate to kill you."

"I have no doubt about that," she said. "I've already played a part in taking away one of the women you love. I wouldn't dare take away the other."

Her lips curled into a smirk and although he wasn't sure that he liked her implication, he didn't feel like debating her about it. He left her and her band of weirdos and joined Stefan and Bonnie in his car. Bonnie was in the front seat, looking worried.

"You okay?" he asked as Stefan drove back to her apartment.

"Yeah. I just have a bad feeling about her."

"You're not the only one."

"Let's keep an eye on her before we jump to conclusions," Stefan said.

"Oh, come on, Mama's Boy," Damon said. "She's bad news. We should just kill her and be done with it."

"We're not going to kill her, Damon," Stefan said firmly. "At least not until she gives us a reason to. Maybe she's on the straight and narrow now. She's got her friends back so maybe all that crazy is out of her system now."

Bonnie's eyes met Damon's through the rearview mirror and they shared a look of uncertainty, but neither said anything. They would let Stefan, the eternal optimist, think the best of his mother while they kept their guards up. Stefan stayed in the car but thanked Bonnie for the game while Damon walked her up to her door. She leaned against the wood and shook her head.

"I don't feel good about her," she said.

"Yeah, me either."

"What are we gonna do?"

"We'll let Stefan play Captain Save 'Em for a little while but if she steps out of line, I'll chop her head off. You know I'm good for that."
He smiled, and she smiled, and then she poked his chest.

"I'm glad we're friends again," she said.

"Was there ever any doubt? You know you can't resist me, Bon-Bon."

"Mm hm." She turned to unlock the door, and then she slid inside. "Bye."

"You're not gonna invite me in?" he asked.

"Maybe next time."

He opened his mouth to argue, but she closed the door in his face and snickered. She toed off her shoes and ate a banana before settling on the couch in the living room. She decided not to continue her astronomy reading from earlier and instead watched TV. She started getting sleepy and figured she had time for a short nap before Caroline got home. She pulled a blanket over her body, curled up and let sleep overcome her.

She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep when a sound jolted her awake. She sat up on the couch and took a moment to get oriented. She checked her phone and saw that it was 9:00, but the apartment felt and sounded empty. She was sure that Caroline would have woken her up when she returned.

"Care?" she called. There was no answer. Bonnie tossed the blanket off and rolled her neck a few times to loosen it up. She went to Caroline's room, only to find it empty. She wasn't sure what the sound was that woke her up, but she got an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach as she walked back through the living room and checked her own room. She didn't see anyone or anything and tried to chalk up the feeling to paranoia. She was rubbing her eyes when she started going back to the kitchen.

"Hello, Bonnie."

She stopped in her tracks when she found Lily standing in her living room. Her body went on high alert immediately; her heart raced, stomach tightened and palms began to sweat.

"How the hell did you get in here?" she asked.

Lily shrugged. "Magic." Her smile was evil and unsettling.

"Get out," Bonnie said.

"We should talk first."

"I don't have anything to say to you and I'm not interested in anything you have to say to me."

"I understand that you're still quite upset with me," Lily said. "With good reason. I am truly sorry for what transpired between us earlier."

"What transpired between us?" Bonnie asked with a sarcastic laugh. "You stabbed me, you crazy bitch!" she shouted. "It's not like you stubbed my toe! I could have died!"

"But you didn't, of course."

"Of course? What are you talking about, of course? Do you know how many times I've died?"

"And yet here you are." Lily took one step towards Bonnie and Bonnie immediately took a step back. "Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps you've cheated death so many times because you aren't meant to die?"

"Of course I'm meant to die. I'm human. Humans die."

"You're a witch," she corrected. "And you could be so much more than that."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes as she thought she knew where Lily was going with her comments.

"What do you really want with me?" she asked.

"I want you on my side. I want you to be a part of my family, Bonnie. A heretic. A witchpire. A vitch, whatever you'd like to call it."

"No."

"Think about it. Think of how powerful you would be. You're already a gifted witch. A Bennett witch, no less. If I turned you, all that power would increase a hundred fold. You'd never die. You'd be young and beautiful forever and together, we could do anything."

Bonnie shook her head. "No," she said again. "I don't want to be one of your freaks. I don't want to be a vampire at all. I want to live a normal life."

"You're not normal," Lily said calmly. "You never were and you never will be. You have so much untapped potential that I could bring out of you, if you'd only let me."

"Get out," Bonnie said again. When Lily didn't move, she yelled, "Get out!" Lily only smiled, and Bonnie immediately held out her hand and sent her the most powerful aneurysm that she could muster. Only, it did nothing.

"That won't work here, I'm afraid," Lily said.

Before Bonnie could ask what that was supposed to mean, Lily sped over to her and grabbed her by the neck. She hoisted Bonnie against the wall and Bonnie struggled to breathe and get away. She kicked and scratched but Lily didn't let go. With her free hand, Lily bit into her wrist and then forced it into Bonnie's mouth.

"Drink it, my dear," she said calmly. "Drink it and this will all be better."

Bonnie moved her head from side to side and tried to close her mouth and not swallow the blood, but Lily overpowered her. As much as she didn't want to, she swallowed some of the blood and Lily smiled.

"And now, I make you mine."

Lily snapped her neck, and as soon as she did, Bonnie screamed and woke up. She was still screaming when she saw Caroline was kneeling in front of the couch, trying to calm her down.

"Bonnie, Bonnie, hey wake up, it was a bad dream," she said repeatedly.

It took Bonnie several seconds to calm down and realize that the whole interaction with Lily was only a nightmare. She looked down at her shaking hands and felt her neck, which was intact and didn't have a bite on it. She fell back and sighed, breathing deeply.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked, her face full of concern.

"Yeah. Yeah," she nodded.

"What happened?"

"A bad dream." She touched her neck again. "It was just a bad dream."

...

September 2, 2013

Dear Elena,

You remember how I told you that I felt something was coming? That something is about to happen? Well I think the other shoe finally dropped in the form of Lily Salvatore. She made her presence known when I was at the bowling alley with Damon and Stefan. She said that she only wanted to "assimilate" and apologize to me, but ever since that day, she's been haunting my dreams. At first, I thought it was just a nightmare. But it's been happening every day. It's the same dream every time. She forces me to drink her blood and turns me into a witchpire. She's controlling my thoughts when I sleep and I don't know how to stop it. I haven't slept well in days because even if I close my eyes for a nap, she's there.

Caroline knows about it, but I haven't told Damon yet. I guess I'm afraid that if I tell him, he'll do something impulsive and make the whole thing worse. So far, Lily only messes with me in my nightmares. I don't want her to start messing with me when I'm awake, too. If Damon pushes her, she might get more aggressive. I don't know what to do.

We made up, in case you can't tell. Me and Damon, I mean. I'm glad, too. I think I will need him.

Bon

...

As much as Bonnie liked her astronomy class, it was very hard to stay awake. They had class in an auditorium with all the lights down so they could look up at the ceiling and the teacher could show them the stars and planets. Normally, she would have been very interested. But after so many days of disrupted sleep, it took everything in her to keep her eyes open. She dozed off every few minutes, only to jolt awake, afraid that she might wake up screaming from a dream encounter with Lily. Her head hurt. Her eyes hurt. She just wanted to sleep.

When the class ended, she gathered her books and backpack and dragged herself down the steps. She was barely out of the door when someone tapped her shoulder. She gasped and jumped, only to find Damon standing there, a cup of coffee extended to her.

"What's up with you?" he asked suspiciously. "You look terrible."

"Gee, thanks," she said as she took the coffee. She took a long sip and sighed in relief. It tasted good and it was going to keep her awake for a while. "I'm just tired."

"Why?" he asked.

They walked down the busy halls of the science building and out into the warm summer air.

"I haven't been sleeping well."

"Any particular reason?"

She thought about telling him, but then she remembered that he would undoubtedly make the situation worse. "No, not really."

"Hm. Well, I have some news about our resident psychopath. That's my mother, by the way."

Bonnie's heart skipped a beat but she played it off by taking another sip of coffee. "Uh-huh."

"So the word on the street is that some people have gone missing lately. And by people, I mean witches. And I'm pretty sure the abductors are none other than Mommy Dearest and her witchy vampy crew."

"What are they doing with witches?"

"Trying to turn them, probably. My guess is that she wants to make a vampire-witch hybrid army. You know, kind of like Klaus 2.0, only with sexy witches instead of smelly dogs."

"Uh-huh," Bonnie said, looking straight ahead as the thoughts ran rapid-fire through her mind. She had been trying to hold off hope that her dreams didn't mean anything, but knowing that Lily was creating an army only cemented her fears. Lily wanted to turn her.

"So I was thinking that maybe we could do a little recon on Lily and find out exactly what they're doing. I think they have their 'meetings' at the old storage units in Mystic Falls. You up for it?"

Bonnie finally stopped walking and actually paid attention to Damon. "Up for what, exactly?"

"You and me, doing some undercover work. We could stake out in my car and eat stale doughnuts while we do surveillance, just like all those nitty gritty cops."

He wiggled his eyebrows and despite her exhaustion, she laughed a little.

"When would be we doing this nitty gritty work?" she asked.

"Tonight," he said with a shrug. "You don't have class tomorrow until late, right? We'll make a night of it. You, me, the Camaro...sound like fun?"

Bonnie's body screamed at her to get some meaningful sleep, but she knew it wasn't going to happen with her thoughts centered on Lily. So she agreed, much to Damon's delight. He hung around her apartment after she graciously invited him in, and she finished up her classes for the day. When she came back, she hopped into the Camaro and they took off for Mystic Falls. Darkness was falling when Damon made a pit stop for coffee and the afore-promised stale doughnuts, and by the time they pulled up to the storage unit entrance, it was pitch black outside. Damon parked his car some distance away, hidden underneath the shade of forest trees, and hopefully where they could see out without being noticed. Bonnie was in the middle of polishing off a chocolate cake doughnut when Damon whipped out a pair of binoculars.

"Oh my God, you're kidding, right?"

"What? These are what the old cops would use," he defended.

"You're a vampire, you idiot. You have perfect vision."

"It's even more perfect with these kick ass binoculars," he said. He brought out another pair and handed them to her. "Don't be jealous. I got some for you, too."

"Wow, thanks," she said dryly.

She watched him with unabashed amusement as he leaned over the steering wheel and used his binoculars like he really needed them.

"You're ridiculous," she said.

"I'm prepared." He put his spectacles down and relaxed in his seat. He was still watching the entrance when he asked, "so are you gonna tell me why you haven't been sleeping?"

She froze mid-chew, waiting for him to reveal that he knew about the nightmares. But he didn't. He just looked at her and waited.

"Sometimes there isn't a reason for things like that," she said with a shrug.

"I don't recall you ever having a problem going to sleep when we were stuck in 1994. As a matter of fact, I seem to remember you falling asleep on many a movie, snoring like a bear and drooling all over me."

"Oh please! First of all, I don't snore or drool."

"Tell that to all my shirts."

"And secondly, how could I not have fallen asleep? You always wanted to watch those old black and white movies that were boring as hell."

"They're classics, Bonnie."

"They're boring."

"You have no taste when it comes to cinema," he scoffed.

"Yeah, well you have the taste of a ninety-year-old. Oh wait, you're even older than that. Thanks, Grandpa."

Damon narrowed his eyes at her, and asked, "when's the last time you had sex?"

"Oh my God," she groaned. "No, we are not having this conversation."

"You need some sex, Bon-Bon," he said seriously. "Nothing will put you to sleep like a little dick. Or a lot of dick. You probably need a lot."

"Did you not hear me say that we're not having this discussion?"

"What has it been, like a year and half? Two years? More?" he asked, completely disregarding her statement. "I mean, I know you polished the pearl a few times while we were in the prison world but that doesn't count."

Bonnie smacked his arm. "Shut. Up!"

"That's your problem," he decided. "We just need to get you laid. I would offer, but you know, I'm kind of taken."

"Oh, darn," she said sarcastically. "So sorry I'm missing out on that exclusive opportunity."

Damon took in a sharp breath and put his hand to his chest. "Are you trying to imply that I'm a slut?"

"I'm not implying anything. I'm saying it explicitly." She grinned and he smirked. She reached over and turned his radio on. "Now hush. Real nitty gritty cops don't do all this chatting while they're on the job."

For the next few hours, they sat in relative silence, as nothing but the radio made noise. Bonnie sank into her chair and nodded off a few times, but she always woke up before she got into any real deep sleep. Damon watched the entrance. When midnight came and went and there was still no sign of Lily, Damon sighed.

"Well, I guess we can pack it in for the night."

"Yeah, good call," Bonnie said as she fought off a yawn. "We can come back some other day."

Damon started the car and drove away, watching the entrance until it was out of view.

"It's kind of late to drive all the way back to your place. You want to spend the night at the boarding house?" he offered.

Bonnie knew that she should insist on him taking her home, but her brain was so tired that she could only mumble an 'okay.' Her eyes got heavy, as did her body, and although she tried to resist, sleep finally claimed her. When they pulled up to the Salvatore home, Damon smirked as he looked at her body slumped in her chair. She was snoring lightly and he pulled out his phone to capture it.

"You don't snore, my ass," he said as the camera recorded ten seconds of her sounds.

He slipped his phone into his pocket and then got out and carefully opened Bonnie's door. He scooped her up in his arms and she didn't wake up. He carried her up to the guest room right next to his and situated her on the bed. He pulled off her shoes and placed them next to the bed, and then he slipped a light blanket over her body. He was careful to remain quiet when he closed the door behind him.

He went into his own room and disrobed as soon as he got inside. He took a long, steaming hot shower and had just pulled on some boxers when Bonnie's piercing scream put him on high alert. He raced out of his room and into hers, where he found her thrashing on the bed.

"Bonnie! Bonnie!" he called as he threw the blanket off of her and grabbed her flailing arms. Her forehead was dotted with sweat and her eyes were screwed shut as she continued to struggle.

"No, no!" she shouted.

"Bonnie, wake up!" he said. He pinned her hands above her head and when her eyes snapped open, her pupils were dilated and she looked confused and scared.

"No, no, no," she said, almost in tears. "Don't let her turn me."

"Hey, hey, come here," he said softly as he scooped her into his arms. She resisted at first, but then she settled down and her body went limp against his. He rubbed her back for a moment, and when he pulled away, her breathing had returned to normal and she looked more embarrassed than anything.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"It was just a nightmare," she said, trying to shirk away from him. But he didn't let her go. He lifted her chin and when their eyes met, he knew she was lying.

"Is this why you can't sleep? Have you been doing this every night?"

Bonnie hesitated with her answer at first, and then she nodded. Damon made her tell him the whole story and when she told him about how Lily was infiltrating her dreams and giving her nightmares every time she went to sleep, he gritted his teeth and jumped off the bed.

"I'm gonna kill her," he said as he marched to the door. Bonnie scrambled after him and got between him and the door.

"Don't," she said.

"Why the hell not? She's messing with your head after I specifically warned her not to go near you."

"You'll only make it worse," she said with round eyes. "She's got a group of people that are completely loyal to her and if you kill her, they all come after us. We have to figure out another way to stop this."

Damon pressed his lips together like he wasn't happy with her suggestion, but he huffed and moved away from the door.

"How long has this been going on?" he demanded to know.

"Since the bowling alley."

"The bowling alley?!" he nearly screamed. "That was weeks ago!"

"I thought I could handle it."

Out of nowhere, he punched a hole in the wall and turned to her with fury in his eyes.

"Damn it, Bonnie, you can't handle everything on your own! When are you going to learn that? You have to stop being such a sacrificial little lamb and let people help you when you need it."

He expected her to fight him about it, to tell him that she was the almighty Bennett witch and that there wasn't anything she couldn't do. But instead, she looked down at her feet and then back at him, looking more vulnerable than he ever saw her.

"I need your help, Damon."

Truthfully, he wanted to yell some more. He wanted to put her in her place and tell her that if she was going to teach him how to be a better friend, he was going to teach her how to treat herself better. He wanted to lecture her, scream at her, make her see that was worth more than she knew. But she looked so pitiful that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I can teach you how to guard your mind," he said, still irritated but a lot less angry. "I can help you learn how to keep her and any other vampire out of your head. It'll take some work, but I'm sure you can do it."

Bonnie nodded but then smiled sadly. "I guess there's no way you could teach me that tonight so I could actually get some sleep, is there?"

"No. But I know a way around that."

She waited for him to explain, but instead he took her hand and led her out of the guest room and into his room. He pulled back the covers on his bed and pointed.

"In," he directed.

"What..."

"In."

She didn't ask any more questions. She crawled into his California King sized bed and waited as he hit a button that lifted a TV from the foot of the bed. He got into the bed next to her and then turned to channel to Turner Classic Movies, where an old black and white film was already playing. Bonnie's lips curled into a slow smile and Damon patted his chest.

"If this doesn't get you to sleep, I don't know what will," he said.

"It's not the going to sleep that I'm worried about," she said.

"Here's the first thing you should know about blocking unwanted visitors from your brain. Your mind is much less vulnerable when you're feeling comfortable and safe."

"Are you saying that you make me feel comfortable and safe?" Bonnie asked.

"One way to find out."

He patted his chest again and Bonnie slid over to him. She wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head on his chest and within minutes, she was asleep. Damon rubbed her back softly, occasionally stroking her hair, and he watched over her all night in case she had another nightmare.

She didn't.

And for that, he was going to tease the hell out of her.