Chapter 7

Katherine sits with her legs crossed on the small chair next to Caroline's bed and examines her manicured nails. At least, they were manicured before her run in with those two witches. She didn't catch their names before they went murderous and triggered the safety compulsion that Katherine had set in over half a dozen residents and workers of Mrs. Flower's B & B. Lucky thing too. She's certain they would've killed her if given the chance. It takes a lot of juice to kill a vampire Katherine's age, so they must be powerful.

She smiles at the idea of slicing both witches' throats with her single broken nail. It's the least she could do after they attempted to break every bone in her body. The pain from their initial attack was greater than anything she's ever felt. But as much as she'd like her revenge, it usually takes a witch to take down a witch. So Katherine pulls out her phone and calls a witch that owes her.

"Kat, how are you, girl?"

"Oh, you know me, Lucy. I like to stay entertained." Katherine flashes a wicked smile into the phone as she strolls around the empty room. She traces her broken finger nail across Caroline's dresser, pressing hard enough to leave a deep scratch in the dark wood.

"Uh, huh. So what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time," Lucy Bennett says from the other side of the phone.

"Are you accusing me of being the kind of friend that only calls when I need something from you?"

"Girl, you know I love you, but yes."

Katherine snickers at the accusation as she shifts through Caroline's open closet. "You know me well."

"Catch me up."

"No, it's better if you come to me. This is going to take your full focus and presence." Katherine rips through a hanging dress with her broken nail, but she stops when Lucy responds.

"I can't, Kat."

"What?" She narrows her eyes and tilts her head at the phone.

"I would if I could. You know that," Lucy rushes to explain. "But something weird is going on in the witch community. I've been sent on a mission by my ancestors."

"As in, long dead ancestors?"

"Yeah, girl. I can't say no to them."

"You can't say no to me either."

"I know. So tell me what's going on, and I'll make it right. I'm driving now, but I can at least brainstorm with you and maybe call in a favor from a one of my witch friends."

Katherine smirks at the witch's begging, but she's not happy about being denied something she wants. The vampire shreds a pair of Caroline's skinny jeans.

"First, tell me about this mission that's keeping you from fulfilling your debt to me."

"Uh, I'm not really supposed to do that," Lucy says. When Katherine growls through the phone, she continues, "But of course I'll tell you, girl. You know I love you."

Katherine smiles at Lucy's compliance and settles back into the empty chair, leaving the shredded clothes lying in the floor for Caroline to find. At least Lucy is still respectfully fearful of the five-hundred-year-old vampire, as she should be.

"Something happened last night. Something big. It was big enough for every witch in the world to feel the ripples."

"Ripples?"

"Ripples in time, Kat."

"And what does that mean?" Katherine rolls her eyes. Witches tend to take things far too seriously, but damn it if they aren't useful.

"It means someone did something last night that's supposed to be impossible. And it's impossible for a reason. Someone managed to break the timeline."

"What do you mean 'timeline'?" Katherine sits forward. "As in the timing of a curse?"

"Not a timeline. The timeline. As in Time with a capital 'T'," Lucy says. "Someone opened a time travel portal."

"Time travel? As in someone traveled through time last night?"

"Exactly." Lucy sighs with relief that Katherine seems to understand the importance of her mission.

"Tell me about the time portal? Where, or when, does it go? Can anyone use it?"

"No." Lucy hesitates in her answer, sensing the vampire's evil interest. "It doesn't work that way, Kat. No one from this timeline can control it. Only those who came through it from the other timeline can."

"So someone is here from the other side? Who? And from when did they travel?" Katherine jumps from the chair to pace cross the small bedroom as she considers how to twist this situation to her benefit.

"Yeah, someone is definitely here, but I don't know who or from when yet. That's what I'm supposed to find out. Of course, this portal ripped open in the middle of the smallest, backwoods town in the South. So off I go to fix this mess. I have to get these time travelers back through their portal and make sure it's zipped up tight before they step on too many butterflies."

"What town is it, Lucy?" Katherine asks with a suspicious frown, and the answer makes her grin.

"Oh, a tiny town in Virginia."

"I don't suppose you're headed to Mystic Falls?"

"How did you know that?"

"I guess you'll be able to keep both your promises. How far out are you?"

"Several hours still. I might make it before mid-night."

"Good, I'll be waiting. Now, let's talk about my problem."

"Okay, wait. Are you in Mystic Falls right now? Do you know anything about this portal?"

Katherine crinkles her nose at Lucy's annoying questions. "Yes and no. I'm in Mystic Falls, but I have my own problems to worry about. So let's focus on what's important. Got it, Lucy."

"Of course, girl." She sighs. "Tell me what you got."

"Well, my plans for Mystic Falls were progressing perfectly until a set of twin witches showed up on my door step and tried to murder me."

"Twins? A boy and a girl with blond hair?" Lucy asks, thinking of the Gemini coven and their high-school-aged twins, Luke and Liv.

"No, two dark haired women. Looked to be in their twenties. And they're powerful."

"Hmm."

"What are you thinking, Lucy?" Katherine stops pacing to dig through Caroline's jewelry box.

"If they're strong enough to scare a vampire your age, they'd be pretty well known. Especially twins. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Katherine sneers at a ring with disgust and tosses it behind Caroline's dresser.

"I've heard rumors about a really old and powerful vampire that likes to collect witches," Lucy says, and Katherine freezes. "But still…at their age, I'd at least have heard rumors about them."

"What about the time portal?" Katherine says as a Hail Mary. She'd much rather deal with time traveling witches than Klaus' witches. She's not ready for Klaus yet. She needs to have the Moon Stone in hand first. If he's already sent these witches after her, then he won't be interested in bartering for her freedom because his witches will just round up all the ingredients for the spell after she's dead. Especially since they are all conveniently available in one small town, thanks to Katherine's manipulations. She really needs to call Mason. He should have that stone by now. Then maybe she'll have some bargaining power.

"It's possible that they're the time travelers," Lucy says, drawing Katherine back to the conversation at hand. "But they'd have to be immensely powerful to open the portal. And if that's the case, I don't know what I can do to stop them from killing you."

"Why would time travelers want to kill me?" Katherine huffs and picks up one of the stuffed animals propped on Caroline's bed.

"I don't know. Maybe you do something in the future to piss them off."

"The future? How do you know they're from the future?"

"They have to be. The portals can only travel to points in time that have already existed. It can't create new points in time. Only time can do that," Lucy says.

"You also said the time portals shouldn't exist, and yet it does," Katherine says. She slowly rips a leg off a pretty white unicorn.

"True. Maybe I'm just making this up as I go," Lucy says with a smile. "I suggest you lie low until I get there. I'd offer to make a ward to keep the twins from finding you, but I'm pretty sure you've got that covered."

"Of course I do. You don't survive as long as I have without learning a few tricks."

Katherine bids farewell before ending the call. She'd learned centuries ago how to block locator spells. Of course, that didn't stop someone from blabbing her location to the twins. The question is: Who knew her location and ratted her out?

Only one person knew where she was staying and that was Mason. But he wouldn't have told the witches. Would he? He loves her. He thinks she's working to free him of his werewolf curse. Why would he betray her? Katherine glances at the phone in her hand and considers calling the werewolf. If he betrayed her, surely he'd have skipped town by now. He'd know she'd never forgive him. But if he's still in town, she doesn't want him to know she suspects his betrayal.

What to do, what to do. Katherine muses as she rips another leg off the innocent stuffed unicorn. She flips open the phone and calls someone else.

"Caroline," Katherine croons through the phone

On the other side of town, Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline follow the crowd of high school students to freedom at the end of another long school day. The afternoon sun blares overhead and the wind tugs at each girl's long locks as they traipse across the school grounds to the parking lot.

"Are you guys still coming to the Volunteer Picnic? My mom's already bailed as expected," Caroline says. "Of course she couldn't possibly take one day off and keep one promise, but whatever."

"No, we can't make it," Elena says. She's still bothered by the fact that Caroline is reporting to Katherine. She's bothered and hurt.

"Elena," Caroline whines and all three girls stop. Bonnie huffs at the typical Caroline behavior and glares at the baby vampire. She's glad that Caroline still behaves like her normal self, but Bonnie is conflicted with her friend's new vampire existence. How can she be friends with a murderer? Right now, Bonnie wonders how Caroline, vampire or human, can be this annoying.

"You can't bail on me. Bonnie already hates me," Caroline says. She motions to the short witch, who rolls her eyes. "I can't lose you too. I need you. You're my only real friend left."

"Am I your friend, Caroline?" Elena asks, and the blonde has the grace to look guilty.

"Of course you are, Elena. You're both my friends."

"And you wouldn't do anything to betray me, right? Because you're my friend?" Elena's stern tone makes Bonnie glance at her. Caroline sighs in resignation and hugs her books closer as the rest of the student body rushes around them. Tears form, and with a sniffle, she finally confesses.

"I'm a horrible friend, okay. She threatened Matt and my mom. I didn't know what else do." Caroline sobs as her friends drag her to a nearby picnic table away from the fleeing students.

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie asks. Elena watches with a knitted brow of concern.

"Katherine. She showed up in my room the other night and threatened them. She demanded that I tell her everything and keep tabs on Elena and Stefan. I'm so sorry. I just didn't know what else to do."

Elena rushes to wrap her arms around Caroline, and Bonnie joins her.

"It's okay, Caroline," Elena whispers to her friend. "I should've known you wouldn't betray us unless you were protecting someone."

"You knew?" The blonde asks between hiccups.

"Yeah, it was pretty obvious after the barbecue." Elena offers a teasing smile. "You're a terrible liar."

"That's a good thing," Bonnie says as all three girls giggle in their huddle of hugs. After a moment, they break apart, and Caroline wipes her eyes. Bonnie watches the concern and gratefulness swirl in the vampire's eyes. That's when she decides that her friend is still here, vampire or not.

"It's going to be okay, Caroline. We'll take down Katherine, and we won't let her hurt any of our loved ones," she says.

Caroline grins at her friend and nods. "So are we going to the Volunteer Picnic?"

"No," Elena and Bonnie answer together.

"Why not?"

"Because we have to investigate Mrs. Flower's B & B. We're looking for some suspicious looking twins," Bonnie says.

"Stefan is supposed to go with us, but I haven't heard from him." Elena checks her phone again to be sure.

"The bed and breakfast on the edge of town? Oh, that can't be good." Caroline's eyes widen. "My mom got a call early this morning. She almost caught me sneaking back in from a late night hunt. That's why she's skipping the picnic. There were a bunch of people killed at the B & B."

"What? No." Bonnie slaps a hand to her mouth to contain her gasp. What if she could have prevented all those deaths? If only she'd trusted her instincts and followed those women last night.

"Oh, no," Elena says. "I have to call Stefan. Maybe he knows something. Maybe that's why he didn't come to class today."

Before Elena can dial Stefan's number, Caroline's phone rings, and she pales when she sees the number on the screen. "It's Katherine."

"Answer it but don't mention anything important." Bonnie squeezes her friend's hand for support.

"Hello?"

"Caroline." The blonde flinches at the sound of Katherine's voice.

"What do you want?"

"I'm just checking in. I want to know if anything exciting is happening with Elena and Stefan."

"No, Stefan didn't come to school today. Elena's been moping about their breakup all day." Caroline flashes nervous glance at the brunette. It's true. Elena had made a point to seem sad and upset about her 'break-up' with Stefan.

"Hmm," Katherine says. Caroline frowns at the sounds of ripping on the other side of the line, but the older vampire continues, "What else is happening? Anything exciting?"

"No, nothing."

"Caroline." Katherine's sing-song voice makes the baby vampire crumble under the hidden threat.

"Okay, Bonnie said that there's some freaky twins roaming around Mystic Falls."

Bonnie widens her eyes pointedly at Caroline for spilling the beans. She shrugs her shoulders and silently begs for the witch to forgive her. Elena places a comforting hand on Caroline's shoulder, and she looks at the doppelgänger with a tiny, grateful smile.

"What does the Bennet witch know about the twin witches?" Katherine asks.

"She didn't mention that they were witches. What do you know about them?" Caroline says. Both Elena and Bonnie step back in surprise at the new information.

"Just that they are powerful and murderous. If you see them or hear anything about them, you call me immediately. If I find out you're holding back any information about them, I'll rip out Matt Donovan's heart and make you eat it. Got it, Caroline?"

"Yeah…I got it," she says, on the brink of tears again.

"Keep it together. I still need more information," Katherine says to the baby vampire as something else rips in the background, and Caroline sniffles.

"What else? I don't know anything."

"Is Mason Lockwood still in town?"

"Tyler's uncle? I don't know. I haven't spoken to Tyler. We're not exactly friends."

"Well make friends. I want to know what that werewolf is up to," Katherine says.

"Maybe you should call Damon. He's the one that's obsessed with killing Mason."

"Don't worry about what I'm doing, Caroline. Worry about keeping your loved ones alive." Katherine ends the call with a sneer. Caroline catches Elena and Bonnie up on the conversation, and Elena calls Stefan.

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