[3x15; All My Children]

Lucy heaved her bag downstairs, cursing herself for packing it so tight with the paintings she intended on showing Klaus. She had told him the night before that she would bring some paintings over and she wasn't going to go back on her word. There was nothing else she had do today, since she had already called Jeremy to inform him of everything going on. Alaric wasn't free, since he was having lunch with Meredith, and Elena and Joel had some mysterious plans going on.

She had finally lugged her bag off the last stair and reached for her keys off the hook when Joel and Elena walked into the room, dressed warmly for the cool weather outside.

"Where are you going?" Joel asked his sister, eyeing the bag in her hands. "What's that?"

"They're the paintings I'm showing Klaus," Lucy informed him, pulling a fluffy hat on her head.

"You're going over there again?" Elena raised a judgmental eyebrow at her. "Did you forget what they did? Rebekah tried to kill me less than twenty-four hours ago."

"I didn't forget, all right?" Lucy glared at her. "and you stabbed Rebekah in the back, Elena. Did you expect a thank-you card?"

Elena gasped indignantly while Joel pressed his lips together. Lucy waved and muttered a goodbye under her breath before leaving the house. The ride to Klaus' mansion wasn't far and parking was far more easier when they didn't have to park in the grass with twenty other cars.

She walked into the mansion without knocking and entered the living room, greeting Kol and Klaus, who were sitting around leisurely.

"Morning, Ana," Kol chirped.

Lucy gave him a sweet smile before turning to Klaus, gently placing the bag down in front of him. Klaus set his sketchbook aside and looked at the bag curiously.

"What's this?"

"Some of my art," Lucy told him, unzipping the bag. She pulled out a painting that she had made after a special memory of their family. Every one of her family was included except for Mikael, who was absent from the memory. It was one of her bests, if she did say so herself.

"This is amazing, love," Klaus gawked at her talent. She had been good years ago but now that she had the time and supplies, she had really added to her skill.

"I want to see!" Kol insisted.

Klaus rolled his eyes and showed the painting to Kol.

"I'm impressed, Ana," Kol smirked at her and then pointed at place where Klaus was painted. "Dear God, look at that hair, Nik!"

Lucy giggled as Klaus scowled at their brother.

"There's more in there," Lucy told Klaus as she sat next to him on the couch. "Feel free to look."

Klaus nodded and carefully set down the canvas before pulling another one out of the bag. This particular painting was of the night sky with realistic colors that stood out brightly.

"So, you paint, huh?" Kol asked her once Klaus was distracted.

"I draw sometimes," Lucy shrugged.

Kol nodded. "And what about your siphoning abilities?"

"I'm working on them," Lucy frowned self-consciously. "I'm getting better at making the magic last longer."

"You can protect yourself?"

Lucy nodded. "I know some spells."

Kol was very interested in her siphoning abilities and he had been before, when she was Luciana. Kol had always been the most supportive when it came to her and Henrik learning about their abilities. He was often the one who taught Luciana anything that had to do with magic. He even snuck around Esther and let her siphon from him to practice the spells he learned.

"I'll pick you up one of the grimoires I've collected over the years," Kol informed Lucy. "I've got one specific for siphoners that you can have."

"I thought that there wasn't much on siphoners."

"Not much," Kol conceded. "but I've run into some over the years. They're not very tolerated in the witch community."

Lucy scoffed. "No kidding."

Kol gave her a sympathetic smile but Lucy knew that she was much more privileged than some of the siphoners that came before her. In this life, she had been discriminated against for her siphoning abilities only once—her life as Lucia was much darker, until she was murdered for her nature.

It was quiet as Klaus went through the rest of the paintings she brought, giving her quiet compliments once in a while, or giving her a critique that she appreciated and wanted to try next time she painted. It felt nice to talk to someone about her art; Jeremy was a drawer and wasn't a big fan of paint at all.

Rebekah walked into the living room thirty minutes later, her green dress ripped in some places and her hair a mess.

"Well, well, well, there's our girl," Kol crowed as he stood up and came face-to-face with her.

"Get out of my way, Kol," Rebekah snapped at him, adjusting her black heels in her grip.

"Out all night," Kol fell away and continued to tease his sister. "What a scandal. I trust you did better than that commoner. Matt, was it?"

"Kol…" Lucy gave him a warning look, offended on Matt's behalf.

"If you don't shut your mouth, the next thing to come out of it will be your teeth," Rebekah threatened him before catching the small smirk on Klaus' face. "Don't start, Nik."

Klaus looked down at his sketch with an innocent smile. "I didn't say anything."

Lucy rolled her eyes at her brothers and gave Rebekah a sympathetic smile.

"I'm bored," Kol sighed dramatically. "Our sister is a strumpet but at least she's having fun. I need entertainment."

"What are you waiting for?" Klaus looked at him. "Go on. Have at it."

"It's no fun to go alone," Kol whined. "Join me, Nik. It's the least you could do after sticking a dagger in my heart."

Lucy had to bit her lip to keep in her laughter at Kol's pathetic puppy-eyed face. She was actually surprised that Klaus fell for it, but it seemed he had a guilty conscious.

"Okay, why not?" Klaus shut his sketch book and stood from the couch. "I didn't have nearly enough to drink last night, what with you trying to murder Rebekah's date," he smirked at Rebekah as he walked past her.

"Yes, please go," Rebekah called after them. "This house has enough men rolling around in it."

"Just like you, Bekah!" Kol smirked, dodging the high heel that Rebekah whipped at him.

"Good riddance, both of you!" she shouted.

Lucy sighed and stood up, walking over to her sister. "Just ignore them. You're a modern woman, you can do whatever you want."

Rebekah smiled at her. "Exactly."

"Rebekah," Elijah entered the room, looking pensive. "Luciana…"

"Not you, too, Elijah," Rebekah groaned softly.

Elijah didn't seem to know what she was talking about. "I'm worried about Mother," he confessed to his sisters. "Have you not noticed her strange behavior?"

Lucy shook her head while Rebekah sighed. "She's been dead for a thousand years. What's strange for her?"

Elijah held out his hand to show Lucy and Rebekah some burnt herbs wrapped in a cloth. "Burnt sage."

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows at it. "She was doing a privacy spell?"

"You know she fancies such things," Rebekah was unbothered by Elijah's worries as Lucy took the burnt sage from him. "Why don't you ask Finn? He's been doting on her."

Elijah shook his head. "I don't trust Finn. He hates what we are. He always has."

"That's not true," Rebekah told him. "And, as for Mother, she returned for one reason; to make her family whole. She loves us. What trouble are you looking to find?"

As Rebekah walked out of the living room, Lucy turned to Elijah. What she knew of Esther came from a pre-teen's point of view. She didn't know her like Elijah or Klaus did. If Elijah was suspicious about their mother, wasn't that a good reason for her to be?

"I can talk to her?" Lucy suggested to Elijah. "I'll ask if she can teach me a privacy spell and see if she does anything weird."

Elijah gave her fond smile. "That would be helpful, Luciana. Thank you."

Lucy smiled back at him and left the living room, heading up to Esther's room on the second floor. She didn't know exactly if Esther was going to be in her room but if she wasn't, Lucy would try again later.

She knocked on the double doors of Esther's room and received a call to enter.

Esther looked surprised when Lucy came in, but not overly so.

"Luciana, darling," she smiled pleasantly from her seat at her desk. "how unexpected."

"Sorry," Lucy smiled apologetically. "Um, I was just wondering if you could teach me a privacy spell?"

Esther's eyebrows furrowed. "What for?"

"Oh, you know, there's so many people at my house sometimes," Lucy smiled weakly. "And I share a bathroom with my brother."

"I see," Esther nodded and stood up, walking over to her. "Come. I'll see what I can teach you."

Lucy gave her a grateful smile and then everything went black.

"He was gloating, like actual gloat," Elena told Bonnie about what happened when she and Joel went to the Boarding House earlier. "Like he was proud of himself for sleeping with her."

Joel sighed heavily and leaned his head against her door, wishing that Bonnie's privacy spell would actually work so he didn't have to hear his sister's love-pentagon drama.

"Is it working?"

Joel opened Elena's door and peeked into the room where Bonnie was trying to burn sage. "It's not working," he told the girls. "I can hear every jealous word that you're saying about Damon."

"I'm not jealous."

Joel rolled his eyes as Bonnie said, "I don't know. It's a tricky spell."

"When Esther did it, she kept the sage burning," Elena informed Bonnie. "There was a lot more smoke."

Bonnie shook her head and put the sage back into the candle's flame. "All right," she nodded at Joel, who closed the door with another sigh. "Speaking of Esther, you should know she came to see me and Abby this morning."

"And all this time you let me vent about Damon?" Elena scoffed.

"I didn't want you to worry."

"Okay, well, what did she want?"

"She wanted to introduce herself," Bonnie explained. "Abby and I helped bring her back. She's channeling our entire ancestral bloodline for power. I think she thought she was being polite."

"Is there a way to stop her from channeling you?" Elena asked anxiously.

"Even if there was, why would I want that?"

"I just keeping thinking…before the Sun and the Moon ritual, Elijah found a way to keep me alive," Elena said quietly. "And now I'm in the exact same position and I'm just gonna let him die? It just doesn't feel right."

Joel opened the door again, annoyed with Elena's reluctance. She had been one of the creators of the kill-Klaus plan and now she wanted to back off? Sure, Joel had some reservations about killing Lucy's first batch of siblings but his hate for Klaus overwhelmed them.

"This privacy spell doesn't work," he said flatly before turning to Elena. "You're not doing this, Lena. Esther is doing this."

"There's no time to change your mind, Elena," Bonnie added. "They'll be dead by the end of the night."

Elena looked at her, shocked. "what?"

"It's a full moon. Esther needs to harness the energy of a celestial event. She asked me and Abby to join her."

Stefan walked out of his bathroom, running a towel through his damp hair. He stopped by the table in the middle of the room, checking his phone for any messages from Lucy. She didn't message him back and he texted her over an hour ago.

He was getting worried.

He sighed and dropped the towel in his laundry basket, turning around to see Caroline sitting on his bed.

"What the hell, Caroline?" he asked, glad that he got dressed in his bathroom. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here because I can't get a hold of anyone!" Caroline huffed. "Elena and Bonnie aren't answering my calls and neither is Lucy and she always answers me."

"Yeah, she's not answering me, either," Stefan sighed, looking at his phone again before sticking it in his pocket. "Next time you want to talk, how about you pick up the phone and call me instead of breaking into my room."

"I'm worried, sue me," Caroline crossed her arms over her shoulder. "Lucy really hasn't gotten back to you?"

"Nope."

"Well, I don't think she's mad at us," Caroline hummed and gave him a pointed look. "You two looked awfully cozy last night."

Stefan raised an eyebrow at her. "So did you and Klaus."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, I don't want to talk about last night, either," Stefan retorted before sighing. "So, what usually happens when Lucy doesn't answer you?"

Caroline scoffed. "Last time that happened we were in eighth grade and I ate the last piece of her coconut cake. We didn't speak for three days," she told him. "I don't think I've done anything to her."

"Maybe she's at Steven's Quarry?" Caroline suggested after a few thoughtful seconds. "She doesn't take her phone there."

"She doesn't go to Steven's Quarry anymore," Stefan shook his head. "Not after…"

Caroline nodded. "Right," she started pacing nervously. "Okay, so, Lucy's missing. There's no other explanation for it, right? Why else would she ignore both of us? We're her favorite people."

"Let's just calm down," Stefan said soothingly, placing his hands on her shoulder to stop her pacing. "We don't exactly know if something bad happened."

Caroline inhaled deeply. "Fine," she sighed. "but I'm going to look for her."

"I'll go with you."

Stefan and Caroline left his room and went downstairs. Joel and Damon were already standing in the living room, staring at a figure in front of the fireplace. Stefan was shocked to see that it was Elijah.

"Hello, Stefan. Caroline," Elijah greeted him pleasantly.

Damon barely looked over at Stefan. "He has Elena."

Stefan was not even aware that Elena was missing. What the hell was going on?

"Actually, she's with Rebekah," Elijah corrected Damon. "As you can imagine, my sister's just dying to tear her throat out. So, if you want to save Elena's life, I need you to help me stop my mother."

Stefan and Caroline looked at each other, confused.

"What's going on?" Caroline spoke up.

"According to our dear Elena, my mother has linked my siblings and I together," Elijah told Caroline and Stefan. "she plans on killing us all."

Stefan stiffened at the news, anger building in his stomach. He had told Damon, Joel, and Elena to stop trying to kill the Originals and they hadn't. He figured Damon would never let Elena talk to Esther so he assumed she wouldn't be talking to her at all. It seemed like she did and now all of the Mikaelsons were at risk.

Did this linking spell include Lucy?

"As I said before, if you stop my mother, Elena will live," Elijah repeated himself.

"I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but when it comes to killing thousand-year-old resurrected witches, I'm a little rusty," Damon quipped with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, unfortunately, even when killed, my mother doesn't seem to want to stay dead," Elijah stated bitterly. "Not with the spirits of nature at her side."

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Joel asked him.

"The witches that released my mother, she's drawing her power from their bloodline," Elijah informed him. "That lines needs to be broken."

"Broken?" Caroline looked to Stefan, Damon, and Joel for answers.

"Yeah, he means…" Damon made a slicing motion at his neck.

"You want us to kill them?" Stefan turned to Elijah incredulously.

"You know, I'd do it myself, but I've absolutely no idea where they are," Elijah said idly. "Besides, seeing me, they'd immediately know my intent. They won't expect to be harmed by the likes of you. In any case, you have until six minutes after nine o'clock to find them."

"Oh, how super-specific of you," Damon griped.

"By nine-oh-seven, the moon will be full," Elijah stated. "My mother will have the power she needs to kill me and my family. If you do not stop her before then, Rebekah will kill Elena. So, we all have our timeline. I suggest you get started."

Elijah went to leave but Stefan called his name to stop him.

"Elijah, does this linking spell include Lucy?" he questioned nervously.

If it did, then Lucy was probably taken by Esther. She was the most fragile out of the Mikaelson siblings, so it wouldn't take much to just snap her neck and kill the rest of her siblings with her.

Elijah pressed his lips together. "I do not know but if it does…" he hesitated. "then we need to find her right away."

The air outside of the old witch house was freezing and Bonnie's thick coat wasn't doing much in way of keeping her warm. Night had fallen, though, and Esther would be able to use the power of the full moon any minute now.

She exchanged a nervous look with Abby as Esther started making a pentagram with salt around six torches.

"The pentagram represents our connection to magic," Esther explained as she finished with the salt and started lighting the torches. "The salt is a symbol of the Earth."

"And the torches?" Bonnie spoke up curiously.

"Six torches. One for each of my children."

"What's the spell you're doing?"

"As the witch who cast the spell that made them vampires, I can also reverse it," Esther informed Bonnie and Abby. "When they become human again, they can be killed. As they are linked as one, my brave Finn will be the sacrifice. With his death will come theirs."

As if he heard his name, Finn came out of the witch house, carrying something in his arms. Abby looked at him curiously, shocked that he was willing to die to kill his siblings.

"And you're just willing to die?"

"My mother's releasing me from an eternity of shame," Finn replied as he set what he was carrying in the middle of the pentagram. "It's not a sacrifice. It's a gift."

Finn's words were but a blur to Bonnie as she studied the figure in the middle of the pentagram. She was pretty sure it was a person but she couldn't see the girl's face. She narrowed her eyes, trying to see who it was.

Bonnie gasped in horror when she realized that it was Lucy laying in the middle of the pentagram, unconscious.

"What is Lucy doing here?" Bonnie demanded sharply, turning her narrowed gaze at Esther.

"Luciana is one of my children," Esther said simply. "When Finn goes, she will go as well."

"She hasn't done anything," Bonnie protested, her heart starting to race. "She's human."

"No, she's a reincarnation," Esther disagreed. "She has lived too many lives."

"No, no," Bonnie shook her head frantically, walking toward the pentagram; the torches flared up. "How is the link even going to work on her? She'll siphon the magic away."

"I've already taken care of that," Esther looked down at her daughter with a cold yet reluctant gaze. "The symbol carved into her hand will keep the link intact."

Tears stung Bonnie's eyes as she looked down at one of her closest friends. They were going to lose Lucy if they killed all the Originals. She's be the only collateral damage but would it really be worth it?

Bonnie and Abby jumped in shock as Lucy gasped loudly, her back arching as she cried out in pain. Blood started to stain her pink shirt over her heart while Finn dropped to the ground next to her, turning gray.

"What is that?" Abby asked Esther. "Something's wrong."

"Unlink them!" Bonnie urged. "Lucy will die."

"No," Esther disagreed. "The others are daggered but Niklaus' healing ability will kick in and heal her."

Bonnie turned away from the pentagram, pulling her phone out of her pocket while Esther was distracted with Finn and Lucy. She quickly messaged Stefan, sending an S.O.S. for Lucy.

Across town, Stefan received the message just as Elijah arrived to stop Klaus from killing Damon. He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw that the message was from Bonnie.

Bonnie Bennett: Lucy is linked to the Originals. Esther is going to kill her.

"Stop, stop!" Stefan called, interrupting Elijah and Klaus conversation. "Lucy's linked to you."

Klaus looked from Stefan's guilty and furious face to his older brother. "What did mother do, Elijah?"

Elijah didn't answer him; he gritted his teeth and walked toward Joel and Damon. "You tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now," he threatened the younger vampire harshly.

Damon scoffed. "You told me we had until after nine!"

"I'm sure Rebekah would be more than happy to start her work early."

Ten minutes later, Stefan was walking toward the old witch house along side Klaus, Elijah, and Kol. He never thought that he'd be on their side but if he had to for Lucy, he would. There was no way he was going to let her be killed by her own mother.

He didn't want to be anywhere near Damon or Joel at the moment. He would let them decide who would incur Elena's wrath for killing Bonnie or her estranged mother. All he cared about at the moment was making sure Lucy was okay.

A few feet ahead of them, Stefan could see flames. Six torches were lit around a pentagram made of salt and in the middle were Esther, Finn, and Lucy, who was laying on the ground, unconscious.

Bonnie and Abby were no where to be found.

"My sons," Esther lifted her chin as she greeted three of her children. "come forward."

Finn put a cautious hand in front of her. "Stay beside me."

"It's okay," Esther took Finn's hand. "They can't enter."

Kol stepped forward, testing her theory. The torches flared, the flames soaring to the sky as Kol flinched away from the heat.

"That's lovely," Kol spat angrily. "We are stuck out here while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn."

"Be quiet, Kol," Esther scolded him. "Your brother knows virtue you cannot even imagine."

Stefan scoffed quietly. Esther had no reason to be talking of virtue. She was here, about to kill all of her children. She was going to kill Lucy, who hadn't done anything wrong. She was innocent but Esther didn't care.

Stefan hated that Lucy was considered collateral damage to Esther or even to his brother. She wasn't that to him.

"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children would be an atrocity," Elijah spoke up. "Luciana is innocent. She's done nothing wrong. You'll regret this."

"My only regret is that I did not let you die a thousand years ago."

"Enough," Klaus drawled, moving from his place next to Stefan to stand in front of his brothers. "All this talk is boring me. End this now, Mother, or I'll send you back to Hell."

Esther narrowed her eyes at him. "For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood," she glanced at Elijah. "Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you, you're a curse on this earth stretched out over generations."

She pressed her lips firmly together and stepped back beside Finn.

"If you've come to plead for your life, for her life," she glanced at Stefan and then Lucy. "You've wasted your time."

Stefan waited nervously as Klaus, Elijah, and Kol paced outside the pentagram. Esther hadn't started to chant yet but she would any minute now. He had to think of someway to save Lucy. He had to.

"No!" Esther cried suddenly as the torches flared brightly. "Sisters, do not abandon me!"

Stefan and the others turned away from the flames and when they died down, Finn and Esther were gone. Stefan rushed past the three Originals and fell next to Lucy, relieved when he heard her take a breath.

"Lucy," he lightly shook her shoulders to wake her. "Luce, wake up. Come on."

He hardly noticed when Klaus, Elijah, and Kol stepped behind him, looking down at their sister worriedly.

"Lucy!"

"She'll wake," Kol told him, crouching down next to Lucy and picking up her right hand. He traced his finger across the carving at the back of it. An upside-down 'T'. "Esther must have put her under."

"What is that, Kol?" Elijah asked, gesturing to Lucy's hand.

Stefan looked at the mark, fury building in his chest when he saw the red carving in her skin.

"It's an anti-siphon symbol," Kol informed them. "This will be here until the link is broken. It's so she won't siphon it away."

"And she'll be okay?" Stefan asked worriedly, brushing the hair away from Lucy's face.

"Yes," Kol confirmed.

Stefan nodded and leaned over Lucy, pressing a short kiss to her forehead. When he stood up, he looked to Klaus, Elijah, and Kol. "Look after her," he told them. "I don't know what Damon will do to her if…"

He couldn't bring himself to say it. He knew that Damon would try to kill Lucy at his earliest convenience to try to get to her siblings. As much as he hated to admit it, Damon didn't give a damn about Lucy if Elena's life was in any way inconvenienced.

Klaus nodded solemnly. "We will."

Elijah and Kol nodded in agreement. Stefan took one last look at Lucy for the moment, wishing he could stay until she woke up, but he had to talk to his brother, Joel, and Elena.

He got to the Boarding House long before Elena, Damon, and Joel did. He had been waiting for them in the living room, his blood boiling with fury. When they came through the front door, he used his vampire speed to throw Damon into the wall.

"Stefan!" Elena cried out in shock.

Stefan ignored her and pushed Damon forcefully against the crumbling wooden panels. "It's not enough that you killed my best friend but you want to kill Lucy, too?" he growled. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Stefan, stop!" Elena yelled at him. "We didn't know!"

Stefan whipped around to glower at her. "You should have!" he turned back to Damon. "If you come near Lucy, I will kill you."

Damon scoffed and pushed Stefan away from him, using all his strength. Even if Stefan was back on animal blood, his strength was coming from his anger.

"It was a shot at the Originals," Damon pointed out. "I'm willing to give Lucy a great eulogy if it means that Klaus is dead."

"Damon, just shut up," Joel sighed, grabbing Stefan as he lunged for his brother again. "We're not doing anything until Bonnie can unlink Lucy from the rest of them."

Stefan shook Joel off of him and gave Elena a disappointed look. He didn't recognize her at all. She wasn't the same girl he fell for a year ago. And maybe some of it is his fault but what was he supposed to do anymore? Elena loved Damon and she had plotted to kill the Mikaelsons, which indirectly included Lucy.

Lucy was about to die. Just the thought of Lucy dying made him want to fall to his knees from the pain in his chest. He wouldn't be able to survive without her. What he had said to her before he left Mystic Falls before summer was true.

Yes, Lucy's light shined on him—and it would forever—but it was more than that. She was his light.

Stefan didn't really know when he started to love Lucy but he knew that he never really had platonic feelings for her. Even at the beginning of their friendship, he would notice something about her that would ignite his body and make him feel like the luckiest guy in the world. He had tried to convince himself many, many times that he loved Elena and Lucy was just his best friend.

But he was wrong.

Every time Lucy would compliment his barely-there dimples, his heart would melt. Whenever she said something awkward or rambled, he had hearts in his eyes. When he read her letters over the summer, he had hope. She gave him hope and he survived the summer purely because of her.

Even with all of the darkness inside of him, Lucy gave him light. And he loved her for it.

He loved Lucy.

Stefan turned from his brother, Elena, and Joel, speeding up to his room to get a handle on his emotions. He went straight to his bookshelf and pulled out his journal from last year, opening it up to the page where he officially met Lucy.

August 14, 2009

I met her, the younger girl I saved from the river. She was struggling with her locker and even if she was embarrassed, she gave me the most dazzling smile I have ever seen. Her name is Lucy and something about her draws me in. She's named appropriately; her name means light, after all.

Lucy slowly opened her eyes, crinkling her nose in confusion as she looked around the unfamiliar room. She had no idea where she was or what had happened to her; her hand stung horribly and the back of her head ached.

"You're awake."

Lucy turned toward Elijah when she heard his voice. He was sitting in a chair that he had pulled to her bedside, a thick book that was halfway read in his hands. For the first time as Lucy, he was without a suit and dressed in casual clothing—well, as casual as Elijah could get.

"What happened?" Lucy asked quietly, sitting up.

"Mother tried to kill us…"

Lucy listened intently as Elijah explained all that went on during the day and well into the night. Esther had used Elena's blood to link them all at the ball and had planned to kill them. In order to break Esther channel to the Bennett blood line, Damon had turned Bonnie's mother into a vampire. The carving on her hand was so she wouldn't siphon away the spell that linked her to her siblings but it would go away once they were unlinked.

"Oh, my God," Lucy breathed.

"It's a lot," Elijah nodded in agreement. "Luciana, Stefan requested that you stay with Niklaus and Rebekah until you're unlinked."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"

"He believes that Damon may use you to kill us," Elijah said quietly, watching as her face contorted into sadness, hurt, and anger. "Niklaus and Rebekah will keep you safe, I assure you."

"Not you?"

"No," Elijah shook his head. "I'm leaving to find Finn or Mother. Kol has already left; he told me to tell you goodbye and that he will keep in touch."

"And will you keep in touch?"

Elijah smiled. "If you would like that."

Lucy nodded. "I would."

They exchanged a quick goodbye hug with Elijah dropping a kiss to the crown of her head before he left to pack his things and leave. Lucy sighed and looked around her new room, trying not to think about the events she missed while she was unconscious.

She felt lost; Joel, Elena, and Damon had planned to kill her siblings—and even her, she didn't know—and Bonnie's mom was now a vampire because Damon was forced to save Elena. If she was in Elena's place, would anyone even bother to save her?

She knew that her chances were low. If it were up to Damon, she'd be dead in a heartbeat.