"Gather your magic." Himiko ordered.

Maya took in a deep breath and allowed herself to fall into her centre to gather her magic. It was exam week at the academy, Himiko had decided her exam would be testing Maya on everything she'd taught her over the term. The streaming ribbons of gold and silver, her two types of magic, coalesced as Maya exerted her will over them, forming into two distinct shapes.

When she had been learning to gather her magic, Himiko had asked Maya what magic represented for her. Maya had instinctively replied; 'freedom'. Magic meant a lot of different things to Maya, it meant love, acceptance, family, friends, joy, excitement, but at its core it represented freedom. Freedom from the Dursley's. So, when Maya's wixen magic had formed into the shape of a shining golden broomstick, Himiko had huffed a laugh and said she should have guessed. Magic meant freedom to Maya and what was more freeing than soaring above the ground on a broomstick. Flying was and likely always would be her favourite part of magic.

Where wixen magic often, not always but usually, formed into the shape of an item, magical or otherwise. Channeler magic when gathered usually formed into a shape that represented the nature in some way. Himiko's was a pine tree, Sheila's was a climbing rose, and Professor Song's was a waterfall. Maya's was a constellation, a cluster of seven stars in the same pattern as the Pleiades, from which Maya's name derived.

Himiko nodded when it took Maya less than a moment to gather her magics together.

"Good." She praised, "Now, let's run through your transfiguration work, starting with inanimate to animate."

Maya nodded and focused on the teapot sitting on the desk, visualising what she wanted it to transform into and focusing her will, drawing only the amount of power needed from her gathered core and into her wand.

"Chelyfors"

She tapped her wand against the teapot as she spoke the spell and it instantly began to transform. Four legs grew out of the body of the teapot, the handle shrinking into a tiny tail, the spout stretching into a head and neck and the thickening and reshaping into a shell. The floral pattern darkened into mottled browns and greens. Within a minute what once had been a teapot had changed into a tortoise, blinking it's beady eyes, and sniffing the air with its tiny nose.

"Good. Now change it back to a teapot."

"Vicissim"

It was the exact same process but in reverse. The tortoise colours faded until it was once again porcelain white with a blue floral pattern. The head disappeared and the neck shortened back into a spout, the shell thinned out and the tail grew reforming the handle. Until everything had once again reverted into the teapot it had started as.

"Good. Now transfigure it into seven butterflies."

"Papilifors Septum"

There was a slight pop as Maya tapped the teapot and seven butterflies burst into life and began to flutter around lazily between her and Himiko.

"Nicely done. Now turn them into buttons."

"Ciabdo"

With a flick of her wand, each butterfly transformed into a perfect circular button and fell back onto the desk, where they lay still.

"And back into a teapot."

"Finite Incantatum"

The buttons stacked themselves on top of each other and then expanded, reforming into the original teapot once more.

"Now switch this teapot, with the cup and saucer on my desk."

Maya nodded. This would be harder than the other transformations she had done, they had all been revisions from the last two years of schooling. They had gone over all of them and others when Himiko had been teaching her to feed only the amount of magic needed to power it, no more no less, into her spells. Switching spells were new, something she'd only been practicing for the last couple of weeks.

She focused her intent, visualised, and pulled the magic she needed from her core.

"Commutatio."

The teapot vanished and was replaced with the cup and saucer that had been on Himiko's desk at the front of the classroom. Maya looked over at the desk and saw the teapot had reappeared there. They weren't exactly where each object had stood before, both being slightly left of where they should have appeared, but she had successfully switched them.

"Excellent work, Maya. Nicely controlled with the right amount of power. We'll continue working on switching spells next term, so practice them over the holidays."

"Yes Himiko."

Maya was in the living room with Maggie and Enzo revising for her languages exam when Stefan led Elena into the room, Damon following behind. Elena said hello to Maggie and Enzo and then smiled down at Maya.

"Hello Maya, how are you?"

"Snakker du norsk?" Do you speak Norwegian

"err…" Elena shot a questioning glance at Stefan.

"Jeg er opptatt med å studere. Du avbryter." Maya added when it became clear the answer was no.

I'm busy studying. You are interrupting.

Stefan shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed. Damon and Maggie were both hiding their amusement behind their hands, Enzo didn't even bother to do that, throwing his head back and laughing loudly.

"Maya's studying for her languages exam." Damon explained to Elena after a moment.

"Oh."

"I think it's safe to say she's got the speaking part down." He turned away from her and gave Maya a meaningful look. "Why don't we talk English for now, Maya."

"Må jeg det, det er ikke som om hun kan forstå meg" Do I have to? It's not like she can understand me.

"Yes, you do." Damon said firmly. "It's impolite when we have company."

"Ingen ba henne komme." Nobody asked her to come.

"Maya."

"Fint." Fine.

Maya closed her book and looked at Elena whose head had been swivelling back and forth between her and Damon during their conversation. Enzo was still chuckling, though quieter now, Maggie had probably elbowed him at some point to make him behave. He was the only one who would have been fully able to follow Maya's conversation with Damon. Maggie and Stefan didn't speak Norwegian, though they probably recognised a few words, because Maya had insisted on speaking the language with Damon and Enzo as often as possible as revision for her exam.

"Hello Elena."

Elena sent an unsure smile Maya's way and sat down in one of the armchairs.

"So," Damon said once they were all sitting down. "In order to open the tomb, whoever is behind this needs to find the Gilbert journal to get the grimoire to undo the spells. If we get there first, problem-solved. Since you are Elena Gilbert, we were hoping you'd be willing to help locate the journal."

"You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do." Maggie added, "but it would be a big help. Like Damon said if we can find the grimoire first, then we can make sure no one gets in that tomb."

Elena nodded.

"I'll start looking for it as soon as I get home."

"Thank you."

"How do we know that this journal will hold the location of the grimoire?" Stefan asked Damon, "We're really going to take the word of that vampire? He seemed like a bit of a dimwit."

"In lieu of any other options."

"What exactly is a grimoire, anyway?" Elena asked.

"It's a book of spells."

Maya tried her best to moderate her tone, but it still came out in a very 'duh' sounding way, Elena, and Stefan both frowned at her.

"Every spell that a witch casts is unique unto itself, so every witch would document their work." Stefan explained, then turned to Damon. "What about our mystery vampire? Dimwit obviously wasn't working alone, so whoever's out there knows who we are."

"And I don't like that disadvantage, so the quicker we find the grimoire and burn it, the better."

Elena stood up.

"I guess I'll go home and try to find Johnathan Gilbert's journal."

"I'll go with you." Stefan offered.

Elena smiled at him and nodded.

"I'd like that."

"I'll keep you updated," Stefan promised Damon.

"Goodbye." Elena smiled down at Maya again, "Good luck with your exam, Maya."

"Farvel, ikke skynd deg tilbake." Maya replied, smiling sweetly back at her. Goodbye, don't hurry back.

Stefan hid in the shadows and waited for Alaric to leave his classroom before vamp speeding inside to get the journal. When Jeremy had told Elena that he'd given it to Mr Saltzman to read, he'd come straight over to the school hoping to get it back. He quickly searched the desk, but there was no sign of the journal. He was about to start opening drawers when he heard a quiet pop and the sound of something moving fast through the air. He turned and caught the stake; Mr Saltzman had fired at him before it could penetrate his body.

Mr Saltzman fumbled around attempting to load another stake, but he was too slow. Stefan used his speed to get next to him, grabbed the gun with one hand and Mr Saltzman's shirt with the other.

"You shouldn't have done that."

He pushed Mr Saltzman towards the desks, several of them moved as his history teacher hit them, a couple even got knocked over.

"Have a seat." Stefan said, his tone making it an order.

Mr Saltzman hesitated, but Stefan firmly pointes at a seat, and he sunk down into it whilst Stefan examined the gun.

"What is this, compressed air?... Did you make it yourself? Who are you?" Stefan stepped closer and he flinched, "I'm not going to hurt you… unless you try that again."

He held the gun out to Mr Saltzman who cautiously accepted it. Stefan lifted up one of the desks that had fallen over, set it upright and sat on top of it facing the teacher.

"Now we… who are you?"

"I'm a teacher."

"Are we gonna have to do this the hard way?"

"I'm also a historian. And while researching Virginia, I-made a few discoveries about your town."

"So, you show up like Van Helsing. Come on. Tell me the truth."

"My wife was a parapsychologist. She spent her life researching paranormal activity in this area. It was her work that led me here."

"Where's your wife?"

"Dead. A vampire killed her."

"Where's the Gilbert journal?"

"What do you want with it?"

"Where is it?"

"I don't know. It went missing the night of the school dance."

Stefan frowned. That wasn't good. While they were busy with the vampire stalking Elena, whoever he'd partnered with had stolen the Gilbert journal. Which meant they were one step closer to finding the grimoire. He had another issue to deal with though. The history teacher. He guessed Damon had been right when he'd complained that the guy was sketchy.

"How long have you been aware of me?"

"I learned just recently. When I met your brother."

"You met Damon."

"Who do you think killed my wife?"

Now Stefan knew his story wasn't adding up. Damon was no saint, he knew that. But out of the two of them, Stefan had far more innocent blood on his hands than Damon did. He couldn't see what reason Damon would have had to kill Mr Saltzman's wife.

"Are you certain it was Damon?"

"I witnessed it."

"If you're here for revenge, this is going to end very badly for you."

Stefan would break his neck first, before he got anywhere near his brother or Maya.

"I just want to find out what happened to my wife."

Stefan frowned at him.

"I thought you just said that Damon…"

"Yeah. I saw him draining the life out of her. He must have heard me coming. He just… disappeared. So did her body. They never found her."

Stefan put the dots together in his head. Damon probably had killed her, but not in the way Mr Saltzman meant, rather if he's taken the body with him, then it was likely he'd turned her. And if Damon had turned her, then it would have been because she asked for it. Damon never turned anyone unless they could convince him that they really, truly, wanted to be a vampire. He turned them, trained them how to hunt and feed without killing and occasionally for the ones that really proved themselves to him, he got them a daylight ring.

"I don't think you have all the facts."

"I saw him!"

"You saw him feeding. You didn't see him kill her."

"Then where is she?"

"I don't know. I will help you find the answers you're looking for. But if you go after my family, I will kill you before you can even blink. Got it."

Mr Saltzman nodded.

"Good. Now the journal. Did you read it?"

He shook his head.

"Haven't had a chance yet."

"You said it was missing."

"The actual journal is missing. I copied it after I got it, so I could give the real one back to Jeremy and still have a copy to read."

"I'm gonna need that copy you took."

"Well?" Damon asked when Stefan walked in.

"Journal was gone, taken when we were busy with dimwit vampire night of the school dance."

"Damn it!"

Stefan pulled out the photocopied pages he'd got off of Alaric and waved them through the air.

"Luckily Mr Saltzman had already photocopied it."

"Great. We'll look through those, you go over to Elena's house and find out who Jeremy told about the journal. Chances are, that's our other vampire."

Stefan nodded and passed the photocopied pages over to Damon and left heading for Elena's house to talk to Jeremy. Damon split the pages into three, handing one lot to Maggie and one lot to Enzo, keeping the last lot for himself.

"I can help too!" Maya protested.

"You have exams on Monday, that you need to study for, remember."

"Bare engelsk og språk, og jeg har helgen til det." Only English and Languages, and I have the weekend for that.

"Skolearbeid er viktig Maya, ikke bekymre deg for grimoiren, fokuser på studiene dine." Schoolwork is important Maya, don't worry about the grimiore, focus on your studies.

Maya huffed, but obediently picked up her English book and resumed studying for her exams, whilst Damon, Maggie, and Enzo went through the photocopied pages of the journal. About half an hour later, Maggie looked up.

"I've found something. He wrote a reference about Emily. 'The Fell family believed it should be I, not them, who protected the witch's spell book. But I feared she would haunt me from the hereafter. They mocked my fear, but it was Giuseppe Salvatore who removed my fear. He told me he would protect the secret of the spell book. He said he would carry it to his grave.'"

Damon's brow furrowed as he considered the words. He remembered his father telling him and Stefan several times that he would 'carry the real secrets to my grave', Damon had always assumed he was speaking metaphorically. But perhaps in relation to the grimiore it had a more literal meaning. He was just about to say as much to the others when his phone rang.

"Hello."

"Elena's missing, so is Jeremy."

"What?"

"When I got to their house, Jenna said they were both out, at the Grill. But Elena's window was wide open, and I found drops of blood. Not loads, but it was still pretty fresh. I checked the Grill, no sign of either of them. Vicki said Jeremy was in earlier with a friend, a girl named Anna, but they left, and she hadn't seen Elena all night."

"I'll meet you at Sheila's. She might be willing to do a locating spell on them for us."

"Damon, I think Anna is the vampire we've been looking for. I think she's…"

"Annabelle. Pearl's daughter." Damon finished, having put the dots together himself.

"Sheila's house five minutes."

"Okay."

Damon hung up and looked at Enzo and Maggie.

"The grimiore if Anna hasn't got to it already will be hidden in my father's grave. Can you two check?"

They both nodded.

"Call me with what you find." He turned to Maya, who was looking at him wide-eyed. "Stay here. Agent LaSalle and his team will be keeping a close eye, and Dobby is here if you need anything okay?"

Maya nodded.

"Dobby!"

The house-elf popped into the room with a small crack.

"We're going out to deal with some issues. Take care of Maya, okay?"

"Dobby will, Dobby promises."

Damon arrived at Sheila's house just after Stefan. The older witch was at the door, looking serious. Stefan looked at Damon as he joined them on the porch.

"It's not just Elena and Jeremy. She took Bonnie too."

Sheila turned her gaze on Damon and met his eyes with her own.

"Do you still keep the promise you made to Emily, Mr Salvatore?"

"You know that I do."

"Then bring my granddaughter home, safe."

"We will, but we're gonna need your help on that one."

Sheila nodded and went back inside; Damon could see through the door that she had a map laid out on the table. She cut her finger and allowed a few drops of blood to fall on the map, before she started chanting in a low voice. Damon had seen locator spells at work before. Sheila would locate Bonnie, and hopefully Elena and Jeremy would be there as well. They could get all three back and deal with the vampire problem all at once. Two birds with one stone. Or in this case, four birds with one stone.

His phone rang and he answered it when he saw it was Enzo.

"We're at the grave, looks freshly disturbed."

"I'm gonna assume they have the grimiore then and took Bonnie to do the spell. Elena and Jeremy were probably taken to give her the motivation to perform it."

"Need help."

"Sheila's getting the location."

"I have the location." Sheila said from behind him, he turned her way, "The motel, east side of town."

Damon nodded and relayed the information to Enzo.

"Meet us there?"

"On our way."

"We'll get them back, Sheila. I promise."

She nodded. Still looking grim and Damon knew why. He'd promised to bring them back and he would. He just might not be able to bring them all back alive.

When they got to the motel, Stefan stayed outside to wait for Maggie and Enzo whilst Damon went inside to interrogate the man at the reception. It didn't take long to get the information he was after; the motel didn't have that many guests, and the receptionist had recognised his description immediately. When he got back outside, Maggie and Enzo had arrived.

"Room 107."

"Only one entrance to each room," Stefan commented.

Damon nodded; he'd noticed that as well.

"We go in quick. Maggie, Stefan, you get Bonnie, Elena, and Jeremy out. Enzo and I will deal with whoever's guarding them."

They all nodded. Damon led the way to room 107. With a nod to signal he was ready. He kicked down the door, sped inside and grabbed the vampire, singular, off the chair and pinned him to the wall. Maggie and Stefan rushed to Bonnie, Elena, and Jeremy's side, and Enzo sped towards the bathroom and checked it, before reporting it was clear.

"Anna's not here."

"She's already gone." Elena said hoarsely, Damon could see a ring of bruises around her throat.

"What?"

"She said we were just a distraction." Elena explained. "Said while you were busy running around trying to rescue us, her witch would open the tomb and get her mother out."

"Damn it." He nodded towards the vampire he had pinned to the wall. "Who's this bozo?"

"Ben McKittrick." Bonnie said miserably, "He's a vampire, like you."

"Nothing like me." Damon muttered quietly, "How long have you known?"

"A while. Grams told me when I keep getting weird feelings from you guys. She said you weren't bad people, even if you were vampires."

Damon nodded and turned back to the vampire he'd pinned to the wall.

"Anything to add to that?"

He shook his head.

"When did she turn you?"

"A few months ago."

"You the one who killed Tanner?"

"Yeah, he was a jerk."

"She train you at all. Teach you how to feed without killing?"

"What's the point of that? The killings the fun part."

"The point is you should know how to feed without killing so you don't leave bodies around for humans to find. Humans who will then start hunting you."

"That just makes it even more fun."

"Okay. Okay. You have a choice to make. You can either die, here in this room. Or you can take what I'm about to offer you. Someone who will train you properly, catch-eat-erase, how to cover your tracks, how to control yourself."

"Screw you."

"Guess you picked option one."

Enzo broke a leg off the chair and tossed it to Damon who thrust it into Ben's heart. Then turned to look at the others. Jeremy looked dazed and scared. Elena was staring at the body in shock. Bonnie looked satisfied as she stared down at the dead vampire.

"Okay. Maggie, Stefan. Can you take them home? Explain things?" He said with a meaningful nod towards Jeremy.

They both nodded and guided the three teens out of the motel room.

"Enzo?"

"Tomb?"

"Tomb. We have to at least try."

When they got to the tomb it was already to late. Torches lit the cleared area in front of the tomb door. A witch stood in the middle, book in hand chanting, and Anna had Pearl propped up outside the tomb and was feeding her blood. The witch's chant cut off and she sat down on the floor, breathing heavily, sweat pouring off of her.

"What did you do?" Damon demanded, speeding over.

"I just wanted my mother." Anna replied.

"What about the rest of the vampires in there?"

"There still trapped." The witch told him.

"I only lowered the spell long enough for Anna to get Pearl out."

"You sure about that?"

She looked slightly uneasy to Damon's mind, but she nodded anyway. He tore the grimiore out of her hands.

"Hey!" She objected, "That was my price for helping Anna."

"Well, consider me letting you live as your new price." He replied sweetly. "Now leave."

She scowled at him but was sensible enough not to argue with him. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled away, clearly the spell had taken a lot out of her, probably why she'd given in so easily to his demands. He turned to Anna and Pearl.

"The football coach, the missing campers. That was all Ben and Noah. I told them not to, I didn't want them drawing that kind of attention. I just wanted my mother back."

"Yeah, so you said. Who killed Logan?"

"I did. He got too close to the tomb when he was using the compass, and I didn't want any attention drawn to it. So, I killed him and dumped his body elsewhere."

"You the one who gave him blood as well?"

"No. Or I would have taken his heart out when I killed him."

Damon eyed her suspiciously, as far as he could tell she was telling the truth, and honestly, he could sympathise with her wanting her mom. He knew Maya would as well, and in the end, that was what stayed his hand.

"You've got your mother back. Congratulations. Now leave town."

"As soon as my mother has her strength back. We're gone."

Damon nodded and left. Enzo on his heels. They both stopped as soon as they were out of earshot of Anna and Pearl.

"I'm gonna take this," he waved the grimiore "to Sheila, and explain what happened."

"See you at home."

"Thanks for your help tonight."

"Well, what are brothers for?" Enzo replied with a grin, before disappearing.

Damon shook his head, unable to hide his own smile. Stefan was his brother by blood, but Enzo was his brother by choice and had been since the hell that was Augustine.