Stefan grunted at the jolt of pain in his neck as he stirred, and opened his eyes, recollecting where he was and what had happened. It was dawning outside, and the timid light seeped into the garage to barely outline the shapes. His ears rang a little, and through that he could hear a familiar melody playing over and over. He could smell blood, too, and that brought him to sit up, wincing as he rubbed his neck. He became aware of the insistent vibration in his back pocket, but before he thought of answering, his eyes fell on the fair spot on the floor next to him that were Caroline's blond hair. There was a faint heartbeat starting in her.

It all came back to Stefan in a flash, his worry spiking as he moved towards her and the hand he propped on the floor got into a slimy pool. The smell of blood intensified. He winced, wiping it automatically on his thigh, and examined Caroline. She moaned in pain as she was coming about.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, pulling her to him as gently as he could go. "I'll get it out, okay?" He yanked the garden shears from her belly and tossed them aside. She cried out and shivered. He held her a few moments, then got up with her in his arms. That bastard, he thought. How long had they been out? And would it be wise to even hope to catch up to those two idiots on a deadly mission?

Caroline managed a trip to the basement for blood packs while Stefan answered next call. It was Alaric's nurse, distressed.

"He woke up about an hour ago, Mr. Salvatore, and he all but kicked me out. I'm at his door, but I couldn't fight him to stay in. Will you come to talk to him? Otherwise there's nothing I can do for you."

Stefan rubbed his forehead, thinking bitterly, Now, that's just what we needed. "It's all right, Mrs. Whittle. I'm gonna be there in a few. Just… just stay there, he's not himself, I'm sure. I'll take care of it."

"Yes, I'll wait. Thank you."

"Is it Ric?" Caroline handed him the blood pack. He opened it and had a few swallows.

"He woke up somehow and kicked the nurse out. I need to go ASAP."

"Oh my God… I'll go, too. But what about Bonnie? We do have to follow, right?"

Stefan looked at her, undecided. "Probably. Let's just change and deal with Ric first. I'll call Damon."

"I'll call Jeremy. They teamed up against us!"

Stefan only snorted on his way upstairs. Even if Jeremy thought they were in the same team with Damon, Damon had another idea, Stefan was sure of it.

"We can track their phones, right?" Caroline said as they trotted up the stairs to Alaric's apartment. Neither answered their phones, which both angered and frightened her. She had never wished for anything as badly as she did for Bonnie to call her before this mad play moved to a catharsis.

"Yeah, worth a try." He gave her his cell. "There's an app there, use it."

A subtle relief played through the nurse's aging face when she saw them. Stefan nodded at her and knocked on the door.

"Ric? It's Stefan. Please, let me in, I've got something to tell you."

Nothing.

The women exchanged worried glances. Both vampires could hear a heartbeat behind the door, and that eased the wariness, but still it couldn't tell them what state Alaric was in. And that held crucial importance.

Stefan rapped at the door again. "Ric, please. I need to talk to you. Let me in, or I'll have to slam the door in. Please."

"Get the hell away and leave me alone."

Caroline's face darkened. Alaric's voice was slurry a touch, either from drugs or he had been crying. Both prospects had her heart squeeze in sympathy.

"Last warning," Stefan said. "Please, Ric, let me in."

Nothing.

Stefan prepared to push the door in, but just for luck he turned the knob first. The door opened.

Inside he was greeted by a putrid mix of alcohol and stale air. Alaric sat on his bed in a wife beater and underpants, his back against the wall, a half-full bottle of whiskey between his thighs. His eyes were red and puffy, his whole face seemed kind of slumped. He gave Stefan a fleeting glance, then went back to staring in front of him, slowly bringing the bottle's neck to his slack lips, tilting, bringing it back between his thighs.

"I know there's nothing I could possibly say to make you feel any better," Stefan started in a quiet, pacifying voice. "It takes time, sometimes a lot – I know. But right now, you still have friends that worry about you. I know you hardly care, and I understand, we all do. But we still do care, and we need you. We need you to not give up just yet. Elena would've wanted it more than anything – I know that, too. Her brother's still with us, and he's kind of your responsibility, in a way – since it's your approval that saw him off to his hunting trips. He told us. And now he might be in danger again, and we need to go see that he's safe. But I need you to be safe, too, do you understand? Can you do that for me, for the old times' sake?"

Alaric gulped some whiskey and said nothing, still staring into the space.

Stefan sighed. "Bonnie took off 'cause my brother did his best to get to her. And she took her prisoner with her, and now we don't even know if she's all right. Jeremy went with Damon – they knocked us out to do it alone. And they're going to get our mother and Enzo into this. It's a mess, and I know it's not your mess and I shouldn't bother you with any of it, but I really need you to take it easy on yourself—"

"I took it easy on myself," Ric uttered in a voice that sounded more like croaking. A small chuckle escaped his lips creasing in a hideous smile that reminded Stefan of the ancient masks from the Greek tragedy theater. "And look how well that worked out. I should've taken it the way my gut told me. But no… Y'all wanted a wedding… celebration… look what we've got." Slowly, the corners of his mouth drooped, and his body began to shake as he cried.

Stefan's heart squirmed in sympathy. He sat beside Ric, put his hand on the teacher's shaking shoulder, squeezing. He wanted to say he was sorry – such an unwitting thing to say that it bursts right out – and didn't. He just kept his hand on him until Ric took another swallow, and the sobs gradually quietened.

"You should go," Ric said at last.

"Let Mrs. Whittle stay. She'll help you."

"No. I want to be alone." Another gulp. A huge one.

"You need to sleep."

"I don't want to sleep. I don't need to see it again and again and…" He restrained a sob and drowned it in another swallow.

"She can give you a shot that'll keep the dreams away. Just let her stay for tonight. Please, Ric. Do it for me and Caroline, your worried friends, while we try to contain another catastrophe."

Alaric didn't answer and Stefan took it as a good sign. He nodded at Caroline over his shoulder, and she quietly disappeared from the doorway to converse with the nurse.

Alaric was shaking again – subtly, and it took Stefan a moment to realize he was laughing. It was a creepy sight. "You know why Damon went without you, don't you," Ric said, and it wasn't a question. Stefan frowned, and it seemed to entertain the teacher some more. If that dark merriment of a prophet promising death could be called humor. "He can solve his problem right there, get rid of them both, and then tell Elena Kai killed them and he couldn't do squat about it. 'Tis why he left you behind." He took another slug.

Stefan felt as if he was freezing inside. He didn't look back but was sure Caroline paled. He could hear her frantic heartbeat.

"He wouldn't," he said, but it sounded pathetically weak even to himself.

Alaric gave him a look and drank. "You better hurry."

"I was beginning to think you might have gotten lost," Damon said, ambling over to the vehicle that pulled up beside him on the small dirt road across from Crain Park Memorial.

"With the trusty assistance of modern technology?" Enzo responded as Damon leaned in at the driver's window, prodding at the GPS centered in the middle of his windscreen for prominence. "Is that even possible?"

"Sure," Damon remarked. "Especially for two outdated vampires."

"You wound me, mate," Enzo replied flippantly. "I was assured that it wouldn't if I charted it to the letter."

"And?"

"We got lost twice."

Damon gave a derisive laugh. "Where'd you get it?"

"Off a helpful gas attendant."

"You stole it?"

"Appropriated it," Enzo provided.

Lily swung open the passenger door, her brunette locks still impeccably pinned into place to further add to her regale grace, adorned in a black woolen coat. Damon straightened up and gazed at her as she walked around the front of the car, loathing the dull ache that came from seeing her as the headlights bathed her in light. For a long time she'd been one of the pure untouched gems in his life, a memory he held dear that now appeared foreign to him – as if everything he'd believed her to be had been a false. Resentment kicked in as if on cue, her eyes wide, round and eager for answers as she approached. Damon was sure that if it wasn't for his enticement she wouldn't have cared to come at all and couldn't help but wonder, if only for a second, what would have happened if she put half as much effort into trying to save her actual children from her wretched husband's abuse. Where would he and Stefan be now? Would Damon be dead? Would Katherine have happened? Would he have been happy?

"This infernal woman is hell-bent on making me crazy!" Lily said, breaking Damon out of his melancholic run, that quiet polite demeanor she'd been taxing since her return no longer evident on her scrunched features. She was in a bad mood. "Turn right, turn left on such and such a road. She doesn't stop talking!"

Damon watched as Lily walked past him and toward the parked car Jeremy was tending to, cupping her hands against the grimy windows to peer inside. Jeremy scowled, surprised to see the woman.

"Where is he?" Lily asked, removing her hands from the window, unmindful of the dust that cling to sides of her hands as she turned to face her son. "Is he here? It's not him in the front seat."

Damon furrowed his brows imperceptibly and shook his head.

"You said he was with you."

"I neverstated that. I said I can get him to you."

"Son," she said, drawling the singular word as though it left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, a tang that was getting harder to digest cordially. "I am in no mood for your confounding sports."

She looked war-torn and as if she were prepared to charge him. Enzo pushed upon the driver's door, forcing Damon to step aside so he could climb out and play mediator. Lily was volatile.

"And nor am I playing any, Mother," Damon snapped with comparable pettiness, his hands raised in mock surrender. "How else was I going to get you two here at a timely fashion? You disowned me, remember?"

Lily eyes blazed and held not even a stitch of repentance in the moonlight. He found himself hating her for her detachment, if only for a second. He wanted her to feel something – for him.

"You and your brother talk of family, of needing me and wanting me in your life, but neither of you care to understand," she sputtered for the umpteenth time in a month, sounding like a wounded animal on the brink of a break and as if she'd expected his treachery, as if somehow all Damon did was hurt her. Enzo flanked her right side, taking a gentle hold of her shoulder to nonverbally offer her the comfort she so needed.

"What's the deal, mate?" Enzo asked. He didn't look half as livid as she—or Damon—did. "And what's with baby Gilbert? Where's Stefan?" Jeremy turned in the driver's seat, leaning forward to listen more closely.

Damon ignored his question, leaning back against the side of the car. "Stefan couldn't make it. He isn't coming."

Lily looked relieved. She dreaded another toe to toe with her youngest son. He was stubborn.

"And nor is Kai," Damon added, bringing home his point, watching his mother stiffen and fight the urge to slap him. She looked as if she wanted to rip into someone – quite possibly him. "But he is in this area."

Damon removed his phone from his jacket pocket, taking a second to bring up the image Lucy sent him in order to show them where they needed to look. Lily'd calm down once she had a heading.

"So we're stuck with another bloody needle in a haystack," Enzo grumbled with an amused lint. "Perfect."

"From what our Tech hunter has found…" Damon said, looking back at Jeremy and snapping his fingers. Jeremy extended his phone out the window. He'd been searching motels, trying to plot a route for the four of them. "The upside is that they don't know anyone in this area. Neither are they flush with cash. Which means that stopping in to check on every motel on this highway might not be such a bad idea."

"And how do we know they aren't running around in the woods? That bloodline wasn't all too specific, Brother."

Damon shrugged. "Because she'll need somewhere to shackle him. Kidnapping isn't something she keeps on her resume."

Enzo didn't ask who he was referring to. He had a fair idea. Lily on the other hand looked blank.

"If you two tackle everything on the left side of the road, Jeremy and I can attack the right," Damon explained, letting both vampires observe the MapQuest layout and the dark blue line.

"And what are we supposed to do once we come across them?" Enzo asked once more. Lily appeared indifferent.

"Nothing. You call me and then we handle this together. It's a joint effort. Kai is pretty powerful. Bonnie, too, when provoked."

Lily looked repulsed by the mention of the female witch. Like Damon, she, too, held grudges. "And what has Miss Bennett got to do with anything?" she asked, interjecting for the first time in five minutes.

Damon raised his eyebrows, "Did I forget to mention her?"

Enzo rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"She's my part of the deal. You get Kai and I get Bonnie."

"She is a vile woman," Lily said, still seething from Bonnie's former betrayal. "And a liar."

Damon let the comments slide in favor of keeping the peace. Bonnie was many things, but she was a good person, a friend and someone he'd grown to love. As much as he fought for Elena, he needed Bonnie, too. But he needed the unabridged version—the person that backed his corner when he sought to do senseless things—not this broken guilt-ridden girl trying to make amends with the world for the implicit wrongdoings of others. For mass murder she didn't even commit, even if she believed otherwise.

"You've got it?" Damon asked, turning to Enzo with full attention. Enzo took a last glance at Jeremy phone and nodded. He handed it back. Damon tossed it inside and Jeremy caught it. "Great."

"Do you remember what kind of car she drives?" Enzo asked as he approached the driver's door.

Damon simpered, "Your ghost stalked her for all of a week and you don't know?"

Lily climbed into the passenger seat again, ripping the GPS off the windshield, carelessly tossing the small device in the back of the car no longer wanting to listen to the robotic woman's persistent instruction.

"A white Toyota Prius," Damon said, and opened the passenger door.

Enzo nodded, imitating his action and slipped back behind the steering wheel.

"Can we trust them?" Jeremy asked once he pulled back onto the highway.

"Can you trust me?" Damon countered.

Jeremy didn't answer and instead turned on the radio to drown out the silence, doing away with the obstinate tension rising between them. They, too, had a rocky relationship and neither was prepared to sugarcoat it.

Bonnie's eyelashes fluttered as the first stages of wakefulness seeped in. She nestled deeper into the arm secured around her waist, lightly squirming against the form curled up behind her, perturbed by the pressure on her bladder. Bonnie stayed that way for a while, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation—a long while—and was at risk of falling asleep again, of giving into the security and the welcome warmth provided by Jeremy's chest.

The memories rolled in like a thick fog of puzzling dreams, making her feel as though she were wading through molasses, slowly wiping the discernable smile of contentment from her face. She wasn't with Jeremy anymore, she'd been dead, then returned, and now she was stuck in some newborn hell practicing compulsion and cleaning up dead bodies after her latest nemesis.

Gone was her tiredness—and desire to sleep in—and in trundled awareness like a scorching steam engine prepared to run her off the rails. She gently released the wrist she'd been holding onto, the hand she'd secured beneath her breasts, and opened her eyes, peering at her empty side of the bed, surprised to find that, by coercion or some twisted need, she'd made her way over to his. She was exhausted last night and could hardly remember falling asleep. They'd watched a movie in part, but she couldn't even remember which. Not that it mattered. She reached for the wrist again, carefully preparing to lift it and to steadily—and without waking him—wriggle over to her side of the mattress. She stopped for a second when she felt something brush against the back of her thigh, something she recognized immediately. He was hard. Bonnie didn't stop to check—as if she would—and kept moving, shuffling away and out of bed on the other side. She glanced back to make sure he was still sleeping, that he wasn't about to hit her with some comment and catch her red-handed, and then stood. She walked over to the bathroom, removed the towel and closed the door behind her quietly.

Stirring from her sleep, Bonnie pulled Kai in her wake, but he made no move, relishing in the remaining relaxation and fogginess of pre-waking state. Distantly, he felt her fleeting touch before she removed herself from the bed for the shower, heard her pulse spike and imagined a subtle flush coloring her cheeks. He almost smiled, but she never caught the sight of it.

She took a quick shower to help wake herself up and wash away last night's unexpected cuddle session. She'd paid a few days in advance in the motel, three to be precise, but after what happened Bonnie didn't want to stay.

She emerged from the bathroom with her pajamas tucked beneath her arm, pleased to find Kai still sleeping, and moved to crouch beside her bag. She dropped the clothes to the floor, dug around for some clean underwear, and pulled it on underneath the towel, being quick to shimmy into it before securing the towel back. She reached into her bag again, digging around for some loose change, and came out with a lip-gloss. She tossed it back inside and reached for the second bag—the stranger's belongings, the person Kai killed the day before. She'd taken his wallet, casually tossed inside amongst the clothes, but a part of her hoped she wouldn't have to use it. As if by some chance money would materialize and Bonnie wouldn't take from this man's livelihood.

She opened the leather wallet and thumbed through the few notes inside. There was four hundred dollars total. Enough for four nights in a motel somewhere, dinner – no lunch or breakfast – and a little gas.

Not that she knew where they were going—all she knew was that they needed to go, that as good as she slept, last night was still only catching up to them.

She shed the towel, pulled on her jeans and purple tank top, reached inside for her hairbrush. She needed a breakfast. She'd have to make due with something from the vending machine and by that time Kai would be awake.

Kai had dozed off while the water ran, and only surfaced back when Bonnie was rummaging through the bags.

"Even though you robbed the man's wallet, it's nice to see you're wearing your own clothes this time," he teased, rising on an elbow. She started at the sound of his voice, which entertained him.

She shuddered softly, tipping over onto her knees, her heart racing as she stuffed the hairbrush back into her bag, hating herself for her reaction and how easy she made it for him to read her—and her evasive thoughts.

"Those jeans sit real good on your ass. His trousers wouldn't favor it as well." He grinned at the ghost of irritation on her face.

She peered at him on the bed, ignoring his crass compliment, dispelling the guilt worming over her as she made to pick up the wallet again. Bonnie removed two fifty-dollar notes and a single ten, leaving the balance inside the leather holder along with his identification card. She stuffed it back into her bag for safekeeping.

"I wouldn't have had to resort to wearing someone else's clothes," she indicated, pushing off the floor, fitting him with a meaningful look, "or make use of his cash if you didn't burn mine off yesterday."

Kai gave her a pointed, taunting look meant to express how he would not have done any of it had she fed him without creating complications for herself.

"Speaking of," she pocketed the money, "I want to get a head start on the road today."

She looked around the room, gathered everything she used in the past half-hour, and zipped up her bag, tossing the other—with male clothes—toward the bed for Kai's closer inspection.

"I'm going to loot the vending machine. You want anything?"

"I want you," he smiled, wiggling fingers at her, magically pulling her to him. "And I don't suggest you bother with the vending machine – there's only outdated crap." As soon as she was close enough, he hooked a finger into her top's cleavage line, drawing her closer.

She readied a retort and was about to let him know that it was all they—she—could afford when his finger distractedly grazed her breastbone. She didn't resist his guidance and eased onto the edge of the mattress on her knees.

"How about you give me my fix," he said, "and I drive you to dine in some nice place away from this hole?"

She didn't try to resist his magic, yet Kai could sense the conflict between anticipation and resentment.

It's just the beginning, Bonnie. And I can wait.

"And just how do you expect we'll pay for nice?" she asked, her lips twitching slightly, ignoring the way he'd easily summoned her like a leashed puppy. "You got money stashed away in places I don't know about?" Might have been more useful to know that earlier, if it were true.

He laughed, stroking a hand up her shoulder and to the nape of her neck, gently maneuvering her to lie down as he moved to hover over her.

A titillating charge hurried up her arm at his cajoling. She didn't hesitate and rolled onto her back at his mute request. We've done it enough times now.

His finger traced the side of her neck, the line of her collarbone. "Oh, Bonnie, I'm your magical pot of gold on the end of the rainbow." Smiling, as though to himself, Kai leaned in, breathing against her throat before his lips touched it, dabbing kisses toward her ear.

Her arms stayed stationary at her sides as he leaned in, her hands curling into the sheets to refrain from touching him as his hot breath and long-awaited lips trailed kiss after kiss along the base of her throat. Bonnie stifled a beholden groan, lids threatening to flutter shut as she focused on the door in the distance, inadvertently giving him better access to her pulse spot. She should make a point of warning him off playing with her, she should tell him to stop being so tender and to get right into it – but she didn't, she didn't have the want or voice to do either.

"A bottomless pot of gold…" he whispered, sucking and laving on the skin before he let his fangs sink in.

They shivered simultaneously, she – at the momentary pain, and he – at the stroke of pleasure that reached his erection and made him want more. He shifted closer to her, grinding against her hip as an unconscious groan vibrated in the base of his throat.

Bonnie trembled as his teeth broke skin and a pressure seared her shoulder, automatically reaching for his side, nails digging into his hip as she rode out the temporary surge of pain. An invitation it seemed spurred Kai on and drew him closer, giving her an even better—and more prominent—feel of the hardness she'd done her utmost to avoid. Her lips parted as she lost herself in the varying sensations, groaning softly as he swallowed away of her life force, a spicy concoction of pleasure and pain that drew her deeper and deeper with every pull and soon made her head swim.

Her taste was building up the delectation in him, intercepting and magnifying the jolts of sexual need for release. For those few moments, Kai lost himself in that build-up, and only came around at the sudden blinding peak when the liquid warmth spilled in the sheets between them.

She let go of the sheet and clawed his shoulder, raising and bending her knees a touch to accommodate the proficient roll of his hips and to listlessly seek her own friction, a response that seemed to go on forever when at long last his lips fused with her own. In that instant, Bonnie didn't want it to end.

An unhallowed thought that manifested and splintered the instant he ended the kiss and rolled off her. She dropped her hands to her stomach, staring up at the ceiling as he smiled at her and thickly swallowed the blood she could taste upon her tongue. Bonnie needed to calm down and stop letting him get to her so much. She was beginning to act desperate, as if she were starved for sex – for him.

"I love these meals," he said. "You're a great cook, honeybunch. Just as I am. However, we'll start with a restaurant treat for you."

He slipped out of bed and strolled to the bathroom, unabashed by his nudity and Bonnie's eyes on it.

She averted her gaze from the ceiling and chuckled incredulously, a hint of sardonic amusement that died in her throat as he slid from beneath the sheets, gifting her with an admirable view of his backside. Bonnie hadn't even realized she was staring or that she was outlining every detail of his body to memory as he headed for the bathroom.

"Now we're truly square, aren't we?" With a parting wink, Kai made Bonnie flush and closed the door.

Things were getting too intimate – too quickly. Bonnie wasn't able to tell anymore if it was an onset from feeding—something he enticed in her like a snake does with poison when it wants to paralyze its prey—or if it was her, if it was wholly her reaction. She hated to think that it might be the latter. As the door closed behind him, she reached for a pillow, pulling it over her head to muffle her whimper.

Fuck…

"Any luck?" Jeremy asked from his lazy draped position over the steering wheel. Damon scowled at him and shook his head. They had been at this for hours and left no proverbial stone unturned. They'd compelled and covered miles on foot and by car, deciding to add two bed-and-breakfasts to their list as well. Bonnie might have opted for something cozy – she did always like the homely setting. Enzo and Lily called intermittently and as if they were checking in on them scared they'd run away with the loot. Damon, on the other hand, was growing weary and more irritated with every passing mile, and hungry, too. He had fed on one of the night staff managers a couple of hours earlier, a nineteen-year-old blonde with a big bust and a friendly smile. She'd been tasty and something to tide him over, but that thrill was starting to wear off. He had even called Bonnie – they both did, hoping that maybe she'd pick up and give either of them a hint of their location. A fruitless task and another waste of time.

"Let's try the next one… Cadillac something," Damon proposed as he approached the driver's window. Jeremy sat back, flipped on the engine and pulled away the instant Damon reclaimed the passenger seat.

"How you holding up, Gilbert?" Damon asked. "Do we need to stop and get a coffee in you?"

"Do we have any more time to waste? No. I—I've seen and dealt with worse over the last few weeks. I'm fine."

"Have you?" Damon persevered, his lips crooking into a suspicious smile. They hadn't spoken about anything other than the little rain they'd experienced and the road, neither knowing how to address the eternal nap mess elephant in the room. "You mean to tell me you've really been playing Winchester and trying to tackle ghosts? Elena would hate that."

"Well, I… I'm trying to follow leads."

"Which you get from where? The newspaper?"

Jeremy faltered at the prospect of the two of them making anything remotely akin to everyday conversation as it felt off-the-wall. They'd never talked, not like this and not after Damon had snapped his neck the first time. Jeremy would never have said it to Elena—mostly because she wouldn't listen—but he didn't trust Damon, not at all. Still, he didn't have anyone else to talk to. No Elena, Alaric, Matt or Bonnie. All his go-to people were dealing with their own disasters.

"There is a supernatural finder website I used frequently when I first found out about Anna. Most of the people are cracked, but there is a handful of individuals who have reported legitimate issues. Things I recognize."

"And you've actually fought something?"

"No, well… so far it's all been bogus."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"You mean after we rescue Bonnie from her witchpire kamikaze mission?"

Damon nodded.

"I'm looking at getting back on the road."

"And Alaric?"

"He doesn't need me," Jeremy responded, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself of that fact.

"His budding family was massacred on his wedding day and you think he doesn't need you? That he is going to be able to move on from this with just my advice?"

Jeremy gave no response and instead made a point of focusing on the road signs ahead, appreciating the sight of the sun rise upon the horizon. The dawn of a new day. Damon didn't pressure Jeremy either—not as he might have if it was in relation to Elena—he was beyond that now, he hadn't the energy to help the kid see the light or make him give up on his future because some psycho decided to rip their happily-ever-after apart with his bare hands.

Damon turned on the radio, drowning out the silence and the next fifteen miles.

"Maybe I should try to talk to someone," Jeremy said once they pulled to a stop outside the enormous motel. It looked like a small community in its length, like a range of apartments. "I could go door to door."

"And what are you going to say? My ex-girlfriend kidnapped a sociopath, who may or may not be snacking on you in the near future. I need to find her because she's making the biggest mistake of her life?"

Jeremy frowned, expelling a deep sigh. He was sick of taking Damon's orders, of having the vampire believe he was the only person that cared about anyone. But most of all, he was tired of living in his shadow.

"Just stay in the car. When we find Bonnie, we'll go in together. For now, I don't want the risk of her seeing either of us or… anyone else telling them—her—that there are people searching for her."

"You mean Lily?"

As if on cue, the cellphone rang. Damon lifted his hips off the chair, pulled out the device and answered.

"We haven't found them yet," he reported.

"We need a new plan. This isn't working out," Enzo said. Lily was becoming disgruntled, even more than she was with the space they were putting between Mystic Falls and her beloved heretics.

"Meet us at the Cadillac Motel."

"The where now?"

"You didn't see the signs?" Damon asked. "Look it up on your phone."

"How?"

Damon tossed the phone to Jeremy, conveying the issue and how he needed to help Enzo. Jeremy unenthusiastically lifted it to his ear, as if the idea of conversing with Enzo aggrieved him. He hated the sonofabitch. Not that Damon cared. What they'd done to Jeremy all those months ago to get their hands on the last Whitmore was in the past and Jeremy needed to move on. Elena, Enzo and Damon assuredly had.

Damon climbed out of the car without a backwards glance, listening as Jeremy proffered his nemesis with instructions on how to make use of google maps. He made his way up the small porch and into the reception area, a sparsely decorated room with meager furnishings.

"Hi," he said as he walked in, noticing a figure behind the counter. "Excuse me."

The man raised his head off his bent arms, blinking lethargically, his eyes glassy and red from whatever alcohol he'd spent the night drinking to ward off the boredom of his monotonous job. The guy didn't bother with a greeting and reached for a nearby clipboard, lifting it up onto the counter to put down in front of him.

"Sign your full name and car license plate number," the man instructed, using his pen to point out the two lines in need of authorization and specifics. "It's forty-two dollars a night, you've free range of the pool, no noise or lewd parties and out by noon the next day otherwise you're charged another night."

Apparently he'd perfected that sales pitch. He didn't even bother to smile.

"I'm not looking to stay," Damon said, making no move to take the offered pen or the clipped paper. "I'm looking for someone. Petite, dark-haired, caramel skin, green eyes. She has a boy with her." Damon refused to refer to that jam-fingered magic sucker as a man. "Yay high," he motioned to his own shoulder as a reference, opposing his limited description. "Snarky or possibly unconscious. She's also driving a white hybrid."

"I'm afraid I can't help you," he answered, slurring his word slightly, reaching down to scratch his crotch. "If you're looking for missing persons, you might want to try the sheriff."

"They're not missing. They're running and unfortunately for you – the cops can't help me in the instance."

"I'm afraid I can't help you," the man repeated, ignoring the look of cautioning in Damon's eyes.

"Wrong answer," Damon stated, abruptly yanking the man forward by his collar, his confused and fearful gaze clashing with Damon's unwavering one as he half-and-half lay strewn over the counter. "Now… again, green eyes, petite, white Toyota."

"A-A-A n-nine," he choked out, blunt nails digging into Damon's hand in hopes of lessening the strain.

"When did they check in?"

"Y-yesterday. Late evening."

Jackpot!

"You won't remember this. You won't remember me. And if you hear any commotion down in section A or get any calls of any problems, don't bother the cops or with checking things out. Just stay away. It's your day off."

The manager nodded bit by bit as Damon once again set him on his feet. Damon dashed from the reception, leaving the confused man to momentarily wonder who he'd been talking to and if he was losing his mind.

"She's here," Damon announced, appearing at the driver-side window.

"Where?" Jeremy asked, a hand falling to the door, attempting to push on it to get out. Damon wouldn't budge.

"Section A," he explained, gesturing behind him and to the line of cars that littered the crescent parking lot.

"Then let's go," Jeremy restated.

"Lily and Enzo are on their way?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

Damon stepped away from the door, allowing Jeremy get out and grab a weapon, something to defend himself against Kai. Damon headed straight for A9. He didn't see the white Toyota, but maybe Bonnie hid it? There was a Ford near the rooms they headed for, flanked by a Honda and a Dodge.

"What now?" Jeremy asked, running up behind him, keeping his oversized knife poised against his body.

"Firstly you might want to put that thing away. We're not looking to drawn unwanted attention." Jeremy looked vexed, but complied, sliding it into his back pocket, pulling his shirt over it to conceal it. "And secondly… we wait."

"What? For what? Why?"

"Our distraction," Damon said without hesitation, wishing the kid would follow along and think of what they'd been doing all night. "Lily waylays Kai and we snag our Bennett and make a runner. Following?"

Jeremy nodded, straightened up and moved between the rows of rooms to search the back at Damon's instruction. He wanted to make sure there were no doors in the back and give Jeremy something to do.

Enzo and Lily appeared shortly thereafter.

"What's going on?" Enzo asked once they met up again. "Did you find them?"

"Seems that way," Damon stated.

Lily grinned, hopping out of the car to walk around the back. Enzo joined them.

"What's the plan?"

"You two go in first," Damon instructed. He knew it was cruel but it would throw Bonnie and before she knew what happened, he'd have knocked her out and dragged her ass back to the car.

"That's the plan?" Enzo asked, dubious. Lily, on the other hand, didn't care, she was already moving toward the parking lot, dashing toward Jeremy who started as she appeared at his side.

"It's the best I've got at the moment," Damon added.

"Best get to it then," Enzo replied, ghosting after Lily.

The vampires froze a foot from the door, straining their ears. A bawdy smile slowly took over Enzo's mouth as he turned to give Damon a slyly confiding look.

"Now, what do you know," he whispered, so quietly it could have been mouthing. "A morning-after shower."

Damon grimaced; Jeremy clenched his jaw and the knife in his hand, eager to burst in and—

And then Lily did, with Enzo dashing after.

Bonnie drummed her hands upon the top of her thighs and watched Kai fiddle with the hose in the side mirror on the Ford, sinking deeper into her chair as he disappeared inside, lifting her bare feet onto the dash. She surveyed their surroundings and sat up straighter when she saw a phone booth. She peered behind to see where Kai was—if he was still busy inside—and slipped on her shoes, easing out of the car, being quick to cross the cement lot to the booth. She tried the door, exasperated to find it wouldn't budge. Bonnie slid her fingers through the small crack it made and shook it, trying to dislodge it from whatever was preventing it from opening, taking notice—after a cumbersome struggle—of a poorly printed OUT OF SERVICE sign taped to the inside.

Just my fucking luck, she thought to herself, kicking the bottom of the door. She needed to call Caroline. She must be frantic. Bonnie exhaled, started away from the phone, sliding back into the passenger seat.

The sound of the driver's door snapping closed startled Bonnie out of a deep reverie as Kai slipped back behind the wheel. Grinning, he dropped the bills on her lap and winked at her when she turned to gape.

"Three hundred dollars and a full tank," he estimated, turning the key in the ignition, and pulled from the gas station. "With the four hundred your friend manager's cash box provided, you're not doing so badly."

Her astonished look switched to a warning glare. Startled and equally aggravated, she quickly glanced over her shoulder. She couldn't see the cashier but assumed he was okay. Kai had fed, he wouldn't need any more blood – not for this moment in time. She opened her mouth to speak.

Kai gave her a listless look, imitating the Terminator, "He'll live." A jolly grin broke out on his face; he turned back to the road, settling back in his seat, left elbow on the window, right hand on six o'clock of the wheel. "And so will you – when you finally eat. Now, whatta ya say: some minor town or straight to Washington DC?"

She wasn't even sure where they were headed. She hadn't picked a destination.

"Just take me wherever," she said, giving him the go ahead to take control. "But find me a phone. A working one. I need to call Caroline and check in before she decides to hunt us down or something." And also she had her mother to get a hold of, and Lucy, too. Or at least get a message to them.

"If there's anyone to hunt us down, my money's on Damon and his Mama. Your boyfriend might stick along."

Bonnie tried and failed to contain her trembling at the mention of Lily Salvatore. She was the reason they were in this car to begin with and driving the road to nowhere.

"Lily is too wrapped up in finding her heretics," she said with a confidence she didn't at all feel. Lily's grand showdown at the Boardinghouse, Bonnie feared, was only a taste of what was to come. "She's losing it. As for Jeremy, he has Alaric and college to get back to. He's going to be the next Da Vinci." She flashed Kai a small smile, one that denoted a hint of pride in what Jeremy managed to accomplice for himself in her absence. He'd gotten out, he'd cleared himself a space and was making something of his life. He wasn't going to waste it. Not anymore and not like Bonnie had in the past.

Kai didn't really buy that story – Jeremy seemed too far from the Da Vinci kind – but decided it wasn't his business to share that opinion right away, or, maybe, ever.

"The moment Lily knows where to find me – she'll do anything to get there ASAP," he said. "Same for you – she would love to get her hands on both of us, for different purposes. So no, I don't think searching for them would keep her from searching for us for too long." Maybe Bonnie needed another stimuli to get scared. A frightened person can't think straight – if she did, his plans would probably go to waste. Kai couldn't allow it now that it was going along quite well.

What Bonnie didn't get about Kai was why he didn't give Lily what she wanted. Why'd he turn tabled on their deal? Why was he complicating his life unnecessarily? He'd accomplish what he wanted, he was scotch free and headed to new challenges. He didn't have to sit on this nest egg and put his life in danger and make new enemies. It made no sense and yet, Bonnie didn't bother to ask him – not wanting to hear any more of his ambiguous answers or I'm not here to help you bullshit. That was his business. At least for now.

"For right now she thinks I have some magical way of sniffing out her heretics," she said and smiled knowingly, giving him an observant look, as if to say And I do. "The upside we, I, have though, the ball that's in my court, is that she doesn't know you're alive. Therefore I've moved up a rank from liability to necessity. The only way she'll even know I am gone is if someone tells her. And my friends wouldn't betray me like that." Bonnie stated it with confidence, unreservedly believing that. Even Damon, for all his shit and the problems they were going through, they were far closer than either of them might even have thought they'd be a year ago. "For all their bullshit, for all our problems… they've never put me in the line of fire." Not that I know of.

"Say she drops by again to throw some furniture around," Kai said with a pensive squint, gazing at the road ahead and a battered Honda's butt that had been crawling in front of them for quite some time. "Are you absolutely sure Damon's gonna just sit back, drink and marvel? Or he'll be so pissed that you left with me he'll simply blurt it all out to save a few precious Ming vases and get rid of the rage eating him inside? You know, like popping a blister?"

"You don't know him like I do." And that yes, Damon was going to leave her to die—or better still, yes, he did leave me. But she believed him when he said it wasn't his intention. That he wasn't trying to hurt her and had some heroic move in the works.

Kai would have rolled his eyes had the statement and those that followed irked him less.

"I… I trust him. I trust him with my life. Damon knows how I feel about his mother and about what she's done or tried to do to me over the last week. I also know that he can be spiteful, that he can be selfish and if he wants something you won't give him – he can make you absolutely miserable. But he likes a personal hands-on touch in that department. He very rarely gets anyone else to do his dirty work. So for now, despite his rage and his boisterous complaining, we're safe. I'm safe." Who she had to worry about was Kai, Caroline and her compulsion failing her.

Kai thought it over, grinding his teeth. Damon was about to leave her to die when Kai snapped her back, and she trusted him with her life. Damon would trade her for Elena in a heartbeat, and she trusted him with her life, still. There was hardly anyone more volatile around her in that town, and she trusted him with her life.

Kai squelched the urge to bang her stupid head against the passenger's window and forced a simper. "Blessed are the faithful," he murmured, thinking: until they crash and burn.

There were loud noises of scuffle and a woman's squealing before Lily reappeared from the shower, dragging a wet, naked girl by a handful of hair wrapped on her hand.

"This is not Bonnie Bennett!" Lily accused, thrusting her at Enzo. Her victim's lover had been rendered unconscious. "Nor is that the young man I struck a deal with."

"You don't say," Damon said in a clipped and exasperated tone.

Lily dashed toward him like a battering ram, her hands fisted into the lapels of Damon's jacket as she slammed him into the opposite wall, knocking over the desk chair in the process. She was furious. Enzo acted at once and before things could escalate. He wrapped his arms around the older woman's slender waist, prying her off her son and putting some space between them, ignoring the way she elbowed him and tried to get him to let go. Usually he wouldn't treat her this way, he wouldn't undermine her temper, but now was not the time for things to get this messy. Damon, surprisingly, wasn't fighting her back and hadn't lifted a hand despite the look of contempt that flashed in his ice-blue eyes. Or was that hurt? He was practicing a restraint Enzo knew was unusual for his friend since Damon possessed a penchant for violent impulse, especially when attacked or cornered.

Jeremy declined involving himself in the vampire drama and hurried into the bathroom to check on the guy inside. He yanked the towel off the bath rail, tossing it at the frightened woman as he did. She covered up immediately, her lower lip blueish and quivering.

"It's going to be okay," Jeremy said reassuringly, slipping the knife into his back pocket, moving to check on the man's pulse and then on the large gash in the woman's neck. "Just keep applying pressure."

Damon remained mute and slipped out the room, passing by his mother. He had nothing to say to her, nothing to apologize about. Lily pushed away from Enzo, glaring at him, and took off to catch her breath. She needed space. Enzo followed her – remaining discreet, worried she'd crack if she went another day without her family. She was so close already, he could almost taste the senselessness and bloody carnage on her. Not that he cared to protect the populace, but he didn't want her losing herself. Not when he'd only just found her.

Damon scanned the parking lot, seeing no white hybrid. What if she hadn't come with her car? Did she even have a car anymore? She had been dead for a few months. He hadn't even thought of that aspect.

He dashed back inside, pausing in the open doorway, peering down at Jeremy who was trying, and failing, to get a good look of the bleeding wound on the stranger's neck.

"Heal her," Jeremy demanded.

Damon observed the stricken girl, taking in her dark locks and olive skin tone. From the back, he supposed, she resembled Bonnie in some mock way. Reason enough for his mother to go full-on raptor. It also guaranteed that he couldn't trust Lily. That he had made a mistake bringing her here.

"Damon," Jeremy snapped, cradling the girl against his chest the weaker she got. She was fading. Damon heaved a sigh as though he'd been asked to do a particularly laborious job. He bit into his wrist, squatting next to her, and lifted his bloodied arm to her mouth. She resisted, struggling against the two of them while Jeremy whispered reassurances in her ear, and then she started to suckle.

Now, the reason he had come back inside. Damon said: "I know you took it upon yourself to tend to Bonnie's personal effects after she died."

Jeremy frowned, raising his head to give Damon a 'where are you going with this' look.

"What did you do with her car?"

"The hybrid?"

"No, the Porsche," Damon barked as if Gilbert was an imbecile. And he was – at least in Damon's eyes. "Does she have another car?"

"Well, no—"

Damon jerked his wrist from the girl's mouth, hauling her out of Jeremy's arms, heedless as the towel slipped from her body. He forced her against the wall, a hand wrapped around her throat.

"Don't scream. Everything is all right. I'm not going to hurt you." She blinked a few times, registering the instruction and relaxed in his hostile grip. He wanted to make sure the compulsion really took hold; also, he just really liked the feel of her delicate throat in his hand. "You will remember nothing of what happened here as soon as we walk out of that door. All you remember is that you and your fuck buddy were getting too enthusiastic with your gyrations. You slipped on the wet tiles, he went tumbling and knocked his noggin."

The brunette blinked and nodded, her expression that of robotic detachment as Damon released her, his eyes unconsciously falling to her chest, taking a second to appreciate her pert breasts. She had a decent body.

Jeremy caught sight of Damon's observation and looked disgusted when the vampire finally turned to regard him again. Jeremy bent down to pick up the towel, extending it to the square of material to the woman a second time. She still looked confused as she took it.

Thankfully, her friend didn't take long to wake up, and when he did, Damon compelled him, too.

Ten minutes later they emerged from the room, letting the door click closed behind them, leaving the couple to stew in their newfound drama and to tend to each other's wounds.

"Why do you want to know about the car?" Jeremy asked at long last, as if he remembered they were talking about something important and needed to get back to it.

"I want to know what she was driving. I want to know if I've been looking out for the wrong thing all night."

"After Bonnie died, I took a handful of her possessions to her mother. She asked for them. Her car was one of them. Bonnie probably has it back by now, if, you know… Abbie didn't sell it or something."

"Bonnie hasn't spoken to her mother."

"What? Why?"

"Probably for the same reason she's fighting so hard. Why she's fleeing from my mother."

"Then why are we—"

"Because she was going about it the wrong way," Damon interjected before Jeremy could finish his question. "You know that. That's why you're here."

Jeremy looked as though he wanted to defend himself, to prove he wasn't as invasive as Damon but he couldn't – not at this moment in time and not when he'd become an unwitting accomplice. Damon smirked and slid a hand into his pocket. He removed his phone and speed dialed Stefan. The phone hardly rang before it made a connection.

"I see you've forgiven me, brother," Damon smirked after he met open silence on the other end of the line.

"Not in this lifetime, jackass," Caroline's accustomed judgement rang out. He snorted.

"Where's Stefan?"

"What have you done with Bonnie? Did you find her? You touch so much as one hair on her head and I'll—"

"You'll what, Blondie?" he interjected, not even trying to mask his irascibility anymore. "The threats are redundant and unnecessary. I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm trying to help her. I'm the only one trying to help her."

Caroline prepared to say something else (to curse, probably), when all of a sudden her voice became distant, a small struggle ensued, followed by another threat clearly meant for him and Stefan came onto the line. It seemed Damon was angering all the women in his life; then again, this one he deserved. He had stabbed her with shears and left her for dead. That was bound to make anyone a little bitter.

"Did you call just to rile Caroline up or is there an actual point?"

"You sound out of breath, brother. Mixing a little witch hunt with pleasure?"

Stefan sighed exasperatedly.

"Fine, fine—I can tell you're in a mood," Damon said, smiling slightly. "I called because… you were right. I shouldn't have involved our mother—"

"You didn't!" Stefan breathed in shock.

"I did. But see, here's the thing. I fucked up. I realize that now." Not really. What he realized was how to play on his brother's need to save everyone and how to get what he wanted. He had been doing it for decades. There was a sharp hoot in the background, another curse, and then it sounded like they were pulling over. "Are you driving? You know you shouldn't use your phone when you do that, don't you? There are laws."

"What's happened?" Stefan asked, ignoring his jibe.

"There was an altercation at the motel. Lily went in and attacked her, things got out of hand and… to cut things short, she's running… again. Kai stole her away and the worst part is, I don't know how or where or—"

"Then why are you calling me? Why aren't you looking for them?"

"Because it just occurred to me that I don't know what she's driving. That I've been chasing a ghost all night."

"That's because she took Zach's car," Caroline interrupted in the background with bubbly concern, her head clearly nearer the phone as she did and obviously directing that piece of information at Stefan. Damon hung up.

"Now what?" Jeremy asked.

"We find Mother and her British minder and head into town. I've a plan."