Note: It's been about a year, so, I'm right on time :)

The last review (from Redcup90) is the reason I'm back, so, here's a sky-ful of confetti for your kind words and a high-five for your excellent taste ;D

Chapter Six

Carrion Flower

Damon had a secret.

The tatters of his relationship with his brother, and what was left of Sheila's coven didn't stand a chance against this secret. Especially if he still intended to stand by it.

Sure, he'd done his best to hate Bonnie, pretend she didn't exist, or actively repel her. Anything it took to make sure he kept his word to Sheila. But it had been years without her, years with his brother that he could finally cherish (or, think to) and he wasn't sure where he stood anymore. Damon Salvatore was many things, but for the life of him, he couldn't stand to disappoint the woman he loved, no matter how corporeal she was or wasn't.

So that pretty much left him up shit's creek without a paddle.

This secret would undo the band of idiots currently flooding Sheila's den with sage, candlelight and Radiohead as he chanted Elena out of the dredges of her own body, and back into the forefront of her own mechanics. They needed the succubus to stop ripping the student body limb from limb and scattering the remains in the woods. You know, for a start.

"I have to drink that?" Elena scowled after Damon's incantation, while Bonnie held her hand, matching her look of disdain. "Can't I just eat people, please Bon?"

"No more cannibalism, 'Lena." Bonnie said seriously, tilting her head as they stared at the blood bag in Stefan's hands.

"We spelled it, plus human flesh is just semantics, right?" Stefan shrugged.

"That should hopefully have been more of the demon's inclination than your own," Damon nodded, from where he stood in the corner of the room, with his arms crossed and brooding, as per usual. "But you never know with the girls from around here, I've seen you shop."

"You've seen me spend my money, not yours," Elena said, squaring her shoulders, before locking eyes with him, "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"I'm so scared." He snorted, "Drink your juice so we see if it takes?"

"...I mean-" Elena began,

"She could drink mine?" Bonnie offered suddenly. Both Stefan and Elena reared their heads back in shock, not going unnoticed by Damon.

"Bonnie, you're the smartest person that I know, and I've been alive for decades but this has got to be the -"

"Do you not remember that time we made out for seven minutes in heaven?" Elena asked, cutting Stefan off.

"What?" Stefan froze.

"I fucking knew it." Damon cheered, pumping a fist. "Lesbians, lesbians, lesbians!"

"Are you gonna tell him sexuality is a spectrum, or should I?" Bonnie asked with a scowl.

"You're bisexual?" Stefan asked, pursing his lips, looking down at his girlfriend.

"Pansexual myself." Elena shrugged, "All god's children, and all that."

"But you eat boys only?" Stefan asked her.

"Yes, because I love junk food and boys are-"

"Garbage-" Bonnie finished, sneering at Damon who was still chanting the word lesbian up and down the den.

"Exactly." Elena smiled down at Bonnie, who still had her eyes on Damon, while Stefan kept a steady gaze on the succubus, trying to accommodate all of the new information. Suddenly, Damon was flung across the den, smacked into the farthest shelf of books, and dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

"I thought we agreed that we don't use magic on each other anymore, brother." Damon wheezed.

"I d-didn't." Stefan said, eyes flashing back to Bonnie who's nose was suddenly bleeding.

"Oh my god," Elena gasped, eyes dilating, before turning into slits, as she clamped her hand over her mouth. "Give me the fucking blood bag."

Stefan handed it to her blindly while he turned Bonnie to face him.

Damon moved to Elena and watched her carefully as she drank, making sure he was ready to be the wall between Elena and Bonnie if there needed to be one. When Elena realised what he was doing she rolled her eyes and shoved at him with her free hand.

"You totally threw Damon across the room." Stefan was almost smiling.

"That was me?" Her eyes were glazed, "I feel dizzy."

"Give it a few seconds, you just broke the barrier." Stefan explained.

"B-barrier?" She stuttered, leaning into him, trying to get her vision into focus.

"Yeah, you have to call your powers into your body, you have to break the barrier between the spirit world and ours."

"Is that why everything tastes like metal now?"

"Yup," Damon said, popping the sound on the 'p'. "Welcome to the coven, Bennett."

When Tyler opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the dank ceiling of a somberly lit cave.

Jerking as his last memories flooded to the surface, his panic spiked when he realised his arms and legs where bound.

"I'd take a deep breath if I were you." A voice called out from somewhere he couldn't see, behind him maybe. Disorientated and afraid, he began to jerk around violently, fear outrunning anything else in that moment. "You were dead a few minutes ago."

Lifting his head, he looked down at his torso, rippling muscles unmarred save for a few streaks of dirt.

"She ripped my fucking throat open." He rasped. "Then, then she ate me."

"Who did, sweetheart?" The woman asked, her silhouette appearing above his head; her features hidden under her cloak.

"Elena...Elena Gilbert."

"I want to kill the lead singer of Low Shoulder." Elena said as she flopped down onto Bonnie's bed.

"I know, 'Lena." Bonnie said, quirking her mouth to the side while her eyes held her best friend's gaze with the surplus of empathy that Elena was sure Bonnie kept aside just for her. "Hey, you know the night it happened?" Bonnie lay down next to her.

"M-hmm."

"When you left, you kind of...I don't know, you broke my heart." The look they shared was different now.

"I don't know what that motherfucker did, but I must have glugged a litre of dumb bitch juice for leaving you after all that smoke you sucked in trying to get me out first." Elena said with a small sigh.

"Yeah, I passed out right after Stefan got there."

"He probably hates me for that." Elena said, eyes downcast while she fiddled with the fray of Bonnie's throw blanket.

"Like you care." Bonnie said, snorting softly.

"Not about him, obviously he's made of flannel and cereal bars," Elena quipped, "But I am sorry I left you like that...it's shitty, even for me."

"You're my favourite shit-ball, shit-ball, and you were literally under a spell...I saw it 'Lena, you weren't you...even before the fire."

"I don't care, I'm a piece of shit." Elena said with a shrug as she looked back up at Bonnie, "You're the only friend I have and I'm literally too uncomfortable to deal with my own drama, so I just take it out on you, and you let me." Bonnie drew in a breath and smiled, lifting her head up to rest it on her hand and look down at her best friend.

"You might be guzzling down dumb bitch juice by the gallon, but let me let you in on a little something I think you must have forgotten: I'm your best friend. I've been here for everything. When your dad cheated and left, when Jer...when Jer OD'd. When your mom started smothering you with therapy appointments and supplements and stage five meds... I've just been holding my breath really, waiting to get you-you back."

"You really do love me, huh?"

"Yup."

"More than Stefan?"

"Sure." Bonnie laughed.

"Say it to his face next time, he's getting cocky." Elena complained, turning on her back and staring at the ceiling with a huff.

"You got it."

"You know those two are going to try and go after the band, right?" Damon said as he glared out of the bay window in Stefan's room.

"Yes, and I know Bonnie will call me before they do anything." Stefan was still standing at his door, holding it open, waiting for Damon to leave.

"Oh, and why is that?" Damon asked, swinging around dramatically, eyes bulging, "You haven't even had sex yet, why would she tell you if her best friend tries to goad her into becoming a murderer?"

"Okay first of all," Stefan said, swinging an arm out as he stormed toward his brother, "Elena is welcome to kill those devil-worshippers since they dragged her ass out into the woods, turned her into chop suey and flung her carcass into a fucking whirlpool." Damon's brows rose as his brother's temper did. "Secondly, our job is to protect Bonnie, at all costs, but my job, as her boyfriend, the person that loves her," Damon's jaw clenched, "Is to know her, and trust her, and be someone she knows and she trusts. I couldn't give a fuck, and I won't about what you think about us anymore Damon...I honestly-"

"I honestly thought we were past this, man, the bitterness and bickering and bullshit. We have a mission, and you've done nothing but wallow and bread misery the last ten years. Elena was the first spell you cast for someone other than yourself since we've been back, and you should know better than to let your powers wane, brother. It goes against our nature and you will be punished."

"So, what then? I up my philanthropy hours?" Damon snapped.

"Yes," Stefan hissed in exasperation, "Tyler's body went missing from the morgue, I overheard something on Sheriff Forbes' line when she got a call from the hospital. Look into that, this town is strange but I don't think we're normalizing that just yet."

"Aye aye captain." Damon said with faux cheer, bumping shoulders with his brother as he left the room.

"You think he'd be down?" Elena asked, again.

"Elena, if you want to kill this MCR spin-off, you're gonna have to accept that Stefan is our best bet." Bonnie explained.

"It just doesn't feel right; he thinks wearing a waistcoat over a T-shirt makes sense."

"He did that once, and thanks to one of your spectacular "interventions"," a side-eye, "It probably won't ever happen again."

"You're welcome," Elena grinned.

"You're deflecting." Bonnie pointed out, holding Elena's phone out to her. Rolling her eyes, the succubus took her flip phone out of Bonnie's hands and opened it. Staring for a while, it dawned on her.

"I literally don't have his number." She laughed.

"...Hello?" Stefan answered once the call connected. He had Elena's number saved, he was just in shock.

"Okay so this just in, apparently we need your help now since you guys have been dating for almost six months and that apparently that means you're a part of my life too, which is now apparently swamped in with supernatural fuck-shit, so if you could get your boxing flannels on and meet us in the park in a half hour, I'd be moderately grateful."

"Say apparently again."

A pause.

"Apparently."

"Sorry, I meant to ask for you to say please." Stefan said, grinning as he pulled his jacket on with his phone switching between being wedged between one side to the other as he yanked on the sleeves.

"Jesus fuck, could you please just help me lob this dude's head off, Bonnie won't say yes without you."

"Alright Gilbert, I'm in."

"So they posted on MySpace about being in Los Angeles to sign their record deal today. Idiots." Elena griped, pulling her bomber jacket closer around her body. "They ruined my favourite outfit, they turned me into a succubus, and to celebrate; their probably doing lines of cocaine off of each other's tits because they're a hit." A growl left her as she began to pace.

"Easy, tiger, I still need to open a portal."

"We can do that?" Bonnie asked, chuffed.

"Indeed," Stefan said, cracking his fingers, "I just need a location."

"Here," Elena handed over a piece of notebook paper with the studio address scribbled on it, "I wrote it down."

"Of course you use scented paper," Stefan muttered, eyeing out the address, folding the page into a small square in his palm, he shut his eyes and a second or two after, the paper caught alight.

"...Wicked." Elena commended.

"You, hand on my shoulder," he instructed her, "Babe, hand please?" Bonnie intertwined their fingers. "Thank you." and they disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Damon hated to admit it, but sleuthing around was really helping to take the edge off. The flask of whiskey he'd brought with him didn't hurt either.

Following his recon, he knew that some with or warlock was behind Tyler's appearance. No footage, no witnesses, and a firm hold clamping down the imminent hysteria. He'd been tailing Sheriff Forbes all day when she finally spoke to one of her detectives about the case directly.

Cloaking himself with magic, he ghosted through the walls, invisible, and came to sit on the edge of her desk, giving him a clear look at both of their faces.

"I don't know who'd be sick enough," she began, "But if we don't get to the bottom of this kid's case before his funeral two days from now, this little town is going to dive headfirst into the kind of spell I don't think we can come out of."

"So where do I start?" The detective asked, pulling a hand through his hair in frustration. "His best friend dies in a fire, his body is torn to shit until he dies and then is stolen right from under the coroner's nose and I'm supposed to find either the body or a suspect before Sunday morning?"

"Ideally, yes."

"I know what these people are like, Liz. I know what kind of a woman the Mayor can be, but this is ludicrous."

"Her only son is dead and we have no answers, that would never be good enough for me, so I also don't accept that as an answer for her. Copy?"

"Copy."

Nikolai was wiping the last remnants of the chalky powder off of his chest with a giggle when the pressure in the hotel suite changed with a pulse that jolted their festivities.

"Did you hear that?" Doug asked.

"Calm down Doug, enjoy the high for once, in your miserable, scribbly life."

"I'm not miserable," Doug huffed, "and I definitely heard something!"

"Was it the sound of success?" Nikolai chortled, "Because that's all I can hear."

"Our advance just landed and we blew half of it on coke and skittles-"

"Half-" Nikolai giggled. The rest of them erupted in delirious guffaws.

"No more numbers and no more writing for Doug!" The other's chanted.

"Agreed!" Nikolai decreed, jumping onto the sofa and pointing a police baton at Doug. "I declare you, useless."

"Fuck you," Doug snarled, shaking with adrenaline as he finally stood up for himself. "This cocaine is shit, your eyeliner is skew and I quit the band. I don't know how any of you can live with yourselves after what we did!"

"Like the apology is going to bring her back." Nikolai hissed, hopping off of the couch and sauntering over until he stood toe to toe with Doug. "You're welcome to leave, I'm so high right now I don't even remember which instrument you play, but I know for a fact we can replace you, dummy."

Doug felt for what certainly wasn't the first time, the same sense of dread creeping into and under his skin as he held Nikolai's gaze.

"Off you fuck!" someone else cried.

"I hope you all get what you deserve." Doug seethed.

"Then so will you, Judge Judy." Nikolai said, slapping him none too gently on the cheek. "Now get the fuck out, VIPs only."

After collecting his leather jacket and pulling his docs back on, Doug left, still shaking his head with disappointment while Stefan, Elena and Bonnie hissed under their breath at one another in the bathroom.

"Let me at them!" Elena hissed, tying up her hair.

"Let me cut the power first, we can't have any evidence, that means no cameras, no witnesses, okay?"

"Okay."

"Bonnie, you're with me and we're on back up, got it?"

"Gotten." He grinned and kissed her quickly.

"Elena," he said looking up as the lights started to flicker and burst, before he took Bonnie's hand and inhaled long and loud, exhaling only when the entire building's power had shut down. "Go get 'em."

"Yay!" The succubus clapped her hands and turned promptly, kicking the door right off of it's hinges. "What it do, shit-stains?" She called out and Bonnie chuckled under her breath.

"I fucking love her," The witch said to her boyfriend, before pulling him after her best friend. They all tried to scatter, but Stefan's magic had them penned in, before it wound around them and crushed them until they buckled; trapped kneeling on the ground.

"Who are you?" Nikolai stammered into the darkness, worry deepening when the city lights stayed flickering in the distance. "Is this a Satan thing? Because we already paid him." He asked after he'd managed to twist his head back in their direction.

"No, you didn't actually. Hasn't your mother told you not to write a cheque with your mouth that you can't cash with your own scrawny ass?" Elena grinned, mouth wide like a shark. It took a moment before he could see past the fear, to even recognise her, but even then, he couldn't stop shaking at the pulsing power thrumming off of the creature in front of him.

"I know you," he said as she knelt down before him, smiling prettily. "You're the, the virgin from Mystic Halls?"

"Mystic Falls you pretentious hipster spawn," Elena said, gripping his hair and yanking it backward, exposing his throat. "And I'm no virgin." Her teeth nipped his throat before she stilled and turned to Bonnie. "I don't know if you want to see me like this."

"Rip his fucking head off." Bonnie said seriously, giving every man in the room chills. Elena's smile was sweet, then sharp, before she turned back to clasp his throat with one hand, with the other's nails had dug so deep into his scalp, they'd drawn blood.

"And they say women don't know what they want." Elena purred, punching a hole in his chest, rupturing a lung and leveraging her foot against his chest to pull her arm back out. While he choked, Stefan had released the other men, and she slammed the one into the marble floors so hard his head splat and the other, she dragged to the kitchen and used as a dartboard for the array of knives they had. Wiping her hands in vain; as they were sticky with blood, she walked back over to Nikolai, who was gagging and spluttering on the floor and crouched over him.

"It's better this way you know," Elena said as his eyes began to roll, "That you die before you fame eats you alive...I was the most popular girl in high school and now I don't even have that to show for myself anymore. So, you're welcome."

"Fu-fuc-"

"In your dreams, rat-boy." She cut him off, mouth widening, jaw breaking, until all of her teeth were exposed. She ripped his head clean off of his shoulders and cracked his ribcage open like an easter egg. Drinking from cupped hands she sated the demon inside of her and straightened her back as she stood upright and returned to her human form.

"Can I shower before we portal home? They have a rainfall shower head and that makes me morally obligated to use it."

"Sure." Stefan said with a shrug, "We'll clean up."

"Super," Elena was practically bouncing on her heels, "Cleaning is also very on brand for you, Salvatore." She piped up, passing them.

"Should I be worried about murder being the only thing that brings you two together, or whether or not you know a cleaning spell?" Bonnie wondered as his hands wound around her waist.

"Neither." Stefan said turning his leafy eyes on her as the bodies in the room began to dissipate into nothing. "I've had to kill a lot of people in my life to stay alive, to make sure I got to the day where I could keep my promise to Sheila, to the day I didn't even know I was waiting my whole life for; meeting you. Why on Earth would I hesitate or regret any of that?"

"Because it's murder, babe." Bonnie said as she chewed on her bottom lip. "Jail stuff."

"It's a matter of perspective, babe." Stefan corrected her. "People do fucked up things and put you in fucked up situations and if you can't have the sense to make it right in your own mind, all you'll ever be is a victim."

"And that's what we're doing, now, for Elena?" Bonnie guessed. "Making sure she doesn't feel like a victim anymore?"

"Exactly." Stefan nodded.

"Cool, so we are on the same page." He nodded, smiling, tapping a forefinger to her temple.

"Duh." He leaned in, but she pulled away with a frown, about to point to the bodies she knew were scattered about the floor. When Bonnie saw no traces of body parts, blood, or anything out of place in fact, she turned back to him with a rueful smile.

"Okay, that was pretty cool." And she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.

A/N: I feel like this chapter grounded the characters in what I see them as in this fic, so that's a good feeling. I wouldn't forget about Damon's secret though, if I were you.