Note: Just shy of a year since the last update. *oven ding*

I hope you're all looking after each other, and yourselves.

I didn't edit, because that just wouldn't be like me at this point. So bear with me x

Chapter Eight

Heaven's Only Wishful

With Tyler still frozen stiff on the floor, Elena turned to Damon with an angry, resigned expression.

He scoffed at her, and pulled her to his side, getting ready to magic them to Bonnie's mom's house.

"I can be fast," Elena said, pushing him off of her, and charging to the door, "And I actually know my way to what must be the only woman in this town you've never slept with's house-" A quick flash of Sheila came and went in Damon's mind's eye.

"Hilarious considering you've probably fucked her before Stefan-" He muttered half-heartedly.

"Have you ever even been to Bonnie's house?" Elena mocked over her shoulder, putting her hand on her hip. Flipping his leather jacket on in a flash, Damon reappeared standing toe-to-toe with her. Narrowing his eyes, he pulled at Elena's thoughts, and pulled out a map to Bonnie's home from her subconscious, having an inner giggle at the comical doodle she'd saved the memory as.

"Doesn't matter when you have magic," Damon said, and in a blink of her eyes, Elena and he were standing in front of Bonnie's house. No longer interested in his presence, Elena hurried into the house, calling out for Stefan.

"I'm in here," Stefan's voice came back, small, defeated.

Elena stormed into the kitchen. It was dark without any lights on, and the black and white checkered floor was splashed with a churning, onyx sludge that was curling this way and that while Stefan stared at it in disbelief. He was standing there in jeans with the button still undone and the zipper hanging open. Elena could smell Bonnie all over him. Unconsciously, she swallowed.

"A fucking demon-mark, Stefan?" Damon spat, throwing out an accusatory hand at the wriggling stain left behind by a demon's spell-casting. "What the fuck am I missing here?"

"You tell me," Stefan said, voice low, as he lifted his head to lock eyes with his brother. Damon's heart skittered to a stop and then rolled over itself a few times while he thought of the impossible becoming possible. Elena peeked over at him impatiently, having heard his heart react, his eyes flit to her for a moment, then away to the floor. "You were supposed to have this Tyler thing under control." That brought both Damon and Elena up short as they turned to look at him with matching expressions of confusion.

"What do you mean "Tyler-Thing"?" Elena asked. "What does this have to do with Tyler?"

"You didn't tell her?" Stefan scoffed at Damon, before turning his hard eyes on Elena. "Demons beget demons."

"I don't speak French," Elena quipped, and Damon grit his teeth while Stefan pulled himself upright and crossed his arms.

"When you were accidentally made, you were given the ability to make others like you," Stefan said plainly.

"Well, I didn't fucking make Tyler." Elena defended, laughing at the seriousness behind the tone of his voice.

"Maybe you didn't mean to," Stefan said with a small shrug. "I mean...stranger things have happened in the last few days."

Elena's face fell as she realized he really thought it was her.

"Stefan it wasn't me," Elena insisted, turning to implore Damon as well. "When I...Look, killing Tyler ended the same way it did with those guys who started all of this...and you were there for that, weren't you?"

"I was, but no one was there for Tyler. And the demon gets stronger every time you feed, so you who knows what it's capable of now?" Stefan said, throwing his arms out.

"I would know," Elena barked, face heating up. "No matter what, I am aware of what this body does."

"Does that make you a carnivore now?" Damon chimed in, trying to speak around the brick of guilt lodged in this throat before either of them caught a wayward expression on his face, that would crack open the can of worms he'd been trying to stomach since he lost Sheila.

He was still toying with the idea of pinning it all on Elena.

But...

It was Sheila.

He knew Sheila was behind this, he could feel it. And that meant that he and Stefan had run out of time because Damon's lies were finally catching up with him.

"Sure. But what I'm not is attached to a warehouse shitting out demon teens in Mystic Falls," Elena said with finality, matching Stefan's stance as she crossed her arms and then, starting, she clicked her two fingers together. "In fact, Tyler is passed out at yours if I'm not mistaken."

"What do you mean?" Stefan frowned as his mind did a double-take at the new information.

"Damon did a tracking spell and then he appeared out of thin air," Elena explained.

"Why would Bonnie disappear when you do a tracking spell for Tyler?" Stefan wondered aloud.

Just then, Bonnie's voice called out from above them.

"...Stefan?" The trio didn't even look who was following behind, as they all hurried up to her.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed, wrapped loosely in a bed-sheet.

Stefan had magicked himself upstairs, and gotten their first. He was moving the hair out of Bonnie's face when the other two rushed in.

Stefan wiped at Bonnie's tears as they slipped over her cheeks.

"What happened? Where did you go?" He asked as Elena moved forward, and dropped to her haunches beside him, as he was, in front of Bonnie.

"I don't know, she," a frown cut her words off as she tried to remember, "she said I wasn't going to remember. I guess she was right."

"What? Who?" Elena asked, eyes going from Stefan to Bonnie and back again. "Bon, did someone take you?"

Bonnie nodded as another tear slipped through. Damon pressed his knuckles further into his mouth as he watched from a few feet away.

"What does it matter who she is? What's she's like?" Sheila hissed, cupping Damon's face. "I've waited my whole life to find something to live for. This is worth living for."

"There has to be another way," Damon had said to her. He found it strange that he had to explain why he was attached to the child that would have her face. He found it strange that the woman he loved wouldn't hesitate to kill her kin and take their form. Looking at her, he corrected himself as she would, it was her form that the child had took. For this exact purpose.

"Name one," Sheila said seriously, "and then I'll consider it, until then, my life stays what they want it to be," her face turned furious and hard, regal in its anger. "They want me to never exist, they want what they did to hide behind their lies forever. They already think they've won, Damon, don't take this away from me as well. Please...don't make me beg to spend a human life with you. A life we deserve."

"Did you see her face?" Stefan asked.

"I couldn't," Bonnie muttered, pressing her fingers into her temples as she tried to dredge up something, anything.

"Hey, don't push too hard," Elena said, putting a hand on Bonnie's knee.

"No," Bonnie realized as she spoke, "I literally couldn't, it was like she'd spelled it or something," she turned to Stefan then, "Is that possible?"

"Very, baby... I'm so sorry." Stefan looked away for a beat before turning back to her. "I wish I'd known better, I wish this had never happened."

"Does anything feel out of place?" Elena asked, getting her best friend's attention again. Bonnie knew instantly what she meant, and sent her senses out across her body. Frowning, Bonnie lifted her left wrist and Stefan and Elena gaped at the wound there.

"Heal it!" Elena cried at Stefan.

"Wait," Damon finally spoke, and all three of them turned to him, tense as he walked over.

He held the feeling for a moment, knowing it was going to be familiar soon. Leaning toward her, he gestured for her to hold out her arm. He didn't miss the quick look Elena and Stefan shared. Bonnie's eyes stayed on him as he studied the incision.

Taking Bonnie's wrist gently, he upturned the marked skin and clicked a finger, putting her bedside lamp on, giving them more light. The mark twisted under his gaze and he muttered three words under his breath in Latin.

"Qui autem notata," he breathed and Bonnie tried to fight off a scream, but it built quickly and she winced as her wrist began to sting and glow before it caught alight.

"Deflammo!" Stefan yelled, and pulled Bonnie up into his arms, and took her to her bathroom, jaw set.

"What the fuck is happening?" Elena murmured to herself as she watched after Bonnie and Stefan.

"I don't know, but you and I still have Tyler to deal with, come on," he yanked her upright and ignored her protesting as he pulled her after him, downstairs and out into the night.

Bonnie felt like she was bobbing around in water. Lukewarm, gelatinous, grey water.

"Okay," Stefan's voice came through to her from the other end of a tunnel she hoped she wasn't still stuck in. "The spell on the mark has been drawn out." Bonnie's eyes moved over the bathroom floor, and she saw he'd taken some soil from her shower plants, and some it was still piled up next to the bathtub, while most of what he'd taken was caked against the wound in a mud he'd mixed together. There were a few things she remembered seeing in his room, his tome, he'd probably magicked them over while her eyes were rolling into the back of her skull. The smell of your flesh could really do that to a person. "You don't even remember an eye colour, or a voice?"

Truthfully, the last thing she completely remembered was the best sex of her life, and true to form, the universe just had to punish her to level the playing field.

"She said I wouldn't remember. There was a dobby-looking thing with her, and I was cold...I'm...I'm so cold." Stefan frowned as he crouched in front of Bonnie where she sat at the edge of the bathtub.

"Do you want me to run you a bath?"

"Will you sit with me?"

"Y-yeah, if you want me I'm here."

"Okay," Bonnie nodded, trying to smile as another tear slipped through, "I'll bath."

Elena blinked and they went from Bonnie's front porch to the stairs leading to the double doors of Damon's place.

Damon was still galloping ahead, dragging her behind, and honestly, she didn't know when, but she was going to snap his shoulder out of its socket for the way he was manhandling her at that moment.

Mentally, she felt snagged over how easily Damon and Stefan had shifted the blame onto her, and while sure, on the surface it seemed the obvious answer, she really wasn't the kind of person who made a bigger mess out of the little messes...not anymore.

It was insane enough to think since the show at The Grille, that she'd killed the band and one of the most popular boys in school. The only thing stranger was someone thinking she'd ever have anything to do with hurting Bonnie. She would never ever have anything to do with hurting Bonnie.

Though...she had had to just apologise to her best friend for leaving Bonnie coughing, cold and alone outside of a burning building while she'd gone off to the woods with the lead singer. Sure, she'd ended up dead, but that was just more evidence that she never should have left Bonnie to begin with. Pressing a hand to her forehead, she felt a headache develop as she watched as Damon laid out candles in a big circle.

Snapping his fingers, Tyler appeared in the chair he'd put in the middle of the summoning ring. Another snap of his fingers set all the candles alight.

"Uh, what exactly is your plan here? You're snapping your fingers like you're at a poetry slam, and you haven't said a word," Elena griped.

"I'm going to get answers out of this jockstrap, and you're going to clean up after me, considering this is your mess."

"To be clear," Elena said, stepping a little closer, eyeing out a still-unconscious Tyler, "I'm helping because I got Tyler into this, not because I'm the reason Bonnie disappeared and her goddamn arm caught alight...I'm pretty sure that was you," she glared at him with that.

"Whatever you say, Wrecky," Damon retorted with a sneer of a smile. "That's 'Becky' for Succubus."

"Full disclosure: if for some reason I get the chance to rip your head off and throw it into the sun, I want you to know that I will not hesitate," Elena replied with a lips-pressed-flat smile that showed him how done she was with him at that point. It'd been a day.

"Whatever, he's coming around," Damon waved her off, even though she'd seen the look that had passed over his face after she'd said that.

Almost like if it came down to it, it might be what he wanted.

Shaking off that thought, Elena locked eyes with Tyler as his eyes fluttered open.

Bonnie was too quiet.

She just sat quietly opposite him in the bath and pulled her knees up and playing with the tops of the bubbles covering the steaming water.

"You'll tell me what you need if you need it?" He asked, looking over at her through his lashes as he sank deeper into the water.

"Of course," she said and then cleared her throat. "Sorry, I will ask. I just...I just need this right now."

"Then this is what we do," Stefan assured her. "I love you."

"'Love you, too," Bonnie murmured with a kind smile before her eyes fluttered and her mouth turned off to the side as she looked away from him, her face turning quiet and sad.

"E-lena...hey," Tyler frowned then, realising he was bound by ropes. His gaze drifted to Damon and the witch wiggled the end of the rope in lieu of a wave, adding a wink. Suddenly, he tugged the rope and Tyler felt his inside squelch in protest, as the ropes tightened. "The hell is this?" He looked back to Elena.

Elena looked to Damon for direction, but he only made a rolling motion with his hands. Typical. Rolling her eyes, she looked back to Tyler. Really looked at him.

She felt her pupils dilate and twist into what she remembered being a cat's eye when she turned.

Tyler's body went lax, as his eyes shifted to match hers.

Damon watched quietly as Elena leaned closer to him.

"You did this to me," Tyler said after a while. He said it calmly, evenly.

"I kind of got sacrificed to the devil a few days ago," Elena tucked some hair behind her ear and looked at him with big eyes. "Ty, I'm sorry I killed you."

"Wait...what do you mean you got sacrificed to the devil?" Tyler gaped. The woman hadn't said anything about that. Unless the woman herself was the devil?

"That stupid band, the night of the fire?" Tyler nodded. "They thought I was a virgin and took me out to the Hell-Hole to kill me so their band would make it."

"Are you fucking serious?" Tyler gasped. "Who the fuck does that?"

"I mean it worked...they got a hit song and I turned into a walking carcass because I've been teaching boys how to dick me down since I figured I liked dick."

"...Elena...I'm so sorry," Tyler swallowed, eyes shining, "I mean, I know you did what you did, but, you didn't deserve that... dying alone out in the woods after what happened with your brother." Elena felt like someone had slapped her across the face.

No one but Bonnie had ever brought up her brother to her. For Tyler to look at her so sincerely and rip her heart out with a few words was something she'd never expected.

"Tyler didn't do this to Bonnie," Elena said turning to Damon, "If that isn't obvious by now." Tyler looked puzzled as his gaze went between Elena and Damon while she spoke. "We're kids, Damon. We live in a small town that looks like nothing more than a skid mark on a map. Someone else is doing this."

"Do what to Bonnie? What the fuck is going on?" Tyler began to struggle against the ropes.

Damon walked quickly over and waved a hand over Tyler's face, putting him under again.

"Damon what the hell?" Elena yelled, and he did the same to her a moment later without responding.

Looking back at the two of them out cold, he gave himself a moment to give leaving a second thought and then vanished into thin air.

Sometime later, when Bonnie was asleep in bed, Stefan's phone rings.

"Bane of my existence?" He jokes, answering Elena's call.

"Damon's gone," is all she says and his body goes cold.

A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you're all okay.

I know I take ages to upload a new chapter, so thank you to those who still read and review, it means the world.

I thought there wasn't going to be more of this story, but now I think there is. Let me know your favourite part so far, reviews really do turn a day around.

Stay excellent xo