A/N: The muse strikes again. Thank you, dolls for reading! Enjoy.

Sirens blared in the darkening moonlight. Bar goers were cloistered together in the parking lot, talking, gossiping, laughing, continuing the party now that the place was shut down. Engines roared to life. Cheers exploded as those assembled geared up for part two. The need to fuel their veins with bad decisions sparked impatience and frenzy.

A pair snuck off together to have a moment alone, their hours together growing infinitely shorter as one hour rolled into another.

Damon couldn't wait another second. He pulled off on the side of the road and hauled Bonnie into his lap. Their hands clumsily fought to undress the other, wiggling inelegantly to shuck pants and underwear off. Damon groaned and Bonnie hissed the second she sank onto him. He tried to be gentle to make it last, but she felt too good, squeezed him too tightly. Slow was impossible. They made love fast and furious. Damon multitasked guiding her hips while downing the window to let the steam out.

When they finished, their smiles were bright, cheeks rosy, skin glistening with sweat.

Despite that minor hiccup with Stefan and Elena, it had been a good night.

The next day, Bonnie caught herself several times spacing out. She was at Whitmore in her old dorm room that never felt like a second home. Idly she wondered if she would ever truly get to have the full college experience without death and chaos or long periods of absence.

She glanced around the room. Textbooks were lined up on desk shelves. Perfumes, creams, lotions, hair ties, forgotten tubes of lip gloss were scattered across dresser surfaces, clothes were stuffed in armoires.

Brown hands opened folders and binders. Bonnie thumbed through papers on subjects that felt foreign and far removed. She could barely remember writing them. Just as she was about to toss a stack into an open trash bag, a poem by her favorite poet caught her attention. Judging by the big fat A scrawled at the top, her professor thought she had done an excellent job analyzing it. She read Pablo Neruda's words:

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where," she began. "I love you simply, without problems or pride. I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving, but this, in which there is no I or you. So intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand. So intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close."

Those words struck a definite chord. Bonnie rubbed the center of her chest and carefully tucked the paper away in her keep pile.

The creaking door hinges caught her ear. A stylish boho bag was dropped on the floor as a tuff of vampire body barreled across the wood floor flinging itself down on a bed with a bounce.

"Last final turned in. I'm done! Sophomore year is over. Thank God!" Caroline snapped her head in Bonnie's direction offering up a brilliant smile.

Caroline had been surprised when Bonnie said she would be stopping by to get the rest of her things. That had propelled her into a forensic-level cleaning spree, removing any trace of incriminating evidence of the…well, murders, she and Stefan had committed in these four walls.

She encouraged herself to be as casual as possible, and to forget that the last time she saw Bonnie she had sucked face with Klaus.

Caroline waited to feel a pinch of jealousy, but to her delight there was nothing. To her horror though she was feeling something else.

She had known Bonnie was in their room well before she made it to the door. It wasn't because she heard her heartbeat, or caught her scent, no. Caroline had felt pressure like diving to the deepest end of a pool. Her little vampire instincts told her to run, but rationality said it was her friend, she had no reason to be afraid. Still, she had had to pause before darting inside the room.

Bonnie returned her smile and resumed packing. "What are you going to do for the summer?" she asked.

Caroline rolled on her belly, "Before I went off the rails I applied and interviewed for an internship at KMF radio station. They finally got back to me with an offer. The pay is crap, but the experience will look awesome on my resume. I won't be starting that until the end of June. Other than that…" She shrugged. "What about you? Traveling? Staying local."

"Yeah. Maybe."

The doubt was plain as day in Bonnie's voice. It made Caroline frown. "There's Alaric and Jo's wedding." She tried for optimism.

Dread landed in the pit of Bonnie's stomach. She used too much force to close the drawer she just emptied, rattling the contents on top. "Right. The wedding. Caroline I need to tell you something. Fill you in on what's been happening."

The blonde vampire perked up, "What? What's wrong?"

Bonnie plopped down on the bed next to Caroline and spilled everything there was to spill. With her humanity reinstated Caroline could no longer have the luxury of walking around in ignorance. Beginning with her nightmares, to her training with Dahlia, meeting the Gemini coven leaders, her fight with Dahlia's acolyte, and ending with Kai's pending return, Bonnie unleashed everything.

A tense silence ensued the second she was done.

"So we're not done with Kai. He's coming back," Caroline croaked after absorbing everything.

"It's wishful thinking to believe he's dead in the 1903 prison world. It would be amazing if he was, but you know our luck and track record."

"And that led you to going to Klaus to hook you up with a formidable witch who doesn't give a damn about playing fair."

"Exactly."

"Dahlia, she's responsible for your…makeover." Caroline studied her and found herself trying not to flinch every time Bonnie's eyes caught in the sunlight. It wasn't eerie like the eyeshine of a cat or dog, but it was pretty freaking close.

"She may have been a catalyst, but the change is all me."

The temperature in the room spiked. Caroline fanned herself with her hand before jolting off the bed to crank up the air. "How do you feel about it? Do you still see yourself when you look in the mirror?"

"I'm not…I'm still adjusting."

"You're not in pain."

"No."

"That's good." Caroline swallowed the lump in her throat, and forced herself to return to her spot on the bed. She wouldn't say she was starting to feel terror or afraid of Bonnie, or say she was sensing something dark and sinister within her, but she and everyone's radar when it came to Bonnie didn't always fire on all cylinders. They missed important signs, which had led to devastating consequences. Was this time any different?

Bonnie wasn't being influenced by a crack professor who was being manipulated by a fossilized vampire-witch hybrid. In fact, her mentor this time around might be a hundred times worse, because she was a thousand year old witch who was related to Esther and Klaus. Whatever she was teaching, Bonnie was excelling at. Perhaps too well. Something had shifted.

What you're sensing is what birds feel when a storm is coming, Bonnie mused, clocking the dilation of Caroline's pupils, her slightly shaking hands she clenched into fists and dropped on her lap.

She signed. She didn't want her friends to be afraid of her, but maybe they needed to feel a sliver of what she felt every day since she first got her powers. Like their life could be snuffed out at any second.

No, Bonnie viciously shook the dark thought away. "I still see myself when I look in the mirror," she replied. "My eyes are just a different color."

"Just answer me this, is different from last year? You went through a year suffering as the anchor, then you were dead and alone with Damon, and then you were alone. I don't want to see you go through anything else like that again."

"You and me both. For the first time in my life I finally feel…balanced. I'm not…I'm not borrowing the power of other witches that could potentially kill me. My mind isn't being played with by some nutjob, but the biggest thing is, no one is telling me my life doesn't matter. Everything is different."

Giving her a tentative smile, Caroline accepted her words. She moved on to the next topic. "Damon has asked this same witch to make him on par with an Original."

"I guess," Bonnie murmured, still uncertain about what Damon was getting himself into.

"Jury is out if I will be mad at you later for cluing me in to what could potentially happen in the future," Caroline teased, "but I'm happy you trust me again with the truth."

"Even if I didn't trust you with the truth, I would have told you."

Caroline dipped her head before looking at Bonnie. "There's just one tiny, gargantuan—"

"Gargantuan is a pretty big word."

"—thing I need to know that we haven't discussed."

The two friends stared unabashed at one another.

"My relationship with Damon," Bonnie said.

Caroline nodded slowly, folding her top lip under her teeth. "Yep. Your relationship with Damon. Being with him isn't a side effect of learning to become an Omega-level witch, is it?"

A corner of Bonnie's mouth curled up into a smile, "Been reading comics again?"

The blonde vampire didn't look guilty in the slightest. "Answer the question, lady."

Laughing, Bonnie rose from the bed and tossed a few more books in her keep pile. "No, being with him isn't a side effect and it's not a trick. We spent every day together for four months. That can change how you see someone."

"I get that, but he wasn't exactly," Caroline paused, feeling she had to be delicate in framing her next statement, "he wasn't exactly single. Technically maybe, but in his heart he was in love with someone else."

Bonnie figured there was no escaping the elephant in the room. "Tell me the truth, did you ever approve of Damon and Elena's relationship?"

"Not at first, that was more than obvious, but then I guess I grew to tolerate it. She was never going to leave him no matter how toxic things got. Elena made her choice, and I had to respect that. Doesn't mean I liked it."

"Do you feel that way when it comes to me and Damon?"

"Let's be honest, no one will ever be good enough for you in my opinion. But, I can't judge you the same. I didn't see you crash in love with Damon."

"Crash in love?"

"You can admit that Elena didn't fall. She crashed."

A thoughtful look came over Bonnie. "All right, I see your point."

"On top of that, I'm not in a position to judge you for falling for your…friend's ex. I've done it. Twice. I…I was such a bitch to her, Bonnie. Such a bitch. She's lost a lot and so have you. I just want my friends to be happy."

"Do you think I'm building my happiness off her pain?"

Caroline gnawed her cheek before answering, "If there's one thing I know about you, I know you never set out to hurt anyone."

"That doesn't really answer the question," Bonnie pressed.

"If you want the truth, the truth is yes, you are building your happiness off her pain, but she's done the same to you," Caroline rushed to say.

Bonnie mulled over that explanation unsure if it justified anything. She might wrestle with guilt; she didn't believe she would change anything. Not drastically, anyways. Even if she tried, would the outcome change or remain the same?

"I did the same to Matt," Caroline continued, picking at her cuticle. "I fell in love with his best friend, and he had to have a front row seat to it. I know we make it seem like falling in love is so easy, but for some it's almost impossible to find that one person who feels for you the way you feel for them. When you find that person, you hope everything aligns perfectly, but it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes someone walks away with a broken heart…When did you know?" Caroline asked softly.

"Know that I was in love?" Caroline nodded. Bonnie eyed the ceiling as if the answer was there. She lowered her gaze back to her friend. "I can't speak for Damon when his feelings towards me changed. I can only speak for myself. I think—no—I know I started to love him as a friend in the prison world. When I came back, he was the first person I wanted to see, and then he became the only person I wanted to be around. I got happy whenever I saw him, and he bought up a ton of real estate in my head. I started to want more. He helped me through my PTSD, but he also made it a lot worse at the same time."

"Yeah, I can see that."

They shared a laugh.

"I wasn't looking to fall in love," Bonnie went on to say. "But I couldn't stop it either. As much as he drove me crazy, he still made me feel safe, and seen. You don't know how badly I needed that, Caroline. When I was standing there while the other side was collapsing, he took my hand. He was the last person I touched, the last person who touched me." Bonnie's nose began to tingle as her eyes turned misty, yet the heat of her body burned her tears away before they even had the chance to fall. "I was terrified. I thought I had made peace with my fate. But in those final moments, reality came crashing down on me that I was going to die, and this time it was going to be permanent. You know how lonely that feeling is.

"It's good when death is instant. You don't have time to think about anything. I was just waiting, waiting, and waiting, and it was excruciating. Seeing you all and not being able to be with you. Go home. Live. But then he was there, holding my hand. He's been holding my hand ever since that day."

Unbeknownst to Caroline, her eyes had become red-rimmed. She sniffed, picked up a pillow and hugged it to her chest. "Wow. I didn't know. I had no idea."

Quietly, Bonnie murmured, "That was a horrible night, but I never once regretted the outcome. I brought our friends back. An enemy became a friend, and that friend is now the reason I can smile."

The young witch averted her gaze and zipped up her suitcase.

Damon chose that moment to make his presence known, sweeping inside the room, a stack of flattened cardboard boxes tucked under his arm.

A peevish look was thrown his way by his girlfriend and Vampire Barbie, which he ignored. Approaching Bonnie, he pecked her lips and tossed the boxes and a roll of tape on the nearest surface.

"How much of that did you overhear?" Bonnie questioned.

"About seventy-six percent." He leaned down to whisper in her ear, "I love you, too, and I'm proud to hold your hand."

Her embarrassment turned into euphoric pleasure. She blushed.

Curiosity stitched Caroline's eyeballs to the couple in front of her. It was so weird for her, yet made so much sense it almost felt like she had taken a 2x4 upside the head. Having and voicing her opinion was a religion to Caroline. She was a devout nun in that regard. She could apply tact when the situation called for it, but it wasn't always easy to fight instinct. Their group was deeply incestuous and there were about a hundred other guys she thought was much better and healthier for Bonnie, yet Caroline had never seen her friend look so happy. Bonnie was literally glowing. Literally. She was more than a light bulb, but a spotlight. She had to look away to save her retinas.

"Don't get any bright ideas about hogging my girl for the summer. We have a lot of time to make up for," Damon announced, and quickly went to work building the boxes and taping the bottom shut.

"Get in line," Caroline argued. "You're not the only one who missed out in quality time with my tiny friend."

"Not everything about her is tiny."

"Damon," Bonnie squeaked.

He wagged his brows whereas Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I think I am glad I have an internship to keep me busy if it'll spare me having to hear innuendos about my friend."

"You should be immune to it at this point," Damon muttered. He blinked once he realized who he was referring to. He shot a look at Bonnie. "Umm."

She shook her head. "Move on. Those two suitcases are full. You can haul them down to the car."

"Kicking me out?" Damon said.

"Putting you to work is more like it."

"I think I earned my pay last night and this morning."

Caroline clasped her hands over her ears. "Ohmygod."

"Damon, suitcases, car, now. Thank you," Bonnie ordered primly.

He disappeared. Caroline kicked off her shoes and figured she might as well start packing as well. Usually she would have started moving her non-essentials back home a week before finals, but going home to the house she lived in with her mother, Caroline hadn't been strong or emotionally stable to do it. She still wasn't sure she could walk through those doors, enter that house and be confronted with its emptiness nor remnants of her mother's scent. She was well aware she would have to confront that hurdle at some point.

"You don't have to go home, Caroline," Bonnie said as if she had read her mind. "You can stay with me for the summer."

"Oh, Bonnie, thanks, but it's fine. I don't want to be a third wheel."

"You won't be…Just think about it. Okay?"

"I'll definitely do that."

Thirty minutes later, Bonnie was shoving her last box into the backseat of her Prius while Damon and Caroline carried multiple bags of trash to the dumpster that was overflowing with detritus. Once done with that, they waited for Bonnie in front of the residential hall.

"I don't need to explain what will happen if I return and a single hair is missing from her gorgeous head, do I?" Damon warned Caroline.

"No, you don't. I know how to look out for her."

That was debatable, Damon mused, yet acknowledged his options in having someone have Bonnie's back were severely limited. Alaric had a babymama to worry about. Stefan was a lunatic. Enzo was fluttering around as a butterfly. Matt was…Matt, the sheriff was gone to the great beyond, so yeah that left Caroline.

One other person came to mind, but the thought left a sour taste in Damon's mouth.

"I mean it, Caroline. I need you to be on your shit while I'm gone."

"Where are you going?"

He couldn't tell her because he didn't know. "I won't be here. That's all you need to know."

"I want to tell you that what you're doing will probably amount to being stupid and a waste of time, but if you feel it's necessary, then do what you need to do, and get back here as soon as you can. Bonnie will need you."

"I know."

They grew quiet and watched as she sauntered to them.

"Are you ready?" Bonnie posed the question to Damon who pushed away from the column.

"As ready as I'll ever be. Any last piece of advice?"

Bonnie thought for a moment, said, "If Dahlia asks you a question, have an answer, and not a smart-ass one, okay?"

Damon snorted but nodded sharply.

"If she starts humming, that means she's doing a spell, and it'll be curtains. Just try not to piss her off too much."

"I'll try my best not to." He wrapped his arms around Bonnie's waist, pulling her into his chest. "Send me a text every other hour. Don't forget to spell the doors when you're home, and make sure the windows are locked each night, and for the love of God do not talk to strangers."

"The same goes for you."

"I might have to in my case."

Bonnie fretted with the collar of his shirt. "There's still time to change your mind."

Pulling her hands away, he brought them up and dropped a kiss on her knuckles. "I gave my word, and you know the type of person we're dealing with. She won't let me renege."

Bonnie, petulant, looked away. She couldn't shake the feeling Damon was taking an unnecessary risk.

He lifted her chin, "You trust I love you?"

"Yes."

"Trust I'll come back to you."

Their lips collided in a kiss that would have to last them until they were reunited again.

Damon blew curls of smoke out of his mouth. He graced her with a dirty smirk before diving in again, capturing the young witch's mouth, owning it, possessing it, making it his in every way known to man and vampire.

Bonnie ended the kiss and hugged Damon, inhaling his cologne, and the scent underneath that was uniquely his. Despite being dead, he did carry a fragrance that smelled slightly of pine and oakmoss. She slipped away when she danced on the precipice of being unable to let him go.

"I love you." Damon kissed her forehead.

"I love you, too."

"If…if you get into trouble and I'm not back…go to Klaus."

Bonnie was floored. "You got an attitude the other night because I had gone to Klaus."

"Yeah, yeah I know. You had your reasons, and they were valid. Next to yourself, he's the most powerful being in a fifty mile radius. If he does nothing else, he won't let you die."

"I don't need Klaus."

"Let's hope you don't."

Stealing one last kiss, Damon forced himself to turn away from Bonnie and walk to his car. He stared at her for one long moment before climbing behind the wheel, and starting the engine.

Caroline tossed her arm across Bonnie's shoulders but removed it a second later once her skin began to sizzle.

"Sorry," Bonnie apologized sheepishly.

"Damon is the only one who's immune, I guess."

"He's the thorn to my rose."

"I really hope you're not talking about your vagina."

Tossing her head back and laughing, Bonnie dragged Caroline back inside.

He forewent lighting any fires tonight as dusk settled. He had walked the halls of the boardinghouse, staring at oil paintings on the paneled walls, the first edition books in the library, and the little feminine touches his mother had added in her short tenure here. This was his home, but it felt like putting on a suit that was three sizes too small.

A soup of anticipation and dread had warmed his belly the entire day, and he had gone back and forth in his head about following through. Vampires shouldn't need to test their mettle had been Damon Salvatore's devout belief. Their immortality was earned by the violent destruction of their human life. Unfortunately, no respite was given when you tangled with hardcore witches, werewolves, hybrids, and every creepy crawly supernatural in the pantheon. So a vampire had to resort to hardening everything about themselves in order to survive. Heart as tough as titanium, skin as hard as diamonds.

He would move forward with this.

Rising from the bed, Damon glanced out of his bedroom window. He saw it.

A red rainbow. Through his immaculate sight Damon made out hues of crimson, carmine, scarlet, and vermillion.

It was time, then.

Flashing downstairs, he made a detour to his drink cart. Might as well help himself to one last drink before things went down. He filled a glass with his favorite bourbon and threw it back.

The front door swung open ominously. His head turned in tiny, little increments.

Nothing dramatic happened. Fog didn't roll in. A snarling monster wasn't waiting with a jack-o-lantern basket saying trick or treat. Flames didn't erupt around the perimeter of the door, but they came to life in the grate instantly warming his backside. Wood smoke filled the room, and Damon stood poised bracing himself.

Heels, the sharp tap of heels heralded her arrival. Each stab of her pointy stems felt like a promise of his bones breaking in the very near future. A sinewy figure appeared and in waltzed Dahlia.

She had upgraded her wardrobe or perhaps decided to keep her coat at home. She wore a snug, black turtleneck shirt tucked into high waist black trousers. Her long hair was still down, but those eyes of hers glowed chartreuse tonight.

Dahlia swept into his domicile with determined steps, not slowing her speed as she crossed the living room, but stopped abruptly less than a foot away from him. Damon held her gaze, unwilling to be crowed, bend, be or intimidated. She might be an arsenal unto herself, but he wasn't without gifts either.

"Drink this." She brandished a clay tumbler, shoving it towards him.

The vampire eyed it before flicking a skeptical gaze at Dahlia who merely rose an impatient brow.

It was on the tip of his tongue to say he wasn't thirsty, but he remembered the promise he made to Bonnie to keep his smart remarks to the minimum. Taking the cup and not thinking twice about it, Damon tossed the bitter smelling contents back and nearly vomited.

"What the hell? Was that gasoline?" He coughed uncontrollably, his throat on fire and feeling like he had swallowed a potent, esophagus burning concoction of ethanol and sulfur. It coated his stomach making him feel violently ill. Tears pooled in his eyes, mucus ran from his nose, and the saliva in his mouth doubled and leaked from the corner of his mouth.

Smug, Dahlia spun away from Damon and sat down on a cushioned chair, back straight, arms relaxed on the rests. "What gives you your strength?" She got down to business.

Damon rubbed his throat and sat the tumbler on the drink cart. "Didn't know I would be quizzed. Hate to inform you, but I didn't study."

Dahlia made an impatient noise. "This won't work if you try to mock and joke your way out of it. You believe killing is easy because it's what your kind was designed to do, but no. If I stripped everything that makes you a vampire, what's left? A scared, insecure little pup who reacts with idle threats."

He frowned, "Did you come here to insult me?"

"We're here in this moment because you realize what you are, lacks."

Damon clenched his teeth, jaw throbbing.

"I need not hold back with you," Dahlia sat forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "This is what you want. You are a nail. I am the hammer. You want to switch roles, well, you're going to have to submit your way to it. What gives you your strength?"

"Blood."

"So why then do you suppose sunlight is anathema to you?"

She expects me to think clearly after giving me that radioactive drink, Damon fumed. His head was feeling thick and too heavy to balance on his shoulders. He stumbled a little, his back crashing into the wall next to the fireplace.

Damon squeezed his eyes closed, breathing lethargically. "If I'm remembering my history correctly, my kind was created at night, therefore, walking during the day became the sacrifice."

"You're half right. Your ilk was created at night, but it was a false night. It was during a solar eclipse when my sister murdered her offspring and changed them irrevocably."

Damon's brows lifted at that news. Guess he wasn't too old to learn something new, but something in his brain clicked. "We needed the solar eclipse in order for the ascendant to work."

Dahlia's head cocked a little, "What?"

"Nothing. You were saying." The room was growing darker and darker, first darkening at the edges but quickly rolling to the center of his vision. He furiously blinked to clear his vision. "What…what did you do to me?'

"You want to be as strong as an Original, you say," Dahlia ignored his accusatory question, "show me your weakness as a vampire."

"I don't understand." It was getting harder to think straight.

The timbre of her voice deepened when she commanded, "Take off your clothes."

That made him lucid. "Not happening."

"Hard way or the easy way. Your choice."

"You know. Once I get a girlfriend I tend to stop showing my dick off to other women. So you'll forgive me—"

Dahlia started humming.

"Okay, okay," Damon caved in.

Cursing under his breath, Damon shed his button down. He toed off his boots, and reached for the zipper to his jeans. Inhaling a sharp breath, he removed his final barrier. Dahlia learned two of his secrets. He was big even while flaccid and he didn't wear underwear. Most of the time.

He would give her credit for keeping her gaze level with his, but Damon knew she was taking his measure in other, more intrusive waves, and that made him uncomfortable.

She was seated and then she was there next to him as if she had used vampire speed. She probably did. The bitch.

Dahlia waved her hand across his face. His sight was gone. Irises milk-white he saw nothing, not shadows or shapes, just a vast nothingness. Damon wobbled as his ears worked to center his equilibrium. Everything around him seemed to expand and feel far out of reach, the ceiling, the walls. The floor tilted dangerously.

"You can't see, and you can't speak. The latter is more for my benefit than anything." Dahlia observed as he stumbled around like a foal trying to stand after birth. She stepped back as he fell on his knees, shoulders heaving as he tried to slow his breath. "The more you fight it, the worse you'll feel."

Gritting his teeth, his fangs coming out against his will, veins protruding in his forehead and neck, Damon climbed to his feet although each time he moved he was hit with severe dizziness and cramps.

This was feeling like a mistake. The feeling doubled when he was punched under his seventh rib.

The bone fractured. An uppercut put Damon on his back. Whatever was attacking him was fast.

Another vampire?

Pulling his lips back to his teeth, he sharpened his senses still at his disposal. His sense of smell. Damon's nostrils twitched, yet he couldn't pick up anything. Smoke from the fire was masking whoever Dahlia had brought with her. If she had brought someone or something else. Nevertheless, he crouched for the next attack. The minutest of sounds exploded in his ears, but alarmingly the decibel of it grew quieter and quieter until he heard nothing at all.

That witch is doing everything in her power to make sure I lose this fight, Damon seethed.

Heat, no flames came down across his back. He cursed loud and long, spinning on his feet and swinging, his fist connecting with nothing but air.

He was down on his knees pouring sweat, huffing for every breath, which stilled when he felt something with a wet snout breathing on him.

Damon's blood went cold.

Distraction. Caroline said she needed to keep distracted so she wouldn't worry about Damon. So they had made a trip off campus to gather supplies for their night of being bonafide couch potatoes.

"There's a ritual tonight."

Twin suns blinked at Caroline. "A ritual? What kind of ritual?"

Caroline cracked open a beer and took a sip, "During the last week of finals, the seniors gather at the founder's statute and leave a token there for prosperity in their future job prospects. The SGA president makes a speech, so does Miss Whitmore—which I am totally running for when it's time—and then everyone sings the school's anthem. It sounds corny, but it's tradition. Do you want to go?"

"We're not seniors," Bonnie pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's open for anyone to attend. Not all the seniors do it, obviously, yet it's rumored that those who've left an item behind have gone on to be wildly successful in their field. So are we going?"

"But we were going to Netflix and chill." Bonnie pouted, waving her hands towards the bags of junk food they procured from a convenience store. "All right. Let's go. I can add it to my very short list of positive college experiences."

Cheering, they quickly left the dorm and hoofed across campus where a nice sized crowd had already gathered.

It was just as Caroline described. Scores of seniors had gathered leaving Mardi Gras beads, flowers, and notebooks around the statute of Fitzgerald Whitmore, the founder. Someone had even left bags of ramen and a can of tuna.

Once the speeches and song was done, the ritual turned into an impromptu party. Someone had shown up with a keg and cups. Music began pouring from somewhere.

Hopefully campus security would look the other way.

Armed with their own cups, Bonnie and Caroline found themselves sitting on top of a picnic table.

"I realized something," said Bonnie.

"What did you realize?"

"I realized I haven't had a true summer vacation in over three years. Think about it. The summer before our senior year I was shipped off to my relatives in Texas where I pretty much had to do chores from sunup to sundown. Then, the summer after that I was dead, and the one after that I was dead and stuck in a dark dimension," Bonnie guffawed incredulously.

Caroline's lips twitch. No truer words had been spoken.

"This summer I'm alive, and I don't want to spend it cooped up in a house learning spells, and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Grimoires are portable. I can bring them with me."

"So what are you suggesting? A road trip?"

"When the boyfriend is away, the cat will play. Yep, I want to go on a road trip, and I want you to come with me."

Caroline felt her blood beginning to pump with the possibilities, however. "Where were you thinking of going? Virginia Beach, Miami, New York?"

Bonnie hedged, "I haven't figured it out yet, but you'll be the first to know."

"Awesome. Count me in."

Rising, Bonnie walked a few paces to toss her beer can into a nearby trashcan. Retracing her steps to the bench she saw a dark haired girl talking with Caroline. Her steps slowed as her heart pounded. It wasn't Elena, yet if you glanced quickly you might think it was. The girl was shorter than Elena, and her hair was longer, reminding Bonnie that Elena had slashed off her hair and now rocked a bob.

By the time she reached them the girl had walked away.

"Who was that?" she asked, retaking her perch.

Caroline shrugged and sipped her drink. "I don't know. She was looking for her friend. Someone else I don't know," she laughed.

Bonnie looked over her shoulder. The girl was long gone, but the feeling she left behind…