"How many does that make?" asked Elena.
"Including this one, 12," answered Alaric, shaving the last one down.
"And you still don't know where Damon is or who has him?" asked Elena.
"No, I've checked around, can't find a trace of him, and short of asking one of the Originals, I doubt we'll find out," said Stefan, getting himself a drink.
"Then why don't we?" asked Elena.
"Because we don't want them finding out about the stakes too soon. The longer they don't know about them, the better our chances will be of taking them out," Stefan explained.
"And how would asking about Damon do that?" asked Elena, feeling miffed.
Suddenly, Caroline burst through the Salvatore's front door "Tyler's back, and he's no longer sired, thank God, I was getting tired of that bastard controlling him, but we still need to keep it a secret, which is just as annoying, if you can believe it," she said, walking by Stefan, stealing his drink with a quick thanks and downing it before plopping down on the couch, acting exhausted.
"Sure, help yourself," Stefan said amusedly, getting another.
"That's great Caroline," said Elena, less than enthusiastic.
"What's wrong?" asked Caroline.
"We still don't know where Damon is," said Alaric.
"Then why don't we just ask one of them?" asked Caroline.
"That's what I said," said Elena, throwing her hands up.
"Don't look at me, I'm with them," said Alaric when Stefan turned towards him for support.
"The minute we go over there and start asking questions, they're going to know something's up. We're talking about 1000-year-old vampires here, don't you think they've gotten pretty good at reading people," said Stefan, growing frustrated.
"But we're only asking about Damon," said Elena.
"Damon, who was caught trying to get white oak, and if we ask where he is and how we can get him back, they may find themselves eager to ask us questions about the incident. We should count our blessings they're not already doing that, and I for one am not eager to remind them," said Stefan, not understanding what they don't get. Have they forgotten they can be compelled, vervain or not, one can be drained, not to mention Niklaus has banned Elena from drinking it, so it doesn't interfere in the creation of more hybrids.
"I can get Tyler to find out," offered Caroline.
"Caroline you're brilliant," Elena grinned, hugging the happy blonde, "Let's do that."
Stefan could only sigh and hope Niklaus didn't get the urge to seek them out once he was reminded of Damon's actions. They've been lucky so far, as he was distracted by his mother's and older brother's recent disappearances.
Especially since there was always the possibility that they didn't have him, Damon was always a wild card, who knows what he's doing, though he did believe he wouldn't stray far from Elena, no matter how much that fact irritated him, a principle that Damon was all too willing to act on.
"Where's Bonnie?" asked Caroline.
"I don't know, I think she's been at home trying to figure out more of that witchcraft stuff," said Elena.
"Hold on, can't she cast a locator spell or something?" asked Caroline.
"You know how she feels about Damon, I don't want to put her in that position unless we have to," said Elena.
"Well, you can't really blame her, the guy is a grade-A jerk," said Caroline, putting it mildly.
"Caroline," Elena said indignantly.
"What? Don't tell me you forgot what he did to me, not to mention all the other horrible things he's done," said Caroline unapologetic. She may have mostly gotten over it because of how hot he was, and sort of understood now that she was a vampire, but it didn't change what he did to her, treating her like some blood bimbo.
"He's changed Care, he's not that guy anymore," argued Elena unconvincingly.
Stefan does his best not to say anything. He's kept his brother's dirty secrets this long; why stop now? Plus, he had his own dirty laundry he didn't want anyone to know about, that Damon would spill in a heartbeat should he cross him. Admittedly, nowhere near as bad though, in his mind at least.
"Fine, so Tyler it is," said Caroline since she had already offered.
"Thanks, Care," said Elena appreciatively.
.
Bonnie was walking through town when Kol showed up.
"Hello darling," said Kol merrily.
"Oh, it's you," she said uncaringly.
"Good job hiding how happy you are to see me, wouldn't want the others to find out, now would we?" Kol joked.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Speaking of, should you be talking to me out in the open like this? I thought you wanted to keep this secret from your brother."
"Ah, but here's the thing, me not talking to witches would be just as suspicious," said Kol, brushing away her concerns. His impatience getting the better of him, though he made sure none of Klaus's usual eyes were around to rat him out.
"While I can see you being some sort of magic whore with the way you prattle on about it, somehow I don't believe that," said Bonnie.
"You wound me, and here I thought we were getting along swimmingly," he quipped.
"What do you want?" she asked exhaustedly.
"I managed to get my hands on the diamond, and now it's time I uphold my end of the bargain and help you to realize your full magical potential," he said.
"And you needed to tell me that now?" she asked, unimpressed.
He grinned, "Are you always this feisty?"
"Only towards killers," she retorted, wiping the grin off his face.
"Is everything alright here?" asked Jeremy, coming from the other way.
"Everything's fine Jer, he was just leaving," said Bonnie quickly, seeing the dangerous glint in Kol's eyes upon being interrupted by the arrival of Elena's little brother.
"Right, till next time," said Kol, taking his leave, not wanting to push Bonnie too far.
"What did he want?" asked Jeremy.
"Same thing as everybody else," said Bonnie bitterly, "Magic," she sighed, seeing his questioning gaze.
"Do you know what for?" asked Jeremy, intrigued.
"Does it matter?" she snapped, then felt bad seeing his hurt expression. "Sorry, look, I need to go. I need a break from all of this. See you around, Jer."
"I understand. For what it's worth, I feel the same way... Ah, see ya later," said Jeremy when she wouldn't stop for further conversation.
.
Staying the night at her Gram's house, Bonnie opened the door to that familiar stupid grin.
She frowned, "How'd you find me?"
"Never left," said Kol.
Ignoring the stalker vibes, she invited him in through gritted teeth, "Come in."
"Don't mind if I do... New place?" asked Kol, checking the place out.
"This was my Gram's house," was all she was willing to explain.
"And where is she?" asked Kol without thinking, wishing to converse only to immediately regret it.
"Dead," said Bonnie flatly.
"Ah, my condolences," said Kol, feeling stupid.
"Are you going to start teaching me, or not? I thought you wanted help putting Klaus down," said Bonnie, annoyed.
"That's the plan, but we're missing one ingredient, and you aren't near ready enough to cast it. This spell requires finesse, skill, and a witch powerful enough to see it through. Hence, I will teach you," Kol explained.
Bonnie's brows furrowed, "And what's the ingredient we're missing?"
"All in due time luv. First, I will teach you the necessary fundamentals it seems you lack, and when you get that down, we'll move on to Kemiya, a special form of witchcraft pivotal to creating the object that will see Klaus shoved into a box of his own," said Kol.
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