(2) Just Magic (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Fifty-Four

Bonnie glances around Damon's bedroom. This isn't exactly somewhere she expected to be. Nor was sitting on his bed with Cassandra. But here she is. Cassandra pulls her hair back from her face and ties it up. Bonnie frowns a little and then looks at Cassandra.

"Why is Elena not here again?" Bonnie asks her.

"We're fighting" Cassandra answers and turns to the bedside table to pick up the moonstone.

"Fighting?" Bonnie counters and frowns. "But you and Elena never fight, what's going on?"

"She tried to kill me" Cassandra points out. Bonnie gives her a look.

"Don't be dramatic" Bonnie scolds slightly.

"Oh, no, not dramatic, that is basically what she did, and the more I think about it, the angrier I get about it...." She holds out the moonstone to Bonnie. "Do you want this or not?" Bonnie takes the stone from her.

"What did she do?" Bonnie asks her, she has no idea what happened, and she feels like Cassandra isn't being dramatic here.

"I'm not going to ask you to pick sides" Cassandra assures her. Not answering her. She doesn't want to talk about it right now. "I just can't be around her" She shrugs a little. "Now that you've got that back" Cassandra points at the stone. "What are you gonna do with it?" Bonnie looks at her, aware that she's avoiding the Elena issue. But if Cassandra wants to talk about the moonstone, then fine. She can do that to help her friend take her mind off of whatever is going on.

"Right now, it's what is binding the Sun and the Moon Curse" Bonnie reminds her. "If I can figure out a way to remove the spell from the stone, the stone becomes useless"

"And according to Katherine, Klaus becomes vengeful" Cassandra points out with a small eye roll.

"Maybe. If he finds out" Bonnie adds, they share a look and Cassandra nods. "Look, weird as this is going to sound, I'm agreeing with Damon on this one. We're not gonna let you get used in some creepy sacrifice ritual" Cassandra smiles at her softly.

"As long as we all come out the other side, with all fingers and toes, then I will go along with anything you guys come up with" She offers.

"You are a lot more agreeable" Bonnie mumbles. "Elena was much more vocal against this..."

"Well, she does seem determined to kill us both" Cassandra adds and then climbs from the bed to grab her boots.

"Look, whatever happened, when you're ready, you can talk to me" Bonnie assures her. Cassandra nods a little and then watches her leave, passing Damon on his way in. He raises an eyebrow at Bonnie before he turns to his girlfriend.

"Hand over go down without incident?" He teases, she smirks and nods, sitting on the edge of the bed to pull on her shoes.

"It went fine" She assures him. He looks down at her boots and cocks his head.

"Are we going somewhere?" He asks, she stands and moves closer to him.

"Ally and I are spending some time together" She answers. "She's going to help me with my powers..."

"What's wrong with them?" He asks with a worried frown.

"Nothing" She assures him with a chuckle. "But Ally said with practice I will stop getting nosebleeds and headaches and stuff, she also thinks my yoga might help me, she wants to see if we can't....weave my powers into it..." Damon nods a little. "To help me boost them"

"More power more good, right?" He asks and pokes her nose, she nods. "And Elena is still on the no-fly list?" He adds her, she shoots him a look. "Just checking how we feel about her today" He kisses her head and then her cheek before pulling back.

"How's Stefan?" She asks him, he drops onto the bed and lets out a breath.

"Saintly" He answers. She raises an eyebrow at him. "He wouldn't take the blood because it would mean sharing it with her" Cassandra hums a little, listening to him as she grabs her jacket from her bag to pull it on. "Don't strain anything today" He warns her, she turns to him. "We're going out tonight" She gives him a surprised look and raises an eyebrow. "Couldn't find a Mexican place close enough but I did find a very nice Spanish place. I know it's not the same but..."

"It's perfect" She assures him. The fact that he is going about this without provocation means he's thinking about it, about her. That means a lot. "Anywhere would be perfect right now" He nods in agreement. 

"So later you will go home, get all dressed up and I will pick you up at eight, on the dot..." He winks at her and she nods with a smile. She feels better already about today.

..........

Ally and Cassandra make their way through the woods. Ally wanted them to find somewhere quiet and without eyes to use their powers without worry. It's only fair. There is not enough room at the boarding house for them to really go at it but out here. Ally hums to herself thinking about something. Something Cassandra had asked her.

"I once threw an elephant" Ally admits, Cassandra looks at her, surprised. Ally nods, she is telling the truth. "What about you?" Ally asks. "Biggest thing you've ever thrown?" Cassandra lets out a breath as she thinks but she's not thrown anything that big really. People. Books. Doors.

"A car, but" Cassandra stops and then shakes her head. "It was in a dream"

"A car should be easy for you" Ally scolds. "Especially at your age"

"At my age?" Cassandra counters. "I'm only 17"

"Yeah, and by the time I was 14, I was using my powers every day to do pretty much everything" Ally argues. "I milked the cows, fed the chickens, groomed the horses...whilst I sat and read from inside the house"

"I just got them" Cassandra reminds her. "Like less than a year ago and you admitted that you had magic as well..."

"So you are a late bloomer, I can work with that..." Ally adds and hops up onto a fallen tree to walk along it. She then chuckles away to herself. Cassandra looks up at her. "My father, he used to show me these little tricks" Ally starts. "Little magic tricks....he used to make me laugh with them, little parchment birds that flew around the kitchen...I miss them" She holds out her hand and watches as her red mist forms a little bird that flies around her hand. She waves her hand through it and it disappears. Cassandra tucks her hands into her jacket pocket.

"So your dad had magic too?" She asks.

"He did" Ally answers. "It's where I got it from....my magic, it was different to his though. More chaotic....more powerful. More dangerous. He used to try and protect me from it" She looks down sadly. "I got upset one day, I was young, still a child...I was...I was angry because Katerina was given a new doll and I wasn't...it was unfair anger. Our other sister had accidentally broken Katerina's first doll, and this new one was simply a replacement....but I was a child and all I saw was this brand new shiny pretty dolly...and I wanted it. I wanted it so bad that when my father sat me down and told me why Katerina got the doll...I just..." She shakes her head. "I set fire to the barn with a single thought, poof...it went up.....all the horses died....the stable boy....our cat" Ally looks down at Cassandra. "My father sat me down and tried to warn me of the dangers of that magic. He was right, of course, it was born of my darkest emotions. Anger. Sadness. Pain. Jealousy." She snorts and shrugs. "Be lucky you did not inherit the magic...." She hops down and back to Cassandra's side.

"Do you miss it?" Cassandra asks her, Ally nods.

"Every single day, Kiddo" She admits sadly and then nudges Cassandra.