Free of family

7

Bonnie and Alexis rushed to the Caroline and Elena at the Lockwood party. They sat down on the bench.
"Okay, so there's an identification spell in Bonnie's grimoire." Alexis said.
"It should be able to tell us what magic affected the necklace." Bonnie took out her grimoire.
"Why is it any time the three of you get together, there's something going on? You guys attract more trouble than anyone and that's coming from me."
"Witch, vampire and doppelgänger." Bonnie pointed out. "It's not like things are going to be sunshine's and daisies." She sighed. "Okay it's going to take a while, so tell me if anyone's coming." She said, opening the grimoire.
"So you're not, like, switching Salvatores, are you?" Caroline said after a short moment of silence.
"What?"
"Caroline..." Bonnie groaned.
"Stay focused." Caroline chided and turned back to Elena. "As your friend who worries for you daily, what is the deal with you and Damon?"
"There is no deal. He's been just as focused on finding Stefan as I have."
"So you're saying you spent the entire summer with a super hot Damon and all you did was search for Stefan?" Alexis leaned forward.
"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying. Damon does care about Stefan and we both just want him home."
"Yeah, but that doesn't make him any less Damon." Caroline added. "If my own father, who I love dearly, can't change me- no one's changing Damon. Not even you."
"Look, why are we even talking about this?"
"Hey guys." The girls looked to Bonnie and saw the necklace levitating.
"What are you doing?" Caroline asked
"I'm not doing anything."
"It has its own magic." Alexis realised.
"That makes no sense. Ark said it belonged to a witch, but she's dead." Bonnie said. "It shouldn't have any magic."
"Try Ark. Maybe he knows more." Caroline said and Alexis nodded.
"Good idea, but let's not include me in the conversation. I mean last time he found out I was on the scooby wagon he sent me to hell for the summer."
"I thought you had fun?"
"For the first week, sure. After that it got boring quick and Ruby was trying to make it a normal summer. There is no such thing as normal when it comes to a decades-long family feud especially with witches in the family. But she managed it." Alexis sighed. "So, Bonnie, you call Ark and I'll look for more about the necklace in my grimoires."
"Sure." Bonnie handed the necklace over.
"I'll text you guys if I find anything." Alexis stood and hurried off. She walked through the mansion to head out through the front door when she bumped into Jeremy.
"Hey." He caught her arm, pulling her back towards him.
"Hey." She smiled.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Elena's necklace was going haywire so I'm going to try see what's up with it."
"What about Bonnie?"
"She's going to go talk to Ark and see if he knows anything about it."
"Okay, you come with me." He said, and led her out. "So what's wrong with Elena's necklace?"
"Uh, it burned her, and then there were sparks, and just now at the Lockwood place it levitated."
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine." Alexis nodded. "Would you like to help?"
"Yeah." He said. "Put me to work."
"I need privacy."
"My house is empty."
"Okay. I'll meet you there."
"Where are you going?"
"I gotta get some grimoires." She said, and leaned over, planting a kiss on his lips. "See you." She said and walked away.

She managed to sneak into her house using a silencing spell and get the grimoires she needed, before heading to meet Jeremy at his house.
"Okay, tell me if you see anything in these grimoires that involves precious metals or a symbol that resembles a necklace." Alexis said, sitting on the floor of his bedroom surrounded by grimoires and candles.
"Wait, can't you just ask all the dead witches you were channeling?" He asked.
"I don't have access to them anymore. They cut me off."
"Since when?" Jeremy frowned.
"Since I brought you back to life. I messed with the balance of nature and there were consequences." She softened her look and began to apologise. "Hey. I'm sorry. I know I should have told you. I just didn't want you to feel weird about it, you know?"
"Hey, no, no, look, you don't have to apologize for anything. Okay? You didn't do anything wrong." He assured, moving to sit next to her, and held her hands in his.
"Elena said you've been having kind of a hard time since then."
"No, I'm fine." He said dismissively, moving away, picking up a grimoire and sitting on the ground. "You know, just been, ah, a little out of it lately. So should I concentrate on the older books? Or, uh, I mean, how old is this necklace?"
"Super old." Alexis laughed and he grinned picking up the necklace to look at it. As soon as he did, the grimoires around them burst into flames. "Jeremy!" Alexis said horrified as the one on his lap caught on fire too, and telekinetically moved it away. "Suctus incendia!" She yelled, dousing the flames, before turning her attention to Jeremy. "Are you okay?" She crawled to him, looking for burn marks.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He promised and she hugged him.
"Thank god. I'm so sorry."
"For what?" He looked at her. "You didn't set me on fire."
"I know, but. I shouldn't have-"
"I'm okay, Lex." He said, and she nodded.
"Okay." She turned back to the half burnt grimoires. "Oh god. Xavier's gonna kill me." She started gathering the ones that were okay, and Jeremy began to help.
"I'm going to go wash my hands." He said, and headed to his bathroom as Alexis continued piling the bigger pieces of the grimoires. Soon all that was left was ash.
"Hey, Jer." Alexis walked over to his bathroom door. "There's ashes everywhere."
"I'll go grab the vacuum." He said but she shook her head.
"No no. I got it." She smiled and headed back into his room. She moved the pile of books and papers onto his desk. When she finished, Jeremy came out of the bathroom. She grinned at him but saw his solemn expression. "What is it?"
"You asked me before if something was wrong and I said no." He led her to the bed and sat her down.
"Yeah."
"That was a lie. I was lying to you. When you brought me back to life... something happened." He started. "I've been seeing ghosts."
"Ghosts?" Alexis repeated.
"Yeah."
"Who?"
"Vicki and Anna." He told her.
"The girls you dated? The ones who died?"
"Yeah."
"And this has been happening all summer?"
"Yeah."
"You're telling me you've been seeing your dead girlfriends all summer and you didn't think 'hey let me tell my living girlfriend who is a witch that I can see the dead'?"
"Lex.." He tried to grab her arm but she took a step away.
"I gotta go." She grabbed the grimoires and headed out of his room.