Try {One | Alaric Saltzman}

Masquerade

"Okay." His eyes were on hers, giving her all that he could but less than what he wanted to. "I won't let her out of my sight."

"Alright!" Stefan stood up. "If anybody wants to back out, I'll understand."

"Yeah, cold feet speak now. I don't want this going wrong if someone chicken's out." Damon looked to the left. "Caroline."

"I won't!" She looked around at their anxious expressions. "Look, she killed me. Fair's fair. As long as there's no werewolf running around."

"Damon took care of Mason," Abigail said. "And as long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn."

"Bonnie?" Stefan asked. "Are you with us?"

"I know you love Elena, and you want to be with her, but it's risky." Bonnie paused. "Too many people could get hurt."

"Look, I want Elena back, yes," Stefan explained. "But it's more than that. What Katherine did to Jenna crossed the line. She has to be stopped before it happens again."

Bonnie looked around the room as Caroline had. "I don't know, Stefan."

"Katherine knows me, right?" Stefan laid out his plan. "She knows that I'm not gonna try something in a crowd full of innocent people so that gives me an edge. I could catch her by surprise."

"And then-" Bonnie cut herself off before continuing, "I could do a spell to trap her, like the tomb spell.

"Right. We can isolate her, away from the others," Stefan confirmed. "Please Bonnie."

After a long pause, she said, "No one gets hurt."

"Except Katherine," Damon amended. "Tonight, Katherine gets a stake through her heart."

Tonight, she thought to herself once more.

A hand wrapped around Abigail's upper arm as she reached for the front door, pulling her just to the side with a sentence, "Please be careful."

"Don't worry." She was trying to reassure Alric with words, but the way she had to stop herself from reaching out for him gave her away. "If everything goes according to plan, I won't be anywhere near Katherine."

"Yeah," Alaric sighed reluctantly. "Remind me, how often does that happen around here?"

She blinked hard, expression chasing the one it should've been. "I'll be careful, Ric."

Evening gowns, suits, and masks worked around each other in flurries of color as Jeremy, Bonnie, and Abigail weaved their way through the crowd at the Lockwood Mansion. There were people everywhere, giving Katherine exactly what she wanted: a public place to wreak havoc if things didn't go her way.

Jeremy was unpacking the bag he smuggled into the Lockwood Mansion almost as soon as they locked themselves in the room he scoped out in the days before. Vervain darts, one for each of them. Stakes, to stay hidden. The grimoire, for Bonnie.

Bonnie opened to the same page she'd studied for hours that day. She looked up at them as they worked around each other, explaining what she hadn't explained to either one of them. Her voice was even, even though her expression was not, and the reasons were less than what she let on yet more than they knew. "The spell I'm doing here is similar to the one that sealed the vampires into the tomb."

"Is that the spell book from Jonathan's journal?" Jeremy asked Abigail as they placed candles around the room. "The one he-"

"Yes," Bonnie answered. "It was Emily's."

"That's so cool." Jeremy walked toward her. "I mean, you're one hundred percent witch."

"Did your family journals tell you what happened to Emily? Or what about my Grams?" Her words sank into the room, answering every single one of his unspoken questions. "It never ends well for people like me."