Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

71. Three Of A Kind

As much as Riley wanted to pump her mother with hundreds of questions about the super-secret society 'Augustine', there were more pressing issues to attend to. To quote Damon directly, there was a 'situation of the doppelganger variety'.

She entered the Salvatore house without knocking, shutting the door firmly behind her as she spotted Damon.

"You summoned?"

He smirked as he answered. "Long story short: Silas has promised to do a spell to bring Bonnie back from the Other Side. Unfortunately, he's taking his sweet time coming back to Mystic Falls, so we were hoping that maybe you could use your psychic link-"

Riley cut him off, shaking her head. "First of all, the only time that I've ever been able to use the link is when Silas is channeling me, second of all I'm not even sure that I am a 'psychic' and thirdly, and I can't stress this enough, Silas is a psychopath that isn't gonna help us."

Damon tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.

"Silas is the only way that we can get Bonnie back," he reminded her. He'd never expected himself to care so much about the witch. But that witch happened to be his girlfriend's best friend, and she had also become a friend of his. He'd do whatever it took to bring her back. "So against my better judgement, I'm choosing to jump on the 'Elena Gilbert' train of thought in believing that everyone has goodness in them. Are you gonna help or not?"

Riley rolled her eyes. She'd spent enough time with Silas to know that he was selfish, and shady, and always had a hidden agenda. She refused to believe that there was a part of him that wanted to help them for nothing in return.

"I want Bonnie back as much as everyone else does, you know that," she reminded him. "And if I could channel the guy, I would. But I can't."

Walking towards her, Damon picked up a stack of papers from the coffee table and handed them to her. She looked at them, to see that they all held information about different types of channeling. The first was from a website called 'Mystical Blaze' that claimed channeling was similar to meditation. She looked up at her best friend with skepticism written all over her face.

"So let me get this straight, you want me to... meditate until I can figure out Silas' location?"

Damon shrugged. "This is how normal people channel. And you're already a step ahead."

She looked at him for a second, then groaned and sat on the couch with her legs crossed. Damon followed, watching her.

"Bonnie Bennett," she said under her breath. "Only for you."

They sat in complete silence. After Riley got over the ridiculousness of the situation, she really tried. Clearing her mind, she allowed Silas to become her sole thought. She expected to feel something – a change in her body, or in her mind, but there was nothing. She opened her eyes, expecting to find Damon sitting opposite her as he had just been, when instead, she saw herself on a bus. Glancing around frantically, she could see Silas sitting across from her, staring out of the window.

When she closed her eyes and opened them again, she was back in the room.

"Well?" Damon asked hopefully.

"He's on a bus," Riley answered in disbelief. She couldn't believe that it had actually worked – that she'd managed to see anything without him channeling her. "Definitely not in Mystic Falls. If he is planning to come back, it's gonna take him a while."

Damon smiled. "Great. We'll get him back here, he'll resurrect Bonnie, and everything will go back to normal."

Riley mirrored his smile, before remembering his earlier message. "Wait, what did that have to do with doppelgangers?"