Riley winced as she cut her hand on the Phoenix Sword, letting the droplets of blood drip onto the map that was placed on the floor between Bonnie and Nora.
"Phesmatos invenira venatrixos isto gladulla onyx," the witch and Heretic chanted at the same time. The blood moved along the map, tracing a line to Ohio.
"Remind me again why you needed my blood to do that?" Riley asked, looking curiously at the map.
"You're connected to the stone," Nora reminded her. "The stone is connected to the sword, the sword is connected to the huntress, and the huntress is on her way here to... hunt us." She held up a postcard that she'd received. It was blank, other than a red 'X' in the center. It didn't mean anything to Riley or Bonnie, but it was enough to terrify Nora.
"Why announce herself with a cryptic postcard?" Bonnie wondered aloud. "Isn't the element of surprise a basic principle of good vampire hunting?"
"Not for Rayna Cruz," a voice said from the doorway. They all looked up to see Mary Louise watching them with a sour look on her face. "Rayna has a taste for taunting her victims."
"How do you guys even know about this Rayna Cruz person?" Riley asked.
"She used the sword to put Julian's soul in the Phoenix Stone," Nora revealed. "Along with thousands of other vampires." She looked up at her ex-girlfriend. "Did Julian get a postcard?"
Mary Louise shook her head. "I said we'd take care of the problem, for all our sakes."
"Well," Bonnie butted in. "Your vampire huntress is currently residing somewhere in Cincinnati."
Mary Louise nodded dismissively. "Let's get going, Nora. The sooner she's dead, the better."
Bonnie scoffed, raising an eyebrow at the blonde Heretic. "Do you think I just did that locator spell for a tune-up?"
Riley nodded in agreement. "We're coming with you."
Mary Louise rolled her eyes. "We're good, thanks," she said disdainfully.
"You said this person hunts vampires," Riley reminded her. "If you guys have led her here, then all of our friends are in danger, including my boyfriend and my heavily pregnant sister. We're going."
"Plus, it's not like we can trust either of you two to take her down," Bonnie told them both. She was completely in agreement with Riley – if their friends were in danger, she was gonna do whatever it took to protect them.
"And what makes you think we trust you?"
Nora looked over at them, smiling at Bonnie. "I trust them. After all, you only care about pleasing Julian. So, you can come with us, or you can go back to him empty-handed."
Mary Louise looked at her ex in disbelief, not able to hide the hurt in her eyes that was clearly Nora's intention. Bonnie looked between the two awkwardly.
"I call shotgun!"
***
The locator spell led them to a psychiatric hospital in Cincinnati.
"So, if this woman is the one who put Julian in the Hell Stone a hundred years ago, how is she still alive?" Riley asked as they walked down the halls, towards the room that one of the doctors had pointed out.
"She was spelled to be a vampire huntress by shamans," Nora said. "They created that sword for her and imbued her with extraordinary strength. "Why shouldn't they give her a very long life to go with it?"
"So do we actually have a plan here?" Bonnie asked.
"We find her, we kill her," Mary Louise answered, as if this was the only obvious answer. "Don't worry, you'll probably just watch."
Riley frowned. "You guys are so scared of this woman that a postcard with an 'X' sends you running to Cincinnati, and you think that killing her will be easy?" When Mary Louise didn't answer, she scoffed. "Maybe it's a good thing we came... otherwise she'd probably kill you."
They got to the right room and looked through the window. None of them knew what to expect, but the last thing they expected was to see an elderly woman lying in a bed with her eyes closed, looking completely docile.
"This is your vicious, terrifying, big bad Huntress?" Bonnie asked sarcastically.
Undeterred, Mary Louise walked into the room, banging the door against the wall as she did so, waking the elderly woman up with a start.
"Do I know you?" the woman asked, peering at each of the girls in turn, trying to place them.
"Well, considering you're a murderous, vampire-hunting bitch who chased us across Europe for decades... yeah, you do know us," Mary Louise said angrily.
Bonnie decided to take a calmer approach. "I'm Bonnie. That's Riley, Nora and Mary Louise."
"And we don't look familiar to you?" Nora asked, her voice as soft and comforting as Bonnie's, the complete opposite of Mary Louise's.
"I'm afraid not," the woman said, sounding genuinely sorry. "You wouldn't happen to have a cookie, would you?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes and grabbed Nora's arm, pulling her out of the room. A reluctant Mary Louise followed, while Riley decided to stay at the woman's side.
"I'm sorry about this," she said apologetically. "We came here looking for someone, and you obviously aren't her."
"I don't look like a murderous, vampire-hunting bitch to you?" the old woman smiled. Something about her smile nudged a thought in the back of Riley's brain. The word 'vampire' didn't freak her out, or confuse her. What human wasn't scared at the thought of real-life vampires?
"Do you know about this stuff?" Riley asked in a low voice. "You know, vampires, vampire hunters, the whole thing?"
Still, the woman smiled. "You don't get to be my age without picking up on a few things."
"Right," Riley said, leaning in a bit closer. "So, you've heard the name Rayna Cruz?"
This time, the woman's smile faltered, and she looked confused. "I get so mixed up with names, dear."
"OK, forget Rayna. What about the Phoenix Stone, or the Phoenix Sword?"
"I've heard of it," the woman said, face lighting up with recognition. "Why do you ask?"
Riley sighed, wondering how to ask the question without sounding insane. "Have you ever heard any stories about what people see when they're stuck inside it? You know, has anyone ever spoken about seeing a girl? Maybe one who looked a bit like me?"
She held her breath hopefully, waiting for the woman to tell her anything that could help decipher her connection with the stone.
The woman grabbed her arm tightly, her eyes piercing and dangerous. "You're on the wrong side."
Riley froze in shock. "I'm what?"
"You wouldn't happen to have a cookie, would you?" she asked again, her face completely clear, as if someone had hit the default setting on her personality. Riley just stared at her, not able to answer the question. But thankfully, her phone rang, so she didn't have to.
"Hey Stefan, give me a sec," she said, forcing a smile at the old woman and leaving the room. Bonnie was outside alone.
"Mary Louise and Nora have gone to track down the real Rayna," Bonnie told her. "I'm gonna stay with this one for a bit."
"Be careful," Riley warned. "She knows about vampires, and I think she's a bit senile."
Bonnie giggled, entering the room and shutting the door behind her, while Riley put the phone back to her ear.
"What's up?"
"Have you spoken to Damon today?" Stefan asked urgently.
"Um, no," Riley said, feeling guilty despite her anger at the situation. If she thought about Damon, then she had to think about what he'd done to Elena, and she couldn't do that. Not yet. "Why, what's wrong?"
"He's been antagonizing Julian," Stefan told her. "He's acting like he has a death wish, but I can't work out why he'd want to die."
"He feels guilty," Riley blurted out before she could stop herself. Stefan clung to this new information.
"Guilty about what?"
Riley hesitated. "Look, I can't be the one to tell you, it has to come from him," she said. "But Stefan, he did something really bad, and I don't know if he's gonna come back from that."
"Can you please talk to him?" Stefan pleaded. "I would, but I'm in the hospital with Caroline and-"
"You're in the hospital?!" Riley asked incredulously. "What's wrong? Is she okay? Where's Ric?"
"He's at a job interview in Dallas," Stefan informed her, answering the questions in reverse-order. "She's okay, but we think the babies are siphoners. They're literally siphoning the life out of her."
"OK," Riley said, immediately going into action-mode. "I'm on my way. Just... do what you can to keep Damon from killing himself until I get there. I'll talk him out of whatever he's doing, you can go be with Caroline, and then we'll swap."
As she spoke, a confused look took over her face when Enzo walked up to her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, the phone still pressed to her face.
"Where's Rayna Cruz?" he asked in an urgent hurry. The look in his eyes caused the sarcastic response that she was planning to die in her throat.
"I have no idea. But there's an old-ass lady in that room that probably knows more than she's willing to admit," she answered, hanging up on Stefan and following Enzo into the room.
To their surprise, they saw the old woman strangling Bonnie, causing her to gasp for breath. Quickly, Enzo grabbed a small knife from his pocket and threw it straight into her neck, seemingly killing her. Bonnie backed away from the woman in fear.
"I'm guessing that was Rayna Cruz after all?" Riley asked, staring at the woman that she'd been speaking to only moments before.
"Yeah," Bonnie answered, breathing heavily. "Mary Louise was right, she's a murderous bitch."
"Good to know," Riley nodded. "Look, I have to go. Have you guys got this?"
"Where are you going?" Enzo asked curiously. He knew her well enough to see how worried she was by the look on her face. "What's wrong?"
Riley sighed deeply. "My sister's babies are trying to kill her, and my idiot boyfriend is trying to kill himself." When Bonnie opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question, Riley quickly spoke over her. "It's a long story. But one that I can handle... unlike whatever the hell's going on here. Be careful, okay?"
She left quickly, before Bonnie could ask about Damon. She had no idea how he was going to tell everyone the truth, but one thing was for sure. When everyone found out what he did to Elena, there would be no turning back.
***
Like the last time they'd had to look for Damon, Riley thought that going to the Lockwood mansion would be a good place to start her search. She let herself into the house, listening quietly for any signs of life. At first she heard nothing, but then a small thud led her to Mayor Lockwood's study.
Pushing open the door slowly, she looked up to see Damon and a woman that she'd never seen before.
They were kissing.
Riley felt her feet freeze to the ground. She couldn't speak, could barely breathe. All she could do was watch as her boyfriend made out with this mysterious woman.
After a few seconds, Damon sensed someone watching them. Turning quickly, his mouth fell open.
"Fletch..."
She forced her feet to move, whirling around and going back the way she came.
"Wait!" Damon urged, vamp-running until he was standing in front of her. "Fletch, let me explain."
"Stay the hell away from me!" Riley demanded, trying to push past him.
"No, not until you hear me out."
Riley bit her wobbling lip. "There's nothing you can say, Damon. Nothing will make this better. Even if you tell me that she's another Hell Stone hallucination."
"This is because of that stone," Damon told her. "After what I did to Elena, I thought that you wouldn't want to be with me anymore. I thought we were done."
"I loved you through all the mistakes you've made!" she reminded him, her eyes stinging with the effort of keeping her tears at bay. "This isn't about the stone, this is about you! How could you do this to me, Damon?! After everything we've been through, after everything!" She hit her fists against his chest as hard as she could.
"This isn't me," Damon told her, gently taking her hands in his. "This isn't us, Fletch. I made a mistake."
"You've made a lot of mistakes, and I've forgiven you for every single one of them. But this? How could you ever expect me to forgive you for this?"
"I love you," Damon told her forcefully. "I'm a huge idiot. But you know me. You know that I would never hurt you, not like this. You're the most important person in the world to me." He put his hands on her face, wiping away her tears. "You're the love of my freaking life, Fletch."
"You don't love me," Riley told him, pushing him away. "If you loved me, you'd never have done this. If you loved me, Damon, you wouldn't have spent the day antagonizing Julian and trying to get yourself killed."
"I killed Elena!" he reminded her. "I wanted to feel pain."
"You wanted to die," Riley corrected. "You didn't care about me, or Stefan, or Bonnie, or Ric. You were selfish. Rather than take responsibility for the epic screw-up, you wanted to leave us." Her face turned into a twisted grimace. "But I guess making out with that stranger in the other room makes living worth it, right?"
She scoffed and tried to leave the house once again, but he grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him.
"I need you," he said quietly, his eyes red with unshed tears. He didn't know what came over him – he was kissing that girl before he even realized what he was doing.
Riley roughly removed herself from his grasp.
"Well I don't need you anymore, Damon," she told him, lying through her teeth. "So from now on, don't call me, don't come to see me. I don't want to deal with your mistakes, I don't want to be there for you when everything goes to crap, and when everyone finds out what you did to Elena, I won't be here to hold your hand and tell you that everything's gonna be okay." She looked down, looked anywhere but at his face.
"We're over."
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Was Riley right to dump Damon? Do you think they're over for good?
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