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"I’estions" Mrs Flowers sipped at her tea, holding the delicate china cup carefully "Vampires created by science are a little outsideyour use of the protection spells you already know Try to keep your friends safe"

Bonnie nodded It had been a long shot, anyway, expecting her old friend to have a suggestion But it just felt natural to coht her so ic, for advice

Since Bonnie had broken up with Zander, she’d thrown herself into trying to find a way to help Meredith and to protect them all from Jack and his minions It hadabout how e bed was

How e older and frailer than the last ti Her hand, pale and thin and spotted with age, shook as she placed her cup back on the table A little tea sloshed into the saucer

"Now tellBonnie with sharp blue eyes that were not in the least di you?"

Bonnie fumbled for a reply "Well, Meredith…"

"Not Meredith Meredith’s proble else"

Bonnie heard herself give a funny, half-choked laugh Mrs Flowers had always been able to read Bonnie’s emotions

"It’s Zander," she said, as a hot tear ran down her cheek "He’s left me"

With that, the dam broke and she burst into sobs By the time the frantic stor on the floor, her head in Mrs Flowers’s lap as the old ladynoises and stroked her hair Mrs Flowers’s dress s herself to care that she was probably staining it with tears and snot--it was a," Mrs Flowers said, and Bonnie blurted out the whole story: Zander’s strange disconnectedness and the way Bonnie had finally confronted hiarden and how Bonnie had said no, even though it broke her heart That Zander was gone now, and that Bonnie ached with loneliness without hiuard Dalcrest looked away, their faces stony, when they saw her now, and that Bonnie couldn’t blame them Of course they hated her--she’d hurt their Alpha

"But I had to," Bonnie said, sitting back on her heels and wiping her eyes "Didn’t I? I have to put hed and sat very still for aone hand on the table as she shuffled toward the living roo," she said "Wait here"

After a nized it as one she’d seen before, sitting on the raph of a handso man in uniform His dark hair was close cropped, and his eyes were pale, probably blue His face was serious, but there was a natural curve at the corners of his ested he had a sense of huainst her face again She felt exhausted and longed to just lie down on Mrs Flowers’s floor and take a nice long nap "Who is he?"

"Williaazed down at the picture, her smile soft and sad "Bill"

"Your husband?" Bonnie asked, peering at the picture with fresh interest

Mrs Flowers sighed again, a soft, almost soundless exhalation of breath, and shook her head "Not quite, although I took his naether and fell in love It felt like it was ether, knew each other so well Understood each other without having to try I thought we’d go on like that forever"

"So what happened?" Bonnie scra herself into the chair next to her ed And then he was drafted" Mrs Flowers passed a hand over her eyes "I was so afraid of losing hiet married before he went overseas, but I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t start our er And then he was killed in action I lost everything"

Bonnie gasped "I’m so sorry," she whispered

Mrs Flowers’s wise, cal to contact him from beyond the veil I wanted hi: Séances, working withand the dead, inducing visions… nothing worked Some people, when they die, pass out of our reach"

"We couldn’t reach Stefan," Bonnie said, feeling achingly sad

"Come outside with me" Mrs Flowers rose stiffly and led the way out the kitchen door into her herb garden,ht outside, and Bonnie automatically tipped her head back to feel the sun on her face Mrs Flowers led her through the winding paths of her herb garden "Let’s see what you remember," she said "Tell me about this herb bed"

"Oh U And for cooking A and protection Celandine, or sort, for happiness"

"Very good, I see you haven’t abandoned your training And the bush next to the purple flowers, each made of a round spray of thin petals "Pretty," Bonnie said "But I don’t knohat it is"

Mrs Flowers picked one of the blosso fro, she passed the flower to Bonnie, and Bonnie autoht it up to her face and sniffed It smelled clean and fresh "So for," Mrs Flowers said gently

Bonnie held the flower carefully, but her heart felt as heavy as a stone Mrs Flowers had loved her Bill, and despite everything, had lost him anyway Mimosa or not, it was hard to believe that joy could cos of groceries he carried, balancing one against his hip as he dug his key to Jas out of his pocket

A little thrill of satisfaction shot through hied keys last week, and it felt really in that they were all in, really and truly co part of each other’s lives Jasainst his, after she pressed her keys into his palh week

Jas out She’d run every test she could think of on Meredith’s blood but was still cos and thinking about how a nice dinnerthe chicken with thyive it a nice flavor And wineas he reached the top of the stairs and turned toward Jasmine’s apartment