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Bonnie was in her new first-floor bedrooic always ht her body refused to sleep Her head hurt

She was just about to turn the bedside light on, when a familiar voice said, "How about some tea for your headache?"

"Damon?"

"I made some from Mrs Flowers’s herbs and I decided to irl?"If Bonnie had been listening closely, shebehind the light words - but she wasn’t

"Yes!"Bonnie said,it Most of Mrs Flowers’s teas srainy on her tongue

And not only was the tea good, but Damon stayed to talk to her while she drank it alThat eet of hiely, this tea made her feel not exactly sleepy, but as if she could only concentrate on one thing at a ti more relaxed?"he asked

"Yes, thank you"Weirder and weirder Even her voice sounded slow and dragging

"I wanted to make sure nobody was too hard on you for the sil y mistake about Elena,"he explained

"They weren’t, real y,"she said "Actual y everybody was ht - "Bonnie put a hand over her mouth "Oh, no! I didn’t mean to say that! I’ht It should heal by toine why anyone would be so afraid of Da of tea and say he’d put it in the sink That was good because she was feeling as if she couldn’t get up to save her life That cozy

That co?"Damon paused "I can’t tel you why, butI have to find out where Misao’s star bal is kept,"he said earnestly

"Ohthat,"Bonnie said fuzzily She giggled

"Yes, that And I a and innocentbut I know you’l tel me the truth"

After this praise and comfort, Bonnie felt she could fly "It’s been in the saust "They tried to make me think they’ddown to the root cel ar I knew they hadn’t real y"In the dark, there was a short shake of curls and then a yawn "If they were real y going to "

"Wel , maybe they were concerned for your life"

"Wha’?"Bonnie yawned again, not sure what he meant "I mean, an old, old safe with a combination? I told themthat those old safescould bereal y beeasy to to"Bonnie let out a sound like a sigh and her voice stopped

"I’lad we had this talk,"Damon murmured in the silence

There was no answer froh as it would go, he let it drift down It covered most of her face "Requiescat in pace,"Da to take thedown to the root cellar"

Da careful y and put it back in the cupboard The line sounded strange but he had almost al the links now, and it was actual y simple Al he needed were twelvecachets and two plates heaped with raw beef He had al the ingredientsbut he’d never heard of a root cel ar

Shortly thereafter, he opened the door to the basement

Nope Didn’t match the criteria for "root cel ar"he’d looked up on histhat any , Damon turned around in frustration There was an elaborately carved wooden panel across fro else

Curse it, he would not be thwarted at this point He would have his life as a vampire back, or he didn’t want any life at al !

To punctuate the sentiainst the wooden panel in front of him

The knock sounded hollow

Immediately al frustration vanished Daes at the very edge, where no sane person would expect them It wasn’t a panel but a door - undoubtedly to the root cel ar where the star bal was

It didn’t take long for his sensitive fingers - even his huers were more sensitive than most - to find a place that clicked - and then the whole door swung open He could see the stairs He tucked his parcel under one arm and descended

By the il ue room, the root cel ar was just as described: a daerators had been invented And the safe was just as Bonnie had said: an ancient, rusty combination safe, which any whiz cracker could have opened in about sixty seconds It would take Damon about six minutes, with his stethoscope (he’d heard once that you could find anything in the boardinghouse if you looked hard enough and it see on hearing the tumblers quietly click

First, however, there was the Beast to conquer Saber the black hel hound had unfolded, awake and alert from the moment the secret door had opened Undoubtedly, they had used Damon’s clothes to teach him to howl madly at his scent

But Dae of herbs and had ransacked Mrs Flowers’s kitchen to find a handful of witch hazel, a smal amount of strawberry wine, aniseed, some peppermint oil, and a few other essential oils she had in stock, sweet and sharp Mixed, this created a pungent lotion, which he had gingerly applied to hile of strong s kneas that it was surely not Da hinon - each of which he gulped dohole Damon watched with interest as the ani powder and rawon the floor