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Chapter Fifty-Four - Stefanie Salvatore

Present day

Mystic Falls, VA

Stef's eyes fluttered open.

Her neck ached as she turned it, facing forward, a low pendant light hanging above her.

Something was different. Where was she?

She felt drained. Her head rolled back to the side and she blinked slowly, surveying her surroundings through heavy eyelids. Wood beam ceiling, sage green walls, walnut furnishings, rows of bottles on display behind a counter that was dotted with red-cushioned bar stools. She wasn't immediately panicked. She knew this room; felt the vague recollection of her family in the back of her mind. Memories came to her, even though she was sure they weren't the ones she needed.

First, there was the renovation. Her father talked about little else for months, dominating the dinner table with lengthy descriptions of paint colors and rewiring, and how some high school cockroach he'd hired to hold the light fittings failed at keeping himself steady, fell from the stepladder, and yanked one of the hanging lights from its chain.

She returned her gaze to the light fixture. It was the one above her now.

Three chain links too short.

Then there was the grand opening, the day after Valentine's Day, the big reveal of calling the bar Saint Joe's in memory of her uncle Stefan. Only a few understood why. It was supposed to open on the thirteenth, but her father had been babysitting for Bonnie. Stef suspected that had something to do with Phoenix since her dad would only serve him tomato juice all evening. Phoenix hated tomato juice. The only reason her dad had invited him at all was because her parents combined the opening with a surprise celebration for Stef, congratulating her for getting into Oxford. Oh, and because her mother nagged him until he did.

There were memories here. Comforting memories.

But the emptiness and silence of the room was eerie, and her short-term memory fared no better. She had no idea why she was here. She certainly wasn't where she'd thought she'd be. The room she last remembered had something to do with Gabe. One of his safe houses? It was all so hazy; so easy to be wrong. Perhaps she'd dreamt it. Pushing herself up and onto her elbows, she realized how weak she felt. Her joints ached. They never normally ached, not unless she'd had a severe injury, and even then, it never lasted long. Her head was heavy, her thoughts muddled. Had she been drinking? Even if she had, it would have taken a lot of alcohol to make her feel this rough.

Two voices could be heard coming closer from behind a closed door. The door opened. The voices started getting louder, drifting down the corridor.

"If they're not dead by now, something's gone wrong."

Cristian?

"Did you find the talisman?"

Talisman?

Lorraine!

Stef quickly lowered herself back down to the table and closed her eyes, just before the two entered the room. It took that terrifying prompt for her to remember everything. Cristian and Lorraine working together. Lorraine poisoning her with her blood. Being unable to fight, unable to use her magic. Her powers, her speed, her strength: all gone. She tried to generate them again, tried to feel the familiar waves of energy course through her. But there was nothing. Not so much as a spark of power.

"She doesn't have the talisman on her." Cristian approached the table, scanning Stef carefully for any signs of alertness. Finding none, he turned back to Lorraine. "If they were dead, the transition would have startled her awake. We need to find them both. Did you take the items, like I said?"