Nightshade - A Bonnie Bennett Story (Vampire Diaries / The Originals)

CHAPTER ONE

I stood in the cool entry way waiting for the owner of the apartment I'd rented for the next few weeks. The woman had been incredibly pleasant on the phone, and she'd insisted upon meeting me in person with the key rather than leaving it under the welcome mat like most places.

I checked my phone for about the hundredth time to see if I had any missed messages, but found nothing. I started to contemplate taking a walk to go find something to drink when the door swung open and a woman burst through. She was taller than me, which wasn't exactly uncommon. Her wild chestnut hair framed her round face, her pale blue eyes a startling contrast to her cocoa skin. I was surprised to find she was much younger than she sounded over the phone. The apartment was prime real estate, and if I had to hazard a guess, she wasn't a day over twenty-two. Color me impressed.

"Are you Bonnie?" she asked somewhat hesitantly.

"That's me."

"Oh thank god. You're normal."

"I'm sorry?"

She laughed lightly and shook her head before explaining. "Mardi Gras brings out the crazies. I wasn't sure who I was renting to, and I learned my lesson the hard way that renting through a vacation site can be a bit of a nightmare. Come on, follow me."

I did as she asked, grabbing the handle of my suitcase and hefting it off the ground. I silently reminded myself to learn to pack lighter on my next trip. She led me up a dark, narrow staircase to the second floor. The hallway was dim, the only light coming through the maroon lace curtains covering the window at the end of the hall. She stopped at the first door, a black metal A hanging just above the glass peephole, and began digging through her huge grey messenger bag.

"Sorry for being such a pain in the ass about the key. I had a frat boy rent the place last year and it ended up trashed. Like, apocalyptic kind of trashed. Someone used my sink as a toilet and used the bathtub as a barbeque pit. Can you believe that?! I'm lucky they didn't burn the whole building to the ground. The cleaning deposit didn't even come close to covering the disaster. When he rented the apartment, I was told it was just him and a friend. It turned out to be him and what I'm guessing was his entire frat house. Several thousand dollars in renovations later, I now come by personally to confirm the situation is what I agreed to."

She finally produced a keyring with two keys on it.

"This one," she said, holding the ring up by the larger of the two keys, "goes to the apartment. The one with the pink cover goes to a storage unit two blocks over. In the storage unit, there is a bicycle and a scooter. You're welcome to use either one, just be sure to lock them up overnight."

"I might use the bike, but I have no clue how to ride a scooter."

"Oh, it's super easy. My brother lives down the hall in apartment D. If you want to learn, just knock on his door. I'll give him the heads up that you might be over." The offer was sweet, but I immediately pushed it aside. The idea of taking time out of my trip to look like an idiot in front of a complete stranger wasn't appealing.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," I replied, being polite.

"Oh my goodness, where are my manners? My name is Cassidy, Cass for short."

"Nice to meet you, Cass."

I forced a smile, and as she looked back and made eye contact, I caught a familiar twinge deep in my gut. I wondered if she could tell I was a witch as easily as I picked it up from her. It could be a little sketchy running into witches I didn't know. Some chose to keep their supernatural status a secret, a closely held secret, and they didn't take kindly to anyone who might be perceived as a threat to their anonymity. Some simply took offense to the presence of outsiders. In my travels, I'd found sometimes it's best to be upfront about it.