Written long before Caroline and Elena (and Abby, obviously) became vampires.

"I'm going to kill you someday."

"I know."

"You don't seem alarmed."

She slits an eye open to look at him. "Should I be?" He's not telling her anything that hasn't already crossed her mind.

Keeping company with vampires is dangerous business. Keeping company with this particular vampire includes occasional threats that involve fire, but today the more combative aspects of their relationship have been kept in check. It's a perfect spring day with that peculiar blend of warm and cool in the air; it lead them to the woods to enjoy the sunshine alone together, because keeping company with this particular vampire also includes kisses.

Damon's grin is slow and lazy. Eyes closed, he turns his face a bit more toward the sun. Bonnie snorts softly, amused.

"You don't think I'm serious?" Damon asks.

He feels the need to remind Bonnie occasionally that even in the midst of what's come to be a fulfilling relationship, he's constantly thinking about taking her life. Rather, taking this life and replacing it with something he repeatedly assures her is better.

"Oh, I'm sure you're serious." Bonnie rolls over on her side to face him, hands tucked under her head.

"Damn straight, Little Bennett. I'm very serious." He's been amusing himself lately by trying out an assortment of nicknames for her. "Little Bennett" makes Bonnie sound like a character out of Jane Austen. She kind of likes it.

He's flat on his back, arms loose at his sides, his long legs crossed at the ankles. Eyes closed against the bright sunlight, he's wearing the ghost of a smile. Bonnie watches Damon sun himself while she thinks about his statement.

"Okay, Corvo, when is this going to happen?" she asks, her voice soft. They've gone back and forth about it, and when she's asked before, it's been in a teasing, mocking way. She's been playing along. Now though, Bonnie's genuinely curious.

Damon turns to look at her. He still seems relaxed, but all traces of his lazy-day stupor are gone. He rolls onto his side to mirror Bonnie's position before he speaks. "You want to know?"

As though she's talking to herself, Bonnie says softly. "You'll want to do it while I'm still young, obviously." She's watching his face. "I'm thinking...another year or two, if that long." Damon gives nothing away, just watches Bonnie as she puzzles it out. "Stefan's going to turn Elena." It's not a question.

"I don't know," Damon answers, but Bonnie's not buying it. She lifts an eyebrow and waits, and Damon looks up at the trees before he responds. "I think so, yes. They have a Love For the Ages, didn't you know that? I'm sure you've heard about it ad nauseum. I certainly have."

Bonnie's looking at him more closely now. "You're over her," she says. Again, it's not a question.

"Bons, I was over Elena a long time ago. Well, I was never over her-" Bonnie kicks at his ankles, but Damon grins and moves his feet swiftly out of the way. "If she hadn't looked like Katherine...honestly, I never would have been interested." With exaggerated ennui he adds, "I was bored; it was something to do to piss Stefan off."

It's not the complete truth and Bonnie knows it, but she lets that one slide. "So," she continues, "Stefan's going to turn Elena. You're going to turn me."

"You're going to be something," Damon says, and there's an unspoken ...and I can't wait in his voice. "You're going to be fucking amazing."

"What you're planning and what I'm planning may be two very different things," she reminds him. "Don't forget, I'm not just another meal. I'll fight back." She knows that he hasn't forgotten that she can take care of herself. She's growing more powerful practically by the day.

"If you were just another meal, we wouldn't be here right now. I would, but you? Not so much." He looks and sounds angry. "You've never been just another meal, witch."

Bonnie reaches out to lightly rub a finger over Damon's lower lip. "Teasing," she says softly. "Mostly."

Damon doesn't look amused, but when he bites down on her finger, she barely feels it. He doesn't break the skin.

"It's not nice to tease a vampire," Damon says, his voice low. "It's really fucking dangerous to tease a vampire." His eyes flash to add an extra layer of menace to the statement. It's the kind of display that might have frightened Bonnie at one time, but she knows now that Damon's pretty much wrapped around the finger he's just pretended to bite. She leans forward to kiss him softly.

"It's not nice to tease a witch, either," she whispers against his mouth, and she feels it curve into a smile. She leans back, watches Damon's face again as she formulates her next question.

"Has anyone ever turned a witch?" she asks. "Is it possible?" Another thought occurs to Bonnie, one she doesn't like. "Wait...would I keep my powers?" Even after everything that's happened, the trouble, the heartache and loss, Bonnie loves being a witch and wouldn't trade if for anything.

"The New Orleans witches will love you," Damon promises, avoiding her question. "We'll go to Europe," he says, and pulls her close. There's an evil gleam in his eye. "You will absolutely freak the Romanian witches right the fuck out," he grins. "Rome, Paris...I'll have Carlo open the summer house," he muses. Bonnie's smiling indulgently, waiting for the joke. Damon looks at her curiously. "What?"

"A summer house in Rome? Paris?" Bonnie says, playing along.

"Actually, it's in Monte Carlo. We have an apartment in Paris; well, an apartment building, and there's the little villa in Rome..."

Bonnie looks at Damon with dawning comprehension, barely registering his amused expression.

"We died one hundred and fifty years ago," Damon reminds her. "Even if our bank accounts had remained untouched, drawing interest, Stefan and I would be," he snorts, "disgustingly rich. But with the right investments over the years-"

"I-" Bonnie's mouth is suddenly dry.

Of course the Salvatores have money. Lots of it. It never crossed her mind because she and her friends never think about money, their families are well off. Damon and Stefan live in an old boarding house full of old things, and seem as comfortable as anyone else she knows.

And then Bonnie suddenly thinks: they live in a very large house filled with antiques, situated on several desirable acres. One of several houses around the world, she now knows. Probably all filled with antiques, all desirable properties. She blinks: Oh.

"You've heard the saying 'more money than God'?" Damon says. "Well, the guy who has more money than God would come to us for a loan."

Bonnie is sure that somewhere beyond the veil, her great-great-great-grandmother Emily, a servant and former slave, is spinning with pleasure at this turn of events. She wonders if this is what Emily set in motion all those years ago, if she'd foreseen this vampire-witch alliance, this Damon-Bonnie alliance. It's a good thing Bonnie's already on the ground, or she'd have sat down hard in sudden surprise.

"Uhm, okay, you have tons of money, we're going overseas," Bonnie says, hoping to get back to their earlier topic. "You know other witches. Has anyone ever been turned?" He's very quiet. "No, then," Bonnie says.

"A couple of times that I know of," Damon says. He doesn't look at her when he speaks. "A couple of times that someone tried."

"And failed," Bonnie finishes for him. "Dead witch," she says flatly. "Really dead."

"Yeah."

Why can't a witch become a vampire? Can supernatural beings only exist in one state at a time, one or the other, no hybrids? Disappointment is sharp and sour in her stomach, like red-hot needles tipped with acid. She hadn't been in love with the idea of becoming a vampire, but the thought of years and years ahead with Damon - with Damon, Elena and Stefan - had been...thrilling. Until it was no longer a possibility, Bonnie hadn't realized just how much she'd considered it.

"So, knowing that it probably won't work, you're going to try anyway?" Bonnie asks. "What if I don't want you to?"

"I've always said that I'd kill you someday," Damon reminds her softly.

A shiver runs down Bonnie's spine. She has to whisper around the lump in her throat. "That's not funny."

"No, it's not," Damon agrees. His arms tighten around her briefly. "I'm going to try because you're mine." He says it with that fierceness he gets when other men look at her. "The world's a big place, and there are a lot of vampires and witches in it. Just because two sires tried and failed doesn't mean it's never been done."

If anyone could turn her by sheer force of will, it would be Damon.

They're quiet again. Then, "Do you want to know when?" Damon asks, lips brushing against Bonnie's ear.

"No," Bonnie says. She shakes her head. "No."

He always says he's going to kill her, but Bonnie knows now that what he really means is, I love you.