Night of the Hunter

By: Darkest Ember

Chapter 1: Disturbing Discovery

Dean reclined onto the motel mattress with a triumphant sigh. The world wasn't going to end. He didn't have any more demons to fight. For the first time in years he and his brother, Sam, could be normal…or at least closer to it than before.

His eyelids were starting to droop as his head sunk further into the surprisingly soft pillow. Yet he found he couldn't fall asleep just yet. The incessant sound of clicking keys echoed off the poorly wallpapered walls, hitting a nerve in the back of Dean's mind with each click.

"Dude, we're done with our job. You don't need to do any more research."

"I don't know about that," Sam replied distantly.

Dean rolled his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Just because we beat Lucifer doesn't mean that there aren't still evil things out there. I think I might be on to something…"

"Weren't you the one who hated doing this when I first came to get you from college? Weren't you the one who wanted a normal life? Now you can have that, and yet you're the one looking for some stupid excuse to deny yourself that?"

Sam bit down hard on his lower lip. He hadn't really felt like himself since the 'epic' battle of good vs. evil…since he was brought back from Hell. It felt like there was something inside of him – something that made it so hard to feel anything other than anger and hatred at times. He took a breath and turned to face his brother.

"Do you really think, after everything we've been through, that we can just ignore the fact that someone's in danger?"

To humor himself, Dean decided to take Sam's side and see what he thought was so damn bad. Or what could be better than taking a permanent vacation from the "family business."

"Okay. You're right. Now, when are you going to tell me what it is we're dealing with?"

Damon Salvatore couldn't believe his eyes. There he stood – perched on top of a roof downtown, watching his younger brother, Stefan, calmly sitting across the table from Klaus and Rebekah, who happened to be some of the Original vampires. Damon knew that there wasn't much he could do to fight Klaus' mind control over Stefan, but he thought he had made some progress. But watching this secretive meeting made him start to think otherwise.

He didn't have time to be sitting around, stalking his brother, though. Klaus' return to Mystic Falls meant one thing – Elena was in danger. He needed to go find that ancient vampire vampire-hunter, Mikael, and make a plan fast.

Mikael sat across from Elena and Damon in the gaudy Salvatore boarding house, giving her a strange look. "Why is it that you look like the vampire who awoke me?" he questioned.

Elena knew right away that he was referring to Katherine. "I'm a…doppelganger," she explained. "Which makes me the unfortunate key to all of Klaus' plans."

"I see. So," he said, redirecting his attention to Damon, "you've summoned me here to kill Klaus ahead of our original schedule."

"Well, you're the one who's wanted him dead for quite a few centuries now. Forgive me if I thought you'd want to do it as soon as possible," Damon responded, rolling his eyes as he took a lazy gulp of Bourbon. Even though this hunter – thousands of years Damon's senior – had almost killed him earlier in the week, he refused to show any sort of fear.

"For the hundredth time, I will kill Klaus, but we need it to be a private matter. This town already knows far too much."

"Well, here's the weird thing," Sam mumbled, adjusting the computer screen so Dean could see. "There were a series of gruesome murders all through the south, ending in the Smoky Mountains, where ten bodies were found, totally maimed. Then the pattern reappears in Mystic Falls, Virginia and has stayed there for a little over a week."

Dean's brows furrowed as he reached forward and clicked on one of the pictures, taken from the town's police database, which they successfully hacked into. There was blood running from the eyelids of the victims and some sort of bite mark in either the neck or wrist. Dean noted what appeared to be post-mortem signs of bruising around the neck, as if their necks were snapped.

There was one problem. It didn't look like anything they'd ever hunted before. That bothered Dean.

"Maybe this is something we need to look into," he said quietly.

The brothers were lodging in a motel near their hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. It would be a 19-hour drive, though by far not the worst that they've endured. With Dean's driving, they could probably even cut a couple hours off their total time.

"So, should we get ready to leave first thing in the morning?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "We need to stop whatever freaky shit is going on there."

And just like that, the Winchester brothers were back on the job, much to Dean's discontent. But he couldn't deny it. Something was very, very wrong in Mystic Falls.

Klaus absentmindedly stirred his drink with a straw, biting back some of the questions…some of the accusations eating away at the back of his mind as he sat with his sister and compelled comrade.

"How has the doppelganger been?" he asked casually.

Stefan shrugged. "She's been a bit defiant…trying to save me…wasting her time."

Klaus rolled his eyes. He knew that humans couldn't be that stupid. How dare she think that she could be stronger than his compulsion? Regardless, he had every intention of making her suffer for her ignorance soon enough.

"And the hybrid?" The question was directed toward Rebekah, who was much quieter than usual.

"Still alive," she muttered, avoiding his stare. Her conversation with Elena – the revelation that her very brother had murdered their mother and lied to her about it for thousands of years – still made her question her loyalty to Klaus. Quite frankly, she didn't want to be anywhere near him right now, regardless of whether or not Elena was telling the truth.

"Good. Why don't you text him and tell him to bring the doppelganger to the location we decided on. It's about time we leave this pitiful town."

Rebekah pulled out her cell phone and went through the motions of sending a text message, though no such message was sent. The way she saw it, Klaus could send his own message. She was tired of being used.

Tyler felt something compelling him to get out of bed, despite the late hour. For some reason he wanted to find Elena and bring her to the falls. The notion seemed incredibly foreign, yet for some reason he found himself getting dressed and stealing the keys to his mother's car.

Elena had gone back home instead of staying at the Salvatore boarding house. As glad as she was that Damon found Mikael, she still felt somewhat uneasy around him. And then there was the whole temptation that Damon presented. What kind of person would she be if she just fell into his arms, like both of them so desperately wanted? They were working together to save Stefan – his brother and her boyfriend…or former boyfriend.

She had used the excuse of having to fill Alaric in as her reason for leaving, but she was sure they all knew better, even if Ric did need to know what was discussed at their rendezvous.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she found Tyler sitting in the dark living room, waiting for her arrival. The house was dead silent – both Ric and Jeremy entirely out of sight.

"Tyler," she breathed. "What…what are you doing here?"

"I'm here for you, Elena." All she could see in the dimly lit room was his golden eyes and extended fangs before he lunged toward her.

In terms of both series, this occurs around the beginning of season 6 of supernatural and episode 3x08 of vampire diaries. the winchesters and salvatores will meet in the next chapter...but it will be far from a good encounter. sorry that this first chapter wasn't particularly action-packed, but it was more of an introduction to the setting of the story than anything else...just to get something out there for now lol

Reviews would be greatly appreciated ;)