Summary: In 2015, The Agreement was signed by vampires and werewolves in an effort to curb their decreasing numbers at the hands of the ever-growing human Council. Peace came reluctantly and uneasily, but for five years it held until now. Caroline quickly finds herself uncovering the secrets to a centuries-long scheme that winds back to the ancient Mayan blood curse she'd thought had been put to rest ten years ago. Fighting to prevent another war between the two supernatural species and the possibility of hundreds of thousands of deaths, Caroline decides to uncover the truth for herself and put an end to the centuries-long blood feud once and for all.
Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries characters et al are obviously not mine. This is based solely on the TV-verse.
It Lies at the End of Centuries
Chapter One
It hadn't been the worst thing she'd seen in her life, but it had come pretty damn close. The stench of burning, putrid flesh filled her nose every time she forgot she stopped needing to breathe ten years ago. Her eyes still burned from the smoke, her body covered in it and covered in ash - vampiric ash - the ash of a dozen vampires who'd never quite accepted the new realities of their existence.
"Idiots."
Caroline's hand shook as she reached for the nearly empty bottle of whiskey on her kitchen counter. Choosing to forego the glass, she drank straight from the bottle. The tremors in her hand sent drops of amber liquid trailing down the sides of her mouth. She wiped them away impatiently and reached for another bottle. This time her hand was steadier, the alcohol working to calm her nerves and quell the rage she still felt simmering too close to the surface of her emotions.
Glass in hand, she slowly walked out of the kitchen and into the adjacent living room. A half moon shone bright and large in the clear night sky, illuminating a patch of faded hardwood floor. She moved to stand closer to the window before turning to gaze into the shadows in the corner. Leaning casually against the window, the set of her shoulders betrayed the tension pulsing just beneath her skin.
"I never pegged you as one to lurk in the shadows." Caroline took a long slow slip, wishing she could still feel the burn of the whiskey as it slid down her throat.
Bright blue eyes blazing, she narrowed them as Tyler stepped out of the dark and mirrored her stance. Arms crossed and shoulder pressed against the wall, he smirked as she angrily tossed back the remaining contents of her glass.
"For a second there, I was beginning to think you'd lost your touch, Forbes." He reached down to toy with the delicate lace curtains as he spoke. She'd bought them on a whim years ago, back when she still cared about things like lace curtains and pretty furniture.
"No offense, Tyler, but you reek." As comebacks went, that one was weak, but she wasn't in the proper headspace for witty banter tonight.
Tyler raised an eyebrow, "You don't exactly smell like a bouquet of roses yourself, Princess." His smirk vanished when pain flashed across her face and her shoulders dropped. Defeated, she looked defeated.
Sighing, Caroline pushed herself off the window to collapse on the couch, empty glass rolling out of her hand and onto the floor, forgotten. Her head fell forward, chin to her chest, tangled blond locks falling over her face. She didn't brush them aside this time. She needed that barrier to protect her from Tyler's piercing stare. Over the years, he'd developed an irritating ability to read her like the proverbial open book. She didn't want him to see her right now, knew he'd hate her if he discovered what was running through her mind at this very moment.
"They were idiots," Caroline whispered. Trying to keep her voice as even and empty as possible, she cleared her throat to remove the choking lump. "They were idiots and you made sure they paid for that."
"Yes."
One word and it was enough to set her blood boiling all over again.
"So they deserved to burn to death?" She wanted to scream as she rose to her feet, her voice incredulous and uneven. She wished she was still holding the glass so she could throw it at a wall, at something, at him. "How many times did you let them heal before you burned them all over again? Five? Six? Seven times?"
Her breathing was too loud in the quiet stillness of the pre-dawn hours. She could hear the light flutter of curtains as a gust of wind blew through the crack of an open window in another room. She watched, chest heaving, fists clenched tightly at her sides, fangs threatening to come out at any moment as Tyler carefully unfolded himself and took deliberate step after deliberate step towards her.
Gone was the boyish face she'd grown up with. Ten years on after triggering his own curse, Tyler bore the growing burdens of their ever present problems on an older, stronger face. She could make out the tiny crinkles at the corners of his eyes, the light furrows of his forehead that grew more pronounced as he moved closer. She was still the slight seventeen year old girl she'd been when Katherine had maliciously turned her, but he'd grown into his muscular frame; never having lost the agility of his years as an athlete and gaining the fluid grace of the animal he bore within him.
Tyler stopped mere inches away. He was just tall enough that she had to tilt her head upwards to meet his eyes. Caroline could feel the heat radiating off him. Imagined she could feel the coiled tension in every hard muscle as she watched his jaw clench tightly, his anger reigned in only by years of practiced control. A stray memory from what felt like a lifetime ago flittered through her mind – giggling behind her hand as he fidgeted like a five year old through a yoga class. She angrily pushed it away.
"You think they deserved a better death, Caroline? A nobler death, maybe." His voice was low and no longer teasing. It rubbed against her skin like course sandpaper. She wanted to put some distance between them - his heat was making her increasingly uncomfortable, making the thirst rise up in her and her fangs come ever closer to descending. But she'd never gained anything from Tyler Lockwood by backing down and it had been years since she'd given in to her primal urges.
Tyler's eyes turned a dangerous shade of dark amber when he asked, "Do you really want to play the game of Who's Suffering Was Worse right now, Caroline?" He fought the urge to growl and instead smiled nastily when Caroline's eyes narrowed a fraction. "Do you really think you'd win?"
"It wasn't your place to play judge, jury, and executioner," Caroline replied in a furious whisper. "The agreement was that we dealt with our own. We handle our own business."
"No, Caroline. The Agreement was a truce. No more petty fights over territory. No more unnecessary bloodshed. Your people broke that agreement when they came after the newly cursed two days before the full moon." Tyler tilted his head to one side, the gold in his eyes sparking dangerously like a new flame. Leaning closer until his breath burned her face, eyes never leaving hers; his words were like brands on her skin. "Or don't you remember?"
It was impossible to forget.
Centuries of animosity and war had laid the crumbling foundations of the current relationship between vampires and werewolves, but the uneasy yet stable Agreement between those of the north east corner of the country had ensured a massive lessening of bloodshed for the last five years. Ten years ago, Katherine had brought the story of the Sun and Moon curse back into Mystic Falls and with it had come the re-emergence of the centuries-long war between vampires and werewolves. Hunted to near extinction once before, the revitalised werewolf species had descended on Mystic Falls like locusts, determined to either break the curse first or not at all.
Humans, caught in the middle between the two supernatural species, had borne the brunt of their ferocious anger when breaking the curse had proven impossible for either side. The increasing body count, labelled as collateral damage by most, had attracted the attention of the Council of Mystic Falls which, unbeknownst to any of the supernatural, had developed a complex and extensive network all over the north east and had systematically and effectively begun an exhaustive underground campaign against vampires. Whereas their relatively low numbers had previously kept them under the Council's radar, the re-emergence of the werewolves as a force forced the Council to take measures to control their population as well.
Five years ago, in an effort to curb ever decreasing numbers on both sides, and cognizant of the fact that there was now an enemy to unify them, the two warring species reluctantly came together to seal The Agreement under the solar eclipse of 2015. The peace was uneasy and hard fought, but it had held, for the most part, for five years. Until a small band of rogue vampires made their growing dissent all too clear by attacking and viciously mutilating a dozen newly-cursed werewolves a couple of days before the last full moon.
Two weeks ago their two species had come a hairsbreadth away from mutual annihilation.
The carnage had been complete. Hearts had been ripped from their chests. Limbs bent at unnatural angles or torn away altogether to reveal shining bone and shredded sinew. Spines twisted in torturous arcs, necks snapped and ripped open. And there had been blood – so much blood, as if it hadn't been vampires who'd committed the unforgiveable acts. Blood had soaked in rings into the carpets. Blood spattered on the walls, congealing in the corners and dark crevices of the rooms, and in the grains of the wood furniture.
Not even the usually welcome odour of iron and the bitter smell of blood had been enough to overcome Caroline's initial horror and revulsion of the scene that had lain open before her. As a vampire, she had become accustomed to bloodshed and violence over the years – had committed a fair share of it herself – but she'd been bent over and gagging within minutes after staring in wide-eyed terror at the nightmare of that night.
Twelve newly-cursed and three werewolves had died that night, and it remained a wonder to her how their worlds had not entirely collapsed in a sweeping fury of blood rage.
Caroline closed tired eyes and tried yet again to will away the images that continued to play in a vicious cycle of repeat in her mind. They danced around behind her closed lids – first the young werewolves who'd been helpless to protect themselves against creatures of supernatural strength and malice, and then the vampires who'd begged for their lives as their skins scorched and peeled off blackened bones.
Strong hands gripped her upper arms and she hadn't realised she'd been swaying until Tyler was holding her up, apprehensive eyes searching her face. For what, she was at a loss, but she thought she saw a sliver of worry creep into his eyes alongside the flecks of gold and it was enough to have her shaking him off.
Using one ash-covered hand to brush the hair away from her face, she used the other to push Tyler away just enough to clear the air around her of his heat. To give her some room to think.
"I helped you find them, Tyler," Caroline said tiredly. She looked up at his face, avoiding his eyes. "I know what they did. I just didn't -"
"You didn't what, Caroline? You didn't think we'd get revenge for what those fucking bastards did to our own?" Tyler replied angrily. "Maybe you thought we'd give them a good scolding and then let them go running back to you and Stefan."
"Don't mock me, Tyler," she replied loudly. The fury was back. Fury was good. Fury would give her the strength she needed, but she needed to keep her voice from shaking. Her eyes hardened as she glared back into golden eyes. "I helped you find them because I thought their families deserved justice for what happened, but don't you dare act like I'm supposed to be happy that I just turned over a bunch of vampires to a pack of werewolves to be burned like rotten garbage."
Her eyes flared dangerously when Tyler opened his mouth to speak, veins beginning to creep like blackened vines around her eyes, and she took a step forward. He took a step back.
"I'm not finished," she whispered slowly. "I betrayed my people tonight. They were vile assholes and they deserved what they got, but that doesn't change that I betrayed my people." She punctuated every last word with a fist to her heart. "You act like I'm supposed to be happy about that? Like I'm supposed to rejoice that justice was served and now we can all sleep better at night? Well, fuck you, Tyler Lockwood."
Tyler was staring at her with an indecipherable expression on his face. He stood immovable. She could read the tension in his every muscle, could almost feel his blood under her skin as it raced throughout his body driven by the hard thumping of his living heart.
She was eerily calm as she finished. If her heart still beat, she imagined its rhythm would be steady and slow, matching the laziness of the slowly rising sun outside her wide windows. She could feel the stirrings of dawn in the air around her now, as she did every morning, and absently wondered if the feeling of lightness inside her was normal or if she was finally going into shock. The air between them simmered and she didn't know if it was the growing heat of day or something else entirely.
Caroline only then realised her fangs had fully descended. She took her time rearranging herself before collapsing back on the couch, letting her head fall back, unseeing eyes glued to the ceiling.
"You left before I could thank you," Tyler said quietly. There was an apology lying beneath his words; she wasn't ready to accept it yet.
"I couldn't watch," she mouthed, unsure of whether she'd spoken the words aloud.
"I know."
Silence stretched between them like a sea of unspoken utterances; his apologies, her admissions. A history of too many words they'd never said but should have lay between them. There didn't seem to be enough space in a lifetime to get to them all.
Tyler could feel the tension slowly seeping out of his bones. He'd been running on adrenaline for the past two weeks and now it felt like there was nothing left to hold him up but his own force of will. Rage had sustained him for so long. He felt himself emptying out, crashing with the exhaustion of his heightened emotions, and he wished he could collapse beside her. The ghost of her fingers ran along the nape of his neck making his skin prickle and his breath catch. He had to leave.
Caroline heard his footsteps as he walked towards her front door, felt the vibrations in the floor boards in her feet lessen as he moved further and further away. There was a stab in her chest as a memory from eight years ago that was all too similar played itself out in the back of her mind before she mustered up the energy to wash it away.
"Tyler?"
He stopped at the sound of her soft voice. Door open, he didn't turn around.
"When did we get like this? We started out wanting to make everything better. Liveable even, so we could - " Caroline stopped, breathed. "When did this become about 'people' and 'yours' and 'mine'? When did this stop being about 'us'?"
Tyler let out a heavy breath and turned to lean against the door frame, gazing at Caroline intently as she studied invisible patterns on the ceiling.
"I guess when we stopped making it about us and made it about them," he replied, voice hoarse. She finally looked at him.
Caroline nodded slowly as if she understood something he didn't. The sun glinted off parts of her hair not covered in smoky ash, highlighted the eternally pale delicacy of her skin. She was no older than him, always looked a decade younger, but sometimes, when he really looked, she carried the weight of centuries in her eyes.
He turned to leave and stopped again at the sound of her voice calling his name. Turning to face Caroline once more, she met his eyes with a gaze he thought he'd never be able to break - all blue ice and hardened steel. He saw fear in her eyes, watched it play across her features when she finally stopped trying to hide it from him, and his heart stuttered for a moment before setting a sickening pace in his chest. There wasn't much that scared Caroline these days. Hell, there wasn't much that scared any of them anymore.
"There are more of them," she whispered, her voice unwavering. Her eyes widening as she spoke, as if she could get her full meaning across to him through them alone. "Everyone thinks it's done, that we got them all and this is the last of it, but there's more to it than that. This isn't over."
Tyler swallowed and he felt a drop of sweat roll down his back, a sliver of fear race up his spine, and he fought the urge to shiver at the sensation.
"I know."
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