"Where did Tyler go?" asks Elena as Alaric walks in. They all look around but Tyler is nowhere to be seen, none of them having seen him slip out.
"Tyler was here?" asks Alaric. Elena nodded.
"Does he know about Jeremy?" Alaric asks.
Stefan realises something is going on. "Yes," he answers, frowning. "He came in while we were discussing ways of getting Jeremy back."
Alaric lets out a few choice words, making everyone look at him, stunned.
"He's gone after Jeremy." He says grabbing a few things from his bag. He looks up at Damon, Stefan and Caroline. "I take it you can track him."
They all nod. Damon speaks up. "How is Tyler going to track Jeremy if we can't? Whoever has Jeremy has done a very good job of masking their scents. It's like Jeremy has disappeared off the face of the planet."
Alaric closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He decides that he will tell them the truth – it's the only way to save both boys' lives.
"Tyler doesn't need Jeremy's scent to track him. He has an internal "GPS". He could find Jeremy in either form, blind and in the middle of a snow storm."
Stefan looks at Alaric, understanding dawning. He had also read Mason Lockwood's journal. "But that kind of tracking only works on..."
Alaric and Stefan look at each other in silence. Stefan raises his eyebrows questioningly and Alaric just nods.
Bonnie can't handle the silence. "That kind of tracking only works on what?" she asks.
"Stefan?" Elena asks grabbing his arm.
Stefan turns to face her, not knowing how his girlfriend will react to this revelation about her brother's life. "That type of internal tracking will only work on ONE person in Tyler's life." He stops, unable to think of a proper way to say it. As usual Damon comes to the rescue.
"His mate!" Damon announces dramatically. Everyone freezes, processing this information. Elena looks first at Stefan and then at Alaric.
"Jenna found out a couple of months ago. They don't know that we know."
"Well then how can you both be sure that they are." Elena looks around at the three vampires. "Maybe his sense of smell is just better than yours. You all say that he's a lot stronger than Mason Lockwood was."
"It's not!" Damon says a mock look of hurt and indignation on his face.
Alaric looks down at his feet. "Jenna saw them. Tyler had come over to watch movies and play Xbox. She had gone to bed but had woken up later, hungry. When she went downstairs..." Alaric cleared his throat, uncomfortable. "She found them kissing."
Caroline got impatient. "Can we maybe pick this up later? Tyler is probably halfway to Jeremy already. And he's alone. If the three of us don't move we won't be able to catch up to him before he gets there." She looks out of the window. "Not to mention that it's full moon tonight." She looked at her watch. "He's probably close to shifting."
After what seemed like hours of fighting, the three vampires of Mystic Falls, with the help of its sole werewolf occupant, managed to kill or scare off the offending kidnappers.
Jeremy was lying under a tree, unconscious. Tyler was lying next to him (in wolf form), his head resting on Jeremy's chest. Blood was oozing from the wolf's nose and one ear, and he had suffered broken ribs and what looked like a broken front leg. Stefan, Damon and Caroline kept their distance, not wanting to tempt fate. Tyler might turn on them for two reasons: He was injured, and he was protecting his mate, who was also injured. But they stayed, waiting for Tyler to shift back and for Jeremy to regain consciousness.
They only had to wait a half hour. With the sound of bones snapping (a sound that still made Caroline shiver), Tyler retook his human shape and pulled himself back over to Jeremy. The way he held his right arm, it was obviously broken, and blood was flowing from his ear and nose. But he ignored the pain and injuries as he shook Jeremy, trying to get him to wake up.
"Jeremy?" he called, shaking Jeremy's shoulder. "Wake up." He shook Jeremy again, harder. Caroline and Stefan came over. Stefan managed to get Tyler away from Jeremy so that Caroline could check on him. "No, leave me alone!" Tyler protested.
"He'll be fine, Tyler." Stefan told him. "We can hear his heart beat strong and his breathing is regular. He just got knocked out at some stage. He'll be fine, except for a very sore head." Stefan re-assured Tyler, leading him away to have a look at his injuries. "You on the other hand, I'm not so sure about."
They sat on a log and Stefan had to rebrake Tyler's arm due to the fact that it had started healing in the wrong position. It turned out his ribs had already healed, correctly, at least and the bleeding from his ears and nose seemed to have stopped, as well. Stefan handed him some clothes that Caroline had thought to bring with and waited for him to change before the two of them went back to where Jeremy was lying.
Tyler growled when he saw Caroline pushing Jeremy's hair out of his face. She immediately got up and Tyler sat down in her place. "J, you have to wake up, now!" he whispered, not caring that, even though the three had moved off, they could still hear him. "J!" he raised his voice, shaking Jeremy's shoulder. Tears started seeping through his closed eyelids; Tyler's heart feeling like someone was squeezing it. He bent down and kissed Jeremy on the lips. Nothing – no response at all.
"I love you, Jackass!" he whispered, resting his head on Jeremy's chest and listening to his heartbeat.
"That's... my... line..." came the weak reply. Tyler's head snapped up and he looked into Jeremy's brown eyes.
"J?" Jeremy wrapped his arms around Tyler's shoulders and held him. Caroline came over and helped Tyler up. Jeremy noticed his arm strapped to his chest.
"You're hurt!" He totally ignored his own injuries as Stefan helped him up.
"Of course, Fido here decided to barrel in after you without waiting for backup or figuring out a plan." Damon admonished. "He could have gotten himself killed – he almost did."
Jeremy just looked at Tyler and managed a smile. Stefan tried to leave him to stand on his own, but he almost fell over from dizziness when he tried to walk. And his head was killing him. They all got into the car and were soon back at the Salvatore's house. Elena and Alaric and Bonnie were very pleased to see both boys alive. By the time they had reached the house, Tyler's arm had already healed but was really stiff.
Jeremy said he was really tired and wanted to get some sleep. Elena took Jeremy up to the bathroom to shower and settle him into one of the guest bedrooms. Caroline offered to help Tyler but he said he was ok. Apart from a headache all his injuries were completely healed and he was fine. After showering and dressing in some spare clothes that Stefan had lent him, he knocked on the door to Jeremy's room. Elena turned from where she was hugging her brother. It was weird, how they looked so alike, even though they were technically cousins, not brother and sister.
Elena wanted to say something, send Tyler away. But Jeremy spoke up first. "Hey, man. Come on in." Jeremy stepped away from Elena and turned to face Tyler. Elena looked from one boy to another and could see the way they looked at each other. Jeremy's face lit up whenever Tyler was near. And he blushed slightly because Tyler was looking at him. Tyler had an intense look on his face and it didn't take Elena long to realise Tyler was looking possessive. He considered Jeremy to be his. But she also saw love – intense love. Elena knew then, looking at Tyler's face, that he would protect her brother with every fibre in his being.
Mumbling an apology that neither of them heard, Elena made her way out of the room and closed the door behind her. As the door clicked shut, Tyler turned to look at it, frowning. "She looked a little nervous." He said turning back to Jeremy. He could only stare. Jeremy only had a pair of sweat pants on, his chest bare and still glistening from having just gotten out of the shower. His hair, slightly longer because it was wet, hung to just above his shoulders.
Jeremy looked down at his feet before looking up again and meeting Tyler's intense stare. "Apparently they all know... about us." He said softly. Seeing Tyler's confused look, he explained. "When you just left to... come after me," Jeremy felt a heat rising in him at the thought that Tyler had risked everything to come for him. "Alaric told them about your ability to track your... mate." Jeremy blushed. "That I was the one person on the planet that you didn't need a scent to track."
Tyler just looked at his feet, not knowing what to say.
"Is that true? I'm the only one you can track that way?" Jeremy almost whispered, afraid that Tyler would deny it. He didn't.
"I can sense you in either form. I would be able to walk right up to you in a crowd even if I was blindfolded. My uncle Mason called it his internal GPS. And distance isn't a factor. Even if I was on the other side of the world, I would still know where you are."
Tyler had walked over to where Jeremy stood while he spoke. Tyler's words had made the heat rising in Jeremy even worse and the younger boy was having trouble breathing, especially considering the fact that Tyler was standing so close.
Jeremy closed his eyes and sucked in a breath as Tyler reached out and placed one hand of Jeremy's waist while threading his other hand in the boy's hair, pulling him towards him. Jeremy dropped his hands to rest on Tyler's waist, his fingers digging painfully into Tyler's skin as Tyler's kiss got deeper and more urgent.
Jeremy walked backwards towards the bed, never breaking his hold on Tyler. Tyler broke the kiss when Jeremy hit the bed and sat down. He looked down at Jeremy and smiled, pulling his hands through Jeremy's still wet hair. He was going to make this kid his, tonight. This would be the first time, as up till now they had done nothing other than kiss and touch. He's mine, thought Tyler to himself. Always.
Jeremy closed his eyes at the feel of Tyler's hands in his hair. An idea formed in his head and it was almost a feeling of... instinct that took a hold him. He reached up and pulled Tyler down to kneel on the floor in front of him. Jeremy kissed Tyler passionately before grabbing Tyler's left arm and sinking his teeth into the flesh just below the shoulder. Tyler cried out from pain, although that quickly faded. Tyler was breathing heavily, his right hand locked in Jeremy's hair. Jeremy sucked on the bite wound for a while, actually drinking Tyler's blood. He released his hold and looked at Tyler's face, licking blood from his lips as he smiled possessively.
Tyler's eyes were a bright golden colour. The look on Jeremy's face would be burned into Tyler's memory for eternity. Smiling he kissed his lover... his mate, and then reciprocated Jeremy's gesture. Gripping Jeremy's left arm, Tyler sank his teeth into the flesh and tasted his blood. He was satisfied to hear Jeremy cry out. He tightened his grip and bit down harder, feeling Jeremy's right hand dig into the skin of Tyler's back, drawing blood.
Tyler came up for air, and licking his lips clean of Jeremy's blood, pushed Jeremy onto his back and lay over him. Jeremy's chocolate brown eyes, stared into Tyler's golden yellow ones for what seemed like hours.
"You're mine!" Tyler growled possessively.
"Always!" Jeremy promised.
Jeremy woke up the next morning to find Tyler's arms wrapped around him. His left arm itched and when he looked, found the fresh scars from Tyler's bite. The memories from last night came flooding back. How he and Tyler had marked each other as their own. This was a sign to other pack members as well as outside packs that Tyler and Jeremy were mates.
Jeremy could feel the heat rising in his cheeks (as well as the rest of him) as he remembered what had happened afterwards. He and Tyler had made love for the first time... and the second... and the third... and... Jeremy was spared the parade of memories when Tyler stirred and stretched, waking up.