Summary: AU universe where a war is brewing between vampires and werewolves. Caroline searches for a missing Tyler Lockwood and find herself in the middle of mystery with another vampire shadowing her footsteps.

A/N: This is somewhere between where Tyler leaves Mystic falls in season 3 and Alaric dies.

Touched

Prologue

They still lay under the tranquil sky; limbs laced together, neither one wanting to break the spell. The cover of the night persuaded her to stay. He tells her he wants to stay like this forever, content and warm in each other's embrace, while the darkness is softened only by the light of the moon. Her sigh is soft enough for him to miss, maybe it was the post coital high but her silence betrayed nothing of her slight irritation to his whimsically spirited optimism and she idly wondered whether they should put on their clothes now and head back home.

Tyler had bouts of perceptiveness every now and then...Caroline was sure he could probably tell that she wasn't going to gush over his new found naivety, and didn't press for an affirmation from her, because they both knew his hybrid transformation had a part to play in the lack of tense pessimism, very much like a vampire on a happy pill.

Once upon a time she would have been thrilled to hear that from a boy's mouth, maybe when she'd been human, but now, after she'd died and become everything hunted in this world, her expectations had watered down into something more realistic with an edge of bitterness.

'Hey, are you okay?' He asks, eyebrow rising in concern and she tries to assemble her face into a mask of something close to the sort of contentment he was talking about.

'I'm fine, just thinking about Alaric...' She answers somewhat truthfully, there was too much going on in her mind to talk about, her boyfriend paused mid snuggle raising himself on his elbow, 'Whoa, you really know how to put a guy down Caroline'. She pulled him back; the warmth of their embrace was the best part of the night and she wasn't ready for it to end just yet.

'Not like that, you know what i mean...he looked out for all of us when needed it and now he's facing this body jacking crazy bitch, and neither of us can do anything for him...' Other than wait for the inevitable grim reality of him rampaging around killing more innocent people like her dad, and ultimately needing to be put down, this she didn't add though.

Tyler's shoulders shrugged against her in a nonchalant manner, 'That sucks, but It is what it is Care... you can't always have what you want...'

The almost negligent, shrug of shoulder's from him bothered her, but she chose not to comment on her building worries of his dwindling compassion right then 'Really? You're going to quote show quire tunes to me?' she asked him incredulously, wanting to say more but, knowing the resulting argument would just be an argument, with lack of direction. Besides, it's not what they needed right now.

Well, it wasn't what she needed right now. This particular argument could be tackled another night.

'I'm just saying stop taking the weight of the world on your shoulders, there's only so much you can do' he says trying to come across as well meaning and she understands his interpretation a little. Something, raw sadness maybe, touches the back of her throat at the idea that one of them would eventually have to put Alaric down forever and, it might be her. The idea felt justified in the face of his confession about killing her dad.

She wanted to tell Tyler but, felt an invisible restraint mouthing it to him. Because neither of them had the luxury to be judgemental, they had all killed someone.

Did it make it wrong for her to be resentful of Alaric's life just because of her father, she hadn't had to face a situation like this before and lately all her friends had been busy with crises after crises.

She looked into Tyler's probing gaze, finding herself immediately softening, the lost look on his face always brought her out of the worst thoughts 'I know, I just wish...people in my life would stop dying...'. She isn't tearful and Tyler's silence doesn't bother her as much as the earlier shrug of shoulders because his face conveys enough promises of comfort, and it restores her faith in his inherent goodness.

She wants to forget about Alaric and sleep under the stars with him tightly wrapped around her but they are interrupted by a visitor.

Stefan. Looking every bit dark and detached in the moonlight an odd contrast to their nakedness. Tyler scrambles for his jeans with a few mutters of 'What is with you people...?' reflecting her thoughts exactly, which she didn't voice because they were outside in the woods, where everyone could see them and it all had been Tyler's own idea.

Ordinarily Stefan would at least be amused at their expense if he discovered them on a casual stroll in the woods at night, which this didn't look like because his observation of Tyler putting on his clothes was a clinical and grim one.

The tensed clenching jaw either meant he disapproved of their rendezvous in the woods like this or that something was very wrong. He was looking at her with a strange mixture of disappointment and sadness, she held her breath asking 'Stefan, What's wrong?...'

The sudden bout of terror that tickled her spine greatly distracted her from the fact that she had no clothes on and he could probably see allot of her even in the dark, but she didn't care...he held out his jacket to her as she slowly got to her feet 'Who's dead?'

As her hand gravitated automatically towards his jacket, Tyler chose this moment to recover his chivalry and be childish at the same time. 'It's okay, she can have mine...' Stefan's eyes didn't change nor did he acknowledge Tyler's presence, someone had dead. Oh god. Who else?

She wanted to tell Tyler to shut up for a minute, maybe insult Stefan over his inadvertent self invitation to their privacy but neither things seemed appropriate in this wildly inappropriate situation. Tyler was already behind her cementing his jacket over her shoulder's as if in declaration. Stefan's eyebrow didn't quite quirk he just gave her a hard look, which she was unable to decipher.

He turned around and started walking away from both of them with a declaration of his own.

'Alaric's dead, let's go...' the breath she was holding, whooshed out of her, she might have felt like collapsing in her lovers arms but his strong grip on her shoulders gave her a gentle boost of courage, enough to find her clothes and put them on anyway.

Her eyes met with Tyler's, serenity of the clear night sky ruined forever with tragedy, they followed Stefan silently.

Chapter 1

It repulsed her, what she called friendship and loyalty had been reduced to a mess of conflicted morals and confused silences. They sat across from each other, sipping blood from expensive looking crystal glasses, while she stood between them sputtering like a centre point with her arms crossed defensively, ready to wreak havoc.

'You're saying you're not going to help me...'

The question hung in the air long enough to have become the doomed answer. Both Salvatore brothers looked remarkably alike in their expressions, Adamant in their decision to be as unhelpful as possible. Her own indignation was noted and summarily passed over, so she flipped to frustration trying to come up with something scathing to shame and motivate them at the same time.

Her downfall was, the words didn't come immediately. An inexplicable amount of shame and undesirable thoughts of vamp-icide circled in her mind. Shame because of the fact that both brothers felt they could tell her 'not' to do something about her missing boyfriend, and that made her mad enough to break both their necks even if they would come back to life.

Damon just took it as his cue to give her his mean quote of the day, 'We're saying that we're not going to go looking for trouble, it's better for ...everyone, so stop with the nagging, Blondie... he's probably just hooking up with some low maintenance hybrid as we fight.'

There was a flash of subdued anger from her, promptly ignored by him, 'Oh gee, thanks that makes me feel a whole lot better Damon.' He raised his glass to her in salute. Stefan remained silent, contemplating the fireplace.

The callousness they displayed to her cause was far too maddening to ignore, she didn't bother to crowd them any further with protests that would only be as ridiculed as much as anything else that came out of her mouth but punched a couple of holes in their expensively decorated walls before leaving the boarding house.

The full moon shone brightly out of malice for her mood as she waited in the shadows thinking whether Tyler Lockwood was rampaging as a werewolf or holed up somewhere looking at the moon with the same longing she felt for his arms around her, holding her tight, making her feel like she was a normal eighteen year old girl in love for the first time.

Well, ok second time.

Just as she raised one bloody wrist to examine the damage to her knuckles she felt a movement behind her and turned ready to snarl or attack anything. It was just Stefan, lounging comfortably on a light pole with a wry smile on his face that said 'dramatic much?' with uncommon grace she only remembered when he took her with him on hunts in the beginning after being turned into a vampire.

'Ok?...' he asked nodding to her wrists, she grunted a response and stood trying to look intimidating in his presence. He wasn't exactly saving kittens these days, after his internship in evil with Klaus his friendly side had become almost nonexistent, he gave an air of someone on the edge of revenge, constantly plotting. They rarely saw each other unless there was a Klaus-Elena problem, but there were times when she felt a certain bond with him. Maybe it was just because he helped her adjust to her transformation as a vampire. But she still felt like he owed her guidance over all matters concerning supernatural friends and enemies.

She wasn't even sure why she bothered seeking him out or his guidance, it's not as if she could trust his judgement. It was prejudiced at best. Yet, her heart leapt at the thought that her damning blows to his walls had been some kind of wakeup call, calling out his loyalty to her and his promise of protecting her, always, but he crossed his arms across his chest in that guarded way she was well wary of when he was about to say something she wouldn't like and her heart sank multitudes low in her chest.

'Don't do anything stupid Caroline...we can't afford it right now.'

She turned away trying to absorb her anger at him, something she lacked natural aptitude at, but she managed to channel it 'I thought the new Stefan was supposed to be all bad ass and skimpy when it came to caution?' His sense of humour still seemed to be functioning because the amused smile at her expense was not moving her at all.

She'd forgotten about his recent glaring lack of optimism in all things right.

'Damon's got a point...'

Even though the tone was tentative, she felt a bit too defensive to indulge him.

'Which is what...only go looking for trouble if Elena is missing!'

She expected a guilt ridden pause when she pointed out hypocrisy at his end, because they both knew Stefan and Damon would have torn half the world apart looking for Elena if she had been missing for more than a minute. But Tyler had been missing for weeks now.

'You know what we're facing Caroline, with Klaus and the war.', She snorted at which he gave her a reprimanding look.

Yes the war, the stupid inconsequential war between vampires and were wolfs, which was being stirred up by Klaus. And all this because of Elena's precious blood and Damon's unholy alliance with her, nobody was allowed to scratch the surface of the approaching battle, which was imminent in the next few months; lest someone attacks and harms a hair on fair Elena's head. As far as she saw it, someone would always try to hurt or hunt Elena for her blood unless she bit the eternal dust, or disappeared from Virginia completely.

If being politically correct kept Damon and Stefan from consummating their doomed relationship with her friend and deteriorating her soul...well, she would gladly take a step back. But she would be damned if she let Tyler become collateral in their tug of war.

And all she got for asking help is talk of trouble and stupidity. Caroline still felt the need to be sarcastic, partly because she knew Stefan would swallow her sarcasm without going sour or violent like Damon, or at least she knew that about him when they used to be friends.

There was a short pause, but it was only to hide the becoming look of some hidden bitterness that he felt necessary to show her. Every time she showed some initiative towards the Tyler situation, her vampire mentor seemed to drift into a judgemental zone of his own.

She went for the emotional tact.

'I care about him just like you care about Elena ...i mean you know loving? Caring? Remember how that feels...just because your currently acting soulless doesn't mean the rest of us follow suit!'

She could tell she had touched a nerve, nicked the complacent exterior slightly. The tone was definitely less humorous.

'It's not the same...Elena and me are different, you don't have half the problems she's facing' he says darkly, while she suppresses an urge to rip off a tree branch and throw it at him.

'What's that supposed to mean... just because everyone isn't knocking my door down to kill me doesn't mean our love isn't..?' he didn't let her finish, 'Because, he threw you in with the wolves before and... He's got the attention span of a fly...' the warning in her glare was ignored by him as he landed the last of his verbal blows 'You have no idea of whether he cares about you the way you do, you can't make all your decisions based on emotions' that shut her up.

This was a new low even for Stefan. He didn't seem to care that he was being mean, and Damon mean at that, but ever the observant he noticed her mood take a turn for worse.

'I'm just making a casual observation...Caroline whatever you're thinking of doing, is not a good idea.'

She wondered if they had some untapped telepathic connection because he could always tell what was on her mind before she blurted it out and he wasn't even her sire. It was hard to ascertain what drove her up the wall more, his lack of friendly depth or his perception of her relationship with Tyler Lockwood.

Never to take a verbal lashing lying down she rose to the challenge, 'First, don't talk down to me Stefan..' she paused long enough to see whether her reprieve shamed him, it didn't, she continued without losing most of the vital confidence that had spurned from his opinions, 'Second, the wolf torture thing happened a while back and I'm over it ...third, I didn't come here to ask for your permission... or Damon's'

The need to make that clear was dire, they had to know she did not need nor want their superfluous handling skills to manhandle a problem for her. She could find Tyler and face any related danger on her own. Her knuckles had healed; some dried blood was the only evidence of the flurry of anger she had unleashed on the Salvatore brothers walls.

She offered no further reasons for her determination to find Tyler and turned to leave Stefan's company. If love and loyalty were not enough for him to relate to her cause then he truly had lost all touch with his humanity. How sad, that his connection to humanity was as fragile and dependent on three little words, 'turn it off'.

Stefan was suddenly in front of her blocking her way, his expression an odd mixture of regret and relief. Relief, that she accepted his lack of sympathy to her cause? Maybe but she hadn't shown any inclination that she was okay with him being so easily hypocritical and indifferent to her only chance of having an eternal happily ever after.

His glare could have cracked a glacier 'Yeah, you made that pretty clear ...you don't even know if he's really missing Caroline, this could get you killed or worse...and I'm only saying this to you for your own good.' He said with intimate warning again, eyes slightly softer. She knew he was hinting at her last meeting with werewolf's and what they did to her but like she told him then she was a big girl, she could handle herself with a bunch of were wolfs.

'I'll take my chances...just stay out of my way.' A shrug from her broke the intensity he seemed intent on displaying, His eyes looked skyward disappointed, he let her pass without a parting comment and she left his company disappointedly at that, mindful of his warning about Tyler's attention span and her impending run ins with anymore werewolf's.

Caroline's mother stood in her doorway disapprovingly; her mouth drew a tight line of silent frustration; Frustration at her daughter, for not being completely honest about what was going on in her life lately. She had been furiously packing for the last twenty minutes trying in vain not to avoid the in depth questions from the sheriff. She would tell her mother she was going to go looking for Tyler Lockwood but had a bad feeling she there would be a world of 'are you insane?' and 'does he even love you?' logic to defend and she didn't much feel the need to explain her motives despite the way she and Tyler had parted company with each other.

He had been in throes of his sire bond, compelled to be by Klaus's side. And she had been morally against this negative kink in his personality which led to too many disagreements between them.

She provided an ultimatum and he made a run for it, professing their relationship was too intense to handle at the moment.

When she had relayed this to Bonnie in a fit of vodka shots and grumpy snarls full of man bashing quotes she had brought up an interesting question that had not occurred to her when Tyler told her he was going away for a while 'So, Are you two over..?'

Caroline had paused in mid demand for more vodka and looked at Bonnie blankly unable to confirm or deny her friend's conclusion to her love story. And that was the uneven end of the rope for her.

'So is anyone else coming with you to this witch hunt?...'

Caroline took a deep breath trying to will away the nagging feeling that Tyler Lockwood didn't want to be found and turned from her bag to look at her mother brightly, 'Nope, I'm supposed to do this alone mum...top secret spy stuff.' there was a thoughtful nod from her mother and for a moment she felt bad lying to her like this. But it was for the best, the less she knew the more questions she could allude from her friends and the Salvatore's in case they came looking for Caroline.

Her packing was efficient and minimal unsure of how long she would be away, powdered wolfs bane and some silver bullets made most of her bag, her mother handed her one of her smaller guns for the bullets. She wasn't even sure where to start looking first. The Lockwood mansion and Tyler's room might give some clues to his whereabouts.

She could always ask Bonnie to do a locator spell but there was already too much going on in her friend's lives that had to do with supernatural and she just could not bring herself to chase Bonnie down and have her do another physically and mentally debilitating spell on her behalf. Besides, Bonnie might be tempted to tell Elena and Elena being Elena might go to the Salvatore brothers demanding them to overlook Caroline's little mission, Which would only entail chaos and bodies in the usual chaotic order.

Her mother's voice brought her out of the bloody train of thoughts 'What about if you get in trouble or if you need help, who should I call?'

Bag slung over shoulder, phone in her hand she paused mid walk out the door 'Stefan would know what to do...in case you miss two or three calls from me' she added cautiously, they didn't hug, her mother was suspicious of her mysterious mission and she was bursting at the seams to spill her list of doubts.

Caroline cursed; Tyler Lockwood's window was locked. She could get in using her elbow to shatter the window but that would defeat the purpose of her trying to be conspicuous in the face of any lurking dangers. Someone could be watching her in case they were also looking for Tyler.

Because of the war brewing between Vampires and werewolves each was snatching up soldiers for their own defences and as far as she knew both sides were in minority. A hybrid like Tyler would be worth a hundred a vampires to Klaus or anyone else looking to use him against Vampires.

Something just told her he was in trouble. He'd called the first few weeks trying to talk to her, reason with her. She'd been too despondent with anger over his non committal attitude to respond to his attempts to win her back. His sire bond threatened any feelings of love between them from permanently settling.

And then the calls had stopped just like that. The next morning while she sat by her phone before going to a crises meeting her phone had neglected to ring, the several romantic messages that tested her patience just stopped coming. At first, she thought he might have given up on her and shacked up with some wolf chippie in the mountains. But as the anger dissolved week by week, worry took precedence over any lingering resentment; something told her he would at least leave her a parting 'screw you' text if he'd really moved on.

The Lockwood mansion was gloomy and silent at this time of night, a startling difference from the times loud, vibrant parties were thrown in the mansion. She couldn't detect his mother's presence or the delicate perfume she always wore.

Tyler's room was strangely immaculate, like he's never been in it. There was nothing that showed he had lived here for the last eighteen years. Wiped clean, was something that came to mind. His room had been stripped bare of all things related to him. For someone saying he was going on a small hiatus from his life, allot of his things were missing. Except for a dark jacket hanging over his desk chair like it was awaiting her arrival.

Yes, she had been in his room for reasons other than a mind blowing romp every now and then, enough to know that most of Tyler's personal touches were missing. It was as if he was gone for good, Caroline's shoulders sagged with a hollow disappointment, already she felt like she would not like what she found if she continued on this journey.

What if Tyler didn't want to be found? Her eyes pressed together as she struggled to erase the thought, the only problem was it didn't sound ridiculous enough to be impossible. Stefan's dumb theory on Tyler's attention span reprimanded her sharply to give in, but she refused to believe it, just because Stefan had suggested it, and because she'd sat down on Tyler's bed momentarily, inhaling his salty musk from the covers, as a redeeming reminder of his loving embrace, too loving to have been only a thinly disguised summer fling for either of them.

It took two to tango; she had to believe that he had some degree of feeling for her that at least resembled love and god help her if he really had moved on with some giggly moron, she would tear both him and Stefan limb from limb.

She'd been absently holding onto his jacket stroking the material as if it would give her answers to the conflicting questions in her mind. There were some lingering vestiges of her perfume and Tyler's cologne emanating from it, her heart quickened as she remembered him wearing the same jacket the last time they were together ...in the woods.

Caroline had slipped her arms into the material, trying to magically forge a connection to Tyler and his whereabouts, but woman's intuition didn't quite strike as immediately as she hoped, and for a fleeting moment she considered knocking on Bonnie's door with his jacket, and then quickly decided against it; she had to do this alone...for now. It was best for everyone like Damon said.

Something about the jacket draped on the chair in the open like this bothered her when the rest of his things weren't here. It almost felt like a message, she rummaged through the pockets and felt a hard rectangle in one of them. The expectation for it to be a written note of his location was overwhelming but when she pulled it out, it only turned out to be a white card with a number scrawled in black.

It was an out of town number, and she braced herself, nervously punching the numbers on her phone. There were six rings and then a mellow voice spoke at the other end.

'Blue hive...Do you have an invitation?'

Caroline stumbled for a minute, she wasn't sure how to respond to that, they didn't even introduce themselves, there were no background noises that confirmed nor denied Tyler Lockwood's presence and she sensed introducing herself would not be the best idea, so she went along with it for a lack of better ideas ,'Um, yes I have an invitation.' after a pause she added for better measure, 'I'm a hybrid'

The voice at the other end didn't pause nor ask her to clarify anything, 'Blue hive is in Summit, look for a glass pyramid with a security gate around it and bring the card.' the line dropped.

Caroline coped by slipping under Tyler's bedcovers for the night preparing for a long trip out of town.