Chapter Two

Stefan sat in the backseat quietly as Ray and Klaus carried on as if they had known each other for years. It made Stefan angry but he didn't dare to show it. Instead he just stared out the window. He thought he spotted something moving at unhumanly speeds in the shadows of the tree's but he couldn't be sure. He wondered if Klaus had seen it as well, if he had he didn't let on to it. Stefan began to wonder if this was effects of his guilt weighing in on him.

They drove for what felt like an eternity to Stefan, but in actuality it had only been about an hour and a half's drive, give or take a few minutes. Ray telling him where to turn and never questioning why he was doing this, or even if it was the right or wrong thing to do. Of course this was how it was when you were compelled by an original vampire. Stefan hoped that he'd never have to endure that. Stefan was deep in thought as Ray directed Klaus on where to park the truck. Telling him this was the point at which they'd have to get out and walk. Klaus had turned back to look at Stefan who was looking out the window. It took a few times for Klaus to repeat his name before he was drawn out of his mind. Klaus frowned, "Alright mate?" Stefan just nodded and smiled a brilliant smile. "Take the truck and hide it, then meet Ray and I just beyond the clearing." With that Klaus slid out of the truck and Ray followed loyally behind. Stefan slid into the front seat from the back and did as he was told, all the while mumbling his differences under his breath.

Katherine was thankful when the truck came to a stop. She had been running non-stop ever since they left the bar outside of Tennessee. She kept her distance and stuck to the shadows, but Stefan had spotted her a few times. She had told herself she had to be more careful. She couldn't let him see her until she absolutely sure he wasn't going to go and tell Klaus that she wasn't far behind. She suspected that Klaus was just pretending not to see her, and that he was just waiting for her to make his move, she could never be too sure when it came to the impulsive crazy hybrid. She climbed up a tree and watched as Stefan parked the truck off of the beaten path and out of view. She laughed under her breath when she heard the things he was saying as well. She wanted to let him know that this was going to be alright and she had a plan but the truth was she didn't. She sighed, Stefan and only him had this effect on her. It was dangerous, to let her feelings in. She knew that, but she couldn't help it.. not when it came to him. She closed her eyes and waited until he disappeared into the woods before she opened them again. Then she slowly climbed out of the tree and followed.

Stefan felt as if someone was following him, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He wouldn't do this to himself, not when the threat of Klaus was still this high. He'd continue to write in his journal... Stefan stopped suddenly. "My Journal!" He had forgotten to grab it before he left the parking lot. He hoped no one would find it. For if they did, they'd find what almost sounded like a horror movie. Stefan groaned and raked a hand through his dark feathered hair. How could he have forgotten the one thing that helped him keep his sanity? He shook his head, he couldn't worry about that now. He had bigger things to deal with. As he came closer to the clearing in the middle of the wooded area his sensitive ears picked up several voices. This must have been Ray's pack. He scanned through the conversations until he picked up Klaus and Ray. They weren't far, and they were talking to someone. Possibly the leader of the pack, Stefan took an educated guess. He prepared himself for what was about to happen. Then he sped off in a blur.

Klaus let Ray lead him to the center of the wooded area. When they approached the pack they were immediately greeted by a few pack members. Ray smiled a brilliant smile revealing pearly white canines. "Hey guys, I hope you don't mind, I brought a friend." He turned back to Klaus and nodded once as he stepped forward from the shadows and smiled his deadly smile. The pack members were instantly on guard. Ray soothed "It's alright, he's one of us." The leader of the pack stepped forward. "Ray, I don't know what your game is here.. but he is -not- one of us." The pack leader eyed Klaus carefully. "What do you want here? What did you do to Ray?" Klaus' eyes were dark, and laughing in the moon light. "One question at a time, mate." His eyes were taunting and had an insane gleam to them. A twig snapped beneath Stefan's feet as he appeared next to Klaus and he grinned as he drapped an arm around his shoulder. "Ah, Stefan.. there you are." He turned back to the pack, "Now that my friend, Stefan, is here we can get on with the show." The leader of the pack narrowed his eyes. "Just what are you talking about? What show?" He demanded. Klaus snapped his attention back to the wolf. "No need to get impatient mate, you will -all- learn soon what I plan to do." He nodded once at Stefan, reaching out with his mind to give him a silent order. "If anyone tries to run, kill them." Stefan's upper lip twitched in disgusted anger, but he nodded in obedience. Klaus stepped forward, "Since you are so impatient, you will be the first." With that he bite his wrist and shoved it to the wolf's lips. The man jerked back wide eyed and surprised and coughed, spitting what he could out. "What the hell?" He demanded. Klaus just smirked then snapped his neck. There was a cry from a female, and murmurs through out the pack. The second alpha male stepped forward, his fists balled up at his sides. "What the hell are you?" He growled. Klaus turned around and smiled darkly, "I'm what he will be when he wakes up. A hybrid." As he said the last part, revealing what he was he seemed to stand taller. Straightening out his spine proudly. Another wolf stepped forward. "We won't let you do this. We'll stop you." Klaus laughed the same maniacal laugh that Stefan had heard so many times before. "You couldn't stop me if you tried, besides that is why I have my friend here. To stop you from doing something stupid, mate." Stefan wondered if Klaus believed he wasn't doing anything wrong. The way he talked was as if it was the most casual thing in the world, what he was doing. A female wolf stepped forward. "Why are you doing this to us?" Klaus began to grow angry. He didn't feel he needed to justify his actions, not to anyone. He wanted comrades someone to take his families place until he could wake them again, but they didn't need to know that. He waved a hand dismissively "Don't you worry about that, love." With that he sped over to her in a blur and repeated the actions as he did with the packs leader. One by one without any warning until every wolf standing was left on the moist ground. He turned to Ray and stepped closer. "I'm sorry mate, but this is where you die now." With that he bit into his wrist again and shoved it to his lips. Ray fought back but it was effortless. Klaus just grabbed the back of his head with his free hand and pushed his wrist into his lips harder, then within a swift moment he snapped his neck. Klaus turned back to Stefan and gave him a smug, satisfied grin. Stefan wanted to hit him. Hard. "What now?" Klaus looked back to Ray, then to all the other dead bodies laying motionless on the ground. "We wait." With that he turned and walked over to a tree stump and sat down. Stefan stood there and stared into each of the motionless corpes faces. He wished he was just in a horrible dream and would wake up any minute, but he never did.

Katherine had watched the scene before her unfold with horror. Klaus was making a hybrid army. If she had this much trouble trying to kill the one hybrid what would ten to fifteen do? How could she ever pull this off? She had to come up with a plan and quick, but what? She felt helpless and that is one thing she did not like to feel. She was always the type to be in charge. In whatever it was before hand. Maybe she could enlist Damon, Stefan's brother to help her. He was strong, even stronger than Stefan because his diet wasn't that of the bunny diet Stefan had followed before Klaus came along. He was smart like her, he'd no doubt come up with a plan within an hour maybe even less. She knew she could trust him. He had been in love with her his whole existence. Even after she had told him that it had been his brother she truly loved and had always been him he still loved her. Sure, he was starting to love Elena Gilbert more than her, but she could still trust him. She thought about going back to Mystic Falls a few times, but in the end she decided not to. Thinking it was best to keep following Stefan and Klaus, hoping that her plan would just fall into her hands, as previous plans had in the past. She considered herself lucky in that department. Besides, if she had left now how would she ever find their trail again? No, she had to stay... and so stay is what she did.

Several hours later the wolves began to awake, one by one. Klaus had ordered Stefan to go into the nearby town and fetch a few human girls for his newly made 'comrades' to feed and finish the transition from wolf into a hybrid. He had returned with a handful of compelled athlete's. A group of runners he had found. Ray was the first one to awake. He felt different, and he was no longer under Klaus' compulsion but under a new spell all together. He felt hatred toward his maker but at the same time he felt loyal to do whatever was asked of him. He felt stronger, he no longer felt the pull of the moon. He looked up at the night sky, the bright shiny ball that had slaved him before, no longer held him captive. Klaus cleared his throat. "How do you feel?" Ray's gaze broke away from the moon to fall onto his maker's dark eyes. "I-I feel different." Klaus smiled. "You'll get used to it, now, drink." He pushed a blonde haired girl about in her early twenties towards him. She had piercing green eyes and olive skin. Her hair was silky smooth and her blood smelled sweet and intoxicating to him. He had never smelled something so hypnotizing to him before in his life. He grabbed a hold to the girls shoulders, he could hear her pulse rising in his ears, the flow of her blood and the pounding in her heart made him excited. The veins below his eyes started to crawl and make themselves visible. His eyes turned a dark red and his front teeth began to ache as his fangs slid out. The young girls eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of the sharp canine's in the moonlight. She shivered in his hands. His mind screamed stop, that this wasn't right but he couldn't obey his own thoughts. He craved her blood, wanted to taste her to see if she was as sweet as she smelled. She whispered, "Please... don't." Klaus waited, arms crossed over his chest and watched with a sadistic smirk curled upon his lips. Ray didn't hear the girls plea over the sound of the blood running through her veins. He pulled her closer and in a blur he struck. He dug his fangs deep into the girls neck and drank his hearts desire. He drank long, and hard. His mouth ached as the thick warm blood flowed down his throat, filling his stomach and warming his skin. He felt stronger, but as he drank he became hungrier with bloodlust, he couldn't stop himself. He felt the girls heart begin to slow and the once flowing stream became fickle. Once she was drained and limp in his arms he pulled his fangs from her neck, lifted his face to the sky and revealed a bloody face. He howled at the mooon and felt the girls blood within his own veins, it felt wild, it felt wrong and right at the same time. It made him feel invincible. Klaus threw his head back and laughed loudly. He patted Ray's back and offered up the seat on the stump as he awaited the rest of the pack's awakening.

Stefan watched silently as the pack members woke, one by one... he could feel something was off about them immediately after Ray finished his transition by feeding from the human girl he fetched along the highway. He wondered if Klaus could feel it to. After a moment he realized that in fact, he didn't. How could this be? Was it that he was too excited that he couldn't tell? Or was his mind somewhere else at the moment. Would he ever be able to tell that something was wrong with his hybrid army. He hoped that he could elude Klaus from that bit of information for as long as possible. He could only assume the reason for his hybrid's not working was because Elena was still alive, but if he found out not only would Elena be dead, but so would he and everyone he or she ever loved. That would mean Bonnie, Matt, Jeremy, Caroline, Damon and the many others that had crossed Elena's path. He could feel the pressure weighing in on his shoulders now. It felt as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his bare shoulders. He had so much to worry about. He watched cautiously as Klaus greeted his hybrids when they awoke and he tried his best to stay off to the side and out of sight. He had to think of something, and fast. He needed a plan. If Damon were here, he'd know what to do, but he had to face this alone. He couldn't bring anyone else into this. Anyone who came across Klaus' path always ended up dead, or in a world of pain. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let that happen.

Katherine watched Stefan curiously, she knew his secret, so she knew what was wrong with him. She silently chided him. If Klaus was to even spare a glance his way he'd be able to tell something was wrong in an instant. She wanted to warn Stefan that he was being stupid by brooding about this, she wanted to go to him and tell him to suck it up and push it out of his mind. He had always been kind, and caring of others. That had been something she fell in love with, but that wouldn't help him now. It would only hurt him. She didn't know how to warn him without letting Klaus know her whereabouts, so instead she just watched in silent horror and hoped that he wouldn't be able to tell. That he wouldn't look at Stefan. That he'd be too wrapped up in his precious hybrid army to notice.

Klaus had watched Stefan from the corner of his eye, and he noted the look on his face, but he was in a joyous mood and he wouldn't let Stefan or his usual brooding ways upset him. He wasn't a fool and he knew that his friend hadn't turned off his switch like he had claimed. Too many times he had found him like this. Contemplating over the kills, he had even caught him a few times isolating himself just so he could write in his journal. Klaus thought it to be a silly thing to do, but he didn't say anything. He decided to let Stefan have his little writing time alone. He remembered what his friend had told him when they first met, that he wrote the names of all his victims down in his journal, so he could go back and have some peace of mind and pray for them or do whatever it was he did, but he'd keep them somewhere that he could remind himself of the countless lives he took. It was an odd thing to do, vampires usually didn't feel remorse for what they did, but he decided that was just a Stefan Salvatore quality and he'd over look it. As the last of his hybrid's began to wake, he strode over to Stefan. "You alright, mate?" He asked deliberately. Stefan immediately stiffened and nodded. Klaus rolled his eyes annoyed that he was still brooding in a corner, but Stefan hadn't caught it. Klaus patted his back. "Cheer up, Stefan. Elena wouldn't want you to pout, would she?" He had thrown Elena in his face on purpose, he wanted to show Stefan who was in charge here. Stefan looked up and smiled again. "I don't care, what Elena would want. She isn't alive anymore, so what she wanted is irrelevant." Klaus boomed with laughter. "We'll stay here tonight, and get a move on in the morning." With that he turned and went to the last hybrid that started to sit up and look around confused.