The Vampire Diaries

It had seemed to pass in a flash, they were fine now, both sitting calmly at the table beside them, but somehow Elena felt uncomfortable, like someone had walked over her grave or one someone had cut her loose from the puppet strings in the sky. She didn't even know why she felt so affected, she hadn't been the one who'd actually gone through the fit, Tyler and Bonnie were remaining tight-lipped about what they'd felt despite Caroline's protestations which were becoming increasingly frequent and increasingly annoying.

"So were you attacked…or were you…?" she allowed the question to float away on the wind, Tyler and Bonnie were equally as stubborn as one another, and neither seemed particularly well disposed to airing their feelings. Elena felt Stefan's hand slip to her back – a comforting gesture but also a protective one, maybe as a Vampire he was more attuned to their surroundings – he could certainly sense something, Elena could see his eyes trained on the fringes of the woods – did that mean something was coming?

Bonnie shrugged, eating a mouthful of her salad.

"It was nothing."

"Normal." Affirmed Tyler, drinking some of his soda while trying to avoid Caroline's line of vision.

"That wasn't normal," Caroline disagreed fervently, "people don't just start having a fit at the same time – especially when the people in question are a," she lowered her voice at this point, "Werewolf and a Witch." Not that anyone in Mystic Falls would bat an eyelid, they'd probably just think they'd been reading too much into the folklore of the town, there were all manner of weird sightings scattered across the wider literature of Mystic Falls, sightings that couldn't be sightings and had to be stories, they were completely illogical.

"Well," Bonnie caught Tyler's eye, he still seemed reluctant, "can you just stop interfering Caroline? Obviously me and Tyler are going through something," he nodded, "so just try and let us work through this okay? We don't even know what it is so there's no point in just randomly discussing it and drawing the wrong conclusions."

"Just let the dust settle a little." Tyler added, he cast his head skyward, "We should probably get indoors it's about to start raining." Elena looked up and then gave him a quizzical expression, there might have been a storm last night but it had started clearing up she could see blue sky and glorious sunshine above – he must be crazy.

"So tell me about the new guy?" Stefan asked turning to Elena, "Is he giving you trouble?"

"He's just flirtatious," she protested, "I mean it's not like I'm interested in him anyway…even if Caroline and Bonnie are completely in love." The two girls opposite made offended noises and shot Elena reproachful looks, "Well Bonnie is anyway." Caroline had drifted back to looking at Matt across the Parking Lot…she was probably even more in love now than she had been when they were dating. She couldn't keep her gaze off him, and Elena would bet anything that she'd have compelled him to love her again by now if she didn't think it would be so personally painful to do it, not to mention that Stefan and Damon wouldn't allow it.

"And he's coming over here right now." Bonnie said, looking over Elena's shoulder, within the blink of an eye Adrian was slotting into the space on the end of Caroline and Bonnie's side of the table, opposite Stefan, Elena felt him stiffen beside her – was he actually squaring up to this guy? And who said after a century jealousy subsided? She understood being protective but Stefan couldn't actually be feeling challenged by this guy, Stefan could probably snap him in half. She thought she heard Tyler swear under his breath as Adrian settled into his seat and she also saw a look cross Bonnie's face with recognition – had she seen something in Tyler's expression that Elena hadn't?

"Hope I'm not intruding?"

"By all means," Elena said warmly trying and failing to break the atmosphere, "whose English Class are you in – I didn't see you in mine?"

"Miss Stewart, delightful woman actually," Elena frowned – Miss Stewart was a self-confessed bitch, she'd made Elena's life hell as a Freshman, burying her in assignments to do and then putting her in detention when she didn't have enough time to do the Herculean amount she'd been given, "I suppose my charm might have compelled her into deciding against giving me homework on my first day." He grinned and Elena felt a shiver down her spine at the word 'compelled' as Stefan tightened his grip on the small of her back. A subdued horn sounded from the lot, drawing all their attentions and Adrian rose from the table, "That'll be my brother, catch you later." He walked in a relaxed fashion across the lot to the sleek black Mercedes saloon and slipped inside it, the car tore away from the lot – evidently he had somewhere better to be.

"Is he a Vampire?" Elena quizzed, everyone around the room responded with a unanimous nod. Why did she always attract the keepers?

. . .

"I say we kill him," Damon replied automatically with relish, downing his Scotch and pouring himself a second, "or kill both of them – I mean isn't that what we always do when a Vampire shows up that's interested in Elena?"

"Nobody's killing anyone," Elena ruled out, "we don't even know that the guy's hostile – it could be completely innocent."

"They came to Mystic Falls, he enrolled in your school and he made a point of coming and talking to you knowing that there were two Vampires among your friends, not to mention a Witch and a Werewolf – that's deliberate Elena," Damon finished his second Scotch, "if the guy isn't playing with you for some reason then he must have a death wish – no Vampire's stupid enough to make a play for someone with your kind of friends."

Elena looked to Stefan but all she got from her boyfriend was a look of passivity – Stefan couldn't seriously agree with Damon? Klaus was in the past and the whole structure had broken down after that, why would two random Vampires suddenly decide to take an interest in her and make it their business to antagonize her supernatural friends? This had to be innocent – it was like Damon said no Vampire would be stupid enough to make a play for Elena, knowing what kind of company she kept, so it had to be innocent – there wasn't a motive.

"He has a point," Stefan admitted honestly, "Elena, Adrian has taken an interest in you, if he were just passing through innocently wouldn't it make more sense for him to bite first and ask questions later? His entering into our circle might have been provocative but it was also evaluative – he was testing us, to see how we'd react, he knows we can't move in the open but he also now knows how we work – it also means we don't have any surprises to pull on him."

"Except me," Damon declared confidently, "and I'm gonna go and rip his head of his body and stake him and drop him off at Sheriff Forbes's and tell her I've single-handedly saved the town again from the menace of Vampires." He grinned evilly, Elena was half-expecting him to cap it all off with a villainous laugh and disappear in a cloud of smoke – she could separate fact from fiction but half of the time she almost thought that the fiction sometimes reflected the fact, Damon could certainly play up to it. There was a darkness to him, the obscurity that was unnerving if you were in a dark alley, the same thing that used to grab her when she'd watched Dracula for the first time with Bonnie in the Sixth Grade and he enjoyed the drama of the kill – Stefan said that a lot of Vampires, especially the newer ones had come to view killing as functional – a means to an end and had removed any drama from getting their fix. Damon seemed to adhere to the old rules, singling out a lone woman, terrifying the life out of her and then drinking from her while she was screaming, it was a side of Damon that scared Elena every time she saw it.

Elena frowned, "I don't think we should do anything – at least not yet," she was beginning to accept their point, "if Adrian is planning on doing something then he'll do it soon – I think this is related to whatever Tyler and Bonnie are going through, whatever they won't tell us about, I say that we wait until they make a move. They aren't going to just sit around now that they know that we're all on high alert for something…for anything."

Stefan nodded, "That makes sense – can your thirst wait?" he directed the question at his brother who looked depressed about the fact there wouldn't be any staking or killing.

"It never waits," Damon grinned and flashed his fangs, "I'll be back in a couple of hours, I think I'll look up an old friend." In a flash he was gone and they were alone – the rain was hammering down around them now – Tyler's prediction had been right. Elena relaxed back into the sofa – the only consolation of knowing she was being hunted by Vampires was that she was safe in the Salvatore's House, Stefan took the cushion next to her and eased his arm around her, Elena snuggled up next to him, resting her head on his chest. Where there should have been the comforting thud of a heart there was only silence, Elena didn't miss it though, in a way that silence was what attracted her to Stefan, he was for all his flaws a calming influence in her darkest hours.

"What do you think he wants?" Elena asked after a few moments of silence, Stefan looked down at her and then pinched her shoulder affectionately.

"Whatever it is he won't get it." He reassured kissing her on the top of his head, and then Elena felt a bolt of lightning go through him and felt him leave the sofa, propping herself up on her arms as she swung her head around to see who Stefan had risen to face, and she felt her heart skip a beat as she watched Stefan square up to them.

"Hello Elena." two voices murmured and Elena swung her head around and stopped dead, shrinking back against the sofa. Two people she'd never expected to see again, two people she shouldn't have ever been able to see again, the first was shorter and dark-haired with a pale-complexion – Isabelle, the second taller and auburn-haired Jenna.

"Miss me?" Jenna asked, grinning.

"It's been a while." Smirked Isabelle, extending a single finger and hurling Stefan across the room, smashing him into the bookcase and leaving him slumped on the ground, mildly dazed by the encounter, "Always rushing to her rescue, unfortunately you won't be able to save her from this."

. . .

He had known she was following him a long time back, she had after all been the one to teach him how to hone his senses so her scent was particularly familiar to him, except it couldn't be her scent – she was after all dead. But dead or not she was following him now, always keeping a few paces aft of him, still smelling like the Jules he'd known when he was live, still smelling like the Jules that had helped him accept who he was, still smelling like the Jules that he'd cared about at one point like she was his sister. Then Klaus had torn her from his grasp and he'd lost one of the only people who understood him, just as he had reached an understanding with her.

"Stop following me." He said, drawing up and then turning around to face her, Jules had somehow moved quickly because she was an inch away from his face as he turned on his heel, she was smiling but it was a nervous smile – as though she was worried, her eyes kept looking past him and then she cast her head skyward – toward the threatening grey clouds, the rain was now intermittent but the showers were becoming progressively heavier. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating them both, Jules gestured toward one of the trees and Tyler followed her, seating himself on the ground beside her: he wasn't sure why. In fact he was almost certain that he would look like he was sat on his own beneath that tree in the middle of a thunderstorm, except somehow Jules's aura was like a protective beacon, as though he was basking in some light that gifted him invulnerability.

"You're Dad didn't get through to you, he thought I might do better," she murmured looking out across the ground, "I've hated Vampires all my life and in the end all that I succeeded in doing was helping create a monster. Why haven't you got out of Mystic Falls? You were so happy when we were on the road together…before I stupidly brought you back to this hellhole, Tyler why did you come back here, you don't have anything left-"

"-I have my Mom," he interjected immediately, though he could tell from her expression that Jules didn't believe that for a second, "believe what you like but we don't have to live hating the Vampires, since you died," he wasn't going to be sensitive about that subject, she was dead and cold in the ground, "the Salvatores and Caroline have been really helpful, they've helped me adapt, helped me set up the crypt as a safe place for me to turn and they watch over me when I do, to make sure that I don't get out and hurt anyone. We can coexist together, it doesn't have to be war."

Jules's smile had changed now – it was a sympathetic one, was that pity?

"Look Damon and Stefan might have helped you, and you might have this infatuation with Caroline but they're hardly representative of the whole Vampire community," Jules declared bluntly, "the sooner you realize that and get out of this town the safer you will be – the Vampires attract other Vampires and those others Tyler," she paused and looked him straight in the eye, "are the ones that will kill you. Tyler something is coming to Mystic Falls, something more powerful than the Salvatores, something…something that might even be more powerful that the Originals.

"There have been stories handed down by the Wolves for generations…story of a being who," Jules paused and cast her head over her shoulder, Tyler looked in the direction she was and couldn't see anything, "I have to go," she rose to her feet and Tyler mirrored, "Tyler I'll come back…or I'll send someone just…just be wary, I have to go." She broke into a run, out into the now pouring rain and in the flash of lightning vanished. Tyler rose to his feet and looked around – he couldn't see what Jules had run from and he didn't care, she might have at least cared about him but just because she warned him away from them didn't mean she would do something. He wasn't the naïve little kid anymore that would be the Vampires plaything, they were his friends and he trusted them…he more than trusted Caroline, and he wasn't going to let anyone dissuade him from his confidence in them.

. . .

Bonnie sniggered, "You've been staring at him since we got here Caroline – he's avoiding you." She felt sorry for Caroline being so hung up on Matt, and she felt worse for Caroline that Matt still couldn't full accept her for who she was but at the same time she had the burning desire to tell Caroline to just get over him and find someone new; she was almost certain that Tyler fancied her and the two of them had become increasingly close over the past year or so. "Maybe we should swop places?" Bonnie suggested, Caroline didn't say anything but stood up and moved around, Bonnie copied her and settled into Caroline's seat facing the Bar, Matt's head instantly snapped up and he smiled warmly at her, Bonnie's mouth twitched-upwards but it wasn't a full grin – just a friendly one.

"Look it isn't that I'm hung up on him," Caroline lied through her teeth but she didn't want to admit to herself that she was still madly in love with him, she could acknowledge that she'd had feelings for him but not that she still possessed them, "I just miss him…even if we were still friends but we aren't even that…we just…get along and say hey really awkwardly when we see each other in the hallway at School and it's…it's ridiculous, isn't it?"

Bonnie nodded and sipped at her soda, "You might not be getting any attention but a guy just gave me the eye." Caroline's jaw drop and she swung her head around and immediately spotted the guy Bonnie had been talking about, he was as tall as Matt with dusty brunette hair and dressed pretty fashionably for Mystic Falls, an aquamarine-violet Check shirt with indigo skinny jeans and combat boots. He turned back to the bar and began drinking his Beer Bottle and started a conversation with Matt, Caroline turned back to Bonnie.

"He definitely just asked Matt your name." she said knowingly.

"No he didn't…I was probably just making it up." Bonnie dismissed, eating a last mouthful of pasta before putting her cutlery down on the plate and contenting herself that being daring and ordering extra chilli on her Penne was as exciting as the night was going to get.

"Yeah he did," Caroline pointed at her ear and Bonnie laughed, Caroline made too much use of her newly acquired Vampire abilities, "and he's heading out to his Car right now – go surprise him in the carpark and give him your number." Bonnie bit her lip – she wasn't sure if she wanted to do this, sure enough the guy moved away across the Grill toward the door, she teetered on the brink and then bolted from the chair, slowing down so she didn't look desperate, leaving the Grill a couple of minutes after he'd gone out into the Parking Lot. It was dark – the streetlight must have been out but the distant light from the Grill illuminated the Lot adequately, she could see him open the back door of his saloon and throw something into it – a satchel. He turned around and in the light she saw something glinting around his neck – a Silver pendant, encrusted with a small but perfectly formed Sapphire, there were letterings on it too but she couldn't tell where they came from.

"Hey," she called out and the guy stopped, straightening up and closing the distance between them to a few metres, "so I saw you looking at me and…and I wondered if you'd like my number?"

The guy frowned and then looked her up and down.

"Is something wrong?" Bonnie asked, confused.

"You're a Bennett Witch aren't you?" he probed, she didn't get a chance to reply before the stars were swirling around her face and she was hurled across the lot by a spell that was similar in magnitude to being hit by a truck.

. . .

Hope you liked Chapter 2,

Reviews welcome and appreciated,

Minor error corrected,

Acrobat

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Chapter 3 up soon!