Blair sat down in the cellar with Jeremy and the others to go over the whole Mutt ganging up on the Pack situation. She sat on an empty part of the table while the others stood around it. So far they knew that Cain and Marsten were the ones turning people into an army of Mutts – Scratch that, they were turning psychotic murderers into an army of Mutts. Like Jeremy said, Cain and Marsten were coming after the Pack with both barrels.
While the menfolk were discussing the problem, Blair flipped through one of the Psycho's scrapbook of all the women that were killed. When she came upon a particular article, she froze. There was an all too familiar face in the article of a college student being tortured then murdered. "Elena…" Blair gasped. The young woman in the article was Elena Gilbert. At least the Elena Gilbert in this Reality.
Elena, as in Elena Michaels of the Pack, heard her name being said and turned her attention to Blair. "What?"
Blair didn't even hear that Elena had responded to her. She pushed the scrapbook aside before getting off the table and darting upstairs. The last thing she wanted was for any of them to see her cry and believe she was weak because of it or anything like that.
"What was that about?" Clay thought Blair was acting weirder than normal.
Jeremy took the scrapbook and saw the Elena Gilbert article. "I don't think our Elena was who she was referring to." He turned it around for Nick, Elena, and Clay to see.
"Damn. She must have known her." Nick gestured towards the stairway and didn't even have to get a word out since Jeremy gave him permission to go after Blair.
Blair was pacing back and forth in the foyer when Nick found her. She wiped away her tears, saying, "I'll be down in a minute."
"We saw the article. How did you know her?" Nick went over to Blair and placed a comforting hand on her arm.
It was weird for Blair because her Alter didn't know Elena Gilbert's Alter but the pain of knowing what happened to her was very present. Blair didn't want to lie to Nick but she couldn't tell him the whole truth either. She came up with something, though. "She was my friend but we lost touch and – and I didn't even know she was dead, let alone murdered. I wasn't prepared for that."
Nick hugged Blair, wishing there was something more he could do for her. "I'm sorry about your friend. Are you going to be okay?"
Blair closed her eyes as she hugged Nick and after a moment or two she pulled back from the embrace. "That psycho Mutt killed my friend and a member of my Pack. If I didn't already want them dead before, I sure as hell do now. Once they've stopped breathing, then I'll be okay."
Nick didn't think that was very healthy, but he could understand it. "Let's get back to the others then."
Blair agreed to that and went back into the cellar with him. As they joined Clay, Jeremy, and Elena they heard Jeremy state that he wasn't going to send anyone out to blindly chase after Marsten and Cain and that he sent word to Daniel Santos through Logan that he was willing to meet. While Blair didn't know a lot about this Santos character, she heard enough to make her believe he shouldn't be trusted. Apparently Nick felt the same way.
When Nick heard that Jeremy had agreed to the meet, he scoffed, "Santos doesn't talk so much as lie."
Jeremy was well aware of how Daniel Santos was. "He wants to trade information he has for reinstatement into the Pack. And I know he cannot be trusted, but I am at least willing to listen to what he has to say."
"Blair can't be here for that," Nick interjected. "If Santos finds out she exists then it's only a matter of time before everyone else does."
"Why are we even having this discussion?" Clay shot in, directed at Jeremy. "The last member of the Santos family to walk through our doors tried to kill you."
"Our backs are up against the wall here," Jeremy calmly replied. "I need something to smoke Marsten and his crew out. About Blair, I do agree with Nick – she cannot be present for this meet."
It was about time for Blair to say something since they've been talking about her like she wasn't sitting on the table right next to them. "How about you use me to smoke them out? If I'm so rare use me as bait and not have the meeting with the Santos guy."
"We've had this discussion already," Jeremy answered firmly. "We are keeping your existence a secret for as long as possible."
"Well it ain't gonna last forever, now is it?" Blair retorted. "Why not control the narrative?"
Clay scoffed at how nonchalant she was about this. "Do you have no care for your wellbeing at all?"
"That's actually not the first time someone has asked me something like that, although normally they call it a death-wish." Blair waved her hands like she was brushing something away. "That's neither here nor there. Anyway, yes I do care about myself and no I don't have a death-wish, but like I said – People are gonna find out about me sooner or later so why not control when it happens so we'll have a handle on the aftermath?" It may not be the smartest plan but letting a Mutt into their home who has a massive grudge against the Pack doesn't seem like a very smart plan either.
Elena wasn't going to let Blair do that. "Let me be the bait." She placed her hand on the scrapbook, saying emotionally, "Let me draw this one out. I'm the 'bitch' that he wants."
Jeremy looked between Blair and Elena, saying, "No. We will find them together and when the meet happens, Blair, you are not to be present. Understood?"
Blair grumbled a bit before saying, "Fine. But when it's time to kill the Scrapbook-Psycho I'm going to be there."
"We better make sure you are prepared then." Jeremy looked to Clay. "You will be taking care of Blair's training session today."
"I've got it covered," Nick quickly interjected, feeling a bit territorial.
"I've seen how Blair spars with you," Jeremy answered, picking up on Nick's tone, "and now I want to see how she spars with Clay."
Blair looked at Clay and popped her lips. "The tiny Asian against the walking tree trunk? This is going to be fun."
Later that day, Blair went out into the back yard with Clay while Nick, Elena, and Jeremy spectated. Clay cracked his knuckles as he began the lesson. "The first step is to…" he was cut off when Blair leaped at him with a punch. Clay managed to dodge before impact and watched as she landed with a tumble then sprang back on her feet. "Are you not even going to listen to the simplest directions?"
"I'm more of a doer than a listener," Blair replied as she held up her fists and stood in a fighting stance.
Clay was honestly a bit pleased that he would be able to put Blair in her place more quickly than he anticipated. "Alright then." He pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside.
"Let's dance," Blair grinned and this time it was her turn to deflect his advances.
Nick was a bit jittery as he watched Blair and Clay duke it out. He was worried she was going to get hurt and when Clay had his arms around Blair, clearly expecting her to tap out, Nick wanted to intervene.
Jeremy could tell what was going through Nick's mind and said, "Don't interfere. Blair needs to learn how to get out of things herself. We won't always be there to protect her – you won't always be there to protect her."
Nick wanted to refute, but he couldn't. Whether or not he liked it, he knew Jeremy was right. Blair needed to learn this on her own.
When Clay wrapped his arms around her, Blair needed a second to think. She didn't want to hurt him too badly so summoning up her fangs and driving them into his arm wouldn't be the best thing to do, so she needed to think.
"Don't hesitate," Clay said to Blair since she stopped reacting. "You hesitate, you die. Fight back."
A deep growl rumbled within Blair before she lifted her foot and drove her heel into the top of Clay's foot with all her Wolf strength. This made him grunt a bit and loosen his grip. She took that opening to drive her elbow into his ribs with the same strength. When Clay teetered back because of it, she kicked him in the gut then dropped to the ground and swung her leg to swipe out his.
This all made Clay fall back on the ground with a thud. He was about to jump back on his feet but Blair appeared on top of him with glowing yellow eyes and a clawed hand pressed into his chest over his heart. She was just starting to break the skin, clearly meaning business.
Jeremy hadn't seen Blair fight like this before. He assumed she must have been holding back when it came to Nick, which was part of the whole reason why he wanted to see her spar with someone else. When Blair pressed her clawed hand into Clay's chest, Jeremy called out, "Blair, that's enough!"
"I want to hear him say it," Blair growled and leaned closer to Clay. "Tell me I won."
Clay had never seen a Wolf's eyes like hers before. She was certainly something, that's for sure. He honestly believed she would rip his heart out if he didn't say what she wanted, so he said it. "You win…this time."
Blair's eyes and hand returned to normal. "I look forward to the next challenge." She got off him and went over to the others. "Are we done for today or…?"
Elena went over to Blair and looked at her hands. "How did you shift them so quickly?" Yes, Elena herself has shifted only her hands before but not to the extent of Blair's.
"I just did it." Blair shrugged like it was nothing and pointed towards the house. "I don't know about any of you, but I'm starving. May I?" When Jeremy nodded to give her permission, she darted inside.
Clay joined the group and pulled on his shirt. "You were right, Jeremy. Blair is faster and stronger than any other Wolf I've gone up against and I even think she was holding back. And her eyes – I've never seen Wolf eyes like that before."
"I've said it before and I will say it again – Blair is different. I truly believe she is the next stage of a Werewolf's evolution." Jeremy looked at them very seriously. "Which is another reason why we need to keep her safe within the Pack. I can already tell her first instinct is to sacrifice herself to save another. Let's make sure it never happens."
Their discussion was interrupted when the sound of a car pulling up out front with a couple siren blasts caught their attention.
Blair darted out the door saying, "It wasn't me! Whatever they're here for – I didn't do it." There were admittedly a bunch of times in the past where she did, so she just wanted to make it clear that this wasn't one of those times.
"Stay in the house," Jeremy said to Blair as he and Clay went to see what the Sherriff wanted this time.
Blair popped her lips again as she returned to the kitchen to finish her sandwich. That didn't stop her from listening in, though. Apparently some guy named Braxton was missing and they found his truck with blood in it near the Stonehaven property line. Seemed like Clay was a suspect because Braxton wanted to come to Stonehaven to have it out with him. Since there was a trail of blood leading from Braxton's truck to the property line it suggested proximity and thus Jeremy suggested they organize a search party.
When she heard Clay and Jeremy come back into the house, she took the last half of her sandwich with her and went to join them in the Great Room. "So, am I helping with the search party or am I stuck in the house?"
"Haven't decided yet," Jeremy answered honestly.
"This is all Marsten's doing," Elena interjected, "I know it. He must have heard Braxton running his mouth off in town, nabbed him, and dumped his truck."
"And hung it on us," Nick added in.
Blair swallowed a bite of her sandwich before saying, "How long do you think it'll be before someone thinks the Danvers clan is being framed? I mean, if y'all were really doing all this stuff, do they really think you'd leave the evidence just lying around?"
"You're part of this too now," Jeremy made sure to point that out.
"True," Blair answered with a bit of an impish grin, "but they don't know about me yet, so I don't exactly count, now do I?"
"We're digressing from the point here," Elena emotionally cut in. "Marsten didn't hang what happened on us – he hung it on Clay."
Clay took a deep breath. "There's a real possibility that Braxton's body is out there. Mutts wouldn't leave him alive to tell the truth."
Jeremy was thinking the same thing. "Which is why we are allowing the police onto our property, and which is why we will help them look. If Braxton is here, this is the best chance for us to mitigate the situation when the body is found."
"So why not stall them?" Nick wanted to know. "Let me and Blair rip out there and see what's what."
"Not with the Deputy Dipshit keeping watch." Clay pointed this out like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Jeremy moved onto the next item on their list of concerns. "The police are going to get a search warrant for this house. And the last thing we need is anyone poking around in here. So we will help them." His tone made it clear that he expected them – all of them – to take part in the search party and left the room without another word.
Blair took the last bite of her sandwich before saying, "Looks like I'm going after all." She drummed her hands on her legs before clapping them together. "So! Who's going to be my babysitter this time?"
A whole bunch of people from town came up to Stonehaven to help with the search party, but clearly a couple of Braxton's friends didn't like the idea of Jeremy and the others assisting because once they saw them all standing there, he shouted out, "No way. No way!"
The Sherriff sighed a bit. "The Danvers family has offered to help with the search."
Braxton's buddy was pissed beyond words. He pointed firmly at Clay. "There is no way that he's going on this search."
Clay's reaction to this was calm. "This town has been through a lot. I'm just looking to help."
"Oh, yeah, you want to help?" Braxton's buddy shot back. "Why don't you help by making me not have to look at your face."
"Everyone just take a freaking chill pill," Blair interjected. "Jeeze Louise, we're here to help you find your friend. So instead of placing blame and bickering about it, how about we actually start doing what we came out here to do?"
The Sherriff didn't want this to get out of hand, despite the fact that the young woman had a point. "Everyone, stand down. We have a long day ahead of us."
Jeremy believed he had an idea to make this go more smoothly. "Sherriff Morgan, Clay and I have some family business we could attend to inside."
She appreciated that and nodded to indicate so.
Jeremy smiled briefly before going back into the house with Clay.
Now that that was settled, Sherriff Morgan addressed the crowd. She spoke loud enough for them all to hear. "Alright, everyone, here's how we're going to run this. We have a hundred-acre plot of land to cover. We're going to fan out. We're going to march it in a grid formation. Keep the person on either side of you within sight. If Michael Braxton is out there, we will find him. Let's move, people."
Blair walked with Nick and Elena when Braxton's buddy came over to them, saying, "I'm going to keep my eye on you. Just in case you decide to tamper with any evidence you may find." This guy was really started to piss Blair off and she was about to say something to him but stopped when Nick grabbed onto her arm with a 'don't do it' look on his face. After taking a deep breath, Blair calmed slightly but flipped Braxton's buddy the bird anyway.
Elena verbally answered to Braxton's buddy's words, "I was thinking the exact same thing about you, too."
Blair walked in the formation with one of the townspeople on one side of her and Nick on the other and Elena on the other side of him. It wasn't long before she smelled the stench of death. She needed to tell them so she looked at Nick and when he turned to her, she tapped on her ear to tell him to tune in. After getting a nod for a go ahead, she whispered, "He's dead. I can smell him. Pretty far from where we are based off how weak it is, but he's there."
Elena also tuned in and answered, "We need to take care of this or we're done."
"I got this," Blair replied and made herself fall with a cry.
Nick and Elena rushed over to her. "You okay?" Nick sounded genuinely concerned.
"If I don't call you after five minutes, do something to distract them," Blair whispered. "I tripped over something." She winced when Elena and Nick helped her to her feet.
"Can you walk on it?" Braxton's buddy – who Blair heard was named Travis – asked her.
"We're not too far from the house. I can make it back." Blair gave Nick and Elena a nod and started limping away while the others continued with the search. Once they were out of sight, Blair ran with everything she had to the source of the scent.
It didn't take her long to find Braxton's body. She gagged a bit at how strong the smell was now and the flies didn't help the scenario either. "Jeeze Louise," she muttered to herself before holding her hands out like she was weighing something. Which she was – She was weighing her options. "Carry him as Human or drag him as Wolf?" Blair decided on dragging him away as a Wolf since it'd be better to blame it on an animal instead of having there be evidence to suggest he was moved by a Human.
As Blair started to strip her clothes, she talked to Braxton's dead body. "Don't take this whole dragging you away thing personally. If we were in Mystic Falls one of my Vampire friends would compel this all away. But we aren't in Mystic Falls and there aren't any Vampires here." She set her clothes aside and stopped in thought. "Holy crap…are there Vampires here? Naw, probably not. I would have been told about them already."
She ended her one-sided conversation as her body cracked and contorted into her Wolf. Blair shook on her fur before biting onto Braxton's clothing to pull him away from the Stonehaven property.
Unfortunately it took longer than five minutes – took six to be exact – so Nick started a fight to cause a distraction to by Blair more time and this resulted in the Sherriff telling everyone to go home because they were going to call in the State Police instead. During this phone call, Blair told Nick that she was headed back to the house only to be told to stay in the woods – Santos was there.
"Jeremy is okay with me being out here all alone? I already broke my agreement – something I never do – by breaking off from a babysitter to deal with this." Blair doubted she was going to get away with much more.
"Jeremy understands," Nick replied, keeping his voice low. "Extenuating circumstances. But stay away, Blair. I'll call you when it's safe."
"Nick…" Blair sighed deeply when he hung up before she could even get her sentence out "Well what the hell am I supposed to do now?" It didn't take long for her to decide. She tapped into her inner child and picked up a broken tree branch. Blair pointed it at a nearby tree, exclaiming, "Argh! I shall protect me treasure from the scurvy likes of you!" She then proceeded to play her pirate game until she got the okay to go back to Stonehaven.
Clay waited for Blair outside because there was something he wanted to say to her. When she came into view, he raised his brow at how disheveled she looked – leaves in her messed up hair and everything. "What were you doing out there?"
Blair still had the branch with her and held it up with pride. "I was protecting me buried treasure, argh!" He looked at her like she was insane, so she cut the pirate act. "I was bored, sue me." Blair set the branch aside and headed towards the house.
Clay sidestepped to stop her. "Hold on a sec." He took a deep breath to muster up what he felt needed to be said. "You didn't have to deal with Braxton's body, but you did." She started talking before he could get to the point.
"It needed to be done to protect you and the Pack, of course I had to do it." Protecting her own was as crucial to her as breathing. "If you're going to give me crap about how I did it, don't worry. I changed into a Wolf so there wouldn't be any Human traces on him. It's off the property in a grove. Someone should stumble upon him eventually."
That wasn't what Clay was going to do. "That's not where I was going with this, Blair. I was going to thank you. I am thanking you."
Blair wasn't expecting that. "Oh, okay. Thanks aren't really necessary because we're Pack – The people you would kill for, die for, and live for. But you're welcome just the same." She gave him a bit of a salute before heading into the house.
Clay watched her go, thinking that maybe he misjudged her initially but time would tell.
Blair sat in the kitchen with Jeremy and drank the tea he poured for her. After getting filled in on what Santos had to say, she gave her opinion on that. "He's blaming Clay for what's going on with the Mutts? Seems a little far-fetched."
Jeremy just nodded and changed the subject. "I wanted to thank you for what you did with Braxton. What you did could very well have saved Clay – saved all of us."
"I just moved a dead body. It's not that big a deal." Blair looked down at her tea as she said that.
Jeremy stood on the other side of the table across from her. "You mentioned once that you were in a gang when you were younger, and that is why all of this Pack loyalty doesn't phase you. Is there more to the story, Blair?"
"I've seen my fair share of death in my life. I hate it, but it's nothing new to me." She set her mug on the table but didn't let go of it as she looked at Jeremy. "Like I told Clay, Pack is who you'd kill for, die for, and live for. And I've killed," she scoffed a light chuckle, "I've died, and I've lived. This isn't new to me, Jeremy."
Jeremy took a deep breath, finally decided to ask her something that's been weighing on his mind. It was the only thing that made sense to him, but he needed to know for sure. "You knew Werewolves existed before you were Bitten, didn't you?"
Blair tapped her fingernail on the side of her mug before answering. "You want the truth?"
Jeremy nodded. "Yes. I do."
Blair drank some more tea and returned the mug to the table. "Yes."
Jeremy took in a sharp intake of air. "How? Who told you?"
Blair shook her head. "Sorry, Jeremy, but I'm not going to answer that. You can either accept that or not, but it's not going to change anything." She was not going to tell Jeremy about the Spell, no way. Blair felt like she'd said too much already. And just in case Tyler and Mason and the other Wolves she knew had Alters who were Wolves in this Reality, she wasn't about to throw them under the bus for something that didn't even happen with them.
Jeremy was not pleased about this one bit but hoped she would tell him more in the future. "You should have said something before."
Blair winced slightly, tilting her head side to side. "Yeah, well…I wasn't exactly sure that I trusted you before so there was that."
Jeremy allowed himself a momentary chuckle. "Fair enough." He then thought back to the conversation he and Elena had earlier. "Elena is going back to Toronto and she has asked my permission to take you with her. She believes the further you are away from Marsten and the other Mutts the safer you will be." Jeremy paused for a moment before adding in. "And I happen to agree with her."
Blair blinked a few times as this processed because she wasn't sure she heard him correctly. "Wait…what? You're approving me going with her?"
"You can't exactly run into the woods to play pirates every time a Mutt shows up," Jeremy reasoned with a teasing grin before drinking his own tea.
Blair couldn't help but feel like there was more to it than what he was saying, but the idea getting away from Stonehaven was tempting. "I'll think about it."
"You better think quick," Jeremy answered as he left the kitchen. "She's leaving tonight."
Blair finished off her tea and poured another with a sigh. Upon hearing Nick's footsteps, she poured him one as well.
Nick sat across from Blair and accepted the cup of tea she held out to him. "You're leaving?"
"You eavesdropped," she answered with a smile. "I haven't agreed to anything, Nick. I'm thinking about it. It's a nice offer, especially since I was pretty much told that I'd never be able to leave Stonehaven's grounds like ever."
"Not for all of it. Just the part about you going back to Toronto with Elena." Nick did not like the idea of her leaving Stonehaven one bit. "Don't go."
"It's safer for me away, right?" Blair was about to drink some more tea but set it down, suddenly losing her taste for it. "Like you heard Jeremy say – I can't run off into the woods to play pirates every time a Mutt shows up."
"I didn't take you as someone who'd run away." Nick was baiting her a bit with that.
"I am not running away, Nick," Blair shot back. "But I can't do anything here. It's been made abundantly clear that my existence can't get out in the world, so I can't really do anything to help. Staying away when Santos was here, that was running away. I won't do it again. I'm a part of this Pack, dammit." She took a deep breath to try and keep herself calm. "I haven't agreed to anything and I haven't decided anything."
Nick thought he knew how hard this was on Blair but clearly it was harder on her than he thought. "What are you going to decide?"
Blair had no clue how to answer that. "Honestly, I have no idea."
End Episode 3
A/N: Hey, Readers! Hope you enjoyed this 'Episode'. Also, here's a 'shout out' thanks to the YouTube user Tom Hughes for suggesting/inspiring the Clay/Blair sparring scene. Thanks for reading!