A/N: All of your reactions to Caroline's insult had me grinning like a fool in the office! Especially since I just finished writing the chapter where they pop off at the mouth at each other :D. Y'all got a while to go, though.
Thank you for reviewing and enjoy this chapter! As promised, here is Tonnie's heart to heart theme song: Falling For You by The 1975.
Let me know what you think after you give it a listen! It seriously works as nice background music for every bonding moment they have from this chapter on.
Part 4: Tyler's Physique
The next day, Bonnie was crabby. Her vagina was protesting again.
After Tyler left, she'd turned off the light in the kitchen and gone upstairs, told her father good night, and slid under her covers to satiate her libido. Getting to see Tyler's physique during his surprise visit had provided her with up-to-date material for her fantasies. But she'd wanted to do it differently this time. She'd wanted her body to be vibrating and buzzing while she brought herself off. So she'd tweaked the Blackout spell to capture the light in her bedroom.
And all she'd gotten for her effort was a warm palm. Just a palm! No buzzing, no vibration, no electricity, nothing. Because apparently, the light from a lightbulb was different from the artificial light in ceiling panels. Different energies. So lamp light captured just beneath her skin made her skin warm. And that was it. Her disappointment had been colossal.
And she was still disappointed when the sun came up. And her vagina was looking at her sideways. Because after the disappointing result of the spell, she'd decided not to masturbate at all last night, despite being horny. She'd saved it and fallen asleep with a half thought. Something about her birthday being in two months and Tyler looking like a present.
So now she was getting ready to leave for school and thinking that her next orgasm needed to come from Tyler, not herself. She wasn't going to orgasm again unless Tyler was stroking it out of her. Now that wasn't a goal, per se. Because that would mean she was intentionally on purpose planning to sleep with Tyler. And he had a girlfriend. And last she'd been told, her desperate kind needed to settle for a "creepy professor."
So it was a complete coincidence that she was lamenting the cold weather and wishing it was warmer so that she could wear something short enough to show off her mile-long legs in hopes of arresting Tyler's attention. At least her her black-washed jeans stuck to her legs like a second skin.
She grabbed her bag and keys from the dining room table. "Dad, I'm leaving," she announced when she got to the living room. "Are you doing visits today?"
"No, I'll be home all day working on this report."
"The one on the competitor?"
"Yeah," Rudy said and looked back at her and smiled.
Bonnie smiled and shook her head. He really got a kick out of how competitive drug companies were. "Have fun," she said.
"Will do. Have a good and safe day in school."
Bonnie gave him a look. "Well the problem's been taken cared of," mostly, "so, will do."
She stepped outside and found Klaus Mikaelson leaning against her car. She closed and locked the door so as not to disturb her father.
"I said to myself," Klaus began when she got close to the driver's side, "That with Stefan out of commission and Damon gone training young Jeremy, you are the only cause left for my sister's current state."
"Get away from my car."
"Where is she?"
"Nowhere I'm gonna tell you."
"Break into her house, did you?"
"I'm surprised she had the dagger just lying around. I would think you would keep it with you for next time."
"Ah, but it was not I who woke her. That answer lies with her. Literally. And with all of...us...looking for the cure, it would behoove us to know if there's a new player in the game. Stefan agrees with me."
"So why isn't he having this conversation with me?"
"Crisis at the lakehouse. Caused by yours truly." He saw the change in her expression and said, "I'd assure you that young Jeremy's fine, but I don't know. Stefan will be back by this afternoon."
"This conversation is over, Klaus."
"Do you really think your father will stay inside all day long?"
Bonnie stared at him with immense disinterest. "My father was married to a witch, had a witch for a mother-in-law, and," she shrugged to indicate herself, "is living with his witch daughter. Do you really think he's walking around this infested town like any old mortal?"
She savored his reaction. "Get out of my way."
Klaus stepped aside.
"And if you're telling the truth, and you didn't wake Rebekah, and there is someone else at play, I'm sure they'll reveal themselves sooner or later."
April Young stood behind the school's auditorium and dropped her cigarette on the ground and crushed it with her boot. She's been smoking more since her father died. After the funeral, she'd been sneaking a smoke during school once a day. Since she found out about vampires, Hybrids, werewolves, and witches, she's been sneaking two smokes during school.
She waved at the air around her. It wasn't effective for getting the smell off her clothes, but she was out of body spray.
"Aren't you brave."
She looked over to see Caroline Forbes walking to her. She'd been expecting one of them. "Excuse me?"
"Your bodyguard's out of commission and here you are in a school filled with the same people you wanted to help kill yesterday."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," April answered.
"I'd say don't play dumb, but you did wake an Original vampire. How did you even know that that would work?"
April contemplated staying silent. Then she answered, "I didn't. I wanted that dagger to use on you. Or Elena. Or whoever could tell me what really happened to my father. I was sitting there thinking about my next move when she woke up."
"We're trying to figure out what happened to your father, too, April."
"Was lying to me part of that? How about compelling me? How about feeding off of me?"
"No one fed on you on purpose. Being a vampire comes with growing pains. I saved your life. And we compelled you to keep you safe. You have no idea how dangerous this world is."
"I'm still standing, aren't I?"
"Barely. Did Rebekah tell you she has a psychotic older brother who doesn't like surprises? You're on thin ice, April. He's asking around, and he doesn't know about you, but he could. Very easily."
April smiled. "Is that a threat? What do you think me and Rebekah talked about over winter break? Like you said, I was going to help kill you all and yet here I am where any one of you could attack me. If you were stupid enough."
"You're bluffing."
"So call it."
Tyler stood from the table he was sharing with Matt and went to throw away his leftover lunch. He then went to deposit it at the designated return spot next to one of the six lunch lines. When he turned to head back, he saw Bonnie walking toward him. After upsetting her the night prior, he didn't expect her to bother speaking to him unless it was absolutely necessary. Which was a disappointing prospect.
"Hi," she greeted anxiously.
"Hey."
She was quiet, though she seemed to be trying to figure out what to say. Maybe she had come over just to talk to him.
"Listen, um. I just wanted you to know that I still mean what I said last night. If you want my help, I will help."
"Uh, yeah. I want it. Thanks."
She nodded.
"I really appreciate it," he added.
Bonnie smiled. He was trying.
"Are you okay? You looked a little worried when you came up."
"Uh, Klaus came to see me this morning. Well, he was waiting for me when I stepped outside, threatened my dad and everything. He wanted to know where I was keeping Rebekah."
"Why does he think you know?"
"Process of elimination. Since it wasn't Stefan or Damon, then it must've been me. And get this: Stefan agrees with him that we need to figure out who woke Rebekah."
"Wait, Stefan was there?"
"No," she sighed. "He's at the lake house. Apparently Klaus is so impatient about growing Jeremy's mark that he sent a brood of vampires out there to attack him. Kill or be killed. I called Jeremy on my way to school. He says he's fine, but…"
It was inappropriate, because obviously there was cause for her to worry about Jeremy, but in light of his blunder last night he didn't feel spectacular about her worry for Jeremy. He knew that there was nothing better than the possibility of death or pain to bring two people closer. She might worry herself into reconsidering Jeremy's feelings for her.
"I'm sure he's fine," he responded. "But if you want to go out there and check, then you should. But I don't think he would lie to you," he said.
She smiled, "Oh, he'd definitely lie to me if it meant I wouldn't worry. It's just bad enough that he's out there with Damon; now he's got to fight off Klaus' goons."
"Bonnie, your dad-"
"He'll be fine. Klaus can't touch him. Literally. A little gift from my mom from when they became serious. My grams continued it after she left. He should be good through the end of this year, but I don't even know if it'll be any good against Klaus and his Original Hybrid-ness. I might've bluffed a little bit. But don't worry."
"I am worried. This is what I was talking about yesterday."
"Yeah, but I put Rebekah down before I agreed to help you," she pointed out with a smile.
Tyler smiled back at her.
"Anyways. Stefan knows that April Young woke Rebekah. I mean Caroline knows, and Elena knows, so I can't imagine one or both of them didn't tell him."
"So, he's protecting her from Klaus," Tyler concluded.
"She needs it. I can't imagine why she'd agree to help Rebekah."
"I can. It doesn't take much to agree with an Original. They're quick with the threats."
Suddenly, Caroline's voice sounded behind Bonnie. "She thinks she's tough shit."
Tyler looked up and Bonnie turned around. "Who?" she asked.
"April Young. I just spoke to her by the auditorium, you know, tried to scare some sense into her, reason with her, but she basically told me to do my worst. She's out to get us because she thinks we had something to do with her dad's death."
"April's human; how does she hope to survive all of this, especially without Rebekah?" Bonnie asked.
"Maybe she's got Kol, too," Tyler posited.
Bonnie took a quick moment to appreciate how much closer to her he'd moved and how sexy his voice sounded from this proximity.
"She did make it sound like she had backup," Caroline reported. "Or like she and Rebekah had come up with a contingency plan. I just wish I could rip that bracelet off and compel her to forget everything."
Bonnie's phone buzzed in her back pocket. She took it out and opened the text from an unknown number. She gasped and held on to the phone with both hands when the picture of a battered Shane loaded with the caption any old mortal. "Oh my God."
"Who is that?" Tyler asked
"What is it?" Caroline asked at the same time.
"It's Shane," she whispered. "He's the professor who replaced my grams. He used to be her TA, and he gave me a tour of Whitmore, and he's into-I need to go. No, I need to call."
Tyler trained his ears on the call.
"Bonnie Bennett, I presume."
"You're not Klaus."
"Kol Mikaelson. I don't believe I've had the pleasure."
"Oh, you've had the pleasure. I'm the reason you and your line are still alive."
"Whitmore College, parking lot G, ground floor, near the broadcast building, two and a half hours. I think that's fair, given traffic. Come with either my sister or with her whereabouts. Fail to come, and I beat him to death. Come late, and I beat him for every minute you're late until you show up or he dies."
Bonnie stared at her phone when he cut the call off. "I need to go," she said quietly, and she headed off.
"We'll come with you," Caroline said.
Bonnie turned and said, "He'll expect me to come with people."
"So what? So we give him what he expects," Tyler said.
Bonnie nodded and let them follow. They stopped by their respective tables to grab their things. They had B lunch, which meant they were going to a different class after.
"Are we giving him Rebekah?" Caroline asked once they managed to sneak out of the building.
Bonnie looked at Tyler, and he answered her silent question, "If we have to."
"I want to kill Kol," Bonnie said to him.
"Well, the Salvatores have the White Oak Stake, and we can't use it on him without killing off his entire line," Caroline said.
"I think if I could just get that stake, I could rework it so it doesn't do that. Maybe scrape off some of the ash or something and make another weapon." Perhaps with the sword in Klaus' possession.
"It's indestructible," Caroline pointed out.
"But I wouldn't be trying to destroy it," Bonnie countered.
Caroline lifted her head slowly as she realized her point. "There's no one at the Salvatore house right now."
"We have two and a half hours," Tyler reminded them.
"So are we splitting up?" Caroline asked.
Bonnie looked at Tyler who looked at Bonnie.
Caroline licked her lips. It was obvious how they'd already handled the split in their heads. "If Klaus finds out you went up against Kol, and he will, he'll make you pay for it," she told Tyler.
"Not if we give him Rebekah," Bonnie said. "He'll be fine."
Caroline looked at Bonnie. She doubted that. Still, she smiled and nodded.
"It'll be fine, Care," Tyler said. "We'll be back."
"How long will this take? Will the stake be back in its place before they realize it's gone?"
"Probably not," Bonnie answered. "But when they ask, I'll tell them the truth. I need it to make a weapon against Kol and Klaus because of what they did today."
When the two got inside Bonnie's car, Tyler felt like bringing up the look that Caroline had just given Bonnie, but he really wasn't ready to address it. Besides, he was at the root of that look. He knew that it was because of what Caroline had seen at the festival. He could've gone to the Salvatore house to get the dagger, but he preferred to be Bonnie's backup, especially after how much she'd done to help with Rebekah.
"Do we have a plan?" he asked when they were well on their way.
"I'm going through options in my head: if we give him Rebekah, that means we have 13 days until she wakes up, which means you have 13 days to kill Klaus."
"Can't you cast another spell on her while she's sleeping?"
"I'd either need to get close to her or get something that belongs to her. I guess the latter's easy. But if Rebekah's awake, then that means Kol stays in town, and then there's the April factor, and then there's what Rebekah knows."
"Can you erase her memory?"
"There's a spell in my mom's grimoire, but it comes with a powder component. I'd need to be close enough to throw it in her face."
"So that's out."
"Then there's the taking out Kol option. If we do anything to him, Klaus finds out. Knock him out, bury him, if he doesn't contact Klaus with memories perfectly in tact, then we have Klaus' wrath to deal with."
"Yeah, and he's been calm about Rebekah so far."
And Bonnie knew that this was indeed calm for Klaus.
"So then we give him Rebekah," Tyler said. "And we have 13 days."
"Yeah," she nodded as she thought it through. "I included time in the spell, so it's binding. There's no reversing it; it has to play out."
Tyler reached for her hand on the emergency break and covered it with his. She looked tense. "It's gonna be okay. Everything will be okay." It was rare that he got to be the one doing the comforting as opposed to the one being comforted.
Bonnie's smile was tight. "You know, Caroline's right: Kol will tell Klaus you were there."
Tyler pushed the boundary and interlaced their fingers. "I'll deal with it."
Her tight smile relaxed, and she squeezed his hand. It was incredible how she could want him in the middle of all of this. She remembered what he'd said last night, about wanting to kiss and hold her at the end of the day. She very much wanted time to stop so that she could hide in his embrace.
Tyler started to stroke her thumb, and he didn't stop until they arrived.
Over at the Salvatore mansion, Caroline had checked both occupied bedrooms (and shaken her head at Elena's possessions in Damon's room), the bathrooms, the unoccupied rooms, the kitchen, and the library (including the empty spaces between some of the books). She found nothing. Unless there was some secret wall safe she didn't know about, which was very likely, then the dungeon was her last shot.
She walked down the stairs and pushed the creaky door open. Even as a vampire, she realized the thing was hard to push due to years of rust. Considering how much use Stefan and Damon got out of it, shouldn't they oil it up?
She looked at every corner. Nothing. She sent up a silent prayer, (her mother still insisted on taking her to church and held her hand tight during every sermon out of some irrational fear that she'd get struck down), and removed the new-ish blankets and worn mattress from the tiny bed. Just as she suspected, the bed had two small drawers. She opened the one to her right and saw a long, bulky black cloth and smiled. She gently lifted it out and turned it until she found the ends of the cloth and unwrapped it. She unveiled one jagged, silver and white White Oak stake.
She wrapped it back up and closed the drawer. She put the mattress back on the bed and caught a figure in her left peripheral.
"Jesus! What is wrong with you?!"
"Me?" Stefan asked. "I live here."
"You scared the hell out of me."
He smiled. "What are you doing, Caroline?"
"What are you doing? You're supposed to be helping Elena, Damon, and Jeremy with Klaus' vampires at the Lakehouse. I thought you moved out so Damon and Elena could….."
"I know. But I go out of town and when I come back I go where I'm used to. I was taking off my jacket in the living room before I remembered where I'm actually supposed to be. Jeremy's fine. Some of Klaus' vampires are dead. Most ran away. I guess he didn't compel them. Your turn: what are you doing?"
"Grabbing the White Oak stake for Bonnie." She sat down on the bed and held the stake between her legs. She looked at the bed and said, "This thing is hard and uncomfortable."
"It's been a dungeon for a while now," he said as he walked in. "And I'd hazard a guess that the person who first claimed this room and this bed back when it was a sleeping quarter wasn't comfortable either." He sat next to her. "What does Bonnie want with the stake?"
"Kol's kidnapped professor Shane on Klaus' order. Bonnie wants to scrape some ash from the stake to make a new weapon. That way no other vampire needs to die when we stake an Original."
"That's a good idea," Stefan said thoughtfully. "I didn't tell him about April. I had no idea he'd go to Shane."
"Bonnie's going to give him Rebekah; she doesn't have a choice. Which means we're gonna be up against Klaus and Rebekah for the cure."
"Don't be so sure. After what Klaus did, Rebekah's more likely to try to get in his way."
"That seems to be her intention, but she always goes back to him. Right?"
Stefan sighed. "Right."
Five seconds was too long a time for Caroline to be quiet, especially when there was a crisis, so Stefan said, "I'm sure everything will be fine. It's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be fine. It always works out."
"Barely," Caroline mumbled. "But it's not that." She turned her body towards Stefan and said, "You know Tyler's still mad at me over this whole cure thing, right? He's still mad that I told you about his plans for Klaus, and he's still mad that he has to wait."
"Well that's just something he's gonna have to get over. Look, I didn't mean to put you in a tough position-"
"No, I can handle it. Trust me, I know how important this is. I've watched my best friend spiral into an abyss and she thinks she likes it there. I'm one second away from washing my hands and leaving her there, so, yeah, we do need to find the cure."
"I know this is hard for him after what Klaus has put him through. Revenge and impatience tend to go hand and hand, trust me I know. But we need Klaus to find the cure."
"I know. I thought my biggest problem was his suicide mission against Klaus, but…."
"What?"
Caroline weighed her options.
"What is it, Caroline?"
"I think he's seeing someone else, or….is at least into someone else."
"What? Who?"
"I don't know," she lied. She wasn't ready to put Bonnie out there. "But he's distant and just….not how he used to be."
"You must have it wrong. Tyler loves you; you've been through a lot together; you've survived a lot-"
"You mean like you and Elena?"
"That's different."
"Is it? Didn't you sense when she started to drift towards Damon? Did you doubt yourself about it?"
Stefan sighed and clasped his hands between his legs. "That was a special circumstance. I wanted Damon and Elena to get close. I knew right away that she'd be good for him, a good influence, because, heck, she was a good influence on me. And it worked. It was working. Shaky, but working, which I guess is the most you can ask for of Damon. But….yes, I sensed it. But I counted on his hot temper and general bad side to always repulse her. And I guess that was stupid, because I always expected her to love me no matter how ugly I got. I'm the Ripper."
"That's different," Caroline consoled. "You try. It's not stupid to expect your girlfriend to be loyal. Damon doesn't try, which is why I'm thankful for the sire bond in a weird way, because otherwise Elena would be a complete stranger to me."
"She stayed at the lakehouse with him. They'll be coming up together."
Caroline shook her head.
Stefan looked at her and said, "Tyler would be stupid to cheat on you. You're the best thing that ever happened to him."
She smiled.
"Which is why I think you're wrong: Tyler's a lot of things, but he isn't stupid."
"Okay, so you know I don't judge you on your Ripper thing. I judge you based on who you want to be, who you've shown me to be, right?"
"Right," Stefan answered, skeptical of where this was going.
"Okay, so I need you to do me the same favor, because I'm about to say something, and I know it's stupid; it's super stupid and dumb and makes no sense and couldn't possibly be-"
"Caroline."
Caroline exhaled sharply. "I'm not wrong about him being into someone else. And I know I'm not wrong because on some level I kind of think….the universe is punishing me."
"For what?"
She inhaled and lowered her chin to her chest, "Because," she sighed and dropped her chest. She closed her eyes and continued, "Because of how I feel about Klaus."
Silence.
She opened one eye and found Stefan looking at her inquisitively. "What?" she asked.
"What, what? I'm waiting for you to continue, because you can't possibly mean what I think you mean."
"I do. I mean I don't like him like him; just...he kind of grew on me."
"Caroline."
"What? Are you not the same guy I spoke to the night of the festival who agreed that it was kind of sucky that we're basically using Klaus for this cure knowing he's gonna get jumped by the Hybrids and die at the end of it?"
Stefan sighed.
"You see some good in him; I know you do, or at least you see something you relate to, am I right?"
Stefan thought a moment. "Klaus knew me during a period of my life that….no one else got to witness. When he dies, if he dies, that'll be it. Rebekah was there, but I didn't talk to her about it the way I did with him. He was the first person who ever...valued that side of me. Not that that's anything to be thankful for, but I...I kind of am. If he dies, then that's gone, and it becomes something only I know. After living a century, I can tell you that there are some things about yourself and your experiences that you need at least one person to know about and understand. You need at least one person who knows you completely. Lexi was that kind of someone, too, but she wanted to fix me. Klaus, I guess, appealed to the side of me that didn't want to be fixed."
"The Ripper side?" Caroline asked.
Stefan looked at her and told her what she expected to hear: "Yeah."
She faced forward. "He appeals to a side of me, too," she admitted softly. "It's this weird side that I don't wanna explore or know about, but he does."
Stefan wanted to ask how anything about Klaus could appeal to her when he's hurt her so many times, but he figured that'd be akin to asking Elena what she sees in Damon: nothing he'd understand or want to hear. He had known Klaus before the Original had turned his monstrosity on him. Caroline only met Klaus because he'd turned his monstrosity on her. Maybe she had more in common with Elena than she was willing to admit.
"But I love Tyler," she continued. "Which is not easy. It hasn't been easy for, God, so long. But I don't wanna talk about that."
"You can if you want to."
"No, it's….it's bad. It's not something I should be thinking, especially since he didn't ask for any of the stuff that's happened to him. He's still figuring it out. And on the other side, Klaus already has it all figured out, which he never fails to point out."
"Klaus has made Tyler's life a living hell," Stefan said, and he suddenly felt like he and Tyler were wearing the same shoes.
"I know. Okay, that's enough talking about this. I'm done. It's an ugly topic, and I'm done. The point is that Tyler's straying, and I know it for a fact. Call it woman's intuition."
Stefan didn't say anything. He knew she wasn't really done. She couldn't be. Elena never was, and look at the choice she'd made. But maybe Caroline would end up being stronger than her. He doubted it. But she could surprise him. At least she was worried about losing Tyler. It was Tyler who seemed to be making the stupid decision.
"Shane?" Bonnie crouched next to him and stopped herself from lifting his head. "Shane, you're okay. You're safe now. God, he's so messed up," she said as she used the sleeve of her jacket to tenderly wipe the blood on his face.
"Not for long." Tyler bit his wrist and fed it to him. He trusted that if Bonnie didn't think he should expose himself to this professor, then she would say something.
Feeding him was slow-going at first. Kol did a number on him; he could barely open his mouth to drink. Tyler forewent his wrist and bit the fleshy part of his arm. There was no point in him wasting so much blood. He had to bite himself two more times before Shane grew strong enough to suck.
Shane yanked his mouth from Tyler's arm as soon as he was able. He sat up, barely able to see, and coughed uncontrollably. "That's not something I've ever had before," he said when he could speak. "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture." He wiped his mouth and broke into another coughing fit.
"Don't move so fast," Bonnie cautioned. She looked around the garage. It was a pretty secluded spot. "We need to get you home."
"I need a minute," Shane said.
"I know. I'm so sorry about this."
"This was your doing?"
"He was trying to force my hand."
"I hope it worked."
Tyler remembered now that he'd seen this man speaking to Hayley at the Miss Mystic pageant.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Bonnie asked.
"Uh. I was going to my car to get some papers I'd forgotten-oh man, my class probably thinks I disappeared on them. This man with a British accent called out to me when I got to the garage. I knew I didn't know him, but he insisted that he had business with me. Next thing I know I was hit in the face."
Bonnie closed her eyes and shook her head. "That was Kol Mikaelson, an Original vampire."
"Ori-My specialty is witches."
Bonnie smiled. "Yeah, well they're kind of a big deal. And dangerous," she added and gently touched his face.
"I'll be fine. Thanks to you," he said to Tyler. "This stuff works like magic."
"You're taking this pretty well," Tyler said.
"Well, I know that Bonnie is a prodigy of the Bennett line. I know what comes with that territory, although considering we haven't spoken since before the pageant, this really did take me by surprise," he said to Bonnie.
"Did Kol say anything to you?" Bonnie asked. "Anything at all?"
"No, just that this was necessary and that I would be rescued any minute."
"Okay, can you stand?"
"I think so."
"Okay, let's get you home."
"I think I'll be okay."
"You just got jumped by an Original. That's not something you can just walk off, even with vampire blood," Tyler pointed out.
Shane nodded. Bonnie and Tyler helped him stand while he racked his brain trying to remember if everything in his apartment was in order. He didn't want them in his place, but he couldn't protest without raising suspicion. This attack was exactly what he'd needed to get Bonnie back in his orbit.
He divined his future at the beginning of every month, sometimes at the beginning of the week if he deemed it necessary, a cultural holdover from his original time. Since Hayley had made contact with Tyler and he'd positioned himself in Connor Jordan's life, reading his future once a week had become very necessary.
When he'd divined earlier in the week that terrible fortune would befall him, he hadn't known how to interpret it. He'd contacted Hayley to make sure everything was okay with Tyler. She was still having trouble getting back in, though Rebekah's attack had opened their line of communication again.
When Kol called his attention, he hadn't thought anything of it. When the man switched to intimidation, he'd realized that his fortune was playing out. And he'd surrendered to Kol's beating in hopes of gaining the sympathy of Qetsiyah's youngest daughter.
Now he let Bonnie hoist him in her car as Tyler went back to his office to get his keys in order to drive his car.
When they got to the apartment, Shane was able to carry himself up with no support. Still, Bonnie doted on him. Tyler found it weird, though in a good way.
The heavy odor of Shane's apartment accosted them as soon as they walked in. Tyler had to cover his nose.
"Uh, sorry," Shane apologized.
Tyler shook his head. He couldn't figure out what the hell he was smelling, just that they were all herbs, probably with some incense mixed in.
"Where's your bedroom?" Bonnie asked.
Shane chuckled. "Really, I'm fine." Bonnie gave him a disapproving look, so he relented and pointed to the hallway that led to his bedroom. He wanted them gone. He didn't want Tyler picking up any smells, and while he'd taken the appropriate steps to dull Bonnie's premonitions and psychic readings, there was so much energy contained in his apartment, something might set her off.
"You should take your clothes off and get in the shower," Bonnie prescribed.
"Okay."
"I'll make you some tea. Do you have tea? Oh, do you have more of that spirit incense you gave me? It calms me down, so it would really work wonders for you right now."
"I'm out of that," he lied, "but I do have tea: chamomile, lavender, and this really nice California Poppy tea."
"Poppy?" Tyler questioned. "Like the opium kind?"
Shane chuckled. "A lot more mild. But I do collect the dried seed pods for that incense, Bonnie."
"Okay, I'll go make the tea while you….take care."
Tyler followed her out of the bedroom. "I'm getting the sense that this guy touches himself to the idea of being a witch."
"Hey," Bonnie whispered and smacked his arm.
He smiled. "I'm serious. Like, what is this smell?" He covered his nose again.
"I have no idea. I can't make any of it out, but I'm not surprised his place smells like this," she said as she searched the cupboards for the California Poppy. "He really does love this stuff."
Tyler began a search of his own.
"What are you doing?" Bonnie whispered when she noticed he was wandering.
Tyler put his index finger over his lips and continued his search.
Bonnie looked toward Shane's bedroom and hoped Tyler was ready to not get caught. She heard the faucet running.
Shane had a fancy-looking hot water dispenser, and she figured out how to work it. She poured filtered water in and waited for it to get hot. She procured a tea cup, saucer, a container of sugar, and a teaspoon.
"There's a second room," Tyler said quietly when he came back into the kitchen. "It's locked, though. But there's more of that weird smell behind it. I couldn't hear anything."
"What are you so suspicious about?" Bonnie asked quietly. She looked at the kitchen's entrance to make sure they were still alone.
"I think he knows Hayley."
"What?"
"I saw them talking at the Miss Mystic pageant."
"He was judging that. It was probably small-talk."
"Damon didn't think so."
"Da-okay, Damon? Damon thinks everything and everyone is suspicious."
"Maybe. I asked Hayley if she knew him, and she said no."
"And you don't believe her?"
"I don't know if I can trust her, remember?"
Bonnie thought a moment. "Damon is usually right about the people he doesn't trust. But let's talk about this later."
Tyler eventually had to step out of the apartment. The smell was just too much.
Bonnie sat in front of Shane's bed and watched him sip the tea.
"What's gonna happen next?" he asked.
"Well, I gave Kol what he wanted. They're waiting for me in Mystic Falls to, um, complete my end of the deal. There's one more thing I need to do before he can really get his sister back. I just never thought they'd come all the way to Whitmore to make a point."
"Who's they?"
Bonnie shook his head. "No one you need to worry about."
Shane nodded.
"I'm really sorry."
"This wasn't your fault. Vampires are known for this type of stuff, right?"
"A lot of them, yeah." Bonnie reached out and touched his hand. "I'll call you to find out how you're doing."
"Okay. And listen, this type of stuff doesn't scare me. I've seen magical rituals that were downright terrifying. I'll be fine. And if you need anything or….just anything: you can call me."
Bonnie smiled. "I'll remember that."
"And thank your friend Tyler for me."
"I will."
The clean afternoon air had a debilitating effect on Bonnie when she stepped outside to join Tyler. Her nose prickled, and her stomach rolled, and her vision swam. She thought it was going to pass, but then she saw black and her head became very light.
"Woah!" Tyler exclaimed and caught her when she started to fall back. He propped her head in the crook of his arm as she came back to herself. "Everything's fine," he said to a tenant who was heading inside the building and trying not to look at them. Nice neighbors.
Bonnie's vision cleared, but blood rushed to her head. She pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead.
"What's happening?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know. I think it's those smells. Delayed reaction, I think."
"Delayed reaction? You almost passed out."
"I think I'm okay now," she said. She hoisted herself to a sitting position. "That was weird."
Tyler looked back at the apartment building.
"Something in that room must've affected me. Like, I was fine while I was there and once I was away from it, the effect kicked in. Or maybe it's an allergy."
"That's a crazy allergy, and what you're talking about needs prolonged exposure. You were in there for like twenty minutes tops."
"It must've been strong," Bonnie said. She stood up with Tyler's support. "I'm okay now. Promise." She pulled at her nose to try to get rid of the remnants of the smell.
"Let's go," Tyler said. He wrapped his left arm around her waist and held her left hand with his right. He looked back at the apartment building a final time before they left.
Rebekah was free from the tomb but trapped in a troubled sleep. She had let Tyler out of the car when they got back to Mystic Falls and met up with who she'd thought was going to be Kol in the tomb. It had been Klaus. And the first question out of his mouth had been, "Where's Tyler?"
Kol had squealed.
"Picking up his car at school," she'd answered truthfully.
Instead of bringing the seals down, she'd saved her energy and walked inside the tomb to telekinetically retrieve Rebekah. When Klaus had seen the infected bite gashes on Rebekah's arms, she'd made a mental note to text Tyler ASAP. Klaus had glared at her and then grabbed Rebekah from midair and carried her out.
She had also driven to Caroline's house and retrieved the dagger and updated her on Shane's condition.
Now she was home, showered, had already called Shane to check on him, and had laid out the spirit incense in her bedroom. After the strong scents in Shane's bedroom, she felt like mellowing out with the spirit incense before she went to sleep.
But first, Tyler was coming over.
When she opened the door in a semi-sheer, purple, quarter-sleeve shirt and black skinny jeans and black flats with her hair down, Tyler looked her over and said, "Don't plan on going to sleep tonight?"
"Ha ha."
"I liked the going-to-bed look."
She closed the door behind her and went left to sit on the big swing daybed that had been a staple on her porch since she was in 6th grade. She'd read most of her romance novels while lying down on it during the summer. There was no way to sit on it and have the feet hang, so she and Tyler took of their shoes, sat, and scooted back twice. That was all it took for their backs to be resting comfortably. There were three bright throw pillows on each side, her choices: one yellow, one floral with blues, pinks, and yellows, and one coral on the left; one yellow, one with a white and grey chevron, and one with a white and green chevron on the right.
She folded her legs while Tyler bent his right knee and let his left leg lie straight. The tip of his black sock covered heel hung off the bed. She grabbed the white and green pillow and held it to her chest.
"Klaus came to see me," Tyler said and began tugging on the right hem of his pants.
"I knew it."
"Wanted to know why I lied to him about Rebekah. I asked him if he was surprised. He said he should've compelled the truth out of me the first time, but that he'd given me the benefit of the doubt as his first Hybrid."
Bonnie scoffed.
"I told him that Rebekah did mean to compel me, and she would've succeeded had it not been for you."
"Nice."
Tyler smiled. "He assumed that's why I bit her twice. Said she's not gonna be 'fond of that,'" he imitated Klaus' accent, "when she wakes up."
Bonnie smiled. "Hopefully she'll be dead by then. Or he'll be dead by then."
"I'd rather he be dead by then."
"Yeah, but just in case, I need to talk to my mom about something."
"How are you doing?" he asked.
She looked at him and smiled. "I'm fine. I haven't felt light-headed again or anything."
"Good."
"Thanks again for coming with me."
"It's no problem. I'd do it again," he added.
Flattered, she smiled.
They sat in silence and listened to the cars still driving on the main street by Bonnie's neighborhood. It was 10:53, and Tyler had come this late because Caroline had gone to his house after Bonnie had picked up the dagger. And while Caroline had been upset and ranting in her head about why Tyler hadn't bothered to call her to tell her how everything had gone, she had let none of that show when he opened the door. Besides, Bonnie had told her about Klaus asking for him, so she'd figured maybe he was distracted and trying to figure out how to lie to Klaus. She'd wanted to hang out at his house, just the two of them, but of course Hayley had shown up. Of course, she understood why Hayley was staying in his house, but she was still annoyed and wished the girl would take a hint.
So she'd ended up asking Tyler to come to her house later. They'd cuddled on her couch and watched a stand-up comedy special, her idea to get him to relax and be in the moment. When she'd reached down in the middle of him laughing and grabbed his penis, Tyler had grabbed her hand and spoken one of the four excuses he'd come up with before he left his house in case things took a turn in that direction.
"So why do you think Shane's suspicious?" Bonnie asked.
"I don't. I'm just trying to figure out what's bugging me about Hayley."
"Have you talked to her?"
"Yeah," he sighed. "I talked to her over winter break. She's still gone most of the time that I'm home. But I let her know that I didn't want to move as quickly as she did; that my gut was telling me to take a little time and not rush into it. And I also told her that we've gotten lucky with the people we've changed. Some of us really didn't mind Klaus' lifestyle. There are two Hybrids who have never been compelled because they see eye to eye with Klaus, and that's something I don't think she got. She told me we also can't let the opportunity pass us by, especially with Klaus looking for the cure."
"He wants Elena human so he can make more Hybrids."
"I know; Caroline told me."
"So I guess we should talk about our plans for killing him." She set the pillow aside and hugged her knees. "What did you have in mind?"
"Well the original plan was for us to maul him to death in our werewolf forms. It'd be kind of poetic, you know?"
Bonnie smiled.
"Then Hayley got the idea of using a witch, and I figured it'd be better if she did the spell you did a couple of months ago: put Klaus in my body and then bury him in concrete until the others could get away." He looked at Bonnie and got the exact reaction he'd expected. She looked horrified.
"Tyler, how in the world is that better?"
"Because the first idea has too many risks, number one being Klaus managing to kill one or more of us. Us turning into werewolves doesn't make him any less invincible."
"Yeah, but if you became werewolves, then he'd have to switch, too, in order to fight you. And powers are like muscles: if you spend years not using them, they don't grow. My mom and my cousin told me that. They say it's like that for everyone. So Klaus is a very strong vampire, but as a werewolf he should be nothing. Basically on your level."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. They've been witches a lot longer than me. And I'm not burying you in concrete. How long did you plan on being buried?"
"Until there was a way to kill Klaus."
Bonnie was astonished. "You planned on being possessed indefinitely? What about your life?"
Tyler smiled ruefully. "What life? I have no life, Bonnie. And what I can claim of it consists of running and of being away from everything that I know. I can't remember the time before I was scared of Klaus. Caroline had the same reaction as you: what about prom? I don't-I don't even remember the schools I applied to. I honestly couldn't tell you. I only applied because of my mom, but I only see as far as Klaus. There'd be nothing to miss."
"What about the people who'd be missing you?"
He smiled and asked, "Would you have missed me, Bonnie?"
She smiled. "If it had happened before we talked at the Festival, I wouldn't have missed you as much as I would now," she answered honestly. "I would've been sad, but it would've been more like 'this life sucks' and not 'I really miss Tyler.' And I wasn't talking about me; I was talking about your mom and Caroline. And Matt?"
"This is bigger than them. To borrow Stefan's words." He smiled.
"It's brave," Bonnie said.
Those words touched his heart. He thought of his goal to kill Klaus as more stupid than brave. Her spin on it was unexpected and nice. And suddenly he was at the part of the day where he wanted to kiss her. "As soon as I brought the others into this, I became responsible for them. And I've been failing so far. I lost Dean and Chris, not to mention Dylan, even though he brought that on himself. If nothing else, even if Klaus doesn't die, I need the others to get away. Because I promised them freedom before anything else."
"I can make that happen," Bonnie promised.
"What about you?" he asked and scooted closer to her. He folded his legs and rested his left arm on the back of the bed. "What's your plan for saving your mom?"
"I'm working with her on it. Her and my cousin Lucy. We're doing it all by phone. Lucy's been asking the spirit realm through her ouija board. The risk with that is that spirits talk. If we're too loose with the information, they could get it out to living witch. The one thing we've got going for us is that most witches, most supernaturals, have either never heard of the cure or think it's a myth. But they want me to get my hands on Klaus' sword to see if there's a magical reaction when I touch it."
"That's a thing?"
"Oh yeah. There was a talisman that's now destroyed. It belonged to my great-great-whatever-great grandmother: Emily Bennett-"
"Emily Bennett? I know that name. I don't remember from what, but I know that name."
"Is it from your ancestors' journals? Cause that's pretty much where she shows up."
"No, my family burned their journals-when she got caught," he remembered. "She got caught, so they burned every record that could point to them as werewolves."
"So how do you know this?" Bonnie wondered.
"Because they switched to writing their accounts on this cave that's on our property. Damon discovered it last year."
"Yeah, I remember that. I went down there once. I only saw stuff about the Originals."
"That's at the entrance. There's more if you go deeper."
"Does it say anything else about Emily?"
Tyler licked his bottom lip. "Why don't I take you down there sometime and you can find out?"
Bonnie was sure she made quite the picture: squeezing her lips together so that she wouldn't smile, which just ended up being its own form of a smile. She bit the inside of her bottom lip and looked out into the street. She was warm all over. "So anyways, once I had the talisman-"
"Is that a yes?"
"It wouldn't leave me alone," she answered with a wide smile that lit up her face.
Tyler chuckled and felt his dick swell in yearning. She was absolutely beautiful. He decided that asking a girl to go spelunking with him to learn about her ancestor might be the smoothest thing he's ever done.
"I tried to get rid of it," Bonnie continued, "and it just kept coming back to me. I chucked it into a field. Next thing I know it was in my purse. Damon tried to take it off my chest and Caroline tried to take it off my chest, and it zapped them. And there was this other thing," she said thoughtfully. "Shane brought this tombstone to school for an exhibit, said it's thought to be the world's first tombstone. He said it was put on the grave of this very old witch named Silas. I helped him set up the display, and when he showed me that rock….I swear it called to me. I fell into a trance, I do that sometimes, and next thing I knew Shane was grabbing my hand and turns out I was about to touch it."
"Did he notice?"
"No. He said it was too priceless for me to touch. He said the curator only wanted him handling some of the items, which he'd told me at the beginning. I haven't thought about that rock again until now."
"Why do you think it was calling to you?"
"I don't know. But magical objects have...a temperament. That's why the sword might react to a witch touching it. I almost forgot what we were talking about," she said with a chuckle.
"You think the tombstone is magical?"
That was something else she hadn't considered.
"Why would a witch have a magical tombstone?" he asked. "Wouldn't they just have a normal one like they do today? Or maybe that was how witches did it back then?"
"I don't know," she answered. "But he was killed by a witch."
She told him Qetsiyah and Silas' story.
"Maybe she buried him out of love and then cast a spell on his tombstone," Tyler posited when she was finished.
"But why? What was the spell supposed to do? Why make it magical at all?"
"To keep people from finding him? Or she loved him but thought his grave should remain unfound by other people because he was such an asshat?"
She needed to talk to Shane about Silas and his headstone. Did magical objects randomly pull witches? When Elena's necklace had floated in the air and zapped her, there had been more to the story than met the eye. A whole lot more. Perhaps it would behoove her to get close to the headstone again.
"Are you okay?" Tyler asked. She looked like she was figuring out a thousand things.
"Yeah. I just wonder why I never thought the tombstone might be magical."
"Well, it's not like you have a buttload of down time."
She smiled.
"So we need to get the sword," he declared.
"We?"
"Yeah. I don't see why this can't be fifty-fifty."
She smiled. "Tyler, I don't want you to get hurt."
"I don't want you to get hurt either. And you can't just sneak into Klaus' house like you did Rebekah's. I, on the other hand, have every believable reason to show up at his house."
She nodded and smiled through her pursed lips. "That's a good point."
It was easy for him to lift his hand from the back of the bed to play with the hair at the nape of her neck.
Bonnie's vagina quivered, and she looked at the house across from hers. Jesus. But it felt really good, and the way he used his thumb to stroke her hair and the skin around it inspired thoughts of him using his thumb exactly like that on her vulva.
"Hey, I wanted to ask you something," he said. "Yesterday at school when we were in the bathroom with the others, what was happening to you? You looked off, and you sounded off."
"Oh. Um." She smiled nervously. "It was the spell." She slumped her shoulders when he waited for her to elaborate. "It had an effect on me, one I wasn't expecting. When I caused the blackout, I literally took the light. I didn't think it was going to turn out literal, but it did. So I held the energy that creates those lights….inside me. And it was….kind of like a….vibration."
What she was saying sunk in and Tyler raised an eyebrow. "Really," he said, his voice dropping.
Bonnie rolled her eyes, mostly embarrassed, a little bit hoping the information was having an effect on him the way him stroking her neck was having an effect on her.
"So in the bathroom, were you….?" He lifted his eyebrows.
Bonnie mimicked him.
He grinned. "Were you having an orgasm?"
She'd known that that was going to be his question and yet she still wanted to clutch some invisible pearls. The way he'd said orgasm….why wasn't her birthday sooner?
"No," she answered. "I wasn't having….an orgasm. I was just…." She cleared her throat. God he was cute. "Turned on."
Tyler's lips parted. The memory of her by that door suddenly became a whole lot better. He traced the skin behind her ear. "When you were looking at me while I was biting Rebekah, what were you thinking?"
"I really don't think I should answer that," Bonnie said, transfixed.
"I want you to," Tyler said quietly.
But there was nothing quiet about the look in his eyes. The porch light showed all, and he was looking at her like the right answer would have her spread-eagle on the swing bed. That look made the inner walls of her vagina sweat.
"Sexy," she said, though that spoke more of her opinion of his current state than his state in the bathroom. Of the moment in the bathroom, she said, "Strong. Powerful. You just….oozed…."
She was literally staring at him with her mouth agape. Tyler swallowed with some difficulty and thought about that mouth taking care of him where he needed it most right now. He shifted in his seat.
The movement snapped Bonnie out of it. She looked down the left side of the street and closed her eyes to get her bearings.
She tried for nonchalant when she looked back at him."So, um. Are you going to the 80s dance next Friday?"
"Uh. Yeah. Are you?"
"I don't know. I should. I've been feeling gung-ho about being a senior since the night I killed….Dylan. Today kind of put a dent in it. But I will be setting up the decorations after school on Friday."
Tyler nodded. He was going to the dance for Caroline, but now he was going to stay after school and help decorate for Bonnie. And he'd only been into decorating that school once, at the very beginning of his relationship with Caroline.
They sat in silence for a long moment, each trying to wrestle their rowdy thoughts.
Later, Tyler cupped the back of her neck. "Come here," he coaxed.
Bonnie first thought that he was going to kiss her, but he didn't lean forward when she scooted closer. Instead, she found herself being guided to his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and she smiled. It didn't soothe her protesting vagina, but it was the hug she'd wanted earlier.
Tyler stroke her side slowly, up and down until she was lulled to sleep. Each slide of his palm on her body only bolstered his desire for her.