"Your mark, it's bigger than I thought it would be." Jeremy startled into a seated position, groping for the stake he knew he'd left next to him when he dozed off. "Relax tiger." Jeremy looked to the intruder, who was standing across the living room arms crossed over his chest. He looked young, maybe in his twenties, not much older than Jeremy himself. His brown hair was shaggy and unkempt, as well as his facial hair.
"Who the hell are you?" Jeremy demanded, getting to his feet immediately. This guy didn't look like a vampire, but he couldn't tell. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and the mark on his arm had Jeremy immediately relaxed.
"My name's Chris." He said, extending his hand. Jeremy shook it reluctantly, noting his strength. "And you must be Jeremy."
"How do you know my name?" He snapped.
"Easy there, you need to relax a little." He grinned. "I'm a hunter, see?" He showed off his arm again, "I'm here to help clean up your town, one vampire at a time." He flashed a charismatic smile at him and Jeremy almost felt less tension. Chris was a world away from Connor. Minus the mark he looked approachable, even friendly, which could pose a real problem for the vampires in town if they didn't find out who he was.
"Not interested." Jeremy said smoothly, getting up to open his fridge.
"Why not? This town is infested, I'm sure you could use a little backup. Besides what will happen when the only vampires left are the ones helping you kill? You'll need a hand to get rid of them." He noted. Jeremy snapped his head in the other hunter's direction. He had his attention now. He'd obviously been watching the town for a while, Jeremy specifically, which meant he knew about Elena.
"How much do you know?" He cut to the chase, pinning the hunter against the wall. Chris maneuvered out of Jeremy's grasp and had him in a headlock a second later.
"I'm not much older than you, but I'm stronger. I've been a hunter for longer, and I'm here because these monsters aren't your friends, and you need help seeing that." Chris chided him, instilling Jeremy with just enough anger to elbow him in the gut and get out of his reach.
"You don't know what you're talking about." He argued. That was his sister he was referring to. No matter what she would always be his sister and he loved her, vampire or not.
"I actually do Jeremy." Chris said, raiding his cupboard and opening a box of cereal. Jeremy watched as the other hunter poured himself a bowl of the fruity pebbles, almost in awe of his audacity.
"Seriously?" He asked. Chris paid him no attention though.
"Seriously." He said, he mouth full of cereal as he sat down at the table. "I know that as much as you want to believe Elena is your sister, your instincts are telling you to kill her." He pointed his spoon at him knowingly. Jeremy opened his mouth to argue, but he didn't have anything to say. Suddenly he was blindingly curious about what the hunter knew about his mind and if he'd gone through the same thing. This guy seemed sane enough, hell other than the huge tattoo crawling up his arm he looked like a normal kid, just like him. He took another huge bite of the cereal.
"I went through the same shit, and it turns out my instincts were right." He shrugged. "You're gonna feel like shit for a while I mean that's just grief. Isn't denial or bargaining or some shit one of the stages anyway?" He asked, Jeremy stared at him blankly, stunned.
"Ahh whatever," He said, slapping Jeremy on the arm like they'd been friends since gradeschool, "grief doesn't last forever, and as soon as we get rid of this walking talking physical representation of your sister, the sooner you can accept and move on from her death." He said, like it was the most casual thing in the world. Jeremy felt his eyes sting with unshed tears and found himself disgusted with all this. He didn't know what he was feeling, or why Chris's words were hitting him so hard. His sister had died, maybe in some weird way he was grieving. But his sister was also still there.
"She died so you could fulfill your destiny. She would want this. Just like ole Ric wanted it." Jeremy stiffened at the table, the mention of Ric catching his attention.
"My sister is still there." He grit out, swallowing back the tears that again were threatening to surface.
"I know you think that Jer," Chris nodded. "Which is why I'm here. We're gonna get all those fucked up thoughts straightened out, and we're going to start with Elena."
.
.
"Wakey, wakey Stef." Stefan blinked open his eyes slowly to the most gorgeous girl he'd ever known and reached out to stroke her cheek. She was standing over him, looking at him like he was the only person in the world that mattered and it was so relaxing that it almost sent him back to sleep. He relished in the place between sleep and awake where his dreams lingered for a grand total of two seconds when he recoiled and shot up straight from his position on the couch.
"Katherine." He managed to whisper, his breath heaving through his body.
"Not who you were expecting? Did you forget about me already?" She grinned, walking towards him, swaying her hips in rhythm with her words.
"Planning on impersonating Elena today?" He spat, gesturing to her straight hair.
"Can't have everyone knowing I'm in town." She rolled her eyes. "Though that ship sailed when we let Caroline in on the secret." She shrugged, so close to him now they were in touching distance.
"What do you want?" He snarled at her. It was far too early in the morning to have to play Katherine's games right now, especially since he was coming back from the night from hell. "Where's Caroline?" He demanded a moment later, realizing whose sofa he'd crashed on the night before.
"Don't know, she never came home last night, why? Have you moved on already?" She smirked. "If I wasn't just a little jealous I'd be proud." She pouted, moving to touch his cheek, but he swatted her hand away.
"I'm warning you Katherine, go after her and—
"And you'll what? Kill me?" She held his stare and he swore he caught emotion in her eyes. "I'm getting tired of hearing that line Stefan, contrary to popular belief, I'm not here to make anyone suffer, that's just a perk that comes with the job." She shrugged.
"And what job is that?" He snapped. "I don't buy for one second you're actually here to help Elena or my brother."
"I'm hurt." She pouted, but her eyes were slits of anger. "I'm here because you need me, all of you." She said steadily, no hint of anything but reserved anger in her voice. She sat down on the coffee table in front of him and crossed her legs before leaning toward him.
"Let me be clear Katherine, no one has ever needed you." He spat. A smile graced her features that made her look a lot like the Grinch.
"You can be as mean as you want, it won't make me wrong, Stefan." She smirked. "Elena and Damon need me to break the bond, but you're gonna need me when it's all over." She grinned at him. "Because I know a secret." She leaned in farther, but Stefan stayed rigid.
"I've seen a sirebond break. I know what it looks like when the love isn't real." She paused for dramatic effect and though Stefan meant to get up, he was frozen to his seat.
"And when Elena doesn't come running toward you, and you realize that you literally killed your own shot at happiness, I'll be the one to run after you. I'll be the only one willing to put back the pieces you tear yourself into." Her whisper echoed in the cavity of his chest long after she blurred away.
.
.
Damon eyed Katherine, who was currently sitting in the passenger seat of his car as they drove in silence. He was trying to decide the most effective way to threaten her, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.
After he'd personally made sure Elena got to school and used the sirebond to make sure she wouldn't do anything life-threatening he swung by Barbie's to pick up his brother, when he found Katherine. While he'd been hoping Stefan would be the one to help him with all this hunter shit, Katherine wasn't a bad choice for the job. After all she needed them alive and she was a lot stronger than they were, plus the hunter would never see her coming. So with that resolve he opened his passenger door this morning and convinced her to come along for the ride. Besides, if he was going to figure out what Elena was doing before it was too late, he would need to keep an eye on her.
"Could you at least try to make some conversation, I mean aren't you supposed to be the fun brother?" Katherine scoffed.
"Times have changed, turns out I'm the responsible one after all." Damon replied and Katherine laughed dryly.
"Please, time doesn't change everything." She snorted.
"It actually does." Damon hissed back, but she rolled her eyes. He expected nothing less of her, but she still got to him just a little. "So Katherine, tell me, since I used to be sired to you and all, just how did you manage to break it off from the hole you crawled into in order to hide from me?" He sneered. He knew she wasn't going to give him anything, but breaking her in a little didn't hurt and it wasn't like he'd had more than five minutes with her between the time he'd been apparently sired and the time she declared her epic love for Stefan. If she was present for breaking the bond that was really all he needed to hear, it narrowed it down pretty far.
"Damon, you aren't even trying." She rolled her eyes. "And you're right not to, I want that cure and I'm not going to ruin it by trying to make you happy."
"Of course you aren't." He said under his breath, his grip tightening on the steering wheel.
"Where are we going anyway? I thought you said this had to do with the new big bad hunter or whatever." She grumbled, crossing her arms.
"It does, and since Jeremy seems to know literally nothing about his new partner in crime I figure we should visit the last hunter's lair and see if he left behind any clues." Damon said. He truly loathed spending time with this woman, but she would be excellent as a tester for booby traps that Connor left behind.
"Fucking hunters are so irritating." She whined as they pulled up to the trailer Connor had inhabited. She slammed the door to his Camaro and he winced. He fucking hated her.
"You're fucking joking." She sputtered a moment later, when two wooden arrows sliced through her abdomen. She stood stock still, her eyes darting around for the attacker, not daring to touch the arrows with her bare hands.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, this's kind of a high security kind of place." He smirked at her. She held up her middle finger to him and her jaw clenched in discomfort.
"As much as you're enjoying the show I can't really do anything like this so why don't you help a girl out." Her toned lacked the usual spark with her injury.
"Hmmm," Damon smirked, tapping his chin. "See I would love to help and all but I'm betting those arrows have vervain in them and you know how I am about getting my hands dirty."
"Damon stop fucking around and get these things out of me or I swear—
"Swear what Katherine?" He was now just an inch from her face, his playful demeanor vanished as he took a gloved hand and twisted the arrow inside her. "Swear that you won't lay a fucking hand on Elena? Is that what you were going to say?" He growled, she let out cry of pain. "Because if it wasn't I highly suggest you rethink your statement." He sneered. She glared at him and he gave the arrow another tug. "Touch a hair on my girl's head and I will take those 147 years I spent learning how to be cruel and make you wish Klaus was the only thing chasing you."
.
.
When Caroline woke up the first thing she noticed were the sheets. She hadn't remembered washing them and she couldn't remember the last time her mom had done her laundry. The sheet were softer and smelled nicer than she ever remembered, she half wondered if she'd replaced them. But she didn't want to open her eyes yet so she chocked it up to one of the great mysteries of life and breathed in deeply. She hugged her pillow tighter to her chest and snapped open her eyes immediately, sensing something was off.
Her heart hammered loudly in her chest as she bolted up from the unfamiliar bed, searching through her mind as to how she'd ended up in the opulent bedroom that was clearly not hers. When the memory of the night before struck her she groaned audibly at her stupid, stupid choices.
She'd come here because she couldn't be around Stefan who'd taken over her living room. She couldn't be around Elena who was doing only God knew what with two of her least favorite vampires. She couldn't be around Matt because he was living with Jeremy who had an uncontrollable desire to kill her. So she came to the only house where she knew she'd be guaranteed a sound, safe and serene night of sleep. She'd ignored the guilt that crept up on her as she walked at a human pace last night, giving herself plenty of time to change her mind. But she didn't.
She knocked on Klaus's door and asked him if he had a spare room. At least she planned to ask him that before her lips started to quiver and her voice broke on the word "do". She sobbed on his front porch with her face in her hands for less than a second before he pulled her inside. He asked her if someone had hurt her and after shaking her head no several times he seemed to have left her alone. She was sitting in his armchair, her head still in her hands when he returned with tea and asked her what had happened.
Her guilt prevented her from looking at him. It prevented her from confiding in him. She was with Tyler. Tyler whose mother he had killed. Tyler who was nowhere to be found because of him. She could not seek comfort from him because her guilt prevented her from doing so. However, she didn't stop him when he wrapped his arms around her and held her until the sobs calmed. She didn't even ask where he was taking her when he helped her up the stairs. And that made her feel even guiltier.
He put her in his guest room and tucked her in like she was a child before he bid her sweet dreams and assured her that if she made any sound at all he would come to her. He didn't try to kiss her or sleep with her or even get her to talk to him. He'd just been there. He'd given her a night of actual rest. It was the best sleep she'd gotten in what felt like a year. And she couldn't bring herself to regret it, which brought a fresh wave of guilt over her. She stood up quickly and righted herself in the mirror, listening for any sound that Klaus was home. She glanced to the clock and was shocked to find she'd slept through the entire morning and straight into the afternoon. Frantically she unlocked her phone to find several messages from her worried friends.
"Shit." She muttered. She hadn't planned this, but she was hoping that she would be back before anyone could notice she was gone at all. She snatched her purse from the nightstand and her heart fluttered nauseatingly so when she saw the note addressed to her in Klaus's annoyingly perfect handwriting.
Dearest Caroline,
Forgive me for leaving you, but I had business to attend to and darling you sleep like the dead. Don't fret, you are safe here for as long as you wish to stay. The room is yours.
Love, Nikklaus
Caroline shuddered in what she wasn't sure was disgust and stuffed the note into her purse. It was absurd. She couldn't just waltz in and take up residence at Klaus's. She only came because she had nowhere else to go. It was only one time. She reminded herself as she fled the room.
Only one.
.
.
Jeremy was panicking. Why couldn't he open his god damn useless mouth? No, instead he was pacing behind the school gym, sweating bullets. He knew Chris's plan. He knew it was going to be destructive towards his only living relative and yet he just could not open his mouth. This stupid kid hunter was not his friend. He was trying to kill his sister. He was trying to get him to kill his sister. It was fucking insane. He couldn't believe he even sat and listened to the plan. He told himself that he would run and tell her the second Chris was done talking but every time he tried he ended up sputtering and sweating and coughing like he was sick.
He saw Chris talking to her in the hall, he was practically flirting her. She didn't even notice the way that the hunter touched her ring inconspicuously. God why was Damon not here? Or Stefan? Or someone who was just the slightest bit defensive and observant. No, Elena, his big sis and the magnet for supernatural drama had to be completely oblivious to the new guy at her high school's hidden agenda. He kind of wanted to shake her because since when had anyone moved to mystic falls that didn't have some supernatural destiny? Never, that was when. Then he got mad at himself for not just telling her. It was his job to protect the only family he had left and not only couldn't he do that but he couldn't even give her a fucking head start.
"Elena you—
He practiced it again and again but never got past the first two words. They got clogged in his throat and he knew that this hunter bullshit was making him crazy. He felt delirious. All he wanted was to tell his fucking sister to take off that ring and get the fuck out of here before it was too late. But he fucking couldn't. He couldn't be responsible for killing her, and he was running out of time to give her a heads up.
.
.
"You can't just barge in whenever you want something Nik. This is my house and in case you've forgotten we aren't on speaking terms." Rebekah snapped upon her morning being disrupted. Klaus had been sitting in her living room when she'd gotten out of the shower and she was immediately defensive, a visit from her big brother usually ended with her being shoved into a box.
"In case you've forgotten you seem to be hoarding something that you're very well aware I've been searching for." He replied, not standing from the chair he'd lounged in while waiting for Rebekah to approach him. She wasn't surprised that he knew Tyler was here, in fact at the beginning of this whole thing she was hoping he would find her with him, but now that she was beginning to grow attached to him just a little she felt defensive of his presence.
"He's off limits." She glared at him. He laughed a response.
"Please, I made him. If I decided I was going to kill him he would've been six feet under before you'd even gotten out of the shower." He hissed.
"What do you want?" She snarled, well aware that Tyler was just around the corner, his breathing getting heavier by the second.
"Why don't you take it down a notch, hm?" He suggested. Rebekah stayed tense, waiting for him to make his move. He was too calm, which meant he had a plan, which probably wouldn't end well for her. "After all there's no need for you to get over-emotional." He smirked and she blushed in anger, her fists twitching.
"What do you want?" She repeated, no less malice in her tone than before, she didn't want to lose it in front of him, she couldn't stand to prove him right. Klaus shrugged.
"Well, for starters I'd like to know what you plan to gain from all this." He said simply. She narrowed her eyes at his casual observation of her living room as he trailed his fingers over her coffee table.
"None of your business." She repeated, standing her ground.
"I think we've established that it is, unless you'd like your new toy to be decapitated at your feet." He bit out, losing his patience.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!" Tyler blurred into the room and Klaus had him by the throat against the wall before he could finish his sentence. Rebekah was quick, but not quick enough. What was Tyler thinking? He could get himself killed and then she would have to go find a new leverage piece that was just as good in bed. She tried to wedge herself between the two hybrids, but her brother shoved her off forcefully.
"Pretty obvious what I've done mate but what I'm still curious about is what you've done and what you're planning to do next." Klaus squeeze Tyler's windpipe threateningly but he continued to flail his arms at his captor. Tyler was lost in his rage and for the life of her Rebekah couldn't understand why. He knew Klaus killed his mother and she expected him to be angry but this seemed a little much.
"Tyler what are you doing?" Rebekah hissed. "Nik let him down." She pleaded, shoving against him.
"I smell her!" Tyler screamed again. "If you touched her I swear to God I'll fucking kill you Klaus I will fucking KILL you!" He was hysterical in Klaus's grip, so much so that Klaus struggled to keep him still. Rebekah's eyes widened as she took in the miniscule scent of another vampire, a certain female vampire.
"If I was a better man, I'd tell you that I'd killed her." He whispered, the smile still proudly on his face. "I'd tell you that I tortured her half to death before I ripped her heart out of her chest." Tyler struggled and Klaus squeezed again on his throat, causing him to sputter.
"But since I think what really happened will make you want to rip your own heart from your chest I'll leave you with that." He grinned. "She knocked on my door last night looking devastated, desperate and lonely." His tone grew darker. Tyler's eyes widened in horror. "And she sought comfort out in me." Rebekah waited for her brother to continue but he stopped there and at first she didn't understand. He had every opportunity to tell Tyler he'd slept with his girlfriend or worse, yet he didn't.
When Tyler became speechless, she understood. Her brother was telling the truth, and there was nothing more painful for Tyler than to hear that he'd forced the love of his life into his enemy's arms.
.
.
Elena was pretending to do her homework while she watched Damon read. He was researching through old journals for any information at all about Silas and the cure, his back tense and his eyes focused on the pages. She wanted to rub the tension out of his shoulders, but since he would probably flinch at her touch she decided to save herself the embarrassment. It was already night out, and she was hoping he would get tired soon so that they could get into bed together. She was exhausted and she couldn't sleep without him, but she feared that if she went upstairs first, he wouldn't join her.
It was stupid to worry about things like that, she knew it, but she didn't care.
The truth was that she had been thinking about turning it off and what that would mean for them all afternoon. She didn't know what kind of person she would be without her emotions, and while Katherine promised to keep her in check, she wouldn't keep her from hurting Damon in any and every way possible. She'd already hurt him so much. He'd already sent her away. This could be the last straw for him. This could be the thing that made him decide loving her was not worth it.
She shook the thoughts from her mind quickly, Damon had proven to her over and over again that he would never leave her. But he had left her before, in more ways than one. What if Damon turned it off with her? Katherine would abandon both of them in a heartbeat, and she couldn't do that to Stefan. He'd come after both of them until he eventually went ripper from the stress of it all. She didn't think Damon would do that, not when she needed him to help turn her switch back on. But she didn't know. She couldn't say for sure what he would do, and that brought her to a new frustrating realization.
Damon was unpredictable.
She never knew what he was going to do, ever. He was impulsive and crazy and sabotaged himself left and right. She was afraid of what this would do to him, how it would make him feel. She knew that at the end of the day he would always chose her, but he was such a masochist that he chose to send her away for what was supposed to be her benefit. If he blamed himself for her turning it off and everything she did while her switch was flipped he might never believe that he was right for her. Her heart rate spiked at the thought. When Damon made up his mind there was no changing it. He'd already left her once, she didn't think she could handle it again. She couldn't blame anyone but herself though. She'd never given him a reason before the sirebond to believe he was it for her. In fact she'd pretty much done everything possible to convince him that he wasn't.
"I didn't know Vampires could have panic attacks." His voice made her jump. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn't even noticed when he'd abandoned his journal and sat down a safe distance across from her, his eyes appraising her carefully. She gave him a small smile and shook her head as though to dismiss the whole thing.
"Don't do that." He said softly, putting a hesitant hand on her knee. She shut her eyes tightly in frustration, when would he ever touch her like he had the right to? This sirebond shit was driving her out of her mind.
"Do what?"
"Your heart is racing, tell me what you're thinking about." He asked, his voice was soft but he stilled as he realized that once again he'd forced the sirebond on her without meaning to.
"Only if you want to of your own free will." He tacked on quickly, rolling his eyes. Elena smiled, but shook her head again.
"I'm afraid that you're going to leave me 'for my own good' before I have a chance to prove to you how I feel. I don't think you're going to give me a chance." She said. "Which is why I'm working so hard to break this bond because the longer we wait the more I feel you pulling away from me, deciding what I feel before I have the chance to." She sighed, exhausted, grabbing his wrist before it slid from her knee in a defeated gesture. He was silent for a moment, tense and calculating before he spoke.
"Elena—
"Damon!" Jeremy burst through the door to the boarding house and before he could finish screaming for Damon she was at his side. He was sweating and shaking and looking sick.
"Jer—
"Don't touch me it's not safe don't touch me!" Jeremy yelled gripping his head in pain, but she didn't move away from him until Damon wrapped his hand around her upper arm and forcefully flung her behind him.
"Jeremy what happened are you hurt?" She frantically tried to claw her way past Damon but his arm caged her from anything other than examining her brother from a distance. She started shaking in fear at the sight of him. He was disheveled and not himself. It reminded her of when Alaric had become his alter ego. This was her fear for Jeremy and yet another reason that she would not let him touch another vampire. She knew he couldn't handle it so quickly, his mark was growing too fast, it was too much for him.
"Take her and run." Jeremy grit out, grasping Damon's arm. "The hunter did some shit to her ring, tomorrow it's not going to work. He's going to grab her and use her as bait to kill all the vampires that come after her." Jeremy sputtered, as though the words were physically exhausting to him. "This mark is making me crazy, you can't trust me anymore." He threw a glance to Elena and her heart throbbed for him. "Take her and run, now."
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A/N Hey guys, i hope you're still following the story I know it's been way too long sine I've updated, the semester just really got the best of me. However after that amazing season finale I was completely inspired. Hopefully you guys will let me know what you think I would really appreciate it. I'll be updating asap!
Next up: Damon and Elena hit the road in the dead of the night for an infamous Delena road trip while back at home Katherine, Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie deal with the fallout.
-Onalee
