Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries
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Thank-you to everyone that reviewed! I've replied to all of you now, I wanted to make sure I did that before I posted the new chapter ;D You're brilliant! Hope you enjoy the update!
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"You're kidding?" Jeremy guffawed loudly.
Elena shook her head with a matching grin, "No, he said 'chunky monkey', I swear."
"Well, all I can say is that I'm glad it was you who saw him naked and not me." He didn't even want to imagine how awkward it would have been to bump into his very naked history teacher in the hall in the middle of the night.
Elena snorted into her coffee cup.
Jeremy looked up at the sound of rapid knocking on the front door. Exchanging a surprised look with his sister, he glanced down at his watch to check the time.
"It's barely six thirty," He complained, but nevertheless dragged his body out of the kitchen stool to answer the door.
"I can get it, Jere," Elena said quickly.
Rolling his eyes at his sister's over-protectiveness, he ignored her, shuffling his way down the hall and twisting the door-knob to open it.
His eyebrow's lifted at the sight that greeted him, "Rei?"
The pixie sized, black-haired girl shifting impatiently from foot to foot on his porch beamed up at him brightly.
"Jeremy!" She grinned happily, an almost palpable energy surrounding her that made him tired just to look at. "Good Morning," She chirped, and, without another word, invited herself inside.
He blinked.
What the hell?!
Shutting the door behind him, not knowing what else to do, he turned around only to see a take away coffee cup being held up two inches from his nose.
"Coffee?" Rei asked.
Jeremy scowled; that wide-eyed stare didn't fool him for a second. Call it younger sibling intuition, but he saw straight through that annoyingly believable innocence to the laughter that was lurking there effortlessly.
"Jere?" He heard his sister call, her voice a little worried. "Who is it?" Before he had the chance to answer, Elena walked through the open doorway, her brown eyes landing on their early morning guest with clear confusion. "Rei, were we expecting you?" Jeremy just shrugged at the look she shot him. Really, how was he supposed to know why she was here?
"No," Rei smiled reassuringly at his sister and Jeremy couldn't help but glare at the back of her head.
Why was she being so polite now? She'd had no problem teasing him just a moment ago. Sure, it had been a silent teasing but…it was six thirty in the morning! Shouldn't she be more considerate?
"Oh," Elena was clearly at a loss for words at the simple denial.
"Coffee?" Rei held up the same cup she'd only just offered him in his sister's direction and he could only watch with shock as Elena's face abruptly softened and she nodded her thanks, reaching out a hand to accept the beverage.
"I thought that was my coffee?" He raised an eyebrow when she turned around to look up at him.
Elena watched them in silence, hiding her smile behind what she quickly realised was a store-bought cappuccino.
Rei sighed loudly, as if put upon, "Don't worry little Gilbert, I got you one as well, no need to sulk." And she pulled out a second cup from a tray that he hadn't even noticed she was holding.
Looking down at the offering, he glanced between it and her small smirk of amusement with clear indecision before finally, with a long drawn out sigh; he capitulated.
"I was not sulking," He couldn't help adding as he quickly took the cup. Her answering over-exaggerated nod combined with Elena's snort of laughter not helping his wounded pride in the least.
"So, Rei," His sister smiled, far more invitingly than his stubbornly silent figure. "Not that you're not welcome here but, well, it is early…" And what are you doing here? Jeremy could almost hear the rest of his sister's sentence as her words trailed off.
Rei held up a hand, "One second."
Without explanation or reason, the British girl walked to the bottom of the stairs, grabbed the banister with one hand and leaned down so that she was looking up the stairs at an angle.
"Alaric!" She shouted loudly, startling them both. "Alaric! I know you're up there! I got your message!" She yelled with an impatient air.
Jeremy and Elena looked at each other with baffled looks.
"…Rei?" The shocked voice of Alaric drifted down the stairs, "How-what, I mean…why are you here?!"
Rei drew in a deep breath to yell back, "What do you mean why am I here? I texted you to ask where you were, you said the Gilbert house. What, did you think I was just asking you because I was bored?" Her voice, no matter that it was she that was shouting through a house she hadn't been invited to, was incredulous. "Get up! I need your help with something."
Jeremy took a sip from his coffee, suddenly far more awake than he'd been two minutes ago. Rei was standing at the base of the stairs, her face expectant and her foot tapping impatiently against the floorboards as they all waited for an answer from upstairs.
"…Alright, I'll be down in a minute!" The grumbling response seemed to please the short girl because she abruptly grinned and twirled on the spot to face them.
"Interesting wake up call," He couldn't help but laugh.
She shrugged, unconcerned. "He can't waste the day away with sleeping, there are things to do." She nodded decisively.
In that precise moment, Jeremy couldn't help but think that there was something incredibly adorable and endlessly energetic about Rei Potter that lit her up from the inside, like a small sun was in their hallway.
"Why don't you wait for Rick in here," Elena suggested. "Jere and I can finish our breakfast then."
Her face dropped a little, "Did I interrupt? Sorry, I thought you'd all be up, to be perfectly honest."
Jeremy rolled his eyes and slung an arm around her neck, dragging her forwards and into the kitchen, "Please, you brought us real coffee with real foam, you're my new favourite person."
...
"Elena," Stefan rested his elbows on the counter, staring at his girlfriend seriously. "Bonnie said that she's willing to do the spell to find the stone. If we have the moonstone, render it useless, we can save your life." Didn't she see that?
She nodded slowly, "I know that, Stefan. What I don't understand is how you expect Bonnie to find a stone that Klaus has surely asked other witches to track before. It couldn't possibly be that easy otherwise he never would have lost it in the first place."
He breathed in deeply, "I know that Elena, but you're not giving Bonnie enough credit. She's more powerful than you think. She's a Bennet."
"So?"
Shooting his brother a look, Damon rolled his eyes but nevertheless, stepped forward.
"What my brother is trying to say is that the Bennet line is a very powerful one. Bonnie might be able to do what others haven't been able to in the past. Especially, if it's close by."
Elena didn't look convinced, "Say you're right. Say that Bonnie finds the moonstone, we get it and we even find a way to neutralise the curse. What happens when Klaus gets here to realise that we've permanently destroyed his only way to undo the sun and the moon curse, what then? Do you think he's just going to say, 'damn, oh well, see you later'?!"
Stefan looked down at his clenched fists not wanting his girlfriend to see how truly worried he was that what she saying was correct. That even if they managed to destroy the stone, Klaus would kill them all for having done so.
"Klaus doesn't know where you are, Elena!" His voice pleaded with her to accept this fact, but he could tell from the rebellious look on her face that it was a lost cause. Stefan couldn't blame her, not really. It wasn't as simple as he was trying to convince her it was, and she was smart enough to know that for herself. "Please, Elena," He looked deeply into her brown eyes. "We have to try."
And that's what it really came down to, wasn't it? If they did nothing, they had no hope.
"I don't want you to do this," She spoke with finality.
Stefan exhaled loudly, his head falling forward into his hands.
Damon scoffed from behind him, "Too bad, Elena. Judgy already agreed to do whatever it took to help."
…
"My God," Rei turned in her seat to look at a groaning Alaric, "I don't think I have ever been so sore!"
She ignored the glare he was giving her easily.
"Don't be such a baby. She rolled her eyes, turning the corner when the light changed to green.
"I hope you don't think that we'll be doing this every day, Rei." Alaric said in a warning tone, but she detected the current of worry that he was trying to hide with a smirk.
"Why?" Laughing lightly, she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Is training with me too exhausting for you, old man?" She teased.
"I can't believe that you talked me into this," He groaned at the reminder.
He'd still been half asleep and in the process of putting on his jacket when he'd finally trudged down the Gilbert's stairs this morning. Rei hadn't wasted a moment. As soon as she caught sight of the yawning man she was out of her seat and pushing him out the front door, paying no attention to his protests as she did so. With a wave goodbye, a quick, 'I need to borrow your boyfriend' and a smiling holler over her shoulder that she'd left a coffee on the kitchen counter for her to a confused, but no less amused looking Jenna, they were off.
To say that Alaric was stunned when she'd informed him that they were going to practice self-defence techniques would be generous. As soon as her words had fully registered in his mind he was a spluttered mess of denials and hesitation. It was only her assurance that she had some background skills already and the reminder of Damon's non-too subtle threat the other day that had finally convinced him.
She smirked when she saw him touch the bridge of his nose gently, only to flinch away a second later. He'd quickly realised that her description of having some background in self-defence was more than true.
"You fight dirty," Alaric glared at her, catching the curl of her lips.
"Fight dirty?" Rei echoed. "What, you want me to give the other guy a fair chance of beating me in a life or death situation?" She raised an incredulous eyebrow at him.
His brown eyes widened, "No!" He shook his head quickly. "I just meant-! Ugh, never-mind."
"I've never had formal training before," She explained more gently, understanding that he didn't really mean anything by it. "I do the things that work and normally, tripping, misdirection and dodging, works." Rei shrugged, a little self-consciously.
It was true. She wasn't defenceless without her wand, she'd spend too many years living as a muggle for that to be the case, and she'd spent far too long with the knowledge that you could always lose your wand in a fight to have not become imaginative in her physical self-defence strategies.
Still, "That's why I thought it would be a great idea to spar and train together?" Rei said hopefully, knowing full well that he'd simply humoured her this morning and the decision to make this a regular thing or not would happen now.
Alaric rolled his eyes, "Don't look so stressed, Rei. I wasn't sure before, but as soon as you managed to knock me on my ass for the third time in less than ten minutes, I was sold on the idea."
"Really?" She beamed at him brightly, pulling into the school parking lot and swivelling to look the man face on. "Brilliant!"
He chuckled at her obvious enthusiasm, but really, he had no idea how much she appreciated this agreement. This morning had been more than enough time to figure out that Alaric had just as much to teach her as she did him. He wasn't the only on that had hit the ground. Plus, it gave her something productive to actually do with her time.
"I'm actually glad in a way," He admitted to her, gathering his briefcase of books together as he got ready to leave.
They'd stopped by his apartment to get the things he needed for school after training, since she'd practically forced him into her car without giving him any time to gather the material he'd left at the Gilbert's the night before.
"I was having trouble finding a reason, or even time, to practice all by myself."
"Makes me feel a little bit less of a bully in that case," She grinned. He gave her a wry look. "Anyway, how come you didn't tell me that you had a room set up in your apartment for training?"
With mats to spare on, three dummy's for target practise and a few weights around the place, Rei had quickly announced that this was a much better place to train than her back garden.
"You didn't give me a chance," He grinned at her, opening the car door.
She coughed sheepishly before fixing him with a small glare, "How was I supposed to know that all Americans apparently hate the morning sunlight?" All he did was give her a two-fingered salute as he shut the door.
As Rei turned the key in the ignition, her eyes instinctively followed Alaric's figure as he walked across the grounds teaming with students. As soon as she saw him disappear inside, she turned her neck to check if there were any cars coming, about to reverse. A sharp pain across her eyes stopped her.
Clenching her teeth together tightly, Rei narrowed her eyes when autumn leaves suddenly flew past her, kicked up by the same sudden, strong gusts of wind that were battering against the doors of her car. Looking in the direction that most of the commotion was coming from, Rei sucked in a breath when the sharp pain suddenly spiked as the sky darkened and the magic in the air strengthened.
That's when she noticed them.
Standing opposite each other, between an avenue of bare limbed trees, were two Wiccans. Bonnie Bennet and a male warlock she hadn't been informed about.
In silence, her body absolutely still, Rei watched the pair from her place inside the car, watched as the two teenagers broke apart, laughing together with wonderment and awe.
She bit her lip, hard.
It wasn't in her to resent the two Wiccan's enjoyment in their magic, especially not for the petty, selfish reason that her own was out of reach.
But it hurt.
She loved the feeling of magic rushing through her body, eager to please, eager to battle, eager to perform and make reality her every direction.
Rei blinked away the thin sheen of tears obscuring her vision, angry at herself.
She despised useless self-pity, in herself even more than in others. Forcing her thoughts back, Rei watched with interest as Jeremy Gilbert approached the pair, smiled at the look he was giving Bonnie and caught the small exchange between them as the witch looked down at her phone with a frown. She raised an eyebrow when the two deliberately turned away from the school's entrance despite the bell that had just rung, and headed towards the car-park at a brisk pace.
Feeling nothing more than mild curiousity, Rei turned in her seat to glance out the back window and reversed her car.
Pulling out onto the street, her mind swiftly dismissed any thoughts concerning the residents of Mystic Falls, far too preoccupied with thinking about her airy attic and the magic she was determined to master today.
…
Caroline watched Tyler descend the stairs to the old Lockwood slave quarters, feeling conflicted.
She hated lying to him, but what else was she supposed to do? She couldn't just tell him about everything that was going on. Stefan had been angry enough when she told him that Tyler knew what she was. Even the thought of how Damon might react to the information was enough to send a shiver of dread down her spine.
No, it was safer for Tyler if he remained ignorant, no matter how guilty her constant half-truths made her feel.
Following him slowly, she made sure to watch where she put her feet, internally cursing herself for her lack of sensible shoe choice when her tall heel slipped on the moss and she almost fell, quite a feat when one was a vampire.
"This is where you think your Uncle came to change?" She asked softly, peering through the darkness at the space surrounding her. Not exactly welcoming, she thought, eyeing the puddles of water and the damp smell in the air with distaste.
"Yeah," She saw Tyler nodding in the darkness without any trouble, her enhanced eyesight more than up to the task. "It makes sense. Plus, I followed him here before he…"
Caroline avoided eye contact as he trailed off, her stomach lurching at the reminder of her part in Mason's death and how she was lying about it to his nephew even now.
She cleared her throat, "Are you sure that you want to do it here?" Caroline asked tentatively.
He frowned at her, "Where else would you suggest?" Tyler spread his arms wide.
God, she really should have thought this through. When Rei and said that she'd help, Caroline had been filled with the biggest sense of relief. Finally, someone that had some real life experience, that could tell Tyler what to expect.
It was only in the hours that had followed that she realised her mistake.
If she told Tyler that Rei would help him with his transformation she'd have to reveal that not only had she lied about nobody else knowing about what she was, but that she'd revealed his secret without his approval or knowledge.
God, how did she always put herself in these kinds of situations? She only ever wanted to do the right thing but it never seemed to work out that way.
Caroline shrugged in answer, not yet having mustered the courage necessary to go through the inevitable blow up with Tyler. "I don't know," She murmured quietly, her blue eyes catching on the deep claw marks that had been scratched into the stone beside her.
"Exactly," Tyler frowned, carding his hand through his dark hair restlessly, his eyes distressed.
…
"Give me your hand," Jonas instructed Elijah over the small table, reaching out his own to the vampire.
The Original raised an eyebrow at him but, nonetheless, obliged.
"This will tell me where the doppelgänger is?" The smooth, cultured tone bore no signs of stress or impatience, as if he had all the time in the world.
Jonas gave a curt nod, "Yes, you'll be able to see her as if you were right there beside her." He explained tensely.
Bowing his head, he began the chant he had memorised, the words flowing from his mouth confidently, without error. The second he was done, Jonas quickly dropped the vampire's hand and if Elijah was offended by his action, he never showed it. Instead, there was a satisfied light in his brown orbs that told the warlock all he needed to know, the spell had been successful.
"You know where she is?" He couldn't help but check, this was far too important to leave to simple impressions.
Elijah rolled his crisp white shirt back down, expertly buttoning the cuffs before rising from his chair. "Indeed," he murmured softly, absently.
"To lure Klaus here we need more than the girl," He reminded the vampire carefully. "The doppelgänger will mean nothing to him unless he also has the moonstone."
"I'm well aware of what is needed to break the curse, Jonas." Elijah's words might have seemed mild but the unspoken caution in his tone was enough to remind him that this was not a vampire that forgot details.
"Then you have a plan to find it?" His daughter's precarious situation giving him the push he needed to question his ally further, however unadvisable.
Brown eyes locked on his own black orbs, holding him in a deep, ageless stare. "I do," Was all Elijah said.
"Perhaps I might be able to assist you?" A warlock offering help to a vampire without threat or even the request, it seemed surreal to him.
"For the last four hundred years not one lead as to the moonstone's location ever appeared. Under my compulsion, Miss Gilbert revealed that the stone was recently in Mystic Falls. In fact, its precise location was known to more than a few not even a fortnight ago. I expect it to be in my possession soon, it is simply a case of tracking it down." There was no unnecessary boasting in Elijah's demeanour just absolute confidence in the truth of his claim.
Despite himself, Jonas found himself nodding.
…
Caroline stared at the laptop screen with undisguised horror.
"How far into this are we?" She breathed, a part of her not wanting to ask, not wanting to do anything to increase that terrified look in Tyler's eyes with the answer, but the bigger part of her needed to know.
"Three hours," Tyler reached forward to fast forward the video, Mason's agonised screams and face the only thing that dominated the picture. "…Four hours, five-" His voice broke on the last word and he abruptly pushed himself off the couch.
Caroline couldn't pull her eyes away from his face. She'd known Tyler since they were children and she'd never seen him look so…lost. Lost and terrified of something he was quickly learning he couldn't outrun.
"Whatever that was, Caroline," He pointed at the computer, his face twisting into an expression of such horrified dread that she desperately wanted to reach out, to somehow soothe his panic. But how? How on Earth could he ever be okay with…that? "I can't do that." Tyler denied brokenly, as if he already knew the words wouldn't help. "I can't go through that."
Caroline couldn't force any words to materialise; she didn't know what to say, what to do that would make this right. Unable to stand looking into his tortured eyes any longer, her own sky blue one's dropped down, unintentionally coming to rest on the black screen of her phone.
And suddenly, she knew exactly what to do.
All her reasons from before suddenly felt so frivolous, so selfish under the weight of reality. Knowing what he was going to have to go through in some small way through Mason's recordings and journal, the frightened devastation in his eyes that had only grown stronger the more she had read and the longer they had watched and listened to his Uncle's screams…that she had even put off telling him for this long seemed an unforgiving evil in the face of reality.
"Tyler," She whispered, but he heard. "I have to tell you something," Caroline cleared her throat, working past her own nerves. All it took was one look at his scared face and the words started flowing from her. "I know someone…someone that can help you with all of this." She gestured uselessly towards the laptop and journal on the coffee table in explanation.
Tyler frowned deeply, not understanding. His eyes telling her that he was at the end of his rope, that he simply didn't have the energy for her to draw this out.
Caroline stood up slowly, "I know that I told you that no-one knows about me, about what I am...but, I lied." She admitted softly. All he did was stare at her, utterly silent, his face blank. She swallowed. "I only just met her. She already knew about vampires," Caroline glanced up at him. "…And werewolves."
Tyler suddenly staggered forward; grabbing her elbows tightly, his face desperate. "She knew?"
Caroline nodded rapidly, "Yeah, I was as surprised as you were. But then, I started wondering," Her voice trembled a bit, "How did she know? I hoped, Tyler, prayed that maybe she'd met someone like you." Her eyes were earnest, pleading with him to believe that she hadn't given up his secret lightly. "We were both so lost, we didn't know what to expect, so-"
"You asked her?" He demanded.
She nodded miserably.
"What did she say?!" Tyler shook her roughly, "What did she say Caroline!" He was angry, furious even, but behind that she saw in him exactly what she had felt herself when Rei finally admitted her knowledge.
Hope. And that outweighed everything else at the moment.
Caroline twisted her arms so that she could grip his elbows in return; she squeezed the tense muscles there comfortingly.
Taking a deep breath, the smile on her face was incapable of being suppressed. "She said she'd help, Ty." Caroline spoke the words slowly, clearly, wanting him to understand exactly what she was saying. "She said that she would help you."
…
Bonnie looked down at the map and scowled.
"Anything?" Jeremy asked.
"No," She admitted bitterly.
She could practically hear the disappointment from those around her.
"Damn," Damon snapped, his face a mask of anger.
She looked down, the guilt at her failure rushing through her.
"It's not her fault," Jeremy barked in her defence, and she felt ridiculously grateful for his words in that moment. "You were asking her to find something that even Klaus hasn't managed to find, what did you expect would happen?"
"You're right." Stefan straightened up from his place on the couch in front of the fire, "I'm sorry, Bonnie."
Hands tightening into fists around the map's edges, Bonnie looked down at the dog-tags that rested so innocently on the table beside her. Slowly, even knowing she shouldn't, that she had no right, her fingers stretched out and dragged Luka's talisman into her palm.
She looked up at her audience with determination blazing brightly in her hazel-green eyes. "Let me try again."
"Bonnie, no-!" Jeremy started forward, a worried look on his face, but she paid him no mind.
The exhaustion that had seemed so deeply entrenched in her bones suddenly vanished as Luka's power poured into her. Closing her eyes, she dived back into the spell, murmuring the words, willing it to work, all the while trailing her fingers nervously over the dog-tags she held so tightly in her hand.
…
At the sound of a car pulling up outside her house, Rei glanced up from her novel. The distinct sound of tires on pebbles had been an unexpected security she'd been pleased to discover, one that she knew would come in handy in the future.
Marking her place, she placed the book beside her on the couch and stood up, walking towards the door. She could hear their approaching voices through the wood and couldn't help but listen, old habits die hard apparently.
"…She won't tell anyone!"
"How do you know? I thought you wouldn't tell anyone, either."
"So, what? You wish I hadn't? Is that it, Tyler?"
"I don't know, Caroline!"
"You can trust her."
"How do you know? You said so yourself, you've just met her!"
"I-I just know, Ty."
Rei shook her head with silent disbelief, Miss Forbes was not like any vampire she'd ever heard of, she was so…innocent. Pulling open the front door, she took in the surprised faces that snapped towards her with a raised eyebrow.
The pair was standing opposite each other, clearly having abandoned their walk to her door in favour of arguing with each other.
"Aren't you going to come in?" She asked, leaning against the door frame with a casualness that was in no way mimicked by the stressed two she was regarding.
Caroline's eyes widened at her silent show of trust, and Rei noted the happiness that flashed across sky blue orbs with more pleasure than she thought she'd feel.
"Thanks Rei," The blonde smiled tiredly before taking Tyler by the elbow and pulling him inside.
She shut the door behind them.
Already having decided that it would be best to jump straight into things, she gestured for them both to follow her through the house, using the time to discreetly observe the newly turned werewolf for herself.
He looked...restless.
"You alright, Tyler?" Rei made sure both her words and tone were informal, hoping it might ease some of his discomfort.
"Guess it depends on what your definition of 'alight' is," He replied tightly.
She sighed, she'd expected some measure of distrust from him, especially if Caroline was indeed correct and he had no information about the change.
"Well," Rei drew the word out as she bent down to pull up the dead bolt at the base of one of her floor to ceiling glass panels, pulling it open. "I haven't heard about any fights that the Mayor's son has gotten into recently, that's something."
"What do you mean?" He immediately demanded, in a way that told her she'd accidently hit a nerve.
"I just meant that werewolves find it difficult at the best of times to control their temper this close to the full moon. And that's true for the ones that have been turning for years and know what to expect. That you've managed to control yourself as well as you have is something you should feel proud of." He didn't look persuaded, but at the same time she saw the interest in his eyes at the evidence of her knowledge, and smiled gently. "Come on, I want to show you something." Rei stepped outside, crossing her deck. "I don't know what Caroline told you-"
"Don't worry," The blonde interrupted quickly, "I told him that you wanted it kept a secret," She said seriously.
Rei chuckled, walking down the five steps until her feet hit soft grass. "Thank-you Caroline, I appreciate that. I was actually asking if you told Tyler that I don't know everything." She didn't want to give them the wrong impression. She'd never met a muggle werewolf before; all that she told them would be based off her world's lycanthropes.
Tyler came up to her side, exhaling loudly, "She did tell me," He admitted softly and Rei couldn't help glancing up at him, surprised by the vulnerable emotion he'd exposed. "But," He looked at her hopefully, "Caroline did say that you knew someone? Someone…like me?"
Remus's gentle, weathered face floated across her mind's eye and she had to clear her throat, taking the moment to push back the rush of memories. This wasn't about her.
"I did," Rei nodded slowly.
They were all walking slowly across the lawn now, Tyler in between the two of them as Caroline's curious eyes blinked at her from around him.
Some of the tension seemed to leave him at her assurance, and that's when the questions that she'd been expecting started to fall from his lips. "You said that my emotions are hard to control near the full moon?" He asked, seeking clarification.
"Yes, the closer you are to the time of your change, the closer to the surface your inner wolf." Rei stated the fact with a nod.
He frowned, "Inner wolf?"
"You're not a werewolf one night a month, Tyler. The wolf is a part of you now. A part that is always there. Those few hours that that part of you has control is when you transform. Even so, haven't you noticed changes? As you are now you should be faster, stronger, more agile."
She saw him glance at a quiet Caroline, "Yeah, I have."
"Vampires are stronger than wolves," She informed them, though she had a feeling that they both already knew this fact. The awkward way they both abruptly broke eye contact was enough to tell her that she was right in her theory.
Tyler breathed in deeply, withdrawing a book from his pocket and holding it out to her silently. Rei frowned down at the worn pages but, all the same, took the offering. The pages fell open and her emerald eyes took in the words quickly.
"I thought I'd pass out. I should have passed out. It would have been easier, the pain was such that I should have…but I never did."
"…I was awake for all of it, for every broken bone, every agonising minute; there was no way to escape the pain."
"It was the worst night of my life."
Rei closed the book with a snap.
"How am I supposed to prepare for that?" Tyler demanded harshly. "My Uncle spent hours, every month, in unimaginable pain. How am I supposed to go through life without dreading the passing of every day knowing that it brings me closer to that?!"
Rei stopped.
Spinning on her heel, she moved so that she was directly in front of him.
"I am not, for one moment, pretending that your life hasn't changed. It has. What happened to you is a tragedy, Tyler. It's awful and it's scary, I know that. But I also know that you can't change it. No matter how much you might want to, you can't." She whispered the last word with untold sadness in her eyes, the memory of Remus's premature grey hair, slumped shoulders and ugly scars pulling at her heart.
Tyler stared at her, his eyes glassy, his mouth thin from the effort to hold in his emotions.
Great Merlin, but sometimes she hated the world.
"It's not fair," He finally croaked.
From the corner of her eye Rei could see an anxious Caroline wringing her hands with obvious distress.
"No, it's not." The fact that she wasn't trying to make it sound better than it was seemed to surprise Tyler. But she'd never be able to do something so cruel. "I can try to answer any questions you might have." Rei said softly. "I will try and help you with your transformation and I can be here for you." The young man just stared at her in silence. "If you want me to."
"And me, Ty," Caroline piped up, her sky blue orbs filled with tears. "I'm here you for you as well."
She saw him swallow, saw the muscles in his throat working, and felt a fierce relief when he finally nodded and said, "What did you want to show us?"
Rei inhaled deeply, trying to settle her emotions. A calm, composed attitude would help Tyler the most right now. He didn't need useless sympathy; he needed answers and a plan. She could give him that.
"My friend, the one I told you was a werewolf," She began, resuming her trek across her large lawn and into the trees. "He was turned very young. By the time I knew him and saw him change, he'd been through at least two decades of transformations."
"Wow," Caroline breathed, both impressed and horrified at the same time. "Where is he now?"
Rei stumbled, not having expected the question, Tyler caught her.
"You okay?" He asked, his forehead wrinkled.
Caroline's face, despite not knowing the reason why, held a look of remorse that Rei was quick to wave aside. Merlin knows, it wasn't her fault.
"He died recently," She spoke softly, tugging gently out of Tyler's hold and continuing on through the trees towards their destination.
Tyler's head snapped up, "From-?"
"No," She shook her head. "Being a werewolf didn't kill him." But at the back of her mind, she scoffed. The memory of how he'd laid there, silver knife sticking out of his chest, dead grey eyes staring up at her unseeingly and thought, that was exactly what killed him.
"There's no way to minimise the pain? To knock me out?" Tyler questioned with hopeful eyes.
Rei sighed, "Not that I know of. With the wolf being close to the surface, any sedatives that you inject yourself with are burned up quickly in your system. The wolf wants to get out. It wants to roam free and hunt. You're not a monster Tyler, neither is your wolf. But it is a predator, and a lethal one at that."
A small house began to take shape in front of them, the trees thinning out around them, evidence of the long-time logging that had occurred in this area.
For the first time really, Caroline spoke up, "He won't have any control when he's a wolf then?" She asked, flashing an apologetic look at the boy walking beside her.
"No, he won't. Which is why, most of your kind spend limitless energy and time working out a way to make sure they won't accidentally hurt someone."
Tyler was nodding as she talked, "My family has an old estate. I was thinking I could go there. I'm going to the hardware store tomorrow to get chains that can…well," He shrugged uncomfortably.
"Good thinking," She complimented, both genuinely surprised that he'd managed to think that far ahead through his panic, and also because he needed to know that she wasn't just running rough-shod over his plans. "But I think I can help better that plan."
Rei smiled at him warmly and pointed towards the cottage that they'd finally reached.
"Um," Tyler glanced down at a surprised looking Caroline before shifting his gaze to Rei. "You want me to change here? I'm not sure-I mean, there are windows here. Is that really going to be enough-?"
"Calm down," She laughed softly, even though nothing about this situation was funny. "When Caroline told me about you yesterday I went and got some supplies and a dozen few workmen. You'd be surprised what money can get done for you in such a short amount of time."
Rei approached the simple wooden door, extracting a key from her pocket as she went. Twisting her wrist, she heard the tell-tale click of the lock and pushed against the wood, stepping inside.
"You can come in, Caroline," She invited without turning around.
Crossing a small kitchen and living area, she pulled open a second door on the other side of the room; this one solid and sturdy in appearance. Rei immediately turned around to watch Tyler's reaction as he stepped hesitantly over the threshold, hoping that in some small way, this might help ease some of his fear and dread at what was coming.
Caroline gasped loudly. Turning in a full circle, her wide blue eyes took in the enormous room that Rei had had specially built onto the back of the cottage, her mouth open. "So much better than the wet, musty Lockwood cellar, that's for sure," The blonde whistled approvingly.
While she gnawed on her bottom lip nervously, emerald eyes watched Tyler as the young man, looking at a loss for words, took in every inch of the modern, fortified structure in absolute silence.
Light brown eyes suddenly landed on her, holding her with the intensity of his gaze.
"...Thank-you."
…
"I killed you, you're dead." Damon stated with far more confidence and bravado than he felt entitled to. It wasn't everyday that a vampire came back from the dead, or un-dead, as it were.
"For centuries now," Elijah spoke without inflection, his eyes almost bored as they regarded him.
Damon clenched his jaw against the aching fury that sparked in him as Rose blurred away, leaving them behind in her flee for safety.
"...We were going to bring her to you. For Klaus. He would want to see her."
He watched everything closely, knowing that the strike would come hard and fast and if he wanted to live through this and get Elena to safety, he needed to see it coming.
"Does anyone know you're here?"
"No."
For the first time, Damon saw an expression on that chillingly blank face. Elijah smile. "Then you have been extremely helpful."
Without warning, he reached forward and plunged a hand into each vampire's chest, ripping their hearts free of their now destroyed rib cages with an ease that was, frankly, disturbing.
When Elijah's gaze drifted towards Elena, Damon's pulse picked up speed and he deliberately stepped forward, cutting off his line of sight. The vampire's lips pulled up in the barest hint of a smirk, his eyes flashing with an amusement that Damon couldn't place.
Without another word, he was gone.
No explanation, no threat, no revenge, he simply left.
Damon could hear Elena's heartbeat slowing, the instinctive human response whenever the danger had passed. Ice blue eyes never left the empty doorway, the muscles in his shoulders remaining tense and hard.
"Damon?" Elena called softly, not knowing why he wasn't doing anything, wasn't saying anything.
And he couldn't tell her why; he didn't want to frighten her, despite her suicidal actions today.
Because when those brown eyes had looked at him, sparing him a second's worth of attention, Damon had glimpsed something; something he recognised, something he was intimately familiar with.
It was the look of someone who had nothing to fear. A confidence that was only achieved when you knew, beyond any doubt, that you were superior.
He swallowed past the lump in his throat with difficulty. Exactly how powerful was Elijah? Because Damon knew from experience that that particular confidence couldn't be feigned. It wasn't based on ego or malice, but fact. It was the same look he wore, the same way he felt, when he was hunting.
Hunting a meal.
To see it directed towards him was…
"…We need to go."
…
(GRIN) Things are heating up, aren't they?
