Chapter 10

"What is it?" Elena demanded, seeing the pale look on Alaric's face.

Alaric could feel a cold sensation vibrate through him; his body shuddered and his eyes grew bigger. "We have to get her out of here, now!" Damon didn't waste any time following Alaric's orders. He quickly grabbed Elena's hand and barreled through the door. Alaric ran to catch up and Damon dashed into the woods, leaving Alaric unprotected. "Damon?" Alaric spun around, trying to pinpoint his location. A dark hand flew out of nowhere and covered Alaric's mouth as he tried to get away. His vision became blurry as his skin was cut open and blood painted the sidewalk. His eyelids slowly dropped, covering his eyes from the gruesome scene. Suddenly, the pain ended as quickly as it began. Alaric felt his body hit something hard and cold as he opened his eyes to reveal two dark figures fighting and one small figure standing a few feet away from them. "Damon?" Alaric questioned.

Damon growled angrily as he threw the vampire to the side and pinned him to the ground. "Who do you think?" The vampire quickly retaliated and backhanded Damon, causing him to fly a few feet forward but landing on his feet like a cat and pouncing right back into action. Fangs, punches, and kicks were thrown at one another as they fought in a furry of rage. Damon managed to get the upper hand and uppercut his opponent into the sky. Running vampire speed, he grabbed a long tree branch and jammed it into the vampire's body just as he was about to make contact with the ground. He watched the lifeless vampire fall to the ground, unmoving.

He turned to Elena and Alaric who were frozen in shock. "Don't worry, he won't be coming after us anymore."

Alaric numbly nodded, too petrified to speak. Damon grabbed Elena's hand and continued to walk towards the boarding house but at a slower pace. Stefan met up with them on the front lawn, looking apprehensive. Elena walked up to Stefan and wrapped her arms around him, allowing herself to cry. Stefan caught the looks of trepidation passing over Damon and Alaric's faces. "What happened?" he asked, while rubbing Elena's back soothingly.

Damon exhaled sharply. "Jenna and Jeremy are dead."

Stefan's eyes widened and looked back at the panic-stricken Elena. "And," Damon handed Stefan the note they found by Jenna's corpse, "we found this next to Jenna's body."

Stefan skimmed through the note and shoved it into his pocket, his emerald eyes burning with green fire. "They're not going to touch her. I'll make sure of that."

He softly ran his fingers through Elena's delicate brown hair and kissed her temple lightly. The front door of the boarding house swung open and Nina ran out, Kat and Malese at her heels. "What happened? Is everyone ok?"

Stefan slowly started to walk back towards the house with Elena nestled in his arms. "I'll explain inside."

Damon and Alaric followed them gravely inside, both looking severely apprehensive as the door slammed behind them. Nina, Kat, Malese, and the rest of the cast were waiting intently. They listened as Stefan retold them what Damon had told him moments ago. A chorus of gasps and whispers broke out as Stefan finished explaining. Elena buried her face deeper into Stefan's chest, crying harder as the reality of the situation hit her hard. Two of her family members just died, and she knew that as long as Katherine was alive there would be more casualties. She couldn't even bear the thought of losing Stefan to that monster. The thought alone was too much for her. She couldn't take the horror and bloodshed anymore. She just wanted it to be over. She wanted Katherine dead.

Nina walked over to her friend, and as weird as it was to say it, the character that she played and hugged her tightly. Elena welcomed the hug and hugged Nina back tightly, feeling the sympathy and sorrow race through her body. At the moment, all she needed was a friend. She needed someone to tell her that everything is going to be ok and that they are going to get through this. "I promise we will do everything to take Katherine down." Elena smiled slightly, even though the words were shallow and had little meaning, she was just glad that someone was willing to try and help her.

"Thank you." Elena said at last, hugging her new friend tightly then ever. The last few days had been rough, but now that she had even more friends by her side, she knew that they would defeat Katherine and banish her from these lands as fast as possible.

Kat and Malese joined in on the hugging, waves of tears soon followed. Stefan and Damon watched, both knowing what they had to do. Enough people had died, too much has happened. Katherine had to die, as much as they were dreading it. "What do we do now?" questioned Malese, pulling away from the hugging girls and staring at Stefan and Damon, waiting for an answer.

Stefan rubbed at his eyes. "We have to find a way to locate Katherine. Then we have to kill her."

Malese turned her head to Damon, vexation clearly showing through her features. Damon caught her ire stare she was giving him. "I know." he whispered so softly she almost didn't hear him. "I'm not going to let more people get hurt."

"Yeah, and how are you going to do that? So far you've let three people die!" sobbed Elena.

Damon furrowed his brows together. "No need to start chafing at me. It's just a minor set back. Relax, it's not like no one important died."

Elena could feel her rage spike up and bubble over the invisible layer. "No one important died? No one important DIED? Two of my family members are DEAD and that's not considered important?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "What I mean is that no one who is part of our plan to take Katherine down died. Those are the important people."

"He's right." Elena looked at Stefan. "I mean, the fact that two of your family members died is heartbreaking, but we need all the help that we can get to defeat her. What my brother is saying that the fact that none of our fighters haven't died is the important part."

Elena nodded solemnly. "I guess I understand."

Kat smiled. "Look on the bright side Elena. You still have Stefan and Damon."

Elena smiled a little. "We need more help though. These vampires are getting out of control."

Stefan nodded. "Yes, we need to find a way to dispatch of all of Katherine's minions."

"I say round them all up and burn them with fire."

"It's not that easy Damon." Stefan retorted. "They could be anywhere. We learned that today. We need to be craftier about finding them before they find us."

"I completely agree with you brother but how do we do that?"

"Maybe there's some kind of vampire locator?" inquired Michael.

Damon dismissed that as soon as he said it. "There are no vampire locator. The best bet we have at finding her is to track one of her newborn's scent."

"But how are we going to do that?" asked Stefan.

Damon walked around the room, processing that question. "I don't know yet."

Kevin abruptly sighed. "What are we going to do?"

Damon's train of thought was broken by a loud crash and four vampires coming through the broken window, eyes staring at them hungrily and running towards Stefan and Damon. "Run!" Damon yelled to the cast as they scattered like ants to find cover. Damon deflected the vampires attack and threw one into the nearest wall. Stefan managed to hold off two vampires but they kept coming at them from every angle. Stefan dodged the vampires fangs and slammed him up against the basin wall, ripping his granite skin with his teeth. Stefan could feel himself being lifted into the air and was soon thrown into a case of bookshelves, wood flew everywhere and dust collected on Stefan's clothes. Damon snarled, throwing another vampire off of him but only to have all four gang up on him. "There's too many of them!" cried Damon as he pulled Stefan to his feet. They stood back-to-back and faced the vampires, staring into their lust-filled eyes and seeing the anger sweep through them.

A low ripple cut through the silence. The vampires turned towards the window only to be caught in a sea of glistening white teeth and thrown from the complex. Stefan and Damon stood, awestruck while watching the vampire being mauled by the giant wolf before them. Skin and bones were strewed across the cut clean grass. Blood splashed across the fine light viridity, giving it a new layer of color. The wolf shook its bright carmine fur and howled menacing, startling the other vampires. "Damon get back!" Stefan grabbed Damon and pulled him to the side as the wolf darted inside and tore apart the vampires one by one. The dying screams were all Damon and Stefan heard as they looked on in a complete daze.

Once the last vampire was taken care of, the wolf slowly turned its head to face the brothers. Damon tensed, thinking the wolf was going to come after them next. The wolf slowly bobbed its head up and down, as if agreeing on some unspoken secret between the two. Stefan looked on in wonder as the wolf galloped away into the woods. Stefan turned to Damon who was numb with shock. "What the heck was that?"

Stefan offered Damon a small smile. "You mean you don't know?"

Damon gave Stefan an incurious look. "You're telling me that you do?"

"That was Tyler."

Damon stared at Stefan, dumbfounded. "Well, why is he helping us? And why did he nod at us?"

Stefan offered a small smile. "It means he's ready to accept us and help us fight against Katherine."

Damon nodded, finally understanding. "So what do we do now?"

The cast members slowly started to come out from their hiding place, each looking shocked and panic-stricken prior to what happened. Elena ran into Stefan's arms and hugged him tight, happy that he was safe and wasn't badly hurt. Stefan held Elena close to him, breathing in her intoxicating scent. Damon stood there alone, thinking of the best way to kill Katherine when he felt two arms wrap themselves around his body. He looked down and saw no other then Nina hugging him. He stared at her in a stupor for a few minutes before hugging her back awkwardly. Nina pulled away and smiled innocently. "I'm glad you're ok Damon."

Damon stared into that face that looked just like Elena's and for the first time, smiled a genuine smile. "I am too." He turned to see all eyes were staring at them in disbelief. His harden mask quickly fell back into place and roughly pushed Nina away from him. "I don't need your pity." he spat coldly, glaring. "What are you looking at?" Everyone quickly turned away, fearing Damon's wrath.

Stefan shook his head slightly. He knew that Damon cared, he just didn't want everyone else to know that. Oh brother, when will you learn? Stefan thought as he watched Nina glare at Damon.

"Sorry for caring about you, jerk." Damon's head snapped to the side as Nina's palm made direct contact with his cheek. He rubbed at his cheek as Nina stormed off into the other room.

A/N: Hoped you guys enjoyed that! Next chapter coming up soon. Thanks for reading and I hope the action was good!