The next morning was Saturday so they divided up the chores. It was Tyler's turn to buy supplies and Stefan's to get the coffee. As he walked out of the little Mom and Pop coffee shop with his two to-go cups he was surrounded and hustled into an adjoining alleyway on the side of the building.
He was pushed against the side of the building, his arms pinned to the wall by two sturdy men. Another younger man and woman, resembling each other with the same dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and slightly prominent noses, peered at him. The woman put her hand under his jaw, clamping his mouth shut. She then surprised him by sticking her nose on his lips and then running it over his hair, sniffing the whole time. She then opened his shirt and proceeded to smell his skin, inhaling so hard he felt the suction of her nose on his skin.
"What are you?" she demanded, totally disregarding the fact that her hand had his mouth clamped shut so there was no possibility of him answering.
The young man answered her. "He's not human." He reached out a hand and fingered the bite mark on Stefan's wrist. "This is who I bit alright, but he's not infected. It's already three quarters healed so he's not human, but he can't be vampire."
"Smells like wolf, but stinky contaminated wolf." The woman shook her head, confused. "And it's daytime. Never heard of a vampire that could walk in the sun."
Stefan sensed him before the others and was prepared when Tyler rushed in and knocked over one of the men holding Stefan. He quickly freed himself from the other one. Tyler partially changed scaring them so bad they tripped over themselves to get away from him.
The young man and woman groveled with bent legs and lowered heads and Tyler, instinctively recognizing signs of submission, simply stood in a dominant posture.
"You don't touch my vampire." Stefan looked sideways at him, but didn't argue the point. They could discuss his proclamation of ownership in private.
The others stood up slowly and turned their bodies sideways not directly confronting Tyler.
"How can he be a vampire when he smells like wolf and walks in the sun?" The young woman, actually on closer inspection more of a girl, seemed to be the leader or spokesperson for the group, but all of them seemed genuinely curious.
"Long story. We don't want trouble. We didn't realize there was a pack here or we would have bypassed the place," Tyler explained.
The woman nodded. "I'm Tasha and this is my brother Josh. " She pointed to first one, and then the other,saying, "Tom and that's Joe. They're not from here. Just passing through and stopped for the full moon."
"I'm Tyler and this is Stefan." The werewolves shook hands with Tyler, accepting his presence, but wouldn't go near Stefan.
Josh pointed to the open coffee cups, lids askew, on the ground. "We ruined your coffee so why don't you let us buy you a cup." Tasha nodded agreement. "It's only fair."
Joe said, "we'll be hitting the road. We have a long drive back and we want to make it during the day."
Tom added, "there's a vampire nest south of here and it's safest to go through in the daytime." He stopped, gave Stefan a dirty look, and then elaborated. "At least we always thought it was safe during the daytime."
They quickly said their goodbyes to Tasha and Josh and got in their pickup and left.
The other four headed back into the coffee shop. Tasha and Josh were careful to position themselves so that Tyler was between them and Stefan. Tyler was greatly amused when he realized what they were doing. He whispered for Stefan's ears only. "Big, bad vampire."
Stefan just smirked and let it pass.
They sat at a table in the corner, the young man and woman with their chairs close together, as far away from Stefan as possible.
Everyone was quiet until they were served and then Tyler speaking low enough so that only supernatural ears could hear opened the conversation. "How did I not pick up your scent in town?"
"We're from two towns over. We stay out of here normally, haven't been here in around three months. We only came over because my brother told me about meeting you last night." Tyler and Stefan quickly looked at each other, both thinking the same thing – that explains the resemblance between them.
Tasha apparently spoke for both of them most of the time because she continued. "We wanted to find out what had moved in here and figured it was best to check it out while we had Joe and Tom here. Strength in numbers you know; not that we don't have other resources."
Josh grabbed her arm quickly, as if in warning. She looked down at his hand and then up at him and smiled reassuringly, as if to say 'don't worry'.
"So are you vampires or werewolves? When did you get here? How can you walk in the sun? Are there others like you? Why are you here? Are you looking to take over?" She peppered them with questions so fast they didn't have a chance of answering any of them.
All three of the men shared a chuckle and Josh shrugged with a 'what can you do with her' gesture.
She ended up laughing self consciously along with them. "Grammsie says my tongue does rattle on."
Tyler and Stefan looked at each other and Stefan said, "might as well tell them. They know you're different and we can't stay now anyways. Joe and Tom know about us and if anyone stops them or they talk then we're blown."
It took two more rounds of coffee for Tyler to tell their story. Tasha and Josh listened attentively, mouths open at some parts. It took such a long time because Tasha just couldn't seem to halt her flow of questions.
When Tyler finished, the brother and sister looked at each other, and Josh spoke for the first time since entering the coffee shop. "I think we should take them to see Grammsie."
Tasha pursed her lips, nodded several times in agreement. "We'll pick you guys up later on this afternoon. There's someone that will want to meet you and I think you'll want to meet her.
They said goodbye then and quickly left, leaving Tyler and Stefan sitting at the table.
"Did we do the right thing?" Tyler's brow was wrinkled with uncertainty.
"First of all, never ask a Salvatore about doing the right thing. My family doesn't have a good track record when it comes to decisions. But putting that aside, I think we did." He got up, putting a hand on Tyler's shoulder. "Let's get outta here."
