A/N: Less than an hour left until my birthday is over #team25, and I'm giving YOU a gift!
Y'all, my mind was racing with scene ideas for this story on Sunday. I had to walk it off like "Chill, we ain't there yet!" But we're getting closer :). I was tearing up thinking about Bonnie and stuff #spoiler. And congrats to Steven McQueen for finally escaping TVD! He's not even waiting for the end of the season, lmao.
Enjoy this chapter!
Part 35: Gone Spelunking: The Alpha and Ayanna
After twenty minutes, Bonnie was dressed up, made up, and coming down the stairs. "This isn't fair. You get to see me in my outfit before I see you in yours."
Tyler opened his eyes and sat up. He smiled when he saw her.
"Were you just sleeping?" she asked.
"Yeah. You look….not that bad."
The dress was black with big red, mauve, sun-yellow, and green flowers. It had a V-neck that was wide instead of deep, so he was seeing more of her collarbones than her breasts. There were shoulder pads and two skirts: a shorter pleated one that ended above her thighs and a slightly longer straight one that ended in the middle of her thighs. And he almost missed the bow.
Bonnie spun to show off the monstrosity. Although, truth be told, now that she was actually wearing it with the intent to go somewhere, she kind of liked it. She wore large, shiny black boots that made her feel punk, a Lisa Bonet style headband was tied in the middle of her crown, and she kept the jewelry to a minimum: two brown leather bracelets on her right wrist.
She did a little dance, bending her right knee, then her left, and bending her forearms right, left, right, left, snapping her fingers, her hair bouncing on her back. She stopped dancing abruptly and said, "I'm horny."
"Good," Tyler returned. "Now let's go on our very long date."
"Are you sure?" She came over and sat next to him. Bringing his hand to her lap, she said, "You seem tired. You did a lot over the weekend, not to mention the stress of hiding it all from Klaus for months. We can go out tomorrow."
"No, we're not putting anything off, remember? You're not. I can sleep tomorrow."
She gave him a pitying but grateful look and a kiss on the lips. "You're my hero."
At the Grille, Caroline occupied a table that was pressed into a corner of the dining room. If she happened to catch on fire and die, she wouldn't take any of Mystic Falls' good people with her.
Sighing, she wished that she'd at least ordered water from the waiter. She wanted something to do with her hands and having a glass of water nearby would be of help if, again, fiery death came for her.
She'd been sitting in her car in front of her house when she'd received the phone call from Mrs. Lockwood. She'd looked at the ID and considered letting it go to voicemail. She definitely had enough to think about, impending death and all, but then she'd remembered that she'd let Tyler and Bonnie's cheating cat out of the bag in front of the woman. Mrs. Lockwood probably wanted to check up on her. Plus, she'd never been good at sitting and wallowing. She was better at distracting herself. Thus, accepting Carol's offer to meet at the Grille had seemed like a good idea. She'd detoured from her house and headed there right away.
The Mayor walked in, and Caroline straightened her posture. She watched Carol smile and wave at the people who made eye contact with her, because, Mystic Falls being a small-enough town, she was sorta kinda always at work.
She smiled and stood when Carol was closer.
"Hi sweetheart," Carol greeted, and Caroline subtly raised eyebrows. Carol had never given her a nickname. The smile on her face fell away when Carol hugged her. The woman had only ever hugged her once before, and it had been stiff and more than a little awkward, and it had come about when she'd been thanking her for looking out for Tyler.
Still, she relaxed in the embrace and closed her eyes, now sad for a completely different reason. Why couldn't Carol be hugging her because she was happy that she and Tyler had decided to go to the same university? Why couldn't that be the current state of her life? Instead, she was man-less, probably down one friend, and about to die. And her own mother didn't have a clue about any of it.
She waited for Carol to take her seat, and then she sat.
"How are you doing?" Carol asked after she hooked her purse on the back of the chair.
"I'm good. Well, you know."
"Not to jump right into things, but I don't. That's kind of why I'm here. But let's-" she pressed her hands down in a slow down motion.
The waiter came over and greeted Carol. The two women placed their orders: water for Caroline, lemonade for Carol. As Caroline watched the waiter walk away, she spotted someone familiar near the exit. Her dark hair pulled into a ponytail and wearing a different set of clothes, she was occupying a table by herself, but she wasn't looking at them.
"Did you come with," she leaned forward and finished quietly, "reinforcements?"
"Yeah, just as a precaution in case Rebekah comes back to finish what she started. It was her idea. Tyler's put me under protection. Neither of us want the third time someone tries to kill me to be the charm."
Caroline smiled. She hoped the girl wasn't listening in. Kim. Kim, was her name.
"How are you doing in school?" Carol asked.
"Good. Uh, just fine. How are you feeling now that Klaus is gone for good?"
Making light conversation of Klaus' death caused something heavy to turn over in her stomach.
"Good," Carol answered, "Although I'm not feeling the difference yet. There's still Rebekah and her brother. I haven't seen Tyler long enough to see the difference in him yet, but I know that that's where the proof will be."
"He doesn't know you're here, does he." It was an assessment.
"He doesn't. And I've asked Kim and Adrian not to tell him."
Caroline spared a glance to Kim and wondered how well that would go.
"I tried talking to him about….what you said last night, but he was...defensive. Very defensive. He admitted to….cheating but implied that it was justified-"
"Justified?" she asked, as if this was the first time she was hearing the word used in a sentence.
"He told me that if I were to ask you why you two broke up, you wouldn't be able to answer."
Caroline closed her mouth and averted her gaze.
"I like you, Caroline. I like you for my son. You two are….a beautiful couple. And he loves you. He loved you. So why on earth would he think that cheating on you is justified? I'm just trying to figure it out, because I do care about you, too. You two were something serious, and suddenly you're not, and he's refusing to tell me why. He just wants me to accept the new order of things. So I thought I'd give you the chance to…."
Caroline lowered her eyes and folded her lips. Telling Carol about Chris wasn't an option. Tyler hadn't told her, so she wasn't going to either. On the other hand, Carol didn't look ready to make Bonnie's life a living hell like she'd confidently promised Elena.
And on the off chance that Tyler eventually decided to tell his mother about Chris….
"He said you didn't cheat on him," Carol hedged.
"I didn't," she quickly assured her. "But...I did make a mistake."
She struggled to continue and because of the uncertainty of who she was at the moment, she managed to be more sincere about her faux-pas after Chris' death than she'd ever managed to be during the times when Tyler would bring him up. "I made a terrible mistake, one that I didn't realize I was making until it was too late. In this world of ours...we have to make alliances. It's how we survive, and our biggest alliances are each other. Tyler had a friend, and….I didn't know he was his friend. Elena was in danger. Her life was on the line. Someone was trying to get her to kill herself. And in trying to save her….Tyler's friend died."
She closed her eyes and forced herself not to edit. "In us trying to save her, in me doing everything that I could to help her, just like I've always done for Tyler,….Chris died. He was killed, and it was the only way to save Elena. Tyler went ballistic, and when he finally told me what Chris meant to him,"
Editing!
"I mean,….when he told me what Chris meant to him,...I didn't immediately understand. I didn't immediately get it. I was just so relieved that we hadn't lost Elena,"
Editing!
She kept it. "I can't imagine losing any one of us. Tyler,….I guess felt the same way about Chris. The situation was less complicated for him, and he's never given me a chance to make it right."
"I'm sorry, are you telling me that Tyler would've let Elena die?"
"No! Oh no, that's not what I meant at all! I have no idea what he would've done if he'd had to choose. See, that's the thing, we didn't have another option. And he never seems to care about that part. We were running out of time. If we'd had more time, we would've made sure that everyone made it."
Carol mulled it over.
"Mrs. Lockwood," Caroline said, grabbing her hand. "I care about Tyler. I would do….anything for him. It feels like we've had each other forever, and I can't see anyone else in my future. I even thought of us as soulmates once. I don't think that our issues are insurmountable. I feel like our past together is stronger than….what happened." She needed Tyler to ground her identity. She couldn't lose him now when everything was in shambles.
Carol rubbed her hand. "Maybe he just needs time."
Caroline closed her eyes. "He might not have it. I might not have it."
"What do you mean?"
She dropped her shoulders. Of course Carol didn't know. She wondered if Tyler even planned to tell her. After all, it wasn't like his life was in danger. He was safe and so were all of his Hybrids. Did he care about what was going to happen to her? Did he want her dead because of what she'd done with Klaus? Had he stopped caring so completely and so quickly?
Bonnie herself didn't seem to care. Of course, she had to worry about her own longevity, but….still. She couldn't think of a time when Bonnie wouldn't have been conflicted between needing to go cleanse the house and supporting Elena. And it had continued after Damon had died. He was an ass that none of them except Elena and Stefan cared about, but, while not perfect, Elena was a different story. Nothing in Bonnie's tone had said that she cared about what the Salvatores' death meant to Elena. In fact, Bonnie had taken a jab at it.
And Tyler was spending more and more time with Bonnie. Who was feeding into who? Where were they right now? Trying to save Bonnie's mom? That would at least be good news for her and hopefully Elena, because it would mean that Bonnie would be able to think a little clearer with her mother safe and sound.
But between Bonnie's life being in danger and Abby's life being in danger, would she slip through the cracks? After all, the new couple had a habit of taking little breaks in the middle of crises. What if they were too late to save her? What if they weren't in a hurry to save her?
So just in case. Just in case things had gotten so bad that neither Tyler nor the girl whom she's called her best friend since before she could go see a PG-13 movie by herself cared that she might die for good at a moment's notice, she leaned on Carol and shaped the woman's view of what was going on based on her own fear of how seriously Bonnie was taking the situation on her and Elena's behalf.
"Something horrible happened today. There's this thing called the White Oak stake. Well, it's a Super White Oak stake now, thanks to Esther Mikaelson, but when a vampire is killed with it, every vampire that they made dies after them. It kills the whole line. Today….Damon Salvatore was killed with it. He made me, and he made Elena, and he made Bonnie's mom."
"I'm-sorry, did you say Bonnie's mom? Her mother? Abigail Bennett?"
"Yeah, it's a long story, a horrible one, and,...while I'm sure Bonnie will do everything she can to save her mom,….I don't know what she'll do about the rest of us."
"What are you saying?"
"This whole Tyler thing, the cheating thing, it's really….split us. I swear, ever since they got together and started messing around, I haven't recognized her."
"You're not insinuating that Bonnie wants you dead," Carol tried to clarify.
"No, I don't think she wants it. I just...don't think she cares as much as she used to, and it's really freaking me out. Everything's so different now, everything's so freaking different. She fought me today, like a physical fight at school, and then...she threatened Elena. She told her that she might save her from this. I don't think she meant it, but how can I be sure? I honestly can't be. Elena slapped her, and she slapped her back, and….when did we get like this? When did everything change? When did everything go to hell?"
To her surprise, she teared up. And once she did, she couldn't control it: more tears followed until Carol had to get out of her seat and hold her.
"I need help," she cried over Carol's shoulder. "I need help with this. I need help with….everything."
"I'm sorry, she went where?" Tyler begged to understand.
"The Grille to meet Caroline," Adrian said, seated at the kitchen island, his chip-eating paused.
Carol had told him that he was welcomed to what was in the house, and before that, when Tyler had informed him and Kim that they could stay in his house while they were in town, he'd told them to feel free to share in what was in the fridge. And he was starving. Not that he was going to freeload completely. After separating from Tyler, Kim had gone to Mrs. Lockwood while he'd ran to Klaus' house and broken into his safe. Literally. Smashed through the safe door. Kim had been looking forward to doing that since she'd agreed to Tyler's plan to kill Klaus. Why Klaus had kept a safe full of money, he had no idea, but they'd agreed to split the forty thousand between the two of them.
And then he'd taken the car that Klaus had given them and driven to the precinct.
"I'm not supposed to tell you, though, so, you know….don't let her know that I told you."
"Adrian, that's probably not gonna happen," Tyler deadpanned. He was still holding Bonnie's hand from when they'd walked in the house.
"That'll make things super awkward between me, her, and Kim. If you tell her, then she won't let us know the next time she goes to a secret meeting."
"I don't need spies on my mother. I need to know why she's meeting Caroline."
"Probably to make sure she's okay," Bonnie said, a little bored. She didn't care about Caroline having Carol's support. She could have it and keep it. If Caroline thought that support from Carol was what was going to help her get Tyler back-
Her expression darkened at the thought. Did Caroline want Tyler back? Was that what was happening? Was that what was happening? Was that why Caroline had outed her the night before? Nevermind what she'd done with Klaus, because that was just the icing on the cake. She and Tyler simply don't understand each other anymore. But she was plotting to get him back?
"Uh, are you okay?" Adrian asked her.
Bonnie realized that her mouth was twitching with the desire to laugh. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, smiling and shaking her head. The thought of Caroline, after everything that's happened, trying to take Tyler back was absurd. But if it turned out to be an absurdly correct thought, then Caroline had another thing coming.
"Come on," Tyler said to her. At the kitchen's exit, Tyler turned to Adrian, wanting to tell him to give his mother a message, or maybe he wanted to be alerted when his mother returned. He couldn't decide which so he left.
Bonnie lay on her right side while Tyler went to shower. She didn't want anything to flow down unless it was necessary. She was still horny, aided by the fact that Tyler had been rubbing her thighs on the drive over, bringing his fingers up far enough to touch her underwear.
She palmed the sheets when Tyler walked out of the bathroom with a light blue towel wrapped securely around his hips, water cascading down his hard body.
He gave her a nondescript look and continued on to his drawers and then the closet, unfairly unaware of what he looked like and what it was doing to her.
"Close your eyes," he suggested, not turning from the closet. "You can't see."
She closed them and smiled. She heard him retreat to the bathroom. She opened her eyes and listened to him brush his teeth, and then he dressed and, from the sound of it, did his hair.
"I forgot my shoes. Can you hand them to me?"
"Which ones?"
"Uh, nevermind. I'll choose them myself."
She rolled her eyes, completely unsurprised. He was serious about his shoes.
"Alright, you ready?"
"Yeah," she replied, sitting up on the bed.
Tyler opened the door and walked out.
"Are you serious?" she asked as she took in the white karate uniform and matching headband. "And you cut out the arms."
"Update," he explained with a big smile.
"I feel cheated."
"What do you mean? The Karate Kid's an okay movie."
"Okay? It's a good movie."
"Not if I can't watch it more than once."
"I expected you to be in an actual outfit like me. I like the arms, but…."
"This would've made more sense if we'd actually gone to the dance," he said, looking down at himself.
Bonnie pursed her mouth and grimaced. "This whole time I've been imagining you in baggy pants and an oversized shirt."
"Sorry to disappoint," he said with a smile, and he went to pick out his shoes. He decided to be trashy and chose his oldest pair of white sneakers.
Bonnie shook her head as she watched him put them on. "I'm gonna look like I don't belong with you."
"It's okay, babe. Your outfit could've been great, too, but you decided to look nice. I don't think it should count for the decade dance when you can easily be mistaken as someone who's into retro fashion."
He finished lacing the sneakers and stood. He spread his arms out as if to ask well?
"You overcome the outfit," she decided. She wasn't surprised that he'd cut out the arms. This was the same guy who'd dressed as a gladiator to show off his chest at the school's last Halloween party. "We would've been a hit at the dance."
"The karate kid falls in love with the….hot….eighties girl."
"Box office hit," she decided, and she stood.
"Of course we wouldn't exactly have been at the dance with each other, but...details. So I was thinking about tonight while I was in the shower,"
Actually, he's been thinking about it since he'd told Kim and Adrian that they could stay with him.
"Kim and Adrian are going to be here with my mom, so she's all set, which leaves you. Silas is in bad shape right now, but if you don't want to sleep alone tonight,….I can sleep over."
Bonnie smiled. "That would be great. As long as your mom doesn't have a conniption."
"She won't. I'll call her. If she was here, I could've told her face to face," he complained.
He pulled a duffel from the top of his closet, different from the one he used for his workouts, and he packed. For three days. He felt Bonnie's eyes on him, but maybe that was just his embarrassment. His face was annoyingly hot when he finally made eye contact. Yep, it had all been in his head, because she didn't look like she was questioning his overpacking.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Oh crap, we need flashlights for the caves."
"Baby, I am the flashlight," Bonnie answered, sounding like she was coming onto him.
"Right," he remembered.
All of his essentials packed, they headed downstairs. They popped into the kitchen for a brief moment, and Tyler said, "We're off."
Adrian did a double take. "To where, the time machine?"
"It's a concept," Tyler said.
"Sure." He glanced at the duffel. "You're not sleeping here."
"I'm gonna be with Bonnie, just in case, but I'll be coming here everyday."
Adrian looked at Bonnie, focused on the tell-tale gauze on her neck, and his and Tyler's demeanors changed immediately, Tyler's change a response to his. "Right. Be careful. Uh, if you guys need anything, howl. Literally," he said to Tyler.
"Right." Tyler stared at him, and he didn't stop until he'd turned around completely to lead Bonnie out of the house.
Bonnie turned her head to look back at Adrian. "Bye," she said, perplexed.
Adrian waved apologetically.
"What in the world was that?" Bonnie asked after Tyler slid into the driver's seat.
"Nothing," he answered as he started the car and turned the headlights on. He drove around the circular lawn and left the property.
"Right. Well, I want you to talk to him and Kim again. They cannot be here during this Silas thing."
"I can't force them to leave unless I absolutely mean it. Pack rule."
"Is it me, or do you sound just a little disappointed by that. Is that nothing, too? Scare them if you have to. Let them know that what happened to Damon can easily happen to them."
"I think I'll press on the very real possibility of you dying. That should do the trick," Tyler said bitterly.
"Okay, you guys were thick as thieves, last I checked. Thick as a pack of wolves! Are you that upset about them coming back? Are you still freaked out by how close Silas was to Adrian?" she asked, placing a sympathetic hand on his thigh.
"Remember all those times I said to you: taking care of you is not abandoning the pack? Well, apparently I was wrong. Or delusional. I abandoned them the moment I Marked you on Sunday."
Bonnie was shocked into silence. She found her voice and asked, "Are you not an Alpha anymore?"
She was pretty sure that a demotion such as that was something she would've felt as his Mate. And she'd been looking into his eyes on the couch earlier. They'd been Alpha Hybrid-colored.
"I'm still an Alpha. Still have a pack. For now. But as pack leader, my choice of a Mate is supposed to be beneficial to the entire pack. A witch who's involved in all manner of...stuff...isn't exactly a practical choice. If you die, it'll mess me up real bad. Which is exactly what you were saying when we went back to my house last night, but...still. Whatever."
Bonnie remembered what she'd told Jeremy those short years ago. It never ends well for people like me. If it wasn't Silas, it would have been someone else. It will be someone else, whether they'll specifically be trying to kill her or, more common, Elena.
"They still like you," he assured her. "They just don't think I should've Marked you, because it's not practical for the pack."
"It's not practical for you, Ty. We went over this."
"And I told you that I don't regret it. I still don't. I'd go back and do it the same way all over again."
She smiled and squeezed his thigh. "And that's what matters most to me. As long as you think it's worth it. Because no matter what they're saying, my death will impact you more than it'll ever impact them."
Tyler nodded, relieved by her answer.
"So what happens now?" she asked.
"It's up to them," he shrugged.
But he was way too stoic. Bonnie knew that he was feeling something deeper. "You're disappointed. You're hurt."
"It's whatever."
"I've seen how much you care about them, Ty. You freaked out when you thought Silas had hurt Adrian. When did they even tell you this? You guys looked fine at the boarding house."
"There were other things going on. They told me while we were on our way to the boarding house. Before that, they were calling our mating the change in Founders Hall. They saw that I was different when I went back to the mountain."
"You have a Mark on your forehead when you're a werewolf. I saw it."
"I know. I felt it. It's not like I know how to be a pack leader anyway-"
"Ty, you were doing just fine."
"That's because we needed to kill Klaus. But that's over. I don't know how to be an Alpha. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Clearly. I can't lead eleven people. Lena has one foot out the door, if she's not gone already. I'm not a leader, remember?"
"Okay, I have since completely changed my mind about that," she said. "You are a leader. I've seen you. You're theirs. And I think it's a good sign that Kim and Adrian came back despite how they feel about us. I should talk to them."
"Bonnie, you don't have to do that."
"I should. I mean technically I'm their Alpha, too, right? It's your pack, but I'm like the co-Alpha, right? Even though they don't want me."
"There's no 'technically' about it. You are their Alpha. But there's a ceremony that's supposed to happen where they formally accept you. Remember how they kneeled in front of me when I transitioned to Alpha? They're supposed to do that for you, too."
"Oh great," she drawled. "So there'll be no kneeling, but-"
"No. See, that's non-negotiable. I don't know of a single pack that has two Alphas but one of them is not accepted. And if there is such a thing, I don't want it in my pack. That's just grounds for conflict. They don't have to accept you. And I don't have to be their Alpha."
The second option saddened Bonnie. The pack didn't have to accept her. They never needed to say a word to her. But she wanted them in Tyler's life. At the very least, she wanted Kim and Adrian. They were all supposed to be redefining what it meant to be a Hybrid. She didn't want Tyler to be alone.
"I'm still gonna talk to them," she decided.
Little by little, Tyler relaxed his shoulders. He wondered if Bonnie really could make a difference.
They made light conversation for the rest of the ride, with Bonnie doing her best to make him smile and succeeding. She even pulled a shoulder-shaking laugh out of him. She turned on the radio, and he learned what song she insisted on listening to no matter how many times it played across the stations (and it played a lot) and which one she just had to change before the singer uttered the first word.
She learned his favorite song for the month (it was one that she liked, too), his favorite radio station and morning show, and she looked at him like he had two heads when she realized that he could recite pretty much every commercial that played on that station.
"Are you kidding me? You listen to it that much?"
"I clean my car every Sunday after church, okay? And while I'm doing it, I keep the radio on," he shrugged, mirth in his tone. "And after I'm done, I sit in there with the front doors open, chair all the way back, and I listen some more."
"Oh my God," Bonnie chuckled. "I didn't know you still cleaned your car on Sundays. I thought that would wear off once the car stopped being new."
"Nope. Okay, tell me something weird about you that I don't already know."
"That you don't already know? Are you trying to say something?"
"Yup."
She lightly smacked his thigh with the back of her hand. He'd called her weird so many times during 8th and 9th grade that she'd almost come to think it a nickname.
"Um," she drawled. "Let's see. Okay….so…..I went down to the caves every day for like two weeks after me and Jeremy broke up," she revealed, squinting in the darkness of the car.
"Wait. My caves?"
"Yeah," she answered slowly, closing her eyes. "After we found the stuff about the Mikaelsons, I just….I figured no one would go back. And they didn't. When me and Alaric had been working in there, there'd be these moments where I'd be hit with how quiet it is, even with us talking. It was like the quiet was bigger than us. It was the perfect backdrop for my horrible broken heart, so….I went back. I went far enough to be away from the entrance but not deep enough to be in the room with the drawings. I just sat on the floor, in the dark, and thought sad thoughts and cried. Especially after Jeremy was sent to Denver."
Tyler nodded. "That's pretty emo."
"Tell me about it," she cringed. "But hey, it was a dark time, and I wanted to be in the dark. Let's see, I haven't done anything fun in a very long time. Whatever fun I had always felt like, I don't know, like I was just passing the time until the next bad thing happened. I used to give myself a mani-pedi every two weeks. Like clockwork. And I was great at it. I even did some of the girls in school on the regular. And got paid."
"I remember always wore open-toed stuff in the summer."
Bonnie stared at him.
"What? Some of the colors were nice. Not to mention you had that weird habit,"
There was that word, Bonnie thought, rolling her eyes.
"Of rolling your feet. You'd like lift them in the air wherever you were sitting." He shook his head.
"Oh yeah, I remember that. I wanted to show off," she said, like it should have been obvious. "Now ask me when's the last time I looked at my polishes."
"You should take it up again after we kill Silas. I can see you putting on polish and preparing your nails while you're coming up with a spell. You'd be telekinetically going through the grimoires and only pausing to write something down."
Bonnie smiled. "Sounds nice."
"It's gonna happen," he promised.
They arrived to the woods and parked, and Tyler told her to stay in the car so that he could open the door for her.
"Are you the opening the door type?" she asked as she gave him her hand and stepped out.
"Sometimes. I definitely was for my first girlfriend. The relationship lasted like two weeks, so you know," he shrugged.
Bonnie smiled, and he went around to the driver's door to lock the car. She met him in front of the Buick, and he took her hand again. She gave him her phone to store in his pocket, and they set off toward the cave, relying on the moonlight and Tyler's olfactory sense.
"Is that something you want twenty-four-seven?" he asked.
"Well, I can tell by the way you asked that that's just not in the cards," she teased, swaying her body closer to his.
"No, I mean, I can definitely-"
"Not stick to opening the door for me every time we get in and out of a car."
"You wound me, Bennett. I'm your Alpha. You're supposed to believe I can do everything I say I'll do."
"Oh, is that how it's supposed to go?"
"I dunno," he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders.
Bonnie laughed and squeezed his hand.
It was surprisingly easy. It was surprisingly easy to give herself a break. All she had to do was do it. Only it wasn't really that simple or else she would've done it a long time ago. A couple of things had come together for her to be able to declare that she was going to put herself first for a night (or at least a couple of hours). Namely: watching other people put her first. That kind of support was catching. She knew that Abby, for one, would be glad that she had taken tonight for herself.
"So, how did things go at the house earlier?" Tyler asked. He took her hand out of his and put his arm around her, pulling her flush against him.
Bonnie slung her arm around his waist. "It went well. Well, you know. Scary, but then one of the spirits saved me from pastor Young's mind hold. It was creepy and disgusting in there, and Jeremy got possessed, but we made it. I don't need to go through something like that again for a long time."
He nodded. "And that was it?" he asked, placing a kiss on her hair.
"Uh, yeah. You know, we made it, and then we got out, and then…." She sighed. "Then Jeremy and I talked. We'd talked a little bit before we'd gone inside the house, too, and that had gone about as well as the talk after."
Tyler began to rub her arm.
"He's hurt. He doesn't want us to be happening. He thinks me and him would be better. He doesn't understand the whole Mate thing. It was a bunch of shit. I told him that I want him to move on, that I still care about him, he's still a friend, but our time has passed, but I feel like...he thinks we're temporary."
"He and Caroline can form a support group," Tyler said apathetically. "Are you okay?"
"No."
She didn't elaborate, so Tyler stopped walking turned her to face him. "Please tell me he didn't try to kiss you or something."
"No," Bonnie answered, shaking her head. "But he was using his mouth, though."
"And you don't wanna tell me?"
"He was just saying a lot of crap that really annoy me, and it wasn't the first time. While you were gone, before I realized the crystal's effects, he said you weren't good enough for me. I can do better. You suck for me."
"And he's better," Tyler said, more amused than anything else. "He can offer you something I can't?"
"He thinks so, despite the fact that that's a moot point," she said, referring to the Mating. "What's really annoying is that I don't think he's done. I told him today that I don't like it when he talks about you, but something tells me he's not done, especially if he doesn't take our Mating seriously."
"Yeah, he can be persistent," Tyler said. He put his arm around Bonnie's shoulder and resumed their walk. He remembered the back and forth over Vicky. Jeremy thinking that he sucked for Bonnie was amusing. It wasn't like Bonnie's father downplaying their love or Kim and Adrian questioning what they'd chosen to do with it, because Jeremy was literally old news. The ex.
Bonnie had summarily rejected the Hunter at the Festival when she'd told Tyler that he still had feelings for her and then proceeded to make out with him on the bench.
He didn't view Jeremy insulting him as a challenge. Not yet. If he kept it up, it would become a problem very fast, especially since his put downs left Bonnie in a less than stellar mood. Jeremy had no business airing his feelings about the relationship in Bonnie's face. There was a blonde vampire who would gladly listen to him trash it.
He and Jeremy were supposed to meet up to talk about Bonnie's fate, and he now wondered how that was going to go.
"I don't like him insulting you," Bonnie said.
Tyler kissed her head.
As they approached the cave's entrance, he asked her if she had the spell ready or if she was going to make it up on the spot.
"I have one," she answered. "It's one I've used when I've wanted to remind myself that my magic can do pretty things, too."
When they arrived, she cast the spell, the words unfurling over her tongue to transform the mundane energy in front of them into something extraordinary.
She repeated the spell until a veritable wall of gold baubles shimmered in front of them.
"How can you forget you can make stuff like this?" Tyler asked wonderously as he watched the dancing lights.
"You'd be surprised," Bonnie said with a demure smile. "Watch this," she said, her smile widening. She walked forward, into the lights, and broke through the wall to the other side. The lights reformed behind her.
Tyler smiled. He couldn't see her anymore, the lights were that numerous. He followed after her. As he passed, the moment he came into contact with lights, he was enveloped by magic. He didn't realize how thick the wall was until he was inside. Until he realized there was an inside. He could stand and literally be surrounded by her light.
Some of the baubles passed so close in front of his eyes that he winced away from them. Some of them touched his nose, the base of his neck, the inside of his neck, and some sparkled by his ear. They didn't actually give off warmth. They didn't give off anything but magic. They felt like her.
"Come here," he called to her as he looked up. He couldn't see the sky. The ceiling was a sheen of lights.
Bonnie spread the wall with her hands and stepped back in.
"This is….it's freaking amazing," he said to her.
She grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed him deeply, and then she stepped back, spread her arms down and bent her knees. She straightened and swooped her hands up and moved the lights that made up the sides of the wall to the ceiling.
Tyler could now see the woods on either side of them. Lights shimmered behind him and behind her. He looked up, and the ceiling was thicker. "Holy crap."
Bonnie licked her lips when a fresh idea bloomed in her mind. She gave him her back and lifted the wall in front of her to the ceiling. She faced him again, looked up, and instructed him to do the same.
She closed her eyes, her hands stretched up.
"Oh my God," Tyler said quietly when the ceiling started to descend toward them. He closed his eyes when it was too close. When he opened his eyes, black and red dots swam in front of them.
"Are you okay?" Bonnie asked, squinting when he rubbed his eyes.
"Yeah. Uh. You know, I can't really see, but I'm fine. Are you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. My eyesight's fine. I need to be better at this experimenting thing with you."
Tyler chuckled. "I'm fine." He opened his eyes and blinked hard several times to clear them.
Bonnie was illuminated from the bottom. When he looked down, he quietly exclaimed, "Oh my God. Wow."
Their feet were covered by golden lights. They stretched on either side, covering much of the ground.
Bonnie orchestrated the lights behind him down to ground.
"Bon, this is beautiful."
"It is," she agreed, her heart and mind light. "Thanks."
She mostly focused on him, eating up his wonder. Giving him her back again, she swept her hands in front of her, and the lights flew up and dove down the entrance of the cave, lighting their path.
"Ready?" she asked, not looking behind her.
Tyler could hear the smile in her voice, saw the confident cock of her hips and the coquettish dance in her shoulders. He came closer to her and kissed the wound-free side of her neck, not touching her with any other part of his body. "Ready," he said against her skin.
He went in before her and guided her down. He saw then that the lights had attached themselves on either side of the tunnel.
They made their way to the first chamber. Whenever they ran out of light, Bonnie swooped her hands forward, and the lights rushed from behind them to illuminate the way.
Tyler grabbed her hand once they were out of the tunnel. "You know, it pissed me off that y'all didn't tell me about this until after you'd done what you needed to do," he said, referring to the timing of him learning about the caves.
"Yeah. That was Damon's idea. He didn't want you interfering or telling Klaus. Alaric had agreed with him."
"Of course. I kept coming down here afterward, to make sure that none of you were in here. Apparently I always missed you."
"You would have kicked me out?" Bonnie asked, slightly scandalized.
"Maybe. Probably. Especially after the whole I almost got Jeremy killed thing."
"Huh."
"What, you would've refused to leave?" he asked as they walked to the drawings that had been left behind by the Originals.
"No, of course not. So, this is the Mikaelsons' literal mark on the world. According to what Elijah once told Elena, they have many more. Klaus loved to do stuff like this. And most of them are lies. This one might be the only truthful one."
"From their side, maybe. Once we get to the back, you'll see how some of the Native wolves and community members wanted the pack to come down here and tear them and their fellow villagers apart on the full moon. They knew they hid down here. This witch named Ayanna was one of the ones who told them not to tear anyone apart. Said there'd be consequences. They didn't trust her."
"Uh, I know Ayanna. I mean, not personally, obviously. But she's my ancestor."
Tyler looked down at her and smiled. "Of course."
"So werewolves not trusting witches goes back a long way, huh? Even before vampires existed."
"A witch created vampires. I'm sure you know that. The Natives called it a demonic plague."
Bonnie shook her head. "She wanted to save her family."
"And stole our gifts to do it," Tyler said bitterly. "But karma's a bitch."
"Is there something about Klaus' werewolf ancestry back there?"
"Yeah. And the Alpha was pissed about it. Come on."
"I'm glad I'm wearing the right shoes," Bonnie said as they walked on the hard and uneven ground.
"I like the way it smells in here," Tyler shared.
"Does it smell supernatural?"
"No. Not unless I shift. When I do that, it's like I'm connected to the part of my DNA that came from these people. I looked it up one day, and it's a real thing. Or at least a lot of people think it's real: that we carry our ancestors' experiences in our DNA."
"I think my grams said something about that once. She thought it was an interesting theory. But...I think it does make sense for you. Werewolves are all about the pack. Your family would be your first pack. It makes sense to carry the pack's memory, even from way back then."
"It's nothing specific like knowing what they had for breakfast on this day, but sometimes I swear I've seen faces. It freaked me out so bad when it first happened. I told Caroline once and asked her not to tell anyone."
"Oh my God," Bonnie said loudly as they entered the next chamber, smaller than the one they'd left. "Oh my God. Holy crap," she whispered. "Are these real stalagmites?"
"Yep."
Her first thought was that this would be a great place to throw a small Halloween party.
"Can you imagine a Halloween party in here?" Tyler asked.
"I was thinking the same thing," she said, eyes wide as she let go of his hand to go exploring on her own. "Okay, did I know before that stalagmites grew from the ground, too, or did I just forget?"
"The ones on the floor are the stalagmites. The ones are the ceiling are stalactites."
"Oh. For some reason I thought they were interchangeable. Ty, this is beautiful."
Her lights gave the rocks a pale yellow-orange hue. Somehow, the ceiling in this chamber was much lower than the one they'd vacated, though they could still stand straight.
Tyler put his hands in his pockets and watched her. "I had to look up the difference when I was going through this place. It's actually really interesting. It's another thing when you're seeing the real thing rather than just learning about it in class."
"Look at this one," Bonnie said, standing in front of a tall grouping of rocks. "It almost looks like a castle from a fairytale."
"That's what I thought," he shared. "Something you'd see at Disney World."
"Right? Exactly." She slowly leaned forward and touched it. Nothing extraordinary happened. Oh well. Not her family history. She had the witches' house for that. But the rocks were smooth and polished under her palm, as if it was man-made.
Tyler took out his phone and turned on the camera. He snapped her picture and got her attention.
Bonnie smiled and gave him a real pose, moving behind the rock castle. She stood between an opening and held two columns that were on other side of her. Tyler took the picture.
She asked him to take a picture on her camera, too, and he did. She left the castle and moved across the room. She hiked her tight skirts up around her waist because she didn't have anything that Tyler hadn't seen before, and she started to quickly make her way up a hill of rocks.
"Be careful, Bonnie," Tyler warned, surprised by how she seemed to put no thought into climbing the hill. "You're still into climbing trees?"
"Yup, I do it when we visit family out of state. It sucks that Mystic Falls has like no climbable trees."
"Huh," Tyler said, tucking the information away. "You look hot," he commented as he watched her strong thighs flex to carry her high and higher, her navy polka dot underwear bringing to mind a ridiculous scenario: her climbing the hill wearing only the navy polka dot underwear and her bra.
"Enjoy," Bonnie said.
Tyler swapped her phone for his, walked as close to her as possible, and snapped a picture. Bonnie whipped her head around when she heard the sound. "Uh, you better save that in your deepest, darkest folder," she warned.
"Yeah," Tyler said as he looked at the frozen still of her climb, his eyes focusing, of course, on her butt. "Note to self: create a deep, dark folder."
Bonnie shook her head and heaved herself up the rest of the way and stood on the hill.
"I'm gonna name this: hot chick explores cave," he said.
"Hot 80s chick," she said helpfully.
"Even better."
"You better make sure no one sees that picture on your phone."
"Yeah, don't worry," he said absentmindedly. He shared the picture to his email. He'd make sure it arrived later and then delete it from the phone. Then he'd move it to his computer. Or maybe his iTouch. Make her ass his wallpaper. He liked that idea.
On the hill, Bonnie could touch the stalactites that hung from the ceiling. Here, she had to stoop, because the ceiling was even lower. "Ty, these are gorgeous," she said. "It's hard to believe these have been here for a thousand years. Even longer, I bet."
"Some of them are still forming. In the back, though. I've noticed that some of them are taller than when I first walked through."
"Ew, that means there's still water dripping from the ceiling somehow. That thought isn't so pretty."
"It might be the falls," Tyler suggested.
"It does have different end points. But the falls are kind of far from here."
Either way, she let it go. When she was ready to walk down, she had to hold on to some of the rocks to control her steps. They stopped at a certain point, however, and her steps sped up almost beyond her control as she hurried the rest of the way down.
Tyler caught her and slowed her down.
"Whew," she exhaled.
"Ready?"
"Mmm-hmm."
She swooped the lights forward, and they followed.
"I love this," Bonnie shared as they walked. "I'm glad I didn't see this until now."
"You're the first person I've shown this to," Tyler realized. "I never got a chance to bring Caroline down here."
Bonnie stepped in front of him, reached up and kissed his cheek.
"And here we begin to get the real story," he said as they entered a large tunnel with writings and drawings on either side of the walls.
"Anything interesting?" Bonnie asked.
"I can't understand all of it and shifting only tells me so much, but this section talks about life in the community. Werewolves lived with mortals, and I have no idea how that happened. The pack protected the community, so that might be why they weren't chased out. They also served as, like, the law keepers."
"Cool."
Bonnie walked up to one drawing and touched it, not to get a vision, but to connect with something that someone had drawn before she'd been a thought in anyone's mind. She touched as she went and listened as Tyler explained.
The tunnel stretched for so long that Bonnie wondered if they were still under the woods.
"We're coming up on the biggest chamber. You ready?" Tyler asked with a grin.
Bonnie nodded excitedly. It took what had to be another fifteen minutes to reach the chamber, but when they did Bonnie's mouth fell open and her feet stuck to the floor.
"Biggest" didn't do the room justice. It was massive and farther down it split into two more tunnels. The walls weren't overtaken with drawings, not even close.
"Please tell me this isn't the end," Bonnie said faintly.
"No," Tyler confirmed with a smile as he stepped in front of her to snap her picture.
"Good."
After that, she was speechless. Her feet moved and she tried to conceive how this room came about. She wondered what the community did down here. She wondered if the caves had only been for the werewolves' use.
"This is where you'll find the story about Klaus' ancestry. It was one of the first things I felt when I shifted in here, and it almost put me off the place for good. Like, can I have nothing that's not connected to that douche?"
Bonnie smirked.
"But one of the Betas fell in lust with Klaus' mom. She fell, too, and one thing led to another. No one suspected that the baby belonged to the pack, except maybe, maybe Klaus' mom. 'Cause he was so White, you know?"
"Yeah."
"Then Esther flipped everything upside down, and after Klaus shifted for the first time, someone had some explaining to do. The Beta was punished. I won't tell you how. Everyone was convinced that him mixing with one of the pale people was what created the monstrosity known as the vampires," Tyler explained, amused by how right they had been. Klaus sure as hell was a monstrosity.
"Ayanna explained everything," he continued, "And she almost lost her life for it, because my ancestor was convinced that she controlled the village. On these walls, Esther's referred to as the pale stranger, like all the others. Ayanna's the only one referred to as a witch. My ancestor and some of the Betas would spy on the village for proof that she was like the witch overlord, because they couldn't figure out why she was with them," he said with a side glance to Bonnie.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing. Just sounds kind of familiar."
"Ha ha. Bennett witches: confounding Lockwood men for a thousand years. How did Ayanna escape with her life?"
"She fought back. Then my ancestor banished her. The vampires had attacked the community, and they'd lost some people. Ayanna had helped. She helped push them back, but….My ancestor told her she could never step foot near here," he said, moving his fingers over the immortalized images of the carnage.
"She refused to be banished," he continued with a frown.
Surprised, Bonnie said, "I'm sure that went over well."
"They were all furious. The mortals wanted the pack to kill her, but Ayanna drew a magical line in the sand and held them back. She threatened to shed more blood if they came for her."
"What is it?" Bonnie asked of his frown.
"Ayanna promised my ancestor that the lost ones would be avenged. That's him right here."
"And that's Ayanna," Bonnie marveled, delicately touching the image of her ancestor. The person who'd drawn the image, most likely Tyler's ancestor, had artistically placed blood on both parties.
"I've never thought anything of her promise," Tyler explained. "I figured she was just trying to save her neck, but now that I'm with you and I know all this stuff about prophecies,….I wonder if she really did do something."
"What, like….make sure you'd eventually kill Klaus?" Bonnie asked doubtfully.
"Or at least get the chance. What, is that a crazy idea? I did kill him, didn't I? And I'm a direct descendant of the Alpha. And I did it with your help. You're her direct descendant, and I even did it with a pack of my own. I avenged the lost ones: the Hybrids, the failed Hybrids, and….maybe my ancestors' people, too."
Bonnie looked at the drawing again, and it seemed more vibrant than before. It seemed to pop off of the walls. Suddenly, she and Tyler felt like they were intruding on the elders' tension-filled meeting.
Anxious, Bonnie took a step back. And she realized that she was holding Tyler's hand. She looked down, and she remembered.
"What?" Tyler asked, looking down at their hands.
"We fought. Me and you. That's how this all started. We fought, and you threatened to kill me."
"And you refused to back down," he remembered.
A full body shiver shook Bonnie, and she would've sworn that something swept through the large chamber in that moment.
"Uh, let's….go look at something else," she suggested.
"Yeah," Tyler agreed quietly.
They couldn't help looking back at the drawing, however, and it looked practically three-dimensional. Tyler wondered if he was right. He wondered if that was the real reason, or at least one of the reasons, why the pack stopped trying to attack Ayanna. Not because of her threat but because of her promise. Or had his ancestor been the only one made aware?
For her part, whether Tyler was right or not, Bonnie was humbled by how long her family has been wheeling and dealing in the supernatural world and on the land that they later called Mystic Falls.