Chapter 58: Like No One Does
Jeremy sat stiffly beside Lottie on the loveseat in the living room downstairs. Somehow, she'd managed to talk him into meeting with the Original family to discuss what happened in the cemetery and why he wanted to kill vampires now. As if that were a weird reaction. Vampires killed people. They're unnatural and should be eradicated. And yet, there he was, sitting on their sofa, pretending to be interested in the false civility of their conversation.
"So, because he killed five vampires, it triggered a dormant loathing reaction to the species as a whole?" Charlotte asked after Kol's explanation.
"Each kill awakens the Hunter instincts more," Kol nodded solemnly.
"How exactly did he kill five vampires?" Rebekah asked. "No offense, but he wasn't near prepared for that when we were training."
Charlotte looked to Jeremy, hoping he might have an explanation. He'd been struggling when she'd come back to life.
"I felt a surge of energy," Jeremy said, speaking to Lottie. "After you came back to life. Perhaps hearing your bone chilling scream reinvigorated me."
All he knew was his body, once defeated and worn from the fight, all of a sudden had a new source of energy, allowing him to move faster and attack harder than before.
"Did you notice anything different," Elijah asked, studying her closely. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "Did you feel anything different?"
"Desperation, and an aching cold in my bones that spread throughout my entire body." She'd been terrified for Jeremy. As a supernatural, his father's ring wouldn't work on him anymore. If he died, he wouldn't come back. "All I wanted was to help save him."
Jeremy reached his hand out, interlacing his fingers with hers in a comforting gesture.
"What is it?" Rebekah asked Elijah. She could see him mulling over something, piecing something together the rest of them had yet to connect.
"When you use your powers to diminish supernatural abilities, you said your body floods with heat." Elijah tilted his head towards her. "Logically, it makes sense the opposite sensation would occur when you amplify abilities."
"It wouldn't be the first time my powers manifested to protect Jeremy," she acknowledged the possible truth in his theory. The first time she'd diminished anyone's power was with the Original witch after the decade dance. She'd had Jeremy and Charlotte in a standoff with their weapons. Ironically, that too happened in the cemetery. Hopefully, that was just a morbid coincidence.
"What good does knowing this do?" Rebekah asked. So, Charlotte could now amplify powers, and her using them to help Jeremy resulted in his extreme speciesism. That didn't do anything to help them now. "How do we cure him?"
"Who says I need to be cured?" Jeremy asked. In his opinion, he'd had his eyes opened to the truth for the first time.
"Because what you feel isn't the truth," Charlotte said, motioning towards the three Originals. "Deep down you know they're our friends."
"Do I?" he asked. "You're my friend, Lottie. We've known them mere months. What do we really know about them?"
"What about Caroline?" She pressed, ignoring his harsh words. It wasn't how he really felt. It was the Hunter's mark confusing him. "You've known her as long as you've known me. She's never done anything but defend and protect you. Can you so easily write her off?"
Her heart pounded when she noticed her question gave him pause. She didn't wait for his response. His hesitation gave her enough hope he wasn't fully gone from who he was before the mark.
"Do you know how to stop it?" Charlotte asked, turning towards Kol with pleading eyes. She didn't have much hope. If he knew of a way to fix it, he wouldn't have been so dead set against Jeremy killing vampires in the first place.
"Sorry, Little Dove." He shook his head. "His path as a Hunter is set now."
"His path," Charlotte murmured, his wording triggering a memory. "The substitute said something about the path killing a vampire would set you on."
"What substitute?" Kol asked.
"You mean the creepy guy who covered the history classes the other day?" Rebekah asked.
"He lectured on the whole story of Hunters. What if he knows more? What if he knows how to break this new Van Helsing version of you?"
Jeremy didn't seem as enthused as she did, but she chalked that up to his Hunter side.
"I don't know if it's wise to bring in someone we know nothing about," Elijah voiced his concern in a much more sophisticated manner than Kol's outright 'no.'
"I'm willing to hear your suggestions," Charlotte said, crossing her arms when none of them had a better idea. "I'm not going to just give up. We need to at least try something."
"Who is this substitute and where would I find him?" Elijah broke the silence, finally admitting defeat. If they had to turn to this…teacher for help, he sure wasn't going to let Charlotte and Jeremy do it themselves.
"Atticus Shane. He started a teaching job in occult studies at Whitmore."
"Another occult studies professor," Kol said drolly. He already didn't like the sound of this Shane guy. "Didn't the last one you went to for help try to kill you both?"
"Precisely why I'll be the one meeting with him," Elijah said, pulling out his blackberry to search the Whitmore website for his contact information.
"You can't mean now," Rebekah said. "It's hardly a decent hour."
"I'm simply getting his information ready for tomorrow." Though Elijah wouldn't put it past a professor of occult studies to keep odd office hours. "I think it best if we all get some rest. It's been a harrowing day."
"I'm not sleeping here," Jeremy said, his tone rigid. Lottie turned towards him, but before she could say anything to try and convince him he said, "I can't sleep here."
"Okay," she said, thinking through their options. "I guess we could stay at my house."
"Where half the vampires in Mystic Falls have been invited in?" It wouldn't be any safer than where they were.
"The lake house then?" It was a little far, but their options were limited.
"Kol and Caroline have been invited in, and who knows who Elena's invited in." He couldn't trust his family's old vacation home to be safe.
Charlotte was running out of ideas. A hotel wouldn't work for the same reason her house and the lake house wouldn't. Jeremy's house has had more vampires invited into it than Charlotte's. They had no other close friends they could ask, nor extended family. Ticking off options in her head, she realized they still had one viable possibility.
"I know where we can stay," she said. Without elaborating she headed towards the stairs. "We'll need to pack bags."
She also needed to call her mom and Caroline so they wouldn't freak when they returned to the mansion to find Jeremy and her gone.
…
Caroline and Klaus were still on the highway, only because she forced him to obey the speed limit, when she answered Charlotte's call.
"What do you mean you don't need a vampire anymore?" she asked, turning down the radio to make sure she heard her right.
Klaus used her distraction to push the speed limit a little more, but his attention turned towards her when her voice went up an octave.
"Five vampires," Caroline's voice wavered between a squeak and a screech.
Straining to hear Charlotte's side of the conversation, Klaus slowed down when he deciphered the majority of what she was saying.
"Can't you wait until we get back and we can talk about it more?"
After hearing Charlotte's assured negative response to Caroline's question, Klaus pulled over on the side of the two-lane highway. It seemed their involuntary hitchhiker no longer required a ride. Popping the trunk, he pulled the transitioning vampire from the car by the collar of his prison issued shirt. He was mid-compulsion when Caroline burst out of the passenger side, having ended her call with her sister.
"Klaus, what are you doing?" she asked when he released his hold on the prisoner, who turned and started walking towards the woods beside the road.
"I compelled him to go in the woods and wait there until I tell him otherwise." He said, moving back towards the driver's side. Caroline followed him.
"And what happens if some innocent person happens across him?" He won't be able to keep from feeding, and then he'll have killed again because of them. Not to mention a serial killer would then be immortal.
"Who is going to stumble across him in the middle of nowhere?"
"Hitchhikers? Cops? Hunters?" She rattled off answers to his hypothetical question.
"Even if the implausible happens, he won't hurt them," he said, assured.
"And how do you know that?"
"Because I'm very thorough when compelling someone. I told him not to drink blood or hurt anyone. He'll die in a day, just like he deserves." Honestly, he knew better than to let a killer like that turn. He'd be a ripper for sure and could lead to more humans discovering the existence of vampires. "Now, can we get back on the road?"
Releasing her hand from his door, Caroline whooshed back to the passenger side, content with his answers.
…
Jeremy parked the car in front of the dark house. He hadn't been to her father's house since last summer, and after everything that happened, he couldn't imagine the house left many good memories for Lottie.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Dad left it to us. He wouldn't have invited any vampires in. Caroline hasn't even been here since she turned. It's our best option." She wasn't thrilled at the idea of staying there, but it really was their safest bet. Though there was a for-sale sign in the yard, nothing had been finalized, and now nothing would until they didn't need it anymore.
Jeremy grabbed their bags from the trunk while Lottie stood staring down the front path. When he came to stand beside her, she led the way up to the door. All the personal family pictures had been removed since the last time he was there. He supposed the relator staged the house to make it more approachable to new buyers and feel less lived in. At the top of the stairs, he turned right, dropping his bag in the room he'd last stayed in at the front of the house. Before he could turn to head towards the back room that had been Lottie's, her hands reached up and pulled her bag from his shoulder.
"I really don't want to be alone," she said in explanation. Between everything that happened today and the memories lurking in the shadows of the house, she didn't think she would sleep at all if she had to sleep alone.
"But your mom," Jeremy started, reminding them both of her mom's disapproval of them sharing a room.
"Isn't here right now and won't be till tomorrow afternoon when her shift ends."
Grabbing her toiletry bag, she moved to the bathroom to change into her pajamas and brush her teeth. When they crawled into bed, they laid on their sides, facing each other.
"Thank you," he whispered, their faces close together even as their heads lay on their own pillows.
"For what?" she whispered back.
"For this. Finding a safe place and coming with me." She hadn't fought him on leaving the mansion, and she hadn't given up when he shot down her first two suggestions.
"You thought I wouldn't come with you?"
"You didn't have to." She could have told him he could stay at her father's old house and let him go alone. Of course, he wouldn't have left without her.
"I wanted to," she said. Moving her head from her pillow, she closed the distance and kissed him soft and sweet. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer until they shared his pillow, their lips never parting. Wrapped up in each other, they leisurely kissed until exhaustion overtook them both.
…
Tip toeing down the stairs the next morning in her ballet slippers, Charlotte paused on the last stair. Jeremy was in the living room rapidly working through sets of push-ups, shirtless. Her gaze traveled over his back to his shoulders before he noticed her.
"I have a lot of pent-up energy," he said, dropping his knees to the floor and leaning back.
"I can tell." Her gaze traced down the arm with the hunter's mark then back up to his face. He seemed more himself today, other than the drive to work-out. Perhaps he wasn't as lost to his Hunter side as she'd feared.
"I was waiting to see if you'd want to join me on a run, but it looks like you have better plans," he said, noticing her leotard, leg warmers, and slippers.
"I haven't danced in a while, I wanted to get a warm-up in, maybe run through a few of my old routines." She had some pent-up energy too and some emotions she needed to work through.
"I'll go it solo today then," he said. She'd probably still be in the studio by the time he returned. Time always slipped away from her when she danced.
The garage studio felt more like home than the rest of the house. It'd been too long since she last danced in a studio with proper flooring, a bar and a mirror. Her father had thankfully fixed it since Jeremy and her held their disastrous séance. Pushing thoughts of ghosts and the undead out of her mind, Charlotte started her music and began her warm-up. She stretched out her stiff muscles until both they and her mind relaxed.
Jeremy ran through the woods bordering the back of the house for what felt like mere minutes for more miles than he'd ever run before. He'd never particularly enjoyed running before, but his body was buzzing with energy he needed to work off. Part of it was because of the Hunter's mark. As soon as it grew he'd had a newfound energy and stamina. But it wasn't all the mark's doing. Waking up with Lottie so close, her tiny body curling into his, and remembering her fingers tracing his mark and the sweet taste of her soft lips was more invigorating than a cup of dark roast coffee. He'd needed this run as much as Lottie needed to dance. Maybe even more. Hopefully her dancing helped clear her mind more effectively than his run.
Sunlight from the front windows of the garage studio bathed the room in warmth. Moving through her warm-up, Charlotte worked through her favorite pieces. Normally ballet took her mind off the real world, but she was distracted by memories of Jeremy shirtless and the feel of his arms wrapping around her up till her cool down. Though she wasn't sure she could count it as a cool down when her mind and heart were racing.
The door leading to the house creaking open tore her attention from her thoughts before dragging them right back down when Jeremy stood there, still shirtless, holding two steaming mugs. Taking a seat beside her on the floor, she accepted the mug he offered her. Earl Grey with a splash of milk and a generous amount of sugar. Just how she liked it.
"Feel better after dancing?" he asked, taking a sip of his own drink. Coffee from the smell of it.
"It felt nice to be back in the studio." Her feet would surely be feeling it for the next few days as she built the callouses back up, but it was worth it. "How was your run?"
"Not near as distracting as I thought it'd be."
She nodded in understanding.
Sitting shoulder to shoulder, they both took a sip of their drinks, looking anywhere but at the other until their gaze met in the mirror. The orchestral music from her cool down wrapped around them, the strings building to a crescendo only to be interrupted by the shrill ring of Charlotte's phone. Carefully setting her mug on the floor, she rose to fetch her phone from the audio shelf.
"Hello," she answered, putting the call on speaker and setting it between Jeremy and her.
"Charlotte," Elijah's voice echoed around the studio. "You're on speaker."
"Hi!" Rebekah called out, interrupting him.
"Hey, Rebekah," Charlotte said, using the mirrors to watch Jeremy's reaction to the call. His posture had straightened a bit, but otherwise he seemed okay. She supposed having the vampires on the other end of the phone, miles away, was easier for him to take.
"Honey, I'll meet you guys in a couple hours," Liz said next, careful not to divulge where they were.
"I'm a little insulted you told mom, but not me, where you are," Caroline said, pushing closer to the phone.
"As a vampire, I believe you're lumped into the same box as us riffraff, Love," Klaus said. Jeremy's Hunter instincts didn't differentiate between good and bad vampires. They were all bad in his mind.
"Is everyone there?" Charlotte asked, not expecting a united call from all of them. She figured her mom would have peaced out as soon as she knew Charlotte and Jeremy were no longer at the house.
"We've got a riddle to solve and a Hunter to cure, where else would we be, Little Dove?"
"Yes, now that everyone's had a say, perhaps we can continue with the real reason behind this call." Elijah cleared his throat. "I went to see the professor."
"Already?" It was still morning. Charlotte hadn't expected Elijah to track down their substitute so fast. "What did he say?"
"He claims the only way for a Hunter to be free from his natural state of loathing towards us is for him to finish his purpose."
"I thought you said killing more vampires would only make it 'worse'," Jeremy said, trying to catch them in a lie.
"According to the professor, your purpose is to complete your mark and open Silas' prison. To kill him," Elijah pressed on, ignoring the condescension in Jeremy's tone.
"An entirely stupid idea if you ask me," Kol chimed in. "For one, Silas is said to be the destroyer of the world and I quite like the world how it is. And for another, this Professor Shane somehow is immune to compulsion, so we have no way of knowing if he's even telling us the truth."
"It's not like we have any other brilliant ideas to help Jeremy," Caroline said. She didn't like the separation and secrecy. She was up to try anything to get Jeremy back to who he really was.
"What do you think, Jeremy?" Charlotte asked, resting her hand on his knee, her attention solely on him. This was all about him, so he should be the one deciding.
"Shane said Silas was a threat to Amplifiers. And that the Brotherhood was made to kill him," Jeremy said, speaking to Charlotte. "Which means Silas is a threat to you."
"Not while he's imprisoned," she pointed out.
"I'd rather be the one to open his prison and kill him than have someone else do so to use him against you." He didn't mind killing more vampires to complete his mark. His whole body hummed at the idea of it.
"Again, we're trusting the word of a shady man whose true intentions we know nothing about," Kol said.
"It's Jeremy's decision," Charlotte said. As much as she didn't trust Shane, he was all they had to go on. And she wanted to believe there was a way for Jeremy's newfound hate to dissipate. It would make everything so much easier. "We'll proceed with caution."
"I can easily round up vampires for him to off," Klaus offered.
"Maybe he should train a bit more first," Caroline said. "He's still kind of new to all of this, and I'm pretty sure Charlotte's the main reason he wasn't overrun by the last five."
"Maybe, we should look for another way around this," Kol insisted. He'd heard the horror stories about Silas from a caravan of traveling witches. There was no way he wanted Jeremy or Charlotte to go anywhere near him, and he definitely didn't want to risk the consequences of releasing him from his prison. He was put there for good reason. Why weren't any of them understanding that?
"I have to say, I agree with Kol," Liz said. They were only kids. Barely legal to drive. She didn't think it was a good idea to send them into battle against an impossibly powerful immortal being. "It all sounds a little too dangerous."
"Okay, how about this," Rebekah said. "It's going to take some time before Jeremy's ready to even hunt more vampires, let alone complete his mark. We'll break into groups. Kol, Liz and I will try to find some other way around his ingrained prejudices, while Klaus, Caroline and Elijah help you train."
"I don't need help from vampires," Jeremy spat out.
"Seeing as you're meant to kill vampires, the best advice you could get is from vampires," Elijah calmly reasoned.
"As much as I don't want him or Charlotte fighting vampires, as her mother and the closest thing he has to a Guardian I'm not leaving them alone and unsupervised during all this," Liz said. "Besides, as the only human, I'm one of the few Jeremy will actually trust."
"I'll help Kol and Rebekah. You three can help Jeremy and Charlotte train," Elijah said. He knew Caroline wanted to be with her sister, and Niklaus and Kol would only bicker if forced to work together.
"Are you okay with that?" Charlotte asked Jeremy again. It didn't matter what everyone else thought was right. They were only doing this for Jeremy. It was important he make the end decision.
"I want to train a bit on our own first before revealing our location," he finally said. "And as long as you don't invite them in when we do."
As much as Jeremy hated the idea of taking help from vampires, he knew he stood a better chance at killing them if he accepted Caroline and Klaus' help. He had no problem with Liz helping. She'd be good when it came to weapons anyways.
"You're sounding as paranoid as me," Klaus commented. And that wasn't an easy feat.
"I'll be sure to stock up on weapons, targets, and equipment before heading out," Liz said. She knew Charlotte could handle a gun, she'd taught her herself, but Jeremy might need a little more training. "But don't think this excuses you from completing schoolwork."
"How are we supposed to go to school?" Charlotte asked. It seemed pointless to travel so far every day for a few hours of boring unnecessary information.
"You won't. The school thinks you and Jeremy have mono. I'll be picking up your assignments and got your teachers to agree for you to take your exams online."
"Great," Charlotte and Jeremy both muttered.
"You've already missed a fair bit of work so prepare to study when I get there before you even touch a boxing glove or weapon."
On that cheery note, the call ended.
"We should probably change before my mom gets here," Charlotte eventually said, her gaze shifting down to Jeremy's chest. She didn't even realize her hand was still on his knee until his leg shifted under it.
"I'll let you have the shower first," he said, grabbing her now cold tea.
"You sure?" She asked, rising to her feet in one lithe movement, making his gaze trail up her legs to her leotard.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
It's not like he'd need the hot water anyways.
A/N: Hey everyone! So I've gotten mixed feedback on the whole 'mysterious boss/group' going after Charlotte. That plot point wasn't really going to come into play until several chapters down the line (not sure how many but it wasn't in the very near future, but I'm not even sure I'm going to pursue that plot line now. I've been feeling in a funk with this story, and I think it's because I was focusing so much on how to get the Forbes to New Orleans, I lost the fun of what I loved about this story, which was Charlotte and her relationship with her sister and with Jeremy. And with her growing relationships with the Original Family. So I'm gonna try to get back to that. I feel much more at ease when I let the characters drive the story instead of making the plot drive the characters. So I took a step back in this chapter and focused more on that as I find my footing with this story again. I hope you didn't find it too boring.
Onto Guest review responses:
To the Guest who loved the last chapter and looks for updates weekly: I'm glad you loved it and that you are interested in the story enough to check back on a weekly basis. Thanks so much for leaving a review!
Oz: haha, sorry for heating things up a bit. As my note above says I'm starting for pull back a little and focus on the relationships, so the heat level may continue to rise. Sorry to bring the ot3 back together in this way, but everyone is working hard to remedy it.
Rach
xoxo
