Chapter Thirteen
" I have been researching your family since you told me, and for a long time the only things I could find were bad. They were all about a monster, and a ripper, and many other things. I didn't trust you because I know that families take after each other, if they couldn't control the bloodlust after almost a millennia, I had no idea how you would after a day."
"Okay, fine. So you don't trust me because of my uncles. Big whoop. If you don't trust me, leave." Caroline replied, anger and hurt filling her words.
"That's the thing, I kept digging. I thought I would just find out more horrible things that they have done, and that I would find more reason to hate them and prepare to fight them one day. But then I found a really old grimoire of my grams'. It was more of a diary, from when her grandmother was my age. She spoke of the Mikaelson's. Of Klaus' rage, of Kol's lack of self-control, but then she began to talk about whom she labeled as "The Eldest Brother." She said he was kind, controlled, that he looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. That when his siblings were with him, they thought before they acted, their tendencies to lose control were rarer, and his were none. He rarely fed, and had lowered his amount of needed blood to only one glass a week, which he would take from hospitals rather than people. She spoke of his dignity and sense of royalty. It took her multiple pages of things that happened when she was around them, but apparently they stayed with her for almost three months, all three of those months there wasn't a sign that vampires lived in that town at all. No deaths, no missing people, nothing. My great-great-grandmother attributed it to him, the eldest of the brothers. When they left she finally wrote his name in the book, according to the letter in the front, from my grams she then buried the book until she gave it to her daughter. His name, was Elijah. It was your dad who controlled them. I thought that you would be like Klaus, or Kol. That he was like them, in all that I had read he was labeled as harsh and ruthless. Your worst nightmare. But I know now that it was because he is so controlled. Nobody knows what he is thinking. Caroline, I don't even know how to begin to apologize, I never should have labeled you with your uncles."
"Bonnie, don't you see that my uncles are the whole reason I don't want to be a vampire, the reason it almost killed me that I killed that guy. I hate who my uncle is. I know that he threatens my father's life on a daily basis, and I wish beyond any shadow of a doubt that I wasn't related at all. But I am, and I have no ability to fix that, or undo it. Bonnie, I am not my uncle, I will never be him. I have spent every day of every year since I was thirteen trying to protect you and Elena, and Matt, from all of this. From the whole supernatural world. I got paid back for that with you all leaving me alone, and insulting me, and I hated it. I hated every second of it. But I was determined to keep it hidden, because I knew that if I told, if it became known, Elena would be labeled as the doppelgänger, that would bring Vampires to town and then the word would spread and before long my murderistic uncle who has a death wish for Elena would show up, and you would all be dead." Caroline explained. Tears falling down her cheeks.
"He what?"
"Klaus, he wants to sacrifice Elena for some curse. Dad has everything figured out, he has been working on this for generations. He told me to just hide who he was and any connection I had with him, and that he would handle it."
"How? The only way I can see it being handled is if your father kills him, but can you really expect him to kill his brother?" Bonnie asked, worry and confusion filling her voice.
"I can, and I do. If it means protecting me, there is nothing my father won't do."
"I get that, but this isn't about you, it's about Elena."
"You're right, the sacrifice is about Elena, but the result is about me, it's about my dad. Klaus wants me to be dead, he has since I was born. He wants dad to be fully loyal to him, so he wants his werewolf side unlocked. If dad helps him it proves his loyalty, if he doesn't, Klaus will kill him and me in the process. Sure, Elena will die in the sacrifice, but if my father fails to stop him, I will be dead soon after."
"So, what's your dads plan?"
"I have no idea, he said it was better if I didn't know. We can't tell anyone, and when he shows up here next, we cannot act like we know who he is. He has to act like he is on Klaus' side, we can't let it slip that he isn't. If we do, he will be killed."
"I won't tell anyone, Caroline. But you have to know that you have a thousand-year-old vampire fighting for you, if I have to choose I will choose Elena."
"As you always have, I wouldn't expect you to choose differently."
"Caroline, that isn't fair. I have always fought for both of you."
"Unless Elena needed you more, Bonnie, I am not blaming you, I'm just saying that you have always chosen Elena first, and I get it. You two have always been closer, it's just how it is. Look, I've had a really long day, Matt broke up with me, and I'm trying to learn how to control this new part of me, I just need some sleep. Thanks for stopping by to apologize, I'll talk to you tomorrow." With that, Caroline walked Bonnie to the door before returning to her room to go to bed. She had no idea what was to come, but she wished more than anything that it would be over soon.
The next few days were a whirlwind for Caroline as she learned to better control her instincts, and before long it was the day of the park opening.
"Are you off today?" Caroline asked her mom as she came out of her room. It had been a hard few years on their relationship, as her mother spent almost all of her time at the station.
"The historical society volunteer picnic is today. You're the one who signed me up."
"I know. I just assumed you'd bail."
"Nope. I'm going to spend the whole day with my daughter."
"You're going to pretend to be a mother?" Caroline snapped back. It had been hard enough living away from her dad and barely seeing him, her adoptive mother was the one that was supposed to be there and yet Caroline had barely seen her in the last year.
"I'll bring my gun if it gets rough."
"M hmm."
"Come on. Give me one day. I've been buried in work mode. I've barely seen you."
"Well, be warned. I'm in a mood."
"Goodie for me." Caroline began to walk off, her hands somewhat shaky. After a second, her mother spoke again, "Is everything ok with you?"
"I'm fine."
"It's just lately you seem different."
"I'm not different. I'm fine."
"I know you think I don't notice these things, but I do. What's going on with you?"
"You know, there's pretending to be a mother, and then there's reality."
"Caroline, do I need to call Elijah?"
"No. You know what, fine. I'll tell you what all is going on, since you haven't cared to be home enough to know yourself. Dad left, his brother is on the move, so dad has to go pretend to be on his side, which means I don't get to talk to him. Stefan and Damon's old evil vampire flame is back in town being a bitch, and I died."
"You what?"
"I died, okay. I'm a vampire, which I hate, cause every day I realize that I have to learn to be like dad, or I'll end up being like my crazy evil uncle. So, do you want to go to this stupid picnic or not, were going to be late." Caroline half yelled before walking past her mother toward the door.
"Does your father know?"
"Of course he knows. Unlike you, he was the one here to help me clean the blood off of my clothes after I accidentally killed a man on my first night as a vampire. He gave me a ring like his, and he held me while I cried and told me I was going to be okay."
"Caroline, I am so sorry. I didn't know."
"That's the point, you didn't know, you weren't here, you weren't even with me at the hospital!"
"Caroline…"
"No. You don't get to try and fix it. I went through the worst night of my life, and I did it without my mom. I have lived hell without a mother to call or to hug at the end of the day, but at least most of the time I had you. You used to fill that gap. But I went through the worst night of my life, I died, and I was alone! You didn't show up and once again I didn't have a mom, I didn't have a family. I was alone. At least Dad kept his promise and showed up as soon as he could, but where the hell were you?"
"I was trying to protect you!" Liz yelled back.
"How?!"
"By keeping an eye on the Salvatore's. They don't have it under control, Caroline, they are not safe to be around!"
"Why? Because they're vampires?"
"Because they kill innocent people!"
"I killed an innocent person! You can't accept some and throw out the others! I am as much of a monster as any of them. Maybe you should be protecting the town from me." With that Caroline walked off, she knew that eventually they would have to deal with this, but she was in no shape to argue with Liz.
"Where are you going? What's going on?" Elena asked as she followed Caroline to the edge of the woods. Caroline knew her mother was up to something and with what she had said that morning about the Salvatore brothers, Caroline was worried.
"I need to be able to hear better."
"Hear what?"
"Something's wrong, Elena."
"Caroline…"
"Shh…" They both paused as Caroline listened, after a moment Caroline heard gun shots, "Oh no."
"What is it?" Elena asked confused.
"Stefan and Damon."
"What?" Elena asked as she began to run after Caroline, who had already started to move towards the noise.
Caroline and Elena followed the trail for a while before Caroline stopped,
"What is it?" Elena asked, stopping next to her.
"They've been here." Caroline replied before noticing something on the plant at her feet.
"What?" Elena asked before seeing Caroline's hand with blood on it.
"What are you two doing out here?" Mason Lockwood interrupted before Caroline could answer.
"Have you seen Stefan?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, Elena, I've seen him. I've seen Damon, too."
"Where are they?" Elena asked again, trying her best to be prepared for whatever Mason would do.
"You don't need me for that. I'll let your friend here sniff 'em out. Does your mother know what you are?" Mason paused looking at Caroline, she wanted to snap his neck, but she held back as he continued to speak, "I'm happy to tell her." Caroline moved towards him, but before she could, he grabbed Elena, holding her to him by her neck. "Don't be stupid, necks snap easy around here."
"I can take you." Caroline replied, barely holding back her anger.
"Want to bet?"
"Yeah, I do." Caroline replied before yanking Mason away from Elena and throwing him up against a tree, holding him by the neck. "Told you." she said before throwing him to the ground and kicking him into another tree. She paused for a moment before looking at Elena, "Come on." Before long, they came across the entrance to where Caroline could tell her mother and the Salvatore's were. She paused outside to try and here what was going on.
"What is that?" Elena asked. Caroline only held up her hand in response, listening to the conversation below,
"He's not gonna tell us anything. Kill them both." Caroline heard her mom say.
"Caroline. Caroline, what is it?" Elena asked as she watched her friend gasp in shock.
"My mom. She's killing them." The words hurt to say, the fact that her mother, who had known about vampires since she was young, was killing them just because they were not Elijah, or her. Yet, They were her, she had killed just as they had, so had her father.
"What?" Elena began to run down the stairs and into the structure. Caroline hesitated for a moment, wondering how she would handle this before following after her friend.
"You can't kill them. I'm not going to let you." Elena spoke coming into the room. One of the officers pulled her over into the center before the door shut behind them, seemingly untouched.
"What was that?" one of the officers asked.
"Who else is with you?" Liz asked. A brush of air came from the opposite side of the room,
"What the…" One of the officers tried before it happened again. The next time it happened, Caroline showed herself by attacking one of the officers, taking just enough blood to knock him out. But, she then had to use him as a shield from the other officers fire. She quickly attacked him, taking his gun before knocking him out as well. Her gut clinched at the fact that one of them had died. Her face covered in blood, and her fangs on display, she looked at her mother. She breathed deeply to stop the want of blood, her fangs slowly disappearing. Liz looked on in shock, she had known that her daughter was one now, but she was looking at a monster, something she had never wanted for the girl she had raised.
"Hi, mom." Caroline spoke once her fangs had gone.