So I'm having this be longer than just over the summer but only by a couple months so Nicole's pregnancy can be moved to the timeline of when I want her to have the baby.
Nik and I hid in the bushes next to a house in Tennessee as a woman walked outside.
"Rudy!" she called before whistling. "Rudy. Come on! It's too hot to make me come looking for you." I watched her bend down and pick up a toy and stepped out with Nik as she turned around.
"I'm so sorry. We didn't mean to scare you." Nik said in a country accent.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked us.
"Yeah, our car hmm, our car ran out of gas a couple of miles back. Eh I feel like I've been walking forever yours is the first house we come to so I was just hoping I could use your phone and have a place for my wife to rest?" he said motioning to me as I held my very pregnant belly.
"Don't you have a cell phone?" she asked him.
"Batteries died." I told her smiling lightly.
"Look I promise we're not a serial killers, I just wanna use your phone." Nik told her smiling.
"Sure." she sighed before turning around.
"Soo, we can come in?" I asked her.
"No, I'll get the phone and I'll bring it out to you." she told us turning back to us and I sighed.
"I thought you country folks were supposed to be more trusting." He said in his wonderful British accent.
"I'm from Florida." she told us.
"Well, that explains it." he said before speeding up to her and grabbing her throat and compelling her. "Now show me a little southern hospitality. Sweet pea." he ordered.
We walked inside the house as soon as the young girl invited him him. I heard the sink on in the kitchen and we walked in that direction.
"I bet you a hundred dollars that dog ran off to a house with air conditioning." the woman from inside of it said. She turned to us and saw the three of us enter. "What's going on?"
"Please don't be alarmed. I was told Ray Sutton lives here." Nik told her.
"He's almost never here. He's on the road mostly." she told us.
"But I expect he makes it home, once a month. That's what I thought. Where is he now?" Nik asked her and she didn't answer. "If I have to make you tell me it's going to be infinitely more painful for you. Hmm" he said smiling. She quickly ran out of the kitchen and opened the front door but Stefan was standing in the doorway.
"Aaaah!" Nik and the other woman walked out into the corridor.
"I love it when they run!" Nik said pulling me to him.
"He's in Toll. It's near the border. A bar called Southern Comfort, It's on Highway 41." the woman who ran told us.
"Thank you my love." Nik said before touching the first woman's hair. "Now, may my friend come in?"
"Yes." she said crying. The second woman looked to us terrified before looking to Stefan came in. Nik pushed the blonde into Stefan's arms.
"Kill this one quickly." Nik instructed before pointing to the black haired woman. "And make that one suffer. I'll be in the car." he said before pulling me with him to the car. As we walked to the car we heard the screams of the women we'd just left for slaughter.
"Are you alright darling?" he asked me.
"Yes, your son is more active than usual, that's all." I told him smiling.
"He's more active at night then, that's good." he said smiling down at me before kissing me.
In the car I decided to call home. Today was my birthday and I wanted an update from my family.
"Hello?" Aunt Jenna said answering the phone.
"Hey, Aunt Jenna. It's Nicole.
"Nikky! How are you? How's the baby? Where are you?" she asked me again. She's asked the same thing every phone call I've had with her.
"I'm fine, baby's fine, and I can't tell you. You know that." I told her.
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried about you." she told me.
"I know. If you go to visit Elena, tell her happy birthday."
"I will." she said before telling me what I'd missed at home that month, careful to stay clear of Elena talk.
"Wow. Sounds normal." I told her.
"I know. Is our time up already?" she asked me and I turned to the clock.
"Yes." I told her.
"Ok. I'll talk to you next month. I love you." she told me and I smiled.
"I'll talk to you next month. Tell everyone I love them." I said hanging up as we pulled into Southern Comfort Bar.
"Shall we?" Nik said getting out of the car.
We didn't have to wait long before a man walked into the bar, Ray Sutton most likely.
"What's up Ray?" man called from the bar.
"Hey Red, get me a beer." Ray said sitting at the bar. Red gave him a beer and Nik and I joined him at the bar.
"Ray? Ray Sutton?" I asked him and he glanced at me then Nik.
"Who wants to know?" he asked turning back to his beer.
"I've been looking everywhere for you. We started in Florida, Pensacola. I met a young chap there who you used to work with before you moved to Memphis, now he directed me to two lovely young women. And they led me here, to you." Nik told him and I smiled sweetly at him.
"I think I'll be going." Ray said trying to leave but Nik stopped him.
"Not so fast mate. You only just got here, now your type are very hard to come by." Nik told him and he tried to walk the other way but Stefan was standing there and stopped him.
"I wouldn't do that." Stefan said pushing him back again.
"My friend here is a vampire, he compelled everybody in the bar so don't look to them for any help. I however, I'm something else, a different kind of monster, I've got some vampire, I've got some wolf." Nik told him.
"You what?" Ray asked looking confused.
"A hybrid Ray, I'm both. You see I want to create more of me, now you being the first werewolf that I've come across in many a moon, pun intended Ray. I need you to direct me to your pack. So, where can I find them Ray?" Nik asked him.
"You can't compel me, it won't work." Ray told him and I smiled before looking at Nik. He nodded to Stefan and I watched Stefan turn around and took out something from his back pocket.
"Can you bring out the darts please." Stefan asked the barman before turning to Ray. "Tell you what Ray, We're gonna play a little drinking game, something I like to call truth or wolfsbane." He pulled out a pouch of wolfsbane and poured it into his hand crushing it with his fingers.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun Ray." Nik said holding me around my middle and I smiled.
I watched as Ray was chained up to the wall and Stefan prepared the drink with the wolfsbane. He threw dart after dart at the wolf while Nik and I watched.
"Ray, you can end this right now. Just tell me where your pack gathers for the full moon." Stefan told the wolf.
"I can't." Ray told us and Stefan threw another dart at him.
"I know, I know. You live by code and all that, but see he's not gonna let me stop until you tell me. And I do whatever he says so, that's the way it goes around here." Stefan told him while walking up to him and taking the darts out so he could play the game again. I watched a beautiful woman walk to us with her head bowed down.
"Hello mister Klaus. I have some more information for you. You told me to tell you if I saw anything. The guys spotted Damon at the farm house." she told him.
"Well thank you Claudine, you'll just tell your friends to keep up the good work or they're gonna watch her." Nik said and I gave him a curious look. Her? Was he talking about me? Claudine walked away and Stefan walked to us.
"My brother still on our trail?" Stefan asked him.
"He's getting closer, I'm gonna have to deal with that." Nik said and Stefan quickly grabbed Nik's arm to stop him from leaving the bar.
"No, no, no. Let me handle it." Stefan told him.
"Why should I let you leave?" Nik asked him.
"Cause, you'll know I'll come back." Stefan told him.
"Do I?" Nik asked him.
"You saved my brother's life; I'm at your service." Stefan told him and I looked down. That was the only reason either of us were here.
"Ah, you sound so tedious and indentured, aren't you even having the least bit of fun?" Nik asked pointing at Ray with a big smile on his face.
"I'll make sure that my brother doesn't bother us anymore." Stefan told him before walking away.
"Go with him, love. Make sure his brother stops hunting for both of you." he told me and I kissed him before following Stefan.
Stefan and I drove to the studio Andie worked in and got out. We quietly walked to a secluded part and waited for her.
"Yeah, Uhhuh. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. Okay, I, I am the last person here again. Days of work, please can we do this in the am? I have a party I have to get to, and you gotta get a life! Okay, Alright bye, bye." I heard her say before she walked through the doors to where we were. She picked up her bag and turned around ready to leave when I turned on the big headlight, blinding her. "Hello? Not cool my retinas are burning." She stepped out of the light but I followed her with it. "Okay, Okay. Seriously who'd...? What the hell are you doing?" Stefan nodded to me and I turned off the light. "Hello? Hello?" Stefan moved in front of the light and I turned it back on as she started to run. She tried to run again but Stefan moved in front of her and I walked to them. "Ohh! Stefan!? Nicole?! Oh my god! Oh my god, what are you doing here? We have been looking everywhere for you! Stefan?" the blood vessels under his eyes started pumping with blood and his eyes turned red. She started screaming in fear.
We were standing in the studio with Andie on her perch like a good little bird waiting on Damon. He'd gotten a text from "Andie" telling him to come and pick her up. I looked through her phone at her pictures and contacts, most of whom I didn't recognize.
"Andie?" I heard Damon call out before his phone started to ring. "Party Central." they must be having a party for Elena. "Umm, by the punch bowl." I heard Damon lie. Elena must have been on the phone. "Oh... Oh, I gotta go break up beer pong." Damon said as he walked into where we were. He stopped when he saw the purse we'd lain out for him to see. "Stefan." he said as Stefan appeared next to him. I walked out from the shadows as Damon turned to his baby brother.
"Hello Brother." Damon greeted him.
"Hi Damon." I greeted him and he turned to me quickly.
"Nicole?" he asked as I walked next to Stefan. "You don't write, you don't call." Damon said covering up his confusion with sarcasm.
"Need you to stop following us. Causing some problems." Stefan told him.
"With who? Klaus? Are we supposed to care with he thinks?" Damon asked him.
"What you're supposed to do is let us go." I told him.
"Saw your latest artwork in Tennessee. Walking a fine line there my friend. Keep that up and there will be no saving you." Damon told Stefan.
"See the thing is, we don't need any saving. We just want you to let us go." Stefan told him.
"Nah, I got a birthday girl at home that's not gonna let me do that." Damon told us and I sighed. I looked to Stefan who nodded.
"You know, maybe we haven't made our point. Hey, Andie you still there?" Stefan called to her.
"Andie?" Damon asked looking up to see Andie standing on a ledge up in the ceiling.
"Damon? I can't move Damon. He told me that I can't move." Andie told him crying.
"No, no, no, it's okay, Andie. Stay calm. Not cool!" Damon told us.
"Aw, come on! A little bit cool." I told him smiling before looking up. "Hey, Andie. You can move now." I told her looking back down to Damon.
"No! No,no,no,no,no NO!" Damon called out trying to run and save her. Stefan grabbed him and pushed him against the wall so he couldn't save her. Andie fell to the ground and Stefan grabbed Damon's neck.
"We said let us go!" I told Damon. Stefan let go of Damon and Damon ran to the dead woman. Stefan came to me and we left.
I walked back into the bar as Stefan parked the car to see Ray on the pool table with Nik beside him.
"Hello darling. How was your trip?" Nik asked me pulling me into his side.
"We got our message across to Damon." I told him, kissing him.
"Ok, it's a three step process, Ray. This is step one. I want you to drink from my wrist." Nik told him.
"I already told you where to find the pack. What more do you want from me?" Ray asked him.
"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying, Ray? I have great plans for you." Nik said smirking at him. Nik cut his wrist and made Ray drink his blood. "You'll thank me for it later, huh. There we go, at a boy!"
"What are you going to do now?" Ray asked him after Nik had removed his arm.
"It's time for step two, Ray." Nik said snapping his neck.
"You're back." Nik said looking at Stefan.
"Did you doubt me?" Stefan asked him.
"Not for a second. I knew you'd pass the test. You still care for your brother, for your old life." Nik told him.
"Nah, I don't care about anything anymore." Stefan told us.
"You put on a good show Stefan. I almost believe you. Lets hope, for your brother's sake, he does. You never stop caring about family, do you. But, every time you feed, the blood makes it easier to let go." Nik told him holding me as close as he could.
Back at the hotel Nik and I laid in our room while Stefan stayed in his. When we'd first began this journey all those months ago We'd all shared a room but after a while, a much complaining from me, Nik decided it was best if we split rooms.
"How are you feeling, love?" Nik asked me holding me around my abdomen.
"I fell fine, Nik. I'm only seven months along." I told him as he drew comforting circles on my pregnant stomach. "That feels nice and it calms him down." I told Nik as sleep began to overtake me.
"Get some sleep, love. We won't leave here without you." Nik told me "Happy Birthday Nicole." I heard him say and I felt something go on my wrist before I let sleep take me.
