I decided to stay at my old home that night and asked Tyler to take Nicolas to Caroline's place for the night since Nik was still out of town. Elena had been having a hard time getting to sleep but wouldn't tell me why. I was sitting in my old room thinking about all the changes that we had gone through since the last time I was in here.
"Jeremy!" I heard Elena call from downstairs. I went ahead and went downstairs behind Jeremy who'd been woken up by Elena calling for him.
"Elena? Are you okay?" Jeremy asked her. She looked like she was fighting someone or something.
"Elena what's going on?" I asked as Jeremy moved closer to her. Suddenly Elena grabbed a knife and stabbed Jeremy in the neck. She removed the blade and dropped it as though her eyes finally saw our brother. "Jeremy!" I shouted moving to catch him before he fell to the ground.
"Oh my god!" Elena joined us on the ground tears streaming down her face. "Jer! Jer! Jer! Jer! No, no, no, no, no, no."
"His ring." I said quickly through my own tears. She quickly moved her hands to his and we saw that he was wearing his ring. I sighed in relief but that still wouldn't change what had just happened.
"No, no. Jer! Jeremy!" Elena called out knowing he couldn't hear us.
"Elena, what happened?" I asked her.
"I saw Connor." She said and I looked at her shocked.
Later after we'd moved Jeremy to the couch and she called Damon over. He arrived to find her pacing in front of Jeremy's body. He quickly moved to her but didn't stand in the way of her pacing. I pulled out my phone and texted Stefan telling him what was happening and felt better about Nikolas not being here.
"I can't believe this happened. What am I going to say to him?" Elena asked Damon.
"Thanks for not ditching the family ring after it drove Ric crazy?" Damon suggested and Elena and I glared at him. "You should have called Stefan."
"I don't want to talk to him. He's been lying to me and hiding things from me. He compelled Jeremy to forget God knows what." Elena listed off.
"In all fairness, I mean, I think you killing him kinda trumps that. And you should have called Stefan." Damon repeated.
"I don't trust him right now, Damon." Elena told him.
"It's a good thing I do then." I told her as Stefan walked into the house.
"Hey." Stefan said moving to his girlfriend. "What happened? Why did you call me?"
"I just - I need to go upstairs and shower. Clean all the blood off my hands." Elena said before quickly rushing upstairs. Jeremy came back to life with a dramatic gasp and I immediately sat next to him and hugged him. He hugged me confused for a second before looking up to the guys.
"Welcome back. How are you feeling?" Stefan asked him.
"What happened?" Jeremy asked.
"Long story, buy the e-book." Damon told him and I gave him a small glare.
"Be nice Damon." I told him as Stefan moved up to Elena's room. "Something's going on with Elena right now after she killed Connor." I told him.
"What's happening?" he asked me.
"She's hallucinating Conner. She thought she was stabbing him when she stabbed you." I told him. Soon after Bonnie called and dragged Jeremy out of the house as Damon started cleaning up the blood. I joined the boys in the kitchen.
"Where did Jeremy go?" Damon asked me.
"School. Bonnie has him volunteering for some occult exhibit that the Professor Shane guy is doing." I said.
"Or maybe he didn't want to linger in a house where his sister just jammed a knife in his neck." Damon suggested as Stefan's phone rang.
"It's Klaus." Stefan said sounding nervous.
"He's back in town?" I asked.
"Oooh, time to face the music. Pay the piper, dance with the devil." Damon said as they both ignored me.
"You know, I'm glad you find this amusing. If he finds out I told you about the cure, he'll kill both of us." Stefan told his brother.
"What cure?" I asked but they both ignored me.
"Quit avoiding him, that means shady. Shady people get outed." Damon told him. Stefan sighed before answering the phone.
"I don't want to talk about it." He told Nik. "Well, it wouldn't have happened, if you hadn't sworn me to secrecy." Stefan said looking at Damon. "You're using your calm voice today. Who's getting killed?" Stefan asked before listening to the response and sharing a look with Damon.
"What is going on?" I asked them but they were both to engrossed in the conversation to hear me.
"What do you know about that?" Stefan asked Nik. "I'm at her house." He answered a question before we heard knocking on the door. I went to the door and opened it to see Nik standing there and walked out with the boys.
"Nicole? What are you doing here?" Nik asked me.
"Finding out why you compelled me to forget something that is obviously very important to everyone." I told him angrily as Stefan walked past both of us before following him with Nik behind me.
"You know, this would all be a lot more civilized if I was just invited inside." Nik told Stefan.
"It's bad enough I'm out here talking to you. What do you know?" Stefan asked him.
"I killed the original five hunters, remember? When one kills a hunter, there's a bit of a consequence." Nik told us.
"There were five hunters?" I asked him.
"I'll explain later love." He told me and I gave him a look.
"900 years ago a witch created five vampire hunters. Rebekah fell in love with one of them and Klaus killed them all when they tried to dagger him and his family. The tattoo they had on them at the time led the way to a cure for vampirism. That's why I was trying to get him back alive." Stefan told me before turning to Nik. "What kind of consequence?"
"The hunters were spelled by witches to kill vampires; if you prevent one from fulfilling his destiny then he'll take you down with him." Nik told him giving him a cold look.
"What do you mean? Connor's dead." Stefan reminded him.
"I mean, Connor's death won't prevent him from making Elena his final vampire kill. She'll need to come with me now. I'll lock her up, keep her away from any sharp wooden objects." Nik said.
"What? No!" I told him angrily. "We can keep her safe here."
"She's not going anywhere with you." Stefan agreed with me.
"Well, if we leave her alone, she'll take her own life before the day is out."
"She's stronger than that." Stefan insisted.
"Is she? Believe me; it's for her own good." Nik told him. We heard the front door open and turned to see Elena run onto the porch and stop. Nik used his vampire speed to grab her and leave the area as Damon walked out and saw us standing in the middle of the yard alone.
"Elena!" Damon shouted before sharing a look with the two of us. We called Bonnie for help and she rushed over from the school.
"You lost her?" she asked after we told her what had happened.
"Well, lost is a very strong word, we just technically don't know where she is." Damon told her.
"I'm more worried about what Klaus said about this hunter's curse." Stefan said.
"How does Klaus even know about this?" Bonnie asked.
"How does Klaus know anything? Guy's like a billion years old." Damon said.
"He's only a thousand." I corrected him and he gave me a look. "What?"
"He said it was a witch's curse." Stefan said and we looked to Bonnie.
"You know if I could do anything to help, I would. But I.." she started saying but Damon stopped her.
"But nothing, wave your magic wand, hocus pocus, begone hunter ghostus, whatever." Damon said and I gave him a look.
"Seriously?" I asked him and he nodded with a smirk on his face.
"The spirits won't let me do the magic I'd need to break the curse. But I can ask Shane for help, he knows everything about everything." Bonnie told us.
"Great, you two do your thing." Stefan said before he turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" Damon asked him.
"I'm gonna get her back." Stefan told his brother.
"I'm going to help." I said following him out. He picked up his phone and called Caroline for help.
"He's got Elena. I need Tyler to get the other hybrids away, so I can get her out. I know I'm probably asking the impossible but..." Stefan listened to something she said and looked surprised for a moment before hanging up. "Come one. We have to go to Tyler's."
"Hayley is the one that helped me break the sire bond. She showed me what to do, how to help. When she showed up here I thought it was just coincidence, but it turns out she's been helping one of them, her friend Chris. And she came to help us get the rest of them out from under Klaus." Tyler told us after we'd gotten comfortable in his home. Caroline had brought Nikolas with her and I was holding him close as he looked around happily. He was innocent in everything that was happening between the people in the town and more importantly, between me and his father.
"So... are you telling us that Chris isn't sired anymore?" Stefan asked him.
"That's exactly what he's telling you." Caroline said with a smile on her face.
"Then I'll suppose you'll be needing someone to distract Nik." I said hugging Nikolas closely. They all looked at me silently and I nodded. "I understand." I put Nikolas in his carrier and got ready to leave.
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to." Stefan told me as I collected all Nikolas' things.
"Yes, I do. We have to help Elena and you guys think you know best. I don't know what is happening to her or if what we're doing is the right thing, but what I do know is that you care about her." I told him.
"I love her." He said and I smiled at him. "The only problem is so does Damon."
"Does she love Damon?" I asked him.
"I don't know." He told me. "But I think she might."
"She'll have to decide her feelings for herself, Stefan. Just know you'll always have me on your side." I told him.
"Even against Klaus?" he asked with a knowing smirk on his face.
"That depends on the situation." I said before I put Nikolas in his carrier and we left for the Grill where I knew Nik would be.
I walked into the Grill and found Nik sitting at the bar drinking a glass of wine and smiled as I approached him.
"Place looks pretty good considering your hybrid was killed and Nikolas and I nearly died." I said sitting next to him.
"Nicole. I would have thought you'd be avoiding me after finding out about the cure." He said.
"No, not avoiding. I am angry that you compelled me though." I said taking Nikolas out of his carrier and passing him to his father. "I also came here because I want you to give my sister back."
"I'm afraid I can't do it." He said ignoring my first sentence.
"Why not?" I asked him.
"She needs my help." He told me and I looked down at the table and sighed. "Look, I'm not gonna burden you with the gory details again, I know you have enough on your plate already."
"Again?" I asked him.
"Before I compelled you, Rebekah and I had told the story of the original five hunters. How I killed them for what they did to my family." He said playing with Nikolas his drink all but forgotten.
"Why did you compel me?" I asked him. "Don't tell me it's because you wanted me safe. I know that's no what it was."
"That was the only choice I thought I had at the time." He told me and I gave him a confused look. "I wanted to protect you from making a choice of hiding from your family until after the cure was found and your sister had taken it."
"And my relationship with Elena?" I asked and he gave me a sheepish look.
"You once told me you and your sister had been very close until you started hunting Katarina down. I wanted to give you the chance to be like that again." He told me.
"I've chosen to stay with you." I told him as my phone started going off. "I would always choose you over them."
"And now?" he asked me as I looked at my phone.
"Now I wonder what you'll feel once you've learned what has happened." I said reading the messages on my phone. "I came here to distract you so that Stefan could go to your house and break Elena out, which he did. And he lost her." Nik handed Nikolas back to me, he was furious with what I'd just told him. "Nik." He just looked at me and I saw betrayal, sadness, fury and love in his eyes.
"How could you do this to me?" he asked me.
"There's something else you need to know." I told him before he started to walk away from me. "They figured out how to stop the hallucinations."
"How?" he asked.
We quickly made our way to Tyler's mansion as the door was opening. Nik walked into the house with me and Nikolas behind him.
"Going somewhere?" Nik asked the black man about to walk out of the house. Nik grabbed him by the throat and used his vampire speed and forced him into the staircase. "When I said don't let her out of your sight, what did you think I meant?"
"It's not his fault, it's mine. I was distracting you. It's my fault she got away!" Tyler said trying to defend his friend.
"Then maybe you should be the one to die for it." Nik said looking at Tyler.
"No one has to die!" Hayley shouted at Nik and Nik rushed at her.
"Did I not say mind your business?!" Nik asked her angrily.
"Tyler's covering for me. I'm the one that let her go." Hayley said.
"Hayley…" Tyler tried warning her.
"No." Hayley told her friend before turning back to Nik. "You want someone dead, go ahead. Kill me. I'd rather die anyway than end up as one of your sired little bitches."
"Don't tempt me, little wolf." Nik told her before turning back to the black Hybrid. "Your existence is to serve me. To please me. Do you understand?"
"I'm sorry, I won't fail you again." The Hybrid said.
"No, you won't." Nik said before moving aside. "Get out of here." The Hybrid quickly walked to the front door. As he reached the door Stefan came through and stabbed him with a stake.
"No!" Hayley shouted covering her mouth with her hand and crying. Jeremy then walked into the house with a cleaver in his hands and I made Nikolas look away.
"Jeremy?" Tyler asked confused as to why he was there. "What the hell, man?!"
"I'm sorry." Stefan told Tyler before looking at Jeremy and nodding. Jeremy chopped the Hybrid's head off with the cleaver as Hayley screamed and hid her face. After the Hybrid was done Jeremy looked down at his hand.
"What's happening, Jeremy?" I asked.
"It's growing." He told me and I looked at Nik as he looked on thoughtfully.
Later that day I was outside my family home with Nikolas sleeping in my arms. I hadn't slept after Jeremy had told us his mark grew and I hadn't seen anyone since Damon brought Elena home, both of them sopping wet. I had a feeling that what happened today would change everything in the near future. I looked down at my sleeping son and smiled sadly thinking of everything that had happened in just one day.
"Nicole." I looked up to see Nik leaning on the post in front of me. We stared at each other for a moment before I looked back down at Nikolas. Nik sat next to me and we sat in a peaceful silence.
"I'm going to be staying with Caroline for a while." I told him.
"Why would you do that?" he asked me.
"You compelled me, Nik. I want to trust you won't do it again, but I don't. Once I'd found out you had compelling me I started putting vervain into everything I eat and drink. I didn't notice until I checked my supply before I met you at the Grill." I told him.
"You can trust me, Nicole. I won't compel you again." He told me and I smiled up at him.
"And what happens the next time I make you angry? Or you feel as though you need to hide something from me again? What then?" I asked him. "I've been on your side since the moment you walked back into my life, and you still don't trust me."
"I trust you more than anyone." He told me and I felt the tears I was holding back start to fall.
"But I don't trust you." I said. "Until I know I can trust you, I can't stay with you. If you want Nikolas can stay with you sometimes as long as I get some time with him also. I already talked with Caroline and her mom and they are more than willing to help me."
"And our engagement?" he asked me with tears on his voice. I moved my hand so we could see the ring he'd given me.
"We're still engaged Nik. I would never live with myself if I let you go over some stupid fight." I said with a light smile before placing my hand in his. "I love you, Nik, but I have things I have to work out before I can live with you again." He nodded after a minute and I leaned my head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. We probably looked like a normal, happy family with no problems. If only we knew what was coming our way.
