Set in 3x02


Each a monster, part 15: So derogatory

When the morning sun woke Alaric up the day after the exhibition fiasco, he found himself sleeping next to Damon, in the vampire's bedroom. Both of them were clothed, and he had no recollection of the evening. The fourteen bottles of various alcohol lying around the room surely had something to do with that, he mused.

Ric made a quick trip to the bathroom, and began to puke his guts out. He hadn't had so much to drink in a long time, since Damon and his getting together, he believed. They had gone out for a bourbon occasionally, but they had almost lost their drinking habit, too happy to bother with alcohol.

When he came back in the room, showered and clean shaven, his vampire of a boyfriend was sitting on the bed, sipping a blood bag with a smirk.

"Good morning?"

"Shut up. You don't have to deal with the hangover, so you don't get to comment."

The hunter soon left the boarding house and went back to the Gilberts', where he was welcomed and attacked at the same time by a very hyper Elena.

It took him some time to understand that she wanted to go to the Smoky Mountains since she – almost certainly – knew Stefan was there hunting down werewolves with Klaus.

"Wait a minute, how do you even know that?"

The young woman looked at him fiercely, as if to dare him to try and persuade her, as Damon had done, to give up. Ric only looked away, still unable to focus on anything in particular.

"The sheriff told me yesterday, a bit after noon. She seemed distressed, with the murder and all. Wait a minute, it's not Damon, at least? Because if he's the culprit, I don't see why he thinks he can lecture me about Stefan, because he's definitely worse. At least Andie didn't suffer before dying. And she's not even dead."

Alaric nearly snarled at that. What did the girl know, really? From what Damon had told him, the woman had been scared almost to death before being ordered to let herself fall. And if Andie hadn't died, she was still stuck in a pocket mirror, as was Rose-Marie, and that wasn't thanks to Stefan.

The teacher could understand that Elena was being restless, and didn't really mean it. He knew Damon didn't have the cleanest record track in the history of good guys too. That didn't mean he liked to hear her being so derogatory.

"I know for a fact it's not Damon who did it. And, what do you think you're doing, going after werewolves on a full moon, exactly?"

"Searching for Stefan. He'll be there, and I'll get him away from Klaus. After that, we'll come back."

Ric frowned. First things first, how did she think she'd get past Klaus in the first place? And also, who said the vampire would come with her? He had a deal to honor, and breaking his part would only make everyone he cared for a target for Klaus' revenge. And one last thing...

"We?"

Elena looked at him with a calculating gaze, went upstairs and came back with some aspirin.

"Well, I'm not going to go there alone, am I? As you pointed out, there are werewolves and it's almost the full moon. You're welcome to accompany me."

Alaric took and swallowed a tablet, secretly hoping the young woman would disappear from his sight after he'd have taken the medicine. Who knew, maybe she was only a manifestation of his hangover.

Unfortunately, she wasn't.

He eventually grunted his agreement, and as he went upstairs to wash his face and look a bit more like a respectable human being, he phoned Damon to ask him to tag along. He could still hear his boyfriend's exasperated tone and promise to be at the Gilberts' as soon as possible when he joined Elena's trip preparations. If he had to gain more time, he could as well make it useful. And he certainly wasn't going to let the girl near anything with fur, fangs, and claws without a handy of wolsbane grenades.

As for himself, he still had the knife from the night before. He'd do with this much, not really willing to talk about his family curse to the young woman.

Elena sighed as she put her bag on her shoulders.

"I was going to go and ask you to come anyway. Since you weren't in the house, I had planned to pass by your loft, but now it's not necessary anymore. Unless you want to grab something there before leaving?"

Alaric's heart missed a beat as the young woman said those words. He was quickly remembered of his tied-up guest. He didn't know, for now, if Theo had escaped during the night, or if he was still in his apartment. He had been lucky he had arrived to the Gilberts' before she went there. Ric didn't have the slightest idea of what Theodoric would have done to the girl if she had gone and had found his cousin instead of him in the apartment. And he didn't, but really didn't, want to know that anytime soon.

"I've got everything I need, thanks."

"Well, then, shall we?"

The teacher winced behind her back, and they left the house. Damon was casually leaning against Ric's car, and smirked when he saw the unhappy look on Elena's face. He bowed ridiculously low and asked if Her Majesty would get in the car, and if the regent would take the passenger front seat. Ric ignored him but decided it would indeed be for the best if the vampire was to drive. He still had a headache.

He surely fell asleep at some point of their trip, even if when he opened his eyes upon the Smoky Mountains he didn't remember having closed them. Nonetheless, he felt slightly better, even though they were going to walk right into a forest that would soon be infested with werewolves.

Damon shooed away his concern for him, saying that yes, vampires were the werewolves' favorite treat, but him, at least, he could run away at high speed. After that, the vampire glared at Elena, obviously meaning that she had no idea about how dangerously stupid and useless her idea was.

The young woman only shrugged, not a bit interested in his opinion.

Damon and Alaric shared a look, wondering how stubborn the girl could be.

At some point Damon pushed her into a river. Ric watched their antics for a while before reminding them that not only they weren't here for fun, but they also had a very important curfew to observe. After all, those who didn't observe the curfew were likely to be torn into pieces by supernatural wolves.

Later, they encountered someone – who was closer to a something. The someone / something tried to kill Damon, so obviously Alaric walked in and, to Elena's great surprise, strangled the someone / something into unconsciousness. The girl looked oddly at the hunter as he didn't struggle so much while the someone / something was struggling to get free. She almost forgot to hand him the vervain darts when he asked her, too surprised for her own good.

"Elena. The darts. Please."

The young woman blinked, and finally stung the someone / something with the vervain, hoping it'd slow him down if he were to wake up any time soon.

Ric took a deep breath, let go of his prisoner, feeling he'd have muscle cramps the next day.

"I don't know what he is, but this guy is strong."

Damon kicked said guy, and immediately rued his action. Said guy opened his eyes, jumped at his throat, and backed off only because of the wolfsbane grenade Damon had shoved in his face. The vampire thanked Elena for tossing it to him, and they tried to tie the someone / something to a tree with vervain soaked ropes and chains.

The someone / something was most likely a hybrid, and from the look of it, Damon mused with amusement that Klaus' experiments weren't going so well. The hybrid the Original had tried to create was weeping blood, and if he was definitely more dangerous than a normal werewolf or vampire, he also was seemingly rabid.

"You're alright, Damon?"

The vampire reassured his boyfriend that he hadn't been bitten anywhere, and rolled his eyes. He would have asked what the hunter could say about the hybrid's strength, but Elena was here too, and none of the two lovers wanted her to know of Alaric's condition – not for now, at least.

"What about you?"

"Took him by surprise, I guess. He didn't hurt me, if that's what you're worried about."

The vampire sneered at that, not convinced at all. He was about to say something mean when they heard the not-so-unconscious-but-very-determined-to-off-them-all hybrid growling.

Alaric, Elena and Damon looked at each other, looked at the sun still visible in the sky, and looked at the transforming hybrid growling at them. They all decided it was better to run away.

They were running as fast as they could when Elena tripped and fell on the ground.

A wolf that was very likely to be the werewolf form of the hybrid stopped dead in its tracks and snarled at her nastily.

Ric took half a second to think, and walked between the two. The wolf snarled louder, as if he knew the man was more dangerous than any man would ever be. The hunter only glared at him. Surely, the wolf knew. There was no question about it knowing or not knowing.

It was all about who would move first.

In a fair fight of strength and skills, Alaric knew he had no chance of winning. The werewolf was only a wolf, so skills were not important in this case, but he was every inch of a supernatural wolf with tremendous strength and fangs and claws. Alaric wasn't armed or prepared for that right now.

But if the wolf moved first, he could strike back. If Ric moved first... he was doomed.

"Elena, you run as fast as you can."

"But..."

"I'll be just behind you. But for us to survive, you need to go and not to look behind, no matter what."

The girl reluctantly left, and the wolf moved. The hunter stabbed him in the stomach, not that it did much good with its regenerative abilities, and shouted at Damon to lure the hybrid away. As soon as the vampire started running, Ric took back his knife and did just the same.

The wolf hesitated one second but eventually went after the vampire.

When Alaric reached the car, Elena was already inside. She watched him oddly as he got in. Then she complained about leaving Damon behind to lure the hybrid away. Ric cringed but told her they didn't really have a choice. Of course, a werewolf's – and therefore a hybrid's – bite was lethal to a vampire, and Damon was a vampire, but being ripped into pieces by the hybrid was as lethal and would have likely been their fate if Damon hadn't distracted the monster.

Then Elena started to talk about things Ric didn't listen to, too worried about his boyfriend not coming back. When she put a Gilbert ring in his hand, though, he started to listen. The hunter had to give it to her, she was stubborn, and she cared about him.

And, well, a ring that protected him from supernatural deaths could come in handy if any of his inner feelings about Klaus were to be proven right. So Alaric put it back on his finger, remembering how John Gilbert had asked for it and how he had given it to him with a light chuckle. He really had been angry at the time, and had frightened the man more than he deserved to be.

There was a time of silence while Elena looked at him with squinted eyes.

Finally, she spoke.

"Caroline told me something strange a few days ago."

Ric's upper lip twitched.

"Really, and what was it?"

Elena's voice was accusatory, with a hint of mischief in it.

The hunter wished Damon and him had silenced the blond vampire when they had had the chance.

"She asked me if I'd mind that one of our high school teachers was dating a vampire. And I know for sure she wasn't talking about herself, because she's definitely going after Tyler."

Alaric said nothing.

Elena gave him a pointed look.

"She said that?"

Another pointed look.

"Fine. Damon and I are going out."

Elena was gobsmacked. She didn't know what she had expected, but that wasn't it. She had thought so, right, Damon and Alaric... but she had believed Caroline had been jocking.

Damon opened the passenger door and they left the Smoky Mountains in silence.