A.N.: Hi guys, thank you so much for the reviews. So things will definitely be departing from canon, especially from here on out. I've rearranged things, and because certain people are still alive (Sheila, Mason) things will happen differently; I'm going to be introducing some canon characters earlier. And, for all of you who love her as much as I do, just know, Rose doesn't die!
Dangerous Beauty
23
A Hit, Acknowledged
"What's the matter with you?" Caroline asked, frowning, as Giulia squirmed again. Her entire body felt like it was too big for her skin. She was sure Caroline could probably hear her nipples – and other places – throbbing. Her senses were hyper-acute and she hated more than anything the constricting denim that kept rubbing at just the wrong spot – if he wasn't going to oblige her, there was no way she was going to give in and sort herself – that was just as bad as begging him to drop to his knees and finish her off with one of his scorching kisses.
"Just – unsatisfied," Giulia admitted in a growl. No point being anything but open about it – having a supernatural best-friend redefined privacy.
"Oh," Caroline smirked. "Do I even ask?"
"Just a little game we play," Giulia said grimly. Game. Torture. The awful thing was, they both enjoyed it so much. Caroline stifled a shiver, laughing.
"Okay, yeah, I don't wanna know," she chuckled.
Elijah had asked for the moonstone. Subtle and devious as he was, he had admitted there was no harm in just asking.
"Elena told you I had the moonstone?" she quirked an eyebrow.
"She also believes you killed Katerina." She raised both eyebrows this time.
"A murderer and a thief," she mused, shrugging a shoulder, sniffing slightly as she watched Elijah trail patterns on her hip with his fingertip, his lips pressed against her temple, warm and firm. She sighed heavily. "That girl needs to keep her mouth shut if she plans on surviving to adulthood. Maybe Stefan needs to stick something in her mouth a little more often."
"Crass, Giulia," Elijah tutted, though she could tell he was smirking.
"Keeping her in the bedroom would keep her out of trouble…would keep everyone else safe," Giulia mused. She cared more about the collateral damage – the vampire and werewolf who needed sacrificing, the people who would get hurt in the attempt to save Elena.
"Ah, so a better sex-life is the solution to the curse not being broken within Elena's lifetime," Elijah chuckled.
"I suppose she and Stefan will just have to take one for the team," Giulia gave a long-suffering sigh, reaching for her phone. "I'll text him the idea, hm?"
"Speaking of…" Elijah unfolded from her, opening the drawer of her bedside-table. "I believe exquisite sexual torment may be my best option to get you to tell me where that wretched stone is. And searching this little drawer earlier, I found a peculiar little lipstick—Giulia, be my dear and demonstrate its purpose…."
Giulia had – politely – refused Elijah, and regardless of how wound up he got her, she would continue to do so.
They were playing the game. Hours of foreplay – left miserably unfulfilled. They both knew what they were getting into, it was delicious – but Giulia was in a fidgety, grumpy mood and Elijah kept texting her heart-stopping things that made her squirm in her seat and regret the jeans rubbing her in just the right place – if her clothing got her off, was that technically her doing? She didn't think so. But she was saving those texts. And those pictures.
But, tit for tat – she could give better than she was dealt. Soon the game would tumble out of control, and she was learning Elijah's tells to anticipate when that would be. She just had to hold out longer than he could – she was becoming a master at tormenting him, even if they were both too strong-willed and determined not to be the first to give in.
The night Elijah had returned home with his Armani suit in bloody tatters was the last time they had been together – being killed had unleashed a lot of emotions and memories in Elijah that Giulia doubted she would ever know, and she had been there to come home to, to bury himself in, get lost, to savour. She was there. Others weren't – and he was too old for the number of those lost ones to be small.
She was looking forward to when they both finally admitted this was fun, toes already curling in anticipation of easing the pent-up frustration Elijah had cranked up to a fever-pitch raging so hot she could barely think beyond whispering to herself, Don't cave. Don't beg.
"Okay, can you focus, please?!" Caroline blurted, laughing.
"Pardon me?" Giulia glanced at her best friend, a little dazed. Elijah had left her barely able to walk this morning; she was driving on auto-pilot, not paying attention to Caroline's chatter as she took the route more familiar than the back of her hand.
"I asked what you think we should do to help Tyler prepare for the full-moon," Caroline sighed, looking anxious. Giulia had to go to the high-school to talk to her guidance-counsellor about getting her diploma, and had offered to come pick up Caroline with doughnuts. Giulia had received an offer in writing and wanted to make sure she had everything prepared. She didn't want to be rushing around at the end of the summer; she and Caroline should hopefully be making their leisurely way back from their road-trip so Caroline could attend the senior-year of high-school she had, in her mind, already planned to be epic.
Giulia hoped the summer together, just the two of them, having adventures and getting into trouble and seeing amazing things, having a fabulous time together, would soften the blow…she just wanted to talk to Liz about how to go about delivering the news. Besides, she'd wanted to ask Liz to come with her to meet with her financial advisor to go over Giulia's assets. She valued Liz's opinion and wanted it on a few matters Giulia had been contemplating.
She glanced at her best-friend. While the Brothers Salvatore were running around like chickens with their heads cut off over what Elena had blurted to them about the sacrifice, Caroline was worried about Tyler.
His was the greater of the two tragedies, and it – and not Elijah's torturous ministrations – kept her awake at night. She'd never admit it to Caroline, definitely not to Tyler, but she was deeply upset by Tyler triggering his curse. A few months ago, when she was still hurt from him running around on her, she might have wished for something like this to happen to him… Having watched Mason's video, she would never wish it on anyone, not even Tyler at his most dickish.
"Have you talked to him recently?" she asked.
"Not really," Caroline said. "It's weird, he's been keeping to himself a lot at school. I saw him break the combination dial off his locker the other day – and he looked really freaked out when some guy knocked into him. You know how he would've always like grabbed anyone who did that and shove them?"
"Yeah, I remember," Giulia chuckled softly. Tyler was notorious for being a belligerent hothead. He couldn't resist even the most innocuous, unintended trigger. He'd been one hell of a brat when they were kids, once he'd outgrown the sweetness they had watched on old videos Giulia's dad had kept in the attic. "So he didn't lash out?"
"He looked – scared," Caroline frowned. Giulia sighed.
"Well, if his emotions are as heightened as yours were, maybe his normal aggression turned into rage – maybe it scared him straight," she guessed. Tyler had always been an angry teenager; he had had his sweet moments, leftovers from when he was a kid, but for the most part he had been a belligerent prick. "I hope he doesn't pick a fight with anyone, he could do some serious damage."
"You think he's that strong?"
"He's not vampire-strong but he could definitely land someone in the hospital," Giulia sighed, trying not to reflect on Sarah. That was an accident, although orchestrated by Katherine.
"I guess he'll…just have to start thinking about how he reacts to things," Caroline mused, and Giulia nodded, turning into the school parking-lot. She had to park in Caroline's spot, the school had taken away her spot due to her not attending full-time. She was about to leave completely.
"That might be a good thing," Giulia said heavily. Tyler picked more fights than any other guy in their class – he never got suspension only because his dad was the mayor, and the principal didn't want to have to have that argument with the bully who was Tyler's late-father.
"Hey, there he is," Caroline said brightly, and Giulia followed her gaze to one of the basketball courts, where a bunch of guys were squeezing in a pick-up game before the bell. "Come on, we can talk to him before you have to talk to your guidance counsellor."
"Fun," Giulia grimaced. If Mason had been able to smell sex on her when they'd met, surely Tyler would have no trouble sensing her sexual dissatisfaction. By the double-take and the subtle smirk he gave her as she wandered over with Caroline, he could, and she sighed, rolling her eyes. She caught a glimpse of Matt and grimaced at Caroline before ducking away, swooping down to scoop the basketball Tyler had been dribbling morosely behind Matt's back into her arms.
"Sucker!" she grinned, dribbling the ball, feinting when he lurched for her, giving her a pained smile.
"Thought you'd quit coming to this place," Tyler said, eyeing the school miserably.
"They've got to sign some last bits of paperwork before they'll cut the cord," Giulia said, and Tyler smiled sadly. She glanced over her shoulder at Matt, who shiftily avoided Caroline's gentle smile, striding away. She caught Tyler's eye, grimaced subtly, and tucked her hair over her shoulder as Caroline approached, perfectly styled curls bouncing as she stopped in front of them, her expression smoothed out to conceal any disappointment.
"You two still on the outs?" Tyler prompted.
"Looks like it," Caroline sighed. "You realise it's almost a full-moon."
"Vampires don't have enough problems; you wanna take on mine?" Tyler smirked.
"Have you even thought about it, the whole…wolf thing?" Caroline asked gently, and Tyler glanced around, making sure no-one overheard. "D'you know what you're gonna do?"
"I have a plan," Tyler said anxiously.
"Don't worry," Giulia waved a hand, bouncing the ball with the other, "we'll fix it." Caroline chuckled softly and Tyler's lips quirked into a smile, before his hand shot out, stealing the ball from her, turning and landing a three-pointer. "Aw, come on! No wolf-powers!"
"That was just me!" Tyler laughed. "You haven't even seen how strong I am now!"
"Hey, I wanna know whether you triggering the curse brought on some instinctive fighting BAMF-ness," Giulia said, eyeing Tyler thoughtfully. "'Cuz we all know you can't fight for shit."
"I can fight!"
"That prison-gang riot shit you unleash on kids who look at you the wrong way doesn't count," Giulia said baldly. "I'm talking fighting – like Marine, MMA kind of stuff."
"Well, are you up for a gym session tonight? We can find out," Tyler suggested, with a grin.
"Hey, guys! Focus!" Caroline blurted. She gave Tyler a seeking look. "Well?"
"It's...kind of private," Tyler said, almost blushing. Giulia snorted.
"Tyler, I've already seen all the goods, darling," she said, making him blush as Caroline's lips twitched toward a smirk.
"And I'm Student Council President, Miss Mystic Falls, head of the Prom committee, not to mention I singlehandedly organised this town's clean-up campaign," Caroline said, raising her eyebrows, getting her Future Mrs President Face on. "You're really gonna turn down my help?"
"You might as well just accept it," Giulia said, shrugging, "we're with you on this."
That he wouldn't have to go through his transformation alone seemed to relax Tyler a little. But he was still anxious and even Giulia, who had no supernatural senses, could practically taste it. She didn't spend much time at Mystic Falls High beyond getting things settled in the office and sharing lunch with Car and Tyler, but even she could see there was a huge difference in Tyler's demeanour. Even though he hadn't endured his first transformation yet, even just triggering the curse had changed him.
They made plans for the three of them to meet at the gym after Giulia finished classes in Richmond. She wanted to see what Tyler could do, and she and Caroline had been sparring in the boxing-ring, teaching Caroline to hone her instincts – and temper her reaction-times so humans wouldn't notice there was something…off with her – they needed to make sure she didn't confuse people while they competed in the Classic. How the hell would they explain that she was dead to someone who wanted to test her blood for steroids?
If she couldn't get off with her immortal fuck-buddy, she'd have to exorcise her frustration with a fledgling vampire and a newbie werewolf in the boxing-ring. Getting hot and sweaty and beat-up sounded delicious – she'd be too tired to really get worked up by Elijah's delicious talents. She could just pull her car over on the side of the road and give herself a hand but she was running late, and she still didn't want to give Elijah the satisfaction of knowing he'd gotten to her. It was the psychological part of their game she enjoyed almost as much as the torturous foreplay.
"Okay, Mohammed Ali, show us what you can do," Giulia taunted, a few hours later. The three of them had met outside the gym, an overheating Tyler glad to be in the A.C. of the gym – Giulia had touched his arm and been alarmed by how warm he was. All that time memorising Meredith's medical texts and she knew that kind of heightened body-temp did not bode well – for humans. They discussed it while they did some warm-up stretches, the idea that his 'fever' had a lot to do with an extraordinary metabolism that made him hungry an hour after gorging on a full steak breakfast from their favourite diner downtown. He had always had a healthy appetite, carb-loading for the three sports he played at varsity level, but he had noticed a staggering difference – he was always hungry. Always overheated, to the point his mom had threatened to call the doctor – Giulia had given Meredith a heads-up about the situation, and Tyler had asked Giulia to figure out how the hell he was supposed to tell his mom.
It was fun – sparring in the ring with Caroline. Tyler thoroughly enjoyed himself, watching the two girls smacking each other, Caroline in her perky little gym gear and pink boxing-gloves, not a hair out of place while Giulia got more exhausted with each bout, sweating profusely, her braids coming loose, exhilarated and laughing as they danced around the ring, Caroline tempering her strength, Giulia trying to get past her defences. Caroline frolicked off the ring to swig at her water-bottle, not even out of breath. Giulia rolled her shoulders, stretching her arms.
"You sure you can even raise your arms? That was pretty intense," Tyler teased, as he climbed into the ring.
Fighting with Caroline was fun. But fighting Tyler – he was the only person who had ever really brought out any kind of competitiveness in Giulia, and he didn't pull punches. Literally. It was an intense workout, sparring with him – she was at a disadvantage, having been boxing with Caroline, but she held her own, drawing a crowd – which grew to include Jeremy, at the gym training with Ric – and she blew a lock of hair away from her sweaty face, putting up her arms to block Tyler. The intense expression was back, the one that consumed Tyler's face, and they weren't playing anymore. Giulia had always liked that Tyler always took his workouts so seriously.
A blow to her ribcage made her buckle, and she was vaguely aware of her face exploding.
She woke to the slow beep-beep-beep of a machine and the overwhelming scent of antiseptic, and jerked upright, making a dark shadow jump.
"Please tell me nobody gave me mouth-to-mouth," Giulia blurted, instantly regretting being upright. Her head swam, throbbing as if something had invaded it, pulsating angrily, wanting to push her brains out of her ears, and she was acutely aware of a pain in the right side of her chest.
"Jeez!"
"Oh, thank god! You're awake!" Caroline's voice dripped with relief, as Tyler bowed his head, heaving a sigh, hands curled around the railing of a hospital-bed. "We thought Tyler had really hurt you!"
"Are we at the hospital?" she asked, discombobulated. The throbbing in her head really was painful; it was making her nauseous, combined with the bright strip-lighting above them, and that smell… The last time she had been in the E.R. was when Tyler and Caroline were both admitted.
"Yeah. Hot Scott had to call an ambulance for you," Caroline grimaced, though her eyes twinkled; they both loved Hot Scott, one of the private instructors at the gym. "I'll go get Meredith, she'll be happy you're awake at least."
"I am so sorry, Giulia," Tyler said earnestly, looking incredibly sincere as she fidgeted, inhaling sharply at the pain in her chest as she moved, relieved she wasn't wearing one of those classy paper gowns. "What're you doing?"
"'M not staying here," Giulia said groggily, her head spinning as she grabbed around her for her things, but she couldn't find any. Her tongue felt too heavy to talk, her head throbbed as if…as if a teen-wolf had punched her in the head with unfamiliar new strength. "Guess we know how strong you are now." She slid off the gurney, nausea churned, and Tyler caught her when she blacked out. She blinked, coming back into it, still in Tyler's arms as he shouted for help, she tugged at his t-shirt, nausea bubbling up violently, unable to communicate as she had her jaw clamped shut, her head spinning as she lurched for the medical-waste trashcan. Her ribs screamed in protest as she bent, heaving, throwing up the contents of her stomach.
"What's going on in here?"
"She tried to get up off the bed, I kinda caught her before she could bite the floor but – well…" Tyler trailed off, glancing frantically at Meredith, her white lab-coat tugged on over lilac scrubs.
"Okay, she's definitely got a severe concussion," Meredith sighed. "Why don't the two of you wait outside while I examine her? Is her cousin on his way?"
"I've tried to get Damon but I've called my mom," Caroline said. "She's Giulia's emergency contact."
"Okay," Meredith nodded, gently guiding Giulia back to the cot after Giulia gasped, sagging against the trashcan, stomach empty, head throbbing, ribs screaming. "You two wait outside… Giulia, just lie back. What happened?"
"Gym. Boxing… Tyler hit me," Giulia groaned, collapsing on the cot, panting. She fidgeted, writing, and pulled up her t-shirt, wanting to see through her skin to her ribs. They hurt.
"Oh!" Meredith blurted, and Giulia hissed a gasp. Where Tyler had hit the right side of her ribcage, a bruise flourished. Already angry purple and fuchsia, bursting from a star of mottled pinkish-yellow, ringed by sickening green. She thought she could even see Tyler's knuckle-prints – and he had been wearing gloves! "That is a serious bruise."
Getting her doctor on, Meredith gave Giulia a meticulous examination. Since she had vomited, Meredith diagnosed her with at least a severe concussion. She booked Giulia in for an X-ray to check there wasn't more than just superficial damage to either her head or her ribs.
While Giulia waited for the results of her tests, Caroline stayed outside on her cell trying to get hold of Damon or Stefan, waiting for Liz to arrive. Tyler hovered, guilty and anxious – Giulia gestured him into her little curtained-off cubicle.
"Hey," he said, barely able to meet her eye.
"I'm okay, you know," she said softly. She didn't even have a drip! They were all making such a fuss, but she was fine – it felt like one of her worse hangovers, to be honest.
"Yeah, I know," Tyler said, nodding to himself. He glanced up and gave a tiny smile. "You're tough." She wanted to nod, but her head throbbed.
"Hey, um…is any of my stuff here?"
"Yeah, hang on, I'll go get it," Tyler said softly. "You want your gym-bag or your backpack?"
"My backpack," Giulia sighed. She had fallen unconscious by the time he returned, but he shook her awake, on Meredith's orders, and Giulia glanced around groggily, finding it difficult to focus. She took the backpack, a little confused, but unzipped it, staring inside at the contents. Why had she wanted it? She glanced up at Tyler, blinking bemusedly. Tyler stared back at her, anxious and guilty.
"What were you looking for?" he asked gently. She stared into the bag, fiddling with the zipper. A small journal made her frown, reaching for it, and she was distracted by the tag around her wrist, her name in tiny print, birthday, sex, blood-type, attending doctor, numbers she was too befuddled to work out. She blinked, and pulled the journal out. It was small, weather-stained, there was a rustle of plastic against cardboard and Giulia glanced up at Tyler, remembering.
"Mason asked me to keep this safe, in case… In case you needed it," she said sadly. Mason's parting words had been his hope that she would never have to give Giulia his journal. That he regretted not being able to stick around to make sure Tyler didn't need it. He'd enjoyed spending time with the nephew he barely knew, but saw a lot of himself in – a lot of potential he didn't want to see wasted because, like Mason, his dad had died young leaving him aimless. "Just…promise you and Caroline won't talk about your plans until I'm…recovered?"
"Sure," Tyler said softly. "Kinda wanna avoid thinking about it, you know?"
"You'll get through it," Giulia said grimly. She sighed, glancing at Tyler. "There's no other option."
Meredith returned with her results several hours later. Caroline, Tyler and Liz had taken turns standing vigil, waking her on the hour as instructed. The diagnosis was that Tyler had accidentally bruised three of Giulia's ribs. Just a little bit more force and they would have broken. Giulia didn't have any contusions to her skull, and there was no bleeding on the brain, but with a severe concussion Meredith would only release Giulia – a minor, still, though orphaned – to Liz on condition she was still woken every hour. She also wasn't to have the stronger pain-meds Meredith prescribed her for her bruised ribs until she had recovered from the concussion.
The next twenty-four hours were a miserable sleep-deprived blur as she tossed and turned in the bed next to Caroline, being woken every hour by the irritating buzz of Caroline's alarm-clock and a nudge and full-body jostle – Caroline forced her to eat a tiny snack or guzzle down Gatorade each time, and Giulia was dazed and disoriented, and in pain – every time she breathed, her ribs ached. She might've preferred just breaking the ribs outright, she couldn't tell whether there would be any greater inconvenience. She was forbidden by Meredith from going to the gym, attending dance-practice – or having sex. No vigorous activity, were her words. Nothing that would cause pain to her ribs. So, breathing was out.
It wasn't until the next evening, her phone finally charged after dying while she was in the E.R., Tyler around for dinner Caroline had cooked – spinach and mushroom chicken casseroles for the invalid, at her request; Caroline made a mean casserole – that they got down to it. Tyler's plan. They had taken a field-trip – Caroline clucking over her like a nervous hen, insisting on carrying her half the way there and all the way back – to the derelict cellar that had once formed the foundations of the original Lockwood plantation house.
"Matt's bumming pretty hard," Tyler told Caroline, Giulia holding on to her piggy-back style.
"I know," Caroline said softly, and a bite of steel entered her voice as she added, "It's better this way."
"I get it," Tyler nodded.
"You do?" Caroline asked sceptically.
"Yeah," Tyler said. "You can't be honest with him. It's not really fair to be with someone and…not really let them know who you are… I get it." Caroline was surprised, Giulia could sense it.
This thoughtful, intuitive Tyler – this was the kid Giulia had once been in love with. Maybe it was too early to say but from what she had seen, Giulia believed triggering his werewolf-curse had stripped Tyler of all the bullshit that had made him such an unlikeable kid. The anger, the aggression – the ego. Maybe whatever had been churning inside him had settled due to the curse being triggered – his hormones had levelled out, or something. Maybe Meredith would know.
It probably also had a lot to do with the fact Tyler had killed a girl. Accidentally or not – his aggression, anger and strength had all contributed to Sarah's death. Maybe he was working on that, to prevent it from ever happening again. Or possibly it was just chemical, his body now fit for its full potential. The way she imagined it, Tyler before triggering the curse had been like Dr Jekyll, with Mr Hyde constantly trying to gain control. Now, the two had seamlessly merged into one stronger, more sensible being.
Perhaps it wasn't the best thing, having helped cover it all up, and they were all just going on with their lives, dealing with the next hurdle life threw at them, she imagined Tyler was a mess beneath that calmer exterior. They hadn't dealt with the fact that Tyler had killed someone. They were desensitised to it, Giulia knew, and she regretted that. But Tyler was new to this, a baby werewolf, and had no idea what had been going on in his hometown for months while the rest of them dealt with some pretty messed up stuff.
It wasn't just that he understood why Caroline kept a wall between her and Matt. It was that, when Giulia had told him about her dad, he had understood why Giulia refused to give in to rage, wanting revenge. She didn't want to waste the energy, and her dad wouldn't have wanted her putting herself in harm's way to avenge him. He'd rather she turn the other cheek and go on and live her life to the fullest.
"Right over here," Tyler said, striding ahead, and Giulia caught Caroline's eye when she glanced over her shoulder, her expression saying it all. She was…charmed by this thoughtful Tyler. Giulia patted Caroline's head, nodding. She knew. "There's a cellar that goes to our old property."
"I know," Caroline said lightly.
"Oh… Right. This is where you were outted to your mom," Tyler grimaced, hesitating at the top of a crumbling staircase, the remnants of the original Lockwood plantation. Two Sheriff's Deputies had died down there. He sighed, glancing back at them, wincing. "My mom told me this is where my ancestors punished their slaves… Kinda relieved to find out it's actually where my ancestors turned into werewolves once a month."
"Especially your ancestor. George Lockwood was a world-class dick," Giulia muttered.
"How d'you know that?"
"Stefan and Damon knew him and – oh, did I mention – I stole his journals from your attic!" Giulia grimaced guiltily.
"Wait, the Lockwood journals? I thought they were all destroyed in the fire that – burned this whole house down?!" Caroline blurted.
"Lies, all lies!" Giulia smiled. "My guess is the Lockwood family didn't want the other Founders reading George's journals, especially as he detailed every transformation…every kill. Plus he documented how he abused his slaves…he could've given Madame LaLaurie a run for her money."
"Who?"
"She was a notorious socialite in New Orleans during the 1800s," Tyler spoke up, frowning down the cellar steps. "She tortured her slaves. Way beyond the Slave Codes."
"How do you know that?" Caroline asked, blinking. Tyler had never been known to be studious.
"Are you kidding me? Dating this one over here, you think I didn't pick up things while she was researching the Underground Railroad? You were obsessed," Tyler said, smiling fondly at Giulia. Tempestuous as their relationship had been, very Peyton-and-Nathan, there were a lot of times when they had just been able to hang out, her researching for her essays, Tyler indulging in being able to draw without his dad bitching him out about wasting his time.
"I'm just proud you were actually paying attention," Giulia smiled.
"Watch your step," Tyler smiled, finally descending into the cellar. "What is that?"
"What?" Giulia groaned, her ribs aching.
"That smell," Tyler frowned.
"Blood," Caroline said quietly. "It's old blood…from the Deputies."
"Oh," Tyler said quietly, as Giulia slid off Caroline's back.
"Did Mason tell you about this place?" Caroline asked.
"I haven't managed to get hold of him to tell him I triggered the curse," Tyler sighed. "But I followed him here, I figure this is where he was headed the night I saw him transform… Look, I found these…" Chains, bolted into the walls. Deep grooves, like claw marks, rent into the stone like it was nothing more than butter. And these foundations weren't made of soft stone – they were built to last.
"So, you've tried to get in contact with Mason?" Caroline prompted.
"Yeah. Tried his cell a few times, the number my mom had for him in Florida," Tyler sighed. "Nothing."
"He's lying low," Giulia told them quietly. "Doesn't want to make it easy to be tracked down. Although – thank you, Elena – now other vampires know the moonstone's in play, and she's pointed the finger at me!"
"Wait, what other vampires know about the moonstone?" Caroline asked.
"Apparently, one of the vampires who kidnapped Elena escaped when Damon killed Elijah," Giulia sighed. "The only good thing is, she was granted her freedom by Elijah so I doubt she'd do anything to jeopardise that. If I were her, I'd get as far away from all this mess and enjoy not having to look over my shoulder… But there's a chance she might tell other people." So far as she knew, Slater hadn't been alerted to the discovery of the moonstone. And Giulia knew he was the contact who had tipped off the vampires Rosemary and Trevor, who had then conspired to kidnap the doppelgänger and bargain her for their freedom.
"So…who's Elijah?" Tyler frowned, flicking a flashlight around the stifling, echoey cellar.
"He's one of the Originals. One of the very first vampires," Giulia said, glancing over at him. "There was a whole family of them. They're…practically royalty to other vampires. Pre-medieval."
"What do you mean, there was a whole family of them?" Caroline frowned.
"One of them got too paranoid, arrogant and manipulative – he killed the others. Now I think there's only a couple left," Giulia said thoughtfully. "Elijah's one of them."
"But he's dead," Caroline said softly.
"Mm." Giulia glanced at Tyler. "So what's your plan?"
"Look – bolts and chains. I need new chains, but the bolts could hold," Tyler said, tugging on one of the bolts contemplatively.
"I've asked Sheila Bennett to put a spell on here, the cellar," Giulia said quietly, and the others glanced at her. She shrugged.
"What kind of spell?" Caroline asked curiously; Tyler looked like he was struggling to process that they were having a causal conversation about werewolf-transformations and witch hoodoo.
"When the full-moon rises, the spell will keep a werewolf confined in the cellar," Giulia said, circling a finger around the dark cellar. "A mystical boundary, rather than risk the rusty old moulding door over there."
"So, like the tomb spell?" Caroline asked sceptically.
"Yes. Except the spell will be bound to the moon cycle – once the full moon has set, the seal will break," Giulia said, yawning. She was still recovering from being woken every hour, kept awake by her bruised ribs, not allowed any drugs until she recovered from her concussion. She was hiding her foul mood quite well, she thought. Just quieter than usual, and yawning a lot more.
"So I shouldn't be able to get out?" Tyler said.
"In theory," Caroline sighed.
"Sheila knows her stuff," Giulia said to him. "You won't get out."
"So I won't hurt anyone," Tyler said, sounding relieved.
"Do you have the journal?" Giulia asked, and Tyler nodded.
"There's a memory-card in the back," Tyler said. "I haven't…I couldn't look at whatever's on there…"
"Well…we can watch it with you," Caroline said softly. Giulia's stomach dipped at the idea, having seen the contents of that memory-card before, but Caroline carried her back to her car, and they holed up at Caroline's house. Liz was still at work, and Caroline poured them some bourbon. None for Giulia, due to her invalid status.
It wasn't the hits she had taken so much as the recovery that had really thrown her. She was an athlete and a dancer; injury was part and parcel of that and a lot of effort went into not getting injured. She and Tyler had just gotten so into it, competitive, having fun, pushing each other, that they had forgotten… Tyler couldn't play like he could before, not even with her. He was stronger than they had thought. Not as strong as Caroline, but easily strong enough to do some serious damage. He could quite easily have given her brain-damage.
The bruise flourishing on her ribcage was just physical evidence that Giulia was not invincible. She knew she wasn't – usually she took precautions because she knew she wasn't. She thought thirteen steps ahead and planned things, because she had to, because she didn't have supernatural hearing, speed, strength, or healing. All she had was her own strength – and half of that was strength of will, and strength of mind. She could push her body to its limits because of those two things, and because she was prepared. She had had training, knew how to use her body, and where she could use it to inflict the most damage on any attacker. Fighting was about anticipation and precision more than anything else. If she could avoid a hit she could win the fight, every time.
But they'd been playing – talking shit to each other, flirting, goofing off, and breaking up snarky back-and-forth with intense sparring and wallops that had made people at the gym place bets.
Giulia was human.
She was now the only human in a circle of friends that included vampires, werewolves, doppelgangers and witches.
She sat, quiet and upset while Tyler and Caroline talked about his transformation – the full-moon. What that really meant for him, and how they could help him. Tyler was dead set on preventing himself from hurting anyone when he turned. He had no idea what would happen, what it even really meant… Giulia felt miserable, and that only made her more closed off, full of dread as Tyler brought out the journal she had given him. She had made him promise, and he'd kept it, too afraid to peek at the pages.
Her body hurt from taking one hit, three ribs bruised. Having watched Mason's video…how the hell would Tyler feel during his transformation?
Mason had been walking around, chill and funny, helpful, he was a laidback guy with a good head on his shoulders – appalling taste in women, but otherwise a decent guy. He wasn't crippled by his transformations – he dreaded them, but the rest of his life didn't seem dictated by them.
Giulia didn't want Tyler's life railroaded because of this – because of Katherine. Because of the sacrifice ritual she would absolutely not be letting Tyler or Caroline be any part of – or anyone else she cared about. She and Sheila had been working things out, setting things in place. They had plans of their own, Giulia had confided some secrets she felt were safe with Sheila and necessary for her cooperation.
The fact that she had had the cellar fortified seemed a huge relief to Tyler. Now that he didn't have to worry about hurting anyone, he seemed to be focusing all his energy on what he would be going through. He set up his laptop, inserting the memory-card into a little slot, and they sat side-by-side on Caroline's sofa, Giulia uncomfortably, Caroline flicking through the journal. Giulia would rather have not turned over the journal and memory-card, but it was what Mason had wanted, and she supposed Tyler had to mentally prepare for what was going to happen to him, as much as go out and buy chains to ensure he didn't hurt anyone. Clicking around on the memory-stick, Tyler opened a video-file, and a shirtless Mason appeared, talking to the camera.
"It's September fifteenth," Mason's voice said. The time-stamp at the bottom of the screen read 6:04:00 PM. He stood in his garage, the usual junk accumulated by athletic single guys surrounding him. "Two hours from the first full-moon since I triggered the curse."
"He taped his first transformation," Tyler said wonderingly. Caroline flipped through the journal.
"September sixteenth," she said, pointing to a page header. "He wrote about everything the next day." As Tyler fast-forwarded through the video, Caroline read aloud. "'I chose the garage. I could deadbolt the door. It was far from the street so no-one could hear. I bolted hooks to the floor for the carabiners'. What, like for mountain-climbing?"
"Retractable cables," Tyler said thoughtfully. They watched the screen, Mason drinking from a water-bottle and coughing, spluttering. "What's he doing?"
"It's wolfsbane," Caroline said softly. Giulia dozed, the first of her meds starting to kick in, warm and cosy in the Forbes' cosy, neutral-feminine living-room, the comfy sofa, Tyler's intense heat radiating from him, working like a heating-pad against her. She could hear Caroline's voice, as if from far away. "'I diluted wolfsbane with water to weaken myself but I could barely get it down without puking. It felt like I was drinking battery acid. Over an hour passed. Nothing happened. It got so quiet I could hear my own blood pumping. That's when…'" She stirred, the sounds of pained grunts and choked yells rousing her. "'I kept thinking I'd black out and not feel it, but I did. I… I felt all of it'… How long is it?"
"We're three hours in," Tyler said, his voice panicky, full of emotion. He sped up the video. "Four hours… Five hours. How long does this last?" Giulia mumbled when the weight beside her shifted, taking with it the intense heat that had been lulling her, soothing her aching side. "I c- I can't do that!" She stirred, peeking blearily through the dark and a drug-induced haze – Meredith had given her the good stuff! – at a deeply-upset Tyler.
"Come sit down, Tyler," she said gently. His breath was shaky as he paced the living-room, anxious and upset, but eventually he did sit back down, looking defeated. She patted his knee, already drifting off again, lulled once more by his heat and Meredith's delicious drugs. "You'll survive it. It's what you're made for. And we're with you."
She drifted off again, out cold, and woke to the sun sending a spear right between her eyes, sweating and achy – one side of her body felt like it had been burned. She became aware of what had woken her as the others stirred – Tyler had apparently slept over, head lolled back on the back of the sofa, with Caroline curled up to him like a lizard seeking the sun's heat. Cold-blooded now, Caroline always became the big spoon when Giulia slept over, wanting to absorb Giulia's warmth. And Tyler was like a personal space-heater. Her phone, which she had remembered to charge yesterday, was buzzing. As the other stirred, stiff and achy from falling asleep on the couch, Giulia peeked in the brightness and found the source of the noise – her phone, set to vibrate, was lit up and dancing. As Tyler grunted and Caroline gave a confused murmur, she dove for her phone before either of them could see the photograph of a shirtless Elijah grinning lazily in rumpled sheets glowing on her screen. Hot Viking Totty was the name she had saved Elijah's contact details under, but if they saw that photo on her phone and then met Elijah… Well, she'd prefer to keep things separate.
Heart swooping, she dove for her phone, and groaned as she hit Accept, her ribs aching.
"You sound glorious," Elijah smirked. "Do you like the photograph?"
"N – I – Yes, but Tyler and Caroline could've seen it!"
"I know. Doesn't it make things so much more fun?" Elijah practically purred, and Giulia chuckled, the sound transforming into a moan as her ribs protested. "Why do you sound like you're in pain?"
"I bruised some ribs," Giulia grumbled, putting the coffee on. She could tell it was still early: Liz always made the coffee. If the pot wasn't full, Liz wasn't awake. And she was always the last home and the first to leave for work.
"How?"
"Tyler and I were boxing at the gym," she groaned, holding a hand to her side, already missing Tyler's warmth. "He literally had no idea of his own strength." She heard Elijah let out a sigh.
"Can you meet me?"
"Oh, I'm sorry – no physical exertion, doctor's orders," Giulia said.
"Why did your friend Caroline not heal you?"
"She knows I wouldn't thank her for it," Giulia said quietly, glancing over her shoulder into the living-room. Giulia was dead set against accepting vampire-blood to heal herself. She figured the moment she did, it was over: she would lose perspective, lose any respect for her own limitations – and that would only put her in danger.
A.N.: So, just a reminder to the reader, to Giulia and to all her friends, she is still very much human. Insanely clever, well-trained, fearless, but human.
