A/N: So basically you guys are amazing. I think I reached over 60 reviews for the last chapter alone. My story has over 1,100 reviews. That's crazy! :)
This is definitely a chaotic, confusing, sad, roller coaster of a chapter, so prepare yourselves.
Once you have recovered, I'm dying to know what you think...
Please ignore any spelling/grammatical issues. I gave this a quicker edit than usual so I could post it sooner!
She recoiled under his grip, kicking frantically at his legs with her heels, and clawing his arms with her manicured fingernails.
As a hybrid, his strength was no match for hers.
Upon releasing a scream, Dean quickly stuffed a tattered piece of fabric down her throat.
What the hell was happening she wondered as she looked pleadingly to a bewildered Tyler with tears in her eyes.
Quickly, her hands were tied behind her back in torturous vervain ropes.
Still, she fought, thrashing her body against Dean to no avail.
"Weaken her. She's a feisty one," Dean hissed to Hayley.
Her eyes widened when Hayley pulled a gun from her jacket.
"Whoa, we got her Hayley, let's just get out of here," Tyler hesitated.
A glimmer of hope returned to her as it appeared Tyler was experiencing a sudden guilty conscience.
Hayley rolled her eyes at Tyler.
"Do you really think those vervain ropes are gonna hold her?" Hayley scoffed. "Relax Ty, these will ensure her cooperation. Remember the little vampire slut who left you for Klaus? This is her. The little vampire slut Klaus killed Jason over in the woods," Hayley said, trying to sway Tyler back to her side.
Jason must have been the gray wolf.
Before Tyler was able to speak, Hayley pulled the trigger. She pulled the trigger more than once.
A silencer quieted the noise.
She was hit in the legs with a succession of vervained wooden bullets.
The next thing she remembered was collapsing onto the stone patio from the pain. She felt her body slam against the hard surface and heard her cell phone crack as it fell out from inside the bodice of her dress.
Her vision and other senses were blurry. She felt like she was in some state of shock.
More shots were fired, but they did not hit her. At least, she didn't feel them.
Despite feeling paralyzed, she managed to turn her head to the side to see Dean fall down beside her.
Wooden bullets were lodged in his throat, rendering him incapable of speech.
Relief started to flood her system as she anticipated Klaus was there.
When an unfamiliar army like boot planted itself firmly against Dean's chest, she began to have second thoughts.
She thought she could hear a confused Tyler demanding to know what the hell was going on; protesting that this wasn't the plan.
What plan did he mean?
With struggle, she managed to turn herself enough to look up just in time to see a machete swing down beside her and sever Dean's head from his body.
Frightened tears spilled from her eyes and she wondered if she would meet the same fate as Dean.
Her vision was just clear enough to confirm that the man wielding the weapon was indeed the hunter they had been after.
His eyes bore down into hers defiantly and she began to panic.
Fighting against the pain of the vervain ropes and poisonous wooden bullets, she turned her body away from the hunter to be met with Tyler's body dropping to the ground on the other side of her.
He seemed paralyzed but she could see the fear etched on his face, his water eyes, and quivering lips.
Bullets had also been lodged in his neck to prevent him from muttering anything but incoherent groans of protest as blood poured from his mouth.
She was crying hard now as it seemed Tyler, her last vestige of hope, would succumb to the hunter .
When the hunter stepped over her for Tyler, she screamed hard in protest against the makeshift gag in her mouth.
Tyler fell eerily quiet as the hunter kicked him onto his back, as though he had resigned himself to defeat.
His eyes fell on her and they seemed to evoke an apologetic sadness.
She gasped and sobbed hopelessly when the blade of the machete dug violently into Tyler's chest.
Tyler was choking on his own blood now as tears streamed down his face.
The hunter straddled Tyler's chest, still holding the machete inside of him.
He used the machete to pry open Tyler's chest and she winced and clenched her eyes shut as the hunter buried his bare hand inside the wound.
Despite her efforts to block the sight out, she could still hear the horrifying sounds of Tyler's heart being ripped from his chest and then discarded like a piece of garbage.
She was able to roll on her side, away from the sight, where she promptly spilled her stomach of its contents and began to choke on her own vomit due to the gag.
How had she gone from a romantic dance with Klaus in the dining room to a bloody massacre in the span of a few hours? She cursed herself for following Dean so blindly. Even Elijah had been suspicious.
She fell onto her back as the hunter nudged her bare arm roughly with his boot.
Still choking, she could barely mutter a verbal plea to him to spare her.
The hunter, or Connor Jordan as he had been named, was staring down at her with a victorious grin.
She noticed he no longer had the machete in hand.
Staring past him, she looked up at the terrace balcony hoping to see Klaus there. She knew better than to think that. She could hear the bass from the music all the way out here. There was no way he would hear her pathetic whimpers for help.
"And here's my lovely vampire bait," he commented to her, "Klaus Mikaelson's fatal weakness."
"We should get out of here," she heard Hayley urge. "Prom is almost over."
He nodded in Hayley's direction before kneeling down and bringing her into a sitting position.
She was shaking, choking, and thrashing her legs about to make a last ditch effort to fight back despite the excruciating pain.
"Don't be scared," he chuckled as he pulled a needle from his pocket and stabbed her arm with it.
It stung instantly and she concluded it was probably more vervain; perhaps wolf venom.
Still struggling, she achieved a small victory when her forceful coughing had ejected the makeshift gag from her mouth.
She was gasping for breath, barely able to mutter a hoarse scream as he wrapped his hands tightly around her neck.
Her fangs dropped, but she knew it was too late.
"This won't hurt," was the last thing she heard him say before everything went black.
He weaved his way through the groups of obnoxious teenagers spilling out into the foyer as prom came to a close.
There were still a few headache inducing songs left to be played, however. It was not quite midnight.
After his moment with Caroline in the dining room, he had retreated to the parlour by himself to indulge in the well-stocked liquor cabinet there.
But even there he could not escape the music, and it seemed like the alcohol was only making the noise sound worse.
So, he decided to retire to his bedroom early.
Caroline was supposed to be there waiting for him at midnight, but he decided a small change of plans wouldn't hurt. He would wait for her instead.
It could be more fun this way, he smirked to himself.
She would come here believing he had yet to arrive and he'd surprise her, much like he had earlier.
When she moved to wait for him in his sitting room, he would sneak up behind her and grab her shoulders. He knew she'd be angry at first, but he also knew she wouldn't be able to resist for very long the feeling of his fingertips on her shoulder blades and his lips on her neck.
He would let her keep the dress on for a while longer while he teased her, he decided. He could tell she was enamoured with the item of clothing. Truth be told, he quite enjoyed the sight of her in it as well. It accentuated her flawless beauty.
Even in his room, he could still hear the heavy bass pounding downstairs. He poured himself another drink from his own supply and quickly dulled the noise downstairs with his own superior musical taste.
He removed his jacket and draped it over the chaise before relaxing on it himself.
As he waited for the clock to strike twelve, he admired the finished painting of Caroline still resting on the easel before glancing over at Caroline's massive leather suitcase at the foot of the bed.
He chuckled to himself. The bag looked like it was ready to burst. It probably exceeded some sort of weight limit. He assumed they would have to compel it through customs. They were only going for a few days, he recalled reminding her earlier. Besides, he was certain her packed clothes would be a distant memory when she indulged in New York City shopping.
Smirking at the prospect of Caroline's awestruck face as they walked the streets of New York, he had to wonder if this was really happening to him - if this was really happening to them.
He had come to Mystic Falls with the intent of securing the doppelganger to break the curse and sire an army of hybrids. Caroline was never part of the plan; at least not in the way she was now. In fact, if his original plan had succeeded, she'd be dead. He would have sacrificed her without a second thought.
However, a simple twist of fate had seen to it that he didn't. Perhaps it was fate or something else entirely, he couldn't be sure. She had been an unexpected surprise. She had come into his life like a blinding streak of light, one that changed how he saw things altogether. He had come to Mystic Falls for one thing and he would be leaving with another; something better.
It was difficult for him to put into words exactly what that 'something better' was, but he felt it every time he was with her and even when he wasn't. At some point he had stopped being able to imagine his life apart from her, and at first it had infuriated him. He soon realized he couldn't picture it because he didn't want to. He didn't want to be apart from her. He had come to accept that he wanted her with him, and luckily for him, she had decided she wanted him with her around the same time.
If he was being completely honest, the idea of leaving with Caroline both excited him and terrified him. He had defeated many a foe in his day, and yet here he was worried about a relationship. It was a common source of anxiety though he was sure; why else would there be thousands of articles and books devoted to the topic? His concern was not abnormal. A conventional relationship was not something he had ever dabbled in. He detested feeling vulnerable and incapable of something. He didn't want to fail her. He couldn't disappoint her.
At the same time, he couldn't help but be disgustingly optimistic - yet another quality of hers that was slowly rubbing off on him. He wanted nothing more than to experience the world together with her; through her fresh eyes. He could hardly anticipate any future bumps in their relationship when he pictured her smiling brightly at him from atop the Eiffel Tower or the Himalayas.
Things always had a way of working themselves out he supposed.
He finished the rest of his drink before he checked his cell phone for any word from Caroline. It was exactly midnight.
Rebekah had likely held her up, he assumed.
Sighing in annoyance, he decided to pour himself another drink and ready one for Caroline.
As if slated to coincide, just as he heard a knock at his door his phone began to complain.
He checked his phone first as it was closest. It was a message from Caroline requesting that he meet her on the terrace out back. He smiled at the message. While he wasn't keen on a game of hide and seek, he would humour her.
When he opened the door, he found a displeased Rebekah on the other side.
"Tell Caroline that your sex games are on hold until she comes out here and helps me oversee some clean-up," Rebekah demanded.
Initially her assumptions about where Caroline would be and their behaviour together amused him, until he reminded himself that his sister was wrong on both counts.
"She's not here. I just received a text message to meet her on the terrace," he informed her.
Rebekah's eyebrows furrowed.
"You're lying to me," Rebekah hissed as she pushed past him into the empty bedroom. "Stefan told me you had Dean come and snatch Caroline from the prom early."
His face went ghost white instantly as his entire body went rigid.
He grabbed Rebekah forcefully by the arm.
"What did you say?" he asked.
She gave a confused scoff and tried to pull away.
"Don't play stupid, Nik. You had Dean retrieve Caroline from the prom. She's probably hiding in the bathroom," Rebekah groaned.
Panic flooded his mind.
"I never instructed Dean to anything of the sort," he denied. "Caroline was to meet me here at midnight," he stated.
"Where is she then?" Rebekah wondered as she put the pieces together.
Rebekah's face went as white as his as she realized that something was wasn't right.
Recalling the text message sent to him from Caroline, he sped by Rebekah and bolted frantically down the stairs; Stefan, Matt, Bonnie, and Jeremy were standing at the bottom, likely waiting for Rebekah.
"Klaus wh..."
He ignored Stefan's question, before his eyes fell on Caroline's mom who was talking with Damon and Elena.
Before he could look away, she had noticed him and his alarmed expression.
He pushed past the groups of teenage guests who were making their way to the front entrance now that the night was over.
With his phone still in hand, he called Caroline as he stormed to the back of the house.
Her phone had already rung twice once he stepped out onto the terrace.
As his gut had anticipated, Caroline was not there waiting for him like her text had said.
Instead, a sick feeling rushed through him as he heard her familiar upbeat ringtone sound from below on the patio.
He rushed to the railing and looked over.
Through the darkness down below he could see the faint glow of Caroline's cell phone and two male bodies.
He dashed for the stairs and descended them as quickly as he could.
When he reached the bottom his jaw went slack and his eyes widened at the sight before him.
On the ground lied two hybrids.
Dean's head had been severed and was laying a metre away from the rest of his body. Tyler Lockwood was clearly dead despite his eyes being open. There was a hole in his chest and as he stepped closer, he quickly noticed the missing heart on the stone patio beside his deceased body. Both bodies had also been inflicted with wooden bullets.
There was blood everywhere and though he wanted to deny it, he could smell Caroline's blood as well.
He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt as his mind searched for an explanation.
The noise of her phone still ringing snapped him back to reality.
The screen was cracked and speckled with a bit of blood, but it still worked.
She had obviously been here. Her phone was here; her blood was here.
He tried not to let his rage and devastation overcome him. Her body had been taken for a reason. She had to be alive.
Trying to think rationally, he opted to inspect the details of her phone first. Whoever took her wanted him to find these bodies. They wouldn't have texted him from her phone if they didn't.
He felt his throat swell with painful emotion when he opened her phone and was confronted by a photo of them together as her background. It was a picture Rebekah had taken of them at his birthday. They both looked semi-intoxicated. Both of them weren't even looking at the lens. He was looking at her and she was staring up at the ceiling. He hadn't seen the picture until now.
Wincing at the sight of the happy moment, he forced himself to move past it and search through her message and call history.
There were no suspicious outgoing or incoming messages save for the one that was sent to him. However, an outgoing call made around the time he received the text caught his attention and he called it immediately.
It rung a few times before the click of someone answering sounded.
"What now? I told you not to call again unless it was important. Did something happen with the girl...er the vampire, I thought you said you got her?!" the familiar male voice demanded. "Don't call me again until Klaus Mikaelson is dead."
He said nothing in response, preferring to keep his own identity secret for the moment.
"Hello!?" the voice on the other end said before he ended the call.
The voice was so eerily familiar to him and he struggled to place it.
He heard the terrace doors open while he clicked his tongue urgently as he scrambled to place the voice.
It hit him just as Caroline's mom appeared with Stefan and Rebekah at the bottom of the stairs.
Shock spread across each of their faces as they stepped towards him and noticed the bodies on the ground.
"What did you do?" Caroline's mom asked him shakily as she realized Tyler was one of the bodies. "What did you do!?" she demanded as she lunged at him. "Where's Caroline?" she said, beginning to sob.
He seethed at her insinuation as she tugged viciously at his shirt collar.
"I didn't do anything!" he corrected her bitterly as he removed her hands from his shirt. "It's the hunter. He has Caroline."
Her eyelids fought to open as she regained consciousness. Blood was rushing to her head and she tried to move her neck but it was still sore from being snapped.
She could feel her body being jerked from side to side, as if she was riding over rough terrain. She was still groggy from the incident and she was sure whatever poison was in her system wasn't helping matters.
Her hands were still tied behind her back with the vervain ropes and at some point her shoes had been discarded; she could feel the night air whispering against them.
As her blurry eyesight returned, she could see the ground a few feet below her. It was still dark. She could smell trees and wildlife.
It quickly became apparent to her that she was being carried. She could feel an arm wrapped around the backs of her legs, holding her in place. Her body was draped over someone's shoulder. That explained her heavy head and her prime view of the ground.
She remained as still as she could. It was better if whoever was carrying her believed she was still sedated.
"You should have just parked at the Lockwood property line. Now we have to backtrack," she heard Hayley's loud voice complain.
At first she thought it was the hunter carrying her, but the close proximity of Hayley's voice indicated that it was her instead. She should have known, the arm holding her and the legs moving her were too slender to belong to the hunter. A generous scent of perfume, not belonging to her, was also in the air.
She struggled to find an explanation for Hayley's abnormal strength - she was carrying her weight plus more if you included her prom dress. She thought back to everything she knew about Hayley, but it wasn't much. Tyler had mentioned that she had helped him break the sire bond when he was in the Appalachians; a wolf pack there had helped him. Hayley had also mentioned the wolf Klaus had killed to save her; Jason. Hayley had to be a wolf - she certainly wasn't one of Klaus's sired hybrids.
Confusion hit her as she tried to put all the pieces together. Why would Hayley betray Tyler? How did Dean fit into all of this? It was obvious the hunter and Hayley were working together. How did they know one another?
"Is the girl too heavy for you?" the hunter's familiar voice called out in front.
"No, but the sooner she's completely restrained, the sooner I'll have peace of mind," Hayley hissed. "How long does it take a vampire to recover from a snapped neck?" Hayley wondered.
"The vervain and wolf venom should have slowed the process," she heard the hunter explain.
She clenched her eyes shut and let a quiet sigh escape her lips. With the wolf venom in her system confirmed, she was on borrowed time now. If Klaus didn't find her soon, she would die.
And that's exactly what they were banking on, she concluded. According to the hunter she was Klaus's fatal weakness. They knew Klaus would come looking for her, and they knew he would find her. They wanted him to. It was a trap and she would be the bait that would lure Klaus right into it.
She panicked silently as she tried to figure out what to do. She had to act fast while she still had the strength to. If she was going to try and escape, now would be the time. They were vulnerable out in the open like this and without her restrained - especially Hayley. If she could escape now, they would lose their leverage.
Being that their walk was already a rough one, Hayley failed to notice the small way her body shifted a little towards the edge of her shoulder every time they stepped over the uneven surfaces.
By the time Hayley noticed her weight faltering from her shoulder and tried to rebalance her, it was too late.
She fell from Hayley and landed hard on her back against dirt and tree roots, still managing to feign unconsciousness.
"I thought you wolves had superhuman strength. Surely she doesn't weigh that much," the hunter said to Hayley.
He was far ahead enough in the distance that her escape plan might work.
Hayley cursed him before moving closer.
She concentrated on the sound. Her eyes were closed, she could see nothing.
Hayley was kneeling over her now and she could hear her reach towards her to pick her back up.
When Hayley propped her body up against her and prepared to lift her back over her shoulders is when she made her move.
Her fangs dropped within her closed mouth and she used the scent of blood pumping through the arteries in Hayley's neck, rather than her sight, to guide her.
Before Hayley could push her back over her shoulders she plunged her fangs into her neck.
Hayley let out a piercing scream as they both fell to the ground.
She landed on top of Hayley.
"You bitch!" Hayley scowled in shock as she haphazardly tried to grab for her.
Fighting vertigo, she forced herself to stand up on her feet.
She managed to escape Hayley's grasp by slamming her foot down on Hayley's leg with what vampire strength she could muster.
Looking down at Hayley for a split second, she had this innate urge within her to finish the job, but she couldn't. She didn't have time. She had to run.
She looked back to gauge the distance of the hunter. He had since dropped the duffel bags he had been carrying and was in pursuit of her.
Trying to run at vampire speed proved to be difficult. Her dress was wearing her down, her bare feet hurt, and the vervain and wolf venom were taking their toll. The fact that her hands were tied behind her back was the icing on the cake.
She knew she was on the Lockwood property, but she had no idea where exactly. She could see no clearing or light. She was directionless.
It hadn't even dawned on her until now that she had been screaming breathlessly since she had managed to break free from Hayley.
Would anyone even hear her? Would Klaus hear her?
Sweat was pooling on her forehead and her hair was coming loose as she continued to run.
She wasn't that surprised when she finally lost her balance and tripped over her dress. Nor was she surprised when she was hit in the back by what felt like a wooden stake.
The force of the stake knocked her completely flat against the ground.
She was a mess. Dirt covered both her skin and her dress while Hayley's dried blood caked her face.
Sobbing now, she moved her body tirelessly in an effort to stand back up.
It was too late.
She could hear the hunter behind her.
"You do have a little fight in you," he mused.
He pressed his shoe against her back to keep her in place as he broke the stake off, effectively leaving half of it lodged in her back.
At this point she was too worn down and hysterical to beg him to stop. She knew it was pointless anyways.
He pulled her back up by her tied wrists and pushed her in front of him.
"I don't have to snap your neck again to get you to cooperate do I?" he muttered from behind her.
She shook her head hopelessly as he guided her back to where she had started running from.
"Don't get any ideas either. Unlike Hayley, my body is laced with vervain," he warned.
When they reached the original spot, Hayley was sitting up now, holding the collar of her jacket against her neck to try and ease the bleeding.
"She broke my leg too," Hayley groaned to the hunter. "You're going to pay for this," she muttered as she attempted to stand up without success.
Hayley buckled over and the sight provided her with at least some satisfaction.
The hunter dragged her over to where he had dropped his supplies, but Hayley continued to talk.
"Better yet, Klaus is going to pay. He's going to watch you die. Just like I had to watch him kill my brother," Hayley scowled.
She winced at the thought.
Hayley's brother must be Jason.
"You betrayed Tyler and Dean," she muttered, practically incoherently.
Hayley scoffed.
"They sold you out anyways. They wanted to use you as leverage to get Klaus to release the other hybrids from the sire bond, what do you care about them? Tyler and Dean were a means to an end," Hayley informed her.
"What end?" she asked.
The hunter laughed as he picked up one of the duffel bags.
"The destruction of all vampires - including hybrids," he answered.
She shut her eyes as more tears began to escape at the prospect of basically everyone she knew and loved dying tonight.
He pushed her to keep walking ahead, despite Hayley still incapacitated on the ground.
"Connor, where are you going? Give me some of her blood so I can heal!" Hayley protested.
"There's no time," he stated coldly. "We need to get to the Lockwood cellar," he said from over his shoulder as they moved further away.
"You can't just leave me here! He'll find me like this!" Hayley screamed.
Connor - or the hunter as she preferred to call him - shrugged indifferently.
"It will buy me some more time then," he said ruthlessly.
Her eyes widened as she continued to walk. She felt no sympathy for Hayley after what she had done, but that didn't make the hunter's indifference to her plight any less surprising.
They walked for a few more minutes and Hayley's moans of rage and fear began to dissipate.
"You betrayed her," she croaked.
The hunter responded by twisting the stake in her back.
"She was a means to an end," he said plainly as she cried out in pain.
He paced the patio in contemplation beside the two dead hybrids as Caroline's mom loomed over Tyler's in particular.
By now, Damon, Elena, Matt, Jeremy, Kol, and Bonnie had joined the rest of them.
Immediate tears were shed at the sight of Tyler Lockwood.
"How do you know it was the hunter?" Stefan asked him carefully.
He handed Stefan Caroline's phone.
"A call was placed from Caroline's phone to Pastor Young. I called the number. He seemed to know all about the plan," he hissed as he ran his hands over his face to hide the emotion that was beginning to boil to the surface. "The Council recruited the hunter in the first place," he said kneeling down in between the two hybrid bodies.
He dipped his fingers in the deep red liquid pooled in the grout of the stone.
"Why would the hunter leave them here, but take Caroline?" her mom stuttered.
Her question hit him hard. He felt guilt. He felt sick to his stomach.
"Because of me," he answered. "She's bait. He knows I'll come for her. He wants me dead, and by extension the lot of you," he revealed, eyeing those that were tied to his bloodline.
He pressed his bloodied fingertips to his lips.
"It's Caroline's blood," he confirmed.
Caroline's mom immediately erupted into more tears and he gave her a solemn apologetic look before turning away.
He couldn't focus on her sadness. He needed to focus on the task at hand.
Looking out into the night, he tried to position the trail of her scent.
"We need to find her, Nik," Rebekah said surprisingly distraught over the abduction of Caroline.
He glared at Rebekah with displaced anger.
"I know that, Rebekah," he spat. "I'm trying to track her scent, but it only goes so far," he muttered, staring back into the darkness of the yard as he tried to concentrate on the scents in the night breeze.
"Let me help," Bonnie offered as she stepped forward. "I can use blood to do a locator spell," she explained.
He didn't accept or reject the witch's offer.
She took it as a tacit yes and she approached him.
Taking his hand, she painted her palm with his bloody fingertips.
"I need your blood too," she requested.
He eyed her reluctantly.
"Your connection to one another is what fuels the spell," Bonnie explained.
He needed no further justification. They were wasting time. He just wanted the spell to work. It had to work.
Biting into his hand with his fangs, a few drops managed to spill into Bonnie's palm before his self-inflicted wound healed.
Bonnie clenched her fist shut, effectively mixing his blood with Caroline's. She closed her eyes and began a witchy chant.
He noticed her eyelids begin to flutter and her body shake slightly as the spell progressed.
Moments later Bonnie's eyes shot open and she was staring at him with an intrigued expression. It unnerved him.
"What did you see?!" he demanded impatiently. "Where is she?"
She smiled softly and reassuringly at him making him feel even more uncomfortable.
He had a strange feeling that whatever spell she had done had allowed her to see more than just Caroline's location.
"The hunter is taking her to the Lockwood cellar," she informed him.
By the time they reached the Lockwood cellar she could barely walk on her own anymore. The vervain and wolf's venom were proving to be a powerful combination; one that she could no longer fight against.
She was practically pushed down the stairs into the dungeon like basement by the hunter who was grasping her hands tightly from behind her.
Unable to continue on, she collapsed, tripping over the last stair and onto the cold ground. Her dress, which was now a dirty brown colour at the front, ripped angrily in protest.
Her vision was blurry and her body felt like it weighed twice the size as the beginnings of fever began to overtake her.
"Please," she croaked meekly as she heard the hunter drop his supplies behind her. "You don't have to do this."
She felt stupid for even trying.
Words weren't going to convince him and she had nothing to bargain with.
"Killing vampires is what I do," the hunter said laughingly. "Of course I have to."
He picked her up and flung her over his shoulder much like Hayley had as he took her deeper into the cellar.
It was obvious this was where they had planned to bring her all along.
New chains and metal shackles had been installed to replace the ones Tyler once used during his transitions, weapons especially made for killing vampires were already waiting, and there was a healthy stock of vervain in the corner. He was obviously anticipating Klaus's strength.
It had to be past midnight now, she thought. Klaus was supposed to meet her in his room. He would be there waiting wondering where she was. He would probably try calling her before giving up and searching the house for her. He would probably assume that Rebekah had held her up. How long would it take for him to realize something was wrong? Would he discover Tyler and Dean? Would he find her here?
As much as she wanted that to happen, she was terrified. Despite Klaus's profession of immortality, it wasn't entirely true. Enough vervain and wooden bullets could weaken him. The hunter could then sever his head or extract his heart and it would be over. She would lead him to his death. She would be the death of him.
Hot tears spilled down her dirty cheeks at the thought as the hunter stood her up and fixed her wrists to the thick metal shackles - they had obviously been sized for her.
She was forced to stand by the height of the restraints. Barely able to hold her own weight, she fell forwards slightly, depending on the strength of the chains and shackles to keep her upright. At this point, she was numb to the feeling of the jagged metal cuffs digging into her wrists.
Using that to her advantage, she tried to muster what strength she had left to break free as the hunter prepared his weapons, but it was of no use.
They wouldn't break, and even if they did, where would she go from there? The hunter would just use the gun he was currently loading with wooden bullets on her until she was subdued.
All that was left to do was wait for him.
He looked against the darkness in the direction of the Lockwood property determinedly.
"Klaus, you said it yourself, this is a trap. He wants you dead; he wants us dead. You can't just walk into this blindly," Stefan said rationally.
He turned on his heel and glared at Stefan.
"What else am I supposed to do!?" he shouted, prompting everyone else to flinch. "He has her, and there will be no getting her back unless I play his game," he hissed in frustration. "I have to do this."
Caroline's mother stepped forward.
"I'm going with you," she stated.
"Us too," Rebekah said, nudging Kol.
He promptly shook his head.
"No," he refused. "It's not safe, particularly for you," he said, looking to Liz before eyeing Rebekah and Kol. "And it would be extremely stupid of us to bring the hunter three of the four remaining originals. We might as well wrap ourselves in a box with a bow," he scowled.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Kol asked.
"Find Elijah, and then with the help of Sheriff Forbes, I want you to round up my hybrids and Council members," he instructed.
A devilish smile crossed Kol's lips.
"Do with them as you wish, but do not kill them. When I get back I'd like to have a little chit chat with them first," he informed them.
"We can't just..." Liz began to protest.
He grabbed her by the shoulders.
"The Council is the reason your daughter is in this mess," he tried to say sternly without raising his voice. "They want her dead; they want all of us dead. They deserve no more of your mercy. Now you can help my siblings or not, but they will track them down with or without your assistance," he explained.
Liz nodded.
"We'll go with you," Elena said, stepping forward as she looked between Stefan and Damon.
She was holding Caroline's corsage in her hands. He had obviously missed that piece of evidence in the haze of his panic.
Damon's face scrunched up in defiance.
"We will?" he asked incredulously.
Elena shrugged.
"If Klaus dies, then we all die. We need him to survive," she reasoned before a solemn look crossed her features. "We need the hunter for the cure. And we need Caroline to survive. She's our friend. She would do this for us."
"I'll go in your place, Elena," Stefan said.
Elena protested.
"You're in a gown and heels. We can't waste anymore time. Go change and help Rebekah and Kol," Stefan told her.
In response, Elena kicked off her shoes and ripped at her dress at the knees, effectively turning it into more of a skirt than a dress.
She raised her eyebrows expectantly at Stefan who gave her a reluctant nod of approval.
"I'll go too," Damon relented with a groan.
"I should go too. I could get the hunter to back down," Jeremy said, garnering stern looks from Bonnie, Elena, and the Salvatores.
Kol snorted under his breath.
"Not this time mate," he spoke for everyone. "We need to go now," he said to the Salvatores and Elena.
They stepped forward in response.
Liz looked at him worriedly as he walked past her.
"I'll make sure she's safe," he assured her.
As they moved through the woods towards the Lockwood cellar, Caroline's scent grew stronger.
He could practically smell her fear at this point and it was driving him mad.
They had already run into a few close calls; he had encountered both of her heeled shoes not far from one another and Elena had come across the flower Caroline had wore in her hair.
Her blood was thick in the air, but he could also smell blood belonging to someone else.
"I can smell Caroline's blood, but I can smell a human too," Elena said, a few metres behind him.
"A werewolf," he corrected, as he stumbled upon the familiar looking girl, already half-dead from blood loss and immobile from a broken leg.
He could smell Caroline's scent on her clothes and he couldn't help but notice the relatively fresh vampire bite on her neck. He could tell from the small size of the bite that it was Caroline's work. She had clearly fought the wolf-girl off. It restored what little hope he had.
"Hayley isn't it?" he asked, looking down at the brunette with disdain.
He could feel both Salvatores and Elena watching the exchange from a distance.
She gave him no reply.
It's not like he needed one. He knew who she was. He and Caroline had run into her and Tyler outside the Grill. Initially, she had roused his suspicions, but naively, he had let them go when other matters became more pressing. He had made a mistake.
"You would do well to be afraid of me," he hissed as he picked her up in one swift motion, firmly planting her on her broken leg before giving her a broken arm to match.
She screamed in agony, but still spat in his face defiantly before he tossed her to the ground a few feet in front of him.
"Now," he started as he moved towards her. "I suspect you had something to do with Tyler's unsiring and the subsequent unsiring of Dean, and who knows who else," he mused. "As I'm sure you already know, the two of them are currently lying dead on my back patio."
She made a futile attempt to back up as he drew closer.
"I'm sure you're also aware that the vampire hunter, Connor Jordan, had something to do with that. Moreover, since your body was not there along with your 'friends,' I think it's only correct to assume that you're quite the two-faced little wolf," he said.
Her expression was slowly turning to one of submissive fear and he smirked at how easy it was to break her.
"Please," she cried under her breath. "Don't kill me."
He looked back over his shoulder amusedly at Elena and the Salvatores.
"I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I'll help you. You're looking for Caroline, right?" the frail wolf-girl stammered desperately.
Kneeling down, he picked up a wooden stake, belonging to the hunter, lying waywardly on the ground.
He juggled it in his hands in front of her.
"I would like for you to explain to me exactly what your purpose is, or was," he said simply, pointing the stake in her direction.
"Connor and I work together," she rasped.
He raised his eyebrows.
"That business relationship is certainly in questionable standing," he smirked.
She conceded his point with a nod.
"Worked together," she corrected, "My pack and I tracked vampires for him and he killed them for us," she shrugged. "I met Tyler and stupidly..."
"...you fell in love with him," he finished for her, practically tasting the bitter resentment on her lips.
"I helped him break the sire bond, hoping we could somehow hide the fact that he was a hybrid...but it didn't matter because he was in love with Caroline Forbes," she seethed through bated breath. "So when Connor came to me and told me about his little mission in Mystic Falls..."
"...you decided to help his cause," he concluded. "I forgot what a grudge-bearing species wolves could be," he mused.
She scoffed and began to cough laboriously.
"I made the mistake of putting my emotions ahead of logic. Tyler hurt me, but he had to die because he was a hybrid," she said spitefully, "part vampire."
He gritted his teeth at her comment and wrapped a hand around her neck, dropping the stake to the ground.
She was gasping intently for air but she still managed to mock him with a laugh.
"Go ahead and kill me," she urged. "Soon all of you will be dead too - including Caroline - and you'll have gotten what you deserved for killing my brother."
So, that was the wolf that attacked Caroline in the woods.
"You're a pathetic excuse for a wolf," he growled as he clenched her neck tighter. "Where's your sense of loyalty? Hmm?" he demanded lowly.
Her mouth opened to respond but he didn't give her a chance.
Instead, he dug his fingers into her chest and clenched his fist around the warm vital organ.
He watched her eyes as they widened with shock before he tore her heart from her chest with ease.
Blood poured out from the gaping wound.
His hand was coated red with her impure essence.
He tossed the heart aside, leaving it, along with her body, for some starving animal to enjoy.
After cleaning his hand off with the edge of her jacket, he stood up and refocused his attention back onto the task at hand. There was no time to revel in the first kill of the night.
He stopped a few metres shy of the Lockwood cellar.
"So this is going to be like one big trap," Stefan foreshadowed.
"What should we do?" Elena wondered the obvious.
Damon snorted.
"Haven't you ever played Super Mario before, Elena? You need as many lives as you can get to make it to the end, i.e. me, you, and Stefan. Then, you need to make sure you've saved your Super Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, and Starman, i.e. Klaus, to beat the game," Damon explained humorously.
Both Stefan and Elena rolled their eyes.
"Sounds about right," he confirmed.
Damon shot them a boastful smirk.
"What should we do? Just rush the hunter so Klaus can get to Caroline?" Elena asked.
"That's exactly what we do. We need to be the distraction," Stefan said.
Elena turned for the cellar, but Damon extended his arm to prevent her from moving.
"Chivalry doesn't apply here," Damon stated, "Stefan and I go first."
Stefan nodded.
A look of protest crossed Elena's face, but she relented and let them step ahead.
"Wish us luck, hybrid Ken," Damon joked.
He nodded to the both of them, hoping this plan would work.
Standing beside Elena, they both watched as Damon and Stefan headed towards the cellar.
"You love her, don't you?" Elena asked him bluntly.
He kept his eyes trained on Stefan and Damon for a moment, before he broke eye contact and shook his head to affirm Elena's suspicion.
There was no point in shying away from it now. He supposed he owed her honesty if she was going to risk her life to help him.
"She loves you too," Elena told him, as though she was trying to reassure him.
"You don't have to do this," he stated plainly as Stefan and Damon disappeared into the cellar.
Elena shrugged beside him.
"Yeah, I do, and not just for my own selfish reasons," she said. "I owe it to Caroline," she paused, "and I owe it to you."
He glanced at her quickly to confirm her sincerity.
Her eyes seemed genuine.
She put her hand on his upper arm as she prepared herself to follow Damon and Stefan.
"Caroline will be fine," she said.
Before he could respond, Damon's voice could be heard groaning in what could only be described as sheer agony as gun shots were fired.
He made a feeble effort to stop Elena, but she already blew by him at vampire speed at the noise.
This was it, he decided.
He bolted after Elena into the cellar.
When he entered, he was horrified to see Caroline literally dangling by a thread; the only thing keeping her upright were the chains and shackles that were cutting into her wrists.
Damon was seemingly paralyzed on the ground on the wall of the cellar beside Caroline; his body was littered with dozens of bullets.
"Get Caroline!" Elena called to him as she and Stefan tried to physically outmanoeuvre the hunter.
His rational instinct was to help them, but he went for Caroline like Elena instructed.
He broke the chains that were holding her in place.
She was barely conscious when she collapsed into his arms.
"Klaus," she rasped quietly as he lowered her to the ground.
Without a second thought he sliced into his wrist and forced his blood into her system before he tore the broken stake from her back.
The tell tale signs of both infection from vervain and wolf's venom were riddled all over her frail body.
"You're gonna be okay sweetheart," he whispered to her as his eyes scanned over her blood and dirt stained prom dress.
He winced guiltily at the sight.
When he heard the hunter's gun go off again behind him he almost relaxed, confident that Stefan and Elena had managed to outsmart him.
His confidence fell flat when he turned just in time to see the hunter snap Stefan's neck and Elena's body on the ground in a similar state as Damon's.
He rested Caroline on the ground as she began revive and stood to face the hunter.
Ready to attack, he froze when the hunter picked up a ranged weapon with a threatening projectile on the end of it.
He held up his hands, realizing he was no match for this new weapon and the smaller gun the hunter still held in the other hand.
"Come on mate," he said, trying to remain casual as he stood in front of Caroline. "Surely we can talk this out like civilized men."
The hunter smirked at him dismissively.
"Yeah, 'cause I'm sure that's exactly what you came here to do," the hunter replied sarcastically.
He looked down at Caroline who was going stronger by the second as she regained complete consciousness.
"All I came here to do was get my girl. Perhaps we can come to some sort of agreement," he suggested, clinging to the hope that the hunter would be temporarily swayed by the promise of a bribe.
When the hunter's expression turned to yet a deeper level of anger, he knew that the chances were slim.
"I don't think you understand," the hunter spat, "killing vampires is what I do."
"Elena!" Jeremy's voice called from the entrance.
After that everything seemed to operate like a slow motion sequence of events that he was powerless to stop.
Startled and in a panic, the hunter pulled the trigger on both weapons. He was knocked back as the projectile pierced his chest, and Jeremy was shot as he stepped in to intercept the hunter in order to prevent Bonnie from being hit.
He heard feminine cries, ones that sounded like Caroline's, but could have easily belonged to Elena or Bonnie.
"Bonnie! Don't kill him; the hunter's curse!" he heard Caroline call out.
When he came to, he saw a panicked Caroline kneeling over top of him.
Glancing past her he saw Bonnie sobbing over Jeremy's still body and Elena struggling to fight against the wooden bullets and vampire poison in her system to get to her brother. The hunter was lying unconscious with what he assumed was some spell Bonnie had quickly conjured up.
He tried to sit up, but movement was too painful. The projectile the hunter had shot at him was clenched firmly around his heart like a bear trap. A rope was attached. One forceful tug on the rope from a vampire hunter and it would be lights out for him and everyone else descended from him.
Caroline ripped the rope gently so that threat was eradicated, but there was still the problem of the claw-like device scratching his insides.
Perhaps this was Hayley already haunting him from the dead.
"This is not how tonight was supposed to end up," he groaned, trying his best to muster a smile.
Caroline laughed and cried at the same time as she cautiously peeled away his bloody tattered jacket and shirt from his wound.
Her laugh was infectious and winced in pain as he tried to stifle his own responsive chuckle.
She hushed him and pressed her palm against his cheek.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, growing emotional again. "I didn't mean to...and Dean he said...and I thought," she stammered.
Despite the profuse pain, he clasped her wrist against his face, brushing his lips over her healed skin and the bracelet that had somehow remained with her throughout the whole ordeal.
"Shhh," he said, "You didn't know. It's all right," he assured her.
She looked over at a sobbing Bonnie and Elena, and an expressionless Damon before returning her gaze to his open wound.
"It isn't all right," she shook her head, as he noticed the guilt begin to overtake her.
He could hear Elena begging Bonnie to do something and demanding to know why Jeremy's ring wasn't bringing him back.
Tears fell from Caroline's eyes as she overheard the same thing.
"Caroline, look at me," he instructed.
She peered down at him.
"Bonnie and Elena are helping Jeremy. I need you to focus on me. I need you to try and find a way to release this thing, so we can get out of here," he said nodding down to his chest.
Biting her lip as she appraised his injury, she began to nod apprehensively.
"I trust you," he reassured her.
She tried to muster a smile before bringing her hands down to explore the device.
He was certain there was a release mechanism; the weapon appeared to be reusable.
For Caroline's sake, he tried to stifle the groans of pain he wanted to express as her reluctant fingers began to prod at the wound.
After a few suspenseful and painful minutes of Caroline searching for a way to free him, he saw the expression on her face change to one of promise.
He clenched his eyes shut and dug his fingers into the ground as Caroline applied, what felt like an excruciating amount pressure on his most vital organ.
Then, all of the sudden, he felt instant relief as the device's grip was released.
They both sighed at the same time.
"I'm going to take it out," she warned.
He braced himself for one final surge of pain as she pulled the small torturous weapon from his chest.
Tossing it aside, she managed a small victorious smile.
"Thank you," he breathed as his body began to repair itself.
She bit into her wrist and offered it to him as he was finally able to sit up.
"It will heal you faster," she told him.
Agreeing, he was careful not to penetrate her skin with his fangs as he sucked the blood from the small self-inflicted bite.
And she was right. He could instantly feel her blood spread to every part of his body.
He caressed her face and took a second to appreciate the sight of her in front of him, safe.
She kissed his lips lightly before her attention was turned to the pain of her friends.
"Go help your friends, love. I'll be fine. I just need another minute to heal," he told her.
She gave his healing wound a second look. Reassured, she turned her focus onto her friends.
A now conscious Stefan was consoling Elena as he helped her remove wooden bullets from her body. Bonnie attempted to do the same for Damon.
He watched as Caroline walked around Jeremy's lifeless body before kneeling down beside him. She picked up the gun the hunter had used on Elena's brother and inspected it carefully.
Taking his eyes off her for barely a minute, his stomach turned when Bonnie's voice sounded for Caroline warningly.
He sprung up instantly.
"No!" he shouted.
The gun in her hand went off and hit the recently awakened hunter as she began to fall backwards.
He sped across the cellar to catch her.
He gasped as she fell back into his arms and he noticed the white oak stake lodged firmly in her chest; right against her heart.
His body went numb as he collapsed onto the ground with her graying body.
"No," he stammered in a state of pure shock.
He could hear the others react, he could hear them talk, but he couldn't process them. His mind had blocked them out as he stared down blankly at her lifeless body.
"No," he repeated. "Caroline," he said, swallowing the hard lump in his throat as he stroked his fingers through her hair and outlined her face.
Desperate, he pulled the stake from her chest and ripped at the flesh on his hand to offer her his blood.
She gave him no response.
His lip quivered as his eyes began to glaze over.
Minutes ago she practically had her hands around his heart as she worked to save his life. Now, here he was unable to do the same for her as she lied dead in his arms.
"Caroline," he repeated, as he stroked his thumb over her lips.
He shook her slightly.
Still, nothing.
His resolve cracked as the rock in his throat burst and wet drops hit his cheeks.
Just like that, she was gone.
The entirety of his short time with her seemed to flash before his eyes; from the moment he convinced her of life's opportunities to the final moment he assured her she was safe with him.
He winced as the grief and guilt constricted around his heart more painfully than any concrete weapon ever had.
It was an unshakable and unbearable pain, something he had only ever come close to experiencing once before, nearly a thousand years ago.
The thought of Henrick only exacerbated the devastation he felt.
Henrick had been his fault also.
He clenched his hands together so hard that he could feel his fingernails draw blood from his palms.
She was everything to him.
They were supposed to be immortal. He was supposed to have her for eternity. She told him she wanted an eternity.
How could it all be so ephemeral?
She told him that he would never lose her. He could hear her voice say it as though she was repeating the exact words to him against his ear.
He eyed the white oak stake on the ground.
"Caroline," he spoke one last time.
As anticipated, she offered him no reply.
He steadied his lip by biting it as he placed her on the ground in front of him.
Reaching for the stake, he noticed Caroline's bracelet in pieces beside her.
He was in pieces.
Clenching the stake in his hands, he turned it on himself.
He couldn't imagine his life without her.
He didn't want to imagine it without her.
He wouldn't live without her.
"Niklaus!" he heard Elijah implore.
The stake was knocked unapologetically from his hands by a speedy female figure he first concluded was Elena.
That was until he noticed Elena staring on inconsolably from Damon's arms.
Standing in the entrance to the cellar was his brother Elijah and Katerina Petrova.
He growled under his breath at her uncanny ability to sabotage his plans.
Channeling all his grief in anger towards her, he was ready to tear her head clear from her shoulders when he heard that soft angelic voice whisper his name.
"Klaus."
A/N: So have I confused you and toyed with your emotions enough? Let me know. :)