Chapter Twelve

A/N: There will only be one or two more chapters which makes me so sad. I loved writing this and seeing what all of you had to say about it. But I'll be back with a new story soon enough. So now enjoy this chapter! Merry Christmas. 3

Monster

Tyler's ability to think and react like a human was fading fast. The last thing he remembered was seeing who he thought was Rose running. But he wasn't quite sure. He was probably imagining things because at first he thought it was Alice from Twilight but that made entirely no sense.

Tyler felt that he had failed Caroline in a great many ways. She was burning up in the sun and he couldn't do anything to stop her because of his animal nature. He wouldn't get to be with her when she died but once he turned back to human he'd see her there, lifeless. The thought scared him and he regretted that it was his last thought before he turned full wolf.

One thing that Tyler was not wrong about was seeing Rose, not Alice, charge at Klaus.

"How dare you, Klaus." Rose said softly. "These are children."

"You're sick, Rose." Klaus smiled. "Do you think I don't know you were bitten?"

"I've been mainlining wolfs bane for about a month. I think I'm better now," Rose said defiantly.

"Why do you think you're a match for me?" Klaus said, amused.

"I'm very old too, Klaus." Rose looked over at Tyler, who was a full wolf, whimpering in a curled up position. The sight of him made a sharp pain run through her back. Not too far away, Caroline was lying motionless.

"Okay then, hit me with your best shot." Klaus opened his arms up and smirked.

"Luka!" Rose shouted.

Luka appeared in the doorway and muttered a few words that Rose did not understand. Klaus was shocked that the warlock was still alive, so his spell caught him completely off guard.

Klaus hit the tree behind him hard and fell back onto the ground. Rose took that as an opportunity to strike. She rushed over to Klaus, reached down and pushed her heart straight through his chest, literally ripping out his heart.

She knew this wouldn't be enough to kill him though. He was a very old and powerful vampire.

She threw the heart aside and gasped as she realized Tyler was not in the place she'd last seen him. It was very dangerous to have a wolf on the loose, seeing as there were so many vampires around. But even if they weren't, werewolves also enjoyed preying on humans.

Rose looked around and saw that Caroline was still in the same place, untouched. Luka ran to her and placed her ring back on her finger, but she still did not move.

Rose saw that others were stirring, meaning that Klaus was badly enough injured so that his influence on them broke. That was a good sign, but Tyler was still nowhere to be found.

Katherine, Damon and Stefan came outside with shocked looks on their faces.

"How do we finish him?" Stefan asked, looking down at Klaus.

"Whatever you do you better do it fast," Klaus choked out. "I'll be healed soon. It's not like I used that heart for anything."

Katherine struck Klaus hard across the face so he'd be quiet.

Tyler, in wolf form, was standing behind Stefan's car where the others couldn't see him. Little glimmers of Tyler's cognition were fighting to come to the surface and mask the animalistic side. He wanted to go after Klaus but he didn't know if he'd be able to concentrate hard enough to do it without getting distracted by the others and killing them all instead.

He hid for a few more seconds then decided that he'd better act. Klaus was going to heal up and the others had better just get out of his way when he went for him.

He tore out of his hiding spot, successfully startling all of the vampires. They all scattered as he went teeth first into Klaus' shoulder. Klaus screamed out in pain and recoiled his arm.

But Tyler was relentless. He ripped the arm completely off and everyone looked at them wide-eyed. He continued to rip and tear at Klaus until there was not a piece big enough to bite.

Damon approached Tyler, but he snarled at him. He didn't want anything else but Caroline. He ran to her side and sniffed at her face.

Elena screamed, "No!" and Tyler growled deeply in her direction.

"Just stop and see what he does," Stefan told her, holding her back by her arm.

"No! It's Caroline! What if he hurts her?" Bonnie said with a worried expression on her face.

"Well do you want to go wrestle a werewolf off her?" Damon scowled. "Be my guest."

Bonnie shot him a dirty look and went to go stand by Jeremy.

"He won't hurt her," Rose said. "That wolf that bit me knew exactly what she was doing. I think he can control himself."

Tyler nudged Caroline with his nose but she didn't move. At that, he looked up at howled at the dusk moon.

He then laid down and curled up next to her, defeated.

Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours and before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep completely exhausted from the events of that night.

He dreamed that he and Caroline were children again. She had bright, blue eyes that were full of an innocence that she still had even though she had gone through so much. Her platinum hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was dressed in some ridiculous 90's outfit. Tyler's wasn't much better.

They couldn't have been more than 7 or 8. It was a simpler time. Vampires, werewolves and witches didn't exist back then as far as they knew. All they had to worry about was the latest pokemon card and what mom was going to have on the dinner table that night.

Caroline was sitting on the swings with Bonnie. She wasn't swinging though - she was just sitting.

Tyler was playing basketball with Matt and a few others boys and the ball got away from them and hit Caroline in the back.

Tyler ran over to Caroline and demanded to get the ball back.

"You don't have to be so rude," Caroline said. Even then she had that tone in her voice that made you think she thought she was better than you.

"What are you going to do?" Tyler said, roughly. "Tell on me?"

Caroline gave Tyler a defiant look. He went to pick up his ball but Caroline snatched it before he could grab it.

"Come on, Caroline. Give it back," Bonnie said, giggling.

Caroline threw it to him as hard as she could and it jammed his finger, making him yelp in pain.

"What'd you do that for?" Tyler asked.

"I'm sorry," Caroline apologized sincerely, but Tyler gave her a dark look and ran inside to go to the school nurse.

Caroline watched him leave and frowned a little.

"It's okay," Bonnie said. "It's not your fault."

"I guess," Caroline sighed.

She looked at the door that Tyler had run through and felt bad. That moment set the tone for their entire relationship through the rest of their childhood and up into their late adolescence.