"Thanks again for the ride," Tyler said as Matt drove up the road to the house.
"What are friends for?" Matt replied. "Are you sure you want to be here right now?" he said looking around as they approached the house. "Because you can always crash at my place."
"No. I should be here. I just need something familiar to fall back on right now," Tyler said shaking his head.
As Matt approached the house, he noticed two silver mini coops parked in Tyler's driveway. "Who's here?" he asked Tyler curiously.
Tyler leaned his head back on the car seat and let out an exasperated groan. "It's the terror twins," he said shaking his head. "Nice of them to show up now," he said angrily.
"What do you mean?" Matt asked confused.
"They never showed for my dad's funereal. And now my mom dies and poof, they came running…I bet they want money, "he said sounding disgusted.
"My offer still stands if you want to come over," Matt said after an awkward moment of silence.
"They just bug me to no end. But I guess some family is better than no family," he said, opening the car door.
"I'm sure you will work it out," Matt said, trying to remain positive.
"Ha….Well I'll see you later then, man," Tyler said.
"Take care of yourself," Matt replied before he drove away.
Tyler approached the house slowly, trying to see if he could conjure up any memories from the night before. Nothing came to him, but his thoughts were interrupted by the doors to the mansion opening up, revealing a tall brunette with blue eyes staring at him intently.
"You've gotten taller," she commented as Tyler got closer to the doors.
"What, I was like, three or so years younger the last time you saw me, Chloe?" Tyler asked frowning.
Her face dropped at his response. "I was studying abroad, I couldn't come," she said trying to defend herself. She cocked her head to the side and then held her arms out.
Tyler stared at her for a moment before his eyes finally softened and he hugged her. Shortly after, they released and looked each other over.
"You look like, hell Tyler," she said shaking her head.
"I've had a lot to deal with, but you wouldn't know, would you? You never even came for dad's funeral."
"I already told you I was…." She started.
"Why does there have to be an excuse when it comes to your family, Chloe," Tyler started on her angrily.
"Settle down brother," came a voice from inside the doorway. Tyler glanced up to see a tall, muscular man with wavy brown hair and eyes that matched his sister's.
"Wow, Marius, I didn't even expect to ever have you show up here again," Tyler said turning his attention away from Chloe.
"It's Marius now? Why so formal?" he said shaking his head. "Someone has to make sure you don't mess up," he said with a forced smile. "Now let's get inside and talk family and business."
He didn't wait for a response before he turned away and headed inside. Chloe gave Tyler a pointed look and followed.
"Rio's only being practical, so don't look all judgmental that he doesn't care," Chloe said over her shoulder. "Cut him some slack."
"I'd rather have my stitches taken out," Tyler muttered as he went inside the house, closing the doors behind him.
They walked into the living room, but none of them felt the need to sit down just yet. Rio leaned against the piano and Chloe leaned her back up against the window. Tyler stood at the back of the couch staring at them.
He hadn't seen them in such a long time, but they looked even older than he'd seen them before. Chloe looked worn out with dark circles under her eyes and she looked small and tired. Rio, on the other hand, was all bulked up and seemed to ooze confidence and what Tyler could only describe as "prick attitude."
He was looking at Chloe again when he thought he caught movement outside the window. Looking again, he didn't see anything and he shook his head for being paranoid.
"So what happened Tyler?" Chloe said, looking at him questioningly.
Tyler shook his head and decided it was time to take a seat; it was going to be a long story.
"Elena, what do you think you could possibly do to help?" Bonnie asked exasperated as they drove to the hospital. "And shouldn't you let me drive at least? You were under some pretty big shock," she said looking at her nervously.
"I'm fine to drive. I'm just anxious about Jeremy and Jenna. I can't just sit around and let Katherine hurt my family again," Elena said, gripping the wheel tightly.
"What are you going to do? Use biting remarks against her? Not to beat you down, Elena, but you don't stand a chance of doing anything against Katherine," Bonnie said looking at her seriously.
"I can't stay home," Elena said firmly, knowing Bonnie was right. "But together…..I think we can be a big help. If you'll help me, that is."
Bonnie thought about it for a minute. "What do you have in mind?" she asked giving up. She knew how stubborn Elena could be and knew better than to talk her out of going to the hospital.
"I was thinking that at the least, I could be some sort of distraction for Katherine. Even try getting a few swings in and while she's distracted, you could do that mind thing you did on Stefan that one night in the woods," Elena thought out carefully.
"But only if you really feel up to it. You can always stay in the car as well," she said glancing anxiously at Bonnie.
"I'd rather go and help knowing I did what I could to protect my best friend then wait around," Bonnie said shaking her head.
"Now you know how I feel then," Elena said with a smile.
"No fair," Bonnie said smiling back. "But Elena, don't do anything stupid. Damon should be there. So hopefully, he'll be there when I make my move."
"Sounds like a plan, then," she said, turning gratefully to Bonnie.
"Probably a bad one, but it's something," Bonnie said shaking her head and clearing her mind. She wanted to be absolutely ready to do what she had to do before she faced Katherine. It wasn't hard magic for her, but it took focus and it was draining.
"Depending on how long I have to hold the spell, I may need to borrow energy from you. So be ready to take my hand when I need it," Bonnie said, getting antsy as they neared the hospital.
"I wonder if I should go in through the front or back? Probably back," Elena decided as she turned down the street, "if they think I'm in the hospital already, I might get weird looks walking in again."
"Kinda devious too," Bonnie added. "All, sneak in through the back door kind of thing…" she said laughing even though she was nervous.
"It's going to be alright," Elena said, nodding her head and saying it to convince Bonnie and herself that things would turn out just fine.
As she rounded the street behind the hospital parking lot, she saw a scene that made her gasp. "Oh my god, Bonnie is that them?"
Bonnie stared on as she saw Katherine holding a bloody looking Jeremy by the neck. And then seconds later, she threw him to the ground.
"I hope we're not too late," Elena said accelerating.
She took the turn sharply and was surprised to see Katherine hurrying by on the road, oblivious to anything. Making up her mind, Elena gripped the steering wheel and gave Bonnie a look. "Hold on tight," she said, accelerating the car as fast as she could toward Katherine.
Katherine turned just as Elena was feet from her and was met full on with Elena's car. She crashed into the windshield before rolling off the back and onto the concrete. Elena and Bonnie were thrown forward but were caught by the seatbelts. Not wasting time, Elena put the car in reverse and accelerated again, but she wasn't as lucky this time.
Katherine leapt onto the hood of the car, plunging her hand through the driver's side window and yanking Elena out.
Stefan decided to go to the Lockwood's via the woods so that he could follow any scents that led to or from there. He was surprised to come across multiple variations of that animal scent he smelled at Caroline's house. "How many are there?" he wondered to himself as he continued on his way. One of the smells he recognized as the same that was at Caroline's and he followed it. It stopped abruptly at a road and Stefan was left with no more leads.
"He must have transformed," Stefan deduced, now taking a more direct route to Tyler's. The smell was somewhat stronger around the house, but receded as he got closer. He didn't see any sign of Sheriff Forbes car yet, but he did notice two cars sitting in the driveway.
Being as quite as only vampires could Stefan stalked discreetly around the house, glancing in windows to see if there was any activity. Through the living room window, he caught sight of three people, two with their backs to him. He recognized Tyler, but he couldn't guess who the other two were. As he was watching, he saw Tyler catch a glimpse of him and he crouched low out of the way before Tyler could look harder.
They were having some sort of conversation. Zeroing in on the sound, Stefan remained hidden. If he heard Sheriff Forbes car, he would hide out until it was safe to approach her again.
"So what happened, Tyler?" Stefan heard a female voice ask. Something about it sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.
He heard a shifting in movement as if someone went to sit down and then everything settled in; the silence was drawn out.
"Come now, Tyler. We're family. You can tell us how badly you screwed up," he heard a sharp male voice say.
"So they are Tyler's cousins or siblings," Stefan thought to himself. But from the tone of the male's voice, it sounded like a brother. Stefan had experience on that side.
"Who said I messed up? I was the one who was attacked. I was just released from the freaking hospital. Not to mention that I had to wake up and find out mom was killed," Tyler said angrily. "Which by the way, how did you two even find out?"
"We didn't," came the female's voice. "We didn't know any of this, Tyler. We came to town as soon as we could. I know we missed dad's funeral, but there was no way around it. As soon as we got to town, we came here and…"
"Brother and Sister," Stefan thought to himself, glad to start putting things together.
"We find a messed up kitchen with police tape and a shattered glass door," the brother cut in. "So obviously, I called the police to find out what was up and they told me what had happened."
"Did they find out anything useful?" Tyler asked in what Stefan thought was a hopeful, yet guilty way.
"The only thing that the woman at the station would say was that it was a wolf attack and that the sheriff would be looking into it."
"Were you attacked by a wolf too, Tyler?" the sister asked hesitantly.
"I…I think so, Chloe," came Tyler's anxious voice. "Honestly? I don't really remember being attacked at all…I must have been…too high," he ended.
Even to Stefan the lie sounded bad. He could tell Tyler knew something, but wasn't giving it up.
"Too high?" came the brothers angry voice. "Is that what you're calling it these days?" he added cooly.
"What are you playing at Rio?" Tyler said. Stefan could almost imagine Tyler's eyes darting around the room.
"You think I don't know you're secret, Tyler? Come on. We're family after all. You can tell me," Rio said. Stefan heard movement and guessed that Rio, as Tyler called him, was moving across the room to Tyler.
"What do you think, Chloe? Rio asked quietly.
There was silence as they waited for a reply.
"I think….he's full of shit," she said. Her response surprised Stefan. She sounded like a calm, nice person. "Weird how things changed in a matter of minutes," Stefan thought, stopping himself from leaning in the window to take a peek at what was happening.
It took all his restraint not to pop up when he heard a glass come crashing to the ground inside.
Hope no one minded I kind of had Tyler included twice this story. But at least it's two different views: inside and outside. Anyways, hope you're liking this as much as I am. Reviews are always happily welcomed. Cheers.
