"Do you think it was a good idea leaving like you did," Matt asked the next morning as he brought coffee to McKenna.
Looking up from the couch, she took the hot mug from him and stared out the window. "I was pissed. What do you expect?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe staying and talking to him about it."
"He put Kol in the middle of it. I asked him and he promised he wouldn't. Kol's my best friend. I don't want him hurt. I can be mad about that."
Matt shook his head. "When are you meeting Paisley and her brothers?"
"After school. Damon says we need to fight publicly about you getting attacked that way they know I'm even more vulnerable."
"I think we can pull it off." He sat beside her and took her free hand. "Promise me after all this is over you will keep a rein on Elijah. We don't need him going crazy."
"He won't. He respects humanity too much to do that."
"I've seen him compel people to do what he wants. I don't want him to do that to you."
McKenna looked at her friend and boss. He was truly concerned. She smiled at him. "I won't let him." She patted his arm and stood. "We need to get ready for school."
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Elijah watched as Matt and McKenna pulled up in Matt's beat up truck. He watched as the young blond walked around the other side of the truck to be a gentleman and open the door.
He remembered what he had done. Kol had volunteered to be the one to attack. His idea had been to attack Matt who they knew would be with her. Elijah knew McKenna would be mad and rightly so. He had told her he wouldn't involve his brother, her best friend, but he needed her reaction so she could do her role.
She had been so mad at him when she walked in the house after Matt had dropped her off. She hadn't said a word for the first thirty minutes she was home. When Kol walked in, she turned back on him. The pain that flashed across his face cut deep. He had left the room without a word.
He hadn't been surprised when she turned on him. However, he was surprised when she walked out of the house. For the last week, he had been sleeping in the same bed as McKenna and that one night had disrupted his sleep. In other words he hadn't slept.
Now he was watching her doing her job by posing as Matt Donovan's girlfriend. He grit his teeth at the sight.
"Don't kill him, Elijah. He stepped up to help us when we needed it."
"She's mad at me, Stefan. I can't help how I feel about that," he replied.
Stefan walked out from the cars and followed his gaze. "She's just hurt at the moment. She asked you not to involve Kol and you did. You can understand why she's upset."
"Kol volunteered himself."
"You could have told him no."
"He wouldn't have listened."
"Even if you had told him it would have upset McKenna?"
Elijah turned to look at him after his gaze lingered on the young woman. "Kol wants the hunters dead. We all do. They threaten our livelihoods. I will do whatever it takes to do it."
"Even if means hurting the woman you love?" Stefan watched the Original closely as the thought hit him. "Kenna loves you. It came on fast but I don't doubt her feelings. Don't hurt her because you them destroyed."
Elijah watched as the younger Salvatore walked across the parking lot to the school. McKenna turned around and met his eyes briefly then looked away. He watched as she pulled out her phone, typed something, put it away and walked inside with Matt. A few seconds later, his phone buzzed.
Sorry about last night, but I didn't want Kol involved. I won't be back until this is finished.
He left the school in a fit.
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McKenna sighed heavily as she looked out the window. Classes had been sluggish and boring. After texting Elijah, which had been a bad idea, her mood plummeted further. She had ignored everyone, save Matt who met her after every class.
After school Matt insisted he drive her to the designated meeting area. They had really argued about this because she didn't want him anymore involved than he already was. He argued that he was going to see it all the way through with her. He played his trump card about threatening to call Damon. That had shut her up.
She looked out the window of Matt's truck and realized they were headed out towards the lake. Without taking his eyes off the road, Matt scribbled where they were going on a piece of paper and passed it to her. She quickly typed it in her phone and saved it under notes. They were going to need this when they went in for the attack.
Matt pulled through the trees carefully and parked his truck. They were at an old lake house and it seemed harmless. But in the last few days she had learned that vampires were susceptible to wooden stakes to the heart and vervain. Mixed together they were lethal. Damon had also told her where to aim when driving a stake through a vampire and Alaric had been telling her how to put enough pressure behind her punch.
She and Matt looked at each other before they heard twigs breaking. Paisley and her brothers came out of the trees. McKenna looked at them levelly, sizing up their size now that she wasn't blocked by the bar and they weren't walking away.
Caysen was the oldest. He was taller than both his siblings. His hair was a curly brown that was brushed back. His eyes were a light blue that held something in them that she couldn't pinpoint.
Brad was bulky, as if he were a linebacker. There was something about the way his eyes flashed that told her he'd be a sadistic vampire if given the choice. He could probably hurl a hundred fifty pound man if he set his mind to it.
Paisley was the one who would be taken for granted. She was slight but there was always a hint of aggression behind the small ones. There was a savageness behind her innocent expression that put McKenna on edge.
"Glad you could make it," Paisley said as they walked over to them. "I didn't know your boyfriend was coming."
"He asserted himself at the last moment," she replied.
Matt snorted. "You weren't coming alone to the woods without someone coming with you. I don't want you alone especially not after the attack last night."
"Yeah, well, if you weren't such a macho man nothing would have happened."
"It was a damn vampire that attacked you. I defended you. How am I supposed to defend myself against that?"
"News flash, buddy, I didn't ask for your help."
Matt pulled a face that was purely one of disgust. "Then maybe you don't need me around anymore." He stalked back to his truck and climbed in.
"Where are you going?"
"Home! Find your own way back!"
"Matt! Matt!" She kicked the ground and made an unhappy noise. "Son of a bitch!"
"We can take you home after we show you the ropes," Brad said. After a little bit of thought, McKenna nodded. He cheered. "Sweet! Let's get started!"
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"So we're dead sure their base of operations is at Dunham Lake?" Stefan asked after Matt and McKenna went to the Mikaelsen house.
McKenna had trained with them for hours before Caysen had brought her back into town. She had arranged for someone to come and pick her up. It turned out to be Elena. They had rode in silence the entire way. Matt had been there when they pulled up. Elijah had been the one to open the door. McKenna had turned her head away when she walked in.
Matt had told what he found at lunch and the McKenna told what she had learned. They had stockpiled weapons to use against vampires so much so that she had taken pictures of the room with her phone.
"That's where we're meeting tomorrow," McKenna replied. She was standing by the fireplace staring into the fire with her back to everyone. "I'm going back tomorrow to finish what I started."
"Are you sure you want to continue this?" Damon asked.
She turned to look at him. "I have to finish this. I was the one that started it anyway."
"Actually, I started this," Kol said. "I'm the one who provoked them in the grill while you were working and I'm the one who attacked Matt last night."
"Let's not talk about that."
"No, we have to." Kol pushed himself off the wall and walked over to her. "I decided to attack Matt. It had nothing to do with my brother. Don't take it out on him when he didn't have anything to do with it."
McKenna looked at him levelly. She was trying to decide what she wanted to do about this entire thing. It wasn't easy being between everything.
"I asked that you not get involve and you did it anyway. I don't like that." She looked back into the fire. "I've buried my mother and my father in a three month time period. I don't want to bury my best friend next."
It was silent for a few moments. Then McKenna was pulled into a strong embrace. Kol's scent filled her nostrils. "I'm sorry. I won't put you in that position again."
"Thanks."
"After that lovey dovey moment, what are we going to do?" Damon asked.
"McKenna is going to finish what she has started," Elijah said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? They could find out and hurt her," Matt said.
Elijah and McKenna connected eyes. "I have faith in her."
After tidying up loose ends, everyone began to disperse. McKenna walked out with Elena, leaving Stefan and Elijah alone. Elijah shut the door after the last one walked out. His family was heading up to bed so he ventured into the living room. Staring into the fire, he let his mind wander.
She had been so concerned about Kol that it had come out tonight. No one had understood why she was so protective of Kol or why he was so protective of her. They just assumed that they were acquaintances when in actuality they were best friends. It was understandable that they'd be protective.
He wished she would understand why he was so protective as well. He had given her freedom to do this but he didn't like it as much as she thought. When she had walked out, he had wanted to go after her but it would have driven her away. She needed to be angry at him, at Kol, because if she was angry it meant she could do her job ten times better than if she were going in blind.
He was lost in his thoughts he barely heard the doorbell ring. On the second ring he moved to answer it. When he opened the door, he was surprised.
"McKenna? What are you doing here?" he asked as he stepped back to allow her in.
She looked down as she stepped by him. She looked up at Kol who was standing on the landing. They smiled and waved at each other. Finally she turned around.
"I came back after talking to Elena. She said I really shouldn't be mad at you because it wasn't your idea. And thinking about it, it wasn't but you also didn't stop him. It's stubbornness on his part but it was incompetence on yours." She looked away then. "I may have overreacted but Kol is my best friend and I don't want anything to happen to him. I can't stand the thought of burying anyone else. That's why I'm so adamant about doing this."
Elijah smiled and walked forward. He gripped her head and kissed it gently. They stared at each other for a long moment.
"Kiss her already, you ass," Kol said from his spot above them.
"Go away, brother," Elijah replied. But he did exactly as his brother said. When he pulled back and looked at her again, he said, "Come on. Let's go to bed."
McKenna smiled and allowed him to lead her up the stairs.