[2x03; Bad Moon Rising]
"Thanks for coming, Ric," Damon greeted Alaric as he opened the door and allowed him into the Boarding House. "Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?"
Lucy rolled her eyes in annoyance at Damon but smiled at Alaric as he came into the living room. It was weird to say, but she actually missed her biological father while he was out of town for teacher development training.
"Lucy mentioned that you needed my help," Alaric commented, sitting in the seat Damon gestured to next to Lucy.
"Yeah," Stefan nodded, sitting on the couch across from them and next to Elena. "We were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family."
Alaric looked at Damon and then at Lucy, confused. "Why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?"
"Well, you wouldn't, but your dead—" Damon hesitated and smirked. "—not-dead vampire wife might."
"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together," Elena spoke up when Alaric sighed heavily.
"You said that she had spent years researching this town," Stefan reminded him.
"Isobel's research here—Mystic Falls—was rooted in folklore and legend," Alaric explained. "At the time, I thought most of it was fiction."
"Like that amazing vampire story," Damon grinned.
"Aside from vampires, what else?" Lucy wondered, looking at Alaric for answers.
Alaric pressed his lips together. "The lycanthrope."
Lucy's eyes widened and she leaned forward in interest as Stefan, Elena, and Damon exchanged looks. "As in werewolves?"
"No way, impossible," Damon denied stubbornly. "Way too Lon Chaney."
Stefan looked at him. "Is it?"
Damon scoffed. "I've been on this planet for one hundred and sixty-some odd years," he stated. "and I've never come across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?"
"Well, why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Alaric wondered, not caught up on the more recent events happening in Mystic Falls.
"Because vervain didn't affect the mayor on Founder's Day but the Gilbert device did," Damon shared his reasoning. "And it effected his son, Tyler."
"And at the school carnival, his uncle, Mason, exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought one of the carnival workers," Stefan added. "It suggests some sort of supernatural entity."
"We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure out what it is," Elena told Alaric.
"Well, all of her things are still at Duke," Alaric cleared his throat. "I mean, her office is still there. She's technically still missing."
"So, can we get access to it?" Damon asked. Alaric rolled his neck, uncomfortable. "Ric, we need to know what we're dealing with. If this Wolfman thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good. It means that Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney Jr. Which means Bela Lugosi—meaning me—is totally screwed."
"Are you sure you don't want to come with?" Elena asked Lucy for the third time as Lucy packed some crackers and cheese into the cooler full of other foods that she collected for Elena and Alaric for their trip to Duke. "Don't you want to see Isobel's things?"
"I couldn't care less about Isobel," Lucy scoffed, zipping up the cooler. "I know that sounds horrible, but it's true. Plus, I want to help Caroline," she grabbed a leftover cube of cheese and held it out to Stefan. "Cheese?"
Stefan smiled and took the cheese. "Sure."
Lucy turned back to Elena. "Whatever I need to know, you'll tell us when you get back," she hesitated before adding, "But, can you look for anything that has to do with our relation to Katherine?"
"I was just going to see if I could find anything on Isobel's immediate family, but I can try," Elena nodded, looking at her curiously. "Why do you want to know?"
"She just said something to me and I wanted to see if it was true."
"Wait, you and Katherine had a conversation?" Stefan looked alarmed. "When?"
"On the day of Mayor Lockwood's wake."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Elena questioned, shocked that Lucy would keep something like that a secret.
"Because it wasn't a big deal," Lucy shrugged. "Just something about her sister."
Stefan frowned. "Whatever she said was probably a lie."
"Nevertheless, can you look?" Lucy turned to Elena.
"Sure."
"Elena!" Jenna called from the foyer where she was speaking to Alaric. "Come on!"
Lucy pulled the cooler off the counter and followed Elena and Stefan out of the kitchen. She beamed at Jenna as she passed her and handed Alaric the cooler full of snacks.
"Snacks for the trip," she informed him perkily. "You like the pepper jack cheese, right?"
Alaric nodded with a fond smile. "Yep."
"Did ya pack any blood bags?" Damon interjected with a smirk.
Lucy glared at him. "No, I didn't."
"Too bad," Damon sighed and turned to Stefan and Elena as they approached the vehicle. "Sorry you can't come too, Stef."
Elena glowered at Damon and threw her duffle bag into the car before turning back to Stefan.
"Call me if you need anything," Stefan told her.
"Oh, I'll take good care of her," Damon promised.
Lucy scoffed; did Damon like to antagonize everyone around him until they hated him? If so, he was actually doing a pretty good job.
Elena looked right into Damon's eyes and pulled Stefan in for a heated kiss. Lucy rolled her eyes; ignoring her own newly-realized feelings for Stefan, that was kind of a low blow at Damon. Sure, he was an absolute dick but Elena was clearly playing with his feelings.
"Okay," Damon opened the passenger door. "Time to go."
As Stefan opened the door for Elena to hop in, Lucy waved at the three travelers. "Be safe!"
Elena and Alaric waved back as Alaric pulled away from the curb and drove down the street.
"So," Lucy drawled, turning to Stefan with a smile. "How about breakfast?"
"Hashbrowns?"
"Hashbrowns."
Lucy played with the ketchup on her plate with a fork as she listened to Stefan and Bonnie argue back and forth over making Caroline a daylight ring. Bonnie was being unreasonably stubborn but Stefan was even worse, if that was possible.
If Lucy's grimoire had the spell to create daylight jewelry, she would have siphoned some magic from Stefan or Caroline and created Caroline's already. However, there was no spell in her grimoire so they needed Bonnie's help.
And she wasn't feeling very giving today.
"I don't know how to make a day-walking ring," Bonnie claimed.
"Emily made mine and she made Damon's, too," Stefan stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "The instructions must be in the grimoire."
"That doesn't mean I can cast the spell."
"Bonnie," Lucy groaned. "You know how to drop vampires with a single look. I think you can figure it out."
"Caroline killed someone," Bonnie reminded them. "I can't make it easier for her to do it again."
"No, we're not making it easier for her," Stefan disagreed. "We're just giving her the chance to survive. Listen, every day that she's cut off from her old life—from you, from Lucy, from Elena, from Matt—it'll make it that much harder for her to hold on to her humanity."
"And how do you know she won't hurt anyone else?"
"I don't but if we don't do everything we can to help her, or at least trust the fact that she can keep it together, we might as well just stake her right now," Stefan replied passionately.
Bonnie sighed and shook her head. "I don't know if I can trust her. Not with this."
Lucy rolled her eyes, fed up with Bonnie's righteousness. "Bonnie, I'm gonna be honest with you. I love you but you're being a bitch," she said bluntly, ignoring Bonnie's indignant expression. "Caroline is our friend and she literally died. Now she has a chance to live and prosper and you're not gonna give it to her?"
"She's a vampire," Bonnie protested.
"Yeah and you're the witch who didn't reverse the spell on the Gilbert device that led to Caroline's accident in the first place," Lucy reminded her. "And you also agreed with me when we told Joel to give her vampire blood to heal her. We didn't kill Caroline but we did set her transition into motion."
"Lucy…" Stefan warned her; she was going to blow Caroline's chance at a daylight ring.
Lucy knew what she was doing, though. Bonnie had always hated feeling guilty and if Lucy had to manipulate her with the truth to create Caroline's daylight ring, she was going to do that. If it made her a bad person, oh well.
"Would you really be protesting so strongly right now if Elena was the vampire in need?" Lucy finished, giving Bonnie a pointed look and playing on the hypocrisy that Bonnie often held when it came with Elena and Caroline.
Bonnie frowned, tears in her eyes, and looked to Stefan. "Fine," she gave in. "But I'm trusting that you'll take care of her."
Stefan nodded, surprised that Lucy's tactic worked. "You can trust me."
Caroline frowned at the lapis lazuli ring she held in her hands. It wasn't the prettiest ring but it wasn't ugly. It just wasn't Caroline's style and she thought that Lucy would at least pick her out something she'd actually like.
"So, I don't get to choose the ring I have to wear for the rest of my life?" she asked, put out.
"There weren't many choices to choose from, Care," Lucy defended herself.
"Hey, if you don't want it…"
"No, no," Stefan spoke up from next to Lucy at Bonnie's implied threat. "She wants it."
Caroline sighed. "Now what?"
"NO is the part where I explain the rules," Bonnie said firmly. "The witch who spells the ring has the power to de-spell it. So, if you ever do anything to hurt anyone—"
"I'm not gonna hurt anyone!" Caroline insisted, interrupting Bonnie.
"You're a vampire," Bonnie said matter-of-factly. "That means that the urge to kill is a part of who you are. The minute you let it take over, I will stop you."
"Bonnie, you're supposed to be my friend!" Caroline exclaimed, hurt that Bonnie was treating her this way.
"I can't ignore what happened, okay? If you want to be friends, you're going to have to prove that the Caroline I remember isn't gone."
Lucy frowned, irritated, and if Stefan hadn't wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from moving, she would have grabbed Caroline and taken her out of the room. She had seen the daylight spell when Bonnie opened her grimoire and it wasn't difficult to remember. She could do it herself.
She loved Bonnie, she really did, but she didn't understand how she could treat Caroline that way. Especially after Lucy's speech at the Grill.
So, since she couldn't move in Stefan's grip, she settled on glowering at Bonnie.
"Now," Bonnie continued. "Put the ring on the bed."
Caroline reluctantly set her ring on the bed and Bonnie walked over to her covered window.
"Do you really think that I meant to kill that guy at the carnival?" Caroline asked Bonnie, her voice hard to hide the hurt she was feeling.
Bonnie glared at her. "He's still dead. Now, do you want me to cast the spell or not?"
Caroline pursed her lips and kept quiet while Lucy spoke up, "Get on with it."
Yeah, she was being rude to Bonnie but she wasn't going to let her speak to Caroline like that. If Stefan wasn't going to speak up for Caroline and Caroline wouldn't stand up for herself, she was going to.
Bonnie pulled the curtain open, exposing the silver of the bed that held the ring to sunlight. Caroline curled in on herself so the rays wouldn't hit her and burn her skin.
Bonnie walked back over to the bed and stood in front of the ring. She closed her eyes and whispered the spell so quietly that Stefan couldn't hear and then closed her grimoire. She opened her eyes, picked up the ring, and handed it to Caroline.
"All done."
Caroline cautiously grabbed the ring from Bonnie and slipped it on her left index finger. "So, that's it?" she wondered, never having seen a spell casted before. "I mean, nothing witchy happened. You know, no flickering lights, no gust of wind. Have you even done this before?"
"Caroline…" Stefan looked amused, even as he scolded the blonde. Lucy bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"What?" Caroline threw her hands in the air. "I just want to make sure it worked!"
Bonnie went back to the window and abruptly ripped the curtain aside, letting the sun's rays hit Caroline. Caroline flinched, waiting to burst into flames, but nothing happened.
"It worked," Bonnie smirked.
Caroline scoffed, looking horrified. "What if it hadn't, Bonnie?!"
Bonnie shook her head and turned to Lucy and Stefan. "She's all yours."
Caroline sighed as Bonnie walked out of the room and turned back to the streak of light in front of her. She hesitantly put her hand into the sunlight and smiled happily when nothing happened. She grinned at Lucy and Stefan, both of them laughing in amusement.
"So, what do I do when I see the rabbit?" Caroline asked Stefan as they walked through the woods, Lucy trailing after them by a couple of feet.
"Chase it, catch it, feed on it," Stefan said simply.
Lucy quietly groaned, hating that she was out here. She wanted to help Caroline but this wasn't a place where she was needed. There was going to be blood and dead animals, something that made Lucy want to curl up into a ball and possibly die. Okay, that was dramatic, but still—the only reason why she was out in the woods was because Caroline begged her and enacted one of their best friend protocols.
Best friend 'A' must stay with best friend 'B' when they are afraid of being alone.
Lucy wasn't going to deny Caroline, even if she did have Stefan. Stefan and Caroline didn't know each other well and that was why Caroline called for the protocol; Lucy would be a great buffer.
"Isn't killing cute defenseless animals the first stop in becoming a serial killer?" Caroline recalled.
"Well, you sort of skipped serial killer and went straight to being a vampire," Stefan caught Caroline's look of reluctance and added, "Caroline, if you're not serious about all this, I think you should tell me."
Lucy caught up to Caroline and Stefan as they stopped walking to have a serious talk.
"No, I am," Caroline groaned; Stefan crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a look that told her to be honest with him. "Okay, look, I swear that I am! But it's just…I haven't been in the sun for three days and everyone is at the swimming hole having fun and Matt is there!"
"Wait, there's a party at the swimming hole?" Lucy spoke up with a pout. She wanted to have fun at the swimming hole even though it was the end of February and she was still bundled up in a heavy jacket.
Caroline and Stefan glared her; Lucy huffed.
"He finally told me that he loved me but I have been blowing him off," Caroline continued, turning back to Stefan. "And now you want me to eat bunnies and I'm kind of freaking out okay?"
"Matt told you he loved you?" Lucy squealed happily.
"Yes!" Caroline grinned back at her until Stefan's laughter caught her attention. "Why are you laughing at me?"
"No, no, I'm not laughing."
"Your precious dimples are out," Lucy stated, pointing at Stefan's smile. "You're laughing."
"I'm not laughing," Stefan shook his head, though his smile stated otherwise. "None of this is funny, trust me."
"Mhmm."
"It's just that—" Stefan couldn't finish his sentence because he started laughing again.
Lucy couldn't help but think that he looked so cute.
"What?" Caroline snapped.
"When someone becomes a vampire, all of their natural behaviors get sort of, uh, amplified."
Lucy remembered Stefan telling her that.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean…" Stefan hesitated, trying to find the right way to answer Caroline's question. "as a human, I cared deeply for people and how they felt. Uh, if they were hurting, I felt their pain and I felt guilty if I was the one that caused it," he explained. "And, uh, as a vampire, all of that got…magnified."
Lucy winced, looking between Caroline and Stefan.
"So, you're saying that now I'm basically an insecure, neurotic, control freak on crack?" Caroline's voice wavered.
"Well, I wasn't gonna say it like that, but…" Stefan trailed off when Lucy elbowed him in the side and Caroline frowned sadly. "Hey, listen. Let's hunt, okay? After that, we'll go to the swimming hole."
"Yes!"
"Really?" Caroline grinned, exchanging an excited look with Lucy and then hopefully looking at Stefan.
"Yeah," Stefan nodded, smiling back at the girls. "Matt is the closest connection that you have to your humanity—" Lucy cleared her throat. "—other than Lucy and I think that being around him is a good thing."
Caroline bounced excitedly. "Okay."
"Okay, I'll just stay here while you eat cute, little bunnies," Lucy waved them off before sitting on a nearby fallen branch. "We'll meet back here, okay? All right, see you."
"She's so weird," Caroline told Stefan quietly enough that she knew Lucy wouldn't be able to hear.
Stefan nodded, chuckling. "Tell me about it."
An hour passed by while Stefan was teaching Caroline how to hunt and when they came back to Lucy, Caroline had more confidence. She excitedly told Lucy about the fox she caught while she drove them to the swimming hole and even though it made her stomach whirl, Lucy kept a smile on her face. She was glad that Caroline was easily catching onto the vampire lifestyle.
The swimming hole was packed as they arrived and parked next to Matt's truck. Just as they were getting out of the vehicle, a truck slowly passed them, driven by Mason Lockwood. He stared at Stefan as he drove by and Stefan narrowed his eyes back at him.
Caroline noticed. "Why are you looking at him with your serious-vampire look?"
"My what?" Stefan looked at her, confused, as she opened her trunk. "My serious-vampire look?"
"Mmhm," Caroline nodded while Lucy wildly gestured behind Stefan, silently telling her not to spill the beans. "Lucy told me about it."
"Caroline!" Lucy hissed as Stefan whipped around to face her.
"Lucy?"
"Well, it's different from your worried-vampire look," Lucy told Stefan, trying not to smile. "Neither of which stray too far from your hey-it's-Tuesday look."
Caroline giggled as she pulled her stuff from the trunk and shut it.
"Oh, I get it," Stefan smirked at them. "You guys think I'm, uh, you think I'm too serious. Is that it?
"I mean, I wasn't going to say it like that, but…" Caroline mocked his earlier words.
Lucy laughed loudly and poked Stefan's arm. "I don't call you Broody for nothing."
"Hmm," Stefan hummed, following the girls as they started making their way to the party.
"Are you gonna swim?" Lucy asked Caroline, wrinkling her nose at the dirty water. "Because I think I'm too cold…and that water doesn't look great."
"Probably not," Caroline shook her head. "Matt's cast isn't waterproof and I don't want to swim if he isn't."
Lucy twisted her lips. "True."
"Oh, my God," Caroline hissed. "Is that Amy Bradley? That bitch has the biggest crush on Matt."
"Go on," Lucy encouraged her. "I'll keep Broody some company."
Caroline marched off without a word, walking right up to where Matt and Amy Bradley were chatting by a keg.
"Who's that girl?" Stefan asked, gesturing to Amy.
"Remember that girl you almost drained at the Miss Mystic pageant? Amber Bradley?" Lucy looked at him; he nodded. "That her cousin, Amy. She's liked Matt since we were in middle school."
"And Caroline doesn't like that."
"Caroline's territorial," Lucy explained. "I think it's because not many people actually see the real her and when they do…she doesn't want to let them go."
"Ah," Stefan nodded in understanding. "Well, she just compelled Amy Bradley."
"Really?" Lucy looked back to where Caroline and Matt were now arguing; Amy was nowhere near them. "Great."
"Let's go," Stefan grabbed her hand and Lucy swore her heart was going to explode.
The two of them walked over to Caroline just as Matt left.
"Hey, I saw that," Stefan confronted her. "You compelled her."
"Yeah, she deserved it," Caroline pouted.
While Stefan scolded Caroline, Lucy took that as her chance to grab herself some beer. She quickly grabbed a red plastic cup and poured some beer into it, grimacing at the lukewarm temperature when she sipped at it.
"Caroline, nobody deserves to have their mind messed with for shallow reasons," Stefan sighed. "You know that more than anybody."
"You know, why is everyone sticking up for Amy-fucking-Bradley?" Caroline snapped at him.
"Caroline," Lucy spoke up, squeezing between her best friend and the truck the keg was settled in. "Calm down, okay? It's not like Amy has a chance with Matt."
"You're letting your jealousy get the best of you," Stefan added, trying to reason with Caroline.
"Oh, so now I have magnified jealousy issues, too," Caroline said bitterly. "That's great."
"I told you this wasn't gonna be easy."
"Yeah, well, I might as well have stayed dead," Caroline quipped. "My entire personality is killing me."
Stefan couldn't keep back his laughter; he snickered, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Shut up," Caroline snapped, amused.
"If werewolves are real and the Lockwoods are werewolves and tonight's the full moon, will we be eaten?"
Stefan smiled at the mess of Lucy's question and looked over at her; Lucy was laid out on one of the beach towels Caroline brought, her eyes slightly glazed over as she stared at the sunset. She'd only had three cups of beer and she wasn't smashed but Stefan cut her off a little bit ago, anyway. She was a lightweight and they needed to keep their eyes on Caroline.
While Lucy could be blunt once in a while—this morning with Bonnie, for instance—she was worse when she was drunk. Stefan pulled her away from a situation gone wrong two different times—once when she insulted the design of one of her teammates' swimsuit and the other when proudly proclaimed how handsome a random football player was to his face. Lucy was sillier than normal when she was drunk, too—Stefan was sure he heard around twenty dad jokes in ten minutes and she could hardly get through each one because she was laughing so hard.
All in all, she wasn't the worst drunk person he'd been with. She was actually kind of…charming.
"No," Stefan eventually answered. "I'd protect you."
"No," Lucy objected. "I'll protect you!"
Stefan chuckled. "How about we protect each other?"
"We'd be like superheroes," Lucy proclaimed. "Super-Stef and Lovely-Lucy!"
"Super-Stef and Lovely-Lucy?"
"Yeah, we need superhero names," Lucy said in an obvious tone. "And your name fits you because you're always saving someone."
"Am I?"
Lucy nodded and lazily looked at him. "You saved Caroline," she smiled. "You've saved me. You've saved your brother and Elena too many times to count. It's just who you are. You're a hero."
Stefan inhaled sharply and stared into Lucy's hazel eyes. He'd heard Damon call him hero-hair before but that was just his brother mocking him and he's always been thanked for rescuing the people he cared about, but never had he been called a hero.
He didn't see himself as a hero. Not when he was a ripper and had slaughtered more people than he could count.
"I'm not a hero, Lucy."
"Well, not to yourself, duh," Lucy shook her head and smiled. "But you're a hero to other people. And if you don't think you are, fine," she shrugged. "I'll think it for the both of us."
Stefan's heart clenched and he didn't know why. "You're awfully philosophical when you're drunk," he changed the subject. "I thought you were silly earlier."
"One, I'm tipsy now," she stated matter-of-factly, holding up her index finger. "And two, I have layers, Stefan. Like an ogre."
"Excuse me?"
"Ya know, Shrek?"
Stefan rolled his eyes and grabbed the bottle of water that Lucy had been sipping on once in a while to sober up.
"Drink this," he handed the bottle to her. "All of it, Luce."
"Why so serious?" Lucy whined, uncapping the bottle and chugging the water.
"Are you gonna make pop culture references all night?"
Lucy simply flashed him a thumbs up as she continued to drink the water. When she finished the entire bottle, she asked, "Where's Caroline?"
"Talking to Matt over there," Stefan pointed out the couple. His phone started ringing and he answered it. "Hey, Elena."
"Put it on speaker!" Lucy hissed, rapidly poking his bicep. "Stefan, I'm serious!"
"Is that Lucy?" Elena asked and he could hear the disapproval in her voice. Apparently Elena knew what tipsy Lucy sounded like.
"Stefan!"
"Yeah," he confirmed, rolling his eyes at Lucy. "Hold on, I gotta put you on speaker."
"Okay."
He pressed the speaker button on his phone and held it between him and Lucy; thankfully no one was close enough to hear their conversation with Elena.
"Elena, you're on speaker with Lucy and Stefan!" Lucy sang.
"Yeah, hi," Elena grumbled. "Listen, we've learned some stuff here and I know it's going to sound crazy but I wanted to fill you guys in."
"What's up?" Stefan and Lucy exchanged worried looks, Lucy sobering up at the seriousness of the situation.
Elena told the both of them about what she, Damon, and Alaric found in Isobel's research. There was a lot of documentation about werewolves in the town of Mystic Falls and all over the country. Confirmed sightings of werewolves have gotten rarer and rarer because they've been hunted down by vampires. She also said something about a Sun-and-the-Moon curse but it was short and Lucy was too horrified about the werewolves to pay much attention.
"I don't know what it means or if we should even believe it but it's a full moon," Elena continued. "After what you saw Mason Lockwood do—"
"We'll be careful," Stefan promised her.
Elena sighed. "There's one more thing."
"What is it?"
"According to the legend, a werewolf bite can kill a vampire."
"Oh, my God," Lucy breathed, looking at the spot that Caroline and Matt were previously; they weren't there. They saw Mason Lockwood earlier and if he was really a werewolf and he was going to change tonight, they needed to get out of there. "Stefan…"
"Stefan, Lucy?"
"Listen, we have to go," Stefan told Elena. "I'll see you when you get home, okay?"
"Okay, bye."
Stefan hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket while grabbing Lucy and pulling her to her feet. They had to find Caroline and get the hell out of there. Lucy pulled out her own phone and dialed Caroline's number, only reaching her voicemail.
"She's not answering," she told Stefan worriedly.
"Okay," Stefan sighed, looking around the area and then back to her. "Go to the car and stay there."
"Yeah, okay," Lucy agreed, not bothering to argue; it would waste too much time.
They split up; Stefan going to look for Caroline and Lucy going to the car. Lucy nervously bounced in place as she waited for Stefan and Caroline to come get her; werewolves made her nervous—probably because she wasn't used to them like she was witches and vampires—and she wanted to leave with her friends.
A loud crash—like glass breaking—a hundred or so feet away from Lucy caught her attention and made her jump. Her breathing picked up and she let out a quiet squeal when Stefan appeared in front of her.
"Let's go, no time to explain," he said curtly, lifting her into his arms.
Lucy hid her face in Stefan's chest as he blurred around, following the scent of fresh blood. He was pretty sure that it was Matt that he was smelling and he needed to get to Caroline so she wouldn't drain him completely.
He found Caroline and Matt by a tree, Caroline drinking from a struggling Matt's neck. Stefan set Lucy down and grabbed Caroline and threw her off of Matt, sending her twenty feet away.
"Stop, stop, stop," he urged Caroline as she fought against him. "Stop!"
Once Lucy got her balance, she saw Matt faint onto the ground. She gasped and rushed to him, kneeling down to check his pulse. He was alive, so she pressed her hands against the wound on his neck to stop the blood flow.
"Listen to me," Stefan said urgently as Caroline got ahold of herself. "We need to get out of these woods now. We need to leave."
A loud growl echoed through the trees causing Lucy to stiffen. Her heart started pounding away in her chest as she looked over at Stefan in fright but kept her hands steadily on Matt's neck.
"Stefan…"
"What was that?" Caroline asked as another growl was heard closer to them.
Stefan turned to Lucy. "Lucy, stay down and don't let Matt up," he ordered. "Don't move, you got it?"
"Y-Yes," Lucy nodded shakily.
"Good girl," Stefan turned back to Caroline. "You and me, we're gonna run. It's gonna follow us. We need to get it away from Lucy and Matt. So, you need to run as fast as you can. Do you understand me?"
Caroline nodded determinedly, glancing at Lucy and Matt.
"Go, go!" Stefan shouted.
Lucy watched through blurry eyes as Stefan and Caroline ran away. The growling coming from what Lucy assumed was a werewolf followed them but it didn't lessen her fear. If what Elena said was true about a werewolf bite being fatal to a vampire, Stefan and Caroline were in seriously danger.
"Lucy, what's going on?" Matt asked groggily from his blood loss.
"Shh," Lucy whispered, looking around the woods as if she was able to spot the werewolf. "I'll explain in a few minutes, okay? Don't talk, please."
Lucy gasped when she heard Caroline screaming in the distance along with loud growling. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God."
"Lucy, what?"
"Shh!"
Caroline's screams stopped and Lucy thought that was even worse than when she was screaming. Silence meant that she was dead, right?
Tears dripped down her face and she absentmindedly wiped them away, forgetting that Matt's blood was on her hands.
Where were Stefan and Caroline?
The sound of twigs breaking and leaves crunching made Lucy turn around. She sighed in relief when she saw Caroline and Stefan walking toward her, both of them completely unharmed.
"Are you okay?" she jumped up, leaving Matt, and ran over to Stefan and Caroline. "What happened?"
"I'll tell you later," Stefan promised. "Are you okay? You have blood on your face…"
Lucy grimaced and wiped her face with her jacket sleeve, not caring about making a mess. "Oh, gross. No, it's Matt's," she looked at Caroline. "He's okay, just a little weak."
Caroline grimaced, ashamed.
"You know what you have to do, Caroline," Stefan said calmly; Caroline nodded and walked over to Matt.
"You're not going to remember what I did to you or what you saw me become," she compelled him.
"We were just making out in the woods," Matt answered in a monotone voice.
"And then an animal attacked you and bit your neck," Caroline continued.
"It's weird," Matt replied. "It just came out of nowhere."
Caroline inhaled deeply and in her regular voice, suggested, "You should go home, Matt. You hurt your neck."
"Yeah," Matt grimaced, touching his injured neck. "I'll see you later, Care."
Caroline nodded and slowly walked back over to Lucy and Stefan, a miserable look on her face.
"What are we gonna do about Tyler?" she asked Stefan flatly.
"I took care of it," Stefan pulled Lucy into his embrace, noticing how she was still shaking. "I'll get Matt on vervain. It'll keep you from being able to compel him, but also keep you from being able to drink his blood."
Caroline nodded and then scoffed, disappointed in herself. "I can't believe I hurt him."
"I know."
"I mean, he's one of the few people on this entire planet that I never wanted to hurt."
"It's not going to get any easier," Stefan said truthfully; both Caroline and Lucy frowned. "You're just going to have to work that much harder."
Caroline squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "I shouldn't be with him, should I?" she looked back at Stefan. "And if there's any danger…"
"I'm the last person to make that kind of decision for you," Stefan referred to his relationship with Elena. "If I followed my own advice, I would have walked away from Elena a long time ago."
"You ever think you should have?"
Stefan shook his head at Caroline's question. "I know I should have, I just can't."
Lucy frowned but knew that was something she needed to hear. She knew that Stefan was completely devoted to Elena, of course, but hearing those words come out of Stefan's mouth, confirmed that she needed to move on.
She couldn't like Stefan more than a friend.
End of story.