03. Bad Moon Rising

Damon opened the front door of the boarding house and let Alaric in.

"Thanks for coming, Ric" Damon said, leading the history teacher towards the living room where Elena and Stefan were sitting, "Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, bourbon in your coffee?".

"Elena mentioned you needed my help" Alaric said, getting straight to the point.

"Yeah" Stefan said, "We were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family".

"And Lily Forbes" Damon added, making Stefan roll his eyes, his brother's obsession with Lily was starting to get on his nerves.

At the Forbes house, Lily was all ready in her running gear, she peaked into her sisters room and a small smile formed on her seeing her sister peacefully sleeping, after adjusting Caroline's duvet, and leaving her a note, Lily put her earphones when and ran out of the Forbes household and towards the Lockwood's cellar where Mason had told she could transform tonight.

"Now why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?" Alaric asked, "And whose Lily Forbes?".

"Caroline's little sister who literally popped out of no where" Damon replied, "And, you wouldn't know, but your dead-not-dead vampire wife might".

"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together" Elena clarified.

"You said that she had spent years researching this town" Stefan added.

"Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls was rooted in folklore and legend" Alaric informed, "At the time, I thought most of which was fiction".

"Like that amazing vampire story" Damon taunted.

"Aside from vampires, what else?" Elena asked curiously.

"The lycanthrope" Alaric revealed, making Damon and Stefan exchange a look.

"Wait, like werewolves?" Elena asked shocked.

"No way, impossible" Damon stated, "Way too Lon Chaney".

"Is it?" Stefan challenged.

"I've been on this planet 160-some-odd years, never come across one" Damon said, "If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?".

On the other hand, Lily finally arrived at the Lockwood's cellar, after making sure no one was following her, she went down stairs.

"Well, why do you suspect the Lockwoods and Caroline's little sister?" Alaric asked curiously.

"Because vervain didn't affect the mayor on Founder's Day, but the Gilbert device did" Damon replied, "And it affected 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 suggested some sort of a supernatural entity".

"And let's not forget about good old Lily Forbes" Damon said, "Who disappears for two years, then suddenly comes back with knowledge about what me and Stefan are and somehow she's stronger then me".

"Lily can't be a werewolf" Elena protested, "I grew up with her Damon, the only weird thing about her was her rage".

"She was away for two years Elena" Damon argued, "You don't know what happened to her the time she was away".

Elena sighed and turned to Alaric, "We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure out what it is" she said.

"Well, all of her things are still at Duke" Alaric informed, "I mean, her office is still there, she's technically still missing".

"So can we get access to it?" Damon asked.

Lily opened the gate to the cellar and started walking around, her eyes landed on the wall where chains were bolted and also the scratches of the many Lockwood werewolves that were here way before her, Lily realised as long as no one interfered with her transformation, this was the perfect place to transform tonight.

"Ric, we need to know what we're dealing with" Damon said, "If this wolfman thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good, it means Lily Forbes and Mason Lockwood are 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".

***

After checking the Lockwood's cellar out, Lily returned home only to realise that Stefan and Bonnie were in her sister's room, Bonnie making Caroline a daylight ring. Lily walked over to the kitchen and took out a water bottle from the refrigerator while using her super hearing to know what was happening in Caroline's room.

"So I don't get to choose the ring I have to wear the rest of my life?" Lily heard her sister ask.

"Hey, if you don't want it--".

"No, she wants it" Stefan interrupted.

Caroline sighed, "Now what?" she asked.

"Now's the part where I explain the rules" Bonnie replied, "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 interrupted, hurt that Bonnie thought so low of her.

"You're a vampire" Bonnie argued.

"And you're a witch" Lily snapped, entering the room and glaring at Bonnie, "But you don't see my sister holding that against you, do you?".

"You know what I am?" Bonnie asked shocked.

"Do I look like I was born yesterday? Of course I know what you are" Lily asked, "Now, correct me if I'm wrong but if you witches lose control of your magic, don't the people around you suffer?".

"I never lost control of my magic" Bonnie defended.

"Oh please, I didn't even have to listen to your heartbeat to know that you were lying" Lily said, making Stefan look at her curiously, "The truth is, witches are as dangerous as vampires, but just cause you guys have magic you think you're higher then vampires, let me break it to you Bon Bon, you aren't, so I'm going to give you two options, make my sister's daylight ring without any taunts, or watch as I rip you limb from limb".

"Lily!" Caroline scolded.

"Don't Lily me" Lily snapped, "I'm helping you here".

"You're threatening my best friend" Caroline snapped back.

"Yeah a best friend who doesn't even want to give you a chance?" Lily argued, "She's acting like you willingly turned into a vampire, why does everyone keep forgetting that you were murdered?".

Stefan cleared his throat, "Bonnie" he said, "Just do the spell, please".

Bonnie looked at Stefan, then at Lily, who had her arms crossed against her chest and was glaring at her with a challenging look on her face, almost like she was daring for Bonnie to go against her.

Bonnie shook her head and turned to Caroline, not wanting to take the risk, "Put the ring on the bed" she instructed.

Caroline nodded and placed the ring on the bed infront of her, Bonnie then lightly opened the curtains and let the sunlight shine on to the ring, she then closed her eyes and started chanting, after a moment, she opened her eyes and handed Caroline the ring, "All done" she said.

"So that's it?" Caroline asked, as Lily slowly walked over to the curtains, making Stefan give her a confusing look but Lily just winked at him in return, "I mean, nothing witchy happened, you know, no flickering lights, no gusts of wind, have you even done this before?".

"Caroline" Stefan warned.

"Well, I just wanna make sure it worked" Caroline defended.

"Then let's find out" Lily said, opening the curtains wide and letting the sun shine on Caroline, "Would you look at that, for the first time your so called best friend did something right".

Stefan looked at Lily amused while Caroline looked at her in both shock and anger, "What if it hadn't, Lily?!".

"Then you would have burned till I closed the curtains again" Lily replied, giving her sister a teasing smile, she turned to Bonnie, "You can go now, you are no longer wanted".

Bonnie shook her head, she looked at Stefan, "They're all yours now, good luck with both of them".

Lily waved at Bonnie, after she walked out, Lily turned to Stefan, "We aren't that bad, you'll survive".

"I sure hope so" Stefan laughed.

***

"So, what do I do when I see the rabbit?" Caroline asked, as her Stefan and Lily walked in the woods together.

"Chase it, catch it, feed on it" Stefan listed.

"Gross" Lily commented.

"Isn't killing cute, defenseless animals the first step in becoming a serial killer?" Caroline asked.

"Well, you sort of skipped serial killer and went straight to vampire" Stefan replied.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Lily asked.

"Very funny" Stefan said sarcastically.

Lily gave Stefan a smile, "Thank you".

Stefan turned to Caroline, "Hey, if you're not serious about all this, I think you should tell me".

"No, I am" Caroline assured, making both Stefan and Lily give her a look, "Look, I swear that I am, okay? But it's just, I haven't been in the sun for days, and everyone's at the swimming hole having fun, and Matt is there, and he finally told me that he loved me, but I've been blowing him off, and now you want me to eat bunnies, so I'm kind of freaking out, okay?".

"Kind of?" an amused Lily asked.

"Shut up Lily" Caroline said, making both Lily and Stefan chuckle, "Okay I know that Lily laughs everytime I freak out but why are you laughing at me?".

"No, I'm not laughing" Stefan said, trying to cover his laugh up.

"Liar liar, pants on fire" Lily sing songed.

"Trust me, none of this is funny, it's just that when someone becomes a vampire all of their natural behaviors get sort of amplified" Stefan explained.

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked confused.

"I mean, as a human, I cared deeply for people and how they felt" Stefan said.

"Caring for strangers?" Lily whispered, she then shuddered in disgust, "Could never be me".

"If they were hurting, I felt their pain, and I felt guilt if I was the one who caused it" Stefan continued, "And as a vampire, all of that got magnified".

"So you're saying, that now I'm basically an insecure, neurotic, control freak on crack" Caroline said.

"Yes" Lily said.

"No" Stefan quickly said, "I mean, I wasn't gonna say it like that, but--".

"But you are" Lily finished, "And there's nothing you can do about it, except accept it and move on".

"How am I supposed to move on from that?!" Caroline asked, freaking out.

"Hey, listen, let's hunt, okay?" Stefan said, hoping to distract Caroline, "And then after that, we'll go to the swimming hold".

"Really?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah" Stefan replied, "Matt is the closest connection to your humanity, and I think that being around him is a good thing".

"What am I chopped liver?" Lily asked.

"You're not the reason my humanity is on, you're the reason I'll turn it off" Caroline replied.

"Rude" Lily said.

"You started it" Caroline retorted.

"How did I start this?" Lily asked, she looked at Stefan, "Did I start this or did she?".

"Yeah, I'm not getting into this" Stefan replied, "Let's just hunt".

"Yes, let's hunt poor little defenseless animals" Lily mumbled, as Caroline and Stefan started walking forward.

***

After teaching Caroline how to hunt, the trio finally made it Tyler's party at the swimming hole and to Lily's annoyance, the party was right next to the cellar, meaning she was going to have to find another place to shift tonight, which is why Lily sat in the car, going through her phone and hoping to find a secure location while Caroline and Stefan took the things out of the boot.

"Why are you looking at him with your serious vampire look?" Caroline asked Stefan, seeing the look he gave Mason who just drove by.

"My what?" Stefan asked shocked, "My serious vampire look?".

"Mm-hm, I mean it's different from your worried vampire look" Caroline replied, "Neither stray too far from your, hey it's tuesday, look".

"Oh, I get it" Stefan said, as Caroline closed the boot, "Okay, you think I'm too serious, that it?".

"I mean, I wasn't going to say it like that, but" Caroline teased, Stefan chuckled hearing her, "Now excuse me, I have a boyfriend to find".

"Be careful" Stefan warned.

"Yeah, yeah" Caroline said, rushing over to where Matt was.

"He's not the bad guy, Stefan".

Stefan turned around and saw Lily out of the car, "What?" he asked.

"Mason" Lily clarified, "I know he's a bit shady, but he isn't the bad guy".

"I never said he was the bad guy, I just don't trust him" Stefan said.

"Like you and your brother don't trust me" Lily retorted.

"We don't know you" Stefan retorted back.

"But you do know what I am, don't you?" Lily asked, "Just like I know what you both are".

"We have a suspicion" Stefan replied.

Lily sighed, "Look Stefan, I don't like you or your brother, not because your vampires but because I don't like most of the population", Stefan chuckled hearing that, "I don't want any trouble, yeah when I heard that you killed Vicki, I wanted to rip your heart out, and then Damon attacked my sister so you can't blame me for attacking him, but I'm not the bad guy, I'm just a girl who came home after a very long time, I just want to live here with my sister and mother, don't make this hard for me, because I assure you as long as you don't come in my way, I won't cross you but the minute you cross me, I will attack you".

Stefan nodded in understanding, "I won't come in your way Lily, but I can't say the same thing about my brother".

"Okay so it's clear your brother and me are going to keep coming at each other's heads, but you and I are cool, right?" Lily asked.

"As long as you don't attack me, we're cool" Stefan replied.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you better then your brother" Lily said, making Stefan give her a small smile, "Now excuse me, tonight is a full moon, I better get going otherwise I might just end up attacking you".

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked curiosuly.

"Somewhere I can turn without annoying humans coming in my way" Lily replied, "Tell Caroline I'll see her later".

Stefan nodded and watched Lily grab her bag from the car and walk away, he realised like always his brother liked to judge people without knowing them, because talking to Lily Forbes made Stefan realise that she wasn't a threat, she was just a lost girl who finally gathered the courage to come home.

***

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Lily yelled, looking up at the sky and realising that moon was about to reach it's apex, "Come on, not now, please not now".

Lily hadn't found a place to shift yet, she couldn't go back to the Lockwood's cellar as there was too many people there, and she didn't know where else she could go, which is why she started running, hoping to get at least as far away from the party as she could.

Suddenly, pain shot through Lily's body causing her to fall to the ground.

"Ahh!" Lilly yelled, feeling the bones in her back breaking, she looked down at her hands to see her claws coming out and her other bones slowly breaking, as her eyes glowed yelled, Lily looked up at the moon and let out a loud howl.

***

Matt and Caroline were walking in the woods together.

"This looks like the spot" Matt said.

"For what?" Caroline teased.

Matt smiled and leaned in and started kissing Caroline, he stopped when he heard growling.

"Did you hear that?" Matt asked Caroline, who was now looking at his neck.

Matt turned back to Caroline, who grabbed his face and smashed her lips on to his, she shoved him against a tree and started kissing him again, she stopped when she suddenly smelled blood.

"Argh, damn" Matt said, looking down at his wrist, having cut himself with the branch.

"What happened?" a confused Caroline asked.

"I'm a klutz" Matt replied, showing his wrist to Caroline, causing her to start breathing heavily, "What's the matter?", Caroline looked at his Matt's wrist and started licking the blood, both confusing and creeping Matt out, "What are you doing?", Caroline ignored him and continued to lick his blook, "Caroline?", veins suddenly appeared under Caroline's eyes and she bit into Matt's wrist, shocking him, "Caroline, Caroline, Caroline!", Caroline finally separated from Matt's wrist and looked at him, who was shocked seeing her face, "What the hell, your face!" he yelled, but Caroline ignored him and instead bit into his neck, draining his blood, she stopped when Stefan speeded over to her and shoved her away from Matt.

"Stop it, hey, stop, stop, stop!" Stefan yelled, after a bit of struggling, Caroline got into control and she was shocked seeing what she did to Matt.

"Oh, my god" Caroline whispered, trying to go over to Matt, who was now on the floor, but Stefan stopped her.

"No, no, no, stop, listen to me" Stefan said, as he heard a growl, "We need to get out of these woods, now, we need to leave".

"What was that?" Caroline asked, having heard the growl, "Was that Lily?".

Stefan shook his head, "Lily's gone, and we need to go as well" he said, suddenly the growling got louder, Stefan turned to a weak Matt, "Matt, stay down, do not move", Stefan then turned to Caroline, "You and me, we're gonna run, okay? It's gonna follow us, we'll lead it away from Matt, so you need to run as fast as you can, do you understand me?", Caroline nodded in understanding, a determined look on her face, "Go, go!".

Both Stefan and Caroline started speeded away into the woods.

"Wait, what is it?" Caroline asked confused, stopping after a while.

"It's a werewolf" Stefan informed.

"But you said it's not Lily" Caroline said even more confused.

"Lily's not the only werewolf in town Caroline" Stefan clarified, "This one will try to kill us".

"We need to find Lily" Caroline insisted, "She can help us".

"Yeah but the problem is, I don't know where Lily is Caroline" Stefan said, "Now come on, we need to keep running".

Caroline nodded, her and Stefan turned to run, but before they could Caroline was shoved to the ground by a grey werewolf.

"Stefan!" a panicked Caroline yelled.

Before Stefan could do anything, a pure black werewolf jumped on the other wolf and pushed it away from Caroline, the werewolf stood infront of Caroline protectively and looked at the other werewolf and let out a loud growl, immediately causing the other werewolf to run away.

The black werewolf then looked towards shocked Stefan and Caroline, who had now stood up, and glowed its eyes at them.

"Lily" Caroline realised, a small smile on her face.

But before Stefan or Caroline could do anything, Lily ran away.

***

It was now sunrise and after Caroline compelled and broke up with Matt, her and Stefan stayed in the woods looking for Lily, Caroline refusing to go home without her.

"Where is she?!" A frustrated Caroline asked, she was worried for her sister.

"There!" Stefan pointed, finally seeing someone.

Caroline looked in the direction Stefan was pointing, only to see her sister lying on the ground, with no clothes on.

"Oh my god, Lily!" Caroline yelled, running over to her sister.

Stefan also followed, he quickly took his jacket off and placed it over Lily's bare body.

"Lily!" Caroline said, shaking her sister, "Lily, wake up!".

After a moment, Lily groaned and slowly woke up in annoyance, "Can a girl not sleep in?".

Both Stefan and Caroline chuckled hearing Lily, Caroline bent down and hugged her sister, "God, don't do that again, I was so worried".

"I didn't really have a choice Care" Lily defended, as Caroline broke the hug, "Hey, do you think once we get home you can run me your special bubble bath, I could really use it".

Caroline immediately nodded, "Anything you wants Lils" she said.

"Thank you" Lily whispered, putting her head back on the ground, "Everything hurts so much Care".

Caroline and Stefan both looked at each other in concern, after making sure his jacket was fully covering her, Stefan picked the Forbes werewolf in his arm, knowing she was in no shape to walk.

"Congratulations Stefan, we are now officially friends" Lily mumbled, laying her head on Stefan's chest and closing her eyes.

Stefan chuckled, "As long as you don't bite me" he teased, taking Lily towards his car.

"No promises" Lily mumbled, making both Caroline and Stefan laugh.

***

"No, no, no, don't be dead, please don't be dead!".

"Mom?! What's happening to me? Why are my eyes like this, I don't understand what's going on?!".

"Don't do this, please don't send me away from you, I promise not to hurt anyone, just don't send me away".

"I promise I won't come back till I gain control, I promise you won't see my face till I know I'm not a threat".

"I am a monster, aren't I?".

Klaus gasped and sat in his bed in shock, honestly at this point he was having trouble sleeping, whenever he fell asleep he would hear the same voice telling him the same thing over and over again, it was honestly driving him mad, but this time, something different happened, instead of the usual thing, he kept hearing different sentences, he still couldn't see this girl's face, but her voice told him how much she had grown through.

Klaus grabbed his phone from his side table and called his personal witch, needing to get to the end of his mystery before it drove him insane.

***

Presenting 2x03 of The Vampire Dairies . . .

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Lily threatening Bonnie?

Thoughts on Lily and Stefan's new found friendship?

Thoughts on Lily saving Caroline from Mason?

Thoughts on Klaus's dream?