CHAPTER FIVE

"Right before Dad died... He told me something." Dean tells his brother. "He told me something about you."

"What?" Sam questions. "Dean, what did he tell you?"

"He said that he...wanted me to watch out for you... Take care of you."

"He told you that a million times."

"Well, this time was different." Dean says. "He said that I had to...save you."

"From what?"

"He just said that I had to save you, and nothing else mattered, and that if I couldn't, I'd..."

"You'd what, Dean?" Sam questions​.

"I'd have to kill you." He says, and Nyx sighs as she closes her eyes, still laying on the grass. "He said that I might have to kill you, Sammy."

"Kill me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't​ know."

"I mean, he must've had some kind of reason for saying it, right?" Sam asks, and she sits up.

"Yeah, your dad was a dick." Nyx says as she gets to her feet.

"Did he know the demon's plans for me? Am I supposed to go dark side or something?!"

Nyx walks over to the car, and they don't acknowledge that she said anything at all.

"What else did he say, Dean?!" Sam yells.

"Nothing, that's it. I swear." He tells him.

"How could you tell Nycole this and not me?!"

"Because it was Dad, and he begged me not to." He says, and her phone starts ringing. She declines the call without looking at who's calling.

"Who cares?! Take some responsibility for yourself, Dean! You two had no right to keep this from me!" Sam yells as he looks at where Nyx is leaning against the Impala.

"You think I wanted this? Huh?" Dean questions. "I wish to God he'd never opened his mouth! And I wouldn't have to walk around with this screaming in my head all day."

Nyx's phone rings again, and she sighs as she answers it. "Not a good time, Elena." She says quietly.

"Nycole?" She's crying.

She quickly moves away from the boys so she can talk to her. "Elena, what's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?" She immediately asks her sister.

"I killed him." She says. "I killed Connor."

"The hunter?" Nyx asks, confused. "Slow down, tell me from the beginning."

"Connor got werewolf venom and put it in a keg at a party at Rebekah's house. I was infected, but Klaus gave me his blood. He and Damon had a plan to get information out of Connor, then they blew up part of the hospital."

"They what?!"

"Damon made sure they were on the opposite side from the NICU. The twins are okay." She says, and Nyx's hand balls up into a fist as she tries to regain her composure. "But then Connor kidnapped Jeremy, Matt, and April and had them all hostage at the grill. We had a plan to get them back, and... Stefan was acting weird. He saved Connor, but I found him in the tunnels and I... I killed him, Nycole." She says. "He's dead. I— I killed someone."

"I'm sorry, Elena." She sighs. "But honestly, this guy had it coming. Besides what he did to you and Tyler, he kidnapped three humans​ and nearly let April bleed out in the church at her father's funeral. He may have been a human, but he was still a monster."

"Have you ever killed a human?" She asks.

"Yeah. Actually, I have." She says. "This last job we were working, there was a virus. It was making people go crazy, like homicidally crazy. I shot this girl who was attacking Sam." She tells her. "She was only like that because she was sick. She hurt him, but she was still human."

"How do we move forward from this?"

"I don't know, Elena." Nyx shakes her head. "We just have to try and find a way to live with ourselves, I guess."

"How do we do that?" She's still crying, slowly composing herself.

"We remind ourselves why we do what we do. I did it to save Sam. You did it to save all of our friends there." She tells her. "But you also gotta remember, Elena. That feeling, the reason you're​ so upset... That's​ how you know you're not a monster. Monsters kill with no remorse, they feel no guilt for their actions. That couldn't be farther from who you are."

"I hate this." Elena says, and she nods.

"I know." She says, tears in her eyes now. "I do too. I'm so sorry. I would give anything so that you didn't have to go through any of this right now."

"Yeah." She sniffles. "Me too, for you."

"Look, I have to go. We're kinda dealing with a lot here too." Nyx tells her. "But I don't plan on going off the grid again. Call me if you need anything, even just to talk."

"Yeah, you too." Elena says, and she hangs up.

"Everything okay?" Dean asks as Nyx walks back over to him and Sam, wiping tears from her face. They're at the Impala waiting for her now.

"No." She looks at him. "But​ I can handle it." She doesn't want him getting involved with anything that's going on in Mystic Falls. Not when the people there always get killed.

—

Sam took off the night that Dean told him about his promise to their dad, and Ellen told them that he's in Lafayette, Indiana. Now, they're on their way to find him.

Things back in Mystic Falls have gotten ten times worse. Elena almost died because of something called a Hunter's Curse that was the result of her killing Connor. Stefan barely managed to save her in time, and her survival is partially thanks to Klaus.

But now Jeremy's a Hunter like Connor was before. And he tried to kill Elena because of it, he has a drive to kill any and every vampire. So, he now can't separate his sisters from the vampires that need to be killed. And what's even worse is that Stefan made him kill a vampire because he made some kind of a deal with Klaus.

Now, Elena's living at the Boarding House, which is extremely awkward because she and Stefan just broke up. He's been keeping secrets from all of them, and she feels like she can't trust him anymore. Both of the twins are angry about how he's been helping Klaus and that he's partially to blame for what Jeremy now is.

"I'm a little jealous that you're not here to suffer through the awkwardness that is our siblings with me." Damon says through the phone, and Nyx shakes her head, a smirk on her face because of his comment.

"Jealousy​ doesn't look good on you." She tells him. "If memory serves."

"And here I thought we were past that."

"You killed him, Damon. You want us to move past it, try saving him." She says.

"How about I keep him from killing Elena and any other vampires that you care about?" He asks, and she nods.

"Okay." She agrees. "You help Jeremy through this, and I'll never mention it again."

"And we'll be friends again?"

"Friends is a strong word." She says, jokingly. "How about we start with me no longer hating you?"

"You already told me that you love me." He argues, and she chuckles. "You can't love me and hate me at the same time."

"You'd be surprised by what I'm capable of."

"Oh, I don't doubt that." He says with a smile on his face.

"Wait, aren't you at the lake house?" She remembers. "You don't have to deal with Stefan and Elena there."

"No, but Elena's here too, and she's talking to Bonnie about it when they're not helping your brother." He tells her, and she nods. "Plus, there's the awkwardness of Jeremy and Bonnie."

"Gotta love awkward." She says sarcastically​.

"I should get back, make sure everything's going okay." He says.

"Hey, Damon​?"

"Yeah?"

"They're gonna be okay, right?"

"Yeah, Nyx, they'll all be alright." He tells her, and she nods, wanting so badly to believe it. "I'll keep you updated."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks." She says, and they hang up.

"You haven't told me anything that's going on in days." Dean says as he looks at her.

She looks out the window and sees that they're parked outside a motel. "So, this is where Sam is?" She asks, and he sighs.

"Yeah." He nods.

Dean knows that she's going through a tough time, but he doesn't know how tough. He doesn't understand the heightened emotions, or how hard it is just for her to be near him. She smells his blood every time he gets too close, and then she remembers that day in her living room when she tried to attack him. She hates herself for what she could've done, and she hates herself for hurting him when she broke up with him. And that hatred is magnified by her vampirism. But she'd rather hate herself for hurting his feelings, than have to live with the guilt of killing him if she ever lost control.

There's a gunshot, and they both immediately start climbing out of the front seat of the car. "It's coming from the roof of that building!" Dean yells.

"I've got Sam!" Nyx calls over her shoulder as they separate.

She quickly jumps into the motel room through the shattered window and pulls Sam back down. "Nyx?" He looks at her as she pulls him and the girl that he's with away from the broken window. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? We're saving your ass." She says, backing away from him and the girl, and after the shooting stops for a while, they get up. "Come on, it was coming from a building across the street." She tells him.

They quickly figure out that someone took Dean, and that they have a gun on him. But he gave them an address, so that's where Nyx and Sam are headed after they leave the girl.

They make it to an abandoned house, and Nyx listens to what's going on inside. Dean's in there with Gordon and it's just the two of them. Sam's going to go in the back, and she'll take the front when Gordon's distracted. The plan is for Nyx to get Dean, and then they'll all get the hell out as soon as Sam's with them.

There's an explosion, and Dean screams out in anger and fear, but it's muffled by the gag in his mouth. Nyx can still hear Sam's heartbeat, so she's not at all concerned. After the second explosion, Gordon goes to see if his plan worked. It didn't.

Once Gordon's in the back of the abandoned shack with Sam, Nyx walks in the front door and runs over to Dean. She hears them fighting as she unties Dean from his chair. His hands are free so he takes off the gag as she unties​ his ankles from the legs of the chair.

Nyx hears someone making their way toward them as Dean gets to his feet, and she grabs her gun and quickly raises it. Sam walks out, and she sighs as she puts the gun back in the back of her waistband. Dean looks at his brother's bloodied face and tries to go back to kill Gordon. Sam stops him, and they quickly leave.

The three of them are walking away from the abandoned house, and Gordon suddenly starts shooting at the three of them. Nyx quickly grabs the brothers and runs. They hide, and she smiles when she hears cars approaching.

"Nice call, Sammy." Nyx says, and they both look at her.

"What?" Dean asks, confused, but then the cop cars pull up.

They find Gordon firing his weapon, so they arrest him. And then they find the arsenal in the backseat of his car. "Anonymous tip." Sam whispers.

"You're a fine, upstanding citizen, Sam." His brother tells him. "You know, I never realized what a good team you two make."

—

"I'm so sorry, Tyler." Nyx says as she looks down at the ground.

Sam and Dean are in the house of the girl that was with Sam earlier. He's worried about her because she hasn't been answering her phone, but Nyx can't get inside so she stayed back by the car, and then Tyler called.

"I didn't know who else to call. Me and Care got into a fight, and I just..." He's trying to hold back tears.

"Tyler, when we broke up, I never stopped being your friend. You're the first guy that I ever loved and I'll always, always be here for you." She tells him. "Do you want me to come back? Because I will. I'll have Dean drive straight to Mystic Falls right now if that's what you want."

"No, you don't have to do that." He says as the boys walk back over to her.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to be alone right now." She says. "If you need me, Tyler. I will be there first thing tomorrow morning. I don't care how impossible that might be."

"I'll be okay."

"Ty, I've been where you are. I know how hard it is." She says as tears fill her eyes. "You don't have to act tough."

"Thanks, Nycole. For everything." He says. "I'll talk to you soon." He hangs up, and she quickly calls Matt, ignoring the boys' questions about what's going on.

"Hey. Is everything okay?" Matt asks.

"Did you hear?" She asks him.

"About the mayor? Yeah, I heard."

"I really don't think Tyler should be alone right now, but he's not gonna ask for help." She tells him. "Matt, I can't be there right now. I told him that I'd come, but he—"

"I'll go over to his place." He says. "I'll grab a bottle of something, and I'll head over."

"Thanks, Matt."

"Yeah." He hangs up, and she clenches her teeth, fighting back tears of her own.

"How's Ava?" She asks after she manages to contain herself some.

"She's, uh... She's missing, and her fiancé's dead." Sam tells her, and tears run down her face, but not because of what Sam said.

"What's going on?" Dean asks as she takes a deep, shaky breath through her mouth. "You gotta talk to me."

"Carol, Tyler's mom..." She wipes the tears from her cheeks. "She's dead. She drowned in the fountain in the middle of the square."

Nyx turns her back to them as she puts her hands over her face. She hates people seeing her cry, and she's sobbing at this point. Dean takes a step closer to her and he rests his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her while keeping the distance that she needs. She places her hand over his and her fingers curl around it, she wishes that she could hug him like she so desperately wants to. She wants more than anything to be in his arms.