CHAPTER NINETEEN

Nyx opens her eyes and looks around at her surroundings — they look the same as they have for days now. At least, from what she can tell of the blurry figures. And her head is still pounding, but she doesn't know what's the cause anymore. It could be from the blow she took to the head, or maybe it's from dehydration...the fact that she can't remember the last time she ate anything?

The brunette sees a man standing in front of her, and her eyes try to focus on the figure. "You're awake." He says, and she recognizes his voice. "It's about time."

"Frederick." Nycole mutters. "Not tired of this yet?"

"I want it to really hit home when I bring you to see your boyfriend." The vampire says as he moves closer to her and grabs her face by her chin.

"How many times do I have to tell you before you get it through that thick skull of yours?" She questions. "Damon Salvatore is not my boyfriend. I hate the bastard." She repeats for what must be the thousandth time.

"Take her upstairs. We're going to have more company soon." Frederick says as he walks away from her.

Another vampire walks over then, and she looks up at him. "Billy... And what day are we on again?" The teenager asks. "I keep forgetting. It probably has something to do with you hitting me. Repeatedly."

"We're on day four now." He tells her. "I haven't thanked you yet for making my job that much easier by coming back to Mystic Falls all on your own. I was about to head out to find you when I saw you get out of that cab."

"It's been my pleasure." She says sarcastically as he picks her up.

Nyx groans​ in pain with each step that he takes up the stairs. He sets her in a chair in the living room, and that's where she's sitting when more of the vampires come in; they have someone​ else with them.

"Elena?" She hears​ Stefan's voice, and she looks up at him, giving him a better view of the charm on the chain around her neck. "Nycole."

The vampires didn't bother taking her vervain necklace off of her because they have no interest in compelling her. They just beat her, torture her.

Her dark brows furrow as she looks at the green-eyed vampire. "Stefan?"

The other vampires then proceed to beat and torture him for a while. Nyx clenches her teeth as she squeezes her eyes shut. She hates to hear the pain-filled groans coming from the man that her sister loves.

A while later — but not nearly soon enough — they're interrupted by someone banging on the front door. "Pearl! Open this door!" A familiar voice fills the house. "I swear to God I'll bust through and rip your head off!" Damon yells.

Frederick leaves the room, and Billy lifts Nyx out of her chair again. His ringleader calls him over, and he then drags the exhausted brunette into the front of the house as their friends pull Stefan along right behind them.

"You're dead." Damon says when he sees the two of them and then tries to run into the house.

"Whoa. I'm sorry. You haven't been invited in." Frederick tells him and then walks over to Nyx and Billy. He grabs her face again, but she pulls​ it away from him this time.

"Stop​ touching me, you son of a bitch." She says, and he smiles as he looks back at Damon.

"I see why you like her. She's a fiery little thing." He says. "Tough too. Four days of taking a beating from vampires, and she's still arguing and insulting​ us often. It's entertaining to watch."

"I'm gonna get out of here eventually and when I do, your ass is dead." She says, and he laughs.

"I believed it more the first five times. It gets less and less threatening each time you say it." He says, and she tries to fight against Billy, but he's too strong.

Frederick looks at Damon and walks back over to the door. "How many more days do you think she can last without food or water?" He asks him.

"Let her go." Damon says, his voice almost pleading.

"Ms. Gibbons." Frederick calls, and Billy throws Nyx onto the floor.

Nycole tries to push herself up, but he kicks her in the stomach. Her groan turns into a cough as she rolls onto her side, clutching her torso. She can taste blood in the back of her throat.

"How are those ribs feeling?" Billy asks as he kneels down beside her. "I bet they're bruised up nicely by now."

"Go...to hell." She barely manages, her voice strained, and he grabs her arm and pulls her into the other room.

The vampires drag Nycole and Stefan down into the basement where they've been keeping her ever since they grabbed her. Frederick backhands her across the face, and she blacks out again.

—

"Nycole. Nycole, stay with me." She can hear Stefan's voice as she fades in and out of consciousness. "Hey. Open your eyes. You need to stay awake."

"I...can't..." She mutters.

Stefan groans in pain as he repositions his hands in the rope that he's tied up in, twisting his wrists despite the burning. The ropes have been soaked in vervain, so it makes it hurt that much worse when he grabs it and starts pulling as hard as he can. He yanks on the rope until the hook that it's tied to breaks, and he falls to the basement ground with a thud.

He quickly gets the rope off and then pulls Nyx out of her chair. Frederick didn't even bother tying her up when he left this time because of how much pain she's in, and how weak she is. He lays her flat on her back and starts doing chest compressions to restart her heart.

Nyx suddenly gasps as her eyes fly open​ and she turns onto her side as she coughs and tries to steady her breathing. Stefan sighs in relief beside her and sits back as he looks down at the pale girl beside him.

"What...happened?" She asks​, still breathless.

"You don't want to know." He tells her, and she looks​ up at him.

"What?" Her voice is barely audible.

"Can you sit up?" He asks, and she nods.

"Mhm." She mutters, and he then leans toward her to help her get into a sitting position.

The teenager leans into his side, and Stefan looks down at her. She's weak and shaky, her breathing's shallow, and her heartbeat still doesn't sound strong enough to him. "Drink my blood." He says suddenly, and her eyebrows furrow.

"What?" Nycole questions as she turns her head to him, but she doesn't open her eyes.

"Nyx, you need your strength. Your heart just stopped, and you're still weak."

"No..." She shakes her head. "Four days, Stefan. That's how long I've been here so that they could torture me. If I have vampire blood in my system, they'll kill me just to make me turn." She tells​ him, and he takes a deep breath.

"You could die, for good this time." Stefan reasons. "What'll happen to Elena and Jeremy then?"

The brunette sighs as she forces her eyes open to look up at him. "Then you have to feed so that you're strong enough to defend us. Because I am not turning into a vampire." She tells him, and he hesitates as his green eyes meet her brown ones. She looks scared...and too pale.

"The only human here is you, and I'm not—"

"Then I'm not drinking your blood."

"That's childish, Nycole."

"Yeah, well... I'm exhausted, and half-dead." She mutters.

"Fine." He reluctantly agrees, and then he bites his wrist before holding it to Nycole.

The teenager sighs before pulling his arm toward her and bringing his wrist to her lips to drink his blood. He sees her color slowly return to normal as his arm falls back to his side a few seconds later, and she rests her head against his bare shoulder. She can feel her body healing as the soreness in her ribs and the ache in her head slowly dissipate.

She then turns her body to face him as she raises her arm up, and he looks at her. She can see that he doesn't want to do this as his fingers curl around her wrist, but they both know that they may not make it out of the house if both of them aren't back to their full strength. So, he drinks, and then has to force himself to stop — which is no easy task for the vampire.

The vervain burns on his hands heal, and then they both get to their feet. Stefan grabs his shirt and pulls it on as Nyx finds​ a piece of wood and breaks it in half. She takes a deep breath as she turns her makeshift stake over in her hand, and she looks at the bite mark on her wrist just as it heals — a result of having Stefan's blood in her system. So much of this is still so strange to her.

The pair quietly makes their way out of the small room and they see one of the vampires who's been torturing Nyx. He seems to be playing prison guard for the moment, and he has ear buds in — the music's so loud that even Nyx can hear the instruments from where they're standing. That explains why he didn't go to see what all of the noise was.

Something catches his attention, and he quickly stands up. The other vampire walks away from them, so his back is to Stefan and Nyx. Stefan then runs up behind their guard and pulls his heart from his chest. He drops to the ground, and the green-eyed vampire sees two men on the other end of the hallway.

"Stefan?" Sam's quiet voice fills the hall, and Nyx rushes over to see if she really heard who she thought she did.

"Nyx." The brunette sighs in relief at the sound of Dean's voice, and then she runs over to the boys. Dean immediately pulls her to him, and she wraps her arms around his torso and hugs him. She feels tears stinging her eyes because for the first time in days, she finally feels safe.

The hunter keeps one arm wrapped securely around her waist as he pulls back to look at her. He can see how scare she is, which isn't something that he's used to seeing on her. He brushes her matted hair back, and then rests his hand on her cheek. The brunette turns her face into his palm, leaning into the warmth of his skin, as she takes a deep breath to try and calm her nerves.

Damon and Elena quickly make their way down a different set of stairs then, and they look over at them. Dean pulls Nyx closer to him and uses his body to shield her as Sam raises his gun, but they all relax when they see who it is.

"Nyx?" Elena's surprised to see her sister where she is, and seemingly better than what Damon described to them before. "Stefan." She runs over when she sees him, and he wraps his arms around her as soon as she's near enough.

"How the hell are you two up and okay?" Damon questions, confused as he looks at his brother.

"We can explain later." Stefan tells him. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

"Works for me." Dean nods, still holding onto Nyx. "Come on. I got you." He then helps the brunette out of the basement, not realizing that she doesn't exactly need it.

—

"Vampire blood, huh?" Dean asks as he walks into the bathroom that Nyx is getting herself cleaned up in. They're at the Boarding House. "It was really that bad?"

The brunette takes a deep breath as she rings out the washcloth that she's been using to get all of the blood off of her skin. She's now staring down at where the water's running over it in the sink. He gives her a minute, knowing that she's having a hard time even though she's safe now.

"Let me help you." He walks up behind her, and she looks at him in the mirror as he reaches down to take the washcloth from her hands.

"Apparently it was bad enough for you to work with Damon." She says, and he nods as he glances at her.

"Sam and I got here, and Elena said that she'd never heard from you. She didn't even know that you were coming back to town."

"Yeah, I... I didn't call her." She tells him. "I didn't know what I was gonna say to her, so I was taking the extra time to think about everything."

"What happened?" He asks as he gets her to face him, wanting to get all of the blood off of her forehead. "I mean, how did they grab you?"

"I got out of the cab outside my house, and..." She shakes her head as she looks up at him. "I don't know, I don't remember it clearly. I think I was hit from behind."

"What a pansy." He muses. "Sneaking up on a woman in her blind spot."

Nyx chuckles. "Think he knew I could kick his ass?"

"Must've." He smiles as his gaze briefly meets hers.

"You know, uh..." She clears her throat as her smile falls. "Stefan said that my heart stopped while we were in that basement... Technically, I died."

"That's why you took his blood." He says, and she nods.

"It scared me." She admits, and his green eyes meet her brown ones. "But not the dying part... It was the idea that I'd be leaving Elena and Jeremy that made me let him heal me. I was afraid of hurting them... I know that Elena and I are twins, but I'm the oldest..."

"I get it." Dean nods. "I'm the oldest too, remember?" He says as he wipes the last of the blood from the side of her face.

"The things we're willing to do for family, huh?" A small smile tugs at her lips. "For our siblings."

"Risk everything so that they don't have to feel..."

"Lost." She supplies, and he nods.

"Or alone." He adds.

"I got out of a cab here in town four days ago and someone grabbed me from behind." Nyx says, and he leaves the washcloth in the sink as he listens. "These vampires took me to that house and they tortured me for days. I didn't eat, I didn't drink, I didn't sleep... Well, unless you count passing out from the pain sleeping.

"Then, after they kidnapped Stefan and put us both in that basement, my body was in such bad shape that my heart actually stopped beating. Stefan had to pull himself down from those vervain ropes to do CPR. I'm lucky that he got to me when he did." She tells him, and he reaches up to wipe a tear from her cheek.

"You're safe now." He says, and she nods.

"I know. That's not..." She takes a deep breath. "The whole time that I was there, I was more worried about what I would look like when someone found me...and I didn't want that someone to be either of my siblings, or even you. I didn't... I wasn't afraid for my life, for myself. I didn't even realize that I was afraid to die until I ran to you and finally felt safe."

"Hey." Elena walks over then, gaining their attention. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired." The older girl says as she turns to face her sister. "I think me and the boys are gonna get a motel, and then I'll call you in the morning."

"Are you sure you don't wanna stay at the house?" She asks. "In your own bed?"

"No, uh... It's been a long few days, and I just wanna get some sleep. If I go to the house, Jenna's gonna want to talk. Much as I love her, I don't have the energy."

"Right. Makes sense." Elena nods. "Nyx..."

"I'm okay, Elena. Really." She tells her. "I'm all healed — good as new. Now, it's just... It's like jet-lag."

"You promise to call in the morning?" The younger girl asks. "You won't leave without saying goodbye."

"Never." Nyx offers her a small smile before walking over to hug her sister. "I promise, I'm okay."