CHAPTER ONE

Nycole rolls over in bed so that she's laying on her side, and she sees Dean asleep next to her. A small smile tugs at her lips as she reaches over and takes his hand in hers, which is resting on the bed between them. Her smile widens when he subconsciously curls his fingers around hers. She then pulls his hand toward her and presses a kiss to the back of it.

The moment's then interrupted when her phone starts buzzing on the nightstand. The brunette quickly and carefully rolls over again and picks up the device before it can wake Dean. She looks at the caller ID and sees that it's her sister calling.

Nyx quickly gets​ up from the bed and grabs her clothes from the floor before going into the bathroom. She answers after shutting the door behind her, and is immediately met by Elena's frantic voice. "Nycole, I need you. Caroline's in the hospital, one of the tomb vampires tried to kill John, and Jeremy— God, Jer—"

"Elena, calm down." The older girl says quietly as she gets dressed. "What's going on?"

"Caroline, Matt, and Tyler were in a car accident, and now she's in surgery. The doctors don't know if she's gonna make it. One of the tomb vampires got into the house and tried to kill John — they cut off his fingers and then stabbed him in the stomach; he's in the hospital right now too. And Jeremy tried to kill himself so that he could become a vampire." Elena fills her in on everything that happened after she and Dean left.

"He did what?" She questions.

"Stefan said that he's fine, but I'm freaking out, Nyx. Nobody knows how Caroline is doing, and she and John are both​ in the hospital. I need you here." She tells her, clearly on the verge of having a meltdown.

"Yeah, of course. I'll be right there."

"Meet me at the hospital." She says and then hangs up.

Nycole leaves the bathroom and grabs her shoes, quickly sliding them on as she sits on the edge of Sam's bed. She looks over at Dean, dreading that she has to wake him to all of this when he looks so peaceful. She stands up and is about to wake him when her phone vibrates in her hand, signaling that she got a new text message.

Elena
The sheriff just told Tyler
about his dad.

The brunette sighs as she looks at the text; she had momentarily forgotten about what happened to the mayor. But now, she can almost hear the snap of his neck breaking as she remembers watching him get killed. A chill runs down her spine, and she shakes her head.

Nyx then grabs the keys to the Impala and quickly leaves the motel room, wanting to get to her sister as fast as she can. She drives to the hospital and then quickly runs inside to look for Elena and any of their friends that she can find. The first person that she finds is Bonnie.

"Nycole!" The witch yells as she runs over to her. "Tyler heard it — he heard the device, and that's why he crashed the car. That's what caused the accident, and now Caroline—"

"Bonnie, slow down." Nyx stops her, resting her hands on her arms. "This is not your fault. I'm the one who told you not to de-spell the device."

"They don't know if she's gonna make it, Nyx." Bonnie tells her, and she hugs her friend. Nyx sees Sam walking over to them and she looks up at him.

"Hey, how are you doing?" He asks as she and Bonnie pull away from each other. Both girls have tears that they're trying to contain in their brown eyes.

"Anna and the mayor are dead, and now Caroline's dying, and it's all my fault." Nycole says, and he rests his hand on her shoulder. She looks at back Bonnie then. "Is there a spell that you can do to save Caroline?"

"She doesn't know how." Damon says as he walks over to them. "Do you?"

"No. I don't." Bonnie admits.

"No, you don't. Because it took Emily years to learn a spell like that."

"I can take down a vampire. That spell was easy to learn." She says as she looks up at him.

He turns away from her and looks down at Nyx. "I can give Caroline some blood."

"No. No way." Nycole shakes her head.

"Just enough to heal her. She'll be safe in the hospital, and it'll be out of her system in a day. She'll be better, Nyx."

"No, it's too much of a risk." She argues. "I can't agree to that for her."

"Do it." Bonnie says, and they all look back at her. "This is Caroline. We can't let her die." She says as she looks between Nycole and Damon. "Do it."

"If I do this, you and me — we call a truce." Damon tells her.

"No. But​ you'll do it anyway." She says with a smile. "For Nycole."

Nyx sighs and just nods. Bonnie walks away from them and she then turns to look at Sam. "Can you go to the grill and get some decent coffee please? The stuff that they have here sucks." She tells him as she hands him the keys to the Impala.

"Dean let you use the car?" He asks, confused.

"He doesn't know I took it." She tells him, and he laughs as he takes the keys, then walks away from her and Damon.

"Look, I know this is probably the last thing you want to do right now, but we should talk about what happened tonight." Damon says, and Nyx looks up at him.

"Yeah, Elena told me that one of the tomb vampires got into the house and almost killed John."

"What? When? What are you talking about, after I left?" He asks, and her eyebrows furrow.

"I don't know... Wait, why were you at my house?"

"Come on, Nycole, you know I was there." He says, and she just looks at him, waiting for him to explain. "The porch — we were talking, all cathartic, feelings exposed."

"Damon, I haven't even been home yet." The brunette tells him. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on, Nycole, we kissed." He says, and she shakes her head.

"Okay, I don't have time for this. I have a friend and an uncle in the—"

"If you wanna forget it happened, fine, but I can't." He cuts her off.

"Nycole, thank God." Elena says as she rushes over to them. "Where have you been? I was afraid something happened to you after I found John on the kitchen floor, and you weren't home."

"I was with Dean — he took me back to the boys' motel to get cleaned up. I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that by yourself. How is he?" Nyx asks her.

"Wait, you really weren't..." Damon starts, and the twins look at him. "You have got to be kidding me." He looks at them for a second and then turns around and walks away.

"Why do people do that?" She questions, and then they go after him.

—

Elena unlocks the front door, and the three of them go inside the house. They find Stefan on the floor, and he looks at them as he gets to his feet.

"Stefan?" Elena's just as confused as her sister.

"Elena." He sighs when he looks at her.

"Hello to you too." Nyx says sarcastically.

"What happened?" Elena asks him.

"Katherine happened." Damon says, and they both look at him.

"What?" Nyx questions as Sam walks into the house. "Go get Dean. Now." She tells him, and he looks confused, but sets the coffee down and does as she asked.

The Winchester boys get to the house not too long later, and they go into the kitchen to talk about what's going on. Nyx fills them​ in on what little she knows about the situation.

"Did she say what she wanted?" Damon asks​ his younger brother.

"No." Stefan shakes his head, pacing the room.

"Are you okay, Nycole?" Dean asks her, and she looks up at him. He's standing at her side.

"Yeah, I'm alright." The brunette nods.

"Woman certainly knows how to make an entrance." Damon says.

"She said she fooled one of us at least." Stefan says. "What does that— What does that mean?"

"She pretended to be Nycole when I showed up earlier tonight."

"I told Jeremy." Elena says as she walks into the kitchen. "I can't lie to him anymore." She tells her sister, and Nyx only nods.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asks as he walks over to his girlfriend.

"No, I'm not alright. I thought that with all the tomb vampires gone, things would get better."

"Yeah, right," Nyx says at the same time that Stefan says, "I know."

"We all did." He adds.

"I didn't." She says.

"Katherine was in the house." Elena says, and they all look back at her. "That means she's been invited in."

"Yeah, because the bitch was pretending to be me." Her sister says, and Dean rests his hand on her back.

"What are we going to do?"

"Move." Damon says.

"Screw you." Nyx says, and he looks at her.

"Katherine wants you dead, there's zero you can do about it, you would be dead. But you're not. So, clearly​ she has other plans." He tells them.

"We need to figure out what those other plans are and not provoke her in the process." Stefan says.

"Well, then the three of us should probably leave. I can already tell that not pissing her off will be a problem for this one." Dean says as he points at Nyx, and she lightly elbows him. "Ow."

"What happened tonight when you thought she was Nycole?" Stefan asks his brother.

"To risk being targeted by two over protective idiots — make that three..." He looks between Stefan, Dean, and Sam. "We kissed."

"And you thought it was me?" Nyx questions as she grabs Dean's arm​ and works at keeping him behind her. His chest is against her back because he started walking toward Damon before she stepped in front of him. "Even after our conversation at the grill earlier?"

"What do you mean you kissed?" Dean questions, and she plants her feet and starts pushing backward as he tries to move forward.

"Well, you know, when two lips pucker, and they—" Damon puts his index finger just below his mouth and puckers his lips.

"Damon!" Nyx yells.

He ends up standing next to Elena, and his brother's where he had been standing before. "Don't be obvious, Stefan." Damon says as he looks at him​.

"I told you to stay away from her." He says as he moves toward him again.

Nyx grabs Sam and wraps her arms around his bicep when he tries to walk past her and his brother. Trying to keep both of them away from Damon is no easy task. They're both strong and weigh a ton, each.

"Stefan, wait, he kissed Katherine." Elena says as she blocks Stefan's path. "I know how you feel, but it wasn't Nyx."

"Yeah, it wasn't me, idiots. I wouldn't do that." Nycole says. "Now, can we stop with this ridiculousness? We don't have time for this."

"Later." Dean says, and she turns around and looks at him. She still has one arm wrapped around Sam's and she puts her hand on Dean's chest.

"Not later. Not ever." She tells him. "I will kick your ass. And you know that I can."

"Come on, Nycole. Don't ruin our fun." Damon says behind her, but she doesn't look away from Dean. His jaw tightens as he looks down at her. He hates the thought of her with anyone else, especially Damon.

"Don't worry." Stefan says. "I'll deal with you later."

"Relentless..." Nyx mumbles.

"John must know something." Elena says then, and they look back at her. "There has to be a reason Katherine tried to kill him."

"It's John. Even I've thought about killing him." Her sister says.

"It's Katherine." Damon says. "She loves to play games, and you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to find out what she's up to before she wants you to know."

"No, actually, Elena's right. John could know something through Isobel. Your mother — she was in touch with Katherine." Stefan says. "Maybe we can go to the hospital and talk to John." He looks between Nycole and Elena. The twins both nod.

"I've got a better idea." Damon says.

"And what's that?" Nyx questions.

"I'm just gonna ignore the bitch." He says. "See ya."

"Is that smart?" Elena asks.

"If Katherine thinks she's being ignored, it'll lure her out. She'll make a move."

"Yeah? Then what?" Sam questions.

"Stake her, rip her head off. Something poetic." Damon says. "We'll see." He leaves, and Nyx sighs.

"You two are staying here tonight." She tells Sam and Dean as she looks at them. "I don't want you at the motel with Katherine roaming around Mystic Falls."

"I'll get blankets for the couches." Her sister says, and she nods.

"Stefan?" The older of the twins gets his attention before he can follow after Elena. "Jeremy?"

"He's fine." He tells her. "Anna's blood healed him of whatever effects the pills would've had. He isn't gonna overdose, and he's not gonna turn."

"Thank you." She says, and he nods.