CHAPTER ONE

Nyx is sitting in the family room connected to the kitchen, and she has her knees pulled up to her chest. Her arms are extended out in front of her, and her elbows are resting on her knees. She's staring at her hands, lost in thought, as her fingers lock together.

"Bonnie just dropped this off." Dean says as he walks over to his girlfriend.

He tosses her the ring, and she easily catches it, then she slides the small circle onto her right ring finger. She fights back tears as she looks at that all-too-familiar blue, lapis lazuli stone.

"I have to trade my vervain necklace for a daylight ring." She takes a deep breath through her mouth, trying to calm the nerves that are threatening to take over.

"This isn't how things were supposed to be." He says, and she looks up at him.

"This isn't what I wanted either." She tells him,​ and he simply looks away from her. Nyx looks down and shakes her head, not knowing what else there is to say to him.

"It's your choice, Elena." Damon says upstairs, and Nyx clenches her teeth when she hears his voice. She hadn't meant to hear him. "As always."

He goes down the stairs then and walks into the kitchen. Nyx is up in a flash and she runs at the older vampire, surprising Dean as she quickly breezes by. Damon turns​ around to face Nycole, and she pins him against the wall.

"It is her choice, you selfish bastard. It's our lives." She says as her eyes change.

The whites around her irises turn a blood red color, and the veins under her eyes become much more prominent, like any other vampire's. She's suddenly angry, and anger is the easiest emotion to turn into bloodlust.

Stefan — after hearing the thud of his brother's back against the wall — runs downstairs and pins her against the wall across the kitchen. He looks down at her as she struggles against his hold.

"Nycole, you need to calm down. Your emotions are heightened, and if you're not careful, you're going to hurt someone." He says as she continues to fight against him, but he's stronger than she is. "Nycole!" His eyes change, and she just looks at him for a moment, knowing that that's what she looks like.

"I never wanted this." She says as tears fill her eyes and her voice begins to shake. "Ric and Tyler are dead, I'm a monster, and Elena..."

Stefan loosens his hold on her and rests his hands on her arms. "Nyx, why didn't you wait?" He asks. "Bonnie's working on a way to fix this for Elena, she could've done the same for you."

"I've already cheated death twice." She reminds him. "I don't have in me to hope for a third, and my kids need a mother... If Caroline is still herself, then maybe I can still be me."

"You can." He tries to reassure her. "You're one of the strongest people I've ever met. If there's anyone who can survive this and come out better than anyone else has, it's you."

But his words are negated by what she hears upstairs. Just like she accidentally heard Damon before, she can hear Jeremy now. And his words hurt her more than cares to admit.

"What could be more horrible than you turning into a vampire?" Her brother asks Elena, and Nyx closes her eyes. "I need my sisters. Not more of them."

"Someone should tell Jeremy." Nyx says as she looks back at Stefan. "Tell​ Jeremy that I turned."

She then pushes Stefan away from her and disappears from the house, the back door slamming shut behind her. She goes straight to the hospital, but​ she doesn't go inside. She can't. She knows that she can't, and it kills her. Matt walks out then, and he quickly walks over to her. He's about to hug her, but she steps away from him.

"I can't." Nyx tells him, and his expression falls as he understands why. "Can you get Meredith for me, please?" She asks, and he nods.

The two walk back out a few minutes later, and the doctor looks at Nyx, obviously confused about what's happening with the teenager before her. "Nycole, what's going on? Is everything okay?" She asks.

"I have to leave town for a while. I know that the twins are still supposed to be here for a few more weeks, so, um... Could you call my new phone number and give me and Dean updates please?" She asks her.

"Of course. But​ why are you leaving?"

"Yesterday, Klaus was on a rampage, and he tried to kill Jeremy. I moved​ in front of my brother, and the wood that he had thrown hit me instead. Stefan gave me his blood to heal me and then last night..." She clears her throat. "Last night someone showed up at my front door and stabbed me because Rebekah compelled him to kill me. I— I'm a vampire now, and I have to go. I'll be back, I just— I have to get this...this part of me under control first. So that the twins will be safe with me around them."

"I'll do whatever you and the twins need." Meredith promises, and she nods, forcing a smile.

"Thank you." She says and then disappears from before them.

She wanders around for a while before reluctantly going back to her house. When she gets there, she sees Damon holding Matt against the wall. Nyx runs in and grabs Damon. She pins him to the floor and puts her hand in his chest like she's seen other vampires do.

"If you ever hurt him again, I will rip your heart from your chest." She says as she leans over him.

"You've threatened to kill me before and yet I'm still alive." He says, though he's obviously in pain.

"I wasn't capable of being this angry before. Honestly, I'm not quite sure how far I'll go if you keep threatening and hurting the people that I love."

"Nyx." Dean kneels down beside them and rests his hand on her shoulder. "I know you're angry, but this isn't you."

"Isn't it?" She questions, not meeting his gaze.

"No." He says, and after a moment, she looks at him. "I know you better than anyone. You're capable of a lot of things, but killing your friend isn't one of them. And no matter how angry you get at Damon, he is your friend. I don't quite understand it, but I know that it's true." He tells​ her, and she lets go of Damon. Dean then helps her stand up.

"I need to leave." Nycole says. "I can't stay here." She then looks at Meredith, who's watching the whole scene with Sam, Matt, and Sheriff Forbes.

"I promise, I will take care of Alex and Everly. You just take care of yourself for now." The older girl says, and Nyx nods.

She looks at Matt. "Tell Elena and Jeremy that I said goodbye, and that I love them." She says, and he nods.

Nyx goes upstairs and washes Damon's​ blood off of her hand before packing up her stuff. She stops suddenly when she sees the teddy bear that she won at the carnival the day that Caroline was turned. Slowly, Nyx walks over and picks it up from her bed, then packs it with the rest of her things.

Dean's still downstairs and he looks at the spot where he found Nycole last night — the spot where she died. They haven't even had the time yet to clean up her blood from the hardwood floor at the bottom of the steps.

"Oh, God." Jeremy mutters as he looks down at Dean and Nyx on the floor. "No, she— She had..."

"Jeremy?" Sam looks up at him, confused.

"Klaus was here this morning, and he was mad. He tried to kill me, he threw a broken piece of a picket fence." He quickly tells him. "Nyx — she got in the way, and it hit her instead."

"What are you saying?" He questions as Dean looks up at him, his eyes bloodshot from all the tears.

"Stefan had to heal her. She has Stefan's blood in her system right now." He tells the Winchester boys. "Nyx is gonna wake up...in transition."

All three boys look back down at her, and Dean carefully lifts her off of the floor. He lays her body on the couch in the front living room, and Sam tells Jeremy to call Stefan. Dean then goes into the kitchen to wash her blood off of his hands, scrubbing at it angrily, before taking a wash cloth to clean all of the blood from Nycole's face.

Dean's pulled from his thoughts when he sees Nyx coming back down the stairs. He can see a change in her, she's different now. The girl who died last night and the one who woke up this morning — they aren't the same. And after everything that she's been through up until this point, he doesn't think she'll ever be who she was again.