CHAPTER TEN

Nyx opens the front door and walks into the Salvatore Boarding House. "Honey, I'm home." She says when she sees Caroline, and the blonde smiles.

"Nyx!" She quickly runs over and hugs​ her. Care picks her up and spins her around.

"Damn, girl. Using those vamp muscles well, I see." She teases, and her friend laughs as she sets her down.

"Where are Sam and Dean?" She asks.

"Getting ready to start a job in Oklahoma. Where's Stefan and the annoying one?" Nyx asks her.

"That hurts my feelings." Damon says as he and Stefan walk into the room. "I thought we were friends again."

"You snapped Jeremy's neck. The only reason that you're still alive is because I like your brother." She tells him. "Speaking of..." She turns to Stefan. "Hi." She smiles.

"Hi, Nycole." Stefan smiles.

"Cole." Jeremy walks over to them, and she hugs her brother. "Ric, she's here!"

"Hey." Ric walks up behind Jeremy, and Nyx smiles. "How are you?" He asks.

"Better than before. Thank you." She tells her aunt's boyfriend.

"Have you talked to Bonnie?" Stefan asks her as Jeremy goes to get something, and she nods.

"Yeah, she'll be here soon. And she's bringing her grimoire." Nyx tells him.

Damon and Ric go back to where Ric was going over things before, and Caroline walks over to the door to let Bonnie in.

"Alright, what's going on?" The witch asks as she looks at Nycole.

"We're gonna kill Katherine." Jeremy says as he walks past them, and she raises her eyebrows as she looks around the room.

"I can explain." Nyx says.

"Please." Bonnie nods.

"We're gonna kill Katherine." She tells her, and Bonnie just looks at her. "Care-Bear."

Caroline sighs as she looks at the brunette. "Yes?"

"Can you fill Bonnie in?" She asks, and the blonde vampire nods.

Nycole walks over to where Ric is teaching everyone how to use his weapons. "Now, this works with compressed air. The trigger is here. I've got two of these in a different size. And for you, I recommend this." Ric says, talking to the boys, and she watches as he puts something on his arm. "It fits nicely under a jacket sleeve. Here's the trigger when you're ready." He pulls the trigger and demonstrates.

"Can I see it?" Nyx asks, and he hands it to her.

She slides it onto her arm, and he shows her the trigger for the second stake. She pulls the trigger and easily catches the stake, then she stabs Damon in the stomach. He groans in pain as he looks down at her, and Stefan moves closer to them.

"I talked​ to Tyler about a week ago. He told me that Mason skipped town and didn't even say goodbye." She tells him. "See, I know Mason better than that. So, I called my brother. Jeremy told me how you tortured Mason for information, and then ripped his heart from his chest. Werewolf or not, he was someone that I cared about." She twists the stake, and he groans as he bends down farther, but doesn't fight back. "Vicki died, I punched you in the face. Mason died, I stabbed you in the stomach. Let's not see how much farther it can escalate. Because I've told you and I've told Stefan — I will kill you if I have to, even if I have to go through him to do it. And it won't be very hard."

"Cole." Jeremy then places his hand on her shoulder, and she walks away from Damon.

"Caroline, did you get my dress like I asked?" Nyx asks, and she looks at her as Damon pulls the stake from his abdomen and hands it back to Ric.

"Yeah." Care nods.

"And where's Elena?"

"She's with Jenna. Matt helped us bring her home today." Jeremy tells his sister.

"I'll be staying with them at the house to keep an eye on them." Ric says, and she nods.

"I doubt Katherine will go after them, but better safe than sorry." She agrees.

Stefan and Bonnie walk away from the rest of them then to talk about her involvement in the plan. Ric shows the boys more of his weapons and explains how to use them while Caroline and Nyx go outside.

"So, how have things been since the last time we talked?" Caroline asks her.

"Fine. We put down another spirit." Nyx tells her, and she nods slowly.

"Are you sure you're​ up for this?" She asks, and her friend looks up at her.

"Why? Is there something you know that I don't?" Nyx asks.

"No, it's just... What you hunt — it's never this close to home." Care says, and she sighs.

"You're worried about me."

"You seem on edge with anything involving Katherine. I just want to make sure that you're walking into this with a clear head." She says, and Nycole smiles.

"You are not the Caroline I grew up with anymore." She says, and the blonde chuckles. "I will be fine, Care. My head is not in a bad place. I know what I'm doing."

She nods. "Okay."

"Hey, group meeting!" Damon calls, and the girls head back inside. They walk over to them, and Caroline links her arm with Nyx's​ as they look at the vampire brothers.

"Are you sure you guys don't want​ me there tonight?" Ric asks as he gets ready to leave.

"Nycole?" Stefan says, and they all look at her.

"No, I want you with Jenna and Elena. I really don't think Katherine will go after them, but she is Katherine. Plus, we don't want Elena showing up tonight." She tells him, and Jeremy nods in agreement.

"Okay, I'll make sure she doesn't leave my sight." Ric says, and she nods.

"Alright. If anybody wants to back out, I'll understand." Stefan says.

"Yeah, cold feet speak now. I don't want this going wrong because someone chickens out." Damon says as he looks around the room. "Caroline?"

"I won't. She killed me. Fair's fair." She says. "And as long as there are no werewolves running around."

"Shut up, Damon." Nyx says as he opens his mouth to speak. "Not a word."

"As long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn." Jeremy tells them.

"Richard Lockwood made it his entire life not knowing​ a thing about the werewolf gene." Nycole says. "Tyler's fine."

"Bonnie, are you with us?" Stefan asks.

She looks at Nyx and then nods. "But no one gets hurt." She says, and her friend nods.

"Except Katherine." Damon says.

"The bitch dies tonight." Nyx says, and he looks at her and smiles. "We ready?"

"I put your dress in the room next to Stefan's." Caroline tells her and then leaves the house.

"Jeremy." She gets her brother's attention. and he looks at her. "If anything goes wrong tonight, you find me. Not the Salvatores, or Caroline, or Bonnie. Me." She tells him.

"I will." He says. "I promise."

—

"Wanna dance?" Damon asks as he walks over to Nycole.

"Want me to drive a stake through your heart?" She asks him.

"You know, we were friends once."

"Hm, I wonder what happened. Oh, wait..." She looks at him and then turns around and walks away from him.

She sees Katherine with Stefan, and then Aimee — a girl she used to go to school with — walks over to the two of them. Katherine then moves behind her and then breaks her spine, and Nyx starts toward them. She gets to them as she kills her, and Stefan catches Aimee so she doesn't fall to the ground.

"The moonstone, Stefan. Tick-tock." Katherine says.

"You bitch." Nyx mutters.

"Nycole, I didn't know that you were back in town." She says with a smile.

"Yeah, well, when you have family getting out of the hospital, you tend to visit more often." She says.

"I see. Have fun." Her smile widens slightly. "Hopefully​ no one else has to die tonight."

She walks away from them, and Nyx immediately looks at Stefan. "What the hell is a moonstone?" She questions.

"I'll explain later." He says and then walks away carefully​ with Aimee, trying not to draw any attention their way.

Nyx's phone vibrates, and she looks down at it. It's a new text from Damon. Jeremy's turn. She reads and quickly finds her brother.

She watches as he talks to Katherine, pretending that she's Elena. He walks away from her and she looks at Nyx. Katherine makes her way toward her next.

"What the hell is a moonstone?" Nyx asks.

"I find it hard to believe you don't already know." She says.

"It's kinda hard to know when nobody around here is telling me anything." She says. "So, what the hell is it?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." She smiles and then walks away from her.

Nyx pulls her phone out once Katherine's​ back is to her. You're up. She quickly sends the text to Caroline.

Nyx is sitting down outside, watching the party later. Katherine's with the boys by now and she'll be dead soon enough. All that's left to do now is wait.

She feels a sudden and sharp pain in her back and tries not to scream. She puts her hand over her mouth as she clenches her teeth. She then feels blood running down her back, but nobody can see it because she has a black cardigan on over a black dress.

It feels like someone stabbed her.

Nycole gets up and makes her way away from the party. Then it feels like someone stabs her arm. She continues to do her best not to scream as she walks to the lake, away from the party and all of the people there.

She sits down on the grass and keeps her hand over her mouth to muffle the pained noises trying to escape. It hurts like hell in both places that she's bleeding from. She groans as she looks at her other hand. A cut opens in a line across her palm.

"Nycole!" Jeremy runs over to her and kneels down beside her.

"What's​ happening to me?" She asks as she looks up at him.

"You and Elena are both linked to Katherine." He tells her. "Anything that happens to her, happens to you two."

"Elena's here?" Nyx asks, and he nods.

"She showed up because she got suspicious. Bonnie and I were with her when it started." He explains. "I saw you coming over here after I told Stefan and Damon."

He sits down next to her and keeps pressure on the wounds​ on her back and shoulder. She leans into him for support because she's in so much pain.

"Everything's​ going to be okay." He says, and she just nods. The siblings stay there for a while before Damon makes his way over to them.

He kneels down beside the two Gilbert teenagers. "You're gonna be okay. Bonnie found the other witch and they took care of everything." He tells her.

Nyx looks at her hand, and the three of them watch as it suddenly heals up all on its own. "My back and my arm are healing too, I can feel it." She tells them.

"I have Katherine in my trunk." Damon says. "I thought that maybe​ you'd like to come with me to take care of her."

"You know what, I think I would." She nods as he and Jeremy help her up.

"Do you want me to come with you guys?" Her brother asks, and she shakes her head.

"Make sure that everyone else is okay, and then you should go home. I'll be there soon." She tells him​, and she and Damon walk to​ his car.

—

Damon and Nyx take Katherine to the tomb, and she drags her inside before walking back out to stand beside Damon. They wait for her to wake up, and then he tosses the moonstone inside and it lands next to her.

Katherine eventually gets to her feet and she tries to walk out, but she's stuck. Bonnie and the other witch fixed the seal, so now no vampire that enters can exit.

"Hello, Katherine." Damon says, and she looks at them.

"Where am I?" She questions.

"Where you should've​ been all along. I thought you would've learned your lesson by now about messing with a Bennett witch."

"You should have killed​ me."

"I thought about it. But death would be too kind." Nyx says​ and then looks up at Damon. "Will you give us a minute alone? And don't eavesdrop, nobody likes nosey people." She says, and he goes back out. Nycole looks at her. "I want to know the whole​ story. What exactly are you doing here?"

"It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you, now would it?" Katherine asks tauntingly.

"You think I can't find information? I'm a hunter, trained by some of the best." She tells her. "So, tell me, Katerina, what are you doing in Mystic Falls?"

"You're smart, definitely a Petrova." She says. "You want to know if you and your sister are in real danger."

"So?"

"You can't escape him." She says. "You'll never get away. And even if you somehow manage to do it, he'll kill everyone that you love." She tells her.

"I've heard that threat before."

"Not from someone like Klaus." She argues.

"I'm not afraid of a legend."

"Haven't you learned from your handsome boyfriend yet? There's always some truth behind myths and legends." Katherine tells her. "You should be afraid of the legends surrounding the Mikaelsons."

Nyx smiles. "I know better than to disregard a legend. I just needed something to look for." She tells her. "I figured while you're weak and your mind's still foggy would be my best chance to get information out of you."

"You're better than I gave you credit for."

"And now you're stuck down here for good." Nyx says. "Damon!" He comes back down and looks at her. "I'm done."

He walks over to the door to close it, and Katherine starts to panic. "No! Damon, don't."

"Goodbye, Katherine."

"Damon, don't. You need me. Nycole and Elena are in danger." She says, and he stops moving.

"From who?" He asks and looks​ between the two of them.

"Do I look worried to you?" Nyx asks him, and he looks back at Katherine.

"You're lying. You're always lying." He says.

"Why do you think I haven't killed them?" Katherine asks. "They're doppelgangers, Damon. They need to be protected."

"Then I'll protect them. While you rot in hell." He closes the door while she screams that they need her.

He turns back around and looks at Nyx then. "Let's leave the bitch where she belongs." She says, and then they leave her in the tomb.