CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Hey, sorry—"

"Why the hell haven't you been answering your phone?" Elena cuts her sister off, clearly in a panic.

"You know I can't always pick up. We were busy." Nyx tells her. "What's going on?" She asks as she sits on one of the beds in the motel room that they just got to.

"Klaus was having one of his hybrids follow me around town, and Stefan kidnapped Klaus' family. Jeremy's spiraling, and Tyler almost got him killed. I think something's wrong with Ric's ring, and then Jeremy killed—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Elena, stop!" Her sister quickly cuts her off, and the boys both look at her, startled by her sudden outburst. "You need to take a breath and calm down. I can barely understand what you're saying, and what I did understand needs some serious explaining." She tells her.

"Klaus was having one of his hybrids follow me around." She starts​ over, slower this time.

"Yeah, I got that​. Why?"

"Stefan took the coffins that have Klaus' family all daggered, and he wants them back. Stefan won't give them to him because he wants revenge. And now we know why he really stopped us from killing Klaus. Klaus had a plan that if anything happened to him, his hybrids were going to kill Damon. That's why Stefan saved Klaus, not to gain his freedom back."

"Okay." She takes a second to process all of that. "You said Jeremy's spiraling. What do you— What do you mean? Spiraling how?"

"He's plagiarizing his homework, he got fired from the grill and didn't tell anyone, and he's been hanging out with Tyler." Elena tells her.

"Jeremy was fired?" She questions, but then she remembers what her sister said before. "Wait, I— Hold on. How did Tyler almost get him killed?"

"He got Jeremy off of vervain, and Klaus was compelling him. He compelled him to stand in front of a speeding car — without his ring — that one of the hybrids was driving. Ric saved him, and he was hit instead. When he came back, his injuries weren't healed. So, we called 9-1-1, but the hybrid compelled the paramedics to leave. So, Jeremy shot him and then cut his head off on our front porch." She tells her, and Nyx clenches her teeth.

"I'm gonna kill Tyler."

"He says it's because of the sire bond."

"I don't give a damn about some sire bond, not when Jeremy almost died!"

"That's the worst part to you?" She questions. "What Tyler did?"

"What was supposed to be worse than our little brother almost getting run down by a car being driven by one of Klaus' hybrid bitches?"

"The part where he cut off someone's head."

"He took care of a threat, Elena. Would I rather he didn't have to chop off a hybrid head? Yes, of course." She nods. "But sometimes what needs to be done is outweighed by what we want. Ric was dying. What would you have had him do, Elena?"

She scoffs. "Now I know I made the right choice."

"And what choice is that?"

"I had Damon compel Jeremy to move to Denver with our family friends and have a normal life away from Mystic Falls."

"You did what?" She questions. "You can't just take his choices from him like that, Elena! It's not right."

"It's better than him becoming someone who doesn't hesitate before cutting off someone else's head."

"You mean it's better than him becoming me." Nyx corrects. "You don't like what I do. So, now you're gonna control Jeremy's life."

"That is not what I said."

"No, admit it, Elena. I already know, so you might as well just come out with it."

"Fine." She complies. "I don't like what you do."

"And I don't like that you're in love with a vampire." Nycole tells her. "You think that I've become someone who doesn't​ hesitate before killing something, but that's not true. I save lives, and I see things that I wish I could unsee. I've done things that give me nightmares, and I don't like that this is all normal to me now. But at least I'm not dating the problem and making up excuses for him."

"That's what you think of me?"

"Is it really any different than what you think of me?" She questions. "Jeremy told me that Dean is his family now. I know you said the same thing before we left, but admit it — you hate that I'm with him. You hate what we do. You hate that Jeremy wanted to be with us instead of working at the grill last summer. So, now you've taken his choices away from him."

"I'm afraid of what he'll become if he keeps living here."

"You're afraid that he'll become anything like me." She corrects. "Stop lying, Elena. No one buys it anyway."

"You don't know anything about what I think."

"I know plenty, Elena. The difference between me and you, is that I'm not afraid to say it." Nyx tells her. "Jeremy killed a hybrid, and he's not wrong for it. No, okay, I don't like that he had to do it, but he had to do it. You said that this guy was following you around town, tried to kill him, did kill Ric, and was preventing Ric from getting the medical attention that he needed. If I had been there, I wouldn't have done anything any different than Jeremy did."

"And that's the problem." Elena says.

"There we go." She nods. "Finally, the truth."

"Yes. Okay, Nycole. I don't like that you call yourself a hunter, and that killing is in your job description." She says. "But I don't​ have a problem with Dean. I know that you love him; I know that he loves you. I know he'll take care of you and your kids. He is my family now."

"But?"

"But I wish you'd live your life differently. I wish you'd be safer." She says, and Nyx scoffs.

"And what exactly is safer to you, Elena? Mystic Falls?" She questions. "The place where the original hybrid wants to use me as his blood bag to turn werewolves into his loyal, whipped servants? The place where I've already been killed not once, but twice?"

"Safer, as in not living in crappy motel rooms, hunting down monsters​ that can kill you."

"Would you rather I date one of the monsters that can kill me?" She asks her.

She sighs. "Nyx—"

"You don't like the way I'm living my life? I guess you'll just have to get over it. Or, hey, maybe send Damon to come and compel me to move to Denver with Jeremy." She hangs up the phone, and Dean walks over to her.

"Hey..." He gets her attention, and she looks up at him. "You wanna tell me what's going on?" He uses his thumb to wipe a tear from her cheek that she hadn't realized had fallen.

—

Nyx's phone starts ringing, and she pulls it out of her pocket as she's about to open the door to the Impala. "What?" She answers, not bothering​ to look at the caller ID.

"Now, now. Is that any way to answer the phone when your first love is calling?" She stops when she hears that infuriatingly familiar British accent come through the speaker; he must be using Tyler's phone.

"Klaus." She says through clenched teeth, immediately gaining Dean's attention — he climbs back out of the car and turns to her as she lets go of the handle on the back door.

"I've been entertaining this idea of you being out there for long enough. I want you home, now."

"You don't own me, Klaus. I'm not a toy, and I sure as hell am not your blood bag. I don't take orders from you."

"I don't currently have my family. So, I want my doppelgangers so I can make my hybrids." He says. "If you don't come back to Mystic Falls, I'll just tell Tyler to bite your friends. He already helped me almost kill your brother."

"If Tyler kills any of them, so help me God, I will personally see to it that you never see another member of your family again." She tells him. "Stefan isn't your brainwashed little bitch anymore, and without his emotions, I'm sure it won't be too hard to convince him that your siblings deserve a nice burial at sea."

"We can certainly play it your way, if you'd like. I think I'll have Tyler go after Caroline first." He says. "And, Nycole, tip for the future, don't make threats like that unless you're willing​ to lose everything." He then hangs up the phone.

"Klaus!" She slams her fist down on the roof of the Impala. "Son of a bitch!"

"What is it?" Dean asks, and she looks between him and Sam, who got back out of the car while she was on the phone.

"Stefan won't give him his family, so he wants me and Elena there so that he can make more hybrids." She tells them. "And I just pissed him off. So, he's going to tell Tyler to bite Caroline so that she'll die."

"You want to go back to Mystic Falls?" Sam questions as his brother places his forearms against the car and looks down, knowing exactly where this is going.

"It's Caroline and Tyler — I've known them since we were six." She says, and Dean turns his head to look at her. "I have to. I can't let her death be on him. I can't let her die, she's one of my best friends... Dean, if Tyler kills her, he will never forgive himself, and it'll be my fault."

"Great." Dean says, visibly pissed off, and they all get into​ the car.