CHAPTER TWENTY

"Lockwood! Donovan! Calloway!" Nyx yells as she bursts into the Lockwood mansion.

"Uh-oh." Tyler says as they each walk out of different rooms. "What did we do?"

"Question. When I was here last night, did you three know what Damon's been up to?"

"Uh..." Matt looks down as Carter clears his throat.

"Assholes — all of you." She shakes her head. "Who else knows? Because I know that my brother does. He just called me pissed off that I lied about Bonnie being alive and for not telling him about Jenna."

"I think you're the only one who doesn't know." Tyler says. "I mean, except for Vicki and Jess, because Damon knows that they won't lie to you."

"So, why did all of you?" She questions. "I thought that they died so we could come home, and I have been carrying that guilt with me for months. Now, I find out that apparently Bonnie sent Miss Cuddles over, and Damon found her. Then he went to follow some lead on his own or... I mean, I knew you three before all of this crap. Why lie to me and keep his secret?"

"He didn't want to get yours and Jess' hopes up if it was a bust." Matt tells her. "For once, I actually agreed with him. You've been through enough."

"Since we're being honest with you... He didn't follow up on anything alone." Carter says. "He went to Portland with Stefan and Ric on Thanksgiving."

"S-Stefan?" She asks, eyebrows raised. "Stefan knew about all of this?"

"Yeah." He nods. "And Damon's taking Elena over to that prison world right now to get them back. Liv's doing the spell."

"I have to go kill Stefan now." She turns and starts for the door. "Thank you for your forced cooperation."

—

"You wanted to see me?" Stefan asks as he walks over to Nyx. "Why are we in the cemetery?"

"Right over there is my grave. That girl died thinking you were one of the most selfless people on the planet because you tried to trade your life for Jenna's." She says, and he nods.

"Yeah, I know." His eyebrows furrow as he looks at her.

"And then I came back and in there—" she points at the Salvatore crypt. "—I told you that I had Jenna back, until she sacrificed herself for me. That's twice she died because of me...but she didn't die the second time, did she?"

"Nyx, I..." He shakes his head, seemingly confused, and her expression turns puzzled as she looks up at him.

"Come here." She grabs his hand and then pulls him across the anti-magic border into Mystic Falls.

He closes his eyes and he looks even more confused than he did five seconds ago. He sighs and then looks at her.

"Damon compelled us." He shakes his head, and she sighs as she looks down. "He made me and Ric keep it from you and Jo. We couldn't tell you anything, even if you asked."

"So, that girl—" she points at her grave. "—was right. And this one—" she points at herself. "—is an idiot. I'm sorry. It's just...the boys told me that you and Ric went to Portland with your brother on Thanksgiving. Which means you knew about all of this when we..."

"And you thought I was keeping secrets, which isn't any better than your last relationship." He nods. "I understand."

"Is that what this is?" She smiles. "Is this a relationship?"

"It could be." He says as moves closer to her. "I think that's up to you."

"Mm." She nods. "How about a slow paced one?" She asks, and he nods.

"I can live with that." He smiles as he leans down and kisses her.

"I really am sorry." She says, and he shakes his head.

"It's okay." He says. "We actually have a bigger problem anyway. Damon didn't just compel the two of us to keep everything from you. He compelled Ric to steal the ascendant from Jo and give it to him." He tells her, and she sighs.

"Of course he did." She shakes her head and leans her forehead against his chest.

Stefan's phone rings, and he pulls it out of his pocket. "Matt, now's not really a good time. Can I call you back later?"

"Actually, I really need to talk to you." Matt says, and Nyx hears him. "Can we meet up?"

"Uh..." He looks at Nyx, and she nods as she looks up at him.

"I want to talk to Ric anyway. And I should probably call Jess." She tells him. "Four months alone in the world with only five people — you tend to get pretty close. She's definitely gonna want to know about Bonnie and Jenna being alive. And I'm not your dickhead of a brother, so..."

"Where do you want me to meet you?" He asks Matt and then hangs up soon after.

"What's going on?" She asks, and he shrugs.

"I don't know. He didn't say." He says. "I'll talk to you later." She nods, and he kisses her cheek before going back to where he left his car.

Nyx calls Jess and talks to her for a bit about everything. They keep the conversation short because she's with Dean and Sam on some case in Wyoming. Vicki took the twins back to Bobby's because Dean thought it would be safer for them at the moment, and Nyx doesn't want them anywhere near Mystic Falls. But she was just at Bobby's visiting with them, she got back last night before hanging out with the boys.

She then walks over to her grave and looks at it — hers and Ric's. She sits down on a bench nearby, and Caroline shows up a while later.

"Stefan called." The blonde says, still on the other side of the border. "He thought you'd still be here. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking about what you said." Nyx tells her. "That I've been different every time that I've died and come back — that I'm darker."

"I shouldn't have said that." She shakes her head. "Of course you're different. Who wouldn't be?"

"Maybe. But it scares me." She says as she stands up and walks over to her. "How am I supposed to raise my kids if I'm... If I become something dark? I have this ability now, and Sam has one too. And we..."

"I'm curious about your ability too." A female voice catches their attention, and they both turn.

"Who the hell are you?" Caroline questions.

"We've met before." The brunette girl smiles and her eyes turn completely black. "Of course I had a different face then, and it's been a while. You were tied up in an apartment complex." She points at Caroline and then turns to look at Nyx. "But that was after I told your boyfriend that you were pregnant."

"Meg." Nyx mutters, and she smiles.

"Those Winchesters keep causing something of a mess. And here I have the two girls that they love."

"What do you want?" She questions.

"To send a message. And maybe to hurt cute little Sammy." She smiles as she walks over to them. "I heard about this anti-magic border around your town. I'm rather curious to see how it works."

Meg grabs Caroline by her throat and throws her across the border. "No!" Nyx yells as she turns and quickly runs over to her.

"Nyx... I can't..." Caroline's struggling as she tries to stand up. "...breathe."

She collapses, and Nyx looks over at the crypt they were just next to, they're too far to get her back. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and hits her speed dial for Dean.

"You're talking—"

"Tell me you're still with Jess." She cuts him off as she kneels down beside Caroline, her phone now on speaker.

"Jess!" He calls, putting his own phone on speaker. "It's Nyx."

"What are you gonna do?" Meg asks, clearly amused as she walks over to them.

"Shut up!" Nyx snaps.

"Nyx?" Jess' voice comes through the phone. Caroline's gasping, struggling to breathe.

"I can't remember the rate per minute for chest compressions during CPR." She's talking fast, and they can hear the panic in her voice. She can't clear her head to think.

Jess carefully and quickly walks her through it as she lays Caroline flat on her back. "And then you press down two inches at the center of their chest. Do you remember the position for your hands?"

"Yes." She says as she starts the compressions. "Come on, Caroline."

"Caroline?" Dean questions.

"This is pathetic." Meg laughs.

"Shut up, Meg!" Nyx doesn't look up as she gets back to counting.

"What the hell's going on?" Sam's voice comes through the phone.

Nyx tilts Caroline's head back to open her airways and pinches her nose before doing the standard two rescue breaths. She then continues the chest compressions, tears running down her face.

"Come on, Caroline. Stay with me." She mutters.

"So, the anti-magic border stripped the magic that made her a vampire?" Meg kneels down beside them. "And now she's just dead."

"Go to hell."

"Nycole!" She hears Ric's voice and turns her head.

"Over here!" She calls, and he runs over with Jo right behind him.

"Let me take over, sweetie." The raven-haired woman says as she kneels down directly across from her. "How long has she been out?"

"Uh... She stopped breathing maybe thirty seconds ago. A little less, I think."

"Okay." She nods. Jo's fairly calm.

"Now that Sam's pretty little girlfriend's down for the count. Let's go for Dean's." Meg smiles.

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask." Nyx gets to her feet and goes after the demon.

Meg swings at Nyx, and she ducks under her first. Nyx punches her in the center of the ribs, causing her to stumble back and then she gets a right hook across her face. She grunts when Meg kicks her leg with the clunky boot she's wearing.

Nyx can hear Caroline's strained voice and then Ric telling Jo to get her out of there. He gives her the keys to his car, and they quickly leave the cemetery. They have Nyx's phone.

Nyx is now on one knee, and then Meg brings one of her knees to Nyx's face. She falls to the ground, and Meg stomps hard on her arm with the heel of her boot. Two gunshots ring out, and Meg gets hit.

She looks down at the blood pooling on her shirt and then up at Ric. "I really liked this shirt." She says. "This isn't over." She then leaves, and Ric runs over to Nyx.

"Come on." He quickly helps her get to her feet. "Can you walk?" He asks, and she nods.

"Yeah." She says, a little breathless, but he has to help her because she keeps stumbling.

"Do you have a car?" He asks, and she shakes her head. "Okay, who's in town that I can call?"

"Tyler."

Tyler picks them up, and Ric sits in the backseat with Nyx as he drives them to the hospital. She then uses Ric's phone to call her friends back.

"Ric?" Jess' voice comes through the phone.

"It's me." Nyx says.

"What the hell's going on?"

"Sam's friend really likes terrorizing me." She narrows her eyes as she looks out the window.

"Meg was there?" Dean questions.

"Yeah." Nyx sighs. "She said that...she wanted to send a message, and hurt Sam. So, she threw Caroline over the border, and I... I wouldn't have been able to get her back across in time to save her. But I know that...that Katherine killed her by smothering her with a pillow, so I thought..."

"CPR. Just get her heart going again, since there were no other injuries." Jess nods. "It was smart."

"I hate demons. And angels." She groans as she adjusts herself in her seat.

"Are you okay?" Dean asks her, concern evident in his voice.

"My face is bleeding, and I think my arm is broken, but Caroline's alive... So, yeah. I'm okay, really." She nods. "I can handle a few bumps and bruises. A cast will be annoying, but... The one thing that I can't handle is another grave to mourn. So, as long as that doesn't happen, I'm fine... Come whatever."

"Does this mean Caroline's human?" Tyler asks. "Because if so, damn, Nyx. You keep saving everyone and giving them their humanity back."

She chuckles. "I'm magic."

"Especially since you didn't use any special ability." Ric says, and she looks at him. "You just used past knowledge of CPR and got a crash course refresher."

"Hey, h-how did you know where we were?"

"Sam called me, and Jess told us where you were." He tells her.

"Yeah. You said something about the crypt earlier, I figured that was where you had to be." She adds, and Nyx nods.

"Thanks, guys." Nyx smiles, but it quickly disappears. "Tyler, pull over."

"What? I'm trying to—"

"Pull over!"

He pulls to the side of the road, and she opens her door. She vomits and then just sits there for a second. Once she's sure that she's done, she closes the door and leans against it.

"Nyx, are you okay?" Ric asks.

"Yeah." But they can hear the strain in her voice as Tyler starts driving again.

"Nyx, can I ask you a few questions?" Jess asks.

"Sure." She sighs.

"Do you have a ringing in your ears?"

"Uh... Kinda."

"Sensitivity to light?"

"If I look out the windows."

"Do you have a headache?"

"I just took a knee to my face. What do you think?" Nyx questions.

"Irritability..." She mutters. "Ric, keep her awake. She might have a concussion."

Nyx chuckles. "So, I can magically heal a knife wound in my stomach and bring three people back from the dead, but I get into one little fist fight with a demon..." She shakes her head, which she immediately regrets. "My life makes no sense."

"She said to stay awake." Ric says as he pats her knee.

"I am awake."

"Open your eyes."

"The light hurts." She grumbles.

"Nycole."

"Yes, Dad?" She chuckles as she turns her head to look at him.

Ric smiles. "Put your back against the door and face me." He tells her, and she carefully does as he said. "You're gonna be okay."

"I know." She nods. "My problem is convincing everyone else of that."

"Why does it bother you so much that everyone worries about you?"

"That's not what bothers me." She tells him.

"So, what is?"

"Everyone treating me like I'm incapable of taking care of myself. It's like everyone still sees that little girl who broke after she lost her parents." She says. "Don't get me wrong, I get it, I've been through a lot, and I've died... But so has everyone else. And now I have something that no one else does — two people who call me Mommy and need me to survive. And you can bet your ass that if I can't do that for me, I'll do it for them. I am not leaving them again like I did before."

"Don't get mad at me for this, but... Why did you tell Vicki not to bring them here?" He asks, and she sighs.

"Because I honestly believe that the safest place for them is anywhere but here." She says. "Stefan told me that I was being crazy, that the safest place for them was with me. I was about to call Vicki and ask her to bring them to me this morning when my phone rang. Jeremy was calling to yell at me for lying to him all this time. He told me that Bonnie and Jenna are alive and they're still in the prison world. And that Bonnie sent Miss Cuddles over. At first I was happy, but then I realized something..."

"If Bonnie's alive, then Kai can get out." Jess says, and she nods. "I know, it was my second thought too."

"You're both afraid of him." Ric realizes.

"I'm terrified of him." Nyx says, and Jess quickly agrees. "I couldn't protect the three girls from him while I was a vampire. I sure as hell can't protect them now."

"If he gets out... I won't let him hurt you." He says. "Any of you."

"It's not me that I'm worried about."

"We're here." Tyler says as he parks the car outside the hospital at Whitmore.