𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐀 | 𝐬. 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞

44

Athena straightens her spine and grabs the phone from Josh's outstretched hand, looking at the highlighted contact as she presses the small green button and holds it to Tyler's ear.

The werewolf waits with bated breath as the phone rings and he almost hopes that Jules doesn't answer. But she does, with a question on her tongue as Tyler's heaved breaths come through the speaker.

"Tyler?"

"Jules," Tyler takes a deep breath, looking up at Athena daringly. "It's Athena! She knows you have Caroline, you have to help me–"

Athena rips the phone away and clenches her fist around it, feeling it creak and snap in her tight grip. "You really shouldn't have done that,"

Athena doesn't hesitate as she slams her fist into Tyler's jaw, watching as his eyes flash bright yellow. Even as Tyler struggles beneath her and her forceful punches, he's unable to escape her strength as she brings her fist down repeatedly onto his jaw.

"This is for Caroline," Athena punches him once more, her jaw creaking with how tight she had it clenched.

"This is for choosing Elena after the accident, you massive, self-centered, piece of shit!" Athena slams her fist into his nose, ignoring his cries of pain. "And this is for punching me in the face and breaking my nose at the football game."

She delivers one last punch and watches the bruises form on his face almost immediately as she stands up, letting him finally get a real breath of air and try to open his swollen eye.

"If Caroline is permanently injured in any way, I will come back here and finish the job,"

Athena and Josh are out the door as quickly as they came and they hurry down the steps of the Lockwood mansion, back to her car. She pulls her phone from her pocket and chucks it at Josh, who catches it with ease as he slides into the passenger seat.

"Call Damon and tell him that Jules knows we're coming, and that we're going to need that stash of wolfsbane he's got."

──────

Athena doesn't like the smell of the woods. It's oddly specific, and she hasn't always felt this way, but the last dozen or so times she's traveled out into the woods beyond the town of Mystic Falls, it has been on some sacrificial, borderline suicidal mission to rescue her boyfriend, or even digging up his dead dad– which she officially labels as their first date, much to Stefan's dismay.

She doesn't care to step foot into the forest again, but knowing that Caroline is being held in the dingy trailer, most likely being deprived of everything but pain gives her the incentive she needs to do so.

And now, as she watches the werewolf pace back and forth in the night, watching as her enhanced senses slowly come to realize she's not alone, she finds that she doesn't mind the woods as much with the scent of fear slowly overtaking it all.

"I know you're out there!"

She can hear the fear in the woman's voice from where she's leaning up against a tree, almost carelessly watching her from afar. She looks behind her for a moment, meeting Stefan's eyes for a moment before he nods slowly, and only once, in the only confirmation she needs to continue.

Inhumanely fast, a small, wolfsbane-tipped dagger soars through the night and lands in Jules's right shoulder, making her stumble backward into the trailer, rattling it with all of its might.

The werewolf cries out as she feels the toxin practically drip into her bloodstream, and Athena steps out from the shadows as she throws a matching dagger into her other shoulder.