Toxic » Salvatore

nine

nine
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Juliette trudged through the woods, she was dressed comfortably in a winter jacket, a scarf wrapped around her neck. The text message she'd gotten from Stefan half an hour ago had her pushing through bare tree branches until she found herself met with others. "Who is she?" A blonde girl with curled hair and blue eyes questioned, immediately on the defense at the unfamiliar face.

"Juliette," Stefan sighed out, revealing himself to everyone, Damon standing smugly beside him. "You came."

"At your service," She joked with him, one of her hands reaching up to salute him, but then her brows furrowed after a moment. "Why are all of us here in the first place?"

Damon spoke up this time, dressed in a leather jacket and dark jeans. A cocky smirk was plastered across the vampires face, his gorgeous ice blue eyes twinkling with unspoken danger. "We've stumbled across some more white oak, meaning we have a weapon against the originals."

Throwing the duffle down, Stefan opened it to reveal them all. "Actually, we have twelve."

Juliette froze at the declaration, her eyes widened and hands clenched at her sides. None of them knew about her affiliation with the Mikaelsons, none of them knew that it was Klaus who saved her that night when Mikael was searching for his bastard son, finding her standing there in shock, her vampiric senses doped out because of the overwhelming scent of blood. He grabbed her up and took her along, effectively saving her even though that meant leaving Stefan behind, alone and compelled to forget.

After all of that, there wasn't a chance it hell that she would let someone kill any of the Originals—well, maybe Finn—but just passing out stakes to their friends like Christmas presents made the woman angry. "Where'd you get this?"

"My family cut the tree down in nineteen-twelve, Rebekah thought she burned it all, she was sorely mistaken."

"You have a weapon that can kill Klaus," Elena gawked at the brother in exasperation, unable to wrap her mind around the concept of Klaus Mikaelson finally dying.

Juliette let out a laugh without even trying, the others turning their attention to her. "You can't just kill, Klaus. He's an original for a reason, they don't just die not even with the white oak on your side. He's unbelievably powerful and has the ability to compel vampires. What makes you think that this little group of fledglings and humans can take him down?"

"You may be right," Damon nods. "Klaus has always been one step ahead of us but now we have the advantage. We have the stakes and they are all linked."

"We only have to kill one of them."

Juliette felt sick seeing the satisfaction on Stefan's face—on all of their faces.

"Rebekah is our target, we just need to distract her and catch her off guard."

Instead of leaving like she'd originally planned, Juliette stayed, figuring she would rather be here and gain an understanding of what they were planning so when the time came and she returned to the Mikaelson's, they wouldn't be completely oblivious to the hits they were putting on their lives just by having those stakes. "Why Rebekah?"

"She's easier to persuade, especially for men, she falls so quickly it doesn't take much to make her believe what your saying."

"You're going to emotionally manipulate her and then kill her, which will also kill the rest of her family."

The blonde girl beside Elena, who Juliette found out her name was Caroline watched the fellow vampire with calculated eyes, her thinly plucked brows furrowing. "Why do you keep sounding like you actually care? These people are murders, they're dangerous and we have to kill them before they hurt someone else."

"Don't talk to me about murders, seeing as you're a vampire right now, you're hands aren't so clean either."

That shut her up, her thin lips pursing together as her brutal truth was punched in her face. "What's wrong?" Stefan softly asked her, his forrest green eyes training themselves on her and ignoring everyone else in the world. Juliette was acting so out of character, her usual calm exterior replaced with disappoint and repulsion toward them—Stefan included and it made his chest burn.

Juliette seemed to melt into his touch, his hands holding onto hers but it didn't easy the raging flame taking place in her mind. "Something about this just doesn't feel right, I'm sorry, Stefan but I can't help you."

He seemed betrayed for a split second but he covered it quickly. "I understand."

"Just be safe and don't underestimate them."

Juliette left after kissing Stefan quickly, the rest of the group watching her with cautious eyes and the moment she was out of earshot, Elena spoke up first. "I don't trust her."

"You don't need to, she isn't your responsibility. Keep your mind on the task at hand, not my personal life."

"Stefan, it's not like that—"

The younger Salvatore brother interrupted her swiftly cutting off whatever response she was trying to formulate. "Aim for the heart, that's the only way they'll die and don't leave until their body is in flames. We need to be one hundred percent positive they're dead, we don't have the luxury of making mistakes."

"Exactly," Damon emphasized, his crystal clear oceanic eyes resting on the doppelgänger. "No last minute attacks of pity for any of them."

"Don't worry about me," Elena quickly defends herself, her hands tucked underneath her armpits. "After what they did to Bonnie's mom, I'll be on top of it."

The group went silent at the reminder of their witch friend and why she was absent. How her mother had been a causality of the vampire war, the retired witch being turned into a blood-sucking demon and which she had tried with Caroline's help to adapt to the lifestyle, she cracked under pressure and abandoned Bonnie yet again.

"What about Juliette?"

"What about her?" Stefan turned at the sound of the name, his brother taking note of the defensive tone his brother held regarding the beautiful woman.

Damon pursed his lips, trying to be more gentle, understanding the sensitivity of the subject at hand, but he needed to. it's the bullet and bring up what no one else knew enough about to do themselves. "Don't forget she was around them too then, brother. Just because they wiped your memory and you can't remember what happened then doesn't mean they did the same to her. I'm just saying, proceed with caution, we don't know anything about her."

"I know her," He spits out, words laced with venom and sureness. Stefan was positive he knew her, no matter the time change or anything, this was his Juliette and she wouldn't betray him. "I know her."

Damon heard him, he really did, but he couldn't be sure if his little brother was trying to assure them, or himself.