Arabella was supposed to be at the high school by eight o'clock. Stefan, however, kept her at the house to give her the run down of all that had happened within the past few days. Her mind is still reeling from the information that he provided her about Alaric and everything bad that has happened since Klaus's arrival in town. And she had been so blind to it all because of her stupid soulmate bond.
Checking her cell phone, Arabella releases a sigh. Hopefully, the blonde won't be too upset about Arabella arriving an hour late to the clean up crew.
"Caroline!" She shouts down the school hallway. "I'm so sorry I'm late. I got held up!"
Pausing in the cafeteria, Arabella scans the empty room. The place is still a mess, despite the clean up crew being here for at least an hour. "Caroline!?"
Walking past classrooms, Arabella stops at Alaric's classroom. Inside, she spots the vampire. Her hands are stuck to the desk with pencils and a cloth is wrapped around her mouth. Caroline's neck is obviously broken and not yet healed, meaning that this is a recent offense. "Caroline!" She whispers in surprise.
Rushing over to help her friend, Arabella isn't prepared to get thrown across the room and into the wall. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," a familiar voice commands angrily.
Arabella looks up to find her old history teacher glaring down at her in anger. "Alaric?" She asks in shock. Veins pop up underneath his eyes, signifying that he completed the transition.
"Arabella," he responds. "Esther gave me some pretty clear instructions about how to kill you." He slowly approaches her, pulling out the new invincible white oak stake. "Step one: get you to ingest Klaus's blood." The girl's eyes widen in fear when she remembers how the hybrid had used his blood to help her last night.
The teacher approaches the girl as she backs away as far as she can until her back hits the wall. "Step two: get you alone. You're vulnerable when you're by yourself."
Knowing exactly where this is going, Arabella makes a break for the only exit to the classroom. Her downfall, however, is her speed. Vampires are faster than werewolves. Especially when they're fueled by vengeance.
Alaric blocks her path. "Step three," he begins. He places his hands on both sides of the girl's head and snaps her neck. "Kill you."
Gasping for breath, Arabella comes back to life on Alaric's classroom floor. Everything about her feels wrong. The sunlight streaming into the room is way too bright, it's almost as though it is trying to burn Arabella's eyes out. The thunderous sound of Elena's racing heart gives the poor wolf a headache as she tries to assemble all of her scattered thoughts to remember what happened.
One thing that she remembers, though, is that Alaric snapped her neck. Within one second, Alaric turned her into the very thing that she never wanted to be. That she thought she could never be.
Looking towards Alaric in fear and accusation, Arabella brings and hand to her neck and shakes her head. "What did you do to me?" She asks in fear.
Alaric's nostrils flare in his anger as he looks down at the werewolf. He grabs Elena by the wrist and stabs her in the hand. Setting his white oak stake aside, Alaric grabs one of the empty cups on his desk and collects some of Elena's blood in it.
The scent alone drives the werewolf wild. A deep and unsettling hunger drives her to want the blood. To want to drink it.
"I'm giving you an out," Alaric states. "Once I kill Klaus, you'll die. Just like you wanted."
Did she really want that, though? Yes, Arabella wanted the curse lifted off of her so that she could one day die, but not right now. There are so many things that she wants to experience.
Taking a deep breath, Arabella shakes her head as the vampire hunter offers her the cup. "I'm not becoming a hybrid."
The vampire hunter raises an eyebrow. "You would rather die over and over again?" After a moment of silence, he nods his head in approval. "That's very admirable."
Before she can prepare herself or stop him, Alaric shoves the cup into her mouth and forces her to drink it. He waits until she begins to writhe in pain from the transformation before he releases her. "Unfortunately, I wasn't giving you a choice."
Elena watches the scene with wide eyes. "Alaric, this is insane! You just forced an innocent girl into becoming a hybrid!"
Alaric glares at his former charge. "I'm helping return the balance of nature!" He points in Arabella's direction, who is still undergoing the full effects of the transformation. "She should have never survived longer than her lifetime! I'm doing her a favor!"
As soon as the pain subsides, Arabella finds herself glaring at the vampire. Unimaginable rage has filled her very being as she stares at her former history teacher. He had forced her into becoming the very something that guaranteed her immortality. She cannot control the anger that she feels at this very moment.
Seeing the anger in her friend from across the room, Elena shakes her head in warning. None of them have any idea how strong Alaric is or what he is capable of.
Unable to refrain herself, Arabella is moving at an inhuman speed at Alaric. She catches him off guard enough to throw him into a wall for the briefest of moments before he gets back up again. He moves towards the werewolf, already sensing her biggest weakness as a newly turned vampire and manages to stab the white oak stake right under her heart.
Releasing a gasp in surprise, the anger washes away from Arabella. It is replaces with immense pain from where the wood is located in her body.
"Consider this a welcoming gift," Alaric hisses in her face. "Welcome to being a vampire."
Clawing at the stake in her chest, Arabella just wants the pain to go away. Alaric shoves the girl into one of the desks and rips the stake out. Not without stabbing one of her hands with a pencil, however.
Arabella cries out in pain as he takes another one and shoves it into her other hand. Dark memories threaten to spill over the surface, but Elena's voice manages to keep the werewolf tied to the present. "Why are you doing this?"
The pain is too blinding for Arabella to see clearly, but she can feel Alaric turn to face the teenage girl. "Because you need me," he responds. He makes it sound as though it is the most obvious thing in the world. "Because you're an eighteen year old girl without parents or guidance or any sense of right and wrong anymore."
As Elena keeps the vengeful vampire hunter busy with a conversation, Arabella uses her fingers to quietly pull out the pencil lodged into her left hand. She doesn't fully tune back into the conversation until Alaric is dragging Elena over to Caroline.
She watches as Elena tries to stab the newly created vampire as she manages to pull the first pencil free. The relief she feels makes Arabella want to sigh, but they are not out of danger yet.
Once Elena smashes the beaker full of vervain into the history teacher's face, Arabella quickly rips out the pencil from her hand and moves to help Elena with Caroline. She makes quick work removing the pencils before they all run out of the classroom.
They each seem to move in three different directions and Arabella finds herself wandering the hallways alone. She stops to look behind her to see if Caroline and Elena made it safe, but frowns when she discovers that they aren't behind her.
Suddenly, someone grabs her from behind and drags her around the corner. Arabella struggles as much as she can, but finds that the person is stronger than her. It isn't until Klaus forces her to face him when she stops struggling.
Gripping tightly to his arm, Arabella feels like sobbing. "Klaus?" She whispers.
"We'll save Elena. You go straight home," he whispers. He has a very serious look on his face that is underlined with concern. "Do you understand me?"
Tears well up in the girl's eyes as she stares at him. She has a feeling that she should tell him about what she is now. About what happened to her. Instead, she simply nods her head. Hopefully, she'll be able to catch up with Caroline on her way back home.
Seconds later, he is gone and Arabella is in the hallway alone. She turns to leave through the doors, but pauses when she hears the sound of rattling lockers. Elena wouldn't leave her behind. She would foolishly go after her and try to save her, despite the fact that she hasn't known her that long.
With her new and improved speed, Arabella manages to make it to Elena after her brothers get their necks snapped. Releasing a growl, Arabella takes Alaric by surprise and slams him into the lockers on the far end of the hallway. A large dent permanently marks the four lockers where she shoved him into.
Alaric sends a vicious glare to the newly turned hybrid as he rushes at her in vampire speed. She somehow grabs the vampire by the throat and shoves him into the two lockers next to her. Veins pop up under her eyes and they glow a brilliant gold color as she releases a loud growl in his face.
Klaus appears on her other side and shoves his fingers around Alaric's heart. It works for a few seconds before the vampire head butts the girl in the face and removes Klaus's hand from around his heart. He throws the male hybrid to the floor before snapping the female's neck, submitting her into a world of darkness.
An incessant buzzing noise annoys Arabella to no end. The loud buzzing sound only seems to get louder with every vibration. Releasing a groan, Arabella slowly sits up to look at the source of the buzzing.
She finds Damon and Stefan to be knocked out next to her on the floor. In Damon's right hand is his cellphone, which continues the buzz loudly.
"Get up!" Alaric shouts angrily. He sends a glare at the two groaning vampires on the floor.
It takes the hybrid a moment to realize that she isn't coming back from death with a splitting headache and holding her wolf side at bay. At least there's some good in that.
Arabella rises to her feet long before her brothers even sit up. She already knows somewhat of what Alaric is going to say before he even utters a helpful word. Klaus left them all at the school to die.
Hot and angry betrayal threatens to choke the girl as the realization of it all hits her. All this time when she's been fighting to keep him safe, to save his life, he wouldn't do the same for her. He's never wanted to save her. He'd probably save Caroline, though.
Being pushed along by her anger, Arabella runs out of the school and makes it to Klaus's house within ten minutes. Angrily shoving the door open, she accidentally knocks the door off its hinges as she storms into the mansion.
"Klaus!" Arabella shouts. Her voice echoes off the hollow walls. It is evident that the hybrid has been very on top of his packing. So much so that the house is very bare now.
Stomping his way into the foyer, Klaus sends a glare in Arabella's direction. "That is quite expensive, you know." He points a finger at the door, which now lays splintered on the floor.
A snarl finds its way to her face as rage fills the girl's heart. "You just left me there!" She shouts. "You left me in Alaric's clutches to be tortured further."
"I told you to go home," he responds sassily. "It's not my fault that you stupidly ran back in there!"
The young girl's eye twitches in irritation. She gets closer to the man, producing the most vicious glare she ever has in her life. "It is your fault that I'm a hybrid now!" She exclaims. "It's your fault that I was even in that situation in the first place."
The dirty look leaves his face as he gives the girl a pitying look. "If you had taken up my offer, maybe I would have been more inclined to take you with me," he points out. "Now that you are sired to me, you'll have no choice, but to come with me."
Arabella shakes her head. Is he really going to try to invoke the sire bond on her? "I am not going anywhere with you!" She hisses in anger.
Klaus grips her arm tightly and begins to drag her into another room. "We'll see about that!"
The sweet scent of blood hits her like a train. Tracking the scent to the room that they are about to enter, Arabella takes a moment to recognize the scent. Elena. Klaus had left Arabella and her brothers there to grab Elena and take her here.
Once they enter, they find Tyler untying Elena from the chair that she is bound to. Klaus doesn't appear to be too happy about it, which indicates that he didn't order Tyler to do it. His grip loosens a bit on his newest hybrid as he sends Tyler a glare of disappointment.
Tyler slowly rises so that he is looking straight at Klaus. "So much for that sire bond," Klaus states angrily.
"I'm not your little bitch anymore," Tyler responds.
Producing a fake amused look, Klaus releases Arabella's arm. "Stay here," he orders. It's as though he thinks that the sire bond will actually work on her. Like she is grateful for becoming a hybrid.
As the man questions his hybrid, Arabella concentrates on anything other than the blood pumping through Elena's veins. Earlier, when she had pencils in her hands, it was easier to ignore the bloodlust. Currently, however, Arabella finds that is the only thing present on her mind.
What makes it worse is when Klaus indirectly knocks Elena over and causes blood to spill out of her head. All the screaming and shouting is a secondary thing. It is only Arabella and the strong scent of blood.
Every primal instinct in her cries for her to suck Elena dry. To drink her blood until it is all gone. The human part of her keeps her from doing just that. Elena is her friend, not a blood bag.
She can feel the veins pop up underneath her eyes as she slowly backs away. Someone places a hand on her shoulder, startling her enough to come back to the present. "Are you okay?" Tyler asks her with a concerned look on his face.
Swallowing hard, Arabella shakes her head. All the rage that she felt before is gone and in its place as deep and terrible sadness. Tears well up in her eyes as Tyler pulls her into his arms. "I never wanted to become a vampire," she sobs. Her tears soak through the hybrid's shirt as he leads her out of the house.
"Come on, let me show you something," he mumbles to her. He nods his head towards the woods behind Klaus's mansion and begins to saunter off into the trees.
Arabella silently follows after him, curious as to what he possibly wants to show her.
Tyler takes her to the woods to the clearing that she took him to before. "Remember when you showed me all the good things there were to being a werewolf when I was terrified?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah," Arabella responda quietly. She stares at the boy in wonder as he pauses in the middle of the clearing.
"Well, there are a few perks to being a hybrid," Tyler responds. A smirk appears on his face. "For one thing, you don't have to shift. Then, there's the speed and strength. As a hybrid, you are faster than vampires and werewolves."
Crossing her arms across her chest, Arabella huffs. "I don't see how any of those things can be good when we have a constant thirst for blood."
Approaching her from across the clearing, Tyler takes her hands. "You'll figure out the blood thing. Blood bags will have to be your friend for the time being." He stares deeply into Arabella's cobalt blue eyes, glad to see the stubborn fire still in them. "Now, do you want to learn about all the advantages to being a hybrid or not?"
Staring at Tyler for a few seconds, Arabella slowly nods her head at the boy. Arabella's werewolf life is far gone and in its wake, is the replacement of a newer and stronger person.
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