CHAPTER TWO | THE HYBRID
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THE LOCATION OF THE WEREWOLF PACK JUST HAPPENED TO BE AT THE TOP OF A LARGE MOUNTAIN RANGE. Klara didn't feel tired, despite the lengthy hike up the mountain— another perk of vampirism. Her eyes fell on Stefan, who wasn't doing as well. He had Ray Sutton's dead body slung over his shoulder as they continued to walk up the mountain range.
"You okay?" Klaus looked at Stefan, almost as if he were truly concerned. Klara doubted whether the Hybrid actually cared, though. "Is Ray getting heavy?"
"I'm fine." Stefan snapped back.
"You sure about that? You know, we've been walking for quite some time now. If you need some water or a little sit-down—"
"—You know, I get that we're, uh... stuck together, but if we could maybe just skip the chitchat, it'd be great." Stefan rolled his eyes again. He and Klara tried to walk a little ahead of Klaus, but the Hybrid kept talking.
"So much brooding. Your self-loathing is suffocating you, my friend. You, too, Klara. You need to learn to loosen up otherwise you'll end up just like your friend." Klaus called out once more as Klara scoffed.
"Maybe we're just incredibly irritated that we have spent our entire summer with you hunting down werewolves." The blonde voiced. "Every freshly-transitioned vampire's dream." She sarcastically spoke which caused Stefan to chuckle under his breath.
"Well, thanks to our pal, Ray, we found ourselves a pack." The three stopped at a clearing between the trees and they could see a camp with several people, who Klaus presumed were werewolves. "There."
Stefan and Klara walked into the camp first, as all eyes were drawn to them the moment the Salvatore dropped Ray's body down onto the ground. A woman ran straight toward him in horror. "Ray! Oh, my God. What's going on? Who are you two?"
Klaus grinned as he moved beside Klara. "The real important question is, who am I? Please forgive the intrusion. My name is Klaus."
The woman that was bent down beside Ray stood upright with a fearful look on her face. "You're the Hybrid.
"You've heard of me. Fantastic." Klaus arrogantly smirked. "It's fascinating, actually. A werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon, a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun. A true Hybrid." Once he finished his explanation of what a Hybrid truly was, Ray gasped for air at their feet. "Excellent timing, Ray. Very dramatic."
Ray began to get the bearings of where he was. It was no longer the bar in Tulley. It was the mountains where his pack gathered. "What's happening to me?"
"Klara?" Klaus raised an eyebrow toward the blonde. She stepped forwards and sighed.
"Okay. Your friend, Ray, needs human blood to complete his transition. If he doesn't get that blood, he'll die. And this time it'll be for real. So, is anyone here human?" The blonde looked around at the camp, trying desperately to identify a human while Stefan remained silent beside her.
"Doesn't take much. Just a sip. Anyone? A boyfriend, a girlfriend, along for the ride?"
"You." Klara set her sights on a man in the short distance from her. Klara sped forward, grabbed his forearm, and lifted it up to her mouth. She bit down on his wrist, letting a small amount of his blood into her mouth before her brain said: stop.
And she did. She then tossed the human toward Stefan, who pinned him down to the floor, just beside Ray. "If you don't drink it, Ray, I will. Problem is, I don't know how to stop."
"It's the new order, sweetheart. You join us, or you die." Klaus spoke viciously toward the female within his grip.
"I'd rather die than be a vampire."
"Wrong choice." Klaus bit his wrist and forced his blood into her mouth, and then snapped her neck which caused her to drop into his hold.
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Klara was sitting on a log, trying her best to fight her urge to feed straight from Derek's wrist. The constant hunger was something that the blonde was getting used to, but it was awful to have to fight against your urge every waking moment of the day.
"They're dead." Ray shivered out as he looked along the ground to see all of his dead friends. "They're all dead."
"They'll be Hybrid's soon enough," Klara informed. She didn't know whether she was trying to give Ray some sort of peace of mind, but he didn't seem to register her voice, he just rambled on.
Klaus stepped forward and began to examine Ray's progress. "Ah. He's through his transition. He should be feeling better soon."
Stefan was leaning against a tree as a scoff escaped his lips. Ray looked terrible. "So is this your master plan? Build an army of Hybrid slaves?"
"No, not slaves." Klaus looked almost offended at the term slaves. He looked between Stefan and Klara. "Soldiers. Comrades."
"Okay, so you want soldiers in preparation for what?" Klara lifted herself up from the log and raised an eyebrow. "There isn't even a war, Klaus. You're creating an army without a cause."
"Oh, you don't arm yourself after war has been declared, sweetheart. You build your army so big that no one ever dares pick the fight."
"What makes you so sure that they'll be loyal?"
"Well, it's not difficult to be loyal when you're on the winning team." Klaus's eyes then flickered between the two vampires. They looked so alike. Klara and Stefan both stood beside each other, their arms folded across their chests. "That's something the two of you will learn when you shake those horribly depressive chips off your shoulders.
"Oh, so that's why you wanted the two of us with you, is it?" Klara chuckled but Klaus' attention was taken by Ray. "Because you want us to surrender our loyalty to you?"
Klara could tell that something was wrong with Ray, and Klaus knew it, too. He sat down beside his first creation and grabbed his face, forcing Ray to look at him. "You'll both know why I'm keeping you around when I've decided that I want you to know." He sighed. "Something's wrong."
Stefan kneeled down and grabbed Ray's head and forced it in his direction. A small gasp escaped his lips when he saw the blood that began pouring from his eyes. "Huh. That shouldn't be happening, should it?"
"Well, obviously."
Klaus stepped away, silently stared at the man as he shivered uncontrollably. "You said it was gonna feel better. Why doesn't it feel better?"
Stefan stood against the tree, beside Klara, a slight smirk on his face as he watched Klaus's plan fail. "Some master race."
"Lose the attitude." The Hybrid snapped up toward the Salvatore just as yet another wolf has regained consciousness. "Derek, come feed your girlfriend."
As the human that Klaus had compelled got up to his feet, Klara grabbed his wrist that had already been bitten and held it outright. But, that was when Ray got up to his feet and sped away.
"Go get him. Both of you." Klaus ordered once he stepped forward and snatched the human's wrist from Klara's grip.
Stefan and Klara nodded at each other as they sped into the distance. Klara took a deep breath and once she saw Ray, she tackled him to the ground while he snarled at her viciously. He bit the blonde's wrist, causing her to yelp loudly in pain. The sound of Klara's cries caused Stefan to attempt to intervene. He tried his best to pin him down, but Ray just threw him off and disappeared.
"Stefan?" Klara called out as she got up to her feet and stared at him. He staggered forwards breathlessly and ran his thumb across her forearm. But the two immediately froze when they heard Damon and Elena's voices in the distance.
He and Klara both moved over to a clearing in the trees to see Damon, Elena and Alaric all walking up the mountain, presumably to look for them. Whatever Stefan had done to try and stop Damon from tailing them had failed.
"Where did he go?" Klaus's voice boomed from behind them. The pair turned around with wide eyes, almost startled by the sound of his voice.
"—Uh, he got away. Forget him. Let's go." Stefan pushed past Klaus but just before Klara managed to, he gripped her arm to expose the bite.
"A fatal werewolf bite. Ouch." He sadistically grinned while he stared down at the fresh werewolf bite on her forearm.
Klara looked down at the bite and then up toward Klaus. "Yeah. It looks like I'm gonna need some blood."
"Well, I'll tell you what. You find Ray, and then I'll heal you, sweetheart. How about that?"
Stefan stepped forward and immediately scoffed. He stared down at the bite and then up toward Klaus, almost irritated that he wouldn't heal Klara. "You can't be serious."
"You better hurry, 'cause that bite looks nasty." Klaus then let go of the female's wrist and walked back toward the pack. He left Stefan and Klara alone, overthinking their options.
Klara shook her head and walked through the forest with Stefan at her side. A sigh left her lips as her heel sank in the ground yet again. "Why the hell would Damon bring Elena here?"
"I don't know, but they need to get off this mountain range." Stefan bluntly spoke. "If he sees them here, Klaus will kill them. He'll kill Damon, and he'll kill Elena. I mean she's not even supposed to be alive, Klara. He thinks she's dead."
The blonde held her hand in the air, hoping to stop him from talking. "Just relax." She breathed out finally. "Damon will protect her. You and I know that."
"I know." Stefan weakly spoke back toward her with a sigh. "I just—Let's just find this damn wolf and get you healed, alright?"
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"There," Klara yelled out as Damon's cries were heard a short distance away from them. She and Stefan sped to the scene where they saw Ray about to bite Damon until Stefan sped forward and pulled his heart out through his back.
Damon looked at his brother, confusion on his face as he awkwardly fixed himself. "Fancy meeting you here." As he began to regain his breath, Klara stepped out beside Stefan and stared down at Ray's dead body. "Should've known you'd be roaming around here too. Nice to see you, Klara."
"What part of don't follow us anymore got lost in translation, Damon?" Stefan asked his older brother as he tossed Ray's heart into the bush.
"Might want to take it up with your girlfriend. You don't want her chasing you, I'd stop with the late-night phone calls." Damon bit back.
"I didn't call her." Stefan shook his head, but the look on his face said otherwise.
"Sure you did." Damon chuckled. "She's not gonna give up on you. Either of you." His eyes finally cast over to Klara, who stood a little behind Stefan with a sad look in her eyes.
"Damon, she has to. Because— we aren't coming back. We can't." Klara answered with a pointed look on her face. "Just take Elena home. Please, Damon."
Damon hesitantly nodded and turned away from Stefan and Klara before he disappeared into the distance. Klara exhaled deeply, falling into Stefan's arms as the two silently held each other. They missed every part of it. Their home, their friends and they wanted it back so badly.
"Come on." Stefan wiped the small tears that gathered on Klara's cheek and smiled encouragingly. "Let's get you cured." He lifted Ray's body from the floor and began to walk back to the werewolf camp with her beside him.
Once they entered the camp, Stefan dropped Ray's dead body onto the floor one last time while Klaus looked defeated as he stared up at them. "They went rabid. Some of them I killed. The others just—bled out." Klara held her forearm. She winced in pain as Klaus moved onto his feet. "In the end, they're all dead." With a yell, he threw his bottle of beer and screamed in anger. "I did everything I was told! I should be able to turn them. I broke the curse. I killed a werewolf. I killed a vampire. I killed the doppelganger." He then turned to Klara. "You look like hell, love."
The blonde showed her bite and shrugged. She tried best to hide her pain, but it hurt like a bitch. "I mean, I guess that's what happens when you've got a fatal wolf bite, huh?"
Stefan noticed Klaus' eyes tracing Ray's dead body. "I had to take him out. I didn't have a choice. I failed you. I'm sorry. Do what you want to me, but please, heal Klara."
"It should have worked. " The Hybrid turned around and headed toward an empty bottle of beer. He bit his wrist and dropped his blood into the bottle before he headed toward Klara and held it out to her. "Bottoms up. We're leaving. It appears you two are the only comrades I have left."
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