Enzo, Stefan, Matt and I were standing in a small abandoned store house, interrogating Tripp, who was tied up to a chair, beaten pretty badly from the car accident.
"Hello, again," Enzo told him. "That was quite a mess you made at the border last night. Hit-and-run. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Good thing Matt here was in the neighborhood to give you a ride home."
Tripp looked at Matt. "You brought me here?"
"You went after my friends," Matt told him. "What'd you expect?"
"Your friends who kill people," Tripp told him.
"Come on, Enzo," Stefan told him. "Ask him what you want to know. Let's get this over with."
Enzo looked at Tripp. "Stefan has already made a very passionate argument in favor of snapping your neck, whereas in a surprising role reversal, I've opted for the 'let's think this through, get all the information before we kill him' method."
"Don't be a dick," I told him. "You know, you can dry the vervain out of him, compel him to forget everything, and he'll neveer set foot in Mystic Falls again."
"You don't really think he's a one-man vampire busting operation, do you?" Enzo asked. "Look. While Tripp tortured me for the names of you and your friends, I had a front-row seat to quite a few urgent phone calls and visits from mysterious right-hand men, many of whom were wearing uniforms not dissimilar to the one Matt's been traipsing around in. I'd just like to know what they're up to while he's here with us."
There was a moment of silence.
Stefan picked up a hammer, slamming it onto Tripp's hand, making him scream.
"They're doing the same thing they were when they were with me," Tripp told us. "They're tracking vampires like your friend Caroline Forbes."
Stefan looked at Enzo. "Take two hours, get the names of his men and what they know. After that, he's a liability. Get rid of him."
Stefan turned, walking out.
I looked after him. Looking at Enzo, giving him a look.
I was staying there, because I didn't trust him not to kill Tripp.
~~~~~~
Caroline had been calling me repeatedly.
I went outside to call her back.
Caroline answered. "Tell me that Tripp is still alive."
"Tripp is still alive, surprisingly torture-resistant, but alive," I answered.
"What took you so long to answer your phone?"
"Making sure that Enzo didn't kill Tripp. Just because he's a vampire hunter doesn't mean that he should die."
"Good. Make sure that Enzo doesn't kill him, okay? One of his guys took my mom, so just tell him to keep his hands off of him so I can get her back, okay?"
"Of course."
Inside, I heard Matt talking to Enzo. "All right, that's enough."
"I thought I could make the world a better place by getting rid of people like you, teach kids like Matt to be strong, defend yourselves," Tripp told him. "But look at you. You're on the wrong side."
"I'm not on the wrong side, man," Matt told him. "My side's just really freaking complicated."
I walked in. "Update. Tripp's henchmen kidnapped the sheriff of Mystic Falls."
"What?" Enzo asked.
"It's a contingency plan in case anything ever happened to me," Tripp told us.
"That's your idea of being on the right side?" Matt asked.
"You can set the meet off the edge of town of Old Miller road," Tripp told us. "You can do the trade there. They know they'll be safe behind the border. And send Matt. They trust him."
~~~~~~
Matt wasn't here anymore.
Caroline and Stefan walked in.
"Hello, gorgeous," Enzo told her.
"What did you do to him?" Caroline asked.
"Oh, he's fine," Enzo told her. "Just a little blood loss. I think he may have an iron deficiency problem."
"Knock it off," Stefan told him. "Her mother's life is on the line."
"Hang on," Enzo told him. "Just so I'm clear. All Caroline had to do to get you to treat her with a modicum of respect, is to stop paying attention to you. Is that how this works?"
I started to unchain Tripp. "Shut up, Enzo. And did we really need three chains? I mean, who is this guy, the Hulk?"
"Well, I didn't restrain him," Stefan told us.
"No, but you let your sidekick Enzo do it because what could go wrong when you team up with your sworn enemy?" Caroline asked sarcastically.
"Oh," Enzo said. "That's brilliant." He looked at Stefan. "Of course that's why she hates you. That's how you worked her into such a state in Savannah. That's why she told you to go take a leap. She hates you because she doesn't hate you at all."
Stefan looked confused. "I'm sorry. Are you still talking?"
"She got a thing for you, mate," Enzo told him. Stefan turned to look at him in confused surprise. Enzo looked at me. "And by the lack of confusion and surprise in your expression, you already knew this." Stefan looked at me, raising his eyebrows. I looked away awkwardly, continuing to unchain Tripp. Enzo looked at Caroline. "Tell your mum I send my best."
Enzo walked out of the warehouse.
I pulled Tripp up. "All right, let's go."
I gave Caroline a sympathetic glance, walking toward the door, taking Tripp with me.
~~~~~~
Caroline, Stefan and I waited in the road after dark at the border, waiting for the hunters to bring us Sheriff Forbes so that we could give them Tripp.
Another car pulled up.
"They're here," I told them, pulling Tripp out of the car.
Matt got out of the other car, along with other men and the Sheriff, one of them pointing a gun at her.
Caroline stepped forward. "Mom?"
Matt stood in her way. "Caroline, stop! The border."
"You're bleeding," Caroline told her. "What'd you do to her?"
"I'm fine," Sheriff told her.
"Okay," Matt said. "Let's do this. Let her go, and you can have him."
"Tripp first," the man with the gun said.
"Let her go, or I'll kill you," Caroline told him.
"Sweetheart, it's okay," Sheriff told her. "Nicola, let Tripp go."
I let Tripp go.
Tripp walked across the border, his hands still bound.
"He's across," Caroline told them. "Now let her go."
The man let the sheriff go.
Sheriff walked across the border.
Tripp's expression turned to one of pain.
"Are you okay?" Matt asked.
"What's happening to me?" Tripp asked.
A huge slice across Tripp's throat suddenly appeared. He collapsed.
Matt watched, horrified.
"Oh, my God," I said.
Matt knelt next to Tripp's dying body, watching him as he exsanguinated. He looked at Stefan, Caroline and me. "What the hell did you do?"
"Wasn't us," I told him. "Enzo must have turned him into a vampire when Caroline called me earlier."
Matt looked at Tripp in regret.
Matt had trusted Tripp, looked up to him before he had found out that he was a Fell, a Founding Family member, a vampire hunter who tried to kill his friends, and then he died in front of him because of a vampire he hated.
I felt sorry for Matt.