I was slowly waking, in more pain than I could have imaged possible.
I couldn't see yet. All I could see was darkness.
But I could hear Kai's voice. I could barely hear it at first, distant and echoing. "See, we never went out to dinner when I was a kid, so I always had this fascination with chefs and fine dining. Dad actually let me cook." I opened my eyes to see a bright white light on the ceiling above me. "Taught me to measure by eye. Seasonings to taste, all that stuff." I slowly raised my head to look around. We were in the Grill. I was restrained to a chair. "But it's different now in the restaurant world. Everything's on timers. It's like..." Kai was sitting across the table from me, eating. My vision was blurry. "Fries go in, you push a button." My vision and hearing cleared up. "It dings, you take them out. Literally, no guess work."
I felt my hands tied behind my back, behind the chair I was in, trying to pull free, groaning in pain when I felt the vervain sear my skin. "Why am I here?"
"Oh, well, I spent 20 years in abandoned restaurants and now I'm showing off the fruits of my labor," Kai told me.
I looked at the Mystic Grill sign on the wall. "I don't mean the Mystic Grill."
"Oh, you mean, like, here, here, in Mystic Falls?" Kai asked, chuckling. "Sorry. I'm nervous. I'm--You're, like, really pretty."
"Why am I here, Kai?" I asked forcefully.
"Well, I took the spell that was keeping supernaturals out of Mystic Falls, and I..." Kai trailed off. "I, like, absorbed it, like... Like, ate it, I guess." He took a bite of his food. "It's cool, huh? First, I eat magic, and then, eventually, I lose it. But, I mean, a huge spell like that? I mean, come on. Magic's oozing out of me. It's all over the place." I closed my eyes in annoyance. "You know, I didn't quite realize I was so out of control until I met the manager of the Grill a few hours ago." I opened my eyes, looking away, bored and annoyed. "And he was all like, 'Yeah, you can't come in here. We're closed, and you have an unconscious girl over your shoulder.' And I was like, 'Don't judge me'." I looked at him weirdly. "So, then I gave him a heart attack. Tried to. But all I did was make him vomit uncontrollably, which was like, 'ugh, all right, let's stop that.' So, I tried again, and I think I broke his spine. I mean, I'm not really sure, because the third time I tried the spell, he kind of exploded in blood. Whoops."
Kai took a drink.
I looked at him incredulously. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I just told you," Kai told me. "I have too much magic. You know, it wasn't until after my test run with the manager that I realized if I start the merge with Jo, and my gushing fountains of magic turn her into that guy, then I'm not gonna have a twin for the merge. So, Nicola, that is why you are here." He took a bite of his food. "Because... I need to get my magic under control. By practicing with you, or rather, by practicing on you."
"Kai, you talk too much," I told him.
"So I've been told," Kai told me. "Oh, hey, P.S. Silver lining? After the manager finally stopped thrashing around, I finally managed a cloaking spell. Thank you." He took a drink. "It's easy to do and undo. Phesmatos oculix."
The dead, burned body of the manager appeared on the table in front of me, looking at me with eyes still wide in horror.
I gasped, struggling, making the chair back away. I looked away in disgust.
"Table for three," Kai said, chuckling. "You had no idea."
I looked at the dead body for a moment, recovering. I looked at Kai. "So you needed a guinea pig to get your magic under control."
"Mm-hmm," Kai answered. "I chose a vampire because they're harder to restrain, so it takes more focus, power and control, which mean I am getting better."
"This town is crawling with vampires," I told him. "You could have taken anybody, and you chose to take me?"
"Why not?" Kai asked. "I mean, it's the perfect revenge against Damon for abandoning me over in the prison world, to tell you the same exact thing that he never wanted you to know. Besides, you threw me off of a balcony in the bar the other day."
"You were trying to kill me and Liv," I replied.
Kai shrugged. "And plus, it'll more than likely ruin your little make-shift family once and for all." He stood, slowly walking around the table toward me. "It's a win-win... win. I don't know if you know this, but family is very important to me."
"You killed most of yours," I told him incredulously.
"Right," Kai said awkwardly. "But they hurt my feelings, and they were still important to me. I mean, they were important to my message to the Gemini Coven."
"You're psychotic," I told him.
Kai raised a hand toward me, using magic to cause me so much pain I thought my head was going to explode, making me groan, scream in pain.
The excess magic made lights explode, electrical sparks and glass falling around us.
"See what I mean?" Kai asked. "Too much magic." He stopped the spell. I gasped in relief. "And it's that kind of attitude that got them all killed. Do you want to be next?"
I looked up at Kai, glaring, breathing heavily in pain. "What the hell do you want?"
Kai leaned closer. "I want to tell you a little story about what Stefan and Damon did on May 10, 1992."
~~~~~~
Kai had told me that Damon had killed a pregnant woman named Gail before torturing me with magic again and making me pass out.
I slowly woke up, realizing my wrists were chained to the ceiling above my head.
And we weren't in the Grill anymore.
I looked around the school hallway, seeing Kai standing a few feet in front of me. "We're in my high school?"
Kai was looking at a trophy case. "Yeah. They have plenty of restrooms, no flammable surfaces. And everyone's on winter break. Still, it's no wonder America got dumb when I was locked up. They're never in school." He looked at me, stepping closer. "So, what have we learned so far today in class?"
I struggled uselessly against the chains. "So this was your big plan? Tell me one big lie about what you want me to think happened so you can turn me against Stefan and Damon and exact revenge against Damon for abandoning you in the prison world?"
Kai looked at me in amusement. "Oh, you think I'm lying?"
"Damon may have been murderous enough back then to kill a pregnant woman, but what difference does it make?" I asked. "I didn't know her. All of this was before I was born. How does any of this apply to me?"
"You're not used to being the center of attention, are you?" Kai asked. "I mean, all I heard across town here recently was your name, from several different people. But don't worry. Your boyfriend, Tyler Lockwood, had nothing to say about you that no one else knew. He's completely in the clear, completely innocent. But every single one of your other friends? Not so much. 'Should we tell Nicola?' 'No, we should let Stefan and Damon tell Nicola'. So, let me explain exactly how all of this is about you. The pregnant lady Damon killed, Gail, she had a close-knit tie with your father, Zach Salvatore."
"What kind of 'close-knit' tie?" I asked in boredom.
"I think you know," Kai told me, tilting his head significantly.
I realized what he meant, shaking my head. "No. My dad's first and last love was my mom, Monica, before she died."
"You sure about that?" Kai asked.
"Yes," I answered in annoyance, slowly growing angry. "And even if what you're saying is true, my dad would've told me."
"Not if Stefan compelled Zach to forget that the mother of his oldest, unborn child was murdered by Damon right in front of them," Kai told me.
I struggled uselessly, frustrated. "You're lying. Stefan--"
"Wouldn't do that?" Kai finished. "Oh, but he did."
"He would've told me," I told him.
Kai looked sarcastically touched. "Oh. You think that, even after all your family has done to and for you, they wouldn't keep the most important thing from you. That is so sweet, Nikki."
"You don't get to call me that," I told him.
"It's a family nickname, right?" Kai asked. "Too bad yours is filled with murderers, liars and manipulators, just like me."
I leaned closer to him angrily, but the chains kept me from going too far. "I'm going to kill you."
Kai chuckled. "Wow. Still defending them. Still loving them. But I'm beginning to see why they didn't want to tell you. You are scary when you're angry. And hot. But, like, a weird kind of hot." I rolled my eyes, looking away. "So... Ready for more?"
"More what?" I asked. "More lies?"
"And you still don't believe me," Kai stated.
"Sorry if I'm having a hard time believing a psychotic killer who murdered his own family," I told him.
"Well, all right, then," Kai told me. "How about this? I heard that vampires can get into your heads to either plant a memory or to see a memory. Is that true?" I didn't answer, but that was answer enough. "Good. Then let me show you a memory of Damon telling me exactly what happened on that day in 1992."
"I'm not letting you get inside my head," I told him.
"Then that leaves one last option," Kai told me. "Cause you enough pain to where your guard drops and you have no choice but let me inside your pretty little head. I guess I can always turn your blood into acid again."
"Again?" I repeated skeptically.
Kai took off his jacket. "Yeah. That's... It's kind of how you got here in the first place." He tossed his jacket aside. "I was trying the whole acid-blood thing, and I think I burst a few important capillaries in your brain, because you blacked out." He raised his hand toward me. "Phesmatos navaro pulsus sanguinox." My blood started to boil into acid. The pain was unbearable. I screamed in pain. "Phesmatos navaro..."
The pain was enough to make me let my guard down so he could show me the memory he wanted to show me.
~~~~~~
Flashback
Damon was talking to Bonnie and Kai in the prison world. "I don't want to talk about the worst thing I ever did, Bonnie."
Bonnie turned to Damon. "Tell me you didn't kill a pregnant woman."
"Oh, that's totally what happened," Kai told her. "Why else would today be his personal hell?"
~~~~~~
Now
"Stop," I told him. "Stop, Kai. Stop!"
"Phesmatos navaro pulsus sanguinox."
~~~~~~
Flashback
"I'm not letting Kai out of here, okay?" Bonnie asked. "He just said, he's a serial killer."
"I don't care," Damon told her. "I wanna get out of here."
"How can you not care?" Bonnie asked. "Maybe because of the horrible things you have done? Maybe 'cause killing a bunch of kids is not a big deal to someone who has murdered a pregnant woman? Am I wrong?"
Damon didn't answer, but the guilt in his expression was answer enough.
~~~~~~
Now
I forced myself to come out of the memory, looking up at my right hand with my daylight ring. It was melting. "My ring. Kai, you're melting my ring."
My daylight ring melted into nothing.
"Phesmatos..."
"Kai, stop it!" I told him.
"Navaro..."
I pulled on the chains hard enough to break free, glass and electrical sparks falling around us. I rushed out of the hall, into the science classroom. I rushed up to the lab table, turning the water on, washing the melted silver on my hand away.
Now I couldn't get out until sundown.
I turned to the chair next to me angrily, kicking in hard enough to make it fly into the wall on the other side of the room with a loud bang, making the chair fall to the floor.
Kai walked in. "I take it that ring meant something to you?" I looked at the sunlight streaming in onto the lab table in front of me. Next to it, there was a gas main. "I never understood sentimental attachments to things, because then it's so upsetting when you lose them."
I put my hand in the sunlight, making my skin burn, screaming in pain.
Kai watched in absolute confusion.
I held my hand in the sunlight until it burst on fire, putting it in front of the gas main, turning it on, aiming it at Kai.
A huge ball of fire blew past me, engulfing Kai, blowing him back toward the floor, screaming until he landed on the floor.
I rushed out of the room.
Out in the hall, I found an emergency box, opening it to find a pay phone, calling Stefan. "Come on, come on. Please pick up."
"Hey, it's Stefan. Leave me a message."
I groaned under my breath, calling Damon.
Damon answered. "Magic camp. How may I help you?"
"Damon, Kai has me at the school. I need your help."
"Whoa. Nikki?"
I heard a loud clang from further in the building, hanging up, closing the emergency box, turning to the door behind me, opening it to reveal Kai staring back at me.
Kai used magic to push me to the floor. He twisted his wrist.
A table was magically thrown across the room.
"Really?" Kai asked. I slid away from him. Kai stalked closer, twisting his wrist. A shelf fell over behind me, making me stop. "Damn it."
I stood, standing defensively.
Kai twisted his wrist, finally able to snap my neck.
~~~~~~
When I woke up, I was sitting on the floor, my hands tied behind my back with vervain ropes, which were tied against the shelf that he had made fall over to keep me still and restrained.
Kai was now wearing a Mystic Falls High School Timberwolves T-shirt, drinking a can of soda. "Oh, hello."
"Nice shirt," I told him sarcastically.
"Oh, thanks," Kai told me. "Yeah, somebody burned my other one. Which was awesome, by the way." I raised my eyebrows, smiling sarcastically. "I'm starting to see why Tyler digs you. You are Crazy Pants. I'm guessing that's a Salvatore family trait, right? You guys tend to go to the extremes. What I don't get is why you hate being a vamire, because from what you just showed me, you're pretty damn good at it. I mean, of course, there's the blood lust, the killing people thing, but once you're like me, it doesn't bother you at all."
"I'm nothing like you," I told him.
"You're right," Kai told me, kneeling in front of me. "I'm a witch, you're a vampire. And that is why I will be able to show you the rest of the story."
"I don't want to see any more, Kai," I told him, struggling against the vervain ropes.
Kai ignored me, putting a hand on the side of my head, using magic to cause me enough pain for me to let my guard down again so he could show me the rest, making me scream.
~~~~~~
Flashback
"Stefan compelled Uncle Zach to forget about the girlfriend and the baby," Damon told them. "He even made sure he moved on so he wouldn't be left alone. Nikki's mom, Monica. But Stefan couldn't cover up all those murders. Founder's Council was restarted, and Stefan took off, left Mystic Falls for about 17 years. We both did. And when I saw Uncle Zach again, I couldn't look at him without remembering that I ruined everything. So it was a relief when I got to kill him."
~~~~~~
Now
The way that Damon talked about the feeling he got when he killed my dad was enough to push me out of the memory painfully, breathing heavily. "No. Stop it."
"Oh, but we're so close to reaching the end," Kai told me.
I glared at him angrily, weakly. "I said I don't want to see anymore."
Kai ignored me, putting his hand back on the side of my head, using magic to cause me enough pain for me to let my guard down again so he could show me the rest, making me scream.
~~~~~~
Flashback
Kai looked at Damon. "What do you mean, it was a relief to kill him?"
"After many times of saving each others' lives, I began to feel guilt for what I did to Nikki," Damon explained. "And for that guilt, usually, I would've killed her to make it go away. But Stefan protected her with his life, and the fight that I saw in her just made me want to let her live. So I did."
"But you killed her father, got her sick, and turned her into a vampire," Kai stated in confusion.
Damon looked down in guilt. "Yeah. Because turning her was worse for her than death."
"And you and Stefan just kept Gail and the baby, her unborn, dead baby brother or sister a secret from her her whole life?" Bonnie asked incredulously.
"There hasn't been any need to bring in more pain in her life than there already was," Damon told them. "At first, I didn't care. Then we didn't want her to know, because we both knew she'd hate us for it."
"And your guilt toward Nicola is why you think this place was your personal hell?" Bonnie asked.
Damon's voice was barely above a whisper. "Yeah."
~~~~~~
Now
I pulled out of the memory painfully, gasping.
Kai pulled his hand away from my head, smirking. "Now do you believe me?"
I didn't answer, trying to catch my breath, tears in my eyes.
I believed him.
But I was in denial that Stefan and Damon could do this to me.
~~~~~~
Kai was sitting down in front of me, hands clasped, staring at me.
"If the spell you're doing is to creep me out, it's working," I told him. "If the spell you're doing is to turn me against Stefan and Damon, then you're gonna have to try a little harder than that."
"I don't have to try to do anything," Kai told me. "All I have to do now is remind you of all the horrible things they did to you, or what happened to you because of them. You know, while I was in you head, showing you what I showed you, I was also going through all of your memories tied to Stefan and Damon. Like how Damon killed your father." As Kai listed everything that they had done, I could see it in my head, like he was purposely branding them in my head. "Like how the tomb vampires came after you to get to them, not once, but twice. You nearly died the first time. But the second time, with the sword and the ghosts while you were sick and still human, that was cool. Almost as cool as you pushing me off a balcony and trying to blow me up. But why did you even get sick in the first place?"
"A werewolf started to cut my throat," I answered. "A tumor formed on my carotid artery. It was a casualty of war that I survived."
"And who started the war with the werewolves?" Kai asked.
I glared at him. "Stefan and Damon."
"Exactly," Kai told me. "Then, while you were having the surgery that saved your life, Alaric the Original vampire hunter tried to kill you to get to who? Stefan and Damon. You found out you were a vampire Hunter Potential, but you were willing to do anything to prevent it from being activated why? Because the supernatural impulses would drive you to kill Stefan and Damon. Damon turned you into a vampire. Stefan promised to teach you how to be one, but then he abandoned you to start all over when Damon died. Both of them have tried to kill you. Repeatedly." I struggled against the vervain ropes, trying to force the images out of my mind. "I guess what you say is dead on. If you can't be a fool for family, who can you be a family for? Because guess what? You'd have to be crazy to still love this family."
I looked away, not giving an answer.
~~~~~~
Kai had left the room.
I sat alone in the room, struggling against the ropes when I suddenly felt them untie themselves and fall to the floor. I pulled my hands free, looking at them in front of me in confusion.
Damon was suddenly kneeling in front of me. "Hey."
I looked at him expressionlessly. "How are you here right now?"
"Jo's invisibility spell," Damon answered. I noticed Jo standing behind him. "If you can see us, that means you joined the party."
Jo seemed weak. "Come on. We need to get out of here."
"My ring," I told them. "It's gone. Kai melted it into nothing."
Damon took my hand to see for himself. "What?"
I pulled my hand away forcefully.
Damon looked at me cautiously.
"Not to cut this family reunion short, but meter's running on this spell," Jo told us.
"Well, there's the tunnels under the school," I told them.
"Good call," Damon told me. "Boiler room. Stat." He stood, holding a hand toward me. "Come on." I looked at his offered hand, but ignored it, standing on my own, walking past them to the door. Damon sighed, following. He turned back to Jo when he realized she wasn't following. "You good?"
"I'm good," Jo answered, following us out into the hall.
~~~~~~
Jo coughed on the way to the boiler room.
I looked at her. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Jo told us, obviously not okay. "Three people is just a lot more to cloak than two."
Jo nearly fell to the floor, her nose starting to bleed.
Damon caught her in his arms. "Whoa." He helped her stand. "Why is your nose bleeding?"
Kai appeared. "I have a guess." We looked at him. "Magic's hard. Isn't it, Jo?"
We glared at him.
Kai smiled.
~~~~~~
Jo wiped the blood away from her nose, sobbing. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't sweat it," Damon told her. "I want him to see me while I kick his ass. Get out of here, okay?" Jo walked out of the hall. Kai looked at me, using magic to cloak me again. Damon looked around, noticing I was gone, looking at Kai. "Where's Nikki?"
Kai looked around tauntingly. "Oh. Are we not cloaking people anymore? I thought that's what this was."
Damon rushed toward Kai.
Kai disappeared. He made Damon think that I was another version of Kai as an illusion.
Damon turned toward me, rushing to grab a broom stick, breaking it in half, throwing it toward me, making it impale my stomach, barely missing my heart.
Kai appeared next to me. "Oh, that's gotta hurt." He looked at Damon. "I am definitely getting the hang of this. Cloaking spells, illusions, it's all in the same wheelhouse."
Kai gestured toward me, revealing to Damon that he had really tried to kill me.
I tried to pull the make-shift stake out of my stomach, gasping in pain, leaning against the lockers next to me weakly.
"No," Damon said worriedly, stepping toward me.
Kai held a hand toward Damon, using magic to cause him pain, making him hold his head, groaning and screaming, lowering to his knees.
I slid down the lockers to the floor.
Kai walked out of this hall, following Jo down the next.
Jo was crawling away weakly.
Kai walked up behind her, grabbing her arm, pulling her up off the floor, down the hall. "Now that I got the kinks worked out, we can actually do this. Is there an upcoming celestial event that interests you? I'm partial--"
An arrow shot through Kai's shoulder, making him groan in pain and fall to his knees.
Jeremy was standing behind Kai, his crossbow aimed at him.
Elena appeared behind Kai, holding him in a head lock until she made him pass out, letting his unconscious body fall to the floor.
Alaric approached Jo, helping her stand.
"I'm okay," Jo told him.
They wrapped their arms around each other.
~~~~~~
Damon knelt in front of me, trying to pull the make-shift stake out of my stomach. "Okay."
I groaned in pain, pushing his hands away. "I got it."
I pulled the wood out of my stomach, gasping in pain, setting it on the floor next to me, but never letting it go.
There was a long, tension-filled moment of silence.
Damon was the one that broke it. "You know, Tyler made this whole, big deal about coming. I told him that I would kill him myself before I let that happen, because if Kai did what I think he did to you, I knew you wouldn't just be upset, angry or betrayed with me and Stefan if Tyler had gotten hurt or worse. I knew that if he had done something to Tyler, you would have turned it all off." I didn't respond, never looking at him. "Nikki, say something. Say anything."
After a moment, I finally looked at him, expressionless. "I just need to know one thing. Is it true? All of the pain, all of the lies.... Was he doing all of that just to tell me the truth that neither you or Stefan have told me? That you kept from me my whole life?"
Damon didn't answer, but the guilt in his expression was answer enough.
Oh, my God.
It was all... true.
I looked away, taking a deep breath, not knowing how to react.
"Nikki--" Damon started.
Still holding the make-shift stake, I drove it into Damon's stomach, making him groan and gasp in pain. I stood, started to walk away.
Elena approached me. "Nicola, are you okay?"
I looked at Damon. "Ask him."
I walked away down the hall in anger, hurt and betrayal, never looking back.
~~~~~~
It was pouring rain outside by the time night fell and I finally got to go home after four months. After I killed someone for Tyler. After Kai tortured me and told me the unbearable truth.
And right now, after everything that happened, I could barely stand the sight of it.
I stood in the library alone, looking at my sword in my hand in front of me, admiring the blade in unblinking, expressionless numb.
Stefan and Damon walked into the room behind me.
I didn't have to look behind me to know they were there, looking up. "You know what the sad part about all of this is? Out of everything in this house, my sword is the thing I missed the most for the last few months. Maybe it's because I know how to use it. And what for."
"Nikki..." Damon trailed off.
I turned to face them angrily. "Don't, Damon. Just don't with the lies and the excuses. After all the hell I just went through today, you owe me that!"
I looked at the sword in my hand, realizing I had raised it threateningly to point at them when my voice had rose angrily.
Damon looked at the sword cautiously. "Okay... Nikki, I'm gonna need you to put the sword away, calm down and speak very slowly."
"Oh, you think this is crazy?" I asked. "Imagine what I thought when Kai showed me the part where you told him and Bonnie that you killed the mother of my unborn sister or brother in front of your brother and my father." I pointed at Stefan with the sword. "And that you compelled him to forget that he had another child." Stefan looked down in shame. "It's crazy that I risked my life to save both of yours, repeatedly, when all you've done is kill or hurt the people that I care about, put my life in danger because of your past mistakes, and take every ounce of happiness from me, make me miserable. But I still can't help but love you and save you, because of the rare moments that are completely worth it. What kind of crazy person does that, huh? Oh, that's right, that was my life motto, wasn't it? 'If you can't be a fool for family, who can you be a fool for?' Well, no more."
Stefan stepped closer. "Nikki--"
"No, Stefan," I told him, using the sword to point at him. Stefan stopped. "Just stop." I looked at Damon. "My life was put in danger because of your mistakes." I looked at Stefan. "And your secrets." I looked between them. "And both of your tendencies to underestimate just how much pressure I can take. Again. But everybody has a breaking point. Kai obviously found mine. Do you have any idea what he did to me today?"
"No," Stefan answered in a guilty whisper.
I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. You two might think that I'm big enough, that I'm evolved enough to overcome this, and maybe I will overcome this, some day, but it's not today. So, until then... Just stay the hell away from me."
I pushed the sword into Stefan's chest, pushing past them quickly, walking out of the library, down the hall.
As the full impact of what I learned hit me, I... I had no idea on what to do, or feel, or go. All I knew was that I was angry, upset, betrayed, all of them blurring to where I felt numb and overwhelmed at the same time, feeling dizzy and weak all over again, breathing heavily, trying to stop myself from crying, catching myself against the wall. Before Stefan and Damon could stop me, I walked out of the front door.
Outside, it was still pouring rain in the dead of the night.
I walked across the property, already drenched but barely feeling the rain, just needing to get out of there as fast as I could.
Down the road, a car pulled to a stop. Tyler got out, jogging toward me worriedly, relieved that I was okay, already drenched. "Thank God." I started to walk past him, breathing heavier than before, having no idea where to go. Tyler grabbed my arm to stop me. "Whoa, Nikki." I felt dizzy and weak and overwhelmed enough to where I felt as if I would fall, the nickname making me want to cry, holding his arms to keep standing. "Nikki? Hey, are you okay?" Tyler looked toward the house I was trying to leave. "Where are you going?"
"I don't know," I told him. "But I can't be here."
"What do you mean?" Tyler asked. "This place is your home?"
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. "No. I can't--I can't be here right now."
"Okay," Tyler told me. "But where are you gonna go."
"I have no idea," I told him.
"Well, where do you want to go?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know," I told him, sobbing, the noise barely audible in the rain. I looked up at Tyler, shaking my head. "Just get me out of here."
Tyler looked at me worriedly yet sympathetically, nodding. "Okay. I will. I promise."
I started to cry, unable to fight against it.
Tyler pulled me to his chest, holding me, letting me cry as the rain continued to fall around us, standing in the light of the car's headlights.
After what happened today, with what Kai had showed me, the story, and all of the other things that he had practically branded into my mind, I couldn't stay here with Stefan and Damon.
I needed to get out.
But I wouldn't even know where to go if it wasn't for Tyler.