An Elemental Difference - FIRE - Book 2 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 4 - You're the monster

MYSTIC FALLS HIGH SCHOOL

"No, no, no, no, no!" Aella sobbed into her arms as Matt's words hit her. "No." She shook her head against her arms as if convincing herself. "No, this cannot be happening."

Stefan could only stare at his girlfriend sadly as Matt looked in shock at the ground. Stefan had quickly questioned the boy around the circumstances of finding Caroline, and it was the nail in the coffin as he confirmed she was, in fact, drinking the nurse's body when he'd found her.

Matt still had no idea what was going on, but to hear it being spoken by someone other than himself, it had knocked Matt totally out. He had caught his girlfriend drinking the blood of her nurse, and he'd helped cover it up before she'd runoff.

He fell onto the ground next to Aella, her sobs not registering with him.

Stefan roughly ran his hands through his hands, his girlfriend's sobs resonating more with each cry.

When Jeremy and Anna emerged, the vampire hearing Aella's cries, Stefan felt a small sense of relief. Jeremy marched over to Stefan as Anna sat beside Aella and held the witch close. No one deserved to feel like this alone. As if the comfort was too much for her, Aella fell into the young vampire's arms and began crying loudly.

Jeremy was utterly perplexed, "What the hell happened?"

Stefan's eyes glanced at Aella for a moment, "Caroline... Caroline's a vampire."

While he hadn't said the words out loud to Matt, communicating them to Jeremy made the situation feel real, and it made him feel sick to his stomach. Jeremy's form hunched over at the news as if someone had punched him in the stomach. His eyes shot to Aella, crying in his girlfriend's arm, and it suddenly all made sense.

"Aella's attack."

Stefan mournfully nodded, "We should have checked. Matt would have had no idea if she'd been changed; we only thought she could be hurt. I never thought Kathe-"

"Katherine?" Jeremy frowned. "You think she did this?"

"Without a doubt," Stefan nodded, twisting his lip in his finger. "She wanted to punish Aella and me. This was the easiest way. When she compelled Tyl-" He suddenly stopped and groaned out loud, remembering what Damon had done. He looked at the confused teen, "I need a favor?"

"Anything," Jeremy nodded, needed a job to help erase the sounds of Aella's sob from his mind.

Anna and Jeremy were sent to watch over Tyler, following Damon's compulsion plan. It hadn't come at a worse time, but Stefan had promised Aella he would deal with Damon, and letting Tyler hurt another person to prove a point wasn't dealing with his brother.

Stefan was about to pull Aella into his arms when Damon and Elena ran over to them. Elena was already crying as she ran towards her best friend. The fact that Elena and Damon were together informed Stefan that somehow they knew. When Elena's arms encircled Aella and two sets of sobs echoed around the car park, he knew that for sure.

Stepping up to Damon, he frowned, "How did you know?"

"Blondie sent me on a ride down the corridor when I saw her," Damon only shrugged, but Stefan could see his brother was rattled. Especially when his eyes glanced at the two sobbing girls and the catatonic Matt. When he heard people entering the car park, he knew the girls crying would only attract attention and nodded to the school, "We need to get them out of view."

Stefan didn't disagree and walked over to the girls. Elena pulled away at his appearance while Aella seemed to jump into his arms as her heartbreaking cries broke his heart. "It can't be true, Stefan. It can't."