Clair de Lune - K.M.

c h a p t e r f i v e

"Wait, Klaus is gone? How is he gone?"

Caroline, Tyler, Elena, Bonnie and I are at the Salvatore house with Damon, trying to regroup after the disaster of senior prank night. Each of us has just finished catching the others up on the events of the night before.

"Katherine figured it out," Damon says as he pours himself a glass of bourbon. "She said that Klaus was running from someone, a vampire hunter named Mikael. Klaus couldn't get out of town fast enough when he heard that name."

"What about Stefan?" I ask, looking at Elena. "Did he go with Klaus?" 

"I don't know," she says, hanging her head. "I woke up in the hospital after Stefan turned his Humanity off. Klaus was taking a bunch of my blood, I'm assuming that he's going to use it to make a bunch of hybrids. I don't know if he took Stefan or not."

"An army," I say quietly. "He's so afraid of this vampire hunter that he thinks he needs an army. Who could this person be that an immortal hybrid needs an army to protect himself?"

"Apparently he's bad news," Damon says as he sits next to Elena on the couch. "A vampire who hunts other vampires."

"Sounds like a nice guy."

"I wouldn't be too worried about it," Damon says. "It sounds like he's been chasing Klaus for centuries. Besides, I don't even know if Katherine found him. I just said that to get Klaus out of town."

I don't know why, but for some reason the idea of Klaus just being gone makes me a little sad. Maybe it's because I believed him when he said that he would take care of me, or maybe it means that now I have nothing to worry about other than the fact that I'm a hybrid. Either way, now I have to lean how to live with being a hybrid all alone. 

In all honestly, it doesn't end up being too bad. Caroline decides that since she's the best at being a vampire, she should be the one to teach Tyler and I. Over the next few days, we receive a crash course on everything that being a vampire entails, including how to control ourselves. 

Considering how traumatic my transition was, I catch on pretty quickly. The memory of me killing Dana in the school and how out of control I felt helps me understand where my limits are and how to respect them. I lose control a few times, but Caroline is always there to pull me back and talk me through what I'm feeling. 

Tyler is, of course, a natural. Everything about his transition has been easy for him. 

"I can't explain it, Stella," he says to me one day on the way home. "It feels so natural. It's like since I became a hybrid everything is better." 

"You don't feel angry? That we were forced into this and then basically abandoned?"

"Not really. We've been doing fine on our own." 

"Speak for yourself." 

By the time the first day of school rolls around, I'm almost glad that classes are starting again. At this point, any normal part of my routine is appreciated. 

"Well, here we are," Caroline says as we stand outside the building, Bonnie and Elena next to us.  "Senior year." 

"Don't you think this should feel a little more... empowering?" Bonnie asks as she looks around at all of the people heading into the school. I glance apprehensively at the building, not having been back since the night of my transition. 

"Okay, so prank night was a bust," Caroline addresses the elephant in the room. "We are accepting it and we are moving on." 

"Easy for you to say," I tell her as we begin to walk toward the school. "Your life wasn't flipped upside down that night."