Singing Blood

Crying Wolf

It was the day after Jules and her pack kidnapped Caroline and Marianne and Tyler stood in front of Brady's RV, silently debating why he was still here. The events of last night hadn't done much to help him connect with his fellow werewolves. Yes, he was still feeling salty over Caroline's betrayal but he still regarded her as his friend. They had grown up together and though they hadn't been super close the blonde vampire had grown a lot on him during those last few days ever since he triggered the damn werewolf curse. She had helped him through his first transformation and stayed with him all night, even though he could have killed her with a single bite. She had done more for him during the last few days than his parents or anyone else ever did. And yet she had been kidnapped and tortured - all because of him, because of Jules and her pack. He sighed heavily before knocking at the door of the RV. No matter how much he disliked what they had done to Caroline, Jules and her people were the only ones who could answer all of his questions and help him understand what it meant to be a werewolf. The door opened and Jules stood in front of him, a welcoming smile tucking at her lips.'"Tyler, hi.""You're still here," he remarked coldly."Is that all right with you?"No. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly."That guy last night made it pretty clear that you needed to go.""And we will soon."The blonde werewolf stepped back and invited him to enter the RV with a wave of her arm. Inside, Brady and one of the other werewolves, a lean, brown-haired guy sporting a gray beanie named Stevie, sat at the table and gave him a slight nod as he entered. Tyler positioned himself right next to the door, trying not to show how nervous the other two guys made him. Jules placed a hand on his shoulder."Listen. We kind of need your help with something."He raised his eyebrows at her questioningly. His help? "We need you to help us find the moonstone," Brady clarified, his tone and the cold, hard look on his face told Tyler that this wasn't a friendly request. He sighed in irritation. First it had been Mason, then Jeremy Gilbert and now his uncle's friends from Florida. For some reason everyone was obsessed with this damn stone."Somebody needs to explain to me what the big deal is about a rock." "That rock helps break the curse of the sun and the moon," Stevie explained, as if it was self-explanatory - which it wasn't."I don't know what that means.""It's an old curse placed on both vampires and werewolves," Jules explained patiently."Vampires break the curse, they're free to walk in the sunlight, but we're stuck only turning at the full moon, aka werewolf Armageddon," Stevie continued, the grim look on his face suggested that this was not his desired outcome."But if we break it, they're stuck as night-walkers, and we can turn whenever we want," Brady concluded proudly. Stevie grinned."Aka werewolf domination."Tyler looked between the three werewolves skeptically, still not fully sold on the case. He didn't believe in curses - but then again he hadn't believed in werewolves either until he turned into one.Jules gave him an understanding look."Tyler, if we can turn at will, that means we never have to turn at all, not if we don't want to." He looked at her, eyes growing big."I'd never have to turn again?"For the first time ever since the night he accidentally caused Sarah's death, he felt something like hope. If that curse truly existed and they could break it, he would never have to go through another painful transformation. He could go back to his normal life, pretending werewolves and all that supernatural shit didn't exist. He could go back to being the Tyler Lockwood everyone knew - full time asshole and arrogant jock. "There's more," Brady said, looking at Stevie. "Stevie?"Stevie nodded."If those vamps are gearing up to break the curse, they must have also found the doppelgänger."Tyler frowned. What the hell was a doppelgänger? Another supernatural creature he didn't know about?"The doppelgänger?""Evil twin shadow person," Stevie explained nonchalantly. "We're betting Mason's hot, vampire chick Kathy knows all about it, so we need you to help us find Kathy. I--I have a picture. Mason brought her to the bar once. No one liked her. She was a vampire. Bad news." He shuddered before pulling out his phone and scrolling through his pictures until he found what he was looking for."Right--right here," he said, shoving his phone in Tyler's face. "The girl next to Mason."Tyler frowned as he saw the familiar face next to his uncle's. When did she go to Florida to meet his uncle? Plus, hadn't she been a bit too young for him anyways?"That's Elena Gilbert."Jules looked at him."You know her?""I've known her my whole life."Jules and Brady exchanged a meaningful look. How the hell did Elena get mixed up in all of this nonsense? He wasn't quite sure what it meant but something about it didn't feel right at all. If only he had listened to his gut feeling. Then maybe he could have prevented the tragedy that was about to follow.