I got a text from Jeremy's phone.
Hunter at Mystic Grill with hostages. They all die at sundown.
Damn it, Connor.
****
I met Tyler, Elena, Damon and Caroline at the Lockwood mansion.
Caroline was outside of the room calling her mother.
Tyler was on his phone behind the couch.
Elena was sitting nervously on the couch.
Damon and I were standing, pacing.
"So, we each take a different entrace," I told them. "Hit them at the same time."
Stefan walked into the room.
"Stefan!" Elena said, standing, walking toward him.
"Where the hell have you been?" I asked.
Stefan reached his arm toward Elena. Elena wrapped her arms around him. Stefan wrapped his arms around her.
"Coming up with a plan," Stefan answered.
"Yeah, we have a plan," I told him. "The plain is, I'm gonna rip Connor's heart out and I'm going to feed it to him."
"That's not a plan," Stefan told me. "We need to be careful. Connor has Jerey and who knows how many other hostages."
"Hence, the open heart surgery," I told him.
"Kaylin's right," Damon told him. "Connor's strong, but he's not going to be able to take all of us."
Tyler turned to us. "I called in the hybrids to help, too."
Caroline walked into the room from behind Stefan and Elena. "My mom put squad cars blocking the streets. They're saying it's a faulty gas main. We're good to go."
"Good, great," Damon told us. "No cops, no witnesses, no reason to wait around."
"All right, hold on, you're not all going," Stefan told us, looking from Caroline to Elena to me.
"He shot me like nine times," Tyler told him. "If we're killing him, I want in."
"He's got Jeremy," Elena told him. "I'm going."
"Listen, nobody is going anywhere until I figure out what we're walking into," Stefan told us.
"Until you figure it out?" Damon repeated. "Is that where you've been all morning? Out buying bossy pants?"
"This guy is known for setting traps, right?" Stefan asked. "We'd be pretty dumb to walk into one, especially if he has werewolf venom."
"Does he?" Elena asked.
"He's had it before," Stefan told us.
Elena appeared to be rethinking the plan.
I was annoyed. "Fine. Fine, if you want to take some time to do recon, you get one hour. But we're gonna need some extra help. So, where the hell's the Wicked Witch of the West?"
"She can't do magic," Caroline told us.
"Really?" Damon asked. "Well, call her, tell her Jeremy's life is in danger. Maybe that will bring her out of retirement."
Damon pushed past Stefan, walking out of the room, leaving.
****
