Midnight Rising

Stefan

Trees fly past in blurs of browns and greens. Heavy breathing. The stench of pain. Red against green. Fingers curl around sweaty flesh. Pain prickles, shooting up my arm. Reflexes kick in, arm recoiling. The red speck disappears between pulsing red and greens.

A flash of blonde, gentle green searching my face. A soft touch, forcing the pain up, its claws digging in further. Gasping, I retract my arm, holding it to my chest. "What happened?"

"He bit me..." voice, three, float through the air. Elena. "They didn't leave."

Diana, still preoccupied with the bite, looks up. "What?"

"Elena and Damon didn't leave," I answer in a hushed voice. "I thought you called."

Eyes close temporarily as she lets out a defeated sigh, "I did. I guess he decided not to listen."

Moving to the edge of the cliff, Diana and I peer down the mountainside. Their group moves slowly. Damon leads the way, followed closely by Elena and Alaric. The teacher has a heavy-looking backpack. He brought her here. They were going to try and fight. "Does he know how dangerous that is?"

"I told him to get her out of here, okay?" Diana snaps back, eyes flashing like lightning. She runs her hand through her hair, shifting it from one side of her head to the other. Her hand hits her thigh with a slap. "If he chooses not to listen there's nothing I can do."

A branch snaps behind us, Diana quickly spinning around. Klaus glides through the trees, one hand raised by his hip. "Where did he go?"

"He uh – he got away," The bite sends another bolt of pain up through my arm as if it knows we're talking about the man who gave it to me. "Forget him. Let's go."

Klaus grins, grabbing hold of my arm. He clicks his tongue, shaking his head. "A fatal werewolf bite. Ouch."

"Yeah," I pull my arm back, not liking the way he's looking at my injury. I'm becoming aware that everything with Klaus is a game. I don't want to be on the receiving end of this one. "I'm gonna need your blood to heal me."

Klaus crosses his arms over his chest, giving me a nonchalant shrug, "Well, I'll tell you what. You find Ray, and then I'll heal you."

"You can't be serious," I challenge with a scoff. While he's been keeping his reasons a secret, I know Klaus brought me along on this trip for a purpose. I'm almost positive I can't serve that purpose dead.

Diana, who has remained in the background, now steps forward. She's been challenging Klaus's authority this whole trip. This is just another opportunity for her to try and poke holes in the hybrid's reasoning. "He won't be much use, running around in the forest, slowly losing his mind. He'll end up dead. Then you'll have to do your own heavy lifting. Not to mention, if he dies our deal is broken. Can't sire a bunch of new hybrids without a witch, now could you?"

"You better hurry," Klaus looks through Diana. Her challenge has shaken him. He needs to act like he's still in control, a position he's been slowly losing grasp of. You'd think a vampire who spent years around Diana would be smarter than to bring her along on something like this. She's awfully stubborn. "That bite looks nasty. I'll let Diana help you, you know, just in case you start hallucinating."

Klaus now turns his attention to Diana. He grabs her sharply by the shoulder, yanking her aside. Almost as soon as his fingers graze her skin, Klaus jerks his hand away as if he's been stung. For a few seconds the two stare each other down. It's times like this I remember how dangerous Diana really is. None of us know how powerful her magic has gotten. Despite this, Klaus reprimands the female for her challenge, his voice a hiss, "Do not ever use our deal as leverage in front of him ever again."