Midnight Rising

Always You

Shining red orbs slowly retreat down the access road, it's occupants carried away with the night fog. Stefan stands beside me, his eyes trained on the dark-haired girl sitting in the back. As the car takes a bend in the road, set on cutting itself off from out view, she looks back over her shoulder. If she were a vampire her eyes would connect with Stefan's.

"She loves you."

"I know."

"You love her."

Stefan gives a half nod, eyes still searching for the car I hope we never see again, "That's why I need her to stay away. She's safer without me."

"For now. Probably not always." I encase the vampire in my arms, holding him tightly to me. He twitches as my flannel brushes against the bite mark on his arm. The skin is once again bubbled, an angry deep red; patches of purple forming around the teeth impressions.

As I go to press my fingers to the wound, hoping to take some of the pain away, Stefan catches my hand. He curls his fingers around mine, bringing them to his lips. "Stop tearing yourself apart to make other people whole."

"You first."

"Come to bed. I don't want to spend my last night alone."

"It won't be your last night, Stefan."

"Don't," Stefan laces his fingers between mine, his lips hovering over mine.

"Alright."

The camp looks like that scene out of one of those made for TV Jonestown documentaries. Bodies litter the ground, sticky blood covering the pine needles and leaves. Klaus sits in the middle of it all, taking it all in. For the first time on our trip, he looks utterly defeated. There isn't a living soul in this mountain tonight.

The sandy-haired vampire clears his throat, forcing a smile as he sees Stefan and I. He spins in a small circle, arms outstretched as if the scene before us is some kind of art display, "The went rabid. Some of them I killed, the other just...bled out," He shakes his head. "In the end, they're all dead." Klaus lets out a guttural growl, throwing the beer can in his hand up against the nearest tree. It explodes in a bubbly spray. "I did everything I was told! I should be able to turn them. I broke the curse. I killed the werewolf. I killed a vampire. I killed the doppelganger."

Stefan and I exchange a look. At least he still thinks Elena is dead. We avoided a bloodbath today. Klaus squints at the two of us, his thick eyebrows almost touching. For a few seconds, I think he's figured it all out, that he's about to rip both our hearts out, throwing a tantrum about us both being traitors to our race. Instead, his shoulders slump, face relaxing. "You look like hell."

"Last I checked, I'm dying," Stefan answers back, showing Klaus the steadily growing wound on his arm.

Klaus shifts his gaze from Stefan to me. There's accusation in his eyes, "Has she been helping you?"

"Only so much she can do though if you don't want to heal me," Stefan explains. "I had to take Ray out. I didn't have a choice. I failed you. I'm sorry." Damon's brother drops my hand, walking towards Klaus. He offers up his chest, awaiting the death he thinks is coming. "Do what you have to do."

Klaus shakes his head, sitting down on one of the logs surrounding the long-dead fire, "It should have worked."

"Klaus, please," I interject. Stefan's done nothing wrong. He does everything Klaus asks of him. I won't let Stefan die because Klaus wants to throw himself a pity party over his dead abominations.

He stares me down, reading the challenge I've put into existence. He knows he's losing his grip on power here. Klaus' plan failed. Stefan and I are what he has left. He knows that if he lets Stefan die he'll lose me as well. Letting out a defeated sigh, Klaus bites into his hand, letting the blood run into an empty beer bottle littering the ground. He slams the bottle into Stefan's chest. "One day you'll have to choose, Diana."

Stefan gratefully takes the bottle, tipping the dirt-covered lip to his mouth, sticking his tongue out to collect the last drops. Almost instantly, the skin of Stefan's arm smooth's over as if the bite never happened.

"We're leaving." Klaus once again looks over the bodies of his fallen army. "It appears you two are the only comrades I have left."

As Klaus walks away, Stefan collects me in his arms, holding me to his chest, "Don't choose him, whichever one of us you decide you can't live without is okay. Just not him."

"There's no choice, Stefan. It's always been you and Damon. I'm always going to choose you and Damon."