Book Four: Solitude (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Diana walks with Tyler and Elena through the woods as they search for Caroline. Tyler is talking on the phone with Hayley, while Elena is walking beside him, looking at her phone.

"I get it, Hayley. I'll find them and I'll get them in line." Tyler hangs up on her.

"Bonnie says no luck with the locater spell," Elena admits.

"They've gotta be here. They're not dumb enough to risk getting caught by Klaus in town." Tyler points out.

"Well, what do they want with Caroline?" Elena asks, and then stops walking causing Diana and Tyler to turn to face her.

"Kim is trying to prove that she's the Alpha" Tyler answers. "If I can make her submit, the pack will fall in line and we can finally get them free of Klaus. You'd think they'd play along with how much they hate him."

"But Adrian doesn't, does he? I mean he's still sired to Klaus." Elena points out.

"Being sired doesn't mean you feel differently about someone. I hated Klaus but I still did everything he said. The bond affects how you act, not how you feel." Tyler admits, Diana cocks her head and turns where she stands. "What?" Tyler asks her.

"I can hear Caroline in my head..." She admits. "She's close..." She then turns and walks off, Tyler and Elena follow after her.

...............

Caroline's hands are tied up in shackles. Kimberley presses down on the chains and Caroline shouts in pain.

"Arghh. Why are you doing this?" Caroline asks her.

"To show Tyler who's in charge." Kimberley cracks Caroline's wrists and Caroline again screams in pain. Tyler, Diana, and Elena rush into the barn and towards them.

"Stop! Stop it, Kim. Caroline's with us. All right? We're all on the same team." Tyler scolds them.

"She's on your team, not mine." Kimberly counters. Behind Tyler, Diana, and Elena, the other hybrids enter the barn. Diana holds out her hand towards them and they stop.

"Try it" Diana warns. "See what happens" The hybrids share a look and then look at Kimberly, Diana casts her eyes to Kimberly and raises an eyebrow at her. "Go on, order them to attack...." She dares as she holds out her other hand towards where Caroline's shackles are attached to the wall. Diana lets out a quake and the wall shatters around the shackle on impact. The chains fall and Caroline lets out a cry of relief. "Tyler" Diana states. "You want to do your alpha thing here" He nods and steps towards Kimberly. He takes a breath, grabs Kimberley and sticks his hand in her chest and grabs her heart. Kimberley gasps in pain. The other hybrids move towards her. Diana throws out a few quakes to make her point, throws a few hybrids back.

"Stay back! I'll rip her heart out right now!" Tyler warns. The hybrids don't make any more moves towards the pair of them. Tyler looks Kimberley dead in the eye. "Kim put you all at risk today but I'm not gonna hurt her. I'm not Klaus. I don't kill and torture my own friends to get what I want. Now, we broke the sire bond, but if you want to be free we have to work together. No one can step out of line. Now, you're either with me or you're against me. Submit. Submit or you die." Kimberley falls down on her knees and Tyler kneels down with her, keeping his hand in her chest and his grasp around her heart.

"I'm....I'm sorry." Tyler removes his hand from her chest. Kimberley gasps and catches her breath. Tyler stands up and looks down at Kimberley. He looks around at the other hybrids. One by one, all of the other hybrids get down on their knees, submitting to Tyler and showing him that he is the Alpha. Diana smiles a little and nods, a little proud of how far Tyler has come.

"Diana" Tyler states and nods to Kimberly, Diana throws out a quake snapping her neck. It's not going to kill her, but Tyler is doing it to show he won't hesitate in letting Diana do her thing if need be, and Kimberly needed to be punished for what she did. Diana then moves to Caroline who takes her hand and lets Diana help her up. Diana lifts her up bridal style and Caroline wraps her arm around Diana's neck. Diana walks passed all the hybrids with Caroline, Elena following leaving Tyler to deal with his pack.

.........

Diana sits on the window seat in Elena's bedroom, she didn't want to disturb Derek who is asleep. Her cell phone is pressed to her ear as she talks with Elena.

"Did you know about the sire bond?" Elena asks her.

"Yeah" Diana admits. "Derek told me earlier...But come on, you had feelings for Damon before all of this started. The sire bond must have fed on that"

"Diana" Elena starts.

"It's okay, Elena, we'll figure it out, and when it's sorted, you will still have feelings for Damon, because you already did" Elena nods a little.

"Okay," Elena tells her.

"Now, can I hang up and go to bed?" Diana asks her, Elena chuckles a little.

"Yeah, goodnight, Diana" Elena offers. Diana hangs up and lets out a breath. She sets her phone down and runs her fingers through her hair and then sets them against her eyes. Alaric shifts slightly as he walks into the room, unsure about how he feels about being in Elena's bedroom, even with Diana.

"Is this my life forever?" She asks, Alaric shrugs a little. "Picking up after the two of them, following them and their little friends around, trying to stop them from tripping up and getting themselves killed?" She looks at him. "To heel every time they command it?"

"You don't have to" He answers. "You can say no..." He assures her. 

"They're my family, Ric, and if they got hurt because I didn't help them....." She shakes her head. "Even with all this anger and hate I have towards Elena, I...I don't think I could live with myself if that happened" she lets out a breath. "I'm supposed to be out there, hunting vampires, not babysitting them" Alaric crouches in front of her. "I'm so tired, Ric" She admits quietly. "And it hurts...all the time" He nods a little, he knows this, he sees it in everything she does. The woman he fell in love with is a shell of who she was, because her heart is broken and she feels alone, even with her friends around her, even with Alaric here as he is. She's still hurting.