AUTHOR'S NOTES;
I LIVED MOTHER FUCKERS
Y'all know the drill by now! There are officially 8 parts to this series, so if you enjoy reading this soul's journey through the cycle of reincarnation across the multiverse, maybe check them out? Though, all fics can be read independently too!
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XXXXXXXXXX
"Nyx."
"John," I return, bemused as I pass the eldest Gilbert's order to him across the plastic stall, the scent of coffee and warm sugar curling between us. Now that the float parade had finished, I was running our stall for the next hour again while Pearl and Anna enjoyed the Founder's Day festivities for a bit. We were set to shut down before the fireworks started.
"Isobel told me what happened," he says bluntly, eyes narrowed on me. "She's leaving town for now."
"So?" I ask indifferently, leaning on the table.
"…I just want my family safe," John says, his aura revealing the genuineness behind the statement where his words don't.
"Katherine won't help with that."
"I know that, even if Isobel doesn't," John says, to my mild surprise. Frankly, I hadn't given the man enough credit when it came to his intelligence. "I wanna know if Elena is safe from Katherine's schemes."
"She is," I state immediately. "I put plans in to protect her long ago, just like I have plans to protect the citizens of Mystic Falls, mundane and otherwise." I eye him coldly. "Your intentions in this seem genuine, so I'll give you a warning. Don't try to threaten my people. Anyone who acts against an innocent in this town will face me."
"You say that despite the company you keep," John grits out, eyeing Damon, who had begun lurking protectively nearby at some point in our conversation.
"And yet, no one in this town has been harmed by a vampire any time recently." I flick my hair over my shoulder, staring blankly at the man until he begins to get fidgety. "I don't know if you have already told the rest of the council about some of the tomb vampires who have taken up residence in town once more. But I want you to understand something: any of the vampires currently living in Mystic Falls were carefully vetted by me, and not a single one of them has harmed anyone within the town. Telling the council is almost guaranteed to result in conflict, and the blood will be on your hands."
John tenses hard and I can almost hear him grinding his own teeth. "…I believe that you truly think you can protect this town and that you have the vampires under control, but frankly, I think you're arrogant and naïve to think you can keep them from trying to hurt the humans and Mystic falls, especially because I'm sure plenty of them want revenge."
I scoff, but turn to take the next order. We had reached an impasse. He didn't know me well enough to trust my judgment or capabilities and nothing I said could change his mind. It seems I would have to find another way to convince him and just as a new plan begins to form in my head, a series of visions hits me.
-blood splatters as screams fill the air, panic spreading wildly-
-"Monsters! There are monsters!"-
-a stake plunging towards Anna's heart, eyes filled with fear-
-Enzo grunts as he convulses on the ground-
"-wasn't the plan! The vampires were supposed to be taken out quickly and quietly! It's a fucking bloodbath out there!"-
-Pearl howls, a sound born of a mtheer's grief and rage, tearing out Mayor Lockwood's throat-
I curse, swaying as I whirl, hand slamming against the stall to keep me upright as I frantically look for the man , but he's already gone.
"Nyx? What's wrong?" Damon asks, his hand grasping my elbow as he steadies me, eyes already scanning the crowd.
"John has the Gilbert device," I inform him, tone like chips of ice.
"What? How?!" Damon hisses, hand tightening. "I thought it was at your place?"
"It was," I agree, lips curling in barely restrained fury. "He must have somehow swiped it and because my magic is failing me at the moment, I only just realized."
"What do we do?" Damon asks darkly, eyes blazing like blue fire, just as mad, and surprisingly the sight calms me by reminding me that I had people at my back.
"Call Stefan to take over the stall. Then call Jeremy and Elena and tell them to meet us here."
Damon nods, pulling out his phone without question.
I, on the other hand, don't sit around waiting. I call every single vampire currently at this cursed event and tell them it's an emergency and to track John's location for me without approaching. I needed live updates and thankfully, my network of allies works just as I built it to.
My phone starts chiming with texts immediately.
XXXXXXXXXX
The late afternoon sun spills honey-gold over Mystic Falls, washing the streets in a warmth that feels almost mocking.
Bunting flutters from storefronts. Children dart through the sidewalks with paper flags clutched in sticky hands. The brass band at the front of the Founder's Day parade plays loud enough to shake the windows, and the air smells of kettle corn, rubber, sunscreen, hot pavement, and fresh-cut grass.
It's picturesque.
It is also one bad decision away from becoming a bloodbath.
I move through the crowd with Elena on one side of me and Jeremy on the other, letting the press of bodies hide the urgency of our pace. Elena walks stiffly, every line of her body tense, while Jeremy keeps close enough that our shoulders occasionally brush, his nervous energy rolling off him in waves.
"Tell me again," Jeremy mutters, ducking around a stroller, "why we're speed-walking toward family trauma during a festival."
"Because your uncle is about to do something catastrophically stupid," I explain, weaving around an elderly couple.
Jeremy grimaces as he does the same. "That narrows it down exactly zero. I'd bet at least 85% of everything he does would qualify, and that's me being generous."
Elena shoots him a look that is equal parts annoyed and tired. "Can we not do this right now?"
"We could," I answer. "But that would be boring."
She exhales through her nose, clearly regretting every life choice that has led her here with me and I'm careful to hide the grin it brings to me lips.
I spot John Gilbert where I had seen him in my most recent visions, standing near the old clock tower with his shoulders too rigid and one hand buried deep in his jacket pocket, touching the device he somehow managed to steal when I wasn't paying attention, my failing and half-sealed visions having noticed the incoming danger far too late. In several futures, he uses the Gilbert device, and the screams start less than thirty seconds later.
"There," I say quietly.
John looks up as we approach. His expression tightens first at Elena, then softens by a fraction at Jeremy, before hardening completely when his eyes land on me.
"Elena. Jeremy." Then, after a beat: "Nyx."
I smile coquettishly. "John. Were you enjoying the festivities?"
"Yeah, well, I was enjoying them more before you showed up," he murmurs, eyeing me with appropriate wariness.
Jeremy snorts, but Elena just crosses her arms. "What are you doing here?"
John's gaze flickers to me and then over the crowd before returning to her. "Working."
"It's usually a lie when you say that," Elena replies flatly, and I struggle not to add that such a thing is true when men in general say that, my mouth twitching with inappropriate humor.
Irritation trickles into his aura. There is something awkward and unfinished in every exchange between them now, the sudden knowledge of blood ties sitting heavy where years of assumptions used to be. Too much has changed too quickly, and neither of them quite knows what shape they are supposed to fit into.
He is trying, though. I can tell that much, much to my own reluctance. Elena notices too, which only seems to make her angrier. I step in before the silence can rot further.
"You're about to activate the Gilbert device in the middle of a packed public event," I say mildly. "I'd prefer you didn't."
John goes still before his eyes go to his daughter and nephew.
"I don't know what she's told you—"
"Nyx didn't tell us anything," Jeremy cuts in, posture shifting an inch in front of me defensively, the amusement he had been wearing earlier vanishing. "You did, with the whole guilty face and death grip on your pocket. No idea when you managed to steal that thing from the café, though."
John's hand twitches instinctively.
Jeremy points. "See?"
I beam proudly. "The kid's a sharp one."
John ignores me. "This doesn't concern either of you."
"Debatable, but for the sake of the argument, let's say you killing the kids' friends doesn't concern them. It sure as hell concerns me if people get hurt," I announce. "It will concern Elena if she gets trampled in the panic. And Jeremy if he gets separated in the chaos. It concerns everyone if frightened vampires retaliate."
"It only affects vampires-"
"No," I note softly. "It affects any supernatural non-witch in town, and trust me, that number is a lot bigger than you think."
The band rolls past us in a clash of brass and drums, children rushing by draped in plastic and paper finery. A little girl collides with Jeremy's legs before he catches her by the shoulders and points her back toward her mother.
John watches that exchange longer than necessary and Elena notices too. "You really think this is helping?" she asks, voice lower now, less anger and more disbelief. "Doing this here?"
"I'm trying to keep this town safe."
"That's not what I asked!"
He looks at her, jaw set. "Somebody has to do something."
"And it has to be this?" she snaps back.
Jeremy shifts beside me, then steps forward a little, his tone roughened by sincerity. "You are trying to decide what's best for everyone without even understanding what's going on and without asking what we want."
John's eyes cut to him, doubt creeping into the swirl of his aura. "Jeremy—"
"No, seriously." Remy shoves his hands into his pockets, and I move to lean against the wall, letting the kids do the work of persuasion, exactly what I brought them for. "You keep saying you're protecting us, but we never asked you to."
I tilt my head at my little protégé in quiet approval while John drags a hand over his face, fatigue showing through the anger at last. For one moment he looks less like an idiotic zealot and more like a man trying to hold too many broken pieces together with bleeding hands.
" It doesn't matter if no one asked me to. We're family, so it is my job to protect you. Your father would have wanted you safe… so I'm doing what I can," he says.
Elena's expression softens despite herself. She swallows once before taking a half step closer and grasping his wrist carefully. "You can't just come and go from our lives when it's convenient, keep life altering secrets, and then expect trust because you say it's for us."
Jeremy glances at her, then at John, and adds more quietly, "And you can't eliminate every potential danger around us. That's not how life works."
For a long moment, John says nothing. The crowd cheers somewhere behind us as confetti drifts lazily through the last beams of sunlight, the sky lit like fire as the sun begins to fall beneath the horizon.
Then he reaches into his jacket.
Elena and Jeremy tense, but I do not. If he intended violence, I would have already been moving.
Instead, he pulls out the device, metal gleaming coldly in the summer light. He looks at Elena first, then Jeremy, before placing the pocket-watch-looking item into Elena's hand.
"I don't know if I'm making the right decision here," he admits, voice low enough that only we hear. "But I'll trust your judgment. For now."
For a moment, Elena stares down at the device in her palm, turning it over carefully beneath the light. Then, I lean over and pluck it from her grasp.
She looks up sharply, incredulous. "Hey! You can't just snatch my family heirloom out of my hands!"
"I absolutely can when that so-called heirloom is a mysterious supernatural artifact dangerous people kill for. I don't feel like having to rescue your ass later over this, so really I'm just saving myself time."
Jeremy snorts beside us.
Elena folds her arms, irritation beginning to roll off her and I silently start to wonder when annoying her began to down right delight me. "And why exactly do you get to hold onto it? You lost it last time!"
"Excuse you, little Miss Danger Magnet. Technically, Enzo and Damon lost it when this motherfucker—" I point sharply at a bemused John. "—somehow snuck past them into the second floor of the café while I was out. And I get to hold onto it for now because if someone wants it, I'm significantly harder to kill than nearly anyone else in this hell hole of a town. Besides, I need to study it. This thing is old, and sometimes that means the original magic of the device changes. What exactly are you gonna do if it starts glowing or summoning eldritch horrors or some shit?"
John lets out a short exhale through his nose, somewhere between a sigh and reluctant amusement.
"That is a totally bullshit reason!" Elena argues, grasping for the device but I just dance out of the way and behind Jeremy's broader frame.
"It's a fantastic reason," I deny, dead serious.
"You don't even know how it works yet!"
"Exactly," I reply, shooting her a thumbs up for making my point for me . "Which means until proven otherwise, I'm treating it with the utmost care, like a cursed object with anger issues."
Jeremy perks up immediately. "Wait, cursed objects can have anger issues?"
I shrug at him. "In my experience? Frequently."
Elena stares at both of us like we've lost our minds. "I hate this town."
"Valid," I say sympathetically. "Unfortunately, you're emotionally attached to it. It's the same damn reason I'm stuck here."
Jeremy bumps his shoulder into mine as naturally as breathing. "You gonna destroy it?"
"Tempting. I might just disenchant it and give it back to you, or put some powerful protections on a box for it so that no one with bad intentions can take it out and use it." I hum in contemplation, casually stuffing it in my bra where it will be harder to snatch, much to Jeremy's amusement and John's interest.
Ew. I flip him off for the lingering gaze I can feel but not see.
Elena huffs and turns back to her uncle/dad, her gaze softening. "Thank you. For listening."
After only a second's hesitation, she steps forward and hugs him. John freezes completely before cautiously returning it, and it's the most painfully awkward display of affection I've seen in a while.
Jeremy mutters, "This is weird now," but joins in anyway, one arm thrown around both of them.
I look away with the dignity of a saint, trying to give the little family privacy, squinting up at the sharp rays of light spiking through tree canopies and between buildings as the sun disappears over the horizon.
Jeremy suddenly laughs, disentangling himself as he glances at me. "Are you actually getting teary eyed over here?"
"Absolutely not," I refute, appalled.
"You're smiling," Elena points out, her mouth twitching with a rare sort of softness she usually doesn't aim at me.
I immediately flatten my expression. "Slander."
Jeremy grins. "Nyx."
I glower at him. "Silence, Baby Gilbert. Don't forget who pays your damn wages."
He laughs anyway, grasping onto my sleeve. I shoot a glance toward the Founder's Council platform, where several of the founding families' members are already beginning to congregate for the speech and fireworks.
"I take it you already snitched to the council about there being vampires in Mystic Falls," I state, my eyes never leaving the raised dais, more declaration than a question.
John shifts, somewhere between defensive and sheepish. "Yeah. Mayor Lockwood and the deputies were the only ones in on the plan, though."
"You went around the sheriff?" I ask, shocked, my head whipping around to look at him.
He shrugs, and I snort. "Oh, it's your funeral. I hope Liz leaves us enough to bury. Good luck with that."
"Sheriff Forbes is a part of the council?" Elena asks, sharply. "Caroline's mom is part of the vampire hunting council?"
"Of course she is. All founding families are a part of the council," John states. "Even us."
"Wait, then, are you saying mom and dad…." Elena trails off, her reality of the adults she thought she knew clearly shifting. Next to me, Jeremy goes very, very still and I decide that I really don't wanna stick around for the following conversation.
I smack Jeremy's shoulder sharply as I check the sky once more. "Well, I guess it's time to confront the council about the issue they've been pussyfooting around."
"Which issue is that?" Jeremy asks, but his wary tone tells me he's basically already figured it out.
"Me," I answer, rolling my shoulders. "If I'm not back in thirty minutes, send help."
XXXXXXXXXX
It takes me several minutes to actually escape the Gilberts. Jeremy insists on coming with me, declaring that if I start a riot without him, he will never forgive me, so I end up having to negotiate that if he behaves, I might allow him minor terrorism later.
Meanwhile, Elena looks stuck somewhere between exasperated, disgusted, and like she thinks I'm corrupting her younger brother. Honestly, I probably am corrupting him, turning him into a sassy little badass paranoid of the things that go bump in the night and even more so of the darkness inside human hearts, but I figure my influence will keep the punk alive and well longer, so she'll have to deal.
Unfortunately for her, I also decide that I like her best when she's annoyed.
My young protégé's protective instincts aren't a surprise at all, but the fact that John and Elena echo his concerns is. Frankly, I'm astonished that either of them cares even that much, but I suppose I've been giving them too little credit since neither were what I'd consider genuinely bad people. That said, this is something I have to do for myself, now, before I lose the courage, and something I don't want anyone to witness because I'm not entirely sure how it will go.
I cross the square toward the Founder's Council platform with purpose and magic humming quietly beneath my skin. Liz stands near the edge of the dais, posture straight, eyes moving over the crowd out of lifelong habit. Richard and Carol Lockwood stand beside her in immaculate civic perfection, the three working in tandem to give orders to scrambling workers as they try to get everything ready in time for the fireworks show. A few others linger close—other members of the founding families, people who inherit responsibility whether they want it or not.
Mr. Daniel Fell is standing by his nephew and Jenna's douchey ex, Logan. I spent a fair few summers helping around Mr. Fell's house when I was saving up for my café, mowing their lawn, cooking, gardening, and cleaning the pool. Mr. Fell has a bad leg, but he is a gentle soul. Meredith, his daughter, is just as kind to me, the older girl having sent me home with food or old clothes too many times to count. She is currently finishing her medical specialization out of town.
Not one of the men and women before me truly understands what they are dealing with.
John has told them vampires were back in Mystic Falls, but they had no real understanding of what that really entails.
They certainly have no idea I have already spent months keeping far more than that from turning our town into a feeding ground, no clue that Mystic Falls is only the first step in my plans to stabilize this world's balance between the mundane and supernatural, and that ignorance is leading them to trample all over my carefully laid schemes.
If I was being honest with myself, this is a problem I needed solved yesterday.
Liz notices me first, her posture softening instantly. "There you are."
I smile as I climb the stairs to her, leaning on the railing as I take in the group. "You say that like I wandered off."
"You usually do."
She catches my hand in hers, squeezing once before letting go. Her touch is familiar and easy, her interactions with me having always been quietly maternal like this.
It almost undoes me right there, especially when I remember that I still don't know if she is aware of what Sheila did to me, if she is also a part of this betrayal.
The truth is, I have been avoiding confronting the council just as much as they have likely been avoiding confronting me. It would be easy for me to walk in here and force them to submit to me, to overpower them and bend them to my will. I've done so before to countless enemies. However, it isn't something I can bring myself to do, not to these people.
It's true that these people, excluding Liz and Ro, maybe, have never been particularly close with me. They aren't mine in the way the Salvatores, Jenna, Jeremy, Lexi, or Enzo are. They aren't my friends or my family. But they were still, in some complex, conflicted, undefinable way, important to me.
There have been years when meals from their kitchens, babysitting money from their wallets, and being trusted with their children's safety have meant the difference between surviving another night and not. It was through nearly all of them that I'd managed to save a huge chunk of what I needed to open my cafe, which in turn allowed me to save myself.
These people aren't a problem I can bear to solve by grinding them underneath my heel, no matter how much simpler it would be.
Carol looks me over sharply, but warmth sits beneath it. "You look well, dear. You've been practically glowing these last few months."
"Thank you," I murmur, the corner of my mouth curling up. That would be the result of my finally eating regularly and getting my ass beat a lot less often.
Mr. Fell grins widely and hobbles over on his cane, batting Logan away dismissively. Carefully, I take the old man's arm in mine and help balance him. His eyes crinkle warmly, and I silently wonder what I can say to people who don't know they helped keep me alive.
Conversely, that debt of gratitude is also why I care enough to confront them.
Liz's eyes narrow slightly as she studies my face. "What's wrong?"
Straight to the point as always.
I reach into my bust and pull out the device.
The warm atmosphere drains from the platform so fast, I can practically feel frost beginning to glaze the area.
Mayor Lockwood inhales sharply. "John gave that to you?"
"He gave it to Elena," I correct. "You could say I improved the arrangement."
Liz's jaw sets, eyes narrowing in confusion. "The Gilbert device? He was going to use it?"
"That was the plan," Mayor Lockwood admits grimly.
Liz whirls on him, ire already flaring around her, but I cut in before the inevitable argument even begins to derail me from my task here. "Not anymore."
Mr. Fell's arm in mine goes stiff, and a tense air settles over us, threaded with band music from across the way.
Logan creeps close to his uncle's side, but when he reaches to pull Mr. Fell away from me, the old man swats him off and remains at my side, his hand still grasping my arm gently. Carol frowns, her manicure glinting as she folds her arms. "Nyx, this… situation is serious."
"I am very aware," I reply wryly.
"You don't understand how dangerous this could become—" she argues, voice carefully pitched to be inaudible to anyone nearby, although I've long since cast a spell to stop eavesdropping.
I smile gently. "Don't worry, I put up a spell so no one will hear what we're talking about. And Carol, with love, I understand far more than any of you."
That takes the sharpness out of her wariness, replacing it with something more confused. But all of them wait to hear me out despite their misgivings.
"You know vampires are in town because John told you so," I continue. "You believe there are a few. Mayor Lockwood, John told you this device would flush them out, right? Quick and clean?"
Richard Lockwood nods cautiously, and I notice the vicious glare Liz sends him at the reminder that he has been scheming behind the rest of the council's backs.
"It won't," I deny.
"Why not?" Logan pipes up, seemingly unable to hold back any longer, a smirk twisting his lips. "That thing lets us figure out where the monsters are hiding, right? Seems like easy work to hunt them down."
My own mouth curls into a sneer, partially because of his arrogance and partially because, as Jenna's friend, I hate his ass on principle. "Spoken like a reckless, short-sighted fool who cares nothing for the potential fallout," I sneer, forcibly reining in the venom only for the sake of the kind old man on my arm. "John's plan is utterly idiotic and would cause mass casualties. There are more than a few vampires in town, but they are all trying very hard to be neither victim nor monster. I can assure you, the panic caused by using the device would create far more human casualties than these vampires would."
"You can't possibly know that—" Logan begins.
"—considering I have magic that gives me visions of the future, ones far more detailed than normal magic users, yes, I can," I interrupt flatly. Several eyes widen, but less like they are unaware of the information and more like they hadn't expected me to come right out and state it.
Of course, Sheila has told them. It seems none of my secrets were safe with her, and frankly, I'm not going to keep pussyfooting around the subject of my supernatural abilities. I know they know. They know I know they know. At this point, there is really no point in playing this game to preserve this fragile facsimile of peace.
Mr. Fell speaks up for the first time so far, cutting off his nephew before he can say some more dumb shit, the crow's-feet at the corners of his eyes crinkling in concern. "How many is more than a few vampires in our town?"
"Enough that using this device in the middle of Founder's Day, where there are delicate humans perfectly positioned as targets all over the place, would be catastrophically stupid."
"We had a plan," Richard protests weakly, but it doesn't sound like even he really believes it. "As soon as someone shows a reaction to the device, the deputies take them away for 'first aid'! No humans are supposed to be harmed—"
"That's ridiculous," I cut in, trying not to let my genuine rage at the stupidity seep out and failing spectacularly. "Do you know how vampires replenish their strength when injured? They drink blood! Doing so can heal damn near anything done to them! So what the hell do you think happens when a bunch of vampires suddenly feel attacked and are surrounded by such conveniently placed healing and refueling snack packs? It doesn't matter if that vampire is ordinarily hostile to humans or just desperate, the result is still a bloodbath as they try to survive. They'd attack anyone in sight. As long as the device doesn't knock them unconscious, vampires still pose a threat, only now they're angrier and more desperate. Not to mention, our police force is fucking tiny, no offense, Liz. Your deputies are outnumbered and outpowered. How the fuck are you guys planning on covering the whole damn town if any vampire that escapes goes for revenge!?"
By the end of my little rant, I am nearly growling, panting in anger. I only receive the visions a short time before this, but the longer I think about this plan and the more I See of how the device is intended to work, the stupider and more reckless it seems.
My nostrils flare as I try to rein in my temper, barely managing to keep a hold on my wildly turning power. At some point during my little speech, the council members begin looking rightfully horrified. The mayor has blanched from what I can tell, and even Logan the Loser seems rather nauseous at the picture I am painting. I shoot Mr. Fell, who has begun looking rather faint, an apologetic look for my outburst, but the man merely pats my arm grimly.
Liz looks at me for a long moment. "You've been keeping them in check this whole time, haven't you?"
I startle, taken off guard by the sudden change in subject, but the sheriff merely sighs and explains, "Sheila told us that the vampires in the tomb had been released, but none of us could figure out why exactly things were so peaceful. It was you this whole time, wasn't it? You have been managing them."
"Yes," I agree, the pain of Sheila's betrayal cutting deeper with the realization that she did not warn me, nor question me about the vampires in town at all. She either guessed I opened the tomb and did not trust me to explain, or she let me wander around town clueless of a potential threat.
Carol pipes up again, voice careful now. "What exactly are you trying to say, Nyx?"
I slip the device back down my shirt, Mr. Fell snorting next to me, and I shoot the old man a cheeky grin. Stashing things down a shirt was something his wife, the late Mrs. Fell, did, and I know both of us are remembering the vibrant woman before cancer took her.
I shake away the sad memories and turn back to the group.
"I'm saying Mystic Falls is already under protection."
"Whose?" the mayor asks.
"Mine."
Carol's eyes narrow. "Nyx, dear, we know you have some sort of—of magic, and your intentions are good, but—"
I cut her off with a single look, calmly extracting myself from Mr. Fell, bracing him until he has steadied his cane, and then gazing at every one of them in turn with deadly serious eyes.
"I have been keeping the peace in this town for months. The tomb vampires who wanted revenge? Dead. The ones willing to behave? Bound by terms they will keep and assimilated into our town. Hell, they make better neighbors than most. And the couple of opportunists passing through that none of you even know about? I handle that shit, sometimes with some vampire friends. Frankly, I've already eliminated more threats and protected more innocents than all of you combined."
No one speaks for a long moment, only the sound of people bustling around the dais floating up to us as more people gather and begin taking their seats in preparation for the speech and fireworks.
Liz is the first to recover, sighing heavily as she begins to massage her temples, something exasperated but strangely fond in her expression. "Are you sure you have this under control? Your vampires won't attack?"
"Liz! You can't be serious? She's too young! No matter her good intentions—" Mr. Lockwood's protest is abruptly silenced before it can even start by the scorching gaze from the sheriff, who clearly hasn't forgotten his scheming behind her back.
I nod. "I'm sure. Mutually assured destruction isn't favorable to anyone, and they know that. In case y'all forgot, I'm raising kids in this town too. I wouldn't risk it if I wasn't 100% positive I knew what I was doing. Besides," I continue, lifting my hand for only them to be able to see as I light blue sparks to dance across it, "I have some… unconventional methods to make sure I'm not taken by surprise. I'll know before they can even try anything."
Carol frowns, her sharp eyes calculating. "Why did you do all of that alone? You knew about the council. You could have come to us."
She isn't wrong. I didn't know about the council at first, but sometime after the Salvatores came to town, I learned enough about it—and about its members—that I could have reached out.
Part of the reason I didn't was fear.
These people have never truly been close to me, but they have been kind, and when you grow up surrounded by cruelty, even the smallest scrap of kindness becomes something precious. I didn't want to watch that kindness curdle into disgust or fear when they finally understood what I was.
But that wasn't the only reason.
Long ago, I learned to rely on no one but myself. No one was coming to protect me. No one was coming to save me. It is a lesson learned across lifetimes and reinforced by the trauma of this rebirth. Even in lives where I had friends and family I trusted, something I've only very recently gained in this reincarnation, there is never any guarantee that they can truly protect me.
After all, I lived in hell all these years and not one of these people even noticed, and if they had, they hadn't tried to help me. I may not blame them, and I probably wouldn't have accepted help had it been offered but it was also something I would never, ever, let myself forget,
In the end, whenever Magic roars through my soul, when Fate weaves me into her cruel machinations, and when Death comes softly to greet me, it is a road I will always have to walk alone.
Still, I owe this town more than it will ever know, and I have children to protect and raise here.
You couldn't waterboard that confession out of me, though, so instead I say lightly, "I have control issues."
Liz does not laugh.
Of course she doesn't.
She has likely seen too much already—the bruises I explained badly as a teenager, the hunger I hid poorly, how eager I was to babysit overnight anywhere but home.
Carol, beside her, goes very still.
Ah.
Perhaps she has seen more than I thought as well.
I didn't really know how I felt about any of that,
"You all gave me work when I needed it. Trusted me with your children. Fed me, paid me, treated me kindly when kindness was not common in my life." I glance between them. "Do not mistake me—I remember that."
The platform is silent enough to hear the flags rustle.
I continue before pity can appear. I would hex pity on principle.
"That debt does not mean I'll let you make a disastrous mistake."
Carol lets out a slow breath. "And if we disagree?"
"Then I stop you."
No magic flares. No wind rises. I do not need spectacle, but something in my face must be convincing if the wariness seeping into their auras is anything to go by. I smile grimly. "This is a warning given out of courtesy. I'm not asking for permission. Please… don't put me in the position where I have to stop you."
Carol looks over the crowd below where Tyler laughs with friends nearby."You really think all of this can coexist?"
I follow her gaze, feeling the auras of humans laughing beside their supernatural neighbors, unaware or uncaring of the things that separate them from one another.
"It already does," I say. "Most of you just haven't noticed."
The mayor sighs. "What do exactly you want from us?"
"It's nothing too unreasonable. If something supernatural happens, you come to me first. I'll help you deal with it. Appropriately, and preferably without mass casualties."
"This is insane," the mayor mutters, shaking his head. "We can't just rely on a single person to handle all of this! For God's sake, you're barely older than our kids! We can't entrust the whole town to you—"
Liz speaks before anyone else can. "I trust her."
Mr. Fell grins. "As do I. Nyx is a good girl. She got a good head on her shoulders."
"You both have excellent instincts," I answer after a stunned moment, a smile slowly curling my lips as the mayor gapes like an offended fish.
Mr. Fell salutes me playfully, but his aura is warm and calm, even as he pinches his nephew before he can do more than open his mouth again.
Some of the tension breaks then, not gone entirely but softened. It's good enough, and more than I hoped for.
I step backward toward the stairs. "If something truly dangerous comes for Mystic Falls," I say, "I'll handle it. You don't need to carry every old fear forever."
Then I descend into the crowd where Jeremy waits with two lemonades and far too much curiosity.
"Well?" he asks.
"I threatened the local government and processed my childhood feelings."
He hands me a lemonade. "Busy day."
"Exhausting."
He loops his arm through mine, and we walk back into the festival just as the sun drifts beyond the horizon, purple and red spilling across the sky, while behind us the council argues. In the end, it didn't matter whether they decided to trust me to protect the town or not. I'd protect it anyway and their opinions were irrelevant. and if they chose to move against me or mine, they'd get a first hand demonstration of just how outmatched they were,
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