The Halloween transition in Mystic Falls was funny to him. People dressing up as monsters while the real ones walked among them. But this year, the joke had teeth. Specifically, Vicki Donovan's.
I stood in the shadows of the high school parking lot during the Halloween carnival. The air was thick with the scent of popcorn, cheap face paint, and the sharp, copper tang of fresh blood.
"She's spiraling, Kael," Stefan said, appearing beside me. He looked exhausted. His "Golden Boy" act was fraying at the edges because he was trying to teach a junkie vampire how to have a conscience. "Damon turned her, but I can reach her."
I adjusted the hidden holster under my jacket. "You're making the classic mistake, Stefan. You're looking at her and seeing Matt Donovan's sister. I'm looking at her and seeing a newborn with no impulse control and a taste for Elena's jugular."
"She's a kid!" Stefan hissed, his eyes flashing.
"She was a kid," I corrected, my voice cold and flat. "Now she's a liability. And in five minutes, she's going to stop being a liability and start being a murderer. Are you going to be the one to tell Matt his sister ate his girlfriend?"
Stefan didn't have an answer. He vanished into the crowd, heading toward the funhouse where the scent of Elena was strongest.
I didn't follow him. I moved toward the school bus lot. My instincts were screaming. To a Hunter, the "Universal Singer" blood doesn't just lure vampires; it acts as a compass. I could feel Vicki nearby her hunger was a jagged vibration in the air.
I found them near the buses. Vicki had Elena pinned against a grill, her fangs out, her face a mask of primal hunger. Jeremy was standing there, frozen in terror.
"Vicki, stop!" Elena cried.
Vicki didn't stop. She lunged.
I moved faster.
I didn't use a stake not yet. I grabbed a heavy iron chain from a nearby construction lift and whipped it forward. The cold iron caught Vicki around the waist, and I yanked her backward with a force that sent her crashing into a bus.
"Kaelen!" Jeremy yelled, looking at me like I was the villain.
"Get out of here. Both of you," I commanded. My blue eyes were fixed on Vicki as she scrambled to her feet, hissing like a feral cat.
Elena grabbed Jeremy and ran, but she didn't get far before Stefan arrived, stepping between me and Vicki.
"I can handle this!" Stefan shouted.
"Then handle it!" I snapped.
Vicki didn't care about Stefan's lessons. She saw the opening, smelled the blood on Elena's scraped knee, and launched herself. She bit into Elena's shoulder, a sickening crunch echoing in the quiet lot. Stefan pulled her off, but she was wild, slashing at him with claws that were surprisingly strong for a newborn.
I stepped forward, the dark steel blade in my hand.
"No!" Stefan cried, even as Vicki threw him aside and turned her sights back on the injured Elena.
Vicki lunged again. I didn't hesitate. I stepped into her path, my movements a practiced geometry of violence. I caught her mid-air, my left hand gripping her throat, my right driving the silver-tipped stake straight through her heart.
She didn't scream. She just gasped, the life or the mimicry of it leaving her eyes. The gray veins of desiccation spread instantly.
I lowered her body to the ground. The carnival music was still blaring in the distance.
"You killed her," Jeremy whispered, coming back into the light. He looked at me with a hatred that would have withered a normal person.
"I saved Elena," I said, wiping a drop of Vicki's blood off my cheek. I looked at Stefan, who was kneeling on the ground, his head in his hands. "You tried to be a saint, Stefan. All you did was get Elena bitten."
...
..
.
A few nights later, the mood in Mystic Falls had shifted. It was Stefan's birthday, and his old "friend" Lexi had arrived in town.
I was sitting in a booth at the Grill when she walked in. She was older, stronger, and far more composed than the Salvatores. She spotted me instantly I was an beacon impossible to miss.
She sat across from me without an invitation. "So, you're the one. The Hunter who's making my best friend lose sleep."
"Lexi, right? Three hundred and fifty years old and you still haven't learned to check for traps before you sit down," I said, tapping the underside of the table where a vervain-laced trigger was rigged.
Lexi smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "You've got a big reputation for someone so young, Kaelen. But I've seen your kind before. You think you're the hero, but you're just a killer with a better excuse."
"Maybe," I said, leaning in. "But tell me does the hero usually let his brother frame his best friend for a murder just to satisfy the local Sheriff?"
Lexi's smile faded. "What are you talking about?"
"Damon is planning something," I whispered. "He's going to hand you to Liz Forbes tonight. He needs a 'vampire' to kill to satisfy the Council's bloodlust, and you're the perfect sacrificial lamb. Stefan's too weak to stop him, and you're too loyal to see it coming."
Lexi looked toward the bar, where Damon was charming the Sheriff. She looked back at me, her expression shifting to one of wary respect. "Why are you telling me this? You're a Hunter. You should be the one driving the stake."
I finished my bourbon and stood up. "Because I like the odds, Lexi. And right now, Damon is getting too comfortable thinking he's the smartest guy in the room. I'd rather see him frustrated than see you dead."
I walked toward the exit, my black hair catching the light. "Happy Birthday, Stefan," I muttered as I passed him at the door.