𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑
no cocky shit, i know for a fact i leave my mark on people. i ain't easy to forget

ECHO ENTERED THE Grill, knowing fully well that it was closed, but she didn't care. She wanted to grab some bourbon from the back to add more to Damon's stash. Plus, she wanted to celebrate with herself because of the fact that she had bought Damon his new tires and was planning on giving them to him tonight.

She saw Matt placing the chairs up on the tables, but she ignored and walked over to the bar, reached over, and grabbed a glass of whisky. She then poured it in a cup and turned around in time to see April walk into the Grill.

"Uh, hey, April," Matt said as he approached her. "We don't open until eleven."

"Oh, sorry, I wasn't like trying to scare you or stalk you or whatever," April said quickly with a small laugh. "I just – I came to ask if you've seen Rebekah." 

Echo chugged her drink and stood up from her seat with crossed arms. "What do you want with Rebekah?"

Matt held up his hand to Echo who glared at him. "Why would I have seen Rebekah?" He asked, confused.

She looked between them with wide eyes. "Oh, I just assumed..." She swallowed and furrowed her brows. "I mean, aren't you guys kind of like a thing?" 

Echo frowned in disgust. "I can't imagine anyone liking her annoying ass," she spat out as she poured some more bourbon in her glass.

April walked closer towards him, her blue eyes wide. "Well, I – I mean... I'm worried about her. She said she'd help me find stuff out about the fire that killed my dad and then she just – disappeared."

Suddenly, Jeremy was pushed into the room, and Echo quickly turned around to face her little brother with wide eyes. Followed behind him was Connor. Matt ran to be in front of April while Echo threw her glass at Connor who dodged it and pulled a knife to Jeremy's throat. She scowled but made her way over to Matt and April, standing in front of them protectively.

"Sit down," the hunter ordered as he glared at them, his hold tightening on Jeremy. "Sit down!" He shouted and walked forward.

April and Matt backed up and sat down with wide eyes, but Echo stayed standing with a scowl on her features. "You better let him go or i'll shove my shoe straight down your throat, then rip out your intestines and strangle you with it until you pass out!"

He simply stared at her with a weirded out expression, but she stood her ground until he shoved Jeremy down beside Matt and April. "Gilbert, give me your cell phone," he ordered, glaring at the youngest person in the room.

"At least let April go. She doesn't have anything to do with this," Jeremy negotiated with a glare on his face. He glanced at his sister who simply gave him a look. He knew he could rely on her to get everyone out safely if something went sideways.

"She has everything to do with this," Connor sneered and Jeremy handed him his phone. "Her and her father. Plus, she and I have history." 

April looked over at him, more than terrified. "What are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life." 

"Well, you kids need to get some vervain," Connor commented with a scowl. "And don't just wear it as a bracelet where anybody can just take it off." He pointed at Jeremy's vervain bracelet causing the boy to look up at him. "Maybe then you'd remember our conversation at the hybrid's yesterday." 

"Our conversation?" Jeremy questioned in confusion. "Are you saying someone compelled me?!"

"You were at Klaus'?!" Echo shouted in anger at her brother. "That hybrid dick compelled you?!"

"Would someone please tell me what he's talking about?!" April yelled out to no one in particular causing them all to turn to her.

"Compulsion, secrets, vampires," Connor vaguely responded. 

Matt glared at him at tried to be brave for once in his life. "If you know so much, then you know our friends are going to come for us." 

Connor smirked and nodded. "Oh, yeah, I'm counting on it. Every vampire that comes for you is another one I get to kill. Now, who should I text first? Hm?" He questioned looking through Jeremy's phone. "Damon Salvatore, his brother Stefan, Tyler Lockwood? Nah, all of the above." 

He then sent a text to Tyler, Stefan, and Damon which read "Hunter at Mystic Grill with hostages. They all die at sundown." He placed Jeremy's phone down and stabbed it with his hunting knife. 

Echo smirked to herself, actually happy to have the ability to not die because then, it gives them an advantage. She then pulled out her gun that was in her pants waist, and pointed it straight between his chocolate brown eyes. "I don't care who or what you are, asshole, but you're threatening my baby brother. Now, I don't care much about Matt, but both him and April are innocent humans, and you're putting them in danger. So, here's what's going to happen, you let us all go and I don't kill you."

"You're not going to pull that trigger," Connor said, but it sounded like a statement which angered her.

Jeremy smirked. "I wouldn't test you. She has helped in killing two Original's." Granted one of them is still alive now.

Echo smirk and tilted her head. "I'll give you to the count of one... two..."

"Sit down and shut your pretty little mouth or i'll stab your brother," Connor threatened as he held up a knife to Jeremy's throat.

Echo growled and lowered her gun and placed it in her pants waist again. But, right as he pulled the knife away from Jeremy's neck, she whipped out a dagger and flung it at him. She didn't expect him to somehow dodge it and throw his knife at her which embedded itself in her shoulder.

April screamed as it happened and started shaking violently in fear and confusion.

"Son of a bitch!" She shouted, gritting her teeth before ripping the knife out of her shoulder. She placed her hand over the wound and glared at him. "You shouldn't have done that..." she trailed off through clenched teeth.

Connor ignored her and began pouring werewolf toxin into a glass jar to rig up a bomb. And the Winchester, not pleased with him ignoring her, she gripped his knife in her hand before flinging it back at him. He dodged it again, but it ended up hitting one of the jars full of werewolf toxin, and it shattered. She grinned and simply smirked at him, ignoring her shoulder which was full of pain and still bleeding.

"O, you okay?" Jeremy asked and she nodded as she grabbed a glass of alcohol, lowered her shirt, and poured it on the wound. She groaned, but ignored the pain before ripping off a piece of her shirt, placed it over the wound, and then grabbed a thing of tape that Matt had conveniently. She wrapped it around the piece of shirt around the wound, and then pulled her shirt up, covering it.

Jeremy made sure she was good before walking over to Connor. Echo went to stop him, but then realized that he could take care of himself. But, if Connor did one wrong move, she would put a bullet through his head.

"You said we had a conversation yesterday," Jeremy stated with confusion.

Conner didn't look at him, and continued to build bombs against vampires. But, he hummed while nodding.

"About what?"

The hunter finally looked at him. "We'll get into that. First, take a look at my handy work. Pick up some tips from the hunter's trade." 

Jeremy studied the Jar in confusion. "What is all that?" 

"The fluid is derived from werewolf toxin. Trip the wire, bomb goes off, nails deliver a lethal dose into the bloodstream, Connor explained with a smirk which only angered Echo more. No only was he planning to hurt her vampires, but she also remembered when there was a time when she used to do things like this.

"And what's the point? What do you get out of all this?"

"You know, I used to think that there was no 'get'; that I was just supposed to do. Kill vampires," Connor explained, "That was until I realized that the mark held the answer to why I'm the way I am. The more I kill, the more it grows and once it's complete, I'll know my story and – and all of this will have meant something." 

Echo shook her head as she downed some bourbon, hoping to ease her anger.

Connor then looked at Matt and April. "Hey! We're gonna have visitors soon, you two get in the back. Get up!" They didn't move, so he began shouting, "Move!" April slowly stood up while sobbing and Matt grabbed her shoulder to try and calm her. "Before you think about any other exits, I got every door rigged. Got it?" He snarled as Matt led April to the back of the Grill. 

"You need some help," Echo retorted as she sat down on a table, popping her neck as she pictured many ways to kill him. "Honestly, what is your problem? You come into town thinking you own it and us. You hurt the people I care about and threaten my family. If you continue to do that, I will have no choice but to make your death more painful than it has to be."

The phone began ringing loudly and Jeremy slowly walked towards it, and as soon as his hand touched it, Connor grabbed his wrist harshly. Jeremy pulled his hand away and Connor answered the phone instead, "We're closed." Seeing as they couldn't hear both sides of the conversation, they could only settle with his. "I'll free them as soon as you give me what I want. You and everyone like you dead."

Echo jumped off the table and when Connor turned his back, Echo pulled out her phone and sent a text to Damon saying she's got this and to not do anything erratic. As Connor scoffed, she knew that whatever they were trying to do wasn't going to do the trick.

"That's a weak move. You must be desperate," he told whoever was on the other end of the phone which was probably Stefan seeing as he was always desperate. And whatever Stefan said must've angered him, because he slammed the phone down on the receiver, and then slammed it down on the floor angrily. He then walked away, and the siblings glanced at one another.

Jeremy saw a stake and moved towards it, but Connor sensed it and said, "You may be a potential hunter, but if you make one move, I'll break all twenty seven bones in your hand."

Echo rolled her eyes and simply leaned in the counter he was working on. "You make even one move towards my brother, I will do everything in my power to remove your head from the rest of your body, and then go bowling with it."

He looked up from her with raised brows. "You got some weird threats, you know?" She simply smirked which made him shake his head.

Jeremy shook his head at her and slowly approached him. "They're not all bad, you know. Some of them, they're my friends." 

"Your friends, huh?" Connor looked up at him with a scoff. "Yeah, I had a friend like that once. She got turned by this vampire I was hunting. He thought it would be ironic." 

"What happened to her?"

"I didn't want to hurt her. She promised that she would keep it under control, but... a vampire's like a loaded gun," he explained with a distant look on his eyes. "Eventually it's gonna go off." He then showed Jeremy his tattoo. "That's why I got this."

Echo scoffed. "Humans are worse than vampires," she told him."They fear anything different and that they can't control. Humans are the worse species in this world. So, you saying vampires are like loaded guns, well, humans are like bombs ready to explode. Which is worse; a gun or a bomb?" She rose a single brow and shrugged, leaning away from him.

Jeremy grinned at his sister, knowing that she came from a background much like Connor's, killing any monster that got in her way, but then changed for the better. He then turned to Connor with angered eyes. "So, you killed your own friend?!" 

"Listen, if you're gonna be like me, you need to understand. Vampires kill humans, hunters kill vampires!" Connor shouted at Jeremy, but he simply rolled his eyes. Suddenly, they all heard a noise near the front. "We've got company."  Connor turned off the lights and turned on the music very loud.

He grabbed Jeremy and then pulled Echo over the counter, and then to the floor. She groaned as her arm was snatched onto something sharp, and then when she took a look at it, she saw a long line down her left arm which was bleeding. She groaned as both arms were damaged now.

A hybrid — Dean —  opened the front door and carefully inspected the doorway. He looked down and saw a tripwire before looking right and seeing a loaded bomb. He carefully stepped over the wire and onto the mat. Suddenly, a light went off under the mat and the bomb had been activated. 

Dean then closed the door carefully behind him, but when he lifted his foot from the mat, the bomb went off, and he went flying through the air due to the force of the explosion.

"Fuck!" Echo shouted as she peaked over the counter at the hybrid to see that he had many glass share in his body, but he was starting to stand up.

Connor came out from behind the counter with a huge gun and approached the hybrid who lifted his hands up in surrender. He showed no mercy and shot the hybrid in the heart, and it was so powerful that his head got flung out of his chest. So, now all that is left is a gigantic hole in his chest.

"You're terrible!" Echo shouted as she stood up fully and made her way around the counter, holding her bleeding arm. "He was surrendering! He wasn't even going to hurt anyone..." She looked down at the hybrid's body. He looked younger than twenty five, so he didn't live much of a life. Poor guy.

"Oh, he was," Connor retorted before Stefan slowly and quietly came out from the back. He quickly grabbed Jeremy and pointed his gun at Stefan who then sped across the Grill behind the bar and Connor shot the gun at him multiple times, but missed. 

Stefan ducked down and hid behind the bar. Connor groaned in aggravation and shoved Jeremy aside, causing him to step on another mat with a switch that activated another bomb. 

"Jeremy!" Echo shouted and she took a small step towards him, but then stopped as she saw the red light under the mat. "You're putting innocents at risk!" She shouted towards Connor in anger. "If you don't lower that gun now, I will shoot," she threatened as she pointed her gun at him.

"You don't understand what's happening, you're just a stupid kid!" Connor snapped back at her and she growled and lowered her gun by his feet, and shot at the ground. He jumped slightly, but kept his gun trained at where Stefan was.

"Connor, you don't have to do this!" Stefan attempted to reason with him. 

"Echo!" Jeremy yelled out and Echo took another step closer to her brother. She could hear the bomb ticking, and her eyes glanced to the bombs that were near him which would be triggered if he took one step off the mat.

Echo held up up her gun free hand towards him, her eyes wide, full of fear. "Just don't move, Jer. I'll get you out of this." He looked at her completely terrified and nodded very slowly. 

"Connor, we can end this right now! Just put down the gun and come with me!" Stefan attempted to reason again. 

"Sure. Come out, I'll hand the gun over," Connor said sarcastically as he glanced over at Echo who held her gun up to him.

"Think about this. No one has to die. I'll tell you everything you need to know!" Stefan yelled out to him. 

"I don't make deals with vampires!!!" Connor shouted angrily. 

"Listen to me, if you die right now, then your whole life, all that killing; it'll all be for nothing," the annoying Salvatore informed him, trying to diffuse the chaotic situation. "I can give you the truth. Just put down the gun and let Jeremy and Echo go!" 

Just then, Elena opened the front door and entered the Grill. Connor, who was still holding the gun towards where Stefan was hiding, turned his head and saw her. 

"Elena!" Echo shouted, more fear in her eyes now. Not only was Jeremy in danger, but so was Elena once Connor finds out about her being a vampire.

Elena glanced at her sister and brother before turning to Connor. "Please!" But he then pointed his gun towards her. "Don't hurt them." She analyzed the area like Echo has taught her so many times before. She was trying to come up with a plan.

Connor pointed the gun at Jeremy, but Echo shot her gun again, and this time, she didn't miss. She got him in the shoulder. "Hurt either of them, the next bullet will go through your brain."

"Elena, get out of here!" Jeremy shouted, gulping as the mat moved a little.

"They're the only family that I have left. Just – just let them go," Elena said, glancing at Echo was was more than angry.

"You hear that? Your girl is watching. I will shoot the boy right in front of her! On the count of three! One! Two!" Connor yelled to Stefan, who stood up and raised his hands in surrender.

Connor pointed the gun at him instead, and on instinct, wanting to save everyone, Elena rushed at him. He shot his gun and the bullet hit Jeremy.

"No!" Echo shouted and ran towards Connor as well, ready to kill him with her bare hands.

Stefan noticed that the bomb was about to go off and he rushed towards Jeremy. He grabbed him and threw himself and Jeremy over a table just in time for the bomb to explode. Echo wasn't too far from the explosion, so she was flung forward, hitting her head on a nearby table.

"Son of a bitch!" She shouted in pain, but pushed herself up even though her knife wound was bleeding profusely again. It didn't help that her arm wound was also still bleeding, too.

Elena looked up in fear from the sound in the middle of her fight with Connor. "Jer?! Echo?!" In her moment of panic, Connor managed to rip her hand off his throat and tossed her to the side. He rolled on top of her and grabbed her by the hair. He went to stake her, but Elena grabbed his wrist and fought back harshly.

Stefan rushed at Connor and knocked him off Elena. And then, both him and Connor was gone.

"Lena!" Echo exclaimed before rushing over to her sister to help her up.

"Jeremy!" Elena shouted and sped over to their little brother, giving him her blood. She grabbed his face gently and sighed. "I'm so sorry. If I didn't act impulsively, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

Jeremy shook his head as she sat up fully, looking between his sister's. "It was either me or the both of you. I don't care that I got shot to do the right thing."

Elena sighed and shook her head. "How did this happen, Jer? Why did Connor come after you?"

"He said Jeremy is like him," Echo stated as she groaned, wiping off her wound with her shirt even though it wasn't a good idea.

"I can see his tattoo," Jeremy stated with a sigh.

Elena furrowed her brows. "His what?"

"His hunter's mark. It's invisible to everyone but me." He then looked up at her with furrowed brows. "Stefan and Damon didn't tell you about it?

Elena shook her head with furrowed brows. "No. Who else knows about this?"

Jeremy sighed. "Well, that's the thing. I don't even know. Apparently I was with Connor all day yesterday, but I can't remember. Someone compelled me."

Elena growled. "I think I know who."

THE TWINS WORKED together to hunt down Connor in the tunnels underneath the Grill. On the way there, Elena grabbed Echo her crossbow and many stakes even though Connor wasn't a vampire.

"Oh, Connor..." Echo taunted as she appeared from a corner, her crossbow raised at him. "You think you could get away from us after you hurt our brother?"

Elena came up behind him and savagely bit into his neck, and then flung him towards Echo who quickly shot at him with a stake. It embedded itself into his stomach, and then Elena appeared behind him again, and grabbed his shoulders roughly, holding him still.

"Stay away from our brother!" Echo bellowed before she grabbed a stake and marched up to him, and then shoved it into his shoulder. She grabbed it and then twisted it harshly, smirking as she did so.

"You'll never be able to hurt him again," Elena spat out as she then grabbed his head and twisted it, fully breaking his neck.

Echo grinned as she walked over to Elena and entwined their arms. "I think we deserve a blizzard. Don't you?"

Elena chuckled before shaking her head. "Always thinking about food, huh?"

"Of course." Echo laughed loudly as they began making their way out of the tunnels.