i'm on my way to kill a werewolf

"YOU KNOW, IT'S REALLY NOT THAT BAD ANYMORE," Athena pushes Damon's prodding hands away from her shoulder, glaring as the vampire followed closely behind her.

"It's still not healing, Athena," Damon grits his teeth. "It should've healed by now because of your thing."

She turns to look at him over her shoulder, raising a brow at his phrasing. With a sigh, she continued back up the stairs to her and Stefan's room, doing her best to block out Damon's nagging and wonder if Elijah was going to follow through on his word. "I don't really have this whole goddess thing on lockdown yet, so I don't know what triggers my healing abilities and what doesn't."

Damon sighs, pushing his hair off of his face. "Well, what triggered it before? Do we need to break a bone, or crush a lung– I mean, what's going to get rid of the bite?"

Athena shakes her head. "I don't know. When we got thrown in the basement during the council's raid, I was burned by the fire, but by the next day, it was gone with no scarring. Stefan wrapped it up and babied me all night, but I was fine."

"Maybe that's it, then. It's a you thing," He shrugs, clapping his hands together. "Maybe you don't let yourself heal until you know everything's safe and over with."

She narrows her eyes at him. "What does that mean?"

He shrugs, already sensing the dangerous territory he's stepping into. "You've been pacing for the last four hours because you won't know if Elijah followed through with his end of the deal until Stefan is here in one piece. Which, by the way, once I'm sure you're not actively dying, I've got a lot of questions as to what your mental state was when you made a deal with the guy who's tried to kill us all on multiple occasions."

"Listen, I know what I'm doing, Damon. I'm a lot smarter than any of you idiots, including your brother!" Athena nearly throws herself down onto her bed but stops herself as her shoulder throbs in pain. "Elijah is trustworthy, okay? I promised him I wouldn't touch a hair on Elena's stupid little head, so long as he got Stefan out of the tomb, and we made a mutual agreement to trust one another. Why is that so hard to understand?"

"And you think he's going to go through with it?" Damon questions, earning a slight shrug from the girl. "Why does he want Elena safe so badly?"

Athena scoffs. "You know, I could ask you and Stefan the same thing. I still don't know why we can't just let Elijah ship her off to wherever the hell Klaus is hiding out, and just kill Katherine. No more doppelgängers, no more problems."

Damon groans, practically falling into the chair at Stefan's desk. He rubs his face tiredly, trying to remember when he last slept. Vampires didn't need it so to speak, but he also wasn't hopped up on human blood at the moment which drained him of energy quickly. "I was trying to do the right thing. Moral compass aside, Elena's pretty much innocent. Every wrong thing she's ever done is so human it's almost disgusting."

"Well stop doing that, then. Doing the right thing is boring, and your brother is already a bottomless pit of empathy that I can hardly handle on a good day. He's been somehow worse than anyone about this whole Elena ordeal and I can't stand it," Athena scrunches her face up in disgust, the expression morphing into one of pain as her wound throbs in beat with her pulse. "Stefan's in the tomb, a homicidal Original is coming to town, there's already one homicidal Original in town, Tyler's a werewolf and he's got werewolf friends that bite people, and for some reason, all of this is Elena Gilbert's fault. Seriously, how could it get any–"

"Guys," Elena's breathy voice fills the air, and Athena curses loudly as the doppelgänger appears in the doorway.

"Let me finish!"

Elena quiets, looking confused, and Athena rolls her eyes, resisting the urge to throttle everyone. "Worse. How could it get any worse? You know what, you ruined it, Elena. What the hell do you want?"

Elena inhales deeply, her wide eyes set on the two of them. "John's back and I think he's working with Klaus."

Athena slowly turns to look at Damon, frustration rising to lethal levels with the two dreadful words Elena had spoken. Before any of them can speak again, Athena's phone begins to vibrate on the nightstand and her head snaps over, eyes widening at Caroline's caller ID lighting up the screen.

She reaches for her phone, answering on the second ring, and looks at Damon and Elena warily. "Caroline? Is everything alright?"

Her slight sniffling makes Athena's spine straighten, and she clenches her jaw immediately. "Caroline, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"It's– it's Tyler," Caroline's stuttering voice comes through the speaker. "He knows about Mason. He knows Mason is dead, and that we had something to do with it."

Athena looks up at Damon, seeing his wide-eyed gaze at the blonde's words. She sighs through clenched teeth and shakes her head. "I'm going to kill someone today,"

"Athena!"

The girl's heart suddenly races as she hears Steafn's voice echo from downstairs, and she throws her phone to Damon carelessly as she rushes down the stairs, following his calls of her name.

"Stefan," She skidded to a stop before him, relief flooding her and ridding her of at least one burden. "Oh, thank god."

Stefan rushed towards her, his furrowed brows drifting down to the large bandage wrapped around her shoulder and beneath her arm. "Athena, what happened to you? Are you okay?"

She shakes her head, waving his concerns off. "It's okay, I'm healing, but that doesn't matter because you're home, and you're okay," She lets out a sigh of relief, searching his dirt-streaked face. "Did Katherine do anything to you? Did she say anything? Can I just kill her already?"

Stefan smiles slightly but shakes his head. "I'm alright, I promise. She was fairly tame for the most part, but, uh, Elijah actually compelled her to stay in there. He said that Klaus would want to know where she was when he got here."

Athena nods, expecting something like that. She heaves another sigh before her lips twist into a look of irritation that makes Stefan take a wary step away from her. "If you pull some dumbass, self-sacrificing move like that and get yourself locked in the tomb again, I'm going to leave you in there to rot for at least a year. Do you understand me, Stefan? I understand that you want everybody to be safe, but you have to start putting yourself first, even if it means Elena's skeezy little brother gets mauled by a bunch of starving vampires."

"Athena, I'm–"

"I mean, he's not all that special, Stefan, seriously. All he does is stare at me, and give me heart eyes– could you just be a normal boyfriend and get jealous instead of saving his life?"

The vampire huffs, rolling his eyes slightly, but a small smile grows on his face. "I'm sorry, Athena. I won't do it again. I have had enough of that tomb to last me a lifetime."

"I'm serious, Stefan,"

"So am I," His face softens at her obvious worry, and he takes her hands in his, squeezing them gently. "Listen, what do you say we take a shower and relax? We can skip school and everything, and go on a date or something."

Athena smiles up at him, but her thoughts are interrupted by Damon's voice.

"The werewolf that bit you is the one that told Tyler about Mason. Her name is Jules, she's from Florida and I may have pressed some of her wolfy buttons in the bar, hence why she came here to bite me."

She turns, facing him, her face falling into a glare. "You're an idiot, Damon. Why would you provoke a werewolf that close to the full moon?"

"Hey, Ric helped!"

She shakes her head, looking back at Stefan apologetically. "Everything you just said sounds amazing, but I have to go kill a werewolf,"

Athena steps past Stefan, grabs her coat off the coat rack by the front door, and slides her shoes on quickly.

"Hey," Damon's voice calls out and she looks over her shoulder at the confused brothers. "Which werewolf?"

She shrugs a shoulder. "I haven't decided yet," Her brown eyes shift to Stefan and she blows him a kiss. "I love you so much but if you don't take a shower you're not sleeping in our bed tonight!"

──────

Tyler lands against the wall with a groan of pain, and his wide eyes land on Athena. "Hey, woah, woah, woah, what the hell are you doing here, Athena? How did you get in here?"

She grins manically, tightening her grip on his shirt as she pins him against the wall. "Your mom let me in. She was really happy to see me. Did you know she had no idea as to why we aren't friends anymore? Why didn't you tell your mom that you ditched me?"

The werewolf stutters out a few breaths, looking at Athena fearfully. "Listen, what–whatever I did, I was stupid, okay? But it– it doesn't matter now, I mean, look at the stuff we deal with now, Athena,"

"God, you sound like Elena," She rolls her eyes irritatedly. "What the hell is your problem?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You think that just because you're a werewolf now you deserve all the answers? You've always walked around this town like you're high and mighty, but you're nothing more than a cocky teenage boy who's going to peak in high school and have a receding hairline by twenty-five. You're not special, Tyler, which means you can't just run around town slamming girls into cars and flashing your eyes at them."

Tyler seems to drop his faux act of innocence and grits his teeth. "You killed Mason,"

"Yeah?" She laughs coldly. "And what are you gonna do about it? If you tell your mom, she'll find out you're a werewolf just like your dear, dead daddy and poor Carol just won't know what to do with herself if she finds out her son is a monster."

"I'll– I'll go to the police,"

"Right, because it sounds plausible that a teenage girl killed a grown man who has six inches on her? You don't get it, do you, Tyler?" Athena drops him from the pinned position she'd had him in and points a finger at him. "There is no outcome where you end up on top. You will lose whatever fight you're planning on fighting, and I promise when you're bleeding out somewhere because you got a little too mouthy and asked too many questions, it'll be me standing over you."

Tyler looks at her in abject horror, but she doesn't flinch. "It was you, wasn't it? You killed Mason. Why?"

"Because I wanted to," She grins at the look on his face and steps towards him, making him press himself against the wall to try to escape her. "And you wanna know something, Tyler? I'll kill you, too. And all of your new werewolf friends."

"Athena–"

She shoves him against the wall again, glaring at him. "You stay the hell away from Caroline, or I swear to god, I will make sure every step you take on this planet is complete agony. You'd be surprised at what cool tricks I've got up my sleeve now, too."

She disappears, heels echoing like a reassurance of her threats, and natural confidence to her strides as she gives Carol an easy farewell and promises that she'll stop by the memorial in town later on, while Tyler stands in his father's old office and scrambles to find Jules's name in his phone to pass on the message.

But he can't help but feel that Jules has set a trap for them that they won't be able to get out of. As long as Athena's walking around, werewolves stand no chance.

──────

Athena's eyes narrowed into slits as she sets her gaze on John Gilbert, and she knows Damon is at her side mirroring the look exactly. "You can compel most of these people, right?"

"Yeah, probably," Damon shrugs, looking around the bar teeming with humans.

"Great. Because I'm going to butcher John Gilbert like a pig,"

A hand presses on her chest as she takes a step forward and she lifts her dark gaze to Stefan's pleading one. "No, no, no, neither of you are killing him. At least not in broad daylight, in the middle of the bar, don't be stupid."

Damon rolls his eyes, not caring that John had spotted their obvious staring, too. "Yeah, but stupid's so much more fun. And Athena's little knives are so sharp, it'd be so easy to just–"

"Right? My dad actually got them for me–"

"No," Stefan steps in front of them both, giving them both a warning look. "We just need answers. We need to know why he's back here and if he knows anything about Klaus or the sacrifice."

Athena rolls her eyes and throws her head back petulantly, refusing to meet Stefan's gaze. "I will not kill him, Stefan, but if he even looks at me wrong I'm going to at least stab him. As a warning,"

"A warning?" The vampire's brows furrow incredulously as Athena steps past him and heads for John, with Damon on her tail closely. Shaking his head almost fearfully, he hurries after them as they approach Jenna, Alaric, and John. "Dear god,"

"Hi, John! How are you?" Damon's fake, cheery voice grates Athena's nerves but she smirks up at the adult who resists an outright look of disgust at the sight of Athena, for the sake of Jenna's presence beside them.

"I'm doing good, Damon. It's nice to see you,"

Athena hums, drawing his gaze onto her. "I can't say the same for you. Wanna light a candle in memoriam?"

John's eyes flicker to the small memorial in the bar and he gives a short nod, letting Damon and Athena follow after him while Stefan does a little bit of damage control with Jenna and Ric.

"So, rumor has it that you know a lot but won't say anything," Damon smirks, looking at the pictures of the people that had gone missing, or been found mauled. "Hey, I think she was Thursday night dinner."

Athena's eyes flicker to the smiling blonde woman, and she nods slightly. "I thought it was Friday,"

Damon shrugs, looking back to John's infuriated face.

"How can I know that you can be trusted?" His eyes switch between both of them quickly, the question directed at them. "According to Stefan, Originals can compel vampires, hence why Katherine's still in the tomb. And you're human, Athena. All it takes is forgetting vervain for one day,"

Athena narrows her eyes at him, scoffing. "I'm not a human, you oblivious dick. And we haven't been compelled because we're not stupid. Now answer the questions before you end up on one of these memorial plaques, too."

"Is that any way of convincing me that we're on the same side?" John smirks, but she doesn't miss the slight curiosity in his eyes at her words. "First I need to know that I can trust the two of you and that I can count on you. Then we'll talk."

John walks away as Damon's face morphs into one of disbelief, and Athena stands there with a similar look that quickly morphs into anger.

"I'm going to scoop his eyes out of his skull and use them in a game of beer pong,"

Damon hums, watching the man retreat still. "Twisted. I like it,"

"You like that one?"

The vampire nods. "It was good,"

"I'm trying it out, it's an acquired taste," Athena hums, feeling Stefan slide up to her side. "Hey, have either of you seen Rose?"

Damon shakes his head, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Not since Jules attacked you. She said she was going to get more stuff for your shoulder from town and she never came back."

"What a flake,"

"At least she didn't take off in my car,"

Stefan furrows his brows at their casual conversation, shaking his head in constant exasperation with the two. "Did John say anything useful?"

Athena shakes her head. "No, he's useless. I think he's stalling because he doesn't know a single thing about Klaus besides what you've told him about Originals, and I think he's bluffing for something else. Do you have my phone?"

Stefan pats his pockets, nodding slightly. "Yeah, you don't have pockets so I grabbed it for you," He hands her the cellphone and her eyes widen as she scrolls through the dozens of missed calls and voicemails from Caroline.

"What the hell," She tries dialing Caroline's number but she immediately gets a dial tone, and she feels her heart race in panic before sudden realization sets in. "Oh, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to torture every single one of those goddamn werewolves until they're begging me to kill them."

"Athena, what's wrong?"

"Tyler and his little werewolf guardian Jules have Caroline,"

Damon's eyes widen and he shakes his head. "How do you know? I thought you threatened Tyler earlier today?"

"I did," She scoffs, dragging both Salvatores behind her towards the door. "And when you get threatened, Damon, don't you do what you were told explicitly not to do?"

He hesitates for a moment before nodding. "You're right. But we need to find her. Where could they be holding her?"

"They're in the woods, most likely," Stefan sighs, running his hands through his hair as they burst into the brisk night air. "They just shifted back from the full moon, so they're probably camped out somewhere."

Athena sighs, gritting her teeth as she scrolls through the contacts on her phone. "I think I know someone who can help us find them. Two people, actually."

Her phone rings for a moment before the other line clicks, signaling an answer. "Hello?"

"Athena? What's up?"

"Josh, are you with Bonnie?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Because I need your help sending a message to somebody,"

A short pause echoes before she hears a slight, excited laugh from the god. "That's your murder voice, isn't it? I'm on my way."

──────

author's note; this was sorta rushed but i also want to go to bed, but I promise there will be lots and lots of blood in the next chapter and Athena's gonna be a total badass and things are going to get very chaotic and fun. 

also the chapter title is 100% in the tone of "I'm on my way to murder Elena," 

originally published; 1.20.21. 

edited: 12.3.23.

- liz