The Fallen Slayer {1}

Tempt My Trouble

Klaus had called him.

Jeremy lowered his phone and walked back into the awkward tension-filled dining room, while quickly texting Buffy to warn her what was happening.

Klaus was clearly starting to lose his patience with her so whatever she was planning to do she needed to pick up the pace. He had made his first move which meant that whatever Buffy was planning she needed to get moving.

Elena glanced up at her brother in confusion as she spotted him tucking his phone into his pocket "What was that about?"

Jeremy just shrugged the question off before retaking his seat beside Tyler "It was nothing."

He didn't want to throw Tyler under the bus given that it wasn't his fault this was happening. Plus, he knew Elena would start going crazy if she found out about him and Buffy still being in contact. Given that Elena didn't agree with Buffy right now, she would just start with the lectures claiming that Buffy had lost her mind.


The vague statement made Elena worry.

She knew Jeremy was hiding something from her and she had a very strong feeling that it had to do with their missing sister.

If anyone would know where Buffy was and what she was up to it would be Jeremy. Yet that wasn't Elena's main focus at the moment.

It was the very much sired Tyler currently sitting across from her.

After he had admitted that if Klaus told him to rip out his own heart he would she was worrying more about the hold Klaus may have on Buffy.

What if this tether between them was more like a sire bond? And that was why Buffy was acting so differently.

It wasn't. 

However, before she could attempt to dig into him any information, Tyler placed his hands on the table. This whole situation was just uncomfortable and making his skin itch "I should get going. Um, thanks for the food offer, but..." He paused and glanced at Alaric who nodded "Next time..."

Tyler nodded back awkwardly before standing and quickly making his way out of the house.

As the front door closed behind him Elena groaned "I need a drink."

"Agreed." Giles mumbled as he stood up and moved to the bottle of bourbon on the counter while Alaric walked through the kitchen "Well, that was illuminating."

Giles nodded "It's quite fascinating these sire bonds, willing to do anything as though it is the right thing. It's a rather interesting form of mind control you could say but on a higher level."

Elena groaned and ran a hand through her hair as she moved to stand beside the Watcher "Well now that sired lunatic has access to our house."


Jeremy scoffed, it was ironic how the Queen of Morality was acting like it was Tyler's fault that his free will had been stripped away from him.

Then again, Elena was also the person that seemed to forget her own morals depended on the situation, though that wouldn't stop her from critizing everyone else.

"Giles is right." Alaric added with a slightly more sympathetic tone "This whole sire bond thing is wild. I don't even think Tyler's fully aware of what little reason lies behind what he's saying. It's—it's his weird cult logic."

"What if this is the type of bond Buffy has with him?" Elena asked in worry.

Elena was genuinely concerned that somehow Klaus had control over Buffy and her taking something from him was just her trying to be the type of person they all assumed he wanted her to be.

And that this was just some consequence of his trying to turn her evil.


While the Mystic Falls gang had made assumptions, The Prophecy had never been about turning Buffy evil.

 
Giles contemplated the idea for a moment before shaking his head. Just because none of them could understand why Buffy was acting this way it didn't mean that someone was controlling her.

"Unlikely, Buffy is actively defying Klaus. She wouldn't even be able to say no to him if she was sired."

Elena let out a harsh breath "Well great, that's a wonderful influence for you, Jer." 

Jeremy rolled his eyes "Says you?" He snapped causing her to flinch slightly as he jumped up from his seat "Are you forgetting this Tyler literally has no control? You are acting like it's his fault."

"That is not what I'm doing."

"That is exactly what you're doing! It is what you always do Elena!" Jeremy finally cracked, letting all of the unresolved anger he had at her slip through the cracks "He tried to compel me today. He can't even remember it! But when you don't like something you make it seem like you are the only one with morals that can be trusted. Reminder who had my mind wiped? Who stabbed Rebekah in the back?"

It wasn't that he cared about the Rebekah thing, but Jeremy was getting so sick of Elena acting like she was so innocent and the only one with good morals.

Morals that she seemed to drop when the situation suited her.

He didn't know how but over the past few years, Elena had started turning into a massive hypocrite and he was done listening to it. He had been done the second she tried to get him compelled in Sunnydale.

Trying to ignore the hurt in her chest, Elena somehow managed to miss the point of what he had just said.

Tyler had tried to compel him.

That was literally the only thing she could focus on.

"Jeremy why would you continue to spend time around him?! He is dangerous!"

"He isn't in control! This isn't his fault!"

Elena couldn't argue with that despite how much she wanted to. Jeremy was right but she was just so worried about losing him that common sense seemed to be escaping her.

In her mind, Tyler now worked for Klaus which made him a threat.

"You should have told me."

"I told Buffy, you know the sibling that doesn't resort to compelling me when she doesn't agree with me."

Elena flinched at the jab and quickly turned to Giles and Alaric for help but both men remained completely silent. They literally couldn't argue with what Jeremy was saying.

She was on her own here.

She and Damon were ironically the only two people that tended to jump to compulsion as the answer to all their problems.

"That is not fair." She whispered, that familiar guilt gnawing at her gut.

Jeremy just scoffed before moving toward the staircase. He was done talking about this and letting Elena pretend that there were no consequences to her actions "No, it's a fact."

Buffy may be going overboard but at least she was open about what she was doing and admitted that it probably wasn't the best idea. She wasn't trying to act like what she was doing was the right thing. Buffy had slipped off the edge, but at least she could admit it.


Elena tried to follow after him "Jeremy."

His bedroom door slammed shut, the sound echoing through the house.


Giles exhaled deeply before turning to Alaric for help on how to approach this delicate situation only to freeze.

Alaric was nowhere in sight.

Elena quickly filled with panic and spun around the room only to freeze as she spotted the front door wide open.


Alaric was standing in the middle of the road just as a car rammed into him.


Elena screamed as she and Giles quickly bolted out of the house and over to where Alaric was now laid out dead in the middle of the road.

Crouching down beside him, Elena quickly checked that he still had his ring on before focusing on the driver.

One of Klaus's hybrids.

Which meant Alaric would come back.