Headlights burned my vision to white. My imagination used to paint Heaven's gates as such warm and ethereal light. It was oddly soothing. A stark contrast to what the darkness had brought me.

The vehicle came to an abrupt stop, brakes squealing till it stood still. The door slammed, hurried footsteps coming to me. I imagined what he saw... if it was even him. I must have looked ghastly laying broken on the road.


"Valerie!" A wave of relief came over me as Tyler's voice broke the silence. It distracted me from the trance of the lights. He came into focus, a different kind of terror in his eyes.
He crouched beside me, trembling hands hovering over me, not wanting to break me more.


"Roll me onto my back," I rasped, breathing getting much worse.


"No, you shouldn't move." He said shaking his head.


"Please. I'll be alright." I hoped.
He reluctantly and gently as humanely possible, rolled me onto my back, my body on fire as nerve endings screamed their defiance. He saw the stake, going a different shade of pale. He swallowed hard.
"Now, pull out the stake."


"What!?" His eyes widened, frantically looking at me before turning his attention to the stake. He brought his arms to his head, looking around as if someone else could help. I grabbed his hand, him focusing on the awkward angle my arm was at or maybe the fact it was starting to grey. I directed it to the smooth wood now slippery and stained with my blood.


"Do it please."


He went paler, swallowing harder. "On the count of three," He said breathlessly, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily building up some courage. I dug my nails into the road in anticipation.

One. 

Two. I gritted my teeth as he grabbed the end of the stake.

Three.

A yelp escaped my lips as he yanked it free of my flesh, pain exploding through my torso as it separated from my internal organs. Blood spurted from the wound before my body started to heal, the pain subsiding in a relieving wave. Bones knitted back together like needlework, reforming the layers of cartilage and marrow. Skin grew to cover the friction burns regardless of the layers that had been torn away and the open cuts sealed themselves. Tyler looked like he might faint as the gaping, bloody hole started to close up, the bleeding subsiding before the layers of skin on either side came to meet each other.


"What the hell?"


"Perks of being a vampire," I joked. His expression didn't change. I clutched his hand in mine, "Thank you."


"It was nothing." He was still staring where the hole had been.

"No, it was, Ty." He looked to me. "You could have chosen to kill me but you didn't. You saved me. I'll always remember that." I groggily sat up, head spinning from exhaustion.


"I thought you were healed?" A bemused gargle of a laugh left my chest.


"Even vampires take a day or so to properly heal. I'm going to be feeling this in the morning." I grabbed my phone tapping the centre button. Nothing. I stooped my head in annoyance.


"Dead phone?" Tyler grinned, getting up off his haunches.


"Help me up, please." I outstretched my arm in which he gently lifted me up. I hobbled towards my bike, my joints feeling like I slept on rocks.


"Don't worry about that. I'll do that. You're coming to the car."


"Fine. Where's the stake?"


Tyler bent down, picking it up from the bitumen, pausing for a moment on the bloodied mess in the middle of the road.


"Sheriff Forbes is going to get called out to this."


"We're not going to leave anything behind."


"But your blood?"


"Isn't in any databases. It'll become a cold case." After a pause, he passed me the stake. I grimaced,

 "No, you hold onto it. Put it behind the seat for now."


"I'll take you back to my place. You can use the phone there."

I looked at him before looking down at myself. Blood was caked on me, my floral dress now crimson. Hopefully it wasn't a rental. I ran a hand through my sticky, matted hair,
"Yes, you're going to walk in and say 'hey mum, look at the magical healing girl I found'."


"There's a medical kit. We can patch you up."


"...and the gaping hole in the front of my dress?"

He glared at the bloodied hole in my dress intensely, scheming to himself. He moved forward and removed his jacket, wrapping it around me, buttoning it back up.
"There you go. Less to bandage."

As Tyler loaded the bike into the tray of the pickup, I learned the extent of its damage. Too bad it couldn't heal like I could.
The steering was bent with the mirrors obliterated. The metallic blue paint had been scuffed and scraped right to the metal, and the headlight had become a fissure of cracks.
Tyler rested it on its side as I threw my bloodied shoes in alongside it.

"Hop in the car. I'll be there shortly."

I sat on the car seat, the cushioning a welcoming comfort to my sore joints. Tyler jumped in the driver's seat, reaching over and pulling a kit from the glove box.
In the dim lighting, he searched through it, pulling out gausses and Band-Aids. I started unfurling a bandage, wrapping it around the arm that had been broken. Tyler wrapped the leg that got mangled as well as using the smaller bandages on my head and other wrist. Band-aids were applied to my knuckles and face where the worst of the blood was. I had gone from vampire to mummy.

Damon was supposed to be the damsel in distress tonight.

Parking the pickup on the lawn, Tyler opened the passenger door, helping me out. He led me to the front porch of the house which was just as extravagant as Stefan's. 

I looked down at my bare, bloodied feet on the large welcome mat. Hopefully it wasn't going to get marked by me standing on it. The sensor light suddenly beamed to life. I fought the urge to hiss.

"We've been spotted." Tyler said, a hand covering his eyes.

"You have to invite me into your house," I whispered, "I can't enter otherwise." A small part of me worried that Tyler could have told his parents and they were waiting behind the door but the rest of me knew that my secret was safe.

"So, this is my humble abode. Come on in," He said louder, opening the door for me. He could have been a little more discreet. "Now it's time for us to really start acting." He whispered.

I held my breath, making sure I was definitely able to make it through the door.

"Oh my God, Tyler!"

A woman's shrill voice broke my focus from the door frame, catching me by surprise. Mrs Lockwood, who was dressed in her nightgown, had been down to berate her son on the hour of night but was now looking at me horrified,

"She needs an ambulance!"

Mayor Lockwood rushed down, obviously having heard his wife's tone.

This was going to be interesting.