Loyal Dogs

Loyal Dogs is the eighteenth volume of The Vampire Diaries Digital Comic and the thirty-fourth, -fifth, and -sixth issues in the series.Credit and Purchase Info
==Summary==
Part 1: Tyler Lockwood left Mystic Falls after his mother's murder, and is hiding with a werewolf pack in the Appalachians. But Katherine Pierce's arrival ends his peaceful plans for the summer!
Part 2: The situation gets complicated when a 13-year-old Ripper blackmails Tyler into tracking (and killing!) Katherine.
Part 3: Tyler and Alex have found Katherine's hiding place, but they'll have to get through an Expression witch before they can destroy her!
==Plot==
===Part One===
The average guy runs just around 15 miles per hour. Tyler, in wolf form, just broke 30 and then 50 miles per hour - running through the woods of the Appalachians. Tyler comes to a tree and begins to shapeshift back into human-form. It's not the feeling of his skin stretching that make it such so much, or his skull snapping, or his femurs slamming into different joints. It's that everything goes back to feeling slow. Finding his pants, he returns to a bonfire with other werewolves. He was worried they'd be a drag to ride with, but he has an obligation to protect his own. It just helps that they're all good people... or werewolves... or hybrids. It doesn't matter to him. Ian grabs him in a playful headlock and tells him that the pack has voted. Ty's been voted into doing a beer run. As he leaves the pack, a figure watches him leave in the distance.
At a convenience store, he's looking for beer and Katherine approaches him, telling him he's not old enough to be buying booze. Using his speed, he shoves her up against a isle rack, hand around his throat. She questions if he even does the whole compulsion thing. They're so much more annoying when you actually have to reason with them. Then again, he is strangling a "poor, defenseless girl" in front of others. She asks him to "calm down, boy". Tyler gets to the counter and compels the cashier that he doesn't need to see his I.D. and that he never saw him. She asks Tyler if she's up-to-date with his lady love, Caroline. He hasn't and she tells him that if he'll buy her dinner, she's give him an update.
Katherine Pierce used to be one of the biggest baddest vamps around. Now, she's human again. And since she's spent he last 600 years strutting her stuff like she own the world, she's made an enemy or two... an also because she does crap like that.
Having bought her dinner, Tyler asks about Caroline. Katherine confesses it was a lie. She just wanted him to buy her food. She's fine, in college. In reality, she asks if she can crash with him and his werewolf friends for a few nights. He tells her to get lost, that he wouldn't let a back-stabber like her anywhere near them. Running after them, she mocks his loyalty. He's ditched his Mystic Falls groupies and Caroline. He has a responsibility to his pack. Blind loyalty, that's even worse to Katherine.
Katherine regales Tyler of a story about blind loyalty and its dangers. When she first came to Mystic Falls, she was greeted by the Founding Families. They toasted for the town to treat their sons and daughters as kindly as it has treated them. Katherine tells Mr. Lockwood that the town is absorbing and wagers that she'll chart her residency well into the years. Mr. Salvatore takes notice of her interactions with both of his sons and hopes that a lady, such as herself, uses a few months, and not years, to find a change to settle down. Katherine does admire his sons. During the party, a call for help rings out. They've found a women in the forest out back and orders for Josiah to call for a doctor. The women, Carissa, was one of Emily's servant girls. They have a pulse, but it's weak.
Katherine tells Tyler that she and Carissa were friends. This was back when she was still dealing with the fallout with Klaus. Carissa was going to be the one to help her fix the problem. Tyler inquires how. Carissa was one of Emily's witches and claimed she had found a way to kill Klaus. Tyler wonders why anyone would want to help her. Katherine tells her that she was loyal to her - that she loved her - and had quite the fetish for Expression magic. However, her skill was lacking. Carissa confessed to Katherine that she's not powerful enough, despite thinking she could help. She confessed her love to Katherine, thinking it would spare her. However, her adoration was not as competent for Katherine. With that, Katherine attacked her and she fell into a coma. She even blamed one of George's "field tools" having gotten out of control - just how savage they get when they're in heat.
Tyler calls her disgusting and leaves her on the side of the road. Whatever was coming after her, he believed that she deserved it. Back at camp, several RV are trashed and turned over. He smelled it even before getting back, rather, he didn't smell anyone. Despite what he knows, he calls out to Ian, indicating he's got the beer. However, what happens next is fast. A yo-yo appears and swirls around Tyler's neck, and he is lifted up into the trees. Next to him, two of his friends strung up in a wolfsbane net. A voice calls out to him. The rest of his friends are in similar situations throughout the forest. They're alive though. The man - rather a boy - claims that he hasn't killed them yet. He introduces himself as Alex. His victims call him "The Blood Tsar". He makes Tyler a proposition. He'll return his "dogs" if he helps him add Katerina Petrovisch to his long list of victims. Alex mocks him. Howl for yes. IF the answer is no... he'll die too.
===Part Two===
"Can you comprehend the depths of your failure?" asks Empress Alexandra Romanov. Grigori Rasputin stands before his Empress. She's trusted him to save her son, the future Tsar. His very blood is poisoning him. Rasputin has not only failed her, but all of mother Russia. Rasputin expresses patience towards his Empress. He tells her that overturning the laws of life and death, are not matters for mere mortal men. However, he has found a way to save her son.
Alexei sits with Tyler. He's shocked that he was Tsar - King of Russia. Rather, he was going to be, that is until Katherine. Tyler hates Katherine more. He's left Mystic Falls, his friends, his girlfriend, all to protect his pack and now he's stuck on a road trip with a teenage ripper who's holding his pack hostage. Alexei throws a stick and tells Tyler to "fetch". As they leave the city, Alexei explains to Tyler that Katherine's scent was at the rest stop. A trucker told him that he saw her get on a bus for Daytona Beach. That's six hours away and Alexei is already bored. To fill the time, he tells Tyler more about his past.
Katherine has come to Russia and made a deal with Rasputin, though her contact has warned her about him. Rasputin counters her suspicions, asking if she wished to learn how to kill an Original vampire. Katherine accepts the deal and offers her blood to Alexei and he drinks from her wrist. However, she's also noticed the protesters. She more life in her than what will remain of the royal family. With her blood drank, Rasputin breaks Alexei's neck. Now it begins. He'll wake up in transition. Alexei confesses to Tyler that Rasputin had told him that he fainted and he didn't really know what was happening. Rasputin locked him in a room with two other girls and Alexei feed on them - completing his transition. Empress Romanov was happy for her son's recovery, unaware of what Rasputin had truly done. However, rumors spread of her dealing with the occult. Alexei assumes these was Katherine's doing. To uphold the bargain, Katherine met with Rasputin. She wants a way to kill Klaus. She wants him to perform the spell or ritual that will kill an Original. Rasputin reveals that there is no spell, but there is her. A legendary Petrova doppelgänger, the witch Qetsiyah's masterpiece. Rasputin attacks her, hoping to find the secretes that hide within her by dissecting her. In return, Rasputin is attacked by Katherine's contact - none other than Carissa. They battle it out, but Rasputin's magic proves stronger. He mocks her that she had to send her infatuation to him because she wasn't strong enough to do what he can do. He calls her a pathetic lovesick kitten, just as Katherine attacks him from behind, biting though his neck and ripping off his head. Carissa is loyal to her.
Alexei continues his story to Tyler. He's found out that the witch that saved Katherine used her magic to keep her young and beautiful, hoping for her heart. he also recounts the Russian revolution that was a part of a blizzard. A storm that would end with his family's death. Before her family is assassinated, his mother tells him to not to fear, that the Tsar's blood is eternal. The royal family was supposed to receive a royal burial, but in the revolution they were tossed in a unmarked grave. Now when a child loses his mother, the pain is great. At the time, Alexei didn't realize there was a switch to turn off his humanity. In that moment, he had no choice but to find it.
Arriving at Daytona Beach, Alexei can tell Katherine is there. He can smell her, can feel her. Tyler understands why Alexei wants Katherine, but the last time he had a run-in with her, an entire nation burned. He wonders what will happen when they met again. In the distance, aware, they're being watched by Carissa.
===Part Three===
Alexei wants Tyler to go into a bar for him. He's not of age. Tyler's confused. He could just compel his way in. Not that Alexei couldn't do it, but he'd stick out with a bunch of drunk frat brats and would have to compel the whole bar. Basically, he wants him to find Katherine and get her outside so she can watch him kill her.
Tyler does as he's asked and compels his way into the bar. He asks the waitress if she could help him out, he's looking for a friend. Carissa asks why she'd help one of them 'furry' Lockwoods. She introduces herself and asks if he's Tyler. He recognizes the name and tells her that he's looking for Katherine. However before he can continue, he doubles over in pain. She's using Expression to cast a pain infliction spell. She notices that he looks just like George Lockwood, and Mason too. Tyler questions how she knows his uncles. She reveals that she's the one that helped kick-start Mason's curse. She and Katherine hadn't spoken since about 1918 when they fled Eastern Europe. Few decades later she reached out having found a way to save Katherine; a way to her heart. Or so she thought. Katherine decided to use Mason two-fold - to get the moonstone and to offer him to Klaus as a means to break the Sun and Moon Curse. Katherine wonders if Carissa as another motive as to turn Mason, but she denies it. However, Katherine left her the next morning with Mason in tow. The rest is history. However, today, she hope Katherine will finally see her for who she is. Her one true love.
Tyler mocks her; she sounds pathetic. Katherine's only in love with one person: herself. Carissa doesn't believe that. No one understand her better than she. She came to see her and neither he nor Alexei will ever find her. Katherine's already gone, left as soon as they got into town.
Alexei grows impatient. Never send a werewolf to do a vampire's job, he mutters. He attempts to walk into the bar, but is stopped by the bouncer, who tells him to come back when he's older. Alexei shows him his true face.
Meanwhile, inside, Carissa levitates and threatens Tyler. She's not a distraction. She's putting him down. Having killed the bouncer, Alexei sets his sights on Carissa. He overpowers her and forces her to drink his blood. Snapping her neck, she falls to the floor dead. Waking up in transition, the magic that slowed her aging quickly unraveled. Tyler insults her - she's a pathetic mess of stale wrinkles, used and discarded by Katherine. This is how she'll always see her now. How she's always seen her. Unable to bare her new form, Carissa burst threw the wall and catches fire. Beach-goers attempt to put out the flames, but are unsuccessful.
Katherine's long gone but Tyler wonders what will now happen with him and his pack. Alexei confesses that, unlike Katherine, he rewards those that stick with him. He tell him to consider their deal fulfilled. He offers Tyler a bit of advice, "loyalty should always bleed you".
Returning to the Appalachians, he rescues his pack. Tyler also calls Caroline. He's decided to defer school, for now. The pack he's helping, they need him. He knows it's lame to do it over the phone, but he figured this way it would be harder for her to kill him. He apologies to her and tells her that he loves her.
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Tyler Lockwood
*Katherine Pierce
*Caroline Forbes
===Supporting Characters===
*Alexei Romanov
*Carissa
*Alexandra Romanova (flashback)
*Grigori Rasputin (flashback)
*Giuseppe Salvatore (flashback)
*George Lockwood (flashback)
*Ian
*Mason Lockwood (flashback)
==Trivia==
*This digital comic marks Tyler Lockwood's first appearance in the comic series.
*Despite being in transition, Carissa never complete it by drinking human blood. Despite this, when she broke threw a wall, she burst into fire when exposed to sunlight. This is a "canonical" error to the television series as people in transition are sensitive to sunlight, but are not susceptible to it as a weaknesses like vampires.
==Credits==
*Art by: Cat Staggs
*Colored by: Wendy Broome (issue 35)
*Pencils: Cat Staggs
*Cover by: Cat Staggs
*Page Count: 23
*Age Rating: 15+ Only
==Gallery==
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==References==
==See also==
Category:Non-Canon
Category:Digital Comics