Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.
A/N Just little AU Alt. take VD 4x20 and TO 1x01. With no Hayley or the baby so things will be slightly different.
RETURN OF THE KING
"Welcome to the dark side of New Orléans." One of the cities, ignorant human tour guides said. "A supernatural playground, where the living are easily lost and the dead stick around to play." I couldn't help but grin at the truth in his words.
Maybe this human isn't as ignorant as I first thought. Watching as he and the group he was leading, passed by me. Enjoying the warm sun on my face, in the city my love had helped build, but not forgetting why it was that I was here.
Katerina Petrova.
The whore of a doppelgänger, who after once again failing to earn her freedom from my love, left him with a final offer for her life. By offering up the life of a witch here in the French Quarter, that Katerina had supposedly learned was conspiring against him. A tale that I didn't entirely believe, especially when the tale was coming from the manipulative bitch, that was Katerina Petrova.
God, I have no idea what Elijah sees in her, I thought. Shaking my head. Desiring nothing more than to rip out Katerina's heart myself, but I couldn't. Not without hurting Elijah, my brother in all but blood and despite not holding any weight of truth to what Katerina had spoken of, I was here nonetheless, to find out whether or not she was lying. Making my way through the busy streets to where I knew a few natural witches sometimes posed as nothing but fakes, to make money from the ignorant humans.
One of the advantages of being as old as I was and lover to the most powerful vampire alive, is that I have picked up a few nifty tricks. Such as being able to sense the presence of a natural witch. A witch, that I found posing as a psychic and sitting down across from her with a smile.
"Good afternoon." I could see the fear in her eyes, the witch knowing instantly what I was. "Time for one more?" I held out my hand, knowing that she wouldn't take it.
"I have nothing to say to you." She told me, her eyes looking around her anxiously.
I laughed, pulling my hand back.
"Well that's not very courteous." I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in, crossing my legs. "You don't even know me."
"I know what you are." She said. "You're an abomination. A nightcrawler. A vampire."
I smiled a predatory smile, my exposed teeth making her shiver, as I leaned my arms against the table.
"Good. I see you're not as useless as I feared, so how about we get down to business. I'm looking for someone." I informed her. "A witch by the name of Jane-Anne Deveraux." I let the name roll off my tongue, watching as her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, before a calm mask slipped over her face. "Perhaps you know her?" I prompted.
Her eyes once again looking around anxiously.
"No, I'm sorry, I don't know her." She answered.
I sighed, not wanting to have to resort to pain, at least not so soon.
"I know you're lying." The smile leaving my face, as I grabbed her hand. "And unless you want me to shatter every bone in your hand, then I suggest you tell me what I want to know." Hearing as her heartbeat sped up, fear once again filling her eyes. "So again, please, where is Jane-Anne Deveraux?" I applied a slight amount of pressure to her hand, not enough to break her bones, but enough to cause her discomfort.
"I-I can't. I'm sorry." She stuttered out. "It's against the rules."
"What rules?" I asked, never having seen one of the witches of the French Quarter so... meek.
My memory of the witches I had met here before, had been formidable, powerful. Even against my love, even knowing he would kill them, they had never been so afraid.
I had also never heard of any rules.
"His rules. The rules that prevent witches here in the quarter from practicing magic or even talking out of turn, because the vampire won't allow it."
Her words stunned me. Trying to think of a vampire here in the city or anywhere for that matter, that had that kind of influence, power, over anybody, let alone witches. Especially the witches of the French Quarter who I had never seen bow down to anyone, not even my love. Who commanded respect wherever he went, his name and reputation preceeding him. But even he had never banned witches from practicing their magic.
He respected witches and their power.
Believing it was better to allow them their place and use them when needed. Rather than attempt to control them as it appeared they were here. My love knowing that no witch would allow that type of control for long. It only being a matter of time before they rebelled against their oppressor, seeking revenge.
Was that why the witch Jane-Anne was plotting against my love? Did she believe that he was somehow responsible for the way the witches here were being treated, despite the fact that my love had not been back in New Orléans for over a century.
"Does this vampire have a name?" I asked, wanting to know the name of the vampire whose head I might soon be claiming.
Although once my love finds out that someone has been playing King in his city, he will want to claim their life for himself.
"Marcel." The witch answered, the name sending anger coursing through my veins, my jaw clenching.
"And where I can find, Marcel?" I spat his name through clenched teeth.
The name of the poor little slave boy, my love had raised and then turned, nearly two hundred years ago, igniting the bloodlust within me. I despised Marcel. Almost as much as I despised Katerina. My love having taken on the slave boy as a protege, after turning him, the arrogance and entitlement that Marcel then walked around with infuriating me. Believing that becaue of who his sire was, that the respect and everything else that was my love's, was also now his.
And now that fool was calling himself King, a title he hadn't earned or deserved.
The witch giving me the name of a bar on Bourbon street. A street that just the name was enough to bring a smile to face, as memories of nights spent dining on nothing but bourbon and blood, till the sun rose the next morning, filled my mind. Pulling out my phone as I made my way there and getting my love's voicemail.
"Haven't found the witch yet, but I am about to pay a visit to an old friend, that supposedly has the witches here so under his thumb that they're too afraid to even practice magic. Apparently it's against his rules." I scoffed. "Eitherway I'll let you know what I find. See you soon. I love you."
I hung up, putting my phone back in my pocket, only moments before I followed the loud karaoke music into the bar that the witch had named. The awful singing coming from the stage, being unfortunately a voice I recognized and loathed. Marcel always did fancy himself a rock star, too bad he didn't have the voice for it. Scrunching my face in disgust, at all the pathetic human blood bags that were cheering at the stage and practically swooning at his feet. Ignoring the rest of his ego performance and heading over to the bar where I ordered myself a glass of their finest scotch.
A taste I had acquired thanks to my husband.
It not escaping me, the four other vampires in the bar. Vampires that shouldn't be walking around in the daylight. The rings on their fingers, a clear sign that Marcel had broken one of my love's rules, by sharing a secret that wasn't his to share. Taking the time whilst Marcel sang to quietly, discreetly and quickly, compel every human in the bar.
Knowing my own temper and hatred for Marcel, it will undoubtedly come in handy.
Before being daring and bold enough to take a seat next to one of the vampires I had surmised was a friend of Marcel's and had yet to sense what I was. Confirming my suspicions that they were young and not well-trained, but feeling their eyes appraise me as I shrugged out of my leather jacket. The tight and revealing bustier I was wearing, leaving nothing to the imagination. Their eyes immediately falling to my chest. Something that would have cost them their eyes, had my love been here to witness.
Busying myself by ordering another drink. My ears then being grateful when the music stopped, Marcel walking off the stage and immediately bumping fists with one of the other vampires to my right. Before grabbing himself a beer and downing it. It taking longer than I thought for Marcel to feel my presence, my blonde hair hiding my face, as I heard him step up behind me.
"Now just what do we have here." He spoke. "Someone's face that I don't know and that hasn't informed their King that they were coming." I rolled my eyes.
Finishing my drink, before I turned around to face him, his gaze meeting mine and his eyes widening in surprise when he instantly recognized me.
"Caroline." He whispered shocked and a little afraid, knowing that wherever I was my love was never far behind me.
Taking note of the way Marcel's friends turned to look at me with caution, but it was clear by the speculative look in their eye that they didn't know who I was. Another mistake of Marcel's and another thing that we would be having words about.
"Marcel." I replied leaning my arms back against the bar. "It's been a long time." I smiled.
"Nearly a hundred years." He said, his friends watching the two of us with careful eyes. "Since that nasty little business of you and Klaus being run out of town by his papa." His smirked, thinking he had embarrassed me and taking note that at the mention of my love's name, his friends tensed.
Good. They knew enough to fear him. At least it seems, Marcel wasn't stupid enough not to tell his friends about his sire. Although knowing Marcel, it wasn't to warn them, it was to brag.
"Nasty business that resulted in a trail of dead vampires, following you out-of-town." He finished.
"Yes and what a pity it is that you weren't one them." I smiled, finishing off my second drink and watching in amusement as one of Marcel's lackey's tried to take a step forward, only to be held back by the man himself.
"Don't." He cautioned, knowing very well that I could handle myself and that any harm that may come to me would result in his instant death.
"She needs to learn some respect." The daywalker wearing, a knit cap of all things, growled.
"As do you." I said staring the young vampire down, before turning back to address Marcel. "And don't worry that pretty little head of yours, Klaus turned Mikael into ash months ago, so you have nothing to fear." I smiled like the devil. "Unless of course you've been breaking his rules?" I sang the last word sweetly.
Enjoying the way that Marcel suddenly looked lost for words. The fear in his eyes, knowing that we both knew he had broken my love's rules, pleasing me greatly.
"Why you little – no one threatens the king!" It was a dark-haired vampire this time that growled, making a move to grab me, but he was too slow and before Marcel could stop him, I had his arm twisted behind his back and his face pressed against the bar.
"Didn't we just talk about respect?" I laughed, pushing the pathetic vampire's face harder into the bar. "In this case, think of it as respecting your elders." I said, making it clear that I was both older and stronger than him, if it happened to be a point he had missed.
"Caroline." Marcel then started, barely restraining his anger and his friends. "You are making a scene." He gestured to the humans.
I just smiled. "So it would seem." Before whistling and watching as every human in the bar froze, before calmly exiting the bar, the bartender locking the door behind him.
Marcel and his friends looking stunned.
"There. Privacy." I said, before releasing Marcel's lackey, who rushed back to his friends and sitting myself atop the bar. "Now let's talk." I told Marcel. "Starting with this King of the Quarter business."
"You've been gone a long time, Caroline." Marcel said, in that arrogant and over-confident tone of his that I had always hated. "Things have changed. This city has changed."
"Yes, I can see that and from where I'm seated not entirely for the better." I interjected.
Marcel laughed, a smirk crossing his face. "Not for the better? We rule this city now. Us. Vampires. And you want to know how – me." He stepped towards me. "I got rid of the werewolves, chased them out-of-town with their tails between their legs and the witches." He laughed. "The witches now know their place and the penalities for even attempting to practice magic. While the humans all the while, simply smile and look the otherway, keeping the sweet blood flowing."
I just shook my head at him. Was he really so over-confident, so short-sighted?
"I always knew you were a fool, Marcellus." I said using the full name that my love had given him. "I just didn't know until today, the extent in which your foolishness reached." That wiped that stupid smirk off his face.
"Excuse me?" Marcel asked offended and I could see his drones, sharing his offense.
"You heard me. You're a fool." I repeated. "You haven't raised this city to new heights, all you've done is laid claim to something that was never yours and then insured its destruction. As well as your own. Or are you really naïve enough to believe that the witches you've all but made powerless in their own city, won't eventually fight back. Won't rise up and crush the tyrant that was crushing them?"
An idea that was becoming more appealing to me by the second. I would enjoy crushing Marcel's skull between my hands and being nearly nine hundred years old, it would be quite a simple task for me.
"The witches of my city know better than to cross me or to test me." Was all Marcel said.
Now it was my time to laugh. Who did he think he was my love?
"I guess you really are that naïve then." I shook my head at him. "And here I thought that Nik taught you well, I guess not." I hopped down from the bar. "But never matter, that's not why I'm here. If you want to piss off an entire town of witches, capable of killing you, then that's your problem. Just don't expect Nik to save your life again, when you eventually come crawling back for mercy. Especially not after what you did."
That made him freeze. Good. I had, had my suspicions for decades about what really happened the night that Mikael had found us. About how he had found us. And now seeing that Marcel of all vampires had survived the massacre that night, it only seemed to strengthen my suspicions, as did Marcel's reaction.
"What I did?" He prompted curious, his face a mask, but I could still see the fear in his eyes.
"I find it curious don't you, that out of all the vampires that Mikael massacred that night, he left alive the one that Nik thought of like a son. Raised like a son." I said pointedly, my accusation not lost to Marcel, as it was to his lackey's.
Nor was it lost to me the clenching of his jaw, or the tightening around his eyes. I knew it.
"A son he left behind to die without a second thought, when it came time to protect his own skin." Marcel then bit back, as if trying to justify himself.
"Nik didn't leave you behind." I told him, not that I hadn't begged my love to do so.
The little bastard having been the cause of many an argument between my love and myself. Especially when one of Marcel's actions had resulted in the daggering of Rebekah. My sister, my best friend and the so called woman that Marcel loved, that he gave up without a second thought all to become a vampire. It angering me greatly that Nik had punished Rebekah for her actions with Marcel. Actions that I had tried to discourage her against, knowing that Nik would never approve and never believing myself that Marcel was the one for her. Or good enough for her. My thoughts being proved right, the day that Marcel made his choice for power, for immortality, rather than for her.
And it was that day, that I really began to question Marcel's loyalty to my love. That I began to doubt the love he had for his father and sire. His lust for power even then, with the little he commanded as my love's progeny, present enough to fuel my doubts.
"He thought you dead. He mourned you. Even held on to the belief that you had survived somehow, for a few decades, hoping that you would find us. But you never did." I sighed. "And now I know why, because you were too busy laying claim to something that was never yours. Too busy calling yourself King."
My love will be furious when he learns of this betrayal. Loyalty being something he valued above all else.
"I am the King." Marcel's temper, I could see, was beginning to reach boiling point, as he snapped at me.
"No." I shook my head, not frightened by his outburst in the least. "You're a bastard taken from the streets and raised by a King, who will soon find himself nothing but ashes when the true King returns and learns of your betrayal. And he is returning Marcel." My smile was now sinister. "Of that I can promise you and he won't be happy to learn, that along with your betrayal you've shared secrets that should have never passed your lips." I said and tilting my head in the direction of his friends.
My eyes zeroing in on the rings that each vampire wore.
"Especially to those so unworthy." I said, turning back to face Marcel.
"You call them unworthy." Marcel started. "I call them family. Family that are under my protection and have earned their place by my side and in the sun."
I couldn't help but laugh at the confidence in his tone. He really had grown sure of himself in the last century.
"Unfortunately that was never your decision to make and leaves the both of us with a little problem." I told him, before blurring over to the closest member of his 'family' and gripping their neck in one hand, from behind.
Whilst my other held the hand that the ring was located on at an unnatural angle, the vampire I was holding groaning out in discomfort.
"But lucky for you, that little problem, has an easy solution." I said, ignoring Marcel's protests and quickly and easily tearing the ring from the vampire I was holding, hand – finger and all.
His groans of discomfort then turning into screams, as he immediately burst into flames, when the sun hit his skin. Marcel and the others quick to react to put him out and shield him.
I just laughed. Enjoying the sight before me and licking the blood that was now on my fingers and dropping the now useless appendage to the floor. The blood lightly sizzling on my tongue.
"Vervain." I said, recognizing the poisonous herb in the vampire's blood immediately. "Smart. But a wasted effort."
Marcel seeing to it that the vampires in his closest circle, were protected from compulsion, wouldn't save him or them. It just meant that whatever information my love wanted from them, if he decided to keep them alive rather than just kill them, would result in more pain then they could have ever imagined. My love being quite the artist when it came to pulling information from others.
"You little bitch. You're dead." One of the lackey's then snarled, lunging for me and I easily subdued him, plunging my hand into his chest and ripping out his heart, before he ever knew what had happened.
"I believe the correct term is undead." I snarked, dropping the bleeding heart in my hand, next to the body that it once belonged. "And word of advice darling..." I said, talking to the now lifeless corpse. "Never pick a fight with one of the first vampire's turned, because you'll find I have centuries on you." My words halting the movement of the only one of Marcel's lackey's still remaining.
Not counting the poor sod whose finger I had removed and was still healing from the daylight burns he had suffered.
"What no more takers?" I smirked. "And here I thought that Marcel would have surrounded himself with valiant knights, not just pawns."
"Enough!" Marcel then growled. Taking a menacing step before me. "You dare come into my city – and it is mine now, Caroline." He barked. "And then harm my guys. My family. No one harms my guys."
I rolled my eyes. Becoming bored. "And let me guess why, because it's one your rules."
He just laughed. "God you always were a such an annoying bitch. Thinking you were so much better than me and everyone around you, all because Klaus deemed you worthy enough to warm his bed. But look around – Klaus isn't here and this is no longer his city. It's mine. He left. Running from his daddy like a scared child and now everything that was once his is now mine. The city, the power, the title and it's time that his whore showed me some respect." He roared in my face, his hand closing around my throat.
I let him. Not even flinching. Knowing that Marcel would never kill me, he was too afraid of my love's wrath and knowing that I could easily overpower him.
"Who knows, perhaps I'll even make you my Queen, no mistress, because from what I remember of the sounds you two made together, you were always a pleasing little whore." He whispered into my ear, while one his hands slid under my top.
"Mmm, you're right." I seductively said back. "I am pleasing. And a bitch, but I don't think you'll enjoy me as much as Nik does, want to why?" I asked, looking up at him from under my lashes and taking him by surprise when I snapped the arm of the hand that was working its way up to my chest. Before all but castrating him with my other hand. "Because like my lover I'm also a bit of a sadist, who relishes in pain and there is no way some power-hungry pussy like you, would ever be able to compete, or last." I let him go, dropping him to the ground as he did his best to silence his groans.
"You're a dead bitch walking." Marcel glared at me, as he snapped his arm back into place.
But he was still as of yet, unable to walk or stand. It would take a little while longer, probably a couple hours, for that little bit of equipment to heal.
He should just be grateful that I didn't rip it off. A punishment that if Rebecca was here, she would have inflicted.
"And you're an overconfident bastard, whose days are numbered." I glared back, hearing the soft movement of someone behind me and turning around to see the last of Marcel's minions coming toward me with a stake in his hand.
A stake I quickly turned around on him. His greying and decaying body then dropping to the floor.
"Really?" I asked the body incredulously. "Did you not hear me before, about being one of the first vampires turned." I just shook my head. "Obviously you didn't choose these ones for their intelligence." I told Marcel, before quickly deciding to deal with the last of his drones.
The poor sod whose finger I had removed, easily removing his heart just as I had done his friend.
"That takes care of that and now that we're alone and I have your undivided attention, you're going to help me find someone." I told Marcel, kneeling before him. "A witch and seeing as how they all answer to you, it shouldn't be difficult. So tell me, where can I find Jane-Anne Deveraux?"
He just smirked. "And what is it you want with Jane-Anne?" He had the courage to ask.
"Well now that would be my business wouldn't it." I replied.
He laughed. "Actually I think you mean that it's Klaus' business."
I was growing bored again. And agitated. I had never had much patience with Marcel and he was just about at the end of my rope. The only reason I hadn't killed him yet, being because I knew my love would want to kill him himself. But having enough of his mouth and wanting to move this along, I decided to make him a little more co-operative, plunging my hand into his chest and squeezing his heart.
He gasped, eyes wide, his strength useless against my own as he struggled.
"I grow tired of this Marcel and you should know better than to test me, so tell me where I can find the witch - now!" I ordered him.
Marcel glaring at me as he continued to struggle and not answering me, until I started to apply more pressure to his heart. Giving me the name of the Deveraux run bar and restaurant just down the street, where Jane-Anne and her sister worked.
I smiled at him, removing my hand from this chest and allowing him to slump down against the side of the bar.
"See now, was that so hard?" I asked him sarcastically.
"You have no idea the mistake you just made." He had the gall to threaten. "I will make you pay for this."
I just laughed. "Oh you poor soul, I would love to see you to try." Being the last words he heard, before I snapped his neck. "Finally, silence." I sighed.
Taking a look around at the now bloody and body ridden bar, not caring about the mess I had created and carrying Marcel out of the bar. Pretending that he was heavier than he was and that he had indulged in one too many drinks, before dumping him – none to gently, into the trunk of a nearby car. It didn't take too much to compel the keys away from the driver. Nor did it take me long to reach the bar where the witch worked. Finding a pretty little brunette, with long hair, behind the bar as I walked in and instantly sensing what she was.
Perfect.
"Hey, what can I get you today?" She greeted when she saw me, not realizing what I was until I smiled.
That was when she tensed.
"Jane-Anne Deveraux I presume?" I asked and from the increase rhythm in her heartbeat I knew that I was right.
"What do you want vampire, neither me or my sister have broken Marcel's rules." She spat and I find myself admiring this foolish little mortal's bravery.
"I'm not here on behalf of Marcel." I told her, my own disgust for the man filling my voice. "My name is Caroline." She froze again, knowing my name. "Good. You've heard of me. So that means you know who I am, what I'm capable of and who it is that sent me here looking for you. So tell me..." I rested my hands on the bar, leaning in closer to her face. "Why is it, that a from what I hear, powerless witch, from the Quarter is plotting against my love who hasn't set foot in this city in over a century?" I asked her. Hearing as her heartbeat sped up again. "Oh and before you think of lying to me, you might want to take a look around at the all the humans in your little bar. Humans that I have no problem killing. Including your sister, the cute little brunette cook, who looks so much like you and is currently glaring at the back of my head." I turned my head to wave at her.
"We're not plotting against, Klaus." Jane-Anne then spoke, regaining my attention. "We need his help and this was the only way we knew to get his attention."
I'll admit my curiosity was peaked, wondering why these witches wanted my love's help and having a sneaking suspicion that it involved Marcel and the rule he had over the Quarter.
"Well color me intrigued, but first your best scotch – minus any vervain you might try to slip in and second, how about you begin by telling me just what is Katerina Petrova's involvement in all this." I said, taking a seat at the bar.
Jane-Anne nodding towards her sister with a comforting smile, before fetching me my drink and talking.
"Katherine owed us a favor." She began, using the name that the doppelgänger had adopted for herself. "My family had helped her out a few decades back, before Marcel had implemented all his rules."
"Oh, you mean the ones where you aren't allowed to practice magic without his approval." I couldn't help but interject in a snarky tone.
"Yes." Jane-Anne said, before continuing. "My Grandmother saved her from a group of vampires who wanted to hand her over to Klaus. In exchange, Katherine owed us a debt. A debt that I said I would see filled, if she could somehow get Klaus to return to New Orléans. To help us." She then sighed. "I should have known better than to trust her word and to believe that any message she got to Klaus, would actually be the message we agreed on." She shook her head. "She probably instead saw this as her chance to get rid of the debt that we held over her."
I sipped my drink.
"Yes, well many people have made mistakes when it comes to Katerina, my brother-in-law Elijah, making the biggest – he fell in love with her. As have many over the decades." I downed my drink. "Now how about we stop talking about that self-serving little slut and you tell me what help it is that you need from my husband. Although I'm guessing from the state of the quarter and the amount of loathing you hold for his name, that this entire thing has something to do with Marcel?" I prompted, waiting for her to confirm my suspicions.
"He's out of control." It wasn't Jane-Anne who answered, but her sister.
"I'm sorry little Deveraux, I don't believe we've been introduced." I said.
"It's Sophie and she's right." Jane-Anne spoke. "We seeked out Klaus' help because Marcel is out of control and so are all the vampires that follow him. The streets being stained with blood night after night and we're all powerless to stop it. Quite literally. Witches, humans, werewolves." Jane-Anne's face was filled with sadness as she spoke. "If they have a heart that beats and they don't obey Marcel's rules – he kills them."
"And let me take a stab in the dark here, you would like it if Klaus kill's Marcel and rids you of your vampire problem?" I asked, easily connecting the dots.
Witches could be so bloody predictable at times. Both Deveraux witches nodding.
"He's the only one who can." Sophie said. "All the vampires here either worship him or are afraid of him and the ones stupid enough to challenge him are killed and made an example of, so no one else is foolish enough to try."
Jane-Anne then adding.
"Klaus is our only hope." Her voice was almost pleading. "He's the only one that Marcel still fears. Having feared for the day that he may return and reclaim the city that he helped build. We need his help."
I sighed. "How did this happen in the first place?" I asked, it still escaping me how Marcel had put the French Quarter witches into subjugation. "How did one vampire gain so much power that he could drive the werewolves from their home and the witches from practicing their craft?"
The two sisters shared a look.
"It wasn't immediate." Jane-Anne answered. "It took time. Decades. Marcel biding his and building his army, until he had a large enough following to pose a serious threat to all those with wolf blood and then – when he had enough – he hunted them. Butchered them. Women, children, anyone with gene – triggered or not, until finally to protect what was left of their species, they left."
"And your community simply allowed this?" I asked, still not seeing how Marcel was able to control them, prevent them from striking back against him.
"Some of us did fight back." Jane-Anne said. "But unknown at the time, we were betrayed by some of our own who had sided with Marcel and helped to consolidate his power. His rule. Turning their power, our power, against us." She finished morosely.
"It's how he knows when any of us do magic, no matter how small." Sophie continued for her sister. "And it's why he needs to be dealt with, because unlike the werewolves who could just simply escape Marcel by leaving – we don't have that luxury." She said. "Because our power comes from this city, from our ancestors that are buried here and it's time for us to take that power back. And Klaus is going to help us."
I couldn't help but chuckle at the balls that this little witch had. Or the surety that she spoke with, that my love would deal with Marcel.
"Sophie!" Jane-Anne chastised, but I simply held up my hand shrugging off her concern.
"No, go ahead." I told the little witch. "Tell me, please, why you are so sure that my husband will help you and kill the man that he raised from a child and thought of like a son?" That started both of them. "Oh, you didn't know?"
They shook their heads.
"We knew Klaus turned Marcel." Sophie said. "He's bragged about it. Used it. To help name himself King."
I rolled my eyes. Typical Marcel.
"Yes, as I have discovered, during our short reunion." Both witches eyes went wide, their heartbeats racing. "Oh, calm down, if you're afraid that Marcel knows you're plotting his demise – he doesn't. And as for the little problem you ladies have – consider it handled." I told them, swinging myself over the bar and helping myself to another drink.
The hope in their eyes hard to miss.
I knew my love would help. Marcel's betrayal signing his own death sentence, something that the witches didn't need to know. Deciding to take advantage of the situation I was being presented with, to make sure that there was an open door welcome for my love's return.
"That is," I then continued, that hope dying. "if you and the rest of your kind follow just one little... condition." I said, deciding against using the term rule.
"What condition?" Jane-Anne asked.
"Loyalty." I told them. "If you want Klaus to deal with Marcel and all the vampires and witches that are loyal to him, then you need to swear fealty to the true King of New Orléans."
"True King?" Sophie asked incredulously.
"My husband built this town from nothing and allowed all your families to settle here on the condition that none of your kind would harm those under his protection." I informed them. "He didn't care if you practiced magic or if you used it against ignorant vampires causing trouble or harming someone you loved. What he cared about was your loyalty and your oath – to never use your magic against him or those he protected, those he cared for. And if the need ever arose, to assist him or his family with whatever magical need he or they may have." I stared at the both of them. "Now, will you abide by that same oath or will I have to tell him that along with Marcel, there are a couple of pesky witches to deal with as well." I waited.
Neither sister looking outright happy with what I had said. Proposed. But both were, I hope, smart enough to see that this was their best option. The two witches sharing numerous looks in their silent conversation, before finally answering.
"We have your word – Klaus' word." Jane-Anne stressed. "That all witches in the Quarter will not be prohibited or punished for doing magic?"
I smiled. "They will be free to practice any magic they like. But be warned that if any witch – working alone or otherwise, attempts to kill my husband or any member of my family, then it will be the entire Quarter that suffers. And you will all learn that the reputations that precede both myself and my husband are not exaggerations or rumors, understood?" My warning cold, but they both still nodded. "Good. So now to get down to business, these witches working with Marcel – where are they?"
New Orleans. The city that I built and the city I didn't realize how much I had missed, until I returned. Finding my way easily through the Quarter and to the house that once belonged to my family and that I now learned was home to another. Another I had raised. Another I had made.
Marcel.
The small boy who at one time reminded me so much of myself and how I had been treated by Mikael, while we were still human. Only to now learn from my love that just as so many others in my life had, he had betrayed me. I had given him everything. Taught him everything. And he repaid that kindness, that generosity by betraying me and my family. Laying his claim to a city, a kingdom, that was never his. My love also informing me of another betrayal, one that cut even deeper – Marcel had betrayed me to Mikael. Giving up our location and causing us to run, again, just like we had done so often over the course of our long lives.
I sighed. I should have listened to my wife, I thought. Hearing all the warning's and cautions she had told me about the boy, the man he had grown into, echo inside my head.
She had never liked Marcel. Tolerating him only for my sake whilst he was a boy, but as he grew up, that tolerance quickly diminished. Caroline warning me time and time again, not to turn him. To leave him human. And now it seems that everything she had warned me about had come to pass. Having had my own suspicions about who it was that betrayed us to Mikael, but never wanting to believe that it was the boy I had raised that had then stabbed me in the back. There only being a few people I allowed myself to care about and the small boy that I had once saved from the lashes of his master's whips, was one of them.
And now here I was, a century later, arriving to kill the man he had grown into.
My love having gleefully taken care of Marcel's small inner circle. The vampires he had gifted daylight rings. While the witch who I was told was conspiring against me and her sister, took care of the witches that had been helping Marcel enforce his rules. Caroline bargaining that as an added sweetener for the witches of the Quarter oath of loyalty towards me and my family. She would allow them to deal with the ones who had betrayed their own kind. Not to mention granting their request to be allowed to deal with any vampire that had caused them harm.
It was a clean-up. A rebellion. The witches who had long been suppressed finally taking back what was taken from them, whilst also making way for my family's return. Getting rid of any vampire foolish enough to remain loyal to Marcel.
Marcel, who as I neared the house, could hear screaming. A sound that no mortal could hear, the house having being spelled when it was first built to keep out prying ears. His pain filled cries, like music to my ears, as was the delight I could hear in my love's voice and the pleasure she was taking in her task. Having informed me that Marcel had been ingesting vervain, making him immune to my compulsion and I had asked my love to bleed him dry.
I wanted answers.
Not doubting my love in the slightest, when she said that Marcel had already confirmed for her that he was the one to betray us to Mikael, but still I had to be sure. I needed the truth. I needed to know why, not just that he had. Letting myself in through the unlocked front door and finding in the now ruined living room, a mangled and bloodied Marcel, hanging from his wrists by the ceiling. His feet not touching the floor and his body swinging, as my love, with a predatory and maniacal smile, proceeded to alternate between whipping the man. Each pass cutting deeply into his skin and she wasn't just focusing on his back. Or slicing open his veins with the sharp dagger in her hand. A dagger I had gifted her, nearly two hundred years before as an anniversary present.
It was a beautiful sight.
"I see, my love, that you have already started the remodelling." I announced my presence.
My beautiful dark angel, turning to smile at me, her long blonde locks and innocent blue eyes, a startling contrast to the full picture before me. The light that still seemed to radiate from her, no matter what sin she indulged in, never failing to make her shine.
"You know I never liked this room." She jested, before snapping her wrist with a quick flick and lashing the whip in her hand, against Marcel's thigh.
Slicing easily through the jeans he wore and the skin that laid beneath. The whip I could smell had been laced with vervain. As were the ropes binding his wrists over his head.
"Yes, I remember." I smiled back, before approaching my once protegé and lifting his hanging head with fingers. "Hello, Marcellus, it's been a while."
"Klaus." He whispered, blood dripping down his face.
And despite the fear that was present in his eyes, he still managed to glare at me.
"What's the matter old friend, not happy to see me?" I quipped with a laugh.
He didn't answer, just continued to glare. Until my love, once again, brought the whip in her hand down against him, this time wrapping it around his throat from behind and pulling his head back.
"He asked you a question." She said as he choked. The vervain burning his skin. "And it would be in your best interests to answer."
"Caroline." I said sternly, earning a look, but still she complied, letting him go. "Now, seeing the vast quantity of blood that is staining this room, I think it's safe to assume that whatever vervain was in your system has now left. But just to be sure." I felt my teeth change, my eyes becoming golden as my hybrid features took over, before leaning in and viciously biting into Marcel's neck.
Tasting no trace of the poisonous herb and letting a considerable amount of my venom into his bloodstream. Marcel struggling uselessly in his chains, knowing what my bite would do to him.
"Now..." I pulled back, licking the blood from my lips. "that bite will kill you, painfully and with the low volume of blood in your body at the moment, it will kill in a matter of hours not days, so how about we get down to business." I gripped his chin, making him look into my eyes as I compelled him. "You will tell me the truth and answer all my questions as soon as I ask them, beginning with was it you that told Mikael that my family and I were in New Orléans?" I waited, dropping his head.
My compulsion working instantly, as he answered in his next breath.
"Yes." He answered.
His confirmation hurting more than I expected, but masking the pain I felt at his betrayal all the same. I would not allow him to see that he had been able to wound me.
"And did you do this of your own free will, or were you compelled?" I then asked, needing to know if his betrayal was his own or not.
"I wasn't compelled. I sought Mikael out." I could hear my love's teeth grind together, her hands clenching into fists at her sides and I knew that she wanted nothing more than to rip out Marcel's heart, right there and then.
But she wouldn't. Not wanting to deprive me of killing Marcel myself.
"I had heard that he was looking for you." Marcel continued. "And so I sent word that I knew where you were, in exchange for him sparing my life and the lives of those I knew would follow me." He then lifted his head, a smirk forming at the corner of his lips. "Anyone loyal to you or your family, he killed."
Leaving the road to his ascension of the throne open, with no one to stand in his way. Spotting on the top of the fireplace, a water bottle that I could see was filled with vervain and needing to unleash some of my own anger, as well as wipe the pleased smile off his face, I retrieved it. The bottle then being emptied down his throat, before he even knew what happened.
"I want to know why?" I then asked in a hard voice, my fingers digging into his chin as I made sure to look him in the eye. "Why you betrayed me, after I saved your life, after I gave you everything?"
"Because I wanted more." He said simply. "More than to be the boy you had brought in off the streets. More than to have traded one master for another."
"You were family." I told him.
"I was a toy." He disagreed. "A shiny toy that you could play and mould to your heart's content. Someone to be just another pawn to you. I was never family." He shot back. "Not truly. And you proved that the day you daggered Rebekah."
"Rebekah?" I couldn't believe it. "I loved you like a son and you sold me out to Mikael, because of your infatuation with my sister. An infatuation that you yourself proved was not love, the moment that you took my offer of immortality over a life with her."
"A human life." He said disdainfully. "One where I would grow and age and she would remain forever as she was, until the day came that she no longer loved me. Could no longer love me. Your offer just making it clear to me that no matter what you said about me being family, they were simply just words. Empty words. Because if you truly saw me as such then you would have seen me as worthy enough for your sister, but you didn't. So I made my choice." There was no regret in his eyes. "The choice that I best believed, best knew, would give me the only thing I had ever desired in life – family and power, you teaching me how to get both."
"Yes, well I obviously didn't teach you well enough, as here you are, betrayed yourself by the very witches that you believed were far too afraid of you to ever fight back." That startled him and I grinned. "Oh love, didn't you share that it was the witches that had brought us back to town, with the sole purpose of getting rid of their little vampire problem."
She innocently shook her head. "I really didn't find that detail relevant, now can we please kill him?" She was getting bored I could see.
"Soon my love." I promised her, before turning back to Marcel. "I admit a part of me wants to commend you for what you have been able to build here and how you achieved it, but another is even more disappointed that, as I said, I did not teach you as well as I had thought. Otherwise you would have known that sooner or later the witches you kept so powerless would rebel against you. Not to mention, when you overthrow a ruler, you never leave them alive." Were the last words I said to him, before reaching my hand into his chest and pulling out his heart.
The useless organ, then soon being dropped to the floor. My love then giggling.
"You know, once Rebekah finds out that you killed her one time lover, she's going to be angry at you for not letting her kill him herself." She said. "You know how irate she was when she discovered that Marcel had simply given her up, for his chance to be a vampire. Never mind the fact that I told both of you that he wasn't worth either of your time." She was pleased with herself.
This being her long-winded version of an 'I told you so'.
"So it would seem." I said, pulling her into my arms and greeting her like I had wanted to since the moment I had first seen her. "Now, how about you and I go and find ourselves someone to eat, whilst delivering a message that the true King of New Orléans has returned."
The two of us sharing a hungry smile, leaving Marcel's body with his heart stuffed into his mouth, on display in the Quarter for everyone to see. Before grabbing a bottle of bourbon and couple of tourists to enjoy the rest of our night.