He thinks of her often- the witch with the obsidian eyes that burned with a cold hate, the pretty girl with a face that twisted into contemptuous distaste as she sees him, and registers his vampirism. He is surprised not only by the depth of her disgust or its intensity, but by its welcome familiarity. He is well acquainted with it, even after a thousand years he remembers how that expression felt on his own skin, contorting his flesh into a hard, icy mask. How it feels, even now as he begins to smile at her, that self-hatred gnawing at his insides with every unnatural beat of his dead heart, every twitch of his reanimated form.

How can he not detest what he is, he wonders helplessly- knowing that every breath he draws is stolen from the lives of the innocent, and every word he speaks and every move he makes is in violation of the natural order. He is an abomination and he is sin, and he is relieved to see that the witch realizes as much. It is easier this way, he does not want to be seen as a man (he was a man once, but now he thinks he is just a blood-bloated beast), he wants to be seen (he wants them all to be seen, Klaus and Kol and Rebekah and Elijah) as a monster. He is doubly glad of this because surely the witch will do everything in her power to end his existence once and for all, cleanse him of his shame and return him to death where he belongs, and he tries to smile again, but his muscles are unused to the action and his lips return quickly to neutrality.

When the ritual proves unsuccessful, he flees with his mother, hoping to salvage the situation, to somehow have her recreate the ritual again. After all, they can be patient. They have experience in waiting. But her power has been cut off, her strength sapped, and the wave of despair he feels when he learns this threatens to wash him away. But he remembers the witch, and decided to go to her, instead.

She wants nothing to do with him, and her words are edged in venom, sharp and tight with barely contained rage, but she wants vengeance more, she wants to strike back against the Originals and vampires that have cost her everything. So she tells him she will try and find a way to end them all. She warns him it will take time, and he reassures her that it doesn't matter. He has time, he says. He can wait.

And he waits. And waits. The days tick by and turn into months, as she searches for the answer that will end Esther's children, a spell that will end their reign forever.

Somewhere along the line her feverish passion boils over and in the absence of another she turns to him, and her lips taste of lust and wrath and her body burns white-hot with the ancient power that is her birthright. And he holds onto her as if she is his only lifeline in these dark, tumultuous waters that he was thrown into when he foolishly drank Tatia's blood, though in actuality she will be the one that drowns him, finally, and he accepts that gratefully, desires nothing else but that and the feel of her body wrapped around his.

But eventually she begins to feel something for him, and though he feels something for her as well, this discovery brings him pain as well as pleased gratification, because she expresses her love alongside the admission that she cannot kill him.

But even though she no longer hates him, he still hates himself, and so he leaves, looking for another way to end his life, another witch to strike the killing blow. But every once in a while he will think back on the witch and change his mind, and decide that what he really, truly wants is to be human again, and with her, but since that cannot happen, he banishes the errant thought from his mind and continues on, seeking death.