A/N: Something I've been thinking about writing for a while now – a Vampire Diaries fanfiction. Season four has been amazing, and I haven't missed an episode of TVD. Ever. I'm a mega fan, and I totally ship Delena and Klaroline. Just so you know. ANYHOW. This fanfiction is dedicated to Zoe, who left us to go to a fancy school, Ashleigh, who convinced me NOT to leave to go to a not-so-fancy college and to Billy, who is going through so much shit right now and still finds it within him to smile. I love you guys.
So this starts… I don't really know when it will start. Somewhere around the season 4 mark, anyway. After Klaus gets his body back. Around the time he kidnaps Elena to stop her from killing herself. I'm not sure what episode that is, but then. YAY.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Vampire Diaries' in any way. Although I love Damon and Klaus. Shh. Leave me to curl into a ball and cry because of my feels. I OWN EMILIA.
Chapter One
The moon says it's getting late
-'Secret Country', Minus The Bear
From a satellite, or maybe even from the air, the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, is a tiny dot on the landscape. Maybe smaller than a dot – a place where everybody knows each other, where the local high school holds most of the population, where there is never any trouble, where a small town council runs the place as though it was a country rather than a town.
The problem was, Mystic Falls was nothing like that. It was a town that liked to surprise everybody; it liked to jump out from behind the bushes and shout "BOO!" at passers-by, to grab the attention of everyone that spotted it. However, there are some things said above that are true about the small 'dot'. The local high school does hold most of the population, there is a council that runs the town like it is a country rather than the town that it is. But there is one small flaw in the plan for Mystic Falls to go by unnoticed – supernaturals are drawn to the place like moths drawn to a flame.
In case you hadn't already guessed, Mystic Falls, home of the Vampires, Werewolves, Hybrids and humans, is the setting for this particular story. And there is where we shall start our journey.
( On and on, steps in time )
Niklaus Mikaelson meandered around the city, eyes narrowed, looking for the girl that he had spotted on his way across the bridge. He found that he disliked London at the specific moment, as the tight, cramped, winding streets were making it impossible for him to follow the girl's footsteps easily while he was still pretending to be human. He needed to gain her trust, allow him to take her to his current home, and then… Then he would be free to drop his act.
But he was frustrated. Kicking a basket full of bone needles over, he growled under his breath, cursing the capital city of England. The brunette was eluding him, and while it would be easy for him to simply turn on his supernatural speed and run to her, he would not abandon his 'humanity' Not now, when he needed it the most. It was of the utmost importance that he keep following the girl, not making his vampire side obvious. She couldn't see him like that. He needed her cooperation. It was essential to his plan.
"If mother hadn't put the damned curse on me in the first place, this would not be happening right now," he muttered, face dark and stormy. He looked dangerous, felt dangerous. God help any puny creature that stepped in his way on this night, he sneered. Or if there was a God, perhaps it would look kindly upon him in that moment.
Turning a corner and ducking beneath a low footbridge, he spotted her. She wasn't too far ahead. Now all he needed was a stroke of look… A dropped shawl, a shoe that had slipped off. Anything. He needed her to pause, and then she was all his.
No such luck came to him, no bad fortune struck upon the girl in that moment, and Niklaus growled again, deep in his throat. He was getting annoyed now, and he never performed well when he was annoyed. He had no patience to wait, and he needed his plan to be a success. He had succeeded in almost every other city but London and this girl – she was perfect for what he had in mind.
In the millisecond that it took for him to make his decision, the girl had paused to turn her head, only now hearing the light footsteps behind her. She began to turn her head and saw… nothing. The pathway behind her was clear. With a frown, she turned, a light breeze catching a dark chestnut brown curl that was haphazardly tucked beneath her cap and twirling it around.
Niklaus Mikaelson smiled a black, dangerous smile at her, suddenly standing in her way. She jumped a foot back from him, aqua eyes wide, hand flying to her mouth, her shawl forgotten. It began to slip down her shoulders, towards her elbows. She didn't know how she hadn't screamed, but all that came out was a breathy exhalation.
"Hello, love," his smooth voice said eloquently.
"You were following me!" the female gasped incoherently. Niklaus' smirk grew when he heard her words.
"Technicalities – what care I for them?" He waved her exclamation away with his hand as though getting rid of smoke in the air. With a strike as fast as a cobra's, as fast as lightning, his hand had gripped her wrist in an iron lock. He bought it up to his nose and inhaled the scent of her blood pumping steadily through her veins. Her pulse thump thump thumped beneath his fingers.
"Let me go!" she said, louder than before. His smirk disappeared as though it had fallen off of his cold features.
"You should know that I strongly dislike chasing after anybody, love. You just made me waste a perfectly good ten minutes of my existence following you. And now I have you, and my plan can unfold as I wish it to."
Her eyes pleaded with his icy blue ones, but she found no life there, no humility. He would not show her mercy. He showed nobody mercy.
"So I apologise, but you are going to have to come with me." He finished with another smirk.
Her scream vanished into the black night air, as did her body and the vampire who had her captive.
( Come to the edge of the lake )
"I don't care," Klaus snarled warningly into his cell phone. "I don't accept excuses, mate. You should know this by now. Don't come back until it's done. I want a full bloody report on her movements, do you hear me?"
With that, he hung up. His expression was similar to that of a tiger's – frustrated, calculating and ready to pounce upon his enemies. Or, in Klaus' case, ready to pounce upon the stupid hybrid that had dared to try and undermine his orders. The sire bond wasn't broken, and he was using that to his full advantage.
That was something that amused and angered Klaus in equal measures about a certain Tyler Lockwood. He had broken his sire bond. Klaus had been sure that this could never be done, but the former werewolf had gone and done it anyway. He needed to keep a close eye on him; he didn't want any of his other troops in his hybrid army going AWOL.
And Caroline… What did she see in him? He was arrogant and too focused on doing good to be a good vampire. And it was the vampire side of him that was most dominant. She was far too young to be stuck in a small town with a brat like him, Klaus mused. She needed to see the world and everything it had to offer. Explore. She was top of the food chain – she needed to learn to take advantage of that.
He exhaled angrily and sat down in the armchair that he didn't need to sit in and picked up the crystal decanter in front of him, pouring out some of the bourbon into a crystal glass that was beside it. He took a drink and pulled a face. He disliked American liquor; he would have to remember to have some of the scotch sent over from his estate in Scotland.
( We forget where we are )
"Nick," the girl whined, sixty-seven years after he had caught her. "Niklaus. Why can't we go out tonight?"
He closed his eyes, breathing in sharply through his nose. His jaw locked and he could feel that perpetual annoyance that he always felt around her. "Because I say so. Stop being so idiotic."
She frowned at him, hurt. She was hungry, and he couldn't blame her for that. What he could blame her for, however, was pushing him to the brink of his patience.
"The world does not revolve around you, Nick. Although you may think that it does, it does not." she told him wisely. He growled at her.
"I do not care. Be quiet. I do not need you to lead him to us."
"Lead who to us?" she questioned loudly. Klaus' eyes seemed to set on fire, and he glared at her so fiercely that she shuddered.
"I told you, did I not, to watch for Michael?"
"You did, but I fail to see how your orders link to this situation."
"I fail to see, love, why you need to know. Keep your lips pressed together unless you want for me to seal them forever." He threatened.
She shut up, fearfully breaking his gaze. She chose instead to look around her at the beautiful castle around her. It was robust and looked medieval, but she didn't care. There was a beauty in it that spoke to her, and this was where she felt most at home, where she felt most safe. Niklaus being there didn't stop that feeling, although he was short tempered almost all of the time that he was around her. She figured that it was his default setting, and although he sometimes scared her, she found herself wondering whether there was a kinder side to him that he hid, even to himself.
The sound of the drawbridge being smashed to smithereens drifted to their ears. Niklaus acted faster than she had ever seen him, and he bodily threw the brunette through a hidden door and shoved her into the tunnel beyond, following her and sealing the door behind him. The dark, whereas before it had been impenetrable, was something she could see through now with the new eyes and senses that he had given her. Although sometimes she hated what he had turned her into, sometimes she saw the good in it.
The bangs behind them got louder.
( And you're so loud )
A girl walked through the town of Mystic Falls, her dark chestnut hair straight and tied into a high ponytail, her aqua eyes ringed lined with black make-up. Her black leather jacket was shrugged onto her shoulders, a dark purple flowing top showing beneath it, her skinny black jeans tucked into some six inch stiletto heeled boots, also made of black leather. On her shoulder was a Louis Vuitton duffle bag, a matching suitcase being pulled behind her. Her eyes scanned the area around her before she smirked and walked through the small town, turned heads everywhere that she walked. She would say that it was good to be home, if this was her home. But the little place was a lot more entertaining than she would have given it credit for, if the stories that she had heard were true. She didn't doubt that they were.
Her heels clicking on the asphalt as she crossed the road, she heard female voices behind her. Just from their scent on the slight breeze that washed through the square, she knew that two of them were vampires, one of them very new. The other was older, though she was a new born compared to her.
Smirking a little more, the girl made her way through the town, following the directions that her instinct provided towards a fairly large house. She tugged a little harder on her suitcase, wheeling it after her as she mounted the sidewalk. She simply stared at the front door for a moment before chuckling a little and making her way towards it.
( And the water around our feet )
"What are you doing?!" Niklaus Mikaelson hissed from behind her. "Do not stop, stupid girl! Move!" he commanded, pushing her forward briskly. The brunette stumbled, her ornate dress becoming ripped under her feet and causing her to stumble. She hadn't stumbled in her sixty-seven years of being a vampire until now, and trust it to be Niklaus Mikaelson who caused it to happen.
"What is going on?" she whispered to him. He didn't answer. "Nick!" she whispered again, high-pitched and panicked.
"Michael is here." That was all that he said and he shoved her forward another few feet until they reached a drop in the tunnel. It was just a hole in the floor and he shoved her aside so that he could jump through it. She stood, frozen, until her creator's voice rang out from the darkness.
"Jump, you stupid little girl!" he commanded. She jumped.
He caught her and they continued their running, his arm still encircling the top of her arm in a death grip. There was the sickening sound of wood and metal screeching as it was pulled from the solemn stonework at the entrance to the tunnel that Klaus had created in his home.
"Niklaus!" a voice rang out, a decidedly male one. It sounded even more chilling than the man in question's.
"Hurry!" Niklaus hissed and pulled her forwards with a tug of her arm. She flung herself after him, the walls of the tunnel blurring. The torches on the wall were extinguished with a huff of the wind that their flight caused. They came to a stone doorway, and Niklaus wrenched it open, throwing the girl out into the forest that was around them. He swiftly pulled on leather gloves and picked up a large glass bottle full of a yellow liquid and throwing it all over the door, shielding himself away from it as it splashed over the stonework. He threw the glass to the floor, smashing it as he hurried to shove shut the door. After stripping off the gloves, he ran forward after the girl he had chased through the dim streets of London all those years ago.
Escape was his only option, and if it meant life, he would never hesitate to accept it
( Can't find no way out )
The brunette pulled her suitcase to a stop and stood it up inside the doorway of the house, putting her duffle bag on top of it. She leaned against the frame of the door and knocked lazily on the wood.
Klaus' ears picked up the sound and he frowned, looking towards the door faster than lightning. He stood up cautiously, knowing that he couldn't turn on his vampire super speed to answer the door – if he got to the door too quickly and it was an unsuspecting human standing there, suspicions would be raised. He couldn't risk that happening. So he walked slowly, dawdling, his glass of bourbon still clutched in his hand. He downed it on his route towards the door, placing the glass perhaps a little too heavily on top of the table as he passed it.
He pulled open the door and raised his eyebrows when he saw the girl waiting outside, her head facing slightly away from him.
"Hello there, Niklaus. It's been a little while since we've seen each other. Too long, in my opinion, since our last chat."
He smiled at her with all the welcome of a rattlesnake.
"Ah, young Emilia. How nice to see you again," he answered. Her accent, like his, had remained unchanged through the centuries and she sounded as English as the day he had first heard her speak."
"Aren't you going to let me in?" she asked sweetly. He nodded his head to the side briefly, amused. He stepped to the side and extended his arm in a long, sweeping gesture. She sent him a brilliant smile and walked inside, her heels clicking on the wooden floor. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of her luggage and picked everything up in one hand, placing it behind the door as he shut it. He would be damned if he was going to move it any further for her.
"I bet it's nice to be home, isn't it, Nick?" she asked rhetorically, her aqua eyes calculating, her smile cold. "Now, see, I wouldn't know that feeling, as someone compelled me to stay away from my home for the rest of eternity. Wasn't that nice of them?"
Klaus chuckled lowly. "Michael may be gone, Emilia, but there are still dangers in London. I have other accomplices stationed there. There is no need for you to return."
"So I heard. Your little hybrid pets are doing very well, aren't they? Waning in number a bit though now. It sure is a shame that Rebekah got rid of the last of the doppelganger's blood, isn't it?"
She knew where to hit him. Knew all the nerves that her words would hit. Klaus glared at her.
"My hybrids are doing quite well, actually, love. What of your little… Coven? Last I heard, six of them had been destroyed." he shot back at her.
Emilia flashed her fangs at him in friendly warning. "I don't care where they are right now. The others should count themselves lucky that the same fate didn't come to them after how they betrayed me."
"Oh, betrayal," Klaus mused, picking up his glass from the table in the hallway. "What a melancholy thing." He stalked towards her, placing his glass on the table and pouring out another glass of bourbon. He offered her a glass and she smiled at him in acceptance.
She raised her glass. "To old friends," she announced.
"To old friends," Klaus echoed, clinking his glass against hers, watching her the whole time. After spending little over two hundred years with her, and keeping a close watch on her for the five hundred after that, he knew better than anybody how unpredictable she could be. Even now, he was torn between being glad of his find in Emilia Marott, and feeling hostile towards himself for choosing a girl who never did as he said unless he compelled her to do so.
They both downed the amber liquid and Emilia sighed. "I did miss sharing a drink or two with my second favourite Original," she commented. Klaus didn't answer. He was more busy wondering why she was here, in Mystic Falls.
Why had she waited until now to track him down?
A/N: NOT GOING TO LIE, I TRULY LOVED WRITING THAT CHAPTER. I FEEL A GOOD MULTICHAP COMING ON HERE GUYS.
A review would be lovely!
-Lauren
