Chapter 1:
Elijah was admittedly a little unnerved when he saw Klaus in the courtyard, a wide grin planted on his face. Whenever Niklaus looked that giddy, something terrible had either already happened, or was about to. He slowly made his way down the stairs, stopping a few feet from his enthusiastic little brother.
"To what do we owe this... excitement, Niklaus?" Elijah asked curiously, mindlessly reaching down to straighten the sleeve of his buttondown. Klaus looked back towards the front door.
"Come along, dear," he called out, and Elijah was surprised to see a pretty young woman come through the door. She was petite, short and slender, though she had the natural curves of a woman. Her hair was a mass of short, wild curls, and she wore a pair of glasses with thin black frames.
As she came in, Elijah could smell her fear immediately, and her undeniable humanity. He looked at his little brother with a puzzled expression, and Klaus was all too eager to explain his new plan to Elijah. He motioned for the girl to come closer.
"This adorable little doll is going to fix our somber brother," Klaus said, taking the girl by her shoulder. She flinched at his touch, keeping her head low and her gaze turned away from either of them. "Her family owes a great debt to ours, it would seem, and she has come to me in hopes of repaying it herself."
"And what, praytell, does her family owe us?" Elijah sighed.
"Ten thousand in gambling debts," Klaus explained, reaching up to brush her bangs from her eyes. He took her small face in his hands and lifted it, showing it off to Elijah. "Isn't she a cute little thing? Also, she willingly volunteered to be our brother's new donor. To keep that... bloodlust of his under control since he refuses to feed."
"Does she know what being a donor entails?" Elijah raised a skeptical brow. "Kol is not... in a pleasant place, Niklaus. Do you really want to throw this poor girl to the Wolves over a gambling debt?" Elijah was surprised when the girl spoke up.
"Please," she said softly, a tear sliding down her flush cheek. "My family can't afford to pay you back. My father is already in prison, and my mother is working herself to death. This is the only way. He promised the debt would be forgiven if I helped. I don't care as long as the debt is paid."
"How noble. Don't you think, Elijah?" Klaus chuckled, taking her by the shoulder again. "Let's hope our brother becomes as fond of her as he did his little witch. If not, at least he has some kind of company."
"You mean a plaything?" Elijah grimaced. Klaus shrugged,
"Whatever you'd like to call it, Elijah, dear brother. I'd prefer to call it effort. At least I'm trying to help him somehow. You've been to preoccupied with Hayley. You aren't suffering loss as we are right now, so you can look down on this idea from your pretty white horse." Elijah rolled his eyes at his brother, then turned away from the conversation altogether.
While it was true that Elijah had not lost the object of his current affections, as did his brothers, he understood the pain well. For Klaus to suggest otherwise was a little irritating. Regardless, Elijah knew his brother had good intentions, so he would wait and see how the little experiment played out. If he had to step in, he would, but he hoped it would work out as Klaus expected it to, rather than how he expected it to.
Klaus paused outside of Kol's door, then knocked on the solid wood. He waited patiently, but when no answer came, he knocked again. Finally, he heard a soft sigh from the other side, then the sound of a glass being set down.
"What do you want, Niklaus?" Came Kol's voice from the other side. Klaus cleared his throat, then turned the knob and opened the door. The room was dimly lit, the only light coming from the small slits in the blinds that allowed tiny bits of sunlight through. There were a few empty bottles of liquor in the table by the window, and one half empty one in Kol's hand. He finished pouring another drink, then set the bottle down.
"I've brought you a gift," Klaus told Kol, stepping into the room and pulling the girl in behind him by her elbow. She winced a little at his grip, then looked up at Kol from beneath her blond curls. "Dearest Marigold here is our newest volunteer."
"It's Mari," she corrected him quietly. "P-people call me Mari."
"What did you bring her here for, Niklaus?" Kol asked, his unamused eyes lifting to meet the girl's. Then, they flicked over to his brother's. Klaus smirked playfully, then moved so that he was standing behind Mari. He tilted her head to the side, pulled her curls back, and exposed her neck to Kol. His eyes immediately went dark. "I won't let my own brother starve."
"I don't want her."
"I'll leave you alone to consider," Klaus sighed, then used his nail to cut open the skin of her collarbone just slightly. "If things get to rough, just scream, love," He said into Mari's ear, sending a noticeable shiver down her spine. "But do well to remember why you came to me in the first place." He left the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Mari alone in and dark room, with a very hungry, very fragile vampire.
"Why?" Kol demanded to know, downing his glass of liquor quickly before slamming it down on the table and making her flinch. "Why did you seek out my brother?"
"Uh, my f-family owes a lot of money," she stuttered nervously, hugging her upper body tightly. "My mother cant... pay it back, so I wanted to help somehow."
"You know what we are."
"My mother is a New Orleans witch. Or she was. She quit when she had my older brother." She was surprised that he was asking her questions and probing her for information. Her troubles hardly seemed like something he'd take an interest in, but maybe he just wanted to know why Klaus had brought her there to begin with.
"Do you know why you're here?"
"To... donate blood... in exchange for few debt being paid."
"Wrong," Kol told het, his voice deadly low and sickeningly smooth. He quickly closed the gap between them, and she stumbled back instinctively to try and gain more distance, though the door against her back told her that she had no more room to move away from him. Kol closed in on her, leaning forward and pressing his palms into the walls on either side of her, lowering his head to get closer to her.
"Then why?" She asked curiously, her breaths quickening, chest rising and falling rapidly as the fear began to set in, to truly set in. Mari began to wonder just what she had gotten herself into. Perhaps, in her desperation, she had made a mistake.
"My brother thinks me desperate," Kol responded softly. He brought her chin up with his thumb to look her in her wide, blue eyes that were deep as the ocean. "He seems to believe that any little human is enough to make me forget about the one I loved, that I've gone soft to your kind, weak to any pretty face."
"He's made a mistake then," she breathed, just staring up at him, unable to tear her gaze from his sorrowful eyes. Kol snorted. "I-I can leave if you want, but... I need this..." Her gaze dropped then. "Even if... it means feeding a vampire... I have to."
"Well, I suppose if you insist, it would not be monstrous of me to accept." He took her by the shoulders, then spun her around, pushing her back against the door. Mari got nervous all of a sudden, like she was afraid he may try to take more than her blood.
"Wait," she whimpered, but her fears quickly dissipated when she felt a sharp pain shoot through her shoulder. She let out a gasp as his fangs sank deep into her shoulder, the blood trickling down in warm droplets. Her hands balled into fists against the cold wood of the door, and her knees began to wobble.
"Klaus always could pick out the sweetest snacks," Kol whispered against her ear once he removed his fangs. "Don't you worry, love. You're going to earn your freedom from your family debt. Every last bit of it." He bit into her shoulder against, tugging down her sleeve just far enough to grant him easier access. Mari couldn't stop the tears that tell down her cheeks, though she kept them quiet and hidden.
Her desperation had taken her to the lowest of places, and Mari was smart enough to know that the nightmare was just beginning. She was a blood donor to the most powerful family of vampires that ever existed, and more specifically, a toy for Kol to use to distract himself. As long as he only took blood from her, she wouldn't protest, but she had chosen as treacherous path, and she had took be careful of all potential dangers.
Hi! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) it's just a short introduction to the story and the setup. If you liked it, leave a little review so I know to continue! and have and great day!