I've decided to post this even though it is not a full chapter, because I've rewritten this numerous times and had to recover it the other day having accidentally deleted it. I've decided that the second part of this chapter is from Caroline's POV, but that's about how far I've gotten on it.
I know I've been tragically slow in updating anything, but I will eventually finish all my stories.
She entered the house in much the same as she had left it, feet first in the arms of another. Yet the two occasions could not have been more different. When she left Katherine was dying and unconscious; returning reanimated and never more awake. She didn't need Elijah to carry her, but he had insisted and she never did mind being wrapped in his arms.
And perhaps she wasn't exactly forthcoming as to her much improved state telling Elijah only that she was recovered, not that she had never felt stronger throughout the entirety of her existence.
Katherine had noted two things immediately upon entering the house, first that someone had cleaned up and second that Caroline was nearby. The first was hardly surprising, Klaus had always been both meticulous and an unscrupulous disciple of slave labour. That she could sense her new Sire's presence without the use of the traditional five senses was bordering on shocking. She'd been a vampire for 500 years, was quite used to the enhancements of such a state, but whatever she was now was something else entirely.
She knew that Caroline was not only close by but had shared the same space she now occupied less than three hours before. She knew that prior to Caroline's entrance Klaus had passed through. She knew that the two of them were now together in the dungeon two floors below, and that apart from those two and the three humans busy cleaning up the glass in the living room Elijah and her were alone.
What's more she didn't know exactly how she knew all this. She could not see the other occupants, could only hear the humans if she focussed and couldn't hear the dungeon occupants at all, she couldn't smell any of them though the scents of each lingered in the room Caroline's the freshest of the five. Katherine surmised that this sixth sense was likely no more than her brain interpreting information she had subconsciously imbued, but newly back from the dead it felt a little more like magic than anything logic could explain. Then again she didn't really need an concrete explanation as to why, it was enough to know that her powers of spatial awareness were now extraordinary.
"I'll take you to your room so you can rest," Elijah announced as he carried her to the stairs with the utmost care not to jostle her.
She thought she probably should advise him that she needed rest like desert dwellers needed more sand, but she didn't. 500 years with only ones self to rely upon did not beget openness, especially not with one of the many betrayers. She had no doubt that she loved Elijah, but she could only trust him so much. And though her heart wanted to alleviate all his worries for her safety her head held dominion. Katherine wasn't sure exactly what she was now capable of, but she knew that she was stronger than she had ever been as a vampire.
Was she stronger than Elijah? Probably not. But any uncertainty was dangerous.
Elijah was an Original, top of the food chain for a thousand years.
Just how would he view her transformation? Her possible elevation?
History had taught her he would take a dim view.
However much he claimed to love her, he had always - and probably always would - put his family first. A thousand years of "always and forever", no matter the loose interpretation his siblings applied to that familial motto would not be overwritten by such a fleeting emotion as romantic love. It was probably admirable to be that loyal, for that long, especially considering the degenerates that shared his blood, but Katherine considered it nothing but an inconvenience. Yet another obstacle she had to negotiate in her never ending battle to survive.
Elijah was not to be relied upon.
He had proven again and again that when it came down to it she was never first. He had been prepared to let Klaus kill her in order to break his curse, had stood silently by as his brother hunted her for having the audacity not to die for him, and when she was finally forgiven for her existence he chose to leave her for the empty promise of Klaus' redemption. Elijah would never put her first, never chose her, so why should she chose him?
She shouldn't, and she wouldn't. Katherine would chose herself and leave him free to chose his family without the burden of either feeling guilty.
And so she offered only a weak smile in response and went to bed like a good little minion, but she didn't sleep. She stayed awake and did what she did best, planned for the future. For the first time in her supernatural life she wasn't on the run or on the brink of death, but she still felt as though others were controlling her fate. To a degree she supposed that no matter ones position you would always have to compromise and bend to the will of others. No one was an island after all.
Katherine resolved then that she would aim to limit that degree of influence, the level of control others possessed, and for the very first time in her life she felt she might just be capable of achieving such a goal.
Caroline had given her much more than her life, she was sure, but what was still uncertain. It naturally followed then that her first order of business was to determine just what she was now capable of.
As it happens, opportunity knocked not four hours after Elijah left her to rest, when one of Klaus' hybrids arrived to tell her dinner was ready. She didn't wait on ceremony, she had him against the wall the moment he entered the room impressing herself with the ease with which she manhandled him. New he might have been, but Hybrids were usually strong from turning and he seemed no stronger than the average human in her sure grasp.
"You will not make a sound," she compelled, happy to note with the contraction of his pupils that she was now equal with the Originals on at least one front.
