The woman screamed as he dug the blade deeper into her arterial vein, spilling her blood onto the parquet floors. Klaus made a mental note to have the floors cleaned and waxed when they were done; nothing ruined old wood quite like blood. He studied the newborn vampire coolly, gauging where would be the best place to cut next. Hanging upside down from her chains, her clothes in ribbons and her skin stained with her own blood, the former landlady made a rather pathetic sight.
"Stop, please stop, I'll tell you anything you need to know," she pleaded.
Rebekah idly studied her nails, not moving from the couch. "I'm afraid that won't be enough," she said. "We need to be sure and that won't happen until we've bled all the vervein from your veins - nothing personal."
Klaus rolled his eyes. "Bekah, sister, do you not have better things to be doing right now?"
"Well, I did have dinner plans," Rebekah drawled. "But my idiot brothers allowed my date to be abducted from right under their noses, so you'll forgive me if I'm a little bit dubious about their ability to retrieve my boyfriend in one piece all by themselves. "
The door opened and Elijah stepped into the room, a worried expression on his face. "We may have a problem," he said.
"Oh, you think?" Rebekah asked archly.
Elijah threw her a look. "Marcel suspects something. His nightwalkers are combing the streets for Sophie as we speak. Apparently they're door stepping every witch in the French Quarter. There is a war brewing here, Niklaus."
"Elijah, if Marcel finds her before we do, he'll kill Matt," Rebecca said, worry creeping into her voice.
Klaus glared at her pointedly, gesturing at the half unconscious vampire dangling in front of them. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm working on that," he said. His cellphone vibrated insistently on the coffee table, breaking his attention.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Rebekah spat out. "Just answer it! She's not going to stop until you do! That girl has the tenacity of a pitbull terrier."
The young lady is insistent," Elijah observed
The young lady is getting on my last nerve," Klaus growled.
"And yet you refrain from blocking her number," his brother said, amused. "Interesting."
"More like pathetic," Rebekah sniped. "I do not know what you see in that girl. Have you any idea of how many hours I've wasted watching her wave those damned flashcards in Matt's face? Too many, that's how many."
Klaus smirked. "Sounds like the gentle green tendrils of jealousy to me," he said, happy to divert the subject.
"Flashcards?" Elijah asked, bemused.
"You do not want to know, trust me," Rebekah said, glancing down at her phone as it began to ring. "Oh, perfect, just perfect, it's Stefan. Little Miss Control Freak has obviously moved onto plan B – I'm going to answer."
"What? Don't be an idiot, Rebekah!" Klaus hissed.
Rebekah glared at him. "Tell me, Nik, what do you think is going to happen when both you and I don't answer our phones. Do you actually think that Caroline, the girl who rules with an iron fist every public holiday and event in Mystic Falls, is going to sit by her phone, wringing her hands and waiting for you to call her – or do you think she is going to get on the first plane here and stick her nose where it doesn't belong, and probably get it cut off in the process?" Taking his silence as agreement, she answered the call.
"Stefan, what a surprise," she said dryly. "Fancy you calling out of the blue like that. What can I do for you?"
"Hayley dropped by," Stefan drawled. "It was eventful - vampires were verveined, newly humanised doppelgangers were abducted; she really made an impression."
In a blur, Klaus was across the room and had Rebekah's phone in his hand. "Care to repeat that, Ripper?" he asked.
~8~
Katherine jumped as Hayley's body jerked, her hands clutching at the floorboards like a newborn looking for something to grasp. She shrank back as the hybrid's eyes opened, yellow and baleful, and her fangs lengthened; there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. She was trapped, and weak, and food.
The bag with her blood was on the table but she remembered only too well her first feed; the skin breaking under her teeth's grip, the warm gush of blood in her mouth, the heartbeat slowing as she sank to the floor with her prey… a blood bag really didn't really cut it.
Her only hope was to somehow break though Hayley's hunger haze and remind her that she needed Katherine alive. "You left the blood bag on the table," she said hoarsely.
"I don't want a blood bag," Hayley said hotly, her head tilting. Katherine recognised the mannerism. She was listening to her heart, no doubt getting a thrill out of its panicked beat.
"I know you don't," Katherine said. "I've been there, remember? But if you want to turn the other werewolves, you're going to need me alive."
She smirked. "Who said I'm going to kill you?" she asked. "Just a little sip-"
It happened in a split second. The cuffs were ripped off her wrists like they were made of paper and Hayley pulled her bodily to her feet. She felt her teeth rip into her artery, and her mind began to slip away, like oil over water. This was it, she was going to die, after all that death and killing and scrabbling to survive… no.
"Hayley, Hayley, stop, you have to…"
With a low growl, Hayley let her go and Katherine's feet slid from under her. She fell to the floor in a helpless heap and then felt Hayley suddenly grabbing her again and pulling her head back. The iron taste of blood slid down her throat and Katherine idly wondered if the blood of a hybrid could turn a human. She wondered if she was about to find out.
"Don't pass out on me, damn it," Hayley snarled. "I need you alive."
Katherine didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "It's not going to work, you know. You're not the first person to turn themselves in order to escape Klaus - that would have been me."
Hayley sneered at her. "I'm nothing like you," she said.
"Oh, give it time," Katherine said. "He's going to kill your brother. He'll do it slow and bloody - and then he'll track down the rest of your family, family you don't even realise you have, and then he'll move onto your friends, your adopted family, your lovers… everyone. You see, you didn't just betray him, you embarrassed him. You hurt his pride and he's not going to forgive you for that."
"You know nothing," Hayley said dully. "You don't know anything about my life."
"I know enough," Katherine countered. "I know that one of the girls who died in that boating accident was your adopted sister and it's for that, more than the wolf in you, that your parents threw you out. I know you're in love with Tyler Lockwood and he'll never love you back. I know you're searching for something you'll never have because you're a silly little girl who believed the promises of a desperate witch and a vampire tired of running, and you tied yourself up in a pretty little bow and served yourself to the big bad wolf." She coughed as she felt her strength coming back, the hybrid blood working through her system, and she struggled to sit up, warily eyeing the troubled hybrid. Maybe if she could get the girl to understand, she might get out of this alive.
"I had a family, you know," she said. "Klaus killed them all. He killed my mother, my father, my two aunts, my three uncles, my six cousins and the one grandparent I had left – but he didn't stop there, oh no, then there were the villagers, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker…the father of my child." Katherine stopped, remembering the feel of Hans's hand, his promises of love and happiness - all lies, of course. All lies.
"You had a kid?" Hayley asked. "What happened to it?"
"I don't know," Katherine admitted. "I never saw it after the day she was born. I didn't even know whether she'd survived until I heard about the new doppelganger." She didn't like to think about that - that Elena was family. She had given up on such childish notions a long time ago.
Hayley grunted as she got to her feet, suddenly losing interest in her words. "Well, I guess we're not the same after all," she said. "Because if you think I'm going to let Charlie go like you did your kid, then I guess your file about me wasn't as accurate as you thought it was – stand up."
"Where are we going?" Katherine asked.
"The garage," Hayley said. "Have you ever seen a werewolf turn?" She smiled as she saw Katherine shake her head. "Well then," she said. "I guess this is your lucky day."
~8~
Stefan wasn't answering his phone. Why the hell wasn't he answering his phone - was this national ignore Caroline day or something?
Grumbling under her breath, she zipped up her make-up bag and slotted it into her suitcase. She'd already booked two tickets for tonight's last flight to New Orleans using her Mom's credit card and, after a quick mental rundown of her other options, it didn't take long for her to come to the conclusion that Stefan was her best bet for a wingman – if only he'd answer his frigging phone. They needed to leave within the hour if they were going to make the flight.
She tried not to read too much into the fact her calls were going to voicemail. Maybe he was just catching up on old times with Rebecca, reminiscing about all those wonderful parties in the twenties… yeah, right. Something was wrong, she just knew it.
Her phone hummed and Caroline felt relief rush through her as she noticed Stefan's name on the screen.
"Stefan, thank God, Matt has been kidnapped and I just got this freaky phonecall saying I have to be in New Orleans by dawn or she's going to kill him – pack a bag!" she barked, as she threw her curling iron into the suitcase and closed it.
"And a good evening to you too," Stefan said. "Shall this be a formal affair or shall I pack casually?"
"How the hell do I know? Pack both," she huffed as she sped outside and popped open her trunk. "What did Rebekah say?"
"That a witch called Sophie Devereaux kidnapped Matt and Hayley isn't working for Klaus – the complete opposite in fact – and that it was news to them that Katherine was human. Oh, and Klaus says that you're not to come to New Orleans and if he sees your pretty face here, he'll wring that delicate little neck of yours. I'm guessing you're going to ignore that last part."
"Seriously?" Caroline gasped. "And yes, we're totally going to ignore that last part. Matt's life is at stake and I have a funny feeling Tyler is already on his way there too."
"Should I call Rebekah and let her know we're coming?"
"And give them a chance to head us off?" Caroline said. "No, we'll let them know when we touch down-" Her phone chirped and her eyes narrowed as she realised the other caller was Klaus. Oh, now he wanted to talk to her, the cheek. She pressed ignore. "Stefan, I'll be at your place in five, be ready to go," she said. "Oh, and it's probably best we keep this to ourselves, we don't want Elena having another freak out because Matt is in danger."
"What about Jeremy?" he asked.
Caroline wrinkled her nose. She'd known Jeremy all her life and loved him like a brother, but she had to admit there was now a coldness in his eyes when he looked at her that made her feel uncomfortable. "That's probably not a good idea," she said aloud. "Someone would say something stupid, and then there'd be stakes at dawn and arguments over who killed whose brother and…well, you get the picture."
"Right, whatever you say," Stefan drawled. "I'll be waiting."
Caroline smiled. "You're the best, you know that?" she said suddenly. "I'm sorry if I don't tell you that often enough, but you are. I really do appreciate this."
There was a hesitation on the other side of the line, and then: "Thanks, Care, that means a lot."
Caroline smirked, was it her imagination or did Stefan sound a little choked up? "See you soon," she said, and hung up.
New Orleans, here she comes.