"Blood In, Blood Out"

Despite himself, Klaus laughed, which was definitely not the reaction Tyler had been expecting. In front of him, Kamila's shoulders were hunched with laughter as well.

"I told you," she said, gesturing to the intruder. "See, this boy knows his morning pleasantries."

Tyler's chin rose as he looked at the woman, "Who the hell are you?"

"Kamila Ross," she introduced herself politely, as if she was unaware of the angry tension that had followed him in. "Old friend of Niklaus's. I take it this is the Lockwood boy," she added to Klaus, who nodded. The humor of the "sunshine" comment had faded and his expression was replaced with that of complete resentment as he slowly rose to a standing position.

"Yes," he said, jaw clenched, "The first of my hybrids and now, thanks to his efforts, the last."

Tyler leaned against the wood molding of the dividing archway with his arms crossed, "You're the one that decided to lop all their heads off."

"Let's see: Them, or me?" Klaus scoffed, "You may as well have killed them yourself, you pathetic little maggot."

"Me?" Tyler put his hand to his chest and laughed, "You're trapped in an invisible box. I don't know how to tell you this, buddy, but you're the one who's looking pathetic right now."

Klaus was seething inside, but he kept it from his face; he'd be damned if he'd give an ingrate like Tyler Lockwood the satisfaction of seeing him riled up. "Only until my friend here manages to bring down Bonnie's spell," he said calmly, gesturing over his shoulder to Kamila, who'd finally managed to get the fire going again and was staring into it with intense concentration. "Then I'll look different. Angrier, perhaps. Or I won't look like anything 'cause I'll have gouged your eyeballs from their sockets."

Like his sire, Tyler showed no signs of anger or intimidation. He remained cool as he regarded Kamila, "Oh, so that's the witch that you called to rescue you last night." He snorted and shook his head, "Bonnie says there's no way in hell she'll be able to break the spell before they get back with the cure. Then I get the pleasure of shoving it down your throat and making you mortal."

"I'm an Original," Klaus stalked back and forth in front of the barrier between them, "What makes you think my entire vampire bloodline won't be cured along with me? i.e., you."

Tyler pretended to consider this for a moment, then pushed off of the molding with a sly grin. "You know what I think?" He shrugged, "I think that's impossible. I think the moment you stop being a vampire, our whole blood-connection to you is broken, and your sire-line ceases to exist. So whatever happens to you, happens only to you – which means that I can kill your ass and no one else has to die." It was a flawed logic, but it was certainly possible. Klaus didn't let this fact register on his face, however; he kept it guarded and emotionless. "Although I am still debating just how to do it," Tyler added as an afterthought.

Klaus stopped pacing the barrier and stood face to face with his hybrid. "I recommend drowning," he offered matter-of-factually, relishing the way Tyler's eyes narrowed. "There's nothing quite like the feeling of someone fighting for something as basic as human breath, and let me tell you, your mother was a fighter." He took a step back, grinning, "How is Carol? I look forward to seeing her again when I get out of here, you know."

"You'll never find her, you bastard," Tyler snapped in response, his cool resolve breaking, "You'll never even get the chance to try. Once we have that cure, you'll be human, and then you'll get to see exactly what it feels like to have someone else play with your life."

Kamila slapped her hands against her knees, so suddenly that the sound startled both men and they turned to face her. She stood slowly on wobbly legs and glared at them, "I'm running on no sleep and y'all are making it impossible for me to concentrate!" She made her way to where Klaus stood, glaring all the while, and then her expression softened and she turned to look at Tyler, "Coffee?" She crossed to the archway that led to the kitchen, yawning so widely that it looked like her jaw might come unhinged, and stepped through the barrier. She started for the coffee pot, but stopped when she realized she'd have to step over Kol's charred and twisted body. She looked over her shoulder sympathetically, ashamed that she'd forgotten all about the death overnight. Klaus seemed to have the same reaction, because his face fell and he came to stand at the barrier, looking on mournfully.

The front door opened and closed and Kamila looked up to see a young woman slipping into the house, with kind eyes and hair that fell in soft blonde waves to her shoulders. This was the only key player she hadn't met yet – Caroline Forbes. Caroline immediately went to Tyler's side, looking first to Klaus and then to the unfamiliar woman. "Sweetheart," Kamila said by way of introduction when the girl's eyes found hers. She nodded to the corpse in front of her and asked, "Would you mind giving me a hand right quick?"

Instead of answering her directly, Caroline gave Tyler a cautious look, "Who is she?"

"The witch Bonnie told us about," he told her, eyes never leaving Kamila. "Says she's an old friend of Klaus's; I can't tell if she's under his compulsion or not."

Kamila rolled her eyes, "As if a cheap trick like compulsion would work on me." She sighed and ran a hand through her thick black hair, "Look, I'm worn a little thin right now, so I could really use a hand here. I know y'all got your quarrels with Niklaus," she shot him an apologetic glance, "But nobody deserves having to stare at their own blood like this."

After a long, silent moment, Caroline took in a deep breath and nodded, circling around through the hallway to enter the kitchen. "What do you want to do with him?"

Kamila held up a finger and went back to the living room to grab the blanket that had been draped over the back of the couch. "It's up to you," she said quietly to Klaus, "Bury him or burn him?"

His eyes were glazed and hadn't moved from Kol's body. "Burn him," he responded.

She nodded, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'll bring you the ashes."

"Don't bother," he said shortly.

She fixed him in a stare and repeated, "I'll bring you the ashes." Then she went back to the kitchen and had Caroline take two edges of the blanket while she took the other two, and they draped the blanket over the dead vampire's body. Kamila looked over her shoulder, through the French doors and into the backyard. There was a privacy fence and a hole dug out for a firepit a few yards from the house, four metal chairs situated around it and rusted and dirty from disuse. "Help me carry him out?" She requested of Caroline.

"She's not going anywhere alone with you," Tyler barked from the other end of the house.

"Then by all means, cher," Kamila shot back, beginning to lose her patience, "You come help instead."

Caroline looked over her shoulder and held up a hand, "It's fine, Tyler. It's just right outside." She turned back and gave Kamila a little nod, and they both hunched down to grab and lift either end of the body. They were both perfectly capable of handling Kol's weight on their own, but a body was such a large and awkwardly shaped thing that, human or otherwise, was just easier to carry with someone else. They got him through the doors and into the pit easily, leaving the blanket on just in case some nosy neighbor decided to peep through a hole in the fence. "Now what?" Caroline asked, wiping her hands on her dark jeans.

Kamila was staring at the body, but held out a hand to the vampire. "Would you mind lending me a little bit of your energy?"

"What?" Caroline asked, confused.

"You know how, if you leave the hot water running too long, it goes stone cold?" Kamila pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand, "Well, I been running hot all night and I need someone to spark up the water heater. All you gotta do is give me your hand," she wiggled the fingers of her extended hand, "And I'll take a little bit of energy from you, just enough to get this fire started."

Caroline narrowed her eyes, "And why should I trust you?"

"Well, it's not gonna magickally drive a stake through your heart or make your head fall off, so you're pretty safe in that department." Kamila moved a little closer, "But put it this way: I'm asking. If I was a threat to you, I'd just take it, but I don't go like that."

She seemed to see the logic in this argument and, slowly, the vampire placed her hand in Kamila's. There was a pale spark between their palms and Caroline felt a sharp jolt, like something had been physically yanked off of her body, but recovered quickly. Kamila loosened her grip and gave a small smile of thanks, then held both hands over where the body lay in the shallow pit. A fire roared to life instantly at his heart, spreading quickly and burning white hot. "Thank you, darling," she said kindly, "You can head back in now, if you like; it'll take a while for it to burn out."

Caroline turned and took one step toward the house, but then stopped and turned back. "Who are you, really?"

Kamila extended her hand again, this time to shake. "Kamila Ross. I really am an old friend of Niklaus."

"So you're one of his witches," Caroline surmised, but shook her hand anyway.

"The only thing I am to him," Kamila asserted, "Is his friend. If I can do a spell for him that isn't going to hurt anyone, I'll do it, but I've always kept out of his more...distasteful endeavors."

"Hm," Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, clearly unconvinced, but not as cautious as she'd been a few minutes before. "I'm Caroline, by the way," she said after a long pause. "Caroline Forbes."

"Pleasure, Miss Forbes."

"So," she vampire lowered herself into one of the rusted chairs, "Why haven't we ever seen you before? I mean, Klaus has dragged every other witch, werewolf and vampire he knows through Mystic Falls, so why not you?"

Kamila took a seat opposite her, so they faced each other with the fire between them. "Probably got something to do with the fact that he thought I was dead for the past hundred-and-eighty years."

Caroline's eyes widened and she leaned forward, "But...you're human. I-I didn't think even witches could live that long."

"I'm not your typical witch," Kamila replied with a shrug.

Caroline opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when the backdoor opened and Tyler stepped out. "Care," was all he said. She nodded and stood, giving Kamila one final glance of curiosity before following her boyfriend back into the house. Kamila watched them go, then leaned her head onto her hand and let her eyes drift shut, catching a few winks while the carcass in the pit slowly turned to ash.

Once inside, Caroline's eyes flicked to Klaus barely long enough to be noticed, and told him, "She says it'll take a little while."

"I heard," he said, taking a few steps backward and leaning against the back of the couch. "Thank you for assisting, Caroline." She ignored this, instead turning her back to him and walking further into the kitchen to switch on the coffee pot. Clearly, she was still holding a grudge over the fact that Klaus had almost murdered her boyfriend's mother and torn her own heart from her chest a few nights before. Or, equally as likely, she was pissed at him for ruining her dress in the process.

Klaus watched as Caroline busied herself with cleaning up the mess the Gilberts had left in the kitchen and Tyler stared out the window to where Kamila had fallen asleep. She'd exhausted herself trying to edge him out of the spelled room and had given no indication that she'd even made a dent; if he didn't figure something out, he might really be stuck here until the others returned with the cure. He decided it was time to try a different tactic. "I tried to kill Tyler's mother," he said evenly, causing the young couple to turn to look at him. "My brother is dead. We're even." He looked at Caroline imploringly, "Call Bonnie, get her to let me out of here, and I'll be on my way."

Caroline stared back at him like he was insane, her hands on her hips, "I will never, ever help you."

"How quickly you forget," he countered, "The part where I saved Tyler from the misery of being a werewolf, or the night your mother invited me into her home to save the life of her precious daughter."

She scoffed, "How delusional are you? You tried to kill his mother," she gestured to Tyler, then to herself, "And then you tried to kill me. And let's not forget that we're standing in a house where Elena's aunt Jenna used to live," she threw both arms out from her sides, as if to encompass the entire residence. "Or did you think that your charm would make us forget how you killed her, too? You know what? No," she shook her head, a forced smile on her face, "I am not going to engage in this." Then she laughed in his face and lowered her voice, "You are not even worth the calories I burn talking to you."

Klaus stared at her for a long beat, then in a flash the lamp at his side was in his hands and he thrust the post through the girl's stomach, using it as leverage to pull her through the barrier and into the living room with him. "No!" Two voices yelled in unison as the backdoor swung open and Kamila stumbled through as Tyler advanced. She put out her hand, but not before Klaus had wrapped his arms around Caroline's back and sunk his wolf fangs into her shoulder. There were bright bursts of light in front of his eyes as Kamila began popping capillaries in his brain, causing him to fall to his feet long enough for her to dash into the living room and grab the blonde girl under the arms, dragging her back to the safety of the kitchen.

As his aneurism healed itself, Klaus climbed back to his feet and turned around, a smug smile painted under the stain of Caroline's blood on his teeth. "Now that was definitely worth the calories," he said, licking his lips. He looked at Kamila and clicked his tongue in disappointment, "You'd betray me, Kamila?"

"How could I betray you?" She shot back, pulling Caroline's sweater aside to look at the wound. "I was never allied to you! But I was trying to help you out of there; why'd you have to go and do something so stupid when I was handling it?!"

"I thought I'd give you a break," he said, like he'd done her a favor. He used the back of his sleeve to wipe the rest of the blood from his face. "Call Bonnie," he repeated to Tyler, "Or your girlfriend is dead."

Tyler ignored him, looking instead to Kamila. "Can you help her?" He asked desperately, forgetting his suspicions of her, "You're a witch; can you do something?"

Kamila remembered a full moon in 1900, when she'd changed in the woods and happened upon a vampire in the night. When she'd woken up next to his body in a riverside cave, writhing in pain and sweating through hallucinations, she'd tried for hours to heal him with her Power. She hadn't even been able to slow it down. "I'm sorry," she shook her head, "Ain't a thing even the strongest witch can do when a werewolf bites a vampire; it's one of the balances that we can't tip."

"Oh my god," Caroline was gasping quietly, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

"Then can't you do that brain-pop thing and just cut him?" Tyler demanded, wrapping both arms around his girlfriend. "Take some of his blood and give it to her?"

Again, Kamila could only shake her head slowly. "Niklaus commands his blood flow, just the same as a hybrid can control when the wolf in them comes out. I could get the blood, sure, but there's no guarantee the blood I got would have the cure in it."

"Not to mention I'd snap your neck for trying," Klaus called from the living room. She knew he was bluffing, but if she undermined his statement in front of Tyler, he might just kill her after all.

"I can dull the pain just a little," Kamila said softly to Caroline, ignoring Klaus's comment. "Do I have your permission?" The girl nodded, and Kamila put both hands over the wound, concentrating her Power into the magickal equivalent of morphine and pumping it through the vampire's body. After a moment, she stopped panting and was able to struggle to her feet.

Kamila rose with her, turning to Klaus. "If I can get you outta there," she said, "You'll heal her?"

He shrugged, "Sure. But the bite works fast, so Tyler, you should really call your own witch back."

"Go on," Kamila told Tyler as he held tight to Caroline, supporting her against his shoulder, "Take her home – make her comfortable."

He nodded and turned them both toward the door, then looked over his shoulder and said a reluctant, "Thank you," before disappearing.

Once they were gone, Kamila poured herself a cup of coffee and ran her index finger around the rim, tracing a few runes intended to wake her up and replenish her energy enough so she could continue working. She sucked it down, poured another, and walked back into the living room. "Taking sides with strangers, Kamila?" Klaus inquired as she sat down in front of the fireplace.

Instead of answering his question, she said, "When this is over, Niklaus, you and I are gonna have some words. But for now, just shut up and hand me that," she pointed to a school notebook with a pen stuck in the spiral, tossed and forgotten on a chair by the window. He retrieved it and handed it to her.

"What's it for?"

"Just feeling around is getting me nowhere," she mumbled absently, flipping to a fresh page and writing out combinations of runes and words in ancient languages. "It's possible to create a spell that uses the Power attached to an Expression spell against itself, but it has to be handcrafted and it takes a while to get right." She tore out the first page and crumpled it, tossing it into the hearth just as a fire began dancing within. "Also, shut up."

He pantomimed zipping his lips shut and fell back on the couch, thumping his feet up on the coffee table. There was a strong tug on his ankles and his feet were pulled back to the floor. He glared at Kamila, but she was still scribbling away at the new page, crossing something out and writing over it, then crumpling the whole thing and tossing it in with the first. It looked like he was just going to have to wait.

The entire day, two more pots of coffee, a pizza delivery, and a coagulated blood bag later, it was dark out and Kamila was still writing furiously in the notebook, down to her last ten blank pages but at least she felt she was getting close. She didn't tell Niklaus that, however; it didn't seem wise to say anything to him right now. Shortly after Tyler had carried Caroline away, his big bad wolf act had come crashing down and he'd sunken into a state of what appeared to be depression. He kept glancing at the oxidized brown stain on his jacket sleeve and running his hands through his hair, fidgeting and taking in deep breaths every so often that he never seemed to let back out. It didn't take long for Kamila to piece it together; she'd known from one look the other night that he was in love, and now she knew with whom.

She put down the notebook for a moment and pinched the bridge of her nose, catching sight of something when she pulled her hand away. Blood. She still had some of Caroline's blood caked underneath her fingernails. Checking to make sure Niklaus was still nose-deep in a book he'd found on the mantlepiece and had been pretending to read for the past hour, she ran the end of her pen under her nails and let the dried blood collect on the floor in front of her, closing her eyes and concentrating on the life it was connected to. This was a trick she'd learned a few decades ago; she could find anyone with just a sliver of their DNA, as long as they weren't magickally hidden from her. It took her only a few seconds to lock on to Caroline's location, pulling on it like one end of a rope until a picture formed in front of her eyes.

Caroline was in her own home, in her bed, crying and twisting like she was trying to escape her own skin. The painkiller Kamila had given her had obviously worn off and the girl was suffering. Some vampires could go days with the poison in their system, but some only lasted hours, and she worried that Caroline was the latter of the two. Above her, Tyler had one of her hands sandwiched between both of his, his lips pressed to her fingertips and tears in his eyes. He knew he was losing her, and his helplessness was palpable. She felt for them, and the young love that was soon to be snuffed out if she didn't think of something fast. And more than that, Niklaus would lose the woman he loved as well. Even if he pretended it didn't matter to him, she knew it did; she knew he'd regret it for the rest of his very long life.

She blinked the vision away and drew the notebook back toward her, flicking the last of the blood off of her pen so she could continue writing. She tore out another page, smashed it into a ball, and threw it into the fire, where it disappeared almost instantly.

"This isn't your fault," Caroline said weakly, reaching up to trace the line of Tyler's jaw with her index finger. Inside, everything was on fire, but if she'd learned one thing since becoming a vampire, it was how to be strong for other people. "I don't want you to blame yourself, okay?"

"But it is," Tyler said lowly, a tear slipping down his cheek. "I was the one who insisted on staying in the house, gloating, goading him on. We shouldn't even have been there. I'm so sorry, Ca-" He cut himself off with a violent cough. He cleared his throat and tried again, "I'm sor-" Another cough wracked his body, then another and another until he was on all fours on the floor, gagging and spitting and choking on something.

"Tyler!" Caroline gasped, leaning over the edge of the bed to see him. With one last violent cough, he dislodged the foreign object from the back of his throat and onto the floor in front of him. He reached for it, bringing himself up to sit back down on the bed. It was a piece of paper, crumpled and lined, with ragged edges like it had been torn from a notebook. He gave Caroline a confused glance before carefully unfolding the paper and flattening it out on his lap.

He read it twice and then looked at Caroline again, eyes wide. "What is it?" She asked worriedly, to which his only reply was to turn the paper so she could see.

I need you to trust me, it read, And bring Caroline back to the house. Put her within the barrier, then leave. He won't watch her die. I'm confident he'll save her. -K.R.

Tyler swallowed and stared at the paper, "Do you trust her?"

"I don't know," Caroline answered helplessly.

He nodded and folded the paper into a small square, sliding it into his pocket. "Then trust me."

Klaus had started pacing again, back and forth in front of the windows while Kamila continued to struggle through her spellcrafting. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Tyler carrying Caroline, then he laid her just within the barrier and backed away. "You wanna be in control, Klaus?" He said, putting his hands out, "Here – now you get to be in control of her life. If you want her to die, fine," it pained him to say the words, and it pained Klaus to hear them, but neither of them let it show. "But then you can sit here and watch her die yourself." He glanced at Kamila but she didn't return his gaze, then left the way he'd come.

Klaus was shaken – this wasn't the plan, he wasn't supposed to have to see her go – but he forced himself to remain cool and collected. "Nothing personal, love," he took a few steps toward her and perched on the edge of the coffee table, "But if I cure you, that means victory for him. Don't worry; it won't be long now." He sat there staring as she lay on the floor, gasping and choking back sobs because she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"Christ almighty," Kamila threw the notebook and pen down on the floor and stood, walking over to the young vampire and kneeling next to her. "Move," she told Klaus as she twined one arm under the girl's legs and the other behind her back. She lifted her in a swift, easy move and turned. "Move,"she barked again, and this time he stood up and stepped to the side so she could squeeze past him and lay Caroline on the couch.

"You should be less worried about her comfort and more worried about your spell," Klaus said over her shoulder. "After all, the sooner you get me out, the sooner she gets cured."

Kamila turned on him and her eyes were that deep, black-green again. He'd thought he was familiar with every shade of green her eyes could take, but this was new to him. "I'll be lucky to have the spell done within the next day, and we both no she ain't gonna last that long, so why don't you just be decent and keep your mouth shut?" Her jaw was tight and her mouth was curved in a worried frown, but when she turned back to Caroline, she gave her a little wink. Caroline, in turn, gave her a small smile.

"Move again – lord, you are always in the way." Kamila shoved past Klaus and reclaimed her place in front of the fire, writing some more as the fire hissed and spat in front of her. In reality, she could start her spell now and have him out by midnight, but she wanted him to cure Caroline on his own. Maybe she was being foolish in gambling with the girl's life, but she had faith. Something of the man she'd once known had to be in there somewhere, and if he really loved this girl as much as Kamila suspected he did, he'd let that part of his old self out.