Here Be Monsters

By Tenshinrtaiga

Disclaimer: I don't own the Secret Circle or the Vampire Diaries.

Pairings: Cassie/Klaus, Klaus/Cassie/Stefan, Cassie/Nick (slight Cassie/Adam, past Cassie/Damon. Background Stefan/Elena, Stefan/Rebekah, Melissa/Nick, Adam/Diana)

Summary: Cassie was 12 when she discovered her magic. She thought she was alone until Klaus told her the truth. But when she moves to Chance Harbor, she finds out the truth about her family and their magic. By binding her Circle, she's bound her magic. Now she's stuck with five untrained witches, a ripper and one angry hybrid.

Special thanks to Chosenfire28 for my ridiculously awesome banner (http :/ pics. livejournal. com/tenshinrtaiga/pic/0005b9cs).

A/N- Hey, guys! Just wanted to let you know that I've started a Klaroline Comment Ficathon (found here: tenshinrtaiga. livejournal. com/30348. html OR just follow the link on my profile to my Livejournal). Please come join us! Leave prompts, write fics or just lurk in the shadows like a creeper!


Cassie breathed heavily, gazing wide eyed at the now unmoving woman. She could feel her heart thumping wildly in her chest in fear. As her breathing began to slow, she briefly wondered why her heart was still racing. Looking down, she realized that Adam's arms were still wrapped tightly around her waist as she leaned back into him. His slightly chilly hands were resting on her bare stomach, her shirt having ridden up during the chaos.

Looking up into Adam's eyes, they both seemed to realize their position at the same moment and they simultaneously separated.

"You said she hadn't moved in sixteen years," Adam spoke accusingly, turning his focus on to the situation at hand.

"Not at all. Not a muscle. And then you come," Wade replied, looking at Cassie searchingly. As Wade talked, Cassie and Adam both noticed a mark on the inside of Heather's wrist.

As they were leaving, Cassie asked, "That scar on her arm. It's our families' witchcraft, isn't it?"

"It's a sigil. They're used for certain spells. I've seen them before in our research," Adam admitted easily as they made their way back to his car.

"Do you think that's what could be wrong with her?" Cassie asked, "A spell? Zachary said that my mother did something to Heather that was worse than death. Is that what he meant?" She looked up at Adam questioningly, the desperation to know apparent on her face.

Adam looked back regretfully, "Cassie, I don't know."

"Is that why she grabbed me? Because somehow she knew I was related?" Cassie continued asking desperately. She knew that Adam had none of the answers, but she couldn't seem to stop her mouth from moving, "This doesn't make any sense. Heather was her friend. Why would she do that to her friend?"

"We don't know that your mother did this," Adam tried to reassure her.

"No. I do know," she replied solemnly before stalking back to the car. She had spent her life believing that her mother was innocent from all the magic in Cassie's life and now to think that her mother had delved into the dark magics…

Cassie let out a breath as Adam pulled up to her house, "Do you want to come in?" She asked hesitantly.

He shook his head slowly, "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"You're probably right, but there's something I want to show you," she smiled slightly before getting out of the car. She brought Adam to her room and gestured around in a 'this is it' motion.

"Where's your grandmother?" he asked, half hoping that the older woman would be back soon to put a damper on the mood that was beginning to build between the two teens.

"At the hospital working a late shift. She's a nurse," Cassie smiled proudly. Her mother had only had a high school education and so growing up, Amelia had always worked menial jobs. When they'd move around, sometimes they'd live in crappy apartments, getting by on the tips her mother made waitressing. Sometimes, if they were lucky, they made enough to rent a house. In the town they had last lived in, the town her mother had died in, Cassie had taken a part time job at a local bookstore and Amelia had worked at a bank. It was enough to afford them a pretty nice house to rent before they moved on. Or had planned to move on anyway.

"I know. When I was ten, she set my arm when I broke it," Adam grinned, clearly proud of whatever back story caused the break.

Suddenly Cassie remembered why she invited him up to her room to begin with. She pulled out the tile from her fireplace and grabbed her mother's book of shadows. Her father's book was packed away somewhere having long since been memorized by Cassie. "I found this," she declared as Adam turned around to face her. The amused smile dropped from his lips as he realized what she held in her hands.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked, eyes glued to the leather.

Cassie smiled, "My mother's Book of Shadows. I found it when I first got here."

"How?" Adam asked, unable to believe that Cassie found in one day what he and the others had spent the last year looking for.

"My mother left it for me," the blonde shrugged, "She wanted me to find it. I haven't told anyone."

Adam finally looked up from the Book to stare at her, "Can I see it?" He asked. Cassie nodded and handed it over, "Each of the families has its own book, but we've only found Diana's. So everything we know about we are we know from her book, but its specific to her family," he explained as he began frantically flipping through all of the pages, "Different spells, different histories, this book is completely different," he looked up at the blonde, "We could learn so much from this."

Cassie smirked. She had already suspected that her mother's book was different from Diana's because it was also different from her father's. She moved to sit next to Adam and began searching through the book, "The sigil on Heather's arm… I've seen it in here." Finding it, she showed Adam, "That's my mother's handwriting. She had to be the one to put the spell on Heather," she whispered to herself, "I need to know why."

While Cassie trailed off thinking about why her mother had done what she did, Adam read the entry for the sigil, "It's a suppression spell of some kind," he said in confusion.

"Why would my mother do that? She would never hurt someone like this; not the mother I knew," she said but even as she spoke she knew her words were probably false. The truth is she hadn't known her mother. She hadn't known that Amelia was a witch; who knows what her mother was capable of. Cassie knew what she herself was capable of doing for magic and for Klaus and shuddered to think that her mother was the same.

"I'm sorry, Cassie," Adam said genuinely, drawing Cassie's thoughts back to the present. Looking down, she made a decision.

"I want to undo it. If we can undo this spell then she can tell us what happened," Cassie bargained, knowing that Adam would want to know that information as well.

"If it even works," he pointed out.

Cassie shook her head, "We have to try. You saw that woman. If we can make her better, we have to."

He looked at her oddly, "I thought you said that was a dark path, Cassie."

The blonde hesitated, worrying her lip, "We're not healing her. She's not dead," she tried to reason, but knew that everything she was saying was a lie. She was being a hypocrite, but she didn't care. She had to know what happened.

Early the next morning, Cassie and Adam met at the abandoned house to work on reversing the sigil. "Okay, it looks like we have everything we need," she spoke, mentally going through the check list of ingredients, "I'm going to need your help though."

"With what?" Adam asked in surprise.

"I'm kinda petrified of needles," She admitted. At Adam's raised eyebrow she frowned, "Yeah, I know. My two best friends are vampires and I'm terrified of a needle. It's not the blood, I don't care about that. But needles?" She shivered.

"Okay," he agreed with a grin.

She held out her hand and turned herself away as much as she could. She felt Adam grab her hand but there was no pain, "Are you gonna do it or are you just going to keep torturing me?" She asked slightly hysterical.

"Okay," he pricked her finger with the needle and let a few drops spill into a small vial before wrapping a piece of gauze around the appendage. She turned around to look up at him and their eyes locked. This time, their moment was brief as she noticed Diana in the doorway a second later.

Diana didn't want them to do the spell and Cassie couldn't help but wonder if the girl would still have that opinion if she hadn't walked in on Cassie and Adam. When put in the middle, Adam ended up siding with Diana which brought a small smile to the brunette's face. That's when Cassie realized that this argument was just Diana's way of re-asserting control. Testing this, Cassie mentioned her own Book of Shadows and the look on Diana's face proved the blonde right. Seeing the look also, Adam tried to help explain, but Diana was adamant.

Feeling anger at Diana's childishness well up inside, Cassie put on a smirk, "It's okay. That's what individual magic is for."

Diana shook her head, "We can't do individual magic anymore."

Cassie tilted her head, "Can't I?" She asked before snapping her finger. All of the candles in the room lit on fire. Adam looked around in surprise, but Diana looked fearful, "Silly, baby witch," Cassie leaned forward to play with a tendril of the brunette's hair, "Binding's for kids," she smirked as she picked up her book and the potion and walked out.

It was only once she got into her car that she let out her anger. She realized that she had given away a major advantage and all because she had gotten angry, but she couldn't help it. She hated being looked down on. Perhaps, hanging out with Klaus and Damon had given her a complex.

She leaned back and thumped her head against her headrest hard. A knock on her car window had her almost jumping out of her skin. Seeing Faye, Cassie rolled down her windows.

"What are you doing here?" the other girl asked wondering if there was another magic lesson and she'd forgotten.

"Adam, Diana and I were talking. I just left," Cassie gestured toward the house.

"Why so pouty?" Faye smirked.

Cassie shook her head, "You wouldn't understand."

The brunette leaned over the car, "Try me."

Looking up, Cassie sighed, "Fine. I want to undo a spell that could answer a lot of questions about how our parents died sixteen years ago and Diana and Adam won't help me!" She ended angrily.

Faye looked at her oddly, "Boy, did I miss a chapter," she shook her head. Looking down at Cassie's lap, Faye spotted something familiar looking, "Wait a minute. Is that a Book of Shadows? You have your own?" She gasped snatching it from the blonde, "I have looked and looked for my family's book and I can't find it."

"That's enough," Cassie grabbed the book and tossed it onto her passenger's seat, away from Faye's grasp.

"Oh, come on. Don't be like that. I thought you needed help," Faye taunted teasingly.

Cassie grinned. She didn't need the help, but the idea of the other girl offering made her smile, "You're gonna help me?"

"Sure, if you let me read your book, why not?" The brunette conditioned, "I mean, you need my help and to be honest, I've never understood why we're not better friends."

The blonde looked at her incredulously, but now that she was on the outs with Diana, perhaps forging a friendship with Faye could be a good thing. She already had Nick in her corner, but if she could get Faye, she could also get Melissa and that meant she would have the majority of the Circle. Cassie let a small smile creep across her face. "Meet me at my house tonight at ten."

Returning to her house, Cassie threw herself onto her bed. She turned on her side, intent on having a small nap to make up for the crappy day she had been having when her cell phone rang. Sighing in annoyance, she reached over to check the caller ID. Unfortunately, it was Klaus, so she couldn't ignore it.

"Hey, how's the windy city?" She grinned.

"Windy," he quipped, "I need a favor. It appears I am in need of a witch."

"I thought that's what you went to Chicago for," Cassie replied, playing dumb. She couldn't let Klaus know that Stefan had already told her about everything that was going on, "Gloria. And have I mentioned lately that I am a little offended that you went to her instead of going with my idea."

"I'm still going to try your theory on the full moon, but that is three weeks away, darling. Meanwhile, I want to try and contact the first witch," Klaus responded.

"Why? She hated your guts, didn't she? She'll just lie to you," Cassie sighed, flopping onto her back.

"Any information, even lies, is better than no information," He returned, "Now, unfortunately, Gloria has decided to leave and so I find myself in-"

"Need of a new witch," she finished, "So you said. When you say Gloria has decided to leave, don't you mean you ended up killing her?"

Klaus pursed his lips, "Actually, no. She has genuinely left. I find myself rather annoyed. If I had time, I would track her down and rip out her throat. Perhaps later," he mused to himself.

Rolling her eyes, Cassie addressed the actual point to the phone call, "I can't contact the original witch. I don't know how to. That's why you went to Gloria in the first place," She pointed out obviously.

"Gloria said that she could contact the witch by using Rebekah's necklace."

"Who?" Cassie faked confusion.

"Don't play dumb. You can't tell me that the instant I reversed my compulsion, Stefan didn't pick up the phone and tell you everything," Klaus sighed at his overly emotional vampire friend.

"I admit nothing," Cassie smiled, "Okay, if I had the necklace, I might be able to figure out Gloria's plan."

"One problem," he interrupted.

"You don't have the necklace?" she felt safe responding. If Klaus expected Stefan to tell her about Rebekah, then he probably expected Stefan to also tell her about their problems finding the necklace.

"Gloria was using Bekah as a conduit to search for the necklace. She said she found something and then disappeared," He scowled.

Cassie suggested, "Maybe she found something she didn't like."

"Or maybe she found something she did," He returned suspiciously.

"Either way, I might be able to find out," Cassie offered, "Bring me Rebekah and I'll see what I can do."

"That's why you're my favorite," Klaus smirked.

Cassie grinned, "According to Stefan, you say that about all the witches," She teased before hanging up. She rolled onto her side to put the phone on her nightstand, but let out a yelp in surprise, "Nick! You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry," the blond boy responded, "Who were you on the phone with?"

"Klaus," Cassie sat up to look at the boy closely, "What's wrong?"

Nick hesitated before sitting down next to Cassie on the bed, "Melissa was a mistake."

She reached out to rub his arm comfortingly, "Hey, what happened?" She asked worriedly.

"She flipped out on me this morning," he scowled in remembrance, "Because I was talking to some girl."

Cassie nodded in understanding, "She was jealous."

"She went off on me with some crap about how I was never going to change and how Faye was right and how she was sick of being my slut-toy."

She stayed silent for a second, but she couldn't hold her thoughts in, "Slut-toy?" She asked, trying not to laugh.

Nick grinned in response, "Yeah. I think she wanted to say fuck-toy, but there were kids around."

"Because slut-toy is so much more appropriate," She laughed, happy when the blond laughed with her. With the mood lightened, Cassie felt more comfortable giving advice, "I think she was just jealous and insecure. She saw you with this other girl and thought maybe it was because she wasn't good enough."

Nick shook his head, "Maybe that's true, but she still didn't have the right to go off on me. It's not like she's my girlfriend."

Cassie shrugged, "But I bet she wants to be."

He let out a sigh and flopped back on her bed, "This is getting way too complicated for me."

"Do you want to dump her?" she asked.

"A. In order to dump her, I'd have to be with her in the first place. B. I think she dumped me, remember?" he responded.

Cassie shook her head, blond curls flying, "Nope. She likes you. She'll be back, probably apologizing for acting like a bitch." Nick sighed in response. "It sounds like you don't want to get back with her."

"I don't know. Melissa's cool and she's a witch so she gets it. But at the same time, she's getting to be way too much drama. Plus, we're bound together so maybe it's better if we stop here instead of having more problems down the line," he reasoned.

"Sounds very logical," she nodded while internally wondering if his heart had any intention of following his plan. He seemed to really like Melissa. While Cassie's mind was off thinking, Nick took the opportunity to plant a kiss on her lips, "What are you doing?" She asked once they separated.

"Moving on," Nick replied resolutely as his hands drew her shirt over her head.

Later that night, Cassie crept out of her room, taking one last glance back at the slumbering boy in her bed. Grabbing her car keys, she waited for Faye on her porch. It was during her research of Heather that Cassie came across the information that Wade was the mechanical technician for the local hospital at Thin Creek. So, on their way to Thin Creek, she and Faye made a little detour. Then they waited and sure enough, after twenty minutes, Wade left to fix the mechanical problems over at the hospital.

"This is really creepy," Faye said, looking around the run down house, "Your mother did this? Why?" She asked looking at the scar on the inside of Heather's wrist.

Cassie shook her head as she prepared everything, "I don't know. That's what I'm hoping to find out."

"I mean, seriously, what could anyone do to deserve… Your mother must have been one mean ass witch," Faye stated tactlessly.

"Faye!" Cassie objected, "Please, can we just try to help her?"

"Sorry. Let's do this," Faye smiled excitedly as she flipped through Cassie's Book of Shadows.

"Alright, I'm going to apply this stuff Adam and I made and then we'll do the chant together," the blonde began mixing her vial of blood in with the mild green paste.

Faye tilted her head in thought, "Will it work?"

Cassie shrugged in response, "I have no idea. I don't know what the spell is, I don't know what the words mean, I don't even know how to pronounce them," She admitted easily. She had only found her mother's book a few weeks ago. She hadn't had time to learn her family's magic yet.

Not liking the negative mood, the brunette spoke up, "Okay, we can do this. You dragged me all the way out here so let's get to the bottom of it."

Cassie spread the liquid on the scar and the two girls did the spell. When they received no results, they tried again, but still got nothing. Hearing the front door open, the two looked at each other in panic before fleeing back to Cassie's car through an open window.

"So how about we go back to your place and check out the book?"

"Another time," Cassie replied, totally exhausted and she still needed to figure out what was up with the necklace.

But Faye wouldn't let it go, "I'd say I've earned a peak, wouldn't you?" Something in Cassie's face must have shown because Faye grinned, "Yes!"

Later, Faye sat on Cassie's bed as the blonde paced nervously. She was itching to reach into the nook in her fireplace and to begin examining the necklace, "Okay, that's enough for today," she reached out to grab the book, but Faye was quicker.

"Oh, calm down," the brunette smirked, "Or I could take it home with me and be out of your hair," she offered. Cassie gave an incredulous look, but a knock interrupted before she could say anything.

She was halfway down the stairs before she noticed that the door was already open, "Klaus?" She asked looking around. Seeing no one, she closed and locked the door before heading to the kitchen to grab some snacks.

Cassie nearly jumped out of her skin when Heather appeared in front of her. She kept asking about Amelia and Cassie had to explain that her mother was gone. "It went inside me," Heather cried.

"What did?" Cassie asked, totally freaked out.

"Evil. And I can still feel it. It hurts," Heather let out a scream as her body was shoved into the wall, "Your mother couldn't get it out, but she made the pain go away. Now its come back."

Cassie stood back in horror as she realized that she was the one who had brought the pain back to this woman. Her eyes widened as Heather fell to the ground in one of her fits. After waking up, Heather explained some things, but before Cassie could ask more, a small, slim thing crawled within Heather's body and suddenly it was like she was a completely different person. Heather shoved Cassie into the fridge so hard that she blacked out.

She woke up to the sound of Faye's scream. She was halfway up the stairs before she even realized she had moved. Running into her bedroom, she grabbed Heather by the hair and yanked her away from Faye. "Come on! Run!" Cassie grabbed the other girl's arm and dragged her away. The two screamed as Heather jumped between them and the front door. "Back door!" The witches only made it to the dining room before the lights went out and the kitchen went completely black. There was no way they were going to risk going through the pitch black room.

Cassie looked around and quickly realized that by hiding in the only room with light, it meant that they were completely out in the open, "Front door, run!"

The two fumbled with the lock but once they got it open they screamed again. "It's me!" Nick exclaimed, "What's going on?"

"Look behind you!" Melissa interrupted.

Cassie gave a shriek as she was grabbed from behind and thrown into a bookcase. Nick grabbed Heather and shoved her up against a wall. Heather took one look at Nick and ran for the front door.

She was in the middle of the street when her brother showed up, "Heather! Heather, it's me!" The woman turned to look at him but a man used the opportunity to come up from behind her and snap her neck.

"Hi, sweetheart. I'm home," Klaus looked down to see a small snake crawling out of the dead woman's mouth, trying to slither away. He stomped forcefully on its tail before pulling out a lighter and crushing it, causing the fluid to drip onto the snake. Then he flicked another lighter and dropped it, watching as the snake squirmed as it died, "Demons. I hate the little buggers," he looked up to see Cassie and her friends' surprised faces, "Now, what did I miss?"