I told you I'd update sooner! So this chapter is a little short, and a little bit of a filler, but I really wanted to update today.

Thanks everyone for reading a reviewing. You're reviews mean so much to me! All of you are so nice, even when I am kind of a massive procrastinater. -Izzy


Chapter 8

"Hey!" Caroline Forbes exclaimed brightly as the front door swung open. She was dressed for travel, in a coat, her hair pinned up and next to no jewellery on. She leaned on a black suitcase and smiled enthusiastically at the family she greeted.

"Hey," Matt said, wrapping his arms around Caroline's waist and hugging her. The two friends hadn't seen each other in months and Matt was over the moon to have Caroline stay with them for the summer.

"Hi," Rebekah said from behind Matt. She smiled at Caroline and embraced the girl herself when Matt broke away from her. The two of them had once been viciously feuding enemies with a deep, bitter hate for each other. But after 10 years, since her and Matt's wedding, and with Caroline being the only person who knew about their secret, the two girls had grown to be friends. 10 years did that to people.

"'Sup?" Avi said from the couch. She was sat crossed-legged under a pile of science books and encyclopedias, with her laptop out and open beside her on some science website. She barely looked up when Caroline came through the door. Matt rolled his eyes. He knew Aviana loved Caroline and looked up to her as an aunt, but she also had a schedule always written up in her head and if she was set on studying, she would hardly focus on anything else, especially if the study was important. Her teachers loved that about her.

"Avi, make Caroline a coffee," Rebekah ordered, looking over her shoulder. That was one of the perks of being a parent. You could just tell your kids to do everything you couldn't be bothered to do.

"Nope," Aviana said, reading something on a website. She had her hair in a messy bun on her head and wore leggings and a grey tank-top, the same clothes she had slept in. She had one earphone in her ear and her music on quietly.

"Avi," Rebekah said, looking a lot more formal in her skinny jeans, heals and blouse. She spoke with a warning tone, ready to bring out the parental strictness.

Avi looked up innocently from her books. "Mom?" she replied. She had been calling her that for years now, which was why Rebekah wasn't jealous about the fact that Caroline was the Aunt figure in Aviana's life.

"I'm serious," Rebekah sighed.

"Me too," Aviana said, as if she was afraid Rebekah thought she was joking.

Caroline chimed in. "I can make coffee," she smiled brightly. "I know the kitchen well enough by now. Really, it's no problem and I don't want to put anyone out."

There was a loud, audible sigh from the couch as Aviana got to her feet. "No, I'll do it," she said, shifting her work off her lap and getting to her feet. That was one of her weird quirks. She didn't want to help, but she didn't want to be inconvenient either.

Rebekah smiled, satisfied. "I'll take your suitcase upstairs," she offered, reaching out for Caroline's bag.

"Thanks, Rebekah," Caroline smiled, gratefully. She hugged Matt again as Rebekah headed upstairs. Caroline walked over to the couch, picking up one of the books Avi was reading a shamelessly having no clue what it said. "Why are you studying so hard?" she called into the kitchen, where Avi was boiling the kettle.

"There's a new boy in my class who got a higher score than me on a test," Aviana called back the explanation. "Mr Clay introduced him to the rest of the class as 'The best of the best'. I'm the best of the best. I'm Aviana Mikaelson. Or Aviana Millward, take your pick."

"Millward?" Caroline asked, being unfamiliar with the name.

"That's what the muggles call me," Avi said, peaking her head out of the kitchen and smiling.

Matt turned to Caroline and explained. "That's one of the basic things we did to hide her. People would look for the name Mikaelson. We got her a birth certificate under that name as well, but that's a secret one."

"What's her middle name?" Caroline asked.

"Rebekah on both," Rebekah said, strutting back into the room. "Matt insisted. So, Avi, what are you doing in science?"

"Phobia's," Aviana said. "I'm currently looking up Taphephobia."

"What's that?" Matt asked. "Fear of Taffy?"

Aviana paused, looking at him strangely. "Oh my God," she said. "Stop your mouth from moving. Anyway, the kid's nice and I kind of respect him for setting the bar higher for me." The three adults all shared similar looks. "What?" Avi asked, putting a mug of coffee down in front of Caroline. "What's that face?"

"Has someone got her first crush?" Rebekah asked, innocently.

"Oh my God, shut up," she said as Caroline winked at her and Matt laughed. "Even if I did have a crush on him, which I don't, he wouldn't be my first crush. There was a guy called Taz when I was 5, who I could've sworn I was in love with."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Talk about guys later. Aviana, we have a game to play, remember?"

Avi nodded, remembering her promise to give Matt another chance to beat her at Mario Kart. She doubted he would succeed. "Right, let's go," she said, nodding.

When the two bounced out of the room, Caroline turned to Rebekah. "God, she's so smart. Especially for a 13 year old. You two must be so proud!"

Rebekah smiled as she got an oven tray out and and started preparing a roast. "A grade student who is friends with everyone? It's impossible not to be proud of her!"

Caroline nodded, pausing. "This may sound a little rude, and I'm sorry if it comes across that way... but what actually is Avi? Is she a werewolf or what?"

Rebekah smirked a little. "That's not rude, Caroline. She's a Tribrid. Part werewolf, vampire and witch. It seems to be sought of split into thirds, with no dominant feature."

"Does she turn every full moon?" Caroline asked.

Rebekah shook her head. "No, like a Hybrid, she seems fairly in control of that. Sometimes the control wavers in a moment of fear and she turns, but she's only ever in wolf form very rarely. And it seemed to hurt more after puberty hit."

"What about her vampire side?" Caroline asked, picking up some herbs to help Rebekah with the preparation of the roast. "Does she drink blood?"

"Only a little," Rebekah said. "She doesn't particularly like it, and it's always animal blood. It's not like she craves it or hunts it, she just needs a little to give her strength. It wasn't always like that, but, again, things grew on her with time. And she doesn't need a sunlight ring. Going to ask about the witch side next?"

Caroline smirked. "No, I'm not really concerned with that part," she said. "Vampires struggle with the blood-lust and the sun and everything. Wolves struggle with the pain of turning once a month. But have you seen witches? They have their shit together."

Rebekah laughed. "She's becoming better with her magic. She inherited from my mother, an incredibly powerful witch, so her powers are pretty strong. She only knows a few spells, all of which are minor, but if she was angry, or afraid, the magic could channel itself into anything uncontrollable."

In the other room, Mario was getting serious. Aviana was pretty competitive, especially when it came to video games with Matt. He felt the same way most of the time. He used to always let her win, when she was younger. That's just what parents did. But after a while, she could beat him without his help. "WOO!" she exclaimed as she won yet another round. She moved her arms in a happy, victory dance as she grinned.

"Wow," Matt said, laughing. "So winning just turns you into a giant dork, right?"

Avi scoffed and stopped dancing. She pointed at him and spoke. "Okay, I'm going to ignore the fact that you said that because I know that comment came from a place of shame and humiliation."

"It's the truth," Matt said. He paused. "Is that what that boy at school likes about you?"

"Oh, God," Avi sighed. "Not you too!"

Matt laughed. "I just think, as your father-figure, we should have this conversation!" he said. He continued talking despite Avi's continuous saying 'Oh, God, stop!'. "And I want to make sure that you know that you can talk to me about these things-"

"Stop, please," Aviana said. "I'm begging you. First of all, don't refer to yourself as my 'father-figure'. You've been that for thirteen years, you get to claim the title of my father. Second of all, I'm thirteen, I'm not thinking about dating anyone right now."

"Okay," Matt said, shrugging. "As long as you understand that you deserve someone who would move mountains to be with you."

"Got it," she smirked. "I'm going to get a drink. You want anything?"

Matt shook his head and Avi walked over to the kitchen, interrupting a conversation between Rebekah and Caroline. Well, she didn't exactly interrupt, they just fell silent when she walked in. "Hi?" she said, confused. Usually Rebekah didn't keep things from her. Other than the fact Santa wasn't real. She found out the truth when she was eight.

"Hey," Rebekah said. She was pouting and looked kind of annoyed. She looked as though she was trying to hide it, but Avi saw right through that.

Avi put on a grumpy face and mimicked a perfect British accent. "What's wrong? Did somebody butter their bread with a steak knife?" Avi, being born and raised in the USA had an American accent, but she often mimicked a British accent purely to annoy Rebekah.

Rebekah just rolled her eyes. "Nothing's wrong. Caroline and I were just talking about your father. You're biological father, that is."

"Oh," Avi said, her face falling her her British accent going away. She turned to Caroline and smiled. "Did you know him?"

Caroline paused, looking as though she didn't know what to say. "Yeah. I mean, we weren't close, in fact I kind of hated him – wait no, I don't mean that I hated him, exactly... but the two of us weren't close. Well he was kind of close – not in a stalker way... not that it sounded like he was a stalker, just that – I didn't mean that, and I didn't dislike him all the time-"

"Avi, why don't you get Caroline a blood-bag out of the fridge?" Rebekah suggested.

Avi walked over to the fridge as Caroline continued her awkward stuttering. She handed Caroline a blood bag. "Here. You should put something in your mouth besides your foot."

Caroline took the blood and shut up. "I'm not saying I particularly know him well," Caroline said after a pause. "But I do know him. And I know he would be crazy proud of you. I saw how hard you were studying in there. Before Mario Kart, that was."

"I always dreamed big," Avi said. "And to dream big, you have to be prepared to work hard."

"She's a big dreamer," Rebekah said. "Harvard has been her dream since she was eight." Avi just shrugged innocently before going back into the other room.

-0-0-0-0-0-

August was settling down to a regular evening around the house. Scented candles, a hot bath, lots of bubbles, a nice book of poetry. He shifted the cat off of his lap and stood up to run a bath when his front door flew off the hinges. He turned immediately, his hands at the ready for some serious defence magic. A man walked in, one that August didn't recognise. He was dressed in dark clothes, dark jeans and a t-shirt with a black denim jacket. By his side was another man in an all-black suit.

"You must be August," the first man said. "I'm Klaus Mikaelson. It's a pleasure... etcetera." He walked around the apartment, picking up family pictures and putting them back. The second man just leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed across his chest. "Oh, and this is my brother, Elijah," Klaus said. "Neither of us have much patience, so I suggest you play along."

"Play along with what?" August asked. "What do you want from me? And how did you get in here? You need to be invited in, you're clearly both vampires."

"Yes, we need to be invited in," Elijah said. "By the owner of the house. The owner is dead. You were simply renting the place. But that's beside the point. I believe my brother has a question for you."

"Where is my daughter?" Klaus asked, zooming over to August and grabbing him by the neck, strangling him as he slammed the warlock against the wall. August tried to use magic to push Klaus away, but he wasn't powerful enough for the Original Hybrid.

"I deal with a lot of people," August said. "50% of whom are female. You're going to have to be more specific if you want any information out of me. Can you even give me a name?"

"Unfortunately not," Klaus said. "You see, my littlest wolf and I have been separated for so long that these things have slipped my mind completely. Inconvenient? Yes. But we're just going to have to work around my lack of knowledge about her."

"She would have been taken to you 13 years ago," Elijah said. "She would have been a baby. Her guardian was, and hopefully still is, a blonde woman, around 5 feet 6, Original vampire? The child would have returned once every year." August reached behind him as Elijah approached and grabbed a pair of scissors from a nearby coffee table. He swung them around at Klaus and tried to stab him with them but Elijah blocked him. "Was that necessary?" Elijah asked as the scissors clashed through the sleeve of his suit. "This was new."

"Don't try and defend yourself," Klaus said. "It won't work."

"I can't tell you anything," August said. "The blonde woman who's hiding her, she'll kill me if I told."

"Yes, but I would do it a lot more painfully," Klaus said. "I suggest you talk." August paused and Elijah stabbed him with the pair of scissors. "Let's start with something easy," Klaus said as August cried out in pain. "You know of the girl we're talking about, yes?"

August nodded, but he seemed to be in too much pain to speak. Klaus bit open his wrist and fed him some blood. He coughed a spluttered and Klaus let him go. "I know the girl," August said.

"She's safe?" Klaus asked. "Happy? Healthy?"

August sighed. "I don't know her well," he said. "She seems fine when she came around last. It was only a week or two ago. Pretty cheerful, I guess."

"Can you tell us where she is?" Klaus asked. "Or do we need to bring violence back into the question? If you don't talk there's no need for your tongue."

August paused. "No. No, I don't know where she lives. But, er... I do know a witch. She knows, she'll be able to tell you. Do you have a pen? I'll write down the address."


Please review, I love reading them! Klaus will meet Avi next chapter and there will be a little more Caroline and Avi interaction. -Izzy