Chapter 9
A/N Thanks again to all you readers. Keep on encouraging me!
Well, damn, Klaus thought, looking at Bonnie. He did want to talk to the witch about Silas, but this was not the best time. He used a hand to try to move his right leg into a straight position. He could not move it. He didn't waste his time with the left. The best he could do was pull up the sheet higher and place one of the pillows over his lower front.
Bonnie had a displeased look on her face. She was frowning as her eyes swept the room. They quickly passed over his position and came to rest on his face.
"Ladies! I am pleased to see you. I would get up like a gentleman, but I am not decently attired and I can't move my legs. Please forgive me."
"Don't worry about it," Caroline said, grinning. "So, you have some problems, Klaus. What's going on? Did Silas stab you in the back again?"
"I don't really know what is going on, love," Klaus said, annoyed with her jovial attitude. He knew she was teasing him. To her he said, "Here, sweetheart, put this tray over there."
Bonnie spoke up then, cutting off whatever rejoinder Caroline was about to make. "You left several messages for me to call you. What is so important you called in the middle of the night?" She ignored Caroline, who did move the tray in a huff.
He could see Bonnie was annoyed. He didn't care. What was important was that she had responded by coming to meet him. Either she had run into Caroline at the front door or she had talked Caroline into accompanying her. He knew she didn't want to come to the house alone.
"As I just told Caroline, I can't move my legs properly. My right, not at all. My left only weakly," he explained. "I have a piece of metal in my back and last evening it was as if someone was touching me, someone not here."
"It sounds like the metal in your back is causing problems with your legs," Bonnie reasoned. "What do you expect me to do? I'm no surgeon." Her gaze ran up his arm to his shoulder where there were interesting tattoos. She hadn't known he had tattoos. Birds in flight. What was the significance to him? Then she looked him in the eyes. She saw a hint of alarm there, which she sensed he didn't want her to see. Masculine pride and all that.
"The metal is not doing this. You'll have to take my word for it. I believe Silas is doing it," Klaus growled. He suddenly jumped as someone touched his privates. With the young ladies there, he didn't move the pillow or try to feel around. He knew nothing was down there, even though he could feel it.
"Why'd you jump?" Caroline demanded.
"Um," he said, finding himself in an awkward situation as something tickled the inside of his right groin area. He was ticklish there. He squirmed slightly.
"Klaus?" Caroline insisted, watching him. Both girls were studying him. they didn't know if they should be amused or concerned.
"Something is touching me. Tickling. Here and there and yet I know nothing is there," he said. He ran a hand across his abdomen, fluttering his fingers, even though that was not where he was being touched. "What I want from you, Miss Bennett, is for you to use your powers to see who is touching me."
"I can try," Bonnie said with concern. She was also very curious now. Tentatively she reached out and touched Klaus on the arm nearest her, the fingers of her hand feeling his cool flesh. She would not have been surprised if he had pulled his arm away from her touch. He didn't.
"Miss Bennett, see if Silas is doing anything to me," Klaus encouraged in an even tone. He refused to plead. He felt her hand tighten on his arm as she closed her eyes. A whole minute passed in silence. Even Caroline was silent for a change.
Just for a moment, he considered the possibility that Bonnie was the one doing this to him. If it was her, he would likely know in a moment. He held still, watching her concentrate.
Whatever was touching his groin moved along his skin, down further until he knew it was going to invade his body again. He thought if he sat up straight he could prevent it, so he tried. He couldn't move the main part of his body at all. He felt as if a giant hand was pressing down gently on his abdomen, holding him. He knew there was nothing visible there, so it increased his alarm. He stared at Bonnie. If she was the one doing this, he was willing to kill her or at least hurt her. He gasped slightly at the intrusion below. He wanted to kill someone, but he held still while the young witch concentrated.
Bonnie frowned and her eyes flew open. She blushed and pulled her hand away from his arm. She looked at him and then quickly away.
"Miss Bennett! Damn it, Bonnie, tell me!" Klaus demanded. Finding that he could at least move his arms, he grabbed her arm tightly. "Are you doing that?" He was sure she knew what he meant. Why? Because she was responsible for it or because she was not, but she had seen it in her mind?
"No! No, of course not!" Bonnie yelled, backing away from the bed, trying to pull her arm free. She glanced at the pillow over his lap. "Let go!"
He did let go and watched her as she moved back a couple of steps. He believed her. His instincts told him she would not violate his body in such a way. She might give him a killer headache or do him some other harm, but she would not do something so indecent.
"What's going on?" Caroline demanded.
Ignoring her, Klaus asked of Bonnie, "What did you see?"
"You know what I saw," Bonnie stammered. "And I … I did see more. I saw how he or she is doing this to you. First of all, there is a crystal ball. It …"
"A crystal ball? A damned old-fashioned CRYSTAL BALL?" Klaus roared. He sat up straight, unmindful of the fact that the pressure on his abdomen had gone away and the poking thing had withdrawn.
"Yes. It's acting like a hidden video camera would. The person can see you. Us. Secondly, there is a figure of clay. Gray clay. A little bit bigger than Ken, the Barbie Doll's boyfriend. Anatomically correct, I might add. It represents you. It's a voodoo doll. The person can touch you, control you to some extent."
"A voodoo doll? A VOODOO doll! With pins sticking in it?" Klaus roared again, his face red with fury.
"Only one pin. In the back," Bonnie whispered.
"I don't feel it. Are you sure?"
"I saw it. And the other … um …thing."
"The other thing is gone now. Did you see the person? Was it Silas?"
"I didn't see the person. Just hands. Three of them. A man's hand. Two hands I think are female. I saw no faces. I don't know what Silas looks like."
Klaus' legs suddenly straightened out. That was a relief, but he was furious. He sat there swearing at the supposed observer, intending for the crystal ball to show whomever just how angry he was and that he intended revenge.
For that outburst he received a painful jab in the back, right about where the piece of metal was located. The pain shot down his buttocks and down both of his legs so that his knees both jerked upward. Luckily, he had no tray on his lap. The pillow over his lap went flying and, as his legs suddenly straightened out again, the sheet caught on one foot and was pulled down to mid-thigh.
He sat there exposed. Caroline smiled, but Bonnie was embarrassed and looked away. With more swearing, Klaus yanked the sheet back up. How many ways could the evil person humiliate him? He found out almost immediately when a large burst of intestinal gas escaped.
Feeling quite defeated, and deflated, for the moment, he lay back down on the pillows and stared at the ceiling.
"Feel better?" Caroling asked, a smirk on her face and waving her hand in the air.
"Shut up," he growled.
Movement over by the door caught his eye and he glanced that way. Elijah had come in. From his expression, he suspected Elijah had been there long enough to hear the gaseous explosion. Elijah also was pushing a wheelchair. Klaus felt that his reputation as the One and Only Original Hybrid, feared by all, was in total disarray.
Elijah looked at both Caroline and Bonnie. He wasn't sure he trusted them. What had they done to his brother?
"Did you learn anything?" he asked, looking directly at Bonnie.
"Yes," she said. She was a bit less nervous with Elijah than she was with Klaus. She told him what she had seen, referring to the crystal ball and the voodoo doll. She didn't mention what she knew had been done to Klaus.
"So, you believe someone is observing us right now via the crystal ball?" he asked.
"It's possible," Bonnie nodded. "Then again, it might only be when the person decides to torment Klaus."
"And is it Silas?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't you ladies go downstairs to the parlor while I help Klaus dress. We will be down shortly," Elijah said.
When no one objected, the girls walked out into the hall and headed for the stairs.
"Someone has taken Klaus down a peg or two," Caroline said with a snort as they went down. Bonnie didn't see the look of concern come to her friend's face, but she heard it as Caroline added, "Whoever is doing this needs to be stopped."
"That's for sure. He really is in a bad situation," Bonnie said. "Silas or whoever it is really has it in for him. They're playing dirty."
"Like Klaus doesn't play dirty when he feels like it? You know he does. What did you see that you didn't say out loud?"
Bonnie hesitated to answer.
"Bonnie! Tell me!"
"A hand was touching him. Around his privates," Bonnie whispered.
"No way!" Caroline said and she stifled a laugh. "No wonder he looked freaked. And I thought he would die of embarrassment when he farted."
Bonnie was not particularly amused. She didn't care that the hybrid was embarrassed, but she did see some potential seriousness to the situation. What if Silas turned his attention to someone else?
Caroline stopped grinning and said, "If he has a piece of metal in his back, I wonder where it came from. I couldn't find anything in his upper back when I was digging around in there."
"That must have hurt him badly," Bonnie said as they entered the parlor and looked around the big room.
"Oh, yeah. Like, he yelled and cursed and hollered. He really thought part of the stake was still in him. He got so distracted yelling at me that the pain stopped and he realized Silas was playing a trick on him."
"That was cruel, but I sort of think Klaus deserved the punishment. I think it's gone too far now," Bonnie said, shaking her head.
"I think so, too, although the look of surprise on Klaus' face was priceless," Caroline said with a grin.
"Isn't the stake partly encased in metal? Didn't Esther melt Alaric's ring and combine it with the white oak stake?"
"Yeah. You think a piece of it is still in him? The stake went in much higher than that," Caroline said.
"It could have worked its way down," Bonnie said. With a sad expression on her face she said, "This whole business with Silas and the cure has been a terrible disaster."
She could not believe that Jeremy Gilbert was dead. She had been so under Shane's spell, that she had focused on the direction Shane had sent her and she hadn't even known about Jeremy. Had she really been under Silas' spell through Shane?
Caroline looked at her and knew it was memory of Jeremy that made her friend sad, plus the fact that Elena had turned cold and vicious as a vampire. Damon was to blame for that. And now here they were trying to help that damned hybrid Klaus, who was far from innocent. Silas, or whoever it was, seemed to take pleasure in tormenting Klaus by humiliating him. Klaus who had great pride in himself. Although she didn't like to admit it, she now felt sorry for the blond hybrid.
"I'm surprised Klaus turned to you for help," she said. She walked over by the large fireplace and studied the painting above it. She knew Klaus had painted it. It was a lovely country scene and not one of his dark, moody themes.
"Me, too. He's desperate. Maybe I'm the only witch left he can trust, although I don't know why he would trust me. I mean, it wasn't long ago I put him in an invisible box and left him to stare at his brother's burned corpse. You'd think he would despise me."
"Maybe he does, but that's less important than the fact he's now paralyzed and under someone's control. Do you think he's impotent, too?"
"I don't know, Caroline, and I don't care," Bonnie said as she chose a chair and sat down. At least they were not in the room where she had witnessed Damon hung from chains while Rebekah tortured him. She hated that memory and the fact that Klaus had made her divide the blood bond Esther had created. All the Mikaelsons would be dead, otherwise. And probably all their descendants.
Upstairs, Elijah helped his brother dress as Klaus told him what had transpired while he was gone. Elijah knew this was taking a toll on the younger man. And apparently that was not the only thing.
"I keep seeing Kol in my mind," Klaus said sadly, shaking his head. "He was in such pain. Screaming. On fire."
"It must have been terrible to watch," Elijah admitted, glad he had not had to see it.
"I didn't mind watching Mikael burn, but our little brother was different," Klaus said. "Oh, and do be careful. Remember that our water here comes from our private well, but the town has put vervain in the main water supply, so avoid it. I'm not even sure it's safe to eat in a restaurant."
"I'll remember," Elijah said. How nasty of the town to do that.
Once properly attired, Klaus shifted himself to the wheelchair with his brother's help. He hated doing it, feeling like an invalid. He didn't bother to put his left foot on the foot rests, although Elijah put the right one in place. At least now he could propel himself along with his hands without his brother's help. They headed down the hall toward the back of the house where a service elevator had been installed. They took it down to the ground floor where the two young women waited in the parlor, or the formal living room, as the girls called it.
Klaus wheeled himself over to a position facing the girls. Elijah took a seat on a couch, also facing the girls.
"May I offer either of you a drink?" Klaus asked.
"I'm fine," Bonnie said. "Thanks anyway."
"Yeah, me too," Caroline said.
Klaus didn't transfer himself to a couch. Why demonstrate his awkwardness to them? Caroline would likely smirk at him and he didn't want that. Nor did he want to encourage snarky remarks from this lovely thing that made his cold heart go pitty-pat.
A/N I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know I'm being mean to Klaus, but I still wanted to put some humor into it. Please comment. Is the story totally serious or have I come across with some humor?
