"I'll get straight to the point, love. People have been after me for a thousand years and I'm always one step ahead."
Klaus drops the dead body of the housemaid carelessly on the ground as he steps over the threshold into the plantation house. "Rebekah!" His enraged yell reverberates off the marble walls. "Do not make me search for you!"
Rebekah rushes down the steps at vampire speed and comes to a halt several feet away from him at the bottom of the staircase. "Niklaus," she says neutrally. "What do you want?"
"We probably don't have much time, so I'll have to keep this short," he says casually before his eyes narrow suspiciously at her appearance.
Her hair is disheveled and her shirt is wrinkled. She looks all out of sorts as if she's been unexpectedly interrupted in the middle of something.
Klaus crosses the distance between them instantly, one hand wrapped tightly around her neck. "Who's here with you?"
Rebekah scrabbles at his hand, trying to free herself. "Nobody," she rasps out forcefully. "Just me."
"Leave her alone!" a male voice shouts from above.
Rebekah's eyes widen in panic as she looks up over Klaus's shoulder.
Klaus smiles triumphantly at his sister. "Here's another one who's prone to compulsive fits of heroic stupidity."
He slowly turns his head to look up towards the top of the stairs. "Matthew Donovan! I'll kill you in just a moment, but first I have something to discuss with my sister."
Klaus turns his attention back to Rebekah with icy calm, ignoring the fact that her nails are digging into his hand. "Come with me."
Rebekah continues to pry at Klaus's fingers, unable to free herself as she is dragged across the foyer into the salon.
Klaus doesn't release her until he has pushed her down into the sofa. He whips out a dagger and presses it against her chest, not quite penetrating the skin.
Rebekah's eyes widen as she looks down at the blade in his hand. "How?"
"Please." Klaus scoffs and barks out a laugh. "Neither you, nor our baby-brother have ever been very good at hiding your possessions from me."
Matt enters the room, immediately notices the dagger and doesn't hesitate to launch himself at Klaus.
Klaus turns around at the last moment and stops the attack one-handed with his fingers wrapped around Matt's neck. "Was I not clear?" Klaus asks slowly.
He tightens his grip on Matt's throat while keeping the dagger poised over Rebekah's heart. His eyes are full of contempt as he looks at Matt. "I meant to kill you later, but since you can't wait-"
"Please, don't!" Rebekah suddenly rises up, nearly impaling herself on the dagger in her haste to stop Klaus from hurting Matt. "I'll do anything."
Klaus pulls back on the dagger, surprise flickering over his face before he looks speculatively between Matt and Rebekah. Finally, he sighs in exasperation and frowns at his little sister. "Really? Again? When will you ever learn from your mistakes, Rebekah?"
Rebekah grabs Klaus's arms with both hands, keeping the dagger poised over her heart and her brother's attention firmly on her. "Please, Nik, I'll do anything you say. Whatever you need."
Matt's eyes are rolling wildly until they land on Rebekah as he pries at Klaus's other arm and claws at the constricting fingers around his windpipe. "Don't-" he wheezes out before his air supply is cut off completely.
Klaus rolls his eyes and holds tight for a long moment before he loosens his grip again. "Fine," he says loudly, raising his voice to be heard over the coughing and gasping. "You're going to help me keep a little secret from Caroline."
Rebekah frowns in confusion. Her gaze flits back and forth between the dagger on her chest and Klaus's hand wrapped around Matt's throat.
"Where's Hayley?" Klaus asks without preamble.
Rebekah's eyes light up in sudden understanding. "Locked in the basement," she replies quickly. "Second door on the left."
"Good. I will take care of her." Klaus smiles coldly as he lowers the dagger and throws Matt into Rebekah's arms. "In the meantime, you can make this one forget all about her, the pregnancy, the whole sordid affair."
Rebekah catches Matt and wraps both arms around his shoulders to hold him back from going after Klaus again.
Klaus pauses at the doorway and turns to look back over his shoulder at them. "And maybe you should erase any little make-out sessions too. I don't want to have to go back and kill him after all."
Rebekah doesn't reply and keeps her arms around Matt until Klaus has completely disappeared.
Once her brother is gone, she bursts into motion, cradling Matt's face and running her hands over his shoulders and chest, frantically checking his injuries. "I am so sorry, Matt."
Matt sits perfectly still for a moment before he grabs her hands to stop them from moving all over. "So, you're really going to do it?" he asks in a low voice as he stares at her intensely.
Rebekah sucks in a shaky breath, looking back at him with wet eyes. "I have no choice," she whispers.
"Yes, you do." Matt keeps a hold of her hands, but his voice is firmer and louder than before. "You could lie to him."
"Shh." Rebekah shushes him hastily, covering his mouth with one hand. "No, I can't. And neither can you." Her eyes are flitting back and forth in fear. "The slightest idea that one of us is lying is all it takes. He will kill you before you can even think about running."
Matt pulls her hand away and squares his shoulders, glaring fiercely. "I'm not afraid of him."
Rebekah forgets herself for a second and rolls her eyes. "Do you know how incredibly stupid that is?"
"I don't care," he says unrelentingly.
"Well, I do." Rebekah insists hotly.
She clasps her fingers behind his neck and presses a fierce kiss to his mouth. She pulls back just as suddenly, staring directly into his eyes as her pupils contract and expand with the activation of her compulsion. "You're going to forget I did that."
Matt's eyes are hard as steel as he looks back at her, but his face goes completely blank. His whole body becomes still as he relaxes into the mind-trick.
Rebekah licks her lips and sniffs, forcing her eyes to stay open. "You won't remember anything that happened after I got back from meeting Elijah this morning. You don't know anything about a pregnant werewolf or that Hayley and Klaus had sex. The last thing you remember about Hayley is that she left Mystic Falls after my brother killed his pack." Rebekah's voice stays firm as the tears start streaming down her face.
She pulls one hand away from Matt's neck to bite her wrist and forces it past his unresponsive lips. "Drink," she says commandingly, but her voice cracks halfway through the word.
The muscle under Matt's right eye twitches, but he starts to swallow and continues to stare unblinkingly at Rebekah.
She watches the bruises on his neck fade to nothing as he ingests her blood before she speaks again. "You won't remember Klaus being here, or that he threatened either of us. You won't remember attacking him, or being choked by him and you won't remember drinking my blood." She removes her wrist from his mouth and rubs her thumb over his lips to wipe up the little bit of blood that he spilled.
Rebekah's brows furrow in deep thought for a moment, breaking eye contact to throw an anxious glance out the door before she looks back at Matt and intensifies her compulsion. "In fact, when we get back to Mystic Falls, once you get home, you will forget all about our little get together at the Grill and you'll completely forget you ever came to New Orleans."
She sucks in a breath and wipes the tears off her face. "You spent the days since prom in blissful ignorance, busing tables and-" She licks her lips then chews them for a moment before she continues. "And worrying about failing your classes. Understood?"
Matt's stare is hard as he looks back at her unflinchingly. "Yes, Rebekah."
She snorts grimly. "And you will dislike me more than ever because this is the second time I've messed with your mind in as many days and there's really no good reason to ever forgive me, except that you won't remember any of that, either, the moment I snap my fingers."
Rebekah snaps her fingers and ends the compulsion.
Matt blinks quickly and rubs his eyes for a long moment before he looks back at Rebekah. "How did we get down here?" he asks suspiciously.
Rebekah blinks and sucks in a breath, looking around searchingly. "You were going to make me a sandwich, remember?"
Klaus enters the basement with a determined scowl on his face. He throws open the second door on the left with more force than strictly necessary.
Hayley looks up from her chair, a frightened expression on her face until she recognizes Klaus. "You came for me," she says hopefully.
Klaus smiles coldly as he walks up to her and easily tears off the ropes around her wrists and ankles.
Hayley sighs in relief as she brings her arms around and gently massages her wrists.
Klaus suddenly grabs her by the throat, nearly crushing her windpipe as he leans down until his mouth is right next to her ear. "Don't delude yourself for a second that I am doing this for you."
He shifts his grip to the back of her neck and hurls her out of the chair before he grabs her and speeds both of them away, leaving nothing but an empty chair and a few lengths of rope on the floor.
