The last few weeks of high school before the summer hols were jam-packed with activities, football games and dances- not least, the 'Miss Mystic Falls' pageant where Caroline was to crown the new Miss Mystic Falls, being the reigning one herself.
Virgil knew Rebekah was revelling in all the hustle and bustle of the organising, even if she was trying not to show it. It made her affection for the girl grow as she realised just much of being a teenager Rebekah had missed by being turned into a vampire and then running from Mikael for centuries. In actual fact, despite her 1000 years, she was still the young girl who had lived long ago in Anglo-Saxon times. This was why Virgil wanted to help her have as much fun as possible and experience the joys of high school life (all expect lessons and exams of course).
She'd also prepared a surprise for Rebekah because of this. Secretly, she had gone around all the older grades at school and told people to vote for Rebekah to become the next Miss Mystic Falls. It would be a lovely shock when it came and she couldn't wait to see Rebekah's face when Caroline called out her name. the kids liked Virgil, who was popular and nearly all of the boys fancied Rebekah like hell, so Virgil's secret campaign came off successfully.
On the way home from school, Rebekah also finally got around to asking Virgil about Klaus's 'business' proposal.
"Yeah-er-I kind of just went and sang from him yesterday evening," Rose said sheepishly,"he wants me to do the same every evening."
Rebekah gave a disapproving tut. "You should have told me at least! It could have been dangerous! No wonder Nik handed me a wad of bank notes and told me to shopping so he could have the house to himself!"
"Thing is, I think Klaus planned everything that way, because he acted like you'd be there when he asked me, but then obviously, you weren't. He's crafty."
"Understatement," Rebekah snorted, "so…he didn't try to bite you or anything? I was afraid he would have done."
"Of course not! I would have him kicked his face in!" Virgil said jokingly, but more seriously, she added, "I had vervain too."
"That wouldn't have stopped him."
"I know, but- he didn't do anything- honest. He just sat there and sketched while I sang a few Taylor Swift songs for him, that's all. 500 dollars for only that is a bit much but I didn't bother arguing- he might have taken offence and who am I to complain?"
"But still, just you tell me if he ever tries to sweet talk you like he does to Caroline- who can fend for herself somewhat, but you can't."
"Or maybe it's because you like me better?" Virgil grinned, throwing her arms around Rebekah.
The older girl smiled. "maybe so."
That evening, Virgil put a bit more thought into what she was to wear. She didn't know why it occurred to her to do that, but she had a faint idea which she purposefully ignored.
"A dress….god what am I thinking?" she said to herself even as she zipped up the back of it.
It was a fresh white, sleeveless one with a billowy skirt that reached down to her knees. With it, she had on her black jacket and combat boots just for the hell of it- she didn't want to appear to lady-like and sweet- it just wasn't what she was made for.
She left her hair open and sweeping on a layer of lipgloss, hurried out of the house. She was surprised to see no one was around and wondered where they'd all gone. At least someone in their little circle was always busy dealing with matters of a supernatural nature.
Today, no hybrid came to the door because it was already open. With a small frown on her face, she walked inside and immediately heard the sound of voices. And one sounded suspiciously like…..
"Elena?" she muttered, and hurried across the hallway, straight to the dining room where she could hear her sister pleading with someone.
The scene in front of her froze her blood. Klaus sat at one end of the table, facing the other end, where Elena sat tied to a chair. She had an IV needle attached to her arm, dark red blood flowing from her body, straight into a blood bag. The two of them were engaged in staring match: Klaus cold and indifferent, and Elena furious but slowly getting weaker.
Neither of them had noticed her, so when Virgil spoke, Elena gave a start and turned her head to stare at her in horror.
"Did you forget I was coming to day, Klaus?" she said quietly.
He glanced at her with a dry sneer and then turned back to Elena. "Virgil…come on in. sing your darling sister to sleep as the life slowly leaks out of her. It'll be your voice turning into a chorus of angels in a minute for Elena…."
Virgil was inwardly panicking at the sight of her drowsy-eyed sister, but she focused on maintaining her cool. Klaus would only be amused if she begged him to spare Elena's life. Where the hell where those Salvatores when you needed them?!
Slowly, she walked inside, keeping her eyes trained on Klaus.
"You are one lying, traitorous, filthy monster," she said calmly. "I never would have thought you'd have the nerve to after you asked me to sing for you to get rid of the fact that you're a billy-no-friends."
"A mere songbird isn't enough to change my ways, love," he smirked in an off-handed manner.
His response sent a burning rush of anger coursing through her veins. It felt like….magic? And just like that…she knew.
"Songbird am i? You don't say," she smiled and then, the words started to pour out of her mouth.
They were words of some ancient mystical language, full of intense beauty and terror. The music that she sang them to, was pouring out of the magic that had her whole body on hotwire. Virgil felt amazing, invincible- free.
The words died away themselves after a minute and their result was that both Klaus and Elena seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
"Yes!" she hissed in celebration, and hurried over to her sister, only to be faced by a new problem- how was she to carry a sleeping Elena outside by herself? She quickly slid the needle out of her arm and then looking at the blood bag with disgust, laid it on the table.
Fingers shaking, she whipped out her phone and dialled Stefan's number.
"Where the hell are you? Klaus captured Elena and was bleeding her dry until I found her a few minutes ago! Get over here and help me get her out!"
She didn't wait for an answer and turned off the phone- at the mention of Elena, they'd come without question. And exactly five minutes later, first Stefan, then Damon ran into the room. Their mouths fell open when they saw the sleeping dragon in his chair, but Virgil snapped at then to stop gawping and get Elena out of there.
"She's in some sort of deep coma," Stefan murmured as Elena's head lolled against his shoulder.
"Virgil…what did you do?" Damon said slowly.
"I sang a song," she replied truthfully, "now come on. We need Bonnie to perform a protection spell around our house so Klaus can't get in when he wakes up."
"but you're evidently a witch, right?" he frowned. " I mean…what the hell- even Bonnie can't do this to Klaus."
"I'm not a witch, that's why," Virgil replied, " and Bonnie can do a lot worse. Whatever I am, I'm definitely not a witch, because there weren't any spirits guiding me as they do to Bonnie. Anyway- hurry, hurry! Get a move on!"
On the way home, Virgil remembered something and pulled out her phone once again.
"Who are you texting?" Stefan asked as her fingers flew over the keys.
"Rebekah," she replied shortly.
"Why are you texting her?" Damon said, wrinkling his nose.
"To warn her to stay away from Klaus. I'm telling her to come to our house- and I'm in inviting her in."
"We-ellll, Elena won't be happy about that," he muttered in reply.
They were in luck: Bonnie and Caroline had arrived at Elena's house just a few minutes earlier, since they'd realised something was wrong when neither she or her siblings had picked up the phone. Jeremy who had been out, had also returned as was now standing in the porch. When he saw the small group appear at the gate, he gave a cry of relief.
"What happened?" Bonnie cried, hurrying out with Caroline close behind, as Stefan walked up to the house with Elena in his arms.
"I'll explain later. I need you to perform a protection spell as soon as Rebekah gets here, Bonnie," Virgil said breathlessly.
"Rebekah?" Caroline repeated in confusion.
"Later. Get inside all of you."
To her surprise, they actually obeyed straight away. Maybe she had a knack for leadership or something. She turned in the night air, searching desperately for any sign of her friend.
"Come on, Bekah," she muttered, "I'm in danger standing out here."
She backed away towards the doorway of the house as the tense minutes ticked by. Finally, she had to turn and yell for Bonnie to perform the spell. As Bonnie's chanting grew faster, Virgil could almost feel the magical barrier being formed all around the house. It was designed to keep out whoever wasn't inside it when it was being formed, which was why she'd wanted Rebekah to be there in the first place.
Truthfully, she should have realised something was wrong when the girl didn't show up immediately: Rebekah should have been there in a matter of minutes once she'd received Virgil's messages. But Virgil very quickly found out what the problem was just ten seconds after Bonnie's barrier was complete.
The gate creaked and Klaus loomed out of the darkness, his face just as dark- with fury. He was also pulling Rebekah along by the arm, as she struggled. When he saw Virgil, he stopped.
"There's my girl," he smiled icily.
Virgil shrugged. "Don't be getting all angry with me now. What was I supposed to do? You were killing my sister in front of my eyes. It was my moral duty to send you to sleep. That's what you paid me for, right?"
Klaus let out a mirthless bark of laughter. "Moral duty, was it? I'm afraid those set of rules don't apply to me, so you'll forgive me if I now threaten to dagger Rebekah, bury her in a coffin and push it out to sea, where she can stay till the word ends, and therefore leaving you no protection against me, what-so-ever."
"You do that, and I'll send you back to lala land again," Virgil countered.
"Ah-ah. Once mistaken, twice a fool," he replied. "I can just stop my ears. Classic Greek trick, you know?"
When she didn't say anything, his smirk widened. "Tell you what, pet, let's make a deal. I'll spare my little sister the pain of going through the dagger thing again, if you let me sire you to me."
Both Caroline and Damon, who had previously been standing silently behind Virgil, burst out, "NO!"
"Rose, don't do it!" Bonnie said urgently, from where she was tending to Elena.
"What? Rebekah's expendable, is that it?" she fired back. "She needs to know someone's got her back, because that worthless brother of hers right there, only ever sticks a dagger into it!"
Klaus's face darkened, but he kept his cool. "I'm waiting, my lovely."
Virgil met Rebekah's eye- the girl looked defeated but she still shook her head fervently. "Don't, Virgil. You don't know what being sired's like. He can make you do anything."
"Shut-your-mouth-Rebekah!" snarled Klaus, giving her a rough shake and digging the point of the dagger into her skin. She cried out in pain, but her brother's grip was too strong to escape.
"See? Even she's told you not to, so don't!" Damon hissed in Virgil's ear.
But she shook her head. "No. I've had enough of this. He uses her like a toy." She stepped off the porch and out of Bonnie's protective shield, facing Klaus. "Come on then- turn me into a vampire. And let me promise you this- once I've transformed, you'd better keep looking over your shoulder every few minutes because one day, you'll fall over with a white oak stake in your back.
"that's it- keep talking. I like empty threats,"Klaus leered, "come on closer, love so I don't have to let go of Rebekah."
"Virgil, no!" Elena was awake and staring in horror at the scene unfolding before her.
But she was too late. Klaus ripped a gash in his wrist at shoved it at Rose's mouth. "I'm going to enjoy snapping your pretty little neck."
His blood tasted like blood usually did-coppery- but as soon as Virgil felt the first drops trickle down her throat, she knew for the second time that night, that something was going terribly wrong. With a tremendous effort, she pulled her mouth away from his wrist and reeled back.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god!" she cried, clutching at her heart.
It was burning- she could feel it-flames seemed to be licking at it, engulfing it. She'd never felt so much pain in her life…and it was slowly getting stronger.
"Virgil!" Rebekah shrieked, tearing away from Klaus's momentarily loosened grip, to run to her friend. She caught her just as she hit the floor. At the house, Damon, Caroline and Stefan ran out, all thoughts of protection behind the shield forgotten.
Rebekah tried to calm Virgil but the girl was now writhing and screaming in sheer, awful pain.
"He's poisoned her!" Caroline cried in horror, "you bastard, what have you done?!"
"I haven't poisoned her, love,"Klaus said calmly, looking at Virgil with marked interest. "it seems your little friend can't keep down vampire blood and therefore not able to become a vampire. She's definitely a supernatural being- neither werewolf or witch, though. She's been keeping a secret."
"Shut up you evil man!" screamed Rebekah! "Look at what you've done!"
The next second, she yelped in pain as Klaus wrenched her up by the hair, away from Virgil. "Much as I'd like to watch the little angel die, I've got more pressing matters to attend to," he smiled sweetly at the panicked faces all around him, "such as disciplining my little sister and teaching her where her loyalties lie." With that, he disappeared into the night, taking Rebekah with him.
Virgil's moans were getting fainter and the vampires around her could hear her heartbeat getting weaker and weaker. Damon knelt down and took her head into his lap.
"I've only got one suggestion," he said to Stefan, "I can try sucking Klaus's blood out of her. I just don't know how much of her own I'll have to take first."
"Do it," his brother replied immediately, "it's our only chance. We'll have to risk it."
Damon smoothed Rose's hair to one side of her neck and tilted her head backward until it was leaning on her shoulder. He put his mouth against her jugular vein and sank his fangs in to her skin. Then followed a nerve-wracking minute where there was no sound at all-Virgil had gone silent. Damon continued to drink until he felt the hybrid blood coming out, interlaced with her own. It continued to flow out into his mouth and he lifted his head at last, once it was totally clean of Klaus's blood. He looked up to see Stefan staring at him in sudden horror.
"Her heart's stopped beating."
"What?! I got all the hybrid blood out!" Damon exclaimed, giving her a shake. "Don't die on me, kid! Wake up!"
"wait….it's coming back…..but very faint," Caroline murmured, leaning an ear against Rose's chest.
"We can't risk giving he our blood- she needs to get to the hospital for a transfusion," Stefan said.
"I'll take her," Damon volunteered, "and I'll stay there to make sure that idiotic Dr Fell doesn't give her vampire blood instead."
"Let me go with you," Jeremy said, hurrying down from the porch. "We have the same blood type even though we're not related because of it. She'll need it."
Once Damon and Jeremy had gone, Caroline and Stefan walked back to Elena.
"Wh-what happened?" she stammered as they came closer, " I mean- what the hell happened? The last thing I remember before I fell asleep was Virgil walking into the room and then she-she-sang and suddenly all went black."
"she told me she sang a song," Stefan said slowly, "I thought she was just joking. Bonnie? Any ideas?"
"she's not a witch," replied Bonnie, "I would have sensed it about her long ago. The power you just described sounds similar to the sirens though."
"The what?" Caroline asked.
"Sirens. Greek daemons who would sing with beautiful voices and lure sailors to their death."
"My sister is not a daemon," Elena said firmly.
"I know, because sirens don't exist," Bonnie agreed, "but something big is starting to happen. I can feel it. It was ever since we found out about the cure and Silas. Our world was complicated enough with vampires, werewolves, witches and a few hybrids- but this has seriously stumped me."
"That reminds me," Stefan interjected, "you and Rose have the same mother, Elena. Have you ever tried to find out who her dad is?"
"On her birth certificate, it says 'unknown' in that gap," Elena replied, "but we only assumed Isobel was her mother too because I was the only relative named there as 'half-sibling'- that wasn't Jeremy because his mom was different."
"Yeah? Because I'm starting to think violet eyes are definitely not your average colour now. And isn't it a coincidence that the only girl who has violet eyes in the whole country-or even the world for that matter- also starts to show signs of powers that can knock out an Original hybrid for half an hour? And that was without even trying hard, because she didn't look as if she'd made an effort. If she'd had, without a doubt, I can guess it would have killed you Elena- you were already in such a deep coma anyway."
"Oh my god, I think we should just stop," Caroline said suddenly. When the others looked at her, she shook her head and gestured wordlessly with her hands. "I just think it's too much for me to handle right now. I think we should focus on keeping Virgil alive right now."
"Yeah, we should just- leave it," agreed Elena, "and there's no point worrying Virgil about it either. She's only going to get freaked out at the mention of sirens, Silas and whatnot."
The door to the mansion slammed loud and hard, echoing all through the vast empty space. Klaus did not relinquish his hold on Rebekah and instead, pulled her even more roughly to the living room. There, he shoved her onto a sofa and pulled out a dagger and a bottle of white oak ash. Rebekah tried to run but he speed was no match for her hybrid brother's. He flung her against a wall and pinned her there by the throat.
"This is for taking their side against mine," he hissed, as he dipped the dagger into the bottle.
"You won't get away with this," Rebekah snarled, "Kol and Elijah will find me and when I'm alive again, I'm going to-"
"they won't find what'd buried at sea, love," he smiled darkly.
Her eyes widened in terror. "you wouldn't," she whispered.
"I would," he grinned, and thrust the dagger into her heart.
