When i came to I was in a huge bed, in a lavish room decorated with all sorts of things. I opened my eyes to the sight of Niklaus standing shirtless with his back to me pouring a bag of blood into a glass. I sat up onto my hands and rubbed my temples to stop the banging.
"Good morning." he said turning around and walking over to me slowly, he sat down on the foot of the bed and handed me a glass of blood which I drank all in one gulp, licking my lips after at the sweet smooth sensation.
"Its so much better fresh." I said after a moment looking into the empty glass stained with red. He smiled a bit and took the glass from me.
"I agree, and Im not against you turning your emotions off, I don't really care either way, at least now you'll be more predictable. But with my recent lack of allies, I must insist you stay and help me get my cure."
"Insist all you want Nikki. Im leaving this podunk town." I got up out of bed and began taking off the long pink chiffon dress that I had stained with dirt and blood last night.
I noted Niklaus' eyes as they followed the delicate curves of my body. He ran across the room and roughly grabbed my face urging me to look at him. "You will not leave Mystic Falls. You will stay here and help me." I felt my urge to leave melt away and cursed myself for not building up a tolerance to vervain the moment I knew Niklaus was here. He had compelled me to stay. And stay I would.
"Now why was that you were saying love?" his hand on my chin stopped squeezing me and instead his touch was light against my skin. He looked at me for a long while.
"What?" I asked ripping my face from his hand and walking over to what I assumed was a linen closet.
"You're beautiful." he said after a moment, but I shrugged it off.
"Wheres your towels? Im covered in dried blood."
There was a time when he made me really feel beautiful, and I used to always have a compartment in my heart for Niklaus, young, naive love and all. But now I didn't have a compartment for anything, there was no drive, no feeling, no emotion. I could give two shits about Niklaus or Stefan or my parents or this stupid fucking cure. It was elating, not having to feel. I wondered why I wasn't always like this, but then again, hate is a strong emotion, and that was what drove me for so long. When I got out of the shower Niklaus told me to meet him in the living room where he had another bag of blood resting on the table.
"Eat." he ordered, pouting a bit at my indifference of him. I took the bag without hesitation and sucked it up quickly. "Now, let me fill you in on what is going to happen. You've managed to get Stefan on your side, kind of. His remorse has driven him to feel that he has some responsibility for you, this we can use to our advantage. They're friend Bonnie, the darker skinned one, she's a witch, and as you have already found out Jeremy is our hunter, by harnessing the map on Jeremy's arm we can find our way to Silas and the cure. The Salvatores have taken Jeremy and are training him at the Gilbert House on the outskirts of town. You will join them up there and provide some vampires for slaying. Also, you will try and speed up the process, the Salvatores are older than you, but you have more experience vampire hunting, you will provide a good crutch for Jeremy. I will see you in three days, I expect a considerable amount or all of the map to be visible by then. Watch out for my dear brother Kol, he seems to have been poking his head around town recently."
"Yes, Master." I said throwing the empty pouch onto the counter and walking away from Niklaus.
He put a hand on my shoulder, "Take this." and he handed me an iPhone. "I expect a call when you arrive and before you go to sleep." I rolled my eyes and pocketed the phone before grabbing my pre packed suitcase, (Niklaus had packed this, and it was bigger and considerably more heavy than my own, I wondered for a moment what exactly was inside it, but then excused the thought. It didn't really matter) before heading out for a walk to the Salvatore house. When I came up to the door, Stefan answered and immediately invited me in, apologizing for how last night ended, we walked through the foyer and into the living room where Jeremy and Damon were gathering last minute resources for the week.
"Good Morning Boys." I said and they both looked up from their packing.
"Morning River." Jeremy said with a little smile.
"What are you doing here?" Damon asked, zipping his bag and swinging it over one shoulder.
"Are you feeling better?" Stefan asked slowly.
"I feel…nothing." I said truthfully.
"Weren't you going to skip town or something?" Damon was clearly agitated at my appearance, probably because he had already figured why I had come.
"Ive had a change of heart. I want to see this through. More importantly Niklaus wants me to see it through." I examined a picture of Damon and Stefan on a counter, they had their arms over each others shoulders and were smiling widely. I flipped it so it was face down.
"Im not letting Klaus' baby sitter watch my every move up there. Tell him I said we made a deal, and he's just going to have to take my word for it." Damon said shaking his head and making eye contact with Jeremy.
"Jeremy, I have experience hunting vampires. I know how to track, I know how to trap, and I know how to kill them." I said, ignoring Damon's protests and preaching to Jeremy directly now.
"So do I, and we don't need two vampires up there, especially one that turned her emotions off and could care less about slaughtering people in public places." Damon raised his arms in frustration. Jeremy looked at me for a long while.
"Have your stuff ready. We leave in ten minutes." he said finally.
"What? Jer- no come on she-" Damon started, but Jeremy cut him off
"Will be of some help, and with her there we won't have to expect any unannounced visits from Klaus. Also, I have a feeling if we don't let her come, Klaus will make us anyways. So why not put the bad blood aside and work together for once."Jeremy and I made eye contact and I smiled at them before I took my stuff into Damons car.