Chapter 10

After his encounter with Silas, Atticus decided to go pay Ketsia a little visit. He hadn't seen her since the day of the sacrifice, and for the past few days all he could think about was finally being able to use his new power to gain immortality. But he couldn't do it without Ketsia's help. He knocked on the door and prayed that she was home.

"Atticus…" the dark skinned woman grinned widely, revealing her rotting smile, "how you feelin'?"

"I'll feel much better once you help me with an immortality spell," Atticus admitted.

Ketsia's smile faded quickly, and turned into a grim expression. "Come," she said as she pulled Atticus inside, "Let us not get carried away, child. Do you know what it will mean for you if you become an immortal?"

Atticus turned to look at her, "Well of course I do," he responded, "I'll be able to live forever, and I wouldn't be subject to the trifles of a normal human life such as facing death or injury."

"Yes, but you'll also be powerless," Ketsia rummage through all her spell books as she spoke, "You may not belong to the Spirits Atticus, but your power still derives from nature. Expression will allow you to create the spell, but it will come with a price. You cannot be a witch and an immortal at the same time, it disturbs the balance. Your direct link to nature will be cut off once you become immune to death. But there is another option." Ketsia pulled out a large antique spell book, and flipped through its disintegrating pages until she found what she was looking for.

"Well tell me!" Atticus was becoming impatient. The main reason he wanted to learn Expression in the first place was so that he could make himself immortal, and now Ketsia was telling him that it wouldn't be possible, unless he gave up his powers, something he was not willing to do. Ketsia looked up at him with her cold black eyes, and gave him a threatening look. Atticus immediately regretted his rude tone of voice.

"There is a spell that can give you eternal youth, fairly simple spell. It's not the same thing as immortality; you can still die, but not of old age," Ketsia began to gather all of the materials that would be needed. "You'll be able to remain young for as long as you can manage to keep yourself away from life threatening dangers. That could be a year if you're a fool who get's into quarrels with barbarians, or it could be a thousand years if you're lucky. You'll still have your powers since you're technically not immune to death."

"Well if that's the case then why don't all witches use it? It sounds too good to be true if you ask me…" Atticus said wearily.

"Of course, the Spirits wouldn't be too keen to those who perform such a spell, which is why most witches don't risk performing the spell and becoming subject to their wrath. You however, don't have to worry about being punished by the Spirits," she smiled as she put the spell book in front of Atticus.

Atticus looked down at the spell book, and recognized all the strange symbols. Ketsia was right, it was a simple spell, and Atticus had nothing to lose. His mind wandered to Anya… If he was to become young forever, how was he to be with Anya? She'd grow old eventually, die of old age eventually, and he'd still be there with the same youthful face.

"I still want to do the immortality spell," he said with determination.

"But I just told you, you canno-"

"It's not for me… It's for Anya."

XXXX

"For the last bloody time, tell me where the cure is!" Kol yelled as he pulled Professor Shane's head from the tub of water. Shane gasped for air and struggled to free himself from Kol's grip. His lungs were burning from all the water he had inhaled. "You're not a vampire, so why would you want the cure anyway?! Answer me!"

"That's the beauty of it, I just want Silas," he managed. Kol slammed him against the wall, holding him up by the shirt.

"What do you know about Silas," he hissed.

"He's the first immortal being, who just so happens to be imprisoned with the cure. And I want to free him." Kol had heard stories about Silas from the witches he'd encountered through out his life. If Silas was anything like what they described him as, then he would be a major threat to all of their lives, and now here he was looking at the face of the man who wanted to free the boogeyman. Kol wasn't going to let that happen, not as long as he was still alive and breathing. He dragged Atticus back into the library. Atticus didn't even protest, he was completely soaked and worn out.

"So did you find out where the cure is?" Rebekah asked as she saw Kol enter the room.

"It's locked up with Silas," Kol said, and he saw the look of disbelief on his sister's face, "I don't care how badly you want this cure Rebekah, but if you go looking for it, you'll risk letting Silas out, and I won't have that. He'll kill us all sister."

"Come on Kol. Silas isn't real… he's just a fairytale made to scare children into eating their vegetables."

"Silas is very real," Shane croaked, "I know where he's buried, and soon I'll have the spell that wakes him." He felt Elena, Caroline, and Stefan squirm nervously as Atticus told the two Originals about their plans.

"Wait a second, you're lying," Kol said in disbelief. "No one knows how to get to him with-"

"Without his tombstone? Without dozens to die in a blood sacrifice? Believe me… I know. I've done it. Those massacres are a pain in the ass to engineer."

"Blood sacrifice?" Elena asked "You never said anything about a blood sacrifice."

"Unimportant details Elena," Shane shrugged.

"So you're the one who got the council blown up…" Rebekah said quietly as she began to put all the pieces together.

"No," Shane shook his head, "No that was a noble sacrifice… and temporary because once I raise Silas, Silas will raise the dead. He will bring back every last soul who died on his behalf," his mind wandered back to Anya like it always did, but this time the thought of her was accompanied with that of hope.

"Not on my watch," Kol snapped off the leg of a chair and was about to ram it through Shane's chest when someone had suddenly burst through the door.

"Now, now little brother. Put the stick down. Play time's over," Klaus spoke gently, but his eyes were threatening. Behind him, Elena saw Damon walk in with Jeremy, who had been covered in blood, but Elena could smell that it wasn't human blood. It was vampire blood.

"You won't be able to find the cure without your tour guide, now will you?" Kol smirked, and he held the broken chair leg up, aiming it towards Shane's chest. To everyone's surprise it wasn't Shane who had gotten stabbed in the chest, but Kol. Klaus had daggered him in the heart before, Kol managed to bring his arm down, and he watched as Kol's limp body fell to the floor.

"You can't keep daggering one of us every time we have a disagreement Klaus!" Rebekah yelled.

Klaus looked at his little sister with a sort of amused expression. "Last time I checked you were supposed to be in the Lockwood cellar with a dagger through your heart, so consider yourself lucky that you're even standing here darling. Now unless you want to join Kol, I suggest you play nicely," he smiled deviously, and Rebekah scowled at him, trying as hard as she could not to speak back to him.

"Jeremy! What happened to you?" Elena said in horror. Klaus was the one who answered.

"Well Damon wasn't doing a good job in getting Jeremy to complete the mark so I decided to speed things up a bit," he turned his focus to Shane who was on the floor still in shock from his near death experience. "It appears that we happen to have everything we need for our little road trip. How exciting."