Davina sat huddled in a dark and gloomy corner, hands covering her ears to muffle Stefan's screaming. It felt as if he had been screaming for days, but Genevieve had only captured them a few hours ago. Davina wanted to move, to save the ailing vampire, but whatever spell Genevieve had cast on the young witch, it left her trapped in the corner, only capable of watching as Stefan was repeatedly doused with vervain, cut up with knives and occasionally stabbed in various areas with a wooden stake. Davina couldn't do anything to help her new friend Stefan or to even help herself. She was trapped with no way out.
Davina tuned out the horrendous sight in front of her, doing her best to think logically.
Why was Genevieve torturing Stefan anyway? How was she even alive? Why was this happening to the both of them?
Davina could have sworn she had killed Genevieve herself a few months ago. Davina remembered Genevieve had nearly accomplished her goal of killing Marcel, her powers had been choking the life out of him even as she had been destroying his mind, leaving him weak and immobile. Davina was told to stay in line with the witches, to not help a vampire, especially Marcel, but Davina had loved Marcel since the day she had met him. She couldn't just let him die right in front of her, not when he had done his best to always keep her safe and protected. The witches might have been her blood, but Marcel had been her family and she wouldn't turn her back on him.
Instead, Davina had sent a bolt of lightning from the sky and electrocuted the old witch right where she stood in the middle of the street in the French Quarter. Fury had fueled Davina's rage and pain at watching Marcel die and Davina had accidentally channeled all of her fellow witches powers in order to defeat the new coven leader. That was when Davina felt all of her magic draining away, leaving barely anything behind in its wake.
Before Davina had been resurrected, the elders had warned her away from using her powers to help the enemy, aka Marcel. They had told her terrible things would happen if she didn't heed their warning, and in a way it had. She had been nearly completely drained of magic, and now she didn't have anything left to help anyone, including Stefan. Poor Stefan, he shouldn't have been the one getting tortured, it should have been her. She deserved to suffer Genevieve's wrath, not an innocent victim.
Unless for whatever reason Genevieve was hurting Stefan to get a message across to another person as a warning. But who? Davina immediately ruled out Rebekah, mostly because Genevieve had gotten her wish, shunning Rebekah from Klaus's life all those months ago, even though Klaus's sister had come back to help them in the end of their battle. Genevieve couldn't be hurting him to cause Marcel grief, he barely knew the vampire. Klaus most likely wouldn't care, besides hadn't he and Genevieve been some sort of creepy couple at some point during the war in New Orleans?
The last thought in the young witch's head gave leeway to her immediate conclusion.
It had to be Caroline. It just had to be. Caroline had come to New Orleans with her companion Stefan to see Klaus. Caroline was in love with Klaus almost as much in love with him as he was with her. Could that be why Genevieve was causing all of these problems, out of jealousy?
There was only one way to find out.
Standing up slowly, Davina began banging her fists along the invisible wall that held her caged like a tiger in a zoo.
"Hey! Hey! Genevieve, I want to ask you something!" The redhead glanced up from her play toy, nearly sighing in exasperation at Davina's antics.
"I'm afraid I'm busy making Stefan into a vampire souflee. Talk to me later, when you see this stake sticking from his heart. Then I'll have free time to play with you." Genevieve glanced back down at the vampire. "It is a shame you need to die, dear. You are handsome. Unfortunately for you, I've learned my lesson when it comes to playing with the enemy." Genevieve slit Stefan's throat, grinning as she watched the vampire bleed out and die.
Davina thought she was going to puke, but she pretended not to notice the vampire squirming against his vervain restraints. Davina knew he would come back to life in a few minutes.
"Does watching another person bleed out remind you of the time you died? I was rather hoping it would." The witch wiped the blood off her blade by rubbing it along the thigh of her jeans.
"Why are you doing this?" Davina felt confident in her answer already. It had to be because of Caroline, otherwise why would the young vampire have been a target for such terrible torture and agony?
"I have my reasons." Genevieve walked to the other side of the room, setting the knife down in a tool chest before she removed a hammer, glancing at Davina with a certain maniacal look in her eyes. "No, I'll save my fun for you a little later." The witch murmured to herself before setting the makeshift weapon back down.
"You're jealous of Klaus's new girlfriend, aren't you?" Genevieve's hands closed into fists at her sides, her somewhat creepy expression changes to one of complete anger. The witch marched over to Davina, reaching past the barrier to slap the girl in the face.
Davina recoiled, falling back along the wall, hoping she was out of Genevieve's grasp for now. "I'll take that as a yes."
"You know nothing, child. I have come to seek revenge on the vampires, and yourself, for the ending of our coven here in New Orleans. Everyone will suffer. EVERYONE."
"Well, Caroline already took care of Esther, so I'm assuming you're the only one left to get the job done and it looks like you're just torturing Stefan to hurt Caroline, Klaus's girlfriend."
"Stop calling her that!" In her anger, Genevieve reached further past the barrier, playing into Davina's hands quite nicely. Davina could feel the barrier bending and shuddering before the magic holding her in place snapped like a rubber band, freeing the young witch.
Not thinking twice, Davina reached for Genevieve's beautiful red hair, grabbing a fistful before she shoved the witch's head into the concrete wall Davina had spent her time huddling against. When the witch remained upright, Davina used more force the second time, pleased with herself as the witch went limp in her arms before falling to the ground.
Davina dropped Genevieve without a second thought, rushing over to the vampire who was clearly dead by human standards. Davina fiddle with the restraints for a few precious seconds before she grabbed the toolbox, dragging out the large knife and slicing at the restraints, heaving a reluctant sigh of relief when they came loose. Davina knew she didn't have much time before Genevieve woke up, so she went back to the toolbox, looking through it for anything that could be helpful. Davina smiled when she saw the duct tape. That would do quite nicely.
A few minutes later, Genevieve's hands, feet and mouth were all duct taped, to keep her from moving or casting any spells. Davina had even duct taped her fingers, giving her no option to use magic. Granted, some witches were powerful enough not to require actual speaking or hand gestures to cast spells, but Davina sensed Genevieve would be weak and Davina trusted her instincts enough to know Genevieve wouldn't be a threat. For now.
Davina turned her head back to the vampire laying on the ground, nearly shrieking in delight as his eyes opened before she heard him groaning.
"Now that you're awake, we need to get out of here, Stefan." Davina bent over, helping the weak vampire up. "Do you need blood?" She lifted her wrist to the vampire, noting the way his eyes changed black and the veins under his skin rushed to them.
Stefan jerked away from her, keeping a small distance. "I... I can't drink human blood. I'm a ripper." Davina looked at him in confusion. She had never heard of a ripper before, but it didn't exactly sound pleasant. "I go crazy and rip people apart after drinking their blood." She took a few cautious steps back even though she knew that wouldn't actually save her from a psychotic vampire. "It's okay, I'll be fine until I can find another source to feed from. Don't worry."
The two left the unconscious witch and made their way through a series of tunnels, Davina trusting Stefan's instincts to help them find their way out.
"So how did you end up taking out the witch that was holding us prisoner?"
Davina shrugged for a second, unsure of what she should tell Stefan. Genevieve was a horrible human being, but Davina wasn't sure if that meant she should die or not. Hadn't enough people died? But if Davina let Genevieve live, who else would suffer like Stefan had? What if Genevieve killed more vampires or werewolves? Wouldn't that make Davina responsible for all of those deaths?
"I just knocked her out, I didn't kill her. I don't really have magic anymore, and I wasn't going to bash her brains in with a hammer. It seemed too barbaric." Stefan halted in his steps for a moment before continuing.
"It's probably for the best if I don't go back there and kill her either. I'm starving, if I tried to kill her smoothly and ended up cutting her skin on something, the smell of her blood would most likely send me into a frenzy.
Davina gaped at him, starting to feel a little more uneasy in his company. What if she skinned her knee or something while they tried to find their way out of this seemingly never ending hole? Would he just tear her to shreds too?
Stefan smiled reassuringly at her frightened look. "I don't think I would actually react like that, but I'm not entirely positive either, so it's just best to not risk it. We can always send someone else down here to take care of our witch problem, alright? The important thing is that we both make it out of here safe and sound." They both ended up looking at his torn up body. "Well, you know what I mean. As long as we leave here mostly alive, we'll be fine." They traveled in silence a few more minutes. "So did you figure out why she was holding us captive?"
Davina spoke up, shivering when she noticed her voice echoed down the never ending underground hole. "I think she came back, sent by the elder coven witches on the other side to destroy the vampires, but I'm pretty sure she is extremely jealous of Klaus and Caroline's relationship, so she was torturing you, and was probably going to kill you, in attempt to hurt Caroline. I can't be completely certain, but I taunted her about it until she went into a fit of rage and broke the barrier spell that had been keeping me in the corner. Then I knocked her out, tied her up and freed you."
"Wow, I didn't think you had a hobby of cracking skulls." Stefan teased her as they kept walking at a brisk pace.
"I didn't until Marcel insisted I be trained to handle myself from an assailant. He worries a lot now that I'm kind of useless." Davina kept the melancholy out of her voice. In truth, she kind of hated having no magic, because she constantly felt useless. She used to have the ability to bring an all powerful hybrid like Klaus to his knees in excruciating pain and now she couldn't even scare a butterfly with a gust of wind. It was pathetic. She was pathetic.
"Well, I don't think you're useless at all considering you just saved me from an eternal death at the hands of a stake wielding lunatic witch with a vendetta against Caroline."
"When you put it like that, I do feel a bit better about being useless."
"Davina!" A hoarse voice shouted from above them, causing both vampire and kind-of witch to stare up at the ceiling in confusion.
"Is that Marcel?" Stefan asked even as Davina shouted with joy, "Marcel we're down here! I can hear you!"
The little witch jumped up and down, excited beyond belief that they had a rescuer. He had even known she was missing in such a short span of time. It made Davina so giddy, she was completely thrilled he was so overprotective of her. Especially when she was in the process of escaping with a vampire who was looking worse for wear every time she glanced at him. Stefan needed blood soon.
"Hang on Davina, let me find a sewer drain up top and I'll be able to get you out of there."
They were in the sewer? Ew.
Caroline sat up straighter, enjoying the view she had of Klaus from across the courtyard. He was shirtless, only a pair of leather pants covering his body. Even his feet were bare. Klaus was quite a sight to behold.
"Careful love, I can feel your desires from way over here." He called out to her, grinning slightly when Caroline blushed. The link they had was going to be the death of her, she was sure of it. Granted, she would probably die from embarrassment, but that was besides the point. Caroline couldn't help herself from staring at his half naked body, her hands itching to touch every inch of his chest. Even her tongue wanted to stroke his chest, to get a taste of him, masculine and strong.
Klaus groaned. "You're deliberately trying to seduce me, aren't you?"
"Well, I wouldn't say 'deliberately', but if it's working then I'm all for giving up this practice session and heading back to the bedroom for some Klaus/Caroline time." She waggled her eyebrows at him, before standing up straighter, trying to focus all of her energy on what Klaus had just been telling her.
He had been adamant about hybrids being capable of shifting whenever they wanted and Klaus had been wanting her to try. Caroline wanted to shift to make him happy, but she was terrified. While he had been out of her sight for those few precious hours yesterday, she had been in agony and scared to death. Her body trying to shift on it's own had been painful and damn near killed her. Why on earth would she want to try again?
Caroline inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly. She needed to focus. Klaus was with her, he wouldn't let her do something that would actually kill her or cause her pain, she needed to trust in that. If she could just settle down her jumbling thoughts, maybe she could shift. And if she could shift, she could get a better control of her newly developed body and lifestyle. It made sense.
"I think we're about to have company, love." Klaus tilted his head slightly, urging Caroline to listen. She also turned her ear towards the slight shuffling she shouldn't have been able to hear so soon. "Inhale and you can tell who is coming near." Caroline followed the directions, grinning when she realized it was Stefan and Davina, along with Marcel. Caroline's smile died on her lips when she realized Stefan was injured. She could smell the blood almost as strongly as she could smell him. It was awful.
A few moments later the trio walked slowly into the courtyard, Marcel holding Stefan up slightly as the pale vampire looked at Caroline. "I need my stash of blood."
Caroline zipped away, fear making her faster than ever. Only two seconds passed before she was back downstairs, holding a thermos filled with deer blood up to Stefan's lips.
"Drink up." As he heeded her advice, Caroline cast a glance to Marcel and Davina. "What happened to him?" Davina cast Marcel a quick glance before speaking.
"It was Genevieve. She captured me and Stefan and was torturing him before we escaped." Stefan nodded his consent to the girl's story while he drank, but Caroline was mostly focused on Klaus, whose entire body had stiffened at the name of 'Genevieve'. She turned to her lover, questions filled in her eyes.
"Who is Genevieve, Klaus?" He had the nerve to look slightly guilty before he strode closer, wrapping a comforting hand around her waist.
"We can discuss it in private love. I'll explain everything, I promise." Well that sounded reassuring, Caroline scolded herself. Was this Genevieve another one of Klaus's trists? The thought made her vision waver to that of blood red before settling back down. Caroline rubbed her eyes in confusion. What the hell had that been?
"You should probably explain things to her soon, Klaus, because I think Genevieve targeted Stefan because of Caroline and I'm pretty sure Genevieve sent Esther to torture and kill Caroline."
"Why would she want to kill me? I don't even know who she is!" Caroline looked to Davina, ignoring Klaus's warning growl at the young witch. Davina cast a long look to Klaus before she took a small step behind Marcel. Caroline turned to Klaus, irritated to know his eyes were gold and veins were throbbing along his face. "Knock it off, you're frightening her. Davina, what do you know?" Caroline turned back to the young woman. "It's okay, he's not going to hurt you." Just to be on the safe side, Caroline tightened her grip on his hand, urging him to remain next to her.
"Well, I'm pretty sure she and Klaus used to hook up about eight or nine months back and I think she's jealous that you and he are an item, and she's trying to kill you. I also think she sent Esther to do the job for her, so Klaus wouldn't kill Genevieve out of anger, but when that plan backfired, Genevieve came here herself to see to your destruction."
Caroline stopped listening, her blood red vision returning as she eyed Klaus, growling in his direction even as she felt her fangs lengthening. "Stefan almost died, I was tortured an turned into some freak hybrid, because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants and decided to sleep with the enemy? I almost died a few days ago and it's all because of some petty jealousy from a former lover of yours?" Caroline could barely keep the ire out of her voice. She wanted to rip everything and everyone to shreds, she was so angry.
"Now, love, I'm sure we can resolve this issue calmly, but you need to relax. You're on the brink of shifting." He held out his hands palm up to reassure her, but Caroline was startled. She was shifting? She glanced down at her hands, realizing that claws were out. It hadn't even hurt one bit.
Slowly, Caroline breathed in and out, determined to gain control of herself. Once her vision returned to normal, Caroline glared at Klaus. "Just so we're clear, you've got some explaining to do and I am PISSED at you." She turned to the small group of friends gathered. "I don't want to talk to anyone unless you can come up with a plan to kill the bitch. I'd prefer not suffer through anything else during my stay in New Orleans, no matter how quick it might be over."
Klaus's mouth hung open in dread as Caroline left the courtyard, storming off upstairs, intent on taking a bath to rid herself of all the emotions she was feeling.
Caroline knew she had possibly overreacted when she had learned Klaus had been sexing someone up so recently after their first time in the woods. Caroline had been pissed, but it wasn't justified. Hadn't she promised Klaus she would be with him if he never returned, never pursued her? She had, so it left her no room to threaten to leave him because he had tried moving on with his life, even if the woman who had claimed his bed was apparently a raging psycho.
The only thing Caroline was certain of was that Genevieve needed to be taken down.