A/N: I finally updated this story after a week of not updating, yay! I hope you guys forgive me for my lack of updates and enjoy this chapter :)
Klaus and Elena watched the house for a few minutes before Klaus finally spoke.
"Stay here," he told Elena before he started making his way down the hill they were standing on top of.
"Where are you going?" Elena asked.
"To save Alyssa," Klaus replied.
"I'm going with you," Elena said firmly.
"Fine," Klaus said distractedly. Elena noticed that he wasn't acting like his usual stubborn self but didn't comment on the change that she was seeing in him as she followed him. He reached the front door of the house quickly with his vampire speed and tried turning the doorknob. When he found that it was locked, he twisted the doorknob harder, breaking the lock. Elena followed Klaus into the house, but lost him almost immediately inside of it when he zoomed through the house looking for Alyssa. The brunette vampire knew that she wouldn't be able to follow him since he was an Original and thus stronger than her, so she settled for looking around at her new surroundings. Everything looked untouched. Klaus showed up in the middle of the living room, which is where Elena was standing, ten minutes later.
"They're not here, but I found something," he said to her. Elena saw the look of worry on the Original vampire's face and followed him to the basement of the house.
"There," Klaus said, pointing to the wall of an empty room. Elena followed the direction of his finger and saw that there was a white sticky note posted on the wall with two words on it: Nice try.
"What does it mean?" Elena asked Klaus.
"It means that my brother saw you following him and Alyssa. You should have been more careful, sweetheart," Klaus replied.
"I was careful," Elena protested. Klaus shook his head slightly.
"Not careful enough," he said. They both returned to staring at the sticky note in silence for a minute or so until Klaus finally spoke.
"We should go. Alyssa can take care of herself, wherever she is," Klaus said absentmindedly.
"How could you just...give up on her?" Elena asked.
"I'm not giving up on her. She'll be fine. Kol won't kill her," Klaus told her vaguely. He didn't say anything else to Elena as they left the abandoned house.
Meanwhile in Kol's house, Alyssa was still chained up in a chair because she had stopped struggling to free her wrists. By now, she had figured out that the chains were being held together by a padlock because she had craned her neck around enough to see it. She also knew that the chains had been dipped in vervain, a fact that she had figured out soon after she had struggled to free her wrists for ten minutes straight after Kol had left her alone in the room. She wished for what had to be the twentieth time that day that she could remove the chains with her magic but, of course, the room she was trapped in was magic-proof. Alyssa wasn't worried though because there had to be a way out of the room without using teleportation, which she had already tried to use to escape. She glanced over her shoulder and eyed the lock again. If she could figure out what brand the lock was then she might be able to pick it using the skills that she and Derek learnt years ago, during her escape artist faze. Alyssa couldn't tell what brand the padlock was but she thought that it looked relatively easy to pick. Now she had to find a way to remove a bobby pin from her hair so that she could jimmy the lock. Maybe her telekinesis didn't really count as magic and still worked in the magic-proof room. Alyssa looked around the room and focused her gaze on the window's curtains, trying to close the curtains using only her mind. The curtains twitched under her gaze and she smiled slightly, concentrating harder. The curtains flew shut and Alyssa's smile widened. Her telekinesis still worked. She used her telekinesis to open the curtains again and then tugged a bobby pin out of her hair using her mind. Once it was out and in the palm of her hand, she snapped it in half and started picking the lock. As Alyssa blindly picked the lock, she heard footsteps coming down the hall. The footsteps stopped outside the door and she heard someone unlocking the door. She stopped what she was doing for a few seconds to see who it was and Kol came strolling into the room. Alyssa continued picking the lock carefully as he smirked and walked towards her.
"Still here I see," Kol said offhandedly.
"Of course. Where else would I be except here in this lovely little room of yours?" Alyssa said just as offhandedly. Kol's smirk widened slightly.
"I like pretty little things with sharp tongues," he said as he leaned down to kiss her. The padlock that was attached to the chains on Alyssa's wrists sprang open and she smiled at Kol. The Original vampire suddenly found himself where she had been a moment before: in the chair with his wrists chained to the back of it.
"What—? How did you—? " Kol began to say before leaving his sentence unfinished. He glared at Alyssa and she laughed, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement.
"I was taught how to pick locks, Kol ," Alyssa told him.
"Who Changed you into a vampire?" Kol asked.
"Silas," Alyssa replied.
"Did he teach you how to pick locks?" Kol questioned.
"No. Someone else taught me that, but Silas taught me how to do everything that he can do, so I am just as powerful as he is," Alyssa answered. She paused for a few seconds and then added,
"He also told me that there are always loopholes to a witch's spell, which is how I was able to use my telekinesis to get something to pick that padlock you used to chain my wrists together." Kol looked at her with a new sort of respect and asked,
"So, darling, will you unchain me now?" Alyssa studied him for a while with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"That depends," she finally said.
"On what?" Kol asked.
"If you give me your word that you will help me stop Violet and the hunters from causing any more damage to Mystic Falls, I'll unchain you," Alyssa replied. Kol smirked at her and shifted his wrists a little.
"Did you really believe that I couldn't free my own wrists?" Kol questioned as he snapped the chains like they were pieces of flimsy plastic and stood up.
"No," Alyssa replied.
"I'll consider helping you, though...for a price," Kol said.
"And what is the price?" Alyssa asked.
"You kill Violet," Kol replied. Alyssa looked at him warily and asked,
"You want me to kill your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend. Not anymore," Kol admitted. Alyssa studied his face for a few minutes before finally giving him an answer and a compromise.
A/N: So, how did you guys like this chapter? I wrote it kind of quickly in one night, so it might not be as great as my other chapters, but did you guys like it anyway? By the way, the compromise that Alyssa offers Kol is not sex or anything along those lines.
-JC
