A/N: Sorry for the delay. I took a week off writing to help get back into the swing of things at school-though I managed to do two drabbles in that time-but back to the usual updates now. Thanks for reading and reviewing and all that fun stuff. Hope you enjoy the chapter.
"When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow." ― Ursula K. Le Guin
The witches were all disposed of; bodies burning up in a pile behind the house, and the smell was beginning to get to Caroline. She knew the smell of death, knew the smell of decay, of blood, but this was awful. This was something she was pretty sure would haunt her dreams for ages to come. Why they didn't just bury them in the forest had been lost on her at first, it would've gotten the job done just as well, but Klaus didn't want to take any chances on them being resurrected. If they were nothing but ash the chances were extremely slim that anyone would be able to bring them back.
Considering she really didn't want them to go another round with the witches she didn't protest, even if she'd closed all the windows in the house, trying to blot out the lingering smell of burning flesh and fat. She'd spoken with Bonnie again while Vincent and Klaus had dealt with everything, assuring her that the Hunter hadn't killed anyone, and finding out some more about where Bonnie's group was currently at in regards to the timeline for their plan.
They needed to get cracking on Bonnie learning the spell and they also needed to get their butts to Europe. There was a greater possibility in Silas being hidden somewhere on that continent or nearby than anywhere near the United States. While some civilizations had made it across the Atlantic at various points in time, all of the myths surrounding Silas and Qestiyah suggested that they had lived somewhere in the Mediterranean. Greece or Italy was Vincent's best guess, though he said that didn't mean that Qestiyah hadn't trapped Silas elsewhere to extend his suffering, cutting him off even more from his dead beloved.
It all gave Caroline a headache.
Love was supposed to be a good thing. It was supposed to give happiness and benefit two people, make them stronger, more whole, but from what all she had gleamed from the myths, it had only seemed to bring out the darkness in both Qestiyah and Silas' souls, ruining what they had once been. Love shouldn't destroy the world. It should make it better. But the love had become twisted, perverted, and she wondered if that was what happened with the possibility of eternity spread out before someone.
Just look at the Mikaelson family.
Caroline didn't doubt that they did all love each other. They just did it in extremely unhealthy ways. Maybe that was because of their upbringing and how they had seen their parents love one another and because of how their parents had loved them. But she couldn't help but wonder if it was because of how long they had been alive.
Would that happen to her?
Would the love she felt for others, for her mom, for her friends, for Tyler become twisted into something she couldn't recognize? Even worse, if it did happen would she think it was normal? Would she come to steadfastly believe in it being a weakness as well?
There were so many questions spinning around in her head, trying to overwhelm her, and she locked them away, forcing herself to focus on the here and now, on everything that was happening around her instead. This was why she hated being idle. It allowed her mind to wander and that usually ended badly. It usually equaled her insecurities getting a chance to take root and fester and she couldn't afford for those doubts to start plaguing her mind.
Not with Klaus's constant presence.
Not when he was managing to break through all of her defenses.
Not when it was becoming harder to see why she continued to try and rebuild them instead of giving into what part of her desperately wanted. But even if she was away from her friends and family, even if she was away from Tyler, that didn't mean her moral compass simply shattered. It was part of who she was even if Caroline knew that it was adjusting to the world as she experienced it. At the core though she was still the same girl who had left Mystic Falls, she was still loyal to her friends and that loyalty went against everything that she had done with Klaus.
At the same time she also understood that she needed to be loyal to herself and her own feelings, her own desires and needs. She simply wasn't sure how to make those loyalties coincide with one another and Caroline didn't think she'd figure that part out anytime soon.
Her reverie was broken when she heard Vincent and Klaus finally enter the home again and she rose from the chair she'd been curled up on, waiting for them to be finished, to figure out what the next step.
"What are we going to do about the Hunter?" Vincent asked, looking about as exhausted as she was feeling. The events of the last day or so were definitely catching up. She really should have slept when she'd had the chance.
"I advise against trying to kill him," Klaus started as the two spotted her. Caroline tilted her head at that, remembering Elena and her conversation with Klaus at the Grill that had ended in her getting a date and him losing a hybrid or maybe that was the other way around. She noticed the way he was watching her, as if he was taking every inch of her in and she forced herself not to squirm, not wanting him to know just how much that intensity affected her. "You'll be dead in a week if you do. Possibly sooner."
"They haunt you if you kill them," Caroline added, knowing it'd probably be a good idea for Vincent to understand why he shouldn't kill the man. "If what the Hunter hunts kills him then he haunts the vampire and gets the vamp to commit suicide." Like Elena almost had. "So really, no ripping off Hunter heads or anything. We're kind of all out of spare potentials."
She winced at her own comment, remembering Jeremy, disgusted with her own attempt at a joke. Caroline could still remember Tyler's rage over the hybrid's death. She didn't even remember the guy's name. How horrible was that? She'd been the one to broker the deal that got the guy killed and she couldn't even remember his name. If pressed she was pretty sure she'd only remember one or two of the hybrids' names and one of them only because the girl had been ready to kill her.
"I have read up on the Brotherhood of the Five," Vincent reminded them, and Caroline pursed her lips at that, watching Klaus's gaze shift to the other vampire, unable to decipher his expression. It seemed that Vincent noticed the shift in the air and bowed his head toward Klaus. "I have histories recorded from many a witch who I allowed to serve me, including some information on that group. But nothing that would help with what we are currently involved in. Simply that they hunted our kind and killing them results in our own death."
"How did they manage to remain unseen and unheard of for so many centuries? Surely someone would have spoken of men killing our kind," Klaus pointed out as he sat down in the chair Caroline had vacated and she moved across the hallway, fingers gliding along the table that had somehow survived the chaos of the last few hours.
"Unless they killed them all before they could tell anyone," she murmured, gaze focused on the lone vase still on top of the table. "Or maybe they were dormant for a long time. Maybe they simply never activated the whole Hunter legacy. Like we never even knew about Jeremy being one until he started seeing the tattoo and stuff and like if Connor hadn't ever come to Mystic Falls, Jeremy could've gone his whole life never having seen it or questioning it." It all made sense in her head. Potential didn't exactly mean it would have to be activated for the legacy to continue on down a bloodline if that's what it was based on.
"It's possible the Hunter down in the cell could provide you real answers," Vincent pointed out, and Caroline glanced back at that. "He seems to know some things."
"Which is kinda funny because the last two so didn't know a thing about what was happening to them," Caroline murmured, not really finding it all that funny.
It was tragic. Suddenly being overwhelmed by a drive to kill was a hard emotional response to curb and at least she'd had answers to what had happened to her. It didn't seem like Jeremy or Connor really had much of a clue what had happened to them outside of what Professor Shane and Klaus had known. Even then, how accurate could the information they had been given really be? If anyone was going to try and manipulate all possible outcomes to favor themselves, Caroline had a feeling it'd be those two.
She could practically see the wheels turning in Klaus' head, knew he was thinking through a thousand different possibilities. He always did seem to have some kind of plan in his pocket. Probably the result of a thousand years of running, hunting, searching, and paranoia all rolled into one. "My siblings should be arriving in the next few days. Ensure that their rooms are up to par, Vincent," Klaus started, and it still amazed Caroline how quickly the other vampire was so ready to jump to do Klaus' bidding, already bowing again as he took a step backward toward the bedrooms. "Also compel the villagers to keep an eye out and sound the alarm if anything out of the ordinary crops up in the next few days."
Caroline seriously hoped that there wasn't another attack in the next day or two. They needed the breather. "What are you going to do?" she asked as Vincent hurried off to accomplish his tasks.
"I'll be having a chat with our new friend. Vaughn I believe is his name." Oh she really didn't like that glint of malice in his eyes, that curve of his lips that was entirely too predatory to be anything nice.
"Like you apparently chatted with the last two Hunters? Because you know, we need him alive." Map and all. If something happened before Bonnie and Kol could arrive with their Hunter in tow they were going to need to have their own available if the map appeared.
"I suppose that will all depend on how forthcoming he decides to be," Klaus replied, only furthering her apprehension with the idea as she headed off after him toward the basement where the cell was located.
"Didn't he like totally come here of his own accord, help us, and let you lock him up all the while telling us that the Spirits want him to help us?" she tried to point out, tried to reason even if she didn't think it would work this time.
"Ah, yes, the Spirits. Those same Spirits that are hell-bent on the destruction of our kind," Klaus muttered, and Caroline bit her bottom lip at that, unable to deny that they did seem to really not like vampires. Hadn't the Spirits gone against Bonnie for helping vampires too much?
"It seems like they decided to focus on the bigger threat," she continued as they descended the stairs. "Kind of like how all the rest of us teamed up against Silas instead of working on whatever new plan Damon would probably have come up with to drive you out of Mystic Falls." And so maybe it hadn't actually happened like that. It had all been about the cure before the world had been ripped out from underneath all of them. From the hybrids to her kidnapping to everything else snowballing into the mess that they were currently in the middle of.
Klaus stopped at that, turning to look at her. They were halfway down the stairs, ones that seemed to have been cut out of the stone of the mountain the house was situated on. The darkness that surrounded them was nothing like any basement she had ever been in before. This was deeper, earthier and it had her wondering about being buried alive.
She missed the sunlight, the warmth of the world above, the strategically placed electric torches doing little to lighten the area. But she shifted her focus back to Klaus, watching him observe her, hating that he looked as though he knew what she was thinking before his mouth tightened into a grimace.
"How long do you think it will be before they turn around and decide to end us? There used to be an advantage. They knew nothing of the white oak stake's location," he started, and Caroline frowned, knowing that the existence of that weapon could potentially mean the end for herself and some of her friends. "Mikael had only one and he never let it leave his side, hell-bent on driving it though my chest. When he died I destroyed it only for a sapling to have grown through the ages and your lot to have figured that out, crafting more stakes. Easily enough burned but the one my mother forged cannot be destroyed. It is a weakness they will try to find, to exploit."
She didn't expect him to step forward, didn't expect his fingers to brush against her cheek. "I'm sure you're aware of how I usually deal with anything I might perceive to be such a thing," he continued, the hunger in his gaze making her swallow hard.
Caroline had to suppress the urge to step back, to put distance between the two of them, because like Klaus she didn't like people knowing her weaknesses either, especially not him. "I don't doubt for a second that these Hunters will exploit everything that they can once Silas is taken care of, so I mean to find out each and every one of their weak points, of how potentials are created to eradicate their threat from this world once we've handled the Silas situation." He turned back on his heel before she could respond, descending a few stairs before stopping again. "You're welcome to join me in my questioning, Caroline, but don't think for a moment that you'll be able to sway what I deem necessary to get the information I need. I'm not about to waste this opportunity that I predicted would eventually step into my path."
Realization dawned on her, eyes widening as all the little puzzle pieces slid into place in front of her. "You've been planning this since Lucy talked about sending witches to look for the Hunters, haven't you?"
"At least one scenario I've played out in my head had a Hunter showing up to assist us," Klaus replied, cunning smile on his face and the realization of how quickly he worked out plans in his head threw her for loop. She did the same thing, but nowhere near to the capacity that he seemed to. She could only imagine what other scenarios had gone on in his mind, how many back up plans he had up his sleeve, ready to go at a moment's notice. "I've lived far too long to not have a hundred different cards up my sleeve, Caroline, every one of them a way to get exactly what I want, what I need. Even if I do need to wait a year or a century for my desires to come to fruition."
His gaze caught hers, and even if he wasn't compelling her and she knew he wasn't, she couldn't quite break away, staring back him. "Not to mention, your fate hangs in the balance and I'm certain you've seen just how far I am willing to go in order to insure your survival."
Klaus was gone in the next moment, having descended the stairs at vampire speed, and leaving her alone in the pale torch light, unable to help how her body had begun shaking at that reminder. Caroline had always known Klaus was a planner, that he far surpassed even her in that arena, but actually being faced with the formulation of some, of truly seeing how his mind could formulate a number of scenarios and plan out ways to handle them was jolting.
Because she knew, without a doubt, that he was doing the same thing in regards to her. A year or a century were not simply words to him. She had a feeling he had plotted a couple thousand different scenarios on how to finally win her over and that was never wracking. How was she supposed to combat that?
She honestly didn't have a clue, but she'd figure out a way to pull back the balance that had been recently tipped in his favor. Even if her mind and her desires were constantly at war with one another, one wanting to give in and the other trying to reel her back, reminding her of all the reasons even tiptoeing into the tide that was Klaus Mikaelson was a no good, very bad idea.
She wasn't about to back down from any of it, simply wasn't Caroline's style, but she did need a few moments to gain control of her body and her emotions before she headed down into the darkness that she could feel seeping into her bones, hopeful that it wouldn't permanently reside there.
Having access to her magic again was something Bonnie didn't ever think she adequately be able to describe. It was like pure joy was running through her veins, igniting every nerve ending inside of her as she felt it flow through her, around her, and out into the world. This was what it had been like to float feathers with Elena or change the weather with Luka. It's what she had missed the most when her grandmother had died, this tie to the world around her that had been so viciously stripped from her when all she'd done was try to save her friends. Maybe it had gone against what the spirits wanted, maybe her actions hadn't quite jived with their plans, but her intentions had always been good.
The road to hell and all, echoed in her mind, twisted in her gut, but she pushed it away, focusing on the here and now as she tried to do what Lucy had instructed. The spell they needed to end Silas would take the two of them to accomplish. Utilizing both of their magic potential entwined together, like she'd done with Luka, to give them the power boost that would be needed to defeat the immortal.
There was an exact phrasing that needed to be spoken in sync with one another and while Bonnie had always deemed herself to be a pretty good at doing that, she kept stumbling over bits and pieces of the spell. A wrong word here, incorrect inflection there and the more they practiced the worse it seemed to get and the more frustrated she had become.
"Just calm down, Bonnie," Lucy told her, voice soothing and for some reason that irritated Bonnie more than it helped. "You've got this. You can do this. I've been doing this synchronized chanting since I was twelve. Just concentrate."
Bonnie snatched back her hands at that, unable to keep her anger from bubbling over. "Because you got to be in a Coven. Because you had help since you were a kid. You've known all of this and practiced it for more years than I've even known what I'm doing. You weren't forced to learn it all alone because the one person who could help you died before she could tell you anything. Because your mother had left and when she returned she became the very thing she hated and left you all over again."
Because you left and you never came back.
It hung unspoken in the air between them and Lucy sighed, looking slightly ashamed as she rose. "I think it's time for a break," she murmured, offering up a slight smile but Bonnie ignored it, her focus on the spell book in front of her instead, trying to force the words into her head.
She would not be the reason this plan failed. She would not be the weak link when she finally had the power to help her friends again, to right so many wrongs, to fix the world just a little so they could a sliver of normal back.
"What a nice little spark you've got, darling," Kol started, causing Bonnie startle out of her reverie. She hadn't noticed him enter the room and mentally berated herself for not keeping a better awareness of her surroundings.
"What do you want, Kol?" she asked, lips twisting as she kept her attention on the book in her lap.
She didn't trust him, wished he'd gone off to join Rebekah and Elijah in New Orleans instead of sticking around with them. Even if he had been a bit of help once or twice. She couldn't shake the feeling that he was watching them all closely, or really, that he was watching her closely. It was unsettling, reminding a bit of Damon and his pushiness with her powers to help him countless times—to open the tomb or save Elena—but with Kol it was worse.
It was the deepening grin, that look in his eyes that she could only really describe as crazy that had her on edge. Something about it told her to not let her guard down for a second around him, even if he was on their side. Bonnie didn't doubt for a moment that the sides were incredibly fluid and he'd easily leap over to whichever benefited him most in the moment.
What would happen after Silas was dealt with?
The Originals wouldn't simply fade away into the night.
"Came to see how the rehearsal was fairing," Kol started, sitting down across from her where Lucy had been moments before. "I'm surprised no one tried to tempt you into expression earlier with all that pent up anger you've got just barely under your skin."
She didn't bother looking up at him, kept looking down at the words, silently saying them. "Though I suppose it didn't really matter, what with the powerhouse you already would be, being a Bennett and all, even more so with being a direct descendent," he continued, picking up the candle that lay between them before blowing it out. "You were always a powder keg waiting to go off."
"You know nothing about me," Bonnie muttered, mentally smacking herself as soon as the words left her mouth. Engaging with him meant he'd stick around and all she wanted to do was concentrate and pound the words into her head.
"I know power ready to rip away at the seams trying to contain it, craving to be released and allowed to reign free, to do what it was meant to without holding back," Kol told her, leaning forward as he rolled the candle in between his hands. "I've seen it. Your ancestors are known for it."
She didn't reply, forcing herself not to speak with him, hopeful that he'd get bored and leave. "Why do you think the Spirits punished you so viciously? Because they know what your power can do if allowed to flourish how you want it to," Kol grinned, the damn candle still rolling between his hands. "Do you really think they'll let you keep all of this once you've given them what they want, little witch?"
She froze at that, unable to help response, doubt beginning to sink into her at his words. Would they strip her again? She didn't know if she could handle being cut off from all of it all over again, to have part of herself ripped so viciously away. "Your loyalties are not exactly tied to the Spirits but wrapped around the lives of those you love. Do you think they'll care that your friends will die if they do manage to finally end my family?" he continued, candle no longer shifting in his hands but held out toward her, wick side up. "Nature needs a balance, there's no doubt about that. I've learned as much with my lengthy time traveling with various covens. But balance doesn't mean it has to go according to the Spirits plans. Whole bunch of busy body dead witches trying to exact their revenge instead of letting their descendants live their lives."
"Amazing how you can spin it all to have a more positive outlook for you," Bonnie snapped, trying not to let his words settle into her skin, not wanting them to create roots there. The last thing she needed was doubt clouding her judgment.
"You could say the same thing for the Spirits, little witch," Kol replied, annoying smirk plastered on his face as he rose, holding out the candle to her. She snatched it away, willing him to leave her in peace to practice, willing his words to evaporate from the air around them as well.
"Might want to figure out how you can continue to be of use to your ancestors once Silas is dealt with," he continued before heading out the door and leaving Bonnie alone with her thoughts.
She glared at the door as it shut, lights flickering in the room as her emotions got the better of her. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to breathe through her anger, to let it dissipate before turning back to the book. She couldn't let Kol fluster her, needed to focus on this spell and knowing exactly how to do it. She needed to trust the Spirits even if every fiber of her being was against doing that. She needed to focus on the current plan and not the possibilities that might play out if everything went according to how they wanted. None of it would matter if Silas was allowed to rise and destroy the world as they knew it.
Except not thinking of the future could also prove to be catastrophic. Bonnie filed away a mental reminder to talk to Caroline about it. If any of her friends could come up with multiple plans for different outcomes it would be her. But for now she needed to focus on the spell and trust the Spirits.
Not trusting them led to darkness and she'd already edged down that pathway once. She had no intention of heading there again. Not unless she had to and she wasn't at a point where doing so was necessary.
At least…not yet.
Walking away seemed to have become a specialty of Elijah's over the years. Putting aside his own wants and needs for the rest of his family, especially for Niklaus, had become such a common occurrence that there were times he wasn't even sure he knew truly how to do anything different. Even when he'd hunted his brother, desperate to end him because of what he had believed had happened to the rest of their family, he'd put aside his end game, gave into Niklaus' pleas, believed his brother when he said their family hadn't been destroyed.
It turned out they hadn't been, simply staked and carted around, but that ability to walk away from his own goal had resulted in a dagger and another long unwanted rest.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he couldn't seem to turn his back on Niklaus, no matter how much he might have wanted to at times. In the end he always came back full circle to his brother, seeking penance for crimes that would never be forgotten, searching for redemption for the brother who had only ever wanted to be loved. Some days he wasn't even sure if his deeds were ever truly forgiven. Even if his brother had forgiven him for his own part in their pasts, Elijah knew he would never be able to forgive himself.
And so once again his brother needed him and he was walking away from his own chance at happiness.
Perhaps trying for a life with Katerina was a colossal mistake, but it was one he had wanted to make. He had wanted at least the chance to see if they could be happy together, even if only for a short span of time.
He had seen the hurt in her eyes when he had told her what he needed to do. Had seen another sliver of the girl he had once known and had so easily betrayed for his brother disappear from Katherine's eyes. Soon there would be nothing left of the girl who had spoken to him of love, of whom had reminded him of his first love, the one torn from him by fate and his mother. How pieces of Katerina had still managed to exist in Katherine was beyond Elijah, not with all she had experienced, not with all she had done to survive five hundred years on the run from him and Klaus. But he had glimpsed it and he needed to taste it, to hold it, to stop coveting it as he'd done for the last five hundred years, forcing his own desires down for the sake of repairing his never-ending relationship with his brother.
But she was gone and the chances of her ever giving him another shot were slim, not when he'd betrayed her trust before in favor of Niklaus and had left her for the very same reason.
Always and forever was their curse as much as their pledge.
"You can do a thousand times better than a Petrova, Elijah," Rebekah started, or perhaps she was simply continuing. Elijah had been tuning her out, not wanting to start an argument in the enclosed space of their private jet. "All that one ever did was ruin lives."
"One would think you wouldn't believe everything our brother likes to tell considering he doesn't always portray you in the best light in his stories," Elijah simply replied, knowing that probably hit a little too close to home for his sister, but he was truly in no mood to hear her bad mouth Katherine. "Do not speak of matters you know nothing about, Rebekah."
"I may have been daggered during the initial circumstances," she continued, not seeming to pick up on the warning in his tone. Or perhaps she had and simply decided to ignore it. "But I've seen what her destructive tendencies can accomplish. You were nothing more than a means for her own survival."
He clenched his jaw at that, her words hitting a little too close to home. That had always been a worry when it came to doing anything with Katherine, especially with the woman she had become, the cutthroat survivalist. While it may have always been there in Katerina, that will too survive, he didn't think it had been anything quite like what she would come to do through the centuries. Running from Klaus had hardened her more than he had thought possible, but Elijah refused to deny the flicker of the girl he had once known that he saw shining through in her recently.
He'd glimpsed it when he saw her in the tomb, when he'd compelled her to be unable to leave it, but ending Klaus had been his priority. And then it had been reuniting his family but Esther's betrayal had squashed a lot of hope that had begun to rise and Niklaus' supposed death had sent him away from Mystic Falls and into Katherine's path.
And just like that, he'd been pulled out of it all over again.
"I suggest, Rebekah, that you hold your tongue unless you'd prefer the younger Salvatore to lose his." It would grow back but the perhaps doling out a little pain would lessen his own.
The boy stiffened in the seats ahead of them and Elijah could practically hear his sister readying to reply, for her to deny any feelings, and perhaps they weren't at the level he'd heard Niklaus mock her about from years before, but any harm that came to the boy she would no doubt want done at her hands and hers alone.
"You and Nik are ridiculous," she muttered instead, and Elijah wondered what Niklaus had to do with anything. Especially in regards to Rebekah's ability to find faults in who her brothers were drawn to romantically.
Elijah looked over at her, not enjoying the triumphant glint in her eyes, that smirk that told him she had some secrets that he would want her to spill. "You really should try to be more in the loop, 'lijah," Rebekah mused, her voice reminding him of the teasing she'd done when they were younger and human, and it almost made him smile, but that smirk ruined the illusion. This was not the innocence of back then; it was too ruined by a thousand years to ever be that again. "Our brother is in love."
He furrowed his brow, certain that he had heard her incorrectly. Niklaus did not love and if for some inexplicable reason he'd thought he was close to caring about one outside of the family that much he'd dispose of them. Destroy them before they could ever be used to cause him any ruin.
"Kol knew before you. Even mother did considering she used the girl on Nik at least once," Rebekah continued, and while her voice was light, the jealousy was clear in her eyes, in the way she was nearly bending the arm of her chair into two.
Who could it be? He wracked his brain, trying to figure out who Niklaus could have possibly come to care for to that degree. Queens, kings, great thinkers, musicians, artists, and scientists had never been able to do so. A few had come close but they'd never been given the chance to survive past the first inklings.
"Rebekah," Stefan muttered, warning in his tone which his sister quickly ignored, but Elijah knew what that tone meant. It was someone from Mystic Falls, someone from the inner circle.
Elena? Could Niklaus truly have fallen for a shadow of the woman they had both known? He didn't think so. His brother had been too happy to drain her of her blood and be done with it. The witch didn't quite match up with any of his brother's tastes either.
A glimpse of blonde hair stirred in his memories, a blue dress and his brother never leaving the cheerleaders side at that fateful dance. "The cheerleader."
From Rebekah's widening grin as he put the pieces into place Elijah had a feeling he had deduced correctly, Stefan's accompanying glare confirming what he believed. Rebekah sank back against her seat, fingers tapping away as she turned her attention back to the window, Stefan doing the same.
Elijah simply leaned back in the chair, a million thoughts spinning through his head, wondering how it could have come about, how he had not seen it. Thoughts of Katerina were swiftly pushed from his mind, his focus turning back as it always seemed toward Niklaus. His spirts were lifted, the melancholy that had swept through him seemed to evaporate, instead a newfound purpose flowing through him.
Perhaps redemption was still in the cards for his brother after all and Elijah wouldn't stop until that happened, no matter who else might get hurt in the process.
The Hunter sat with his back pressed against the cell looking nonplussed as Klaus entered the room. Some bravado was to be expected, Klaus had a feeling this one knew of the consequences a vampire faced if killing him, and seemed to be much more knowledgeable than any of the others had been. Pity he hadn't tried to get information out of Alexander and his friends before killing them all.
"No need to look at me like you're trying to deduce how best to torture information out of me, mate," Vaughn started, straightening his legs out in front of him as he cracked his neck, trying to get more comfortable. "Just tell me what you want to know."
That hadn't been a response that Klaus had expected. Jeremy had been but a boy, Connor had been a confused man simply wanting answers, and the first Hunters had been religious zealots holding fast to their supposed duties. "Just like that, hmm?" he asked, looking down at the man as he shut the door behind him.
Klaus could hear Caroline still in the stairwell, knew she'd be there for a few more moments, and once she wanted to enter—which he knew she would, too drawn to all of this to ever back away—she'd be able to work the door just as he had. No reason to give the Hunter an easy means of escape even if the man did seemingly look as though he wasn't itching for a fight.
"It's a calling, you know. Destiny is what the witches told me," Vaughn replied, shrugging his shoulders but the look in his eyes contradicted the easygoing body language that he was displaying. There was hatred there, but not seemingly directed at him and Klaus was skeptically intrigued by that. "More like a curse. Accidentally end up killing a vampire if you're a potential and your life is never the same. I had a fiancé, had a job, all of them gone because of the damn urges that I couldn't control at first. Turns out there's a lot you bloody buggers in the world even if it doesn't seem like it at first."
"If you're looking for sympathy from me you'll be wasting your time. I hardly ever doll that out to my siblings as it is," Klaus remarked, filing away the information nonetheless. He never knew when bits of it would become relevant later. "Five Hunters and yet I doubt there is any relation between you and the others I've known. So not familial based, not passed down in the genes from one generation to the next."
"That'd be a waste considering how easily you could wipe us out. Don't think nature would let you ruin its plans that easily," Vaughn murmured with a smirk and another shrug. "There are more than five potentials at any given time but none of them can be activated without a previous Hunter dying and even then the activation includes the killing of a vampire—intentional or not. Something you don't see many people going out of their way to do in this day and age. You're all myths and stories."
"And yet you all seem to be cropping up like flies recently," Klaus mused, still filing away information, drawing his own conclusions.
"We shouldn't be. There should be more time between a death and an activation. Decades usually, sometimes a century if what the witches who found me knew what they were talking about," Vaughn replied with a frown. "Someone's manipulating the circumstances. Doubt it's for good reasons either."
"How far along is the map?" Klaus eyed the man's arm, knowing that on his skin was the key to the location of the immortal they needed to stop, even if he couldn't' see the mark.
"Further along than it was when I got here and I haven't killed, nor am I going to, not when we don't know who's yanking all the strings," Vaughn continued, touching slightly further than his right shoulder. "Means another Hunter is killing vampires though. You have me. I know Lucy has the newest one. But that leaves three unaccounted for."
"Can you not sense the others?" The original Brotherhood had all traveled together, been created together. Klaus wanted to know how they would be able to all find one another again after their deaths, how their purpose was able to be continued on if they simply activated their abilities without any knowledge as to why it happened. What was the point then? How could they ever complete their supposed mission without guidance?
Connor had certainly not had any. Jeremy only knew what Shane and himself had been able to reveal. Yet, Vaughn seemed to know more and kept speaking of witches. "Only if we're all in the same place. We can sense who else is a Hunter and who's a potential. But I couldn't give you an idea of where anyone is right now," Vaughn replied with a frown.
"You were contacted by witches though," Klaus mused, letting the information roll through his mind, trying to put it all together. "Descendants of the witch who created the original Five?" It was a good assumption. If not direct descendants than perhaps they were descendants of that woman's coven, all sworn to find and help any Hunters who came to be.
"All should be but it's not an exact science and takes some of them a little longer to find us depending on when and where we finally become a Hunter." Of course. He really should have paid better attention to that line of witches. Alas, running from his father had been a higher priority. "Or if someone else gets to them first, like in the case of Connor Jordan. They were right annoyed by that one."
"So you'll be able to contact them for us, have them find out where the other three are," Klaus grinned, leaning forward a little in amusement at that.
"I wouldn't even if I could and it's not like you could compel the answer out of me," Vaughn pointed out. Ah yes, that annoying little quirk of a Hunter. "But it'd do you no good even if I could. That Coven was slaughtered while I was out looking for the latest potential. Slaughtered and turned into vampires."
From the dark look that flashed in the man's eyes Klaus had a feeling Vaughn had been the one to kill the vampires who'd once been witches. Fitting end in his mind, even if it seemed to bristle the young man. No one could quite see the poetry of turning a witch into something they hated, into stripping them of their magic in such a brutal way. People really did need to lighten up. Though, in this instance it was more problematic than amusing. Either the Gilbert girl had gotten to them or there were others also killing witches and turning them into vampires, and considering what Kol and Bonnie had relayed he already knew that was happening.
Someone was stacking the deck in their favor and it wasn't aligning with his own. "Pity that," Klaus replied, sounding anything but sympathetic.
"There might be another who knows though. They didn't just work with witches. There were a few humans in the know about it all, working with them to keep the vampire population under control. Learning how to withstand compulsion, the tricks to getting information out of vampires, how to use sunlight and vervain to torture what we needed," Vaughn continued, and Klaus arched a brow at that, not surprised and yet wanting to know more.
There would always be regular old vampire hunters in the world, like Alaric had been. Those who knew of the existence of the supernatural because of unfortunate circumstances befalling them or loved ones or like those in Mystic Falls who had the knowledge passed down through the generations. "There's a prototype of what they helped them make a century or so back in that town you were all residing in," Vaughn continued. "Forbes line was usually real good at torturing information out of vampires when needed before disposing of them. Only the latest one ever really got the trick of withstanding compulsion though."
Klaus knew Caroline would be through the door before he could stop her. He wanted to get the information first, to be able to look at it without the emotional response that she would have to it all. "You knew my father?" she demanded, door swinging open and her hands practically shaking with this newfound knowledge.
"Caroline," Klaus warned, wanting her to turn around, to head back out and away from the Hunter. She was still too easily killable, even if there was no wood in the area for the Hunter to use on her. Earlier invitation for her to see the interrogation needing to be revoked.
"You knew about that…that place," she continued, ignoring Klaus, something she was entirely too good at doing in his opinion. He knew what she was referring to, had done his research and even gone to see the torture chamber, admiring the handiwork of the Forbes ancestors. It was a magnificent place and one he'd have enjoyed using on those who betrayed him. But he knew it had its own meaning for her, that it was where she had been hurt by her father, tortured and betrayed by a man who was supposed to love her unconditionally.
"Your father?" Vaughn asked, apparently the witches may have let him know that Caroline was not to be harmed but they hadn't provided him all of the details on who exactly she was.
"Bill Forbes," she murmured, shrugging of Klaus' hand, but he simply regained his grip on her arm, not letting her get any closer to the man, wanting to be able to fling her from the cell if it became necessary. "He couldn't be compelled. He was learning things. He used…showed me that place. My forefathers work."
"You're that Caroline," Vaughn was looking at her with a new appreciation and Klaus could practically see the man in front of him calculating how he could use this new information to his advantage. "I always told him that you and his ex keeping you out of the loop was a bad idea. Waiting until any of you kids turned twenty to be told anything was simply asking for trouble, even if a vampire hadn't set foot in town in ages."
Which wasn't exactly accurate, the Salvatores had been back in town more than once, but it seemed no one had quite suspected them at that point. Not that many even in the know about the supernatural did in that town. Deluded little bunch in Klaus' opinion. "He might be able to help. He was working on ways to find potentials because we were still missing two," Vaughn continued. "Or are you two on the outs because of your…current state of being."
Caroline stiffened and while Klaus didn't release his grip on her arm, he did let his thumb begin to stroke her skin, trying to be gentle, to offer some comfort to her. Everything that had to do with her father was still raw and while she may have come to some manner of peace with him before he died, it didn't change everything that had transpired between them.
"He's dead. He was turned and didn't want to become a vampire and so he let himself die." Klaus could hear the underlying 'he didn't want to be like me' in her tone, that sadness over her father rather dying than living on in another way to be with her still.
"What about Steven?" Vaughn asked, and Klaus arched a brow at that. Perhaps not killing that man had been the right decision after all. "He was working with your dad on it. He might have some ideas."
"Perfect," Klaus replied before Caroline could comment, pulling her out of the cell as he stepped out. "You've been most helpful. I'll have food brought to you soon enough."
He closed the door and dragged Caroline up the stairs and away from the cell, ignoring her angry protests. "Are you insane?" she screamed at him. "I don't even know why I asked that. Of course you are. He had more information! I am going back down there and talking to him about it."
"No, you're not," Klaus informed her, slamming the doorway shut that led to the basement. "I've no doubt that he can tell you some things about your father, Caroline, and I am sure you would like to learn them. But I also am quite certain that he will use that information to get what he wants from you as well. He is an ally for now. He is not a friend; he can turn on us at any second. It's in his nature to want to drive a stake through your heart. Do not forget that."
"Not just my dad, Klaus. He said that my family has been involved in this for over a century. I want to know," Caroline demanded, and while he usually loved her stubborn streak, he couldn't discount that there were times that it was bloody annoying. "I need to know."
"Information that we can just as easily get from Steven," Klaus pointed out and watched her eyes widen and then narrow just as quickly. He wondered if she realized how much he enjoyed the little hiss she gave at that.
"You are not dragging him into this," she protested, crossing her arms against her chest as she glared at him.
"Technically the Hunter is the one who involved him," Klaus grinned, watching his words rile her up even more. "You can try calling him first. See if he'll give us the information we need over the phone. If he cooperates there will hardly be any problems. If he decides to be stubborn then I'll have one of my siblings pop over to retrieve him before coming to join us."
"Why can't we just ask the freaking Hunter?" she grumbled, huffing at his answer.
"Because the Hunter said it was your father and Steven who were working on how to find the potentials, Caroline, not himself," Klaus replied, smile broadening as she looked away from him, her annoyance only growing. He pulled out his phone. "I suggest you do so now. Unless you'd rather I skip ahead to my preferred plan."
She snatched the phone from his hand, angrily jabbing in the phone number before hitting the call button. Klaus could see the apprehension in her features, watched her step back from him and begin to pace along the hallway as she waited for the man who had once cared for her to pick up. "This is Steven," came the eventual reply.
Caroline hesitated and Klaus wasn't surprised by that, knowing hearing the man's voice couldn't be a happy experience, not with how their last meeting had gone. "Don't hang up or they're just going to come and get you," Caroline hurriedly spoke and silence hung in the air for a few more moments.
"What do you want?" Steven demanded, voice strained and Klaus sat down in one of the chairs in the hallway, watching Caroline, knowing that she probably didn't want him anywhere near her in that moment.
"I need to know about how you dad were trying to find potentials," she murmured, hair falling in front of her face so Klaus couldn't see her expression. Her hands were trembling though.
"Why the hell would I tell you that?" Steven asked, and Klaus rose then, snatching the phone from her hand. He ignored her protests as he pressed the phone to his ear.
"Quite simply because you either tell me now or I have someone retrieve you and your daughter and drag you both here so that I get what I need," Klaus replied, grinning at the sound of Steven sucking in a breath. He wondered how much his voice haunted the man's nightmares and waking moments. Perhaps he'd taunt him a little more once this Silas business was dealt with.
"There isn't one," Steven started and Klaus tsked.
"Come now, mate, why drag this out? As much as I'd enjoy torturing your daughter it'd set me back quite a bit with Caroline and I'd really it rather not come to that," Klaus piped up, smiling at Caroline who simply glowered at him.
"I'm not lying. We've been working on it for years. But they're not of the same bloodline. They're not related in any way. It's not a descendant thing. It can crop up on any continent and at any time. We researched countless witch lore about it. Spoke to I don't even know how many witches. It was made to be random so that their line can't be killed off until their mission is completed," Steven told him, and Klaus could hear the rise and fall of the man's heartbeat through the phone, the desperation for him to believe him. "That task isn't actually killing all of you but Silas. Killing vampires was just an added bonus because you were created with the same spell. The one the Original witch did was the same one Qestiyah used thousands of years before so the Hunters are drawn to you and were made to be activated by killing a vampire. But Silas is their main goal."
"Stop Silas and stop the Hunters then?" Klaus murmured, letting that sink in.
"From what the witches said once Silas is dead the Hunter goes back to being a regular human and there will be no more potentials," Steven confirmed and Klaus pursed his lips at that.
"Do know that if I find out you're lying—and I will—that nothing, not even Caroline, will be able to stop me from draining your daughter dry and turning you into what you hate the most. After that I will compel you to never kill yourself and live as what you hate forever," Klaus told him, pleased with the hitch in the man's breath.
"I'm not lying," Steven urged, and the desperation had him believing that, but Klaus would still ensure that he had people watching the girl, ready to kill her if need be.
"Have pleasant day, Steven. Hopefully I won't need to be in touch again." Klaus hung up his phone and slid it into his pocket. He could see Caroline ready to argue to yell at him and as much as he enjoyed her rage, they needed to be a bit more productive with their time now. "I believe it's time for us to start your training."
He watched her open her mouth and shut it as she tried to get a handle on her emotions. "Might as well use all that anger you want to throw at me in a constructive manner," he continued, sweeping an arm down the hallway towards the front doors. "After you."
She huffed and headed off down the hallway, Klaus following on her heels. He doubted this would deter her from trying to talk to the Hunter for long, or lighten her anger with him over the entire ordeal with Steven, but at least it would keep her occupied and allow him to work on making her stronger and more able to protect herself. The fact that it would involve touching Caroline and pressing her against his body was also a definite plus. Considering how tightly wound she currently was Klaus couldn't wait to see exactly how she'd explode, hopeful that it would be reminiscent of their river encounter or their bloody make out session after the witches, and already plotting out how to ensure it all worked out for him in the end.