"What were you thinking Bonnie?" Kol put his drink away, he was so upset that he couldn't even drink.

"I didn't know… nobody told me that she couldn't do magic, besides you don't know for sure that it will hurt her on the long run."

Kol was livid. "On the long run? Nik just left to Italy with a man who probably knows a way or two to kill him because he didn't want to risk her life and you're suggesting that I let things simmer for now."

Bonnie wasn't happy that he was suddenly shouting at her. "All I'm saying is that I did magic for a long time before it actually hurt me and it only happened after I did some major spells."

"We are not going to take any risks Bonnie, I rather have a sister who can't do anything else but annoy me than risk having one who ends up crazy. She's wearing Alaric's ring and that alone is prone to hurt her."

Bonnie crossed her arms. "Again, you don't know for sure and if this is such a problem, then turn her. Make her a vampire if you don't want her to be a witch."

"Are you serious Bonnie?"

"Never mind, she is your sister and I've learned that everyone in this family takes the protection duty a little too extreme. If you don't want me to, I won't teach her anything else or tell her that everyone is hiding important stuff from her."

"Hiding what?" Rebekah asked coming inside of the library.

Kol gave Bonnie an angry look. "Nothing." He hissed.

Rebekah shook her head mad. "I've been trying to reach Nik and he's not taking my calls, neither is Elijah or Caroline so what's happening?"

"Bekah… it's nothing." Kol tried to keep his conceal for a bit longer.

"Stop it, stop hiding things from me. No one hid anything when I was a vampire but now you all have secrets and I'm tired of it Kol."

Kol sighed. "They are probably just busy patching up things between them while Elijah is invested in a book."

Rebekah clasped her lips. "They should be back by now."

Kol looked away from her, she was mad and she was leaving him in a hard position.

"Kol!" she insisted.

"Nik is Italy with Ansel and Caroline and Elijah are on their way there."

"And why are you still here?"

"I can't leave Bekah…"

It dawned on her. "Are they using me against Nik?"

"We are working around it but you have to trust us Bekah."

"I'm tired of this… I should be out there with them not in here being the weak decoy." She covered her face. "What was I thinking when I asked for this?"

Kol moved to try and calm her down but she pushed him away.

"Leave me alone." She widened the space between them. "I don't you I want Nik, I need Nik. I want him back, I need Nik back." She repeated with a hoarse voice.

Kol was hurt but he knew that Klaus was her pillar and he didn't try to reach for her again.

"You're not him and I want Nik, I want him back, I want Nik." she left the room in tears.

Bonnie looked at Kol.

He brushed it off with a shake of his head. "She's upset at the moment…"

At that moment Damon came in. "I've been everywhere I could think of and I didn't find anyone I could point out as a mercenary with an agenda."

"How hard can it be to find one human?" Kol spat out furious before he exited the library.

Damon looked at Bonnie with a frown. "What happened?"

"The same as the other time when Klaus' was gone. Everything is crumbling around us, none of them know how to handle the possibility of losing him."

Damon remembered well how tough it had been the other time around. "Liz has the good police of Mystic Falls looking for the Luna guys."

"If I had something from them, I could try a location spell." Bonnie was starting to feel useless as well.

Caroline stood by the car, she kept her hands inside her long coat and her eyes and ears on the conversation happening in front of her, the couple had arrived together but now the man was talking to Elijah alone while the girl remained quiet, Caroline could tell that she was a vampire while the man wasn't.

"I wish there was more I could tell you about this sword but all I ever knew was the crazy ramblings from my grandfather who died a long time ago and I never really believed the old man."

Elijah nodded calmly. "I could use all the help…"

The man looked at his companion. "My wife says that you are a good man and that you were doing research on this, she is the only one I have ever told the story to. Whenever my grandfather drank a little too much he told us of the time when a group of men from his village found a sword inside of a cave, they brought it back with them but the next day they were all killed inside of their homes alongside with their entire family. He used to say that the sword belonged to the devil and that he came for it at night. After that the mysterious sword was gone and no one from the village ever looked for it again, afraid that the devil might come for them."

"I know that they sound like unreal words to you but you should keep them for yourself, it's safer for you and for your wife." Elijah thanked the vampire with a nod.

Her husband wasn't sure if he had been of any use at all but he wasn't about to start questioning an Original.

Elijah came to the car where Caroline waited for him.

"Was that of any use to us?" she asked him hoping for a good answer.

"I know how to narrow down the sword's location."

"You do?" Caroline looked at the map that he unfolded on top of the hood of the car. "What are all of these red circles?" she pointed at the marks around a few villages and small towns not only in the north of Italy but also across the countries neighboring Italy.

"I've managed to identify a few locations where a specific mass murder took place…" he hesitated looking at Caroline.

"Where Nik killed a lot of people." she ended the sentence without taking her eyes from the red circles in the map.

"Caroline…" he didn't have to go into details.

"It's ok Elijah, I know that Nik is not a saint but I also know that he did a lot of this behind a belief that he was just protecting his family."

Elijah carried on somberly. "The last known report of families being executed happened here." he pointed at a small spot on the map.

"That's where we are going next." Caroline left to her side of the car.

He silently moved his head agreeing and folded the map, the town was just an hour away.

Klaus could count 15 men at the digging site, Ansel had managed all of this in less than 24 hours and he would find out on soon enough that Klaus was deceiving him.

"I'm happy that you came around to your senses." Ansel commented happily next to him.

Klaus smiled, out of surprise really. "You didn't left me much choice old man."

"A man like you always has a choice."

"My choices belong to myself only."

"I hope that you can get past the blinded threats and take this as a new start for us." Ansel looked at him hopeful.

"All I see is your growing affection to hurt my wife." Klaus couldn't get out of his head the image of Caroline bleeding because of a bullet laced in venom.

"Is she that important to you?" Ansel honestly asked him.

Klaus chuckled looking ahead of him. "You keep a large painting of a cheater who never left her lawful husband although she was your mate."

Ansel wasn't amused with the direction that the conversation was taking and he enjoyed it even less when Klaus looked straight at him.

"Caroline chose me and she married me. She's the woman I love and I'm only entertaining you at the moment because of her."

"Remind me to thank her." Ansel dryly replied.

The two of them harshly stared at each other.

"We found something!" One of the werewolves shouted from the site. "It's an underground chamber."

Ansel was pleased. "So you were being honest."

"More or less." Klaus smiled darkly as a heavy explosion shook the ground.

Ansel covered his face but Klaus stood there unaffected, most of the men died in one take and obviously Ansel reacted with fury.

"Why have you deceived me?" he yelled at Klaus.

"Tell Eric to stand down or you will never know where that weapon is."

Ansel stopped one of his bodyguards from certain death as he prepared to launch at Klaus, he kept his hand on the chest of the brave man. "Eric will stay where he is."

"Then I will keep taking you to every artifice that I have scattered around Italy alone."

Ansel's phone gave him notice of a message and he smiled easily at Klaus. "Very well Niklaus, you win for now. I will call Eric and since I know that you won't do anything without confirmation let's keep entertained while we wait."

Klaus wasn't a bit on board with this.

"There is a party tonight in Venice. A small gathering with some very important people that I want you to meet."

"A party to keep me distracted from what you're planning next." Klaus said with a knowing smile.

"It gives us both time." Ansel said bluntly, there was very little that wasn't on the table now.

Damon peeked inside of her room. "Is it safe to come in?"

Rebekah was on the window seat clutching a pillow against her chest. "Enter at your own risk."

Damon smirked. "I'm the fearless one." he closed the door behind him.

Rebekah kept her eyes outside on the large fountain.

"Bex… what's with the big dramatic tantrum?"

She smiled sadly. "I'm the weak link and I was never that before. The only time I was a liability I ended up with a dagger in my heart, now he is out there while I'm on house arrest being mean to my other brother whose only fault is staying behind to protect me."

"Kol can take it, he knows the sister that he has." Damon easily said.

She looked at him. "Does he Damon? What am I, a witch or a human? Am I even still an Original? How does he know the sister that he has if I don't know who I am anymore?"

Damon sat in front of her and gently cupped her freckled cheek. "You're Rebekah, the meanest badass chick that has ever tortured me."

His silly smile made her smile as well. "Being human was all I ever wanted and now I'd give anything to be like them again, like you... I miss being able to handle myself and not have everyone so worried about me all the time. I miss being like my family Damon, for all this time I was wrong… it wasn't the humanity that I missed, it was having a family and now that I finally have one, I don't belong anymore."

Damon stroked her chin. "What can I do, sexy Bex?"

She slowly met his baby blue eyes. "Turn me."

Damon dropped his hand from her chin stunned.

She looked at him with those big pleading eyes of hers. "Feed me your blood Damon and then turn me."

He was truly lost for words now.

"Are you sure that we're at the right place?" Caroline asked suspicious.

"There used to be a village here…" Elijah mused.

Caroline closed her door scanning the place with narrowed eyes. "That was a very long time ago Elijah. There's nothing here now"

In front of them was just green nature with nothing but a few horses and a tree, not a soul could be seen around.

"Maybe not in plain sight…" Elijah said trying to make sense of this. "We're missing something…"

"Yes we are, we're missing Nik…" Caroline said slumping against the car door and resting the back of her head there, she closed her eyes trying to remember how blue his eyes were.

"I've just received a message Caroline."

She shot her head at Elijah. "Is it from Nik?"

Elijah came around to her side to reveal the invitation on his phone. "We have a party to attend tonight."

Caroline looked at the screen again, there was a masquerade ball happening on a local museum to gather money for some cause that she couldn't understand because her Italian wasn't that good.

Kol dropped the bat on the table upset, he had been all day out looking for this man and there was no sign of him, it was just surreal how he was able to hide so well and Kol was so absorbed in his anger that he almost missed the moment when Bonnie came inside of the kitchen.

She laced her arms around him and rested her palms over his chest. "I'm sorry…" she said sweetly whilst resting her face against his neck.

"We should've told you that we were concerned about Rebekah going overboard with her new ability." He turned to face her. "She's always been mad as a hatter and magic wasn't even into the play."

She understood where he was coming from. "I should have been more careful, when I was human and doing magic nothing ever came without a price…"

"I'm worried about you Bonnie." He confessed. "You weren't this reckless before."

"Do you still love me despite of it?" she asked him with a caress of his neck.

Kol was serious when he answered her. "It's all I know darling."

She teased him into a kiss and Kol's reaction was instant, he picked her up and sat her down on the kitchen table, when they kissed it was a rough kiss that had the lights flickering but instead of pulling away from each other they were pulling clothes over their heads and opening pants in a hurry.

The man at the door smiled watching the couple headed his way, what a lucky bastard, the girl by his arm was just stunning, the bandage golden dress showed her perfect figure and even if he couldn't see the face hidden by the mask he could tell that she was beautiful.

Elijah showed him the invitation and together with Caroline they made way inside together, she took a deep breath to sooth her stomach, they couldn't mess this up.

Elijah padded her hand. "Let's part ways. All eyes will be on Niklaus and we need to be quick, the longer we stay in here the longer we are placing him and ourselves in danger."

"Got it…" she whispered before breaking away from him.

With a glass of champagne in his hand Elijah easily charmed his way into a political conversation, he was scanning the room for Klaus but at the time he couldn't see him anywhere.

As for Caroline she preferred to settle her scouting spot under the penchant of the wide magnificent staircase, from here she could see the entire ballroom and have a privileged access to the lobby leading to another vast room where a small violin quartet was giving a classical feel to the gala.

She tried to keep a discretion about her presence but her golden dress was attracting a lot of unwanted attention, she adjusted her matching golden mask and made sure that all of her hair was perfectly caught up in the intricate high braid.

There was a waiter offering champagne and she chose a glass to keep her hands entertained, since Klaus wasn't in this room she started to wander off to the next room and she didn't have to go far to notice the group installed at the veranda on top of her but most importantly the man standing out from the lot.

She would recognize that broad back anywhere, she had caressed and scratch it too many times to not know it by heart now, he was here and he was ok.

Klaus took a slow sip from the beverage in his hand and nodded at something that the man in front of him said, when he turned around it was as if he knew exactly where she was.

Caroline wanted to flash up the staircase and dive into his arms but she couldn't even get close to him.

Klaus knew that he had to break away from her eyes but by God, he missed her so much and she looked like a true Golden Roman Queen tonight, he missed having her in his arms, and he missed her sweet summer scent and her warmth enveloping him.

Klaus excused himself from the conversation and headed downstairs, Caroline squinted when instead of walking straight at her he turned left at the bottom of the staircase.

She was going to follow him when she saw a big man walking in her direction from across the ballroom and another rushing down the staircase, out of options Caroline headed to the room with music, from there she saw the outer balcony and quickly went outside.

Klaus was in a small room with access to a private terrace but from here he could easily jump to where Caroline was, he jumped from one ledge to another and took out one of the men after Caroline with the action, when he straightened up he noticed the one she just handled alone.

Caroline removed her mask with a smile. "Elijah taught me a few things about self-defense this morning."

Enchanted Klaus had a step closer and they looked at each other for that one moment without any masks, even their souls were naked now.

The moment lasted until he crashed his lips against hers, the kiss was filled with passion, love and the adamant will to be together.

"Are you ok?" she gave voice to her one concern when their lips separated enough.

"No, I miss you." he answered caressing her face.

"This one is really bad, isn't it?" she asked him hoping for a lie.

"I don't know how this one will end." Klaus replied serious.

Her concern grew bigger and she brought him closer to her, her hand lodged on the back of his neck, she needed to feel his soothing breathing on her face while she spoke. "This isn't fair, not after all that we've been through…"

Klaus forced a smile. "This isn't the end, I promise you."

With a fast pace Elijah closed the doors of the balcony for a bit of privacy. "We've exposed ourselves too much, I must take Caroline out of here."

Klaus nodded at his brother before looking at Caroline. "Our torment will be over soon."

Caroline nodded trying to be strong for him.

Klaus before kissing her for goodbye, it was a long passionate meeting of tongues while he caressed the side of her body.

Caroline melted against him thoroughly answering the kiss, stroking the back of his neck and moaning when his hand pressed her lower back to him, how she missed that.

Elijah coughed hurrying the couple but Klaus wasn't done with his wife just yet, they were out of breath when he was.

"I love you." Klaus kissed her lips one last time softly.

Caroline hated the way that her chest ached when he pulled away from her entirely. "I love you Nik…"

Klaus smiled at his brother before leaving the balcony, all the while he resisted the temptation of looking back at her but he still relished in a last glance at her image reflected on the glass of the doors.

Klaus returned to the party cooly but Ansel was already waiting for him on the ballroom floor.

"Now that you're back…" Ansel closed his long coat. "We can leave."

Klaus followed him as he started to walk away.

As they waited for their car Ansel looked at Klaus upset. "I'm very disappointed."

"The party wasn't to your likings?" Klaus asked in a good mood.

"There's so much I'm willing to endure Niklaus…"

Klaus gave his shoulders a move. "I haven't even started to show my moody side."

"After tonight I need that location."

Klaus smiled. "I find it quite entertaining that you keep pushing your time limits."

Ansel faced him determined. "It's obvious that you like gambling with the life of your sister, perhaps Eric was right after all and we should have used Caroline instead but I insisted on having the opportunity to ask you as a father to give me that sword."

"You've spawned me but you're not my father." Klaus flat out told him.

"You leave me no other choice then." Ansel started to go down the stairs as their car arrived.

Klaus lessened his eyes at the man.

While he turned his back on Klaus another was stabbing the hybrid in the back, Klaus turned to the attacker pushing him away violently but like a swarm Ansel's men circled him with sharp stabbing blades, they hit him on the back, the shoulder or whatever spot they managed to.

Klaus fought them all but during the mammoth fight there was one hit that made him stop, it was a strange cold that started at his heart but spread fast to the rest of his body and he looked down on the odd blade sticking out of his chest, it was made of white bone and it was wrapped with cloth at the handle.

Klaus looked up as he fell to his knees, in front of him there was a black man sinisterly looking at him and there was no force left in him to fight, Klaus felt his veins drying and he knew that he was turning grey as his body completely shut down.

Deprived of emotion Ansel closed his window as Klaus' unconscious body was carried by his men.

Elijah was covering Caroline's mouth preventing her from screaming and held her back with force, they had seen everything and she had tried to go to Klaus as soon as he was attacked but Elijah couldn't allow that she was hurt or caught as well.

He felt pain in his arm as her fingernails buried deep into his flesh in horror with the vision of Klaus being hurt like that and only when the car started to fade away from sight she waned down in her struggle with Elijah.

Caroline didn't speak at all on their way back to the house in London, she struggled between being sick and wanting to cry her eyes out.

As soon as they arrived she rushed inside of the house and Elijah wasn't sure if he should follow her when she flashed to her bedroom.

Caroline closed the door and started to pace around the bedroom, Ansel had found a way to hurt Klaus and he was going to force the truth out of him.

She knew her husband well, he wasn't going to give the truth away that easily, for that to happen Ansel would have to hurt him a lot and she knew that he would do just that, Klaus was in for all the pain that he could endure and that single thought made her sick.

Sensitive to the knot inside of her stomach Caroline felt her body give in on her, she slumped roughly to the floor with a wave of fear crippling her.

She feared for him, for all that he was enduring right this minute and knew that this was the worst she had ever felt in her short existence that had so much pain already.

The strong arms and chest where she had always found safety and love were now bleeding and her Nik was in pain, she was too numb to cry and looked up at Elijah who stood there feeling as helpless as she did.

Klaus tried to force his eyes open, the pain in his chest was going down to his legs, he could smell the Vervain mixed with Wolfsbane and gritted his teeth when someone made a deep cut on his chest.

The white blade was like ice on his skin but the power coming from the palm pressing the gushing cut was pure fire and Klaus held back a yell as this tree of red branches started to appear on his chest, the magic was connected to the blade and his blood was burning unbearably.

Ansel looked at the man tied up with iron chains that kept his arms stretched open and hanging from the ceiling, he was shirtless and with several open wounds, any other man or creature would be yelling and begging for release but his son was extraordinary, his tolerance to pain was remarkable.

"He should be ready to start listening." The man holding the white blade said.

"Thank you Papa Tunde." Ansel neared Klaus. "I'm not ready to give up on you. You could be a king and I am offering you a kingdom free of the blood lovers but your love for this vampire is holding you back from greatness. That's why I need to do something about that."

Klaus closed his eyes almost losing consciousness, the pain was slowly fading and that couldn't be good.

"Call me when you have something substantial…" Ansel told the powerful witch and left.

The man started a mantra in ancient creole.

Klaus opened his eyes slowly to the mumbling sound but he didn't see anyone at first, then he slowly saw her.

She was wearing red and she was sad to see him like this, he tried to say her name but he only managed to gulp down a great deal of blood.

"Klaus… I never thought that I would see you like this…"

She looked so sad and disappointed that a whole new level of pain wounded him.

"You're so weak… you got caught and no one loves you… no one is coming for the rescue. You killed so many and it's time that you pay for it Klaus. You need to pay for all the pain that you've caused." Caroline drove a stake into his shoulder, then she smiled darkly at him.

It was a smile that he never saw in her before and that weighed on him.

"I'll be the one making you pay for your sins." She plunged a second stake in his chest.

This time he yelled in so much pain that it was like someone was tearing his body apart limb by limb.

Soundtrack:

Safe and sound – Sheryl Crow