I am amazed there weren't more of you wanting to come after me with pitchforks after the new development between Cassandra and Kol. I'd been sitting on it for ages, silently and anxiously dreading the day it would be revealed. It was such a fun experience getting into Kol's head a little bit more after being in Klaus's for so long. Speaking of which, you will all be happy to know the undermentioned Original Hybrid and Cassandra have some deliciously tense moments in this chapter, so there's that to look forward to. Thank you as usual for sticking with me and for being as passionate and enthralled with this story as I am! Enjoy!

Chapter 25 - Sometimes the Truth Bites

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Caroline followed Cassandra outside to her car the following afternoon. "Because I totally would. Or, I could even go for you, so you don't have to face him at all."

"I'll be fine," Cassandra tried her best to reassure her sister. "I need to do this on my own. I should be in and out of there pretty quickly."

"Okay," Caroline gave her a quick hug. "If you need me to come and rescue you—"

"I'll call you," Cassandra laughed as she pulled away from her sister and climbed into her car. She flashed Caroline one last smile before backing out of the huge Lockwood driveway and headed to Klaus's mansion. She wasn't looking forward to facing him, but she wanted her things, and she knew the sooner she got all of her stuff out of his place, the better.

A few minutes later, she pulled into the massive driveway. She stared at the French doors as she sat in her car and gathered her bearings. She hadn't expected to feel so nervous. She hoped he wouldn't try to change her mind about anything, not that he would be successful if he tried. She realized she was stalling and took a deep breath before climbing out of her car. Her legs felt like lead as she made the short walk up to the front doors and knocked firmly with her fist. A few quiet seconds passed before the door slowly opened and Klaus appeared.

"Cassandra," his voice was soft. She could tell by the look on his face that she was the last person he expected to see on his doorstep. "It's nice to see you, again. How are—"

"I'm just here to pick up my things," she interrupted him, folding her arms across her chest.

"Right, of course," he nodded slowly and stepped aside to let her in. She didn't miss the flash of disappointment in his eyes when she walked past him. She hurried up the grand staircase and made her way down the winding hallway to where her room was and pushed the door open. Her blue dress from the night of the charity event was neatly laid out on top of the bed. As she stared at it, the memory of that night began to flood her mind. Before it could consume her, she quickly pushed it away and went over to the closet.

She could feel his eyes on her while she pulled articles of clothing off their hangers and shoved them into her duffel bag. She refused to acknowledge him and instead focused on her packing. Once she had everything from the closet in her bag, she moved over to the dresser.

"You can't avoid me forever," he spoke, leaning against the doorway.

"Well, I can sure try," she shook her head as she pulled a drawer open and shoved its contents into her bag. After closing it with a firm push, she began to pull out another drawer and realized he had moved directly behind her.

"Cassandra, please," he gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Just give me a chance to—"

She froze with her hand on the drawer, tensing under his touch. "Don't," she spat. "Just go. There's nothing you can say to get me to change my mind."

With a heavy sigh, Klaus lifted his hand and vamp-sped out of the room without saying another word. Cassandra took a few deep breaths to calm herself back down and continued on with her task. After emptying all of the drawers, she carried the full duffel over to the bed and carefully picked up the dress that had been placed there, delicately laying it on top of everything else in the bag. She zipped it up and disappeared into the bathroom to collect her toiletries. When she came back out, she slipped them into the duffel bag's side compartment. After zipping it shut, she glanced around the huge suite to make sure she hadn't missed anything and let out a huge sigh when eyes landed on the nightstand where she'd left Pride and Prejudice. She scooped it up and hugged it to her chest as she made her way out of the room and down the hall to the parlor room. The sound of Klaus's voice brought her to a stop just outside the doorway.

"Yes. Well, you've had your fun. Now let him go and come home," Klaus spoke in a low voice on his phone. "Avoid any more trouble, or you'll find yourself back in a box."

"Hey. No need to be nasty about it," Kol spoke on the other end of the call, shaking his head.

Taking a deep breath, Cassandra walked into the room. She blinked in surprise when her eyes landed on Elena sitting in one of the two chairs across from the couch where Klaus sat. Their eyes met briefly as Cassandra quietly walked over to the bookshelf to return the book in her arms.

"On the contrary I find nastiness to be essential whenever my siblings try to sabotage me. Listen closely, Kol. Stay away from the Gilbert boy. You understand?" Klaus growled softly. He turned his head towards Cassandra, noticing her presence for the first time, and flashed her a brief smile.

"Fine. I won't touch him. You have my word," Kol sighed. A moment passed before his lips curled into a devilish grin. "I cannot make the same promise when it comes to the lovely Cassandra, however."

Cassandra had placed the book back on the shelf and turned around to leave when her eyes met Klaus's. She hadn't intended to look his way, it just sort of happened. She could tell from the sudden scowl on his face that Kol had said something he didn't like. She had one guess what it was about, or rather who.

"Stay away from her, Kol," Klaus growled into the phone, confirming her suspicion.

"Tell me, brother, have you had the pleasure of laying eyes upon the delicious little swallow tattoo she has on her hip? Or did you screw things up with her before you had the chance?" Kol snickered.

As Cassandra stared at Klaus, she saw a glimmer of pain flash in his eyes, but it vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.

"Listen to me carefully, Kol," Klaus rumbled in a low voice as he rose to his feet. "You will stay away from Cassandra, or I give you my word I will hunt you down and put you back in that box for another century. Do you understand?"

Cassandra started to slowly made her way towards the door when Klaus vamp-sped over and blocked her path, clearly wanting a word with her once he was done speaking to his younger brother. She scoffed softly, folding her arms across her chest as he growled something she couldn't quite make out into his phone before ending the call.

"So, you slept with my brother. Do you fancy him now?" Klaus narrowed his eyes at her.

"What? No," she shook her head. "No, I don't fancy him."

"Why then? To get back at me?"

"Oh, get over yourself already. Not that it's any of your business, but the other night I had a really strong drink and—"

"If he took advantage of you," Klaus interrupted with a menacing growl.

"Oh for the love of…" Cassandra hissed in frustration. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as she took a deep, calming breath before opening them again. The last thing she wanted to do was get into a shouting match with him, so she figured she better elaborate before he lost it completely. "Kol did no such thing. I knew exactly what I was doing. At the time, I just didn't care if I should or shouldn't be allowing it to happen. I wasn't inebriated. I was living in the moment. That particular moment has long passed, and as I told Kol yesterday, it won't be happening again anytime soon with him or anyone else. Can I go now, or were you going to hound me some more about who I get into bed with?"

"Fine," he mumbled softly, stepping out of her way so she could leave.

She quickly left the parlor and collected her things from the suite before making her way down the grand staircase and outside to her awaiting car. As she started to drive forward, she glanced back at the mansion. For a second, she thought she saw Klaus staring at her from an upstairs window, but when she blinked and looked again, there was nothing there. She decided not to dwell on it as she drove home.

"You know, none of this would be an issue if you'd have just done your job properly," Klaus turned around smirking at Damon who was lying on a cot in the cellar at the Boarding House. He had been compelled to kill Jeremy by Klaus's brother Kol the previous night. To stop him, Stefan snapped his neck, brought him down to the cellar, and drained him of all his blood to weaken him. Now, Klaus was acting as babysitter, giving him small vials of blood every few hours so he wouldn't desiccate, while Stefan tried to charm Klaus's sister into giving up the silver dagger she currently had in her possession so Kol could be put down, freeing Damon from his compulsion. "I was perfectly willing to let you train Jeremy."

"No, you weren't," Damon repeatedly tossed a pebble in the air and caught it in his hand. "Are you kidding? You got there on day two. Do you know how hard it is to get these Xbox brains to focus?"

"And then when I turned a room full of barflies into vampires for him to slaughter, you let Kol kill them," Klaus paced back and forth.

"Your brother problem, not mine, buddy."

"And whose bright idea was it to saddle Jeremy with a conscience, hmm?"

Damon stopped tossing the pebble and glanced up at the original hybrid. "Well, we couldn't have him trying to stake Elena in her sleep now, could we?"

"Ah, yes, for the love of Elena," Klaus mused. "How is it that she manages to overlook every horrific thing you've ever done? Is it willful ignorance or perhaps something more pathological?"

Damon resumed his pebble tossing. "Some people are just more capable of forgiveness than others. Bet you score a negative five hundred in that realm."

"Come on, there must be a secret. It can't just be that sire bond. What is it? Compulsion? Manipulation?" Klaus raised his eyebrows curiously. When Damon remained silent, Klaus's expression softened, and his voice grew serious as he stopped moving. "What is it you say to her?"

Damon had been about to toss the pebble in his hand when Klaus's question made him freeze. Slowly, he lowered his arm and sat up, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "I think this has something to do with a certain blonde human. I think you killed Carol Lockwood. And I think you're worried that Cassandra's never going to forgive you."

"You've done worse," Klaus tightened his jaw and slowly met Damon's eyes.

"Debatable," Damon shot back. "See, I don't mind being the bad guy because somebody has to fill that role and get things done. You do bad things for no reason. You do them to be a dick."

"Debatable," Klaus shook his head slightly, though he knew deep down Damon had made a very valid point.

Damon shrugged at his answer. "If you're going to be bad, be bad with purpose, otherwise you're just not worth forgiving."

After spending the morning and afternoon at the Lockwood Mansion with Caroline and Tyler, Cassandra decided to grab dinner with her mom at The Mystic Grill so her sister and Tyler could spend some time just the two of them. He was still working through his grief, and she knew there were things he'd be more comfortable expressing to his girlfriend without said girlfriend's sister being around, especially considering that same sister had been romantically involved with his mother's killer.

Dinner with her mom was pleasant. They were able to do some catching up, though they were both careful to broach certain topics. Cassandra did admit to her mom the part she played in bringing Professor Shane to town and was surprised to learn he was currently sitting in a cell jail cell. She had to feign shock when her mom told her they had evidence connecting Shane to the explosion at the Young Farm. Even though she was extremely curious about how this evidence had come to light, she knew her mom wouldn't tell her anything because it was an ongoing investigation, so she didn't press for details.

Their dinner was far too short in Cassandra's opinion, but it couldn't be helped. Her mom had to return to the station. After saying their goodbyes, Cassandra watched her mother drive away in her police cruiser. Not wanting to return to the Lockwood Mansion just yet, she decided to take a stroll down the square. Most of the shops were still open, so there were plenty of people walking around with shopping bags. Her eyes landed on a mother who had knelt down to tie her young daughter's shoelace. The simple gesture brought a smile to her face. Not wanting to appear as though she was staring, she averted her gaze back to the path in front of her and found a familiar face walking towards her.

"Kol," she folded her arms as he stopped in front of her.

"Cassandra," he grinned, removing the earbuds he had in his ears. "Lovely to see you again."

"Wish I could say the feeling was mutual, but it's not," she scoffed. "I should have known you'd tell your brother that we slept together the first chance you got."

"Well, if you had wanted it to be our little secret, you should have made that abundantly clear," he chuckled.

"Would it have made a difference?"

"No, I can't say that it would."

Cassandra rolled her eyes. "That's what I thought."

Kol tilted his head slightly, his lips parting in amusement. "Oh, come on darling. You can't be surprised.

"I'm not," she let out an exasperated sigh. "Disappointed is more accurate. I guess I was naive to think that...oh, it doesn't matter. The damage has been done. Anyway, I should get going. Have a nice night."

"Wait," he reached for her arm as she began to walk by him, stopping her before she was more than an arms length away. "I didn't mean to blindside you. Let me buy you an apology drink to make up for it."

"Thanks, but no thanks," she shook her head. "After what happened the last time I had a drink in your company, I'm not putting myself in a position where there could be a repeat of that."

"Suit yourself," he shrugged. He glanced down at the phone in his hand. An incoming call flashed back at him. "You know how get a hold of me if you change your mind. I've got to take this, but it was nice to see you again."

She nodded her head slowly. "I guess I'll see you around."

She watched as he slipped his earbuds back into his ears and walked off. With a sigh of relief, she continued on her way. She returned to Tyler's place a half an hour later and went straight into the kitchen, opening the freezer where she knew she'd find a tub of ice cream. She scooped some into a bowl and leaned back against the counter as she put a big spoonful into her mouth. A pleasurable sigh left her lips as the frozen treat left behind an icy sensation in her chest. She glanced up to see her sister and Tyler standing in the doorway.

"You got out the ice cream and didn't call us down for any?" He raised his eyebrows with a grin on his face.

"I figured you guys would hear me with your super duper vampire hearing," she grinned back. "And I was right."

Tyler quickly filled two more bowls for himself and Caroline so they could join her at the table.

"So how's mom?" Caroline asked after swallowing a spoonful of ice cream.

"She's fine. She arrested Shane," Cassandra replied. "She said they had evidence linking him to the farm explosion. Just don't ask me what that evidence is. I didn't ask, not that she would have told me if I had."

"Well, good," Caroline nodded. "He was responsible, so he should pay for what he did."

"Yeah," Cassandra agreed. She swallowed the last bit of ice cream and went over to the kitchen sink to rinse off her bowl and spoon before putting them in the dishwasher. She was drying off her hands when Caroline gave a loud gasp.

"Kol is dead," Caroline told them.

Cassandra spun around to face them. "Wait...what?"

"Kol is dead," Caroline repeated, wiggling her phone in the air. "Elena just texted me. Jeremy killed him with the white oak dagger."

"Oh...oh my god!" Cassandra stared at them as the news began to register in her mind. She slowly walked back to the table and sunk down into a chair. "I was just talking to him less than an hour ago. Why...why would they kill him?"

"Elena says he compelled Damon to kill Jeremy. Then he went after Jeremy, wanting to cut off his arms to keep us from getting the tattoo map. They're waiting for Kol's sire line to die off so Jeremy's hunter's mark tattoo will be complete and they'll have the map to the cure," Caroline explained. "Oh, and Bonnie trapped Klaus in Jeremy and Elena's living room with a spell so they're over at the Boarding House with Damon and Stefan."

"So this was all about that stupid cure? That figures," Cassandra grumbled as she pushed herself up onto her feet and walked out of the room in a huff.

"Cass! Wait!" Caroline called out after her. She turned to Tyler, stunned at her sister's outburst. "What just happened?"

Tyler reached out for Caroline's hand and gave it a small squeeze. "I'll go talk to her."

"Thanks," Caroline sighed, squeezing his hand in return.

Leaving Caroline in the kitchen, Tyler sped after Cassandra and found her sitting on the back porch. He quietly sat down beside her, waiting a beat before speaking. "Did you care about him?"

"Who? Kol?" She stared out at the pitch-black grounds. "No. Yes...ugh. I don't know."

"It's okay if you did. It doesn't make you a bad person."

"An hour ago I would have said no with confidence, but now that he's dead, I…I guess maybe on some level I started to care about him without realizing it. That's not the worst part, though."

"What's the worst part?"

Cassandra took a deep breath and turned to look at him. "The worst part is, despite what he did to you, and despite the fact that I know it's the last thing he deserves, there's a part of me that desperately wants to run over to the Gilbert house and comfort Klaus. How messed up is that?"

"It's not messed up," Tyler nudged her shoulder lightly with his own. "I mean, you are only human after all."

"Oh, that was a low blow, Lockwood," she shook her head, though she couldn't stop the smile that creeped up on her lips.

"Seriously, though. If there's one thing I know for certain about you Cass, it's that you have an incredibly huge heart. This proves it."

"Or it proves that I'm weak and pathetic."

"You are neither of those things, and you know it."

"I guess," Cassandra turned away with a shrug.

"I know," Tyler nudged her again. When she remained still, he nudged her again, and this time spotted the smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "I saw that! Come on, Cass."

"No! You saw nothing!" She folded her arms and tried to keep a straight face. The problem was, the harder she tried not to smile, the more she wanted to. Eventually she couldn't stand it and finally threw her hands up in the air as her face broke out into the very grin she'd been trying to keep inside.

"See?" Tyler smiled at her. "Feel better?"

"Maybe a little," she nodded once.

He stood up and held out his hand. "Come on. Let's go back inside. I know where a bottle of Tequila is with your name all over it."

She threw her head back with a laugh as she slipped her hand into his and allowed him to pull her up to her feet. "Fine, but if I get drunk and wake up with a crazy hangover in the morning, one of you better give me some of your blood to get rid of it. I don't care who."

"Deal," he grinned at her as they turned around and headed back inside.