New Orleans, 5 years ago
The funeral service was over, the locals and the witches had said goodbye to her grandmother, the body was under the dirt and the spirit released to the ancient line, the rituals were over but for Bonnie there was this new feeling pairing her sadness, she had no clue of how her life would be now that she lost her only relative left.
It was a really scary feeling for a 14 year-old to handle and she was overwhelmed by everything but in the midst of that agony there was a warm consolation, in the form of the ones sitting with her inside of the small chapel.
Matt and Katherine were in the front seat, silent but sitting on their sides so that they could face her and just next to her there was the solid figure of Caroline who hadn't let go of her hand today and who smiled warmly every time that Bonnie looked at her.
"Marcel says that you can stay with us at the house and he'll take care of everything from now on." Caroline tightened her hand around Bonnie's.
Bonnie forced a small smile, she couldn't think that far ahead.
"We should all stay at your house for a while." Katherine suggested, it would be good for Bonnie to have everyone around her and it would also give Katherine a chance to stay away from her drunk uncle.
"I'm sure that my mother won't even notice that I'm gone but I don't like leaving Vicki alone at the house when my mom takes her friends home." Matt grumbled.
It was a serious affair and the girls should show their support but inevitably both Katherine and Caroline giggled because he sounded funny.
"I can't get used to this." Matt touched the braces that were making his life hard.
"Think of how perfect your smile will turn out." Katherine smirked. "And all the pictures that I'm keeping of you looking like this."
"Tyler calls me Mr. Metal." He complained.
"He lives in the swamp, so what does he know?" Katherine picked one of her endless curls to twiddle between her fingers.
"He doesn't live in the swamp Kat!" Caroline quickly spoke up. "He lives in a cabin… near the swamp." She eased on her fervor.
"You're just defending him because you think that he's cute." Katherine countered.
Caroline smoothed the black ribbon around her high ponytail with a guilty smile. "He is."
Matt rolled his eyes. "Can we not talk about boys again?"
Caroline nodded. "That's not important right now… Bonnie is." She looked lovingly at her friend.
"Yeah, what matters is that you're ok." Matt affirmed.
After a look at all her friends Bonnie genuinely felt like smiling. "I think that I will be." And she had them to thank for that.
"Well… no matter what, you will always have us." Katherine had no doubt that they would all be friends forever.
As did Caroline. "Nothing will ever break this coven apart." She kept her hand wrapped around Bonnie's for assurance. "We are your family now."
[XXXXX]
It wasn't a sunny day at all but Caroline had little sleep and she needed the sunglasses to shield her blue eyes today, sadly she could shield the clarity of the day but not the impatient werewolf pacing back and forth in front of her house. "Good morning Oliver, what do you want?" She greeted him with a big groan.
"Any sort of news about your progress for a start but since you're so helpful, how about telling me if you have my ring ready?" He sneered ill-mannered.
"How about a headache?" She asked him snappy.
He ignored the prickling in his head. "I gave you a precious gem and so far you haven't come up with anything."
"I've had a lot on my plate lately." She used a hissed tone to end the conversation entirely.
"Are you talking about the witch hunt?" He came closer to her. "If you are, then I have news for you. Jules and the rest of the pack no longer exist and there is a chance that I'm the only werewolf left standing and that just makes me really nervous…" he tried to bring out the growl that was in his head but instead of his echoed thoughts what he heard was the sound of a clear snarl that tickled the back of his neck.
Caroline tilted her head joyfully. "Morning Ty."
Oliver slowly turned around. "You're awfully quiet this morning."
Tyler smiled with a threatening yellow glow crossing his eyes. "Don't worry so much about the werewolves, we're all gathering up outside of the city and we'll be back when the time is right."
"Why didn't I get an invitation, don't I get to be part of the special pack?"
"You won't if I ever catch you around here again."
Oliver looked back at Caroline with a narrow of his eyes, now he was pissed. "Whatever…" he walked away bumping with purpose against Tyler's shoulder. "Excuse me, Alpha."
Tyler looked at Caroline instead of pushing a fight with Oliver. "Are you ok?"
"Put the hero cape away, you're wasting it on me." She answered on her way to the car already.
"Why did Oliver give you a gem?" Tyler made the short walk with her.
She sighed. "He inherited some precious stone that belonged to Jackson's girlfriend and he wanted me to use it to make rings that would give werewolves the power of shifting only when they wanted…" she reached the door of her car with a shake of her head. "Everyone wants something from me."
"What did you do to the stone Care?"
She looked at him with a half-smile. "I used it for another spell."
He had the smallest gesture with his head that came close to a nod, just before he brought his eyebrows together with a pensive expression.
"I know that face." Caroline closed her door apprehensive.
He smiled, of course that she did. "Putting together a new pack wasn't as easy as I thought that it would be so I turned to an old friend…"
She used her finger to circle it in front of Tyler's face. "What did you hide from me?"
"What I hid from everyone else… Francesca Guerrero." He said almost timidly.
"Jackson's girl?" Caroline crumbled her enthusiasm, she expected something much more exciting.
"Yeah… the night they took Jackson away I helped her get out of New Orleans."
"How come I didn't know about any of this?" Caroline loudly protested.
"You don't know everything about me Care." He answered back with a huff.
"Don't pretend to be offended because you know that I do." She crossed her arms with a know it all wobble of her head.
"You didn't know about Francesca." He answered back on cue.
"You had an affair with her, didn't you?" She lifted her right eyebrow a bit. "Or at least there's like a really crazy raunchy night between the two of you."
Disconcerted he started shaking his head. "It was the morning after a full moon and we woke up naked far from everyone else in the Bayou and…" he shook his head harder. "This is not what we were talking about."
She wasn't letting her smile show through but she was giggling in the inside. "So you're joining your toothbrush with hers and forming a pack together?"
He closed his eyes smiling while shaking his finger at her. "You're terrible."
Caroline chuckled. "I'm late, that's what I am." She turned to the car again. "I have to go to the hospital, do you want to tag along and visit Bonnie?"
"I'm going with you but you have to promise me that you won't talk to the others about this."
While Caroline started the car she asked him carelessly. "Is she pretty?"
"Almost as pretty as you are." Tyler easily handed out the compliment.
Now Caroline wanted to meet Francesca even more.
[XXXXX]
The group was all assembled outside of Bonnie's room, with the Originals here it was a big number to count and that impressed even Caroline, the only ones missing were Marcel and the incommunicado Klaus.
"We're all here!" Katherine started off the hostilities. "So, what cray cray plan have you come up with this time around?"
Matt looked directly at Caroline and Katherine. "I've called Pearl in and she's inside with Bonnie."
Neither of them truly reacted so the entire mood became very intense and tangible with tension.
"I've also secured the Elder house so I'm formally inviting every vampire present at this meeting." Matt added.
"Enzo and I will start training the witches, Matt has arranged for a way to get the word out effortlessly that there's a harvest coming." Rebekah informed the others as well.
Katherine was the first to let out a deep breath whilst she trailed her fingertips across the elastic of her woolen hat, it wasn't possible to feel heat like she did before but suddenly having her hair trapped stylishly under the hat was unbearable to sustain.
"Is Pearl the same one who Eldered you?" Tyler was trying to catch up to the rest of them.
"We need to speak to Matt alone." Caroline had a voice at last.
"First we need to talk about Stefan because I don't think that Raven can heal him from a wolf bite." Enzo didn't want to lose the chance to have his alert in. "If she comes for retaliation we need to be ready for her."
"Isn't that your job?" Katherine started a confrontation with him, first with her eyes then with her body that shifted so that she could face him completely.
"No one lets me do my job properly and I don't mind helping out with the other witches but we can't be complacent about Raven, specially now." He once again started his one-man battle.
And like always Caroline was the first to shut him down. "Everyone who's not a part of this coven needs to go." She didn't bother looking at anyone directly, she had enough force behind her voice to instigate Rebekah to make the first exit.
Tyler dispersed towards the staircase and Enzo was left with no other option but to walk away as well, as for Kol he was never part of the conversation anyway, he was guarding Bonnie's door like he was ready to stop all the demons from crossing that door limit.
"I talked to Pearl before I made the decision and because I was chosen by the ancient line I will hold most of the power and any consequence of a wrongly action regarding the witches will fall solely on me." Matt ensured the girls. "It won't be like Sophie and her sister."
"Because you're not Sophie and you're not going to cheat the ancestral magic of this city." Caroline responded crisply. "But you're on your way to rule it alone."
"I had to do something Caroline." He voiced out his only argument.
"I would never oppose to saving the life of my best friend but I would like to be included when someone else inside of this coven is thinking of taking the reigns of her destiny."
"Don't turn this into a coven problem." Matt asked her in a pleading tired tone.
"Well, I'm sorry if you think that being an Elder doesn't make you part of this coven anymore because wether if you respect me as your leader or not, this coven used to be our family before everyone started thinking that they weren't a part of it any longer." Without fully thinking about it Caroline glanced at Katherine.
"Why are you aiming at me now?" Katherine pulled her head back a bit.
If that's what Katherine wanted she would go there gladly. "You're the one who started saying that you were different and that now you didn't belong anymore."
Appalled Katherine's chin fell. "Who left the country with Klaus without telling a soul and started spending all of her time with him?"
"I didn't put him before my coven, ever."
"When was the last time we all had a meal together? Or at least sat around a table as a unit?"
"Girls…" Matt intervened when the voices started raising.
"No." Caroline stopped him. "She clearly has something to say so let her talk."
"You haven't done a thing that was related to the coven lately Caroline and even with Bonnie's life hanging by a thread your royal past seems to be more important than the rest." Katherine released all of her frustration with a final spew. "I don't belong anymore because everyone moved on from what this coven used to stand for." She started to walk away as soon as the harsh words were pronounced but on her way out there was a strident sound that echoed after her as she dropped her coven ring to the floor.
"Do you agree with her?" Caroline asked Matt lowly, the attack had been harmful.
He breathed in slowly as well. "I don't want to cause more harm but I admit that the coven wasn't even in my head when I made the decision to share my new powers with Bonnie."
The pain left Caroline on a tearful edge and she looked at Matt with dancing tears in her eyes, he wasn't wearing his ring either. "Bonnie is going to be a kickass Supreme but knowing that her coven is gone when she wakes up will hurt her more than all the pain her hex has caused."
"It's going to be hard on everyone." The devastation was starting to hit him as well.
It was Caroline's turn to walk out and it took a lot of force to leave the hospital but all that strength started dissipating as soon as Caroline reached her car, she was so broken that instead of getting inside she covered her face and started crying hard.
[XXXXXX]
The Passage was different for the Elder's choice, the pain wasn't as strict yet Bonnie was already in a fragile state so Pearl expected this one to last at least for the rest of the day, the other difference was that there wasn't a real change in the weather and she glanced outside the window to the apparent calm day.
Kol was planted outside of the room and he was only waiting for Pearl to leave so that he could return to Bonnie's side.
"Her transition will start soon." Pearl told him. "The Ancient line has accepted Matt's choice with excitement and Bonnie has such an obligation trait in her that she spiritually embodied her new duty even before I asked the question."
"She was a natural choice." Kol was completely convinced of that.
"Being one of the highest divinities in the south will help Bonnie control the flux but that door cannot be closed again as it was before. The spirits will be permanently in touch with her and it will take a great deal of fortitude to not let the bitter taste of death prevail."
"Luckily for her I'm an entertaining lad." He smiled at ease.
Pearl smiled as well, right before she started pacing away. "The way I see it, you're the lucky one."
Kol nodded on the way in to the room, Bonnie was still pronouncing these names lowly and he pulled the chair closer to the bed before taking her hand into his, the red eye was starting to fade from her skin so that was a relief.
"… Sophie Devereaux… Tessa Devereaux… Jane-Anne Devereaux…" Bonnie's voice slightly picked up a tone. "Davina Claire… Eva Young… Caroline Forbes." She stopped.
Kol frowned as the heart rate monitor showed a slowing down of Bonnie's heartbeat, her eyes were still closed but she wasn't mumbling names anymore. "Bonnie?" He softly asked.
Dangerously her heartbeat dropped to a minimal percentage just before it picked up rapidly, suddenly she was overwrought and her eyelids were moving like she was seeing something that was troubling her.
The hex mark was gone so Kol assumed that she was either having a vision or starting her transition, it was probably both and the softest cry parted from her lips.
With an eye on the monitor and another on her Kol swept her hand with his thumb. "We're almost there darling…" he just needed her to get through this.
Bonnie weakly closed her hand around his.
He smiled noticing that her heartbeat was reacting to his voice as well. "I'm still waiting on that infamous date of ours."
Bonnie's heart started stabilizing and slowly it reached a normal rate, at least one that soothed Kol and he brushed a kiss on her hand committed to turn things around for her, this would be the last time that Bonnie would be lying on a hospital bed in pain.
[XXXXXX]
The crest had been her drawing and it had been something that Caroline wore proudly every day, she was sitting on her sofa with her knees close to her chest and staring at the coven's ring, it was outrageous to imagine her life without being linked to these people anymore.
Caroline closed her hand around the ring, well, she could stay locked inside of her house and mope about it or she could use the shake to do what defined her, no one told her how to live her life and her coven might be dismembered but she was still a leader responsible for the safety of her family.
Quickly she headed to her bedroom where she changed into a simple tank-top and a worn-out hooded sweatshirt that she owned since her high school days, her next move was to fill her messenger bag with every fundamental item that she needed for a spell.
The last thing that she took with her was the coven's ring that she hid inside the pocket of her jeans and before she left the house Caroline burned a handful of grey sage that she used for a cloaking spell.
[XXXXXX]
"There's one of these in every corner." Rebekah arrived to Matt's house with a pamphlet that she handed Enzo.
He dropped the crossbow to check on the colorful paper, it advertised a fictitious party to celebrate a blue moon approaching. "When the witches catch sight of this they will all rush here to seek for an Elder guidance…" he waved the paper. "I'm impressed by the boy, he's crafty."
"And gorgeous." Rebekah glided her fingers through the arsenal on the table.
Enzo locked his eyes on the woman wearing a mermaid side braid. "Was that comment meant to have a cause and effect impact?"
She laughed while searching for his eyes. "We had a good start Enzo… I chased, you stoically left it vague enough to give me hope and then I saw how much you couldn't let go of what you had left from your wife. I don't exactly know if it was her memory or the guilt of not being able to save her that made you guarded but I have enough guarded men in my life already."
"Are you referring to your brothers?"
She smiled. "The sad part is that I know that we would be stellar together."
"I would never manage to coexist with your family."
"Stellar." She repeated playfully.
"These turned out really well." Matt came into the room freshly arrived to the house as well.
"Stellar." Rebekah changed entirely the connotation of the word and the smile behind it.
Matt missed the exchanged of stares between Rebekah and Enzo as he turned to see who else was arriving.
"Good morning strangers." Vicki smiled at all the people looking back at her.
Matt glanced at his watch. "Didn't you go to Mystic yesterday to pick up your belongings?"
She lifted the box in her hands. "I did."
"Why are you only returning home now?" Matt's voice dropped patronizingly.
"I'm going to have a bath and then I'm going to sleep all day." She went away happy.
Although she vanished from sight pretty quickly Matt kept on looking at the entry after her.
"She's not consuming drugs." Rebekah spoke up.
Matt looked back with a frown. "How can you tell?"
"Her pupils are normal, just like her breathing is and I'm keeping the rest of my findings to myself." She wasn't going to tell Matt about the male cologne that she picked up or the scarf that she recognized around Vicki's neck.
"Are we ready to start training the witches?" Matt turned to the matter at hands.
"Let them come." Enzo prepared his crossbow but the flawless memento was interrupted by his ringing phone.
Rebekah couldn't hear the contents of the call but she could tell how uneasy it was leaving Enzo.
"She couldn't have evaporated into thin air like that." He hissed at the other intervenient of the conversation, when the reply didn't appease him he ended the call riled up. "I have to go look for Caroline." He exchanged the crossbow in his hand for a small dagger. "My guards lost her again."
Since Matt wasn't racing out the door along with Enzo Rebekah decided to inquire. "Do you know why she's hiding at this point?"
"Katherine renounced the coven today." Matt answered somberly.
"Can she do that?" Rebekah kept her voice soft.
"She can theatrically throw her ring on the floor and strut away in her expensive shoes." Matt smiled.
There was nothing in that smile that didn't show his love for the newborn. "If I just turned my back on my family I would be incredibly upset and probably I could use a blue-eyed friend to comfort me."
Matt looked at her conflicted.
Rebekah nodded towards the door. "I'll hold the garrison for you."
"I owe you one." He thanked her with a big smile, it was a chance that he was grabbing with both hands and he rushed to the door.
[XXXXXX]
Caroline wasn't a small girl but even as tall as she was the marble vaults at the Metairie Cemetery made her feel tiny as she walked among them, luckily for her this wasn't a very visited spot in NOLA but still she was cautious and chose to route that would keep her hidden from the public eye.
Dusk was settling in which helped with the heat, without a tree to shield from the sun a bit of sunlight was enough to turn all the white marbled area into a scorching inferno so Caroline at least had that going in her favor, that and the fact that Matt hadn't moved the location of these really important ashes.
Caroline knelt in front of the imposing sculpture of the three graces, it was somewhat ironic that the monument with the three lady graces watching over the visitors was the place where she needed to burn what was left of Sophie's body.
Carefully Caroline opened the urn to drop the ashes in a circle, inside of it she had to place the hope diamond and the ring from her coven, the last thing that she took from her bag was a small silver dagger that she used to make a small cut on her finger.
She squeezed out a drop of her blood on top of the ring and a small fire started with the ashes after Caroline pronounced a few mystical words, it was a quick burn and once the fire was over the white of the diamond had passed on to the gem on the ring while the coven's symbol had transferred to the magical diamond rock.
"One ring to rule them all." Caroline couldn't help the silly joke as she grabbed the ring, however the easy remark was instantly iced because she sensed another presence of power.
Quickly Caroline guarded the diamond inside of her bag and placed the ring on her index before she turned away with the blade in her hand, whoever was in here with her wasn't showing a face but she had that clear knowledge that she wasn't alone.
At a first glance she was the only one in the cemetery but with every step that she took towards the exit that overwhelming feeling that she was being watched took over and if the roads ahead were all clear the possibility had to come from above, Caroline slid the blade into a back pocket and looked up.
The vaults had been built this high because New Orleans was a city constantly threatened by the floods and Caroline couldn't even catch a full glimpse at the top of them all so she didn't even try, soon enough they would come for her.
[XXXXXX]
Usually Matt would be happy to find Katherine's car parked in front of her house but it wasn't a smile that he had to offer when he encountered Elijah leaving her house with a motion that left him uncomfortable, Elijah was rolling down the sleeve of a white shirt and saying goodbye to Katherine with an easy smile.
The two men met at the porch without exchanging a word, Elijah bowed his head the tiniest while Matt delivered a muffled grunt on his way inside.
Between glares and grunts Katherine bid goodbye to Elijah prior to closing her door with a big smile for Matt. "You're going to make a scene out of this."
"I don't make scenes." He responded in a low voice and without looking at her.
She neared him amused by his sulking expression. "I've been drinking his blood and that's what he was doing here."
Matt wondered his eyes around fixated on avoiding a direct look at her. "Why are you drinking his blood?"
After a tiny sigh Katherine glued her finger to the bottom of his chin and invited him to look at her by pressing her finger there. "It helps me control the hunger."
"Couldn't I do that for you?" He asked with the same pouting tone.
With intent her finger drifted from his chin to the hollow of his throat and then down the first buttons of his shirt. "Even if I was suddenly allergic to all the blood in the world but yours… I would never turn you into a blood bag."
Now that they were breathing in unison and keeping their eyes on each other Matt brought his feelings to the same level. "I'm jealous of Elijah."
Her hand found a more soothing niche around his waist and behind his back. "Are you saying that as the passionate boy who kissed me, the friend who's in denial of his feelings or the indecisive cutie who can't choose if he loves me or hates me?"
He smiled at her. "One day you were this skinny little girl who looked tiny inside of my red jacket and the next you looked like that." He lowered his eyes to her pronounced cleavage.
Katherine chuckled. "I used to pretend to be cold so that I could borrow your red jacket." She moved her hand from his back to his arm. "And who are you to speak? When you went from being chubby to being buffed all of a sudden and overnight?"
It was Matt's turn to respond with a chuckle, lord only knows how hard he worked to gain those muscles and to be the football team's captain, two of the many things he did to impress her. "I've been in love with my best friend for years and I've dreamt of how it would be if we ever took a chance together but now that this is really happening I don't want to screw up and end up losing you altogether."
"I was turned into a vampire Matt so that alone changed everything that we both ever planned for our future…" she lowered her voice and her shields.
Matt tilted his head and softly caught her lips for a kiss, no matter what his brain was complicating the truth was that when he kissed Katherine everything felt right and he circled his arms around her as if he was her anchor.
And he was, because for Katherine there was only one man she could see on her new perspective of forever and that was the blue-eyed quarterback with a giant heart, one that was beating strongly for her.
[XXXXXX]
It was a murky day and the city park wasn't too frequented on those days, mostly because the abundance of trees made the park cold and unattractive for effusive tourists, that also reflected on the nights and Caroline was counting on that when she headed to the stone bridge.
She knew that she was being followed and that the number of spies had increased within the last hour but she was setting the meeting on her terms and she was most comfortable on a place that she knew blindly, she also smiled at the man waiting for her in the middle of the bridge.
However Marcel was too peeved to smile at her. "What's this story that you're being followed by Rippers?"
Caroline hid her hands inside of the pockets of her hoody. "I noticed them when I left my house." She had swing by the house to leave her bag and that's when she called Marcel with the update of her life, one that he was still processing with disbelief.
"And they're following you because one of Raven's lovers was attacked by a wolf…" he snarled like a humming growl. "I need to go over this again, why were you alone with Stefan in the first place?"
"I wanted to negotiate Bonnie's cure."
"He could've killed you even before you had the chance to speak to Raven." Marcel crisply responded with a high pitch.
"She's not here to kill me." Caroline replied calmly.
Marcel threw his hands in the air with a confounded shake of his head.
Caroline crumbled her lips with a pouting look at him.
"These aren't vampires under my leadership that I can kill whenever they tick me off…" Marcel insisted on his admonish.
"I know that." Caroline neared him with a huff. "But you didn't raise me to be a coward."
"I… was wrong." He vacillated on his stern approach.
That made Caroline smile and she sweetly eyed him before carrying on. "I grew up around a leader, does everyone expect me to just ignore my education all of a sudden and pretend that I don't know how to put a plan in action?"
"I certainly trust your good judgement." The answer came with Raven who arrived to the park with her company.
Caroline turned around to face Raven, she could also see Damon but not the rest of the Rippers, it was safe to guess then that Raven wanted to try a less intimidatory approach. "What do you want?"
Raven tilted her head, the long black silky hair flew with the motion and in the glow of the night her ear wrap earrings were sparkling the most. "Stefan arrived home a little tarnished."
"I hope that he coughs out his internal organs soon." Caroline responded coldly.
"This isn't a negotiation Tsura, I'm not going to lift Bonnie's hex in exchange for Stefan's life." Raven quickly set the mood.
"You need Klaus' blood to save Stefan." Caroline countered happy that at least one of them was kicking the bucket soon.
"And Klaus is out of our lives." Marcel voiced out after making sure that he was keeping a safe distance between them to protect Caroline in case that was required.
Raven reacted with a smile that she directed at Marcel. "Since you've spoken up… dad, we haven't had a chance to properly know each other."
"My name is Marcellus Gerard, you're in my town and I don't care who you are. I have only one daughter and if she's not happy, heads are rolling." He widely smiled back at Raven.
"It must be comforting to have that kind of support from a parent." Raven looked at Caroline. "I would be unhappy the entire time just to see as many beheaded people as I could."
"I was fortunate." Caroline agreed. "But I didn't choose it that way and if attacking my family is a way to punish me for what I have then you should know right away that I won't break."
Raven started laughing, at first it was a soft outlet but then it increased into a bigger laughter. "I don't have a sorrow for my upbringing, I value all that I've learned and felt on my skin."
Still Caroline felt the shadow of a painful sting in Raven's voice and that pushed her to go on. "And you came all the way to Louisiana to tell me about it."
Toying with her Raven narrowed her eyes. "You're itching to know why I'm here…"
"Right now?" Caroline cutely poked her chin with her finger. "To know if Klaus left any of his blood behind." She pulled her shoulders together. "Which he didn't."
There was an easy smile full of complicity between Raven and Damon that left Caroline suddenly preoccupied and her worried eyes drifted instantly to another direction.
Stefan was walking towards them without a visible mark of a venom that should be killing him for good.
He looked healthy and deadly and Marcel was attentive to Caroline's body expression so he immediately shortened the space between them.
"You look a bit stunned Caroline." Raven played with the look on Caroline's face.
"Shut up." She grumbled.
"It was fun meeting your wolf-friend but he didn't leave that much of an impression." Stefan teased carefree.
"So you're immune to wolf venom." Caroline shrugged. "Big deal."
"Adorable." Damon snorted.
Raven glanced at him, he wasn't a fan of cute displays, just the opposite. "I've seen these…. cluttering the city today." She removed a pamphlet from inside the pocket of her short leather jacket.
"There's a party coming and everyone needs to wear their best pearls." Damon started pacing from one side to the other whilst remaining behind Raven.
Stefan stepped up to stay by her side and Marcel also had a step to the front, everyone was assuming a battling position but still Caroline was convinced that Raven was choosing another alternative.
"Usually dysfunctional covens don't do well with a harvest." Raven showed Caroline the pamphlet with the blue moon.
"You should worry about your own coven." Caroline quickly shot back.
Raven found the comment amusing. "I don't have a coven."
"What would you call the freaks that you lead?" Caroline asked her with a clear disdain in her voice.
"My special boys." Raven hummed proudly.
"How special was Kaleb?" Caroline insisted on her disdain.
"His power was special." Raven's eyes sparkled in a strange shade of celestial blue.
The realization hit Caroline strongly like a stab to the gut.
Damon took Raven's side and she lusciously touched the shoulder of each brother siding her. "Boys…"
Caroline paced back to clear the path for Marcel, before she could blink he jumped over the bridge and was engaged in a violent fight with the brothers, they were involved in a striking exchange of kicks and punches and Marcel was holding his own with the other two vampires so she moved her attention to Raven.
Raven was meeting up with her on the bridge and making a paper plane out of the pamphlet, she blew on the paper and magically transformed it into a piece of steel that she firmly clasped in her hand. "Is the itching starting to fade already?"
"You're a reflector." Caroline held her place stoically. "You usurp power from others and use it as your own."
"I was ecstatic to learn that I could do that and that I was one of the few people in the world with that ability."
"You shouldn't use that gift to harm others."
Raven gave Caroline a look that she actually knew well, it was one of those seriously expressions that she regularly did, apparently it was one of the things that they shared but Caroline really hoped it would stop with the face and the expression.
Marcel shouted in pain, while Damon held him on the ground Stefan pushed his foot down over his stretched arm and broke it.
"Daddy is in pain." Raven taunted Caroline.
"Well, it takes more than a broken arm to stop him." Caroline smiled because Marcel was already pulling Stefan's foot to throw him down on the ground so that he could slam his forehead against Stefan's face.
Blood gushed out everywhere and when Marcel moved on to Damon Caroline had nothing but pride oozing from her.
"The boys are having all the fun and I'm getting jealous of it." Raven waved the weapon in her hand.
Caroline buckled her knees a bit, if Raven pounced at her she would be ready for it. "I'm a little confused by you Raven, you found out that you had a sister and your first instinct was to move to the Big Easy with your crows and nag the hell out of her?"
"Mommy kept you but she gave me away because I was a hassle, so all my life I've been nothing a hassle to others." Raven hurled the weapon to the air making it disappear from Caroline's line of sight.
Frantically she tried to keep up but there was nothing on Raven's hands when she threw herself at Caroline, the stone of the bridge was hard on Caroline's back but she used her legs to propel the other over her head before Raven had a decent chance to attack her.
With a flip Raven landed on her knees and smiled at Caroline. "Let's see what you're made of, sister." She straightened up and started running towards Caroline.
Raven had a good right fist but Caroline knew how to defend herself and she was good at avoiding the kicks as well but if she focused too much on shielding from the hits she would never get a clean hook so she endured the first blow as Raven's kick landed on the back of her right leg, that gave her the chance to throw her elbow up and take Raven's face along with it.
Raven winced back taken by the stun but Caroline really hurt her when she pushed her foot strongly against Raven's knee, that made the other forcefully drop to her knees and Caroline was happy to end it with a knee that she would happily land on the features that resembled hers.
Raven reacted just as she saw the knee coming her way, she scooped to the side to avoid the hit and instead punched Caroline hard on the ribcage with a knowing harming angle.
It was a sore spot as it was the same one that Mikael broke, at the time she healed by having Klaus' blood but this hit was excruciating and Caroline moaned grabbing her side at once.
Raven laughed on Caroline's face. "One of the first things that Damon taught me was how to break a rib without shedding a drop of sweat."
Tucking her wounded side Caroline breathed in for force. "I think that you expect me to be impressed."
"Maybe just curious about what bubbles outside of this pond."
"You know Raven… I'm starting to have the deepest appreciation for the life that I had."
"Ummm…" Raven mused as the weapon of steel suddenly reappeared on her hand. "They say that you can't put a price on a slice of heaven but I think otherwise." She turned the steel back into paper and rolled out a spell written in Latin.
"What's that?" Caroline asked as Raven left the paper on the grass in front of her.
"My thirty pieces of coin to return back to my inferno and leave your heaven… scarcely functioning." Raven smiled at Stefan and Damon as they reached her, they were bruised and bleeding but they left Marcel in a brutal state.
Caroline reached for the spell as the trio started to walk away, she had no clue of what kind of spell she was looking at, the only thing that she could tell was that it was incomplete and that she was supposed to finish it.
From the other side of the stone bridge Marcel was trying to move away from a pool of his own blood and he looked at Caroline with difficulty, one of his eyes was swollen and he couldn't open it. "We're in trouble."
"Yeah… I think so too." Caroline helped him to stand up.
[XXXXXX]
The monitor was returning to normal and Bonnie's heartbeat was finding a stability that appeased Kol endlessly, he was keeping an eye on her vital signs so he missed the exact moment when she opened her eyes.
At first it was a weak try but she smiled seeing that he hadn't left her side, their hands were locked together so she squeezed his hard to let him know that she was coming back with strength.
Kol looked at her moved by her action and right then broke into a big smile. "Hey… you're awake…" he spoke lowly, like he was lulling his feelings about the fact that she was conscious and apparently pain-free.
"Dancing…" Bonnie whispered.
He frowned bringing his face closer to hers. "What's that darling?"
"Our infamous date… there should be some dancing in it." She told him with a smile.
Softly he had a small laughter. "Anything other than that would be subpar."
She responded by moving her head to search for his lips.
Kol closed his eyes as he kissed her on the lips and he smiled knowing that the tiny alternation on her smooth heartbeat was caused by his proximity and not by what had consumed her for hours.
[XXXXXX]
Caroline knew that Marcel would heal in a few hours so she left his house with the promise to come back soon and with the lie that she needed a bag with clothes and that she would be back to spend the night at his house.
She opened the back door of her car extending the lie further, not only wasn't she returning tonight to Marcel's house she was also committed on finishing what she started earlier today.
She grabbed her bag from the back seat and headed to the heart of the Bayou, it was a relative long walk to the place where she initially intended to create a prison for the Rippers but Caroline's determination made the journey short.
At the time the spell she forced Bonnie to do with her hadn't fully worked because whoever was caught in the mystical circle was still able to meander around the big swamp but tonight Caroline was going to claim her turf before Raven, she was not going to be bullied into whatever Raven wanted her to do and she was going to fight with what she had.
On the marked place Caroline removed a smoke grenade that she ignited to release an intense red smoke, according to Enzo green light kept the Rippers away but by contradiction red called them in and she patiently waited for them to take upon her invitation.
It only took a few minutes for the first ones to appear but Caroline wanted them to gather up before she moved a muscle, they were more excited about the summoning than suspicious and obviously they counted on nailing the biggest prize yet but Caroline had the last saying.
Once the first one out of the lot started running everyone followed and Caroline was surrounded by a viscous group of men in no time, she tried to keep an eye on everyone but with such a large number she had to wait for the first move.
There was a touch on her back that she couldn't identify, a brush on her shoulder that she only felt after it was gone, a sleazy blow against her curls that repeated once they started to really close in on her, it had to be more than ten of them crawling up around her but she needed to have them as closely as possible.
And only when she couldn't breathe without sharing her personal space with everyone else she acted on it, Caroline closed her eyes and pronounced softly the words of a spell that she adjusted for this occasion, there was a scorching heat propelling from her and instantly every man around her was combusting into flames.
The screams and the heat surrounding her was out of the charts but instead of circling her in, the fire expanded away from her and when she stretched out her arms everything around her turned into ashes.
Caroline opened her eyes without an ounce of fatigue, not even her breath had changed and all around her there were tiny sprinkles of ashes flying in the air, in awe she looked down on her finger noticing how her new ring was incandescent.
[XXXXX]
"The healer made her first move." Stefan told Damon as he came into the big family room.
Damon was enjoying an expensive drink and walked over to the coffee table where he and Raven had an ongoing chess game, he knocked out a tower with a smile. "Your turn, death dealer."
[XXXXXX]
Elijah woke with a soft caress of his cheek and he was confused about that, he opened his eyes somewhat dazed but he was more than fully awake when he found Katherine straddling him on his bed. "Katherine…" he pushed his palms down on the mattress agitated.
She was wearing a sexy nightgown and all of her gorgeous hair was gathered on one side of her head, she smiled with great seduction before leaning over to kiss him.
Elijah stoped her advances by gently placing his hands on her shoulders. "What are you doing here?"
"You've been such a good friend and I wanted to thank you…" she tried to kiss him again.
"That's not what friendship implies Katherine."
He had been sleeping with his shirt open and she started to caress his naked chest. "I know that when I'm feeding from you this is what you're thinking about."
"That's far from the truth." He insisted.
She moved the tiniest on his lap but the motion rubbed him right where she caught his lie. "You want me Elijah and I want to be yours."
"You should leave Katherine." He did his best to keep a stern posture.
She smiled pushing herself closer to him, this time he faltered and she started to warm his chest with her body, Katherine kissed him on the cheek while she stroked his neck. "You don't want me to leave." She whispered on the way to his lips.
Barely had she touched them when Elijah rolled them over.
Under him Katherine started to pave all of his chest with her hands. "But if we're going to be together you need to get rid of Matt."
He lessened his eyes troubled.
Katherine pulled him closer for a kiss. "Kill Matt and I will be yours."
[XXXXX]
Buried in an induced dream Elijah fell victim to a spell that Raven planted on his brain, she was the one straddling him and moving her hand in a pattern across his bare chest. "Kill Matt." She repeated the incantation while the veins on his chest turned red against the skin that she was caressing.
[XXXXXX]
The aftermath from the marathon of long days would eventually sneak up on her but right now the only physical downside was the growing pain on her ribcage, she definitely had a broken rib and it hurt with every step that she took towards Bonnie's room but there wasn't enough pain in the world that could overshadow the relief that hit Caroline when she opened that door.
Bonnie was sleeping on her side curled up and hidden under the caring hold of Kol who outlined her back with his body, he had his arm around her and his fingers entwined with hers.
"She looks peaceful." Caroline also felt the new energy coming from Bonnie, it was similar to Matt's.
"You look burned out." Kol said in a low voice.
Caroline complied. "There was a cat fight and I walked out limping."
"I have the conviction that they were unjust to you this morning." Kol told her. "I don't know of many coven leaders who have arranged for brass conclaves with Raven."
Caroline smiled. "Are you trying to win over your future sister-in-law?"
"If Nik is smart he will make this a full circle."
Her smile faded of easiness. "We're not even speaking to each other at the moment."
"I just implied that he wasn't too bright."
"I need a cup of steamy black coffee." Caroline turned away with a playful scowl at him.
"Bonnie will be happy to see you when she wakes up."
"I'm taking the comfy chair." She warned him about the sleeping arrangements.
Caroline heard him chuckle as she closed the door behind her and she took that good vibe with her all the way to the coffee machine, it wasn't the best coffee in town but it would do for now, it warmed her heart almost as much as seeing Tyler.
"Hey…" he kissed her cheek once he was near her. "How's Bonnie?"
"She's out of the woods." Caroline added a meaningful sigh at the end of her reply.
"And how are you doing?" Tyler lifted his eyebrows worried.
"Getting comfortable in the woods?" She sipped on her coffee somewhat resigned.
Tyler found her facial expression odd. "By the way, have you seen Oliver since this morning? I sort of lost track of him."
"Why were you tracking him?" Caroline used the cup to warm her hands.
He pressed his lips and started fondling with his phone. "I was just asking…"
Caroline covered the screen of his phone with her hand. "Ty…"
He looked up incriminatingly. "I didn't like the way that he was talking to you this morning."
"I need to swoon about his for a minute." She sipped on her coffee again.
"Klaus arrived to Beaumont last night…"
The mention made her heart skip a beat but at least now she knew where he was. "Is he going to stay there with your pack?"
"I think that that's the plan."
Caroline nodded slowly, a million questions ran through her mind, like if he was alone or if he had made any questions about her but she sealed her lips and tricked her mind. "Well, I don't care about his plans." She walked over to the garbage can and tossed her cup there.
Tyler was going to leave things at that and he stayed by the coffee machine while Caroline neared a window for a look outside to a dark night.
Her phone started ringing and the fact that it was that unknown caller again really triggered her bad mood. "Hello?"
Like the other time there was nothing but a disturbing silence.
And so Caroline snapped. "You know what Klaus? You were the one who decided to leave. You were the one who left me with a dramatic kiss and changed your number like you didn't want to be reminded that I was ever part of your life, so why are you calling me now from a confidential number and lurking around the forest as a wolf?"
The silence broke after a couple of seconds. "You would prefer if I had cut all the strings?"
That lilt voice caused more impact than the unbearable pain of a broken vertebrae. "God Klaus! I rather have you here with me when my coven is falling apart while we're all being beaten up and hexed!" She hissed irritated.
"The doctor told me that Bonnie is going to be all right." Klaus said neutrally.
"Ugh!" She groaned. "In what dimension do you think that it's ok to walk out of my life but still keep dibs on it? You didn't want to wait and see how things would turn out between us and if you think that making mysterious calls to listen to my voice is going to keep you in the race, you're wrong. I'm not going to put up with this so the next time that you call, you better know exactly what you want because I'm not going to take you back now that you had time to think and realized that hey, maybe I do love her and it was stupid of me to be so stubborn and leave her the way that I did!" She ended the call panting.
Because she was emotional to actually have spoken to him and because she was in real pain now, her ribs were burning, she could feel that tear ripping through the rest of her body and suddenly she couldn't breathe straight.
"Care?" Tyler frowned a few feet away from her, she was paler than usual and it couldn't be the simple result of a heated altercation with Klaus.
Her phone started ringing again but her sight was too blurry to see that it was Klaus, she dropped the phone dizzy and before she could call Tyler for help she felt her body limp and then a darkness taking over her consciousness.
"Caroline?" He whooshed over to her but she wasn't responsive. "Someone help me!" He yelled cradling her body as he picked her up in his arms. "I need help, she's not breathing."
[XXXXX]
Soundtrack:
Rise up – Andra Day
Unsteady – X Ambassadors
Hollow – Tori Kelly
Another day – Marc Broussard feat. Genevieve
Million reasons – Lady Gaga