For Azalea, the coming weeks were complete and utter torture as she was forced to follow Niklaus around without being able to talk to him, feel him kiss her goodnight, have sex together... just even say I Love You and get one in return.
More than torture.
Azalea watched Niklaus as he walked out the hotel he was in- South Dakota. He was on the hunt of a powerful witch to help him contact Esther. He had to know the truth of the matter of if it was her and Mikael who killed Azalea.
And to bring her back.
"Nik, tuck the back of your shirt in you scruffy bastard." Azalea smirked now, following him down the street, looking to the shirt that was hanging loose- something she'd never allow.
"Typical, I die and you start looking like a tramp!" Azalea laughed, then followed him into a shop, walking to the counter and just asked for a woman.
Azalea looked at the dark skinned woman and guessed she was a witch. Weren't there any white witches? Jeez, only Esther by the looks of it.
But now the witch made eye contact with Azalea, and she paused as she said, still staring at her, but voice meant for Klaus.
"You have a ghost on your shoulder."
Klaus blinked, then looked around, seeing nothing, then looked back to the witch and said suspiciously. "What did you just say?"
The witch got to her feet, then just said. "The spirits talk. And in the last month, more than ever."
The hybrid was silent, then said, pulling out the necklace, setting it down on the table. "I want you to contact the witch this belongs to."
A chuckle escaped the witch, and Klaus snarled, making her fall silent, then snap. "Don't threaten me, hybrid. You can't compel me."
Klaus growled under his breath, then folded his arms. "I wasn't."
"Hmmhmm." She mused, then picked up the necklace, staring at it for a moment, then looked to Azalea and chuckled. "I don't know what you see in him dear."
Klaus looked around once more, then asked the witch. "Is she here?"
"Of course she is. She has nowhere else to go." The witch told him, and Klaus frowned, understanding as he stared at the locket in her hand. "Esther."
The witch smirked, then nodded. "Very good Niklaus."
Klaus growled once more, then snapped. "Why did you do it?"
"Punishment." The age old witch told him in a crisp voice, and he scoffed. "Kill her to punish me? And I thought I was twisted."
Esther sighed, then looked to Azalea as she hissed. "Bitch."
"You can call me bitch all you want, Azalea. But you have become just as bad as him."
"What-!"
"Now 'Mother,' that's where you're wrong." Klaus growled, then grabbed the witch by her throat and slammed her onto the table, making her chuckle. "Kill this body and it wouldn't even tickle me."
"It's the thought that counts." Klaus smirked, then cocked his head. "I know there's a spell that can bring someone back. And you know it."
"You think I would just give it to you? You complete and utter fool Niklaus!"
"I'm immortal, my dear mother. Give me this spell, or I will start tearing cities apart. I wonder how fast my hybrids can tear apart Mystic Falls hmm?"
Azalea watched with mixed emotions as he pinned her to the table, eyes flashing golden yellow in rage, fangs trying to shoot out, but they were held back.
He really, truly missed her...
Esther chuckled, then just told him. "Even if I did, you wouldn't be able to bring her back."
"Oh yeah? Try me."
Esther looked at the determination in his eyes and frowned- this shouldn't have been happening. He was... he wasn't giving up. He wasn't going out of his mind like they'd imagined.
He wouldn't give up. This wasn't a punishment to him.
"Fine." She smirked, then just said. "Ok, I'll give it to you."
Klaus let her go after a second, and she wrote down a few things on a sheaf of paper, then he didn't notice the witch crashing to the floor as the much older and stronger with left her.
He picked it up now and read it, Azalea the same over his shoulder and groaned quietly.
"Blood of a family member?" She sighed, stepping away and shook her head, tears in her eyes- this was impossible.
The witch came around now, and Klaus who was of the same mind picked her up by the front of her shirt and hissed. "Right. You are going to do everything I say."
A silence, then the witch was compelled and he let her drop back to the floor, looking around the room with a pain in his eyes. "Lea? You here?"
Azalea knew it wasn't any use to reply, feeling a tear roll down her cheek.
Klaus didn't say anything else as no answer came, letting out a deep sigh, closing his eyes for a moment, then looked back to the witch, asking.
"I need you to find someone."
"Who exactly?"
"Well, one of my great god knows what grandchildren. I need someone with Azaleas blood, even just one cell."
The witch sighed, then just said. "Is there something of hers that I can make the link with? Personal items are best."
Klaus glanced down to his chest, then reached up and pulled the necklace with her ring on over his head and handed it out for her to take, going. "This is hers."
The witch nodded, then turned around, grabbing a bowl from the shelf and a few herbs, returning back to the table and set it down, reciting an incantation over it, then dropped the ring in, making it catch fire along with the herbs. She pulled out a knife now and looked to Klaus, holding out her hand.
"I need your own blood if this is your family too."
He held out his hand in an instant and the witch took it, muttering words once more as she ran it across his palm, turning it around so the scarlet dripped into the bowl, and it sparked, the witch putting her hands in it, closing her eyes.
Klaus watched his hand heal, then the flames vanished, and the woman opened her eyes and just said.
"I found them."
He was silent, then she scribbled a few lines down on a sheaf of paper and Klaus took it, reading a few names.
The surviving members of his and Azaleas family.
Klaus nodded, then looked to one that said she lived in Seattle. It was closest, and he looked to the witch, telling her to accompany him to perform whatever he needed.
Azalea watched his eyes scan the room once more, then he just said under his breath.
"I'm not giving up Lea. Never."
He left now and Azalea sighed, looking to the witch, but then saw a figure in the window, watching in. She frowned, but then he was gone.
The frown deepened, then she vanished to outside, looking around, but found no one there.
"Lea."
She spun round, but found nothing, making he snarl. "If this is you Mikael, I'm going to rip your ghostie balls off and-!"
But she stopped dead as she faced someone else. The very, very last person she would have expected to see again.
"Henrick?" Azalea blinked in shock, staring at the boy, then smiled, forward in a flash and hugged him tightly for a few minuets, chuckling into his hair. "Oh my little love. I can't believe this."
Henrick chuckled, then just said. "You're choking me Lea."
"Oops, sorry."
She smiled, wiping the tears away and just laughed weakly. "It's been too long. I think... wow, a thousand years."
Henrick looked sad, then sighed. "It has."
Azalea was silent, then guessed. "You've been watching?"
"Mmhmm, yeah. I don't approve of my parents... what they've done."
She sighed too, then looked to Klaus who was gone, then shook her head. "We have one messed up family, don't we love?"
"We do." He said sadly, then Azalea let him hug her, face buried in her stomach with his eyes closed. She raised a hand and ran it through his darker than ever hair, then hugged him closer, closing her own eyes.
Family...
What an insane one they had.
-AtY-
Azalea traveled with her little brother after Klaus who was now in Seattle, looking for his and her own family. However distant, they were still blood relatives.
"So what do you spend your time doing?" Azalea asked Henrick, who chuckled. "Oh, the other side is a whole other world. I have friends and I stay with Mother. But watching the world change is fascinating. I watched you become a mother, you and Nik fall in love... it was worth it."
"But you died Rick. You... got tore apart."
"Yes, but I don't regret it. This or becoming an Original... I'd choose this everytime."
Azalea frowned at his words, then just said in shock. "What-?"
"I'm happy being on the other side, Lea. I have my mother, and now my father. One day in the future, you know that we'll all be reunited."
She was silent, but knew her brother was telling the truth-
Even the eternals died eventually.
They stopped before the house where Azaleas grandchild of sorts lived, and she sighed as she saw a childs scooter in the front driveway, realizing that whoever this woman was, she had a child of her own.
God help Klaus if he killed their own descendant to just bring her back.
He knocked on the door now, witch behind him.
A woman opened the door, and Azalea felt her eyes widen- those eyes looked so much like her own.
"Hello?" She smiled, hair pale blonde. Klaus was taken aback by Azaleas eyes, then asked. "Tamsin Willows?"
"Yep, who wants to know?" She asked, and Klaus just compelled her to stay silent and obey, not to panic. He sighed, then she invited him inside and he walked inside, going over to her daughter and picked her up into her arms. Klaus watched, then just asked. "How old is she?"
"Hm? Diana? Oh, she's two."
Klaus was silent, then looked to the elder woman, thinking- this was family. Real, true blooded family.
He asked her to put her to bed, and she did so, coming back down where Klaus realized that she was a werewolf. But her curse hadn't been triggered.
And he wasn't going to be the one to do that.
He took her wrist now and bit swiftly into it, letting the blood drip into a cup, then he bit his finger, rubbing the blood into her bites to make them heal up, then Tamsin blinked, wondering how she'd gotten into the kitchen when she swore she'd heard the front door go.
-AyY-
It was a month now that Azalea had been dead, and at last Niklaus had the things needed to attempt this spell to try and bring her back.
The ritual was about to be performed and Niklaus felt more than sick about the fact he'd had to dig Azaleas charred body for the spell.
He couldn't look at her body that was looking more than a little worse for wear. Then again, she had been in the ground for a month. He was surprised that she hadn't decomposed much, much more, and wondered if it was the vampire blood in her body. Her eyelids were a tad burned, and he just wanted them to open so that he could see her emerald eyes. The eyes he wasn't ashamed to say he loved so very much.
Maybe he had become so evil that he'd become blinded... but he loved her.
The ritual was in full flow now, and Klaus watched the witch walk over to the charred body and dripped the blood and herb mix onto the burned lips, muttering the rest of the spell and just said.
"A few minuets, then feed her your blood. She'll need alot to heal from this degree of burns and well, her body has been dead for a month."
Azalea watched the whole process, raising a hand to her lips, tasting the her and blood mix on them, and coughed, finding it vile.
Suddenly, the hunger hit her like a blow to the face, and she stumbled, gasping quietly, grabbing her throat.
"Bye Lea."
Azalea fell to her knees, then looked up to see Henrick stood before her, and she realized this was it- Esther and Mikael had failed in their plan.
Just because they couldn't believe that their son could truly love.
She smiled at her little brother, then felt her crash onto her back, closing her eyes as the searing fire shot through her.
Klaus looked to the body of his lover, then swore he saw a twitch in her fingers and frowned, dropping to his knees next to her as she moved another tiny fraction.
"Give her the blood, now." The witch demanded and Klaus ripped into his wrist, forcing her mouth open and the blood to gush into her mouth.
There was a moments of silence, then he felt her lips move a little, a reflex swallow and he could tell she was healing up a tiny fraction. But she was so weak she couldn't even draw fang and bite into him, so he just said quietly.
"Come on my love. Bite... come on."
She moaned very slightly, then Klaus hissed as he finally felt her fangs come out and into his wrist, taking more blood than she should have done, and he growled in pain as she raised a hand, grabbing the one at her mouth, holding it so tight that he fingernails dug into them, breaking the skin as she ripped into the two toned blood.
Klaus felt a fire start to burn through him now as she drained him, Azalea finally opened her eyes, and he saw them a mixture of golden yellow and the color of old blood. They looked demonic, and she snarled, biting into his wrist harder, not noticing that the man was falling unconscious from the amount of blood he'd lost, then he collapsed onto his front, the girl finally letting him go as she sobbed, the agonizing burns over her body starting to heal up at last.
Both physical and emotional pain crashed down on her, and she felt like screaming in total and utter agonizing pain.
She turned her her a little now, staring at the man next to her, raising a hand and found that she could touch him.
Azalea closed her eyes now, then nodded off.
-AtY-
When Azalea woke up once more, she groaned quietly, but then it all came flooding back-
Esther, Mikael, Dying, Henrick, Ghosts, Niklaus, Blood, Ritual, Spells, Alone, Punishment, Revenge...
She sat up with a gasp, body shaking as she looked around, finding herself in what looked like a hotel bedroom. Azalea coughed, tasting blood, but then she just sat on the side of the bed, looking around once more, shivering a little as the blood in her newly patched up veins rushed through.
There were footsteps now, and she looked up to see the only man she wanted to clap eyes upon, getting to her feet and dashing over, jumping up and wrapping her legs tight around his waist, arms fixed around his neck as she kissed him for a good few minuets, tears in her eyes, feeling him wind a hand in her hair and pull her closer.
"My god..." She muttered against his lips, but Klaus just hugged her tightly, knowing now that a vampires greatest weakness wasn't love.
It was a strength.
Klaus held her for a few minuets more, then just smiled. "Hello there, my zombie."
"Bad comeback." Azalea laughed, setting her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes, completely content.
Klaus sighed, then closed his own against her head, thinking-
Now that he had his Azalea back, revenge was back on his mind, burning away like an underground volcano...
Mystic Falls and Stefan were in for hell when it finally erupted.
And... that is the end of the first part of A Thousand Years!:) It'll return in January when the hiatus finishes:) but for now, the new story/teenage years of the Originals and Azalea is up:) Called A Thousand Suns and it'll start from when Klaus and Lea are seventeen, human and before all the kid and vampire palava:) Rebekah gets a boyfriend, and oh-? Elijah finally sleeps with a woman? Goodness! Anyway, plenty of humor and romance in it, so I hope you'll read the mini story until we return in January^_^ ciao for now! x Nic