A lil short too, but the next one will be longer. I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 29
The sun shown brightly as K walked through the Quarter. The warmth of it was welcomed though she wasn't sure why it seemed so much better that day than any other. Whatever the reason, she enjoyed it.
The bags in her hands were filled with the supplies she needed to witch/wolf/vampire proof her house. With all manner of nasty beasties making their way through the city and all well aware of her connection to the prominent Original family, K knew she had to safeguard herself. And while the simple trick would do little in the way of keeping a witch as seasoned as Esther out, it would force her to pause which could give K the precious seconds she'd need to escape. Running wasn't exactly a dignified way to handle the problem, but she was more susceptible to things like death than the others. She might try and frontal assault against the witch, but she didn't put it passed Esther to sneak into her home while she was sleeping and being on the defense was no way to fight.
K was ready to step inside the last voodoo shop on her list to find the Devil's Shoestrings she needed when she was spotted. She didn't know it, but the one in the crowd very much wanted to speak to the vampire and quickly followed her into the shop.
Most of the voodoo shops in the Quarter had been taken over by the few witches who remained. A lot of them were family run, but when Marcel had taken over management changed. Now that he was gone and everything but vampires were welcomed back, the witches came again. To K's relief, the one behind the counter was a simple human. The three previous shops she'd gone to were run by people more than aware of what she was and if she hadn't made substantial purchases, she was fairly certain the witches would have attacked.
As it was, she was comfortable in the little hole-in-the-wall store and knew what she needed. The bell above the door chimed behind her, but K didn't notice or care. She was busy sifting through the rows of herbs and curios on the far wall. The blond who'd followed her in found the vampire quickly and approached, but hesitated to say anything.
"Kalli," she finally said a few minutes after emerging. K turned when her name was spoken and was surprised to see Cami being the one to say it. "Hey."
"Hi." K responded. She couldn't hide her surprise or the awkwardness she felt when she realized Cami had bypassed everything in the store in order to speak with her. "Uh… is there something you need?"
Cami wasn't offended by the question or that K turned back to the wall after she spoke it. The sentence was void most of the animosity and anger K harbored when she spoke to the human, so Cami knew she wasn't trying to start a fight.
"I was just wondering how you were doing." She said in the same uncomfortable tone. "After the warehouse."
Cami had spotted K in the Quarter when she came out of her session with Victor… Finn… whatever the hell that man's name was, and she wanted to talk to her. After hearing Klaus vent about how empty and cold K was and seeing her react so violently when she thought Klaus was dead, Cami was curious about K. She wanted to see if she'd been right and somehow K's emotions were intact.
"Fine." K replied.
Her eyes continued to dart around the herbs until finding the one she wanted. Setting down her bags, K reached for one of the small paper bags kept near the herbs and opened it. With her free hand, she removed the lid of the glass jar and took out a bundle of the herbs.
"Devil's Shoestrings?" Cami read on the label as K replaced the jar's lid.
"For protection." K explained. When she turned she was somehow still surprised Cami was behind her. "Was there something else?"
Again she wasn't rude, but Cami found it difficult to continue a conversation with a woman she didn't know at all. K stepped around her and moved towards the register with her things.
"Is that for Klaus or something?" she asked. Cami felt like she had to pad the conversation with useless small-talk in order to make it less awkward. It didn't work.
"No," K replied. She could feel the discomfort as clearly as Cami. "It's for me."
The cashier placed the herb on the small scale which made no sense. Devil's Shoestring was sold by the bundle, a fact she seemed to realize when K pointed out there were two bundles in the bag. The cashier quickly began to type up the cost.
"Why?" Cami pressed.
K bit the inside of her cheek. She didn't want to be rude to the blond, but Cami was making it difficult.
"Because," she said after trying to remove the annoyed tone from her voice. "People like me," she said in lieu of vampire. "Anyone can just walk into our houses. The same rules don't apply for us like they do people like you."
Cami nodded her mild understanding. She knew vampires had to be invited in to a living being's home. It made sense the same rule didn't apply to them since a vampire wasn't technically alive.
When K paid for her purchase, she stepped around Cami and headed for the front door with the blond still in toe. Cami wasn't sure why she was still bothering K. She chalked it up to scientific curiosity.
"So," Cami began as they emerged on the streets. "This doesn't have to do with his brother being back?"
K immediately stopped. Cami noticed every single muscle in her body go rigid. With the same stilted form, K turned a stern, unreadable eye to the blond.
"What?" she asked so tightly it sounded like it hurt.
"Klaus's brother…" Cami said. "Marcel said Esther brought one of his brothers back, maybe the other one too, I don't know."
K took fast steps forward. Her heel slammed into the concrete so hard Cami felt it vibrate through her feet until she closed the distance between them.
"Which brother?" K pressed. Her voice crackled deep in her throat like the evil inside was trying to come out.
"Finn…" Cami stammered. K's face went pale. "His brother Finn."
Before Cami could blink K was gone. She'd woven through the crowd and disappeared without touching a single shoulder which Cami honestly thought was a bit impressive, but it didn't hold her attention for long. Cami saw fear in K's eyes and the only reason she knew it was fear was because she'd seen the same thing when K found Klaus staked.
Her brows came together as she replayed K's reaction in her mind. K was afraid of Finn… but she ran after Mikael –the would-be killer of them all- without a second thought? Was there something Cami needed to know about the Mikaelson she'd chosen to cozy up to?
~!~
"Klaus!" K's voice echoed through every hall as she slid to a stop in the center of the compound's courtyard. "Niklaus! Where are you?!"
"Calm yourself," she heard him say. His voice touched her ears before he emerged on the third floor above her. "What the hell are you doing rushing in here, bellowing like that, this early in the morning?"
"Is it true?" the panic she felt touched every syllable. Klaus slowly began to descend the stairs to meet her. "Is it?!"
"Is what true? What are you talking about?"
"Finn!" she snapped. Klaus –who'd made it to the final step on the long staircase- paused immediately. "Is he back?"
Klaus chewed on the inside of his cheek. He regained his bearings and continued his advance until reaching her.
"Where did you-"
"Cami!" she interrupted sternly. "She said Finn's back. How's that possible? He burned. He was stabbed with the stake and he burned. How's he back?"
She spoke so quickly it took someone who knew how to understand her to hear the words that flowed so easily.
"Shh," he said as soothingly as he could. Klaus reached out and pulled her into a hug. He should have known she'd find out at some point, but it annoyed him Cami was the one to let the cat out of the bag. As he stroked the back of her head, he confirmed what she never wanted to hear. "Yes, it's true."
K shoved him away sharply, forcing Klaus to let her go. She stared hatefully at him.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" she demanded angrily. When he didn't immediately speak, she shoved his chest again forcing Klaus to take a step back and bite his tongue. "Why?!"
"Because," he sighed. "I knew this was how you'd react."
"You didn't think I deserved to know that sick bastard was alive again?" she growled. "That's wasn't your choice to make. You should've told me the second you found out!" she paused for a moment and narrowed her eye on him. "When did you find out?"
"When Esther invited herself to dinner." He answered begrudgingly. K's brows climbed high on her forehead. "He accompanied her."
"He was here?"
"Yes." He nodded.
Before she could stop herself or think better of what she was doing, K reared back and brought her open palm violently across Klaus's face. The snap of her slap echoed loudly and sounded more like a crack of thunder than anything else. It caused those who'd gathered to wince and feel phantom pain on Klaus's behalf. The hybrid however, did and said nothing. Instead, he slowly shifted to look her in the eye again.
"After everything, everything he did to me and you don't tell me he's walking through these halls?" she couldn't hide her anger or the betrayal she felt at being left in the dark about Finn's resurrection. "How's that even possible? He burned. There should have been nothing left."
"He's not in his body." Klaus said. He wisely moved passed K's rather violent reaction to his previous news. "Esther's saw fit to grant him a new one, one with a magical touch as it turns out."
"She put him in a witch body?"
"Kol too as it turns out."
"Oh my god…" K ran her fingers through her hair and turned her back to Klaus as she struggled to come to terms with what she was hearing. Eventually, she faced him again. "Esther, Mikael, your father, Finn and Kol… all of them are back."
"So it would seem." He sighed.
"You people are harder to kill than cockroaches."
Klaus let a small, almost unnoticeable smile touch his lips. But K didn't find it amusing. She might not have looked as terrified as she was before, but she was clearly angry. She took a few small steps towards him.
"I had the right to know he was alive, Klaus." K told him sternly. "I had the right to know the second you found out."
"I know." He admitted which she found interesting. "But you can understand my desire to keep this from your for as long as possible."
"It doesn't matter." She was unwilling to see his decision as anything more than a betrayal.
Before saying something he knew might anger her further, Klaus noticed the audience around them and elected instead to speak in a language only the two of them knew.
"I wanted to keep you from him as long as possible." He told her in her old tongue.
She bite her bottom lip and chewed on it briefly. While his intentions may have been noble, K didn't see them like that, at least not yet. She was still too flustered and angry.
"I don't need your protection." She said plainly.
K turned and without another word left. She scooped up her bags from where she dropped them near the front door and continued on without a glance over her shoulder. While she might very well be right in the assertion she didn't need Klaus's protection anymore, he didn't care. He failed once to keep her safe from Finn and saw the damage left behind as a result. If keeping her from knowing his brother was alive again was what it took to ensure her safety this time, he gladly did so and would endure her rage for however long it lasted. He'd rather her be angry with him than dead.
Among those who'd gathered to watch the fight was the only other hybrid in the house. Hayley was surprised to see K and even more so to see her so obviously embracing what she supposedly turned off a week prior. It gave her an idea and one she was more than happy to investigate while Klaus was busy tending to Elijah's needs.
~!~
K was in her kitchen with a large pot in front of her sitting on the kitchen table. She'd already dumped a few pounds of salt into it and now she had to mix it with the herbs she'd purchased. As she unwrapped the bundles of herbs, there was a knock on her door. K paused and waited. When another knock sounded, she figured she might as well see who was interrupting her morning.
To her surprise, Hayley was the culprit. K cocked a brow to the hybrid out of mild annoyance.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Morning to you too." Hayley replied with a hint of sarcasm. "We need to talk."
"About what?" K asked shortly. Their meetings had been nothing but contentious since K had come back to New Orleans so she doubted she wanted to hear anything the hybrid had to say.
To her surprise, a wicked smirk soon donned the young woman's lips.
"Want to go on a witch hunt?"
K cocked a brow again. It was an interesting proposition and one she felt she could at least listen to. To Hayley's surprise, K stepped to the side and let the door swing open. She turned and walked back into her home leaving Hayley to close the door behind her.
Hayley accepted the silent invitation into the house and followed K into the kitchen after closing the front door. She was surprised to see what K was doing. With a table filled with dried herbs and flowers and a giant stew pot filled with salt, it was obvious k was planning something.
"What's all this about?" she asked as K lifted a bundle of herbs and held it over the pot.
"For protection." She explained. K crumple the herbs in her hands and let them fall into the salt before repeating the process with each pile on the table. "Vampires can't own property, not really at least, so this helps me keep the undesirables out."
"It work?" Hayley asked as she slid into a seat at the table.
"So far. All I have to do is sprinkle this around doorjambs and windowsills and it'll keep out people I don't want coming in."
"Like werewolves and other vampires."
"And hopefully witches too." K replied. She crumbled the last herb into the salt. Swatting off the residue, she stepped sideways to her countertop and snatched a wooden spoon. She used it to begin mixing everything. "So, who's the witch you plan to hunt?"
"Finn." She said easily. Hayley heard the spoon's shaft splinter when K's grip tightened. "Interested?"
K looked sideways at her. "Klaus okay with this?"
"He doesn't know. He's busy looking for some orchid root to heal Elijah."
K nodded primarily to herself as she continued to blend her 'spell work'. She mulled over whether or not she wanted a piece of Finn and she did, she really, really did, but she didn't know if it was the smartest thing to do.
"Why go after Finn?"
"Because he's helping control the werewolves with Esther."
"So you're hoping to free your people with one less witch around?"
"Something like that." Hayley mumbled. "Look, you want to help out or not? I figured with your unnatural hatred of the guy-"
This time the spoon broke. K shot Hayley an angry stare.
"It's not unnatural." She snapped sternly. "That twisted…" K stopped herself from divulging more than she wanted to. Instead she took a deep breath to calm herself. "Fine. I'll help."
Hayley nodded. She figured that if there was a way to extend an olive branch with K, perhaps killing one of the Mikaelson brothers was it.
