"We need to take out the vampire bitch first, I'm tired of her running around and giving orders like she owns us."
Kim, the most temperamental of the hybrids conspiring against Klaus, spat.
"Elijah's tailing her all day. How do you want to kill her if you have to get through an Original?"
Another hybrid brought the justified objection. Tyler was slowly developing a headache as he felt that all this was getting out of control. It was a suicide mission, but his pack seemed willing to take the risk.
"We need to separate her and then she's easy prey."
Again this girl was standing up to Tyler's dominance. He spared a short look at Hayley, who bit her lip and looked conflicted.
"Look, no one will kill Grace."
Tyler stepped in front of Kim to intimate her. But she still didn't get the warning.
"Why, because she's your friend? Ty, they call her family. She helped Klaus making us all into slaves, she pushed us around for god's sake. Seriously, she deserves to die. It'll send a fitting message."
The other hybrids nodded.
"The plan is to take down Klaus, I don't care what Elijah and Grace do. I've got one of the daggers, we'll compel a human to dagger Elijah and we'll take Grace as leverage. That sends a fitting message, because it'll lure Klaus to wherever we wanna have him."
They all knew that Tyler's plan was more possible to work. It still had its weak spots, like the huge possibility that Elijah would kill them all while trying to dagger him and of course there was a chance that they were to arrogant in general. Could they really take down Klaus? The man that countless enemies had tried to stop, but no one had succeeded.
"This will fall back on you, Ty, believe me, but whatever you say. It's your call."
Kim shrugged it off and walked off. The pack seemed to agree which meant that the plan would take place. If it would work that way was something that was open to interpretation.
...
"Another charity gala? Does this town have too much bored ladies or just too much money?"
Nik stated nonchalant as he, Grace and Elijah stood in front of the town's square. It was all decorated with fake snow and Christmas decoration, which made it look quite pathetic.
"A hint of both."
Grace was used to these events, of course, she had grown up with them. But now that she was saw the nonsense of it even more, she started to get annoyed by dressing up every second day.
"Society is the key for our race to live in peace and adapted. We should greet the people that welcomed us with open arms with a smile."
Elijah's voice had gotten the tone of an old teacher that was scolding his pupils. But Grace could see that there was a hint of amusement in his eyes and she chuckled.
"I prefer the method of torturing them if they do anything to annoy me."
A dangerous smile appeared on Nik's lips as they walked between the groups of people that were attending the event.
"Niklaus. Behave."
Elijah said calmly and his brother shot him a glare, muttering something about the couple being way too similar for their own good. The hybrid then parted ways with them, Grace was sure he spotted Caroline in the crowd. Eventually she would've to tell him that he behaved like a stalker. But until then, it was quite cute to watch their game of cat and mouse.
She suddenly felt eyes on her and saw that some of the hybrids were staring at her. Elijah looked down to her when she squeezed his hand.
"There's something wrong with the hybrids."
Her voice was so low that her lips barely moved, so only Elijah could hear her. But she faked a wide smile to keep their watchers from being suspicious.
"I've noticed it, too."
They seemed to circle the couple and Elijah straightened his suit jacket, something he always did when he was preparing to fight. Grace searched the crowd for Nik, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"They won't attack in the middle of this. Even hybrids aren't that stupid."
The Original's eyes darted between the hybrids that now where distancing again.
"I wouldn't count on that."
Grace then caught sight of Hayley who nervously waved for the young vampire to come over.
"Excuse me."
She whispered and walked towards the werewolf. Grace could feel Elijah's confused eyes on her, but she ignored it for now. Hayley led her into the restroom, the women double checked if they were alone.
"The hybrids are unsired. They want to capture you to lure Klaus into the woods and take him down."
Grace then realized how stupid it was to move an inch away from Elijah's side. Together they were stronger, she couldn't protect herself from a bunch of hybrids. The oldest Gilbert already heard steps coming towards the restroom.
She had no chance to escape anymore, but she needed to get Hayley out of here so she could warn Nik or Elijah. Grace needed to keep the hybrids busy for a while.
"You climb through the window and immediately warn Klaus or Elijah. Now!"
Her voice raised as the wolf girl hesitated, but just as the door to the restroom flew open, Hayley had fled. Kim, that nasty gal that she never could stand, walked inside and Grace flashed her a challenging grin.
"Ready to die, princess?"
The hybrid snarled and attacked her immediately. There was barely no space to move in here and Grace did the best she could to distract the hybrid for a while. She even managed to crash Kim's skull into the mirror, but suddenly the hybrid buried he fangs into her neck and from then on it went downhill for the vampire. Grace screamed when she was bitten and the shock didn't make it any better. She was thrown to the ground and Kim broke her neck in one swift movement.
...
Most of the guests had went inside the grill and Elijah was starting to get worried about Grace. Something had happened to her, he felt it. Just as he was about to go inside and look for her, this werewolf girl came running towards him. She was out of breath which kept her from speaking, but the look in her eyes told him it was urgent.
"Hybrids...have Grace...unsired...want to take Klaus down."
The girl panted, now she had Elijah's full attention. He asked himself why she was telling him this, if he remembered right, she was a close friend of Tyler Lockwood who definitely was involved in this.
"Where is she?"
His dark eyes bore into hers, his voice nearly a growl. When it came to Grace's safety, he didn't bother with being polite.
"I...I don't know. She told me to find you and then Kim came in..."
But Elijah didn't really listened to her words anymore. His eyes fixated on the five hybrids that came walking towards him. He pushed the werewolves behind him.
"Run."
He said calmly as he tensed innerly for the fight. Of course they couldn't take him down, but it would cost him valuable time to save Grace.
...
Grace had been here before. She immediately recognized the cold, wet walls of the Lockwood cellar when she woke up. Then she felt a stinging pain in her shoulder and she gasped. She peeked down to find her dress ripped and blood smeared. Carefully, she pushed the fabric aside to find the gaping bite wound. It looked terrible. Grace was in urgent need to get Nik's blood. Which was exactly what the hybrid's wanted. She was nothing more than bait.
"Are you foolish enough to think that you can fight Nik and Elijah?"
The young vampire spoke into the darkness, knowing that her attacker was still with her. She could feel her heart beat.
"Your boyfriend is being taken care of. He's probably daggered by now. The rest will be easier than you think with a witch's help."
Grace clenched her hands into fists. Her upper lip curled upwards when Kim mentioned Elijah being daggered.
"You're underestimating them. How do you think they survived a thousand years?"
Under a huge amount of pain she tried to get up. She was in no position to fight right now, so she had to be careful.
Kim just shrugged.
"I don't care. You know what'll be the most fun part in this? Seeing you die."
Grace frowned. She never had done anything to her. Since they were turned, Grace always tried hard to stay away from the hybrids, even if Klaus had told them to do everything she says. But maybe Kim was jealous, because Grace was the one that was put above all. While the hybrids had been slaves to Klaus, Grace had a huge amount of power, let alone that she always kept her free will.
"Kim, they'll be here any second now. You're unsired, why don't you just run?"
A laugh was her answer and it played with Grace's temper.
"Revenge is everything I have left. There's no place I can go to. Klaus killed my whole pack. Now with that heightened vampire sense shit and all...We can't kill him, because of that sireline thing, but we can hurt him by killing you. And we can turn him down so the world finally gets rid of that monster."
Grace shook her head sighing, knowing that there was no way to talk sense into the hybrid. Kim couldn't control her emotions, that's why she was stupid enough to try and fight the Originals. Maybe she was better off dead.
She turned around and slowly paced through the cellar when her eyes suddenly fell on an objected hidden in the shadows. Being so occupied with inspecting the hybrid bite, she didn't even notice that a coffin was in this room, close to a wall.
"Oh my god."
Her eyes went wide open. Nik had lied to her all the time. Rebekah must be in it, no one else could be. She never had went away to stay away from her brother. All this time she had been daggered, again. Nik really had done this. Did this fool never learn?
When she wanted to walk towards the coffin, she felt Kim grabbing her arm, but all of a sudden, the hybrid's body fell to the floor limply. Elijah stood behind the corpse and let her heart fall to the ground. His eyes were on her and relief flooded both of them. The white shirt of his suit and his hands were splattered with blood.
Grace fell into his arms and hugged him tightly, immediately relaxing a bit. For a second she really had been afraid that the hybrids managed to dagger him, but she should've known that he easily could take them down on his own.
"You're hurt."
He whispered and inspected the wound on her shoulder. Grace flinched a bit when his fingers touched the sensitive flesh.
"Grace, you need Niklaus' blood. Now."
She gently pushed his hands away so she could turn back around to the coffin.
"Oh, believe me, I'm gonna find that bastard."
When she opened the lid, she felt Elijah freeze behind her. She shortly gazed over her shoulder to see disappointment written all over his face. Exactly what Grace felt, too. She thought Nik was making some progress and the other second he daggered his sister and to carry it to new ends of betrayal, he lied about it.
Grace grabbed the handle of the dagger and pulled it out of her friend's chest. She handed it to Elijah who put it in the pocket of his jacket. His eyes were still fixated on his sister.
"Stay with her. I need to have a talk to your brother."
The Original's head turned to her and he frowned.
"I won't let you go alone. Especially not after what he did."
She shook her head and lightly squeezed his shoulder.
"You'll immediately go at each other's throats. Elijah, you know he won't hurt me. Please, don't be worried. I need to be healed anyway."
He looked deeply conflicted, wanting nothing more than ignore her words. But he never wanted to dedicate to her what she should and should not do. Elijah always wanted her to make her own decisions. With a sigh, he gave in.
"Be careful."
Grace stood on her tip toes to kiss him on his cheek.
"I will."
A minute later, Grace was back at the town's square. She had seen the slaughtered hybrids and noticed that Tyler Lockwood wasn't among them. Grace knew what he was about to do.
Nik's hand was tightly wrapped around Carol Lockwoods throat. He wanted revenge. The same motive Kim had, but Grace desperately hoped she would have more success in talking him out of it.
"Nik, don't do this."
The hybrid that was heavily splattered with blood from head to toe, which made him look like straight out of a bad horror movie, turned around to face his friend.
"Why? Tell me, Gracie, why shouldn't I do this?"
Her mind raced. She knew that she had to say the right thing now.
"Because you're better than this. Yes, they all betrayed you, but hell, you knew they weren't your family. You already have one. Let's not forget that you daggered Rebekah and lied to me about it."
His eyes showed the slightest hint of surprise when she mentioned that she found out about Rebekah. But his grip around Carol's throat only tightened.
"Please, do it for me. I can beg if that's what you want me to do."
Nik stared at her intensely and seemed to think. He knew that he could loose Grace's friendship because of this. Because of what he did to Rebekah. Because of what he was about to do now.
Darkness consumed him and he suddenly dipped the mayor's head in the water of the fountain. He held her down easily so she would drown painfully.
Grace tried to push him away, but it was even easier to keep her away. The bite weakened her harshly. Still, she tried her best, clawed at his shirt and tried to yell sense into him. But Carol stopped struggling. She was dead.
Tears fell onto Grace cheeks and she hit him hard onto his chest. Nik grabbed her wrists and held her away from him to check her for any injuries. He took a deep breath when he saw the already infected werewolf bite.
"You need my blood."
Grace still struggled against his grip, her being angry was the understatement of the year.
"Yes, captain obvious, I do! But I won't take a damn from you, you silly bastard!"
He rolled his eyes.
"What is wrong with you?"
"Are you serious? You're asking ME what is wrong with me? Nik, you daggered your sister! You just killed Carol Lockwood despite the fact that I asked you, no, I begged you to not do it."
The young vampire hissed and finally freed herself off his grip. Nik adverted his gaze to the ground, not able to look her in the eyes.
"I don't let myself be controlled by you, Gracie. I do what I want to do. And I can't trust anyone here, that's why I daggered Rebekah."
Shaking her head, she took a seat as dizziness took over her. She slapped Nik's hands away as he tried to stabilize her.
"Is that why you're always so grim lately when Elijah and I catch one glimpse of happiness?"
The hybrid tensed. He had hoped that she wouldn't notice it.
"I don't trust him with you."
A deep frown plastered on her beautiful face, his words made her mind even more cloudy. She couldn't quite understand what he meant.
"Are you jealous of him? Nik, I told you that you and I will never happened. I thought you're ok with being friends."
Grace couldn't loose him as her friend. She needed him. But she knew that she had to stay away from him if he really had feelings for him.
But her worries were pushed away when he had the audacity to laugh at her.
"Ew, Gracie, don't be ridiculous. I don't want to get cozy with you..."
He sighed and looked her in the eyes again.
"He's just not good enough for you."
Of course. How could she think otherwise? Because she didn't quite realize how important she was to him. The true reason why he carried his siblings around in coffins for centuries was because he was afraid that they would leave him eventually. He hated the ones that they loved outside the family. Grace was the great exception. But it also meant that she was included in this fear.
Nik cupped her cheek and she was too stunned to move.
"Grace, I know my brother better than anyone else. You haven't seen every side of him, he's darker than any one of us, because he never accepted the monster he is. I don't want that for you. I'm afraid that he will hurt you."
She grabbed his hand, her voice intense as she desperately spoke.
"I know, Nik. I know and I'm ok with it. I'm not afraid of him. But what's more is that I love him. And he loves me in return. That's what's important, the rest we'll figure out together."
Grace leaned her forehead against her friends and closed her eyes. Nik was surprised that she admitted that she loved his brother. She never had said it that directly before. It made him understand and the fear and anger vanished.
"Elijah will never hurt me. Nik, I won't leave you. You are my family. But please, let me live my life to its fullest. I know I can only be happy with you, Beks and Elijah at my side. I just love you all so much."
He didn't say another word and just bit into his wrist and offered it to her. Grace took another pleading look at her friend, leaned down and drank a sip of the cure for a werewolf bite. She immediately felt the pain fade.
But before she could say something else, Nik was gone. Sighing she covered her face with her hands and let all this desperation take her over. Sometimes having a family that she loved so dearly wasn't easy. Sometimes they were all so foolish.
