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Chapter 48
Exquisite Corpse
Klaus and Hayley stared at the figment of their imagination standing in front of the opened fridge. Klaus wasn't sure he was seeing things correctly. Honestly, he'd been envisioning her more times than he'd care to admit since her demise and because of that, he asked something he knew should've remained silent.
"Do you see her too?" he muttered.
"Yeah," Hayley breathed. "How's this possible?"
Klaus could only shrug.
K's attention went back to the fridge. She had taken to digging through the drawers trying to find another blood bag, but there weren't any. The four she'd emptied seemed to be the extent of their supply. But she needed more. She needed a lot more.
"Kali,"
Her name forced the young woman to turn. Klaus was taking slow, measured steps towards her. He tried to finish the sentence, but nothing more came. Her name was the best he could manage.
"I need more, Niklaus." She mumbled. Her lips and chin were stained with crimson. Some was drying turning the blood a deep burgundy, but the rest of it still glinted in the light. "I'm so hungry."
He nodded heavily. Klaus was grateful for whatever force made his body move. It gave his mind a reprieve when it didn't have to dictate the menial actions.
As it was, Klaus felt himself reach out and offer her a hand. K, appearing disoriented and mystified, took it without question. As Hayley watched on in continued horror, Klaus led K out of the kitchen.
He brought her through the house and upstairs to his room where she could feed in peace and without frightening everyone else who swore she was dead. Her eyes missed nothing. They darted around and took in every detail from the obvious to the miniscule. She seemed so confused…
Rolling up his sleeve, Klaus revealed his arm. The action drew K's. Like he had before, he offered the appendage to K. She stepped closer slowly, even glancing at him to make sure it was alright. With the slightest nod, Klaus gave her his silent permission.
K lunged for him and without hesitation sank her teeth into his elbow where the veins were their widest. Klaus bit back a growl and tightened his jaw as she gnawed at his flesh. He watched her feed like a wild animal, like something who hadn't eaten in days, or even weeks. She drank so vigorously, he could actually feel the blood being drawn through the wound her teeth created.
But he let her feed. The few gray veins that remained visible even after her previous meal began to diminish. He thought it would help slate her appetite when they had, but he was wrong. Still, she continued to feed. She continued to drink her fill which seemed never ending.
Klaus grew light-headed the longer she went, but he wasn't sure he had the strength to tell her no. He didn't realize it at that moment, but he would have been willing to give her anything she wanted just for asking. After his brother finished what he started a thousand years earlier, after the guilt his hallucinations made him feel, Klaus would have let K do anything just in hopes she'd forgive him.
Her fingers gripped him firmly. They wrapped like tentacles around his arm and held on as though they were one with his skin. Her knuckles were white and bruises formed beneath her fingertips. Still, she drank.
Soon Kali drank more than Klaus thought possible, and still her appetite was ravenous. His vision began to blur and his stance wavered. She was drinking more blood than his body could regenerate, a task Klaus had thought impossible until now.
"That's enough, love." He muttered. She didn't stop. "Kali," he said with a bit more authority. Again, she didn't stop. Klaus wondered if she heard him at all. He felt himself continuing to slip and feared it. "Enough!" he bellowed, wrenching his arm from her grasp.
With the strength it took to retrieve his own limb and the blood loss he'd sustained within the last ten minutes, Klaus stumbled briefly. He fell into his drawing table, but caught himself before he would've hit the ground. With heavy eyes, he looked up to see K staring at him with her fangs protruding and her eyes blood shot. She looked like she was ready to attack again and finish what she'd started.
"Enough," he breathed heavily.
"I need more." She replied. "I'm still hungry."
Klaus sighed. Feeling his strength returning, Klaus stood upright. He glanced to his elbow. The wound had healed, but he saw the blood left behind.
"We need to talk, first." He said. Klaus looked up at the woman still staring at him like a buffet. "How's this possible?"
"What?"
"You're alive." He explained as though it should have been the most obvious thing.
"I was never dead."
His brows came together and confusion filled his eyes.
"You were. I saw your body. You were gone."
"Not dead." She repeated. "The stake never killed me. I remember."
He took a slow step closer.
"What else do you remember?"
"Being cold." She said. "I felt the stake go into my heart. I remembered how much it hurt, like it stole the life out of me." Her features slowly returned to normal as she thought about what happened. "I couldn't breathe, or move, but I could hear things. I knew something was happening around me."
"What did you hear?"
"I don't know." She told him honestly.
K could still hear it, the voices, but whatever they said made no sense. It was like listening to someone through a wall. You could tell if a man was speaking versus a woman, but they were muffled and nothing of importance could be discerned.
Klaus watched as K slipped into her own thoughts. His eyes narrowed and he wondered what was running through her mind. He'd notice her face tense and relax, her brows furrow before returning to normal, and all while she remained silent.
He daringly approached the young woman. He wasn't afraid of her, but he harbored a healthy level of skepticism. When people came back from the dead –even if she hadn't been entirely gone- there was no telling what might have happened during the trip. To make things a bit more confusing, if K truly had been asleep, it begged the question how. How was she sleeping when a stake had been plunged through her heart? How was a normal vampire alive after something like that?
His movements caused her to look up at him through her lashes. She said nothing as he continued to close the distance. With a tentative hand, Klaus gently touched her cheek. He felt his chest tighten. She was real. This one didn't vanish into a puff of smoke when he touched her.
Without warning, Klaus pulled K to him and kissed her. She didn't protest or do much of anything else. She seemed a bit surprised by the action and the desperation behind it.
After a moment, Klaus pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. He sighed in relief and continued to cradle the back of her head tenderly.
"I've missed you." He whispered.
The way he spoke bothered her. K gently pulled back so she could look him in the eye. He noticed her confusion.
"How long was I asleep?" she asked softly.
"Nearly two weeks."
Her brows slowly rose as the shock took hold of her features. Klaus said nothing at first. He instead ran the back of his hand along her cheek. With their lives, he was blind to the blood and the fact it was smeared across both their faces. It was such a trivial thing that meant nothing to them, but would cause others' stomachs to turn.
"I shouldn't be alive," she said. Klaus flinched whether he meant to or not. "So why am I?"
"I don't know." He admitted. Klaus wasn't going to say something foolish like it was Fate or Destiny or something else along those lines, so he simply told her he didn't know. "Come, you should get cleaned up."
K nodded. Klaus laced her arm around his and led her into her own room next door as though she was some kind of invalid. But she didn't mind. K let him lead her because she didn't know what else to do. Her mind was a bit scattered, clouded with hunger and uncertainty. Despite the vast amount of blood she'd taken from Klaus, it seemed barely capable of slating the fire in her stomach, and that frightened her.
~!~
The water rushed around her head, drowned her sense and flooded them at the same time. It helped, but nowhere near as much as she'd hoped it would.
The blood was gone and with it fled most of tired feeling. It helped, but again not as much as she wished it would. Eventually, she turned off the water and ended the shower.
She changed quickly, ignored the fact her room had been turned into a museum, and left. She wanted to walk around and move. Being forced to lie in a coffin, unable to move, speak or interact with the people around her was worse than being buried alive.
Wolves lined the halls. They filled the spare rooms and flooded the courtyard. They were everywhere. The stench of dog filled her nose and burned her more than it ever had. She didn't know if she was simply more sensitive to it, or if it was their overwhelming numbers. Whatever the reason, she didn't like it.
They watched her skeptically as she stepped through the compound. They'd keep their eyes on her with cold, blank expressions. She stared back with the same emotionless glower.
She moved down the steps and into the courtyard. K wore no shoes. There was something oddly freeing about her bare feet touching the cold ground. Again, after being motionless for what felt like an eternity, small sensations were welcomed.
"So it's true," a sweet voice said from behind once K reached the courtyard ground. She turned to see Rebekah staring at her with an open mouth and wide eyes. "You're alive."
K did nothing more than nod. She wasn't sure how to respond to the random statement. Rebekah smiled with her new body's lips. She jogged forward and closed the short distance to wrap her arms around K's shoulders. She hugged the vampire closely and continued to smile in relief.
"It's good to have you back." She sighed.
"Thank you." K replied.
She said the words on reflex and nothing more. When she felt Rebekah's very human body press against hers, felt her body heat and heartbeat, smelled the blood coursing beneath her skin and listened to its sweet cadence, K was lost. She breathed in the scent deeply and even nuzzled a bit into Rebekah's curly hair.
The odd sensation sent chills down the new witch's back. Rebekah shoved herself away from K quickly. She suddenly felt like she was being eyed like a meal and when she saw the look on K's face, she knew she'd been right.
Veins began to protrude around K's eyes. She stared blankly at Rebekah as the vampire inside began to surface. Her head tilted gently to the side causing her long tresses to sweep softly away. Rebekah had seen that look before. It was one she, Klaus, Elijah -every vampire- had given to their prey. It was more disconcerting being on the receiving end of it and forced the former Original to back step.
"Kali?" she asked, hoping that hearing her name might force the vampire to realize what she was doing. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Fine," K said in the same lofty tone as she took slow, silent steps forward to match Rebekah's retreat. "But…" she took a deep breath and when she smelled the only human in the compound again, the vampire inside emerged fully. "I'm just so hungry, Rebekah."
"Nik!" Rebekah yelled when she began to realize K was serious.
"I'm sorry."
Rebekah's stomach fell.
"NIKLAUS!" she bellowed.
K dug the ball of her foot into the stone-covered ground and used it to spring forward towards her prospective meal. Rebekah flinched.
"What?!" Klaus called angrily from the top floor.
K stopped her advance two feet short of grabbing Rebekah. The witch felt her stomach drop, her heart skip more than a single beat and the breath leave her lungs. She stared at the one she once called friend in horror while K remained emotionless.
"Kali, darling," Klaus said. He moved to the staircase and began a hurried descent when he realized what had nearly happened. "What is it you think you're doing?"
Her face shifted back to normal by the time he reached them. She looked sideways at the hybrid, but didn't speak. Rebekah scurried off and hid behind her brother.
"She tried to eat me." Rebekah offered freely.
Klaus' brows came together as he stared at K.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I'm just so hungry."
"How's that possible?" Klaus asked her. "You nearly drained me."
"What?" Rebekah gasped.
"I don't know." K answered honestly. "I'm just… I have to eat. I…"
"Come with me."
He didn't give her a choice in the matter. Klaus stepped forward and grabbed K's hand. He all but dragged her back upstairs and away from the only human on the premises.
When they reached his room, he finally let go and slammed his door shut behind him. He spun on his heel and eyed her suspiciously.
"How is it you're still hungry?" he demanded. While he wasn't necessarily angry with K, the thought that she almost killed his sister (which was the most likely scenario if she'd attacked Rebekah) was nerve rattling. "Desiccation doesn't take that much out of a vampire. Trust me, I'm aware."
"I don't know." She snapped back in response to his angry words. "I can't help it. It's…" her rant lost most of its power near the end. He could tell quickly she truly didn't understand what was happening to her.
"It's all consuming." He finished. K looked up and nodded heavily. Klaus moved closer to her. "It'll pass."
"I've never felt anything like this before, Niklaus." She admitted softly. "Not even when I turned."
He looked at her sadly, but nodded his understanding.
"Perhaps you should stay within these walls then, for the time being." He sighed. "I'll have some of the wolves procure more blood bags. But, until then, you can feed from me."
K nodded again. Before he had the chance to roll up his sleeve again, K lunged for him. She wrapped herself around his body like a snake and sank her teeth into his neck. She needed blood. She needed to drink…
