Disclaimer: I do not own the Originals! I only own my OC, Juliet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!
Author's Note: Ahh this chapter's sooooo good!
Enjoy!
When I woke up, I felt myself getting dragged. I was so groggy that I couldn't move at first. When I finally began to regain my bearings more, I clumsily opened my eyes to see Aurora standing above me.
My heart stammered, and I looked around myself to see Aurora dragging me into Marcel's vampire gym. I looked back over to Aurora. She still hadn't noticed that I'd woken up, so I took her by surprise and yanked my right foot out of her grip. Not giving her enough time to recover, I reared my leg back and kicked her in the nose. She let go of my other foot and staggered backward.
The vervain was still in my system, so I struggled with getting to my feet. J ust as I managed to do so and before I could make a run for it, Aurora's arm wrapped around my throat. I gasped as she pressed her arm into my throat. I felt a prick in my neck, and I glanced over to see a needle poking out of my neck. It took a few seconds for the vervain to kick in, and I flopped to the ground. Aurora grabbed me last second before I could hit the ground.
"Aw, poor dear!" she said smugly. She continued to drag me across the floor, though my dead weight was clearly hampering her. "You've got a big day ahead of you. You and I need to have a little heart-to-heart conversation."
At least half a dozen men were working out. They finally managed to notice us. "What the hell is going in?" I demanded of Aurora.
"I heard a rumor these men train here, hoping to be made into vampires," Aurora answered cheerfully. "So, I'm going to grant them their wish."
She suddenly dropped my feet, and because of the paralyzing vervain, I couldn't move. "Why are you doing this?" I asked. "If your quarrel is with Niklaus, why go after me?"
"He took my brother captive," Aurora snarled. "Thanks to your bragging earlier, I am now aware that you are quite precious to Niklaus."
I rolled my eyes. "I just said all of that stuff, Aurora. Niklaus and I aren't together anymore. I don't mean anything to him anymore."
"Oh, dear," Aurora clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Now, we both know that that isn't true. Which is why I took you." She looked around at the men in the gym. "And these 'lovely, delicious, delightful' specimens are going to provide incentive! Once they're in transition, they'll need to feed."
She walked over to me. She dropped down to one knee and brushed my hair off my shoulder to expose my neck. I tried to lift my arm to push her hand away, but the vervain was holding strong.
"Thankfully, your unique hybrid nature allows you to have half-human blood running through your veins," she said. "And because you're the only human blood available..." She trailed off, then smirked and tipped her head to the side. "Well, Nik had better give me what I want."
She suddenly stood and spun around. "Gentlemen!" she called out. "Come down! Quick, quick. Off you pop!" She clapped her hands for emphasis, and the men reluctantly gathered around her, though it was clear they were wary of what she wanted. She grinned. "Thank you!"
She turned to the two shirtless men at the bench press, who stood to join the others. "Hello! You, too! Congratulations. You have all been selected to receive the highest honor bestowed upon your pitiful species."
I shook my head the best I could. "Aurora, no! Don't do this!"
She ignored me, of course. She looked around at the men for a moment until she finally stopped at a blond man standing near her. She bit her lips in excitement as she vamp-sped over to him, bit into her wrist, and fed him her blood. As soon as she was sure he'd had enough, she snapped his neck without any warning.
I gasped and flinched at the noise, and at the sound of his body dropping to the ground next to me. Aurora then looked at the other men with blood staining her lips and teeth.
"Next?"
A little while later, all of Marcel's potential vampire recruits laid dead on the floor, their bodies sprawled all over the gym and their mouths smeared with Aurora's blood. I still laid on the floor, the vervain making me unable to move. I hissed in pain and annoyance as Aurora administered another shot of vervain. The feeling washed over my quickly, and I resisted the urge to throw up.
"It's odd you'd be his lover," Aurora mused. "Isn't it true Nik killed your beloved aunt?"
My mind flashed back to my aunt Jenna. Before I could start to defend myself, I furrowed my brows and asked, "How did you know that? Niklaus surely didn't tell you."
Aurora smiled as she stripped off her jacket. "The internet, it is such a marvel," she started. "I searched you up the night you interrupted Nik and I. Your aunt died in a mysterious accident around the same time that Nik proudly freed himself of his hybrid curse. I put two and two together."
I rolled my eyes as she started to walk toward me. "I also learned your whole history. Poor Juliet Gilbert, born Eumelia Helena Christos, was orphaned as a baby and adopted by Grayson Gilbert and his wife Miranda. Then, tragically, you lost your parents in a car accident." She sighed and shook her head. "How sad can your life be?"
I narrowed my eyes at her. "You twisted bitch. You're enjoying them, aren't you? Making me remember everything that's gone wrong in my life." She smiled brightly and nodded her head in agreement. I glared at her. "What, do you get off on being cruel?"
Aurora shrugged. "Maybe I'm looking for the ways in which we are alike." She walked away from me so she could sit down on the nearby bench press. "See, Nik's been obsessed with me for centuries, and now he's infatuated with you. What do you think the overlap is between us?"
I looked away from Aurora. This conversation was making me more and more uncomfortable by the second. While I couldn't confidently say that Niklaus still loved me, he was trying to make me jealous (while appearing to be jealous himself) at the Thanksgiving dinner, which meant that he still had to feel something for me. And I tried to make him jealous twice-with Tristan at his initiation party and again with Lucien at the Thanksgiving dinner. Did that mean that I still had feelings for Niklaus too? Was that a bad thing? A good thing?
"Is it... crazy brothers?" Aurora went on. Then she shook her head. "No, your brother-Jeremy, I believe it was-seemed sane. Though, I do remember reading an article that stated that he faked his death. That seems crazy."
I didn't bother to correct her and say that Jeremy hadn't actually faked his death-he still did die, but Bonnie brought him back to life.
Aurora shook her head. "As for mine? Well... Tristan." She sighed. "I love him, but he can be a bit daft sometimes. You know, he likes to have me committed every so often? Hoping to cure my more... eccentric predispositions. Thanks to him, I've been plunged into ice baths, bled for meloncholia, and exorcised for demons five-no, six-six my latest diagnosis is bipolar disorder."
I half-laughed half-scoffed. "He probably should've tried more. Maybe it actually would've worked."
She growled and shot to her feet. "I grow tired of this conversation." She regathered her composition back to an airy sense of calm. "Now, tell me a bit more about you, starting with how you feel about Nik. And do bear in mind-" She stopped in front of me, looking down at me. "I'm a stickler for honesty.""
Klaus, having recruited Lucien to help him find Juliet (he wasn't about to tell Elijah-his brother would go crazy, and Klaus couldn't afford Elijah being reckless, not when he was forced to play Aurora's game), walked around Jackson's Square, where artists displayed their paintings. They were looking for a clue from Aurora as to where she had taken Juliet.
Lucien scoffed in distaste. "It's typical of Aurora, forcing us to look for one of her needles in a rather vile haystack."
Klaus refrained from rolling his eyes. "Yes. It's quite the undertaking, made all the more onerous by your incessant chatter."
"I speak so that I might be listened to," Lucien said incredulously. "Aurora clearly has some devious plan in mind, which begs the question-given how vindictive she is, why bother playing her game?"
Lucien walked around Klaus so that he stood in front of him, and Klaus stopped and stared at him. "I'm not playing for her."
Lucien, realizing this was all about Juliet, rolled his eyes and followed after Klaus as he continued to walk down the street. "Aren't you the one that cursed her to remain as a wolf every night except the full moon?"
Klaus looked over at Lucien, a confused look as to how Lucien would know that on his face. The younge vampire simply shrugged. "Word travels. Back to the question, please."
Klaus sighed but looked away from Lucien. "I... I made a mistake."
"What, Klaus Mikaelson, admitting to making a mistake?" Lucien asked in mock surprise. "This woman must be something special."
"She is," Klaus confirmed. "And I messed up with her. I've been thinking about how to make this right because I have to. I have to make this right."
He continued to stalk down the street, and Lucien struggled to catch up with him. "How? What is the best case scenario here? You save Juliet today, and Aurora just goes after her some other time. And you can't very well kill Aurora, given she alone has the information needed to find Rebekah..."
Klaus growled with irritation. "I'm quite aware of the dilemma, thank you." He paused. "And for the record, Juliet doesn't make it a habit of getting kidnapped. If Aurora managed to snatch her this time, she must've caught Juliet so off guard that she couldn't fight back."
"Oh! Yet you're still determined to rush into this harpy's trap," Lucien pointed out.
Klaus, even more annoyed, stopped walking once again, and Lucien looked him in the eyes with an exasperated expression. "What for? Why do you even care about Juliet?"
"Because I love her!" Klaus finally revealed, and Lucien's eyes widened a bit. "I love her, and I messed up with her. I can't make it right with her if Aurora's holds her hostage forever. Now, if you're gonna help me, then help me. Otherwise, bugger off." He pushed past Lucien and walked away.
Lucien sighed but muttered under his breath as he followed after Klaus. "All right."
"I won't ask again," Aurora said. "What are your feelings for Nik?"
I had refused to answer it the first two times she had asked, and I refused to answer again. When she reached into her pocket to pull out yet another syringe to fill with vervain, I rolled my eyes at her. "You put any more in me, I won't have the energy to stay awake and then I definitely won't be able to answer your questions."
Aurora frowned, but pocketed the vervain. "Fine. There are other methods of torture." She walked over to me and slammed her foot on my ankle, crushing the bones.
I howled in pain, and because of the vervain in my system, the wound didn't heal. It would slowly start to heal, but later. "Are you willing to answer questions now?" she wondered. She moved her foot so that it hovered over my kneecap. "There are many bones in the body, Juliet."
I growled, low under my breath, but I answered. "He is the father of my child."
She scoffed. "That doesn't answer my question."
I rolled my eyes. "Niklaus and I... our history is complicated. It goes beyond New Orleans."
"Pray tell," she nodded. "Your history cannot go farther than ours."
"Is that what this is?" I demanded. "You kidnapped me so that you could assure yourself that what Niklaus and I had was uncomparable to yours?"
"I don't have to assure myself of anything. I know for a fact," Aurora snarled at me. "He doesn't care about you, darling. You're just a mistake he's made in the past that he now has to live with if he wants to see his child."
I gave her a look. "It's more than that, isn't it?" I said. "You're saying all of that stuff so that you can rest easy. You wouldn't be saying it so often if you actually believed it. Because the sad truth is Aurora... He did move on. After centuries of believing that you'd be the only person that he loved, he loved another." I looked her up and down. "And that terrifies you."
I guess my words made Aurora even madder than I thought, because she moved her heel from my kneecap to over my stomach. She brought her leg back and stomped her foot on my stomach so that her heel broke the skin and dug into my body.
I screamed in pain, and her heel made a squishy sound as she lifted her foot out of my stomach. It was a struggle, but I managed to lift my arm to my stomach to try and staunch the bleeding that my body struggled with because of the vervain.
Aurora sucked in a deep breath and tried to wipe my blood off of her shoe. "Okay. I've had enough analysis. Let's shine the light back on you, shall we?" She looked over at me. "Tell me your deepest, darkest secret. And if I sense that you are holding back... Well, you might not live long enough for Nik to get here."
Klaus ran into the parking lot behind St. Anne's church, the place where he and Lucien had discovered was the place that Aurora had taken Juliet.
"Will you please listen to me?" Lucien said as Klaus stalked toward the back entrance. "All I suggest is that we find another way to deal with Aurora than follow blindly along her bread-crumb trail."
Klaus, who was losing his patience with Lucien, turned and pointed at him aggressively. "If you keep using your mouth for more foolish talk, I will have no choice but to rip your tongue out of your mouth."
"Your judgment is off, my friend," Lucien insisted. "And all because of this girl!" He squeezed Klaus' shoulder as he stared him in the eyes with a pleading expression. "Well, I say let Juliet die. All of your secrets and vulnerabilities can die with her."
Klaus, visibly frustrated with him, clapped him on the shoulders with a sigh before quickly snapping his neck, allowing his body to drop onto the ground. He glared at Lucien's body before turning around.
He had a girl to save.
"I will not ask again," Aurora hissed, walking toward me again as I continued to bleed out. "Your greatest shame. Admit it. And do not bother lying, because I will know, and then I will end you."
I hesitated, racking my brain. There wasn't a lot in life that I regretted. Sometimes I made decisions rashly, but I was always able to reconcile the things that I had done to make peace with myself. But... there was one thing that I never really made peace with.
With quick, deep gasps, I finally said, "Francesca."
Aurora raised an eyebrow. "What?"
I squeezed my eyes shut in annoyance, but said again, "Francesca Guerrera. She was the former leader of the human faction in New Orleans before she revealed to be a descendant of the Guerrera wolf pack. Because of her, I had to send my baby away, and I became a hybrid."
Aurora grinned. "I like the sound of where this is going." She walked over to the bench press and sat down, crossing her legs daintly before looking at me with an expectant expression. "Now, do go on..."
I sighed deeply. "It was a few months after I had first become a hybrid. I was all over the place. I missed my baby. I missed my humanity. I regained memories of the past after I had lost them. I was just a mess." I swallowed thickly. "And all I could think about was the reason that this had all happened was because of Francesca. She had double crossed us. Everything that had happened to me was her fault and... and I wanted revenge. It... it consumed me. It was all I could think about, day and night. Her blood on my hands, her body bleeding out in front of me. Her life ending because I had ended it, just like she had ended mine. And the thoughts terrified me, because I used to be someone who prided myself on my compassion and care for others, because I believed that everyone deserved it." I drew another deep breath, which, worriedly, was a bit of a struggle. "So... the night that Niklaus, Elijah and I took down her family... Elijah left Francesca to me."
"Oooh..." Aurora hissed. "This doesn't sound like it's going to end well."
"Lucky for you, it doesn't," I confirmed, annoyance laced in my tone. "Francesca tried to leave New Orleans when she realized that I was coming after her. I stopped her before she could... and I killed her. I tore into her throat and let her bleed out."
The words had taken a lot out of me, and I dropped my head down to the ground and focused on taking breaths.
Aurora studied me for a moment. "You're not ashamed that you did it," she said finally.
When I didn't answer, Aurora chuckled in satisfaction. "Huh. You're ashamed that you actually enjoyed it." She got to her feet and walked over to me. "As someone who prided herself on her care for others... it bothered you how easily you got over taking revenge and killing someone who had wronged you."
I managed to scoff. "Deep thoughts for someone who shares a name with a Disney princess."
She chuckled. "Ha! Well, I see why Nik is so taken with you." She looked me up and down. "The trouble is... my burgeoning respect for you is overshadowed by my somewhat puerile jealousy. So, I suppose we've reached the inevitable..." She raised her voice louder as thought she was calling out to someone. "Wouldn't you say, my love?"
After a few seconds, a very unhappy Niklaus walked into the room. I felt a surprising rush of relief, and I struggled to push myself to my feet. The vervain was starting to wear off more and more now, but Aurora kicked me in the stomach, sending me crashing back down. I gasped in pain.
Niklaus spread his arms wide in a gesture of defeat. "Stop this game."
"This is not a game, Nik!" Aurora argued. "This is an intervention. You're in danger of losing the love of your life... Me." She sighed. "We're finally together after so long apart, all the world before us, if can just dodge a few minor obstacles. Like this nuisance of a prophecy, my brother's internment, the insufferable influence of Elijah... But what I cannot overcome is your affections for someone else."
I made a face at the mention of Elijah. What did he have to do with Aurora and Niklaus' relationship?
Niklaus, looking somewhat bemused, sighed dramatically. Aurora continued despite it. "I've waited far too long to share you now." She shrugged, her voice softer. "Call me jealous."
Niklaus walked toward Aurora and I, continuing to make pleasant conversation. "I remember full well the extent of your jealousies. But what surprises me is that they extend to the, uh..." He gestured to me and smiled. "The one-night stand that ended up being the mother of my child. Aurora, you can't believe she means anything to me."
"But I do believe it, Nik!" Aurora argued. "I see it, the fear in your eyes." She shook her head. "Do you actually love her?"
"You know I love you," Niklaus assured her, and I felt a weird twinge in my heart at his words.
Aurora's face relaxed. "I'm so glad you said that. I just needed Juliet to hear it." She spun around and placed her heel against my throat. "Before she died."
Niklaus took a step forward. I could tell he was trying hard not to freak out, just like I was. "Honestly, Aurora... These petty displays are so far beneath you. Wild scavenger hunts, stealing..." He shook his head. "They cast you in a very unflattering light. Jealousy's more my game."
"Oh, would that I didn't have the need for it," she mused.
"Why should you?" Niklaus said. "Juliet is no rival to you."
I frowned a bit at his words. My stomach lurched as he continued. "Your fears are ridiculous."
"Are they?" she wondered. She suddenly reached into her pocket and pulled something out. I caught a glimpse of it as she held it out to Niklaus, and I was shocked to my core when I saw... a ring. More specifically, an engagement ring.
Niklaus' eyes practically bugged out of his head at the sight of it in Aurora's hand. "Where did you get that?" he demanded.
"That day you showed me around your home," she answered. She held it up so that it glistened in the light. "I found it in your room. I don't know why I expected it to be for me... but then I read the inscription on the inside." She brought the ring down so that it was in front of her eyes. "'J.G.: all my love, always and forever'." She looked back up at Niklaus with fury in her eyes. "My initials are not J.G., Nik."
Niklaus' gaze moved so that it was looking at me. Shock, bewilderment, and a bit of embarrassment flooded his face all at once. Just as I was sure those same feelings were all over my own face.
He looked back at Aurora to do damage control. "Aurora, it is not what you think-"
"Is it not?" she demanded. She sighed again. "I know you believe me to be ignorant, but I am quite understanding, Nik. It's been centuries. It's understandable that you'd grow lonely without me. I was just hurt to learn that you would lower yourself to this distraction..."
She kicked me in the shoulder with her foot. I gritted my teeth to avoid crying out. "And particularly when she constitutes a rather fiendish lie."
When Niklaus frowned in confusion, Aurora continued. "You were drawn to her under the mistaken belief that she is pure, and she tells you that she believes everyone is good and is worthy of good, but she's not quite the ray of unwavering sunshine that you believe her to be." She moved her foot back to my throat and pressed her heel against it. "No. There is a darkness in her. Why else would she be drawn to the darkness? Why else would she be drawn to you?" She shrugged. "See, I might have my own imperfections, but at least I am not a fake. Whereas Juliet here?" She pressed her foot more into my throat, breaking the skin and allowing blood to trickle down my chest. "Well, she's... she's just an illusion."
"Aurora..." Niklaus started. Without warning, he grabbed her and vamp-sped them both outside, leaving me alone in the church.
I heard moans, and I looked around me to see the vampires that Aurora had turned starting to wake up.
Well, not totally alone.
Klaus vamp-sped himself and Aurora outside the church, and he was now dragging her to the parking lot behind the building as he scowled at her.
Aurora, however, seemed amused. "Oh, you're quite cross, aren't you? I haven't seen you this mad in a thousand years."
"If you don't behave yourself, you'll see a lot worse," he said coldly.
She jerked out of his grip and stopped walking, turning so she was looking him in the eye with a haughty expression. "I don't much like that tone!" She considered it for a moment. "Although, given what I did to Rebekah, I suppose it's to be expected. Unless the source of your ire is the threat I made against your little pet..." She shook her head. "You really do care about her, don't you?"
Klaus considered it, then gave her an annoyed look, a weak and patronizing smile on his face.
Aurora sighed. "Well, now I suppose I shall have to kill her."
Klaus, filled with rage that came so easily to him at the thought of Juliet dead, vamp-sped toward her and slammed her against the wall of a nearby building.
She yelped in surprise, but recovered quickly. "Ooh, are we to play rough now? Foreplay's changed in the last millennium."
Before Klaus could react, Aurora spun them around so that he was pinned against the wall. "Tell me, can your pathetic Juliet excite you the way that I can?" She tugged on the lapels of his jacket with a hungry and flirtatious demeanor. "Can she allow you the joy of giving into your most wicked desires?"
Still a prisoner to the vervain in my system, I struggled to pull myself away from the fledgling vampire that was stalking toward me. "Okay, you have to listen to me. You're in transition, and you have to drink blood to complete it."
"I know the rules," the newborn nodded. "Marcel told us. If I don't feed... I die."
Outside, Klaus angrily pushed away from Aurora and walked back toward the church. "I tire of this fantasy. You were someone I left behind long ago. There is nothing between us now."
Aurora's face changed. Klaus really meant it. "You're angry," She backtracked.
Klaus turned back to face Aurora and scowled at her as she rushed over to him. "We say things to hurt each other when we're angry. That's what lovers do. But I know that I'm the one for you. As I know that you will thank me-eventually-for killing your little inconvenience. With her out of the way, you and I can parent your little girl together. We shall have a family." She grabbed Klaus' arm. "Think about it, Nik! Can't you just picture it?"
Klaus threw Aurora away from him. "How dare you even imply replacing Juliet?" He stalked toward her, and Aurora took a step back. "You presume to know me? Then know this-I will gladly end you for what you did to Juliet. But first, I'm gonna make you suffer in ways your spoiled little mind cannot possibly imagine."
Aurora's eyes widened in shock and fear, visibly hurt and upset by the rage in Klaus' voice. He didn't let it hinder him. In fact, he let it fill him. "And when it's over-"
He lunged toward Aurora and grabbed her by the arms as he slowly pushed her backward. "When your sweet recollections have been rendered obsolete, you will associate my name with fear and pain, and perhaps the dull realization that you-" He slammed her backward against the wall of the nearby building. Aurora whimpered. "-Are nothing to me."
Aurora suddenly gasped in shock and fear as Klaus quickly grabbed either side of her face with her hands and closed his eyes. He dove into her mind to get the information that he needed. After a moment, he found the memory of Aurora handing Tristan the envelopes with the latitude and longitude of Rebekah's location.. They each opened their envelope to memorize the coordinates. He zeroed in on the latitude coordinates on the card in Aurora's envelope, which read "27° 46' 26" N".
He pulled away from Aurora. She looked at him in horror. Betrayal was clear on her face. Klaus smirked.
"You went into my mind," she whimpered.
"And took the only thing I needed from you," Klaus said smugly. "So... What's to stop me from killing you now?"
"But I love you," Aurora cried, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. "And I know that you know me!"
She looked at Klaus pleadingly, and he was about to say something when he heard Juliet scream. "Get away from me!" she shrieked.
Klaus immediately vamp-sped inside, leaving Aurora crying, and all by herself.
Despite the wound on my stomach not being fully healed and the vervain locking me down, I flipped onto my stomach. I swallowed back a scream and pulled myself toward where a mop was laying on the ground. I looked behind me to see the newborn vampire advancing toward me. I turned my head back and pulled myself faster. "Get away from me!" I screamed.
He vamp-sped toward me and jumped on top of me. I screamed at the top of my lungs, my body still refusing to cooperate. Before the vampire could sink his teeth into me, I got the jump on him and sank my own teeth into his arm. He roared and rolled off of me.
"What did you do to me?!" he howled, clutching his arm.
I finally pulled myself close enough to the mop and grabbed it. I smashed it against the ground, breaking it. I used the tip to roll over and stake the newborn in the back. He screamed in pain again, but his skin eventually began to turn grey.
I sighed and rested against the floor. I wasn't able to relax for long though, because there was a second vampire advancing toward me. Killing the first vampire had taken so much out of me, and I couldn't convince my body to get up and get the other half of the mop.
Just as the second vampire was about to lunge, Niklaus vamp-sped into the room, grabbed the man with one arm, and broke his back before dropping his body onto the ground.
With the man incapacitated, Niklaus quietly walked over to me and holds out his hand. He held out his hand.
I immediately took it, and he hauled me to my feet. As soon as I was upright, he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly. I lifted my arms and wrapped them around his neck. I clutched tightly at him. "Klaus..." I whispered with relief, barely audible, and I felt my body go slack before finally passing out in his arms.
When I woke up, I was laying on the couch in the den of the compound. I furrowed my brows and pushed myself up. I had a blanket tossed over me. I moved it so that I could look down at my stomach. To my relief, my wound had finally closed up. My hand went to my throat. That wound was closed now too.
I heard footsteps, and I looked over my shoulder to see Niklaus walking into the den. He held a cup of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows swimming in it. He stopped in front of me and held it out to me. "Thought you could use this."
I took it from him with a small smile. "Thanks," I said.
The air was awkward between us. Before it had been...tension filled, annoyed, angry. It had never been awkward.
"How are you feeling?" he asked nervously.
I took a sip from the hot chocolate. I couldn't help the small smile as I recognized the taste of cinnamon. He knew me. "Like someone performed stomach surgery on me while I was awake, but..." I shrugged a bit. "I'll be okay." I hesitated, then added, "Thanks to you."
Niklaus' eyes glistened a bit at my words. I weakly smiled up at him. We stared at each other for a few moments before I looked down at the mug. "I... I should actually get going," I said. I set the mug down on the table in front of me. "I should go home. Charlotte probably misses her bed."
I got to my feet, but I was still a little woozy. I stumbled a bit, and Niklaus pitched forward to grab me before I could fall over. I looked down at his hands before looking up at his eyes. Those baby blues, the baby blues that I was so glad our daughter inherited, the baby blues that I had fallen in love with so long ago...
I cleared my throat, and Niklaus gently sat me back down. "Actually, for tonight, I'd like you to stay here... where I can protect you."
I sharply looked up at Niklaus. "Niklaus...I can protect myself."
"I know you can," he said immediately. "It's just..."
The way that Aurora had so easily kidnapped me freaked him out. I could've said that it was ironic that he was worried about my safety because of what he'd done to me, but...
I nodded slowly. "What's one night?" I allowed, briefly smiling.
Niklaus sighed in relief before sitting down on the coffee table so that he could look me in the eyes. "Juliet, I want you to know... what happened today..."
I didn't know what he was talking about. Aurora kidnapping me? The freaking engagement ring that he had engraved that he was planning on giving me?
"Were...were you really?" I finally asked, my voice quiet.
Niklaus sucked in a breath. His lower lip quivered nervously, but he answered, "After we had defeated Dahlia."
I sighed deeply. "Niklaus... we weren't even back together for that long. I'm not sure how I would've answered you, even... even back then."
"I know," he nodded. He pulled on his fingers, bending and twisting them. "I just... I just knew. Even back in Mystic Falls. I knew."
My shoulders shook with nervousness. I sank back into the couch.
Niklaus sat up straight. "Well, with what's happened... I guess we'll never know, will we?"
I didn't say anything. I didn't want to say anything that could've been the wrong thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling.
"I think... I think I'm gonna go get some sleep," I finally settled on. I tossed the blanket off of me. I looked down at my still bloody clothes. "And change. It's been a long day." I stood up, and Niklaus stood poised to catch me, but I was able to remain on my own two feet. "I'll just go back to my old room." I turned around to leave when a thought hit me, and I turned around to face Niklaus again. "If it's still there..."
"Of course it is," he nodded quickly. "Do you want me to take you there?"
"No, I got it," I assured him. I grabbed the mug of hot chocolate from the coffee table and offered Niklaus an awkward smile. "Good night."
"Good night," he said back, and as much as there was something within me that was telling me to stay with him, I turned around and walked out the door.
TBC...
Until next chapter!
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Saviour...
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS — When a dangerous affliction threatens to expose one of her siblings, Freya searches for a way to reverse the crippling curse even as she finds herself the target of The Strix's latest plan. Elsewhere, Klaus keeps a watchful eye over Juliet while the two struggle with their unresolved feelings for each other. Cami attempts to help Detective Kinney, whose life has begun to spiral out of control as a result of Lucien's compulsion. Meanwhile, a confrontation with Marcel causes Vincent to reevaluate his decision to stay out of witch business.
