Chapter 49
Night Has a Thousand Eyes
Season 2, Episode 18
As per his request, K remained within Klaus's room. She didn't even head to her own. Instead, she sat in one of his high-backed chairs and stared out his wide-open windows. She'd felt a hunger similar to this before and even then it seemed to pale in comparison. When Finn cursed the vampires within the compound's walls, she felt the burn. She felt the all consuming hunger that filled her and radiated within every molecule of her body. She felt it so much, that every time she moved the pain doubled if not tripled. But this… what she felt now made that seem like a vacation. Whatever force was running rampant through her body was more powerful than she could comprehend.
Klaus hated having to sequester K in his room, but he didn't trust her. As horrible as it sounded, he truly didn't trust her out in the open. K tried to attack Rebekah. She actually tried to eat his sister and as though that wasn't frightening enough, K seemed to have no control over herself. She was driven by hunger and that was a dangerous concept, especially when Hope was on the premises. While Klaus knew K would never harm his daughter, she wasn't herself. She was something else. She was possessed by unimaginable hunger and would react like any starving animal would if a morsel of food was dangled in front of them. She would lash out and fight for it. Vampires, after all, are nothing but animals.
Blood bags had been brought onto the grounds while Klaus spoke with Hayley. She asked how it was possible K was still alive –happy for it but confused when she'd witnessed the death- and assumed Klaus had a hand in it. He told her he didn't and had nothing more to offer in the ways of an explanation. The only thing he could tell her was K came back with a sharper appetite than he'd ever seen in anything. Hayley thought it was a trivial thing to be worried about until Klaus suggested she and Jackson take Hope for a walk. The fact Klaus –of all people- suggested she take Hope outside with the threat of Dahlia so fresh, Hayley knew he was truly worried for her safety within the walls. The thought was a bit terrifying.
Klaus brought the bags to K and told her he'd be back. He didn't bother lying to her and openly told the young woman he planed to follow Hayley and Jackson, though he didn't tell K she was the reason for their trip outside the compound's walls. He merely told her Hayley wanted Hope to grow acquainted with the city, but he was going to stand guard.
K could feel the lie. She didn't hear it because no one's tongue was clad in more silver than Niklaus Mikaelson's, but she could feel it in her gut. She could feel that she was the reason he had his daughter scurried from the premises. It hurt, but she wished for the child to be as far away from her as possible considering her unexplained condition.
Klaus had given K eleven bags. Each bag was a pint. In total, she had nearly two humans worth of food. It should have lasted her weeks ordinarily with one a day being copious. Even a starving vampire could have feasted on the near dozen bags for a few days. But not K. The moment her eyes fell to the crimson liquid sloshing around inside its plastic prison, K felt the fires return.
Fire actually didn't seem a sufficient way the describe the sensation she felt. No, this was something else.
Without the need to eat human food, though still having to on occasion, K was reminded of what it felt to burn the inside of her mouth. When she was a child and Klaus had first purchased her, he had the other servants feed her something hot. K devoured the meal without a second thought because it had been the first real bit of food she'd had in weeks. The meal was a hot stew and a bit of bread, simple and served its purpose, but the stew had been fresh off the fire. It bubbled within the iron pot seconds before it was brought to her in a bowl.
A potato had been the culprit. It burned the roof of her mouth, scalded it and left behind a mark. If she hadn't been so hungry then she would have noticed, but it took until she drank something before the injury was revealed. The burn was so bad that she couldn't touch the roof of her mouth with her tongue for nearly a week and closing her mouth at all –because of nothing more than her body heat- was impossible for three days.
This was like that. No, this was worse. It felt like her mouth, gums, tongue and throat were scalded. It felt like her lungs were breathing in noxious, ashy smoke that threatened to choke her and the only thing that made any of those horrible sensations better was blood. The blood cooled her throat, ebbed the ache and filled her stomach. It was strange that the feeding in truth had little to do with actual hunger. It had to do with healing her body, returning it to normal and keeping the pain away.
From Klaus the first night she woke, K assumed she drank nearly his body's worth. As fast as he healed and the size of his body, Klaus perhaps produced blood as quickly as a normal injury would have drained it. It would replace what was lost as though it never happened. But not with K. She drained him until he was lightheaded. If someone could fathom the actual math, they'd have realized her first feeding from Klaus took nearly fifteen pints of blood from the hybrid, an amount far more than she should have been able to eat and enough he was lightheaded.
And she did it again later that day. Between Klaus and the bags he'd given her, K drank a staggering forty-five pints of blood in little more than 24 hours. It should have been impossible. It should have made her sick. But it didn't. It didn't do anything…
Later in the morning when Klaus returned, he was in a foul mood. It wasn't something new –by far- but K felt it was in part her fault. She thought her rousing and increasing appetite was causing him unneeded worry and there for bringing out his temper.
"I'm sorry." She interrupted while he was in the middle of spouting his rage that the wolves weren't protecting the house and its inhabitants well enough.
"What?" he asked. He'd been unprepared for her input and it caused him to pause.
When he turned to face her –being too busy pacing to notice much when he arrived- he noticed K sitting in her chair, facing the window with her knees pulled to her chest, her head resting lazily to the side and a slew of empty bags beneath her. He raised a brow to the sight.
"Have you already depleted your supply?" he couldn't keep the shock from his voice.
"Yes." She answered in the same lofty, empty voice.
His brows came together softly. Klaus took measured steps forward. He stopped when he stood beside her and even placed his hand on the back of the chair. She didn't even bother glancing to him.
Somehow, despite the life-giving liquid she'd ingested non-stop since waking, K looked pale. She looked a bit like a specter, not in this world or the other, but instead with a foot on either side of the void keeping her divided between the two. It was a bit heartbreaking to see. He wanted it to end, though he didn't know how. He was giving her what she wanted and it didn't seem enough. So perhaps he would give her something else. Her issue didn't seem to be just body, but mind as well.
Klaus stepped away from K. His retreat forced her to turn her head and watch him disappear for as long as she could until the back of the chair blocked her. She didn't know where he'd gone, only that he left, and when he had she turned her attention again to the window. It made her assume she was right, that she'd disappointed him with her unexplained appetite.
A few moments later she heard his footsteps again. This time when he approached he stepped around so she could better see him. His mind flashed briefly with the similarities between her now and how she'd been just after he saved her from Finn when she was human. He remembered her looking just as despondent and sad back then and what he'd done to bring just a bit of her back from it.
"I've gotten you something." He told her.
K's brows twitched together in confusion. She looked at him oddly.
"Why?"
"It was meant to be a birthday present, but you didn't return to New Orleans until much later than I'd thought."
K's brows tightened and her eyes briefly lost focus as she thought. He cocked a single eyebrow at the odd behavior. It was something he recognized.
"Your bloody birthday was two months ago." He sighed. She'd forgotten again. "Honestly…" he mumbled with slight disapproval. "You can remember things that happen a millennia ago, but your own birthday manages to always escape your attention."
"It's not my birthday." She replied simply.
And in many ways it wasn't. She never had one. It wasn't until she was older and she and Klaus were closer that he asked how old she was. She said she didn't know because her owners didn't expect her to survive which meant they never marked the day. All she knew was they told her she'd been born in the winter. He asked how many had passed since her birth and at the time it had been fourteen. So, being the man he was, Klaus gave her a date. February 1st –the day he'd asked her in the first place- became her birthday. But, as she told him, it wasn't her birth day in the literal sense.
"So why would I remember?" she asked.
Klaus did little more than roll his eyes.
"Yet there's not doubt you remember every Bennett who was beneath your care." He said sarcastically. She gave him a stern, yet sarcastic glance which was his answer. "Regardless," he decided to move the conversation along. "This is for you."
Klaus offered her the small white jewelry box. It rested easily in the center of his palm. She stared at it strangely as she slowly sat upright. With a tentative hand, she took the box and opened it. Klaus watched as shock washed over her features. It was mixed with a sense of awe which made his chest swell with pride.
As Rebekah had, she picked it up gently by its chain and let the pendant swing softly under its own weight. The M was clear to her. It was a representation of everything Klaus was from a Mikaelson to a Viking. The simple symbol showed it all. And on the back etched in his language were three simple words. Love. Family. Forever.
"It's beautiful." She breathed after a moment or two of adoration.
Klaus let his smile turn arrogant. He thought he was allowed to after watching her fall in love with the piece at first sight. Without a word, he reached forward and took it from her grasp. He stepped behind the chair and brought the necklace over her head. She shifted her body so he could clasp it on.
"No matter the distance, or time that passes," he said as he clasped the chain. Klaus let it rest gently against her skin and stepped around to the front to see the piece hanging around her neck. "Family always finds it way back together. I thought I'd lost you before until you returned a thousand years later," K had been looking at the locket until he spoke about the past. She looked up through her lashes at him. "And now, not even death, can separate you from us."
He met her gaze and saw her staring at him with a degree of wonder he thought sweet. It forced a soft smile on his lips.
"Love. Family,"
"Forever." She finished. His smile broadened. "Thank you, Niklaus. I love it."
He gave her a slight nod as thanks for the compliment then offered his hand. She took it reticently.
"Come," he said kindly. "There's someone I think it time you meet."
K didn't understand who or where they were going, but followed as he led her out of his room. Together and still holding hands, the pair went downstairs to the main floor and into the dinning area. Hayley was already seated at the table with Rebekah across from her. Elijah lingered in the back leaning leisurely against the wall and a blond woman K had never seen before was by a table with a tray of fine China. Rebekah noticed the necklace and smiled, a sentiment Elijah shared, but caused Hayley to narrow her eyes curiously. None of them mentioned it, however.
"Kali," Klaus began with a sigh. He didn't sound as though he was happy with the introduction he was about to make. "This is Freya," the blond turned and smiled warmly to K which she found slightly disarming. "Our sister."
The surprise K felt was displayed freely across her features while the blond continued to smile.
"As I said before," K began in a soft voice. "Your family's proclivity to avert death will never cease to amaze me."
The sentence caused a few in the background both to smile and squirm at the truth of it.
"Hello Kali," Freya greeted in a voice as warm as her smile. She offered her hand. "I've heard a lot about you."
The sentence was technically a lie, but true as well. Freya hadn't heard anything about the vampire from anyone, but she'd been in both Klaus and Elijah's head, so she knew everything at the same time.
K reached forward and clasped the witch's hand to shake it kindly, but it didn't remain that way. Feeling the warmth of the human and smelling the blood, the vampire inside her began to come out. When she felt her teeth point within her mouth, K quickly released Freya's hand and averted her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said under her breath. "I don't seem to have much control over myself since I woke up."
Freya didn't look offended. Instead, the smile remained.
"I'm afraid that may be my fault." She said. Attention shifted solely to the blond, including that of K. "It was an unintended side-effect."
"Side-effect of what, exactly?" Klaus asked in a dangerous voice.
Freya gave her younger brother her attention, but the smile lost its warmth. It remained, but it was cold and forced.
"Of waking her, of course."
Shock rippled through those gathered.
"How?" K asked.
Freya's smile turned warm once more when she looked at K. It was strange how the same expression changed so much without effort.
"A droplet of blood, nothing more. My blood, to be precise." She explained. "It was enough to awaken you, but I'm afraid your new hunger seems to be an unintended byproduct, but it was necessary. You're lucky. That stake should have killed you and I think would have if you and Niklaus weren't linked like you are."
"I can't stop feeding." She admitted, ignoring the fact that Freya divulged just how much she knew about K and Klaus's 'relationship'. "I'm dangerous, right now, more than I should be. You have to make this stop before I hurt someone."
"It will fade the longer you're awake," she said as reassuringly as she could. "In the mean time," Freya turned towards the tea cups and removed a pin from something on her wrist. She used it to prick her finger and dropped a bit of blood into one of the cups. Replacing the pin, she took the cup and offered it to K. "This should keep the hunger at bay and the tonic will help with Dahlia."
Klaus felt his gut turn at the mention of his aunt. Dealing with K's hunger had taken the foreground instead of telling K what happening since she was asleep. K stared at Freya.
"Beg pardon?" she asked.
Without offering an immediate answer, Freya retrieved the tray and set it down on the table between everyone.
"This tonic," she began as she handed it out to those gathered. "Will keep Dahlia from entering your minds and taking control."
Rebekah, Hayley and Elijah drank the mixture while Klaus predictably avoided reaching for his glass. Elijah lifted it and offered it to his brother, but he could see something else in the hybrid's eyes.
"Niklaus, is there something else you wish to add?" Elijah asked.
"Well, I prefer biscuits with my tea." He said sarcastically. Elijah sighed and set the cup back down. "Besides, we are too powerful for her to invade our minds with simple spells." He turned to K and took her cup away. He set it on the table beside his and looked at his sister. "You'll give her a drop of your blood without the mixture."
"Will I?" she challenged, mostly to annoy her brother.
"She will not take anything from you, let alone a brew you've created." He shot at his sister without hesitation. "And I'm not entirely certain how your blood's meant to help."
"If she doesn't take it, the thirst will fade, but I cannot tell you how long it will take or what might happen in the meantime." She said sternly. "Do you really want to risk her wellbeing for your pride?"
"She," K snapped drawing their attention. "Can hear you. And she can her make her own decisions. And she," she looked at Klaus. "Is going to drink the tea."
Klaus' jaw clenched tightly as K grabbed the cup and drank its contents in one quick gulp. Almost immediately the hunger diminished. It was an odd sensation, like a breeze that ran straight through her, and she felt instantly better for it.
"Oh thank god." She sighed to herself.
Freya smiled triumphantly at her brother who fought the urge to bark back at her. He ignored her and went about the speech he had planned to deliver in the first place.
Elijah suggested finding a stronghold where magic was useless and Freya wanted to trace Jackson's possession back to Dahlia herself. Hayley reluctantly agreed which seemed to make Klaus smile.
"Wonderful!" he exclaimed happier than he should have. "Now, off you pop to your respective tasks. Me, I've always been of the opinion that a good offense is always better than a good defense."
