Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries
...
AN# Okay, I just have to get this off my chest. The writers of vampire diaries pairing Caroline and Stefan together? Okay, I can accept that. I might even come to like the pairing because I think that Caroline's character has always had a thing for the youngest Salvatore, and I like her. But ONLY if Elena gets the OTHER Salvatore.
I'm sorry, but whether you like Elena or not, which, as you can tell from my story, I'm not without my own issues with the character, she IS still the MAIN character! And to have Damon AND Stefan, in the SAME season, turn around and fall hopelessly in love with her BEST friends! Damon and Bonnie! I know it's in the books, but that was when Elena had STEFAN! I can't hack it! Seriously! The idea that Caroline has Stefan, and Bonnie has Damon, and Elena has…nothing but two cool vampires that, essentially, outgrew her and woke up to what was right in front of them the entire time in the guise of her best friends! Not only that! But the writers are now saying that the endgame pairings are: Caroline & Stefan, Bonnie & Damon, Elena & (Wait for it…) MATT! Mr, I-have-no-personality-or-sex-appeal-whatsoever, is Elena's endgame!
How is that fair? How is that anything but…awful? Am I the only one feeling absolutely revolted and indignant on Elena's behalf here? Because Matt, for all of his being a stand-up guy and all, is NOT a catch! And he is NOT Cool! How can they have the main female lead end up with him as her 'great love' and the Salvatore vampires with her best friends?!
Urgh…I just…Urgh!
…
Shock, followed swiftly by cautious unease flashed brilliantly through bright-green orbs.
The muscles in his neck tightened with dangerous anger.
"…How did you find out?" Rei asked softly; quick hands sweeping chaotic, ebony curls over her shoulder.
The seething rage inside him grew.
There was no apology in her expression, no guilt for her deception. And it ate at him. Galvainised.
"Your friend, Stefan, isn't half so talented at lying as you are, Rei," Klaus complimented mockingly, taking a deliberate step closer to the beautiful raven-haired witch, invading her personal space. "My curiousity, I'm afraid, got the better of me. When I inquired as to the reason behind your frosty demeanour, well, let's just say his panicked back-peddling didn't exactly add-up with your pointed, yet, casual anger towards him."
Emerald eyes fluttered closed in frustration.
"After that, it wasn't exactly difficult to figure out that what you had so cleverly led me to believe was nothing more than a frivolous argument, was actually something far more important," He stated softly, voice hard.
Breathing out shakily, emerald darted up to lock with blue-grey.
"He wouldn't have told you," Her small shoulders straightened confidently, stubbornly. Defiant. "Stefan loves Elena more than his own life…there is no way he told you willingly."
"Of course, he didn't," Klaus scoffed, but his eyes watched her closely. "Tell me something, Rei, just how experienced are you when it comes to vampires?" Despite his anger, despite his rage, the curiousity rose up in him quickly. She should have known without question how he got Stefan to talk. Compulsion should have been the first thing her mind thought of, and yet, it wasn't. Why? "I've watched you these past five weeks, the way you look at Stefan when he looses control, when the bloodlust overtakes him…for a person who moved into a town with vampires, you seem to have a strange lack of real understanding for the species."
She took a large step back, glaring at him.
"While it might surprise you to learn, Niklaus," Rei spat. "Magical Britain isn't exactly safe for dark creatures-"
"Oh, I know," A harsh laugh escaped him. "I've said it before, wizards and witches have more in common with the muggles they seem to hate than they care to admit. Including a fear of those dangerous or different to them."
Emerald flashed angrily. "My world doesn't trust vampires," She admitted stiffly. "They never have."
"Is that your way of saying that your first real interaction with the immortal species coincidently coincided with your move to America, sweetheart?" He grinned. "You'd think that the saviour of the Wizarding World would have broadened her understanding of the world instead of letting the prejudices of her kind dictate her views."
"You know nothing!" Rei hissed furiously, bright green eyes blazing with fury.
"I know enough," Niklaus stated shortly, the evidence of her provoked anger cooling his own. "I know that you're intelligent enough that you should have realised that I must have used compulsion on Stefan. I know that only a lack of experienced knowledge would explain why you didn't come to that conclusion immediately. But, most importantly, Rei, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that should you have been serious about doing all you could about keeping the secret of Elena's survival from me, that you're cunning enough to have seen the hurdles that Stefan didn't."
She jerked back, eyes wide with shock.
"The fact that you did nothing to ensure Stefan's mind remained beyond my control says more for your true motives than your silence."
"What are you talking about?" Rei breathed, looking shocked to her core.
Niklaus stepped forward, unwilling to let her hide from the truth. "You and I both know that there is more reason to your compliance in the last five weeks than you're willing to tell. I let you keep that secret. Despite knowing that you had an ulterior motive for so willingly joining me this summer, I let you keep it hidden."
"You're wrong-!"
"No, I'm not," He cut her off with a snarl. "I am far from a fool, Rei. For whatever reason, you want my hybrids to succeed. What I never imagined was that you want them to succeed so much that you knowingly stood by and let Elena's survival be discovered."
"That is not what happened!" Rei spat, lethal hostility blazing from her eyes. "Don't twist-!"
"I'm not twisting anything!" Klaus laughed. "I know you're smart enough to have seen the flaws in Stefan's plan to keep me in the dark, and yet, you did nothing!" He crowed, spreading his arms wide. "You did nothing to stop me from finding out. And we both know that if you really wanted to, it wouldn't have been so simple for me to discover the truth."
He couldn't believe that he had wasted five weeks! Five weeks! In his endeavour to create more hybrids. The last three days he had wracked his brain trying to come up with reasons the pack in the Smoky Mountains had died. It should have worked, he knew that beyond a doubt. The fact that it hadn't had sent his mind through free-fall! Had him questioning everything! To find out now that the answer had been staring him straight in the face, the simplest, yet, most unbelievable reason of them all…!
Elena Gilbert was still alive.
"How do you think Stefan would feel if he knew that you did more than simply refuse to promise your silence on the subject?" He goaded softly, taking pleasure in the temper he could see raging behind emerald-green eyes. "That your 'act of omission' could very well have cost him the love of his life?"
Niklaus had never professed to be fair. Good. He wasn't. He was an innately selfish man. He loved very few, but those he did, he loved with everything he was. And whether it was due to intelligence, charm, cunning or skill, Klaus was used to getting what he wanted. Expected it. That two such young individuals, a juvenile group of mismatched supernatural beings such as those who lived in Mystic Falls, had actually succeeded in stalling his plans…! His pride ate at him like acid.
"...How do you think he'd look at you then?" Arching a mocking brow, his voice was soft, threatening.
Rei's hands clenched tightly at her sides, shaking with barely restrained anger.
"You-!" Breathing out harshly, she shook her head. "…I have more than Elena Gilbert's future to think about," The harsh, furious statement, for all its whisper-like volume, pierced the charged silence between them like a knife.
Niklaus drew back.
Without permission, narrowed, blue-grey eyes swept the stoney expression dominating the witch's delicately featured face. A sudden, burning curiousity swelling inside of him. Distracting him from his fury.
And he couldn't stand it.
Ever since he'd met her that morning he was possessing the hunter's body…she'd intrigued him. For someone so good at unravelling a person's motives, figuring out what made them tick, what motivated them…the curiousity he felt around her never seemed to quench. The embers were always there, ready to flare at the most inopportune times.
It ate at him.
This…accursed fascination.
He couldn't figure her out.
He was never sure of how she would react. What she would say.
And he couldn't stand it.
Not knowing.
And the feeling refused to budge. Refused to be pushed aside.
…He needed to figure her out. Discover the building blocks of her personality. Only then would this infuriating curiousity leave him alone!
Niklaus raised an eyebrow, nothing of the turmoil of his thoughts showing on his face. "'I have more than Elena Gilbert's future to think about'…" He echoed. "Don't tell me," A large, mocking grin darted across his lips. "The world rests on your shoulders."
Fire practically shot from emerald-green irises.
Before either one of them could say anything, a slightly tan hand slid between them, breaking their locked gazes.
"Here you go!"
Turning his neck, Klaus locked a truly dark glare on the over-enthusiastic, human male he'd caught blushing under the witch's attention when he'd first slipped into the store.
But the boy wasn't staring at him.
"Thank-you," Rei smiled tightly, taking the expensive black box, packed with the blue designer dress she'd picked out for Rebekah, from the shop-assistant's outstretched hands. "Here," Passing over a strange looking credit-card, Klaus barely restrained his impatience when the human's face suddenly dropped.
"Um, I'm really sorry," The true sincerity saturating the brat's voice had blue-grey rolling. "But I don't think we take this card."
"For god's sake-!" Cursing beneath his breath, Klaus pulled his wallet from his back pocket, sliding one of the many credit cards free. "Use this!" Shoving the black American Express in the young man's face, a forbidding glare in his eyes, he was unsurprised to hear the soft yelp of fear before a shaky hand reached up to take the card from his grasp.
"Wait!"
Turning narrowed eyes on Rei's glaring form, Niklaus forced down the vicious comment on the tip of his tongue.
"What?" He hissed.
Ignoring him completely, she turned a blinding smile on the quickly dazed shop-assistant, holding up her own unfamiliar card again.
"I know that it looks a little different, but I assure you, it works," She told the human firmly.
"I-I just don't think that we take-"
"You do," She cut him off cleanly, actually putting the card in his limp hand. "Trust me."
Folding his arms, Klaus watched with a mixture of anger and amusement as the twenty-three year old man nodded helplessly before spinning around to hurry back to the cash register.
"Cute," He deadpanned, narrowing his eyes at the innocent blink she shot his way.
"The card will work," Rei stated confidently, staring him down. "Gringotts assured me that no matter what cards are accepted at muggle stores or restaurants, the one they issued me will always go through correctly."
"Not what I was talking about, love, as you well know," He smirked, lips twitching at the way she deliberately avoided his eyes at the mention of her flirting. She was a devilish little creature. "But, now that you've brought it up, I did not give you permission to leave the warehouse and go shopping for my sister."
"Someone had to," She countered instantly, absolutely no apology in her tone.
His teeth ground together painfully, the memory of his little sister's glassy eyes as she stared mournfully at the shattered remains of her day-light ring flashing quickly through his mind's eye.
"I look after my family," Klaus sneered angrily, the unexpected response making emerald orbs whip around to face him. "Rebekah has never wanted for anything. Never." Protective fury, coupled with the strange absence of his own ring, darkened his voice to a threatening croon. "And, perhaps, if you had stopped to think before flinging your weakened, damaged magic around, destroying Rebekah's day-light ring; it might have occurred to you that such an action could mean far more damage than the minute amount that you thought it would."
"Excuse me-!"
"It worked!" The joyous, loud laugh of the clearly interested shop-boy suddenly cut her off. "You were right." With the speed and violence of a bullet both Klaus and Rei jerked back.
Engrossed in each other to a point neither would ever consciously allow, the abrupt interruption, by some small miracle, actually managed to catch both intimidatingly vigilant individuals off guard.
Spinning around to face the beaming young man, Rei breathed out, nodding tightly. Making no move to speak, too busy shooting an icy glare at him from over her shoulder, her deft fingers wasted no time in snatching the offered card from human's outstretched hand.
Clenching his hand into a fist at his side, inwardly cursing his dangerous distraction, blue-grey narrowed on the shop-assistant still standing dumbly beside them; his earlier impatience returning with a vengeance.
"Go away," Niklaus glared, his face a picture of disgust.
Swallowing loudly, heart-rate increasing, the twenty-three year old male, nevertheless, shot a quick, hopeful glance towards the beautiful witch stuffing her Gringotts bank card into the back pocket of her jeans.
When the young man went to open his mouth, presumably having gathered all his courage, all Klaus did was raise his brow.
The shop-assistant left quickly.
A soft scoff from beside him drew his attention.
Rei smiled sarcastically. "I love your manners."
"Why waste such effort on those who do not matter?" Giving her no chance to object, his fingers wrapped around her elbow, pulling her close against his side.
"Get your hands off me!" She struggled futilely against his hold, her strength no match for his.
"Time to get a move on, Rei," Klaus stated, voice sharp. Moving quickly, he plucked the black box from her hands and opened the boutique's door. "You and Stefan have already wasted enough of my time." With that, he shoved her outside.
Stumbling on the footpath, he watched with amused eyes as her small, nubile body twisted gracefully, regaining her footing with impressive swiftness.
"You are such an impatient jackass!" She growled, pushing thick, chaotic curls out of her eyes. "And people say patience comes with age," She snorted derisively.
"I wouldn't go throwing stones at glass-houses, love," Klaus quipped, striding past her bent over form without looking back. "You're not exactly the most patient woman I've ever met."
Glancing up at the early afternoon sun, his lips thinned, mentally calculating how long it would take to reach Gloria's from here.
Too long.
Letting his phone drop down his sleeve, he blindly pressed five on speed-dial, bringing the receiver up to his ear.
Without warning, a sharp, pointed elbow suddenly drove deeply into one of the spaces between his ribs.
"What the-!" Spinning around, not hurt in the least, he came face to face with satisfied emerald.
Rei shot him a stunning grin before striding forward, attempting to hit his shoulder as she did, but, comically, the shoving movement had no effect.
"Well, that taught me," He said dryly, smirking at the irritated frustration that brightened her eyes.
"I am not a dog," Rei snapped, a darkly serious tone to her voice. "Don't treat me like one."
Raising his hands in a sign of surrender, he waited until her back was turned before chuckling, finding humour in the way her shoulders stiffened when his laughter echoed behind her.
"Hello?"
The voice on the other end of the phone had his immediate attention.
"Bring the car around," Klaus ordered. "I'm on the corner of Prescott street heading north." Without waiting for a reply, he hung up.
"Who was that?" Rei asked suspiciously, gazing at him from over her shoulder.
Raising an eyebrow, Niklaus moved so that he was walking beside her. "Anyone ever tell you that you're too curious for your own good?"
As if his words meant something more than he had intended, a glint appeared in her eyes, lips quirking up in a half-smile. "Maybe," the witch admitted before turning to look up at him through narrowed eyes. "But that doesn't answer my question."
"Simply someone that I compelled to take me where ever I need to go while in the Chicago."
"…Lovely." As she turned her eyes back to the footpath ahead of them, a flash of colour caught his immediate attention.
Uncaring of ideologies such as personal space or privacy, Klaus reached out a hand to turn her chin, letting his eyes take in the slowly purpling bruise that was developing around the vulnerable skin of her neck.
"What happened?" He asked lowly, a strange flash of emotion rising in him at the sight of the injury.
"Nothing," She snapped, jerking her chin free of his grasp. Seeing the slowly darkening light in his eyes, emerald rolled, deliberately increasing the space between their bodies. "Your sister, alright?! She got a little upset when she realised just how long she was laying dead in that coffin."
His hand fisted at his side and Klaus nodded tightly. "I apologise for my sister's actions," He stated formally, the words feeling like acid on his tongue. "She can be a vicious little thing-"
"Like you?" Rei interrupted rudely.
He smirked. "The comparison has been made, yes," He admitted with a low laugh.
"Of course, it has," She said dryly.
A sleek, black car suddenly pulled up to the curb, sliding smoothly into the tight space between cars. "Ah," Stopping Rei with a reflexive movement of his hand, he waved towards the expensive vehicle. "Seems our ride is here."
Frowning down at the hand on her arm, Rei shook him off, glowering at him before turning on her heel, stalking over to the car.
"And your manners are impeccable, love," He murmured sarcastically under his breath, following after her and slipping into the leather interior. "Gloria's bar," He told the compelled man sitting in the driver's seat.
"Of course, sir."
…
She could feel the intense, swirling emotions surrounding the dangerous hybrid in her bones.
Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, the black leather moved noisily in the silence of the expensive car but Rei never once removed her eyes from their dedicated examination of the world moving outside the tinted window.
"…What did you mean back in the shop?" Her soft, sudden question broke the quiet of the car.
The burning heat of blue-grey eyes was immediate on the vulnerable skin at the back of her neck.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific, love," Klaus drawled arrogantly.
Gritting her teeth, Rei turned in her seat until she was looking directly at the expectant, infuriatingly handsome features of his blonde-stubbled face.
"You said something about your sister's day-light ring," She explained shortly.
A dark look suddenly darted across his face, mouth thinning.
"That I did," He murmured, smiling without humour.
Brow furrowed with confusion, the sinking feeling in her stomach telling her that she was missing something, that the almost aggressive light in his eyes wasn't normal, didn't make sense, Rei cleared her throat.
"Am I going to have to drag it out of you, Niklaus?" She asked wryly, knowing without having to be told that she was walking on thin ice by provoking him so openly.
From the moment he'd realised her problems with magic, he was in the position of power. It was just the way it was. As the Original Hybrid, he was one of the few that she could honestly say she questioned whether her magic would be enough to subdue him. It was only her certainty that, at full strength, in a real battle between them, Klaus wouldn't know whether he would be able to overcome her either, that soothed the sting of that knowledge.
But unlike the purebloods of her generation and those past, Rei had lived the first eleven years of her life in the muggle world. For all intents and purposes, she was muggle-born. And it was that background, that non-magical knowledge, that had ensured she never underestimated muggles.
Intellect. Cunning. Manipulation. Charm. Opportunism.
They were as important, as dangerous, as any magic in a dual.
Unfortunately, Niklaus Mikaelson knew this all too well.
In the same position, with someone just a touch more arrogant, a shade less intelligent, a degree less cunning…she'd have more room to work.
But she won against him as often as she lost.
And that made her wary.
She was beyond infuriated, of course, but beneath the bitterness, rage and pointless vexation…she was on edge.
Both Dumbledore and Riddle had mind's she could never hope to possess. True prodigies. The magic they were capable of moulding was awe-inspiring to any eye. And they'd both been master manipulators.
Even so, in the same position of weakness against them…somehow, Rei didn't think she'd feel as trapped as she did in Klaus' company.
Beyond her incredible mastery and gift in Defence Against the Dark Arts, something that she acknowledged without arrogance made her a formidable opponent to anyone on the battlefield; what really pushed her over the edge, allowed her to outmanoeuvre minds that were her intellectual superior again and again, was her ability to read people quickly and incorporate that priceless knowledge into a strategy to get what she wanted.
She'd been better at it than Dumbledore.
And he'd known it too.
It was the reason he'd assigned her the task of extracting the memory of Riddle from Horace Slughorn in her sixth year. It was the reason he'd left her to her to fight her own battles with the student population; forcing her to hone her ability with as many minds and individuals as she could.
It was the reason she knew, despite everyone telling her she was wrong; that Bellatrix did love her husband. That, contrary to every experience that said differently, the dark witch would falter at a threat to the Lestrange Lord.
And she'd been right.
That small, tiny nugget of information, directed by a mind that knew exactly how and when to use it in order to gain the most, brought about the end of the three Lestranges. In one fell swoop.
So, no, she wasn't used to feeling like she was backed into a corner. There was always a way to fight back. And she had been. She'd won countless arguments over the summer, forced him into decisions he wouldn't otherwise have made.
…But so had she.
And yet, despite her victories, despite the anger and fury that would light him up from the inside whenever she won against him…he never hurt her.
Which is the reason she pushed him now.
"I doubt it'll come to that," Klaus chuckled darkly, eyes glinting angrily as he swept her expectant form. "You destroyed one of only two things my sister still had of our mother, Rei…So, thank-you."
Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't that.
Her stomach dropped uncomfortably, the tiniest sprinklings of guilt flitting through her before she clamped down harshly on the feeling.
"I didn't realise-"
"Of course, you didn't," Klaus cut her off sharply, a very real, deep anger simmering behind his eyes. "You didn't think at all."
Rei bristled. "It was a little difficult to give such things as sentimentally any mind when your sister had her hand wrapped around my throat," She hissed.
When blue-grey orbs swung round to pierce her in that next moment, the words died in her throat.
There was understanding in that gaze. Knowledge that she was right, that her actions hadn't been out of proportion to Rebekah's threat. But it wasn't that which had emerald eyes widening with shock. It was the burning, intense, overwhelming anger that utterly dwarfed his reason.
Protective.
The fury in his eyes…no amount of logic would saté this anger.
She'd seen it so many times in her life. That protective, unreasonable rage that came only with a threat or hurt against family. He was angry, furious…because she'd hurt his sister. The same sister he daggered, kept in a coffin for over ninety years, and he was practically growling at her for hurting her. Hurting her feelings.
She didn't know why she was so surprised to see it, that protective fury, in the powerful hybrid.
…But she was.
She was surprised.
"…I can repair it," The soft words left her lips before she'd even realised she was thinking of voicing them.
"What?!" Klaus snapped, hands pressing aggressively against his knees.
With a wry grin pulling at her lips, barely able to believe that she was about to offer the blonde man what some might construe as a 'favour', Rei caught his eyes with hers.
"Your sister's day-light ring, I can fix it."
Surprise followed almost immediately by intrigued understanding flooded blue-grey.
"…Good," The familiar accented tones floated through the car, not even bothering to hide their satisfaction.
…
He came awake with a groan, his neck aching.
"I was beginning to think Klaus had done you permanent damage," A wry, clipped voice
commented from above him.
Stefan's eyes snapped open, the hybrid's name triggering all too dark memories. Memories that set his dead heart racing with panic.
His legs moved quickly, muscles tensing as he went to leap upright, only, he couldn't. Hard, strong leather straps held him pressed tightly against a small table, virtually immobile.
"Wha…?" Tugging furiously at the straps around his wrists, Stefan looked up at the blank-faced Gloria standing beside him, her hands mixing herbs. "How did I get here? Why am I-?!"
"Confined to a table?" She finished for him, her voice casual. "I find that it's easier to get things done when the vampire in question is restrained."
Like dominos falling, Stefan's mind began to race, quickly realising that whatever situation he was in, it wasn't friendly.
"What are you talking about?" He demanded, lips pulled back in a low growl.
Walking towards him, Gloria suddenly pressed her flat palm to his unclothed chest.
Pain exploded across his senses, the familiar burn of vervain hissing against his skin.
"I hate vampires," The witch suddenly whispered, her normally attractive face pulled into a hateful snarl. "You think you can just waltz into my bar, demand my assistance, and I'll give you whatever you want?"
"T-That wasn't me!" He struggled to get the words out, the toxic herb coating her hand eating quickly through the layers of his skin. "I d-didn't ask-!"
"I saw the look on your face when I mentioned the necklace, Stefan," Gloria interrupted, crooning against his ear as she used the arm on his chest to balance her weight, pressing unforgivingly against the bloody, burned wound. "You knew what I was talking about."
"No," He shook his head back and forth, a new dread settling in his gut as the full measure of his danger sunk in.
"Don't lie!" She hissed, nails digging painfully into the ruined mess of his chest. "You know where it is, I could see it in your eyes."
"Please…d-don't," With a gasp, terrible pain cut into his temples. Gloria's magic attacking him ruthlessly as the vervain started to dry up.
"You already lied to Klaus once, Stefan, do you really think he's going to let you live?" She laughed darkly. "In a way, you might say I'm doing you a favour by seeing to your death myself. I'm sure he'd make it far more painful than I ever could."
Crying out, Stefan forced his teeth together, hate storming through him as the sadistic witch chuckled at his obvious agony before suddenly moving away.
"Why do you want the amulet?" The harsh, gasping words left him without permission, hazel eyes glaring blackly at the white-haired witch humming over her herbs. "What use is it to you?"
Finally finished with whatever preparations had preoccupied her, Gloria turned her neck to smile thinly at him from over her shoulder. "I shouldn't worry about that, Stefan. You won't be around to care. But I do have limited time before Klaus gets back with his stupid slut of a sister, so I think we'd best get a start on things, don't you?"
Straining against the hands that descended on either side of his head, Stefan snarled furiously as the witch unhesitatingly used her powers to freeze his struggling body, despising her with every fibre of his being.
"Now," Murmuring beneath her breath, Gloria's dark eyes fluttered shut, a small frown of concentration puling at the skin between her brows. "Lets see what you've been hiding, hmmm?"
Like a hammer through glass, she delved inside his mind.
"Ooh! Look at you! You look hot in your jersey."
Stefan didn't even try to contain his chuckle, smiling gently at the happy light that seemed to radiate from the beautiful brunette in front of him.
"What happened?" He asked, lips pulling into a grin at the sight of her jeans and top. "No more cheerleader?"
The smallest flush spread across Elena's cheeks, dark brown eyes crinkling with mirth. "I quit," She admitted, smiling guiltily. "I'm a quitter."
Feral growls and snarls escaped his lips as Stefan violently shook his head back and forth, desperate to dislodge her. To stop her.
But it was no use.
"Just a little more," Gloria murmured to herself; palms pressing tightly against his temples.
"No, hey," Stepping forward, Stefan raised his hand to tuck a long lock of brown hair behind her ear, heart aching at the small pain he could see lingering in Elena's dark eyes. "You're not a quitter. You suffered a great loss. You're not the same person. You should be looking ahead. You should be starting over, okay?" He watched as the small pain in her eyes slowly receded as he continued to speak until it disappeared entirely; content happiness taking its place as she stared up at him. Stefan smiled crookedly. "I hope you don't think this is too soon, or too weird, but-"
"No!"
Beads of sweat broke out across his brow, the only physical manifestation of his panicked effort. Growling, Stefan strained against the magic holding him still, desperate to break the invisible chains before she saw any more.
Gloria let out a small hiss of annoyance before a startling shock of pain suddenly ricocheted down his spine, making him gasp.
Harsh, unyielding quicksand caught him, pulling him back under without mercy.
"I, uh, I wanted you to have this." Raising his other hand, a silver necklace dangled from his fingers, attracting Elena's immediate attention.
"Oh my God, it's beautiful," Elena exclaimed softly, brown eyes softening even further.
"It's something that I've had forever, and, uh, I've never wanted to give it to anyone until now." Grinning ruefully, he let the twinkle in his eyes break the tension, watching as a similar grin spread quickly across Elena's lips. "I'd very much like it if you'd wear it for me, for…good luck."
Brown orbs glinting happily, she turned around so that her back was facing him, pulling her hair to one side so that he could put the necklace on her.
Careful not to touch the amulet he'd laced with protective vervain, Stefan stepped closer to Elena's body, gently clasping the metal around her throat.
"The doppelgänger," Gloria breathed, a loud laugh falling from her lips as her hands dropped from Stefan's head. "You gave Rebekah's necklace to the Petrova doppelgänger."
Head thumping, his body trembling with pain, Stefan somehow found the energy to glare hatefully at the sadistic woman grinning triumphantly beside him.
"…Is that so?" A cool, accented voice suddenly spoke up from the bar's entrance, shattering the silence. "My sister will be so relieved to hear that."
Swallowing hard, his head still pounding, Stefan looked across the bar.
Concerned emerald eyes instantly locked with his own.
"I'd ask you for an explanation that would explain this…unfortunate situation, Gloria," Klaus mused conversationally, moving forward with unhurried steps, "But I'm fairly certain that I've grasped the important points." His relaxed stance did nothing to disguise the danger lurking beneath his polite veneer.
With one last, lingering look his way, Rei moved towards the small table Gloria had used to mix her herbs; eyes alight with cold curiousity.
"Klaus…" Gloria's hands were outstretched, warding him off. "Just give me a chance to explain," She begged.
In that moment, Stefan wished nothing more than to speak the truth. To see the witch pay for torturing him. For forcing him to betray Elena. But he couldn't. It wouldn't help.
"I located Rebekah's necklace," Gloria rushed to explain, eyes darting frantically around the room. "As soon as you have it in your possession I will be able to contact the Original witch and find out why your hybrids are failing."
"Indeed," Klaus arched a brow, nodding slowly, mockingly. "But how about we focus on the reason you have Stefan strapped to a table, hmmm?"
"Please! Just listen to me!" Gloria gasped, taking three, hasty steps backwards. "When I mentioned the necklace earlier I noticed Stefan's reaction. I realised that he knew something about it. I didn't want to bring it up then because I wasn't sure, I had no real idea what I would even accuse him of - a suspicious widening of the eyes?! I needed something concrete. Something real! When you brought him here, I took my chance. I knew that if I was correct, he'd never admit to any knowledge, so I had to force the information from him!"
"Naturally," Klaus agreed, his tone mild; but he wasn't even looking at her.
Following the Original's gaze, Stefan's jaw locked when he saw the black-haired beauty examining Gloria's herbs and other instruments with careful hands.
Rei.
Of course.
"So you see, I was worried that I you might not believe me, or, even worse, that the Salvatore might try to turn the situation to his advantage in some way…Klaus, please!" With every lie that fell from her lips, Stefan felt his hatred for her grow.
A low, dark laugh echoed through the empty bar.
"...Do you really believe that you're going to be able to talk your way out of this mess, Gloria?"
"I was only trying to do what I promised you I would! I was only trying to help!" She begged, but her eyes didn't match her beseeching tone. There was no surrender there, only caution. She was waiting to see if Klaus would swallow her lies. "I was right about Stefan knowing where the amulet was. He gave it as a gift to the doppelgänger. She still wears it."
"No one is questioning your skills, love," Tearing his eyes away from Rei, Klaus pinned the scheming wiccan in place with one, knowing smirk. "Only your motives."
"No! You don't understand-!"
"Enough of this," For the first time, real anger seeped into the hybrid's voice. "Watching you grasp frantically at straws in the hope of saving yourself was amusing, I admit, but your pathetically transparent attempt at lying is getting on my nerves." All mildness dropped from his expression. "I don't tolerate betrayal, Gloria…You should have known better."
Movement at his wrist caught Stefan's immediate attention and he looked up to see Rei slide a knife underneath one of the thick, leather straps holding him prisoner.
The mocha skinned woman slowly straightened, her outstretched arms lowering until they came to rest at her sides.
Rei jerked the knife up sharply.
"And you should have known better than to expect any servant of nature to help you create more abominations like you," Gloria snarled, any civility she'd maintained falling away under the force of her disgusted hatred.
The leather constraint trembled but remained intact, the magic it had been spelled with refusing to allow Stefan escape.
"Don't bother girl!" The sudden change was loud, stopping Rei in her tracks. "No mere mortal weapon will overcome my magic. The ripper isn't going anywhere," She promised.
"You're lovely, did you know that?" Rei smiled sarcastically.
"You-!"
"Careful, Gloria," Klaus cut her off, voice soft. "Something tells me that you're not prepared for the kind of retaliation that comes from provoking this one."
Stefan stiffened against the table, sensing the sudden stillness in the air.
"I just need you to answer one question before I kill you, Gloria…Do you know why my hybrids keep dying?"
"So confident," The laugh that left her throat was rough, hateful. "I've been a witch a long time, Klaus. I know my craft. I won't go down without a fight."
"In other words…you don't know," He growled angrily, reading the wiccan perfectly. "Unfortunate for me, very unfortunate for you," The grin that flashed across the Original's mouth at that moment was truly dark. "I'm going to enjoy this."
Gloria's attack came out of nowhere.
No reason.
No logic.
No warning.
A shout of disbelieving horror left Stefan's throat as he watched Rei's small, delicate body fly through the air; the speed out of this world.
There was no way she could have seen it coming. No way she could have acted fast enough to protect herself.
Her body smashed into the glass shelves above the bar, rows of empty martini glasses exploding upon impact, breaking.
She kept going.
From the corner of his eye, Stefan saw a blur of motion, knew it was Klaus speeding to catch her.
But it was too late.
Rei hit the long, dusty mirror behind the bar with terrifying force.
… It shattered.
…
So…what'd you think? PLEASE! Tell me! The feedback does help the writing process. Truly.
