Got a new DSL connection and there were some problems with it. I had no internet for a week so I couldn't post anything. However, I wrote a sequel for Hostile Takeover that I will probably post over the next week.
Chapter 18
Rebekah showed Desmond and Jimmy at first the freely accessible parts of the house. She also showed them where they could find the Originals' rooms should it become necessary.
"Desmond, did you know that in your room exists an access to a secret passage?" Rebekah asked mysteriously.
"No, really?" Desmond's eyes shone enthusiastically.
"Our whole house is criss-crossed with secret passages and hidden rooms, known only by me and my siblings." Rebekah looked meaningfully at Jimmy, whose eyes widened briefly and who then nodded, he had understood her message.
"Will you show me?" Desmond asked eagerly.
"I was hoping you would ask. But before we start, I need a promise from you. Apart from your father, you mustn't tell anyone about these hallways and rooms, especially not Michael."
Desmond's eyes grew serious and a little sad. "I promise it!"
Jimmy, like Desmond, knew why Rebekah wanted that promise. "I promise too. Is there anything else we should be aware of?"
Rebekah regretted ruining Desmond's mood in this way but it had to be done. "Never go in the basement." Rebekah looked at Jimmy. "This applies to you too, Jimmy."
"Because of the Bloods?" Desmond asked uneasy.
"No, they are locked up and cannot harm you anymore but down there is an enormous tension. Not only have we vampires in the basement but werewolves, witches and humans too, it's an explosive mix. The vampires know that you are under our protection, Desmond, but Jimmy doesn't have the same security. And the other factions don't know you at all. I will not say that they would deliberately hurt you but like I said, tensions are running high."
"I promise", Desmond said earnestly and Jimmy nodded. He could assess the risks better than Desmond and knew he had to be careful.
"Then we'll start with your room." Rebekah rubbed excited her hands. She was thrilled to explore the secret passages of the house with Desmond. Firstly, it allowed her to spend more time with him and secondly, it was nice to see everything through the eyes of a child. It had been so long since she felt like a child.
Ava watched through the lattice window of her cell as Vampires led a lot of Bloods down the hall. Every one of them looked shocked and very scared, Ava could imagine why only too well.
Ava listened awhile carefully but everything remained reasonably quiet, she could hear the murmur of voices but to her relief no screams.
If she was honest with herself, she felt a little bored so alone in her cell. However, that changed when a larger group of men and women passed her cell door. A few looked over at her but no one spoke to her. Ava didn't think they were vampires, they walked without the unnatural movements that she associated now with vampires.
Shortly after her cell door the group was held up by vampires and she was able to watch the quickly escalating argument. She hoped that there would actually be a fight, because it could only benefit her and the other Bloods.
Then she heard a voice she recognized immediately, it was Elijah. She watched as he silenced the arguing parties with one word. She felt a little better when she noticed the terror but also a certain respect that everyone clearly felt for Elijah. The Originals seemed to have a special status in this to her so unknown world.
However, as one of the men began to transform in a wolf before her eyes, she was once again surprised and shocked. It seemed like vampires weren't the only species she'd never heard of.
As the wolf, or should she better say werewolf, attacked Elijah, she wished that this beast would kill him. She cheered at the bite and hoped for more damage but the ease with which Elijah defeated the wolf left her kind of disappointed. And the way Elijah dealt with the defiant vampire made her swallow hard.
Within a few minutes the fight, she had hoped for, had been prevented through Elijah. She observed with interest how Elijah healed the werewolf and then sent him on his way. This random kindness astonished her, she wouldn't have thought him capable of that, after all, the wolf had attacked him.
When Elijah turned to leave, he glanced shortly at her but ignored her otherwise.
The other man who had come with Elijah had watched everything rather indifferently, nothing he saw seemed to surprise him. But she found it interesting that the bite of a werewolf could incapacitate Elijah if he didn't get blood from his brother. The only question was, why could Klaus's blood heal a werewolf bite and Elijah's couldn't.
As soon as the two were gone, everything was quiet again in front of Ava's cell, she sighed a little. But it wasn't long before she heard footsteps coming down the corridor. She expected them to pass her cell door but this time they stopped in front of her door. The door opened and the blonde woman called Freya, Elijah's older sister, came in. She was followed by a dark-haired older woman Ava had never seen before.
Ava remembered that Elijah had looked at Freya when he told about Layla's recommendation. It seemed that she was the witch, which would examine her.
"Do you remember me?" Freya asked coldly.
"You are Freya", Ava replied.
"This is Bonnie, she's a witch too but her skills go in a slightly different direction, so we both will examine you", Freya explained. "Bonnie, this is Ava!"
Bonnie nodded to her. "Hello Ava!"
"Please hold still and don't fight it! The probing might be a little uncomfortable but if you fight me it will get worse for you. Not because I want to but because I have to spend more energy and then I can no longer proceed carefully." Freya's voice was harsh but not unkindly.
Ava nodded and swallowed fearfully. Like Layla, Freya grasped her head but the strange feeling was now many times stronger. Ava didn't know if it was because Freya was more thorough or simply more powerful than Layla.
It was uncomfortable but not really painful and faster than she had thought, Freya let go of her and stepped back from her with a worried expression on her face.
"Huh, that's strange!" said Freya thoughtfully. "Do you want a look, too, Bonnie?"
"Yes, thank you, Freya." Bonnie stepped up to Ava. "Please don't fight me either!"
Again Ava felt hands clasping her head. The feeling was a little different but just as strong as with Freya, it actually seemed to have something to do with the strength of a witch.
Bonnie abruptly let go of her and stepped back from her. "That can't be!" She looked disturbed.
"You feel it, too?" Freya asked seriously.
"Yes." Bonnie looked at Ava carefully. "Let me try something else! You know, what expression is, Freya?"
"Yeah, but I've never tried it. Can you control it?"
"Yeah, don't worry, I had lessons from Silas personally", said Bonnie absently as she had to concentrate to practice that particular kind of magic.
Ava felt the atmosphere in the cell change and become more oppressive and threatening, she shuddered. She had also seen Freya grimace when Bonnie gave her teacher's name.
Bonnie's hands clasped her head again and this time it was more painful than before, but Ava still had the feeling that Bonnie was careful and didn't want to make her suffer unnecessarily.
This time it was almost 15 minutes before Bonnie let go of her.
"Oh man!" Bonnie's face was grey. Ava couldn't tell if it was because of the effort or what she'd found out. "In fact, it's worse than I thought. We need blood from her and from every Blood who is here. Not much, only one cannula from everyone."
"I know what you have in mind", Freya said with a grim face. "I will arrange everything. It will be difficult and very dangerous for us to perform this spell. Are you ready for this?"
"I don't think we have much of a choice", Bonnie replied just as grimly.
Without saying another word to Ava, both women left the cell, leaving Ava very confused and rather scared.
Perhaps half an hour later, a vampire entered Ava's cell to draw her blood.
Josh enjoyed his task. First he transferred all the information from the various hard drives to his laptop. He paid special attention to hidden files but to his surprise they only existed on one hard drive. Strangely enough, it was not that of the chief scientist but of a quite low ranking scientist.
Josh frowned confused the more he read through the files. Josh noted the name of the scientist and texted it to Marcel, asking him to interrogate him more extensively than the other scientists and if the opportunity still existed, to thoroughly search his desk.
Then went Josh through the other hard drives. He worked concentrated and completely absorbed in his task for several hours until someone hold a blood bag under his nose. Josh suddenly realized he was hungry and looked up to see who his benefactor was.
Elijah grinned at him. "You know that you are allowed to take a break in between, right, Josh?"
"I know but I totally forgot the time." Josh stretched himself, although as a vampire he no longer needed to. "Thank you, Elijah!" He sank his teeth into the blood bag and drank.
"Found anything interesting?" Elijah asked after Josh had finished his meal.
"More weird than interesting. There is a scientist who works on something completely different than everyone else." Josh frowned in confusion. "It reads more like he's doing a study on the Bloods as the test subjects. I have already informed Marcel about him.
In his notes he made a few references to Desmond, but only on the side, as if he wasn't particularly interesting to him. He didn't seem to have been involved in the experiments either.
A few number groups are mentioned over and over again, as well as a few names and some obscure terms but I can't see a connection between them. I will throw them into the room at the next meeting to see if anyone else had ever heard them."
"Very good, please do this." Elijah looked at his wrist watch. "It may answer a few questions I and Klaus have."
"Which questions?" Josh asked suspiciously.
"We feel like there is a third party in this game that is hiding behind the Bloods", Elijah explained calmly. "Maybe you found their double agent among the Bloods."
"But he's a Blood too", Josh contradicted doubtful.
"Which means that there is either a secret grouping within the Bloods or his loyalty to this other group exists since several years and takes precedence over every sense of belonging he feels for the Bloods. Layla said that there is something wrong with the Bloods. Perhaps you have found more clues as to how the Bloods came into being. Damon could tell us much but we haven't found out everything yet. Please load it onto a USB stick and keep it safe!" Elijah commanded.
"Yes, Elijah. Do you want a copy, too?"
Elijah looked hesitant at first, then nodded. "Can't hurt!" He waited patiently for Josh to finish and hand him the stick. "Thanks Josh. And don't forget to take breaks."
"Okay, Elijah." Josh concentrated again on the files and seemed to have completely forgotten about Elijah. With a smile Elijah left Josh to his work.
Michael and Caroline washed the dishes together and tidied up the kitchen.
Michael quickly realized that Caroline was a force to be reckoned with. She wanted to know everything about him and Damon, about Desmond, about the years he and Damon had worked together. Even in his time as a prisoner of the Bloods Michael had never been so extensively and thoroughly interrogated, although he had to admit, Caroline did it in a very charming way.
When the kitchen was tidy again, the two of them sat down at the table where Caroline continued her interrogation, or as she called it, conversation.
"And you are sure that you are nicer than Klaus or Elijah?" Michael finally asked, slightly desperate.
Caroline chuckled. "At least I'm not going to resort to threats like ripping your heart out or your head off", Caroline replied dryly. "Although that's more Klaus's style. Elijah will rather terrorize you in his calm polite way or simply compel you."
Michael shuddered at the thought. "Whom of those two you find scarier?"
Caroline looked thoughtful. "I am not afraid of Klaus. As for Elijah..." Caroline hesitated. "If I ever hurt Klaus in a way that Elijah can't forgive, I'll be dead. Elijah doesn't bother with threats when it comes to his family. He will fight, kill or sacrifice everything for them, up to and including his life."
"It's a little hard to believe, he makes such a cold impression on me", replied Michael, puzzled.
Caroline looked uncomfortable now. "Elijah is for a lot of reasons the calmest and most reserved of the Originals but he is the one who holds this family together too."
"And what about you and Klaus?" Michael decided to turn the tables.
"We have an interesting relationship." Caroline smiled thoughtfully. "It has an advantage if you are immortal, as a rule you have enough time to get closer to each other." Caroline got serious. "But I would never rely on it, not anymore, because sometimes you just get lucky ..."
Michael sensed there was more to that remark, but he didn't bother to ask. "How did you meet Damon?"
Caroline made a face. "Damon was a monster and an absolute asshole when I met him. He had switched off his humanity and knew no consideration, no compassion, only the fulfilment of his goals. I hated him for many years because of what he did to me."
"What did he do to you?" Michael asked hesitantly.
"Water under the bridge", said Caroline dismissively. "He apologized to me and more importantly, after falling in love with Elena, he started to change. He was still a bastard but he saved my life a couple of times, he saved the lives of all of us. Without him we would not have survived the Originals or any of the other threats that haunted Mystic Falls."
"It's hard for me to believe Damon was once a monster", Michael shyly admitted. "I mean, he was always so calm, he hated violence and always tried to solve any conflict peacefully."
Caroline laughed. "Oh, believe me, Damon was and is incredibly dangerous if you piss him off. He is intelligent, clever and very effective when it comes to knocking out his enemies. He had quite a reputation in the vampire community. There's a reason Klaus and Elijah respect him."
"Okay, if you say so", said Michael slowly. "Do you still have any tasks that I can help you with?"
"No, thanks for your help. I'll take you back to your room so you can rest." Caroline looked at him carefully. "Your imprisonment has left its mark on you."
"I know, I am always tired and hungry", Michael replied resignedly. "Speaking of hungry, can I get some blood?"
Caroline got up and went to the refrigerator, where she took out three blood bags. "For you. Come along."
Michael took it and followed Caroline outside, where they went to his room together.
"I'll pick you up for dinner", said Caroline with a smile.
"Do I have to help again?" asked Michael. He had understood the hint that he shouldn't leave the room alone.
Caroline laughed and left his room without answering.
BC = Thank you. I know what you mean, writing this story makes me happy and is a good diversion in this times for me too. I wish you belated a Happy Birthday.