A/N: If you want to see the dress Katie is wearing for homecoming, google image search, corset semi formal dresses. It will be the sixth picture with a pink and black, and white and black version of the dress pictured.
Phoenix Rising
Ch. 30
Over the next week Katie didn't talk to any of her friends. She simply went to school, came home, did her homework and had a blood bag while getting caught up on one of her favorite tv show's, Supernatural.
Even though she didn't feel like going, after school Friday Katie went shopping and managed to find a suitable dress for the homecoming dance. With the clear plastic covered dress and a paper shopping bag containing jewelry and shoes in her hands she opened her front door. The things in her hands went flying when her eyes landed on Klaus sitting on her living room couch. "Did I frighten you, love?" he asked as he stood up and picked her dress up off the floor.
"You think?" she asked sarcastically as she kneeled down, and picked up the empty shoe box. "What are you doing here?" she picked up the closed toe black heels by the ankle straps and set them back in the box.
"I've come to accompany you to your homecoming dance." He answered.
She stood up, looking at him like he was crazy. "You run off and leave your sister behind with no explanation then show up out of nowhere and assume that I want anything to do with you?" she asked as she put her things on the back of the couch. "I'll ask again. What are you doing here?"
Klaus looked at her with suspicious eyes. "Either you are a really good actress or you have no idea what your friends are planning."
"Both" she answered then let her eyes fall to her hand that rested on the back of the couch. "My friends no longer trust me so if they are plotting against you…I know nothing about it. Since I have nothing to offer…you can see yourself out. I have a dance to get ready for." She headed toward the stairs against the wall to the right of the entryway, but he sped in front of her stopping her. She heaved out an aggravated breath and put her hands on her hips as she glared up at him.
"You wanted to know how to sway me?" he asked and she gave him a nod. "You know your friends better than I. You will be able to sense if something is off with them. Stefan and Rebekah have both assured me that Mikael has been daggered. I do not believe it. So stand with me tonight, help me insure that my father is dead and his dagger destroyed and I will let you watch me pull the dagger out of Elijah. Yours will be the first face he sees when he opened his eyes."
She chewed on the inside of her lip and looked at the floor in thought. She knew that if she did this, everyone she was close to would have nothing to do with her, but she'd already lost them. Her mother had told her to make up with them, but she had meant it when she told her mother she didn't think she could. "Okay." She looked up at him feeling sick to her stomach with nerves. "I'll be your date." She wrinkled her nose at the words that left her mouth.
"Then you should probably start getting dressed." He told her with a look at the clock in the room. She grabbed her dress and bags and headed up the stairs. "Wait." She stopped and looked over the hand rail at him. "Cell phone, please. I don't want you giving your friends a heads up." He held his hand out for her phone so she took it out of her pocket and dropped it over the rail into his out stretched hand.
An hour later she walked down the stairs, her blond and red hair pinned in a messy, but pretty up do. A plain black choker was around her neck and paired nicely with the one shoulder white dress. Black lace covered the shoulder strap on her left shoulder, swooped across the bodice, wrapped almost completely around the waist then tapered off along the left side of the short tulle skirt. Classic closed toe back heels with a strap around the ankle finished off the look. "Well don't you clean up nicely?" Klaus asked from the bottom of the stairs where she met him.
"It's my last homecoming dance." She answered and when he held out his suit jacket covered arm she walked past him.
"I've commandeered your homecoming dance. The gym randomly flooded so Tyler graciously offered to move the dance to his house. It is now a wake for my father." He told her with a smirk then opened the front door and jerked his head for her to walk out.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" she asked as she walked out then waited for him to close her door.
"Not at the moment, no." he answered as he pulled the door shut then held his arm out for her again and once again she walked past him and down the steps. Her heels clacked against the cement walkway as she headed to her car.
"You know you can touch me. I won't bite." He told her as he walked around to the passenger side and opened the door.
"Yeah," she scoffed as she slid into the driver's seat and shut the door, "You'll understand if I don't believe you." Klaus just smirked at her.
When Katie parked outside the Lockwood's house lights and music were coming from the back yard and when they went inside the house she saw several kegs and coolers sitting around. They passed a beer pong table as they headed to the back yard where the band was practicing. "Should I be worried at how good you are at throwing high school parties?" she asked with a look over at him from where they stood on the back steps that led down to where a dance floor had been set up.
He smirked. "I'm no stranger to throwing lavish parties. I simply modified the age group a bit." He told her then pulled her phone out of his jacket pocket and looked to see if she had any messages. "I see you finally changed your background and not one of your friends has messaged you. Including my sister whose number I see is in your contacts."
"We're on the cheer team together." Katie replied deciding that it would be best if he didn't know she and Rebekah were friends.
"Oh, look, the photo trash folder. Wonder what could be in here?" he asked with a devious look at her.
Her eyes went wide when she remembered she never deleted the naughty photos she had sent to Damon. "Do not look in there!" she jumped and tried to grab the phone from him but he easily dodged her and opened the folder filling the screen with pictures of her in different poses, only wearing lingerie. "Klaus!"
"Bloody hell, love, are you secretly a lingerie model?" he asked with a cheeky smile and wide eyes. Pissed, she knocked him to his knees, taking him off guard enough that she was able to grab her phone from his hand. "You will give me that back." he told her with a glare.
"Yeah, I will, as soon as I clear out all the pictures I don't want you to see." She told him not looking up from screen she was tapping on. When she was done she tossed him the phone back.
He turned the screen on to see that it was now password protected. He turned it off and tucked it onto his pocket. "Your class mates are starting to arrive." As he said this, the band started really playing instead of practicing and random people came out of nowhere and started dancing.
"Who are all these people?" she asked not recognizing a single one of them.
"My hybrids." He answered as he turned to her. "When your classmates start showing up do me a favor. Pretend to be enjoying yourself and stick to my side like glue." He told her so she nodded. "And smile." He told her with a smile of his own in a voice that was meant to pep her up. "You look like your dog just died." She pulled her lips back in an awkward smile. "Now you just look constipated." He complained with an eye roll and she stopped. "Make it believable."
"I'm at a party with you because I'm stupidly trusting you to stick to your word and not stab me in the back with the dagger you may or may not pull out of Elijah." She told him with a glare. "I will pep up when the time comes. Until then I'm not going to waste my energy." She replied.
"You think I will not keep my promise to you?" he asked with a tone that suggested he was hurt, but she didn't believe it.
"You're reputation isn't the greatest." She answered with a cold tone.
He stepped up to her and grabbed her chin gently with his long nimble fingers. "Trust me when I say I will bring you to Elijah as soon as I see my father's corpse."
She glared at him, her eyes meeting his blues as she grabbed his wrist and took his hand from her face. "I'll trust you when you earn it."
As soon as everyone was at the party Klaus held his arm out to her. So she hooked hers through it and walked up on stage as the band stopped playing and the crowd cheered and clapped. The vanilla scent of the smoke machine that sat on the stage filled her nose as they walked over to the microphone and Klaus dropped his arm and placed his hand on her lower back. "Good evening everyone!" he greeted the crowd that cheered again. "I want to thank you all for being here with me to celebrate. It's been a long time coming."
As they walked down off the stage Katie looked over at him then his arm that was still on her lower back. "What the hell am I supposed to tell people if they ask me why I'm here with you?"
"I don't know." He told her as they walked through the crowd and when she noticed her classmates looking at her and Klaus she smiled at them as if nothing at all was wrong in her life when in actuality she was screaming on the inside.
"Klaus." Stefan said as they walked over to him. "Quite the homecoming." He chose to completely ignore Katie who stood next to Klaus with her arm looped through his and a look on her face that let everyone believe she was enjoying herself.
"I've been planning my father's funeral for 1,000 years." Klaus replied. "Granted, in no version of it were any of these people invited. But you get the idea."
"So what now? You just stop running?" Stefan asked.
"Now I reunite my family." Klaus told him then glanced down at Katie.
Stefan finally looked at her with his usual brooding expression then back at Klaus. "Your family. You mean, the people you cart around in caskets?"
"None of that matters anymore." Klaus looked away from Katie to Stefan. "Mikael's gone. Bygones will be bygones and Elijah will be happy I kept his woman happy and safe." he looked back down at Katie who made herself give him a closed lipped smile.
"So that's what this is about?" Stefan asked moving his finger between the two of them. "Taking care of your bother's girl while he lies in a casket with a dagger in his chest that you placed there?"
"It's really no different than Damon and Elena." Katie spoke for the first since the party started. "The only difference is there is absolutely zero chance of me falling for him." Katie said with a jerk of her head at Klaus.
"Really great party." The homecoming queen said as she walked by them, her pretty crown atop her head. "I really like the band."
Klaus smiled at her smugly. "Seems the homecoming queen still walks among the living, which leaves me to believe Rebekah isn't here. Where is she?" he asked Stefan.
"I have no idea. I thought she was coming with Matt." Stefan answered making Katie look around to see Matt standing with Elena. Katie's eyes also spotted Caroline chatting with people while getting a refill of beer from the keg.
"Oh, be honest now, Stefan." Klaus told him knowing Stefan couldn't lie to him since he had been compelled to tell the truth. "Where's my sister?"
"I said…I have no idea." Stefan answered again and a tense second passed between the three of them.
"Well, it wouldn't he a party without the guest of honor, would it?" Klaus asked with a smug smile. "Bring him to me."
Stefan looked off in the distance in thought for a second. "Alright. Perhaps there's something in it for me?" Klaus and Katie both looked at him curiously. "My freedom from your compulsion."
"Oh, you want your freedom?" Klaus asked with a tilt of his head. "Well once he's dead and his weapon destroyed, you'll have your freedom. It would be my pleasure to give it back to you." Stefan gave them a tight lipped smile as he walked away.
"Klaus." Katie said getting his attention. "Stefan was telling the truth, Rebekah was supposed to come with Matt, but he's here with Elena. Elena should be here with Damon. He never says no to a party so there has to be a reason he's not here." Klaus looked at Elena and Matt who were both drinking beer out of glass bottles. "And by the way…you're keeping me safe and happy?" she asked with raised brows. "You couldn't come up with a more believable lie?"
"Who said it was a lie?" he asked with a smirk.
Katie gave him a challenging look. "You wanna make me happy?"
"All in due time, Love." He told the impatient Katie.
"I need more beer." She sighed so Klaus walked them over to one of the igloo coolers, lifted the lid then motioned for her to pick her poison. She didn't even look. She just grabbed the cold bottle, popped the cap off and chunked it aside as Tyler walked over to them. Klaus grabbed a beer of his own the shut the lid of the cooler.
"My mom would seriously freak if she saw all these people here." Tyler said with a look out at the dance floor packed with people like tuna in a can.
Klaus smiled as he looked at his handy work. "You're mother won't be a problem. I've compelled her to go to church and pray for your friends."
Tyler laughed. "What are you talking about?"
Klaus let go of Katie's arm and walked around to stand in front of Tyler. "I want you to look around. There's Bonnie." He pointed over Tyler's shoulder to Bonnie who was talking to a guy. "There's Elena and Matt." He pointed to Elena who took a drink from a beer then handed it to Matt. "And there's your pretty little girlfriend Caroline." He pointed to Caroline talking to the group of cheerleaders. "Their big dance was wrecked tonight and who came through with a party?" Tyler looked back at Klaus. "You did. What a pal. But who are all these other people?" Klaus asked with a point over his shoulder.
Tyler looked around with creased brows. "I…have no idea. I've never seem half these people in my life."
"Well, that's because I invited a few dozen friends of my own." Klaus answered then started pointing out his people in the crowd.
"Hold on, are those people all hybrids?" Tyler asked with a frown.
"Well, they also love a good party." Klaus said as he took a step closer to Tyler. "And they, like you, are sired by me. They wish to serve their master. So if anyone should so much as make a move against me, they may feel obligated to retaliate." Klaus' serious face turned into a smile as he backed away from Tyler. "Feel free to warn your friends."
"I assumed that he assumed you'd sired more hybrids as soon as you got Elena's blood donation and skipped town." Katie said as she watched Tyler go into the house like a man on a mission.
"That is because you are smart." Klaus said as they started walking around. "And thanks to my brother you probably know me better than anyone else here tonight." He smiled down at her and she shifted her gaze elsewhere. When they walked past Elena, Klaus stopped. "Where's your date?"
"Getting me a drink." Elena answered stiffly.
Klaus held the beer in his hand out to her and she gave him a look that said, 'seriously?'
"Seems I have you to thank for Mikael's demise." Klaus told her.
"He came at me. I didn't have a choice." Elena once again answered stiffly.
"Still I'm impressed. It's not easy for a human to dagger an original." Klaus said and Katie rolled her eyes and took a big drink of the beer in her hand.
"It wasn't my first time." Elena told him with a sneer.
"Right. Elijah. I'm sure that won a lot of points in her book." He said with a jerk of his head to Katie then looked around at the crowd. As he did Elena looked around as if she was expecting someone to jump out at her. "You seem nervous."
"I'm not nervous. I just don't like you." Elena told him with an attitude.
"Right. I'll just get straight to the point then shall I love?" he asked then leaned in closer to her. "People have been after me for 1,000 years. And I am always one step ahead. So whatever it is you're thinking of trying, go for it. Give it your best shot. You won't succeed."
"It won't be for a lack of trying." Elena answered with a bit of a head sway and a glare and tried to walk off, but Klaus let go of Katie and stopped her.
"Now, you'd be smart to tell Damon to mind his manners tonight. 'Cause if I die, I've already insured that he'll die along with me." Kaite's heart stopped at his words. "Even in death, my hybrids have their orders. So, you kill me you're killing him too."
"What?" Katie asked with wide eyes.
"All the more reason for everyone to cooperate." He told her with a smirk as her shock turned to a glare.
Elena walked away while she had the chance. "Can we do something more fun than just walking around please?" she asked just wanting find ways to get the night over with.
"What do you suggest?" he asked.
"We can go kick some stupid jock's ass at beer pong." She suggested and he actually took her up on it.
As they were playing the guy she had drank from at the bonfire walked up. "Hey, Katie." He greeted getting a little too in her personal space.
"Hey…you." she told him as she took a step away from him.
"Oh, don't pretend like you don't know my name. We did make out the other night after all." He said with a shitty attempt at being flirty catching Klaus' attention and he gave her a look that seemed to ask, you and this guy?
She looked at him and whispered, "I really need to work on my compulsion." Then looked back at the guy. "I'm pretty sure I told you that's never going to happen again."
"Yeah but-" he started.
"Is this guy bothering you?" Klaus asked as he stepped up beside her and draped his arm over her shoulders.
"Who the hell are you?" the guy asked with a challenging attitude.
Katie breathed in a hiss between her teeth. "That was not the road you should've taken." She cut her eyes up at Klaus. "Don't kill him, please."
"I'm her date." Klaus answered then grabbed the guy up by his dress shirt and looked him in the eyes. "And it would be wise of you to remember, when a woman says it's never going to happen again…You should stop pursuing her." he threw the guy away and he fell to the floor on his butt knocking down a tower of beer empty beer cans that someone had made.
The guy was standing back up when Mindy, one of Klaus' hybrids, came over to them. "You have a visitor."
"Well, tell my visitor I'm on the brink of victory here." He told her with the white ping pong ball in his hand.
"He said his name was Mikael." She told him with a sway of her head.
Klaus sighed and tossed the ball into the rinse cup. "Then we mustn't keep him waiting." He told her as he dropped his hand from Katie's lower back. "Move everyone out back. I'm going to have a little chat with my dad."
Mindy started moving everyone out of the house and to the back yard as Katie and Klaus headed to the front door. An older man stood on the other side of the threshold. "Hello, Niklaus." He greeted him ignoring Katie who stood not far behind and to the side of him.
"Hello, Mikael. Won't you come in?" He asked. "Oh, that's right. I forgot. You can't."
"Or you can come outside if you want." Mikael replied.
"Or I can watch my hybrids tear you limb from limb." Klaus retorted as his hybrids gathered on the front lawn behind Mikael.
"They can't kill me." Mikael pointed out.
"True, but it'll make a hell of a party game." Klaus said with a smug smile. "All I have to do is rub these two fingers together," he held up his right hand, his thumb and middle finger centimetres apart, "and they'll pounce." He touched the fingers together.
"The big…bad…wolf." Mikael said and Klaus dropped his hand. "You haven't changed. Still hiding behind your playthings like a coward." Katie frowned at the guy who called himself Klaus' father. "Though you forget, they may be sired by you, but they're still part vampire and they can be compelled by me." As he said this Mindy walked over to stand beside Mikael and pulled Elena into view. Katie looked at Elena with glaring eyes. "Come out and face me, Niklaus, or she dies." He grabbed Elena from Mindy by her arm.
"Go ahead, kill her." Klaus told him and Katie looked between him and Mikael then to Elena.
"No, Klaus, he'll do it." something about the way Elena was acting didn't sit well with her, especially when Elena didn't look at her for help.
"If she dies, this lot will be the last of your abominations." Mikael told him with a jerk of his head to the hybrids that still stood in the front yard.
"I don't need them. I just need to be rid of you." Klaus told him with his fists clenched at his sides.
"To what end, Niklaus?" Mikael asked. "So you can live forever with no one at your side?" Katie glared at Mikael. She understood what kind of person Klaus could be, but if this hateful man is the one who raised Klaus…Then it's no wonder Klaus turned out the way he is. Elijah had told her how abusive and hard Mikael was on his children, especially Niklaus. After everything she had been though, two rounds of shitty parents and a shitty grandfather, she had grown a special hatred of men like Mikael. "Nobody cares about you anymore, Boy!"
The way he called Klaus boy caused something in her to snap. "Not true." she stepped up to the door to stand beside Klaus. "I do."
Mikael finally acknowledged her. "He killed you and yet you stand with him."
"You're an abusive piece of shit and a pathetic excuse of a father." Katie answered with a glare, hatred dancing in her eyes. "If standing against men like you puts me on his side then I am perfectly okay with that."
Klaus put his hand on Katie's lower back. "I'm calling your bluff father. Kill her."
Katie noticed that Klaus' words should have affected Elena more than they did, she had been listening to Elena's heart and it had remained fast, but steady. "Come outside and face me, you little coward, and I won't have to."
"My whole life you've underestimated me." Klaus said and as Katie moved her eyes from Mikael and Elena to Klaus she saw just how much Mikael was affecting him. He looked to be on the verge of tears. "If you kill her, you lose your leverage. So go ahead. Go on, kill her." Mikael just looked at Klaus with a slight shake of his head. "Come on, old man. Kill her. Kill her!" Klaus yelled and Katie looked up at him to see a tear slip down his cheek.
Mikael started chuckling. "You're impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing keeping you from truly being great." Klaus and Mikael stared each other down for a second before Mikael stabbed Elena in the back making her let out odd sounding groans of pain before she fell to the ground.
Mikael laughed at Klaus' look of shock, but Katie trained her ears on Elena to hear her heart still beating strong. "Klaus." Katie said to get his attention, but at the same time Damon whooshed in from behind them and stabbed Klaus in the gut with an extravagantly carved, old stake. Klaus yelled out in pain. "Klaus!" she yelled as Damon body slammed him on the floor.
She heard Mikael say, "Katherine." Before Katherine tossed vervain grenades out at the hybrids.
Damon pulled the stake out of Klaus. Katie was making a move to tackle Damon off of Klaus when Stefan came from behind her and beat her too it. Seeing the stake lying on the floor next to Klaus she whooshed over, grabbed it, put it in Klaus' hand and closed his fingers around it then jerked her head to his distracted dad. Klaus gave her a nod then whooshed at his father as he turned around. He tackled him, stabbing him in the heart as he did. Mikael cried out as Klaus stood up and the stake burst into flames catching Mikael on fire too.
"What the hell did you two do?" Damon asked while Stefan held him down.
"He's earned his freedom." Klaus answered then looked at Katie. "She earned my brother." Stefan stood up and moved to stand across from Klaus. They looked each other in the eyes. "Thank you, my friend. You no longer have to do as I say. You're free."
Stefan blinked then looked down to see that Damon was gone then whooshed away. Klaus walked out into the yard and told his hybrids to clear everyone out, the party was over. Still processing everything that just happened, Katie walked into the parlor/living room and sat down on the pretty white couch, leaning forward with her chin resting on her hands that were folded into a fist. Soon, Klaus came in and sat down on the couch across from her. "Thank you."
"For what? I didn't do anything you asked me to. I figured out too late that Elena was really Katherine and I should have known that if Damon wasn't here with her and that he would probably be off doing something sneaky like he did. I completely flopped as a wing woman." She told him, looking down at the fancy area rug.
"Mikael is dead because you put that stake in my hand." He argued.
She shook her head no. "You still would have picked up that stake and killed him. I just saved you a few seconds." She shrugged.
"Then I am thanking you for standing with me when you didn't have to." He told her and she looked up at him. "Why did you?"
"Because you and I have something in common." She answered with a solemn face.
"Pathetic, piece of shit fathers." He told her with a bit of a smirk.
"Yep." She answered with a nod. "I hate seeing people's parents bully them, possibly even more than I hate you."
"You clamed to care about me." He said with a point at her.
"I do in a really screwed up, roundabout way. Rebekah too. You're my soul-mate's family and despite the…many problems you all have with each other, I know how much family mean's to you all." she told him with a shrug. "And after tonight…I have no one."
Klaus stood up and held his hand out for hers. She took it and stood up. When he stepped closer to her and placed his hand on her arm she thought he was going to try to kiss her. Relief spread through her when he placed a soft kiss to her cheek. "Go home. Get some beauty sleep. You'll want to look pretty when I take you to wake up Elijah in the morning."
The thought of getting to see Elijah again brought a bright smile to her face. "See you tomorrow."
The next morning Klaus picked her up and brought her to the lot where the van that held the coffins containing his family was. "Rebekah where are you?" Klaus said to Rebekah's voice mail as they walked through the parking lot. "Pick up the phone, darling. Daddy's dead. It's time for a family reunion." Klaus hung up then answered an incoming call. "Stefan. Miss me already?"
"I'm just calling to thank you for my freedom." Stefan said as they walked by truck after truck.
"I like to believe I'm a man of my word. More or less." Klaus replied cockily.
"The thing is, it came at too high of a price." Stefan told him and both Katie and Klaus frowned. "You took everything from me, Klaus."
"Let bygones be bygones. Trust me, resentment gets old." Klaus told him as he stopped at the back of a truck and grabbed the latch of the back.
"You know what never gets old?" Stefan asked as Klaus unlatched the back and pushed it up. "Revenge." The back of the truck was empty making Katie's heart sink to the pit of her stomach.
"No." Klaus practically growled into the phone as Katie placed her hand on her stomach.
"What's the matter, Klaus? Missing something?" Stefan asked smugly.
"What are you doing?" Klaus asked, walking away from the truck that Katie was leaning on. "Other than breaking Katie's heart?"
"I'm just enjoying my freedom. Her broken heart is a small price to pay." Stefan answered as Katie's disappointment turned to anger and she felt the blood rush to her eyes and fangs in her mouth.
"I will kill you and everyone you've ever met." Klaus threatened.
"You do that and you'll never see your family again." Stefan said as Klaus turned and looked at Katie. "I wonder, Klaus. As someone who's been one step ahead for 1,000 years. Were you prepared for this?"
Klaus glared at no one in particular as he took the phone from his ear and hung up. After a few seconds he turned to Katie and saw her face. "If you don't kill him, I will." She told him as she closed her eyes pushed back the blood and fangs.
"I know, love." He told her as he slid his hand over her face. Too made to be touched she knocked his hand away. "We will get them back."
"We aren't doing a damn thing." she told him with a fire in her eyes like he had never seen. If he had to guess, Stefan was going to pay dearly for what he had done. She whooshed away.
Katie went to the boarding house and saw Elena and Damon in the parlor so she whooshed over, grabbed Damon by the neck and pinned him to the wall next to the fire place. "Where is Stefan?" she asked more furious than either of them had ever seen her.
"I don't know." Damon rasped.
"What is wrong with you put him down!" Elena yelled at her, worry clear in her voice.
It didn't even faze Katie. "Were you in on it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Damon rasped, his hands on her wrist.
"Katie let him go!" Elena yelled at her again.
Katie turned to her showing Elena the blood that had flooded to her eyes. "If you know what is good for you, you will shut your fucking mouth." She looked back at Damon. "Stefan took him. He took Elijah." An angry tear slipped down her cheek.
"We had nothing to do with it. I promise. I wouldn't do that to you." Damon told her and the honesty in his eyes made her drop him.
As soon as she did he tackled her face down on the ornate rug with her hands held behind her back. Over the few seconds it took Elena to get a syringe of vervain all anger faded and tears silently slipped down her cheeks. Damon stabbed her in the neck with the syringe and she slowly slipped off to sleep.
When she came to she was lying across Damon's bed, him leaning back against the headboard with his legs draped over hers. "You wanna have a rational conversation or are you going to attack me again?"
"I'm sorry." She said as she pulled herself up to sit cross legged in the middle of the bed.
"I know you are." Damon answered. "I of all people know how much Elijah means to you." Katie pulled her knees up and hugged them. "So what kind of deal did you make with Klaus?"
She rested her chin on her arms. "If I helped him kill Mikael he'd give me Elijah. He was going to…he brought me to the truck that their coffins were stored in. That's when we learned that Stefan took them to get back at him for everything Klaus had took from him. According to Stefan my broken heart was a small price to pay for the satisfaction of revenge." She wiped at her wet face with her hands.
"His humanity is off. He doesn't care about any one but himself." Damon told her with a face that told her she was supposed to already know that. "What did you think would happen when you got him back?" Damon asked.
"I didn't think that far ahead." She answered as she slid off the bed. She started for his bedroom door but he zipped over blocking the door. "What are you going to do, keep me prisoner in your room from now on?"
"Nope. I just want you to promise me that you won't make any more deals with Klaus." He told her with a determined look.
"I'm done making promises to you that I can't keep. So either vervain me again and put me out of my misery or let me go." Damon stepped out of the way and watched her walk out of the door.
The next day Katie was sitting at the grill having lunch at a far corner table listening to Damon and Elena play darts and talk about how Jeremy was backsliding when Klaus came in. "I'm surprised you stuck around town long enough for happy hour." Damon told Klaus while Elena stood safely behind him.
"My sister seems to be missing. I need to sort that out." Klaus told him.
"Cute, blonde bombshell, psycho?" Damon asked. "Shouldn't be too hard to find."
Klaus took a few steps closer to Damon. "Truth is, I've grown to rather like your little town. I'm thinking I might fancy a home here." Klaus took a dart out of Damon's hand. "I imagine you're wondering how does this affect you. The answer is not in the slightest." He turned to the dart board, putting his back to Damon and Elena. "As long as I get what I want and everyone behaves themselves, you can go on living your little lives however you choose." He turned and looked over his shoulder at Elena and Damon. "You have my word."
"What more could you possibly want?" Elena asked.
"Well, for starters, you can tell me where I might find Stefan." Klaus told her as he walked over to her and leaned down at her.
"Stefan skipped town the second he saved your ass." Damon answered.
"Well, you see, that is a shame." Klaus said as he turned to the dartboard. He threw a dart landing it deep in the bull's eye. "You're brother stole from me. I need him found so I can take back what's mine."
"That sounds like a Klaus, Stefan and Katie problem." Elena replied.
Klaus walked over to Elena but Damon stepped in the way. Katie scoffed and shook her head making Klaus' eyes find her where she sat in the corner of the room, unseen by Damon or Elena. He turned his eyes back to Elena. "Well, this is me broadening the scope, Sweetheart." He told her making her frown. Klaus headed over to the bar and grabbed a beer then walked over to Katie, making Damon and Elena realize for the first time that she was even there. "Hello, love." He slid into the corner booth to sit across from her and she ignored him, keeping her eyes on the book sitting in front of her. "Have you heard from my sister?" he asked.
Instead of answering him with words, knowing that Damon and Elena were listening, she closed her book and pulled out her journal and a pen. He watched her write, "If Damon and Elena have her she'll most likely be in a cell in their basement." in the book and turned it to him as she stood from the booth and took a final drink of her lemon water. When he was done reading it he looked up at her with a smirk. She grabbed her journal, book and pen and shoved them into her messenger bag.
She started to walk off but he grabbed her wrist stopping her. "Don't ignore me, love. Answer the question."
She understood what he was doing, keeping Damon and Elena from knowing that she had giving him a secret message. "The last time I saw her was at school yesterday." She told him and he let go of her wrist and let her walk away.
She was cleaning the kitchen out of the need to do something to keep her mind off things when she got a message from Klaus asking her to meet him at an old house. Against her best judgment and because she was going insane with boredom she met him. "I see you're renovating." Katie said as she walked into the old house seeing Klaus standing in the middle if the entryway waiting for her. "You weren't kidding when you said you thinking about getting a home here."
"Come." He told her with a jerk of his head. "I want to show you something." She followed him to a run down and falling apart bedroom that had been cleared of old furniture and he motioned for her to go inside. "I'd be careful on that floor it's a bit weak in spots."
"Why are you showing me a bedroom?" she asked as she walked over to the fireplace in the room and kicked at some ashes that had been left behind.
"Because when it's ready and I have gotten my family back this room with be yours. You can share it with Elijah or make him get a room of his own. The choice is yours." he told her from where he stood in the doorway with his hands behind his back.
"You want me to come live with you and your family?" she asked with raised brows and he gave her a smirk. "How do you know the rest of your family would even want me living here with all of you?"
"You've grown on me. Elijah fancies you and I have the sneaking suspicion that you have even gotten on Rebekah's good side. I'm sure Kol and Finn will be no problem." he told her as he walked into the room, being careful with his steps.
Katie carefully walked over to the window in the room and looked at the broken glass panes. "I don't understand you."
"What do you mean?" he asked as he walked to stand behind her.
She turned and looked at him. "You've had no problem killing Elijah's lovers in the past, including me. You have the worst reputation out of all of your siblings. You're ruthless, hateful and from what I can tell angry at the world. So why are you being so nice to me? And don't give me that bullshit about keeping me safe and happy for Elijah's sake."
He smirked at her and looked down at the rotten floor. "You are everything Elijah said you were and more." He looked up at her with a smirk. "You're beautiful, strong and full of fire, I admire you."
"You admire me?" Katie asked with a disbelieving look. "There is nothing admirable about me."
"I beg to differ." He told her with a tilt of his head, looking down his nose at her. "You stood up to a 1000 year old vampire because you couldn't stand knowing that he abused people you care about."
"Yet I could never stand up to my own abusers." She said as her eyes dropped to the floor. "I'm not strong and I'm not admirable. I'm a coward." She told him and walked around him, not watching where she stepped and her foot went through the floor. Rotten wood scraped up her leg and a yelp left her mouth as her left leg went completely through the floor and into the ceiling of whatever room was below. Klaus walked around her and grabbed her forearms and she grabbed his as he lifted her up, being careful not to scrape her leg even more on its way back through the floor.
She looked down at her leg as she deep scrapes healed leaving behind spots of blood. "I warned you about the floor." He told her making her realize that they were still holding onto each other.
She let go of him and backed away. "I not usually this clumsy. Is there working water in this dump?"
"Yes and it won't be a dump for long." He told her as he jerked his head for her to follow him. He led her down stairs to the kitchen and motioned to the sink. "The construction crews will return tomorrow. Do you have any requests for your room?" he asked as he leaned his hip against the old island in the kitchen.
Katie tested the structural integrity of the counter near the sink to find it sound. "Antique white furnishings and a canopy bed centered on a white plush rug." Katie answered just throwing a theme out at him as she hopped up on the counter and stretched her leg out over the sink, "Seriously though, I like living alone. Living in a house full of vampires that can hear everything each other say even behind closed doors doesn't sound fun. I like my privacy."
Klaus watched as she turned the water on and started washing the blood off of her long smooth leg that was scantly covered by her short denim shorts. "Are you afraid we will hear you making love to Elijah?" he asked and she cut her eyes over at him then looked back down at her leg in the sink as she washed the last of the blood off. "Because I can assure you it's nothing we haven't heard before."
Katie turned and dangled her legs off the side of the counter. "So is showing me my room the only reason you invited me over here?" she asked looking over at him, taking in the thin green shirt that he wore a black leather jacket over, a beaded necklace hung around his neck, tucked into the shirt.
"No." he answered and jerked his head for her to follow him so she hopped down off the bar and followed him to a room that was currently under construction. Rebekah was lying on a table in the middle of the room. "Elena turned Rebekah over to me, you were right. She was in the Salvatore's basement with a dagger in her back that Elena put there."
Katie rolled her eyes then noticed that the dagger was now in Rebekah's chest. "So why is she still daggered?" She asked with a look up at him to watch his face drop. "Elena told you Rebekah knows didn't she?"
"I'm not sure what you're referring to." He told her as he did that thing where he looked down his nose at her.
"That you killed your mother, not Mikael. You're keeping the dagger in because you know when she comes to she's not only going to be pissed at Elena, but you too." She told him and his eyelids fluttered as he nodded. "Just so you know…I'm not judging you. I killed my own grandfather and I try not to be a judgy hypocrite."
"And you wonder why I fancy you." he told her with a smirk as he walked away expecting her to follow him. Instead she just kept standing there looking at Rebekah. As she thought about how bad it sucked that Rebekah had been daggered and she didn't even know about it, her mind turned to her other friends. As she remembered what tomorrow was a tear slipped down her cheek and she wiped it away. Klaus turned back and saw her wipe her face. "Are you alright, love?" he walked back over to stand beside her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She tried to walk around him, but he touched her upper arm and she stopped and looked at him. He gave her a look that asked her to talk to him. "Tomorrow's Caroline's birthday. I've never missed one of her birthday parties. Now I'm not even invited. And it's nobody's fault but my own." She walked past him and into the entryway. "Is there anything else you want to show me or can I go home?" she asked turning back to see that he had followed her.
"You can if you wish." He told her as he took a few steps closer to her. "Or you could stay for a night cap."
Katie narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" she asked. Instead of answering her with words he lifted his hand and slid the backs of his fingers down her cheek, testing her. Just like he anticipated her heart started racing and a smile teased the corners of his nicely shaped lips. "Klaus." Katie sighed as she pulled her head away from his hand. "I'm in love with Elijah."
He dropped his hand to rest on her shoulder. "I'm not asking you to fall in love with me sweetheart." She glanced down at his hand on her shoulder that her black and red tank top left bare then back up at him. "How long has it been since you broke up with Damon? Three, four months and your still a new vampire so it's no wonder you're practically biting everyone's heads off."
Katie busted out laughing. "So you're saying I need to get laid and you'll bite the bullet for everyone's sanity?" she asked still laughing a bit. "How long has it been since you talked a woman into your bed without the luxury of compulsion?"
"Too long apparently." He answered as he took a step back and dropped his hand from her shoulder looking disappointed.
"I'm sorry I don't mean to laugh, but you have to know that this…" she motioned between them, "would be a really bad idea."
"Sometimes it can be fun to be bad." He told her as he took a step to her and placed his hand on her side.
Deciding that she could use some fun she stepped into him and put her hands on his t-shirt covered chest then sped them over so that he was pressed against the wall next to the double set of stairs that led up to the second floor. "You're right. It can be fun." She smiled and bit her lower lip when she saw lust cloud his eyes. In a flash his lips were on hers, but she quickly made her way to his neck then bit his earlobe and whispered, "Keep dreaming, big bad wolf." While he was caught off guard she sped out the door to her car, leaving him hanging.
A/N: I know, Katie's a tease, but she's just messing with him. I promise she will see Elijah soon.