.

M - Thank you for being so sweet!

Carrie281 - It really is! Thank you :)

Anne - Haha I am officially aboard SS Kennett!

Chloeee1313 - I'm so sorry this took so long!

umaficwriter - I have to get back to the Kalijah in this one. I am shocked to hear I write Stefan so well. He's always so hard to write for me! Thank you though!

Klaroline2.0 - Thank you! :)

enya cherlopalle - OMGAW I love your amazing long review! *sobs* Scream cry laugh review like this all the time!

Obsessed - Haha sorry crime and sentencing professor! But thank you so much for binge reading! Love you!

new obsession - "girlie whirlie chicken swirlie" is my new favorite thing ever.

Lovers! I'm so sorry I fell off the map! I hope you'll accept this update as a peace offering.

As many of you know, I've been working on my own novel series, Starvists, getting it ready to start querying agents this Fall.

I encourage you to follow me on Twitter (dianna_berrian), Instagram (diannaberrian), etc. Check out my website (in bio). Sign up for my newsletter.

(Yes I am shameless plugging everything) I'm keeping everything updated so everyone is in the loop. I'd love your support! But totally no pressure.

Anyway, here's that chapter I promised!

Chapter 46

"Hi."

Rebekah shifted to sit up, bewildered by the long-lost ghost of lovers passed. "How...When?"

"On a plane." Stefan's smile went lopsided. "Last night."

The guilt riddling his eyes set off a trigger in her brain. She stood abruptly, the cold wash of anger flowing through her veins. "What do you want? To kick dirt in my face while I'm at my lowest?" She thrust her finger toward the door. "Get out."

"Rebekah, I know you're mad. I left abruptly, but I swear –"

"Mad does not even begin to describe what I feel!"

"You have every right to feel what you feel. I was stupid. I should have told you I was leaving."

"Except, as usual, your brother takes precedence." She shook her head. "You're no better than Elijah, wasting centuries chasing salvation, not realizing everything you've sacrificed along the way." Her eyes glittered with tears. "I won't be one of those sacrifices."

He winced. "Rebekah –"

"Just go. I've enough troubles without you complicating my life even more."

She turned her back on him and heard him sigh. His feet shuffled in retreat. The door hesitated briefly on its hinges with a creak and slowly closed.

Stefan looked back at the door, his hand barely off the knob when another door figuratively opened. As he turned his head toward his next destination, another blonde silhouette stood down the hall in the threshold. He locked eyes with Caroline immediately and smiled apologetically.

"Hey," he called out.

She regarded him carefully, and answered with a tentative, "Hey."

As his shoulders dropped in relief, he started to make his way toward her only to be met in seconds by a swift gust of wind and the sheer force of her palm slapping his cheek. He held his cheek, stretching his jaw to alleviate the sting.

"I deserved that," he relented.

Caroline crossed her arms, guarded and unyielding. "You deserve more, but lucky for you I'm feeling generous."

He let his hand drop with a frown. "I'm sorry."

Her eyes narrowed skeptically as she evaluated his expression before finally letting her arms loose to throw them around his neck. "You are such a jerk."

Stefan smiled, hugging her back tightly. "I am a jerk."

"Next time you do that, I'm coming after you so I can kill you. Then bring you back and let Rebekah kill you."

He laughed lightly, shaking his head. "There won't be a next time."

Her brow raised in intrigue, and she asked, "Did you at least find Damon?"

"Yeah." Stefan rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "Turns out, he didn't want to be found. It's a long story."

"One which you will tell me all about over blood bags and brownies." She linked arms with him smiling sweetly and started their path toward the staircase.

He smiled at her. "I missed you."

She fought but failed to repress her smile, loosening her hold to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Yeah, well, you picked like the worst time to abandon me," she said and shoved his shoulder playfully.

"I didn't abandon you," he argued, following her down the stairs.

"And what exactly do you call sneaking off in the middle of the night?"

"He's my brother. You would've done the same for Elena or Bonnie."

"I would have called," she retorted, entering the kitchen. "Or at least left a note. I mean, I'm not exactly thrilled with the reasoning, but I can respect your loyalty to your brother."

His brows knit. "You've been spending way too much time with Klaus." She scoffed a laugh and turned her back on him to hide her blush as she reached for two mugs. "How's that going again?"

"That is an even longer story."

He leaned over the kitchen island in a hunch, smirking. "Trade you."

"Fine." She slid his mug toward him with a conspiring twinkle in her eye. "But you first."

. . .

It took four blood bags, three brownies, and a half hour of deflecting before the story swap began. Caroline went first, filling Stefan in on the happenings at the villa, including Klaus' condition and the accidental attack, Elijah stowing away Katherine in secret, and Bonnie and Kol's weird new camaraderie. When she told him about Rebekah and Ryanne, she had to hide her pleasure in his disappointment. That it existed meant that there were some definite feelings there, and if Ryanne was possibly out of the picture, she was happy to help them patch things back up. After all, they were epic loves. They were just too stubborn to get out of their own way and see it.

His story about Damon was less fulfilling than she'd hoped. It was a hostage situation turned blood binge when it turned out that Damon's captor was an old friend. They ran amok at Whitmore College for a while after, and since Damon wouldn't listen to reason, or Stefan, Elena had to take the reins. Damon was back in Mystic Falls now, but they'd had another falling out. Figuring he'd done what he set out to do, and Damon was back where he belonged, he bowed out of their domestic dispute and hopped the next flight back to Italy to pick up where he left off.

Speaking of stubborn, the reunion between Klaus and Stefan was annoyingly underwhelming. Klaus was so preoccupied with Lyall's imminent arrival he didn't even object when Caroline insisted Stefan play the role of observation and artillery. Stefan, on the other hand, was hoping to stay out of it and offered to keep an eye on Bonnie. That, however, would foil other matchmaking plans she'd had.

The following morning, the entire villa was on edge. Lyall was set to arrive at noon leaving too much time for apprehension, and a plethora of tension. The air rippled with unspoken doubts and the lingering shudder of death. Almost everyone was gathered in the Great Room, awaiting the inevitable. Three resounding knocks at twelve signaled show time.

Caroline accompanied Klaus to greet his father in the foyer before ushering him to the others. After the obligatory pleasantries, an awkward silence befell the room.

"No word from Ryanne, then?" Klaus inquired. Rebekah looked on subtly as Lyall shook his head wordlessly. "Pity."

"She's a resourceful young woman," he noted. "My men have been on the lookout for her since her disappearance, but I sense she's craving a bit of freedom right now." He leaned forward, steepling his fingers. "How are you faring, Niklaus?"

Klaus swallowed. "Comes and goes."

"Has Bonnie found a cure within the grimoire?"

He sat back, pouting his lips. "It's a long book."

"Yes." Lyall sat back too, pressing his palms to the arms of the chair. "Bit of a diary of sorts. There are pages upon pages noting the travels of her sister."

Klaus' jaw clenched as his eyes averted to the floor. He felt Caroline's hand on his arm but the drop in his stomach overpowered it.

"What do you know of the Mentus Mortem hex?" Elijah deflected, keeping his inquisitive eye on Lyall.

Lyall's brows raised in surprise. "Mentus Mortem. I haven't heard anyone mention that in ages." The entire room perked up. He looked to Klaus eagerly. "Is that the cause?"

"That's the assumption," he nodded carefully. "Where did you hear of it?"

"It was one of many folk tales told around the fire. When I was a pup, our alphas warned us of the blackness of magic. Mentus Mortem was the only spell that could affect all species. It's an old spell. As old as the immortality spell, I would think. The two almost go hand in hand."

"Nature loves its balances," Klaus teased grimly.

"Indeed. From what I know of it, its effects are cancerous. There is no cure."

Caroline gaped. "But there has to be a cure."

"The spell is accessed through very dark magic," he told her.

"Then wouldn't it stand to reason that a cure would be too?" she argued. "If nature really loves balance, then every cause has an effect."

"And every effect has a consequence," he pointed out. "Conjuring that type of magic has consequences."

"Clearly," she gestured toward Klaus with a thin, unfriendly smile. "Unless you don't want to help your own son."

"Caroline," Klaus warned quietly.

"We don't have time to play it safe, Klaus." His eyes bore into her but she challenged with a stare of her own.

Lyall was smiling. "She cares for you a great deal." Klaus glanced to him cautiously and his smile widened. "You should be so lucky."

A man of his word, Klaus made certain to keep his promise to Caroline that Bonnie would be safe from all the goings on below. It was a long deliberation before he'd decided the best route was round the clock protection. Unfortunately, trusted allies were running thin, so he had to make do with what he had, much to Bonnie's dismay.

"Can you stop touching my things please?"

Kol's face scrunched as he tried to read the fine print on her moisturizer. "Why do you women insist on all these little trinkets?"

"They're not trinkets." She grabbed the jar of fortifying cream from his hand. His lips curled in a grin and he turned to start opening one of the drawers. Bonnie slammed it shut, glaring. "Don't you dare."

"Something you don't want me to see in your panty drawer?" He tried to pull the drawer again and she batted his hand away. "Spoilsport."

"I really wish I knew why Klaus thought this was a good idea."

He turned as she stalked back to her bed and dropped onto it, pulling the grimoire into her lap. "Relax, darling. I'm just having you on."

"You're giving me a headache."

"Glad I can finally return the favor. Though a headache hardly compares to an aneurysm..."

"Are you going to hold that against me forever?"

"Considering you won't let me close enough to put anything else against you…" She made a sound of disgust and he grinned. "Scoff away, darling. You don't know what you're missing." He smiled gleefully, lounging on her bed by her feet.

"I wish I had my powers," she muttered.

"I quite enjoy your being powerless."

"Right. Because if I wasn't, we wouldn't even be here right now." She slammed the book open in defeat. "Instead I'm stuck with you."

"You think I wanted to miss out on all the fun? I'm nothing but a glorified babysitter."

She narrowed her eyes. "I'll try not to take offense to that."

"Nothing personal, darling, but there are better uses for my time."

"That makes me feel much better."

His expression surprisingly turned chagrin. She redirected her attention back to the pages of spells and he relented. "Doubt you'll find anything of value in there."

"Doesn't hurt to try."

"A hex can only be lifted by the witch who cast it. Otherwise, it'll just run its course."

"You really don't care that your brother could be dying?"

"After all the times he's killed me?"

"Not permanently."

"Perhaps you should try it some time. See how permanent it feels."

"I have." She lifted her chin with a bitter glare. "I died trying to kill Klaus to protect my friends. And I've been on the brink of death more times than I can count. Knowing what's on the other side? It doesn't make losing someone you love any easier."

Kol pondered that and the room grew quiet. Bonnie flipped a page and scanned the words of an incantation to bewitch a necklace. Kol's voice was quiet when he asked, "Did you get to hurt him?"

Bonnie's lips twisted in a reminiscent smile. "I got in a few shots." Her eyes flicked to Kol's. His were lit up with intrigue. He grinned slowly and she almost felt butterflies in her stomach. Almost.

"Let me get this straight. We know what the issue is. A hex that literally means 'causes death'." Stefan was trying to wrap his head around it. "And yet there's no cure? Just seems counterproductive."

"Why is that?" Klaus wondered.

"If a spell like this exists, then Caroline's right. There's gotta be a loophole. The immortality spell makes you immortal. Caveat? You're stuck living off human blood."

"Or bunnies," he teased. Stefan rolled his eyes.

"What possible loophole is there in a death spell?" Rebekah asked with ridicule.

Stefan shrugged. "Maybe it's not a death spell."

"You just said it literally means death!"

"Perhaps literal is the loophole," Elijah worked out. "The hex is meant to cause intense psychological damage, but what if death is not inevitable?" He stood from his seat and began to pace. "If the spell was written over a thousand years ago, it stands to reason that its accuracy is out of date. What if death is a solution rather than a symptom?"

Lyall's interest piqued. "None have been so strong of will to prove otherwise."

"Doesn't rule it out," Stefan agreed.

Klaus' voice was dull when he said, "And I'm supposed to live with the occasional ghostly visit and inability to control my carnal impulse?" He raised his gaze to look around the room but all eyes had averted. His dimples reared in a disparaging smile. "Not that it's any worse than what you're all used to putting up with."

Caroline shook her head, rolling her eyes. Klaus fixated on her particularly, her distaste making him feel a slight remorse. He swallowed and looked away, the entryway to the hall enticing him. Everything felt pointless, anyway. The longer he stared at the threshold, the more compelled he felt to disappear. They would all be better off.

Silhouettes began to take shape in the doorway and his pulse throbbed to life, rushing to his stomach in dread.

Mikael. Tatia. And Henrik.

The three of them were standing there together, poised like a distorted family photo.

"Klaus?" his name echoed from a distance. He glanced over and the couch had stretched miles away, Caroline a speck in the distance. He moved an inch and suddenly she was there next to him and he felt beads of sweat trickling down his neck. His heart was racing beyond its capacity when a sharp chill ran down his spine as a new presence made herself known.

"Enjoying my gift?"

Grecia's voice was a cackle in the wind and when he turned, there was no one.

Upstairs, the room had grown quiet as Bonnie studied and Kol listened in on what was being discussed downstairs.

"What are they saying?" she finally asked.

"Nothing. They're curtailing." He nodded toward the grimoire. "What about you? Have you gotten to the plot twist, yet?"

She smiled. "Lots of filler chapters," she quipped. He smiled too. "Are you ever going to tell me what your plan was?"

"What plan?"

"I covered for you with Caroline. I think I deserve to know why."

He got up from his seat with a sigh and walked to the window. "You needn't worry your pretty little head about it."

"I think I do. It's my magic that allowed them to access Grecia's. And it's my magic that we need to get back."

"And it's you they need to complete the ritual."

She blinked. "What?"

Kol turned to face her. "Without Lyall's witch, you're the last bloodline to Grecia. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots."

Her shoulders slumped with a sigh. "I'm starting to get really sick of being everyone's fail safe."

"Why do you think I tried to get to them before they got to you?" he said without thinking. Their eyes connected and his slip hit him a second later. His blush gave him away.

"You were trying to head them off for me?"

He scrunched his face, shaking his head. "Don't get ahead of yourself, darling. I have...other motives."

Her smile widened and he snatched the grimoire from her lap in a fluster, walking across the room with it as he turned pages.

"Well thank you," she told his back, noting the way his muscles contracted. "It's nice to know you actually care."

He ignored her, flipping pages. "Bloody immortality spell…" He frowned as he read it. "She's missing a bit."

Bonnie shrugged. "Explains why she could never cast it on herself. Otherwise, she would have by now." He had moved to the far end of the room to sit at the desk. "Do you think they can really pull it off? Resurrecting her?"

"I don't know."

"I'm not asking if you know. I'm asking what you think."

"There's a lot of magic there to be trifled with. Properly wielded, and with the proper spell–"

"And proper witch," she pointed to herself.

He glanced over with a smirk. "And the proper witch." He shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"I guess it's a good thing the spirits cut them off. The only one who seems to know the resurrection spell is your mother."

Kol turned back, gaping like she'd unlocked something important. "Why are we wasting our time on this when the answer is right below us?"

"What?" But he was already off, the door swinging on its hinges. "Kol!"

Down the stairs, Kol had blurred into the Great Room, barely making it a foot in before Elijah blocked him. He glared past his brother at their guest. "He knows the spell."

"What spell?" Elijah inquired.

"The spell to bring back the dead."

Lyall held his hands out before him. "The ritual was kept hidden from–"

"He's lying!" Kol shoved Elijah away and stalked toward Lyall, hovering. "Mother wouldn't share her spells with anyone she didn't trust. And yet she trusted you to bring Grecia back." Kol turned toward his brothers, pointing back aggressively. "If he knows the spell, then they need him to bring her back. He's a part of it."

Bonnie was halfway down the stairs when she stopped at Kol's words.

"He knows they need him, NIk. Just like he knows they need Bonnie. That's why he's here!"

"I came at your request for help," Lyall calmly argued as he stood. "Nothing more."

"Conveniently after a massacre?" Kol shot back. He moved closer, nearly snarling down his neck. "Where exactly were you yesterday?"

Lyall smiled, holding a hand up to Elijah's approach. "Instead of persecuting me, why don't you tell them what it is you're after, Kol?" Kol's brows twitched, his eyes darkening. "Why it is you've suddenly taken such a keen interest in all of this."

As he looked around the room of skeptical eyes, Kol laughed bitterly. "Well done. You've done your research." He spread his arms. "The youngest is always the easiest to alienate."

"You wanted to advocate for the truth. What about your truth?" Lyall nodded when Kol said nothing. "Like you, I have been keeping an eye on the witches and warlocks who now possess Bonnie's magic. But not for the same reasons you are."

"Is that true?" Klaus asked his brother.

Elijah's brow furrowed. "What reason do you have, Kol?"

Kol's eyes wavered, his lips parting with a helpless breath.

"Me." Bonnie appeared in the doorway, her stance emanating confidence. "Kol was keeping tabs so he could try to find something to use against them and strike a deal to get my powers back," she explained as she walked in, ignoring Kol's fixation on her and the frown lines in his forehead. "They're not big on bargaining."

Elijah ran his hand over his face while Klaus' head lolled back against the couch in dull disbelief.

Caroline's mixed emotions got the better of her. "While I love the fact that you were willing to go out on a limb like that for Bonnie, not your best idea."

"Why would you be so stupid, Kol?" Rebekah agreed. "You could have been killed!"

"Guess I thought it was worth the risk," Kol finally answered, his lips quirking when he saw the tiny, fleeting smile that passed over Bonnie's lips.

"Are we done with the inquisition, then?" Klaus redirected. "Or are there any more accusations to throw around?"

"I still think he knows something," Kol slide skeptical eyes toward Lyall. "What exactly did mother tell you to do with Grecia?"

Lyall sighed. "If I must repeat myself..." He tossed a hand up. "We discussed Niklaus. She was very keen on describing the details of the moonstone ritual, and how to turn wolves into hybrids."

"That seems counterintuitive."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because she spent every waking moment after death trying to destroy us," Kol told him. "She hates what we are."

"Abominations," Klaus clarified. Lyall frowned.

"That includes you," Kol all too happily told him.

"Then why would she want us to meet? To form a union and build an army?"

"Maybe she wanted you to kill each other," Stefan said, half-joking.

"Maybe she wanted Grecia to kill you both," Rebekah said quietly.

The room fell silent until Klaus' bitter tone cut through it, "Well, unless we can draw this hex out of me, she'll succeed."

"Draw…" Bonnie muttered to herself. She looked up, a light bulb brilliantly shining in her head. "I know how to get rid of the hex."