Klaus knelt down in the restroom of the Grill restaurant and picked up Riley's cell from just under the sink, where it had either skidded or been kicked to after it hit the floor. The screen had a crack in it, but otherwise the phone was still intact.

Klaus clenched his jaw in anger; she had been taken practically right under his nose.

He felt the bitter sting of being powerless; it was something he rarely felt, but he had been experiencing it a lot lately and it angered him even more to think that yet again it was connected to his lovely Riley.

Oh, how heads would roll for this.

When I first woke up, I kept quiet, keeping my eyes closed and my breathing even as I pretended that I was still passed out so I could learn as much about my surroundings as possible before I had to let my captor or captors know that I was awake.

Ugh, not again. Seriously?!

What was the last thing I could remember? I was at the Grill with Nik. And I wanted to go see Caroline. But I never made it. I was ambushed in the bathroom.

That's an awkward location for an ambush.

The side of my neck hurt. From my experience, that coupled with the grogginess meant a syringe full of vervain.

Who now? Lewis was in the basement of the Mikaelson mansion. The hunter was dead.

I was on the ground, but in a sitting position. I felt bars against my back. Was I in some kind of cell or cage? I felt chains wrapped around my wrists, holding them on either side of my body up at the level of my eyes.

I could hear movement around me. I heard more than one set of footsteps. But the sounds didn't echo like they did when the hunter had captured me, so I knew I wasn't in a room made of stone. I could smell wood and ... straw? What? Was I being held in a barn?

I opened my eyes to confirm that idea. A barn, seriously? There weren't any barns near town, so I knew no one would hear me if I screamed. Best to not waste my energy on that, then.

I looked around and saw my captors. Hybrids. I recognized only some of them, but I figured they'd all be hybrids. Pack mentality and all.

That meant I'd have to be careful. One bite and I would be as good as dead.

I saw seven hybrids, but I could hear several more footsteps outside. I was truly surrounded, apparently. Two were closest to me. The guy noticed I was awake and he nodded to the girl facing him. "She's awake."

She turned to face me. "Oh good. Now our fun begins."

I pulled against the chains, but they didn't budge.

"Better check those chains," the female hybrid said. She walked over to me and grabbed my wrist, twisting it against the chain. I bit my lip, trying to suppress the groan of pain. I was unsuccessful.

When she let go, I looked up and saw her satisfied smug. She turned to face the other hybrids. "Yea, she's not going anywhere."

"Why am I here?"

"So many reasons, but where to begin?" The female hybrid feigned pensiveness for a moment. "I'll ask the questions from now on. Did you know that sire bonds can't be broken? Despite what Tyler led us all to believe?"

I knew, by the look in her yellowed eyes, that she knew the answer already. Lying would only make her angrier. "Yes, I knew."

She slapped me, right across my cheek. The kind of slap that stings way more than it actually hurts, but it kind of makes your eye feel like it's in danger of popping out.

I clenched my jaw to keep quiet. Her slap drew blood; I could smell it and feel it starting to trickle down my cheek.

"You should have told Tyler. You should have convinced him. We went through the pain of turning dozens of times, and for nothing. Did Klaus tell you about sire bonds?"

"Obviously. Who else would I have learned it from? Tyler didn't know, but even if he did, he and I aren't exactly close. Or terribly civil to one another."

"That's one thing you have in common with us, now."

I looked around and saw the hybrids nodding in agreement. Was this a coup against Tyler? If so, why would they go after me?

I looked at the female hybrid again. It seemed as though, either by their design or my own, that I only spoke to her. "If you're angry with Tyler, why am I here?"

"We're angry with Tyler and Klaus. We took you because you were so easy to take. That's the tragic part about vampires: they all go down with just a little vervain."

She spoke as if she weren't part vampire.

"It was almost too easy, really. And we captured you right under Klaus's nose. Oh, how I wish we could have been there to see the look on his face. That would have been priceless." A few of the other hybrids chuckled alongside her.

Is she trying to be the alpha? I guess she was successful; everyone here seemed to follow her.

"We took the thing that matters most to Klaus."

"Me?" I laughed humourlessly. "I don't matter the most to him."

"Playing stupid will not save your life, vampire. So don't bother."

I stopped in shock, hearing the implication of the female hybrid's words. She must think Nik loves me. Do all the hybrids think he loves me? He hasn't said so. Truthfully, I had no idea what his feelings were for me. I knew that he was controlling and over-protective and impulsive toward me. If that was how he treated someone he cared for, then I knew I was one of those people. I also knew that he trusted me enough to open up to me.

"It's odd that the mighty Klaus would have chosen someone so weak and vulnerable."

I gritted my teeth together but didn't respond.

"I'm surprised he chose anyone at all; he's too heartless to have a someone."

I rolled my eyes.

Shows what they know.

But of course, I could never say that to them. They were the enemy now, and the enemy couldn't know anything personal or private about Nik. So I bit my lip and glared at all of them.

When the hybrids stopped talking to me, I thought about Nik. Wanting to see his face again was what kept me fighting.

I missed everything about him. I missed his laugh — his true, infectious laugh that he lets almost no one hear. I missed seeing his nose wrinkle when he disagrees with or doesn't like something. I missed his smile; when he smiles, I cannot help but smile as well. And I love the way his face would light up when I laughed. Or even just when I smiled. Sometimes, I felt as though most of the nice things he did were so he could see my smile or hear my laughter. He always made me feel special, and important, and worthy. For the first time in my life.

But more than all of that, more than all of the above, I just missed how comfortable I felt when I was around him.

Maybe I felt comfortable with him because of how similar we were. He was just like me, in some ways: he was someone who was looking for love and acceptance; he was someone who was alone and vulnerable.

I think we were all broken, in some way.

I was still shocked that the hybrids thought Nik loved me. Bekah had said something similar. Gosh, was that only earlier today? Or yesterday, maybe, depending on how long the vervain knocked me out.

When Bekah asked the question, I sort of stumbled around it and gave my perfunctory reply of "I don't know."

But now I had time to ponder over that question: Do I love Nik?

I played around with that question in my mind, and I broke it into two statements: I love Nik and I don't love Nik. It was easy to determine which one felt like a lie.

I smiled as my own feelings became apparent to me. Yes, I did love him. I loved his laugh, I loved the way he spoke, and I loved the way he always challenged me. I loved how he said my name — my whole name, unlike everyone else. And even though I always rolled my eyes at him, I think I did actually love his controlling, over-protective, impulsive nature.

And the more I thought about it, the more I considered the idea that maybe it didn't matter that he hadn't said he loves me. I knew enough about Nik to know that his actions gave away his real feelings; not always his words. I knew that he could care, even if he had unconventional ways of showing it. And I knew that, because of his awful past, he had a difficult time showing and expressing his emotions.

But did any of that matter, really, if I knew how I felt?

Caroline went to her front door after hearing a knock. She opened the door to find a surprise: Klaus, standing on her front porch. She put her hands on her hips.

"Klaus? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Riley?"

Caroline noticed Klaus's face fall, just slightly. "You mean she's not here?"

"Riley? No. Why would she be here? She's been with you."

"Yes. We were at the Grill earlier and she said she wanted to spend the night here, to see if she could mend fences with you."

Caroline crossed her arms against her chest. "And you wouldn't let her go? Unbelievable! You can't control her, Klaus!"

"Caroline, please let me tell you what happened, instead of you assuming wrongly."

Caroline kept her mouth shut, but she glared at Klaus.

"I offered to bring her over here once we finished eating. She went to wash her hands and I haven't seen her since. When she didn't come back after way too long, I went to check on her. I found the lavatory empty, except for her phone. I was hoping she had come here and, for some reason, hadn't told me that she was leaving."

Caroline shook her head, feeling shocked and worried. "She's not here."

"Yes, I know that, Caroline." Klaus was annoying with himself for letting Riley out of his sight, and it resulted in him being rather short with Caroline.

"Where else would she have gone?"

"I fear she hasn't gone anywhere." Klaus began pacing across the width of the porch steps.

Caroline uncrossed her arms in shock. "You think she's been taken?"

Klaus nodded but continued pacing.

"By Lewis again?"

"No, he's detained in my basement." He stopped pacing and stood directly in front of Caroline. "Get your witchy friend over here now so I can find Riley and kill whoever is responsible for this."

"Riley wouldn't want you to kill whoever this is."

"Call the witch. Now." Klaus was seething, but he had to keep his anger in check. Yelling at Caroline would only slow things down.

Luckily, Caroline saw Klaus's immediate plan. "Bon," she said into her phone. "I need you to come over asap. Riley's missing and I need you to locate her."

Caroline hung up with Bonnie then scoffed at Klaus. "This is your fault. Urgh, you know, I'm not surprised. Being around you all the time, of course she's in danger. She'll never be safe with you. You have too many enemies, and she's much easier to go after than you are. I'm surprised she hasn't been kidnapped or tortured more often for choosing to be with you. She should have picked someone else and stopped you from corrupting her life, too. I wish she had never met you."

Caroline wasn't saying anything to Klaus that he hadn't thought about himself; she was giving voice to every single doubt that lived inside him. But he would never let her see that. She paused, waiting for a reaction from Klaus.

He sensed this. "You aren't telling me anything I haven't already thought, Caroline. Riley is perfect and wonderful and she deserves so much better than me. I will never be the man she needs. I'm probably even destroying her life. I'm certainly tearing her apart from her friends. And from you, the little bit of her family that she has left. I should leave. I should exit her life as quickly as possible. But I can't. Caroline, don't you see that? Riley and I are in far too deep. It would do more damage than good for either one of us if we separated. And I'm far too selfish to leave her now."

Bonnie's car pulled up outside the Forbes house right then, preventing Caroline from responding. Not that the blonde vampire would have responded anyway; Klaus's words sent her into a stunned silence.

Bonnie emerged from her car, holding a map in her hand. As she ran onto the porch, Caroline regained her senses and flashed back inside to grab a knife from the kitchen. She reappeared on the porch as Bonnie laid the map down. It was a map of Mystic Falls and the immediate surrounding area. "Care, give me your hand."

Caroline extended her hand to Bonnie, who took the knife and sliced Caroline's palm. Caroline flinched slightly as a few drops of blood landed on the map.

Bonnie started chanting, and the blood moved towards the edge of the map. Klaus felt his blood boil when the blood trailed past his home, but stopped near it. Whoever was responsible for this was taunting him and attempting to push him over the edge.

Very large mistake.

"I'm coming with you," Caroline announced when the blood stopped moving.

"No. I'm going alone," Klaus answered carefully. His voice was deep and scary and determined.

"This could be a trap," Caroline offered.

Klaus didn't respond; he turned and began walking back to his vehicle.

"What are you going to do about Riley?" Caroline shouted at him.

He didn't bother to turn back to answer her. He just spoke over his shoulder before he reached the driver's side door. "I'm going to find her."

Klaus got in his vehicle and found Rebekah in the passenger seat. "What are you doing here Rebekah?"

"Helping my brother and my friend," Rebekah explained as Klaus started the vehicle and drove away from the Forbes house. "I was worried when I called Riley's phone and it went straight to voicemail, so I popped in to the Grill, but Matt said you had just left. So I went to the Forbes house and found you arguing with Caroline."

Klaus drove furiously and made it to the location on the map in no time. He ignored Rebekah's chattering as he drove. Mostly, he was focused on not breaking the steering wheel with his angered grip.

As he bounded out of the vehicle, Rebekah appeared at his side.

"Wonderful, Rebekah, but now is not the time." Klaus noticed a barn in the distance, partially hidden behind some trees. "Go home."

"No. I'm coming with you. I won't let you go into battle alone."

"I'd much prefer to fight my own battles."

Rebekah smiled. "Relax. I won't kill whoever dared to defy you; I'll leave that to you."

The hybrids were angry. Furious, even. Through muttered phrases and explanations, I learned that they were furious with Klaus for treating them like mindless followers. (Though, my experiences now weren't helping the hybrids shed that viewpoint; they all followed the female's orders very obediently. Almost obligatorily and mindlessly.)

They were also very angry with Tyler for giving them false hope about the sire bond. He had every hybrid truly believing that they could be free of Klaus if they turned enough times. Not that it was really Tyler's fault; he believed that as well. And that seemed to be what all of the hybrids wanted: to break the sire bond.

And, because they had to do some explaining, I was also able to learn that not all of my captors were hybrids. Some were werewolves. Probably former pack members of the hybrids — or maybe current, depending on how the hybrid mentality. Was it a 'once a pack member, always a pack member' sort of thing?

This was stupid. I couldn't just sit here and let them do whatever they wanted. I needed to figure out an escape; or at least how to fight back.

I pulled against the chains wrapped around my right wrist. I didn't pull with all my strength, not at first. I pulled slightly and let my strength build steadily. One of the male hybrids noticed what I was doing.

"Stop that. It's pointless. You'll just waste your strength."

But I kept pulling. Why would he tell me to stop if it was pointless? Why would he care about me wasting my strength? Shouldn't he want me to be weak?

Maybe he was afraid they had overestimated the resistance of the chains. Or perhaps he thought they might have underestimated my strength. Both of those suggestions gave me hope.

I continue pulling. The hybrid who told me to stop tried to intervene.

"Stop!" As he reached down to stop me, the chain snapped. I was shocked, but I reacted quicker than anyone else. With the one end of the chain still wrapped around my wrist, but the other end no longer attached to the bars of the stall behind me, I plunged my hand into the hybrid's chest, squeezed his heart, and pulled it out.

"Troy!" More than one hybrid yelled. I guess that was the name of the hybrid whose heart I was now holding on to.

I managed to get onto my feet before the body fell on me. My left wrist was still chained to the bars of the stall. I dropped the hybrid's heart on top of his now gaping chest.

Before I could turn, another hybrid grabbed me from behind and pinned my arms behind my back. I struggled against the hybrid's hold, but I knew it was pointless. He was stronger than I was.

"How could you?! He was my friend!" The female was seething as she ran over to me, glaring.

She lunged at me and landed fangs first against me. She tore a chunk out of my neck.

That alpha-wannabe bitch!

I think I was more startled by her ferocity and her proximity than anything else at first. But soon, I was terrified. I had been bitten by a hybrid. The werewolf venom is lethal to a vampire.

The female grabbed a syringe full of vervain and stabbed it into my neck. I crumpled against the hybrid behind me. Even though my eyes became as heavy as the rest of my body felt, it took a few moments for the vervain to render me unconscious this time. I was able to listen to the hybrids and werewolves for those few moments. And I tried to keep my eyes open.

"Chain her up! Better this time," the female ordered.

Two hybrids obeyed, while a third dragged the dead hybrid's body away.

Then I felt something wonderful and unexplainable: my wound began to heal. I greatly enjoyed the shocked look on all of their faces.

"Not possible," the one who bit me muttered.

I heard other questions as I drifted out of consciousness: "How can she be immune to hybrid bites?"; "Has Klaus protected her?"; "Or is that why he's with her?"

They were perplexed and I loved it.

I passed out from the vervain feeling smug and satisfied, yet a tiny bit bewildered. But I'd have to wait until I regain consciousness to figure this one out.