It took me a day or so to actually recover from my hangover, though I remained a little sensitive for a while. When a heavy fisted knock came at my door, I groaned from the couch, hoping that whoever it was would just go away if I ignored them but they persisted, knocking again so I grumpily flung off my blanket in order to go answer it, ready to yell at whoever was at the door but when I flung it open, I found Klaus standing there. Before I could grill him for disturbing me, I hissed and lifted my hand to shield my eyes from the sun, my head still pounding despite having drunk several litres of water.
"Still hung over, love?" Klaus teased me, noticing my sensitivity as I slowly adjusted.
"Did you come to gloat or did you want something Klaus?" Not in the mood for his games, I slowly lowered my hand to test if my eyes had adjusted yet and although the sunlight hurt, it was bearable and I could focus on Klaus.
"My sister is yet to be found and I have no idea where she might be. I was wondering if perhaps you knew where she was or what happened to her?" Rebekah was still missing?
"I don't know, I've been hung over the last couple of days so I haven't really been in touch with the outside world. Is she not answering your calls?" I frowned, growing concerned and worried over what had happened to her. "She was staying at the Salvatore house, did you ask them?"
"That was going to be my next point of call, but I thought it would be wise to begin my search with my sister's only friend, but I can see you know nothing either." He seemed visibly agitated, clenching his jaw and beginning to grow angry so I reached out and touched his arm before I even knew what I was doing.
"Hey, she'll be okay. Maybe she just ran out of town for a while to give you a taste of your own medicine. I wouldn't blame her exactly, she was pretty pissed you left her behind." I tried to reassure him, thinking that maybe Rebekah was just keeping her head down for the time being since she didn't want to see her brother until she had a better idea about how she felt about him. I mean, she did just find out that he killed their mother, so a little alone time might be what she was after. "I'll let you know if she shows up."
"That would be greatly appreciated, love." He then looked down to the hand that was still resting against his arm. Quickly snatching it back, I cleared my throat awkwardly and tucked my hand against my neck, rubbing it as I glanced away. "You really have no fear of me, do you?"
"I have no reason to be afraid of you." I shrugged easily as Klaus tilted his head at me curiously. "Sure I know you're dangerous and all, but you're only a threat if I do something to piss you off, and I'm smart enough to know it's in my best interest to just keep out of whatever it is you have going on. If you ever came at me, my magic will protect me and I'm pretty sure I could kill you, and if you tried to hurt my parents, I've already but protective spells over them which means that anyone supernatural can't touch them. Including people you might have compelled." I listed off before folding my arms, giving him a confident look. "So basically, you and I are going to forever be in a stalemate."
"I couldn't agree more. So long as you continue to remind yourself exactly who you would be making an enemy of should you ever try to stop me, then we can continue with this truce between us." Satisfied that Klaus was going to continue with our arrangement of not messing in one another's affairs, he gave me one last look before turning away, but stopped as an afterthought seemed to come to him. "If you were to happen upon Stefan by any chance, I would also appreciate it if you would tell me."
"Why? What's he done?"
"He stole my family from me." Klaus's expression and voice turned dark as I straightened, recognising that Stefan had made one massive error of judgement. "All of them, and now he is holding them over me as leverage. I want them back, so if you find him, it would be wise to not keep his location a secret from me."
"He has your family? Elijah?" Growing increasingly concerned, Klaus gave me a strange look as I lingered in the doorway still.
"You seem to worry a great deal about my brother. Should I suspect something of a romantic nature between you to?" My face said it all.
"Are you kidding me? No. I just like his conversation, that's all. We're friendly." Studying me carefully, Klaus seemed to wonder if I was telling the truth so I just returned his look fearlessly, wondering what the hell was his deal. It's like he was so desperate to find something to hold over me so that he could bring me under his control, but no matter how hard he tried, he found nothing, and that's how it's going to stay.
"Until next time, Ophelia."
"Sure, see you around." Resting my head against the door frame I watched him leave before closing my eyes, still feeling terrible. I better try calling Rebekah and see if she'll answer me. If she was just hiding from Klaus, then she'd talk to me just fine, but if she didn't, I'll know something was wrong. Dozens of texts and calls later, as well as an hour of waiting, I decided that something wasn't right. Rebekah really was missing, and I had a feeling I knew who was responsible. Taking some aspirin, gulping down more water and forcing myself to function, I drove over towards the Salvatore house but parked up some way away so that I was out of sight before enacting a cloaking spell and heading on over.
Since nobody was home, I unlocked the door with some magic and cautiously went inside, glancing around before heading down to the basement. If Rebekah never showed up at the party, then it stood to reason that she had never left the house, and since death was literally the only thing that would stop her, I figured that someone must have staked her with a dagger in order to keep her from interfering from whatever had gone down at the party. Turns out, I was right. She was face down in the cell where they had kept Elijah before, wearing the prom dress we'd picked over Elena's choice with the dagger protruding from her back. Those jerks, they literally stabbed her in the back.
Angry, the ground began to shake as I felt my temper flare but I forced myself to calm down, knowing that causing an earthquake right now was not a great idea. Striding on over to Rebekah, I pulled the dagger out of her back then pulled her into my concealment spell so that I could get her out of here. Tucking the dagger into my jacket pocket I turned her over and moved her hair out of her face, seeing the necklace that Elena used to wear around her neck. I left it alone, whispering for Rebekah to wake up but she was healing slowly, so I decided to just leave with her.
Going back out of the cell, I opened up a refrigerator and grabbed a couple of blood bags after having looked around for some, knowing that a house with two vampires had to have a secret stash somewhere before then snapping my fingers, making Rebekah's body levitate. Since there was no way I would be able to carry her on my own, I had to rely on magic to literally float her out of the house and all the way back to my car, guiding her inside before letting her down on the backseat. I then repeated the process after getting her to my house, taking her up to my room and letting her hover for a moment.
I got the blood stained dress off and dressed her in one of my shirts and some comfortable sleeping shorts before then laying her down on my bed, taking her hands to rest them over her stomach as she gradually began to look better. Watching as her skin gradually returned to normal, Rebekah suddenly sucked in a deep gulp of air as she returned to life. "Hey, hey it's okay. It's me. I'm here." Seeing her eyes rolling around in a wild panic, Rebekah calmed down when she saw me and recognised my room, breathing my name. "I brought you a snack. Hungry?" Offering her the blood bag, I used magic to warm it up so that when she guzzled it down, it tasted just like it would from the source.
"Thank you, Lia." She breathed with relief, wiping away some blood off her cheek with a finger before sucking it clean and looking at me. "What happened? Is my brother still alive? What about my father?"
"Klaus is still alive, Bekah, and…I'm sorry, but he killed your dad. Whilst you were asleep, I looked for some answers about what happened that night because I was way too drunk to know what was going on, and I saw it all happen through a vision. Damon tried to kill Klaus with a white oak stake your father had, but Stefan interfered and Klaus used the stake to kill your father. He's gone, Bekah, and the weapon is too. It burned up with your dad." Drawing in a deep breath, Rebekah stared at me with wide eyes before they started to fill with tears. Moving closer onto the bed, I put my arms around her as she sniffed, starting to cry as she naturally turned into me for comfort and I held her for a while, stroking her hair. "I'm so sorry."
"It's nothing you should be sorry for. It is what it is, and there's nothing to be done about it. My brother is still alive, and the only weapon that could have killed him is destroyed. He truly is invincible now." Remaining lying against me, I tucked a pillow under her head so that she would be more comfortable before continuing to stroke my hair. "Thank you for reviving me."
"That's what friends are for. Don't worry, no one knows you're here so you have a free pass for now, though it won't take long for someone to find out that your previously desiccated body is now missing. Who daggered you anyway?"
"It was Elena, that bitch. She stabbed me in the back after making a show about being friendly and understanding. She even gave back my mother's necklace before she stabbed me with the dagger." Rebekah hissed and I couldn't help but dislike Elena all the more. "Where is it? The dagger?"
"It's over there." I lifted a finger to point over at my desk where I'd placed the dagger. Rebekah glared at it for a few moments before turning onto her back so that she was facing upwards, looking at me with a tortured expression, not knowing what to do.
"I want to kill Elena."
"Well, let's hold off on that for now. Klaus has no idea where you are and I think it's best if it stays that way for now. He's currently on the warpath because Stefan stole your brothers and is using them as leverage. I think right now the best thing to do is just keep our heads down and not get involved until things are settled."
"He has my family?" Immediately sitting upright, Rebekah looked at me with alarm. "Where is he? Where does he have them?"
"I don't know, Bekah. I did try to find out but I couldn't see anything clearly. There was an old house, a lot of trees but it was all foggy so I couldn't tell where it was. I don't think my oracle powers work like that, I can't just tap into them at random and force it, otherwise I'd know exactly where they were and I'd help you rescue them." Sighing heavily, Rebekah dragged her hands through her hair so I tried to cheer her up a little. "You've been dead a couple days, how about you take a shower, freshen up then we can think about what to do next once you've gotten the dust out of your hair." Agreeing that this was a good start, Rebekah borrowed some of my clothes in order to change into afterwards as I got her a towel and invited her to use any of my toiletries she needed, except my toothbrush. I found her a spare.
Whilst she was showering, someone knocked at my door so I went down to answer it, looking through the peephole to find Caroline standing there, waiting expectantly. What did she want? Opening the door, I looked at her questioningly as Caroline exhaled with relief. "There you are, I was hoping to catch you at home. Can we talk?"
"What do you want Caroline?"
"Well, you see there's a couple things. First, you wouldn't happen to know anything about sire bonds and how to break them, would you?" I had absolutely no clue what she was talking about, and judging by my expression, Caroline quickly guessed the same. "Okay, moving on. I was just wanting to talk to you about how close you've been with Rebekah and Klaus. I saw you two at the party the other night, dancing together." She sounded concerned for me, and I knew Caroline well enough that she had come here with the best intentions, so even though I knew where she was going with this, I didn't get mad. "I'm just worried about what he might do to you if you get too close. You can't trust him, Lia. I don't know what he wants with you but he's always got these stalker eyes around you and it's seriously creepy."
"You noticed that?" I couldn't help but smile, laughing lightly as I leaned against my door. "It's fine Car, I can handle Klaus. In fact, seeing as you guys wasted the white oak stake on Mikael, I'm probably the only person alive now who can actually keep him in check. He and I have an agreement that as long as we don't get involved in one another's business, we'll leave each other alone. He's not a threat to me Caroline, so it's sweet of you to worry but I'm okay." I told her before frowning. "What's a sire bond?"
"Ugh, Tyler has got this ridiculous idea in his head that he owes Klaus for turning him into a hybrid because he doesn't have to turn into a wolf every full moon anymore, it's like this master and servant relationship that is seriously messing with his head and driving me crazy because Tyler literally does everything Klaus tells him. That's what we call a sire bond." Wow, Caroline sounded pissed. "Are you sure you don't have any idea how to break it? No druid magic or ancient knowledge to just make it go away?"
"Sorry Car, I got nothing. This is the first time I've ever heard about a sire bond so I wouldn't have a clue. Though, if Tyler was being forced to transform every full moon, then why didn't you guys make him a moonlight ring?" Caroline stared at me blankly. "You know, a moonlight ring? It's exactly like the rings you vampires wear to protect you from the sun, but it protects werewolves from the moonlight on the full moon. My ancestors used to make them for werewolves after they started getting out of control and turning rabid."
"Wait, you're telling me that that's actually a thing?! Tyler could have had all his problems solved with just a little ring?!"
"Um…yeah, didn't Bonnie offer to make him one? I assumed that she would so I didn't mention it before. Doesn't she know how? It's a really simple spell." Caroline grabbed fistfuls of her hair and growled with frustration, turning to pace up and down my porch as I watched her. "Sorry, I thought she knew."
"No, it's not your fault. Bonnie learned her magic from these old books her grams had, grimoires, and there was nothing about moonlight rings." Fiddling with her own daylight ring, Caroline looked exceptionally distressed and I felt bad that I'd fallen through on something I could have so easily fixed that I decided to try and help anyway.
"If you want to break this sire bond between Tyler and Klaus, then I'm guessing you need to break the root of the problem. Tyler feels like he owes Klaus, right? Since he doesn't have to change into a wolf every full moon, it's like a dream come true for him. If you find a way to make Tyler see that he doesn't owe Klaus anything, then that might work. I don't know how to do that though, so I can't really help at all." Nibbling on my lip awkwardly, I tried to think of something else to say.
"No, that's great. Thanks Lia, I'll figure something out. Just remember what I said about Klaus, okay? I know you don't think about us as your friends, but I think of you as one. I know you don't like to get close to people because you're afraid of losing them, but you shouldn't let that stop you from having people close to you. You can always come to me for anything, you know that right?" Ever since Caroline had become a vampire, it was like she was a whole new person. Times like this really caught me off guard. She was just so nice, way nicer than Elena, because she actually had empathy and thought about other people first rather than herself. Elena made a big show of caring about others and trying to protect them, but ultimately always seemed to fail. Typical sucky heroine. I think Caroline should take over as the heroine, because she could actually hold her own and get stuff done.
"I'll be careful Car, but you know I don't want anything to do with whatever's going on. You keep on trying to kill Klaus but you keep on failing, which is only going to piss him off more. Eventually he's going to snap, then there's going to be nothing you guys can do to stop him from tearing this town apart, and I kind of like Mystic Falls the way it is so please stop trying to kill him. It's just better for everyone this way."
"But Klaus wants to take Elena away and use her as a human blood bag, we can't let that happen." Caroline reasoned but I literally didn't care at all about Elena and what happened to her.
"So? Klaus only wants Elena so he can make more hybrids. If she just donates a couple pints of blood every few months, everybody wins. She can go on with her life, and Klaus can live forever surrounded by hybrid slaves to do his bidding. I don't see the problem here." Caroline looked at me like I was crazy and tried to explain to me that Klaus was evil and needed to die, that he'd killed people and threatened to hurt Jeremy and Bonnie to get what he wants, and that Alaric had literally just been run over by one of his hybrids in order to prove a point and he was only going to survive because he was wearing John Gilbert's ring, which Elena had given to him after John left it behind for her when he chose to leave town in order to continue hunting vampires elsewhere. "Caroline, Klaus has done nothing that Stefan and Damon haven't done themselves, yet I don't hear you guys saying you want to kill them. You all attacked Klaus, he retaliated. You pissed him off, he retaliated. It's all back and forth really, just give him what he wants."
"What, so we just roll over and obey his every whim like one of his slaves just to keep him happy?" Caroline retorted angrily, getting irritated with me that I was refusing to see things from their point of view. "What the hell are you thinking? Klaus is literally ruining our lives!"
"So find a compromise. I managed it, and I'm perfectly fine. If you figure out a deal with Klaus, then he'll leave you all alone, it's not that hard. You can't fight Klaus unless you have some real power in your corner, and what do you guys have? A couple bloodthirsty psycho brothers, a witch who couldn't even figure out the concept of a moonlight ring, a sire bonded hybrid, a history teacher with a couple of stakes and a doppelganger who is literally the most annoying damsel in distress to ever walk this earth? Yeah, you guys really stand a chance against Klaus." I drawled, losing patience with Caroline too.
"Ugh! You're such a jerk! All you care about is yourself, Ophelia, and it's really shallow. No wonder the only friend you can actually keep around is the blonde blood slut vampire who is just as selfish and shallow as you." It took every ounce of self restraint I had not to lose my temper with her right there and then, threatening to snap as the clouds darkened overhead and thunder rumbled as the wind rose and the shadows seemed to lurch from the ground around us. Caroline backed away, looking around in alarm as I gripped onto my door so tightly, my fingernails dug into the wood and left imprints.
"You should go." Giving her a fair warning to leave before I lost it completely, Caroline took a step back before quickly vanishing from sight, and the moment she was gone I let go of my breath and inhaled deeply, calming down gradually with every rhythmic breath which gradually settled the wind and the shadows, letting things turn back to normal as I sensed Rebekah appear behind me.
"Well she was delightful. Want me to go kill her?" She offered jokingly but with the full intention of carrying out the suggestion, so I shook my head.
"No, it's fine. She's just upset about her boyfriend and frustrated she can't do anything about your brother." Slamming the door shut behind me, I walked back into my house with a heavy sigh, feeling exhausted from such a long day even though it had barely begun. Seeing that I was fading, Rebekah suggested we hang out in my room and watch a movie, reminding me that I had promised to fully educate her on all the greatest romances ever made.
"You mentioned something about the Titanic and a certain male actor? Strange they would make a film about a ship that I actually travelled on. It'll be interesting to relive the experience." My jaw dropped.
"You actually sailed on the Titanic?"
"Of course, Nik and I travelled first class." Staring at Rebekah for a while, I eventually grabbed her hand in order to march her into my room so we could watch the movie whilst grilling her with questions in my excitement to know absolutely everything.