A/N: Hello, again! :) Thank you so much to the lovely folks who dropped me a comment after reading the previous chapter. ❤️ We're heading into my absolute favorite part of the story with these next few chapters, so I hope you guys enjoy as the TENSION and the DRAMA unfolds. lol
As always, must remind you that English is not my first language and this fic has not been beta'ed. So please excuse any mistakes you find! Hope you guys enjoy it. :)
The view from Marcel's quarters is absolutely stunning in the early hours of the morning.
The sky is a dirty shade of white, harsh light pushing through clouds to wash out shadows and nuance as far as the eye can see. Tall buildings disappear into the far distance, looming ominously over the shorter, older constructions of the old city. It's a crude sort of beauty, unadorned and unapologetic. Almost brutal. Klaus itches for his paints and brushes.
There's a strong sense of melancholy as well, and he takes that is probably why Marcel chose this spot. From here, he can admire the city he once had laid at his feet, now nothing but outlines in the horizon, like a dream. A reminder of all his missteps and failures that must bite deep into his guts, a sorrow that eats away on the inside. Klaus knows the feeling, intimately. He's lost his home once, his beloved city. Lost his family. His very north when Caroline died. And his daughter. It's a pain that dulls away with time, but never quite vanishes.
He supposes Marcel deserves the punishment, though. All's forgiven where he's concerned, but not forgotten. He should flounder in his melancholia, sink deep into the well of his own guilt, as Klaus has done for the better part of the last six months. It'll teach Marcel an invaluable lesson, Klaus hopes: never to stand against him again.
He would, of course, never want to trade the buzz and heartbeat of the French Quarter for a flat in Algiers Point, but he can see the appeal. Perhaps he might come here someday, once this madness has run its course, and have a drink with his old friend while the sun sets over the river.
Now, however, is not the time for that. He's got much to do and a long day ahead of him. Another one. His days never seem to end anymore, all merging into an endless string of disasters.
He spent most of the previous night roaming around the cemetery, searching for Finn. Esther's tomb was empty, but his dignified brother never fulfilled his part of the bargain, just as Klaus expected; Marcel and the rest of the vampires - as well as Kol - remain firmly locked away in the compound. The wench was nowhere to be found, and neither was Finn. Wouldn't even pick up his phone to be appropriately berated, the bastard. This has served only to prove yet again that it is useless to try and reason with his brother. He'll back down for nothing, and is probably angrier now that mother dearest has joined the dark side and left him alone in his crusade, therefore making him more dangerous than ever. Finn is a wild card, and one with nothing to lose and a thousand years' worth of resentment.
On Klaus' to-do list for the day are finding his brother before he gets a chance to strike back, getting the hunger spell broken, the barrier around the compound lowered and then locating Rebekah. Not much, then.
He's putting on his shirt, getting ready to leave, when he hears the stomping sounds of angry footsteps.
What is Caroline upset about now?
He hasn't seen her since he reluctantly left her in Jackson Kenner's hands. He had things to do and couldn't watch her while she recovered, not to mention he figured it would be safer for her to be taken as far away from the Quarter as possible, in case the hunger didn't break. And if she suddenly found herself inclined to feed on Jackson's werewolf blood, well... Klaus wouldn't be too heartbroken over it. He doubted it would be the case, though. Spells like the one Finn cast usually come with range limitations. It would be impossible to encompass the entire city, or it wouldn't be as effective.
The two of them must've had a pleasant, uneventful evening, and that's as far as Klaus has allowed himself to ponder over it, lest he began to regret the decision to heed her advice and trust that sneaky sod. Klaus has got too much in his mind already to be festered with jealousy. Which is why, when his own hunger became too much for him to bear, he decided to make a little snack in the Quarter and then retreat to Marcel's place for the night, rather than go to her in the swamp. Didn't want to risk running into something he wouldn't like - and he can safely say there's very little that wouldn't fall into the category of things that would make Klaus want to rip something to shreds.
He got a message from her before the sun had even risen, asking where he was. He told her Algiers and she seems to have correctly deducted where. But he wasn't expecting her to show up so soon.
"Seriously?" she's barking at him the second she crosses the threshold, an annoyed line between her eyebrows. "What were you thinking? Leaving Kol at the compound, surrounded by a bunch of starving vampires?!"
"Good morning to you, too, love," he speaks flatly. "It's lovely to see you, glad you've made a full recovery. How was your night in the Bayou?"
"Long. Why did you do that?" Caroline plants herself beside him, arms folded across her chest, eyebrows bunched in a demanding expression.
"Because Kol botched Rebekah's body jump. He deliberately sent our sister to a different body than the one we agreed upon and, considering no one's heard from her in almost two days, it doesn't look like it was an auspicious change. He is the only one who knows where she is and he's withheld the information all this time. If I hadn't figured it out, he wouldn't have said a word. He got exactly what he deserved."
The fierce judgement on her expression wavers, but she keeps her stance. "Kol is a jackass, that's been pretty much established since the beginning of time. But he's also your brother. You can't seriously leave him to die."
"Since when do you care so much about Kol?"
"I don't. I'm just... Indignant. It's the principle of the thing, Klaus," she says, with a lot less assurance than she probably intended. "You pulled me out of there, but not him. He already thinks you don't care."
"He's not exactly doing much to make me care, is he? If Kol had any doubts over whom I'd choose to save in a fire between the two of you, he's an even greater idiot than I believed him to be. But there's no need to get incensed," he says, raising his tone to cut her off before she gets a chance to start complaining once more. "I don't mean for Kol to die. I just want him scared enough to fess up. Marcel is watching him."
"Marcel is one of those hungry vampires, and even if he's got the greatest restraint this world's ever seen, he's still one against dozens. The longer they stay there, the harder it'll be to resist temptation."
"Good. It'll keep Kol on his toes. We'll get him out of there, no need to get your hackles up."
Caroline grunts, face snapping towards the window. "What's with all those freaking church bells?"
Klaus hadn't even noticed, to be honest, but she's right. He can hear the chiming coming from all over. He'd completely forgotten what the day was. "It's Carillon eve," he explains. Caroline looks at him as though he's spoken Greek. "The locals shroud the eyes of angels so the dead can walk among us for a night without judgement. The bells wake the dead and guide them to eternal rest."
"How appropriate," she mutters.
"As much as I would love to stay and get berated by you," he snarks as he throws on his jacket. "I have things to do."
"Where are you going?"
"To find my runaway brother and make him take down the barrier so your dear Kol can hang on to his life until I get my hands on him for disappearing with Rebekah." He starts to walk to the door, throwing over his shoulder as he does so, "You're welcome, by the way. For saving your life."
He smiles when he feels her eyes drilling holes onto his back.
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To make a believer out of a skeptical - especially one with a thousand years of baggage - is one of the hardest accomplishments anyone could ever achieve. Caroline has done so when she revived his faith in his Niklaus' redemption. It does not seem like Camille will be as successful.
Elijah does commend her disposition, however, and she has certainly put some honest dedication into what she's doing, might even be a great alienist to her human clients. He just happens to be a slightly more complex beast.
How does one begin to talk about their deepest afflictions to someone they barely know? And how is doing that supposed to help?
Perhaps he should've given this whole thing a proper thought before accepting to sit down with her. He doesn't want to be rude, though. So he lets her dissertate over her methods, credentials and initial impressions while he lazily plays with the daylight ring on his finger, wondering how exactly he might be able to shorten their session without making it too obvious he thinks this drivel is all a big waste of time.
"Our goal here is to confront your subconscious," Camille says, very professionally. "An element of my thesis is on suppression of past trauma and how it can manifest in aberrant and often violent behavior."
"You wouldn't happen to have been inspired by my brother, by any chance?"
She grins. "I'm ethically forbidden from discussing any other patients with you."
"You know, I believe it was 1897 that a dear friend of mine - let's just call him the godfather of modern psychoanalysis - mentioned something similar to me over tea in a Viennese café," he muses.
"Are you name dropping Freud now?" Elijah smirks lightly. Not his fault if he has had the chance to sit down for a chat with some of the most brilliant minds of history. Freud wasn't all that interesting, though. Elijah would refute many of his theories. "Ok. Well, here's something I know that even Freud didn't."
"Oh, do tell," he says, shuffling on his seat.
"What it's like when someone takes away your deepest, ugliest pain without your consent. It is both a blessing and a complete violation. Sound familiar?" Her eyes flash as she speaks, and Elijah feels a bit of a stab somewhere. He does relate to the feeling, though the nature of what Niklaus did to her and what his mother has done to him are entirely different. "Let's begin, then," she continues after a moment, when he fails to fill the silence. Camille waves a hand in front of her. "Start with what you've referred to as the red door."
He told her a little bit about the imagery haunting his thoughts the night before, as they had dinner. She was very engrossed, made a few questions, and he later saw her taking down notes, probably preparing for their session this morning. Elijah didn't reveal anything too compromising, none of the actual horrors he's committed or the forged ones his mother planted as cautionary tales. It was enough to leave him reeling, though. But it did feel good to get some of this out of his chest, he has to say. Sharing his pain felt a bit like solace. He thinks, however, he'd feel much more comfortable talking to Camille as a friend than as a therapist, someone who's analyzing his every word and trying to pry into his mind. The discomfort is far greater.
Sadly, it appears to be too late to go back now.
"That's an image from my past... My youth. It was the door to a slaughterhouse. Sometimes it appears to me in flashes. It's a memory, but it's also a metaphor. It's a place where unspeakable deeds dwell in darkness."
"And have there been many?"
"Look, Camille, you know I'm no stranger to violence." He stands up, walking over to the window. He can't stand having her staring at him so closely. "Typically, however, I am possessed of a certain control. It's always been like this. I'm certainly a lot more composed, if you will, than any of my siblings. However, now and then, I can become consumed with chaos and untethered from that control, I..." He trails off, closing his eyes for just a second; Tatia's beautifully, hauntingly dead face flares up. "This is where the deeds are concealed, behind that door."
"Why that particular door?"
"That was where the first woman I ever loved told me she loved me in return," he says. "It's also where I laid her body after I took her life." Elijah turns back to Camille. She hastily tries to cover it up, but not so fast that he doesn't catch the horror on her face, the shock. Elijah draws the air in, bracing himself for the confession. "No one knows this, not even Niklaus. My brother loved Tatia as deeply as I did. He still believes that mother killed her. Not only is this a lie, it's a lie of my creation, and my brother doesn't forgive. He doesn't forget. I took the woman he loved from him. Therefore, I think it's best that I forget, for both our sakes."
He's suddenly stricken by a wave of dizziness, and has to grab the back of a chair to keep his balance.
"Elijah?" Camille asks, leaning forward on her seat. She's but a blur before his eyes.
He gets a sickness at the pit of stomach, a violent heat that seems to crawl up his legs, taking his chest until it eventually engulfs his entire being, and Elijah sees or feels no more.
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Klaus is surrounded by incompetents.
He has, of course, terrible luck as well, the tide is definitely not in his favor. Mostly, however, he is surrounded by incompetents. Including Davina Claire, who's supposed to be an all-powerful Harvest witch and is yet to locate Finn, despite the fact she has every reason to commit to the task.
Klaus rounded every single corner of the Quarter after his brother. Not even his closest, most loyal werewolf followers knew of his whereabouts, not even in the face of imminent death. He simply vanished. Except evil sorcerers don't just disappear like that, and Esther is no longer able to help him, which tells Klaus he must be channeling something in order to make himself impervious to detection.
He called Marcel on the way, confirming that Kol is both regrettably still alive and just as steadfast in his refusal to share Rebekah's whereabouts as before. But it turns out that's not even the most urgent of their problems. In amid the chaos before the wolves were removed from the compound, Marcel ended up bitten. He needs Klaus' blood, fast, or he's not going to last much longer. And if Marcel succumbs, Kol will go right after. Their clock just started ticking faster.
Davina was the obvious next stop. But if she aims to save her best friend and her new boyfriend, she better start sharpening this alleged super powers of hers, or they'll be both dead long before they manage to get that barrier down.
"Haven't you found Finn yet?" he prods, pacing around the church. St. Anne's is a good place to hone her powers, she said, there's a lot of magical energy she can draw from. She's tried at least two different types of spell and is now drawing some gibberish on the floor using rock salt. It's taking forever. "I must say, for a witch of your caliber, your spells are not particularly efficient."
"Finn is blocking my spell, so I'm trying something new. But I need to concentrate and it would help a lot if you would stop standing over me like a stalker," she snaps, glowering at him.
"No need to be testy, love. We both have the same goal."
"Really? Because my goal is to get Kol out of your house alive, which seems to be about number ten on your list."
"Number nine, at least."
Davina lights up a candle and puts it down inside the salt circle with an annoyed thud. "What is wrong with you? He's your brother."
"Yes. And I also have a sister, one who he happens to have disappeared with. So until he tells me where she is, Kol can rot, as far as I'm concerned. And you might want to get your villains straight, love, because Finn is the architect of this fiasco. So pick up your pace, find out where he's getting his power from so we can stop it," he barks at her, voice booming across the church as it escalates until he's nearly shouting.
His patience, you see, is rather frail. There's only so much chiding he can take in one day and his quota for getting abused over Kol has been thoroughly filled by Caroline already. If Davina knows what's good for her, she'll keep her mouth shut and get hastily to work.
She makes a scornful little grimace at him and then puts her palms forward, chanting under her breath. Klaus feels a light breeze that seems to come from nowhere as the magic takes root. She stops less than a minute later, snapping her eyes at him. "I saw glimpses of Finn. He's combining sacred objects, totems. It's like... representational magic," she says.
"Where is he?"
Davina closes her eyes once more, the lines on her forehead deepening as she concentrates to dig in deeper. "Lafayette number 1, the Lyonne tomb."
"And what's he using?"
Her eyes fly wide open as her expression morphs into one of shock. "He's channeling your parents."
Klaus laughs sardonically under his breath. "And here I thought I was the poster child for least grateful offspring." This is of extreme concern in several different levels, but he does not fail to see the beauty of the fact. It serves both Mikael and Esther right to get betrayed by their favorite child. While they focused all their strengths into eliminating the bastard threat, the little snake they nurtured so dearly was preparing to strike right under their noses. Oh, the irony...
"Well, then. You and I can go crashing their little party," he announces as he strides towards the exit. Before he gets there, though, he's stopped by a mind-bending rush of dizziness, the whole world tilting dangerously around him. His blood begins to boil inside his veins.
"Now who needs to pick up the pace?" Davina speaks from somewhere really, really far away.
Everything goes out of focus at once, and then Klaus tumbles to the ground, shrouded in darkness.
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When he opens his eyes again, he's no longer at the church, no longer on the floor either. He's standing in the middle of an unfamiliar room. Or rather... A hunting hut, it seems. The air feels stuffy inside, heavy in his lungs, and everything is a bit washed out, slightly blurred. He has absolutely no idea where this is or how he ended up in this place.
"Niklaus?"
He whips around and sees Elijah is there as well, and just as disoriented as he is, judging by the expression on his face. How...?
"You two?" Kol says as he steps out of the shadows.
"What is this?" Elijah demands, a certain urgency in his tone.
Klaus frowns, taking in his surroundings. There are four columns in the hut, and a chair by each of them. Above each chair, hanging on the column, is a stuffed animal's head, four creatures in total: a stag, a boar, a fox and a wolf.
"This is a chambre de chasse. A hunt room," Kol says as he takes a closer look at the animals. "It's where witches bring their prey for mental target practice. Our bodies are in the real world, laid on the floor, whilst our minds are in here, represented by these creepy animal heads."
The representational magic Davina mentioned seeing in her divulging spell.
"Let me take a wild guess as to who's the author of this nightmare. Finn!" Klaus snarls. "Show yourself!"
Finn walks in right after, a self-satisfied grin dancing on the corner of his lips. Klaus wastes no time before attacking, but all it takes is a simple wave of Finn's hand and his entire body freezes into place as his brother brushes by him, completely unfazed.
"Save your strength," he says blandly. "In here, I am untouchable. My magic, my rules." He turns to his three brothers, rubbing his palms together, barely able to disguise his sick excitement. "Make yourselves at home," he announces. "We're gonna be here for a while."
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Caroline feels the weight of commitment at the same time she exhales in relief as Aiden deposits dozens of moonlight rings he emptied from his pockets in a bowl in front of her and Jackson.
Jackson called an emergency meeting with the entire pack this morning and even the ones who got closer to the witches showed up. He and Caroline explained to them the core of their idea and said that anyone willing to join in would have to give up their rings as a proof of loyalty. A ripple of uncertainty traveled through the crowded room; she could tell the purists in the group just by the way their eyes flashed at her. That's ok; she didn't expect a bunch of proud werewolves to be immediately happy with the idea of having a vampire disrupting one of their ancient rituals. But Caroline reminded them what was at stake, with an added twist of the blade as she casually threw in that the reason she's a vampire at all is because the very witches they now served had killed her while she gave birth to her part werewolf daughter, who would've been in line to be a Crescent alpha one day. They at least had the decency to look guilty. Most of them, anyway.
She wasn't all that optimist, though, with the vast majority seeming incredibly uncomfortable. Her and Jackson left to allow the group to discuss among themselves, with Aiden as their representative. But it seems her little emotional blackmail worked. By the number of rings he brought, almost everyone must've adhered to the cause.
Which means, now that it's out, they don't have a choice to back down anymore. They have to deliver on their promise. Caroline's not getting cold feet, but... It's a hell of a lot of pressure.
"That's the last of them," he says. "Everyone out here is officially ring free."
"You're better off for it," she tells Aiden.
"That's easy for you to say. You don't have to turn every full moon and you get to keep your super powers all the time. I'm back to having every bone in my body breaking and bending once every month and if the wolves who are loyal to Finn come back, they're gonna rip right through us," he remarks bitterly, obviously still freaked out over their sensitive situation. Caroline wants to say that they got into that mess all by themselves, but she knows he's right. They're more exposed than ever now. "I gotta ask. When's this wedding?"
"It's not a wedding," both her and Jackson answer at the same time. Jackson in a drawled, bored intonation, Caroline clearly fretting.
"It's a ritual ceremony, not a wedding," she corrects, incisively. "Don't go out there saying it's a wedding. No one should be under the impression that this is going a wedding, do you understand?"
"Jesus," Aiden mumbles, taken aback by the heat of her reaction. "Yeah, I got it. Chill."
"If Klaus gets wind that we're calling this a wedding, Finn won't be the worst of our Mikaelson problems," Jackson clarifies. At least he seems to have understood the urgency in adopting the correct terminology here. Aiden cocks an eyebrow at her, shakes his head like he has no idea what's going on and then shrugs. "Ten more days," Jack continues. "After that, Caroline's powers are your powers. The full moon won't control you anymore. Spread the word. Any wolf who wants in needs to be there to bear witness to the ceremony, and if they still have their moonlight ring..."
"Relinquish it. I know."
"And don't say it's a wedding," she repeats in a clipped tone.
"Yeah, yeah, understood. So what are you guys gonna do?"
"We're going to meet an elder Crescent who's going to conduct the ceremony. She's not very happy about it, but she agreed that the situation is extreme. Then there are the trials."
Caroline whips her face at him, frowning. "I never heard anything about trials ."
"Don't worry. It's just tradition. We still need to follow these rites, even if your witch can temper with the rest of the ceremony. Speaking of that... How is he?"
"Alive. I spoke to Marcel this morning, he said he, Josh and Gia are keeping an eye on Kol to make sure he doesn't get jumped. I don't know how much longer they can protect him from themselves, though."
"Isn't he a witch?" Aiden asks. "Why can't he protect himself?"
"He's one witch against an entire army. Even if he takes one of them down, there's a dozen more right behind."
Aiden purses his lips moodily. "I just hope Josh doesn't get caught on the wrong end of this mess."
"The goal here is for no one to get caught on the wrong end of this mess. Klaus is supposed to be with Davina now, working on a way to get them all out safely. So." She turns her attention to Jackson, trying to push away the pressing concerns over whatever's happening at the French Quarter right now. She can't personally do anything until they figure out how to lower the barrier, and if she gets within ten feet of that building, she'll be just as ravenous as the rest of them, only outside instead of locked away from the real world. All she can do is wait and hope for the best. What Klaus lacks in enthusiasm about rescuing his brother, Davina has in heaps; silver linings and all. "Any ideas where we can find a Crescent elder?"
Jackson smirks. "Well, that depends. You got any interest in meeting my grandma?"
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"At the very least, this prison is a bit more comfortable than the box you held me in for almost 900 years," Finn says, obviously too happy with his little trick.
"Oh, the heads are a nice touch," he replies with mock-interest. "Let me guess... I'm the big bad wolf. Kol, the wily fox. Elijah is the noble stag, of course. And you, fittingly enough, are the boar." Klaus makes full use of his vowels to twist the word, punctuating it with a cheeky grin. A muscle twitches on Finn's jaw. "Bit obvious, as far as symbolism goes. Why are we here? No, wait. Don't tell me. You're upset about mother. You should know I never forced her to drink blood and betray everything she holds dear. That was her choice."
"This isn't about mother, this is about you," Finn snaps. "I want you to know how it feels to be powerless. So I'm gonna take the thing that matters the most." Klaus' breath hitches, the smile sliding off his face, before Finn adds, "The city you love so much."
Klaus huffs out a laugh. Has his brother been paying attention at all or is he simply as blind as Esther when it comes to his siblings? After months of being a constant thorn in his arse, does he honestly believe that the city is the thing that Klaus holds most dear? Well, Klaus is not about to correct his mistake.
"Are we quite done here?" Elijah cuts in, impatience biting at his voice. "You will release us now."
"I will... After sundown. Because after sundown, when the marchers of Carillon Eve take to the streets, my barrier spell drops. Marcel and his hungry vampires will be unleashed to kill their way through the Quarter. I imagine that after the atrocities that will follow, the supernatural community of New Orleans will be forced to find another place to call home," he reveals his evil plan, glowing with pride.
Klaus exchanges a concerned glance with his older brother. This is every shade of problematic. If Marcel and his vampires are allowed out of the compound, the way they are, it'll be a massacre. And Marcel might not even have until sundown. Still... It's not nearly as bothersome to Klaus, personally, as if his brother had realized his worst weakness currently answers by the name of Caroline Forbes. As long as he stays away from her... They can manage. Although he suspects other people might feel differently.
"Oh, wow," he says flatly. "I have to say, brother, for someone who claims to be fighting the righteous war against monsters , you certainly do seem to be in deep touch with your evil villain streak. Almost makes me proud."
"I'm nothing like you. This is to teach you a lesson."
"And the way to do that is by slaughtering the innocent people you claim to be protecting?"
"Every war requires sacrifices. This will purge your god-awful lot from the city. In the long term, they will thank me."
"New Orleans has been living with its supernatural community since its very cornerstone. You think you know what these people want, but you don't. You know nothing about this city, or about us, or about humanity. All you want is to get your petty revenge, and for that you're willing to sacrifice hundreds of people. Tell me, brother. Who's the real monster here?"
Finn's eyes darken, glinting with rage. He makes it so easy to taunt him, bites so hungrily onto every lazy bait laid out before him, it's almost a waste not to take advantage of it.
"I don't care about the bloody city," Kol cuts in. "What I care about is that my very human body is lying at the feet of those hungry vampires right now. Your fight is with them, Finn," he says, pointing his finger at both him and Elijah, the little traitor. Already jumping ship to save his own skin. "It's not with me."
"All you care about is your own fragile mortality," Finn fires back at him. Not even he can stand Kol's whining. "But what if you were made even more vulnerable? What then?" He puts a hand forth, and blood starts running down Kol's nose.
"Ok," he says, wiping it with the back of his hand, his expression smoothing into sheer fright. If he's bleeding in here, he must be bleeding out in the real world, which means... "Point made. Nobody loves a joke more than old fox boy, here, but if you could just get me back to my body -"
"I must confess, I rather enjoy watching you twist in the wind." Elijah approaches their younger brother, offering him the handkerchief out of his pocket. "Not unlike the way you left Rebekah, I imagine."
"Yes. What did you do to Rebekah?" Finn inquiries, genuinely interested.
"For goodness' sake. She crossed me, so I crossed her back. I suppose you lot wouldn't know anything about retribution," Kol grumbles in annoyance.
"Rebekah cared for you more than any of us," Elijah spits at him, his eyes as sharp as knives.
"And she still lied to me, rattled me out to Nik and caused me to spend almost one hundred years in a box. Months later, I was dead."
"Oh, enough with the theatrics, Kol," Klaus says with a snap in his tone. "I told you already I mourned your death. And so did Rebekah. She cried for days."
"But you left me to die at the compound!"
"Because you deserved to be taught a lesson."
"You had no qualms escorting Caroline out, did you, though? Didn't she deserve to be taught a lesson?" Klaus scoffs, shaking his head at his brother's complete lack of awareness. "Oh, that's right. You don't know."
"Kol," Elijah admonishes.
He turns to his older brother, whose gaze is deliberately not meeting his, and then back to Kol, the perfect picture of smugness. Normally this type of cheap provocation would fly right by him, but Elijah's suspicious reaction gives him pause.
"What is he talking about?" he directs at Elijah.
"Did she tell you, Elijah?" Kol prods. "Then I guess that makes you the only one left out of the loop, brother dearest. Oh, that is just cruel - in my personal opinion, of course, but what do I know?"
"Stop this nonsense now," he demands, temper quickly flaring. "What are you talking about? Spit it out already or shut your mouth."
Kol's eyes glimmer with delight as a slow smirk creeps onto his lips. "Your bird came to me yesterday asking if I could help her with a certain werewolf ritual. A wedding ritual. She wants to get hitched to that Jackson bloke."
"That's absurd," Klaus spits back at him without missing a beat. Such a ridiculous and farfetched idea he almost starts laughing. Of course that's not true. Caroline, marrying Jackson? Please. But then when he looks at Elijah, at the way his eyebrows are bunched together in a disgusting expression of pity and remorse... "Elijah," he says in a near plea, his chest tightening painfully as he searches his brother's eyes, waiting, begging him to deny it. "Elijah ," he grits out.
He stuffs his hands in his pockets, casting his eyes downwards. "I didn't think she'd go through with it," he says apologetically.
It's as though the floor suddenly vanishes from under his feet. Coming from Kol, he could chalk it up as cheap teasing. He's a prankster, a vicious little vengeful bugger. He could be making it all up just to draw a reaction out of him. But Elijah... Elijah wouldn't lie to him. If he knows about this, it's because Caroline told him. Which means...
For a long, disorienting moment, Klaus can't grasp the full meaning of the information. And then it hits him with full force, like a fist closing around his heart and yanking it out of his chest, stealing the air off his lungs and leaving him utterly at loss.
She wants to marry Jackson. All those long hours she'd been spending in the Bayou, the calls to meetings for moral support , the secret encounters, sneaking around the compound, just the two of them, behind closed doors - right under his roof .
What strikes Klaus first is not anger, not rage, which are feelings he understands, feelings that are as natural to him as breathing. Something builds up inside of him that he cannot identify at first - disbelief or the biggest sense of disappointment. It comes over him like soft rain, putting all his fire out, leaving him empty and lost.
Klaus simply does not know what to do with himself.
"Look, if you could just get me back to my body, I will tell anybody anything they need to know," Kol speaks after what feels like hours of an excruciating silence, bringing the attention back to the issue at hand. Suddenly he can't care less about any of this. The city. The vampires. None of it matters.
"How narrow-minded of me," Finn says. "You two don't know where our sister is, and the only thing standing between you and her is this selfish fool here. Maybe it's time you go enjoy the rest of your life while you still can." With a flick of his wrist, Kol vanishes out of thin air, and then it's just the three of them.
"Now..." Finn continues, turning to him and Elijah with a smooth smile. "Let's discuss the matter of Caroline Forbes, shall we?"
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"You look nervous."
Caroline lets out a quick bark of laughter. She has been low-key freaking out from the moment Jackson said grandma . To her credit, she did her best to keep the worst of it off her features, but the closer they get to the cottage, the more anxious Caroline gets.
The deeply personal nature of this ritual hadn't been so clear to her before. She was looking at it from her own perspective, that of an outsider, someone getting into a business arrangement. And now that it has finally dawned on her that she's on her way to meet Jackson's direct family, his only living relative and one of the last remaining Crescent elders, she can't really say that it has amounted to make her feel exactly confident. It makes her think of how much of his own roots Jackson is really going against here just to make this happen the way she wants it to. It's flattering, in a way, that he would bestow this much trust upon her, a witch-turned-vampire with very little knowledge of his people's traditions, but it is also an incredibly heavy weight to carry. The pressure is... Overwhelming, to say the least.
And to think she's about to meet Jack's grandmother and she hasn't even told Klaus yet…
Things are moving way too fast, much faster than she ever thought it would. It leaves her reeling. All day now she's been getting this terrible bite of guilt, her every instinct screaming that she should put a pause to this and sit down with Klaus to explain the situation before anything else happens. But considering the concessions Jackson is already making, it doesn't seem fair. His guys are freaked out. Every time she sees Aiden, he looks like he's about to have a stroke. If they wait any longer, they'll lose everyone, and they might not get a second chance. The people who have already given up on their rings will be furious . They'll be looking at an uprising, for sure, and no one's gonna suffer more than Jackson. They can't postpone it because Caroline needs a minute to woman up and grow the courage to talk to Klaus. Wedding or not, she knows he'll be spitting fire, and it'll take a lot of patience and a lot of great, irrefutable arguments and some good dose of reverse psychology to get him to be cool about it. And if he doesn't... Well. She doesn't even want to consider the alternative, however likely it might be. Klaus is unpredictable, but the one thing she can be sure of is that he'll hate this arrangement, no matter what.
She feels sick . This whole thing is already giving her an ulcer and she's pretty certain vampires can't even get those. It's hard to tell what frightens her the most: meeting grandma Kenner, these trials Jackson spoke about or Klaus' reaction. From a completely selfish and personal point of view, Klaus is likely to resonate much deeper.
The most important thing is that he cannot find out before she gets a chance to tell him herself. Which means she needs to do it soon. Too many people are in on it already. Klaus has eyes all over the Quarter, no doubt it'll soon reach his ears that the wolves are cooking something up in the Bayou and that she's right in the middle of it. She was going to tell him today, but then he walked out on her in a hurry, and when she got to the Bayou Jackson dragged her into that meeting with the pack and then before she knew it, she was being led towards his grandmother's house to start on the ceremonial rites and she has no idea how long this will take. Not too long, hopefully. Maybe she'll be home by dinner time tonight, the mess at the compound will be over, Kol will be safe and then she can crack open a Bordeaux, put on some fancy lingerie and... persuade Klaus to the best of her abilities.
And before she even gets to face the big angry wolf, she still needs to pass this Grandma Kenner test. No pressure, then.
"You think?" she replies after a beat. "On a scale from one to hybrid, how much exactly do you think your grandmother hates me?"
"Look... Mary knows all about you. Nothing happens without her knowing it. I told her when you moved to the camp with us. She knows your story, knows how you stood up for us, how you helped us break out of Marcel's curse, how you were there for us during the bombs. She also knows what the witches did to you and your daughter, so you can relax. She may not like vampires, but she does not feel for you the same way she feels for every other vampire, or hybrid, for that matter."
"But now I'm getting you to go against a millennium old tradition. In my experience, grandmothers are usually not big fans of that. Doesn't she think I'm a disruptive influence over her grandson?"
Jackson smiles warmly. "Let's fix this misunderstanding here. You're not getting me to do anything, Caroline. I'm doing it because I want to. I'm a big boy. It's my responsibility as the clan's alpha, they chose me for a reason. They trusted that I would have their best interests at heart, and this is exactly what I'm doing here. Standing up for my people, no matter the cost. Mary understands that as well. It'll be fine. Really, just relax."
"Easier said than done," she mutters under her breath. "I don't think I've ever been this nervous about meeting anybody's families before. I'm usually great with families. Families love me."
"Well, I should probably tell you, then... I've never brought any girls here to meet her before."
Caroline throws her head back with nervous laughter. "Oh, wow! That's great . No pressure!"
"At least she doesn't have anyone to compare you with."
"Well, the good news is, I am probably establishing a very low bar for any actual girlfriends you bring here in the future, so."
"Cute as all this is, y'all are late."
Caroline freezes when an elderly lady with hair as white as snow steps out of the woods right in front of them. Despite her obvious old age, she looks tough , commanding with her rich southern drawl. Caroline is instantly intimidated.
"Grandma Mary," Jackson says, radiating affection as he gives his grandmother a tight hug. She kisses him on the cheek, petting his face as he pulls way, motioning towards her. "Mary, this is Caroline."
Caroline doesn't know if she's blushing under the woman's fierce stare, but she just assumes that she is. "Mary. Hi. It's so nice to meet yo-"
"You can turn off your charm now, darling. You two are late, we need to get started. Come on." She beckons for them to follow as she starts walking.
So not off to a good start, then.
She clears her throat and catches up with Mary.
"Right. So. Rituals. What are those, exactly? Sorry, I'm a little... Unfamiliar," she asks.
"Nothing fancy. Fasting, purification, the rite of divulgement, to name a few."
"The rite of what?"
"Oh, it's simple," Mary says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "You speak the truth. He speaks the truth. Secrets are cleansed. Everyone is happy."
A shadow crosses Caroline's face as all those nerves quickly turn into a sharp, cold fear. "What do you mean... secrets are cleansed?"
"The two alphas smoke the root of a blue calamus flower."
Blue calamus. Oh, no... "That's a truth serum."
Mary stops walking, turning back to her with a sympathetic grin. "Right, you used to be a witch. So you know these things. It links your heart and minds together. The ceremony won't take if there are lies between you. Even if you're not really getting married, you still need to deliver on the basic prerequisites. Hope you don't have too many skeletons in your closets." Mary chuckles, turning back and starting to walk again. But Caroline doesn't follow.
She stands rooted to her spot, a sense of defeat falling over her. "I'm not doing that," she speaks lowly. Both Jackson and Mary whip around with the exact same expression on their faces, their foreheads wrinkled in bafflement.
"What?" Jackson questions, blinking at her.
She shakes her head, her lips parting and closing several times before she finds her voice. "I'm sorry, Jack. I can't."
Caroline whirls around and storms off into the woods, heading back the way they came from.
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"Poor Niklaus... You look distraught, brother." Finn makes a faux sad face, pursing his lips. Klaus stares at him with such hostile intent he might set Finn on fire. He hasn't said a word in minutes, bitter hurt etched onto every line of his expression, and yet Elijah hasn't got a clue what's going through his mind right now.
He cannot believe what Kol said is true. Caroline wouldn't do that. She especially wouldn't do that without telling Klaus. She sounded torn when she told him about her findings of this ritual, and convinced that there was some kind of grandiose gesture behind her sacrifice, but she'd also seemed terribly heartbroken over the thought of giving up on Niklaus. How could she make up her mind so fast? Or had she already been made up when she came to him, and Elijah simply understood it all wrong? Perhaps she wasn't asking for his opinion; she was confessing.
No. That cannot be. Kol must've been lying. But then how did he find out about it? Elijah cannot imagine Caroline would've ever gone to him for counseling on the matter. This is all very confusing.
And Finn is obviously reveling in the opportunity to take advantage of Klaus' obvious disgruntlement. This is why they never liked Finn. He doesn't care about anyone's feelings but his own. He feels no compassion, no empathy. It should be his job, as the eldest brother, to care for Niklaus, but ever since they were children, it was Elijah and Rebekah who tended to and fostered him, held his hand when he was afraid, had his back when he needed support, shielded him from the horrors of their father when he needed protection. And now, just as before, Finn would rather trample over his brokenness than show commiseration. It makes Elijah want to rip out his heart and chew on it.
"Seems you do have a heart, after all," Finn continues, taking a step forward, hands clasped behind his back as he watches Niklaus closely. "I appreciate the irony here. You know, I was thinking of discussing your father. Your real one. You longed to know him your whole life, yet at the first opportunity, you murdered him. Why, I wondered."
With rage simmering under darkened eyes, Niklaus walks up to their brother, staring him down. "Possibly the same reason you took out Esther. Severing parental ties has a way of freeing one up to recognize one's true potential." He brushes by Finn, bumping against his shoulder, and goes to stand on the other side of the hut, his back turned to them.
"Quite... But Esther was no fool. She pinpointed your wants, and knowing your true father was at the top of the list... Or so we thought. I figured something else must occupy the top of your list of affections, and it's not your favorite city. I'm about to take it from you, using your own vampires, and I barely get a rise out of you. I thought maybe it was Rebekah, but you remained calm even when the one person who knows of her fate probably just met his."
"I am fighting a monumental desire to mount your severed head upon one of these walls," Elijah cuts in.
"Then I thought it was your favorite brother," Finn continues, pointing towards Elijah. Niklaus shuffles around to face them, looking positively mutinous now. "But mother broke him into a thousand little pieces and rather than fix him, you left him to fend for himself God knows where."
"Are you quite done, Finn?" Elijah grits out, raising his tone voice.
Finn grins, opening his arms and letting them fall next to his body. "The truth had been right under our noses all this time and not even mother took it seriously. Niklaus Mikaelson, lost in love for a witch . Quite the scandal! I didn't think it was possible for you to care that much about a mortal. You never had any appreciation for mortal lives. Always thought them weak, beneath you. Tell me, brothers - and I suppose both of you can answer me that - what is the secret of Caroline Forbes? Knowing that she has captivated both of you this fiercely makes me wish I could meet her properly. There must be something special about that girl. Or is it that she's just a pretty piece of meat you two like to play around with?"
A feral roar rips out of Niklaus' chest, his eyes mad with rage as he advances towards Finn. Again, their brother merely lifts a finger and he's stopped, frozen with one of his arms lifted, anger radiating off of him in waves. "Touch her and I will gladly relieve your hands of all your fingers one by one," he speaks, his voice rumbling low like thunder.
"Calm down, brother. We're having an interesting conversation here. I can understand how the pregnancy might've affected you both. I mean, Elijah, of course, always the caretaker, would've jumped right in at the opportunity to have a family. Mother realized that about you right away," he says, looking at him. "How the loss of that child affected you, how much you longed for your own. But you..." he turns back to Niklaus, pointing a finger at him. "You were far more complicated to decipher. Your motivations weren't immediately obvious. For months you remained locked away at the compound while that girl roamed free around the Bayou. It didn't seem like you were that involved. Mother thought your obsession was just possessiveness. You do tend to be very territorial. I mean, why else would the rabid, vicious Original hybrid care about a pregnant girl and her unborn child? It all became clearer as you proved how far you were willing to go to take control of the city. The idea of having an heir must've appealed to you. Such vanity..."
"Do not speak of my daughter," Niklaus spits venomously at Finn from behind grit teeth.
"Believe it or not, Niklaus, I am sorry for your child's fate. But there was no other choice. Your first born had to die so that a greater evil, greater than anything we've ever known, wouldn't be brought upon us all. Just like my beloved sister Freya, all those years ago. Now, Caroline is obviously not viable anymore, but you could still have children, no? Have you tried? With Camille, perhaps? She's lovely. Treacherous, but beautiful. She would do a fine mother."
" Shut up! "
Elijah tries to attack Finn from the back, but the magic in this place must respond so deeply to him that he doesn't even have to turn to stop Elijah. One snap and he's glued to his spot, his legs refusing to answer to his commands.
"No, dear brother; you haven't tried for a new heir, have you?" Finn prods on, as though he refuses to lose the thread he's pulling at here. "You don't just want anybody's child, do you? Maybe you never even wanted the child after all. What you want... is Caroline." His face breaks into a thousand watts smile. "But it seems like she doesn't want you anymore."
" Enough ," Elijah bellows. "What is the purpose of this charade?!"
"The purpose is to figure out the puzzle, Elijah. I know you're hiding something from me. And I'm not entirely convinced yet that it is the nature of Niklaus' true feelings for Caroline. As unbelievable as that might be, he hasn't exactly been trying to disguise it. No... This is something big. Something dark. Something that maybe Niklaus' real father came to find out about, which is why he paid with this life."
"You want to know why I killed my father?" Niklaus asks, his voice low and grave. "When blood relations let me down, I don't stop to reason with them. I remove them."
"So the secret is there is no secret? You long for nothing? Care for no one but a small-town beauty queen who clearly doesn't regard you the same way? I don't believe you, brother. It's clear to me you're hiding something and as I control your presence here, I've got all the time in the world to figure out just what that might be. And I will."
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"Caroline! Caroline, wait!"
Jackson has been calling out to her for ages now, but Caroline does not stop, does not slow down.
"Come on! Let's talk about this!"
She keeps going, desperate to find the way out of this goddamn swamp. What was she thinking? Why did she ever believe this would be a good idea? How could she not wager whether or not she'd have to tell Jackson about Eve? No. It's over. This was a stupid reverie and it ends here.
"Please! Just hear me out!"
Caroline shuts her eyes for a second, guilt rattling away inside of her. She dragged Jackson all the way here, only to bail on him like this. And she can't even tell him why. God, she's terrible... The worst person ever. His wolves will be rioting against him and it'll be all her fault.
She stops walking, whirls around to face him. "I can't do it, Jack."
He jogs up to her, catching his breath, his face marred with confusion. "You are not the only one who has stuff they'd rather not talk about."
"Some of my secrets are not mine to tell."
"Maybe a little honesty is a good thing."
"I live with the Original family. In that family, honesty can get you killed."
"We all have things we hope will never see the light of day, Caroline. You probably won't like what I have to say any more than what you're holding back."
She shakes her head helplessly. "I wish that were true. But it's not the same."
Caroline turns again to leave, but Jackson takes her arm, whirls her back to him. "Caroline..." he starts, softly, her name rolling off his tongue almost like a plea. "Come on. I can't believe you'd just walk out on me like this. This isn't like you."
"I'm sorry, Jackson, I really am. But I didn't know there was a divulgement ritual. If you'd told me before, we wouldn't have come this far."
"I don't understand what the big deal is. I trust you. Blindly. Don't you trust me?"
"This is not about trust."
"Then what is it about?"
"More. It's about more," she says resentfully.
"Look... We're doing something bigger than both of us here. You don't wanna do this the traditional way because you're in love with a Mikaelson, fine. I'll swallow my pride and take the deal because it's important. Think about how many people we're going to save by doing this."
"I know, Jackson. I know . But -"
"But nothing. There can't be a but here. If we hesitate, we're doomed. We'll take it one step at a time, and if anything makes you uncomfortable, you tell me and we stop. And when it comes the time to open up, I'll go first. You'll be a part of my pack. We gotta be partners. We'll need to have each other's backs, no matter what. Your friends will be my friends. Even your weird family, I'll help you protect them. Hell, I'll make a toast at your wedding with Klaus." An airy chuckle escapes her mouth. "Your secrets will be my secrets. Your demons will be my demons. And you'll never be alone in a battle again."
Jackson puts his hand out for her to take, looking directly at her, his gaze open and unflinching. Caroline sees nothing but honesty in him. Jackson reminds her of Bonnie in some ways, in how straightforward they both are. The kind of people that inspires blind trust even when you don't know them that well. What you see is exactly what you get. Caroline believes every word that he's said, and she wants so hard to take his hand and move forward with this... But this isn't just about what she wants, or even how she feels. She can't reveal the truth about her daughter without Klaus consenting to it. It's not just her secret to tell and they've been through a hell of a lot to cover it up and keep it buried. Klaus killed his own father for it. It's not fair to him for her to just give it away, no matter how certain she might be of Jackson's pure intentions. They're a team, her and Klaus. It took them forever to get to where they are now, she can't jeopardize everything by making a decision this big without telling him.
She takes Jackson's hand anyway, giving it a light squeeze. "I trust you, Jack. But I can't tell you my secret." She makes a pause, dropping his hand. "I need to speak to Klaus."
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"It's a shame, really, for you to lose New Orleans. You fought so hard to make this city a home," Finn speaks conversationally, like this is all just a casual meeting between brothers and they're discussing as mild a subject as the economy or an upcoming election. Elijah is honestly at the very end of his wits. If he cannot kill Finn, he might end up killing himself, just to be free of this. It's impressive how Finn can make even torture boring.
Niklaus has taken a seat on the chair under the wolf head, and Elijah is standing behind him, arm propped on the back of his seat. Finn sits right across from them, beneath the boar. Does he even realize how sadly unironic this is?
"On the other hand, the city hasn't given you much in the way of good fortune," he continues when he gets no response out of Klaus. Finn's brought all of them here, but it's quite clear he has a particular agenda against Niklaus. Elijah has seen the fight bleed out of him, though. Part of him is concern over how suspicious Finn clearly is about their secret ; the other part is likely miles away from here, somewhere in the Bayou, with Caroline and her... Goodness, even thinking of the word brings a sour taste to Elijah's mouth. "You had Marcel's betrayal, father's attack, Caroline's death, the loss of a child..."
"It's a delicate craft, representational magic," Elijah speaks over him, an idea suddenly crossing his mind as he goes digging for everything he's ever learned about this kind of magic. "One must be ever so precise. If you misrepresent us, the very enchantment that his room was built upon would collapse, would it not?"
He can't take another minute of this, and he feels Niklaus is even closer to the breaking point than he is. He'll self-destruct without even getting a chance to confirm Kol's absurd tale. Tedious as he may be, Finn is also cunning and dangerous. If they allow him to keep spinning his thoughts, trying to dredge up a reaction, he'll eventually get there. Already he's dancing too close to the truth for comfort. Extremist as he is, he will not hesitate to attack Eve. This Elijah cannot allow.
"I assure you, you have not been misrepresented," Finn replies, with his customary haughtiness.
"Well, that depends how well the hunter knows his prey," Elijah muses as he walks over to the stag. For so many years, he thought of himself as the noblest of the night creatures, carried himself as such. All of them have blood on their hands, it's part of their very nature. But he was better. Righteous. Moral. All lies of his own fabrication, meant to protect himself from the rot within. But he can feel all of the cracks in his carefully constructed façade now, centuries worth of shame leaking through.
Elijah's stomach roils sickly as fear unravels inside of him. He'll be eternally burdened by the weight of his horrible misdeeds, by what he did to the first woman he ever loved, but Niklaus... Elijah couldn't bear the thought of him ever knowing. And yet... It seems like the cost to break out of this place is to come clean. Reveal the truth about his greatest shame, face real consequences. In a way... It'll be a relief. He deserves to be punished, after all. Perhaps this is exactly what he needs. He stole something precious from Niklaus, not once, but twice. He should have to pay for it, even if the sentence comes too late.
"This façade... This illusion that I have created over the course of my life - the noble stag... Is nothing more than a deception to myself, to everyone." He turns around to face Klaus, who stares at him with that impassive expression, but a question in his eyes. "Were I truly noble, brother, I would not have withheld from you a vile deed. And one that I, like a coward, allowed mother to erase from my memory." He pauses as the words catch in his throat, swallowing down slowly, bracing himself for courage. "It was I who killed Tatia." The entire room tilts and flickers around them. "I hunted her down and, mercilessly, I feasted upon her flesh. I tore her from us. Mother took the blame." Elijah falls down on his knees in the middle of the room, tears prickling behind his eyes as the memories of Tatia's final agonizing moments rush vividly through his mind yet again. "Brother, I felt certain that if you knew... You would in no way ever forgive me. So I chose to forget, and I've lived with this lie for a thousand years."
A dozen different emotions flit across Niklaus' face - disbelief, shock, anger. Elijah hangs his head low, his own heart aching with his confession. His ugliness is now out there, glaringly clear for everyone to see. There's no more hiding behind his suits or his polished speeches. Centuries and centuries casting judgement upon Niklaus, and all this time he was the worst of them all. Tatia trusted him. She believed in him. And Elijah murdered her in cold blood.
"The act may he reprehensible, but your admitting to it proves you to be the man I thought you to be. My magic stands," Finn says after the initial shock clears, though his voice sounds more urgent and less confident, strident, almost.
"Does it?" Niklaus speaks at last, a grim look on his face as he stares down at Elijah. "It turns out my brother is even more depraved than I am. He is the noble stag no longer. Indeed, an altogether different beast is creeping through the cracks." He stands to his feet and walks up to Elijah. For a moment, he thinks he'll kill him, and the thought comes to Elijah as a relief. But then he puts a hand on Elijah's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You have also failed in your representation of me, Finn, because there is one thing you never thought me capable of... Forgiveness." The room flickers again, and Finn shifts nervously in his seat. "You, Finn, have remained a boar for centuries, but here is where your true fault lies. You never learned that the bonds of family far outweigh anything else. Such bonds trump petty jealousies. They overcome ancient feuds and, yes, they are capable of allowing one monster to pardon the great sins of another."
Niklaus looks down at him, and his eyes aren't piercing or severe anymore, but compassionate and warm. Elijah sags under his brother's comforting touch, some of that awful tightness and the storm that's been plaguing his every minute since he woke from that nightmare dissolving into solace. The harshest of judges, the more ruthless of executioners, never one to let betrayals against him go uncorrected, offering him forgiveness. This he did not expect. And neither did Finn, because all around them his illusion begins to collapse. The animal heads he used to represent the four of them burst into flames.
"How is this possible?!" he yells, indignant, as he realizes his powers have been made useless.
"Your magic is as flawed as your perception of your own siblings," Niklaus says. "I wonder, just how untouchable are you?"
At once, both of them launch at Finn, but before they can get their hands on him, the hut vanishes. The next second he's waking up on the floor of the safe house, gasping for air and sitting up so fast he feels dizzy.
"Oh, thank God," Cami says, shifting to the edge of her seat. Apparently, she sat beside him the whole time he was... away. "Are you ok?"
Elijah swallows, trying to think past the mad rhythm of his heart. Strangely enough... This is the best he's felt in a very long time.
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Marcel's place is a complete mess. Which, in this particular case, is not an entirely good thing. Although it certainly does add to the mystery.
The floor is lined with discarded blood bags. Dozens and dozens of it. On top of the center table, Klaus' eyes recognize one of the vials he gave Marcel with his own blood as part of their agreement after the war.
This gives him two good news, and one not so great one. The first is that Marcel and his vampires managed to make their way over to Algiers once the barrier at the compound was lowered and satiated the remnants of their hunger here. Somehow, they managed to make it past the hordes and hordes of people taking the streets of the French Quarter for Carillon Eve without a single casualty. That's quite remarkable for a bunch of starving baby vamps.
The second piece of good news is that Marcel survived the ordeal, not only long enough to guide his people, but to take the cure.
The bad news is... If they all survived, if they fed and if Marcel is cured of the werewolf bite... Then where the bloody hell are they?
As soon as Klaus came to at the church, he was up on his feet, dragging Davina out with him to try and stop the vampires from slaughtering their way through the Quarter by breaking all their necks, if needed be. But by the time they got there, they were gone. The fact they didn't run into any feasts or widespread panic meant that either something really bad had happened to them, or something miraculously good. He saw Davina find Kol in the middle of the crowd, so that little bugger also succeeded at staying alive.
Klaus felt inclined to stay and knock his head into a wall for whatever part he's played in Caroline's betrayal, but finding Marcel was more urgent. He didn't have much time left. So Klaus went to Algiers next, and it seems like Finn's plan floundered just as that ridiculous chambre de chasse. And yet Marcel and his vampires are nowhere to be found. He's ringed the man twice already, even tried Josh. None of them are picking up.
How can dozens of vampires be strong enough to resist extreme hunger in the middle of an all-you-can-eat buffet and simply vanish like this? Something's very wrong here.
A ring cuts through his thoughts, but it's not Marcel.
"Elijah," he says as he answers, staring out the windows. The view is even more breathtaking at night. Too bad he's in no mood to appreciate it. "How's my daughter?"
"She's in good hands. Camille's taking good care of her. We're both fine. However, if you say the word, brother, I shall return."
"No. You're needed where you are."
"So the city is safe?"
"I wouldn't exactly go flinging around terms like safe . There's been no massacre, but Marcel and his vampires have inexplicably disappeared. Kol is in the wind, Rebekah is still lost, Finn is dangerously suspicious of the secrets we keep and Caroline -" Klaus snaps his mouth shut with an audible snap, choking on the words he can't even pronounce.
Anger flares hot inside of him, but the ache in his heart is constricting. Out here, in the real world, it hurts even more. Klaus balls his hands into a fist so tight he might break his own fingers, holding back to not punch through the glass on Marcel's windows and thrash this entire place. He wants to burn something down. Claw the living daylight out of something beautiful.
"Have you spoken to her?" Elijah asks. Klaus doesn't reply. She called him as he was exiting the church with Davina. He felt such an impossible rage rising in him he ignored it and moved on with his task. He doesn't know if he wants to speak to her. Doesn't know what he'll do, hearing from her that she's going to marry someone else. Doesn't know what will be left of him. "Niklaus, don't listen to our brother. You know he was looking to rattle you."
"Didn't you confirm it?"
"When Caroline told me about the wedding ritual," Klaus shuts his eyes, feeling a stab in his chest at that word. "She made it very clear she did not want to marry Jackson. If she went to Kol, of all people, for help, that to me says she was perhaps looking for a loophole."
"If that is indeed true, then why did she not tell me? Why tell everyone else but me ?"
"Can you truthfully not think of any reasons?" Klaus simply grunts in response. Right now, he doesn't care if Elijah makes sense or not. It doesn't make a bloody difference. "All I'm saying, brother, is don't rush to conclusions. You remember how that went last time. Talk to her."
He goes quiet for a moment, some of that burning ire giving place to something tamer, but just as destructive: fear. "What if it's true, Elijah?" he asks in a small, tight voice. "What then?"
"Then you'll have a decision to make. You can either let her go for the greater good, sacrifice the love you have for her knowing that she is doing the same to keep your daughter safe... Or you can fight for her."
"I've done nothing but fight for her," he grits out. "If she still chooses to marry another -"
"There is a reason behind this, Niklaus. Remember that."
"There may be a thousand reasons. I just don't care."
He ends the call, putting his phone away, trying to quiet down the turmoil inside of him. It's hard to be objective and keep focused on the tasks ahead, finding Rebekah and Marcel, when the woman he loves has just stabbed him in the heart after asking him to trust her and may be about to marry some boorish caveman from -
Klaus hears footsteps approaching. For a moment he almost forgot he'd sent a message to Aiden, asking him to meet him here. He needs someone to stay on Marcel's case while he handles... Everything else. Who better than someone with personal investment in locating the missing vampires? Or one of them, at least.
"Ah. The cavalry has arrived. Took you long enough. No doubt you're eager to save your precious Josh."
Aiden's eyes flash, his expression deadly serious. "Just tell me what you need."
"You can start by questioning your werewolf friends. Find out what Finn has done with Marcel and his vampires."
"Well, I would, but most of the wolves took off to the Bayou."
Klaus narrows his eyes. "Oh? Whatever for?"
"They're waiting for Caroline and Jackson to finish the wed- ritual trials," he stammers, looking slightly panicked for a second.
Klaus takes a step closer, a tremor wrecking him from the inside out as he tries to control the worst of his anger. "And what trials might those be?" he asks in a deceptively calm voice.
"Basic old-school werewolf stuff. They go out into the woods and smoke this blue calamus root out of a peace pipe, I guess."
"Blue calamus... A rather specific plant. It's known for its unique properties as a truth serum. I remember it was quite the rage back in the old days, when the wolves used it for divulgement rituals where secrets were confessed. I don't suppose they mentioned such a thing?"
Aiden shrugs. "No. They just said they had some ceremonial stuff to do."
Klaus swallows back an angry roar, striving to keep his voice civil. The twist in his chest is so violent now he could tear Aiden apart if he doesn't watch himself. Not only is Caroline really going to marry Jackson Kenner, but she is ready to tell him the truth about their daughter. All the sacrifice, all the fight they put into keeping her hidden... And she's going to let it all out for her new sweetheart.
Now, Klaus is no stranger to betrayal... But this... This is quite special, indeed.
Caroline doesn't just want to break his heart. She wants to stomp all over it and bury it under the worst kind of darkness.
This is what he gets for giving himself so completely to someone. It's his own bloody fault for going against his every gut instinct, against everything he's ever believed on, everything he's always known . Love is a weakness. It has no merits, no benefits, it brings no joy. It's a farce, a mockery. A weapon. He's been betrayed like this once before, told himself never again, and yet here he is... And he went so much deeper this time. He trusted her with all his soul. Klaus would've given her the world if she'd asked for it. Would've ripped his heart out of his own chest and put it in a box for her, just so she'd know he would always be hers. What a pathetic fool. Serves him right.
It just goes to show how he cannot trust anyone but himself.
But if she thinks he'll allow her to jeopardize his daughter in the name of this preposterous treachery... She's about to be very surprised.
"And where, exactly, did Jackson take Caroline?" he asks Aiden.
He blinks at Klaus, doubtful, but also visibly intimidated. "Back country, deep Bayou. Why?"
His lips quirk into such a strained smile it almost hurts. "That will be all. Stay on point."
"That's it? Where are you going?"
"I am going to have a little chat with the bride-to-be, remind her that some secrets need to stay buried."
"Wait! I didn't say it was a wedding! Klaus! It's not a wedding !" Aiden yells after him as he storms out of Marcel's loft.
He is right. If it involves telling Jackson about Eve, there will be no wedding. He'll make sure of it if he has to murder the groom himself.
TBC
I've gotten some feedback that some people were mad at Caroline here. PLEASE, DON'T! She means well, folks. It's just the writer here who enjoys watching Rome burn a bit too much. :D Also, I'm sorry for making Aiden botch the ONE JOB he had. lol If you have enjoyed this chapter, if you're still reading this fic here on , please let me know! Your comments mean the world to me and keep me so motivated. :)
Thanks for reading!