Vincent arrived at the abattoir shortly after Death left. Klaus and Freya were in no rush to approach him, but Cami hurried over and greeted him with a hug.
Releasing him, she said, "Thank you for coming. Did you find out anything about the linking spell?"
He sighed. "I did, but it's not entirely great news."
Klaus came over to them. "Well, don't leave us waiting."
Vincent barely glanced at Klaus, his focus fully on Cami. "I know how to break the linking spell between you, Davina and Inadu."
Hope flared brightly in Cami's chest, but she tried not to get too excited. "What's the bad news?"
"We need Inadu's blood to break the spell."
Freya stood up from the couch nearby, having listened to their conversation so far. "Are you sure? There's no way to work around that?"
The question seemed to irritate Vincent slightly. He turned his head slowly to look at Freya. "I looked for any other ways to break the spell, but this seems like the best option. Most ways to break a linking spell this powerful require blood from all of the linked people."
"If Inadu's blood is what we need, I can easily get that," Klaus said.
"Yeah, because the last times you've gone up against Inadu have gone so well for you," Vincent drawled sarcastically.
Klaus tilted his head and glared.
"Okay, okay," Cami jumped in quickly before Klaus could say anything that would escalate the situation. "So we need Inadu's blood to break the linking spell? We can't do this without her."
"But that also means that to break the spell, Inadu needs your blood and Davina's, so she can't do it without you two either," said Vincent.
"So what? If we want to break the spell, we have to ask Inadu for her blood?" asked Cami. "I don't think she's going to be exactly pleased at the idea of working with us to break the link." Not to mention that Cami was hardly thrilled at the idea of asking Inadu for anything. She didn't want Inadu anywhere near her ever again.
"Yes, but she wants out of this unfortunate linking spell too," Klaus pointed out. "She needs you and we need her. Breaking this spell is mutually beneficial. We can arrange a meeting to get her blood and once the spell is broken, we can end that hateful witch for good." A pleased smile spread across his closed lips at the thought.
It was a good plan, but Cami saw one particular flaw. "And what's to stop Inadu from killing me as soon as the linking spell is broken?" she asked, her arms crossed.
Klaus shrugged. "We give her to Death before she can get to you."
"That still sounds too risky," Cami sighed.
He gently gripped her arm, his thumb rubbing circles against her skin. "I won't let Inadu anywhere near you. I'll keep you safe."
Cami still felt a little unsure about the plan, but she nodded back at him anyway. This seemed like the only thing they could do. They needed Inadu's blood to break the linking spell, and obviously they needed that spell to be broken before Death took Inadu away. While she didn't know for sure, if Death whisked Inadu away to the afterlife while Cami and Davina were still linked to her, chances were that they'd die too.
It was only when that thought popped into her head that she realised that she hadn't mentioned something very important. So consumed in her own thoughts and feelings about it, she hadn't thought to announce the news to the Mikaelsons.
"There's only one problem," Cami began. Klaus, Freya and Vincent all looked to her and waited for her to tell them the issue. "Davina left with Kol."
Vincent paled. "That is very bad."
The hand that Klaus had placed on Cami's arm became stiff, no longer the comforting presence that it had been only a second ago. "What?" he said, so low that she could practically feel how his volatile temper was begging to be unleashed.
"I saw them less than an hour ago. They were packing pretty quickly and Davina said they were leaving," Cami said.
Klaus' hand dropped from her arm and he clasped his hands together behind his back. "And you didn't think to mention this to me?" She really didn't appreciate the accusing tone in his voice.
"I kind of had other things on my mind," she said through gritted teeth. "Kol is your brother. Was it wrong for me to assume that he would mention something to one of his siblings before he ran away for who knows how long?"
"Clearly, it was." Klaus glared, not really at her, but rather at the thought of his brother going behind his back. "I'm going to kill him."
"Him and Davina probably haven't gone that far if they only left a little while ago," Freya mentioned. "I can track them down and we can get them back here quickly enough."
"That's not the point, Freya," Klaus spat the words out. "The point is that our little brother left without speaking to any of us, to save his little girlfriend. He left all of us to deal with the mess of Inadu and Death like the petulant brat he is." He looked to Cami. "Why the bloody hell didn't you tell me as soon as you found out about this?"
She rubbed her temples with her fingers and glowered at him. All of this stress was getting to her and the last thing she needed was Klaus getting on her case and interrogating her like she'd done something wrong, when she'd simply forgotten to tell him with everything else they'd been dealing with.
"Don't talk to me like I betrayed you because I forgot to tell you," she snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of dealing with a lot right now and I don't need you in my face."
Cami turned and charged towards the nearest staircase. Truth be told, she knew that if she stayed there and continued to speak to him when he was like this, her own temper was going to get the best of her.
"Camille?" Klaus called out behind her, but she didn't stop.
She sat on the end of Klaus' bed, her eyes closed as she did some simple breathing exercises to calm the anger she felt in her blood. Getting into arguments right now was only going to make things worse. Things were stressful and tense as it was.
Despite knowing that, her temper still flared up. She didn't like being accused or treated as if she'd hidden something. It's not like she'd purposely hidden the information about Davina and Kol leaving. There hadn't been much time between her discussion with Davina and then Vincent arriving and she'd spent that time worrying mostly. She'd been too consumed with her own thoughts and upset after seeing Davina to talk to anyone about it. Honestly, she had assumed that Kol would've mentioned leaving to someone, so it hadn't felt like her responsibility to tell everyone.
A knock on the bedroom door made her eyes snap open. She slowly looked over as the door creaked open and Klaus stepped in, appearing uncharacteristically nervous.
"Kind of silly for you to knock when it's your own bedroom," Cami said.
"I thought it was wise considering how you stormed off earlier." He strolled over and sat down beside her at the bottom of the bed, leaving a small amount of distance between them in lieu of their earlier argument.
"I didn't storm off. I walked off…angrily."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Same thing."
She let out a deep breath through her nose. "Is anyone going after Davina and Kol?"
"Yes," he answered. "Freya did a locating spell. Luckily, they aren't that far away from New Orleans yet. Rebekah went after them. She'll knock some sense into Kol and get them back here in no time."
Cami smiled unintentionally at that. She could imagine how that conversation would go. Rebekah would drag Kol back by his hair if he gave her any trouble. Davina would probably come back willingly if she found out that they could get rid of Inadu and Death, but Kol, as always, would be the troublemaker.
"Vincent is going to get in contact with Inadu about the blood exchange," Klaus continued. "I don't know exactly how he plans to do that, but he said he will."
"I guess this whole plan is really starting to come together," said Cami, as she focused on nervously twiddling her fingers together in her lap. One of her fingernails was broken on the corner, she mutely noted. She rubbed her thumb over the break and felt how if she pushed just a little harder, her skin would perhaps graze beneath it.
"And yet, you don't seem happy." Klaus' words slithered into her space, trying to pull her away from her own thoughts and back into the real world with him – a place she was starting to become weary of. "This could all be over soon," he pointed out.
She continued to look down at her nervous fidgeting as she said, "Death is going to take Inadu, but have you thought about the other person that we have to send to the afterlife with them?"
"Oh, that." His tone of voice told her that he considered that an easy fix. "I'll find someone off of the street. It won't be difficult."
"So, you're just going to send an innocent person to their death to save me?" She bit the inside the inside of her cheek.
"Of course." That was the exact answer she hadn't wanted to hear. "I would give anyone to Death to save you."
She softened a little at that, but the point still remained the same. An innocent person was going to die soon because of her, all because she couldn't face going back to the afterlife.
"I don't want an innocent person to die because of me," she said the words out loud that had been plaguing her since this plan had been decided on.
Klaus paused beside her. "You're being too kind. No one is really innocent."
"Maybe not, but is my life supposed to be worth more than theirs? Am I supposed to stand aside and be happy while they die for me?"
"What would you prefer?" Klaus bit out. "To die again? Is that what you want to do to save some precious stranger?"
"No, of course not." She tried to keep calm, aware that this could quickly turn into another argument if she wasn't careful. "But I'm not okay with this. I don't want anyone to die to save me."
"What if I find the most horrible person that I can find in New Orleans? Would you still feel bad about them dying then?"
"Just because someone is bad, doesn't mean they deserve to die for me." Cami stared at the floorboards, barely thinking about the words that came out of her mouth before she said them. "Maybe Death is right and I'm just not supposed to be here anymore. Maybe I should go back to the afterlife."
How could she argue with something Death had said? Death existed beyond all of them. They had a knowledge and understanding of the universe and fate that she could only dream of having. Who was she to say that Death was wrong and that she deserved to live again?
Klaus placed his hand on top of hers. "Cami, look at me," he gently instructed. Only then did she lift her gaze to his face. "You are here. You can't throw away this chance to live again. You, more than anyone, deserve to live. Your life was robbed from you before. You deserve a chance to have the life that was taken from you." He pulled her forward, so that he could place an arm around her and hold her closer. She tucked her head into the crook of his neck and allowed him to try to comfort her. "So stop worrying about some random person that will take your place in the afterlife. I'll handle all of that. You have nothing to feel guilty about."
She wished so desperately that she could be as casual about all of this as he was. Not even his words could stop the guilt that was slowly starting to gnaw away at her heart. Still, she kept quiet about that and tried to absorb what Klaus said, even if she didn't believe it herself.
Author's note: I'm back! I know it's been a while since my last update, but the next chapter is almost done and I plan to post that at the weekend. There are about 2 or 3 chapters of Ashes left now and I'm determined to finish this fic. I'm also working on another Klamille story that I plan to post after Ashes is finished and I hope to give you guys a rough synopsis of that new fic soon ;)