Klaus looked over at Katherine, his eyes telling her not to act or do anything stupid. To play clueless of the mark, basically. She understood his intention instantly, it wouldn't be wise to let Galen know that they knew, because then they would lose their upper hand.
"Right. Galen, was it?" Klaus gave him a wide smile, although Katherine could see it was all fake. "Thank you for the recommendation, we'll be going now," he said as he nodded him goodbye, pulling Katherine with him yet again.
"Bye Galen!" Katherine chirped as she got dragged away. Galen just raised his hand in farewell, before turning back the way he had come from.
They continued on their track in silence for a couple of minutes before arriving at the camp Galen had spoken of. Already at the compound was an old, broken-down cabin that looked about dilapidated. The area around seemed large enough for at least three big tents, as well as a campfire. She figured they could use the mountains of dry leaves spread all over if they were going to start one.
"Alright, we're here. Let's stop for today okay? It's getting dark and I'm tired. I know your vampire legs can walk as long as you want, but I can't," Bonnie spoke to the both of them as she started pacing the area to check everything.
"That was the plan, anyway. It'll be hard searching for a well in this darkness," Klaus said as he walked over to Katherine and removed the backpack from her shoulders. "I'll set up the tent. Katerina, you'll help."
Katherine froze for a quick second. Did he just say the tent? As in singular? As in only one tent?
"You only brought one tent?" she asked, slightly distressed. Sharing a tent with Bonnie was one thing, but with Klaus? She was not feeling in the mood to share a tent with her kidnapper just about now, not if she was going to catch any sleep, anyway.
Klaus just continued unpacking the tent from the bag, unbothered. "I did. Any problem?"
"Why didn't you bring another?" Katherine asked and crossed her arms, looking down at him pulling out the supplies.
"There wasn't any space in the bag," he shrugged.
She rolled her eyes. "I could've just brought my own backpack, you know. If you just told me where we were going before we left."
"Stop complaining. The tent has individual rooms. I have no desire to sleep anywhere near you either."
She rolled her eyes again. "Fine… fine. Whatever."
They struggled over an hour setting up the tent, neither used to camping or wildlife. As soon as it was all done, Bonnie crept inside and locked herself in one of the rooms, not too keen on spending any quality time with the other two before she absolutely had to.
They started a campfire shortly after when an angry Bonnie reminded them that she was human and hadn't eaten in over 24 hours. After Katherine had gathered enough firewood to last for the night, Klaus returned from the woods with a dead rabbit to cook.
Katherine found a tall stick with a sharp enough edge and used it to pierce the piece of rabbit meat Klaus handed to her. She grabbed a blanket to wrap herself in before taking a seat around the campfire, holding the stick deep into the flames. She wasn't sure if that was the right way to grill the rabbit, but she figured it would work out either way. Fire was fire, after all.
She found the scenario to be rather peaceful, at least more than she had expected of a trip with Klaus. The vast, bright moon shone proudly on the night sky and the glimmering stars seemed to blink whenever she looked up at them. The hot flames warmed her from the inside while the cold night cooled her exterior. The sound of the howling wind, the echoing birds, and the sizzling pops of the fire echoed through the air as another figure joined her side by the fire, handing her a blood bag as he did. She wasn't sure why Klaus would want to be anywhere within her radius when he had the option to stay in the tent or look around for clues about the cure, but no matter. She figured he wanted to talk.
Katherine was the first to ease the dead silence surrounding them.
"So, what are we doing about that hunter we met earlier?"
Klaus shuddered slightly at the cold night, rubbing his leather gloves together as he stared directly into the flames of the campfire. "We will do nothing just yet. He'll come back soon, that's how they operate."
He glanced at her from the side of his eye, meeting her curious gaze. It prompted him to continue his answer.
"Hunters are naturally drawn to vampires, that's how he found us in the first place. The fact that he didn't try to kill us indicates that he wants something from us, and he'll come back to get it."
Katherine already knew that. She wasn't clueless about vampire hunters. What she couldn't figure out, however, was his agenda. "What do you think he's doing here?"
His brow slowly raised at her question as he kept his gaze locked on her. "I didn't take you for the type to ask stupid questions, Katerina. It's obvious he's here for the cure. He was lying."
Katherine resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his remark. So much for her trying to help calculate a plan. "Well, at least he wasn't lying when he said he was ahunter," she humored. Just not the kind he had indicated.
Klaus almost snorted at her stupid joke, a ghost smile forming on his lips. He was about to respond to her when Katherine suddenly jumped, making him on immediate high alert as well.
"What's wrong?" he urged, alarmed at her sudden frightened expression.
Katherine looked around hastily, seemingly unnerved by something. "What was that? I could've sworn I heard something."
Klaus huffed, calming down slightly at what he figured to be a false alert. It was impossible that she had heard something he hadn't, when he possessed twice her sensory skills. "Of course you heard something. We are outside, you know," he mocked.
She just shook her head. "No, I mean a noise. An unusual noise."
"It's just your mind playing games, Katerina. You're paranoid after what I just said, aren't you?" he queried with a smirk. The thought of Katherine being scared and afraid of something that wasn't himself amused him in some way, it wasn't something he had ever seen before.
She scoffed at his mockery, shaking off the feeling. "I'm not scared, Klaus. I know I heard something."
"Yeah. You heard Bonnie," he mused as he nodded to the girl who had just stepped out of the tent.
Katherine turned around to see Bonnie stumble over to them, groaning in hunger as she took a seat next to Katherine. She reached out her hand as if asking Katherine to give her the food, but Katherine just raised her hand away from Bonnie's reach, denying her grasp for the stick.
"No, not yet. It's not done."
"I don't care, Katherine. I'm so hungry I could eat just about anything right now," she insisted, her stomach grumbling in unison proving her point.
Katherine put her hands down in defeat, handing Bonnie the stick she had been holding for some time now. As Bonnie peeled off the meat and started nibbling on it, Katherine looked back over at Klaus. He had gone back to studying the flames and looked to be deep in thought about something.
"You know, I need to extract power out of Jeremy's hunter's mark to even get the powers to unseal the cure," Bonnie suddenly spoke. She had been eating for two minutes non-stop, and it seemed she was finally ready to speak again. "You made a mistake not bringing him here."
Klaus's attention snapped back to her when she spoke, and he chuckled at her remarks. She really shouldn't take him for a fool.
"You shouldn't underestimate the great hybrid, little witch," he said with a hint of smugness on his lips. "Hunters are connected. When one map gets completed, all other hunter maps do as well. Which in turn draws hunters to this island. In fact, Katerina and I met one of those very hunters merely hours ago."
Bonnie looked surprised at his revelation. She hadn't noticed anything strange about the man from earlier, but then again, she had been standing 50 meters away from them.
"He was a hunter? Why wouldn't he try to kill you?"
Klaus continued on. "My guess is that he wants something from us. Collaboration, information, or perhaps just sabotage. Whatever the reason, we should watch out. I've had a few run-ins with hunters over the years, not very friendly creatures."
Katherine knew exactly what he meant by that. She knew vampire hunters had obscure tools and weapons they would use to torture, imprison and kill. The most tricky thing about hunters, however, was the fact that they were untouchable. Not because they had immortality or something similar, it was more so the fact that they were untouchable to vampires, because of their fundamental anti-vampire mechanism. Even after their death, they would haunt their assailant to no end with hallucinations and nightmares, prompting one to almost certain doom by suicide. She shuddered at the mere thought.
"Then, what's the plan? You're going to kill him, aren't you?"
"No… " he simply stated. "That wouldn't work. However, he seems like the perfect pawn to our plan. We'll seek him out tomorrow."
Bonnie and Katherine merely nodded in silent agreement. Having nothing more to add after Klaus's final words, they packed up shortly after Bonnie finished her food. They let the campfire burn to illuminate a bit through the tent, since they had no other source of light except perhaps the night sky. Katherine crept into one of the little rooms inside the tent, making sure to pick the one furthest away from where Klaus was going to sleep. Not that it mattered greatly, Klaus was outside at the moment. They had both agreed that someone had to stand guard when both witches and a hunter with potential for plural were lurking around the island. Since they had split the duty between them, Klaus was out guard for the first part of the night, while she would take the second half.
As she cocooned herself in the sleeping bag and closed her eyes, she thought of Elijah. It had only been a day since she saw him last and he had made the promise to save her, but she was already missing him dearly. There was just something about Elijah that always drew her to him, making him irresistible. Maybe it was the way she couldn't help but notice the fondness in his eyes when he spoke to her, or the way the mere sight of him made her reminisce about their previous relationship back when she had been human. It felt so good to have someone care about her the way Elijah did. Someone who always tried to help her and make her happy. He had always wanted her to be exactly that, which might have been why she always found her way back to him. The fact that he wished for her happiness more than anyone else.
As Katherine felt herself slowly drift off to sleep, she was abruptly interrupted by someone unzipping the door to her room. It was then realized she had used countless hours trying to sleep, and it was already her turn to stand guard.
She quickly sat up as Klaus opened the door, calling her name in a whisper. "Katerina. Out."
"Yeah, yeah. I know," she mumbled, crawling past him and outside the main door. Soon after, she started pacing around, inspecting the area for whatever might pose a threat.
It had been a good hour already since Katherine's guard started, and she was starting to get exhausted. She hadn't gotten any sleep in two days, and they had been on the move for over a day straight. Even as a vampire, that was sure to take a toll on one's concentration and energy. Nothing other than the owls howling in the night kept her entertained as she tread around, eventually deciding to sit down on a nearby rock a couple ten meters away from camp.
She rested her head in her hands and let out a soft yawn as her eyes slowly closed. She didn't even notice the man sneaking up on her before it was too late and he had already wrapped a vervain-soaked cloth tightly around her mouth. As she realized what was happening, her eyes shot up in anxiety. She madly tried to pull away the hand pressing the cloth against her mouth, but she quickly felt her body become numb due to the strongly concentrated vervain poisoning. Her super strength wasn't working, and her sight was becoming foggier by the second.
"Be quiet and come with me, and we won't have any issues," the man whispered in her ear, and she immediately recognized the Scottish accent. It was Galen from earlier, Klaus had been right about him returning.
At the thought of Klaus, she was reminded of his compulsion to make her fight off any threat when on guard duty, and her instincts kicked in immediately. She felt some of her strength returning as she pulled his hand harshly away from her mouth, moving just enough to face him directly. She didn't even get to make out his outline in the dark before she felt something wrap around her. A rope of some kind, and it stung. It burned like hell, so she figured he had soaked the ropes in vervain too. This hunter clearly wasn't messing around.
"What do you want?" she growled, hesitant on how much she could resist against him. She knew she had just enough strength left to break free of the ropes and attack him, but she didn't know if she could do it without killing him, and killing him was something she just couldn't do. Not only because of Klaus's compulsion, or because of their plan to use him as a power source, but also because she was terrified of retracting the hunter's curse. She didn't know if she could ever survive decades of torment inside her own head, when she knew what kind of tricks her brain liked to play whenever Klaus merely showed himself around her.
"Leverage," he simply said, before knocking her unconscious.