This chapter takes place at the beginning of Season 2 Episode 17.
Recap:
When she woke up, she was lying on a bed in a room she didn't recognize. She felt hot and achy so she knew she needed to feed. She blinked up at the ceiling. Her hands felt around until it reached her stomach. Her shirt was still a little damp, but the blood on her skin was dry. And there was no wound. She groaned and tried to sit up, but the muscles in her stomach were still healing so she lied back down.
"Finally," someone said.
Kiara looked to her right to see Elena on the bed next to her. Her face was in her hand and she was lying on her side.
"Elena?" she asked.
The girl shook her head.
"Katherine," she nodded, remembering what happened.
A grin spread over the vampire's face. "So you have heard of me… "
Chapter Nine: Friend or Foe?
Kiara grunted and forced herself to sit up, not wanting to be so close to the vampire after their last encounter. "You could say that…"
"Let me guess… Elijah told you about me?"
Kiara nodded. "A little yeah, how'd you know?"
"Damon mentioned that you two seemed close," Katherine said, twirling her hair around her finger. "After he found out you tried to undagger him, he wanted to kill you. He's convinced Elijah's your boyfriend or something."
Kiara shrugged, not that concerned considering she was now injury-free and alive.
It seemed better not to confirm or deny that Damon's assumption was correct. Not that she really knew which was the truth. She and Elijah never really put a label on their relationship. Somehow it felt childish to call Elijah her boyfriend, but there was certainly something between them. Like they were in some middle ground that no one liked to talk about. Kiara wasn't sure if that would upset Katherine considering they once had something too. Changing the subject seemed like the best option. She eyed the light streaming into the room and asked, "What time is it?"
"Almost seven in the morning," the vampire told her.
"Seriously? I've been here all night?"
"I know," Katherine said, rolling her eyes. "It took you forever to wake up. It was so boring just watching you lie there like that, but Stefan refused to keep you in a cell and Damon doesn't want to just let you go so I was stuck playing babysitter."
"Bummer," Kiara pressed her lips together. A sinking feeling settling in her stomach as a question formed in her head. "Are the Martin's… are they okay?"
"They're still alive if that's what you're asking," Katherine smirked. "and apparently, more than willing to play ball now that you're stuck here with little old me. Which is curious since none of us know anything about you."
"Everyone loves a good mystery," Kiara said. "Give it time, I'll grow on you too."
Katherine didn't respond.
The Martin's were okay and if they were okay then Holly should be as well. For now at least. Kiara had come close to losing everything last night when Luka died. She still couldn't believe she managed to revive him. It all happened so fast. But she didn't even want to think about what happened yesterday. If she did, she would see Luka burning to death in front of her and Katherine stabbing her with a makeshift stake. Instead, she forced her feet off the edge of the bed and tried to stand. She still felt weak and sore, but she could manage the walk home.
"What are you doing?" Katherine asked, walking around the bed to her.
"I'm going home," Kiara sighed. "Holly's going to be wondering where I am."
"Did you not hear a word I just said? I can't let you leave," Katherine said as Kiara made her way toward the door. "And you're not exactly in fighting shape to challenge me on that so you might as well sit down."
"Well, whose fault is that?" Kiara snapped.
"You didn't give me much choice, now did you?" Katherine crossed her arms in front of her and stuck out a hip.
"You stabbed me in the stomach."
"I know. I was there," Katherine said. "And for the record, I could have done much worse."
Kiara spent enough time with Elijah to know that Katherine could have ripped her throat open, tore her heart from her chest, or simply broke her neck. Although she was pretty sure that only one of those options would actually kill her, she didn't want to test that any time soon.
"Are you saying that was you being nice?" Kiara raised an eyebrow. "Because if so, I don't think we can be friends. I don't have enough money to keep replacing all my clothes."
"You're better off without that top," Katherine said. "believe me, I did you a favor."
Kiara looked down at her shirt. It was gray with an orange sunset on it. Only now it had a gaping hole in the front of it that was stained with her blood. She didn't see anything wrong with the shirt before, it was comfortable, but she knew between the two of them Katherine clearly had a better style so she said, "I'll take your word for it."
The response seemed to surprise Katherine, but before she could respond Stefan opened the door and stepped into the room. "Kiara, you're up," Stefan smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got stabbed in the stomach with a chair," she said, gesturing to her torso. "I'd really like to go home now."
"Yeah…" Damon stepped into the doorway and said, "not gonna happen. We let you go, you'll just try to find a way to bring back Elijah again. Then we'll have to kill you and the Martin's will have no motivation to help us anymore, which will only make me want to kill them and everyone you've ever met."
"Well, I'd hate to be an inconvenience…"
Katherine snorted and Damon glared at her. "What? She's kinda funny."
"Thank you, you know, not many people get my sense of humor and it—"
"Alright enough!" Damon yelled, looking ready to rip his own hair out. "As much fun as this is, we actually have things to do today and we have some questions to ask you before we go like, oh, I don't know, what the hell are you?"
Kiara blinked at him. "You're not very good at making friends, are you?"
"You're one to talk," Damon said.
"I don't know what you mean," Kiara put her hands in her pockets. "People love me. Right, Katherine?" Kiara turned and cupped the vampire's face, sending pleasurable vibrations through her skin.
Katherine's eyes dilated. "Yes."
"See, what the hell is that?" Damon pointed at her.
"I call it charm," Kiara told him with a smirk. "It's how I make friends so easily. Katherine, I'd really like to leave now."
Instantly Katherine raced towards Damon, but Stefan grabbed her around the waist to stop her. While the brothers were distracted, Kiara raced out of the room and down the stairs. She could hear them shouting for Katherine to stop fighting them. Eventually, Damon broke Katherine's neck and raced to the front door before Kiara could open it. He looked pissed and out of breath, but otherwise unharmed.
Kiara huffed, backing away from him, and looked around for another exit, only to find Stefan standing behind her. "We just want to talk," he told her, holding his hands out in front of him as if he were calming a lost animal.
"Yeah?" Kiara nodded, sarcastically. "Is that what you told Elijah?"
The brothers frowned but managed to coax her into the library. She sat down on the couch and looked around warily. Damon stepped out of the room leaving Stefan to watch her.
"I don't have the best memories associated with this room," she said, glancing at Stefan who was staring at her like she was a Rubix cube. "I'm not your brother's biggest fan, but watching him being tortured isn't as much fun as you'd think it'd be."
"He said you told Jules you were there to help Alaric," Stefan said.
She nodded.
"Because you got a thing for older guys, am I right?" Damon asked, walking back into the room with a glass in his hand. "Alaric. Elijah…"
"You got me, I figured if I saved his life he'd see past the fact that I'm his student and screw me as a thank you," Kiara said, making his face drop. "Look, Alaric's handsome and all, but he's just my teacher," Kiara told him. "I wanted to help him because he's a good person. It's that simple."
Damon rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"He's kind to me," she scowled at him. "Checks up on me from time to time, asks if he can do anything to help me, that kind of thing. I haven't met many people like that so when I saw he was in trouble, I jumped to help him. Sue me."
Damon scoffed. "I've seen you around, you know. You spend most of your time avoiding people, but whenever you're around you have people falling over themselves for your attention, it's not normal."
"What do you know about normal?"
"I know you should have died when that wolf smacked you into the wall like a rag doll. I know you somehow managed to wrap an Original vampire around your little finger and now the only reason those witches are saying they'll help us is because we agreed not to kill you for trying to revive him. Not to mention, you just compelled a vampire to attack me, which as far as I knew only an Original could do, which I know you aren't one. So I ask again, what the hell are you?"
Kiara just glared at him.
"Look, we don't want to hurt you. We're just trying to figure out how you fit into all of this, that's all," Stefan said, leaning his hands on a nearby table.
"What is this?" Kiara looked from one brother to another. "Is this some kind of good cop, bad cop routine or something?"
Damon clutched the back of a chair so tight Kiara thought it might snap. "You know, we have other less civil ways to get you to talk…"
"I hope you don't mean compulsion because it doesn't work on me," Kiara said.
"Who needs compulsion when I have your boyfriend in my basement?" Damon pointed his thumb behind him. "How's about I drop your boy Elijah in the ocean?"
"You wouldn't."
"Oh, I would."
Kiara swallowed, her eyes dropping to the floor. She wasn't sure if he was crazy enough to do it, but it wasn't worth the risk. Not to her. "Fine," she hissed. "Jonas says I'm a succubus."
The Salvatore brothers' eyes met across the room.
"I'm sorry, did you just say succubus? As in sex-crazed demon woman that kills people in their sleep, succubus?" Damon asked.
"I like to think we've evolved a little over the years," Kiara said, crossing one leg over the other to get more comfortable. "But yeah… pretty much."
"No, no way," Damon paced in front of her. "There's no way succubuses exist."
"It's succubi."
Damon ignored her. "They're just a myth. Like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy."
"Yeah," Kiara pouted dramatically. "Or vampires or werewolves or witches, right? Oh, wait…"
Damon raced forward like he was going to try snapping her neck just to see what would happen, but Katherine threw him away from her and into the wall. "That's for snapping my neck," she told him as he struggled to get back on his feet. Then she turned and looked at Kiara. "Neat trick," she said, plopping down on the couch next to her. "But, you know, that wasn't very nice."
"Sorry," Kiara told her. "They didn't leave me much choice. Besides, I could have done worse."
Katherine only smirked at her. "So you're a succubus, huh? Sounds like fun."
"It can be…" Kiara said, glancing at her.
Damon grumbled to himself and brushed off his clothes. "What are you two like besties now or something?"
"She's growing on me," Katherine said.
Kiara was pretty sure that Katherine was just being cautious. If you don't know what your opponent is capable of, it's better to stay on their good side until you do. She avoided Klaus all these years so she had to be smart. Maybe she could give Kiara some tips, at this rate she was going to need them.
"I don't understand," Stefan said, walking in front of them. "Elena said you've lived next door to her family for years and always seemed normal."
"There's that word again," Kiara smiled bitterly, but she continued anyway. "I was normal until I turned sixteen. I don't know why."
"Succubi change when they mature sexually and stop aging once they've fully developed," Katherine said.
"They do?" Kiara looked at Katherine in surprise. "How do you know that?"
"I know someone," she shrugged and then grumbled, "They just failed to mention you actually existed."
Kiara rolled her eyes and let her head fall back against the couch. "Isobel."
Katherine didn't need to answer for Kiara to know she was right. She really needed to get her hands on that journal.
Suddenly Stefan's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at Damon. "It's Elena," he told his brother and walked away to get some privacy when he spoke to her.
"So what exactly is your part in all this?" Damon asked, looking at her like she was public enemy number one. "Have you been spying on us for Elijah this whole time?"
"No, I never wanted to get involved with all this vampire drama," Kiara sighed. "I met Elijah a couple of weeks ago, he found out what I was and asked me for a favor."
"You made a deal…" Katherine smirked.
Kiara nodded. "I made a deal."
"What was the deal?" Damon asked, standing in front of her now.
"None of your business," Kiara told him. When he glared at her, she added, "It was a personal favor for Elijah. It had nothing to do with Elena, I swear."
"What aren't you telling me?"
"What makes you think I'm keeping something from you?" Kiara asked.
He glanced at Katherine. "Call it a hunch."
"Hm… you're pretty judgy for a vampire," Kiara said and sighed. "Fine, John came to me a couple of days ago. He wanted to make a deal."
Damon stared at her expecting her to continue. When she didn't, he rolled his eyes. "You know I will kill you if I think there's even a chance that you're a threat, right? What kind of deal did he want to make?"
"He told me he'd give me something I want if I," Kiara glanced at Katherine. "agreed to resuscitate Elena. Assuming you don't pull off a miracle and stop the sacrifice, that is."
Damon's whole demeanor changed. "What? What do you mean resuscitate?"
"According to lore, a succubus can resuscitate people," Kiara told him.
"Yeah. Right," Damon rolled his eyes. "Like I'm gonna believe that."
"I wasn't so sure about myself, honestly," Kiara shrugged. "Until last night, when you set Luka on fire."
"You expect me to believe you brought that idiot back from the dead?"
"I don't expect you to do anything," Kiara stood up to face him. "But I will tell you that I took that deal, which means, like it or not, Elena is better off with me alive."
Stefan walked back into the room and looked at his brother. "Speaking of Isobel, we have a problem," he nodded towards the door and the brothers walked off to talk. Not that it mattered. Both vampire and succubi have an advanced hearing.
"Isobel just showed up on her front doorstep," Stefan told him.
"What's she doing here?"
"I don't know," Stefan sighed. "That's what I'm gonna find out."
Katherine stood up and walked toward the hallway. Curious, Kiara decided to follow her. She watched the vampire step out in front of the Salvatore brothers and say, "I don't think that you should tell her that I'm here."
"What? Why?" Stefan asked, instantly suspicious of her motivations.
"It's better if she and John not know that I stayed in town after I got out of the tomb," she told him.
Stefan looked back at his brother in disbelief.
"You're the one in cahoots with them," Damon pointed out. "You made a deal with John that almost got me killed…"
"I did what I had to do to get out of the tomb. Now, I'm reconsidering my alliance," Katherine rubbed her neck and turned around to walk away.
"What do you know?" Stefan stopped her and she frowned.
She turned back to face him and said, "I know that I want Klaus dead, which puts me squarely on team you," she pointed at the brothers. "Besides if you two ever need me to swap places with Elena again, the less people that know that I'm here the better. Think about it Stefan. Come on, be smart."
Stefan smiled and looked at his brother. "Tell you what. You two, uh, you three…" he looked at Kiara standing in the library entrance. "Call Alaric and let him know that his wife just showed up on his girlfriend's doorstep." He made a clicking sound with his mouth and slipped out the door.
"Can I go home now?" Kiara turned to Damon.
"No, and if you even try to leave, I'm dropping Elijah in the ocean. If you try to undagger him, I will kill people you care about, starting with that witch you apparently brought back from the dead. Got it?" Damon said, glaring at her and Katherine before walking in the opposite direction.
"Guess that means you're with me, Kia," she smiled, pulling her by the arm to go back upstairs. "Let's get you out of those bloody clothes and into something cute."
Reviewers:
darklou: Thank you for your reviews. I hope Kiara's story is blending into the main story plot pretty well.
Baradi: Thank you. Yes, I agree Luka was a bit harsh. However, no one is perfect and his relationship with Kiara has always been a bit rocky. I think they are growing together though.
sam: Your questions have been sparking inspiration for the next chapters so thank you for the reviews.
vaughmckreith12: Yes, I don't want Kiara to be like Elena stringing two guys along. However, I do understand what other reviewers are saying as well as far as a healthy relationship between the three of them. I think it will be a challenge to write, but we will see how she interacts with the two of them and where the story goes. If Caroline and Cami count as love interests for Klaus, then wouldn't Hayley count as a love interest for Elijah (assuming her story isn't changed by Kiara's character)? I'm not sure if Caroline really counts as a love interest for Klaus since they never really had a relationship and Cami dies so... I don't know.
1Demoness: I'm happy you are enjoying the story so far. :) Your reviews made me smile so thank you.
DaphneSlytherinWinchester: Thank you for the thoughtful review. I am so excited for everyone to see more of Klaus and Kiara interacting. And believe me, I plan on them having some time getting to know each other. I'm glad you like her friendship with Luka, I was hoping it would come across as a sibling-like friendship. I'm feeling out Kiara and Katherine right now. I think their relationship will be interesting considering how alike they seem to be at the moment.
amblonde2: Thank you so much for the review! I'm glad you like Kiara. I am trying to make her as realistic as possible so I'm glad that is coming through. I am slowly warming up to the idea of her forming a relationship with both brothers. You certainly make a good argument for it. :) And I do think it's possible if written the right way. We'll see how things go.
I want to thank everyone for all the reviews. I would like to respond to all of them, but I fear this post would be too long if I did. However, please know that I read and appreciate every one of them. And I consider each of your opinions as I continue with this story. Often times they make me think and change what I am doing with the current chapter so please continue to share your thoughts on this story.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading. :)
