I'm so nervous/ excited to post this. I hope you guys enjoy it. This chapter takes place around the end of Season 2 Episode 18, the night of the 60's decade dance.
Chapter Thirteen: The Night of the Decade Dance
Kiara spent most of the night buried in school work. It was all she could do to distract herself from wondering what Klaus's drawing meant or why Elijah still hadn't called her back. He hadn't even responded to her last text message. The one where she explained that the Mystic Falls gang planned on trying to murder his brother that night. It seemed impossible that such a statement wouldn't invoke a response from him. He had promised to come back once Klaus showed himself. Now he wasn't even calling her back. She didn't know if something happened to make it that he couldn't contact her or if he was choosing not to, but her stomach was in knots.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized she didn't want Klaus to die. Yes, he had threatened her, twice, and she feared what he might do to her for the small part she played in all this. But she kept thinking about the boy she met in his mind, the scared young man that might still be in there deep down and she worried for him. He deserved better than what he got. She knew better than anyone what having a father like that could do to a person. In another life, he might have been different. Better.
She didn't know what to do about any of that, so she kept her eyes moving on the pages of her textbooks and her hand scribbling words until it cramped.
Around eight o'clock, her phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered immediately, not even looking at the name that was flashing on the screen. She hoped it was Elijah. She hoped it was news about Klaus. She hoped for something good to be on the other end of that call.
"Kiara?" It was Luka. He sounded out of breath. "We have a problem."
"What do you mean we?"
"It's Klaus," he said, ignoring her question. "He's in Alaric's body."
Kiara nearly dropped her phone. "What? How does that even happen?" Her mind worked through to the past couple of days. The conversations she had had with him. The things she said about Klaus only days ago. Then his jumpiness today and the sketch that was left in her locker. Her eyes drifted to where she put it on her dresser. Had she been talking to Klaus the whole time? "Is Alaric going to be okay? How long has Klaus been in him?"
"We don't know," Luka huffed. "But Bonnie says he knows about her powers. I think he's trying to get her to attack him, he knows the amount of power she has can kill her and he isn't going to stop until she's dead. If we kill him while he's in Alaric, he'll just get a new body."
"Then get out of there," Kiara stood up and started to pace the room. "Now. If he finds out you're a part of this, he'll kill you too."
"About that, we have a plan, but we need your help."
Kiara sighed, wishing that Elijah was there with her. He would know what to do. He would tell her everything was going to be okay. But he wasn't, so she asked, "What plan?"
"You think you can revive someone again?"
Kiara's heart started beating faster as the memory of leaning over Luka's burned body flashed in her mind. "I, I don't know. I don't really want to find out. Why?"
"Look, I hate asking you this, but we need Klaus to think he won. You follow me?"
Kiara nodded, clutching the phone tighter in her hand. "Bonnie's going to get herself killed, isn't she?" she said, nausea washing over her.
"But you'll just bring her back, it'll be fine."
"No," Kiara forced out. She ran a shaky hand over her face. "What if I can't do it? Then she's dead because of me. I don't even know how I did it the last time!"
Suddenly a different voice was speaking on the phone. "Look, we don't have a choice. Either you bring Bonnie back or she's dead."
"Damon," she grumbled, biting the inside of her cheek.
"Hey, KitKat, long time no see." It sounded like he was smirking, which only annoyed Kiara even more.
"Listen, this is a terrible plan. I can't guarantee anything!"
"What do you mean? You claim you brought back this idiot."
"I did, but—"
"Then, bringing back BonBon here should be a cinch," he reasoned.
"No! Are you even listening?" Kiara shook her head. "I don't know how I brought him back! For all I know, it was a one-time thing!"
"Well, you better hope it wasn't. Because if I lose my witch, you lose yours."
Kiara's heart skipped. "What?"
"Look, it's simple. Save my witch and I won't kill yours."
"But Elijah said—"
"Well, Elijah isn't here so… meet us at the address I text you or expect this to be your last conversation with your little witch friend," he said and hung up.
Kiara took a few deep breaths trying to calm herself. Fury was flowing through her body. She couldn't believe it. Damon had some nerve to threaten her like that and after she convinced Elijah to spare him! Her fingers curled and uncurled at her sides as she tried to come to terms with the situation. Damon was going to kill Luka if she didn't bring Bonnie back from the dead. It was as simple as that.
When her phone dinged to notify her that she received a message, she glanced at the text and forced herself to throw on some sneakers before walking down the stairs, still shaking with emotions rattling around inside her. She found Holly cooking in the kitchen.
"Hey," she tried to smile at her. "Luka needs my help with something. I'm going to meet him now."
"Luka? Didn't you say he was going to the dance tonight?"
"Yeah…" she nodded. "Yeah, I did."
Holly slowed her movements until she came to a stop. "What don't I know?"
"Uh, Klaus was supposed to be at the dance tonight and the Scooby Gang planned to kill him, but it turns out he somehow possessed my favorite teacher before they could, and now Bonnie's going to get herself killed instead," Kiara said all in one breath. "And of course they just expect me to bring her back because they said so! They even threatened to kill Luka if I don't. Oh," she said. Then looked down at her phone in frustration. "and Elijah won't answer his fucking phone."
Holly stared at her. "We should go."
"No," Kiara shook her head. "We can't. This is Bonnie Bennett, Sheila's granddaughter. She helped us without asking for anything in return. Now her granddaughter is in trouble and I might be able to help her, I can't just ignore that. Besides, if Luka dies, the spell cloaking us goes with him and… I don't want his death on my conscience. He's, well, he's kind of my friend."
"Fine," Holly said. "But I'm packing up my car, just in case."
Kiara nodded and pulled Holly into a hug before rushing out the door. She ran down the street and into the woods. Trees flashed by her as she made her way to where the witches were burned. Her mind raced with what-ifs and she tried not to panic, but she was worried for Mr. Saltzman and Luka and herself.
The directions they texted her weren't exactly perfect so it took her a little while to find the place and when she got there Luka was waiting for her outside.
"Kiara, there you are!" he said, rushing toward her.
"Where's Damon?" she asked, looking around.
"He went home," Luka said with a smile. "I knew you'd show. Come on." He tried to grab her arm to pull her into the old building.
She yanked her arm away, her eyes flashing in anger, and said, "Do you have any idea how freaked out I am? I can't believe you dragged me into this!"
He paused, unsure of what to do. "Look I'm sorry. I didn't like doing that to you, but we needed your help."
"No. They needed my help. You were supposed to be on my side!" She glared at him with glazed eyes and his face fell.
"You're right. I'm sorry."
"Whatever… where's Bonnie?" she asked, dropping her shoulders. "I'd like to get this over with."
Luka nodded and rushed back into the house. She followed him down the stairs and into the cool damp basement where Bonnie was lying on the floor. There were only a few candles being used for light, but it was obvious to Kiara that the girl was dead. There was no energy flowing from her.
"Will Alaric be okay?" she asked Luka with her eyes still on Bonnie's form.
"I don't know." He shrugged. "I hope so."
Jeremy was kneeling next to the witch, holding her limp hand in his. He met Kiara's eyes and she nodded at him as if to say she was there to help. "You sure you can do this?" he asked her.
"Not really," Kiara said and kneeled down next to Bonnie. "But I don't have much of a choice, do I? Besides, I kind of owe her one."
"You do?" Jeremy scrunched his eyebrows at her.
Kiara just gazed down at Bonnie. "Her grandmother helped me once, when I first moved here, I was never able to repay her. Until now."
Without another word, Kiara closed her eyes and took in a few deep breaths. This time she concentrated on the energy swirling inside her, the energy she had collected from her victim's over the past couple of days. She focused it all into her stomach and then slowly brought it up into her throat. It was much harder to pull energy out of her than it was to bring in, but finally, she opened her eyes and leaned over Bonnie's body. It took a few seconds for the familiar fog looking substance to seep from her lips and disappear into Bonnie's mouth.
"Holy crap!" Jeremy muttered at the sight.
Instantly, Kiara felt her body scream out in protest. Exhaustion washed over her and she fell back, away from the people sitting across from her, afraid that she might reach out for the closest person to find relief from the empty feeling.
"Did it work?" Jeremy asked, watching Kiara's eyes slowly go back to normal.
But Kiara didn't answer him.
Maybe Bonnie had been dead too long before Kiara got to her? Maybe it only worked if Kiara really cared about the person she was trying to save? Maybe she could only do it once in her lifetime? She didn't know. She was about to tell him so when Bonnie took in a breath. Her eyes opened and locked on Jeremy.
"Hey." She smiled.
"Hey," he said back, almost laughing with relief.
"I guess it did." Kiara sighed and tried to force herself back onto her feet, ready to leave. Luka offered her a hand and she took it, even leaning on him a little until she found her balance. "Well, my job here's done so if you don't mind… I'll be going now."
"Wait," Bonnie said, stopping Kiara midstep. "Thank you… for coming through for me."
Kiara glanced down to find the witch smiling up at her. "You're welcome. Like I told Jeremy, I kind of owed you one," she said. Then added, "But let's get one thing straight, if Damon, or any of you, threaten me or someone I care about again. You will regret it. I can take life a lot easier than I can revive it and I'm so done trying to be the good guy only to get screwed over by all of you. So spread the word, I'm done playing nice."
Bonnie's smile slowly faded as Kiara turned and walked back up the stairs with Luka trailing behind her.
Luka insisted on walking her back to her house. The entire way he had his arm wrapped around her shoulders, keeping her steady. They didn't say anything most of the way. She was pissed and tired, but not as tired as she had been when she revived Luka all those weeks ago. She wasn't sure if that was because it could get easier with practice or because she had been feeding more often and therefore had more energy to spare.
"Thanks for helping," Luka said.
She shrugged. Her eyes concentrating on her sneakers smacking against the sidewalk.
"Really, I appreciate it," he said, glancing sideways at her. "I know I haven't been acting like it too much lately, but I'm really glad I met you. You've turned out to be a pretty good friend."
Kiara nodded her head in agreement. "Same here."
As they grew closer to her house, Kiara looked down at her phone hoping to see an unread text or missed call from Elijah, but she didn't see any. The street was eerily quiet. Kiara eyed Holly's car in the driveway, wondering if they should still consider leaving town, but quickly noticed something was wrong.
The porch light was on.
Kiara stopped. "I think someone's in my house," she told him.
"What?" Luka laughed. "You're kidding, right?"
"No." Kiara shook her head. Her eyes scanned the area to look for more signs of trouble, but everything seemed normal.
"What makes you—" he started to say and then paused. "Wait, now that you mention it, I do sense something. Another witch, I think."
Kiara's heart raced. "Maybe it's your dad?"
"No," Luka shook his head. "But he's on his way. He just texted me, he says he has something he needs to tell you."
"About what?" she asked. Not asking what she really wanted to know: is it about Elijah?
Luka shrugged. "He didn't say."
"Well… maybe it's your sister?" Kiara asked. She could see the hope in his eyes as they started walking forward towards her house again.
"Wait," Luka pulled her back by her arm. "This is crazy. We don't know who's in there. Whoever they are, they're packing some serious power. We should wait for my dad."
"You wait," she told him. "But I'm going."
"No," he pulled her back by her elbow and ignored the glare she sent him for doing so. "You can't go in there alone. Look at you."
"Holly is my family," she told him. "My only family."
Luka groaned, dropping his hold on her arm. "Alright. Alright. We'll both go."
They slowly approached the house with Kiara going through the front and Luka going around back. She tried to walk in like nothing was wrong. Like she didn't sense that something terrible was waiting for her on the other side of the door. She twisted the doorknob, finding it unlocked, and stepped inside.
At first, Kiara thought that she might have been wrong, that maybe Holly just left the light on for her this time out of concern. The house seemed fine. Exactly how she left it. But as she stepped further down the hallway, she saw a man in the living room sitting next to Holly on the couch. There was blood on her forehead and her eyes were rimmed with tears. Her bright red hair was a mess. When her panicked eyes met Kiara's, she blurted out, "Run! He's here for you! Run! Now!"
Before Kiara could blink, the man smacked Holly across the face and leaped to his feet in one motion. He threw out his arm sending Kiara flying backward. Her back slammed against the wall behind her, knocking the air out of her lungs. Her vision went black and she collapsed onto the floor. Gasping, she struggled to get back to her feet. But the witch was fast. Smart too. He kept himself at a safe distance. Out of arm's reach. Using his magic to hold her in place.
"Finally!" the man laughed, taking in Kiara's appearance. "You have no idea how long I've been searching for you."
Kiara frowned, waiting for her vision to focus. This man wasn't much older than she was. His eyes were a steel gray and there was a scar across the bridge of his nose. She didn't recognize him. "Do I know you?"
"No," he said, still chuckling in delight. "I guess you don't. But I know you, Kiara. In fact, you might even say we're family. My name's Gerald Blake."
Kiara's eyes widened in shock. Blake was her father's last name. If this man was a Blake, then he must have been sent by her father. But how did he find them?
"I know. I know," Gerald said. "I can tell by the look on your face that you have a lot of questions and before you ask, it wasn't easy." He shook his head. "I'd been trying all kinds of tracking spells and scrying for years. And then finally, out of the blue, something gave. The problem was I could only get a general area before you dropped off the map again. Bummer, right? But then, I heard about someone in Virginia who was asking around about succubi and I thought… what are the odds?"
"Elijah?" Kiara realized. "What did you do to him?"
What could he do to Elijah? To an Original.
"Was that the vampire's name? He was hard to take down," Gerald smirked, taking a tiny step towards her. A blocky looking pendant swinging forward around his neck as he moved around the room. "I'll admit, it took a cursed object and everything I had just to knock him out. But it was pretty easy to get into his head from there and might I say… I was shocked by what I saw in there," he clicked his tongue at her. "You're a naughty girl."
Kiara grimaced at him, not liking the feeling of his eyes on her. Or what he was suggesting, especially in front of Holly who was still clutching her head on the couch. Over Gerald's shoulder, she could see Luka slipping through the backdoor.
"What did you do to him?" she asked again, knowing she needed to keep his attention on her for the time being.
Thankfully Luka did exactly what she would have wanted and went to help Holly first.
"You should be more worried about what I'm going to do to you," Gerald grinned. "Your father had a long time to think this through. You may not know this… but he comes from a long line of witches."
"Yeah," Kiara rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. "I heard."
"Well, he made this little beauty just for you." Gerald pulled out a dagger with symbols etched all over the hilt.
Kiara forced herself not to react. She didn't want this man to know how scared she was so she turned to sarcasm, one of the things she did best. "I'm honored, Jerry. Did he give you that ugly necklace you're wearing too?"
"Honored?" He tilted his head suddenly looking to serious. "You should be grateful. He's kind enough to end your miserable existence. You see, it's spelled to kill a succubus, draw the lifeforce right out of them and into this stone here," he pointed to the hilt. "Slowly, of course. He doesn't want it to be too easy on you."
Luka paused by the door, his arm around Holly's waist beside him. His panicked eyes met Kiara's as if to say, what do I do?
"So that's it?" Kiara sighed, shaking her head. "All those years of running and he isn't even going to kill me himself? How disappointing… "
"I'll be sure to let him know you said that," Gerald said, opening his hand to let the dagger float in the air for a second before aiming it towards Kiara's heart.
She closed her eyes as it came flying at her. She heard Holly scream, horrified that she was about to watch Kiara die, but the blade moved at the last second and embedded itself into the wall next to her.
When Kiara looked toward the front door, she saw Jonas standing there in the open doorway. She took in a shaky breath and felt Gerald's hold on her fading as his focus moved to the new threat in the room. He obviously didn't expect to find another witch there to defend her.
Gerald's feet were knocked out from under him, but he just laughed as he hit the floor.
"Go!" Jonas told her. "Now."
Kiara hesitated. Holly and Luka were still standing in the kitchen.
"All of you!" Jonas said.
She watched Luka pull Holly out the back door and then turned to leave as well. Before she could get far, she felt something pulling her backward. A shriek left her throat, but Jonas threw Gerald back onto the ground releasing his hold on her once more
Kiara rushed back to her feet and managed to get out of the house this time. When she reached the driveway, Holly wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her tight.
"I'm so sorry. He just came out of nowhere and there was nothing I could do—" she tried to explain, shaking from crying so hard.
"It's okay, Hol. Just calm down." Kiara patted her back. She looked at Luka and asked, "Do you think your dad can take him?"
"With all that extra power? It should be no contest."
"Yeah," Kiara nodded her head, glancing back at the house. "But the guy seemed pretty cocky, didn't he? Maybe he has something up his sleeve? An enchanted object maybe? Something to amplify his magic? That ugly pendant he's wearing has to be good for something."
"Wait, pendant? What pendant?"
"Yeah, didn't you see it? It looks like someone took a bunch of old puzzle pieces and smashed them together. I can't imagine anyone would wear that as a fashion statement."
Luka stared at her for a few seconds, the wheels in his head turning, before running back into the house. There was shouting and the sound of things breaking.
Kiara's heart hammered in her chest at the sound as she turned to Holly. "Do you have your keys?"
Holly nodded, pulling them from her jacket pocket with trembling hands.
"Okay… I want you to go to the emergency meeting spot. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."
Holly shook her head. "No. No. NO. I can't leave you."
"You can," Kiara nodded. "I promise I'll be right behind you, but this man managed to take down an Original vampire. I can't just leave my friends here. If they use too much of that power inside them, they're dead."
"But he'll kill you," Holly sobbed.
"I'm sorry, Hol, but I can't leave them to fight my battle for me. This man is here for me. I need to face this head-on," She told her and hesitated only for a second before touching her cheek. It took only a couple seconds for the charm to take effect and she said, "I want you to go. Don't worry about me and just go. Okay?"
Slowly Holly nodded. "Okay… just promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise," Kiara said, guilty tears pricking her eyes. She promised to never use her charm on Holly, but it was for her own good. Holly wouldn't leave her otherwise. "I'll find you after this is over," she told her as she watched her get into the car.
Kiara waited until she saw Holly's car turn the corner before going back to her house. Glass crunched under her feet as she walked through the open doorway. It looked like someone picked up the house and shook it around. The furniture was thrown all over the room. There were bloody smear marks all over the walls and floor. And the living room fan was swinging from the ceiling, barely holding on.
One of the Martin witches must have used a lot of the magic to do this kind of damage.
When Gerald came into view, he was standing over them. There was a strange object on the floor next to them. It looked like a twisted up vase with black smoke pouring out the top and smelled like death.
Luka wasn't moving and Kiara couldn't see his aura, but she couldn't think about what that meant yet. Maybe she was just too weak to see it at the moment. Maybe he was going to be okay.
Jonas, on the other hand, was still fighting. He gritted his teeth, hardly able to even lift his head to glare up at the rival witch before he started to mutter a spell under his breath. But Gerald lifted his arm and Jonas's head was flung to the side. A loud cracking sound reverberated through the room. And Jonas went still.
Anger and panic flashed through Kiara's body instantly.
This can't be real, she told herself. It isn't possible.
Energy built up inside Kiara that she had never felt before, it brought an overwhelming pressure into her head. Her hands went up to cradle it as if to find some way to force the pain out of her body. A horrible piercing sound surrounded them. It echoed through the building and forced the witch down to his knees. She didn't even realize that the sound was coming from her until the energy rushed out of her like an explosion. Everything went flying away from her, all the windows and glass in the house shattered, and Gerald collapsed. Unconscious and bleeding from his nose and mouth.
Kiara's ears rang in the following silence. The pressure was gone, leaving her feeling empty and alone. She stepped forward on unsteady legs and picked up the strange object that was somehow still standing in one piece on the floor. She didn't have to be a witch to know that it was a dark object, probably the one he used to immobilize Elijah. She threw it against the wall as hard as she could, shattering it into pieces. Then she knelt down next to Luka to look for a pulse, even though she didn't need to. There was no energy coming from his body.
"Luka?" she cried out. Her voice breaking. "Luka, please wake up."
Her hands fumbled around his neck but didn't feel anything. She couldn't believe this was happening. Surely this was a nightmare or some terrible delusion she was having. It couldn't be real. She closed her eyes for a second hoping to wake up. To snap back to a kinder reality than the one she was living in. But when she finally worked up the courage to open her eyes again, she was staring down at the bodies of her two friends.
Not willing to give up, she tried to pull energy out of her body as she did for Bonnie only an hour earlier. But she couldn't even feel it stirring inside her. It was like she had nothing left. It had burst out of her in a fit of rage and now she could hardly move, much less revive anyone.
"No," she whispered. "No. This, this can't be happening. This isn't how you die! You're gonna get Greta back. You're going to be a family again and you're gonna grow old and be happy. And everything's going to be okay." She tried to get to her feet, telling herself that if she could just find someone to feed from she'd have the energy to bring them back. Using the wall for balance she stumbled toward the door.
But a hand wrapped around her ankle. Her arms shot out instinctively as she fell to the floor.
The dagger flew out of the wall and into Gerald's waiting hand. Without a word, as if it was taking all the energy he had left, he rolled her onto her back and slammed the blade down into her chest.
Kiara gasped. Dark veins stretched out from the metal and pierced into her skin, attaching itself to her. She watched the man's eyes as they rolled back into his head and he collapsed again. She could hardly breathe now. It felt like someone was sitting on her chest. Her hands reached up to touch the hilt and instantly pain flared through her body. Angry tears blurred her vision and she tried again, only to find it wouldn't budge.
"Come on! Get it together!" she yelled at herself. The third time, her hands wrapped around the hilt and she pulled with all the strength she had left, but no matter how hard she pulled, the blade wouldn't move. She screamed in frustration and pushed herself to crawl towards her front door. The only thing she could do now was call out for help, but every time she moved it felt like she was on fire. "Please! Somebody help me!" she cried.
The front door was still open and she leaned her back against the frame to rest for a moment. When she looked up, she saw someone walking down the street past her house. In the darkness, she couldn't see who it was, but they looked male. Maybe Jeremy heading home for the night.
"Hey! Hey!" she called out to them, too weak to wave her arms like she wanted to. "Please help me!"
The person paused and looked in her direction so she called out again. As they stepped up the walkway to her house, Kiara realized they were too tall to be Jeremy. The figure stopped just before the light could hit them, clearly shocked by what they were seeing.
"I," she said, her breath coming out in shorter bursts now. She gripped the blade again and cringed as pain flared up. "I can't get it out. Please help me get it out."
As they crouched down, she recognized them.
"Mr. Saltzman?" she asked, her hand dropping back to her side. Then she remembered that Klaus had possessed his body. She let her head fall back against the doorframe. "Wait, you're not still Klaus, are you?"
He frowned. His attention on the blade sticking out of her chest. "It's true what they say… news travels fast in small towns."
"Great." Kiara sniffed. She hated that she was crying in front of him, but she couldn't stop. Her mind was replaying the latest events on repeat trying to figure out what she could have done differently. "I'm just… I'm having the worst night."
"What happened? Who did this to you?" he asked. His eyes moving past her into the house. "Are they still inside?"
"A witch, Gerald Blake, attacked me. I, I think I may have killed him, somehow," she said, unable to steady her breathing as the words fell out of her mouth. She felt like she was going to be sick, but watching him turn his attention back to her kept her focused enough to continue. "I need to feed. I need to save them."
"One thing at a time, love," Klaus put a hand on her shoulder to keep her focus on him. "You're still in shock. I doubt you'll be saving anyone tonight."
"No, you don't understand." She shook her head in frustration. "I'm the only one who can bring them back now. I just need to get this thing out of my chest and feed on someone and then I can make everything okay again."
"What exactly is this thing, love?" He asked, tilting his head toward her chest.
"It's a blade spelled to kill a succubus. Apparently it was made especially for me. A present from my father."
"Your father?" Klaus asked in confusion.
Kiara nodded. "You aren't the only one with a shitty dad, Klaus."
Then he remembered what she said back in the Salvatore basement: I've spent enough time running from someone to know, it isn't much of a life. And everything clicked. "Elijah was protecting you from your father, wasn't he?"
"The two witches inside are your friend Greta's father and younger brother. They came here hoping to save her, from you, but Elijah convinced them to do a cloaking spell on me and Holly. To protect us. Turns out this Gerald guy found Elijah instead," she said, running a shaking hand into her hair. "Now they're dead and it's all my fault. I wish I had never gotten them involved. It would have been better for them if we'd never met, none of this would have happened."
Klaus didn't say anything. Her rambling, her sadness, and lack of self-worth were upsetting him.
"At least he saved you from having to go through the trouble of killing me," Kiara said, bitterly, watching him with those seafoam green eyes.
"I never said I wanted you dead," Klaus murmured.
"No. You just wanted me to suffer," Kiara remembered. "Is that why you possessed Mr. Saltzman and pretended to be my friend?"
Klaus swallowed, not wanting to answer her. The truth was he had no idea that she cared for Alaric when he chose him. It was just dumb luck. And he had wanted her to suffer, at first. He had built up this terrible manipulative version of her in his head. But after seeing her in the Salvatore basement and hearing what she had to say, he started to think differently about her.
"I think you've suffered enough, love."
The words brought more tears to her eyes, but she forced out a chuckle anyway. "That sounds so weird coming from Mr. Saltzman's mouth." He only smirked at her. A crooked kind of smile that didn't look right on Alaric's face. "I can't believe I didn't realize it was you before. It's so obvious now," she said. Her lip trembled as she asked, "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I don't know," he said. "I just ended up here somehow…"
Kiara nodded, absentmindedly, only half paying attention. She watched him grab the hilt of the blade and flinched. Her hand grabbed his wrist on instinct and he paused, the feeling of her skin touching his probably still having some effect on him. When she realized he was actually trying to help her, she dropped her hand and stayed as still as possible. He yanked it, but it didn't move. He tried again, but it was the same.
"Strange…" he mumbled. "The spell must protect it from being removed."
"Are you saying no one can take it out?"
"No," he shook his head. "I'm saying we need a witch."
"Well I'm fresh out of witches," she said, her big green eyes looking at him with such sadness, such fear. It was a look he had seen many times in the eyes of his victims. He didn't like it much on her. When he didn't respond right away, she clenched her jaw and nodded her head a couple of times. Trying to accept her fate. "Okay… I know I'm not your favorite person or anything, but I, do you think you could do me a favor? Please?"
Klaus nodded and mentally braced himself. This was when she begged him to save her life.
"I need you to look out for Holly. Remember I talked to you about her at lunch?" she asked. He could only nod his head in confusion. "My father might still come after her. I need you to find her and tell her that I left town. She should be at the first motel off the highway south from here under the last name Chandler. She's going to be wondering what happened to me and I, I don't want her to know—" Her breath caught and her chest shuddered as tears flowed down her cheeks freely now. "It's better that she thinks I'm living on some island somewhere or something. Compel her. Tell her not to look for me, or worry about me anymore. Tell her that I'm happy and she deserves to be happy too. It's the only way she'll move on—"
"No," he said.
"No?" Kiara frowned. "Klaus, please, she's the only family I have."
"I said no, " He leaned closer to her and picked her up. Careful not to hit the weapon still lodged in her chest as he did. "because you won't be dying today."
"What? What are you doing?" she asked, gripping his shoulders as he lifted her off the ground.
"What's it look like, sweetheart?" he said as if it should be obvious. "I'm saving your life."
"But… why?"
"Would you rather I didn't?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"No," she murmured as Klaus pulled her front door shut and began to make his way down the front steps of her house. A ping of panic rushed through her. "Wait," Kiara said, tears building up in her eyes again. "They're… my friends, they're inside. I can't just leave them."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it," he told her. "I'll take care of everything, I promise."
To her surprise, he carried her back to Alaric's apartment. She slipped in and out of consciousness all the way there. Each step he took sending a ripple of pain through her body. But she didn't complain. Instead she mumbled to him. Sometimes it was nonsense. Sometimes it wasn't.
"You know, if you're not careful, this could ruin your reputation," she told him.
"What makes you say that, love?"
"People will start to think you aren't such a bad guy after all."
He smiled and shook his head. "Don't let this moment of kindness fool you. I'm still the devil in disguise."
"Maybe..." she mumbled. "Maybe not."
"Do you think you can change me, love? Others have tried and failed. Why should you be any different?"
"You drew me," she said like she didn't hear him. It made his eyes flicker down to her face. "It was nice. You're really talented."
"And you," he said, looking at her like he had so much he wanted to say. "Don't need to be fixed."
"So that was you on Friday," she smiled, her fingers lazily playing with a button on his shirt. "How long have you been in Alaric?"
"Not long."
"Were you the one who came to see me in the basement?" she asked, studying his face through blurry eyes.
He nodded.
"Why?" Her voice strained.
"Elena told me Damon had a succubus named Kiara in his basement, I had to see if it was you," he said.
"And you found me getting what I deserve, right? That must've been satisfying."
"The opposite, actually." When he looked down, he saw she was unconscious again. But he continued anyway. "You aren't what I thought you were and people rarely surprise me. I think I'd be quite unhappy if you were to die now."
When he finally reached the apartment, he knocked on the door, and Maddox opened it. Kiara's eyes flurried open to see a man that she didn't recognize and Katherine staring back at her.
"Kiara?" Katherine asked.
Despite being Elena's doppelganger, Kiara could tell the difference between them easily, even in her current state. "Katherine," she tried to smile.
"What the hell happened to you?"
"The same thing that happened to you, I imagine," she said. "The past caught up with me."
Klaus brought her into Alaric's bedroom and laid her down on the bed. He said something to the man, who Kiara assumed was a witch, and they both turned their attention to the blade.
"This is some dark magic…" The man said, leaning down so he was at eye level with the hilt. "Old stuff. Powerful."
"Can you remove it or not?" Klaus asked through gritted teeth.
"Yes," The man nodded. "She's lucky. He missed her heart by a few inches, which is slowing its effect a bit, but it will take some time to figure out how to get it out safely. Time she doesn't have."
The words made Kiara's mind race. There were things she needed to say, things he needed to know about Elijah. "Klaus, I need to tell you something," she said.
"Not now," Klaus said. His eyes still on the witch. "It will be in your best interest for you to make time. Do you understand?"
There was a pause. The witch's mind working overtime to not disappoint the irritated hybrid in front of him. "There is one thing I can do… to buy her time until I can get it out, but you aren't going to like it."
"By all means, Maddox, lay it on me," Klaus said, bringing his hands behind his back.
"I can link her to you."
"What?" Kiara whispered, assuming she heard wrong.
"I can link her life to yours. You said this blade is spelled specifically to kill a succubus. It's literally sucking the life out of her as we speak. If I link her life to yours, it should stop its effects, but you'll need to be in your body for it to work."
"No," Kiara shook her head. "You can't risk it."
"Do you want to die?" Klaus asked her. His temper flaring.
"No," she said, hardly able to shake her head, much less think. "But I don't want to bring you down with me either. Enough people have died because of me."
Klaus stared at her for a moment with an unreadable look on his face.
She wondered what he was thinking about. Did he start to care for her during his time as Alaric Saltzman? Was he worried what Elijah would think if he let her die? What would Elijah think? She recalled their last kiss and imagined he would probably miss her. At least for a little while. But she knew she couldn't possibly be his first loss. He would get over it. He would move on.
Finally, Klaus turned to Maddox and asked, "Are you sure this will work?"
Maddox nodded.
"And you'll be able to get my body here in time?"
"Yes."
"Then what are you waiting for? Go get it."
Maddox stood, ready to leave immediately. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Yes, do hurry. And if you get hung up, call me, you know how impatient I get."
Okay, so that's Chapter Thirteen. A lot happened in this one... and like the other chapters before it, I went back and forth on things before finally settling with this version of events. I hope it came together well in the end. I think this was the only way to move the plot forward properly... so please don't hate me.
Thanks for reading.
