Things have been crazy lately, but I managed to squeeze out another chapter of love for you guys. I feel like this could be better... but I have edited this a couple of times now and don't want to put off updating any longer. I do hope you like it.

Note: I know this isn't a big deal and most of you probably wouldn't have even noticed this, but Alaric has a studio apartment in the show. For this story's purposes, I changed it to a little one-bedroom so there would be a door. Again no big deal, certainly not a major change to a tv show setting, but I thought I should say something just in case it bothered someone.

Anyway, most of this chapter takes place in-between episodes 19 and 20 of season two. The end takes place around the start of episode 20.

Warning: Sexual Content Ahead


Chapter Sixteen: Freedom and Desire

Nothing could have prepared Kiara for being linked to Niklaus Mikaelson.

As a vampire, his emotions and senses were heightened. As a werewolf, he had a short fuse and reckless nature. That combination created a hurricane of a person. Whether he was full of passion or anger, he was capable of leaving maximum damage in his wake. And it left Kiara feeling like she was stuck on a never-ending rollercoaster.

She was aware of everything he was, and felt, and did. There was no her, or him. Now his skin was her skin. His heartbeat, her heartbeat. When their eyes met, his emotions flooded hers and she shuddered at the intensity of them. It was like she was feeding on him without touch or intent. Only she couldn't stop. She couldn't disconnect from him, or breathe, or think.

Sure whenever she feeds on someone she forms a connection with the person. She's aware of their feelings, their wants, and desires. Entering another's dreams she learns a lot about them too like: what they miss, what they fear, who they are when they're alone. All of these things are intimate but temporary, even mild in comparison to what this felt like.

There was a pull, a desire to move closer to him that was tantalizing and terrifying at the same time. She knew if she allowed it, if she surrendered to that desire, she would be lost in him forever.

Laying there, Kiara was painfully aware of him. She felt the movement of his eyes along her face. The tingling of her hand in his. Even the thirst for blood that burned his throat.

It was too much. He was too much.

"Are you alright, love?" he asked, his free hand reaching up to brush her hair off her forehead. The term of endearment that rolled off of his tongue so easily suddenly sounded different to her. His whole voice did really.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak at the moment.

Satisfied enough with her answer, for the time being, Klaus's eyes flickered to Maddox. "You cut it a bit close there, mate," he told him.

Maddox nodded in agreement and focused his attention on the hilt of the blade. "Now for the fun part, figuring out what the hell these symbols mean…"

"Figure out?" Klaus glared at him.

"I can read parts of it…" Maddox tried to explain. "This spell, it's written in some kind of code. It's like a bunch of old languages have been jumbled together."

"Well decode it."

"I'm trying, I told you it would take some time to figure this out," Maddox said, his finger bumping the hilt, sending a ripple of pain through her chest.

Klaus flinched when Kiara did.

"Watch it, mate," he said. "What you do to her, you now do to me."

Kiara kept her eyes on the ceiling, not wanting to think about anything that was happening around her.

"Yeah, boss, I know how it works," Maddox said, trying to make sense of the symbols. He ran his finger along the weapon again, like it was reading a book, making the pair wince.

"Stop," Klaus said, clenching his jaw. "hurting her."

"It's okay, Klaus," His blue eyes instantly flickered to her and softened as she said, "He's trying to help."

"No, actually, it's not okay," he told her. "You shouldn't suffer any more than necessary."

Kiara bit her lip and said, "I'm tougher than I look. I can take it."

"I don't doubt it, love," Klaus smirked.

She blushed and turned her attention to Maddox. "I appreciate what you're doing for me," she told him.

"I do what I'm told," Maddox said, his dark eyes glancing up at Klaus. Then he was back to concentrating on the blade. "Klaus mentioned this spell was created by your father. Can you tell me anything about him or his coven?"

"Not really. I didn't even know he was a witch until Holly told me."

Maddox frowned and asked, "She didn't tell you anything about them? Where they're from? What kind of magic they specialize in?"

"No, but… Gerald was wearing this strange necklace," Kiara told him. "It looked like a bunch of puzzle pieces that didn't fit were jammed together. Maybe that can decode the spell somehow?"

"Even if it could, it won't help us now," said Klaus. His arms were folded in front of his chest.

"Why not?"

"I went back to your house last night, love. There were only two bodies."

A terrible mixture of fear and relief emanated from her. "So… I didn't kill him?"

"It seems not, but don't worry, love. He won't be going anywhere near you."

She couldn't see how he could guarantee that, but he said it so confidently that she felt like she had to believe him. The problem was, she wasn't only worried about herself.

"What about Holly?" she pulled her elbows up and under her to try sitting up. "Oh my God, Holly—"

Klaus placed a hand on her shoulder. A silent urging to lay back down. "Woah there, sweetheart. Take a breath. It's all been taken care of."

"What?" she shook her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I did promise you I'd take care of everything," he reminded her, looking much too pleased with himself. "I'm a man of my word."

"So Holly's… okay?"

"Perfectly safe," he said.

Maddox nodded to himself. "She's been cloaked and relocated."

"Oh," Kiara smiled and Klaus's heart fluttered. "I don't know even know what to say. Thank you."

Maddox sighed, almost looking annoyed with her. His dark eyebrows were scrunched together. "Can you think of anything else? Maybe something Gerald said to you?"

"He said he was a Blake, so we must be related somehow…" she told him. "And he said the blade would suck out my life force and store it in the stone."

"That reminds me," Klaus walked over to the bedside table and picked up the folded up piece of paper he had taken off of Greta's father. "I found this on your friend. Perhaps it can help?"

Kiara sat up completely. She realized it was only the three of them in the room and the bedroom door was shut. "He did say he wanted to tell me something before… everything happened." Kiara's eyes moved over the paper. She started shaking her head. "No. This can't help us. This is the Blackwood family tree. They're this coven that wrote about succubi in their grimoire. They mysteriously disappeared in the 70s and we were trying to find out what happened to them."

Klaus sat down on the bed next to her and pointed to the bottom right corner of the page. "I think he did, love. Look."

"No," she shook her head. Her heart speeding up with her breathing. "No. This can't be right. This says the Blackwoods became the Blake family. My father's family. That's his name, right there. See? Orion Blake."

"Many witches have changed their names to escape persecution over the years," Maddox said, standing upright.

"They were running from something, Jonas thought it was a succubus."

"What did the grimoire say exactly?" Maddox asked.

"I'm not sure, I..." The next words caught in her throat. Her hand moved to her stomach like she might be sick.

"You what, love?" Klaus placed a hand on her back.

Kiara looked at him with wide eyes. "I couldn't read it. It was written in this strange language. Jonas could hardly even make sense of it. He said it took him a week to figure out one page."

"Where's this grimoire now?" Maddox asked.

"Upstairs… in their apartment. Room 302."

Maddox walked out of the room without another word.


Kiara didn't know if he would find the right book in the huge collection of grimoires the Martin witches had. She figured he would need help, but her mind couldn't sort through the mirage of questions racing through her head. She couldn't even force her mouth to form a question before he was out the door. Then there was only one thing on her mind.

She was alone with Klaus.

Again. Only now she was linked to him.

She couldn't help feeling like she shouldn't be alone with him at the moment, but Maddox shut the door behind him and no one else had stepped in since then. She could feel Klaus's hand still on her back. It seemed like an absentminded gesture, but it was comforting and maddening to her nonetheless. She tried to concentrate on that rather than the panic growing in her chest.

"You're hyperventilating, love" Klaus pointed out.

She swallowed. "I know. I'm sorry. It's just this whole time I've been telling myself that if my mother was a succubus, my father couldn't have known. That I must have fed on my mother in the womb and made her sick or something, only to come out as some kind of monster baby he didn't understand. It was the only thing that made sense to me. I mean, there has to be a reason he hates me so much. But now…"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Klaus asked.

But she continued like she didn't hear him. "If he's a Blackwood. He would have known, wouldn't he?" Her eyes held unshed tears as she looked at him. "He would have recognized what my mother was and, and he would have known what I would become. He should have understood, so why? Why does he hate me so much?"

Her father's voice echoed in her mind. It should have been you, you know. It should have been you!

It didn't make sense. If the Blackwood's were on the run from a succubus, how did her father even end up with her mother in the first place? Did he even love her at all? Or was her mother just as much a prisoner there as she was?

No. She pushed the thought away. She couldn't think like that. It was too awful.

"Kiara," Klaus said. "Kiara! Stop! Stop!" He was holding both of her wrists in his hands.

She blinked up at him in confusion, but a stinging sensation made her look down between them. Her hands were clenched into tight balls and when she opened them, she was greeted with blood. She had pressed her hands shut so tightly her nails cut into her palm.

"Sorry," she whispered and tried to pull her hands free, but he held them open with his thumbs to watch the wounds slowly close. "It's just, this is all really hitting me now. What was I even thinking, trying to have a life here? My father's never going to stop. This goes back generations. His entire coven wants me dead," she seemed to be realizing all of this as she said the words aloud. "That's it, isn't it? They all want me dead. You should have heard the things Gerald said… he's disgusted by what I am—"

"What you are," Klaus said, cupping her face and making her stop short. "Is beautiful and they will regret ever attempting to cause you harm. I will see to it personally."

She smiled at him, but her eyes were sad.

"Thanks, but this isn't your fight. You only feel like it is because we're linked. But Maddox is going to figure out a way to remove this thing, he'll unlink us, and then you'll break your curse. You will be free to reunite your family and I'll go back to running from mine."

Klaus wouldn't even consider that as an option. It was a fate he simply wouldn't accept for her, not after all the trouble he's gone through to keep her alive.

"What if it's not because we're linked?" he asked. "What if it's something else?"

She looked away from him.

"It can't be something else."

Klaus's first instinct was to push back, to ask what made her so sure. After all, it wasn't magic that motivated him to keep her safe in the first place. That had been something else entirely. But Maddox came back, grimoire in hand before either of them could say anything else on the matter.

"You found it," Kiara said.

The book was already open. His finger moving along the page. "Yes. You were right. It's a challenge to translate, but I believe the right side of the hilt here," he gestured to the part of the hilt he was talking about. "explains the making of the spell that made this. While the left side explains how to remove it. If I'm reading this correctly, this is their word for a non-magical being or human and this means free will."

"So a human can remove the dagger?" Kiara asked.

"Only if it is of their own free will. No magic, no compulsion, nothing supernatural can force them to do it."

"Of course," Kiara nodded. "that makes sense. I can't ask anyone for help without my succubus nature charming them so… it's pretty much impossible."

"Not necessarily, love," Klaus said, making his way back into the living room to where Alaric was still laying on the floor. He tapped the man's side with his foot. "Up and at' em, mate, turns out you're still of use to me after all," he said as Alaric groaned.

After a few seconds, Klaus got impatient and pulled Alaric to his feet. He struggled as Klaus pulled him toward the bedroom.

"What happened? What's going on?" Alaric asked.

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Niklaus Mikaelson. Original vampire hybrid. I believe you already know my friend here, Kiara James? The local succubus." Klaus nodded at her.

Alaric stopped fighting when he saw Kiara. "Oh my God, Kiara? What the hell happened to you? What are you doing in my bed?"

"It's a long story, Mr. S," she tried to smile at him.

"One I'd much prefer we skip if you don't mind, love," Klaus said, but Kiara shot him a look making him close his mouth. He shouldn't have been so surprised by her willingness to stand up to him. She had done it before. Only now he felt warm under her fierce gaze. He sighed and shifted on his feet. "As you can see, she was attacked. The dagger in her chest has been spelled to kill her and as of late I've only barely succeeded in keeping her alive. As it turns out, only a human, such as yourself, can remove it."

"Let me get this straight…" Alaric looked around. "You knocked me out, broke into my apartment, kidnapped one of my students, and now you're asking me for a favor?"

Klaus chuckled and slapped an arm over his shoulders. "Yes. Typical vampire behavior, I'm sure. But this is more of a favor to Kiara here and I was under the impression that you cared for her. Was I misinformed?"

"No," Alaric snapped. "I do care about her. I care about all my students."

"Fantastic!" Klaus forced a smile. "Because as I said, you could end her suffering right now, if you so choose. All you have to do is simply pull out that little dagger there and your job is done."

Alaric stared at Klaus. Frozen in place. Unsure of what to do.

With each passing second, Kiara's anxiety vibrated through Klaus. She twisted the dark blankets on her lap over and over again as if expecting sweat to seep out of it. Klaus couldn't understand why at first until he realized that she was worried. She thought Alaric wasn't going to help her.

"So what do you say, friend?" Klaus asked.

"Kiara?" Alaric looked at his student. "What are you even doing here? With him?"

Kiara bit her lip. "I know this is all really confusing right now, but he's just trying to help me," she looked like she was near tears again. "You don't have to do anything though."

"Are you sure about that?" Alaric glanced at Klaus who was tightening his hold on his shoulder.

"We can't force you," she told him. "The blade won't come out unless you help me willingly."

Alaric sighed and lowered himself down onto the bed in front of her. "What kind of teacher would I be if I didn't help my favorite student?"

Kiara let out a sad laugh and sniffed. "We both know I'm not even close to being your favorite, but I'll take the help anyway."

It took Alaric a moment to figure out how to approach the task. He finally settled on gripping her shoulder with one hand and the blade with the other. As his fingers brushed the hilt, Kiara flinched and he pulled his hand back.

"Sorry," he sucked in air through his teeth. "I'll pull on the count of three, ready?"

Kiara gripped the sheets of the bed to try to keep from moving and closed her eyes before nodding her head.

"One… two… three!"

With one firm yank, the blade was ripped off Kiara's chest and she screamed. Her hand moved up to touch where the blade had been. When her shaking fingers felt something wet, she looked down at herself. She was covered in blood. The wound wasn't closed, but she was blade-free and that was enough for now.

She nearly sobbed with relief. "Thank you, Mr. Saltzman. Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome, Kiara," Alaric said, offering her back the blade that had caused her so much grief.

In a blink, Klaus held it in his hands.

"Yes, we're very thankful. Now if you don't mind, I'll be borrowing your apartment a wee bit longer," Klaus told him, clapping Alaric on the back and steering him towards the door. "You, however, are free to go. So long as you pass on a message to your friends: the sacrifice will happen tomorrow night."


When Klaus stepped back into the room, he found Kiara talking to Maddox. She looked upset and he looked ready to pull his hair out so Klaus remained in the doorway to listen.

"What do you mean you can't unlink us right now?" she asked.

"Look at you. You can't even stand. Your wound hasn't healed, clearly, you need some time to recoup and I still have some things I need to do for Klaus."

"But… it's closing," she pushed her unruly hair behind her shoulder. "I just need to feed. I'll be fine."

"Sorry, but it's too risky to perform the unlinking spell on you right now. I'll check up on you in a couple of hours. Maybe we can do it then."

Kiara glared at him. "But—"

"Do you want to be rid of me that badly, love?" Klaus asked, stepping into the room. Kiara looked at him, but couldn't seem to think of anything to say.

Klaus nodded at Maddox and without a word, he stood and made his way out of the room leaving Klaus alone with Kiara again.

There was no easy answer to his question. Kiara was grateful to Klaus for what he did for her. He had saved her life after all, but she couldn't handle being linked to him. Not now, when all she could think of was sucking someone dry. Luckily she was too weak after everything to be much of a threat to anyone. Unfortunately, Klaus didn't seem too motivated to keep his distance.

"It's not you," she looked down at her lap. "It's the link. Maddox says he can't unlink us until I recover, but I can't really recover until I feed and I don't know what will happen if I do that while I'm still linked to you."

"Well well," he grinned and sat down next to her. This time leaning back on his palms. "Sounds like you're in quite the predicament. You know if you want to feed on me, love, all you have to do is ask."

She turned to face him looking flustered. "I don't really know if that's a good idea…"

"You went from fantasizing about me in your dreams to not wanting anything to do with me. I have to admit, I'm a bit hurt."

"Okay. First," Kiara put up a finger. "we don't talk about the dream, in fact, that dream never happened…"

"Oh," he smirked, his hands reaching out to grab her by the belt loops of her pants, to pull her closer to him. "but it did, love. I saw it for myself. I was holding you against the wall of your bedroom, kissing your neck, whispering sweet nothings into your ear… and you seemed to be enjoying it very much."

Kiara rolled her eyes and said, "I had no idea you were so modest." Her eyes wandered to the closed door behind him.

"Not to worry, love. I had Greta perform a spell while we were being linked. No one can hear anything that happens in this room," he pulled her legs until they were on either side of his waist. "And no one would dare interrupt us. We are free to do whatever you like, all you have to do is ask."

It was too easy to settle onto his lap. Her knees were on either side of him and yet, he pulled her closer still. Like he wanted to become a part of her. She could feel his excitement and was surprised when he didn't wiggle his hips like he wanted to. Instead, his pretty blue eyes explored her face, almost as if trying to memorize her for a future drawing. He studied the soft curve of her neck and the shape of her mouth. There wasn't a thing he saw that he couldn't appreciate.

There was that signature glint of mischief in his eyes once again. Only this time, he was aware of how it made her heart race.

"It doesn't matter what I want to do," she told him. "What matters is what I should do and I don't think I should feed on you, Klaus."

"Because of my brother?" he raised his eyebrows at her and leaned back on his palms again. The gesture almost seemed like an invitation for her to touch him. He seemed so comfortable and open with her in the moment like they had known each other forever. Kiara had to credit the link for that.

She bit her lip and nodded. "Things… happen when I feed and since I've fed on Elijah, I just don't want to cause trouble between you two."

"Oh, love, we don't need you for that, believe me," Klaus lowered his voice and leaned closer to her. "But I am a bit jealous. You've fed off Katerina, my brother, and even Damon Salvatore. And yet, you won't feed on me. Now why is that, I wonder?"

She furrowed her eyebrows at him, looking from his mouth to his eyes. "Do you want me to feed on you, Klaus?"

He looked down. "Well I don't want you to feed on anyone else," he admitted.

Kiara fingered the collar of his shirt. The more contact she had with him, the closer she wanted them to be. The problem was she couldn't get Katherine's warning out of her head. Coming between two brothers wasn't something she wanted to do and yet, she found herself saying, "You didn't really answer my question."

He offered her a crooked smile. "And you didn't answer mine. Besides, you already know the answer."

Kiara let out a breath and placed her arms on his shoulders. "You're awful…"

"I tried to tell you, love." Klaus laughed. "I'm nothing like my brother. While Elijah has denied himself what he wants most more times than I can count," he buried his hands into her curly hair, sending chills up her spine. "I have made a habit of taking what I want, consequences be damned."

And then he was kissing her, taking away her breath and caution.

This kiss was more intense than anything she'd ever felt before, but it felt familiar at the same time. She was already dizzy. Her heart was pounding in her ears. It was like going down the first big drop of a rollercoaster. A rush of endorphins, and fear, and awe all hitting her at once. Just like the first time she kissed him, only more, because now she could taste him on her mouth and feel him moving underneath her.

She felt it all. His hands, his mouth, the subtle rise of his hips. And it was delicious.

"Hm," she gasped into his mouth, her eyes flashing hungrily. "Fine, you win. Can I please feed on you?"

He groaned. His vampire eyes clouded. His voice already strained with pleasure. "Of course, love."

When Kiara kissed him again, she never felt so out of control. She ground down on him, hard, and pulled his shirt over his head. Her nails scraped at his back and chest and she still wanted to touch more of him. And he let her. However, whatever she did to him, he returned. So once his shirt was removed, he ripped her shirt apart. It was destined for the trash anyway, just a reminder of a terrible moment in her life that has since passed. He told himself he would buy her a new one, although he couldn't imagine allowing her to wear any clothing after this.

Within seconds under her full attention, he teetered on the edge. His teeth grew painfully under his gum line, longing to taste her, but he held back knowing she needed to feed more than he did. His hips moved furiously against hers. He couldn't imagine feeling any better. Until she began feeding on him.

The rush of pleasure that flooded his system was too much for him to bear. It was then that he remembered that he wasn't only feeling his pleasure, but hers as well.

Without a second thought, his hand slipped down the front of her pants.

"No," she whined, trying to pull away, only for him to hold her in place. The grip on her waist was hard enough to leave a bruise. "It's too much. I can't."

"I need to feel you, sweetheart," he growled. His fingers rubbed circles on her sensitive bundle of nerves, ready to slip inside her at the right moment. "Don't you dare stop."

She gasped, unable to argue, and did as he said.

When her lips collided with his once more, he could feel his energy being pulled from him and the more she took, the better she felt. And he felt it all. He felt his energy flowing through her, her wound closing, and finally the moment she reached her peak. He followed her and in those few seconds of euphoria, her mind opened to him. A moment flashed behind his closed eyelids and he knew it was a memory.

"I've been thinking…" Kiara said. She was in her bedroom, laying on her bed. She turned to her left and saw Elijah smiling down at her. His fingers ghosting over her shoulders and hers fiddling nervously in front of her. "About your siblings."

"What about them?"

"Well, assuming you can kill Klaus and we find them… what happens then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," she said. "Do you think they could forgive you for killing their brother? You may feel enough resentment to want him dead, but they may not."

"He's kept them daggered for centuries."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Yeah, I know."

Next thing he knew, he was throwing Kiara against the wall with his hand around her throat. He could feel the pain he was causing her. But he didn't care. He was angry, so angry he was shaking and he knew that she was scared. Her nails were digging into his wrist, but he couldn't move. He couldn't believe what he just saw, what he just heard.

"So you and Elijah were conspiring to kill me," he said. His voice was strangely calm now.

"What?" she gasped. "No. Let me explain."

He tilted his head to the side and frowned. "Why should I? I just heard it for myself."

"I was going to tell you last night. Remember? I needed to tell you something."

"Then speak. Now." It took all his self-control to relax his hold on her throat.

"When I first met Elijah, he wanted to kill you because he thought you buried your siblings at sea. He wanted me to get into your head to learn if there was any hope of rescuing them, but you told me they'd been with you this whole time. It changed everything. Elijah just wants his family back. That's all."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because," she looked him right in the eye. "if I wanted you dead… I would have told Damon everything I knew while I was in that basement. I already told you that I was helping Elijah because he said he would help me find out more about what I am. That's what he was doing when Gerald got to him. I was going to tell you last night that he might still be in trouble, that you should go to him, help him, and then reunite your family. It's the only chance either of you has at ever being happy."

"So I'm supposed to believe you care about my happiness now?"

"You would know if I was lying. We're linked."

Klaus clenched his jaw and released her. He stared at her as she rubbed her throat.

"Wow, you are really quick to turn on a person," she grumbled.

"I could say the same thing about you," he spat out.

"I never wanted anything to do with all this vampire crap. I was doing just fine until I met your brother. I was practically normal."

He scoffed. "Oh, right, love. You were downright peachy. Let's not forget you'd be dead right now if it weren't for me!"

"I never asked you to save me!"

"You'd rather I just let you die, then? Is that it?"

"Maybe!" she threw her hands up. "Maybe I would have been better off. Instead, now I'm linked to a paranoid egotistical jerk who will go from putting his hands down my pants one second to trying to kill me the next!"

Klaus stomped toward her again, his eyes showing a mix of emotion, forcing her back to touch the wall again. "You have some nerve talking to me like that. Perhaps you really do have a death wish."

"Right now it only matters if you do. If I die, you die," she said.

"Yes," Klaus nodded. "You make a good point. I wonder if Elijah would be so quick to kill me if he learned of our predicament?"

Kiara shifted on her feet. "I already told you, he doesn't want you dead. He wants his family back. That includes you, even if he doesn't want to admit it."

"So you said," Klaus turned his back to her. "Let's hope you're right."

Klaus walked out the door, slamming the bedroom door behind him, and it took Kiara a few seconds to process what that meant.

She would be linked to Klaus when he broke the curse.

"Klaus, wait!" Kiara tried to follow him, but she couldn't open the door. She started banging on it. "Klaus! You can't leave us like this!"

Silence.

Kiara tried to calm her breathing. She pressed her back into the door behind her and let herself slide down. Her breathing was already coming out in pants. It was pointless to allow panic to settle into her system, but this situation felt very familiar. She was locked in a room, alone. It was better than her jail cell in the Salvatore basement, but not by much.

"Katherine?" she called out, ignoring how defeated her voice sounded. She let her head lean back onto the door. "Are you there?"

Nothing. It seemed Klaus was right, Greta did spell the room. Katherine couldn't hear her and now Kiara couldn't leave. She swallowed and pushed back tears of frustration. She wasn't going to let herself cry. Not now. Her eyes and throat were sore from all the crying she had done the past couple of days.

She was tired and dirty and scared. So she did the only thing she could do, she picked herself up off the ground, went into Alaric's bathroom, and showered before finally attempting to get some sleep.


The next morning, Kiara woke to see a piece of paper had been pushed under the door. It was a letter from Katherine.

Kiara,

I'm sure you already know the sacrifice happens tonight. Klaus has decided to keep you linked to him as a back-up plan. Or, if it comes down to it, a punishment for Elijah's betrayal. I hate to say I told you so, but…

Anyway, Klaus seems to think that Elijah will want you alive more than he wants him dead. For your sake, I hope he's right. In the meantime, his witches have been busy preparing for the sacrifice. He plans to use Caroline Forbes and Tyler Lockwood as the vampire and werewolf sacrifices tonight so they went to get them while Klaus sulks at the grill so we're alone here. For now.

Klaus seems extra pissy today. I assume I have you to thank for that. I'm not supposed to let you out or even attempt to talk, but I thought you should know what's going on and what you may have to look forward to.

Katherine

Not wanting Klaus to find out Katherine disobeyed him, Kiara flushed the paper down the toilet.

The clock on the bedside table said it was noon. That meant she had about eight hours before the moment of truth. So much had happened to her in the past couple of days, it was hard to process everything. After all this, it seemed she might die after all. Along with Klaus, Elena, Caroline, and Tyler.

Elijah told her what it would take for Klaus to break the curse and what would happen if he were successful. Kiara wasn't sure if being linked to a werewolf while he turned would kill her, but she knew at the very least it would be agony.

Kiara knew her only hope was getting to Bonnie and asking her to unlink her from Klaus. But she doubted the girl would after the way she spoke to her last, even if she had saved her life.

When she tried the door again, she found it still wouldn't open so she tried the window. It was like it had been super-glued shut. She tried kicking it and even threw Alaric's bedside table at it, but it still didn't break.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she yelled.

It was useless.

The spell had been cast and there was no way she was leaving that room. All there was to do now was wait for the inevitable.


To the Reviewers:

19vanelkc: We got a little plot progression and smuttiness with this one. I hope you like it.

ignira: Thank you for taking the time to review. I always appreciate hearing from you and I think the longer the review the better so I don't mind. A lot happened in this one so let me know what you think.

1Demoness: Thank you! :) And yes, it seems Klaus wants them to stay linked a little bit longer than Kiara thought. He is clearly very pissed off right now, mostly at Elijah, and is taking it out on her. But with Klaus's reckless nature it was bound to happen eventually.

ka5terina: Thank you so much! Your review means the world to me. I hope you like this chapter. I struggled with it a bit and I still feel like it could be better, but I didn't want to put off updating any longer.

DaphneSlytherinWinchester: Yay! I'm so glad you like them! It means a lot. :) Klaus is a complicated character to write a love interest for. I think he needs someone who can understand him and push him to be better depending on the situation. I also don't want to make Klaus seem OOC with her. So I hope you continue to feel that way about them.

Page of Pentacles: First, cool name! I read tarot cards and sometimes use them to help me with my writing. Second, thank you for reviewing. I do think it will be hard to have a healthy relationship with the three of them, mainly because Klaus and Elijah's relationship isn't really all that healthy anyway. I think she would have to balance them out somehow and help them heal, which will be a challenge. But we will see what happens with them. In my experience, characters tend to start showing what they want over time (as weird as that sounds).


Okay. So a lot happened in this chapter and honestly, I'm not sure if Kiara is any better off than she was before. To summarize: Kiara found out her father's coven is actually the Blackwood coven, the blade was finally removed (thank you Alaric), she finally fed on Klaus, and now she is stuck being linked to him for the time being.

I hope this was exciting and moving and sexy for you guys. It was a challenge to put all this together into one chapter, but it was leading up to this all along. Please let me know what you think about so I know if you guys think this is going in a good direction.

Thank you for reading.