"Tell the tyrants that nightmares are coming; and I am the night_the true vessel of nightmares."

― Mecha Constantine


Purgatory

"A corona aperta," Kol said.

Caroline tilted her head as she stopped sliding the dagger under the skin of the carcass of the monster she had killed and was currently flaying. It was time for her to get a nice pair of boots.

"A circlet?" she asked and Kol comically rose an eyebrow at her not expecting her to know this.

Of course, even he would have placed her into the dumb blonde stereotype.

"I took Latin as an elective class in middle and high school," Kol continued to look surprised and she shrugged, "what? I got bored."

He laughed at that.

"It is a diadem yes," he said with a hint of pride rolling at his tongue making her feel a sense of accomplishment somehow, "the circlet of crossing or otherwise known as the axis of transcendence."

Caroline expertly continued to skin the decaying corpse on the ground. Despite the altitude, they were on as they had climbed one of the high mountains there was no sense of freedom. The canyons around them provided some solitude from most monsters that would not climb that high. All around them were deep and steep-sided cliffs. And at some part, she knew there was no end as the fall led to an abyss that had no beginning and no end.

It was horrifying to be up here as chaos loomed closer above her head and only darkness spread beneath but she felt no fear.

She had climbed without tiring for days carrying on her back the slimy headless corpse of the thing that had tried to kill her at the foothills of the mountain. She had wanted to skin it on the top of the rock and throw it over the peak of the mountain just because it had torn her leather belt.

It was her favorite and she held a grudge. She knew she would also find Kol on the top and she was bored and in need of company.

Now the sounds her blade made on skin and flesh were kind of soothing and her fingers knew how to strip the skin effectively with the least damage. If she was careful along with the boots she could make a new belt too.

"A long time ago a witch has created a sort of compass," Kol told her and he dramatically placed his hand on his heart, "to find her one true love."

"You are kidding," Caroline scoffed and Kol shook his head, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"No not at all," he chuckled, "you see that witch had fallen in love with a warlock but he died. So he was sent to the other side and she was left alone on earth. She wanted to be with him but she was not the suicidal kind of type."

"So instead she played with magic," Caroline guessed. For being servants of nature witches sure had their fun breaking the same rules they condemned vampires for breaking, to begin with.

"She created the axis of transcendence," Kol confirmed, "It was used to communicate with the spirits of the other side in corporeal form. She could locate the spirit she wanted to reach and they would materialize themselves in its location."

Caroline was now definitely intrigued.

"To the other side," she noted.

"To her lover," Kol clarified and Caroline snorted.

"The girl was obsessed," she said dismissively. A long time ago she would have probably found it romantic. To cross worlds and life and death to find the one you loved. Now she found it ridiculous. There was nothing romantic in dying and in twisting love with grief and loss. And for sure once you were dead you hardly cared to have interactions with the living if you could not join them as you would be stuck in hell. Not to mention the whole concept was so repeated that seemed boring bullshit to her now. So a witch fell in love and broke the rules because she was either obsessed or scorned. What else was new?

"Well love is a kind of obsession anyway," Kol pointed out sarcastically giving her a pointed look, "I bet my brother could educate us more on the subject. Happen to know anything about that by the way?"

"Moving on Kol," Caroline grumbled, brandishing her blade.

"Anyway," Kol snickered, "the axis was used to travel through spiritual dimensions. And so she did. She was meeting her lover to the other side over and over again. She got addicted and the more she used the circlet the more she infused it with power."

Caroline ripped off the monster's skin completely and wiped the blade on a rag so to clean it from the pieces of flesh and blood that stuck on it.

"However the other side did quite the number on her beloved and it was taking a toll on him," Kol continued and Caroline sheathed her dagger before she got up and kicked the rotting carcass down the steep cliff watching it as the abyss beneath the rock they were sitting on swallowed it. There was no sound from the fall or any landing. The depth had no end and Caroline looked straight into it.

"I can relate," she said with a hard voice. Hell for sure could take a toll on anyone.

"Soon enough just meeting him on the other side was not enough. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to save him," Kol recited the tale as if he was rooting for the two lovebirds.

"Did she now?" Caroline scornfully mocked and went and sat beside him at the rock he was sitting and stared ahead at the gloomy horizon.

"Of course she did," Kol laughed, "the circlet was already getting her from one dimension to another. All she had to do was bring anyone else she wanted along for the ride. One way trip back to the living."

Caroline stilled.

"What we want," she exhaled feeling her whole body tense at the possibility.

"Exactly," Kol agreed and then continued with the story, "the little witch used the power of her lineage to turn the axis into a bridge between words. And she brought back the man she loved."

"And they lived happily ever after," Caroline finished for him in a condescending tone.

"Not exactly. The guy had gone bonkers," Kol told her with a glint in his eyes, "he wanted power and got obsessed with immortality."

Go figure, Caroline thought bitterly. She knew for sure that once she would return to the land of the living she would find a way to ensure she would not return to this hell. No matter what it would take she would do it. She'd never return to Purgatory and if obtaining power was the way to do it then she would go after it. And she'd get it.

"He betrayed her didn't he?" Caroline figured out with a sigh.

"How can you tell?"

"He was a man," Caroline concluded with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Ouch," Kol feigned a hurt expression placing his hand over his heart as if she had offended him, "but yes he did betray her. He went after the circlet. But the witch knew that if he was ever to get his hands on it he wouldn't only exploit a power no one should ever have but he would also tab into her ancestral magic. Weakening the power source of her family tree and even condemning the newest generations of her family into servitude and weakness."

"And no matter how much she loved him in the end she put her family first," Caroline realized as she started enjoying the story. She hoped the witch had sent her lover's ugly ass where it belonged. Straight back to hell.

Kol snickered at that.

"Well, family above all and all that crap but also hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," he jested, "she killed her lover, quite painfully if the legends are to be believed, and destroyed the axis. She didn't want the temptation of using it again and she didn't want it to fall to the wrong hands."

Kol watched straight ahead. Purgatory was stretching in eternity ahead of them. It was not wise to watch at the abyss that loomed beneath or stare at the chaos above. Every time Caroline stared intently at the beginning and end of all time and life in a space that had no beginning and end she felt as if she was losing her mind. Madness was dancing close and the more she watched the more she danced with it.

Only Kol was not like her. He dived into the madness straight ahead and tempted her to leap forward too. She feared a part of her already had and what was the scariest part of it all was that she wasn't even afraid. She had no regrets. In this place losing her mind might be the only way to actually keep it.

"But you see the circlet could be passed on realms so destroying it on earth was not a guarantee that it would not end to the other side and worse to the hands of her lover that had returned there," Kol's voice carried on, "so before she destroyed it she cast a spell to turn it into a dark object."

Caroline was enthralled and unable to breathe. Adrenaline was spiking.

Kol gave her an intense look knowing she would catch on.

"So when she burned it to ash the circlet ended up-"

"Here," she breathed out as she realized what this could actually mean.

"Here. In Purgatory. In fragments," Kol spelled it out for her.

Her brow creased. If this was the case why did they need the coin? Why wouldn't they go after the corona?

"Like the Thanatos Kerma?" she asked him and Kol smirked. Caroline could tell that he knew where her mind was going but she could also tell that he knew more things that somehow changed the puzzle and as usual he had to annoy her to hell and beyond before he would just fess up.

She glared at him and his lip quirked up more.

"Not exactly," he eventually conceded, "the difference is that the diadem was far more powerful and despite being turned to a dark object it still held on to its origin of power, and eventually the fragments gravitated towards each other and the circlet became a portal of its own."

Caroline's eyes widened in awe.

"So it is said its pieces created the gates of Purgatory creating a portal between this world and the world of the living and since power calls to power, a powerful object could be pulled towards the gates too… leading us to the doorway."

Caroline's heart started racing. So weird to have a heartbeat. She was dead and yet she was still here. Struggling. Breathing acid. Having a heart that would not stop beating. Hoping. Fighting.

She felt the scream inside her starting to build. She held it in. Tried to hold on to it tight. Hope was a blade that could flay her open in far more painful ways than she did with every carcass she skinned.

She wet her dry lips with the edge of her tongue.

"So if we track the fragments of the Kerma and piece it together it will lead us –"

Kol's lips stretched. To a smile. A real one.

"To the gates yes," he confirmed, "like a compass."

She couldn't reign on in. She couldn't keep the hope that started to bloom inside her on a tight leash. It escaped from her control. It hugged her tightly and almost gave her wings to soar. But she knew that if she flew too close to the abyss she would be lost. And yet as she had given in to her own brand of madness she realized she didn't care. She was ready to take that leap of faith. To hold on to that undying hope of hers knowing that if she lost it she would break apart in ways that not even death had managed to break her so far.

She let out a slow breath voicing her hope.

"And we'll get out of this place," she whispered and Kol gave her a grave nod.

"By using the Kerma yes."

Caroline closed her eyes for a moment. They was one piece missing. One piece to make it whole. She let out a shaky breath and knew she had to control herself. She had to keep going, she had to find that last piece. It was her only way out and for that, she had to focus on that goal for now. One step at a time.

She turned her attention back to Kol.

"How exactly do you know so much about this?"

"Well witches keep grimoires," Kol shrugged, "which are not only their books of knowledge but also their personal diaries passing down generations. That particular grimoire was passed along the family line of the witch that created the circlet."

"So what?" Caroline saucily tossed at him, "you seduced a witch to give you her family history or something?"

Kol snorted at her assumption.

"I was too young back then for that. I was actually human."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at that.

"I never believed that that story would follow me thousand years later and even become my salvation but here we are," he sighed and then shot her a cryptic look, "I will give you one guess to which witch line the witch that created the circlet belonged to," he challenged her and mirth shone in his gaze.

It clicked to her then and she couldn't stop the feeling of warmth that wrapped around her.

"Let me guess," she sang and a bright smile formed on her face.

"Exactly," Kol affirmed, "she was a Bennett witch. Well an ancestor of the Bennett line anyway. Formidable witches," he remarked.

Caroline beamed at that.

"That they are," she said with a wistful tone as memories she had with Bonnie started to emerge in her head. They were painful to remember and always broke her heart. Those memories were memories from another life that seemed so far away now. Those memories were her link with her humanity.

She wrapped her arms around her torso and allowed her memories to roam at the empty spaces of her mind. She knew she would have to lock them away soon once more. It was her only way to survive. To arm herself against the pain.

"Yes your friend Bonnie was an example of that," Kol noted, and Caroline could tell it was not hard for him to imagine what she was thinking, "as was her ancestor Ayanna."

There was a softness in Kol's words along with the acidic intonation that drew her attention.

"You see when I was human I had inherited my mother's gifts of magic and Ayanna was trying to teach me magic," Kol said and Caroline gave him the chance to open up to her, "she taught me many things along with many legends surrounding her family."

Kol stopped and his expression turned hard.

"And then she turned her back on me and my family when we turned and she became one of our prosecutors."

Caroline's throat constricted. She felt Kol's bitterness. She felt it too. Bonnie had been quite judgmental with her too when she had turned. Her mother, her father, and Matt had been too. She had to fight to prove to them she was not the monster they believed her to be.

And all for nothing.

Because she was now exactly that. Because she died and even the universe decided to send her here because she was a monster and once more she had to fight to get out of that judgment.

"But her lessons still lingered," Kol told her, "along with the story of the circlet."

"And obviously she is still taking you to school," Caroline teased him but Kol didn't smile.

His jaw was set in tight lines and his gaze was staring ahead only this time his eyes were lit not with madness but with something she recognized in herself too.

Raw determination.

And hope.

"And let us hope so also back to our world," he said and both of them stared at the abyss that went even beyond the horizon.

And beyond that life awaited.


He caught her just as she got out of her apartment's building.

Kol had memorized Caroline's schedule. He knew that when she didn't have a shift at Rousseau's she was grabbing a quick bite, at a cozy place down the street that had what seemed to have become her favorite beignets, along with a glass of Sazerac, and then she was off to train Marcel's vampires.

Caroline appraised him with a quick onceover.

"You are looking better," she commented lightly and Kol shrugged. He knew he had looked like shit. The last time he had gotten this wasted had been in the 1800s when he was experimenting with absinthe, labdanum, and magic.

"Nothing a little blood can't fix."

Caroline snorted at what he said.

"So Brianna didn't give you any kind of magical enema to flush out all that high of yours," she asked him arching a brow, "No hangover?"

Kol smirked, trying to ignore the slight pounding he felt at the back of his head. So, maybe he needed a little bit more blood to wash down the side effects of the crap he consumed but all he had to do was snatch the first human that would get in his way and drain him dry. As a matter of fact that was what he was going to do when he would get out of here.

"What do you want Kol?"

"Brianna said you carried me at her house."

It was Caroline's time to shrug.

"Are we on good terms again darling?"

Caroline's lips curled to a provocative smile.

"Define good terms," she sassed and Kol grinned.

"You have the hunter don't you?" he asked her abruptly changing the subject to catch her off guard.

Caroline's eyes widened comically and he knew she would not fall for his trap.

"Why?" she exclaimed in a tone of exasperated disbelief, "did he disappear? Zombie style?" she mocked him by faking a terrified expression and Kol couldn't help but snicker at her cheeky attitude.

Damn, she was good!

"My compliments," he praised with a slight bow seeing the way Caroline's eyes lit up challengingly. She was right, they definitely had to define the term 'good terms'. "I don't know how you've done it," he admitted, curiosity killing him, "You hid Forbin's corpse quite brilliantly."

Caroline remained impassive as he sauntered closer. She didn't move an inch, watching him with a nonchalant look.

"Who's your witch?" he couldn't help but inquire, "It's not Marcel's little thing."

Caroline gave him a taunting smile and he narrowed his eyes.

"Who is strong enough to hide under my radar and the locator spells of my witches?"

Caroline shrugged, an aura of aloofness surrounding her.

"Not even my dark objects can find him," he pressed more feeding into her arrogance in hopes she would slip but he knew she was on to him, and just so she batted her eyelids innocently which contradicted her devilish beaming smile.

"Damn it," Kol cursed peeved before he straightened his shoulders and seriously told her, "I want it on record that this is annoying me profoundly."

Caroline hummed in a way that showed she supposedly cared for what he just told her and then pressed her lips in a supposedly understanding pout.

"I want it on record I don't give a damn," she tossed back with the same condescending seriousness that made him throw his head back and laugh.

"Nik is furious you snatched that rotting thing under his nose btw," he informed her, and Caroline's face lit up in what seemed to be raw satisfaction.

Boy, sweet Caroline was about to give Nik a run for his money.

"Good," she simpered coyly.

"Brilliant," Kol grinned enjoying what was about to become a ride straight to hell. Nik would hate it. While loving it. He could swear his brother was more bipolar than him.

Speaking of which what he felt was divided between satisfaction and frustration too.

Caroline was an interesting player and truth to be told he was curious to see the extent of her abilities. He had taught her everything but she had never directed what she had learned against him. So far she had been in his corner and a part of him wanted to feel how sharp her claws truly were and the extent of the damage she could inflict. The truly masochistic part of him was starving for what he saw as a worthy opponent and an actual challenge.

He knew he would live to regret it, however.

Caroline's gaze ignited with the kind of menace that no one should stir. There were times he felt that not even his brand of craziness could compete with her hyperactive personality. Bubbly and neurotic. Sunshine and darkness. There were times he felt she was a ticking bomb right about to blow up to a supernova.

Caroline's hips had a little sway as she approached him and he felt pins and needles piercing his skin as the hairs at the back of his neck rose.

She had mastered the lethal swagger down.

She gave him a sweet smile that made him frown. She looked amused. And that didn't bode well.

He watched as she straightened his jacket with her hands making sure to smooth every imaginary wrinkle.

"You should be more careful when you get high Kol," she advised him slyly, "you tend to blabber," she whispered in a conspiratorial drawl, giving him a prolonged knowing look before she added pointedly, "even in your sleep."

He stilled as he realized that he must have said something he shouldn't have.

"What did I say?" Kol deadpanned, feeling a tinge of anxiety storming his body.

Caroline stepped back and she looked like she was on to a secret that amused her.

Trouble. That girl was trouble. And right now she looked like the female version of his brother.

Caroline Forbes used that good façade more times than he cared to count for but it was bullshit.

She was good and evil which was the worst combination to walk this damn earth. Nik would be proud but Kol felt drops of cold sweat running down his back.

He tried to remember what he had said and had done in his high but his mind was muddled and the minx knew it.

He remembered bits and pieces. But it was all a blur.

His eyes turned to slits.

Caroline was toying with him. She had to be.

Caroline gave him a secretive smile and walked away.

Kol watched her confident stride and the bouncing curls that reflected the afternoon light as she mingled with the humans in the street, putting more distance between them.

"What did I say?" he called after her and her laughter echoed in his ears.


The full moon was in a few days.

They had set the wedding for that day and until then she and Jackson would stay in different houses close to the bayou. One of their pack's families had invited her to stay with them until her wedding and Hayley had accepted.

She was now staying in their children's room since the family she was staying at had a small place. They rarely ever invited people over. Especially after the death of both of their kids.

Hayley went and sat at the small bed and took from the pillow the makeshift doll that was left there. She gently cradled it and she tried to swallow the knot that formed in her throat.

She couldn't stop thinking of Elijah and the house he had bought for them and Hope. Her little girl would have been so happy there.

She closed her eyes and dreamed of another life. One where the last kiss she shared with Elijah would not have been the last. One where his hands would not stop holding her and he would not stop making love to her. Another life where she wouldn't have to betray those she loved just so to reunite with her heart.

She couldn't stop the regret that seemed to drown her in endless pain as she couldn't stop the echo of the baby crying that seemed to pierce her mind. It felt like a wail of abandonment in her ears.

Hayley laid down on the small bed holding the doll closer.

"I am losing my mind," she mumbled, unable to stop shivering. She felt feverish and the frenetic beat of her heart would not stop its insane tempo.

Hayley clenched her eyes shut as tears licked down on her face.

She turned towards the open window and through her wet eyelashes, she stared at the moon in the night sky.

It called her. She counted the moments as the full moon approached. She always did. In all of her life. The wolf inside her, even before it was awakened, seemed to be connected with the cycles of the moon. Every wolf, turned on not, felt it, upon birth.

Did her baby feel it too?

Hayley heaved and gripped her head with her hands.

The crying would not stop inside her head. It was piercing her soul and the wolf under her bones tugged. It clawed and howled at her to set its true form free. To let it howl and run towards those cries that called her and would not stop taunting her.

She felt the need to protect the little one crying.

Only no one was crying.

It was only her mind playing tricks at her ever since she had let her daughter go.

"Why didn't I go with her?" she whimpered as the cries became louder inside her head.


Vargen ylar i nattens skog…Han vill men kan inte sova…

Rebekah's voice echoed soft and melodic. She was gently rocking her niece for hours but she wouldn't stop crying.

The baby wasn't teething and was healthy. The doctor could not find what was wrong with the little girl but Rebekah had noticed that every time the full moon was approaching for days Hope would be restless and at the night of the full moon she would not sleep at all. Those nights her cries would resemble howling and in the distance, Rebekah could swear she indeed heard howling as if someone was responding to the baby's crying.

It was impossible though. She had made sure they would live far away from any werewolf pack and any vampire nest. No witch covens were close by either. She had been very careful. They were protected by magic and shielded.

And yet every full moon something magical seemed to shift around Hope and should Rebekah had not been born a witch in another life she would not have been able to feel it but she did. Even as a vampire she did. It reminded her of the feeling she would get when she was in Esther's arms as a child. Her mother's magic had been just as potent. The only difference was that the Original witch was a grown-up woman while Hope was just a baby. Babies were not meant to contain power in their little feeble bodies or any power at all.

Vargen ylar i nattens skog…Ylar av hunger o klagar…

Rebekah's voice kept mumbling another Nordic lullaby for her niece that would not settle down for the night.

She gently patted the baby's back that sniffed and twisted in her arms. Her eyes were red and puffy.

Rebekah sighed and stopped singing which seemed to agitate Hope more but once she started talking the baby's eyes seemed to be following her lips almost mesmerized. Hope loved when she talked to her.

"You definitely take after your father you know that?" Rebekah teased the restless baby in her arms, while keep rocking it in her arms, "most of the days he doesn't stop fussing either. Thousand years and he is just a big baby himself if you ask me. All tantrums and outbursts. Not as cute as yours though," Rebekah mumbled kissing the cute noise of her niece that had turned red from all the crying.

"Although once you grow older you should find other ways to relax than killing people like your daddy does, right?"

Hope's chubby fingers wrapped around her hair and Rebekah smiled.

She detached the baby's fingers from her hair and let it rest against her shoulder and continued humming the lullaby.

Du varg du varg, kom inte hit … Ungen min får du aldrig…

Rebekah continued her singing unable to see the reflection of Hope's yellow eyes that shone against the glass window as the baby stared at the moon at the night sky.

The moonlight bathed them and her cries called in the distance.


The madness didn't seem to end.

The cries became louder and as Hayley's gaze got more fixated with the moon that cast its light towards her she could swear that along with the baby's cries she could hear a soft lullaby being sung in the far distance. It was like an echo the breeze of the wind was carrying with each soft blow that caressed her body.

She didn't know the words. They were foreign to her but somehow she felt as if she knew their meaning. And without knowing how she uttered the words in a hushing whisper that seemed to silence the crying in her mind slowly.

Du varg du varg, kom inte hit…Wolf, wolf, don't you come here…Ungen min får du aldrig…I will never let you take my child…

Hayley's eyes shone gold and started closing slowly.

She kept mumbling the words she didn't know and eventually, she managed to fall asleep in a restless sleep that seemed to be filled with the baby's crying that called her wolf closer.

Her wolf was running in her sleep, following the moon and the crying in her dreams became louder.


Rebekah smiled as she placed her niece back in her crib putting next to her the wooden horse Klaus had given her.

Finally, Hope had managed to fall asleep.


When Elijah Mikaelson entered the dining room he abruptly stopped.

The room was plunged in darkness but the old thin blade still gleamed.

The tip of the white oak ash dagger was grazing the surface of the table as Klaus held the intricately designed handle of the dagger and twisted it slowly between his fingers. The dagger slowly turned and while Elijah's body seemed to have frozen in its place his whole attention was still mesmerized by the slow rotation.

Elijah slowly approached the chairs. Klaus was sitting at the head of the table and he slid in the seat at his right side.

A dagger in his brother's hand never forewarned anything good. Elijah almost felt the phantom burn in his chest as if the tip of the blade was already slicing through muscle and sinew ready to penetrate his heart.

A dagger in the heart, his eyes would close, and a second later when he would open then again decades and centuries of his life would have been gone. Diminished in slumber. In death. Kept in a coffin his brother would cart around.

Elijah Mikaelson removed his eyes from the haunting movement of the dagger and focused his attention on Klaus' face.

Usually, when Klaus intended to dagger any of them there was a darkness in his eyes and set features but this cruelty was now missing. Niklaus looked exhausted, if not emotionally depleted somehow. He was watching every twist of the dagger as if he was watching sand falling from an hourglass and with every grain, something seemed to shutter in his brother's eyes.

"Some time ago Kol had taunted me with a simple truth while refraining to elaborate on what it actually meant," Klaus began and Elijah waited with bated breath for him to continue. There was something in the timbre of his voice that made him tense, "Caroline tonight corrected that oversight."

Elijah saw how Klaus' knuckles turned white. He was gripping the hilt of the dagger tightly.

"Did you know time passes by differently in Purgatory?" Klaus asked Elijah, his stare on the dagger frosty, his tone mocking, "those were Kol's exact words before he left me wondering ever since."

Elijah felt his blood turn to ice.

"How long?" he managed to ask with difficulty even though his voice sounded calm. Too calm.

The dagger stopped turning. The wood split as Klaus embedded the blade deeper into the table. Thin lines cracked on the surface. Like the veins that would appear on their desiccated skin every time Niklaus would plunge the dagger deep into their hearts.

"It was a century for Caroline."

Elijah closed his eyes, feeling a sharp pain fracturing him from the inside out. He then ran his hand over his clean shaved face as his mind did the math. The date of Kol's death repeated in his mind as did the time the other side fell. More time passed until the time of his brother's resurrection and time in Purgatory seemed to move differently. If time passed by differently while he was on the other side too then-

"If Miss Forbes was there for a hundred years, then by the calculations Kol was there-" he trailed off unable to voice his thoughts.

"For far too long," Klaus simply remarked and closed his eyes.

Klaus swallowed hard as he remembered. He remembered his last encounter with Kol. He remembered Kol's eyes when he had wrapped his hand around his heart and told him he wanted him to die.

No. He hadn't told him that.

He had threatened him that it would be him that would send him back there. His fear for Caroline had clouded him so much that his temper got the best out of him. In the same way, he had bitten Caroline and almost left her to die when Kol had died in front of his eyes and he was left to stand in front of his burned corpse. He was left there with his body while his brother's soul was being tormented. Left stranded in hell.

And he didn't do anything. He left him to rot there.

Even at Caroline's graduation when Kol had temporarily returned he had not tried to see him. He had not dared. He didn't want to see him only to lose him again.

What would have been the point? Especially as he was about to start a new life away from the memory of his death.

He had then welcomed his child into the world and believed himself to be so blessed to have a part of his blood inside something so pure and innocent that would never leave him and he believed to be a new start when his blood was left in hell. When Kol had left him because he was taken from him. His brother had burned in front of his eyes and turned to ash and he had believed that avenging his death in time would somehow even the scales. He believed that in time making Elena and her brother suffer far worse than any other enemy of his had suffered would balance the scales.

The scales would never get even. His plans for Elena and Jeremy Gilbert would never change what happened to his brother and what he had done.

He had done…nothing.

He had been happy for Hope and fought for her when he didn't fight for his brother. Caroline had been right when she had accused him of abusing Kol and the worst of his abuse was when he had let his brother die. Kol died and he returned to New Orleans allowing a thousand years to be erased from his mind.

He hadn't been able to speak of Kol's name. He hadn't allowed himself to think of him. He had focused all his energy on things that would not remind him of his death. Because when he remembered he suffered. Because he had been there when Kol was born. He had been there when Kol was a baby and a child and when he used to ran after him before he could barely talk. He had been there when Kol was scared and when his mischief got him into trouble. He had taken Mikael's beatings so Kol wouldn't have to and Kol was the only one that never directly or indirectly accused him of Henrik's death. Finn, Elijah, and even Rebekah had. It was there in the way they watched him.

But not Kol. Not even once.

He had been there when Kol cried for losing his magic. He had held him when Kol lost the part of his nature that made him feel alive and as his wolf part was cursed and bound he was the only one who could truly understand Kol's loss.

He had been there when Kol had shed his first blood, when he had terrorized villages and when he created mayhem. He had been there when Kol protected Rebekah and when he lost his mind year after year. The more he became obsessed with dark objects and substitutes of magic the more Kol's sanity kept deteriorating. He had been there when Kol put distance between them. Mentally and worst practically when he would disappear for decades. He had been there when Kol put them all in trouble and drew Mikael closer to them. He was there when Kol knew how to party and make their enemies shudder in terror in all the ways he had taught him and in some new ones he had invented along the way.

He had been the one to drag Kol into the darkness and Kol had been the one to bring the worst of himself to the surface. They both had been each other's devils on their shoulders. They kindled the darkness in their souls. While Elijah dreamed of redemption Kol had been there to follow him to hell and enjoy the ride.

Klaus had been there for him for every day of every century and he was there when Kol stared at him with hate and with the accusation of betrayal shining in his eyes when he had daggered him.

And then he had let all those thousand years blink away from existence. His obsession with the doppelganger and the cure had dire consequences. Kol had warned him about Silas and he hadn't listened. He had underestimated Elena and the hunter she had for a brother. And then he hadn't daggered Kol on time because he had missed him. He had missed having him around and he had hesitated daggering him when he should have known better.

It had been his fault. Kol's death was on his hands.

And instead of owning up to his fault and burning down the world in retaliation, he was having new beginnings when Kol was left in Purgatory. Alone.

He had not been there for his brother. He had left Kol there to suffer. For a thousand years he had protected Kol from everyone including his destructive self and then he failed. He had failed and he didn't make it right.

Kol had managed to crawl outside that hell which only proved that there was a way to do it and he should have found that way sooner.

Only he hadn't tried.

He had abandoned him.

He had been the one to fear that his siblings would abandon and forget him and he was the one that did that to Kol.

To Kol that now viewed Caroline as his family because his own family failed him. Maybe this was the first time he felt resentment towards Caroline too. She had his brother's love. She had stolen Kol's love from him because she earned it with her loyalty and devotion while he wasted it.

A tear fell from Klaus' eye and he felt the world beginning to shrink all around him. It became a suffocating place.

"He thinks we didn't care," Klaus murmured, "we have lost our little brother Elijah."

Elijah said nothing. He had no words of encouragement to give this time because he knew he was right. Because just like him he had failed Kol too. Both of them had. All of them had. And there was no way to fix this. Their always and forever was nothing but a joke.

No wonder Kol wanted to retaliate and destroy their family. He'd do the same if he was in his place and if it was not for his daughter he would let him. He would let Kol destroy them all with no hesitation.

Klaus stared at the dagger he held and wished he could use it in his own heart for once. He gripped the handle harder.

It was the first time he wanted to destroy the daggers for good.


Josh checked his phone but Davina had not yet answered his messages. Getting attacked at their camp and de-compelling Aaron was one of the few chances he had at seeing her these days. He didn't know what she and Marcel were up to but he knew that it couldn't be anything good with Davina showing no signs of life for weeks at a time. And whenever he met her she was always tired and had black circles under her eyes. He could have sworn she had been struggling with her spell with Aaron. It had taken her more time and when she was over he had been worried for her. She had been pale and breathless.

Josh was so lost in his thoughts and stared at his phone so intently that he didn't realize someone had plopped on the empty stool next to him.

"A phone usually works better with its screen on."

Josh blinked and he held his breath when he met the amused eyes of the guy that had sat next to him.

Blue-green eyes he had seen before.


Flashback

"You know he is totally checking you out, right?" Caroline teased him and Josh couldn't help but feel a bit flustered as he peeked back at one of the tables. One of the men there, looking roughly at the same age as him, was staring back at the bar where he and Davina were sitting. He could swear he was staring at him specifically as Caroline had also pointed out. As far as subtle flirting went this was not it.

Josh turned around, meeting the cute guy's gaze, and twirled his drink in his hands.

"You know you are totally checking him out, right?" Caroline quipped at him.

"He is a werewolf," Davina said and Josh sighed. This would get them nowhere.


"Uhm…yeah," Josh muttered and mentally slapped himself. Smooth. Really smooth.

The guy next to him smiled at his awkwardness and his eyes seemed to brighten at that. Josh found himself smiling back.

"I'd like to thank you," the man told him, keeping his voice quiet enough so as not to be heard by anyone else.

Josh frowned at that.

"For what?"

The reply that came was spoken in an even softer tone.

"For helping my brother."

Josh slightly tilted his head in confusion. He didn't remember offering any help to any of the werewolves in the city. If anything he kept his distance.

"Who's your brother?"

"Take a guess," the guy winked at him before giving him a knowing look and Josh narrowed his eyes before they widened in realization.

Josh mouthed Aaron's name while pretending to cough and he received an affirmative nod.

What the hell? Since when werewolves had vampire brothers?

"Next drinks are on me," the guy told him as he waved for the bartender to bring them a new round of shots.


Flashback

"So?" Caroline wondered and Josh shifted in his seat.

The guy being a werewolf should explain to Caroline while this was pointless but from the looks of it, it didn't. She watched them looking confused.

"Josh is a vampire," Davina added as if she pointing the obvious.

"Vampire law and all," Josh mumbled and Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Seriously?" Caroline exasperated, ignoring both his and Davina's surprised reactions.

Caroline was new here but she should have known by now that New Orleans was divided and many restrictions were put in place for every faction and given their past it was no wonder why there were rules against werewolves creating relationships with vampires. It was more of an unspoken law everyone followed which was not that hard given the animosity between their species. Not to mention how the werewolves had been oppressed by Marcel's law for so long and had been literally cursed.

The fact that the curse was broken didn't mean the wounds were mended or would ever mend. Prejudice and hate were just as prominent as ever and nothing changed that a bite from a werewolf was lethal for vampires too.

From what Josh knew however this was not only a thing in New Orleans. In the supernatural world in general vampires and werewolves were natural enemies and were not meant to mix and match. Here in New Orleans, this was an actual law too. Archaic yes. But still in effect.

"I dated a werewolf in the past," Caroline shrugged nonchalantly and her eyes glinted with mischief, "the sex is definitely hot," she sang and Davina almost choked on her drink but Josh seemed quite intrigued and once more glanced at the guy in the distance.

He had a beautiful smile. Almost as beautiful as his eyes.

Josh looked back at Caroline that beamed at him and he smiled in return.

"You think?" he asked her and kept looking back at the table.

"Well, my motto is: boy likes boy, boy likes boy back. Sex!" Caroline exclaimed in a shushing voice, her locks bouncing up and down her face and Josh's eyebrows shot up. They both giggled and even Davina that was mostly suspicious of Caroline burst out laughing.


"I am Josh by the way," Josh finally said, offering the man next to him his hand.

For a moment the sexy smile washed away from the face of Aaron's brother as he eyed his hand before extending his own.

His fingers slid into his own and squeezed his palm in greeting.

'Just a greeting,' Josh thought but couldn't help watching their hands, the moment they touched. He inhaled nervously at the feeling of electricity that surpassed his skin and shot straight to his spine.

"I know," he replied, his voice low, "I am Aiden."

As their drinks came Josh slowly relaxed and could think only of two things.

Damn that smile and screw the vampire law.


She was pressed against his body, sitting comfortably on his lap.

His arms were circling her and she felt safe and warm and most of all she felt calm. There were no bad memories, there was no pain and she felt as if she was…home.

She had hidden her face into the crook of his neck and she could feel the surge of his blood just under the skin. It soothed her somehow. She inhaled a steady breath, taking in his scent, and she snuggled closer to him. Her heart rate slowed down and she laid her fingers on his chest. Under her fingertips, his heart was beating in a slow rhythm that made her feel both lethargic and in more ways than she could explain she felt as if his energy was throbbing inside her.

Klaus trailed a finger down her upper arm and kissed the top of her head.

She slowly pulled back and straddled him. She now faced him and saw how he watched her.

With affection. With adoration. With love.

Her heart broke a thousand times. He felt like a solid pillar of strength beneath her body. Like an anchor.

The light that flickered made her look down and she frowned.

Among Klaus' numerous necklaces there was another.

One that shouldn't be there.

"Where did you get that?" she asked him, her voice sounding strained as his fingers glided through her hair, straighten every strand at her back.

Klaus looked down at the pendant that glinted on her fingers. Forbin's pendant.

He raised his gaze back to hers.

"From you."

Caroline frowned. She didn't understand.

"It isn't mine," she objected and withdrew her hand only for Klaus to reach for it before she could move it away. He cupped her hand and locked it over his chest. She felt the metal of the pendant underneath her skin and beyond that, she felt Klaus' heartbeat.

"It is Caroline," Klaus insisted and his gaze was intense. He was watching her as if he was willing her to understand. His voice dropped down in a quieter decibel. Like warm caramel dripping on melting ice cream, his voice was hypnotic, "it's always been yours. "

Caroline blinked at that. It made no sense but he gave her a definitive nod and then she felt fear. Crippling fear.

As if he had felt it too Klaus held her closer and she struggled to move away. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of this.

She felt the magic in the pendant and she felt the surge of power. It was flowing from the metal right straight to her heart and she was sucking it in as if she was inhaling oxygen. The difference was that she was burning from the within with each stroke of energy she inhaled and she felt as if she was suffocating.

Klaus was wrong. The pendant wasn't hers. It couldn't be hers.

"I don't want it," she refused him with a hoarse voice.

Klaus gave her an understanding smile. A sad smile.

"Why do you wear it then?" he asked her and she gasped. She looked down at herself and she realized that she was indeed wearing it.

It wasn't Klaus that wore the pendant. It was her.

Right.

She had promised to never take it off. She had promised to always wear it. So to-

"To remember," she answered Klaus, and the words faded around them even while she felt as if every part of herself screamed them.

"Remember what?" Klaus pushed and she felt the walls around her heart crack. She wanted to open up to him. She wanted to feel safe once more. To let him see her. The real her. To make him understand.

"To remember who I am," she whispered softly and when Klaus kissed her forehead she couldn't help but stare at the pendant he wore. It looked identical to hers, "why do you wear it?"

"To remember who I am," he echoed her words and she watched him confused.

"Who are you?"

His hands framed her face. His forehead rested against hers.

"Yours, love," he promised with vehemence, "always yours."

She inhaled sharply and his thump grazed her bottom lip as his gaze dropped to her mouth.

She felt heat sizzling in her veins. When his eyes drifted back to hers their intensity took her breath away.

She couldn't look away from his eyes. Inside of the blue that flamed hot in his gaze the same promise lingered. He was hers.

She didn't hesitate. It felt inevitable. She leaned closer tasting his soft lips. His arms wrapped around her and brought her closer until their bodies became inseparable.

The slow kiss became deep and fire licked her body leaving no inch of hers cold. Her fingers laced in his hair and a groan escaped Klaus' lips shooting straight between her legs making her core clench.

The need became taunting. Unadulterated and unrefined. Her nails grazed the nape of his neck and his tongue slipped deeper inside her mouth possessively claiming everything she was freely giving him.

He pushed her back on the couch, his body covering hers. She followed the fall feeling the soft pillows beneath her head and she moaned at the kiss that was slowing down only to become frenzied a moment later. She moved her hips underneath him and when she tasted blood in her mouth everything in her mind exploded.

The explosion carried her away and Klaus' body became smoke and mist, a kiss of shadow. The couch beneath her dissolved into nothing but the pillows remained and the comfort of being in Klaus' arms turned into something else.

There were no walls around to contain her any longer.

She smelled the sulfur. The vervain burned and scorched. Out of breath, she knew where she was and she started shivering uncontrollably. She stretched on that bed with the pristine sheets that were tangled on her feet.

Darkness descended. Darkness that held her and had power over her.

Tears fell out of her eyes and she heard the screech of the thousand howls.

The abyss below and the chaos above raged and as Caroline slowly opened her eyes she gasped and trembled.

She was on the hospital bed she had once died on only the bed wasn't inside the hospital room anymore.

It was in Purgatory. And no matter how much she struggled she couldn't get out of the bed.

She was lying on it, perched on the pillows, in her hospital gown, and above her, a shadow was cast. Through the harsh glare of the darkness, a figure emerged from the shadows.

Thick hair and rotting skin. Red gleamed in those eyes that haunted her and Caroline squint her eyes to see better.

"Elena?"

The shrill cackling that resembled the laugher of the dead made her hair stand.

"Hi, Caroline."

The voice was deep, distorted, inhuman. It had nothing beautiful as her past collided with what she was experiencing right now.

Decay filled her nostrils and she heaved. She remembered that smell. The rot that existed in Purgatory and she could swear would never leave her skin.

Caroline panted and the shape in front of her came closer and the stench became overwhelming.

"What are you doing here?"

She shouldn't be here. Elena didn't belong here.

Only-

Memories burned through her mind as she remembered.

This wasn't Elena.

Caroline gripped the sheets of the bed feeling as if she was holding on to ash.

As the monstrous visage became real and came closer Caroline held her breath.

The blackened greenish skin of her face was falling apart. Pieces of her skull were bleeding and the hair that stuck out of the gaping holes looked greasy and so thick that seemed like cheap broomstick bristle.

Her eyes were all red and blood was dripping from her nose as bone seemed to be missing from parts of it.

And when she smiled sharp grayish teeth resembling jagged toothpicks and snake fangs appeared in the dark.

This was the fate of every vampire who stayed in Purgatory long enough. The fate she and Kol had escaped was now praying upon her.

It was a gruesome sight that chilled her and yet the way the monster watched her was so familiar. Because this thing might not be Elena but she was someone else who for sure belonged to Purgatory.

"Katherine," Caroline rasped and the eerie sound that came from Katherine's missing lips seemed to penetrate the fog of her mind.

"I have a message," she croaked and leaned closer. Caroline realized she had nowhere to go but she didn't want Katherine, or what was left of her, to touch her.

She gagged at the smell but couldn't take away her eyes from the woman that had once killed her. The once upon a time beautiful vampire Caroline had once been so scared off and in many ways had set her fate in motion. If it wasn't for Katherine she would have never ended in Purgatory.

"For who?" Caroline asked her and the smile she received was terrifying.

"For you of course," Katherine hissed and Caroline grimaced. Real and unreal started to blend. Her old memories started to confuse her as did all the howling that was coming closer. Katherine was not the only monster in Purgatory.

"What message?"

Katherine hiss turned to a scream.

"Game on."

Katherine's skeleton hands clawed at one of the pillows and shoved it on Caroline's face.

She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe.

She struggled and tried to push her away, her nails tore on decaying skin and found bone but she couldn't breathe. She screamed and thrashed. The pillow muffled her sounds and she felt her lungs on fire. She couldn't breathe. Fire licked her and Katherine forced the pillow harder on her face, smothering her with it.

Monsters came closer. They held her down.

She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. She was dying. The chain of the pendant around her neck chocked her.

She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't-

She gasped awake clawing at her neck, her mouth open in a silent scream. Caroline panted trying to breathe again and again. Her body was shivering, she was drenched in cold sweat and she was still trying to breathe. She sat up and rubbed her neck harshly with her hands as she frantically looked around.

She was tangled in damp sheets. She tried to kick them away but she felt weak and a sob escaped her lips. Soft moonlight peeked through the window caressing the corners of her bed. It was late at night. She was in her room. She was alive. She wasn't in Purgatory. She had gotten out.

She tried to breathe over and over again and she wrapped her arms around her body.

"A nightmare," she stammered, "just a nightmare."

Her throat felt raw as if nails had scratched it from within. She must have been screaming.

She trembled and hugged herself tighter. She couldn't stop shaking.

She felt heaviness starting to build up in her body. She couldn't contain it.

She kept rubbing her neck and her fingers got caught on the chain of the pendant and she let out a disgruntled sound pulling the medallion from her neck as if it was burning her.

She threw it away on the bed and started rocking back and forth. She felt the need to cry but she couldn't. Every time she had cried ever since she returned from Purgatory it has been with hollow tears. Superficial grief that never reached down to the core. It never relieved any tension or any pain.

"A nightmare. It's over."

Her stutter was weak just like her and she realized her teeth were rattling.

Fear had paralyzed her and she couldn't escape.

She realized she was becoming numb. The room was turning. Colors didn't exist and the vestiges of her night terror brought with them the scent of sulfur.

Horrific images came to live in her mind and Katherine's cold shriek echoed in her mind.

'Game on'

Caroline squeezed her neck with her fingers.

It wasn't real. It wasn't real.

She couldn't breathe.

She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to make this stop. She was paralyzed. She was being swallowed by the darkness.

Her humanity switch was starting to move. Ready to shut everything down.

She couldn't do this.

She couldn't do this on her own.

Her hand reached for her phone. She didn't know what possessed her but her fingers slid on the screen and harsh brightness reflected on her face as her fingertips moved on the numbers.

She knew those numbers by heart. She hadn't forgotten.

She held the phone close to her ear. She couldn't breathe.

God, she couldn't breathe.

"Hello?"

Everything stilled.

The world stopped moving. Time stopped moving. The nightmares came to a halt.

Caroline shut her eyes close.

The voice from the other side brought fresh tears to Caroline's eyes.

"Yes?" Elizabeth Forbes asked, "Who is it?"

Something seemed to detonate inside Caroline.

Silent tears streamed down her face and Caroline opened her mouth to say something, to say anything but she couldn't. No noise came out. Agony filled her every pore and she covered her mouth with her trembling hand.

She couldn't do this.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

She rushed to end the call with shaky hands and let out a sob. Another followed and then another until the dam broke. She threw her phone on the wall with all her strength shuttering the device.

"I am so sorry mom," she cried, "I am sorry," she mumbled unable to stop her body's visceral reaction.

She fell back and brought her knees under her chin as her whole body curled into a fetus position.

Hot tears spilled on the mattress.


Be careful what you wish for.

He could not appreciate the irony. Not when he faced his worst nightmare coming to life.

The game had changed. It was no longer a game and Kol Mikaelson could feel right down to his bones and soul the extent of Caroline's ability to fight back and direct all her potential for waging war against him.

Caroline's laughter from the afternoon now echoed in his ears, mocking and taunting. A haunting bell ringing, hoisting the colors of war in the sky with each echo that found home in the object he had in front of him. He stared at it as if he faced a demon that had come to claim his soul and that was not far from what was actually happening.

Kol's eyes were focused on the coin he had removed from Caroline's bracelet.

It was sitting in the middle of the table and Kol Mikaelson waited with bated breath for the needle of his compass to move. He waited for it to point towards the coin of Caroline's bracelet but it remained still.

He rested his arms on the table on the right and left sides of the coin. He had thrown his own to the dumpster but he had kept Caroline's. All in the hopes that she would have to retrieve his from the garbage. If she held on to one piece and he held on to the other the magic of the coins would still work. It didn't matter if she kept his bracelet and he kept hers. It was the coins that did all the work. He had ensured they would.

As he knew that Klaus had ensured that every Nyx soldier would now be tailing Caroline. Kol also knew that Caroline was smart and perceptive enough to have felt their presence. She would never leave any dark object lying around for her enemies to find and he knew she would not trust anyone else to give it to them either. She would not be able to hide it as easily either. Not when she knew that its signal bounced between two pieces.

She would keep the piece and he would be able to know where she was and if she was in danger at any given moment.

Only his plan didn't exactly work the way he intended to.

Because the compass needle wasn't moving.

His eyes stared at the object unable to grasp what was happening right in front of his eyes.


Flashback

"What do you want Kol?" Caroline asked and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

She looked frustrated but watched him warily as he reached for the inside of his jacket's pocket and took out the bracelet he had made for her and extended his hand at her offering the dark object. It would only work if she wore it.

He couldn't get through her door so he waited and she reached out and got the charm bracelet. Kol watched carefully as Caroline inspected the intertwined, thin silver threads and the small coin that was attached between them. A twin dark object to his own. Both of them the opposite sides of a magnet meant to pull towards each other. A sort of a compass.

Caroline ran her thumb over the sign of the constellation that was engraved on it.

It was Andromeda.

He wasn't sentimental but she was. Maybe it would move her.

Caroline ran her thumb over the coin once more and Kol could have sworn there was a sparkle of energy in the tip of her fingertips that reeked of magic. He almost blinked at the illusion.

"What's this?" she whispered without taking her eyes from the coin.

She looked angry and he felt as if he was pushed in a corner. He had taught her well. She could detect emotional manipulation and deceit from miles away.

"You can always reach me that way," he told her and Caroline gave him a scathing look.

"I don't need you to tag me Kol."

He showed her his wrist. He wore a leather cord with the same coin attached to it.

"Goes both ways," he mumbled showing her his bracelet. "it's more like a beacon. And once you wear it only you can see it. Well, I will be able to see it too since I wear its other half that you can see now as you are holding your half."

Caroline held the charm but said nothing. Kol lowered his eyes feeling a twinge of shame slithering in his veins but quelled the surge of that offending feeling. This wasn't the time for such emotionality. He would leave that to Nik.

However, the way he had failed Caroline didn't sit well with him.

He owed her after all. She had carried him out of Purgatory and he was in her debt. And he honored his debts even if he honored nothing else.

He was for the most part dishonorable. He knew it. He embraced it. He made it work.

He was not Elijah to pretend to be honorable. He wasn't Klaus that played with words pretending to be a man of his word but would stab you in the back, slice you and dice you if you weren't careful enough to read between the lines and watch the hidden meaning of the words you used to bargain with him.

No. He didn't believe in honor. He believed in tricks and he believed in consistency and there was nothing more consistent from being honorable to your own goals even if it meant being dishonorable to everything and everyone else.

He never owned anyone anything. Anyone except Caroline Forbes that had weaseled herself into his damn guilt. She had carried him from perdition selflessly not knowing how much he had already betrayed her. She had believed she had helped an ally and a friend while he had been her worst enemy. He had taken decades of her life. Stolen years as he warped her into a weapon for him to wield.

And what a weapon she had turned to be. Deadly, lethal, dangerous.

Despite being incapacitated by him.

It was not the first time he mentored a vampire of course but Caroline had turned out to be his most complicated creation for he could no longer control her. That was the one and only lesson every other student of his had failed at. He had made them fail and just like that he had thought Caroline too would fail.

Only she was made from a different material.

In the beginning, she was his way out and a way to get even with Nik. He could see from the start he couldn't seduce her but he could trick her. To turn her against his brother would have been a glorious added bonus but instead, it didn't take him long to realize why Nik had been so enamored with the blonde cheerleader.

Caroline Forbes was not meant to be a conquest. She was meant to conquer. And so she did. Even death. She pillaged it straight from within and he would have bowed to that strength if his soul was not tainted enough to thankfully reject her pull.

He made sure she would maintain her humanity just enough for her to not give in to her actual power in Purgatory.

Only her humanity seemed to be contagious. And he hated it.

He wanted to hate her too only he couldn't. Now and always was a debt he owed to her. And he would repay it.

"You were busy having your psychotic break," Caroline reminded him, breaking through his thoughts, "you know the one before the one you are going to have next and just after that other one you had before, before that other one, and that other one," she mocked him and he shook his head.

"This is not a joke Caroline."

Her expression didn't change. She remained cold as ice.

"I never said it was."

Kol looked down at his shoes for a moment before he faced her again. He couldn't stop his worry from manifesting. He would not stand here and let her die. He would burn the world if he had to but she would not return to that hell. He knew she would survive it but it would still take her soul.

And even he had to admit Caroline had a beautiful soul.

It kind of reminded him of his little sister. Rebekah used to be like that when she was human.

"Nik is right," he softly tried to lure her to at least listen to him, "you need to return to the compound."

"No."

Her tone was resolute and Kol straightened when she stepped out of her threshold.

"You want to help?" she asked sternly and stood right in front of him with no magic separating them, "instead of bringing me your magic toys," she scoffed with a sneer, "find me a magical solution for the barrier your mother placed. I may not want to leave New Orleans anymore but that barrier is there for a reason and the more it stays the more danger I am in."

Kol ran a hand through his hair. This was one more obstacle. One more problem he had to solve.

"It is old magic," he told her gloomily, "the covens can't break it and the artifacts I have stored can't negate it."

She gave him a dead stare and Kol pressed his lips in frustration.

He wasn't used to people treating him like this. He didn't have the patience for it.

"I am trying Caroline."

She pushed the bracelet he gave her against his chest.

He stopped breathing.

"Try harder," she coldly said and the charm fell from her hand but Kol caught it before it would fall to the ground.

The sadness at her rejection lasted only for a moment before he realized what he was holding. He looked at the bracelet and the feeling he expected to feel never came.

Every time he touched a dark object he felt the vibe of its dark energy. He had bargained pieces of his soul to ensure he would and now he felt…nothing.

He nodded absentmindedly. He would try yes.

He would try to find out what the hell was happening because this made no sense. The bracelet he had given her was a dark object and now it did not feel like it was.

What the actual fuck?

He turned around to leave, unable to form even a coherent thought but Caroline grabbed his elbow stopping him. Kol watched her surprised.

"I don't mean just for the barrier," she said, her tone urgent. Her eyes expressed the pain and the desperation she felt. That gaze of hers always haunted him. Challenged him to be better. To leave Purgatory behind and fight the same demons that plagued them both. Only she had less and he had more. And yet she was there fighting for him. Fighting a lost battle.

He said nothing and her fingers dug into his sleeve more.

"You need to try harder Kol," she pressed, her anger dimming, but he could not commit to it.

She threw herself at him and hugged him. She held him close.

"Please try," she whispered so quietly, her voice barely coming out.

He remained stiff in her embrace. He didn't deserve her loyalty. It made his guilt more prominent as did the feeling of impending loss. He would lose her friendship. It was only a matter of time. But that devotion of hers was something he had missed in all of his life. No one else had ever given him what Caroline Forbes had. And he had craved it for centuries to the point he had believed that kind of earnest commitment didn't exist. A fucking unicorn he had thought it to be and he wasn't wrong.

Caroline Forbes was a unicorn. She with her beautiful soul.

The friend he didn't deserve. But had.

He had her and he was selfish enough to not want to lose her. He couldn't lose her. She cared for him more than his family ever had. Where his family had abandoned him Caroline stayed. Where they forgot all about him she held him close and got him out of hell even at the danger of losing what she had believed to be her only way out. She hadn't abandoned him.

He taught her all sorts of useless crap but she taught him one.

Family isn't only blood. There are other ties to form a bond between brother and sister and Caroline had forged them all by herself no matter how he had resisted. He was bound to those ties and he could not let them break.

He felt every restrain crumbling inside him and he pushed his face against her shoulder. He closed his eyes and wished he could hug her back. But he could not. He had already taken advantage of her devotion. He couldn't take any more.

He gripped the bracelet harder and he felt no magic left in it.

It shouldn't surprise him. Her presence had always been all the magic he could ever need.

It was always all in Caroline.


His mouth went dry. This was impossible.

It hadn't been his imagination. The coin wasn't gravitating the needle. He had a witch create him this compass centuries ago. The needle always pointed to dark objects. Power always called to power after all. And if you knew how to work the compass right it could also magnetize and move the object.

He reached for the compass and with a shaky hand, he pointed the compass towards the other side of the room. The needle moved and immediately pointed towards the blade he had placed on a chair. He flicked his wrist and the compass locked on the blade that flew straight at him.

He caught the blade with his other hand before it could cut him. A cut from its edge and a vampire would have to deal with a mortal would that would heal as a human wound would. No healing abilities in a vampire's blood could negate the blade's magic. It was a dark object that could become very handy and right now it proved to him that the compass worked just fine.

He pointed the compass towards the coin again.

He swallowed hard just as the blade fell from his hand and dropped on the floor next to his feet.

The needle didn't move.


Flashback

He couldn't get through her door so he waited and she reached out and got the charm bracelet. Kol watched carefully as Caroline inspected the intertwined, thin silver threads and the small coin that was attached between them. A twin dark object to his own. Both of them the opposite sides of a magnet meant to pull towards each other. A sort of a compass.

Caroline ran her thumb over the sign of the constellation that was engraved on it.

It was Andromeda.

He wasn't sentimental but she was. Maybe it would move her.

Caroline ran her thumb over the coin once more and Kol could have sword there was a sparkle of energy in the tip of her fingertips that reeked of magic. He almost blinked at the illusion.


The needle didn't move because the coin was no longer a dark object.

The dark energy was siphoned straight out of it and he knew all too well that dark energy didn't evaporate in thin air. If you took it out of one object it had to find refuge to another object or…another recipient.

Caroline had no dark objects in her house. If she had the wards Brianna had set in her apartment would have warned him of their presence.

Dread filled him. It was her. Right there in front of his eyes. She had siphoned the energy right out of the coin.

Only she wasn't a siphoner. That much he knew. Siphoners had a particular scent of magic he could always detect. He had given pieces of his soul to be able to do that.

No. Caroline was not a witch. And yet the coin was void of its dark energy. She had pulled it straight out of it and it couldn't have been an accident. She worked her fingers on the coin and she wasn't startled. The amount of dark energy she must have absorbed was not small for her to not feel it. She knew what she was doing. She had harnessed its power. She knew exactly what she was doing when she took his coin from the garbage too because she knew it would be useless to him now.


Flashback

Ever since they had returned from Caroline's apartment Brianna was acting weird.

"What aren't you telling me, little witch?" Kol questioned her, his gaze sharp.

Brianna fell silent and tried to withdraw her hand but Kol's grip became tighter until she winced. He was not hurting her but the warning was there.

"I do not know what you are talking about," she denied and he clicked his tongue.

He let go of her hand and he tucked her hair behind her ears gently. She cringed.

"You do," he whispered. His thumbs twirling around her cheeks.

"I do not appreciate you keeping things from me. I tend to get moody when people do that. More so those to whom I have shown nothing but kindness," he warned her and she sighed.

His gaze became intense.

"I won't ask again Brianna."

Kol hoped she wouldn't prove to be an idiot. His words were an ultimatum and she better not keep secrets from him.

Brianna looked up at him and then took a step back. Away from his touch. She touched the rope she had been practicing on for her spell and grabbed it in an attempt to hold on to something.

"Your friend- Caroline-" she started but then stopped. Kol stepped into her personal space again and she shivered. He could smell her fear and momentarily relished on it. He knew she was terrified of him. If she obeyed him she had nothing to be afraid of but for now, her fear was a tool he could use to his advantage.

"What about her?" Kol insisted and Brianna took a deep breath before she stared at him fearfully.

"She carries the devil's mark."


It was impossible.

They weren't in Purgatory anymore. This shouldn't be happening but it was happening. He was seeing it unfold right in front of his eyes.

Power called to power.

Caroline called and the dark object answered.

This was why his mother wanted Caroline so desperately.

And Esther must have wanted to get to Caroline before she would come into her powers.

Caroline had tabbed into the powers he had done everything in his power to keep dormant inside her while they were in Purgatory. Powers that shouldn't exist outside that realm.

Powers that if they existed in this world then all hell was about to break loose. It made no sense. None. Those powers belonged in Purgatory. They couldn't exist here.

It was impossible.

Only the needle wasn't moving. The coin was no longer a dark object. And Caroline was no longer in Purgatory and yet she somehow had managed to-

"What have you done Caroline?" Kol whispered.

Dread consumed whole leaving no part of him untouched.


The room was submerged in darkness which was necessary to hide her from prying eyes but at the same time, she also found the dark soothing. Caroline had closed the curtains and she was now sitting cross-legged on the floor of her apartment.

She was still jittery. Her hair was wet and was sticking on her face and back as did the shirt she wore.

She had spent a lot of time in the shower, sitting down on the tiles and hugging her body, under the hot water until it turned cold.

The cold water eventually cleared her head and so did the three blood bags she had. And while she should feel rejuvenated after gorging on three blood bags so quickly she felt drained.

Her eyelids felt heavy but she didn't try to get back to bed.

There were no chances for her to fall asleep again now. She knew that much. The night was long and the nightmares would not fade.

It still turned her blood to ice to think of the nightmare she had. It had felt so real.

Almost as if she had returned back.

Back in Purgatory where she used to sing lullabies just to shut out the noises the monsters that lurked close made.

But hearing her mom's voice had been a waking-up call that set her mind and heart on fire. There were no more lullabies to put her to sleep and she felt as if she had slept more than she should anyway.

Hearing her mother's voice hurt. It cut deep. It felt like pouring acid in an open would and she couldn't stop the emotional onslaught of feelings that followed after.

Forbin didn't just end her life and sent her to hell. He took that from her as well. He took her relationship with her mom away because something inside her stopped her from reaching out to her mom.

She had to change her number now. First thing in the morning she would have to dispose of her broken phone too. She couldn't take any chances. Her mom's voice was steady and clear coming through the phone. She must have been working a night shift at the police station Caroline thought absentmindedly. Just an unknown caller. Probably a mistake. This was what her mom would think of this. Not that her dead daughter was calling. That her dead child was alive and not in the grave and choose not to go to her.

Caroline swallowed down feeling as if her throat was being ripped apart as the word coward was playing on repeat at the recesses of her mind.

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes harshly.

Enough of this!

She had to keep her mind occupied with something else or she would lose it. She didn't want to play with her humanity switch. She didn't want to turn off her emotions or even dim them. Crying had been cathartic but counterproductive. She needed to remain sharp and focused.

And this was exactly what she would do.

Nightmares would not come to life just because she feared them. Obsessing about her old life before she died would not change anything either.

She would focus on her current problems.

She touched the pendant that was once more hanging around her neck. She needed the reminder.

For once having the Originals as her problem felt almost like a way out inside of a dead end.

She reached on the bracelet that was resting on the floor beside her. She examined it and focused on it as she easily took out the coin from the bracelet's leather binding.

She twirled the coin between her fingers. From index to middle to ring finger and back. Right and left, over and over again. A magician's trick. An illusion and nothing more.

Caroline looked at the craftsmanship. The constellation of Andromeda crafted in a coin so similar to the Thanatos Kerma.

Kol really thought he was being sneaky with this and could appeal to her sentimental side, didn't he?

Caroline stared at the glint of the coin. It gleamed in the dark as if it was made from another kind of material and not metal.

She had retrieved Kol's bracelet from the dumpster knowing it didn't matter if she kept it. Even in his high, he had tried to play his games with her. Kol had kept the bracelet he had meant for her to wear and now she had his. He knew that whichever coin she would keep it served his purpose s long as he had the other. He also knew she couldn't let a dark object on that dumpster, more so when she knew she was being followed.

She indulged him and very soon, if he didn't already know, Kol Mikaelson would find out it was pointless for him to hold on to the bracelet he had tried to give her. She made sure the one she gave back at him would serve as nothing but a trinket.

She ran her finger over the Andromeda design and then placed the coin in the middle of her palm.

She closed her eyes, inhaled once, exhaled once, feeling the pull.

When she reopened her eyes the coin was slowly hovering above her palm. It started gyrating in slow circles over her palm and she could feel its energy swirling around it.

She stared at it and decisively closed her fingers around it, snatching it from the air, abruptly ending its rotation.

She lay down on the floor, making herself comfortable. She preferred hard surfaces actually. She had gotten used to them in Purgatory and beds with soft mattresses seemed to be a struggle for her these days.

She casually flicked the coin in the air. It naturally circled its way up only to fall down for her to grab it easily. It no longer had any power left for her to levitate it.

Power called to power and she called upon it because she was exactly that. The power Esther Mikaelson had so desperately needed. The power she had trapped inside the city. For Esther, she was nothing but one more dark object for her to use, and ever since the night of the ball, it wasn't hard to connect the pieces. There had been signs even from before that night but she had ignored them unwilling to accept what was happening to her. She no longer had that luxury with all her enemies circling her like vultures.

Ever since she had returned from Purgatory there had been instances where she felt the flicker of power in her fingertips. The first night she drank blood was in the Abattoir after she had resurrected Kol. Klaus' blood was the first blood she had and it was delicious but when she drank the blood bags they had offered her that night the first thing she noticed was how the blood tasted different. It felt staler but also made her body feel different.

Her senses had been sharper.


Flashback

Kol carelessly threw next to her the empty blood bag and Caroline finally noticed all the empty bags they have left on the kitchen bar.

She swirled her tongue inside her mouth and narrowed her eyes as she touched one of the blood bags. Something seemed-

"Caroline?"

Caroline tilted her head up only to see that Hayley had just entered the kitchen.


Soon she had realized that something was indeed different. It was not the blood that tasted different. She was different. At first she had believed her senses were transitioning and were getting accustomed back to the world of the living but the more blood she consumed the stronger she became and she realized her body was now different.

She could detect dark objects from afar without any effort. Their magic was calling her. If she focused she could actually hear them. It was a hollow dull sound, like static, as if someone was screaming underwater. She could smell them too because their scent was familiar. Sulfur. The dark objects smelled like…Purgatory. Simple objects that were contaminated with dark magic. Like an infestation all around the city. And then there was the aura of magic around the objects. If she stared at them long enough she could see it. It was like an x-ray image where the black energy swirled around the objects like ink and shadow. She could touch it, she could feel it, she could take it in and feed on it and she soon realized she needed to feed on it as much as she needed to drink blood. The more she had the stronger she was becoming. It was like a drug. And the more she had the more she could detect any kind of magic. Just as witches sensed vampires upon touch she could sense witches and any kind of magic creature by sight. She could see their aura before she could even feel it upon touch.

She had driven to the edge of the city and she could see the barrier Esther had erected around the city. She could touch it and feel the intricate weave of magic.

And then she realized that when she absorbed magic she could also manipulate it. She could withstand magic attacks using that energy which came quite handy when the witches attacked her. She could of course withstand pain too but there was more to her that met the eye now.

The first time she fully used her powers on purpose and not just by instinct was when she took Forbin's corpse away from the Abattoir. There was no magic she couldn't negate to get him out and from there it had been easy to keep him under the radar.

Caroline played with the coin in her hand. This one was now nothing but a trinket too.

"Kol is going to flip," she giggled and while her smile remained her eyes turned hard.

Truth was she was teetering between terror and excitement. Obviously, this was a parting gift from Purgatory and Esther had felt it since the first night she had set foot in New Orleans. That was why she had locked her in the city.

Maybe this was why the Originals had wanted her in the first place. Whatever was happening to her could be the reason Klaus had approached her in the first place. He and Kol.

She inhaled deeply through her nose and shook her head.

It didn't change anything.

Caroline didn't know how this was even possible but it was not as if this hasn't happened to her before. When she had been a human and had turned to a vampire things had seemed overwhelming, impossible, and unreal. She had managed then and thrived in her new element. This was no different and she would get the hang of it and would not let this consume her.

It would be good to have a mentor with this like she had Stefan or even Kol in Purgatory but for now, her imminent survival counted on one thing. No one else had to know about what was happening to her.

She hated to think that deep down a part of her still trusted Kol and this was why she had revealed this to him. However, she was willing to bet that somehow what was happening to her was not happening to Kol. When she scanned his aura she didn't see anything different from what she had expected to see.

Besides, she had been the vessel to get him out of dodge and the magic they used to get out of that hellhole worked differently for him and her. For now, this was her best guess as to why this was happening to her. It had to be a side effect of the magic they used to get out but even as she thought about it deep down she knew this wasn't it. At least not only it.

For now and she knew Kol wouldn't share this tidbit of information with Klaus and Elijah no matter the bargain those three had made. Kol had traded pieces of his soul for what she now possessed. He hadn't shared that little secret with his brothers either. He wouldn't share this one either. He wouldn't dare and if he even thought about it she knew exactly how to silence him.

As a matter of fact she had great things in store for him. For some time she was conflicted as to the way she wanted to make him pay. Now she knew exactly where to hurt him the most and when the time came she'd do exactly that. Payback was a bitch and she was exactly that. A bitch with a grudge and scores to settle. Kol was high on her list and while she would not allow Klaus to dagger him she had to get even with him.

For now, however, she needed to dig deeper into her past. Marcel was the key to that. Of course, she knew that their trust was tentative at least. She knew he was trying to manipulate her into hating Klaus to use her against him and the rest of the Originals. Just like his father Marcel Gerard believed he could pull her strings and make a pawn out of her.

It was amusing really. People should really stop underestimating her, believing she was nothing but an airhead. At least Klaus's charm and his tricks were more methodical and original. And Marcel was following his footsteps thinking he could best his daddy in the game. She snorted at that. Even Klaus had his limitations because fool her once shame on them fool her twice shame on her and if Klaus couldn't do it anymore fat chance Marcel could.

She'd go with the flow for now. If Marcel believed he could string her along so be it. She had to keep him close to see what his plan was because she could tell he had something massive in his sleeve and she had to know what it was. Marcel knew how to cover his tracks too. She'd have to wait until he would let her into his plans. So let him play his games for as long as it was convenient and in the meantime, she'd play hers. Begrudgingly she had to admit there was a kind of a fragile respect that was building between her and Marcel but it wasn't enough. This was still a game.

She shivered as she remembered Katherine's words from her nightmare.

Game on, indeed.

A dangerous game for her to play but she still had to play it. The answers she was searching for came from her family's legacy and along with it came the festering darkness inside her. She didn't know how but she felt it deep down. She was getting closer to the truth but it still eluded her and time was running out. And maybe, for now, she couldn't pinpoint the origins of her abilities but she could relish in the result and Kol had only gotten a small taste of it. Enough for him to lose his shit and start making mistakes. She would be there to catch every last one he'd make.

She smirked and kept playing with the coin in her fingers.


"You can't be serious Marcel!" Davina exclaimed and threw her hands up in the air. The candles around them flickered and Marcel simply took a bite from his apple.

"On the contrary. We have more pressing matters to deal with."

"More pressing matters than this?" Davina asked incredulously as she pointed at the table with the body in front of them.

"Yes." Marcel curtly said.

His troubles kept pilling up. With Bonnett in the city, things had turned a sharp turn for the worse. If Nyx settled in New Orleans hell was about to break loose.

"Nothing is more important than Klaus!" Davina objected with a shrill voice, "He bit you! He could have killed you, Marcel."

Marcel chewed on the last bite of his apple before he threw the stem away.

"I know."

"Oh, he knows!" Davina mocked him making her smile at her defiance, "you know and instead of dealing with Klaus you want me to do what Marcel? Assist Caroline Forbes? Klaus' girlfriend?"

"She is not his girlfriend."

"Oh please! Haven't you seen them at the ball dancing? They almost made out on the dance floor!"

Marcel shrugged. He couldn't deny this.

"Klaus is dangerous Marcel. If he realizes you are trying to turn Caroline against him he will retaliate and this time he won't stop at a bite!"

"One," Marcel started lifting one finger in the air, "there is no turning one that has already been turned which Klaus knows. Which is half the fun anyway," Marcel grinned, "this must be killing him."

"As if he has a heart," Davina mumbled rolling her eyes.

"And two," Marcel added holding two fingers up while ignoring her comment, "this is why I need you to find a solution," Marcel pointed out.

"I am working on it," Davina mumbled, "I think I am getting close."

"We need to speed things up D."

"I know," she seethed in frustration, "but Kol Mikaelson is like a bloodhound! I had to move everything around and keep it under wraps. He already suspects I am working on something massive and he is as paranoid as Klaus. He has eyes and ears everywhere and most of the witches follow him like groupies," she shuddered with disgust, "I keep shielding us against locator spells and magic and it is not easy. He has effectively slowed me down."

"Yeah, he is a pain in the ass. He always has been," Marcel groaned.

"And in the midst of all this you want me to do more spells for Caroline?" she questioned him with an incredulous expression, "and what does it mean dissect a corpse?"

Marcel lifted his shoulders.

"Great. So we are doing her blind favors too."

"Once you do solve this riddle," Marcel encouraged her pointing at the comatose body on the table, "Caroline may be our only way to get to Klaus. But for that, we need to keep her on our side."

Marcel used to believe Camille was the way to do it but he had soon realized Caroline was the way to Klaus' heart. Quite literally.

Davina gave him a contemplative look.

"You think she could do it?" she asked and Marcel could see her doubt. Not only when it came to Caroline's closeness to Klaus Mikaelson but also to Caroline's actual willingness and ability to go through with what they had in mind.

"She can," Marcel frostily said, "she is a killer through and through."

Davina gave him a cold look.

"Has she killed more people?"

Her question was not unfounded. She already knew of the people Caroline had ripped apart in that alley.

"Only in self-defense," Marcel responded.

Klaus has been right about her. Marcel could see it in their interactions. Caroline Forbes was not a ripper.

"She has excellent control," Marcel said, "there were witches involved with her incidents. They tampered with her bloodlust."

Davina's brow creased.

"So how can you tell-"

"That she is a true born killer?" Marcel finished her question for her and when Davina nodded he gave her a wry smirk.

"Well she is a vampire," he remarked sarcastically and Davina arched her brow at him.

"You surround yourself with countless vampires Marcel. I don't see you fawning over their knack for killing."

Marcel went to the other table and with a jump, he sat on it.

"That's because they don't have it," he simply noted.

"And she does?"

Marcel's gaze turned solemn.

"Like me and the Originals and a few other notable and very rare exceptions," he admitted quietly, "she does, yes."

Davina gave him a disbelieving look and he sighed. He didn't want Davina to see him for the killer he was. She knew who he was but he didn't like to remind her of that fact.

And yet there was no other way to do this. They were at war. If they wanted to cast the Originals out of their city and reclaim their power Davina had to know everything that was at stake.

"Mindless killings, predatory instincts, and bloodlust are different things. Every vampire has an enhanced hunger for blood and killing but only a few possess a real personal predisposition," Marcel explained.

He took one of the sacrificial knives Davina kept on the table he was sitting at and stared at his eyes' reflection on the glinting blade.

"Some of us once turned we have different inclinations than others," Marcel muttered, "A different kind of clarity. We enjoy the thrill of the personal kill far more than others and it has nothing to do with our vampire nature aside from how that impulse is heightened by it. We enjoy the game. The power. The mental chase. We are a different kind of predator."

Marcel had long accepted that part of him. He knew others that pretended that part of themselves didn't exist and others that made art out of it. Those that hid beneath a code of morality that drowned them in guilt usually had miserable lives that ended prematurely in a couple of decades or centuries. Many of them committed suicides or were letting themselves grow weak until they became easy pickings cutting their eternity short.

He wasn't like them. He thrived in this element. While he would live an unremarkable life as a human fated to fade in obscurity, as a vampire he relished in his nature. It was in his blood. He was born to become this. Not everyone was but he was. He was different and after his centuries in this world, he could detect that nature in others too. Especially since it was very rare. Klaus Mikaelson in particular could always detect that disposition in a few select individuals too. That was why he had turned him and why he had been so cautious to do so. He knew that once he would turn him this part of his personality would blossom and Klaus might have pretended that he had cared for his humanity but Marcel could tell that deep down he knew that once he would turn him he would have to face a capable opponent. A killer just like him. Ironically that was probably why Klaus was also so enamored with Caroline too. Klaus saw part of himself in Caroline and him as he and Caroline could see parts of themselves in him.

"If you look, really look, you can see it," Marcel told Davina, "It's in the eyes D. It's there lurking under the surface. A call that needs to be answered. Some respond to it differently than others but it can't be denied."

Davina went next to him and leaned against the table. She gently touched his arm.

"How do you respond to it?"

Marcel let the blade back on the table and turned his attention to Davina. He covered her hand and gave it a soft squeeze before he got up and went and stood in front of the other occupied table.

"I rose to power," he stated confidently, "I channel all that energy in my city and our community and I am striving to make something out of it. I destroy and I create and it took me centuries to learn that building and maintaining what you make is more important than tearing it, or others, apart."

Although now he also knew that sometimes in order to build or to re-build you would need a solid foundation and for that they'd have to take apart the old one so to create something new that would l last.

The Originals would never allow this, however. And this was why he had to get rid of them. To get rid of the old so to start re-building.

"I focus on that," Marcel said with resolve, "and I am not letting what lies inside me consume me. I diffuse it and externalize it. It's my form of control," he paused in apprehension before he added, "Caroline is different."

"How so?"

"She is selfish alright but she applies morality and a code of honor in what she does," Marcel observed, "maybe if she was born in another era she'd be different but she is a child of the enlightenment. A product of the society she was born in. She is a humanitarian."

Davina shook her head in exasperation.

"You make it sound as if it's a bad thing."

"Well," he scrunched up his nose and then laughed at Davina's offended look. He quickly became serious and cast the young witch a stern glance, "she is still a vampire Davina. She may believe in human rights and principles but she snacks on humans for breakfast, never forget that," he advised her firmly, "I know from good authority that she doesn't shy away from compelling humans or manipulating anyone if she deems it necessary. Never forget that," he intoned, "she can and will wrap you around her little finger if you are not careful."

He already knew Caroline had already approached Davina and something told him that Davina had not shared everything with him when it came to what Caroline had told or even asked her to do. Davina may be reluctant to help Caroline now but Marcel could tell that she was also young and in need of friends and Caroline Forbes would manipulate that need of hers as expertly as no one else would.

For all of Caroline's morality, she had no problem using humans as pieces on a board and she was hypocritical enough to believe she was better than the rest of them because she didn't intend to slaughter humans on purpose or for fun although he could bet that she wasn't losing sleep over any human casualties if it came down to it. Caroline could feel the occasional guilt sure, she was too young not to, but she had no problem surviving it.

However from what he had seen about her all that didn't stop her from acknowledging herself as part of the collective of humanity. She tried to become part of the vampire community but Caroline Forbes was still trying to hold on to her humanity even though she had also embraced the monster. It was admirable and pointless. What was worse was that this was a deadly combination and he'd bet a fortune that she had not turned off her humanity switch no matter how much she had been dying to do so exactly because she would not allow herself to relinquish control.

Klaus had taught him from a young age that turning off his humanity was a sign of weakness and one could not control others if he was unable to first control himself and his weaknesses. He could bet Caroline Forbes was a firm believer of that too.

It was all about control.

Control and power. Those were two concepts Marcel knew all too well too.

"So if she is what you'd call a humanitarian, even a manipulative at that, how come and she is also the kind of killer you creepily fawn over? Wouldn't be one or the other?"

'If only it was that simple,' Marcel thought ruefully. No. Unfortunately for him, Caroline Forbes was far more complicated than that.

"She is keeping her killer instinct on a tight leash," Marcel answered Davina, his gaze filled with warning, "she is controlling it instead of letting it control her which makes her dangerous. You see usually those that bother to do that are those that need to. Exactly because they have to. Should they not they'd paint the world red and Caroline Forbes sure has the appetite for it. And she knows it."

Caroline may not be a ripper but she was something far more dangerous. Rippers went unchecked because they would have no control over their instincts. It was a weakness. Caroline possessed no such weakness. Should she allow her killer instinct to thrive she'd control it to strategically conquer and rise to power. Caroline Forbes would know exactly how to feed her hunger.

And what worried Marcel was that Caroline already knew how to use that appetite at will and how to turn it into a weapon.

He just had to make sure to point that weapon in the right direction.

"And you think that you can unleash that against Klaus?" Davina wondered and Marcel smirked.

"I won't. She will."

Davina frowned at his certainly.

"Will she want to?"

Marcel's lips curled up.

"I am working on it," he said but Davina cast him a worried look.

"What is it D?"

Davina gulped down harshly.

"When I touched her I felt darkness like I have never felt before. It was charged. Like I was touching thousand of vampires at once," she reminded him once more and Marcel could not help but wonder what that meant, "maybe we should not tempt that Marcel."

Marcel closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again he noticed the fear that swam in Davina's eyes. She hadn't been that worried even when she had to face the Originals and the witches that wanted her to kill her to complete the harvest ritual.

It confused him and made him more cautious when it came to Caroline. He had felt darkness coming out of that girl too and he couldn't explain it. It competed the feeling he had when he was near an Original and it made no sense. It had to be connected with her resurrection or her family's past. That worried him even most because he had an idea where this was coming from and if that was true then Caroline Forbes was definitely more than met the eye. And just maybe that would also be one more reason as to why Klaus was so fascinated by her.

"Marcel. Let's not risk it! Not with her," Davina warned him once more but she deflated when he leveled a cool look at her.

"Do you think we have the luxury not to?"

Davina seemed indecisive and Marcel squeezed her shoulders gently.

"Hey. I'd never put you in danger. You know this right?"

"I know but Caroline is… I can't explain it, Marcel. I have never felt anything like it. Not even when I was on the other side," she whispered and Marcel tightened his hold on her.

Davina had never told him what happened to her while she was dead but he had a pretty good idea. Those damn witches, especially the dead ones, could hold quite a grudge and something told him they had unleashed their rage on Davina's spirit.

It didn't sit well with him and if he had a say on this they would never get the chance to do it again.

"Davina, hey, listen to me. Despite what you felt and what you fear Caroline is still a person. She is like you and me and she is more like you than me in many ways."

Davina gave him a confused look and Marcel sighed.

"She is young. Just like you," he pointed out, "from what I have found out and what she told me she was turned when she was 17 and she got messed in a world that didn't treat her right. What happened to her is her story to tell and probably is the reason as to why you get these vibes from her. Come to think of it her story in many ways resembles yours," Marcel realized, "I can't say I trust her completely but I actually respect her. She is a survivor and one hell of a fighter. And I wish this didn't have to be this way," Marcel confessed sadly, "but we are running out of time and options," he pointed out. "Besides it is not her darkness or even her killing instinct I want to tempt. It's her bond with Klaus."

And her thirst for vengeance, Marcel thought but didn't voice that last part.

Caroline Forbes was indeed clever and may she harbored dangerous darkness but he knew better than anyone the pain the Originals inflicted on those they cared about and he knew that kind of pain could blind anyone. Especially a vampire with such enhanced humanity as was Caroline Forbes. Vengeance could be quite a motivator and a tool for one to use. The rest would follow.

Caroline Forbes would not be the exception. He'd made sure of that.

Davina steeled herself and Marcel felt pride at the way he saw her exile her fear.

"Yes, but do you really think that monster," she spat with derision as she always did when she referred to Klaus Mikaelson, "can actually care for anyone to let them get close?"

Marcel smiled wistfully.

"He did once."

After all, in some ways, he was living proof of it.

"Maybe he learned from his mistakes," Davina bit out bitterly, her aversion towards anything that had to do with Klaus made her even more aggressive.

Marcel sobered.

"Yes he did," he replied gravely, hating the feeling of abandonment he still felt, "but it won't matter. Some mistakes are inevitable and… worth dying for."

That was what he was actually counting on.

When the time would come Marcel had to be ready. Caroline had to be ready too.

The clock was counting and very soon Klaus Mikaelson would be dead.

After all, Marcel was Klaus' son in the same way Klaus was Mikael's son and Klaus had taught him well. The only way to step out of his father's shadow and be free was to kill him and Marcel would follow in his father's footsteps.

Marcel Gerard keenly watched Mikael's unconscious body on Davina's table.

Genevieve had taken Mikael's remains from Klaus' crypt and when the other side fell she had used a resurrection spell to bring Mikael's soul back thinking she was outsmarting everyone. She hadn't known that Mikael as a spirit had tempted Davina to bring him back too.

This had given them the lead they wanted. Genevieve had managed to bring Mikael back. Half way. At first the witch had believed the spell had been successful but she had only managed to pull the Original half way through the veil but Davina had been smart enough to use a different subtle spell to interject the energy Genevieve used to restore Mikael's old body.

When Genevieve died it had been easy to dispose of any other witch that could have been a problem concerning revealing this secret. Hayley Marshal going on a rampage killing every witch on sight gave them the cover they needed and Davina snatched Mikael away from the place Genevieve kept his half restored body. Once outside the protective circle of Genevieve's magic Mikael collapsed and almost faded away only for Davina to keep him in a desiccated coma instead.

Davina had trapped him in one of their unregistered houses, up in the attic, and kept him there for her experiments. No one knew they had him. Not even the Originals that had realized by now that Mikael's remains were missing from their crypt.

They had Mikael and they were going to use him. Marcel couldn't get the credit for the plan they were about to put in motion. This was all Davina's idea and from the looks of it, she was very close at implementing it.

Davina had been working on the spell they needed for months now and she was very close at succeeding. He could see she was tired but she was also very close at creating the spell they'd use on Mikael and Klaus.

Marcel's lips curled into a satisfied smile.

Soon, he promised himself. Very soon it would all be over.

Mikael was the key in killing Klaus Mikaelson and when the time came so would be Caroline Forbes.


Rebekah's Lullaby: Song from Youtube: THE WOLF SONG - Nordic Lullaby - Vargsången