"Klaus," Elena whispers. She tries to keep her breathing even, to stay calm so her heartbeat will remain steady instead of racing. She's sure he senses her fear anyway. Elena has spent enough time with Elijah to know just how acute an Original's senses are. (iElijah/i, her heart cries. She can still taste him on her lips – his blood and his kiss, both. She ignores it.)

Klaus disappears and materializes directly in front of her. Elena is sure her pulse jumps in surprise. But she stands her ground as he reaches down to catch her hand in his own, and she offers no resistance as Klaus brings her hand to his mouth.

She knows she has no power here – or at least, no power that Klaus does not give her.

Elena watches as he bows his head just the slightest bit, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. Her hand: still covered with her own blood. She knows he must smell it, itaste/i it.

A pause. Elena tries to remember to breathe. (She hasn't been this terrified since the first time she met Elijah.)

"This is your blood," Klaus murmurs, his tone curious. He's still hasn't let go of her hand. Elena still hasn't tried to pull away.

"Yes," Elena confirms, every hair on her body standing on edge. She reminds herself that Klaus needs her, that he can't kill her for another month. It's too late to do the ritual tonight, the full moon already past its zenith. He'll have to wait for the next one. (She has itime/i.)

Klaus licks his lips, the movement almost lascivious. Then he – very gently – turns her hand over, exposing the bare, vulnerable skin of her wrist. Elena remains quiet, trying to read his face. Her eyes strain in the dark, the moonlight not quite enough to make out his expression.

She knows he can see her just fine, the darkness no barrier for his eyes. He doesn't bother to give her the courtesy of turning on a light.

Klaus bows his head again – and Elena may not be able to see it perfectly, but she can ifeel/i it, in exquisitely painful detail, as he slowly sinks his fangs into her wrist. She can't help her gasp of pain, but otherwise tries not to react.

Klaus takes a mouthful, maybe two, before pulling away.

Elena clutches her wrist close, once Klaus releases her. She brings her other hand up to touch where his fangs slid in; the wound is already closed. (iElijah/i, her heart whispers. She knows he's dead at her own hand, daggered in the back of his car, but he's also ihere/i. He's inside her; healing her; protecting her. He's the vial of blood in her pocket, and the stories in her head.)

"No vervain," Klaus comments, licking his lips again, clearly enjoying the taste of her blood. Suddenly, his face is a hairsbreadth away from hers. She can't help but jump in surprise. She makes out the whites of his eyes as he stares down at her. "I wasn't expecting you so soon. Tell me, how idid/i you get away from my dearest brother?"

Elena wonders if she should pretend that his compulsion works. She discards the idea immediately. Klaus probably won't appreciate it, if he thinks she's trying to trick him – and given that Elena will very likely be in his company for the next month, she doesn't want to have to maintain a ruse like that.

Besides, she needs him to respect her agency, if she's going to get what she wants. (iBonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie/i, her heart beats.)

Klaus isn't Elijah, but she needs to find a way to bargain with him, all the same. (Elijah considers himself a man of honor… If only he had kept his word. If only he hadn't made Elena choose between him and Bonnie. She thinks she would have chosen him, over anyone else in the world – anyone other than Bonnie.)

Elena carefully considers her next words before she speaks.

"I'll tell you, but not because you can compel me," Elena says, trying to be interesting, iintriguing/i, without being itoo/i disrespectful. She remembers every one of Elijah's stories about Klaus, and she can read between the lines: Klaus likes his woman bold, but he's likely to do the opposite of what she wants if he feels that she's making demands.

And she wants Klaus to like her, but not too much. If he finds her pretty, and amusing, and helpful, maybe Elena can persuade him. If he likes her itoo/i much, he might not let her go after the month is over, when she rises from the dead…

The lights flicker on. (Elena never even sees Klaus move.)

Now that Elena can see him clearly, she has to hide her surprise. She knows he and Elijah are only half-brothers, but even though she's looking for it, she doesn't see even a hint of Elijah in his face. Even their senses of style are opposites. Elena has come to associate Elijah with a perfectly tailored suit, but Klaus wouldn't look out of place on a college campus, with his jeans and t-shirt combination.

It's… jarring in a way. Klaus doesn't ilook/i like the ancient, unbelievably powerful being that she knows he is.

Klaus's gaze is heavy as he examines her in turn. She can't help but feel branded by the possessiveness in his eyes, as they trail down her body. She knows she's covered in her own blood, and that would be the focus for most vampires; but Klaus seems to covet more than that.

He needs her death, to release him from his curse; she wonders if that means he thinks her life belongs to him, too. If he thinks ishe/i belongs to him.

"You aren't wearing any vervain," Klaus comments. He's wrong, of course; Elena feels the comforting weight of her necklace on her chest, spelled to be unnoticeable. "Tell me, how is it that you can resist my compulsion?"

"I'm special," Elena responds. Even if it isn't the answer to his question, it isn't a lie. (She tries not to remember Elijah, amused as he tells her that he's a "special vampire.")

Klaus narrows his eyes at her, and she thinks he might push for more information. That wouldn't be to her advantage, so she continues: "And to answer your earlier question, I didn't get away from Elijah. He's in the car right now, with the birthday present you had Isobel give me lodged in his heart."

Klaus's eyes widen. Elena doesn't have to know him, to know that he's surprised. She wonders why he gave her the dagger, if he didn't expect her to use it on Elijah.

Was it meant as a warning? A threat? And if so, was it meant for her – or for Elijah?

"How did you accomplish that? And iwhy/i?" Klaus demands. "I thought Elijah was your knight in shining armor." He says it sarcastically; he seems… disgusted, maybe.

Elena tries not to let him see how much she's hurting. She didn't want to stab that dagger into Elijah's heart. But Elijah left her no other choice. (He iwas/i her knight, her fiercest protector. The problem was, Elena needed him to be Bonnie's.)

Elena doesn't tell Klaus that, of course.

"We made a deal, and he broke it," Elena tells Klaus. It's the truth, even if it's also a lot more complicated than that. "As for how, Elijah underestimated me."

Klaus smirks, seemingly amused – maybe at the thought of Elena, a human girl, somehow taking out Elijah, the most powerful vampire she'd ever met before tonight. "You'll have to tell me the entire story, love," he comments. "iAfter/i I go see to my brother, of course."

He's gone with a gust of air. Elena doesn't let herself relax, knowing that Klaus is still close enough to hear her breathing, her heartbeat. She stands right where he left her; she doesn't want him to think she's trying to get away, or that she's snooping through his space.

Elena just stands there, waiting for Klaus to come back. And while she waits, she allows herself a moment of weakness. She closes her eyes, and she ihopes/i.

She hopes Klaus wasn't lying in his letter, when he wrote that Elijah would wake up if the dagger were removed. She hopes Elijah isn't in pain. She hopes that if they ever see each other again, Elijah understands why she did it. That he won't hate her. (She reaches in her pocket to touch his vial of blood, and reminds herself: always and forever.)

And then Elena gathers those hopes, and pushes them to the back of her mind. They aren't going to help her, now. iElijah/i can't help her now.

Elena has to help herself. (And iBonnie/i, always Bonnie.)

Another gust of wind ruffles her hair, and then Klaus is in front of her again. "I'm impressed, love," he tells her, his tone condescending. "Now tell me iexactly/i how you did it."

Elena doesn't want to talk about it. But she reminds herself that she needs Klaus to find her entertaining.

She also needs to get used to Klaus asking questions she doesn't want to answer. There is another month before the sacrifice ritual; there's a good chance that he's going to be poking at a lot of her sore spots. Elena will have to find a way to deal with that, iwithout/i snapping at him or upsetting him.

"Elijah and I were arguing," Elena says. "He was outside, because I never invited him in. When I realized that he wasn't going to keep his word, I grabbed a knife, and I stabbed myself."

"iStabbed/i yourself?" Klaus interrupts, looking both fascinated and appalled. Elena points to the rip in her shirt, saturated with her blood, where the knife went in.

"Elijah…" Elena cuts herself off, not wanting to describe Elijah as begging, even though it would be accurate. "He asked me to let him heal me. He gave me his word that he'd hold to our deal, but I didn't believe him. But I stumbled outside anyway, and he gave me his blood."

"And then you stabbed him while he was distracted?" Klaus asks, looking amused again.

"And then I stabbed him while he was distracted," Elena confirms.

She doesn't mention the kiss. She doesn't mention how relieved Elijah was, that she let him heal her. She doesn't mention how isurprised/i Elijah looked, when she stabbed him in the heart. (She doesn't tell Klaus how much Elijah loved – loves? – her.)

Klaus doesn't need to know.

He's thrilled enough with what he idoes/i know; gloating almost as if ihe/i were the one who stabbed Elijah. (Elena is not thrilled; Elena is not gloating. She did what she had to do, to protect Bonnie.)

"I only gave you one gift for your birthday. It's not even my birthday, and you brought me itwo/i." Elijah, and Elena herself. "Because I'm generous, I'll grant you a boon. Anything you'd like," Klaus tells her, smiling and waving his hand as if he were a benevolent king, and Elena, his subject.

Elena isn't stupid; she knows this is a trap. If she tells Klaus what she wants most in the world (Bonnie, alive and safe and iprotected/i), she's only handing him leverage. Maybe Isobel already told him about Bonnie; but if not, Elena isn't going to paint a target on Bonnie's back.

Klaus isn't Elijah: he isn't bound by any code of honor. Just his own whims. (Like the kings of old – benevolent when they want to be, and then turning around and chopping off heads.)

Somehow, Elena needs to align Klaus's whims with her desires, without tipping her hand. She considers her request carefully.

"I'd like to travel," Elena tells him. Klaus looks surprised; she wonders what he thought she would ask for. She decides to explain. "I'm eighteen years old, and I'm going to die in a month, and I've never been anywhere, never seen anything." She remembers Elijah's stories: how much the Originals traveled. She thinks Klaus will like this request.

She's right. Surprise fades; now, Klaus appears intrigued. "Where would you like to go?"

The truth is: anywhere, so long as Klaus is far, far away from Bonnie.

What she says is: "I want to see cities. Places with good food, and museums, and ihistory/i."

"Hmm…" Klaus seems thoughtful. "That can be arranged – just as soon as I get the necessary ingredients for the ritual, we can go wherever you like." He seems pleased with himself; he thinks he's so generous. And who would challenge him? (Not Elena.)

Elena has Elijah's vial of blood in one pocket; his gift of "always and forever." She reaches into her other pocket, and touches the moonstone. (iThis/i wasn't a gift. Elena took it from Elijah, after she daggered him.)

Elena doesn't hesitate as she pulls it from her pocket, offering it out to Klaus. She can only hope that if she is generous with him, that he'll feel inclined to reciprocate. "You are a wonder," Klaus tells her as he takes it, clearly delighted. "Anything else you'd like to give me, sweetheart?" His tone is equal parts innuendo and avarice.

Elena doesn't flinch. "There is a pack of werewolves in Florida; I can give you a few locations where they tend to hang out. And there's a vampire trapped in the basement beneath the Salvatore Boarding House, if you don't feel like making or using another one." She hopes she'll be able to steer Klaus to pick a werewolf who isn't Tyler. She knows there's no guarantee.

"Ruthless," he murmurs, looking at her with something like admiration. "Anything else?"

Elena thinks for a moment. Doppelganger and moonstone; werewolf and vampire. What else does he need?

"I know that you already have a witch," she points out. "And if Greta Martin isn't strong enough on her own, I'm sure her father would help if you promised to let her go afterwards."

"Greta Martin is free to leave whenever she likes," Klaus tells her, smiling as if it all is a big joke. Elena wonders if that means that the Martin witch went with him willingly, or just that she developed Stockholm syndrome after too long as his prisoner. She doesn't ask. (Elena just looks at his smile, and tells herself not to forget that his beauty is just another weapon in his arsenal.) Klaus continues: "But enough about the witch. You, my doppelganger, have pleased me."

Elena smiles back at him, hoping her relief looks more like satisfaction. "Then you'll take me away?" she asks. She thinks he likes the way she phrased that.

Good.

Klaus nods. "You're given me so many gifts tonight, love," he tells her, looking admiringly down at the moonstone. "Name another boon."

Elena thinks for a moment. What is the best way to keep Bonnie safe, without demanding just that?

"Katerina Petrova," she says, using Elijah's name for Katherine to avoid any misunderstandings.

"Ah, dear Katerina. What about her?" Klaus asks. His eyes are now fixed on her face. And he may look nothing like Elijah, but the intensity of his gaze is the same. Elena doesn't shy away, more than used to looking Elijah in the eye.

"I would be thrilled with her heart in a box," Elena tells him. She's never meant anything more. (If Katherine is dead, then Elena doesn't have to worry about her going after Bonnie.)

Klaus throws his head back and laughs. "Ruthless, iand/i bloodthirsty," he says, approvingly. He offers her his arm. (Just like Elijah…)

Elena takes it, and lets him guide her deeper into the house. "I have a surprise for you," Klaus whispers in her ear, like it's a secret. "I think you'll ilove/i it." He stops in front of a door, opening it and gesturing for her to enter first. She does.

And he's right – Elena iloves/i her surprise. It's Katherine: half-desiccated, covered in blood, and stabbing herself in the leg – over, and over, and over again.

Elena doesn't care if it's justice – or vengeance. Either way, it has never tasted so sweet.