A/N: Hellllo! Long time, no update. I'm sorry that it's been so long since I last updated, but I've been swamped with school and adulting. I'm allllllmost finished with the Childcare course I'm doing and then I'll have a lot more time to be posting new chapters. I've also had to re-edit some of the chapters because I was unhappy with them. Anywho, we get some answers about the cure in this chapter that I hope you guys will enjoy!
Don't forgot to leave a comment and you'll get a PM with a sneak peak at the next chapter!
CHAPTER FIVE:
'So long ago
It's a certain time
It's a certain place'
Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac
KLAUS' P.O.V.
Looking at Caroline as a human was a vastly different experience than I thought that it would be. I had gone into it expecting my feelings for her to be somewhat lessened by seeing her weaker than she always seemed to be. But, that wasn't the case. As she climbed from the car and walked towards me with that stupid 'congratulations' gift bag clutched in her hands, one of her bright smiles plastered across her face, my feelings for her only intensified.
And when those eyes met mine, the feeling grew even more. It felt incredible. Better than breaking my curse. Her eyes turned from mine, and I tried to will her to look back at me, trying to feel that wondrous feeling again.
Then, when I couldn't stand her ignoring me anymore, I had sat down on the arm of the chair so that we would be close enough to touch.
I didn't understand why she was avoiding me, had she not felt the same feeling that I did? Did she think that I would hurt her now that she was human? Did she think that my interest had disappeared? Or even worse, did she see her future with another human?
Shaking those thoughts out of my head, telling myself to stop being an insecure idiot, I picked up my phone and dialled Marcel's number, praying that he would answer me now that the city was really awake.
Not even half a second later I heard the familiar click of the phone being answered. "Hello, old friend. What can I do for you?"
I rolled my eyes at the forced ease in his greeting. He didn't trust me…yet.
"Hello Marcel. An old friend of mine has decided to visit and she was wondering if you could do her a favour." I said, taking a sip from my glass on whiskey as I waited for him to respond.
"Who is it, and what sort of favour?"
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call her a friend. The only reason her heart isn't clenched in my fist right now is because she's agreed to the conditions I've set for her. She's requesting to see your little witch friend, which she seemed certain you would agree to. However, because of my lack of trust, she wants me to tag along."
Marcel let out a small laugh before turning serious. "Who is this 'she' and how does she even know about my witch?"
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" I replied, dropping my phone into Katherine's waiting hand. She smiled she placed the phone to her ear.
"Marcel, it's been a while."
"The myth! The legend! Katerina Petrova, what are you doing back in New Orleans? With Klaus of all people!"
Flipping her hair over one shoulder, she rested her hand on her hip and let out a throaty laugh. "I need to see Davina. I have a little problem that I need her help with."
"Then why go to Klaus and not directly to me? You're in my city baby girl, you should know that you're always welcome."
Katherine rolled her eyes and took a sip out of her own glass. I watched her carefully as she began to formulate her spiel. "After recent events between the Mikaelson family and I, I felt it was safer for me to go to him first for permission. I'm actually quite shocked that he let me get this close. I half expected to be tied up in his basement by now."
"Still running, after all this time."
"I doubt I'll ever stop Marcellus."
"And you want him to come with you? Are you sure that that's wise? The information that she has is probably best kept out of his hands."
Katherine looked me up and down. "I think he'll be fine."
She spoke to him for several more minutes, but I tuned her out, looking through the door straight at Caroline. She sat next to Hayley, the both of them looking at the small presents that Caroline had bought for the baby. They were discussing something about gender neutral colours, but that wasn't what I was paying attention to. My attention was on the blonde who had moved from her original spot, so I could now take in all of the perfect details of her face.
Her face lit up as she reached into her bag and removed her phone, tapping rapidly at the screen before showing Hayley. Hey eyes glowed as she spoke, her face the only thing coming into focus as her lips moved in succession. I watched as her eyelids fluttered shut and the echoing of a small laugh hit my ears, like bells tinkling.
"Hey, lover boy." Katherine whispered in my ear. I whipped my head around to glare down at her as she pushed my phone back into my hand. "Just so you know, she likes you too."
"And how would you know that?"
"She spent half an hour choosing what to wear. She was running around like a headless chicken. It was quite funny to watch."
I looked back over at Caroline, who still sat with Hayley, and focused in on the outfit that she wore. My lips turned up slightly at the cute little sundress and cardigan she had chosen. It took her half an hour just to choose what she was going to wear. For me.
"Anyway, if you can peel your eyes away from her, we have to get ready. Marcel wants to do this tonight."
"Okay. What's the plan?"
"Well, he told us to meet him at his club down on Bourbon Street. Then he's going to be leading us to Davina. We're meeting him at six." She looked down at a small silver watch on her wrist. "So, in about three hours. That gives us time to prepare. Why don't you go and swoon over Caroline some more. I'll be outside making a few phone calls."
She strutted past me and straight out the front door. As soon as she disappeared I let my eyes glide back to Caroline. Sighing, I rubbed the back of my neck and took hesitant steps forward.
#
"I don't know when we'll be back, but we shouldn't be gone too long." I said, having dragged Caroline away from everyone else. "Will you be okay to stay here with Elijah and Hayley?"
She met my eyes for the first time since she arrived and smiled. "I'm a big girl, Klaus. I can handle a couple of hours here. I'm sure Hayley and I will talk about some more baby things. You've been depriving her of any kind of proper celebration where this baby is concerned. Pregnant women need to be celebrated…worshipped, and Hayley only got her first baby thing today. From someone she doesn't even like."
I scowled at her crossed arms and angry expression. What right did she have to scold me? "Fine. As soon as everything is sorted out, then I'll buy Hayley a present. How does that sound? But for now I'm going to find out what I can about you."
"Okay." She looked around and then hesitantly let her eyes fall on me again.
"What's wrong, Love?"
"Just…don't do anything stupid if you get bad news tonight."
I leant closer to her, watching her blue eyes dilate. "I promise not to do anything stupid if I don't like what I hear."
"Good. I guess I'll see you later."
I told her goodbye and walked out of the house, meeting Katherine next to my car. We were taking my car, as fact that I insisted upon. Katherine didn't seem to mind when she saw the vintage model I owned. We both climbed in and as I started the car I looked up to the lounge window. Caroline stood there watching us. She gave a small wave when she met my eyes. I just smiled confidently as I shifted the gears and backed my way out of the driveway.
"You have it so bad." Katherine said, checking her makeup in the rear-view mirror. I growled and reached across to put the mirror back in the exact spot it had been in before she moved it.
"I do not."
"Yes you do." She said, punctuating each word. "It's not like it's a bad thing. I think you could be good for each other. She's all about making everyone else happy, and being all nice and moral. Whereas you're cruel, ruthless, and only do things that benefit you. It's the whole opposites attract thing."
"And what about you? Pining after Elijah all afternoon. Giving him puppy dog eyes when you think no one notices."
"I've always cared about Elijah, Klaus. I've never claimed that I don't. In fact, I wanted to go and live with him in France. But, I have this odd habit where I tend to be a sadistic bitch. Believe it or not he's not really into that."
"In other words, he dumped you." She stilled for a moment, her hand reaching down to play with a diamond bracelet that I recognised immediately as being a gift that Elijah had been given by a Grecian queen that he had saved many centuries ago. "Sorry, I'm supposed to be acting civil towards you."
"You were being honest, Klaus. I wouldn't expect anything less." She sighed, looking longingly down at the bracelet. "I'm gonna have to get over it eventually."
I stared back at the road, not bothering with replying, and let the car dissolve into a tense silence.
It didn't take us long to drive through the city to Marcel's club, and when we pulled into a car spot directly on the street outside, I could see that it was already filled. Turning off the ignition and moved to get out of the car, but was stopped short when I saw Katherine glaring straight ahead. Following her gaze and felt my own eyes widen.
Standing just outside of the club was an olive-skinned, dark haired woman who was the spitting image of Katherine. I looked back to Katherine, taking in her locked jaw and tense body.
"A friend of yours?" I asked.
"You could say that." She shoved open the car door and quickly jumped out with me following close behind her. She stormed up onto the pavement and stopped in front of the woman. I thought back to 1492 when I had had her family killed. Everyone within her immediate family had been taken care of, but this woman was surely related to her. Katherine crossed her arms over her chest. "I told you to stay back at the house."
"There's no reason for me to follow your orders, Katherine. I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions. Now, why don't you introduce me? I've never had the pleasure of meeting this particular Mikaelson."
I was taken aback by her thick accent. The rough markings of Bulgaria…or Russia. But considering her resemblance to Katherine, that and the fact that she was wearing the high-end clothes, and oozed self-confidence, I would say that it was definitely Bulgaria.
"Hello, I'm Klaus. It's nice to meet you." I said, holding my hand out for her to shake. She took it confidently and steadily made eye contact. She didn't show any sign of being afraid of me.
"It's nice to meet you too. My name's Nadia Petrova."
Katherine seemed to tense even more, if that possible. "What relation are you to Katherine? I'm trying to figure out who I forgot to kill."
Katherine scowled and shot Nadia a warning look before Nadia opened her mouth. "You wouldn't have known to kill me, or where to find me. I'm Katherine's daughter."
The corner of my lips pulled further up into a smirk. That would definitely explain Katherine's behaviour. I looked between the two of them again, finding it even more obvious that they were mother and daughter. The only clear difference between the two of them were Nadia's green eyes.
"That explains a lot."
"Yes, okay! Now that introductions have been made, Nadia can go back home and we can get on with meeting Marcel." Katherine said.
"I thought I might tag along, actually. It has been a while since I attended Marcel's club. It will be nice to reacquaint myself with some old friends."
Nadia led the way to the door, greeting the bodyguard cheerfully, wrapping her arms around him and kissing both of his cheeks affectionately. They spoke briefly before he let the three of us inside.
It wasn't that hard to find Marcel amongst the crowd. He stood directly in the centre of everyone, dancing with three beautiful women.
Katherine's demeanour changed the deeper we got within the club. Gone were her tense shoulders and guarded features, and here was someone entirely different. Completely carefree. She wore a bright smile on her face as she looked around the room full of vampires dancing and grinding on each other. Still standing close to me, but not acknowledging me, she pushed her way through the crowd to Marcel.
Marcel looked up as we approached, his body still moving against the girls he was entertaining, not making any sort of move to come towards us. Nadia, who had been just ahead of me and Katherine as we dodged our way through the people, leapt forward and wrapped a young blue-eyes man into a bone crushing hug and spoke to him rapidly in Occitan.
"Katerina Petrova." Marcel said, emphasising each syllable of her name. He reached out and grabbed her hands in his, leering at her body as he took her in. "Damn, baby girl. I swear you get sexier each time I see you. Although, I like this hair on you much more than the short cut you had last time. Modern times sure have been good to you, if you exclude the fact that you've suddenly decided to befriend Niklaus, of course."
I rolled my eyes at his words, looking around the room and monitoring everyone present in the club, assessing if there were any threats. The crowd was mostly made up of vampires, however there were a few humans scattered in the mix. Meals.
Katherine let out a laugh and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a full on-the-mouth kiss. "Marcellus, it's been far too long. So much has happened in the past 50 years."
Marcel's attention moved from her to me, and his smile faltered as he watched me. "Nik, old friend. You are entirely too uptight. It's a party."
I didn't make a move to change my posture, just raised a brow at him and smirked. "I'm not here to party Marcel, maybe another time. I'm here to make sure that Katherine is behaving."
"Ahh, yes. It was very strange seeing the two of you walking across the room together. Very strange indeed. But, anyway, you must have a drink before we head off. I insist. You can't come to a party without having at least one drink." He led us through the crowd to the bar and ordered us three bourbons. Marcel drank his down in one swift gulp, whereas both Katherine and I took hesitant sips of ours.
"So, what caused you to show Katherine some leniency? It's not like you, Nik?"
"He pitied me because his idiot brother turned me down." Katherine said, having to shout over the blare of the music to have us hear her clearly. She smiled at Marcel and gave him a wink. "But, being turned down once doesn't mean that I won't try again."
"The poor man. I don't think he's capable of acting like anything other than a robot. The man needs to loosen up."
"He can be loose when he wants to be." Katherine leaned even closer to Marcel, whispering directly into his ear. "Why do you think I keep trying?"
We finished our drink and Marcel gestured for us to follow him to the back of the club, where we were quickly joined by Nadia. She and Marcel greeted each other affectionately, which piqued my curiosity of her even more, then we exited the club and walked the back streets towards an old church building.
We all stayed quiet while we made our way down the streets, not wanting to draw any attention to ourselves, and when we reached the church Marcel started to tell us his guidelines for seeing the witch.
"Now, as Katherine knows, Davina is still only 16 years old, she's a child. So I don't want any violence or threats being thrown around. I also don't want you to put any pressure on her if she can't tell you what it is that you want to know. Got it?"
We all nodded in agreement, my gut clenching at the thought of going to a child for help. He opened the large door to the desolate church, and led us past the rows of pews out into the back of the building, then up three flights of creaky stairs to the attic. We stopped in front of a worn door, breathing in I could smell the sealing spell that was placed on it. Marcel knocked twice, stepped back, and waited for the door to be opened.
Seconds passed and then the door swung open to reveal a small, puppy-faced brunette sitting down on a stool in front of an easel drawing eagerly. She smiled a wide tooth-filled smile as she saw us standing in the doorway. Pushing the easel to the side, she came running right into Katherine's arms.
"Aunty Kate, it's so good to see you." She said, hugging Katherine while holding her arms out so that the charcoal that covered them wouldn't smudge on Katherine's clothes. She stepped back and looked cautiously at both Nadia and myself, before looking at Marcel. "I never get visitors."
"Well, Katherine asked nicely if she could come and visit her goddaughter, and I couldn't exactly refuse. Even when she wanted to bring some friends with her."
Davina held her hand out to Nadia first, greeting her by name before she had even been told who she was. Then she turned to me, studying me carefully before holding out her hand. I smiled at her and took her hand, shocked by the tightness in her grip.
"I know why you're here." She turned back into the room, sitting down at her easel and motioned for us to take a seat.
Marcel entered the room first, followed by Katherine and Nadia, then me. We all sat down, Marcel and Katherine taking the small bed in the corner, and then Nadia and I taking a chair each. Davina went straight back to her drawing, and I took in the other pictures that were covering the walls and ceiling. Each one messily taped up on display.
My eyes stopped when they landed on one drawing, the sketch clear and messy at the same time, showing me sitting down and holding a small bundle in my arms. My chest tightened as I forced my eyes away to look at other pictures. One showed Hayley with the professor that had lead everyone to Silas, another showed Marcel killing the witch that had used her magic that first night that I had arrived in the city.
I turned my eyes to Davina who was now watching me silently.
"You're an excellent artist." I said, shifting forward in my seat. "Are all your pictures premonitions?"
"I'm not an artist." She said, doing a couple more lines on the paper that was resting in front of her. "I see something in my mind and then my body wills me to draw it. Some of them come true, some of them change. But, I suppose you could say that they all tell the future."
"Your magic has definitely grown since the last time I saw you Davina." I looked over at Katherine, whose eyes were focused on a small sketch that hung on the roof. An embarrassed flush filled Davina's cheeks. The drawing depicted Katherine and Elijah in the throws of something I didn't really want to see.
"It's always growing. I don't really have control of what I see. I just see it."
"So, can you help us with what we want to know? You said you knew why we're here, so you must know something about it." Katherine met Davina's eyes, completely unashamed of what the young girl had seen.
"Yes and no. It's complicated. I know that Caroline was indeed cured of vampirism. But, I also know that she isn't exactly a human either. There's more to her than meets the eye."
I searched the walls for anything else familiar, anyone that I knew. There were several showing me and my siblings, but it was of things that had already happened, nothing that looked new. And there were none that showed Caroline.
"I know that since her recent transformation her body has needed to adjust to being human again, that's why she was unconscious for so long. Her body had to adapt and age appropriately."
"Age appropriately?" Nadia asked, from her spot next to me.
"The cure would change the person back into their human state, but their body needs to be caught up with itself. It can't pick up where it left off because the person is technically older than what they were when they initially turned. For instance, if Klaus had taken the cure, like many people wanted, then he would have stayed unconscious until his body was prepared to age. Then he would have woken up and over the next two weeks his body would turn into dust, because he's 1000 years old." She paused, grabbing a new stick of charcoal from the packet that sat on a small table next to her. "Whereas Caroline woke up and her body will go through only slight physical changes so that she's up to date…so to speak."
"So if I had taken the cure then I would have died?" Katherine asked, fidgeting in her chair and looking incredibly uncomfortable. I watched Marcel taking everything in from the bed. We hadn't told him about the cure, and I would have preferred to keep it that way, but it was too late now.
"Yep, you would have started to age rapidly. Wrinkles, grey hair, teeth falling out, declining health, then you would drop dead and your skin and flesh would most likely turn to ash. It's actually quite lucky that someone so young was cured, she'll suffer very little backlash from it."
"That's good." Katherine said, looking over at me reassuringly.
"What did you mean when you said that there was something else going on with her?" I asked.
She looked confused for a second and then scribbled on her page for a few moments. "That's the thing. I know there's something else about her, but I don't know what it means. I mean, there's just this one word that I keep seeing, but I can't find the definition anywhere. And my visions usually tell the future, but I know that this is something from the past. I've been wracking my brain for weeks trying to figure it out, and the only thing that I can conclude is that it's something very ancient that kicked in once Caroline was cured. Something that is specific to her, and wouldn't have happened had anyone else taken the cure."
My senses lit up and both Katherine and I leant forward, staring at Davina with wide eyes.
"What word?"
Davina put down the charcoal she was holding and shifted the easel so that we could see what she had been drawing. We both gasped at the now-finished piece that rested there. My brain spun as I took in the drawing, immediately understanding what it was that Davina had been seeing. Remembering stories that my mother had told me and my siblings when we were children.
The drawing was of Caroline's face, so beautiful and bright, but her eyes were different. They were unlike anything I had ever seen before. They had some of the characteristics of vampire and hybrid eyes. The veins beneath them and the dilation of the pupil. But there was just something more human about them. Katherine and I looked at each other, my face falling as she looked at me in wonder.
"The word is something like 'la-nee-ah-me-tie' or 'loo-nee-ah-me-tee'."
