A/N:

What's up everybody? I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I've updated...three years? Oh my gosh. I'm sorry it's been so long, but I've finally had the chance and the mental strength to write again. I was going through a lot of change and difficulties these last couple years (starting college for one), but I'm back ready to finish this story. So here goes nothing! Here's a new chapter of Taking His Offer! This is in Marcel's POV, and we also get to see Klaus's as well. I have finally gotten over my writer's block...a little late, right? Anyway. So here we go! Enjoy.

~Erin

Chapter 48

September 22

When Corrie slammed an antiqued urn onto my desk triumphantly, a wicked smile gracing her perfectly contoured face. There was a maniacal gleam in her eyes, and I knew that something had happened to make her grin like a cheshire cat. I approached the urn, and when I looked at the engraved plate, a wicked smile of my own crossed my face.

"Is this what I think it is?" I asked Corrie, who nodded with a sadistic grin. I carefully picked up the urn, turning the ebony colored stone between my palms. This was it. We had what we needed to defeat the Original Hybrid, and his mess of a family. Klaus had abandoned me, and now it was time to seek my revenge.

"Do you have the rest of the ingredients? They will be necessary to complete the ritual." Corrie questioned me. I nodded, and opened my desk drawer to reveal the aged glass vial and a bundle of herbs.

Finding witchcrafting objects in New Orleans was quite easy, and I had gathered the needed ingredients without a spec of was a witch mastermind, so it would not take much to achieve the spell that I had in mind.

"Well, let us begin."Corrie sauntered out of my office, and into the courtyard below. I watched as she prepared everything for the ritual, from the chalk lines surrounding us on the cobble stone floor, to meticulously placing the herbs and mixing the other ingredients in a marble stone and pestle.

It was only a few minutes before Correntine's eyes met my own, and I knew that preparations were ready. Corrie motioned for me to approach her in the center circle she had carefully drawn on the courtyard ground. Watching my step, I entered the ritual's borders. Corentine left her position for a moment to retrieve the ashes of Kol Mikaelson, and placed them on the opposite side of the courtyard, in it's own secular circle.

"Are you ready to begin?" Corrie asked me, a sly grin on her pale lips. Looking once more at the urn that faced us on the other end of the courtyard, I nodded with agreement.

Corrie positioned herself to begin the spell, and almost instantly I could physically feel a change in the energy that surrounded us. Corrie's eyes were closed tight, her lips mumbling incoherently to herself. After she had spoken a few words of a foreign tongue, the melted candles that surrounded us flickered to life, signaling a sudden surge of power.

"Elevare ab cinerem filius daemonis. Eum iterum in spiritus vitae." The words of the spell flowed from Corrie's mouth a serpent on a bed of wet leaves. The wind around us began to pick up, signaling the beginning of the spell.

I watched as the urn that held Kol's ashes began to slowly shake, levitating a bit off the multicolored cobblestone of the courtyard's floor. Corrie's eyes remained closed, and her hands were shaking with the amount of power surging through them.

"Ne leuet inferno, et mundo sicut et nos volo mundare oriri. Auxilio est vas proferet hostes superabit."

Power flowed throughout the air, causing a crackling noise to fill my ears. Corrie's bodie quivered, and I watched as the urn shattered, sending the ashes of Kol into a swirling pattern. I watched in amazement as they began to take shape, creating a large mass in the center of the chalk circle that Corrie had drawn to complete the spell.

Corrie continued to speak inaudible words as she finished the spell. The wind around us whipped like the blast of a hurricane, and I had to steady myself to remain planted firmly on the ground. Leaves surrounded us, and trash swished in the currents, which held an almost icelandic temperature. Keeping my eyes on the urn, I was mystified when I finally saw the complete image of a person emerge.

Finally, Corrie finally dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Looking to the circle across from us, I saw a male figure crumpled in a heap, with a form that strongly resembles that of Kol Mikaelson. I had only known him briefly, as Klaus had always kept him away, as he believed he was a bad influence. But I would know a Mikaelson jawline anywhere.

Though my suspicions were confirmed when I heard a groan come from the form, and I watched as the person in the circle across from us shifted onto their side. It was undeniably Kol Mikaelson, dressed into ratty clothes stained from where he had been stabbed with the White Oak Stake. I almost had to contain my laughter when the first words came from his mouth, once he had opened his eyes. Looking around, you could tell he was confused, but his verbatim was the most entertaining. Once his sight landed on me, only a brief word exited his lips.

"What the bloody hell."

Klaus POV

I was having to keep my anger from overpowering me. My greatest urge at the moment was to punch a hole in the damask patterned wallpaper that surrounded us in the plantation's formal living room.

I had been bloody deceived.

"Niklaus, I believe it would be wise of you to cool your temper. Your anger will get us nowhere." Elijah was trying to be the peacekeeper during my impending meltdown.

"Klaus, please. Just calm down." Caroline's sweet voice was what finally drew me out of my anger induced gaze. She placed her petite hand on my shoulder, pulling me away from the painted wood doorway.

"I cannot believe I fell for such a rouse." I was killing myself for being so naive. I had trusted Aurelia, or Pearl, or whatever her name had been. And it had backfired, in a horrid way.

She had taken something of immense value. The ashes of Kol, my brother. He could be a pain in the arse, but he had still been part of my family. I had always done my best to honor my family, and now I had lost the only memorial of him. His ashes.

"Klaus, you can't beat yourself up over this. She deceived us all. It wasn't just you." Caroline was doing her best to comfort me. She moved her hand from my shoulder to place it on my cheek, and I gave her a small smile. She was doing her best.

"Caroline is right, Niklaus. We had no idea what this girl had planned, or that she was even working for Marcellus. The only thing we can do now is find out why the ashes were her target." Elijah had always been the most sensible of our siblings, and it was showing in that moment.

"It's getting late. Tomorrow, we can research more about what Marcel might have now, we should all rest." Caroline was right, as the sun had set long ago. I had been stewing for hours, after I had cared for Caroline. I was still pissed that Aurelia/Pearl had harmed her.

"Good night, brother. Miss Forbes." Elijah bid his farewells, and left Caroline and I alone. We stood in silence for a moment before Caroline spoke.

"I'm going to head up to get ready for bed. Don't stay down here too long, okay?" Caroline spoke, and I nodded. She gave me a concerned look before kissing my cheek, and leaving to ready herself for bed.

As I watched her leave, I could not help but sigh. I had a vow to protect my family, and I had broken it. This had been a new low in my life, and I was feeling it's impact. So I made a new vow, one I couldn't break.

Never again.

A/N:

Okay guys...that felt amazing to write. I'm finally ready to finish this story, and I hope you'll continue to read. This is going to be endgame. I promise. Here's to a full story! Let me know what you think...

Thanks.
Erin