"The ritual needs daisies, not sunflowers!" Caroline barked, voice sharp. Her eyes were narrowed as she scrutinized every detail - to an even greater degree than normal - her nails biting into skin as she stood with her arms crossed.
Absolutely, nothing could go wrong. Nothing. It wasn't a question of being a perfectionist (which she also was), this was a matter of life and death. And failure meant death.
Possibly her coven's.
Likely her own.
But certainly Bonnie's if she didn't execute her plans flawlessly.
A Few Days Ago
"Marcel," Bonnie intoned coolly, unruffled by the circle of jeering nightwalkers that surrounded her.
"Bonnie Bennett," he greeted back with mocking cheer. "My, my how the infamous Bennett line has fallen."
She didn't let even a ripple of her distaste and offense cross her face, instead retorting, "You realize your stranglehold on this city won't last. Nothing does."
He laughed, spreading his arms wide. "Look around you, witch. We're vampires! We last forever!"
Even as the nightwalkers leered and flashed fangs, their eyes alight with sadistic delight, Bonnie just smiled coldly back. A hint of her own sardonic pleasure on her face.
"You're even bigger fools than I thought."
That got a reaction, Marcel immediately scowling as he stalked closer.
"Now, see that attitude just won't do." Spinning on his heel he walked the perimeter of his crew surrounding the witch, working them into a frenzy as he called, "now, will it my friends? And to make matters even worse, she's been accused of the crime of performing magic in the Quarter." He whirled to face her. "So, how do you plead, witch?"
"I'm not going to indulge your little power trip, Marcel."
"Well, if you're not going to speak up…" He flashed directly in front of her. "Then, we find you guilty."
And on the last word he lashed his arm out, slicing through her neck like wet paper. Even as she fell the defiant gleam remained in her eyes, fading only when her life did.
"Let the crows have her," Marcel commanded, leaving the body to rot in the growing pool of blood, his nightwalkers hot on his heels.
Caroline's keen eyes traced over the runes in the circle surrounding Bonnie's body, verifying that every stroke was correct for the thousandth time. She counted the candles as her eyes swept back the other way, double and triple checking that they had the right number and they rested in the correct spots.
With careful steps, expertly skirting the lines of their important work, disturbing nothing, she moved toward a copper bowl filled with cut flowers. The daisies were large, but unblemished, each soft petal looking as fresh as a live plant. Picking up a second bowl, Caroline slowly poured poppy seed oil over the flowers, soaking them.
Ignis
Together the flowers and oil burned. A Beginning and The End. It smelled oddly sweet, the flames burning a bright yellow-orange. After several long moments, the only sound the crackling of the flame, it died down. At the base of the bowl were ashes.
Walking clockwise and then counterclockwise, the blonde witch painted runes on the foreheads of each of her fellow coven members. Passing the bowl off to April, Caroline took her place standing at Bonnie's head, her own runes painted on by April's steady hands.
Meeting the eyes of each of the others, Caroline took a deep breath before looking up, the full moon now at its apex.
Redi Agitari Fluxus
Statera iusta et exolvuntur
Nos hóstias immolámus
Redi Agitari Fluxus
An unnatural wind swept through the circle as the candle's flames erupted into pillars of fire. Their color turned green as they danced in the wind.
Redi Agitari Fluxus
Statera iusta et exolvuntur
Nos hóstias immolámus
Redi Agitari Fluxus
Caroline continued chanting in time with her coven, feeling Bonnie's skin stitch itself together, feeling as the earth trembled under their feet. The wind whipped harder, seeming to screech even as the fire kept dancing to a different rhythm.
Redi Agitari Fluxus
Statera iusta et exolvuntur
Nos hóstias immolámus
Redi Agitari Fluxus
All at once the fire went out and the wind died.
In the silence Bonnie sat up with a gasp.
Marcel glared for a split second, the illusive Caroline Forbes somehow looking even more unimpressed and disdainful than the willful Bennett witch had. However, his upset quickly melted away as the joy of killing not one, but two upstarts in the same week hit.
The death of Caroline Forbes might just deserve a party.
"Caroline Forbes," he started only to be cut off with a sneer.
She tsk-ed. "You're repeating yourself, Marcel. How shameful."
This time it was her to take command of the show, circling the perimeter. Vampires hissed and bared their fangs at her, yet unconsciously shied away as she passed.
"Bonnie told me of your arrogance, you know? 'We're vampires! We last forever'." Caroline impersonated his voice with deliberately insulting inaccuracy, reveling in his unease when he reacted to her words rather than her tone.
"Oh, did I forget to mention?" She asked with faux wide-eyed innocence. "Witches have their own ways of sipping from forever. Tell me, Marcel, have you visited Davina today?"
He froze.
A blink and he was snarling in her face, veins and fangs displayed in all their glory.
"What have you done?!"
"What should have been done ages ago!" The blonde finally broke her composure, shouting back in Marcel's face, not the slightest bit intimidated.
They glared in each other's faces, everyone around them fading to nothing as they watched in bated silence.
After a breath, she calmed. "You know I would almost thank you if you hadn't murdered my friend. She got better. But still it's the principle of the thing, I'm sure you understand?"
Her hand shot forward like lightning just managing to pierce the skin of his chest, blood coating her nails and the tips of her fingers, before a second hand wrapped around her wrist, halting her motion.
Heat and power pressed itself along her back, a voice rumbling in her ear.
"Apologies sweetheart, but I'm afraid I can't allow you to kill him. Wayward son though he may be, only I have the right to punish my family."
She pursed her lips together, internally cursing his timing. Her information was faulty and heads would roll when she returned.
"Klaus," she stated calmly. "Surely, New Orleans politics is a bit beneath you?"
He huffed sounding a tad amused as he whirled her around to face him. There was a tiny glint of that humor, but his expression was mostly dark and foreboding, all threat and menace.
"Careful, sweetheart, I'm not one you can dictate to."
She smirked at him, her own expression just as severe. "Neither am I."
In an instant she vanished from the circle of predators, a fluttering piece of card stock left in her wake.
Klaus' snatched it between his fingers, flipping it around to read the elegant black print.
Caroline Forbes
Supreme of the Sempiternus Coven
And under that a little scribbled note.
See you soon, Klaus.
Title is "Be the Overflow" in Afrikaans which is also a reference to What the Water Gave me - Florence + the Machine. The language is a bit of a stretch, I admit. According to Google, the Gerbara daisy was first discovered in South Africa where one of the languages there is Afrikaans.
Fun Fact: Not only do sunflowers and daisies resemble one another in general shape, they also share similar flower meanings.
Google translated my spell for me so it's definitely off:
Return Disrupt Flow
Balance the Cycle
We Offer these Sacrifices
Return Disrupt Flow
Sempiternus = eternal in Latin
3/15/2020 Mini-sequel additional content below.
Contains smut!
Caroline licked her lips, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips as she took in The Hybrid on her front porch.
"Hello, Klaus," she purred as she leaned against the door frame, shifted purposefully to let her robe slip down her shoulder an inch or two. "You know it's impolite to keep a lady waiting."
His eyes were dark as they followed the movement of the fabric, a sinful smile on his own lips.
"Apologies, sweetheart, but I'm a busy man."
The blonde just chuckled, raking her eyes up and down his frame, spotted the little flecks of blood by the collar of his Henley.
"No doubt. Well, why don't you come in, Klaus?" She backed up to allow the man to step across the no longer barred threshold. The door closing behind him with the thud of a deadbolt locking.
"Such confident," he said as he prowled toward her, "letting me into your humble abode so easily."
Rather than retreating, she stepped into him, molding her curves to the firm planes of his chest, placing her neck daringly close to his teeth as she leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Perhaps, but I'm hardly defenseless. Shall I show you?"
Caroline felt Klaus' lips curl against her neck, and in the next instance she found herself pinned against the wall, the Hybrid now pressed along her back as wood paneling dug into her front.
"Please, show me," he taunted.
Her own smirk was was only seen by the wall as her power flared around her shoving Klaus backward and pinning him to the opposite side of the room. She turned slowly - making a show of straightening her robe - as she met his darkened gaze, a glint of hunting wolf gold in his eyes.
She released him, not surprised when he was on her in a flash, this time chest to chest. One of his hands wove into the curls of her hair, yanking her head back, their eyes blazing at each other.
"Tell me, Caroline, what's the point of this little show of yours?"
She arched backward, purposefully craning her head back a little more in his hold as she peered up at him through half-lidded eyes. She licked her lips. "I firmly believe in the power of multi-tasking, Klaus. Business and pleasure," she purred.
Her fingers fiddled with the tie of her robe, the top gaping open until it only just covered the points of her nipples.
She felt the answering growl in his chest, the beginning of an erection pressing against her thigh, saw his eyes unashamedly appreciating the sight. Yet his response's tone dripped honey while the words spat acid.
"Hmm, you're certainly not the first little witch who tried to seduce her way to power. What makes you think you'll succeed?"
Caroline scoffed, a jolt of genuine irritation running through her at his insult. Her magic snapped out again, this time tearing open his shirt rather than shoving him away. She at least wanted something pretty to look at it too. It was only fair after all, regardless of how the rest of their negotiations proceeded.
"Don't be such a misogynist, Klaus," she sneered. "Women can want meaningless sex just as much as any man and if she manages to get something else out of it too all the more power to her." Her hands slid up his chest, appreciative of the sleek lines of his muscles if not his words. "Now, we can retire to my office if you like and discuss certain important matters like the running of NOLA and Marcel. Or…" She wound her arms around his neck, pleased when she easily tugged his face closer to hers, and murmured her offer against his lips. "We could fuck each other silly and discuss certain important matters like the running of NOLA and Marcel."
Klaus held the audacious witch in his arms, their clothes covering little thanks to her actions. Aroused despite himself as her eyes sparked with blue fire, her tongue a sharp and cutting thing, while her lips were soft and warm and taunting.
His eyes narrowed as he released her hair, both hands reaching down to hitch her legs around him, blurring impossibly fast toward the first room he found.
Good, Caroline couldn't help but think as the two rushed deeper into her house, the impact of their bodies against the wall seeming to reverberate through the space.
She curled her own fingers in the soft curls of his hair, smashing their already brushing lips together with heated aggression. Her blunt teeth bit at his bottom lip, tugging it between her own.
If the Hybrid was surprised, he didn't show it, matching her fervor with his own as he tore at the tie of her robe, his tongue dueling with hers all the while.
Hand at the small of her back, he pressed her against him, rubbing her sensitive and aching nipples against his skin. Her legs still hooked around him as he pressed against the wet heat of her, their arousal obvious even through their remaining clothes. Warm and wet and hard.
Not to be outdone, Caroline pulled away painting, unwinding her legs to stand once more. The scent of ozone sizzled in the air as his belt and zipper snapped and broke, her hand slithering down to grip the hard line of his cock.
She quirked an eyebrow, tightening her fist and making one firm stroke as she questioned him. "Commando, Klaus?"
He groaned, the veins of his neck slightly strained. "Well, sweetheart it seems it was warranted considering all the clothes you're destroying." His voice had deepened in reaction to her ministrations, her hands still caressing his cock.
And before she could react, Klaus was returning the favor, tearing through her lace panties and burying two fingers in the wet heat of her, curling them to stroke her where she was most sensitive.
Her eyelids fluttered, even as she shoved down his jeans, twisting her palm around the head of his cock. And then she was pushing him back, irritated with their remaining scraps of clothes, tossing aside her robe bunched around her elbows.
The Hybrid's eyes had flashed with irritation before he realized what she was doing. Gaze eagerly devouring the final bits of newly revealed skin, as he tore off the last of his own clothes and shoes to carelessly toss aside.
And then he was on her again, shifting them from the wall to the sitting room table, bending her over it as he cupped her wet heat, palm massaging her clit. Sparks of pleasure ran up her spine, her core clenching around nothing, Klaus hard and hot between her ass cheeks.
She chased her pleasure, allowing him to have his way for a few moments as she rutted against his hand, unashamed of how quickly she was soaking it. His breath was hot on her neck as he nipped at the skin.
"Eager, sweetheart?"
Always with the taunts, this one.
With a little magical aid, Caroline twisted, managing to hook her legs around Klaus' waist and flip them. She smirked down at his stunned expression, grinding on the hard line of his cock instead.
"Quite. And I'm a busy woman," she mocked him with his earlier words, "so if we could move things along…" Her voice trailed off with a hiss as she suddenly impaled herself on him, relishing the burn of the stretch. Her walls clamping down around him, the length and girth of him absolutely perfect.
Klaus' stupor quickly ended, the blonde witch only able to roll her hips once before she was under him once more.
"Move things alone, you say? As you wish."
The Hybrid set a merciless pace, pounding into her and rocking the whole table with each thrust. Caroline's eyes rolled back as she moaned, wrapped her legs around him and delighted in his inhuman speed and strength, feeling each impact hit something deep inside her.
"Oh! Fuck, Klaus! Yes, right there!"
Klaus was mesmerized by the witch's glorious bouncing breasts, the tight vice of her body squeezing him, her nails raking down his back. He growled as she cried out his name and leaned forward to take one of her nipples in his mouth, pleased when she cried out again.
He wanted to feel her shatter around him and he released her breast with a wet pop, sliding a hand down between them to rub her clit. His other hand arched her back, near lifting her from the table and allowing her no leverage, tilting her hips to alter his angle and-
His fangs burst through his gums as she shrieked, writhing in his arms, walls fluttering around his cock as she came.
"That's it, Caroline. Good girl."
He easily lifted her from the table, her body still shuddering through her orgasm, and thrust up into her, letting gravity pull her even further down his cock. His fingers gripped the soft curves of her ass, buried himself within her as he let his own orgasm sweep through him.
Caroline's toes curled as she felt Klaus' release pool hot and thick within her. Centuries of sex had certainly done the man great favors for his prowess.
Her legs were even slightly wobbly as she unhooked them from around his hips, letting herself move backward toward the table. She sat. Leaned back a little and supported herself with her arms. Eyes still dark with pupils blown wide. Let her legs splay open a little so he could see her thighs stained with their mutual release.
She purred, feeling relaxed and sated as she took in the Hybrid standing before her, his own form still equally bare.
"Now, about Marcel…"