Beginning of 2x18
And here comes the part where I'm all get-the-hell-out-of-Alaric-,-Klaus-,-but-that's-cool-'cause-Matt-Davis-is-awesome-even-as-Klaus...
Adjusting to our reality, part 22: It's Terror
Alaric was asleep.
Was he?
Maybe he wasn't.
He didn't know.
But he wasn't conscious.
Not exactly.
It felt...
As if he was so tired..
That he could...
Only grasp...
A shadow of...
Reality.
Because, obviously, no one was going to explain to him that he was currently being possessed by an original vampire. Klaus hadn't asked for permission, why would he bother to explain that? And, well, it wasn't as if Alaric was in any state to understand anything.
Katherine, compelled – and why the hell could the body scrounger still compel her when he wasn't even in a vampire's body, let alone an Original's body? – watched him complain to his warlock puppet as he delayed the moment of her torture. If only Klaus could be a little less annoyingly himself, she would have enjoyed the sight. The boy he had hijacked was... gorgeous. But the idea of this body torturing her wasn't exactly lovely. And the idea of being tortured by Klaus, even if he wasn't in his own body, wasn't great at all.
"It's been years since I've been in a human body. Something like... the early Thirties? I don't even remember why I did that back then, but what I'm certain of, is that I feel vulnerable. I don't like it. Those humans have freakingly frightening frail bodies. I really, really don't like it."
Maddox looked like the stupid puppet he was, and that was angering Katherine. You had to be utterly stupid to obey to the Original out of your own free will. Not only he didn't care about what might happen to you, but he also was prompt to kill for one mistake. One single mistake.
Granted, being his enemy wasn't exactly a safe option too, she knew that all too well.
But licking his boots was too much.
"You could have done worse. This body is better than most."
Klaus and Katherine frowned at the same time. Sure, Alaric Saltzman wasn't a fatso and he had charm, but that was it, wasn't it?
"Better?! I don't know what's his problem, but I feel like my left shoulder is going to explode anytime. If I had known, I'd have found a guy without arthrosis."
Served him right. If Katherine couldn't say a word, she could still think freely, and she certainly wasn't going to feel sorry for him. Klaus was an asshole, and hell, if he was going to jump into someone's body without asking if he could first, then he deserved to suffer a little. Or even a lot.
Maddox dared to sigh, the doppelganger was impressed. Idiot puppet had dared to sigh in front of his lord and master. Miracles were real. Well. Not real enough for her to be spared, but at least she could still be sarcastic about things. Sarcasm was fun, so it was cool.
"Not any human."
"What do you mean?"
"This Alaric Saltzman is as cursed as a human can be."
Well, that was unexpected. And Katherine was totally fond of anything that'd keep Klaus' attention away from her fate. For now, he wasn't thinking about how he was going to have her killed, and that was for the vampire's pleasure. Timeout, please. The suffering would come soon enough.
"Say that again?"
Klaus was massaging his shoulder as he could, and that looked like it hurt like hell. Oh, and, for the record, doubt was all over his face. Katherine was more interested in knowing him to be in pain.
Maddox examined Alaric Saltzman's body from head to toe with a disgusted look on his face.
"When witches or warlocks touch a vampire, they feel Death. For a werewolf, it's Bestiality. Another witch, Connexion. Untriggered werewolf, a fainter bestiality. This man... I've never felt such a thing. He's alive, but covered by Death."
"Which means?"
Hey, fool. The warlock said he had never felt anything like that. That meant he didn't know, dumbass. Gosh, it felt good insulting Klaus, even if it was only in her own head.
Maddox tried to explain nonetheless, but he really wasn't eager to talk about it.
"When I come into physical contact with a vampire, I'm submerged by a freezing wave of Death. With this body... It's Terror. As if just by standing next to it, Death will come for me. I only noticed after I first touched his skin, when I brought him here, but... residual, I guess. At the time, it made me want to throw up out of fear. I can't tell you more, I just don't know what's up with this guy."
Klaus frowned. It wasn't exactly a problem, and he could ignore the pain. But it was strange...
As if he had already heard those words a long time ago.
"Well. It's not important. Bring me the trunk, will you?"
The doppelganger, still sitting on the shitty chair he had ordered her to sit on, saw the warlock relax. Maybe he really didn't like talking about this sensation that he had had.
Maddox went to the front door of the loft, and pulled an old trunk to the center of the room.
Katherine saw Klaus bend over it, searching for something.
The body scrounger looked for a couple of wooden rings that had been soaked with vervain a long time before. Just what he needed for the cute and obnoxious doppelganger.
There were all sorts of enchanted and special-torture jewelry in this trunk, cursed necklaces, restraining wristbands, daylight rings, even concealing earrings if the Original remembered well.
When he spotted the two rings, Klaus had a crooked smile, and reached for them. His hand, or, more accurately, Alaric's, came into contact with a purple ring, most likely made with amethyst.
Klaus withdraw his hand as soon as the pain, very similar to that of an electric discharge, let him do so. The human heart he was borrowing went crazy for something like three seconds, speeding up, slowing down, as if it was trying to stop its own beating one way or another.
Katherine repressed a smile. Things were finally becoming interesting.
"Maddox."
The warlock looked at him, intrigued.
"Can I do something for you?"
"Grab this ring for me. I'd like to confirm something."
Maddox frowned, but obeyed. It was a silver ring with a square shaped amethyst embedded. The gemstone had been engraved with an eight-pointed star. He handed it to Klaus, but the original vampire wasn't going to try to touch it again. Once was enough, thank you very much.
Instead, he pondered for about one minute.
That dull pain in the teacher's shoulder, could it have been...?
"I might have an idea about who this Alaric is..."
And Klaus went to the bathroom.
Katherine snorted. In silence, of course. She didn't want to remind her sworn enemy she was right here, at his mercy, waiting for her punishment.
It wasn't fair. Building up the suspense like that, and leaving her to her ignorance. Now she was curious, and she wasn't going to know the bottom of it? Seriously?
Klaus got rid of the shirt the history teacher had been wearing as he had borrowed his body, and tried to see the back of his shoulder in the mirror of the bathroom.
There it was.
"You've got to be kidding me... Maddox, my phone. Now."
The bloody star-shaped scar. No wonder he was in pain. The rather simple magic seal, specially conceived for the members of the Falkenbach Family, and therefore usable only by those who had their blood, even if they weren't witches, was reacting to the use of magic on his vessel's body.
Violently, as always.
The doppelganger watched the warlock search for the phone with curiosity. Maybe she'd be able to hear what Klaus was going to say, if the Original wasn't going to let her see. Such a pity. Alaric Saltzman was good looking, and Katherine would have enjoyed the view.
Back in the bathroom, Klaus grabbed the cellphone with what seemed to be anger, and a bit of incomprehension at the same time, but not exactly concern. Not for now, at least.
The phone rang for an awful lot of time, and just before it switched to the voice mailbox, a sleepy person picked up the phone.
"Who the fuck is... Klaus. Happy to hear your voice. Even if it's not yours. You know it's two in the morning here, don't you? Why don't you try calling back in... I don't know, sixteen years, maybe?"
"Yes, I haven't called in years, I know. But I hope you still do what I ordered you to."
"You mean, taking care of the psycho you locked up in the Sixties? Sure, that's even my raison d'être."
"If you're trying to tell me you fucked up, Barnett, you know what is awaiting you."
"Calm down, he's okay. Or, a bit desiccated, but you knew that already, didn't you? After all, you're the one who said no blood for the psycho. What do you want from me?"
"Well, it's time to wake up the sleeping beauty."
The voice stayed silent a long time. Klaus could almost hear the gears of Barnett's brain going at top speed. When he finally spoke, fear could be discerned through a faint trembling of his tone.
"You want me to wake him up?! There's no way I'm letting this guy loose ever again. Last time, you lost seven vampires and three warlocks to overcome him, and I'm not even taking into account the killing spree that had preceded. Even if he surely has let go of his madness by now, I'm not sure he'll be thrilled to hear about you. I don't have a death wish, thank you very much!"
Klaus tried to refrain from making torture promises, but he was very close to.
"Only one glass of blood, Barnett. He won't be strong enough to behead you with only one glass after all this time. And if you don't do it, he won't kill you, but I will for sure. So do it. Now."
Oops. He had threatened Barnett. Well. It had been bound to happen, and it would happen again, so no need to worry. The vampire had always been a pain in the ass as soon as no one was there to monitor him directly. Sometimes Klaus had to remind him of who he was talking to.
The Original hung up the phone and went back to the main room to take care of Katherine.
He had a lot of things to ask about what exactly the other doppelganger had planned with her two almost-boyfriends, about the teacher he was a little more than impersonating, and various other things, such as which kind of torture she liked most.
"And... you listened to this conversation, didn't you?"
It was so obvious he should have thought about it. But it didn't really matter, so he wouldn't be angry about that. He already had a lot of things to be angry about.
"I did. And this you-that-is-not-you has nice chest hair, by the way."
The doppelganger really couldn't refrain from being sarcastic, could she? As if anyone cared about the local history teacher's chest hair. She just liked to be unpleasant.
"And he has a disgusting scar on his back, if you want to know, but that's none of your concern."
He was asking about the relationship between his host and the Gilbert Family, when his cellphone rang. It was about time.
"Barnett?"
The voice who answered him was certainly not the vampire's. It was a vampire's, all right, but it wasn't Barnett's. A hoarse voice, coming out of a throat that hadn't been hydrated for decades, the voice of a vampire that had been alternately something of a friend, something of a prisoner.
"Try again, dear."
The vampire coughed, yearning for more blood.
"And don't worry about your slave, he's alive. Or... maybe not, I'm not sure. But you don't worry about people, so I guess it's alright... I needed to quench the thirst, you know... Right now, I'd take anything, even animal blood if I have to."
Klaus clenched his teeth. Maybe he shouldn't have given him a drop of blood, after all. The vampire couldn't kill him, but he could make his life hell if he wanted to. And he obviously wanted to.
"So, Klaus, what do you want from me?"
"You told me your entire family had been wiped out during the Second World War. So why the hell the body I'm currently borrowing has your scar on it?"
