A/N – Sorry I left things in a bit of a cliffhanger – and this is a long chapter – so I hope you like it. We'll do some heavy Klaroline in the next chapter and then we're back to the action. Thank you for your support, always! The follows, favorites, and to neshiiee25, 93, Damon X Misaki, Quwinntessa Starber, jessnicole, An Amber Pen, Ellavm18, Jewelz1642, beverlie4055, DevilJolie, MsCindz and all my guests. The notifications I get from you guys inspire me every day.

By noon each of us that were staying in the mansion had showered and gotten dressed while the others kept looking for a solution to the problem. Marcel, maybe in an effort to make amends, called Thierry who showed up not long after that with lunch for fifty people. Clarice took a break to take food up to Davina and her girls while the rest of us ate, scattered around the library, frantically searching for the spell Clarice needed to save the younger witch.

"How are things coming along?" Marcel asked his lieutenant, his face grave.

"We've gotten word out to most of our people," Thierry explained.

The conversation drew Elijah's interest. Marcel sensed the ancient one's gaze and turned to face him. "Tyler and his growing hybrid army are picking off my people," Marcel explained. "He used us to set up camp here and to get going."

"And yet you helped him," Elijah pointed out.

"Yeah, I did," Marcel admitted. "Klaus came down here ready to take back the city from me. You and I both know that whatever Klaus wants, he takes by whatever means necessary. I didn't want any of my people to get hurt. It wasn't hard for Tyler to convince me that he wanted to help us and with his hybrids, we'd have real muscle. We didn't have to bow to Klaus. No one had to get hurt and I could keep the city. That's what he sold me. Then he told us that another original was in town."

Kol's head shot up at that.

"And that you guys had a set of strong witches from your own bloodline," Marcel went on.

"Haley shared that information with you?" Elijah asked calmly. I sensed that he wasn't quite that calm beneath the surface.

"Never saw Haley that much," Marcel told him. "Just in passing a couple of times. I never spoke to her."

Elijah didn't say anything, appeared to be waiting to see if Marcel would say anything else. He had to know he and his people were in danger. He seemed willing to put his cards on the table.

"More quickly than you can fathom, Tyler had himself a sizable army of hybrids and most of them? They seemed to want to do anything but help us. We quickly learned that they were werewolves first who hated our kind and with good reason. Vampires ran them out of town long ago and they haven't amounted to much, until now," Marcel went on. "At first, I didn't know how Tyler was creating … changing them. I didn't know he was using Haley and ah…"

His gaze flashed to me and dropped.

"It's okay," I told him. "I know about the baby, who the father is."

Marcel met my gaze, nodded.

"It didn't take long before Tyler got in with the witches who want to get back at me for not allowing magic in the Quarter and using Davina against them, keeping her from them to complete their harvest. It became clear that we weren't needed anymore and the hybrids have started picking off our people, one by one."

Elijah still stared at him intently, still waiting. Kol was listening with great interest as I was.

"When I confronted Tyler about my people, he pretty much told me to stay out of his way. See, it wasn't until then I realized what his actual plan was. It was never his intention to help us thwart Klaus. He wants to destroy Klaus. And he doesn't want to just kill him. He wants to make a big show of it, like he's going to take his hybrids and start a new world order. He plans to start by getting rid of Klaus and the original family."

Kol and Elijah exchanged a glance while my chest tightened. Attempts to kill Klaus? Nothing new. I'd even been in on a few of those plans in the past. But the thought now that anyone would try to kill him? Take him out of my life? No. Pushing the fear down as far as I could, I forced myself to focus on what Marcel was telling us.

"Klaus got word to me that's he'd welcome us to his side of things," Marcel said finally. "If I relinquished my claim on New Orleans."

"And?" Kol asked.

"It's good to be king." Marcel sighed. "But there are things that matter more. The people who've been with me for years? I don't want to lose more of them. So we're here to join on Klaus' side. We're getting word to our people as we speak."

Elijah and Kol considered this carefully. The threat to Klaus, his family that I'd come to care about? Was more important in my mind.

"How does Tyler think he can even hurt Klaus?" I asked him. "I know we never found a way to get rid of him permanently and we really tried."

Marcel looked at me like I was crazy for a moment while Kol chuckled.

"It's a long story," I said quickly.

A grin threatened to spread on Marcel's face. "I'll bet."

"He says he has some weapon that can kill an original, that will kill Klaus," he told me. "And he said he has to make sure that your witches can't step in to save him, so he said the witches were helping him come up with a plan to deal with them."

In alarm, I looked to Elijah. Could Tyler have a white oak stake? He and the witches were planning to go after Clarice and her girls? The same concern I felt was mirrored in Kol's face.

Elijah seemed to share my worry, turning his attention back to Marcel. "What of Hayley? Davina told us she was being held against her will, that she wasn't well."

Marcel's face looked a little stricken at that. "How did Davina even talk to her? How… I don't know. I haven't even seen Hayley recently."

Elijah was on his feet. "Do you know where she'd be? Would you have access to her?"

Marcel and Thierry exchanged a glance. "Maybe," Thierry told him. "If the timing was right. And if they haven't figured out where we are yet."

"They could do a locator spell any time," Kol reminded them. "If you're going to make a move, better move fast."

I could tell Elijah was conflicted. Hayley mattered to him. But so did Davina. I hated the pained look he wore.

"You guys should go," I told Elijah. "See if you can get her out of there. If what Davina says is true, she's trapped. And Kol's right. The witches could figure out where you are any time and you could lose your chance."

Elijah approached me, capturing one of my hands between his. "Davina?"

"We'll take care of her," I told him. "Klaus is out with Rebekah and Stefan looking for something to help, Bonnie is looking with us. We'll take care of her. Clarice will figure this out."

A gust of wind hit the window of the library with tremendous force and I jumped in Elijah's grip.

"Air," he said, staring hard at that window. "The magic working against Davina is accelerating."

"Then go," I told him, making him look me in the eye. "So we can work on it."

When he glanced at Kol, his younger brother nodded, supporting me. Slowly, Elijah released my hand, seeming to make a decision.

"Let's go," he told Marcel and Thierry and just like that, they were gone.

My phone hummed in the pocket of my jeans and the same time the next blast of wind hit. I was relieved to see it was Bonnie.

"Hey, did you find anything?" I asked hopefully.

"I think I did," she said, excitement in her voice. "Is Clarice there?"

"She's upstairs," I said, "hold on." And I vamp sped up the stairs. Kol on my heels.

Clarice jumped when I appeared in the doorway, Anya rolling her eyes at her mother.

"It's Bonnie," I held out the phone to her.

Davina looked feverish and Christine sat next to her, holding her hand.

I moved back to the door to stand by Kol, meaning to listen in on what Bonnie told Clarice.

"Bonnie should come down and visit us," Kol said.

"Yeah, that's be great," I said absently, trying to listen. "I'd love to visit with her."

"Is she still seeing Gilbert?"

Okay, that caught me off guard. "What?"

Kol was smirking when I looked up at him. "It's a simple question. Is she seeing Gilbert again now that, like myself, she's back on this side?"

"Why?" He couldn't be serious.

"She's cute. Fiesty." Nodding in the direction of the phone where we could both hear her speaking to Clarice, he asked. "Well?"

"Don't even think about it," I said emphasizing each word. "And yes, she's with Jeremy."

"Well that's a real shame," he said with disappointment that wasn't common for him.

"He's a friend of mine," I told him.

"Who helped his sister kill me."

I scoffed at him. "You were trying to kill Jeremy," I reminded him.

"No, I only wanted to take the arm off. The tattoo. I was only trying to stop Silas," he threw back at me.

"Mutilation? Yeah, that's better." I rolled my eyes at him. "And we didn't know that much about you. We couldn't trust you. You were… scary. Elena was just protecting her brother, just as you'd protect your siblings, your witches."

The anger that had been building in his expression subsided at that. "Scary but not missed," he said bitterly.

"That's not true," I told him.

"And you know how?" he asked me bluntly.

"Klaus was there at Elena's house right after you were killed," I told him. "Bonnie showed up then too, to try and help with you. But then we needed her to keep him from killing Elena and Jeremy, so she trapped Klaus in the living room with a spell. Tyler went over there to gloat at him because Klaus had recently killed his mother. He wanted to rub it in."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Kol regarded me with those dark eyes.

"I went in to find Tyler and to ask him what he was doing. There he was in the kitchen, walking around your burnt body there in the floor, taunting Klaus. Klaus was trapped there… you were in clear site and no one had bothered to cover… you up. You know it's really weird talking about your body with you standing there staring at me."

Kol smirked at that. "I'll bet. And?"

"And Klaus was devastated. You could see it in his face. When I got there, he was trying to reason with me. He said we'd killed his brother and he'd killed Tyler's mother. He wanted to call it even, he said he'd simply leave. But Tyler wouldn't have it."

"How did you feel about your old boyfriend then?"

"Well, I have to admit that it didn't sit well with me how Tyler acted," I explained. "But that's not the point. The point is, your brother mourned you. He cared. And Klaus, as you know, doesn't reveal emotion… easily."

"And you noticed that about him even then," Kol told me.

I nodded. Why lie about it?

"Please don't be angry with them," I told him. "I'm sorry about what happened. I am. But blame us, not your family."

Kol shook his head. "You're not to blame, Caroline. And in time, I'll let go of any lingering… resentment. I'm just glad to be back. Glad my family is safe."

When he said family, I realized he meant Clarice and her girls.

"You really care about them, don't you?" I had to ask.

"Yes," he admitted. "I've watched over them, I've learned from them. You see, I wasn't just one of the younger originals to them. I meant something."

"You concealed them," I realized at that moment. "You wanted to hide them from Klaus, from your other siblings."

"With Klaus' obsession with breaking the curse, do you blame me?"

I shook my head. "But you had to reveal them to bring you back," I pointed out.

"I did," he told me. "But I'd lost my connection with them on the other side. There, for whatever reason, I couldn't ever find them. I always thought it was because of the connection being broken. Klaus daggered me more than a hundred years ago in New Orleans. I lost a couple of generations by the time I was released. When I died, I didn't know if the line had even continued and who was left if it had."

"Did you look for them?" I asked.

"I did but with everyone trying to resurrect Silas, I came back before I found them. Try to stop him took priority," Kol explained. "Then you came along."

Kol placed a hand on my shoulder, looking into my eyes. "I was so damned happy when you came up with the idea of having Gilbert reach out to me. I'd been trying to get him to talk to me but of course, he ignored me with everything he had. You set my return in motion, you found my family."

Now I felt ashamed. He was giving me credit for something I did for my own selfish reasons. My only thought had been bringing Bonnie back.

Shaking my head, I said, "Please don't give me any credit for that, Kol, I –"

"I know why you did it." He smiled at me. "But I'm still grateful. And my girls think a lot of you."

"I think a lot of them," I admitted. "I'm just sorry that you worked so hard to keep them hidden all those centuries and they've been revealed now."

Kol's smile widened. "You've seen Clarice handle Klaus. If she can handle him, I'm not that worried about anyone else. And the girls? They might rule the world one day."

I laughed but before I could say anything I noticed Clarice's conversation with Bonnie had ended.

"Okay," Clarice announced, handing me the phone. Well, I'd missed her conversation with Bonnie. The wind still raged outside and her expression was a mix of panic and determination. "Girls, come with me to get some things."

Davina watched with shiny eyes from the bed as the girls darted after their mother.

"Caroline, Kol, stay with Davina," Clarice ordered as she began racing down the hall.

Kol followed me to the bed and I sat on the edge at Davina's side. The girl looked so small, so afraid.

"It's getting worse," she whispered.

I reached for her hand. "We're going to fix this," I told her. "You've seen what Clarice can do. It's going to be okay."

Clarice marched into the room, a black backpack slung over her shoulder. Peering around me at Davina, she said, "We need to do this outside. We're going to carry you out there? Okay."

Looking nervous, Davina glanced from me and to Kol and back to me. I nodded and she reached for me. I gathered her in my arms and rose from the bed with her. Clarice nodded and motioned for us to follow her. And we did, with her girls, out behind the mansion, across the manicured lawn and under an enormous oak tree. The sky held an angry mass of black clouds and I held on to the shivering girl as Clarice pulled a huge salt container from the bag and formed a circle around the base of the tree. The winds lashed furiously all around us and a flash of lightning had the girls wide-eyed next to me.

"Caroline," Clarice called to me, "bring Davina into the circle."

I did as she asked. Kol stood behind her girls who were about to follow me.

"No," Clarice held up a hand to them. "Girls, after what happened the other day, I won't channel you. I don't want what happened last time."

"Mom," Christine said as Kol moved to put a hand on her shoulder to stay her. "We'll be okay. We want to help."

Shaking her head, Clarice said, "No girls. It will be okay."

"Will you be okay?" Kol asked her.

Clarice hesitated before answering. "I will."

She directed me to leave Davina propped against the trunk and to leave the circle and stand with Kol. She pulled out a few other objects, they looked like talismans of some sort, and placed them around the tree in an order that apparently needed to be precise considering the attention she paid to it. The girls watched with fascination as their mother then sank to her knees before Davina, clasping hands with the younger witch. When she began to chant, words I didn't understand, the winds picked up and my hair began to lash about my face and the force of it almost propelled me backwards. The girls did stumble, Kol moved to steady them, watching the ceremony as intently as they did.

Lightning split the dark, angry sky with one flash after another as Clarice continued to work the spell. The winds howled, hot summer winds that made visibility dim. When the witch stopped chanting, I stared even harder at the pair. Clarice said something to Davina but I couldn't make it out which was a new experience for me since I'd become a vampire. Davina nodded and then together, they began to chant. For a long moment the wind and the lightning intensified, so much that Kol tucked the girls close to him, trying to shield them with his body. On and on it went with terrifying intensity…

And then it just stopped.

"Clarice?" Davina asked, still alive, seeming stronger.

I watch blood run from Clarice's nose on both sides, run down her chin as she weakly swiped at it. The older witch nodded. Then she crumpled to the ground.

"Mom!" Christine yelled as Anya yanked away from Kol to run to her mother.

Kol and I reached Clarice before the girls and a quick check of her pulse sent warm relief through me.

"She's alive," I said.

Davina's expression was stricken. "She used so much power," the girl mumbled. "Will she survive this?"

"Let's hope so," Kol said, scooping Clarice's unconscious form from the ground and heading towards the house with the girls behind him.

"Can you walk?" I asked Davina and she nodded but I helped her stand away. She looked down at her legs as if she didn't expect them to hold her up but they did. And we followed behind Kol and his family as quickly as we could.

Kol had just reached the living room to place Clarice on the couch when Klaus marched through the front door, his sharp blue eyes sweeping over the scene. They came to rest on me and I flew into his arms which tightened around me as his lips pressed a kiss into my hair.

"You're trembling, love," he pulled back to look into my eyes.

"I'm okay," I assured him. "It's Clarice…"

It was then I saw a young man with dark hair standing behind Klaus. He was human and he looked terrified. But then if he knew anything about Klaus, he was wise to be.

I didn't have a chance to ask who he was when I heard someone shout.

"Tim!"

Davina raced around us, throwing herself into the young man's arms and I smiled when I saw he was just as happy to see her. Easing away from her, he looked her up and down.

"Are you all right?" he asked her in a gentle voice.

"I am now that you're here," Davina said through happy tears. "But how…"

Klaus turned to the couple. "An exit strategy," he said to Davina. "You won't be able to stay in New Orleans under the circumstances, sweetheart. And I can't send you off alone."

Nodding enthusiastically, she beamed up at him. "Thank you," she told him. "But where will we go?"

"Mystic Falls," I decided, drawing Klaus' attention. His smile told me that he wasn't disagreeing with me. "To Elena and Alaric. They'll protect her. They can stay at the boarding house."

"With Damon and Gilbert?" Kol said in protest, kneeling by the couch where Clarice rested.

"Elena can handle Damon," I assured them. "Ric can handle all of them. They'll be safe there."

Besides, I'd really come to care about Davina in the short time I'd known her and I wanted her with people I knew and trusted.

"And who's going to protect them on the way there?" Kol wanted to know. "A human and a weakened witch?"

"Guess that's where I come in," a new voice answered.

"Josh!"

Davina hugged the tall, dark-haired vampire who had just walked in to join the crowd forming in the living room. He grinned back at her as Stefan and Rebekah walked in behind him. Like Tim, he was a nice looking young man. He had a kind face.

"Already thought of that, brother," Klaus told him. "Though it took a bit of looking to find our friend Josh here."

Josh looked incredibly uncomfortable to be in the same zip code as Klaus but it was obvious he braved it to be there for Davina. I was feeling better about her chances. And I'd get the story on both young men later.

"You'd best be making arrangements to leave. Now." Klaus' voice was ominous in the quiet room. "Your peers are looking for you, Davina."

"I'll get them out," Josh said, his eyes not leaving Davina.

"Come tell me goodbye."

I sent up a prayer of thanks to see Clarice sitting up on the couch, holding out her arms for the girl. Davina made her way through everyone to give her a hug, holding on to her tightly.

"Will you be okay?" Davina asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine," Clarice whispered. "Don't worry about me."

Knowing what I knew of Clarice, seeing what I'd seen, I couldn't help but worry a little. So far nothing had even seemed to slow the witch down and now, she seemed weak, tired. But she smiled as she watched Davina hug the girls.

Turning to me and Klaus, she asked, "Have you seen Marcel?"

"Yes," I told her. "He was here. He was very worried about you. He's going to be so happy you're safe."

Nodding, she looked at Tim and then back to me. "Will you tell him goodbye for me?"

"Of course." I reached for her, giving her a big hug. "You're going to go stay with some friends of mine. You'll love Bonnie and Elena and Ric."

"Just try to ignore Damon," Rebekah threw out, earning her a smirk from his brother who stood at her side.

"Thank you, guys," she said to all of us. "Thank you so much for everything."

"Let's go," Josh told them, motioning to the door.

"Get your things," Tim told her, smiling.

"I don't have anything I need with me," Davina said. "But I have everything I want now."

Tim wrapped an arm around her and she smiled, waved to us as he ushered her out the door with some urgency. I'd call Bonnie and let her know how things went and that they were coming.

"Let's get you upstairs," Kol said, wrapping an arm around Clarice. The girls looked worried as they followed. "You need to rest."

"Where are Elijah and Marcel?" Klaus asked me.

"I'll tell you," I told him. "But first I want to know how you knew about Davina's boyfriend … and her vampire friend. He's just a friend, right?"

"Josh is gay," Rebekah blurted, walking over to the couch and dropping herself onto it. Stefan leaned on the back of the couch behind her.

"Ah." Trying to get Klaus to meet my gaze, I grinned. "Well?"

"Davina and I have had a couple of disagreements since I've returned to the city," he explained carefully.

"That involved her boyfriend?" I pressed.

"Yes, Klaus threw him off a balcony to intimidate the girl," Rebekah informed me.

Well, that sounded like him. "Did you compel him to make him come with you, Klaus?"

His expression grew a little defensive at my question. "It was to be my last resort. But you'll be happy to know that I used my powers of persuasion and compelling the boy ultimately wasn't necessary."

I couldn't help but smile at him. I could tease him about doing something good, something decent. But doing it in front of Rebekah and Stefan? Probably not a good idea and I didn't want to reward his rare good deed by ribbing him over it.

I opted for pulling him to me and kissing him thoroughly, enticingly. I kissed him until I felt his body heat up and harden against me – and Stefan cleared his throat politely.

"Well, it's been a big day," I announced to Rebekah and Stefan who nodded at me knowingly. "Think I'm going to turn in early."

Klaus' grin was downright sinful and he followed me to the stairs.