The Ties That Bind:
Stefan and I entered the abandoned witch house and the first thing we heard was the voice of my twin sister.
"So, these are the rest of his family?" we heard her say to who I assumed was either Damon or Bonnie since they were the only other people that knew we were keeping the coffins here. Stefan and I looked at each other with wide eyes before speeding down the stairs to the basement.
"Yeah. Elijah and two others. This one... is the one we can't open. We don't know who is in it, or what's in it, only that I think my dream's telling me it'll help us kill Klaus." Bonnie said to Elena just as we entered the room at full speed.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked her harshly as I pushed Elena roughly away from the locked coffin. Elena scowled at me as I get her go but I ignored her and kept my attention on the young witch in front of me. Stefan leaned up against one of the coffins with his arms crossed over his chest and I saw that he was trying to avoid Elena's wounded gaze.
"I needed her to know about the coffin." Bonnie defended herself calmly but I just frowned at her as I jumped up to sit on the coffin that Stefan was leaning on.
"And we needed you to keep her out of it, Bonnie." Stefan told her pointedly as he wrapped a hand around my ankle comfortably. I saw Elena's jealous gaze lock onto where his hand was resting and smirked to myself.
"So what are you gonna do, Stefan? Are you gonna kidnap me, so that I won't tell anyone?" Elena snapped at her ex-boyfriend and I narrowed my eyes at her dangerously.
"Don't tempt me, Elena." He threatened her with a smirk.
"I think I know who can open the coffin, Stefan. And I need Elena to help me find her." Bonnie explained as she stepped in between the feuding couple.
"Find who? What are you talking about?" I asked her as I tilted my head curiously.
"I couldn't place her face at first. Then I realized..." she trailed off as she showed Elena a worn candid photograph.
"Oh my god, Bonnie." Elena breathed out sympathetic and my interest perked up. Bonnie passed the photo to Stefan and I looked at it over his shoulder.
"Bonnie…" I whispered sympathetically as well when I realised who I was looking at.
"Who is this?" Stefan asked out loud to no one in particular.
"It's my Mom." Bonnie explained with a frown on her face.
Stefan and I entered the Salvatore Boarding House to find Klaus sitting comfortably in one of the armchairs in the parlour as he nursed a glass of bourbon.
"What are you doing here, Klaus?" Stefan asked the hybrid in an irritated tone as we walked further into the room and I sat down on the couch across from Klaus while Stefan perched on the arm of the couch.
"Enjoying our stalemate." Klaus drawled casually as he eyed the two of us.
"What do you want?" I asked him nonchalantly as I examined my manicure.
"The question is what you want? My hybrids left town as you demanded, so please tell me what I need to do to get my family back."
"I, personally, don't want anything." I informed him dismissively and he glared at me in irritation.
"Then why on earth are you helping Stefan with this suicide mission of his?"
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
"Hmm. And you, Stefan, what do you want?" Klaus said to Stefan with a mock polite smile on his handsome face.
"Well, see... Klaus...I'm not negotiating." The youngest Salvatore answered him.
"And you understand that holding them indefinitely is the same thing as dropping them in the ocean?"
"No, No. You leave Mystic Falls and then give me call in a few years and we'll talk."
"I can give you another chance. Just one more. Let's make a reasonable deal."
"Or what? You make one move and I will drop..."
"Yes, right. Crazy Stefan." Klaus interrupted his threat with a laugh. "How is that working out for you? Any friends left?" he asked sarcastically before standing up walking towards the door of the boarding house. He patted Stefan companionably on the shoulder as he passed and smirked at me before leaving. The two of us sat in silence for a minute to make sure that the hybrid had left and we could speak freely without being overheard.
"I'm to head over to Elena's house and see if I can find out where Bonnie's mother is hiding out." Stefan informed me with a determined look on his face. I nodded absently as I threw my legs up onto the couch. I vaguely heard Stefan leave the building but I was too caught up in my own thoughts to pay much attention. I knew that at some point I was going to have to swap sides. Even though Niklaus had compelled me and threatened to kill Jeremy and was still in love with him. I was aware that when push came to shove I wouldn't be able to stand by and allow him die despite what he had done to me. I made my decision and pushed myself up off of the couch I was sitting on. I grabbed my purse and rushed out of the door. Using my inhuman speed, I ran to the Grill and smirked to myself when I saw the person I was looking for. I walked at a human pace towards where he was sitting at the bar. My vampire hearing could make out the phone conversation that was taking place between him and an unnamed third party.
"How's life on the road?" I heard him asked the other person.
"Scenic. How's life in Mystic Falls without any hybrids?" a slightly familiar masculine voice answered him.
"Boring." Klaus replied just as I sat down on the stool next to him. I could feel his eyes on me as he added. "For now."
"If you want any of us back, you just have to say the word."
"There's no need. I've been making friends with the town civil servants. There's a deputy, obnoxiously chatty, but useful nonetheless. You're clear, what you need to do?"
"I got it covered." The third unnamed party said before hanging up the phone. I wave at the bartender and he nodded in my direction.
"Hello, beauty. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Nik asked me as the bartender brought over my usual order of Vodka. I shrugged my shoulder nonchalantly as I took a sip of my drink before turned my body on the stool to face him. My knee bumped into his and I cursed the shivers that ran threw me at the simplest touch.
"I've re-evaluated me allegiance." I explained lightly and he smiled at me brightly.
"Ah, come to join the winning side?"
"No." I replied shortly as I shook my head at him and his smirk dropped from his lips. "This was never about winning or losing for me."
"And then what was it about then?"
"Punishing you. I know how much your family means to you. You killed my aunt, my twin sister and you threatened to kill my little brother. I want you to feel a minuscule amount of what I felt so I helped Stefan take them away from you but I would have given them back after a while. I would never have let the Salvatore's actually kill you. This is what they're trying to do, FYI." I said honestly in a soft voice as I looked directly in his pale blue eyes. He gazed back at me as if judging my sincerity and hen abruptly looked away and back to the glass of scotch in his hand.
"And where does this leave us?" he asked me softly as he peeked at me from the corner of his eye. I took a sip of my own drink before placing it down on the counter and standing up.
"I don't know." I told him as I shook my head sadly to myself and then held out one of my hands for him to take with a teasing smile. "But come with me and I'll take you to your coffins." I said to him as he placed his hand in my smaller one with a chuckle.
Nik and I walked down the steps towards the basement of the abandoned witch. On the way to the house, he had gotten a text from one of his hybrids telling him where the coffins were anyway and I couldn't help feeling like the minion had stolen my thunder. We got to the last step and I saw Damon standing in the middle of the room with cocky smirk on his lips.
"What took you so long? Hiding behind your witchy friends. And in squalor no less." Nik taunted him and I just rolled my eyes as I ran my hand through my hair. Nik started gasping in pain as he clutched his head and I smirked at the sight of the big bad hybrid trembling in pain.
"Insulting a bunch of dead witches... not smart." I commented to him in humour and he glared at me.
"I made the exact same mistake first time I came in here." Damon told us with a shrug.
"Well, you know, the funny thing about witches is, that living or death, they care about their own. A hundred dead witches have a thousand living descendants... And I have no problem, killing every last one of them, if I don't get my coffins back. As we speak, my hybrid friend is prepared to end the Bennett line." Nik said to threateningly to the witch spirits and all the candles that had lit when the magic started died down. Nik straightened up now that he wasn't in pain and shook his head to clear it. "Now... please... show me the coffins." He instructed calmly and the witches revealed three of the coffins. I looked around in a panic because I knew that the forth one had been here only hours before. "Here we are. Where's the fourth? Show me!"
"Well, here's the thing. They can't. It's not here."
"What did you do?" I asked him darkly as Nik seethed angrily next to me.
"Well, Bonnie gave me the heads-up. I didn't have enough time, to get all four, but I did have time to get one."
"I will tear you, limb from limb. And only then, when you're a riving mass of blood and flesh, will I rip your heart from your chest." Nik threatened him dangerously as he took a step forward towards the eldest Salvatore.
"Sorry. The same rules apply. You know, leverage and all. I know you want your family back. But something tells me, you want what's in that coffin a lot more." Damon replied with a smirk and I had the distinct feeling that it was going to get worse before it got better.
I was sitting on the couch in Nik's newly renovated mansion with a glass of wine laced with blood as Nik paced the length of the room. A hybrid pressed the last of the three coffins into the room silently.
"You've got your family back. Finally. You gonna open them?" I asked Nik curiously as I took a sip of my wine.
"Not quite yet. I still have some unfinished business to take care of." He told me absently as he continued pacing and I rolled my eyes at him because I knew that he only paced when he was worried about something and he wouldn't stop worrying until he told me about it. But he had to go through the motions instead of just talking to me forthright.
"What business?" I asked him gently to trying and get him to open up to me before he wore a hole in the new rug. He stopped pacing immediately as he turned to face me but my attention was on the hybrid that had started to squirm and then dropped to the floor suddenly. I gaped at the tall elegant man in the wrinkled suit that was standing over the dead hybrid with their heart in his hand.
"So, Niklaus..." the man said in a smooth voice and I was about to stand up next to Nik when he spoke.
"Elijah?" Nik asked in a whisper and I looked up at the shocked expression on his face before turning my attention back the man, Elijah, Nik's older brother.
"What did I miss?"