It wasn't going very well, Klaus had to concede. He'd given them his vampire blood before the whole ceremony shtick just in case some random dude decided to get proactive. And guess what- some random dude had. Maddox had bit the dust early on in the game and Greta… well she'd almost made it to the end of the show before getting her neck broken.

But hey, vampire witches were good. Then he'd got the hack idea of giving them his new and improved blood… and that wasn't going too well. It was all too hard to keep control, and from time to time he wondered if he was in control at all or just acting it out because they chose to let him. Some people, witches, didn't handle power as magnanimously as he did. Hard to stomach, when your minions end up stronger than you.

Well, it was… in a way…

She came with his name on her lips and her teeth in his neck, milking him dry of everything he had in him. The knot of their bodies so tight he couldn't tell where she ended and he began. His own teeth were in her neck, taking back something for compensation's sake. The tightness around his cock, the press of her softness against him, the pain of her claws in his back, the magic in his mouth… Somewhere between all of that was a heartbeat, and that made perfect sense. Two halves should add up to something whole.

Then she pulled away from him. Left him cold and not quite satiated, still hard as stone, and disgruntles… A blanket and his hand had to finish him off while she sat at the edge of the bed staring out through the window. "The chain of Magwyr has been unearthed," she said, distant as ever.

"Should I care?"

"The witch has it."

"Again, should I care?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "You might want to."

He twisted in the bed, tying himself up horribly in the sheets, and came to settle his head in her lap. "You're not afraid of her, are you?"

She looked down at him with a scowl. A scowl that made him hard again. "Apologize for that."

Huh. He pushed his tongue into her navel then dragged it up between her breasts, across her chin, to whisper in her ear, "Sorry, love." It was different now. Before, she'd just been a plaything. Something nice and pretty to have in his employ, perfectly fuckable for those sad, lonely nights, and capable of other functions as well. Now, with her so strong... So immortal. So able to light him afire from the inside out... It was something else. He dragged his tongue back down again relishing the taste of her skin, found a nipple at the tip of a round breast and bit down sudden and hard. At the same time he sent a hand between her thighs roughly and up into her warm, tight wetness. She came instantly and just the feel of her tightening against his fingers and the hiss of his name made him explode for the second time in the night.

All fucking day, he'd missed her. He'd been distracted by the random, by the chores, by the redline and the red tape, and forgotten that there was no truth in the world other than what he could find in the sound of the right woman moaning his name. In the feel of the right woman's lips around his cock. Because that's where they'd ended up, somehow.

One hand on his balls, the other on his belly, and just like that he was helpless. He came again, when her fangs bit into his flesh, and again when her fingernails went into his balls. That one brought tears to his eyes. God, she was wicked.

...

Maddox had the courtesy of knocking, at least. Greta didn't stir. She'd never been a light sleeper before, but now… it'd taken thunder to wake her.

"What's the news off the front?" he asked, rousing himself from the daze. There were other things he had to pay attention to besides the sleeping woman.

"They have three of the eight keys for Geraldine."

"Which one did they get? The ash or the sword?"

"Ash. Elijah has the sword, so at least we know for sure that that one's secure."

"Do we? My brother Elijah has all the loyalty of a two cent whore. All you have to do is buy him a cup of tea, and he'll turn a trick for you."

Maddox snickered. He and the Original hadn't taken too much of a shine to one another, and from the way Klaus saw it, it was just a matter of time before a certain dusty dagger came into play. And he couldn't care less. They were both two grown men and they could hate each other, kill each other or fuck each other for all he cared. As long as they did it on their own personal time in their own personal place. "And our good boy Stefan?"

"Still lying low."

"And the brother with good hair?"

"The hair's a little longer but…" Maddox shrugged.

Witches did that a lot it seemed, shrugging. When Greta did it, it was sultry. On Maddox, it was… somehow still sultry… Downside to frequent blood sharing, he supposed. The amount of time's he'd fed from Maddox and the amount of times the whelp of a thing had fed from him… He'd tried to keep the affection good and fatherly in the beginning, but now, something was taking an eraser to all the lines he'd drawn. "What about the other witch? The BFF of the DPG."

"Stronger than ever. Out for blood, too."

"Speaking about blood and witches, how did you manage to come by yours? You don't look black, I mean."

Maddox shrugged, again. "I'm probably somewhere on the tree, though. One of them distant branches."

Klaus did a little shrug of his own, nothing particularly stylish, and surveyed the man-witch. There was a little ethnic flavouring to the man. It was there in the lips perhaps. The pouty bow shape lips just like Greta's– "What do you say to causing a little havoc? Upturning some apple carts down in the old village?"

"Anyone in particular? Or just random apple carts?"

"How do you feel about a chance encounter with the angry Sabrina? I want to check on my boys. My other boys. You're still my number one so don't be jealous."

...

"So…" Klaus said with a smile as he leaned over the tombstone inscribed Jenna, "When you found out I was going to sacrifice a vampire, who'd you think I was going to kill? Hmm?" They were all gathered together, nice and neat at the graveside. Perhaps not as sad as they should have been, but the one girl behind Stefan, the DPG, looked particularly misty-eyed. The witch girl, still badass, or trying to look badass. Angsty boyfriend of the badass-witch, check. School-teacher, check. Wild-eyes, check. Steffy, check. Goldilocks, check.

The reaction was priceless. Stefan was the first one to notice Maddox, and cue the chest-puffing. Wild-Eyes looked confused.

"I don't mean to intrude," he said quickly. With Wild-Eyes around, heart-grabbing could start at any moment and he thought it best to forswear with all the little jibes he'd had planned and get to the meat of the matter. "But I have a proposal. I want to get in on the action."

"What action?" Wild-Eyes asked.

Ohh… he just remembered. "You killed my girl, dude," he said, waving a teasing finger at the young vampire. "Normally, I'm a firm believer in the eye-for-an-eye philosophy. I'd planned to come kill your girl but you kinda… Well. You kinda don't have one…" he trailed, with as mocking a smirk as he could muster. "How do you deal? Rub it out under the covers?"

"Your mum stops by from time to time."

Oh. He surveyed the group. "He's the witty one, I suppose." His gaze fluttered over Jeremy. "You're the emo who sees dead people…" He studied Bonnie. "Resident Bitch who I owe one count of excruciating pain... School teacher, Goldilocks, K-lite and Steffy-Webby… What say we all have a little sing-along and get to know one another?"

Then he took a step towards Bonnie, just to gauge how easy it would be to get within killing distance, because after all, he'd only have to kill that one person in order to make his troubles go away. No witch, no resurrection, no demon slayer.

Not very easy at all, it turned out. K-lite screamed the alarm. She-man Goldilocks had him by the throat and off his feet. Someone had been eating their spinach… Emo… didn't do much… Steffy-Webby was in the process of using his big brawny body as a shield for the witch and the DPG… The school teacher was pulling a stake out of his jacket and Damon…

Well, who'da thunk it? Damon was going for his heart.

Well, golly. He hadn't even felt the fingers go in. Hadn't felt the ribs crack either. Only the little tingle down his arm had saved him. His eyes met Damon's. Those pretty, ice blue, desperate eyes.

Familiar eyes.

He remembered going through something a little similar. When the sacrifice had got loose and had its teeth on Greta. He recognized the little telling signs of desperate, pleading panic. In the short space of time, two weeks if so much, the jerkass assclown had grown some tender feelings for the witch-bitch. Would luck have it any other way? A little unexpected, that. Last he'd known, K-lite had been the Aphrodite of the group. Now…

Some sorcery, maybe. Or maybe she was one of those secret karma sutra specialists and was giving Damon a little extra motivation for the bodyguard job…

And really… Damon had a thing for high-school girls. Not a man big on maturity, him. The younger, the naïve-er, the innocent-er the girl, the better Damon liked. Klaus didn't really care. True-love or a drive-tru hook-up, either way he'd have to deal with the Salvatore black sheep. Either way, he'd be killing them both. Giving Girly her own pretty tombstone, and scattering Wild-Eye's ashes to the wind.

And he didn't even stop, the Damon. The fucking fingers closed around the organ and squeezed. Klaus felt the thing pop in his chest like a cherry.

Always one for dramatics, he shuddered and pretending to crumble against the young buck of a vampire. He propped his chin on the shoulder and sagged limp as a jelly- fish. Then he curled a grin. "You have a follow-up move for this? Or is it my turn?"

What was it with people and their failure to comprehend the meaning of the word immortal?