Chapter sixteen

Rescue Mission

"Kassandra? What's wrong?"

But Kassandra was already swinging her bag onto her shoulder and heading towards the door. "I have to go," she said bluntly, not looking at him.

Elijah frowned. "Are you-" he start to ask, but she cut him off.

"-Okay?" she offered him a twisted smirk. "I haven't been okay in centuries."

Then she disappeared out the door, her mind already forming a rescue plan. She'd save Ruby, then she would slaughter every werewolf in the city.

The first thing she did was go to Ruby's apartment. When she reached it, nothing looked out of normal. But with further inspection, she found that the door wasn't closed all the way. She opened it, to find that the chain was snapped as was the lock.

Her apartment was a mess. Chairs and tables were knocked over. Bottles were shattered, papers littered the floor. Kassandra sighed. Ruby was long gone.

She just needed to get her back.

She pulled out her cellphone. She knew she should've told Elijah what was going on, asked for his help. But she couldn't bring herself to. She was too proud.

Instead, Kassandra dialed the number of a vampire she couldn't really stand but had taken it upon herself to make sure they were always on good terms. He was a vampire who had a lot of knowledge and power and always helped out a friend, especially attractive friends.

"Hello?"

"Miles?" she said, running a hand through her hair. "It's Kassandra."

She could practically see his slow smirk grow on his face. "Kassandra," he repeated. "How long has it been?"

"Since prohibition," she answered.

He let out a reminiscent sigh. "Business was great back then," he said.

Miles specialized in everything from getting illegal goods to retrieving lost or stolen items, and even to getting rid of unwanted pests- murder, basically. Kassandra had met Miles when he was just a lowly scrub in the 1700's who made a living by cleaning up after vampires. He had climbed up on the totem pole since then.

But he had a special place in his heart for her, since she was one of the only vampires who had paid him the time of day when he hadn't been so notable. Of course, Kassandra had only made friends with him in the first place because Miles had a special skill at knowing how to get rare blood types like AB-, her favorite.

"I was wondering if you still have your connections in New York City," she said, becoming impatient to get the conversation over with.

"Of course," Miles answered. "What do you need?"

"Two things," she answered. "One, I need to find out where the local werewolf pack hangs out."

"Ah, Kassie," he sighed. "What did you get yourself into this time?"

She chose to ignore him. "Can you do it or not?" she asked impatiently.

"Of course," he said, sighing again. "What's the second thing you need?"

Kassandra smirked then. "I need you to spread the word around the city for me," she said.

"What do you want me to spread?" he asked sounding intrigued despite himself.

"That Kassandra Blake is looking for werewolves," she answered. "And that she's going to rip apart every one she finds until she gets back what was taken from her."

~SYH~

"I don't know what you're doing in the city, Elijah," Rebekah said. "And, frankly, I don't wish to know. But you need to stop fooling around and come home."

Elijah sighed and turned back to his conversation with his sister as he watched Kassandra leave his apartment. "Believe me, Rebekah, there is nothing I can do in New York City that I can do better in Mystic Falls," he said. "I am just as committed to stopping Finn and Esther here as I would be there."

He didn't want to go back, at least not yet. He rather enjoyed being apart from his family, as bad as it sounded. He was getting a break from them that he deserved. And the one thing that New York had that Mystic Falls didn't was Kassandra. And he didn't feel like leaving her behind.

"Are you sure about that, Brother?" Rebekah replied skeptically. "Because all of us are still linked together, in case you have forgotten."

"I have not forgotten that, Rebekah," he answered. Of course he hadn't, for he had been looking for a solution to that problem the past few weeks.

"Really? Because I imagine most of your time has been taken up by the city trollop who answered your phone," Rebekah retorted.

Elijah gritted his teeth. "Like I said before, she's not a trollop." He paused. "How did you find out about her?"

"Kol told the entire family about the shirt girl he found in your apartment a week ago," she informed him, and Elijah sighed. Of course Kol would tell everyone about Kassandra. He had to make life that much more difficult for him.

"Now does Shirt Girl have a name or should I keep referring to her as the city trollop?"

Elijah was about to tell her that 'Shirt Girl' was indeed Kassandra Patrikson, the girl from their village a thousand years ago who was best friends with Tatia and couldn't keep her opinions to herself. Then he remembered that Kassandra liked to remain anonymous to the world, so he said, "her identity isn't any of your business, Rebekah."

"The city trollop it is then."

Elijah was quickly growing irritated with is only sister. "Why did you call, Rebekah?"

"To remind you of your priorities, Elijah," she said, suddenly growing very serious. "You may not think your new social life doesn't affect the rest of us, but it does if it makes you forget that our mother and brother still want us dead."

Elijah mouth was set into a hard line. "I haven't forgotten," he said quietly.

"Good. Because the moment you do, that is when we have a problem."

Then Rebekah hung up on him.

~SYH~

While she waited for Miles to get back to her with the location of the werewolves' hangout, Kassandra decided to walk around the city, if anything just to get out of her apartment.

Jackson had never really talked about werewolf business with her, so she didn't know where the headquarters was. She knew she was short on time, for she didn't know how long they planned to keep Ruby alive.

The thought of Ruby dying was almost unthinkable to Kassandra. She knew that Ruby was mortal, that she would age and eventually die, but she never thought about her actually dying. And thinking about it now was very distressful. Ruby was her best friend- her only friend. She couldn't really imagine not having Ruby in her life, even though she had gone nearly a thousand years without her in it.

All Kassandra knew was that she had to get Ruby back from the werewolves. There was no other option.

Her phone rang as she turned a street corner, and she answered it quickly, thinking it was Miles.

"Did you find out the location?" she asked quickly, skipping any formalities.

"Kassandra?"

She frowned. That wasn't Miles' voice. It was deep, with an European accent Kassandra just had traces of in her voice.

"Elijah," she said, not expecting him to call. "What do you want?

"You left rather quickly this morning," he said. "And you looked like you had received unpleasant news. I was worried."

Kassandra jolted when she heard those three words. Elijah was worried. About her. She couldn't remember the last time someone been concerned about her wellbeing, except maybe Ruby. But that just opened a different can of worms inside of her.

"Don't be," she replied, trying her best to keep her voice cool and casual. "I just have some business to attend to, that's all."

"What happened, Kassandra?"

She closed her eyes. He saw right through her bullshit. Thinking back, Elijah always had. He saw through her lies, her facades. He saw through everything. And it scared the living hell out of her.

"Remember my friend, Ruby?" she said, her eyes still closed as she leaned against an abandoned building. She didn't know why she was telling him any of this, but she was.

"The witch? Yes I remember you mentioning her," he replied.

"Well, Jackson's pack took her last night, because she did some witchy voodoo on Jackson. So now they have her, and they're gonna kill her, as revenge because she attacked the pack leader's son. And I have to get her back before they do kill her," she explained.

Elijah was silent on the other end of the line. Minutes seemed to pass before he finally spoke. "Let me help you."

Her eyes widened at his words. It wasn't a question or a proposal. He wasn't asking her for permission. He was merely telling her that he was going to help her rescue Ruby.

But why?

Elijah had never met Ruby, had no business caring if she lived or died. Why would he want to waste a day trying to save her life? Why would he want to help Kassandra? Why would he care?

The answer was obvious, but Kassandra refused to see it. He wanted to help her because Ruby was important to Kassandra. He was doing it for Kassandra.

And that scared her even more.

"I don't need your help, Elijah," she replied coldly, quickly going to the defensive. "I don't need it and I don't want it."

Elijah seemed at a loss of words so she continued. "I'm not some weak little girl. I don't need some original vampire riding in on a white horse to save the day. I'm perfectly capable of rescuing Ruby on my own."

"I never said-"

"So thanks but no thanks, Elijah," she said. "Now I have a witch to go save."

Then she hung up on him, leaving him speechless.

~SYH~

After Kassandra had hung up on Elijah, Miles had called her back. Apparently Jackson's pack was known for hanging out at a bar ten blocks away from her apartment. So Kassandra headed there, not having a definite plan in her head. But she knew what she would be doing.

She'd start ripping out hearts until someone pointed her in the direction of Ruby. Then she'd kill the rest and grab the witch. Then she'd by her friend a couple dozen drinks.

When she walked into the bar, she knew almost immediately that everyone was a werewolf. She knew their scent, they smelled different than humans, witches, and vampires. She had a feeling that everyone knew she was a vampire, because all eyes went to her.

She counted about ten werewolves as an older man approached her. He watched her with wary eyes, and Kassandra couldn't help but smirk back at him. "Can I help you, sweetheart?" he asked.

"You sure can," she replied in a voice as smooth silk. Then she plunged her hand into his chest and ripped his heart out.

Gasps echoed around the room as the werewolf fell dead to the floor and Kassandra dropped his heart next to him. The rest of the wolves stood, muscles tensed, as they waited for her to strike again.

"So, this is how it's going to go," she said, addressing all of them. "You're going to go get the witch and bring her to me. Every minute she's not in front of me, someone dies. Sound like a plan?"

"You came for the witch?" another man stepped forward.

"I believe that's what I just said." She rolled her eyes at his stupidity.

"What would a vamp want with a witch?" he continued.

"Now that's none of your business," she said. Then she looked at the clock that was on the wall. "You have twenty seconds left before someone else dies."

"She attacked Jackson," another spoke up. "We're not just gonna let it slide."

"Fifteen seconds," Kassandra said, ignoring his words.

"Wait a second," a woman said, looking at Kassandra suddenly. She was blonde and familiar looking. "I know who you are."

"Ten seconds."

"That's the vampire whore Jackson cheated on me with!" she exclaimed, and Kassandra snapped her head towards the woman. It was Heidi, Jackson's fiancée.

"We've been waiting for you, honey," another werewolf said.

She narrowed her eyes. "Ooh, time's run out and I still don't see Ruby."

Then she blurred to the nearest werewolf and ripped his heart out.

They all reacted at that second. Some went to grab her, but Kassandra thought they were way out of their league. It wasn't the full moon, so they couldn't bite her. And that was really the only threat werewolves had against vampires.

Every time a wolf tried to stake her or restrain her, she ripped their hearts out. Bodies and hearts alike dropped to the floor. Kassandra was sure she'd have to kill all of the werewolves in the room when suddenly someone stabbed a needle into her arm.

Kassandra suddenly became weaker, and she knew what she was being injected with. Vervain. Still, she was almost a thousand years old; it'd take more than just a syringe of vervain to take her down.

She turned her body to see who was injecting her with the plant, and her eyes widened when she saw that it was Jackson. He didn't say anything, didn't even look her in the eye. Kassandra gritted her teeth in anger and lunged for his throat when she was injected with another syringe.

One syringe of vervain might've not been enough to take Kassandra down, but two was.

The last thing she saw before she passed out was Jackson, supporting her body before just letting her collapse to the ground entirely.

~SYH~

A/N: thank you to: Storylover, Lady Wesker, delenawolves, jamiecarterannie, SomebodyWhoCares, sPaRkzZz, Katherine Sparrow, and Lady Syndra for reviewing!

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~Abby :)