Big chapter! I loved writing it, a lot of emotion which should really make up for my absence in updating quicker. Please tell me what you guys think!
Special thanks: foreverandalways1216, KAYKAY22PRINCESS, Selinacoral, smilin steph, RoseDew, and .3.
Chapter 32: Flaws
As the features of the city sat very far behind them, Kristina almost dreaded going to the luxurious town. The way the lights and vibrant activity stood seamlessly motionless while being consumed by the increasing of greenery left the taste of depression in the woman's mouth. It almost brought the cloudy sky to tears.
"Thank you." Kristina muttered with her small misty clouds plastered on the window's view. The raven-head knew the letter to her dear family would reach them. Kristina trusted Katerina. The two women were both struggling in the deep, desperate waters of uncertainty.
"It was necessary." Niklaus commented, also not meeting her eyes.
When he had meet up with her on the corner street, the servant seemed on edge, not lingering her eyes on him for more then a second. Something was off about the human.
Kristina didn't remember how the hours had flied so quick. Neither did she remember where her attention had lied during duration of the travel back. Though her mind hadn't left the memory of the letter she had written.
My love, she had started the letter with, from there she had profusely described her longing to see her family. She had mention Nina, her old mentor, and pleaded they would all in good health. The parchment included her deep wish that they did not miss her as much as she missed the family. Finishing the letter with a glorious blessing of a Merry Christmas. As the raven-head signed her signature, Kristina unconsciously signed her soul and mind to them.
The helpless woman couldn't stop think of how her mother or father would answer to seeing her handwriting; or how they would treat Kristina's longing for them. The spry woman had sold her soul to the idea of seeing or hearing from them again, something that she secretly knew would never happen.
"Are you ready to talk about your actions of last night?" Niklaus said his face stone as his voice broke the infinite of silence. His careless words seemed to drain all the air in the carriages. The oxygen was as thick as a storm cloud, leaving an electric feel on their skin and a suffocating tension in the area around them.
"My actions?" Her voice cracked, becoming deathly dense. Her glaze shot up like a bullet towards him.
"Yes." Niklaus simply commented, demanding the right to know exactly what happened that mysterious night.
"I was bitten, pushed around and thrown to the wall by a six hundred year old vampire, then fed his blood." Kristina snapped, "Those were my exact action that night." Her voice grew in volume like the anger that spread like a wild fire.
Never had the little human wanted to connect her fist to bloodsucker's face ever so strongly. Tears accumulated in her eyes, his words so cold and her feelings all resembling irritation and hurt.
"Bitten by Athan." Nik felt hate coat the newfangled vampire's name as he spoke it. "What could you have possibly done to provoke such a response?"
"To provoke? Pardon me, Lord, for it sounds as if you are insisting I fed his savage actions." Kristina proclaimed flabbergasted. The grey eyes became wider as the words left her rose lips.
"That's exactly what I'm assuming, love." Niklaus stated his voice nor low or too high in quantity. He stood monotone. Though on the inside, his fangs were already extended with his chest heaving up and down in rage. Why did Kristina refuse to tell him? What was so important that even Elijah didn't budge at the opportunity to show him up? The raven-head was his servant, yet Nik felt the furthest away from her.
"You're assuming. You know nothing of me and my action, you conceded ignorant, lack of a manner, bastard." Kristina spat her body shaking as her hand went straight for the door. Thankful the carriage had stopped in perfect timing. Giving her time to step out and make towards the dungeon manor.
"Your kind can't get it through their thick skulls, can they?" The original vampire growled, using his vampire element to haste to the raven-head. His first reaction was to grab her wrist. Turning her around with little to none of his strength, Klaus stopped his voyage for an apology when he saw her electrifying silver eyes. They seemed to swirl as if thick mercury mixed in with unshed tears. He had never seemed them so lovely and foreign before.
"I was going to marry him, Nik." Kristina whispered as tears, hot as hell started to build in her full moon globes again. The tears were a betraying reaction to her pure and monstrous anger.
The vampire's full lips quickly formed a small stressed line, while his eyebrows stayed feathered. She had braced herself for this moment. The moment Nik disowns her, throws her out in the cold. But isn't that what she wanted? To disconnect from him all together?
But her preparation was nothing compared to what her master would say. "I was to be wedded, to have a family." Kristina tried to spit the words out but her tongue went numb, almost paralyzed by the tension in the winter temperature.
"Kristina, I am not a patient man." He almost snapped. Releasing the remark from his clenched teeth.
The way he had spat her name, as if it was disgusting to say, made the servant cringe in fear. She had always been in fear of this original, like any health person should be.
The fear that flowed in Kristina's fragile body wasn't the fear she naturally expected. It was the fear of losing him.
"You will not give up, will you?" Kristina whispered raising hell with her tone. "I slept with him." She yelled throwing her hands in the air. The moment her words hit his ears, the aggravated expression dropped to one of pure shock.
"Many times, I might add." She snapped. The anger had quickly grown to the size of the rising full moon above their heads.
"I-" The original started but he didn't get a chance to finish.
"Save me from the sorry excuse conjured up in your mind." Kristina snapped looking out towards the frozen field of grass. The human considered how far she would make it away from her Master before he would stop her. "This is me, not forgetting my place," Kristina whispered, using Klaus' words against him. "My Lord." She finished, her words creeping up to Nik, beating him with a slight sting.
She made her way slowly towards the castle. A few hours of freedom and now she was back were she had started but worse. Kristina couldn't put herself through another moment of the horrid show of Nik's smoldering blue eyes staring at her pathetic state.
Her skin erupted in goose bumps. The servant allowed the chilling December wind to freeze off any emotion left in her.
"You didn't tell me." Niklaus voice took over all senses as she stood, her back facing him.
"That's not a question, Master." She replied not looking over her shoulder and into his manipulating ocean eyes.
"But you told my brother." Niklaus muttered, his voice somewhat cracking at the very end. His anger was announced brightly by his voice. The sound made Kristina turn on her heals to face him. They were a good ten feet away, both with balled fists at their side.
"Do you blame me?" Kristina retorted, throwing her hands in the air slightly. "Do you blame me for not confiding in you? For not trusting you?"
"You let me keep that monster, that sorry excuse of a man, in my home as he tormented you just with the small of his presence?" Niklaus growled pointing to the castle. She could imagine the steam existing his ears like it did to her not only five minutes ago.
The color of dusk sent an array of red and dark blue casting over his clenched jaw and darkened face. The bitter sight of twilight and the meaning in his words paralyzed Kristina on the spot.
"You think so little of me? After I did my best to make your settlement here as comfortable as possible. After I took it upon myself to actually have the slightest care for you." He yelled not bothered by the tear of fear and hurt falling from her angelic face. He welcomed them at this point. Her pain was somewhat rewarding. It showed that he wasn't the only one suffering from her lack of communication.
"You let him TOUCH you again!?" The vampire growled, his hands shaking. The idea of Athan touching her now or before sent a wave of violent disgust to collect in his chest. The original had been the only one to not know of the raven-head's affairs with the young vampire. Being the last to know was unbearable but letting the show go on for so long; it drove him over the cliff.
The indignation demanded his legs to navigate towards the castle and clouded his mind. The emotion brought only one sure picture in his eyes; one where his hand was plunging into Athan's chest cavity.
"Master, please stop." Kristina pleaded pulling on his white blouse with all her strength. The sound of fabric ripping didn't stop either as Nik march towards the castle and while Kristina tried her best to stop the supernatural.
"Niklaus," The pleading of her voice, the sure pain and agony in her tone borrowed itself deep inside his ears as she sunk to her knees on the frozen stone entrance of the manor. The night had finally settled in, leaving only the light of the full moon to cast across her crippled body. She sat there, hands across her chest as she held herself movement-less. He couldn't meet her eyes. Being taken by emotion because of the weak woman wasn't expectable. For the first time, he really let his eyes see the effects of human pain.
Kristina made it look so elegant but so torturous, as if the world had crashing down in her vision before consuming her at the very end.
"Nik." The way she uttered the vampire's name sent his muscles to a tense state. That was not the way he wanted the dark-haired woman to cry his name. The voice coated with such experience in pain, such care, it was heartbreaking seeing the servant woman in her weakest state. It was something he would never get accustom to.
"Please don't hurt-" before she could finished her plead, her master's voice broke in.
"I will do much more then hurt him." Niklaus snarled feeling the shakiness of his hands by his side restarted.
"I still love him." She broke through her sob. "I still care for him." The servant whispered before strong hands lift her up off the cold stone-paved ground. Niklaus' hands gripped her wrist, supporting her into an up right position.
"How could you love a man that…" Nik, for the second time in his long life, was out of words. Nothing he said could suffice the resentment he felt towards not just Athan but towards Kristina
"How could I love a man that exposed me as a common day whore?" Kristina laughed nervously. The small woman felt the grip he obtained on her hands tighten at her foul language of truth.
"How dare you even picture yourself with such words?" He growled forcing her to stare in his eyes. The hard but soft sky blue eyes made her stomach jerk like normal. "Never in my presence will anyone ever have the sickening pleasure of calling you such a thing." He finished shaking his head slightly. Her eyes released the last of the tears. Nodding softly, she bit down on her lip to stop the sobs.
"But I can not push past this. I will not let him walk away with the pleasure of tormenting you. I hope you understand. I will not withhold my promise on killing him." His words cut her like the winter's harshest winds, leaving her bleeding on the inside.
"Anything but." Kristina pleaded with a dangerously stern tone.
Her freezing hands gripped onto the collar of his shirt making him realized how close they had become. How easily it would be to just lean in and take advantage of the slightly trembling red lips she acquired or how simple it would be to fashion his hands around her appealing waist, the man thought unwillingly. The idea of her being touched in such a way with someone else hadn't changed the way he looked at her. He still held the want in his eyes but there was something else in his gaze now, the flash of a true challenge. As foolish as it was, the original thrived to be better then Athan. Sexually better was a way of thinking but Nik didn't want just that. No, it was more then a touch to send her goose bumps erupting across her delicate skin or the hitch in her voice as his body grazed hers. It was the lasting impression he would leave. He wanted to be someone that would shape her life, shape the way she would forever remain. Never had this feeling ever occurred to him.
"Nik, I will do anything." She said her voice smoother.
He leaned in closer to observe her wide, grey eye, they seemed to shift colors ever moment but always held the grey tint to them. With the salty tears in them, the small color of deep blue was visible just like the deep dark purple circling around the outer most irises. He was so infatuated with the small woman that he didn't realize her step away from him, releasing her killer grip on the poor fabric.
"Compel him, please. This is the only thing I ask of you." She whispered no tears flowing angelically down her face. They had been whipped away by the lashing, freezing winter wind.
"This is the only thing you ask of me?" Niklaus asked curiously. "It's funny how the smallest of people crave the biggest things." He whispered softly, only staring at the silver anchor that hung around the human's neck.
"I will never will myself to ask for more." She trembled holding herself now as the freezing temperatures borrowed deep inside her pores.
Kristina was still dazed when she stepped through the double doors of the exclusive men's den. It was as dark and candlelit as ever with books piled high around the piano she had once played and around the armchairs. Though the room was slightly different now. There was a chair; the usual red-oak set that went splendidly with the rest of the furnishing, placed adequately in the dead center of the room facing the hearth. The shadows, casting a haze on her poor vision, camouflaged the identity in the hot sit. There was no furniture, carpet or parchment in a good 5 feet distance of the chair.
"Who-" Kristina began to ask before silence over came her. The Master of the manor had made a beeline for the liquor right when he stepped foot into the tense atmosphere, leaving the servant to figure out the mystery of the armchair.
When his full face was brought to view, Kristina couldn't help but inhale sharply. The man in the chair was Athan. Though he was different again. His face was slightly limped, giving him a somewhat human look, as the muscles in his face resembled the older of Athan. The blood that stained his cheeks and nose had come from several blows to the nose's arch and temples. This left marks of small cuts and already surfacing bruises to settle into his fragile-looking skin. Not to forget the iron pole lodged into the center cavity of his chest.
Millions of questions exploded in her head. Who had done this? Elijah? Niklaus? Why hadn't they killed him completely? Why had they tortured him in such degree? Why were her eyes all of a sudden teary?
"Love, he is alive." Niklaus spoke slightly annoyed from across the room.
"I know. It just brings back bad memories." Kristina confessed her eyes scanning every inch of his faint body.
It was her most famous nightmare.
The night of Athan's parents short painful visit, Kristina consumed herself with sorrowful cries. She had been thankful for the storm outside her window, which drowned out the sound of her screaming. Even now, Kristina never remembered braking down so far from her limits. Never had she ever wishes to die like she did that night.
When she finally fell asleep, her dream had been the realest it's ever been. The perfect pictures of ever leaf, of every bug and every star circling around the enormous full moon was heightened into the greatest magnitude. But the forest, which she ran through like a madman, wasn't the only scene painted with precision. The moment her trembling sore legs came to a halt, she took in the sight of the crippled disfigured body. His right leg and opposite arm sat still in the most awkward angle thought possible. His other hand still covered his face as if he was still fighting the pain in his death. With the velvet color of scarlet red surrounding his corpse like a deep mud-puddle, Kristina didn't dare move closer. Didn't dare her mind to memorize more of the horrid picture.
"Ever bad memory." Kristina whispered swallowing back fresh hot tears and the vivid reenactment.
Niklaus didn't break his gaze from the raven-head. Her black curls were pulled back now, enlightening her beautiful face with the light from the lively fire. Her eyes stood a strong grey but had a purple dark tint under from the lack of sleep. Her thought was glued to the baby vampire staked to the armchair. Not even the stirring of his voice had shifted her gaze.
"Sweetheart?" The original questioned softly as he closed the space between them by a few feet.
"What about your brother. Lord Kol?" She muttered, shivering slightly in her enchanting winter dress. All she wanted now was two Originals to brake into a fight, god hoping she would get out of it alive.
"You will not have to worry about my brother nor my sister for a while." Niklaus muttered turning his back to her. His memory hadn't tarnished the actions of last night. The way Kol had melted at the encounter with the white oak ash. It had left Elijah there, not advancing towards him or stepping away from his own nauseating works. Elijah knew it needed to be done just as much as Niklaus.
"Lady Rebekah and Lord Kol have taken a leave?" Kristina whispered somewhat doubting, staring at the floor in front of her. "I'm deeply apologetic." She continued closing her eyes slightly longer them usual before directing them to her Master, who shared the same look of feathered eyebrows and deep eyes.
"For what do you have to apologies for?" He questioned softly.
"I apologies if my humanity and my presence pushed them away, if I may be do bold to think so affectively of myself." Kristina huffed in a great breath before progressing with her thought. "I know how important family is. Seeing them walk away isn't always easy."
"Love, it wasn't you. They will be back in the coming of the summer months." Niklaus lied easily to see the relief in her full moon eyes.
A loud groan escaped Athan's lips forcing both their attention towards the staked man. Athan's black irises turned wider then thinned as he adjusted to the picture in front of him.
The spry vampire let out a hateful and thirst growl as he fought against his restraints.
Kristine didn't even look at him. She kept her sight painful on the dark shadows of the room.
"Compel him, my Lord." Kristina shutter. Whipping the tears away from her angelic grey eyes quickly made way to the door before being stopped by a voice.
"Run! Like you always will, you slut!" Athan roared, the veins around his neck bubbles up to the surface.
It didn't take long for Niklaus to rip the pole out from Athan's chest. In a swift motion, the original pressed the metal strongly against his throat causing the chair fell back immediately. A sudden bang filled the raven-head's ears creating a sickening filling to arise in her gut.
"Watch your tongue before I feed it to you." Nik said sending a snarling threat towards Kristina's former lover.
Athan's eradicated heart sent a poignant reminder of the life Kristina had had before becoming Nik's servant. Those days, she would give anything to go back to. He was a constant memory of what she had lost and what was out of her control.
"Compel him." The raven-head muttered. Her will power and body had collapsed some time ago. The only thing keeping her up was the drained soul, beaten black and blue by the discrepancies of her soul and mind. She had worn herself out.
Nik locked eyes with the lovely woman. Her voice seemed so hoarse and her body, slightly slouched and limp, gave the impression of exhaustion.
"This is your wish, sweetheart." Niklaus said gripping the insect of a man to full height with an iron grip on his jugular, "You alone dictate what will happen to him."
"I get to chose?" Kristina whispered turning her restless body towards him completely.
"Ever word." The original confirmed before harshly throw the man across the room against one of the maple dress. Athan let out a vile grasp for air as Niklaus flashed across the human's vision to reapply a deathly grip of the baby vampire's neck.
"Compel him to forget me," she let out an unsteady breath before pouring out her heart, "but to remember the love we shared and how wonderful it was. Tell him it ended easy like the spring wind and convince him to find another love stronger and more passionate then ours." Kristina whispered, swallowing down the burning in her throat. She wouldn't cry. Tears had become too familiar to her over the past week.
If the human hadn't been focused on the flicking fire that danced and flickered as her emotions, she would have notice Niklaus concentrated globes shift to mesmerized, companionate ocean eyes.
Nik repeated every word she said letting his oceanic eyes dilate into Athan's dark stones.
"Do you understand?" Nik questioned tightening his grip on the confused looking man. His head nodded sluggishly in response allowing Niklaus to release his hold on him.
Once Athan had left the room, not even bothering to look at Kristina, the original turned in the direction of the raven-head. Brushing past her, the small gust of wind hit her face like a rejections.
"Please don't think so bitterly of me." She remarked watching his back as he poured himself a hefty drink, "I loved the memory of him. I loved the moments we shared staring into each other's eyes as though nothing could ever pull us away. He used to be a reminder of the love and happiness I had once obtained. Athan might have caused me unforgettable pain and sorrow with his actions but the recollection of his role in my life brought happiness indescribable."
Kristina could hardly express herself with words at this point. Exhaustion, physical pain, and a broken heart relinquished difficultly on her mind and judgment.
"No need to explain. I hope to understand in time. For now, my love, a goodnight a wish upon you." Niklaus implored resting his hand on the small of her back. He felt her shiver under his touch but thought nothing of it as he ushered the human towards the door.
"I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning." Nik stated a small smile appearing on his full pink lips.
Kristina only nodded stupidly as she turned to face him on the other side of the door. His hands where attached to the handles of the double doors when Kristina let a goodnight escape her lips.
The vampire closed the door before her wide globes leaving her to stare blankly at the oak for a few more minutes.
As if the tears hadn't graced its presence already, they seemed to fall with a new and more painful meaning.
He had closed the door in her face, just a thoughtless action but it hurt nonetheless. Kristine heard her feet click against the wooden floor before she heard her shaky voice gasps for breath.
This night was the first night she had found herself fearless of walking to her room solo. It was pitch dark and cold causing plentiful goosebumps to arise but it not matter to the servant.
Just wanted to let the readers know, this story will end. Chapter 32 marks the half way point of the second part of Forgiveness Is A Gift. Please review what you think of this chapter!