A/N 1.0: aka the chapter in which shit begins to hit the fan. lots going on so buckle up;) also, just a housekeeping thing, there are several text messages sent/received in a crucial part where an important clue is revealed about what happened the night of Prom that I don't think anyone wants to miss;)
bold italicized font designates a text message where as italicized font designates a thought/memory.
so, I'll catch y'all on the flip side! enjoy:)
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries. Title courtesy of Mumford and Sons' 'Broken Crown'
6
and so it is the duty of the just to defy dominance and to challenge control
He knocked three times against the aged black door with faded paint before he took a step back and waited. It opened with a creak and a woman stood in the crack, guarded brown eyes raking up and down his figure.
"Sophie Bellicose?" Elijah asked with raised brows.
"You're not welcome here, vampire," she spit out, her eyes flaming up in anger as her entire posture snapped stiff as a board and she made a move to close the door.
Elijah stepped forward and stopped her action, placing the palm of his hand over the cracking black paint. "I was hoping we might have a word, it's of great importance."
Sophie raised her chin but made no further move to slam the door in his face. "I have no interest in hearing you out."
"That's rather unfortunate for you, my dear, seeing as you really don't have a choice in the matter. I mean you no harm as long as you cooperate."
"You can't touch me. There's law against vampires harming witches invoked by Marcel."
"You see, dear Sophie, the rules made by Marcel do not apply to me. I am nearly 700 years his senior and was around when my brother gave him his immortal life. I will not abide by juvenile rules I do not approve of. As I said, I have no intention of or interest in harming you and I assure you I am a man of my word," Elijah said, removing his hand from the door and holding it up in surrender. "I only require your assistance."
This time, Sophie opened the door and stepped outside, letting the heavy barrier shut behind her with a resounding thud. She crossed her arms and leaned back against in the niche between the iron-wrought railing and the aged-brick wall. "Well?" she scoffed.
"I greatly appreciate your aid."
"That's what all vampires say when they right before they turn on you," she said, pushing off the wall and hopping down the front steps, past Elijah. "Are you coming or not?" she asked, turning her head, her deep, dead eyes and thin facial features boring up at Elijah.
"Lead the way," Elijah said, waving a hand in front of them once he had joined her on the sidewalk.
"It's un peu tôt for the main event to start but I reckon we can kill some time until your brother gets back to us about Madame Bellicose," Marcel said as they entered the large bar.
The place was dimly lit with rock music playing in the background. The last rays of dusty evening sunlight broke through the thick window and illuminated small patches of the dark oak floor. The entire place reeked of alcohol and sex and Klaus caught a hint of blood in the air and looked to Marcel in question.
His pupil only shot him a devilish smirk. "And by main event, I mean party."
"I wouldn't expect any less from you," Klaus stated, taking a seat at the bar as Marcel signaled the tender for two shots.
"Don't look so glum, boss man!" he exclaimed, tossing back his shot. "I can assure you this will be your kind of party. After all, it's what you wanted back in the day- a haven for vampires, one where we don't have to repress our monstrous nature. Where we can be the predators we were born to be!"
Klaus raised his brows as he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Hayley. There's a young witch I believe you're acquainted with. Her name's Davina. Track her down.
Sir yes, sir.
Quickly, Hayley. I'm not in the mood for games. Klaus responded before shoving his phone back into his pocket and turning to eye Marcel."I've never been one to hide my true nature, mate," he said.
"But you didn't used to be so… mélancolique about it, either" Marcel said, with a wave of his hand. "The way I see it…you should be even more reckless. Word reached me that you killed Mikael and you obviously broke your curse because you smell like the son of a bitch you are. What's holding you back?"
"Nothing," Klaus said, eyes never leaving Marcel as he signaled for a bartender, smirking as he watched the girl come closer.
"What can I get for you, handsome?"
Klaus glanced down at the nametag hanging on the collar of her low-cut grey top, letting his eyes linger a little longer than necessary before trailing back up to her freckled face to meet her sterling colored eyes. "Well, Natalie, first off, I'd love it if you didn't scream."
His eyes changed, honey seeping into turquoise and his fangs embedded themselves in the skin of her wrist before the girl could say another word. After a few moments of slowly pulling a few mouthfuls of the girl's rich blood down his burning throat to a backdrop of stunned silence where only the girl's heartbeat pounded in his ears, Klaus withdrew looking for all the world like he could have just been punched in the mouth and split his lip.
"Thank you, my lovely. Why don't you go on and bandage that up. I'll call on you later if I need anymore," he said with a wink and a smirk. Natalie nodded with a bright smile, throwing in her own wink before turning away and walking off, holding her still bleeding wrist. Wiping the blood off his lips and sucking it off his thumb, Klaus turned to Marcel. "Might as well bring the party to us, mate," he said with a shrug, amusement lighting his eyes.
"Hey, Hayley!" Davina greeted the other girl with a bright smile.
"Hey! You got here quick," Hayley said, pushing off the iron wrought gate of Lafayette Cemetery.
"Well, my parents are out tonight and Sophie didn't need me after I dropped the herbs off. Are we going to search some more?"
"Uh, yeah, If you don't mind. It's always nice to have the extra set of eyes since the writing on these creepy tombstones is ridiculous. Let me just text my…friend," she said, pulling her phone out and sending a quick text to Klaus. Got her. We're in Lafayette Cemetery. Am I bringing her to you or…? She hit send, not once breaking stride. "I wasn't sure if you were going to be able to make it so I made other plans just in case," she lied with a smile, moving along the long rows of ancient, cement ovens with Davina at her side. "It's a crescent shape, remember?"
"Yup!"
Hayley let out an uneasy sigh as her fingers ran along the rough tomb at her side, wrinkling her nose. She cursed her heightened sense of smell but she wasn't quite sure if it was the scent of decaying bodies buried in the ovens or the tingling, warning sensation coursing through her veins.
"For curiosity's sake, where are we heading?" Elijah asked Sophie as they walked down the street.
"You pointed out that I understand the importance of family. I'm taking you to wear mine is buried. I thought you might better understand my part of the story standing at their grave."
"I'm sorry for your loss, Sophie. I, too, know what it's like to lose family and it's a pain no one should ever have to shoulder, least of all alone."
"It happened a few years ago," Sophie said in a dead tone, keeping her eyes staring straight ahead, almost as if she weren't seeing anything. "I didn't catch your name."
"Elijah. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"I don't have vampires as acquaintances, Elijah. You're a violent group, all of you, and there is nothing your heightened and proper speech can do to make me change my mind. Vampires killed my family and it's because of a vampire that my magic got taken away. My husband and child were brutally murdered by vampires three years ago. My husband was a warlock and he died protecting our child. I tried to save my baby but there were too many of you demons for me to… I can still hear her cries as they drained the life out of her. I found a way to bring them back to me, though."
"Expression," Elijah finished for her.
"Yes. I got kicked out of my coven but it was worth it and I nearly completed the sacrifices. I was so close before they caught me and stripped me of my magic and I will stop at nothing to get it back."
"In my thousand years, I've seen more stories like this than I care to admit," Elijah sighed in weary annoyance. "You tread a dark warpath that will end in nothing but bloodshed, Sophie," Elijah warned.
"I know. And if it ends the way I want, I'll eradicate the vampire race."
"And how do you plan on going about that?"
"I've been gathering an army of witches. Oh come now, you and your infinite wisdom have to have known that there are those who do practice Expression. Especially in a city as dark as New Orleans," she scoffed at Elijah's surprised expression. "I have my own pupil who's just come in to her powers. I'm training her in the dark arts, unbeknownst to her- she's an innocent thing whose parents don't know any better. It's a shame, really- if it were my own daughter I'd be careful whom I let around her. You see, I had lost all hope of seeing my daughter and husband again until I heard word of a stray werewolf down here babbling on and on about her friend in Virginia who had lost his wife and was looking in to a way to raise the dead. She was saying how he'd help her find her parents and then she teamed up with a vampire."
"Katerina," Elijah mumbled under his breath, sticking one of his hands in his pocket as they walked through the large, black gate of Lafayette Cemetery. "And did you make contact with this duo?"
"They left town before I could get to them. But then word of Silas' resurrection began to spread through the community and the wolf girl came back into town, recently actually. I haven't made contact but I've been watching her closely ever since I caught wind of her return. She spends lots of time scouring this cemetery with my pupil and I discovered something very interesting."
"And what would that be?"
"She seems to have struck up an alliance with the one vampire that brought about this whole situation- the one who turned my old coven against me and had my powers stripped. The one who brought about this entire mess by instating a law that forbid all witches from practicing," Sophie said, coming to a stop at the beginning of another row, the voices Elijah had heard earlier becoming louder in the twilight, the pattering of hearts- one human and one distinctly werewolf- more clear and defined.
"Marcel."
"And an even more interesting fact is Marcel's own sire is back in town for the time being and I'd love nothing more than to bring him down as well. I know who you are, Elijah Mikaelson. I had my suspicions but you confirmed the truth and you have no one to blame but yourself. You bring your brother here to me or I'll lure him out myself."
"And how do you expect to draw out an Original?" Elijah asked, raising an eyebrow and drawing himself to his full height to look down his nose at Sophie. He narrowed his eyes at Sophie's chilling smile, her dead eyes alight with malice before a scream pierced the otherwise quiet cemetery.
"It's simple. That wolf girl is important to him."
Elijah chucked darkly at Sophie's rash conclusion. "My brother cares for no one, especially not that girl. It seems to me that your true quarrel lies with Marcel so might I suggest you concentrate your efforts on him, instead?"
Sohpie laughed, an eerie tinkling sound, her eyes alight with malice. "You think I'm lying. Your brother has no choice but to care about that bitch. Bring your brother to me and things will go rather smoothly. If not, I kill his alpha female and it'll be bloody- magic and old fashioned methods combined."
Something akin to shock crossed Elijah's face as he looked over Sophie's shoulder to see some sort of altercation between three other women with Sophie following his gaze.
The powerless witch looked away from the scene behind her and back up at Elijah. "She's more or less innocent in this scenario and you're the moral brother. I doubt you want her to die on your watch and risk your brother's infamous wrath. Tick tock, Elijah."
Klaus rolled his eyes at Marcel's last comment as his phone went off and slammed his blood-laced bourbon down on the bar to pull the device from his pocket. He groaned upon reading the message.
We had to move Bonnie. Silas was close to finding her.
Keep him at bay, Stefan.
"We used to talk of building an empire, starting with la belle Nouvelle Orléans," Marcel said as Klaus ran a hand over his face.
"And who's to say we won't accomplish that feat once I take care of business elsewhere? But, in order to do that, I'll need you to relinquish your hold on my kingdom," he said off-handedly as another text from Stefan came through.
Easier said than done, I'm sure you know that. Didn't he get into your head and convince you that you were dying?
More action might benefit you a tad more than trying my patience.
"Me? Off your throne? I'm just a steward dutifully awaiting his king's return, Klaus," Marcel snapped, dropping Natalie's wrist from where he had been holding it over his tumbler and throwing the bloodied rag at her. "I've kept this city running just like you asked when you ran and disappeared off the damn map up until a year ago when word reached that obnoxious pack haunting the bayou that a vampire-werewolf hybrid was on the move, looking for packs to turn. I remember…I said to myself, 'Je serai condamné. He finally broke it.' I've been waiting for you to come back, doing exactly as you asked, building the community you wanted, granted I've taken some creative license with your requests but with you being an artist, I didn't think you'd mind all that much. But I do all this, I do everything you wanted and I get accused of stealing your throne?"
"Yes, Marcel, you do and I am in the right. I'm willing to wager the majority of vampires here, the ones who were in the other pub earlier, no nothing of me. They only know of you. So, you can see my problem let us observe where your creative license has gotten us, shall we? We have a city full of witches harnessing repressed magic," Klaus snarled, his eyes diverting to his phone as Stefan's reply came through. "How the bloody hell do you propose fixing that, eh?"
As your 'eyes and ears', I'm just letting you know. Thought you'd appreciate that.
That's one bloody thing I don't have to concern myself with, then.Klaus sent that message before sighing and typing another, unable to stop himself. And Caroline?
She's…dealing. Being typical Caroline. Worried about everyone and leaving little time for herself but I can see right through it. Why? You going to tell me what really happened?
Klaus sighed, contemplating how to explain, if he even could. Leaning heavily on his elbows, he rubbed his temples against the onslaught of memories from the other night after his phone screen went dark.
"I want you to live and not have to constantly look over your shoulder. I want you to be happy and I hope you get everything you want."
"Me, too. And I want the same for you. You deserve that and so much more," Tyler said quietly and wrapping Caroline in a tight hug one last time. "Goodbye, Care." Tyler let go of her gently and turned around to face the hybrid standing a short ways away and strode up to Klaus, his head held high and a determined look in his eyes. "You take care of her, Klaus. Whether she ever loves you or not. You got it?"
He afforded the other male a short nod with pursed lips, his eyes shifting between the forest floor and Tyler's face. Tyler took a deep breath, a final glance at Caroline and was gone in a gust of wind, leaving Caroline and Klaus standing in the clearing behind the school.
"Caroline, eh?" Marcel's voice broke through his thoughts. "And here I was thinking you and Hayley had been gettin' cozy with all your wolfishness in common."
"I'm not getting into this. Not with you of all people."
Marcel threw his hands up, "Just trying to make conversation, take your mind off things. What are friends for?" he asked with a much too innocent look in his dark eyes for Klaus' liking and the ever present smirk on his face. "Although I would have never expected the biggest bad of them all to go all soft for a girl we he was so adamant that love was nothing but a weakness."
Klaus had Marcel by the throat before he could blink. "This is what I mean," he growled. "You constantly test waters you, of all people, know to stay out of, mate."
"I'm just sayin', or tryin' to say you aren't the first one to let a girl get in your head," Marcel choked out. "But that doesn't mean it's a weakness."
Klaus growled again and, fortunately for Marcel, his phone went off once more. Only this time, the tone repeated and he let go of Marcel's throat to pick it up.
"Elijah."
"Niklaus, we have a problem."
A/N 2.0: in a perfect world, I'll get a few chapters out before Thursday. I've become very wary and suspicious of how Tyler and Caroline's pivotal scene is going to go down. and by that I mean, I don't think it's going to be anything like what we've been expecting. so I'd like to get to my take on things before whatever is going to happen happens:)
next chapter: big confrontations. Klaus and Marcel, Klaus and Elijah, Klaus and Sophie, even Klaus and Hayley (I know the reception of her character isn't all that great but pls don't kill me for calling her Klaus' alpha female? just to clear the air, I don't mean to say she's Klaus' mate by that. but by wolf standards and what I understand of werewolf lore, she is Klaus' alpha female for the sole purpose of this story.) Klaus just ain't gonna be a very happy camper next time. poor guy...I just can't let him catch a break.
anyways, thanks for reading! and, as always, if you have a minute, please drop a review by. i'd really appreciate it:)
until next time, friends!