A/N: Thanks to all the reviewers and followers/favorites! You guys keep me motivated!

Okay, sorry for the wait! This would have been out much sooner, but I got a flame review and it completely destroyed my muse. Seriously. I had this entire rant prepared for this flamer (who was a guest, by the way - I would've sent them a PM and tried to be civil) but a day or so after I got this flame, a very nice review was posted that made me feel much better about it all. So I apologize to ANYONE out there who is reading my story and feels like Andy is like Elena. Guess what? Andy's choosing who she wants in the next few chapters and she will stick with that decision! So thank you, Lilly, for being my first flame!

Now I apologize for going off, even if it was MUCH cleaner than I had originally planned. But did anyone watch The Originals this past week? I was so mindblown by that end scene... And my pity for Klaus grows each episode. Joseph Morgan is amazing. Oh, and another thing stopping me from posting: Thor! I'm one of those people who go and see movies in the theaters 3-4 times... And seeing the preview for Days of Future Past brings tears to my eyes every time. I have an obsession with Michael Fassbender... Okay, I'm rambling! Let's get to the chapter now, eh?

Poison & Wine - Chapter L

~ * • ° • ° • * ~

"Carol Lockwood always said that togetherness in times of tragedy, leads to healing. That one community is stronger than a thousand of its members, but how does a community stay strong after losing its leader? And Carol was so much more than a leader; she was an open minded friend and a concerned mother taken from us too soon by a terrible accident," The words played over in my mind as I stared out at the lake. Caroline's mom had given a speech this morning at a mandatory school memorial despite it being the day before Christmas Eve and Christmas break. She was the Mayor, after all.

Three days had gone by and Sheriff Forbes had come up with a cover; Carol Lockwood had simply drunk too much and fell into the fountain, hitting her head, and drowning. But I knew the truth, everyone who knew about vampires did.

Klaus had killed her.

I understood why he did it, but it didn't stop the pain from eating away at me. Carol was like a mother to me, and I hadn't seen her in so long or spoken to her in quite a while. Also, the way he had acted about it was horrible. For the first time since I met him, I saw him as he truly was. A monster. I think a part of me thought I could change that, but I knew now I never stood a chance with that. I mean, I hadn't spoken to him in a day, the last time being when he revealed what he had done, nor had I gone to retrieve my things from his mansion. I didn't want to see him anymore, I just wanted to mourn my friend.

"Hey, you okay?"

I turned my head to see Matt approaching. "Yeah, I'm fine," I sneezed and slightly cringed. "Just a little sick is all."

He walked down the rest of the dock to my side. "You know, Elena wants you to come back to live with her,"

I instantly shook my head. "No, I can't be around her, not right now,"

"Andy, we're all upset,"

I turned towards him, my bottom lip slightly trembling. "They almost had Klaus killed again, Matt, after everything that I went through when I thought he was dead the first time. They did it without even thinking twice about it. And then when I try to go stop it from happening, they prevent me from doing so which results in Klaus murdering all his hybrids and Carol. This is all their faults. Her death is on them."

Matt scratched his head, exhaling. "It was only Caroline, Tyler, and Stefan who knew about it, Andy. Elena didn't know until it was already going down," He glanced up at the house. "I'm going to go help Jeremy train some, you should join us." He walked off back towards the house.

I turned back towards the lake and reached into my pocket and squeezed the necklace I had planned to give Klaus for Christmas, but now it didn't even feel right to give him this. "You should go help your brother," Damon's voice said from behind me as he approached.

"You should leave me alone," I said evenly despite the grimace on my face.

"Well, if you're going to stay here, you might as well be useful,"

I turned to face him. "I lost a friend, Damon. I don't need you to order me around like I'm sired to you," I snapped before I marched past him.

Matt was in front of the house, helping Jeremy to train just as he said. When I looked back at the dock, Damon was on his phone, listening to something. I turned away from him and watched the two. "All right, go ahead. Make a move," Jeremy said.

"I drove up here to be your wingman, not kick your ass," Matt said just bertie Jeremy flipped him over. From the ground, Matt said, "Okay I get it, I get it. You're a badass."

"Did you see that?" Jeremy asked, looking over at me but I couldn't even answer before Damon started talking.

"You couldn't miss it. It was is in slow motion," He said.

Jeremy folded his arms. "Then, teach me something useful. We've been here for days, and so far, all you've done is bark orders,"

Damon looked at Jeremy for a long moment. "Okay," He grabbed one the stakes that were on the table and threw it to Jeremy. "Take a seat at the bench, quaterback. Kid wants a shot at the title."

"Jeremy,you're not ready for this," I said as Matt pulled me to the side.

Suddenly Jeremy ran towards Damon. Damon grabbed him by the arm and grabbed his neck. "Now, all I have to do is apply a little pressure in your jaw," Damon said to him just before a pizza car once again drove up.

"Really? Again?" I asked, looking over at my brother. Jeremy tapped Damon's arm to let him go.

The pizza girl walked up to us with the pizza box in hand. "Double pepperoni three days in a row. You guys eat anything else?"

Damon came up behind her. "Why? Are you offering?" He took the pizza and gave her money. "That's something extra to cut off the pizza pipeline for a couple a days. No matter how much they beg, don't come back."

The girl started leaving with a last glance at Jeremy and Matt. "Sorry, guys,"

Jeremy sighed, folding his arms. "What? You're going to starve us now?"

"If that's what it takes to make you into a hunter. Now, run around the lake... twice," Damon looked over at Matt. "Keep him company."

"I don't have to listen to you," Matt scoffed.

"You do if you want to eat," Damon said and Matt sighed before he took off running with Jeremy.

I studied Damon for a brief moment before I walked back up to the house. Going into the house I finally dialed the number that Emmeline had given me.

It rung a few times before it went to voicemail. I exhaled before I spoke into the receiver. "Elijah, it's me, Andy. I know I'm the last person you ever want to see, but I need to hear your voice. I just need to know you're okay, I guess... Um, just... just call me back if you get this message." I sat my phone down and sighed, leaning my body against the counter.

I felt like my entire world was crumbling all because of this stupid cure. I felt like I had lost so much in the time that school started this year... I didn't even have any inkling of hope to make it out of high school alive.

I started moving around and tidying up the kitchen a bit as they ran. When I figured they had finished running around the lake, I fixed them drinks to go along with their food and sat it all on a tray. I headed back out to where Jeremy was putting wooden bullets in a gun with Damon standing nearby.

"Where's Matt?" I asked as I approached.

"Called into work, but he'll be back once he's done," Jeremy explained, briefly glancing up at me.

I sat the tray on the picnic table and opened the pizza box to fix Jeremy's plate for him. "He should've at least stayed to eat a little something," I frowned at the thought that Matt would go hungry.

"He'll be fine, Andy, you know Matt, he's strong," Jeremy handed the gun to Damon and I passed him his drink and food before fixing one for Damon.

"Good," Damon said as he took the wodden bullets out. "Now, do it like your life depends on it, which it does."

"Don't act like you care about my life," Jeremy snapped. "You care about the hunter's mark and curing Elena so she isn't sired to your ass."

Damon handed him back the gun. "Both require you to be alive. Which is why I updated our relationship status to 'it's complicated.' Have you talked to her at all? Elena?" Damon looked over at me first and I shook my head so Jeremy jumped in.

"Maybe. Why? Running out of voice mails to listen to?"

"Jeremy... " I started, but another voice stopped me.

"I'm sorry. Did I interrupt play time?"

Every hair on my neck stood and my skin crawled. My heart started racing and my breathing immediately became uneven as fear consumed me. I couldn't even force myself to move, I was frozen in that one spot.

It was Klaus.

Jeremy stood up, looking straight at him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm simply appreciating the sites and smells of nature, neither of which presently include the smell of rotting vampire flesh, so I'm a bit concerned," Klaus said nonchalantly. "How many vampires has he killed?"

"If we throw Jeremy out in the real world right now, he's chum," Damon pointed out.

"Yeah, see that's not a number. Twelve! That's a number. That's how many of my hybrids I slaughtered with my sword," I flinched and my shoulders stayed tensed up as he continued on. "Three. That's how many days it took to quil the urge to kill your brother after he knowingly watched as I walked into a death trap. One. That's the number of purposes you serve. You are here to grow Jeremy's mark so I'll ask again, how many vampires has he killed since he's been here?"

"Zero,"

By his tone, I could just tell he was smirking. "That's a pity. I'm going to need that cure sooner rather than later. Hybrid shortage and all. How can I help?"

Damon picked up the gun. "You know, now that you mention it... Jeremy,watch and learn." Gun shots rang out and I screamed involuntarily. Finally able to move my limbs I turned see he had shot Klaus with wooden bullets. "That's for Carol Lockwood." Damon said before tossing Jeremy the gun back.

My heart was racing once again and I felt light-headed. I moved a couple of feet away from them before I just started vomiting. I hadn't even ate all day, but my body still found something.

I felt hands on me, and I instantly knew they were his hands. Crying out I jerked back away from his grasp, falling straight to the ground. "Don't touch me," I scrambled backwards away from him. Klaus looked at me with confusion and hurt as I quickly stood and my hands trembled as I straightened out my clothing. "N-Napkins, we need napkins," I managed out before darting towards the house. Once safely inside, I broke down and curled up as I started sobbing again.

"Andy... " Jeremy sighed as he entered the house. "Are you okay?" He whispered as he bent down beside of me.

Composing myself halfway, I looked up at him with a trembling bottom lip. "I don't know anymore,"

He sighed and pulled me into a hug. "You're going to be fine, I promise you,"

I wiped my eyes and got my breathing under control. "We should, uh, we should get those napkins now,"

Jeremy nodded and helped me up to my feet. I grabbed the napkins and we headed back on out where Damon was sitting with Klaus nearby. I avoided his gaze as I handed Damon his food, drink, and a napkin. I silently started heading back towards the house.

"Andy?" I ignored him as I walked, keeping my eyes straight ahead and away from him. I didn't need to hear anything from him, and frankly I was afraid of him still. "Are you going to talk to me or not?" Klaus demanded and when I didn't stop he grabbed my arm and turned me to face him.

I quickly yanked back from him. "Do not touch me again," I warned, my heart beginning to beat too quickly.

"Why haven't you been home, Andy? Why have you been holed up here for the past three days?" He asked.

I looked over at him with complete disgust. "Did you seriously just ask me that?"

"This isn't about Carol Lockwood, is it?" His eyebrow raised momentarily but then dropped after my silence gave him the answer. "I see..."

I shook my head. "Wait, did you honestly think I'd come back to your house after you came to me that night gloating about how you killed Carol? Did you honestly think I'd be able to look at you the same ever again?"

"She wasn't your family,"

"That's where you're wrong, Klaus," I ran my hand down my face. "She was like a mother to me and so was Jenna."

"So your dead aunt is what this is all about?"

"No, this is about me being scared that when you touch me it'll be to break my neck! This is about the fact that I can no longer sleep under the same roof as you without thinking you're going to kill me!" I admitted without any reluctance. He needed to hear this, even if he didn't want to.

"You're... You're afraid of me?" He asked, hurt displayed over his features. "Andy, you know I would - could - never hurt you."

I felt stray tears fall from my eyes. "I don't know anything anymore, Klaus. Perhaps if you wanted me so badly you should've thought twice about your petty revenge," I exhaled, running my shaky hand through my hair before I turned and disappeared into the lake house to sob until I had nothing left in me.

After hours of moping around, Matt ended up showing back up and he and Jeremy made it their mission to make me get my mind off of Klaus so they hooked up the XBOX 360 and popped in Call of Duty: Black Ops. I decided I'd act like I had for their sake, but I still had a wave of emotions that were threatening to hit me full force as soon as I was alone.

About halfway through our game, the doorbell rung and Matt so graciously offered to answer it. As he left the room I killed Jeremy again on the game so he said he would refill our snack bowl.

I was only alone for a few seconds when Matt walked back in. "Who was that?" I asked him.

"That pizza girl... Her car broke down and she needs to borrow my phone," Matt said as he picked up his phone. "And now that I look at her, she's pretty cute."

"Is she? Think she'll give me her number?" I said with a teasing smile.

Matt slightly nudged me. "Oh, whatever,"

Suddenly the girl appeared behind Matt. "Did you find your phone?" She asked before she lunged at him, but I shoved him out of the way. She sunk her teeth into my neck before I could manage to shove her away. When I got her away from me, Jeremy came back into the room. He didn't miss a heartbeat as he picked up a stake and came up behind her, shoving the stake through her heart. He dropped her body to the ground and we looked at each other in shock. Damon walked in and saw what had happened. Jeremy looked down at his arm for a moment then back up at me.

"What the hell was that?" He asked.

I put my hand over the open wound on my neck. "I have no clue,"

"It was Klaus," Damon said as he walked over and bent down beside the girl's body. "He wants Jeremy's hunter mark to grow."

I closed my mouth and decided to keep my mouth shut. I moved into the bathroom and started cleaning up the cut. As I did so, tears poured down my face. Klaus couldn't just leave it alone, he had to go do something that screwed it all up even more. I hated him more than anything for never letting himself be happy.

"Hey, you okay?" Damon asked after a few minutes.

"Yeah," I answered as I picked up the nasty rags. I moved past him in the doorway and went to the laundry room where I loaded the washing machine up.

Damon followed behind me. "She got you pretty good,"

"Yeah, she did," I curtly said as I looked over at him after I started the machine up. "What did Klaus say to you?"

"He wanted Jeremy to kill more vampires,"

"What else?"

"And he wanted me to convince you to move back in with him," He added.

I sighed, leaning against the wall. "Did you agree?"

"No, of course not,"

I nodded and wiped a stray tear. "I used to never cry. I mean, I didn't even cry when my parents died and now I'm an emotional wreck. I cry every day for a new reason... "

"Hey, you're just not in the best place right now," Damon walked over to me and ruffled my hair. "You've lost a lot in the past year. You just need to slow it down a bit." I nodded, unsure how to respond to that. He waited another moment before speaking again. "I'm taking Jeremy to go hunt some vampires and Matt's tagging along."

"Funny, so am I," I said as I walked past him, then called back to him, "Don't ruffle my hair again."

Damon ended up taking us to a bar somewhere that wasn't that far away from the lake house. As we entered the bar, music blared and dead bodies laid everywhere. I was gawking at them as Damon led us towards the bar. That's when I saw who was responsible for this and was no longer surprised.

Klaus was sitting at the bar with his back to us and was pouring himself a drink. "I was beginning to worry you lot wouldn't find the place," He said, still keeping his back to us.

"What the hell... ?" Jeremy asked, gesturing to the bodies.

"Did you kill all these people?" Matt questioned so I didn't have to. Klaus turned towards us, his eyes immediately finding me and spotting the gauze around my neck wiping. A frown formed on his face but he still answered, though it was unsettling.

"Not exactly. They're in transition," He looked at Jeremy. "Killing them is your job."

Us humans turned to look at Damon accusingly. "You said you were going to convince Klaus to do this another way!"

"Well, I thought about it, then I realized that his idea was better," Damon replied, making Klaus grin like an idiot. We stared at him in disbelief just as a guy at the bar started moving.

"No way. Jeremy's not doing this for some stupid cure!" I snapped, shoving Damon.

"What makes you think Jeremy has a choice?" Klaus questioned.

"He has to kill vampires to complete the hunter's mark. Mark equals cure. You're in a bar full of almost vampires, so get your hunt on," Damon tried explaining like it was so easy, but I knew it wouldn't be.

"Screw you. You said I wouldn't have to kill any innocent people," Jeremy snapped at him, pulling me to his side.

"Jeremy, they're not people," Damon pointed out.

"They were!" I shrieked, stepping in front of Jeremy again. "He is my little brother and you're not going to force him to do anything just because the Original brat said so!"

"Enough!" Klaus snapped at me. "Have at it, or else."

"I don't take orders from you, dick," Jeremy said, dropping the stake to the grounds and looking at Klaus with confidence. "Hunters can't be compelled."

Klaus laughed and walked up to Jeremy. I blocked the way so he couldn't come any closer. "You're right. I can't compel you. But if your conscience is getting in the way, then allow me to make this easy for you. Because, I can compel them."

We looked at the vampires in transition; a few compelled humans are feeding them their blood. "My God," I murmured at seeing the vampires act like savages.

Klaus smirked at us as he sat back down at the bar. "I'm gonna give you a two-minute head start. Then I'm gonna send every vampire in here after you. You kill them, or they kill your friend... Matt."

"Wait a second!" Matt started to protest.

Apparently this wasn't what Damon had anticipated because he immediately joined in with Matt. "No, no. You turn them, he kills them. That was the deal, Klaus."

Klaus took a sip from his glass. "I'm taking artistic license,"

"You know he can't take them all on at the same time," I said with venom.

"With Damon and you as his coach, he'll be fine. It's Matt I'm worried about," Klaus said as he glanced over at said human.

"Ah... Jeremy, go get the weapons out of the car. I'll be right behind you," Damon said and Jeremy ran out of the bar without any hesitation. "All of you." Matt followed but I stared at Klaus in disgust for a moment. Turning away from him noticed most of the transitioning vampires have been fed blood and are standing. With a shudder I followed.

As I exited, I heard Klaus call to us, "If I hear an engine start, I'll kill Matt myself!"

A part of me was relieved that Klaus hadn't mentioned the vampires killing me, but just because he didn't address it didn't mean I wasn't at stake here.

When I got to the car, Jeremy was getting weapons out and Matt was no where to be seen. "Where's Matt?" I demanded as I got to him.

"On his way to the lake house, you need to follow,"

"No, I can't leave―"

"I need you to make sure Matt survives this, Andy! Just go!"

I did as he ordered, because in that moment he frightened me a little bit. I could also see at that exact moment that he was no longer my drug addicted little brother; he was mature now.

I ran through the woods and tried my best to keep my footing, but for some reason tonight I was clumsy. I tripped over every twig and everything that stuck out. I didn't glance over my shoulder once. I wanted to call out for Matt but knew I was risking too much just in case a vampire heard me if they hadn't heard me tumbling around and whatnot.

As I ran, I was suddenly shoved down to the ground. Rolling onto my back I looked up and saw an unfamiliar man. The man, who I assumed was a vampire, stared at me hungrily and drug me closer to him by my feet. I screamed and struggled but I with no avail so I closed my eyes and waited for the pain... but out never came. After a moment I looked up I saw the vampire's body on the ground. My eyes then went the last person I expected to be my savior.

"Elijah?"

~ * • ° • ° • * ~

The End of Chapter L

While editing this chapter, my anger has completely faded for the flamer. I slightly overreacted, but I feel better now. Anyways, the next chapter will involve lots of Elijah! So pretty please review!

~ The Onceler's Unless