"Paris." Katherine walked into the room as if she owned the place. "Huh?" Caroline looked up from one of her books. Elodie and Marissa had classes, so they weren't around. "That's where the next clue is." Katherine said triumphantly. "Barrière d'Enfer. Of course, I should've remembered that." Kol joined in. He'd just popped back in. "Can someone fill me in?" Caroline asked not entirely grasping how that solved the riddle. "Well, the Catacombs of Paris are located near a former toll house, named Barrière d'Enfer. During Roman times, the graveyard was located on the left bank of the Seine." Katherine explained. "So, the riddle is solved." Caroline jumped up, this was good. They had the first clue. They were one step closer to finding the Grimoire. "Let's go to Paris, mes filles." "I'm not yours, Kol. But we are going to Paris. I need to get some shopping done, anyways." Katherine said while throwing her hair back.

Caroline looked at the stacks of books. She was ahead of most of her classes anyway. And her class on Monday was conveniently cancelled. "Alright, book the tickets, we're leaving tonight." "What about Bonnie?" Bonnie had gone to visit her mother, hoping that she might shed some light on the mysterious woman in purple. "She just left, we can't pull her back. Besides, we're two kick ass vampires, I'm sure we can handle ourselves." "I'll let Bonnie know about Paris. You girls better start packing." Kol said before leaving.

"We need to get back by Tuesday morning the latest." "That should work. We arrive early morning, get settled in our hotel and go shopping. We'll need to sneak into the Catacombs, because they're big and it'll probably be in some restricted area. That means we'll have to do it during the night." Katherine was planning the trip out loud. "Fine. I'm going to go to class. You take care of the tickets?" Caroline asked, she was already running late for Elijah's class. "Sure, no problem. See you in a bit."

**almost****is***never*****enough***

Elijah had been at Harvard for three weeks and it had been a very interesting three weeks to say the least. First, there'd been the appearance of Caroline Forbes, the girl his brother was infatuated with. He'd had to admit that she was something special. After talking to her that Monday, he realised that Caroline was quite possibly the best thing that could've ever happened to his brother. Of course, she was still a young vampire and had to figure out for herself what she wanted. He knew she cared about Klaus, but she wasn't ready for an eternal commitment. There was a strength and resilience that was rare. She was loyal, kind, forgiving and an overall nice and gentle person. Elijah had been surprised to learn how smart she really was. Her friends obviously didn't give her the credit she deserved. And Caroline's defence of Katherine had been remarkable. He didn't know much about the time they spent together, nor about the friendship that had mysteriously formed between the two. It was a mystery that he'd solved the same night. That was the second and the most interesting thing about his stay: the doppelganger.

After the coffee with Caroline, Elijah had decided to have a drink in one of the local bars. And then she had walked in. The brunette had sat down next to Elijah and had made some small talk. But there had been something different about Elena. At first he'd written it off to the fact that she had become a vampire and this was the first time they'd met while she had her humanity back on. That Elena was different from the human Elena. In fact, vampire Elena reminded him eerily of his beloved Katerina. She'd spoken about her break from the Salvatore brothers. It was logical after all, she'd been a teenager and was still growing up, figuring out what she wanted. There was a playfulness about her he hadn't picked up in her human self, a mischievous glint in her eyes, the same one Katherine always had.

Becoming a vampire changes a person, they grow into the person they would eventually grow up to be. Their most marking traits become more pronounced. But the mischievous glint, the boldness, the playfulness and the slight arrogance in her appearance didn't match up to the traits he'd seen in the human Elena. Elena had been more reserved, kind, compassionate and humble. This vampire had a passionate fire that lighted her eyes and was present in every one of her moves. Elijah had the suspicion that this vampire wasn't Elena at all, but Katherine Pierce. This, of course, raised the question of how she had managed to come back from the dead. But for once, Elijah let all logical thought and rational go. He just stopped thinking, because when her lips found his, he knew. This was his Katerina and she obviously wanted to play. So he let her. He played along, pretending that she was in fact Elena and that they were just enjoying each other's company. But he knew, and he had a vague suspicion that she knew as well. Yet, they pretended, because it was easier. They didn't have to worry about the complications or about his brother or his sister. It was about them and how they had somehow found their way back. And while he wondered how it was even possible for Katherine to be alive and be her vampire self, he didn't question it. He didn't want to ruin the simplicity of what they had right now.

She'd walked out today with a hurry, saying that she was meeting Caroline and that she was running late. There had been something triumphant in her manner of walking out, as if she solved a puzzle. They'd been talking about catacombs. She'd visited the one in Rome with Caroline during the summer and she'd asked some questions about it. At first he'd found it rather odd, the Katherine he had known, hadn't show that much interest in history, then again, maybe it was part of the ruse. Elijah had answered her questions and had talked some more about the catacombs in Paris. Then she'd kissed him and told him that she would be gone for a couple of days. Even after five hundred years, Katerina Petrova was still able to surprise him.

Caroline arrived two minutes late. Elijah had waited for her to begin. She met his gaze and gave him a grateful smile. Caroline quickly took a seat next to Elodie. Elijah started his lecture, but Caroline was a bit distracted. This was the break they'd been waiting for. She did find it a bit morbid, the catacombs. And how the hell were they supposed to find their way down there? Maybe they should head to the archives and find a map, she didn't want to get lost and be surrounded by skeletons. It really creeped her out. When Elijah's lecture finally ended, she jumped from her seat. "Someone's in a hurry. Hot date?" Elodie inquired. "No, Elena and I are going to Paris. Girls weekend. We'll be back Monday or Tuesday at the latest." She didn't wait for a reply but hastened to get out. "Katherine's ready to leave. She took the liberty to pack your bags as well. The plain leaves in two hours." Kol informed her when she made her way towards the door.

"That explains why you were late." Elijah said as Caroline passed by. He had obviously heard about the impromptu trip to Paris. "Sorry about that, it was kind of last minute planning. You know Katherine." Caroline had slipped up and she put a hand in front of her mouth. Elijah chuckled and the mortified look on the blonde vampire's face. "Don't worry, he knows." Kol said, looking at his brother. "She told him?" She asked Kol. "No need to." Elijah informed her, a bit confused about who she was actually addressing. "Oh." Caroline was relieved. "Does she know?" She wondered, more to herself than to him. "Let's just say that for now we're both pretending." Caroline nodded absentmindedly. "Alright. So, this never happened?" "Enjoy your trip to Paris. Give my regards to Elena." Caroline smiled and made her way to the dorm.

"Who would've thought that one day, my brother would simply just accept something good." Kol said. "For a minute there, I really thought that I had just blown everything." "Elijah loves Katherine. He knows her. I don't get how Katherine ever thought that my brother wouldn't see through her act. She may be able to fool everyone else, but never Elijah." Caroline had never thought about it like that. She knew Elena, had known her all her life, and Katherine had fooled her into believing that she was Elena. Of course, she'd never had the same relationship or the history that Elijah had with Katherine. Caroline had to admit, the more time she spent with Katherine, the more she began to realise the subtle differences between the doppelgangers. And if she could see them, after spending less than a year with Katherine, it was only logical that Elijah could.

"Finally, let's go. We have a plane to catch." Katherine was waiting in the car. Caroline hopped in and they took off. "I was thinking that maybe we should get a map of the Catacombs?" The blonde vampire suggested. "Good thinking. Don't want to wind up lost with only skeletons to ask for guidance." Katherine said with a wink. "Not funny." "Do the skeletons freak you out, Care? You do realise that they are dead and gone, right?" Kol mocked.

**almost****is***never*****enough***

"Ah, Paris, je t'aime." Katherine said when they got out of the airport. They hailed a cab to their hotel. After some compulsion, they were able to get one of the best rooms still available. Caroline found it a bit too much, but Katherine insisted. "I travel in style, Carebear. And I always get the best of everything." Kol and Caroline both rolled their eyes at Katherine's antiques, but they went with it. And the youngest vampire had to admit, she kind of liked travelling in style as well, but she just felt a bit guilty about the compulsion. But when she saw the room, she almost thanked Katherine for her high maintenance. She could most definitely get used to this. "Alright, we take a powernap, then we feed and then we'll get the map, take a tour of the Catacombs and go shopping."

Caroline felt as if she'd barely closed her eyes when Katherine was shoving her awake. "We have a very busy day, so get your ass out of bed." Caroline found it odd that Katherine was actually the one initiating waking up. After travelling and living with Katherine, she'd come to realise that the girl was not a morning person. "What's got into you?" "I'm in Paris." Katherine said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Caroline groaned but got out of bed anyways.

They made their way to the archives, deciding to brunch after getting the map. Katherine knew French and she was able to compel one of the workers there to give them a map of the catacombs. They headed to a small French café for brunch and looked over the map. "There's a lot of ground to cover." Kol commented. "We're not splitting up. But if we're doing the tour, we can already check some things out." Katherine was right, splitting up was a bad idea. "I think we should look at the inaccessible areas. Some are closed to the public, others have been filled with concrete to block the access, we might need to find a way to access those parts." Caroline proposed, even though she wasn't thrilled about the prospect. She may be a vampire, but what if they got buried underneath a pile of rocks? Who were they going to call? Did they even have cell service down there? Kol could always get Bonnie to figure something out. "Witches are very innovative, there might be secret doors or something. I also find the staircase on the right an interesting starting point. It would drop us almost immediately at an inaccessible part." Kol pointed out. "Well, let's find out about how inaccessible inaccessible means. Let's go to the catacombs." Katherine emptied her mug and got up. Caroline followed her example.

They took the underground to the catacombs and were met by a gigantic line. "There's no way I'm going to wait in line." Katherine huffed and just walked up to some people, compelled them to give up their place and move along. Caroline shook her head in disbelief. "Oh don't give me that look, Caroline. I did what needed to be done. And it's our turn now." They moved along and entered the building. "You're up." Katherine pushed the blonde forward to order tickets. "I don't have any euros." The blonde whispered. The brunette took over for Caroline, compelling the people to believe that they had paid. "One of these days, you'll find yourself in need to break the rules." "You just robbed those people of their money." Katherine rolled her eyes. "It's not like they couldn't afford it. Now come on, time to explore the underworld."

"Those are a lot of bones." Kol said, pointing at one of the many skulls lying around. "What'd you expect, you are at an ossuary." "One point for Care for using fancy words." Kol replied at Caroline's sarcasm. The tour wasn't that interesting. Sure, they pointed out some important things and the aqueduct may lead to something of significance, but the exploring had to wait until the evening. "You think there'd be like a security system or something?" Caroline wondered while looking around the tunnels, trying to spot cameras. "What, like motion detectors? And to do what, make sure no one gets away with stealing a skeleton?" Katherine turned it into a joke. "If we're getting arrested, I'll blame you." "We're vampires, Carebear. Compulsion is your get out of jail free card. And you're going down with me. You might want to consider learning some French." Katherine threw back at the young vampire. "Not all of us are five hundred and over." "Wisdom does come with age." Kol commented. Both girls laughed at that. "Laugh all you want, but I was thinking, the ossuary is part of a whole network of tunnels, and only became a touristic attraction in the nineteenth century. Now, the remains of the skeletons were only transported here after 1786. Tell me what you make of that."

"The clue was only placed here after?" Katherine proposed. Caroline thought it through. It was possible that the clue was put there after the remains had been transported there, but there was another possibility. "Or, what if the clues change, adapt to the time and period. Ann Grant did say that Gaia made it challenging. And the riddle spoke about bones, so how would she even know that this would become a burial ground?" "That's an excellent point. Or here's another one, what if she didn't mean these skeletons?" Katherine continued. "A mass grave, somewhere in these tunnels. The plot thickens." Kol said ominously. "But where?" That was the question. "We won't find it here. Let's get above ground, head to the archives and ask some older maps." They made their way to the exit. This was getting more complicated than they would've thought.

"So, massacres in medieval Paris." Katherine said and looked at Kol. "It's not like there was a constant stream of news like nowadays. There were a lot of hearsays. Let me think for a moment." Kol was thinking about the medieval period. His past sometimes seemed like a blur. He had to go through a thousand years of memories. Maybe not an actual thousand considering the fact that Nik had put him in a box many times over, but overall, his lifetime did add up to a little over eight hundred and fifty years. He knew magic, he had seen the most beautiful things being done with it, and he had also seen the damage it could inflict. He thought back on Gaia, she was one canny witch. Smart, innovative, cunning, powerful. A face flashed before his eyes. Anaïs.

"I think I may have something. A story about a bloodbath that had occurred in the twelfth century, not long after the Knights Templar first settled in the city. The Templars had a secret meeting place, somewhere on the Left Bank of the Seine. One night, they were holding a gathering. Only one person made it out alive. He never told a single soul what happened, but had written it down and passed it on to his daughter. And she never spoke of it, but passed the secret down as well. Generation after generation received the scroll, never speaking of it, keeping it buried deep down in history. I met a girl, while travelling through the Ottoman Empire, she was one of the descendants of this Knight Templar who survived. One night, she came to me, completely distraught. She'd been carrying around a terrible secret and that night, she'd done something she had sworn she'd never do. Anaïs had triggered her werewolf curse. And by triggering her curse, she had chained herself to a faith sealed by her ancestors. Anaïs was one of the few from a rare line of werewolves. Unlike most werewolves, they had a connection to the spirit world. They were some sort of spirit wolves, able to walk the line between life and death. It's a very rare breed, it's quite possible that there are none left with the triggered gene. Because of their ability, they had a connection to the witches. Anaïs showed me the scroll. What it comes down to is that Anaïs' ancestor was a spirit wolf as well and he was the one that had killed those Templars. Their deaths were supposed to serve a greater purpose. The scroll never defined what exactly should be understood under greater purpose, only that he felt compelled to sacrifice those Knights. And before you ask, it wasn't vampires, spirit wolves cannot be compelled by us."

Caroline was always in awe of how much Kol knew and how many different people he had met all through his life. Those spirit wolves were something she'd never heard of, but given the fact that they were rare, it was understandable. "I heard rumours about spirit wolves. I always believed them to be part of legend. Guess not." Katherine said while getting up and going to talk to one of the archivists. Five minutes later she came with a piece of paper. "I asked about the Knights Templar and their properties on the left bank. We may have a bit of a search. He did give me the name of a professor who knows a lot about Templar activity in Paris." "Alright, let's go visit this professor." Caroline was eager to unravel this mystery. "Aren't you excited, Captain Swan." Kol remarked. She just smiled. They were closing in, she could feel it. "Let's hope this professor is at her office then."

Luck was on their side. Even on a Saturday, there was a lot of activity on campus. Caroline looked around and was impressed by the university of Paris. Maybe she could study here for a semester, after she had mastered French. "It's this way." Katherine said and together they made their way to find professor Delacroix. They found her in her office. She was a middle-aged woman, with glasses and greying black hair. "Bonjour." She said with a smile as she saw the two vampires. "Allo, est ce-que vous parlez anglais?" Katherine asked. "I do. Why don't you have a seat." The vampires looked at one another before sitting down on one of the chais. "I'm Manon." First name already, well it would be rude not to respond. "She's Katherine, I'm Caroline." "Nice to meet you. It's always nice to see new faces, eager to learn some more about the past. What can I help you with?" She had a slight French accent when she spoke. "We were wondering whether you know something about a Templar property on the left bank of the Seine. It should be somewhere around the late twelfth century." Katherine didn't say anything about the bloodbath that had happened there.

"What makes you think there is a property on the left bank? The temple was on the right bank of the river." The woman inquired. It was clear that she knew something, she just wouldn't easily give it up. Katherine was about to compel the answer out of her, but Kol stopped her. "Don't, she'll talk willingly. Give her the name of Anaïs Laroux." Caroline repeated the name. The professor regarded the two of them carefully. "You two are most definitely the most interesting people that have set foot in my office in the last five years." "Stop wasting our time and get to the point." Katherine once again showed her impatience. "I can't give you a conclusive location. But I believe that it might be located where there is now the Cimetière de Montparnasse." Caroline resisted the urge to groan. Why did it always have to be the damn cemeteries? Couldn't it be a garden or something? There were plenty of those in Paris. "Now that's an interesting turn of events." Kol noted. "You think?" Caroline hissed under her breath. "If you can tell us anything else about this, now is the time." "The Templars were known to have many secrets, Katerina. You will find an entrance, you'll just have to look hard enough to find it. Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for." It was clear to the both of them that they were dismissed. They got out their seats and left her, somehow knowing that it she had shared everything she had wanted.

"Interesting woman." Kol commented as they exited the building. "Yeah, she knows more than she's letting on. Too bad we can't compel it out of her." Katherine hissed. "So it was vervain I smelled." Caroline was pleased to have been able to place it. "You're an excellent student, Care." Kol congratulated Caroline. "Thanks. Now, on to more important matters. An entrance. So there must be a way into the tunnels via the cemetery." "The cemetery dates back to the nineteenth century. We'll have to look for something that has been there before that time." Kol continued. "What are we waiting for then, let's go find our door."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Once again, sorry for the slow update. Go ahead and hate me for it.

Thanks for reading/reviewing/following/favouriting :)

I know I'd promised that Klaus would be appearing this chapter or the next, I'm afraid that there will be a slight delay. I got a bit carried away with this chapter. The next one will be in the catacombs and uncovering the next clue. But Klaus will be arriving at Harvard not long after the Paris trip.

I hope you guys liked it and thanks again for reading and being very patient.

Lovies,

Zoë