Chapter Twenty Two

I got up way before Elena the next day seeing as I hadn't slept a wink; I had Klaus' other shirt but for whatever reason it wasn't helping me sleep like it usually did. I wondered if it had something to do with us completing the bond, seeing as this was the first time we had slept apart since then. I glared at the sun rising, indicating that it was six am. After I'd had four cups of extra strong coffee I decided to clean the house, seeing as I couldn't think of anything else to do to keep myself busy. Once I was done, nearly two hours later, Elena came down stairs already dressed and muttering something about going for a run with Matt. I could feel her guilt over Bonnie and her anger towards Damon and Stefan; I went to send her a comforting wave but stopped myself, figuring that she was probably going for a run to work through her feelings anyway.

I showered and dressed in some black high waisted skinny jeans and one of the only jumpers I owned seeing as I wanted some comfort; it was blue and baggy and incredibly comfortable. After I was ready for the day I made my way back down stairs and was about to go and make something to eat when the doorbell rang. I opened it immediately, the familiar pull in my heart already telling me who it was. He looked just as tired as I did if the circles under his eyes were any indication, not wasting a moment I literally leaped into his arms; my hands going around his neck and my legs around his waist.

He chuckled at my enthusiasm but I could feel the same calmness wash over him that had enveloped me. I nuzzled my head deeper into his neck were I softly kissed over his mark, I felt him shiver and heard him growl. My head moved back, about to connect his lips to mine but before I could I could feel disgust coming from my right. I looked over and saw our old neighbour, Mrs Timbereli staring at us disapprovingly, when she saw me staring at her she forced a smile. I gave her a bright smile and happily said, 'morning, Mrs Timbereli!'

'Morning, girl.' She said, her voice laced with judgement.

I rolled my eyes at her about to make a comment that would probably get her shouting at me when Klaus walked into the house and kicked the door shut behind him.

'Wait for marriage!' I heard her shout just before the door closed.

I giggled at the shocked look on Klaus' face, but I was quickly silenced when he bought his lips to mine. I moaned into his mouth, my eyes rolling into the back of my head from the pleasure of the kiss; he gently bit my lip before his tongue invaded my mouth. I grinded my hips against his, smiling against his lips when he released a hungry growl, before I moved my hands to his shoulders, my nails digging into his skin. He flashed us to the kitchen, placing me on the counter as his hands moved to slip under my jumper as he caressed me gently, causing goose bumps to rise from the feel of it. My lips left his as I tried to get some air into my lungs, and his lips moved to my neck, nipping and sucking before his human teeth bit into my mark, forcing a deep moan from me. I didn't know what came over me in that moment, all I knew was that I wanted him, I had missed him.

Yes it had only been nine hours if that, but he was my mate, a part of me, and the longer he was away from me the more stir crazy I seemed to get and he appeared to feel the same way. So my hands went to his belt buckle while his moved to unbutton and unzip my jeans before he tore both my panties and jeans off in one swoop. Without wasting another moment, he was inside of me, my eyes once again rolling into the back of my head at the feel of him inside of me. Our hips moved against each other's passionately, desperately and frantically as we raced towards finding our release. Just before we were about to fall over the edge Klaus leaned towards my neck, his hybrid face coming forward as he sank his fangs into my mark and I moved to drink from his as it opened up in response. This was enough to bring us both to our climaxes in unison, my scream of pleasure being swallowed by his shoulder. I licked the left over blood from his shoulder as the wound healed when his fangs withdrew from my neck, pulling back and resting my forehead against his. I smiled when I saw that his eyes were still glowing the amber I found fascinating, my hand coming to gently trace the black veins under his eyes. He blinked in surprise, his eyes going back to their heavenly blue as he did, I playfully pouted while he just smirked. He gently pulled out of me and we dressed in comfortable silence.

'Good morning,' I grinned.

'Good morning, love,' he chuckled.

'You look exhausted.' I commented as we made our way to the living room sofa; I sat with my back to the arm and my feet on Klaus' lap.

'So do you.' He countered, frowning in confusion before he continued, 'I thought you said you had another one of my shirts spelled?'

'I did but for whatever reason it didn't work.' I muttered, running my hands through my hair as I stretched out my arms, 'do you think it has something to do with us completing our marks?'

'Maybe. Now that Mother has been dealt with we can focus on getting more information on what us being mates actually means.' Klaus said, his eyes drooping; I was having the same problem.

'We should probably get moving then, or we're both going to fall asleep,' I said, trying to keep my eyes open.

'Mmmm' Klaus responded, his breathing evening out a moment later, leaving me to stare at him in amazement. I was debating on whether I should wake him up or not when he leaned down, his back against the back of the sofa while he rested his head on my chest, his hands clinging me to him. I decided that a nap couldn't possibly hurt after that, and that was the last thing that registered for me as I ran my hands through Klaus' hair.

We awoke a few hours later, feeling much better after a little sleep. I noticed a missed call from Elena when I went to grab my phone as we were on our way out of the door and decided to call her back when we got to the mansion. Klaus lifted me into his arms, bridal style after I had locked the door and after we made sure my nosy neighbour wasn't still lurking, he flashed us to his house in seconds.

'Bestie! How are you feeling? Hung-over?' He smirked, throwing his arm around my shoulders as he walked with us further into the house.

'Hung-over?' I scoffed before I continued, 'I wasn't even drunk.'

Kol laughed loudly and Nik joined in, leaving me to look in between them with a look of confusion on my face.

'Darling, you were absolutely pissed!' Kol chortled.

'No, I wasn't.' I insisted.

'Do you not remember the game we played?' Kol asked, smirking.

'What game?' I froze as I tried to remember, but I came up blank; the only thing I remembered in the grill was the first few shots we took and Damon and Stefan kidnapping me from the Grill's bathroom. In between those two time frames I was drawing a blank.

'Your lovely sister Elena told us how truthful you got on vodka, so of course we had to test her theory,' He smirked mischievously.

'Oh no,' I groaned, hanging my head, 'was it bad?'

They only laughed in answer, which increased my dread considerably. I was screwed.

'Leave the girl alone you two,' Bekah said looking in between Nik and Kol as we entered the sitting room where she was sat crossed legged on the sofa with a book in her hands.

'Thank you, Bekah,' I winked at her causing her to laugh in response, when I saw her smile turn devilish I knew I was about to be triple teamed.

'Though you were pretty entertaining.' She admitted.

'Ugh. You're all so mean to me,' I muttered, dramatically throwing myself down onto the sofa, throwing my arm over my eyes, 'where are Finn and Elijah? They'll stick up for me.' I said confidently.

'Elijah's reading and Finn went out this morning to explore and hasn't come back yet. But don't worry, love, you didn't say anything too embarrassing,' Nik assured me, though he sounded too amused for my liking.

'What did I say?' I asked.

'Nothing much…' Kol waved his hand dismissively before continuing, 'just when you lost your virginity, the weirdest place you've had sex and your first impression of Elijah.'

'WHAT?' I shrieked, shooting up on the sofa, looking over to Kol, 'you're joking aren't you?'

'I think you know the answer to that already, love,' Nik chuckled as he stood next to Kol, both of them standing with their arms crossed wearing identical smirks.

'You know what? I'm not embarrassed,' I lied, crossing my arms over my chest jutting my chin out in defiance.

'Really?' Kol said, lifting a disbelieving eyebrow.

'Really.' I lied, nodding as if to give my answer conviction. I regretted it immediately, however, when Kol's eyes lit up in mischief and I knew he was going to do something that would make me want to kill him and crawl under a rock.

'So then you won't mind if I go shouting your answers through Town Square?' He challenged.

'I won't mind you shouting that if you don't mind me telling everyone how much you like Elena,' I winked at him, knowing I had him.

He glared at me as he pursed his lips in contemplation, 'you're bluffing.' He said.

'Am I?' I raised my brows in a challenging manner, 'is that I risk you're willing to take?'

I saw his shoulders slump in defeat, Bekah and Nik chuckling as they noticed it as well. I had won this round.

'Speaking of Elena,' I muttered, pulling my phone out of my pocket as I remembered I had missed a call from her earlier, 'I need to call her.'

'Why?' Kol sounded panicked.

'I missed a call from her earlier.' I said honestly, giving him a teasing wink as I pressed dial and held the phone to my ear, 'or did I?' I whispered. Kol glared at me and went to grab the phone from my hand but Nik held him back, assuring him that I just needed to talk to my sister.

'Kim?' Elena said.

'The one and only. What's up sis? Have you heard from Bonnie?' I asked, guilt pooling in my gut when I said her name.

'Matt did. Abby's going to complete the transition.' Elena confirmed, 'she's still refusing to speak to either of us, but Matt said she understands, she's not mad, just hurt.' Elena replied.

'That's understandable,' I mumbled, fighting the tears that wanted to escape.

'But that wasn't why I called; Ric's been arrested for the founders murders.'

'Oh okay, so your typical Saturday then?' I muttered sarcastically, 'do they have any evidence?'

'Apparently. Sherriff Forbes won't let anyone in to see him, but she did say that he thinks he's being framed by Meredith.' She answered.

'Is she going to look into it?' I asked.

'Yes, but I'm not sitting around waiting until then. I've just been to Meredith and she mentioned she's due in surgery so I'm going to search her place for anything suspicious.' Elena said.

'Don't tell me you're going alone, Elena.' My voice was hard.

'I'll be fine.' She dismissed.

'What if she's the one killing the founders members? Are you seriously going to walk into a potential murderers house alone? Don't be stupid,' I warned.

'Kim-,' She started but I cut her off.

'I'll meet you. What's her address?' I asked, standing up and making a move to walk to the door but Nik grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him, his eyes hard with warning. I just rolled my eyes as I waited for Elena to answer me.

'No it's fine, I was actually about to call someone when you called me. Besides I highly doubt Klaus would like you walking into a murderers house either.' She muttered, her voice teasing near the end, but she had no idea how right she was; Klaus raised his eyebrows as if to say, "she's right, you're not going anywhere."

'Who were you going to call?' I inquired.

She hesitated for so long that I actually thought she had hung up, but when I pulled the phone away from my ear to check, we were still connected.

'Kol.' She admitted.

I looked over to Kol who was still standing by Nik, smiling when I noticed his brows lifted in surprise.

'Really?' I said, my tone taking on a teasing lilt.

'Yes.' She sighed.

'Why? He's a vampire he won't be able to get in without an invitation.' I murmured, playing dumb.

'Kim, stop.' She warned.

'Okay, okay.' I laughed, leaning into Nik's side when he released my wrist, 'here I'll put him on for you.'

I passed the phone over to Kol and noted that his face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. He pressed the phone to his ear and was about to answer when he seemed to notice the other three people in the room for the first time, without a word he flashed away, making us all laugh.

'He better return my phone,' I muttered, still amused.

'I'm sure he will love. If he doesn't forget in his eagerness to meet Elena.' Nik's eyes were staring in the direction Kol had left, a thoughtful look on his face.

'It's nice to see Kol interested in a girl for something more than a meal.' Bekah commented from the sofa.

Nik hummed in agreement before he turned to me, 'I'm going to go and find Elijah to see if he's found anything.'

'Okay' I smiled, kissing his lips softly before he left. I went to sat next to Bekah on the couch as I threw my arm around her shoulders and pulled her to me, 'we haven't had time for you to tell me about you know who.' I winked.

Her face brightened immediately before she turned to me, 'everything's going amazingly well so far. It's almost too good to be true.' She muttered.

'Do you want me to go and talk to him? If he has anything but good intentions, I will know.' I offered.

'It would be safer if you did, to be honest. Anyone else would just kill him.' She mumbled, referring to her brothers.

'They just want what's best for you, though they don't go about the best way of showing it. You'll find your forever, Bekah' I laughed.

'Easy for you to say you have what I have been searching for the past thousand years.' She said, seeming sad.

'I'm lucky,' I agreed before I continued, 'but you will find someone, Bekah because you deserve it more than anyone.' I squeezed her shoulders to heighten the reassurance I was sending towards her.

She stared at me for a long moment as if she was trying to determine the validity of my words, when she realised that I was being honest she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.

'Anyway, I have to go. I'm supposed to be meeting Carol Lockwood at the Grill,' She muttered and as soon as she spoke I had a bad feeling.

'Why?'

'I was looking over the pictures Elena left me when she told me about Nik killing Mother and I saw some other drawings showing a surviving white oak tree. I'm going to find out what happened to it.' Bekah said, I could feel her concern and I took it replacing it with calm.

'Okay… be careful. If you need anything call me.' I said, hugging her tightly.

With a final parting smile she was gone, so I decided to see what was taking Nik and Elijah so long. I found them in the library, which was huge by the way; both huddled over a book that was laid out on the table.

'Whatcha reading?' I asked, laughing when they both jerked in surprise, 'must be good if neither of you heard me coming.' I walked over to the table, leaning over to read as well.

'This is what I have found so far. It's rather informative,' Elijah commented.

The Legend of Mates

Mates are widely known throughout the supernatural community for their rarity and their strength when united as one. It is common for a supernatural being to find a human as a mate, though to solidify their bond they would be expected to turn them. This is due to the extreme dangers that can and will arise if they were to stay human. For example, as soon as the mates have found each other they will crave one another's company the more time they spend together. It will be noted that it will start to become physically painful the longer they are apart the stronger the bond becomes. Therefore you can imagine just how painful it would be to live without your mate if they were to die before you turned them; leaving it too long is not a mistake you can afford to make.

Furthermore, it is not uncommon for mates to feel an aching in their heart when they are apart, an aching, which will only grow the more time you spend away from one another. Because of this, you are likely to be unable to sleep or feel any time of contentedness whilst away from your mate.

Once the transformation is complete the bond cannot be broken and it will reach its full strength. With this will come the ability to feel each other's emotions as if they are your own as well as the ability to read one another's thoughts. In some cases it has been known for mates to be able to reproduce, despite whether they are supernatural or not or whether the bond has been cemented or not, though it must be understood that this is extremely rare.

I could feel my mouth hanging open in shock as I tried to process all of the new information. It mostly explained what we had already been experiencing; the constant need to be around one another, the inability to sleep without him, the pull in my heart whenever we were apart. But being able to reproduce? Could I be pregnant? I wondered, but when I considered it for a few moments I knew the answer; I wasn't.

'It explains a lot,' I admitted, looking up to Nik and reading his surprise.

'It does,' he agreed, his eyes glued to the last paragraph.

'I'm not pregnant if that's what you're worried about.' I told him, squeezing his arm in reassurance. I felt his relief but I didn't allow myself to be upset about it; we had only been together a few weeks, though it felt like longer, we weren't ready for kids. Also with how Ester and Mikael has treated him I understood his reluctance to become a father; he feared what kind of parent he would become.

'We should probably address you turning her, Niklaus.' Elijah said.

'How do you feel about it love?' Klaus asked, his expression guarded but I could feel that he was concerned that I might not want to be turned.

I thought about it, and honestly I didn't feel anything other than calm about it, as if it was meant to happen. Though I knew I would want to talk to Elena about it first, I couldn't just turn up at home part vampire without giving her any warning.

'I'm fine with it, but I want to tell Elena about it first.' I told him honestly. He gave me a relieved look and nodded in acknowledgement of my words, 'speaking of, she should be out of Meredith's apartment by now.'

I went to reach for my phone in my back pocket, groaning in annoyance when I remembered that Kol had never given it back to me. Wonderful.

'Can I borrow your phone?' I asked Nik.

He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over without a word, I kissed his cheek in thanks as I dialled Elena's number. She didn't answer the first time so I dialled her again, she picked up on the third ring.

'Hello?' She sounded breathless.

'Hey, did I interrupt something?' I asked, smirking a little.

'No.' She sounded defensive, which told me I had in fact interrupted something.

'Sorry. I just wanted an update on the whole Meredith situation.'

'We found a medical examiners report with a different time of death in the Brian Walters murder than the one she had given to the Sherriff.' Elena answered.

'So she was framing Ric then? Did you take it to the Sherriff?' I asked, sitting on Nik's lap and wrapping my arm around his neck.

'Well… she kind of caught me in her apartment and called the police.' She admitted, her voice sheepish.

'You're not the best criminal then little sister,' I laughed before I continued, 'where was Kol when this happened?'

'He was stood at the doorway when she came so he got arrested as well.'

I laughed even harder than I had before, sharing a look with Nik when he chuckled as well.

'I'll take it Care's mom let you off?' I asked once I had stopped laughing.

'Yep. They're letting Ric out, he should be home soon, but Meredith gets to walk free. Apparently she had already taken the new coroners report to the Sherriff before I found the one she had in her apartment.'

'Well why did she have a copy?' My tone was confused.

'That's what I said but Sherriff Forbes said that she can't ask that because I broke into her apartment to find it.'

'Well that's unfortunate. Are you at home now?' I asked.

'Umm… not quite yet I just have an- errand to run first,' Elena stuttered making me grin knowingly.

'Lena you can tell me that you're having fun with Kol, I won't tell anyone,' I teased.

'Maybe you won't but the same cannot be said for the Original's probably listening to this conversation,' she answered back immediately.

'Fair enough. When will you be home then? I need to talk to you about something.' I said, absentmindedly running my hands through Nik's hair as I spoke.

'Umm... an hour?' Elena said before she continued, 'Ric should already be at the house though.'

'Okay I'll see you soon. Love you, Lena.' I muttered.

'Love you too, Kimmie,' She sounded distracted when she answered and I tried not to think about what Kol was doing to divert her attention as I hung up the phone.

I exhaled loudly once the receiver had cut off, suddenly very nervous.

'What seems to be troubling you, Kimberly?' Elijah asked.

'She could take it either way. I can feel it; it's equally likely that she's going to hate the idea of me turning or she's going to be cool with it.' I answered, looking down at the table. Nik moved his hand up and down my back comfortingly, which helped quell my nerves almost immediately.

'She's your sister and she loves you.' Nik assured me.

I nodded but otherwise didn't answer as I rested my head in the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent, happy when a blanket of security washed over me.

'So is that everything that we need to know?' Nik asked his head jolting, I assumed he was gesturing to the book that still sat opened on the table.

'I believe so, but I will keep digging just to be certain,' Elijah replied.

'Thank you Lijah,' I said, turning my head to give him a soft smile, he returned it but otherwise didn't respond. After a while Elijah left the room saying something about checking in with Rebekah; Nik and I just sat in comfortable silence until I noticed the time and figured I should probably get home.

'I need to talk to Elena, but can you come over after?' I asked him.

'Of course, love,' Nik smiled, placing a gentle kiss on my cheek before he flashed me back to my house, gently placing my feet on the porch when we had come to a full stop.

We didn't give each other a verbal goodbye; he simply kissed my forehead and flashed away. With a smile on my face I turned and unlocked the door, allowing myself to focus on the tingling on my forehead where his lips had touched my skin rather than the nerves that wanted to bubble to the surface.

'Hey, Kim.' Ric said from the living room.

I looked over to him, my smile faltering when I looked him over. The feeling that washed over me hadn't happened since Klaus had been in Ric's body, but at the same time it was different; I didn't feel like I was looking at someone else, this felt like Ric but at the same time it didn't. I could feel hatred and disgust coming from him, things that I had never felt coming from Ric when he looked at me.

'Hey.' I eventually answered, moving further into the house, trying to make my movements look casual, 'so you finally got released, huh?' I tried to make conversation as I discretely walked over to the landline, knowing that I didn't have my phone.

'Yeah.' He said, though his expression looked like he wanted to say something more, his anger implying that it wasn't anything good, 'where have you been?'

'Oh I was at Klaus'.' I told him honestly, I had reached the landline and I discretely lifted the receiver as I dialled Klaus' number, grateful that the cabinet was blocking me from his view.

'Do you ever feel remorse?' He asked, his question throwing me.

'Excuse me?' I questioned, my attention still on dialling Klaus' number, I had just pressed the last digit when I felt Alaric join me in the room. I walked over to the fridge, pretending that I hadn't been using the phone.

'You're openly affectionate towards one of the deadliest vampires on the earth, a vampire who has killed thousands of people, some of which you just stood by and watched. So I'll ask you again,' He paused, reaching to the counter to grab a knife, 'do you feel remorse?'

'How about I promise to answer that when you've put the knife down?' I tried to bargain as I backed away from him, I had a bad feeling but I was too focused on making sure I was as far away from him as I could possibly be that I didn't know who the bad feeling was for.

He stepped closer to me, the knife glittering from the overhead lights shining on it. I almost made it to the doorway in the kitchen that led to the front door but he caught me, pinning my arms behind my back as he held the knife over my heart. I felt the metal pierce my skin and that was when I knew that I was going to die. A second later the front door was flung open and Alaric plunged the knife into my heart just as I met Nik's horrified eyes. I felt myself being lifted into Nik's arms and thought I was happy that it was his arms I was going to die in…then I was gone.

That's chapter 22! I hope you enjoyed it! Don't hate me for the ending ;) Let me know what you think :)

A huge thank you to ChibiSpyStuff and Charmedgrays for choosing to either follow or favourite my story! It means a lot :)

Lloryn: Yes! Yes! The wicked witch is dead! So… did they actually kill Bonnie's mom or turn her? Since it's Elena/Kol now do we also get a Stefan/Bonnie? I mean she did like him first after all, even tho she never did anything about it, would be an interesting match up to explore. Good chapter, can't wait for the next one! Keep up the good work. Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it :) And I'm not too certain at this stage whether or not Bonnie and the Salvatore's will be highly involved, we'll just have to see how the story develops. As for Bonnie's mom, she's turned into a vampire like she was in the series :)

Hayden: Amazing chapter. Thank you :)

XxSunnaxX: Finn rocked this chapter! XD love it! And Kim is soooo cute when drunk. Good job! Thank you, and I thought so too, I wanted Finn to be loyal to his siblings rather than desperate to die like he is in the series and I'm glad you enjoyed Kim drunk- I had a lot of fun writing that one.