"Do you think that vampire hunter will kill Klaus?" Caroline whispered, gazing down in the coffee mug in her hands before slowly looking up to Kol and Rebekah
Rebekah closed her eyes in pain, unsure of what to say. She knew the truth of what Dominic could do. She had seen it with her own eyes a thousand years ago. It had taken Elijah, the oldest and strongest of them to take Dominic down the first time and she knew that given the opportunity, and once he received exactly what he wanted, the vampire hunter would not hesitate to kill Klaus—he wouldn't hesitate to kill all of them.
Kol looked to Rebekah, and as if sensing that she had no words to comfort the young vampire, suddenly opened his mouth to speak.
But, just as he did, a loud bang sounded outside and a burst of light streamed in through the parlor windows.
"Holy!-" Caroline cried, turning around on the couch toward the direction of the light and soon Rebekah appeared at her side, drawing back the curtain.
"Kol…go to the door," she said in a slow, steady voice, then looked back over her shoulder at her brother with wide eyes, "Now!"
Kol didn't waste a moment and with vampire speed appeared in the hallway and opened the front door just as Klaus stumbled and fell through the threshold, landing on his hands and knees.
"What the Hell happened?" Kol asked as he looked out and took in the sight of the burning garage as the flames began to quickly spread to the lawn and outbuildings in front of the Salvatore Mansion
"Dominic is gone for now…But he'll be back…" Klaus said in a low tone, as he coughed, then grimaced before adding with a small smirk, "Unfortunately, the little show I had to put on cost the Salvatores their garage."
Suddenly, the smirk disappeared as he screamed out in pain, falling forward on his forearms
"Nik…" Kol whispered in shock as he brought himself to his knees on the marble floor next to his brother and put a hand on him, but quickly pulled it back when he felt the extreme heat radiating off of his brother's body through his clothing.
"No…" Klaus gasped, pulling back from Kol's proximity, "You have to get away from me …you have to get away from me…now…" then grimaced again as he brought his hand to his chest in pain and a guttural growl escaped his lips and he lifted his eyes pleadingly to his brother.
Kol immediately rose to his feet when he saw Klaus' irises begin flashing from their normal blue-green to bright gold.
"Klaus!" Caroline cried, suddenly appearing in the parlor doorway, Rebekah close behind, and upon seeing the state the older original was in, immediately shed the blanket around her shoulders and walked quickly toward Klaus' writhing figure on the floor.
But, her path was immediately blocked by Kol, who took firm hold of her.
"No. Leave him!" he said in an urgent told as he wielded Caroline back
"What? What's going on?" Rebekah asked, her eyes narrowing on Kol as she stepped forward, then looked around him to their brother, "Is Nik alright?"
Suddenly, Klaus raised his head and looked at the vampires straight on, another growl escaping his lips, only this one louder, as his eyes flashed gold again and his shoulders and back prostrated and his bones began to crack.
"Uh…" Kol answered, looking over his shoulder as he followed his sister's gaze toward Klaus while still holding a struggling Caroline in his grasp, "Nothing it seems a full moon can't fix."
Rebekah gasped, taking in the sight and what it meant, for a moment, before Klaus writhed again and growled loudly, baring his fangs and then collapsing onto his side.
"Rebekah, come on... we have to go—" Kol urged, nudging Rebekah's shoulder
"No!" Rebekah shot back, "What about, Nik?"
"You can't help me...You're wasting time!" Klaus suddenly yelled, his back twisting as his writhed on the floor, his veins protruding under his eyes, "You have to go!"
"We're not leaving you like this—" Rebekah said adamantly, stepping forward, before Kol grabbed her arm to stop her
"Oh...yes we are!" he interjected, "Has it been so long that you don't remember what werewolf venom can do to a vampire?"
"But we're originals—" Rebekah protested
"Caroline isn't," Kol replied quickly, "One bite and she's dead."
"Then you take her and go, Kol—get her out of here and warn the others…" Rebekah said in an insisting tone, wriggling out of Kol's grasp and casting a passing glance toward Caroline, "I'll stay with Nik."
Kol sighed as he released her arm, finally relenting…
Then, suddenly, one of the front bay windows burst, shattering glass everywhere as the fire that had consumed the Salvatore garage and outbuildings finally found its way to the main house.
Kol instinctively threw himself in front of Caroline and Rebekah to protect them from the blow back of the explosion before looking back to see both the front window and the open doorway completely consumed in flames that threatened to spread inside the mansion.
At that same moment, Klaus' shoulders flew back and his back arched again as he suddenly sprouted fur and transformed fully into a werewolf before their eyes, growling as he now stared them down.
"Oh, yep…it's time to go!" Kol quipped as he turned and pushed Caroline and Rebekah around in the opposite direction, "Run!"
And they all set off at vampire speed down the hall, Klaus immediately following them in his wolf form.
"Uh…Damon! Misha!" Kaspar cried as he sprung into the kitchen from the den when he heard the commotion.
Moments later, Misha and Damon opened the door at the top of the cellar stairs and entered the kitchen themselves, just in time to encounter the sight of Kol speeding out the back door with the girls and a werewolf hot on their heels.
"Whoa!" Damon yelped, "Klaus is a werewolf?! I mean, Misha thought it might happen…but, he actually turned?! When did that happen?!"
"I'd say about the same time the house caught on fire!" Kaspar replied, nervously pointing out toward the front of the house that was now engulfed in flames.
"Holy crap!" Misha exclaimed as he grabbed hold of Damon and Kaspar's shoulders and started shoving them toward the kitchen door.
"No!" Damon protested, "I'm not leaving without my brother!"
Then immediately broke free of Misha's grasp and sped off into the flames.
"Damon!" Misha cried after him
# # # # #
"Wait a minute…" Elena interjected, turning her gaze on Elijah and bringing his attention to her, "She said the hunter who showed up in New Orleans in 1857 was named Luka…I thought the hunter holding everyone hostage at the boarding house was named Dominic—"
Elijah's eyes suddenly widened in realization and he swiftly cast his eyes on Vivienne across the table as she smirked
"Smart girl," she acknowledged, "Yes. The vampire hunter whose soul I helped Emily Bennett pin to the Gilbert compass was that of Luka Devaraux."
"Then this has all been nothing but a wild goose chase," Bonnie voice suddenly sounded through the speaker of Elena's phone, where it rested on the table, "Misha said that Dominic wants his souls back—so that he can kill Elijah—no offense…" she paused, admonishing
"None taken," Elijah smirked, leaning forward as he spoke into the phone and Elena rubbed his shoulder sympathetically as Bonnie continued
"And live an immortal life hunting supernatural creatures with both a human and a demonic soul intact," the witch finished
"I thought when Ayanna cursed Dominic and Luka, she imbued them with the power and soul of demons—but, doesn't Dominic already have a demonic soul?" Elijah inquired
"She probably did, but, odds are he doesn't have them anymore…" Bonnie replied through the speaker, "Witches live by a balance of nature. When Elijah killed him, his human soul would have left his body, but nature would not have allowed the demonic part of him to remain and therefor, both of his souls—human and demonic—would have left his body upon his death and floated into the ether with no way to call them back."
"So, you're saying that he's completely soulless?" Elijah countered, "He doesn't have either?"
"That is exactly what she's saying, Elijah," Vivienne added, her eyes looking down to the table as if in thought, "And if it's true…then, I know how to defeat him."
"What?" Elena asked, her interest immediately peaked, "How?"
"I'm with Elena," Bonnie chimed in over the speaker, "How? First of all, you're hinting that Dominic's souls are gone...lost in the either for good. Second, Misha made it sound like the only way to stop Dominic was by finding the Gilbert compass, but now that we know that it's his brother's souls are pinned to compass, not his, I don't see how any of this information suddenly transforms into a way to defeat him."
"Yes it does," Vivienne said, leaning forward as she lifted in her eyes and took a breath as she focused her gaze directly on Elijah, "When you disappeared in 1857, I went looking for you at your family's mansion in the quarter. But, when I got there, there was no sign of you, Rebekah, Kol or Klaus. However, there was someone there… Seraphine."
Elijah straightened at the mention of the name of the witch who spent the better part of a sixty loyal years at Klaus' side. Seraphine Martin had been a slave in the bayou when Klaus found her—cast out of her master's home and exiled from her community when it was discovered that she openly practiced both voodoo and hoodoo rituals.
"She didn't go with Klaus?" Elijah asked, his eyebrow lifting in curiosity
"No," Vivienne answered, "Klaus left her behind to deal with the hunter and when I arrived at the house and she found out I had information to share about where to find him…well, long story short, in the end we both got what we wanted. My sister was saved and so were the originals and Luka was stripped of his power."
"What do you mean 'stripped of his power'?" Jeremy's voice suddenly sounded through the phone
"I mean that Seraphine and I combined our powers and subdued him, we then bound him and exorcised him. Of course, I had no idea the magnitude of the original curse placed on him—all Seraphine and I wished to do was extract his demonic soul and neutralize the threat of what he was. But, his human and demonic souls, as it turns out, were intertwined and one would not come out without the other. Therefore, when we exorcised him of his demonic soul, his human soul was extracted too. The result was that he returned to his mortal self, with all of his powers gone. But that also meant that he was also less than human…soulless...much like you say Dominic is. I had intended to hand it over to a necromancer who I had heard had taken up residence in the French Quarter, but instead ran into Emily Bennett and gave her both the souls and the spell to bind them forever in that compass."
"Dominic may be less than human, but he's not mortal and he certainly isn't powerless. He's proved that already from what Misha has told us…" Bonnie interjected
"But, my point is that he can be made so," Vivienne pointed out, "If you can find that compass, I will do all I can to help reverse the spell I gave Emily. If we can free the souls from the compass, there is a chance we can ensoul Dominic again…"
"And if you can ensoul him, then you can exorcise him," Elijah realized with stunned awe
"And if you can exorcise him of the demonic soul…" Bonnie continued through the speaker and Elena thought she could sense a knowing smirk spreading across her friend's face, "The human one would have to come with it. He could be made mortal…and then be killed."
"But, remember, there are rules—two to be exact—if we are to do this, " Vivienne added, holding up her index finger to make her point, "One—Nature must always have balance. In order for a soul to be restored, a life must be taken."
"'One must die so that I may live'" Bonnie recited from memory
"Well, that's a snag…" Jeremy quipped through the phone
"Yes," Vivienne acknowledged, then held up a second finger, "But, at least the second rule won't be too hard. A spell of exorcism calls for a special being of enormous power to be present from which the exorcists can draw strength," she then cocked her head as her dark eyes studied Elena up and down, "It's a rare being, which, according to legend, is encountered only every five hundred years…a doppelganger."
"As in...me?" Elena straightened, her eyes widening in surprise
"You are a doppelganger, yes…" Vivienne said, giving a small smile as her eyes softened on Elena, "But, this spell calls for a particular type of doppelganger—one with multiple lifetimes of inner strength …"
Suddenly, her eyes turned to focus on Elijah and the original immediately straightened
"What?" he whispered in disbelief, suddenly feeling the weight of Vivienne's words
"Elena," Vivienne said, lowering her hand slowly and keeping her eyes focused on Elijah, "Will you be so kind as to take your friends out of the room and leave us. I have something I wish to discuss with Elijah."
# # # # # #
"I can't believe this…" Damon whispered, biting his lip to keep his emotions in check as he looked out over the hilltop to the Salvatore Boarding house in the distance—his home—glowing bright red and orange and entirely engulfed in flames as local emergency crews rushed about to put out the raging fire that was slowly tearing the structure apart.
"I'm sorry, Damon," Misha soothed, placing a hand on the vampire's shoulder from where he stood at his side, "I truly am."
Damon nodded, acknowledging the warlock's platitudes then turned to face him, pulling his eyes from the flames, "Have you called Elijah?"
"Not yet…" Misha said sheepishly
"Why not?" Damon challenged
"I think I keep putting it off because I know that if I tell him what has really happened—that Stefan and Katherine are dead, that Klaus is a werewolf and that things have escalated with Dominic—he'll come home…"
"And he'll get himself killed." Damon finished
"Yep…" Misha quipped with a heavy sigh
"Makes sense," Damon replied, then paused for a moment in deep thought before focusing his green eyes on Misha, "But, we are free now—thanks to Klaus' little pyrotechnics back there—and no longer Dominic's prisoners…and, speaking of, I've had it up to here," Damon continued, his voice rising as he brought his right hand level with his forehead, "with our hunter friend. So...new plan! What if, instead of inviting Elijah to the party and making him a sitting duck, we brought the party to him?"
"What?" Misha asked, genuinely surprised
"That's genius!" Kol suddenly cried as he came up to stand beside them, "Surely, Kaspar and Misha could break the 'friend code' and do a locator spell to find him and Elena, right?" then he smirked as he looked back toward Misha's jeep behind them in the clearing at the top of the hill, "And we've got Stefan and Katherine with us in coffins—safe and sound. Kaspar, Caroline and Rebekah are already buckled in and Klaus is on the prowl somewhere, but we can wait that out and pick him up at sunrise…"
"As much as I hate to admit it, diabolical little brother is right," Damon said, turning and making his way back toward the waiting Jeep with Misha on his heels and Kol close behind, "I say we pack up and drive this party train out of Mystic Falls. And if Dominic follows us…I say the more the merrier!"
"Hold on," Rebekah retorted as she rolled down the back seat window and eyed Damon incredulously as he approached the vehicle, "I fail to see how five vampires, two dead lovers, a werewolf and two warlocks constitutes a 'party'…"
"Just go with it, Barbie…" Damon replied, rolling his eyes across the hood at Misha as he opened up the front passenger side door and got in, "If you haven't noticed…we're winging it, here!"
# # # # # #
"Is it really true?" Elijah asked when Elena had left them, taking the phone—and by extension, Bonnie and Jeremy—with her, "I'm-I'm one of them..."
Vivienne nodded, "Yes. As it turns out, Klaus isn't the only one in your family with magic in his blood."
"How long have you known?" Elijah asked, his mind still reeling in disbelief
"Since the day we met," Vivienne answered truthfully with a small smile, "Witches can sense things like that."
"How is this even possible?" Elijah continued, his voice dropping to a confused whisper
"When I first met you, as I said before, I sensed that there was something different about you. I didn't have to dig to far to find the truth about your own unique curse. You see, it began many centuries before your time," Vivienne said, "When one of your earliest Nordic ancestors, Eamonn, the Conqueror, saved a beautiful young woman, meant to be an oracle to the Fates, from certain death in the midst of civil war. Grateful for his valor, chivalry and sacrifice, the Fates offered him riches beyond his wildest dreams, but being a man of honor, he refused. They offered him to grant him wishes and give him all that his heart desired in life—again, he refused. They even offered him the gift of immortality so that his deeds of courage and valor may live forever…but even this he refused. When the Fates finally asked him what he truly desired, he said that all he wished for was the young woman he had saved. You see, he had fallen deeply in love with her and wished to marry her and live out his days with her in complete happiness. However, it was not meant to be, for the Fates refused this request. The girl was meant to be theirs—to become an oracle and live with them for the rest of her mortal life. And so Eamonn and his beloved were parted. But, seeing his pain on being parted from her, the Fates took pity on him and offered him a final consolation. They put a spell on Eamonn and his beloved, Sansia,—a spell that would allow them to play out their would-have-been love story through each of their family's future descendents. The only hitch was that these "Eamonn"s and "Sansia"s would have to work to find each other through the centuries, for the Fates admonished that their love, though written in the stars, would never come easy."
"So, what you are saying is that I am a descendant of this 'Eamonn, the Conqueror'?" Elijah asked, furrowing his brow
"Yes," Vivienne nodded, "And not just his descendant…one of his doppelgangers. The last human one was an uncle five hundred years before you were even born. But, for the last thousand years, since becoming an immortal, it has been you who has repeated the cycle—every five hundred years coming across the doppelganger version of your ancestor's true love...and by extension, yours."
Elijah closed his eyes and immediately saw them in his memory—
Liliya smiling at him across the village square in 1044…
Katerina's shy brown eyes meeting his awed gaze during their first meeting in 1492, when she had curtsied to him and he had kissed her hand…
Arriving at the abandoned mansion two years prior to meet Rose and coming into the room at top of the staircase to behold Elena Gilbert for the first time…