Greta Martin was lying dead on Klaus bed. She'd been killed by a vampire bite, but most of her blood was had been used to write a message on the wall behind her: 'Eye for an eye, Niklaus'. In hindsight, killing Jonas and Luca Martin might have been a tad reckless.

It was no matter, he could find another witch easily enough.

But it was still annoying.

Kol would understand. Klaus opened up his coffin and absently brushed away his bangs. Klaus was very tempted to lob them off, but the last time he'd done that, he'd had to bribe Kol twice as much as usual to get him to stop sulking.

"It pains me to admit this, baby brother," Klaus said, "but we probably should have gutted Lucien a thousand years ago."

I told you so he could imagine Kol replying.

Klaus pulled out the dagger he always kept on his person these days. "It seems that treachery of the companions of my past is starting to spread."

I'm sure you had nothing to do with that, Nik.

"I long to shove this in Elijah's heart," Klaus continued, "do you know how many plans he's ruined since we last spoke?"

You mean when you pretended you'd dropped us in the ocean for literally no reason at all?

"I had my reasons," Klaus roared into Kol's gray face, "he agreed to never question how I chose to discipline our siblings again after I magnanimously forgave him for losing Katerina." His lips trembled as that lead to the deeper pain that had been building in his heart since 1931. "August Muller had been slaughtering European wolves and our noble brother saw nothing wrong with that."

Is that how it went down?

Klaus started when he heard Rebekah's voice. He slammed Kol's coffin and turned around. Rebekah's ghost was sitting on her coffin.

He guards his heart because of everything you've done to him, Klaus.

Rebekah's ghost was gasping for air because Klaus grabbed her neck and shoved her flat onto the coffin's lid.

"He was the one who held me down as our mother sealed away half of my soul," Klaus leaned in. Her ghost did not replicate the fear she'd normally show when he was this enraged. Instead, her blue eyes were filled with cold judgement. "He's the reason I was not able to free myself from this curse that keeps me weak. I let him court Katerina on the condition he would do nothing to stop the sacrifice, yet he concocted that damned elixir and all but let her flee. I will not give him a third chance to betray me."

Klaus lifted Rebekah's ghost up by her neck and threw her. She vanished before her body was crushed against the wall.

"I will find Elijah," he snarled as he stormed out of the basement, "shove this dagger into his chest, and keep him sleeping in his coffin. Always and forever."

For now, he'd have to settle with Elijah's protégé.

"What are you doing here, Niklaus?"

Klaus was sitting at the head of table. Two dozen high ranking members of the Strix were sitting in chairs lined up and down the long table. All of them were soaked in their own blood.

"That depends on you, love," Klaus set his feet on the table and leaned back into the very expensive chair he'd stolen for himself. "Why did you kill my witch, Tristan de Martel?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

It was much more fun to choke the corporeal. "You are but a pale imitation of Elijah. I'll give you one minute to explain yourself before I tear the heart out from your ribs."

When Klaus let go of Tristan's neck, he fell onto the floor. "If do that, you'll throw the world into chaos."

"You've just wasted thirty seconds," Klaus said, "tick tock."

Tristan glared up at him. "Elijah has Aurora." Klaus lost his words. Tristan took that to his advantage and stood up, straightening up his suit as did so. "I trust you can see the benefits of us working together."

Klaus found his words. "For using my fondness for Aurora against me, I will spend several hundred years torturing you before - "

"Niklaus!" Tristan managed to get the inflection that Elijah used when he was cross with Klaus perfectly. "I have searched the globe, but found no trace of her. The only clue I have been able to find is a rumor that Lucien has been searching for Elijah."

Reaching out for Elijah was easy. You just needed a few key words on the right thread on craigslist. Getting Elijah to answer was another thing entirely.

"Lucien is now on an extended leave of absence to an undisclosed location. Kingmaker Land Development is being lead by a vampire named Isobel McCullough née Flemming, who has left behind no trace of her previous life as a human."

"Sounds like Elijah," Klaus was forced to admit, "but the lack of motive suggests that your incompetence is the true source of your inability to find the answers you seek."

"There are spells he could do with the blood of two thirds of the Trinity," Tristan said.

"Nothing that could kill me," Klaus said.

"Not on its own," Tristan said, "but as part of a larger ploy."

"I am a man who likes to dot all his Ts," Klaus said. He knocked one of the dead vampires off a nearby chair and sat down. He held out his arms. "What do want from me?"

"Bait," Tristan said, "I shall give you temporary leadership of the Strix. That might throw Elijah off enough to get him to make a mistake. Even the smallest misstep will be enough to obtain his location."

Unlikely. But there was no way Klaus was going to turn down the opportunity to destroy Elijah's playthings. Elijah might say he'd washed his hands with the lot of them, but the fact he'd let them survive for so long suggested his sentimental brother hadn't completely lost hope in what he'd spent centuries building.

Klaus stood up and stalked over to Tristan. He froze as Klaus cupped the back of his neck. "I think we should celebrate this new chapter of the Strix with a show of force. I trust you still have Elijah's old cane?"

The dread in Tristan's eyes was delightful.

Klaus had thrown one hell of a party. The Strix had been instructed to wear jeans. Anyone in a suit and tie or a gown had met a grizzly end. Aya was cross with the pile of bodies she had had to deal with, but Klaus thought it efficient to get rid of the stupid and/or disobedient.

Normally, he'd have Tristan take out the trash, but he was currently tied up. Literally. He was the centerpiece of the entire party, bent over a table with his jeans and underwear bunched at his knees. His arms and legs were both tied up with vampire proof ropes. Klaus was holding a cane one of Kol's witches had spelled to leave behind lines of red that would take months to completely heal on the skin of even the oldest of vampires. Elijah rarely brought it out. However, from the looks he was getting, it seemed that Tristan had been liberal with its use.

Payback was a bitch and so was Klaus.

"Should anyone question any of my commands," Klaus drew the narrow cane back. It whistled in the air before landing with a painful sounding thud against the twin mounds of pale flesh Tristan was presenting. "Consider this a minor demonstration of what you'll be forced to endure."

"Why not kill us?" Klaus decided to call that sassy vampire Brody.

"That's if you're foolish enough to actually disobey me," he hit Tristan again. "Disappointing me will include a bout of torture before a merciful end."

The next cut of the cane had Tristan yelping. Klaus figured he was doing it for show, so he started to put some real force behind behind the blows. Tristan gasped as the cane dug deep into his flesh, leaving behind a nasty looking welt. He covered Tristan's cheeks and upper thighs in red line after red line.

Klaus turned to his audience, "Anyone else impressed by how terrible his pain tolerance is?" He swung and cut a fresh welt at the very bottom of his buttocks.

Not even Brody was inclined to indulge Klaus. The Strix really were a bunch of stuck up fuddy-duddies. He'd need to recruit at least a few members or he might actually die from boredom.

Without an audience to play with, Klaus put all of his focus on giving Tristan a good taste of the cane. He'd spent much of his life doling out unjust punishments to the undeserving. Klaus respected devotion to sadism, but found the petty justifications Tristan used tedious and annoying. Giving him a taste of his own medicine was satisfying. Tristan's wiggles were very useless because the ropes were binding him too effectively. He started to cry once Klaus had covered every inch of his buttocks and thighs with cuts from the cane. But, to his credit, he didn't beg. Klaus rewarded him with an early end.

Aya caught the cane Klaus tossed. He massaged Tristan's abused skin. He pushed the welts in deep as he pressed into the hot skin. Tristan tensed and whimpered. Klaus grinned and patted his behind a few times before turning around.

"Any questions?"

The remaining Strix were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.