The Hybrid
The next morning, Klaus was kind enough to compel me a person to take care of Ruby so he didn't have to sit in a hot car again.
We ended up in the smoky mountains, I was hot as hell and being as I was the only human amongst the group I tried very hard to not let my shortcomings show.
"You okay?" Klaus paused for a second and asked me, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and nodded. He turned his attention to Stefan who had the pleasure of carrying Ray."Is he getting heavy?"
"I'm fine." Stefan dismissed, I don't think he realized that just playing along with Klaus would make the experience a lot less insufferable for him.
"You sure about that? We've been walking for sometime? If you need some water or alittle sit down ." I knew Klaus was being an ass but I definitely could use a little sit down time.
"I'm gonna sit." I pull my bottle of water out my back pocket and take a huge sip of it before sitting on a rock.
"You know I get that we are stuck together, but if we could just skip the chit chat it would be great." Stefan said, he turned and gave me an expectant look. I sighed over dramatically and stood up.
"Elevatus." I muttered, Klaus chuckled while Stefan looked even more annoyed. I crossed my legs and got comfortable as I floated alongside them."What my legs hurt."
When we got close to the camp site I let myself down and started walking. Klaus wanted to make some sort of grand entrance. The more I hung out with him the more he grew on me. He sent Stefan and I first. Once we got through the trees we saw a large amount of people setting up tents or sitting on logs chatting having a great time. They didn't know what was going to happen to them.
All eyes turn to us as we step out, most of them looked skeptical and untrusting. Stefan laid Ray down on the ground right in front of them, nobody moved except one woman. She grabbed Ray's cheeks and shook him trying to get him to wake up.
"Oh my god Ray!" She called out worriedly."What's going on?"
Everybody looked at Stefan and I waiting for some sort of explanation but it wouldn't be coming from us.
"The important question is who am I." Klaus came out from behind the trees. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at what was definitely a very Alicia move." Please forgive the intrusion. My name is Klaus."
"You're the hybrid." The woman cradling Ray said, everybody's faces immediately turned from untrusting looks into outright fear and hatred.
"You've heard of me." He grinned at her, I shuddered just thinking about how all these people were going to die. Everybody stood around holding their breath, I sat down against a tree, while Stefan and Klaus got comfortable on a log. All eyes were on Ray Sutton, once he awoke Klaus would turn the rest of them.
"It's fascinating actually, a werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon, a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun. A true hybrid." Klaus commented, as if Ray knew what was going on he took a deep breath coming back to life.
"Excellent timing." Klaus commented.
"Very dramatic." I mumbled, standing up I wanted to get a close look at this Hybrid.
"What's happening to me?" Ray asked fearfully, I imagine he still had to go through the typical transition, everything is heightened, and he's starving.
"Stefan?" Klaus called carelessly, Stefan stood up and stood not too far from me he faced the campers fearlessly.
"Are any of you human? Your friend here needs human blood to complete his transition to vampire. If he doesn't get it he'll die." Stefan said, they could've easily used my blood but Klaus was against it, he refused to endanger me in such a stupid way when there were tons of humans around.
"Doesn't take much, just a sample." Klaus added, I could tell he was already scanning the area and probably knew who was human and just toying with them."Anyone? Boyfriend? Girlfriend along for the ride?"
Klaus' eyes land on a man, he's giving him a second to volunteer which he won't do. Without warning Klaus grabbed him and tore into his arm before tossing him right in front of Ray.
The woman who was holding him started to argue and I knew how easy it was to set Klaus off, so I scooped her up and pulled her away from Ray.
"He's gonna kill you if you don't cooperate." I said lowly, whispering gave me the thought that I had privacy even though I know I don't.
"If you don't drink it Ray, I will." Stefan warns, I know he's deathly serious and the poor guy will end up dead if Ray doesn't lick his wound."Problem is I don't know how to stop."
"It's the new order, join us or die." Klaus smirks, the girl started to say something but I slapped my hand over her mouth.
"Do you have a death wish?" I asked her, she bit my hand and fought out of my grip, instead of running off like I expected her to do she turned and faced me.
"I'd rather die than be a vampire."
Klaus has a gleam in his eyes and I know she sealed her fate, he flashed in between us and bit into his wrist he forced her to drink his blood before snapping her neck.
She landed in a heap at my feet, I felt bad for the girl. Klaus on the other hand didn't care about her.
"Wrong choice, she'll thank me later."
I slump back down against the tree I was resting at before, Klaus made quick work of the pack. It was sickening how gleeful he was when he wasn't even sure if he could actually make Hybrids yet, yes Ray woke up and fed but he's an experiment for a reason.
"They're dead. They're all dead." Ray said distraught, he looked around at the bodies of people he's known for only god knows how long dead.
"Ah, he's through transition." Klaus commented, I stared at Ray wearily, something about him didn't feel right to me."He should be feeling much better."
"So is this your master plan? Build an army of hybrid slaves?" Stefan asked, he was skeptical of the purpose of this summer.
"Not slaves, soldiers,comrades." Klaus explained, I actually agreed with him. Him being an original and the first and only Hybrid made him a king, and just what he's done to us and Katherine was a pretty big indicator that buddy has tons of enemies. He needs all the protection he can find. But did Klaus truly fear anybody?
"For what war might I ask?" Stefan asked, oof that guy was itching for a hand through the chest.
"You don't arm yourself after war has been declared, you do it before." Klaus lectured, and it made perfect sense to me. "You build your army so big that nobody ever picks a fight with you."
"This man is spitting right now." I said excitedly, because he was right. I'm not teaching myself spells after I'm in danger. I'm constantly learning them so I'm prepared for shit to hit the fan.
"Shut up." Stefan replied, I stuck my tongue out at him playfully but let out a horrified scream as blood started to come out of Ray's eyes.
"Somethings wrong." Klaus commented, he didn't seem nearly as distressed as I did about seeing the man bleed from his eyes.
"That shouldn't be happening, right?" Stefan asked, Klaus and I both snorted at the same time. It was a dumb question but Stefan also didn't give two shits about whether or not things went Klaus's way.
"Obviously not."
Ray's slowly looking like he's falling apart the poor guys trembling and his eyes will not stop bleeding." You said it was gonna feel better, why doesn't it feel better?"
My heart ached for the guy, he was clearly going to die. The one and only time I saw a person bleed from the eyes was when we killed Greta. Bleeding from the face in general was a bad sign when it came to magic.
"Some master race." Stefan mumbled, he was either really stupid or really bold. But he also had less of a chance of dying than I did, being a vampire and all.
"Lose the attitude." Klaus didn't even look in his direction, he was staring down at the woman. I guess his hearing picked up she should be waking up soon?"Derek feed your girlfriend."
Derek comes over and gives his girlfriend blood, at the exact same moment Ray pops up and does a few freaky vampire-like jumps before taking off.
"Well fuck." I commented watching as he disappeared in the distance. Klaus and I turned to Stefan expectantly.
"Go get him." Klaus ordered, Stefan gritted his teeth and took off, I leaned against a tree looking over the hybrids carefully. If this was what happened to Ray it would most likely happen to the rest of them.
"What do you want to do about them Klaus?" I asked, motioning toward the sea of dead bodies around us."I'm about 75% sure he's gonna die."
"Let me guess, witchy intuition?" He asked, I thought I detected a hint of teasing in his voice. But you could never really be quite sure with him.
"Yes actually." I shrugged, slowly more and more of the pack woke up and poor Derek had to go around and feed them all."I wasn't blessed with visions like Bonnie, mine are more like a gut feeling. Hasn't steered me wrong yet."
"What do you think is going to happen?" He asked,he eyed the woman carefully and he looked worried.
"That they're going to suffer slow and painful deaths but it's also a full moon so we're gonna get double fucked." I said with a shrug."My advice would be to wait and see what happens to the ones you already fed."
"Derek." Klaus called out, Derek paused and looked up as he was currently being snacked on like Klaus had requested."Stop feeding them."
I was taken aback by the fact Klaus actually listened to me. Nobody ever really took me seriously and took my advice. It was a nice feeling.
"If you're feeling is wrong then the rest of their death's is on you." He explained, I nodded. It was the hard truth that if by some stroke of luck I was wrong and they didn't die, hopefully the length of time they had for transition was still the same as a normal vampire. "Come along, little witch."
Klaus led me to Stefan, the poor guy was standing staring into what looked like space while holding his arm.
"Where did he go?" Klaus tried to look around but Stefan stepped in front of him, which was pretty suspicious. I had to strain my eyes to see it but I could see Elena, Damon & Alaric's dumbasses. I was seething. If she was supposed to be dead why the hell would you bring her directly to Klaus?
"He got away, forget him, let's go." Stefan replied letting go of his arm, he tried to steer Klaus away but Klaus caught sight of the nasty bite on his arm.
"A fatal werewolf bite. Ouch." Klaus smirked, he was gonna milk the shit out of that bite. Makes me glad I didn't have to go through any of that.
"You're gonna heal him right?" I asked starting to walk back the way we came,for Stefan to be older he was not nearly as smooth as I was.
"I'll tell you both what, you find Ray and I'll heal you." He replied, I paused in my tracks, this was a pretty big mountain and Stefan would only get weaker the more time went by.
"You can't be serious." Stefan said outraged. I glanced down at his arm, the bite already looked angry.
"You better hurry, that bite looks nasty." Klaus commented, Stefan scoffed and disappeared."You should head back to the car, if what you say is true you don't need to be out here."
"I'm more competent than Stefan. I think if you had to choose you'd be better off with me watching your back." I replied, shaking my head, I had no idea where the idiots were and if I stayed by Klaus' side I could at least try and buy Stefan as much time as he needed to get rid of them.
"Be that as it may, he has one thing that you don't." Klaus replied. I raised an eyebrow, I could put a protection spell on myself and call it a day.
"And that is?"
"He's willing to die, you are not." He replied, patting me on my shoulder."If something happens to you in Elijah's absence, he'll blame me."
"I'll be fine." I insisted, he threw his hands up and the two of us headed back to the campsite in silence. When we got back it was exactly what I expected it to be, everybody had the same bleeding eyes as Ray and looked to be a zombie.
"Bloody hell." Klaus looks at me, his blue eyes glare angrily at me and I gulp, afraid."What did you do?"
"Nothing!" I reply before I know it he has me pinned to a tree by the neck, I claw at his hands but it's completely useless."I swear to god, Nik. I didn't do anything."
He stared at me while I struggled to breath before finally releasing me, I immediately put space between us as I rubbed my neck. It was definitely red.
"If you're lying to me and you had a hand in this, I will go back to Mystic Falls and kill your sister and your friends." He threatened, I scoffed it was a compliment that he thought I was able to somehow fuck up him making Hybrids but also insulting that he thought I would do it.
"What do I gain?" I asked, he paused for a moment as if that thought hadn't even crossed his mind.
"A laugh at my expense."
"I happen to like you." I frowned, I heard pained screams behind us and turned around quickly."Holy, fuck they are changing."
"That's why I told you to go to the car." Klaus replied with an eye roll, nice to see he was back to being his cheeky self.
"I'll be fine, what do you want to do?" I asked looking between the pack and Klaus all I had to do was climb a tree and I'd be safe.
"I'm going to kill them." He replied casually, I gulped and used my floaty spell and headed directly up into the tree behind me."I don't know if that is clever or childish."
"Both." I called from the tree, I got as comfortable as I could on the branches, at first Klaus just observed the wolves, some of them seemed normal. However the ones he didn't feed had still gotten the bloody eyes and bled out.
It didn't take long for the few who were able to turn before the bad signs started to show, like Ray they were shaking and even foaming at the mouths. And Klaus kept his word he wiped out the rest.
I jumped down from the tree and gulped at the carnage. It wasn't as bad as Stefan's, it was controlled. I knew Klaus didn't really want to kill them.
"Are you okay?" I asked placing my hand on his shoulder, he shook my hand off and took a step away from me.
"Let's hope when Stefan comes back with Ray he has a better time." He replied, so we didn't say anything else. We both were lost in our thoughts, I needed to have words with Damon about how reckless they were tonight to come here. They selfishly could've gotten all of us killed because Elena can't accept that her boyfriend is trying to protect her?
It felt like forever when Stefan came back carrying Ray over his shoulder my heart sank when he too was dead.
"I did everything I was told! I should be able to turn them, I broke the curse." Klaus screamed, he was angry which he had every right to be." I killed a werewolf, I killed a vampire. I killed the Doppelganger."
I needed Stefan to get a better poker face, the guy looked like he was about to throw up when Klaus said that. I frowned. What if Elena not being dead was the problem? What if all of this was a waste of time?
"You look like hell." Klaus commented looking Stefan over, and he really did. Stefan looked like he went through hell tonight and he probably did.
"Last I checked, I'm dying and you don't want to heal me." Stefan sassed, he looked down at Ray briefly." I had to take him out, I didn't have a choice. I failed you, I'm sorry. Do what you have to do."
I noticed that Klaus was right, Stefan truly was willing to die. And I had absolutely no idea why.
"It should have worked." Klaus said, if we weren't here he'd probably be in tears right now. He grabbed an empty beer bottle and bit into his wrist letting the blood fall into the bottle he passed it to Stefan."Bottoms up. We're leaving. You two are the only comrades I have left."
I'd never felt so bad for a psychopath before in my life. I think Klaus was so obsessed with making hybrids so he wouldn't be alone, it was less about protection and more about him being lonely in the world.
We headed back down the mountains in worse spirits than what we were in when we ascended up them hours prior. I knew Stefan didn't feel bad for Klaus but I did. I also knew that I needed to figure out what the hell went wrong.