Chapter 11
Klaus POV
It took a while for my brain to finally believe what my eyes were seeing, but I couldn't deny it was real anymore.
Caroline. Caroline was here.
I turned at Sophie's question.
"We'll negotiate when and if I decide to negotiate," I said. "Now, leave us" I dismissed them.
"Excuse me?" Sophie scoffed.
I turned to her, out of view of Caroline and my eyes flashed gold.
"I said. Leave. Us," I growled.
Sophie gave us a skeptical stare.
"We'll just be in the other room. Don't forget, Klaus," she said and pulled out a knife, quickly slashing her palm.
Caroline gasped and I looked back to see her palm sliced open and bleeding.
I turned back and gave her a deadly glare.
They all left and I turned to Caroline.
"How?" I asked, still shocked.
"Ayana," she said.
"Ayana? Okay start from the beginning, love. Last we saw you was after Mikael stabbed-" he choked on his words. "after Mikael stabbed you. How are you still alive?"
Caroline sat and I sat with her, grabbing her hands as a reminder to myself that she was actually here.
"Well, I ran off into the woods to escape Mikael and my father. I ran as far as I could but I was losing too much blood and was weakening quickly. I sat down to catch my breath and was almost attacked by a wolf. Luckily Ayana came out of her cottage and scared the wolf off , took me inside to heal my wounds and check me and the babies," she started.
"Babies?!" I asked, shocked.
She smiled. "Yes. Twins. She checked to make sure the baby was still alive after the stabbing and discovered I was having twins," she smiled sweetly.
"But…if you're here, then, where are the babies?"
"Still safe and cozy in here," she said softly, rubbing her stomach.
"I am…confused. Please continue," I said, my mind drawing a blank.
"Well if you'd stop interrupting me," she said sarcastically.
I laughed. There's the best friend I missed, mourned, over the years.
"So after Ayana healed me, and I went to sleep, I woke up to angry witchy ancestors wreaking havoc on her tiny little cottage. She said they were furious and that magic so black that it defiled nature had been performed. She said that they told her I needed to be saved. So she performed a spell to send me to the future. I only woke up here this morning," she finished.
It wasn't hard to figure out what that black magic was.
"Now, your turn Niklaus Mikaelson. What in the world is going on? How can you be alive after a thousand years? Where is 'lijah?" she started rattling off questions.
"Easy, love, catch your breath. I'll answer all your questions but please, keep an open mind, yeah?" I begged.
She looked confused but agreed.
I took a deep breath.
"After the fight when you ran off, we looked for you. It was the full moon so we knew we had to act quickly. We searched right up until sundown and couldn't find you anywhere," I said. Remembering the fear and desperation of that search like it was yesterday.
"When we returned….when we returned mother snd bekah were waiting for us. Hen," I stopped to take a breath to stop the tears. It had been so long since I told this story. "Henrik had taken off to look for you. He said-he said that you were there for him when he was scared and he needed to be there for you," I said quietly. A tear fell down my cheek. I hastily wiped it away.
Caroline looked at me. Tears gathering in her eyes and her hands over her mouth.
"No," she whispered. "Nik, please. Please tell me hes okay. Please tell me he's here with you?" she begged, crying.
I squeezed her hands as my own tears continued.
"I found him, but it was too late. He was hanging from a branch and the moment he fell they pounced on him," I said, brokenly.
Caroline sobbed and threw her arms around me. "No. No! Oh, Henrick," she cried.
It took her a few minutes to calm herself enough for me to continue. We both wiped our eyes.
"I took his body back to the caves. Mother was….inconsolable. and father. Hell we all were. But something was off with mother when we returned home. She disappeared with father for hours inside while we waited outside. She came out with drinks, claiming we needed to toast to Hen's memory. It was disgusting. After a minute or two we all felt dizzy and passed out. I came to as Father drove a knife through my heart," I explained, not looking up.
I heard Caroline gasp.
"I don't know how, but we woke up after that. All of us. We were so confused. Everything hurt, and we had this, this hunger stirring in our bellies," I said, remembering back to that day.
Everything was too bright. Too loud. Too….much.
I sat up and realized I was outside, laying on the ground with my siblings who were also waking. How in the world we were waking from being stabbed in the heart is a question I continued to ask myself.
Something wasn't right. I didn't feel right.
"Nik?" came a whisper from beside me.
I crawled over. "Bekah." I said.
"What happened? What's going on?" she asked, frightened.
Before I could answer, Mother and Father stepped out of our home.
"I saved you. I saved all of you," she said, calmly.
"What are you talking about, Mother? Saved us from what?" I heard Elijah ask.
"From the human condition, of course," she said.
We all looked at each other.
"What does that mean?" Kol asked.
I was starting to get a horrible feeling about where this was going.
"It means you are safe. From everything. Forever. You cannot get sick. You cannot die. You cannot be killed. I saved you," she repeated.
"You…are you saying we aren't human anymore?" Finn asked, incredulous.
"Exactly. Neither is your father. Before you awoke, we poured more liquid from the spell down your throats and you transitioned."
Anger flared, hot and fiery in my stomach.
"How dare you!" I yelled. My face felt hot and my mouth was aching. Suddenly Rebekah screamed. I turned to look at her but she was looking at me in horror.
"Your, your face!" she cried.
I felt my face before running towards the cleansing bowl of water. I looked down and gasped.
Large pointy teeth were protruding from my mouth. My eyes were a terrifying red and I had black veins moving under my eyes. I sat up slowly and looked to mother.
"What have you done?" I whispered.
"Yes, well, that was an unforseen side effect of the spell. But worry not, you just have to control it like your father has already learned to," she said.
We looked to father who flashed his demon face before it once again disappeared. One demon face taking over the other demon face, in my opinion.
"What other side effects are there?" Rebekah asked.
A villager chose that moment to walk past us and we all froze. The smell. It was divine. And it was coming from them. We couldn't control ourselves and we all jumped at the same time. Kol getting there first and tearing his teeth into their neck. The blood flowed everywhere and we were so ravenous we began licking it from the ground. When the blood was gone, kol dropped the body in shock and disgust. We were all disgusted with our behavior.
We all turned to mother, the blood on our hands and face standing out against the light of the moon.
"Yes. We definitely need to sit down and talk about the side effects," she said, calmly, and gestured for us to follow her into our home.
We went to walk in and stumbled to a stop, smashing into eachother, an invisible barrier preventing us.
Mother sighed. "Oh yes another side effect. You have to be invited in. Kol, Niklaus, Rebekah, Finn and Elijah please come in," she said, disappearing around the corner. We all looked at eachother and followed.
Caroline POV
I sat in shock moments after Nik finished explaining what had happened. There was a word flowing around in my head. One I had never heard before but must have been placed there with the knowledge Jane-Anne gave me.
"You're, you're a vampire," I whispered.
Nik finally raised his head to look at me. After a moment his face transformed. Gone were his blue eyes , replaced by something dark and red with a flash of gold, veins crawling like living beings under his eyes and fangs poking his bottom lip.
I gasped.
His face transformed back.
"Please don't be afraid, Caroline. Please. I'm still me," he begged.
I took a deep breath and squeezed his hand.
"I could never fear you, Nik. You're my best friend, my brother. You just have to give me time to….wrap my head around this," I said.
"What have you guys been up to the last, oh, 1000yrs?" I joked, trying to break the tension.
Nik grimaced.
"Nik?" I asked, quietly.
"I-I'm not the man you knew back then, Caroline. For you, It might have just been a couple days since you last saw us. For me it's been over a thousand years. A thousand years of blood. Of war. Of fighting. I'm, I'm not a good person. I'm a monster. The strongest most feared creature in the known universe, and I'm not saying it to brag. I'm stating a fact," he said easily. "there is enough blood on my hands to fill all those oceans 10x over. On all of our hands," he looked down at his hands.
I took a moment to let all that sink in. They killed people. Hundreds of thousands of people, I imagined. Like Nik said, they were monsters. But not to her. To her they were family and, like they used to say, back home, family above all.
"you'll always just be Nik to me," I said gently.
He smirked. "They call me Klaus, now. Well most do," he said.
"Klaus? That sounds like a German sausage. You're Nik and will always be Nik," I laughed.
"Hey!" he said, with faux offense before he broke out laughing.
We sat quietly for a moment before I finally had to ask.
"Where is he Nik?" I asked, afraid of the answer.
"Not sure, we had a bit of a falling out back in a town called Mystic Falls. It's actually the town that sits where our village used to be. Anyways, he took off to get some space. I believe he said he was heading to Europe. I'll have to call him back," he said, the last part mostly to himself.
I nodded breathing a sigh of relief. So he was alive.
"And the others?"
Nik hesitated. I gulped knowing I wouldn't like what I was going to hear.
"Um. Both Finn and Kol died in Mystic Falls. Kol trying to save us all. Finn was just collateral damage in a war he had no part of," he murmured.
I tried to hold in the tears. I was so tired of crying.
Kol. Kol who stood up for me time and time again, even against his own father and mine. And Finn. Finn who saved my babies lives when he pulled us out of the way of the knife.
"Wow. Um. You'll have to give me a second," I said, trying to choke back my sorrows.
Nik gently rubbed my back.
"And Bekah?" I asked after my moment.
"Ah, Bekah. Good old bekah. I believe she's off prancing around with her high school quarterback. I do believe she's not speaking to me either," he said thoughtfully.
"your mother and father?" I asked carefully.
His face instantly blanked. Then came the anger. Mother is dead. Died the same day we turned 1000yrs ago. Father died less than 5 yrs ago. Both by my hand," he spat.
"But Esther," I started.
"No. Do not mourn for her. She cursed me, Caroline. More than anyone else, she cursed me. Back then, when I killed for the first time, I tried to resist. The blood and the urge was just too strong. When his heart stopped beating my bones started breaking. I had no idea what was happening. Mother did. She had known for the last 21yrs. Turns out Mikael wasn't my father. She had an affair with a wolf for the neighboring village. So amongst the change I was going through becoming a vampire, I was also becoming a werewolf. Father convinced her that no being should have that much power. He convinced Elijah of the same. Elijah and he both held me down while mother cursed me and bound my wolf. For a thousand years I felt this hole inside of me where my wolf should have been. And it was all her fault. I killed her after she completed the spell," he explained, with no emotion. It was off putting.
"and Mikael?" I asked
"Mikael was convinced we were all abominations against nature after he discovered the side effect of being forced to drink blood. He refused to drink from humans. Only from other vampires. He spent the last thousand years hunting us down. We lived for a thousand years fearing for our lives. He was brought to Mystic Falls by some of the people there. And that's where I finished it," he said.
"Wow. This is a lot," I said, shakily.
"I know. I'm sorry you have to go through this. I'm sorry you've been taken by these witches to use against us," he said.
"It's worth it to find you," I said.
Nik pulled me into another hug.
Our moment was up. The witches walked back into the room.
"Decision made yet?" Sophie asked.
Nik continued to look at me. "Don't judge me for how I act. Please just remember the man I used to be," he whispered before releasing me.
"What decision?" he asked, standing from his seat.
"Are you serious? Her life, her babies lives, are in my hands. Pretty sure that's all the incentive you need," Sophie said.
"Theres no decision to be made. She's coming with me. That's all there is to it. You have nothing," he said, calmly.
Sophie stared incredulously. She stood thinking for a moment before grabbing her knife again and pointing it at her stomach.
"Are you sure about that? I'm ready to die for this, for our freedom. Are you ready to let her share the same fate?" she asked.
I gasped and grabbed my stomach.
One look at Nik's face was all anyone needed to tell he was furious.
"Caroline, love, take a deep breath," he said.
Confused, I followed his instructions.
Faster than anyone could see he flashed forward and grabbed Sophie around the throat once more, his other hand grabbing the hand that held the knife and squeezing.
"You don't get to threaten me, witch. I don't like being told what to do. Makes me a little….moody. Now. What's to stop me from knocking you out till I find a witch to unlink you?" he questioned.
He releases her enough to talk and I took a deep breath again.
"The spell is linked by bloodline. Only a Devreaux can undo it, and by now, I'm the only one left. You need me, alive, to undo it." She spat.
With a growl he released her, flashing to the witch beside her and tearing out her heart.
I felt sick.
"You may currently have the upper hand here, love, but never forget who really is in control here. You live and breathe on borrowed time. Don't forget that. Fine. I agree to your demands. But she comes with me," he said.
"Sorry but that's not enough," Sophie said. "you aren't exactly known for keeping your word, Klaus."
"What is it you do need then," he ground out between clenched teeth.
"I need the word of the one who's known for keeping it. The one who has the most to lose if you go back on your word. The noble brother. This agreement must be made with Elijah," she said.
Nik groaned. "Noble my arse," he muttered. "Fine. I will get him here. But until then she comes with me." He said.
"Fine. You have 48hrs to return here with your brother. If you don't, she's going to start bleeding," she warned.
Nik went to step towards her again, but I grabbed his arm.
"Nik. Please just leave it. Let's just go call him," I murmured.
With one last deadly look at the witches, he nodded his head, grabbed my hand and we walked out.