CHAPTER 12

Few days later, Klaus and Marcel were currently sitting side by side on the couch with both of them having a tumbler of bourbon in hand. In front of them on the table sat a whole bottle of it.

"I can't believe the Harvest didn't work. It was suppose to bring all four girls back, so what happened?" Marcel wondered out loud.

"Witches and their sacrificial rituals, can't count on them." Klaus replied. "Same with baby vampires, you do everything for them, bear out your soul and what do you get in return… Misery, my friend."

"Yeah, love sucks. But at least Caroline is still alive, Davina on the other hand is dead, gone for good."

Before Klaus could say anything, a worried Diego came into the room, "Hey, guys, we got a problem."

"Which one of us is gonna take this on?" Klaus asked Marcel. He hoped Marcel would want to go, seeing as vampires were his berview.

"Let's both go, we need to get our mind off of it, even if only for a little while."

"Fine."

Rebekah and Elijah were walking the streets of New Orleans.

"I still don't understand, what happened with the Harvest ritual. But I'm gonna find out." Rebekah declared. She was moody, because she was still planning to get back at Klaus for ruining things with Marcel. Marcel had made allegiance with Klaus while Rebekah wanted to avenge his brother for daggering her for a long periods of time. Rebekah didn't believe Klaus could change and she believed if she didn't do anything, she would end up daggered yet again.

"Rebekah, we are all devastated by the outcome of this ritual."

"That's just it. There was no outcome. We both know that power like that doesn't just vanish. I say someone stole it. I'd like to know who, and then I'd like to make an ally out of them." Rebekah argued.

"To what end, exactly?"

"I'm tired of being threatened and controlled by our tyrant brother. If you want to stop a bully, you need the power to stand up to them."

I expect such behavior from Niklaus. It's so very disappointing when it comes from you, Rebekah." Elijah sighed. "Niklaus invited us back into our family home. He yearns for our family to be reunited."

"What he yearns is Caroline Forbes who has left him quite miserable. And you know very well that miserable Nik doesn't end well for anyone."

"Sister, please, I ask you, if you cannot support him, then at least do nothing to provoke him." Elijah pleaded with his sister.

Thunder rumbled overhead as Diego led Marcel and Klaus to the Cauldron to show them what he found. There were two vampires, both desiccated, and both had the same magical symbol carved into their foreheads. Their bodies were laying inside a magic circle created with salt, with runes drawn inside.

"Two day walkers went missing this morning. We finally found them here in the cauldron. Like this. Not staked. Just dead." Diego explained what had happened.

Marcel took one look at his dead men, put his hood up, turned around, and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Klaus yelled at him. "We got to do something about this."

"That mark on their foreheads is tied to some bad mojo." Marcel then turned to the rest of the vampires. "Any of y'all got any brains, you'll head back to the compound and stay the hell out of this."

Klaus sighed and realised that If Marcel was going M.I.A, then he had to end the pity party he had had going on the last few days and step up.

So back at the courtyard Elijah had joined Klaus and they were inspecting the bodies. They were sure that someone was copycatting Papa Tunde.

"Clearly, some upstart witch is salvaging old tricks."

"I'll do for him as I did the other." He turned to Diego. "Diego, when night falls, I want you to gather every vampire in the Quarter. Get me the head of whoever did this and put it on a stick."

"Yeah. That's gonna be a problem." Diego replied "Everyone is freaked out, man. We haven't had witches killing vampires in a long time. Marcel made sure of that."

"Marcel has run off like a scared child. You lot are left with me. Now, who of you will fight to defend our home?" He looked around to see that no one came forward. "Not a single one of you will stand with me, so afraid are you of this new threat? You should know better. I'll handle this myself."

After saying that Klaus stormed off.

Rebekah had gone to the cauldron on her own and found another salt circle on the ground with animal bones inside and unlit candles placed around it.

"I just don't understand why someone would leave it here for us to find." Rebekah wondered out loud and then her eyes widened in realisation, "Unless they wanted it to be found."

Papa Tunde appeared from the shadows behind her. Rebekah noticed him in shock and horror.

"Mademoiselle Mikaelson." Tunde smiled.

"That's not possible."

"Sure, it is, chére. It's magic."

Rebekah flashed toward him to try and kill him, but Papa Tunde simply reached out and grabbed her by the throat.

"Symbole du masque et de l'ombre, embrace-toi. Embrace-toi. Symbole du masque et de l'ombre, embrace-toi. Embrace-toi. Symbole du masque et de l'ombre, embrace-toi. Embrace-toi. Symbole du masque et de l'ombre, embrace-toi." Papa Tunde kept chanting and used his knife to carve the same symbol on Rebekah's forehead.

Rebekah started to desiccate, and thick grey veins popped up all over her face and neck.

Cami was at Rousseau's, cleaning up before opening the place.

Suddenly, Cami turned around and noticed Marcel entering the premises. She quickly grabbed a beer bottle to threaten Marcel with.

"Before you try anything, I'm on vervain."

"Yeah, Klaus mentioned you broke free of his compulsion. Good for you. Can I get a drink?"

Cami, seeing Marcel so depressed, asked right away, "It's a little early for day drinking. Let me guess, Klaus problems. I thought you'd be on top of the world now that you have Davina back."

"Davina is dead." Marcel sighed with grief.

"Was it Klaus? I told him, if he hurt her..." Cami asked in shock.

"It wasn't like that. The power that she had was too much. We tried to fix her with this crazy-ass ritual, and something went wrong. Now she's...I don't know, floating in limbo, or waiting on her ancestors."

"Marcel, I'm sorry." Cami offered condolences.

Suddenly Marcel's phone rang. It was Klaus. He hit the ignore button and returned to his drink.

"Klaus?" Cami asked.

"Yeah, He's a little unhinged right now. Keeps calling me because there's a witch problem, he doesn't know what to do about. You see, the girl she finally got, decided to leave him. Now, he is as lost as I am."

"I know."

Marcel looked at her with confusion.

"Caroline is staying at my place right now."

Seeing Marcel's surprised expression, she quickly added, "You can't tell anyone, especially Klaus. Promise?"

Marcel reluctantly nodded, "Promise."

Papa Tunde suddenly appeared in the bar.

Marcel stood up to face Papa Tunde and told Cami, "Cami, you need to run now. Don't look back. Just go."

"I think she should stay. I prefer an audience, and I'm about to put on quite the show. You cannot defeat me. I channel the power of an Original vampire. Soon, I will have all three. But first, I will take you."

Klaus was at the Cauldron, he had found Rebekah as Anya had found her and called him about it.

"It's a complex spell. Old-school stuff, rooted in sacrificial magic."

"Okay, but how to I get her out of there?"

"We need something strong, more potent like volcanic ash or…eye of newt! I can get you eye of newt from Katie's shop."

"Okay, so go! Now!"

Anya run off and then Klaus' phone buzzed.

"I didn't expect a call from you so soon." Klaus was amused because the last time they talked, Cami wasn't exactly friendly with him.

"You need to get to Rousseau's now. Some lunatic witch doctor is killing Marcel."

"I'm handling it. You, get as far away from there as you can."

Papa Tunde had Marcel and was about to finish him off, when his connection to Rebekah and her power broke. Tunde became weak, which allowed Marcel to over power him and throwing him far away against the wall. He started to follow Tunde there, but he was suddenly gone from the bar.

"Marcel?" Cami asked returning.

"I'm okay." Marcel told her and sighed in relief.

And the compound, Klaus was on the balcony talking to all the vampires who had gathered in the courtyard. Marcel was not far, standing behind him, letting Klaus do all the talking.

"Not long ago, you all united against me. You failed. Since then, in my benevolence, I have wiped the slate clean. Yet, it seems clear you think that I am the one who needs to earn your respect, your loyalty. You're mistaken. It is you who must prove yourselves to me. Our community is under attack. Marcel and I, we require soldiers, warriors, not cowards. Each of you has a decision to make. Sometimes Marcel is not there to lead but you still need to listen to us and do what we say, even if it only me telling you that. You either fight alongside me, knowing I'm as much as in power as Marcel is or you leave now. Neither of us has use for cowards."

One of the vampires stepped out of the crowd and talked to Klaus, saying, "We don't owe you anything. If staying in the Quarter means living under your rule, I'd just as soon get the hell out."

Klaus watched as about a dozen of vampires joined the one who spoke and walked out of the compound. The vampire who had just spoken looked at Diego in hopes that he would come along, but he gave him a look that said he wasn't going anywhere and stayed behind.

Afterwards, Marcel and Klaus talked in the study.

"I got to admit, I thought we'd lose a lot more guys than that."

Klaus joked, "Well, I do have charm and charisma you can't deny."

"It's good to see you in a better mood." Marcel acknowledged.

"Don't worry, It won't last long."

Klaus gulped down all his drink and felt depressed again at the thought of Caroline being gone.

"Hey, I promised Cami not to say anything, but basically she told me Caroline is currently staying at Cami's."

"What?" Klaus head snapped up to look at Marcel and said angrily, "She was suppose to go back to Mystic Falls, not put herself at risk somewhere she is easy picking's for anyone with a grudge against me."

"Yeah, well, I don't think her own safety is the most important thing for her right now."

"Unbelievable." Klaus muttered and stormed off.

Caroline was currently trying to read one of Cami's psychology books, when there was a knock on the door. When she opened the door, she was faced with Klaus who was leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on.

"Hello, love."

"Klaus."

"Well, I got to say, you still know how to surprise me." He said now more seriously. "Staying here when there's a war going on isn't very smart."

"Well, then I'm not smart. What do you want?" Caroline asked belligerently.

"I want you to come back to Abattoir with me of course."

"Not a chance."

"Then you go back to Mystic Falls with the first flight out."

"You want me to go to Mystic Falls?" Caroline asked surprised.

"No, of course not, but I do want you to be safe. It's either in Mystic Falls where you will be far away from everything going on in this town or you come back to the Abattoir where I can keep an eye on you. Sorry, love, but there isn't a door nr 3."

"What do you even care?"

Klaus angrily wanted to step inside but as he wasn't invited in, he had to step back.

"You ask me that like it isn't abundantly clear after everything that you are the most important person for me and I need you to be safe. Of course, I would rather have you at the compound with me, but If you insist on not coming, you are going back to your hometown."

Caroline crossed her arms on her chest and didn't say anything, just stared at him defiantly.

"Look, you can think of me whatever you want. I can play the role of the worst person on this planet, but what I can't do, let you stay anywhere you aren't safe. You coming back to the Abattoir doesn't mean we have to continue where we left off, but you are coming back even if I have to drag you there."

"Well, you can try. Right now you can't even get inside this apartment."

Frustrated, Klaus took out his phone, "Alright, let's do this your way. I'll call Cami. She'll let me in after I saved Marcel today."

"Okay, okay, I come back to the Abattoir." Caroline finally gave up.

Klaus amused expression made her want to explain her reasoning. "I want to help keep Hayley and the baby safe. I have this really bad feeling that something bad will happen soon. And contrary to your belief, I'm not the weakest link here. Hayley and the baby are."

"Hayley can protect herself better than you think. But no matter your reasoning, I'm glad." He smiled.

"I'm not coming back to be with you, Klaus. We will only be friendly. Is that acceptable for you?"

"Like I said the first night at the plantation house. I want you with me. Always. No matter the capacity."

"Fine, let me grab my things."

Caroline grabbed her hand bag, that's all she took from the Abattoir when she left.

As soon as she stepped out of Cami's apartment, Klaus had her pinned to the wall, holding his hands on either side of her.

"I missed you so much." He murmured.

"Klaus…"

"I know, I know." He whispered "I mean what I said. I want you with me no matter what's the status of our relationship. I just wanted you to know that not a minute went by that I didn't think about you while you hid yourself here."

"Yeah…" Caroline basically agreed it was the same for her. That made Klaus relax and he released her so they left Cami's together.