Sardonic - The Originals (The Hunter Book 2)

Chapter 3 - 'Who's Next?'

Klaus and Wolfgang walked into the compound as they returned to discuss their plan with Elijah. Marcel had provided some useful insights into the Guerreras and with his backing, the Nachtstern was confident that they would beat them.

"We have the Guerreras where we want them." Wolfgang explained, "We have them waiting, we have them worried, and now, we know they're an army with no defences against two Originals and the Night Star." Elijah shook his head, still not convinced, "We don't know that for certain."

"I'm willing to gamble," Klaus said as he shrugged. Elijah sighed and opened his mouth to object.

"It's too risky! The stake didn't just disappear, someone has it." Elijah countered. Wolfgang shrugged and sighed, "One enemy at a time, Elijah. In the end, we'll slay them all."

Klaus sat down at the table, just as he felt one of the moonlight rings being activated to keep the wearer from turning with the full moon, which weakened Klaus in the process. The hybrid winced in pain and obvious discomfort as Wolfgang joined him.

"Tonight, we just have to plant the right seeds, and for that, we need help," Klaus stated as he winced in pain as the daylight rings sapped his strength.

**********

"We're taking the twelve original rings. Now, four of them sit on the hands of the Guerrera brothers. One on Oliver, one on Francesca, three with the home security detail, and the rest scattered amongst her lackeys." Elijah explained as Wolfgang and Klaus drank deeply from some whiskey, "Now, each ring is distinguishable by its setting - gauche, like those that wear them."

"If they believe they can get their hands on the stake, they will come for Klaus when he is weak. Each ring you retrieve will strengthen him, but he will still be at a considerable disadvantage." Wolfgang explained. Klaus, Elijah and Hayley nodded in agreement.

"Ergo, any hope of our success depends entirely upon our working together." Elijah added, glancing at Hayley, his eyes unreadable, "The two of you can no longer afford to retreat to separate corners."

Hayley looked over at Klaus, who sighed and stood up to look at her, "This is our fight. Are you ready for battle, Hayley?"

"Just promise me that Francesca doesn't come out of this alive." The hybrid said and Wolfgang smiled at her bloodthirst.

"Her head will be delivered to you on a silver platter, little wolf," Klaus replied with a weak smile.

"I'll deal with the last piece of the puzzle," Elijah said as he turned to leave.

**********

At the Mikaelson Compound, Klaus, knelt on the floor, gasping in relief as he began to gain some of his strength back from the lackey losing his ring. He smiled and rolled his neck as he felt his strength return.

Meanwhile, many of the Guerrera werewolves, including Oliver, invaded the compound and quickly split up. Two of the werewolves headed for one of the staircases, where Wolfgang sped towards them using his vampire abilities and ripped out both of their hearts instantly.

He slipped each of their rings off of their fingers as their corpses fell to the ground. Klaus, having regained more strength, smirked and grabbed his palette off of the nearby easel, preparing to paint. Klaus, growing ever stronger, smiled widely as he grabbed a handful of paintbrushes off of an end table before he gasped in relief as he got even stronger from the loss of the most recent ring, and smiled. He set down a canvas as he prepared to paint, and took a paintbrush in each hand, flipping them over to be used as weapons.

Wolfgang wrenched the lackey backwards and sunk his fangs deep into his neck before ripping his entire arm off. He dropped the body to the ground before he removed the ring from the werewolf he killed when many more Guerrera wolves found him and crowded around Wolfgang. Wolfgang smirked as he took in the threat, noticing a moonlight ring on the finger of one of the female security guards.