I Hate That I Love You

Chapter 24

Double Update today!!

The first thought that ran through her mind was, 'I'm breathing fire.' Each time she inhaled, a dozen needles seemed to bury themselves in her throat.

But the pain soon subsided, leaving her with the luxury to worry about other things- such as the battle that was raging on around her.

Arcs of blood were flying through the air. In the distance, someone let out an ear piercing shriek.

"Hope?"

Josie Saltzman was standing over Hope, and in the witch's hand was the dagger that had been buried in Hope's heart. A wicked invention of Rayne Cruz's, made to imitate the effect the white oak daggers had on the Original Vampires.

"Saltzman, what..."

It was pandemonium, everywhere. Arrows were raining

down from the rooftops of the buildings that surrounded the square. A thick halo of colored mist prevented Hope from seeing much, but she could hear the monstrous roars which belonged to her father.

"Hope, you have to help my sister," Josie pleaded. "I don't know what's going on, me and the others just followed the trail Lizzie left for us-"

At the sound of Lizzie's name, Hope sat upright. Lizzie... Where was she?

A sudden scream gave Hope her answer. Using her magic to brush the strange fog aside, the tribrid rushed straight for the place where Lizzie was defending herself against a wave of dark smoke.

"You cursed- I'm going to kill you, Pierce!"

Hope stared in confusion when she saw that these words had come out of the mouth of Aurora de Martel. The ancient red-headed vampire was fuming, and it really did look like she was on the verge of tearing Katherine's head off her shoulders. Only two things were stopping her- First, the fact that Katherine was still a ghost and thus she was still immaterial. Second, Aurora was seconds away from having her heart ripped out of her chest by the Original Tribrid.

Up above, though Hope could not see her, Rayna was commanding Aurora's compelled human archers to direct their poisoned arrows at Klaus, despite Aurora screeching at them to take their aim upon 'the Petrova bitch' instead.

The bitch in question was cackling madly as she stood atop a marble statue in the middle of the square. Hope watched with her jaw dropped, as Katherine folded her fingers into fists. With this motion, tendrils of the same smoke that was threatening to crush Lizzie to nothing rose up around her.

This made no sense at all... Katherine had magic?

"Oh, come on, de Martel," Katherine was laughing. "I wouldn't be Katherine Pierce without stabbing at least a few people in the back."

As if to make her point. Katherine used her magic to levitate a discarded arrow. with the flick of her hand, it hurled itself straight into Klaus's back. The wolfsbane coated tip caused the hybrid's skin to smolder, but Klaus didn't seem to notice. He jumped back to prevent himself from getting beheaded by Aurora, then threw several arrows at the human archers poised above. All of them were hit, and several of them went falling off the buildings.

"Look who's up," Katherine said, nodding to Hope. she said this mockingly, but the doppelganger's eyes were full of dung. Clearly, Hope being brought out of her daggered state had not been a part of her plan.

"Didn't you know?" Katherine said in response to Hope's bewildered expression. "The first Petrovas were traveler witches."

From behind Hope, the dagger that had been used to desiccate her rose up from the ground. It merged with the dark smoke that Katherine was manipulating, then tunned to launch itself at Hope.