Redamancy | Elena Gilbert

Chapter 34

"Love," he said, catching the door before she could lock herself in one of the upstairs bathrooms. "Don't cry."

"He's going to lose his mind," said Rosalind, covering her eyes, lips already quivering. "We're going to lose Chris just like we already lost two others. We've failed them, Klaus, we're failing them. What the hell are we going to do?"

Klaus cleared his throat, stepping inside and closing the door, turning on the faucet to grant them privacy. "I'd say the best thing would be to put him out of his misery."

Rosalind stared at him in disbelief. "There has to be something else that can be done!"

"There isn't. Don't you think I would have found a way, after fifty years? It stopped on its own. Chris won't survive that long, he isn't immortal in the way I am. He will go mad and he will remove his own head or his heart. It will be much harder on the Pack that way. It's best we end his life now."

"I don't accept that," she replied. "There's gotta be another way, and I'm going to find it. Elena was telling me that Bonnie's professor friend has notes on the Hunters. I'll get that professor's notes, no matter what I have to do, and I will help Chris, one way or another."

"Chris needs to be punished either way," said Klaus. "He disobeyed our direct orders. I said very specifically to use non-lethal force on Connor."

Rosalind glared at him. "Maybe if they were properly informed about the risks, they'd be more inclined to use their free will and still listen to you, Klaus. They lost two of their friends. Two of their brothers. He probably feared for all of their lives! If he disobeyed, it was because he wanted to ensure we would all survive. Connor might have been able to escape, we never know! How many hybrids would have been lost to contain him? If he knew the truth, he would have listened to you, I'm sure of it. We can't punish the hybrids by killing them when they make a choice like this. He wasn't informed, he didn't know!"

"Rosalind, love—"

"Don't!" she shrieked, not wanting to hear him argue any further. "Klaus, we are their Alphas, we are supposed to protect them, to help them thrive, to keep them safe, and we are failing them! They may be jokingly calling us their parents, and we may jokingly think of them as our kids, but they are our responsibility no matter how we view them. A-And they're gone. Dean and Nate are gone, Chris is going to be gone... so excuse me if I want to find a way to save Chris instead of just performing a mercy-killing. Not unless it's the only option, Klaus, and not unless we tell him the truth and give him a choice. We don't know how he wants to be buried, if he wants to be cremated and kept in an urn or released into the wind. I buried Dean and Nate but what if it isn't what they wanted? What if they'll never be able to rest because I-I didn't know enough about them?"

Klaus put his hands on her shoulders. "You did what you could. This is not your fault, love, it is mine. And I will speak with Chris while you have a chat with Bonnie and that professor. If there is another way, you will find it, I trust you will."

She closed her eyes, covering her entire face and sniffling. "Is this how it feels?" she said, withdrawing her hands and holding her chest. "For a parent to lose their child? To lose someone they were supposed to protect? I-I didn't know it could be this awful. I mean, my dad, Jules, the wolves, they were my protectors, and it didn't hurt this way. When I thought I lost you, it didn't hurt like this. With Tyler, a bit more like this, but even then not the same because he was more of a brother to me. And Elena is a completely separate matter but this? Oh my god... I'm ridiculous. These hybrids, some of them are older than me. And yet I was responsible for them, I was supposed to keep them safe and they died. I... I left them to die."

He frowned as she started to bawl, pulling away from him and grabbing a stack of towels to scream into. He cautiously put a hand on her shoulder, and she tried to brush him away, but relaxed when he hugged her from behind, listening to her cry.