Scarlet Curse (N.M)

Chapter 14

Klaus, Elijah, and, Selene walked into Alaric's apartment. The view they saw was confusing, Katherine held Stefan against the wall.

"Klaus, you're back. Look who decided to come for a visit." Katherine introduced.

Klaus looks at Stefan. "You just keep popping up, don't you?"

"What're you doing here, Stef?" Selene thought. She was worried for his safety.

She didn't notice how Stefan became confused, and flinched.

"I need your help...For my brother." He said. "Well, whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait a tick. You see, I have an obligation to my brother that requires my immediate attention."

Elijah looks at Stefan "You understand how important family is, or you wouldn't be here. My brother gave me his word that he would reunite me with my own."

"And so I shall." Klaus stabs a dagger through Elijah's heart, killing him. He pushes Stefan against a wall. "Now, what am I gonna do with you?" Klaus puts a stake through Stefan. Stefan groans and buckles forward but Klaus holds him up. "Do you feel that? It's scraping against your heart. The slightest little movement and you're dead."

Before he could go any further, Selene lifts up her hand, red vapour travelling from her hand, to a pen, and into Klaus's shoulder.

Klaus turns to her smirking, and lets go of Stefan. "You need to keep your hands to yourself, Little witch."

"He's just trying to help his brother." Katherine saves them.

"The witches said you had a cure. Make me a deal. Just give me the cure, and I'll do whatever you want." Stefan negotiates.

Klaus takes out the stake. Stefan falls on the floor. Klaus walks over to the counter, puts the dagger on it, and pours himself a glass of blood. "Trouble is I don't know if you'd be any good to me the way you are now. You are just shy of useless."

Stefan is still on the floor. Klaus has a glass of blood in his hands and crouches down to speak to him. Katherine is looking at them. "I heard about this one vampire, crazy bloke, always on and off the wagon for decades. When he was off, he was magnificent. 1917, he went into Monterrey and wiped out an entire migrant village...A true ripper. Sound familiar?"

"I haven't been that way in a very long time."

"Well, that's the vampire I can make a deal with. That is the kind of talent that I can use when I leave this town." Stefan gets up.

"What's a ripper?" Selene asks the female vampire.

"Long story." She replies, sighing.

"Katerina, come here." Katherine gets closer. He takes her arm. His face changes, his eyes are yellow. He bites her. "Aah! Aah! No. No...No. No. No." Katherine starts panicking, as Stefan pulls Selene closer to him.

Klaus bites his own wrist. He makes Katherine drink his blood. Her wound heals. Klaus looks at Stefan. "You want your cure? There it is."

"Your blood is the cure." Stefan realises."Gotta love Mother Nature." The hybrid, sneakily glances at Selene. Klaus puts his hand on Stefan's shoulder. "Now...Let's talk, you and I."

******

Klaus is squeezing a knife blade tightly, and blood is pouring from his hand into a vial. Stefan is looking at him. Katherine and Selene are in retreat, looking at them.

"There it is. You want to save your brother? How 'bout a decade-long bender? And I have big plans for you when we leave this town." Klaus negotiates.

"I'm not like that anymore." Stefan replies.

"Well, that's too bad. You would have made a hell of a wingman." He starts pouring the blood down the sink.

"Wait." Klaus stops pouring the blood.

"Now that's more like it. I want you to join me for a drink." He throws him a blood bag along the counter. Stefan takes it. Klaus watches while drinking his glass of blood. Stefan takes a sip from the blood bag.

"Finish it. All of it. You do everything I say, and I save your brother. That's the deal."

Stefan drinks all of it. Klaus throws him another blood bag. "Again."
Stefan drinks.

******

There are four emptied blood bags on the floor. Stefan is sitting on the floor finishing drinking one. He grunts, and looks up at Klaus who is standing nearby.

"You're very cooperative. It's almost as if you're enjoying it." Klaus suggests. He throws another blood bag on the floor next to him.

"No more. Not until you give me the cure." Stefan gasps out, as Selene comfortingly rubs his back.

"Not until we make a deal. It's your choice, Stefan. You can either remain here living your life in Mystic Falls, or you can embrace what you truly are, leave town with Selene and I, and save your brother's life." Klaus crouches down, picks up and offers it to Stefan. Stefan snatches it and drinks vigorously.

"Leave her out of this." Stefan snarls.

"That's the thing, Ripper. I can't." Klaus smirks. "That's the spirit." He takes the vial with his blood and looks at Katherine.

"Sweetheart..." He compels her. "Take this over to Damon and come right back."

"You want me to leave?" Katherine's eyes widen.

"No!" Stefan growls.

"Yes and if I were you..." She takes the vial and rushes out the door at super speed. "...I'd hurry." He sits down in a chair.

"She'll never take it to him." Klaus cocks his head in a gesture of indifference. Stefan looks down and whispers to himself.

"She'll never take it to him."

*******

Elijah is lying in a coffin. Klaus is looking at him. Two men are standing nearby. They are in a warehouse filled with wooden crates.

"I suppose, brother, you've been reunited with our family." He closes the coffin and looks at the two men.

"Put him with the others. We're leaving town tonight." They put him with others coffins.

"Do you not feel bad sometimes?" Selene stands next to the Hybrid, who just gave her a confused look. "Taking their freedom away..."

Klaus sighs. "I have my reasons."

Stefan is standing nearby and receives a text reading "Damon's okay. Where R U?".

"So...Did Katerina make it in time?"

"You won't be seeing her again, you know." Stefan puts his phone away.

"Because she's on vervain? I've been around a long time, Stefan. I rarely get played for a fool. Besides, she won't get far. You'll help me see to that."

Stefan walks up to him. "What is it you really want from me?"

"All will be explained in time. Once we leave this tragic little town."

"Can we go?" Selene asks, impatiently.

"Not quite." He turns to Stefan "You see, I have a gift for you. Come here, sweetheart. Don't be afraid."

A girl walks over from behind a crate. Klaus looks at Stefan.

"See, I wanna make sure you honor our deal...that you'll be of use to me." He bites the girl's neck and drinks her blood. "I could have compelled her to behave, but a real ripper enjoys the hunt." He releases her. She runs away, screaming. Stefan stops her, bites her and drinks her blood until she's dead. Klaus looks at him. Selene winces, and looks away. She didn't like the sight of blood.

"Now we can go."

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