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venom that stings
"ARE YOU ALRIGHT, LOVE?" were the first words that came out of Klaus's mouth when he rushed over to Yiko. Exhaustion from too much use of power was grime on her knees, she sunk on the floor in a half-dazed state.
A breath escaped her lips, her eyes flitting towards where he knelt beside her. "You came," she said simply, and a tear finally cascaded down her cheek.
His gaze softened into relief, yet his jaw remained clenched tightly. "Of course I would."
"Pardon me for breaking your moment but," Elijah cut in, "what did you to him?"
"Yiko," Klaus started lowly, "perhaps you can shed some light on the situation." He gestured to the limp and lifeless body by the shack, "That would appear to be the body of a Hybrid."
Oh, of course they wouldn't just be glad she was alive and still breathing. They're Originals. What did she expect? "Lockwood used him as an experiment," she looked back to him, "Dwayne, he was called."
"Well, whoever he was, I didn't sire him." Klaus said in an obvious manner, clearly distressed to this fact. "Any idea how that's possible?"
Yiko hydrated her lips, "I did." It was truthful, yet her mind still strayed to Tyler's message. She had started to wonder if she had made the right choice in letting him live. Heaving herself up, she swallowed down the pain in the form of bile that rose to her throat. "And to answer your question, Elijah," she turned to him, "I am not exactly like you. So I can do things that may seem foreign to you."
"Why did you let him go?" asked Klaus, "He hurt you and yet, you free him just like that."
"And how does that concern you?" Yiko countered. "I did not ask for you to come and rescue me. I did not ask that you rummage the damn Bayou to find me. Look at you, you're more concerned by the fact that someone you didn't sire is a hybrid. Did you even look at him? Did you look into his eyes and notice that he's not like you? Not exactly. No, of course you did not. All you care about is the exterior, what your eyes see, and what you choose to think."
"Why do you always —"
"Why do I always what?"
As she began to advance, Elijah put an arm in front of her to stop her, stepping forward towards where Klaus stood. "Brother, I think we should be letting Yiko rest after what happened to her."
As if dawned upon by realization, Klaus let his head tilt back. "Aren't you two fast friends?" he mused. "Well go on, then. Tell me Yiko, what exactly did you and Tyler have a little chat about before you kissed him instead of killing him?"
Yiko stared at him in disbelief. "That's what you're on about?"
"Tyler Lockwood wanted to test a theory," Elijah interjected, "he sees a girl who gets close to you, the one being he hates more than anything. He learns of her power, and so he kidnaps her to see to his theory."
"And what do you suppose is this . . . theory?"
"That you only keep her close to use her to sire more of beings like her."
What? Yiko furrowed her eyebrows, confusion overtaking her as none of what Elijah said was the truth. Whether he was making it up, or knew something else, she had no idea. What she knew, though, was that Klaus would definitely do no such thing. Unless, of course, he had changed so drastically in the century they were apart.
"And of course you assume it's true," Klaus' voice grew solemn, as if he were retreating back into himself. "I mean why else would I show any interest in someone? A heartbroken, little crybaby points his finger at me, and my own brother falls in line, eager to believe it." His voice broke, betrayal in his eyes. "How quickly you assume the worst. Especially when it comes from someone else."
Those cerulean eyes drilled holes straight through her, and she thought about how what Tyler had said was right — that she was indeed a failure. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to yell No! That's not true! but the words died down on her tongue as soon as she tried to utter them. A liar, a manipulator, a bastard, he called himself. Well, perhaps it was something they had in common. Was that all he was to her? Someone heartless, someone cruel. No. No he wasn't.
He was far much more than just that.
He ran over to the Bayou, despite their quarrel, despite that she cast him away, he still came to save her. He was not selfish. He loathed himself. Loathed his entire being because in some way he thought himself a failure. You're not alone! she wanted to say, We can be lonely together. If you want. But then, she'd remember what Tyler said, his real reason for taking her. And she'd shudder, with disgust and hatred and pain and exhaustion, from so long of this montage of running around in circles.
"I'll play the role I've been given," Klaus began to stride away, when in the blink of an eye, he was sinking his teeth into Elijah's neck, poisoning him with his venomous bite. And being the principled leader she was, Yiko rushed to help Elijah, who had fallen to the floor. "You two enjoy each other's company. You'll have much to bond over, once the hallucinations and dementia set in." Elijah went to stand up, as a rueful smile spread on Klaus' face. "Consider that bite my parting gift to you both."
His eyes stayed on hers, brushing past, the softest brush and the sharpest stab she'd ever felt.
Yiko mulled over why she'd stayed with Elijah, and nothing else had come up other from her damned sense of duty. Drilled into her being were sets of rules, and as imperial general, she had long-since been accustomed to following those rules. So, as much as she'd wanted to go after Klaus and explain everything, her instincts tipped more to the side of rectitude.
"Why'd you stay," Elijah asked, droplets of sweat clinging to his forehead, "when you could've chosen to leave?"
She breathed out a sigh. "When you're a soldier for eight years, and a general for five, you tend to develop a pesky sense of duty." Her eyes slid over to his, "Let's say this is something of an instinct of mine."
Elijah's eyes, brown unlike his siblings', twinkled in amusement. "So you were a general in your time."
Yiko offered a smile as a response, then continuing, "you must have a lot of questions."
"Yes, quite," Elijah trailed off, his expression turning into that of pain.
Concerned, Yiko gently brought her fingers to where the bite had metastasized into that of red and purplish hues. "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You told him Tyler held me captive because of the insinuation that he'll use me for his own gain." It wasn't the first time she'd seen Klaus' lethal bite up-close, yet seeing it on Elijah was something entirely different. "That was not true."
"I —" he cleared his throat. "Forgive me, it seemed like the most plausible reason as to why."
"Well it's not," Yiko countered rather briskly. "The reason is much more personal than that."
He regarded her, resignation and admittance deft in his stature. "Does it have something to do with how your family was . . ."
She hummed as he let the words run for themselves. "Earlier, it may have seemed like I kissed him as a response. But it was not just some kiss, Elijah. It is this ability of mine, one that I haven't used in so long."
"What does it do?"
"It," her tongue grazed her lips for hydration, "induces the most painful of suffering. Psychologically, physically, and emotionally." She shut her eyes closed, blurring the hybrid's screams as it resonated into her mind. "I do not like using it. As much as possible, I avoid it, at all costs. Yet . . ."
"Yet you cannot bear how he spoke about your family," Elijah finished for her, and despite the agony he must've been enduring at that moment, he broke out into a smile. "I understand what you did. It seems that you and I have that in common."
Yiko could only smile back in response. It was true, amongst the siblings, she was most similar to Elijah. Even before, all those lifetimes ago, they'd bonded in a manner wherein they had a deep understanding for one another's ways.
An erraticness in Elijah's breathing cut through Yiko's thoughts of nostalgia, his skin going unhumanly pale. She rushed to bring the glass of water to his mouth, as the original accepted the gesture and leaned forward to take a sip. Yet he only broke out into a fit of coughs, unable to consume the liquid. "Forgive me, please."
"It's fine, I have tended to my sick men before, this is nothing compared to that." Yiko dismissed his apology, putting the glass away as a thought came to her. A thought that wasn't worth thinking over, but desperation was in the bigger picture. "Wait, let me try something." Bringing her wrist to her lips, she bit down on the flesh to puncture two circular incisions, offering it up to his mouth.
He only responded by staring up at her, as if to ask for permission still. Intrigue, regret, and reluctance flashed across his eyes, and as the scarlet fluid dripped from her skin, a bead of sweat cascaded down the side of his face. "They say the best cure for poison is poison." It didn't sound convincing, Yiko was well aware that this could might as well cause his death as much as it could cause his healing. But it was worth a shot.
Slowly, Elijah brought her wrist to his mouth, and fed on the blood that pooled around the bite. She watched him, drink her blood, and it was unnerving. Very few people have fed on her from the vein and lived to tell the tale. Was this going to be different, or another addition to the list of corpses caused by her hand?
He pulled away, breath heaving. She fumbled to keep him steady as he lay back down on the bed. "Are you alright?" As soon as the words left her, her gaze drifted to the bite, where it slowly dissipated, until it ceased to be visible, and all that was left was the unstained skin on his neck.
Elijah seemed to realize it as well when he said, "it worked."
"It worked," Yiko felt elation ensconce her entirety as she jumped up in triumph, "I didn't kill you." She was so happy, too happy, that for the first time, her blood was not the cause of someone's death. Elijah, although confused, rose to stand up when she tackled him in an embrace, which only confused him all the more.
Pulling back, she smiled up at the man she considered an older brother, further worries forgotten at that moment. Then, as if realizing their closeness, she took a step back, though her smile remained on her features.
"What did you mean when you said the best way to cure poison is with poison?" Elijah begun to say.
"Ah," Yiko caught herself, "my blood doesn't really have healing properties. Where vampires can heal with theirs, mine is a poison to the one who consumes it, unless I purify it in an extensive distilling process." The original nodded as he processed the information. "I . . . am not a native of this land. As you may have already guessed. The magic where I come from is different. Thus, I am different from you, and those that are here."
"I see," he replied, "I assume we'll have to apologize to Niklaus."
"Yes."
"You mean something to him, you know," his eyes were narrowed, calculating, trying to explain her existence in their lives. "I saw him feel you being in danger. He was worried, so much so that he couldn't stay put." He paused, let the words dissolve into the atmosphere around them, "I believe my brother can be worthy of redemption."
Yiko wondered of the illusion put up by the being that toyed with her life. The reason why she was so deeply entwined with the darkness. The darkness that saved her, the darkness that loved her. It was him that made their bond so intricately interwoven, that one would feel if the other was in some ruinous musing. She almost laughed at the thought.
"And you think I can be the key to his redemption?" She arched a brow, Elijah arched one back. Of course. "I beg to differ."
"In the short time that I saw to this . . . incident, I have come to the conclusion that you care for each other." Elijah straightened his suit, once again the pristine gentleman. "It is interesting, because it never happens. Not so genuinely."
Not so genuinely. It was no conundrum that his genuine affections weren't so easily obtained. Certainly, it would rise questions. And like all things, this was a consequence that stemmed out from a fixed point of entry, and the genesis from which it sprung was a corpse she had buried centuries ago, never to see the light of day again.
She let his words accumulate into dust particles, and left them to rot on the shelf.
The resonation of her phone ringing prompted her to pick the call up, slightly irked by the persistence of the caller. "Speaking?"
"Yiko?" Marcel's voice flowed from the other side, "Are you okay?
"Yes, why—"
"Tyler Lockwood told me a little something about you and came over to offer a deal," he cut her off, straight to the point. "I wanna hear it from you. Can you come to the Abattoir?" The fact that the damned hybrid ratted her out to Marcel and the Vampires wasn't the thing that caught her attention, not at all. It was the fact that Marcel trusted her enough to let her explain herself that made her want to fall to the ground and have her existence come to a cessation.
She exhaled slowly, "I'll be there." Ending the call, she redirected her route to the said destination.
Yiko hadn't made that first impression to Marcel because she had indeed meant to betray Klaus. She'd thought it over, circled that line of postulation so many times. If she had thought of it as a war, she had to make peace with both sides, so it had to include a certain manifesto to fabricate a plan where no one loses. Yet, here comes a fortuitous variable, ruining her strategies. She had a feeling it would all backfire somehow, of course as always, she was proven to be right.
"Hey," Marcel greeted her, "you've got some explaining to do."
"Yes, I do," Yiko claimed the spot beside him, leaning against the railing. Just like old times. "Where would you like me to start?"
"When you came to me and told me you can help me kill the Originals," he began, "what was your agenda with that?"
"That part," Yiko said, "was an ultimatum lie to gain your trust. I admit that, and I am sorry." She turned to him, "but everything else I've told you since then were real. It's just that —"
"Klaus has been using you to make more of your kind," he filled in, prompting her to knit her eyebrows.
"No," she said, "no that's not true."
"He has you under his spell, doesn't he?"
"Marcel, no." Her words were firm, halting him from saying any more, "Tyler is wrong about that. The reason he kidnapped me is far more personal and is none of your business." She let out a breath, "I am sorry I cannot divulge to you the real reason."
Marcel regarded her, silent for a few intervals. "Alright," he finally decided, "but Tyler made a speech about how you're an asset to Klaus and how you being here in New Orleans is not a coincidence." His head moved to a tilt, slightly, "Is that also untrue?"
No. It was true.
"Yes." The lie rolled off Yiko's tongue so deftly, "I told you I was here to oversee that there is no war between the supernatural factions."
Marcel nodded in understanding. "Okay, so here's the thing," he took a step towards her, voice dropping to just above a whisper, "how would you like to join us in killing Klaus?"
It was the last thing she'd ever do. It wasn't as if Hsuji Yiko came to New Orleans to see to Klaus Mikaelson's death. It was the complete opposite. She supposed some might call it the infrangible tie between soulmates, or the inevitability of returning to one's other half, but she had never really considered those terms to be the case. It was more like a silver of space between her and the rest of the world, and he had unknowingly filled that gray area, and never left it.
"Back so soon, love?" Klaus sat with his back to her, a drink in his hand. Yiko thought about mirrors, how even a reflection would fail to fully emulate his impossibility.
"I am sorry," she wasted no excuses, "I know that it was not your intention to use me." Sliding in the chair beside him, she was quiet. She said nothing, because if she'd attempted to say anything else, her words might fail her, and she might destroy everything as she always did. So she waited, something she's gotten used to.
Hurt was embedded into the corporealities of his words when he finally said, "I thought you have joined them in forsaking me."
Yiko had to take a deep breath, heaviness weighing on her. "Believe it or not, I won't do that to you." In her peripheral vision, she could see him steal a glance at her, yet she kept her gaze forward. "Not because of some blind loyalty, although I'm aware that's what you think you need. But because . . ." Because I love you. "Because I respect you."
Evidently, he was taken aback by what she said, yet he remained silent as he took a sip from his drink. "My siblings are as deceitful and diseased as my parents ever were. Trusting others before their own blood. Elijah and Rebekah have cut to the quick with their vicious lies about me, when all I've done is tried to win this battle of wills over Marcel's control of the Quarter in order to reclaim our home." He paused, drank from his glass of caramel slosh. "You know, if the daggers weren't missing, I would put one in each of their hearts. Rid myself of the burden of my siblings for a couple of centuries."
"Klaus," his name was a sin on her tongue, addictive and lulling, "haven't you stopped to think of their feelings too?"
Klaus breathed out, his jaw clenched. "Come with me. We have somewhere to be." It was all he'd said before abruptly standing up to leave, dismissing her question to his long speech. Sighing, she followed after him.
He'd led her to what seemed like a car garage, a boy no older than twenty fixing up a car. His back was to them, so when he'd straightened up and moved to look behind him, he flinched, as if startled. "Oh, man. I'll never get used to that." Yiko immediately identified him, her eyes slightly widening.
When his gaze traveled to her, she vaguely shook her head, an unspoken plea.
"Why do I get the feeling you studied theater?" Joshua, or Josh, continued, eyes now returned to Klaus who had a smile upon his features.
"All the world's a stage, young Joshua," Klaus replied, "and it just so happens I have the role of a lifetime for you. I hope you have some news for me because if not . . ."
"Right, so not doubting your mad vampire skills of destruction or anything, but Marcel is on red alert, surrounded by, like, an army." Josh filled in. "You're totally boned. Unless —"
"Unless what?"
Josh hydrated his lips, "I overheard him arguing with Diego. Apparently he's clearing out the compound tonight for a date or something." He said, pursing his mouth, "that's where Marcel will be."
Klaus regarded him, hands behind his back, "When I run New Orleans, there will be a permanent daylight ring in it for you, Joshua, for services rendered unto your true king." At that moment, Josh met Yiko's gaze, an inaudible cry for help. Yet she could only stand there, and watch the exchange fold out.
"Cool," he said nonchalantly.
"But, if you ever betray me . . ." Klaus slowly made his way towards the young vampire, a threatening authority that demanded attention, "I will make sure you spend the rest of your eternal life in exquisite agony wishing for a merciful death." He grinned, and as a farewell, patted Josh on the shoulder before exiting the garage without another word.
Yiko exchanged a look with Josh once more, and walked off after the hybrid. "Klaus."
Halting in his tracks, he turned to face her expectantly. She considered it, telling him of every scheme Marcel had against him. But she couldn't, her every instinct prohibiting her urge to tell him the truth. She couldn't possibly spoon-feed every single thing to him. He was not a child. He would figure this out on his own, and he would survive, as he always does.
"Why is it that you still let me stay even after what happened in the Bayou?"
"Why is it that you kissed Tyler?"
Yiko couldn't restrain the exasperated sigh. "It was not a kiss, Klaus, it was," she paused, gathering her words. "It is an ability of mine causes immense suffering, and it is something I do not like to use. On anyone. But Tyler took it too far. And that is between me and him." A deep breath, "the point is that I will do anything in my power just to see to it that no one has to suffer, alright?"
Klaus remained quiet, alarmingly so. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting him to say, actually. It's just that she found it rather strange, as he was a thousand-year-old being, yet he was childish. And if wronged, would immediately be discarded like an aged antique.
So when he spoke, she understood the cruelties of this ruinous tango of theirs. "There's your answer. You are a woman of rationality. Of duty. You would do anything to keep others safe. I told you I was drawn to you. I felt it, in my bones, that you were in danger. I care for your survival, and now, I smell war in the air. If there is the chance that you want to leave, I will let you. I won't stop you. But I wish you to know that I want you by my side when I reclaim my throne as King of New Orleans." He stood directly in front of her, too close to bear. "And now, I ask you not to leave me."
Yiko held his patterns and shapes in the palms of her hands, and she'd retrace him, over and over. Until these observations would wilt into memories of yesterday. "You'll have me." At the end of the world, you'll have me.
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A/N: After a long while, decided to finally post another chapter!!! Hope you guys enjoyed this one hhh
Xuan
Xx