"You're right." Alaric croaked, "This witch is all juiced up and aiming to kill." He walked over to a dresser.
"That's terrible." The doppelgänger replied with vaguely and didn't mean it.
"We're gonna have to kill her, Maddox." He looked in the drawers, then to Katherine, "Do you think this Alaric guy has anything vintage?"
He pulled open another drawer and lifted the board in it, "Crossbows, wooden bullets, and automatics," he said, thinking. He picked up a crossbow and looked at Katherine, "Who is this guy again?"
"He's a local vampire hunter." Katerina replied.
"Ah, we'll that explains the clothing." Klaus, inside Alaric's body, dropped the crossbow on the floor beside the bed.
"All I can find," Maddox, Klaus' witch sighed, "Guy likes his bourbon." He handed the glass to Klaus.
"I knew there was something about him I liked," He took the glass and drank some of the bourbon inside, then he set the glass down on the countertop in the kitchen.
The witch noticed bruising on Klaus's neck, "Thought you said this body was safe?" Maddox gestured towards the neck, "And that no one would harm it?"
"This wasn't the Salvatores. There's another vampire in town who seems to really dislike this Alaric guy." Klaus said with irritation and used his hands to gesture around the body he occupied.
"Can pull you out. Put you in another body." Maddox suggested. "Really wouldn't want this plan being jeopardized by some vampire who hates this guy."
"No. I need Alaric's body tonight, there's a high school dance. I'm gonna need you to take out witch bitch."
"If she has that much power, she can sense me coming from a mile away. I won't be able to get near her." He raised his eyebrows, "You have to do it."
"In this body? I'm a haggard history teacher." Klaus lifted his hand from his waist, "She could easily hurt me." Klaus shook his head, "I mean not me, Klaus me. You know what I mean."
"No witch can handle channeling that much power." Maddox stepped closer to Klaus, "It'll kill her. It would kill me." He stated firmly, "You just have to make her use it."
"You mean like—provoking her—to death?" Klaus squinted his eyes as the witch gave him conveniently good news.
"It won't take long. Just keep attacking her until it kills her." The witch stated, "His body, Alaric's. It will last longer than hers will."
"How? He's human." Klaus questioned what the witch was on about.
"I can help in that department." Maddox assured. "I can do a spell to protect you."
"Well keep that going after tonight when the witch is dead. I would like to find out if this new vampire is a friend or a foe." Klaus tilted his head.
"It's a vampire, who cares? Once you're back in your body, it won't matter. She can't kill you."
"No, but I would like to know how someone who I've never seen before in my thousand years on this earth knows me. Klaus me. As one of the Salvatore's seem to think."
"So she supposedly knows this Alaric guy—and you?" Maddox's eyes widened, "Coincidence that she knows you and the body you happened to occupy."
"Exactly." Klaus stated to prove the witch's observations were his too. He then grabbed a jacket and opened the door out of the apartment. "Seems the vampire came to introduce herself?" He raised his eyebrows at Hope.
Maddox walked away from the kitchen and to Klaus's side. Katherine was peering her head slightly over to see past Klaus and Maddox.
Klaus couldn't help but notice the vampire in front of him wearing nothing related to a daylight ring or necklace, "A vampire without any daylight ring who walks just fine in the sun." He looked into Hope's eyes and said in a monotone voice, "I'd like to know how that's possible."
Hope raised her eyebrows in confusion, "Are you trying to compel me?"
Klaus flinched at the reaction, "Well, I guess a vampire who knows who I am would be on vervain." He looked at Maddox.
"I'm not on vervain? You've finally gone delusional in your old age." After Hope made the comment, she looked at Alaric, who looked much younger than she realized. "Though, you do like quite different. You lack the cane."
"If you're not on vervain, my compulsion would have worked, vampire. And I'm not this Alaric Saltzman you claim to know so well." Klaus tilted his head with a firm statement. Though, the vampire didn't seem to believe him.
Katherine, shockingly enough, spoke, "It's not Alaric. It's Klaus inside his body." She sighed and leaned her head back in the chair.
Hope chuckled, "Really?" She raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms.
"I'm afraid you are deeply underestimating me, vampire." Klaus threatened, "When I am in my own body, you won't feel so confident."
Hope shook her head and turned away, walking down the hallway of the apartment. "Okay what the hell is this, Lizzie?" She dropped her arms to her sides. "Therapy box? Spell?" Hope listed off, confusing the three still in the apartment.
"One interesting spell." She rolled her eyes and was confused as to what purpose all the people she saw had in either killing her or getting her humanity back. Then she went back to the therapy box theory. It has some stupid ways of getting in her head, "Okay where's this stupid word. I know this isn't real."
"Is she—sane?" Katherine raised her eyebrows, releasing her face from the tense confusion she wore on it.
Klaus only gave a quick, annoyed glance to Katerina. He then stepped past the threshold in the doorway, and said, "I don't know who this Lizzie is. But, when I get my body back, you're free to question this terrible fashioned vampire hunter."
Hope vamped over to Alaric—Klaus, "Or I can just kill you right now to end this absurd spell of Lizzie's." The tribrid tilted her head seeming fond of the new idea. She raised her eyebrows and her eyes turned a yellow gold with veins beneath them.
Klaus's eyes widened in shock, "You're a hybrid? Would explain the daylight ring situation." The original realized. He snapped himself back to factualities, "But that's not possible."
"How about that plan?" Hope pressed her hand against the vampire hunter's chest.
"Maddox!" Klaus shouted but the door slammed shut in between him and his witch. "I am not Alaric Saltzman. I am Klaus Mikaelson."
"You'll be nobody if you do not tell me where Lizzie is, or how to get out of this absurd spell of hers," Hope threatened and disregarded the repetitive mention of her father's name, but she flinched when Klaus instantly brought his hands to her head.
————
"Katerina, may I introduce to you,—the lord Niklaus." Elijah introduced his brother to the lady.
Katerina lifted her dress very slightly and bowed her head to the lord. Niklaus then took her hand and carefully set his lips on the soft skin. He pulled away, "Niklaus is the name my father gave me. Please," Klaus smiled and insisted, "call me Klaus."
————
Klaus dropped his weak human arms to his side and smirked, "I doubt this vampire hunter can do that. Now, can he?"
Hope continued to deny, "You've got a witch. Not letting any silly illusions persuade me."
"What's stopping you from killing me then? I mean if I'm Alaric Saltzman, you clearly want me dead." Klaus chuckled historically. "Or does the sight of my true face cause you to quake in fear?" He smirked.
Hope grew tense, pressing harder on the teacher's chest. She continued applying pressure to test him, but when unsatisfied, she released all the tension and vamped away. The door creaked open once she was gone.
"Klaus?" Kathrine questioned as she saw the door open to an almost breathless man still seemingly glued to the wall. "What was that?"
"What? Didn't hear anything with your vampire ears?" Klaus raised his eyebrows and taunted Katerina. He pushed himself off the wall and walked back into the apartment.
Klaus turned his head towards Maddox. His mouth inches away from his shoulder. "I'm gonna need that spell of yours so I can get to that dance. I'm already late."
•*•*•*•*•
Pages: 06
Words: 1380
Written: 01/11/23
Published: 01/22/23