Later that evening, Klaus came striding into the Gilbert's living room, a content look on his face. Elijah and I were still snuggled up on the couch, watching a movie and simply relishing in each other's company while John and Jeremy were still out of house. At this point I wondered if they would ever come home tonight. Probably not. John probably didn't want to risk getting hit by another plate Jenna threw in his direction and Jeremy was wherever the hell the others were. Not that I was complaining. The longer they were gone, the longer Elijah could stay.
"Well, there you two are," Klaus greeted us, before letting himself fall next to us on the couch, smiling affectionately at me. "I'm glad to see you're well again."
I grabbed the remote and paused the movie before smiling back at him.
"Thank you for undaggering Elijah and letting your warlock track down Andie, even though it didn't work."
He grinned at me.
"You're welcome, love. And don't worry your pretty head about your friend. We'll find her."
Elijah looked at his brother.
"I take it from your good mood that your evening was successful?"
Klaus nodded, grinning deviously.
"Indeed, brother. Our mate's safe, the Salvatore's secret weapon is dead and the barrier around the house should have been lifted."
He looked at me. "You and Jenna should be free to leave the house now."
I stared at him in confusion.
"Wait, what secret weapon?"
"The Bennett witch," he explained. "She got a power upgrade and was ready to kill me. Thankfully their plans didn't include me taking over the history teacher's body. So I had the element of surprise on my side and took the witch out at the dance."
I stared at him in shock.
"You killed Bonnie?"
He looked at me and the smile died on his face.
"I had to, love. She was aiming to kill me and would have had enough power to succeed." He gently brushed his knuckles over my cheek before lifting my chin. "I know you have a big heart and want to save everyone, but her death was necessary."
I sighed and nodded slowly.
"I know. I'm just tired of all these fights and drama and deaths. I told them we have an elixir that will let Elena survive the ritual so why are they still fighting? You breaking the sun and moon curse will benefit all vampires. They won't have to fear the sun anymore or have to rely on daylight rings." I thought about Rose and how much she had missed feeling the warmth of sunlight on her skin. A tear rolled down my cheek. "They won't have to live in darkness anymore. Rose hated the darkness. I want to do this for her, even if she's not here anymore to enjoy it."
Klaus and Elijah gave each other meaningful glances over my head.
"Elskan..." Elijah started, making me turn around to face him. "There's something we need to tell you."
I raised my eyebrow at him questioningly.
"The sun and the moon curse does not exist," Klaus said.
I jerked my head toward him.
"What?!"
"The curse is fake. Elijah and I invented it centuries ago."
I looked between the two Originals, lost for words.
"But...I don't understand...Why? And if there's no curse, what do you need the moonstone and Elena for?"
"There is a curse, a different one. Placed on me," Klaus explained, looking at me.
"What kind of curse?" I whispered, giving him a worried expression.
He sighed.
"To explain the origins of my curse we'll have to go more than one thousand years back in time to the very beginning of our story."
I stared at him open-mouthed.
"More than one thousand years? I mean, I knew you were old but...wow. You're walking history books."
Elijah chuckled.
"Then it is indeed quite fitting that our mate turned out to be a historian, isn't it?"
I stared at them, still in awe.
"I have questions. And I mean many questions. But not today." I turned back to Klaus. "You wanted to tell me your story. I'm listening."
He nodded.
"Yes. But first, you might want to go and fetch Jenna. My brother says she has proven herself as a trustworthy ally and since you two seem to be quite close she should hear this as well."
A few minutes later, Jenna, Elijah, Klaus and I were sitting together in the living room. Jenna and I were huddled into a blanket together with wine glasses in our hands while Klaus and Elijah sat across from us, sipping on the bourbon they had found in the kitchen, probably Alaric's.
"Our father was a wealthy land owner in a village in Eastern Europe," Elijah started his tale, staring into the distance. "Our mother bore seven children."
"Wow," Jenna commented, sipping on her wine. "That would be my absolute worst nightmare. I mean, nothing against children, but seven of them? I would die."
"Well, back then people had more children in general," I told her. "Protection wasn't really a thing and many of those children were taken by the plague or war. The more children you had the higher the chance of someone surviving and continuing the family line." I turned to my mates. "So you have more siblings."
Elijah nodded.
"After their firstborn was taken by the plague, our parents left everything behind and came to the New World. They settled down in a small settlement that would later be known as Mystic Falls."
Jenna and I stared at them wide-eyed.
"You lived here one thousand years ago?" Jenna asked.
Klaus nodded.
"Most of us were born here."
"My dad had been right all along," I whispered. "He had always suspected that this town was a lot older than a mere 160 years."
Elijah took another sip of bourbon before continuing.
"We lived here happily for many years, or at least as happy as we could. Our father was...a difficult man. Harsh, strict. He rarely ever showed us affection and instead would beat us into submission." He looked at his brother. "Niklaus suffered the most under him."
Klaus averted his gaze and inspected the books on the shelf to his right, hurt flashing across his face, well Alaric's face, but still. Anger flooded through me as I gripped my wine glass tighter. I had never wanted to be able to time travel as badly as I wanted to now. I wanted to travel back in time and save little Klaus, Elijah and all of their siblings from their father's violent tendencies. But I couldn't. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't change the past. But I could influence the future. As I looked at Klaus, I swore that even though I wouldn't be able to erase the years of abuse he had suffered at his father's hands, I would make it up to him by showering him with all the affection and love I could give him.
"It got better after we got older and started our own families," Elijah continued, a painful expression flashing across his face. "But then the plague arrived and took more than half of our village's population, our spouses and children included."
"You had children?" I asked.
He nodded.
"A son, Bram. He was around your daughters' age when..."
He swallowed hard, not finishing the sentence.
"Oh Elijah! I'm so sorry!"
He looked at me, smiling faintly.
"It's alright, elskan. It has been over a millennium." His eyes traveled back to the window and into the distance.
"It was a difficult time for our family. Our eldest brother, Finn, lost all three of his children. He had already been a widower at that time, his wife had died during childbirth a few years ago. I had to sent off my wife and my son, Niklaus his wife and three month old daughter and our younger sister Rebekah had to bury her husband while carrying his child under her heart. Our remaining two brothers Kol and Henrik were the only ones without family of their own and thus had gotten off the lightest. This tragedy marked the beginning of the end of our human lives."
He paused and we sat together in silence for a while, Elijah and Klaus lost in thoughts (or memories) and Jenna and I nipped on our wine glasses, silently processing everything Elijah had told us this far.
Klaus was the one who continued the story.
"In close proximity to our village, a pack of werewolves were housing in caves. Ever since we were little, our mother had warned us not to get too close to those beasts. She was a powerful witch you must know."
He grimaced slightly at the mention of his mother.
"We could hear them howling in the woods every month at full moon and I, well, got curious. Something had always drawn me to them and after the plague had taken my wife and my sweet little girl from me, I was more than ever in need of a distraction. So at the next full moon, I decided to sneak out of the village to watch them transform into wolves. Our youngest brother Henrik convinced me to take him with me."
"Can't imagine that having gone particularly well," Jenna mumbled darkly, bristling.
Klaus looked at her, a sadness and guilt flashing across his face.
"It didn't. That night I had to pay a high price for my curiosity and foolishness. The werewolves discovered us and took Henrik's life."
Jenna and I stared at him in shock.
"Mother tried to save him with her magic but it was already too late. At sunrise, we buried our youngest brother, barely a lad of fourteen years. His whole life in front of him and then he had been gone, taken from this world due to my own foolish curiosity. I had killed my own brother."
I shook my head.
"Klaus, no, you didn't kill your brother. Those werewolves did," I said . "Yes, getting so close to them had been an incredibly stupid idea, but Henrik didn't die at your hands and I won't allow you to continue thinking that."
He gave me a pained smile.
"Your kind words are very touching, love, but Henrik's death is a burden I will carry forever with me."
He downed his bourbon.
"After Henrik's death, mother was worried she would lose the rest of her children as well, so she went to the witch Ayana to ask her for help. Ayana gave her a spell, a powerful spell that would protect us from death and make us invincible. She warned mother that this spell would have consequences, terrible ones, but mother was desperate and thus ignored her warnings. One night, father brought us all out of our beds and herded us together. He and mother forced us to drink the blood of the first Petrova-Doppelgänger, Tatia, and then father used his sword to slit our throats, killing us one by one."
Jenna and I just stared at him, utterly speechless.
"When we woke up, we were incredibly hungry. But what we desired was not food, it was blood. Human blood. And thus, the first vampires were born."
"You are the first vampires?" Jenna asked, looking astounded.
Elijah nodded.
"We're the oldest vampires in the world. We are the Original family, and from us all vampires were created."
"Wow," she said, looking impressed. "That makes you some kind of royalty."
He chuckled.
"In a way, yes."
I looked at Klaus, frowning.
"But what does any of this have to do with the curse that has been placed on you, that you want to break?"
"Ah yes, the curse."
He looked at me.
"You do know how the werewolf curse is triggered, I take it?"
I nodded, wondering what werewolves had to do with his curse.
"When I made my first kill as a newly turned vampire, I triggered the werewolf curse."
"What?! B..but how?!"
He grimaced.
"Well, turns out our dear mother hadn't been such a faithful wife to father as we always thought. She had an affair. With a werewolf. My real father."
Jenna and I looked at each other and then at him.
"So that makes you what exactly? A vampire or a werewolf?" Jenna asked, confused.
It was Elijah who answered.
"He's both. A hybrid would be deadlier than any werewolf or vampire. Nature would not stand for such an imbalance of power. Therefore the witches, the servants of nature, saw to it that my brother's werewolf side would become dormant."
I looked at Klaus.
"That's the curse you want to break?"
He nodded.
I jumped to my feet, startling the others. My whole body was shaking with anger. No, not anger. Fury. I was seething.
"So what you're saying is that those judgy-ass witches punished Klaus for something he had absolute no control over, that they forcefully locked away a part of him for something that's not his fault?"
The wine glass in my hand shattered to pieces. Shards were cutting into my hand, but I barely felt the pain. The air began to hum as glowing crimson liquid dropped to the floor. It was a song I recognized, the same song from the night Jules and her pack had kidnapped Caroline and me.
"Klaus didn't choose to be turned into a vampire. He didn't choose to be born with the werewolf gene. They had no right!" I hissed.
I didn't even know why I was so angry. I just knew what those witches had done was a crime. A crime against nature. A crime against my people and our calling since the beginning of time. I felt incredibly insulted.
Jenna, Elijah and Klaus stared at me in shock. Klaus was the first one to awake from his shock paralysis. He walked to me, concern written on his face.
"Love, Darling..." He held out his hands toward me. "I'm incredibly touched to see you so angry on my behalf but please calm down. You're bleeding."
I shook my head.
"They had no right! Not in the name of nature. That's not how nature works at all. Everything that exists in this world exists for a reason. If your vampirism hasn't overwritten your werewolf genes, it means nature wants hybrids to exist. If nature didn't want vampires to exist, you would have stayed dead when your father slit your throats. Nature achieves balance naturally. The only way to upset it is to forcibly take something away. A true servant of nature doesn't judge. We leave that to the gods. Being a true servant of nature means to watch, to observe and preserve, to keep the wheel of fate and life turning. And that as only ever been my people's calling. It's insulting to see what those self-proclaimed 'servants of nature' have done with it!"
I didn't know where those words came from. They were just blurting out of my mouth but I felt the truth behind it.
Jenna, Elijah and Klaus continued to stare at me as though I've just grown a second head. I suddenly felt extremely exhausted, weak and dizzy and before I knew it, my body had fallen to the ground, unconscious.
"I already told you I don't know Klaus. I have never met him. He wasn't the one who turned me. I turned myself. So please Damon, please just let me go."
Andie screamed again in pain as her skin began to burn and sizzle in the sun that was streaming through the window. Damon and Stefan had chained her to a chair and positioned her right in front of the window in the Salvatore living room. Damon and Stefan let the curtains go and her skin stopped burning as they fell back in place, covering the window and keeping out the sunlight.
"You see, Andie, Stef and I could do this all day but I doubt you're going to last that long so why don't you start telling the truth, Hmm?", Damon said from his corner by the window.
Tears were streaming down Andie's face. Her burned skin had already healed thanks to her improved vampire healing but this whole torture left her mentally exhausted and near a breaking point.
"I already told you the truth, Damon," she cried. "What more do you want? Please, I just...I just want to go home."
He snorted.
"You mean this whole bullshit story about you using Elijah's blood to turn yourself and then coming back to undagger him because you wanted to make it up to Marianne?"
He walked up to her and put his hands on her chair's armrests, leaning closer. She leaned back, jerking her head to the side, her whole body shivering in fear and panic.
"How stupid do you think I am? First of all, who the hell turns themself into a vampire and second, Elijah compelled Marianne. If you really wanted to make it up to her, you would have left him daggered. Do you know what I think? I think Klaus somehow got his hands on you, turned you and is using you to spy on us."
Andie shook her head,
"No! That's not true! I've told you! I've never met Klaus!"
He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"You see, Andie, that's the problem. I don't believe you. So you better start speaking or you're going straight back on the barbecue grill."
"Damon..." Stefan shifted from one foot to the other uncomfortably. "What if she's telling the truth? Then we're torturing her for no reason."
Damon turned around to his brother, giving him an indignant look.
"What? You believe her story? Come on, Stefan. You can't be that naive."
Elena walked into the room, handing Damon a silver ring with a lapis lazuli stone.
"Here. Jeremy just dropped this off. Bonnie wants me to tell you she's giving you twenty four hours until she'll turn off the ring. Not a minute more."
He snatched the ring.
"That's more than enough time. Give witchy my thanks."
Elena looked at Andie, guilt flashing across her face. She didn't like that they had to torture her but they were out of options at this point. She looked back at Damon.
"Does she know anything about who could have taken Marianne and Jenna?"
Damon looked at her, rolling his eyes.
"That's pretty obvious. It was Klaus of course. Who else? The only question is where he's keeping them."
He walked to Andie, grabbed her hand and pulled the temporary daylight ring Bonnie had made for her on her ring finger before removing her chains and grabbing her arm, pulling her up from the chair.
"And that's for us two to find out. Now come. Time to meet an old friend."
At Alaric's residence, Katherine was making coffee in the kitchen as Klaus is accompanying Maddox to the door.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Maddox promised him.
"Yes, do hurry. I'm anxious to get out of this body. And if you get hung up, call me. You know how impatient I get," Klaus said.
Maddox left with one last nod and Klaus closed the door.
"Where is he going?" Katherine asked, holding out a cup of coffee to Klaus. He shook his head, declining. He would brunch with his mate later on.
"To retrieve me. So I can get out of this bad hair-do,"
She looked at him skeptically.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Klaus?"
"Well, the full moon is almost upon us," he said, placing the moonstone on the table. "I've killed the witch, I have the moon stone, and the doppelgänger is waiting in the wings." He sighed. "Ohh, I am ready to break this curse."
"And why would you do that here? There's so many people that would try to stop you."
He shrugged.
"Because I have to. It's the birthplace of the doppelgänger."
She raised her eyebrow.
"I didn't realize that was a requirement."
He turned around to face her.
"Well, how could you? You betrayed me and fled England before I could give you the details, Katerina." A devilish smirk tucked on his lips. "But I did find your birthplace and I slaughtered your family. So I guess we're cool. Let's just hope that Elena isn't as stupid as you were."
"She won't run," Katherine assured him. "She'll die before she lets anyone that she loves get hurt."
He walked up to her, grinning.
"And that's exactly what I'm counting on."
He leaned closer to her to compel her.
"You can't leave until I tell you to."
Then he left, eager to see his mate again.
After Klaus had left Alaric's apartment, Katherine searched through Alaric's cupboard to find his secret alcohol stash. A satisfactory smile appeared on her lips as she found one last untouched bourbon bottle. Before she could open it though, the apartment's front door opened, revealing Damon - and slightly behind him a terrified Andie. Damon tried to enter put was held back by an invisible barrier. He looked at Katherine and grimaced.
"Thought you might be dead."
He looked slightly disappointed.
"Unfortunately not," Katherine answered and then frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"I figured you still might be kicking. Alaric-Klaus was blending way too easily. Figured he probably had some coaching."
He pulled out a phial from his pocket, showing it to her. Katherine eyed it excitingly.
"Is that...?"
"Vervain? Your salvation."
"It's not going to undo anything," she told him.
"There's always a loophole. Did he tell you to stay in this apartment until he said it was okay to leave?"
She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.
"You can't say," Damon stated. "Did he tell you to do absolutely everything he says until the end of time?"
"No," Katherine said, horrified at the thought.
Damon grinned.
"There's your loophole. Drink this and it'll prevent any further compulsion."
Katherine went to snatch the phial from him but was held back at the threshold. She gave him a pleading look.
"Give it to me."
He gave her a serious look.
"Answer one question first. You double-crossed us with Isobel, why?"
She shrugged, not looking guilty in the least.
"I didn't think you could stand a chance against Klaus, so I was looking out for myself."
Damon shook his head at her.
"And where did that get you? Here." He tossed her the phial of vervain. "Be careful with that. If he finds out you have that, you're never getting out of here."
She opened the phial and eagerly downed its content, coughing as the vervain entered her system.
"You owe me. And I will collect," Damon threatened before grabbing Andie's arm and pulling her forward. "One last thing. Klaus' little helper here, what do you know of her?"
Katherine looked at Andie, unimpressed.
"Who is this? I've never seen her before."
Damon frowned.
"You really haven't seen her before?"
Katherine nodded.
"I have no idea who she is. But then again, I don't know all of Klaus' people so me not knowing her doesn't say much."
"When Klaus comes back, tell him if he wants his spy back he should bring Marianne and Jenna to the Boarding House by tomorrow morning."
Katherine snorted.
"Klaus has many spies. He won't miss that one."
"Well, if he doesn't give us Marianne and Jenna back I'm going to kill her, so... "
Katherine sighed.
"I'll tell him. But don't be too disappointed when your little hostage exchange plan won't work. Klaus doesn't like people telling him what to do."
Damon rolled his eyes at her.
"Just tell him. Andie Star in exchange for Marianne and Jenna. If he doesn't give them back by tomorrow morning, he can collect his spy's ashes from the street."
He grabbed Andie by the arm and left.
When Klaus returned a few hours later, Katherine was happily dancing through the apartment and drinking from the bottle of bourbon. As soon as she heard him approaching, she stopped dancing and sat back down on the chair obediently. Klaus entered the apartment, looking at her.
"You mind turning that down?"
She grabbed the remote to turn down the music.
"Why so grumpy?"
"I'm just eager to return to my own body. Being stuck in the body of my mate's best friend's ex-boyfriend is less than ideal. She's all cuddly with Elijah, but refuses to touch me," he grumbled, remembering all too well how Marianne had refused his embrace, claiming it would make her feel as though she was betraying Jenna.
She looked at him with feigned sympathy.
"Ooh. Poor little Klaus got rejected by his mate."
He growled at her.
"She rejected him, not me. And now sit down, Katerina and shut up."
The moment she sat back down on the couch, the door opened and Maddox walked through. Klaus gave him an exasperated look.
"Maddox, what took you so long?"
The warlock shrugged.
"You've got a lot of luggage."
Two men entered with his luggage, followed by a dark-skinned woman.
"Greta. Finally!" Klaus called as he saw her.
She grinned at him.
"Hello, love. What do I hear about you having found your mate? Congratulations!"
"Yes, a mate who refuses to touch me while I'm stuck in this body," he mumbles darkly.
The witch laughed.
"Well, that's a problem we can solve very easily."
She walked further into the apartment. Behind her, two more men walked through the door, carrying a giant wooden box.
A few minutes later everything was prepared for the body exchange. Maddox and Greta had placed candles in a circle around them while they knelt on the floor, eyes closed, casting the spell that would get Klaus back into his own body.
"Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Uenes Phasmatos Et Sonos. Ex Tutam Exum Lamia Matus."
Suddenly Alaric seemed to regain control of his body. He looked around, confused, until he spotted Katherine sitting on the couch. He frowned.
"Elena?"
Then in the next moment, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
When Maddox and Greta had finished their spell, Maddox stood up, walking to the giant wooden box in the middle of the room. He opened it and a blonde man stepped out, looking at Alaric's body on the ground. His lips curved up into a satisfied smirk.
"Now that's more like it."
We'll come back to this when she officially appears in a few chapters, but just in case you're wondering: Yes, poor Rebekah lost her baby when she transformed into a vampire (it died with her when Mikael slit her throat).