~Two days later
"Ugh..."
My head was pounding worse then ever, my throat was dry and my nausea had returned at full force. When my eyes flickered open, there was one light, in the corner of the room, and even that was enough to burn my eyes and make them roll back into my skull.
"Ugh..." I repeated, forcing through the fog and haze of my brain to try and figure out where I was, why I was there and, more importantly, how I got out.
Suddenly, my eyes shot open. My body jarred and I sat bolt right up, breathing heavily like I was getting ready to run, my hands clenched over the covers. They'd drugged me, they'd drugged me!
As I got over the initial anger over it, I forced myself to think calmly and rationally but, I have to admit, it wasn't easy. Why in the Gods name had they drugged me? Where had they taken me? Esther had said something about making the right decisions for everybody...
"I see you're awake."
I didn't flinch away from the voice, the voice I knew so well, because I had been replaying it over and over in my mind for two days now. I stayed, looking at the wall opposite me in the gloom, and the only movement I made was to wrap the covers more firmly around me.
Klaus's laughter was dark.
"Come now, don't be shy."
I crossed my arms over my chest and kept my head facing forward.
"What am I doing here?" I finally demanded.
"Where's Esther?"
I heard the sound of a book slam shut and Klaus stretched his legs as he stood up from the wooden chair.
"God, I've been waiting a long time for you to wake up." He told me instead, approaching me.
"Where is Esther? What did she do to me?" I repeated firmly, determinately not staring at him.
Suddenly, a cold hand was clutching my face and Klaus turned my face towards him. He was very near to me.
"Why do you wish to keep my child from me?" He hissed in my face.
I glared at him, right into his eyes.
"It's my child too." I reminded him. "And I had no wish to see it harmed through your impulsiveness and power-hungry attitude."
"That was not your decision to make!" He roared suddenly in my face.
I don't know the exact moment my power came to me. I felt it snap in my stomach, felt it boil and simmer through my veins, felt it take hold of my body once more and release in its rightful place.
"It was." I shouted at him and flung my hands out, forcing a gust of wind to come to my aid. He was pulled off of me in an instant, and his face showed utter shock as the wind took hold of him and tossed him across the room. He was eventually pinned to the wall and made to stay there as I staggered out of the bed, approaching him on weak limbs.
"Now, you listen, and you listen well." I didn't want to come too close to him because my power might not have returned to full strength and he might still get free. "It is not your decision about where the child— the child that resides in my body, might I add— goes or whether or not it has your influence. I knew for a fact that there was only so many mistakes you could live with before you snapped. Your temper is legendary. And I couldn't have me, my family or my baby hurt."
He stopped struggling for a minute, and his eyes lit up as he took in my face. He smiled slightly.
"Its my baby too." He reminded me, but I could tell his heart wasn't really in it.
"You have another baby, a daughter, which is currently living. I think that will be hard enough for you to handle. You don't need another one."
We stared at each other for a while, facing each other down, adrenaline and magic pumping through my veins that kept me from falling down or throwing up.
"Now, I'll ask you again. Where is Esther?" Each word I said was carefully enunciated and drawn out, emphasised.
"She's dead. I killed her again."
"Damn it I wanted to kill her." I exclaimed.
Klaus shrugged, and my magic pinned him tighter to the wall.
"Sorry, Love. Maybe you can kill her little assistant." He said.
"Oh, I know. Thats why I'm going to walk out of that door and go home."
"Oh, I don't think thats whats going to happen at all, Love."
Suddenly, my magic no longer held him. And without my magic doing something, my own bodys strength left me. As I started to collapse towards the floor, I felt his arm wrap around my waist and catch me before I hit the hard surface. His face was surprisingly warm to look at, his touch gentle and tender, his voice full of softness.
"You see," He started conversationally, lifting me up in his arms bridal style and starting towards the bed. "You're carrying my baby. And that makes you mine."
And I was dropped on the bed.
~oOo~
The brunette werewolf eyed me as I stumbled into the kitchen, Klaus's arm wrapped around my waist for support despite the fact I kept trying to tug away from him. She was eating something out of the bowel, and with a little girl next to her.
"You must be the virgin vampire." The werewolf lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes on me.
I gave her a small smile.
"And you must be the werewolf turned hybrid."
Klaus kept his arm around me as he placed me in one of the chairs, and when he finally released my waist he put a hand on my shoulder, his fingers biting painfully into the skin he found there.
"Now, now, Hailey. We'll have none of that jealousy. Our virgin vampire here has made it quite clear that this pregnancy...was of no consequence to her and was, in fact, a terrible mistake."
Hailey tossed her hair and shifted a little, giving me a small, conspiratorial smile.
Klaus slowly moved away from me, going towards cupboards and clattering things about. "You'll have the food Hailey used to eat. She reliably informs me it keeps the nausea away."
Hailey hopped down from her stool and walked across to me in her bare feet. I could tell I would like her, from her sassy attitude and the way she observed Klaus.
"It really does. Trust me, I used to throw up a lot. So much so that Klaus actually put my bed in the bathroom at one point just to stop me from disturbing him as I ran across the landing to get to the toilet in time. So eventually, I went to this witch and she gave me some powder stuff which you sprinkle on your food to stop you feeling so nauseas. It's a miracle, really." She presented her hand to me to be shaken. "If our children are going to be half siblings, we may as well know each others names. And get along, I suppose. I'm Hailey."
I considered for a moment whether to take her hand. I had no intention of staying. Was it really worth making a friend here, just to abandon them?
Suddenly, Klaus was knelt behind me, his lips at my ear.
"You might as well make a friend, Love." His breath fanned my head, forcing me to repress a shiver. "You'll be here for a while, and I'll be keeping a very close eye on you.
With that threat still fresh in my mind, and Hailey's expectant face staring at me, I forced myself to slip my hand into hers, keeping my face blank.
"Jane." I finally admitted reluctantly. "Of the VILLANUEVA Coven."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Jane." Hailey pumped my hand as Klaus set a bowel of cereal in front of me with what looked to be sugar sprinkled over it.
"Eat." He ordered me. "We have a lot to do today and you throwing up will only hinder us."
I dipped my spoon into the bowel, aware of Hailey watching me with a smile and Klaus's hand back on my shoulder.
"You're damn right we have a lot to do today."
Another voice echoed in the kitchen, and my spoon clattered into the bowel as I looked up, startled. How had I not sensed her, this blonde woman who now stood, with her leg cocked, in the doorway? This pregnancy was messing up me. Not only had I not sensed her, the moment I'd heard her voice it had startled me, and something looking extremely expensive from across the kitchen exploded.
Klaus sighed.
"Rebekah, would you mind not scaring the pregnant vampire?" He asked with a tense sort of patience. "That was one of my favourite antiques."
"Whatever." The blonde woman, Rebekah, stepped into the room. She clearly didn't care about Klaus's stuff, but her eyes lit up when she saw me. "It's nice to meet you!" She flew across the room and stopped just as she caught herself on the table. I jerked back, even though I had been expecting it, and another thing exploded. So this was the Originals famous sister.
"Rebekah." Klaus warned, but she paid him no attention.
"It's nice to meet you, there are so many rumours and legends about you!" Her smile was nice, the manner in which she treated Klaus made me laugh, and the excitement she showed over meeting me was bewildering.
"Um, thanks?" I asked.
"Rebekah, you were telling us something?" Klaus prompted when it looking like Rebekah was going to start babbling about what she'd heard about me. "About what we have to do today? And it better not be one of your idiotic schemes."
Rebekah looked up at him with a bright, beaming smile on her face, and Klaus's hand tightened on my shoulder. Hailey and Hope covered their mouth to muffle a giggle and Klaus glared at them.
"Oh, its not." Rebekah assured him with a grin.
Klaus groaned.
"How did I end up in a house full of females?" He demanded to know.
Rebekah shrugged one delicate shoulder.
"Now, then, little sister. What exactly have you got planned for us today?"
Rebekah's grin widened.
"Now telling you that, big brother." She started. "Would ruin the surprise."