"He's calling Davina," Caroline states, rather unnecessarily since Stefan is listening to what is happening in the entrance hall just as intently as she is.
"And Elijah's calling the witches," he points out just as needlessly.
"This means it's safe to go downstairs, right?"
It has to be, since the originals wouldn't be moving on to the next phase of their plan unless they were sure the first threat was eliminated.
"I wouldn't do that, Care. I think we'd better stay here for the time being."
Before she can protest or ask for an explanation, she hears Klaus' voice coming from downstairs, clearer than when he was talking on the phone.
"He's right, sweetheart." And then the hybrid is standing before her, his sudden appearance making her jump. "You don't want to see this."
She opens her mouth to object, but then she takes a good look at him, something she didn't take the time to do when he came up while Marcel's vampires were attacking them, and she notices the blood that covers him from head to toe. He looks like he's been bathing in it, clothes and all, and she scrunches her nose as the reality of exactly how many mutilated bodies are downstairs finally hits her. Maybe they're right. Maybe she doesn't want to see it. Just because she knew going in how bad it was going to get doesn't mean that she's ready to actually face this sight.
However, it sort of feels like taking a coward's way out, leaving the dirty work to others and blissfully ignoring the consequences.
Her internal struggle must be written all over her face, because Klaus motions for Stefan to leave them, and once they're alone, he takes a step towards her and raises his hand to stroke her cheek. She feels something sticky on his fingers and can't help but flinch when she realizes what it is. She doesn't have anything against blood – it would be pretty inconvenient considering what she is – but this is different. It's not the blood itself, it's what it means, how many different people it belonged to. She knows that they had to die, that she and Klaus and his family and Stefan would never have been safe otherwise, but that's still a lot of blood.
Her reaction doesn't go unnoticed, and Klaus comments knowingly, "Exactly."
"Yeah, okay," she concedes, taking a deep breath. "I may not be ready for this."
"I know. Don't overthink this, love. You don't owe them anything, and you don't need to prove anything to anyone."
She lets out a strangled laugh, making him raise an eyebrow in question.
"This is going to get really annoying, really fast."
"What is?"
"You reading my mind."
"Is it, really?" he counters, smiling.
Okay, so sometimes, it's kind of nice, but she's not about to tell him that, he's smug enough as it is. Instead, she decides to change the subject and to ask about Davina since she didn't listen to the whole conversation.
"What did Davina say when you told her to come for Marcel?"
"She said she'd be here in a few minutes. But as you know, she's going to be delayed. The witches are about to start, she should start growing weaker any moment now. But she will make her way here eventually."
Caroline nods. They're counting on Davina's devotion to Marcel to help her push through the special brand of torture the witches are going to subject her to.
They know that Davina was the one who felt it whenever someone performed a spell within the city limits and that she always warned Marcel so that he could control the witches, and they've decided to use this power against her. They want to overwhelm her with so many spells coming from different locations that she will be distracted and disoriented at first and, as the number of spells – along with their complexity and intensity – grows, weakened. This way, she will be less dangerous once she gets here for what she will think is her chance to rescue Marcel, but will really be her execution.
Elijah has been planning this for a while, since before Klaus turned his humanity back on. He's always kept in touch with a rather impressive network of witches, some he's actually friendly with, others he could blackmail, threaten or negotiate with, and for the past few weeks, he's been contacting them, telling them to be ready to come to New Orleans at a moment's notice, since Sophie Devereaux and her friends will need reinforcements for this part of the plan. When Pierre told them what really happened to Lyam, Elijah realized that the final confrontation was coming and he rallied everyone. Witches from all over the world have been staying on the outskirts of town waiting for his signal. The one he just sent them.
To be honest, Caroline is pretty sure that even those who don't particularly like the original or his methods agreed to come willingly once he told them how Marcel has been treating the New Orleans coven, eager to help free their fellow witches. She's also pretty sure he told them that they only want to subdue Davina, as most witches would balk at the idea of helping kill one of their own, but she's decided not to dwell on this. Elijah knows what he's doing.
"Okay, good," she says at last, and, after a pointed onceover, "Aren't you going to, you know, make yourself look presentable?"
"No," Klaus answers simply.
Her confused frown only lasts for a second before she understands the reasoning behind his decision.
"You want her to see you like this, to realize how lethal you are."
"Yes. I also want her to see the carnage downstairs, so we won't be cleaning it up until after she's been taken care of. Which means you're going to have to stay here for a little while."
"Don't want me to see you killing her, do you?" she asks knowingly.
"This is going to get really annoying, really fast," he shoots back, and she can't help but laugh.
A knock on the open door makes Klaus roll his eyes and they both turn to see Rebekah standing in the doorway.
"I hear there's a Jason here I need to take care of."
"He's in the bathroom."
The blonde original gives her a curt nod and makes a move to step over one of the three vampires Stefan killed, but Caroline stops her with a hand placed on her forearm, and Rebekah narrows her eyes at her, annoyed at the interruption.
"What?"
"Thank you." Rebekah's eyebrows shoot up in surprise and confusion, and Caroline explains, "After what we did to you, you had every right to be mad and to let us deal with this alone. Thanks for staying."
There's a stunned silence, followed by the first moment of embarrassment Caroline has ever witnessed from the other girl.
"Huh, yes, well, I never say no to a good slaughter." Clearing her throat and shaking her head with something closely resembling awe, she turns rather abruptly towards her brother and says bluntly, "You picked the strangest girl to fall for, Nik."
Klaus just smirks in agreement, and Rebekah gives Caroline a tentative smile before disappearing into the bathroom and emerging a second later with Jason carelessly thrown over her shoulder. Once she's left the room, Caroline turns to the hybrid, but the sound of footsteps approaching cuts her question short before she's even uttered the first word. A girl she's never seen before gives them a little wave and Klaus motions for her to come in. Caroline takes in the loose-fitting clothes, earthy colors and hoop earrings as well as the young, anxious face, the lips set into a thin line and the brown hair held back by a headscarf, and she knows from Elijah's description back when she was emotionless who she's dealing with. Klaus deems it necessary to introduce her anyway, either out of politeness or because he really doesn't know how much she knows about their visitor.
"Caroline, meet Sophie Devereaux. Sophie, Caroline Forbes."
The girl holds out her hand, and Caroline can feel her appraising her as she shakes it. She returns the silent assessment with one of her own and a challengingly raised eyebrow, her posture straightening almost imperceptibly as her inner queen bee makes itself known, and she thinks she can see Sophie's lips twitch up ever so slightly as she lets go of her hand.
"It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you. We all have."
"Only bad things, I assume," Caroline replies.
"Mostly, yeah."
This was to be expected. The first time this coven heard about her must have been when she was emotionless and turned Cami against her will. Not a great first impression. Plus she's Klaus' – what? Girlfriend? They really need to come up with a more appropriate term – and while the New Orleans witches have readily admitted to needing him, they certainly don't trust or like him.
"We'll see what we can do about that. In the meantime, would you mind telling me what you're doing here?"
"Right," Sophie says, shaking herself out of her evaluation of the young vampire. "I've been told this room is in dire need of a privacy spell."
A surprised laugh escapes her and she turns to Klaus, who just shrugs at her wordless question. One day, she's going to get used to the way he can anticipate her wishes, but it's probably not going to be anytime soon. Although this request might be as much for himself as it is for her. He doesn't get nearly as embarrassed as she does when the others can hear them having sex, but having to wait until the mansion is empty before they can have any kind of private conversation is rather irksome. That's the kind of intimacy he's not willing to share with his siblings.
"This is Caroline's room," Klaus interjects even though they both know that she's pretty much officially moved to his since they came back from Peru. "Mine will need one as well."
"And I'd be eternally grateful if you could put one on Rebekah's and Stefan's too," Caroline adds, deciding to take advantage of this opportunity, because there are some things that she really doesn't need to know about her best friend.
Sophie cocks an eyebrow.
"Well, as long as I'm here, I might as well just sound-proof every room in this place."
"The bedrooms will do," Klaus counters. "It is rather handy being able to hear what's happening everywhere else."
"Okay, I'll get to work."
"Wait," Caroline says. "Isn't it dangerous? With, you know..."
Klaus shakes his head.
"We want Davina to feel magic coming from the mansion. There's a risk that the others' spells will overwhelm her so much that she'll forget where she was going in the first place. That's the main reason why I asked Sophie to do this now. Feeling someone performing magic here will set Davina back on the right track."
"But it could scare her off. Knowing that there's a witch here, she could think that it'll be too much for her."
"She's too confident in her own power for it to matter," Sophie says. "Besides, she worships Marcel, and the alternative is leaving him in the Mikaelsons' hands. She won't do that."
Caroline considers this for a minute, turning to Klaus for confirmation. His nod is all she needs. Seeing that the issue is solved, Sophie shows them the bag of ingredients she brought with her.
"Now, if you don't mind, I'd rather be alone to do this."
Caroline holds back a snort. If that girl thinks that Klaus is going to let her put a spell on her room without making sure that she's doing what he asked and nothing else, she hasn't dealt with him enough.
Predictably, the hybrid's retort is a firm "We'll stay, if it's all the same to you," that bears no argument.
"Fine," is Sophie's irritated response. "But not a word. I need to focus. I haven't done this in way too long."
Klaus nods silently and leads Caroline to a corner of the room while Sophie sits cross-legged on the floor and starts placing various objects around her.
A few minutes later, she tells them that she's done, and Klaus leaves the room just long enough to make sure he can't hear the two women talking inside.
"Nice work," he praises when he comes back, even going so far as to grace the witch with a smile.
"It doesn't work both ways," Caroline notes. "I can still hear what's going on outside."
One look at Klaus tells her that this was the intent – for safety purposes she assumes – and she relaxes. Sophie leaves, closing the door behind her, and Caroline hears her talking to Elijah outside, the eldest original taking her to his brother's bedroom, no doubt so that he can keep an eye on what she's doing while Klaus stays here waiting for the moment when he'll have to confront Davina. Once they're alone, Caroline beams at him, her eyes twinkling with mischief, happy with this new development.
"Oh, the possibilities," she comments, purposely running her tongue along her bottom lip.
She has no idea how his eyes can simultaneously darken with lust at the gesture and light up with mirth at her words, but he pulls it off.
"I hate to break it to you, love, but you never exactly held back even without the privacy spell."
She wraps her arms around his neck and presses her body to his in the most delicious way, ignoring the blood covering him as she brings her lips to his ear so that she can murmur, "You're only saying that because you don't know what I'm like when I'm really not holding back."
This draws a low groan out of him and she laughs at his reaction. He could counter her argument, remind her of Peru or of their countless times while they were emotionless, but it's not the same. Sex with their emotions on and definitely healthier than they were back in the secluded cabin is different and they're both aware of it.
"Now that's just cruel," he says, and if she didn't know any better, she'd say that the thousand-year-old original hybrid is pouting. The thought sends her into another fit of giggles as he elaborates, "We both know I can't do anything about this intriguing statement until Davina is out of the picture." Before she can reply with more teasing, his phone rings, and when he takes it out of his pocket and sees the name flashing across the screen, he turns serious, takes a step back, and tells her, "Which might be sooner rather than later. Yes?" he says into the phone, his tone now all businesslike, and Caroline focuses her hearing to catch the words of the witch that was chosen to keep him informed.
"She's coming to you. I'm not sure how much we've managed to weaken her, she still seems pretty pissed off."
"Keep it up," Klaus commands, "And don't stop until either I or Elijah calls you back."
He hangs up without waiting for an answer.
"Showtime?" Caroline asks a little shakily, the nameless witch's warning having succeeded in reviving her worries.
"It would appear so. I'll send Stefan back up here."
Both for her protection and so that Davina can't use him to try and distract Rebekah, she knows. Her best friend and the original sister haven't exactly kept their relationship secret, and the witch could try to take advantage of it.
"Be careful, okay?"
"Don't worry about me."
"Right," she scoffs. "Then don't worry about me."
He rolls his eyes but concedes her point with a nod. A few seconds later, he's gone and Stefan is there, looking at her with a forced smile that does nothing to hide his own concern.
"Cheer up, Care. It's almost over."
"Exactly how powerful do you think she is?" Rebekah asks her brothers as they're all waiting amid the mutilated bodies near the main staircase, Marcel's limp form held upright with one of Elijah's hands wrapped around his throat, his feet barely touching the ground.
"Enough to cause some trouble if she wants to," Klaus replies, the warning he just received echoing in his mind. There are dozens of powerful witches performing spells all over the city, the fact that Davina is still aware enough of her surroundings to know that she's supposed to be mad is worrisome. "But not enough to overpower the three of us."
"Are you sure about that?" Elijah wonders.
"If she was strong enough to take us out, Marcel would have used her against us long ago."
Unless Marcel himself underestimated her, but he keeps that particular thought to himself, as saying it out loud won't accomplish anything. His words seem to placate his siblings, and they wait in silence until a small silhouette finally appears in the space where the door used to be. The girl looks older than she really is, her shoulders are hunched in exhaustion, and her eyes are wide and terrified, but there's an undeniable defiance in her posture, in the way her fists are clenched by her sides and her muscles are so taunt she may start shaking any moment.
"Davina," Klaus says pleasantly, taking a step towards her. "So nice of you to join us. Please, come in."
She doesn't, just stays standing by the doorframe, her eyes darting around until they finally rest on Marcel and her expression hardens, though Klaus thinks that it may have more to do with the headache caused by the continuous spells than with her concern for the fallen king.
"He's fine, don't worry," Elijah promises her, and Rebekah adds a vicious, "For now."
Davina's voice is low and threatening when she asks, "What do you want?"
"A truce. What else?" Klaus lies.
Her gaze darts to him for a second before going back to Marcel.
"We had a truce," she reminds him. "And then you killed Cami."
"Yes. An unfortunate incident," the hybrid admits, not bothering to correct her statement, neither to tell her the truth nor to reestablish the right version of the lie. Technically, it was Rebekah who 'killed' Cami, not him, but that's not important right now. What is important is goading her into letting her guard down, and he knows exactly how to do that. "But I'm sure you won't miss her that much. Marcel's heart can be all yours now. Provided you take the decision that will allow it to stay inside his body."
While he does have strong suspicions, he can't be sure that Davina's feelings for Marcel really do lean towards the romantic side, but it doesn't matter. Either they do and the threat on his life will break her control, or they don't and the mere suggestion that she should be glad about Cami's death will do the trick.
If there's one thing he's good at, it's pushing the right buttons.
To no one's surprise, it works, and the next few motions all happen in a flash. Incensed, the witch focuses all of her attention on him, disregarding Elijah and Rebekah's presence. Rebekah takes advantage of this opening they were waiting for and vamp-speeds towards Davina, intent on finishing her off while she's distracted, but before any of them can really comprehend what is happening, his sister finds herself flung across the room and slammed against a wall by an invisible force, unable to move. She opens her mouth to protest, but nothing comes out, and Klaus narrows his eyes, his jaw set in annoyance. Clearly, his contact was right. Davina is not as weak as he was hoping for.
Fortunately, this scenario is one they anticipated and Elijah's reaction is immediate. He plunges his hand into Marcel's chest and calls the witch's attention to him.
"Release her," he commands, his voice even and polite.
"Or what?" Davina hisses. "You'll kill him? That was always the plan anyway, wasn't it?"
Well, she's more astute than he gave her credit for, Klaus thinks, before taking matters into his own hands.
"And if it was? What are you going to do about it? Kill us?"
"Why not?" Davina replies with conviction.
Klaus doesn't get a chance to mock her self-confidence or to remind her that even if she did manage to kill his indestructible siblings, his demise would be followed by Marcel's. He feels his head explode with pain and he has to raise his hands to his temples to try and keep it at bay. He hears Elijah's groan next to him and knows that he feels it too. He's honestly impressed to note that his brother hasn't released Marcel from his grip yet, because he sure as hell needs to focus all his energy on staying upright. Moving doesn't seem to be an option anymore, and even as he tries with all his might to break through the immobilization spell, he knows that it's useless.
It's excruciating, but logically, in the corner of his mind that's still able to think despite the thousand blades that are repeatedly piercing his skull, he's not too worried. No matter how powerful, no witch can keep up this kind of spell for very long on her own, not on regular vampires, and certainly not on three originals at once. He doesn't know what Davina thinks she's doing, but she'll have to release them soon.
As soon as the thought enters his mind, the sound of someone muttering something barely intelligible over and over breaks through the violent throbbing in his head and he suddenly understands. He knows enough about magic to recognize some of the words.
She's calling something to her. Something small and close, if he's not mistaken.
She intends to keep them still long enough to try and get what she needs. The only problem is that he has no idea what she thinks will help her or why she didn't bring it with her in the first place.
Then it hits him. He knows it can't be a white oak stake, because if they'd had access to one, Marcel would have used it instead of bringing a fake. But there is something else that can be useful against original vampires.
And though his head still feels like it's about to burst and his muscles are still stubbornly refusing to obey him, Klaus gives a mental smirk. The girl is good at thinking on her feet, he'll give her that, but she's underestimating him. If she thinks he kept the daggers close by when he knew how many enemies were eventually going to raid his mansion and could have stumbled upon them, she's sorely mistaken. You don't survive for ten centuries by leaving things like that to chance.
Davina's concentration seems to falter when she realizes her mistake, when she sees that nothing is coming, the weapons out of reach even for her particularly powerful brand of magic. Klaus feels the unbearable pain receding for a second before it comes back with a vengeance, the girl now desperate enough to risk exhausting herself while she tries to come up with another plan. Her mutterings get louder, and he realizes that she thinks she will manage to get the daggers if she just tries hard enough.
"Bekah!"
The shout makes next to no sense to his foggy mind, the voice unrecognizable, but he forces his brain to work harder until something clicks and it manages to identify both the voice and the reason for the panic it conveyed.
Stefan.
He must have heard what was going on and come to Rebekah's rescue. Idiot. He's supposed to be protecting Caroline, not...
As suddenly as it came, the throbbing stops, putting an abrupt end to his thought process.
Klaus falls to his knees at the unexpected relief and no less unexpected freedom, unable to grasp what just happened or even to tell with absolute certainty whether it's a good or a bad thing.
"Klaus? Klaus, talk to me. Hey. Can you hear me?"
He gives a weak nod, because yes, he can hear her and her concern is clear as day and he doesn't want her to worry, though for the briefest of moments he's not sure who 'her' is or why he doesn't want her to worry.
But then his blurry vision clears, and here she is, kneeling before him with one hand on his shoulder and the other clasping his chin in a vicious grip, trying to get him to look at her.
"Caroline."
She emits a strange sound that's caught halfway between a laugh and a sob, her smile shaky but as blinding as ever.
"You're alright. You're fine," she breathes a few times, evidently needing to convince herself. "You're fine."
"Davina?" he cuts her off because if she still poses a threat, they need to...
"Dead," Caroline says curtly.
That would explain why the headache vanished along with the invisible restraints. Taken aback, he scans the room for the body and finds it right where the witch was standing only a minute ago. His mind now clear, his muscles free of the magical prison, he manages to stand up, dimly noting that Stefan is helping Rebekah stay upright with one arm around her waist and that while Elijah is down on one knee, his head hung low, apparently needing a bit longer to recover, he did find the strength to rip Marcel's heart out before the end of the spells brought him down.
Good riddance.
Seeing that his family is essentially fine, Klaus walks over to Davina's lifeless form to get a better look. What he sees stuns him even more than the abruptness of the girl's death.
Broken neck.
This is nowhere near personal or painful enough for one of his siblings to have done it. He knows that, had they been able to move, Elijah or Rebekah would have gone straight for her heart, just like him.
Realization dawns on him and he snaps his gaze back to Caroline, his shock written all over his face.
"Did you..."
"Yeah," she nods before he can finish his question, and he can see her throat working hard as she tries to swallow back her guilt.
In two long strides, he's back by her side and he instinctively gathers her against him. All notions of control seem to desert her with an almost audible whoosh, and she falls apart in his arms, her tears mixing with the blood covering his clothes, oblivious to the rest of the world.
He suspects that what she just did is only part of the explanation for her breakdown. The release of so much tension after too many days waiting for this war to come to an end, the fact that she witnessed the scene here with the countless corpses at their feet, and her relief at finding him alive and well all seem to be playing a part in the sobs that she's stopped trying to hold back.
He has no idea how much time passes, but eventually he becomes aware of someone trying to catch his attention, and he looks over Caroline's head, noting with unmasked perplexity that his sister, now standing by herself, looks hesitant and – dare he say it? – sympathetic. And then Rebekah, the girl who would normally scoff and dismiss such a display of weakness, especially over one little, insignificant murder that they all know was necessary, addresses him in a soft, kind voice.
"Take her upstairs, Nik. We'll take care of things here."
A millennium's worth of trust issues has him narrowing his eyes at Rebekah in suspicion, but when he finds nothing but genuine concern for Caroline in her expression, he decides to take her up on her offer. After one look over at Stefan and at a fully recovered Elijah to confirm that they can handle everything without him for now, he gives Rebekah a nod, trying, despite his lack of experience in such matters, to convey his gratitude to her and, having read her understanding in her small answering smile, he lifts Caroline up and flashes up the stairs.
He doesn't set her back on her feet until they're in his bathroom, and even then she still clings to him, her fists grabbing handfuls of his shirt in her need to hold on to something. He pries her fingers open one by one and to his surprise, she lets him, though her hands stay up in the air once he's done, as if she doesn't quite know what to do with them. He delicately takes them in his and lowers them down by her sides.
Distantly, he hears Sophie ask the others what happened, but he doesn't pay attention to their explanations – though he does make a mental note to have a trustworthy witch check the spells Sophie put on their rooms while they were busy downstairs and she was unsupervised.
There are gaps in what he knows as well. He was only vaguely aware of what was happening while he was under Davina's spells – he's not even sure how long they lasted – and he really wants to know how Caroline ended up being the one to kill her, but for now, he has more pressing matters to attend to.
"Are you alright?" he asks softly, her silence worrying him.
She slowly raises her eyes to meet his and gives him a hesitant smile.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, not great... But yeah," she says again with more conviction and a firm nod. "It had to be done, right?"
He searches her face for a moment, trying to figure out if she's just putting on a brave face, but he finds nothing there but determination. It's not the first time she's had to kill to protect those she loves, and sadly, he'd be willing to bet that it won't be the last either. She will never like it, but she's learned how to deal with it.
"Right," he answers slowly.
"What was she doing to you? You looked like you were in agony. I thought..."
She doesn't tell him what she thought, but he doesn't need to hear the words to figure out how terrified she must have been if the only way out she could think of was to kill the girl herself.
"One of those nasty little aneurisms. And an immobilization spell."
"It didn't look little from where I was standing."
"No," he confirms. "It was worse, or I would have handled it better. Come on, love, I need a shower, and so do you," he adds, gesturing at her clothes and face, that are now almost as bloody as his after the time she spent in his embrace.
Honestly, he doesn't mind that much, but he knows that cleaning herself up will make her feel better. She nods absentmindedly but doesn't make a move to undress, so he ends up doing it for her before quickly getting rid of his own clothes and stepping under the spray with her. The sigh that falls from her lips when the water starts washing the blood away from her hair is pure relief and he gives her a half smile as he hands her her shampoo and shower gel. She sets about scrubbing herself clean vigorously while he does the same somewhat more calmly, keeping an eye on her but finding that she doesn't look like she's about to shatter. She just looks tired and sad, which is understandable.
Once they're both done, she snuggles against him and he wraps his arms around her without a word, sensing her need for physical comfort rather than spoken reassurance. One hand resting on the back of her head, the other on the small of her back, he sways them lightly from side to side, determined to let her have this for as long as she wants. Only when the water turns cold does she reluctantly disentangle herself from him and let him envelop her in a big, fluffy towel. While he dries himself off, he can see her casting a glance at their ruined clothes on the floor and he knows that she's wondering what to do with them. Eventually, she realizes that it doesn't need to be taken care of today and instead, she heads for the bedroom and goes straight to the closet to fish something out. Letting the towel fall, she slips one of his shirts over her head before giving him an almost shy look.
"It looks good on you," he comments quietly as he puts on some underwear.
He waits until she's done slipping into a pair of panties she dug out from the depths of the drawer she claimed a while ago before holding out his hand. She takes it and he leads her to the bed. In spite of their exhaustion, he doesn't think either of them will be able to sleep – he needs to think about what comes next, and if he knows her at all, she'll be busy replaying every single detail of the night in her mind – but just laying down wrapped around each other and savoring their victory sounds like the best idea he's had in years.
"It's over, right? For real? We can have, like, a couple of drama-free hours?"
Her small voice has him tightening his hold on her protectively even as the uncharacteristic – and unconvincing – pessimism makes him chuckle. They can have much more than that and he knows that she knows it. After all, it was part of the point. After such a show of force defeating what was considered to be one of the strongest groups of vampires in recent memory, not to mention an unnaturally powerful witch, no one will dare come after the original family for a while – his bet is a decade at least.
"Yes, it's over, I promise."
"Good. I'm not leaving this bed until 2021."
He shakes his head in amusement, knowing that she'll jump out of bed at the crack of dawn tomorrow when she hears Rebekah getting started on the preparations for the post-victory party he knows his sister is already planning.
"We'll see about that."
He can feel her stiffen slightly at his teasing tone, clearly wondering if he knows something that she doesn't, before she seems to decide that she doesn't care right now.
"Whatever. 'Night, Klaus."
"Goodnight, love."