CHAPTER ONE | THE BIRTHDAY
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BEING A VAMPIRE MEANT KLARA FELT EVERYTHING WITH A GREATER INTENSITY. The first human life that Klara Adams had ever taken took a toll on her both physically and mentally. She hated herself for what she had done to the poor innocent women in the warehouse, but that hate triggered her to want to learn to control herself better. She didn't want to be a slave to the scent of blood— she wanted to be better.
Controlling the bloodlust was never going to be an easy task and Klara knew that she had a hell of a long way to go if she wanted to be better at the vampire-thing, but she was improving. In the two months that they had been away from Mystic Falls, her bloodlust improved immeasurably.
Stefan noticed Klara's progress over the days, weeks, and months and he was proud, to say the least. It was not perfect, but considering they were on the road with a psychotic Hybrid who forced them to do the unspeakable, she was doing amazingly.
"This heat is driving me crazy." Klara sighed out once Klaus slammed the driver's door and headed toward the little house in the short distance that he had pulled up outside of. The blonde dipped her head between the two front seats and looked at Stefan, who sat in the passenger seat. "What's up?"
"Nothing." He lied. He missed home, they both did. But, it was no use dwelling on the past. They just needed to do whatever Klaus wanted to ensure Damon's life. "I'm just... hot."
Klara blew air from her mouth upwards so that it hit her face. It wasn't much use, but it was something to drown out the awful humidity they were faced with. "Why do you think he's been trailing werewolves this whole time? There's me thinking we were gonna be supernatural hitmen."
"You watch far too much TV." The Salvatore chuckled lightly toward his best friend, then he shrugged. "Uh. He probably wants to make more Hybrids." Klara grunted her breath that the thought of more creatures like Klaus. Hell on Earth. "You know that I'm proud of you, right?"
"Proud of me? What, for killing everyone that dick tells me to?" Klara scoffed quietly as her eyes laid back on Stefan.
"No. For dealing with this. All of it." Stefan lifted his hand up and brushed a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. "I just want to know that I— I think you're the strongest woman I have ever met."
Klara gently moved into his touch, but the sound of the screams that echoed from inside the house caused Stefan's hand to retract from Klara's face.
The two jumped out of the SUV, as if on cue, and headed up toward the house that Klaus had earlier entered. They knew what they were about to do, and they were both dreading it. Klara just had to think that she was one kill closer to her freedom.
Once Stefan and Klara reached the front door of the house, it swung open to reveal a woman. She halted and was stunned when her eyes connected with the two vampires on her doorstep. Klaus chuckled from behind her, he had a blonde within his grip. "I love it when they run."
The woman had no choice but to obey. She turned around from Stefan and Klara, to face Klaus. "He's in Tulley. It's near the border. A bar called Southern Comfort. It's off highway forty-one."
"Thank you, my love," Klaus spoke toward the woman. His eyes moved back to the blonde within his hold, he gently caressed her face as she whimpered. "Now, may my friends come in your home?"
The blonde nodded whilst a small cry left her lips. "Yes."
Stefan and Klara slowly made their way into the hallway, they knew they couldn't turn back now. "Kill this one quickly." Klaus pushed the blonde into Klara's hold, while his eyes gestured to the woman he tried to run. "Make that one suffer. I'll be in the car."
Klara dusted the blonde's hair from her neck and focused on her jugular. The beat of her heart began to increase as she struggled to control herself. She could hear the distant cries of Stefan's victim, while she focused on her own. Klara finally lifted her hand up toward the girl's neck and gripped it tightly while she sank her teeth into her neck.
Before she knew it, Stefan was feeding on the blonde girl, too. He was at the other side of her neck, draining every last drop of blood with Klara until the girl went limp within Klara's hand. Klara stepped away and wiped the blood from her mouth, but Stefan continued. He kept going until eventually, her head came right off her body.
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Klara had spent most of the journey to Tulley with her head pressed against the glass of the window, asleep. When she woke, she saw the look of the rundown bar. Klaus walked in first, while Stefan and Klara waited outside. That was how it usually went. Klaus entered first, then Stefan and Klara would intervene when matters got a little bloodier.
Klara worried about the state of Stefan— his mental state. All the killing was bound to take a toll on him, just as it was her. "Maybe we should just get the hell out of here. You know, run."
"It's a nice dream, but you know we can't do that," Stefan spoke, sighing gently. "He'd kill everyone we care about just like he did with Katherine. We'd spend our lives running, hiding. I think I'd rather die."
"I'm just so sick of this. I know you are, too." Klara gestured toward the bar. They walked around and found another entrance, one that would attract less attention than the main door. Their task was to compel everyone in the bar so that Ray Sutton, had no means of help or escape from Klaus.
"It doesn't matter. We just have to do this, Klara. Come on." Stefan entered first. They made their way around the bar and compelled everyone to ignore anything they were about to see— to enjoy their day as if nothing were happening, and not to question the torture that was surely about to take place.
"Not so fast, mate." Klaus grabbed Ray's forearm as he tried to leave. "You only just got here. Now, your type is very hard to come by."
Ray whimpered in fear but immediately twirled on his feet and attempted to scramble away from the Hybrid. That was until his body collided with Stefan's chest. Ray's eyes widened as he stared up toward Stefan and Klara. "I wouldn't do that." Klara pushed Ray backwards and against the bar.
"Vampires..." Ray trailed off fearfully.
Klaus smirked. "My friends here are vampires. They compelled everyone in the bar, so don't look to them for help. I, however, I'm something else. A different monster; I've got some vampire, I've got some wolf."
The werewolf blinked several times while Klara listened to his heartbeat racing. "You what?"
"A Hybrid, Ray." Klaus bluntly explained. "I'm both. You see, I want to create more of me. Now, you've been the first werewolf that I've come across in many a moon— pun intended, Ray— I need you to direct me to your pack. So, where can I find them, Ray?"
"You can't compel me. It won't work."
Stefan looked toward the blonde beside them and then scratched the back of his head, waiting for Klaus' signal. Once he got it, Stefan nodded and pulled out something from the back pocket of his jeans. "A scotch on the rocks, please." He turned his gaze back to Ray. "Tell you what, Ray. We're gonna play a little drinking game, something I like to call truth or wolfsbane."
"If I were you, Ray, I'd start talking..." Klara trailed off with a slight smirk on her face, more for Klaus' benefit than hers. She wanted him to see her enjoying it, otherwise, he would force her to do more things she'd later regret.
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With the help of Klara, Stefan had chained Ray up to the wall. He resisted the vampires, but without the full moon, his strength was surely nothing compared to theirs. Klara had spent her time downing a few shots while Stefan threw darts laced with wolfsbane toward the wolf's body.
Klaus watched as if he were visibly enjoying the show Stefan had put on for him, but his eyes soon fell to Klara who was sitting at the bar downing numerous shots of vodka. "Stefan." Klaus's voice boomed and both the vampires looked toward him. "Why don't you let Klara have a go."
Klara took a breath, downed one final shot, and then jumped off the bar stool as if it were no big deal. "Fine." The blonde confidently strode toward Stefan, who gave her a look of concern. She didn't bother to make eye contact with her best friend, she just took a dart from the table and swirled it around in the wolfsbane and threw it. "Come on, Ray. Just tell us the location. Where does your pack gather at a full moon?"
Even though he had several wounds on his body, Ray tried to keep his composure. "I can't."
"I know, I know." Stefan folded his arms across his chest. "You live by the code and all that, but see he's not gonna let us stop until you tell us. And we do whatever he says so that the way it goes around here."
"The way I see it, Ray. You've got two options: You tell us where your pack gathers, or stay in agonizing pain because we won't stop until you tell us."
"Hello, Mr. Klaus. I have some information for you." Both Stefan and Klara heard a feminine voice whisper toward Klaus. They tried not to draw attention to themselves as they listened in on the conversation. "You told me to tell you if I saw anything. I saw the guys spotted Damon at the farmhouse."
Damon had been trailing them for a while, but Stefan and Klara had told him several times to stop. It was causing problems and Klaus a severe lack of faith in them because of Damon's consistent persistence to find them and bring them back home.
"Well, thank you, Claudine. You'll just tell your friends to keep up the good work with the neighborhood watch, huh?" As soon as Klaus gestured for Claudine to leave, Klara and Stefan made their way over to him.
"My brother's still on our trail?" Stefan raised an eyebrow with his arms crossed over his chest.
"He's getting closer." Klaus eyed the pair up. "I'm gonna have to deal with that."
"No, no, no." Stefan extended his hand and grabbed hold of Klaus' arm. "Let me handle it."
"Why should I let you?"
Stefan tilted his head. "Because you know I'll come back."
"Do I?"
"Of course he will." Klara broke in and Klaus' eyes moved over to her. "You saved Damon's life and we do everything you ask, he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."
"Ah." Klaus shook his head. "You sound so tedious and indentured. Aren't the pair of you having the least bit of fun?" He nodded his head toward Ray who was enjoying the few moments of blissful relief from the torture he was enduring.
"I'll make sure my brother doesn't bother us anymore." Stefan's voice was almost as if he were ordering Klaus to trust him. He gave Klara one final glance before he left the bar.
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Klara was seated at the bar once more, sinking a few drinks while Klaus removed Ray's restrains and secured him to the pool table instead. He thought that it was his turn to inflict the pain, he was sure Ray would not be able to resist his torture. And he was right. Within a short few moments, Ray had given up the location of his pack.
"Okay. It's a three-step process, Ray. This is step one: I want you to drink from my wrist." Ray was still weak from the amount of wolfbane that Klara and Stefan had forced into his system.
He furrowed his brows. "I already told you where to find the pack. What more do you want from me?" Ray panted weakly.
"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying, Ray? I have great plans for you." Klaus smirked and then he into his wrist with a knife. His blood began to bubble to the surface and he forced it into the wolf's mouth. "You'll thank me for it later. There we go! Atta' boy!"
Klara's eyes widened and she slowly got off the barstool and edged toward Klaus. She was intrigued to know what step two was, but she assumed it was much like the transition to a vampire: death.
"What are you gonna do now?" Ray panted, fearfully.
Klara's attention was taken by the entrance of Stefan. He looked beaten down, so the blonde could only assume that he had done something he would be unable to come back from. Something that would surely make Damon leave them alone for good.
In amongst her worry, she didn't even hear Klaus snap Ray's neck. Her eyes fell back onto the dead werewolf that laid on the pool table, while Klaus looked at Stefan. "You're back."
Klara walked toward Stefan and gave him a supportive smile. "Did you doubt me?"
"Not for a second," Klaus answered back. "I knew you'd pass the test. You still care for your brother, for your old life."
"Nah." Stefan shrugged, disguising his pain with a smirk. "I don't care about anything anymore."
"Apart from Klara." Klaus had seen the way the two were with each other. They believed they were fooling him into thinking they didn't care about anything, but he saw through it. "You both put on a good show, I almost believed you. Let's hope, for Damon's sake, he does. You never stop caring about family, do you? But, every time you feed, the blood makes it easier to let go."
Stefan stared toward Klaus. Something inside him had snapped and he found himself marching out of the bar. She turned back to the Hybrid, who was tending to Ray and that gave her an opportunity to check on Stefan. Klara walked out toward the exit and saw Stefan outside with his phone against his ear.
Klara halted once she heard Elena's fearful voice down the other end of the line. The blonde tilted her head once she heard Stefan's breath hitch and he dropped the phone from his ear. She knew that Stefan was still holding onto Elena, and she felt sick.
"Stefan..." The blonde trailed off quietly when she saw her best friend turn around to look at her. He slid his phone back into his pocket and strode toward her and then wrapped his arms so tightly around her waist. "We're going to be okay. I'm here for you, okay? Everything's going to be okay. I promise."
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