If Frankie could've made a list of the top ten things she wanted to do during the summer, hiking down a mountain with two grouchy, grumpy vampires and a dead werewolf surprisingly wouldn't have made the list. It'd been a snappy day for all of them Stefan more gloomy than normal after his trip to see his brother whilst Klaus continued to make snide comments to her thanks to her little smoke session the night before.
Frankie wasn't exactly happy with him either, with his constant evasion and his forcing everyone to do his bidding, not to mention his cocksure attitude, she was getting fed up. When they'd arrived at the clearing where Ray, the dead werewolf's, pack stood, they'd unceremoniously dumped his body on the ground as a greeting. It was horrible watching the realisation cross the pack's faces as they realised what had happened and Klaus' delight that they knew who he was before he introduced himself had only caused her to want to wring his neck.
She sat now on a log in the middle of the clearing, she'd tried to move farther away but Klaus had some ridiculous complaint that he didn't trust her not to get stoned if she wasn't with him. It was ridiculous and they both knew he was making a fuss not because he was worried for her but to punish her for acting out the night before.
"Are any of you human?" Stefan was calling out to the crowd, "Your friend here needs human blood to complete his transition to a vampire. If he doesn't get it, he will die."
"Doesn't take much," Klaus added in joyfully, "just a sip. Anyone? A boyfriend, a girlfriend, along for the ride?"
"Why not use her," one of the men pointed at Frankie sitting there with her head in her hands.
"Please, take me out," she muttered, "then I won't have to listen to the sound of his voice anymore."
"Believe me, I'd love it as much as you, sweetheart," Klaus replied crisply with annoyance in his voice before searching the crowd, finally finding someone and pointing them out, "You."
The next moments were a blur of disgust for Frankie as she watched Klaus race over to the man, biting him viciously before tossing him to Stefan. Her eyes fell on the blood that dripped from the wound in his arm as Stefan pressed him to the ground in front of Ray. Klaus meanwhile had grabbed one of the women who'd rushed to help and begun to strangle her.
"If you don't drink it, Ray, I will," Stefan told him, "Problem is I don't know how to stop."
Frankie was tired, she was tired from hiking and she was tired from sleeping in lumpy motel beds and she was tired of watching people die. Klaus was threatening the woman in his grip now, she was shaking and struggling away while he held her still.
"It's the new order, sweetheart," he told her, "You join us, or you die."
"I'd rather die than be a vampire," she spat back at him.
"Wrong choice," Klaus replied cruelly, biting into his wrist as he shoved it against her mouth, "She'll thank me for that later," he told Frankie with a grin before his hands rose to her head, snapping her neck and letting her fall to the floor.
One by one, Klaus went through every member of the werewolf pack, forcing his blood down their throats and snapping their necks. Ray had fed from the human as Klaus had wanted and Stefan now sat with Frankie, his face stony as they watched with disgust at Klaus' plan in action.
Klaus was healing the human boy now, he could feel Frankie's eyes pointedly boring holes in his head and he was in turn pointedly ignoring her, focusing on his soon to be hybrids. Elijah was going to be more than loyal to him when he finally woke him and saw how graciously he'd treated his precious Francesca.
"There. Good as new. Now you relax, okay, mate?" Klaus said to the newly healed and compelled human he'd selected to be their blood bag, "We're gonna need you when the rest of them wake up."
"They're dead," Ray said suddenly, catching the attention of Klaus, Frankie, and Stefan, "They're all dead."
"Ahh he's through his transition," Klaus called out gleefully, approaching Ray where he sat curled up on a rock, shivering as he rocked himself back and forwards, "He should be feel better soon."
"So this is your master plan?" Stefan asked, he and Frankie were approaching Klaus where he stood by Ray gleefully, "Build an army of hybrid slaves?"
"No, not slaves. Soldiers, comrades."
"What war are you so frightened of," Frankie asked, noticing how Klaus' eyes glinted with darkness as she accused him of being fearful.
"You don't arm yourself after a war has been declared, sweetheart," he told her condescendingly, "You build your army so big that no one ever dares to pick a fight. You should remember-" here he cut himself off, shaking his head slightly.
"What makes you so sure they'll be loyal?" asked Stefan breaking the silence that had occurred when Klaus cut himself off and broke eye contact with Frankie, suddenly doing his best to hide the truth again.
"It's not difficult to be loyal when you're on the winning team," Klaus replied, "That's something you'll learn once you shake that horribly depressive chip off your shoulder.
"That's why you're keeping me around?" Stefan laughed humourlessly, "To witness my attitude adjustment?"
"You'll know why I'm keeping you around when I've decided that I want you to know."
"Welcome to the club," Frankie clapped Stefan on his back, "The king of cryptic loves to keep things to himself. Sharing is caring, don't you know Klaus."
Klaus shot her a look of annoyance before turning to Ray, catching sight of blood dripping from his eyes, "Something's wrong."
"That shouldn't be happening, should it?" Frankie asked apprehensively, the playfulness she'd exuded earlier suddenly vanishing, Ray was shaking and whimpering, his face was sallow and he was sweating, he looked like he was dying for a second time.
"Well, obviously."
"You said it was gonna feel better," Ray said weakly, "Why doesn't it feel better."
"Some master race," Stefan snarled, Frankie's hand flew out to hit him on the chest, just as Klaus began to reply. This was fucked up but he didn't need to rub it in right now, Klaus would just force him into some other horrible action if he didn't shut up.
"Lose the attitude," Klaus snapped.
"The girl is waking up," Frankie called, pointing to the woman who Klaus had first killed, she was moving weakly. Although Frankie was pretty pissed at Klaus' contribution to the pain of each of the dead werewolves, she needed now for him to finish the process so they didn't die in vain.
"Derek," Klaus called, "Come feed your girlfriend."
Ray began to snarl, Frankie was watching Klaus as he helped the newly woken woman begin to feed when suddenly she was knocked from her feet and tackled to the ground. Ray was on top of her and she could see his fangs baring as he leant down towards her neck until suddenly he was flung from her with force enough to cause him to fly through the air.
"Go get him," Klaus snapped at Stefan, turning to help Frankie up.
Her head was throbbing with the force of the hit while her breaths choked in her chest, winded from the tackle she was gasping out desperately. Finally she managed to get her breathing under control again, looking up to see Klaus standing beside her, holding her forearm to support her with the werewolf girl abandoned behind them.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"My head hurts," she replied, screwing her face up tenderly raising her hand to the throbbing on the back of her head, "Am I bleeding?"
Klaus nodded, biting into his wrist as he pressed it against her lips, "Although you deserve the headache, you need to heal."
"Deserve the headache?" she snapped when she felt her wound stitch itself up and she pushed his wrist away, "If this is about me getting stoned-"
"Marijuana is illegal," Klaus snapped, "I'm wasting my time protecting you and you're just doing drugs in a parking lot."
"For fucks sake," she rolled her eyes, "Illegal? That's really the hill you want to die on? What else is illegal, there's kidnapping, oh and murder. Hmm lets count the crimes shall we. Well there's dear old Ray here, oh he's one dead," as she spoke she began to point at each of the werewolves laying dead on the ground, "two, three, four-"
"I get it," Klaus snapped, his lips pursed in annoyance at her.
"Do you? Get the fuck off my dick about getting stoned. It's happened, it's over, move the fuck on."
Klaus was seething at her indignation, forcing a steadiness in his voice rather than the yell he wanted to break forth, "I trusted you to wait alone for a few hours and you went and did something you knew-"
"Get over it!" Frankie yelled, cutting him off, "Whatever freaky fucking thing you and your brother seem to have going on needs to end. Tell me why you're so fucking insane or move on when I'm not following your every fucking command. You kidnapped me! Remember when I went to see my brother after a shitty fucking time and you impersonated him and then kidnapped me? That was fucked up!"
"Look-"
"I don't care, I really don't fucking care," Frankie sighed, running a hand through her hair as she turned away, "I'm gonna go wait in the car."
"If you expect that-"
"Oh my god," Frankie groaned, "Dude, I'm not doing this. Can I have the keys, I'm leaving either way might as well be stuck inside a metal box rather than in the woods alone."
Klaus narrowed his eyes, "If you're not there when we-"
"Yes, I've got it," she rolled her eyes, a grin creeping onto her face, "Torture, agony of betrayal, etcetera etcetera."
"I mean it Francesca. I will not hesitate a second time."
Frankie grinned, snatching the keys from his reluctant hands, "Which way is the car."
Klaus deadpanned, his already begrudging agreeance faltering, "That's a joke, isn't it."
"It could be," Frankie lied, she was sure she could make her way there, she just was a little turned around at the moment.
"Bloody hell," Klaus groaned, grabbing her arm and speeding her towards Stefan in the distance, "Where did Ray go?"
"He, uh," Stefan broke off, scratching his head awkwardly as he walked towards them, "he got away, Forget him. Let's go."
Klaus reached out and grabbed Stefans forearm tugging it into view, "A fatal werewolf bite. Ouch."
"Yeah," Stefan replied, ignoring the sympathetic look from Frankie, "I'm gonna need your blood to heal me."
"Well, I'll tell you what. You drop Frankie at the car, find Ray, and then I'll heal you."
"You can't be serious," replied Stefan incredulous.
"You'd better hurry, that bite looks nasty," Klaus grinned, he turned to walk back to the cleaning before turning back, "And Stefan, if she goes missing on the way to the car, it won't only be her brother we go after. Yours mightn't recover from a second wolf bite so well as the first."
Klaus had sped away before either Stefan or Frankie could reply and she shot an apologetic look to him. They began to walk back to the car, chatting occasionally but mostly walking in silence. Suddenly Stefan froze awkwardly, she could tell he'd heard something, likely Ray.
"I'm not stupid enough to run," she told him, noticing the way he was practically twitching with whatever he could hear going on, "If you show me the way I'll go, I'm not risking him going after either of our brothers."
Stefan's face washed over with gratefulness, "It's on this path, just keep going straight, I'll come check on you after I get him."
"It's fine, I'll be there," she promised him as he sped away a moment later. It was straight ahead, soon enough she reached a pathway and then a little while later the beaten path formed into a manmade one which opened onto an empty parking lot, empty aside from their car and another.
"Ric?" Frankie called out in surprise, seeing Katherine and her brother by the other car.
"Frankie?" Alaric replied, confusion filling his face as he rushed towards her, pulling her into a hug, "What're you doing here? How did you know we'd be here?"
Frankie laughed weakly, "I didn't know you were here, I'm here with Klaus," she told him, watching disbelief and then confusion flood both Katherine and Alaric's faces, "I left Mitch and came to crash with you for a bit and uh, Klaus was there."
"But it was months ago that he was in Mystic Falls."
"Yep."
"You've been with Klaus and Stefan the past three months?" Katherine asked, shock evident on her face when Frankie nodded easily, had she expected Klaus to just let her leave when she did? Surely not after everything he'd done that day to ensure she stayed in the apartment?
"Why?"
"No clue, he says he needs to keep me safe, I don't really know what from though."
"Keep you safe?" Alaric replied, incredulous, "You don't know who he is, what he's done-"
"Oh believe me I do."
"Let's go, Damon's just behind us, we grab him and we can leave. Frank, you don't know what he is, we have to get you away from these woods, there's things in here-"
"Vampires and werewolves?" she replied, "Unfortunately I know about all of it. I can't come with you guys, Klaus will flip."
"You can't seriously expect us to leave you with him?" Katherine asked her, "He's a monster."
"A monster that'll go after you, Ric, if I'm not at the car when he returns, you and Stefans brother, Damon, actually. What are you guys even doing here, this is miles away from Mystic Falls."
"We're chasing Stefan," Katherine said, "He called me, on my birthday."
"Happy birthday," said Frankie, "But you guys need to go before Klaus sees you. He's had my phone this whole time because he doesn't want me calling you in case I tell you where we are, he'd gonna be pissed if he sees you guys. Katherine doesn't he really hate you?"
Katherine and Alaric exchanged nervous glance before Alaric spoke up, "We just need to grab Damon and Stefan and then we can go. I'm not leaving you with him."
"Not really an option dude," Frankie stepped back, "Look, I'll figure out some way to update you but trust me, if I'm not here when Klaus gets back all hell will break loose."
Katherines phone was beeping in her pocket and she turned away to pull it out, giving the two siblings some peace. Alaric always knew his little sister was stronger than him but looking at her now, fists clutched tightly and face stony with determination he could still picture her at nine when she turned up at their doorstep with two suitcases and a teddy bear.
He was racked with guilt that she'd been wrapped up in the supernatural world because of him, he couldn't let her end up like Jenna but he knew that she would fight him every step of the way if he tried to force her hand.
"Ric," Katherine said behind him, "It's Damon, we. . . " she trailed off, uncomfortable knowing what she was breaking up.
"Dude, it's fine," Frankie hugged him again before pushing him back, "I'm gonna go nap in the car and you're gonna get the hell out of here. I'll try and find a way to call."
It wasn't hard to see the guilt smashed across Alaric's face as he pulled the car door open, his eyes watching her even through the mirrors as he pulled the car out of the parking lot and away with Katherine.
Frankie collapsed into the only remaining car in the lot, pulling her notebook out as she began to draw. She'd been right in the idea that her brother didn't even know she was here, he'd thought she was still living her life in California with Mitch. She wasn't sure if it was good or not that he knew the truth, on the one hand, it was comforting to have someone know where you were rather than being practically a ghost, on the other, now she knew he would worry about her.
The slamming of the car doors didn't wake her from her nap as the moon began to rise and her book slipped from her fingers to the floor of the car. She eventually pulled awake to notice Klaus glowering in the passenger seat while Stefan drove, his face blank. Peeking over, she could see the wound on his arm had been healed at least.
"Where's Ray?" Frankie asked, breaking the silence. She expected, yes perhaps the car was too small for all the hybrids, but that they'd at least have Ray with them. Surely Klaus wouldn't leave his prized first hybrid alone.
"He went rabid. They all went rabid," Klaus told her crisply, "Some of them I killed while the others bled out. They're all dead."
"Oh."