Ch. 31

Elijah comes to me the next day with a frown etched across his disapproving face, "You did not tell me you had Katerina as well as the new doppleganger."

I raise an eyebrow, "Didn't I? Apologies Elijah, it must have slipped my mind."

Elijah sighs, clearly knowing it didn't, but moving on with the conversation, "She is… different. I assume she went to you for protection like Rose Marie and Trevor, but what happened afterwards to change her in this way?"

I laugh at that, "Oh no Elijah, far from it, she started out as my prisoner. I came upon her while investigating rumors of something strange happening here in Mystic Falls in 1864. She was about to hand over the Moonstone to a Lockwood werewolf at the time I found her. I broke her neck, took the Moonstone, and pledged to free the Lockwoods from the curse one day."

I grin wickedly, "After that I spent twelve decades twisting Katerina to my whims. The girl you know is still there, she just finds it hard to be her sarcastic fiery self around me, her Master."

Elijah looks at me with some disdain, "Yes, I've noticed how much you enjoy your playthings and their deference to you. I received a taste of it when Ravia arrived in New Orleans to serve us on your behalf, but I didn't realize just how deep your need for control over those around you went until now."

I smile at the pointed barb, "Ah, this is why I'm glad you're here Elijah. You're right in a way, I do exercise a great degree of control over my subordinates. Perhaps too great even. But now you're here to tell me how it is, Klaus will be here soon enough himself, and I will finally have peers again. It's quite a novel experience, one I hadn't realized how much I missed."

Elijah frowns, "Then release Katerina."

He says it so simply that I can't help but laugh again, "Elijah, I had no idea you cared so much brother. Did not Katerina's actions leave you stuck in a box for fifty years, as you were so quick to remind me when I stopped you from killing Trevor? Is it her beauty that makes her more worthy of life than Trevor?"

Elijah clenches his jaw, "Trevor showed a lack of loyalty, while Katerina just wished to continue living. She swore no oaths to us, and you've just told me that she's spent a hundred and twenty years paying for her escape. I am ready to forgive her but Klaus will not be so it would be best if she was gone before he arrived."

I grin at that, "No, he won't be will he? You need not worry Elijah, I have no intentions of letting Klaus play with my toys. As for freeing her… Katerina darling, please join us."

I call out the last part, and in a flash Katerina is beside me, looking at Elijah with some gratitude. She has after all heard every bit of our conversation. Elijah frowns at her being included in this discussion and looks at me as if wondering why I called her out here.

I just smile and look to Katerina, "Darling, do you wish to be free?"

Katerina shivers under my gaze, "No Master, my place is at your side."

Elijah opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off with a raised hand before asking Katerina again, "Katerina, I want the truth. Do you wish to be free of me?"

She whimpers as she's forced to answer honestly, "I don't know anymore. Before you made me forget and let me go, I did. But now I've tasted life without you, and I can't stand it. I wish I didn't have to spend every moment within a hundred feet of you for fear of the pain, but I could not imagine living apart from you. I am yours as long as you'll have me."

I smile wickedly as I look at Elijah, "Ah, well my brother has said I've been exercising too much control. Consider the range compulsion lifted Katerina."

Katerina looks shocked and happy while Elijah just shakes his head, "You would be better off removing all memory of you from her mind and letting her get back to living her life free of your influence."

I can't help but roll my eyes at that before looking to Katerina, "What do you think darling? Erase the last one hundred and fifty years of your memory? Think it would work?"

She shakes her head empathetically, "No Master."

I grin, "I didn't think so. Humor me though Katerina, say I did that anyway. You wake up as your old self, missing a century and a half of time. Perhaps Elijah is there to help you adjust. He tells you you're better off without the memories, says that they would break you. What would you do?"

Katerina flicked her eyes to Elijah before looking away from both of us, "I… I would look for a way to kill Elijah temporarily, through either dagger or stake to the heart. I would do anything to remove the compulsion."

I sigh and pull her onto my lap suddenly, petting her curls affectionately, "Of course you would. Katerina Petrova would not rest until she was whole once more, until she'd found what was taken from her, even if it was detrimental to her very personality."

Katerina shivered under my touch, but pressed back against me, almost nuzzling into my hand and looking anywhere but Elijah, who looked stone faced now.

I sigh and give Elijah a smile, "How about this brother, once Klaus is dealt with, we can revisit the issue of darling Katerina. Right now, we should be focused on avenging our siblings, don't you think?"

After a long moment Elijah nods and leaves the room. I just grin as he goes, and pull Katerina in closer for a searing kiss. Sometimes it was fun just to explore her mouth with my tongue for a while, instead of bending her over and fucking her against the chair, as I'd done more than once before.

XxScenebreakxX

A few days later Klaus arrives with his witches in tow on my doorstep. I've sent most everyone off to the sidelines for now, leaving just my vampires, Katerina, and Elena with me in my mansion. As Klaus and his companions were escorted in, I was sat on a couch with a doppleganger on either side of me, grinning wickedly.

He stops and purses his lips together as he takes in the sight before him. Elena is glazed over at this point, looking like she's on some rather strong drugs, as I grew tired of her whining a while ago and dealt with her through compulsion. Katerina on the other hand is very aware of Klaus' gaze and is trying her best to shrink back into the couch and hopefully disappear forever.

Eventually Klaus looks at me and smiles thinly, "You didn't tell me you'd managed to capture Katerina Petrova as well. It isn't even my birthday brother."

I grin wickedly in response, "Well now, who had the Moonstone last? She came with it when I finally tracked it down." Bringing a hand up, I run it through Katerina's curls, petting her hair and leaving her shuddering at my touch, "But really brother, she's not for you. Finders keepers says I caught her first and now she's mine."

Klaus doesn't look at all happy at that, his eyes trailing over the way Katerina actually seems to be enjoying my touch, "Katerina and I have some unfinished business Vali. You would do well to not stand in the way of that."

I sigh, "A compromise then brother, you mustn't forget I share in the pain she's caused through her actions. Since I found her first, I get her for the next decade. After that, we can swap her back and forth until we both feel she's outlived her usefulness. Fair?"

Klaus still doesn't seem happy with the compromise but he slowly nods anyways, "Fine. Though from the looks of things what you wish to do with Katerina differs wildly from what I want. But we are immortal, so what's ten years? Just know that if she escapes or dies on your turn, I will be very cross with you."

I smile and nod in agreement. Klaus proceeds to ignore Katerina entirely, instead flashing over to Elena and looking her over with a slowly growing grin, "Wonderful. To hear that heart beat in her chest, to know she's human and very much still usable. I can almost forgive you for waiting nearly a hundred years to tell me about our father's demise Vali."

I smile in response, "Yes, well I've already forgiven you for sicking him on me in the first place with no warning, so I suppose I'm the more magnanimous brother. Speaking of forgiveness, how are our siblings?"

Klaus turns away at that, hiding his features from me under the guise of studying the room we're currently in as he answers, "Elijah is in the wind, while our other two brothers and darling little sister take a nap."

I hmm at that before replying, "I hope you know I expect them to be undaggered after we break the curse. Mikael is dead, we will be all we can be again… it's time to throw those foul daggers away Nik. Our parents have forsaken us, but we who are their children need not follow their footsteps."

Klaus turns to me at that, frowning, "Yet, you and I are not Mikael's children. We are the bastards. The others will always look down on us for that. Perhaps it would be better if they stayed asleep and we worked together to create a new world. A world of hybrids."

I purse my lips together at that, but can see that Klaus will not be persuaded by me here and now, nor do I wish to poison him against me further at this time. Eventually I just nod slowly, "We'll discuss this after the ritual is done brother. Once we're both whole again, we can get our priorities in order. I assume your witches are ready for tomorrow night?"

At this I glance at Maddock and Greta, both of whom look suitably respectful of me given my status as another hybrid, but also a little bit affronted by my clear lack of subservience to their master. Klaus speaks for them though, grinning, "More than ready. I hope you were not lying when you said you had the vampire and werewolf ready to sacrifice. I don't know where we'd find a werewolf on short notice if not."

I chuckle and stand, my hand coming up to clasp Klaus' shoulder, "Oh, no need to worry there, I've taken care of everything brother. In just a short amount of time, we will be free of a thousand years of weakness."

Klaus responds by grinning and mirroring my action, "I look forward to it."

XxScenebreakxX

Soon enough it was time, the next day flying by as things were prepared. Eventually we all stood at the ritual site. All of my vampires ringed the large clearing that we now stood in. Elijah and the Martins were hidden somewhere amongst them, waiting for their chance. Greta assisted Maddock in preparing the stone cistern that would contain the ritual and Klaus stood beside me as we looked at our three sacrifices. Both Elena and Isobel were dazed by compulsion, while Brady was forced to his knees and bound by gag and shackles.

Klaus had complained about it all not being nearly dramatic enough, but after I'd confirmed that giant circles of fire were NOT a necessity for the ritual to go through with Maddok, I'd vetoed any of the over-theatric parts. This was going to go right and it was going to go simple. Soon enough, things began and after handing the Moonstone over to Maddock I got a front row seat to watching the curse being undone.

As Maddok began the casting, Klaus approached Brady. Once they reached the right point in the ritual, Klaus stepped forward and tore Brady's heart from his chest before flashing over to the cistern and draining the bloody organ into it. Everyone watched with baited breath as the flames grew higher and the ritual reached a new tempo.

Next came Isobel, unresistant as Klaus pulled forth a wooden stake and slammed it into her unbeating heart. There was less fanfare than I remembered from the show, and I enjoyed that. No crying and whining over people dying and all that, no over the top dramatics from Klaus. Everything was just being done in the right way for once, and I could feel the curse beginning to lift as the Moonstone it was tied to had magic worked over it.

Finally, it was time for Elena. I beckoned her forward and stepped up to the Cistern with my brother. Like her birth mother, she was unresistant as Klaus pulled her hair away and leaned down to bite into her neck. At the same time I bit into her wrist, and together we drank the young doppleganger dry of her supernatural blood.

It was nothing but a few moments before she was dead and Klaus and I simultaneously dropped her body to the ground, our eyes the golden black of a hybrid, our two sets of fangs now exposed to the blinding moonlight. We were whole once more. A moment later, our bones began to break as an uncountable number of suppressed wolf changes tried to express themselves.

To turn on the full moon required one to break every bone in their body, and that's what was happening to us now, only a thousand times over. It was a moment when we'd both be nearing the peak of our power yet also uniquely vulnerable for a short time. Luckily for me, I had no enemies here tonight. Klaus was the one who had people to fear.

As I moved away from him and closer to the protective half-circle my vampires were forming for me, Elijah and the Martins made their moves. In a blaze of magic Jonas Martin brought an already weak Klaus to his knees. Turns out repeated brain aneurysms along with breaking every bone in your body aren't a good combination. At the same time that Jonas moved in, Elijah flashed forward and broke Maddock's neck, while Luka cast what I could only assume was some sort of sleep spell on his sister, as it dropped her almost instantly.

Before Klaus could recover from Jonas' assault and kill the witch for his impertinence, Elijah was standing over him. I saw Klaus' eyes widen at the appearance of our elder brother, saw the way his gaze flickered over to me and my vampires, noting how we did nothing.

"Elijah…"

Elijah smiled grimly down at Klaus, "Hello brother."

Klaus just looked up at him, too weak to move and a moment later Elijah's hand went through his chest and closed around Klaus' heart.

Elijah stared down into his brother's eyes and spoke slowly as he prepared to pull the heart from its resting place, "In the name of our family, Niklaus…"

Nik was quick to interrupt of course, speaking hurriedly, "I didn't bury them at sea. Their bodies are safe."

Elijah freezes up as I knew he would, "What?"

Klaus is quick to capitalize on the pause in his execution, "If you kill me, you will never find them Elijah.

Elijah is clearly lost, as he actually looks to me of all people for advice. I can barely talk by this point, but I manage to do so anyways, as straining as it is, "You spent the last millennium with him Elijah. It's up to you to trust him or not."

Klaus rejoins the conversation, continuing to try to convince his older brother not to kill him, "I can take you to them Elijah. I give you my word."

After one more long moment of thought, Elijah pulls his hand free of Klaus' chest and stumbles back from him. Klaus continues to shift, roaring in pain as his bones continue to break. I'm gasping myself now as I look to my vampires, "All of you should run. These woods won't be safe for any of you in less than an hour. Get the Martin witches out of here."

Said vampires react immediately to the order, not a single one hesitating as they gather the three witches and speed off towards the relative safety of the town. Elijah stands back and watches as Klaus and I change, our entire body breaking down to shift into the form of the wolf.

I catch Klaus' eyes from across the clearing and grin ferally, baring my teeth to him. He doesn't return the gesture, his face instead full of condemnation for how I sided with Elijah over him. A few moments later our shared gaze was broken by our bodies twisting unnaturally. After that we both rose to our four paws, the transformation complete.

Klaus initiated hostilities, snarling at me and launching across the clearing towards me. I was more than ready for him, even if both of us were completely unused to the bodies we were currently using. We healed too fast to take serious injury as we tore at one another, biting and clawing and slamming one another into the ground again and again.

I'm not sure if Elijah stayed nearby the entire time, but I know that Klaus killed nobody during the next two days we spent locked in near-constant combat, breaking apart only once in a while to look for a new route of attack that would give us an advantage. We fought and fought and fought, coating the forest in Hybrid blood as we did our absolute best to tear each other apart.

But all good things come to an end, and so did our enthusiastic fighting, as the second day dawned and we finally began to change back.

-x-X-x-

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