Body & Soul - Klaus Mikaelson

Twenty-Five

I take one last look at Rebekah's sleeping form buried deep within sheets as I close the door behind me. I let go of a heavy breath, leaning against the door. She fell asleep a few hours ago, after pouring her whole heart. 

Her love for her brother is undeniable. Forged in birth and thriving for over a thousand years, it is the strongest I have ever seen. Ever felt. The memories she didn't mean to give me, the ones of her protecting him and vice versa ruin my mind. They ruin the image of Klaus as a monster, the image that is easier to kill than the Klaus that I know is buried deep inside of his dark ways.

My own exhaustion is uncomparable. I have never felt memories so heavy with emotions, ones wrecked and plagued by guilt and offense. Ones ruined by a single moment. Everything she knew has been destroyed. The brother that ran with her to protect her, the one that would do anything for her took everything from her. 

And yet it gives me a new side of Klaus. One that is desperate to remain with those he loves. The one who would rather kill than give up his own family. And for some reason that is so much worse. He would take lives to keep those he needs close to him. His selfishness grows.

So does my desire for him. My need to understand him erupts further the more I learn. And I yearn to know more and more, to drink up his existence, and to understand everything I can. Because no one deserves a death sentence. Not even the grand taker of lives himself. 

In all his wretched ways, even Klaus deserves life.

"How is she?"

I suck in a hard breath at Damon's voice. My eyes whirl to his icy blue, not expecting him to be creeping, "You just told her you were going to kill her brother, she devastated."

He licks his lips, "How are you?"

My jaw twitches, "Does it matter?"

Damon lets out a heavy sigh coming closer to me, "You know I care about you right?"

I want to say you care about her more but what falls from my lips is "I know. But somethings are out of our control."

The fear of death has been reaping my soul since last night. We don't know when Klaus is coming back or when they will get to attack, but that time is all too close. The time for my life to end is like an hourglass. Each second, another piece of me prepares to leave this world. Maybe by the time I have to die, I might be ready. 

"I don't you to die," He mumbles the very un-Damon-like with a tone of truth, But that means nothing with the plan they plot knowing the cost is entirely my life and his. 

I hum, "Yeah well, doesn't matter, does it? You're going to kill him no matter what. My life is the only thing between you and killing him. You'll overlook it, you have before."

"What if we can find something to-"

"Something to what?" I snarl, "Unlink the bond between us, disconnect the nature of Mates? Don't you think I've looked? That I have tried to find a way to get rid of this bond? There is no way. It's a witch's spell from generations ago, there is no undoing it. I'm stuck. And it doesn't matter. Elena's little heart is set on killing Klaus. Screw me and my life."

He doesn't say anything.

"Just because I was willing to die once before Damon when she was in danger, does not make me as open to do it twice," I whisper, "I love her like a sister. And that is the only thing overriding the guilt I have in participating in the act of taking another life, even one as lethal as Klaus's. So please excuse me if I'm not jumping with joy to kill the one person who is supposed to be the reason I live the rest of my life."