Moonlight | Lucien Castle

Chapter 34

Lucien was working as fast as he could.

"There isn't enough time," he said angrily as he took off his goggles and stopped mixing compounds. "We were supposed to have several more hours to do this!"

"I know," said Amaris weakly. "I know that. Nobody could have known that she would strike far earlier than—"

"I should have known!" he said, closing his eyes and holding his head in his hands. "I should have known better and I didn't. I failed."

She took his hand. "Don't say that. You didn't fail. You're smart enough to create this cure, I know you are. Think, Lucien, there must be a way to do it faster. You have a cure for wolf bites, you can go based on that. Or maybe you could try reverse-engineering it from—"

He tapped his other hand against the table. "Reverse-engineering," he said nervously. "Yes. I could try it. But we'd need a sample of Cami and Marcel's blood. We'd need to extract venom from the injection site. It would hurt them. And I'd need to extract it myself. We would need to go to the Compound."

Amaris's heart sank. "And if we go, there's nothing stopping Klaus from killing us. Freya might help him. Elijah might stand by and do nothing. Kol is strong but he's not strong enough to take Klaus down. We'd have to hope my other siblings stand with him, and there's no guarantee that they would."

"It's our only option," said Lucien. He gestured to the table full of equipment. "I will put this in the car. Quickly, call Kol and let him know we're coming."

He started packing swiftly, placing everything in a little cart he would roll into the elevator. Amaris went into the room, dialing Kol's number.

"Is it done?" he asked eagerly. "Is there a cure?"

"No," she said miserably. "Not yet. He needs their blood and a sample of the venom."

"Tell me how, and I'll extract—"

"He needs to do it himself. We're heading to the Compound."

There was a scuffling sound. "Ris, are you mad? Nik will slice your heads off if you're anywhere near this place!"

"I know that. But we need to be there."

"Lucien can come alone."

"I won't let him walk in there by himself and you know that. Is Vincent there?"

"Yes. And Davina. They're working with Freya, trying to ease the symptoms. They've tried to use Hope's blood, Nik's blood... nothing has worked yet."

"And nothing will except the cure. We need to go there. I wish I could do this myself somehow, but I'm not as experienced as Lucien. This was his plan, he can undo it. All the records are destroyed. The spell was destroyed, and Aurora used up all the venom to make this serum. Lucien can't hurt anyone, he is only trying to help. As soon as Cami and Marcel are healed, we kill Aurora, and he and I will be gone. We won't be a problem anymore. Is there any way you can stop Klaus from hurting us?"

"I can try, Ris. I'll speak with Hayley, she'll surely be fine with the two of you coming. She and I can speak with Elijah, and Elijah will help me convince Freya. So long as we are protecting you, Nik can't do anything. He won't dare to. It'll be everyone against him and as mighty as he is, he won't do it."

Amaris gulped. "I hope that's true."

Once Lucien was ready to go, they rushed to the Compound. Amaris helped him carry everything into the entrance hall, where Kol met them and started helping them with the boxes.

"Careful with that!" said Lucien a bit sharply when the box nearly slipped out of Kol's hand. "We need that equipment, it is very expensive and—"

Klaus appeared before they made it to the stairs. Clearly, nobody had told him that they were coming.