Rue | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 9

She awoke with a tremendous headache.

Her ears rang as she came to, eyelids fluttering several times before she was able to fully regain consciousness and remember where she was.

The Compound. Dahlia had been there. Klaus bit her. He drank her blood and entered her mind to leave a message.

And Dahlia had no idea.

Elijah still lay off to the side, twitching. Freya was nowhere in sight. The house was quiet, with no signs of Marcel or Rebekah.

"Asshole," she muttered to herself, wondering how she could have ever thought it wise to marry a man like Klaus. "You are such an asshole."

The ache in her head subsided after she cracked her neck a few times and crawled to the fountain, pathetically sticking her head in to get cold water on her face and hydrate just a tad. She then moved toward Elijah, examining the lack of a wound on his chest.

"Must be that stupid bone knife they mentioned," she mumbled to herself, knowing nothing else could leave him this incapacitated. "Well, here goes nothing."

She clawed viciously at his chest until she opened a gap big enough for her hand. Pushing past his sternum, she searched until she felt a leather hilt. Grasping it firmly, she withdrew it quickly, eliciting a gasp from the Original as he awoke.

"No," she said sharply when he made to grab her, likely with the intent of feeding to replenish himself. "Elijah— calm down. Listen. Breathe."

It took several tries for him to stay still long enough for her to cut into her wrist and let him feed without worrying he'd tear her head off. "There," she said, using his shoulder to support herself as she stood. "This is going to sound very stupid, but I need you to listen, because Klaus has a plan."

He stared at her incredulously. "What do you mean Niklaus has a plan?" He began to shout as he got to his feet. "We had a plan! A plan he has mercilessly destroyed!"

"Unfortunately," she said just as loudly, "it wouldn't have worked. He could have told us in a text or even a fucking emailif his intent was to be medieval, but instead, he chose to dump it directly in my mind."

"In your mind?" He noticed the blood stains on her throat. "He harmed you? He bit you?"

"Likely to put on a show for Dahlia," she said. "But yes, he did hurt me. Can't undo what's been done but we can decide how we go about it. He said the ingredients were wrong. Freya's blood wouldn't work for the weapon, it has to be Esther's blood. He said he's going to buy time for us to dig her up, resurrect her, and get her blood to kill Dahlia."

"Buy time? How?"

"He's going to link himself to Dahlia—"

"My brother wishes to bind himself to our enemy?" Elijah interrupted. "She'll be virtually indestructible!"

"Briefly," Ibeth shot back. "Until he daggers himself and takes her down with him. It's not the most brilliant plan, but it seems like it'll be effective. Look, he's—" she began to sneer, "He's also going to place the Crescent Curse on my people. Retaliation for Hayley leaving with Hope. I am not happy about his idea, I am not happy about being the messenger, but at this point, I see no other path than to follow what he's outlined and hope this actually works. Got it?"

Elijah was in disbelief. "The Crescent Curse?"

"Yes. Why I'm being spared from it, I have no idea."

"So he would condemn Hayley to the body of a beast?" He looked like a child ready to throw a tantrum.