Forever

Josh

I sat up, breathing heavily. "Josh?" We had to leave. Panic twisted its way under my skin. "Josh?!"

The bathroom door opened and Josh stumbled out, half dressed with a toothbrush in his mouth. "What?"

"It's them, they know where I am. We need to go."

He cursed under his breath and we both moved as quickly as we could to get all our stuff loaded into his car.

"How in the hell did they find you? I thought you had a witch?" Josh threw on a shirt.

"I thought I did too." I grabbed my boots, it did help that we were halfway across the country from New Orleans. That bought us some time. Just as I was doing one last sweep of the room, I spotted the thing that Kol had given Elijah. "They were in my dream."

It was a motel card.

So that was why he was poking around.

"They can do that?!"

I moved out to the car. "I'm afraid of what they'll do when they inevitably catch up to me." I could feel my heart racing, beating wildly against my ribs.

Kol was going to be pissed.

"Hey." Josh grabbed my arms. "I'm going to protect you, just like I have been."

"They're immortals, it's not like they're just going to give up." They've got the time and resources to hunt me down.

And they would catch up to me eventually, that I was sure of.

"You said that Kathrine chick survived half a millennium right?"

"Yeah, but I'm no where near as cunning as she is." It would be a cold day in hell before I acted like Kathrine.

"So? If what you've told me was true, Klaus wanted her for his curse, they only want you to be part of their family because of some crazy ass soulmate thing." He rubbed slow circles on my arms. "You should be able to pick who you want, and they need to understand that."

I couldn't help but smile. "You're only saying that because you're my boyfriend."

"Hell yeah. I haven't been listening to you snore for my health." He grinned.

"Whatever." I smacked his chest. "We could head back to Mystic Falls."

"You want to go to your home town?" Josh's brow furrowed.

"Why not? After all this time, wouldn't that be in plain sight?"

I could visit my family's graves. It killed me that I wasn't even allowed to attend their funerals. They'd taken me to New Orleans not too long after Klaus found me.

Not that I'd hidden well, half crazed with grief.

"Alright. We'll do what you think is best." His hands slid down my arms. "I trust you."

"Josh." I took a breath. "If they find you with me, like we are. More than simply being the person hiding me, they will kill you." None of the originals were of the forgiving kind.

And Kol already knew. I wasn't so sure he wouldn't kill him on principal.

"I'm not afraid of them." He paused. "Well, maybe a little. But you're well worth it."

There was this incessant need to run, to separate myself from him here and now, but there was a stronger part of me that wanted to stay in this moment forever, safe.

Josh made me feel safe in a way I'd never felt before, like I could finally breathe.

"I'm actually kind of excited for you to hang out with the Salvatores."

He made a face. "With Damon?"

"I didn't tell you that story to hold against him, I forgave him for sacrificing me to Kathrine a long time ago. If you remember, he's helping me with those pesky Originals."

"Yeah but you're banking on the fact that these guys are gonna pull through on your elaborate plan. How do we even know that finding Mikael will work?"

Josh didn't like the Salvatores, he didn't like much of anyone back home.

"Oh it'll work. If anything Elijah told me about the man is true, he's not only going to scare them off but he can kill the bastards."

After all, what was the use of a hunter who couldn't kill the things he sought.

Josh pulled away and opened my door. "Are you sure you're ready for them to die?"

I shot him a look as I got in. "I've been plotting for the better part of two years, I think I've processed it long enough."

"You're not a killer, Drew."

"I won't be killing anyone. If anything I'm reuniting a father with his children. Whether or not they destroy each other is entirely up to them."

"You know that's wrong."

"They killed my siblings, my aunt. I don't care. They all deserve this."

"All of them?"

I crossed my arms. "Yes. It's only an added bonus that Klaus fears Mikael the most."

He got in and started the car. "But what is it doing to you? When I met you-"

"When you met me I was a grieving mess. Angry at the people that claimed to be my family, and so confused on what I was supposed to do. Now I have clarity."

"Are you seeing things so clearly that you're willing to kill Finn? Rebekah? She wasn't even in town, right?"

Don't think about them. "True, they're not the villains of this situation. But they're Originals, it's not out of the question that they didn't do the same thing to others that they did to me. Even Finn had a hundred years before he went in his box."

Josh's face lit up with an idea. "The boxes, why not dagger the Originals."

"Because Klaus holds the majority of them and I don't want them temporarily gone, I want them gone gone."

"So you're playing judge, jury, and executioner?"

"Like I said. They deserve this. Damon and Stefan agree. You didn't see them Josh, no one did anything, didn't stop Klaus when they could have. They had the power and chose to betray me."

Did I feel guilty for using their father against them? Maybe a little, but Elena and Jeremy didn't deserve to die either.

Josh pulled off to the side of the road. "You're hurt, betrayed, and still grieving. Revenge never ends well."

He didn't understand, but he was trying at least.

"Oh I think this time it will. They're not gonna see this one coming. Especially because they think I'm just running scared." Why couldn't he just see it too?

"Drew. This is going to destroy you."

"Then let it!" Frustrated tears welled unbidden in my eyes. "The only two people I had left. Jeremy and Elena. They're gone forever." I let out a humorless laugh. "And you know what makes this worse? Klaus did it as a punishment, to enforce this idea that if I had just told- then they wouldn't have had to die."

This time though, this time I would win.