Vulnerable § Klaus Mikaelson

54

edited chapter

Chapter 54: Potential

{D. K}

"How was I unaware that Jeremy was a potential hunter." Bonnie exclaimed, her bangs teasing the tips of her eyelashes.

Damon shrugged, giving her a sarcastic shrug. "Witch looses her powers and gets thrown out of the loop. It happens."

Bonnie opened her mouth to answer, but Jeremy interrupted, running as fast as he could into the room. He skidded to a stop, breathing heavily as his brown eyes darting back and forth between Bonnie and Damon worriedly. "What's wrong? Is it Elena?"

"We figured out how to help Elena."

The youngest Gilbert's eyes lit up significantly, being ridded of all worry they previously held seconds earlier. He looked expectantly at Damon, understanding the love the vampire held for his sister, no matter how much it bothered him. "You need to kill a vampire."

"Great. Give me a stake, I'll kill Damon right now."

"Easy, Van Helsing," His blue eyes opened wider, faking hurt at the teenagers haste to rid him from the earth. "We'll get you one."

"Before you do this, you'll need to know what your getting yourself into. You'll be killing them so the mark will grow. The more it grows and covers your body, it'll lead us to whatever the map leads to."

Jeremy soaked up all of information Bonnie gave him from Dakota, who had texted the exact same words said in a text message before the Gilbert appeared in the room. "How many do I need to kill?"

"As many as it takes."

•

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•

Dakota followed Shane down the dimly lit corridors until they reached the room containing the books he kept with him wherever he went. She was skeptic of the professor and although he appeared as a man of much wisdom, she kept her distance because wit meant he knew how to be sneaky. "How do you know all of this stuff about supernatural creatures. Earlier, I heard you talking about Silas and Qetsiyah, that's a lot of history from a very long time ago."

"It interests me, and I just can't get enough of it." Shane smiled widely, showing just how excited the simple mention of the topic sent his brain into a fritz that begged to tell her everything he knew, but he refrained. "Silas and Qetsiyah is a very long story, and it took me years to find all of it instead of bits and pieces. It was my wife actually, who grew interested in it and I just couldn't tear my eyes away."

"So she's a supernatural nerd too?"

Shane mistook Dakota's question for interest, when in all honesty she was trying to collect as much information about the man as she could. She didn't trust him and he held a vibe that made her skin crawl. "She was, before she passed along with my son."

"That sucks," The response caught Shane off guard, he was so used to the usual condolences and apologies than the awkward silence that followed thereafter, but this was pleasant. She was blunt and didn't sugarcoat things, something very valuable in a person —well vampire. "So since they died you decided to devote your life into exploring the world and divulging your time to supernatural lore."

Shane spared Dakota a glance of his hazel eyes, a series of greens and brown with flecks of blues specking his irises. "It's not lore, I believe in it. All of it, I believe that it's real."

"To what extent?"

The atmosphere and Shane finally caught on that Dakota didn't care about his feelings, she cared about the answers he was feeding her and for the first time in a very long time, Shane felt very stupid. In his moment of distraction around the pretty woman, he had unknowingly been spilling information that he now understood was better off left in his mind. "I just believe in a lot of things."

"You're scared," Dakota pointed out, hearing his voice change and close off to her. "Why's that? Never been in a room alone with a woman before?"

"I have, just not ones that drink blood and were born nine-hundred years ago."

A smile passed on her lips, pleased that he knew of her species. "So you've heard of me."

Shane nods his head, the messy mop of brown curly bobbing with each move of his head, bringing somewhat of an innocent look when paired with his large eyes. "It took me some time to recognize you." His hands shuffled in a box, sifting through a series of manila envelops with neat labels at the top of each one. "There was a rumor that you killed an entire states worth of people when your father died."

"He didn't die, Shane." Dakota snapped, disliking the subject of her father. When he passed, she didn't even bother burying him, she simply left him body to rot. "No, that would require old age and poor health. My father was a coward and killed himself when he realized he was a terrible guardian."

"But the records say—"

"—that he was murdered? I know that. It might as well have been, he killed himself. A waste of human life if he spent it grieving all alone in his room nursing a bottle of gin."

The room shared between the two was quiet, and the only thing heard was the sound of Shane taking folders out and stacking them in a neat pile beside him. With each word Dakota spoke, the professor gobbled up the story, savoring her words, and digesting each syllable. "What do you want with the hunter, assuming you know what his mark leads too."

"I've been alive for nine-hundred years. I've experienced pain, betrayal, love, and everything in between. I know that you know we have a hunter, and when I find that cure, I will take it."

"Y-you want to be human?"

Dakota scoffed loudly, a laugh passing through her teeth as if the words he spoke were a joke. "Hell no. I want to die as a human and make sure that I never come back. I want to pass through the supernatural barrier that looms over Mystic Falls and make sure that no one ever hears of me again."

"What a unusual wish."

"Stay alive for nine centuries and you'll rethink that." Dakota took the envelopes, clutching them to her chest and speeding out of the room leaving Shane all alone with a giddy smirk on his face.