I'll Be Your Last

Betrayal

We’d Skyped with Jeremy around lunch time that day and the mood in the house was somber after that. Haley in particular had seemed agitated, despite Elijah’s reassurances that she’d be kept safe, and I guess I could understand why. Dealing with an unplanned pregnancy from a one night stand was one thing. Facing the birth of a child that would be like no other before it, was something else. Now Tyler was coming for her and the child to use in his plans to destroy Klaus. The original had other enemies who would think the same way. Yeah, for a werewolf who was just looking for her family? That had to suck.

But it was hard for me to feel too sorry for her. We all had to pay for the situations we got ourselves into. I usually did.

Elijah, a little frustrated from talking with Haley, returned to the living room. “Niklaus, did you know?”

Carefully Klaus pulled his hand away from mine, a movement Elijah didn’t miss. Instantly he was in his brother’s face.

“So immediately we assume that I knew the child would be able to create hybrids,” Klaus sneered at him. “Perhaps I’ve got plans for a grand hybrid army using my child.”

Oh, this was going to get ugly.

Elijah glanced in my direction. “If you’ll excuse us, Caroline.”

I got that I was being dismissed, and honestly, as deadly calm as Klaus was in that moment, it was probably dangerous to stay. Still, I looked to Klaus before moving. Something softened in his gaze for just a split second when he realized I was making it his choice whether I stayed or not.

He turned back to his brother with a venomous glare. To me he said, “Leave us if you would, sweetheart.”

The way he said sweetheart, no trace of sarcasm in his voice, let me know that with everything going on at the moment, he didn’t count me among those who he was angry with. And I escaped to my room before that could change. I pulled a blood bag from the mini-fridge Klaus had bought for my dorm room, and tried to shut out the rage fest that went on below. And it went on for a while.

The knock at my door had me jumping. “Come in,” I said after a moment.

Rebekah walked in, a long slender object wrapped in an ancient dirty cloth in her hand.

“Is that Kol’s sword?” I asked her.

Nodding, she joined me on the bed. Unwrapping it, she showed me what Kol had described. It looked like it had seen battle, nicked and discolored from time. Intricate designs had worn away on the handle here and there. Still, it was very well preserved weapon.

“Now all we need to do is arrange for Elijah’s witch to do the locator spell,” she said. “Considering what Kol said, we should probably do it sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah, before they kill each other,” I said, jerking my thumb in the direction of the living room. “That sounded bad.”

Rebekah didn’t try to hide her own concern. “It was bad. But it could have been so much worse. They are both still here in the house. Klaus, for once, didn’t do something he wouldn’t regret later. No one was daggered.”

“So a tame day for them?” I teased.

Rebekah laughed. “Guess so.”

“I think you have a lot to do with Nik’s behavior, Caroline,” she told me. “He’s trying to be better. For you.”

Something in my chest tightened at her words.

“If we’re able to pull this off and find Kol’s witches, I hope they are able to bring Bonnie back,” Rebekah’s voice was kind. “And I know you probably mean to go back to Mystic Falls with her. But I hope you’ll think about staying here with us. I mean, Tyler…”