The bonds of family

25

Arkyn woke up still out of his mind with fury, pain and upset. Caitlyn sat over him. She opened the vial of potion she had and raised it to his mouth.
"Drink." She said, but he pushed away the vial, smashing it on the floor. "Oh, crap."
"You shouldn't have come." He shook his head, a predatory smirk on his face and she scrambled back.
"Well, I figure I owe you for about two saves."
"If I kill you now, does that make us even or do you still owe me one." He let out a chuckle and turned to Davina. "Little witch, that won't work on me. And I thought you were supposed to be a harvest girl."
"What the hell?" She raised her hand, focusing on making him hurt but he simply crossed his arms.
"Stop before you hurt yourself." He turned back to Caitlyn. He stalked towards her and she took a step back.
"Ark?" She tried. "Whatever Finn did- this isn't you."
"You don't know me."
"I know you're a good person. I know you think if you don't get rid of me Klaus will, but he won't. I'm not going anywhere."
"Famous last words." He lunged at her and sunk his teeth into her neck.
"Get off her." Davina ran forward trying to shove him off, but he held onto Caitlyn with an iron grip, pushing Davina back so she fell against the wall. He continued feeding off Caitlyn and stopped as other memories began flooding his brain, just like with Finn hours earlier. The memories this time were different. They were his happy memories.
Meeting Alyson for the first time- a young girl so trusting of him. When she'd given birth to Xavier, to Alexis. Being there throughout the years, even after their father had left. Xavier's track meets, Alexis's matches and recitals. Memories of Bonnie- making him laugh and smile, how he fell in love with her so quickly and deeply. Then there were memories going further back- memories of Kol always being by his side- always being his brother even when he wasn't a good person. Comforting him every time he woke up in cold sweat, afraid that that day would be the day Klaus decided he didn't care much for him. He remembered Rebekah, happy and carefree. His sister. Thousands more memories bombarded his head and he pushed himself off Caitlyn. It was too late, she'd passed out because of blood loss, maybe even died.
"No no no! Caitlyn!" He knelt beside her and bit into his wrist, pushing it to her mouth so she'd drink it. She swallowed and he sighed in relief. "You idiot. What were you thinking?"
"Glad to see you're back to normal."
"I almost killed you."
"Cass put a protection spell on me."
"She-" he sighed. "You risked your life."
"You're still bleeding." She reached out touching under his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm not supposed to be out of the boundary spell." He said. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine." She sat up and he moved away. He looked at Davina and moved over.
"Are you okay?"
"What the hell was that?"
"Finn did a spell. Pretty much brought out all the darkness in me. Kind of like a humanity switch." She looked at him distrustfully.
"Kind of?"
"Humanity switches are a youthful thing. You kind of grow out of it after a while. Being a thousand, I don't have a humanity switch. What Finn did was pull up the darkest parts of my being, the parts of me I've spent centuries trying to squash. Every pain I've ever felt, every dark thought I've ever had, every anger and upset and hatred. All of it brought up to overwhelm me, thus taking me out of the game." His eyes fell on Klaus. "What happened to him?"
"Finn trapped him and your brothers in a mental prison."
"Why is Klaus here? Isn't he supposed to be with Kol?"
"Finn trapped the vampires at the compound with a boundary spell and Klaus condemned Kol to it. The vampires have also been cursed with a ravenous hunger."
"Kol is mortal."
"Exactly." Arkyn turned to Caitlyn.
"I'm taking you home." He turned to Davina next. "Stay here in case Klaus wakes up, won't you?"
"Don't know what else I can do." She rolled her eyes.
"And can you undo the boundary spell? This won't stop until it's broken." He pointed at his face. She put up her hand towards the bed, and muttered a spell. He felt a sort of weight lift of him- found himself beginning to heal and he wiped away the blood. Caitlyn held out a tissue and he used it to clean himself.
"What about Kol?"
"I'll go to him." He said and he and Caitlyn walked out. "I'm going to run you home. Okay?"
"You can't be mad at me for saving you."
"I almost killed you."
"Cass put a protection spell on me, don't worry. If I died, I'd have come back."
"That's not the point."
"What is? You like doing the saving. Can't stand being the one saved?"
"People who help me usually end up with a target on their back."
"I thought we were past that. Your father already kidnapped me, remember?" She stopped. "Unless you're talking about Klaus. You pretty much accused him of killing someone you cared about."
"Cait-"
"I'm not going anywhere." She said.