Book Three: Ineffable (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Forty-Six

Diana stands staring out her hospital room window, the night sky mocking her almost beyond. She lifts her eyes and spies Alaric's reflection in the window, she spins to find him lingering in the room.

"What the hell?" she asks him. He shrugs a little and smiles but there is something off, something dark about it.

"I heard about Elena" he offers. "Came to get her, thought I would..." he looks at the twins. "See for myself" he takes a step towards them but Diana moves and places herself between them and him. He frowns at her. "Diana" he warns. "They're my children."

"No" She stops him. "You're not my Ric...whatever that witch did to you...." She shakes her head. "No" He steps closer. "Get away from them" She shoves at Alaric's chest, pushing out a quake and throwing him backward. She stands defensively in front of her children, her hands held out at her side, vibrating, ready. He stands and glares at her. "Try it" She warns.

"I'll be back," he tells her. "This isn't over" He then disappears out the door, Diana slumps and cries to herself.

............

Meredith enters her office and is startled by the sight of Alaric sitting at her desk.

"Hello, Meredith."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm Elena's guardian. I thought it was strange I didn't get a phone call."

"How did you find out?" Meredith asks him.

"I have eyes and ears everywhere now. It's funny, the people of this town are actually good at their jobs when you allow them to be. Speaking of, you are a little too good at your job." Alaric gets up and opens a mini-fridge. He pulls out a rack of test tubes filled with vampire blood. "But that's because you cheat. So, I found your stash of vampire blood." Alaric opens the test tubes and starts pouring the blood onto her desk.

"No, stop it! No, don't do that, stop it!" Meredith scolds him. Alaric empties the last tube of vampire blood on her desk.

"The Council will be in touch with the medical board to have your license suspended. Mayor Lockwood and Sheriff Forbes are being relieved of their duties. I'm getting this town back under control." He takes Elena's medical folder out of Meredith's hands. "And you will be releasing Elena to my custody." Alaric signs the paperwork and hands it back to a distraught Meredith. He exits the room and walks towards Elena's hospital room. He enters it and finds the bed empty.

................

At a storage unit, Damon and Bonnie exit an elevator into a room of units.

"You know, I'm not halfway out of Virginia and Elena sells our souls to the Originals?" Damon asks.

"It was her call."

"You know what else is her call? Everything bad ever." Damon reminds her.

"Where's the body? As long as it's unspelled, Alaric is one witch away from finding it." Bonnie asks him.

"Hidden. I was gonna use Unit 666, but figured that would be a little obvious. So..." They stop in front of a unit. "1020. Mini fridge, a couple of birdcages, a box of old Playboys" Damon opens the unit's shutter door. "One beef jerkified Original." Bonnie opens the casket. Klaus' chained and desiccated body lies within it. Suddenly, Klaus opens his eyes and looks at them. "Oh, creepy."

"I need a minute," Bonnie admits.

"Just jam the witch locator, bat signal, or whatever and get on with it, Bonnie."

"Elena, and Jeremy lost Jenna, Diana and the twins lost Alaric because of him. Tyler's a hybrid, my mother's a vampire. Could you give me a minute to just appreciate the sight of him like this?" Damon leaves and closes the door of the storage unit. Bonnie leans over the casket, looking down at Klaus. "You should burn in hell. But if you die, so do my friends. So does my mother. What am I supposed to do about that?"

........

Damon is relaxing on a couch in a unit. He is on the phone with Stefan who is exiting the Gilbert house.

"Bonnie just left. Rebekah should be here soon to pick up the body." Damon tells Stefan.

"I've got Caroline and Elijah in place. Jeremy is gonna lead Alaric to us."

"You just had to let her make the choice, didn't you?"

"What would you have done, Damon?"

"Grabbed her, gagged her, threw her in a well, I don't know, anything other than let her trust, Elijah."

"You know she'd just hate you for it, right?"

"Yeah, but she'd be alive and she'd hate me. Thus, the eternal difference between you and me, brother."

"As soon as we get the stake, hand over the coffin and get out. Alaric's got half the police looking for Klaus' car."

"Will do," Damon assures him then pauses. "What about the Watchdog?" He asks Stefan.

"Meredith's working on keeping her at the hospital till this is over...." Stefan answers. 

"She's not stupid, she's going to figure out that something else is going on, also...an actual mind reader"

"Sleep-deprived mind reader" Stefan counters. "Elena doesn't want to get her hopes up and then to...dash them again" The elevator bell dings.

"Gotta go, the Original sister is here." Damon states then hangs up and walks out of the unit. "It's about time, sexy Bex." Alaric comes up from behind Damon and grabs him in a chokehold.

"Where is Klaus?"

"How did you find me?"

"Oh, you'd be amazed at how competent law enforcement is when it's not corrupted by vampires. Now, where is Klaus?"

"In a storage locker. There's only about a thousand of them, have at it." Alaric breaks his neck and places him on the ground. He walks off to begin his search for Klaus' body.

...............

Alaric breaks the locks off and opens the doors to several of the storage units. After not being able to find Klaus' body in any of them, he hears the elevator bell ding and Rebekah coming out of the elevator.

"Damon! Damon, where are you?" Rebekah shouts. Alaric pulls out the white oak stake and begins to walk towards Rebekah's voice. Rebekah is searching for Damon. "Damon, this isn't funny." Rebekah walks down a line of storage units while Alaric continues to search for her. She continues walking down a row and is suddenly grabbed from behind by Damon, who covers her mouth so she won't scream. She pulls her back so they are hidden behind a unit.

"Rebekah. Shhhh."

............

Alaric continues searching for Rebekah, but stops in front of storage unit 1020 and sees that the lock has been broken off. He opens the unit door, but Klaus' casket is gone. In another part of the warehouse, Rebekah and Damon are wheeling Klaus' casket to a car, but Alaric comes out of nowhere, grabs Rebekah and slams her head against her car, then throws her to the ground. Damon rushes at Alaric but Alaric kicks him out of his way. Alaric opens the casket and pulls out the white oak stake. Klaus' eyes fly open. Rebekah rushes to get up.

"No!"

"No, don't!"

"No! No! No!" Alaric stakes Klaus' in the heart. Klaus gasps. Damon grabs Rebekah so that she can't run to the casket. Klaus' body is set aflame. Rebekah continues to scream and cry. Alaric turns around.

"Next"

"Rebekah, run. Run!" Damon pushes Rebekah in the opposite direction and she rushes off. Damon rushes towards Alaric to distract him, but Alaric throws him to the ground and rushes off in search of Rebekah.