Wicked Schemes

Chapter 17

_______________________________

I know I've been selfish,
I know I've been foolish,
But look through that and you will see,
That I'll do better.
_______________________________
"I don't think we're going to know exactly how many vampires Marcel has at his disposal," Caroline leaned forward, resting her head on her hands as her elbows pressed onto the table. She looked over at the blue index cards spread out on the wall before her and Caleb and knew they hadn't even scratched the surface of Marcel's followers. Considering he could always sire more they might never get a complete picture of his forces. "But it's definitely over two hundred."

"Plus there's Davina," Caleb pointed out, holding up one of the green cards. "Uh...do we put her down as a green one or a blue one or what?" While she was a witch, she was definitely unwittingly in Marcel's camp.

"Blue card, silver sharpie," Caroline told him, and tacked Davina's card up alongside Marcel's. "Majority of Marcel's forces are nightwalkers. So the ones who he hasn't deemed worthy enough of gaining a daywalker ring. Maybe we can use that to our advantage?" If they could somehow get them to think they'd be better off without Marcel as their leader they might help overturn the vampire. But Caroline didn't want to offer empty promises and from what she had seen in the club, his followers seemed all too happy with what he was currently offering them.

"Also means they're pretty vulnerable during the day and I think the majority of them all live over at the club Marcel owns." From what she had seen of the outer building, it was big enough to hold more rooms than what she had seen of the club. "We might need to look into that though."

Caleb jotted that down in his notebook, adding to the list of tasks Caroline had been coming up with. "What about these ones?" he asked, nudging the yellow cards with the Originals names forward.

That was the question, wasn't it? How much did she trust the Originals in regards to the whole balance of New Orleans? Maybe they had kept it up one hundred years ago, but who could guarantee they would now? Or that the others would even allow it? And had they even really kept up the balance or had the witches and werewolves had enough power back then to keep them in line? The werewolves were barely holding it together at the moment and Caroline was pretty sure she didn't even fully know the witches entire agenda anymore so chances of them keeping the Originals in line was slim.

She picked up Klaus' card, looking over at the werewolf ones that were already on the board. He was the spokesperson for their lot, no matter what else went down, he seemed to have the wolves' loyalty. He had shown them some service back earlier. Even if Caroline was certain that had been because she had been with him and trying to live up to the expectations she seemed to have for him. That thought alone made her bite her bottom lip; especially because she was pleased he had at least tried and shown them a merciful side to him.

Did it matter why he had given the wolves some freedom though or just the fact that it had happened? That they were now allowed to attend school, get jobs, and at least two were going to start a family? Wasn't that the part that mattered, not the fact he might never have done it if she hadn't wanted it to happen? Would it all stop if she were to leave...could she even leave anymore? Caroline wasn't sure she could walk away from New Orleans or the back and forth that was happening between her and Klaus once her task as Harbinger was finished. Partly because she worried what would happen if she did, another part because she doubted it'd be easy to do so, but also because she just didn't want to. She wanted to see the city. She enjoyed Klaus' company when he wasn't pissing her off. She didn't even mind Rebekah's snarky comments.