14: Silver Lining

“I wish I could help you there,” the empath said.

“I know,” Klaus sighed.

Peter returned inside for Carlisle and this time was skipping like a third grade school girl. He walked out with his body over his shoulder, tipping his invisible hat passing Klaus.

Klaus was silent for a moment, trying to put his thoughts in order. Staring towards the front door, he finally spoke after a moment as they took in the scent of burning Cold Ones. “Your friend is a strange one, Major.”

“Your family is strange.”

~o.O.o~

With most of the Mikaelson family reunited and relatively satisfied that the threat that sent Bella into the frenzy of turning her humanity off under control, it left few complications for them to deal with. Having decided what remained was now strictly a family matter to be resolved internally, Klaus dismissed Jasper and his friends, knowing that they would have his and his wife’s back should they ever require their assistance. And they would return the favor. The Whitlock coven left with a reluctant Rosalie in tow, as Klaus was still tempted to kill her despite her innocence in the events surrounding her mate’s actions.

The only one of their kind that remained was Alice, quietly compelled as her ability was granted the family some margin of leverage over other vampires and witches.

With a sigh, Klaus snapped Katherine Pierce’s neck again, dropping her on the couch and turned to his wife, who sat across the room, legs crossed and her chin resting in her hand on the armrest. She appeared so at ease with what he had just done, he raised a brow. “You know, you could help subdue her every now and then while we figure out a suitable punishment,” he commented.

“I could, yes,” she replied. “I cannot, however. It’s still difficult after all these years, Niklaus. She reminds me so much of my sister that I just can’t bear to do anything.”

“That is why you helped her run from me after she turned,” he realized, seeing the saddened look on her face.

She shrugged a shoulder. “I know she is not Tatia, nor that Tatia was truly my sister. But the sentiment still remains. They truly are so much alike that it pains me to lose her – as complicated as it seems. Perhaps it contributes much to my resentment of Elijah.”

Klaus stared at her, knowing Rebekah’s hints and flagrant tells have told him as much. “What exactly has Elijah done that has upset you? Tell me and I will deal with him.”

Bella stared at Katherine’s body and a small smile grew on her lips. “You could not harm him any more than I can her,” she answered, eyes shifting over to her husband. The sounds from the nearby bedroom suddenly grew louder and she rolled her eyes. “Are those two going to finish sometime this century?”

“They haven’t seen one another since I boxed him in, what? 1821? They probably had a few rendezvous until he was boxed again, by you, I may add. Give them their time. I would prefer not to anger that one if we can avoid it,” he reluctantly admitted.

“She may not be Mikaelson by blood, or marriage, but she certainly is one in spirit. I’ll grant her that,” Bella mused, curiously eyeing the direction of the bedroom her brother and his lover were in. “It still disturbs me to this day what she is capable of. I still dislike the Heretics.”

The chuckle from Klaus brought her back to the moment and she narrowed her eyes on him. “Oh, I wouldn’t go there yet. Who’s to say that he might not follow through one day? We all know that they’ve been infatuated with one another since they met all those years ago when she was still human. Even if he took her for a toy, she’s the one that turned it around making him her plaything. I think it only made him all that much more…endeared to her.”

Bella rolled her eyes again and pouted as she returned to staring at Katherine. Trying to think of some sort of punishment or torture for the vampire did not come easy to her but she knew it was necessary. What the girl had conceived against her family was unforgivable.

“Tell me what Elijah has done to wrong you,” Klaus said, moving to block her view.

Her eyes narrowed before looking up his body and for the moment, all she could think about was taking him to one of the other rooms and laying claim to him. The expression he looked at her with, demanded a response, one that he almost never used on her.

“You mean, aside from his voracious appetite that led to his killing my sister? His supposed love of his life?” she asked, contempt dripping from each word as she spit them out. “His participation in your binding is another. Plus he was the one that handed me the tea caused the loss of our unborn child that your mother created that was supposed to ease my nausea when I learned I fell pregnant. He may have been naive to her actions, but he still had a part to play.”

Klaus’ jaw dropped as he stared at her. He had no idea what to say to her that could possibly ease her anger, her pain. His mother was no longer there for her to take her frustrations out on, and all she had was Elijah. “You were…? You never said anything.”

She looked down to her hands, her fingers turning and knotting themselves in the hem of her blouse. “No, I did not. I had wanted to wait another moon until I knew the child was strong. I’d been ill for weeks and there was that sickness that swept through the village that we feared I had caught. I didn’t want to say anything and have us to prepare only to lose it and be disappointed. So I shouldered it on my own. I only recognized the ingredients of the tea when I went to see your mother to help prepare for supper and saw the wolfsbane near her potions and some of the leaves I knew she used in my tea. Why would she put wolfsbane in my tea? Unless I had something wolf related within. I was so ill and weak. You feared that I did have that sickness, but because neither of us had triggered our gene, yet, it was only enough to…” she trailed off, wiping away the tears of the memories. “So yes. I resent Elijah for every action he has done to us, for what he believed was best. Fair, noble Elijah. If the vampire world only knew just how much of a monster he truly was.”

Klaus nodded slowly, his fingers, hands twitching at his sides for the desire to draw blood. “When we finish here, we will retrieve him, wake him, and punish him as well. Perhaps a few centuries boxed up will do him well.”

Bella sighed and looked back up at her husband. “If only we had the ability to compel one another. I’d just compel his memories of us away and send him off. However, we cannot get what we wish.”

“I wouldn’t want to forget a thing. Every bloody betrayal only makes us who we are,” Klaus stated. “You would not be the strong woman you are today if it had not been for putting up with me for a husband, and Elijah for a brother!”

“He ain’t wrong there, Poppet,” Kol chimed as he leaned against the entryway with a lazy smile on his face. “You know I can’t stand the bastard more than I do this one. Some days, it’s reversed.”

She smiled at him, saying nothing. When Myriam walked in, still pulling her shirt on, she threw her hands up, exasperated. “You could not at least finish dressing before you left the bedroom?”

Myriam’s head popped through her shirt and looked over at her. “No,” she answered honestly. “We were finished, I let Kol come out and have his moment with you and then I was too eager to get in on the action with Kitty Kat. I can’t wait to play with her.”

Bella’s eyes glowed yellow as she snarled at the vampire. “I refuse to let her die.”

“Oh I’m not going to kill her,” Myriam waved her off. “Chill your jets. You just might enjoy the show,” she smirked and took off through the house before returning, frustrated. “Why is there no television in this place?”

Klaus blinked, glancing at Kol who merely shrugged. “We only just returned to New Orleans. And we’ve never had the need for one,” he muttered, confused as to what she might be thinking.

Huffing, she stood with her hands on her hips, glaring towards the vampire. “Fine. I’ll get this fixed. Just give me a little time.”

Before anyone could object, she disappeared out the door.

“Kol. What is your girlfriend planning on doing with Katherine?” Bella questioned, her eyes closed as she pressed her fingers to her temple.

“I haven’t the foggiest. I’m sure it should be fun, right?” he grinned.

Klaus and Bella glared back at him, not the least bit amused.

~o.O.o~

Late that afternoon, activity began to pick up at the plantation. While they were certain Myriam was the cause of it, seeing as it involved a delivery of several televisions and eventually a compelled cable service hook up, the Mikaelson family were still pondering what her grand plan was for Katherine.

“Alright. I’ll give that I might be interested in seeing some of the shows I hear some of the humans speak of now and then, but I still don’t understand what this has to do with punishing Katherine,” Bella complained as she glared as the humans moved about like aimless little ants in her kingdom.

“You and I both,” Kol replied as he grabbed the remote when the first television was done and began to investigate the technology, flipping through the channels.

Bella’s face scrunched as he became fascinated and ignored her and Klaus. Turning to him, she shook her head. “If we are able to get the compound back, I want to live there. Kol can keep this place and these – modern modifications that Myriam has made.”

“Agreed,” Klaus said, kissing her forehead. Hearing more movement in the front, he sighed. “What now?”

Double checking that Katherine was still out, the couple went to the front door, confused and annoyed at what they saw. “What are you doing here? With that?!” Bella demanded.

Rebekah’s mouth fell open for a moment, turning to Marcel for backup. “Kol’s little pet showed up telling us that you needed Elijah here. I figured it’d be best that we kept him boxed since I had no idea why for. Marcel of course objected until she let him know exactly why we usually entertain Myriam’s little requests.”

Marcel still was quite annoyed and disturbed by whatever she’d done to him. “The fuck?! Did you know she has demons? For pets?” he questioned as he glared at his sire.

Klaus shrugged and nodded. “Yes, unfortunately. Kol found her when she was human and she was quite the skilled demonologist. That is what sets her apart from witches, you see. You don’t need magic to control them. Just knowledge, confidence, and perfect pronuncian. Or so I was told. She won’t tell us how she truly does it, but she does have them contained and only lets them out when she deems necessary. Clearly, you pissed her off.”

“We do try not to do that,” Bella added under her breath as she crossed her arms, staring at the coffin they brought with them. “Why would she think we’d want Elijah here? Right now, I’d like nothing more than to set him on fire while he is defenseless in that trap.”

“It won’t kill him, Love,” Klaus reminded her.

“I can wish,” she sneered as she waved her permission to bring Elijah’s coffin inside.

It wasn’t long once they had the furniture moved and situated to accommodate the new addition that Myriam returned, waltzing into the house with rubber gloves, tarps, and ropes inside a bucket of water. A quick breath had the vampires giving her a wide berth as they picked up the scent of vervain.

“Oh good! Everything is here,” the psychotic vampire grinned as she set up two chairs with a tarp underneath in the one sitting room that had a television and cable installed.

She grabbed the unconscious Katherine and securely tied her to one chair, turning it to face the television before setting up the other to do the same for Elijah. No one said a word as they watched with morbid curiosity as they hadn’t a clue as to what she was planning. Thus far, what she had done wasn’t unusual as far as beginnings of torturing goes. Pretty standard technique for vampires.

Stepping back and pulling off her gloves, Myriam narrowed her eyes on Katherine. “She will probably need to be compelled to remain in her chair, but that will be all. The suffering will come soon enough. As far as Elijah, compulsion won’t work and I know the vervain will only go so far, so I’ll have to attach one of my pets to keep him rooted in place. I promise he won’t hurt him – much,” she assured the siblings as she gave them a devious smile.

“I am still confused as to how you think this is going to punish them?” Bella commented. “Katherine has enough experience and tolerance against vervain that she can put up with a lot.”

“Hm, yes,” Myriam nodded as she considered that. “She’s not much older than me, but while she’s particularly vain, I did keep up with the technology and media. If I ever asked you to trust me on anything, trust me on this. Katherine will only suffer mentally. Elijah, I don’t know. I tended to avoid him. He was always a bit of a prick.”

Katherine started to moan as her neck had healed already from her most recent break and she was coming to, making the vampire grin. Myriam immediately went over to the television, turning it on and flipping the channels, searching for a particular station. Tossing the remote to a random corner of the room so it wasn’t as easily sought out, she went over and pulled out the dagger from Elijah and handed it over to Bella. “All we do now is wait,” she winked.

“What is this?” Klaus questioned as he eyed the television.

“Mental torture at it’s finest,” Myriam replied, shrugging. “Just try not to pay attention to it yourself. Come on and stay out of the room otherwise we will give them something else to focus on and defeat the purpose. We’ll check on them later.”

He glared at her as she pushed them out and shut the door behind her. “I don’t get it.”

“She is making them sit through never ending government political babble,” Marcel replied. “It’s insanely boring.”

“Mental torture for humans. I forgot to pay my cable bill once. Instead of cutting me off, they put that on all channel options. I had it paid by the end of day three of realizing what the fuck was going on,” Myriam admitted. “Katherine won’t last before screaming to be let out of there.”

“She can still hear us out here,” Rebekah added her input as she strained to listen for anything through the door.

“Nope. I have my little pet blocking our sounds from them. We can talk freely. Don’t worry. Until you’re ready to let them free, they are stuck in one another’s company and the US government for entertainment,” Myriam clapped her hands together in front of her and swung her body like an excited four year old.

“Oh hell no! Not this shit!”

“It’s begun…”

Bella was about to go run in to look but Myriam held her back. “No, just wait a little. We need to see how Elijah reacts.”

Bella eyed her for a moment before slowly nodding and letting out a breath.

Eventually, Myriam finally let everyone in several hours later to check on the two’s status. However, what they found was not quite what they expected. Myriam was actually rather disappointed and scrunched her nose up in distaste at the scent she picked up. “Ugh, I’m outta here.”

Marcel blinked and looked over at his shocked sire and his wife, who were both staring speechless. Katherine had vervain burns on her arms from the ropes, as they had anticipated. She sat in the chair crying as she evidently had tried to inch the chair away from Elijah as far as she could.

Whereas, Elijah appeared completely enraptured by the television and the scent of arousal permeated the room.

“I think I’m with Myriam. That’s just – no,” Rebekah said, turning and making her escape, pulling Marcel with her.

Klaus and Bella looked at one another and followed the others out, ignoring the pleading Katherine. Slamming the door behind them, Bella zipped to the front of the house, ahead of Marcel and her sister. “Stop. We are claiming the compound back,” she stated as she faced Marcel, daring him to challenge her.

He opened his mouth to say something but with two hybrids against him, closed his mouth quickly. “The compound is yours, Your Highness.”

“Oh hell no,” she objected. “I simply want nothing to do with this property now after that. Myriam is one messed up demon and after everything we’ve been through and that I’ve put the family through, I have to admit – that was most anticlimactic.”

“It truly was,” Klaus agreed. “But almost fitting for them. Kol and Myriam can keep the plantation and watch over them.”

“And Alice. She won’t get visions around us,” Bella pointed out.

“Alice?” Marcel questioned.

“None of your concern,” Klaus smiled. “Another of Myriam’s pets.”

“I’m ready to go home, Niklaus. I’m so ready for this to be done with.”

“Great,” Myriam shouted from the top of the steps. “Go, be gone. I’ll let you know when their brains have turned to mush.”

“Lovely visuals,” Bella murmured, glaring at Kol, whom only gave her a cheeky smile and ran up the stairs to his lover. “He better know what he’s doing this time.”

“She’ll just find her own punishment, Sweetheart. Let’s go home,” Klaus said, pulling her out the door with a smile and plan to fully ravish her that evening. “It’s all over now. It can be just you and I.”

Her eyes glowed amber at the tone he used and her heart picked up its pace. “I look forward to it.”