Jenna gasped softly as she watched Michael's eyes turn a deep, molten red. The glow pulsed like living embers, and when he parted his lips, fangs slid into place along the sides of his mouth before retracting again.
Before she could stop herself, Jenna lifted her hand. Her fingers brushed his cheek.
Michael stiffened, then leaned back slightly, one brow arching as the glow in his eyes dimmed.
"Well," he said dryly, "show's over. No autographs."
Jenna yanked her hand back as if burned. "I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"
"No," Michael interrupted, his tone softer now. "I'm sorry." He looked at her for a moment longer. "Sorry you have to live knowing this world is… like this."
'Shame,' he thought distantly. 'She was killed off in the series.'
The thought lingered for half a second longer than it should have.
'Hmm…'
His internal musing was cut short when Jenna smiled at him a small, shaky, but real.
Before either of them could say anything else, the library door opened.
"Elena?" Jenna breathed.
Elena stood frozen in the doorway, eyes darting between them, confusion etched across her face. Michael straightened immediately.
"Well," he said casually, already stepping away, "that's my cue."
Without waiting for a response, he walked out of the library and closed the door behind him.
Moments Later
Stefan stood in the corridor, leaning against the wall, listening as Jenna spoke to Elena inside the library. His eyes burned, tears threatening to spill.
The door opened, Elena stepped out and quietly shut it behind her.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Stefan asked.
"She's in shock," Elena replied softly. "I tried to tell her as much as I could, but I barely scratched the surface."
She hesitated, then added, "She took it better than I expected, though… it seems Michael already helped with that."
Stefan let out a small, breathless chuckle. "Yeah. He does that."
Elena smiled at him knowingly. "You admire him, don't you?"
Stefan looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah," he admitted. "I do. And I don't even know how to repay him for everything for me."
His expression fell. "I hate this. I'm so sorry, Elena."
"It's not your fault, Stefan," she said gently. "It's mine. Anyway… I have to go back to Elijah."
"Wait, what? No, no!" Stefan said immediately.
"I promised him I'd return," Elena replied. "I can't break that promise."
Stefan paused, then nodded slowly. "Oh."
"I'll be okay," Elena said with a reassuring smile.
She turned toward the front door.
Before she could reach it, Damon and Andie appeared at the end of the hallway and walked toward them.
"Where do you think you're going?" Damon asked.
"Back to Elijah," Elena answered.
Damon vamp-sped, appearing directly in front of her. "No."
"Get out of my way, Dam—" Elena began, but Damon grabbed her arm.
"If you so much as try to take a step out of this house," Damon started, his voice low and dangerous.
Out of nowhere, Michael appeared.
His hand clamped around Damon's wrist with iron hold.
"Let her go." The words were calm and final. Damon froze, eyes snapping to Michael in disbelief. Michael tilted his head slightly, gaze flicking down to Damon's grip. "You know, this whole dramatic arm-grabbing to assert dominance thing? Very Phase One villain. Needs polish."
Stefan blinked. "What?"
Michael didn't even look at him. "You wouldn't get it."
"Are you kidding me?" Damon snapped, incredulous. "We just got her back."
Michael finally turned his eyes on Damon, with and unreadable expression and his voice still conversational.
"She can make her own decisions. If she wants to go back to Elijah, then she'll go back to Elijah."
His grip tightened just enough to make the point unmistakable.
"So you're going to remove your hand from her arm," Michael continued mildly, "or I'm going to rip it off your body, shove it so far up your ass it'll punch your fangs out and then proceed to beat you to death with it."
The nonchalance in his tone was what truly unsettled them.
For a long second, Damon stared at him. Then, slowly, he released Elena. "Good," Michael said with a satisfied smile, letting go of Damon's wrist.
He turned to Elena, his expression softening just a fraction. "Be careful. Elijah is a man of his word just like I taught him to be. I'm sure he's told you that."
Elena nodded.
"He can be trusted," Michael went on, "but trust doesn't mean blind faith. When you make a deal with him, make sure it benefits both of you. And under no circumstances—" his eyes sharpened "—do you make a promise you can't keep, or one you don't fully understand the loopholes of."
"I won't," Elena said quietly.
She glanced back toward the library, worry flickering across her face.
"I'll look after Jenna," Michael said, following her gaze. "I promise she'll be safe."
That was enough for her.
Elena smiled at him, then turned and walked out of the house.
The door closed softly behind her and Stefan exhaled and shook his head. "You're still as non-standard as ever, you know that?"
Michael shrugged. "What? I just gave him a little warning."
Stefan let out a short laugh. "Yeah… he needed that."h
Alaric's apartment.
Katherine was playing the music loudly, drinking and dancing, when she suddenly heard someone at the door, and sped onto the couch, when Klaus/Alaric entered to see Katherine sitting down "You mind turning that down?"
Katherine turned down the music "Why so grumpy?" she asked
"Well, this body has outlived its usefulness."
"Especially now," he muttered, voice low and sharp, "with my dear stronger-than-life complication wandering around Mystic Falls."
His lips curled into something between a smirk and a snarl.
"God knows if he truly is what we found out he could be. Then this would get a lot more complicated with how deadly he would be " Klaus continued, shaking his head. "Sarcastic remarks sharper than daggers, an uncanny talent for getting under my skin even more than Kol ever managed."
He exhaled slowly, "My would-be god-brother decides to show up in town," he went on, venom lacing every word, "nearly rips me apart in a borrowed body, kills my warlock without so much as a pause, and then has the audacity to lecture me."
For a moment, his expression darkened, the memory replaying in his mind of Michael's glowing eyes, the effortless dominance, the absolute certainty in his voice.
Klaus scoffed quietly.
"I don't know which is worse," he admitted to himself. "Him… or Elijah."
Elijah, with his honor and restraint was predictable and manageable.
Michael, however?
Michael was neither.
"He knows me," Klaus said softly, almost to himself. "Not the monster they all see. The boy I was. And that…" His fingers clenched. "That makes him dangerous."
"Do you want a drink?" Katherine asked
Klaus/Alaric turned to her and said "No, Katerina, I don't want a drink."
Katherine got up with the bottle and said "Come on. It might loosen you up."
Klaus/Alaric snatched the bottle and threw it against a wall and compelled her "What I want is for you to sit down and shut up." Katherine sat down and remained quiet as Klaus/Alaric walked to the door when someone knocked and opened it letting two men enter with liggage as a girl entered
"Greta. Finally." he said
"Hello, love. Nice body. You ready to get out of it?" Greta asked as Katherine watched the two men enter with a large box.
Lockwood's mansion
Elena entered, to see elijah standing in front of the fireplace "Welcome back." Elijah said without turning around
"Tell me. What is Klaus' curse?" Elena asked picking up where they left off
"Please." Elena said gesturing for Elena to sit, which she does, before he sat down next to her.
"My family was quite close, but Klaus and my father did not get on too well. When we became vampires, we discovered the truth. Klaus was not my father's son. My mother had been unfaithful many years before. This was her darkest secret. Klaus is from a different bloodline. Of course, when my father discovered this, he hunted down and he killed my mother's lover and his entire family. Not realizing, of course, that he was igniting a war between species that rages until this day."
"A war between the species?" Elena asked
"The vampires... and the werewolves." Elijah said
"So Klaus' real father was from a werewolf bloodline? What does that make Klaus? A werewolf? Or a vampire?" Elena asked
"He's both. Nature would not stand for such an imbalance of power. Therefore the witches, the servants of nature, saw to it that my brother's werewolf side would become dormant."
Elena hesitated before asking, her voice barely above a whisper.
"So… what exactly is Michael?"
Elijah was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly, as though conceding to an old, unwelcome memory.
"Some time ago," he began, "Niklaus and I crossed paths with a coven in Rome. Ancient witches and descendants of what they called the Original Coven."
Elena frowned. "The original coven?"
Elijah inclined his head, a faint trace of amusement flickering across his face. "Oh yes. They believed themselves blessed over two millennia ago."
Elena's brow furrowed. "Blessed by what?"
That question made Elijah rise from his seat. He began to pace, hands clasped behind his back, expression darkening.
"They spoke in whispers," he said slowly, "of an entity. Immensely powerful. One forged of fire and ash. A being that, according to them, saved and protected their people from beasts now forgotten by the world."
Elena swallowed. "Vampires? Werewolves?"
Elijah stopped.
"I… don't know," he admitted, confusion evident for perhaps the first time. "And therein lies the problem. The witches told us what those beasts were but for reasons unknown, some spell or compulsion prevents us from retaining the memory. Each time we come close to recalling it, our subconscious erases it."
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