Chương 33: Ch. 32

As Klaus and I rise from our spots in the brush, naked as the day we were each born, we're staring at one another, easily ready to continue our fight even now. Elijah interrupts the tense moment by throwing clothing at both of us, breaking the mood and prompting wide grins to spread across our faces.

As we begin to dress, Klaus spoke up, "That was amazing. How long has it been?"

Elijah answers easily, "Almost two days. The moon came and went and you both remained wolves."

I jump into the conversation, even as I button up my pants, "Yes, we can change at will now."

Klaus grins, "Good to know. I remember every moment of it. You've become quite vicious over the centuries little brother. Or was that just the wolf in you coming out?"

I chuckle at that, "Oh no, that was all me. Consider it a bit more payback for doing such a good job at convincing Elijah that you put our siblings in the sea, that I actually believed him when he came to me. Not a very nice prank Nik."

Elijah interjects before Klaus can respond, handing us both pairs of shoes now, "Enough, I believe we have a bargain."

Klaus sounds positively gleeful in his response, "That's right. Now what was it again? Oh yes wait, I remember. You wish to be reunited with our family."

Elijah clenches his jaw at the tone his brother is using, "You gave me your word Niklaus."

Klaus smiles, "Yes, what kind of brother would break his bond… even though you did try to kill me. And you almost let him."

He points to me at the end of that and I just smile, shrugging. He looks between us for a moment long before smiling, "All is forgiven. I'll bring you to them soon enough Elijah."

With that he turns and begins walking away. Elijah looks at me and I just smile before moving to follow, having a rather good idea of what comes next.

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Klaus led us into town to an apartment that he'd clearly set up with his witches. As we three walked inside, he looked back at us and grinned, "After two days of brawling, I am famished. Blood bags all around and then we'll head out so that I may fulfill my obligation to you Elijah."

Klaus walks deeper into the apartment and I can't help but turn to Elijah and distract him, even though I am almost positive what's going to happen in a few moments, "Well Elijah, do you trust him?"

Elijah works his jaw up and down, "You may not understand how important family is after so much time away Vali, but all I have left is this hope. So yes, I trust Klaus will reunite me with our siblings."

From behind Elijah, Klaus speaks, "And so I shall." And as Elijah turns, Klaus slams the white oak silver dagger home into our older brother's heart. I watch as Elijah cries out in pain and begins to fall and I watch as Klaus half-catches him and lowers our brother's slowly greying body to the ground.

Klaus begins to stand and I finally stop watching as he speaks in a low tone as he turns to me, "Now, what am I going to do with yo-"

I cut him off by slipping the gold dagger gripped in my left hand in between his ribs and into his heart in a symbolistic duality of the ambush he'd just delivered onto Elijah. His eyes go wide as he stares at me, the magic on the dagger already taking effect. He only has time to get out a single word as he falls, "W-what?"

I kneel beside him as he begins to go grey and speak casually, running my fingers over the hilt of the dagger currently buried in his chest, "Do you not remember what I told you Niklaus, five centuries ago? There would come a time where I would expect you to throw the silver daggers into the sea and free our siblings. Mikael is dead by my hand and the curse is broken by yours. This was your chance to put an end to your hatred and let our family be whole again."

I look down at his almost fully grey body, eyes still wide open and staring at me accusingly and I shake my head, "And you let that chance go. Did you think I would not be able to deal with you Niklaus? I killed Mikael in five minutes after you ran from him for nine hundred years. Unlike you, I did not spend the last thousand years learning how to run. I spent it learning how to win."

The light in his eyes has gone out and I'm not sure he's heard my final words to him, but either way it matters not as I reach up and brush his eyelids down so that he's no longer staring at me. I spend one more beat looking down upon the face of the man I used to root for a thousand years previous, in a life that seems like nothing but a blink of time at this point, before turning from him back to Elijah.

I can't help but talk to the corpse of my older half-brother, "Poor honorable Elijah, so honorable to the point of foolishness. What am I going to do with you?"

This is a pivotal moment for me and I know it. I can leave the dagger in Elijah and hide away all of my siblings where they will never be found or disturbed. I can be the ultimate power on the Earth, with no peers, only subordinates. Yet I know I'd grow bored of that, of controlling anyone and everyone and never having anyone who can stand even close to equal with me.

If I choose not to remove the dagger now, I will decide to do it one day, and the time I wait will determine whether I am seen as the savior or as the sad lonely boy who wanted the company of the siblings he abandoned. At the end of the day, there was only one choice to be made here.

With a sigh, I reach down and pull the silver dagger from Elijah's breast before picking up his body and laying it out on the bed. Then I go searching for the blood bags Niklaus mentioned and pour myself a drink. Nik had one thing right, after two days of brawling with someone who was my equal in strength, agility, and endurance, I was famished.

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When Elijah wakes up he comes off of the bed suddenly, looking around and frowning in disbelief as he realizes he's in the same place still. He catches sight of me sitting in the kitchen and brings a hand to the bloody hole in his shirt, "How long was I… what happened Vali?"

I grin and toss him a fresh blood bag, which he gratefully sips from to remove the unhealthy pallor from his skin, "To answer your unfinished question, I pulled the dagger out of you less than five minutes after Klaus put it in. To answer your second question… well, probably best to look for yourself."

I point to an area out of sight of the bed and in a flash Elijah is off of the bed and across the room, looking to where I'm pointing and looking upon Niklaus' grey corpse, dagger sprouting from his chest. Elijah is understandably shocked, "How is this possible?"

"It's a gold version of the daggers used on you and our siblings. Because there is no silver, it doesn't heal werewolves, and thus it works on Niklaus. I'm not sure how aware you were of what Kol was working on back in 1914 when Klaus daggered him for betrayal, but it was close to what this was. Unlike Kol, I had hundreds of years to perfect this weapon."

Elijah just stares at Klaus' grey face for several moments before moving to kneel beside him, "While I would love nothing more than to leave this in for at least a century, we need him to tell us where he's hid our family."

With that said, he reached for the hilt of the dagger, clearly intent on pulling it out. As his hand began to close around it however, he found himself rebuffed, a shimmering force kept him from pulling the dagger free and as he struggled against it, it proceeded to throw him back from Klaus' body entirely.

In an instant Elijah was on his feet and looking at me accusatorily, "What is this?"

I sigh as I sip some delicious O negative, "I did say I'd perfected it didn't I? This dagger can only be very loosely compared to the white oak silver daggers Elijah. For instance, this dagger is specifically made for Niklaus, it would not work on me. It's also specifically made to be used by me and me alone, nobody else can even touch it at this point given the magic woven into it."

Elijah grits his teeth together, "Than you need to pull it out Vali. He's the only one who knows where our brothers and sister rest."

I just shake my head in response, "No he isn't."

My brother just stares at me blankly now, but it's clear he's losing his patience as his expression hardens, "Explain."

I shrug my shoulders, "I know where they are Elijah. I own the storage house Nik put them in, not that he knew that. Hell, I own the city that storage house resides in."

Elijah spreads his arms in disbelief, "Than why this charade? Why didn't you tell me earlier? Why did you let me almost kill our brother for his perceived murders?"

I smile thinly and point at the dagger in Klaus' chest, "Because I know Klaus better than you think Elijah. I knew what he'd do to you. I knew if I gave you the information on our siblings and you freed them, he'd hunt all of you to the ends of the earth."

I step forward and clasp my hand on Elijah's shoulder, looking him in the eyes, "Elijah, if things had played out the way you think they should have, Klaus would have become like Mikael in his single-minded hunt for you all. He would not have rested until he found all four of you and put you back under his thumb. Both he and Mikael had to be dealt with before our family could truly be safe. Now that they are, we can awaken the others and everyone can finally live their lives."

Elijah narrows his eyes at that, frowning severely, "Are we to live in fear of you then Vali? Are you to take Klaus' place as our jailor, as the man who keeps our family together even at the cost of our individual happiness?"

I sigh at that and shake my head, releasing Elijah's shoulder and stepping away to look down at Klaus, "No Elijah. If that was what I wanted, do you think I would have spent a thousand years away? You and I both know I could have taken a place by Klaus' side anytime as an equal, and there's nothing he or any of you could have done about it."

I turn back to Elijah as I finish my explanation, "Five hundred years ago, I told Niklaus that there would come a day when our father was dead and the curse was broken, and on that day I would expect him to hand over every single white oak dagger, so we could all throw them into the sea together. That day came and Nik made the wrong decision. Now he will sleep and we will be free."

Elijah nods slowly, clearly both wary and weary at this point, "Very well. Where are our siblings?"

I grin, flashing my teeth as I drain the rest of the blood from my glass before answering him, "Chicago. We can leave now, though I need to call someone on our way there."

Elijah nods and in minutes we're in the car, Klaus' body placed carefully in the trunk. I let Elijah drive as I pull out my phone and flip it open, calling the first number in my contacts and holding the phone up to my ear.

A moment later the person on the other end picks up and a woman with a posh English accent answers in a very suggestive and sultry tone, "Hello Master, what can I do for you, are you perhaps in need of some company?"

I grin and glance at my brother. Elijah is looking at me askance as I just smirk and reply, "Ah, Cassy, probably not the best time for phone sex, my brother is sitting beside me. Your voice is pure ecstasy as usual though. I need you to get me the vampire Sage's newest number love."

Her tone is a combination of disappointed, apologetic, and annoyed as she replies, "Yes Master, and you know I prefer Cassandra. Let me just look it up… ah here it is."

She rattles off Sage's digits and I grin, "Thanks love. And I know you prefer Cassandra, but I think Cassy suits you better." With that bit of teasing, I hang up on the darling vampire who was in charge of part of my database and dialed up the number she'd given me.

Sage picked up on the third ring, "Hello?"

"Ah, Sage! I'm so glad you picked up. I'm curious, do you remember my voice?"

Sage sounds confused and slightly irritated, "Not really, no. Who is this and how did you get this number?"

I grin, "Its Vali darling! Fall of Constantinople, 1450s? We spent a few decades traipsing across Europe together."

I know she remembers me, as her voice becomes guarded, "Vali… how did you get this number?"

I sigh, "Sage, you don't sound happy to hear from me. I'm a little hurt. And to think, I was about to invite you to join me in Chicago for a little reunion."

I can almost hear her frown as she responds, "Look Vali, we had fun together, but you know I can never reciprocate your feelings for me. My heart belongs to someone else, that's why we had to part ways in the first place."

I roll my eyes, "Right right, the compulsion. Sage, you can go ahead and remember the truth. All of it."

There's silence for several long moments before Sage launches into a profanity laced tirade. I grin at Elijah while he just looks at me with a raised eyebrow and faint disproval.

Eventually Sage calms down, but I can hear the anger in her voice, "You used me."

I grin, "I like to see it as us using each other Sage. You can't deny we had fun together."

Sage doesn't respond to that, instead taking the conversation in a different direction, "I don't get why you felt the need to compel me to think I'd sired you. Not to mention convincing me that we parted ways because you were hopelessly in love with me."

I sigh at that, "It's really complicated darling."

Sage growls, "Then uncomplicate it for me."

I roll my eyes at her persistence and give her what she wants, "Well you see I had this prank planned out that would have been absolutely amazing. Besides you, I had two other vampires of varying ages compelled to believe I sired them. If I hadn't changed things irrevocably along the way, there would have come a time when all three of you would have ended up in the same room, all of you thinking you sired me. Can you imagine the looks on all of your faces as you realized the only way for all of you to believe you sired me, was for all of you to be compelled?"

I close my eyes and imagine it, letting out an over dramatic sigh, "It would have been glorious darling."

Once again Sage is silent for several long moments. I begin to think I've broken her rage, when she finally responds, her tone seething, "You're telling me you fucked with my mind, changed my memories, for a five hundred year old prank that didn't pan out?"

I nod slowly, even though she can't see it, "That sounds about right."

"You're sick." She hisses that out and then hangs up on me, and I just roll my eyes and look at Elijah, "Women right?"

Elijah just purses his lips together as he looks back at me, before responding frankly, "I think she's right Vali. You've become quite unstable while away from us."

I laugh that off, even as I text Sage with 'Going to undagger Finn with Elijah, you coming or no?' In under a minute Sage is calling me back and I grin, answering the phone with relish, "Yes?"

Sage isn't having any of my crap though as she grinds out, "Put Elijah on."

I roll my eyes at that but do as she asks, holding the phone out to Elijah, who frowns but speaks, "This is Elijah."

Sage is quick to react once she hears Elijah's voice, "Is what he says true? Finn will be freed?"

Elijah sighs, "Yes. Vali and I are heading to Chicago right now. He says he knows the location of our siblings, and we intend to remove the daggers from all of them."

Sage is hesitant as she asks the next obvious question, "Why would Klaus allow this?"

I can't help but grin, intrigued to see how Elijah would respond. He can't help smiling a bit himself as he looks at me and answers the question, "Klaus… doesn't have a say in anything anymore. He's currently indisposed, perhaps permanently depending on Vali."

Sage seems curious but clearly unwilling to ask or give me the attention I clearly wanted. Finn had certainly found a keeper in this one, "Fine. Text the address and I'll meet you both in Chicago. And if you're lying to me Vali…"

I grin and can't help responding a bit cheekily, "If I'm lying, you can tie me up and punish me darling. You certainly enjoyed it quite a lot when I did the same to you."

Sage hung up on me again and I just grinned as I tucked my phone away. Elijah just shook his head in clear exasperation as we drove on.

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