Chains | N.M

08 | seperatipon

Chapter Eight
sᴇᴘᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

River ran a hand through her hair exasperatedly.

"I just want you to be safe," Klaus reiterated, flopping lazily onto his bed. "I don't need you to stay just for my comfort if it puts you in danger."

He had been going back and forth with her for a half an hour now, and he was getting nowhere.

The way she was determined to stay just for him, brought him joy, admittedly. He had spent his entire existence craving this kind of loyalty. But now he wished for it to go away, for her to leave.

How ironic is that?

But he was enjoying the fire in her eyes immensely.

"No," she said with the same amount of exasperation as him. "There isn't a vervain or white oak equivalent for fabrikators. I cannot be killed, therefore there is no danger."

"Is that something Theodin used to say?"

Her jaw set, and she looked at him with a fire the unsettled him, a stark contrast to the previous fire. Immediately he regretted mentioning her brother. He sat up, backtracking, "River, I didn't—"

"Every day when Marcellus come to feed us, thoughts of pushing the Tunede blade back into your chest bounce around in his head. My first year here, he was seriously contemplating biting you, before he knew you were connected to Rebekah," she spoke eerily calm. She was looking back at him through her mirror now, taking out the two French braids she had slept with.

"How do you think he even figured out you all were connected? Because we both know he isn't smart enough to gather that on his own, no offense to your parenting or anything."

When he remained silent, a conflicted expression on his face, she answered for him. "Me. You would be dead eight times over if I wasn't here. And all I get in return for keeping you alive is you pleading for me to be sent away."

She tried to fight the smirk on her face when his mouth opened and closed a few times, not finding the right words.

Outside, in the real world she heard voices. "Prepare for take off," she mumbled before pulling them both out of the mind room.

"Klaus!" a blonde woman yelled. "Klaus can you hear me?"

"Freya," he whispered, shock and excitement on his face. "You're alive." River, who recognized her from the many painting Klaus had done, gave her an eerie look.

"Surely, you didn't think otherwise," she snipped with a slight smile. "Who's this?"

Klaus glanced at the fabrikator, "A friend. She comes with us."

Freya seemed to not like the idea, but they didn't have time for her to argue. After removing the spell—which River watched, impressed at how she managed to do that spell by herself—she removed the chains from Klaus.

Klaus moved to undo River's chains but before he could the glowed silver, shattering into tiny pieces. Freya stepped back slightly at the noise, before giving Klaus a judgmental look.

River fought to hide her smirk, grinning at the ground. "Freya, can you.." Klaus started, trailing off when he saw her glare.

"Klaus we don't have time. We have to go."

"Two minutes, sister. Less, even."

With a huff she turned, walking hastily down the hallway. Klaus moved to stand, but the lack of blood made him loose his balance. River caught him, pulling him back down to the ground. She offered her wrist, "Here—you need blood."

Even the way he shook his head was hazy, "No, I'll hurt you."

"Klaus," she said in warning but he still refused. With a sigh, she used her magic to slit her wrist. His monster surfaced at the smell of her blood, dancing veins and glowing irises present. "Go on," she encouraged.

He sunk his fangs into her wrist, drinking greedily. When she felt him start to hold his own weight, she tugged her wrist back. Breathing heavily, he studied her face, making sure he found no signs of pain.

Pain is what he found, just not physical. "You're leaving," he stated.

She didn't bother denying, "Yes. Monday, one of my sired got a lead on my brother."

At that he couldn't be mad. He'd do anything for his family, and from what he gathered, so would she. "You've knew where your brother was for two days, yet you stayed here. Why?"

"You started putting off more magic, meaning your siblings were awake," she shrugged as if this hadn't meant the world to him. "Figured they wouldn't be too long in coming to your rescue."

"Thank you, River. You don't know how much this means." She was quite sure that she did know, but nodded anyway. "If you ever need anything—"

"I'll let you know," she agreed. "If you need anything, we're connected, so just think about me really hard, and I'll hear it."

She laughed at the panicked expression on his face.

"Me and Theodin are coming back to New Orleans once we are reunited. I do hope that I'll meet your family one day. In a year, or a few centuries. But here is where we'll be."

Loud commotion sounded from the floor above, and Klaus frowned at how his time with her was coming to an end. "I look forward to it," he smiled weakly. "Goodbye, River."

"La revedere (goodbye), Niklaus."

She stepped away from him, and vanished. He guessed that was what she meant when she said she fabricated illusions.

God, how he would miss her.

NOTES

so the Romanian is from google translate. If it's wrong, let me know. I'll change it.

This is not the end of the book! They'll meet again in chapter 9 or 10.

Thanks for reading.