Confess | Emma Gilbert (TVD & TO) [BOOK 1]

LXXV

"How was your night?" A voice asks as I stare at the painting in front of me.

"Good." I smile, looking over my shoulder at him and he walks over to a new panel, starting to paint a new one. "Why is there so many paintings?"

"It's for the charity event." He informs and I smile, not having known how generous my boyfriend could be.

"Looks like a giant snowflake." A voice comments and I turn around to see Stefan standing a few feet away from us and I wonder how I didn't feel him coming in.

What is he doing here?

"I prefer to think of it as an expression of postmodernism." Nik states and I look over to his painting to see that he's almost finished. He's fast, I can barely do a proper stick man. "It's my donation to the Winter Wonderland charity event."

Adrian, one of the hybrids, enters the room with an annoyed look on his face. "You said it was urgent."

"Yes, take this to the Mystic Grill immediately." Nik commands and I want to laugh at Adrian's dumbfounded expression.

"You want me to be a delivery guy?" He scoffs which makes Klaus walk forward and closes the space between him and Adrian, his eyebrows raised and Adrian looks down at his feet.

"What I want is for you to do whatever I say." Nik growls with a dangerous low voice. "Without the attitude." Adrian hesitates before walking over to the painting to grab it before leaving the room. "And be careful with that. It's still wet."

"Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, you know." Stefan points out, crossing his arms.

"What is the point of my hybrids being sired to me if I can't maximize on the benefits of free labour?" Nik questions, walking over to the coffee table to pour himself a drink.

"What are you doing here?" I question Stefan even though I have a vague idea about what he wants to tell Klaus. "I've already told Klaus about Elena being sired to Damon."

"I had intuited as much." Klaus slowly nods, taking a sip of his drink.

"Which means I need to find the cure now more than ever and yet here you are making postmodern snowflakes." Stefan seethes, walking further inside the room.

"I've delivered." Nik states, handing me his drink before he walks over to the table and grabs a cloth to wipe the paint off his hands. "I retrieved the Hunter's sword from Italy which we'll use to decipher the map hidden in the Hunter's mark. You're the one who is supposed to deliver the Hunter and his mark." Nik glares at him, the two of them having a stare off.

"Well, Jer is the hunter, and he has to keep killing vampires to complete his mark, but we can't quite figure out how to keep him from killing us." I point out, having received a text from Stefan the previous night to tell me that Jeremy tried to kill Elena.

"Sounds like quite the chore for Stefan. Which is why I feel perfectly justified doing a little charity work." Klaus smiles and I roll my eyes at him.

"Hmm, or maybe you're lying about having found the sword." Stefan accuses.

"Why would he lie?" I question, a hand on my hip because I know Nik has the sword and I know where it is but he only told me since he knows I won't tell anyone.

"We're in this together." Klaus speaks as he walks out of the room. Stefan and I follow after him and walk inside the room where he hid the sword. Klaus turns the dial on the vault and opens it up, showing Stefan the sword. "The hilt acts as a cipher which we'll use to decode the marks on Jeremy's tattoo when he's killed enough vampires to complete it." Klaus places the sword down on the table, the three of us stare at it for a second.