Claudia Lockwood-Mikaelson

Chapter 36 - Countdown

I wake up with a gasp. My ears are ringing and my jaw aches. My head pounds so I slowly sit up. I feel strange. My skin feels like it is crawling with thousands of bugs causing me to shudder. I check frantically but there is nothing on me.

Looking to my left I see Nik still asleep, his face relaxed and calm for once. I consider waking him but I don't know how I'd put into words how strange I am feeling. And I don't want to disturb the little rest he does manage to get for something so inconsequential. I'm feeling a lot more energised since his blood healed me.

Blood. Blood. That's what I need. What I crave. Desperately. My throat burns like I am coming down with a cold. It feels so dry and I'm craving the rich taste of blood to soothe the grittiness. I blink. Blood? Why do I want blood? Isn't that exactly what I am trying to avoid?

Realisation slowly dawns and my eyes widen in shock. I'm in transition. My heart must have stopped at some point in the night and I died with Nik's blood in my system. It is evident he hasn't noticed, he is deeply asleep. So what do I do?

While my cravings for blood are still gnawing away in the back of my mind, being in transition hasn't removed my repulsion at the idea of ingesting anything. When Nik told me about becoming a hybrid I was quick to ask him to turn me there and then but now it's happening I'm not sure it's what I want.

Truth be told, I want to live my life with Nik as a hybrid but not if I am going to be in pain and turmoil every day for eternity due to Celeste's hex on me. I can't imagine a worse way to live. I do not want to suffer this much forever. And I'm making other people suffer too. I am barely keeping myself together as it is, some would argue I'm not managing at all. With heightened emotions, this is only going to get worse if I give in to my blood cravings and it will never stop. I will feel this awful always and forever. And I refuse to live like that.

Hours pass but I get no sleep. Tossing and turning waiting until Nik finally wakes, I think on how I'm going to hide being in transition. How I'm going to avoid drinking his blood and turning for one last day. My last day.

The jealously runs deep when I think about Nik moving on with another woman once I die in less than 20 hours. But I want him to be happy, even if that's without me. He certainly isn't happy now seeing me refuse his help. He will be better off with another woman, even if that's hard for me to accept. I know it's true.

I don't let myself dwell on how hurt Nik is going to be when he finds out my final lie to him. I just want all this to be over. Pictures of him waking up the following morning, finding me blue and stiff next to him invade my mind distressing me to no end but I push them away, reflecting on the time I have spent with him instead. We were so happy and I hope that is how he chooses to remember me. Not how I am now: pale, sick and so so weak, but the Claudia I was before Celeste ruined me and our chance at happiness and peace.

Nik awakens mid-morning and I plaster a smile on my face, wanting our last day together to be perfect. "Good morning," he yawns, stretching his arms out.

"You smell of me, my love," he says possessively and I kiss him gently unable to look him in the eyes. I smell like a hybrid, like him. I'm lucky his scent is still on me from last night or else the Mikaelsons would immediately catch on.

"Can we try contacting my dad again to come today?" I request and he seems pleased. If he knew why I suddenly had a change of heart he would be enraged but I keep my reasons to myself. He makes his way to the window, reaching for the curtains and I cry out. "No!"

He stops and turns to face me frowning, his unspoken question hanging in the air between us.

"I didn't sleep well, can we stay in bed for a while longer?" I ask, sticking to partial truths. He accepts my answer easily. Maybe this won't be as hard as I thought.