Black Magic ▹ The Vampire Diaries [1]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
HAPPILY NEVER AFTER

"Thank God I don't look like what I've been through."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     No one had heard a word from Henrik Mikaelson in a week, and the more time passed, the more anxious people became.

It was no secret, at that point, what had happened with Klaus. After the plan to take down Alaric had failed, Klaus had grabbed Elena and disappeared to the mansion, where he proceeded to take pint after pint of her blood. He had tried taking out two birds with one stone. He had enough blood to create more hybrids, and he would also kill Elena, therefore eliminating the threat of Alaric all together. Tyler, Stefan, and Damon had stopped him before it was too late, and then Stefan had dug his fingers into Klaus's chest. Now he was desiccated and in the possession of their enemies.

At first, everyone had assumed that Henrik was simply laying low, or that he had left town with Rebekah—but both of those theories quickly disappeared when even Ethan's calls and texts were ignored. For all intents and purposes, Henrik had completely disappeared from Mystic Falls, and the only logical explanation was that he was biding his time and waiting for an opportunity to strike. His enemies had been glancing uneasily over their shoulders ever since, waiting for an attack that never came. Elijah's sudden involvement in the situation—his attempts to come to a peaceful solution, without any bloodshed—only made it worse, because Elijah refused to answer their questions about Henrik, his feelings about the situation, or his whereabouts.

Matt, Bonnie, Ethan, and even Damon were the only people who weren't worried about Henrik coming after any of them. Matt insisted that Henrik wouldn't do such a thing, that Henrik would understand why they had desiccated Klaus in that moment, and it wasn't like Klaus was dead. No one believed him. Bonnie insisted that Elijah was probably keeping Henrik under control. No one believed that, either. Ethan, in comparison, was in complete denial about Henrik and their overall relationship, so no one really listened to his words. It was Damon, in the end, that convinced everyone. He insisted that Henrik wasn't the type to plot his revenge. He was the type to take it fast and immediately, without mercy. If Henrik wanted us dead, we would be dead. And even though his words were true, they didn't necessarily help with their paranoia. They still looked everywhere, still looked over their shoulders and in the shadows nearby. They still took at their surroundings before going anywhere.

That was how Bonnie spotted Henrik before Henrik spotted her. He wasn't sneaking up on her, and he wasn't hiding in the shadows. He was simply out in the open, perched on the hood of her car with a lit cigarette between his fingers. It occurred to Bonnie, while looking at him from the crack in her front door, that she could avoid him easily. Go out the back and cut across the backyard. Elena's house was in walking distance, so she didn't necessarily need her car. But then she felt the coldness of the night air, questioned whether he had been waiting long, and then she decided to open the door wider and step out onto the porch. He had helped them all in their quest to take down Alaric, and they had repaid him by desiccating his brother. The least Bonnie could do was face him.

Henrik, in comparison, was completely calm. He'd had a very long week to come to terms with what had happened, and he found that he couldn't really blame them for using the desiccation spell on Klaus. His brother had double-crossed them first, after all, promising to help take down Alaric and then running the second things got a little dangerous. His enemies were bound to catch up to him eventually, and at least he wasn't dead. He was just desiccated. It wasn't any worse than Klaus daggering his siblings every other century. Henrik, for one, liked the deal Elijah had crafted. If they gave the Originals Klaus's body, then they would make sure Klaus wouldn't be woken until Elena had lived a long and happy life. It would require them to run, of course, but running for a single human lifetime was nothing compared to running for a thousand years.