Timeless

Chapter 3

Klaus stayed in his solar alone after Elijah had gone. He sat at his great desk, his thoughts on darker times of the past. He recalled the last time he had encountered Mikael. It was in Greece, before the fall of Troy, when he and his brother had lived in a gorgeous villa on the Mediterranean. Sometimes Klaus missed life near the sea.

Even more so, Klaus had enjoyed the Trojan War, a bit "too much" in Elijah's opinion. He had been on one of the 1,186 ships that had been launched by the beauty of one woman. It was a great joke, the feud of the "gods". Klaus chuckled to himself. It was all so over romanticized that the actual events fell victim to the stuff of legend. No one in existence knew that the war had really existed, or what had really caused it. No one except himself and Elijah and Mikael.

He quickly dispelled the memory from his mind. He didn't need to be afraid of Mikael anymore. He would break the curse, become the hybrid, and be invincible. Mikael had already failed any and every attempt to end Klaus's existence. He wouldn't succeed now. Maybe as a boy, Klaus had feared his father, but no more. That was hundreds of years ago. That weak human he had been was long dead.

Klaus rocked back in his chair, twirling a small object between his fingers, the action helping him to concentrate and sort through his thoughts. He hadn't even realized he'd been holding Caroline's ring. Truthfully he had forgotten he had it. At least she wouldn't be running off anytime soon. Unless she wanted to fry in the sun, and Caroline didn't seem like the suicidal type.

He stopped playing with the ring and held it in his palm, feeling the weight of the metal and stone. Setting the ring down on the wooden desk, he removed one of the small chains around his neck, looping it through the ring and replacing the chain back around his neck. Then he stood up and walked around the desk, walking toward the door. Once in the hallway, he could see a candle burning underneath Caroline's door. His conversation with her could wait until morning. For now, it was time to hunt.

Caroline had been combing the forest for a few hours. There was no sign of vervain. She mentally cursed herself for never paying attention during girl scouts, when their leaders had made futile attempts to teach the girls how to survive and identify plants in the woods. Truthfully, she had no clue what vervain looked like. She was simply testing the plants by whether or not they would burn her skin. But soon she was starting to recognize the repeat shrubs and could skip over them.

She came to a new plant, one she had not seen before. It rose up around the base of a tree, hundreds of small blue flowers, their six tiny petals stretching out in every direction. Caroline crouched down and braced herself for a possible burning sensation as she ran her hand across the flowers. Nothing. Her shoulders dropped in disappointment. She stood up, resolved to keep going, and making a mental note that vervain was not blue.

Before she could take another step, she felt the ground suddenly falling away from under her as branches cracked and she fell downward into a deep, dark hole in the earth. She landed with a loud splash, becoming completely submerged in the water that filled the bottom. Her arms shot out as she tried to find the surface not remembering that she couldn't drown because she didn't need air. Her thoughts were only on the pain, the excruciating pain. It felt like she was swimming in a sea of flames. Her hands and then her head broke through the surface and she screamed out in agony, her fingers clawing at the dirt walls of the hole, trying to find purchase to climb out. But it was no use. Her skin smoldered and she flinched in agony as she spun around and pressed herself against the walls. The top half of her body began to knit itself back together, her lower half was still submerged in the fiery water. It was then that she noticed tiny purple, five petal flowers, bobbing along the surface. Oh. Apparently vervain was purple.

As he ran through the woods, Klaus heard a muffled scream in the distance. He quickly changed direction and ran toward the sound to investigate. He approached slowly and soundlessly; weary of any possible traps. His eyes narrowed at a large, dark hole in the ground. Even though there was nothing but starlight in the sky, Klaus could see everything perfectly. Hear everything perfectly too. At that moment he heard small, female whimpers coming from inside the hole.