B E T T E R M A N | KLAUS MIKAELSON

EIGHT

"So tell me what we're doing in the middle of the woods again?" As the girl spoke, she kicked a stone across the muddy floor of the forest surrounding her. Looking up at the hybrid with her hands tightly sitting in the pockets of her jacket, her thoughts wandered back to the night before when he had told her everything she needed to know about the supernatural world.

One particular story about hybrids pushed itself to the forefront of her mind, the horrific images of werewolves bleeding from every crevice as they failed to become vampire-werewolf hybrids. She hoped, no prayed that she wouldn't have to bare witness to that, to see the horrors of a supernatural curse right in front of her.

"We're here to create some hybrids love." Klaus caught her attention again, pulling her out of her wandering train of thought.

"But I thought that the last time you did that it didn't work?" Rhine was more than confused, she had learned so much last night that it was hard to make sense of anything.

"You would be correct, but now-" Klaus stopped himself holding up a bright scarlet bag. "Now, we have the doppelganger's blood."

"And the doppelganger is Elena?"

He nodded.

Chromatic curls bounced as Rhine nodded to herself, reaching her hands up from her pockets so that she could tie the thick waves up into a pony tail. With her hair away from her face, the oval shape to her became more exaggerated, the soft caramel skin shining in the low light of the woods around her. Klaus stood off to the side, admiring the beauty in the girl, it reminded him of one of his many past lovers, her soft skin calling out to his fangs to puncture. The motion felt too sacred, too personal somehow, he didn't understand the feeling - and certainly didn't want to try and understand it. But nonetheless, he didn't act on his cravings.

"Ready to go?" She peered up at him with a half-smile, no longer seeming to be afraid of him, she even seemed to be more confident, radiating power in short bursts as she walked with purpose. His recent reveals about her seemed to trigger something inside of her, to the point where she was acting like the same girl she had always been, the same girl he had first found interesting in that gym.

Rather than the half-shy girl he had met since her kidnapping.

He smiled.

-

A short scrawny man was roughly pushed up against the rugged bark of a large tree, his clothes wrinkled from the pressure and the man himself started to shake in what was sure to be fear of the hybrid in front of him. His pleads and whimpers went unnoticed by the striking man, instead, the strong grip he had on his muddy clothes tightened as he slammed the terrified creature up against the tree again.

"Klaus-"

The man in questioned turned towards Rhine, staring at her with anger coating his features, his arctic eyes were enough to tell her to shut up, or that scrawny man in his grip would soon become her. She gulped, but she obeyed.

"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. What am I going to do with you?"

The only response to the venom-laced question was a small whimper from 'Johnny'.

"You see Johnny, all you had to do was tell me where your pack of wolves is located," Klaus paused, teeth grinding against each other as he flashed his eyes at the male. "Instead, you led me to an empty forest."