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

ELEVEN

Silence.

No words had been spoken since Klaus revealed that he was trying to create an army of hybrids, with Rhine being too in shock by the information, and Klaus being too angry at the girl to even look at her. Dozens and dozens of trees wavered in the cool midnight air, the car passing them by at a speed that wasn't in the way of the law.

Still, she said nothing. Choosing to look outside the window instead, where she could pretend that this wasn't her life. That building the strongest and fastest supernatural army of beings wasn't something that she would be able to put on her resume in the future. That's if she even had a future.

The thought hadn't occurred to her before this point, the presumption that one day she would return to the town of Mystic Falls, that she would return to her friends, her family (what was left of it anyway), hit her hard. That's all it had been, a presumption, who was she to know if that was even true? After all, she was travelling with Klaus Mikaelson, the evilest man in the world. Who was to say that when she did return, she would even be alive?

Amber eyes found themselves advancing down to the wrist connected to them, scanning over the N on her wrist as if it was somehow going to change. Still, nothing happened. She found herself wondering whether she would ever get the answers to what exactly it was, what exactly it meant, or whether that was just another thing she wouldn't be privy to.

Her thoughts ceased once she realized they had arrived back at the hotel, the car coming to a stop outside the lavish building, and for the first time that entire journey, she peered up at the man beside her. He was already staring at her, eyebrows furrowed in thought, as his arctic eyes hardened into stone.

"Don't pull anything like that again." Control was obvious in his demand, he was holding back his anger and with the looks that she was being given now, she didn't want to find out what him giving in to the anger looked like. "If I'm forced to compel you again Rhine, make no mistake I will."

The brunette ducked her head, nodding as she looked away, unable to face his wrath. It felt like being told off by a parent, there was no anger in his voice, just disappointment. And for some reason, she didn't want to disappoint him.

Figuring that was all he was going to get out of her, he hopped out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him. The sound reverberated inside of her, shaky breaths leaving quivering lips as she tried to get herself back together. When she finally found herself climbing out of the car, Klaus was nowhere to be seen, tall frame had already disappeared from the ground surrounding her.

Her ability to breathe was restored.

With the hybrid gone, she could finally take in what had just happened and re-evaluate what exactly she was going to do from there. Something dark, something ominous had taken over, created an itch for chaos that she couldn't help but scratch, and whilst it had felt good at the time, so destructively good, now, now she wished she had applied some sort of ointment or wrapped up the area, anything but scratching that fatal itch.

That look - of pure terror was burned behind her eyelids, the thick pool of blood, curling at the edges, inching towards her, threatening to pull her in, make it impossible to escape. She couldn't forget any of it. Chills dragged up and down her spine, reminding her of the cold feeling when she had been pushed back, that click, when Rhine went from sweet, innocent girl to a hellhound uprooted from the depths of hell with a vengeance.