𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐘 | 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄 [𝟭]

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

CHAPTER NINE | O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

ELENA'S SIRE BOND QUICKLY BECAME PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE THANKS TO CAROLINE. Klara loved the perky blonde vampire with all her heart, but Caroline did know how to quite literally put her foot in it. They desperately tried to figure out a way to break the bond—but there wasn't one. So they needed to get the cure no matter what the cost. 

"Wow." Klara sarcastically mused as she and Stefan strolled into Klaus' mansion. He was stood in front of a canvas painting that looked like a giant snowflake. "Is that supposed to look like a snowflake, or?"

"I prefer to think of it as an expression of post-modernism." A gleeful smirk appeared on his face as his eyes moved toward Stefan and Klara who stood in his doorway. "It's my donation to the Winter Wonderland charity event."

Adrian, one of Klaus' sired Hybrid's wandered in the room with a furrowed brow. "You said it was urgent."

"Yes, take this to Mystic Falls immediately." Klaus gestured toward his painting.

"You want me to be a delivery guy?"

Klaus' earlier smile fell as he stepped threateningly closer to Adrian so there faces were only inches apart. "What I want is for you to do whatever I say. Without the attitude." Adrian exhaled and stepped past Klaus to grab the canvas. "Be careful with that. It's still wet."

Once Adrian had left the room, Stefan scoffed quietly. "Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, you know?"

"What is the point of my Hybrids being sired to me if I can't maximize on the benefits of free labor?" He shrugged almost instantly though his brows knitted together in confusion. "What are you both doing here?"

"We've, uh—got a bit of a problem." Klara cleared her throat and slowly stepped forward into the Hybrid's living space. "Elena just happens to be sired to Damon."

"I intuited as much." Klaus nodded as if he were almost gloating since he was the one that hinted to Caroline that something more sinister may have been the explanation for Elena's actions.

"Which means we need to find the cure now more than ever. And yet, here you are making post-modern snowflakes." Stefan's confidence to call out the Hybrid almost made Klara chuckle. 

"I've delivered." Klaus headed over to the corner of the room and began to clean his paintbrushes with a towel. "I retrieved the Hunter's sword from Italy, which we'll use to decipher the map hidden in the hunter's mark. You are the one who's supposed to deliver the hunter and his mark."

Klara tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and then let her hand sit comfortably on her hip. "Jeremy is the hunter and the only way to grow his mark is to keep killing vampires. Unfortunately, we can't seem to work out how the hell we keep Jeremy from killing all of us."